found or have anciently been found consenting with the Books of the Hebrews touching Joshua and others seeing that whosoever gives credit unto Moses which to do no Man can without great impudency refuse the same must needs confess that there were indeed wonderful Miracles anciently wrought by God which is the thing we here chiefly go about to declare As for the Miracles of after Ages suppose of Elijah and Elisha and others there is the less reason to think them counterfeit because in those times Judaea was both more known than formerly and upon the account of diversity of Religion was extreamly hated by their Neighbours Who might have very easily blasted the fame of such Miracles if they had been lies as soon as it began to be spred abroad The History of Jonah who lay three days in the Whale's belly is to be read in Lycophron and Aeneas Hazous save only that in stead of Jonah they have put the name of Hercules whom they so much honoured that to make him appear the more illustrious they were wont as Tacitus and Servius and others have noted to report of him whatsoever magnificent things they heard of in any other places Certain it is that Julian who was an enemy of the Jews as much as of Christians was forced by the evidence of History to confess that such Men lived amongst the Jews as were inspired with the holy Spirit of God and that Fire descended from Heaven upon the Sacrifices of Moses and Elias And verily 't is well worth our observation that amongst the Hebrews there were not only grievous punishments appointed for such Men as did falsly assume to themselves the Prophetical Function but also many Kings and great Men that might have by that means purchased authority to themselves and likewise very many learned Men as was Esdras and others that never durst arrogate to themselves this dignity nor any Man else for divers Ages before the times of Jesus SECT XVI The same is proved by the Oracle and Predictions BUT more unlikely it is that so many Thousand People should be imposed upon in the avouching of a perpetual and publick Prodigy as we may call it to wit the holy Oracle which after a resplendent manner shined from the brest-plate of the High-Priest The truth whereof was so strongly believed by all the Jews to have continued until the destruction of the first Temple that out of all doubt their Ancestors had certain knowledge concerning the same Like to this from miracles there is another argument as forcible and effectual to prove GOD's providence taken from those predictions of future events which among the Hebrews were many and manifest Such was that prophecy of his being made Childless who should attempt to re-edifie Jericho and that of the overthrow of the Temple at Bethel by a King named Josiah foretold above Three Hundred Years before the thing came to pass So likewise the very name and chief acts of Cyrus foretold by Esaiah the event of Hierusalems siege by the Chaldeans foreshown by Jeremiah So also Daniel's prediction touching the translation of the Empire of the Assyrians unto the Medes and Persians then from them unto Alexander of Macedon whose Empire should afterward in part be divided among the Successors of Ptolomy and Seleucus And what evils also the Hebrew Nation should suffer from all these but especially from Antiochus Epiphanes which were so clearly foretold that Porphyry who compared with these Predictions such Grecian Histories as were extant in his time could no otherwise tell how to shift them off than by saying that those things which were fathered upon Daniel were written after such time as they came to pass which is all one as if one should deny that that was written in the time of Augustus which hath been published in Virgil's name and was always reputed for Virgil's work For there was never any more scruple made of the former amongst the Hebrews than of this latter amongst the Romans To these things we may add very many and most famous Oracles among the People of Mexico and Peru which foretold the coming of the Spaniards into those Countreys and the calamities which should thereupon follow And hither also may be referred not a few dreams so exactly agreeing with the events which both in themselves and in their causes were wholly unknown to them that dreamed that they cannot without great immodesty be referred to chance or to natural causes of which kind Tertullian in his Book Of the Soul hath collected illustrious examples out of the most approved Authors Spectres also or apparitions belong to this head which have been not only seen but heard to speak as those Historians relate who are the farthest from superstitious credulity and is reported by Witnesses of our own Age who have lived in China and in Mexico and other parts of America Nor are publick trials of innocence by touching of red hot Plow-shares to be despised which the Histories of so many German Nations and the Laws themselves have remembred SECT XVII The Objection is answered why Miracles are not now to be seen NEITHER is there any reason to object against such Miracles because there are not the like to be seen in these days neither the like predictions heard of For 't is a sufficient proof of Divine providence that such things did come to pass at any time which being once granted it will follow that God may be believed with as much providence and wisdom now to cause them to surcease as anciently he used the same Neither stands it with reason that those Laws which were given to the Universe concerning the natural course of things and uncertainty of future events should be lightly or always transgressed but only at such a time when either there was a just cause as when the worship of the true God was almost banished out of the World residing only in a little part thereof to wit in Judaea where it necessarily was to be as it were fortified with new aids against the impieties wherewith it was compassed about or when Christian Religion whereof by and by we shall speak more particularly was first by God's decree to be published thorowout the whole World SECT XVIII And that now there is such liberty in offending THERE are those who are wont to doubt of the Divine Providence because they see so much wickedness hath like a Deluge overspread the face of the whole Earth which Divine Providence they contend if there were any would have made its chiefest business to restrain and suppress But this is easily answered considering that when God had created Man with freedom to do good and evil reserving absolute and immutable goodness to himself it had not been reasonable to have put such a stop to evil actions as should have been contrary to that liberty Howbeit to keep Men from sin God useth every kind of means which is not repugnant to the liberty aforesaid Such is the ordaining and publishing of the
all shall be Man's happiness after this life SEeing then the Soul is of a nature that in it self hath no ground or cause of its own corruption and seeing also that God hath given us many signs and tokens whereby we ought to understand that it is his will the soul should survive the body what more noble end can be propounded to Man than the state of eternal happiness which in effect is the same that Plato and the Pythagoreans spake of saying that it were good for man if he could become most like unto God SECT XXV Which to obtain Men must get the true Religion NOW what this happiness is and how 't is to be attained Men may search by probable conjectures but if any thing concerning this matter be revealed by God that must be held for a most certain and undoubted truth which since Christian Religion pretends to bring unto us above others it shall be examined in the next Book whether or no Men ought to give credit thereunto and assuredly build their faith thereon The Second Book OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion SECT I. To prove the Truth of Christian Religion IT is not our purpose in this Second Book to handle all the Points of Christianity but after our hearty Prayers made to Christ the King of Heaven that he would grant us the assistance of his holy Spirit whereby we may be enabled for such a Work we shall only endeavour to make it appear that the Christian Religion it self is most true and certain Which I thus begin SECT II. Here is showen that Jesus lived THAT there was such a Person as Jesus of Nazareth who lived heretofore in Judaea when Tiberius was Emperor of Rome is not only most constantly professed by all Christians who are scattered over the face of all the Earth but acknowledged by all the Jews who now are or ever wrote since those times Nay the very Pagan Writers that is such as are neither of the Jewish nor Christian Religion namely Suetonius Tacitus Pliny the younger and many more after them do testifie the same SECT III. And was put to an ignominious Death THAT the same Jesus was nailed to a Cross by Pontius Pilate Governor of Judaea is confessed also by all Christians though it might seem very disgraceful to them to be the Worshippers of such a Lord. The Jews also do the like though they are not ignorant that upon this account they are very odious to Christians in whose Dominions they live because their Ancestors were the Men that moved Pilate and perswaded him to pass the sentence of Death upon Jesus The Pagan Writers also now named have delivered the same to Posterity Yea the Acts of Pilate were extant a long time after from whence this might have been proved to which Christians never made their Appeal For neither did Julian himself nor any other adversaries of Christianity ever make doubt hereof So that hence it appears that there was never any more certain story than this which we see may be confirmed not only by the testimonies of some few Men but also by the approbation of several Nations otherwise disagreeing and jarring among themselves SECT IV. Yet afterward was worshipped by prudent and godly Men. ALL which though it be most true yet we see how that thorowout the remotest parts of the World he is worshipped as Lord and that not in our days only or those which are lately passed but ever since the time that this was done to wit ever since the Reign of Nero the Emperor when many People that professed this worship of Christ and Christian Religion were for that cause tortured and put to death as Tacitus and others do witness SECT V. The cause whereof was for that in his life time there were Miracles done by him NOW among such as professed Christianity there were always many Persons who were both judicious and not unlearned Such as to say nothing now of the Jews Sergius Governor of Cyprus Dionysius Areopagita Polycarpus Justinus Irenaeus Athenagoras Origen Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus with divers others who almost all being brought up in other religions and having no hopes of any Wealth or Preferment by Christianity yet became worshippers of this Man that died so ignominious a death and exhibited due honour to him as God Of which no other reason can be given but this alone that they made diligent enquiry as became prudent Men in a matter of greatest moment and found that what was bruited abroad concerning the Miracles wrought by Christ was true and relied upon firm witnesses As the curing and that with his word only and before all the People divers grievous and inveterate Diseases the restoring of Sight to him that was born blind the multiplying of a few Loaves more than once for the feeding many Thousands who could testifie the truth of it the recalling of the Dead to Life again and many more of the like kind The report of which things had then such a certain and undoubted original that neither Celsus nor Julian when they wrote against Christians durst deny there were some Prodigies done by Christ and the Hebrews in the Talmudical Books do openly confess it SECT VI. Which Miracles were not wrought either by the help of Nature or assistance of the Devil but meerly by the Divine Power of GOD. THAT these wondrous Works were not wrought by any Natural Power it is manifest by this very thing that they are called wonders and miracles Nor is it possible by the force of nature that any grievous Diseases and Infirmities should be cured meerly by a Man's voice or by the vertue of a Touch and that even upon a suddain And if such Works could have any way been ascribed to a Natural efficacy it would have been said before now either by those that were professed enemies of Christ while he lived upon Earth or by those that have been Adversaries of his Gospel since his death By the like Argument we may prove that they were not jugling delusions because they were done openly in the sight of all the People amongst whom divers of the Learned sort did malign and bear ill will unto Christ not without envy observing all that he did Add further that the like Works were often iterated and the effects thereof were not transitory but permanent and durable All which being duly pondered it must needs follow as the Jews have confessed that these Works proceeded from a more than Natural or Humane Power that is from some Spirit either good or evil That they proceeded not from any evil Spirit may be proved because that the Doctrine of Christ for the confirmation whereof these Works were wrought was quite opposite and contrary to bad Spirits For it prohibits the worshipping of evil Angels and disswades Men from all uncleanness of affections and manners wherein such Spirits are much delighted And this is also plain for that wheresoever the Doctrine of the Gospel was received and established there followed
were blasted with the spirit of giddiness are fallen away to filthy fables and doctrines very ridiculous wherewith the books of the Talmud do abound which they are bold to call the law given by word of mouth and are wont to equal or prefer to that which was written by Moses For such things as are therein to be read concerning God's weeping and lamenting because he had suffered the City to be destroyed of his daily care and diligence in reading the Law of Behemoth and Leviathan and many other matters are so absurd that it would be irksome even to repeat them Howbeit the Jews in all this time have neither turned to the worship of false Gods as they did in times past neither have they defiled themselves with bloudy murders nor are they accused of adulteries But by prayers and fastings they labour to appease God's wrath and yet are not heard Which things being so one of these two must needs be granted namely that either the covenant that was given by Moses is quite abolished or the whole body of the Jewish Nation lies under the guilt of some notorious crime which hath continued for so many Ages together which what it is let themselves speak or if they cannot tell then let them believe us that this sin is no other but the contempt of the Messias who was come before that these evils began to fall upon them SECT XVII Jesus is proved to be the Messias by those things which were foretold concerning the Messias BY this which hath been spoken it is manifest that the Messias came many Ages ago we add further that he is no other but Jesus For what other persons soever either were or would have been accounted the Messias they have left no Sect behind them to uphold and maintain that opinion There are not any at this day that profess themselves to be followers either of Herod or of Judas Gaulonita or of that great Impostor Barchochebas who living in the times of Adrian said that he was the Messias and deceived some even of the most learned But those that profess the name of Jesus have continued from the time that he lived upon Earth even until this day and are still not a few only in this or that Countrey but very many dispersed as far as the World extendeth I could alledge many other testimonies anciently foretold or believed concerning the Messias which we believe were accomplished in Jesus since they are not so much as affirmed of any other as namely that he came of the posterity of David and was born of a Virgin which was divinely revealed to him that married that Virgin when he would have put her away supposing she had been got with child by another Also that this Messias was born at Bethlehem and began first to publish his doctrine in Galilee healing all kinds of Diseases giving sight to the blind and making the lame to walk but this one may suffice for many the effect of which continues unto this day It is most manifest by the Prophecies of David Isaiah Zachariah and Hosea that the Messias was to be an Instructor not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles that by him the worship of false Gods should fall to the ground and a huge multitude of aliens and strangers should be brought to the worship of the only true God Before Jesus his coming almost the whole World was overspread with false worships and religions which afterward by little and little began to vanish away and not only single persons but both People and Kings were converted unto the worship and service of one God This was not owing to the Jewish Rabbins but to the Disciples of Jesus and their Successors Thus they were made the people of God that before were not the people of God and the saying of old Jacob Gen. 49. was fulfilled That before all civil Authority should be taken from Judah Shilo should come Which the Chaldee and other Interpreters expound of the Messias to whom even foreign Nations should be obedient SECT XVIII Answer to that which is objected of some things that are not fulfilled THE Jews usually object that some things were foretold concerning the times of the Messias which are not yet fulfilled But for answer those matters which they alledge are obscure and admit of divers significations wherefore we ought not because of them to forsake those things that are manifest Such as the holiness of the commandments of Jesus the excellency of the reward and the perspicuous language wherein it is propounded to which if we add the testimony of his miracles these ought to be sufficient inducements to the receiving of his doctrine As for those Prophecies which go under the name of a shut or clasped Book oftentimes for the right understanding thereof there is requisite some divine helps and assistances which they are worthily deprived of that neglect manifest truths The places of Scripture which they object are diversly expounded as themselves cannot deny And if any Men please to compare either the ancient Interpreters which lived when the People were led captive into Babylon or such as lived about Christ's time with those that writ after that Christianity began to be hateful and odious unto the Jews he shall find new expositions purposely invented to cross those former that well agreed with the sense of Christians They know well enough that there are many things in the holy Scriptures which must be understood by a figure and not in propriety of speech as when God is said to have descended and to have a mouth ears eyes and nosthrils And why may not we likewise expound divers things that are spoken of the times of the Messias after the same manner as that the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the fatling together and the sucking child shall play with the Serpents and the mountain of the Lord shall be exalted above other mountains whither strangers shall come and worship There are some things promised which by antecedent or consequent words or by the very sense imply a tacite condition in them Thus God promised many things unto the Hebrews upon condition they would receive the Messias that was sent and obey him which same things if they come not to pass accordingly then may they blame themselves that are the cause thereof Again other matters were promised determinedly and without all condition which if they be not already accomplished yet may be hoped for hereafter For it is evident even among the Jews that the time or Kingdom of the Messias must endure unto the end of the World SECT XIX And to that which is objected of the mean condition and death of Jesus MANY do take exception at the low and mean condition of Jesus but unjustly because in sacred Writ it is often said that God will exalt the humble but cast down the proud Jacob when he passed
Pagans among whom as Grotius observes it was lawful for the Poets to sing what they pleased though never so lewd concerning the Gods and for the Epicures to take Providence out of the World while the Jews were made ridiculous and the Christians most barbarously used as if they had been the vilest of Mankind Of which more anon SECT XII The Romanists themselves overthrow their own Religion THAT argument also which he urges for Christianity against the Pagans that the chief Points of Christian Doctrine were acknowledged by some or other of the best and greatest among them may be used by us also for the Faith to which we now hold there being several learned Writers in the Roman Church who have acknowledged our belief to be sufficient to Salvation and the Points which they have superadded having been lookt upon by the most excellent Persons among them only as meer Scholastical opinions and not certain Truths of which we can have a full assurance Here I might show how the sufficiency of the Scripture hath been owned and the Apostles Creed likewise confessed to contain all things that are absolutely necessary to be believed to salvation But because I would not have this Book swell above the bigness of the foregoing I shall let them alone and instance only in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which is now pressed with so much violence upon the Christian World but most plainly condemned by Gratian in their Canon Law and by the Author or Authors of the Canon of the Mass it self About the former we may be satisfied out of the Decretum if we look into the Third part and the second Distinction concerning Consecration Where in the XL VIII Chapter out of St. Austin and Prosper he says The heavenly bread which is truly Christs flesh suo modo after a sort or manner is called the Body of Christ whereas revera in truth it is the Sacrament of his Body which was hanged upon the Cross and the sacrificing of the flesh of Christ by the hand of the Priest is called his death and passion and crucifixion not in the Truth of the thing but in a signifying mystery Which words are so directly against the present sense of the Roman Church that no Protestant can speak more expresly and clearly against it nor desire a plainer confutation of it unless it be that of the Gloss upon those words which is this The celestial Sacrament which truly represents the flesh of Christ is said to be the Body of Christ but improperly whence it is said to be so suo modo sed non rei veritate after a manner but not in the truth of the thing So the sense is it is called Christs body that is it is signified thereby And if we look further into the LII Chapter we find he saith Christ was sacrificed but once in semet ipso in himself when he hung upon the Cross c. Yet is offered daily in Sacramento in the Sacrament which the Church frequents in memory of that thing Which Sacrifice in the next Chapter he calls exemplum the example or resemblance of that upon the Cross offered in remembrance of his Death Which is sufficient to convince us that they believed in those days as we do now and not as the Roman Church doth else He would not have called that which he says was truly the flesh of Christ the heavenly bread But to put all out of doubt let us turn to the lxxii Chapter and there we find these remarkable words out of St. Austin which fully explain the business Because it is not lawful for Christ to be devoured by our teeth therefore our Lord would have this Bread and this Wine in a Mystery by consecration of the Holy Spirit to be potentially created his flesh and blood and to be daily mystically offered for the life of the World They are potentially then or virtually made his Body and Blood though but Bread and Wine in themselves and of this Sacrifice which is thus wonderfully made in commemoration of Christ as he adds out of St. Hierom Chap. lxxvi it is lawful to eat but of that which Christ offered on the Cross secundum se according to it self none can eat But the Canon of the Mass will more abundantly convince us that he or they that made it did not believe any thing of Transubstantiation For First after the Consecration of the Bread and Wine the Priest signs them ten times at least with the sign of the Cross which can have no excuse made for it but is the greatest impudence if it be indeed Christ Himself who lies before the Priest whom he thus crosses For sure he doth not intend to bless Christ or to drive away the Devil from him or any such like thing for which those Crossings are used in that Church But more than this 2dly it is observable that after Consecration also the Priest still calls Christ's Body Panem Sanctum the holy Bread of Eternal life which shows that when this Rule was made they believed the Bread to be still remaining A further Indication of which is that 3dly the Priest proceeds to beseech God that He would vouchsafe to look upon that Sacrifice of his gifts with a propitious and ferene countenance and to accept them as He did the gift of his Servant Abel and the Sacrifice of Abraham and that which his High-Priest Melchisedeck offered to Him Which is most absurdly spoken if the Priest there offer Christ himself unto God For then he intercedes with him for our Intercessor as if he needed our Prayers and besides compares Him with the first-fruits of the Flock and the spoils of War which is so incongruous and so much below his heavenly glory that an unprejudiced Man cannot but think they who composed that Prayer looked upon those gifts which they offered as still Bread and Wine Which appears more fully 4thly from what follows in the next Prayer where bowing profoundly and laying his hands upon the Altar the Priest humbly intreats God in this manner Command these things to be carried by the hands of thy holy Angel to thy high Altar into the presence of thy Divine Majesty Where there are two plain testimonies against their present doctrine For First nothing but the Bread and Wine can be called haec these things which in no propriety of speech can signifie the very natural body of Christ Who secondly can by none of God's Angels be carried into Heaven being there already nor brought more than He is into the presence of the Divine Majesty where He was before the Priest said Mass and sits for ever there at God's right hand Had they that composed this Prayer believed any thing of Transubstantiation they would have said and could not have said otherways if they said any thing of this matter Almighty God behold here before me upon thy Altar lies thy only begotten Son Jesus Christ by my sacrifice unto Thee that very Christ who is at thy right
or conspiring as we may call it of events to a certain end is a manifest token of a provident direction Like as at Dice if a Man now and then throw a lucky cast which wins all it may be no more than a chance but if he throw the very same an hundred times there is no body who will not conclude that this proceeds from some extraordinary Art SECT XII And by Miracles ANother most certain proof of God's providence may be taken from those miracles and prophecies which are recorded in Histories Where though many fabulous things be related in that kind yet those that are testified by sufficient Witnesses living in the time when they came to pass such I mean as were defective neither in judgment nor in honesty are not to be despised as altogether impossible For in as much as God is both omnipotent and omniscient what can hinder him from signifying what he knows or what he pleaseth to do and that even beyond the common course of nature which being made and ordained by him becomes subject unto him by the title of creation Now if any do object that such things might have been done by subordinate powers and minds inferiour to God to them we answer that so much may be granted indeed but yet this makes way that the same may the more easily be credited of God who is to be thought either to work by the mediation of those Agents or else out of his wisdom to permit them when they bring to pass any such thing For in well ordered Kingdoms there is nothing done against the Statutes and common Laws but by the arbitrement or permission of the Supreme Governours SECT XIII Specially among the Jews whereunto credit may be given by reason of the long continuance of their Religion NOW that there have indeed been some miracles seen though the credit of other Histories should be questionable yet it is manifest enough in the Jewish Religion which albeit it hath long been destitute of all humane helps yea exposed to contempt and scorn yet for all that hath still continued almost in all the climates and parts of the World even unto this day whereas all other Religions saving the Christian which is the perfection as it were of the Jewish have either vanished as soon as the Imperial Power and Authority was withdrawn whereby they were supported as all the Paganish or else are still perpetually upheld by the same power and authority as Mahometism Now if it be demanded why the Jewish Religion hath taken such deep root in the hearts of the Hebrews as that it cannot thence be eradicated no better reason can be given or conceived than this namely that those Jews that are now alive did from their Parents as those Parents from their Progenitors and so upward until the times of Moses and Joshua receive those miracles mentioned in Scripture by certain and constant Tradition which miracles were done chiefly at the departing out of Aegypt and in their journey through the Wilderness and entrance into the Land of Canaan whereof their Ancestors were then eye-witnesses Nor is it at all credible that it could otherwise have come to pass that a People who were sufficiently stiff-necked and of a stubborn disposition should take upon them a Law burdened with so many Rites or that wise Men out of the many marks of Religion which humane reason could have invented should chuse Circumcision which could not be received without very great pain nor retained without the derision of all strangers and had nothing in it to recommend it save only this that God was its Author SECT XIV Also by the truth and antiquity of Moses his story BEsides The writings of Moses wherein those miracles are recorded to posterity do gain the greatest credit thereunto not only because it was always a setled opinion and constant report amongst the Hebrews that this same Moses was commended by the Oracle of God to be a Leader of the People but also because it is manifest enough that he neither affected his own glory nor desired their riches forasmuch as himself reveals his own faults and delinquencies which he might have concealed and also he assigned the dignity of his Kingdom and Priesthood unto strangers whence his own Posterity was brought to the common condition of Levites By all which it appears that he had no reason to forge untruths Neither doth he use any dissembling or alluring language such as commonly colours over a lye but he speaks after a plain ingenuous manner according to the quality of the thing he treats of Add hereunto the undoubted antiquity of the Books of Moses to which no other writings are therein comparable An argument whereof is for that the Grecians from whom all kinds of learning were derived to other Heathens do confess they received their very Letters from others which Letters of theirs have no other order or name or ancient form than that of the Syriac or Hebrew Tongue as also for that the most ancient Grecian Laws whence the Romans collected theirs had their Original from the Laws of Moses SECT XV. And by the Testimony of many Gentiles MOREOVER besides these there are many testimonies of such as were aliens from the Jewish Religion which declare that the most ancient reports which passed for truth among all Nations were agreeable to what Moses hath related in his Writings Thus what things he related concerning the beginning of the World the same are found also recorded in the most ancient Histories of the Phoenicians which are collected by Sancuniathon and translated by Philo Byblius and partly also found amongst the Indians and Aegyptians Hence it is that in Linus Hesiod and many of the Grecians mention is made of a Chaos which some have intimated by the name of an Egg also of the making of living creatures and last of all of Man according to a Divine Image and of Man's dominion over other creatures all which may be read in sundry Authors and at last in Ovid who transcribed them out of the Greek Writers That all things were made by the Word of God was confessed even by Epicharmus and the Platonicks and before them by a most ancient Writer not of those Hymns which now go under that name but of those Verses which antiquity called Orphean verses not because they had Orpheus for their Author but because they summarily comprised his Doctrine Empedocles acknowledged that the Sun was not the primitive light but a fit receptacle of light Aratus and Catullus think that above the sphere or orb of the stars there is a Divine habitation wherein Homer imagined there was perpetual light THAT of all things God was the most ancient because not begotten the World most beautiful because the work of GOD and that darkness was before the light were all the doctrines of Thales out of the ancient Learning The last point whereof is found in Orpheus and Hesiod whereupon the Gentiles that are commonly superstitious in following
the downfal of the worship of Daemons and of Magical Arts and one God was worshipped with a detestation of Daemons whose power and authority Porphyry acknowledges was broken by the coming of Christ Neither is it to be thought that any wicked Spirit is so ignorant and foolish as to effect and often bring to pass things that are causes of its own hurt and disgrace and no way conducing to its honour or benefit Besides it stands no way with the wisdom or goodness of God himself to believe that he would suffer so harmless and innocent Men such as feared him to be deceived by the delusion of Devils and such were the first followers of Christ as is plain by their innocent life and by the many calamities which they endured for conscience sake But on the other side if thou affirmest that those works of Christ proceeded from some good Spirits which are inferiour to God in so saying thou dost confess that the same works were well pleasing unto God and did tend to the honour of his name forasmuch as good Spirits do nothing but what is acceptable and glorious unto God To say nothing now of some of Christ's works which were so miraculous that they seem to have God himself for the author of them and could not have been done but by the immediate finger of an omnipotent power as specially the restoring divers Persons from Death unto Life again Now God doth not produce any Miracle nor suffer any such Wonders to be wrought without just cause For it becomes not a wise Maker of Laws to forsake and depart from his own Laws unless upon some good and weighty reason Now no other cause of these things can be given than that which was alledged by Christ himself namely that hereby his doctrine might be verified and confirmed And doubtless they that were Spectators of his Works could conceive no other reason thereof amongst which since there were as was said many godly Men piously and devoutly affected it is horrible impiety to imagine that God did work these things only to delude and deceive them And this was one cause why very many of the Jews who lived about the time of Jesus even such as could not be perswaded to relinquish or omit one jot of Moses his Law such as those who were called Nazarenes and Ebionites did notwithstanding acknowledge that this Jesus was a Doctor or Master sent from Heaven SECT VII Christ's Resurrection proved by credible Reasons BEsides the Miracles that Christ wrought to confirm his Doctrine another like Argument may be taken from his wonderful Resurrection to Life again after that He was Crucified Dead and Buried For the Christians of all Ages and Countries alledge the same not only for a truth but also as the most strong ground and chiefest foundation of their Faith which could not be unless those that first taught Christianity did perswade their Auditors that the thing was so for certain And yet they could not induce any wise Man to the belief hereof unless they could verily affirm that themselves were eye-witnesses of this matter For without such an ocular testimony no Man in his wits would have given credit unto them especially in such times when to believe them was to expose themselves to the greatest mischiefs and dangers But that this was their constant assertion both their own Books and other Writings do testifie For out of their Books it appears that they appealed unto Five hundred Witnesses that had beheld Jesus after he was risen from the Dead Now it is not the fashion of lyars and dissemblers to appeal to so great a number of Witnesses Neither could it possibly so fall out that so many Men should agree and conspire together to bear false witness Or suppose there had been no other witnesses save those twelve known Apostles the first publishers of Christian doctrine yet this had been sufficient No Man is wicked for nothing And honour for their lying they could not expect in regard that all kind of dignities and promotions were then in the hands of the Pagans or Jews from whom they received nothing but reproach and ignominy Neither could they hope for any Wealth and Riches because this profession was oftentimes punished with the loss of goods and possessions or if it was not yet the Gospel could not be taught by them unless they omitted or neglected all care about worldly goods Neither could the hope of any other worldly advantage move them to utter untruths seeing that the very preaching of the Gospel did expose them to labours hunger thirst stripes and imprisonments To get credit and reputation only among their own Country-men was not so much worth that they poor simple Men whose life and doctrine was abhorrent from all pride should therefore run upon so great inconveniencies Neither again could they have any hope their doctrine would make such progress as to win them any fame being opposed both by the nature of Man which is intent to its own advantage and by the authority of them who then every where governed unless they had been some way animated and incouraged by the promise of God To which we may add that they had no reason to promise themselves that this fame such as it might prove would be durable since they expected God on purpose concealing his counsel in this matter the end of the whole World as nearly approaching which both their own Writings and the writings of those Christians that followed them make most evident It remains therefore that we say if they did lye it was for the defence of their Religion which cannot with any reason be laid to their charge if the thing be rightly considered For either they did sincerely believe that this Religion which they professed was the true Religion or else they were of a contrary mind If they did not believe it to be true nay if they thought not that it was absolutely the best they would never have made choice hereof and refused other Religions far more safe and commodious Nay further though they conceived it to be true yet they would not have professed it unless they had been fully perswaded that the profession thereof was necessary specially for that they might have easily foreseen and partly they could tell by experience what troops of Men would be exposed to death for this profession which without just cause to occasion was no better than plain robbery or murder But if we say they believed that this Religion was true and the very best and by all means to be professed and that after the death of their Lord and Master surely that could no way be so if their Masters promise concerning his Resurrection had deceived them and not proved true For that had been enough to make any Man in his wits disbelieve even that which he had already entertained Moreover all Religions and Christianity more than any other forbids lying in bearing false witness especially in divine things wherefore they could not
follows that we consider by what means this Christian Religion had its augmentation and increase that therein it may be comparable and preferred before others We see it commonly true of most Men that they will easily follow the examples of Kings and Potentates what way soever they go specially if Law and Penalties compel them to it Hereby were the Religions of the Pagans and of Mahumet propagated But they that first taught the Christian Religion not only wanted all civil power and authority but were of mean condition no better than poor Fishermen Weavers and the like Yet by such Mens pains and industry that doctrine within the space of Thirty Years or thereabouts was published not only thorowout all the parts of the Roman Empire but also among the Parthians and remote Indians Nor was it thus only in the beginning but for almost three whole Ages together this Religion was so promoted by the endeavours of private Men without any threatnings without any worldly thing to invite Men to it yea against the will and the most violent opposition of those who then had the Imperial Power that before Constantine professed Christianity this was become very near the greatest part of the Roman World Amongst the Grecians that taught morality divers there were that commended themselves also very much by their skill in other Arts. As the Platonists were famous for the study of Geometry the Peripateticks for the History of Plants and living Creatures the Stoicks for Logical subtilty the Pythagoreans for knowledge of numbers and harmony many also were admirable for eloquence as Xenophon Plato and Theophrastus But the first Doctors and Teachers of Christianity were endued with no such art but used the plainest language without inticing words only after a bare manner or naked form of speech pronouncing their precepts promises and threatnings Which having no efficacy in themselves proportionable to such a progress as Christianity made we must needs confess it was either attended by Miracles or by God's secret power assisting the business or both together SECT XXIII What great impediments there were that might terrifie Men from the embracing or the professing hereof HEreunto may be added another thing considerable namely that they who received Christianity from those Teachers had not their minds void of a certain form and rule of Religion and so were not by that means ductile and easie to be drawn as they were who first received the Paganish worship and Mahomet's Law much less was their minds prepared for it by some antecedent institution as the Hebrews by Circumcision and the knowledge of one God were made fit to accept the Law of Moses But quite contrary were filled with Opinions and Customes which are a kind of another nature repugnant to those new Institutions being educated viz. and confirmed by the authority of Laws and of their Parents in the Paganish Religion or the Jewish Rites Besides this there was another impediment to wit the most grievous evils which they who undertook Christianity must expect to suffer or had reason to fear upon that account For seeing that humane nature abhors such evils it must needs follow that the causes of those evils cannot be admitted of without much difficulty A long time were the Christians deprived of all honours and dignities and likewise much afflicted with divers penalties with confiscation of goods and banishments which notwithstanding were all but flea-bitings for they were condemned to dig in the Mines and to suffer torments than which more cruel could not be devised And such multitudes of them were put to death that there never was a greater number of Men at one time swept away and devoured either by famine or pestilence or war as the writers of those times do testifie Their manner and kind of death also was not ordinary but some were buried alive others crucified others endured punishments of the like kind which cannot be read or thought of without the greatest horror and yet this savage cruelty which continued without much intermission and that not every where till almost the time of Constantine in the Roman World and in other places endured longer was so far from diminishing the number of Christians that quite contrary their Blood might be called the Seed of the Church there sprang up still so many in the room of those that were cut off Now let us herein also compare other Religions with Christianity The Greeks and the rest of the Pagans who are wont to magnifie their own things above measure yet give us in but a very short Catalogue of such as suffered death for the sake of their Doctrine Some Gymnosophists Socrates not many more are all they can number And in those eminent Men it can scarce be denied but that there might be some desire of transmitting their fame to Posterity which had a hand in the business But amongst those Christians that suffered martyrdom for their faith there were very many of mean rank of the common sort of People such as were scarce ever taken notice of or known to their Neighbours that lived hard by them There were Women also Virgins and young Men such as had no desire nor any probable hope of getting renown in future times by their sufferings According as in the Books of Martyrs we find the Names but of a few in comparison of the whole number of those that were put to death who are only registred in gross To which we must add that by a small compliance and simulation suppose by casting a little Frankincense upon the Altar most of them might have freed themselves from such punishments Which cannot be said of those Philosophers who whatsoever they might think secretly in their hearts in all their apparent actions conform'd themselves to the vulgar customes So that to have suffered death for the honour of God cannot well be attributed to any other but only the Jews and Christians And not to the Jews neither after the times of Christ nor before them but to a few if they be compared with Christians More of which suffered for the Law of Christ in some one Province than the Jews ever did whose patience in this kind may all very near be reduced to the times of Manasses and of Antiochus Wherefore seeing Christian Religion in this particular also so vastly excels all other it ought justly to be preferred before them And from such a multitude of all kinds and sexes of People distinguished by so many several places and ages as did not stick to dye for this Religion we may well gather there was very great cause of such constancy which cannot be imagined to be any other but the Light of Truth and the Spirit of GOD. SECT XXIV Answer to them that require more forcible Reasons FInally if any yet be not satisfied with these arguments abovesaid but desire more forcible reasons for confirmation of the Christian Religion let such know that according as things are divers they must also have divers kinds of Proofs
it very easily But there were such multitude of Miracles wrought at the Sepulchres I spoke of and so many Witnesses of them that they extorted even from Porphyry a confession of it SECT VIII The Truth of the Writings confirmed from hence that many things are found there which the event hath proved to be divinely revealed THESE things ought to suffice but there are other Arguments which we may heap upon these to prove the truth and fidelity of these Authors Writings For many things are therein foretold which were impossible for Men by their own power to know or bring to pass yet we see the truth thereof wonderfully confirmed by the event Thus it was foretold that this Religion should upon a sudden have a large and ample increase that it should continue for ever and though it were rejected by most of the Jews yet should it be imbraced by the Gentiles Thus likewise was foretold what hatred and spight the Jews would bear against them that professed this Religion and what grievous Persecutions they should undergo The siege also and destruction both of Hierusalem and of the Temple together with the miserable Calamities of the Jewish Nation SECT IX As also from God's care in preserving his People from false writings BESIDES this if it be granted that God out of his providence takes care of humane affairs specially such as belong to his honour and worship then it cannot be that he should suffer so great a multitude of Men who had no other design but to worship God after a holy manner to be cheated with lying Books And forasmuch as since the time that so many Sects have sprung up in Christianity there hath not been one that received not either all or the most of those Books excepting some few that contain no singular matter differing from the rest it is a great argument that no material thing could be objected against these writings specially since the said Sects were so partial and spitefully bent against each other that what one approved others rejected even for this reason because it was there approved SECT X. Answer to the Objection that divers Books were not received by all THERE were some indeed though very few among those that would be called Christians who rejected all those Books which they saw contradicted their peculiar Opinions Such for instance as out of hatred of the Jews reviled their God the Maker of the World and the Law which he had given them or on the other side such as for fear of the evils which Christians were to undergo chose to lurk and lye hid under the name of Jews who had liberty without any danger to profess their Religion But these very Men were renounced in those times by all other Christians throughout the World when as yet all that differed in their opinions with the safety of piety were tolerated by the order of the Apostles with great patience As for the former kind of these adulterate Christians I think they have been sufficiently confuted both by that which we have said before when we proved that there was but one only true God the sole framer of the whole World As also by those very Books which that they might have some semblance of Christians they did admit of specially the Gospel of Luke wherein is evidently shown that the same God whom Moses and the Hebrews worshipped was preached by Christ And the other sort we shall more fitly confute when we come to oppugne those that both are and would be called Jews For the present only this I say that their impudence is wonderful great who slight and extenuate the authority of Paul seeing there was not one of all the Apostles that founded and taught more Churches than he did and his Miracles were at that time reported to be exceeding numerous when as e're while we said there might easily have been trial and inquiry made of the truth of the matter If then it be true that he wrought wonders why may we not believe him concerning his Heavenly Visions and instruction received from Christ himself to whom if he was so dear it cannot be that he should teach any thing inglorious or ingrateful unto Christ as falsities or untruths would have been And as touching that particular which is the only thing whereof they accuse him namely his doctrine of the liberty and freedom which was purchased for the Hebrews from those Rites and Ceremonies that were formerly commanded them by MOSES He had no reason at all to teach it but only the truth of the thing which he asserted For he himself was both circumcised and did also of his own accord observe very many things which the Law enjoyned And then for the sake of the Christian Religion he both did more difficult and suffered harder things than the Law required or could be expected upon the account of the Law and taught also his Disciples to do and suffer the like Whence it appears that he uttered no flattering or enticing speeches unto his auditors who were taught in stead of the Sabbath to keep every day holy for divine worship and in stead of the little expences which the Law required to suffer the loss of all their goods and in stead of the bloud of Beasts to consecrate their own bloud unto God And further Paul himself plainly affirms that Peter John and James in token of their consent with him gave him the right hands of fellowship which he never durst have spoken if it had not been true because the same Men being then alive might have convicted him for a lyar These therefore of whom I have now spoken being excluded as scarce deserving the name of Christians the most manifest consent of so many Congregations of Christians who received these Books added to what hath been spoken of the Miracles which the Writers of them wrought and the singular care which God takes about matters of this kind ought to be sufficient to induce any indifferent Men to give credit thereunto specially considering that they are wont commonly to credit any other Books of History which have no such testimonies unless they see some plain reason to the contrary which cannot be said of any of those Books whereof we have spoken SECT XI Answer to an Objection that these Books seem to contain things impossible FOR if any body say that some things are related in these Books which are impossible to be done the Objection vanishes when we consider what hath been before discoursed that there are things which cannot indeed be done by Men but are possible with God such that is as include in themselves no repugnancy or contradiction as we speak and that in the number of such things are even those Miraculous Powers which we most of all admire and the recalling of the Dead to Life again SECT XII Or things contrary to Reason NEITHER are they to be more regarded who say that some doctrines are comprised in these Books which are disagreeing to right reason
he ought to be acknowledg'd as King who should be our King indeed and that he was to come out of the East who should have dominion over all We read in Porphyry of the Oracle of Apollo which saith that other Gods are aerial Spirits but the God of the Hebrews is only to be worshipped which saying if the worshippers of Apollo obey then they must cease to worship him if they do not obey it then they make their God a Iyar Add further if those Spirits had respected or intended the good of Mankind above all things they would have prescribed a general Rule of life to Mankind and also given some certain assurance of a reward to them that lived accordingly neither of which was ever done by them On the other side oftentimes in their Verses we find some Kings commended which were wicked men some Champions extol'd and dignified with divine honour others allured to immodest and unlawful love or to the seeking after filthy lucre or committing of Murder as might be shown by many Examples SECT X. Paganisme decayed of its own accord so soon as humane aid ceased BESIDES all that hath hitherto been said Paganisme ministers to us a mighty argument against it self because that wheresoever it becomes destitute of humane force to support it there straightway it comes to ruine as if the foundation thereof were quite overthrown For if we take a view of all the Kingdoms and States that are among Christians or Mahumetans we shall find no memory of Paganisme but in Books Nay histories tell us that even in those times when the Emperors endeavoured to uphold the Pagan Religion either by violence and persecution as did the first of them or by learning and subtilty as did Julian it notwithstanding decayed daily not by any violent opposition nor by the brightness and splendor of lineage and descent for Jesus was accounted by the common sort only a Carpenters Son nor by the flourishes of learning which they that taught the Law of Christ used not in their Sermons nor by gifts and bribes for they were poor nor by any soothing and flattering speeches for on the contrary they taught that all worldly advantages must be despised and that all kind of adversity must be undergone for the Gospel's sake See then how weak and impotent Paganisme was which by such means came to ruine Neither did the doctrine of Christ only make the credulity of the Gentiles to vanish but even bad Spirits came out of divers bodies at the name of Christ they became dumb also and being demanded the reason of their silence they were compelled to say that they were able to do nothing where the name of Christ was called upon SECT XI Answer to the Opinion of some that think the beginning and decay of Religions depend upon the efficacy of the Stars THERE have been Philosophers that did ascribe the beginning and decay of every Religion unto the Stars But this star-gazeing Science which these Men profess to be skilled in is delivered under such different rules that one can be certain of nothing but only this that there is no certainty at all therein I do not here speak of such effects as follow from a natural necessity of causes but of those that proceed from the will of Man which of it self hath such liberty and freedom that no necessity or violence can be impressed upon it from without For if the consent of the will did necessarily follow any outward impression then the power in our soul which we may perceive it hath to consult deliberate and chuse would be given in vain Also the equity of all Laws of all rewards and punishments would be taken away seeing there can be neither fault nor merit in that which is altogether necessary and inevitable Again there are divers evil acts or effects of the will which if they proceeded of any necessity from the Heavens then the same Heavens and Celestial Bodies must needs receive such efficacy from God and so it would follow that God who is most perfectly good is the true cause of that which is morally evil And that when in his Law he professeth himself to abhor wickedness which a force inserted by him into things themselves will inevitably produce he doth will two things contrary one to the other that the same thing should be done and not be done and also that a Man offends in an action which he doth by divine instigation They speak more probably that say the influences of the Stars do first affect the Air then our Bodies with such qualities as oftentimes do excite and stir up in the mind some desires or affections answerable thereunto and the will being allured or inticed by these motions doth oftentimes yield unto them But if this should be granted it makes nothing for the question we have in hand For seeing that Christian Religion most of all withdraws Men from those things which are pleasing unto the body it cannot therefore have its beginning from the affections of the body and consequently not from the influence of the Stars which as but now we said have no power over the mind otherwise than by the mediation of those affections The most prudent among Astrologers exempt truly wise and good Men from the dominion of the Stars And such verily were they that first professed Christianity as their lives do shew Or if there be any efficacy in learning and knowledge against the infection of the body even among Christians there were ever some that were excellent in this particular Besides as the most learned do confess the effects of the Stars respect certain Climates of the World and are only for a season but this Religion hath now continued above the space of one thousand six hundred years and that not in one part only but in the most remote places of the World and such as are under a far different position of the Stars SECT XII The chief Points of Christianity are approved of by the Heathen and if there be any thing that is hard to be believed therein the like or worse is found among the Pagans BUT the Pagans have the less to object against Christian Religion because all the parts thereof are of such honesty and integrity that they convince Mens minds by their own light In so much that there have not been wanting Men among the Pagans also who have here and there said every one of those things which our Religion hath in a body all together As to give some instances true Religion consists not in Rites and Ceremonies but in the mind and Spirit he is an adulterer that hath but a desire to commit adultery we ought not to revenge injuries one Man should be the Husband of one Wife only the league or bond of Matrimony ought to be constant and perpetual Man is bound to do good unto all specially to them that are in want we must refrain from Swearing as much as may be And as for our Food
least to the diminution or lessening of the glory of God the Father from whom this power of Jesus doth proceed to whom it must return and to whose honour also it ministers and serves SECT XXIII The Conclusion of this part with Prayer for the Jews BUT it is not our purpose in this Work to make any further curious inquiry into these matters neither had we spoken hereof but only to shew that there is no wicked or absurd point in our Christian doctrine which any one can pretend why he should not embrace a Religion which is beautified and confirmed with so many wonders commands such honest things and promises such excellent rewards For he that hath once received and embraced the same must for further instruction in special and particular questions consult those Books wherein as we have formerly declared the points of Christian Religion are contained which that it may come to pass we beseech the Almighty to illuminate the hearts and minds of the Jews with the brightness of his truth and to make those prayers effectual which Christ himself uttered for them even while he was hanging upon the Cross The Sixth Book OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion SECT I. A Confutation of Mahumetanisme the beginning of it THE Sixth Book which is opposed to the Mahumetans in stead of a Preface deduces the Judgments of GOD against Christians unto the very beginning and rise of Mahometisme showing that is how that sincere and simple piety which flourished among Christians even when they were most grievously vexed and oppressed began by little and little to wax cold from the time that by the favour of Constantine and the following Emperors that profession was become not only safe but also honourable the World being as it were thrust into the Church For first of all Christian Princes would needs continue fighting and make no end of their Wars even then when they might have enjoyed peace and quietness Among the Bishops also there were most sharp Contentions about the Chiefest Sees And as at the beginning the greatest mischiefs insued upon the preferring of the Tree of knowledge before the Tree of Life even so then also was curious Learning more regarded than a godly Life and Religion turned into an Art The consequent of which was that after the example of those who built the Tower of Babel a rash affectation of things out of their reach bred jarring and confusion in their Language together with discord one with another Which the common People observing and not knowing oft-times which way to turn themselves they threw the blame upon the holy Scriptures and began to avoid them as hurtful and dangerous Religion also began every where to be placed not in purity of mind but as if Judaism was brought back into the World in Rites and Ceremonies and in such things as contain rather an exercise of the body than any amendment of the mind and in an eager zeal for that Party and side which they had once chosen Till at length it came to pass that there were every where many Christians in Name but very few in Deed. GOD did not wink at these Vices of his People but out of the innermost parts of Scythia and Germany poured forth like a Deluge immense swarms of Barbarous People into the Christian World And when the vast slaughters which they made proved not sufficient to correct and amend the lives of those that survived Mahomet by God's just permission sowed a new Religion in Arabia and that directly opposite to the Christian Religion but which in words expressed in a manner the life of the greatest part of Christians This Religion was first entertained by the Saracens who had revolted from Heraclius the Emperour and by their Arms subdued in a short space Arabia Syria Palestine Egypt Persia and afterward possessed themselves of Africa and beyond the Sea of Spain also But the power of the Saracens was abated as by others so chiefly by the Turks a Nation also very Warlike which after long combates with the Saracens being invited to Peace easily embraced a Religion suited to their manners and transferred the Majesty of the Empire to themselves The Cities of Asia and Greece were taken and by the growing success of their Arms they came into Hungary and the Borders of Germany SECT II. The overthrow of the foundation of Mahumetanisme in denying inquiry into Religion THIS Religion altogether contrived for the shedding of blood delights much in Rites and Ceremonies and would be believed without all liberty of enquiry thereinto whence the Vulgar are prohibited to read their Books that are accounted holy Which thing is a manifest argument of the iniquity thereof For justly may that Merchandise be suspected which is obtruded upon this condition that it be not lookt into It is true indeed there is not in all Men a like capacity or knowledge and quick in sight into all things many being led into error by pride others by inordinate passion or affection and some by custome But the divine goodness forbids us to think that those Men cannot know and find the way to eternal salvation who seek it not for any by-respect of profit or honour but with submission of themselves and all they have unto God imploring his assistance for the obtaining of the same And since that God hath implanted in the mind of Man the power and faculty of judging there is no part of truth that better deserves the imployment thereof than that of which we cannot be ignorant without the danger of losing eternal salvation SECT III. A Proof against the Mahumetans taken out of the Books of the Hebrews and Christians which are not corrupted IT is granted by Mahomet and his followers that Moses was sent of God and Jesus also and that they were holy Men which first of all published the doctrine of Jesus But in the Alcoran which is Mahumet's law many things are recorded plain contrary to what is delivered by Moses and by the Disciples of Jesus Thus to give one example for many all the Apostles and Disciples of Christ with one consent do testifie that Jesus was crucified that the third day he was restored to life again and after that was seen of many But Mahumet teacheth quite contrary namely that Jesus was privily conveyed into Heaven and not himself but something in his likeness was nailed to the Cross and consequently he did not die but the sight of the Jews was deluded and deceived This Objection cannot be put off unless Mahumet say as he doth that the Books of Moses and of Christ's Disciples have not remained as they were at first but have been corrupted But we have confuted this fiction before in the third Book Without doubt if any Man should say that the Alchoran is corrupted the Mahumetans would deny it and say that were an answer sufficient to those that could not prove the contrary But they cannot moreover for the integrity of their Book alledge such arguments
Ministers Which as it is against the practice of the whole Church for many Ages from the beginning So directly opposes the Institution of Christ who set his Apostles in a superiority to the LXX as his Apostles set such Men as Timothy and Titus in a superiority over the Presbyteries of those Churches which they could no longer attend themselves SECT X. Arguments enough in the foregoing Books to prove the true Christian Religion not to be sincerely preserved in the Roman Church one is their way of worship IT would be easie to show how much the Roman Church hath deviated from the Rule of Faith by considering particularly the falsity of every one of those Doctrines which they have added to the ancient Creeds But it will be more proper in so short a Treatise as this only to bring to the Readers mind some Principles in the foregoing Books which direct us as plainly to reject Popery and upon the very same ground as those false Religions for whose confutation he alledges them And First let the Reader again weigh his Arguments against the worship of the Pagans and he will find them in several things as strong against the worship of the Roman Church whose practices it will hereby appear are no less faulty than their Faith As for example in the worship of Angels and Saints For the former They should not only as he discourses there Book IV. in their very worship make an evident difference between the most high God and those Angels to whom they commend themselves which they do not do in the Roman Church but quite contrary in the external acts of adoration have none that are appropriated to God alone but are all common to him with others as adoration invocation burning incense nay offering the Sacrifice of the Mass in their honour and making vows to them but be satisfied also what order there is among the Angels what good may be expected from each of them and what honour the most high God is willing should be bestowed upon every one of them All which being wanting for there is nothing revealed about such matters it is plain from thence how uncertain that Religion is and how much safer it would be for them to betake themselves as we do to the worship of Almighty God alone Especially for that to whomsoever He is favourable to them the holy Angels must needs be kind and serviceable though no Petitions be made to them being the Ministers and Servants of the most High who hath revealed this to us that He hath made them all subject to Jesus Christ to be sent forth by Him for the good of those who shall be heirs of Salvation In the number of which they above all others have reason to hope to be who have so great a respect to His Majesty and confidence in his Goodness that for fear of offending Him they dare worship none but Himself alone resting assured He will deal well with them even for this reason because they have such a regard to Him as not to presume without his warrant and authority so much as to recommend themselves to Him by any Angel in Heaven though never so great but by his only begotten Son Jesus Christ alone who is the Head of them all and whom He hath consecreated to be our perpetual Intercessor with Him The like we may say of the Worship of Saints to whom all Prayers are fruitless and vain unless they be able to do something for their Supplicants Of which they have no certainty nor is there more ground to say that they can than that they cannot but rather less ground since it is inconceivable how they should be able to hear and assist so many as address themselves to the same Saint in several far distant parts of the World without supposing them to be equal to our blessed Saviour for they have as many if not more Supplicants as He by such an union as He hath with the Divinity They worship also which is still worse such for Saints as never were in being and others whose Saintship there is too much reason to question being apparently guilty of such crimes as are inconsistent with it For instance our Thomas à Becket by whose bloud they have prayed our Lord Christ that they may ascend into Heaven and do still pray upon Decemb. 29. that they who implore his help may have the saving effect of his petitions whom our Forefathers even in the time of Popery lookt upon as a perjured Person and as a Traitor being not only called so by the King but in Parliament accused of Treason the Bishops as well as others being present and the Bishop of Winchester pronouncing the sentence against him In short the Devotions of the Roman Church are so like the ancient Idolatry that the cunningest Man in the World cannot find any difference without a great many nice and subtil distinctions which in practice make no difference at all SECT XI Another is the way of promoting their Religion THERE is this Argument also against it as Grotius speaks of Paganism Book 4. Sect. 10. taken from the Religion it self that if it be not supported by humane power or policy immediately it falls to the ground For as the Church of Rome it hath been observed by wise Men of our own got and increased its absolute Authority over Mens consciences by obtruding on the World supposititious Writings and corrupting the Monuments of former times by false Miracles and forging false stories by Wars also and Persecutions by Massacres Treasons and Rebellions in short by all manner of carnal means whether violent or fraudulent so take away these supports and that Religion cannot stand by its own strength And truly his reason in the Third Section of the same Book against the Paganish worship that it was from evil Spirits because they instigated their Worshippers to destroy them that worshipped one God holds good still if there be any force in it to prove the Roman Church not to be acted by the good Spirit of God because they would not let those live had they sufficient power who worship only one God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and content themselves with the Belief before mentioned into which they were Baptized not presuming to superadd any thing else as necessary to Salvation And which is worse while they have been most cruel to those who for fear of offending God dare not allow the worship they give to Saints which they think belongs to him alone nor fall down before the Sacrament and adore it as very God Himself They have tolerated such without any censure who have raised St. Francis into an equality with if not superiority unto our blessed Saviour and made the blessed Virgin a kind of Goddess nay called the Pope the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords giving him such a power over all Kings and Kingdoms as sober Men among themselves are ashamed to own Which is just after the example of the
hand I now take into my hands to present unto thy Majesty under the form of Bread and Wine Him thou canst not reject nor me his Priest who offer Him unto Thee c. Or some such like words more befitting their present notions than desiring an Angel may carry what the Priest offers and present it unto GOD. But we find quite contrary which is the last thing I shall observe that in conclusion the Priest acknowledges that by Christ Jesus God always creates and sanctifies and quickens and blesses making a cross upon the Host and the Chalice at every one of those three last words all these good things Which can be meant of nothing but the Bread and Wine consecrated to the commemoration and representation of Christ's body and bloud sacrificed for us For Christ's own very natural body and bloud cannot in any tolerable sense be said to be continually created and quickned or made alive unless you will suppose him to have been dead before nay not to have been at all For creation implies the thing not to have been and vivification not to have been then alive when it was quickned Yet this fancy of Christs real presence in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation against which there are such numerous Testimonies in their own Communion Service is now become the main Article of their Religion For we all know to our great grief and astonishment that when the publick Authority of this Realm was on their side subscription was not urged to any Article of their Religion upon such violent and bloudy terms as unto this of the Real Presence The Mystery of which iniquity as a great Man of our own said in the Age before us cannot be better resolved than into the powerful and deceitful working of Satan who delights thus to do despite to our Lord and to his Religion by seducing his professed Subjects into a belief of such things as make them and Him ridiculous unto unbelievers and ingage them in the worst kind of Rebellion he could imagine by worshipping Bread and Wine instead of their Saviour and all this upon the least occasions and shallowest reasons SECT XIII Other Instances of it BUT besides these plain confessions of that Church against it self there are many other things which I shall but just name wherein we have the testimony of several of their own learned Men ready to be produced for our and against their belief proving clearly that the present is not the old Religion of that Church but that they have brought into it many Innovations by adding to the Canonical Books of Scripture by making their vulgar Latine Translation of the Bible about which they themselves cannot agree authentical by forbidding the People to read the holy Scriptures in their own Language and by denying them the publick Prayers in a Language they understand by giving the Pope not only a new Title of Universal Bishop but an authority and jurisdiction which was never heard of for many Ages by increasing the number of Sacraments and altering their nature by taking away the Cup from the People and turning the Sacrament of Christs body and bloud into a proper expiatory sacrifice by celebrating the Eucharist without any body to communicate by setting up Images in Churches and ordaining Religious Worship to be given to them by invocating Saints and Angels as was said before and by the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences and many other together with a vast number of strange ceremonies in the making holy water consecrating bells c. For which no antiquity can be pretended The woful effect of which is this if we may speak the plain Truth that by pressing upon Mens belief a great deal too much and placing great vertue in trifles they have tempted Men to believe nothing at all As is apparent from hence that where and when as an excellent Writer of our own speaks this Religion hath most absolutely commanded there and then Atheism or Infidelity hath most abounded And how should it do otherwise when as he observes so many lying Legends have been obtruded upon Mens belief and so many false Miracles forged to justifie them as are very likely to make suspicious Men question the truth of all And so many weak and frivolous ceremonies devised and such abundance of ridiculous observances in Religion introduced as are no less apt to beget a secret contempt and scorn of it in witty Men and consequently Atheism and Impiety if they have this perswasion setled in their mind which is indeavoured to be rooted in them from their childhood that if they be not of that Religion they were as good be of none at all And when a great part also of the Doctrines now mentioned so apparently make for the temporal ends of those who teach them that sagacious Men can scarce forbear thinking they were on purpose devised to serve those designs That particular doctrine also of Transubstantiation being so portentous that joyned with the forenamed perswasion of No Papists no Christians it hath in all probability brought more than Averroes to this resolution since Christians eat that which they adore let my Soul be among the Philosophers And lastly the pretence which is so common that there is no ground to believe the Scriptures but their Churches infallibility and yet no ground to believe their Churches infallibility but some Texts of Scripture being too plain a way to lead those who discern the labyrinth wherein they are to believe neither Church nor Scripture SECT XIV Whereby they have spoil'd Christianity as the Pagans did the Natural Religion THESE things which have been already urged by the Writers of our Church for the conviction of those who are capable of it I repeat here again because they seem to me very powerful for the preservation of those who are not already tainted or too far gone in that delusion Which is so great that to summ up all belonging to this Head we may safely say Popery is just such a depravation of the true Christian Religion as Paganism was of the Natural Religion There cannot be a righter conception of it than this which appears too plainly in the absurd doctrines and opinions which they have mingled with the Christian Faith in their multiplied superstitions in their fabulous relations of the Saints wherein they have surpassed the very Poets themselves and to pass by the rest in their prostrating themselves before Images and giving religious worship to Men departed Which last instance furnished the Pagans of Cochin with this answer to the Jesuits as Christoph Borrus one of that Order relates when they pressed upon them the belief of one God and no more We do believe it said they but those whom you see us worship in their Images were Men of great Sanctity whom pious People therefore worship according to their merit just as you give to the Apostles and Martyrs and Confessors divers degrees of honour and religious service as you know them to have excelled in vertue
and piety And that they might confirm this to be their sense of the Divinity they bid the Jesuites observe one part of the Altar in their Temple to be void of Images and to be hid in an obscure and dark place which they said was the proper seat of the most high God the Maker of Heaven and Earth who could not be represented in any form and shape and that the Images which stood about that place were the representations of their Intercessors with Him who having great power with the most high God did obtain many gifts and blessings for those that invocated them How this differs from the notions of the Roman Church I do not see unless it be in this that they have sometimes adventured to represent God himself in a shape Otherwise the worship is the very same the dead Men who are the objects of it only changed and may very well justifie us if we say and therein we speak very moderately that their worship is an Image at least of the ancient Idolatry And moves them to make the resemblance more perfect unto the very same rage and violence which was in the Pagans against all those that differ from them and cannot consent to worship God in that way prosecuting them with all manner of cruelty as if they were utter enemies of God and of all Religion By which we may certainly know that they are so far from being the only true Christians that they are a very degenerate part of Christs Church wanting that great mark of his faithful Disciples to love one another even as Christ loved us To which they are such strangers that quite contrary they not only hate and persecute but endeavour as I said to root out those from the face of the Earth who obediently believe all that they can find our Lord and his Apostles have delivered and profess they are ready with all their hearts to receive and do whatsoever any body can further teach them to be his mind Nay are very desirous and diligent to know it sparing no pains to understand the whole Truth as it is in Christ Jesus SECT XV. Answer to what they say about Miracles THEY pretend indeed abundance of Miracles wrought in their Church as a sufficient condemnation of those who obstinately refuse to invocate Saints to worship their Images and the consecrated Hoste to believe Purgatory and all other things for the proof of which these wonders are alledged But herein also they imitate the Pagans who were guilty of the like deceit and the same answer will serve here which Grotius gives there L. iv Sect. 8. in his confutation of the old Idolatry For First the wisest Men among them have rejected many of these Miracles as not supported by the testimony of any credible witnesses nay as plain fictions Others also of them which are pretended to be of better credit hapned in some private place in the night before one or two Persons whose eyes crafty Priests as he speaks might easily delude with false shows and counterfeit appearances of things And further there are others which only raise admiration among People ignorant of the nature of things and are no true miracles I deny not but there may have things been done among them which no humane power could effect by the strength of natural causes and yet no Divine that is omnipotent Power be needful to their production For those Spirits which are interposed between God and Man are able by their nimbleness cunning activity and strength to make such strange application of things very distant one to another as shall astonish the Spectators with wonderful effects But there is too great reason to think they are not good Spirits that do these feats because they revive hereby the ancient superstition or uphold the Image of it still in the Christian World to the great dishonour of our Saviour and the indangering the Souls of his People Who have been so far misled as not only to fancy great Virtue in the Images of the Saints and to cry up also some Images particularly of our Lady of Loretto for instance as indued with some singular power and vertue which is not to be found in others but to honour them so highly as for one Miracle said to be done by a Crucifix to report a hundred to be wrought at such or such a Shrine of hers It is very considerable also to omit the rest which he notes in the V. Book out of the Law of Moses that it supposes God might permit some wonders to be done only for their trial whether the People would persist in the worship of the true God which had been confirmed by undoubted and far greater and more numerous Miracles Read Deuteron xiii 1 2 3 c. This is excellently expressed and with advantage by a great Man of our own in these words or to this effect The Doctrine which we believe that is the Bible hath been confirmed as is confessed on all sides by innumerable supernatural and truly Divine Miracles and consequently the Doctrine of the Roman Church which in many points is plainly opposite to the Bible is condemned by them I mean the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles And therefore if any strange things have been done in that Church they prove nothing but the truth of Scripture which foretold that God's Providence permitting it and the wickedness of the World deserving it strange signs and wonders should be wrought to confirm false doctrine that they which love not the Truth might be given over to strong delusions So that now we have reason rather to suspect and be afraid of pretended Miracles as signs of false Doctrine than much to regard them as certain arguments of Truth Neither is it strange that God should permit some true wonders to be done to delude those who have forged so many wonders to deceive the World SECT XVI Answer to another Objection BUT it is not likely they say that Religion should be thus depraved in the Roman Church because their Ancestors were Men of greater vertue and honesty than to suffer the least alteration Which is the very thing that is alledged by the Jews why they should not believe our Saviour was unjustly condemned and his Religion rejected by their Priests and Elders as Grotius observes in the Vth. Book Out of which I might produce several things as I have done out of the foregoing to prove the vanity of the Romish Traditions as well as of the Jewish and show also how they have brought back Judaism in a great measure by the vast burden of Rites and Ceremonies wherewith they have incumbered Christian Religion But I shall wave all this because I would make this Book as short as the rest and only observe in answer to what was now pretended that whosoever shall consider as he speaks of the Ancestors of the Jews what kind of Men for several Ages sate in the Chair of Rome and how ignorant the People generally were he
truly since GOD hath implanted in Mens minds the power and faculty of judging there is no part of truth that better deserves the imployment of this faculty about it than that of which we cannot be ignorant without hazard of our Salvation After this whosoever inquires with a godly mind he shall not dangerously erre And where should he enquire after it but in God's most holy Word without which we cannot know whether there be either Church or Priest or any thing else wherein they would have us trust SECT XIX And refuses to be tried by Scripture IT is a manifest sign therefore of imposture that when they cannot for shame but sometimes suffer their Religion to be tried yet they will not have it tried by the holy Scriptures In the reading of which as was excellently said in the conclusion of the foregoing Books no man can be deceived but he who hath first deceived himself For the Writers of them were more faithful and fuller of Divine Inspiration than either to defraud us of any necessary part of Divine Truth or to hide it in a Cloud so that we cannot see it Why then should any body decline this way of trial unless they see themselves so manifestly condemned by the holy Scriptures that they dare not let their cause be brought into so clear a light Which hurts indeed sore eyes but comforts and delights those that are sound showing us so plainly what we are to embrace and what to refuse and being so sure and so perfect a Guide in all such matters that S. Hilary not only commends and admires the Emperor Constantius for desiring a Faith according to what was written But saith He is an Antichrist who refuses this and an Anathema that counterfeits it And thereupon calls to him in this manner O Emperour thou seekest for faith hearken to it not out of new little Papers but of the Books of God There we must seek for it if we mean to find it and if they be silent and can tell us nothing says St. Ambrose who shall dare to speak Let us not therefore bring deceitful ballances they are the words of S. Austin in his second Book of Baptism Chap. vi wherein we may weigh what we list and as we list after our own liking saying This is heavy that is light But let us bring the Divine Ballance out of the holy Scriptures as out of the Lords Treasures and in that let us weigh what is most ponderous or rather let not us weigh but acknowledge those things which are already weighed by the Lord. Yes say they of the Church of Rome we will be put into that Ballance and tryed by the Scriptures but not by them alone Which is in effect to refuse to be tried by them for they give testimony to their own fulness and perfection and plainness too in things necessary and so do all other Christian Writers that succeeded the Apostles who do not send us to turn over we know not how many other Volumes but tell us here we may be abundantly satisfied In so much that the first Christian Emperor Constantine the Father of Constantius now mentioned admonished the Bishops in the famous Council of Nice to consult with these heavenly inspired Writings as their Guide and Rule in all their Debates because they perspicuously instruct us as his very words are what to believe in divine things and therefore they ought he told them to fetch from thence the Resolution of those things which should come in question To which Cardinal Bellarmine indeed is pleased to say that Constantine truly was a Great Emperour but no great Doctor But as herein he speaks too scornfully of him so he reflects no less upon the understanding and judgment of those venerable Fathers assembled in that Council which as Theodoret tells us in his Ecclesiastical History was composed of Men excelling in Apostolical gifts and many of them carried in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus and were for the far greater part a Multitude of Martyrs assembled together who all consented unto and followed this wholsome counsel of the Emperour as he there testifies knowing he did but speak the sense of the truly Catholick Church Which did not meerly bid Men hear it and bring all doctrines to its touchstone but confessed plainly that even the Church it self must be tried by the Scriptures It is the express sentence of the same S. Austin in his Book of the Vnity of the Church Where in the second Chapter he saith the question then was as it is now where is the Church Now what shall we do says he seek for it in our own words or in the words of our Head our Lord Jesus Christ I think we ought to seek it rather in his words who is the Truth and best knows his own Body And in the beginning of the third Chapter thus proceeds Let us not hear thus say I and thus sayest thou but let us hear thus saith the Lord. The Lords Books there are certainly to whose authority we both consent we both believe we both yield obedience there let us seek the Church there let us discuss our cause And to name no more the Author of the imperfect work upon St. Matthew carrying the name of S. Chrysostome declares this so fully that it leaves no doubt in us what course they took for satisfaction in this business Heretofore says he there were many ways whereby one might know what was the true Church of Christ and what was Gentilism but now there is no way to know what is the true Church of Christ but by the Scriptures Why so Because all those things which belong properly to Christ in truth and reality those heresies have also in show and in appearance They have Scriptures Baptism Eucharist and all the rest even Christ himself like as we have Therefore if any one would know which is the true Church of Christ how should he know it in such a confusion of multitude but only by the Scriptures which he repeats over again a little after he therefore that would know which is the true Church of Christ how should he know it but by the Scriptures To them let us go and in them let us rest and if you are the Disciples of the Gospel may we say to the Romanists as Athanasius does to the Followers of Apolinarius in his Book about the Incarnation of Christ Do not speak unrighteously against the Lord but walk in what is written and done But if you will talk of different things from what are written why do you contend with us who dare not hear nor speak beside those things which are written Our Lord telling us if you abide in the word even in my word you shall be free indeed What immodest frenzy is this to speak things which are not written and to devise things which are strangers to piety To which if we faithfully adhere there is this to be added for our incouragement that though we