the event and you will find how God confounded the proud Princes The holy Fathers and the Ecclesiastical Historians do with one common consent report it and justify it by Monuments which remain still from their time But the matter ought to be attested by Heathens themselves Amm. Marcel l. 23. init Ammianus Marcellinus a Gentile in his Religion and a zealous defender of Julian hath recorded it in these Terms Whilst Alipius being assisted by the Governor of the Province was advancing the Work with all the Might he could terrible Globes of Fire broke forth from the very Foundations which they before had shaken by violent Assaults the Workmen who several times essayed to begin the Work anew were many times burnt the place became inaccessible and so the undertaking fell The Ecclesiastical Authors who are more exact in representing so memorable an Event do joyn with that of the Earth the Fire of Heaven too But after all the Word of Jesus Christ abides firm and sure St. John Chrysostome cryes out Orat. in Judaeos He hath built his Church on the Rock nothing shall be able to overthrow it the Temple nothing shall be able to build up again None can pull down what God erects nor can any build up again what God pulls down Let us now make an end of our Discourse on Jerusalem and the Temple and cast our Eyes a little on the People themselves heretofore the living Temple of the Lord of Hosts and now the Object of his â—â—arred The Jews are more levelled than their Temple and their City The Spirit of Truth is no longer among them Prophecy is quite at an end with them the Promises on which the stress of their Hopes depends are vanished all things are topsy turvy with that People and there is not one Stone left upon another And do but observe how far they are delivered up to Error Jesus Christ told it them I am come in my Fathers Name John 5.43 and ye receive me not if another shall come in his own Name him ye will receive From that time the Spirit of Seduction hath been so predominant among them that they are ready still at every moment to let themselves be carried away by it It was not enough that the false Prophets should deliver Jerusalem into the Hands of Titus the Jews were not as yet banished Judea and the Love they had for Jerusalem had obliged several of them to choose their Place of Abode among its Ruines Behold a false Christ arose up who was absolutely to compleat their Destruction Fifty Years after the taking of Jerusalem in the Age of the Death of our Lord the famous Barchochebas a Robber a wicked Wretch because his Name signified the Son of the Star impiously called himself the Star of Jacob foretold in the Book of Numbers and pretended he was the Christ Akibas Numb 24.17 Euseb Hist Eccles 4.6 8. a Man of greatest Authority among the Rabbi's after whose Example all those whom the Jews call their Sages came over to his Party tho' the Impostor gave than no other sign of his Mission but that Akibas told them the Christ could not be very far off The Jews revolted throughout all the Roman Empire under the Conduct of Barchochebas â—alm Hier. de jejuâ— â—5 in ver Comm. sup Lam. Jerem. Maimonid li. de jur Reg. c. 12. who promised them the Empire of the World Adrian killed six hundred thousand of them The Yoke of those miserable Wretches was very heavy and they were for ever banished Judea Who is there but sees that the Spirit of Seduction had seized their hearts Because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. for that cause God sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness There is no Imposture so gross but what deceives them In our days an Impostor called himself Christ in the East and all the Jews began to run in Flocks about him we have seen them in Italy in Holland in Germany and at Metz ready to leave all for the sake of following him They imagined already that they were becoming the Masters of the World when they learnt that their Christ was made a Turk and had forsook the Law of Moses We need not to wonder if they be fallen into such Dispersions X. The Progress of the Jewish Errours and the manner how they explain the Prophecies nor if the Tempest has scattered them after they had forsaken their own way That way was pointed out to them in their Prophecies especially in those which designated the time of our Saviour Christ But they let slip those precious Opportunities without any whit benefitting themselves by them wherefore we have seen them afterwards given up to believe a lye and they never knew since what course to take Give me leave a little to recount to you the course and progress of their Errors and all the Methods they have taken to sink themselves into this Abyss The ways by which we come to wander tend always to the broad Road and by considering where our wandring hath begun we may more securely go on in the right way Your Highness hath seen that two Prophecies have set forth to the Jews the time of Christ's coming that of Jacob and that of Daniel They both did foretell the ruine of the Kingdom of Judah at the time of our Saviour's Advent But Daniel revealed how that a total Destruction should come upon that Kingdom after the death of Christ and Jacob said plainly that in the Declension of the Kingdom of Judah that Christ which should then come should be the Expectation of the People that is to say that he should be the Deliverer of them and that he should erect to himself a new Kingdom not only framed out of one single People but out of all the People of the World The words of the Prophecy can admit of no other sense and it was the constant positive Tradition of the Jews that they were thus to understand it From thence that Opinion which was spread abroad by the ancient Rabbies and which is yet to be seen in their Talmud Gem. tr Sanhed c. 11. that at the time that Christ was to come there should be no more Magistracy so that there was nothing more necessary to make them know the time of their Messias than only to observe when they were falling into that woful Condition In fine they had begun well and if they had not had their minds prepossessed with the worldly Grandeurs which they hoped to find in their Messias and which they thought to have a share of under his Empire they could never have been mistaken in Jesus Christ The Foundation they had laid was certain for as soon as the Tyranny of the first Herod and the change of the Jewish Commonwealth which happened
whose Land and Spoils he was resolved to bestow on them were not yet full as he declared to Abraham Gen. 15.16 so as he knew they would be when he should deliver them to that hard and unpitiable vengeance which he would bring upon than by the hands of his chosen People There was time to be given for this People to multiply that so they might be able to fill the Land which was designed them and to possess it by force Ibid. in rooting out those Inhabitants who were accursed by God He was willing to have them undergo in Aegypt a hard and insupportable Captivity that so being delivered by unheard of Prodigies they might be in love with their Rescuer and eternally celebrate his Mercies This was the order of the Councils of God so as himself has revealed them to us to teach us to fear him to adore him to love him and to wait with Faith and Patience The time being come he hearkens to the cries of his People who were cruelly afflicted by the Aegyptians and he sends Moses to deliver his Children from thdr Tyranny He makes himself known to that great Man more than ever yet he had done to any Man living He appears to him in a manner equally magnificent and comforting he declares to him that He is that He is All that is before him is but a shadow I am Exod. 3.14 saith he that I am Being and Perfection belongs to me alone He takes up a new Name which designates Being and Life in him as in their Source and it is that great name of God Terrible Mysterious and Incommunicable by which he will for the time to come be served I will not in retail give you an account of the Plagues of Aegypt nor of the hardness of Pharaoh's heart nor of the passing over the red Sea not of the Smoke nor Lightnings the Trumpet sounding and the dreadful Thundering and Noise that the People heard on Mount Sinai God there engraved with his own hand upon two Tables of Stone the fundamental Precepts of Religion and Society He dictated the rest to Moses with a loud Voice To preserve this Law in its strength and vigour he was ordered to convene a venerable Assembly of seventy Elders Exod. 24.1 Numb 11.16 who were to be called the Senate of the People of God and the perpetual Council of the Nation God made his publick appearance and caused his Law to published in his presence with an astonishing demonstration of his Majesty and Power Till then God had given nothing by writing which might serve as a Rule for Mankind The Children of Abraham only had Circumcision and the Ceremonies that accompanied it for a Token of the Covenant which God hath contracted with that Elect Race They were separated by that sign from the other People who worshipped false Gods Now they kept themselves in the Covenant of God by the remembrance they had of the Promises made to their Fathers and they were known as a People who served the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob. God was so strangely forgotten that it was necessary to make him discernable by the name of those who had been his worshippers and of whom he was also the declared Protector This great God was resolved no longer to leave to the hare memory of Mankind the Mystery of Religion and of his Covenant It was time to give stronger bars to Idolatry which overwhelmed the World and was even like to extinguish the remains of natural Light in Men. Ignorance and blindness was most prodigiously increased since Abraham's time In his time and a little after the knowledge of God extended it self into Palestine and Egypt Gen. 14.18 19. Melchisedeck King of Salem was the Priest of the most High God possessor of Heaven and Earth Abimelech King of Gerar and his Successor of the same name feared God swore in his Name and admired his Power The Threatnings of that great God were dreadful to Pharaoh King of Egypt Gen. 21.22 23.26.28 29. Gen. 12.17 18. Exod. 5.1.23.9.1 c Exod. 8.26 But in the time of Moses those Nations were perverted The true God was no longer known in Egypt as the God of all the People of the World but as The God of the Hebrews They then worshipped Beasts and even creeping things of the Earth Every thing was God excepting God himself and the World which God had made for the manifestation of his Power seemed now to be become a Temple of Idols Mankind stragled so far as to adore its very Vices and its Passions and there is nothing to be wondered at in all this There was no Power more Inevitable and Tyrannical than their own Man accustomed to believe every thing divine that was powerful as he felt himself dragged on to a vice by a force that was invincible he easily thought that that same force was somewhat out of himself and so presently made a God of it 'T was thence that unchast Love had so many Altars erected to it and some impurities which are horrible even to name Levit. 20.23 began to be mixed with their Sacrifices Cruelty got into them too at the same time Guilty Man who was troubled at the sense of his own wickedness and looked on God as his Enemy supposed he could no ways better appease and reconcile him than by extraordinary Sacrifices He must shed Man's Blood an mix it with that of Beasts a blind fear pushed on Fathers to immolate their own Children and to burn them to their Gods instead of Incense Those Sacrifices were common in the times of Moses and were but one part of those horrid Iniquities of the Amorites whose vengeance God doth commit to the Children of Israel But they were not only peculiar to those people 'T is known Herod l. 2. Caes de bel Gall. 6. Diod. l. 1.5 Plin. l. 30. Athen l. 13. Proph. de abst l. 2. Jorn de â—eb Get. c. that among all the people of the world not excepting one Men have sacrificed their own resemblances and there had been no place on the Earth where those sad and frightful Divinities were not worshipped whose implacable hatred to Mankind did not require of them such Sacrifices Amidst so great an Ignorance Man came to fall down and worship even the work of his own hands He believed himself able to shut up the Divine Spirit in his Statues and so miserably had he forgot 't was God that made him that he thought in his turn he was able to make a God Who could believe it if Experience did not shew us that so stupid and brutish an Error was not only the most universal but also the most riveted and incorrigible among men Thus it must be confessed to the confusion of Mankind that the first of Truths that which the world preaches that whose Impression is the most powerful was the most remote from men's â—ight The Tradition which preserved it in their minds tho' it
made a Minister of it and that it brought forth fruit and was come to all the World A Positive Tradition hath instructed us that St. Thomas carried it to the Indies Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 25. and the rest of them to the other distant Regions of the Earth But there is no need to have recourse to Histories for the confirmation of this Truth the effect declares it and it is sufficiently seen with what reason St. Paul applies that passage of the Psalmist to the Apostles The words of the Psalmist are these Psal 19.4 viz. Their line is gone out through all the Earth and their words to the end of the World in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun and the Apostles words are Have they not heard Rom. 10.18 yes verily their sound went into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World Under their Disciples there was scarce any nook of habitable Land how remote or unknown soever but the Gospel one way or other was brought thither A hundred years after the death of Christ St. Justin then reckoned among the Faithful a great part of the wild and savage Nations Jâ—â—â— Apol. 2. Adv. Tryph. even to those vagabond People that wandered up and down and had no fixed places of abode to dwell in And it was no vain amplification of the matter but a manifest and notorious fact that he openly declared in the presence of Emperours and in the face of all the World St. Ireneus comes a little after him Iren. 1 2 3. and we see then the Number of the Churches which he gave was considerably increased Their agreement was admirable what was believed among the Gauls in Spain and Germany was likewise believed in Egypt and in the East and as there was but one and the same Sun in all the World so was there seen in all the Church from one end of the World unto the other but one and the same Light of Truth If we advance but a very little further we shall stand amazed at the progress it made In the midst of the third Age Tertull. adv Jud. 7. Ap. 37. Orig. tr 28. in Matt. hom 4. in Ezâ—ch Tertullian and Origen make us see in the Church whole Countries and People which but a little beforâ— were not to be admitted into it Those whom Origen excepted against who were most remote from the known World were a while after approv'd of by Arnoâ—ius Arn. l. 2. What could the World have seen that it should so readily surrender it self to Jesus Christ If it had been Miracles God had visibly concerned himself in that work and if it could possibly be that it had seen none would not this have been a new Miracle greater and more incredible than those which would not be believed Aug. 21. de Civ 22.5 of having converted the World without a Miracle of having instructed so many ignorant Persons in such exalted Mysteries and inspired so many learned Ones with such an humble Submission as also of having convinced the Incredulous of so many things incredible But the Miracle of Miracles if I may so speak is this that with the belief of the Mysteries the most eminent Vertues and the most difficult and painful Practices were exercised almost all the World over The Disciples of Jesus Christ followed him in his most rugged ways To suffer all for the Truth was a common thing with his Children and to be Imitators of their dear and blessed Saviour they ran to their Torments with more zeal and eagerness than others did to their greatest Pleasures and Delights Innumerable are the Examples of the Rich who have in a manner beggered themselves to supply the Necessities of the Poor and so likewise of the Poor who have preferred penury and want to Riches of Virgins who have here upon Earth imitated the life of Angels and of the charitable Pastors and Shepherds who became all things to all men and always were ready to give to their Flock not only their Vigils and their Labours but to lay down their very Lives for their sakes What shall I say concerning Repentance and Mortification the very Judges never executed their Sentences more severely upon Criminals than the penitent Sinners have inflicted Punishments on their own selves Nay more the most Innocâ—nt have with an incredible Severity punished in themselves that prodigious inclination which is in us all to sin The life of St. John Baptist which seemed so much to astonish the Jews was usual among the Faithful Desarts have been populated with his Imitators and there were in those days so many that sought out places of Retirement that the most perfect of them have been forced to find out Retreats of a more profound Solitude to perform the Austerities of their Piety and Devotion so much did they shun the World and so delightful was the life of Contemplation to them These were the precious Fruits the Gospel was to be productive of The Church abounded no less in Examples than in her Precepts and her Doctrine appeared holy by the infinite Number of her Saints God Almighty who knew that the most generous and eminent Vertues would arise from Sufferings founded her by Martyrdom and kept her for three hundred years in that Condition without giving her one moments quiet or repose After that he had by so long an Experience fully shewn that he stood in no need of any Humane Succour nor of the Powers upon Earth to establish his Church he then called Emperours into it and made of the Great Constantine a declared Protector of Christianity From that time Kings have run from all parts into the Church and all that was writ in the Prophecies concerning its future glory has been accomplished in the sight of all the Earth And if she hath been Invincible against the Efforts without she hath been no less so against all intestine Divisions Those Heresies so often foretold by Jesus Christ and his Apostles have come to pass and the Faith that was persecuted by the Emperours did at the same time suffer a more dangerous Persecution from the Hereticks But that Persecution was never more violent than in the time that the Heathen Persecution was seen to cease Then Hell made its utmost Efforts to destroy by it self that Church which the Assaults of its declared Enemies had strengthened and confirmed Scarce did she begin to respire by the Peace which Constantine gave her but behold Arrius that unhappy Priest raised her up greater Troubles than ever she had suffered before Constantius the Son of Constantine seduced by the Arrians whose Dogmata he authorized tormented the Catholicks on all sides became a new Persecutor of Christianity and was so much the more formidable as that under the Name of Jesus Christ he made war with Jesus Christ himself For the Complement of all her Miseries the Church thus divided falls into the hands of Julian the Apostate who laboured all he could
them in the â—ime of St. Justin Just in adv Tryph. and we also find in their Talmud the Doctrine of one of their ancientest Masters who said that Christ was come according as he was declared in the Prophets R. Juda filius Levi. Gem. San. 11. but he kept himself secret somewhere at Rome among the poor Mendicants But such an Opinion as this so wild and extravagant could not sink into their minds therefore the Jews being at last forced to confess that the Messiah was not come in the time they had reason to expect him according to their ancient Prophecies fell into another extream as bad as the former But a little more and they had renounced their Messiah who failed them in time and several of them followed a famous Rabbi R. Hillel Ibid. Is Abran de C. fidei whose words are likewise found preserved in the Talmud He seeing how far the time of his coming was gone and past concluded That the Israelites were to look for their Messiah no longer because he had been given to them in the Person of Ezekiah Indeed this Opinion too was so far from obtaining amongst them that they did quite detest it But as they could not tell what further to make of the times pointed out to them by the Prophecies and knew not which way in the world to extricate themselves from this Labyrinth they then made an Article of Faith of this which we read in the Talmud Gem. San. c. 11. Moses Maimon in Epit. Talm. Is Abran de cap. fidei All the times which were designated for the coming of the Messiah were past and with an universal consent they cried out Cursed be those who reckon the times of the Messiah Just as we see in a Tempest that has driven the Vessel far off from the way it was steering the Pilot is mad and desperate when forced to forsake his Compass and submit himself to the pleasure of the outragious winds and waves that carry him where they list From that time all their indeavours have been to elude the Prophecies in which the time of Christ was set out to them they mattered not how they o'rethrew all the Traditions of their Forefathers provided they could but deprive the Christians of those admirable Prophecies and they went at last so far as to say that that of Jacob did not respect Christ But their ancient Books betray them That Prophecy is understood of the Messiah in the Talmud Gem. Tr. Saned c. 11. Paraph. Onkelos Johanan Jero ol v. Polyg Ang. and the manner as we explain it is found in their Paraphrases that is to say in those Commentaries that are the most Authentick and the most valued among them We find in them in express words that the House and Kingdom of Judah to which all the Posterity of Jacob and all the People of Israel were one day to be reduced would continually bring forth Judges and Magistrates until the coming of the Messiah under whom a Kingdom should be formed made up of all People This was the Testimony that their most famous and most received Doctors gave also to the Jews the first times of Christianity The ancient Tradition which was so firmly established could not be abolished all at once and though the Jews had not applyed the Prophecy of Jacob unto Jesus Christ yet they durst not deny that it did belong to the Messiah They arrived not to that height and excess till a long while after and when they have been pressed by the Christians at any time they hive still found their own Tradition to be against them As for Daniel's Prophecy wherein the coming of Christ was confined within the term of 490 years counting from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus As that term came down to the end of the fourth Millenary of the World so was it a most ancient Opinion among the Jews that the Messiah should appear toward the end of that fourth Millenary and about two thousand years after Abraham One Elias whose name was great among the Jews although it be not the Prophet had so declared before the Birth of Jesus Christ and the Tradition of it is preserved in the Book of the Talmud Gen. Tr. San. c. 11. You have seen this term accomplished in the coming of our Lord for he did indeed appear about two thousand years after Abraham and towards the four thousand of the World However the Jews did not know him and being frustrated of their expectation they said that their Sins had kept off the Messiah who was to come But yet our Dates are ascertained by their own confession and it is a very great blindness to make a term which God hath so particularly set forh iâ— Daniâ—l to depend on Men. And this is likewise 〈◊〉 great Perplexity to them to consider that that Prophet should make the time of Christ to go before that of the Ruine of Jerusalem so that that latter Period being accomplished that which preceded it must needs be so to Antiq. 1â— c. ult de Bell. Jud. 7. 4. Josephus is here most mightily deceived He justly reckoned the Weeks which were to be followed with the Desolation of the Jewish People and seeing them accomplished in the time when Titus laid Siege before Jerusalem he questioned not but the very moment of the Destruction of that City was then come But he never considered that that Desolation was to be preceded by the Coming of Christ and of his Death so that he understood but half the Prophecy The Jews that came after him would fain have supplied this Defect They have forged to us an Agrippa descended from Herod whom the Romans they said did put to death a little before the Destruction of Jerusalem And they would needs have that Agrippa Christ by his Title of King to be the Christ which is spoken of in Daniel a new Proof of their Blindness indeed For besides that that Agrippa could neither be the Just nor the Saint of Saints nor the end of the Prophecies so as the Christ whom Daniel describes in that place was to be besides that the Murther of that Agrippa whereof the Jews were innocent could not be the cause of their Desolation as the Death of Daniel's Death was to be which here the Jews say was a Fable Agrippa descended from Herod was ever a Party of the Romans ever civilly treated by their Emperors Joseph l. 7. de bell Jud Jus Tiber. Biblioth Phot. cod 33. and reigned in a Canton of Judea long after the taking of Jerusalem as Josephus and oter Contemporaries do testifie Thus every thing which they Jews invented to elude die Prophecies served only to confound them They themselves did not believe those Fictions they were so gross and their best Defence was in that Law they enacted not to reckon any longer the days of the Messiah By that means they willfully shut their Eys against the Truth and renounced those Prophecies in which the
God by the works of his Wisdom that is to say by the Creatures which he had so wisely ordained he took another way it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 that is to say by the Mystery of the Cross which the Wisdom of this World cannot understand A new and admirable design of the divine Providence God had brought man into the World where on what side soever he turn'd his Eyes the Wisdom of the Creator was illustriously eminent in the greatness richness and disposition of so excellent work Yet Blind and Ignorant he mistook him the Creatures which presented themselves to raise up our Minds higher fixed them here below blind and brutish Man fell down to them and not content to adore only the Works of God's Hand they fell adoring the work of their own Even more extravagantly ridiculous fables than those which old Women please Children with constituted their Religion Reason they had forgot and God was resolved to make them forget it in another manner One work the Wisdom of which they understood wrought no impression in them and another work was presented to them where their reason was lost and every thing appeared foolishness to them that was the Cross of Jesus Christ It is not by reasoning that this Mystery is understood it is in casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God 2 Cor 10.4 5. and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ In fine how are we to understand this Mystery where the Lord of Life and Glory is loaded with reproaches where the Wisdom of God is accounted foolishness where he who being in himself assured of his natural Greatness thought he attributed nothing to himself when he said he was equal with God and yet took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men Phil. 11.7 8. and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross all our thoughts are here confounded and as St. Paul said there is nothing which appears more extravagant and unreasonable to those that are not enlightned from above Such was the Remedy which God prepared for Idolatry He knew the Spirit of Man and knew that it was not by reason that an errour must be destroyed which had not its Establishment from Reason There are some Errours we fall into by reason for oft-times Man does embroil and entangle himself by disputation and argument But Idolatry came in by an extreme quite different and opposite by stifling all reason and by giving the Dominion to Sense which loves to cover every thing over with such qualities as touch that with the most agreeable delight and pleasure 'T was by that the Divinity became visible and gross Men attributed their own figures to it and that which was yet more shameful and abominable their very Vices and Passions Reason bore no part in this so brutish an Error 'T was the overthrow of all good Sense a meer delirium a Phrensy Reason or argue with one that is Phrenitick and dispute against a Man whom the violence of a Feaver has made Light-headed you only incense him and make the Distemper more incureable We ought to go to the cause to correct the Temper and calm the Humours that cause by their extravagance such strange transports And so it must not be reason that cures the delirium of Idolatry What have the Philosophers got with all their pompous Discourses with the sublimity of their Stile and with their Arguments so artfully managed Plato with his Eloquence which was thought to have somewhat divine in it what one single Altar has it thrown down where those monstrous divinities were adored On the contrary both he and his Disciples and all the Sages of the Age Sacrificed to a lye because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their Imaginations Rom. 1.21.22.25 and their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became Fools For contrary to their own light of Understanding they worshipped and served the Creature Was it not therefore with great reason that St. Paul brake out with that passage where is the Wise where is the Scribe 1 Cor. 1.20 where is the disputer of this World hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World Have they ever been able by themselves to destroy the Fables of Idolatry did it so much as ever come into their thoughts that they ought openly to set themselves against so many Blasphemies and suffer I do not say the heaviest Punishments but the least affront or injury from the Truth So far were they from this that they have held the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 and have laid down for a maxime that in matters of Religion one ought to follow the People the People whom they despised and scorn'd so much was their rule in the most important matter of all and where their illuminations seemed to be most necessary What service then O Philosophy hast thou done hath not God made foolish the Wisdom of this World as St. Paul tell us 1 Cor. 1.19 20. and hath not he destroyed the Wisdom of the Wise and brought to nothing the Vnderstanding of the Prudent Thus hath God shewn by experience that the destruction of Idolatry could not be alone the work of Humane Reason He was so far from committing the Cure of such a Malady to that that God hath perfectly confounded it by the Mystery of the Cross and he hath at once brought the Remedy even to the Source and Root of the Distemper Idolatry if we understand it aright derived its Birth from that profound Love and Inclination we had to our selves 'T was that made us to invent Gods after our own Image Gods who effectually were but Men subject to the like Passions Weaknesses and Vices with our selves so that under the name of false Divinities 't was in effect their own Imaginations Pleasures and Phancies which the Gentiles worshipped Jesus Christ makes us to enter by other ways His Poverty his Ignominies and his Cross make him appear an Object horrible to our Senses We must come out of our selves renounce all and crucifie all to follow him Man rooted out of himself and from every thing which his Corruption made him in love with became capable to adore God and his Eternal Truth whose Rules he is willing for the future to obey Thus all the Idols were destroyed and vanished both those which were worshipped upon the Altars and they which were adored in each man's private Breast These had erected others Venus was worshipped because they attributed to her a Dominion over Love and they were charmed with her Power Bacchus the most wanton of all the Gods had his Altars because men gave up themselves to his Caresses and sacrificed I
to him all the Royal Prerogative 1 Macc. 14.41 is remarkable 'T is thus expressed That the Jews and the Priests were well pleased that Simon should be their Governor and High-Priest for ever until there should arise a faithful Prophet The People used from the beginning to a Theocracy or divine Government and knowing that since the time of David's being set upon the Throne by the order and appointment of God the Soveragain Power belonged to his House to whom it was to be at last surrend'red at the time of the Messiah puts expresly this Restriction to the Power which he had given to his High-Priests and continued to live under them in the hopes and expectation of that Christ which had been so often promised Thus did that Kingdom which was absolutely free make use of its Prerogative and provided for its Government The Posterity of Jacob by the Tribe of Judah and by the rest who were ranged under its Standards preserved themselves like a Body of a State and independently and quietly enjoyed the Land which had been assigned to them By virtue of the Peoples Decree which we now have been speaking of John Hyrcan the Son of Simon succeeded to his Father Under him the Jews grew very great by their considerable Conquests They subdued Samaria as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold they conquered the Idumeans the Philistins Ezek. 16.55 56 58 61. Jer. 31.5 1 Macc. 10.30 Joseph an t 13.8 17 18. Zach. 9.1 2 c. the Ammonites who were their perpetual Enemies and those People embraced their Religion as Zachariah had observed At length in spight of all the Hatred and Jealousy of the People who were round about them under the Authority of their High-Priests who afterwards became their Kings they founded the new Kingdom of the Asmoneans or the Mascabees more large and extensive than ever excepting only thâ— times of David and Solomon Thus you see in what manner the People of God subsisted always amidst all this variety of Changes and that People who were sometimes chastised and again sometimes comforted under their Afflictions and Grievances by the different Treatments they received according as they deserved bears a sufficient publick Testimony to that Providence which governs the World But in what Condition soever they were they lived still in the expectation of the Messiah which was in the fullness of time to come wherein they looked for new Graces and much greater than any of those they had yet received and there are none but see that this Faith of the Messiah and of his Miracles which continues still to this day among the Jews is descended to them from their Patriarchs and their Prophets from the beginning of their Nation Joseph 1. cont Apion For in that long succession of Years where they themselves did confess that by a Council of Providence there was not any other Prophet risen up among them and that God made them no new Predictions nor new Promises this Faith of the Messiah which was to come was more sprightly active and vigorous than ever It was found so firmly established when the second Temple was built that there was no need of a Prophet to confirm the People in it They were supported by the Faith of the antient Prophecies which they had seen so exactly fullfilled before their Eyes in so many chief Points The â—est from that time never was in the least question'd by them and it was not at all difficult for them to believe that God who was so faithful in every thing should not also accomplish in its due time that which concern'd the Messiah that is to say the very main of all his Promises and the Ground and Foundation of all the rest In effect all their History all that daily happened to them was but as it were one perpetual opening Scene of those Oracles which the Holy Ghost had left with them Being so settled again in their Land after the Captivity they enjoyed for three hundred years a most profound Peace if their Temple was reverenced and their Religion honoured over all the East if at last their Peace was ruffled and shaken by their Dissentions if that proud King of Syria made unheard of attempts to destroy them if he sometime prevailed if he were a little after punished if the Jewish Religion and all the People of God were restored with a more marvellous glory than ever before and the Kingdom of Judah grew greater toward the end of the time by new Conquests you have seen all this was no more than what was found written in their Prophets Yes every thing was particularly taken notice of there even to the time that the Persecutions were to last even to the places where the Battels were to be fought and even to the Lands which were to be conquered I have in the gross related something to you of those Prophecies the Particulars would be matter of a longer Discourse I will here only give you the first Tincture of those important Truths which is so much the more acknowledged as we shall enter forward into the Particulars I shall only observe here that the Prophecies of the People of God have had during all those times Porph. de Abst lib. 4. Id. Porphyr Jul. apud Cyr. l. 5. 6. in Jul. so plain and manifest an accomplishment that since when the Heathen themselves when a Porphyrius when a Julian the Apostate otherwise Enemies of the Sacred Scriptures would at any time give Example of Prophetick Predictions they have been forced to seek them among the Jews And I may also tell you for a truth that if during five hundred years the People of God were without a Prophet all the estate of those times was prophetical The work of God went on and the ways were preparing insensibly for the full accomplishment of those ancient Oracles The Return from the Captivity of Babylon was only a shadow of the Liberty both more great and more necessary which the Messiah was to bring to men that were Captives unto sin The People dispersed in several places in Vpper Asia in Lesser Asia in Egypt and even in Greece began to make the Name and the Glory of the God of Israel shine forth more conspicuously among the Gentiles The Scriptures which were one day to be the Light of the World were put into the most known Language of the World their Antiquity is confessed Whilst the Temple was had in reverence and the Scriptures given to the Gentiles God shews some representation to their future Conversion and lays a great way off the foundations of it What also happened among the Grecians was a kind of preparation to the knowledge and understanding of the Truth Their Philosophers confessed that the World was governed by a God far different from those whom the common sort of People worshipped and whom they also served with the common People The Greek Histories believe that this excellent Philosophy came from the East and from those
places where the Jews had been dispersed but from whence soever it came a Truth so important spread among the Gentiles however it was opposed and how ill soever it was followed even by those who taught it began again to awaken Mankind and by way of anticipation furnished them with certain Proofs who were one day to deliver them from their Ignorance As always the Conversion of the Gentiles was a work reserved for the Messiah and the proper Character of his coming Error and Impiety prevailed every where The most illuminated and wisest Nations the Chaldeans the Egyptians the Phoenicians the Greeks the Romans were the most ignorant and the most blind concerning Religion so true is it that we are to be advanced to it by a particular Grace and by a Wisdom more than Humane Who should presume to relate the Ceremonies of the Immortal Gods and their impure Mysteries their Loves their Cruelties their Jealousies and all their other Excesses were the Subject of their Feasts their Sacrifices and the Hymns which were sang to them and of the Pictures which were consecrated in their Temples So that wickedness was worshipped and confessed as necessary to the Service of the Gods The gravest of their Philosophers forbad drinking to Excess Plato de Leg. 6. unless it were in the Feasts of Bacchus and to the honour of the Gods Another Aristot 7. Politic after he had severely condemned all immodest Pictures yet excepted those of the Gods who would be honoured by those Infamies We can't read but with astonishment what honours they were obliged to pay to Venus and the prostitutions they framed for worshipping her Greece as learned and as wise as she was had yet received those abominable Rites and Mysteries Barach 6.10 42 43. Herod lib. 1. Strabo lib. 1â— Athen. lib. 13. In the most important Emergencies both private Persons and the Republick too vowed Courtisans to Venus and Greece never blusht to attribute her safety to the Intercessions which they made to their fair Goddess After the defeat of Xerxes and his formidable Armies there was a Table set up in the Temple where were inserted their Vows and their Processions with this Inscription of Simonides the famous Poet These have prayed to the Goddess Venus who for their sakes hath saved Greece If Love be to be adored it ought at least to be that which is honest but here it was not so Solon who could believe and indeed who could expect from so great a name so great a reproach Solon I say set up at Athens the Temple of Venus the Prostitute Ibid. or of illicite Love All Greece was full of Temples Consecrated to that Deity and Conjugal Love had not one erected in all the Country But yet they abominated Adultery both in Men and Women Conjugal Society was held Sacred among them But when they applyed themselves to Religion they seemed as if they were possessed with a strange Spirit and their Natural Light forsook ' em The Roman Gravity treated Religion with no more seriousness since it consecrated to the honour of the Gods the Impurities of the Theatre and the bloody Spectacles of the Gladiators that is to say whatsoever could be imagined that was most corrupt and barbarous But I know not if the ridiculous Follies which were mingled in their Religion were not also more pernicious to them for it made them very contemptible Can any respect which is due to Divine things be kept up amidst the Impertinencies of as we say old Wives Tales the Representation or Remembrance whereof makes up so great a part of the Divine Worship All the Publick Service was nothing else but a continual Prophanation or rather a Derision of the Name of God and there must needs be some Power that is an Enemy to that Sacred Name which having undertook to revile it should push on men to make use of it in such contemptible things and even to make riot of it upon such unworthy Subjects 'T is true the Philosophers at last were brought to confess that there was another God than those which the common People worshipped but then they durst not publickly avow it On the contrary Xenoph. mem l. 1. Pl. de leg 5. Socrates laid it down for a Maxim That every one ought to follow the Religion of his Country Plato his Disciple who saw Greece and all the Countreys of the World filled with a mad and scandalous Worship forbore not to settle as a Foundation of his Commonwealth That one ought never to change any thing in Religion which one finds established and a man must be lost to all common Sense that ever thinks to do it Such grave Philosophers who have otherwise said such excellent things about the Divine Nature yet durst never presume to contradict the Publick Error and have despaired of ever being able to conquer it Apol. Socr. apud Plâ—ton Xenophon Ep. 2. ad Dionys When Socrates was accused for denying the Gods whom the People adored he defended himself from it as from a Crime and Plato in speaking of the God that had formed the World says That it is hard to find him and that it is forbid to declare him to the People He protests that he never speaks of him but in the dark for fear of exposing so great a Truth to Mockery In what an Abyss of blindness was Mankind who was not able to comprehend the least Idea of the true God Athens the most learned and knowing of all the Cities in Greece Diog. Laert. l. 2. Soc. 3. Plat. Id. lib. 2. Stilp took those for Atheists who spake of things Intellectual and that is one of the reasons for which Socrates was condemned If any of the Philosophers should offer to teach That the Statues were not Gods as the common People apprehended them they saw themselves forced to retract it and besides after that they were banished for their Impiety by the Sentence of the Areopagus All the Earth was bewitched with the same Errour for the Truth durst not then appear That great God the Creator of the World had neither a Temple nor any worship paid him but in Jerusalem When the Gentiles sent thither their Offerings they gave no other honour to the God of Israel but to joyn him with the other Gods Only Judea knew his holy and severe Jealousie and knew consequently that to divide Religion between him and the other Gods was to destroy it And yet towards the latter end the Jews themselves who confessed him and who were the Guardians of Religion began so much do men labour always to weaken Truth not only to forget the God of their Fathers but to mingle in their Religion strange Superstitions which were unworthy of him Joseph Antiq. 13.9 Under the Reign of the Asmoneans and from the time of Jonathan the Sect of the Pharisees began among the Jews Ibid. 18. At the first they gained a mighty Credit by the Purity of their Doctrines considering