Constantine assembled at Nice in Years of J. C. 315 Bythinia the first General Council where Years of J. C. 324 318 Bishops who represented all the Church Years of J. C. 325 condemned the Priest Arius that was an utter Enemy to the Divinity of Christ and there they made the Creed where the Consubstantiality of the Father and the Son was established The Priests of the Roman Church sent by Pope St. Sylvester preceded all the Bishops of that Assembly and an Antient Greek Author mentions among the Legates of the Holy See Gel. Cyric Hist. Conc. Nic. lib. ii 6. 27. the Famous Osiâ—s Bishop of Cordoüa who was President of that Council Constantine took his Seat there and received their Decisions as an Oracle from Heaven The Arians concealed their Errors and by their dissimulations recovered his good Favour Whilst that his valour kept the Empire in Soveraign Tranquillity Years of J. C. 320 the Quiet of his Family was disturbed by the Artifices of Fausta his Wife Crispus the Son of Constantine but by another marriage being accused by this his Step-mother for offering to violate her had the misfortune was to find his Father inflexible But his death was quickly revenged Fausta convicted was suffocated in the Bath But Constantine though he was dishonoured by the malice of his Wife yet at the same time received a great deal of Honour by the Piety of his Mother She discovered among the Ruins of the Old Jerusalem the True Cross that has been so fruitful in working of Miracles The Holy Sepulchre was likewise found The New City of Jerusalem which Adrian had caused to be built The place where our Saviour of the World was born and all the other holy Places were adorned with stately Temples by Helena and Constantine Four Years of J. C. 330 years after the Emperor rebuilt Bysantium which he called Constantinople and made it to be the second Seat of the Empire The peaceable Church under Constantine was miserably afflicted in Persia An infinite number of Years of J. C. 336 Martyrs there did signalize their Faith The Emperor in vain endeavoured to qualify Sapor and to bring him over to Christianity Constantine's Protection gave to the persecuted Christians a very favourable retreat Years of J. C. 337 That Prince blessed by all the Church departed this Life full of Joy and hope after he had shared the Empire amongst his three Sons Constantine Constantius and Constans But that Agreement was quickly troubled Constantine dyed in the War he had with his Brother Constance for the Limits of the Years of J. C. 340 Empire Constantius and Constance were not much longer united Constance held the Nicene Faith which Constantius opposed Then the Church admired the long and wonderful Sufferings of St. Athanasius the Patriarch of Alexandria and the defender of the Nicene Council Being driven from his See by Years of J. C. 341 Constantius Soc. Hist. Eccl. ii 15. Sozom. iii. 8. he was canonically re-invested by Pope St. Julius the first whose Decree Constance ratifyed and confirmed That good Prince lived not long The Tyrant Magnentius traiterously killed him but Years of J. C. 350 soon after conquered by Constantius he killed Years of J. C. 351 himself In the Battle where his Affairs were utterly quashed and ruined Valentiâ—s the Arrian Bishop secretly being advertised Years of J. C. 353 by his Friends assured Constantius that the Tyrant's Army was upon it's flight and made the weak Emperor to believe that this he knew by Revelation Upon this false Report Constantius delivers himself to the Arrians The Orthodox Bishops are banished from their Sees the whole Church is filled with confusion and trouble the constancy of Pop Liberius is overcome by the vexations of the exile torments force the Aged Osius Years of J. C. 357 to faint who was before the support and bulwark of the Church The Council of Rimini so strong at first no longer could hold out but yields by surprise and violence Nothing is done according to order and method The Emperor's Authority is now the only Law But the Arrians who did all by that means could not agree amongst themselves but were every day changing their Creed That of Nice continued St. Athanasius and St. Hilary Bishop of Poictiers it 's chief Defenders made themselves famous over all the Earth whilst the Emperor Constantius was so wholly taken up about the affairs of Arianism that he was carelâ—ss and negligent of those of the Empire the Persians got very considerable Advantages The Years of J. C. 357. 358. Germans and the Francs attempted on all Years of J. C. 359 parts to bring in the Gauls Julian one of the Emperâ—rs Kinsmen hindred them and beat them The Emperor himself defeated the Samatü and went against the Persians There began the Revolt of Julian against the Emperor his Apostasy the Death of Years of J. C. 360 Constantius the Reign of Julian his equitable Years of J. C. 361 Government and the new kind of Persecution which he brought upon the Church He made divisions in it he excluded the Christians not only from all manner of Honours but even from their Studies and in imitation of the Holy Discipline of the Church he thought to turn his own Arms against it Punishments were managed and appointed under other Pretences Years of J. C. 363 than that of Religion The Christians remained faithful to the Emperor but the Glory which he too earnestly sought destroyed him He was slain in Persia where he had too rashly and precipitately engaged himself Jovianus his Successor a zealous Christian sound things very sad and desperate and only lived to conclude a shameful Years of J. C. 364 and dishonourable Peace After him Valentinian made War like a mighty Captain he brought up his Son Gratianus to it very young kept up the Military Discipline beat the Barbanians fortified the Fronners of the Empire and protected the Nicene Faith in the West Valentius his Brother whom he made his Collegue persecuted it in the East and not being able to gain over nor to crush St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzen he despaired of ever being able to conquer it There were some Arrians that joyned new Errors to the antient Dâ—gmata and precepts of their Sect. Aëâ—â—us an Arrian Priest is taken notice of in the Writings of the Fathers as the Author of a new Heresie Epiph. har 75. Aug. haer 53. for having equalized the Priesthood to the Episcopacy and for adjudging the Prayers and Oblations which the whole Church used to put up for the Dead to be unavailable and insignificant A third Error of this Grand Heretic was his reckoning among the Servitudes of the Law the keeping of certain appointed Fasts and for this being of opinion that Fasts should be always free and voluntary He lived when St. Epiphanius made himself so famous by his History of Heresies where he among the rest is refuted St. Martin Years of J. C. 375 was made Bishop of Tours
Temple and made the Holiness of that place to be respected and sent the Lepers whom he healed unto the Priests Thereby he taught men how they ought to repress and correct abuses without ever being prejudiced at the Ministry established by God himself and shewed that the Body of the Synagogue subsisted notwithstanding the Corruption of some of its private Members But it did apparently incline to ruine The High-Priests and the Pharisees stirred up the People of the Jews against Christ for their Religion was almost quite turned into Superstition They could not indure the Saviour of the World who called them to substantial tho' difficult Practices The most holy and the best of all men nay even holiness and goodness it self became the most envied and the most hated But that did not discourage him for he ceased not doing good to his Citizens but he saw their ingratitude he foretold their punishment even weeping and denounced to Jerusalem her hasty destruction He also prophesied that the Jews who were Enemies to the Truth which he declared should be delivered up to Errour and become the Mockery of the false Prophets In the mean time the jealousie of the Pharisees and the Priests brings him to a most infamous and accursed death his Disciples forsake him one of them betrays him the first and the most zealous of all denâ—es him thrice Being accused before the Council he honours even to the last the Ministry of the Priests and answers the High-Priest particularly to the Questions he interrogated him in a Judicial way But the hour was come that the Synagogue was to be reproved The High-Priest and all the Council condemn Jesus Christ because he called himself The Christ the Son of God He was delivered up to Pontius Pilate the Roman President his Innocence was confessed by his Judge whom yet Polity and Interest made to act against the convictions of his own Conscience The just One is condemned to death the greatest of all Crimes gives place to the most perfect Obedience that ever was Jesus the Master of his own life and of all things else gives up himself voluntarily to the fury of the wicked Multitude and offers the Sacrifice which was to be the expiation of Mankind On the Cross he sees in the Prophecies what yet remained to be done and he fulfils it and then says It is finished At that word every thing in the World was changed the Law ceased John 19.30 the Types were over its Sacrifices were abolished by a more perfect Oblation That done Jesus Christ expires with a loud groan all Nature was moved the Centurion who watched him being greatly astonished at such a Death cried out and said Matth. 27.50 54. Truly this was the Son of God and those that had beheld it returned to their own homes smiting their Breasts On the third day he arose again from the dead appeared to his Disciples who had forsaken him and who could by no means believe his Resurrection They saw him spake with him touched and handled him and were convinced To confirm the Faith of his Resurrection he shewed himself at divers times and in divers circumstances His Disciples saw him in private and likewise saw him all together He appeared to above five hundred Brethren at once 1 Cor. 15.6 An Apostle who wrote of it assures us that the greater part were then alive at the writing of his Epistle Jesus Christ being risen giveth to his Apostles what time they required throughly to consider of him and after he had put himself into their hands all the ways they could desire so that not the least scruple of a Doubt could possibly remain in them he commanded them to bear witness of what they had seen of what they had heard and of what their hands had handled And that none might doubt of the credit of their Evidence any more than of their Persuasion he obliged them to seal their Testimony with their Blood Thus their preaching was not to be shaken the foundation of it was a positive fact unanimously attested by those that saw it Their sincerity was justified by the strongest proof and trial imaginable which was that of torments and of death it self Those were the Instructions which the Apostles received Upon that foundation did twelve Fishermen undertake to convert all the World which they saw so set against the Laws that they were commissionated to prescribe to them and the Truths they had to declare They were ordered to begin at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 and from thence to scatter themselves throughout all the Earth Acts 1.8 Matth. 28.19 20. instructing all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Jesus Christ promises them to be with them alway even to the end of the World and by that very word assures them of the perpetual Continuance of the Ecclesiastical Ministry And when he had said that he ascends into Heaven in their sight The Promises were accomplished the Prophecies had then their Scene fully opened The Gentiles were called to the Knowledge of God by the Command of Jesus Christ that was risen from the dead a new Ceremony was instituted for the Regeneration of the new People and the Faithful are taught that the true God the God of Israel that one and indivisible God to whom they are consecrated in Baptism is together in himself Father Son and Holy Ghost There are then propounded to us the incomprehensible Depths of the Divine Being and the ineffable Greatness of his Unity and the infinite Riches of that Nature more fruitful yet within than without able to communicate himself without any manner of Division to three equal Persons There are explained the Mysteries which were folded and as it were sealed up in the antient Writings We understand the meaning of that saying Gen. 1.26 Let us make Man in our Image and tne Trinity set forth in Man's Creation is expresly declared in his Regeneration We learn by it what that Wisdom was which was conceived before all times in the Bosom of God as Solomon speaks Prov. 8.22.23 24 25 26 27. That Wisdom which made up all his Delight and by which all his Works were made We know who he was that David saw in the Psal 110.3 Beauties of Holiness from the Womb of the Morning and the New Testament informs us that it was the Word the inward Word of God and his eternal Thought who is always in his Bosom and by whom all things were made By that we can answer that mysterious Question which is put to us in the Proverbs Prov. 30.4 Wâ—o hath ascended up into Heaven or descended Who hath gathered the Wind in his Fists Who hath bound the Waters in a Garment Who hath established all the ends of the Earth What is his Name and what is his Son's Name if thou canst tell For we know that that so mysterious and so hidden name of God is the name of
his very kindnesses brought the worst of punishments Jesus Christ dyed without finding any Gratitude in those whom he obliged nor Fidelity from his Friends nor Equity in his Judges His Innocence although it was acknowledged did not save him his Father himself in whom alone he had put his trust and hope withdrew all the Marks of his Protection the Just is delivered up to his Enemies and he dyed forsaken both of God and Men. But every good and holy man will see that in those his greatest Extremities he neither stood in need of any Humane Consolation nor even any visible and sensible Sign of the Divine Succour for it was God he only loved and in whom he only trusted and he was sure that He thought on him though there were not any outward signs of it and that an everlasting Happiness was reserved for him Soc. apud Plat. Dial. 11. de Rep. The wisest of the Philosophers in his researches after an Idea of Vertue found out that as of all wicked men he would be the most flagitious who knew how most artificially to hide his Malice that he might be taken for a good man and by that means enjoy all the credit that Vertue was able to give him so the most vertuous man without doubt was he whose perfective Vertue gained him the envy and jealousie of all men so that he had only the integrity of his own unreproveable Conscience on his side though he saw himself exposed to all manner of Injuries even to be nailed on the Cross his Vertue not being able to afford him that poor Succour of freeing him from such a Punishment Certainly God did put this marvellous Idea of Vertue in the mind of a Philosopher to render it effective in the Person of his Son and to shew that the Just man had another Glory another Repose and in a word another Happiness than he could have here upon Earth To make clear this truth and to shew it fulfilled so visibly in himself at the expence of his own Life was the greatest work that a man could do and God found it so great that he reserved it for this so much promised Messiah for this Man whom he made the same Person with his only Son Indeed what greater thing could be reserved for a God that was to come down upon the Earth and what could he do here more worthy of himself than to shew Vertue in all its purity and the eternal Happiness to which we are led by those Sufferings which this World looks on as the most grievous and reproachful But if we will consider what yet there was of a higher and more perfective Excellency in the Mystery of the Cross what Human Understanding can fathom it There are discovered to us such Vertues as none but the God-Man could practise Who else could like him put himself in the stead of all the old Sacrifices and abolish them in substituting to them a Victime of infinite Dignity and Merit and to order for the future that none besides himself should be offered up to God such was the act of Religion that Jesus Christ performed on the Cross The Eternal Father could he find either among Men or Angels an Obedience equal to that which his Well-beloved Son paid him as when nothing was able to take his Life out of his hands he voluntarily laid it down to please him What shall I say of the perfect Union of all his Desires with the Divine Will and of the Love whereby God was in him 2 Cor. 5.19 reconciling the World unto himself In that incomprehensible Union he embraced all Mankind he pacified Heaven and Earth he plunged himself with an immense ardour into that Deluge of Blood with which he was to be baptized with all his faithful Followers Luke 12.50 and he made to come out of his Wounds the fire of Divine Love which was to burn up all the Earth But that which passes all understanding is to behold the Justice used by that God-Man who was suffered to be condemned by the World to the end that the World might remain eternally condemned through the enormous Iniquity of that Judgment John 12.31 Now is the Judgment of this World now shall the Prince of this World be cast out as our Saviour Christ himself declares Hell which had undone the World was now going to destroy him in attacking the Innocent it will be forced to remit the Guilty whom it held Captive the miserable Obligation whereby we were delivered up to the Rebellious Angels was cancelled And you being dead in your sins Coloss 2.13 14 15. and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickned together with him having forgiven you all trespasses blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross and having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Hell being spoiled and defeated groaned the Cross was a place of triumph and rejoycing to our Saviour and the Powers that were Enemies tremblingly followed the Chariot of the Conquerour But a greater Triumph yet was laid before our Eyes the Divine Justice was it self vanquished the Sinner who was due to it as its Victime was snatch'd out of its hands He found a Surety was able to pay for him an infinite price Jesus Christ was eternally united to the Elect for whom he gave himself they became his Members and his Body the Eternal Father could no longer look upon them but in him their Head therefore he likewise extended towards them the infinite Love which he had for his Son 'T was this Son himself that begged it of him he would not be separated from those men whom he had bought and redeemed with his most precious Blood Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me John 17.24 25 26. be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the World O righteous Father the World hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me And I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them they shall be filled with my Spirit they shall enjoy my glory they shall partake with me Rev. 3.21 even to the sitting on my Throne After so great a Benefit what can there be more than Cryes of Joy and Thanks whereby to be able to express our Acknowledgments O miracles Justin Epist ad Diognet cryes out a great Philosopher and a great Martyr O incomprehensible exchanged and surprising artifice of the Divine Wisdom One single One is smitten and all are delivered God smites his Innocent Son for the sake of Guilty men and he pardons Guilty men for the sake of his Innocent Son The Just
paid what he never owed and acquits the Sinners of their debt for what could better cover our Sins than his Righteousness What better way could the Rebellion of Servants be expiated than by the obedience of the Son The iniquity of many is hid in one just One and the justice of One alone makes it that many are justified What then are we not to pretend to God commendeth has love towards us Rom. 5.8 9. in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Much more then being now justified by his Blood we shall be saved from wrath through him All was for us by Jesus Christ Grace holiness life glory blessedness the Kingdom of the Son of God is our Inheritance there is nothing above us provided only that we do not degenerate and make our selves vile Whilst Jesus Christ was filling up our desires and surpassing our hopes he finished the work of God which was begun under the Patriarchs and in the Law of Moses Then God resolved to make himself known by sensible Experiences he shewed himself very magnificent in Temporal Promises good in heaping upon his Children such Blessings as flattered the Senses powerful in delivering them from the hands of their Enemies faithful in leading them into the Land of Promise to their Fathers just by the Rewards and Punishments which he openly sent them according to their works All his marvellous Works prepared the way for the Truths which Jesus Christ came to teach If God be so good as to bestow on us what is agreeable to our Senses how much rather shall he give unto us what is agreeable to our Souls which were made after his own Image If he be so tender and beneficent towards his Children shall he shut up his love and his bounty in those few years which make up our life Will he give to those whom he loves only a shadow of Felicity a fertile Land in Corn and Oyl Will there not be a heavenly Country wherein he will abundantly recompence us with true and everlasting good things There will be one without all peradventure and Jesus Christ will come to shew it us For indeed the Almighty would do works very unworthy of himself if all his magnificence should terminate in Grandeurs that were only exposed to our weak and infirm Senses Whatsoever is not eternal is neither correspondent to the Majesty of an Eternal God nor does it answer the hopes of man to whom he hath made known his eternity and that unchangeable fidelity which he bears to his Servants will never have an Object proportionable to it until it be extended to something that is immortally permanent Therefore will Jesus Christ at last come and open the Heavens to us to disocover there to our Faith that abiding City Heb. 11.8.9 10 13 14 15 16. which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God where we are to be gathered together after this life He shews us that if God make Eternal to be one of his Titles the Name of the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob it is because those holy men are always living before him Matth. 22.32 Luke 20.38 For God is not the God of the dead but of the living It is below him to do only as men accompany his friends to the Grave without giving them any hope beyond and it would be if I may speak with reverence reproachable for him to call himself with so much of force and energy the God of Abraham if he had not founded in the Heavens an Eternal City wherein Abraham and his Children may be happy throughout all Generations 'T is thus therefore that these Truths of a Futurity were unfolded to us by Jesus Christ Heb. 11.14 15 16. He shewed them to us even under the Law the true Land of Promise was the heavenly Kingdom 'T was that blessed Country that Abraham Isaac and Jacob desired Palestine did not deserve to be the Boundary of their fervent Vows nor to be the sole object of so long an expectation of our Fathers Egypt from whence we were to come out the Wilderness through which we were to pass Babylon whose Prison-walls we were to break to enter or to return into our Country that was this World with all its delights and vanities for here it was that we were truly Captives and Pilgrims led astray by Sin and Concupiscence we were to shake off this Yoke to find in Jerusalem and in the City of our God true liberty and an House or Sanctuary not made with hands 2 Cor. 5.1 eternal in the Heavens where the Glory of the God of Israel should be manifested to us By this Doctrine of Jesus Christ the Mystery of God was laid open to us the Law was all Spiritual its Promises were introductive of those of the Gospel and served as a Foundation to them One and the same light was visible throughout it arose under the Patriarchs under Moses and the Prophets it increased Jesus Christ who was greater than the Patriarchs who came with more Authority than Moses and who was more illuminated than all the Prophets discovered this unto us in his fulness To this Christ to this God-Man to this Man who held upon Earth as St. Austin speaks the place of The Truth and discovers it to be personally resident amongst us to him I say it was reserved to shew us all Truth that is to say so much of the Mysteries of the Vertues and of the Rewards as God had designed for those whom he really loved These were the Grandeurs which the Jews ought to have look'd for in their Messiah There is nothing so great and glorious as to carry in it self and to discover unto men Truth in its fulness and perfection which seeds them and directs them and clears up their eyes so as to make 'em capable of seeing God Now in this time when the Truth was to be discovered to men with that fulness it was also commanded to be promulged throughout all the Earth and at all times God gave to Moses but one single People and one determined time but all Ages and all the People of the World were given to Jesus Christ he hath his Elect every where and his Church extensive as the Universe shall never leave off her bringing them forth Go saith he therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Matth. 28.19 20. and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World Amen VII The Descent of the Holy Ghost the Establishment of the Church The Judgements of God on the Jews and on the Gentiles To disperse into all Places and in all Ages such eminent Truths and to put such pure and admirable Practices in force amidst such Corruption there was need of a Vertue more than Humane Wherefore Jesus Christ promised to send the Holy
the Kingdom of Argos After Abraham there was Isaac his Son and Jacob Grandson the Imitators and followers of his Faith and Simplicity in the same pastoral Life God did also to them reiterate the same Promises he had made to Abraham their Father Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1759 and as he had done him he conducted them Years of the World 2245 in all things Isaac blessed Jacob to the prejudice as well as grief of Esau his elder Brother and deceived in appearance in effect and reality he executes the Counsels and Determinations of God Jacob whom God protected was in all things to be preferred to Esau An Angel with whom he mysteriously fought gave unto him the Name of Israel from whence his Posterity were called Israelites From his Loins came the Twelve Patriarchs Fathers to the Twelve Tribes of the Hebrew People among others Levi from whence issued the Ministers of Sacred things Judah from whom came CHRIST the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and Joseph whom Jacob loved above all the rest of his Children In him were made manifest some new Secrets of Providence But above all things was seen the Innocence and Wisdom of young Joseph who was always an utter Enemy to Wickedness and Vice and careful to repress and hinder it in his Brethren his Mysterious and Prophetick Dreams his Brethren jealous and Jealousie twice the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1728 Cause of a Parricide the selling of this Years of the World 2276 their Great Brother his Fidelity to his Master and his most admirable Chastity the dangerous Calamities it brought upon him Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1717 his Prison and his Constancy his Predictions Years of the World 2287 his miraculous Deliverance that Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1715 Famous Interpretation of Pharaoh's Dreams Years of the World 2289 the Desert of so Great a Man required his Genius elevated and fitted for his Place and God's Protection which made him to Rule Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1706 where-ever he was his Foresight his wise Years of the World 2298 Counsels and his absolute Power in the Kingdome of the Lower Aegypt By this means here was the Safety of his Father Jacob and his Family This Family cherished by God was thus setled and established in that part of Aegypt whereof Tanis was the Capital and of which the Kings took Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1689 the Name of Pharaoh Jacob dies and a Years of the World 2315 little before his Death he delivers this most celebrated Prophecy where discovering to his Sons the Patriarchs the State of their Posterity he particularly points out to Judah the time of the Messiah's coming into the World who was to proceed from his Race This Patriarch's Houshold became a very great People in a little time and this prodigious increase and multiplying raised the Aegyptians Jealousie The Hebrews are unjustly hated and without any pity persecuted God raises up Moses their Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1571 Deliverer whom he preserved from the Years of the World 2433 River Nilus and made him fall into the Hands of Pharaoh's Daughter She brought him up as her own Child and instructed him in all the Wisdom of the Aegyptians At that time the People of Aegypt setled themselves in several Places of Greece The Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1556 Colony that Cecrops brought out of Aegypt Years of the World 2448 founded twelve Cities or rather Towns of which he made the Kingdom of Athens and where he established with the Laws of his Country the Gods that were to be worshipped there Marm. Arund seu Aera Att. A little after hapned the Deucalion-Flood in Thessaly confounded by the Greeks with the Universal Deluge Hellen the Son of Deucalion reigned in Phtie a Country in Thessaly and gave his Name to Greece The People which before were called Greeks ever since have born the Name of Helleneses tho' the Latins have called them by their old Name Moreover about this time Cadmus the Son of Agenor transported into Greece a Colony of Phoenicians and founded the City of Thebes in Boeotia The Syrian and Phoenician Gods came along with him into Greece In the mean while Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1531 Moses grew up in years and about the Fortieth Years of the World 2473 of his Age he despised the Riches of the Court of Aegypt and touched with the Wickedness of his Brethren the Israelites to appease and moderate them he ventured his own Life But these Men were so far from receiving any Benefit by his Zeal and Courage that they exposed him to the Fury of Pharaoh who was resolved on his Ruine Moses flies out of Aegypt into Arabia to the Land of Midian where his Virtue which was always ready to relieve the Oppressed made him find a safe Retreat Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1491 This Great Man without any hopes of delivering Years of the World 2513 his People or expectation of better Times had spent Forty years in keeping the Flock of Jethro his Father-in-Law when he saw in the Desart a Burning Bush and heard the Voice of the God of his Fathers who sent him back into Aegypt to bring forth his Brethren the Children of Israel out of Captivity There appeared the Humility Courage and Miracles of that Divine Legislator the Hardness of Pharaoh's Heart and the terrible Plagues which God sent upon him the Passover and the next day the Passing over the Red Sea Pharaoh and the Aegyptians drowned in those Waters and the absolute Deliverance of the Israelites IV. Epocha Moses or the Written Law The Time of the Written Law now begins It was given to Moses Four hundred and thirty years after the Calling of Abraham Eight hundred fifty six years after the Flood and the same year that the Hebrew Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1491 People came out of Aegypt This Date is Years of the World 2513 very observable because it is very useful for designating the whole time that has elapsed ever since Moses unto Jesus Christ All this Time is called the Time of the Written Law to distinguish it from the precedent Time which is called the Time of the Law of Nature wherein Men had only for their Guide and Rule of Governance Natural Reason and the Traditions of their Ancestors God then having freed his People from the Tyranny of the Aegyptians and brought them into the Land where he designed to be served and worshipped before ever he established it there he proposed to him the Law according to which he was to live He wrote with his own Hand upon two Tables of Stone which he delivered to Moses upon the top of Mount Sinai the Foundation of this Law that is to say the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments which contain the First Principles how God is to be worshipped and Humane Society preserved He dictated to the same Moses the other Precepts by which he established the Tabernacle Heh ix 9 23. the
Years of the World 3116 to change Figure in the Kingdom of Judah Athaliah the Daughter of Ahab and Jezabel carried Impiety along with her into the House of Jehosaphat Jehoram the Son of so pious a Prince chose rather to imitate his Father-in-Law than his own Father Years be ∣ fore J. C. 885 The Hand of God was upon him His Years of the World 3119 Reign was short and his End dreadful In the midst of his Chastisements God wrought unheard-of Prodigies even in favour of the Israelites whom he would now recaâ—l to Repentance They saâ— without ever being converted the Wonders of Elijah and Elisha who prophesied during the Reign of Ahab Mâ—rrâ— Aâ—â—na and five of his Successors At this time Hâ—mer flourished as Hesiod had done Thirty years before The Ancient Manners aâ—d Customs which they represent to us and the Vestigia that they still keep with much Grandeur and with the ancient Simplicity does not a little serve to let us understand the Antiquities that are a great deal more remote and the Divine Simplicity Years be ∣ fore J. C. 884 of the Scripture There had been terrible Years of the World 3120 Spectacles in the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel Jezabâ—l was thrown down out of a Tower-window by the command of Jehu who valued not the painting her Face and tyring her Head but fulfilled the Word of the Lord in causing his Horses to tread her under their Feet He killed Jehoram King of Israel the Son of Ahab even all the House of Ahab was destroyed and it wanted but a little of drawing that of the Kings of Judah into its own Ruine King Ahazia the Son of Joram King of Judah and of Athaliah was slain in Samaria with his Brethren as an Ally and Friend to the Children of Ahab As soon as this News was brought to Jerusalem Athaliah resolved to cut off all that remained of the Seed-Royal without sparing her own Children and so to reign and govern by the loss of her own Only Jehoash the Son of Ahaziah a Child that then hung at the Breast was stole away from her Fury by Jehosheba his Aunt Jehosheba the Sister of Ahaziah and Wife of Jehoiada the High-Priest hid him in the House of the Lord and saved that only precious Remainder of the House of David Athaliah who thought him dead with the rest lived without fear Plat. de Repâ—◠〈…〉 Arist â—olit l. 2. c. 9. Lycurgus prescribed Laws to the Lacedemonians He is rebuked for having made them all Martial after the Example of Minos whose Institutions he had followed and for having but little provided for the Womens Modesty for that so he might make all his Men Soldiers he obliged them to a very laborious and temperate Life Nothing was stirring in Judah against Athaliah and therefore she thought her self established during a six years Reign But God raised her up an Years be ∣ fore J. C. 678 Avenger in the holy Sanctuary of his Temple Years of the World 3326 When he was come to be seven years old Jehoiada made him known to some of the Rulers over Hundreds with the Captains of the Guard and the Royal Army whom he had carefully managed and being assisted with the Priests he anointed the young King in the Temple Easily were the People persuaded to acknowledge the Heir of Davâ—d and of Jehosaphat At the noise whereof Athaliah ran to dissipate the Conspiracy but being forced without the Ranges of the Temple she there received the Reward of her Crimes As long as Jehoiada lived Joash reigneth well keeping to the Law of Moses After the Death of this holy Man of God corrupted by the Flatteries of his Courtiers he falls in with them to downright Idolatry The High-Priest Years be ∣ fore J. C. 840 Zacharias the Son of Jehoiada was resolved Years of the World 3164 to reprove him for it but Jehoash without ever being mindful of what he owed to his Father caused him to be stoned But Vengeance followed close at the heels of Years be ∣ fore J. C. 839 this for the next year Jehoash being beaten Years of the World 3165 by the Syrians and fallen into contempt was assassinated by his own Subjects and Amaziah his Son a better Man than himself was set upon the Throne Years be ∣ fore J. C. 825 The Kingdom of Israel being wasted and Years of the World 3179 depressed by the Victories of the Kings of Syria and by Civil Wars re-assumed its Forces under Jeroboam II. who was more pious than his Predecessors Hoziah otherwise called Azariah the Son of Amaziah also governed the Kingdom of Judah with no less Honour and Glory This is that Years be ∣ fore J. C. 810 Famous Hoziah that was smitten with Leprosie Years of the World 3194 and often reproved in Scripture for having towards his latter days presumed to take upon him the Priestly Office and against the Prohibition of the Law had himself offered up Incense upon the Altar of Perfumes He was to be set aside though he was a King according to the Law of Moses and Jotham his Son who was afterwards his Successor did wisely govern the Kingdom Under the Reign of Hoziah the Holy Prophets the Chief of whom at that time were Hosea and Isaiah began to publish their Prophecies in Writing and in particular Books the Originals of which they deposited in the Temple to serve as a Monument to Posterity The Lesser Prophecies which were given only vivâ voce were as was usual registred in the Rolls of the Temple with the History of the time The Years be ∣ fore J. C. 776 Olympic Games instituted by Hercules and Years of the World 3228 long discontinued were re-established and from that re-establishment came the Olympiades by which the Grecians counted their Years Aboâ—â— this time ended that which Varro calls thâ— Fabulous because the profane Histories then were full of confusion and falsities and the Historical times began wherein the affairs of the World were reported with more exactness and fidelity The first Olympiad is marked out by the victory of Corebus They were renewed every five years and after four years Revolution There in the Assembly of all Greece at Pisa first and afterwards at Elida those famous Combats were celebrated where the Conquerors were crowned with incredible Applauses The Exercises likewise were in great honour and Greece every day became more strong and more cultivated Italy as yet was almost all over savage The Latin Kings of Aeneas's Race reigned at Alba. Phul was King of Assyria 'T was believ'd he was the Father of Sardanapalus called according to the Eastern Custom Sardan Pul that is to say Sardan the Son of Phul. 'T was also thought that this Phul or Pul had been King Years be ∣ fore J. C. 771 of â—ineveh who joined with his People in Years of the World 3233 Repentance at the Preaching of Jonas That Prince invited by the Confusions of the Kingdom of Israel went to invade it but
Eastern Country But it did not enjoy them long For that King who had illustrated it with such magnificence when he was dying saw the approaching ruin of that famous City His Son Evilmerodac Years be ∣ fore J. C. 562 whose Debauches had rendred him odious Years of Rome 192 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 560 lived not long for he was killed by Neriglissor Years of Rome 194 his Brother-in-Law Abyd apud Euseb l. 9. Praep. Ev. c. ult who usurped the Kingdom Pisistratus also in Athens usurp'd the Soveraign Authority which he understood very well how to keep for thirty years amidst several vicissitudes and afterwards left it to his Children Neriglissor could not bear with the power of the Medes which grew very great in the East and therefore declared war against them Whilst Astyages the Son of Cyagorus I. was preparing to resist him he dyed and left the War to be maintain'd by his Son Cyagorus II. called in Daniel Darius the Mede He appointed for the General of his Army Cyrâ—s the Son of Mandana his Sister and of Cambyses King of Persia who was subject to the Empire of the Medes The Reputation of Cyrus which had been signalized in divers Wars under Astyages his Grand-father re-united most of the Eastern Kings under the Standards of Cyagorus He Years be ∣ fore J. C. 548 took in his Capital City Croesus King of Lydia Years of Rome 206 and possest himself with his vast Estate and Riches he brought down the other Allies Years be ∣ fore J. C. 543 of the Kings of Babylon and extended Years of Rome 211 his Dominion not only over Syria but also very far in the lesser Asia At last he marches Years be ∣ fore J. C. 538 against Babylon takes it and submits it to Years of Rome 216 Cyagorus his Uncle who being no less affected with his Fidelity than his great Exploits gave him his only Daughter and Heiress in Years be ∣ fore J. C. 537 Marriage In the Reign of Cyagorus Daniel Years of Rome 217 already honoured under the precedent Reigns with several Visions from Heaven in which he saw pass before him in such plain and manifest Figures so many Kings and Empires learnt by a New Revelation those Seventy famous Weeks by which the Time of Jesus Christ and the Destiny of the Jewish People are explained It was the Weeks of Years and contain'd 490 Years and this way of computation was ordinary and familiar among the Jews who observed the Seventh Year as well as the Seventh Day with a Religious repose Years be ∣ fore J. C. 536 Some time after this Vision Cyagorus dyed Years of Rome 218 as well as Cambyses the Father of Cyrus and this great Man who succeeded them joined the Kingdom of Persia till then obscure unto the Kingdom of the Medes so mightily greatn'd by its Conquests Thus was He the quiet and peaceable Master of all the East and founded the greatest Empire that ever was in the World But that which is most remarkable for the continuance of our Epochas is that this great Conquerour in the first Year of his Reign gave his Decree for the Re-establishing of the Temple of God in Jerusalem and the Jews in Judea Here we ought a little to make a stop because it is the most entangled place of all the Antient Chronology by reason of the difficulty in conciliating the Prophane History with the Sacred No question but your Highness hath already observed that this account I have given you of Cyrus is much different from what you have read of him in Justin that he speaks nothing of the second Kingdom of the Assyrians nor of those famous Kings of Assyria and Babylon so memorable in the Sacred History and in short this Relation of mine is very incongruous to that which is reported by the Author of the three first Monarchies of that of the Assyrians ended in the Person of Sardanapalâ—s that of the Medes ended in Astyages the Grandfather of Cyrus and this of the Persians began by Cyrus and destroy'd by Alexander Your Highness may be pleased to add to Justin Diodorus with most of the Greek and Latin Authors whose Writings are yet extant who give you these Histories after quite another manner than this I have followed As to what belongs to Cyrus Hieron in Dan. the Prophane Authors are in no agreement among themselves about his History but I thought it best to follow rather Xenophon with St. Jerome than Ctesias a fabulous Author whom most of the Grecians have copy'd and written after as Justin and the Latins have follow'd the Grecians and I have preferred him even to Herodotus himself tho' he is a most excellent and judicious Reporter And that which hath determined me to this choice is that Xenophon's History the most probable and likely in it self hath also this great advantage that it is the most conformable to the Scriptures which by reason of its antiquity and the Relation of the Jewish Affairs to those of the Eastern People deserves to be esteemed beyond all the other Greek Histories tho' one did not know that it had been dictated by the Holy Spirit Plat. in Tim. As to the three first Monarchies what most of the Greek Authors have written of them seems very doubtful to the Sages of Greece Plato in general shews us that under the name of Egyptian Priests the Greeks were extreamly ignorant of Antiquities and Aristotle hath ranged among the fabulous Reporters Arist â—olit v. 10. those that have written of the Assyrians The Greeks have written very negligently and because they had a mind to please and divert by their Historical relating of their Antiquities Greece which was ever very curious about them they have taken up Reports upon confused and dark Memorandums and so satisfied themselves with putting them into an agreeable and delightful order without being at any great pains or care to search whether they were true or not And certainly the way which was commonly taken to rank the three first Monarchies is most apparently fabulous For after the downfal of the Empire of Assyria under Sardanapalus next appear the Medes and after them the Persians as if the Medes had been Successors to the mighty Power of the Assyrians and the Persians had established themselves upon the ruin of the Medes Whereas on the contrary it is most certain that when Arbaces abandoned the Medes against Sardanapalus he did only deliver them without any submitting of the Assyrian Empire to them Herodotus Herod l. 1. c. 26 27. followed herein by the most approved Chronologers mentions nothing of their first King Dejoces until 50. years after their revolt and it is the more to be credited because of the concurrent Testimony both of this great Historian and of Xenophon not to trouble you now with any others that during the time that is allotted to the Empire of the Medes Herod 1. Xenoph. Cyrop â— vi c. there were in Assyria such
what is fabulous or at most things that are confused and half forgotten the Holy Scripture that is to say without controversie the most antient Book in the World brings us back by so many curious but precise accidents and by the same thread of things to their true principle that is to say to God the Maker of all things and does point out to us so distinctly the Creation of the Universe that of man in particular the happiness of his first Estate the causes of his miseries and frailties the Corruption of the World and the Deluge the beginning of Arts and those of Nations the distribution of Countries in a word the propagation of Mankind and other matters of the same importance whereof humane Histories speak but confusedly and oblige us elsewhere to seek for the certain sources of them And if the Antiquity of Religion gives it so much Authority its continued course without interruption and without alteration for so many successive Ages and notwithstanding all its manifold surprizing obstacles does manifestly discover to us that it is the hand of God alone that sustains it What is there more marvellous than to behold it always subsisting upon the same foundations of the beginnings of the World and neither the Idolatry and Impiety which surround it on every side nor the Tyrants that have persecuted it nor the Heretics and Infidels who have endeavoured to corrupt it nor the Cowardly that have betrayed it nor the unworthy Schismatics who have dishonoured it by their Crimes nor to conclude the length of time which alone was sufficient to wear away all humane things neither of these I say have been capable not only not to extinguish but so much as to alter it If we now shall consider what Idea this Religion for whose Antiquity we have so great a Reverence gives us of its object that is to say of the first Being we shall confess that it is superiour to all humane apprehensions and deserving to be regarded as coming from God himself That God whom the Hebrews and the Christians have always served and worshiped hath nothing in common with those Divinities full of Imperfection and even of Vice which the rest of the World adored Our God is One Infinite Perfect only worthy to revenge Wickedness and Vice and to Crown Vertue because that He alone is Holiness it self He is infinitely above that first Cause and of that first Mover which the Philosophers of old have acknowledged but yet have not adored Those of them that have been the most remote have proposed to us one God who finding a matter Eternal and existing by it self as well as He hath put it into frame and fashioned it as a common Artificer constrained in his work by that matter and by those dispositions which he did not make without ever being able to comprehend that if the matter were of it self it could not stay to have its perfection from a strange hand and that if God be infinite and perfect he hath not to do whatsoever he pleaseth but only of himself and of his omnipotent Will But the God of our Fathers the God of Abraham the God of whom Moses hath delivered wonders to us hath not only ranged this World but he hath done it all entire in its matter and in its form Before he had given it a Being nothing had it but himself He is represented to us as that God that made all things and that by his word as well because he did all by the most excellent reason as because he did it without the least of difficulty and that to make such a most glorious work as this World he was only at the expence of one word that is to say it cost him no more than his bare will and pleasure And to follow the History of the Creation since we have begun it Moses hath taught us That that mighty Architect to whom things cost so little was pleased to make them at several times and by returns from thence where he had before given over and to create the World in six days to shew that he acted not through an impulse of necessity or through a blind impetuosity as some Philosophers have vainly imagined The Sun emits at once without any reserve the power of all its rays but God who acts by intelligence and with a Sovereign liberty applies his Virtue and Power to what he pleaseth and just to so much too as he pleaseth And as in making the World by his word he discovers that nothing can trouble or with-hold him by making it at several resumptions it is sufficiently plain and evident to us that he is the Master of his Matter of his Action of all his Enterprises and that he hath not in any of his proceedings any other Rule but his Will which is always right by it self This Conduct of Almighty God doth likewise shew to us that every thing cometh immediately out of his hand The People and the Philosophers who have believed that the Earth mingled with Water and assisted forsooth with the warm beams of the Sun had produced of it self through its own fecundity Plants and Animals were most grosly mistaken The Scriptures have made us to understand that the Elements are barren if the word of God makes 'em not fruitful Neither the Earth nor the Water nor the Air would ever have had Plants or Animals which we now see in them if God who had made and prepared the matter of them had not also formed them by Almighty Will and had not given to every thing the proper Seeds whereby to multiply in all the succeeding Ages Those who see the Plants to take their birth and their increase by the heat of the Sun might think that that is the Creator of them but the Scripture hath plainly made it out to us that the Earth was clothed with Grass and all sorts of Plants before ever the Sun was made that so we might be satisfied that on God alone was all dependence It pleased that great Workmaster to create Light before he had put it into the form which he hath given it in the Sun and the Stars because he would inform and convince us that these great and magnificent Luminaries which we would so willingly make Divinities had by themselves neither that curious and shining Matter whereof they are now composed nor that admirable form to which we see them now reduced In a word the account of the Creation such as Moses has given us of it discovers to us that great Mystery of the true Philosophy that in God alone resides absolute Fullness and Power Happy Wise Almighty alone sufficient in himself he acts without necessity as he acts without need never straitned nor constrained nor puzzled with his matter wherewith he doth whatsoever he will because he hath by his alone Will given to it the foundation of its Being By this Sovereign right he turns it he fashions it he moves it without pain or uneasiness all
Footstep of it to be found in him Pushed on by that blind Impression which absolutely swayed him he plunged himself into Idolatry and nothing could stay him So great a Mischief made a very strange Progress For fear lest all Mankind might be infected and the knowledg of God be utterly extinguished that great God called from on high his Servant Abraham in whose Family he resolved to establish his Worship and preserve the antient Faith as well of the Creation of the World as of the particular Providence with which humane things are governed Abraham hath always been celebrated in the East and it was not only the Hebrews that looked on him as their Father The Idumeans boasted of their Extract from him Ishmael the Son of Abraham is known among the Arabians as the Parent from whom they came Gen. 16.17 Gen. 17.25 Joseph Ant. l. 13. Circumcision still is used among them as the mark of their Original and they have received it at all times not only on the eighth day after the manner of the Jews but at thirteen years of Age as the Scripture informs us it was given to their Father Ishmael a Custom which continues still among the Mahometans There are other Arabian People who yet remember Abraham and Ketura Alex. Polyb. apud Joseph ant l. 16. and they are the same that the Scripture makes to come from that Marriage That Patriarch was a Chaldean and those People famous for their Astronomical Observations have reckoned Abraham for one of their most learned Observators Beros Hecar Eup. Alex. Polyb al. apud Joseph an t l. 8. Eus praep Ev. 9.16 17 18 19 20. 13.11 Nic. Damas lib. 4. Hist univ in excerpt Vales p. 491. ap Jos an t l. 8. Eus praep Ev. 9.16 Gen. 13. c. The Historians of Syria have made him King of Damascus though a Stranger and come from the Borders of Babylon and they report that he left the Kingdom of Damascus to settle himself in the Country of the Canaanites since called Judea But it will be best for us to observe what the sacred History relates to us of this great Man We have seen that Abraham followed that way of living which was led by his Ancestors before that all the World was reduced into Kingdoms He reigned in his Family with which he embraced the pastoral Life so much renowned for its simplicity and Innocence rich in his Flocks in his Slaves and in his Silver but without Lands and Demeans and yet he lived in a strange Kingdom but was respected and independent as a Prince His Piety and his Uprightness protected by God attracted that respect to him He treated as an Equal with Kings who sought his Alliance and it was from thence came that antient Opinion that he made himself a King But tho' his life was simple and peaceable yet understood he the Arts of War but then it was only to defend his opprest Allies Gen. 14. He defended them and revenged them by a most signal Victory He restored to them all their Riches re-taken from their Enemies without reserving any thing but the Tythe which he offered up to God and the Quota which belonged to the Auxiliary Troops which he had brought along with him to the Battle But after so great a service he refused the Presents of the Kings with an unparallel'd Magnanimity and could not indure that any man should boast he had inriched Abraham He would be indebted to none but to his God who had protected him and whom he solely followed with a most perfect Faith and Obedience Guided by that Faith he had forsaken his Native Countrey to come to a Land which God had shewn him God who had called him and made him worthy of his Alliance Articled it upon these Conditions He declared to him that he would be his God Gen. 12.17 and the God of his Posterity that is to say he would be their Protector and that they should serve him as the only God the Creator of Heaven and Earth He promised him a Land 't was that of Canaan to serve for a fixed habitation to his Posterity Ibid. and for a place for his Religion He had no Children and his Wife Sarah was barren God swore to him by Himself and by his Eternal Veracity Gen. 12 2.1â—.4 5.17.19 that from him and from his Wife should come a Race that for number should equal the Stars in the Firmament and the Sand on the Sea-shore But the most remarkable Article of all of the Divine Promise was this All the People should presently fall into Idolatry God promised to this Holy Patriarch that in him and in his Seed should all those blind Nations that had forgotten their Creator be blessed that is to say re-called to the knowledge of him Gen. 12.3.18.18 wherein the true Benediction is to be found By that promise was Abraham made the Father of all the faithful and his Posterity was chosen to be the source from whence the Blessing was to go upon all the Earth In that Promise was included the Advent of the Messiah so often foretold to our Fathers but always foretold as Him who was to be the Saviour of all the Gentiles and of all the people of the World Thus that blessed Branch promised to Eve became also the Branch and Cion of Abraham This was the foundation of the Covenant and these the Conditions of it Gen. 17. Abraham received the sign of it in Circumcision a Ceremony whose proper effect was to shew that that Holy Man belonged to God with all his Family Abraham was childless when God began to bless his Race And God left him for several years without giving him any Afterwards he had Ishmael who was to be the Father of a great People Gen. 12.15.2.16.3 4 17.20.21.13 but not of that chosen People so much promised to Abraham The Father of the chosen People was to proceed from him and from his wife Sarah Gen. 21.2 who then was barren At length when Ishmael was thirteen years old came this so much desired Son he was called Isaac that is to say Laughter a Son of Joy a Son of Miracle a Son of Promise who shewed by his Birth that the true Children of God are born of Grace He this Child of blessing was grown to some considerle statute and of an age from which his Father might hope to have other Children of him when of a sudden God commands him to offer him up as a Sacrifice Gen. 22. To what a tryal is Faith exposed Abraham carrys Isaac to the Mountain which God had shewn him and he went to sacrifice that Son in whom alone God promised to make him the Father both of his People and of the Messiah Isaac presented his naked Bosom to the Sword which his Father held out ready to strike him God being satisfied with the obedience both of Father and Son demanded no further of them After
Sparks of it in the Old Testament Solomon said that the Dust should return to the Earth as it was Eccles 12.7 and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it The Patriarchs and the Prophets lived in that Hope and Daniel had foretold that there should a time come Dan. 12.1 2 4. that those who slept in the Dust of the Earth should awake some to everlarting Life and some to shame and everlasting Contempt But at the same time that those things were revealed to him he was commanded to seal up the Book even to the time of the End to let us understand that the full discovery of these Truths was reserved for another Season and another Age. But though the Jews had in their Scriptures some Promises of eternal Happiness and that towards the time of the Messiah's coming in which they were to be declared they spoke much more of them as appears by the Books of Wisdom and the Maccabees yet however this Truth gained so little Reputation among the antient People that the Saducees without ever knowing it not only were admitted into the Synagogue but also were advanced to the Priesthood It was one of the Characters of the new People to lay down as a Foundation of Religion the faith of a future Life and that was to be the Fruit of the coming of the Messiah Wherefore not being satisfied with telling us that a Life eternally happy was reserved for the Children of God he hath told us wherein it consists The happy Life is to be with him in the glory of God his Father John 17. the Life of happiness is to see the glory which he hath in the bosom of the Father from the beginning of the World the Life of happiness is that Jesus Christ is in us in his Members and that the eternal Love which the Father hath for his Son extendeth it self to us he fills us full of the same Gifts In a word the Life of happiness is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent but to know him in that manner which we call a clear sight 1 Cor. 13.9 12. 2 â—p 3.2 face to face the sight which reforms in us and perfects there the Image of God that according as St. John says We shall be like unto him because we shall see him as he is That sight shall be followed with an Immense Love and unexpressible Joy and a Triump that shall have no end Rev. 7.12.19.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. An eternal Alleluja and an eternal Amen shall be heard to resound through all the heavenly Jerusalem and all Calamities shall be done away and all Desires shall be satisfied there shall be nothing else to do but to sing Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God and to fall down and worship him who sits on the Throne for ever and ever With these new Rewards it was but neâ—essary that Jesus Christ should propose to us new Ideas of Vertue more perfect and purified Practices The End of Religion the Soul of Vertues and the Abridgment of the Law is Charity But until Jesus Christ was come into the World we may say that the perfection and the effects of that Vertue were not throughly known It was truly and properly our blessed Saviour that taught us to place our Satisfaction in God alone To set up the Kingdom of Charity and to reveal to us all the Duties of it he lays before us the Love of God even to the hating of our selves and continually persecuting that Principle of Corruption which we all carry about with us in our hearts He propounds to us the Love of our Neighbour even to the extending that beneficent Inclination to all men including therein even those that hate and persecute us he proposes to us the moderating of our sensual Desires even to the absolute cutting off our own Members that is to say that which gives us the most lively and sensible impressions He proposes also to us submission to the Will of God even to the rejoycing at the Sufferings he lays upon us as also Humility and that too to the loving of Reproaches for God's sake and to the believing that no Indignities how injurious soever can make us so vile in the eyes of men as we truly are in God's sight by our shameful and abominable sins Upon this foundation of Charity it is that all the conditions of Humane Life are perfected It is by that that Marriage is reduced to its primitive form the Conjugal Affection is now no more divided so holy a Society is only terminated by Death and Children do not now see their Mothers cast out for entertaining of a Step-dame in their places Celibacy is set forth as an Imitation of the life of Angels which is wholly and entirely taken with God and with the chast delights of his Love Superiours do learn that they are the Servants of others and devoted to their Good and Inferiours do acknowledge the wise order of God in their lawful Powers although they abuse their Authority this very thought sweetens to us the hardships of Subjection and under the most troublesome Masters Obedience is not at all troublesome to the true Christian. To these Precepts he superadds Councils of eminent perfection to renounce all pleasures to live in the Body as if we without the Body to forsake all things to give all we have to the Poor that we may possess nothing but God to live upon a little yea almost upon nothing and to expect that little too from Divine Providence But that Law which is most proper to the Gospel is that of bearing his Cross The Cross is the true Trial of Faith the true Foundation of Hope the perfect purifier of Charity in a word the true way to Heaven Jesus Christ dyed on the Cross he bore his Cross all the while he lived 't is by the Cross that he would have us to follow him and he hath promised to reward it with Eternal Life The first to whom he particularly made this Promise of Everlasting Rest was a Companion of his Cross This day saith he Luke 22.48 thou shalt be with me in Paradise Immediately after his Expiration on the Cross the Veil which covered the Sanctuary was rent from the top to the bottom and the Heaven was opened to holy Souls It was after he came from the Cross and from the horrours of his Punishment that he appeared to his Apostles glorious and a Conquerour over Death that they might thereby learn and understand that it was by the Cross they were to enter into his Glory and that he would shew no other way to his Children Thus in the Person of Jesus Christ was given to the World the lively Image of an accomplished Vertue who had nothing nor did expect nothing here in this World who received from men only continual Persecutions yet he never ceased doing of them good and for all that on whom
signifies an Idol and who does not know that the Roman Armies bore in their Ensigns the Images of their Gods and of their Caesars who were had in greater Reverence than all their Gods Those Ensigns were to the Souldiers an Object of worship and because Idols according to God's Decrees were never to appear in the holy Land the Roman Ensigns were banished from thence Also we see in Histories that whilst among the Romans there remained any tho' never so little Consideration for the Jews the Roman Ensigns were never seen in Judea Therefore it was that Vitellius when he went into that Province to carry the War into Arabia caused his Troops to march without any Colours for the Jewish Religion was at that time had in Reverence Joseph l. 18. c. 7. and they would not force that People to indure things that were so contrary to their Law But in the time of the last Jewish War it is very much to be believed that the Romans did not any whit spare a People whom they were resolved utterly to destroy So that when Jerusalem was besieged it was surrounded with as many Idols as there were Roman Ensigns in the Army and the Abomination did never appear so great standing where it ought not that is to say in the holy Land and round about the Temple Was this then may some say that great Sign that Jesus Christ was to give Was it then high time to fly when Titus besieged Jerusalem and when he so closely blâ—cked up the Avenues that there was no place left for them to make their escape at This was the Marvel of the Prophecy Jeruâ—alem was besieged twice in those times The first by Cestius the Governor of Syria in the sixty eighth Year of our Saviour the second by Titus four Years after that is to say in the Year seventy two Joseph 2. de beâ— Jud. c. 23 24. Ibid. l. 6 7. In the last Siege there was no possible Means of saving themselves Titus made that War with so much heat and violence he surprized all the Nation being then in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles and not one made their escape and that formidable Circumvallation which he made round the City put its Inhabitants out of all manner of Hopes But there was no such thing in the Siege of Cestius who was incamped fifty Furlongs that is to say six Miles from Jerusalem His Army was dispersed all round it but without making any Intrenchments Joseph lib. 2. c. 23 24. and he managed the War so negligently that he slipt the Opportunity of taking the City tho' their Terror Seditions and even their Intelligences open'd the Gates to him At that time so far was their Retreat from being impossible Joseph Ibid. that the History expresly takes notice that many of the Jews did retire into the Towers and other Places of Safety and Defence Then it was that they ought to have made their Flight That was the Signal which the Son of God gave to his own People So likewise did he most exactly distinguish the two Sieges The one was When their Enemies should cast a Tren h about them and compass them round Luke 19.23.21.20 21. and keep them in on every side then nothing but Death was to be expected by those who should be shut up in the City The other was when it should be only compassed with Armies and rather Invested than really Besieged then was it that they were to flee and retire unto the Mountains The Christians obeyed the Command of theâ—r Messias Tho' there were many Thousands of them both in Jerusalem and in Judea we do not read either in Josephus Euseb 3. Hist Ecâ—les c. 5. Epiph. Haer. 7. Nazar lib. de ponâ— mensur or in the other Histories that one of them was found in the City when it was taken On the contrary it is positively affirmed in the Eâ—clesiastical Histories and in all the Monuments of our Ancestors that they did withdraw into a little City call'd Pella in a mountainous Country near to the Desart towards the Confines of Judea and Arabia We may be by that satisfied how exactly they were forewarned of it and there is nothing more remarkable than that separation of the incredulous Jews from those Jews who were converted to Christianity the one remaining in Jerusalem to undergo the Punishment of their Infidelity and the others being retired as Lot was from Sodom to a small City where with trembling they considered of the Effects of the divine Vengeance from which Almighty God had been pleased to rescue and preserve them Besides the Predictions of Jesus Christ there were likewise several others from many of his Disciples and among the rest those of St. Peter and St. Paul As they were dâ—agging to their Deaths those two faithful Witnesses of Jesus Christ's being risen they declared openly to the Jews who should deliver them to the Gentiles their approaching Ruine telling them That Jerusalem was utterly to be destroyed Lact. divin Instit l. 4. c. 21. that they should dye with Famine and Despaire that they should be for ever banished from the Land of their Fathers and sent into Captivity thro' all the World that the time was nigh at Hand and all those Miseries should come upon them for having with so many cruel Reproaches insulted over the well-beloved Son of God who had declared himself to them by so many Miracles Pious Antiquity has preserved to us this Prediction of the Apostles which was to be attended with so close and sudden an Accomplishment St. Peter had given them several others either from a particular Inspiration Phleg. l. 13 14. Chron. apud Orig l. 2. cont Cels or from his explaining the Words of his Master And Phlegon a Heathen Author whose Testimony Origen produces hath written that all this Apostle had foretold was to a tittle accomplished uppon them So that nothing befel the Jews but what was before hand prophesied of them The Cause of their Ruine is clearly painted out to us in the Contempt they cast upon Jesus Christ and his Disciples The time of Grace was past and their Destruction was ineviâ—able Your Highness may see therefore that it was in vain for Titus to attempt to save Jerusalem and the Temple The Decree was gone out from on high there was not to be one Stone left upon another And if one Roman Emperor vainly attempted to hinder the Ruine of the Temple another Roman Emperor did yet more vainly attempt to rebuild it Julian the Apostate after he had declared War against Jesus Christ thought himself powerful enough to frustrate his Predictions In the design he had of raising up on all sides Enemies to the Christians he stooped so low as to seek to the Jews who were the Refuse and Off-scowring of the World He excited them to build their Temple he gave them vast sums of Mony and assisted them with all the Power of the Empire But hearken to
the event and you will find how God confounded the proud Princes The holy Fathers and the Ecclesiastical Historians do with one common consent report it and justify it by Monuments which remain still from their time But the matter ought to be attested by Heathens themselves Amm. Marcel l. 23. init Ammianus Marcellinus a Gentile in his Religion and a zealous defender of Julian hath recorded it in these Terms Whilst Alipius being assisted by the Governor of the Province was advancing the Work with all the Might he could terrible Globes of Fire broke forth from the very Foundations which they before had shaken by violent Assaults the Workmen who several times essayed to begin the Work anew were many times burnt the place became inaccessible and so the undertaking fell The Ecclesiastical Authors who are more exact in representing so memorable an Event do joyn with that of the Earth the Fire of Heaven too But after all the Word of Jesus Christ abides firm and sure St. John Chrysostome cryes out Orat. in Judaeos He hath built his Church on the Rock nothing shall be able to overthrow it the Temple nothing shall be able to build up again None can pull down what God erects nor can any build up again what God pulls down Let us now make an end of our Discourse on Jerusalem and the Temple and cast our Eyes a little on the People themselves heretofore the living Temple of the Lord of Hosts and now the Object of his â—â—arred The Jews are more levelled than their Temple and their City The Spirit of Truth is no longer among them Prophecy is quite at an end with them the Promises on which the stress of their Hopes depends are vanished all things are topsy turvy with that People and there is not one Stone left upon another And do but observe how far they are delivered up to Error Jesus Christ told it them I am come in my Fathers Name John 5.43 and ye receive me not if another shall come in his own Name him ye will receive From that time the Spirit of Seduction hath been so predominant among them that they are ready still at every moment to let themselves be carried away by it It was not enough that the false Prophets should deliver Jerusalem into the Hands of Titus the Jews were not as yet banished Judea and the Love they had for Jerusalem had obliged several of them to choose their Place of Abode among its Ruines Behold a false Christ arose up who was absolutely to compleat their Destruction Fifty Years after the taking of Jerusalem in the Age of the Death of our Lord the famous Barchochebas a Robber a wicked Wretch because his Name signified the Son of the Star impiously called himself the Star of Jacob foretold in the Book of Numbers and pretended he was the Christ Akibas Numb 24.17 Euseb Hist Eccles 4.6 8. a Man of greatest Authority among the Rabbi's after whose Example all those whom the Jews call their Sages came over to his Party tho' the Impostor gave than no other sign of his Mission but that Akibas told them the Christ could not be very far off The Jews revolted throughout all the Roman Empire under the Conduct of Barchochebas â—alm Hier. de jejuâ— â—5 in ver Comm. sup Lam. Jerem. Maimonid li. de jur Reg. c. 12. who promised them the Empire of the World Adrian killed six hundred thousand of them The Yoke of those miserable Wretches was very heavy and they were for ever banished Judea Who is there but sees that the Spirit of Seduction had seized their hearts Because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. for that cause God sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness There is no Imposture so gross but what deceives them In our days an Impostor called himself Christ in the East and all the Jews began to run in Flocks about him we have seen them in Italy in Holland in Germany and at Metz ready to leave all for the sake of following him They imagined already that they were becoming the Masters of the World when they learnt that their Christ was made a Turk and had forsook the Law of Moses We need not to wonder if they be fallen into such Dispersions X. The Progress of the Jewish Errours and the manner how they explain the Prophecies nor if the Tempest has scattered them after they had forsaken their own way That way was pointed out to them in their Prophecies especially in those which designated the time of our Saviour Christ But they let slip those precious Opportunities without any whit benefitting themselves by them wherefore we have seen them afterwards given up to believe a lye and they never knew since what course to take Give me leave a little to recount to you the course and progress of their Errors and all the Methods they have taken to sink themselves into this Abyss The ways by which we come to wander tend always to the broad Road and by considering where our wandring hath begun we may more securely go on in the right way Your Highness hath seen that two Prophecies have set forth to the Jews the time of Christ's coming that of Jacob and that of Daniel They both did foretell the ruine of the Kingdom of Judah at the time of our Saviour's Advent But Daniel revealed how that a total Destruction should come upon that Kingdom after the death of Christ and Jacob said plainly that in the Declension of the Kingdom of Judah that Christ which should then come should be the Expectation of the People that is to say that he should be the Deliverer of them and that he should erect to himself a new Kingdom not only framed out of one single People but out of all the People of the World The words of the Prophecy can admit of no other sense and it was the constant positive Tradition of the Jews that they were thus to understand it From thence that Opinion which was spread abroad by the ancient Rabbies and which is yet to be seen in their Talmud Gem. tr Sanhed c. 11. that at the time that Christ was to come there should be no more Magistracy so that there was nothing more necessary to make them know the time of their Messias than only to observe when they were falling into that woful Condition In fine they had begun well and if they had not had their minds prepossessed with the worldly Grandeurs which they hoped to find in their Messias and which they thought to have a share of under his Empire they could never have been mistaken in Jesus Christ The Foundation they had laid was certain for as soon as the Tyranny of the first Herod and the change of the Jewish Commonwealth which happened
holy Ghost himself hath computed the Years But whilst they renounced them they fulfilled them and shewed the Truth of what they said both as to their Blindness and their Fall Let them answer the Prophecies as they would the Desolation which they foretold came upon them just at the appointed time the Event was of more Efficacy and Force than all their Subtilties and if Christ did not come just upon that fatal Conjuncture the Prophets in whom they trusted very much â—eceived them And for the Complement of their Conviction please to observe two Circumstances which accompained their Fall and the Advent of the Saviour of the World The one is that the Succession of the High-Priests which was perpetual and unalterable since Aaron then came to an end The other that the Distinction of the Tribes and Families allways kept up till that time was then no more by their own Confession That Distinction was necessary till the coming of Messiah From Levi were to be born the Ministers of sacred Things From Aaron were to come the Priests and the Pontifs From Juda the Messiah himself If the distinction of Families had not continued till the Destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ the Jewish Sacrifices would have ceased before the time and David had been frustrated of the Glory of being known for the Father of the Messiah Was the Messiah come Was the new Priesthood according to the Order of Melchizedech begun in his Person And the new Kingdom which was not of this World did that too appear Then was there no longer need of Aaron nor of Levi nor of Juda nor of David nor of their Families Aaron was no more necessary then when the Sacrifices were to cease as Daniel had foretold The House of David and Juda had accomplished their purpose when that the Christ of God was come out from thence Dan. 9.27 And as if the Jew themselves had renounced their own Hopes they particularly at that time forgot the Succession of Families until then so carefully and so religiously kept up Let us not omit one of the Signs of the Messiah's coming and peradventure the chiefest if we can tell how to understand it aright tho' it be to the Scandal as well as Horror of the Jews 'T is the Remission of Sins declared in the name of a suffering Saviour Dan. 9.26 27. of a Saviour humble and obedient even to the Death Daniel had observed among his Weeks the mysterious Week which here we take notice of wherein Christ was to be sacrificed wherein the Covenant was to be confirmed by his Death and the antient Sacrifices were to lose their Power and Vertue Let us joyn Isaiah to Danâ—el and there we shall find all the depth of that so great a Mystery we shall see there the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief Isai 53.3 5. who was wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our Iniquities The Chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we were healed Open your Eyes ye Incredulous and look about you is it not true that the Remission of Sins was preached to you in the Name of Jesus Christ Crucified Was ever so great a Mystery throughly considered Did ever any other than Jesus Christ either before or after him loudly proclaim that he was come to wash away Sins by his Blood Should he have an express Order to be Crucified only to acquire a vain and empty Honour and to fullfil in himself so bloody a Prophecy 'T is duty here to be silent and adore a Doctrine that is in the Gospel which could not so much as enter into any Man's Conception if it had not been true The Jews are extreamly perplexed and put to it in this point They find in their Scriptures too many Passages describing the Humiliations of their Messiah What then will become of those that speak of his Glory and Triumphs Why their natural Resolution is that he will come to his Triumphs by the Victories he gains and to Glory by his Sufferings What an incredible thing is this the Jews had rather have two Messiah's We see in their Talmud Tr. Succa Comm. sive parraph sup Cant. c. 7. v. 3. and other Books of like Antiquity that they look for a suffering Messiah and a Messiah full of Glory the one dead and risen the other always happy and always a Conqueror The one to whom all the Passages do agree that relate to his weakness the other to whom all those agree which speak of his Greatness the one indeed makes him the Son of Joseph for they could not deny him one of the Characters of Jesus Christ who was the reputed Son of Joseph and the other the Son of David without ever being willing to consider or allow what that Messiah the Son of David was to do according as the Royal Prophet had foreshewn drink of the Brook the way before he should lift up his Head Ps 110. v. ult that is to say he should be afflicted before he triumphed as the very Son of David says himself O Fools and slow of Heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luk. 24. v. 25 26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so to enter into his Glory But if we do understand that great Passage of the Messiah wherein Isaiah doth so lively represent to us the Man of Sorrows wounded for our Transgressions Isai 53. and brâ—ised for our Iniquities and disfigured as one that was Leprous we are likewise justified in this Explication as well as in all the other by the antient Tradition of the Jews and in spight of all their Preventions the Chapter so often cited in their Talmud teaches us that that Leper who should be stricken for the Transgression of the People Gem. Tr. Sanhed l. 11. Ibid. should be the Messiah The Afflictions which the Messiah should feel for our Sins are celebrated in the same place and in several other of the Jewish Writings They often speak of his Entrance as humble as it was glorious which he was to make in Jerusalem when riding upon an Ass and that famous Prophecy of Zachariah was applied to him What reason to have the Jews to complain Every thing was pointed out to them in express Terms among their Prophets their antient Tradition had preserved the natural Explication of those admired Prophecies and there was nothing more just than that Reproach which the Saviour of the World made to them saving O ye Hypocrites ye can discern the Face of the Skie Matt. 16.2 3 4. Luke 12.56 but can ye not discern the Signs of the Times For ye say when it is Evening it will be fair Weather for the Skie is red and in the Morning it will be foul Weather to day for the Skie is red and lowring Therefore we may very well conclude that the Jews had all the reason in the World to confess that all the signs and times of
Religion as a thing indifferent But for all that it is most certain that the Glory of Jesus Christ shone with so great and dazling a Brightness that the World was never able to desist giving him some Testimonies and I know not how to relate to you any more Authentick than that of so many Emperors I confess however they had still another design There was a mixture of Politie in all the Honours they paid to our Saviour they gave insinuatingly out that at length Religions would be united and that the Gods of all Sexes would be joyned in common The Christians nevertheless would not acknowledg this Hotchpotch way of Worship and they did no less despise the Condescensions than the Severities of the Roman Politie But God was resolved that the Heathens from another Principle should reject the Temples which the Emperors had set apart to Jesus Christ The Priests of the Idols according to the Relation of that Heathen Author already so often cited declared to the Emperor Adrian Ibid. that if be consecrated those Temples built for the use and Service of the Christians all the other Temples would utterly be forsaken and all the World would embrace the Christian Religion Idolatry it self felt such a victorious force and energy in our Religion as that the false Gods would never be able to stand up against it and of it justified of its own accord the truth of that Saving of the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.15 16. what Concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an Infidel and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols Thus by the Power of the Cross did the Heathen Religion confounded by it self fall to ruin and the Unity of Gâ—d was so established that at length Idolatry was at no great distance from it Macrob. 1. Sat. 17 â— seq Apul. de Deo Soc. Aug. de Civ 4. 10 11. It said that the divine Nature was so great and extensive that it could not be expressed either by one single name or under one single form but that Jupiter and Mars and Juno and the other Gods were at the Bottom but one and the same God whose infinite Vertues were explained and represented by so many differe t words When afterwards they were driven to the Impure Histories of their Gods to their infamous Genealogies to their immodest Loves and to their Feasts and Mysteries which were built upon no other Foundation than those prodigious Fables and Romances then all Religion was turned in-Allegories The World or the Sun they found then out to be this only God it was the Stars the Air the Fire the Water and the Earth and their several Conjunctions that were hid under the Names of the Gods and in their Armours A weak and miserable Refuge for besides their Fables being all scandalous and all their Allegations cold and forced what found they out at last but that that only God was the Universe with all its parts so that the bottom of Religion was Nature and always the Creature adored instead of the Creator O 〈…〉 Câ—â— liâ— â— 6 c. The weak excuses of Idolatry tho' drawn from the Philosophy of the Stoicks yet did not satisfy and please enough the Philosophers Celsus and Porphyry sought for new succours in the Doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras and you shall see how they conciliated the Unity of God with the multiplicity of the vulgar Gods That was they said Plat. Conv. Tim. c. Porphyr l. 2. de abstin Apul. de Deo Socr. Aug. de Civ 8.14 seq 18.21 22.9.3.6 c. but one Soveraign God but he was so great that he did not concern himself with trivial matters Being pleased that he had made the Heaven and the Stars he had not at all given his assistance to the making of this lower World but had left it to be fashioned by its secundary causes and Man tho' born to know and to confess him yet because he was Mortal was not a work any ways becoming or worthy his hands He was likewise inaccessible to our Nature he was lodged too high for us the heavenly Spirits that had made us were to be as Mediators to him for us and therefore were we to worship and adore them It is not worth ones while to refute these opinions Aug. Ep. 3. ad Volus c. and fanciful dreamings of the Platonists which indeed do fall of themselves The Mystery of Jesus Christ tore them up by the roots That Mystery taught Men that God who had made them after his own Image had no thoughts of despising them that if they stood in need of a Mediator it was not by reason of their Nature which God had made like unto all others but by reason of their Sin of which they themselves were the only Authors but since their Nature had not put them at a very â—reat distance from God God disdained not to unite himself to them by making himself Man and he gave unto them for a Mediator not those Heavenly Spirits which the Philosophers called Demons and the Scripture Angels but a Man who superadding the Power of a God to our infirm Nature made himself a Soveraign Remedy for all our weakness But if the Pride of the Platonists could not be brought down to the Humiliations of the Word made Flesh might they not at least be brought to understand that Man for being but little lower than the Angels was as capable of possessing God as they so that he was rather their Brother than their Subject and therefore he ought not to adore them but to adore with them in the Spirit of Society him who had made them both after his own Image and resemblance 'T was then not only too mean a thing but too ungrateful for Mankind to sacrifice to any other than to God and nothing was so blind as Paganism which instead of reserving Supream Worship to it self so freely gave it to so many Demons or Idols Here it was that Idolatry which seemed to be at a full Stand did entirely discover its Weakness Toward the end of the Persecution Porphyry being pressed by the Christians was forced to confess that the Sacrifice was not the Supream Worship and do but mind how far he pushed on his Extravagance That most high God said he did not receive Sacrifice Porphyr lib. 2. de abstinen Aug. de Civ 10. for whatsoever has matter is impure to him and cannot be offered to him The Word it self is not to be imployed in his Worship because the voice is a thing that is corporal we are to adore him in silence and by simple thoughts all other Worship is unworthy of so high a Majesty Thus God was too great to be be praised It was a Crime to express as well as we are able what we think of his Greatness Sacrifice tho' it be only a way of declaring our absolute dependance on and an acknowledgment of his Soveraignty yet is not fit to be
they never thought they did so Constance who persecuted St. Athanasius the Defender of the Ancient Faith ardently desired says Ammianus Marcellinus Id. lib. 15. to get him condemned by the Authority which the Bishop of Rome had over the others By seeking to support himself with that Authority he made the Heathens themselves sensible of what was wanting to his Sect and honoured the Church from which the Arrians had departed thus the Gentiles themselves acknowledged the Catholick Church If any one asked them where they kept their Assemblies and who were their Bishops they never deceived them As for Heresies whatsoever they made they could never get rid of the name of then Authors The Sabellians the Paulianists the Arrians the Pelagians and the rest were scandalized in vain at the title of the Faction which was given to them The World whatsoever they could do would speak naturally and designed every Sect by him from whom it first sprung As for the great Church the Catholick and Apostolick Church it was always impossible to affix any other Author to it than Jesus Christ himself nor to assign to it the first of its Pastors without going up as high as to the very Apostles nor to give it any other name than what it had before taken So that what Hereticks soever were made they could not conceal it from the Heathens She opened to them her Bosom all â—he World over and they ran to her in troops Some of them were possibly lost in the by-Paths but the Catholick Church was the great way wherein entred always most of those who sought after Jesus Christ and Experience has sufficiently discovered that to her it was given to bring in the fulness of the Gentiles Her also it was whom the unbelieving Emperours attacked with all their power and force Orig. cont Cels 7. Just. Apol. 2. Origen tells us that few of the Hereticks were sufferers for the Faith St. Justin more ancient than he hath observed that the Persecution spared the Marcionites and the other Hereticks The Heathens only persecuted that Church which they saw spread her self over the face of the whole Earth and only acknowledged her self for the Church of Jesus Christ What matters it to pull off some of the Branches her good Sap was not lost for all that she went into other places and the cutting down the superfluous Wood served but to make the Fruit come better In fine if we consider the History of the Church we shall always find that when ever one Heresie impaired it she recovered her losses both by enlarging outwardly and increasing inwardly light and piety whilst she beheld in some distant Corners the cut off Branches to dry and wither The work of man was perished notwithstanding the power of Hell to support it the work of God has continued and the Church hath triumphed over Idolatry and all Errours whatsoever THIS Church so always attacked XIII General Reflections on the Progress of Religion and the relation there is between the Books of the Scripture yet never overcome is a perpetual Miracle and a clear and shining Testimony of the Immutability of the Divine Councils In the midst of the agitation of Humane Affairs she still supported her self with an invincible force so that by an uninterrupted course for near these seventeen hundred years do we see her come up even to Jesus Christ in whom she hath collected the Succession of the ancient People and was found reunited to the Prophets and Patriarchs And so many astonishing Miracles which the Hebrews of old saw with their eyes do still serve at this day to confirm our Faith That great God who wrought them for a Testimony of his Unity and his Almightiness what could he do more authentick to preserve the memory of them than to leave in the hands of so great a People the Acts which punctually attest them in order of time this is what we now have in the Books of the Old Testament that is to say in the most ancient Books that are in the World in those Books which are the only ones of Antiquity where the knowledge of the true God is taught and his service ordained in those Books which the Jews have always so religiously kept 'T is certain that they were the only People who originally knew God the Creator of Heaven and Earth and consequently the only People to whom the Divine Secrets were to be committed They also kept them with a most religious care Those Books which the Egyptians and the other People called Divine are lost long since and there scarce remains so much as any confused Remembrance of them in ancient Histories The sacred Books of the Romans wherein Numa the Author of their Religion had written the Mysteries of them are perished even by the hands of the Romans themselves and the Senate commanded them to be burnt as tending to the overthrow of Religion And those same Romans at last suffered likewise the Books of the Sibyls Tit. Liv. li. 40. c. 29. Varr. l. de Cult Deor ap Aug. de Civ 12. 34. to be destroyed which were for so long time reverenced by them as Prophetical and wherein they would make the World believe that they found the Decrees of the Immortal Gods concerning their Empire and yet notwithstanding they never published I do not say one single Volume but so much as one single Oracle It has been only the Jews who have had the Sacred Scriptures in so much the greater Veneration as they were the more known Of all the ancient People these alone preserved the Primitive Monuments of their Religion albeit they so fully gave testimony of their Infidelity with that of their Ancestors And at this very day do this People still remain upon the Earth to carry into all Nations where they are dispersed together with the course and progress of their Religion the Miracles and Predictions which render it immoveable When Jesus Christ was come and sent by his Father to accomplish the Promises of the Law he confirmed his Mission and that of his Disciples by new Miracles which have been also written with the same exactness The Acts of them have been published all the World over the Circumstances of Time Persons and Places have made the Examen easie to all that have been careful of their Salvation The World was informed the World has believed and if we have but ever so little considered the ancient Monuments of the Church we must avow that never has any thing been determined with more of reflection and knowledge But as to the Relation which the Books of the two Testaments have to one another there is one difference to be considered that is that the Books of the ancient People were composed at divers times Some are the times of Moses others those of Joshua and the Judges and others of the Kings some are those when the People were brought out of Egypt and received the Law others those when they obtained the
who holding all things in the hollow of his Hand was able by himself alone both to begin and carry on a design wherein all Ages are comprehended We need therefore no longer wonder as we commonly do why God proposes to us to believe so many things so worthy of him and yet at the same time so impenetrable to Humane Understanding But we should rather wonder that he having established the Faith upon so firm and manifest an Authority there should yet be any in the World blind and incredulous Our disorderly Passions our being bewitched to our Senses and our incurable Pride are the cause of it We choose rather to venture all than to put a constraint upon our selves we choose rather to continue in our Ignorance than to confess it and are pleased rather with a vain Curiosity and indulging our unruly Spirits in the liberty of thinking whatsoever delights 'em than to yield to the yoke of Divine Authority From thence it is that there are so many Unbelievers and God suffers it to be so for the instruction of his Children Unless we had the Blind the Savage and the Infidel and that in the very Bosom too of Christianity we should not be sensible enough of the Corruption of our Nature nor of that Abyss of Misery from whence Jesus Christ hath delivered us If his holy Truth was not contradicted we should not see the Miracle which hath constantly carried it through so many Contradictions and we should forget at last that we are saved by Grace Now the Incredulity of the one does humble the rest and those Rebels that oppose God's Decrees make that Power conspicuous by which indepently from all things else he accomplishes the Promises he hath made to his Church What therefore is it that we look for now to make us humble and submiss do we look that God should still work new Miracles that he should make them useless by his continuing of them that he should accustom our eyes to them as he does to the Course of the Sun and to all the other Marvels of Nature or else do we ever expect that the wicked and the opinionative man should be silent that good and vertuous men and dissolute Libertines should bear an equal Testimony to the Truth that all the World by one common consent should prefer it to their Passions and that false Knowledge which only the Novelty of it causes to be admired should cease its usual way of surprising men Is it not enough that we see it is impossible for men to combate with Religion but they must at the same time shew by prodigious wandrings that their Senses are perverted and that they only defend themselves either by Presumption or ignorance Cannot the Church which hath been victorious both over Ages and Errours I say cannot that overcome in our Minds those weak and miserable Reasonings which are opposed to her and cannot the Divine Promises which we see every day are accomplishing elevate and raise us above our Senses Now let us not say that these Promises are still kept in suspence and as they are to hold out to the end of the World so it will not be until the end of the World that we can boast we have seen the accomplishment of them For on the contrary that which is already past assures us of the future so many ancient Predictions so visibly fulfilled make us satisfied that there will be nothing but what shall be accomplished and that the Church against which according as the Son of God hath promised us even the Gates of Hell shall never prevail will be always subsisting until the consummation of all things for that Jesus Christ who is true in all hath prescribed no other bounds to its duration The same Promises do likewise assure us of a future Life God who hath shewn himself so faithful in accomplishing what respects the present Age will be no less faithful in accomplishing that which respects the Future of which all that we see is but a preparation and the Church will be always unshaken and invincible on the Earth until that her Children being gathered together she be entirely conveyed to her which is her only true Mansion As for those who shall be excluded from that heavenly City an eternal Vengeance is reserved for them and after they have lost by their Sin and Folly a blessed Eternity there will be left for them no other place but a Hell of Eternal woe and misery Thus the Decrees of God are to terminate by an immutable state his Promises and his Threatnings are equally certain and what he executes in time assures us of what he hath commanded us either to expect or fear in Eternity You now see what may be learned from the continual progress of Religion as it is in short presented to your Eyes By time it conducts you to Eternity You see a constant order in all God's Decrees and a visible Mark of his Power in the perpetual duration of his People You cannot but confess that the Church hath a Branch always subsisting which cannot be separated from it without destroying it and that those who being united to this Root do perform such Works as are worthy of their Faith and secure to themselves eternal Life Your Highness is therefore to study but to study with attention this uninterrupted Course of the Church which so clearly assures to you all the Promises of God Whatsoever breaks this Chain whatsoever goes out of this Course whatsoever advances it self and does not come by virtue of the Promises made to the Church from the beginning of the World you are to have in horrour Imploy all your power to recall into this Unity whatsoever is stragled out of the way of it and to make it hearken to the Church by which the Holy Spirit of God pronounces its Oracles The Glory of your Ancestors is not only that they never forsook it but that they always supported it and thereby deserved to be called the Eldest Sons which is certainly the most glorious of all their Titles 'T is needless for me to mention to you Clovis Charlemaine or St. Louis Consider only the time you live in and from what Father God hath given you your Birth A King so great in every thing yet is more to be distinguished by his Faith than by all his other admirable Qualities He protects Religion not only within but out of his Kingdom and even to the last Extremities of the World His Laws are one of the firmest Rampiers of the Church His Authority revered as much by the Merit of his Person as by the Majesty of his Scepter never supports it self so well as when it defends the Cause of God We hear no more Blasphemies Impiety trembles before him this is the King taken notice of by Solomon Prov. 20.26 that in his Wisdom scattereth the Wicked and bringeth the Wheel over them If he attacks Heresie by such means and that more too than ever did any of
that Egypt hath been very Martial She hath had a great many Troops well disciplined and kept she hath often exercised them for a Shew in Military Services and as it were had the Images and resemblances of Combats but it is only War and downright Fighting that makes Men Warriors Egypt loved Peace because she loved Justice and had only Soldiers for her Defence Beiâ—g contented with her own Country which had plenty of all things she never thought of enlarging it by Conquests She did it after another way by sending her Colonies all the World over and with them politeness and Laws The most celebrated Cities came to learn in Egypt their Antiquities Plat. in Tim. and the first beginning of their most excellent Institutions They consulted her on all sides in the Rules of Wisdom When those of Elis had set up the Olympick Games the most famous of all Greece they sought by a Solemn Embassy the approbation of the Egyptians and learnt from them new ways of incouraging the Combatants Egypt reigned by her Councels and that Government of Understanding appeared to her more noble and glorious than that she established by her Arms. Although the Kings of Thebes were incomparably the most puissant of all the Kings of Egypt yet they never attempted upon the neighbouring Dynasties which they only enjoyed when they had been invaded by the Arabians so that to speak truly they rather chose to get from Strangers than were willing to Lord it over their own natural Country-men But when they concerned themselves with being Conquerours they surpassed all others I do not speak of Osiris the Conqueror of the Indians probably that was Bacchus or some other Hero as fabulous Diod. l. 1. §. 2. The Father of Sesostris the Learned will have him Amenophis otherwise Memnon either through instinct or humour or as the Egyptians say by the Authority of an Oracle first thought of making his Son a Conquerour He followed the way of the Egyptians in it that is to say with great deliberation All Children that were born the same day as Sesostris were brought to Court by the King's Command He bred them up as if they were his own and with the same care as Sesostris near whom they were bred He could not give him either more faithful Ministers or more zealous Companions for his Battels When he was somewhat grown up he made him serve his Apprenticeship in a War against the Arabians That young Prince there learnt to be patient of Hunger and Thirst and brought that Nation into Submission which till then was untameable Being accustomed to Warlike labours by that Conquest his Father made him turn to the East of Egypt he attacked Libya and a great part of that vast Region was subjugated About this time his Father dyed leaving him in a condition of undertaking all things He formed no less a Design than that of the Conquest of the World but before he went out of his Kingdom he provided for his own security in it in gaining the affections of all his People by his Liberalâ—ty and Justice Diod. ibid. and also so by regulating the Government with an extream Prudence In the mean while he was making his Preparations he levied Soldiers and gave than for their Captaiâ—s those young men which his Father had caused to be bred up with him There were seventeâ—n hundred of them able to inspâ—re into all the Army Courage Discipline and the Love of their Prince That done he entred into Ethiopia which he made Tributary to him He went on with his Victories in Asia Jerusalem was the first that felt the force of his Arms. Rash and violent Rehoboam could not resist him so that Sesostris carried away the Riches of Solomon God by a just Judgment had delivered them into his hands He travelled into the Indies further than Hercules or Bacchus Ibid. and further than ever was done since Alexander for he subjugated the Country beyond Ganges You may therefore judge if the more neighbouring Countries withstood him The Scythians obeyed him even to Tanais Armenia and Cappadocia became his Subjects He left a Colony in the ancient Kingdom of Colchos where the Customs of Egypt have always continued since Herodotus hath seen in lesser Asia from one Sea to the other the Monuments of his Victories with the proud Inscriptions of Sesostris King of Kings and Lord of Lords There were some of them even in Thrace and he extended his Empire from Ganges to the Danube The difficulty of getting Victuals kept him from entring any further into Europe He returned after nine years loaden with the Spoils of all the conquered People Some of them had very couragiously defended their liberty others yielded without resistance Sesostris took care to mark out in his Monuments the difference of those in Hieroglyphick Figures after the manner of the Egyptians To describe his Empire he found out Geographical Cards A hundred famous Temples erected to the honour of the Tutelary Goâ—s of all the Towns were the first as well as the most beautiful Tokens of his Conquests and he was very careful to publish in the Inscriptions that those great Works had been accomplished without any fatigue to his Subjects Herod 10. Diod. ib. He made it his glory to govern them discreetly and not to make any but his Captives to assist at the Monuments of his Victories Solomon had given him the Example of it 2 Chron. 8.9 That wise Prince imployed only his Tributary People in the great Works which rendred his Reign Immortal The Citizens were ingaged in more noble Exercises they were men of War and chief of his Captains Sesostris could not regulate himself by a more perfect Model He reigned thirty three years and a long time enjoyed his Triumphs Diod. 1. §. 2. much more worthy of Honour and Glory if his Vanity had not made him to be drawn in his Chariot by vanquished Kings It seems he scorned to meet Death as other men for being become blind in his old Age he was his own Executioner in giving himself death and so leaving Egypt rich for ever His Empire however did not exceed the fourth Generation But there remained yet in the time of Tâ—â—erius very magnificent Monuments which sufficiently shewed the Extent of it as well as the Quantity of his Tributes Egypt soon returned to her own peaceful Humour Ticit Ann. 2. It has been writ that Sesostris was the first that after his Conquests softened the Tempers of the Egyptians into the fear of Revolting If we may believe so it could only be a Precaution he took up for his Successors Nymphod l. 12. rer barb post Herod wise and absolute as he was what could be seen that might make him fearful of his Subjects who adored him Besides such a Thought as that was unworthy so great a Prince and it was an ill Provision for the Security of his Conquests to suffer the Courage of his Subjects to be weakned and
those two great Men had given to the World so lively and fair an Image of the voluntary Oblation of Jesus Christ and in their Souls had tasted if the bitternesses of his Cross they were esteemed truly worthy of being his Ancestors Gen. 22.28 Abraham's faithfulness made God confirm to him all his promises and blessed anew not only his Family but also in his Family all the Nations of the World In effect he continued his protection to Isaac his Son and to Jacob his Grand-child They were his imitators and adhered as he did to the Antient Faith to the Antient manner of living which was the Pastoral to the Antient Government of Mankind where every Father of a Family was a Prince in his own House Thus in the Changes and Revolutions continually made among Men the Holy Antiquity revived in the Religion and in the conduct of Abraham and of his Children God did also repeat to Isaac and to Jacob the same Promises which he had made to Abraham Gen. 25.11.26.4.28.14 and as he called himself the God Abraham so he took upon him the name of the God of Isaac and of the God of Jacob. Under his protection those three great Men began to dwell in the Land of Caanan but as strangers and without possessing there a foot of ground until the Famine brought Jacob into Aegypt where his Children being multiplied became soon after a great People Acts 7.5 as God had promised him But tho' this People whom God made to be born in his Covenant were to be enlarged by Generation and that the Blessing was to follow the Blood yet this great God failed not mark out to them the Election of his Grace For after he had chosen Abraham from among the Nations out of the Children of Abraham he chose Isaac and from the two Twins of Isaac he chose Jacob to whom afterwards he gave the name of Israel Jacob had twelve Sons who were the twelve Patriarchs heads of the twelve Tribes All were entred into the Covenant but Judah was chosen from amidst all his Brethren to be the Father of the Kings of Israel and the Father of the Messiah so much promised to his Ancestors The time was come that the ten Tribes being cut off from the People of God for their Infidelity the Posterity of Abrahâ—m lost its Antient Blessing that is to say the Religion the Land of Canaan and the hopes of the Messiah but only in the Tribe of Judah which was to give the name to the rest of the Israelites who were called Jews and to all the Country which was called Judea Thus the Divine Election appeared still even in that carnal people which was to be preserved by ordinary propagation Gen. 49.10 Jacob in his Spirit saw the Mystery of this Election just before he dyed when his Sons stood round about his Bed to receive the blessing of so good a Father God discovered to him the Estate of the twelve Tribes when they should be come to the promised Land he reveals it to them in a few words and those few words include innumerable Meysteries Though all that he spoke of Judah's Brethren be expressed with an extraordinary magnificence and shews the man transported out of himself by the Spirit of God when he comes to Judah he is carried out yet higher Judah saith he thou art He whom thy Brethren shall praise Gen. 49.8 9 10. thine hand shall be on the neck of thine Enemies thy Fathers Children shall bow down before Thee Judah is a Lyons Whelp From the prey my Son thou art gone up He stooped down he couched as a Lyon and as an old Lyon who shall rouse him up The Scepter that is to say the Authority shall not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be The rest of the Prophecy is about the Countrey which the Tribe of Judah shall posses in the Holy Land But the last words as we have seen them howsoever we take them signifies nothing but him who was to be the Ambassador of God the Minister and Interpreter of his Will the Accomplishment of his Promises and the King of the new People that is to say the Messiah or the Anointed of the Lord. Jacob speaks expresly to none but to Judah from whom that Messiah was to come In the destiny of Judah alone he comprehends the destiny of all the Nation which after its dispersion was to see the rest of the other Tribes re-united under the Standards of Judah All the Terms of the Prophecy are clear there is only the word Scepter which the common use of out Tongue might make us take for the only Royalty whereas in the Sacred Language it signifies in general Power Authourity and Magistracy That use of the word Scepter runs through all the pages of the Scripture It plainly appears also in the Prophecy of Jacob and the Patriarch means that in the days of the Messiah all Authority shall be put to an end in the House of Judah which imports the total ruine of a State Thus the times of the Messiah are noted out to us here by a double change By the former the Kingdom of Judah and of the Jews is threatned with its last ruine By the latter there was a new Kingdom to be set up not of one single People but of all People over whom the Messiah was to be the head and hope In the Style of Holy Writ the Jews are called in the singular number and by way of eminence Isa 65. c. Rom. 10.21 Isa 2.2 3.49.6.18.51.4 5. The People or the people of God And when we find it used the plural those who are versed in the Scriptures understand the other people who we see also are promised to the Messiah in the Prophecy of Jacob. This great Prophecy comprehends in a few words all the History of the Jewish People and of Christ our Saviour who was promised to them It points out to us all the course of the people of God and it effectually continues to this day Therefore I pretend not to make a Commentary of it to You there is no need for You to have one since by barely observing their course You will easily see the sence of the Oracle unvailed of it self and that the very events themselves will be their own Interpreters After Jacob's death III. Moses the written Law and the bringing of the People into the promised Land the People of God abode in Aegypt unto the time of the Mission of Moses that is to say about two hundred years So that it was four hundred and thirty years before God gave his people the Land which he had promised them He was resolved to accustom his Elect to rely upon his Promise being assured that it should be fulfilled either sooner or later and always at the exact time appointed by his Eternal Providence The Iniquities of the Amorites both