Doctor Heilin mixeth with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of equal arrogance Heilin Belgium 362. pag. and importance of the effect for it upon every slight critical exception we suffer the credit of those generally approved Historians whose fidelito has pass'd for current and gained the prescription of so many Ages who had better means of detecting the falsity 〈◊〉 we have and as much honesty to put them upon the improvement of those means we shall at the long run turn all faith out of doors except it be of this Article that every modern Mercury is Trismegistus ter maximus omnia solus One with whom wisdom was born and shall dye Job 12. Scaliger's First Objection Hermippus in Diogenes Laertius affirms that Demetrius Phalereus whom Aristeus brings in as the procurer of this Translation was so far out of favour with Ptolemy Philadelphus for perswading his father to dis-inherit him as in the beginning of his Reign he banish'd him what can therefore be more improbable than the report of Aristaeus Answer 1. Should we grant to Hermippus in Diogenes an equality of Authority to Aristaeus in Josephus which to him that considers the disproportion either of time or place betwixt Josephus and Diogenes will seem a very unequal Match yet this would not prejudice the story of Aristaeus as to that Circumstance the learned Critick cavils at If we weigh what Anatolius Bishop of Laodicea affirms in Eusebius Eus. ec Hist. 7. 31. where commending Aristobulus he saith he was one of them who were sent to translate the sacred Scripture of the Hebrews unto the gracious Princes Ptolemaeus Philadelphus and his father Am. Marcellinus also useth the plural number Ptolemaeis regibus vigiliis intentis composita lib. 22. which passages as they fully reconcile the seeming contradictions of the Fathers in their Computations of the time of this Version St. Jerom and Eusebius placing it in the beginning of Philadelphus Irenaeus attributing it to Ptolemy Lagi and Clemens Alexandrinus questioning to whether of them it should be referred are not adverse but divers expressions of the same date viz. the later end of Lagi his Reign in the two last years whereof his Son was his Colleague So it clearly solves the Objection for after Lagi his death possibly Philadelphus at the beginning of his Reign alone might bannish Demetrius and yet in the beginning of his Reign with his Father be so far from discovering his displeasure against him as to hide his grudge from his Father's apprehension whom he could not but think would stand betwixt Demetrius and harm he might very well put him upon that imploy about his Library which was like enough to take up all the thoughts of so bookish a Man and to divert them from being imploy'd about the securing of himself from that fatal stroke he intended for him as soon as his Shield was taken away as soon as the days of mourning for his Father should come But to put it beyond all doubt that the Translation was forwarded by Demetrius Phalereus under Lagi Clemens Alexandrinus states it thus the Scriptures of the Law and Prophets were translated as men say in the Reign of Ptolemy Lagi or as some say in the time of Philadelphus cum maximam ad eam rem contulisset diligentiam Demetrius Phalereus ut verterentur vehementer procurasset after that Demetrius Phalereus had to wit under Lagus used a great deal of diligence towards the effecting of that thing Clem. Storm 1. 110. As if this sagacious and most learned Father had so many hundreds of Years before smelt Scaligers Objection Answer 2. But to answer thus from the Allegation of this Laodicean Bishop may seem to some to have too much of the Laodicean temper in it to be too luke-warm a Reception of so hot a Charge against so great an Authority as the story of the Septuagint comes armed with to gratifie therefore the just Zeal of them that are of that perswasion let us weigh the opposed Testimonies in an equal Ballance In one Scale we find Hermippus in the other Aristaeus say they yet hang in an equal poyse jam sumus ergo pares I can give free lieve hitherto to suspend assent Let then the overweight that is cast into both these Historians cast the Scales 1. The voucher for Hermippus is Diogenes Laertius who about the ear of Christ 145. wrote the Lives of the heathen Philosophers an Author of good credit and judgment where he writes intentionally but every occasional dash of his Pen as this was touching the Septuagint cannot seem with intelligent persons to be of credit sufficient to dash out the authority of Josephus who voucheth Aristaeus his story and not only lived nearer the time of this transaction by almost an hundred years but upon the place where the chief part of it was perform'd a man so peculiarly qualified by all helps imaginable for the giving a full and faithful account of the Jewish affairs as he that knows how well skill'd he was in their Antiquities and how free he stood under the protection of the Roman Emperours and of his own Judgment being a Pharisee and Priest in Judaea and therefore not of the Alexandrian Interest of any temptation to flatter the Jew in general much less the Alexandrian and Greecizing faction and how accurately he discharged that part of the Jewish History the matter whereof fell under the ocular inspection of men then living when he put it forth in so much as Agrippa for his part gives him those Testimonies Josephi vita It appears by thy Writings that thou needest no information in any of these things whereof thou writest and again I have read thy Book wherein thou seemest to me to write History more accurately than any man else And how strenuously he maintains against Appion's Cavils his History of the Jewish Antiquities proving the truth of those passages against which Appion excepts by the Testimony of those Witnesses whom the Graecians themselves esteem most worthy of belief Cont. App. lib. 1. And the self-contradiction of those were alledged against the truth of this History And how well he vindicates against Justus his exceptions his History of the Jewish wars not only in retail but in gross appealing to common sence to judg whether of them were more like to hit the mark of truth Justus who did not publish his History until twenty Years after the writing of it when those Caesars King Agrippa and Captains that managed the Wars were deceased or himself who out of consciousness to the truth of his own History dedicated and delivered it into those Emperour's hands through whose hands the Affairs had past which he wrote of and in whose custody were kept the Journals of all those Proceedings He I say that knows these things and hath the Art to judg of Hercules by his foot or rather of his foot by his body will think that Josephus came not short of the mark he set himself in his Writings exprest thus
the veneration of Antiquity the commonness of Custom lull'd it into a Lethean forgetfulness of its own handy-work as the perswasion that they were Gods indeed and that to their Religious Observances they were indebted for all the benefits were powred down upon them could not be eradicated by the closest and most convincing Arguments The conceit that they had found the Lips of those Statues warm in propitious responds their bosoms soft in gracious returns to their votaries that they had felt the beating of their Pulses in their declared liking or disliking of Persons and Actions proportionable to the Worlds Genius had so far prevail'd with this Pigmalion as his knowledge of the contrary is cast into a dead sleep while he is entertaining himself with these pleasing dreams Now had the Apostle attempted to interrupt the world in those fancied enjoyments with fancies had they instead of those Sacred Animals thrust into the Bed a dead Image or a Pillow stufft with Hair what could they have expected but to have been deservedly clamour'd against as men upbraiding the World with the imputation of more insensate Stupidity than can possibly seise upon a Rational Soul what leave those Gods under whose wings I have been brooded to this perfection of honour and happiness whose present relief I have as often found as invocated for one that was but the other day in Clouts and could not save himself when he was dared to do it to his face nor be heard in that fervent Prayer for releif he preferr'd to him whom he called his God and Father What reply could they have return'd to these expostulations had they seen no more in Christ than Man had they not known him to be the living as well as express Image of the living God to be that eternal word which by his power bears up all things and of power enough to bear down before him those strong men who had got such firm possession of the house as none no not among the most Rational Philosophers could 〈…〉 out but a stronger than they CHAP. VI. The Advantage the World had to try Apostolical Doctrine by the Touch-stone of the Septuagint § 1. The Septuagint was the worlds guard against all possible delusion The light of the Original Tradition shon out of the East Judaea the Navil of the earth had plenty thither Pithagoras Socrates Plato c. finding a Famine at home travell'd for the Corn of Heaven c. § 2. Josephus and the Church History of the Translation of the Seventy defended against Scaliger ' s exceptions Hermippus and Aristaeus reconciled by Anatolius The Authority of Socrates comes short here of Josephus § 3. The Sanhedrim held correspondency with the dispersion no harder a task for the Jews whose Mother-tongue was Hebrew and who for Commerce sake were forc'd to learn the Greek the common Language of the Empire to turn the Hebrew into Greek than for the Belgick Churches amongst us to turn a Dutch Bible into English § 4. Whence Ptolemy learn'd that curse he pronounc'd upon them that should add or take from the Seventy's Translation Whence the fiction of three days darkness and the application of Solomon ' s text there is a time to rend § 5. The Legend of the golden letter'd Jehova Ptolemy might be a bad man and yet curious in point of Learning He was a kind of Jewish Prosylite and as good a one as Herod Poppaea c. God can make bad men Instruments of good The Fathers and Primitive Churches esteem of the Septuagint § 6. The Candor of the blessed Jesus in sending the picture of the Messiah drawn by the Prophets before be came in person that there might be no mistake of the person in appealing to a Religion pre-existing to and co-existing with that of his erecting § 1. THis Age wherein the Gospel was first preach'd had besides all those fore-mentioned guards against surprisal the advantage of a peculiar Expedient to try the truth of what the Apostles publish'd even at their own bar and by their own avowed Principles and to have proved it false had it indeed so been to the Apostles own faces themselves being Judges by means of Ptolemy's having procured some hundreds of years before our Saviours incarnation the Translation of the Old Testament into that Tongue that had 〈◊〉 the vulgar Tongue of the Empire some while before and was in the age of the Apostles familiar to the learned Romans Those sacred Oracles having been lock'd up from former ages in Hebrew a Tongue barbarous to the Western World So that it could have no knowledge of the Contents of those Divine Writings but what was communicated by the Oral Tradition of Jewish Teachers From whence notwithstanding those most famous and incomparably knowing Philosophers that travell'd for Learning into Judaea Aegypt and the Countries circumjacent gather'd such Maxims as served them like so many straight Rules to discover in a great measure the crookedness and deviations of the commonly received opinions touching God and Nature The first Graecian Theologists Pherecydes Pythagoras and Thales are acknowledged with one mouth to have been the Scholars of the Aegyptians Chaldaeans and Hebrews as Josephus saith contra Appion lib. 1. for the confirmation of which he alledgeth the authority of Hermippus a Pagan Historian who in the life of Pythagoras lib. 1. writes that Pythagoras did translate out of the institutions of the Jews many things into his philosophy and Clearchus Aristotle's Scholar who in his Dialogue of the Jews brings in his Master confessing he had learned the best part of his knowledge of a certain Jew The Swarm that hived in Plato's mouth came from Mount Carmel and was a Call of the School of the Prophets there The Honey which that Attick Bee made was gathered from the Flowers of Moses's Paradise and Solomon's garden of which his Philosophy so perfectly relisheth as many of our ancient Christian Writers wondering at the congruity of his Doctrine to Christian Verity conceived he had conference in Aegypt with the Prophet Jeremy of which opinion St. Austin sometimes was but retracted it upon the account of that light which Cronology gave him to see his error it being thence apparent that Plato was born almost an hundred Years after Jeremy was dead and pitcheth upon this that this busie and industrious Bee suck'd that part of his Philosophy from the lips of an Interpreter as he did the Aegyptian as well as he could de civit 8. 11. titulus Unde Plato illam intelligentiam potuerit acquirere qua Christianae pietati propinquavit Whence Plato might possibly acquire that Understanding whereby he approach'd so near to Christian Religion Of which that learned Father there makes proof by instancing in several Platonick Sentences and Notions so agreeing in the Main and yet differing in the Circumstance as speaks Plato to have partly understood Moses his sence but not his words But what need I urge the Authority either of St. Austin or Justin Martyr who in
uproar about St. Paul though in a prejudicate Passion he had examin'd him at first by scourging yet repenting of that way of process to find out what the matter was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 22. 30. for which the Jews cried so against him as not justifiable by the Imperial Law the morrow after that he might know the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews he commanded his accusers the chief Priests and all their Council to appear and draw their accusation against him And brought St. Paul down and set him before them to make his defence By which way of hearing both he and Festus came to know the state of the Question controverted betwixt the Jew and Christian to have been about Jesus whom the Jews affirmed to be dead but St. Paul maintained to be risen from the dead and to be alive Act. 23. 29. 25 20. Thus Felix though he had a mind to do the Jews a pleasure and make St. Paul pay his old scores he had run himself into by his pillaging that Nation and cast him as a bolus into the mouth of that Cerberus which was open'd against him in complaints to the Court of Rome yet so well does St. Paul manage his Cause before him as he durst not deliver him up to their fury having by hearing St. Paul defend himself and his Religion in the presence of his Adversaries attain'd to a more perfect knowledge of the Christian way than he had before Act. 22. 24. Thus Agrippa though so passionate an affector of Judaism as he fell down in a dead swoon at the feet of Caligula while he was venting his Choler against it and when he came again to himself protested to his Physicians standing about him and officiating about his recovery that nothing made him content to live but some faint hopes that his life might be serviceable to that poor Nation and to make those words good as soon as his trembling hand could hold a Pen he writ an Apology for them unto Caesar. Philo Jud. de legatione ad Caium Yet this Agrippa bribed for the Plaintiff by so violent a zeal upon hearing Festus make report of the issue of the Trial before him and St. Paul's allegations in his own defence had like to have given Sentence for Christian Religion against the Jewish being almost perswaded to become a Christian and did give Sentence for St. Paul against his Adversaries This man hath done nothing worthy of bonds much less of death but might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed to Caesar. Act. 26. 28 32. The further we pursue this Instance the clearer footsteps we see it leave of this Truth that the Broils in Judea made the Gospel more conspicuons For if we trace St. Paul's Cause to the Gates of Rome and thence to Caesar's Tribunal the ratling of his Chain there makes the Gospel more famous Phil. 2 12 13. alarms the Court to make more dilgent enquiry into those contingencies in Judea concerning Christ for maintaining the Truth whereof St. Paul was accused of the Jews and had appealed unto Caesar before whom for St. Paul to have stood in defence of what he had taught had been an Act of most temerarious madness if it had been in the power of the most virulent and vigilant Adversaries by bringing his Doctrine to a scrutiny and that before Judges disaffected to it to have fastened upon it the least imputation or but suspicion of Forgery § 3. The Judean Commotions drew the Imperial Eagle to fix her pierceing Eye more narrowly upon Emergencies there as things of highest concern to the interest of the Roman State That famous Eastern Prophecy That some about that time should appear in Judea who with that Crown on his head should trample all others under his feet gave so lowd a Report as the sound of it awaken'd both East and West to an expectation of its accomplishment Though Josephus Tacitus Suetanius and that nameless Interpreter of the Sybilline Oracles in Tully's second Book de Divinatione mist it as well as Virgil in the Application of that Prophecy Tully's Interpreter applying it to Caesar to whom he advised the Senate to give the Title of King if they consulted the good of the Roman State and of themselves Cicer. Divin l. 2. pag. 250. 251. quorum interpres dicturus in Senatu putabatur eum quem revera regem habebamus appellandum quoque esse regem si salvi esse vellemus ut quidvis potiùs ex illis libris proferant quà m regem quem Romae posthac nec dii nec homines esse patientur Virgil to Asinius Pollio Suetonius to the Emperour of Rome indefinitely Sueton. Vespas 4. quantum eventu patuit id de Imperatore Romane praedictum Tacitus and Josephus to Vespasian and Titus Joseph Bell. Jud. 7. 12. Tacit. hist. 5. antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri eo ipso tempore quae ambages Vespasianum Titum praedixerunt Yet this Triumvirate of judicious Historians mentioning it as an ancient universal and and uninterrupted Tradition argues it to have been famously known at Rome Suâ—ton Vesp. 4. percrebuit vetus constans opinio toto Oriente esse in fatis where if the repute of it had not been as great as its sound they would not have ventur'd to fasten the accomplishment of it upon such eminent Persons Nor durst those Fortune-tellers in Suetonius have attempted to corroborate Nero's heart against those cold Qualms came over it through fear of his loss of Empire threatned by the Calculaters of his Nativity with the hope of obtaining Judeas Crown and with it the Sovereignty of the World Nor would Nero have been inclin'd to those hopes of advancement to the sole and absolute Supremacy not only over the Earth but Sea which he was wont to express in telling his most intimate friends that he expected to have that Homage paid him by the Finny Inhabitants of the Ocean as the Fish would bring to shore those precious treasures he had lost by shipwrack Sueton. Nero 40. Sposponderunt tamen ei destituto ordinationem Orientis nounulli nominatim Regnum Hierosolymorum cui spei pronior Weekly Intelligencers Monthly Prognosticators that write to the capacities of the easily-seduced Vulgar Plebeium in circo positum est atque aggere fatum may quote Merlin or Mother Shiptons Prophecies may for the incouragement of that Party they are bribed to induce into vain hopes urge the belief of that German Oracle with the stinging Tail Vulpes Leo Nullus May apply the Vulpes to a Prince of the most candid Open-heartedness that ever liv'd the Leo to the Meekest Lamb that ever was led to slaughter save that Lamb of God whose steps he followed and yet obtain that belief at the Rabbles hand as shall put them upon venturing Life and Limb Estate Body and Soul in being instrumental towards the fulfilling of them The Bull-ringle Astrologer if I may not be thought to tread heavy on Eunius his
of any longer deceiving the Nations as Virgil out of Sibyl had prophesied in his Pan etiam Arcadiâ dicat se judice victum Pan even Arcadia being judge shall confess himself conquer'd if he dares strive with me For this was that Pan whereof Plutarch from Aemilianus a man both wise and serious as that great Critick of Men characterizeth him tells this Story in his Book of the decay of Oracles That as Aemilianus was sailing for Italy a voice was heard from the Isle Paxae calling to Thamus the Master of the Vessel and commanding him when he came over against the Palodes to tell the Inhabitants that the great Pan was dead which injuction he had no sooner performed but there was heard from the Island a sad and wonderful groaning the news of this Prodigy arrives at Rome with those Passengers and quickly comes to the ears of the Emperour Tiberius who sends for Thamus and being by him assured of the Truth of the Report makes a diligent inquiry of the learned men of Rome who that Pan should be This fell out toward the latter end of Tiberius his reign For Plutarch flourished under Trajan about the 100. year of Christ Alsted Chronol 40. and Philip who tells this Story in Plutarch had then with him those to witness it who had heard Aemilianus tell it when he was an old Man and must therefore be near our Saviours Crucifixion else the Mariners would not have found Tiberius at Rome but at Capreae Whence appears how grosly his Theologues were mistaken in their determining this Pan to have been the Son of Mercury and Penelope and the reasonableness of this Conjecture That he was some Cacodemon who as the Coriphaeus of all those Thieves who came before Christ had made the World believe he was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Macrobius his phrase Saturnal l. 1. c. 17. the All-heal One Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Saturn l. 1. c. 22. the Lord not of the Woods as the Poets interpreted that Title but as Macrobius expounds it of universal Nature whose influence disperfeth it self round about the World whom the Mythologists do therefore make the representation of the Universe because they could not find any person appearing in the World to whom they could apply these Titles and those descriptions which both Grecians and Aegyptians make of Pan. So that here we have the Confession of the greatest Theologues and the best cultivated Nations That their received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isidore Peleusiota in the Epistle above-quoted stiles them God-saviours or bealing Gods were so far from being able to cure Souls as they durst not relie upon them for the removal of the Pestilence a bodily Malady but applied themselves to a God whom they expected would in time discover himself to the World though then a stranger to all Gentiles and known only in Judea as not only Lucan before alleged but long before him Orpheus confesseth in his Hymn de Deo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whom no man ever saw but a certain only begotten who proceeded from the ancient stock of the Chaldeans to wit that water-born Law-giver Moses as he afterward stiles him alluding I suppose to God's showing Moses his back-parts § 6. A principle wherein the Patrons of the Christian and of the Pagan Cause were so well agreed as they put the Controversie betwixt them to this issue Whether in common Reason our Jesus was like to be that one unknown universal Redeemer or some one in the Crowd of their reputed Saviours Hence Julian in his Treatise against the Galilaeans singles out Aesculapius to outvie Christ in the claim of the common Saviour who being the Son of Jove descended from Heaven to Earth in the Sun-beams for the health and welfare of Mankind And Celsus in Origen lib. 7. calum 14 15 16 17. having argued against the likelihood of the Christian Assertion That Jesus of Nazareth is that to the Gentile World unknown God who being the desire of all Nations came to redeem them from those miseries from which their received Saviours could not free them it being as he thinks unreasonable to imagine that the so very inconsiderable Nation of the Jews a people so far out of Gods special care as he did not provide for them so much as a place upon Earth wherein they might live together but permitted them to be scatter'd over the face of the whole Earth should attain to the knowledge of the true God-saviour so hard to be found out rather than the studious and most inquisitive Philosophers labours to outvie the blessed Jesus with Hercules in the power of repulsing all external adversary force called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scatter-evil as Clemens Alexand. observes in his Protreptic With Aesculapius for the Virtue of expelling bodily Diseases who for all his skill could not cure the Roman Matrons of that epidemical Abortion which befel them at the time of the War with Pirrbus Orosius l. 4. But St. Austin excuseth him for that as professing himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non Obstetrix a prime Physician but no Midwife de Civitate l. 3. c. 17. And therefore Celsus providently adviseth that if we suspect the sufficiency of these Two to relieve the World of all its incumbrances we joyn to them as auxiliary Saviours Orpheus who without doubt saith he was inspired with a divine spirit and suffered death for the divine Doctrine he delivered Observe Reader that the Epicureans could not get out of their Minds nor refrain their Tongues from acknowledging that men are relieved by the Death and Doctrine of their Saviour Or Sibyl whose authority Christians so sar prize as they quote her Verses for the proof of Christs Divinity An Heathen Epicurean was the first man that derided the Christian Doctors for quoting the Sibyllines in favour of our Faith talidedecore gloriamur Or Anaxarchus and Epictetus who gave so great examples of patient and heroick suffering In this discourse as Celsus cunningly begs the Question and takes it for granted that these Saviours of his naming outweigh our Saviour whereas their is more weight in his little finger than in the loins of a thousand such like Mock-saviours So he openly confesseth that not any one of the Gentile reputed Heroes was sufficiently qualified to be the common Saviour and subscribes to what I am proving That none can be the Universal Redeemer but he that hath in himself the combination of all those salvifick Vertues which the Heathen conceiv'd to be dispers'd amongst all their Deities How much better doth our Apostle state and determine this Question 1 Cor. 8. 5. 6. There are Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we for him And one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him understanding by God 's the supreme and sempiternal Deities which the Gentiles worshipp'd By Lords those half-God half-man Mediatours whom they
be God saith Celsus his Jew in Orig. 2. 41. because according as he had foretold you he that could not save himself from Death did arise from the dead and shewed the prints of the Nails wherewith he had been fastned to the Cross to a simple VVoman and one or two more of his Disciples who if they were skill'd in the Magick Art of their Master were willingly deluded with vain Spectrums if not Christ astonish'd them with such like Prodigies on purpose that they might afford matter for lies to the rest of the Tale-bearers by reporting those things with confidence This was then the report of the Disciples this their Faith And that Report and Faith so grounded as Celsus though while with the Ape he uses the Cats Claw to pull the Ches-nut out of the fire he puts the Jew upon this desperate piece of service to storm the likelihood of this Report lib. 2. cal 40. 41. yet when he enters the lists in his own Person he has more regard of his own credit than to forfeit it with all men by questioning the truth of a Fact was so well known to Friends and Foes and therefore attempts to ward off the dirt of it by introducing examples of many who have risen from the dead and yet have not been reputed Gods lib. 3. 8. The first Story he brings to parallel this is out of Pindar and Herodotus his fourth Book of Aristaeus Proconesius who going into a Fullers Shop there departed this Life The Fuller shutting the door upon the Corps goes to acquaint his Relations with this sudden accident upon which as they were discoursing in comes a Cyzicene and tells them that in his travelling homeward he met with the Ghost of Aristaeus travelling to its long home trudging as fast as it could into the other VVorld which he confidently affirming his friends with preparations for his burial enter the Fullers Shop where no Aristaeus appears either alive or dead nor was he seen or heard of till that seven years after he shewed himself to the Proconnensians and having made that Paper of Verses which are called Arimaspaei he again disappeared This saith Herodotus I have from the Relations of his Citizens But this I know that he was seen alive by the Metapontines in Italy 340 years after his second disparition where after he had play'd thus long at boe-peep with Death by the appointment of the Ghost and the confirmation of that his VVill by the Pythian Apollo he had his Statue erected by the Altar of Apollo which was not made of such runing Leather as was its Prototype that was standing where it was first erected in Herodotus his age Besides the incoherence of this Story and the unlikelihood that a Squire of Apollo should be so many years in making one poor Paper of Verses c. Agellius reckons this Aristaeus for one of the Grecian Fablers deserving the Whet-stone Noct. Attic. l. 9. c. 4. The next Parallel that Celsus brings of our Saviours Resurrection is Cleomenes Astypulaeus who to avoid the hands of his enemies hid himself in an Ark which when they that sought for him looked into he was not found there but by some Divine Fate had made a cleanly conveyance of himself out of his enemies clutches but did they set a watch upon the Ark as the Sanhedrim did upon Christ's Sepulchre The third story of Celsus is of Clazomenius whom he brings in as a Parallel of Christ in that he had power to lay down his life and take it up again for Clazomenius his Soul would often leave its body and walk naked up and down and when it had taken the Air return home again to its old Lodgeing But I suppose it never took a three days journey nor was so long absent as to let the vital Fire go out before its return or the warmth of its Apparel be extinct before it put on its cloaths again The Story of Zamolxis is alledged by Celsus to the same purpose though his Author Herodotus not only questions the truth of it but relates it thus which makes nothing for Celsus that he only withdrew himself three years into a subterraneal house he had built and that on purpose to deceive the Scythians into an opinion that he had been so long dead and to the embracing of that Doctrine of his Master Pythagoras which he taught amongst them that the soul of man was immortal Herodotus Melpomene Celsus vies Christ's shewing his Hands and Feet with Pythagoras his shewing in an assembly of Grecians his Ivory Shoulder and Thigh to convince them that he was that Euphorbus who was famous in the Wars of Troy and whose Shield and Coat of Arms he challenged lib. 5. cal 5. And in the same Book cal 11. mentions the Angels rowling away the stone from the mouth of the Sepulchre not without this Sarcasm as if the Son of God was not able to do it himself but must have it done for him by some other but if he had minded what he read he might have learn'd that it was not rowled away for Christ's sake that he might come out but for the Women and Disciples sake that they might look in and not omitting so much as the variety in the Evangelists story one mentioning one another two Angels One sitting upon the stone two sitting when the VVomen first lookt in but standing when they spake to the VVomen one at the head the other at the feet of the Sepulchre August de consensu evan lib. 3. cap. 24. Deogratias mentions Christ's eating and shewing the prints of the Nails after his Resurrection as points of Christian Faith and argues from those Points as Christian principles of which more anon as that Bishop informs St. Austin Ep. 39. quest 1. Nay the Adversaries of the Christian Faith have not only mention'd Christs Resurrection as an Article of our Faith which is all I need to prove now but have been forc'd to confess the Truth thereof and to acknowledge that Christ did indeed rise from the dead by name R. Bechai as he is alledged by Grotius de veritate Christan rel lib. 2. pag. 89. Satis magnis testimoniis convictus Judaeorum magister Bechai veritatem hujus rei agnoscit But I shall hereafter alledge more Authorities for the proof of this Article from the confession of Adversaries and shall now therefore make only this Reflection upon these Mock-resurrections Be those Stories true or false they are a good argument that the ancient and best Philosophers did not think the Resurrection impossible for Plato de repub 10. quoted by Eusebius de praep evan 11. 35. and mention'd by Valer Max. lib. 1. c. 8. and Plutar. Symposiae 9. 5. and Macrobius Som. Scipionis initio reports that that happened to Eris an Armenian Heraclides Ponticus whom Pliny mentions l. 7. 32. writ a Book of a Woman who was raised from the dead after the seventh day saith Pliny after the thirtieth day saith Diogenes Laertius
and first of his thirty first However this will make no difference here for be it first or last it comes all to one as to the vindicating of this commonly-received Truth that St. Luke dates Christ's Birth and Baptism on the same day But for the Reasons pre-alledged I adhere to Scaliger And therefore if you demand where St. Luke testifies this I answer where he saith that Jesus when he was baptized was thirty years of age that is on that day which terminated his thirtieth and gave beginning to his thirty first Secondly and if St. Luke had not thus punctually delineated the Time of Christ's Age when he exhibited himself to the Baptist as a Candidate for Ordination Yet the same thing might be collected from that Law under which the Law-giver put himself that he might fulfill all righteousness prohibiting the Priests to officiate till they were thirty and commanding them then to enter upon the exercise of their sacred Function Numb 4. They shall serve from thirty years old and upwards By virtue of this Law Christ would have been a Transgressor had he intruded himself into the sacred Ministry before his thirtieth year was compleated and therefore till then he doth not shew himself to Israel no not to his own Parents for his Mother was uninstructed in the knowledge of her Son not to his Fore-runner for the Baptist though he knew Christ was in the croud yet who was he he knew not till he saw the Spirit descending upon him but kept at home and was subject to and under the Nurture of Father and Mother So wide is that Gloss from the sence of that Text where we have account of Christ's being amongst the Doctors which stiles it Christ's disputing with them which was nothing else but his exhibiting himself at twelve years as an Israelitish Catechumen to ask the Law the Tearms of the Covenant which he enter'd when he receiv'd Circumcision and to receive their Answers to what he propounded or to answer their Questions not as their Doctor but Scholar and upon his examen and their approbation of him who sate in Moses Chair personally to enter into that Covenant which his Sureties had enter'd into in his name at his Circumcision The Work of his Father which he had there to do was to be a Scholar not a Teacher And on the other hand he would not have been an exact fulfiller of that Law if he had delaid the tender of himself to Ordination beyond the time fixt by the Law and not applyed himself to the Baptist at whose laying hands upon him he knew he was to receive the Holy Ghost and be visibly separated to that Work which his Father had fore-ordained him to assoon as ever he was legally capable of it in respect of Age upon this account Christ urged the Baptist in these words suffer it now for thus it behoves us to fulfill all righteousness Christ had no need to be baptized with John's Baptism the Baptism of Repentance for remission of sins neither did he receive that Baptism but John's Baptizing of him was of another kind than his Baptizing of other persons to wit and external Rite in the administration whereof Christ was to be visibly set apart and called by God to his Office of Preaching See Dr. Hamond's Annot. the Law therefore the Righteousness whereof Christ fulfill'd in being baptized by John was that which prohibited Prophets to run till they were sent of God But this was not all the Righteousness which Christ fulfill'd now but also of that other Branch of the Law commanding them whom God had separated to the service of the Sanctuary to enter upon that Function as soon as they were thirty years of Age and therefore our Saviour inserts this note of time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffer it now now that the impediment of Age is removed I must not defer my entrance upon the work of Teaching Nay if there had not been such a Law Christ's Love to us would have been a Law to himself He who when the time was come that he should be offer'd was straightned till his Baptism of blood was accomplish'd that went into the Garden to meet the Traytor would sure not be well at ease when the time was come assigned by the Law of his Father that he should be inaugurated in the Office of the great Prophet till he was baptized with that Baptism of Water by John and of the Holy Ghost by his Father by which he was to be consecrate to that Office Would this tender Shepherd of Souls for his love and for his pitty let a day pass after the removal of the impediment of Under-age before he put himself into a capacity of seeking and saving the lost Sheep of Israel How have they learned Christ either as to his Obedience to his Father or his Compassion to his Brethren who scruple the belief of this point which the Primitive Church Universally embraced upon so good and solid Reasons as who so questions the force of them must present the blessed Jesus to their own minds as a person that cared not what the Father said not what we ail'd § 3. Propos. 3. This being concluded on and laid for a Ground that Christ's Birth and Baptism fell on the same day of the year I proceed with this Light before me by the help of those Chronological Observations I have or shall irrefragably make good to find out the Day of Christ's Nativity The Mother of John Baptist was going in her sixth month at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin and Conception of Christ St. Luke 1. 36. And loe thy cousin Elizabeth hath conceived a son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this is her sixth month saith the Angel Gabriel when he was sent to Mary the blessed Mother of our Lord in the sixth month that is of Elizabeth's Conception vers 26. about these days of Zacharie's returning home from fulfilling his Office in the Temple in the Course of Abias that is the eighth in order of those twenty four into which David divided the Priests 1 Chron. 24. 10. the eighth Lot fell to Abijah Elizabeth conceived and hid her self five months and in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a City of Galilee named Nazareth unto a Virgin espoused to an husband whose name was Joseph and the name of the virgin was Mary Certainly if it had not been of use to us to know the Time of our Saviour's Conception the Holy Ghost would not have given this Character of it twice in ten Verses Nor a Rule to find it out in his specifying the Course of Abias falling out immediately before the Baptist's Conception if that Rule had not been both sure and applicable to this Question He would never have beaten the Air with those Chronological Descriptions of it had it been vain for us to know the time or impossible for us to find it out so manifestly false is that Fanatick Conceit which the Novelist
from that Crown at their coming out of Aegypt three hundred years before this demand Why did you not recover them all that while Jud. 11. 26. be grounded as Civilians say upon Principles of natural Honesty Grotius de jure 2. 4. 2. If Isocrates his Plea against resigning up their right in Messina drawn from the Spartans having had the uninterrupted possession thereof from before the erection of the Persian Empire and the building of the greatest part of the Grecian Cities be grounded upon the general Sentiment of all men That Possession confirm'd by long Prescription is as good as inheritance Isocrat Archidamus pag. 287. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so valid as to dispute against it is branded by Historians as meer babling and beating the Air. Tacitus annal 6. Among whom do these novel Disputers against the Truth of Gospel-History after the Prescription of so many hundreds of years think their Allegations will be of any force but persons that have renounc'd all Principles of Reason Equity Humanity Polity and common Sence I would therefore advise them to bespeak themselves an Audience in the Sister-hood of tatling Gossips and silly Women who are not able to comprehend the weight of that sharp retort of St. Austin restat ut ipsi velint esse testes de Christo qui sibi auferunt meritum sciendi quid loquatur loquendo quod nesciunt August tom 4. pag. 162. de consensu Evang. 1. 8. It remains that we take those mens Testimony of Christ who by speaking those things which they are ignorant of deprive themselves of the benefit of knowing what to speak while I lay open the mortal Wounds which the Jew his not daring to deny the Matter of Fact hath given his Brother in iniquity the Gentile Philosopher who having so much Reason as to think it unreasonable that he who was not an Eye-witness should except against the Evidence of Eye-witnesses touching those things which Eye-witnesses and as great enemies to the Gospel as himself had not been able to make any substantial exception against was forc'd to grant the Truth of the History and had nothing left worthy of a Philosopher to object but this § 4. That the Works Christ did did not speak him to be God but only a good Man and familiar with the Gods by converse with whom he learn'd the Art or obtain'd the Power of working Miracles I use this Dis-junctive because Porphyrie held the faculty of doing Miracles may be attain'd by Art but Jamblychus will have it the free gift of God bestowed on those that are most conformable to and conversant with him exploding all Arts tending that way as Diabolical as Ficinus ex Jamblicho de mysteriis relates pag. 78 79. c. But let them dissent or agree as they please that the stupendious Works of Christ were the effects of Divine Magick and such as he could not have wrought had not God been with him was confest by the unanimous consent of all the Philosophical Opponents of the Christian Faith who all subscribed to that of Porphyrie Porphyrius dixit Christum summè religiosum immortali animâ post corpus incedere animâ sapientiae gratiâ honore affectâ dâ—â—s carâ c. Euseb. demonstr Evang. 3. 8. Who said that Christ was a very religious Person and subsisted after bodily death in an immortal soul a soul exalted to honour for the sake of that wisdom it was indowed with dear to the Gods c. Only they excepted against the Miracles as no sufficient Indications of Christ's Deity nec uâ—â—s competentibus signis tanâ—â— Majestatis indicia clarescunt quoniam larvalis illa purgatio debilium curae reddita vita defunctis haec alia si cogites Deo parva sunt August Volusian Epist. 2. It appears not by any competent signs of a Divine Majesty attending him that your Jesus was God for his casting out of Devils his curing the sick his restoring the dead to life if these and other strange things done by him be duly weighed are too mean for him to manifest his glory by whom you stile the Lord and Governour of the Universe said the Gentile Philosophers in that Conference of which Volusianus gave St. Austin an Account I will not so far anticipate my intended discourse about Christ's Miracles as here to give a full Answer to this Argument but only glance at that which St. Austin returns him It 's true indeed such things as these have been done by men Elias and Elisha raised the dead 1 Reg. 17. 22. 2 Reg. 4. 36. but whether the Heathen Magicians ever raised any from death let them inquire who will needs maintain Apuleius did so contrary to that defence himself makes against the imputation of that as a Crime To be sure in his being born of a Virgin in his raising himself from death in his Ascension into Heaven he out did all men And he that thinks these things too mean for God I cannot tell what he can expect more except he thinks Christ should have done such things as are inconsistent with his being made Man In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and all things were made by him Ought he therefore being made Man to have made another World to convince men that he was he by whom the World was made But a greater than this or one equal to this could not have been made in this World and had he either made another World out of this the making of that would have been no evidence to the Inhabitants of this for it would have been out of their sight or a less World than this in this the Sceptick would have had the same objection that it was less than became God to make seeing therefore it was not meet he should make a new World he made new things in the old World his Virgin-birth his Resurrection and Ascension are works of greater Power perhaps than making the World If here they answer that they do not believe these things what shall we do with such men as contemn the least and dis-believe the greatest of his Miracles They believe he raised the dead because that hath been done by others and that 's too mean for God his taking Flesh of a Virgin and lifting it up from death unto eternal Life above the Heavens is therefore not believed because no man ever did it and its fit for God to do To return to our Heathen Philosophers The Reason they gave why they thought those things reported of Christ in the Gospel not clear enough evidences of his Deity was because some of those amongst themselves who were reputed most holy Men had done the like things and therefore Christ being a very wise and holy Person and who convers'd intimately with God might obtain that favourable Gift at the bountiful hand of Heaven What an infinite disparity both in respect of the things done and the credibility of the stories there is betwixt the