resembles the gnawing of VVorms Vermina dicuntur dolor corporis cùm quodam minuto motu quasi à vermibus scindatur Festus Hence because the pain that attends the Dropsie resembles that of the VVorms and hath this name sometimes alotted to it grew that dangerous mistake of Eusebius that Herod the great dyed of the dropsie who yet if I mistake not affirms that Herod Agrippa dyed of the same Malady in that opposing Josephus in this both him and St. Luke And verminatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Luke's word in the Text is used to signifie in general any gripings in the inwards like to the gnawing of VVorms which it particularly signifies Vossii Etymologicon Can this common notion of both Greeks and Latines hint to us any thing less then this that the tormina in the Bowels are commonly vermina the grief of the VVorms and properly a Symptom thereof except it appear by other Symptoms joyn'd with it that it is not that Distemper and I am perswaded were the Symptoms of Herod's Disease propounded to a skilful Physician and the question put what distemper the patient was afflicted with he would without any long pause resolve that he who is held as Josephus represents Herod must as St. Luke reports him be afflicted with Worms § 6. If it might not be thought a digression and which I more fear a culpable singularity I would shew mine opinion of St. Paul's Thorn in the slesh 2 Cor. 12. 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the hyperbole of the Revelations there was given me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me It s proximity to Herod's Case will alleviate the first and the plausibleness of the Reasons inducing me to it together with my propounding it as a matter of Opinion not Faith the second crime with candid Readers in which presumptions I shall hint these brief Observations There was given me a thorn in the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. They that make this Thorn to be Concupicense should do well to consider how they can free God from being the Author of Sin while they make it his gift to St. Paul for mine own part I shall not need to put into my Letany from such gifts of God good Lord deliver me for I am well assured that that God whom I serve cannot by reason of his Holiness open such a Pandora's Box can no more tempt than he can be tempted to evil and if he were such an one as bestows such Gifts as Concupiscence upon his friends I would bless my self from him and chuse to be listed among his enemies As also how such an immission can be a gift for any man's good to him that receives it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies this was for St. Paul's advantage Besides how Concupiscence which is the Fleshes right Eye and right Side can be a Thorn to it to grieve and prick it how that can be a Thron in its eye a Goad in its side which is the very Life and Soul of it is so hard to conceive or else I am so dull of apprehension as I cannot with a Pitch-fork thrust that Fancy into my head any more than Musculus could into his who thus staves us off from embracing the Antinomian Gloss. Non simpliciter dicit esse sibi stimlum sed esse sibi datum stimulum utique non allunde quam à Deo ipso loco videlicet antidoti quae à medico contrà periculum pestis datur Musc. in locum He does not say simply that he had a thorn but that a thorn was given him It proceeded therefore from none but God by whom it was bestowed as an antidote against the danger of that plague which St. Paul might possibly have caught after his Rapture Disertè dicit datus est mihi stimulus ut significet illum reputari à se pro 〈…〉 sâ—ngulari Dei dono Of which he therefore saith expresly there was given me a thorn that he might give us to understand that he reckon'd it for a singular benefit of God 2. It must therefore imply the infliction of the evil of pain not of sin some sad and sharp affliction some pricking anguish immitted by some instruments of Satan Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. ult Theodoret and Theophilact on the place think some of the Gnosticks the Followers of Simon Magus that great Sorcerer to have been the instrument of buffeting St. Paul Vide Dr. Hamond in locum whose Teachers in the stile of this Apostle were Minsters of Satan 2 Cor. 11. 15. as vying with the Apostles in their lying Wonders wrought by a Satanical power 2 Thes. 2. 9. Chrysostom names Alexander the Copper smith Himenaeus and Philetus as those among whom we may likeâ—iest find this Messenger of Satan And judicious Musculus singles out Alexander as that Minister of Satan that was given to St. Paul for a Thorn as it were sticking in his flesh and every where pricking and afflicting him But I am not solicitous to determine the numerical Instrument it will give more light to the Text if we can resolve what this pungent affliction was wherewith St. Paul was kept humble since it could not be Concupiscence for that had been to cast out Satan by Satan to expel one Devil by bringing in seven nay the whole legion of unclean Spirits the Body of Sin to subdue one Member St. Chrysostom thinks Epist. 15. to 7. pag. 101. this Thorn was the Calumnies the Persecutions raised against the Apostle But these were 1. So usual and daily and so universally inflicted by all the enemies of the Cross of Christ as will hardly comport with this Thorn in the Text which as it was signally given upon this special occasion so it was inflicted by some particular emiment Tool of Satan 2. It will not be easie to conceive how this kind of Physick could be proper for this distemper but should rather imp the Apostles Wings for an higher flight of self exultation and occasion him to think that those Consolations in Christ in the Anticipations of Paradise were set to counterballance his afflictions for Christ if not God's rewarding his sufferings They guess most probably in mine Opinion that conceive this Thorn to have been some corporeal Disease whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or some Iliac Passion is not much material the buffeting that is beating about the ears or head favouring the first and the Thorn in the flesh the second That as Job was delivered for his Trial to Satan to inflict what Diseases he would upon his Body provided they were not mortal and as the Apostle in mercy to men's Souls and in order to their recovery from some fowl Lapses gave some over to Satan for the destruction of the Flesh that their Spirits might be saved that they reflecting upon the sad Effects of the Apostolical Rod might study to reconcile themselves to the Church 1 Cor. 5. 5. so the Lord in favour to St. Paul
Israel and to have born up the Spirits of Idol-worshippers sinking under those burthens which Gods Prophets saw against false Gods whom according to their Prophesies we have seen broken to pieces like a Potters vessel with the Iron-rod of that Son of God whom he hath set up as King upon the Hill of Sion to whom he hath given the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his possession Who coming out of his Chamber as a Bridegroom that is Conjugatum carni humanae Verbum processit de útero virginali August de consens 1. 16. the Word Married to humane flesh came out of the Virgins Womb. Rejoyceth as a Giant to run his course not only from one end of the Hemisphere unto the other as they would bound Christs Kingdom who exclude America from the hopes of it but from one end of the Heaven to the other and if that be not plain enough nothing is hid from the heat thereof not any part of the round World that the corporeal Sun visits Mankind receives the cherishing warmth of its Beams and basks it self in that Fountain of Light The Serpent feels their scorching heat and flees therefrom Et adhuc isti fragiles contradictiunculas garrientes eligunt magis isto igne sicut stipula in cinerem verti quam sicut aurum à sorde purgari And will the crazy-headed Sceptick yet chatter and gaggle out his petit and bublie Exceptions which break with the least touch with the gentlest blast and choose rather to be consumed to ashes in this fire as stubble than to be purged by it from his dross as Gold § 3. Or is he of so thick-skin'd a Soul as not to feel the heat of Christs Divinity in those Prophetick Rayes emitted from his Spirit before he came in the Flesh as not to conceive that the accomplishments of Old Testament-Prophecies is a demonstration not only of their own but of the Gospels Divine Original which can be the Workmanship of none other Architect but of him who drew the Model and Idea of these new Heavens that new Creation that new face of things which we see produc'd in the Age of Christianity Humane Wit indeed might have drawn another Model perfectly resembling that might have fram'd an History parallel to Prophecy though they that could make the Counter-part so exactly answer the Original and write so perfectly after the Copy as the Apostles have must be Persons of a steady Hand excellently composed Spirits and solid Judgements And therefore all the Inference we drew in our Second Book from the Apostles proportioning every Limb and Line of their Story to the Old Testament-Draught was that they had thereby demonstratively acquitted themselves from all suspicion of being themselves deluded But it is out of the reach of Humane power to bring the Matters there prophesied of unto Birth the erecting of the Structure it self the production of what was fore-told into real existence cannot be the Effect of any but of him alone who hath as great an Infinity of Power to bring to pass as he hath of knowlege to foresee them And therefore having proved the Truth of what the Apostles reported that what they say was done in order to the accomplishment of Prophecy was done indeed he must be a person of very short Reason that from the improvement of the Premisses cannot improve the Conclusion and draw this Inference That as nothing but Omnisciency could foresee so nothing less than Omnipotency could effect That a Virgin should bring forth a Son externally so mean as those among whom he convers'd saw so little comliness in him as they Crucified him as an Impostor for saying he was the Son of God the King of the Jews that Messia promised in the Law and so much predicated by the Prophets and yet really so full of Majesty as he is become King of Kings hath subdued the World to his Obedience abolish'd all the Gods of the Nations and erected every where the Worship of that one God that made Heaven and Earth that God of whom Moses writes known formerly only in Jewry but now no where less known than among the Jews they being the greatest strangers to their own Prophets and their Fathers God being the greatest stranger to them of any Nation upon the face of the Earth § 4. But that I may not put the Sceptick to the expence of all the Reason he hath and that he may not think it is through penury of New Testament-prophecies that I pitch upon those of the Old and that he may grope out the Divinity of the Blessed Jesus in some palpable accomplishments of the Predictions he made in person as well as by Proxy I shall here mind him of this Note That Christ espoused all the Old Testament-prophecies commented upon them applied them and not only attested the coming to pass of what the Prophets had foretold in general but as it were individuated those generals by more particular and punctual Circumstances not so much as hinted by them of old and appeal'd to their accomplishment in that way and with those Circumstances wherewith he cloath'd them The prophets gave only the rough draught of what Christ drew to the life he lickt their rude Lumps into so distinct and explicite forms as the Prophecies became his own his Gleanings were more than their Vintage To instance in one for all Christ in his Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem referrs to Daniel when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel thereby appealing to its accomplishment as that which he was content to stand or fall by as to mens belief that he was the Messias as if he had said if you see it not within the Term of Daniels Weeks within so many years after my offering an Attonement for sin as Daniel states it after the Oblation of the Messias believe me not that I am he But withal he leaves it not in such curious Calculations as Daniel did but what he had writ in figures Christ transcribes in words at length and applies it to that Generation with that perspicuity and in such particularities as an Historian can scarce tell what has been done more punctually than Christ foretells what should be done 1. As to the time of its taking Effect there be some saith he standing here that shall not tast of Death till all these things shall be fulfill'd and in particular St. John shall tarry till Christ come to avenge himself on the Jewish Nation 2. As to the Instruments to be employed by Christ for the destruction of their place and Nation he describes them by their Banners the Eagles under which the Roman Legions those Birds of prey march'd when divine Justice conducted them into Judaea that they might flesh themselves upon that Nation whose Inhabitants their sins being ripe were as Carcasses fatted and prepared for them signified as Tacitus thinks by that prodigy of a Dog bringing to Vespasian a dead
a divine Person yet they retain'd still their old Heathenish Religion and these are the Christians of which Adrian writes that they worship'd Serapis and that their Bishops for all they said they were Christians were yet devoted to Serapis and that there was none of that Sect be he a Ruler of the Jewish Synagogue a Samaritan or a Christian Presbyter who was not a Conjurer a Wizzard and an Anoynter Insomuch as when the Patriarch came into Aegypt some solicited him to adore Serapis some Christ. Though Adrian of all others had least reason to condem these mungrel Christians for he himself notwithstanding his adhering to the Gentile Religion had that honourable esteem of Christ as he had a mind to build a Temple to him and canonize him for a God Lampridti Alexand. Severus 2. What if Josephus had been a Pharisee could he not lay the corruption of that Sect down when he went to write truly if he keep promise with his Reader he every where faithfully performs the office of an Historian in recording Occurrences as they fell out without favour and affection and I think never Pen that was not guided by infallible Inspiration went more evenly or directly to the point of Truth than he did or let fall less Passion A suspicion of this Nature could not have entred into the head of any man to whom Josephus is not a perfect stranger 3. Had the Pharisees enmity against no Sect but the Christian do not we find them in opposition to the Sadducees who denyed the Resurrection and said there were neither Angels nor Spirits and consequently no Miracles nor Prophesies siding and going along with St. Paul as far as Josepus doth in this Text for what is there in these words that are excepted against as not becoming the mouth of a Pharisee or inclining any further to the approbation of Christianity than their opposition to Saducism might bend a Pharisee to without prejudice to his own Sect. 1. Not in that If it be lawful to call him a man for first that may be taken in as bad a sence as those paradoxical wits put upon the immediat following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who interpret them as a defamation of the blessed Jesus which joyn'd together if the Context did not reclaim and Christian ears abhor the sound may by a sinister interpretation be made to speak Josephus to have had this opinion of our Saviour that he was not a Man but some Changeling or Fairy-elf who shewed apish Tricks play'd strange Pranks mimi histriones quoque dicti sunt paradoxi Vos Etymol If therefore the Christians had had a mind to periwigg Josephus to make him look more favourably upon Christ they would never have put upon him such a border as this out of which he looks more a squint upon him than he did without it Had Josephus in opprobry called Christ a doer of paradoxical actions it would have been neither Piety nor Policy in Christ's friends to have added by way of Preface I cannot tell whether I should call him a man the worst sence which the first clause is capable of alone being better than the best bad sence that can be put upon it in conjunction with such a Preface If it cast a bad aspect upon Christ alone it will cast a worse in such company 2. Take them both as Josephus delivers them with the right-hand as speaking in consort with the whole series of his Discourse the commendation of our Saviour and what is gain'd by taking in or lost by leaving out these words if we may call him a man that deserves the raising of so much dust does not Christ's doing miraculous Works his rising from the dead according to the Prophecies that went of him speak him to have been more than an ordinary Man either the Messias or that Prophet or Elias which is all that Josephus intends or can be deem'd to intend in those words which import no more but his being of an Opinion equivolent to that Pagan Opinion of Christ mention'd by St. Austin de consensu Evang. 1. 7. tom 4. pag. 162. honorandum enim tanquam sapientissimum virum putant non colendum tanquam Deum They thought he was to be honoured as a most wise man but not to be worship'd as a God for he was so far from thinking Christ to be God as in the question about Messiah he preferr'd Vespasian before him de Bel. Jud. 7. 12. an Argument that he did not apprehend the Messias himself to be God only he perceiv'd by the great Works Christ did that he was more than a common Man and by the Analogy which those Works bare to Prophecie that he was one of those extraordinary persons to whom those Prophecies had relation Either the Christ or Elias or that Prophet or one of the Prophets as some of the Jews conjectured our Saviour to be who were far enough from believing in him as Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 6. 2. Nor in that that is Christ whereby it was not in Josephus his thought to acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth for the Christ but only to distinguish him by that appellation from others his Coetanians who were called Jesus as the Son of Ananus who for seven years together before the ruin of the City denounced wo against it Bel. Jud. 7. 12. Jesus the son of Damneus whom Albinus made high Priest in room of Ananus the younger the murderer of St. James our Lords Brother which James Josephus in the same Chapter calls the Brother of Jesus Christ to distinguish him from that other Jesus Jud. antiquit 20. 7. there mentioned as also from Jesus the Captain of those Cut-throats whom the Imperialists of Sephorim hired to surprise Josephus vita Josephi and Jesus the son of Saphias that fire-flinger who incens'd the Galileans against Josephus Ibid. Jesus the son of Tobias that Captain of Robbers who near Tiberias surprised five of Valerian's Soldiers Bel. Jud. 3. 16. Jesus the son of Thebath to whom Titus gave quarter at the taking of the upper part of the City Jerusalem Bel. Jud. 7. 15. and Jesus the son of Gamaliel who succeeded that other Jesus already named in the high Priesthood antiq Jud. 20. 7. So that besides our Jesus there were six who in that Age bare that name and two of them mention'd in the same Chapter where he is named Jesus Christ Ant. Jud. 20. 7. Briefly so ambiguous was the name Jesus in that Age as the Jewish Exorcists that they might not leave the unclean spirits which they adjured in the name of Jesus in doubt who that Jesus was annex to it in their form of Conjuration this discriminating Circumstance whom Paul preacheth without which they might have pleaded they neither knew Jesus nor Paul there being Jesusses many and Pauls many but no Paul that preach'd Jesus saving the Apostle nor any Jesus whom Paul preach'd but Jesus Christ and therefore the Spirits are forc'd to confess Jesus
the Illumination of Faith could not understand what Christ meant when he spake to them of his Resurrection and were ready to give up their hopes that he was he that should redeem Israel when they saw him giving up the Ghost and hanging down his Head upon the Cross as St. Thomas though he had seen Lazarus rais'd from the dead and heard it reported by credible Witnesses that Christ was risen would not believe it As Celsus Orig. cont Cels. l. 2. cal 41. rather than grant the Truth of the Christian Hypothesis denied the possibility of it As it seemed good to the holy Ghost to confirm the report of Christs Resurrection by all those Signs which the Apostles wrought after his Ascension by the name of the Holy Child Jesus while with great power they gave witness of his Resurrection Acts 4. 33. Yea so much did divine Goodness condescend to Humane imbecility as to give a fuller proof of that point so far above Reasons comprehension and much more out of the Sphere of Natural Power than the report of Eye-witnesses than the Confession of Adversaries than the Seal of those Miracles afforded by that Grace that was upon all the Publishers and fell upon all the Receivers of that Doctrine a Grace enabling them to live up to the Gospel and to bring forth those Fruits of Holiness Righteousness Temperance Meekness as sufficiently commended to the morallized part of the World that Root of Faith from whence they issued as far outstript the most glorious glittering productions of the Moral Philosophers as infinitely transcended the results of fantastick Credulty and put all other Religions to the blush at the sight of their own impotency CHAP. XII The Supernatural Power of Salvifick Grace § 1. The Church triumphs over the Schools § 2. Christianity layes the Axe to the Root § 3. The Rule imperfect before Christ. § 4. The Discipline of the Schools was without Life and Power § 5. Real exornations before Verbal Encomiums § 1. HEre Christian Reader I must crave thy help and beg thy aid towards the convincing the World of the Divine Original of Christian Religion which though it apparently bear the stamps of heavenly Wisdome in its Prophecies of in finite Power in its Miracles commends it self more to the Consciences of men by engaging its Fautors to a Conversation answerable to its Sacred Rules than by affording the most substantial Grounds of discoursing in its Defence by any other Arguments Religion is better maintain'd by Living than Disputing A Gospel-becoming Converse falls under the Observation and speaks to the Hearts of all men even of those who are not able to fathom the depth nor feel the ground of the most rational verbal Discourse well exprest by the Apostle of the Circumcision 1 Pet. 3. 1. Dr. Hammond annot in the Argument whereby he perswades Christian Matrons to be in subjection to their own though Gentile Husbands that if any obeyed not the Word submitted not to the Gospel upon the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power they also without the Word which the Apostles preach'd in confirmation of the Resurrection of Christ might be won by the Conversation of their Wives while they beheld their chaste Conversation that Modesly which the true fear of God Christian Religion which alone rightly Disciplines persons in that fear taught them In his motive 1 Pet. 2. 12 13. to Christian Subjects to yield obedient subjection to their Heathen Magistrates and in that point particularly to lead an honest life among the Gentiles that whereas they were evil spoken of as Jews by reason of the turbulency and frequent rebellions of their Countrymen the Gentiles might see that Christian-Jews were of another spirit than the rest of that Nation and upon that account might revere them for their good works and glorifie God the Author of a Religion that had made them so much more meek regular and quiet under the Heathen Government which was over them than the other Jews were when the Proconsuls should be sent to make enquiry of the Commotions made by the unbelieving Party of that Nation It was by this Argument that the old Laic-Confessor silenc'd convinc'd and converted that proud and subtile Philosopher who bore up himself against all the Reasonings of the Learned Teachers of the Nicence Council Crab. tom 1. pag. 249. In the name of Jesus Christ saith he O Philosopher hear the Dictates of Truth There is one God Maker of Heaven and Earth who Created all things visible and invisible by the power of his Word and confirm'd them by the Sanctity of his Spirit This Word therefore which we call the Son of God having mercy on Mankind vouchsafed to be born of a VVoman to converse with Men and die for them and will come again to give sentence upon the Lives of all men By the belief of those things we Christians are freed from Error and from that Religion wherein Men live like Beasts into a state of living like Men. Upon this the Philosopher cries out that he is a Christian and assures his Fellows he was drawn to it not upon light grounds but by that ineffable Vertue which attended the embracing of Christianity In this Argument the ancient Patrons of the Christian Cause triumph'd over all other Religions and Disciplines The Christian Churches saith Origen contr Cels. lib. 3. cal 8. compared with other Societies are really the Lights of the VVorld who is there that must not confess if he make an impartial collation of them that the worst part of the Church excells vulgar assemblies for the Church of God at Athens for instance is meek and quiet c. the Pagan Assemblies seditious turbulent c. And to that Calumny of Celsus that the Christians invited the worst of sinners Origen makes this Reply that the Christian Philosophy did dayly reform the most degenerate Natures not by converting one or two in so many Ages as Phaedo who coming Piping hot out of the Stewes into Plato's School took those impresses from his Doctrine as Plato in his Dialogues brings Phaedo in discoursing of the Immortality of the Soul Or Palemon who by attending to Philosophical Discipline became of a Ruffian so temperate as he succeeded Xenocrates in his School but great multitudes Christs Fishers of men caught them by whole shoales when these Philosophical Anglers drew them up by unites Tertullian apolog 46. outvies the greatest Philosophers with common Christians Thales one of the seven VVisemen could not satisfie Craesus when he askt him what God was but required time for the return of an answer and the more he thought upon it was further off from finding a solution when every Mechanick Christian hath found and can shew all that can be askt concerning God though Plato says the framer of the Universe is neither easie to be found out nor to be exprest If we compare them in point of Chastity we read that one part of the Attick sentence against Socrates condemn'd him of Sodomy
and to prevent his being exalted above measure sent Satan to buffet him to infix some pungent Disease in his flesh Dr. Hammond on 1 Cor. 5. 5 reckons St. Paul's buffeting as an effect of God's delivering him unto Satan which caused the like pain as they feel that have a Thorn in their Body or a barbed Arrow stuck in their Flesh or a sharp stake run through their body upon which they are as it were spitted as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word that is here translated Thorn signifies or any other sharp-pointed thing stuck in Man's Body as the Learned Cameron having its derivation from a Verb that signifies to dig or make holes in or bore through a thing affine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pasor circumcirca scalpo the same from whence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that kind of Worm that consumed Herod which makes me think St. Pau's Thorn might be a spice of his disease and to have been so apprehended by St. Paul himself as also to have been sent in his apprehension as Herod's was as a Judgement of God upon him for his priding himself in that glorious priviledge of being rapt up into the third Heaven Of which sin he suspected himself guilty not so much from any feelings of Prides working in his Soul as of these prickings and gnawings in his Flesh which resentment he could not have express in fitter terms than by the Metaphor of a pricking Thorn which as it creates the same kind of pain and shooting that Worms do so the Word which the Apostle uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes as near the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a worm as to that other word signifying a Thorn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all three have their names from the sharpness of their heads or points which makes them apt to prick and pierce Or than by the Metaphor of Satans buffeting which as it implies the Vermination of the Ears of which both Pliny and Celsus affirm the cure to be very difficult Vessâ—i Etymolog and therefore might occasion St. Paul to suspect that he was punish'd in that Organ through which he had in his Extasie received unutterable words so it alludes to Herod's being smitten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the angel gave Herod a patt Or than by his more than importunate begging the removal of this Thorn his beseeching thrice speaks that veSpanâ—cy of desire to be quit of this affliction as is scarce consistent with that greatness of Christian Courage he shewed in bearing all other afflictions if he had not apprehended this to have had that poysonful sting of Pride complicated with it as its procuring Cause Hence signanter he prayes not that this thorn but that this thing might be taken away that is the Affliction with its Circumstances of his too much exaltation if he were as Satan suggested really guilty or if not his fear of it for that he was jealous of himself as faln into Herod's sin because he found himself in Herod's Disease and thought he read his sin in the judgement is yet more manifest by the answer that God return'd My grace is sufficient for thee my strength is made perfect in weakness and St. Paul's triumph upon that Answer most gladly will I glory in my infirmities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his now reading and repeating the gracious end of God in this Dispensation which answer of God is not a Promise but an adjudging the Victory to St. Paul the Spirits witness to his spirit that that favour which had rapt him up into the third Heaven had prevented his being lifted up above measure in the sence of that Priviledge and that by means of Gods sending Satan to inflict this Disease upon him in which weakness this tenderness of his heart exprest in this godly jealousie and the strength of his Faith exprest in his recumbency upon God not letting his hold go when Satan by these suggestions pull'd so hard were more glorious Effects of God's both Favour to him and grace in him than his preceding Rapture And St. Paul's Inference from this Answer speaks him to have learn'd by this what the purpose of God was in thus afflicting him which he knew not before vide Musculum in locum and to resolve that he would now to chuse be so far from fear of over doing it in boasting as he would glory more in this sickness than in his former exaltation as an occasion of bringing more Glory to God and an indication of a greater Vertue and Strength of Grace But I digress too far only I took occasion from the Parity of St. Paul's and Herod's Disease to vindicate this Text out of the bad handling of those who to the perdition of themselves and millions of their Disciples wrest it to a sence whereby it is given out to speak of Concupiscence or sinful Infirmities whereas it manifestly intends a bodily Disease except we will make God an Author of sin and his chosen Vessel to glory in his shame as themselves do in theirs I return to Josephus who witnesses a better Confession of the Christian Faith and gives a more honourable Testimony of Christ than they do in their Glosses and speaks more consonantly to the Apostolical sence in all those Texts of his we have conferr'd with the Sacred and in all the rest that any way concern the Emergencies specified in the Gospel the comparing of all which would tire my Reader and my self and one would think it should put Impudency her self to the blush to demand more Instances than have been produced or better Evidence for the proof of the Truth of Matters of Fact reported in the Gospel than the Testimony of such an Author yet that the Atheist may know the Church hath in this case more than one such VVitness I shall offer to Examination the Testimony of other Secular Records CHAP. IX Other Secular Witnesses to the Truth of Sacred History § 1 Phlegon of the Darkness and Earthquake at Christs Passion § 2. Thallus his mistaking that Darkness for an Eclipse § 3. The Records of Pagan Rome touching that and other Occurrences § 4. The Chronicles of Edessa though Apochryphall yet true Julian ' s Prohibition of the use of Secular Books in Christian Schools his Testimony § 5. Moses his History of Joseph attested by Pagans § 6. His History of himself § 7. Of Noah Balaam c. avouched by Secular Writers § 1. OF Phlegon a Pagan Writer under Adrian the Emperour who wrote 16 Books of Olympiads and therein the memorable Accidents that fell out in the space of 229 Olympiads He in his 13 or 14. Book affirms as he is quoted by St. Origen in Cels. l. 2. cal 8. 9. That Christ foretold many things to come which accordingly fell out and from this his foreknowledge of Contingencies is forc'd there to confess that his Doctrine was super-humane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And mentions the Eclipse that happen'd at our Saviours Passion as the same Father