inflam'd with desire to understand how he may be happy in this Life and the future As to the Third Principle he saith he knows not what Name to give it except he should call it the Soul of the World because it gives Life and Being to all Creatures And in his Epistle to Dionysius he tells him that he writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Trine Divinity that is as Porphyry alledged by St. Cyril against Julian expounds him Three Subsistances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Essence of the Divinity Consonant to which Platonick Dictate is that Respond which the Oracle of Serapis gave to Thales King of Aegypt at the time of the Trojan War inquiring who was happier than he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Macrobius stiles the First Person The truly chief God the Second the Mind or Thinking of that God the Third The Soul or Spirit proceeding from that Mind Anima ex Mente processerat Mens ex Deo procreata est Macrob. in som. Scip. 1. 17. These Allegations bid fair for the proof of this Opinion That the Philosophers were not wholly strangers to the Mystery of the Trinity And in the last of them Macrobius makes confession of the Trinity in as plain terms as we Christians do and of the Order and Manner of the Procedure of the divine Persons plainer than the Grecian Church would yield or the Latin Church could prove the sacred Scriptures to declare I appeal to their Contests about the word Proceeding and the Clause de Filióque And to Macrobius a Greco-latin Platonick his so clearly asserting That the Mind was begotten of God the First Person and the Spirit proceeded from the Mind But that 's more than I do or need to produce them for the use that I have for them is only to give testimony that the Platonicks vouchsafed the name of a Principle to nothing but God the Father God the Word and God the Spirit and therefore it is not even by their Principles in the power of any other God by his Mediation to bring the Soul by Purgation into Conformity to or Communion with God nothing but a Principle can effect that and there are but three Principles Father Son and Spirit say the Platonicks To this Platonick Notion of a Principle our Saviour seems to allude John 8. 25. where to the Jews asking who he was he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in St. Austin's de Civitate 10. 24. and others St. Ambros. Hexameron lib. 1. cap. 4. of the Fathers judgment That he was the Beginning respondit se esse Principium To be sure the Platonicks did in a peculiar Notion denominate God the Word the Principle Which made Amelius when he read the Beginning of St. John's Gospel In the beginning was the Word apud Deum esse Deum esse per ipsum omnia facta esse the Word was with God and was God and by him were all things made cry out Per Jovem barbarus iste cum nostro Platone sentit Verbum Dei in ordine Principii esse This Barbarian is of our Plato ' s Opinion that the Word of God is in the rank of Principles c. And that other Philosopher whom Simplicianus B. of Millain informs St. Austin of de civitate 10. 29. to protest Those words of St. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deserved to be writ in Letters of Gold and to he hung up in the most conspicuous places in all Churches and St. Austin in his Confessions say that he had read the beginning of St. John's Gospel in the Platonick Books in sence though not in the very same words lib. Confess 7. cap. 9. procurasti mihi quosdam Platonicorum libros ibi legi non quidem his verbis sed hoc idem omninò There I read saith he and found proved by various Reasons That in the beginnning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God that by it all things were made Multis multiplicibus suaderi rationibus quòd in principio erat Verbum Verbum erat apud Deum There in the Platonick Writings I read That the Soul of man though it bear testimony of the Light is not the Light but God the Word of God is that true Light that Et quòd hominis anima quamvis testimonium perhibeat de lumine non est tamen ipsa lumen sed Verbum Dei Deus est lumen verum quod illuminat omnem hominem And that he was in this World and the World was made by him and that the World knew him not quia in hoc mundo erat mundus per eum factus est mundus eum non cognovit But that he came unto his own and his own received him not I did not read there Quià verò in suos venit sui eum non reciperunt quotquot autem receperunt eum dedit illis potestatem filios Dei non legi ibi There also I read that God the Word was not born of flesh or blood nor of the will of man or the will of the flesh but of God Item ibi legi quià Deus Verbum non ex carne non ex sanguine non ex voluntate viri neque ex voluntate carnis sed ex Deo natus est But that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us I did not read there Sed quià Verbum caro factus est habitavit in nobis non ibi legi In those Platonick Writings I found it said in various and many forms of speech That the Word the Son is in the form of the Father counting it no robbery to be equal to God because he is by nature God Indagavi quippe in illis Platonicis literis variè dictum multis modis quòd sit Filius in forma Patris non rapinam arbitratus esse aequalis Deo quià naturaliter id ipsum est But that he emptied himself taking the form of a servant to the death of the Cross is not mentioned in those Books Sed quià seipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens in similitudinem hominum factus c. non habent illi libri Indeed that before and beyond all thine only begotten Son incommutably continueth coeternal with thy self and that mens Souls do out of his fulness receive what makes them happy and by participation of that wisdom that rests in him are made wise is affirmed in those Platonick Books Quòd enim ante omnia tempora suprà omnia tempora incommutabiliter manet unigenitus Filius tuus coaeternus tibi quia de plenitudine ejus accipiunt animae ut beatae sint quia participatione manentis in se sapientiae renovantur ut Sapientes sint est ibi c. This is a Testimony so weighty as we cannot question the truth of it being given in his Confessions made to God and so full as it not only proves this Particular That the Platonicks conceived
their obtaining a far more exceeding weight of eternal Glory but not universal Precepts obliging all Christians Gerson de religionis perfectione Religio Christiana sub uno supremo Abbate Christo sola est salutaris perfecta nibilominùs distincta gradibus meritorum ordinum qui votis aliquibus se subjiciunt ultrà legem communeâ— Christi Christian Religion profes'd under one supreme Abbat Christ is the only saving and perfect Religion It is notwithstanding distinguish'd according to the degrees of Merits and Orders So as they are most perfect who subject themselves to certain Rules beyond the common Law of Christ. Thus did these esteem the Royal Law to be an excellent Rule of Life and Heart for such as aim'd at perfection of Grace and Glory but for those that could content themselves with the common scantling they might be saved by that Religion by which their Fore-fathers had been saved there was no necessity of practising so chargeable and austere a Doctrine as that of Christ. The moralized Gentile had that Opinion of the Christian Religion in comparison of his own as he had of his own in comparison of all the rest the Jew had that esteem of Christ compared with Moses as he had of Moses compared with all other Legislators or to come to an Instance will both administer more light to this business and whereof we have from the Ancients a better account as he had of the common Jewish Religion in comparison of those stricter Sects of the Pharisee and Essene as leading to that height of Virtue as few are capable of attaining to to that Communion with God as is inaccessible saving by persons of a better Clay and therefore obtains the good word of all that are not brutified and led by untamed Passions as that which leads to the most perfect Beatitude and a trade of Life far excelling all others but not practicable in common Converse and therefore obtains observance from few As Philo speaks of the Essenes Meritò ut absolutae probitatis receptum in multis orbis regionibus a Graecis atque barbaris ordo tendens ad faelicitatem perfectissimam Philo de vita contemplativa They are deservedly entertain'd as men walking by a Rule of absolute perfection in many regions of the World both Grecians and Barbarians applaud their Order as tending to the most perfect happiness It is adored and reverenc'd at a distance by all but not approach'd to except by such as a kind of divine fury drives on to lay violent hands upon it having first laid violent hands upon themselves and thereby become dead to this mortal Life amore correpti rerum caelestium quasi divino furore perciti prae immortalis cupidine vitâ hac mortalidefuncti Id. Ibid. Josephus himself is a notable Example of this praising the Heroick degree of Virtue as absolutely the best but yet chusing a more remiss degree as best for him for though he far prefers in point of worth the Essene above the Pharisee in his discourses of them Antiq. 15. 13. he presents the Pharisee as indulg'd by Herod out of that respect he bore to Pollio a chief Master amongst them but out of the reverence which Herod had to the Religion it self of the Essenes he remitted to them the taking of the Oath of Allegiance which he imposed upon the other two Sects as conceiving the Essenes Virtue and Justice would oblige them more to duty than an Oath would the Pharisees or Sadducees And he spends so much of a long Chapter cap. 7. de Bell. Judaic 2. in commending the Essenes for that admirable degree of Temperance Tolerance Pacateness of Spirit contempt of Earth love of Heaven which they attain'd to as he almost forgets to describe the two other Sects as not worthy to stand in competition with this And in the History of his own Life gives the preheminency for Virtue to the Essenes whose Rules he followed under Bannus three years without intermission Yet when he came to near twenty and began to consider where he was and how to provide for a subsistence in this world sutable to his mind he chose the Religion of the Pharisees whom he saw on the sunny-side of the hedge as most conducible to a Civil Life as a way wherein he might safely walk towards the obtaining immortal happiness though not administring so large an entrance into it as that of the more mortified Essenes yet more easie to be kept without loss of his Secular Interests and laying more in the way Preferment c. As he himself informs us in the History of his own Life Jamque undeviginti annos natus civilem vitam aggressus sum addictus Pharisaeorum placitis Of whom notwithstanding he gives this Character that they were a slie and arrogant kind of Men pragmatical in Affairs of State enemies to Kings beguiling silly Women with shews of holiness Antiquities l. 13. c. 3. But however that Sect he chuseth as most convenient for a Civil Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocrat de pace Thus he adhered to the Religion of Moses in practice though he honour'd Christ's Doctrine in heart before it with Philo his Eunuch philosopher Philo de Josepho approving it in judgement as the most wholesome but relishing the other as more tooth-some loquitur ut oportet sed sapit contrarium Of the same make were those multitudes of Believers to whom Jesus would not trust himself knowing what was in them those of the Rulers and Pharisees who believed but did not practice his Doctrine for fear of being cast out of the Synagogue through love of the praise of men c. such were the Gnosticks the Ebionites the Hemerobaptists and the whole Frie of Mungrel-Christians who not being able to expung out of their Minds an honourable Opinion of Christ nor out of their Wills an enmity to the pureness of his Doctrine compounded the quarrel betwixt Conscience and Affection betwixt Reason and Passion § 3. Of Christ's working of Miracles which he propoundeth as another Cause of so many Disciples flocking after and adhering to him Josephus thus writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic fuit mirabilium operum patrator He was a dâ—er of admirable Works Every word and almost syllable hath its Emphasis 1. The VVorks wrought by Christ were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonderful beyond and beside the ordinary course of Nature not only in the opinion of the Vulgar who are easie to be imposed upon by Thaumatourgists by reason of their ignorance in the Reason and Cause of Effects but in the judgement of the most knowing persons for doubtless such was Josephus and such those with whom he convers'd in order to his receiving satisfaction in this Case and therefore if he had not been well assured that as it was beyond the power of the most approved minds to find out so it was out of the Sphere of Natures Activity to afford Causes of such Effects he would not have given them this Atrribute
themselves though not the Types and therefore was filled with a greater Glory when he appeared in it in whom the Godhead dwells bodily who is the Ark and Propitiation c. And that Gods withdrawing these visible Signs by degrees was an Argument the Sun was towards Rising and should have been to the Jews a provocation to expect so much more earnestly its arising as they saw the Stars disappearing one after another Yet because these Answers do not beat the Jew off from his presumption but by seeming to yeild that as to matter of fact all these were wanting harden him in his conceit that he has not sustain'd this loss upon the account of his being found guilty of our Saviours Blood I shall here shew that most of if not all these five things were in the Literal sence in the Second Temple and in being in or not long before our Saviours Time That the Ark was in the Second Temple against the Testimony of the Cabbalists I set the whole Company of the return'd from the Babylonish Captivity to attest in one of those Songs of degrees so called not because they were sung upon steps either the 15 of the ascent into the Temple or other places of advantage where the Levites stood for all Psalms were sung upon Ascents or Scaffolds Nehem. 9. 4. but because they were Sung at the Dedication of the second Temple by them that had ascended out of the Abyss of Captivity as the Chaldee Paraphraseth this Title upon their fixing of which Title first to the 120 Psalm grew that wild Talmudical story of the rising up of the Abyss at the building of that Temple which I would not have nam'd but that as ridiculous as it is it serves to prove that in their opinion the Psalms thus intituled by whomsoever at first pen'd were by the Spirit of Prophecy fitted to the case of them that ascended from the Captivity and accordingly used by them in their Singing Praise Of which mind also is Theodoret and Euthymius and to this agrees the Syriack making the Contents of Psalm 120. to be a Prayer of the People detain'd in Babel and of the following a Song of Eduction or Ascent out of Babel the best exposition of the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cùm Cyrus praecepit ut ascenderet Captivitas These Captives return'd in Psal. 122 mention the Thrones of Judgment there set the Thrones of the House of David one of which Thrones was that of the Glory of God the Ark of his presence saith R David and ver 4. they mention the going up of the Tribes to the Testimony of Israel that is saith R. Obad. to be resolv'd in their doubts that could not by other evidence be determined by the Priest consulting God before the Ark as they were directed Deut. 17. The Ark is called the Ark of Testimony partly because the Law was kept in the Ark in its Original by which all Copies were to be examin'd and what was doubtful in them by it to be determined partly because from the Oracle over the Ark between the Cherubims God testified what his will was in such cases which he had not so distinctly declared in that common Rule hence the Oracle upon the Ark or the Ark in respect of that Oracle is called simply The Testimony in distinction to the Law in that Text Isa. 8. 26. To the Law and to the Testimony where we must not think the Holy Spirit Tautologizeth in giving so short a direction but as the Heathens enquired in their Pontifical Books and at vive-voyce Oracles where those Books came short of a Determination so God appoints his people first to the Law and then to the living Oracle The sence then which their own most learned Rabbies and such as flourish'd before their Enmity to the Gospel put their Expositors to wrest the Scriptures into a thousand forms that they might not speak for the Christians put upon those Texts is such as speaketh the return'd in the Second Temple to have rejoyced in this that they had an opportunity and invitation to go up to the Ark of the Testimony to the Throne of Gods presence the Ark. The learned Castellio goes so far along with me and these most antient Rabbies as to render Testimony by Oracle In another of those Psalms of ascent the whole Choire of them ascended out of Babylon introduce the Ark into the second Temple in this form of words Psal 132. 8. Arise O Lord and come into thy resting place thou and the Ark of thy strength the same in sence that Solomon used at the Dedication of the first Temple saith R. David For the Ark as it went with them into so it returned with them out of Captivity saith Heb. Syr. upon Verse 6. We found it in the Fields expounding the Fields by Mich. 4. 10. Thou shalt dwell in the Field thou shalt go to Babylon I do not mean it was carried into Babylon but hid together with the Tabernacle and Altar of Incense by Jeremy 2 Maccab. 2. 4. an authority which though ingeniously confest by the Writer to be but humane will with unbyast Persons out-weigh the word of the whole Tribe of Cabbalists And that the Ark was restored is further manifest because the return'd from Captivity do direct their Worship towards it in ver 7. We will worship at his footstool Whether of these Opinions is of harder digestion That those purified sons of Levy newly come out of the Furnace of Affliction should offer the Sacrifice of Fools not considering what they said should sprinkle God with the Court-holy-water of Complemental Thanks for what they had not been blest with should dance before the Lord after the Pipe of their own deluded Fancy and praise him with Songs made in their golden Dreams of an Ark when they had not the Ark or that their degenerate successors should belye the goodness of God in denying the Typical as they do the real Ark of Gods presence to have been in that Temple and which of these Testimonies is most credible This of the blinded modern Jewes who that they might with more liberty blaspheme the blessed Jesus have conjured out of one Letters want in a word the Second Temples want of five things which the First had and among them the Ark of the Covenant Or that of the antient and impartial Rabbies who in their Comments upon these Texts introduce their Forefathers blessing God after their Restauration from the Babylonish Bondage for restoring to them that Symbol of his presence upon whose Testimony 't is so far from being a Fable as Weemes is pleas'd to call it I think it may be concluded as more then probable that the Second Temple enjoyed the Ark as long as Jerusalem enjoy'd the Temple that is till it was brought in Triumph to Rome § 2. But they are more impudent in reckoning the holy Fire to have been wanting in the Second Temple against the manifest Testimony of their Progenitors the Jews of