the hearts of all true Believers And what we have said of additional Ceremonies there is the same reason of deductional Opinions they are to have their recommendation from their Use and Efficacy in promoting Life and Godliness in the Souls of men But their obtrusion is as unwarrantable as of the other if not more Forasmuch as Ceremonies are most-what indifferent Opinions never but determinately true or false or to be held so by them that either doubt or think the contrary Which therefore is a greater violence to ingenuous Natures As also the Usurpation greater to intrude into either the Prophetick or Legislative office of Christ then to affect to be onely the master of the Ceremonies and the Superstition alike since Superstition is nothing else but a fear and scrupulosity about such things as bear no estimate in the eyes of God as certainly neither of these do one way nor other neither Opinions that concern not Life and Godliness nor Ceremonies that are of an indifferent nature and may of themselves be either practised or omitted And therefore for men to be affected timorously and meticulously in these things it is a sign they understand not the royal Law of Christian Liberty and commit that which is the main vice included in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Superstition in that they phansy to themselves a pettish and captious Deity Whence it is manifest that the over-careful using or scrupulously omitting of indifferent Ceremonies as also over-much solicitude in the rejecting or embracing of useless and uncertain Opinions is no commendable Worship or Service but rather an implicite Reproach of the Holy Godhead they profess to adore THE END The CONTENTS PREFACE 1. THE Authors natural averseness from writing of Books fol. v 2. That there was a kind of necessity urged him to write what he has wrote hitherto ibid. 3. The occasion of writing his Psychozoia ibid. 4. As also of his Poem Of the Immortality of the Soul vi 5. His Satyricall Essays against Enthusiastick Philosophie ibid. 6. The great usefulness of his Enthusiasmus Triumphatus and of this present Treatise for suppressing Enthusiasme ibid. 7. The occasion and preparations to his writing his Antidote against Atheisme and his Threefold Cabbala vii 8. The urgent occasion of writing this present Treatise as also of his Discourse Of the Immortality of the Soul ibid. 9. His account of the Inscription of this present Treatise viii 10. His Apology for his so copiously describing the Animal Life x 11. And for his large Parallel betwixt Christ and Apollonius ibid. 12. The reason of his bringing also Mahomet upon the Stage and H. N. and of his so large Excursions and frequent Expostulations with the Quakers and Familists xi 13. That the wonderful hopes and expectations of the Religious of the Nation yea of the better-meaning Fanaticks themselves are more likely to be fulfilled by this happy restoring of the KING then by any other way imaginable xii 14. Wherein consists the very Essence and Substance of Antichristianisme xiii 15. That the Honour of beginning that pure and Apostolick Church that is so much expected seems to have been reserved by Providence for CHARLES the Second our gracious Soveraign with pregnant arguments of so glorious an hope ibid. 16. The reasons why he did not cast out of his Discourse what he had written concerning Quakerisme and Familisme notwithstandâ—ng the fear of these Sects may seem well blown over through the happy settlement of things by the seasonable return of our Gracious Soveraign to his Throne xiv 17. The reason of his opposing the Familists and Quakers above any other Sects xv 18. His excuse for being less accurate in the computation of Daniels weeks ibid. 19. As also for being less copious in the proving the expected restorement of the Church to her pristine purity together with a Description of the condition of those happy ages to come xvi 20. That this Discourse was mainly intended for the information of a Christian in his private capacities xvii 21. What points he had most probably touched upon if his design had urged him to speak any thing of Church-Government ibid. 22. A Description of such a Bishop as is impossible should be Antichristian xx 23. Why he omitted to treat of the Reasonableness of the Precepts of Christ. xxi 24. That the pains he took in writing this Treatise were especially intented for the Rationall and Ingenuous xxii 25. His Apology for the sharpness of his style in some places ibid. 26. An Objection against Mr. Mede's Apocalyptick Interpretations from the supposed sad condition of all Adherers to the Apostate Church with the Answer thereto ibid. 27. The Adversaries Reply to the foregoing Answer with a brief Attempt of satisfying the same xxv 28. An Apology for his free dislike of that abused Notion of Imputative Righteousness xxvi 29. His Defence for so expressly declaring himself for a duly-bounded liberty of Conscience xxvii BOOK I. CHAP. I. THe Four main Properties of a Mystery 2. The first Property Obscurity 3. The second Intelligibleness 4. The third Truth 5. The fourth Usefulness 6. A more full Description of the Nature of a Mystery 7. The distribution of the whole Treatise fol. 1. CHAP. II. 1. That it is fit that the Mystery of Christianity should be in some measure Obscure to exclude the Sensuall and Worldly 2. As also to defeat disobedient Learning and Industry 3. And for the pleasure and improvement of the godly and obedient 4. The high Gratifications of the Speculative Soul from the Obscurity of the Scriptures 3 CHAP. III. 1. The Obscurity of the Christian Mystery argued from the Effect as from the Iews rejecting their Messias 2. From the many Sects amongst Christians 3. Their difference in opinion concerning the Trinity 4. The Creation 5. The Soul of Man 6. The Person of Christ 7. And the Nature of Angels 5 CHAP. IV. 1. That the Triniâ—y was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church by the Fathers 2. A Description of the Platonick Trinity and of the difference of the Hypostases 3. A Description of their Union 4. And why they hold All a due Object of Adoration 5. The irrefutable Reasonableness of the Platonick Trinity and yet declined by the Fathers a Demonstration that the Trinity was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church 6. Which is further evidenced from the compliableness of the Notion of the Platonick Trinity with the Phrase and Expressions of Scripture 7. That if the Christian Trinity were from Plato it follows not that the Mystery is Pagan 8 9 10. The Trinity proved from Testimony of Holy Writ 7 CHAP. V. 1. That the natural sense of the First of S. Iohn does evidently witness the Divinity of Christ. 2. A more particular urging of the circumstances of that Chapter 3. That S. Iohn used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Iewish or Cabbalistical notion 4. The Trinity and the Divinity of Christ argued from Divine worship due
rejecting their Messias 2. From the many Sects amongst Christians 3. Their difference in opinion concerning the Trinity 4. The Creation 5. The Soul of Man 6. The Person of Christ 7. And the Nature of Angels 1. HItherto we have argued the Obscurity of the Christian Mystery from the Reasons and Causes thereof whereby we have evinced That it ought to be Obscure and that therefore in all likelyhood it is so But the Effects are so manifest that if we do but briefly point at them it will be put beyond all doubt That it is so indeed Let us now instance in some few Why are the Iews yet unconverted or rather why did they at first cast off their Messias but because the Prophesies in Scripture were so Obscure that they had taken up a false Notion of him and of the Condition he was to appear in For they expected him as a mighty Prince that should restore the kingdome to Israel and that Victory Peace Prosperity and Dominion should be accumulated upon the Iewish nation by his means Which opinion I conceive the Lowness of the Mosaical dispensation under which they lived that perpetually propounded to them worldly advantage as a reward of their obedience and the Obscurity of the Predictions of the Messias engaged them in For they being either Figurative and Allegorical or mingling sometimes the state of his Second coming with his First their eager eye being so fully fixt upon what sounded like worldly happiness they could mind no other sense but that in these Enigmatical writings Which yet proved clear enough to as many as God had prepared and belonged to the election of Grace But he might if it had pleased his Wisdome so to do have made all things so plain that we should not need at this day to expect the calling of the Iews but they might have been one Body with us long since But their Rejection is a greater assurance to us of the Truth of our Religion we being able to make it good even out of those Records that are kept by our professed Enemies Besides a man can no more rationally require that all Israel should have flowed in at the first appearance of Christ then that his Second coming should be joyned with his First or his First drawn back to the next Age after Adams fall nor that more rationally then that Autumne should be cast upon Summer and both upon Spring The Counsels of God are at once but the fulfillings of them ripen in due order and time 2. But though we let go the Iews and contain our selves within the compass of those that either are or would be accounted Christians their Opinions and Sects both have been and are so numerous that the very mention of so confessed a Truth may sufficiently evince the Obscurity of those Divine Oracles to which they all appeal I will instance only in things of greater moment which will be a sure pledge of the certainty of their innumerable dissensions in smaller matters 3. Wherefore to say nothing of that more intricate Mystery of the Triunity in the Godhead where the curious Speculators of that difficult Theory are first divided into Trinitarians and Anti-Trinitarians and then the Trinitarians into Heterusians Homousians and Homoeusians we shall see them disagreeing not onely in the Distinction of the Persons but concerning the Essence it self Some affirming God to be Infinite others Finite some a Spirit others a Body othersome not onely a Body but a Body of the very same shape with mans Of which opinion the Aegyptian Anthropomorphites were so zealously confident that they forced the Bishop of Alexandria out of fear of his life to subscribe to their gross conceit 4. Again concerning the Creation of the world some affirme That God made it of Matter coaeternal with and independent of himself Others that he created it of Nothing Others that he made it not at all but that it was made as some would have it by good Angels others by the Devil 5. Concerning the Soul of man some say it subsists and acts before it comes into the Body Others onely in the Body and after the solution of the Body Others in the Body alone Others not there neither as holding indeed no such thing as a Soul at all but that the Body it self does all Which some hold shall rise again others not but that the whole Mystery of Christianity is finished in this life 6. Concerning Christ some were of Opinion that he was onely God appearing in humane shape others onely man others both others neither 7. Concerning Angels some affirm them to be Fiery or Aery Bodies some pure Spirits some Spirits in Aery or Fiery Bodies Others none of these but that they are momentaneous Emanations from God Others that they are onely Divine Imaginations in men which can be by no means allowed unless we should admit the Holy Patriarch Abraham to have arrived at such a measure of dotage as to provide cakes and a fatted calf to entertain three Divine Imaginations which visited him in his tent But certainly such slight and exorbitant glosses as these can argue nothing else but a misbelief of the Text and indeed of all Religion and that the Interpreter is no Christian but either Atheist or Infidel Wherefore to leave such Spirits as these to the confident Dictates of their own foul Complexion we shall rather take into consideration some Few but Main points wherein certain men otherwise Rational enough in their sphere and hearty Assertors of the Authority of Scripture disagree from the Generality of other Christians The first of them is Concerning the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead The second Concerning the Divinity of Christ. The third and last Concerning the State of the Soul after Death Which Points though I must confess they are of subtle speculation yet they seem so necessary and essential the two former especially to Christian Religion that I think it fit not to pass them over with a bare mention of them nor yet to speak much in so profound and Mysterious a matter CHAP. IV. 1. That the Trinity was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church by the Fathers 2. A Description of the Platonick Trinity and of the difference of the Hypostases 3. A description of their Union 4. And why they hold All a due Object of Adoration 5. The irrefutable Reasonableness of the Platonick Trinity and yet declined by the Fathers a Demonstration that the Trinity was not brought out of Plato's School into the Church 6. Which is further evidenced from the compliableness of the Notion of the Platonick Trinity with the Phrase and Expressions of Scripture 7. That if the Christian Trinity were from Plato it follows not that the Mystery is Pagan 8 9 10. The Trinity proved from Testimony of the Holy Writ 1. NOw concerning the First The Trinity say they objecting against it in general is nothing else but a Pagan or Heathenish Figment brought out of the Philosophy
of Pythagoras and Plato and inserted into the doctrine of the Church by the ancient Fathers who most of them were Platonists But to this I answer That it is very highly improbable that the Fathers borrowed the Mystery of the Trinity from the School of Plato which you shall easily understand when we have so far as serves to our purpose explained the doctrine of the Platonical Triad which is briefly thus 2. There are Three Hypostases say they in the Deity namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Good or First self-originated Goodness Intellect or the Eternal Mind and lastly Soul or Spirit Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they distinguish all Three after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Good Intellect Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First One. One All. One and All. If we would ease our Apprehension here by the help of our Phansy we might compare the First to Simple and pure Light the Second to Light variegated into Colours as in the Rainbow the Third to those Rayes of light for all is Light that receive and carry down these Colours to the ground and impress them and reflect them from some standing pool or plash of water Again the First Hypostasis is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially the Good Causally the Intellect The Second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially Intellect Causally Soul Participatively the Good The Third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially Soul that is Love and Operation Causally Matter and the World Participatively the Good and Intellect 3. Now for the Union of the Three Hypostases we shall understand the accuracy thereof by degrees As first That the proper life and energie as I may so say of each Hypostasis is not contein'd within it self but like a vocal and audible Sound in a still silent Night perpetually re-ecchoes through the whole Deity Or as when a Song of Three parts is sung each Musician enjoys the harmony of the whole But this I must confess looks more properly like Communion then perfect Union we step therefore a degree further and affirme That as Body and Soul is conceived to make up one man and this Individual Body and this Individual Soul to make up this Individual man so these Three Hypostases to make up one Individual Deity their Union and Actuation one of another being infinitely and unspeakably more perfect then in any other Being imaginable And as the Motions of the Body are perceptible to the Soul of man and the Impressions of the Soul upon the Body would be perceptible to it if it had of it self a Faculty of Perception So likewise by this ineffable close Union and mutual Actuation of the Three Hypostases all their proper Energies become fully perceptible to one another And the Life of the first so infinitely and unexpressibly gratifying the Second and Both the Third by an immutable necessity and congruity of nature it is evident they can have but One Will which is as it were the Heart the Centre or Root of the Deity the Eternal Self-originated Good But thirdly and lastly These three Hypostases are not One onely by this actuating Union which may seem to admit of a real separability but there is also a real Unity or Identity in them the distinction among them being as Tatianus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Rayes of the Sun in respect of the Sun or if you will as the Centre Rayes and Surface of a Globe which implyes a Contradiction to be conceived without them or as the Faculties of the Soul are to the Soul which are as inseparable from her as she is from her self The Union therefore of them all and the Emanation of the Second and Third from the First being so Necessary Natural and Inevitable For the First can be no more without the Second or the Second without the Third then the Sun can be without his Rayes or the Soul without her Faculties there is no scruple say they but we may call all this the Godhead or Deity the Second and Third coming so unavoidably out of the First Root and being so inseparable from it And therefore there is nothing here properly Creature Creation being a free act and if not Creature what can it be but God 4. And since from these Three are all things that are made and in their hands is the guidance of all things Nothing less then Divine Adoration can of right belong unto them For though there may be some allay of Excellency in their descent from the First yet they being all our Creators and Governors none ought to fall short of Divine worship 5. This is a brief Summe of the Platonists Doctrine concerning the Triunity of the Godhead Which as it seems in it self Rational enough so it is not obnoxious to several bold cavils that over-daring Wits make against the Sacred Mystery of the Trinity alledging against Distinction of Persons without difference of Essence That there are only Three Logical Notions attributed to one single and individual nature and against Three Essences of the same Nature That it looks like an unnecessary and groundless repetition and That that great Chasma betwixt God and Matter will be as wide as before That it is unconceivable but the Last being of the same nature with the First that it should be also Prolifical and so in infinitum That these Three must of necessity be Three Gods if any of them be God because they are all exquisitly of the same Kind whenas in the Platonick Triad the First is only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some have also ventured to affirm in the Christian Trinity Now I say all being so easy and unexceptionable in the Platonical speculation of this Mystery it seems almost impossible but that if the Fathers had borrowed this Notion of the Trinity from the Platonists they would have explain'd it in this more facile and plausible way 6. But you 'l object That though it may seem more Rational in it self yet it might not be so happily applied to Places of Scripture and that 's the reason why the Fathers though they took the Mystery from Plato in the gross yet did not particularly explain it after the way of the Platonists But without doubt there is not only no place of Scripture that plainly clashes with the above-described Mystery but sundry Places that may be very speciously alledged for it It is plain that as the Second Hypostasis in Platonisme is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in Christianity called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if Wisdome and Intellect were acknowledged his proper Character in both They might also plausibly enough draw to their sense what Christ speaks John 14.28 My Father is greater then I
grant therefore a Divine Shechina and a peculiar visible Glory of God which no creature can imitate residing in the Heavens which Presence he may manifest in many places at once if he please But whereever it discovers it self it is a most certain and infallible sign that God himself is in a special manner there Which ineffable and unimitable Glory is of this great consequence that the holy Saints and Angels receive commands from thence as from the very mouth of God are recreated more by that wonderfull lustre then we Mortals are by the light of the Sun and that it is an Oracle with whom they may consult and receive answers of clear and indubitable certitude and doe divine worship and honour to the external Substance and visible Presence of the Deity 4. At the Right side of this Glory might Christ in his humane shape be placed as at the Right hand of his Father that sent him into the world to whom also he praied with his eyes lift up to Heaven and to whom he said that he was to return when he left the Earth with whom also Steven saw him standing and comforting him at his Martyrdome whether his Visive facultie was in a wonderfull and stupendious measure fortified to discern so distant an Object or whether that Object was not so distant as the false conceits of some vain Philosophers would determine For for my own part I think that if the true Philosophy were known and rightly understood there would nothing more facilitate the belief of Christianity then it CHAP. V. 1. The Apotheosis of Christ or his Receiving of Divine Honour freed from all suspicion of Idolatry forasmuch as Christ is God properly so called by his Real and Physical union with God 2. The Real and Physical union of the Soul of Christ with God being possible sundry Reasons alledged to prove that God did actually bring it to pass 3. The vain Evasions of superficial Allegorists noted 4. Their ignorance evinced and the Apotheosis of Christ confirmed from the Immortality of the Soul and the political Government of the other World 5. That he that equalizes himself to Christ is ipso facto discovered an Impostour and Lier 1. THere is nothing therefore harsh or incongruous in the Session of Christ at the Right hand of God the Father the Mystery being fitly explained His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be found as Reasonable if rightly understood By his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I mean his Residence in Heaven and his receiving of Divine Honour and adoration from the Church In which there can be nothing suspicable unless there be any danger of Idolatry there where he that is truly God is worshipped The Apology of the Gentiles you have heard already and how far guilty they were of that miscarriage in the worshipping of Creatures under the pretense of their being only more eminent manifestations of that One Eternal Deity which they did adore But the immediate Object of our worship is not simply a Creature but God properly so called forasmuch as he is as Really and Physically united with God as our Soul is with our Body Now as a man is truly said to be a Body or a Corporeal substance because of the real or physical union of his Soul with the Body so Christ is truly and properly said to be God because his whole Humanity is joined with God This is a very easie and intelligible way of conceiving this Mystery neither does it implie any contradiction or inconsistency in it no more then is found in the natural Union of Soul and Body God being as able to find fitting means of really and vitally uniting the Soul of the Messias to himself as of uniting an Humane Soul to a Terrestrial Body 2. Now this which was in the power of God to doe we may be the better ascertained that he did doe it or is to doe it some time For I will not anticipate and fall upon the Third part of my Discourse before I come at it if we consider the Congruities thereof I have recited to you Examples of the Pagan Apotheoses how they did Divine honour to men that liv'd amongst them and were considerable to their Generations for several benefactions and gratifications of the Animal life whether they were the improvers of their pleasures or their profit Law-givers successfull Commanders in War or happie Inventours of some usefull things to supplie humane necessities Hence it came to pass that Venus Mercurius Zamolxis Mars Bacchus Ceres and others were deified by them Now there being so transcendent an advantage to accrew to Mankind by the coming of the Messias into the World and he being to suffer for the Sins of the people and so by his Death to vanquish the power of Death and to set open the gates of Heaven to all believers that that strong natural and at least pardonable propension in Mankind of exhibiting the highest honours they can to their most Heroical benefactors might not be frustrated and seem ever to be in vain as also that the great humiliation and reproachfull Passion that the Messias was to undergoe might be largely compensated and that that which is most lovely of all things and yet in the eyes of men most despicable I mean the Divine life might be exalted even in an outward Homage and Worship as high as ever the Animal life was in the World and that warrantably and without any guilt of Idolatry God when he sends the Messias into the World is so to communicate his own Nature to him or so really and physically to unite himself with him that he may be a lawfull Object of Divine worship Which he is if not only by a Moral adhesion or Political institution but by a Natural and Real union with the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he truly become the Son of God 3. We see then upon what warrantable and rational grounds the Messias is exalted to so high a pitch of honour God having made him supreme head over Men and Angels I speak of the very Person of Christ as well as his Nature For the shuffling and superficial Allegorist will acknowledg that the Divine Nature or upright Being as some of them call it is above all But that they are so shie of taking any notice of the Person of Christ is either out of ignorance in their understanding or out of a total misbelief of the History of Christ wherein is asserted the Existence of Angels and the Immortality of the Souls of men 4. Now if there be Angels and if the Souls of men subsist and act out of their Bodies they must also as I have already demonstrated in my preparative Assertions needs fall into Political order and government and therefore must have some Head over them Which here the Scripture does plainly assert to be Christ who is the Captain of our Salvation for to assist direct and encourage all the Powers of the Kingdome of light to defend themselves and rescue
others out of the captivity of the Kingdome of darkness and Tyranny of Devil 5. Wherefore if any man start up and pretend an Equality with Christ he is ipso facto convinced of ignorance in the Mystery of Godliness and deprehended to be an Impostour and a Lyar or he is haply a Beast and an Epicure denying the Immortality of the Soul and thereupon building all his slights and contempts of the Personal knowledge of our Saviour he deeming him as all men else wholly Mortal and therefore utterly to have perished above sixteen hundred years agoe CHAP. VI. 1. An objection against Christ's Soveraignty over Men and Angels from the meanness of the rank of Humane Spirits in comparison of the Angelical Orders 2. An Answer to the objection so far as it concerns the fallen Angels 3. A further inforcement of the Objection concerning the unfallen Angels with an Answer thereto 4. A further Answer from the incapacitie of an Angels being a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World 5. And of being a fit Example of life to men in the flesh 6. That the capacities of Christ were so universal that he was the fittest to be made the Head or Soveraign over all the Intellectual Orders 7. Christ's Intercession his fitness for that Office 8. What things in the Pagan Religion are rectified and compleated in the Birth Passion Ascension and Intercession of Christ. 1. BUT it may be further objected That although it be very Reasonable that the Angels and the Spirits of men whether in the body or out of the body be reduced under some Political form of Government yet it seems very incongruous and disproportionable that some one of the lowest rank of all the Orders of Rational Creatures should be made the Soveraign over all over Angels and Archangels and all Principalities and Powers whatsoever whether in Heaven or in Earth 2. But to this I answer That though the Superiour Orders of Intellectual Beings may have far more strength and natural Understanding in them then Man yet the Humanity of Christ may not be inferiour to them in Humility and an holy adhesion to God in Self-resignation and Faith in him who is the Root of all things in Love also and dear Compassion over the whole Creation and in a word in whatever appertains to the Divine life But as for the lapsed Angels let them be otherwise as cunning and knowing in all Arts and Subtilties of Nature let them be as powerfull as Gigantick as they will even to the overturning mountains and striking down steeples at a blow yet Christ has infinitely the preeminence of them in those Divine accomplishments I have recited nay he has a Principle beyond them removed above their Sphere as man has a Principle beyond Beasts And therefore it is no more wonder that God has constituted him Lord over these rebellious Titans then that Man is made superiour to Lions Elephants Whales and other mighty and monstrous Creatures 3. But you 'l say Though it seem just that the usurped Empire of the Devil be taken from him and given to Christ yet there is no reason that the unfallen Angels should be brought under his sceptre they being naturally of an higher order then himself and having forfeited nothing by rebellion or disobedience to God And therefore it had been more Reasonable for God to have united himself Hypostatically as they call it with some Angel then with Humane nature But what art thou O man that pretendest to be so wise as to give laws to God may not he dispose of his own and of himself as he pleases Besides there being so great a Revolt in the Angelical Orders who tempted also Mankind into their lapse the pretermission of them all in the conferring of so great an Honour as was conferred upon Christ was but a just check and slight cast upon all their Orders at once the Angelical bloud as I may so say being tainted with Treason Again the revolt and rebellion of the Apostate Angels being nothing else but a wilde and boundless giving themselves up to the pleasures and suggestions of the Animal life and Christianity as I have already defined it nothing else but a Triumph of the Divine life over the Animal this Triumph Scorn and Insultation over the Animal life is more exactly pursued by how much in every place those things that seem of most value to it are left out as slighted and disregarded and the whole Mystery of the Recovery of the lapsed Creation to God performed by him who undertook it without the false pomp of those needless circumtances of highness of Order Nobleness of Birth worldly Authority Strength and Beauty of body Subtilty of Wit Knowledge of Nature Plausibility of Eloquence or whatsoever else seems precious to the mere Natural or Animal Spirit So that upon this very account the Angels were to be excluded from this function 4. But fourthly and lastly If any Angel would have been competitour with our Saviour in this Honour that question put to Zebedee's Children might well have dash'd him out of countenance in his competition You know not what you ask can you drink of the cup that I am to drink of and be baptized with the Baptisme that I am to be baptized with that is Can you undergoe that shamefull and scornfull death of the Cross Certainly an Angel cannot For if he could be born into the World in Humane flesh and suffer those agonies the Soul of the Messias did this Angel were no Angel but an Humane Soul But perhaps you 'l replie that though an Angel cannot suffer death in an Humane body yet he is so capable of torment and punishment that he may be made an Expiation for the Sinnes of the World But I demand how we that are so much concerned in it shall know of that suffering For the Transactions of men are a spectacle to the Angels but the Transactions of Angels are not discerned by men by reason of the Tenuity of their Vehicles But this suffering Angel would have appeared on purpose Yet how unsatisfactory and phantastical would this have been conceived in comparison of the real and assured Passion of our Saviour Christ. 5. Besides If an Angel had undertaken this office he could not have been so fit an Example of life to us as Christ who was a man subject to the same infirmities with our selves and who really felt what belong'd to the imbecillity of our natures For the Passions of his Minde were no more abated nor destroyed by his union with the Deity then the Passibility of Matter is by being united with a Soul Wherefore Christ wading thus faithfully without sin or blame throughout all the incumbrances of the Flesh which are greater then those that the Angelical Orders are liable unto is a very concerning spectacle of both Men and Angels But what an Angel could do would but very little concern us men 6. Wherefore he who was of so universal a capacity as to be an
of our Bodies in the Resurrection Because say they the Anthropophagi or Cannibals are continually fed with mans flesh as also they feed one upon another To give therefore the highest instance against this Assertion How can that man say they that has been fed with mans flesh in a manner perpetually and at last himself fed upon by men have the same Body at the Resurrection For he will be left as bare of flesh as the Crow was of feathers when every bird had pecked away what belonged unto themselves Besides the hazard of losing that flesh that was his own if any was his own by being himself devoured and digested into the flesh and body of others 5. Their second Objection is against mens Bodies rising out of their graves and runs thus It implies say they that all men were buried whenas Myriads have been drowned in the seas and eaten by fishes Besides infinite numbers that have had the usual burial of their Nations have had a very inconsiderable part of their bodies committed to the ground only a few ashes in an Urn the rest of their body in the burning vanishing into Air. Which in some sort comes to pass in them that are wholy buried in the Earth For the Body rots and melts away there into fume and vapours which the heat of the Sun exhales and draws into the Air. Some it may be shoot up into the blades of Grass which either rots upon the ground or is food for horses to whose shares it doth not fall to have honest burial but lie to rot also in the open fields or else are eaten by those Creatures that at length doe so So that the Soul if she were to seek for her Body would hear more likely news of it in the Air then in the Earth So incredible is it that it is kept circumscribed in so particular a part of the Earth as the Grave 6. And lastly to make all sure They endeavour to enervate the very grounds and dig down the deepest foundation of this Assertion of Identity of bodies at the Resurrection by alledging that the very end thereof implies a contradiction For whereas the reason is given That the Body that was partner either in unlawfull pleasures or the laudable pains and labours of the Soul might partake also of her Punishment or Reward here they pretend that the Bodie is not the same numerical body throughout the whole life of a man no more then a river is the same river but that the Bodie wasts and is restored that the present Spirits Bloud and Flesh are passing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Heraclitus speaks and new supplies are perpetually made by food and that therefore we have no more the same numerical body always then the same numerical cloaths but that in both we wear out the old and get new but in our cloaths at once in our Bodies by degrees Wherefore to contend that the same numerical body shall rise that was buried and that upon point of Justice is to contend for the greatest piece of Injustice that may be For so shall the Body of an old man be punished for the sins of that Body he had when he was young 7. These and such like are the Arguments of those that would overthrow Religion upon this advange as they deem it and something they drive at that seems to tend to a perswasion of some kind of incongruity and incredibility in the matter but it will not all amount to an utter Impossibility But to me it seems so inconsiderable that I shall not vouchsafe it an Answer upon those terms and that Hypothesis they goe upon I shall soar a little higher that my way being aloft as the Wise man speaks I may be free from the snares beneath But what I answer I would be understood to direct to the Atheist and the Infidel permitting them that already believe the substance to vary their phansies with what circumstances they please But for these others I must hold them to hard meat and cut my skirts as short as I can that they sit not upon them CHAP. IV. 1. An Answer to their first and last Cavil from those Principles of Plato's School That the Soul is the Man and That the Bodie perceives nothing 2. An Answer to their second by rightly interpreting what is meant by Rising out of the grave in the general notion thereof 3. That there is no warrant out of Scripture for the same numerical bodie but rather the contrary 4. The Atheists Objection from the word Resurrectio answered whose sense is explained out of the Hebrew and Greek 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what the meaning of them is in that general sense which is applicable as well to the Resurrection of the unjust as of the just 1. I Answer therefore first out of the best sort of Philosophers That Animus cujusque is est quisque and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Soul of every man is his individual Person and That she alone it is that hears that sees that enjoies pleasure and undergoes pain and That the Body is not sensible of any thing no more then a mans doublet when he is well bastinado'd And this Answer takes away all occasion of the First and Last Cavil For why are men solicitous of the same numerical body but that they may be sure to find themselves the same numerical persons But it being most certain there is no stable Personality of a man but what is in his Soul for if the Body be Essential to this numerical Identity a grown man has not the same individuation he had when he was Christned it is manifest that if there be the same Soul there is exactly the same Person and that the change of the Body causes no more real difference of Personality then the change of cloaths And why do men plead for the consociation of the Soul 's numerical body in Reward or Punishment but that they phansie the Body capable of pleasure and pain But they erre not knowing the nature of things the Body being utterly uncapable of all sense and cogitation as not only the best of the Platonists but also that excellent Philosopher Des-cartes has determined and is abundantly demonstrated in my Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul 2. This therefore being cleared I answer also to their second Cavil concerning mens rising out of the very graves they wery buried in That the expression is only Prophetical and Symbolical though I do not deny but that in some it may happen literally to be true and that it signifies no more then thus That the same men that die and are buried shall as truly appear in their own persons at the Day of Iudgment as if those Bodies that were interred should be presently actuated by their Souls again and should start out of their graves and to give an instance they shall be as truly the same persons as Lazarus when he rose body and
This destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven assented to by Heathens as well as Christians is so ample a pledge of the possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth that though I could out of Plinie and others adde other such like instances of Cities being burnt down with Thunder yet I shall content my self with this so notable an example And having shewn that there are such copious and rich treasures of the fiery Principle in Nature I shall make this brief demand Why may not this Principle sometime so break out and overflow that there may be an universal rage of Fire upon Earth as well as there was once of Water For the hidden causes and principles of Nature sometimes work scantly sometimes moderately sometimes as if they had broke all laws and bounds as is observable in Torrents and Earthquakes they sometimes being kept within the compass of a very few miles othersometimes being in a manner universal as those Earthquakes were that hapned in the years 367 and 1289. So flouds sometimes are so small that they scarce cover a whole Meadow othersometimes so great that they drown whole Towns and othersometimes they are either so large as to be universal or at least to cover vast Kingdomes and Continents at once Such were the Deluges of Deucalion of Ogyges and that of Noah So likewise we see also in History what particular executions the Element of Fire either by fulgurations from Heaven or eruptions out of the Earth has done on this House on that Town nay upon whole Countries why may not the rage of it then at last so break out that it may be called even a general Deluge of fire 7. This seems so farre from an Impossibility to Plinie that considering how full fraught the World is with this Element and how propagative it is of it self he saith it is the greatest Miracle of all that this universal Conflagration has not already hapned Excedit profectò omnia miracula ullum diem fuisse quo non cuncta conflagrarent CHAP. IX 1 The Conflagration argued from the Proneness of Nature and the transcendent power of Christ. 2. His driving down the Powers of Satan from their upper Magazine 3. The surpassing power and skil of his Angelical Hosts 4. The efficacy of his Fiat upon the Spirit of Nature 5. The unspeakable corroboration of his Soul by its Union with the Godhead and the manner of operation upon the Elements of the World 6. That the Eye of God is ever upon the Earth and that he may be an Actour as well as a Speculatour if duly called upon 7 8. A short Description of the firing of the Earth by Christ with the dreadful effects thereof 1. THat therefore which Nature seems thus perpetually to threaten of her self can it be hard for us to believe that Christ and his glorious Host of Angels who have a power above Nature will be able to effect when it shall seem good to him whom God has made visible Judge of the World Remember what command he had over the Elements when he was in the Flesh in the lowest state of Humiliation and what power he had over them that for so long time have been permitted to lord it in this grosser Elementary World whose Chieftain is called the Prince of the Aire Remember how by a word of his mouth he sent packing a whole Legion of his Kingdome at once What is it then that he cannot do in His exalted estate when he returns to Judgement in so exceeding great Majesty and Glory when he shall descend with the sound of the Trump and face the Earth with his bright squadrons and fill the whole Arch of Heaven with innumerable Legions of his Angels of Light the warm gleames of whose presence is able to make the Mountains to reek and smoak and to awake that fiery principle that lies dormient in the Earth into a devouring flame 2. But besides this By descending thus low they drive the old Usurper and his dark Legions from that upper Magazine and now can turn his Artillery against himself and make use of all the provision fit for Fire-Works For this is the time that Diphilus the Tragedian prophesies of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense The time will come when as the golden Sky His hidden fiery treasures shall let fly And raging flames burn up all and consume Filling both Earth and Aire with noisome Fume And if there were not here already matter enough to contrive into the most mischievous kind of fiery Meteors such as will be sure to do execution yet that Word that created all things can easily change so much of any Matter into such a modification as will most effectually serve for this heavy Vengeance 3. But I make no question but that there are Second causes on this side that Omnipotent Creative power of the Godhead that are sufficient for such ministries of Providence as this As truly those innumerable bright Legions of Angels may seem to be whose Skill and power of Imagination upon the Elements of Nature is certainly transcendently above what we can conceive their Faculties at least some of them as farr surpassing ours as ours do those of brute beasts who have not the least conceit of our power and artifice in doing things 4. What power think you then is in the Head of these Heavenly hosts Christ Iesus who in the flesh as I have often noted shewed such mighty specimens thereof over the Elements of the world The mere Fiat therefore of his Imagination and Will acting upon the Spirit of Nature whether nearer hand or farther of cannot but prove sufficient if he so please to undoe that universal coalition of particles out of which arises the Compages and consistence of every earthly Substance and to turn them into such a flame as some would have the whole Earth anciently to have been or so to moderate the action and fire it so deep and with such a qualification of parts as shall be most sutable to his present and after-design 5. This Effect will not seem beyond that inherent power in the Divine Soul of Iesus if we consider its unspeakable corroboration by his mysterious union with the Godhead and the obedience of the Spirit of Nature to the exalted powers of the Soul and the power of this Spirit upon the subtil matter of the World and the force of that subtile Matter to disjoyn all coalescencies and then the promptness of these dissolved particles to close again unto such a forme as the regulated activity of the Spirit of Nature shall command them into For all this is but an higher and diviner kind of Magick working by the excitation of the Spirit of Nature upon the changeable Elements of the world no Creation nor Annihilation of any thing 6. So that keeping our selves on this side the naked Deity to the consideration
look upon as fundamentally repugnant to Christianity it self if the New Testament be the foundation of Christianity For I know nothing more express then that in those Writings And therefore the denying of the Trinity is the denying of the Authority of the New Testament Or if they will pretend they can interpret things there so as to evade this doctrine by the same reason I think they may evade any and so still the sacred Writ shall stand for a cypher and signifie nothing which tends mainly to the enervating of our Faith and is a gross entrenchment upon the third Rule 4. And truly I think it may be made to appear that it is also particularly against the second For the Divinity of Christ does not fall in so handsomly and kindly without the supposition of a Trinity as I have elswhere intimated and therefore I look upon it as a special piece of Providence that so explicite a knowledge of the Godhead in the Triunity thereof was so generally made known to the world together with Christianity that the Eternal Son of God might be worshipped through Christ and the whole Deity as I may so say distinctly honour'd and adored 5. But they will reply that though they deny the Trinity and Divinity of Christ namely that the Eternal Word was made Flesh yet they assert that Divine Honour is due unto him and therefore do not transgress against the second Rule For they acknowledge that though Christ be but man yet God has given him all power in Heaven and in Earth and that he shall return visibly to judge the quick and the dead and that as the Father has life in himself so has he given him to have life in himself that is the power of enlivening us and quickening us at the last and of changing these vile bodies of ours into the similitude of his glorious body And therefore that their Opinion serves the End of Christianity as well as the other in reference to Divine Worship due to Christ and is more sutable to the fourth Rule these perplexities of Christs Divinity and the Triunity of the Godhead making our Religion less passable and recommendable to those that are without 6. But to this I answer First as before That to take away the Trinity and Divinity of Christ is to take away the Authority of the New Testament or to take such a liberty of forcing and distorting the sense of things as will make it contemptible and useless then which what can be of more dangerous consequence It will be a Trespass not only against one but against all the Rules I have set down and make the Gospel pass very ill not only with strangers but our selves too and turn Christendome back to Infidelity and Paganisme But Secondly I deny that the Scripture declares any thing concerning the Divinity of Christ or the holy Trinity that is impossible contradictious or more unintelligible then things that men do ordinarily assent to that are free Philosophers and admit nothing upon force or Superstition but upon Reason and That the Union of the Eternal Word with the humane Nature of Christ is as conceivable for the Modus as the Union of the Soul and Body That the Intricacies of the Schools are fooleries and not to be taken into our Religion That the Scripture only sets forth a Triunity in the Godhead in general not obscured by any terme that can entangle any one of a tolerable wit and understanding unless he will be so blockish as to think because the second Hypostasis in this Trinity is called Son that the Father was married and had a wife as the Turks fondly object whenas nothing else is signified but that the Son is from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both Thirdly That the first Author Beginner or at least the most eminent Renewer of this Sect that so boldly and stoutly denies the Trinity was one though of a leguleious Wit yet so inept and averse from Divine matters that he flatly denies that the Existence of God is discoverable by the light of Nature and Reason And after he has found him by help of Scripture as he thinks yet he has missed him For that which is not Infinite in Essence cannot be God And therefore it is no wonder if he hangs off so heavily from the admission of that more distinct and full knowledge of him manifested in the holy Oracles that those that symbolize so much with his Genius in other things follow him also in this Fourthly The noblest Spirits best Philosophers that ever appear'd in the world for the Knowledge of Nature and of God and that some Ages before Christ of their own choice without force or obtrusion held the Triunity of the Godhead which though I will not avouch to be perfectly right in all things they being even over-accurate in the describing of it therefore well may trip yet for the main is such that there is reason for it but none at all against it it is very sutable in the general to those general intimations in the Scripture Nor do I believe any Christian bound to hold the Theory in the set formes of humane Invention though he may peruse them believe as much as he thinks good and do think it a decent thing that his Reason cannot perfectly reach nor exhaust so profound a Mystery that therefore he is to make up the rest in humble Adoration Fifthly and lastly By denying the Triunity of the Godhead and Divinity of Christ other Articles of our Faith are made incredible and that Divine Adoration we give to Christ suspected of Idolatry For it will not seem credible to strangers especially that abhor such superstitions that God ever exalted any mere man to such a pitch as the Socinians themselves acknowledge Christ is exalted but that it is some cunning plot to lapse the World or retain it in Idolatrous Worship It will also seem to them incredible if Christ be mere man that he should by a power in himself as he professes be able to perform his promise at the last day that is to raise us all to a glorious and immortall life changing these bodies of flesh into a pure celestial substance which is an act for none but the Deity to doe And therefore if it be done by any thing in himself it is by the Deity residing in him by the Eternal Word by whom all things were created Who was said to be the Son of God before the Incarnation and after the Incarnation both he that was born in time and this Eternal Word is look'd upon as one Son of God by real and Physical union From whence that is easily understood which we alluded to before As the Father has life in himself so has he given to the Son to have life in himself But our Adversaries way is very unconceivable and unintelligible and therefore doth plainly transgress against the Rule he pretends it most agrees with the
Theologers by so muchâ— the more pleasant to the ears of the Atheists 2. That the Resurrection in the Scholastick Notion thereof was in all likelihood the great Stone of offence to those two Enthusiasts of Delph and Amsterdam and emboldened them to turn the whole Gospel into an Allegorie 3. The incurable condition of Enthusiasts 4. The Atheists first Objection against the Scholastick Resurrection proposed 5. His second Objection 6. His third and last Objection 7. That his Objections do not demonstrate an absolute impossibility of the Scholastick Resurrection with the Author's purpose of answering them upon other Grounds 221 CHAP. IV. 1. An Answer to their first and last Cavil from those Principles of Plato's School That the Soul is the Man and That the Body perceives nothing 2. An Answer to their second by rightly interpreting what is meant by Rising out of the grave in the general notion thereof 3. That there is no warrant out of Scripture for the same numerical body but rather the contrary 4. The Atheists Objection from the word Resurrectio answered whose sense is explained out of the Hebrew and Greek 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what the meaning of them is in that general sense which is applicable as well to the Resurrection of the unjust as of the just 223 CHAP. V. 1. An Objection against the Resurrection from the Activity of the Soul out of her Body with the first Answer thereto 2. The second Answer 3. The special significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first belonging to the unjust the latter to the just 4. That the life that is led on the Earth or in this lower Region of the Air is more truly a Death then a Life 5. The manner of our recovering our Celestial Body at the last Day 6. And of the accomplishment of the Promise of Christ therein 226 CHAP. VI. 1. That he has freed the Mystery of the Resurrection from all Exceptions of either Atheists or Enthusiasts 2. That the Soul is not uncapable of the Happiness of an Heavenly Body 3. And that it is the highest and most sutable Reward that can be conferr'd upon her 4. That this Reward is not above the power of Christ to confer proved by what he did upon Earth 5. That all Iudgment is given to him by the Father 6. Further arguings to 〈◊〉 same purpose 228 CHAP. VII 1. Caecilius his scoffs against the Resurrection and Conflagration of the World That against the Resurrection answered already 2. In what sense the soberer Christians understood the Conflagration of the World 3. That the Conflagration in their sense is possible argued from the Combustibleness of the parts of the Earth 4. As also from actual Fire found in several Mountains as Aetna Helga and Hecla 5. Several instances of that sort out of Plinie 6. Instances of Vulcanoes out of Acosta 7. The Vulcanoes of Guatimalla 8. Vulcanoes without smoak having a quick fire as the bottome 9. Vulcanoes that have cast fire and smoak some thousand of years together 10. Hot Fountains Springs running with Pitch and Rosin certain Thermae catching fire at a distance 230 CHAP. VIII 1. A fiery Comet as big as the Sun that appeared after the death of Demetrius Comets presages of Droughts Woods set on fire after their appearing 2. Of falling Starres Of the tail of a Comet that dried up a River 3. Hogsheads of Wine drunk up and men dissipated into Atoms by Thunder 4. That the fire of Thunder is sometimes unquenchable as that in Macrinus the Emperours time and that procured by the Praiers of the Thundering Legion 5. Of conglaciating Thunders and the transmutation of Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt 6. The destruction of Sodom with fire from Heaven That universal Deluges and Earthquakes do argue the probability of a Deluge of Fire 7. That Plinie counts it the greatest wonder that this Deluge of fire has not haâ—â—ed already 233 CHAP. IX 1. The Conflagration argued from the Proneness of Nature and the transcendent power of Christ. 2. His driving down the Powers of Satan from their upper Magazine 3. The surpassing power and skill of his Angelical Hosts 4. The efficacy of his Fiat upon the Spirit of Nature 5. The unspeakable corroboration of his Soul by its Union with the Godhead and the manner of operation upon the Elements of the World 6. That the Eye of God is ever upon the Earth and that he may be an Actour as well as a Speculatour if duly called upon 7 8. A short Description of the firing of the Earth by Christ with the dreadful effects thereof 236 CHAP. X. 1. The main Fallacies that cause in men the Misbelief of the Possibility of the Conflagration of the Earth 2. That the Conflagration is not only possible but reasonable The first Reason leading to the belief thereof 3. The second Reason the natural decay of all particular structures and that the Earth is such and that it grows dry and looses of its solidity whence its approach to the Sun grows nearer 4. That the Earth therefore will be burnt either according to the course of Nature or by a special appointment of Providence 5. That it is most reasonable that Second way should take place because of the obdurateness of the Atheistical crew 6. That the Vengeance will be still more significant if it be inflicted after the miraculous Deliverance of the Faithfull 239 CHAP. XI 1. A Recapitulation or Synopsis of the more Intelligible part of the Christian Mystery with an Indication of the Usefulness thereof 2. The undeniable Grounds of this Mystery The existence of God A particular Providence The Lapsableness of Angels and men The natural subjection of men to Devils in this fallen Condition 3. God's Wisdome and Iustice in the Permission thereof for a time 4 5. Further Reasons of that Permission 6. The Lapse of Men and Angels proved 7. The Good emerging out of this Lapse 8. The exceeding great Preciousness of the Divine Life 9. The Conflagration of the Earth 10. The Good arising from the Opposition betwixt the Light and Dark Kingdome 11. That God in due time is in a special manner to assist the Kingdome of Light and in a way most accommodate to the humane Faculties 12. That therefore he was to send into the World some Venerable Example of the Dâ—vine Life with miraculous attestations of his Mâ—ssion of so sacred a Person 13. That this Person by reason of the great Agonies that befall them that return to the Divine Life ought to bring with him a palpable pledge of a proportionable Reward suppose of a Blessed Immortality manifested to the meanest Capacity by his rising from the dead and visibly ascending into Heaven 14. That in the Revolt of Mankind from the Tyranny of the Devil there ought to be some Head and that the Qualifications of that Head ought to be opposiâ—e to those of the old Tyrant as also to have a
cannot better be done then by shewing the Reasonableness and important Usefulness of Christian Religion in the Historical sense thereof and in reference to the very Person of Christ our Saviour which I have I hope abundantly performed in this present Treatise and by discovering the Natural Causes and imposturous Consequences of Enthusiasme which I had done before in Enthusiasmus Triumphatus Which two Treatises I hope will prove two invincible Fortresses against all the force and fury of the Fanatical spirit 7. After this the bold impiety of this present Age engaged my Thoughts in a Subject of no less moment then the former For I saw that other abhorred monster Atheisme proudly strutting with a lofty gate and impudent forehead boasting himself the onely genuine offspring of true Wisdome and Philosophy namely of that which makes Matter alone the Substance of all things in the world This misshapen Creature was first nourished up in the stie of Epicurus and fancied it self afterward grown more tall and stout by further strength it seemed to have received from some new Principles of the French Philosophy misinterpreted and perverted by certain impure and unskilful pens Which unexpected confidence of those blind boasters made me with all anxiety and care imaginable search into the power of Matter and mere Mechanical motion and consider how far they might go of themselves in the production of the Phaenomena of the World But as for the Philosophy of Epicurus it seemed to me at the very first sight such a foolery that I was much amazed that a person of so commendable parts as P. Gassendus could ever have the patience to rake out such old course rags out of that rotten dunghill to stuffe his large Volumes withall But I must confess I did as much admire Des-Cartes Philosophy as I did despise the Epicurean who has carried on the power of Matter for the production of the Phaenomena of Nature with that neatness and coherence that if he had been as ignorant in other things as skilful in Mechanicks he could not but have fancied himself to have wone that crown that many wits have striven for that is the honour of being accounted the most subtil and able Atheist of both the present and past Ages This made me peruse his Writings with still more and more diligence and the more I read the more I admired his Wit but at last grew the more confirmed That it was utterly impossible that Matter should be the onely essential Principle of things as I have in several places of my Writings demonstrated And therefore having clearly vanquished this difficulty I betook my self with greater alacrity to the writing of my Antidote against Atheisme To which presently after I added my Threefold Cabbala as an Appendix to the same design being well advised what a homely conceit our high Wits have of the Three first Chapters of Genesis though they do betray their own ignorance by their mean opinion of them 8. And possibly then I had left off had not a dangerous Sickness that made me suspect that the time did near approach of quitting this my earthly Tabernacle urged me more carefully to bethink my self what reception I might have in the other world And praised be God such was the condition of my Soul though then much overrun with Melancholy that my presages concerning my future state were very favourable and comfortable and my desire was to be gathered to that body of which Iesus Christ is Head even he who was crucified at Ierusalem and felt the pangs of death for a Propitiation of the sins of the world who was then represented to me as visible a Prince and as distinct a person and head Politick as any King or Potentate upon earth And therefore being thus fully convinced with my self that He whose Life was ever to me the most sweet and lovely of any thing I could see or taste was indeed even in his Humane nature made a King and Priest for ever and constituted Soveraign over men and Angels my Heart was full of Ioy but withall accompanied with a just measure of shame that I had spoken hitherto so sparingly of his Royal Office and of the homage due to so Divine a Potentate whose Subject to my great satisfaction I found my self to be and whose presence I did not at all despair of approaching in due time to my eternal comfort and honour Which sense of things made me conceive a solemn Vow with my self if God gave me life to write this present Treatise Which occasion I thought fit not to conceal though I be much averse from speaking any thing over-particularly of my self that the high-flown Fanaticks of this Age may consider more carefully what I have writ and take heed how they either slight or revolt from their Celestial Soveraign But I thought it very convenient before I put in execution this great design to take again into consideration that other weighty Subject The Immortality of the Soul being better appointed and provided for the clearing of that Truth then I was when I first adventured upon the Theory And thus having fully convinced my self and I hope as many else as are capable of judging of the more choice and subtile Conclusions of Reason and Philosophy That there is a God and That the Soul of man is immortal which are the two main pillars upon which all Religion stands I advanced forward with courage having left no Enemy behind and betook my self with great confidence to the finishing and publishing of this present Treatise Of the Mystery of Christianity Which I look upon as the most precious and the most concerning piece of Wisdome that is communicable to the Soul of Man the very chief and top bough of that Tree of Knowledge whose fruit has neither poison nor bitterness And therefore being come to my journeys end I will here sit down with thanks and enjoy my self under this comfortable shade and do assure thee Reader that I am not likely to weary thy eyes with the descriptions of any further discoveries by my pen. 9. Onely that thou mayest view this with the better ease and satisfaction I shall according to my usual manner endeavour to remove all rubs of offence out of thy way by giving thee an account aforehand of whatever may seem to thee a considerable either Superfluity Defect or Aberration in my Performance not omitting to impart to thee the right and proper meaning of the very Title of my Discourse Thou must therefore expect from my terming of it An Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness not a mere verbal Exposition or Declaration what is signified therein but such an orderly Exhibition of the Truths thereof that the Scope of the Whole being understood the Reasonableness of the Particulars thereunto tending may clearly appear And the End to which all Parts of the Christian Mystery point at is the Advancement and Triumph of the Divine Life In the exaltation whereof God is the most
Idea of a person truly Divine by discovering of a counterfeit that in outward appearance came so nigh the true For those things though they dazled the eyes of the better sort of the Heathen as Hierocles and others in such sort that they took him to be at least as sacred a person as our Saviour himself yet I doubt not but that by this Parallelisme of mine I have proved the Comparison to be very vain and presumptuous and have made it appear to as many as are competent judges of what is truly divine that our Saviour Christ does exceed the character of Apollonius though it is very probable Philostratus has taken the liberty to adde more Miracles and Perfections then he ever was guilty of as far as Apollonius did the brute beasts And therefore I hold the making of this Parallelisme of very great use and consequence for the enabling us to distinguish the Divine life from the Animal even then when it is dressed up in its most commendable ornaments Of which this in Apollonius is a very illustrious Example 12. And though there be no great exercise intended of curiosity of judgement in my bringing up Mahomet and that grand Enthusiast of Amsterdam upon the stage as being bold Corrivals with Christ himself yet it is no supervacaneous action to draw them into sight though it be but that their own looks might condemn them For that also tends to the confirmation of our Religion that she has no actual competitors but such as bear upon them their self-condemnation at the very first view Which is easilier obtained of Mahometisme their success and victories having made them bold and careless to lay out themselves to the World But Familisme is a more various a more obscure and sculking monster though she mutter in her dark hole that she has right to the dominion of the whole Earth and that Christianity and Mahometisme are to give place to her And therefore truely it might have been judged a defect if I had not thus haled her out of her den into open day that the world once having seen her may say they have enough of her unless God out of his wrath has given them up to a reprobate sense for their abuse of the solid Truth of the Gospel I confess my so large Excursions and frequent Expostulations with the Familists and Quakers are not very ornamental to my Discourse and may go off but heavily with such persons as peruse mens Writings more for pleasure then service and rather for private satisfaction then for publick usefulness which they neither intend themselves nor do easily spy out or rellish in the intentions of others But the publick interest of the Church of Christ being the scope and measure of my writing this Treatise it was sufficient that I kept faithful to my own design not heeding the gratification of more trim and elegant fancies who are so nice and finical that they would not come near a sore though they could heal it by touching it nor approach a sick person though the cast of their shadow were a cure Wherefore to give an account of my so sedulous and copious Reprehensions and Convictions of these two Sects who have an over-near affinity one with another and were growing apace into one Body of Familisme which made me represent that Sect so formidable as I have The first reason of my so industriously accosting them is the either certain knowledge or strong presumption I have that there may very well be extraordinarily sincere and wel-meaning men adhering to their way For though the depth of the Mystery of Familisme and I doubt of Quakerisme too be that which every good Christian ought from his very heart to detest and abhorre namely The slighting nay I may say the utter rejecting of the Person of Christ as to his Humane nature with all his Offices assigned to him by his Father yet this is an Arcanum that is kept hid from their Novices and if a man continue conscienciously good he may be a Novice with them as long as he lives to whom they propound nothing but the most weighty Precepts of the Gospel and charm their attention with finely-contrived Allegories of the History of Christ interpreting all to a spiritual or mystical sense of things to be done in us With which these yonglings are not a little tickled as thinking themselves adorned with a special piece of divine knowledge and then they being marvellously sincere and having from an Enthusiastick complexion or some better principle a very eager thirst after reall goodness and righteousness the rellish of these Morall allusions must needs become still the more savoury to them Whence it does appear that the best and most serious tempered men may be the easiliest drawn to the liking and adhering to so fair and cunning a Faction and that consequently a man cannot be over-careful and solicitous in trying all means possible to undeceive them and set them in the right way But then again further Our design was not onely in the behalf of these who really deserve to be pittied but was aimed also against their obdurate deceivers who being deeply baptised into this accursed Apostasy from the Person of Christ led multitudes along with them the Kingdome swarming with those that for no good purpose so peremptorily distinguished themselves from other men by a resolved coursness and crosness of deportment What therefore could I do more seasonably when not onely my self but even almost all men were afraid that this sort of people would overrun all then to expose to the eye of the world the Bottome of so damnable a Conspiracy which was no less then Rebellion against their celestial Soveraign Christ Iesus and the undermining or tearing in pieces of his Kingdome upon Earth under pretence of beginning the Reign of his Saints and holy ones This made me so careful and explicite in discovering the whole Mystery of Familisme and so free and vehement in my Expostulations both with them and the Quakers in this Treatise of mine being very impatient whatever Variegations an ill-managed Liberty should run the Nation into that they should ever become Pagans 13. But to the eternal laud and praise of our infinitely-merciful God whose eye of Providence ever watches over his Church when things were most desperate he was pleased to answer the prayers and well-meant endeavours of his faithful servants with not onely hopes but enjoyments more sudden and more ample then could then be imagined in restoring our Gracious Soveraign CHARLES the Second to whom God give a long and prosperous reign so unexpectedly to his rightful Government to the unexpressible joy and comfort of all his Three Kingdomes The excellent endowments of whose Royal person are such that whatever grand matters the fervid Parturiency and amuzed Expectation of the very Fanatick part of this Nation was big withall may come to a more safe and mature birth by the restoring this long-afflicted Prince to his ancient Right
and palpable Overthrow of the Kingdome of Darkness such as themselves shall feel with a vengeance a whirlwind of destruction ratling about their ears as I may so speak the visible wrath of God seizing upon their external persons but there shall be also a visible deliverance of the other Kingdome from this storme of fire and brimstone from this fierce anger of God and the rorings and boilings of incensed Nature against the Wicked For who can imagine the horror the stench the confusion the crackling of Flames of Fire those loud murmurs and bellowings of the troubled Seas working and smoking like seething Water in a Caldron the fearfull howlings and direfull grones of those rebellious Ghosts who besides the general defacement of whatsoever they heretofore took pleasure in are in an unexpressible torture of Body with an unimaginable vexation of Minde Self-love then the centre of the Animal life proving the depth and bottom of Hell as being inflamed and boiling up with the highest indignation and vengeance against it self that when it had so many opportunities it provided no better for its own happiness being now convinced that there is a Special Providence over the Good and that Righteousness has its Eternal Reward For in that day shall all the Faithful renew their strength and shall mount up with wings as Eagles and be carried far above the reach of this dismal Fate that is they shall ascend up in those Heavenly Chariots or Ethereal Vehicles the ancient Philosophers speak of and so enter into Immortality and Eternal rest 2. But if there were not this Visible deliverance of the Powers of the Kingdome of Light the Powers of the contrary Kingdome let them suffer what they would they would imagine it a piece of blind and inevitable Fortune as well as partial Earthquakes and Inundations and particular Conflagrations which have destroyed Towns and Countries heretofore and therefore deem their ill condition a fad Calamity indeed but no Punishment Which will seem the more probable if we consider that Epicures and Atheists themselves admit of a Final Destruction of the World as you may see in Lucretius who speaking of the Earth the Sea and the Heavens presages thus of them Tres Species tam dissimiles tria talia Texta Una dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi Three Species of things so different Three such contextures shall one fatall day Ruine at once and the world's Machina Upheld so long rush into Atomes rent 3. My Thirteenth Assertion is That this palpable and visible Difference which Divine Providence is to make betwixt the Evill and the Good will be and is so wisely contrived that it shall not onely be a manifest Conviction and Confutation of Atheists and Epicures and an undoubted Revelation of God's Existence and Soveraignty in the world but in a speciall manner for the high Honour and Triumph of the Divine life over the Animal life Which through so many Sorrows Afflictions Temptations scornfull Reproaches of the Wicked their cruel and barbarous usages shall at last with all the Embraces of her be enthroned in Everlasting Peace and Glory 4. And that this may be done more exquisitely That Wisdome that contrives all for the best was to lay aside all those things that seem so goodly and precious to the Animal life such as are The outward Power and Pompe of the world Highness of Rank Transcendency in natural Knowledge Beauty Birth bodily Strength or whatsoever the Animal life divided from the Divine takes pleasure in and can perform by it self all this I say was to be laid aside in the choice of that Person by whom this great conquest over the Kingdome of Darkness was to be atchieved as it is written He has no pleasure in the strength of an horse neither delighteth he in any mans legs But the delight of the Lord is in them that fear him and put their trust in his mercy Which I onely cite for illustration sake it being undeniably true in it self That God preferres his own Glory that is the Divine life or the Image of himself shining in his Creatures before any Natural accomplishment whatsoever Thus therefore it was to fare in the choice of the Chieftain of the Powers of the Kingdome of Light As if some great Prince being highly displeased at the general Luxury Rebellion and Persidiousness of his Nobles to shew how little he esteemed the Highness of their Ranks in respect of true Vertue should take some one of the Lowest of the Commons yet indued with eminent Prudence Loyalty and Valour and set him next to himself in Honour Trust and Power in the administrating the affairs of his Kingdome So the Almighty passing by those more Superior Orders of Angels that his high esteem of the Divine life might be more apparent and conspicuous was to make his choice in the rank of Humane Souls and to lay the Government upon some one who being designed to that Office from the beginning of the world should win notorious victories against the Kingdome of Darkness and rescue at last all such as the Devil has held captive into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God 5. Lastly therefore to make an end at length of my Preparatory Assertions the main Mystery of Christianity consists in this That it is a wise contrivance of Providence upon the lapse of Men and Angels to slur and defeat all the Pride and practices of the Devil and his accomplices and to reduce all Penitent and Regenerate Souls to that Glory and Happiness they heretofore forfeited and fell from Or if you will briefly but more significantly thus Christianity is that Period of the VVisdome of God and his Providence wherein the Animal life is remarkably insulted or triumphed over by the Divine CHAP. VIII 1. That not to be at least a Speculative Christian is a Sign of the want of common Wit and Reason 2. The nature of the Divine and Animal life and the state of the World before and at our Saviour's coming to be enquired into before we proceed 3. Why God does not forthwith advance the Divine life and that Glory that seems due to her 4. The First Answer 5. A Second Answer 6. A Third Answer 7. The Fourth and last Answer 1. WE have now laid down such Conclusions either so Evident from themselves or Demonstrable from Reason or so Allowable by the Authority of the wisest men that have been in the world and yet uninterested in Christianity that the hardest difficulties thereof being resolvable into these it will appear that it is not only an Indisposition to all Religion whatever but the Want of Common Wit and the laudable parts of a man that keeps any one off at least from being a Speculative Christian. 2. There are only Two things more for a further Preparation to be proposed to our view before we come to a Particular application of the several Branches of Christianity to the foregoing
an husband who is the very Iehovah according to the most easie and natural meaning of the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. This therefore is the First and most Fundamental mistake of lapsed Mankind that they make Body or Matter the only true Iehovah the only true Essence and first Substance of whom all things are and acknowledge no God but this Visible or Sensible world And therefore stop not here but naturally proceed to the Birth of Abel which Iosephus interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sorrow Which certainly the Soul of man in this condition is abundantly obnoxious to But the word may as well and does more ordinarily signifie Vanity according to that of the Apostle concerning the Heathens and their Religion that they were grown vain in their imaginations And so that came to pass which the Author of that pious Book entituled The Wisdom of Solomon so sadly complains of 3. Surely vain are all men by nature who are ignorant of God and could not out of the good things that are seen know him that is nor by considering the works acknowledge the work-master But deemed either Fire or Wind or the swift Air or the Circle of the Stars or the violent Water or the Lights of Heaven to be the Gods that govern the World The Charge is laid home by this Writer upon Universal Paganism But it is but a just thing to give them a little scope to plead for themselves that thereby Truth may be the better discovered and the more firmly established and the Natural state of Mankind before Christ came into the world be more fully understood which is the present business in hand and the last Point we propounded by way of Preparation to our main work The Crime they are accused of here is Polytheism which necessarily includes in it Atheism For to say There are more Gods then one is to assert There is none at all the notion of God in the strictest sense thereof being incompetible to any more then One. Wherefore the Heathen being Polytheists in profession by undeniable consequence are found Atheists 4. But here some of them apologize for themselves after this manner affirming that they acknowledged one only Supreme Deity viz. the Sun and that the several worships which were exhibited were to this One though under several names by reason of the several powers or virtues observed in him This is the plea of Macrobius and he manages it under the person of Vettius Praetextatus very handsomly and wittily reducing from either Properties of Nature allusion of Names the likeness of Statues or Images the conformity of Ceremonies or testimony of Oracles no less then sixteen Deities of the Heathen that to the vulgar seem distinct to this One of the Sun namely Apollo Bacchus Mars Mercury Aesculapius and Salus Hercules Isis Serapis Adonis Attin Osiris Horus Nemesis Pan Iupiter Saturnus And I doubt not but with the like windings and turnings of wit and imagination he may reduce the worship of the rest to the same Deity he having let fall an ominous word taken out of the mouths of the Ancients at the very entrance of the Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which if it be well followed will not fail to make good That the Heathens worship was terminated upon one Supreme Object which Macrobius will have to be the Sun And he concludes all for a fuller confirmation thereof with a double citation The one is of a short Invocation of the Heathen Theologers the form whereof runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. O Sun ommnipotent the Spirit of the world the power of the world the light of the world The other is out of the Hymns of Orpheus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou that dost guide the ever-winding gyre And wide Rotations of th' Aethereal fire O Sol great Sire of Sea and Land give ear Omniparent Sol with golden visage clear All-various Godhead Bacchus glorious Jove Or whate're else thou 'rt styl'd my vows approve In which Verses the Government and Generation of all things are attributed to the Sun who that it may be less incongruous is allowed to have Sense and Understanding in him as you may see in the same Author Saturnal lib. 1. cap. 23. which is also asserted cap. 18. where he proves Bacchus and the Sun to be all one For he gives the reason of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Mens Iovis understanding by Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Air or liquid part of the world as Theon explains it upon Aratus And here Macrobius saies that Iupiter signifies Heaven Physici Solem Mundi mentem dixerunt Mundus autem vocatur Coelum quod appellant Iovem 5. That the Sun is the Supreme Numen of the Heathens may be further evinced from the Ceremonies and Worship the Indian Brachmans did to him who were also called the Priests of the Sun whom Apollonius Tyaneus that industrious restorer of Paganism so loudly extols and so far preferrs before the Babylonian Magi Gymnosophists and all the Wise men of the world besides But the circumstances of his entertainment there according to Philostratus is an argument only of their being more able Magicians or Conjurers then the rest of the world not more truly Wise as we that worship the true God must of necessity conclude For what else can we gather from that black swarthy Page with a golden Anchor in his hand and a Crescent like the Moon shining upon his forehead that met Damis and Apollonius in the way told them their purpose aforehand and conducted them to the Magi What from that ever-smoaky Mount guarded or enveloped with a perpetual thick cloud or mist so that these Sages could not be found without some such black guide of their own sending nor their Habitation entred though there be neither man nor ditches to defend them What from their manner of entertainment of this zealous Greek that traversed so great a part of the world to find them out whom they received at a banquet where wine and viands were conveighed to the table without the help of the hand of any Mortal What from their Hymns and frantick dances in a round by way of Divine worship done unto the Sun when striking the ground with a rod the earth would rise in waves under them while they danced thus and sung their Morning Songs to their supposed Deity as he appeared above the Horizon What I say can be gathered from all this but that they were a Conventicle of Witches or Conjurers though I will not deny but they might be the most accomplished Priests that Paganism at that time could vaunt of and the fittest Instructers of Apollonius whose purpose was with all care and diligence to restore the Heathenish rites and thereby stop the growth of Christianity And surely the Devil made Paganism as desirable and
the true knowledge of God CHAP. IX 1. The Miracles of Apollonius compared with those of Christ. 2. His entertainment at a Magical banquet by Iarchas and the rest of the Brachmans 3. His cure of a Dropsy and of one bitten by a mad dog 4. His freeing of the City of Ephesus from the plague 5. His casting a Devil out of a laughing Daemoniack and chasing away a whining Spectre on Mount Caucasus in a Moon-shine night 6. His freeing Menippus from his espoused Lamia 1. WE have now done with the Actions of Christ such as were more extraordinary and miraculuos we will proceed to his Passion after we have made a short comparison of the most famous exploits of Apollonius with these of our Saviour according to those Heads we have already insisted upon His miraculous feeding of the People His curing diseases His casting out Devils His raising of the dead and His predictions of things to come 2. As for the First I do not remember any example of it in Apollonius his life only Philostratus writes that Apollonius himself was entertained by the Brachmans at such a banquet as was provided in a miraculous manner together with the King of Media where three-sooted tables were brought in and plac'd in the midst without the help of any mans hand as also the floor spread with odoriferous herbs and flowers and bread wine fruits and sweet-meats on plates conveighed through the air and set upon those tables without any servitours to carry them Which story being so very like the junketings of Witches and the behaviour of Iarchas and his brother Brachmans being so full of scorn and insolency towards the King and the very chief of his retinue his brother I mean and his sons may fully confirm any man that they were no better then Magicians nor their great Favourite and disciple Apollonius any other then a Wizzard and a Necromancer as his conjuring up of the Ghost of Achilles does further prove 3. As for his Cures I do remember but Three the First of which seems to have more of the power of Nature and Morality then of a Miracle he curing a young man of a Dropsie by precepts of Temperance in the Temple of Aesculapius The other was of one bitten by a mad Dog who was so distempered therewith that he would bark goe on all four and couch on the ground like a Dog But it looks so like a piece of Witchery and Apollonius was so punctual in discovering what the Inhabitants of the place which was Tarsus could not inform him of as of the colour shaggedness and other qualities of the Dog as also where he was that it is a suspicion that he that cured the disease did inflict it himself or rather his Familiars for him and so it is likely that the dog as well as the man was bewitched For he came along from the river-side where he was shivering as if he had an ague so soon as Damis had whispered in his Ear that Apollonius would speak with him who told the people also while he was cherishing him and stroaking him that the Soul of Telephus the Mysian was entred into him which is a further confirmation of our conjecture But indeed all the circumstances of the Story are either ludicrous and ridiculous or else impious As his making the Dog cure the man by licking of him and then himself curing the Dog by praying to the River Cydnus and slinging the Dog into the stream 4. But the most famous cure of all is that when he freed the City of Ephesus from the plague But it being discovered already what a kind of man this Apollonius was viz. a mere Magician I cannot but suspect that the case is the same with that former and that the whole City suffered so direfull a disease as the devouring pestilence by the hand of the Devil to get the greater renown to Apollonius that stout Hyperaspistes of Paganisme who for the advancing of his own credit was to free them from this raging evil Of which opinion of ours there are two grand Arguments The one his assembling the people in the Theatre and there incouraging them to stone an old ragged Begger which he perswaded them was the plague but it seems it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a destroying Daemon as it appeared by his eyes as he was a stoning and by that delusion of a shagged Dog as big as a Lion found under the heap of stones when the people had thought to have seen him there in his former shape of a patch'd Begger The other Argument is the Ephesians erecting the Image of Hercules Apotropaeus in the place where this old Mendicant was stoned which is a sign that Pagan Idolatry was the upshot of the plot Wherefore I look upon these two last Cures as done out of suspicable Principles and upon extravagant Objects 5. As for his casting out Devils I do not remember any example thereof saving one and that was of a young man of Corcyra who was a laughing Daemoniack out of whom at Athens by a many repeated menaces and imperious railings he at last ejected the Evil Spirit who for a sign of his departure made a great Image tumble down from the royal Porch in the City with a great noise and clatter To this Head we may refer also though by an improper reduction his conjuring of a Phantasme that appeared to him and his fellow-travellers as they were journying on Mount Caucasus in a bright Moon-shine night Which Phantasme went before them sometime in one shape and sometime in another but by many vehement chidings by many railings reproaches and execrations was made to disappear at last and to depart crying and whining at the discourteous usage 6. We may add to these the story of Menippus and the Lamia Who in the form of a beautifull young woman made love to Menippus and at last perswaded him to marry her But Apollonius being at the Nuptials discovered the illusion and by reproaching the Bride made I think the whole Edifice which was supposed to be plac'd near Corinth I am sure the furniture and riches thereof all the moveables the Tapestry the gold and silver vessels nay the pages servants and officers of this fair Lady to vanish at once and her self only left was compelled to confess her self a foul carnivorous Fiend So either frivolous or exorbitant are all the miraculous exploits of this deified Impostor But all the Objects of our Saviour's Miracles were as I at first noted more obvious and familiar which is the greater assurance as well of the Innocency and Sincerity of his Person as of the Truth of his History CHAP. X. 1. Apollonius his raising from death a young married Bride at Rome 2. His Divinations and particularly by Dreams 3. His Divinations from some external accidents in Nature 4. His Prediction of Stephanus killing Domitian from an Halo that encircled the sun Astrology and Meteorology covers to Pagan Superstition and converse with Devils 5. A
feet and they lout and ly prostrate to the names of those men whose lives if they were on the Earth again they are so contrary to theirs they would unreconcilably hate and scorn their persons for their meanness and tread them under feet nay it may be with more shame and cruelty then ever make them suffer once again those bloudy Martyrdomes 7. So that it is an uncouth spectacle to consider what strange ridiculous work these Satyrs Monkyes and Baboons I mean the unregenerated Mass of Mankind who are enlivened with nothing but the mere Animal life have made these many hundred years in the Wilderness with the most precious Truth of the Gospel what Sophistical knots and nooses fruitless subtilties and niceties what gross contradictions and inconsistencies the Schoolmen and Polemical Divines have filled the World with what needless and burdensome Ceremonies what ensnaring new coined Articles what setting up of self-flattering Sects and Interests what variously-carved Formes and new-fangled Curiosities have been contriv'd and shap'd out by either Superstitious Church-men or Carnal Politicians 8. But if there were nothing worse then this though this be ill enough the Scene would seem only Comical in comparison But at last the Ape cuts his own throat with the shoomakers knife and Christendome lyes tumbling and wallowing I know not for how many Ages together in its own bloud The reason of which is that in this long bustle for and great ostentation of an External Religion the inward life and Spirit of Christianity which consists in Humility Charity and Purity is left out and Pride Lust and Covetousness are the first movers in all our Actions So that though we be called by the name of Christ yet our hearts and reall services are grosly Pagan we consecrating our very Souls with all the Powers Affections and Faculties of them to the worst-titled Deities of the Heathen and being strictly commanded by our Saviour to love one another as it were in despight to shew what real Apostates we are to Paganisme rather pour forth one anothers bloud as a drink-offering to Mars then keep that inviolable and indispensable Precept of his whom we profess to be our liege Lord and Soveraign 9. Thus has it pleas'd that ever-watchfull Eye of Providence to connive as it were a while at this Pagan Christianisme as well as he did in former Ages at the ancient Paganisme But assuredly it will be better and all the glorious Predictions of the Prophets concerning Christ even in this World will not end in so tedious a Scene where there is so little good and such a floud of filth and evil But the Spirit of the Lord will blow upon these dry bones and actuate this external forme of Religion with life and power and the scales will fall from her eyes and that load of scurf and ascititious foulness will fall from her skin and her flesh shall be as of a tender child and she shall grow strong healthful and irreprehensibly lovely to look upon When these things come to pass the Divine Life will be in her highest Triumph or exaltation upon earth and this excellent state of the Church will continue for a very considerable time But the wicked shall again assault the just and Christ visibly returning to judgement shall decide the controversy 10. This is the truest and most faithful representation in general so far as my skill in Church-History or Prophecies will reach that I can make of that Interval of time betwixt Christ's powring forth of the Holy Ghost on his Apostles and his coming again to Judgement But because it would be a voluminous business more particularly to make good what I have asserted and that it is not so essential to the present purpose I have in hand I hold it not at all necessary to engage in any operose endeavours of demonstrating the truth of the conclusion I shall rather send him that doubts to satisfie himself in the perusing of the learned writings of that incomparable Interpreter of Prophecies Mr. Ioseph Mede whose proceedings are with that care and caution with that clearness and strictness of reason with that accuracy of judgement and unparallel'd modesty and calmness that the study and enquiry into these matters which had even grown odious and infamous by the wild and ridiculous miscarriages of hot fanatick spirits has in my apprehension gained much credit and repute by the orderly and coherent methods and unexceptionable ratiocinations of this grave and venerable Person Upon whose account I am not ashamed to profess that I think it clear both out of Daniel and the Apocalypse that the Scene of things Christendome will be in due time very much changed and that for the better And because there does nothing so much counterbalance the weight of Mr. Mede's reasons as the autority and lustre of that worthily-admired Name of the learned Hugo Grotius who has interpreted the Revelations to quite another sense the ingenuities and prettinesses of whose expositions had almost imposed upon my self to a belief that there might be some such sense also of the Revelation as he drives at to make all clear I shall take the pains of exhibiting both to the view of the Reader Who I hope will not take it ill that so pious so learned and judicious a person as Mr. Mede and that in a matter to which he may seem to be peculiarly selected and set apart to by God and Nature to which he mainly applied himself with all possible care seriousness and devotion should see further then Hugo Grotius who has an ample harvest of praise from other performances and who by reason of his Political emploiments could not be so entirely vacant to the searching into so abstruse a Mystery CHAP. XV. 1. Grotius his reasons against Days signifying Years in the Prophets propounded and answered 2. Demonstrations that Days do sometimes signifie so many Years 3. Mr. Mede's opinion That a new Systeme of Prophecies from the first Epocha begins Chap. 10. v. 8. cleared and confirmed 4. What is meant by the Three days and an half that the Witnesses lye slain 5. Of the Beast out of the bottomless pit 6. Of the First Resurrection 7. The conclusion of the matter in hand from the evident truth of Mr. Mede's Synchronisms 1. THE strongest Presumption that Grotius has against Mr. Mede's way is his confidence that Days never signifie Years Which if he could make good it would utterly invalidate and make useless the whole frame of Mr. Mede's Apocalyptical Interpretations But he affirms it with all boldness imaginable Dies etiam apud Prophetas dies sunt non anni ut quidam somniant And endeavours to prove it and pretends he has done it very plainly from Daniel 8.14 And he said unto me Unto two thousand and three hundred days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed compared with vers 26. And the Vision of the Evening and the Morning which was told thee is true that is saith he has nothing
Incarnation But the former sense is more plain and passable And for the other place it is nothing but an exhortation to Perseverance from the constancy of the Christian Rulers and Governours who persisted in their Faith to the end and the Apostle tells them hereupon that the Faith is the same still and Christ's assistance the same now that it was then to them and will be ever the same to all true Believers Which surely is all that is meant by Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever For to make yesterday to signifie from everlasting is very rash and cross to the phrase of Scripture Psal. 90. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday and Job 8. For we are but of yesterday and know nothing Which is very true of these new upstart Interpreters 4. But their last and most plausible allegation is that out of the Corinthians Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet know we him so no more Here they think they have full commission to lay aside the Humane person of Christ from the Example of S. Paul But their mistake is in not knowing the Hebrew Idiom of this place of Scripture For as that excellent Interpreter Hugo Grotius has noted the words are to be rendred yea though we might have known Christ after the flesh that is to say Though I with others might have known Christ after the flesh and conversed with him here upon earth nay have been something a-kin to him as certain boasted themselves it seems at Corinth yet henceforth saith he we should know him after this manner no more but as an Heavenly Prince in whom he has the most interest that is the most nearly renewed into the image of his life Or without this Hebraisme It may be an oblique Monition to the aforesaid persons and have rather the nature of an Exhortation to them then of a Declaration concerning himself which they would be more certainly enforced to take to themselves by how much more plain it was that Paul never knew Christ according to the Flesh. That it has some such meaning as this and not that of our Adversaries is plain from the precedent verse where he expresly retains the Humane person of Christ in his Priestly office For that he saith that he is that one man that died for all not killed by all as I noted above that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them and rose again Which is not sense if it be not understood of the Humane person of Christ. And verse 20 he does plainly profess himself the Ambassadour of the crucified Iesus or Legate of the great Angel of the Covenant Now then we are Ambassadours for Christ as if God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Of which there can be no possible meaning that excludes the Humane person of Christ from his Priestly office We have therefore abundantly demonstrated That the Person of our Saviour is not to be laide aside but that he is a Priest for ever according to the Scriptures CHAP. XVI 1. That Hen. Nicolas does plainly in his Writings lay aside the Person of Christ as where he affirms That whatever is taught by the Scripture-learned is false and That all the Matters of the Bible are but Prefigurations of what concerns the Dispensation of his blessed Family 2. Other Citations to the same purpose and his accursed Allegory of Christ's celebrating his Passeover with his disciples whereby he would antiquate and abolish the true Historical knowledge of him 3. Several places where he evidently takes away the Priestly Office of Christ. 4. Others that plainly take away his glorious Return to Iudgement and the Resurrection of the dead in the true and Apostolical sense 1. WE shall now make it as evident that this pretended Prophet we speak of does lay him aside whereby we shall clearly convince the World of his falshood and imposture And this shall be chiefly out of his own Writings Out of which we shall first produce such passages as in a more general manner infer what we aim at As certainly such places doe as expresly declare That whatsoever is taught of Christ out of his Communialty of the Love is all false Whence it does plainly appear That the Articles of the Apostles Creed understood according to the Letter are held false by this inspired Communialty For these Articles are taught by them that are not of Hen. Nicolas his Family In his First Exhortation Chap. 5. he plainly declares That the true Belief in Jesus Christ is not to be found in any people upon Earth that walk without the Communialty of the Love And Chap. 16. Sect. 15 16. he tels us That it is a presumption against God and his Saints that any one out of the Learnedness of the Letter or out of the Imagination of the Knowledge taketh upon him to be a Teacher or Preacher or to institute or intermeddle in any God-service or Worship unless he be an illuminated Elder of the house of the Love And Sect. 17. He does affirm That it is all assuredly false and lies seducing and deceitfull whatever is taught by others out of the Learnedness of the Scripture Again in his Evangely Chap. 32. there also he asserts That to those that are without the Family of Love all the matters of Christianity to them are in Images Figures and Shadows in Similitudes Parables and closed Books Where his meaning is easily understood out of Chap. 30. sect 17. For these Figures he makes Shadows of the true and spiritual things which were heretofore through Iesus Christ come to pass seen heard and preached and have stood for a memorial of the true spiritual things which should in the time to come come to pass namely by this inspired Minister Whereby the History of Christ is made a mere Allegory and prophetick Prefiguration of what is fulfilled in his Dispensation of the Communialty of the Love wherein all becomes fulfilled in Christ whatsoever was written of him as he plainly asserts Chap. 1. sect 10. And he more abundantly declares himself in his Prophecie of the Spirit of Love Chap. 13. That a man out of his natural and Scripture-learned understanding has not any light or knowledge at all of the Christian Mystery yea he is so utterly void of the same that he cannot understand the smallest tittle thereof he may indeed speak out of the written Word but understandeth nothing thereof according to the truth but it is all covered and sealed before him in Similitudes Images Figures and Parables Where again it is easie to infer That this great Prophet holds nothing of the Articles of the Christian Faith to be true in that sense
describe So that according to this Supposition we will of our own accord acknowledge that several and those of the most eminent Prophecies that characterize the Person of Christ did first touch upon some other Person which was but a fainter Resemblance of him But that after this glance they are carried to their main scope they drive at where they pierce and are fixt as an arrow stuck in the mark 3. Now this Reference is of two sorts either a Perfect Allegorie or Mixt. That I call a Perfect Allegorie when all the expressions concerning the Person first spoke of do very well and naturally fit him but may be interpreted and that more exquisitely it may be of some more illustrious Person that comes after Such Allusions as these are used by the Apostles and Evangelists to the great confirmation of our Faith however the Iews are scandalized at it For there can be no other sense of it then this viz. That either these Interpretations which they put upon the Prophets were the known Interpretations of the Iews and therefore very accommodate to perswade the Iews by and it was a sign they were right Interpretations they being made before prejudice had blinded them Or else that these Expositions were their own that is that they arose in their own minds first which was impossible they should they being but Allusions unless the certain knowledge of what hapned to our Saviour Christ had put them upon it So that those allusive Proofs are to us strong Confirmations that the History of the Gospel in those things that seem most incredible is certainly true I will content my self with that one instance though I might alledge many others of Christ's being born of a Virgin Certainly unless they had known that de facto he was so or that their wise men had interpreted that of Isaiah Chap. 7. to that sense it is incredible that they should ever alledge that place for it and they making no use of any other but this which is only allusory it is plain the certainty of the Event was that which cast them upon the Interpretation 4. I call a Mixt Allegorie that which is partly allusoric as being applicable first to some more inferiour Person whether King Prophet or Priest and then to the Messiah and partly simple and express not applicable to any but the Messiah himself the Prophet being so actuated by the Spirit of God that in the sublimity of that divine Heat he is in his sense and expressions reach out further then the Person that is the Type and strike into such Circumstances that are not at all true but in the Antitype And these Predictions of this nature concerning the Messiah are as Demonstrative to those that are not intolerable Cavillers as if the Prophecie had been wholly carried to the Messiah without glancing or touching upon any other Person 5. These things being premised let us return to Isaiah and peruse his whole Prophecie that we may the more accurately judge thereof Chap. 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed 2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him 3. He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not 4. Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed 6. All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgressions of my people was he stricken 9. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence neither was deceit in his mouth 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sinne he shall see his seed he shall prolong his daies and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand 11. He shall see of the travel of his Soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities 12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoile with the strong because he hath poured out his Soul unto death and he was numbred with the transgressours and he bare the sinne of many and made intercession for the transgressours 6. The ancient and wisest of the Iews ever interpreted this Chapter of their Messiah And the later Rabbins being convinced of the clearness of the Prophecie and respecting the Authority of those wise Interpreters before them have been some of them forced to acknowledge two Messiahs the one the Son of Ioseph the other of David The former a suffering Messiah the other victorious and triumphant rather then to deny the evidence of this Prophecie Out of which there is also a special Tradition set down in an ancient Book amongst the Iews which is called Pesikta which further confirms our assertion of their interpreting of it concerning the Sufferings of the Messiah How that the Soul of the Messiah was ordained and did gladly accept the condition to suffer from the beginning of the World The Tradition runs thus That when God created the World he put forth his hand under his Throne of Glory and brought forth the Soul of the Messiah and all his Attendants and said unto him Wilt thou heal and redeem my sons after six thousand years He answered he would God said again unto him Wilt thou undergoe the chastisements to purge away their iniquities according as it written it is the Rabbins own application Certè morbos nostros tulit The Soul of the Messiah answered I will undergoe them and that right gladly 7. This is enough to confirm that it was the Opinion of the ancient and unprejudiced Iews That this Prophecie was meant of their Messiah and as I said there is not any one Prophecie so full of Characteristicals of his Person as this though not all of the like Clearness But I dare say no less then these nine are in some sort or other included in it 1. His being rejected by the Jews 2. And
who is the Truth that makes one free indeed by not admitting or gainsaying these high and divine inventions of theirs concerning God and Christ wherewith they have wrapped him and clothed him though they doe but what Dionysius did to the golden vestments of Iupiter take them off and put on a linsy-wolsy one may well be suspected and accused of Blasphemy and injury to God when it is nothing but a refusal of the groundless Conclusions of rash and inconsiderate men or else worse that of purpose cloth God and Christ and represent him to the people in such a dress as will make most for the countenancing their own Hypocrisie Profit and Interest I will only name one instance of many How has the Roman Clergy forced and rack'd their wits to make good the grand mystery of Transubstantiation whose ordinary Priests must have greater power of working miracles then the Devil could invent to puzzle our Saviour withall For what is the turning a stone into bread in comparison of turning bread into God incarnate And yet a Mass-priest after the uttering of a few formal words of Consecration has brought about the prodigie And he that will be so bold as to call bread but bread and not Christ or God how can he chuse but be thought to blaspheme But yet this Blasphemy is not against the Nature of God or Christ but against the forgery and fictions of men and so indeed is no more Blasphemy then Bread is Christ or mans Phansy the Deity The Rule therefore that Christians are to take notice of here is this There being so much Humour and Interest and Stupour of Education that may begin or continue false conceptions of God if any one professe himself that he cannot conceive such things as some so peremptorily and imperiously obtrude upon his belief that he is not straightway to be accounted a Blasphemer of God it haply being but a dissent only from the conceits of men 5. The second Aspersion cast on our Saviour was That that miraculous good that he did was from the power of Satan not of God And methinks it is not hard to find something parallel to this in some Aspersions cast upon his true members by rash Pharisaical censure Which is this The eximious and exemplary life of good and holy men is many times by those that are more addicted to such a dress or outward platform of Religion consisting of certain Ceremonies and Opinions then to the truth and essence of Religion it self imputed to corrupt natural principles such as Vain-glory and the esteem of the World Political advantage and the like which answers to the Pharisees giving out that Christ cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils So say our modern Pharisees of such as are not of their Sect if those men live never so holily and unblamably in this present evil World exercising Vertue and avoiding Vice that it is not from any Divine Principle in them but from the instigation of Pride the Prince of Vices 6. So in the third place They that affect even more then a Iudaical strictness in the observation of the Sabbath though God knows it is too many times that their consciences may be the more free to work unrighteousness all the week after yet they will take upon them to censure them of no less crime then Prophaneness that observe neither the same measure of Superstition nor Hypocrisie with themselves 7. Fourthly Neutrality and cold Indifferency in publick controversies how can it possibly chuse but seem very abominable to the Pharisee or formal Professour For they knowing no other Religion then what consists in certain dispensable and unnecessary Opinions and Performances when they are shaken and hazarded he that will not engage to the utmost then as if God and true Religion it self were at stake cannot but be deemed very unworthy and detestable Whenas to be but coldly and indifferently affected in things indifferent is in all reason to be esteemed just and good 8. Nor is it a whit strange to hear the Pharisaical Tribe complain of the true regenerate Christian as Unjust whenas the one acts according to an outward Rule or Tradition which was made for the meeting with their own wicked and untamed corruptions malo nodo malus cuneus and which notwithstanding they craftily and perversly make use of by leguleious cavills to the injuring of one another or them that are better then themselves but the true Christian acts and judges according to the living Law of Equity and the Eternal Love of God springing up in his heart 9. Sixthly As for the accusation of Railings and Revilings even a sober and wel-carriaged Christian may well be subject to that calumnie For the Pharisee bearing himself very high in the opinion of his own either Formal or Phantastical righteousness making a shift rather any way to perswade himself he is righteous and religious then by partaking of true Religion and Righteousness indeed he acting therefore according to the nature he really has not according to what he phansies himself to be it cannot but happen that the true Christian endued with the Divine nature and spirit of Righteousness not intending at all to raile or revile but using the most easie and unaffected propriety of words calling a Spade a Spade as the Proverb is doing but so as Adam did in innocency giving the creatures names according to their natures it cannot but happen I say that the Actions and Persons being foully bad of such as notwithstanding be in their own conceit as good as any when they be called by what names express the truth of their natures and no more that yet they will presently judge the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Railer and Reviler 10. Now for tumultuary Zeal I must confess that Pharisaical Hypocrisie is such an abominable provoking thing in the sight of all the Sons of God that it can scarce fail scorching and heating their tender and lively spirits no more then a natural flame can fail to swinge and pain our natural flesh which none of us can suffer with such patience but we are ready to testifie our sensibleness both by gestures actions and words Besides that in a moderate and well-guided zeal against the Pharisaical Interest all being so rotten there so sore and patched over with pitiful plaisters the least Action or Opposition will make them cry out even afore they be hurt being conscious to themselves how unsound and unable they are to abide the least measure of rough handling So that the least vigour of Opposition in good earnest against their hypocritical and unwarrantable waies will by them be deemed but bitter and tumultuous Zeal Eighthly The just and seasonable bemoanings of the dear servants of God and fellow-members of Christ when Nature is very much oppressed with adversity or torment are not to be judged rashly the Symptomes of Impatience or Despair For the expressing of the sense of ones Misery is no Vice since the suppressing
the Earth and Air when once that Final Vengeance has seised upon the Wicked 5. This is the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord and the Morning-Appearance thereof will not be much more chearful to either the Hypocrite or Prophane person For the hopes of the Hypocrite cannot but fail and his heart sink like a stone while he sees the righteous Judge that tries the heart and reins coming in the clouds of Heaven to execute vengeance on the wicked and to deliver the godly from that imminent fate that attends the Earth And the proud scoffing Epicurean that laugh'd at Religion as a piece of weakness and foolery and impudently denied there was either God or Providence in the world he will then to his utter shame and confusion acknowledge his own Philosophy which he thought such an high piece of wit before the most unhappy Folly and Madnesse he could have light upon For he shall be confuted to his very outward Senses when he shall see Christ himself appear with all his Heavenly Host attending him when he shall hear the sound of the Trump and see forthwith the whole Air filled with his glittering Legions consisting of Saints and Angels For the Trump shall sound saith the Apostle and then those that have already departed this life shall immediatly appear in their celestial Harness in their glorified bodies For those that are alive shall not prevent those that are dead but rather the contrary For those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and harness them with the bright Armour of Life and Immortality whereby they become part of that glorious Angelical Host wherewith our dread Soveraign and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ will face the Earth a while to the exceeding great astonishment and terrour os the wicked World 6. Out of which by the Ministry of his Angelical Troops will he gather his Saints that are found alive in the flesh from all the corners of the Earth as the Angels plucked Lot out of Sodom when the City was to be destroyed with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven a Type questionless of this Final Judgement And whether it be by the quick descent of fiery Chariots like that of Elias who was safely thereby conveighed to Heaven and about a thousand years after conversed with our Saviour on the Mount or bright shining clouds glistering with the glory and lustre of their celestial guides be made foot-stools for them to get up on for there is no fear that the weight of their Bodies should break through their Earth and Flesh being of a sudden changed into pure Aether or whatever other pomp and solemnity there may be in their transportation from the rest of the World unto that glorious Company that strikes all mens eyes with amazement while they look up into the sky This visible Selection of the Good from the Bad must needs fill the hearts of the Wicked with unspeakable Dread and Horrour And that partly by reason of the present wonders of this unexpected supernatural Visitation which thus suddenly has surprised them through unbelief and partly from the sad presage of what will follow even that horrid and dismal Tempest which we have already described that endless Night of Thunders and Lightnings and Earthquakes of roarings and howlings and utter confusion and destruction for ever 7. Which direful vengeance having once entred upon that execrable crue forsaken of God and given up to the merciless Rage of the incensed Elements the victorious Church of Christ retreats with the rest of the Angelical Hosts marching up the Ethereal Regions in goodly Order and lovely Equipage filling as they go along the re-echoing sky with Songs of Joy and Triumph For this is the greatest day of Solemnity the highest Festival that can be celebrated in the Heavens whose Inhabitants if they rejoice at the conversion of one sinner what Joy and Rejoicing must they express at the complete Redemption of the whole Church when Jesus Christ the Prince of our Salvation who is able to save to the utmost has perfectly redeemed us body and soul and leading Captivity captive rescuing us from the power of Hell Death and the Devil does resettle us again in our own Land and reestablish us into the ancient Liberties of the Sons of God making us fellow-citizens with the pure and unpolluted Angels and free Partakers of all the Rights and Immunities of the celestial Kingdom even of that Kingdom where there is Order and Government without Envy and Oppression Devotion without Superstition Beauty without Blemish Love without Lust Sweetness without Satiety where there is outward Splendidness without Pride Musick without Harshness Friendship without Designe Wisedom without Wrinkles and Wit without Vain-glory where there is Kindnesse without Craft Activity without Weariness Health without Sickness and Pleasure without Pain and lastly where there is the Vision of God the Society of Christ the Familiarity of Angels and Communion of Saints where there is Love and Joy and Peace and Life for evermore Upon the consideration of which ineffable Happiness what inference can be more genuine then what S. Paul has made already on the same Subject Wherefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. CHAP. XIX 1. That there can be no Religion more powerful for the promoting of the Divine Life then Christianity is 2. The external Triumph of the Divine Life in the person of Christ how throughly warranted and how fully performed 3. The Religious Splendour of Christendom 4. The Spirit of Religion stifled with the load of Formalities 5. The satisfaction that the faithfully-devoted Servants of Christ have from that Divine homage done to his Person though by the wicked 1. I Have now sufficiently exposed to your view the Nature and Use of this seven-fold Engine these Seven Powers of the Gospel how potent they are to beat down every strong hold of sin and to raise up the Divine Life and Spirit of Righteousness in us That they have done so little execution in Christendom hitherto that disquisition I shall deferre till its due place In the mean time I appeal to all the World if there can be invented a Religion more powerful for this purpose then the Christian Religion is 2. But for the external Triumphs of the Divine Life in reference to the Person of Christ the Usefulness of our Religion in that point is demonstrable not only from the Frame thereof in it self but from the long and constant Effects it has had in the Christian World For as for the Frame of our Religion we have therein a full warrant to do the highest Divine homage to Christ that we can express He being so clearly therein declared The true Son of God not only by several Testimonies from Heaven but also by that supernatural manner of his generation in the womb of the Virgin by the overshadowing of the Holy
in it but what they themselves have bestowed upon it For every Substance is of it self an Individual Substance and Universals but a Logical notion arising from our comparing of Substances of like nature together Neither is there any Substance but by due preparatory modifications may be capable of being united with some other Individual Substance and these Two Individual Substances become One whole Substance Which yet are not so One as that they cease to be Two Numerical Substances because they arâ—â—o otherwise said to be One I am sure are no otherwise One then by the apt Union of one with another Which yet hinders not but that they are still and if they are they are Two namely my Soul and Body are still this Individual Soul and this Individual Body though they be as they term it Hypostatically united For it onely implies conjunction not confusion of Substances nor any losse of the Individuality of the Substances thus conjoined For there is no Substance conjoinable with another but remains this Individual Substance even for that very reason because it is a Substance every Substance being of it self Individual as I have already said and yet conjoinable with another Substance whence it is plain that the Scholastick notion of Suppositum is a mere foolery 6. Out of which we may easily understand how that the Humanity of Christ and the Eternal Word may be Hypostatically united without any contradiction to humane Reason unsophisticated with the fopperies of the Schools and both their Hypostases remain still entire Of which I will exhibite this as a more sensible representation Suppose a vast Globe made all of solid Gold saving one very small section which we will suppose of Silver This individual Gold and this individual Silver remaining still this individual Gold and Silver make up one entire Globe which is not an entire Globe without either So in Christ made up as I may so speak of the Second Hypostasis of the Trinity and of that humane Person that conversed at Jerusalem He is that individual Silver and the other that individual Gold and both these together One Christ the sphere of whose Divinity filling all things and being every where at hand cannot but be a warrantable Object of our Praiers and Invocations as the passive Humanity of Christ the prop of our Faith and confidence by his bitter Passion and Intercession 7. What Superstition therefore can there be or least suspicion of Idolatry when we pray unto Christ if we do but think of him to whom we pray For the Eternal Godhead does so outshine every thing in this Object of Devotion that our minde is in a manner wholly transported into God though with a due reflexion of honour upon the Person of our Saviour in virtue of whose Death and Intercession we make our addresses Which Truth might also passe with the Jew without any scruple at all if he do but call to minde with what devout Humility their fore-fathers have adored the presence of Angels To whom in their Law Iehovah the most holy name of God is also attributed And if an Angel that sustains the Person of God onely by way of Embassy has this divine honour how much more then is due to Christ who is Iehovah not onely by Title and external Function but by real Union with the Eternal Son of God Which the Platonists in their Triad also call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same in Greek that Iehovah is in Hebrew 8. Or if they could imagine that there was so extraordinary a kind of Union of these Angels with God where so high a name is attributed to them as being in such an universalizing Rapture that they had lost the sense of their own Personalities and were wholly actuated by God who used them as fully and commandingly as our Soul does our Bodies yet this may fall short in a two-fold respect of that Union which is betwixt the Humanity of Christ the Eternal Word For first it may not be of the same kinde but differs as much it may be as the union of a Spirit with a dead Corps does from the union of the Soul of Man in an healthful body Or if it could be admitted that there was some Principle excited and awaked or some way inserted into the Essence of an Angel whereby he might have real and vital union with God yet it being but temporary it is not to be compared with this lasting and durable union in the Messias Nor does the visible presence of the Angel warrant Divine worship more to him then to Christ. For Christ according to his higher and more adorable nature is every where present 9. I conclude therefore that the Divinity of Christ is not at all repugnant to Reason I mean his Real and Physical union as I may so call it with the Eternal Word For being that it was this VVord or Eternal VVisdome whereby God made all things it is very decorous and congruous that that great Instrument of the restoring so choice a piece of his Creation as Man is should be united particularly to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Eternal VVord Nor is it unconceivable how he may be united particularly and immediately to this Hypostasis and not the other two from what we observe in Nature For even the Faculties of the Soul residing in the same part of the Soul according as the part of the Body is tempered or modified one Faculty may exert it self in the part and another be silent and take no hold thereon And further it is evident that though the Holy Spirit of God and the Spirit of Nature be every where present in the World and lie in the very same points of space yet their actions applications or engagings with things are very distinct For the Spirit of Nature takes hold only of Matter remanding grosse bodies towards the centre of the Earth shaping Vegetables into all that various beauty we finde in them but does not act at all on our Souls or Spirits with divine illumination no more then the Holy Spirit meddles with remanding of Stones downwards or tumbling broken tiles off from an house Which things rightly considered and improved make this Mystery intelligible enough for those that are fit for such Speculations So that I need adde nothing more having already proceeded further then I intended in zeal against the fraud of some and indiscretion of others who so confidently maintain That some main Points in Christian Religion are not onely obscure which I willingly acknowledge and that thereby our Religion is the more Venerable but also repugnant to Reason which I utterly deny and shall in its due place shew the sad inconvenience of so rash an Assertion CHAP. III. 1. That the Communicableness of Christian Religion implies its Reasonableness 2. The right Method of communicating the Christian Mystery 3 4. A brief example of that Method 5. A further continuation thereof 6. How the Mystagogus is to behave himself towards
are utterly involuntary and unavoidable as we suppose this false persuasion is and all the effects of it 5. Nor does God do any thing unworthy of himself in introducing such an invincible or unavoidable perswasion though it be false For to cause another to think that which is not true is not simply evil in it self Otherwise it were unlawful to fence and to use ordinary stratagems of warre wherein the Enemy endeavours to deceive each other which is not done but by bringing them into a false belief And we are the worst kinde of Enemies against God being Rebels and Apostates from him And therefore though he needs insinuate no mistakes into us by way of stratagem yet he may fix upon us the belief of such things as are false by way of punishment and though he command homage from us as his Subjects yet he may do it with several badges of disgrace as some offended Prince might command a Rebel for a time to wear some sordid token of his Rebellion upon his outward garments whenever he went abroad or an incensed High Priest for Penance adjudge some offender to do his devotions alwaies in some dark pit or dungeon in stead of a convenient closet or well-adorned Church Which things though they be but ugly in themselves yet they being part of that duty they are tied up to by them that ought to command they are free from the molestations of others that are inferiour to that Power that commanded them nor are these Offenders the one to be drag'd into the Church to do his devotions there nor is any one to pull off by violence from the other the badge of dishonour that he is commanded to wear Now the dishonourable badges of the Soul are those grosse Errours and Ignorances with which God may justly be deemed by way of reproach and punishment to command those to worship him that are convinced so to do nor know yet any thing better And the dark pit may be any blinde dispensation which Divine Providence has adjudged men to till their conviction to the contrary For Conviction is the immediate Command of God in the Conscience as I have often repeated 6. And as God by way of Punishment may introduce a false perswasion into the Minde of man so also by way of Probation For if to introduce a false perswasion in it self be not simply evil how can it be evil when used for a good End and by an unerring Wisedom and from an infinite Goodness Which powers if we were invested with none could make any controversie of it but that we might also take the liberty to do so too And people hold it ordinarily very pardonable if not allowable to impose upon children and sick persons by false stories for their health and to save the spilling of innocent bloud by concealing the pursued from the knowledge of him that would murther him Nay in smaller exigencies as in the trial of a servants trust no man would be much offended if one made his servant believe he trusted him further then he did either to encourage his faithfulness or to detect his fraud as if he should in his presence put up into a box some false Jewels that made a great show but of small value and should commit them unto his servants custody carefully sealed up as a most precious Treasure thereby to try if he will run away with them adding thereunto a sealed bag of Counters with an old inscription of so much in Gold Such a Trial as this which implies an introducing of a false opinion into the minde of the servant few or none would hold culpable in his cautious Master What injustice therefore can it be in God if he try the Souls of men first in a false Religion perswading them that it is true and thereby commanding the practice thereof since by this means their faithfulness is discovered whether they will be sincere when that is committed to them which is wholly true indeed 7. It is plain therefore that some falsehoods in a Religion which has so much Truth in it as to engage a man in the exercise thereof in hope of Eternal life doe not hinder but that this whole Religion that obliges the Conscience is the command of God to them whose Conscience it does oblige and therefore that they are free from the commands of any external power if some other things of another nature do not make them forfeit their liberty For the simple falsities in Religion are not enough that is are not sufficient to detect that such a Religion is not commanded to such and such persons by God himself who thought good to try Abraham's Faith by that false perswasion that he was actually to sacrifice his son to him whenas God intended no such matter Which Example does prove that God has not only a power but has put also into act this right that he has of causing men to think otherwise then what is really true But what is that to thee they must stand or fall to their own Master nor hast thou any power to countermand them till they have a countermand from God by clear conviction that the way they are in is false For then onely ceases it to be the Command of God to them 8. But if thou wilt be so humour some for all this as to deny that such a Conviction of Conscience so stated as I have stated it is the real command of God in every particular namely in the apprehensions which are false yet though this were admitted it will notwithstanding be evident that it is a piece of Rudeness and Barbarity to incommodate a person thus perswaded for the profession of his Religion For first his speaking and acting according to the unavoidable perswasions of his minde is not a sin it arising according to our hypothesis out of invincible Ignorance nor is he supposed to act any thing against the known laws of Nature and therefore no just right of any one is endamaged but in the mean time the Soveraignty of the Godhead is fully acknowledged and the Loyalty and Sincerity of the Religionist exercised therein Wherefore what reason can there be that any one for so good an action that is not exceptionable for any thing that is properly sinful should be rudely treated punished or any way disturbed or hindred For whosoever endeavours his forcible hindrance does not only suppress an innocent and laudable action but he does necessarily perpetrate a foul and sinful one For such is the solicitation of others to the omission of that duty of Loyalty our own Conscience tels us we owe to God Wherefore he that hinders the sincere Religionist from the Profession of his Religion tempts him to a sin against God which no Powers in the World have a right to do but are ipso facto guilty of rebellion against their Maker by corrupting his liege Subjects and urging them to faithlesness and neglect of their duty How culpable are they then in forcing
Nature 7. The fourth Gospel-Power The Example of Christ. 8. His purpose of vindicating the Example of Christ from aspersions with the reasons thereof 408 CHAP. XIII 1. That Christ was no Blasphemer in declaring himself to be the Son of God 2. Nor Conjurer in casting out Devils 3. That he was unjustly accused of Prophaneness 4. That there was nothing detestable in his Neutrality toward Political Factions 5. Nor any Injustice nor Partiality found in him 6. Nor could his sharp Rebukes of the Pharisâ—es be rightly termed Railing 7. Nor his whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple tumultâ—ary Zeal 8. Nor his crying out so dreadfully in his Passion be imputed to Impatience or Despair 9. The suspicion of Distractedness and Madness cleared 10. His vindication from their aspersions of Looseness and Prodigality 11. The câ—oâ—ked and perverse nature of the Pharisees noted with our Saviours own Apology for his frequenting all companies 12. That Christ was no Self-seeker in undergoing the Death of the Cross for that joy that was set before him 412 CHAP. XIV 1. The reason of his having insisted so long on the vindicating of the Life of Christ from the aspersions of the Malevolent 2. The true Character of a real Christian. 3. The true Character of a false or Pharisaical Christian. 4. How easily the true members of Christ are accused of Blasphemy by the Pharisaical Christians 5. And the working of their Graces imputed to some vicious Principle 6. Their censuring them prophane that are not superstitious 7. The Parisees great dislike of coldness in fruitless Controversies of Religion 8. Their Ignorance of the law of Equity and Love 9. How prone it is for the sincere Christian to be accounted a Railer for speaking the truth 10. That the least Opposition against Pharisaical Rottenness will easily be interpreted bitter and tumultuous Zeal 11. How the solid Knowledge of the perfectest Christians may be accounted Madness by the formal Pharisee 12. his Proneness to judge the true Christian according to the motions of his own untamed corruptions 13. His prudent choice of the vice of Covetousness 14. The Unreasonableness of his censure of those that endeavour after Perfection 15. His ignorant surmise that no man liveth vertuously for the love of Vertue it self 16. The Usefulness of this Parallelisme betwixt the Reproach of Christ and his true Members 422 CHAP. XV. 1. The Passion of Christ the fifth Gospel-Power the Virtue whereof is in a special manner noted by our Saviour himself 2. That the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness was a prophetick Type of Christ and cured not by Art but by Divine Power 3. That Telesmatical Preparations are superstitious manifest out of their Collections that write of them 4. Particularly out of Gaffarel and Gregory 5. That the Effects of Telesmes are beyond the laws of Nature 6. That if there be any natural power in Telesmes it is from Similitude with a confutation of this ground also 7. A further confutation of that ground 8. In what sense the Brazâ—n Serpent was a Telesme and that it must needs be a Typical Prophecie of Christ. 9. The accurate and punctual Prefiguration therein 10. The wicked Pride and Conceitedness of those that are not touched with this admirable contrivance of Divine Providence 11. The insufferable balsphemy of them that reproach the Son of God for crying out in his dreadful Agony on the Cross wherein is discovered the Unloveliness of the Family of Love 429 CHAP. XVI 1. The End of Christs Sufferings not onely to pacifie Conscience but to root out Sin witnessed out of the Scripture 2. Further Testimonies to the same purpose 3. The Faintness and Uselesness of the Allegory of Chrâ—sts Passion in comparison of the Application of the History thereof 4 The Application of Christs Sufferings against Pride and Covetousness 5. As also against Envy Hâ—â—red Revenge vain Mirth the Pangs of Deaâ—h and unwarrantable Love 6. A General Application of the Death of Christ to the mortifying of all Sin whatsoever 7. The celebrating the Lords Supper the use and meaning thereof 436 CHAP. XVII 1. The sixth Gospel-Power is the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. The priviledge of this Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality above that from the Subtilty of Reason and Philosophy 2. The great power this consideration of the Soul's Immortality has to urge men to a Godly life 3. To â—ean themselves from worldly pleasures and learn to delight in those that are everlasting 4. To have our Conversation in Heaven 5. The Conditions of the Everlasting Inheritance 6. Further enforcements of duty from the Soul's Immortality 440 CHAP. XVIII 1. The Day of Judgement the seventh and last Gospel-power fit as well for the regenerate as the unregenerate to think upon 2. The Uncertainty of that Day and that it will surprize the wicked unawares 3. That those that wilfully reject the offers of Grace here shall be in no better condition after Death then the Devils themselves are 4. A Description of the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord. 5. The Affrightment of the Morning-appearance thereof to the wicked 6. A further Description thereof 7. The Translation of the Church of Christ to their Aethereal Mansions with a brief Description of their Heavenly Happiness 443 CHAP. XIX 1. That there can be no Religion more powerful for the promoting of the Divine Life then Christianity is 2. The external Triumph of the Divine Life in the person of Christ how throughly warranted and how fully performed 3. The Religious Splendour of Christendome 4. The Spirit of Religion stifled with the load of Formalities 5. The satisfaction that the faithfully-devoted Servants of Christ have from that Divine homage done to his Person though by the wicked 447 CHAP. XX. 1. The Usefulness of Christianity for the good of this life witnessed by our Saviour and S. Paul 2. The proof thereof from the Nature of the thing it self 3. Objections against Christianity as if it were an unfit Religion for States Politick 4. A Concession that the primary intention of the Gospel was not Government Political with the advantage of that Concession 5. That there is nothing in Christianity but what is highly advantageous to a State-Politick 6. That those very things they object against it are such as do most effectually reach the chief end of Political Government as doth Charity for example 7. Humility Patience and Mortification of inordinate desires 8. The invincible Valour that the love of Christ and their fellow-members inspires the Christian Souldiery withall 449 BOOK IX CHAP. I. THe four Derivative Properties of the Mystery of Godliness 2. That a measure of Obscurity begets Veneration suggested from our very senses 3. Confirmed also by the common suffrage of all Religions and the nature of Reservedness amongst men 4. The rudeness and ignorance of those that expect that every Divine Truth of Scripture should be a comprehensible Object of their understanding even in the very modes and