built the two Books De miraculis Martyrum writ by Gregory Turonensis who shuts up his first Book thus It behoves us therefore to desire the Patronage of Martyrs c. and his second thus We therefore well considering those Miracles may learn that it is not possible to be saved but by the help of Martyrs and other Friends of God But Simeon Metaphrastes deserves the Whet-stone from all that ever professed this holy Art of Lying for the advantage of Truth who notwithstanding that in his Preface to the strange Romance of Marina he blames others for forging Stories of the Saints and polluting their true Memorials with most evident Doctrines of Devils and Demoniacal Narratives yet himself splits upon the same Rock and so Shipwracks his Credit with all Intelligent Persons as Baronius himself is ashamed of him in notis ad martyrologium Roman Jul. 13. I need not multiply Instances the World swarms with lying Legends Their avowed Doctrine of Mental Reservation of Equivocation to promote the Cause of Religion casts up as wide a Gulf betwixt Gospel-Tradition and theirs as is betwixt Heaven and Hell the God of Truth and the Father of Lyes Quomodo Deus Pater genuit filium veritatem sic Diabolus genuit quasi filium Mendacium August 42. tract in Johan 8. 44. these introduc'd by Persons that account it meritorious of Heaven to forge the grossest Fables so it be in service of the Church which the Apostle calls speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4. 2. vide Meed in locum Those publish'd by Men who less fear'd dying than lying who chose rather to suffer the cruellest Death to lay themselves obnoxious to the Calumnies of captious Adversaries through their Parasie their Freedom of Speech then to tell the most innocent and officious Lye and therefore the unlikeliest Men in the World to abuse the World with Figments and devised Stories and Persons from whose Hand a Man might with more safety and security have taken a Cup suspected to have Poyson in it than a Cup of Wine from the Hand of the most Divine Philosoper as Apollodorus said of Socrates in comparison of Plato Athenaeus dyprosoph l. 11. c. 22. Christian Religions APPEAL To the BAR of Common Reason c. The Second Book The Apostles were not themselves deluded no Crack'd-brain Enthusiasticks but Persons of most composed Minds CHAP. I. The Gospel's Correspondency with Vulgar Sentiments § 1. The Testimony of the Humane Soul untaught to the Truth of the Christian Creed in the Articles touching the Unity of the Godhead his Goodness Justice Mercy The Existence of wicked Spirits § 2. The Resurrection and Future Judgment Death formidable for its Consequences to evil Men No Fence against this Fear proved by Examples § 3. In hope of future Good the Soul secretly applauds her self after virtuous Acts. This makes the Flesh suffer patiently § 1. WHat Exception can be made against so impartial a Relation of Men possessed with such a mortal Detestation of Forgery made to an Age so well accommodated against Delusion by all internal and external Fortifications imaginable cannot in my shallow Reason be conjectured except it be that of Celsus and his Modern Epicurean Disciples That the Apostles themselves were deluded or which is worse infatuated For who but raving and dementate Persons would have ventured to put off Adulterate Wares to so knowing an Age But then how could they have framed the Doctrine and History of Christ in such a Decorum in so exact a Symmetry of Parts not only among themselves but to the great World as Lactantius argues Abfuit ergò ab iis fingendi voluntas astutia quià rudes fuerunt quis possit indoctus apta inter se cobaerentia fingere cùm Philosophorum doctissimi ipsi sibi repugnantia dixerint haec enim est mendaciorum natura ut coherere non possint illorum autèm traditio quià vera est quadrat undique ac sibi tota consentit ideò persuadet quià constanti ratione suffulta est Lactant de justicia lib. 5. cap. 3. The Apostles had neither Will to feign nor any crafty Design upon the World because they were plain Men and what illiterate Man can have the Art to make Fictions square to one another and hang together seeing the most learned of the Philosophers have spoke things jarring amongst themselves for this is the Nature of Untruths that they cannot be of a Piece But the Tradition of the Apostles because it is true one part falls out even with another and it agrees perfectly with it self and therefore gains upon Mens Minds because it is underpropp'd with that stedfast reason and on every side Squares with Principles of Reason Origen useth this Argument Cont. Cels. l. 3. willing him to consider if it were not the Agreeableness of the Principles of Faith with common Notions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that prevailed most upon all candid and ingenuous Auditors of them For how can that be the Figment of deluded Fancies the issue of shatter'd Brains that 's so well shap'd as it bears a perfect Proportion to and Correspondency with whatsoever hath had the common Approbation of Mankind Being calculated 1. To the Meridian of common Sentiments to the Universal Religion of the whole World to the Testimony of every natural Soul to whose Evidence Christian Religion appeals by her Advocate Tertullian in his admirable Treatise De Testimonio Animae I call in saith he a new kind of Witness yet more known than any Writing more tost than all Learning more common than any Book that 's put forth greater than whole Man that is the All that is of Man Come into the Court Oh Soul whether thou beest Divine and Eternal as most Philosophers think and by so much the rather not capable of telling a Lye Or not Divine but Mortal as Epicurus thinks and so much the rather thou oughtest not to lye for Fear of distracting thy self at present with the Guilt of so Inhumane a Vice whether thou art received from Heaven or conceived of Earth whether thou art made up of Numbers or Atoms whether thou commences a being with the Body or art infused after the Body from whencesoever and howsoever thou makest Man a Rational Creature most capable of Sense and Science But I do not retain thee of Council for the Christian such as thou art when after thou hast been formed in the Schools and exercised in Libraries thou belchest forth that Wisdom thou hast obtained in Aristotle's Walks or the Attick Academies No I appeal to thee as thou art raw unpolish'd and void of acquired Knowledge such a one as they have that have only a bare Soul such altogether as thou comest from the Quarry from the High Way from the Looms I have need of thy Unskilfulness for when thou growest never so little crafty all men suspect thee I would have thee bring nothing with thee into this Court but what thou bringest with thy self into Man but
as asserted by the Church in those writings which opposed Christian Religion § 1. Maker of Heaven and Earth § 2. His only Son § 3. Conceived by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary § 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate c. § 5. Rose again the third day § 6. Ascended into Heaven thence c. § 7. The Holy Ghost § 8. Holy Catholick Church c. CHAP. V. The Truth of the Gospel-History attested by Secular Writers § 1. Old Antagonists did not persist in the denial of any point of Gospel-History save that of Christs Resurrection and the manner of their denying it proves the Truth of it § 2. Josephus his Story of John Baptist accords with Gospel-History § 3. His Text in testimony of Jesus vindicated from the Exceptions of Vossius c. § 4. Josephus his date of Christs and the Baptists Story falls in with Gospel-Chronology § 5. The Stories of Herod Herodias Aretus Artabanus Philip Lysanias in Josephus Tacitus Suetonius timed to Sacred Chronology § 6. The Twin-Priesthood of Annas and Caiphas at Christs Baptism and Passion cleared § 7. The Date of Philip the Tetrarch his Death CHAP. VI. The Date of Christs Birth as it is asserted by the Church maintain'd by Scripture § 1. Christ homaged by the Magi early after his Birth § 2. Christ born and Baptized the same day of the year § 3. God would have the Church observe the day of Christs Birth The Priestly Courses the Character of it which from the first Institution by Solomon to the last and fatal year of the Second Temples standing were never interrupted § 4. The Calculation of these courses leads us to the Conception and Birth of the Baptist and our Saviour § 5. Christs Baptism and John's Ministry in the same year of Tiberius Reign point out the same thing Objections answered § 6. The taxing of all the world ill-confounded with that of Syria CHAP. VII Josephus his Suffrage to the Evangelists in the Substance of their History of Christ. § 1. He appropriates the Compellation Christ to our Jesus speaks of the Churches growth in a Gospel-stile § 2. Describes Christs Disciples by Evangelical Characters gives the Evangelists Reasons why others did not embrace the Gospel § 3. He peremptorily asserts Christs Miracles how he came to a certain information thereof Appion and Justus would have found it out if he had proceeded here upon presumptions and uncertainties § 4. He describes Christs Miracles after the Evangelical Model § 5. And affirms them to have been such as the Prophets had foretold The Touch-stone of Canonical History § 6. He asserts Christs Resurrection with all its Circumstances CHAP. VIII Josephus confirms St. Lukes History of Herod Agrippa § 1. He paints him in Evangelical Colours as the Jews favourite as a Prodigal as much in the Tyrians Debt and therefore displeased with them c. § 2. He Dates his Death according to St. Luke St. James Martyred in the third a Famine at Rome in the second and third In Judaea in the fourth of Claudius § 3. He describes his Death after St. Lukes Style Two Acclamations immediately after the second he was struck by a Messenger of Death an Owle § 4. Angels assume what form the divine mandat prescribes Evil Angels God's Messengers § 5. Herod the Great died of the like stroke Josephus gives the natural Symptoms of Agrippa's Disease § 6. A Digression touching St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh. CHAP. IX Other Secular Witnesses to the Truth of Sacred History § 1. Phlegon of the Darkness and Earthquake at Christs Passion § 2. Thallus his mistaking that Darkness for an Eclipse § 3. The Records of Pagan Rome touching that and other Occurrences § 4. The Chronicles of Edessa though Apochryphal yet true Julian's Prohibition of the use of secular Books in Christian Schools his Testimony § 5. Moses his History of Joseph attested by Pagans § 6. His History of himself § 7. Of Noah Balaam c. avouched by Secular Writers CHAP. X. The Adversaries forced upon very great Disadvantages to their own Cause by reason that they could not for very shame resist the Evidences brought in defence of Sacred History § 1. Christ accused of working by the Prince of Devils that Accusation withdrawn in open Court and this Plea put in against him that he made himself a King and therefore was an Enemy to Caesar § 2. Pety Exceptions rebound upon the heads of their Framers § 3. The Modern Sceptick's half-reasons too young to grapple with old Prescription § 4. Christs Works Gods Seal to his Mission § 5. The present Age as able to judge of the Nature of those Works as that was wherein they were done § 6. Atheistical Exceptions against particular points of Religion an Hydra's head yet they all stand upon one neck and may be cut off at one blow by proving the Divine Original of Religion BOOK IV. THE ARGUMENT 4. The Divine Original of Sacred Writ is as demonstrable as the being of a God from the Infinity of Wisdom express'd in its Prophecies and of Power in its miracles THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Being of a Deity Demonstrated § 1. The Existence of a Deity demonstrable from the frame of the world the composition of humane bodies § 2. The Garden of the Earth did not fall by chance into so curious and well order'd knots The ingenuity of Birds sings the Wisdom of their Maker c. § 4. The Heavens declare the glory of God CHAP. II. The Author of Christian Religion hath stamp'd thereon no less manifest Prints of infinite Science than the Maker of the World hath left upon that his Workmanship § 1. Heathen Prophecies the Result of Ratiocination § 2. From general Hints which for mens torments God might permit the Devil to communicate § 3. The Ambiguity of Oracles on purpose to hide the Ignorance of them that gave them § 4. It was by chance they spake truth § 5. Scripture-Oracles distinct of pure Contingencies their Sence plain punctually fulfill'd CHAP. III. Instances of Prophecies fulfill'd whose Effects are permanent and obvious to the Atheists Eyes if he will but open them § 1. Predictions that Israel would reject their own Messia made by Jews Confession many hundreds of years before Christ. § 2. The Prophets foretell Gods Rejection of the Jews for their Rejection of his Son § 3. Texts proving a final Rejection Christs Blood calls down this vengeance § 4. These Menacies executed to the full Temple City and all vanish'd Spirit of Prophecy past from the Synagogue to the Church CHAP. IV. Gematrian Plaisters too narrow for the Sore § 1. The Ark. § 2. Holy Fire § 3. Urim and Thummim § 4. Spirit of Prophecy in the Second Temple § 5. Exorcisme and Bethesda's all-healing vertue the second Temples Dowry CHAP. V. The Jews rejected Messias to be called the God of the whole Earth and all other Gods eternally to be rejected § 1. The God of Israel every where worship'd where Christian Religion
Courtship but Conjurations Magical Spells When the whole World of Antiquaries know that St. Cyprian before his Conversion was not a Conjurer at Antioch where the Legend brings them upon the Stage with his Wench Justina but a Professor of Oratory at Carthage Pontius Diaconus de Passion Cypriani and converted thereby Caecilius far enough from Antioch Such Tares were so early sowen in the Church as there is nothing in the Writings of the Fathers we had need be more cautious of taking up upon their Word than Stories of this Nature than tristia quaepiam superstitiosa mendacia certain over-serious and too Religious Lyes which oftimes are told with that Confidence and Authority saith a Zealous and Learned Romanist Sir Thomas Moor Epist. Thomae Ruthalo praefix Luciani Cynico as some old Crafty Knave perswaded the blessed Father St. Austin that most grave Man and bitter Enemy to lying to report for a Truth that Fable of the two Curinas the one returning to Life the other departing as a thing falling out in his time which Lucian in his Philopseudes the Names only changed so long before St. Austin was born derides It was Demilus the Smith and Cleodemus in Lucian Curina the Common-council-man and Curina the Smith in St. August tom 4. de cura pro mortuis cap. 12. and this Curina the Common-council-man who was restored to life upon the Instant of Curina the Smith's Death was afterwards baptized by St. Austin to whom a while after he told this strange Story attestantibus honestis civibus suis some honest Citizens avouching the Truth of it I make no great doubt but many a Godly Lye of the like Tendency has been told by the Independent Catechills when they gave an Account of the manner of their Conversion But to return to Moor's Discourse It is saith he less to be wondered at if those Men affect the Minds of the gross Vulgar with their Figments who think they have done God an eminent piece of Service and obliged Christ eternally to themselves if they have but devised such a Tale of some Saint or such a Tragedy concerning Hell as will make an old doting woman cry or tremble at the Report of it Hence they have not suffer'd the Life scarce of one Martyr or Virgin to pass without the Intermixture of such like Lyes Pious Lyes As if forsooth there were otherwise danger that Truth could not support it self and stand on her own Legs except she were underprop'd with Lyes neither have they been affraid to contaminate that Religion with Figments which Truth it self instituted and intended should consist of naked Truth nor did they see that such Fables are so far from promoting it as nothing can more prejudice Religion for as St. Austin testifies as soon as Men smell-out the intermingled Lye they suspect the Truth it self whereupon I often grow jealous that the greatest part of such Tales was devised by some Paultry Fellows and Hereticks who had a Design to make Sport with the incautions Credulity of simple rather than prudent Men and to take away Credit from true Christian Histories by interweaving them with feigned Fables wherefore saith this ingenious Authour undoubted Credit must be given to those Histories which the Divinely-inspired Scripture commends unto us but for others let us having with Judgment applied them to the Doctrine of Christ as unto Critolaus his Rule receive or reject them if we would be free from vain Credulity and superstitious Fear How soon would there be an end put to most of the Controversies betwixt us and the Modern Church of Rome were all of that Communion of the truly Catholick Judgment of this Gentleman in this Particular For I cannot call to mind any considerable Point 〈◊〉 betwixt us where their Opinion hath no better or other ground 〈◊〉 Forgeries The declared Intent of the Latin Church Legend is to perswade People to a devout Worshipping and Invocation of those Saints of whom those Tales are forged the Collector of them concluding almost every Story with this Exhortation Let us pray unto him that by his Merits and Intercession we may obtain Salvation What a Monstrous Story without either Head or Foot does Marcellinus Comes tell of the finding of the Baptists Head Cronic Indict 6. Vincomalo Opilione Coss. The Ghost of the Baptist appeared to two Pilgrim Monks commanding them to take up his Head where it was buried in Herod ' s Palace they take it up and carry it away with them in their Scrip till they giving the Scrip to be carried to a Potter of Emissa who had cast himself into their Company He advised by St. John in a Dream steals away from them with the sacred Relick back again to Emissa where at his death he commits it seal'd up in a Box to the Custody of his Sister she not knowing what it was left it to her Successor at last it comes into the Clutches of Eustochius an Arrian Presbiter who by means thereof works strange Cures pretending he did them by his own Holiness but his Knavery being found out he is banished the City and leaves the Baptists Head behind him In the place where it was reposited some Monks happen'd to build their Cells to whose Abbot Marcellus in process of time St. John discovers where his Head was buried and he finds it the twenty fourth Day of February in the sixth Indiction Vin. Op. Coss. This Tale is well made in that Treatise De revelatione Capitis Baptistae wrong father'd upon Cyprian as Erasmus hath well concluded from that Story-writer's mentioning Pipin King of Aquitane long before whose Reign St. Cyprians head lay under a clod This Marcellus saith this Author was commanded by the Baptist to carry his Head to Jurannus Bishop of Alexandria that it might be there interr'd where the rest of his Body rested But there it rests not long for within a while his Ghost appears to one Foelix a Monk and commands him to go to Alexandria and take his Head thence and conveigh it to Aquitane and there deposite it as I shall direct thee Had I been in this Monks place I should have concluded this had been the Ghost of Herod again separating the Baptists Head from his Body The Monk with seven Companions gets away with the Baptists Head to Sea where in token that they should escape a Storm they were in the Baptist's Ghost in the same Form that the Holy-Ghost appeared in when Christ came up out of the Water appears in the shape of a Dove and sits upon the Poop till they safely arrived in Aquitane where by the Grace of this Relick King Pipin totally routs the Vandales then invading his Countrey with the loss only of twenty of his own Men who by applying the Baptists Head to their Corps were all restored to Life and which is the greatest Wonder of all St. Cyprian writes all this many Scores of Years after himself was Martyred Of the same Stuff and upon the same Foundation are
observance of his Commands I put it to the Consciences of the whole Tribe of these lisping Divines to say whether Christian Jew or Pagan did not all confess that how saving soever the respective Religions which they stood for were yet they would not benefit him that was not true to them that did not cordially embrace them and accept of what they promised upon the terms which they propounded Let them ask a Jew or a Mahometan what it is that constitutes a Christian and makes him capeable of the benefits of that Religion they will readily reâ—â—â—ve as plain and true an answer from them as we can give either of them if they ask us what constitutes a Jew or Mahometan To wit A cordial Compliance with and Conformity to the Law of Christ as that which constitutes a Jew is complying with the Law of Moses a Mahometan with the Law of Mahomet in observance whereof they expect undoubtedly to be saved because they make no question but that their respective Lawgivers were sent of God who cannot lye So far do our new Illuminates fall short of Pagans Jews and Mahometans in the knowledg of the true Notion of Faith as it signifies our Act as what these fumbling Theologues grope for in the dark of their own bewildered Imaginations lay so bare fac'd to every smatterer in Religion to every Novice initiated in Judaism and Gentilism as well as Christianity that none of them ever moved question about it but were wholly taken up in disputing whether Faith as it signifies the divine Object of our Belief that is Christian Religion were able to save them who cordially embraced and lived up to it Till the Gnosticks to maintain Libertinism perverted the common use of that Notion in the aforesaid Question and wrested St. Paul's Doctrine to import Justification by a Faith short of that of Devils viz. by a bare frigid assent to the truth of the Gospel in so remiss a degree as it did not work fear for had they by Faith been moved with fear or hope they would have prepared an Ark to the saving of themselves in order to their obtaining that hope This forced St. James to demonstrate the falsity of that Thesis in the Gnostick's sence of Faith and to infer that a man is justified not by Faith only as Faith signifies our Act from those very Instances of Abraham and Rabab whence St. Paul concluded Justification by Faith only as it signifies the Object of Christian Belief without Works that is by a faithful adhering to and practice of Christian Religion without the help or observance of Moses his Law That having been the ancient and catholick way of Salvation wherein eternal Life was attainable before Judaism was in being and whereby they that were true to it in all Nations to whom the sound of Moses his Trumpet never reach'd obtain'd pardon of sin and God's acceptance of them to eternal life through that blood of the Redeemer which was promised in God's Covenant of Grace with Adam tipified in the Blood of Sacrifices long before Moses and exhibited and actually tenderd as an Oblation propitiatory for the sin of the World in the Fulness of Time predicted by the Prophets After which because the foundation and pillar of it was believing that Jesus of Nazareth was that Seed of the Woman promised to the Patriarchs and that Seed of Abraham promised to the Jews of which later and more distinct promise all the circumstances did so meet together and concenter in the blessed Jesus as they must renounce Faith in Moses and their own Prophets that did not believe that he was that person fore-appointed of the Father to break the Serpents Head Thence this Religion was called Faith and the Professors of it Believers names whereby in common use they were sufficiently discriminated from all others and therefore used by St. Luke in his History of the propagation of Christian Religion and by St. Paul in his disputations about Justification without the addition of any Epithete to signifie The whole and entire Oeconomy of that Religion or way of knitting God and man together which Christ propounded and the adherers to And expectants of Salvation in that Way Of the same importance and equipollency are the Notions of anointing and Christian the first importing that Religion which Christ was anointed to preach and the later persons imbued with that Religion as also master or teacher sent from God and disciple but not so free from ambiguity as these of faith and believers Upon the like Reason Works of the Law are used to denote Works directed to be performed by the Religion of Moses in order to mens finding acceptance with God unto eternal Life And the relations conducing thereunto his Writings having obtained universally where they were spoke of the name of the Law with the addition sometimes of the Law of Moses or the Law of 〈◊〉 Jews when the Discoursers upon that Subject were Jew and Gentile because the Gentiles hold their Religions to be Divine Laws as well as the Jew did his But when the Christian discoursed with a Christian or a Jew they stiled it the Law without such addition they being both agreed that it was Divine and the only Divine Law in writing that had been communicated to the World before the exhibition of the Messias And to abreviate that demonstration in continued discourses on that Subject where it was often to be repeated instead of the Works of the Law that is injoyned by that Law they used the simple term Works In the room whereof they sometimes used the name of that Work which obliged them to all the rest viz. Circumcision Hence these Terms Circumcision Works Works of the Law the Law the Law of Works in the sacred Writings are equivalent and imply the terms of that Covenant God made with the Jews by the Mediation of Moses as abstracted both from that he made with the Patriarchs before and by Christ after Moses This for the verbal Terms which are easie to be understood by him that observes what was the great Question agitated in those Times Isidor Clarius in Rom. 3. 20. Si cogitaremus quae versaretur eo tempore controversia non erit admodùm difficilis scopum assequi hujus Epistolae at sine hac consideratione luditur opera But whoever attends not to St. Paul's scope in that Epistle shoots at random and spends his fools bolt to no purpose As to the thing it self I hope these papers will have the fortune to fall into no mans hand of so perverted a judgement or obtuse wit as shall not at the first hearing give their vote and assent to these Proposals 1. The grand Question in debate betwixt St. Paul and the Jew was Whether the well-pleasing of God and his acceptance of us as persons intituled by his gratious Covenant to his promise of Pardon and eternal life was obtainable as the case then stood by obedience and observance of that Religion which was instituted
eyes of the Starry Heaven the various Faces of the Moon Increasing and Decreasing with all their Risings Settings and constant Motions They could not with hold their assent to this Truth That all this is the contrivance of unsearchable Wisdom Divinely our Lactantius De falsa relig l. 2. 5. in answer to that of the Philosopher If the Motions of the Stars be not fortuitous they must be voluntary and have a Principle of Life and Reason within themselves denies the sufficiency of the Disjunction saying they are neither fortuitous nor voluntary and yet keep a constant course in performing their journeys because God the Architect of the Universe hath so framed them that they run through the spaces of Heaven by a Divine and admirable Reason in order to the making of variety of Seasons succeeding one another If Archimedes could so frame the Image of the World in concave Brass as one might see therein the Sun and Moon making the like Motions as they do in the Heavens c. Could not God much more so despose the things themselves than humane Wit could make a Resemblance of them And if a Stoick should see the imitation of the Heavenly Motions would he say that motion was caused by the Wit of the Engine or of him that made it There is therefore Reason in the Stars fitted to carry them to the accomplishment of their various courses but that is the Reason of God who made and governs all things not of the Stars that are moved And c. 2. Nemo est tam rudis qui oculos suos in caelum tollens tametsi nesciat cujus Dei Providentiâ regatur hoc omne quod cernitur aliquam tamen esse non intelligat ex ipsa rerum magnitudine motu dispositione constantiâ utilitate pulchritudine temperatione nec possit fieri quin id quod mirabili ratione constat majori aliquo consilio sit instructum There is no man so rude if he lift up his eyes toward Heaven although he knows not by what Gods Providence all that which he sees is governed that does not understand by the Immensity Motion Disposition Constancy Conveniency Beauty Composure of these things that there is some providence or other and that it is not possible but that that which is continued by such admirable Reason was at first framed by the greatest Counsel CHAP. II. The Author of Christian Religion hath stampt thereon no less manifest Prints of Infinite Science than the Maker of the World hath left upon that his Workmanship § 1. Heathen Prophecies the Result of Ratiocination § 2. From general Hints which for mens torment God might permit the Devil to Communicate § 3. The Ambiguity of Oracles on purpose to hide the Ignorance of them that gave them § 4. It was by chance they spake truth § 5. Scripture-Oracles Distinct of pure Contingencies their Sence plain punctually fulfilled § 1. I Would not run my Reader down with numbers but beat him down with weight of Arguments and shall therefore singly insist upon this one viz. There cannot be a more certain Indication of Infinite and boundless Knowledge than that which the Author of our Religion hath exerted in the Prophetick Part thereof Of how many pure Contingencies which then neither were nor possible to be discerned in their second Causes nor to be foreknown at all but by him to whose inspection all things past present and to come are a like visible must that Spirit have the Foreknowledge that inspired our Prophets with so certain a Prenotion of those events which they foretold as none of their Predictions have miscarried in the least Circumstance many of which Circumstances are in themselves so inconsiderable and so little conducing to the gracing or setting forth of the Subject of their Prophecy and yet so utterly impossible to have been foreknown but by the indication of the allat-once-knowing Wisdom as they seem to have been communicated for no other end but either to convince the World of the Divine Original of those Discoveries Isa. 45. 21. Who hath declared this from ancient time have not I the Lord Isa. 46. 8. Remember this and shew your selves men I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning Or to outface all Pagan Oracles and Divinations Isa. 41. 23. Let all the Nations be gathered together who among them can declare this and shew us things to come hereafter that we may know that you are Gods If the Father of Lies and those lying Vanities of the Heathen at any time gave true Responds 1. They were usually not of things purely future but latent in their second causes latent I mean to Humane Knowledge but not to Diabolical Sagacity which smelt them at a distance sometimes in their general Causes by their skill in Judicial Astrology sometimes in their immediate and more particular Causes by their skill in the affairs of States and Interests of several Nations c. By means whereof I am so far from admiring their fore-telling the events of Battails the Fortunes of some Persons of note their communicating Intelligence from places of 100 or a 1000 miles distance in an hour in a minutes space as I wonder they could get any respect at all among the soberer and more Civilized Nations by such three penny Prognostications as an ordinary Wizzard might out-vie Hagag the Son of Joseph a Jew and Prefect of Babylon Anno Christi 714. being taken with a violent Fever inquired of an Astrologer whether he could find by the Motions of the Starrs that a King was to die that year he affirmed there would but one whose name was Cain Hagag calling to mind that his Mother had given him that Name at his Birth I must die then replyed he but thou shalt die before me and instantly commanded his head to be struck off Scalig. can Isagogic l. 2. pag. 143. Could he read his name in the Stars No sure but he came to the knowledge of it as Gypsies do of mens Relations and the temper of their Neighbours towards them Horum sunt auguria non divini impetûs sed rationis quos prudentes possimus dicere id est providentes divinos nullo modo possimus non plus quà m Milesium Thalem qui ut ostenderet etiam Philosophum si ei commodum esset pecuniam facere posse omnem Oleam antequà m flores cepisset in agro Milesio coemisse dicitur animadverterat fortasse quadam scientiâ olearum ubertatem fore Necillam divinationem voco quâ Anaximandro Physico moniti Lacedemonii sunt ut urbem et tecta relinquerent armatique in agris excubarent quòd terrae motus instaret Nec illam quâ Pherecides cùm vidisset haustam aquam à jugi puteo terrae motus dixit instare Cicer. divinat 1. pa. 197. Such mens Auguries are not the results of the Divine Impulse but Reason We may call them wise that is provident but by no means Diviners no more than the Milesian Thales who that
will have it commence at Constantine's Reign not considering that though the Revelation-prophecies have the Roman Empire for their Stage and therefore we cannot pitch upon a fitter time for the beginning of the Millenium than when the Laws of that Empire bound up Satan from cheating the World with Paganism it being the common notion of the World then when St. John gave out his Revelations that the bounds of the Empire were coincident with those of the habitable Earth Yet now the bounds of the Earth being found to be of a far larger extent we ought to stretch our conceptions touching the matters of those Prophesies that are yet infieri and current as the Reign of the Saints with Christ on the Earth is and shall be as long as the Earth is inhabited and as far as the earth is or shall be inhabited to an extent answerable to that of the things themselves And therefore are not to limit the Time of this Reign to any narrower compass of years than will be sufficient for the perfecting of the Call of that whole new-found World inhabited by the seed of Adam and within the bounds of that inheritance which was promis'd to Christ which as it cannot in reason be conceived to take up less time than will make the years since Satans binding so many more than a thousand as a child may count them to exceed that precise number so we cannot cast the call of those Nations into any other Epocha but that of St. John's thousand years for nothing is to intervene the expiring of that propheticall Millenium and the Day of general Judgment but that little space wherein Satan shall be let loose to deceive the Nations a very unmeet season for such a work and therefore I wonder that some very Learned and Judicious Persons should so soundly nap it here as to dream that Satan hath been let loose ever since the Turks took Constantinople when on the contrary God is making his Chain shorter than it was and not allowing him to Reign all over America as he did before Neither is he permitted so much as to tempt this upper Hemisphere to lick up its vomit of old Gentilism which is the only thing he is during the Millenium restrained from as Dr. Lightfoot well observes and the sad experience of all Ages demonstrates wherein he has been is and will be Persecuting the Womans Seed as far as his Instruments dare sowing his Tares among the good Seed deluding those that receive not the love of the Truth with as monstrous and damnable Errors as the Pagan Ages were given up to and tempting them to all the old Debaucheries and unnatural sins of that and the new invented ones of this Age which were not named among the Gentiles soliciting the Saints themselves and sometimes leading them captive to those sins they feel the bitterness of as long as they live Briefly he is bound up from being the God of the World as he was while he and his Angels were Worship'd as Gods but he is permitted still to play all other parts of a Devil in the World and will be till the Church exchanges the Armour of God for the Garment of Immortality so long as she stands having her Ioines girt about with Truth having on the Breast-plate of Righteousness and her feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace while she wears the Shield of Faith the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit while shee 's arm'd on the right hand and left while she stands thus in praecinctu upon her guard and is bid to stand so by the Captain of her Salvation which word of command she must be under till both Christ's and his Apostles Precepts be out of door we may be sure she has not only Flesh and Blood to wrestle with but Principalities and Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and spiritual wickednesses in the Etherial places Besides that it will be unseasonable to assign that time for a season of grace to one half of the World wherein Satan is let loose to reinforce Paganism the shortness of that space of his loosing will not give room enough for the preaching of the Gospel to such multitudes of Nations and Languages It is an old Tradition of the Jews quoted by Dr. Lightfoot upon Rev. 20. That in the day when Judgment is upon the World and the holy blessed God sits upon the Throne of Judgment Satan who deceives high and low shall be found destroying high and low and taking away souls Methinks St. John in this Vision speaks to the heart of those Jews and Tertullian expounds this Text of the Revelation by that Tradition in his Treatises against the Manichees cap. 24. and de Anima cap. 35. and 38. where he hath this passage Post cujus regni mille annos intrà quam aetatem concluditur sanctorum resurrectio c. after the thousand years of which Reign of Christ within which age is included the Resurrection of the Saints c. I know Mr. Meed would have him to speak here of a Resurrection that shall be at the beginning of the Millenium but his prefixing before the mention of this Resurrection post cujus Regâ—i annos after the 1000. years of whose Reign seems to assign it to the latter end of the Millenium And Lactantius dates the loosing of Satan when the Millenium shall begin to end cùm caeperit terminari that is upon its expiring but within the compass of it at which time saith he the last wrath of God shall fall upon the Nations and when the 1000 years are fully compleat the World shall be renewed and the Heavens shall be rolled up and the Face of the Earth shall be changed at the very same time shall be the second and publick Resurrection of all men even of the unjust to eternal torments to wit such as have worship'd Gods made with hands and have either not known or denied the Lord of the World they and their Lord and his Angels and Ministers shall be apprehended and adjudged to punishment in the sight of the Holy Angels and just men Lactande divino praemio lib. 7. cap. 26. Having therefore these Authorities before me I hope the ingenious Reader will not reckon this Problem either a novelty or singularity CHAP. VIII That Satans loosing will not be till the Dawning of the day of Judgment Problematically discu'd § 1. Elect gather'd into the Air over the Valley of Jehoshaphat Chancells not all Eastward but all toward that Valley § 2. The Elect secur'd Satan re-enters and drives his old Demesne The wicked destroyed as Rebels actually in armes Believers tried as Citizens by the Books of Conscience and Book of Royal Law § 3. Gogg Rev. 20. a greater multitude than will meet before the day of Judgment When Prophesies are to be expounded Literally when Figuratively § 4. The Ottoman Army is not this Gogick § 5. The Fire of the last Conflagration carrieth
that sweet morsel of Judeas Crown under his Tongue which he had in his hope swallowed and must regorge if St. Paul carry the day would set his wits on work to seek evasions and starting-holes in every corner of his Apology in the whole Web of whose Discourse upon that subject how glad would his own dear interest have made him could he have found one Wemb through which he might have seen the least glimmering of a possibility that those emergencies in Judaea then under contest before him were not such as St. Paul reported them to be Can we think that Christian Apologist could satisfie Nero in that point as St. Jerome in the place forecited insinuates by his in prima satisfactione which he so much desired to disbelieve till he had throughly weighed and canvas'd all St. Paul's and his Adversaries Pleas and found the Apostle to be irrefragable Briefly To sum up the whole of this Argument A man may without any violent elevation of his mind fancy Judea that Navel of the Earth to have been a Stage erected for the Actors in the midst of the Theatre of the World and the Inhabitants of the Empire sitting in a round as spectators and observing what was there acted with the greatest silence imaginable We are made saith St. Paul a theatre to men and Angels What hinders but we may interpret that Text by Daniel 10. 13. the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia and Vers. 14. Michael one of the chief Princes and Chap. 12. 1. Michael the great Prince that standeth for the children of thy people and by Angels understand the Angel-presidents over Nations those Eyes of the Lord according to Mr. Mede that run through the Earth To be sure they might at that time have seen all the World sitting still and at rest yea themselves then resting from impeding withstanding opposing deteining one another in behalf of their several Jurisdictions and had leisure to sit down for company with their Pupils and fix their running Eyes upon that strange sight was a showing in Judaea upon that one Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands However this Text can imply no less than Action upon the Stage Tumultuations in Judea with silence among the Spectators Peace in all the World about and that Peace allowed the Empire without the least distraction to trie to the bottom the grounds of those Commotions and those grounds being of highest concern to the Spectators res tua tunc agitur It must needs be morally impossible that the Christian Church could by any the handsomest Legerdemain delude that Eagles Eye so fixedly pitch'd on these Occurrences and so steadily pearch'd upon that Olive-plant of an Universal Peace an attempt to cheat the Spectators in such a Juncture would have been such an Act quòd ipse Non sani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes as he that had but half an Eye would swear to be the undertaking of scarce half-witted men I am now come to a Period of this tedious and toilsom Pilgrimage through the holy Age if I may call the Time so as well as the Place which Christ separated from all other Ages wherein to manifest himself in the flesh and divulge his Royal Law undertaken not out of curiosity to see Fashions but upon the same account which I have observed many of the Ancients to have travelled to the holy Land to inform themselves more explicitly in the Evangelical History to confirm themselves more feelingly by ocular Demonstration in the truth of that History or to delight their inamour'd Souls with the Contemplation of the places where the Blessed Jesus convers'd here he wept here he pray'd here he fasted this was the place of his Birth this of his Baptism this of his Transfiguration on this Hill he gave his Royal Law on this he foil'd the Tempter on this his sacred Feet printed their farewel-kiss to the Earth such Meditations could not but deeply affect confirm the Religious Pilgrim This put me upon enquiring whether the same Religious Use might not be made of travelling through the holy Age and this Enquiry upon making trial aiming at the informing my self as it were by ocular Inspection whether it was an Age likely to be imposed upon as our Modern Scepticks insinuate In which travel I have been forc'd to take Secular Writers for my Guides that I might frame my Journals in a Language which they whose couviction I endeavour profess themselves to understand and to take pleasure in the sound of entertaining my self with those hopes that Secular History as well as A Verse may take him whom a Sermon flies And turn delight into a sacrifice And that our great Criticks in Humanity may deign to peruse a Discourse that hath cost the Author so many weary steps and not think him immodest in this request that they would in order to their own satisfaction with him who for their sake hath travell'd over the Mountains of the Leopards that he might take and give them a prospect of that Age vouchsafe to take one view of it from Mount Sion and mark one Bulwark more it had against treacherous surprizals grounded upon the Candour and Integrity of its Assailants enough to have secur'd it had it not been intrench'd and without which all the Fortifications we have seen the remains of would be but so many Monuments of the Subtilty and Stratagems of the Conquerours It will therefore be necessary in order to a full sail Assurance of the truth of our general Proposition to turn our sail to this Wind our thoughts to this Observation CHAP. XII As no Age was less like to be Cheated than that wherein the Apostles flourish'd so no Generation of Men was less like to put a Cheat upon the World than the Apostolick and Primitive Church § 1. The Apostles and Primitive Churches Veracity evinc'd by their chusing Death rather than an Officious Lye to save their lives Pliny's testimony of them § 2 3. They hide not their imperfections nor the Truth to please Parties or to avoid the Worlds taking offence The offence which Heathens took at some Gospel-passages § 4. All false Religions make lyes their Refuge Pagan Forgeries § 5. Papal Innovation founded on lying Legends Sr. Thomas Moor upon St. Austin Gregory Turonensis and Simeon Metaphrastes devout Lyars The Story of the Baptist ' s Heod § 1. 1. THeir avowed Principles touching making a Lye though with an intention to serve God by it were That the Devil is the Father of it Joh. 8. 44. That whoso love or make a Lye shall be excluded Heaven and detruded into the society and torments of Devils Apocal. 22. 15. Now had Men of this Profession abused the World with false Stories in a matter of so high a concern as Religion it would have render'd them in the opinion of all men the veriest miscreants that ever liv'd would certainly have allayd that confidence they used in justifying the truth of their Reports to the faces of men
who were upon the place where the things reported were done If you say this was but a colour and mere pretence to gain the repute of men hating a lye that so they might more easily insinuate the belief of their Stories into their credulous and prepossess'd Hearers that surmise will be answer'd beyond all possibility of a rational Reply by producing clear Evidences of their actual conforming and pertinacious adhering to those Principles against the strongest Temptations to wave them that could possibly be laid in their way Vide quà m sollicitè Paulus distinguat quae à se sunt quae à Domino 1 Cor. 7. 10 11. quà m formidet dicere quae vidit in corpore an extrà corpus viderit 2 Cor. 12. 2. Grotius Quam probabilitatem habet talium documentorum auditores suspicari mentitos quaecunque suum praeceptorem effecisse testificati sunt aut quà m credibile faciant si putent illos omnes sibi inter se consensisse in mendacium c. Euseb. demonst Evang. 3. 7. Observe saith Grotius how carefully the Apostle distinguisheth betwixt what he saith and what the Lord saith how fearful he is to determine whether he was in the body or out of the body when he was rapt up Have we the least reason saith Eusebius to suspect that the hearers of such instructions did feign whatsoever they testifie their Master to have done or is it in the least probable that they should all conspire together to lye But let us here what Pagan Writers give in evidence here Pliny being appointed by the Emperour Trajan to take special cognizance of the Causes of Christians and to give him the best information thereabout which his utmost diligence in enquiring could arrive to gives him this account of them That in their Assemblies for Divine Worship they used so solemnly to bind themselves at the receiving of the holy Sacrament not to falsifie their word but to speak the truth as he could not induce any of them by any methods of either cruelty or flattery that he could invent to say they were not Christians Plinii Epist. lib. 10. ep 103. In so much that Trajan gave order that from his Ministers of State should procede in examining the Causes of Christians upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That if any of them that were accused being ask'd whether he were a Christian should say he was not he should forthwith be dismist as not guilty of the charge laid against him Trajanus Plinio epist. 104. And this grounded upon Pliny's Observation Nam ad hoc cogi non possunt qui sunt reverà Christiani for they that are so indeed cannot be forced to deny themselves to be Christians but would persevere to the last gasp in the midst of the greatest torments to roar out this good Confession I am a Christian I tell thee bloody tormentor who I am thou wouldst by the rack force me to deny my self to be what I am I cannot I dare not lye I am a Christian. Tear off my flesh with hooks break my bones with strappadoes pull asunder my joynts with skrews while thou leaves me a tongue in my head I must speak the truth I cannot but tell thee to thy face I am a Christian I worship God through Jesus Christ Tertul. apol 21. dicimus palà m dicimus vobis tormentibus dicimus lacerati cruentati vociferamus Deum colimus per Christum c. Could a more feeling proof be given of their abominating a lye than this They who would rend their Garments at Acclamations made to themselves as Gods that would not take to but spurn at divine honours laid at their feet will rather have the skin torn off their flesh their flesh off their bones their bones by continued and lingring pains drain'd of marrow than suffer the most exquisite tortures to rack from them that self-officious Lye or so much as a consent by silence to them who would have them say that they were not Christians The greatest testimony of a tenacious love to Truth that ever was exhibited what could tempt them to recede from it whom assurance of Life exemption from the torturing Rack and the horror of the most grim-fac'd Death that wittiest malice could contrive could not tempt Balaam put in a good Caution for his speaking truth when for all his love to the wages of unrighteousness he assured Balak That if he would give him an house-full of Silver and Gold he durst not speak more or less than what God should put into his mouth But the Primitive Church put in a far greater pledge limb and life it self for her Veracity And yet this was all the inducement they can possibly be imagin'd to have to persist in their Lye if the Gospel be a Lye as Eusebius excellently Demonst. Evang. 3. 7. Non enim exiguum erit hujus audaciae proemium siquidem non vulgares nos pro tantis certaminibus manent coronae sed quae supplicia videlicet à legibus omnium hominum ut par est contradicentibus injuncta est vincula tormenta carceres ignis ferrum cruces boluae ad quae omnia promptissimo animo est accedendum iisque malis eundum obvià m intrepidè quae praeceptorem nostrum nobis pro exemplo ostentant quid enim pulchrius quà m nulla ratione diis hominibus fieri inimicos c. We have reason sure to persist thus inflexibly in asserting this truth of the Gospel for we know we are to reap no small reward of this boldness to receive no vulgar Crowns for such strivings but those punishments to speak plainly which by the Laws of all men are adjudged meet to be inflicted upon those that contradict them bonds racks goals fire sword crosses and wild beasts To all which we come with a most ready mind and without all fear go to meet those evils that present our Master to us for an example you must think sure we take a great deal of delight in making our selves without all reason enemies to the Gods and men c. If we had not assurance of the Truth which we profess and did not so far abhorr to conceal much more to deny what we know is Truth as rather than do so to save our lives we persevere to our last breath in bearing witness to it It was a truly Christian and Heroick Answer well beseeming the Royal Champion and Defender of the Apostolick Faith which our late King of blessed Memory Charles the First gave to a person who counsell'd him to temporize with his Rebels in a dissembling compliance with those their not only unjust but impious Proposals which his truly tender and rightly informed Conscience disgusted telling his Majesty he might after he had reestablish'd himself in the possession of his just Rights and the Affections of his then abused Subjects watch an opportunity of retracting those extorted Concessions Oh Friend replies the King laying his hand upon his pious heart there is that here