Whereas to them that observe what influence the Artificers hand within the Veil hath upon those Engins the whole series of the Causes of those Motions are naked and bare-fac'd Plutarch gives Plato this commendation that finding fault with Anaxagoras for immersing his thoughts too deep into Natural Causes and too eagerly pursuing the necessity of those Effects which happen to Natural Bodies he totally omitted the efficient and final the prime and chief of all Principles and avoiding the other Extreme which some fell into to wit Poets and Divines who only minded the Supreme Cause the rational and voluntary Efficient never came to the Natural and Necessary Causes of things These first ascribing all the second nothing to the Perpessions Collisions Mutations and Mixtures of Natural Beings among themselves Plato waveing these Rocks was the first that joyn'd together the Indagation of both thess sorts of Causes de oracul defect pag. 677. Hitherto appertains that saying of St. Austin De Trinitate l. 3. cap. 2. Itaque licuit vanitati Philosophorum etiam causis aliis ea tribuere vel veris sed proximis cùm omninò videre non possent superiorem caeteris omnibus causam id est voluntatem Dei vel falsis non ipsa quidem pervestigatione corporalium rerum atque motionum sed à sua suspicione errore prolatis The vduity of Philosophers took lieve to attribute these effects to Causes either true but next to hand seing they could not at all discern the supreme Cause of all the Will of God or false and such as were not produced by the pervestigation of Corporeal Matter or Motion but from their own suspicion and errour Were it not that with the Tradition of Religion God hath communicated to Mankind general Maxims to help us in our search into the Nature of things we could never attain to the certain knowledge of any thing And therefore we see all the Grecian Philosophy that was not grounded upon Tradition dwindled at last into Scepticism and veil'd the Bonnet to that of Pythagoras Socrates and Plato who travel'd for theirs into those places where the Tradition had been best preserv'd So true is that Oracle which the Indian Gymnosophist delivered to Socrates in his Reply to the answer that Socrates made to this Question By what means a man might become wise If he consider after what manner it becomes man to live saith Socrates To which the Indian smiling gives this retort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man can understand the nature of humane and mundane things that 's ignorant of divine Euseb. praeperat Evang. referente Grinaeo in praefatione ad Irenaeum Upon which Point the golden Tongue'd Lactantius elegantly Veritatem divinae Religionis arcanum Philosophi attigerunt sed aliis refellentibus defendere id quod invenerant nequiverunt quià singulis ratio non quadravit nec ea quae vera senserant in summam redigere potuerunt de divino praem 7. 7. The Philosophers made a shift to touch with the fingers end Truth and the Mystery of divine Religion but they could not grasp them so close as to hold them as to defend what they had found against opposers because Reason did not square to every one of their Placits singly nor were they able to bring into one Sum and subordinate System their true sentiments And it is Fernelius his observation in his Preface de abditis rerum causis that the latter Platonicks Numenius Philo Plotinus Iamblicus Proclus Quicquid de divinis rebus magnificum attigerunt illud à Christianis viris Joanne Paulo Hirotheo Dionysio furtim excerpsisse ut inde abstrusa Platonis dicta clariùs lucidiusque interpretarentur in verum sensum deducerent attain'd to the knowledge of nothing in divine things that was magnificent but what they stole from Christian Philosophers by whose spoils they were enriched with ability more clearly to interpret and deduce to a true sence the dark sayings of Plato But I digress How the World was produced and how man came to be Sovereign of the rest of the Creatures Reason was in pursuit after but could never attain to the knowledge of till Religion prompts her till sacred Writ informs her That God made man after his own Image gave him that Dominion made him Lord of the Universe as being of that Nature of which the Son of God was to assume Flesh into a perpetual Union with himself which being the highest preferment that the Creature is capable of and an Estate which Angels shall never aspire unto speaks it no wonder that God should make his Angels ministring Spirits for the good of Man But we need not now go so far as the Reason of God's disposal 't is enough we have found out Gods disposal as the ground of Man's Sovereignty Weigh this with all besides that ever was said upon this Question and they are lighter than vanity and let Reason use the utmost of her skill in descanting upon this ground she shall never be able to find the least flaw in it § 5. The longest Sword or over-reaching Wit conveigh no Right Self-love prompted Reason to play the part of an Oratour handsomly to declaim probably upon Man's Dominion over Beasts but how he came to command Spirits she could not deem And that his Power over inferiour Creatures should extend it self to the taking away of their Lives though it was practically concluded by all Nations yet I could never see one sound natural Reason produced for it and do here solemnly challenge the profoundest Atheist to give one irrefragable Argument which he is not beholding to Religion for in defence of that Dominion he daily exerciseth over his Fellow-Creatures and for ought he knows if he travel no farther than Athens to learn his Betters what Staff can he find to beat his Dog with that his Skullion may not as well lay about his own Shoulders what can he plead for his Butchering a Sheep that another may not with as much reason urge against his own Throat How will he handle the Knife with which he carves a Capon and not cut his own Hands too unless it be hasted with Scripture Reasons Bar these and abstain from Flesh till Pythagoras be confuted and thou must keep Lent all thy Life be it as long as Metbuselah's wave these Topicks and where wilt thou gather Arguments to Silence Celsus Orig. in Celsum lib. 4. calum 29 30 31. or Plutarch de solertia animalium while they make these Assertions their Theme Some Creatures as Bees and Ants excel Man in the Science of Government others in the Art of Divination others in Religion as the Elephant that they are dearer to the Gods have a more sacred Converse among themselves than Men c. If the Humane Soul were not better distinguish'd from the Bestial by its Original and Fountain by Gods breathing it into us than by its Effects and Productions we should be hard put to it to prove our Superiority of Reason
lib. 1. cap. 10. 11. But to spare the labour of multiplying Instances that place of Plato I mention'd at the beginning of this discourse is abundantly sufficient where those blessed spirits that descended to take care of Mankind are said to have given them Laws neither that of Origen against Celsus lib. 5. cap. 1. whom he charges in his affirming that never any God or Son of God came down from Heaven to reveal divine Counsels to oppose the Vulgar and received Opinion of Philosophers and proves that charge by many clear instances one of which we have Act. 14. 12. when St. Paul had by a word speaking presently and perfectly cured the man that was born lame the Lystrians conceived him to be Mercury appearing in humane form because he was the chief speaker clearly expressing this to be their Opinion that the healing God was to be the great Gods Messenger and to restore men's discomposed Minds as well as Limbs by his word the very Office which the Prophets assigned to the Messias and the Apostles and Evangelists applyed to Christ A prophet shal the Lord raise unto you of your brethren like unto me as touching his humane but infinitely superiour to me in respect of his divine Nature And that 's the scope of that so much abused Text all thy children shall be taught of God Isa. 54. 13. if Christ be better at expounding Scripture than our new illuminates Who when the Jews excepted against his affirming himself to come down from Heaven because they knew his Father and Mother supposing him to be the Son of Joseph as they said Joh. 6. ver 42. gives them this reply That no man could come to him that is as one that came down from Heaven and whom they were bound to hear under pain of extermination except the Father drew him ver 44. not as a log by main force of hand but as a man by strength of Argument by teaching him the meaning of that Text in the Prophet and they shall all be taught of God ver 45. which cannot be understood of the person of the Father for no man hath seen the father but the son ver 46. Nor of the Spirits teaching for that the Church had from the beginning thou gavest them thy good spirit Nehem. 9. 10. But of the Person of the Son who was in the Fullness of Time to assume Flesh and dwell among us and teach not only Jews but Gentiles what they must do to be saved So as in the last revelation of the divine Will God will no longer deal by proxy but himself in the Person of the Son will speak face to face which you might have learn'd in Hypothesi had you diligently weighed that Text of Isa. and though I in respect of my humane Nature am the son of Mary and as you suppose of Joseph whom you know yet at my Baptism you might have learn'd that I had another Generation for then my Father bare witness by a voice from Heaven that I was the son of God and at my transfiguration having avouched me to be his well beloved Son he gave command that I should be receiv'd as that Prophet whom all are to hear every man therefore that hath heard and learn'd this of my Father concerning me that I am that great Prophet that was to come into the World like to my Brethren as to my Manhood but equal to the Father touching my Godhead will certainly come to me and learn of me as to those whom my Father by these clear convictions and furthermore by that Seal he hath set to my Commission to teach in those Miracles I work does not draw into a full perswasion 't is impossible that they while they are under that obstinacy should come unto me Hence it is that our Saviour so much presseth and layeth so much stress upon the believing that he was he that should come to tell men all things hence St. Paul begins his Epistle to the Hebrews with the proof of this that Jesus of Nazareth was that divine Person the express Image of the Fathers person by whom according to the Prophecies that went before God hath spoak in the last that is the Evangelical Age. § 8. Humane Laws we say are Nets which small fish escape through and great ones break but Christ's Law is so framed his Gospel net so knit as the Vulgar fry stick in it by the Finns and Gills of common Sentiments And the greatest disputers are intangled in it by strugling It takes the poor of this World by the compliance with their innate Notions and the wise in their own craftiness By it Learning was pos'd Philosophy was set Sophisters taken in a Fisher's net Plato and Aristotle were at a loss And wheel'd about again to spell Christ's Cross. As our great British Divine and Divine Poet sings in his Church tit Providence in which Poem as he hath given us an abstract of Church-history so I fear there is a more discerning spirit of Prophecy expressed therein than in all our modern golden Dreams and Comments upon Daniel and the Revelation these Predictions being but guessings at if not perversions of the sence of dark Texts his the applications of as clear menaces as any are in the whole Bible and these too commented upon by the constant method of Providence in the World which usually so shapes its rewards and Punishments to mens demerits as for our knowing what will betide our selves we need not consult ambiguous Oracles but such plain sanctions of the royal Law as have been made good upon and befallen other Churches for examples to us for if we will not be diverted from following Egypt and Greece's steps we must arrive at their dismal end if we by our debaucheries of mind or life put the Gospel from us and draw upon our selves strong delusions a Revelation-Criticism will not secure the one to us nor us from the other But to return from this Digression The constitution of Christian Religion is such as it finds all that is of man left in man a party for it in the Market and all true Philosophy a party for it in the Schools of Philosophers saith Clem. Alexandr Strom. l. 1. pag. 94. whether of the Barbarians or Grecians I mean not the Stoick Platonick Epicurean Aristotelian but whatsoever any Sect rightly taught whatsoever they taught Pious or Just is but a Branch of eternal Truth pluck'd from the Tree of Life the ever-being Word An observation grounded upon these Prophecies I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches of it and build it as in the days of old build the old wasts raise up the former desolations the foundations of many generations Amos 9. 11. Isa. 61. 4. Isa. 58. 12. and this to the end that the residue of men that is the Gentiles might seek the Lord Act. 15. 16. as St. James expounds the Prophets which inforceth us to interpret those Prophecies not of Persons only but
frightning men to obedience by menacies of Hell-fire c. But all will not be won by Love the fear of approaching death was of more avail to perswade Celsus his Master Epicurus that there is a God than all the sweet morsels he cramb'd his belly with Let the Antinomian here acknowledge his first Father Besides saith he lib. 6. 19 Do not the Christians charge God with want of Power or Foresight in his permitting the Serpent so far to deface his Image in Man as that in order to the restoring of it he is forc'd to send his only Son to become Man's Advocate God knew how to use his Power and VVisdom better than in prevention of that evil viz. by bringing a greater good out of it Conceived by the Holy Ghost Touching the Christian's belief that Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost he hath this Animadversion lib. 6. cal 35. What need was there that the Holy Ghost should over-shaddow the Virgin and frame Christ a Body in her womb could not God have shaped him a Body he could not have a Body of the Seed of the Woman without the Seed of the Woman without immersing his own Spirit into so great contamination Celsus might have learn'd better Language of Proclus the Pagan Philosopher Secundum nihil omnino providentiam ex gubernatis accipere nec eorum natura repleri nec eis alicubi commisceri non enim ex eo quòd omnia disponit admiscetur proptereà gubernatis Proclus de anima daemone tit providentia per singula percurrit interim nullis addit pag. 191. If he had been conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost his Body would have excelled all othets in Stature in Form in Strength in Voice nec vox hominem sonat in Majesty and in Elocution for it is incredible that he who had so much Divinity who was formed by so divine an hand should not surpass all men but Christ as the Christians confess was but like to if not inferiour to other men His face according to Prophecy was to be mar'd more than any man's low mean humble yea deformed Why should the holy Spirit be sent to one in a corner of the World in Judea and not be inspired into all men man must let the work of Redemption alone for ever if God have a purpose to save all men As to the last clause of this Article he brings in a Jew lib. 1. cal 20. thus scoffing at Christ for chusing to be born of so mean a Woman at so mean a Town he was to be born in the form of a servant and Bethlehem-Judah was the least of the Cities of Judea as Bethlehem c. did her beauty her inward Beauty being full of Grace invited God to chuse her for the Mother of the Son of God before others invite God into her embraces how could she conceive and bring forth a Son without the knowledg of man c. which Origen retorts thus how do the Vultures breed as your own Pagan Writers report without companying with the Male why could not God make the second Adam without a Father as well as the first without either Father or Mother and lastly that we Christians are not the only men who embrace such admirable stories is manifest from your believing that Plato was conceived by Apollo and born of his Mother Amphictione yet a Virgin before her Husband Aristo had knowledg of her being prohibited by a Vision to touch her At the same point the Seeker whom Volusianus mentions strains August ep 2. Who is there among you saith he so well versed and established in the Christian Religion as can resolve me where I stick I wonder how the Lord of the Universe could take up his lodging in the body of a spotless Virgin how she could go out her ten Months and then bring forth a Child and after that continue a Virgin how could he lurk in the little body of a Vagient Infant whom the Heavens are not able to contain how could the Ancient of days endure to undergo so many years of Infancy of Childhood of Youth of Man-hood or the everlasting God that faints not neither is weary submit to sleep to hunger and thirst to cold and wearisomness and the rest of humane weaknesses cease this wondring man Christ did all this to make it manifest that he was the Son of Man as well as of God Jam illud quòd in somnos solvitur c. hominem persuadet hominibus quem non consumpsit utique sed assumppsit August epist. 2. Volusiano and as to her continuing a Virgin St. Austin answers Ipsa virtus per inviolatae Mariae virginea viscera membra infantis eduxit quae posteà per clausa ostia membra juvenis introduxit that power which brought Christ through the shut door did bring him out of the shut womb It is St. Austin's Observation that the Philosophers in questioning the truth of the Church touching the Incarnatlon overthrew their own Principles It is their Assertion saith he de civit 10. 29. that the intellectual Soul may by purging become consubstantial paternae menti with the Father's Mind which they confess to be the Son of God what absurdity then can there be in the Christian Belief that one individual soul being the purest that ever was created for the salvation of many was assumed into Union with the Son of God Now that the Body must adhere to the Soul that he may be a perfect man we learn by the Testimony of Nature it self which Union of Body and Soul if it were not usual would be less credible than the union of an Humane Soul to the Mind Word or Son of God For 't is casier to be believed that an incorporeal should be united to an incorporeal than that a corporeal and incorporeal Being should conflate into one And Tertullian observes Apol. priùs citato that nothing was more common in the Heathen World than Virgin-births of divine Conceptions and yet they had been more common if some like Olympias had not been jealous of Juno's Jealousie after whose Copy she return'd this answer to her son Alexander's Letter thus superscribed King Alexander the Son of Jupiter Hammon to his Mother Olympias all health I pray thee Son do not traduce me and accuse me to Juno as one that had been naught with her Husband for I shall never be able to bear the burden of that her spightful jealousie which she will conceive against me upon thy writing thy self the Son of Jove and thy insinuating me to be his Whore Agellius Noct. Attic. lib. 13. cap. 4. This Text of St. Austin Ep. 2. beside that that I quoted it for points to a great many Circumstances in the History of the blessed Jesus mention'd in the Gospel all which are from this allegation of the Adversaries acknowledged to have been the Doctrine of the Apostolical as well as Modern Church § 4. Article 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilat was crucified dead and buried and descended into Hell
Heretieal pravity had fastened to it as the first Four General Councils did thereby depriving the enemy of that hold he had upon her For though this adventitious Cover did hide those Asses ears and Religion lookt out of this borrowed Hair with some kind of Majesty while none durst approach nearer than the Principle of Implicit Faith All is holy that holy Church teacheth and practiseth conducted them yet when men grew bold to make nearer address to this seeming Lion and certainly with Religions leave hitherto they were no more bold than welcome It is not to be thought strange if persons Atheistically inclin'd and who sought occasion against Religion pul'd her by the false Beard and triumph'd over her as a feigned thing but rather to be admired that God should give so many thousand Protestants as appeared in that happy reformation which all pious men groaned after so much wisdom as to discern the Body from the Dress to distinguish betwixt Religion and the Innovations annexed to it and so much Moderation as that by their hands not one Hair of its native Growth nor Hair-breadth of its natural Length fell from the Head when they pluckt off the false Locks and Beard wherein the Demy-politicians had disguised her those pious Reformers were led by another Spirit than that which hath since hurled some blind zealous Furioso's into an humour to shave Religion so close in point of external Decency as she looks frightfully and not as she did while she cast her Doves-eyes from under her native Locks But Religion thus restored to her Primitive majestick Purity look'd too gravely upon persons of prophane Spirits and loose Lives who when they could not by their Antinomian glosses pervert her to Patronize their Villanies Perjuries Blasphemies Treasons Rebellions and whatsoever Debaucheries of Humane Nature the most skilful Artist of Iniquity could arrive at but that she still ecchoed back the guilt of their crying sins into the Ears of their Consciences from such immoveable Rocks of irrefragable Placits and such plain Texts as stand firm to their genuine Sence against all possibility of mis-interpretation enter'd into a wicked Consultation with their own hearts how they might put to silence so great a troubler of their peace so incessant a disturber of that Repose they are resolv'd to take in the bosome of their Dalilahs And finding no occasion against her they are resolv'd to make some by fastning certain Prejudices upon her as so many Foretops to take hold of and thereby to tumble her down from that Throne she had erected in their Consciences and from that Pinacle of highest Respect she had gain'd in the World By these Methods this Generation of men shall I call them or Cage of unclean Birds are grown to that height of impious audacity as with Plato in Socrates his Dream they sit perching upon the venerable Head of that sacred Philosophy wherein they were initiated pecking at those bald places they imagine they have espied and crowing over it sometimes as a meer trick of Policy sometimes as silly and Ridiculous sometimes as Despicable and not Divine In a deep Resentment of these unthankful Returns to God that made them and to that Faith that would have sav'd them I have undertaken the Patronage of Religion against their Surmises in the following Treatise wherein I endeavour to dis-intangle her from those Prejudices that are taken up against her and by occasion whereof the Sceptick misrepresents her to himself and other credulous inobservant Persons To scare these foetid Harpies from laying their impure Talons upon that Propitiatory Sacrifice wherewith God hath ratified the Covenant of Grace betwixt himself and Abrahams Children by the Voyce of Birds of the same Feather by the Testimony of Heathens and Dictates of Reason which are either born with us or enter into us by the Senses To allay their priding themselves in a Conceipt that they are the only Birds of Apollo because forsooth they are witty in contriving their own Perdition while I discover them to be Minerva's Birds a Flock of Owles who can neither open their Eyes upon that Natural Light which gilded the World with its Rayes in our Saviours Age nor that Supernatural which shines in the admirable Matter and contexture of Sacred Scripture And demonstrate the Misprisions wherewith they load Christianity in revenge that they cannot force it to gratifie their Lusts to be like the Allegations of the Elders against Susanna mere groundless prejudices and false Beards fastned unto it that snatching hold thereon they may pull it down and rowle it in the Mire of Calumny And this if God permit by the Confessions of their Fellows by the Testimonies of as great Enemies to Holy Religion as themselves and the Witness of Vulgar Sentiments attesting to the Truth of these Four Propositions which are the Basis of the whole Discourse and the Arguments of so many books viz. BOOK I. THE ARGUMENT It was Morally impossible that the Apostles could impose spurious Stories or Miracles upon that Age wherein they flourish'd it being fortified against all such Impostures by all imaginable Helps or that they would if they might they being Persons of the greatest Integrity that ever liv'd THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Age wherein the Apostles flourish'd was sufficiently secured against the Impostures of Empiricks by its Knowledge in Physicks Ignorance in Naturals the Mother of superstitious Credulity The Darkness at our Saviours Crucifixion compared with that at Romulus his Death Heathen Records of the Darkness at Chrst's Passion CHAP. II. Poetry improv'd to the utmost about our Saviours birth CHAP. III. Our Saviours age too much skill'd in the black-art to be cheated with Magick tricks CHAP. IV. The World never better seen or practised in sound Politicks than in our Saviours time § 1. The world secured against Innovations by the soundness of its then Politicks While the Shepherds sleep the flock made a prey The Emperour Augustus a solid States-man himself had a most sage Council Tiberius a versatil head-piece seconded with wise Sages § 2. The genius of the then Roman policy disgusted the introduction of a strange God Tiberius upon Pilates information moving the Senate to Canonize our Jesus is repuls'd The Romans admit of no forreign Gods till they have renounced their old Temples and Altars Constantine upbraided by Licinius with his embracing a strange God Our Jesus the first forreign God which the Roman State embrac'd § 3. Of Simon Magus his deification at Rome § 4. Christ got the start of Magus in the point of obtaining Divine Honour at the Romans hands Augustus erected an Altar To the first begotten Suidas his story of Augustus his Altar defended Augustus his unhappiness in his Issue might probably put him upon referring the choice of a Successour to the Oracles determination His slighting Apollo argues the Answer he receiv'd not to have made for Apollo ' s credit § 5. Some passages touching this Argument in Tertullian cleared from the Anabaptistical
Child is none of theirs whom they would have divided For 1. This halving of Christ wholly destroys him whom their Prophets describe to be Mortal and Immortal a Man of Sorrows and the impassible God in one Person and to be exhibited in both Natures at one and the same Fulness of time Jacob's Prophecies of the Nation 's gathering to Shilo as their King and of the tying of a Foal the Colt of an Ass upon which this meek and lowly King was to ride in Triumph are utter'd with the same Breath and bear the same Date Gen. 49. 9. The servant of God in Isaiah who in regard his Visage was mar'd more than any man's and his form more than the Sons of Men was to be looked upon with astonishment and to be rejected of men as one smitten of God was notwithstanding to be extolled and exalted as the most High was to be so full of resplendent Majesty as Kings should shut their mouths at him Isa. chap. 52. 13. 14. The same Messiah in Daniel that within 70 Weeks is to make Reconciliation for Sin by his Death is to bring in everlasting Righteousness by his Life the same individual Person that within that Term of Years is to be cut off is Messiah the Prince and the most holy Dan. 9. 24. 25. 2. The Messiah that came at the time described by Daniel gave as full proof of his Divine Majesty as he did of his Humane Infirmity was as mafestly declared to be the Son of God by the Miracles he wrought in his own Name by his raising himself from the dead by his visible inflicting his threatned Sentence upon his Crucifiers and by his subduing the World to his Obedience as he was declared to be the Son of Man by his hungring thirsting fainting weeping sorrowing and suffering death So that he whom the Jews reject as an abject Christ hath left nothing to be done by him whom they yet look for of all those glorious and stupendious works which the Prophets assign to the Messias 3. If that Messiah that came according to Time limited by Daniel be not that very same of whose Glory and Greatness the Prophets speak when is he to come what Prophet can say how long the World must travel in expectation of him can any thing be more incredible than that the Spirit of the Messiah that was in the Prophets should so punctually foretell the time of the appearance of this Puny and Dwarff-christ as they blasphemously stile the blessed Jesus and never communicate one word to any of them touching the time of the coming of that Gyant-christ that they look for § 3. Thus having proved the Authentickness of Daniel's Prophecy and the Subject of it to be the Messias and that Messias whom it presignifies to be Prince Messias and having heard both Jew and Gentile confess that what Daniel foretells both as to Time and Thing is applicable to our Jesus and none but him I shall supercede any farther prosecution of this Argument saving what this Observation may contribute towards the strengthening of it viz. That the Terms of this Prophecy are not capable of any rational Construction but what is applicable to our Saviour and impossible to be applied to any other 1. If we understand the Decree from the going out whereof Daniel's Weeks commence to be the Decree of Darius the Son of Hystaspis for the building of the Temple the last of them will fall at our Saviour's Passion according to the Computation of Vossius grounded upon the Chronology of Josephus Vossii Chronolog sacra 2. If we conceive this Decree to have been the Decree of Cyrus the Great as Calvin Broughton Finch Piscator Allen c. imagine and reckon the years of the Persian Monarchy after a middle rate with Allen i. e. 130. years Daniel's Weeks end about the death of our Saviour Allen's Chronological Chain period 7. If with Finch we follow the Rabinical account of the Durance of the Persian Monarchy i. e. 70. years the Septimanes expire at the Fall of Jerusalem 3. If we interpret the Decree to be the Decree of Darius Nothus with Bishop Hall Constantine L' Emperour c. and assign the first seven to the time of the cessation of Temple-work betwixt the Decree of Cyrus the Great and Darius Nothus the middle of the last Week falls at our Saviours Passion saith Constantine L' Emporour Annotationes in Paraphrasim Josephi Jachiade in Danielem and that upon probable Chronological Grounds though out of the common Road. 4. If We begin the Account at the Decree of Artaxerxes Mnemon assigning the first Septimane to the time of the Cities Walls lying ruinous and follow the common Chronology from the Era's of Salmanasser the Olympiades and Rome built the last week's middle falls at our Saviour's Passion See Functius Perkins Powel Pontanus Lydiat c. 5. If with Scaliger Mede c. we interpret Daniel's seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the holy City to import the duration of the Second Temple which that clause does so manifestly as every Child may perceive it saith Scaliger de emend temp l. 6. pag. 608. and begin the compute at the fixth year of Darius Nothus when the second Temple was finish'd following the most commonly received Chronology we shall find saith Master Meed upon Daniel's Weeks that in all probability the Second Temple's desolation fell out precisely on the very middle of the last Week of the Seventy 6. Lastly If with Master Mede we make two Epochas in this Prophecy the first of 70 Weeks beginning and ending with the Second Temple the second of 62 Weeks and two Half-weeks that is 63 Weeks beginning at the going forth of the Commission granted to Ezra and Nehemiah and the middle of the last ending at our Saviour's Passion we shall find an admirable Correspondency betwixt the Prophecy and the Accomplishment and and that Christ's Ministry began at the last of these Weeks and continued precisely 3 years and an half vide Meed upon Daniel's Weeks § 4. The probability of which Conjecture appears 1. From the bounds here fixed as to the beginning of this Epocha The going forth of a Command or Commission to cause the Jews to return or reinhabit and to build not the Temple that part of Jerusalem whence in the former Epocha of 70 Weeks it is stiled the holy City or some few houses only but the whole Area or Street and the walls about it From such a Commission must this second Computation be reckon'd and that not only granted for then we must begin the account at Cyrus the Great who by Decree built not only the Temple but the City Isaiah 44. 28. but taking effect as the Angel explains the former in the later words the street shall be built and the wall 2. From the End or Period of this time unto Messiah the Prince that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 23. 2. Mar. 15. 32. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the
of those sacred Waters making the Souls of men take the Impress of the Soul of the Gospel forming in them the Image of God and converting the most wicked persons that embrace it from all their Debaucheries wherein they were immerst to a life most sutable to Nature and Reason and to the practice of all Virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. Cont. Cel. lib. 1. cal 30. Whereupon to Celsus his Calumnie that Christ chose the worst of men for Apostles Origen replies that Christ thereby made it appear how Soveraign a Medicine his Doctrine is against Soul-plagues and that therefore Celsus ought rather to have admired the Physicians skill than to have upbraided him with the pristine maladies of his Patients who could do more than all Chrisippus his Rules towards the curing of unrulie Passions How many saith he did Christ recover from the Plague of their head strong Affections From the colluvies of their vitious distempers how many had their beastly Manners tamed by occasion of the Evangelical Preaching which ought to have been embraced of all men with thankfulness if not as true yet as a new and compendious Method of curing Vice and exceedingly advantagious to Humane kind He that can think the malignant Powers would contribute towards the bringing of such a Doctrine as this into credit by their Sealing to it in those wonderful Operations which gain'd it an Authority over Conscience may with an equal likelihood of Reason conceive it worth the while to milk Hee-Goats To which labour I remit him while I commend to wiser persons the conclusiveness of this last Argument for the Divine Original of the Christian Faith in general and in special for the probat of Christs Resurrection the Center wherein all the Articles of the Christian Faith meet and the demonstration of the Divine Authority and heavenly Mission of the blessed Jesus to communicate that way of Salvation to the World as being the Doctrine of Christ that dyed or rather is risen again from the dead and ascended into Heaven whence he communicates that Grace of which we have been speaking and wherein Christianity triumphs over the greatest pravities of corrupt Nature as subdued by her Discipline and overall other Methods of cure as insufficient as unable to reduce lapsed man to a state of health § 5. The strength of this Argument would be more apparent if we of this Age could make good the assumption as easily as those Primitive Christians did of whom the Patrons of the cause of Christ made these holy boasts and such as that Non aliunde noscibiles quam de emendatione vitiorum pristinorum Tertul. ad Scapulam Christians are not to be known from other Sects but by the emendation of their pristine vitious manner were we who embrace the form of those sound and healing words as much under the power of Godliness as they whom that saving Grace taught to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly righteously and soberly did we more study the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ so as to know him in the power of that Resurrection of his which we make profession to believe the truth of and in the fellowship of his sufferings so as to be made conformable unto his Death In which point notwithstanding that never to be enough bewail'd Apostacy of these latter times God hath not left himself without witness But reserv'd a remnant of persons who cordially embracing the truly Catholick Religion of Christ as it is profest in the Church of England and mourning over the Irregularities of and Scandals given by such as conform not to its sacred Precepts really exhibit to the Worlds view a Specimen of ancient Holiness in their harmless and blameless Conversation with and towards all men in their serious piety towards God their reverential observance of their Superiours their Justice Charity Love towards all men their Continency Chastity Sobriety Temperance in respect of themselves And for the rest of the Professors of the pure and undefiled Religion who deviate from the rule of this Sacred Discipline they cease to be Christians Sed dicet aliquis etiam de nostris excedere quosáam à regula disciplinae desinunt tum Christiani baberi penès nos Philosophi verò illi cum talibus factis in nomine honore sapientiae perseverant Tertul. apol 46. Some men may say that even some of ours deviate from the Rule of Discipline They cease then to be esteem'd Christians by us Philosophers with such debaucheries retain the name and honour of Philosophers Fanaticks though unrighteous unmerciful unpeaceable pass among their own Tribes for Saints but no man can pass the Muster for a Christian indeed that keeps not the Commands of Christ that conforms not to his Example The Church owns them not for hers Christ owns them not for his but will profess unto them I know yee not depart from me ye that work iniquity and will expostulate with all who hate to be reformed for their taking his Covenant in their mouths Christ has past the same Decree against all vitious Livers that Severus past against Thieves per praeconem edixit ut nemo salutaret Principem qui se furem esse nosset ne aliquando detectus capitali supplicio subderetur That none salute him with Lord Lord who knows himself to be guilty under pain of being Convict and suffering the extream punishment None must enter into his Courts any more than to the Eleusine Rites or into the Emperours Palace Nisi qui se innocentem novit but he that knows himself free of those sins which by the sanction of the Royal Law exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven And who so presume to contravene those Edicts must expect the same entertainment that Severus gave Septimius Arabinus when he came to salute him O numina O Jupiter O dii immortales Arabinus non solum vivit verùm etiam in Senatum venit fortassis etiam de me sperat tam fatuum tam sâ—ultum esse me judicat ac Heliogabalum Lampridii Alex. Severus Oh monstrous Arabinus dares come into the Senate dares appear in the Assembly of Christians does he think he can deceive me as he did the world with vain shews as he did himself with vain hopes he 's deceiv'd indeed if hetake me for such a fool if he think I will be mock'd Can he be ignorant that the sentence is past the prohibition à mulieribus famosis matrem uxorem suam salutari vetuit Id. Ib. is seal'd that none presume to joyn themselves to my Church to associate with my Love my Dove my undefiled Spouse whose Lives are infamous Christians may not eat with such and can they expect to eat bread in my Kingdom And therefore they who either by going out from us do more openly declare or by a Conversation unbecoming the Gospel while they are with us more secretly insinuate that they were not that they are not of us in an impartial judgement should neither prejudice