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 1. AND thus you have seen Christ vindicated from all those several Suspicions and Aspersions laid upon him by malicious and ignorant men whereby they would represent him as not possessed of nor acting from so Noble and Divine a Principle of Righteousness as he himself profest and his Followers have ever witnessed of him In which I confess I have been something more large then might have been expected in pleading the cause of a Person so perfectly pure and innocent But I considering our Saviour Christ not so much in himself as in his members I mean his true members who have one common Spirit with him and how they are liable to the same accusations and misconstructions of spightfull and inconsiderate men that himself was in the flesh I thought it fit more fully to insist upon the clearing and well and rightly interpreting of all the Carriages of Christ that thereby those that call themselves his members may know better how to interpret one another or if they be not so themselves that they may however learn not to judge rashly and inconsiderately of them that are and walk indeed as he walked And that my foregoing pains may be the more effectual to this purpose I shall not stick to second them so far as to shew how men ordinarily cast the same or the like soil and dirt upon the truest members of Christ that they did upon Christ himself 2. And that you may take in this with the more evidence give me leave to prefix in your mind the right Image of a true Christian or living member of Christ. And such an one is he who is a branch of the same Vine has derived into him the same sap and Life partakes of one and the same Divine spirit with Christ the fruit whereof is to love God with all a mans heart and with all his Soul and his neighbour as himself and to doe so to others as he himself would be done to And that I may not name that only which seems nothing in too many mens eyes I add also To know and acknowledge the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent And surely whosoever has this in its due measure and vigour of life is conscious to himself and finds the sweet of so great and glorious an accomplishment of Mind that whatever the Wit or Humour of man can add to it will seem of little more value then dust and straws we tread under our feet 3. And now I have told you what a true and living Member of Christ is let me also tell you what a false or titular or Pharisaical Christian is And he is this One that has not the Divine Sap or Spirit derived to him as being and growing in and becoming one with the true Vine Christ Jesus and is not possess'd nor is sensible of that Sufficiency Joy and Satisfaction that is in the inward Life of Christ and the Spirit of Righteousness and eternal and undispensable Truth of God But being dead to what is most necessary pretious and saving in Christianity and only alive or mainly to the Spirit of the world loves himself with all his heart and all his soul and God and his Neighbour only for his own sake or rather uses and rides his Neighbour having haltered him or obliged him with some prudentially and judiciously-bestowed courtesies and worships God rather then loves him nè noceat beseeching him that upon a special Dispensation though he be no better then others nor ever intends nor hopes to be better yet that it may be better with him in the end then with other folk Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his Or it may be what is little better then that in stead of the living Righteousness of Christ he will magnifie himself in some humorous pieces of Holiness of his own For he imagines there is a God and that it is safe to make a friend of him one way or other and therefore that his conscience may be the better excused from those things that are more weighty and substantial he will take up things according to his own humour and phansie as fasting twice in the week making long prayers hearing long sermons sticking curiously to some unnecessary uncertain and fruitless opinions concerning God and Religion such as are warrantable neither out of Scripture nor Reason and growing very hot and zealous in the agitation of these things though to the Disturbance of the Church of God and Injury of his Neighbour yet these trinkets and trumperies of his own humour and complexion this Heat this Noise this Zeal these are the Altar Fire and Holocaust wherewith he sacrifices to God and presents himself an Oblationer before the Almighty And all this to be excused from that which is the very End of all Religion and Worship that is the sacrificing of our own corrupt life and acquiring that prize that is set before us the holy Spirit of Righteousness Equity and Purity whose moderation and guidance is the Light of the world and the Life of man 4. And having thus though but loosely and rudely scattered the delineaments of these two opposite professours of Christianity the true Christian and Pharisaical Humorist I shall from hence as from the Cause and Original derive evidence and light to what I shall now propose to you by way of Parallelisme betwixt what our Saviour in his own person suffered of false Accusations and Aspersions and what his true and living Members are obnoxious to from that Spirit of Pharisaisme that has ever and does to this very day rule still in the world And first of the first Accusation that was laid to our Saviours charge viz. Blasphemy He hath spoken Blasphemy Matth. 26. It is apparent the Pharisaical nature being desirous to be excused from destroying and bringing to nothing in ones self all haughty and ambitious Designes Self-seeking Covetousness and Intemperance doth easily endeavour to make amends for this and to pacifie the conscience and approve ones self to God by laying out all our parts in spinning excellent high Subtilties and amazing Mysteries from any hints taken in Scripture and in adorning the nature of God and Religion according to the garishness of a mans own natural Phansie and Nicety of Wit Whence it may come to pass that these Traditionary Pharisees having made it their business to rack their natural unregenerate minds to find some magnificent conceptions as they imagine them to bestow upon the Deity that one freed by Christ
then by any other way conceivable For those words of so great sound and of no less import namely the Millennium the Reign of the Saints the New Jerusalem and the like to them that are not very wild or ignorant can signifie nothing else but the recovery of the Church to her ancient Apostolick purity wherein nothing shall be imperiously obtruded upon men but what is plainly discoverable to be the Mind of Christ and his Blessed Apostles There shall be nothing held Essential and Fundamental but the indispensable Law of the Christian life and that Doctrine that depends not upon the fallible deductions of men but is plainly set down in the Scripture other things being left to the free recommendation of the Church ensnaring no mans Conscience nor lording it over the flock of Christ. 14. Which certainly they do that call those things Antichristian that are not and thereby make more Fundamentals then Christ or his Apostles which Errour is the very Essence and Substance of Antichristianisme and of the grand Apostasy of the Church As methinks should appear plainly to any man that considers it from the description of the New Jerusalem whose Foundation and whole Fabrick runs so upon Twelve For truly it seems to me very unsafe and over-near the brinks of reproach to the Spirit of God to conceit that Wisdome which dictated this Prophecy so shallow and trifling as to mean nothing by that so industriously inculcating the number Twelve but the Churches proceeding first from the preaching of the Apostles a Truth that no man never so destitute of the spirit of divination could misse of or possibly think otherwise Wherefore the meaning of the Prophecy questionless is That after the Church has added false Fundamentals to the Christian Faith and as bad Superstructures the time will come when it shall be again restored to its former purity and That as the root Twelve is the Embleme of the pure Church so there is also a root of a number that will discover that Church which is the Mother of this great Apostasy as really in my judgement Mr. Potter in the number 666. has ingeniously demonstrated But it is manifest that all the zealous Corrivals for the Government of this Nation by either decrying things for Antichristian that in themselves are innocent and of an indifferent nature or by obtruding Opinions that are worse then indifferent have but shewed themselves Branches of that great Stock of Apostasy and are too far removed from the reputed merit of either being or beginning of a Church that is purely Apostolical 15. This Honour therefore seems to have been reserved by Providence for the eternizing the happy Reign of our Gracious Soveraign and all the parturient Agonies and zealous presages of the people of this Nation as if there was an approach of some extraordinary Good to be revealed suddenly to the World to have been nothing else if they knew their own meaning but a less explicite presensation of the return of CHARLES the Second to the rightfull Government of his Kingdomes And truely it will be the greatest Miracle to me in the world if he can frustrate our expectation For whether we consider the excellent Qualifications of our Gracious Prince whom Providence has so long time disciplined in the most effectual method of Prudence and Vertue besides the express Declaration of His own Royal inclinations this way or whether we look upon the Reasonableness of the thing it self it being not onely recommended to us both by Precept and Prophecies but also offering so irrefragable evidence from its own nature of the indispensableness of the duty there being no other possible means to reduce the World to a right Christian tenour of Spirit and to recover it to a due strength and soundness of complexion but by shearing off those large excrescencies of either useless or scandalous Ceremonies and Opinions the foments of strife and palliations of Hypocrisy men seeking by these to be excused from the most weighty Precepts of the Gospel or lastly we take notice of the great Interest the wise and reverend Clergy of this Nation cannot but discover herein even in reference to themselves it is almost impossible to doubt of either endeavour or success in this so important affair For certainly nothing can so well secure their peace and make them impregnable as the using of their Power and exercising their Discipline in the behalf of such Truths and Rites as are plainly and confessedly Apostolical and the being more facil and easie in additional circumstances and cutting quite off all useless and entangling Opinions For hereby will their Opposers be manifestly found to fight against God and his Christ while they contest with his Ministers who urge nothing upon the People but what was plainly taught and practised by himself and his Apostles whose Waies and Doctrines are so sacred that they ought to be kept up with all lawful severity Which one plain and generous Rule of Government if faithfully kept to is the most effectual means imaginable of making the world good and for both the Unity and Enlargement of the Church infinitely above all those many fine artifices and small devices of the most professed Politicians in the Church of Rome provided we be not course and sordid but reverent and comely in our publick Worship 16. But to return In the third and last place Although the exigency of the Times which then urged me to write thus carefully touching the Quakers and Familists is now God be thanked changed into a more safe Scene of things and the resettlement of our Gracious Soveraign in his Throne doth again secure the Scepter of Christ to his Church yet I thought it fit not to exâ—unge what I had wrote concerning these Sects For for the present It cannot but contribute considerably to an unfained composure of their Spirits and peaceful acquiescence in the known Christian Truth their minds being more at leisure now better fitted to consider what is true then they were before when the heat of Enthusiastick hopes of I know not what great success inflamed them and blew them up so high that the voice of sober Reason could not well be heard in that fanatick storm and Bluster nor an Errour easily let go which seemed a pledge of the sudden approach of so great advantages to the entertainers of it And then for the future So fundamental a discovery of the unsoundness and madness of these Sects cannot I think but be very effectual for the preventing their spreading hereafter that it will not be any longer in the power of their false Teachers to befool well-meaning men with fine words and make them unawares countenance a Faction the deepest Arcanum whereof is absolute rebellion against the Person of Christ and an utter abrogation of Christian Religion Which task though others heretofore have undertaken and I question not but with like faithful and zealous regard to the good of the Church yet their discovery
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
are infinite swarms of Atheistical Spirits as well Aereal as Terrestrial belonging to the Kingdom of Darkness that either absolutely deny God or at least particular Providence and look upon the Divine life as a tedious and troublesome phansie and destitute of all future reward and if there be any present contentment in it they reckon it amongst such as accrews to men mad and distracted whose Imagination makes them many a fools Paradise to please themselves in and so say they does this Religious Lunacy to them that are tainted with it it having neither any real Object nor solid fruits but what a beguiled Phansy mocks their superstitious minds withall And though these Rebels may be well enough seen in the knowledge of Nature and Mathematical subtilties as also in all manner of Craft and State-policy yet their desires being so fully lulled asleep to all Divine things they can neither excogitate ought themselves nor allow of any Reasons from others whereby they might be brought off from that state of Darkness and Rebellion they are in to the true worship of the living God Nay it is probable they are obdurated to that height of boldness that they think themselves able to grapple with the Powers of the Kingdom of Light and that Superiority was theirs of old and is yet their due and may come into their hands again and that their Chieftain is the elder brother though cast thus low by the envy of the yonger which was the wilde conceit of the Euchites Ophites or Satanians CHAP. VI 1. His Tenth Assertion That there will be a finall Overthrow of the Dark Kingdome and that in a supernatural manner and upon their external persons 2. The Eleventh That the Generations of men had a beginning and will also have an end 3. To which also the Conflagration of the world gives witness 1. NOW in the Tenth place it is very uncouth and unusual that so resolved and unreconcileable opposition as there is betwixt the Two Kingdomes we speak of should not end at last in some signal overthrow with Victory on the one part or other But besides the undeniable right and justness of the cause which the Powers of the Kingdome of Light contend for will not onely procure of Him that fits Judge an End to their toyle and conflict but they will certainly carry it on their side and that not onely in a still Mystical Allegorical sense which these Atheistical Spirits will have no sense at all of nor any perception for they will resolve all into Nature Policy and good Fortune it may be into some more then ordinary influence of the Starres that begin to set a golden Age on foot again so little would a Reign of righteous men upon Earth convince the obdurately wicked but by a powerful Miraculous appearance whereby they shall be confounded in their outward Senses there being nothing else left for Divine Providence to work upon the Divine life and touch of Conscience being utterly lost in them and their Reason being perfectly lulled asleep to whatsoever concerns the true Knowledge of God and duties of Religion 2. Eleventhly The Generations of men had a beginning and will also have an end That they had a beginning is the general consent of all Philosophers Poets and Historians The Aristoteleans indeed dissent but upon such weak grounds that it is not worth the while to confute them But Cartesius his Philosophy is so favourable to this Opinion that necessarily it inferrs it Besides the History of Nature seems to confess it in that the Earth cannot bring forth such perfect Animals as she did at first as Lucretius has noted Lib. 2. de Rerum Natura Iamque adeo fracta est Aetas effoetaque Tellus Vix animalia parva creat quae cuncta creavit Secla deditque ferarum ingentia corpora partu The Earth who of her self at first brought forth Huge lusty men of Stature big and bold And large-limb'd beasts she grown effete and old Hardly bears small ones now and little worth Which as it must needs be an infallible sign of her Age so it is also of her once being young and having a beginning 3. Now besides that Axiom in Philosophy That what has a beginning will also have an end That Generation shall at last cease upon the face of the earth that ancient fame of the Conflagration of the world gives further witness to Of which direfull fate the Sibylls have sung long since and Pythagoras and Heraclitus given Testimony whom Ovid also has followed And the Stoicks men slow enough to believe great things upon slight grounds have taken it into their Philosophy adding also that the Souls of men subsist till then but that at the last they are extinguished in this Final Conflagration Others phansy a more benigne use of this Fire that it shall purge and fertilize the Earth and prepare it for a more happy Habitation as if the Divine Nemesis had a kinde design for the whole when she seems so cruelly severe to some part of the Creatures and that she did in this not onely an act of Iustice but of skilfull Husbandry burning up the barren ground with all the vermine therein to make the Field the more fruitfull according to that of Virgil in his Georgicks Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros Atque levem stipulam crepitantibus urere flammis Sive inde occultas vires ac pabula terrae Pinguia concipiunt sive illis omne per ignem Excoquitur vitium atque exudat inutilis humor The fruitless field with its dry standing straw 'T is fit sometimes to burn with crackling fire For whether hence the Earth hid virtue draw And oyly moisture or she doth perspire And sweat out all corruption by this Law The bettered soil answers the swain's desire But God forbid that any mortall man should be so bold and unwise as to profess he understands so profound a Mystery of Providence All that I aime at is this That it is not onely the Opinion of Christians but of ancient Heathens and Jews that the Earth at length will be all set on fire and that there will be a period put to this present stage of things which I shall make a solid use of in the behalf of our Religion against them both CHAP. VII 1. His Twelfth Assertion That there will be a Visible and Supernatural deliverance of the Children of the Kingdome of Light at the Conflagration of the World 2. The Reason of the Assertion 3. His Thirteenth Assertion That the last vengeance and deliverance shall be so contrived as may be best fit for the Triumph of the Divine life over the Animal life 4. Whence it is most reasonable the Chieftain of the Kingdome of Light should be rather an Humane Soul then an Angel 5. His last Assertion an Inference from the former and a brief Description of the General nature of Christianity 1. MY Twelfth Assertion is That there shall not onely be a sensible
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
proclivitie to lust of which the Goat is a notorious emblem And that he is made laughing signifies that the whole World is Res ludicra as that merry Prophet Mahomet speaks to whom we may adjoin the suffrage of the Poet who makes man's life a Stage-Play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Life 's a Scene of fools a sportfull Stage Where grief attends him that is over-sage But this I have touch'd upon already We pass therefore to their particular Deities CHAP. VII 1. That as the World or Universe was deified in Pan so were the parts thereof in Coelius Juno Neptune Vulcan Pluto Ops Bacchus Ceres c. 2. That the Night was also a Deity and why they sacrificed a Cock to her with the like reason of other Sacrifices 3. Interiour Manifestations that concern the Animal life namely that of Wrath and Love which are the Pagans Mars and Venus 4. Minerva Mercurius Eunomia c. Manifestations referred to the Middle life 5. The agreement of the Greeks Religion with the Romans as also with the Aegyptians 6. Their worship of the River Nilus c. 7. That the Religion of the rest of the Nations of the world was of the same nature with that of Rome Greece and Aegypt and reached no further then the Animal life 8. And that their worshipping of men deceased stood upon the same ground 1. THis Universal specimen of the Divine Power the World as they have deified the Whole so they have also made Deities of the Parts thereof For their Uranus or Coelius what is it but the Heavens their Iupiter and Iuno the Air and Clouds Neptune the Sea Vulcan that limping Deity the Fire who is said to halt quod sine ligneo tanquam baculo progredi nequeat as Phornutus notes meaning by his going with a stick the fewel he is sustained by By Pluto they mean the interior parts of the Earth out of which Gold and Silver and other precious commodities are digged By Ops or Bona Dea the exteriour parts of the Soil in general that afford the necessaries of life to both man and beast Hither also is to be referred Bacchus Ceres Pomona Flora and such like Deities as to Coelius the Hoast of Heaven and in special the Sun and Moon the most famous Deities among the Pagans The latter goes under the name of Diana the former of Apollo and it may be of Vesta For her Temple was round and a fire kept there constantly by the Vestal Virgins in the midst of the Temple which denotes that the Sun is in the midst of the world and her name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he stands still according to that more accurate Hypothesis 2. Neither were they sensible only to the pleasure of the Lights of Heaven but also of the convenience of Night that dark shadow of the Earth within whose Sable curtains all living creatures so sweetly repose themselves wherefore they made Night also a Goddess under the name of Latona or Nox and they sacrificed a Cock to her as Ovid tels us in his Fastorum because he was a disturber of that rest and silence the Night is the bestower of to wearied mortals So they sacrificed a Dog to Diana for his bold barkings at the Moon a Goat to Bacchus for brouzing on the Vine a Sow to Ceres for rooting up her Corn. Such obvious reasons as these brought in an infinite number of Ceremonies which will not be worth the while to run over The Nature of the Deities themselves which the Pagans worshipped being a sufficient Argument of the sense and meaning of their Religion and that it reached no further then the Animal life 3. We have named the most eminent exteriour Manifestations of the Divine Power in the World we shall now give a few instances of the Interiour And the most notable I conceive are those Two Natural Passions of Wrath and Love which Powers they adored under the names of Mars and Venus The Schoolmen would call them the Irascible and Concupiscible to which Two they reduce the rest of the Passions of the Minde but we cannot insist upon these things 4. There are also other Interiour Deities as I may so call them such as Pallas or Minerva Mercurius Eunomia and the like all which reach no further then the Middle Life I speak of and are the improvements of mans Reason in the knowledge of Nature the discipline of War Political Iustice skil in Trades and Traffick the Invention of Letters of Musick of Architectonicks and if you will of all kinds of Mathematicks an instance whereof you have in that Precept of the Oracle that bad them double the Cube which because they may be in us without any sense of the Divine life at all I think we may also venture to call Animal or Natural For as for him that is the best accomplish'd in these yet that of the Apostle may be still true of him Animalis homo non capit quae sunt Spiritûs Dei The Natural man is uncapable of Spiritual and Divine Matters 5. That the Religion of the Romans in which we have chiefly instanced hitherto reached no further then the Animal life is plain The Greeks differ'd little or nothing from them their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being intended to Twelve of those Deities which were acknowledged by the Romans and such as we have named already And for the Aegyptians it is evident also that their Religion was no better if not worse their Serapis being the same with Pan or the Universe according to the concession of his own Oracle and their Osiris and Isis but the Sun and the Moon Deities scarcely left out of the worship of any Heathens It is true there is a People in Africk that curse the Sun by reason of his immoderate Heat but it is the stronger argument where the comfort of his rayes is felt and in what nation are they not that the rude people did as much bless him and adore him 6. The River Nilus was a great God with the Aegyptians too as Ganges with the Indians they both of them fattening the Soil by their overflowings The Divinity of Nilus Apollonius also that rambling Greek did superstiâ—iously acknowledge by doing his devotions to the River within the sight and noise of his roaring Catarracts after he had visited the Gymnosophists But for themselves it is no wonder they should deify so grand a Benefactour they worshipping such things as liv'd on his benevolence For such were the living creatures Birds Beasts and Creeping things to which they did divine honour nay you may add Trees and Plants Onyons and Garlick not excepted as every one casts into their dish 7. What we have said of Rome Greece and Aegypt may be made as manifest concerning the Religion of all the parts of the world beside as of Arabia Persia India China Tartary Germany Scythia Guinea Aethiopia and in the New-found world as in
Laodicaea besides the Indians Persians Arabians Albanians and others but these may suffice which we have already named for remarkable examples of Satan's villainous miscarriages in his usurped Rule over the Sons of Men. CHAP. XVI 1. Four things still behind to be briefly touch'd upon for the fuller Preparation to the understanding the Christian Mystery as First the Pagan Catharmata The use of them prov'd out of Caesar 2. As also out of Statius and the Scholiast upon Aristophanes 3. That all their expiatory Men-sacrifices whatsoever were truly Catharmata 4. The Second their Apotheoses or Deifications of men The names of several recited out of Diodorus 5. Of Baal-Peor and how in a manner all the Temples of the Pagans were Sepulchres Their pedigree noted by Lactantius out of Ennius 6. Certain examples of the Deification of their Law-givers 1. WE have clearly and fully enough set out unto your view the Uncleanness and Cruelty of the Pagan Superstitions there are only Four things behind which we will lightly touch upon and then I think we shall sufficiently have prepared the way to give you an easy and intelligible representation of the whole Frame of Christian Religion as it is set out in the Holy Scripture The First of the Four things I were a mentioning is their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Purgamenta Piacula but the Greek word is more proper which signifies the death of some man which the Pagans sacrificed for the expiating of their faults and saving themselves from the rigour and vengeance of their Gods This Reason was acknowledged plainly by the Gaules amongst whom this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this mactation of men was so frequent as Caesar has observed Pro vita hominum nisi vita hominis reddatur non posse Deorum immortalium numen placari arbitrantur i. e. They think that unless the life of a man be given in lieu of the life of men the Majesty of the immortall Gods cannot be pacified And therefore in gravioribus morbis praeliis periculis homines pro victimis immolant aut immolaturos vovent as Ortelius cites it out of Caesar And therefore in more grievous diseases warrs dangers they either sacrifice men or at least make a vow they will sacrifice them 2. This kind of Sacrifice because it was made ordinarily of the vilest sort of people Slaves or Captives or other contemptible persons the Apostle to shew how vilely himself was esteemed of by men set off his condition by a phrase borrowed from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4.13 To this custome Papinius Statius alludes where he brings in Meneceus his mother speaking to him thus Lustralemne feris ego te puer improbe Thebis Devotumque caput vilis ceu mater alebam Have I ô wicked child thee nourished Like mother poor for cruell Thebes to be A lustral wretch a vile devoted head This is noted also by Servius upon Virgil. But there can be nothing more pertinent either for the explaining of that Phrase of the Apostle or for a clearer witnessing of this Heathenish custome then what Grotius addes upon the place out of the Scholiast upon Aristophanes his Plutus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Men that were sacrificed to the Gods for the clearing of a city or people from the pestilence or any other disease were called Catharmata which custome also obtain'd amongst the Romans And on another Comedy the Scholiast asserts it to have been also the custome of the Athenians and that they made choice of some poor useless wretches for that purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. For the Athenians also gâ—t certain base and useless persons and in the time of any Calamity coming upon the city as of pestilence and the like they sacrificed these thereby to be cleared of their piacular crime for which cause these men were called Catharmata Which in Latine is Piacula or Purgamenta 3. We might alleadge other Testimonies as that out of Suidas upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others but these may suffice for so easy a matter For all the Expiatory sacrifices wherewith they would appease the wrath of the Gods as often as they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mactations of men which were too-too frequent all over the World these men that were thus sacrificed were indeed Catharmata properly so called 4. The Second thing we would have noted is Their Apotheoses then which nothing was more frequent amongst the Gentiles there scarce being any of the Immortal Gods so deem'd amongst them but some Mortall man there was also that bore the same name and had the same worship also done unto him Diodorus instances in Sol Saturn Rhea Iupiter Pan Ceres and others whose Genealogies inventions or famous exploits that Historian pursues in his First Book of his Bibliotheca Historica He names also Belus the Sun of Neptune and Libya as the Captain of an Aegyptian Colony into Babylon with whom it fared as with innumerable others who were considerable Benefactours to the Countrey they liv'd in or people with whom they did converse They had Altars and Temples erected to their memorial and Sacrifices and Religious ceremonies appointed to be done to them as to the immortal Deities 5. And Baal-Peor to whom Israel joyned where they are said to eat the sacrifice of the dead Bede upon the Text expounds it to this sense Initiati sunt sacrificaverunt Baal qui colebatur in Phegor Belus enim fuit pater Nini c. and that is the reason that they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they were sacrifices offered to the Soul of the deceased Belus Clemens Alexandrinus upbraids to the Heathen that in a manner all their Temples were nothing else but the Sepulchres of some famous men whose Memory was the first occasion of those Religious solemnities and ceremonies that were performed there Lactantius also out of Ennius and Cicero plainly demonstrates that the generality of the Pagan Deities such as we have already named out of Diodorus were once Men living here on Earth and produces out of Ennius their pedigrees counsels and transactions in this life Cicero makes a kind of distinction in his de Legibus where he makes this decree concerning Religion Divos eos qui Coelestes semper habiti sunt colunto eos quos in coelo merita locaverunt Herculem Liberum Aesculapium Pollucem Castorem Quirinum i. e. Let them worship the Gods both those who were ever accounted Celestial and those whom their merits have placed in Heaven as Hercules Bacchus Aesculapius Pollux Castor Quirinus 6. For the Romans worshipped Romulus as the Babylonians Belus like as other Nations also have Deified those that have first given them Laws and Religious rites as the Scythians Zamolxis and the Chineses their Kings and in particular their Law-giver Confusius Minos also Aeacus and Rhadamanthus for their singular Iustice while they lived were by the Greeks assigned to the honour of being Judges amongst the dead in the
used in his assaults upon those women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Which I could not forbear to reherse the first transformation there named viz. of Iupiter's becoming a Swan when he had to doe with Leda putting me in mind of Ludovicus the Familiar of that Witch whose story Franciscus Picus so fully prosecutes whom he confessed to have to doe with her though in the rest of his parts in the shape of a Man yet with feet fashioned like a Goose. But the main thing observable in that Dialogue is Picus his ingenious conjecture concerning these supposed Fables of the Poets as some would have them But he conceives there may be a considerable truth in them as concerning the Generation of the Heroes and that in rude Antiquity when the Dominion of the Devil was more free and mankind more idle and ignorant there were really and frequently such congresses or Venereous conjunctions of unclean Spirits with women according to that practice which to this day is confessed by Witches especially in their meetings and joviall Revellings in the Night at that Solemnity which they call our Lady's play the Ancients called it Ludum Dianae or Ludum Herodiadis where the Witches as themselves confess do eat and drink and dance and doe that with these impure Spirits which modesty would forbid to name Which dalliance had sometime such real effect with them of ancient times that the women as Picus would have it were impregnated by the Daemones or Genii the deemed Gods of the Heathen From whence came Famous men that were not only reputed but really sprung ex stirpe Deorum according to their opinions they had of the Gods Iosephus a sober Writer acknowledges the birth of the Giants of old to be after this manner to whom he ascribes all the impiety and injustice that had crept into the world before Noah's Flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he writes in his First book of Iewish Antiquities 4. And though this may seem incredible to others yet stranger matters have been asserted concerning the Conception of Females without the help of a Male in the perfectest kind of living creatures as that which Virgil affirms in his Georgicks concerning some metal'd Mares that have conceived of the Wind. Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis Exceptántque leves auras saepe sine ullis Conjugiis vento gravidae mirabile dict◠Saxa per scopulos fugiunt They all standing on high crags with turned face To gentle Zephyr the light air they draw And oft O wonder without Venus law Quick with the wind o're Hills and Rocks they trace Which Silius Italicus expresses also very livelily of the Spanish Gennets of his Country Et Venerem occultam genitali concipit aurâ Which that you may not suspect to be only the levity and credulity of Poets to report such things I can inform you that S. Austin and Solinus the Historian write the same of a race of Horses in Cappadocia Nay which is more to the purpose Columella and Varro men expert in rural affairs assert this matter for a most certain and known truth 5. Wherefore if the free Air by the advancing of the pleasure of the Spirits of these Animals or actuating them by a volatil Salt will fill them so full of life and joy that it will make their Wombes blossome as I may so say and after bring forth fruit why may not an Aiery Spirit transforming himself into the shape of a Man supply his place effectually he being able as Witches have confessed to raise as high pleasure and indeed higher then any man can doe and so to loosen the body into a transmission of such principles and particles as will prove in their conflux in the wombe vital and prolifical Which may be the easilier admitted if we consider that the Seed of the Male gives neither Matter nor Form to the Foetus it self but like the Flint and Steel only sets the Tinder on fire as Dr. Harvey expresses it So that the Pagan Gods when they would have to doe with women needed no such ambages as ordinarily men imagine viz. first to play the Succubi then the Incubi that is first to receive the Seed of man having transformed themselves into the shape of a woman then to transfuse the Seed into the womb of a woman after they had changed themselves into the form of a man For it is not the Matter of the Seed but a gratefull contact or motion fermenting or spiriting the place of conception that makes the Female fruitfull So great a probability is there that there is some truth in that fame concerning the birth of the ancient Heroes though their time by reason of the uncertainty of the story is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Historians 6. But there is so strong a suspicion in the minds of men that there are such Events in the world that they venture upon some Examples within the compass of more approved History as Alexander and Scipio whom many conceited to be the Sons of Iupiter And Diogenes Laertius tells a formal story of Perictione Plato's Mother being impregnated by Apollo which he confirms by the Authority of three several Writers Speusippus Clearchus and Anaxilides CHAP. XIX 1. That out of the Principles we have laid down and the History of the Religions of the Nations we have produced it is easie to give a Reasonable account of all matters concerning our Saviour from his Birth to his Visible return to Iudgment 2. That Christianity is the Summe and Perfection of whatever things were laudable or passable in any Religion that has been in the world 3. The Assertion made good by the enumeration of certain Particulars 4. That our Religion seems to be more chiefly directed to the Nations then the Iews themselves 5. An Enumeration of the main Heads in the History of Christ that he intends to give account of 1. I Have now omitted nothing of considerable moment to our present purpose having laid down by way of Preparation such Grounds as will inable us to give a solid account of whatsoever occurrs in the History of Christ whatsoever happen'd to him was done or is to be done by him from his Birth to his Visible return to Iudgment For besides that there are no Effects so Miraculous there recorded as to exceed the efficacy of those Invisible Powers which we have demonstrated to be in the world so the Reasonableness of every thing will be easily illustrated by what we have discovered concerning the Nature and End of Christianity which is to advance the Divine life upon Earth and to bring the partakers thereof to Eternal happiness and in the mean time to redeem the world out of the dominion and tyranny of the Devil and to bring in the Worship of Christ as the lawfull owner of all Soveraignty in Heaven and in Earth and that not by
Bloud as common and unholy as that of the malefactors that were crucified with him the Wrath of God being not all atoned as they say by his suffering because it is unjust that an Innocent man should be punished for those that are guilty But what Unjustice is done to him that takes upon him the debt or fault of another man willingly if he pay the debt or bear the punishment provided that he that may exact or remit either will be thus satisfied 10. But such trivial and captious intermedlers in matters of Religion that take a great deal of pains to obscure that which is plain and easie deserve more to be flighted and neglected then vouchsafed any answer For all their frivolous Subtilties and fruitless intricacies arise from this one false ground That the Soveraign Goodness of God and his kind condescensions and applications to the affections of man are to be measured by Iuridical niceties and narrow and petty Laws such as concern ordinary transactions between man and man But let these brangling Wits enjoy the fruits of their own elaborate ignorance while we considering the easie air and sense of Sacrifices in all Religions shall by this means be the better assured of the natural meaning of it in our own CHAP. XIV 1. That Sacrifices in all Religions were held Appeasments of the Wrath of their Gods 2. And that therefore the Sacrifice of Christ is rather to be interpreted to such a Religious sense then by that of Secular laws 3. The great disservice some corrosive Wits doe to Christian Religion and what defacements their Subtilties bring upon the winning comeliness thereof 4. The great advantage the Passion of Christ has compared with the bloudy Tyranny of Satan 1. HOW General the Custome of Sacrificing was in all Nations of the World is a thing so well known that I need not insist upon it and That their Sacrifices were accounted an Appeasment of the Wrath of the Gods and Expiation for their faults is also a Truth so conspicuous that it cannot be denied Hence these Sacrifices we speak of were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Placamina Februa Piamina Much of this nature you may read in Grotius De Satisfactione Christi cap. 10. where he does not only make good by many Expressions and Examples That the Sacrifices of the ancient Heathen pacified the Anger of the Gods but also which is nearer to our purpose That the Punishment of those that were thus reconciled and purged was transferred upon the Beast that was sacrificed for the clearing whereof he alledges many citations and these two amongst the rest One out of Cato Cum sis ipse nocens moritur cur victima pro te Since thou thy self art guilty why Does then thy Sacrifice for thee die The other out of Plautus Men ' piaculum oportet fieri propter stultitiam tuam Ut meum tergum stultitia tuae subdas succedaneum that is to say Is it fit that I should be made a piacular Sacrifice for your foolishness that my back should bear the stripes that your folly has demerited 2. Wherefore this being the sense of the Sacrifices we speak of in all the Religions in the World it is more fit to interpret the Death of Christ who gave himself an Expiation for the sins of the World according to that sense which is usual in the mysteries of Religion then according to the entangling niceties and intricacies of secular laws 3. But as for those busie and Pragmatical spirits that by the acrimonie of their wit eat off the comely and lovely gloss of Christianity as aqua Fortis or rather aqua Stygia laid on polish'd metal what thanks shall they receive of him whom yet they pretend to be so zealous for the most winning and endearing circumstances of his exhibiting himself to the World being so soiled and blasted by their rude and foul breath that as many as they can infect with the contagion of their own Errour Christianity will be made to them but a dry withered branch whenas in it self it is an aromatick Paradise where the Senses and Affections of men are so transported with the Agreeableness of Objects that they are even enravished into Love and Obedience to him that entertains them there And nothing can entertain the Soul of man with so sweet a Sorrow and Joy as this Consideration That the Son of God should bear so dear a regard to the World as to lay down his life for them and to bear so reproachfull and painfull a Death to expiate their sins and reconcile them to his Father 4. But this is not all the Advantage he had to win the Government of the World unto himself For not only his exceeding Love to Mankind was hereby demonstrated but the cruel and execrable nature of that old Tyrant the more clearly detected For whereas the Devil who by unjust usurpation had got the Government of the World into his own hands tyrannizing with the greatest cruelty and scorn that can be imagined over Mankind thirsted after humane bloud and in most parts of the World as I have already shewn required the sacrificing of men which could not arise from any thing else but a salvage Pride and Despight against us This new gracious Prince of God's own appointing Christ Iesus was so far from requiring any such villainous Homage that himself became a Sacrifice for us making himself at once one Grand and All-sufficient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Piamen to expiate the Sins of all Mankind and so to reconcile the World to God CHAP. XV. 1. An Objection concerning the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviour's Passion from it s not being recorded in other Historians 2. Answer That this wonderfull Accident might as well be omitted be several Historians as those of like wonderfulness as for example the darkness of the Sun about Julius Caesar's death 3. Further That there are far greater Reasons that Historians should omit the darkness of the Sun at Christ's Passion then that at the death of Julius Caesar. 4. That Grotius ventures to affirm this Eclipse recorded in Pagan writers and that Tertullian appeal'd to their Records 5. That the Text does not implie that it was an universal Eclipse whereby the History becomes free from all their Cavils 6. Apollonius his Arraignment before Domitian with the ridiculousness of his grave Exhortations to Damis and Demetrius to suffer for Philosophy 1. WE have seen how Reasonable the History of Christ's Passion is neither do I know any thing that may lessen the Credibility of it unless it be the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun Not that the Eclipse it self is so incredible but that it may seem incredible that so wonderfull so generally-conspicuous an Accident of Nature should be recorded by none but by the Evangelists themselves Learning and Civility in those times so universally flourishing and there being no want of Historians to recount such things This Objection makes a great shew at first but
that they that obey it not shall be damned That Christ knew the very thoughts of mens hearts that he raised the dead that he healed men of incurable diseases that he gave sight to the blind and made the dumb to speak That the Apostles of Christ Matthew Peter and Paul healed one Habib Anaiar of the Leprosie at Antioch and raised the King's daughter from the dead as also gave sight to a childe that was born blinde And lastly three Preeminences the Alcoran gives to Christ which it gives not to any other Prophet to Abraham Moses no nor Mahomet himself The first is That he was carried up to Heaven bodie and soul where it is expresly added in Zuna that he shall return from thence to judge the world with righteous judgment The second That he shall be called The Word of God The third That he should be called The Holy Spirit of God These things you may read more at large in Iohannes Andreas his Confusio Sectae Mahometanae as also in others out of whom you may also add that the Turks have so venerable an esteem of S. Iohn's Gospel that they wear it next their bodies as an amulet when they goe to war to keep them from gun-shot 8. This I thought worth the noting partly that that Honour which is due to Christ may not be given to Mahomet of whom the best that can be said is only this That he did not so utterly pervert and deprave the mystery of the Gospel by either his ignorance political tricks or fanatical humours and whimsies but that there was so much of the substance and virtue thereof left as being seconded with the dint of the Sword was able enough to hew down the more gross Heathenish Idolatry chastise the disobedient Hypocritical Christians and ruine the external dominion of the Devil in the World and partly that we may discern what great hopes there are that in due time when the chief scandals of Christendome are taken away they being so far prepared already in their reverend opinion concerning our blessed Saviour the whole Turkish Empire may of a sudden become true Christians that which is vain and false among them having no better prop then the foolish and idle Visions false pretended Miracles and groundless fables of a mere wily phansifull and unclean Impostour whenas the pure Christian Religion comprehended in the Gospel is so solid sincere rational that no man that is master of his wits but may be throughly satisfied concerning the truth thereof CHAP. XIII 1. The Triumph of the Divine Life not so large hitherto as the overthrow of the external Empire of the Devil 2. Her conspicuous Eminency in the Primitive times 3. The real and cruel Martyrdoms of Christians under the Ten Persecutions a demonstration that their Resurrection is not an Allegorie 4. That to allegorize away that blessed Immortality promised in the Gospel is the greatest blasphemy against Christ that can be imagined 1. YOU see then how large the Success or Event of our Saviour's coming into the World is in reference to the external overthrow of the Kingdome of the Prince of this World that old Usurper over the sons of men If you demand of me how great the Triumph of the Divine Life has been in all this victory I must answer I could wish that it was greater then it is that it had been larger and continued longer but something has been done all this time that way too 2. For Faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a firm Belief of a Life to come and the Effect of this Faith which is the very nature and Spirit of Christ dwelling in us consisting of Purity Humility and Charity this sound constitution was very much in the Church in the Primitive times even then when they had no succour nor support from the hands of men nay when they were cruelly handled by them they chusing rather to be banish'd imprisoned tortured and put to any manner of death then to deny him who had redeemed them with his most precious Bloud and had prepared a place of Eternal happiness for them with himself in Heaven 3. Here Faith and the Divine Life was very conspicuously victorious and triumphant in that in the eyes of all the world it set at nought all the cruel malice of the Devil and the terrour of death it self in the most ghastly vizard he could put on as you may see innumerable Examples in the Ten bloudy Persecutions under the Heathen Emperours Which History must needs make a man abominate such light-headed and false-hearted Allegorists that would intercept the Hopes of a future life by spirituallizing those passages in Scripture that bear that sense into a present Moral and Mystical interpretation as if the Gospel and the precious Promises therein conteined reached no further then this life we now live upon Earth 4. Which is the highest reproach and blasphemie that can be invented against Christ Iesus as if he were rather a Betraier then a Saviour of Mankind and that he was more thirsty after humane bloud then those Indian Gods we have spoken of who were so lavish thereof in their sacrifices and as if it were not Love and dear Compassion towards us that made him lay down his life but hatred and a spightfull plot of making myriads of men to be massacred and sacrificed out of affection to him that thus should betray them Wherefore whosoever interprets the New Testament so as to shuffle off the assurance of Reward and Punishment after the death of the Body is either an arrant Infidel or horrid Blasphemer CHAP. XIV 1. The Corruption of the Church upon the Christian Religion becoming the Religion of the Empire 2. That there did not cease then to be a true and living Church though hid in the Wilderness 3. That though the Divine life was much under yet the Person of our Saviour Christ of the Virgin Mary c. were very richly honoured 4. And the Apostles and Martyrs highly complemented according to the ancient guize of the Pagan Ceremonies 5. The condition of Christianity since the general apostasie compared to that of Una in the Desart amongst the Satyrs 6. That though this has been the state of the Church very long it will not be so alwaies and while it is so yet the real enemies of Christ do lick the dust of his feet 7. The mad work those Apes and Satyrs make with the Christian Truth 8. The great degeneracy of Christendome from the Precepts and Example of Christ in their warrs and bloudshed 9. That though Providence has connived at this Pagan Christianism for a while he will not fail to restore his Church to its pristine purity at the last 10. The full proof of which Conclusion is too voluminous for this place 1. WE have given a light glance upon the condition of the Primitive Church before Christianity became the Religion of the Empire what change would be wrought then a man might
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
soul out of the Grave after he had lien there four daies together But that universal expression of mens rising out of the Grave is but a Prophetical Scheme of Speech the more strongly to strike our senses as I have already intimated in my exposition of the 15 of 1 Cor. against the Psychopannychites And therefore the greater accumulation of absurdities that can be made against that circumstance it will the more confirm that usefull Interpretation of mine 3. This succour we have against the Atheists out of Philosophy but I answer further as concerning the Scripture it self which is the only certain measure of the truth of our Religion and to which alone I dare finally stand not thinking my self bound to make good every conceit that either the Pride Precipitancie Inadvertencie or Ignorance of fallible Teachers have obtruded upon the World That I dare challenge him to produce any place of Scripture out of which he can make it appear That the Mysterie of the Resurrection implies the resuscitation of the same numerical body The most pregnant of all is Job 19 which later Interpreters are now so wise as not to understand at all of the Resurrection The 1 Cor. 15. that Chapter is so far from asserting this curiosity that it plainly saies it is not the same body but that as God gives to the blades of corn grains quite distinct from that which was sown so at the Resurrection he will give the Soul a Body quite different from that which was buried Now if it be not the same Body that was buried what need it run into the Earth to come out again Wherefore it is plain that the Apostle there writes as I said before in a Prophetical and Symbolical style 4. But the Atheist will still hang on and object further That the very term Resurrectio implies that the same body shall rise again for that only that falls can be said properly to rise again But the Answer will be easie the Objection being grounded merely upon a mistake of the sense of the word which is to be interpreted out of those higher Originals the Greek and Hebrew and not out of the Latine though the word in Latin does not alwaies implie an individual Restitution of what is gone or fallen as in that verse in Ovid Victa tamen vinces subversaque Troja resurges But this is not so near to our purpose let us rather consider the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Resurrectio supplies in Latin and therefore must be made to be of as large a sense as it Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so far from signifying in some places the Reproduction or Recuperation of the same thing that was before that it bears no sense at all of Reiteration in it As Matth. 22.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Genes 7. there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie merely a living subsistence and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an active signification according to this sense will be nothing else but a giving or continuing life and subsistence to a thing The word in the Hebrew that answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Translators interpret a Living substance whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to this analogie may very well bear the same latitude of sense that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they being both words that are rendred Resurrectio but simply of themselves signifie only Vivification or erection unto life or the being made a living Creature But seeing that men are Creatures that have been once alive and are to be made alive again and to become sensible and visible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the day of Judgment therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ordinarily translated Revivificatio and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be understood in the same sense that implies a Recuperation of life 5. Now the Iewish Rabbins as Buxtorf has noted are very critical in these words appropriating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Resurrection of the just but the other to the Revivification of the wicked though they sometimes again confound them But that which is nearest to our purpose is to consider in what signification of the words the thing signified is competible to the unjust as well as to the just And I conceive it is that which the Apostle Paul speaks 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the Tribunal of Christ that every man may receive according to what he has done in his body whether good or evil But as well the wicked as the just before they thus appear are really in life and Being though to us they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead vanisht and invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 20. But all are alive and visible to God even the bad as well as the good Therefore the Resurrection or Revivification for the word signifies no more then so that is common to both is this That they become palpable and visible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and appear at that general Assizes at the last Day For then all the World good and bad shall not only be alive to God but also alive and visible to one another And this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revivificatio that is common to all And that this notion is solid appears from hence in that Luke by saying For they all live to God implies that they are dead in reference to men Wherefore so far forth as they are said to be dead so far forth may they be said to be revived or to be raised from the dead as the Ghosts of men are said to be by art Magick because they are made to appear But the Devil is not said to be raised from the dead because he was never properly said to be alive amongst us or to live amongst us 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 1. I Should proceed but that I must be contented to be interrupted by one Objection more which is this If the Souls of men live and act out of their Bodies before the Resurrection what need is there of any Resurrection of the Body For what want have they of any Bodies at all if their Soul can live and act without them But I answer First That we are not infallibly assured but that the Souls as well of the Good as the Bad after Death have
possession And you having flung away that precious Legacy of your dying Lord namely the Love of one another what Injustice is it that an Alien take it up and flourish it in your sight to your utter Shame and Reproach And truly he writes as one that knows his advantage passing well in this regard as you may see if you read his Introduction chap. 4. sect 35. to the end of the chapter as also sect 51 of the eleventh chapter to the end thereof 5. Fourthly Whereas you place all your Piety in an hypocritical Flattery of Christ's Person and have overwhelmed and smothered the Life of Religion with an unsupportable load and luggage of needless and thankless Ceremonies or else have wounded it to death with the acuteness and spinosity of harsh and dry Opinions not heeding at all the renovation of your own minds nor of theirs that are committed to your charge into the lively Image of Christ which assuredly does mainly consist in Christian Love how just is it with God to permit such an Enthusiast to arise who shall make it the great Arcanum of his Religion to slay Christ according to the flesh that is according to the History you having slain him so cruelly and remorslessly according to the Spirit that is extinguished his Life that ought to be in us by substituting your own foolish Opinions and loathsome Ceremonies in the place thereof Nay indeed you have handled the matter so that you have made Christ according to the flesh be the Executioner of himself according to the Spirit making every Article concerning Christ an Engine for either Sensuality or Strife In brief the exteriour oeconomie of Christian Religion being intended for the inward perfecting of our Minds in true Righteousness and Holiness which is Christ in us according to the Spirit you by your Devices defeating this end doe naturally take away the means thereto and thus yourselves are the principal Murderers of Christ even according to the flesh too and H. Nicolas is only your appointed Executioner And therefore it is as I said but just with God you having so long and so constantly abused all the Articles of the Creed to a contrary purpose then was intended by his gracious counsel that he permit such a Mock-prophet to arise that should hazard the peoples misbelief of all and Allegorize away all that solid and useful Truth of the History of Christ into a mere moral or mystical sense as if the Letter were but a Parable or Fable 6. Fifthly In that this Sect we speak of do rattle so about your ears with the loud noise of Perfection though for my own part I am well assured the best of them are far enough from it yet in the mean time I cannot but interpret it an exprobration and reproach to the great abhorrency you have to so searching a doctrine that will touch and wound your Hypocritical hearts with the sense and conscience of wilful sinfulness which you would cloak under that colour of Impossibility of being as you should be as also to your false dealing with those under your charge whom you do bedwarfe and becripple by your poisonous medicines would make them alwaies sorry boies with bibs and aprons or else conceal their age and keep them alwaies in minority for advantage sake like those infortunate Orphans that are betraied into the hands of treacherous Guardians What wonder is it therefore that those that truly hunger and thirst after Righteousness being starved at home with those dilute and corrupt doctrines of the Needlesness of Sanctity of invincible Infirmity slight Attrition frivolous Penances venal Indulgences crawl out abroad to seek better food and so get into the lap and suck the nipples of this sweet Enchantress the lovely Family of the Love whose breasts do promise such strong nourishment that they that drink thereof do not only pass from children to men but from being men doe become Gods 7. And Sixthly and lastly While I contemplate the universal face of Christendome what a Den of Thieves and Murderers it is become what a Region of Robbers and Oppressors what a Sty of Epicures what a Wilderness of Atheism and Prophaneness in a manner wholly inhabited by Satyrs and salvage Beasts when I consider within my self how generally men live as if there were nothing to come after this life and how many already have drunk down that doctrine That there is indeed nothing to come hereafter of which notwithstanding the History of Christ his Death Resurrection and Ascension and his appearing out of Heaven to Paul as he was a going to Damascus are as palpable pledges as Divine Providence could produce as also of his visible Return to Judgement according to the Scriptures I say when I consider how little effect all this has had for the raising of mens minds to an heavenly Conversation but that they live as if they were utterly sunk from this belief I cannot imagine any thing more reasonable then to conclude That out of very Wrath and Indignation God has raised this false Prophet to them that it might be with them according to the Proverb Like lips like lettice Like Prophet like People As if God should thus expostulate with Christendome Behold I have given to you my only-begotten Son out of my own bosome whose authority I ratified unto you by audible Voices from Heaven by mighty Signs and Miracles done by him while he was alive I gave him a sacrifice for sin to reconcile you to my self and to endear your affections unto him and me that ye might cordially follow his Example and keep his Precepts I raised him from the dead and exhibited him visibly to his disciples as an undoubted pledge of a blessed Immortality to them that believe on him which I further confirmed by his Ascension into Heaven and his appearing to that chosen Vessel of mine who has so fully prefigured unto you his glorious Return to Judgment and the Resuscitation of all his Saints into that Eternal Happiness which they had fallen from And now I demand of you what could I have done more for the gaining you back to my self and for the resettling you again in my Heavenly Paradise But because you are so besotted with Earthliness and Sensuality as to make no use of the inestimable advantages of the Gospel but have set your Happiness upon things here below behold I have raised up unto you a Prophet according to your own hearts desire who will help on the completion of your Infidelity and in the midst of a many fine words and sweet friendly phrases close up your eyes in Unbelief and so having sealed unto you by his witchery and enchantments this assurance That the Mystery of Christ reaches no further then the things of this life you may use the present market and enjoy your worldly lusts to the full 8. This surely if I understand any thing is the sense and meaning of God's permission that such a Prodigie as Familisme should appear with so
we needed to charge this Prophecie with though it be probable enough it is contained in it There are sundry other places that serve for the proof of this seventh Character but because it is sufficiently enough demonstrated already and little or no controversie made of it I pass to the eighth 7. Which is the Messiah his abolishing the Superstition of the Gentiles that is such worship as they had no divine warrant for they being so grosly mistaken in the Object This is so plainly included in the two last Characters that I need add no other proof But if there were need that in the 2 and 110 Psalms might further confirme it Where he is constituted a new King and Priest and therefore implies new Religion and Laws and such as the heathen were ignorant of before but such as they must obey upon pain of high displeasure 8. The last Character is the long Duration of the Messiah's Kingdome Psalm 89. v. 35. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the Sun before me It shall be established for ever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven Also Psalm 45. v. 6. Thy throne ô God is for ever and ever the sceptre of thy Kingdome is a right sceptre c. Which Prophecie makes good the former and shews how it is to be fulfilled in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Messiah See also Psalm 72. which the Hebrew Rabbins do acknowledge to be understood of the Messiah Also Daniel 2.44 and 7.27 This Character is so clear that I need not insist any longer upon it 9. These are the main Marks and Characters of the Person of the Messiah by which we may infallibly find out who he is And who indeed can he be according to these Characters but Iesus whom we Christians worship For what competitor for the Messiahship but he was being a Iew rejected by the Iews and crucified Who is it that arose from the dead and ascended into Heaven but he Who ever delivered so pure Doctrine to purge the World from wickedness and to enlighten the Nations as he It is he therefore whom the Nations waited for and have received It is he for whose sake they parted with their old vain and impure Superstitions by whose Doctrine they are brought to the knowledge of the Eternal God And lastly it is he whom for his bitter sufferings God has exalted above Angels and Archangels and all the host of Heaven and has set him at his own right hand to be a Priest and King over his Church for ever CHAP. IX 1. The peculiar Use of Arguments drawn from the Prophecies of the Old Testament for the convincing the Atheist and Melancholist 2. An Application of the Prophecies to the known Events for the conviction of the Truth of our Religion 3. That there is no likelihood at all but that the Priesthood of Christ will last as long as the Generations of men upon Earth 4. The Conclusion of what has been urged hitherto 5. That Christ was no fictitious Person proved out of the History of Heathen Writers as out of Plinie 6. And Tacitus 7. As also Lucian 8. And Suetonius 9. That the Testimony out of Josephus is supposititious and the reasons why he was silent concerning Christ. 10. Julian's purpose of rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem with the strange success thereof out of Ammianus Marcellinus 1. WE have now made a very considerable Progress in the proof of the Reality of Christian Religion That it is more then a mere Idea Let us here make a stand and breath a while and contemplate with our selves the peculiar Use and advantage of this present Argument for the stopping the mouths as well of the bold Atheist as the suspicious Melancholist For indeed it is too true and every good man could wish it were not so that the latter Ages of the Church have not dealt faithfully with the World but beyond the bounds of all modesty and conscience obtruded upon the people fond Legends and forged Miracles as if they were given up into their hands onely to be imposed upon and abused Which consideration does cast some men into an unchangeable misbelief of the whole business of Christianity and makes them look upon it all as a mere Fiction and Fable For they measure the Genius of the Primitive Church by what they see practised before their eyes now-adayes and look upon the whole Tribe of the Priests as Impostors Which censure though it be most unjust yet it will be very hard to convince these Censurers but that it is very true unless by some such Argument as now lies before us viz. That the ancient Prophecies in the Old Testament could not be forged by the Christian Priests and that the Jews would not forge them against themselves Nay they that know any thing of the Jews will acknowledge them so religiously addicted to the Letter of these holy Writings that knowingly and wittingly they durst not alter a tittle Wherefore all those Prophecies we have alledged are real and we have made good they clearly foretel That the Messiah should come many hundred years ago therefore it is plain he is come 2. I therefore demand of either the Prophane or Melancholick who is this Messiah if Iesus be not he Nay I appeal to them if the very Characters of his Person be not certainly to be known by their own Senses agreeably to the Prediction of those infallible Oracles The Prophecies have said He should be rejected of his own Ask the Iews they will acknowledge they have rejected him The Prophecies foretold he should be cut off be killed by them Ask the Iews they will not deny but that they did condemn him to death but deservedly as they contend for their own excuse The Prophecies foretold his Doctrine should enlighten the Gentiles Ask thine own eyes if the Gentiles be not turned from their vain unwarrantable Superstitions to the knowledge of that one God that made heaven and earth and of Iesus Christ whom he hath sent The Prophecies prefigured his rising from the dead and his ascending up into Heaven and ask thine own Conscience if thou dost not believe that this was alwaies the belief of the Christians and consult with thine own Reason if it had been possible that the Death of Christ could have drawn all the World after him if it had not been seconded with his Resurrection Certainly those that believed on him before had deserted him after his death if he had not risen from the dead but of that more fully hereafter Lastly the Prophecies foretold that the Messiah should be worshipped as a divine Person and receive divine Honour and that God would make him a King and Priest for ever Ask thine own senses if thou dost not find it so How many thousand Temples are there consecrated to his name in how many Nations and Kingdomes of the earth is he
them with the skins of beasts to be worried by dogs others were crucified and others were burnt after day-light to serve in stead of lynks or torches This Persecution was not thirty years after the Passion of Christ. I appeal now to any one if he can think it possible that these that lived so near to that time when Christ was said to be crucified that they might make exact inquiry into the matter I appeal to him if he can think it possible they could expose their lives and fortunes to the hatred and cruelty of the Heathen if they were not most certain that there was such a man that was crucified at Ierusalem and demand further he dying so ignominious a death whether it be again possible that there should not be some extraordinary thing in the Person of Christ to make them adhere to him so after his death with the common hatred of all men and hazard of their lives 7. And therefore Lucian in his Peregrinus does rightly term Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great man crucified in Palaestine For at least he spoke the opinion of Christ's followers if not his own And the doctrine of the Christians he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the marvellous wisdome of the Christians whom he affirms to renounce the Heathen Deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to worship their crucified Sophist or their crucified Master and Teacher And in his Philopatris if it be his and if it be not it is not much material being it must be of some Writer coetaneous to him there are some inklings of very high matters in Christianity as of the Trinity of Life Eternal of the Galilean's Ascension into the third Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walking up the Air into the third Heaven where having learned most excellent matters he renewed us by water Which is likely to be some intimation of the Ascension of Christ into Heaven or else of Paul's being rapt up into the third Heaven though the Narration thereof be depraved And Critias in that Dialogue swears 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the son that is from the Father And he and Triephon jearing Divine Providence betwixt them as being set out by the Religious as if things were written in Heaven Critias asketh Triephon if all things even the affairs of the Scythians were written there also To which Triephon answereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things if so be CHRESTUS be also amongst the Nations All which passages intimate what a venerable Opinion there was spred in the World concerning Christ and that therefore there was some extraordinary worth and excellency in his Person Which Conclusion I shall make use of in its due place 8. In the mean time I shall onely add that mention made of him in Suetonius in Vita Claudii cap. 25. where he is called Chrestus as before in Lucian's Philopatris he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assiduè tumultuantes Româ expulit He expelled the Iews out of Rome they making perpetual tumults by the instigation of Chrestus Which is the highest Record of our Religion that is to be found in prophane Writers and no marvel it reaching so near the Passion of Christ from whence our Religion commenced For the reign of Claudius began about seven years after Christ's Passion and ended within thirteen years And that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate Tacitus himself gives witness in what we have above recited But a more accurate Chronologie of these things cannot be expected but from them who are more nearly concerned viz. the Christians themselves 9. Iosephus his Testimonie had reached higher in time if we could be assured that what he seemed to write of Christ was not foisted in by some thankless fraud of unconscionable Superstitionists or short-sighted Politicians that could not see that the solidity of Christian Religion wanted not their lies and forgeries to sustain it But for my own part I think it very unlikely that Iosephus being no Christian should write at that rate concerning Christ as he does besides other reasons which might be alledged And therefore for the greater compendium I shall be content to acknowledge that what is found in his Antiquities concerning the crucified Iesus is supposititious and none of his own Which Omission I impute partly to his Prudence and partly to his Integrity For certainly he knowing the affairs of Iesus so well as he did could not in his own judgment and conscience say any thing ill of him more then that he was crucified which was no fault in him but in his unjust and cruel Murderers and simply to have nominated him in his History without saying any thing of him had been a frigid lame business and to have spoke well of him had been ungratefull both to his own Country-men the Iews and also to the Pagans Wherefore it being against his Conscience to vilifie him and revile him and his followers so as the Heathen Historians have done and against his Prudence being not convinced that he was the very Messiah to declare how excellent a person he was it remains that in all likelihood he would play the Politician so far as not to speak of him at all 10. We shall produce but one Testimony more out of Pagan Historians and that is out of Ammianus Marcellinus concerning Iulian's purpose to re-edifie the Temple of Ierusalem that the Iews might sacrifice there according to their ancient manner Which was looked upon to be done more out of envy to the Christians then in love to the Jews and in an affront to that universal and inestimable Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered upon the Cross which was to cease the Jewish Sacrifices and to put an end to the exercise of the Mosaical ceremonies Ruffinus and Sozomen declare the matter more at large but we shall contain our selves within the recitall of what Ammianus has written lib. 23. near the beginning who being an Heathen puts as fair a gloss upon the Emperour's Action as he could but the Event is plainly enough set down and such as does much confirm the Truth of Christian Religion Julianus imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens propagare ambitiosum quondam apud Jerosolymam templum quod post multae internecina certamina obsidente Vespasiano postea Tito agrè est expugnatum instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis negotiumque maturandum Alipio dederat Antiochiensi qui olim Britannias curaverat pro Praefectis Cum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alipius juvaretque Provinciae Rector metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum hocque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente cessavit inceptum Julian having a mind to propagate the memorie of his Reign by the greatness of his Acts purposed to rebuild with immense charges that once-stately Temple at Jerusalem which with much adoe after many a bloudy battel was taken after siege
Epicureans and Stoicks Acts 17.18 Wherefore without all controversie the first embracers of Christianity entertained it upon no other terms but manifest proof of Eye-witnesses and the Evidence of such persons as they saw very faithful and serious and as had the effect of this great power of God that raised Iesus Christ from the dead manifestly residing upon themselves whereby they were able to doe Miracles as is also recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 4. Now for the First Authours and Founders of this Religion how weak and contemptible they were as to worldly concernments appears plainly from hence that they were not recommended to the World either for their nobility of Birth or skill in humane Arts and Sciences nor had they any secular power to assist them nor any force of arms to either overcome others or defend themselves for all they were exposed to so great and imminent dangers perpetually Our Saviour himself was but of mean Parentage a Carpenters Son crucified betwixt two thieves as a hainous Malefactor What therefore can there be imaginable that should move his Apostles and Disciples to adhere to him so faithfully after his death and to expose themselves to all manner of jeopardies all manner of sufferings whippings imprisonments long journies tortures and death it self What should cause them to disturb their own peace so and the peace of all men if there were not some very miraculous thing at the bottom and such as was worthy to alarme all the World What message could they have brought to those several Nations they travailed to that themselves would not be ashamed of carrying if it had been only so That the Jews had crucified one Iesus the Son of Ioseph a Carpenter betwixt two thieves at Ierusalem who yet was a very good and Just man It may be so would the Gentiles say More shame for them what is that to us But this man was the promised Messiah and did very strange Miracles cast out devils healed all manner of diseases and was declared the Son of God by an audible voice from the Heavens As for the Miracles you mention would the Gentile reply we have heard strange things done by those that are called Magicians and we had no acquaintance with the party you speak of to discern whether he was so good as you pretend For mens Judgments are ordinarily partial out of affection and friendship and it is strange that if he were so good as you make him and declared from the clouds to be the Son of God that God would suffer him so ignominiously to die betwixt two Thieves on the Cross. Which is a sign that if he did any Miracles they were but from such powers as are subject to the Magistrate and through that faithfull Providence that attends the affairs of men can doe nothing when the Magician is apprehended imprisoned and condemned Truly if there had been no more then this in the Story it seems impossible that the Cause should have had such Success as it has had 5. Wherefore certainly the First Preachers of the Gospel added to all this to the admiration and astonishment of the hearers That this Iesus whom the Jews had thus crucified was by the miraculous hand of God raised out of the grave the third day That after his Resurrection he conversed with his disciples both apart and together That he was seen of above five hundred at once That he staid upon earth for fourty daies and was seen visibly afterward to ascend into Heaven Which things as they were above all expectation marvailous and did if they were true fully argue not only the Innocency but transcendent Divinity of the Person of Iesus so were they so incredible that none could believe them especially to their present peril unless from such as were Eye-witnesses of the same and could send them to many more that were Eye-witnesses and of unsuspected integrity of life or for the better compendium shewed that they were true messengers sent from God by some Signs or Miracles they did upon the spot 6. This therefore was the main of their message which was nothing but matter of Fact which themselves knew certainly to be true and seriously and earnestly declared it to the World not by any Art or Eloquence For the Apostles were but poor illiterate persons Fishermen Publicans and the like had no other weapons to win men to the Faith but by a simple though earnest and serious narration of those things they knew for certain and did avouch with that confidence that they gave up their ease livelihood and lives for a pledge of the truth thereof Which Testimonie could not possibly be false it being as I said before concerning matter of Fact namely the Resurrection of Christ wherein so many could not be deceived Nor is it imaginable how they should goe about to deceive others against their own Consciences or without sufficient knowledge in a thing that gained them nothing but perpetual Hatred and ill will Imprisonments Tortures and Death In the mean time by these poore contemptible Instruments that had neither Political power on their side but were oppressed by it nor had any Art nor Eloquence excepting only Paul who yet made use of neither and by succession of such as they had converted within a few Ages all the World in a manner swarmed with Christians of all qualities and degrees noble and ignoble learned and unlearned though invited thereto by no secular advantage but rather being perpetually exposed to misery and persecution All which things seriously considered together with the exactness and perspicuity of Prophecies concerning the Messiah cannot but seem to any indifferent judge a Demonstration for the Truth of Christian Religion no less certain then Mathematical CHAP. XIV 1. Objections of the Jews against their Messiah's being come answered 2. A pompous Evasion of the Aristotelean Atheists supposing all Miracles and Apparitions to be the Effects of the Intelligences and Heavenly bodies 3. Vaninus his restraint of the Hypothesis to one Anima Coeli 4. His intolerable pride and conceitedness 5. A Confutation of him and the Aristotelean Atheisme from the Motion of the Earth 6. That Vaninus his subterfuge is but a Sel-contradiction 7. That Christianitie's succeeding Judaisme is by the special counsel of God not by the Influence of the Starres 8. Cardanus his high folly in calculating the Nativity of our Saviour with a demonstration of the groundlesness of Vaninus his exaltation in his impious boldness of making Mahomet Moses and Christ sidereal Law-givers of like Authority 9. That the impudence and impiety of these two vain glorious Pretenders constrains the Authour more fully to lay open the frivolousness of the Principles of Astrology 1. THE Objections we were a mentioning are from two hands from the Iew or from the Atheist That from Iew is chiefly this That the condition of the times under Christ is not conformable to what is prophesied concerning the times of the Messiah There is not that
of God Be not deceived neither Fornicatours nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the kingdome of God And Hebr. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And thus we see that all the Happiness of man and his real good is utterly subverted and destroyed by this mischievous imagination of being righteous otherwise then by true and living Righteousness 10. And it is as plain that this imposture will rob God of his Glory as well as defeat man of his Happiness For whether we understand by the Glory of God the Image of God communicable to men as the Image that is the light of the Sun is the glory of the Sun or whether we understand the acknowledgment of that Excellency and Perfection that is in God first deeply conceived in our hearts and then fully and freely professed by our mouths both these are assuredly taken away by this false conceit And of the former there is no doubt being that the Spirit of Righteousness is that very Glory of God or Image of Christ. Wherefore whatever does intercept this does really eclipse the Glory of God And it is as true also of the other For seeing that the most rich and precious Excellencies of the Divine Nature cannot be discovered by the Soul as they ought to be but by becoming Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou beest it thou seest it as Plotinus speaks it must needs be that they cannot be worthily admired and extolled by any Soul but such as is Divine that is such a Soul as God has poured the Spirit of Righteousness and true Holiness on without which it is impossible to see God To all which Particulars that concern every private man you may add that great summe of an incomputable damage that respects the Publick For what Peace or Faithfulness can there be amongst men where the professed Mysterie of their Religion is the Explosion of real Righteousness Or what can possibly take place in stead thereof but Fraud and Falshood foul Lusts phrantick Factions rude Tumults and bloudy Rebellions To which you may cast in the loss of our very hopes that the World should ever grow better or that the holy Promises of God should take effect For there is not a more cruel or butcherly weapon for the slaying of the Witnesses nor a more impregnable Fort against the approaching Kingdome of Christ and that millennial Happiness which many good and faithfull Christians expect then this hell-hatch'd doctrine of Antinomianisme CHAP. XII 1. Of the attending to the Light within us of which some Spiritualists so much boast 2. That they must mean the Light of Reason and Conscience thereby if they be not Fanaticks Mad-men or Cheats And that this Conscience necessarily takes information from without 3. And particularly from the Holy Scriptures 4. That these Spiritualists acknowledge the fondness of their opinion by their contrary practice 5. An appeal to the Light within them if the Christian Religion according to the literal sense be not true 6. That the Operation of the Divine Spirit is not absolute but restrained to certain laws and conditions as it is in the Spirit of 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 1. WE have now gone through the Three first Powers of the Gospel of which Three the last namely The Promise of the Spirit may seem so sufficient of it self to some without any thing further and I am sure does so to others that professedly they take up here and exclude or at least neglect all that advantage that accrues from the History of Christ and hereby do antiquate the Christian Religion These are those great Spiritualists that talk so much of The Light within them and the Power within them and boast that they want nothing without to be their Guide and Support but that they can goe of themselves without any external help For keeping to the Light within them the Power of God and the Spirit of God will assist them and will lead them into all truth And truly I cannot but say Amen to what they declare For I know assuredly that it is most true if they would leave off their canting language and say in down-right terms That keeping sincerely to the dictates of Reason and Conscience and the perpetually denying themselves in such things as they know or suspect to be evil with devout addresses to the Throne of Grace for the assistance and illumination of the Holy Spirit to discover and overcome all Errour Falseness Pride and Hypocrisie that may lurk in their hearts I say I am well assured that this Dispensation faithfully kept to will in due time lead unto all Saving Truth and that such a one at the last cannot fail to become a Christian in the soundest and the fullest sense such as firmly adhered to Christ in the first and most unspotted Ages of the Church But if they will call any hot wild Imagination or forcible and unaccountable Suggestion the Light within them and follow that this is not to keep to Reason and Conscience but to be delivered up to a reprobate sense and to expose a mans self to all the temptations that either the Devil or a mans own Lust or a sordid Melancholy can entangle him in 2. Wherefore by the Light within them they must understand an accountable and rational Conscience within them unless they be perfect Fanaticks or Mad-men or what is worse mere Impostors and Cheats who would pretend to a Conscience but yet irrational and unaccountable to any one and hereby have the liberty of doing what they please being given up at length to nothing but Fury and Lust. And then lastly This Conscience within them is not a thing so absolutely within them that it can take no information from what is without For it is manifest that this Lamp of God that burneth in us is fed and nourished from external Objects For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by things that are made for by these from without are we advertised of his Eternal power and Godhead And as we are thus taught by the outward Book of Nature concerning the Existence of God and his general Providence in the world as to the necessities of life both of Men and Beasts so may we also by external VVritings or Records be more fully informed of a more special Providence of his to the Sons of men concerning the State in the other world and of that Eternal life manifested by Christ. But I grant that it is still this Light within us that judges and concludes after the perusal of either the Volumes of Nature or of Divine Revelation 3. But as he that gives his Mind to Mathematicks Architecture Husbandry
do the utmost of despight unto him for all one might have thought that Apologetical reason for the business might have prevented their choler or asswaged it Is it lawfull to do good on the Sabbath-day or to do evil to save life or to destroy it But methinks there cannot be imagined any answer so smart and hit more home then that in the second of Mark v. 27. The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath Where the well-prepared Christian is taught in a short sentence worthy to be writ in letters of Gold or rather in the Heart of every holy and understanding man not only what concerns the Sabbath but even the whole businesse of Religion That it is rather Hominis gratiâ quà m Dei and that though God's Honour be mainly pretended in it yet it is mans Happinesse that is really intended by it even of God himself Which wretched men of ignorant and dark mindes and deeply levened with the sowr Pharisaical leven understanding not create much trouble to themselves and all the world besides in their peevish and inept prosecution of matters of Religion they being no meet Judges of their either Apprehensions or Actions whom the Divine Freedome and Benignity has transformed into a contrary nature to themselves 4. Now for Neutrality that seems so intolerable and detestable to those whose uncurbed desire of worldly advantage or humorous projects makes them even hate all that may be and yet are not instrumental to their precipitate designs it is so far from being a Fault in our Saviour that in my opinion it was a very graceful Ornament in the demeanour of so Divine and Pious a Personage as he was who was set apart for better purposes then to attend Political Squabbles and Dissensions which seldom fail of being begun and continued from any better Principles then Envy Ambition and Covetousnesse Our Saviour being very craftily tempted to declare himself to be of judgement either for or against Caesar Matth. 22. by this Question Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or no he as warily avoids giving his sentence for the justnesse of this or that cause as may be returning only this well-attemper'd Answer Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's Ita Christus sapientissimo responso seditionis motae violatae Religionis calumniam in quaestione insidiosissima effugit as that excellent Interpreter observes and so he quits himself from appearing either Herodian Gaulonite or Caesarean 5. What semblances they can feign of Injustice or Partiality will be picked out of such passages as these His unseasonable cursing the Fig-tree for not bearing fruit whenas the time of year was not for fruit His blaming the Pharisees for long Prayers when himself is recorded to have prayed a night together and lastly His quitting the woman that was taken in the very act of Adultery But as for the first As the Fig-tree felt no hurt so no hurt was done in withering it but this was merely a Symbolical passage whereby the judgement of God was prefigured against the unfruitfull Religion of the Jews as I have above noted For long Prayers Whereas our Saviour is said Luke 6. to have gone out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God the Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more likely to signifie in proseucha Dei or Divine Oratory or Place of Prayer to God as is plain from that of the Satyrist Ede ubi consistas in qua te quaero proseucha However it is to be conceived our Saviour condemned rather the Hypocrisie and effectedness of long Prayers then the mere length of them it being impossible for any of so accomplished a Spirit as our Saviour to blame either the shortness or length of mens devotions arising out of a soberly-guided affection not a vain affectation For the acquitting the Adulteresse it cannot be interpreted as a countenancing of any such foul miscarriage but as an exprobration to the Jews of their own wickednesses which whenas they ought to have been conscious to themselves of they should not have been over-forward to do execution upon those that were but sinners as themselves especially that power of condemning and punishing being then in a manner taken out of their hands by the Romans And here Christ did also worthily of that divine and benigne nature which dwelt in him of which this fruit was but as an handful to that full Harvest the Sons of Adam afterward reaped from his Doings and Sufferings 6. As for the Imputation of railing One of the worst speeches that ever fell from his lips was when he called the Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites which according to the propriety of the word is as much as Histriones or Stage-plaiers and indeed the Scribes and Pharisees of old and their posterity ever since have so dressed up themselves and their Religion too that that Title might deservedly have been entailed on them and their seed for ever But Christ elsewhere seems more bitter where he speaks out in plain English Ye are of your Father the Devil But it was a Title that fell out so fittingly for them upon their vain boast of their Father Abraham whose Sonship they had forfeited by being quite of a contrary nature to him that it had been a piece of inexcusable Forgetfulnesse not to have reminded them of their true Descent and Pedigree he having so full authority thereto 7. That seeming injurious and tumultuary Zeal where he whips the Tradesmen out of the Temple and overthrows the Tables of the Money-changers the very manner of the doing of it does justifie the act it being plainly miraculous that a private man destitute both of arms and authority from men should drive so many both from their station and gain Nor would this zeal seem it never so tumultuous look misbecomingly if we did consider from whence it sprung Our Saviour certainly conceived high indignation and sorrow in his heart while he observed that scorn and contempt those blinde Superstitionists the Iews bore against the poor despised Gentiles in thus profaning their Place of worship But I may not stay here especially having touched upon this Objection already I will only cursorily note this That there was nothing could more effectually attempt to move that milde Spirit of our Saviour to Ire and Impatiency then the scornful Pride and smooth Hypocrisie of great Pretenders to Religion 8. What is alledged against him of Despair and Distrust in God is from those last dreadful and Tragical words Eli Eli lama sabacthani which being uttered in the very pangs of death and insufferable torture if they had been more harsh and unreasonable then they seem there had been little reason to accuse Christ for them Christ then according to his humane nature being at the same disadvantage that those
Faith and Devotion and invigorated Meditations of the other State will so fortifie his spirits and strengthen his minde that in all this affliction he will become more then Conquerour through the power of Christ that enables him to all things And by how much the enjoyments of this present life are diminished the more his thoughts are cast upon those that are to come 3. This brief Intimation shall suffice to shew how serviceable Christianity is for comfort and solace in this present life to every true Christian in his private Capacities But I must not omit to discover also that advantage which a Communialty has by becoming truly Christian. Which I am forced to the rather because some have not stuck to pronounce of Christianity as of a Religion never intended for bodies Politick and very disadvantageous for publick Concerns As if Christian Humility Mortification of the Flesh and Patience of Injuries would so cow and soften a Nation that it would make them as helplesse as innocent and thus betray them to the victorious Fierceness of their invading Neighbours and the Precepts of Charity so indispensably urged but slacken the hands of those that are able to work and fill the whole Land with lazy beggars Such like Cavils as these have some ill-willers not only to Christian Religion but as I suspect to any Religion that would curb their inordinate affections invented and cast abroad but more to the detection of their own ignorance and shame then of any Imperfection or Unfitness in Christianity whereby it may not be the Religion of the most flourishing States and Kingdoms that can be constituted 4. In answer therefore to the proposed Objections I will in the first place acknowledge with them That the Gospel was not intended primarily for the advantages of this Life nor bore in it any Politick design for the administration of Publick affairs of State but for making men in their private capacities good and happy and for working their spirits into such a frame of Life and Holiness as would most certainly assure them of that Joy and Glory that is laid up for Believers in the other World But withall I cannot but take notice By how much it is plain that there is no Political or Worldly Design in the Gospel by so much the more evident it is that there is no deceit nor falshood therein and that it is not the cunning contrivance of some crafty Law-giver but an holy sincere and infallible Testimony of the Will of God concerning the True way of Salvation and of the everlasting Happiness of the Souls of men 5. But though I have been so liberal as to allow them thus much yet I deny That there is any thing in Christian Religion but what is not onely not inconsistent with but highly advantageous to a State or Kingdome that becomes truly Christian. For empty noises and names of things do nothing Wherefore I shall affirme That whatever advantages other Religions may be thought to have for conscientious obedience to the supreme Powers and faithfull dealing betwixt man and man which is the universal scope of all Religions as they are made serviceable to bodies Politick Christianity has these and upon more evident and unquestionable grounds then any Religion else whatsoever For what Religion is there in the World that can give that demonstration of a Life to come that Christianity doth in the Resurrection of our blessed Saviour that infallible pledge of immortal Happiness to all his followers The truth therefore of Christian Religion rightly represented being so irrefutably convincing to both the learned the unlearned the Heart and Conscience not onely of the People but also of the Magistrate will be the more irresistably bound to the performance of their mutual duties one to another The Result whereof is an unviolable Peace and with that all such comforts of Life as the best Laws and Governments pretend to aime at for making a Nation happy 6. Nay I adde further that those things that they object against Christianity are such as if a Nation become truly Christian do most effectually reach the chiefest Ends of Political Government Of which one main one is mutual succour in time of need And what is more proper for this then Charity Nor is there any fear that this proneness to help one another shall relaxate the endeavours of the generality of the body Politick but it only sweetens their care and industry and takes off that torturous solicitude that must naturally attend those that know too well that if they cannot hold up themselves they must certainly perish Which desperate consideration forces them to all possible tricks frauds for Self-Preservation Which uncomfortableness of life and the evil temptations thereof are prevented in a Common-wealth that is truly Christian and consequently sincerely Charitable Neither will Laziness thereby be nourished this same Christian frame of Spirit making them all more ambitious of doing then receiving good according to that noble saying of our Saviour It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive 7. And as it is without controversie that Humility the patient Suffering of injuries and the Mortifying the exorbitant desires of the flesh do tend most certainly in a Polity that is become thus Christian to a constant Peaceableness and a faithful and impartial Administration of Iustice in all things For from whence is Warre and Dissension Violence and Injustice but from the inordinate lusts of the Flesh from Pride and Desire of disproportionable Revenge so is it as true also that they make us not a whit more liable to the invasion of our Enemies as becoming thereby more cow'd or soft in Spirit For a due castigation of the lusts of the Flesh rendreth the Body more healthful and hardy whenas Luxury will certainly make it rotten and effeminate and expose it to all manner of diseases And it is a very unskilful conceit to think that Humility will make them such tame things that the enemy may take them up and carry them away at his pleasure For Christian Humility does not consist in being content to be brought under bondage by men but in not despising others and not arrogating any thing to our selves nor seeking unjust dominion over others for our own pleasure and satisfaction 8. Nor does Patience toward particular injuries inure the Christian at all to be remiss in making resistance against an unjust Invader of his Country and Liberties For the very same Principle namely the Divine Love that prompted him to bear private wrong the damages whereof he could better reckon up will as forcibly urge him to resist such publick Violence done against the body of Christ who are more dear unto him then the apple of his eye and their Concerns as much beyond his private Interest as their Number exceeds his single Person His Love therefore to Christ who died for him and whose Cause then shall really lie at the stake His sincere affection to his fellow-members to
6. Which sad Scene of things cannot but move any thoughtful Christian that does in good earnest wish well to his Religion to sift out if it be possible the true Causes of his lamentable condition of Christendome and what are the Impediments that hinder the Gospel which of it self is so powerful an Instrument as it is of Salvation from taking effect with out selves or from having freer passage into other Countries that are yet Pagan That it is our Sinnes every well-meaning man will be ready to reply But the question still remains there being amongst us the most effectual Engine that the Wisdome of God could contrive for the destroying of Sin out of the world why there is no more execution done thereby against the power of Sin and the Kingdome of Darkness then there is The enquiry therefore must be what tampering there has been with this Engine what adding or taking from it to spoil its efficacy what mistakes of the use thereof and the like For that there is something most wretchedly amiss in the use of the Gospel throughout all Christendome is very plain in that the Purpose of it is almost totally frustrated every where and Prophaneness Infidelity and Atheisme have in a manner seized the hearts of all Which most men are ready to confess some with a true Christian sorrow or hearty indignation others with a tacit joy or exteriour flearing as being glad their corrupt thoughts and practices have the countenance of so many suffrages 7. To omit therefore such Principles as are unintelligible and are for ever seal'd up out of our sight let us look upon what is intelligible and visible Let us produce such Causes into view which no man can deny but that they are as general as these horrid diseases and are extremely inclining if not absolutely effectual and necessitating the Christian world into this abominable condition it is found in at this day and many Ages before CHAP. II. 1. The most fundamental Mistake and Root of all the Corruptions in the Church of Christ. 2. That there maybe a Superstition also in opposing of Ceremonies and in long Prayers and Preachments 3. That self-chosen Religion extinguishes true Godliness every where 4. The unwholsome and windy food of affected Orthodoxality with the mischievous consequences thereof 5. That Hypocrisy of Professours fills the World with Atheists 6. That the Authoritative Obtrusion of gross falsities upon men begets a misbelief of the whole Mystery of Piety 7. That all the Churches of Christendome stand guilty of this mischievous miscarriage 8. The infinite inconvenience of the Superlapsarian doctrine 1. WHerefore freely to profess what I think in my own conscience to be true The most universal and most fundamental Mistake in Christendome and that from whence all the Corruption of the Church began and is still continued and increased is that conceited estimation of Orthodox opinions and external Ceremony before the indispensable practice of the Precepts of Christ and a faithful endeavour to attain to the due degrees of the real Renovation of our inward man into true and living Holiness and Righteousness in stead whereof there is generally substituted Curiosity of Opinion in points imperscrutable and unprofitable Obtrusion of Ceremonies numerous cumbersome and not onely needless but much unbeseeming the unsuspected modesty of the Spouse of Christ who should take heed of symbolizing any way with Idolatry which is spiritual Adultery or Fornication For while the Heart goes a whoring after those outward shows and an over-value be put upon them the inward life of Godliness will easily be extinguished and Love to the indispensable Law of Christ grow cold and dead Nay they that have the greatest zeal and fierceness as I may so speak towards Religion there is invented such an heap and cumbersome load of external performances that such a Zelot as this may spend all his strength upon the mere Outworks of Piety before he can come near to take the Fort Royal or enter the Law of perfect Liberty the Divine Life which consists in true Humility perfect Purity and sincere Charity For all such Ceremonies make but a show in the flesh nor can reach to the Regeneration of our Mindes into the unfeigned Love of our brethren Whence the most seemingly religious this way may be the most accursedly cruel and unjust the most implacable and uncharitable that can be And yet according to that false model of Religion that humane invention has set out to the world he may both take himself and others also may take him to be Seraphically pious though in the judgment of Christ and of his true Church he lie in the gall of Bitterness and bond of Iniquity 2. And in other parts of Christendome where the pomp of Ceremonies and exteriour Superstition is not so much urged though a man at first sight might hope that things would be much better yet experience will teach him that there is little amendment and that the Causes of Degeneracy of gross Hypocrisy and Wickedness are even as operative and as well appointed to work their effect there as in other places For this also is Superstition to place our Religion in opposing external Ceremonies and to think every man the more pious by how much the more zealous he is against them Wherefore our affections being drawn out in this hot Antipathy our hearts grow cold to the indispensable duties of the Gospel which are Love Patience Meekness and brotherly-Kindness with the rest of those fruits that demonstrate that the Tree of life that the Life of Christ is planted in us and that the Spirit of God abideth in us Besides that we are to remember that we may idolize long Prayers and frequent Preachments and that they may make up an external Religion to us in stead of that Godliness that is indispensable and internal and an ever-flowing fountain of all comely and profitable Actions and deportments towards God and towards men 3. I say therefore that this Self-chosen Religion in all the parts of Christendome though it be but such as a wicked man may perform as dexterously and plausibly as the most truly righteous and regenerate being so highly extolled and recommended to the people is almost an irresistible temptation to make them really and morally wicked For that natural inclination and appetite in mankinde to Religion being satisfied or eluded by this unwholsome food they can have no desire to that which is true Religion indeed and will be very glad to be excus'd from it it being more hard at first to embrace or practice whence it is in a manner necessary for them to let it alone 4. And they will the more easily abstain from it there being another poisonous Vâ—and that swells them so that they are ready to burst again which is that highly-esteemed Knowledge called Orthodoxness or Rightness of Opinion Of which the Apostle Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth This seems so glorious in their eyes that they phansy themselves
Angels of light and fit to enter into the presence of God if they be but neatly elegantly trimm'd up in these fine ornaments of Orthodoxality â—esotted fools blinde and carnal that think to recommend themselves to the Majesty of Heaven by being array'd in these motly coats this strip'd stuff of their own spinning While they thus affect the favour oâ— God by opinionative Knowledge how do they betray their gross Ignorance For how can that which is more pleasing to the natural man nay I may say to the Devil himself then to a regenerate Soul how can that render any one acceptable to God And yet in all the Divisions of the Churches they lay the greatest stress upon this bear the greatest zeal toward it recommend it the most vehemently to the people who following the example of their Pastours if they be but busie hot in these rending points they think themselves fully possest of the life of Christ and that they are very choicely religious though in the mean time Charity to their neighbour be cold they have attain'd to no measure of true Righteousness and Holiness Herein chiefly lies the mystery of Hypocrisy in all the Churches of Christendome counting all pious that are but zealous for the waies and opinions of their Sect and those that are not for it be they never so unblameable and cordial Christians they are either hated as Hereticks or at best pitied for poor Moralists mere Natural Men. 5. These are the most general and very potent Impediments for the hindring the Gospel of taking that effect which it would otherwise have in the Christian World and for making most of the professours of Christianity Hypocrites that is such as make a great show of Godliness but deny the power thereof which should mainly appear in our duty to our Neighbour and in a sober and just conversation doing all things as in the sight of God Now this Hypocrisy in Professours begets Prophaneness Atheisme and Unbelief in such persons as naturally have not so strong propension to matters of Religion that is to say that have not so superstitious a Complexion as to be tied to Religion upon any termes in any dress and from any kinde of Recommenders of it For their natural Nasuteness suggests that if there be any Religion at all most certainly it is not to be divided from sound Morality to which truly both the Prophets Apostles and Precepts of Christ do plentifully witness But they observing that they that make the greatest noise about Religion and are the most zealous therein do neglect the Laws of Honesty and common Humanity that they can easily invade other mens rights that they can juggle dissemble and lie for advantage that they are proud and conceited and love the applause of the People that they are envious fierce and implacable that they are unclean and sensual that they are merciless and cruel and care not to have Kingdomes to flow in bloud for the maintaining of their Tyranny over the consciences of poor deluded Souls when yet the contest is nothing but about hay and stubble the combustible superstructures of Humane Invention of which every vainglorious Superstitionist that would make a show in the flesh has cast on his handfull if not his arm-full for the hiding and smothering of the indispensable Truths of the Gospel and to put men into perplexities and labours for that which is not bread to rack their heads with Nonsense Contradictions and Impossibilities to weary out their bodies with the thankless toyle of endless and needless Ceremonies and to carry out their heart to toyes and trifles and so make them neglect the holy and weighty commands of our Saviour which are intelligible to all men and in some measure approved by all such as are To deal as we would be dealt with To love our neighbours as our selves and the like I say those that are not of so religious a Complexion naturally but have wit and sagacity enough to smell out the Corruptions and discern the Incoherences of the Actions of Professors making observation of these things are by this Scandal exceedingly tempted and very hardly escape the being quite overcome by so perverse a Scene of pretended Piety to think that the whole Business of Religion is nothing but Humour and Madness or at the best but a Plot to enrich the Priest and keep the People in awe 6. This is one great Scandal and effectual counterplot against the power of the Gospel the Vilifying and despising of Moral honesty by those that are great Zelots and high Pretenders to Religion This does advance Atheisme and Prophaneness very much But there is another Miscarriage which I have hinted at already as Epidemical and Universal and at least as effectual to this evil purpose as the former There is scarce any Church in Christendome at this day that does not obtrude not only Falshoods but such Falshoods that will appear to any free spirit pure Contradictions and Impossibilities and that with the same Gravity Authority and Importunity that they doe the holy Oracles of God Now the consequence of this must needs be fad For what knowing and consciencious man but will be driven off if he cannot profess the truth without open asserting of a gross lie If he sees good wine poured out of one bottle but rank poison out of another into the same cup who can perswade him to drink thereof This is a heavy sight to the truly-Religious but the joy and triumph of the Prophane who willingly take this advantage against the whole Mystery of Piety as if there were no truth at all in it because that so gross Falshoods are urg'd upon them with the same Indispensableness with the same Solemness Devoutness as those things that were it not for the serious Impudence of the Priest in other open falsities might pass with them for true But they being not at leisure to perpend things to the bottom but it may be not altogether indisposed to believe a faithfull report from an honest man they finding the Relater foully tripping in some things that he so earnestly urges discredit the whole Narration and so become perfect Atheists and Unbelievers though for their own security they juggle with the Juglers that is comply and doe outward reverence and devotion though they cannot but laugh in their sleeves at either the Ignorance or cunning Deceitfulness of their Ghostly Leaders 7. And that I may not seem to slander the state of Christendome I mean of the whole visible Church in what Nation soever under Heaven if we may believe Historians there is none neither Greek nor Roman neither Lutheran nor Calvinist but will be found guilty of this fault I shall particularize in some one thing in all The Greek as well as the Roman hold Transsubstantiation the Lutheran Consubstantiation things that have no ground in Scripture and are a palpable contradiction to Reason And yet not more contradictious then Absolute Reprobation according as our rigid
Christian Magistrate if he can supply himself with those that are 3. That the Christian Magistrate is to lay aside the fallible opinions of men and promote every one in Church and State according to his merit in the Christian life and his ability promoting the interest of the Church of Christ and the Nation he serves 4. That he is to continue or provide an honourable and competent allowance for them that labour in the word and doctrine 5. That the vigilancy of the Christian Magistrate is to keep under such Sects as pretend to Immediate Inspiration unaccountable and unintelligible to sober Reason and why 6 That the endeavour of impoverishing the Clergy smels rank of Prophaneness Atheisme and Infidelity 7. That the Christian Magistrate is either to erect or keep up Schools of Humane Learning with the weighty grounds thereof 8. A further enforcement of those grounds upon the fanatick Perfectionists 9. The hideous danger of casting away the History of the Gospel upon pretence of keeping to the Light within us 1. TO come to a Conclusion therefore and to touch the Point we have aimed at all this time What a Christian Prince or the Supreme Magistracy may contribute to the advancement of the Gospel of Christ From these general Principles we may inferre First that he is to give Liberty of Conscience to all such as have not forfeited it namely such as I have last of all described especially if they be Natives of the place were it possible for them to be of any Religion then Christian. But withall to require a publick and solemn account of their change of Religion wherein it may appear whether it be Conscience or Design or humour that makes them Apostatize Which either fraud or giddiness shall make the party obnoxious to such rebuke and penalty as may probably deterre the people from the like causeless revolts But if the person be of a serious life and shall be found to have changed his opinion upon such grounds of Reason as though false yet may possibly mislead a wel-meaning man yet for sureness he shall be put upon his Oath Which test though it be abused to over-petty matters yet certainly must not loose its due use in causes of so solemn importance In which kind of cases if any refuse upon a pretended scrupulosity of swearing at all and in an affectation of seeming more precisely holy then others without question it is not Religion but some fathomless depth of knavery that lies at the bottom and they may justly be suspected of some treasonable and treacherous design against the Religion and Government under which they live Wherefore before they should have liberty to profess themselves of another Religion they should be required to take a solemn Oath with a deep Imprecation of Divine vengeance upon Soul and Body that nothing moves them thereto but mere conviction of Conscience and that they have no secular design at all in their change nor desire any more liberty then what they think themselves bound in conscience to allow to others Which publick Examination and Oath is very useful also and justifiable upon mens relinquishing of the publick worship of God in the Churches though they do not professedly declare themselves to be no Christians For not to joyn with them in publick worship is the next door to that Apostasy This practice would be of infinite advantage for the Truth of Christianity For hereby the Priesthood will be more cautious how they clogge the Gospel with unwarrantable trumperies and those that would revolt by this calling them to an account first shall be forced to feel the strength and solidity of that Religion they would bid adieu to and their secret designes prevented by the solemnity of an Oath And lastly the Christian Magistrate by giving this liberty after these due circumstances which assuredly he will have very seldome occasion for by reason of the Evidence of our Religion will avoid the justifying the iniquity of other Religions who not by power of Reason and Conscience but by outward Force hinder their Natives from turning Christians 2. But Secondly Though these serious people shall not be deprived of their Liberty Lives or Estates nor any way impaired in their private fortunes yet they shall be disabled from bearing any Office of trust in the Commonwealth especially if there be of the Christian Religion that will manage them with equal skil and fidelity For it is plainly unnaturall if not impossible that a man that is serious in his Religion should not prefer one of his own Faith before a Stranger if in other things they be equal Besides that the Lawes of Caution and Prudence cannot fail to suggest so reasonable a choice which are very much to be listned to in things of this nature For present possession of power is better assurance then the Oath of well-meaning but withall of temptable and lapsable Mortals 3. Thirdly The Christian Magistrate is to give no assistance of his power nor countenance any further then Christianity it self is concerned that is to say He is to give that assistance which is due from a Magistrate for the defending and promoting of our Religion so far forth as it is plainly discoverable in the written Word of God in the Literal and Historical meaning thereof For to cant onely in Allegories is to deny the Faith of Christ. And as for Opinions though some may be better then othersome yet none should exclude from the fullest enjoyment of either private or publick Rights suppose there be no venome of the Persecutive spirit mingled with them But every one that professes the Faith of Christ and believeth the Scripture in the Historical sense thereof let his Opinions be otherwise what they will he is according to his life worth and ability every where to be preferred in either Church or State Which is absolutely the most advantageous way for the advancing of the Gospel and making the World good that the Wit of man can find out And External Force being so unfitting in it self and most of all unbecoming the Christian Magistrate in matters of Religion what one might fancy lost in laying aside Persecution would in as great a measure be regained by countenancing this free and naked Representation of the Beauty and Perfection of the Gospel quite rid of all pretended Traditions and whatever obfuscations and entanglements of humane Invention For then the Truth of God would be like an unsheathed sword bright and glittering sharp and cutting and irresistibly convincing the rational Spirit of a man Whenas now our Religion is wrapt up in so many wreathes of hay and straw that mo man can see nor feel the edge of it 4. Fourthly Being Compulsion is not to be used nor Prudence excluded For it is the same fanatical madness to exile Prudence out of affairs of Church and State as to exclude Reason and Mathematicks out of Philosophy it is very plain that the Christian Magistrate is engaged to adde to Liberty
Enthusiastick temper such as are most of the honester and better-meaning Quakers For if in their bewildred wandrings they take up their Inne here let them look to it that they be not robbed of all the Articles of the Christian Faith and be stripped into naked Infidelity and Paganisme and which is worst of all be so intoxicated with the cup of this Inchantress as to think this injury their gain and to prefer false Liberty before their Christian Simplicity and those gaudy and phantastick Titles of being Deified and begodded before the real possession of Christian Truth and Godliness 8. These things both here and elsewhere I have been forced to utter to the world for it was as fire within me and the discharging of my burden as it is mine own ease and satisfaction so I do not despair but if there be that sincere Zeal to Truth and Holiness that is pretended that it will redound to the safety of these melancholy Wanderers that look up and down for Truth with that candle of the Lord the Spirit that he has lighted in them But however where it shall not take effect I shall neverthelesse be excused and their bloud will be upon themselves and their accursed Seducers 9. I know the haughty and covetous that rellish nothing but the tearing to themselves undeserved respect from men and clawing of money to them any way with their crooked talons will hardly abstain even from open derision of my zeal and solicitude for so contemned a people and look upon me as a man of very mean designs that would any way intermeddle with these poor despised Pilgrims But these worldly Sophists consider not that the gaining of the meanest Soul to Eternal Salvation is really a greater prize then purchasing whole Kingdoms upon Earth and infinitely above all the pains of any mans applications thereto And besides for mine own part I have ever had so right a sense and touch upon my spirit of their condition that I think none more worthy of a mans best direction then they the most imperious Sects having put such unhandsome vizards upon Christianity that they have frighted away these babes that seem to me very desirous of the sincere milk of the Word Which having been every where so sophisticated by the humours and inventions of men it has driven these anxious Melancholists to seek for a Teacher within and to cast themselves upon him who they know will not deceive them the voice of the Eternall Word within them to which if they be faithfull they assure themselves he will be faithfull to them again Which is no groundless presumption of theirs it supposing nothing but what is very closely consistent with the Nature of God and his Providence And truly as many of them as do persist in that serious and impartial desire of such knowledge as tends to Life and Godliness I do not question but that God will in his due time lead them into the Truth and that they will be more confirmed Christians then ever 10. Which success of theirs will be more speedy and sure if as they set themselves against other vices so they mainly bend their force against Spiritual Pride and affectation of peculiarity in Religion and of finding themselves wiser in the mysteries thereof then the best of Christians have pretended to And above all things if they beware of Enthusiasme either in themselves or others or of thinking that the gift of the Spirit can be any Revelation that is contrary to Reason or the acknowledged History of Christ the truth thereof being so rationally evincible to all such as apply themselves without prejudice to examine it to the bottom If in pursuance of their sincere intentions they keep off from these rocks I doubt not but they will return safe again to Iesus Christ the great Pastor and Bishop of their Souls CHAP. XIV 1. That Publick Worship is essential to Religion and inseparable when free from Persecution The right measure of the Circumstances thereof 2. Of the Fabrick and Beauty of Churches according to that measure 3. The main things he intends to touch upon concerning Publick Worship 4. That the Churches of Christians are not Temples the excellency of our Religion being incompliable with that Notion 5. The vanity of the Sectarians exception against the word Church applied to the appointed places of Publick Worship 6. That though the Church be no Temple yet it is in some sense holy and what respect there is to be had of it and what reverence to be used there 7. Of Catechizing Expounding and Preaching 8. Of Prayer and what is the true praying by the Spirit 9. The Excellency of publick Liturgies 10. What is the right End of the Ministry 11. Certain special uses of Sermons and of the excellency of our Saviour Christs Sermon on the Mount 12. The best way for one to magnifie his Ministry 13. Of the Holy Communion who are to be excluded and of the posture of receiving it 14. Of the time of Baptism and the Signe of the Crosse. 15. Of Songs and Hymns to be composed by the Church and of Holy-daies 16. Of the celebrating the Passion-day and the Holy Communion 17. Of Images and Pictures in places of Publick Worship 18. A summary advertisement concerning Ceremonies and Opinions 1. AFter this charitable Digression to meet with the Quakers let us resume our business in hand and make an end The sixth and last thing that concerns the Care of the Christian Magistrate is Publick Worship Which seems to me so natural and essential to Religion that it cannot fail to appear unless some force hinder it in which case they will venture to meet in private Conventicles that is they will exercise their Acts of Religion as publickly as they dare and will not be content to be confined to their Closets at home Ioint-exercise therefore of Religion is confessed of all sides which therefore must necessarily be external and visible Now no visible actions can be done without visible Circumstances and amongst these Circumstances some are more fit and decorous some less as is manifest at the first sight Nor will it be hard to judge of the fitness or decorum of these Circumstances if we can finde out a measure of them which certainly is the End and meaning of them Which is the expression of our Honour and Reverence to God and to his Son Iesus Christ and the Edification of our Neighbour 2. By which Rule we shall discover concerning the Meeting-House as some had rather call it then the Church that it ought to be of a comely structure proportionably magnificent to the number of the People that are to have recourse to it in the common exercise of their Devotions For though men of equal condition may make bold with themselves and meet in what place they please yet it would be thought a piece of grosse unmannerliness to expect a Prince to give an inferiour Peasant the meeting in a Barn or Cow-stable Would it
not look then like a piece of irreligious rudeness which is truly a kinde of Prophaneness to expect that Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ should give us the meeting in squalid and sordid places even then when we pretend most to shew our Reverence and Devotion to him For though we may make bold one with another to meet where we please yet we making our approaches to God in those places and he thereby making his special approaches to us for in a Philosophical sense he is every where alike questionless it cannot but be an expression of our Reverence unto him to have the Structure of the place proportionably capacious well and fairly built and handsomely adorned and as properly and significantly of our Religion and devotional homages we owe to our crucified Saviour as can be without suspicion of Idolatry or any scandalous Superstition For it is true from the very light of Nature which the knowledge of Christ does not extinguish but direct and perfect That Houses of Publick worship ought to have some Stateliness and Splendour in them expressive of the Reverence we bear to the Godhead we do adore And therefore the Christian Magistrate for the honour of his Saviour who suffered so much shame for him as also for making Christian Religion more recommendable to them that are without for Religion will not seem Religion to any without Publick worship nor a desirable Religion unless this Publick worship be performed with inoffensive Splendour and Decency ought to assist and abett such good practices as these 3. It is beyond the limits of my present Discourse to make any curious inquisition or determination concerning the particularities of this Publick Worship though I cannot abstain from giving some general hints concerning the due managements of the chief matters thereof such as are most obvious to think of and most useful to consider And such are the Enquiries into the nature of the Place of this Publick worship and the Holiness thereof and our Demeanour therein and especially of those chief performances of Preaching Praying Receiving the Sacrament of Baptisme also and of Holy-days To which we may adde those accessory helps of Devotion as some account them Musick and Pictures Concerning which I shall rather simply declare my sense of things then solicitously endeavour to demonstrate my Conclusions by over-operose Reasonings which will but raise a dust and provoke the Polemical Rabble 4. Concerning therefore this House of Publick Worship the Christians meet in I conceive there is no need to phansie it a Temple nay rather it seems fit to look upon it as no Temple the use of that Ceremony being antiquated by the excellency and supereminency of our Religion For the famed Iehovah is not now a Topical Deity nor Christ confined to this or that City or People but is the declared Worship of the whole Earth and is not contained within the wals of any Temple but has his personal Residence in Heaven whither our Devotions are to be directed and our Mindes suspended and lifted up thitherward not debased nor defixed to the corners of any earthly Edifice into which when a man looks he findes nothing worthy of adoration To which Truth both Stephen and Paul give their suffrage the one declaring to the Iews the other to the Areopagites That the most High who is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And our Saviour himself to the Samaritan woman who was solicitous which of those Temples that of Samaria or that of Ierusalem was the right place of Worship he tels her plainly that such Topical or Figurative worshipping of God was shortly to cease That the hour was coming and then was when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth that is by the inward Sanctity of their Souls and with the true service of Prayers and Praises and Alms-deeds of which Incense and Sacrifices were but the figures and shadows Let my prayer be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice To do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased And lastly S. Iohn in his Apocalyps describing the condition of the New Ierusalem which is the Church of Christ in her best state I saw saith he no Temple there for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it That is their worship is directed immediatly towards God and Christ not to any place as the Jews ever worshipped toward the Temple of Ierusalem 5. But though the nature and name of a Temple does not belong to this House of Publick worship according to the sense of Scripture which made also the Primitive Christians carefully abstain from that nomination yet I do not see any ground at all why some of our phanciful Sects should take offence at the name of Church applied thereto For the Church being an house wherein we meet to serve the Lord whether God the Father or Christ his Son both which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this house is naturally there from denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek whence is our English word Church as every trivial Grammarian can tell them 6. But now it being thus plain that it is an house for Divine worship and therefore has a special relation to God though it be not dedicated in such a solemn manner as Solomon's Temple yet it does necessarily contract a kinde of Holiness hereby and by this Holiness some measure of respect namely that it should be kept in handsome repair and be carefully defended from all foulness and nastiness both within and without And because Custome has appropriated it to the service of God unless very great necessity urge it is not to be made use of to any other purposes Those that are otherwise affected in this matter may justly seem guilty of a kinde of Incivility against God as I may so call it and hazard the being accounted Clowns in the sight of the Court of Heaven and all the holy Angels As that also might be reputed a piece of unskilfulness and obsolete Courtship to complement any one part of this House as if there were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there and the Ark of the Covenant For this would be to turn the Church of Christ into a Temple Wherefore those that at their entrance into the Congregation either kneel down or standing do their private devotion and continue bare-headed before Divine Service begin they mean not this Devotion to the Edifice but testifie only with what fear and reverence they make their approaches to God and their Hearts being in preparation to a nearer approach shew their sense of his coming nearer to them by this reverential observance For Veneration is done at the coming of great
Echo and daughter Iambe 5. The interpretation of his horns hairiness red face long beard goats feet and laughing countenance 69 CHAP. VII 1. That as the World or Universe was deified in Pan so were the parts thereof in Coelius Juno Neptune Vulcan Pluto Ops Bacchus Ceres c. 2. That the Night was also a Deity and why they sacrificed a Cock to her with the like reason of other Sacrifices 3. Interiour Manifestations that concern the Animal life namely that of Wrath and Love which are the Pagans Mars and Venus 4. Minerva Mercurius Eunomia c. Manifestations referred to the Middle life 5. The agreement of the Greeks Religion with the Romans as also with the Aegyptians 6. Their worship of the River Nilus c. 7. That the Religion of the rest of the Nations of the world was of the same nature with that of Rome Greece and Aegypt and reached no further then the Animal life 8. And that their worshipping of men deceased stood upon the same ground 71 CHAP. VIII 1. That Judaisme also respected nothing else but the Gratifications of the Animal life as appears in all their Festivals 2. That though the People were held in that low dispensation yet Moses knew the meaning of his own Types and that Immortality that was to be revealed by Christ. 3. That their Sabbaths reached no further then things of this life 4. Nor their Sabbatical years and Iubilees 5. Nor their Feasts of Trumpets 6. Nor their Feast of Tabernacles 7. Nor their Pentecost 8. Nor lastly their Feast of Expiation 74 CHAP. IX 1. The Preeminency of Judaism above Paganism 2. The Authors of the Religions of the Heathen who they were 3. How naturally lapsed Mankind fals under the superstitious Tyranny of Devils 4. The palpable effects of this Tyranny in the Nations of America 5. That that false and wilde Resignation in the Quakers does naturally expose them to the Tyranny of Satan 6. That their affectation of blinde impulses is but a preparation to Demonical possession and a way to the restoring of the vilest Superstitions of Paganism 76 CHAP. X. 1. The Devil 's usurped dominion of this world and how Christ came to dispossess him 2. The largeness of the Devil's dominion before the coming of Châ—ist 3. The Nation of the Iews the light of the world and what influence they might have on other Nations in the mâ—dst of the reign of Paganisme 4. That if our Hemisphere was any thing more tolerable then the American it is to be imputed to the Doctrine of the Patriarchs Moses and the Prophets 5. That this Influence was so little that all the Nations besides were Idolaters most of them exercising of obscene and cruel Superstitions 78 CHAP. XI 1. The villanous Rites of Cybele the Mother of the Gods 2. Their Feasts of Bacchus 3. Of Priapus and the reason of sacrificing an Ass to him 4. Their Lupercalia and why they were celebrated by naked men 5. The Feasts of Flora. 6. Of Venus and that it was the Obscene Venuâ— they worshipped 7. That their Venus Urania or Queen of Heaven is also but Earthly lust as appears from her Ceremonies 8. That this Venus is thought to be the Moon Her lascivious and obscene Ceremonies 79 CHAP. XII 1. Of their famous Eleusinia how foul and obscene they were 2. The magnificency of those Rites and how hugely frequented 3. That the bottome thereof was but a piece of Baudery held up by the Obscene and ridiculous story of Ceres and Baubo 4. Of their foul superstitions in Tartary Malabar Narsinga and the whole Continent of America 82 CHAP. XIII 1. The bloudy Tyranny of the Devil in his cruel Superstitions The whipping of the prime youth of Lacedaemon at the Altar of Diana 2. The sacrificing to Bellona and Dea Syria with the Priests own bloud The bloud of the sick vow'd to be offered in Cathaia and Mangi with other vile and contemptuous abuses of Satan 3. Other scornful and harsh misusages in Siam and Pegu. Men squeezed to death under the wheels of an Idols Chariot in the Kingdome of Naisinga and Bisnagar 4. Foul tedious Pilgrimages in Zeilan together with the cuttings and slashings of the flesh of the Pilgrim 5. Whipping eating the earth plucking out eyes before the Idol in New-Spain with their antick and slovenly Ceremonies in Hispaniola 6. The intolerable harshness of their Superstitious Castigations in Mexico and Peru. 7. That these base usages are an infallible demonstration of the Devil's Hatred and Scorn of Mankind 84 CHAP. XIV 1. Men sacrificed to the Devil in Virginia Peru Brasilia They of Guiana and Paâ—ia also eat them being sacrificed The Ceremony of these-Sacrifices in Nicaragua 2. The hungry and bloud-thirsty Devils of Florida and Mexico 3. Their sacrificing of Children in Peru with the Ceremony of drowning a Boy and a Girle in Mexico 4. The manner of the Mexicans sacrificing their Captives 5. The huge numbers of those Sacrifices in Mexico and of their dancing about the City in the skin of a man new flay'd 6. And in New-Spain in the skin of a woman 86 CHAP. XV. 1. The sacrificing of Children to Moloch in the valley of Hinnom 2. That it was not a Februation but real Burning of them 3. That this custome spred from Syria to Carthage 4. Further Arguments thereof with the mistake of Saturn being called Israel rectified by Grotius And that Abraham's offering up Isaac was no occasion at all to these execrable sacrifices 5. Sacrificing of men in Britain Lusitania France Germany Thrace and in the Isle of Man 6. In sundry places also of Greece as Messene Arcadia Chios Aulis Locri Lacedaemon 7. That the Romans were not free neither from these salvage sacrifices 8. To which you may add the Cimbrians Lituanians Aegyptians the Inhabitants of Rhodes Salamis Tenedos Indians Persians c. 87 CHAP. XVI 1. Four things still behind to be briefly touch'd upon for the fuller Preparation to the understanding the Christian Mystery as First the Pagan Catharmata The use of them prov'd out of Caesar 2. As also out of Statius and the Scholiast upon Aristophanes 3. That all their expiatory Men-sacrifices whatsoever were truly Catharmata 4. The Second their Apotheoses or Deifications of men The names of several recited out of Diodorus 5. Of Baal-Peor and how in a manner all the Temples of the Pagans were Sepulchres Their pedigree noted by Lactantius out of Ennius 6. Certain examples of the Deification of their Law-givers 90 CHAP. XVII 1. The Third Observable The Mediation of Demons 2. This Superstition glanced at by the Apostle in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that Daemons are the Souls of men departed according to Hesiod 3. As also according to Plutarch and Maximus Tyrius 4. The Author's inference from this position 92 CHAP. XVIII 1. The Fourth and last thing to be noted namely their Heroes who were thought to be either begot of some God or born of some Goddess the latter whereof is ridiculous if not
impossible 2. The former not at all incredible 3. Franciscus Picus his opinion of the Heroes feigned so by the Poets as begot of the Gods that they were really begotten of some impure Daemons with Josephus his suffrage to the same purpose 4. The Possibility of the thing further illustrated from the impregnation of Mares merely by the Wind asserted by several Authors 5. The application of the History and a further confirmation from the manner of Conception out of Dr. Harvey 6. Examples of men famed for this kind of miraculous Birth of the Heroes on this side the tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 94 CHAP. XIX 1. That out of the Principles we have laid down and the History of the Religions of the Nations we have produced it is easie to give a Reasonable account of all matters concerning our Saviour from his Birth to his Visible return to Iudgement 2. That Christianity is the Summe and Perfection of whatever things were laudable or passable in any Religion that has been in the world 3. The Assertion made good by the enumeration of certain Particulars 4. That our Religion seems to be more chiefly directed to the Nations then the Iews themselves 5. An Enumeration of the main Heads in the History of Christ that he intends to give account of 97 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. THat Christ's being born of a Virgin is no Impossible thing 2. And not only so but also Reasonable in reference to the Heroes of the Pagans 3. And that this outward birth might be an emblem of his Eternal Sonship 4. Thirdly in relation to the Sanctity of his own person and for the recommendation of Continence and Chastity to the world 5. And lastly for the completion of certain prophecies in the Scriptures that pointed at the Messias 99 CHAP. II. 1. That as the Virginity of Christ's Mother recommended Purity so her Meanness recommends Humility to the world as also other Circumstances of Christ's Birth 2. Of the Salutation of the Angel Gabriel and of the Magi. 3. That the History of their Visit helps on also belief and that it is not Reason but Sottishness that excepts against the ministery of Angels 4. His design of continuing a Parallel betwixt the life of Christ and of Apollonius Tyaneus 5. The Pedigree and Birth of Apollonius how ranck they smell of the Animal life 6. The Song of the Angels and the dance of the musical Swans at Apollonius's birth compared 101 CHAP. III. 1. That whatever miraculously either happened to or was done by our Saviour till his Passion cannot seem impossible to him that holds there is a God and ministration of Angels 2. Of the descending of the Holy Ghost and the Voice from Heaven at his Baptisme 3. Why Christ exposed himself to all manner of hardship and Temptations 4. And particularly why he was tempted of the Devil with an answer to an Objection touching the Devil's boldness in daring to tempt the Son of God 5. How he could be said to shew him all the Kingdoms of the Earth 6. The reason of his fourty daies fast 7. And of his Transfiguration upon the Mount The three first reasons 8. The meaning of Moses and Elias his receding and Christ's being left alone 9. The last reason of his Transfiguration That it was for the Confirmation of his Resurrection and the Immortality of the Soul 10. Testimonies from Heaven of the Eminency of Christs person 103 CHAP. IV. 1. What miraculous accidents in Apollonius his life may seem parallel to these of Christs His superstitious fasting from flesh and abstinence from wine out of a thirst after the glory of foretelling things to come 2. Apollonius a Master of Iudiciary Astrology and of his seven Rings with the names of the seven Planets 3. Miraculous Testimonies given to the eminency of Apollonius his Person by Aesculapius and Trophonius how weak and obscure 4. The Brachmans high Encomium of him with an acknowledgment done to him by a fawning Lion The ridiculous Folly of all these Testimonies 107 CHAP. V. 1. Three general Observables in Christs Miracles 2. Why he several times charged silence upon those he wrought his Miracles upon 3. Why Christ was never frustrated in attempting any Miracle 4. The vanity of the Atheists that impute his Miracles to the power of Imagination 5. Of the delusive and evanid viands of Witches and Magicians 108 CHAP. VI. 1. Of Christs dispossessing of Devils 2. An account of there being more Daemoniacks then ordinary in our Saviours time As first from a possible want of care or skill how to order their Mad-men or Lunaticks 3. The second from the power of the Devil being greater before the coming of Christ then after 4. That not only Excommunication but Apostasy from Christ may subject a man to the Tyranny of Satan as may seem to have fallen out in several of the more desperate Sects of this Age. 5. An enumeration of sundry Daemoniacal symptoms amongst them 6. More of the same nature 7. Their profane and antick imitations of the most solemn passages in the History of Christ. 8. A further solution of the present difficulties from the premised considerations 9. A third and fourth Answer from the fame of their cure and the conflex of these Daemoniacks into one Country 10. A fifth from the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. The sixth and last Answer That it is not at all absurd to admit there was a greater number of real Daemoniacks in Christs time then at other times from the useful end of their then abounding 110 CHAP. VII 1. That the History of the Daemoniack whose name was Legion has no incongruity in it 2. That they were a Regiment of the Dark Kingdome that haunted most the Country of the Gadarens and that whether we conceive their Chieftain alone or many of his army to possess the man there is no absurdity therein 3. How it came to pass so many Devils should clatter about one forty person 4. The Reason of Christs demanding of the Daemoniacks name and the great use of recording this History 5. The numerosity of the Devils discovered by their possession of the Swine 6. Several other Reasons why Christ permitted them to enter into the Gadarens heards 7. That Christ offended against the laws of neither Compassion nor Iustice in this permission 114 CHAP. VIII 1. Of Christ's turning water into wine 2. The Miraculous draught of Fish 3. His whipping the Money-changers out of the Temple 4. His walking on the Sea and rebuking the Winde 5. His cursing the Fig-tree 6. The meaning of that Miracle 7. The reason why he expressed his meaning so aenigmatically 8. That both the Prophets and Christ himself as in the Ceremonies he used in curing the man that was born blind spoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Typical Actions 9. The things that were typified in those ceremonies Christ used in healing the blinde as in his tempering Clay and Spittle 10. A further
circumstances thereof 5. That Contradictions notwithstanding are to be excluded out of Religion 6. And that the Divinity of Christ and the Triunity of the Godhead have nothing contradictious in them 453 CHAP. II. 1. That there is a latitude of Sense in the words of Athanasiuâ— his Creed and that One and Unity has not the same signification every where 2. The like in the terms God and Omnipotent 3. Of the word Equal and to what purpose so distinct a knowledge of the Deity was coâ—municated to the Church 4. In what sense the Son and Holy Ghost are God That Divine adoration is their unquestionable right And that there is an intelligible sense of Athanasius his Creed and such as supposes neither Polytheâ—sme Idolatry nor Impossibility 5. That there is no intricacy in the Divinity of Christ but what the Schools have brought in by their false notions of Suppositum and Union Hypostatical 6. That the Union of Christ with the Eternal Word implies no Contradiction and how warrantable an Object he is of Divine worship 7. The Application thereof to the Iewes 8. The Union of Christ with God compared with that of the Angels that bore the Name Jehovah in the Old Testament 9. The reasonableness of our Saviours being united with the Eternal Word and how with that Hypostasis distinct from the others 455 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 the more dull or illiterate 7. The danger of debasing the Gospel to the dulness of shallâ—â—ness of every weak apprehension 459 CHAP. IV. 1. The due demeanour of a Christian Mystagogus in communicating the Truth of the Gospel 2. That the chiefest care of all is that he speak nothing but what is profitable for life and godliness 3. A just reprehension of the scopeless zeal of certain vain Boanerges of these times 4. That the abuse of the Ministery to the undermining the main Ends of the Gospel may hazard the continuance thereof 5. That any heat and zeal does not constitute a living Ministry 461 CHAP. V. 1. The nature of Historical Faith 2. That true Saving Faith is properly Covenant and of the various significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. In what Law and Covenant agree 4. In what Law and Testament 5. In what Covenant and Testament agree 6. That the Church might have called the Doctrine of Christ either the New Law or the New Covenant 7. Why they have styled it rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Reason 8. Other Reasons thereof 9. The occasion of translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The New Testament 463 CHAP. VI. 1. That there were more Old Covenants then one 2. What Old Covenant that was to which this New one is especially counterdistinguished with a brief intimation of the difference of them 3 4. An Objection against the difference delivered with the Answer thereto 5. The Reason why the Second Covenant is not easily broken 6. That the importance of the Mystery of the Second Covenant engages him to make a larger deduction of the whole matter out of S. Paul 466 CHAP. VII 1. The different states of the Two Covenants set out Galat. 4. by a double similitude 2. The nature of the Old Covenant adumbrated in Agar 3. As also further in her Son Ismael 4. The nature of the New Covenaent adumbrated in Sarah 5. As also in Isaac her Son and in Israel his offspring 6. The necessity of imitating Abraham's faith that the Spiritual Isaac or Christ may be born in us 7. The grand difference hetwixt the First and Second Covenant where in it doth consist With a direction by the by to the most eminent Object of our Faith 8. The Second main point wherein this difference consists namely Liberty and that First from Ceremonies and Opinions 9. Secondly from all kind of Sins and disallowable Passions 10. Lastly to all manner of Righteousness and Holiness 468. CHAP. VIII 1. The adequate Object of saving Faith or Christian Covenant 2. That there is an Obligation on our parts plain from the very Inscription of the New Testament 3. What the meaning of Bloud in Covenants is 4. And answerably what of the Bloud of Christ in the Christian Covenant 5. The dangerous Errour and damnable Hypocrisie of those that would perswade themselves and others that no performance is required on their side in this Covenant 6. That the Heavenly Inheritance is promised to us only upon Condition evinced out of several places of Scripture 476 CHAP. IX 1. What it is really to enter into this New Covenant 2. That the entring into this Covenant supposes actual Repentance 3. That this New-Covenanter is born of water and the Spirit 4. The necessity of the skilfull usage of these new-born Babes in Christ. 5. That some Teacheâ—s are mere Witches and Childe Suckers 479 CHAP. X. 1. The First Principle the New-Covenanter is closely to keep to 2. The Second Principle to be kâ—pt to 3. The Third and last Principle 482 CHAP. XI 1. The diligent search this new-Covenanter ought to make to find out whatsoever is corrupt and sinful 2. That the truly regenerate cannot be quiet till all corruption be wrought out 3. The most importunate devotions of a living Christian. 4. The difference betwixt a Son of the Second Covenant and a Slave under the First 5. The Mystical completion of a Prophecy of Esay touching this state 483 CHAP. XII 1. That the destroying of Sin is not without some time of conflict The most infallible method for that dispatch 2. The constant ordering of our external actions 3. The Hypocritical complaint of those for want of power that will not do those good things that are already in their power 4. The danger of making this new Covenant a Covenant of Works and our Love to Christ a mercenary friendship 5. Earnest praiers to God for the perfecting of the Image of Christ in us 6. Continual circumspection and watchfulness 7. That the vilifying of outward Ordinances is no sign of a new-Covenanter but of a proud and carnal mind 8. Caution to the new-Covenanter concerning his converse with men 9. That the branches of the Divine life without Faith in God and Christ degenerate into mere Morality The examining all the motions and excursions of our Spirit how agreeable they are with Humility Charity and Purity 10. Cautions concerning the exercise of our Humility 11. As also of our Purity 12. And of our Love or Charity The safe conduct of the faithfull by their inward Guide 485 BOOK X. CHAP. I. THat the Affection and esteem we ought to have for our Religion does not consist in damning all to the pit of Hell that are not of it 2. The unseasonable inculcation of this Principle to Christians 3. That it is better
Nation he serves 4. That he is to continue or provide an honourable and competent allowance for them that labour in the word and doctrine 5. That the vigilancy of the Christian Magistrate is to keep under such Sects as pretend to Immediate Inspiration unaccountable and unintelligible to sober Reason and why 6. That the endeavour of impoverishing the Clergy smels ranck of Prophaneness Atheisme and Infidelity 7. That the Christian Magistrate is either to erect or keep up Schools of Humane Learning with the weighty grounds thereof 8. A further enforcement of those grounds upon the fanatick Perfectionists 9. The hideous danger of casting away the History of the Gospel upon pretence of keeping to the Light within us 525 CHAP. XIII 1. The Authors application to the better-minded Quakers 2. He desires them of that Sect to search the grounds and compute the gains of their Revolt from Christ. 3. That there are no peculiar Effects of the Spirit of God in the Sect of the Quakers but rather of Pythonism 4. That their Inspirations are not divine but diabolical 5. The vanity of their boasting of the knowledge of their mysterious Allegories 6. The grounds of their insufferable bitterness against the Ministers of Christ. 7. That he was urged by the light within him to give witness to the Truth of the History of the Gospel and to admonish the Quakers His caution to the simple-minded among them how they turn in to Familism 8. His ease and satisfaction of mind from disburdening himself of this duty 9. The compassionableness of their condition 10. And hope of â—heir return to Christ. 530 CHAP. XIV 1. That Publick Worshâ—p is essential to Religion and inseparable when free from Persecution The right measure of the Circumstances thereof 2. Of the Fabrick and Beauty of Churches according to that measure 3. The main things he intends to touch upon concerning Publick Worship 4. That the Churches of Christians are not Temples the excellency of our Religion being incompliable with that Notion 5. The vanity of the Sectarians exception against the word Church applied to the appointed places of Publick Worship 6. That though the Church be no Temple yet it is in some sense holy and what respect there is to be had of it and what reverence to be used there 7. Of Catechizing Expounding and Preaching 8. Of Prayer and what is the true praying by the Spirit 9. The Excellency of publick Liturgies 10. What is the right End of the Ministry 11. Certain special uses of Sermons and of the excellency of our Saviour Christs Sermon on the Mount 12. The best way for one to magnifie his Ministry 13. Of the Holy Communion who are to be excluded and of the posture of receiving it 14. Of the time of Baptism and the Sign of the Cross. 15. Of Songs and Hymns to be composed by the Church and of Holy-daies 16. Of the celebrating the Passion-day and the Holy Communion 17. Of Images and Pictures in places of Publick Worship 18. A summary advertisement concerning Ceremonies and Opâ—nions 535 An INDEX of Places of Scripture that are interpreted in this Treatise Chap. Verse Page Genesis   3. 15. 328. 4. 1 2. 56 57. 49. 10. 283 to 288. Exodus   3. 14 32 34. 457. 34. 8. 457. Deuteronomy   24. 14 15. 22. Iob.   19. 25. 224. 38. 19 21. 22. Psalmes   22. 14 16 18. 329 330. 45. 6. 310. 68. 17 18. 309. 110. 3 4. 310. Proverbs   4. 18. 401. Isaiah   7. 14. 305 328 329. 9. 6. 310. â—1 10. 312. 28. 1. 399. 41. 10. 393. 42. 1 to 16. 394. 49. 5 6 7. 311. 53. 12. 169. 57. 8 11. 397.  15. 12 158. Ieremiah   1. 5. 22. 33. 1 to 12. 306 to 308. Ezekiel   43. 10 c. 289. Daniel   9. 24 to 27. 291 to 300. Micah   5. 2. 12 327. Haggai   2. 6 to 9. 288. Malachi   3. 1. 290. Title of the New Testament  464. Matthew   2. 4 5. 327 328. 5. 5. 363.  17. 362. 10. 28. 28. 12. 23 24. 415. 16. 14. 24. 20. 25. 363. 21. 12. 117.  17. 118. 24. 30 ad finem 212. 25. 1 c. 212 27. 45. 134 135 c. Mark   3. 21. 418. 6. 5 6. 409. 13. 11. 12. 16. 19. 143. Luke   6. 27. 415. 9. 34. 106. 23. 42 43. 28 29. Iohn   1. 1 to 14. 11 12.  14. 99. 3. 14. 430 431.  31. 23. 4. 23 24. 536. 5. 26. 505 507 6. 26. 24.  38. 23.  63. 396. 9. 6. 119. 10. 34 35. 413 414. 12. 31. 78. 13. 34. 364. 14. 28. 9. 16. 8 to 11. 164 165.  13 14. 9 10.  28. 23. 17. 4 5. 23. Acts.   7. 51. 410. 13. 19. 380. Romans   3. 28. 380. 4. 1. 380.  5. 382.  18. 379.  24 25. 380. 5. 1. 381.  12. 383. 8. 10 11. 381. 15. 13. 10. I Corinthians   1. 30. 382. 11. 26. 439. 15. 32. 16 17 18 224. II Corinthi   5. 1 to 6. 19 20 21.  8. 27. Galatians   2. 16 19. 384. 3. 21. 380 384. 4. 15 16. 385.  21 22 23. 468 to 476. Ephesians   4. 30. 410. Philippians   1. 21 to 24. 27. 2. 6 7 8. 23. 3. 11. 21. Colossians   2. 18. 93. I Thessalon   5. 19. 410. II Timothy   1. 12. 19. 4. 8. 19. Hebrews   11. 26. 23. 12. 2. 420.  9. 27.  22. ibid. I Peter   3. 15. 459.  18 19 20. 25 26. II Peter   1. 5. 370 371.  13 15. 27. 3. 5 to 12. 213 214.  16. 384. I Iohn   2. 14. 12. 3. 7. 375 376 c. 4. 2. 23. 5. 7. 11. Revelation   1. 1 3. 200. 2. 10. 180. 4. 1 2 c. 182. 6. 1 to 12. 183 184 185. 8. 7 to 12. 186. 9. 1 to 20. 187 to 190. 10. 7 8 11. 176. 11. 1 2. 185 191.  3 11. 207 208.  7 8 9 11. 177 178 192.  14 to 19. 190. 12. 6. 173 174 195.  7 10 11. 185 186. 13. 1 2. 178 193.  11 12. 194.  17 18. 194 to 197. 14. 6. 255. 17. 3. 192.  8. 193. 19. 7. 198. 20. 3. 198.  4 5 6. 179 180. 21. 2. 198.  15 to 22. 195 198.  22. 537. 22. 6 7. 200 201. Mistakes in the COPY PRaef pag. ix lin 44. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 BOOK pag. 20. l. 19. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 25. l. 22. r. Soul or Spirit pag. 26. l. 8. r. Damoniacal pag. 77. l. 24. r. mankind and the Devil and. pag. 95. l. 35. r. mettled l. 41. r. Th' all pag. 99. l. 41. r. eternity when l.