State and their denial of all future punishments and from their false conceptions of the rise and fatality of Sin That these opinions are destructive to the service of a Deity and the concernments of Religion That they received opinions which destroyed morality This proved from their mistakes and errors 1. Touching the duties and concerns of love charity to their neighbour And secondly touching the laws of Chastity Justice and of truth Heathen Philosophy proved ineffectual not only to reforme the world but the Professors of it The wickedness of their lives The accounts and reasons of it Theresult of all in confirmation of the Christian Faith § 1. BUT that which is the Crown of all and indeed potissima demonstratio a most convincing evidence of the Assistance of the holy Spirit towards the propagation of the Gospel is the excellency of the Christian precepts and the subservience they bear not only to our future but to our present welfare § 2. IT were endless to insist upon the incredible Power of Christianity when cordially embraced to sheath the Sword beat it into plow-shares to still contentions and bind the hand to its good behaviour to prevent all waies of being cruel to our neighbours life or prejudicial to his estate and Fortunes or injurious to his name or honour by taking up or venting a reproach against him or by discovering those Errors and infirmities which Charity doth bind us to conceal It were infinite to recount those liberal provisions it hath made for Love and Charity pity and compassion and whatsoever may indear my Brother to me and draw forth all my powers to assist him It gives the truly generous and publick Spirit it commands every man to seek his Brothers weal and shew him all that kindness which he could expect or beg when under like necessity It bids us burn when others are afflicted and weep with those that weep That is it bids us be as forward to relieve them under all their pressures and afflictions as if their afflictions were our own Now what can further be required to our present happiness than the security of what a present we enjoy from any hand of violence and the assurance of our Brothers help towards the enjoyment of the thing we want Nor is it less conducive to the publick good Christianity gives such a relish of sublimer Bliss as disintangleth the more noble Soul from all the trivial concernes of earth It tells us that the freindship of this world is enmity to God that he who beares affection to these earthly things is but pretender to the love of heaven It inspires into us that contentmēt which allayes the hell torment of an inordinate still gaping appetite It transformes the man into humility and meekness and so prevents the tumult disturbance of the haughty Spirit It enforceth peace upon us by the strongest motives and threatneth an eternal flame to the Incendiary It moulds the Soul into a simple honest and sincere deportment and interdicts those flattering Addresses which belye the thoughts and Conscience of the Speaker and more then this it cannot do in order to our publick welfare since that can never suffer but from unjust and treacherous factious and turbulent proud worldly or rapacious Spirits § 3. CHRISTIANITY is a Religion highly perfective of humane nature and such as best comports with the concernments of our Souls and most advanceth its most noble faculties It gives the best discoveries of the Divine existence and of Providence and of that obedience and homage which we owe unto a Deity and of those attributes which are the only grounds and most prevailing motives to it viz. The Truth and Freedome the Justice Power Goodness the Wisdome Unity and Omnipresence of a Deity all which must be entirely owned as the foundations of reall Piety It presents us with such admirable discoveries of Wisdome Justice Goodness Mercy and Compassion in the contrivance and procurement of Pardon and Salvation to us by the death of Christ as Judaisme could never boast It holds forth the clearest light to guide our darke and purblind Reason into the paths of vertue and to secure us from the splitting rocks of Vice It gives the best and largest Comment upon those duties of the moral Law which are so imperfectly and so obscurely hinted by the light of nature and so much questioned and disputed by the Gentile World as wee shall see hereafter It discovers to us those impediments which would retard and clog us in the performance of our duty that so we may avoid them It makes the evil thought as guilty as the evil action and calls as much for purity of heart and freedome from every vile affection as from those actions that doe issue from them It setleth the floating soul on the firm Basis of divine veracity and for the Heathens faint surmises and the Jews darker shaddowes of good things to come it gives the Christians lively hopes and full assurances of Faith It tenders the holy Spirit as an earnest of our future bliss and assures us if we doe the will of heaven we shall know what is so In fine the knowledge of a future endless bliss and misery is the result of Gospel revelation which upon all these grounds doth best provide for the information of our understanding in what it is concern'd to know in order to our future happiness to wit the being of a God and our engagement to adore and serve him what will procure his Favour and will provoke his Indignation and what concernes we have sincerely to avoide the one and to pursue the other § 4. NEXT it presents the Will with the most soveraigne motives and engagements unto duty and bindes that on us with most powerful cords of Love and the amazing mercies of our God and Saviour The obligations of repeated vows and Covenants especially of those of Baptisme and the Sacred Eucharist the convictions of our conscience the laws and Sanctions of that Majesty who strikes an awe upon it and the example of our Saviours which doth at once prescribe to our obedience and provoke us to it It pains forth sin to us in its own dress attended with the dangers of present and a dreadful expectation of eternal miseries and those enhanced by all the aggravations which love and mercy conscience and duty the light of reason and religion the experience of our selves and others can afford it It presents Goodness to us in its fairest and most tempting aspects assures us that the ways of God are Good honourable safe and easie and full of comfort and present satisfaction to the Soul It courts the affections with the most admirable delights that heaven can tender it surrounds us with the pleasures of a virtuous life the joys of charity the comforts of an upright conscience the smiles of heaven and its concernment for the good man's welfare here and happiness hereafter such happiness as far exceeds what we are able
the prince of Peace 2ly It is most apparent that the immediate succeeding Age could not be ignorant of what was thus delivered to the Church whilst the Autographa were extant as Tertullian tells us in his time they were when the Canonical books were evidently proposed as such and if we may believe the suffrage of Antiquity collected and avouched by St John yea whilest those very persons were alive to whom those writings were directed and with whom they were entrusted yea by whom they were transcribed and 3 read in publick and in private 3ly This corruption of the word of God or substitution of any other doctrine for it could not be done by any part or Sect of Christians but they who had imbraced the Faith and used the same Copies of the word of God in other places of the Christian world must have found out the cheat and therefore this corruption if at all effected must be the work of the whole world of Christians But can it be supposed that the immediate succeeding ages should universally conspire to substitute their own inventions for the word of God and yet continue stedfast in and suffer so much for that Faith which denounced the severest judgments against them that should doe such things or that a world of men should with the hazard of their lives and fortunes and all that was dear to them in this present world avouch the Gospel and at the same time make so great a change even in the frame and substance of its doctrine become guilty of so universal an Apostacy from what the Gospel had delivered whilst it yet sounded in their eares employ'd their tongues and was the Matter of the worlds Great Contest and by so doing make it ineffectual Can it be thought that they should venture upon that which were the Gospel true or false must needs expose them to the Greatest evills whilst they continued Abettors of it But had this bin done can we in reason think that of those many thousands who in the Primitive Ages did renounce the Gospel that of those many 3 wavering Spirits those excommunicate Members especially those 4 Hereticks who upon other motives did renounce the Greatest part of Scripture I say can it be thought that none of those should publish and disclose the forgery or answer the Allegations made from Scriptures that they were all supposititious but that such apparent forgeries should find a general reception from all that searched into their Truth and be unquestionably received as genuine both by Jew and Gentile Christian and Pagan ever in those times in which and in those places where they first were uttered and by those Persons who so lately received another doctrine 4ly Suppose those Primitive Professors could have been Guilty of so vile a thing Can we believe that God who sent his Son out of his bosome to declare this Doctrine and by the assistance of the Holy Spirit to indite and Preach it and by the witness of so many and great miracles confirme it to the world should suffer any wicked Persons to corrupt and alter any of those termes on which the happiness and welfare of mankind depended Much more to suppress and smother them as that a counterfeit repugnant Story should obtain in lieu thereof and so the benefit of all that Christ had done and his Apostles delivered to the world should be entirely lost That Christ should do or suffer so great things in order to the welfare of mankind and yet permit those Sons of Belial to frustrate all that he had done and rob the world of all the vertue of his death and sufferings can be conceived rational by none but such as think it not absurd to say that That God who sent his Son to die for our Salvation and that Jesus who became so great a sufferer in order to the same designe should jointly envie and maligne the Good of Man Nay since those very Scriptures which have been received for the word of God and used by the Church as such from the first ages of it pretend to be the termes of our Salvation Joh. 7.16.26 28. Joh. 3.16 Joh. 6.40 and precepts of that Saviour whose message was from heaven and to be scriptures indited by men commissionated from Christ and such as did avouch themselves Apostles by the will and command of God Gal. 1.1.1 Cor. 1.1 Eph. 1.1 Col. 1.2 Tim. 1.1 for the delivery of the faith of Gods Elect and for the knowledge of the truth and the delivery of that which they received by the revelation of the holy Ghost they must be what they are pretended to be or Providence must have permitted yea contributed unto that Error which hath continued fifteen Ages and which if it be a Forgery hath ruined so many Thousand of well-meaning Souls Lastly Those Records being once so 6 generally despers'd through places at the greatest distance so universally acknowledged and consented to by Men of curious Parts and different Perswasions and repugnant Judgements and great Aversions from each other preserved in their Originals unto succeeding Ages and 7 multiplyed into divers Versions esteemed the Christians Magna Charta the Records of his Hopes and Fears and thereupon being so 8 carefully sought after so riveted in their minds for many Fathers had them all 9 memoriter so frequent in their Writings so constantly 10 rehearsed in their Assemblies by Men whose work it was to Read and Preach and to exhort to the performance of those Duties they enjoyned being so often cited in the Confessions Comments Apologies and Epistles of the Christian Worthies as also in the Objections of those Adversaries to whose view they still lay open it must needs be true that they were handed down to the succeeding Generations pure and uncorrupt and therefore they are such upon whose Credit we may venture to pass an Estimate of Christian Doctrine § 2. AND if it be objected That we find by the Citations of the Ancients that there was a difference betwixt their Copies of the Scripture and these now extant among us it is answered from ocular Demonstration whosoever shall compare the ancient Copies or any Texts that were cited by the Primitive Christians with those Scriptures which we now own and use shall find no considerable variation We see that English Bible which we read and use in every Parish and Family though it be often falsely Printed yet receives no variation which is not soon and easily corrected and why should we suspect the same of the Original Scriptures and of those Versions which were transcribed and read thorowout the Christian World If then no Writing whilest the Apostles lived could pass for Christian Faith and yet destroy and undermine it and be receiv'd as their Epistles when it was nothing less If their immediate Successors could not be ignorant of what the Apostles committed to them to be read and Preached as the Records of their Faith and Doctrine nor would they be induced to deliver
quod dicturi sumus Christum enim Dii piissimum pronunciaverunt immortalem factum cum bona praedicatione ejus meminerunt Et post haec de Christo interrogantibus si est Deus ait Hecate Viri pietate praestantissimi est illa anima Aug. l. 19. c. 23. lib. 22. c. 25. Ille est Deus quem nec commemor are me piget confitente Porphyrio atque id Oraculis Deorum suorum probare cupiente ipsa Numina perhorrescunt Porphyry the greatest Adversary of the Christian Faith who owns our Saviour for a God and tells us That one of their oracles did yield an ample Testimony unto his Worth and Merit But secondly We have no reason to conceive that his Disciples should continue to gull the World in this particular For such was their simplicity they could not such their sincerity they would not go about to do so § 2. Lucian Peregr p. 338. Mimet p. 4. Celsus apud orig p. 146 147. Hieroc apud Euseb contra Hieroc p. 5 14. Tertul. Apol. c. 49. Arnob. l. 1. p. 34 35. 1. SUCH was their * Nam cum videret futuros vos esse gestarum abs se rerum divinique operis abrogatores ne qua subesset suspicio magicis se artibus muner a illa beneficiaque largitum ex immensa illa populi multitudine quae suam Gratiam sectabatur admirans piscatores opifices Rusticanos atque id genus delegit imperitorum qui per varias Gentes missi cunct a illa miracula sine ullis fucis atque adminiculis perpetrarent Arnib l. 1. p. 30. simplicity they could not Plots and Designs to overturn the World and introduce a Doctrine which carryed such a signal Opposition to the Faith and Tenets the Wisdom and Philosophy the Interests and Vices of the World must call for better Heads and deeper Judgements nor was it ever heard that twelve simple Mechanicks for such the Apostles and primitive Professors of Christianity were still reputed by their Adversaries should be so much concern'd for any way of Worship or durst adventure with the hazard of their Lives to Preach it to the World though after such a Grand delusion of mankind by men so rude and infamous as the Apostles were esteemed nothing could have seemed too foolish absurd to be imposed upon the world †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost or 2. in Bab. p. 446. Should any man have sayd when Christ was nailed to the Cross that many thousands of his bloudy murtherers which then reviled him as a malefactor should in few days become his converts and venture all their present and Eternal interests upon the truth of his pretended Resurrection should they have said that through all the world he should be shortly worshipped as that King to whom all power both in heaven and earth was Given and as that Jesus who alone could give Salvation should they have told us that all this should be done in spight of all the powers of wit and policy of eloquence and of the sword the Interests and lusts the superstitions and corrupt opinions and the reputed wisdome of mankind by a few mean unskilful men the hatred and derision of the place they lived in I say should so extravagant a thought have then been vented it must have surely passed for an Idle brain-sick dream as little to be heeded as that twelve cripples should beseige storm plunder and destroy the strongest and best peopled city or that a naked man should vanquish all the powers of the Roman Empire Besides such is the excellency of the Christian faith so much above the reach of humane wisdome to conceive so seemingly repugnant to it when revealed that it was most unfit to be the matter of a design to gull the world so sublime and spiritual are its precepts so far exceeding all that the learning and wisdome of the Greeks could snew that t is impossible to believe they should derive from witless and mechanick persons § 3. NAY such was their sincerity that if they could yet they would not thus abuse the world Whosoever views their writings so full of wisdome and of purity so admirably pathetical in their expressions a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. in Celsum p. 70. free in the confession of their own infirmities Mat. 26.36 Mar. 14.71 Gal. 1.13 1 T-m 1.15 so full and pregnant in those doctrines which speak the greatest self denyal so plain in the delivery of Christian duties so void of all the arts of wit and policy all the advantages of Eloquence and humane wisdome and then considers that their lives were sutable to what their doctrines did deliver that they became examples as well as Preachers both of the Christian faith and patience 2 Thes 3.9 and did appeal to the Churches newly converted by them and attempted by others to disown them how holily and b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 2.10 Rom. 16.17 1 Tim. 1.20 Titus 3.10 how unblamably they had liv'd He that considereth their quickness to condemne and censure to avoide and punish those who did not walk according to their rules of piety as enemies unto the Gross of Christ and yet how irksome and distastful those things are to wicked men how prone and strongly byassed their affections are the other way I say he that shall well consider these particulars will quickly see sufficient reason to believe them upright and sincere § 4. BESIDES no man is wicked to no end which must be their case if they had been deceivers For what could they expect to get by lying Was it to grow big with honour They confessed and every days experience made it good 1 Cor. 4.9 2 Cor. 4.9 Luk. 6.20 their doctrine and their Persons were the scorn and derision of their Adversaries Was it to abound in wealth Poverty was their beatitude their Charity and faith were sure to keep them low enough the Pearl of price was to be bought with the loss of all they had if they had any thing to lose Was it to swim in pleasure The witness of the spirit and their own knowledge could informe them that bonds and Prisons would abide them in every place Acts 20.23 2 Cor. 23.27 and their whole life was a continued Scene of troubles perils and afflictions They could not seek Great things but they must contradict that doctrine of self-denyal humility and an heavenly mind which they so oft inculcated nor enjoy them without a contradiction to the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celsus apud Orig. lib. 7 pag. 343. predictions of Jesus which they had left on record For He foretold them that in the world they should have tribulation and that their names should be cast out as evil doers that persecutions scourgins death and Universal hatred should be their portion among men They knew by reason and experience that if their hopes depended only on the enjoyments of this present life they must of all men
bindes us to conceal and modesty permits me not to mention Add to this that they who knew what these Gods were yet chose in 24 practise to comply with all those rites which custome offer'd to such execrable and ignoble Deities Thus did they give the knowledge due to the only true God to what they knew to be a lye § 9. 3ly THE 25 Stoick and the School of Epicurus held that God is a corporeal Being which must exceedingly degrade him in the conceptions of man-kind They 26 universally fancied him to be of humane shape and so they chang'd the image of the incorruptible God into the likeness of a corruptible man hence they deemed an 27 Image requisite unto the worship of a Deity and would reproach the Christians and pronounce them Atheists for defect of it They took the boldness to 28 limit and confine Gods power and dispute his omnipresence they held him 29 unable to do any thing without the help of matter and unsufficient to 30 correct those evil dispositions to which it inclined us They owned an evil and pernicious God of equal power with and independent on the God of heaven who as they thought was insufficient to restrain the actions of this 31 evil principle Thus did they make vice loose its name by being necessary and leave us all in misery because inevitably subject to the power of this pernicious being The Stoicks bound up God in the Chaines of unalterable fate the 32 Peripatetick made him not to act at all or else to do it from the 23 necessity of his nature both which are equally repugnant to his worship and to the nature both of vice and virtue They doubted of his omnipresence and by so doing made it doubtful whether our supplications could be heard and he become a present help in trouble 34 The Platonist would not permit him to be free in the expressions of his Goodness and so they rob'd us of those motives which the consideration of that freedome doth afford some thought he could 35 conceive no anger and therefore could not punish sinne others conceived him so severe and froward that he could never be atoned the first spake comfort and encouragement unto the vilest sinner and made all Gods threats to be but bruta fulmina the other did as much discourage all inclinations to bee good 36 Prayer was rejected as a useless thing not only by the school of Epicurus which renounced providence and by the Stoicks fate but also by the 37 Pythagorean who held we should not pray because we knew not what to ask by the 38 Stoicks who deemed it needless to intreat that happiness from God which they were able to confer upon themselves they also agreed in this that it was every man's duty to serve God More patrio after the manner of the place he liv'd in what ever were his private thoughts and so obliged men to be obscene and lustful unnatural towards their Children inhumane to their brethren and the like where customes of this nature did obtain in their solemnities Thus did they bind the world to those rites which whilst they did observe they must be hateful and reproachful to a Deity and infinitely distant from that Piety which chiefly doth consist in being like him For what is more a Cum enim probrum jacitur in Principem patriae bonum atque utilem nonne tanto est indignius quanto à veritate remotius à vita illius alienius quae igitur supplicia sufficiunt cum deo fit ista tam notoria tam insignis injuria August de C. D. l. 2. c. 9. reproachful to an holy God then to conceive we are as pleasing to him by the most vile obscenities as by the purest actions And what is more repugnant to this good and merciful Creatour then to imagine he seeks the ruine of his creatures § 10. 4ly THEY who obtained the best repute for wisdome and had gone farthest of all the heathens in pursuit of knowledge after all their search were forced to confess their ignorance and blindness touching the nature of a God and the concernments of another world Socrates confessed he knew not any thing concerning them Democritus and Anaxagoras Anaximander and Empedocles Pherecydes Protagoras and Melissus and almost all the Antients did acknowledge this They concluded all matters of this nature to be 49 uncertain and beyond the reach of humane knowledge and therefore either quietly 21 submitted to the popular error and out of feare of punishment comply'd with the absurdest rites of any Country as 42 thinking all religion to be a politick contrivance or if they durst and thought it worth their while to be inquisitive they ran out into vain and idle speculations concerning God They conceived opinions of him so strangely 53 various and uncertain as could leave but small impressions on the soul and must needs render all her pious motions faint and heartless Such were the fluctuations of the wisest men in matters of this nature that others knew not what to say or think concerning them Nullum negotium est patefacere omnia in rebus humanis dubia incerta suspensa magisque omnia veresimilia quam vera Min. p. 4. This saith a Cecilius might be made good that all things of this nature are uncertain doubtful and at the best but likely to be true The various apprehensions of wicked men saith b Tum demum mihi procax Academia videbitur si aut consenserintalii aut erit inventus aliquis qui quid verum sit invenerit de N. D. 1. Cicero will justifie the doubtings and demurrs of Scepticks and it will be then sufficient to account them malepert when others have found out the truth That nothing was concluding which their wise-men spake was the complaint of c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Theaet Plato and d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Theodoret. de cur Gr. affect Porphyry cries out what opinion is there in all Philosophy not doubtful what apprehensions of the Gods which is not meer conjecture § 11. 5ly THE Heathen Sages were as much deficient in the grounds and motives to obedience they having no experience of that love and mercy which the scripture tendereth and which alone can be the spring of that ingenuous service which results from Gratitude Nay they had no example to provoke no promise to encourage to the performance of their duty nor prescript to direct them in it and therefore had no means to know what worship would be pleasing to a Deity They had a sense of †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Max. Tyr. diss 22. p. 218. weakness and infirmity of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and disability of the soul to virtuous actions and of it's head strong bent inclination to evil but no assurance of assistance in the ways of Virtue or of its future recompence nor could they possibly obtain the knowledge of it without a revelation those blessings being
Hortulis in locis publicis ac privatis pro sua quisque opinione certabat August de C. D. l. 18. c. 41. Et rursus Has alias diffensiones innumerabiles Philosophorum quis unquam populus quis Senatus quae potestas vel dignitas publica impiae civitatis dijudicandas alias probandas recipiendas alias improbandas repudiandasque curavit ac non passim sine ullo judicio confusé que habuit in gremio suo tot controversias hominum non de agris domibus sed de his rebus quibus aut misere vivitur aut beatè dissidentium August ibidem 103 A stipend from the Roman Emperours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian Hunuch p. 160. p. 161. 104 Flourished most Quaeritur saepe cur tam multi sunt Epicurei Cic. de fin Bon. l. 1. Multi postea defensores nescio quomodo ii qui auctoritatem minimam habent maximam vim populus cum illis facit Idem l. 2. p. 87.88 p. 89. Dicitur Philosophus nobilis à quo non solum Graecia Italia sed etiam omnis Barbaria commota est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. l. 10. p. 712. vide p. 721. 105 The Abettors of them did accord the best Epicurus una in domo ea quidem angusta quam magnos quantaque amoris conspiratione conjunctos tenuit amicorum greges quod fit etiamnum ab Epicureis Cic. de fin l. 1. Numen apud Euseb Praep. Ev. l. 14. c. 5. 106 Hence they took up with carnal pleasures Nec equidem habeo quod intelligam bonum illud detrahens eas voluptates quae sapore percipiuntur detrahens eas etiam quae auditu cantibus detrahens eas etiam quae ex formis percipiuntur oculis suaves mentiones five quae aliae voluptates gignuntur in toto homine quolibet è sensu quae sequuntur in eadem sententia sunt totusque liber qui est de summo bono refertus sententiis verbis talibus est Cic. Tusc 3º de Epicuro Et rursus Nam singo num mentior cupio refelli istam voluptatem Epicurus ignorat quippe qui testificatur ne intelligere quidem se posse ubi sit aut quid sit ullum bonum praeter illud quod cibo aut potione avrium delectatione obscena voluptate capiatur An haec ab eo non dicuntur de fin bon l. 2. de N. D. l. 1. Non id semel dicit sed saepius annuere te video nota enim tibi sunt proferrem libros si negares His gemina habes apud Athen. deipnos l. 12. c. 12. Laert. l. 10. p. 710. Plutarch Moral p. 1098. 107 Held them the chiefest good Plerique voluptatem summum bonum dicunt Cic. de div l. 2. de fin bon l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch adv Colotem p. 1125. vide Laert. l. 2. p. 54. Ed. St. Cic. de N. D. 108 Socrates first introduced it into families Ab antiqua Philosophia usque ad Socratem numeri motusque tractabantur unde omnia orirentur quove recederent studioseque ab his syderum magnitudines intervalla cursus inquirebantur cunct a caelestia Socrates autem primus Philosophiam devocavit è coelo in urbibus collocavit coegit de vita moribus rebusque bonis malis quaerere Cic. Tusc qu. l. 5. l. 3. 109 That there was nothing just or unjust in it self but as the Lawes of Nations made it so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Eth. l. 1. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pyrrho apud Laert. p. 262. Hujus sententiae erant Archelaus Laert. l. 2. p. 37. Cyrenaici ib. Theodorii p. 57. Aristippus p. 55. Pyrrho p. 252. Epicur us p. 302. vide Sext. Empir adv Math. p. 450. 110 The examples and worship of their Deities did give encouragement unto the lewdest actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de Rep. l. 2. vide August de C. D. l. 1. c. 7. Nazianz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 77. 111 Porphyry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. ad Anebonem apud Theod. ser 3. p. 48. 112 Amelius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Theodoret. de cur Gr. aff serm 2. p. 33. 113 A Heathen Emperour as to be writt Clamabat saepius quod à quibusdam sive Judaeis sive Christianis audierat tenebat idque per praeconem quum aliquem emendaret dici jubebat quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris quam sententiam usque adeo dilexit ut in Palatio in publicis operibus praescribi juberet Aelius Lamp de Alex. Severo Hist August Leyd ed. p. 577. CHAP. XI OF THE RESVRRECTION of our Saviour Christ THE CONTENTS PROLEGOMENA in order to the demonstration of the Resurrection of our Lord. 1. That the Apostles did presently attest the thing 2. This attestation could not be a bare-faced and notorious lye Arg. 1. from the testimony Arg. 2. from these 3 considerations 1. that our Saviours body did not continue in the sepulcher when they proclaimed him risen 2. That his Disciples did not conveigh his body thence Nor 3. was that done by any other persons who had no relation to Christ and no affection for him Arg. 3. from the consideration of the persons testifying AND thus we have dispatch'd our demonstrations of the Christian Faith We now proceed unto that Article of it from which we may infer the rest viz. The Resurrection of our blessed Saviour Which that we may conclude with Greater evidence we premise § 1. THAT the Apostles did presently attest the thing The predictions of our Lord and Saviour own'd by the malice of the Jew and all their vain endeavours to prevent what he foretold touching his Resurrection the expectation of his friends and that abundant satisfaction which they found in this particular the early records of the Christians Story and Symbols of his faith which every where inculcate it all these give in a full assurance of this truth Nay had the knowledge of his resurrection been defer'd beyond that period which he himself had fixed how impossible had it been to have cajold the world into so firme and stedfast a belief of the particular circumstances to have held up the drooping Spirits baffled hopes of his disciples or to have kept the insulting Jew from giving visible demonstrations of the vanity of their pretensions or from crying out of the imposture Could his Disciples be assured of his resurrection by frequent apparitions of him and not endeavour to acquaint the world with what so much concern'd the truth of his predictions and their hopes which was of so great importance to mankind and could not be neglected by the Disciples of our Lord they be faithfull unto the commission which they pretended Or could they be so quick nimble to conveigh his body from the sepulcher and yet their tongues be backward to proclaim him risen Would interest or reason suffer them to
be highly probable and if it ought to be embraced upon the Probability of any one the Probability of all these Circumstances must give an ample confirmation to it and make it needless to insist farther on this Argument § 3. AND now that this discourse may have that Influence upon the Reader which matters of this moment ought to have let me intreat him to consider how much his interest and Wisdome doth oblige him to improve the certainty of Christian Faith into a Christian conversation that soe his knowledge may not aggravate his future doom and render all his wilful Disobedience against the Christian precepts inexcusable The speculative Atheist may have some colour of a plea that his miscarriages were the Result of ignorance not of contempt and wilful disobedience whereas the man who owns the certainty of Christian Faith but lives a contradiction to his knowledge and by his practise gives the lye to his profession he I say can have no shadow of Excuse He must confess his full acquaintance with his Masters pleasure and that his Reason did commend those precepts to him which Christianity enjoyned as things most excellent and certain and infinitely to be preferr'd before those vile affections which stood in competition with them and those enjoyments he preferr'd before them His conscience must accuse him dayly of most strange ingratitude in acting his rebellions against the Majesty of heaven and his dearest Lord it must convince him of his stupidity and folly not only in neglecting of so great salvation but in running headlong to his owne destruction and being at such cost and pains to purchase to himselfe damnation He must acknowledge at the dreadfull day his life was spent in a contempt and full defyance of the holy Jesus and that he still maintained that contempt in opposition to and in despight of the convictions of his conscience the striving of the Holy Spirit and all the motives of his present and eternal interest and then how miserable must is condition be how dreadful but how just his doom The sorest judgments that ever happened to the Gentile world those derelictions which betray'd them to the most brutish and unnatural lusts were the result of sin committed against conscience and truth detained in unrighteousnes Rom. 1. and if to sin against the dim and gloomy light of Nature became so fatal to the Gentile how dismal will the doom of Christians be who sin against the clear Meridian shine of Gospel Revelation For if Christianity be true the disobedient and unbelieving person will be convinced by sad experience of the assured falshood of his infidelity his flattering hopes and false imaginations and be depriv'd for ever of Gods blisfull presence and those comfortable relations which he beares unto his creatures and all those glories pleasures and perfections which the Saints hereafter shall enjoy His soul shall be exposed to that incensed justice 2 Thess 1.8 which shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on it and to that God who will then stir up all his wrath 9. Rom. 22 23. and make the Greatness of his power known upon such vessels fitted for destruction and he shall find no rest by day or night Rev. 14. xi as being still tormented by that worm which never dyeth and suffering the vengeance of that fire whose smoak ascends for ever this being the avowed doctrine of the first a Cent. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Rom. Frag. Epist 2. Ed. Patricii Junii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Barnabas Ed. Vossii p. 251. Cent. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iren. lib. 1. c. 2. Et l. 3. c. 4. de norma fidei veteri Apostolorum traditione loquens haec habet venturus est scilicet Christus judex eorum qui judicantur mittens in ignem aeternum transfiguratores veritatis contemptores Patris sui adventus ejus Poena damnatorum apud Justinum Mari. dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 41. 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 71. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 57. Cent. 3. Post inexpiabile malum saeviens ignis aeterna scelerum ultione torquebit Cypr. l. de laude Martyrii Servantur cum corporibus suis animae infinitis cruciatibus ad dolorem idem lib. contra Demetr Tormentis nec modus ullus aut terminus Minutius p. 39. Si. quis occisionem carnis atque animae in gehennam ad interitum finem utriusque substantiae arripiet non ad supplicium quasi consumendarum non quasi puniendarum recordetur ignem gehennae aeternum praedicari in poenam aeternam inde aeternitatem occisionis agnoscat tunc aeternas substantias credet quarum aeterna sit occisio in poenam Absurdissimum alioquin si idcirco resuscitata caro occidatur in gehennam uti finiatur quod non resuscitata pateretur Tertull. de resurr Carnis Illud tamen scire oportet quoniam sancti Apostoli fidem Christi praedicantes de quibusdam quaecunque necessaria crediderunt omnibus credentibus etiam his qui pigriores erga inquisitionem divinae scientiae videbantur manifestissimè tradiderunt Origenes in Proaemio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnis turba impiorum pro suis facinoribus in conspectu Angelorum justorum perpetuo igni cremabitur in aeternum haec est doctrina sanctorum Prophetarum quam Christiani sequimur Lact. l. 7. c. 26. Vide Theophilum ad Autolycum l. 2. pag. 79. Ages of the Church and that which did expose them to the worst of sufferings and the b The derision of their heathen adversarys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Mart. Apolog. 1. p. 47. Hoc errore decepti beatam sibi ut bonis perpetem vitam pollicentur caeteris ut injustis poenam sempiternam Caecilius apud Minutium p. 11. Haec est nostra sapientia quam isti qui vel fragilia colunt vel inanem Philosophiam tuentur tanquam stultitiam vanitatemque derident quia non defendere hanc publicè atque adserere nos solemus Lactant. l. 7. c. 26. Vide Origen in Celsum p. 408. 409. vide not 52. in c. 10. p. 357. derision of their adversaries Besides if Christianity be true then all the blessings it hath promised to the pious and obedient Person must be accomplish'd in their season by the advancement of our weak vile mortall bodies into a state of incorruption power Philip. 3.21 and glory and into the likenes of Christ's Glorious body and by the exaltation of the soul to a capacity of seeing God as we are seen of God 1. Joh. 2.2 and being like to him whose happines is infinite for when he doth appear wee shall be like him by the participation of a superlative exceeding and eternal weight of Glory and the enjoyment of those blessings which neither eye hath seen 1. Cor. 2.9 nor ear hath heard of nor hath thought conceived As therefore c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Gorgiâ p. 312. Ed. Ficin Plato doth conclude his disputation on this subject with this resolution viz. Being convinced of a future state of bliss and misery I bid adieu to the caresses of the world and to the vain applauses of the vulgar and have no other care but how I may appear before my Judge with a soul pure and spotless how I may live the best of men and dye secure of happines So let the Christian Reader be perswaded to improve the confirmations and convictions of the truth of his Religion into a fixed Resolution and sincere endeavour of obedience to the Christian precepts that so he may avoid those dreadful torments and everlasting miseries it threatens to the disobedient and may enjoy that more exceeding weight of Glory which is prepared for the upright Christian FINIS ADDENDA AD pag. 23. l. 16. after as we find this was add Prodigiorum sagacissimus erat somniorum primus intelligentiam condidit nihilque Divini Juris humanique ei incognitum videbatur adeo ut etiam sterilitatem agrorum ante multos annos providerit periisset que omnis Aegyptus fame nisi monitu ejus Rex Edicto servari per multos annos fruges jussisset tantaque experimenta ejus fuerunt ut non ab homine sed â Deo responsa dari viderentur Justin Hist l. 36. cap. 2. Ad Not. 6. p. 34.35 add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damascius in vitâ Isidori Philos apud Photium Bibl. p. 1038. Errata in the Chapters P 29. l. 14. 1630. r. 1600. p. 96. l. 8. artificers r. artifices p. 107. l. 11. which r. with p. 115. l. 26. master r. matter p. 272. l. 19. want r. wave p. 274. l. 12. religions r. religion In the Annotations P. 124. l. 4. adde faciem l. 9. mutant r. nutant p. 148. l. 6. puris r. punis p. 157. l. 21 22. dele cemma primum tertium quintum p. 181. l. 24. adde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 256. l. 4. unde r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 261. l. 22. impium r. Imperium p. 262. l. 8. quis r. qui. There are other small saults which the understanding Reader will easily discern and correct and besides it must be confessed that the references to the Annotations are not always exact but yet you will find the note within one or two figures of the direction
free and not the fruits of our desert but Gods abundant Goodness They knew not what would reconcile them to God when by their sinnes they had offended him nor being reconciled what would continue and secure them in his favour This was the rise of that inhumanerite of sacrificing Infants and men of riper yeares They that did this conceited that nothing besides death could make atonement for their sin against God yet they were loth to dye for it themselves and therefore they made others dye hoping God would accept them in their stead The 44 doctrine of the souls immortal state of a future recompense was laught at and contemned not only by the school of Epicurus but the most learned men of the other sects Their records tell us that Pherecydes Syrus was the first that taught it It was the prevailing judgment of the 45 Stoick that departed soules continued for a while but still were subject to corruption And yet their Great Friend 46 Lipsius doth confess that this was matter of contest among them 47 Antoninus Seneca and others of them do very much distrust or 48 else deny it as Aristotle also did and that eternal state of which we read so often in the Platonist Credebam opinionibus magnorum virerum rem gratssimam promittentium magis quam probantium Scn. Ep. 102. seemes rather to have been their Guess than any matter of their Faith They ventur'd to say of it what they could not prove and that they were not confident of what they say'd it appeares by the stile and manner of their writing every thing comes from them so coldly and so timorously so qualified with ifs and And 's and peradventures when they write upon this subject Plato himfelse when he had persued this theme with all his Rhetorick how lamely comes he off at last †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in phaed. of this saith he I am not very confident Nor is it to be wondred that he was so uncertain of the concernments of another life who renounced all certainty in this The Pythagorean doctrine of the Metempsycosis condemned the soul to a continual round of troubles it imprisoned it in Brutes made its prison for so the body was by them esteemed as immortal as it selfe Among those many Gods to whom they could address themselves for Corne and Wine the Gentiles had none from whom they craved or expected the 50 blessings of eternal life And for the 51 punishments of another life those were but matter of contempt and scorne to the wisest Heathens who look'd upon the 52 Christian doctrine in this matter as an absurd and melancholy phancy a thing so vaine and so extravagant that scarce their children and old wives could credit it They generally held that either 53 death bereft men of all sense and being or chang'd this present for a better life To the more virtuous and noble soule the 54 Stoick would allow a future happiness as lasting as the world but for the simple and debauched Person who had lived the Brute they made him dye so too or else abide some very little season The 55 Pythagorean and the Platonist who make the Sinner come so oft upon the stage give him no smal encouragement to sinne and do at worst but threaten he shall live that brute to which his sinnes have best disposed him Among those few who held the soule immortal 56 some hence concluded her impassibility and so her freedome from all future punishments then which no Greater motive to impiety could be propounded The 57 Stoick held the Soule to be a part of God whence a Pythagoras qui censuit animumesse per naturam rerum omnium intentum commeantem ex quo nostri animi carperentur non vidit distractione humanorum animorum discerpi dilacerari deum cum miseri animi essent quod plerisque contingeret tum Dei partem esse miseram quod fieri non potest Cic. l. 1. de Nat. D. p. 7. B. Tully well infers that should it suffer God must do so to § 12. AGEN they did ascribe the 58 origine of evil either to an incorrigible fate or to an evil Demon or to that 59 matter which composed us whose inclinations they presumed it was not in the power of the God of Heaven to correct or to the 60 influence and over-ruling power of the Stars and by so doing they made all evil actions necessary and therefore such as could deserve no punishment This also was the natural result of the 61 Platonick year and 62 of the circuit of the Stoicks it being foolish to conceive that after any period all actions should become the same agen without some cause that should infallibly produce the same effects continually And yet those doctrines were mostly the receiv'd opinions of the Heathen world This circulation was the professed doctrine not only of the Platonist and Stoick and of Pythagoras and Heraclitus but of all those who held the 62 world to be eternal That all our actions were the result of an 63 inexorable fate was the opinion of Democritus and Heraclitus Empcdocles and Aristotle Parmenides and Lucippus Chrysippus Celsus Pythagoras and Epicurus * Fatum homines quando audiunt usitatâ loquendi consuetudine nihil aliud intolligunt nisi vim positionis syderum August de C. D. l. 5. C. 1. ibi esse fata Plato Stoici caeteri propè Philosophi existimarunt Chaldaeos ac Aegiptios secuti qui bus omnis Mathematicorum manus suffragata est Lud. Vives in locum The Platonist and Stoick Chaldean and Aegyptian Pythagoras and all the lovers of Astrology subjected all our actions to the power of the Stars our vices were ascribed to the incorrigible bent of matter by Plato Zeno and Pythagoras to an evil Genius by the General suffrage of the antient Heathens The Stoicks 65 held all sins were equal and that all virtues were so too and by so doing they lessoned our concernment to prevent the one or to pursue the other And now how perfectly destructive these opinions are to the service of a Deity and to all the parts and the concernments of religion is exceeding evident § 13. FOR first since hope and feare are the two radical and leading passions of the soul seeing the expectations of reward or future Good and dread of future evil are the two soveraigne motives to the renouncing of a lust or the embracing of a virtuous life who ever comes to God in way of duty must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of all those that diligently seek him And sure that homage may be spared which brings me in only my labour for my paines and the complaint of David that he did cleanse his hands in vaine must be allowed of if with like fredome from vindictive justice and as much temporal advantage of himselfe he might have imbrued them in his Brothers blood And therefore to deny the being of a God who