the ordinance of the Paschall Lamb the Type of the Lamb of God uses those words a Bone of him shall not be broken in their proper sence in that sence wherein the Evangelists applies that Text to Christ. He had his Metaphorical Gall Vinegar Spittings Buffetings c. But the Son of David had them really according to the Letter of the Prophecy The ruine of the Jewish State the Vocation of the Gentiles the Glory of Christs Kingdom are sometimes indeed set out in Rhetorical Flourishes and borrowed expressions but they and all things else pertaining to Christ are in other Prophetick Texts so plainly foretold as the Tongue of Man can speak 4. The punctual performance of this whole Cluster the ripening of every Berry thereof into Event speaks the Prophets not to have spoken by chance That Poem cannot be a Medley a Rapsody whose every foot is of a regular length If you throw 4 Dice perhaps one of them may be a Size but who ever saw an hundred Sizes cast at one throw of an hundred Dice If a Sow with her Snout should imprint upon the ground which she is rooting up the Figure of the Letter A couldst thou therefore imagine she might in these Lines she draws express Ennius his Andromacha or Virgils Aeneads Cicer. Divin 1. p. 162. It was the unparallel'd Commendation of the Prophecies delivered to Israel that there failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the House of Israel but all came to pass Josh. 21. 45. for the truth whereof Joshua appeals to their own Experience chap. 23. 14. Ye know in all your hearts and all your souls that not one thing hath failed all is come to pass and not one thing failed And hence the whole Assembly are perswaded that he who appeared to Abraham and spake by Moses was the only God worthy of credit deserving to be confided in and adhered to CHAP. III. Instances of Prophecies fullfill'd whose Effects are permanent and obvious to the Atheists Eyes if he will but open them § 1. Predictions that Israel would reject their own Messia made by Jews Confession many hundreds of years before Christ. § 2. The Prophets foretell Gods Rejection of the Jews for their Rejection of his Son § 3. Texts proving a final Rejection Christs Blood calls down this vengeance § 4. These Menacies executed to the full Temple City and all vanish'd Spirit of Prophecy past from the Synagogue to the Church § 1. TO give an Enumeration of all Particulars here would be an endless Task It may suffice that the most prying Adversary hath not to this day produc'd one instance of any of our Prophecies that hath faln to the ground but what our Apologists have demonstrated either to be accomplisht or accomplishable in its time And furthermore our Modern Atheist is too wise to believe further than he can see and therefore I will not press him to the belief of the accomplishment of those Prophecies whose Effects are gone and past out of sight by any other Arguments than those I produced in the first part of the Third Book where I proved the Truth of Matters of Fact reported in the Gospel But if he be wise enough to know what his own Senses Dictate to him it is all that Wisdom at this present requires of him to make him docible and capable of her Instructions And verily if he be not so far a man as this amounts to Anticira is a fitter place for him than the Academy Art thou then weaned from the Milk taken from the Breast art thou not still like that Child of the Lady Moores Prayers a Boy still and wilt be so as long as thou livest Knowest thou thy right hand from thy left Come in sit down Wisdom invites thee though thou beest in the lowest Form of Rational Animals she will teach thee knowledge though thy Soul be the most narrow mouthed glass that ever was blown by the breath of that Almighty whom thou scornest she will infuse her Documents into thee drop by drop as thou art able to receive them through the Loop-holes of thy Head and Face 1. If thine Eyes can spare so much time from beholding vanity fix them upon those Texts Is. 53. 1. c. and they will inform thee that the Prophet foresaw and foretold that he of whom the Evangelical Preachers were to say Thy God Oh Sion Reigneth that that arme of the Lord upon his making of which bare all the ends of the World should see the Salvation of Israels God that he who was to besprinkle many Nations at whom Kings were to shut their Mouthes who was to have a Portion divided him with the great and to be made very high to have a Name given him above every name should notwithstanding the beamings out of his Glory amongst them notwithstanding Moses and the Prophets had so manifestly pointed him out be despised and rejected of those that saw him among whom he had his converse 2. From them cast thine Eye upon Secular Chronology and that will tell thee how many hundreds of years this Prophecy was pen'd before our Saviour to whom alone it is applicable was incarnate Or if thou suspects they may write in favour of Christ consult the Jews his profest enemies and they will inform thee how Isaiah gave forth this Prophecy before the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth so many ages as rendred those things impossible to be known but by the Revelation of that Infinitely-wise Being to whom all things past and to come are alike present Of which if thou makes question it will be thy part to shew by what other means the Prophets could come to the knowledge hereof or to give one instance at least of any one man that by Natural Means hath foretold a thing so long before it fell out But rather than enter upon such a Wild-Goose-chase except thou could devise how to get above the Magnetick Sphere of the Earth that thou mayst stalk it over the Clouds into the World of the Moon to fetch an example thence of what is not to be found in that Globe which we inhabit I would advise thee to make a Voyage into the Low-Countries and to enquire there whether the Jews do not reject that Off-spring of David who made his soul an offering for sin who was led as a Lamb to the Slaughter and as a Sheep was Dumb before the Shearer and opened not his mouth when he was provoked to call his servants to rescue him out of the hands of his Murderers who gave his Face to the smiters and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair that Buffeted and abused him Ask this Generation what opinion they have of Jesus of Nazareth of whom their Fathers were the Betrayers and Murderers whom God raised from the Dead by whom God wrought Signs and Miracles I am sure they will make thee such answer as the Spirit of the Messias above two thousand years ago by the mouth of
Grave in that Translation of his de Circo Astrologus may transcribe the Millenary Prophecy out of Alsted quum Deus constituet in Septentrione per Leonem septentrionalem magna cum admiratione illorum qui divinam Apocalypsin harmoniam illam quam hîc exserto digito monstramus nihili faciunt Alsted Chron. 88. axiom 6. of a Lion of the North that should do wonders and bring to full effect whatsoever our whimsical Commenters dream of who if they fall asleep with the Apocalypse in their hand or but under their Pillow they awake Prophets inspired with ten times more Visions than ever St. John saw and apply that Lion to him that proves a dead Lion before that years Almanack be out of Date as Lilly did to the then King of Sweden Yet in the mean while he shall so lord it over the faith of the ductil people as in the expecting the blessings of Heaven they will neither set their faces with the Persian to the warm mid-day-sun nor with the Jew to the West nor with the Christian to the East but with the Loadstone to the North being in this as in all things else singular and cross to all men looking that ab Aquilone should come their chief good whence all others expect nothing but cold Blasts and the worst of Evils But what legitimate Historian did ever apply to well-settled Princes Prophecies that were not of undoubted Credit It could not but add to the esteem of Daniel's Prophecy that Jaddus should tell Alexander the Great out of Daniel that a Grecian Prince should subdue the Persian Monarchy which Alexander interpreting of himself it fell out accordingly Joseph Ant 11. 8. Or what Prince that had a just Title to his own was ever induc'd to grasp at a foreign Crown upon suggestions taken up out of the high way That Oracle therefore which this Pair-royal of incomparable Historians both for Prudence and Sincerity do with joynt consent apply to such Royal Persons the application of which to themselves those Persons shew no disgust against but a relishing of must have been a Nail fastened by Masters of Assemblies so deep in Roman minds as rendred it a sure Nail and able to bear all the weight they hang upon it and of such repute and esteem as to engage the Empire to cast a watchful Eye over the Occurrences in Judea the place assigned for the appearance of this great King of Kings even from the first dawning of of that time which they conceived the Oracle pointed at and an evil and envious Eye upon the Preachers of the Gospel from that time they began to publish the accomplishment of it in our Jesus Of both which points we have sufficient Evidence in those historical Tables wherein we have the Complexion of that Age drawn by the Pagans Pencils § 4. First That the Roman State had a strict Eye upon that Prophecy and upon its account on the Judean Affairs from the time that the Commencement of it was suspected to bear Date and its Effects to take place may be gathered from the appearance of those great Spirits in that nick of time the like of whom the Roman Earth had not produc'd in that long Tract of preceding Ages as to their Ambitions of settling an Universal Monarchy in their own persons Is it not strange that the juvenile Age as Florus calls it of that State which teemed with far braver Spirits in all other respects brought not forth a Caesar or a Pompey who could not brook either Superiour or Equal but that Persons of that temper must be reserved for the confines of that season wherein one was to be born who should Lord it over the World Was it through the defect of favourable Constellations or not rather through the Influence of the Prophecy concerning the the Star of Jacob that the Blood of Ancus Martius ran down so many Generations before it could make so happy a Conjunction with the Blood of Venus running from Aeneas in the Veins of the Julian Family as to produce a Caesar one whom nothing could content but to be in Martial's phrase omnia solus in plain English King of the Company Let the Star-gazer try his skill here in Calculating the Nativities of Caesar and his Progenitors and if in comparing their Schemes he find any so material Difference as this that they were born before but he after the divulging of this Propheey he shall be my great Apollo In the interim I shall take the boldness to opine that that famous Oracle was the Soul of their Courage the Mark of their Ambition 2. In which Opinion I am no little confirm'd when I observe how these Candidates for the Universal Monarchy Pompey Caesar Augustus M. Anthony c. courted the Jews good will just as they did the Peoples of Rome when they stood in Competition for Offices at their disposal with Indulgences unusual to be conferr'd upon Nations far better deserving for all that fidelity and service of theirs to the Romans upon which Josephus grounds those favours being in that more partial to his Country-men than in any other passage of his History for of all Nations they bare the Roman Yoak with most Impatience and with such fawning obsequiousness as was scarce becoming either the Majesty of the Roman State or the loftinefs of those Mens Minds whom the ambitious hopes of obtaining the Penelope of an Universal Monarchy spur'd on to those daring engagements against the whole World and when their united force had conquer'd that against one another had they not conceived that the readiest Expedient to gain the Mistress was to obtain the good Will of the Handmaid that he who was to be King of Clubs in the World to rule it with a Rod of Iron must first be King of Hearts in Jewry and sit upon the Hill of Sion with a golden Sceptre of Benevolence reached out as a Lure to their Affections as a mean to obtain from the Jews an Opinion that he loved their Nation and was therefore worthy of the highest honours that could be heap'd upon him And had not this Conceit been taken up and cherished partly by their misinterpreting Oriundus in the Prophecy as not importing that that King of Kings was to have in Judea a Natural Birth as a man but a Civil one as a Monarch This is manifest from their applying this Prophecie to Vespasian who was not born Man in Judea but only there proclaim'd or as Josephus more sutably to the Roman Notion stiles it created Emperour By this Oracle saith he was manifestly portended the Empire of Vespasian who was Created Emperour in Judea Bel. Jud. 7. 12. For in very deed he was proclaimed Empercur before by the Legion of Maesia which was sent to aid Otho who hearing he had lost the day and kill'd himself march'd on nevertheless plundering and spoiling as far as Apuleia and fearing at their return they should be called to an account they elect Vespasian Emperour but this saith
before Governours and Kings for my sake but when they deliver you up take no Thought how or what to speak for it shall be given you in that same Hour what ye shall speak And therefore how obvious soever the Conjecture was that Nero would object to St. Paul his preaching of Jesus to be King of the Jews to be of dangerous Consequence to the Civil State yet the Disciples were bound up from premeditating what Answer to give to that Charge so that both Charge and Answer could not but be unexpected and render them obnoxious to Surprisal 2. The Spirit intending these Tryals for a Testimony against those before whose Tribunals they were brought did not suggest to them those kind of Answers which were likeliest to allay the Rigour of the Charge to alleviate the supposed Crime by informing the Adversaries in the Nature of Christs Kingdom as those before Domitian but such as were of most immediate Tendency towards the convincing of their Judges that that Jesus was indeed what they were accused to preach him the Emperours Lord. Let the Emperial Law make it Treason to proclaim any Man above Caesar they will not mince the Matter by Distinctions but stand upon the Proof of what they assert that the Man Christ is higher than the highest and are content to undergo the utmost Penalties if they cannot make Demonstration of this so as Nero himself shall not be able to gainsay or resist No Wonder then that the Disciples having perhaps not yet heard of that Promise of immediate Divine Assistance to be sure not yet seen an Experiment of it should as soon as they heard St. Paul joyn Issue with his Adversaries in this Point slip away from him as not daring to abet him in this Apology § 2. 4. That the great Crime which the Christian Doctrine was charged with at St. Paul's Appearance before Nero was its applying the Eastern Oracle to Jesus of Nazareth may be evinc'd from St. Paul's 2 Tim. 4. 16. 17. stiling Nero The Lion The Lord delivered me from the Mouth of the Lion Which Compellation why the Apostle should fasten upon him I cannot in my shallow Apprehension fancy any other more probable Reason than that he did it in an holy Triumphant Mockage of those Figure-flingers by whom Nero was induc'd to hope that he should prove that Lion of the Tribe of Judah His Hope not being able to bear up it self against the Evidence brought in by St. Paul in open Court that the Throne of the Kingdom of David was full already being possessed by Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews From which Title of Christ the Gospel is usually stiled the Kingdom of God for Instance Act. 1. 3. where our Saviour is said to instruct his Disciples in his forty Days Converse among them betwixt his Resurrection and Ascension in things concerning the Kingdom of God Luk. 9. 11. he spake unto them of the Kingdom of God not touching external Rites and Modes of Discipline as his pretty Petit-deputy Kings the Disciplinarians give us in hand No St. Luke flies an higher Pitch and means the very Gospel it self so called because the Sum of it is comprehended in asserting Jesus to be the Christ the anointed King of the Jews The Truth of which how they should demonstrate from the Miracles he wrought from his Resurrection c. was the Subject of Christs then Conference with them for that he did not so much as explain to them then the Nature of this Kingdom but reserved that for his Vicar-general the Holy Ghost appears from their yet palpable Ignorance of it expressed in that Question which with one Mouth they propounded to him immediately before his Assention Act. 1. 6 9. Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel Strange even beyond Admiration that he should instruct them in what external Modes his Kingdom should be administred and yet leave them under such gross Darkness as to the thing it self Of this Kingdom I say St. Paul in his Answer before that self-conceited Lion makes such a Defence gives such infallible Proofs as he quells Nero's Courage and so far dashes out of Countenance his hopes of Judea's Crown as he comes after this Trial to these Resolves Suet. Nero 40. Praedictum à Mathematicis olim Neroni erat fore ut destitueretur und◠illa vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. quo majore venia meditatur citheredicam artem principi sibi gratum privato necessariam that in Case the first part of the Predictions of the Mathematicks prove true touching his loss of the Imperial Dignity he would for his future Subsistence rather trust to his Skill in Musick and as we say in the North pardon the homeliness of the Proverb Fiddle for Shives among old Wives then depend upon the later part of their Oracle promising him the Crown of Judea In despair of which he was wont to comfort himself against pinching Poverty in case of loss of Empire with that his famous Aphorism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Artist may live any where which he said in reference to his Dexterity in Musick and therefore in the Opinion of Suetonius was less Blame-worthy for his studying to excel in that Art as that which administred Delight to him in his Good and was intended for a necessary Livelihood in his bad Fortune it served in Prosperity for Sauce and he hoped in Adversity it would find him Meat Principi sibi gratam privato necessariam With which Hope the Senate ingeniously twitted him in their offering him a Crown Laureat after his disappointment of those African Treasures he dream'd on at second hand from Cesellius Bessus whom that he might not imitate in the desperate murthering of himself for Shame and Grief the Senate kindly offer him this Cordial and bid him take Heart of Grace for though those Mountains of Gold fancied to have been heaped up by Dido had proved Sand yet his warbling Voice and Fingers would be an Elixar and charming the World into a Royal Mine whence he might draw out at the Pit-hole of the ravish'd Ear Treasure enough to supply his Wants Tacit annal 16. Intereà Senatus ut dedecus averteret offert imperatori victoriam cantùs adjecit facundiae coronam quo lu c. And truly this First-born of the Muses bestowed so much time upon tuning his Harp as he had not time to tune the Commonwealth and rested so much in his Skill as he refused the Honour of Poet Laureat except he could deserve it by the Worlds Equal rather than obtain it by the Senates partial Vote Id. Ib. Sed Nero nihil ambitu nec potestate Senatus opus esse dictitans se aequum adversus aemulos Religione Judicum meritam laudem assecuturum c. In order to which he keeps his Commencement Act in the Theatre In his Management whereof as if he were inuring himself to the most servile Congies and Scrapings of Mendicant Fidlers against the time he should make
other men pour out openly for a sound Mind a good Name c. as tending more than these towards the conforming of those Votaries to the God whom they invocated had they indeed deemed that Letcher to have been God Jupiter The most audacious of them durst not thus have pull'd him by the Beard had they thought him whom the Poets painted to have been a living Lion 'T is too manifest that the Poets charming Style did insinuate those Ideas of the Gods that they drew into the minds of many especially of such Persons as were preoccupied with inclinations to those Vices for facilè credimus quod volumus and that out of that Pondora's Box issued those Debaucheries that over-spread the Pagan World When I was a Boy saith Menippus in Lucian Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and heard Homer and Hesiod singing the Warrs Seditions Adulteries Rapes Incests of the Gods I was verily perswaded that all these things were good and comely for I could not imagine that the Gods would have done them had they not they look'd upon them as vertuous Who would not saith St. Austin think that course of life to be followed that is presented in Stage-plays instituted by divine Authority rather than that that is commended to us by Laws that are but of humane Institution Quae actitantur ludis authoritate divinâ institutis quà m quae scriptitantur legibus humano consilio promulgatis de civit 2. 8. And therefore he concludes that the Devil 's grand Design in setting abroach the Poetical Divinity was to ingulph the World in those beastly sins the Poets feign'd the Gods to be Actors of he by this device de civit 2. 20. furnishing wicked men with a Cloak for their most sordid Immoralities borrowed from the Wardrobe of Heaven spurring them on to all manner of lewdness that they might grow up into a Conformity to those whom they worshipped and putting a check to all vertuous Motions for fear of seeming therein to outstrip their Gods and thereby to incurr their displeasure Quibus nihil aliud actum est quà m ut pudor hominibus peccandi demeretur si tales Deos credidissent Senec. de beata vita cap. 26. This would be the effect of mens believing the Gods to be such as the Poets describe them viz. that men would not be ashamed of vitious living This was the Ravishers Cloak Ego homuncio id non facerem quòd Deus qui templa coeli summo sonitu concutit Ego verò illud feci lubens Ter. Eunuch This was the fewel of Lasciviousness cùm dira libido Moverit ingenium Pers. Sat. 3. Alledged to this purpose by St. Austin de civit 2. 7. Hence the Authour of the Book of Wisdom Cap. 14. 24 25 26. imputes it to Heathenish Idolatry That men kept neither Lines nor Marriages any longer undefiled but either one slew another traiterously or grieved him by Adultery so that there reigned in all men promiscuously Blood Manslaughter Theft Dissimulation Corruption Unfaithfulness Tumults Perjury disquieting of good Men forgetfulness of good Turns changing of Sex c. Hence Philo Judaeus tells Caligula That should he by his slaughters and impieties gain the repute of being a God it would eternize the repute of those Villanies and perpetuate the practice of them as laudable de legat ad Caium fol. 629. So that it is beyond the reach of human Apprehension to conceive that the Poets Creed should be universally embrac'd and that belief not turn the World into a mere Chaos in point of Morality And therefore the Generality of Mankinds retaining some Sentements of good and evil is a plain Demonstration that the Belief of the Poets was not Catholick that the far greater part of Heathens dissembled with the Poetical Gods as most Christains do with the true drawing near him with the Lip but in Heart denying him or in the Apostles language professing that they know him but denying him indeed § 3. Vertue made Gods of Men Vice Devils of Gods in vulgar esteem That it was Vertue promoted men at first to the honour of being God-born or Gods Incarnate would be evidenc'd beyond all Contradiction could we retrieve Pagan History to the first Original but that being as impossible as to count the Waves of the Sea with that noted fool Caecilion in Aelian Aelian var. hist. 13. 15. tit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall not lanch out into that deep but creep by the shore of these common and universally-received Maxims 1. The first that bore the Name of Gods were the Founders and great Benefactors of their several Nations who for their Vertues at the breaking of the Shell of Mortality were hatch'd into Deities by the warmth of the Peoples resentment of the Benefits flowing to them from those Second Causes after they had lost the true Tradition of the First and were grown towards him unthankful The Cretian Jupiter of whom the Poets write had two Name-sakes elder than himself Cicero de natura Deorum whose true story Ennius the Translator of Eumeruus thus concludes Deinde Jupiter postquam quinquies circuivit terram reliquitque hominibus Leges Mores Frumentáque paravit multáque alia bona fecit immortali gloria memoriáque affectus sempiterna monimenta suis reliquit Vide Lactant. de falsa relig 1. 11. And Diodor. Sicul. lib. 3. antiq where he saith the Aethiopians thought the Gods that is of a second Edition to be either sempiternal as the Sun and Moon c. or such as had been Men but for their Vertues and Benefits bestowed on Mankind were made Gods Diod. Sic. ant l 3. pag. 72. Hence that form in the 12 Tables Divos colunto ollos quos in coelum merita vocaverint Herculem Liberum Aesculapium Castorem Pollucem Quirinum c. Cicero de Legibus lib. 2. pag. 319. Hence Virgil Aen. 6. de Saturno Qui genus indocile dispersum montibus altis Composuit legésque dedit Macrobius in somno Scipionis l. 1. c. 8 9. upon these words of Cicero Omnibus qui patriam conservârint adjuverint auxerint certum esse in coelo definitum locum ubi beati aevo sempiterno fruuntur hath this Observation hinc profecti hinc revertuntur To all those who have preserved succoured benefitted their Countries there is a certain place assigned in Heaven where they enjoy a blessed Eternity that is saith Macrobius thence they came and thither they return And cap. 9. he quotes Hesiod numbering the ancient Kings among the Gods Indigetes divi fato summo Jovis hi sunt Quondam homines modò cum superis humana tuentes Largi ac magnifici Nay 't is Cotta's observation in Cicer. de natura deor that the Egyptians worship'd no Beast but in consideration of some benefit it confer'd upon them Ibis maximam vim serpentum conficiunt possum de Ichneumonum utilitate de Crocodilorum de Felium dicere belluas à barbaris propter beneficium consecratas For the same Opinion he a little after quotes
by Moses or by Christ I insert this clause as the case then stood because Christ and his Apostles denyed not but plainly affirmed That Salvation had been of the Jews that is that Salvation was attainable in the Jewish Religion by all those that in observance of it look'd to the end of it Christ. But the Question then was Whether the great Prophet that is in the bosom of the Father being come and his Law being gone out of Sion and the word of the Lord himself from Jerusalem that old Religion had not lost its salvifick Power which that it had the Apostle maintains and proves by many Arguments amongst which this is not the least That God expected more now from the sons of men to testifie the sincerity of their Love to him and to make them capable of his acceptance of them as sincere than he did during those darker Revelations of his Grace and more sparing allowances of divine Aid In the demanding whereof the old Religion coming short was thereby disinabled and become uncapeable to save it being possible that a man might after the coming of Christ perform what it required on condition of Salvation and yet not make those returns to God for the rich Revelation of his Grace by Christ as he would accept of for good payment or as might denominate him an honest man a man keeping a good Conscience towards God and not dealing fraudulently with him As he must do if he pay no more Rent of Thankfulness and Obedience now that his Farm is improv'd and manur'd with the Lamb's Blood then was by Contract payable before that Improvement 2. And that therefore Justification by Faith implies God's demand of a greater rent now under the Gospel than would have passed for good payment during the first Lease or Law of Works Not as if either then or now that Righteousness of Heart or Life that was or is required could or was intended to be paid as the least part of our Ransom as a Fine for our Forfeiture of the original Contract betwixt God and us in a state of Innocency No it cost more to redeem a Soul by way of price than all the Righteousness of Angels and Men summ'd up together can amount to that must be let alone for ever and wholly exterminated from the limits of our discourse touching Justification when the Question is Whether we are justified by faith or works But Christ having stood to and fulfill'd the Terms of that Covenant whose Condition was Perseverance in Innocency and paid the Forfeiture that we had made in both which he supererrogated exhibiting that active and passive Obedience which infinitely exceeds in worth what was required of us For that Law demanded man's Obedience or Death but he tender'd both and in both not only man 's but God's the Person subjecting himself to Obedience being God-man upon which consideration our Kinsman not only redeem'd the Inheritance that we had lost but purchas'd a better for us It were therefore against all Reason and Equity that he should be denyed a power to dispose of his own Purchace to whom and upon what Terms he pleaseth which his good pleasure he hath from time to time by some means or other revealed and at the last in his own person communicated wherein it hath pleased his infinite Wisdom to proceed in this Method that in all other former dispositions of the good things he had undertaken to purchase for us he accepted of less acknowledgment from us than in this his last will and Testament made after his actual Purchace bequeathing Himself and Benefits upon different Terms and Conditions suitable to the Revelations of his Grace the Emanations of divine Power and the Obligations he hath laid upon us Hence is that observation of St. Jerom on Gen. 6. 9. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation Signanter ait in generatione sua ut ostenderet non juxtà justitiam consummatam sed juxta justiciam generationis suae fuisse justum It is to be mark'd that he calls him just in his Generation to signifie that he was not so in respect of consummate Justice but that he was just for a man of that age for one that lived under that Dispensation of the Covenant of Grace Christ observing in these his disposals that generally-acknowledged Rule of common Equity so often inculcated in the Evangelists That to whom men concredit much of them shall much be required and of them that have received little of them little shall be expected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to expect the same things à summo minimóque of Children and of men the same tale of Brick from them to whom Straw is given and them that must gather Stubble in stead of Straw to lay equal burdens upon unequal strengths to require the same Interest for the loan of different Summs of them to whom hundreds were and of them to whom thousands are concredited is extremely unequal But the account of the difference betwixt Moses and Christ as the Antinomians casts it up is as monstrously unjust as John Scotus his partition of the two great Fishes to himself who was a little man and the one little one to the two tall Persons that sat next him at the French King's Table giving this Reason to the King accusing him of making an unequal division contrary to his order that he had exactly perform'd his Majesty's Injunction for here meaning himself and the two great Fishes upon his own Trencher is one little one and two great ones there pointing to the two proper and corpulent Person 's and the little Fish he had laid before them are two great ones and one little one The Joque might pass as witty from his Jeaster but sure the Action could not arride the King as just and becoming a Philosopher except Scotus came nearer to Truth than he did here to Justice when to the King asking him what was the difference between a Scot and a Sot he answered the Table if it please your Majesty the King sitting right over against him Camden's Remains by no better Rules of Equity do the Solifidians proceed in their discriminating the two Testaments assigning the Gyants work to the Pigmie and the Pigmie's to the Gyant A partition that may pass for currant with silly Women laden with Lusts and those monsters of men whose souls are fallen down into their Paunch or Groin those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons of dislocated Minds whose Intellects are put out of joynt by being precipitated from the Pinacle of the Head to the baser parts those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brutish Animals that corrupt themselves in those things they naturally know who make no other use of Religion but to bribe and gag Conscience or to be a Pander to their Lusts such a Cover may fit such Pottage-pots Such Lettice may sute such lips The Image of God in the Gospel thus turn'd heels upwards may please such as have no other thoughts concerning him
's put to no expence but what he may well disburse out of that Lordship and for the future he is in a more promising way to Happiness than any other course he can stere can bring him to Hereto assents to that of divine Plato Phaedone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If these things touching the happiness of the Soul in a state of seperation which I say be true we shall do our selves a pleasure by believing them but if there remain nothing either of a man or for a man when he is dead yet however the Contemplation of these things will make my present life more comfortable To which is a kin that of Cicero Tusculan preclarum autem nescio quid adepti sunt quod didicerunt se cùm tempus mortis venisset totos esse perituros quod ut it à sit nihil enim pugno quid habet ista res aut laetabile aut gloriosum They think they have obtain'd an excellent point when they have learn'd that by death they will be wholly dissolved say it were so what is there in this thing either joyous os glorious All the danger here lies on the other hand in not believing hereby we may possibly incur the pain threatned to be sure lose the reward promised but what detriment can we sustain by embracing the Gospel save of a little beastly Pleasure of Sin for a season What danger can we become obnoxious to but a little suffering for as short a season which yet will be recompenced an hundred fold even in this Life not only with the Hope of the Recompence of Reward which made the Martyrs rejoyce more when they were condemned than when absolved Magis damnati quà m absoluti gaudemus Tert. ad scapul cap. 1. Nay such were the expressions of the Märtyrs Joys under the most painful sufferings as made whole multitudes of Christians offer themselves without summons to Pagan Tribunals there to receive the sentence of Death insomuch as Tertullian urgeth Scapula to forethink what he would do with so many thousands of Men Women and Children as in Carthage profess'd the Gospel if they should offer themselves to him to be crowned with Martyrdom as the Christians in Asia had done to Arrius Antoninus Id. Ib. Sufferings I say for righteousness sake will be counterballanced not only by the Contemplation of future Glory but with the peace of Conscience and the calm quiet of a Mind not conscious to its self of any base Act or Disposition unworthy of Man And when we die suppose the Gospel should prove a Fable as that Pope unworthy of name stiled it quantum nobis profuit haec de Christo fabula yet our having observed the Rules of it will put us into a fairer capacity of Happiness in the other World than the Rules of any other Religion than our following the conduct of our bruitish Lusts and untamed Passions can in common sence be presumed to do For certainly if Man exist after death his having habituated himself to the life of Man to intellectual Pleasure on this side of it must render the Life of Reason and that 's the lowest degree of life we can be imagin'd there to live more familiar more complacential and satisfactory on that side of it If Man's proper and peculiar Felicity stand in his enjoyment of Communion with God as it must do if there be a God for to desire the possession of the very best is a Quality radically adhering to an humane Soul certainly our inuring our selves to Acquaintance with him and Conformity to him here must make way for our more clear beatifical Vision of him and Converse with him hereafter Should then our Christian Faith prove Credulity yet that Credulity will prove our Wisdom our way to Happiness and therefore is not so much to be feared in our case as the Objection implies Be it an Error 't is the happiest and most profitable Error that Mankind can possibly fall into though many men saith Origen against Celsus are set free from the slavery of their own Passions from the Colluvies and filthy slud of beastly Vices how many have got their savage Manners tamed and charmed upon occasion of hearing the Gospel preach'd which if we were wise we would with all thankfulness embrace were it but for this that it is so soveraign and compendious a Remedy of all Vice we should give it our grace and approbation to pass if not as true yet as most advantageous to humane kind lib. 1. cal 30. Et probanda si non ut vera certè ut humano generi utilissima The truth is all the hurt that the VVorld has received by Christian Religion is the turning of Beasts into Men and Men into Heroes and petty Gods and all the benefit it reaps by rejecting the Precepts of it and sipping the Circean cup of Atheism is the transmuting of Men into Lyons Tigers VVolves Hoggs Harpies Ravens and as many kinds of wilde Beasts and unclean Birds as enterd Noah's Ark Iniquity and injustice towards Man hath ever attended Impiety towards God Dionisius the Atheist after he had rob'd Jupiter of his golden Robe as being too heavy for Summer too cold for VVinter Aesculapius of his golden Beard as not becoming the Son to wear while his Father was beardless and spoil'd the Temples of what was worth taking away and made sale of his sacrilegious Booties commanded those that bought them to restore every man the things he had bought within a set day to the Temples whence they were stoln ità ad impietatem in Deos in homines adjunxit injuriam Haud unquam tulit documenta sors majora Never was more feeling Proofs given of this sad Truth than this Age hath produced nor can a clearer demonstration be made of any thing than the Primitive Times made of the Truth of the former Branch when the Discipline of Christianity bound its Professors to the keeping of the Peace to a modest meek and good behaviour of Heart Tongue and Hand towards all men under the greatest temptation to the contrary that the bloodiest Persecution could suggest though the sufferers were the more numerous party almost in every City Ex disciplina patientiae divinae agere nos satis manifestum esse vobis potest cùm tanta hominum multitudo pars penè major civitatis cujusque in silentio modestiâ agimus When Christians were not otherwise discernable from other Sects but by the badge of emendation of Manners Nec aliundè noscibiles quà m de emendatione vitiorum pristinorum Tert. ad Scap. cap. 2. Nor could be branded with any vice but that supposed one in the name of Christian. Bonus vir Cajus Seius sed malus tantùm quòd Christianus Tert. apol cap. 3. When they durst challenge the Adversaries to shew if they could among all the Christians which their Prisons were thronged with one High-way-man one Cut-purse one Robber of Temples one Cheater Tertul. apol 44. De vestris semper aestuat carcer de
apply themselves forthwith to the Guards at every Gate to the Watchmen that went up and down the City with a Saw ye not heard ye not can ye tell no tydings why was not Jerusalem all in an uproar at the news How easily might the Discipies have been taken in the manner who by the Soldiers own confession could not be gone far before they awoke for they had not time to shut the Cabinet after they had stoln the Jewel to roll the stone to the Sepulchres mouth again after they had taken out the Corps which certainly they would have done had they not been prevented on purpose to hide from the Soldiers so certain an indication of the removal of the Body till they were got out of their reach It had been worth the while to have turn'd every stone to find whither the Disciples had convey'd it that they might have laid it forth to open view of the people to affront the Apostles preaching of the Resurrection But the proud are robbed they have slept their sleep as their own Prophes in a holy scorn and derision of them had foretold and in the hands of the mighty there is found nothing Nothing but this palpably feigned Tale can be invented to prejudice the truth of Christ's Resurrection by a Council of the subtilest and most implacable enemies Christs name ever had and that after whole nights plotting upon their pillow for they suspected Christ would rise from the dead what to do what to say in case their fears should come to pass yea after comparing notes and taking counsel together Had they so drain'd their heads of devilish policy in compassing Christs Death as they could invent nothing to disprove his Resurrection by but this pitiful shift as Euphranor bestow'd so much art in carving the Image of Neptune as he could not tell how to go to work with the other Gods I begin now less to wonder at the observation I am upon than I did when I first took it up It seemed strange to me that Gospel-history should pass through so many Ages so currently as not to meet with the least rational Contradiction as to any Clause or Tittle of it from any of those millions of desperate enemies it hath met with all along in its passage down to us save only in this case But I see in this very case the Devils good will to oppose it especially in this Article of the Resurrection this being that wherein Christ triumphed over him and we in Christ 'T is Christ that dyed yea rather that rose from the dead is the acme of the Apostles glorying And his want of skill or power or heart to oppose it ever since Christ triumphed so gloriously over him and his Instruments in this Debate about his Resurrection as no man how great soever his enmity was against it would so far under value his own Reputation as to hazard it in gainsaying the Reports of the Gospel So that this little Stone ever since it was cut out of the Mountain has not met with any contradiction that could put it to a stop but what it has with ease run over I would not be too peremptory in affirming what hath not been done there may be more Antagonists against our Religion than I have read but this I may safely say that after some considerable enquiry and most serious perusal of all the ancient Authors opposing Christianity that I could compass a sight off I have not read nor heard of one person who offered to assert himself an Eye-witness of any one thing contrary to the Evangelical Story § 2. These Testimonies of Adversaries are sufficient to evince the Truth of the delivery and though the impossibility of the Apostles either deceiving or being deceived which hath been demonstrated in the first and second Book does manifestly evince that they delivered nothing but the Truth yet that the Atheists mouth may for ever be stopt I shall ex abundanti produce the Testimonies of strangers and enemies for the proof of the Truth of the things delivered There is we see no Comparison betwixt the Allegations of Plaintiff and Defendant Their exceptions are to our Evidences as the dust upon the Ballances to the weight in the Scales lighter than vanity Were it a drawn match betwixt us were the Scales equally ballanced the weight of the Testimony of By-standers of persons that did not interest themselves in the quarrel as it relates to Religion but nakedly record the great Emergencies of the World as Historians especially of such of them as in point of Religion side with our Adversary will add over weight to our Scale and cast the ballance on our side so irrecoverably as it shall not be in the power of Scepticism it self by injecting Queries to pull down the other Scale or with all the doubts it can raise to with-hold its assent to the indubitable Truth of our Evangelist in those things that are hardest to be believed and of that importance as the belief of them necessarily inforceth and demonstrateth the Truth of the rest of their Histories Josephus a Jew and a Priest of Aaron's Order as himself informs us in the History of his own life in that part of his Jewish Antiquities for the truth whereof he appeals against the Exceptions of one Justus a bold lying Pamphleter to the Roman Records in the custody of Vespasian and King Agrippa that Agrippa who was so zealous of the Law as he wish'd he might no longer live than he might be serviceable towards the promoting of the Jewish Religion and therefore fell down dead at Caligula's feet when he perceived him inexorably set against the Jews for refusing to erect his Statue in their Temple Philo Legatione ad Caium And if the Testimony of such an Author confirm'd by such Evidences in the custody of so great an enemy to our Religion be not sufficient to prove the Truth of it in those parts of it it hath relation to what will satisfie Now this Josephus Jud. antiq lib. 18. cap. 9. relates the whole History of John Baptist exactly in the tenour of the Evangelists thus Herod putting away his own Wife the Daughter of Aretas the King of Arabia and taking from his Brother yet living his Wife Herodias had not long after War with Aretas in which Battle Herod's host utterly perished after which for Herodias her sake and through her ambition he was deprived of his Kingdom and with her banish'd to Vienna in France What manner of man doth this speak the Baptist to have been in the opinion of the people when they impute Herod's mishap to the murthering of him rather than the Sanhedrim reputed sacred persons or his own Children a cruelty more than salvage against which Barbarities though Josephus declaims yet he does not impute to them Herod's falling into the displeasure of God but to his beheading John lib. 16. cap. ult and his following the counsel and humours of Herodias 18. 9. wherein he had the
of such a speech to Grammar-rules for had that been the Evangelists sence he would have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was beginning his thirtieth year and its insignificancy as to the describing Christs age for he was beginning his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his thirty years and all the years besides he lived first on earth and since in heaven the first minute he was born And therefore I wonder how it escapt that most learned Man's observation that Josephus as he renders him if his Printer did not mistake in his twenty second of Tiberius makes Philip's Reign younger than our Saviour and a good deal younger if we take in here that note of his in emend temp l. 6. concerning Philip the Tetrarch's Reign to wit that according to Josephus he held his Tetrarchate but thirty six years compleat for this perfectly accords Josephus with his own and some other Learned mens opinion touching the time that Herod lived after the Birth of Christ which they at the utmost extend not to two years For if Philip was but Tetrarch full thirty six years in Tiberius his twenty second and Christ had begun thirty one in the fifteenth of Tiberius his thirty eighth must be begun in Tiberius his twenty second and so his Birth stated one compleat year and a good part of another before Herod's death But because I presume the Quotation out of Josephus of Philip's Death in the twenty second of Tiberius was the mistake of the Printer for the place in Josephus specifies the twentieth year I will at present lay no greater stress upon this Argument than what may incline the ingenuous Reader not to think me immodest in this Proposal That perhaps what befel Scaliger by the Press might happen to Josephus by an inobservant Pen and that twenty might be crept into his Text instead of twenty two or twenty three until I give him out of Josephus himself the Reason of this my surmise to wit That his dating Philip's Death in Tiberius his twentieth will no way consort with those stories which he saith bore the same date with Philip's Death such as Pilat's being turn'd out of Office which in all reasons could not be long before the Death of Tiberius in the twenty third of his Reign which yet he layeth in the precedent Chapter And that of Vitellius his making peace with Artabanus and his procuring him to send his Son an hostage to Tiberius to which he immediately subjoyns the Narration of Philip's Death with this Chain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then dyed Philip c. Now that Artabanus had not made peace with Caesar in the twentieth year of Tiberius appears out of Tacitus Annal. l. 6 pag. 134 c. where the first mention of the occasion of Artabanus his War with Vitellius is made in the Consul-ship of C. Gessius and M. Servilius who were the last pair of Consuls but two in Tiberius his Reign and therefore belong to his twenty first year of which he gives this account That Artabanus who till then for fear of Germanicus had been faithful to the Romans and just towards his own subjects taking heart from the decrepid old age of Tiberius and successfulness of his own arms against some neighbouring Countries and gaping after the Armenian Kingdom whose King Artaxias was thenâ— lately dead did not only impose his eldest son Arsaces upon Armenia but also sent to demand the treasure that Vonon had left in Syria and Cilicia together with the ancient bounds of the Persian and Macedonian Empire threatning that he would invade all the Countries that Cyrus first and afterwards Alexander had posses'd upon this his nobles by the practices of Vitelius the deputy of Syria conspire against him go to Rome and obtain of Tiberius to appoint Phrahates King of Parthia Phrahates by deserting the Roman custom of living to which he had been inured his body not brooking that change contracts a mortal sickness He being dead Tiberius institutes Tiridates in his room King of Parthia and Mithridates King of Armenia Mithridates takes Artaxata the chief City of Armenia and by help of Pharasmanes forceth Artabanus out of Armenia and Parthia What is hitherto reported of Artabanus as it cannot in reason be otherwise conceiv'd Tacitus affirmeth to have been two Summers work and therefore seeing the occasion of thâ—se transactions against Artabanus to wit the Embassie of his Nobles and complaint against him to Tiberius fell in Tiberius his twenty first they could not be ended at the soonest before the twenty second of Tiberius was almost expired quae duabus â—statibus gesta coujunxi quo requiesceret animus à domesticis malis These Parthian affairs saith he which lasted two Summers I have here handled altogether that I might divert my thoughts from the unpleasant meditation of our domestick mischiefs Sueton. in Tiberio cap. 66. reports Tiberius his receipt of Letters from Artabanus as that which was the last experiment he had of the World's Opinion of him and prest him to write that desperate Letter to the Senate wherein he protesteth he found God so bent to his ruine as he knew not what to write Postremò semet ipse pertaesus talis epistolae principia tantùm non summam malorum suorum professus est quid scribam c. The contents of Artabanus his to him were the upbraiding him with his Parricides Murders Sloath and Luxury and the advising him that he would satisfie the great and most just hatred of the Roman Citizens by laying violent hands upon himself he would never have writ at this rate had his Son been then an Hostage with Tiberius But Suetonius is an Historian no Chronologer Tacitus is both we will therefore return to him who after he hath declared what cruelty Tiberius exercised at home during those two years wars with Artabanus abroad he returns again to the prosecution of his Story telling how his Nobles repenting of the change restored Artabanus to his Kingdom of Tiridates his flight into Syria and of the fire that happen'd the same year at Rome from whence Tiberius taking occasion to redeem his credit with the Romans and making an estimate of the value of the streets and houses that were consumed he assigned 1000 Sestertiums towards the repair and Commissioners to assign to every one their proportion thereof according to the loss they had sustain'd This so ingratiated him with the People as every one strives who shall out-wit others in inventing new honours for him which whether he receiv'd or omitted by reason of the so near approach of his death is uncertain saith my Author For soon after his last Consuls Cn. Acerconius and C. Pontius enter'd into Office and the seventeenth of the Calends of the next April Tiberius his breath was stopt Now it was after this restoring of Artabanus to the Parthian Crown which Tacitus thus clearly dates in the twenty second of Tiberius that the Emperour wrote to Vitelius to make peace with Artabanus Ubi
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
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.