mines of the Emperours inheritance and if all these temples depend not absolutely on his will There are many gods have had experience of Caesaâ—s anger and this is an advantage to us that the Prince being favourable to them hath used his liberality and accorded some priviledges to them Now how is it possible that they that are subjects to the Emperour to whom all the world is subject should have the welfare of their Emperour in their power there is more likely-hood they have their welfare from Caesar then Caesar from them What offend we the majesty of the Prince because we cast him not under the things appertaining to him because we turne not into derision the prayers which should be raysed up to Heaven for his preservation and believe not that it is in the hands of the leaden statues of your gods Truely you appeare very pious to your Prince being you seeke his welfare where it is not and demand it of them who can do nothing forgetting him that hath the power to give it and seeing you persecute men who can demand it and knowing how to aske it know also how to obtaine it CHAP. XXX As for us in the prayers wee make for the Emperous wee call upon the eternall God the true God the living God this God to whom the Emperours prefer their assistance before that of other gods they know very well who gave them the empire they possesse and men as they are know who gave them the spirit wherewith they are animated They acknowledge there is no other then this onely God through whose power alone they subsist to whom they are inferiour one degree onely after whom they are next in place before and above all other that are called gods Why should they not be greater then these gods seeing they are masters of all the living which are more worth then the dead they consider how farr their authority goes and apprehend the essence of God in proving they can do nothing against him also seeing God greater and of more power then themselves they are forced to acknowledge they can doe nothing but by him Let the Princes of the earth makes as many designes as they please to subdue Heaven undertake to carry Heaven in triumph as a captive command courts of guard to be kept in Heaven strive to make Heaven tributary they labour in vaine hee is great because not altogether so great as heaven To him heaven and all creatures appertaine the Emperour drawes his originall from the same place whence man drew before hee was Emperour the author of his soule is the author of his power It is to him to whom wee Christians addresse our prayers make them with hands opened and lifted up because innocent the head bare because no cause to bee ashamed when wee pray to God There are none declares to us the words we are to say because it is our heart that acteth rather then our tongue Wee pray for all the Emperours and aske of God that he would give them along life that their Empire enjoy a profound peace their house a happy concord their armies be invincible themselves assisted with good counsells the people remaine in their duties no trouble arise in the world against their authority In the end we forget nothing the Prince can wish for either as a man or as an Emperour Neverthelesse we cannot aske these things but of him of whom wee know wee shall obtaine them as hee is the onely one that must grant them wee are they alone that must pray for them because we and none but we are his true subjects for of all men hee is worshipped of none but us let them put us to death because wee follow his doctrine and offer this rich and fat sacrifice which hee will have us consecrate unto him to wit a prayer conceaved and produced from a chast body an innocent soule a spirit filled with holinesse and not with the graines of incense of little value the teares of that tree of Arabia two drops of wine the blood of an Oxe ready to die of old age and for that reason even to bee rejected in true sacrifices finally after all sort of uncleanesse with a contaminated conscience In effect there is where withall to wonder that among you the Priests vicious as they are exactly consider it the sacrifices are pure and intire they examine rather the inwards of the sacrifices then the insides of them that offer them then whilst we implore the grace of God for the Emperours with our hands lifted up and stretched toward heaven let irons pierce us gibbets put us on crosses fires consume us knives cut our throats beasts devoure us A Christian while in prayer lifting up his hands to God is in a condition fit to receave all sorts of punishments and therefore continue O magistrates so affected to justice ravish our soules whilst they are in prayers for the welfare of the Emperours and make a crime of truth and the service of God CHAP. XXXI BUT it may bee you imagine our hearts belie our words that what we come from saying of the vowes wee make for the welfare of our Emperours is but flattery by which wee thinke to shelter our selves from the torments prepared for us But if wee use faigning this faigning is not unprofitable seeing you admit us to prove what we alleadg for our justification wee entreat them who believe our Religion takes no care of the preservation of the Emperours to examine the lawes of our God to read our bookes which wee hide not and which by divers accidents fall into other hands then ours They will learne there that it is commanded us by a superabundant charity to pray to God for our enemies and to wish good to them that persecute us Now have wee greater enemies and ruder persecuters then those who make offended majesty the ground of the crime they impute unto us Holy Scriptures content not themselves with this commandement they have another more precise and clearer pray say they for Kings Princes and powers that you may live in peace in the midst of publicke tranquilitie for if the Empire be shaken all its members suffer a generall shaking it is impossible we should not feel it because although people take us for strangers yet seeing wee occupie certaine places as well as they wee make a part of the state as well as they and together with them participate of its good and evill fortune CHAP. XXXII VVEE have yet an obligation greater then that of praying to God for the Emperours all estates of the Empire and prosperity of the Roman affaires Wee are assured that the generall dissolution that threatens the Universe and this consummation of ages which must bring such fearefull confusions in the world is retarded so long as the glorious majesty and triumphant Roman Empire shall last We desire not to bee present at the subversion of all nature and when wee pray to God to deferr it we pray
also aoknowledge the nature of the Angels and the Magidians who in their inchantments make use of the names of Angels and Divels to bee testimonies of their being One may learn from the holy Scriptures how by the sin of certain Angels who frō the irregularity of their own wil suffered their innocence to bee corrupted came the race of the Divels a race much more corrupted then these evill Angels from whence they draw their originall and that God hath condemned with them and their Prince those of whom we come from speaking of Wherefore sufficeth that wee now treat of the point that concerneth the operations of these spirits They worke on men but to destroy them the malice of the Divels from the beginning of times was imployed in doing evill Thus they afflict bodies with diseases and make them fall into troublesome accidents they stir up in mens mindes violent troubles and sudden motions which move them extraordinarily Their simple and subtile nature gives them the faculty of laying bold of the two substances that compose man The power with which these spirits operate is admirable one may very well know their action but the manner of their operation falls not under the object of the sight neither can bee perceived by the organ of the senses As when there happens any secret irregularity in the aite the distemper thereof makes the fruit to be lost in the blossome takes away its life when it begins to put forth and nips them at the very time of their maturity even as when the aire is infected by some sudden cause it spreads the plague upon the earth among the vapours that the Sun had drawn up in the same manner and with a contagion as unperceiveable the Divels and evill Angels by their blast cast disorders into mindes agitate them with divers furies give them thoughts of folly and filthiness make them capable more violent passions and slide therein an infinite number of errours Of these errours this is the principall that after they have abused wrapt them up into a thousand illusions they recommend them to the worshipping of these false gods and oblige them to offer sacrifices to their Idols that they may be fed with the odour of the sacrifices and the bloud of these beasts which is their most agreeable nourishment For what nourishment do they raste with more pleasure then the Idolatry of man when by the wiles of their false juglings they seduce them and turne aside their thoughts from the object of the true God I will now discover by what way they deceive them Every Spirit hath the same nimbleness as a bird and because the Angels and Divels are spirits they are every where in a moment All the world is but one place to them it is all one with them to know what is done in every coast of the world as to say it This promptitude with which they know all things makes them pass for gods because their substance is not knowne So they will often appear to bee Authours of that which they declare in effect they are somtimes of evill but never of good Besides they learnt heretofore from the mouthes of the Prophets the things which eternall providence hath determined and now they take them from the holy Scriptures it is from thence they draw the conjectures by which they judge of the times to come They observe the changes that have happened in the fequell of times and they strive to appeare like to a Deitie by the thefts they make of these predictions wherewith they abuse the world They work upon all with a wonderfull cunning to express the Oracles they render by terms full of ambiguity that they may accommodate themselves to the events Craesus and Pyrrhus could tell much newes It was by the means we before spoke of Apollo declared that Craesus had boiled his Tortoise With the flesh of a Lamb hee had learnt it in Lydia where he was in an instant Moreover the Divels who have their residence in the aire by their neighbourhood with the starres and the nearenesse of the clouds may know the disposition of the Heavens They promise men raine which is ready to fall and which they feele when they promise it Truly wee must avow they are very helpfull in the cure of diseases for they are they that doe the evill and afterwards ordaine the remedies but they are remedies wonderfull new and contrary to the evill after one hath made use of their receipts they cease to afflict the body and then wee thinke they have cured it What shall I say more concerning the trickes of these deceitfull spirits and their admirable effects of the spirits of Castor and Pollux who brought to Rome the news of the victory obtained on King Perseus of Macedonia presently after it was won of that Vestall that received water in a sieve of another that made a great ship saile which she drew onely with her girdle of that Domitius to whom the spirits of Castor and Pollux by their onely touch changed the colour of his beard and of black made it become red that he might have some marke to make him elieveb it when declaring to him this victory allready obtained by the Romans all these things which are the workers of the Devill have authorised Idolatry perswaded men that stones were true deities and hindred them to seeke the true God this high and incomprehensible majesty to whom onely worship is due CHAP. XXIII BUt seeing Magicians have power to make spirits appear to men seeing they recall the souls of the dead whom they cover with infamy by their witchcrafts that by the force of their enchantments Children are made use of in their charmes to throw themselves on the ground and afterwards rise up againe to declare Oracles that by the delusions wherewith they deceive the eyes and eares they represent a great number of miracles that they infuse dreams into us when asleepe and worke all these things when once by the vertue of their invocations they have obtained the help of evill Angels and Devills who make their goats and tables prophesic When this power worketh of one accord and for it onely with how much more affection doth it imploy all its forces to effect what it produceth when there is no question of any interest but of that which is a stranger to it If the Angels and Devils do the same things as your gods where is the excellencie of the deity wee must imagine to bee above all other powers is it not more seemely to presume that they are they that make themselves to bee acknowledged for gods seeing their actions are like to them they take for actions of the gods then to believe the power of the gods is not greater then that of Angels and Devils but it may bee your gods are gods but in the temples it is the place that gives them the title and that out of temples you do not acknowledge them for gods that in your
opinion it is another kind of fury to leape over consecrated towers to a deity then to precipitate ones slle from a prophane house that it is another sort of rage to cut off ones privy parts and armes then to cut ones throat in truth the despaire both of the one and the other meet both in one as it is but one cause that transports them But hitherto we have made use of nothihg but wordes now wee must make use of the things themselves and demonstrations to shew you that your gods and divels are but one substance and that they differ but in name If a man should bring before your Tribunalls one that were truely possessed of a Divell if a Christian should comand him to speake this wicked spirit wil confess then that he is a Devill with as much truth as he saith falsely at another time he is a God Let them present any one of these they believe to be wrought upon within by a deity that in the ceremony of the sacrifices they offer on the Altars have the vertue of a God in senting the smell which goes out of the sacrifices who with force belch out words out of their stomacks within breathing declare oracles if this heavenly virgin who promiseth raine if this AEsculapius that teacheth the secrets of Physicke that preserves the lives of them who must lose the same soone after confesse not by the mouths of these impostors Whose fained inspirations deceive the world that they are but devills if the presence of a Christian takes not from them the boldnesse of lying wee are willing that in the same place you shed the bloud of this Christian and punish him as a wicked person What demonstration is clearer then this what proofe more infallible truth shines there in its purity it is afficted with this force that is not proper but for her selfe there is nothing heere to bee evill thought on Say then it is done by the power of Magick or by some such like tricke if your eyes or eares will let you But I pray what can you say against a thing that shews it selfe so cleare and without artifice if these spirits are gods indeed why do they falsely say they are devills is it to obey us they do so on this accout the deity receives law from the Christians but they should not honour with this title a nature that is under the government of man I might add that is subect to the power of his enemies if it causeth shame If on the other side these spirits are Divels or Angels how comes it when they speake to others then to us they would passe for gods for as those to whom divine honour is rendred wou'd not be avowed Divels if in truth they were gods because gods cannot take the qualitie of Divels without putting off their majesty so yit the names they give themselves whom you acknowledge to bee Divels were the names of true gods they could not bee so rash as to take and to put them in the rank of a Deitie because these gods would without doubt bee their Soveraignes and they would feare to offend the majestie of them whose power they should dread Acknowledge then that the Deitie you honour is not a Deitie because if it were the Divels would not attribute it to themselves and the gods would not disavow it So seeing both the one and the other concur in acknowledging this truth that those the world acknowledge for gods are none you must confess then they are Divels and therefore you must resolve to seek Deities somewhere else seeing you now see what is the condition of them you take for gods Now seeing by our meanes your gods discover to you they are no gods and that all the other to whom men erect Altars are none in like manner but this at the same time they make you know who the true God is if it be this only God that we that are Christians worship if we must believe of him what the Christians believe if hee must bee served as their Lawes ordaine When you conjure your gods in the name of Jesus Christ doe they aske who is that Jesus Christ doe they call the History of his life a Fable doe they say hee is a man of the same condition as other men that hee was a Magician that after dead his Disciples tooke away his body privately from the Sepulchre and that he is now in Hell say they not rather hee is in Heaven that hee must discend to the terrour of all the world with horrour to the Universe with the lamentation of all men but Christians and that hee shall come downe on the earth full of Majestie as the vertue of God the spirit of God the Word Wisdome Reason and Son of God your gods must doe as you doe deride all these things denie all the souls that liv'd since the Creation of the world should take their bodies againe that Jesus Christ must judge them they should say it belongs to Radamanthus and Minos according to the opinion of Plato and the Poets at least they should discharge themselves of the shame of this sin and infamy of their condemnation not avowing they are spirits of corruption although it sufficiently enough appeares by the condition of their meats they seed on the bloud smoake stinking sacrifices of beasts and impure tongues of their Divines that they are so and in the end not confess they are already condemned to the pains of Hell expecting the universall judgement where they shall receive the just recompence of their wickedness with all them that have sinned as they and worshipped them Now all the power we have of them is the name of Jesus Christ who gives it us it is the threatning we give them of the evils God is readie to powre on their heads and which one day Jesus Christ must declare to them As they feare Jesus Christ in God and God in Jesus Christ they are under the government of the servants of God and of Jesus Christ so by the onely touch of our hands and breath of our mouths the Divel seized with feare at the sight of the flames that environ them are forced to obey us to come our of the bodies they possess in dispite of them and with murmuring to suffer this shame in our presence You that are wont to believe them when they lie believe them when they speake of thenselves No body will tell a lie to get shame by it but rather to gaine honour one will sooner beleve them that confesse against their owne interest then those that denie to their advantage These Testimonies which we have of your Gods make men to bee Christians for wee cannot give a full beleese to what they say without believing in Jesus Christ our master Your gods kindle in our hearts the faith which the Holy Scripture teacheth us they strengthen our hope and confirme us in the assurance wee have of our salvation As for you to honour them
sweare by their standard and make Deities of them which they prefer before the majesty of their other gods Which Ensignes and standards of theirs however richly set forth however cover'd over with cloth of gold perhaps or tissue and the like are all for the most part represented to the eyes under the forme or figure of a Crosse So that all the difference I finde between the Crosse we honour and you consists it should seem in the pompousness wherewith yours beyond ours is adorn'd Wherein I applaud you for it that you consecrate not bare crosses without all other manner of adorning them There are that with more apparent reason believe the Sun to be our god these send us to the Religion of the Persians But wee worship not the Image of the Sun as these people doe who in a foolish superstition carry it ordinarily painted on their Bucklers Yet herein they suspect us for so doing because hearing when we pray wee turne our selves to the East Is it not true there are many among you that doe the same when making Orisons to some other gods then those Images of yours represent prostrate themselves to the Sun-rising and in that posture offer up their vows to Heaven If celebrate the Sunday which is the day of the Sun as a Holyday to rejoice in it so doing we worship not that great light of the world but thereby rather solemnize this day which comes next after that of Saturne to be distinguished from the Jewes who owne Saturday for their Sabbath and with respect thereunto spend the same in all manner of case and idleness swerving in so doing from the laudable custome of their Ancestors long since extinguished with them The calumnies invented to cry down our Religion arise to such excesse of impiety that not long agoe in this City a Picture of our God was shewed by a certain infamous person that got his living by exposing to the sight of the people wilde beasts who by a strange faculty gotten by him to avoid their bitings making use of his craft shewed also the aforesaid Picture openly to all commers with this inscription thereon This is Onochoetes the god of the christians This supposed god of the christians pretended by him had the ears of an asse a hoof on one of his feet carried a book and was clothed with a gowne We laugh at the barbarousness of this name and the extravagancy of this figure But they me thinks should rather worship such a Monster as this for a god who for the present adore with divine honour such like things for example an Image composed of two different formes at the same time having the head of a Dog and Lion joyned together hornes resembling those of an Oxe and Ramme like a goat from the loines a serpent from the thighs with wings on his feet and backe Of these things more then enough that nothing remaines to bee confuted on our part of what ever falsly alleadged by the Heathen against us as also that you might not say or impute to mee I have used artifice in dissembling the things wherof I could not justifie the Christians I come now to the expounding the mysteries of our Religion CHAP. XVII THe God whom we worship is one only God who created of nothing this great masse of the world together with every thing wherof the Elements bodies and spirits therein are composed and by the authority of his word by the admirable order which his wisdom hath established and the vertue of his infinite power hath produced this excellent worke to bee a worthy image of his greatnesse from whence it comes the Greekes have given him a name which signifies ornament This God though dayly to be seene is neverthelesse invisible though graciously represented every where incomprehensible enough expos'd to humane sence yet indiscernable Because such a God therefore is hee the true God Ordinarily that which fals under the object of the sight which may bee handled which the mind can understand is lesse then the eyes that see it the hands that touch it the mind which maks it be known Which things cannot be said of God whose infinitenesse is onely indiscoverable save to himselfe In regard whereof though not so well apprehended of men yet is he neverthelesse not altogethe unknowne to them Somthing of him men conceave when conceave him to be beyond the farthest reach of all human reasonings his immensity at the same time discovering when concealing But heerein you mistake principally in that you will not know him at all because you cannot know him perfectly or you will not worship him because you will not know him when at the instant you seem to a vow as much you cannot be wholly ignorant of him Well then will you have us prove him by the infinitenesse of his marvellous workes wherewith wee are encompassed wherewith wee are preserved wherwith we are delighted wherwith we are terrified Wil you have us convince you of your infidelity by the witness of your owne soule you know in despite of the constraint shee suffers in the Prison of her body in the midst of evill habits wherwith besieged with respect to the disorders of vicious inclinations and unchast desires impairing her vigor in this misfortune of her condition where she sees her selfe enslaved to false deities when retire into her selfe and takes up her spirits as it falls out after shee comes from being cropsick as it were out of sleep or what ever distempers if retaining stil the use of reason she thanks God This inward motion that maks you call on God doth it not show you that there is but one God to whom truly this high title belongs Is it not true that you all say God is great God is good and when you speake of the good you receive from Heaven that God hath given do you not also make this God your judge when you say God sees all things recommending your selves to God and desiring that hee will help you in effect these words which you have ordinarily in your mouth shew that your souls are naturally carried to acknowledge a God and consequently that you are Christians Finally he that speaks thus of God lookes up to Heaven and not to the Capitoll for hee knows Heaven is the residence of the living God as he knowes him to bee the Author of his life and from thence to have descended CHAP. XVIII NOw as God is full of goodnesse hee would leave a means whereby men might acquire a full and intire knowledge of the truth of his being his lawes and his commandements He hath given the Holy Scriptures to instruct those who will bee enlightened with the light of the true Religion who desire to finde it when they seeke it who have intentions to believe in the word of one God after they have found him and to serve him faithfully after they have received the same Therefore he caused men to bee sent upon the earth from the beginning of times
his substance is I have already declared that God created the Universe by the power of his word the operation of his wisedome and the vertue of his power The ancient Wise-men also were of this opinion that the word and wisedome which they named of one onely word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the word did make the World Zenon saith this word is the Authour of that order and admirable disposition we see in nature also that the same that is called Destiny is God the mind of Jupiter and necessity of all things Cleanthes makes a spirit that goes into all the parts of this Universe As for us as wee say God hath made all things by his word wisedome and vertue wee attribute to the word wisedome and vertue of God a Spirit that is their proper substance and which is the word to command the wisdom to dispose and the vertue to give perfection to his workes Wee have learnt that God hath produced this spirit which we call the word that God in producing it hath begot it and therefore it is the Sonne of God and also God in regard the substance of God and his owne Son are but one selfe same substance because God is also a Spirit it is even as of a beame comming from the body of the Sun this Planet in producing the same gives it a portion of its light which notwithstanding it cannot lose for it is alwayes in its beame because the beame is alwayes a beame of the Sun the substance of the light is not separated but spreads forth So in the internall generation of the word the spirit derives from the spirit and God derives from God as the light of a Candle is taken from another Candle which hath comunicated to it its light the light remains all intire in the Candle from whence it is taken and suffers not any diminution although men borrow the quality to distribute it to many Candles It is even so of God that which comes from him is God the Son of God and both together God and his Sonne are one and the selfe same God From whence it follows that this distinction of spirit to spirit of God to God is not in the substance but person makes not a division in God but only a distribution of the qualities of Father and Son not a diversity of conditions between Father and Son but onely an order of God the Father to God the Son and finally that God the Son springeth and is not separated from the substance of God wherefore the beame of God being come downe into the body of a Virgin and incarnate in her womb is come likewise into the world Man and God together This marvellous composure of mortal flesh the spirit of God hath been nourished brought up grown in years spoken taught wrought is this Man Jesus Christ Take if you wil this truth for a fable you may receive it in the mean time till we bring further proofs of our Master as wee receive many tales made touching those gods you confess This wonder was knowne to them of whom you hold all the follies you believe of a Deity They have invented them by a sacrilegious emulation to destroy the eternall truth of a God-man in exposing to them the lies which have some relation with them If then you will have witnesses of the incarnation of the Son of God we tell you the Jews knew it from the mouths of the Prophets that hee was to be borne among men and they expect him still and the greatest difference between them and us is that they doe not believe he is already come The holy Scriptures make mention of two commings of the Son of God the first when he appeared in the weakness of humane nature and condition of a very low humility The second which to bring with it the end of all times and wherein he will shew himselfe with all the splendor of his God-head The Jewes have not heard of the first and they hope for the second which hath been so clearly declared perswading themselves that the Son of God should come this onely time on the earth Their sins are the just cause of their blindness they have deserved by their crimes committed against God not to understand this first comming yet without doubt they would have believed this glorious Mystery if they had uhderstood it and if they Would have believed it he had acquired for them eternall salvation This punishment was foretold them and they may read in the holy Scripture that God hath threatned they should not know his secrets that their understanding should not comprehend them that they should have eyes and not see his light eares and not heare his word Now as they could not imagine him whom they saw in this low humility to be a God so they took him only for a man whom when reflecting upon them the effects of his power they gave out that he used Magick and by the helpe thereof cast Divels out the bodies of men restored sight to the blinde cleansed the Lepers healed them that were sicke of the Palsey raised the dead made the Elements obey him appeased Tempests went upon the waters all actions by which hee shewed himselfe to be the ancient Word the first born accomplished with vertue and wisdome as also informed with the spirit of God himselfe The Doctors of the Law and the greatest among the Jewes who saw when he preached that he confounded their errours and that an infinite multitude of people followed him were so incensed against him that in conclusion they accused him before Pontius Pilat the then Governour of Judea under the authoritie of the Emperour Tiberius and by violating justice forced him to deliver them Jesus to bee nailed on the Crosse Hee foretold they should thus unworthily use him but it may be 't would not be enough if the Prophets had not declared it a long time before yet Jesus being on the crosse gave many signes by which he shewed hee was truly the Son of God for after making that great exclamation when a dying he rendered of his own accord his spirit to God his Father preventing therby the Executioners accustomed to breake the thighs of those that were crucified to hasten the end of their lives and deliver them from the pains of a longer punishment Moreover in that very moment wherein Jesus expired which was at noone the Sun lost his light and the Earth was covered with darkness even they who knew not this prodigy should happen at his death and that revealed before to the Prophets did take it for a miracle and because unwilling to discover the reason thereof they denied it that came to pass But you cannot make this wonder suspected seeing your owne Calenders have remarked it and your selves retaine the testimonies thereof in your owne registers The Jews having took Jesus from the Crosse and put him into the sepulchre encompass'd it with a great number of Souldiers
to whom they gave charge to keep him carefully This suspicious people feared his Disciples should come and take away his body and having committed this theft perswade them hee was risen because hee had said that in three dayes hee would rise from the grave and triumph over death But the third day being come the earth shooke on a sudden the stone that shut the mouth of the Sepulchre was overturned the Souldiers astonished and troubled with fear and not one of his Disciples durst appeare that they might be accused of taking away his body which not being found there remained nothing in the grave but the linnen wherewith he was wrapt Yet notwithstanding the High Priests divulged this bruit that the body of Jesus was taken away by his Disoiples They had reason to publish this false theft that they might turne away the people from embracing this Doctrine otherwise themselves should lose the authority they had over the People and the profits they drew from them if they had knowne that hee whom they had crucified was truly the son of God Their mindes being thus abused by the ambition and avarice of the Priests they remained in the darknesse of errour for Jesus Christ shewed himselfe not to the People because hee would not doe this favour to the wicked to make them become faithfull in presenting before their eyes his glorious body and it must be that the faith that promis'd such great recompences should bee wrapt up with some difficulties After his resurrection he stayes with some of his Disciples sorty dayes in Galile one of the Provinces in Judea where hee taught them what they should preach to men and having given them to declare his Doctrine throughout all the Earth a cloud invironed him where with received up to Heaven a truth far more certain then any humane testimonies given of your Proculus touching his seeing a Romulus or other of your Princes mounting up into the same place Pilate who in his heart believed in Jesus Christ at the same time wrote all this History to the Emperour Tiberius whereupon the Cesars themselves had worshipped our Master if their government in so doing had been consistent with the men of this world and Christians permitted to have beene saluted Caesars The Disciples of Jesus following the order hee had given them went over all parts of the knowne world to publish the Law of the Gospel But the Jewes their declared Enemies made them indure many punishments which they suffered generously because they knew they were hated only for preaching the truth In the end these Insidels taking advantage of the cruelty of Nero caused the bloud of the Christians inhumanly to be shed But remember when wee told you of the gods you worship we said we would produce them as sit witnesses of the Godhead of Jesus Christ Is it not strange we should imploy them whom you withold from being Christians to make you believe the Doctrine of Christians yet you shall see by and by that your gods beare witness in favour of our Religion against your Idolatry This wee shall tell you when come to declare to you wherin consists all the mystery of our instirution then you shall know both the originall of out Religion the name and the Author thereof Let none therefore object to us any more these crimes so full of infamy let none any more conceive these strange opinions of our lives you must needs belleve what wee declare to you touching the worship we render to God Religion is a sacred thing where it is not permitted to seigne and where lies are counted sacrilegious Every man that saith he worships other God then whom he pretends truly to worship is an Insidell to his God and takes from him the honour hee should render him to transfer the same to another and in transferring it acknowledgeth not his Godhead any longer because hee violates it in denying him We say openly we are Christians we avow it publickly yea even in the midst of tortures the which you make use of to make us deny it When we are torne in pieces and covered with our bloud we cry out as far as our voices will extend wee worship God in Jesus Christ believe if you will Jesus Christ to be man onely It is by him and in him nevertheless that God will bee known and honoured So to the end wee may answer the Jewes Have not they learn'd to worship God on earth by Moses a man whom God sent to teach them to serve him and that he made use of Moses as a man to publish his Law as for the Greeks were not they men that instructed them in their superstitions to wit Orpheus on the mountain of Pierius Museus at Atbens Melampus at Argos and Trophonius in Beotia Then if I should cast mine eyes upon you who are the Masters of all the world do I not finde it was a man a Numa Pompilius that put upon you a Religion so full of ridiculous mysteries and troublesome ceremonies Why should it not be permitted Jesus Christ also to declare his Divinity he to whom only the Divinity appertained and to make himselfe acknowledged for the God of Heaven and Earth He ought not to be suspected for an Impostor as others for hee was not like to a Numa who would not soften the wilde spirits of these savage people and barbarous in filling them with astonishment by the infinite number of gods which made them afraid Hee address'd himself to men pollishe perfectly knowing in the prudence of the world and yet withall their wisedome were blinde as concerning Heaven He came to enlighten and discover to them the truth they knew not Informe your selves whether the God-head of Jesus Christ be the true God-head we ought to worship Whether it change their manners that believe it and makes them become better then they were all the other Deities must bee condemned as false and principally that which is under the names and Images of dead men by the artisice of certaine supposed signes of the miracles they counterfet and the deceitfull Oracles they render passe for a true Divinity although it is knowne that all it doth is but the worke of Divels CHAP. XXII VVE say then that there is in Nature certain spiritual substances to whom the name of Divels is given This name is not new the Philosopher had the knowledge of it and Socrates did nothing Without the permission of his Divell So they say that from his infancy this Divell was alwayes by him and abandoned him not so long as the lived Certes this spirit was not proper but to turne him away from the love of good things The Poets also knew what the Divels were and the ignorant common people have them in their mouths when they would pronounce a malediction It is by an inward motion of the soule that in those imprecations in calling the evill spirits in effect they call Satan who is the Prince of this cursed Company Blato did
Emperours their Ministers the magistrates that have the exercise of their power for the polliticke estate the tranquillity of the Empire the retarding of the generall dissolution that must put an end to all things Wee assemble together to read the holy Scriptures and wee read them according to the condition of the times what serves either to admonish or confirme the faithfull In effct the Scriptures nourish our faith lift up our hope and assure the confidence wee have in God neverthelesse we cease not to confirme our discipline by the strength of precepts we continually repeate In these assemblies wee make exhortations and threatnings and exercise Divine censure that banisheth sinners and excludes them from our communion wee judge them with very much circumspection because we know that God is in the midst of us and sees what we doe and certainly it is a great fortelling of the judgement God will one day pronounce against the wicked when the Church moved with the enormity of their crimes darts out upon wilfull sinners the thunderbolts of excommunication and deprives them from the participation of its prayers its society and all sort of holy commerce with it In our assemblies there are Bishops that preside and have authority over all the faithfull committed to their charge they are approved by the suffrages of them whom they ought to conduct and it is not bribes that acquire them this honor but testimonies given of their good life For in the Church of God nothing is done by the allurement of gifts if there be among us any kind of treasure the money layd up makes our Religion not ashamed neithercan it be sayd what brought unto us is a tribute or price payed to participate of its ho inesse everyone contributes a little sum at the end of the month or when hee will but it is if hee will and can for none are constrayned to give if wee get any almes it is of good will riches gathered in this manner are as the pledges of piety wee do not confound them in eating and drinking with excesse we make not use of them for the fowle and loathsome exercise of gluttony but we employ them in feeding the poore and burying them in comforting children that are destitute of parents and goods in helping old men who have spent their best dayes in the service of the faithfull in helping the poore that have lost by shipwracke what they had and in assisting them that serve in the mines are banished into Islands or shut up in prisons because the professe the Religion of the true God that during the time they suffer for the confession of his name they may be nourished with the stocke of the Church But it s a strang thing that this charity among us gives occasion to som to blame us See say they how they love one another this astonitheth them because they hate one another See say they how they are ready to die one for another hut as for them they are ready to kil one another I think they have nothing to say against the name of Christian we give one another for with them paternal names the affinity that blood produceth expresseth but a fained affectiō disguised amity It must not seeme strange to you if wee call one another brethren seeing wee are all your brethren by the right of nature which is mother to us all Wee have the same principles as you but you renounce the humanity common to us because you are evill brethren to us but with how much more reason are they called and esteemed brethren who acknowledge one same father to wit the living God that have received the same spirit of Sanctitie who being shut up in the same darkenesse and ignorance as children in the belly of their mother came forth happily and in opening their eyes were frighted at the sight of the same light which is that o◠truth But it may bee it is not believed we are brethren indeed because there are no tragedies that speake of the bloody disorders of Christians or because wee are brethren but unto the common usage of the goods of the world which with you have the power to dissolve the union of brotherhood therefore as we live with the same intelligence as if we had all but one spirit and one soul we make no difficulty to put all things betweene us in common we have nothing in particular but our wives of all things in the world there is nothing but wives whereof wee reject community and on the contrary among them of their wives onely there is community with other men for as they have used to desile the mariages of their friends they prostiture also marriages with very much patience to the unchastitie of their friends that which they have learnt if I be not deceived in the schoole of a Greeke Socrates and Roman Cato who have sometimes lent their wives to their friends those they married to have children by to bee engendred by others then themselves and out of their houses I know not if they lent them against their wills for why should they have any care of their chastity whom their husbands abandon so lightly O famous example of a Grecians wisdome and Roman severitie A Philosopher and a Censor make a shamefull trade of the chastitie of their wives Now seeing wee live together with so much charity that all our goods are common why should they wonder if wee make good cheere for it is one of the excesses you reproach us with besides the infamous crimes where of you accuse our repasts you reproove us with prodigality it may bee it is of us Diogenes hath said the Megarians make feasts as if they would die tomorrow and they build also as if they would never die Certes each of you fees easier the straw in his neighbours eye then the beame in his owne The aire is corrupted with the ill sents that goe out of the mouths of so many people that spew in the streets What the Saliens could not make one repast unlesse they found some body that lent them money to supplie their expences your stewards would bee troubled to make ready the accounts of the money spent in feasts where you vow the tenth of your goods to Hercules In Athens they chuse the excellentest cookes to celebrate the feast of the Apaturies wherein the midst of their deboystnes they call upon the Deity of father Denis the souldiers who have the charge of watching by night to hinder the burning of the City are troubled at the sight of the smoake that riseth in the aire in making ready supper in honour of Serapis And yet they will talke of nothing but the excesse of the Tables of the Christians But you need but consider the name given to our repast to know the quality thereof They express themselves with the same word that signifies dilection with the Greekes whatsoever the cost is that is made it is profitable for they gaine alwayes
thou shalt find in thy owne person the proofe of so rare a miracle Thinke on what thou wast before created thou wert nothing For if any thing before thou wouldst remember it Thou then that wert nothing before thy creation and when cease to live shalt returne to nothing why canst thou not once againe bee brought out of nothing by the will of the same Creator who created thee of nothing will there come any new thing unto thee Thou who before wert not art made again after thou ceasest to live heere thou shalt bee restored in the resurrection and after this wee would have thee aske by what meanes God will rayse thee up againe But seeing hee made no difficulty to make thee what before thou wert thou oughtest not to thinke that hee finds any to an easier thing that is to make thee what thou wert heeretofore Can one doubt of the power of God that hath made this vast and immense bodie of the world of that which was not of nothing and out of a Chaos and who at the same moment animated this world with a spirit that giveth life to all things hee hath given testimonies that witnesse and sets forth examples to us of the resurrection of man Wee see every day the light after ir hath lost its darkenesse takes it againe and by turnes the darkenesse dissipates it selfe and succeeds to light againe the Starrs deprived of their splendor as if they were not in being clothed with their luster seeme to bee re-animated the time begins at the same terme where it finished the fruits fall off the trees and come again in their season the corne puts not forth its eares plentifully till after its former graine is corrupted and rotten in the earth all things in perishing are conserved spring againe after dead and thou O man that shouldst bee so glorious by the excellency of thy nature if thou knewest it and that learnest also by the Oracle of Apollo thy selfe to bee master of all creatures as well of them that die not to live again as of those must die to rise again Is it possible thou shouldst die to bee no more and that thy death ought not have a return to life again No certainly in what place soever thy soul is separated form thy body whatsoever element hath destroyed thy being swallowed up consumed and reduced thee to nothing it shall render thee all entire because nothing and all the Universe appertain to one and the same Lord. It follows by this discourse say you that we must alwayes die and always rise again and I answer you If God the great Lord of all things hath so ordayned it so it shall bee whether you like of it or no but that which his providance hath ordayned touching the Resurrection of man is conducted by a more equitable order It s a mystery newly revealed by his only Son Jesus Christ This wisdome that hath composed the Universe with substances of different natures and makes it subsist in a body by the uniting of so many contrary qualities of voyd and solid of things animate and inanimate of that in our power and that above us of life and death the same hath ordayned time with this difference of conditions that this first part in which wee live since the very Creation of the World was perpetually to the terme that must accomplish the number of its yeares and the other part that followes and which we stay for is infinite in its durance and perpetuates unto eternity Betweene these two there is a middle time which after arrived to its end the beauty of this Universe which must end one day also and is for the present hung up before all eternity shall change face and then all mankind shall arise and appeare before the same God to bee recompensed according to all the good or evill we have done upon earth either with infinite joy or paine in the world to come After which wee shall neither die nor rise againe any more But without other change keepe still the being wee appeare in at the howre of our Universall resurrection that is to say the servants of God being clothed with the substance of eternity which is that of the Angels shall remaine alwayes united to God and the Prophane and those that violate the lawes of God be buried in flames where suffer perpetually without consuming because pertake of the nature of this fire which is of such a sublime quality as shall make them live in paines without being subject to corruption The Philosophers acknowledge the difference betweene hidden fire and fire discovered to our eyes so the fire ordained for the use of man is other then that which serves for the justice of God whether it formes the lightnings which heaven darts upon the earth or disgorgeth it selfe from the deepe Cavernes of mountaines it consumes not that it burnes it repaires rather that it destroyes so that the mountaines maintaine themselves in their order and man is strucke with the lightening without offending his body or being reduced to ashes by the fire wherewith hee hath been touched This miracle is a proofe of the nature of these eternall flames and an example of the vertue they have by the decree of the judgement of God to preserve punishments wherewith his justice will punish the wicked the mountaines burne and remaine intire why should it not so come to passe with men found hainous offenders before God and enemies of their Creator CHAP. XLIX THese things while wee declare to you under the notion of truth in us alone you hold for presumptuous assertions when the self same uttered by your Philosophers you esteem admirable lights of mind and sublime sciences They are wise we simple they deserve to be honoured wee to bee laughed at yea I dare say more severly punished But suppose the doctrine wee preach false admit it consists in vain opinions if vain they are necessary for the salvation of mens souls If follies wonderfull profitable in regard they who beleeve them are thereby excited to live well for fear of eternall punishment if they doe not and againe if they doe in hope of eternall felicity Therefore it behooves us not to call these things false and impertinent which so much import us to find true neyther condemne that which produceth nothing but good which granted the opinions you have for persecuting our doctrine rather then the doctrine wee professe should passe for imaginations conceived without ground Again this doctrine of ours being so profitable to men deserves not to bee held impertinent if notwithstanding you will have it to bee false and ridiculous you must yet acknowledge its innocency and consequently that it deserves not to draw punishments upon the Christians Know we not that when other men have given way to vain and fabulous opinions they have not beene reprooved your Lawes have not been armed with so much severity as to punish them they having told freely their thoughts without being