excluded themselves from the Protection of the best of Kings and cooped up themselves to be a prey to the worst of Tyrants for as ours then so the Jewish Matrons now spared neither their tender Limbs nor fine Cloaths nor richest Jewels but as they expended their Treasures in hiring Labourers so they themselves did not disdain to serve the Workmen by carrying Baskets of Rubbish till both Masons and Servitours were forc'd from their work by Balls of Fire issuing from the trembling and gaping Earth by which they that were not kill'd had their Garments or Bodies inured with the Sign of the Cross by which Marks of God's displeasure many of them were so far convinc'd that no other Religion was acceptable to God but the Christian as they with one voyce invocate the help of Christ and were by Baptism initiated in the Christian Faith The substance of this Story I have elsewhere alledged out of Ammianus Marcellinus one of Julian's Captains And Nazianzen affirms that when he wrote this Oration these Prints and Marks upon their Cloaths were still to be seen Is 't then I say imaginable in reason that ever since the disannulling of the Mosaical Service of Legal Sacrifices God has been no where worship'd in a way of his own institution Or is it possible to point out any People upon Earth save the Christian Church that worship him in that way which God himself foretold he would erect at the vacateing of the old § 4. The fourth and last instance I shall give of Prophecies touching meer Contingencies that have been so palpably fulfill'd as the Effect of the accomplishment is now existing is of those which foretold That after Israel had cast off their Messiah and their God cast off them and taken the Gentiles to be his People Those Gentiles as they came into Christ should cast a way all their former Idol-Gods so as never again to return to them Of which Tenour are those Texts Isa. 2. 18. 20 21. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day and the Idols shall he utterly abolish and they shall go into the holes of the Rocks and into the Caves of the Earth for fear of the Lord and for the Glory of his Majesty when he ariseth terribly to shake the earth In that day shall a man cast his Idols of Silver and Gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the moles and to the batts This day is that when all Nations shall flow unto the Mountain of the Lords House c. ver 1. The same Prophecy is repeated Is. 31. 7. and the Effect of it dated when the Lord the Shepherd of Israel shall rise up against the multitude of Shepherds called forth against him the whole Crew of Idols erected by the Gentile world to affront the Majesty of Heaven and make no more of them than a Lyon doth of unarmed Shepherds who would scare him away with their voyce when he comes to take their Flock from them and when those Flocks shall be turned unto that God from whom the Children of Israel have deeply revolted In that day shall every man cast away his Idols c. And Isa. 45. and 46. Chapters When all the ends of the Earth shall look unto God when to him every Knee shall bow every Tongue shall swear c. Then Bel boweth down Nebo stoopeth their Idols were upon the Beasts your carriages were heavy laden they are a burden to the weary Beasts they stoop they bow down together they could not deliver the burden but themselves are gone into Captivity That is the Heathen Great Pontiffs and Philosophers shall not be able to maintain the Cause of those false Gods whom by office and inducement of State they are bound to support but shall fall down under the weight of that Vanity and Impiety the Gospel shall charge them with and throw off their load and themselves become Christs Captives so mighty were the Weapons of the Apostles Warfare to cast down those vain Imaginations that had exalted themselves against the knowledge of the true God and to bring into obedience to Christ the strongest holds that Satan by his Deputies held in the Heathen World And Zech. 13. 2. In that day when a Fountain should be open'd to those Inhabitants of Jerusalem to that House of David that should mourn every Family apart over him whom they had pierced which cannot be meant of the Jews after the Flesh for it was the Gentiles that pierced Christ it was the Roman Soldiers that platted the Crown of Thorns and set it upon Christs Head that Nailed his Hands and Feet to the Cross that peirced his Side with a Spear to which external peircing of Christs Body and not to that Sword which the unthankful Jew ran through his Soul the Evangelist applies this Text John 19. 37. The Spirit of Grace and Supplication is not promised to the breakers of his Heart but Bones the Gentiles Heart that broke his Bones shall be broken when the spirit convinceth them of that sin but the Jews generally lost under Judicial blindness in that day I say that the spiritual Judah shall repent and be baptized St. Jerom expounds this Fountain to be Christian Baptism that Laver of Regeneration It shall come to pass saith the Lord of Hosts that I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the Land c. and cause the unclean spirits to pass out of the Land Was ever any thing foretold with more plainness and perspicuity most of those Oracles and a great many more which for brevity sake I omit are as transparent as if they had been writ with a Sun-beam in this copious variety of expressions there is not one ambiguous Word not one dark Syllable a Child may run and read these Visions Would then such eminent Persons as their Prophets were in their several Generations have run the hazard of having their Memories traduc'd in after-ages by such plain speaking having no imaginable Secular Temptation to it but against it had they not been beyond all possibility of mistake assured of the Infallibility of that Spirit by which they were moved Now the same Degree of Assurance which they had à priori from the Cause we may have à posteriori from the Effect they could not by that more then Scientifical Vision of those things in the Divine Mind that essential Cognition that simple Contact and Feeling of God's Will Tactus quidam divinitatis notitiâ melior essentialis cognitio divinorum contactus quidam essentialis simplex Jamblicus de cognit divinorum be more certain that this would be than we may that it is come to pass by observing the Event For never were any Predictions more manifestly fulfill'd than these not one title of them is faln to the Earth There is not now nor has not been in any part of the World since Christian Religion was planted in it the least Relique of those numberless Pagan Gods it swarmed with before that
which forbids me to dissemble I am a Christian I cannot dissemble Cursed Sectarian Rebels the stain of the Christian Name You made Lyes your Refuge and were made up of nothing from Head to Heel but dissimulation steering your course by that more than Machiavilian Maxim Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare Blessed Charles the Glory of the truly Christian Religion Thou writes after the Copy which thy Master set thee in his own Blood who rather than he would dissemble or not bear witness to the Truth before Pilat would incurr the Rabbles clamorous Cry to have that holy and just One crucified Such such were thy Mothers Children among whom thou now triumphs Such assurance did the Apostolical Church the glorious Company of Martyrs give of their prizing Truth at that rate as they thought that it was to be bought but not sold upon any terms in their refusing to accept of deliverance from the the most tormenting pains that humane strength could inflict or devillish subtilty invent at the price of a Monasyllable-lye What reason then to suspect the Truth of that Testimony which men of such Principles and inconquerable Veracity have given to the Truth of Gospel-history or that they should put their heads together to compact a Fable so long-winded § 2. The Apostles Impartiality How groundless such a Suspicion is will more appear if we cast into the Scales the Consideration of the Apostles and Evangelists Impartiality in their delivering the whole Truth even those Passages in Christ's and the Churches Stories which they could not but foresee would be a derision and stumbling-block to inquisitive Adversaries and a disparagement in the opinion of the Vulgar to Christ and themselves Such as concern their own mean Extract their sordid and scandalous imployments before their Call St. Matthew a Publican a Trade filthy and sordid even in the repute of Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Artimedorus An honest Publican was so rare even at Rome it self as Sabinus for managing that Office uncorruptly had Statues erected to him with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the honest Publican Sueton. Vespas 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So many Publcans so many Harpies Theocritus being demanded what was the cruellest Beast answered of those on the Mountains the Bear and Lion of those in Cities Publicans and Sycophants But much more infamous among the Jews especially if those that undertook that Office were Jews insomuch as Tertullian de pudicitia cap. 9. to take off that aggravation of infamy from St. Matthew will by no means have him to have been a Jew But he is more tender of St. Matthew's crediâ—â— than St. Matthew himself is who writes himself a Jew-publican as St. Jerome proveth Ep. ad Damasum part 2. tract 1. epist. 15. Accusing himself saith Eusebius Hoc quidem nullus Evangelistarum indicavit non Coapostolus Johannes non Marcus non Lucas sed ipse Matthaeus suam ipsius vitam non dissimulans planéque ipse seipsum accusans Euseb. Evang. demon 3. 7. St. Peter James and John our Saviour's select Confidents and as it were the Squires of his Body were called from their Fisher-boats to be Fishers of men They stick'd not to repeat their own weaknesses and failings their presumptions diffidences forsaking forswearing their Master Their Ambition their carnal Conceptions of the Kingdom of the Messiah their dulness of mind to believe the Resurrection with all the aggravating Circumstances of their Lapses From all which the malicious and vafrous Celsus Orig. contrà Celsum lib. 2. calum 18 19. passim takes occasion to deride them to calumniate the blessed Jesus and to disparage the Christian Cause which as Origen replies they would never have administred occasion to the busie enemy to object had not love to Truth constrained them to communicate to the World the whole Truth even that that made towards the proving of Christ to be perfect Man as well as what demonstrated him to be God and that which spake themselves to be what they were by Grace and to do what they did not in their own Name or Strength of their own Vertues but in the Merits and Power of the Name of Christ a Conceit walked among the Jews that extraordinary Holiness might attain to Miraculous Workings Industry bringeth to Purity Purity to Cleanness Cleanness to Holiness Holiness to Humbleness Humbleness to Fear of Sin Fear of Sin to partaking of the Holy Ghost say their Rabbies Lightfoot harm an Christ. 33. But the Apostles derive not their Power of working Miracles by any such Pedigree they make themselves nothing that Christ might be all in all to them § 3. No partial Compliance Yea whereas in Cases of Fact and Practice as private men they might warp aside from the Truth of the Gospel and it would have been in such Cases a promoting of their private Interests either to have said nothing or to have divertised their Reports so as might have rendered the Business most plausible on their own Partie's side Yet we find that even where their particular Interests clash and interfere their Reports agree and are as full in what makes against as for that Party with whom themselves sided in that Case of Fact To instance in the Case of St. Peter and Paul mentioned Gal. 2. That Evangelist who convers'd with St. Peter and was appointed to be his Companion to the Circumcision Gal. 2. 9. St. John writes his Gospel so as it favours St. Paul's Case more than St. Peter's commemorating more at large than St. Luke Christs Intensions to cast off the Jewish Nation to abrogate the Ceremonial Law describing that Nation as a People not to be temporized with opening their Malice Pertinacy and insatiable Thirst after Christ's Blood extenuating the Sin of the Romans in putting him to Death in comparison of the Crime of the Jews in rejecting betraying delivering up and bartering away the Lord of Glory St. Matthew who wrote by St. Peter's Direction to the Hebraizing Jews writes as much in dis-favour of that Nation which St. Peter favour'd and sided with in his Contest with St. Paul as any other Evangelist reporting that John the Baptist warned them not to claim Propriety in nor Privilege from Abraham That Christ preferr'd believing Gentiles before mis-believing Jews to the Honour of being related to him in Consanguinity That Christ found more Faith in some Gentiles than he did in Israel That Christ should say that many should come from East and West and sit down with Abraham in the Kingdom of God and the Children of the Kingdom be thrust out That Christ urged the Law of Charity as vacating the Law of Cermonies even of Old in the case of David eating the Shew-bread And lastly Christs Doom upon such like as St. Peter temporized with to the scandalizing of believing Gentiles that is they that had swept the House and emitted the unclean Spirit by an accepting of Christ for a Messiah but did afterwards suffer him by their Judaizing to
after Aarons order made upon the Altar of his Cross by the oblation of himself a full and perfect Propitiation for the sins of the whole World and was then actually inflicted when in the virtue of that Attonement God sent him as a Priest after the Order of Melchisedech to bless the Nations by turning them from their sins If this God of Israel hath where he is invocated any Priests taken from among the Gentiles but those of Christs Institution that call themselves and are called that is known by the name of the Priests of the Lord. He may find this name scorned by such punie Antichrists as the Gospel tells us have ever been and foretells us will ever be in the Church but not of the Church who being under a Form of Godliness deny the Power and either out of a blind zeal or for a cloak of Covetousness decry the Evangelical Priest-hood casting contempt upon and practising to abolish that Name which the God of Israel hath said the Evangelical Ministers should be called by doing what in them lay to overturn the Foundation of Christian Faith For if there be not an order of Men taken out from the rest from among the people called the Priests of the Lord the Gentiles are not yet called nor that God whom we invocate the God of Israel nor that Jesus whom we worship the Christ the promised Messiah for of the days of Messias it is prophesied Is. 66. 8. I will gather all Nations and Tongues and they shall come and see my glory and this I will do by setting a Sign amongst them by erecting the Standard of the Cross For those that escape those of the Jews that save themselves from the untoward Generation by embracing Christ I will send to the Nations disperse them over the World to Tarshish Pul and Lud to Tubal and Javan to the Isles afar off that have not heard my fame neither have seen my Glory and they shall declare my Glory Preach Christ the Brightness of my Glory Heb. 1. 3. among the Gentiles And they shall bring all your Brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all Nations and of them that shall be converted out of all Nations I will take for Priests and Levites For as the new Heavens that I create remain before me so shall your Seed and your Name remain for ever And again Isa. 61. 6. Ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Ministers of our God See here what tender Consciences those tender ear'd men have and how well those Laodicean Church-men consult the promoting of the honour of Christ and the salvation of Souls through his Blood that rather than we should offend the itching ears of those white Devils would have us wave the use of so harsh a word so grating a name as that of Priests though it be of the mouth of the Lords naming and the bearing of it among the Gentiles one of those Demonstrations of the Spirit of Prophesie that Christ is come and that he whose Priests we are is the God that made Heaven and Earth Not but that the Romish Sacrificers have Sacrilegiously abused this name to the abetting their Sacrifice of the Mass or as if names or things whose use is not necessary may not be laid aside when abused as God took the name of Baal out of his peoples mouth after it had been appropriated to Idols and Hezechiah broke the Brazen Serpent after the Idolatrous use of it Yet he that upon that pretence would banish the name of Jehovah or other Names of God out of Christian use would leave us never a Name to call him by for all his Names that the Gentiles could get at the Tongues end they applied to their Idols and should we exterminate every Word or Thing that has been made an evil use of we must speak by Signs renounce our Creed our Meat Drink and Sleep How much more cautious should we be of entertaining those Principles of a squeasie and mis-inform'd Conscience as induce us to a disuse of that Name which God himself hath stampt upon the Ministers of the Gospel as their Memorial for ever But Odi prophanum vulgus arceo I should blame my self for making this excursion before the Atheist if it were not to inform him that in case while he is seeking for the accomplishment of this Prophesie he meet with such as disclaim this and call themselves by another Name and thereby be confirm'd in his Atheism the Church is free of his blood for there never hath been any Christian Church upon Earth whose Ministers are not known and called by the name of the Priests of Israel's God § 3. Let him enquire what Sacrifices and Oblations have been offered him since his Name was Great in all the World but that commemorative one of the great Propitiation which our high Priest made once for all That Thanksgiving-Sacrifice of the Eucharist that well-pleasing Sacrifice of a sweet odour we tender him in our Works of Charity in our honouring him with our substance that living and reasonable Service wherein we offer up our selves Souls Bodies and Spirits to the disposal of his Royal Law What Incense hath been burnt before him but Prayer from a Devout and flaming Heart What Libations have been powred out in his presence but penitential Tears flowing from a contrite spirit Let him travel Aegypt through and through he will find no Altar there erected to the God of Israel but that Table-throne of Grace whereon we offer to him his Creatures of Bread and Wine and make a Commemoration of his Son's Death No Pillar there set up to the Lord but the eternal Monument of his dear Love the Triumphant Standard of the blessed Cross. He will find the Jew the Assyrian the Aegyptian serving the God of Israel joyntly in the practise of no Religion but the Christian. And then I leave it to the Atheists Discretion to judge whether it be conceivable that that God who was so wise as to foresee and so powerful as to effect this great Change we see wrought in the World by the Gospel should be so far wanting to himself and those of Mankind that most sincerely love him as to have none to worship him in a way of his own Institution this sixteen hundred years ever since he by his Providence hath made it impossible to tender him that Worship himself had formerly commanded the place being destroyed where God will only accept of such like services and the Jews having been terrified from rebuilding it under Julian so as they never since durst reattempt it The Story of which their Consternation is thus reported by Greg. Nazianzen Oratione 48. in Julianum 2. Julian invited the Jews to return into Judaea and rebuild their Temple whereupon multitudes of them repair thither and busie themselves in that work with as much zeal as our City-Matrons exprest When those Forts and Lines of Communication were cast up whereby they
their right hand Psal. 109. 6. They who rejected their own King to whom the Wise Men of the Gentiles paid Homage are forc'd to bring those Presents into the Idol's Temple which formerly they had come with into God's Courts Scaliger appendice ad emendat temporum pag. 25. applies to this business that of the Satyrist Omnis enim pòpuli mercedem pondere jussa est Arbor When he saith every Tree to wit of the Jewish Oratories payeth Tribute he alludes to that Tribute which ancient Boooks Moneys and Martial mention Sed quod de Solymis venit perustis Damnatum modò Mance tributum The Tribute now imposed upon the Jews is that which comes from their Temple consumed with fire that is saith Scaliger the Half-shekel which formerly they used to pay to the Temple while it stood they were injoyn'd after it was demolished to pay to the Capitol To which appertains that Inscription of the Jewish Coyn after this Tribute was released and the Capitoline Gods turn'd out of doors CALVMNIA FISCI JUDAICI SUBLATA the reproach of the Judaical Tribute remov'd Had God spit in their faces it would not have been a greater reproach than their paying this Tribute was How did God in this retaliate their scornful valuing of his Son at thirty Pieces that goodly price was cast to the Potter But here God appoints the price of their Souls to be cast to Devils as long as there were any in the Capitol to receive it By that he provided a Burying-place for Strangers in the Land of Promise a Dormitory with Abraham Isaac and Jacob for those of the East and West in whose eyes Christ was more precious than in theirs that with them they might rest in hope of a Resurrection to Glory By this he declared his Rejection of the Children of the Kingdom the disimparking of that Nation and turning it into the Wild and Common of the World the Demesnes of the God of this World And that according to the plain Exposition which their own Scriptures make For this Tribute being formerly payable to God as a Ransom for their Souls Ex. 30. 12. what can their not paying it to God but to him out of whose hand God had ransom'd them import less than his turning them over into the hands of their old Lord What could have been a clearer Evidence of God's casting up his Royalty over them of his unwillingness to stand any longer engaged to protect them than his ordering them in his adorable Providence to pay the Rent for their Lives to a strange God As their Tythes were the Hedg of their Estates and God stood bound by his gracious Promise while they paid them duly by his appointment to protect and prosper the Fruit of their Labours Mal. 3. 8 9 10. Ye are cursed with a curse ye have robbed me in detaining Tythes bring your Tythes and prove me herewith whether I will not open the doors of Heaven unto you and pour you out a Blessing and I will rebuke the devourer for your sake and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground neither shall your Vine be barren So this holy Tribute was the Hedge of their Persons and demanded of God to be paid to himself that they might by vertue of his Covenant oblige him to secure them from Pestilential Diseases that there be no plague amongst you Exod. 30. 11. And therefore the non-payment of it to God was a casting down of the Fence of his special Providence and a laying them open to the Dominion of Evil Angels Israel's Watchman by appointing his Stipend to be paid to another God bid them in plain English look to themselves for he would take no farther care of them or charge over them his gracious Eye should be no longer upon them I will no more pity you I will no more deliver you that that dieth let it die CHAP. X. More Signs of the Scepter 's departure § 1. Covenant-Obligationvoid They return to Egypt c. § 2. Temple-Vessels Prophanation revenged of old not now regarded § 3. Titus and Vespasian rewarded for their service against the Temple § 4. Judah ' s God deaf to all their Cries § 5. They curse themselves in calling upon the God of Revenges § 6. Jewish and Gentile Historians relate the Watch-word Let us depart § 7. Jacob thus expounded not by Statists but the Apostles § 1. 2. GOd hath made evident Demonstration of his reprobating that accursed Nation in his accomplishment upon them that Threat of Moses Deut. 28. 68. The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again by ships by the way whereof I spake unto thee thou shalt see it no more again and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bond-men and bond-women gratis for nought for no man will buy you god had promised them perpetual Liberation from Egyptian Bondage Exod. 14. 13. so Junius and Tremelius Calvin thinks that not only their not return to Egypt but their not coming in that way of the vast howling Wilderness whereby they came from Egypt is here hinted and to that Objection how could they go by Ships through the Wilderness gives this in answer that they might be shipp'd and cast upon the Shore over against the Plains of Moab and so trudg by Land through their old Walk However this is manifest that though God had promised they should never again become Slaves to the Egyptian Yet now the Jews having cast him off he looks upon himself as disobliged from his Promises made to them Ergo illuc eos retrahens gratiam redemptionis quodammodò delevit and forgetting the Covenant now out of date he makes good this Threatning upon them partly by Titus who sent all the Captive Jews bound to Egypt for Drudges and Slaves Josephus Bell. Jud. lib. 7. 16. Except some chosen young men of goodly Complexion and proper Bodies whom he reserved for Triumph some Boys under sixteen of which he sold as many as he could get money for for there were more sellers than buyers Haumer in Euseb. Eccles. hist. lib. 3. cap. 8. And some boysterous Carles whom he allotted through the Provinces for Spectacles and the Teerh of wild Beasts Partly by the voluntary flight of those who escaped the Conquerour's hands unto Alexandria and the Egyptian Thebes at both which places by men of their own Nation there residing they were either slain or delivered up to the Roman Sword Joseph Bel. Jud. l. 7. c. 29. And partly by Adrian who after he had made it death for any Jew to look towards the place where Jerusalem then Ardianople had stood sent all the Jews he could not find Chapmen for into Egypt to sell themselves to their old Enemies for Bond-men bondwomen but the price of a Jew then ran so low as they sold themselves gratis for want of Chapmen St. Jerom in Zach. 11. Time was when that Prayer of Onias Sirnamed the Just was look'd upon as Canonical Oh God the King of the whole World seeing these that
have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inopinata praeter omnem expectationem contrà omnium opinionem A word which may seem to have faln into his Pen either from the mouth of the people or the Text of the Evangelist Luke 5. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have seen strange things to day unexpected things which we look'd not for from Joseph's Son chap. 4. 22. from him whose Father and Mother and Sisters we know This was the Vulgar Vote though the Christ when he comes will not cannot do greater Miracles than this man doth yet that this man whose Generation we can declare and know it to be so mean should thus speak and work is that which we little expected The whole Nation were now big with expectation of some great Man who should do great Things they looked when the Mountains would bring forth when God would shake the Heavens and thence send the Desire of all Nations while they are thus musing the Branch springs up out of the wither'd Stem the dryed Root of David's Stock without form without comeliness one wherein they could see no beauty here they are as much frustrated of their expectation as those in the Fable were when they saw nothing but a Mouse born of the swelling Mountains But when they see this Mouse gnaw asunder the Cords wherein Satan had kept the Seed of Abraham fast bound when they see this Worm stinging the old Serpent to death when they see this little Stone bearing down all adverse power before it this was as much above what they looked for from so contemptible a Person as his external Form was below that Grandeur they looked for in their Messias Besides Impostures filled their Followers with expectation of great things from them by their boasting of their power to work Miracles they had a Trumpet before them to call men in to see the show Here goes the mighty Power of God who will come and see it exerted was the cry of the Simonists Come with me to the Mount of Olives and I will make the Walls of Jerusalem fall flat to the ground by a Battery of omnipotent Words crys one Go with me to Mount Gerazim there I 'l shew you what has been hid from Ages cries another March with me into the Wilderness and I 'l there do wonders crys another But the Powers of the Kingdom of Heaven exert themselves in the works of our Saviour without ostentation his Miracles I mean those he wrought to convince the Jews before his Passion were unpremeditate and extempore the maladies he kill'd felt the Bullet before the by-standers heard the Crack he rung no Bell to that Dinner he prepared for many thousands of a few Loaves and Fishes his Acts of wonder were without Prologues surprised the Spectators with their suddenness were done before they could forethink he would do them and upon that account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strange things they looked not for § 5. And yet Josephus affirms that the Jews had all the reason in the World to expect the doing of such things as Christ did by some Person of note whom God was to raise up for the benefit of that Nation for thus he writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The divine Prophets having feretold these and other wonderful things concerning him wherein he fully accords with our Evangelists in this main Foundation-point 3. That the Wonders which Jesus of Nazareth wrought were such as the Prophets of God had foretold should be wrought by the Christ when he came A point which is constantly prest by our sacred Historiographers and appealed to by our Saviour in the answer he returned to John the Baptist when he sent his Disciples to enquire whether he were the Christ Go and tell John what you see that the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised c. If these be not the Works assigned to the Messias by the Prophets believe me not that I am he The Miracles that Christ did were not elective Works as those were which false Christs pretended to but fore-appointed and prescribed him by the Spirit of Prophesie and therefore as they point him out to be him that was to come for never man but he applyed himself to work by the Rule of Prophecy and I challenge all Reading to produce one Example of a person beside him that so much as pretended to the doing of those wonders that the Prophets cut out for the Christ. So they clearly evince those VVonders that were reported by common and undoubted Fame in the Age of Josephus to be those very Works of Christ that are specified in the Evangelical History there being none of them but bear this Character are such as the Prophets fore-told the Messias should work and none but those in the Gospel being by any persons fasten'd upon Christ that will abide that Test or have not been reprobated upon that Rule of Trial. The Enemy began betimes to sow the Tares of Forgeries with the good Seed of Evangelical History Some as the Carpocratians reporting other things of Christ than what the Gospel relates upon this pretence that Christ did or taught those things in private to some choice Disciples Irenaeus cont Haeretic lib. 1. And that false Merchant Isidore is not ashamed to feign the holy Bishop Clemens whom St. Paul mentions in his Epistle to the Romans to make the same Plea in his Apostolical Canons Under the same Pretext the Ebionites Gnosticks Carpocratians c. forged the Gospel by St. Thomas St. Andrew St. Philip St. Matthias St. Peter St. Thaddaeus St. James the younger St. Barnaby St. Bartholomew the Book of the Infancy and another of the Nativity of our Saviour of his Mother and her Midwife the Manichees Book called the Foundation Crab. conc tom 1. Gelasii decreta pag. 992. Tertullian in his Prescription against Hereticks affirms that when they could not make good their Conceipts by Scripture they pretended that either the Disciples did not know all that was necessary for the Church Christ telling them he had many things to say unto them which they were not able to bear or else that they did not communicate all they knew to all but that they reserved the greatest Mysteries for them that were perfect Others boasted that what they reported of Christ beside what was contain'd in the Gospel they had from the Apostles by word of mouth This was Artemon's Plea Euseb. 5. 28. Clemens Strom. 7. tells us that Basilides gloried in his having for his Master one Glancias the Interpreter of St. Paul that Valentinus father'd his Fanatick VVhimsies upon Theodate St. Paul's Familiar and that the Marcionites bragged that the Disciples of St. Matthias were their Teachers And Athanasius 2. contrà Arrianos recites this Exordium of a writing of Arrius I have heard these things of the Elect of God of the most knowing and even paced servants of God These they called Depths of knowledge but Christ calls
their own Prophets foretold they would make to that Question Listen in their Synagogues if thou canst hear the blessed Jesus named except it be in execrations spie if thou canst see the Symbol of his precious Death except it be in their barbarous representation thereof by some Crucified Christian Infant Observe if there be any Signs of their relenting for Murdering that holy and just One of their bitter mourning over their Fathers sin in choosing a Murderer before the Innocent Lamb of God If thou discernest one tear to trickle down from their eye while 't is fixt upon him except it flow from their spightful envy to see him exalted adored and worshipt of all people but themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isidor Pelus l. 4. ep 74. They are preserv'd alive that they may be vexed at the heart by beholding the glory of Christ shining every where Or be in revenge of that vengeance upon them by which Christ has paid himself for the Travel of his soul for that unthankful Nation and vindicated the honour of his Deity in the opinion of all men but themselves by which they that would not receive instruction are made an instruction to others and they who would not by all the plainest Demonstrations which Christ or his Apostle did lay before them be convinc'd are become a Demonstration to convince the World that that Jesus whom they slew and hanged upon a Tree is the very Christ For as their Fathers by condemning him so the Children of that stock of Abraham by persisting in their denial of him not knowing him nor the voyces of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day have been and are still fulfilling those Prophets as to this Point of their Prediction that that People should reject their own Messias Act. 13. 27. § 2. A second Branch of Prophecy whose Fruit hangs yet upon it whose Effect is still permanent to be seen felt and handled is that touching Gods Rejection of the Jews for their rejecting of his Son Of the truth of which that Nation is a manifest proof and stands as a Pillar of Salt to season all Ages with the belief of the Supernaturalness of those Revelations wherein that event was foretold And of the warrantableness of the Churches Application o◠them to the Blessed Jesus whereupon Celsus having excepted against that Opinion of the Christians That the Jews had moved Gods displeasure against them for their Crucifying and disowning Christ Origen replies What Is not the dispersion of their Nation the ruine of their Temple City c. sufficient indications of Gods rejecting that people I dare say they shall never be restored Origen contra Celsum l. 3. cal 10. I hope the English Atheist is not so much a French Gentleman as to take it in Dudgeon that I lay some grains of this Salt on his Trencher or rather advise him to help himself to some now that it stands at his Elbow for I fancy him yet in Belgium taking out the first Lesson touching the Jews disowning of Christ And now that he is amongst those Keepers of our Rolls those bearers of our Books let him search whether those Prophecies which foretell that upon that Nations refusing to accept their own Messias their Fathers God should wholly disown them be the inventions of Christians the pious frauds of our Church or the Responds of their own Prophets Ask a Jew of whom that Prophet of theirs whom for honours sake they call Angel Jeremy speaks chap. 6. I will bring evil upon this people because they have rejected the word of the Lord because they said we will not walk in the good way wherein they were promised to find rest for their souls because they would not hear the sound of the Trumpet that sound which the Gentiles would hear Hearken therefore hear ye Nations hear O earth I will bring evil upon this people reprobate Silver shall men call them because God hath rejected them Can the most obstinately blinded Jew shut his Eye so close as he shall not here see the glimmerings of those unwelcome Truths 1. That this is an Evil the Effects whereof should be so palpable as all Nations should so manifestly see the Marks of Gods rejecting them as the name whereby they should in common speech be called is reprobate Silver a refuse Nation a People cast off of God a name which God was angry with the Heathen for fastning upon them in the saddest dereliction of that people formerly That 2. The word for their rejecting whereof they were rejected of God The good old way for their refusing to walk wherein they were left out of the road of Mercy can be none other but that eternal Word who proclaimed himself to be the Way and offered Soul-rest to them would come to him is manifest For 1. This is absolutely and without compare the good old Way the saving Word that was chalk'd out that was Preach'd to Abraham before he was Circumcised 400 years before the good old Way of Moses was known Nay preach'd by Noah that Preacher of Righteousness by Faith many Generations before Abraham and by God himself in Paradise tendering Life through Faith in the Blood of the Womans Seed which was the only thing saving in all the After-dispensations of that Covenant of Grace 2. This is the only Word and Way which the Jews totally rejected the Word spoken by Moses and the Prophets their Fathers in some part for some time neglected but never totally renounc'd it and the Modern Jew does too tenaciously stick to the Letter of that Word and the external Form of that Way 3. The only Sound of the Trumpet which the Gentiles hearken to in order to their finding rest to their Souls is that sound of the Apostles which from Jerusalem is gone into all the Earth and to the uttermost parts of the World the sound of that Trumpet whereby Christ is Proclaimed the Word of God the everlasting Way of Salvation § 3. Ask a Jew whether the same Prophet chap. 16 and 17. threaten not a more dreadful Judgment then impending over that Nations head than the Northern Captivity to wit a dissipation into Strange lands that neither they nor their Fathers knew whereas Chaldaea and all the Nations into which they were carried Captive before their Crucifying the Lord of Life were their door Neighbours with whom they had Commerce where God would shew them no favour as he had done in all other Captivities but take away his peace from them even loving kindness and mercy where they should be hunted from every Mountain and Hill and Hole wherein not only all the Treasures of Gods Mountain in the Field the riches of that Covenant of Grace sometimes deposited with that faithless and fruitless People should be given as a spoile to the Gentiles But the holy Mountain her self discontinue from that heritage which God had given her and he burnt up and made desolate by a fire that should be kindled in Gods anger and burn
received by uninterrupted Tradition though they neither could retrieve all Principles of that Nature nor through want of the rest always rightly apply those they had received And it seems a wonder to me that so many who would be counted men in understanding should be so affected with his Systems which he himself if my memory fail me not in his Preface to his Natural Philosophy affirmeth he could make no man understand or relish so well as one woman who though she was a person of honour and of as great a capacity as any as all of that Sex yet sure she was not a competent Judge of such Speculations had they been truly Masculine She might perhaps have judged of a Poem upon the presumption of Sapphos Dexterity of an Oration and have not gone beyond those bounds to which that Sex reached in the persons of Amaesia Affrania Hortensia she might perhaps have found by enquiring of her Cooks or Scullions that his Kitchin-experiments were true and by her own Discretion see some of them subvert some of the Conclusions of the old Philosophy as one fool may spy more faults than an hundred wise men can mend But that they were a Foundation firm enough for his Conclusions that she and only she should discern is an affront to our whole Sex if indeed his Philosophy be calculated to the sublimest Principles of the most Masculine and Strenuous Wits and not Female and Vulgar Capacities who are easily imposed upon by the fallacy of non causa pro causa Though It must be acknowledged to the praise of that excellent Lady that her Philosophical Genius so far transcended the common standard of her Sex as to make credible that Story which Socrates relates of the Alexandrian Hypatia the Daughter of Theon the Philosopher who excell'd all the Sophisters of her time and either preceded or succeeded Platinus in Plato's School Lib. 7. 15. Socrat. Scholast hist. But I have dwelt too long upon these Minim Deities were it not that from their introduction we may learn to what Vanity of mind divine Justice gives those men up that desire not the knowledge of the Almighty and how aptly the Prophet speaks when he saith they should creep into the holes of the earth For at the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness this whole brood of Vermine disappear'd these Hodmadods crept into their shells these Worms into their holes these never stood one fight with our Lord of Hosts their Adorers never struck one stroke in their defence as they did for their celestial Gods the Host of Heaven which they worship'd the Gods of the greater and lesser Nations But all in vain For those strong men that kept the house are all turn'd out of possession by the blessed Jesus and spoil'd of all their Ensigns of divine honour Jove of his Thunder-bolt Christs still voyce drowning the noise of his Thunder Apollo of his Bow and Arrows Christ's Arrows proving more sharp in the sides of Python the Serpent than his Mars of his Faulchion Christ's two-edged Sword proving the better mettled Blade Minerva of her Spear being not able with her Target to defend her self against the Artillery of the Cross Mercury of his Caduceus by the more sweet Charms of the Apostles The Lion of the Tribe of Judah uncas'd Hercules and pull'd off his Lions Skin over his ears As that Light of Light appeared in the East and gradually shone to the West the World ceas'd to fear those Hobgoblins that had affrighted her in the dark men learn'd to look upon the Sun without the Ceremonies of Adoration without kissing the hand or bending the knee As the Bread that came down from Heaven hath been broken to the several Nations of the Earth they gave over baking Cakes to the Queen of Heaven As the Gospel introduc'd the fear of the One blessed God she shak'd off the fear of false Gods broke down their Altars demolish'd their Temples contemn'd their Oracles and stampt their Images to powder As the God that made Heaven reveil'd himself by the Preaching of the Gospel the Gods that did not make Heaven and Earth have been abolish't from off the Earth from under Heaven The Romans Celebration of the Funeral of that Coblers Crow two years after our Saviours Passion Gilbert Genebrand in his Chronic. conceives to have been a presage that now the Gospel was begun to be publish'd the black Crow that is Satan was shortly to expire at Rome where had been his chief seat and babling as he is quoted by Vossius Atrium mali spiritûs infractum imperium obrutum quasi sepultum iri Vos de Idol 3. 89. This was but short warning however all on a suddain as in a Pannick Fear the whole Army of Celestial Terrestrial and Infernal black and white Daemons take themselves to their heels and quit their ancient seats as soon as the Lord of Hosts appears pitching his Tent amongst men and Tabernacling in Humane Flesh. So that now a Child may lead those Lions at whose voice the World trembled before God utter'd his voyce none frequent those Fountains Caves Groves Oaks for Counsel at the lips of whose Oracles formerly the whole World hung for advice in all Matters of weight thither men repaired there they enquired about planting of Colonies building of Cities about Peace and War c. Plutarch conviv mor. tom 1. p. 377. But they have all lost their Tongues since God spake to us by his Son Jove's Fountain of Castalion and that otherof Colophon saith Clem. Alexand. adhaetat are commanded silence and all other Prophetick Springs have lost their divining tast whose proud streams swell'd of old with the honour of being reputed the seats of Sacred Oracles One of those silenc'd Oracles that of the Daphnean Apollo in the Suburbs of Antioch Julian would have cured of his dumbness and he attempted the like elsewhere Am. Marcol Julianus 22. 12. Multorum curiosior Julianus novam consilii viam aggressus est venas fatidicas Castalionis recludere cogitans fontis quem obstruxisse Caesar dicitur Hadrianus mole saxorum ingenti veritus rè ut ipse praecipientibus aquis capessendam Rempublicam comperit etiam alii similia docerentur ac statim circum humata corpora statuit exindè transferri eo ritu quo Athenienses insulam purgaverant Delon Julian his curiosity in the matter of Religion in order to the Defence of Paganisme against the Christian Faith which he had renounc'd put him upon this new Project thinking to open the Veines of the Castalion Fountain which the Emperour Hadrian is reported to have obstructed with a huge heap of stones fearing least as he was invited to undertake the Empire by the Oracle of that Spring others also might be taught the like he forthwith commands the Corps that were there inter'd should be removed thence after the same rite as the Athenians purged the Island of Delos What success he had here or in other places that Historian doth not relate which