can reward or punish to question providence and to say it is unconcern'd in the affaires of men to make God a being who hath neither †Epicurus vero exanimis hominum radicitus extraxit religionē cum diis immortalibus opem Gratiam sustulit cum enim optimam praestantissimam naturam Dei esse dicat negat idem esse in Deo Gratiam tollit id quod maxime proprium est optimae praestantissimaeque naturae quid enim melius aut quid praestantius bonitate beneficentia quâ cum carere deum vult neminem deo nec Deum nec hominem carum neminem ab eo amari neminem diligi vult Cic. de N. D. l. 1. p. 25. love nor hatred affection or concerne for what we doe to set up fate and evil Demons starrs and matter to controule and overrule him and to make the expressions of his power and Goodness necessary therefore such as lay no obligations on us to returnes of love is to renounce Religion and the worship of a Deity because these apprehensions take off all the motives to it § 14. NAY seeing God is an all powerful Being and therefore able to dispense rewards and punishments according to our workes what ever can induce me to believe he will not do it must also force me to conclude that he is wholly careless in those matters that he doth not love that virtue which he will not crown defend and cherish nor hate that vice which he will not restraine and punish it being the most natural result of hatred to shew a Great displeasure and where our power is equal to our will to leave some tokens of dislike and opposition to what we hate by our endeavours to suppresse and crush it As on the other hand it is the genuine effect of love to wish and to endeavour where our power meets with nothing to controul it the preservation and welfare of the object loved And therefore it is folly to conceive that Gratitude should lead me to the pursuance of that virtue which will not be Grateful or the forbearance of that vice which cannot possibly displease the Person to whom I stand obliged to express my gratitude § 15. 2ly SINCE evident it is that all things here do come alike to all and there is one event unto the just and unjust Since it is not the experience only but the complaint and scandal of the world that wicked persons flourish in it like a green bay tree that they are fat and well liking and often have a late and quiet passage to their Graves In a word since here we finde no dispensations of rewards or punishments according to the Good or bad demeanours of mankind it follows that those doctrines which deny the future being of the soule and make its bliss or misery conclude with its existence in the body must render Piety not only useless but oft destructive to the interest both of the soul and body and so repugnant to our reason § 16. 3ly SINCE all rewards dispensed by the hand of providence must be the consequents of actions ordered according to God's will and precepts and tending to his honour and seeeing all the punishments inflicted by Him must be the products of such actions as bear an opposition to his will and so are proper acts of disobedience it being inconsistent with the wisdome as well as with the justice of a God to give rewards to what doth infinitely displease him and reflects on him with dishonour to leave the soule uncertain of his will must clip the wings of the most fledg'd devotion For when beholding the variety of men's inventions to appease a Diety and pay their homage to him their soul could only pitch on one and that as disputable as the rest it must be either tempted to put the matter to a venture and renounce Gods ' service or else be scar'd into superstition or an immoderate dread of God For what can free the soul from endless terrours when it can arrive at no security that what it doth is acceptable to that God from whom it must expect a future and eternal recompence according to its actions in this life § 17. 4ly SEING the will is guided by the convictions of the judgment where this doth doubt and fluctuate its influence upon the will especially when tempted to oppose its dictates by the strongest passions and inclinations of the soul and by all the pleasures of our senses must be inconsiderable For whether we are moved by hopes or feares the terrours of an evil threatned or the expectations of a future good the more our doubtings are of what we hope or feare the lesse our judgements are convinc'd or satisfied and so much the less able they are to prevail or stand their ground against the strength of our affections and the importunity of our passions § 18. 5ly SINCE what it is not in my power to avoid it cannot be my duty to avoid and what doth follow from the laws of fate and those extrinsick causes whose operations are immutable is also unavoidable it follows that those doctrines which make our sinful actions to proceed from such a cause must make it cease to be my duty to avoid them § 19. THE Heathen had as gross conceptions in matters of morality as of Religion towards God they embraced opinions which thwarted all the duties of the second table and acted sutably to those opinions Christianity indeed calls for the largest Bowels of a Col. 3.12 13. compassion to our Brother and an entire b Gal. 6.10 forgiveness of his offenses against us It enjoyns us c Rom. 13.9 to do Good to all and beare the same affection to others which we do to our selves it pronounces d Mat. 5.22 1 Joh. 3.15 damnation upon those who indulge any causeless passion that may Provoke them to do mischief to him it tells us no murtherer can have eternal life and so prevents the shedding of our Brothers bloud and all the mischieves of revenge and passion so well doth it consult the peace and welfare of man-kind Whereas among the Heathen it was held the sign of a low 65 dastard spirit to pass by an injury and their 66 Good man when provoked might do the greatest mischiefs Lycurgus his laws were wholly †Lycurgi leges agrestes sanguinariae erant ut Plato Aristotiles notarunt finis enim earū uon erat alius quam ut optimos bellatores facerent Spartanos L. vives in August de C. D. l. 2. C. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist de Repl. l. 7. c. 14. sanguinary and only did intend to make the Spartans the more able murtherers Their 6i gladiation was but an art to kill their sacrifices and service to their Gods were stained with the bloud of Infants and men of riper yeares 6g Mercy was by the Stoick made a vice self 69 murther was held sometimes a duty by Epicurus and the Stoick and made
not Sow and Plant and trade only in hopes of an encrease and should not then the hopes and probabilities of infinite eternal Happiness provided for the pious Christian engage us to obey Gods Precepts and to resist all those Temptations which flesh and blood suggests against them If thus to seek the false uncertain Mammon be the great Wisdome of the world can it be Folly to pursue with equal diligence and vigour but with better Hopes the true lasting Riches If then it be but probable that all the world throughout all Ages did not embrace the Doctrine of a Providence without some plausible Inducement so to do If all the primitive Martyrs and Confessors did not suffer for the Name of Christ and all succeeding Generations did not embrace or continue in the Profession of the Faith of Christ without all reason motive or even probable inducement If any of those probabilities we have amass'd together in the close of this Discourse deserve to be esteemed such or any of those Arguments which in this Treatise we have urged be probable then must the Folly of the Atheist be exceeding great and clear beyond exception 3. It must be Folly to renounce that Faith which hath been Generally owned by men of strongest Parts and most discerning Judgments in very many Nations and through many Generations and which delivers matters of so great Moment and Concern that our eternal Happiness or Misery depends upon them till we have used the Greatest diligence to search into the Reasons which induced them to believe it true Let then the Atheist say what he hath done to satisfie his judgment in this great Concern whether he ever did peruse the writings and Apologies of Antient Fathers or the most eminent Divines who have discoursed upon this Subject to the Satisfaction of the knowing World Whether he ever did consult with Persons of the best abilities propound his scruples and consider of the Answers given before he ventured to scoff at and renounce his Faith If not this is sufficient to convince him of the greatest Folly in the World If any that pretends to have used all this diligence and all these Endeavours continue still to question and suspect the truth of Christian Faith and of the Doctrine of a Providence let me intreat him to consider 1. Whether those motives which induce him to renounce a Providence or Christian Faith will not compel him to renounce those things of which he hath the evidence of Sense and Reason to convince him if so we have as great assurance of the falshood of those motives as Sence and Reason can afford If then you do reject a Providence because you are not able to conceive Gods Omnipresence or any other Attribute on which this Providence depends if you renounce the Mysteries of Christian Faith because you cannot apprehend them have you not equal reason to reject the Notions of Infinite unbounded space of an Eternal Flux of Time or an Indivisible Eternity which yet your reason must acknowledge Must you not question the Existence of the Souls of Men and Brutes as being not sufficient to conceive that Spirits if confined to points can performe any of those actions which we ascribe to them or that they can diffuse themselves through Bodies receive impressions from them or make impressions on them or that meer matter should perceive reflect and reason or have any sense of pain and pleasure Lastly must not this Principle oblige you to Question the Existence of all material Compounds For who is able to conceive that Indivisibles can be united or that a Grain of Sand can be for ever divisible and have as many parts as the whole World If you do question or dispute the truth of any Miracle Revelation or Prediction because you are not able to perceive the manner how it was or may be done this will oblige you to denie the Ebb and Flowing of the Sea till you are able to acquaint us with the true Causes of it and to distrust that ever you were born because you never can explain the manner of your own production For as thou knowest not the way of the wind nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all things Eccl. 11.5 If you are tempted to disown these Revelations because you are not able to conceive Gods Ends and Reasons in them Why he who hath proclaimed Himself the God of Mercy should threaten an eternal punishment to finite transitory Sins why he should leave the World so long in Darkness and the like Might not a Subject on the like account reject the precepts of his Soveraign because not able to perceive the Wisdome of them or the necessity of all the Sanctions he annexeth to them Is it not certain that if there be a God he must be infinite in his perfections and so incomprehensible and then his Wisdome must exceedingly transcend the reach of finite Apprehensions the Secrets of it must be double to that which doth appear to us and there must be such depths both in his Judgments and his Acts of Mercy as we can never fathome So that unless the Notion of an Infinite and all-wise Being includes a contradiction in the Terms we cannot doubt but that he may reveal what we can never apprehend Besides we cannot understand the Beauty or Wisdome of Divine Transactions but we must be acquainted with the Ends and Motives the Tendence and result of all he doth for otherwise what seems absurd to us may admirably comply with the Designes of Providence what seems confused in the Beginning may conclude in Order and the Greatest Beauty Since then we do not know the minde of God since we are not acquainted with the Designes and Purpose nor are we able to look forward to the Results of Providence it is sure we cannot pass a Judgement on the Wisdome of them If you are tempted to disown the Christian Faith because you are not able to reconcile it to your shallow reason and infirm Conceptions This will oblige you to denie the Being Propagation the Swiftness or Continuation of all Motion it being certain we are not able to give an Answer to all the Arguments produced against the different degrees of Swiftness or the Continuation or the very Being of it or to conceive how Motion can be propagated It is acknowledged that an immediate plain indisputable Contradiction cannot be matter of our Faith or of a Revelation from the God of truth But seeing it is also evident that all matters infinitely great as infinite Duration Power Space and infinitely little as the indivisible parts of Space Time do as much bafle and confound our understandings as do the Attributes of God and do abound with difficulties as stubborn and unweildy as any Revelations of the Gospel do afford it must be rashness to reject these Revelations as inconsistent with the Dictates and Apprehensions of
only by their Writings but by the Writings of the Heathens that they sped in their Design that Christian Religion was so propagated in that Age whil'st some of Christs Disciples were yet living and therefore we may reasonably conclude they were not and could not be convinced of Falshood but that what they had said and written of these Matters was unquestionably true Proleg 2. The miraculous Operations of Christ and his Apostles if done according to the Records left concerning them must be a signal Evidence of some invisible superior Power engaged to assist them For 1. They chiefly were employed in the ejection of the Devil who is a Spirit and therefore invisible and therefore not to be ejected but by a Power which is Invisible And secondly They were done by means which could have no proportion to the greatness of the Work no real Influence upon the Object and so could be no Causes of the Effect produced For instance that these Words Matt. 8.3 I will be thou clean should cleanse a Leper Joh. 4.50 Matt. 8.13 that Go thy way thy Son liveth thy daughter is made whole should give both Life and Health or that the Faith of a Centurion should work a perfect Cure upon his Servant Murk 9.38 5.8 that the mention of the Name of Jesus or his Command to them should eject whole Legions of evil Spirits that Ananias and Saphira should Give up the ghost and Elymas be strook blinde Acts 5.9 13.11 only because St. Paul and Peter said it should be so and that an Hymn of Paul and Sylas should make the Earth to tremble the Prison doors to open and all the Prisoners Shackles to fly off that these Words Talitha cumi or Lazarus come forth should raise the dead These things could not be done by means so weak and ineffectual without some secret and invisible Assistance 2. That Faith in Jesus should immediately enable Men to speak those Languages they were never taught that Bread by being broken should be multiplyed above an hundred fold that the cursing of a Fig-tree should make it wither that at the Crucifying of a supposed Malefactor there should be such a concurrence of Prodigies the Sun to gather darkness and the Earth to tremble the Rocks to rend and Dead to rise It is not to be imagined that these things should so happen without the assistance of some Heavenly Power Thirdly Some of these Operations were for matter such as Juglers never did or could pretend to with any shew of Truth viz. Speaking with divers Tongues to others and giving this Power unto thousands only by Imposition of the Apostles hands We read elsewhere of Persons who have spoken Words they understood not yet no History speaks of any who had the boldness 〈◊〉 pretend they could confer the gift of speaking with all kind of Tongues or of Interpreting those Tongues to others Fourthly they were some of them things and actions seen and done in places where no other power could act but such as is invisible And such were the production of that Star wich led the wise men to the Star of Jacob Luke 2.13.24.4 the frequent apparitions of Angels singing their Anthems at his birth and being present with him at his Temptation in the wilderness at his Transfiguration in his agony at his Resurrection and Ascension into heaven Luke 1.11.28 and being sent to Zacharias the Virgin Mother Cornelius Peter and many others Lastly such were those voices from heaven Mat. 3.17 saying at one time this is my beloved in whom I am well pleased at an other time this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Mat. 17.5 at a 3d time when Christ said Father Glorify thy name I have both Glorified it Joh. 12.28 and will Glorify it again and saying to St. Paul in the hearing of divers of the Jews Saul Saul Act. 9.7 why persecutest thou me 5ly The Greatness of the works to wit the raising of the dead nay more the raising of himself from death shew evidently the Greatness of the power which was engaged to effect it In a word Christ still pretended that he was the a Joh. 5.16.17 Son of God that what he did was by the b Joh. 5.19.20.21 power of God and by that virtue he c Joh. 8.18.10.25 received from heaven that God bare witness to him by his mighty works and did them to this very end that all might honour d Joh. 8.18.10.25 the Son even as they honoured the Father and that they gave sufficient e Joh. 5.36.14.11 witness to his doctrine And t is recorded by his disciples that God declared him by those f Mat. 3. Pet. 2.1.17 voices before mentioned in the hearing of g Joh. 1.33 many and by a special revelation to St. John the Baptist to be his beloved Son which is sufficient to evince if he and his disciples had no intention to impose upon the world in those relations that the invisible power by which he was assisted was the hand of God Proleg 3. Christ and his disciples had no assistance whether from Good or evil Angels to delude the world Good Angels are the Ministers of heaven and strict observers of the pleasure of a good and holy God and consequently what they endeavour to promote must be agreable to the will of God their actions and designs must be consistent with their natures and appellations and therefore such as must designe the good and welfare of those Persons whom they endeavoured to confirm in this belief which since it visibly did tend unto their present ruine must give assurance of that future Bliss which it did promise as the reward of what they suffer'd who embraced it and so assure us that God was well pleased with and stood engaged to reward their sufferings Nor is it reasonable to imagine that divine power should be so signally employed to beguile and betray the world into so Gross Idolatry as is the worship of a vile Impostor for the God of heaven or that this power should be at such expence of Miracles to lift an Impudent blasphemer into the usurpation of his own prerogative Or lastly that his Goodness should permit him to be so highly instrumental to engage whole Myriads of well meaning Persons in the profession of a lye so visibly destructive to their present welfare especially considering that the same ministery of Angels or some more immediate engagement of divinity might as effectually have reduced the world into obedience to the unerring dictates whither of reason or of Revelation To transfer this office to the prince of darkness seems yet more palpably absurd it being his design and interest to fill the world with bloud and rapine to make mens bodies the Greatest sinks of vice and all impurity and so incapable of bliss and mercy from the God of purity For the effecting of which ends he could use nothing
the rod and over-awed by terrors into base complyance as having not sufficient reason to defend their tenets or to oppose against the sense of present misery they being also Men of religious Education lives unblamable which bore the greatest 9 Kindness did the best Offices Occidunt eos quos ipsi fatentur imitatores esse justorum Lact. l. 5. c. 9. and shew'd the strongest bowels of compassion to their Persecutors and greatest freedome from revenge yea men which gave the best examples taught the best precepts which the world e're knew and all whose hopes designs interest depended only on a Future Life 5ly If we consider the 10 number of those Christian Sufferers so many that Sulpitius tells us l. 2. c. 46. the World was more exhausted by one Persecution then by the most bloudy Wars And 6ly the effect of those so bloudy Persecutions viz The 11 encrease of Proselytes the more effectuall Propagation of the Christian Faith the shame and the 12 Conviction of their Adversaries Conviction so great that on this very score they oft desisted from their intended executions And to conclude the manner of their Sufferings doth give us full assurance that the assistance of the Holy Ghost which Christ and his Apostles promised to true believers was accordingly vouchsafed to those Martyrs They having born the Greatest sufferings not only with undaunted Courage but with 13 Joy and Exultation and being as desirous to suffer for the name of Jesus as their Persecutors were to Torment them and finding oftentimes 14 a perfect freedome from all Sense of Paine under the most afflicting pressures Miraculous 15 Experience of Consolations under Sufferings of 16 deliverance from them and of an over-ruling 17 controuling and sometimes 18 vindictive power upon the instruments of their Sufferings Now 1 It seems impossible they could thus suffer without Divine assistance For 1 what could create a freedome from the sense of Pain under the Greatest Torments and most intolerable burthens unto flesh and blood What could inject so great a Terror into the fiercest of wild beasts as to muzzle their mouthes and stop their craving appetites and what could cause insensate creatures which by the Laws of Nature act to the utmost of their strength to loose their wonted Efficacies What should create such Joys and Exultations suggest such comforts and supports under the sharpest and most fiery Tryalls and continuall pressures the very thoughts of which afflictions have slain their hundreds and made them out of dread of others Fury become their own Tormentors What could embolden those who tremble at the Rod and are so scared by the threats and frowns of angry Parents Those who cry out and Skreek and Swoon at the approach of lesser Evills yea dread those Terrours which their own Phansies did create to despise the worst of Torments when they were placed before their eyes to bear up with more then humane Courage against inhumane Cruelties to endure them without a Sigh or Groan and by their patience to baffle and Torment their Persecutors That which doth cool the courage of the stoutest hearts how should so many Feeble Souls encounter And that at which the best of men do shrink and tremble which they do pray and strive against how could they who were held to be the filth and the ofscouring of the world despise and laugh at § 3. BUT 2ly T is more improbable they would undergo those fiery Trials without a full assurance of the Greatest blessings and rewards hereafter We see how few will quit their Pleasures and Enjoyments here though conscience speaks so loud and their duty is so oft inculcated to purchase all the Glories of another world Life is so sweet that most men do desire to preserve it though upon most dishonorable and unworthy terms And would then such a world of men in so many Nations and throughout so many Centuries of yeares without all hopes of future blessings but what deluded phansie could suggest doe what 's so highly inconsistent with the first principle of humane Nature the reason experience of all past ages and of all that were then to come In a word if they were Good men to be sure they would not ruine and destroy themselves if bad men it must be their concern to live and to enjoy the pleasures of this present world the future being either the matter of their dread or at least no matter of their hopes Nor can it reasonably be conceaved that Providence which hath so Great and tender a regard to the sincere and honest heart should let so many thousands of well meaning Souls perish by the delusions of ungrounded hopes and vain imaginations and not dart in one ray of light to guide them to the truth § 4. Object SHOULD any here object the 19 Spartan boyes who would not shrink at the severest whippings the 21 Roman Legions who went with Joy unto those places whence they expected never to return a 20 Polemo or a 22 Possidonius an 23 Anaxarchus Regulus or a Zeno the Quakers Anabaptists or such like hardy sects It may be sufficient Answer to remind them of the rareness of their sufferings or the condition of the Persons suffering in all which circumstances they are not to be compared with Christian Martyrs At least not any of them will be found to have shewn such Charity towards them that were the causes of their Sufferings experimented such Joys and consolations under sufferings such perfect freedome from all sense of pain such signal instances of an all ruling and sometimes Vindictive Power upon the instruments thereof as was vouchsafed to those Martyrs Adde to this that Philosophers stood bound in honour the thing they mostly thirsted after thus to doe and suffer Their Philosophy was but the doctrine of contempt of Death It was their dayly buisiness to commend it to their Scholars and hence so many of them did either a Menippus Laert. lib. 6. Ed. St. p. 162. Empedocles ib. p. 614. Ed. Steph. Hang or b Metrocles Laert. l. 6. p. 161. Ed. St. Zeno ib. p. 171. Choke or c Pythagoras Laert. l. 8. Ed. Steph. p. 592. Starve themselves when life became a burthen or a trouble to them and when necessity was lay'd upon them they suffer'd which the Greatest Valour Whereas the meaner sort of Christians could have but little sense of Honor their profession did forbid them to desire or to receive it and would be sure to expose them to the greatest infamy Agen the Spartan boy was taught by custome and Instructions Experience and Practice to endure his Stripes and frequent Meditation made the wise man valiant the Christian void of all those helps became a constant and undaunted sufferer and oftentimes the Christian and the Martyr did begin together As for the Anabaptist and the Quaker besides the lightness of their sufferings they bottom upon expectation of an exceeding weight of Glory whereas the Christian must suffer all those Miseries
been so full and pregnant that nothing could be more For to resume these heads 1. Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans written about the 2d Year of Nero vid. Lightfoot Harm N. T. P. 121.136 Cha. 1. 8 1. Col. 6. 22. tells them their Faith was celebrated throughout all the world In his Epistle to the Colossians about the 6th of Nero he assures them that the Christian Faith was preached to every creature under Heaven and proclaimed to the whole world The truth of which assertions will be sufficiently made Good from Proleg the 6th 2ly Of the multitude of false Christs we have already spoken Of false Prophets we are informed by 2 Eusebius who from Josephus tells us of one Theudas who by his Magicall collusions prevail'd upon a multitude of Jews to follow him to the river Jordan which that pretended Prophet promised to divide before them and of an 3 Aegyptian in the days of Nero who being also a Magician pretended Prophet deceaved 30000 who partly were dispersed and partly slaine by Felix Governour of Judea 4 Josephus speaking of the conflagration of the Temple and of the multitude that perished in it 6000. ascribes their ruine to a lying Prophet who drew them thither with promises of signs and wonders that should there be wrought for their deliverance and then adds that there were many such deceivers who still endeavoured to delude the people with promises of help from heaven Nay the Apostle tells us Tit. 1.10 11 14. that they especially were the vain bablers and deceivers and the perverters of the truth that by their Fables and their zeal for their Traditions and empty Ceremonies they did pervert Men from the Faith and hinder the progress of the Gospel Thirdly Their false and lying Wonders made them deserve the Title of Magicians And indeed the Miracles recorded by their Rabbins Lightf Horae Hebr. in Mat. p. 266 267. the Stories which their * Talmud gives us of their Skill this way their frequent 5 Exorcisms by Invocation of the God of Jacob their Amulets and * Ligatures and confident 6 Assertions Lightf ibid Voisin observ in Raymund p. 557 558. That God gave power to his Law his Name and Attributes when thus applyed by them to heal diseases and work signs and wonders Lastly Those many 7 Instances Iosephus gives us of Men pretending to such Works all these sufficiently evince how much they were addicted unto false and lying Wonders Fourthly the Apostacy of many from the Christian Faith especially of the Jews is manifest from the Epistles of St Paul complaining that they apostatized unto the Law of Moses Gal. 3.4 2 Tlm. 1.15 and that all Asia had shaken off the Gospel and from the descriptions which St Peter and St Iude give of them That they denyed the Lord that bought them They went out from us 1 Joh. 2.19 saith St Iohn Fifthly The sign of the Son of man coming in the Heavens being some visible appearance in the Heavens of his coming to destroy Ierusalem and to revenge his death and all the Persecutions of his Prophets and Apostles on them that 8 Comet which appeared like a flaming sword and for the space of a whole year did point down upon the city may refer unto it But that which best comports with the Expression of our Saviour who tells us his appearance should be in the clouds with power and great glory Matt. 24.29 30. or with an Host and Splendor and also agrees with the Opinion of the Jews That this his coming with the clouds of Heaven was coming with the host of heaven as 9 R. Saadias hath it is that 10 appearance in the clouds of Chariots and of Armed Men incompassing the City and attended with the noise of War And whereas it is said immediately after the tribulation of those days the Sun shall be darkned Matt. 24.29 and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken let it be noted That these Words intend not to declare unto us what should happen after the desolation of Ierusalem as will appear 1. From the Words ensuing Matt. 24.33 When you shall see these things come to pass know that it is nigh even at the door Secondly From the incouragement that follows to the Christian Mark 13.29 When these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh If this Redemption do not import the Christians freedom from this present vengeance and from those fiery Persecutions which were raised against them chiefly by the malice of the Jews it will be hard to know what it can signifie since all the Judgements which befel the Heathen World did not redeem the Christians from their Persecutions but were the causes of them they being still ascribed by them unto the 11 anger of their gods against the Christians And thirdly Because the Prophet Ioel who foretels the very same events Joel 2.31 That God would shew wonders in the heavens and on the earth that the sun should be turned into darkness and the moon into blood assures us this was to happen before the great and terrible day of the Lord that is before the plenary Execution of Gods vengeance on the Jews 1 Thess 2.16 when wrath should come upon them to the uttermost Now hence it follows That these Expressions must concern the Jewish Nation and signifie by a 12 Prophetick Scheme and sutably unto the manner of the 13 Eastern Nations those great and dreadful Judgements God had resolv'd to bring upon the Jewish Nation which would Eclipse their Sun and Moon convert their glorious and shining Days into the days of darkness and create as great a Terror to them as if these Prodigious Things had hapned in the course of Nature The 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fearful Occurrences or Apparitions mentioned by St Luke Luke 21.11 may haply respect the flying open of the Temple doors the Light that shone about the Temple and the Altar before the multitude the Conflagration the Voices of an unseen multitude crying out Let us depart and quit this place Joseph de bel Jud. l. 7. c. 12. and especially of one Jesus denouncing Wo continually unto the City Temple and the People of Ierusalem and many other Signs which did declare their desolation and by the wiser Jews were thought to signifie it Lastly how dreadfully the 15 Famine raged among them how great and numerous the Earth-quakes were which happened about those Times Iosephus 16 Grotius and other Authors will inform us Sixthly That the Authors of this Desolation were the Roman Armies led on by Vespasian and his Son Titus that the destruction of the City and the Temple hapned within the space of 42 Years after our Lords Predictions and so within the compass of that Generation it will be needless to evince by Testimony these
free and not the fruits of our desert but Gods abundant Goodness They knew not what would reconcile them to God when by their sinnes they had offended him nor being reconciled what would continue and secure them in his favour This was the rise of that inhumanerite of sacrificing Infants and men of riper yeares They that did this conceited that nothing besides death could make atonement for their sin against God yet they were loth to dye for it themselves and therefore they made others dye hoping God would accept them in their stead The 44 doctrine of the souls immortal state of a future recompense was laught at and contemned not only by the school of Epicurus but the most learned men of the other sects Their records tell us that Pherecydes Syrus was the first that taught it It was the prevailing judgment of the 45 Stoick that departed soules continued for a while but still were subject to corruption And yet their Great Friend 46 Lipsius doth confess that this was matter of contest among them 47 Antoninus Seneca and others of them do very much distrust or 48 else deny it as Aristotle also did and that eternal state of which we read so often in the Platonist Credebam opinionibus magnorum virerum rem gratssimam promittentium magis quam probantium Scn. Ep. 102. seemes rather to have been their Guess than any matter of their Faith They ventur'd to say of it what they could not prove and that they were not confident of what they say'd it appeares by the stile and manner of their writing every thing comes from them so coldly and so timorously so qualified with ifs and And 's and peradventures when they write upon this subject Plato himfelse when he had persued this theme with all his Rhetorick how lamely comes he off at last †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in phaed. of this saith he I am not very confident Nor is it to be wondred that he was so uncertain of the concernments of another life who renounced all certainty in this The Pythagorean doctrine of the Metempsycosis condemned the soul to a continual round of troubles it imprisoned it in Brutes made its prison for so the body was by them esteemed as immortal as it selfe Among those many Gods to whom they could address themselves for Corne and Wine the Gentiles had none from whom they craved or expected the 50 blessings of eternal life And for the 51 punishments of another life those were but matter of contempt and scorne to the wisest Heathens who look'd upon the 52 Christian doctrine in this matter as an absurd and melancholy phancy a thing so vaine and so extravagant that scarce their children and old wives could credit it They generally held that either 53 death bereft men of all sense and being or chang'd this present for a better life To the more virtuous and noble soule the 54 Stoick would allow a future happiness as lasting as the world but for the simple and debauched Person who had lived the Brute they made him dye so too or else abide some very little season The 55 Pythagorean and the Platonist who make the Sinner come so oft upon the stage give him no smal encouragement to sinne and do at worst but threaten he shall live that brute to which his sinnes have best disposed him Among those few who held the soule immortal 56 some hence concluded her impassibility and so her freedome from all future punishments then which no Greater motive to impiety could be propounded The 57 Stoick held the Soule to be a part of God whence a Pythagoras qui censuit animumesse per naturam rerum omnium intentum commeantem ex quo nostri animi carperentur non vidit distractione humanorum animorum discerpi dilacerari deum cum miseri animi essent quod plerisque contingeret tum Dei partem esse miseram quod fieri non potest Cic. l. 1. de Nat. D. p. 7. B. Tully well infers that should it suffer God must do so to § 12. AGEN they did ascribe the 58 origine of evil either to an incorrigible fate or to an evil Demon or to that 59 matter which composed us whose inclinations they presumed it was not in the power of the God of Heaven to correct or to the 60 influence and over-ruling power of the Stars and by so doing they made all evil actions necessary and therefore such as could deserve no punishment This also was the natural result of the 61 Platonick year and 62 of the circuit of the Stoicks it being foolish to conceive that after any period all actions should become the same agen without some cause that should infallibly produce the same effects continually And yet those doctrines were mostly the receiv'd opinions of the Heathen world This circulation was the professed doctrine not only of the Platonist and Stoick and of Pythagoras and Heraclitus but of all those who held the 62 world to be eternal That all our actions were the result of an 63 inexorable fate was the opinion of Democritus and Heraclitus Empcdocles and Aristotle Parmenides and Lucippus Chrysippus Celsus Pythagoras and Epicurus * Fatum homines quando audiunt usitatâ loquendi consuetudine nihil aliud intolligunt nisi vim positionis syderum August de C. D. l. 5. C. 1. ibi esse fata Plato Stoici caeteri propè Philosophi existimarunt Chaldaeos ac Aegiptios secuti qui bus omnis Mathematicorum manus suffragata est Lud. Vives in locum The Platonist and Stoick Chaldean and Aegyptian Pythagoras and all the lovers of Astrology subjected all our actions to the power of the Stars our vices were ascribed to the incorrigible bent of matter by Plato Zeno and Pythagoras to an evil Genius by the General suffrage of the antient Heathens The Stoicks 65 held all sins were equal and that all virtues were so too and by so doing they lessoned our concernment to prevent the one or to pursue the other And now how perfectly destructive these opinions are to the service of a Deity and to all the parts and the concernments of religion is exceeding evident § 13. FOR first since hope and feare are the two radical and leading passions of the soul seeing the expectations of reward or future Good and dread of future evil are the two soveraigne motives to the renouncing of a lust or the embracing of a virtuous life who ever comes to God in way of duty must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of all those that diligently seek him And sure that homage may be spared which brings me in only my labour for my paines and the complaint of David that he did cleanse his hands in vaine must be allowed of if with like fredome from vindictive justice and as much temporal advantage of himselfe he might have imbrued them in his Brothers blood And therefore to deny the being of a God who