Grave in that Translation of his de Circo Astrologus may transcribe the Millenary Prophecy out of Alsted quum Deus constituet in Septentrione per Leonem septentrionalem magna cum admiratione illorum qui divinam Apocalypsin harmoniam illam quam hîc exserto digito monstramus nihili faciunt Alsted Chron. 88. axiom 6. of a Lion of the North that should do wonders and bring to full effect whatsoever our whimsical Commenters dream of who if they fall asleep with the Apocalypse in their hand or but under their Pillow they awake Prophets inspired with ten times more Visions than ever St. John saw and apply that Lion to him that proves a dead Lion before that years Almanack be out of Date as Lilly did to the then King of Sweden Yet in the mean while he shall so lord it over the faith of the ductil people as in the expecting the blessings of Heaven they will neither set their faces with the Persian to the warm mid-day-sun nor with the Jew to the West nor with the Christian to the East but with the Loadstone to the North being in this as in all things else singular and cross to all men looking that ab Aquilone should come their chief good whence all others expect nothing but cold Blasts and the worst of Evils But what legitimate Historian did ever apply to well-settled Princes Prophecies that were not of undoubted Credit It could not but add to the esteem of Daniel's Prophecy that Jaddus should tell Alexander the Great out of Daniel that a Grecian Prince should subdue the Persian Monarchy which Alexander interpreting of himself it fell out accordingly Joseph Ant 11. 8. Or what Prince that had a just Title to his own was ever induc'd to grasp at a foreign Crown upon suggestions taken up out of the high way That Oracle therefore which this Pair-royal of incomparable Historians both for Prudence and Sincerity do with joynt consent apply to such Royal Persons the application of which to themselves those Persons shew no disgust against but a relishing of must have been a Nail fastened by Masters of Assemblies so deep in Roman minds as rendred it a sure Nail and able to bear all the weight they hang upon it and of such repute and esteem as to engage the Empire to cast a watchful Eye over the Occurrences in Judea the place assigned for the appearance of this great King of Kings even from the first dawning of of that time which they conceived the Oracle pointed at and an evil and envious Eye upon the Preachers of the Gospel from that time they began to publish the accomplishment of it in our Jesus Of both which points we have sufficient Evidence in those historical Tables wherein we have the Complexion of that Age drawn by the Pagans Pencils § 4. First That the Roman State had a strict Eye upon that Prophecy and upon its account on the Judean Affairs from the time that the Commencement of it was suspected to bear Date and its Effects to take place may be gathered from the appearance of those great Spirits in that nick of time the like of whom the Roman Earth had not produc'd in that long Tract of preceding Ages as to their Ambitions of settling an Universal Monarchy in their own persons Is it not strange that the juvenile Age as Florus calls it of that State which teemed with far braver Spirits in all other respects brought not forth a Caesar or a Pompey who could not brook either Superiour or Equal but that Persons of that temper must be reserved for the confines of that season wherein one was to be born who should Lord it over the World Was it through the defect of favourable Constellations or not rather through the Influence of the Prophecy concerning the the Star of Jacob that the Blood of Ancus Martius ran down so many Generations before it could make so happy a Conjunction with the Blood of Venus running from Aeneas in the Veins of the Julian Family as to produce a Caesar one whom nothing could content but to be in Martial's phrase omnia solus in plain English King of the Company Let the Star-gazer try his skill here in Calculating the Nativities of Caesar and his Progenitors and if in comparing their Schemes he find any so material Difference as this that they were born before but he after the divulging of this Propheey he shall be my great Apollo In the interim I shall take the boldness to opine that that famous Oracle was the Soul of their Courage the Mark of their Ambition 2. In which Opinion I am no little confirm'd when I observe how these Candidates for the Universal Monarchy Pompey Caesar Augustus M. Anthony c. courted the Jews good will just as they did the Peoples of Rome when they stood in Competition for Offices at their disposal with Indulgences unusual to be conferr'd upon Nations far better deserving for all that fidelity and service of theirs to the Romans upon which Josephus grounds those favours being in that more partial to his Country-men than in any other passage of his History for of all Nations they bare the Roman Yoak with most Impatience and with such fawning obsequiousness as was scarce becoming either the Majesty of the Roman State or the loftinefs of those Mens Minds whom the ambitious hopes of obtaining the Penelope of an Universal Monarchy spur'd on to those daring engagements against the whole World and when their united force had conquer'd that against one another had they not conceived that the readiest Expedient to gain the Mistress was to obtain the good Will of the Handmaid that he who was to be King of Clubs in the World to rule it with a Rod of Iron must first be King of Hearts in Jewry and sit upon the Hill of Sion with a golden Sceptre of Benevolence reached out as a Lure to their Affections as a mean to obtain from the Jews an Opinion that he loved their Nation and was therefore worthy of the highest honours that could be heap'd upon him And had not this Conceit been taken up and cherished partly by their misinterpreting Oriundus in the Prophecy as not importing that that King of Kings was to have in Judea a Natural Birth as a man but a Civil one as a Monarch This is manifest from their applying this Prophecie to Vespasian who was not born Man in Judea but only there proclaim'd or as Josephus more sutably to the Roman Notion stiles it created Emperour By this Oracle saith he was manifestly portended the Empire of Vespasian who was Created Emperour in Judea Bel. Jud. 7. 12. For in very deed he was proclaimed Empercur before by the Legion of Maesia which was sent to aid Otho who hearing he had lost the day and kill'd himself march'd on nevertheless plundering and spoiling as far as Apuleia and fearing at their return they should be called to an account they elect Vespasian Emperour but this saith
Israel the remnant of Israel after the flesh that had renounc'd Judaism and become Christians and the spiritual Seed the Gentiles coming in to the Gospel in a full body might be saved In which Interval the carnal Seed were enemies that is in part cast off for the Gentiles sake that they might be grafted in in the room of those four Branches but yet the election the remnant of them that believed beloved for the sake of the Fathers God having a kind of hankering after them even the whole Nation upon the account of their being the Off-spring of his friend Abraham and therefore retaining the Nation by the handle as it were of the Remnant and rejecting them but in part and by degrees till he wholly cast them off and removed his Court from them unto the Gentiles having demolished his Palace amongst them and made the Throne of his Glory a perpetual desolation Hence St. Austin states the Time of the Scepters departure so as he makes Kingdom and Temple and Priesthood and Sacrifice and that Mystical Unction upon the account whereof their Kings were called Christ's or anointed to depart all together at that time when the Resurrection of Christ having been preach'd to and embrac'd by the Gentiles they were subdued by Vespasian From the ceasing of all which then he argues they were only Types of Christ de consensu Evangelist l. 1. c. 13. Nec alia re magis claruit illius Gentis Regnum Templum Sacerdotium Sacrisicium unctionem illam mysticam non fuisse nisi praenunciando Christo deputata quà m quòd occisi Christi Resurrectio postquà m caepit credentibus gentibus praedicari illa omnia cessaverant niscientibus Romanis per quorum victoriam nescientibus Judaeis per quorum subjugationem factum est ut omnia illa cessarent To this our Saviour hath respect and comments upon it in his Prophecy of this Destruction of the Jewish State the Departure of the Scepter St. Mat. 24. 14. where having named some other things that were to precede it he adds this as the last Sign This Gospel of the Kingdom i. e. of the Messiah shall be preach'd to all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come i. e. the end of the Jewish State when the Gentiles by the preaching of the Apostles through the whole Roman Empire should be gather'd unto Christ then should the Jewish Church-Commonwealth I mean that particular form of Government which God prescribed to them as a Nation admitted to the participation and fellowship of his Grace with Junius de politia Mosis cap. 5. be utterly dissolved which till then had continued united under some Polity or Form of Government under God as their King from its first beginning The Jews as Josephus ant 14. 10 12. affirmeth and proveth out of Strabo that he might not be thought to flatter his own Nation being till then not only in Judaea under the Government of their own Nobles having Judicatures erected by Gabinius the Roman General consisting of their own Elders and proceeding by their own Laws but in Cyrene Egypt and other places of their former Dispersions having Magistrates of their own and using their own Laws no otherwise than in an absolute Commonwealth But was then melted down into and swallowed up by the Roman Empire Euseb. cron deletis Jerusalimis Regnum Judaeorum defecit the learned Scaliger mistakes the meaning of that term animadv ad Eus. Cron. pag. 198. b. for Eusebius means plainly that Jerusalem being destroyed the holy Kingdom which God till then had erected over them ceast Their Thearchy then expired their King-of-old broke up his Court amongst them so as thenceforward they have had no King but Caesar the right Scepter of that Kingdom of Judah which God had wielded over them then visibly departed when the Palace of their great King was finally desolated their holy State and Oeconomy was now rooted up the divine Ordinances once planted amongst them were now extinguished Dr. Lightfoot parergon 178. and themselves banish'd Heaven and Earth coeli soli sui extorres sine homine sine Deo rege Tertul. advers Gent. cap. 21. without either man or god-God-king And instead of the Kingdom of the Messiah which they expected would have been erected over them at the expiration of that Divine Polity establish'd by Moses and rejected when it was come nigh them they were brought under the Anti-Messiacal if for illustration I may here use that word in place of Antichristian Dominion of Vespasian Judaei non receperunt Christum suscepturi Antichristum Aug. ap de diversis tom 10. in die paschae Repulerunt agnum eligerunt vulpem ideo partes vulpium facti sunt August tom 8. pag. 262. The Jews rejected Christ being afterwards to embrace Antichrist they refused the Lamb and chose the Fox and therefore became the portion of Foxes who had been God's portion For Vespasian whose Vassals they became imposed himself upon them not only as the Emperour of Rome but as their King Messiah and was reputed so not only by the Romans but by Josephus himself and the sober Party of unbelieving Jews vide Dr Hammond's note b. on Mat. 24. and whatever the Zealots thought in secret they were forc'd to make open Abrenunciation of their King of old and to enter a Recognizance to accept of Caesar's Gods in his room by the payment of that half-shekel to Jupiter Capitolinus which was used to be paid to the Temple while God was their King as an acknowledgment of homage upon no other but this new tenure were they allowed the use of their old Laws Xiphilin E. Dione Vespasian pag. mihi 537. ab eodem Tito jussi sunt quotannis didrachma 〈…〉 pendere Jovi Capitolino ii qui patrias leges eorum tuerentur Doubtless we have too much gratified the mis-believing Jews and laid Stumbling-blocks in their way by our conceiving that the departure of the Scepter implies primarily a change of the external Form of their Government or deprivation of liberty to use their own Laws and to enjoy Judges of themselves things but accidental to that Theocraty Government wherein God presided more immediately and specially over them than other Nations which was exercised under several Forms and with such variety as to those Circumstances and external Privileges as sometimes they enjoyed sometimes were deprived of them Grotius de jure pacis belli l. 1. cap. 4. par 7. pun 5. proves that the Manichees taking up Arms against Antiochus can be defended by no Plea but that of extreme necessity not from the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For they had been subdued by Nebuchadnezzar and brought under an absolute not conditional Subjection to the Assyrian Empire To which Supremacy over them the Persians first and then the Macedonians succeeded and they did not stipulate with Alexander or his Successors but came without making any Conditions under his and his Successor's Jurisdiction as they
him by Ambrose Blaucerus And Arias Montanus saith that while he was at the Council of Trent there was brought unto him by a friend an ancient piece of Jewish Coyn with the very same Figures and Characters weighing half an Ounce vide Aster sol in numb cap. 3. 40. 47. which soever it was in which they paid that Tribute for their Lives it was Gods Coyn and bare upon it God's Claim and their Acknowledgment of his peculiar Supremacy over them and therefore as Caesar's demanding of that Tribute of the Jews would have been in truth a taking away from God what was God's as Goodwin well observes so the Jews paying of it to Caesar would have been a giving of Caesar what was Gods This Tribute which Caesar exacted and Christ ordered them to pay was not the Half-shekel due to God for then Christ would have bid them give it to God Weems which I wonder they observed not as well as Weems there being so near a relation betwixt taking and giving and their scruple propounded to and determination of it given by Christ not respecting Caesar's Act in demanding but their own in giving that what was God's as this Half-shekel was must be given to God not to Caesar. In which resolution of their Question as Christ cleaves the hair betwixt not only God and Caesar but the two extream and vitious Opinions touching Tribute the one of the Pharisees Galileans and Zealots who denied all Tribute to Caesar The other of the Herodians or Court-party who held all kind of Tribute to be Caesar's due so this very prudent and equal partition of his is afterwards by malicious Persons improved into an accusation against him at his Arraignment before Pilat St. Luk. 23. 2. as if he forbad to give Tribute to Caesar. A most false and groundless Suggestion for he did not only pay that Tribute himself but punctually determined Caesar's Right to Caesar's Penny 3. As to that other Tribute of the Half-shekel due to God neither he nor his Countreyman paid it to nor was it demanded of them by Caesar till their City was demolished their Temple burnt the Race of their Priests made unuseful as Titus told them and the Lineage of David cut off by Vespasian but was paid to their own Collectors for the use of the Temple as is manifest not only by the Arguments before hinted but these supernumerary ones 1. Our Saviour's Plea for Exemption from payment of that Tribute Mat. 17. 25. The children of Kings are free cannot with any colour be applied to any other Tribute but that of the Half-shekel which that holy Nation paid to their holy King whose Son Christ was and not of the Emperour and therefore by the Rule of common Custom was not lyable to pay that Tribute It being the use of all Kings to exact Tribute of Strangers that is of the children of other men their Subjects not their own For that by Aliens and own in Christ's Speech is not meant Subjects and Forreigners is apparent from Kings exacting Tribute from their own native Subjects as well as from them that are become their Subjects by Conquest yea from their own that is Subjects and not from Forreigners Christ pleads not here the privilege of being a Roman or had he done so that Plea would not have exempted them from paying the Tribute due to the Imperial Crown had he indeed been the Emperour's Son he had been exempted from paying it From which Analogy he argues that he being the Son of God the Collectors of Gods his Fathers Tribute should not have demanded that Tribute of him Notwithstanding he being Man also and under an Obligation to fulfil the Law rather than offend in not paying his Church-duties he fetched Money out of a Fishes mouth Briefly the Tribute then demanded of and paid by Christ was both demanded for and paid to that King whose son Christ was 2. Had that been a Roman Tribute it would have been gather'd by the Roman Collecters the Publicans who in all probability would have been here named whereas on the contrary the persons are here stiled as by a known Title they that received the Didrachma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Erasmus They that used to receive the Didrachme or Half-shekel § 5. Hence I draw these Corrolaries 1. Their reasoning is too short who from Tullies mentioning the Romans to have had the Tribute of Land in Syria paid by way of Tythe argue that God's Tythe of Jewry was by Pompey diverted from his Treasury to the Roman Coffers A conclusion which as it wholly subverts the grand Foundation of Christian Religion to wit the Verity of the old Testament by asserting the Departure of the Scepter before the coming of our Jesus that is Shilo for what greater evidence of that than their paying their King's God's Tribute unto any other but himself so it appears to be without ground for grant we the Assumption That the Roman State tythed Judaea yet it will not follow that they paid those Tythes in kind which were due to God but only that the Romans at their Conquest of that Nation finding it under the Government of the High Priest to whom the Tythes were payable by the Law of God might demand a Tribute in the same proportion and yet not the same in specie that was paid to the Temple but leave that still to be received by the High Priest for his maintenance and those uses to which their own Law had appointed Which that they did is manifest from the Decrees of Julius Caesar Joseph an t 14. 17. made when he was second time Consul that Hircanus and his Sons should enjoy the High Priesthood with the same Rights and Privileges that his Ancestors had done and when he was the fifth time Consul that Hircanus and his Sons High Priests should receive the Tythes as till then their Ancestors had done A clear Testimony that whatever Tribute Pompey and Crassus had imposed upon the Jews albeit it were in proportion of Tythe it was not the Tythe which belonged to the Priests for that saith Caesar had till then been paid to the High Priest 2. That though the Jews had paid a yearly Tribute to the Emperour bearing Proportion to that Didrachma which they were by Law enjoyn'd to pay to God yet it was not that in specie the Didrachma being paid to the Temple when that yearly Tribute was paid to Caesar as hath been proved already so fully as no more need be added only because I am now in Josephus I shall out of him produce one unanswerable Argument to evince that it was not the intention of the Romans in the Tribute they imposed upon the Jews to encroach upon God's Right or to impede their payment of Church or Temple-duties Julius Caesar after he was created perpetual Dictator writes in his own and Senate and People of Rome's name to the Magistrates of the Parians telling them how ill he resented their prohibiting the Jews to keep
are with me are thy people and those of the opposite Party are thy Priests I beseech thee hear not the Prayers of either side against the other Joseph Antiq. l. 14. c. 3. A Jew then could open and stop God's Ear his Prayer was the Key to the divine Treasury of Mercies and Judgments Nay God was wont to hear before they call'd to see their Afflictions and hear their Groans under their Pressures before they made their complaint to God But since their Fathers God hath turn'd them off to the Gods of the Capitol Though the Earth received the blood of 3024730. of them in the Jewish Wars those Wars wherein Christ came to require that Blood at the Father's and Children's hands the guilt whereof they had invoked upon their own heads at his Passion Though 970000. of them were in those Wars taken Captive Joseph Bel. Jud. yet neither the cry of the Prisoners nor the Voice of the Blood of the Slain hath enter'd into the Ears of the Lord of Hosts except it be to make Musick in them while God laughs at their Calamity § 2. Time was when Israel's God awoke to avenge himself upon Belshazar for alienating the Bolls of the Temple from that sacred use to which they had been dedicated and making them either carowsing Cups at a common or Instruments of Libations to Babel's Idols at a sacred Feast for the Jews saith St. Jerom in locum have this Story That Belshazar observing that the seventieth Year of the Captivity that is of the first Captivity being come that yet the Jews were not redeem'd thinking Jeremies Prophecy to have been wind in a Triumph over the Jews hope of Deliverance made a great Feast where he and his Nobles Insultantes Deo Judeorum quòd c. insulting over the God of the Jews as too weak to grapple with their Bell made Drink-offerings of thanksgiving to the God of Babel in the Bolls sacred to the God of Judah whom he blasphemed in Rabsheca's curssed Dialect as being no more able than the Gods of other Nations to deliver his People out of the hands of the King of Babylon But this despised God chalked him up a Reckoning upon the Wall before he rose from Table and made him pay it that night at the price of his Life and Kingdom both which he was deprived of before he went to bed Which Circumstance Xenophon Cyri institut l. 7. c. 22. thus relates When Cyrus his men entered the Royal Palace they found the Guard tippling by Candle-light in the outward Room against whom the Invaders using hostile force the Clamour being heard within the Doors are instantly open'd by the Kings Command to see what was the Cause of that Bustle upon which advantage Cyrus his men rushing into the King's Chamber found the King standing with his Sword drawn whom they forthwith slew God then stirred up the Spirit of his anointed Cyrus to avenge Judah upon Babel while he was but his Unkle Cyaxeres called in Daniel Darius his General and to order the Return of God's Captives and the Rebuilding of his Temple as soon as he came to the Imperial Crown But Vespasian carried captive the holy Utensils of the second Temple The Table of Shew-bread whereon the twelve Tribes in the Tipe of twelve Loaves had stood day and night under the favourable inspection of Israel's God The sacred Lamps Emblems of that manifold and marvellous Light of divine Revelations which that Nation peculiarly enjoyed The holy Veil that which fignified God's discriminating them in point of special favour and intimate Communion from all the Nations of the World And lastly the Book of their Law of the Covenant that God made with their Fathers These saith one of their own Josephus Bel. Jud. l. 7. c. 25. Vespasian carried in Triumph after the Images of the Roman Idols to the Temple of Jupiter Capitoline and reposited them either in his Palace or in that Temple of Victory which he built in Memorial of his Conquest of Judah And as Trophies of his Victory not only over the Jews but the God of the Jews if their own Rabbies be to be believed who as they are quoted by Vicars in his Decupla in Psal. 94. 2 3. Compare Nebuchadnezzar with Titus and affirm that as the first gloried over the desolation of the First saying Who is that God that can deliver you out of mine hand Daniel 3. so this second insulted at the desolation of the Second Temple saying The God of the Jews is gone a Voyage by Sea let him land and give me Battel My thoughts are here distracted through plenty of Matter and cannot tell where to begin to pitch their dazell'd Eye whether upon that miraculous Providence whereby in the midst of these Conflagrations which Massy Pillars of Brass could not resist the violence of were preserved such combustible things as the Veil and Book of the Law by whose contrivance it came to pass that in the vast Ruines and Rubbish of the Temple should be found the Table of Shew-bread and the Lamps where so many things were buried of more bulk of more value both in common esteem and in the opinion of the Jews Or upon that secret and to him unseen guidance of the everlasting Counseller that directed Vespasian to single out for his Triumph such sacred Utensils as of all others were most lively Representations of the peculiar Privileges which that Nation had enjoyed under her great King and altogether the perfect Hieroglyphick of that holy State a Corporation consisting of twelve Tribes upon which the Eye of God was always fix'd seperated from all other Kingdoms to be holy unto God as the Holy of Holies was from the Temple by the Veil Living under the fruition of divine Light and in Covenant with God in black and white Or that all-ruling Power that guided the Scribe's hand to give the World an account of the so solemn cancelling of the Bond between God and his sometimes Covenant-people the taking away of the Veil of Partition betwixt that and other Nations the removal of his Lamp from them and them from his favourable Inspection So that henceforth the Shew bread-table whereon they were wont to be presented before the Lord must stand before a God that hath Eyes but sees not their Jehovah having turned over his care for them to the Latian Jove From henceforth the Veil of the Temple whereon were painted Cherubims those Eyes of the Lord that run to and fro through the Earth A Type of that difference which God put betwixt them and the rest of the Inhabitants of the Earth must be hung up in the Capitol as if in scorn God had sent the Idol-watchmen upon that Hill this Type of his to help their eyes that they might look to their new Charge or intended to signifie that now the Capitoline Gods should peculiarly seperate these their new Clients from all their old Worshippers as in truth they did For all other Nations gave them divine honour
Confiscation Imprisonment Banishment or Extirpation And if Judgment be not speedily executed defertur non aufertur 't is not forgiveness but forbearance till their Punishment may be of more advantage to the Republick So that whereever they have been allowed to reside they have been kept as Poultrey in a Coop only till they were fat enough to kill and pluck to have either Life or Estate taken from them Christian States use them only for Spunges as our King Henry did Emson and Dudley permitting them to suck in great Estates by Usury and Brokage and when they are full squeasing them into the Exchequer Upon this point of State after they had been plunder'd they were banish'd England by Edward 1. anno 1290. Out of France by Philip the Fair 1307. Out of Portugal by Emmanuel 1497. Out of Naples and Sicily by Charles 5. 1539. Under no less Vassalage are they in the Turk's Dominions where Achmad the year after the Christians lost Rhodes gave the Jews of Egypt no longer time than while he stayed in the Bath to deliberate upon this Question Whether they would aid him with all they had in his Rebellion against Sultan Selim or provoke him to extirpate the memory of Israel from off the face of the Earth Scaliger Canon Isagog lib. 2. pag. 157. Ever since God's removing his Court from amongst them they have been howling under these burdens of Oppression but procure no relief cannot obtain of God to revenge their quarrel cannot prevail with him to pour out his threatned Judgments to smite with his plagues those people that have fought against Jerusalem this Jerusalem below who is yet in bondage with her Children Her adversaries flesh hath not consumed away while they stood upon their feet their eyes have not consumed away in their holes and their tongues in their mouth Zach. 14. 12. Haec passos non esse Romanos qui Hierusalem subverterunt omnibus perspicuum est Nos autem dicemus omnes persecutores qui afflixerunt Ecclesiam Domini etiam in praesenti saeculo accipisse quae fecerint Legamus Ecclesiasticas historias quid Valerianus quid Decius quid Dioclesianus quid Maximianus quid saevissimus omnium Maximinus nuper Julianus passi sunt tunc rebus probabimus etiam juxtà literam prophetiae veritatem esse completam saith St. Jerom upon this Text That the Romans who overthrew Jerusalem did not suffer such things as these is manifest to all men but we Christians may say that all Persecutors who afflicted the Lord's Church have received even in this world the punishment of their Tyranny Let us read in Church-history what Valerian what Decius what Dioclesian what Maximianus what the most cruel of them all Maximinian and Julianus the last of them have suffer'd and then we shall be able to prove from matter of fact that the verity of this Prophecy hath received its accomplishment even according to the letter See more instances in Evagrius Scholasticus his Invective against Zosimus the Ethnick for reviling of Constantine lib. 3. cap. 41. For these that St. Jerom names Decius being defeated by the Goths and his Son slain was enticed by the Enemy into a Fen where he was drown'd Carion Cron. lib. 3. Valerius being perswaded by an Egyptian Priest to persecute the Church and to offer humane Sacrifices in the fourth year of his Reign was taken Prisoner by Sapor King of Persia who for several years made use of him when he got on horseback in room of an Horsingblock and in his extreme old Age fley'd off his Skin from the Neck to the Feet Idem Ibid Dioclesian and Maximian vex'd that all their rage could not suppress the Christians laid down the Empire and betook themselves to a private Life from that time unto his end Dioclesian pined and wasted away with diseases but Maximian hanged himself Euseb. Ec. hist. lib. 7. 29. lib. 8. 2. 5. 14. 19. Socrates l. 1. c. 22. Maximinian overcome by Licinius at Tarsus died of the Lowsie Disease in the midst of most cruel Tortures a corrupt Matter issuing from a Fistulá in his Privities eating up his Bowels and an unspeakable multitude of Vermine swarming out and breathing a deadly stench yielding an intollerable and horrible Spectacle to the Beholders such as the Physicians were not able to bear the noysomness of but some of them were poyson'd with it Euseb. Eccles. hist. l. 8. cap. 16. Julian in a Battel with the Persians was wounded in the Liver by an Arrow but from what hand it came is not known Calistus one of his Guard who wrote his Life in Heroical Verse saith it was some Devil that ran him through Socrates Scholast l. 3. c. 19. but he himself apprehended it was the Arrow of Christ's revenge and therefore taking the blood which ran from the wound in the hollow of his hand he threw it up towards Heaven and cried out Vicisti tandem Galilaee now at last thou hast over-match'd me oh Jesus of Galilee and with that despairing voice breathed out his impure Soul What such thing hath befallen the Prosecutors of the People of God's Indignation What one Testimony of the Divine Displeasure hath been shown upon such as have made havock of that now-accursed Nation which was sometimes so dear to God as he that touch'd them had as good have touch'd the Apple of his Eye At the hand of what Nation of what Man of what Beast hath God required their Blood And that all this was done in contempt of their Nation not Law and not because their Fathers God could not but would not help them is manifest from his opening his ears and lending his hand in that very juncture to persons of other Nations who owned the God of Israel of which we have a notable instance in Izates King of the Adiabeni whose Mother Helena releived the Jews in the Famine in the Reign of Claudius After whose departure from her Son his Nobles understanding that he was circumcised dissembled their displeasure against him till they had the opportunity of engaging Abias the King of Arabia to assist them in dethroning Izates but he trusting in the God of Israel put his Enemies to a total rout and brought his Rebels to condign Punishment And when after this his Subjects still disgusting him because he had embraced a Foreign Religion procured Vologesus King of Parthia to come against him with so numerous an Army as he blasphemously boasted the God of Israel whom he had chosen was not able to deliver him out of the hands of his men Izates return'd him answer that he knew his Forces were not comparable to those of Vologesus but God was stronger than all Mortals and prostrating himself before God having enjoyn'd to himself and Wife and Children a Fast with Ashes on his head he pours out his Prayer Oh Lord our Governour If I have not fruitlesly dedicated my self to thy goodness and chosen thee for the high and only God come to my aid not so much
Gratian That if Gratian had not had the heart to throw down that Altar but had left it standing yet he would advise Valentinian to overthrow it seeing the Pagan party both in the Senate and among the Vulgar was less formidable then than it was at that time when his Brother had the courage to demolish it for they that prefer that request saith he do abuse the name of the Senate while they present that Petition to you in its name who are only a few Pagan Senators Pauci Gentiles communi utantur nomine As I remember when about two years ago the like Petition was preferred with the like subscription Damasus Bishop of Rome sent me a Libel which the Christian Senators far more numerous than the Pagan gave out wherein they declared their disowning of that Petition Ambros. lib. 5. Epist. 30. A manifest Argument that those first Christian Emperours could not be more rigorous against Paganism than they were without hazarding the publick Peace and danger of turning all into confusion by a precocious Zeal by reason of the numerousness of those that then profest it which as it decreas'd the severity of their Decrees against it increased Princes must do as they can when they cannot do as they should in which case they do what they should when they do what they can God accepting the Will for the Deed. It will be an harder task to free them from guilt in their retaining the office of Great Pontiffs and being present at the Pagan Altar c. but for the last it may be pleaded for the extenuation at least of their Crime That they had the Example of Jacob's taking an Oath of Laban in this form The God of Nahor judge betwixt us meaning that God of the Caldees which Nahor and Abraham and their Forefathers worship'd before Abraham's Call and eating with him upon the same heap whereon he had Sacrificed to that God Calvin in locum nec dubium est quin jurandi formae responderit sacrificium Jacob himself sacrificing to the true God and swearing by him whom to distinguish him from that God which Laban sacrificed to and sware by he calls the Fear of his Father Isaac not Abraham because Abrahams Fear for some time had been the God of the Caldees but Isaac being born after his Father had left his Country and Country Gods and entred into Covenant with the only true God never had any other God for his Fear but the eternal God Gen 31. That Isaac was in presence while Abimelech sacrificed to a false God and heard him swear by the name of that God at such time as he made a Covenant with him Gen. 26. 28. Percutiamus faedus tecum Let us make a Covenant with thee by Sacrifice and ratifie it by Oath the antient Use being to slay Victims at their making of Covenants whence the Phrase of Icere percutere ferire faedus Vossius Etym. betwixt the parts whereof he that swore passed as he pronounc'd his assent to the Covenant ratifying that assent with such like execrations ità me Dii mactent si sciens fallo Let God mangle me as I have mangled this Victim if I wilfully break this Covenant Livii lib. 1. lib. 21. This ceremony God observed in his entring into Covenant with Abraham Gen. 15. 9. 17. by the deputation of that smoaking Furnace and burning Lamp that passed between the pieces on that same day wherein the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham Excellently has the imcomparable Grotius determined this case of Conscience Se tamen si quibuscum negotium erat adduci non possent ut aliter jurarent contraxisse cum eis Idololatris ipsos quidem ut opportebat jurantes ab illis autem juramentum accipientes quale haberi poterat Grotii de Jure Bel. lib. 2. cap. 13. 12. If those with whom the Patriarchs had to do in the point of mutual swearing could not be induc'd to use another Form than in the names of their Country Gods they used to contract with them though they were Idolaters they swearing as they should and taking such an Oath from those as they could possibly obtain I might also alledge the example of Naaman who according to the best Expositors putting this Case to the Prophet whether he declaring openly that he believed there was no God but the God of Israel and yet bearing that Office under the King as the King at times leaned upon his shoulder when he went abroad for greater State if the King should go unto the house of Rimmon while it was Naaman's Office to wait upon him and Naaman should there bow not in reverence to the Idol but in a civill respect to his Master who could not bow if Naaman upon whose shoulder he lean'd did not bow whether I say in this Case he should sin against God in committing Idolatry was the Question he put to Elisha And the Prophet in his answer to it assures him he may go in peace that is his doing thus in such circumstances would be no occasion of breach of peace betwixt the God of Israel and him Upon this example the Protestant Divines assured the Elector of Saxony whose Office it was to bear the Sword before the Emperour and to whom the Emperor had sent a Command to attend upon him in the performance of that Office while he went to Mass that he might lawfully observe that Imperial Injunction because ad suum officium esset evocatus he was called to the performance of his duty whereupon the Elector accompanied Caesar to the Mass non vel ut ad cultum divinum ad Missam accedens not addressing himself to the Mass as a Religious duty but to the performance of the Civil Duties of his Calling Sleidan Comment lib. 7. And Lastly I might urge that the Pagans themselves forc'd by the Arguments of our men and their own Mythologists were at that time brought to an open and avowed confession that the Gods of the Gentiles were not Gods properly called but either Created Spirits in the invisible or infused Properties into the several Species of things in the visible World So as Jupiter signified no more then even in the Gentile Dialect than the Heat and Juno no more than the Moisture of the Air And that their erecting Altars to them was no more but an acknowlegement in particular of the Favours bestowed upon Mankind by the one Eternall God by their hands as his Instruments The change of the propriety of those Heathenish names must needs mitigate the harshness of their sound even in Christian ears if not make them as little offensive then as the names of Saturn Sol Luna Jupiter Mercury Mars and Venus are at this day when for distinction sake we apply them to the Days of the Week and as that Verse of St. Austin contrà Academicos tom 1. p. 197. Sic pater ille Deùm faciat sic magnus Apollo with that Comment which himself makes of it or that of the Flocena Oratour
gloss Where the Emperours and Senates shooe pinch'd them How much this State-maxime prejudic'd the Apostles CHAP. V. A prospect of the Holy Age the Age wherein the Gospel was first publish'd in respect of its skill in Theology § 1. Natural Theology then in its highest acme by the improvement of the Pythagorick Platonick and Socratical Philosophy Within that Century lived Varro his Encomium Scaevola and Caesar great Divines Cicero and Cratippus well seen in Natural Theology Seneca the Miracle of Humane Divines Thraseas under Nero a Martyr for Moral Divinity § 2. Prophetical Theology exploded by Pagan Philosophers Divination by Dreams and Oracles censur'd by Cicero Apollo ' s Oracles ambiguous at last silenc'd Phoebus Philippizing Chaldean prognosticators vain Praenestine Lots and Auguries decided Divination by Prodigies taunted This a barr to credulity towards the Gospel § 3. Historical Divinity decried in the Schools when the History of the Blessed Jesus was first published as reporting things unworthy of God The Apostles could never have hoped to induce the disputers of this world to a belief of as unlikely stories had they had no more than an arm of flesh to trust to The conclusion of the whole matter God's Tabernacle set in the Sun shining out in its greatest lustre of humane Sciences § 4. The Civick Religion both with the Vulgar and Politicians in high respect in our Saviours Age proved from the Philosophers salvo's by consequence and directly from several examples The world was enjoying her self Pigmalion like in the warm embraces of her-own-made sacred animals CHAP. VI. The Advantage the World had to try Apostolical Doctrine by the Touch-stone of the Septuagint § 1. The Septuagint was the worlds guard against all possible delusion The light of the Original Tradition shone out of the East Judaea the Navel of the earth had plenty thither Pythagoras Socrates Plato c. finding a Famine at home travell'd for the Corn of Heaven c. § 2. Josephus and the Church History of the Translation of the Seventy defended against Scaliger ' s exceptions Hermippus and Aristaeus reconciled by Anatolius The Authority of Socrates comes short here of Josephus § 3. The Sanhedrim held correspondency with the dispersion no harder a task for the Jews whose Mother-tongue was Hebrew and who for Commerce sake were forc'd to learn the Greek the common Language of the Empire to turn the Hebrew into Greek than for the Belgick Churches amongst us to turn a Dutch Bible into English § 4. Whence Ptolemy learn'd that curse he pronounc'd upon them that should add or take from the Seventy's Translation Whence the fiction of three days darkness and the application of Solomon ' s Text there is a time to rend § 5. The Legend of the golden letter'd Jehova Ptolemy might be a bad man and yet curious in point of Learning He was a kind of Jewish Proselyte and as good a one as Herod Poppaea c. God can make bad men Instruments of good The Fathers and Primitive Churches esteem of the Septuagint § 6. The Candour of the blessed Jesus in sending the picture of the Messiah drawn by the Prophets before he came in person that there might be no mistake of the person in appealing to a Religion pre-existing to and co-existing with that of his erecting CHAP. VII The World over run with Barbarous Ignorance when the Impieties of Turk Pope and Pagans imposed themselves upon its Credulity § 1. Platina his Censure of the sixth Century Pope Sabinian an Enemy to Learning monstrous Presages Phocas in Baronius his stile the Red Dragon gave the Title of Universal Bishop to Boniface the third § 2. As Darkness increased the Pope incroached till at last he set his foot upon the Necks of Princes The Eyes of those Centuries the Lights of the Church as they will be called were Darkness Formosus Stephen Romanus Theodore the second John the tenth and nine Popes succeeding him in less than nine Years Benedict the fourth Leo the fifth all Heads of the Roman Church like that Head in the Carvers Shop brainless These in the ninth Century § 3. The Popes of the tenth Century Baronius stiles abomination in the holy Place Genebrard reckons from the Hermophrodite Pope John or Joan above fifty in two hundred Years who were little better than Incarnate Devils amongst whose Predecessors was John the thirteenth a Stallion Benet the ninth in time succeeds a Monster made up of a Boar below and an Ass above § 4. The Popes of the eleventh Century light their Candle at the Devil's Match Silvester compounded with the Devil for the Papacy Onuphrius his Evasion obviated Benet rides the Devil in Purgatory He was a wondrous great Scholar that had learn'd his Grammar § 5. Paganism crept in in the dark before Commerce Heathens care to conceal their God-Births Minerva turns the tatling Crow out and takes the Bird of Night the Owl into her service the Eleusine Mysteries Mercury ' s hand upon his mouth Alexander must not reveil Aegyptian Mysteries nor Petronius his Ruffians the Secrets of Priapus As Traffick increased the World gives over teeming with new Gods Alexander Plato Caesar Aristaeus were born out of time to be made Gods As the Theology of those obscure times came to be enquired into by several Nations comparing Notes it grew out of Credit Euemerus his Sacred History Annons Birds CHAP. VIII The Apostolical Age was fortified against Surprisal by the External Advantages of Posts and Peace § 1. They find as speedy a way for conveyance of News as we Vibullius Caesar Sempronius Tiberius their incredible Posting Intelligence flew in Persia as fast as Cranes The Roman Eagle as swift of Wing as the English Unicorn is of foot § 2. That Age enjoyed so long a Peace as Intelligence might pass without Interruption Janus's Temple shut by Augustus a rare thing in the Roman Annals § 3. Tiberius had a peaceable Reign so had Caligula all the Warlike Marches that be made was in pursuit of the Cowardly Ocean running from him at the Tide and in lopping down the Bows of a Coppice Palsey-headed Claudius felt no shakings in his Empire no Trumpet of War then sounded but that of the Silver Triton in the Ficine Lake In Nero ' s third Year they had much ado to draw the Sword it had layen so long rusting in the Scabbard § 4. This peaceable Season was the Seed-time of Christ's Labourers wherein they dispenc'd the Gospel through the Empire CHAP. IX The Judean Stirs were the Empires Advantage against Surprisal § 1. Objections from the Commotions in Judea answered and retorted Those inconsiderable and not so great as that delicate and repining People would represent them § 2. The Stirs that were in Judea put the Ministers of State upon a more diligent enquiry into what there fell out whereby they got a more full information of the state of that great Controversie between the Jews and Christians § 3. The Judean Commotions drew the Imperial Eagle to
the point of obtaining Divine Honour at the Romans hands Augustus erected an Altar To the first begotten Suidas his story of Augustus his Altar defended Augustus his unhappiness in his Issue might probably put him upon referring the choice of a Successour to the Oracles determination His slighting Apollo argues the Answer he received not to have made for Apollo's credit § 5. Some passages touching this Argument in Tertullian cleared from the Anabaptistical gloss Where the Emperours and Senates shooe pincht them How much this State-maxime prejudic'd the Apostles § 1. NOtwithstanding that the World was so well fortified against Seduction by its being so well seen in the above-mentioned Arts yet had the Gospel found it in a disordered posture through its defect of polity this might have given an advantage to the Assaylants to subdue it to the belief of things not rationable or credible While every man is left to do what is good in his own eyes as the Jews were when there was no King in Israel the stragling Sheep may easily become the prey of Wolves and Foxes How many vast valiant expert and while well marshall'd terrible and inconquerable Armies have through want of Discipline in a disordered march been put to the Rout by a less strong and worse skill'd Enemy But the Gospel charged the world when it stood in a full field and well ranked body to receive the on-set not in that condition wherein the Danites found Laish careless and heedless without a Magistracy to put them to shame in any thing and keep them in order which was the great incouragement their Spies gave them to make an attempt upon that City Weem's Exercitations on Judg. 18. 7 8 10. For that part of the world wherein the Apostles obtain'd most ground was then united under the newly erected Standard of Augustus as General and under the Conduct of twelve as famous Gown'd Captains I mean Lawyers and Politicians as ever appear'd at one Muster viz. Sleidan Clav. Hist. lib. 2. Lucillus Balbus P. Octavius Balbus C. Aufidius C. Juventius C. Orbius Sext. Papirius Lucius Servius Sub. Rufus Tesâ—a Offilius Casselius Tubero all flourishing in the Reign of Augustus who himself was the most substantial and well weighed Statist that meer Nature has exhibited to the world equal'd by few that have had the benefit of Sacred Politiques but for that they may thank their studying Machiavel more than Melchisedeck Of him the Heroick Poet under the shadow of Counsel draws as high an Encomium as any Prince is capable of in point of prudence for the Administration of Empire Excudent alii spirantia molliùs aera Tu regere Imperio populos Romane memento Hae tibi erunt artes Let others learn to mould brass do thou learn to govern men To these succeeded Sleidan Clav. Hist. l. 2. Caesius the two Aufidii l'acuvius Flavius Priscus Varus Labeo Father and Son the Son of that repute as he left his name to a Sect of Lawyers Nerva Father and Son to one of whom Coccejus Nerva Tacitus ascribes all kind of Knowledge both in Humane and Divine Laws and reports him to have been a man of that foresight in Civil Affairs as to prevent the seeing of that mischief which the dissoluteness of Tiberius at his beloved Capreae would immerse the Empire in he chose to end his dayes by a voluntary death notwithstanding the Emperours perswasions to the contrary Annal. lib. 6. both the Longini from whom the Cassian Sect had its Sirname and Original All these under Tiberius Alsted Cron. Juridicorum who in point of vafrous cunning deserv'd the name of Fox as much as he upon whom our Saviour bestowed that title Herod This was the Scheme of that Heaven of the Roman Empire when the Son of Righteousness enter'd upon his race from the one to the other end of it through the Zodiack of his Twelve Apostles beyond the circumference of whose Doctrine once deliver'd that Sun never moves in his illuminating the world with saving Light all pretended supernatural Revelations eccentrical to that are but the dwindles of blazing stars The two Luminaries Augustus of stay'd policy Tiberius of versatile craft moving successively through a Zodiack of Twelve Statists stars of the greatest magnitude that ever shin'd at once in the firmament of that State The two first Judges of the Universe that enter'd upon that preferment by way of inheritance assisted each of them with a full Jury of as able Lawyers as ever past Verdict together sitting successively upon the Bench when the Cause of the Gospel was first pleaded as if they had been impannell'd on purpose to take notice of the Evidence brought into Court The Empires skill in Law was at its highest exaltation when the Royal Law came out of Sion our great Law-giver disdaining to vie the Arcana of his Empire with any State-maximes but the very best of humane invention Would the blessed Babe have ventured to thrust in his head among these sage Councellours had he not been the everlasting Councellour the Antient of Dayes to set up his Post against this Post had it not been like that at the Temple Gate stability it self to erect his Kingdom against this so well model'd an Empire had not his been the gift of him that said Thou art my Son c § 2. Especially if it be further considered That the genius of the Roman Polity disgusted the introduction of any Foreign over the head of its own Domestick Religion Ovid shuts up the discourse of the translation of Aesculapius with an Epiphonema His tamen accessit delubris advena nostris though he had begun it with this Salvo of the Roman maxime Not to receive any foreign God till he had given a sign of his renouncing his former Altars quáque ipse morari Sede velit signis calestibus indicet optant Annuit his motisque deus rata pignora câ—istis Et repetita dedit oráque retro Flectit antiquas abiturus respicit aras c. Met. 15. The Senate would not allow their General Lutatius in the Punick War to consult the Oracle of the Goddess Fortune at Praeneste for this reason alledged by Valerius Max. cap. 3. l. 1. because the Roman Republick ought not to be administred by the Conduct or Counsels of any God but their own Tiberius himself saith Tertullian Apolog. cap. 5. could not obtain of the Senate an Edict to have our Jesus canonized for a God at Rome though he moved earnestly for it upon Pilate's Letters informing him what had past in Judaea Celsus that fierce enemy of Christian Religion in Orig. l. 4. Cal. 11 12. will allow the Jews their own Religion and if they please to esteem Christ their Lord and King illa se jacret in aula he will not envy him that honour in his own Countrey but that that obscure and despicable Nation should impose a God and a Religion upon the whole world this is that he so highly disgusts The Pestilence raging and the people running
in the case of our Jesus His not complying with them in this great maxime of State his not induring this humane test his not condescending to their terms of renouncing Judaea's and undertaking the patronage of the people and City of Rome Pilat's writing him in his Letter to Caesar as he had writ him in the Inscription over the Cross Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews was that very thing which would not down with the Senate that which made the Evangelical Doctrine too strait a glove for their gouty hand had it not been for this they would have drawn it on And had they drawn it on Tiberius would have worn Christs colours and not only have prohibited the persecution but have commanded the profession of the Christian Religion the Senate's sticking at his Canonization being that secular concern which stifled the light of his Conscience he choosing rather to save his Crown than his Soul The fear of suffering shipwrack of a good Conscience upon the shelf of this temptation together with the custom of exhibiting an oath to the Emperour at his ingress to the exercise of that dignity not to over-top the Senate in those privileges the ancient Laws had establisht them in and also the College of the Pontiffs installing him in the great Pontificality and committing to him the chief ordering of the affairs concerning the Ethnick Ceremonies a thing that Gratian said and thereupon refused the pontifical Stole was unlawful for a Christian and 't is a wonder how the former Christian Emperours could wear that Stole without galling their shoulders vid. Mord. vol. 2. pag. 746. These circumstances I say were the Lion in the thorow-Christians way to the Imperial Crown and made the Inauguration in that dignity incompetent to a Christian indeed as not being tenable or attainable in that juncture but upon those terms which were in effect and interpretatively an abrenunciation of Christ. From all which may be inferr'd for a conclusion of this Argument the invincibleness of the Empire to the obedience of Christ by an arm of flesh and the ridiculousness of attempting to batter down this strong hold wherewith the Empire had immur'd it self against the fiercest assaults the illuminated consciences of their own Emperours could make without the greatest assurance of the Divine aid Had Aegypt been the head of the worlds Empire that Wind-mill head turning its sailes about to every new wind to the imbracing of every new and strange Deity or Greece which both Divine and Secular Histories describe to be in love with novelties It would have been a business of no great difficulty to have reduc'd it to the belief of a well-coucht new Fable But to prevail with it to renounce its old and imbrace a strange God when Rome was become its Metropolis hic labor hoc opus est To poak out Leviathan from under that shelf of prejudice against a strange God by the Apostolical rod into the Net of the Gospel to draw him to that shore he had such an antipathy against by that slender silken twine wherewith the Apostles fisht for men to intice him with the bait of a foreign Deity cloathed in so mean and outwardly despicable flesh can be imputed to nothing less than the cooperation of that power with those mean instruments that 's able to subdue all things to it self and bring to nought things that are by things that are not The making of that stone which the Gentile as well as Jewish builders of all others rejected the head stone of the corner higher than the highest in the Capitol was the Lords doings a work not to have been attempted without extream madness but in the confidence of his Almighty assistance CHAP. V. A prospect of the Holy Age the Age wherein the Gospel was first publisht in respect of its skill in Theology § 1. Natural Theology then in its highest acmen by the improvement of the Pythagorick Platonick and Sacratical Philosophy Within that Century lived Varro his Encomium Scaevola and Caesar great Divines Cicero and Cratippus well seen in Natural Theology Seneca the Miracle of Humane Divines Thrasea under Nero a Martyr for Moral Divinity § 2. Prophetical Theology exploded by Pagan Philosophers Divination by Dreams and Oracles censur'd by Cicero Apollo ' s Oracles ambiguous at last silenc'd Phoebus Philippizing Chaldean prognosticators vain Praenestine Lots and Auguries decided Divination by Prodigies taunted This a barr to credulity towards the Gospel § 3. Historical Divinity decried in the Schools when the History of the blessed Jesus was first published as reporting things unworthy of God The Apostles could never have hoped to induce the disputers of this world to a belief of as unlikely stories had they had no more than an arm of flesh to trust to The conclusion of the whole matter God's Tabernacle set in the Sun shining out in its greatest lustre of humane Sciences § 4. The Civick Religion both with the Vulgar and Politicians in high respect in our Saviours Age proved from the Philosophers salvo's by consequence and directly from several examples The world was injoying her self Pigmalion like in the warm imbraces of her-own-made sacred animals § 1. ALthough the World by this four-double shield of knowledge in Arts Physical Poetical Demoniacal and Political was thus well guarded against the surprizals of Impostures yet had it wanted the eye of Theology a cunning Stalker might possibly have catcht it on its blind side Had the Sun of Metaphysical knowledge been cold set upon it the Apostles might have presumed in the darkness of that night to have dazeled its eyes with the splendor of the Gospel and to have struck it with their fish-spear or have drawn their net over it while it lay astonish'd with the strangeness of that sight As we see Salmons caught with the flame of a broom-fagot and Larks with a low-bell In order therefore to our clearing the Apostles from the charge of designing to put a cheat upon the world it will be expedient to take a view of the posture it then stood in in point of Religion which though miserably depraved with the inventions of its own foolish and judicially darkned heart through its letting slip in that vast tract of time what was once deliver'd to it by the Sons of Noah and in lieu of the old tradition taking up and filling its hand with vain imaginations yet whether it were through that Ages improving of Natural Principles or retrieving of Supernatural either by a more familiar converse with that Nation to whom God had concredited the custody of his Oracles or by means of the divulging of the Septuagint or by Gods blessing upon their faithfulness in a little never did any Age before it since the first General Apostasie stand better defended against Impostors in Religion than this did The Three Sects that only deserve the name of Divine the Pythagorick Socratical and Platonick being about our Saviours time grown to that improvement as more substantial Divinity
occurrs in the writings of one Roman who then turn'd his stile that way than in all the Volumes of preceding Philosophers Then lived Varro so indefatigable a Student and Writer as Terentianus Carthaginensis in his Phaleucick Verses sings of him after this manner Vir doctissimus undecunque Varro Quae tam multa legit ut aliquid Ei scribere vacâsse miremur Tam multa scripsit quà m multa Vix quenquam legere potuisse credamus Gellius reports lib. 5. that he writ 490 Books A man of that profound Learning as Tully transported with the admiration of it in his Academick Questions while he 's commending him for a Divine forgets that himself was an Academick Philosopher and contrary to his profession of hesitancy and suspension of assent to all other propositions speaks positively and confidently of Mark Varro that he was without doubt of all men the most acute and learned Academ Quaest. lib. 1. Cum M. Varrone hominum facilè omnium acutissimo sine ulla dubitatione doctissimo and a little after While we were wandring saith he in our own City as strangers thy Books O Varro did as it were bring us home to our selves that we might at length know where we are and what we are Thou hast open'd to us the Antiquities of our Country the description of the Times the Laws about Holy things the Offices of Priests Domestick Publick Discipline the definitions distinctions properties and causes of ALL THINGS both HUMANE and DIVINE That African Tully St. Austin praiseth Varro in as high a stile as this Roman giving him this Encomium de Civitate 6. 2. Quis M. Varrone curiosiùs ista quaesrvit quis invenit doctiùs quis distinxit acutiùs quis consideravit attentiùs quis diligentiùs pleniâ—sque conscripsit Who hath with more curiosity inquired into those things concerning Religion and the Divine attributes than Varro who with more learning found them out than he who with greater attention weighed with more acuteness distinguisht with more copiousness and diligence writ of these things than M. Varro But we cannot have a clearer demonstration of the brightness and magnitude of this Star which Providence order'd to arise in the Heathens Hemisphere as an Usher to the Sun of Righteousness than his obtaining while he lived and was obnoxious to the envy of his Emulators by a general vote the Sir-name of the most learned of all the Gown-men and the Virgin-honour to have his Statue in his life-time plac'd in that Library which Asinius Pollio erected at Rome Then lived Scaevola the Pontiff whom St. Austin stiles the most learned Pontiff Vives in Aug. de Civ 6. 2. out of whose Theological polemical writings St. Austin produceth some sound and Gospel-proof Divine maximes To whom Tully a man read as much in Men as Books applyed himself to learn Divinity after the death of his former master in that Science Scaevola the Augur Aug. de Civit. 4. 27. Then lived Caesar who acquitted the Office of High-Priest as dexterously as that of Emperour in his directing the world to time her devotions by reforming the Calender so near the precise Rule prescribed by God to those Luminaries which he hath placed in the Heavens to measure Times as it served the whole World to calculate Seasons by above 1500 years in which large tract of time that Julian Account has not misreckon'd 13 dayes whereas he found the computation so corrupt as he could not bring the hand of his reformed Calender to the right hour of time without the interealation of three months Sueton. Jul. 4. And in the rest of his pontifical administrations not failing the expectations of the Electors who were two to one for him more than all his Competitors obtain'd the Votes of though the other Candidates for that Office so far exceeded him in Age and secular Dignity as Caesar had nothing to commend him to the Electors but his qualifiedness for that function by the worth of his parts Id. Ib. cap. 40. Then lived Cicero as great a Proficient in the Colledge of Augurs as in the Schools of the Orators Witness his Books de Divinatione de somnio Scipionis de Seneciute de Legibus his Paradoxes and Academick questions wherein he traceth the Deity by the foot-steps of the Creature and common Providence more near its seat of inaccessible light than he durst openly or in his own person express and therefore communicates his conceptions upon that subject by way of Romance under borrowed names as Plate had done before him in the like case sed nimirum Socratis carcerem times Lactant. de fal rel 1. 3. both of them skulking under the shades of deceased Philosophers for fear of the impending whip of the Areopagites over Plato of the Imperial Laws over Cicero both of them having heard the sound of the whip laid on Socrates before Plato's on Varro's back before Cicero's face for that Roman Socrates for opening too wide and not running with the common cry had been soundly lasht by the then great Hunter the Roman Nimrod having his Person proscribed his Library rifled and his Books burnt as disfavouring the Religion of that State yet for all this Tully sets this Royal Game and gives the World notice as it were by wagging his tail when he durst not open his mouth where it was squatted against the Apostles should come with their Net Then lived the Learned Cratippus whom Cicero in the Proem to his Offices stiles the Prince of Modern Philosophers but his commending his Son to his Nurture was a commendation of him in fact beyond all the streins even of his Rhetorick Then lived Virgil of whom Vettius in Macrob. Saturn 1. 24. Equidem inter omnia quibus eminet laus Maronis hoc assiduus lector admiror quia doctissimè jus pontificium quasi hoc professus in multa varia operis sui arte servavit si tantae dissertationi sermo cancederet promitto fore ut Virgilius noster Pontifex maximus asseratur Of whose admirable skill in Theology he giveth instances in the third Book of Saturnals to make good this his general commendation That amongst all the praise-worthy qualifications of Maro which in his daily reading of his Works he took notice of he wonder'd at this that throughout the whole Series of his Poems he so learnedly observ'd the Pontifical Law as if he had been Professor of it and if I had time saith Vettius to discourse that point I promise you I could obtain from you an assent to this That Virgil deserves to be accounted worthy of the high Priest-hood Then lived that miracle of humane Divines Seneca the Philosopher the Glory of the Heathen the shame of the modern Christian World who gave the greatest experiment of the power of Stoicism that ever man did in his rooting the sentiments of a Deity and with them Morality so deep in that most barren heart of Nero as those Seeds sown there by him flourish'd and bore excellent fruit for the first
as so many Vice-Christs yea Vice-Gods upon Earth to bring upon the Stage above fifty Popes from John or Joan the eighth to Leo the ninth within the compass of two hundred Years who by the common Vote of approved Historians were little better than Incarnate Devils apotactici apotastatae potius quam Apostoli Gerebrand ad an 909. without a puling Parenthesis without shedding his Crocodile-tears would have spoke him a Man of an Iron Heart and too like that Age of which thus he writes Bar. ad an 900. A new Age beginneth which for rudeness and barrenness of all good is called the Iron Age for its turning it self as Wax to the Seal to all Forms and Resemblances of Evil the Leaden and for want of Writers the dark Age And for him whose design in compassing Sea and Land was to gain Proselytes to the Church of Rome to have presented his reader abruptly and without fortifying his eye with some caution with such a prospect might have startled a good Catholick in the point of Infallibility and have diverted him from looking for a visible Church within the Roman Pale in that Age whereof a Monster born with a Doggs head and presented to King Lewis as the Author of Fasciculus temp conceives was the lively Emblem ad annum 914. In that Age whereof Baronius himself ad an 908. gives this further account Thou seest Reader the most lamentable estate of this time when Whores did advance and pull down Popes at their pleasure Of which Luitprandus gives a notable instance in the History of John the thirteenth lib. 2. cap. 13. who coming to Rome about business with the Conclave with his beauty inflam'd the lust of one Theodora a most shameless Strumpet This Venus to draw a Curtain over that filthy part of the story videt hunc visúmque cupit potitúrque cupito and for his hire procures him a Bishoprick but so far from Rome as he could not give her those frequent Visits her insatiable lust required and therefore she procures him the Papal Chair that she might lie at Rack and Manger with her Stallion his Holiness forsooth than whom as Baronius Bar. ad an 900. witnesseth there never lived a more filthy Beast To be sure this Centaur that had so much of Horse below had but little of Man above his Soul could hardly dilate it self vigorously to the Head which spent it self so much at the Tail who ever gives the golden Ball to Venus gives it iratâ Minervâ This is the Englsâ— of that Libidinibus dediti debilitatur operatio circa intelligibilia Aquin. Sum. 2. 2. q. 5. ar 3. This for kindreds sake in beastliness brings to mind the Legend of Pope Benet 9. though out of due order of Time who being at the Age of twelve years made Pope by the procurement of his Father the Marquess of Tuscia could not so much as read Mass but was put to that sorry shift of procuring the Conclave to consecrate Gregory to be his Suffragan to perform that Office for him Fascicul ad ann 1033. This Tyrant Monster and Opprobry of the Church as Baronius Baron ad ann 1033. calls him was skill'd in nothing but the Black Art by means whereof he enticed Females into the Woods as Cardinal Benno affirms and that upon the evidence of those Magical Books and Journals were found in his Study after his Judas-like death for he was strangled in the Woods by Devils which things saith he every Boy in Rome knows to be true Platina characterizeth him as one that from his very youth was contaminated with all shameful Vices and Turpitude given more to Hunting than Praying the most pernicious and wicked of all the Popes and for proof hereof tells us that of a certain his Ghost appeared to an Heremite in a prodigious form having the Body like a Boar the Head like an Ass The Platonick Idea the express Image of a Letcher an Animal compounded essentially of the Loins of a Boar and the Brains of an Ass. History indeed affords plenty of Examples of men that have been indefatigable Wenchers and yet never-tired Martialists famous in the Cabins of Mars and Cabinets of Venus but the Fancy of Poets could never stretch it self so far as to fansie Apollo as they did Mars in bed with Venus In Mahomet who subdued Constantinople and the Eastern Empire the passions of Amorousness and Ambition were almost equiballanced but when they strove in him for preheminence the Mutinous heat did ever gurmandize the Amorous flame That couragious Captain Ladislaus King of Naples proposed to himself as the principal Scope of his Ambition the execution of his Sensuality and enjoyment of some matchless Beauty but herein he shewed himself a man of stronger Nerves than Head-piece and came to die like a fool by the stratagem of a poyson'd Handkerchief in the the arms of that Wench for whose mortal imbraces he had yielded that Victory to the Florentines which they were ready to yield to him Lord Mountagne's Essays Mark Antony was both a couragious Souldier and a passionate Amorado but for want of Wit suffered his pleasures so far to make him forget the Conduct of his affairs as he may thank Cleopatras dalliances for his Ruin and loss of Empire Julius Caesar as he was the first sober man in Cato's judgment that addrest himself to the ruin of the Common wealth so he was the only prudent man of a wanton lascivious Complexion the only wise man that addicted himself to all manner of Amorous Licentiousness yet his pleasures could never make him lose one minute of an hour nor turn one step from the occasions that might any way farther his advancement as that Noble Humanist and great Critick of Men the Lord Mountagne observes But if I may with the lieve of his learn'd Ghost dissent from that Judgment he passeth upon Caesar I would rather think he did but court Venus in complement as an Handmaid or Pander to his Ambition a Trick of State used of old For Herodotus reports that Cyrus made love to Tomyris and courted her to become his Wife but she smelling it was only in Complement to her but in Reality to her Crown chose rather to answer his suite in the Field of Mars than the Gardens of Venus Clio pag. 95. And that Nitocris the Queen of Egypt drew those Nobles that had an hand in the Murder of her Brother into mortal Snares by a train of Love-powder Herod Eutirpe But never more familiarly than in that Age of the first Caesars Cleopatra courted Herod to come into her imbraces not so much out of Love as treacherous Policy Joseph an t Jud. 15. 5. Agrippina prostituted her self to Lepidus and afterwards to Pallas and at last to her own Son Nero not out of Lasciviousness but out of Design to obtain and keep the Sovereignty speâ—dominationis Tacit. annal 5. 14. 198. And lastly Augustus Sueton. Octavius 69. his Intimates excused his familiarity with the Senators Wives as done not for
fifteenth of Tiberius wherein our great High Priest was officiating in the Temple and within the Veil of his Flesh It is Doctor Lightfoot's Observation that St. John in that half hours silence alludes to the People waiting silently at the Door while the Priest was officiating in the holy place Peace was then continued for other thirty Years even unto the fourth of Nero It remains now that we prove that during that last thirty Years of silence the Line of the Gospel was drawn out not only through all the Earth the Land of Jury but to the ends of the World the utmost Bounds of the Roman Pale Would the Atheist for proof of this acquiess in sacred Testimony I would alledge that of St. Paul Ro. 15. 19. where he writes that in his own line he had proceeded from Jerusalem the Center round about unto Illyricum fully preaching the Gospel so as he had no place left in those parts over which the Line of some Apostle had not been sttretch'd And then leave him to compute though St. Paul labour'd more than they all and therefore must have twelve to one reckoned to his proportion how far the lines of all the rest were stretched out before the general Peace was broke seeing the single Line of one of them had reach'd so far in Nero's second Year as Doctor Lightfoot dates that Epistle But to deal with the Atheist at his own Weapon I shall urge him with the Testimony of Tacitus who having occasion thereof ministred to him from Nero's charging Christians with the setting Rome on fire speaks of our Religion as famously known and by multitudes embrac'd at Rome long before that bloody Edict in Nero's twelfth The common People saith he call them Christians from one Christ who in the Reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate Governour of Judaea whose Religion though by Edicts suppressed presently upon its appearance yet grew under those Weights and brake out again not in Judaea only where it had its Original i. e. the Center whence its Line was drawn but even in Rome it self having reached so far and got so many Proselytes as though the Vulgar looked upon Christians as Persons of an execrable Religion as Enemies to Humane Kind and deserving the Extremities of most inhumane Afflictions and Punishments yet there was none of them so hard hearted as not to relent to see such huge Multitudes of them led to the Slaughter grieving that so much humane though as they thought Malignant blood should be poured out Tacit. annal 15. 233. Ergo abolende rumori Nâ—ro subdidit reos quaesitissimis paenis affecit quos per stagitium risos vulgus Christiarios appellabat auctor ejus nominis Christus qui Tiberio imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat repressaque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat non modo per Judaeam originem ejus whence their Liâ—e went out sed per Urbem etiam Igitur primo correpti qui fatebantur deinde Ingens eorum multitudo haud perinde in crimine incendâ—â— quam odio humani generis connicti sunt unde quanquam adversus sontes novissima exempla meritos miseratio oriebatur Nay to that height was Christian Religion grown at Rome in the beginning of Nero's Reign as Suetonius Sueton. Nero 16. reckons his making Edicts for the suppressing of it among those Reformations he made at his coming to the Crown It will be in vain to urge to our Scepticks St. Paul's Testimony that the Gospel had got footing in Nero's Family yet it may perhaps seem to him less improbable that that Grain of Mustard-seed should sprought up in that barren Soil and malignant Influence if he be minded of the State of Affairs under Aurelian and that in spight of that Juncture our Religion so throve even in the Court as he suspects the Christian Party even among his Senators impeded the passing of the Decree for consulting the Sibylline Books when the Marcomanni invaded the Empire by that handsome Evasion that the Emperour was so valiant as he needed not consult the Gods which though Vopiscus interprets as a point of Flattery yet the Emperour laid it to another Father in that Letter he sent to the Senate to hasten their passing that Decree in these words transcribed by Vopiscus Miror vos sancti Patres tamdiu de aperiendis Sibyllinis dubitasse libris perinde quasi in Christianorum ecclesia non in Templo Deorum omnium tractaretis I wonder holy Fathers that you should be so long debating the question whether Sybill ' s Books in this Exigent should be consulted like as if you were handling this point in the Church of Christians and not in the Capitol the Temple of all the Gods If he had reason to suspect there was so great a Party in his Council of Christians so soon after the persecution raised by Valerianus as they might possibly impede the passing of that Decree what reason have we to conceive it unlikely that Christ should have his Church in Nero's House Vopiscus Aurelian And if notwithstanding the opposition it there found Christianity had gained that rooting in Rome it selfe as so huge a number dare seal the truth of it with their dearest Blood I dare refer it to all unbiassed Minds to think how it must spread in those parts of the Empire that were nearer Judaea as the main body of it was and less under inspection and then to pass their judgment whether Heathen History does not Eccho to that of the Apostle where he saith that not only the Christian Faith was known at Rome but the Faith of the Roman Christians was famous through the World at his writing his Epistle to them which bears date the second of Nero. CHAP. IX The Judean Stirs were the Empires Advantage against Surprisal § 1. Objections from the Commotions in Judea answered and retorted Those inconsiderable and not so great as that delicate and repining People would represent them § 2. The Stirs that were in Judea put the Ministers of State upon a more diligent enquiry into what there fell out whereby they got a more full information of the state of that great Controversie between the Jews and Christians § 3. The Judean Commotions drew the Imperial Eagle to fix her eye more narrowly upon Emergencies there as things of highest State-concern in respect of that then famous Eastern Prophecy of one to arise at that time in Judea who should be King of the Universe § 4. At that time when the Erection of an Universal Monarchy was according to that Prophecy expected appeared Persons of a more Lordly Spirit amongst the Romans than any former Age had brought forth Caesar and Pompey ' s Ambition sprung from this Prophecy The then greatest Spirits courted the Jews favour and used means that they might be that oriundus in Judaea § 5. The arts which the Roman Candidates for the Universal Monarchy used to bring the World into
their sacred Conventions and to collect Oblations and Moneys for their Sacrifices and lays before them the Decree of Sex Caesar who when he was Consul though he interdicted all other Fraternities yet he allowed the Jews to hold Religious Meetings and to gather Collections in order to the maintenance of their Religious Services and his own Example who permitted the Jews to live after the custom of their Forefathers and their own Laws Josephus Ibidem Dolobella after Caesar's Murder writes to the Ephesians and all the Asians that it was his pleasure as it had been of all the Emperours his Predecessors that the Jews should be permitted to use the Customs of their Fathers to meet for holy Exercises as their Law commanded and to confer their accustomed Oblations towards maintaining their Temple and the Services thereof Joseph antiq 14. 17. and to spare other instances Titus aggravated the Rebellion of the Jewish Priests whom he charges to have been the Incendiaries of the War from the favours which the Romans had shewed the Jews ever since their Conquest amongst which hereckons this for one of the chief That they had always been allowed to receive the Tribute which by their Law was due to God and to collect free gifts for the use of the Temple Quódque maximum est Tributum capere Dei nomine ac donaria colligere permissimus Joseph Bel. Jud. l. 7. c. 13. There is no convincing of him that shuts his eyes against this Light 3. The Jews therefore till Vespasian were not commanded to pay the Didrachma to any but their own Collectors for the use of the Temple which he ordering to be paid to the Capitol made a greater Incroachment upon their sacred Privileges than any former Conquerour had done even to the utter subversion of their holy State making as much as in him lay the God of Judah a Tributary King to the Gods of Rome Not that he himself was conquer'd by those Gods as Vespasian blasphemously implyed by transferring his Tribute to them in the Conquest of his people the Jews August de consensu evang l. 1. 14. Non quòd ipse sit victus in Hebraeo populo suo qui Regnum ejus Romanis expugnandum delendúmque permisit whose Kingdom he permitted the Romans to carry away by force For though the Conquerours at the present triumph'd over him and made their Idols set their seet upon the subjugated Neck of this sleeping Lyon yet it was not long ere he rouzed up himself and having taken his Kingdom from that Prophetick Nation because then he was come who was promised by it he by Christ subdued to his name that Roman Empire by which that Nation had been subdued and converted it by the Force and Devotion of the Christian Faith to the Overthrow of Idols an admirable thing saith St. Austin de consensu evangel lib. 1. cap. 14. That he whom the conquered had so offended as he would no longer reign over them and the Conquerours would not then receive for their King is now worship'd of all Nations and manifested to be that very God of Israel of whom so long before was prophesied Isa. 54. 5. The redeemer the holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called Now was fulfilled the Prophecy of Moses Deut. 28. 64. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people from the one end of the earth unto the other and there thou shalt serve other Gods which neither thou nor thy fathers have known even wood and stone Let the Jew shew if he can in what other Dispersion but this under Vespasian they served Gods of Wood and Stone In the Babylonish Captivity they had that constantly in their mouth The Gods that made not heaven shall utterly perish from under this heaven Jer. 10. 11. and were so far from falling down before their Idols as they chose rather to be cast into the Lion's Den into a fiery Furnace Or in what sence during this last and fatal Dispersion they have been induc'd to serve Gentile-Gods of Wood and Stone but in their being forc'd to pay that homage of Soul-tribute to the Capitoline Gods which was the holy one of Israel his due while he stood in that relation to them which being ceased they as Slaves become tributary not only to a foreign State for that had been their frequent portion without impeachment of God's peculiar Sovereignty over them even then when he ruled over them in fury that being a gracious Dispensation to bring them back into the Bond of the Covenant they that formerly led them captive and tyrannized over them were but as their Shepherd's Dogs to fetch them in again when they strayed away and would not be reclaim'd by their Shepherd's Whistling to them in the Ministry of their Prophets but forreign God's Master Mede's Paraphrase upon the Text last quoted doth in part express my sence that is they should serve them not religiously but politically inasmuch as they were to become Slaves to idolatrous Nations it being his Conceipt that God 's are here put for Nations serving strange Gods But saving the honour I bear to the memory of that worthy Person then whom few of Christ's Oxen have labour'd more strenuously on Christ's Floor in not treading out his Master's Corn the Encomium which St. Austin gives St. Jerom. I humbly conceive Titus with the point of his Spear hath writ in the Dust of Jerusalem so clear a Comment upon this Text as we need not fly to the refuge of a Trope for its Exposition when we see that People become Servants not only to the idolatrous Romans but the Idols of Rome whom they serve not Religiously but politically being forc'd their Conscience the Seat of all Religious Worship reclaiming to do that Homage to them while they pay the Tribute of their Soul to the Capitol which was the God of Israel's due but now as inacceptable to him as the Tythe of the Whore's hire was of old of which Philo Judaeus lib. 2. de Monarchia hath this Observation It was not with the Money that God found fault but the person that offer'd it was together with her hire abominable how vile therefore must she be in Gods sight whose Money he accounts prophane and adulterate may not we as rationally conclude that God expressed his abominating the Jewish Nation by his refusing to accept the price of their Souls and his assigning them to pay it and thereby to accknowledg Fealty to strange Gods and such Gods so it follows in Moses Prophecy as neither they nor their Fathers knew which could be no other than the Roman for the Gods of Egypt Syria Chaldaea c. whither they had been formerly carryed captive their Fathers knew too well and had often gone a Whoring after them But these Gods whom Vespasian made them serve and become Tributary to their Fathers scarce ever heard of and themselves never acknowledged till now that God set the wicked over them and plac'd Satan at
apprehension of Pagans as they are given out to be in the Gospel at this day viz. A Religion instituted by and a Sect named from Christ a Person of such holiness as he deserved to be numbred in the rank of the best and divinest Philosophers and would have been enrolled amongst the Gods but for fear that the Religion of his Institution would put down all others it containing those excellent Precepts which so civilized the followers of his Doctrine as they were permitted in the Court of this Emperour whence all vicious persons were prohibited and were of that use in the administration of the Affairs of the Empire as this very best of Heathen Emperours took those Rules and Practices of Christians for his Pattern which the Gospel exhibites Should I prosecute the Reigns of the rest of the Emperours who had a favour to Christians though themselves were none It would swell my discourse to too great a bulk I will therefore content my self with two instances more § 3. One out of Pliny who in laying down the Reason why Trajan remitted that persecution which his Predecessors had raised against Christians presents them in their religious Assemblies and civil Converse walking by that Rule of Faith and Manners which is extant at this day in the Evangelical and Apostolical Writings This great Agent of State under Trajan informed the Emperour that by examining those that were brought before him and accused as Christians he had learn'd this to be the sum of their Religion of their Crime or Errour as Pliny calls it That upon stated days they were wont to assemble before day to sing Songs and make Prayers together to Christ as God To bind themselves by the Sacrament not to any mischievous or dishonest action but that they should not commit Thefts Robberies or Adulteries that they should not break their word betray their trust or falsifie their promise that they should not with-hold or deny the pledge when they were call'd to restore it That after the performance of Divine Service their custom was to depart every one home and afterwards to meet together again to take meat in common to keep harmless Love-feasts This saith he I extorted and this was all I could learn by racking them to know the truth In the same Epistle he testifies the wonderful growth and prevailing of the Christian Religion through the perseverance of the Martyrs multitudes professing it of all Ages Orders Sexes in Cities Villages Hamblets Insomuch as the Idol-temples were almost left desolate their Solemnities of a long time intermitted the sale of Sacrifices and Victims in a manner given over by reason there were so few buyers Plin. lib. 10. Ep. 103. Trajano A description of the Religion and State of the Christian Church so exactly answering that which the Gospel gives as if it had been transcribed thence is here drawn out to the life and transmitted to us by the Pencil and Pen of an Heathen employed by the Roman Emperor to take an account of the Religion profest by Christians to inform himself what it was wherein they so far differ'd from the Religions establish'd or allowed by the Imperial Laws as to be therefore universally hated and taken from their mouths that were cognoscendis causis Christianorum Plin. ibid. appointed to take cognisance of the causes of Christians as such brought before them § 4. My last instance here shall be the account upon which Maximinus raised the sixth Persecution as it is laid down by Eusebius and proveable out of Lampridius and Capitolinus Maximinus by reason of that grievous envy wherewith he burned against the Houshold of Alexander where very many Christians converst stir'd up a bitter tempest of persecution against the Christian Pastors because they had taught that Doctrine whereby the Imperial Court had been so much civilized Euseb. Hist. l. 6. c. 21. This Beast saith Capitolinus who was so cruel as some called him Cyclops others Busiris others Phaleris some Typho and the Senate inade publick and the whole City private supplications that such a Monster as Maximinus might never be seen at Rome so Mortally hated Alexander for his severe Virtue and the strictness of his Court to which he had brought it by converse with Christians and by conforming his Government to their Precepts saith Lampridius in his Alexander as the Vulgar charged him with the murder of Alexander and moreover he put to death all the Ministers of State and Familiars of Alexander Dispositionibus ejus invidens grieving to see so good men in place If now thou wilt seek Reader what kind of Men and Courtiers they were for whose Christian Manners this Monster hated them and persecuted the Christian Doctors for introducing this civilty into the Roman then Pagan Palace and therewithall learn what went for Christian Virtue above 1400 years ago thou wilt find that Maximinus persecuted as Christian those Evangelical Precepts which the Apostolical VVritings commend to us and are not to be found but there or in Books derived from thence And thou needest not go far for a resolution of this enquiry for Lampridius will resolve thee who in answer to that Question of Constantine How Alexander a stranger born of Syrian extract became so excellent a Prince tells him That though he could alledge the indulgence of Mother Nature who is a Stepdame to no Country and the fate of Heliogabalus which might have terrified him from vicious living yet because he would suggest to him the very truth he commends to him what he had already written and Constantine read I suppose touching the favour he had to Christians and his sucking in their Precepts upon the perusal whereof and reflexion upon that saying of Marius Maximus It is better and more safe for the Republick that the Prince himself be evil than that his Friends and Counsellors be so for one evil man may be oversway'd by a multitude of good men but a multitude of bad men can by no means be brought into order by one though never so good a Prince And that Answer which Homulus gave to Trajan when he said that Domitian was the worst of men but had good Friends and Agents He must needs be a worse Prince than Domitian who being a better man than he had committed the administration of publick affairs to men of a bad life He presents it to Constantine as a thing not at all strange that Alexander should prove so good a Prince seing by following his Mother Mammaea's instruction which she had learnt of her Christian Doctors he himself became the best of men Optimus fuit optimae matris consiliis usus and had constituted his Court and adopted familiars of men not malicious not ravenous not thievish not factious crafty consenting to evil haters of goodness lustful cruel circumventors scorners But holy venerable continent religious lovers of their Prince who would neither reproach him nor be a reproach to him who would take no bribes would not lye nor dissemble nor betray their
will attest the intire sum and compleat form of sound Words to have been from Heaven For God by granting Miracles to be wrought by Christ and his Apostles in Christ's Name did immediately seal to Gods sending Christ and Christ's sending his Apostles as Heavens Plenipotentiaries to treat with the World about the Matters of Eternal Life The miraculous descension of the holy Ghost upon our Saviour at his Baptism was to point him out to his Fore-runner John the Baptist as that true Light which according to Prophecy and the general expectation of the Jews was come into the World he it is upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descend Upon seeing of which and hearing that voyce from Heaven This is my well-beloved Son the Baptist asserts him to be that Prophet which God promised to send to communicate his whole pleasure to the sons and daughters of men Christ's transformation in the holy Mount was to confirm the three Apostles in the Truth of that Voyce they heard This is my Son hear him that is whatever he shall speak in my Name what terms soever he shall propound to the World what way soever he shall chalk out to reconciliation let them be observ'd let no other be expected For I have made him my Ambassadour and given him full power to treat with the World When the Apostles returned from working Miracles the Question that Christ propounded to them was Whom do men say I am and the question he put to such as upon hearing or seeing the miraculous Cures he wrought on others applyed themselves to him for Cure was Believest thou that I am be Infinite Examples might be produc'd But this Proposition Miracles do immediately confirm the Divine Authority of the Speaker and consequently the Truth of whatsoever he delivers is so evident as it needs no proof 4. Lastly Matters of Fact granted and the Supernaturalness of any one thing done in confirmation of the Gospel proved affords Christians of the meanest Capacities ability sufficient to confirm themselves in a full assurance of the Truth of all Gospel assertions to convince the subtilest Gain-sayers as that Laick did the Arrians in the Council of Nice and to answer all Objections that ever were made or can be invented from those seeming absurdities impossibilities contradictions c. which the wittiest Sophister can make himself believe he finds in the Evangelical Religion For there cannot be yea and nay with God nor any thing impossible to him to whom it is possible to raise the dead and to do such stupendious Works as were wrought for the demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Gospel Si Ratio contrà Scripturarum authoritatem redditur quamlibet acuta sit fallit verisimilitudine nam vera esse non potest rursùs si manifestissime certaeque rationi velut Scripturarum authoritas objicitur non intelligit qui hoc facit non Scripturarum sensum ad quem penetrare non potest sed suum potiùs objicit veritati nec quod in eis sed quod in seipso velut pro eis invenit opponit August Marcellino Ep. 7. If Reason be alledged against the Authority of divine Scripture be it never so acute it is not true but deceives us with an appearance of Truth with a shadow of Reason Again if the Authority of Scripture seem to oppose manifest and certain Reason he that alledgeth that Authority does not understand the Text he quoteth and objects against that Truth which Reason presents not the sence of Scripture which he is not able to dive into but his own conceipt Neither doth he oppose against such Reason what he finds in the Text but his own gloss and Comment which he frames to himself And therefore when that Affricane Light thought he found any thing in Scripture that seemed contrary to Truth he concluded That it was but either a shew of Truth or a shew of Scripture and that either the Copy was corrupt or the Translation false or that he himself did not understand the Text aright August Hieron Ep. 19. vel mendosum ese codicem vel interpretem non esse assecutum quod dictum est vel me minimè intellexisse The same Purity and infinite Perfection of the Divine Nature that makes it impossible for God to lye makes it impossible that he should give his approbation and the Imprimatur to a self-contradicting absurd or unreasonable Book § 6. Judicious Plutarch in his Treatise of the Fortune of Alexander compares his attempt to subdue the World to Hercules his Combat with Hydra in that though he had no sooner dispatch'd one War but another sprung up yet by searing the places of the neck where the heads grew which he cut off he prevented the pullulation of fresh heads from those places that is by fortifying the places he gain'd with Garrisons he prevented the rising of the conquer'd at his back by which means at last he conquer'd all Nations Of like difficulty and immense labour is the undertaking to subdue Atheism in an heart posfest with which is a world of Devices and a Tongue prompted by such an heart is a World of Iniquity if not Epicurean infinite Worlds Jacob. 3. 6. Three of this Hydra's most lofty and blasphemous Heads are already dispatch'd and the Topicks whence they were rais'd the necks on which they grew sear'd by so feeling an application of each Argument to the Serpents only beloved temporal and earthly concerns as it may be hoped his delicacy will hardly indure the pain of a new fracture in those tender parts by the reviving of those Arguments against the Gospel which speak him a mere Novice in the great affairs of the World and not to know the State of that virile Age of the Roman Empire when the Gospel was first publish'd or render him uncapable of knowing when to hum when to kiss in a Play-house or of maintaining his right to what he challengeth as his Fathers Heir as his Mothers Son It may be some daunting to the Atheists some encouragement to the Church to see so many heads lye gasping at the feet of the meanest of her Sons And perhaps satisfie the expectations of modest persons as to what my Title promiseth to see three of those Horns that have with the greatest spite and disdain been pushing at the Gospel cast out by one so unskilful a Carpenter A work for three of the ablest Artists for God allows to every Horn a Carpenter Zech. 1. 20. Had this Monster no more Horns than Zechary saw in that prophetical Vision had this Hydra no more heads than Alexander's World had Kingdoms than that Lernean Serpent which Hercules flew had heads be they seven according to Naucrates Erythraeus nine according to Zenodotus or fifty according to Heraclides Ponticus his opinion my success hitherto might give me hopes at last to excind the last of them But how many Heads this Monster of Monsters hath he only knows before whom Hell is bare-fac'd and who searcheth the above-measure
excluded themselves from the Protection of the best of Kings and cooped up themselves to be a prey to the worst of Tyrants for as ours then so the Jewish Matrons now spared neither their tender Limbs nor fine Cloaths nor richest Jewels but as they expended their Treasures in hiring Labourers so they themselves did not disdain to serve the Workmen by carrying Baskets of Rubbish till both Masons and Servitours were forc'd from their work by Balls of Fire issuing from the trembling and gaping Earth by which they that were not kill'd had their Garments or Bodies inured with the Sign of the Cross by which Marks of God's displeasure many of them were so far convinc'd that no other Religion was acceptable to God but the Christian as they with one voyce invocate the help of Christ and were by Baptism initiated in the Christian Faith The substance of this Story I have elsewhere alledged out of Ammianus Marcellinus one of Julian's Captains And Nazianzen affirms that when he wrote this Oration these Prints and Marks upon their Cloaths were still to be seen Is 't then I say imaginable in reason that ever since the disannulling of the Mosaical Service of Legal Sacrifices God has been no where worship'd in a way of his own institution Or is it possible to point out any People upon Earth save the Christian Church that worship him in that way which God himself foretold he would erect at the vacateing of the old § 4. The fourth and last instance I shall give of Prophecies touching meer Contingencies that have been so palpably fulfill'd as the Effect of the accomplishment is now existing is of those which foretold That after Israel had cast off their Messiah and their God cast off them and taken the Gentiles to be his People Those Gentiles as they came into Christ should cast a way all their former Idol-Gods so as never again to return to them Of which Tenour are those Texts Isa. 2. 18. 20 21. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day and the Idols shall he utterly abolish and they shall go into the holes of the Rocks and into the Caves of the Earth for fear of the Lord and for the Glory of his Majesty when he ariseth terribly to shake the earth In that day shall a man cast his Idols of Silver and Gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the moles and to the batts This day is that when all Nations shall flow unto the Mountain of the Lords House c. ver 1. The same Prophecy is repeated Is. 31. 7. and the Effect of it dated when the Lord the Shepherd of Israel shall rise up against the multitude of Shepherds called forth against him the whole Crew of Idols erected by the Gentile world to affront the Majesty of Heaven and make no more of them than a Lyon doth of unarmed Shepherds who would scare him away with their voyce when he comes to take their Flock from them and when those Flocks shall be turned unto that God from whom the Children of Israel have deeply revolted In that day shall every man cast away his Idols c. And Isa. 45. and 46. Chapters When all the ends of the Earth shall look unto God when to him every Knee shall bow every Tongue shall swear c. Then Bel boweth down Nebo stoopeth their Idols were upon the Beasts your carriages were heavy laden they are a burden to the weary Beasts they stoop they bow down together they could not deliver the burden but themselves are gone into Captivity That is the Heathen Great Pontiffs and Philosophers shall not be able to maintain the Cause of those false Gods whom by office and inducement of State they are bound to support but shall fall down under the weight of that Vanity and Impiety the Gospel shall charge them with and throw off their load and themselves become Christs Captives so mighty were the Weapons of the Apostles Warfare to cast down those vain Imaginations that had exalted themselves against the knowledge of the true God and to bring into obedience to Christ the strongest holds that Satan by his Deputies held in the Heathen World And Zech. 13. 2. In that day when a Fountain should be open'd to those Inhabitants of Jerusalem to that House of David that should mourn every Family apart over him whom they had pierced which cannot be meant of the Jews after the Flesh for it was the Gentiles that pierced Christ it was the Roman Soldiers that platted the Crown of Thorns and set it upon Christs Head that Nailed his Hands and Feet to the Cross that peirced his Side with a Spear to which external peircing of Christs Body and not to that Sword which the unthankful Jew ran through his Soul the Evangelist applies this Text John 19. 37. The Spirit of Grace and Supplication is not promised to the breakers of his Heart but Bones the Gentiles Heart that broke his Bones shall be broken when the spirit convinceth them of that sin but the Jews generally lost under Judicial blindness in that day I say that the spiritual Judah shall repent and be baptized St. Jerom expounds this Fountain to be Christian Baptism that Laver of Regeneration It shall come to pass saith the Lord of Hosts that I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the Land c. and cause the unclean spirits to pass out of the Land Was ever any thing foretold with more plainness and perspicuity most of those Oracles and a great many more which for brevity sake I omit are as transparent as if they had been writ with a Sun-beam in this copious variety of expressions there is not one ambiguous Word not one dark Syllable a Child may run and read these Visions Would then such eminent Persons as their Prophets were in their several Generations have run the hazard of having their Memories traduc'd in after-ages by such plain speaking having no imaginable Secular Temptation to it but against it had they not been beyond all possibility of mistake assured of the Infallibility of that Spirit by which they were moved Now the same Degree of Assurance which they had à priori from the Cause we may have à posteriori from the Effect they could not by that more then Scientifical Vision of those things in the Divine Mind that essential Cognition that simple Contact and Feeling of God's Will Tactus quidam divinitatis notitiâ melior essentialis cognitio divinorum contactus quidam essentialis simplex Jamblicus de cognit divinorum be more certain that this would be than we may that it is come to pass by observing the Event For never were any Predictions more manifestly fulfill'd than these not one title of them is faln to the Earth There is not now nor has not been in any part of the World since Christian Religion was planted in it the least Relique of those numberless Pagan Gods it swarmed with before that
mixt with mercy God in his every days anger is strong and patient strong in sparing spends but part of the Arrows in the Quiver of the Menacy Propheticus mos est Summam consternationem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 describere petitâ translatione ab iis quae efficient consternationem in adventu Christi quo veniet ad judicandum mundum But the burthen of Prophesie where it shall fall last will fall with all its weight when it is to have its accomplishment it will have its full accomplishment Ezech. 37. 12. The Prophet understands the Metaphorical Resurrection of Israel from that forlorn estate but he alludes to the Resurrection that shall be at the last day and from his alluding to that Tertullian concludes that that Text will have a fuller accomplishment then Hoc ipso quòd recidivatus Judaici status de recorporatione readunatione ossium figuratur id quoque eventurum ossibus probatur non enim posset de ossibus figurâ componi si non id ipsum ossibus eventurum esset de vacuo similitudo non competit de nullo parabola non convenit Tert. de resurrectione cap. 30. St. Jerom on Ezek. 37. nunquam poneretur similitudo resurrectionis ad restitutionem Israelitici populi significandam si non staret ipsa resurrectio The Prophets would not borrow words from the last judgment from that notion and conception which the world by tradition had thereof to describe particular judgments if those words were not to be fulfilled at that last judgement Tertullian affirms that divine Promises are of the like nature fully accomplishable at the last day quum igitur ultimorum temporum statum Scripturae notent totam Christianae spei frugem in exodio seculi collocent apparet aut tunc adimpleri totum quòdcunque nobis à deo repromittitur c. Tertul. de resur cap. 25. Franc. Junius notes the corrupt reading of exordio for exodio seculi Seeing therefore the Scriptures denote the state of the last times and place the harvest of Christian hope at the latter end of the world it is manifest that then shall be fulfill'd whatsoever God hath promis'd otherwise And therefore we do but adulterate Prophecies touching the last day in receding from the Literal sence in allaying the briskness of that Cup of Fury with the sober Nymph the water of figurative Expositions any farther than to tame the killingness of the Letter its manifest either Iniquity or Impossibility of which the Literal Exposition of these words which I give are out of danger for 't is possible enough that at the Resurrection of the unjust when all the Infidels and excommunicate persons shall stand up out of the dust together they will cover the breadth of the Earth the Wings of that Army of Aliens from the Covenant of Grace will reach North and South and their Files be as deep as from East to West though they stand at no greater distance one from another than an Army in Battalia It has been doubted by some how so great a multitude could make their appearance together before the Judge and therefore they have thought the judgment of the Heathen would take up a thousand years while God called them one after another but my Hypothesis salves that doubt without the help of such a subterfuge However the raising of such doubts is an argument that in common sence there will be people enough to fill the whole face of the Earth saving that part of it that shall be railed in about the holy Mount And that 's an Argument that the far greatest part of that Army must rise out of the Earth for from whence else can so many be gathered as shall cover the whole superficies of the Earth Caelum non habet unde cadat and so many living together in a mortal state would put the world into such a crowd as might well excuse the Americans for seeking to enlarge their quarters As for that other expression as the sands on the Sea shore for multitude he that thinks it an Hyperbole may think it so still for me and without prejudice to my Position for as it is manifest that so many men as there are grains of sand upon the shore would not have room to stand upon the Earth and therefore according to the caution I have given we must fly to the Figurative sence here the Literal being manifestly impossible so all that I need affirm is this that this Gogick and Magogick Army shall for multitude come as near the Sand on the Sea-shore as an Army can do that is pitched on the Earth § 4. Secondly When Satan marcheth in the head of this Army the Saints must be locally imbodyed for it encompasseth the holy City and the Camp of the Saints assembled and in procinctu into which posture how they could be drawn but by the summons of the last Trumpet is not conceivable except we fancy that some lesser City and Assembly than the general of the Saints shall be besieged by this General Army of Infidels As the Learned Dr. Hammond applies it to the Turks taking of Constantinople whereas there is no mention in the Text of taking but only of encompassing the holy City in the act and attempt whereof they are said to be destroyed by Fire coming down from God out of Heaven And though the Ottoman Family the off-spring of the Lydians who are called the People of Gog from Gyges their first King or Scythians stiled by Josephus Magogaei might be a Type of St. John's Gogs and Magogs encompassing the Camp of the Saints in their besieging Constantinople yet as they did not in all points Typifie this Gogick Army so they did not in any one point Typifie it fully not in multitude for instance for though the Ottoman Armies be very numerous yet they are not comparable to the old Scythian Armies under Tomyris nor the Lydian under Gyges much less to that Muster of this Army which St John brings in and therefore in that respect cannot so much as be an Antitype of Ezekiels old Gog much less the very Gog of St. John For Prophecies acquire strength in their motions towards a perfect accomplishment Vespasian's sacking of Jerusalem and captivating of the Jews came higher up to the terms of the old Menacy than that which was inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar and the Judgment of the last day will out-doc Vespasian's Desolation and make up whatever that wanted of fulfilling every tittle of that Prophecy which described those Judgements in Terms borrowed from the horror and greatness of this § 5. Thirdly It is the common Tenet of the Schools that Ignis ultimae conflagrationis that Fire that shall refine and purge the Sublunary World shall go before Christ when he comes to his Judgment-seat and by purging its dregs from the old make a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein his white Throne shall be erected Quòd per ignem conflagrationis ultimae futura sit elementorum purgatio probatur
stat Romana virisq Ennius Plutarch in his Treatise of the fortune of the Romans moves this Question Whether Virtue or Fortune had the greater hand in elevating the Romans to that stupendious height and resolves it thus That they joyned hands and by united forces raised that famous Structure Equidem hoc rectè opinor censere fortunam virtutem ad tanti compagem imperii atque potentiae tantae structuram pace composita coivisse humanorúmque operam pulcherrimam communicatis operis absolvisse in the building whereof that those that were emploied were both instructed with all kind of Virtue and in most of their affairs aided by Fortune he demonstrates in the sequel of that Discourse Quem qui machinati sunt eos omni virtute instructos à fortuna plurimis in rebus adjutos fuisse c. by fortune he means not that blind versatil Chance of the Epicureans but that all-seeing and Judicious Sister of Justice and Daughter of Providence Non incerta qualis apud Pindarum sed quae rectius dicitur justitiae suadae soror ac providentiae siquidem ea est Prometheia filia quomodo genus ejus Alcman describit This he introduceth conducting Romulus Numa Servius Tullius c. and following those incomparable persons for Heroick Virtue the Fabricii Camilli Lucii Cincinnati Fabii Marcelli Scipiones Caius Marius Mutius Scaevola M. Horatius c. From this ancient Roman Gallantry when that Commonwealth degenerated its Affairs went so backward as Livy complains thereof and that upon that account their History was so interrupted as nothing could certainly be known touching the state of those Times Sed quid in his refert immorari quae certi nihil habent cum res Romanorum perierunt confusi commentarii sint ut Livius narrat The same Observation Florus makes Ut ad constituendum ejus imperium virtus fortuna contendisse viderentur Florus So that to the constituting of that Empire virtue and fortune seem to have striven which of them should contribute most § 5. Unto the same supreme Cause must be referr'd those manifest miraculous growths of some Kingdoms conferr'd by the God of Israel in order to the accomplishment of the Oracles of his own Prophets That wonderful success which Nebuchadnezzar's Arms found in Aegypts Conquest though he ascribed it to his Gods was given him by the true God in pursuit of making good the Menacies of his Prophets against that Nation I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar my servant and will set his Throne upon these stones that I have bid at the entry of Pharaohs house and he shall stretch his Royal Pavillion over them and I will kindle a fire in the houses of the Gods of Aegypt and he shall array himself with the Land of Aegypt and he shall go forth from thence in peace Jer 43. 10. Cyrus his victorious arms over Chaldea and the circumjacent Countries were born up upon the wing of that Prophecy which named him an 100 years before he was born Isa. 43. 28. in order to the fulfilling whereof Isa. 44. 1 c. Gods right hand upheld and strengthen'd him to subdue Nations before him God loosed the Loines of Kings and open'd the two leaved Gates before him he went before him made the crooked places straight brake in pieces the Gates of Brass and cut in sunder the Bars of Iron It was not the Heroes of Media Persia Assyria whom he so religiously supplicated and so devoutly thank'd but that God of the Jews whom he knew not then but at last acknowledged his hand to have been alone in all thosegrand Transactions As Nebuchadnezzar also understood not who that God was that had done such great and marvellous things for him till convinc'd by the deliverance of the three Children he proclaimes to all the World that their God is he that had shewed signs and wrought wonders towards him c. Dan. 4. 2. 3. Daniel had prophecyed of Alexander the Great that he should be Mighty and do according to his Will chap. 11. 3. when God raised him up against the Persians to destroy that Empire and he had no other way thither the Pamphylian Sea open'd to him and his Army as the Red Sea had done to Moses Joseph Jewish antiq l. 1. cap. 7. This Story saith Josephus is mention'd by all that write the Acts of Alexander § 6. In order to the punishment of other Nations God frequently does as it were by Miracle advance some one Nation perhaps no better than the rest The Assyrian was the Rod of Gods anger and the Staff in his hand that that sustain'd him was Gods indignation though he thought not so but triumph'd over the God of Israel as one of those feeble Idols that was not able to defend his own Territories any more than the Gods of Calno Carchemish Hamath or Arpad Is. 10. 5 11. In which case the wicked may oftentimes devour the man that 's more righteous than himself Hab. 1. 12. And when that Nations sins are brim full and Gods whole work done for which God raised it up some of those subdued Nations are raised up by no less a Miracle out of the Grave out of the ashes to bringdown that stout heart and avenge the blood he hath shed Thus Greece was stirred up for the Ruine of the Caldean Empire and Rome for the destruction of the Grecian in all which great and stupendious Mutations of States the strange accidents that fall out are the Effects of divine Vindicative Justice though each Nation for whose raising they were wrought conceiv'd them to have been the Fruits of the Favour of their Idol-Gods It was an higher wisdom than Minerva's that managed the affairs of Athens the Lord of Hosts not their God of War that put courage into the Spartans The unknown God not any of their Tutelars that made them great and arm'd the Sons of Greece against the Bratts of Babel all the wonders of that age reported by Thucidides and Diodorus Siculus and of the next Empire reported by Dion Dionysius Livy c. were the Operations of his hands that only doth Wonders that sets up the low Tree and brings down the high Tree by ways past finding out Judgments unscrutable either as to Methods or Causes § 7. Lastly if at any time the World hath been so equally pois'd in respect of the Virtue or Vitiousness of her several Inhabitants as it seemed not good to vindictive Justice by extraordinary impulses or incanonical courses of his Providence as St. Austin calls Miracles to animate one Nation to avenge its quarrels upon another By what prodigious accidents hath God made the Empires that then were in Being or arising conspicuous in order to the preservation of the general Peace and that the whole Earth might sit still and be at quiet Melancâ—hon in his Epistle Dedicatory to Carions Chronicle tells us that Philip Prince Elector Palatine was wont to say that in reading the History of the World he all along
of those sacred Waters making the Souls of men take the Impress of the Soul of the Gospel forming in them the Image of God and converting the most wicked persons that embrace it from all their Debaucheries wherein they were immerst to a life most sutable to Nature and Reason and to the practice of all Virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. Cont. Cel. lib. 1. cal 30. Whereupon to Celsus his Calumnie that Christ chose the worst of men for Apostles Origen replies that Christ thereby made it appear how Soveraign a Medicine his Doctrine is against Soul-plagues and that therefore Celsus ought rather to have admired the Physicians skill than to have upbraided him with the pristine maladies of his Patients who could do more than all Chrisippus his Rules towards the curing of unrulie Passions How many saith he did Christ recover from the Plague of their head strong Affections From the colluvies of their vitious distempers how many had their beastly Manners tamed by occasion of the Evangelical Preaching which ought to have been embraced of all men with thankfulness if not as true yet as a new and compendious Method of curing Vice and exceedingly advantagious to Humane kind He that can think the malignant Powers would contribute towards the bringing of such a Doctrine as this into credit by their Sealing to it in those wonderful Operations which gain'd it an Authority over Conscience may with an equal likelihood of Reason conceive it worth the while to milk Hee-Goats To which labour I remit him while I commend to wiser persons the conclusiveness of this last Argument for the Divine Original of the Christian Faith in general and in special for the probat of Christs Resurrection the Center wherein all the Articles of the Christian Faith meet and the demonstration of the Divine Authority and heavenly Mission of the blessed Jesus to communicate that way of Salvation to the World as being the Doctrine of Christ that dyed or rather is risen again from the dead and ascended into Heaven whence he communicates that Grace of which we have been speaking and wherein Christianity triumphs over the greatest pravities of corrupt Nature as subdued by her Discipline and overall other Methods of cure as insufficient as unable to reduce lapsed man to a state of health § 5. The strength of this Argument would be more apparent if we of this Age could make good the assumption as easily as those Primitive Christians did of whom the Patrons of the cause of Christ made these holy boasts and such as that Non aliunde noscibiles quam de emendatione vitiorum pristinorum Tertul. ad Scapulam Christians are not to be known from other Sects but by the emendation of their pristine vitious manner were we who embrace the form of those sound and healing words as much under the power of Godliness as they whom that saving Grace taught to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly righteously and soberly did we more study the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ so as to know him in the power of that Resurrection of his which we make profession to believe the truth of and in the fellowship of his sufferings so as to be made conformable unto his Death In which point notwithstanding that never to be enough bewail'd Apostacy of these latter times God hath not left himself without witness But reserv'd a remnant of persons who cordially embracing the truly Catholick Religion of Christ as it is profest in the Church of England and mourning over the Irregularities of and Scandals given by such as conform not to its sacred Precepts really exhibit to the Worlds view a Specimen of ancient Holiness in their harmless and blameless Conversation with and towards all men in their serious piety towards God their reverential observance of their Superiours their Justice Charity Love towards all men their Continency Chastity Sobriety Temperance in respect of themselves And for the rest of the Professors of the pure and undefiled Religion who deviate from the rule of this Sacred Discipline they cease to be Christians Sed dicet aliquis etiam de nostris excedere quosáam à regula disciplinae desinunt tum Christiani baberi penès nos Philosophi verò illi cum talibus factis in nomine honore sapientiae perseverant Tertul. apol 46. Some men may say that even some of ours deviate from the Rule of Discipline They cease then to be esteem'd Christians by us Philosophers with such debaucheries retain the name and honour of Philosophers Fanaticks though unrighteous unmerciful unpeaceable pass among their own Tribes for Saints but no man can pass the Muster for a Christian indeed that keeps not the Commands of Christ that conforms not to his Example The Church owns them not for hers Christ owns them not for his but will profess unto them I know yee not depart from me ye that work iniquity and will expostulate with all who hate to be reformed for their taking his Covenant in their mouths Christ has past the same Decree against all vitious Livers that Severus past against Thieves per praeconem edixit ut nemo salutaret Principem qui se furem esse nosset ne aliquando detectus capitali supplicio subderetur That none salute him with Lord Lord who knows himself to be guilty under pain of being Convict and suffering the extream punishment None must enter into his Courts any more than to the Eleusine Rites or into the Emperours Palace Nisi qui se innocentem novit but he that knows himself free of those sins which by the sanction of the Royal Law exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven And who so presume to contravene those Edicts must expect the same entertainment that Severus gave Septimius Arabinus when he came to salute him O numina O Jupiter O dii immortales Arabinus non solum vivit verùm etiam in Senatum venit fortassis etiam de me sperat tam fatuum tam sâ—ultum esse me judicat ac Heliogabalum Lampridii Alex. Severus Oh monstrous Arabinus dares come into the Senate dares appear in the Assembly of Christians does he think he can deceive me as he did the world with vain shews as he did himself with vain hopes he 's deceiv'd indeed if hetake me for such a fool if he think I will be mock'd Can he be ignorant that the sentence is past the prohibition à mulieribus famosis matrem uxorem suam salutari vetuit Id. Ib. is seal'd that none presume to joyn themselves to my Church to associate with my Love my Dove my undefiled Spouse whose Lives are infamous Christians may not eat with such and can they expect to eat bread in my Kingdom And therefore they who either by going out from us do more openly declare or by a Conversation unbecoming the Gospel while they are with us more secretly insinuate that they were not that they are not of us in an impartial judgement should neither prejudice