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
believe any other Service or Information but what is administered by the Elders in the house of the Love enjoins them to give up their Understandings wholy to the Eldest of the Family and to give ear to none else but the Teachers of his own Sect. Nay he will not so much as suffer them to appeal to the Light that is within them nor to judge themselves nor be judged by their own Consciences but only by the Elders of the house of the Love concerning whom they must not have the least suspicion of Errour or Unfaithfulness Which is the greatest Tyranny and Slavery upon the Soul of man that can be devised and a shrewd Indication that those Elders will approve and advise things against express Scripture Reason and Conscience And thus is many a poor simple Lamb catched out of the Fold of Christ and carried quite away without recovery into the thickest and remotest Woods and darkest Caverns or Dens to be devoured by this white Wolf who by his gracious speeches heart-melting insinuations soft-soothing language that is oiled and perfumed with nothing but Love first intices the little ones after whom his mouth most of all waters to a great esteem of himself and then utterly extinguishes in them to their Eternal Destruction all that Faith they had in the Person and Promises of our ever-blessed Saviour Which he does by intercepting all aid that the use of Reason and the Knowledge of the Scripture could administer giving them such hard language as we have above recited the civilest aspersion he bestows being the Imagination of the Knowledge but magnifying himself and his Service of the Love that is his own Doctrine above whatever yet appear'd to the sons of men as you shall now hear 4. For he sets himself above Abraham Moses David and all the Prophets above Iohn the Baptist yea above the Person of Christ himself For indeed he will allow that the service of the Fathers in the Covenant of Circumcision until Moses was the Forefront of the true Tabernacle and that Moses in figures and shadows set out the true being of the true sanctuary of God in the Spirit and that to David and the Prophets was shewn the true Being in the Spirit of their sight That Iohn the Baptist was a Preparation by Repentance to an entrance into the Holy of the true Tabernacle and that this Holy of the true Tabernacle is the Service of Christ in the Belief But the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy this he reserves to himself and his Service of the Love Wherein as he boasts is the Perfection of Life the Completion of all Prophecies from the beginning of the World the righteous Judgment of God the Throne of Christ before which all things must needs be manifested the perfect Being of the Godhead and the true Rest of the chosen of God He calls also this his Service of the Love the Last Day and the Perfection and Conclusion of all the works of God Whereby he would intimate it to be an everlasting Seventh day or Sabbath And yet he will have it also the Eighth Day as if he affected an holy-day beyond that of God himself and a time beyond Eternity 5. Again in his Prophecie of the Spirit of Love he sets himself highest in the enumeration of the Three principal Services namely the Service of the Law under God the Father the Service of the Belief under Christ the Saviour and the Service of the Love under the Holy Ghost The affectation of which office he learnt of his master David George as is noted by them that have wrote of these Enthusiasts I omit to speak of lesser Encomiums of his doctrine as That it is the last Trump that sure word of Prophecie that his day of the Love is that new day that the Lord has made abundant in clearness and full of Eternal joy the new Ierusalem descending from Heaven and the Inheritance of the Right-perfection We will conclude all with what he writes in his Revelation of God Behold presently in this day is the Kingdome of the God of Heaven and his Righteousness the godly Majesty and his Glory as also the salvation of Christ and the eternal life appeared in perfect Clearness with great Triumph and Ioy The Resurrection also of the dead the cleansing of the Earth the blessing of all Generations the righteous Iudgment of God the Glorious coming of Christ with all the thousands of Saints and the everlasting Condemnation of all ungodly in the hellish Fire What therefore can you expect more then is accomplished in his Service of the Love and what greater Person can there be then he who sets so glorious a Dispensation on foot on the earth Let us therefore take notice what he makes himself in the midst of this Glory and Pomp which he sets out 6. As if it were a small thing for him to be raised from the dead and to be anointed with the holy Ghost he boasteth further that God has sealed in him the Dwelling of his Glory and of his Holy Name and elsewhere that he is Godded with God and consubstantiated with the Deity and expresly in his Evangely Chap. 34. he declares how God has manned himself with him and Godded him with his Godhead to a living Tabernacle a House for his dwelling and to a seat of his Christ the seed of David and how the Judgment-seat of Christ is revealed out of Heaven from the right hand of God and that on the same Judgment-seat of Christ there sitteth one meaning himself in the Habitation of David which judgeth uprightly thinketh upon equity and requireth righteousness and that through him God will judge the compass of the Earth This in his Introduction to the Glass of Righteousness is the right Messias the high Priest for ever in the most holy the noble King of Israel and Iuda that possesses the seat of his Father an everlasting peaceable Prince over the house of Iacob according to the promises But you 'l say this cannot be understood of H. Nicolas but of Christ according as he has wrote elsewhere that there is in his Communialty of the Love a true Iudge Iesus Christ our Lord and King which executes the right Iudgment of his Father according to the truth But we are also to understand that This Christ that sits on the throne of his Father David is the eldest Father of the Family of Love as appears out of his Evangelium Cap. 31. sect 14. and 16. Which places compared with what has been recited it is clear that H. Nicolas is this Christ on the seat of David for his life-time and which is still worse and the seed of endless Madness and Blasphemie that this wild Presumption of the eldest in the Family being the very Christ from Heaven returned to judge the World with equity will be entailed upon their Successors for ever And that the appearance of this Christ may be the more glorious
expiation for sin and that we are purified by Faith in him and that our Eternal Salvation depends on the knowledge of him 9. Now I appeal to the most Sceptical man living if a matter of so vast moment as this that concerns the common Salvation of Mankind in that future and Eternal state can be sluggishly and carelesly prosecuted by those that knew both the truth and importance of that affair and had a more then ordinary engagement to look after it and whose consciences could not but threaten them with the loss of Everlasting life if they did not use all honest endeavours to set on foot the most effectual way they could the certain knowledge of so concerning a Mysterie And whether it be possible to conceive the First Christians so sottish and devoid of sense as not to see how necessary it was to record the circumstances of the Birth Life and Death of our Saviour and all the Miracles that he did while the mouths of unbelievers and gainsaiers might be stopt by recourse to Eye-witnesses of the things that were to be related of him 10. And if we could imagine any such supine carelesness or backwardness in the Apostles themselves who were the fittest to write these Records or at least those that were throughly informed by them yet the Forwardness and Pragmaticalness of others who could not hold their hands from writing of such strange matters as hapned in Iudaea though not sufficiently instructed in the truth of them would even force them to write down the truth of the History of Christ so timely for the prevention of errour and to set their own name to the Record To say nothing of the Importunity of the newly-converted Christians who could not but be extremely desirous very punctually to know all things concerning that Divine Person whose name they now religiously professed and whom they acknowledged to be the onely-begotten Son of God Wherefore the Apostles themselves or else some throughly instructed by them could not chuse but draw up a Narration of the Birth Life and Death of Christ and the many considerables therein for the Comfort and satisfaction of their Proselytes and that there might be a true Relation of these things to Posterity for ever To all which you may adde That if it were possible that all these should fail which I think is incredible yet Providence would not fail and supernatural Inspiration to drive them on to the seasonable Accomplishment of so important a Work 11. In my Judgement these are an undeniable Demonstration that the History of Christ has been so timely recorded as we contend for by either the Apostles or those that were intimately acquainted with them And that it is infinitely more improbable that this has not been done then that one of a great estate and many children and wise in the affairs of the World should when it was in his power to write neglect the writing of his Will A thing that none would believe unless this Will of his after his decease could not be found nor then haply neither but rather suspect some body has burnt it But if it be found and appear such as becomes a man of his wisdome and discretion to have made it will not be in the power of any man to doubt of it that is not interessed in the matter and if any do he will be looked upon as a very fool or fraudulent fellow that sought some advantage by questioning the Will 12. The case is very highly the same here in these Records of Christianity we speak of For according to plain deduction of Reason we see it impossible but that they should be writ so timely and the outward Event answers punctually to these Demonstrations of our own mind For there are two Records of the Life and Death of Christ written by two of his Apostles viz. Matthew and Iohn a third by Mark who was much conversant with the Apostle Peter and a fourth by Luke who was a great companion of S. Paul whose Acts together with others of the Apostles he also recorded and ends the narration before Paul's departure from Rome into Spain Whence we may conclude that Luke wrote his Gospel while Paul was yet alive of whose transactions himself was an Eye-witness as Matthew and Iohn of all the things they wrote or at least most of them and the rest they had from other Apostles who were by when they were not or from the mouth of our Saviour himself This Conclusion is so plain that it is as ridiculous to deny it as for one to deny the above-mentioned Will which none can do without being hooted at for a Fool. For when we see external Events such as plain and undeniable Reason cannot but compute even necessary to come to pass it must be either Folly or Fraud that makes any doubt or deny they are really come to pass when they are exhibited thus manifestly to their outward senses CHAP. XI 1. Other Proofs That the Life of Christ was writ by his Apostles or his Followers out of Grotius 2. An Answer to a foolish surmise that those Records writ by the Apostles might be all burnt 3. That the Copies have not been corrupted by either carelesness or fraud 1. THis it self was a sufficient Demonstration to prove that the History of the Life of Christ was writ so timely as I affirm and namely by some of his own Apostles and those that were coetaneous to them particularly by Matthew Mark Luke and Iohn according as the Title of each Gospel does import But we will not neglect to mention what Grotius also makes use of in this place viz. That these Gospels are cited under these names by Iustin Irenaeus and Clemens the first Fathers of the Church That Tertullian affirms that in his time the original of some of them were extant though betwixt an hundred and two hundred years after they were written That all the Churches acknowledged them as Authentick before there was any calling of Councils about that matter That neither Jew nor Pagan ever made any controversie thereof That Iulian though an enemy to Christianity did expresly confess that these Writings that are under the name of Peter Paul Matthew Mark Luke were indeed their writings and lastly That it is as fond a thing to doubt thereof as to question whether those Poems that go under Homer and Virgil's names be in very deed their Poems or no. Which arguments certainly cannot but have their due weight with them that are not over-pervicacious but as I think I had sufficiently evinced the Conclusion before 2. Against which I do not see what the most perverse Wit can invent or object unless he will say That the first Records the Evangelists wrote and the faithful Copies taken from them were burnt and that these that we have now-adays are an After-Forgery of the Church Which is as bold and foolish an allegation as if a Son who did not like his share appointed him in his Father's Will
rightly either Morall or Divine only tumbling out a Rhapsody of swelling words distorted Allegories and slight allusions to the History of Scripture intermingling them or strinkling them ever and anon with the specious name of Love though there be no motive nor reason that urges the thing it self all the while would give out himself such a Master of this Mystery as that Christianity must be super-annuated and all the devotionall Homage due to our Saviour laid aside all his Offices silenced his Passion slighted nay derided his visible Return to Judgement anticipated and eluded his Resurrection and Ascension misbelieved and the promise of Eternal Life swallowed up in the present glorious enjoyments and enrichments of them that will give up their soundness of judgement and reason to be led about with the May-games and Morrice-dances of that sweet Sect that have usurped to themselves the Title of the Family of Love Whenas the Authour of this Faction as I am well enough informed was more likely to prove a Pimp or second Sardanapalus then a true Instructor of the World in so holy a Mystery being infamous for having suspected Females in his House and living splendidly and deliciously above his rank noted for his crimson-Satten doublet and other correspondent habiliments as also for his large Looking-glass wherein he often contemplated his whole begodded Humanity and composing his long beard and stroaking down his Satten sides might strut in admiration of himself that he found the World so favourable to his false Impostures and lastly ridiculous for his women-Scribes and other such like soft doings not to say impure and obscene All which to any man that has but a moderate nasuteness cannot but import that in the title of this Sect that call themselves the Family of Love there must be signified no other love then that which is merely Natural or Animal though the Preacher of this Love-mystery bears himself so aloft and is so high upon the wing that he cannot phansie himself any thing lesse then that Apocalypticall Angel flying in the midst of Heaven and preaching the everlasting Gospel to the Inhabitants of the World And truly this Gospel of Henry of Amsterdam is likely to be as lasting as the generations of men and I may adde as universall as both Men and Brutes 3. Hear O Heavens and hearken O Earth while I pleade the cause of the just one and despised against the rebellious Hypocrites Thus saith the Lord God Behold I lay in Sion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious corner-stone a sure foundation and he that believes thereon shall not be ashamed Iudgement also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lyes and the waters shall overflow their hiding-places That this corner-stone and sure foundation is Christ that suffered at Ierusalem we are infallibly informed by those that were truly inspired the blessed Apostles That the refuge of lyes and hiding-place is most naturally applicable to this skulking Family is apparent in that the summe of their Religion is nothing but a bundle of lying Allegories and Canting Terms whereby they deal falsly with men and under the pretence of fine Mystical speeches would thrust out of the World the choicest and most beneficiall Truth that ever was imparted to the Sons of men I mean the Truth of the Gospel in the plain simplicity thereof whereby we are so clearly taught what we are to be to do and to expect And the Storm that shall overtake them and the Deluge that shall fall in upon them in their hidden dwellings shall be those Torrents of Reason and that irresistible conviction from the sincere and true-hearted followers of Christ. Tell me therefore O ye conceitedly-inspired whose phancies have blown you above Gospel-dispensations why do you run into the errour of the Jews and refuse this precious corner-stone this sure foundation and build upon disunited Sand and rotten Quagmires that will bear no weight Why do you lay aside Christ in the truth of his History the most palpable pledge of Divine Providence of God's Reconciliation to men and of future Happiness that ever was exhibited to the World and chuse for your Guide a mere Allegorical Whisler an Idol-Puppet dressed up in words and phrases filched out of the Scripture but perverting and eluding the main scope and most usefull meaning thereof Why have ye forsaken the only-begotten Sonne of God and given your selves up to the deceivable conduct of a mere carnall man and wholy destitute not only of true faith in God and Christ but of all substantial Knowledge and Reason Why are you so rash and giddy as to believe one that only testifies of himself and is so impudent a Plagiary as to offer you no wares but such as he has stolne from you if you pretend to be of the Christian Church and those so poisoned and adulterated that you cannot receive them without the danger of being struck into a misbelief of the truth of Christs Gospel and of revolting from him to whom so many illustrious Prophecies of old so many Miracles done by himself to whom his wonderfull Resurrection from the dead and audible voices from Heaven while he was living gave ample testimony that he was indeed the true Son of God 4. What indearing evidence or argument has this Mercer of Amsterdam given you of true compassion and love to mankinde that you should vaunt him so transcendent a Mystagogus in so divine a Mystery that you equalize him to nay exalt him above Christ and his Apostles Did he not live a lazy easie soft life as other rich Shop-keepers do whenas not only our Saviour himself but also his Apostles lived an hard Asketick life full of dangers and afflictions also from without Let S. Paul speak for the rest for they were in a manner all of them in the same case and might justly expostulate with these high fanatick Pretenders in the same words Are they Ministers of Christ I speak like a fool I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths often Of the Iews received I fourty stripes save one thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day have I been in the Deep in Iourneyings often in perils of water in perils of Robbers in perils by mine own Countreymen in perils by the Heathen in perils in the City in perils in the wildernesse in perils at the sea in perils among false brethren in wearinesse and painfulnesse in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakednesse c. To all which you may adde very despightfull and torturous deaths which most of them underwent at last and all this out of a faithfull love to their Lord and Master Jesus Christ and a dear regard to the good and Salvation of mankinde But what was it wherewith this H. N.
said Does this offend you What if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before That will be a very strange and stupendious spectacle to you and such as will assure you of my Divinity but withall remove my body so far from you that you cannot then if you would mistake so grosly as to think I speak of this body and bloud I carry now about with me It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life that is to say They are touching the spiritual body which is the inmost Temple of the holy Ghost and which you are in some measure to partake of here and which shall have its compleat refinement when I shall crown you with the perfection of Life Eternal at the last day Or They are simply concerning the Spirit and that Life which I my self am according to my Divinity viz. The Eternal Word in whom is the Life and that Life is the light of men This is that which you are to feed on and to drink into your Souls when you have not my particular bodily presence with you For this Word and Spirit is every where to be taken in by them that breath and thirst after this Heavenly sustenance of their Souls and so is that fulfilled which he declares v. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him For the eating of the flesh is in some measure partaking of the spiritual body and the drinking of the bloud the imbibing that life therewith that rayes out from the Eternal Word into all purged and purified hearts whereby Christ dwelleth in them and they in him and God in all 3. Again Iohn 7.37 In the last day that great day of the Feast Iesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believes on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters Which he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive as the Text it self expounds it And therefore is a good ratification of the Mystical sense of those Prophecies we rehersed out of Esay But these things are spoken more plainly and without a Metaphor Ioh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandements And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Which Precept and Promise is like that of Esay chap. 58. which is that if we seriously compose our mindes to do due acts of obedience to God he will pour out his Spirit upon us Then shall thy light break forth like the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward He shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not That is as any spiritual Christian would be apt to interpret the place If thou thirst after Righteousnesse and in the mean time to thy utmost power do the outward functions thereof in thy duties to God and man at length this Spirit of truth will break forth like the morning light within thee and the emanations of the holy Ghost will so throughly refresh thee and strengthen thee that with ease and pleasure thou shalt walk in all the wayes of God which shall be like the flowry Alleys of a Paradise to thee both to thine inward and outward man 4. Not that our endeavours or desires are any obligation to God by way of merit on our part but it is his mercy to the Soul that does in good earnest pant after him For till he has compleated his work in us all our works are worth nothing and whenever they are worth any thing they are not ours but his And to this sense speaks Paul to Titus chap. 3. But after that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us or poured out upon us as the Original has it abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Like that of the Prophet Thou shalt be like a watered garden 5. Adde to these Ioh. 3.5 Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit And Rom. 8.9 But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of God he is none of his And vers 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered And also 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you And lastly Ephes. 3.14 For it were infinite to reckon up all places of Scripture that tend to this purpose For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inward man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us To him therefore be glory in the Church by Christ Iesus throughout all ages world without end Amen CHAP. X. 1. A Recapitulation of what has been set down hitherto concerning the Usefulnesse of the Gospel and the Necessity of undeceiving the world in those points that so nearly concern Christian Life 2. The ill condition of those that content themselves with Imaginary Righteousnesse figured out in the Fighters against Ariel and Mount Sion 3. A further demonstration of their fond conceit 4. That a true Christian cannot sin without pain and torture to himself 1. VVE have now abundantly proved out of places of Scripture The necessity of inward Sanctification and reall in-dwelling Righteousness
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. In what Law and Covenant agree 4. In what Law and Testament 5. Iâ— what Covenant and Testament agree 6. That the Church might have called the Doctrine of Christ either the New Law or the New Covenant 7. Why they have styled it rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Reason 8. Other Reasons thereof 9. The occasion of translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The New Testament 1. THE Third Derivative property of this Mystery is a power of winning assent which arises from the convincing clearness of the Truth of the Gospel This Assent which is general to all convincing Truths of what nature soever appropriated thus to this Divine Mystery is called Faith And this Faith in persons unconcerned suppose Angels or Devils whom the Gospel may not be meant for and yet believe the truth of it at least the good Angels or else in such persons as may be concern'd in the Gospel and yet will not close therewith though they believe it if there be any such that can doe so is vulgarly called an Historical Faith As if a man should throughly understand how such a one has purchased a Lordship upon such and such terms this is an Historical Knowledge in him and he can tell the whole transaction of the business and does believe it but in the mean time has no share there he professing himself either unable or unwilling to meddle upon these terms Such is Historical Faith which alone stands us in no stead to Salvation and gives no share or portion in the Kingdome of Heaven 2. But if out of this Belief and Knowledge we seriously close with the terms of the Gospel this will prove a Saving Faith and is not mere Historical knowledge and belief but Covenant The Conditions and Promises whereof are clearly comprehended in the New Testament as we ordâ—narily call it from the Latine translation But the Greek Inscription is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might be better rendred the New Covenant but is capable also of being interpreted the New Law For of so large an extent is the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it denoting both Law Covenant and Testament as Hugo Grotius has observed out of Plato Aristophanes and Isocrates 3. And well may these three kinds of Rights pass under one common notion and name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we consider what agreement and affinity they have one with another For first Law and Covenant agree in Sanction especially publick Leagues and Covenants which of old were made by the mactation of some beast from whence Sanction is à Sanguine from the bloud of the Sacrifice For which cause also the Hebrew Doctours willingly deduce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 succidere as the Latins foedus à feriendo Whence the phrase of striking a covenant is so obvious both in Hebrew Greek and Latine Authors And that there is Sanction in Laws as well as in publick Contracts and Covenants is plain for that the bloud of him that transgresses is to satisfie the Law In legibus Sanctio dicitur ea pars saies Grotius quae Sanguinem delinquentis legi consecrat In laws that part is called Sanction which consecrates the bloud of the Delinquent to the law 4. Again Law and Testament have this common to them both that neither are without covenanting or contracting Nam haeres eo ipso quòd haeres est praestare debet factum defuncti subjectus alterius impeperio eo ipso quòd subjectus est ejusdem legibus parere debet For an heir or executor as such is hereby bound to perform the deed of the deceased and he that is a Subject is as such bound thereby to obey the laws of him whose subject he is as the same Author tells us 5. Lastly Covenant and Testament agree in this that at first it is free to a man whether he will contract or no and so whether he will take administration or no or be such a mans heir But it is not alwaies free whether a man will be such an ones Subject or no whenas Subjection may unavoidably descend on one as born of such parents and in such an ones Jurisdiction 6. Out of this distinct apprehension of these several significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may the more easily judge which is the most competible to the nature of the Gospel and observe the wisdome of the Ancients in making this Inscription rather then any other For they might have intitled it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having a double invitation thereto For first the Jews called their Pentateuch as also the rest of their Books of Holy Writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Christian Doctrine is so termed also both by Paul and Iames Galat. 6. Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ and Iam. 2. If you fulfill the royal law according as it is written Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye doe well They might also have inscribed it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose determinate sense had been then The new Covenant But then it would have hid that special sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Author to the Hebrews alludes to chap. 9.17 7. But they have made choice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first because they seem to have an intimation from Christ himself thus to style the Gospel Matth. 26.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is my bloud of the new Covenant The same also you may read in Mark and Luke So that here being mention of Bloud Sanction properly so called and which is most conspicuous in the nature of a Covenant is herein manifested The Author to the Hebrews does more accurately and fully prosecute this Matter chap. 7 8 and 9. where ver 19. he plainly parallels the bloud of Christ to the bloud of the Covenant made by God with the Jews For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the Law he took the bloud of Calves and Goates and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying This is the bloud of the Covenant which God hath enjoined unto you To which bloud of the Jewish Covenant all along to the end of the chapter he compares the Sacrifice of Christ and the shedding his most precious bloud when he did Foedus ferire make a Covenant of peace with God for remission of sins to all Mankind 8. The other reason why they have styled it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covenant rather then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is because this Inscription more plainly insinuates unto us the sweet condescension of God Almighty and his singular goodness in the Gospel who in sending of Christ hath not dealt with us summo jure nor imperiously and minaciously as severe Law-givers use to doe but mildely and kindly as those that
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