Parents as the Lybians did for the Father We must be baptized after the Marcionist's form in the Name of the unknown Father Irenae l. 1. c. 18. or each man know his own by presensation as Jarchus the Indian King did the Parents of Apollonius Philostratus lib. 3. de vita Apollonii Except being by this levelling Policy turn'd into Terrae silios we be resolv'd with those Earth-born Brethren in the Poet to destroy one another by endless contending Tantum irreligio potuit suadere malorum The irreligious imperswasibleness of the Sceptick which inclines him to cavil at the Churches Testimony to the Truth of Evangelical History and to question his own Christian-name will with more shew of reason induce the World into a disbelief of every man's Sir-name and bury all men's Birth-rights in the rubbish of buzzing Exceptions which strike their venomous Sting deeper into the sides of the State than the Church her Testimony being a better proof of the Gospel's Legitimacy than any man can produce of his own Audacter dico quòd sine fide neque infidelis vivit nam si ab insideli percunctari voluero quem patrem vel quam matrem habuerat protinùs respondebit illum atque illam quem si statim requiram utrùm noverit quando conceptus sit vel viderit quando natus nihil horum vel se nosse vel vidisse fatebitur c. Gregor Dialog l. 4. c. 4. I affirm confidently saith Gregory the great that the very Infidel himself doth not live without faith for if I ask an Infidel who is his Father or Mother he will forthwith answer such a man such a woman and if I then demand of him whether he knew when he was conceived or born he will confess that he knew neither of these but believes that he was begotten by that man whom he calls father of her whom be calls mother upon the account of probable Testimony In se spuit qui in caelum spuit he spits in his own face who spits in Heaven's face as Seneca of old observ'd consol ad Polyb. c. 21. and from him our Companella in his Atheismus triumphatus CHAP. II. The Suffrage of the Adversary to the Testimony of the Church § 1. Pagan Indictments shew what was found Christianity in Pagan Courts § 2. Christian Precepts and Examples civilized the Courts of Heathen Emperours § 3. Pliny ' s Information concerning Christians to Trajan § 4. What it was in Christians that Maximinus hated them for § 1. 1. TUrn over the Examinations the Confessions of Christians in open Court before Pagan Tribunals where the same thing was done before the face of the Heathen World that was done at Baptism in the face of the Church Excepto martyrio ubi tota Baptismi sacramenta complentur Baptizandus confitetur fidem suam coram sacerdote interrogatus respondet hoe martyr coram persecutore facit ille post confessionem vel aspergitur vel intingitur hic vel aspergitur sanguine vel contingitur igne ille confitetur se mundi actibus renunciaturum hic ipsi renuntiat vitae For this cause the ancient Fathers believed Martyrdom to supply the want of water-Water-baptism because therein were performed all the Rites of Baptism the Martyr confessed before the Persecutor the same Faith which he that was to be baptized confessed before the Priest he after Confession was dipp'd or sprinkled with water the Martyr either sprinkled with blood or plung'd over head and ears in fire he promiseth that he will frsake the life of the World the Martyr renounceth life it self Gennadius de eccles dogmat in appendice ad 3. tom operum sancti Augustini pag. 384. Let us I say examine the Confessions of Martyrs and in them you may find the Substance of the Gospel peruse their Indictments against the Martyrs examine what Crimes they charged Confessors with what it was for which they raised against Christians those Out-cries Christiani ad Leones away with these fellows to the Lyons they are not fit to live they will not worship our Gods they will not sacrifice for the Emperour's health they worship for God one Jesus who was born in Judaea whom Pilate at the request of his own Nation put to death as an Impostor who gave his followers a Law destructive to humane Societies set up an unsociable an unpracticable Religion c. And there we meet with the Sum of Christian Religion St. James his Crime for which Ananas the younger the high Priest and a Saducee put him to death in the vacancy of a Governour betwixt Festus his death and the coming of Albinus was that being ask'd what he thought of Jesus that was crucified he answered why ask ye me of Jesus the Son of Man when as he sitteth at the right hand of the great Power in Heaven and his asserting the Resurrection as saith Aegesippus in Eusebius Ec. hist. 2. 3. which the story that Josephus gives of his death confirms not only telling us that the Jews imputed the Fall of Jerusalem to their sin in slaying that just Person but that the whole body of the religious Jews moved Albinus to put Ananas from the High-priesthood for imbrewing his hands in the blood of so just a man a title conferred upon him by that Party out of an Odium to the Sadducees and because he died in witnessing to those Articles of Christian Faith which oppose Saduceism upon the very same account that they sided with St. Paul The questions upon which Domitian examined the reputed Kinsfolks of our Lord were concerning Christ and his Kingdom in what manner and when and where it should appear to which they answered that it was not Worldly or Earthly but Celestial and Angelical that it should come at the consummation of the World when that he coming in glory shall judg the quick and the dead and reward every man according to his works Eus. ec hist. 3. 19. out of Aegesippus which story together with that of the noble Flavia's banishment for the same Doctrine he tells us he found recorded in the Pagan Histories of that Age. In the persecution of the Gallican Church under Antoninus Verus his bloody Lieutenants writ the cause of their process against those Christians to have been their professing Christ to be God their refusing to give divine Worship to any but God their believing the Resurrection their communicating in the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood In their solicitating them to renounce Christ to adore their Pagan Gods In their calumniateing them with Thiestian Banquets for which they had no ground but the confessions of some that fell under the weight of that intollerable Persecution informing their Examiners that in their sacred assemblies they ate and drank the Body and Blood of our Saviour in answer to which misprision the Martyrs would usually argue that it was extremely unlikely that they should devour Infants when their Religion did not suffer them to suck the blood of Beasts nor to
Jerusalem Jews 2 Mac. 2. 7. where they write to their Brethren of Aegypt that Jeremy when he had hid the Tabernacle and the Ark told the Priests that when God restored that Captivity he would shew them his Glory that the Glory of the Lord should appear and the Cloud also as it was shewed under Moses and Solomon For the Truth of all the Contents of this Letter they appeal to ocular evidence wishing their Brethren if there were need they would send some to see Heliodorus would not believe that God dwelt then between the Cherubims till he had been soundly beaten into the belief of it and scourged by the Angel of Gods presence into a Confession of what he had seen with his eyes and felt upon his ribbs advising Demetrius if he had any Enemy or Traytor he would send him to rob the Temple for thou shalt saith he receive him well scourg'd if he escape with his life for in that place without doubt there is an especial power of God 2 Mac. 3. 36. It was in this Temple Hircanus the High Priest had conference with God by an Angel appearing to him while he was offering Incense that Zachary the Father of the Baptist had the appearance of God by an Angel A thing so ordinary as the people without Hesitancie conclude he had seen a Vision when he did but becken to them But what need of proving that by Induction of Particulars which naturally follows from the Premisses for must not the Divine Presence be there where was the Ark of Gods Presence Could the Temple which had the Fire want the Smoak want the Cloud § 5. It is manifest then that under the Second Temple the Jews enjoyed all these Prerogatives Nay they were so far from wanting what they had under the first as even in respect of external indications of Gods gracious presence amongst them the Glory of the Second exceeded the Glory of the First Temple For under the later House they had 1. The power of ejecting Devils out of the possessed which we do not find they had under the First Temple for that melancholy Spirit which David cast out of Saul by his playing upon the Harp comes not up to the case either as to time being before the First Temple or as to the thing being the removal only of melancholly But that under the Second Temple there was a stated Order of Exorcists who by invocating the Name of God over such as were possessed with unclean Spirits did cast them out is manifest from our Saviours urging that practice in vindication of his own and professing that he cast out Devils by the same power by which their Children did If I by Beelzebub cast out Devils by whom do your children cast them out therefore they shall be your judges Mat. 12. 27. In virtute scilicet Creatoris By the power of the Creator as Tertullion expounds this Text contrà Marcion lib. 4. 26. and maintains that Exposition by this Reason that Christ upbraiding their Children with casting out Devils by Beelzebub was inconsistent with what he had said before If Satan cast out Satan c. Hâc voce quid magis portendit quà m in to ejicere se quo filii eorum in virtute scilicet Creatoris What can Christ mean by this word but that he cast out Devils by the same power by which their Children cast them out in the virtue to wit of the Creator Thus Irenaeus quoted by Dr. Hammond annot on Mat. 12. 27. By the invoking the name of the most high and mighty God even before the coming of Christ men were delivered from the wicked Spirits and all kind of Devils So powerful then was the Name of the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob saith Origen contrà Cels. l. 1. l. 4. But the use of this form of Exorcism grew so ineffectual after Christs Name was called upon them that were possessed as the Jewish Exorcists were willing to change it into that Form We adjure you by the Name of Jesus 2. The all-healing Virtue of the Pool of Bethesda the house of mercy for the poor into which whosoever first stepped down after the troubling of the water by an Angel at a certain time was cured of whatsoever disease he had Job 5. 4. of which thus Tertullian advers Judaeos cap. 13. Fuit piscina Bethesda usque ad adventum Christi curando invalitudines ab Israel desiit a benefieiis deinde ex perseveratione erroris sui quo nomen Domini per ipsos blasphemaretur The Pool of Bethesda had virtue to heal infirmities unto the coming of Christ but it ceas'd to put forth that beneficial gift after that the name of God was blasphemed by the Jews perseverance in their error And de baptismo c. 5. Having observed how the Gentiles in an Apish imitation of the Israelites initiating Proselytes in the Sacred Religion by Baptism used to initiate themselves some to Isis some to Mithra by washings and to expiate their Houses Temples and whole Cities with sprinkling of holy water and to sprinkle themselves in the Pelusian Solemnities and the Games of Apollo in order to their regeneration and purgation from the guilt of Perjury or Manslaughter Plutarch de oracul defectu And that unclean Spirits in emulation of the Spirit of God its moving upon the Waters chose to frequent Waters gloomy Fountains solitary Rivulets Groves Wells c. where they made their appearances wrought their lying wonders and laid their baits of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mischievous benefits He tells us that the God of Israel to prevent his peoples seeking cure at the hands of those Quacks and going a Whoring after those abominations and to shew that his good Angels were not behind those filthy Daemons in their power of communicating a saving influence to that Element with the commerce whereof evil Angels sought to bring men to perdition sent his Angel to move the Pool of Bethesda which virtue that Pool retain'd till our Saviour by curing the impotent man that lay there gave notice that the Operation of that Pool was now to cease and invited the sick to come to him the Fountain of living Water I know Theophilact makes not so great a matter of this Pool as did the Fathers before him and that the Learned Dr. Hammond strains courtesie with almost every material word in the sacred Text John 5. to bring that Story into a compliance with Theophilacts Opinion that the Angel which descended was but some Officer who at certain times that is at the great Festivals when the greatest number of Sacrifices was slain went down and stirred up those grosser parts which came from the Beasts washed therein after they were slain for Sacrifice the congelations of Blood that went to the bottom by which means they infused themselves more strongly into the Water and conveighed to it such a medicinal Virtue as is in the Skin of a Sheep newly flead or the warm vital
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
round about them came from the Sun in the other Hemisphere darting its Beams through some holes or clefts of the Earth for otherwise they could not possibly be sub dio in the night Yet the word most properly signifies stabulantes in agris being in their huts or rather their Field-halls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keeping court in the fields whence both Homer and Hesiod ascribe it as the Epithete of all Shepherds men living in the fields and though they were not fire-houses yet they might with Straw or that Hay they prepar'd to feed their Cattle with next morning make them as warm as they pleased If it be replyed how then could they either see to their Flocks or observe the shining of that glorious Light if they lay snugging in their Cabines The Text exhibites this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they watched their watchings over their flocks that is they kept watch by turns and that they might do without detriment to themselves in the coldest Season and with as much advantage to their Flocks as if they had all watch'd at once and sure what instinct teacheth Crows reason would teach them that one pair of attentive ears and eyes would as well hear or see what befel as if they were all awake who might call up the rest if he descried the approach of any strange occurrence Lastly put the Case at the worst say they had no Cabines which yet it is unlike they were without even in Summer to defend them from the days heat as well as nights cold was this any greater hardship than the Heir of that whole Land their Father Jacob endured in Laban's service Or can St. Lukes words sound harsher than those wherein Moses expresseth Jacob's complaint Gen. 31. 40. In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night As to the multitudes flocking in to John's Baptism notwithstanding the extremity of the Season The Baptist himself even with a wet finger wipes that stain off from the Churches practice which some from thence cast upon it in the observation he made thereupon that they came to his Baptism that they might flee from and escape that wrath which by the information of their Prophets they believed would fall upon those whom their Messias at his coming should find impenitent Can it then seem strange that men should run through fire and water to avoid that excision which the Axe laid to the root threatned to every Tree that did not bring forth fruit meet for Repentance to escape that Damnation of Hell that unquenchable fire which they believed was to be the portion of such as would not listen to the voyce of the Cryer And as to our Saviours submitting himself to the tolerance of Winters cold his acquainting himself with grief as soon as he came out of the Womb and his exposing his sacred Body to Jordan's chillest Streams as they were part of his Cross and Expiations for that pleasure we take in sin so they were the products of that inconquerable Love of his to Mankind a Love stronger than Death and which many Waters could not quench Cant. 8. And would doubtless be so taken if men who turn Grace into wantonness did not fear that the Example of it would force them from their Epicurism unto the most ingrateful austerities of Mortification which rather than themselves will undergo they will loose the benefit of Christ's Mediation § 6. If thou beest as nice Reader as these fine-dame-Divines I shall not know how to make my Apology before thee for this large digression however I will not hazard the bringing of thee to another qualm by pleading my excuse at large but only beg thy pardon and bring thee back from whence I diverted viz. the Testimony of Josephus in confirmation of the Verity of the Evangelical History as to its Date of Christ's Baptism to that Testimony he gives touching the time of Christ's Birth as to that other Character of it specified by the Evangelists to wit the first Taxing under Cyrenius wherein though some would make him disagree with St. Luke and Maldonat by name who will needs have that Taxing which he mentions lib. 18. c. 3. to be mistaken by Josephus for that which was made at our Saviours Birth yet that there is a fair Correspondencie betwixt him and the Evangelists in that point will appear if we consider that that which Josephus there mentions is the last under Cyrenius which he gives an account of and that that which St. Luke speaks of as coincident with our Saviour's Birth is specified by him to have been the first of those two Taxings which were made during Cyrenius his presidency over Syria The first of all the World that is the whole Roman Empire of which St. Luke speaks Tunc breviarium totius Imperii conficere Augustus in animo habebat in quo opes publicae continebantur quantum civium sociorumque in armis quot classes regna provinciae tributa vectigalia hujusmodi alia which was therefore made because Augustus had a mind to make a doomsday-book of the whole Empire wherein was set down the Revenues of the Empire what Train-bands the Citizens what the associates found what Navies Kingdoms Provinces what Tribute Customs and such like belonged to the Empire as Scaliger de emendat 6. pag. 551. and in Euseb. Chron. numb 2018. collect out of Tacitus and Suetonius The second nine years after that in the thirty seventh year after the War of Actium wherein Augustus overthrew M. Anthony Joseph antiq 18. 3. of Syria only and Judea as annexed to the Province of Syria by Augustus after the Banishment of Archelaus and confiscation of his goods for the Sale of which also at that time Cyrenius came into Judaea Of the first of these Taxings Josephus is silent and his very silence gives consent to the truth of that Circumstance related by St. Luke that it was the taxing of the whole world which therefore he omits as not falling in with his Subject the Jewish Antiquities in relation to which only he glanceth at the affairs of the Empire which peculiarly concern Judaea but passeth over those that were of common Influence upon all the Imperial Provinces as Suidas in Augusto affirms this to have been Augustus Caesar decreed to number by head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the inhabitants of the Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he did not only intend but perform this intent he assures us in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustus sent out unto all those Regions that were subject to him Officers by whom he made the enrolings and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he tells how many Myriads were found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inhabiting the Roman Empire These places of Suidas do also confirm another Passage in St. Luke's History of this Taxing that thereby Augustus took account of Women as well as Men and of both as to their Lineage Extract and Condition all went to be taxed