Person in his coming to Judgment that no tolerable Allegorie can elude them 3. That there will be a Resurrection of the dead in a natural not a moral sense at the same time is as evident from the very last words I cited For who but a mad-man will interpret the meeting of Christ in the air in a moral sense If it had been written in the Heavens they would have shuffled it off and said in the Heavenly being or Heavenly nature mystically understood But will they have the impudence not to acknowledg the aieriness and phantastry of their Mysteries of Incredulity when they must according to the same analogy be driven to say that we shall at the Resurrection meet Christ in the Aiery Being mystically understood But it is as false a gloss to interpret the doctrine of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. so as to exclude the Natural and Physical sense of it it being plain that such a Death and such a Resurrection is spoken of concerning us as is argued from the Death and the Resurrection of Christ who is said to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our sins which is impossible to be interpreted mystically Read from the first to the eleventh verse it is a plain History From whence the Apostle inferres that there is a blessed Resurrection or glorious Immortality in Body and Soul which Christ will bestow on all true believers at the last day As himself has promised over and over again in the sixth of S. Iohn's Gospel and I will raise him up at the last day Many other places there are to this purpose in Scripture which I willingly omit 4. The third and last is the Conflagration of the World of which I hold that of S. Peter an undeniable Testimonie But the Day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works therein shall be burnt up The explication of which Prophecie Mr. Ios. Mede has set down with a great deal of caution and judgment To which I should wholy subscribe did I not believe that this execution of Fire were the very last visible judgment God would doe upon the Rebellious generations of Adam leaving them then to tumble with the Devils in unsupportable torment and confusion 5. And therefore I would expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 13. But yet Notwithstanding or Nevertheless before this Conflagration of the Earth we expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in a Political sense in which Righteousness shall dwell Nor does that phrase verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking for hastning the coming of the Day of God warrant any one to restrain this Prophecie to a Moral meaning as if it were only high expressions signifying something in our own power and to be done by us For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be either an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denote no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is with great earnestness and diligence to expect or if so be you take them for two several things and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie hastning that sense is also consistent enough with our Interpretation For being the Day of the Lord is a day of great Joy and ample Remunerations to the Godly as well as of Destruction to the Wicked and suppose it also comes not till Righteousness has had its reign upon Earth we may well be exhorted by our prayers and conversations to hasten and accelerate as much as in us lies the coming of either 6. But that by no such mystical Interpretation as this the Earth can be excused from being burnt by a visible and palpable Fire is clear beyond all exception from the 5 6 and 7 verses of this Chapter Where the Apostle alledges against that usual Refuge and Security of Atheists to wit The sameness and immutableness of the Law of Nature and the order or course of things that all things are as they were from the beginning and ever will be so and that therefore God will never step out in such an extraordinary way to Iudgment To this the Apostle opposes that eminent Example of God's Vengance in bringing the Floud upon the old World and drowning the Earth in an immense Deluge of Water But the Heavens and the Earth which are now saith he are reserved unto fire against the day of Iudgment and perdition of ungodly men Were the Waters in Noah's time natural when God had a controversie with all flesh and shall the Fire that the world shall be destroyed with be spiritual But light-minded men whose hearts are made dark with Infidelity care not what Antick Distorsions they make in interpreting Scripture so they bring it but to any shew of compliance with their own Phansie and Incredulity 7. I know there be that would understand by this burning of Heaven and Earth the destruction of the City of Ierusalem But the description is too big by far for so small a Work and not likely to be understood of them it was intended as a comfort to it being so exceedingly well fitted to the Conflagration of the World and so disproportionated to the other Event Moreover it is manifest from the Scoffer's arguing against the Promise of Christ's coming ver 4. That nature keeps still the same course it did since the beginning that this Coming of Christ was not understood by them and consequently not by S. Peter of the burning of a City by war For such things have hapned often and so they might not think it improbable Ierusalem might be burnt in due time but of that final glorious coming of Christ to judge the World which Judgment the Conflagration of the Earth is to attend 8. And truly if a man will but weigh things without prejudice he shall find the main matter of these two Epistles to be nothing else but an Exhortation to grow perfect and established in all Christian Vertues from the hope of that excellent Reward that shall be bestowed at the appearing and coming of the Lord Jesus as you may see in this second Epistle the first Chapter For so an entrance shall be administred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Which is parallel to that in his first where the Promise is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens and so on to the thirteenth verse Which verses doubtless no unbiassed judgment will ever understand of a delivery from any Temporal calamity much less the destruction of Ierusalem from which place those dispersed Jews were far enough removed as far as Pontus Cappadocia Asia Galatia Bithynia To say nothing that the so-carefull an Inculcation of that sad Theam of the fatal destruction of the holy City would not so much become the pen of this venerable Apostle nor the gust of them he wrote to being Jews by Nation
own Prejudice Of which violence they do thereto they cannot well be sensible they thinking they have full commission to distort it into any posture rather then to let it alone in that which so plainly points to a Mystery which they hold impossible and self-contradictious For so has their bold and blind reasoning concluded aforehand concerning the Trinity and Divinity of Christ. But to those that are indifferent this Text bears such evidence with it that it cannot but settle their belief 2. For why should the Euangelist omit the manner of Christ's Birth as he was Man but that he was intent upon his Eternal Generation as he was God Or why should he not call him by that name that was given him at his Circumcision or by the name of Crist or the Messias who was a Person expected in time but that his thoughts were carried back to that of him which was from all Eternity Nor is it imaginable that he should be here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of Iesus or Christ unless there were some valuable Mystery in it which the learned easily unriddle from Iewish Interpreters they speaking often of The Word of the Lord as an Hypostasis distinguishable from God and yet that by which he created Adam and the rest of the Creatures And for my own part I make no question but that the Greek Philosophers as Pythagoras and Plato had not onely their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the whole Mystery of their Trinity from the Divine Traditions amongst the Jews Philo the Jew speaks often of this Principle in the Godhead calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and attributes unto it the Creation of the World as also the Healing of the diseases of our Mindes and the Purging of our Souls from sins insomuch that this Author might be a good Commentator upon this first Chapter of S. Iohn 3. Wherefore there being this Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Jews to which the Creation and Government of the World is attributed the same also being done here what can be more likely then that S. Iohn means the very same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Creator and Governor of all Which the very Phrase and Posture of things will yet further confirme For assuredly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Gospel is the same with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first Epistle of S. Iohn and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the same Epistle will explicate chap. 2.14 I write unto you Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because you have known the Eternal and Christ by the Prophet Esay is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Father For that is the most proper meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as appears Esay 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabits Eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inhabiting Eternity Nor is it incongruous for the same Being to be the Son of God and the Father and Governour of all the Creatures And the Prophet Micah chap. 5. prophesying of Christ describes him thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His emanations are from the Beginning from the dayes of Eternity Which agrees well with what Christ professes of himself Iohn 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for if he was before Abraham there is little question but he was before all things and that of the Psalmist is but his due attribute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the mountains were brought forth or the Earth was formed even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God And now for the Posture of things after the Evangelist has twice asserted That he was from the beginning that you may not mistake and think he means the beginning of his Ministry as the Messiah he tells you according to the Doctrine of the Jews That all things were created by him and at the tenth verse that you may have no subterfuge he sayes That even that world that was made by him knew him not which excludes all Moral and Mystical interpretations and shews plainly that wicked men though not their wickedness are his Creation and consequently all the world besides And the Author to the Hebrews is a farther witness of this Truth citing that of the Psalmist concerning the Son of God Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the work of thy hands There is yet another argument of the Divinity of Christ which I need not prove it being acknowledged even by our Adversaries and it is Religious worship due to him which I conceive is due to none but God 4. The Holy Trinity and Divinity of Christ we have hitherto proved out of the Scriptures and might adde many places more but the Reason and Nature of the thing it self shall be the last Confirmation That Christ is to be worshipped is acknowledged of all hands But to worship one that is not God is to relapse into the ancient rites of the Pagans who were Men-worshippers and eaters of the sacrifices of the dead For Iupiter Belus Bacchus Vulcan Mercurius Osiris and Isis and the rest of the Gods of the Heathen what were they but mere men whose Benefactions extorted divine honours from Superstitious posterity after their Death Wherefore Christ ought not to be a mere man but God that is he ought to be really and physically united to the Deity it being present not by Assistance onely but by Information that as Body and Soul are one Man so God and Man may be one Christ. But if there were no Trinity but One Hypostasis in the Deity and the Humanity of Christ thus joyn'd with it How could he be a Sacrifice for sin there being none beside himself to whom he should be offer'd or How could he be sent by another when there is none other to send him and the Son of God out of the bosome of his Father could not be said to suffer but he that is offended to be sacrificed to pacifie himself which things are very absurd and incongruous But you 'l say the Absurdity still remains in the Second Hypostasis For was not Sin as contrary to Him as to the First and Third and consequently He as much offended and therefore He dying in our nature was sacrificed to pacify Himself In answer to this I admit that all Three Hypostases were alike offended at Sin and withall alike compassionate to Sinners Which Compassion was in the Deity towards Mankind before the Incarnation and Death of Christ. But the formal Declaration and visible Consignation of this Reconcilement was by Christ according as he is revealed in the Gospel whose Transactions in our behalf are nothing else but a sweet and kind Condescension of the Wisdome of God in this Mystery accommodating himself to our humane capacities and properties to win us off in a kindly was to Love and Obedience And
of thy years are many The Author of the Book of Wisdome who though he be not Canonical yet is acknowledged a very venerable Writer speaks out plainly concerning the Soul of Solomon chap. 8. v. 19 20. For I was a witty childe and had a good Spirit Yea rather being good I came into a body undefiled 3. Besides they might have alledged how inconsistent the daily Creation of Souls is with God's resting on the Seventh day as having then finished the whole work of his Creation 4. Moreover their inclination to think that in sundry of those Apparitions of Angels to the ancient Patriarchs it was Christ himself that appeared would further have enticed them to retain this Doctrine of Preexistence of Souls that that opinion of Christ's appearing then might be more entire and determinate as it would be also in those that hold Melchisedec that blessed Abraham to have been Christ which opinion Cunaeus looks upon as true nor can Calvin look upon it as strange if he do but hold to his own words in his readings upon Daniel In eo nihil est absurdi quòd Christus aliquam speciem humanae naturae exhiberet antequam manifestatus esset in carne And that the Angel that led the Israelites into the land of Canaan was Christ seems plainly asserted 1 Cor. chap. 10. v. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them tempted him and perished by Serpents But Christ is a complexion of the Humane nature with the Divine Consider also Hebr. 11.26 which seems to implie that the Soul of the Messias was a Patron and Protector of the Holy seed betimes and had a special relation to the Iews above any other Nation And therefore when he came into the world i. e. was born brought up and conversed among the Jews he might the more properly be said to come to his own though his own knew him not John 1.11 And verily that the Soul of the Messiah was in Being before he took upon him our flesh the most easie and natural meaning of 1 Joh. 4.2 seems also to import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here S. Iohn seems to cabbalize as in several places of the Apocalypse that is to speak in the language of the Learned of the Jews For the genuine sense is He that confesses that Iesus is the Messiah come into the flesh or into a Terrestrial Body is of God Which implies that he was before he came into it Which is the doctrine of the Jews and expressed so exactly according to their sense that themselves could not have uttered it more naturally and significantly and therefore might they say it is unnatural and violent to put any other meaning upon it 5. Again He being happily before the Generation of men and the peopling of the earth the Messiah Elect as I may so speak united also with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and resplendent with Celestial glory and beauty amongst the Angels in Heaven this Hypothesis will give a very easie and natural sense to sundry places of the New Testament that otherwise seem very obscure As that of Philipp 2.6 7 8. For it has racked many mens minds to conceive how an Exinanition of himself can belong to the Eternal and Immutable God by becoming man which the Text seems to point at But it may very properly belong to the Soul of the Messiah who was yet truly God by a Physical union with the Godhead So likewise John 17.4 5. I have glorified thee upon earth for which purpose I was sent down thither And now Father bring me up back again to thy self that I may again enjoy that Glory which I had with thee in the Heavens before the world and Generations of men were This is the easie meaning of those two Verses For that this is to be understood of the Humanity of Christ Grotius is so confident that he is fain to turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I was to have or which I was designed to have before the world was But this present gloss needs no such distortion or force done to words but is very natural and genuine 6. Again John 6.38 I came down from Heaven not to doe mine own will but the will of him that sent me and chap. 3.31 He that comes from Heaven is above all and yet clearer chap. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father But clearest of all chap. 3.13 where speaking of his Ascension and that was Local he mentions also his Descension which it is most natural to understand in the same sense No man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man who is in Heaven i. e. whose mind and conversation is there though his Personal and visible presence be here on earth as Grotius also interpreteth these last words To all which you may adde John 6.26 What if you shall see the Son of man ascend where he was before 7. These Scriptures which we have cited bear so strong towards a Local descending from as well as ascending up to Heaven that some have thought that Christ was besides his Ascension after his Resurrection bodily taken up into Heaven and that he there received instructions from God and was then sent down to publish the Gospel But certainly so notable a Transaction of Christ then in the flesh would never have been omitted by the other three Evangelists nor so slightly and obscurely intimated by this 8. But this Evangelist flying higher then to be kept within the compass of the time since his Incarnation it had been very easie for the Fathers to have pleaded for the Preexistence and Descent of the Soul of the Messiah from Heaven into an Earthly Body from those passages of Scripture which we have quoted And to make all sure they might have further alledged for this opinion of the Soul's Preexistence that it was at least unreproved if not approved of by our Saviour himself as appears out of John 9. where he being asked by his Disciples whether it was the blind mans own fault or his parents that he was born blind which question plainly implies a Preexistence before this life he seems to admit it is certain he does not reprehend the Hypothesis No more then he does Mark 8.27 28. or Matthew 16.14 where his Disciples telling him that some took him for Elias others for Ieremias or for some one of the old Prophets or other he there again admits or not gainsaies the opinion of the Jews concerning the Preexistence or Transmigration of Souls as Grotius himself acknowledges that of Ieremie to be referred ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but passes to a questioning of them whom they thought him to be 9. I conclude therefore there being such plausible pretensions to prove the Preexistence of Souls not only out of Reason but Scripture it self if the Fathers had been imbued with that Heathenish and Pagan opinion as our
and palpable Overthrow of the Kingdome of Darkness such as themselves shall feel with a vengeance a whirlwind of destruction ratling about their ears as I may so speak the visible wrath of God seizing upon their external persons but there shall be also a visible deliverance of the other Kingdome from this storme of fire and brimstone from this fierce anger of God and the rorings and boilings of incensed Nature against the Wicked For who can imagine the horror the stench the confusion the crackling of Flames of Fire those loud murmurs and bellowings of the troubled Seas working and smoking like seething Water in a Caldron the fearfull howlings and direfull grones of those rebellious Ghosts who besides the general defacement of whatsoever they heretofore took pleasure in are in an unexpressible torture of Body with an unimaginable vexation of Minde Self-love then the centre of the Animal life proving the depth and bottom of Hell as being inflamed and boiling up with the highest indignation and vengeance against it self that when it had so many opportunities it provided no better for its own happiness being now convinced that there is a Special Providence over the Good and that Righteousness has its Eternal Reward For in that day shall all the Faithful renew their strength and shall mount up with wings as Eagles and be carried far above the reach of this dismal Fate that is they shall ascend up in those Heavenly Chariots or Ethereal Vehicles the ancient Philosophers speak of and so enter into Immortality and Eternal rest 2. But if there were not this Visible deliverance of the Powers of the Kingdome of Light the Powers of the contrary Kingdome let them suffer what they would they would imagine it a piece of blind and inevitable Fortune as well as partial Earthquakes and Inundations and particular Conflagrations which have destroyed Towns and Countries heretofore and therefore deem their ill condition a fad Calamity indeed but no Punishment Which will seem the more probable if we consider that Epicures and Atheists themselves admit of a Final Destruction of the World as you may see in Lucretius who speaking of the Earth the Sea and the Heavens presages thus of them Tres Species tam dissimiles tria talia Texta Una dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi Three Species of things so different Three such contextures shall one fatall day Ruine at once and the world's Machina Upheld so long rush into Atomes rent 3. My Thirteenth Assertion is That this palpable and visible Difference which Divine Providence is to make betwixt the Evill and the Good will be and is so wisely contrived that it shall not onely be a manifest Conviction and Confutation of Atheists and Epicures and an undoubted Revelation of God's Existence and Soveraignty in the world but in a speciall manner for the high Honour and Triumph of the Divine life over the Animal life Which through so many Sorrows Afflictions Temptations scornfull Reproaches of the Wicked their cruel and barbarous usages shall at last with all the Embraces of her be enthroned in Everlasting Peace and Glory 4. And that this may be done more exquisitely That Wisdome that contrives all for the best was to lay aside all those things that seem so goodly and precious to the Animal life such as are The outward Power and Pompe of the world Highness of Rank Transcendency in natural Knowledge Beauty Birth bodily Strength or whatsoever the Animal life divided from the Divine takes pleasure in and can perform by it self all this I say was to be laid aside in the choice of that Person by whom this great conquest over the Kingdome of Darkness was to be atchieved as it is written He has no pleasure in the strength of an horse neither delighteth he in any mans legs But the delight of the Lord is in them that fear him and put their trust in his mercy Which I onely cite for illustration sake it being undeniably true in it self That God preferres his own Glory that is the Divine life or the Image of himself shining in his Creatures before any Natural accomplishment whatsoever Thus therefore it was to fare in the choice of the Chieftain of the Powers of the Kingdome of Light As if some great Prince being highly displeased at the general Luxury Rebellion and Persidiousness of his Nobles to shew how little he esteemed the Highness of their Ranks in respect of true Vertue should take some one of the Lowest of the Commons yet indued with eminent Prudence Loyalty and Valour and set him next to himself in Honour Trust and Power in the administrating the affairs of his Kingdome So the Almighty passing by those more Superior Orders of Angels that his high esteem of the Divine life might be more apparent and conspicuous was to make his choice in the rank of Humane Souls and to lay the Government upon some one who being designed to that Office from the beginning of the world should win notorious victories against the Kingdome of Darkness and rescue at last all such as the Devil has held captive into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God 5. Lastly therefore to make an end at length of my Preparatory Assertions the main Mystery of Christianity consists in this That it is a wise contrivance of Providence upon the lapse of Men and Angels to slur and defeat all the Pride and practices of the Devil and his accomplices and to reduce all Penitent and Regenerate Souls to that Glory and Happiness they heretofore forfeited and fell from Or if you will briefly but more significantly thus Christianity is that Period of the VVisdome of God and his Providence wherein the Animal life is remarkably insulted or triumphed over by the Divine CHAP. VIII 1. That not to be at least a Speculative Christian is a Sign of the want of common Wit and Reason 2. The nature of the Divine and Animal life and the state of the World before and at our Saviour's coming to be enquired into before we proceed 3. Why God does not forthwith advance the Divine life and that Glory that seems due to her 4. The First Answer 5. A Second Answer 6. A Third Answer 7. The Fourth and last Answer 1. WE have now laid down such Conclusions either so Evident from themselves or Demonstrable from Reason or so Allowable by the Authority of the wisest men that have been in the world and yet uninterested in Christianity that the hardest difficulties thereof being resolvable into these it will appear that it is not only an Indisposition to all Religion whatever but the Want of Common Wit and the laudable parts of a man that keeps any one off at least from being a Speculative Christian. 2. There are only Two things more for a further Preparation to be proposed to our view before we come to a Particular application of the several Branches of Christianity to the foregoing
used in his assaults upon those women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Which I could not forbear to reherse the first transformation there named viz. of Iupiter's becoming a Swan when he had to doe with Leda putting me in mind of Ludovicus the Familiar of that Witch whose story Franciscus Picus so fully prosecutes whom he confessed to have to doe with her though in the rest of his parts in the shape of a Man yet with feet fashioned like a Goose. But the main thing observable in that Dialogue is Picus his ingenious conjecture concerning these supposed Fables of the Poets as some would have them But he conceives there may be a considerable truth in them as concerning the Generation of the Heroes and that in rude Antiquity when the Dominion of the Devil was more free and mankind more idle and ignorant there were really and frequently such congresses or Venereous conjunctions of unclean Spirits with women according to that practice which to this day is confessed by Witches especially in their meetings and joviall Revellings in the Night at that Solemnity which they call our Lady's play the Ancients called it Ludum Dianae or Ludum Herodiadis where the Witches as themselves confess do eat and drink and dance and doe that with these impure Spirits which modesty would forbid to name Which dalliance had sometime such real effect with them of ancient times that the women as Picus would have it were impregnated by the Daemones or Genii the deemed Gods of the Heathen From whence came Famous men that were not only reputed but really sprung ex stirpe Deorum according to their opinions they had of the Gods Iosephus a sober Writer acknowledges the birth of the Giants of old to be after this manner to whom he ascribes all the impiety and injustice that had crept into the world before Noah's Flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he writes in his First book of Iewish Antiquities 4. And though this may seem incredible to others yet stranger matters have been asserted concerning the Conception of Females without the help of a Male in the perfectest kind of living creatures as that which Virgil affirms in his Georgicks concerning some metal'd Mares that have conceived of the Wind. Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis Exceptántque leves auras saepe sine ullis Conjugiis vento gravidae mirabile dict◠Saxa per scopulos fugiunt They all standing on high crags with turned face To gentle Zephyr the light air they draw And oft O wonder without Venus law Quick with the wind o're Hills and Rocks they trace Which Silius Italicus expresses also very livelily of the Spanish Gennets of his Country Et Venerem occultam genitali concipit aurâ Which that you may not suspect to be only the levity and credulity of Poets to report such things I can inform you that S. Austin and Solinus the Historian write the same of a race of Horses in Cappadocia Nay which is more to the purpose Columella and Varro men expert in rural affairs assert this matter for a most certain and known truth 5. Wherefore if the free Air by the advancing of the pleasure of the Spirits of these Animals or actuating them by a volatil Salt will fill them so full of life and joy that it will make their Wombes blossome as I may so say and after bring forth fruit why may not an Aiery Spirit transforming himself into the shape of a Man supply his place effectually he being able as Witches have confessed to raise as high pleasure and indeed higher then any man can doe and so to loosen the body into a transmission of such principles and particles as will prove in their conflux in the wombe vital and prolifical Which may be the easilier admitted if we consider that the Seed of the Male gives neither Matter nor Form to the Foetus it self but like the Flint and Steel only sets the Tinder on fire as Dr. Harvey expresses it So that the Pagan Gods when they would have to doe with women needed no such ambages as ordinarily men imagine viz. first to play the Succubi then the Incubi that is first to receive the Seed of man having transformed themselves into the shape of a woman then to transfuse the Seed into the womb of a woman after they had changed themselves into the form of a man For it is not the Matter of the Seed but a gratefull contact or motion fermenting or spiriting the place of conception that makes the Female fruitfull So great a probability is there that there is some truth in that fame concerning the birth of the ancient Heroes though their time by reason of the uncertainty of the story is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Historians 6. But there is so strong a suspicion in the minds of men that there are such Events in the world that they venture upon some Examples within the compass of more approved History as Alexander and Scipio whom many conceited to be the Sons of Iupiter And Diogenes Laertius tells a formal story of Perictione Plato's Mother being impregnated by Apollo which he confirms by the Authority of three several Writers Speusippus Clearchus and Anaxilides CHAP. XIX 1. That out of the Principles we have laid down and the History of the Religions of the Nations we have produced it is easie to give a Reasonable account of all matters concerning our Saviour from his Birth to his Visible return to Iudgment 2. That Christianity is the Summe and Perfection of whatever things were laudable or passable in any Religion that has been in the world 3. The Assertion made good by the enumeration of certain Particulars 4. That our Religion seems to be more chiefly directed to the Nations then the Iews themselves 5. An Enumeration of the main Heads in the History of Christ that he intends to give account of 1. I Have now omitted nothing of considerable moment to our present purpose having laid down by way of Preparation such Grounds as will inable us to give a solid account of whatsoever occurrs in the History of Christ whatsoever happen'd to him was done or is to be done by him from his Birth to his Visible return to Iudgment For besides that there are no Effects so Miraculous there recorded as to exceed the efficacy of those Invisible Powers which we have demonstrated to be in the world so the Reasonableness of every thing will be easily illustrated by what we have discovered concerning the Nature and End of Christianity which is to advance the Divine life upon Earth and to bring the partakers thereof to Eternal happiness and in the mean time to redeem the world out of the dominion and tyranny of the Devil and to bring in the Worship of Christ as the lawfull owner of all Soveraignty in Heaven and in Earth and that not by
external force and violence but by the wonderfull Wisdom of God discoverable in the Gospel there being such winning compliances and condescensions to the Faculties of Man and so powerfull endearments upon his Affections that at the first hearing it is able to carry away the ingenuous captive into obedience to it with joy in their hearts and tears in their eyes their whole man melting into an easie pliableness to this new gracious law in the sense of so great Joy Love and Sorrow besides their being surprized with a just slighting or indignation against the Religions they were formerly ingaged in for either their beggerly Elements or abominable Sacrifices and Ceremonies 2. For whatsoever is defective in any Christ makes a full supply and where their Rites are execrable and detestable he treads quite contrary there to both the foul obscenities and bloody cruelties of Satan But what Propensions in Mankind were more warrantably natural he gratifies them in a truer and higher manner then ever they were yet in the World So that of a very truth Christianity is not only the Compleatment and Perfection of Iudaisme but also of universal Paganisme the Summe or Substance of whatever was considerable in any Religion being comprehended in the Gospel of Christ which was reserved to the last Periods of time as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or summing up of all that went before as the Apostle speaks in his Epistle to the Ephesians That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might summe up all together in Christ whether things in Heaven or things in Earth 3. For as for Things in Heaven whether it be the Objects of the worships of the Heathen namely their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men canonized for Gods and their Heroes or the trust they had in their Dii Medioxumi in the mediation and intercession of their Daemons or whatsoever obscure hopes they had of enjoying the life of the Gods themselves in Heaven after the dissolution of the Body all these things are more compendiously and yet more truly plainly and warrantably comprehended in Christ. As also the Things in Earth as the Jewish Sacrifices and the Pagans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so many and so curious Ceremonies of expiation and purification they are all more fitly and more effectually contained in the Sacrament of Baptisme and in the celebration of the Death of our Saviour then in any of the Rites of the Nations 4. And truly all things are so shrewdly levelled at the Religion of the Heathens in the transactions of Christ and matters belonging to him that he may rather seem to be meant for them then the Jews themselves though they had the first refusal of him so that the counsel of God is made evident as well in the Contrivance as the Effect thereof And this may serve for a General hint concerning the Nature and Composure of Christianity 5. But we shall not content our selves therewith but descend to a more Particular account applying the Grounds which we have laid down to all the Considerable matters contained in the History of Christ which we shall refer to these Heads His Birth His Life His Crucifixion His Resurrection His Ascension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intercession Principality over Men and Angels His Mission of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles The Success of all this in changing of the affairs of the World and ruining of the Kingdome of the Devil His visible returning again to Iudgment to take vengeance of the wicked and to compleat Redemption to the faithfull crowning all their labours and sufferings with Glory and Immortality and reestablishing of them in those Paradisiacal Ioys which they had forfeited and fallen from by the Envy and Subtilty of the Devil Of all these we shall speak with what brevity we can BOOK IV. CHAP. I. 1. That Christ's being born of a Virgin is no Impossible thing 2. And not only so but also Reasonable in reference to the Heroes of the Pagans 3. And that this outward birth might be an emblem of his Eternal Sonship 4. Thirdly in relation to the Sanctity of his own person and for the recommendation of Continence and Chastity to the world 5. And lastly for the completion of certain prophesies in the Scriptures that pointed at the Messias 1. COncerning the Birth of Christ or whatsoever else happened miraculously to him or was done by him I conceive I shall give a sufficient account if I shew not only their Possibility but their Reasonableness And it is not at all Impossible that a Virgin should bring forth a Son if we understand the meaning of that term aright which signifies a Woman that never had any thing to doe with a Man For it implies no Contradiction for her to conceive from some other hidden cause and therefore at least the Omnipotent Power of God can bring it to pass For whether is it easier to create all things of nothing to make Plants and Animals to spring out of the Earth without the help of either Male or Female or to prepare the wombe of a woman so as to make her conceive without the help of a man Wherefore to deny the Possibility thereof is to deny the Existence of God in the world 2. But it is not only Possible but Reasonable For besides that in general it is fit that so extraordinary a person as our Saviour in his coming into the World should be accompanied with miraculous indications of his eminencie there is a peculiar accommodation in this of his being conceived and born by a supernatural Power to those either true stories or strong suspicions of the Pagans who did so easily believe that their famous Heroes whose memory continued so long with them and was so sacred that they did divine honours to them were not sprung of mortal race but were ex stirpe Deorum as you have already heard which is in a most true and eminent manner accomplished in the Birth of our Saviour 3. Again Christ considered out of the body he being not a mere humane Soul but being truly livingly and really united with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by union the Eternal Son of God Now that being to come to pass which S. Iohn speaks of in the beginning of his Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word was made flesh he that was to be born of Mary the Spouse of Ioseph he being I say the true and genuine Son of God begotten of the Father from all eternity when he was to be born here into the world in time who was so fit to be entitled to his procreation as he that was the Author of his Eternal generation and therefore he was to be born of a Virgin and to be conceived by a supernatural way that his visible Humanity as well as his inward Divinity might have a just occasion of being called the Son of God and that the one might be the Emblem as it were of the other 4. Thirdly you have seen how full of
Example of Good and a Reprover of Evil to all the Orders of Intellectual Beings that are peâ—cable and mutable and of so generall a kindness and compassion to all rational Souls that he could dy a most shameful and bitter death to reduce them from their rebellion and confederacy with the Kingdome of darkness to return to the Kingdome of God this person I say whose influence is so great upon all is fit to be made Head over all according as himself has declared To me is given all power in Heaven and in Earth Whence it is plain that there is none save God himself above him at whose right hand he fits and intercedes for his Church 7. Which is the last thing I propounded His Intercession upon which I need make no stay there being no difficulty at all in it but a very great congruity and such as is incompetible to any Angel as I have already intimated The Author to the Hebrews takes notice of it Chap. 4. For we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Who therefore must needs prove a very compassionate and potent Intercessour for us with his Father not onely for forgiveness of sins but for all needfull supplies of grace and assistance to his Church Militant here on Earth 8. Thus we have seen how in the Birth Passion Ascension and Intercession of Christ is comprehended a full and warrantable completion of those four notable parts of the Pagan Religion which relates to their Heroes to their Catharmata their Apotheoses and Intercessions of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dii Medioxumi For what they were naturally groping after and mistaken in in these points all that is rectified here and made lawfull and allowable nay meritorious and effectual for both present and future happiness I mean in Christ Iesus all businesses betwixt God and us being to pass through his hands if we look for grace and success Which accommodation contriv'd by the wisdome of God was of very great virtue for the bringing of the Nations of the World to close with the Truth of the Gospel they being invited to that upon good grounds which their blind propensions carried them out to in a way of errour and mistake CHAP. VII 1. That there is nothing in the History of Apollonius that can properly answer to Christ's Resurrection from the dead 2. And that his passage out of this life must go for his Ascension concerning which reports are various but in general that it was likely he died not in his bed 3. His reception at the Temple of Diana Dictynna in Crete and of his being called up into Heaven by a Quire of Virgins singing in the Aire 4. The uncertainty of the manner of Apollonius his leaving the World argued out of Philostratus his own Confession 5. That if that at the Temple of Diana Dictynna was true yet it is no demonstration of any great worth in his Person 6. That the Secrecy of his departure out of this world might beget a suspicion in his admirers that he went Body and Soul into Heaven 7. Of a Statue of Apollonius that spake and of his dictating verses to a young Philosopher at Tyana concerning the Immortality of the Soul 8. Of his Ghost appearing to Aurelian the Emperour 9. Of Christ's appearing to Stephen at his martyrdome and to Saul when he was going to Damascus 1. WE have spoken of the Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ we will come to the Three last things we propounded when we have briefly considered what in Apollonius is parallel to Christ's Resurrection and Ascension For there is alwaies some glance or other in his Life at the most notable passages in our Saviour's But I can finde nothing that must go for Apollonius his Resurrection from the dead but his escaping out of the hands of Domitian which danger was so great that all men took him for a dead man But what a whifling business it was and a mere piece of Magical ostentation I have already noted 2. His real passage therefore out of this World must go for his Ascension as his escape out of that desperate danger for his Resurrection But the reports concerning his departure are various some affirming that at a full Age being fourscore or an hundred year old he died at Ephesus But it seems not likely Philostratus professing that he had travailed the greatest part of the habitable world to enquire of his Sepulchre and that he could hear no news of it any where But so grave and divine a person as Apollonius was reputed could not fail to be honoured with a very pompous Funeral and sumptuous Monument whereever he happened to dy he being so famously known over all the World wherefore it is likely that he did not dy as they say in his bed but in some solitude either by a sudden surprizal of death or on set purpose as Empedocles who cast himself into the flames of Aetna that he might be thought what Apollonius professed himself before Domitian an Immortal God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Others report that having entred into the Temple of Minerva at Lindus in Rhodes he suddenly disappeared before the people and went no man knows whither Others affirm that he left this mortal life in Crete where approaching the Temple of Diana Dictynna the doors flew open of themselves to the admiration of the Keepers of the Temple who suspected him for a sacrilegious Enchanter in that the fierce Mastives that kept the Treasury fawned on him with more kindness and familiarity then on them that fed them Wherefore the Sextons bound Apollonius with fetters to secure the Treasury but about midnight he set himself free and calling the guards by their names that they might not think he would steal away privately he went to the door of the Temple which as I said opened of it self and when he had entred in shut of it self again Whereupon were heard voices from Heaven as it were of young girles singing melodiously and chanting forth a Stanza to this sense Come from the Earth come leap hither up to Heaven mount from the earth on high 4. But concerning this History of his leaving of the World two things are observable First that Philostratus does invalidate his Narration by varying the story so much as he does For he professing that he made it his business to enquire of this matter travailing most part of the habitable world for his better satisfaction and not determining which of these three reports is the truest it is a sign that he was not ascertained of the truth of any of them but that his end may be such as I at first intimated 5. But suppose the last and most glorious of these Three stories was the truest yet Apollonius his credit is much obscured by parting thus in the night though we allow him a moon-shine
utmost of that Light which was in those two grand Boasters which compar'd with that in Christ bears not so much proportion as the flame of a stinking Lamp to the glorious lustre of the Sun Insomuch that if they had not been both by themselves and others either equalized to or preferred before our Saviour I should not so much as have vouchsafed to have made any Comparison betwixt them or ever to have mentioned them in my Writings CHAP. IX 1. Mahomet far more orthodox in the main points of Religion then the above-named Impostours 2. The high pitch this pretended Prophet sets himself at His journey to Heaven being waited upon by the Angel Gabriel His Beast Alborach and of his being called to by two Women by the way with the Angels interpretation thereof 3. His arrival at the Temple at Jerusalem and the reverence done to him there by all the Prophets and holy Messengers of God that ever had been in the world 4. The crafty political meaning of the Vision hitherto 5. Mahomet bearing himself upon the Angel Gabriel's hand climbes up to Heaven on a Ladder of Divine light His passing through Seven Heavens and his commending of himself to Christ in the Seventh 6. His salutation of his Creatour with the stupendious circumstances thereof 7. Five special favours he received from God at that congress 8. Of the natural wilyness in Enthusiasts and of their subtile pride where they would seem most humble The strange advantage of Enthusiasme with the rude multitude 9. And the wonderfull success thereof in Mahomet Other Enthusiasts as proud as Mahomet but not so successfull and why 1. THE Third pretended Prophet and Head of the Nations is Mahomet who though he haply be not so moralized a man or at least not so cautious as these Two we last spoke of but more openly entangled in the pleasures of the Flesh if he be not belied then these two Sadducees were and more able to enjoy himself in those pleasures yet be it luck or choice or mere policy he seems more orthodox in the grand points of Religion then they he holding not only the Existence of a God and of Angels and Spirits but also the Immortality of the Soul and a solemn Judgment to come wherein every man shall receive according to what he has done in the flesh whether it be good or evil 2. The Success of this pretender has been so wonderfully great in the world that I think it not amiss to make somewhat a longer stay upon him then upon the two former We shall therefore take notice what pitch he sets himself at and after endeavour to level him and reduce him to his due place If we will then believe his own testimony we shall find him so much favoured by God and the Heavenly Powers as to be carried up into the highest Heavens at least by Vision But he tells the story of himself as if it was a real transaction viz. That once about midnight the Angel Gabriel knocked at his door and told him that he should travail up to Heaven for God Almighty would speak with him That the Angel brought along with him a milkùwhite Beast called Alborach something bigger then an Ass but less then a Mule which the Angel bad Mahomet get upon but the Beast kicking and refusing his Rider the Angel asked him why he did so for he never did nor ever could receive upon his back a better man then Mahomet But Alborach answered he would not admit him unless he would promise to procure him an entrance into Paradise which Mahomet promising he got up and the Angel led the Beast by the rains of the bridle till they were come to Ierusalem Now as they were in their way upon their journey Mahomet heard the voice of a certain woman crying to him aloud Mahomet Mahomet but the Angel forbad him to answer and when they had gone further another woman called him after the same manner but the Angel commanded him to hold his peace And that afterward he asked the Angel what these women were to which the Angel replied that the First was the Promulgatress of the Iewish the Second of the Christian law and that if he had answered to the first woman all the Mauri had become Iews if to the second Christians 3. When they had come to the gate of the Temple at Ierusalem that Mahomet lighted off from his beast Alborach and that he and the Angel went into the Temple where all the Prophets and Messengers of God that ever came into the world met him and saluted him saying Ioy to the Messenger and honourable Prophet of God Afterwards waiting on him in great pomp to the Chappell Mihrab with much reverence they desired him that he would pray for them all which when he had done they besought him also that he would be mindfull of them when he came into the presence of God This done they all went away and Mahomet and the Angel were left alone in the Temple 4. By which crafty figment Mahomet assuredly meant nothing else but a justification of himself for beginning a Third Sect distinct from the Religions of Iews and Christians and the recommendation of himself to the World as the greatest Prophet that ever yet appeared on earth But we are not come to the height of the Vision yet 5. The Angel and Mahomet afterwards coming out of the Temple found a Ladder made of Divine light which reached from Earth to Heaven whereby they both Mahomet bearing himself upon the Angels hand ascended up thither passing through seven Heavens The first of pure Silver where Adam was the second of Gold where Noah the third of a certain precious Gemme wherein was Abraham the fourth of Smaragdus wherein Ioseph the fifth of Adamant wherein Moses the sixth of Carbuncle wherein Iohn the Baptist was found and the seventh of Celestial light wherein was Iesus Christ. All these venerable personages welcomed Mahomet with loving salutations and kind embraces and commended themselves to him but in the seventh Heaven Mahomet seems to commend himself to Christ. The infinite numbers monstrous figures and immense bignesse of Angels that he sets off his Vision by for the greater astonishment of his Followers I thought good to omit as being too vile and tedious and he is not got to his journies end yet 6. The Angel Gabriel takes leave of him in this seventh heaven telling him he may goe no further with him but that God alone now must be his guide Mahomet therefore holding on his journie was carried on the tops of incredible heights and sublimities wading through much water and deep snow insomuch that he had been quite spent had not a voice refreshed him saying Mahomet come hither and salute thy Creatour He following therefore the sound of this voice saw so great a Light that he was almost blinded therewith For the Face of God was cover'd with veiles of Celestial light seventy miles thick to which he approached within the space
God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again untill the thousand years were finished This is the First Resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years There was never any Book penned with that artifice as this of the Apocalypse as if every word were weighed in a balance before it was set down which is manifest out of other places as well as this In which I conceive a double design is aimed at a prediction of a proper Resurrection of the Witnesses to the Truth by their deaths and of a Political Resurrection to the true and Apostolical Church that does survive upon Earth The former are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter those that worshipped not the Beast c. which if they were not distinct from the other it had been better to have omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore this is the first intimation that there are two Orders of men there set down The one that suffered death for the cause of the Gospel The other that are still alive but resolute Opposers of the Beast But there is also a second hint in the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They lived and reigned The Spirit of God seems on set purpose to make choice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might not bear too hard toward the sense of a literal Resurrection and so urge the Reader too forcibly to understand both these Orders above distinguished to be Candidates of a real and literal Resurrection at this time And therefore he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in reference to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will naturally implie a literal Resurrection and in reference to the other no literal Resurrection they being not supposed naturally dead but merely a living upon Earth and reigning there with Christ which is their Moral and Political Life and Resurrection The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall reign with Christ in Heaven and those other with Christ on Earth he being universal Prince over both Churches and therefore neither Heaven nor Earth is here mentioned that the sense may be accommodated to either the reigning with Christ in Heaven or in Earth according to the distinct capacities of the persons And the like caution is used in the prefiguration of the time of which there is no necessity to conceit that it signifies just a thousand years literally but that it signifies at least a thousand years and certainly not more then there are daies in that thousand nor in likelihood near so many But the signification is rather Symbolical as the ten daies are chap. 2. v. 10. And ye shall have the tribulation of ten daies that is the utmost extent of tribulation beyond which there is nothing further as there is no number beyond Ten by which therefore must be meant death And that is the reason why presently is added Be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life So this thousand years upon earth is a symbol of the Churches stable duration to the end of the world that there shall no Politie flourish beyond it it being a Cube whose root is Ten. And the application of it to the reigning of the children of the Resurrection with Christ in heaven discovers the unshaken stability and endless duration of that celestial Kingdome also beyond which absolutely there is nothing at all But the rest of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lived not again The using of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has plainly respect to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and intimates that their Resurrection was real and literal to which others should not attain till after the Thousand years upon earth After which it is plainly said that there is a general Resurrection and that all the dead do rise ver 12 13 14. Wherefore this general Resurrection being literal and real it is too too harsh and violent to understand this First Resurrection mentioned in this fifth verse to be only Figurative and Mystical But understanding it literally that which follows has a wonderfull natural and easie sense Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first Resurrection which he speaks thus in the singular number one would think on purpose to keep men off from conceiting he means it of the successive body of the Church during the thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these the second death has no power namely The lake of fire ver 14. into which Hades or the whole region of mortality is cast the Earth being all on fire But blessed are those that have part in the First Resurrection for they are sped already safe having obtained those celestial bodies that do certainly exempt them from this Fate For these and all such as God shall afterward make partakers of this blessed kind of Resurrection are naturally free from the reach of the second death But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for sureness and for distinction sake simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They shall be holy sacred and divine persons and live with Christ in his immutable and everlasting Kingdome in Heaven for ever and ever This I conceive to be the most easie and natural sense of this place and that the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth and of his holy Martyrs is a very rash and groundless and unsafe conceit fit for nothing but heat and tumult both of phansie and action Nor do I think it necessary that the Sons of this first Resurrection should at all appear to us their celestial bodies into which they are vivificated being naturally invisible and therefore a kind of miracle for us to see them and no more necessary then the exhibiting those Souls to view which Christ carried to Heaven in triumph after his Resurrection which yet he did not exhibit to the sight of the world And if he doe here I can imagine no better end then that of Mr. Mede's that it may be for a sign or beckening to the Jews to help on their Conversion but I can affirm nothing of these things Only I am well assured that if Christendome were once well purged of all her Idolatries foolish and contradictious opinions and wicked practices it would be a very great Miracle if the Jews could be kept off from being converted 7. Wherefore in brief to conclude seeing the truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms as far as respects this present subject is
also of the worth and value and of the fitness and accommodateness of so ample a Reward 3. For Philosophy herself can witness That according to the greater purity of our Spirits the Motions and Passions of our Minds are changed and become more holy and divine our Thoughts and Apprehensions more clear our Love to God more ardent and sincere our Benignity to men more free and general and all the Faculties of our Soul in a ready posture to comply with the best commands or suggestions of Reason or Religion Of what infinite importance therefore must it be to have such a Body as is not only perpetually thus compliable with the Best motions of the Soul but by virtue of its Heavenly purity does naturally encline the Mind to such Thoughts Motions and Affections as are most acceptable to God and most enravishing to her self Which consideration does evidently demonstrate that high Reason that is in our Religion in the Promise of a glorified Body as the greatest Reward of our earnest colluctations and obedient endeavours in this life For nothing but Divine Inspiration or some infallible Method of Philosophy could discover to the Mind of man so concerning a Point 4. But to doubt whether Christ can cloath us with such Bodies as those or enliven our whole man in whatsoever bodies we be found into that Immortality and Life which accrues to us by transforming our vile bodies into the similitude of his glorious Bodie is either to forget or not to believe what mighty power he had when he was here upon earth how merely by his word he calmed the raging of the seas silenced the tempestuousness of the windes multiplied a few loaves and a few fishes so in the very eating of them that he fed many thousands therewith in the wilderness which was an eminent specimen of his power of transforming Matter into what modification he pleased besides his healing of the sick not only those that were present and believed on him but also the absent to which you may add the raising of the dead which comes nearer to our purpose as also the Resurrection of those that rose with him to signifie his enlivening power who himself so miraculously rose from the Grave 5. By which wonderfull works he did plainly demonstrate That what he professed of himself was true That as the Father has life in himself so he has also given the Son to have life in himself that is the power of vivification or enlivening of others as you may see by the context John 5. v. 26. And not only so but he has given him also the power of punishing as well as rewarding as it follows in the next verse And he hath given him authority to execute judgement because he is the Son of man viz. That Son of man that upon his sufferings and after his being risen from the dead should have all power given to him in Heaven and in Earth Which we may easily believe whenas he had so vast a power in the lowest ebbe of his Humiliation when he went up and down afflicted despised and neglected being attended only by a few contemptible fisher-men and others of like inferiour condition and yet then he opened the eyes of them that were born blind and at a distance healed the sick and being unaccompanied with any visible pomp or power with one word of his mouth drove away a Legion of Devils at once What shall he not then be able to doe when he shall return in the highest Glory and Majesty that the visible Divinity can appear in when the Heavens shall be filled with the brightness of his Camp and all the Nations of the World shall be astonished at the dreadfull splendour of his coming 6. Shall not he then who in his dejectment could raise to life not only a faithless but senseless corps enliven those that at his glorious Appearance are so filled with Faith Love Joy Desire and Admiration that their empassioned Souls are ready to leave their Bodies if it were possible to come and doe their homage to their long-expected Saviour and Redeemer Shall not that Divine and Omnipotent Power then that worketh round about him so cooperate with those kindled Affections as to change their very Bodies into an ability of naturally ascending up to him and joining with him Or is it hard for him to convert Flesh or Air into a pure Aethereal Fire to awake such a Facultie in the Soul as shall kindly and vitally inactuate it who turned Air into Flesh and prepared the dead carcase of Lazarus so fittingly for reunion with the Soul that he raised him out of the Grave on the fourth day Wherefore this Resurrection Life and Immortality we speak of being neither impossible for Christ to give nor our nature uncapable to receive it remains that we shall enjoy it because Christ both himself and by his Apostles has so plainly and expresly promised it CHAP. VII 1. Caecilius his scoffs against the Resurrection and Conflagration of the World That against the Resurrection answered already 2. In what sense the soberer Christians understood the Conflagration of the World 3. That the Conflagration in their sense is possible argued from the Combustibleness of the parts of the Earth 4. As also from actual Fire found in several Mountains as Aetna Helga and Hecla 5. Several instances of that sort out of Plinie 6. Instances of Vulcanoes out of Acosta 7. The Vulcanoes of Guatimalla 8. Vulcanoes without smoak having a quick fire at the bottome 9. Vulcanoes that have cast fire and smoak some thousand of years together 10. Hot Fountains Springs running with Pitch and Rosin certain Thermae catching fire at a distance 1. THe Third thing we propounded comprized in Christ's Return to Judgment is the Conflagration of the world a Point as incredible to most of the Heathen as the Resurrection of the dead and the comparing of them both together made it the more ridiculously-incredible to them as you may see by that Jear that Caecilius gives the Christians in Minucius Felix Quid quod toti Orbi ipsi Mundo cum sideribus suis minantur incendium ruinam moliuntur quasi aut Naturae divinis legibus constitutus aeternus ordo turbetur aut rupto omnium elementorum foedere coelesti compage divisâ moles ista quâ continemur cingimur subruatur Nec hâc furiosâ opinione contenti aniles fabulas astruunt annectunt Renasci se ferunt post Mortem Cineres Favillas Nescio quâ fiduciâ mendaciis suis invicem credunt Putes eos jam revixisse Anceps malum gemina dementia Coelo astris quae sic relinquimus ut invenimus interitum denunciare sibi mortuis extinctis qui sicut nascimur interimus aeternitatem repromittere To which you may add how they menace burning and meditate ruine to the whole Earth and to the Heaven it self with the Stars thereof as if the Eternal Order constituted by the divine
Vengeance shall make use of those Treasuries of Wrath. 10. We might adde further Arguments of Subterraneous fires and the fewel thereof from Earthquakes and hot fountains of which there are some in Peru as the same Writer reports that are so hot that a man cannot endure his hand so long as the repeating of an Ave-Marie There be infinite numbers of these in the Province of Charcas He makes mention also in the same place of several Springs and Fountains that run with Pitch and Rosin Which yet seems nothing so strange as those Thermae Fallopius speaks of in the Territories of Parma whose Water catches fire at a distance and as for hot Fountains they are more ordinary in these known parts of the world then that we need at all insist thereupon See Plin. lib. 2. cap. 103. CHAP. VIII 1. A fiery Comet as big as the Sun that appeared after the death of Demetrius Comets presages of Droughts Woods set on fire after their appearing 2. Of falling Starres Of the tail of a Comet that dried up a River 3. Hogsheads of Wine drunk up and men dissipated into Atoms by Thunder 4. That the fire of Thunder is sometimes unquenchable as that in Macrinus the Emperours time and that procured by the Praiers of the Thundring Legion 5. Of conglaciating Thunders and the transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt 6. The destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven That universal Deluges and Earthquakes doe argue the probability of a Deluge of Fire 7. That Plinie counts it the greatest wonder that this Deluge of fire has not hapned already 1. WE have seen how well stored the Earth is toward this general Conflagration let us now consider what the Heaven or Aire may afford Where letting go other Fiery Meteors we shall only consider some few instances of Comets falling Starres and of Thunder By Comets I understand onely such new Starres as are Sublunary and of combustible matter actually set on fire Of which sort there was one of so huge a magnitude which appeared after the death of Demetrius that it was found no less then the Sun to see to and with the brightness of its fiery shining turned Night into Day But to speak more at large of this Meteor Cardan and other Philosophers would have them either Signes or Causes of great Droughts and they may well be both these sublunary especially such great fiery bodies not being easily fed without wasting much of the kindly moisture of the Aire which makes the season also unwholesome and pestilential But for Droughts it has been observed that after the appearing of these Comets the year has been so excessive hot that it has parched the Corn upon the ground set whole Woods on fire and dried Fountains and Rivers as it hapned in the years 1477 and 1539. 2. The Stellae cadentes are either such as Virgil describes in his Georgicks Saepe etiam stellas vento impendente videbis Praecipites coelo labi noctisque per umbram Flammarum longos à tergo albescere tractus Oft mayst thou see upon approaching wind Starres slide from Heaven and through the Night 's great shade Long tracts of flaming white to draw behind Which Meteors though they make a great show in the Night yet doe not ordinarily much hurt unless they should light upon the fields of Aricia whose Earth was so combustible that it would take fire upon the falling of any coal Or else they are such kind of Comets as themselves become sometimes falling Starres Which Scaliger affirms to have been found true in his time and Fromondus out of Sennertus writes that the Tail of a Comet in the year 1543 flew off and falling into a River drunk up all the water of it 3. But the Effects of no fiery Meteor are so frequent or so terrible as that of Thunder To which sulfureous Exhalations out of the Earth contribute something as well as moist Vapors for the generating of Rain As is discovered by the great frequency of Thunders about the Vulcanoes we spoke of One notable Effect which Plinie takes notice of is like that of the Tail of the Comet For he saith there is one kind of Thunder quo dolia exhauriuntur intactis operimentis Like to this is that which the above-named Writer recites out of Wolfangus Meurerus that a certain Minister as he was going from Lipsia to Torga was so consumed by Thunder that not a bit of him was to be seen his whole body being dissolved into Vapour and Exhalations and blown away with the wind The closest texture of bodies will not hold when this quick searching Fire assaults them For this Meteor is made of such subtile glib and furiously-agitated elements that they will irresistibly pass whereever they attempt and disjoyn every congeries of Atoms as Lucretius has well described them Quae facile insinuantur insinuata repentè Dissolvunt nodos omnes vincla relaxant Which easily pierce and piercing straightway loose All knots and suddenly break every noose 4. But that is as remarkable as any thing concerning Thunder that the fire thereof is sometimes unextinguishable as it hapned in Macrinus the Emperours time when the Theatre was Thunder-struck in the very day they celebrated their Vulcanalia And such was that fire that fell from Heaven in Aurelius his time by the prayers of a Legion of the Christians which from this effect was called Legio Fulminatrix the Thundring Legion A competent shower of such fire as this that is thus peremptory and importunate what part of the earth is so incombustible that it would not subdue 5. I would not mention that strange and unexpected effect of Thunder whereby it conglaciates or makes rigid fluid or soft bodies which both Seneca and Cardan takes notice of The one gives an instance of hogsheads of wine turned into ice by Thunder the other of certain mowers in the Iland Lemnos who being thunder-struck as they were supping under an Oake their bodies became so hard rigid and stiff as if they had been so many Statues which imitated the same actions they were doing when they were alive one seeming to eate the other seeming to lift a pot to his mouth a third to drink c. I say I would not mention this did it not give some light and credibility to that wonderfull Transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt the thundring and lightning that then fell some of it it seems being attempered to such an effect and directed to strike that refractory woman that she might be not onely a monument of God's wrath upon disobedient curiosities but also of the manner of his executing that signal vengeance upon Sodom and Gomorrha with the neighbouring Cities viz. That it was with thunder and lightning from above as the Text witnesseth and Solinus and Tacitus also agree to and not onely by subterraneous fire breaking forth and the absorption of Earthquakes that swallowed down the Cities as Strabo seems to insinuate 6.
This destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven assented to by Heathens as well as Christians is so ample a pledge of the possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth that though I could out of Plinie and others adde other such like instances of Cities being burnt down with Thunder yet I shall content my self with this so notable an example And having shewn that there are such copious and rich treasures of the fiery Principle in Nature I shall make this brief demand Why may not this Principle sometime so break out and overflow that there may be an universal rage of Fire upon Earth as well as there was once of Water For the hidden causes and principles of Nature sometimes work scantly sometimes moderately sometimes as if they had broke all laws and bounds as is observable in Torrents and Earthquakes they sometimes being kept within the compass of a very few miles othersometimes being in a manner universal as those Earthquakes were that hapned in the years 367 and 1289. So flouds sometimes are so small that they scarce cover a whole Meadow othersometimes so great that they drown whole Towns and othersometimes they are either so large as to be universal or at least to cover vast Kingdomes and Continents at once Such were the Deluges of Deucalion of Ogyges and that of Noah So likewise we see also in History what particular executions the Element of Fire either by fulgurations from Heaven or eruptions out of the Earth has done on this House on that Town nay upon whole Countries why may not the rage of it then at last so break out that it may be called even a general Deluge of fire 7. This seems so farre from an Impossibility to Plinie that considering how full fraught the World is with this Element and how propagative it is of it self he saith it is the greatest Miracle of all that this universal Conflagration has not already hapned Excedit profectò omnia miracula ullum diem fuisse quo non cuncta conflagrarent CHAP. IX 1 The Conflagration argued from the Proneness of Nature and the transcendent power of Christ. 2. His driving down the Powers of Satan from their upper Magazine 3. The surpassing power and skil of his Angelical Hosts 4. The efficacy of his Fiat upon the Spirit of Nature 5. The unspeakable corroboration of his Soul by its Union with the Godhead and the manner of operation upon the Elements of the World 6. That the Eye of God is ever upon the Earth and that he may be an Actour as well as a Speculatour if duly called upon 7 8. A short Description of the firing of the Earth by Christ with the dreadful effects thereof 1. THat therefore which Nature seems thus perpetually to threaten of her self can it be hard for us to believe that Christ and his glorious Host of Angels who have a power above Nature will be able to effect when it shall seem good to him whom God has made visible Judge of the World Remember what command he had over the Elements when he was in the Flesh in the lowest state of Humiliation and what power he had over them that for so long time have been permitted to lord it in this grosser Elementary World whose Chieftain is called the Prince of the Aire Remember how by a word of his mouth he sent packing a whole Legion of his Kingdome at once What is it then that he cannot do in His exalted estate when he returns to Judgement in so exceeding great Majesty and Glory when he shall descend with the sound of the Trump and face the Earth with his bright squadrons and fill the whole Arch of Heaven with innumerable Legions of his Angels of Light the warm gleames of whose presence is able to make the Mountains to reek and smoak and to awake that fiery principle that lies dormient in the Earth into a devouring flame 2. But besides this By descending thus low they drive the old Usurper and his dark Legions from that upper Magazine and now can turn his Artillery against himself and make use of all the provision fit for Fire-Works For this is the time that Diphilus the Tragedian prophesies of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense The time will come when as the golden Sky His hidden fiery treasures shall let fly And raging flames burn up all and consume Filling both Earth and Aire with noisome Fume And if there were not here already matter enough to contrive into the most mischievous kind of fiery Meteors such as will be sure to do execution yet that Word that created all things can easily change so much of any Matter into such a modification as will most effectually serve for this heavy Vengeance 3. But I make no question but that there are Second causes on this side that Omnipotent Creative power of the Godhead that are sufficient for such ministries of Providence as this As truly those innumerable bright Legions of Angels may seem to be whose Skill and power of Imagination upon the Elements of Nature is certainly transcendently above what we can conceive their Faculties at least some of them as farr surpassing ours as ours do those of brute beasts who have not the least conceit of our power and artifice in doing things 4. What power think you then is in the Head of these Heavenly hosts Christ Iesus who in the flesh as I have often noted shewed such mighty specimens thereof over the Elements of the world The mere Fiat therefore of his Imagination and Will acting upon the Spirit of Nature whether nearer hand or farther of cannot but prove sufficient if he so please to undoe that universal coalition of particles out of which arises the Compages and consistence of every earthly Substance and to turn them into such a flame as some would have the whole Earth anciently to have been or so to moderate the action and fire it so deep and with such a qualification of parts as shall be most sutable to his present and after-design 5. This Effect will not seem beyond that inherent power in the Divine Soul of Iesus if we consider its unspeakable corroboration by his mysterious union with the Godhead and the obedience of the Spirit of Nature to the exalted powers of the Soul and the power of this Spirit upon the subtil matter of the World and the force of that subtile Matter to disjoyn all coalescencies and then the promptness of these dissolved particles to close again unto such a forme as the regulated activity of the Spirit of Nature shall command them into For all this is but an higher and diviner kind of Magick working by the excitation of the Spirit of Nature upon the changeable Elements of the world no Creation nor Annihilation of any thing 6. So that keeping our selves on this side the naked Deity to the consideration
of Second causes partly Natural partly free Agents amongst whom the highly-exalted and supereminently-divine Soul of Iesus is the chief we discover a power able to effect more then we have declared concerning the Conflagration of the Earth And when this will suffice how over-evidently are we assured of the feisableness of this Atchievement from what S. Peter has suggested concerning the absolute power of the Word of God by whom all things are and who is a perpetual Spectatour of his Works For the spirit of the Lord filleth the world as the Wise man speaks and that which containeth all things has knowledge of the voice And it is as true that all things lye open to his sight and that the Earth is alwayes under the present eye of God Wherefore he that perpetually looks on is it hard to conceive that at last at some solemn period of time he may in a special manner step out into action if need so require and he be invoked thereunto 7. Wherefore the Faithful being gathered from all the corners of the Earth and carried up to Christ their Saviour and joyning with his Legions of Light there being then left in the Earth and in the inferiour Parts of the Aire none but obdurate Adherents to the dark Kingdome which shall now be made more externally dark then ever black pitchy clouds covering the whole face of the Sky and making Night fall upon the Inhabitants of the World even at mid-day in the midst of this sad silent and louring aspect of the Heavens He that in the flesh was heard and answered by Thunder when he prayed saying Father glorifie thy name shall by the same interest in the Eternall God cause such an universal Thunder and Lightning that it shall rattle over all the quarters of the Earth rain down burning Comets and falling Starres and discharge such claps of unextinguishable fire that it will do sure execution whereever it falls so that the ground being excessively heated those subterraneous Mines of combustible Matter will also take fire which inflaming the inward exhalations of the Earth will cause a terrible murmur under ground so that the Earth will seem to thunder against the tearing and ratling of the Heavens and all will be filled with sad remugient Echoes Earthquakes and Eruptions of fire there will be every where and whole Cities and Countries swallowed down by the vast gapings and wide divulsions of the ground Nor shall the Sea be able to save the Earth from this universal Conflagration no more then the Fire could preserve her from that overspreading Deluge for this fiery Vengeance shall be so thirsty that it shall drink deep of the very Sea nor shall the water quench her devouring appetite but excite it For such is the nature of some Fires as history every where testifieth 8. Wherefore the great channel of the Sea shall be left dry and all Rivers shall be turned into smoak and vapour so that the whole Earth shall be inveloped in one entire cloud of an unspeakable thickness which shall cause more then an Aegyptian darkness clammy and palpable to be felt which added to this choaking heat and stench will compleat this External Hell a place of Torment appointed not onely for the prophane Atheist and Hypocrite but also for the Devil and his Angels where their pain will be proportionated according to the untamedness of their Spirits and unevenness of their perverse Consciences CHAP. X. 1. The main Fallacies that cause in men the Misbelief of the Possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth 2. That the Conflagration is not only possible but reasonable The first Reason leading to the belief thereof 3. The second Reason the natural decay of all particular structures and that the Earth is such and that it grows dry and looses of its solidity whence its approach to the Sun grows nearer 4. That the Earth therefore will be burnt either according to the course of Nature or by a special appointment of Providence 5. That it is most reasonable that Second way should take place because of the obdurateness of the Atheistical crew 6. That the Vengeance will be still more significant if it be inflicted after the miraculous Deliverance of the Faithful 1. I Hope by this time we have prevailed so far as to perswade the Possibility of the Conflagration of the World in that sense we have explained it And truly I know nothing that should keep a man from assenting to it as possible but that dull Fallacie whereby we conclude That nothing can be done but what we have seen done or phansie we could doe our selves And this is the reason that makes the Atheist misbelieve Creation because he himself can make nothing but out of prejacent Matter and a settled course of things causes so deep an impression in our Senses that we can hardly phansie they will ever alter Which makes some men never think of Death especially if they have never been sick a flattering impossibility by reason of so long continuance of life stealing into their hopes as if they should never die And therefore that great Monarch was fain to have one to rub up his memory every day with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember that thou art mortal Well may we phansie then such unalterable Laws of Nature as shall secure the Earth from such a destruction as we speak of when we are led unawares into so favourable a conceit of our own life or fortune after we have for a competent time been well settled in either as not at all to think of the mutability of our condition Wherefore I hope any one that is aware of this ordinary Fallacie will easily recover himself into so much use of his Reason as not to conclude the Conflagration of the Earth impossible because he knows not how to burn it himself or that it will alwaies continue unburnt because it has been unburnt thus long 2. But that which I drive at is to shew that the belief of a Christian is not only of things possible but reasonable which I have in some sort made good already by discovering the manifold treasures of the fiery and combustible principles in Heaven and Earth to which I add further First That Providence ordering all particular corporeal things by number weight and measure it is reasonable that the continuance of this present stage of things be numbred that is have its number of years set so that there be a full pause or Period a last Exiit and Plaudite to this Tragick Comedie 3. Secondly Whatever particular corporeal structure has a Beginning unless it be a Body inacted with a glorified Spirit will also have an End naturally of it self and that which will have an End is subject to decaying And for my own part I question not but that the Earth is of such a nature and that it waxes old by degrees will grow more more dry steril in succession of Ages whereby it
to so great a piece of Folly as to fansy this mistaken Wight so Sacred and Divine a person as to be prophesied of in the Holy Scriptures But the places that are alledged are so weakly and ineptly applied that it is a further confirmation of their being strangely hood-winked and held down with an over-bearing effascination and witchcraft For how vain a thing is it to make this Man that Angel that preached the Everlasting Gospel whenas that Angelical Preachment was at least seven or eight hundred years before he lived according to all those Interpreters that have endeavoured to give a solid and coherent account of S. Iohn's Prophecy But this is more then I need attempt or it may be can be done to confute this assertion by Chronological demonstration It is sufficient to note that it is groundless a mere phansy unbacked by Reason and Argument whenas on the contrary there is evident Reason against it This person whom they so much adore being rather a Decryer of the Everlasting Gospel then a Preacher of it as shall appear in due time 2. The Second conceit of his being prophesied of in Scripture is fixt upon that of S. John 1. verse 21. where they would have him to be That Prophet viz. an eminent Prophet distinct from Elias and Christ. But it is very discernable how weak an Alledgement this is For first if there were such an eminent Prophet expected distinct from Elias and Christ it does not follow it is he And then again this expectation of the Jewes is no Divine Testimony And thirdly as some Interpreters have noted they expected him before the coming of Elias as Elias before the coming of Christ. Others understood by That Prophet the Prophet Ieremie who is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Prophet of God And lastly amongst the rest that excellent Critick and pious Interpreter Castellio renders it simply a prophet the sense being At least art thou a Prophet See Castellio upon the place So many weaknings are there of this groundless Fiction of his being prophesied of in this place of Scripture 3. But I shall produce a Third place and that of his own chusing Acts 17. where God is said to have appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead This shameless Enthusiast does not stick to apply to himself this place as if he were the man prophesied of therein Whenas it is manifest it is meant of the Person of Christ whom God had corporeally raised from the Grave as a palpable Pledge and Assurance that the World should be judged by him according to the Scriptures Math. 25.31 But supposing the meaning to be that which this fanatick Boaster would have it see what sense it will make with the preceding verse which would be this That God now commands all men every where to repent namely because 1500 years hence he will raise up H. Nicolas from the dead in a moral sense who shall judge the world by his doctrine What Bedlam Madness is this to vent such Expositions of the Holy Writ upon pretence of higher Inspiration then ever was yet in the World The Apostle's exhortation would be as wild sense as if one should earnestly cry unto the people walking in Paul's to run out of the Church as fast as they can because it is ready one thousand five hundred years hence to fall down upon their heads 4. That I may not omit any places that they alledge I will adde also 1 Cor. 13. v. 9 10. For we know in part and we prophesy in part But when that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away And Hebr. 6. v. 1 2. Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead works and of Faith toward God of the doctrine of Baptisme laying on of hands and of the Resurrection of the dead and of the Eternal judgement From these two places they are wont to gather that the Doctrine of Christ is imperfect and a more perfect Doctrine was to come which is say they the Doctrine of Hen. Nicolas Which argument is as weak and frivolous as blasphemous For it is plain that in the former place he compares not any Doctrine to be set on foot on earth with the present Doctrine of Christ and knowledge of the Apostles but the condition of the knowledge of the Christian Church in this life with that which she shall have in Heaven and therefore he saith Now I know in part but then I shall know even as I am known What does S. Paul mean that he shall know nothing clear till H. Nicolas his time O the madness and impudence of these giddy Interpreters And to the latter Text What would they have us to let go our Christian Creed under pretence of a new Doctrine which is more perfect Yea certainly they would so as will appear more plainly anon But how shamefully they abuse this Scripture to that execrable end is evident from the following verse And this will we do if God permit That is The Apostle himself will deliver that doctrine of Perfection he mentions in the first verse and therefore it is no Prophecy of the Doctrine of H. Nicolas but a more exquisite Declaration of the excellency of Christs Priesthood which is too long and too accurate to fill a short Creed But what pittiful shifts are these deluded Fanaticks put to when they have no better Alledgements then these for their rebellious Errours against Christ 5. I shall conclude my examination of their grounds of believing this Fanatick so great and eminent a Prophet with something a more trim conceit of his followers whereby they would countenance their high opinion they have of him which is hinted also from himself namely That the Series of Times and Providence seem to give witness to the mighty Professions he makes of his own Ministry For as there was for a time a Service of the Law under God the Father and then a Service of the Belief under Christ the Son so likewise the Holy Ghost must have his turn and have his Service and what Service can that be but the Service of the Love To which I answer That if they speak this in good earnest in reference to the three Hypostases of the ever-Blessed Trinity it is plain that that Mystery was not communicated to the World under the Law of Moses but concealed in the hidden Cabbala among the Wise men and Prophets not to be published till Christ for the better clearing and fitter recommending the Theory of his Union with the Eternal Word With the appearance therefore of Christ with whom all the fulness of Divine Wisdome was to be imparted to men a distincter knowledge of the Deity and clearer assurance of
the holy place every year with bloud of others For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the World But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgement So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation To which you may adde that of Peter For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God And 1 John 2.1 If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is a propitiation for our sins And if he was so in S. Iohn's time why not alwaies Furthermore Romans 5.6 For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly He saies not by the ungodly but for the ungodly which therefore cannot be allegorized but into Nonsense Like that verse 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Is any one reconciled by killing the Holy Life the Mystical Christ in him Wherefore it is plain that in S. Paul's time the Humane Person of Christ was the high Priest who was an Atonement with God by the sacrifice of himself And God has not declared any where that he has or ever will put him out of his Office till his coming again to Iudgement when he shall appear the second time without sin unto Salvation as you heard out of the Author to the Hebrews that is When he shall not bring his sin-offering with him viz. an earthly mortal body capable of Crucifixion but shall appear as a glorious Judge to complete Salvation to all them that truely believe in him and expect his joyful coming at what time he shall finish the Redemption of our Bodies and translate us to his everlasting Kingdome in Heaven 2. And that this Office of a Iudge is assured to his Humane person is plain from what we recited out of the Acts namely That God has given assurance to all men that he will judge the world by the man Jesus in that he has raised him so miraculously from the dead Which is that very Son of man that shall appear on his throne accompanied with his Angels Matth. 25. And assuredly none will deny but that he who sitteth at the right hand of God will come thence to judge the quick and the dead But it is this crucified Iesus that for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God Hebr. 12.2 To which truth S. Peter also witnesseth in the Acts. Where that very Iesus whom the Jews delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate is said to be received into Heaven until the time of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets since the World began This implies that at the utmost fulfilling of the Periods of time he will again appear and finish the Mysterie of Righteousness and perfect Salvation to his people at the last according as he has promised John 6. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day Which certainly is to be understood of his Humane person forasmuch as for that very cause he has made him Judge of Life and Death as appears Chap. 5. ver 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so likewise he hath given to the Son to have life in himself and hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man Now when he saith No man can come to me except the Father draw him it is manifest that by the Father is meant the Eternal hidden Deity whose workings and preparations within every mans Soul fit him to join with Christ's humane person the visible Head of the Church of God otherwise if by Christ were here understood the Eternal Word it would not be good sense For that is that which draws not the thing drawn to in this place Again whereas he saies He will raise him up at the last day it is evident that it is not morally or mystically to be understood but literally otherwise it could not be defer'd till the last day but should be done in this Life Nor can it be understood of the day of the service of the Love For then the sense would be That they that believed on Christ some sixteen hundred years agoe should become Familists now or rather some others for them which Promises are insipid and ridiculous Wherefore it is this Son of man to whom God hath also given power to execute judgment And the very same certainly is he that is represented on the great white Throne from whose face the Earth and Heaven fled away Rev. 20. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the Bookes were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in those Books according to their works And the Sea gave up the dead which were in it and Death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire Hell i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here the Region of the dead and the whole frame and phrase of the matter here contain'd doth so plainly import that the Judgment is concerning those that are dead whether drowned in the Sea or buried in their Graves or in whatever other circumstances quitted this mortal life that this truth of Christ's visible coming to Judgment cannot be concealed or eluded by any Allegorical fetches whatsoever 3. Nor have our inconsiderate Adversaries any thing to alledge for their rebellious despising of the Humane person of Christ unless two or three grosly-mistaken places of Scripture Such as Hebr. 11. v. 26. where Moses is said to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures in Aegypt and Chap. 13. v. 8. Iesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Out of which passages they phansie to themselves such a Christ only as was as well in Moses's time as now and was ever the same from the beginning of the World and ever will be But they plainly in these Texts raise Mountains of Molehills For the simple and genuine sense of the former is nothing but this That Moses bare such reproaches as Christ and the firm professors of Christ bear which he uses as an argument of Patience to the Hebrews from the example of Moses unless you will interpret the place upon the supposition of Christ being the Prefect of Israel before his
the Love sect 3. and 7. See him also upon the Beatitudes sect 6. And it is no wonder we hear nothing of that Reconciliation made by the Cross of Christ for he does plainly aver sect 34. That the true being in the Love is that peace with God and man mentioned Ephes. 2.14 and the true Testament that standeth fast for ever And Exhortation chap. 12.44 Remission of sins is gained only by submitting to the House of the Love The same that David George boasted of his doctrine Therefore my beloved children change ye not nor turn away your selves from the House of Love For there is in the same the stool of grace to an everlasting remission of sins over all such as cleave thereon and to a peace and rest of the life to all such as humble them there-under By such slips and omissions as these those that are not very dull of perception may easily spel out his meaning Which yet is more clear by other places of his Evangely chap. 13. Where he setleth the Everlasting Priesthood not upon Christ's person but makes this Kingly Priest no person at all but a thing a state or condition of him and his followers here upon earth And therefore he calls there this mystical Christ The Lords Sabbath The seventh day in the Paradise of God The perfection c. And chap. 22. he makes the entrance of Christ into heaven and his visible ascending up thither and sitting at the right hand of God and sending down the holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost which was a real effect of his eternal Priesthood and Intercession with God for his Church nothing but the appearing of him according to the Spirit out of the Heavenly Being in their Minds or Souls upon which he sent down his Spiritual or Heavenly Powers Wherefore this Mystical Christ is the only high Priest that he acknowledgeth and will allow him no otherwise then in this mystical and spiritual sense to be an everlasting and true Christ of God See the place of which you will assure your self I have given the right sense if you compare it with chap. 26. sect 10 11 12. where he more plainly affirms That it is the upright being of the Love Christ after the Spirit which he calls the true light which is that high Priest that abideth for ever at the right hand of God in the Heavenly Being Which phrase Heavenly Being alwaies signifies morally or mystically with him and means something within us And yet he has the impudence to alledge Acts 1. v. 11. where Christ is said to ascend into Heaven literally and naturally so called his disciples gazing upon him as he went up Thus you see how industriously nay how madly and rashly he shuffles out the Humane person of Christ from his Priestly Office every where And as he will have the Heaven or most Holy within us so will he have his Sacrifice and Passion within us too Introduct chap. 8.38 Where doe any now saith he keep the Supper of Christ where they break distribute and eat the bread which is the true Body of Christ to a remembrance of Christ that he hath suffered in us for the sins cause the death of the Cross and so his death is published till he come in his glory Where it is plain that the Crucifixion of Christ is a mystery in us and it is insinuated a duty too For the Body and the Flesh of Christ is Christ according to the History Which Christ according to the Flesh is to be slain in us if we celebrate the Passeover aright and thus we must publish his death till he come in glory that is in the Spirit 4. And truely no other is his glorious coming to judgment with this Sect then this Mystical and Spiritual coming which was the second part I intended to pursue which I question not but I shall make as clear as noon-day Of this there are so many Testimonies and so pregnant that the only fear is of being too copious in the proof of this matter Revel Dei cap. 7. There his illuminate Elders together with his Family of Love are the Heavens in which Christ the Son of God comes gloriously and triumphantly to judgment to reign with God and his righteousness everlasting upon earth Which plainly excludes the ending of the World and that coming of Christ that all Christians expect And chap. 15. sect 6. he affirms that in this Eighth day which is the day of the Spirit of Love all the dead that are deceased in the Lord Iesus Christ do rise from the death and all Generations of Heaven and Earth do become judged in the judgement of God with equity Again in his Introduct Chap. 1. he saith That now the true glorious God who is the Resurrection and the Life revealeth his Saints out of his bosome where since the time they fel asleep they have rested untill this day of the Love because they should now in these last times in the resurrection of the righteous be manifested with Christ in glory to a righteous judgement of God on the earth And chap. 12. he there also affirms That in this day of the Love there appear and come to us livingly and gloriously all God's Saints which in times past died and fell asleep in God And chap. 22. there he also tells us how that in sure and firm hope of everlasting life the upright believers have rested in the Lord Iesus Christ till the appearing of his coming which is now in this day of the Love revealed out of the heavenly Being with which Iesus Christ the former Believers of Christ who were fallen asleep rested or died in him are now also manifested in glory being raised from the dead to the intent that they should reign alive with him over all his enemies To which you may add what he has wrote chap. 16. in his Prophecy of the Spirit of Love Make you to flight make you to flight yea get you now all out of the way ye enemies of the Lord and of his service of the Love and give the Lord with his holy ones the roome yet shall ye not escape the vengeance of God For he saith the Lord cometh to judge betwixt the Family of the Love and the rest of the world where-through the Earth is now moved the Heavens troubled the Elements melt with heat and the token of the coming of the Son of man appears in Heaven with which rumour or rushing noise of the power of God and his holy ones the last trumpet doth also presently give forth her sound through whose blast of her vehement sound and through the appearing of the coming of Christ the dead shall stand up and arise unto the judgement of God who having revenged the bloud of his holy ones that the sinners have spilt and shed upon the earth he puts this pure Family in peaceable Possession thereof that they may reign there-over or judge the same with righteousness from henceforth world without
have vented 4. Who also held That Angels and Devils are onely Good men and Bad men or their Vertues and Vices in whose footsteps this scholar of his Hen. Nicolas treads very carefully as appears from his Revel Dei cap. 14. where he makes the Righteousness the true Spirits or holy Angels As also elsewhere he saith that he that has the seven deadly sins in him is possest of the seven horriblest and destructionablest Devils intimating that the rest of the Vices are Devils also but not so destructionable And he insinuates further in the same place that the Seven Devils cast out of Mary Magdalen were those seven deadly Sins And I am certain that the most knowing of the Family have freely professed that there are no Devils nor Witches nor Angels but those in us Which things being supposed it is necessary either to cast away the Scriptures or else to allegorize them away into a mere moral or mystical sense as these Enthusiasts have done 5. They believing therefore the Existence of neither Angel nor Spirit of necessity they must believe no Immortality of the Soul And that they believe no such thing there is still a further evidence in that he never exhorts any man to Holiness upon that account which yet is he most powerful argument to make men good that can be propounded nor ever makes use of such places of Scripture as imply a blessed Immortality to come after this life in the literal meaning of them His encouraging his followers to comply with any Superstition be it never so uglily idolatrous rather then to expose themselves to danger agrees also well with this Supposition And some have noted that they have alledged this reason for it That the temple of God may not be destroied Whereby they mean their humane persons which they suppose lost irrecoverably in the death of the body And that there may be no doubt at all that this is their opinion I will conclude with a reference to one of his Epistles where he speaks to this very question which he does with so many hacks and hesitations with so much shuffling and doubling and insinuations to the contrary that no rational man can be unsatisfied but that he held it mortal For if he had held it immortal it had been impossible he should have concealed his opinion or intimated any thing to the contrary it being so useful a doctrine for others and so commendable for himself to profess Which obdurate conceit of his made him allegorize away all the Articles of the Creed and so deny the Resurrection of Christ as well as of all others that believe on him and being secure as he thought that he does not now subsist he could not dream of any Christ that could be Head of the Church but that mystical one he insists so much upon the Upright Being of the Love the Perfection of all And verily if there be nothing to come after this life I dare allow him to be as great a Prophet as either himself or his followers desire he should be esteemed 6. He is therefore upon his own Hypothesis very consonant to himself in removing the Humane person of Christ as a thing that has perished one thousand six hundred years ago and in riveting the Godhead into his own person so thwackingly and substantially as that he may give the World to understand that he was as much God as that Christ that died at Ierusalem and that all those that attained to the perfection of the Love were so too that he might abundantly compensate thereby the loss of that one that died upon the Cross having fallen into the hands of merciless sinners This I say is a consistent dream of his and that it is no more but a dream I partly have already and shall still more clearly demonstrate in this present Discourse 7. In the mean time it is very plain that though he sets out himself in such Seraphical language and adorns his own person with such gorgeous Titles as if nothing ever yet appeared in the World so holy and divine yet he is indeed much inferiour to the better sort of Pagans as being nothing more then an Enthusiastick Sadducee or a Fanatick Deist if so much For I wonder what a kind of God he imagins to himself to whom he makes the Senate of Heaven so unmannerly as to use such formes of speech to him as he does Revel Dei cap. 21. Go to then let it even be so O God it is vouchsafed thee that thou shouldest first bring forth a Declaration of thy right But I have no mind to dive any further into this depth of Satan from which I pray God deliver every good Christian CHAP. XVIII 1. The great mischief and danger that accrues to the World from this false Prophet 2. The probable Ferocity of this Sect when time shall serve and eagerness of executing his Bloudy Vision 3. That Familisme is a plot laid by Satan to overthrow Christianity 4. What the face of things in likelyhood would be supposing it had overrun all 5. The Motives that inforced the Authour to make so accurate a Discovery of this Imposture 1. OUT of the Description we have given hitherto we may easily compute the great mischief that accrues to the World from this false Pretender to Revelations whereever his Witchcraft has power to seize the spirit of a man For first That admirable Wisdome of God in the outward frame of Christian Religion as it respects the Person of Christ his endearing Passion his glorious Resurrection and Ascension his comfortable Intercession and his joyful Return to judgement when our Immortality shall be completed in heavenly Glory all this is swept away and therewith our assurance of Eternal Life And besides this that there may be nothing wanting to the perfecting of that monstrous Evil that is hatched in this Family it may prove a Pandora's box to Mankind even in this life if a more benigne Providence do not prevent it For they having as I have told you a full licence from their infallible Prophet to dissemble and aequivocate to comply with any Religion whatever they may multiply hiddenly in great numbers to the hazard of a State or Commonwealth For being taught by their illuminate Elders That there is nothing to be expected after this life it must needs make them hang their lips very longingly after the greatest enjoyments they can of this present World The Possession and Rule whereof their Prophet has promised them with such magnificent words and Enthusiastick Grandiloquence that they cannot but be inflamed into violent attempts upon the first occasion that they shall phansy safe to make use of And what full right do you think will they imagine themselves to have to fly upon all whenas they phansy the Head of their faction to be no less then Christ himself come to judge the World in righteousness 2. Wherefore if some sullen fellow amongst them of a peremptory and imperious Spirit
best have long since before this inveterate contest betwixt the Iew and Christian interpreted them so 5. The sixth Character of his Person is the Excellencie of his Doctrine This is intimated as I said Isaiah 53. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many but is more fully express'd Malachi 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come into his Temple which might have been produced as another Prophecie of the Divinity of the Messiah even the messenger of the Covenant whom you delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth For he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in Righteousness Whereby is plainly denoted the purity and sanctity of that Law and Spirit that the Messiah was to communicate to his serious followers that he would throughly purifie them and purge them from their Hypocrisie and Sinfulness And again Isaiah 42. Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my Soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised reed shall he not break and the smoaking flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth judgment unto truth He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the Isles shall wait for his law Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thy hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant unto the people for a light of the Gentiles To open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house And Isaiah 49. Listen O Isles unto me and hearken ye people from far The Lord hath called me from the womb from the bowells of my mother hath he made mention of my name And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me and made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hid me And verse 5. And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Iacob again unto him Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength And he said It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Iacob and to restore the desolations of Israel I will also give thee for a Light to the Gentiles that thou maiest be my Salvation to the end of the earth My Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an allusion to the very name of Isaiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies The Salvation of the Lord Which seems to be alluded to in the first verse also from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name Which is so near a kin to the name of Iesus that the Messiah may seem to be prefigured in the very name of the Prophet Isaiah as well as in his Person As it must be confessed that both these two Prophecies do in some measure belong to Isaiah himself first But considering how the more excellent Kings and Prophets were to be Types of the Messiah and that the language is so very high it cannot be doubted but that in these Divine raptures and exaltations of Spirit the Minde and Tongue of Isaiah was carried above what was competible to his own Person and therefore must naturally be transferred to the Messiah it being plain from other places that there was at last to come some one transcendent Prince and Prophet anointed in an higher manner and measure then any other Which the Iews expected and called their Messiah And therefore it is therewithal manifest that their Messiah was to be an eximious Teacher Prophet or Law-giver 6. The seventh Character is that he should be very welcomely received of the Nations that which these last Prophecies also intimate But I shall add others also To this sense the Jews themselves interpreted that ancient Prophecie of Iacob 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him shall be the gathering together of the Nations the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he is the hope or expectation of the Nations And there is yet one more ancient then that which implies it viz. the Promise to Abraham that he should be a Father of many Nations and that in his seed all Nations of the Earth should be blessed Of which other Prophecies also witness Isay 2.2 And it shall come to pass in the last daies that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it The Jewish Doctours themselves acknowledge this to be understood of the times of the Messiah And chap. 11. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious or Him shall the Gentiles seek viz. in a devotional way shall pray unto him and sing praises unto him For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And his rest shall be glorious sepulcrum ejus erit gloriosum so some turn it and truely not rashly nor without cause For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in several places signifies the rest of the dead Job 3. v. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is in Iob's description of the state of the dead Also Proverbs 21.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall rest in the congregation of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is better for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one as appears Psalm 88. v. 11. Lastly Psalm 23. v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquae requietum implies such a rest as Sleep the brother of death For there is nothing more prone then to lye and sleep on the shadie banks of a River Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well signifie Dormitorium ejus or Sepulcrum ejus erit gloriosum that is That it shall at last be exalted to the nature of a Temple he shall have Divine Honour done unto him and the Gentiles shall pray unto him and adore him as is intimated in the words immediately going before But this was more then
we needed to charge this Prophecie with though it be probable enough it is contained in it There are sundry other places that serve for the proof of this seventh Character but because it is sufficiently enough demonstrated already and little or no controversie made of it I pass to the eighth 7. Which is the Messiah his abolishing the Superstition of the Gentiles that is such worship as they had no divine warrant for they being so grosly mistaken in the Object This is so plainly included in the two last Characters that I need add no other proof But if there were need that in the 2 and 110 Psalms might further confirme it Where he is constituted a new King and Priest and therefore implies new Religion and Laws and such as the heathen were ignorant of before but such as they must obey upon pain of high displeasure 8. The last Character is the long Duration of the Messiah's Kingdome Psalm 89. v. 35. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the Sun before me It shall be established for ever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven Also Psalm 45. v. 6. Thy throne ô God is for ever and ever the sceptre of thy Kingdome is a right sceptre c. Which Prophecie makes good the former and shews how it is to be fulfilled in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Messiah See also Psalm 72. which the Hebrew Rabbins do acknowledge to be understood of the Messiah Also Daniel 2.44 and 7.27 This Character is so clear that I need not insist any longer upon it 9. These are the main Marks and Characters of the Person of the Messiah by which we may infallibly find out who he is And who indeed can he be according to these Characters but Iesus whom we Christians worship For what competitor for the Messiahship but he was being a Iew rejected by the Iews and crucified Who is it that arose from the dead and ascended into Heaven but he Who ever delivered so pure Doctrine to purge the World from wickedness and to enlighten the Nations as he It is he therefore whom the Nations waited for and have received It is he for whose sake they parted with their old vain and impure Superstitions by whose Doctrine they are brought to the knowledge of the Eternal God And lastly it is he whom for his bitter sufferings God has exalted above Angels and Archangels and all the host of Heaven and has set him at his own right hand to be a Priest and King over his Church for ever CHAP. IX 1. The peculiar Use of Arguments drawn from the Prophecies of the Old Testament for the convincing the Atheist and Melancholist 2. An Application of the Prophecies to the known Events for the conviction of the Truth of our Religion 3. That there is no likelihood at all but that the Priesthood of Christ will last as long as the Generations of men upon Earth 4. The Conclusion of what has been urged hitherto 5. That Christ was no fictitious Person proved out of the History of Heathen Writers as out of Plinie 6. And Tacitus 7. As also Lucian 8. And Suetonius 9. That the Testimony out of Josephus is supposititious and the reasons why he was silent concerning Christ. 10. Julian's purpose of rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem with the strange success thereof out of Ammianus Marcellinus 1. WE have now made a very considerable Progress in the proof of the Reality of Christian Religion That it is more then a mere Idea Let us here make a stand and breath a while and contemplate with our selves the peculiar Use and advantage of this present Argument for the stopping the mouths as well of the bold Atheist as the suspicious Melancholist For indeed it is too true and every good man could wish it were not so that the latter Ages of the Church have not dealt faithfully with the World but beyond the bounds of all modesty and conscience obtruded upon the people fond Legends and forged Miracles as if they were given up into their hands onely to be imposed upon and abused Which consideration does cast some men into an unchangeable misbelief of the whole business of Christianity and makes them look upon it all as a mere Fiction and Fable For they measure the Genius of the Primitive Church by what they see practised before their eyes now-adayes and look upon the whole Tribe of the Priests as Impostors Which censure though it be most unjust yet it will be very hard to convince these Censurers but that it is very true unless by some such Argument as now lies before us viz. That the ancient Prophecies in the Old Testament could not be forged by the Christian Priests and that the Jews would not forge them against themselves Nay they that know any thing of the Jews will acknowledge them so religiously addicted to the Letter of these holy Writings that knowingly and wittingly they durst not alter a tittle Wherefore all those Prophecies we have alledged are real and we have made good they clearly foretel That the Messiah should come many hundred years ago therefore it is plain he is come 2. I therefore demand of either the Prophane or Melancholick who is this Messiah if Iesus be not he Nay I appeal to them if the very Characters of his Person be not certainly to be known by their own Senses agreeably to the Prediction of those infallible Oracles The Prophecies have said He should be rejected of his own Ask the Iews they will acknowledge they have rejected him The Prophecies foretold he should be cut off be killed by them Ask the Iews they will not deny but that they did condemn him to death but deservedly as they contend for their own excuse The Prophecies foretold his Doctrine should enlighten the Gentiles Ask thine own eyes if the Gentiles be not turned from their vain unwarrantable Superstitions to the knowledge of that one God that made heaven and earth and of Iesus Christ whom he hath sent The Prophecies prefigured his rising from the dead and his ascending up into Heaven and ask thine own Conscience if thou dost not believe that this was alwaies the belief of the Christians and consult with thine own Reason if it had been possible that the Death of Christ could have drawn all the World after him if it had not been seconded with his Resurrection Certainly those that believed on him before had deserted him after his death if he had not risen from the dead but of that more fully hereafter Lastly the Prophecies foretold that the Messiah should be worshipped as a divine Person and receive divine Honour and that God would make him a King and Priest for ever Ask thine own senses if thou dost not find it so How many thousand Temples are there consecrated to his name in how many Nations and Kingdomes of the earth is he
Epicureans and Stoicks Acts 17.18 Wherefore without all controversie the first embracers of Christianity entertained it upon no other terms but manifest proof of Eye-witnesses and the Evidence of such persons as they saw very faithful and serious and as had the effect of this great power of God that raised Iesus Christ from the dead manifestly residing upon themselves whereby they were able to doe Miracles as is also recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 4. Now for the First Authours and Founders of this Religion how weak and contemptible they were as to worldly concernments appears plainly from hence that they were not recommended to the World either for their nobility of Birth or skill in humane Arts and Sciences nor had they any secular power to assist them nor any force of arms to either overcome others or defend themselves for all they were exposed to so great and imminent dangers perpetually Our Saviour himself was but of mean Parentage a Carpenters Son crucified betwixt two thieves as a hainous Malefactor What therefore can there be imaginable that should move his Apostles and Disciples to adhere to him so faithfully after his death and to expose themselves to all manner of jeopardies all manner of sufferings whippings imprisonments long journies tortures and death it self What should cause them to disturb their own peace so and the peace of all men if there were not some very miraculous thing at the bottom and such as was worthy to alarme all the World What message could they have brought to those several Nations they travailed to that themselves would not be ashamed of carrying if it had been only so That the Jews had crucified one Iesus the Son of Ioseph a Carpenter betwixt two thieves at Ierusalem who yet was a very good and Just man It may be so would the Gentiles say More shame for them what is that to us But this man was the promised Messiah and did very strange Miracles cast out devils healed all manner of diseases and was declared the Son of God by an audible voice from the Heavens As for the Miracles you mention would the Gentile reply we have heard strange things done by those that are called Magicians and we had no acquaintance with the party you speak of to discern whether he was so good as you pretend For mens Judgments are ordinarily partial out of affection and friendship and it is strange that if he were so good as you make him and declared from the clouds to be the Son of God that God would suffer him so ignominiously to die betwixt two Thieves on the Cross. Which is a sign that if he did any Miracles they were but from such powers as are subject to the Magistrate and through that faithfull Providence that attends the affairs of men can doe nothing when the Magician is apprehended imprisoned and condemned Truly if there had been no more then this in the Story it seems impossible that the Cause should have had such Success as it has had 5. Wherefore certainly the First Preachers of the Gospel added to all this to the admiration and astonishment of the hearers That this Iesus whom the Jews had thus crucified was by the miraculous hand of God raised out of the grave the third day That after his Resurrection he conversed with his disciples both apart and together That he was seen of above five hundred at once That he staid upon earth for fourty daies and was seen visibly afterward to ascend into Heaven Which things as they were above all expectation marvailous and did if they were true fully argue not only the Innocency but transcendent Divinity of the Person of Iesus so were they so incredible that none could believe them especially to their present peril unless from such as were Eye-witnesses of the same and could send them to many more that were Eye-witnesses and of unsuspected integrity of life or for the better compendium shewed that they were true messengers sent from God by some Signs or Miracles they did upon the spot 6. This therefore was the main of their message which was nothing but matter of Fact which themselves knew certainly to be true and seriously and earnestly declared it to the World not by any Art or Eloquence For the Apostles were but poor illiterate persons Fishermen Publicans and the like had no other weapons to win men to the Faith but by a simple though earnest and serious narration of those things they knew for certain and did avouch with that confidence that they gave up their ease livelihood and lives for a pledge of the truth thereof Which Testimonie could not possibly be false it being as I said before concerning matter of Fact namely the Resurrection of Christ wherein so many could not be deceived Nor is it imaginable how they should goe about to deceive others against their own Consciences or without sufficient knowledge in a thing that gained them nothing but perpetual Hatred and ill will Imprisonments Tortures and Death In the mean time by these poore contemptible Instruments that had neither Political power on their side but were oppressed by it nor had any Art nor Eloquence excepting only Paul who yet made use of neither and by succession of such as they had converted within a few Ages all the World in a manner swarmed with Christians of all qualities and degrees noble and ignoble learned and unlearned though invited thereto by no secular advantage but rather being perpetually exposed to misery and persecution All which things seriously considered together with the exactness and perspicuity of Prophecies concerning the Messiah cannot but seem to any indifferent judge a Demonstration for the Truth of Christian Religion no less certain then Mathematical CHAP. XIV 1. Objections of the Jews against their Messiah's being come answered 2. A pompous Evasion of the Aristotelean Atheists supposing all Miracles and Apparitions to be the Effects of the Intelligences and Heavenly bodies 3. Vaninus his restraint of the Hypothesis to one Anima Coeli 4. His intolerable pride and conceitedness 5. A Confutation of him and the Aristotelean Atheisme from the Motion of the Earth 6. That Vaninus his subterfuge is but a Sel-contradiction 7. That Christianitie's succeeding Judaisme is by the special counsel of God not by the Influence of the Starres 8. Cardanus his high folly in calculating the Nativity of our Saviour with a demonstration of the groundlesness of Vaninus his exaltation in his impious boldness of making Mahomet Moses and Christ sidereal Law-givers of like Authority 9. That the impudence and impiety of these two vain glorious Pretenders constrains the Authour more fully to lay open the frivolousness of the Principles of Astrology 1. THE Objections we were a mentioning are from two hands from the Iew or from the Atheist That from Iew is chiefly this That the condition of the times under Christ is not conformable to what is prophesied concerning the times of the Messiah There is not that
Peace and Concord no not in Christendome it self neither in the Church nor State nor is Idolatry extirpated nor the Israelites replanted and setled in their own land all which things notwithstanding are foretold to come to pass in the dayes of the Messiah Whence say they it is plain he is not yet come But I briefly answer 1. That the Prophetical Promises of the coming of the Messiah were absolute as I have already noted the Extent of the Effect of his coming conditional men being free Agents and not fatal Actors in all things as the Iews themselves cannot deny 2. That the nature of the Gospel tends altogether to the accomplishing of those Promises of universal Peace and Righteousness and did begin fair in the first times of the Church as much as respects the Church it self 3. That whatever Relapse or Stop there has been things are not so hopeless but in time they may be amended and that they in those days when they are true Converts to Christ may if they will then desire it return to their own Land But after this serious conversion and real renovation of their Spirits into a true Christian state I cannot believe they will continue so childish as to value such things but will find themselves in the Spiritual Canaan already and on their march to that Ierusalem which is above the Mother of us all and that it will not be in the power of any but themselves to turn them out of the way 2. The other Objection or rather Evasion of that wholesome use that may be made of the Truth of the History of Christ is from that sort of Atheists that love to be thought Aristoteleans For there are two chief kinds of Atheisme Epicurean and Aristotelean The former denies all Incorporeal substance whatsoever and all Apparitions Miracles and Prophecies that imply the same Who are sufficiently confuted already by this undeniable declaration we have made The other are not against all Substances Incorporeal nor against Prophecies Apparitions and Miracles though of the highest nature insomuch that they will allow the History of Christ his Resurrection and Appearance after death the Prophecies concerning him and what not But they have forsooth this witty Subterfuge to save themselves from receiving any good therefrom in imagining that there is no such Particular Providence as we would inferre from hence because all this may be done by the Influence of the Celestial Bodies actuated by the Intelligences appertaining to each Sphere and deriving in a natural way from him that sits on the highest of the Orbs such influences as according to certain Periodical courses of Nature will produce new Law-givers induing them with a power of working Miracles assisting them by Apparitions and Visions of Angels making them seem to be where they are not and appear after they cease to be namely after their death when in the mean-time there be neither Angels nor Souls separate but all these things are the transient Effects of the power of the Heavens and Configuration of the Celestial bodies which slacks by degrees and so the Influence of the Starres failing one Religion decaies and another gets up Thus Iudaisme has given place to Christianity and Christianity in a great part of the World to Mahometisme being Establishments resulting from the mutable course of Nature not by the immediate finger of God who keeps his throne in the Eighth sphere and intermeddles not with humane Affairs in any particular way but onely aloof off hands down by the help and mediation of the Celestial Intelligences and power of the Starres some general casts of Providence upon the Generations of the Earth 3. A goodly speculation indeed and well befitting such two witty Fools in Philosophy as Pomponatius and Vaninus the latter of which seems not to give himself up to this fine figment altogether fully and conformably to the ancient doctrine of Aristotle but having a great pique against Incorporeal Beings is desirous to lessen their number as much as he can and seems pleased that he has found out That one only Soul of the Heavens will serve as effectually to do all these things as the Aristotelean Intelligences and therefore ever anon doubts of those and establisheth this as the onely Intellectual or Immaterial Principle and highest Deity but such as acts no otherwise then in a natural way by Periodical Influences of the Heavenly Bodies Where you may observe the craft and subtility of the man what a care he has of his own safety and how he has imprisoned the Divinity in those upper rooms for fear of the worst that he may be as far out of his reach as the Earth is from the Moon So cautious a counseller in these matters is an evil and degenerate Conscience 4. This is the chiefest Arcanum that the Amphitheatrum and famed Dialogues of this stupendious Wit will afford who was so tickled and transported with a conceit of his own parts that in that latter Book he cannot refrain from writing down himself a very Good for wisdome and knowledge Whenas assuredly there was never any mans Pride and Conceitedness exceeded the proportion of his wit and parts so much as his For there is nothing considerable in him but what that odd and crooked Writer Hieronymus Cardanus had though more modestly vented to the world before onely Vaninus added thereto a more express tail of bold Impiety and Prophaneness 5. I have elsewhere intimated how the attributing such noble Events to the Power of the Starres is nothing but a rotten relick of the ancient Pagan Superstition and have in my Book Of the Immortality of the Soul plainly enough demonstrated that there is no such inherent Divinity in the Celestial Bodies as that ancient Superstition has avouched or modern Philosophasters would imagine And I shall here evidently prove against this great Pretender That his removal of the Deity at that distance from the Earth is impossible For there are scarce any now that have the face to profess themselves Philosophers but do as readily acknowledge the Motion of the Earth as they do the reality of the Antipodes or the Circulation of the Bloud I would aske then Vaninus but this one question Whether he will not admit that the Sun is in that Heaven where he imagins his Anima coeliâ— and whether this Heaven be not spred far beyond the Sun and be not also the Residence of this celestial Goddess of his There is none will stick to answer for him that it is doubtlesly so Wherefore I shall forthwith inferre that let his unskilful phansy conceit us at this moment in as low a part of the Universe as he will within the space of six months we shall be as far above or beyond the Sun as we are beneath him now and yet then phansy our selves as much beneath him as before Which plainly implies that our Earth and Moon swim in the liquid Heavens which being every where this Deity of Vaninus must be every
Nothing turns off their more subtil Influence according to their own concession and therefore though there were this Variety in them yet because all this Variety reaches every point of the Earth the Product would be the same unless the particles of the Earth were diversified by some other cause which assuredly they are And thirdly That neither their own Variety nor the influences of the Heavens if they be merely material are sufficient causes of Productions here below Fourthly That the celestial Matter is every where and that the Earth swims in it as Wood does in Water so that we need not have recourse to so remote unknown activities And lastly That that general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spirit of Nature is also every where ready to contrive the Matter into such shapes and virtues as its disposition makes toward And this is enough and more then enough to take off the edge of the Knights argument 3. I do acknowledge that the Moon in her full swells certain things with moisture which Effect is both sensible and palpable and also reasonable by reason of her proximity and of the reflexion of the Sun's beams from her body which being but of a moderate power melt the Air and Vapours into an insinuating liquidness but do not dissipate them as his direct beams doe by day Which feat I do not doubt but that any other of the Planets would perform if they were so plac'd that their discus would seem of equal bigness with the Moon 's and she were removed into their place But it is an insufferable folly to argue from such both reasonable and palpable effects of the Moon that the other Planets also and Fixt Starrs have as powerfull effects upon us which yet we can deprehend by neither Reason nor Experience 4. The like may be answered concerning the Flux and Reflux of the Sea the ground whereof is rationall from what Des-Cartes has set down in his Princip Philos. part 4. namely That the Ellipsis of the celestiall Matter is streightned by the Moons body which makes the Aether flow more swift which is a plain and mechanicall solution of the Phaenomenon And then we finde by certain experience that this Flux and Reflux depends on the course of the Moon so that there can be no deceit in the business But when there is no Reason nor sufficient Experience that this is the Cause of that to attribute the one to the other is no good Logick And to that of the Loadstone and Polar-Starre I say again as I have said already That it does not follow because there are some sensible effects from the Heavens certain and constant that therefore we may imagine what effects we please to proceed from this or that particular Starre without due Experience or Reason for the same And then in the next place That it is not so much the influence of the Heaven as the Magnetisme of the Earth in which this direction of the Needle toward the North consists For the Needle varies in certain Meridians and some three miles from Rosseburg a Town near upon the very corner where the Finnick Seas and Sinus Finnicus are joyn'd the Needle amidst a many Sea-Rocks turns about nor ceases so to do for the space of a whole mile Which is a further demonstration that the Direction of the Needle depends upon the Magnetisme of the Earth But truly if the Events that Astrologers take upon them to predict did as steadily point to the Causes they alledge this Planet or that Configuration of Planets Signes or Starres as the Needle and Axis of the Earth to the North though they could give no reasons thereof I could easily allow their Art But there being such demonstrative Reasons against their Grounds and no certain Experience for them these particular Allegations concerning the Moon and Pole-Starre will stand them in no stead 5. The Station and Retrogradation of the Planets is a very considerable Argument against them and shews how foolish and imaginary their Art is that is upheld by such gross mistakes For they that understand the right Systeme of the World know very well that those Phaenomena are not reall but seeming which is a scurvy slur to these Astrologers But this I shall meet with again hereafter 6. To the last I answer That neither the Dog-Starre Arcturus the Hyades nor Orion are conceived to have any such Effects as are attributed to them but then when the Sun is in such places of the Zodiack as himself without them would bring forth And therefore they do fallaciously attribute to those Starres what is really the virtue of the heat of the Sun approaching nearer us or abiding longer upon us And as for the wrath of the Dogge which is abated already in some considerable measure how tame a creature think you will he be when the Anticipation of the Aequinoxes shall appoint him his Kennell as low as Capricorn if the World should so long continue These may serve for Poeticall Expressions such as that of Virgil who attributes that to the Signes which belongs to the Sunne Candidus auratis aperit cum Cornibus annum Taurus When the white Bull opens with golden horns The early year but they will not endure the severity of the Laws of an Art which is to speak properly not to entitle things circumstantiall and concomitant to reall Causality But as for the Sun's efficacy it self I will not deny it nor yet acknowledge it any more then in the generall influence of heat which cherishes and excites the seminal Principles of things into act and perfection Which is no more mysterious then the Aegyptians and Livia's Maids of Honour hatching of Egges without the help of the Hen the same which the Sun does to the Ostriches left upon the sand And I will also acknowledge that the rest of the Stars do not stand for cyphers but that at a competent distance they will have their effect which the Sun it self has not when removed from us but to the other side of the Aequator whereby his rayes become more oblique How inconsiderable then think you would he be if he were removed as farre as the fixt Starres all whose influence put together cannot supply his absence in the depth of Winter Whence it is plain that it is a very fond inference to argue that those remote bodies of the fixt Starres and Planets have an influence upon us because the Sun and Moon that are so near us have whenas if they were as far removed their influence would assuredly be as insensible as that of the five Planets and fixt Stars 7. And yet notwithstanding such is the intolerable Impudence of the Inventours of Astrology that they have at randome attributed such things to the other Planets and Starrs as they have only ground for if any at all in the two Luminaries As for example because they might observe some more sensible mutation in the Air and Earth at the Sun 's entring Aries it would be the
more tolerable to phansie that Sign his Exaltation But now to appoint places of exaltation to other Planets as Taurus to the Moon Libra to Saturn is a mere running the Wild-goose chase from one single hint to matters where there is nothing of like reason or experience So likewise because they had some intimation to make Leo the House of the Sun his heat being then most sensible and Cancer the House of the Moon because then she would be most vertical to us they have without either fear or wit bestowed Houses two apiece upon the rest of the Planets though there be neither reason nor effect answerable And lastly for Aspects in all likelihood the sensible varieties of the Phases of the Moon in Opposition Trine and Quartil gave them first occasion to take notice of Aspects and then another thing happening though independent on the course of the Moon namely that every seventh day in an acute Disease is Critical and that there are usually at those returns the greatest stirrs and alterations in the Patient and the Quartil Aspect of the Moon happening also about seven daies from the Conjunction and then about seven daies more she being in Opposition this natural circuit of Fermentations in acute Diseases has given them occasion to slander the Moon in those cases and for her sake to reproach the aspects of Opposition and Quadrature in all the rest of the Planets Such small hints as these are the solidest foundations of the phantastick structure of Astrology Which we shall now something more nearly lay battery to and so shatter it that it shall not so much as find room in the Imaginations of men 8. To begin therefore with the First of their Principles I have set down That they prefer the Planets before the Fixt Starrs I mean those so remote ones that they seem but about the bigness of the greater Starrs is without all reason the Planets being but heaps of dead matter much like that of the Earth and having no light but what they reflect from the Sun For that which seems to be the innate light of the Moon is but the reflexion of the Sun's beams from the Earth Wherefore their activity and influence may justly seem less then that of the Fixt Starrs which shine not with borrowed but innate light And for their powerfull penetrating into the Bowels of the Earth that is a mistake arising from the supposed influence of the Moon on the Flux and Reflux of the Sea even when she is on the other side of the Earth to which with the like fallacious inference I have answered already But then for the Qualities of the Planets where they define the Sun to be hot and moist rather then drying but Mars hot and parching dry and Saturn dry and cold what will not these impudent Impostours dare to obtrude upon us when they will vent such stuff as is liable to confutation by our very Senses For does not our very Sense tell us that the Sun is the most hot and drying Planet that is His heat it is and not that of Mars that withers the grass and flowers and parches the tops of Mountains and even rosts the Inhabitants of the Earth when they expose their bodies to his more direct raies But what Faculty could ever inform us that Mars was such a parching and heating Planet and Saturn so cold Assuredly he that will expose his head to their Acronychal raies which are most potent and shall profess he feels more cold from one and heat from the other then he does from the other parts of Heaven will approve himself as mad as that old Dotard that pretended that he could as often as he listned plainly hear the Harmony of the Celestial Sphears All the Planets are opake Bodies and whatever their colour is are as cold as Earth For neither yellow nor red clay cast any more heat then white nor has any soil any sensible influence but what is drawn in by the nose which sometimes proves wholesome and savory and sometimes ofâ—ensive But how our Star-gazers Proboscides should be drawn out to that length as to smell out the different virtues of the Planets I can no way understand Wherefore the pronouncing of Mars hot and dry and Saturn cold and dry c. is a shameless foolery and a demonstration of the vanity of the rest of their allotments of the first qualities to the Planets And since from these they are reputed Benign or Malign Masculine or Feminine and the like all this part of their pretended Science is but a Rhapsody of Fooleries also 9. To the Second of the Earth's being so pervious to the influence of the Starrs and Planets I say First That it is a Principle without proof as I have already evinced and then Secondly If I give them it they will be fain to vomit it up again it being destructive to their whole Art For if the raies and influence of the Stars and Planets have free passage through the body of the Earth the whole Ceremonie of erecting a Scheme for such a Longitude and Latitude is needless nay as to the Heavens the fates of all men would be alike For that hidden influence which governs all would reach to all points from all parts of Heaven at once 10. Thirdly Concerning the division of their Signs into mobilia and fixa and hicorporea The mobilia are the Equinoctial and Solstitial Signs The latter whereof might deserve better the name of fixa then mobilia And in my apprehension the Tempers of the Year might as well be said to be begun suppose the cold in Sagittarius and fixed in Capricorn and the heat in Gemini and fixed in Cancer as begun in Capricorn and fixed in Aquarius c. But we will wink at small matters That of the fiery earthy watry and aiery Trigons is more notorious and I cannot but smile when I read the Effects of them As for example in Physick as Dariot has set down the Moon and Ascendent in the Fiery Signs comfort the virtue attractive in the Earthy Signs the retentive the Aiery the digestive and the Watery the expulsive Would any man dare to administer Physick then without consulting the precepts of Astrology Also in Husbandry that 's a notable one of Sir Christopher's who tells us how we may cause a Plant to shoot deep into the Earth or higher into the Air by setting of it at such an aspect of the Moon Namely if the Moon be in the Earthy Triplicity the root will shoot more downward into the Earth if in the Aiery more upward into the Air. Which is a rare Secret Now to omit the groundless and arbitrarious division of the Zodiack into these four Trigons of which there is only this one hint that I can imagine namely the fitness of Leo for one part of the fiery Trigon the Sun being most hot in that Sign From which little inlet all the four Elements flew up into Heaven and took their places
in their respective Triplicities in the Zodiack with great nimbleness and agility playing at leap-frog skipping over one anothers backs in such sort that dividing themselves into three equal parts every Triental of an Element found it self a fellow-member of a trine Aspect The best jest of all is that there is no such Zodiack in Heaven or if you will no Heaven for such a Zodiack as these Artists attribute these Triplicities to For this Heaven and this Zodiack we speak of is only an old errour of Ptolemie's and his followers who not understanding the true System of the world and the motion of the Earth in which is salv'd the anticipation of the Aequinoxes have phansied a Heaven above the Coelum stellatum and a Zodiack that did not recede from West to East as the starry Zodiack does And this Figment which later Ages have laughed off of the Stage is the only Subject of these renounced Trigons and Triplicities which therefore are justly laughed off of the Stage with it Which discovery is a demonstration that the whole Art of Astrology is but upon frivolous and mere imaginary Principles as we shall further make manifest And therefore those Physicians proclaim themselves either Cheats or Fools that would recommend their skill from such vain observations 11. Fourthly Now for the essential Dignities of the Planets sith it is nothing but the increase of their innate virtue by being in such or such a Sign and these being the Signs of that Zodiack which has no Heaven nor is any thing it is manifest that the whole doctrine of essential Dignities falls to the ground But we will also cast our eye upon the distinct parts of this vain Figment And therefore as to the first essential Dignity the House of the Planet There is no sagacious Person but can easily smell out the meaning of making Leo the House of the Sun namely not that that Sign has any virtue to increase heat but that the Sun then has been long near the Tropick of Cancer and so has more then ordinarily heated the Earth by so long a stay in so advantageous a posture And this is it not the being in his House then that makes the heat so great for those beyond the other Tropick sure are cold enough The same may be said of Cancer the Moons House that it is posture not the nature of the place that makes her virtue more then to us but less to our Antoeci From this small hint from Sense and mistakes of Reason have they without all Reason and Sense bestowed Houses on the rest of the Planets guiding themselves by the conceit of the Malignity and Benignity of Aspects Which to be a mere Figment I have noted already it having no ground but that rash joining together of Critical daies with the Aspects of the Moon What a small preferment Astrological Exaltation is you may understand from Albumazar's liberality who amongst the Planets has advanced the head and tail of the Dragon to the same Dignity which yet are nothing but Intersections of the imaginary Circles of the course of the Moon and the Ecliptick But of this Dignity I have spoke enough already and therefore I pass to the next As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lords of the Trigons what great pitty it was there were not just eight Planets that each Trigon might have had its two Consuls and Mars not rule solitarily in his watry one But the foolery of the Trigons being already confuted I need add nothing further concerning this Dignity The Prerogative of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is destroyed by that first general Argument the parts of the Signs being as fictitious as the whole And as for the Carpentum or royal Seat or Throne it being a compound Dignity compacted of the former the parts being but imaginary it is evident that the whole is a mere Nothing And that Persona Planetae or Almugea is as little appears from hence in that Aspect is an empty conceit raised upon no solid ground as I have more then once already intimated And that the Lords of the Decanats have but imaginary Provinces is again plain for that their whole Zodiack wherein all those fripperies are lodged is but imaginary and their order also of assignation upon a false Hypothesis viz. according to that ranging of the Planets that is in Ptolemie's System And lastly Gaudium the last of the Essential Dignities supposes two falsities that there are Houses in this fictitious Zodiack and that Planets are Masculine and Feminine which Supposition has been confuted already So that all these essential Dignities are devoid of all substance and reality and the numbring of their particular Fortitudes is the telling out so many nullities to no purpose 12. Nor can you hope for a better account of their Accidental Dignities Cazimi Combustion and Freeness from combustion how fond and inconsistent conceits are they For first it is unreasonable if they know the nature of the Planets of the Sun and of the celestial Vortex to make a Planet in Cazimi to gain five Fortitudes For beyond the Sun the Planet is at the furthest distance it can be from us and Saturn Iupiter and Mars a whole diameter of the Suns orbit more distant then when they are in opposition to the Sun and Venus and Mercury half of their own Besides how can their virtue pass the body of the Sun or the bearing of the Vortex against the Planet and against us and all the attemps of influence from the Planet not be eluded Again if Cazimi on this side the Sun be good why should not beyond the Sun be bad And if Venus or Mercury in the body of the Sun be so considerable how much more are the spots of the Sun that are far greater which their ignorance could never reckon in the compute of their Dignities Besides what wilde and disproportionable jumps are these That Cazimi should be five fortitudes and yet Combustion which is to be but a little distance from the Sun should be five debilities and yet to be free from combustion that is further removed from the body of the Sun should be again five fortitudes Things so arbitrarious groundless that none but sick-brain'd Persons can ever believe them That also is notoriously foolish That Saturn Iupiter and Mars from their conjunction with the Sun to their opposition should have two fortitudes and from their opposition to their conjunction should have two debilities For in a great part of that Semicircle that carries from opposition to conjunction they are far nearer and therefore much stronger then in the beginning of that Semicircle that leads from their conjunction to opposition Moreover those Dignities and Debilities that are cast upon Planets from Direction Station and Retrogradation the thing is mainly grounded upon a mistake of the Systeme of the World and ignorance of the Earths annuall motion and from an Idiotick application of accidents or phrases amongst men And
therefore because when things succeed ill they are said to go backwards and when we are weary we goe more slow or stand still to breath us or when we are most vigorous we run swiftest therefore must Station be two debilities Retrogradation no less then five but Direction must be five fortitudes Whereas in reason Station should rather seal on the effect of the Planet more sure But the truth is a Planet is neither stationary nor retrograde truly but in appearance and therefore these Debilities no true ones but imaginary The last Accidental Dignity is Configuration or Aspect the vain grounds whereof have been already taxed To which I add That it is utterly unreasonable to conceive that Sextil and Trine should be good and yet Quartil that is betwixt both be stark naught Nay it were far more reasonable to conceive that if Conjunction and Sextil were good that Quartil should be better then Trine as being further from Opposition and because the Planets thus aspected are in better capacity both of them to strike with more direct raies on the Earth then if they were in a Trine Aspect And therefore I know no reason imaginable that could move them to have so ill a conceit of Quartil aspect but because of the great unquietness of acute diseases that happens about every seventh day which is the time also of the Quartil aspect of the Moon and therefore the whole mystery of Aspects is to be resolved into this rash Misapplication You have seen now how little worth all the Astrological Dignities are and yet out of these huge Nothings of their fictitious Art is the whole fabrick built of whatever Predictions they pretend to So that we may be assured that all is vain and ridiculous 13. Concerning their twelve Houses of the Nativity the division is arbitrarious and their erecting of a Scheme so many waies and that with like success an evidence that the success is not upon Art but fortuitous The Configuration also of the Houses and those Septennial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Alfridarii do intimate that the whole business is but a Figment going upon that false Hypothesis of Ptolemie That the Planets and the Earth have not the Sun to their Centre But this is not all we have to say against these Celestial Tenements For either the Earth is pervious to all the raies of the Planets and Starrs as well beneath as above the Horizon or only they above the Horizon shed their Virtue on the Child If the former be true all Nativities are alike If the latter why have they any more then six Houses and why any at all under the Horizon And in good sadness what is the meaning that their Horoscope and the sixth House being Houses of so great concernment should be under the Horizon especially when they are pleased at other times to pronounce that a Star or Planet that is Vertical is most efficacious And can it be thought any thing but a mere phancie that led them to make the Horoscope the House of Life namely because the Starrs arise from thence and are as it were born into the World whence as I have shewed their custome to be in other things they have feigned the rest of the Houses at random And that you may still be more sure that there is nothing in these Houses or rather that the Houses themselves are nothing they are but the Distribution of that imaginary Zodiack and Heaven which I told you before the errour of Ptolemy brought into the World into twelve imaginary Sections beginning at the East point of this Zodiack So that their Art is perpetually built upon Nothing 14. Now for the exact time of the Nativity That one should know the very moment when the Child is born I say it is a Curiosity nothing to the purpose For first if the hard and thick Earth be pervious to the raies of Heaven how easily may those thin coverings of the Womb be penetrated continually by the power of the Starrs and therefore even then is the Childe as much exposed to them as when it is newly born Or if it be not why may not it some moments after its being born be still as liable to their influence as in the moment when it was born For cannot these Influences that penetrate the very metalline bowels of the Earth pierce a Child's tender skin without any resistance But supposing this Curiosity to be to the purpose how hard and lubricous a matter is it to come to that exactness that they pretend to be requisite For first they must know the exact Longitude of the Place a thing of extreme uncertainty or else the exactness of Time will doe them no good And yet again their affectation of exactness seems ridiculous when we cannot well determine the proper Time of his Birth For he is born by degrees and few or none come out after first they appear in a shorter space then half a quarter of an hour Wherefore their Head being exposed to the starry influence why should not that celestial infection pervade their whole body But suppose that to be the moment of their birth wherein the whole body is first out how shall this moment be known By an exact minute watch such as Tycho had and Sir Christopher Heydon professes himself to have had which would exactly give him the minute and second Scruple of Time But how few Nativity-casters can boast of the same priviledge Or if they could to what purpose is it when it seldome happens that they are in the same house much less in the same room where the party is delivered Wherefore the report of the Midwife is the best certainty they have and how many Nativities have been cast without so much as that And yet they will confidently predict Fates and Destinies upon an uncertain time given them For they can say they correct it and reduce it to the right moment of the Nativity and that by no less then three several waies by Trutina Hermetis Animodar and Accidentia Nati which how bold and groundless a boast it is let us now see 15. Trutina Hermetis goes upon this ground That that degree of the Zodiack the Moon is in at the time of Conception the same is the Horoscope of the Nativity But what a foolish subterfuge is this whenas the exact time of Conception is as hard to be known as that of the Nativity And if it were known there is yet no certainty some coming sooner some later as every Mother Nurse or Midwife knows full well nor will any of them presume to tell to a day when a woman shall be brought to bed In Animodar the Nativity is either Conjunctional or Preventional that is either after or before the Conjunction of the Sun and Moon If the Interlunium precede the time of the birth the degree is to be noted in which it happens if the Plenilunium that degree in which that Luminary is that is above the Horizon in
it most consists of namely Humility Charity and Purity and therefore it will not be unseasonable to shew how expresly and particularly urgent the Gospel is for the promoting these three Graces 3. Our Saviour Christ Matth. 11. makes a solemn invitation to the first of these Vertues propounding himself an Example Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls And Matth. 5. v. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth It is a promise from the same mouth The meaning of both which places is That Humility and Meekness beget a great deal of Peace and Tranquillity and enjoyment of a mans self even in this life whenas Pride exposes a man to perpetual Discontent and Impatiency Besides that the Proud man is as it were the Butt that the Almighty shoots his Arrows against to gall wound and vex the very hackstock of Divine vengeance and the sport and pastime of Misfortune God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble But my purpose is not to interpret such easie places as I alledge but merely to bring them into the Readers view And there are many more yet that testifie of the Excellency of this Grace of Humility For our Saviour again Matth. 11. entitles those Vertues especially to the knowledge of the Mystery of the kingdome of God I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so Father for so it seemeth good in thy sight And Matth. 18. Christ being asked who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven called a little childe unto him and set him in the midst of them and said Verily I say unto you Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of Heaven Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little childe the same is greatest in the kingdom of Heaven And Chap. 20.25 Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant Even as the Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransome for many In which passage is insinuated that useless and pompous honour is to have no place in the Church of Christ but that if any mans office be more honourable then another it must be also more serviceable especially in matters appertaining to Religion For to the like purpose is that Matth. 23. where the Pride and Hypocrisie of the Scribes and Pharisees is taxed For they binde heavy burthens saith our Saviour and grievous to be born and lay them upon mens shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers But all their works they do to be seen of men they make broad their Phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at Feasts and the chief seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the market-places and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi But â—â— not you called Rabbi saith our Saviour for one is your Master even Christ and all you are brethren And call no man your Father upon Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven Neither be you called Masters for one is your Master even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your Servant And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted 4. Hitherto our Saviour and that very fully In whose foot-steps the Apostles also insist Rom. 12.16 Be of the same minde one towards another Minde not high things but condescend to men of low degree Be not wise in your own conceits And Eph. 4. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called in all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long-suffering forbearing one another in love And Titus 3. Put them in minde to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good work To speak evil of no man to be no brawlers shewing all meekness to all men So that we see the Christian Religion meets as well with the saucinesse of the Inferiours as with the affected domination of Superiours Thus expresly does the Gospel recommend Humility to the World CHAP. II. 1. Christs enforcement of Love and Charity upon his Church by Precept and his own Example 2. The wretched imposture and false pretensions of the Family of Love to this divine Grace 3. The unreasonableness of the Familists in laying aside the person of Christ to adhere to such a carnall and inconsiderable Guide as Hen. Nicolas 4. That this Whifler never gave any true Specimens of reall love to Mankinde as Christ did and his Apostles 5. His unjust usurpation of the Title of Love 6. The unparallel'd endearments of Christs sufferings in the behalf of Mankinde 1. THe next Branch of the Divine Life is Christian Love or Charity then which nothing is more inculcated in the New Testament Christ has left it as his Motto and the Motto of his Church the Symbolum or Word whereby it may be known to whom they belong Iohn 13.34 A new commandement I give unto you That ye love one another as I have loved you that ye love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another As if he should have said You may have heard something indeed out of Moses of loving ones neighbour as himself which Precept as it did not reach so far as I intend this of mine and that which it reached at is utterly laid aside and neglected I now afresh set it on foot and upon such terms and in such a degree and manner as never was yet For I would have you love one another even as I have loved you that is so heartily and sincerely that you will be ready to lay your lives down one for another if need require Which is more express Chap. 15.12 This is my commandment That ye love one another as I have loved you Greater love hath no man then this that a man lay down his life for his friends Which Christ doing for his Church especially in those circumstances he did is an unparallel'd specimen of true love indeed and the highest obligation that can be of our loving both him and one another 2. Which things while I consider I cannot with patience think upon the gross imposture of that bold Enthusiast of Amsterdam who giving no sound evidence of any such Love as may be deemed
mean The evidence that we are to be inwardly and really righteous and not only so but in an extraordinary manner are the two Powers of the Gospel that comprehend our great and ultimate duty of being holy as he that has called us is holy of becoming perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect The following Gospel-Powers all of them are aids and helps to this design The first whereof is The Promise of the Spirit through Christ's Intercession the second The Example of Christ the third The Meditation on his Passion the fourth on his Resurrection and Ascension and the last on the last Iudgement These Powers are of such admirable efficacy if rightly applied that they are able to pul down every strong hold and to cast out all evil imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ as the Apostle speaks No strength of habituated sin no violence of any lust shall be able to stand before them 3. The first of these Powers is The Promise of the Spirit I do not mean for the doing Miracles for that was but a transient business and accommodate only to the first Ages of the Church but for through-sanctification and cleansing us from all our sins and for our perfect growth in Righteousness and Holiness That this Power is a concomitant to the Dispensation of the Gospel in all true Believers is apparent both from the predictions of the Prophets and from the mouth of our Saviour and his blessed Apostles Esay 44. Hear now O Iacob my servant and Israel whom I have chosen Thus saith the Lord that made thee and framed thee from the womb and will help thee Fear not O Iacob my servant and thou Iesurun whom I have chosen For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy offspring And they shall spring up as among the grass and the willows by the water-courses Which Prophecie is most properly applicable to the Church of Christ who is the true seed of Iacob those wrastlers with God and strivers to get in at the narrow gate that leads to life they are the true Iesurun the upright of heart and sincere seekers after God those that truly hunger and thirst after righteousness and therefore God will satisfie them by the supernatural assistance of his blessed Spirit Again Ezekiel 36. ver 25. prefiguring the blessed dispensations of the Kingdome of Christ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and doe them Also Esay 41. v. 10. where certainly according to analogie of interpretations of Prophecie the seed of Abraham being a Type of the Spiritual Church of Christ and their warfare not carnal but spiritual nor the waters promised by Christ such liquors as run in Brooks and Rivers but emanations of the purifying and refreshing powers of the Spirit of God we may see with what close and faithfull assistance God is pleased to adhere to his true Israel in whom there is no guile but they are sincerely waging war and to the utmost resisting all the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil But thou Israel my servant Iacob whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismaied for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Behold all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded they shall be as nothing and they that strive with thee shall perish Thou shalt seek them and shalt not find them even them that contended with thee they that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee Fear not I will help thee Fear not thou worm Iacob and ye men of Israel behold I will make thee a new sharp threshing-instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaffe Thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the whirlwind shall scatter them and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord and shalt glory in the holy One of Israel When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the vallies I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water This Prophecie is an exquisite description of those full and complete Victories the Church gets against Sin and Satan by the supernatural assistance of the Spirit of God Which Promise is again repeated in the following chapter which though it be larger then the former and part cited already to another purpose yet I cannot refrain from transcribing the whole it being so plain a Prophecie of Christ as appears from the fore-part thereof and of the power of his Kingdome through the Spirit for the vanquishing of all sin and wickedness in them that do truly believe Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth judgement unto truth He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement in the earth and the Isles shall wait for his Law Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath to the people upon it and spirit to those that dwell therein I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles To open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another neither my praise to graven images Behold the former things are come to pass and new things do I declare before they spring forth I
they being given up into the power of those deformed Fiends of Hell the very thoughts of whose sight and company might be enough to affright any man that is not Atheistically sortish from assimilating himself to those nasty Gaol-birds by repeated acts of Vice and Wickedness Besides what smart of punishment shall reach both their outward Senses and guilty Consciences by the inevitable rod of God's Justice upon them 3. VVherefore it is most indispensably rational to use this VVorld as if we used it not and to addict our selves to such Pleasures as are most proper to the other State such as are those most delicious touches senses of the Divine Love or that pure and intellectual Affection which S. Paul calls Charity VVhereby we delight in the good of another as if it were our own whereby we rejoice in the wisdome goodness of God displaied his Creatures whereby we ardently desire the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ infinitely before any private advantage whatsoever and do faithfully assist and earnestly expect the joyful accomplishment and finishing of the great Mystery of Godliness in the fullest period thereof to a final Triumph over Sin and Satan and a perfect Redemption of the Church of Christ into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God 4. These are the warrantable Pleasures of the Soul that has a designe upon the Life to come of a Soul that is risen with Christ and therefore seeks those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God And upon this very consideration the Apostle enforceth his Exhortation Colos. 3. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon earth Fornication Uncleannesse inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry And our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount Lay not up for your selves treasures upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor thieves break through and steal For where your treasure is there will your heart be also And therefore Saint Paul professes of himself and exhorts others to imitate him that his minde is wholly taken up with those things which are above Philip. 3.17 Brethren be followers of me and mark them that walk so as ye have us for an example For our conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our municipal affairs our negotiations of greatest concernment are in Heaven of which City we are and from whence we look for our Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself 5. And verily he that through Faith is once possest of these things it is a wonder to me how he can think of any thing else As the Prisoner could not abstain from the pleasure of thinking of the known day of his Liberty or a poor man of an Inheritance that would certainly fall to him within the term of few years And if it were Conditional as this of the Kingdome of Heaven is we may easily conceive how much he were concerned to have a care punctually to observe the Conditions propounded or earnestly to endeavour to get such Qualifications as that he may not forfeit the enjoiment of that Fortune which otherwise would naturally fall to his share And how they are to be qualified that are to be Heires of that everlasting Inheritance the Scripture doth plainly set out there must no unclean thing enter into the Holy City None can be Heirs of this Kingdome but the sons of God nor any be the sons of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8. And what are the Fruits and Effects of that domestick Guide the Apostle has plainly told us already Galat. 5. That the fruits of the Spirit are Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentlenesse Goodnesse Faith Meekness Temperance And they that are Christs in whose Title alone it is that we can lay claim to Heaven have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And again Rom. 8. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live that is to say ye shall live the life of Peace and Joy and Righteousness here and of Eternal Glory hereafter 6. Wherefore we see what an urgent Power the Meditation of future Happiness is to the Believer to make him endeavour to the utmost to be Partaker of the Divine Nature and to aspire to a due measure of Holiness without which we shall necessarily be frustrate of our expected Happiness The consideration whereof cannot but wean him from all the exorbitant desires of the Pleasures Profits or Honours of this World Which though they had not intermingled with them many vexations and distasts much care and solicitude but were certain for this life and entire yet Life being uncertain and the longest terme thereof but like a Dream or a Post that goes by in comparison of our future abode elsewhere I dare leave it to the worldly mans own computation what a pittiful bargain he has made in forgoing what is to come for these temporary Enjoyments worse far then he that sold his Birth-right for a mess of Pottage But I shall not dilate any further on so plain a matter All the Wit and Rhetorick of Man cannot move him whom those known but weighty Words of our Saviour will not VVhat will it profit a man to gain the whole VVorld and to lose his own Soul CHAP. XVIII 1. The Day of Judgement the seventh and last Gospel-power fit as well for the regenerate as the unregenerate to think upon 2. The Uncertainty of that Day and that it will surprize the wicked unawares 3. That those that wilfully reject the offers of Grace hâ—re shall be in better condition after Death then the Devils themselves are 4. A Description of the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord. 5. The Affrightment of the Morning-appearance thereof to the wicked 6. A further Description thereof 7. The Translation of the Church of Christ to their Aethereal Mansions with a brief Description of their Heavenly Happinesse 1. WE come now to the Seventh and last Power of the Gospel which is The consideration of the dreadful Solemnity of the Day of Iudgement the very mention whereof from the mouth of Paul made Felix the Governour to tremble And I must confess it is so hard an Engine that it is more fit to beat upon the obdurate hearts of the Unbeliever and Unregenerate that are crusted over with Iron and Flint then for battery against the truly Regenerate and sincere Believers for those other Powers of the Gospel are more proper and abundantly sufficient for carrying them on with courage and constancy in the waies of God But there is in the Day of Iudgement an Object not
misbeseeming their most serious thoughts which is the perfecting and finishing of the Redemption of the Godly VVe shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed and that for the better For whatever is mortal then shall put on Immortality and none of the Saints shall be worse clothed then in a Body of an Heavenly and Aethereal consistence This is that incorruptible crown of Glory of Life and of Righteousness which the Apostles mention and S. Paul expresly declares to be laid up for him against that day namely the Day of Iudgement Which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give him at that day and not to him alone but to all those that love his appearing that is to say Whose affections and consciences are so sincere that they longingly expect when he will consummate and finish the happinesse of his Church and should be so far from fear that their hearts would exult for joy to hear the sound of the Trump and see the Sky grow bright by the overspreading of his Heavenly Camp in the Air. 2. This Meditation therefore reaching as well the unconverted as the converted it had been ill omitted of us And that it may take the better effect we are to suggest what will be able to break down or prevent such false and foolish Fortifications as the Minde of man may rear up against it to bear off the powerful Assaults it makes upon his Soul and Conscience These are chiefly two The one the long Intervall of time from hence to that Day which makes the terrour thereof little as things seem lesse the farther they are removed from our eyes The second is the hope that within so long a space they may have time to repent and be converted though they live as they lift in this life For they may prepare themselves for that Day in the other life which is to come But to the first I answer That the approach of this Day is very uncertain by reason of the obscurity of Prophecies and of the very Completions of them and is left so for the present exercise of the good and the perpetual vexation of the wicked both in this state of things and that which is to come His appearance therefore will be sudden like a Comet or blazing-Star which no man could tell when it would first appear but more terrible and minacious by farre not threatning the death of this or that Prince or the change of this or that State but the overturning of all States and Kingdoms and the burning up the Earth with all the Works and Inhabitants thereof with unquenchable Fire And that evil which a man does not know but may begin to morrow if duely thought upon cannot seem at a great distance but near at hand and ready to surprise him 3. To the other I answer That he that wilfully rejects the offers of Grace and Opportunities of becoming holy and good in This life he shall have no more priviledge in the other then the Devils themselves have who as S Iude expresly tels us are reserved in everlasting chains of Darknesse unto the Iudgement of the great Day who shall then inevitably undergo the Fate of Sodom and Gomorrha who are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire And what manner of Persons these are Iude and Peter have both very graphically described such as had totally evaded all obligation to true Holinesse and Righteousnesse and were of an impure and foul conversation Filthy dreamers defiling the Flesh despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities Followers of Balaam perverting the truth for a reward Spots in the Christian Societies feeding themselves without fear Clouds without water blown about with every winde of false doctrine Fruitless Trees Raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame Wandring Starres to whom is reserved the blacknesse of darkness for ever No more hope of them therefore then of Lucifer and his accursed Accomplices And S. Peter pronounces the same sentence of them for they are plainly the same persons namely bold and daring spirits arrogant and self-conceited despising government and reproaching authority such as speaking great swelling words of vanity allure through the lusts of the flesh in much wantonnesse those that were clean escaped from them that live in errour Day-rioters having their eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin or forbear the recommending of the liberty thereof to others but beguile unstable souls Having their hearts exercised with crafty and covetous practises Wells without water Clouds carried about with Tempests adjudged to utter darkness for ever For with the Devils they are cast down into Hell and delivered up even as they to chains of darknesse to be reserved to the day of Iudgement 2 Pet. 2. So that there is no more hope of such impenitent Sinners that have laid waste their Consciences and wilfully neglected or resisted the manifold convictions clear illuminations and frequent offers of Grace and Assistance from the dispensations of the Gospel after this life then there is of those old Apostates the wicked spirits that are kept as Prisoners in Hell till that fearful and terrible Day of the Lord. 4. That Day of the Lord wherein all unbelieving Flesh shall tremble and every Face gather blackness For this will prove a day of Wrath indeed a day of Anguish and Distresse a day of Devastation and Desolatenesse a day of Darknesse and of Gloominesse a day of Clouds and of thick Darknesse a day of the Trumpet and Alarm against the fenced Cities and the high Towers not of Iudah only but against all the Nations of the Earth For the Lord himself will descend from Heaven to revenge him of his Enemies He shall take to him his Iealousie for compleat Armour and turn the whole Creation into weapons of his displeasure His severe wrath shall be sharpened for a sword and the World shall fight with him against the unwise Then shall the right-aiming Thunderbolts go abroad and from the Clouds as from a well-drawn Bow shall they fly to the mark And hail-stones of wrath shall be cast as out of a Stone-bow and the waters of the Sea shall boil and rage against them and hot scalding Flouds shall overflow them and drown them and they shall be blown about with fiery Windes and wearied out with the whirlwinde and they shall have no Peace nor Solace for ever The Moon and Stars shall withdraw their shining and the Sun shall be turned into bloud For nothing but Mists and Fogs and Stench nothing but sulphureous Vapours smoring Heat dark Clouds charged with horrid Thunder and Lightning immense Earthquakes and innumerable Eruptions of subterraneous Flames crackling Volcanoes smoaking Mountains high flakes and tortuous streams of Fire from burning Forrests and Woods lowd Shreeks and howlings of affrighted Men and Beasts grim and grisly Apparitions deep and dreadful Groans of tormented Ghosts nothing but such uncomfortable Objects as these shall fill up the Scene of
the Earth and Air when once that Final Vengeance has seised upon the Wicked 5. This is the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord and the Morning-Appearance thereof will not be much more chearful to either the Hypocrite or Prophane person For the hopes of the Hypocrite cannot but fail and his heart sink like a stone while he sees the righteous Judge that tries the heart and reins coming in the clouds of Heaven to execute vengeance on the wicked and to deliver the godly from that imminent fate that attends the Earth And the proud scoffing Epicurean that laugh'd at Religion as a piece of weakness and foolery and impudently denied there was either God or Providence in the world he will then to his utter shame and confusion acknowledge his own Philosophy which he thought such an high piece of wit before the most unhappy Folly and Madnesse he could have light upon For he shall be confuted to his very outward Senses when he shall see Christ himself appear with all his Heavenly Host attending him when he shall hear the sound of the Trump and see forthwith the whole Air filled with his glittering Legions consisting of Saints and Angels For the Trump shall sound saith the Apostle and then those that have already departed this life shall immediatly appear in their celestial Harness in their glorified bodies For those that are alive shall not prevent those that are dead but rather the contrary For those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and harness them with the bright Armour of Life and Immortality whereby they become part of that glorious Angelical Host wherewith our dread Soveraign and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ will face the Earth a while to the exceeding great astonishment and terrour os the wicked World 6. Out of which by the Ministry of his Angelical Troops will he gather his Saints that are found alive in the flesh from all the corners of the Earth as the Angels plucked Lot out of Sodom when the City was to be destroyed with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven a Type questionless of this Final Judgement And whether it be by the quick descent of fiery Chariots like that of Elias who was safely thereby conveighed to Heaven and about a thousand years after conversed with our Saviour on the Mount or bright shining clouds glistering with the glory and lustre of their celestial guides be made foot-stools for them to get up on for there is no fear that the weight of their Bodies should break through their Earth and Flesh being of a sudden changed into pure Aether or whatever other pomp and solemnity there may be in their transportation from the rest of the World unto that glorious Company that strikes all mens eyes with amazement while they look up into the sky This visible Selection of the Good from the Bad must needs fill the hearts of the Wicked with unspeakable Dread and Horrour And that partly by reason of the present wonders of this unexpected supernatural Visitation which thus suddenly has surprised them through unbelief and partly from the sad presage of what will follow even that horrid and dismal Tempest which we have already described that endless Night of Thunders and Lightnings and Earthquakes of roarings and howlings and utter confusion and destruction for ever 7. Which direful vengeance having once entred upon that execrable crue forsaken of God and given up to the merciless Rage of the incensed Elements the victorious Church of Christ retreats with the rest of the Angelical Hosts marching up the Ethereal Regions in goodly Order and lovely Equipage filling as they go along the re-echoing sky with Songs of Joy and Triumph For this is the greatest day of Solemnity the highest Festival that can be celebrated in the Heavens whose Inhabitants if they rejoice at the conversion of one sinner what Joy and Rejoicing must they express at the complete Redemption of the whole Church when Jesus Christ the Prince of our Salvation who is able to save to the utmost has perfectly redeemed us body and soul and leading Captivity captive rescuing us from the power of Hell Death and the Devil does resettle us again in our own Land and reestablish us into the ancient Liberties of the Sons of God making us fellow-citizens with the pure and unpolluted Angels and free Partakers of all the Rights and Immunities of the celestial Kingdom even of that Kingdom where there is Order and Government without Envy and Oppression Devotion without Superstition Beauty without Blemish Love without Lust Sweetness without Satiety where there is outward Splendidness without Pride Musick without Harshness Friendship without Designe Wisedom without Wrinkles and Wit without Vain-glory where there is Kindnesse without Craft Activity without Weariness Health without Sickness and Pleasure without Pain and lastly where there is the Vision of God the Society of Christ the Familiarity of Angels and Communion of Saints where there is Love and Joy and Peace and Life for evermore Upon the consideration of which ineffable Happiness what inference can be more genuine then what S. Paul has made already on the same Subject Wherefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. CHAP. XIX 1. That there can be no Religion more powerful for the promoting of the Divine Life then Christianity is 2. The external Triumph of the Divine Life in the person of Christ how throughly warranted and how fully performed 3. The Religious Splendour of Christendom 4. The Spirit of Religion stifled with the load of Formalities 5. The satisfaction that the faithfully-devoted Servants of Christ have from that Divine homage done to his Person though by the wicked 1. I Have now sufficiently exposed to your view the Nature and Use of this seven-fold Engine these Seven Powers of the Gospel how potent they are to beat down every strong hold of sin and to raise up the Divine Life and Spirit of Righteousness in us That they have done so little execution in Christendom hitherto that disquisition I shall deferre till its due place In the mean time I appeal to all the World if there can be invented a Religion more powerful for this purpose then the Christian Religion is 2. But for the external Triumphs of the Divine Life in reference to the Person of Christ the Usefulness of our Religion in that point is demonstrable not only from the Frame thereof in it self but from the long and constant Effects it has had in the Christian World For as for the Frame of our Religion we have therein a full warrant to do the highest Divine homage to Christ that we can express He being so clearly therein declared The true Son of God not only by several Testimonies from Heaven but also by that supernatural manner of his generation in the womb of the Virgin by the overshadowing of the Holy
shun the breath of such a Seducer as of one that is infected with the pestilence and whose converse is death and the eternal ruin of our very Souls 2. The Second Principle that he is closely to keep to is That I had almost said Omnipotent Faith in God through Christ I mean the belief of the assistance of his holy Spirit to overcome all manner of sin in us For if we keep up duely to this nothing will be able to withstand us but by patience and perseverance we shall be able to beat out Satan out of his strongest holds According to thy faith so be it unto thee is true as well in Christs healing our Souls as in his curing the bodies of the sick when he was upon earth This is a prime branch of that saving Faith and the greatest strength and sustentation we have to keep us from sinking back into sin and from being drown'd and carried away with the flouds of ungodliness If we let this hold go all is gone For they that doe not believe that they have power to resist sin must of necessity give up themselves captives to it And this is that which makes S. Paul so affectionately devout in the behalf of the Ephesians that God would be pleased to give them this special gift of Faith for their strength and corroboration of the inward man chap. 3. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love c. according as I have elswhere rehearsed And in the Doxologie immediately following this prayer of what unconceivable efficacy the operations of the Spirit are in us the Apostle again does intimate in a very high strain Now unto him that is able to doe exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Which words plainly imply that such is the inexhaustible richness of Grace and Assistance from the Spirit of God that the effect of its inward workings in us is for the present not imaginable much less expressible Wherefore our Faith cannot be too great in this supernatural Principle and the greater it is the greater courage and the more speedy and more absolute victory 3. And yet there is still another Principle that will further actuate our Faith and make us still more lively resolute and invincible and that is The Love of Christ which every young Christian is to warme himself with and inflame his courage more and more which he will best do by frequent Meditations upon Christs Passion what shame what sorrow and pain he underwent to gain the love of Souls and so to try them to himself in those sweet and inviolable bands of sincere love and friendship that by this golden chain he may pull them up after him from Earth to Heaven Let therefore our new-Covenanter as often as he reflects upon the exceeding great love of his Saviour and finds his heart begin to grow hot being touch'd with a ray from that celestial Flame that bright Sun of righteousness that now shines at the right hand of God let him be sure to remember what compensation he requires for all that dear affection he has shewn to us The lesson is but short and therefore must not be forgotten If you love me keep my Commandements CHAP. XI 1. The diligent search this new-Covenanter ought to make to finde out whatsoever is corrupt and sinful 2. That the truly regenerate cannot be quiet till all corruption be wrought out 3. The most importunate devotions of a living Christian. 4. The difference betwixt a Son of the Second Covenant and a Slave under the First 5. The Mystical completion of a Prophecy of Esay touching this state 1. THE young Christian being thus armed with Faith and Love and an unwavering sense of his duty in becoming holy even as he that called him is holy he will be then both willing and ready to look his enemies in the face and to seek them out if he cannot at first sight finde them and to pull them out of every hiding-place of Hypocrisy and bring them into the open light and slay them And if after diligent search he can finde none yet he will be so modest as to distrust the measure of his skill and will be earnest in Prayer to God to discover what inward hidden wickedness there may lurk yet in him to the end that the old Leven may be utterly cast out and that there may be nothing left that is contrary to the Scepter of Christ and the Kingdome of God in his heart 2. For indeed it is impossible that one is truely regenerate and has the seed of God and the life of his Spirit actually in him should be quiet till all that which is unholy and corrupt be wrought out But the case is much-what as in the natural body that is sick either death or health will in a competent time possess the body If the morbifick matter be not carried away by sweating purging or some evacuation or other Life it self will be carried away but if that which is contrary to life be remov'd Health must certainly take place 3. And so it is in the Divine life it self when it has taken root and growth whatever is contrary to it is burdensome to it like that tyrannick project of tying the living and the dead together Wherefore the true Christian can never be at ease and rest till he has cast off that heavy load the body of sin the old man that stinks earthily and unsavourly if he be perceived at all and indeed so unsufferably that the divine life and sense in a man cannot endure it Nor can endure to be in a condition so sensless that there should be any of that â—our Leven left and yet there be no perception of it And therefore the most importunate address to the throne of Grace in a living Christian is that God would be pleased to discover whatever ugliness or deformity there is in him in either practise or principle Which God of his mercy does by degrees not all at once that there may not arise overmuch distraction and confusion But if we be not wanting to our selves the work will be accomplish'd in due time and the Kingdom of heaven as well within as without will be as a grain of Mustard-seed The Crisis of the disease will be in a competent time as I said before and our whole man re-enlivened with the Spirit of God and restored to the state of righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost 4. For verily to be quiet upon any other terms but these is not to be a Son of the Second Covenant but a careless
and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him There is a further enumeration of the Angelical classes Colos. 1. where the Apostle speaking of this high exaltation of the Person of Christ he intimates not only the Subjection of the Orders of Angels to him but their Reconciliation to God by him and as some would have it a fuller Confirmation of them in his favour vers 15. Who is the Image of the invisible God the First-born of every Creature For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist And he is the Head of the body the Church He is the Beginning the First-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell And making peace through the bloud of his Crosse to reconcile all things by him unto himself whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven So mighty and wonderfull was the result of the Humiliation of our Saviour and so clear and warrantable an Object is he of Divine Adoration 3. Thus is the Divine Life Triumphant in the Person of Christ the Head of his Church But another main design of the Gospel is That the Divine Life may be advanced in us that is that Faith in God through Christ that Humility Love and Purity may have their due growth in us here that thereby we may be fitted to receive that immortal Crown of Glory which he will bestow upon all true believers at the last day when he shall carry his whole Church with songs of Joy and Triumph into his celestial Kingdome That this is the main purpose of the Gospell I have already sufficiently proved and therefore need adde nothing in this place 4. The fourth and last Rule or Measure of Opinions is The Recommendableness of our Religion to those which are without that is to say We must have a special care of affixing thereto any of our own Inventions or Interpretations of Scripture for Christian Truths which may seem uncouth and irrational to strangers and such as are as yet disengaged For though those that by reason of their education have had full acquaintance with Christianity will adhere to their Religion though it may be corrupted with many false glosses and fond opinions of men as indispensably obtruded as the undoubted Scripture it self yet strangers that are free and unaccustomed to them will not fail to boggle at them and being offered to them also with equal Authority with the very Word of God they will be necessitated to fly back and to relinquish the Holy Truth by reason of the indissoluble intertexture of the gross falshoods they find interwoven with it A thing that is seriously to be considered by all those that bear any love to the Gospel and desire that it may be propagated and promoted in the World For certainly it was intended for a more general good and larger diffusion then has been hitherto by reason of its having fallen into faithless and treacherous hands who make it only an instrument of gaining wealth and power to themselves and of riding the people and not of gaining souls to God CHAP. IV. 1. The general use of the foregoing Rules 2. A special use of them in favour of one anothers persons in matters of opinion 3. The examination of Election and Reprobation according to these Rules And how well they agree with that Branch of the Divine Life which we call Humility 4. The disagreement of absolute Reprobation with the first Rule 5. As also with the third 6 And with the second and fourth 1. THese are the four main Rules which I conceive very usefull to examine either other mens Opinions or our own And if the heat of our spirits or the confidence of others would urge upon us pretended Truths for to admit of open falsities or forgeries for what advantage soever is intolerable that are not subservient to these designs above named we may well look upon them as idle curiosities and if they pretend also to Revelation or Inspiration that it is nothing but Madness and fanatick Delusion But if they do not only not promote but countermine those designs above mentioned they are to be looked upon then not as frivolous but dangerous and impious and so to be declined by all means possible And lastly though they appear such as may contribute something to those designs if followed and embraced yet I must adde also this caution that they are not to be forc'd so as that unless a man will profess them he must be accounted no good Christian. For they coming from a fallible and doubtfull hand they ought not in reason to infringe that undoubted right of Christian liberty the Scripture alone being full enough to perfect a Christian both in life and doctrine 2. There is also a further use to be made of these Rules in favour of one anothers persons though of different Opinions that is by taking notice what good they drive at as well as what evil they tend to which makes much for peace and brotherly kindness and may blunt the edge of eager and bitter zeal that makes the over-fervid Zelot think that he that is of a contrary opinion to him intends nothing but mischief by his opposite doctrine In examining therefore every Opinion we are to observe what design of the Gospel it agrees with as well as what it crosses And that the Use of our Rules may the better appear I shall now shew the practice of them by trying some few Opinions of no small note by this Touchstone For it were an endless business to examine all and needless because by these examples he that lists may examine the rest indeed any that either has been or ever will offer it self to the World in matters of Religion 3. The first that occurrs is such an Election and Reprobation that wholly excludes Free will The Controversie is so well known that I need not state it Applying this doctrine to the four Rules I have set down I find in the Third that it has some compliance with that choice branch of the Divine Life namely Humility and a submission of a mans self and all the World to the will of God It is the Lord let him doe what he pleases And that therefore a serious and humble Soul being much taken up and transported with this consideration may think of nothing else but take this Doctrine to be very Truth nay live and die in it and go to heaven when he has done Whence it were a piece of Satanical Fury to persecute any such Opinionist and want of Charity these living as well as other Christians not to bear as good affection to them as to
not look then like a piece of irreligious rudeness which is truly a kinde of Prophaneness to expect that Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ should give us the meeting in squalid and sordid places even then when we pretend most to shew our Reverence and Devotion to him For though we may make bold one with another to meet where we please yet we making our approaches to God in those places and he thereby making his special approaches to us for in a Philosophical sense he is every where alike questionless it cannot but be an expression of our Reverence unto him to have the Structure of the place proportionably capacious well and fairly built and handsomely adorned and as properly and significantly of our Religion and devotional homages we owe to our crucified Saviour as can be without suspicion of Idolatry or any scandalous Superstition For it is true from the very light of Nature which the knowledge of Christ does not extinguish but direct and perfect That Houses of Publick worship ought to have some Stateliness and Splendour in them expressive of the Reverence we bear to the Godhead we do adore And therefore the Christian Magistrate for the honour of his Saviour who suffered so much shame for him as also for making Christian Religion more recommendable to them that are without for Religion will not seem Religion to any without Publick worship nor a desirable Religion unless this Publick worship be performed with inoffensive Splendour and Decency ought to assist and abett such good practices as these 3. It is beyond the limits of my present Discourse to make any curious inquisition or determination concerning the particularities of this Publick Worship though I cannot abstain from giving some general hints concerning the due managements of the chief matters thereof such as are most obvious to think of and most useful to consider And such are the Enquiries into the nature of the Place of this Publick worship and the Holiness thereof and our Demeanour therein and especially of those chief performances of Preaching Praying Receiving the Sacrament of Baptisme also and of Holy-days To which we may adde those accessory helps of Devotion as some account them Musick and Pictures Concerning which I shall rather simply declare my sense of things then solicitously endeavour to demonstrate my Conclusions by over-operose Reasonings which will but raise a dust and provoke the Polemical Rabble 4. Concerning therefore this House of Publick Worship the Christians meet in I conceive there is no need to phansie it a Temple nay rather it seems fit to look upon it as no Temple the use of that Ceremony being antiquated by the excellency and supereminency of our Religion For the famed Iehovah is not now a Topical Deity nor Christ confined to this or that City or People but is the declared Worship of the whole Earth and is not contained within the wals of any Temple but has his personal Residence in Heaven whither our Devotions are to be directed and our Mindes suspended and lifted up thitherward not debased nor defixed to the corners of any earthly Edifice into which when a man looks he findes nothing worthy of adoration To which Truth both Stephen and Paul give their suffrage the one declaring to the Iews the other to the Areopagites That the most High who is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And our Saviour himself to the Samaritan woman who was solicitous which of those Temples that of Samaria or that of Ierusalem was the right place of Worship he tels her plainly that such Topical or Figurative worshipping of God was shortly to cease That the hour was coming and then was when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth that is by the inward Sanctity of their Souls and with the true service of Prayers and Praises and Alms-deeds of which Incense and Sacrifices were but the figures and shadows Let my prayer be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice To do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased And lastly S. Iohn in his Apocalyps describing the condition of the New Ierusalem which is the Church of Christ in her best state I saw saith he no Temple there for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it That is their worship is directed immediatly towards God and Christ not to any place as the Jews ever worshipped toward the Temple of Ierusalem 5. But though the nature and name of a Temple does not belong to this House of Publick worship according to the sense of Scripture which made also the Primitive Christians carefully abstain from that nomination yet I do not see any ground at all why some of our phanciful Sects should take offence at the name of Church applied thereto For the Church being an house wherein we meet to serve the Lord whether God the Father or Christ his Son both which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this house is naturally there from denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek whence is our English word Church as every trivial Grammarian can tell them 6. But now it being thus plain that it is an house for Divine worship and therefore has a special relation to God though it be not dedicated in such a solemn manner as Solomon's Temple yet it does necessarily contract a kinde of Holiness hereby and by this Holiness some measure of respect namely that it should be kept in handsome repair and be carefully defended from all foulness and nastiness both within and without And because Custome has appropriated it to the service of God unless very great necessity urge it is not to be made use of to any other purposes Those that are otherwise affected in this matter may justly seem guilty of a kinde of Incivility against God as I may so call it and hazard the being accounted Clowns in the sight of the Court of Heaven and all the holy Angels As that also might be reputed a piece of unskilfulness and obsolete Courtship to complement any one part of this House as if there were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there and the Ark of the Covenant For this would be to turn the Church of Christ into a Temple Wherefore those that at their entrance into the Congregation either kneel down or standing do their private devotion and continue bare-headed before Divine Service begin they mean not this Devotion to the Edifice but testifie only with what fear and reverence they make their approaches to God and their Hearts being in preparation to a nearer approach shew their sense of his coming nearer to them by this reverential observance For Veneration is done at the coming of great