God because he findes them harmless peaceable and beneficiall or because himself is of a good sanguine benigne complexion But this Love in a man that makes not conscience of the Commandements of God is merely animal and natural not proceeding from that community of the Divine Spirit which all the Regenerate participate of but out of complexion and self-love which will adhere to any thing that it feels a naturall comfort from But if this Childe of God prove something spinose and harsh in opposing rebuking or it may be not complying with some dearly-beloved humours of this good-natured sanguine his corrupt bloud will then begin to boyl against the Son of God and return him hatred for his good will 3. And as this blessed Apostle and peculiarly-beloved of our Saviour has made so carefull a caution that the Love he recommends to the world should not slack so low as to draggle in the dirt so has he wisely provided against the Hypocrisie of high-flown Religionists who pretend to be so transported with love to God and his service that they quite forget their neighbour and therefore at the end of the foregoing Chapter he does plainly pronounce that If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this commandement have we from him that he that loveth God love his brother also Which duty of the Second Table being most hard and the most lâ—able to be cast off through the Hypocrisie of mens hearts the inculcation thereof is most frequent with the Apostles Paul to the Ephesians chap. 4. ver 31. Let all bitternesse and anger and wrath and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And be ye kinde one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake has forgiven you Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour And Colos. 3.12 Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindenesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse long-suffering Forbearing one another and forgiving one another even as Christ forgave you And above all things put on Charity which is the bond of perfectnesse and let the peace of God rule in your hearts c. Peter also in his first generall Epistle Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently And in his second Epistle ch 1. And besides this giving all diligence adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly kindnesse and to brotherly kindnesse charity 4. The coherence of this golden chain of Divine Graces is so admirable that I cannot passe it by though it be beside my present purpose to speak any thing of the places I cite But we shall not so well understand the fit connexion of these Vertues with themselves nor of the whole link of them with the precedent Text without rectifying the Translation in a word or two The Apostle in the foregoing verses intimates to them how God has provided for them according to his divine power all things appertaining to life and Godlinesse through the knowledge of his Son Iesus Christ who hath called us in glory and virtue and given us exceeding great and precious promises that having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust we should be partakers of the divine nature and then comes in what has been recited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they have rendred And besides this Which Translation makes no connexion of sense with the former words but is very abrupt nor will the phrase I think bear that meaning It is better sense and more laudable Criticisme to render it thus And therefore forthwith or without any more adoe adde to your faith vertue c. Which latter words are not well rendred neither The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grotius would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be redundant there so that his suffrage is for the English Translation But for my own part I think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so far from being redundant that it is essentiall to the sentence and interposed that we might understand a greater Mystery then the mere adding of so many Vertues one to another which would be all that could be expresly signified if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were left out But the preposition here signifying causality there is more then a mere enumeration of those Divine Graces For there is also implied how naturally they rise one out of another and that they have a causall dependence one of another Therefore the sense is That God having on his part fitted all things for their Salvation and they having obtained like precious Faith with the Apostle himself that through the efficacy of their Faith they should also acquire Virtue that is Strength and Fortitude For high and noble Promises excite courage and resolution to set upon the difficulties through which they must passe that would obtain the Promises And this encountring with the difficulties that are in a Christian mans way while he is not a talker of Christianity but a reall actour and cordiall endeavourer to follow the Precepts and Example of Christ will beget not verbal but true Knowledge in him that is holy Experience in the wayes of God And in this Experience he is taught how those fleshly and worldly lusts and desires have often deceived him and led him out of the way blinding his judgement by their importunate suggestions and extinguishing or at least dulling those more religious and divine senses of the Soul when their importunities are listened to and their cravings satisfied And therefore this Knowledge and Experience begets Temperance that is a more rigid resolution of curbing and keeping under of all worldly and carnal desires and a peremptory refraining from giving any answer to their impudent beggings and cravings Which things if a man seriously attempt in its due extent and latitude questionless he will put himself upon a very intolerable task and there will be no remedy but Patience which he will find so mightily out of his power that he will be forced upon his knees to the God of heaven to comfort assist and strengthen him in his agony and conflict against his domestick enemies and to support his spirit in so great anguish and pain Whence it is plain that we cannot keep close to the laws of Temperance but that Patience will necessarily emerge therefrom nor be kept in this Spirit of Patience without the invocation and acknowledgment of Divine assistance which is an unquestionable
a generous sense of Political Iustice a severe profession of Temperance and a great affectation of Knowledge especially of things to come But as for Political Iustice and Civil Agreement and Concord which he seems often to be very sensible of and earnestly to exhort the Cities to where he went no less then this can be entertained in the very Kingdome of Satan which if it were divided against it self could not stand And for his vehement affectation of Knowledge it is evident that it is a mere branch of the Natural life and such as is as competible to the Apostate Spirits nay more by far then to an ordinary good man and Apollonius his Temperance aiming but at this which is so low and vile how far short does it fall of what is truely Heavenly and Divine This therefore is observable in him that if he quitted one Entanglement of the Animal life it was the more fully and willingly to be fettered by another 3. But the strongest chain of darkness that he was caught in is that of Pride which though it be made of more subtil and small links yet holds us longer captive then any This is that which blemishes the History of his Life more then any Immorality else whatsoever For to what but this can be reduced that scornfull and ridiculous Prayer he made to Apollo at Antioch that he would turn the countrey-people into Cypress-trees that the winde taking their branches they might at least by that means make some sound they being as yet quite mute and not able to discourse with so sage a Philosopher To what but this can we impute that magnificent answer he gave the keeper of the bridge as he passed into Mesopotamia when he was demanded what merchandizes he brought To whom he reply'd That he brought along with him Iustice Temperance Fortitude Continence Tolerance Magnanimity and Constancy He addes Modesty to the rest but it was ill plac'd in so flaunting a display of his own praises To what but this can you referre his cavilling with the sober questions ask'd him by the Captain of the guards on the confines of Babylon where he takes upon him as if himself was King of every country he came into 4. But what need we recite particulars his whole Life being nothing else but a lofty strutting on the stage of the Earth or an industrious trotting from one Nation of the World to another to gather Honour and Applause to himself by correcting the Customes of the Heathen or renewing their fallen Rites and playing the uncontrollable Reformer whereever he pleas'd Which is a very pleasant thing to flesh and bloud Besides the bold visits he gave to Princes and Potentates with the greatest confidence and ostentation of his own Vertues that could be imagined making himself the measure of others worth insomuch that he would not do the ordinary homage to Bardanes King of Babylon til he was certified whether his Vertues deserved it or no. With whom as also with other Princes he treated of Political affairs not detrecting to intermeddle with the present administration of Justice But this unexpected audacity of his proved ever succesful he alwaies by I know not what luck or power swaggering himself into Respect by despising the both pomp and persons of the greatest So that he was ever haile fellow well met with the highest Kings and Emperours they being ever taken with great admiration of his Wisdome And therefore Bardanes is brought in in the Story courting of him at last and earnestly intreating the beggerly Philosopher to take his lodging in his Palace shewing him all the glory and pomp of his Kingdome offering him great summes of gold and precious stones The former whereof though he refused yet he could not well abstain from fingering the latter under pretence forsooth that there was some strange Philosophick virtue in them as also that they should be an offering to the Gods at their return into their own country 5. So also Phraotes King of India is said to receive him with very great Respect he carrying him to bathe himself in his Royal bath and after receiving him at a Feast and placing him next himself above his Nobles Beside the great Honour he had from Iarchas and the rest of the Brachmans to whom the King of India wrote in his behalf Where in conference with those Sages he was plac'd in Phraotes his chair of State forbad also to rise up at the coming in of the King of Media with whom at that banquet which I have already mentioned he having some contestation the King became at last so much his friend that he was almost uncivilly importunate to see him at his own Court in Media at his return 6. Adde unto these his busy intermedling in the affairs of the Roman Empire his large Political conferences with Vespasian his abetting conspiracies against Nero and Domitian his learned discourses with the Babylonian Magi concerning whom he told Damis that they were not so perfect but that they wanted the benefit of some of his instructions as he confessed that something he learned from them his campling and cavilling with the Gymnosophists who though they seemed not so great Wizzards yet were not less vertuous then either the Brachmans or himself and lastly his plausible language and great Eloquence he making in several places very winning Orations and Exhortations to Morality and the observance of the most behooffull Laws and Institutes such as would tend most to Civility and the Peace and Security of the People 7. From all which it is most evident That a naturall sense of Honour and Gallantry was the wing and Spirit that made Apollonius such a great stickler in his time and that he being of a lofty and generous nature apt to reach out at high things the Kingdome of darkness hook'd him in to make an Instrument of him for their own turn and so to dress up Paganism in the best attire they could to make it if it were possible to vie with Christianity and that there should be nothing wanting to this Corrival of Christ the Indian Brachmans pronounced him of that eminency that he deserved to be reputed and honoured as a Deity both living and dead as I have already related to you 8. But if the Excellency of his Person be better examined he will be found so far from being in the rank of a God that there can be no more acknowledged of him then that he was of the better sort of Beasts that is that he was a mere natural man onely dressed up and disguised by his Pythagorick diet and habit and a Magical power of doing of Miracles as is demonstrable from the whole tenour of his Story there being nothing in it that relishes or savours what is above the Animal life From whence we may safely conclude there is nothing in him Divine CHAP. XII 1. The Contrariety of the Spirit of Christ to that of Apollonius 2. That the History of Apollonius be it true or
discovery thereof from this prediction of his from the Halo compared with his phrantick Ecstasies at Ephesus 6. A general Conclusion from the whole parallel of the Acts of Christ and Apollonius 1. THat Exploit at Rome which was the raising of a young woman to life that was carrying to be buried had been indeed a more solid Miracle if it had been any at all But the time not being set down how long she had been dead it was most likely that it was no more then is competible to a Trance But the Knowledge of the Devil extending further then his Power he might easily inform Apollonius what a seasonable opportunity he had to doe a seeming Miracle But our Saviour's raising of Lazarus after he had been four daies buried gives sufficient credit to his other two Miracles of that kind that they were reall and true This Re-enlivening therefore of the new-married bride at Rome is rather to be referred to the Predictions or Divinations of Apollonius then to his Miracles which were very few in comparison of the other Of which yet we will give you some Examples for it would not be worth the while to reckon up all nor to reherse these at large but only briefly to name them 2. Such therefore was the Discovery of the unclean lust of Timasion his mother-in-law in Aegypt and the Prediction of a foul act in an Eunuch upon one of the King of Babylon's Concubines as also of saving Pharion at Alexandria from being executed amongst other Robbers that were led along to die by keeping the Executioner in discourse till a messenger on horseback galloping with all speed seconded Apollonius his Divination with a clear demonstration of Pharion's innocency You may add to these his Divinations by Dreams as that of the suppliant Fishes that besought the Dolphin's favour which he interpreted to the advantage of the Eretrians for whom he interceded with the the King of Babylon and another by which he was diverted from going to Rome till he had seen Candy a woman with a rich crown upon her head who told him she was the Nurse of Iupiter embracing him in his sleep and desiring him that he would first come to converse a while with her before he went to Rome Which woman he interpreted to be Crete where Iupiter was born and brought up 3. There were also several of his Divinations which he seemed to gather from some external accident in Nature Such was that from the chirping of the Sparrows in the midst of his Speech to the Ephesians whereupon he broke off to tell them that not far off a young man had spilt a sack of Corn in the street And that from the Lioness the Hunters had slain in Babylonia as Apollonius was in his journey to India which having eight young lions in her belly he presaged from thence that it would be a year and eight months till their return A third from a terrible thunder at an Eclipse at Rome whereupon he lifting up his eyes toward Heaven said that it were a great marvail indeed if this should end in nought But his meaning was known by the after-clap for Nero's Cup was struck out of his hand as he was drinking by a flash of lightning while he sate at table A fourth from a monstrous birth in Syracuse a woman of quality being brought to bed of a child with three heads which he interpreted of the three Roman Emperors Galba Otho and Vitellius 4. The fifth and last we shall mention is an Halo which was observed about the Sun in Greece which Meteor being round like a Crown but much obscuring the light of the Sun Apollonius his prediction was that one Stephanus which signifies a Crown should kill the Emperour Domitian But for my own part I conceive that the Observation of Prodigies can as little help a man in such punctual Predictions as of the Figurations of the Starres but that these things are pretenses and covers of a baser Art or rather of some wicked Superstition and unlawfull familiarity with the Apostate Spirits Which a notorious circumstance of the event of this last Prediction will demonstrate to the indifferent For while Domitian was a murdering at Rome Apollonius being at Ephesus sees the transaction of the business so plainly as if he had been there and at the very hour it was done encouraged Stephen to the act and starting backwards and forwards and staring terribly with his eyes bad him stab the Tyrant as if he had been present by to assist Which phrantick and gastly Ecstacy is an argument that he was then possessed of the Devil that raised this Theatre of things in his mind and therefore in all likelihood foretold him them also before they came to pass 6. Wherefore briefly to conclude concerning the Extraordinary acts of Christ and Apollonius in the one there is nothing but what is sound and necessary of weighty and usefull importance and from a divine and irreprehensible principle in the other nothing but what is either vainly affected slight and frivolous or else infernal and diabolical that of Pharion not expected which looks the most plausible of them all For that Divination is no more then is performed by ordinary Witches and that act of justice which was the reskuing of the innocent from death though good in it self was prostituted by him to base purposes to the gaining of credit to a grand Restorer of Paganisme and industrious upholder of the Kingdome of the Devil CHAP. XI 1. A Comparison of the Temper or Spirit in Apollonius with that in Christ. 2. That Apollonius his Spirit was at the height of the Animal life but no higher 3. That Pride was the strongest chain of darkness that Apollonius was held in with a rehersal of certain Specimens thereof 4. That his whole Life was nothing else but an exercise of Pride and Vain-glory boldly swaggering himself into respect with the greatest whereever he went 5. His reception with Phraotes King of India and Iarchas head of the Brachmans 6. His intermedling with the affairs of the Roman Empire his converse with the Babylonian Magi and Aegyptian Gymnosophists and of his plausible Language and Eloquence 7. That by the sense of Honour and Respect he was hook'd in to be so active an Instrument for the Kingdome of Darkness 8. That though the Brachmans pronounced Apollonius a God yet he was no higher then the better sort of Beasts 1. WE have made a Parallel of the Miracles and Prophesies of Christ and Apollonius and have spent our judgments upon them the truth of which censure that it may the better appear to all we shall briefly compare their Temper or frame of Spirit 2. Which I confess is as Brave in Apollonius as the Animal life will reach unto But that Animal life at the best falls short of the saving knowledg of God and is but that which in a manner is common to Beasts Devils and Men. This therefore we will acknowledge to be in Apollonius