Apostles used is not only plain in it self but acknowledged by thee and Epist. 19. Sed insinuare digneris à quibus Judaeis c. Be pleased I pray thee to tell me by what Jews this Translation could possibly be corrupted so as to disfavour the Christian Cause Not by those who before the Advent of Christ translated it for they had no temptation The Jews indeed since the propagation of Christianity may be thought to have had a good will either to substract or to adulterate those Texts in the Old Testament out of which we fetch convincing Arguments in defence of our Faith But how is it possible they could have an opportunity seeing the Translation of the Seventy is not only dispers'd through the World but by reason of Christ's and his Apostles making their quotations out of it is so tenaciously adhered to by all Christian Churches as they cannot endure to hear what recedes from it in the least tittle Of which he gives this notable Instance Epist. 10. That a certain Bishop reading out of St. Jerom's Translation in the History of Jonas haedera instead of cucurbita the people were so incens'd as they had like to have proceeded to the Deposition of their Bishop for corrupting sacred Writ By such Solidity of Arguments I say St. Austin maintains the preheminency of the Authority of the Septuagint against St. Jerom as that learned Father pleads his own old age for an excuse for his not answering them But the excellent Vossius hath lately so well managed this Province so irrefragably maintained the Authority of the Septuagint as all that can be said after him is but labour in vain Neither indeed did I intend to stand by the Seventy any longer than I might signifie to the Sheep of Christ that they may without fear graze upon it and find that pasture which greater Cattel of a far larger size than the Modern breed and whose weight would have sunk it down had it not been firm Land have found there and may chew the Cud of that Observation for the defence whereof we have made this too large Digression Were it not that the allowing the matter to have fallen out as Scaliger fancieth rather than as Josephus relateth would render the whole Story juiceless For say as he states the Case that the Jews of Egypt being brought to a necessity of disusing their own tongue and of learning Greek procured this Translation for their own use this will make little or nothing to the proof of that Position which the Patrons of the Christian Cause have with one mouth affirmed viz. That the knowledge of the Law of Moses was the forerunner of the Knowledge of Christ among the Gentiles to whom it would still have been a Book sealed up had it been confin'd to the Cabinet of the Synagogue But as Josephus tells the Story it affords a most substantial Basis to that universally receiv'd Opinion that the Day-break Glimmerings of the Law of God did out of Judea appear brighter and brighter to the Gentiles till at last the whole Body of it arose visibly in the Septuagint as the Day-star to the Sun of of Righteousness Volebat Deus gentes non multos post annos vocare per Evangelium quocirca curavit codicem sacrum maturè in vulgarem linguā converti quo legi passim posset ab omnibus per orbem gentibus Bullenger in Daniel par 2. tab 4. If God had a purpose to conveigh the knowledge of his Will to the Gentiles by that Translation would he have put that Candle under the bushel of the Jewish Synagogue and not rather have set it on the Pharos of Ptolemy's Library If the Law was to be the Gentiles Schoolmaster unto Christ where could it have set up School better than there where was the greatest frequency of learned men from all parts of the World drawn thither as soon as that Translation was finish'd by the beneficence of that Philomuse as Tertullian advers Valentin cap. 12. stiles Philadelphus in Junius his emendation of the corrupt Reading of that passage of whose bounty to proficients in Learning not only himself in his Letter to Eleazar the High Priest at his dismission of the Seventy Joseph Ant. but Aelian in his various History lib. 13. cap. 13. gives testimony affirming that though he exceedingly delighted in Converse with Learned men yet he took more pleasure in sowing his Temporals upon them than in reaping their Spirituals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And after his death by the fame of his Library where Learning kept open house for all comers Can. cron lib. 2. Communia fuerant omnibus discere volentibus c. and flourished in the days of his Son Euergetes no where in all the World more than it did there A place so beautiful saith Am. Marcell lib. 22. as it was second to none in the whole World but the Roman Capitol and its greatest Ornament being a Library of seventy thousand Volumes all preserved there entire till in the Alexandrian War in the Dictatorship of Caesar while the City was a pillaging the Temple was set on fire and the greatest part of the Books burnt Now from the beginning of Philadelphus unto our Saviour's Birth that is from the year of Rome built 469. to the year 751. were almost 300 years Bullinger in Daniel during which time the Old Testament had been communicated to the Gentiles before the coming of him to whom it pointed § 6. Lo here how candidly how open-heartedly the Blessed Jesus dealt with the World dispersing his Picture before he came to call her beloved that had not been beloved that at his congress with her there might not be error personae or that the World might not have this to plead that she had or ever she was aware or had well considered the Person suffered a surprizal upon her Affections sending the Septuagint as the Prologue to his and his Apostles Acts to communicate to the Expectants the Argument of the ensuing Poem and communicating the old Grounds of that new Ditty which was to be sung at his and their appearing on the Worlds Stage an argument it was no newly devised Fable but an old Plot and a certain Expedient whereby the mistakes of the Actors might have been discern'd had they committed any Would Christ have given the World an opportunity to take the length of his foot that was to come by the Sandal of Moses and of judging whether that Sandal fitted his foot when he was come if he had intended to delude it I appeal to all Histories for an instance of any Religion but Christ's that durst abide the Test much less appeal to the Principles of another Religion then in being when it self stood for acceptance and acknowledged by the Candidate to be in force The Roman Pagan-Religion durst not stand a trial by the Books of its Founder Numa Pompilius but cried away with them to the fire as soon as they were produc'd The Papal Church supprest her
the most daring enemies of our Jesus and the Nation to which they are peculiarly calculated being dispersed and ceasing to be a Nation Nay after themselves have in effect renounc'd the Religion of Moses and betaken themselves to the Religion of the Patriarchs which yet is unpracticable among them in the point of Sacrifices so that they worship God in a way which neither their Fathers nor their Fathers-fathers knew A way taken up by themselves since the demolishing of their Temple and dispersion of their Nation wherein they add and take from their own Law contrary to the Divine Sanction In vain do they urge those Texts that seem in the Letter to import the perpetuity and irrevocableness of Moses Law such as Deut. 29. 29. Things revealed belong to us and our children for ever Lev. 23. 14. First fruits a statute for ever and the passover a statute for ever Ex. 12. 17. For if they will allow David to speak in Moses his Language when he applies ever to the Temple Psal. 132. 13. This is my rest for ever and allow their own eyes to interpret David's ever now they see the place of his residence for ever demolished the Chain wherein they think themselves still bound to Moses will fall off of its own accord can the ever of Oblations possibly be stretched beyond the ever of that Sanctuary to which they are limitted As vain is the exception against the cogency of this Argument from the Instance of the first Temples laying waste during the Babylonish Captivity during which time though the Law as to the practise of it was in some points suspended yet it was not abolished For 1. The Law had a shrewd shake and was loosen'd in its sinews by the ruine of the first Temple Gods withdrawing then the Ark of his Presence and Covenant from them was a sign he would quickly grow weary of sitting on Mount Sion now that his foot-stool was removed his not vouchsafing to give them Fire from Heaven for their Sacrifices in the second as he had done in the Tabernacle and first Temple and yet accepting their Offerings made by strange fire so directly contrary to the Law was an Argument that he stood not so much upon Levitical punctilios as he did at first when he punish'd Nadab and Abihu with suddain death for offering with strange fire If the Jews will avouch their own story upon Dan. 6. 4. Ut invenirent occasionem Danieli ex latere regis where interpreting latus regis to be the Queen or the King's Concubines they tell us that Daniel was an Eunuch they must be forc'd to a confession that God stood not much upon the Ceremonial Law when he preferr'd an Eunuch who by that Law was not to come into the Congregation into that intimate Communion with himself as to reveal to him more of his Counsel than he did to any Prophet beside Moses Jerom. in locum I urge these Instances as Arguments ad hominem they being the Jews concessions though in themselves not true as I shew elsewhere It is from their own Premisses I infer this Conclusion That God weaned them by degrees from Moses antiquating one Ceremony after another till at last Christ cancell'd the whole Hand-writing of Ordinances breach upon breach was made in that wall of partition till Christ took it wholly away and rac'd it to the ground 2. God promised to return that Captivity to restore to them their own Land and to repair the ruines of the first Temple but this Captivity will never be return'd the second Temple will never be repair'd but both Nation and Place are to be perpetual Desolations Of this I make proof elsewhere and therefore here shall propound this only Argument to evince the truth of it viz. That during the desolations of the first the Spirit of Prophecy was not with-held from them God raised them up Prophets in Babylon he then set them up Way-marks guides to their Cities again he whistled to his Flock scatter'd in that gloomy and dark day of their wandring to prevent their total dispersion and to keep them within the hearing of Cyrus his Proclamation But since the desolating of the second Temple they have had no Voice no Vision none to answer how long no Prophets have risen up among them but false ones as themselves acknowledg such as Ben Cozba of whom their Taba in Taanith per 4. halac 6. and Maymon in Taanith per. 5. quoted by Dr. Lightfoot Vespacian 1. Sect. 1. thus write It was on the 9. day of the Month Ab that the great City Bitter was taken where were thousands and ten thousands of Israel who had a great King over them whom all Israel even their greatest wise men thought to have been Messias And before him and Jerusalem's fall according to our Saviour's Prediction the many false Christs of whom Josephus in the History of that Age gives many instances § 3. As the Ceremonial Law fell with its own weight was disannull'd by its own Vote and cancel'd by vertue of its own Ordinances So that Old Testament-law which cannot be shaken 1. Is confirm'd and establish'd in the Gospel upon better Principles and more powerful Motives 2. And improved by our Royal Lawgiver in many branches of it that budded not under that Testament 3. And in the whole of it to the utmost heroick degree of Christned Morality 1. That an humane Soul cloathed with Mortality is capable of 2. Or can be drawn to by the most powerful Attractives of the Spirit of Grace 3. Most plentifully poured forth upon all that sincerely embrace the Gospel Of all which points I shall speak distinctly not only because they demonstrate that Christ came not to destroy but to perfect and fill up the Law but do also present Christ and the Gospel to us in a quite other form than the faithless Solifidian draws them in whose Models of Christianity look as if they were designed to shame Religion 1. The Salvifick Grace teaches us in the Gospel to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live godly righteously and soberly with more masculine and strenuous Motives than were propounded under the Law The Argument then was I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage but that which was but implyed in that is in the Gospel clearly expressed and obedience prest from our deliverance from the bondage of Satan the vassalage of our own Lusts the chambers of eternal Death The motive expressed there was That thy days may be long in the land a land slowing with milk and honey here the darkness of Type that was upon the face of that earth is dissipated the waters that overwhelm'd it are divided from it and the dry Land made to appear that Land that is very far off far above all visible Heavens The Childrens Rattles and Nats being laid aside the Gospel openly hangs out Prizes becoming men of full age to run for in that Race
for help to every God they could think of in the Consulship of A. Cornelius Cossus and T. Quintius Pennus there was strict charge given to the Ediles ut animadverterent nè qui nisi Romani Dii nen quo alio more quà m patrio colerentur Liv. lib. 4. 30. That they should take care that no other Gods but Roman nor they after any other rites than Roman should be worship'd Esteeming the innovation of Religion a greater plague than the Pestilence and scorning to be beholding for their deliverance from that deadly malady to the help of any but their own Gods 'T is true the Romans received most of the Gods and Religions of those Countries which they conquer'd but this was done upon supposition that they were turned Roman For as the Egyptians of old had an Art to make Gods as Trismegistus not without admiration observes so the Romans had a way to make the Gods of other Nations their own to make them forget their own Country and Fathers house to forsake their own Altars and Rites for the Roman hinted by the Poet Discessêre omnes adytis arisque relictis Dii quibus imperium hoc steterit Eneid 2. And more fully exprest by Vives in Aug. de Civit. 2. 22. When the Romans besieged any City which they intended to demolish that they might not seem to wage war with its tutelar Gods and turn them out of doors against their will by pulling down their Temples about their ears the General by certain charms obtained of them to forsake the tutelage of the City destin'd to ruine and betake themselves to the stronger side to the conquering party Thus Camillus decoy'd the Veijan Gods Scipio the Carthaginian and Numantian Mummius the Corinthian And lest others might serve their Guardian God with the same sauce they concealed as divers Authors have thought mention'd by Servius in his Epist. vir Illustriss the true and proper Name of their City for publishing of which secret Valerius Soranus was severely punisht Goodwins Antiquit. A strange oversight in so wise a State to trust their Cities fortune to the custody of that unruly member the tongue The Tyrians would have taught them a surer way who to secure their Patron Hercules or Apollo for Diodorus Siculus in telling the story how the Tyrians besieged by Alexander the Great and being warn'd by a Vision that Apollo threatned to forsake the tuition of their City bound the Image with a chain indifferently calls their Idol sometimes Apollo sometimes Hercules a good argument that the Tyrian Hercules was Apollo and Apollo the Sun which performs his twelve labours in passing the twelve Signs of the Zodiack Diodor. Sic. Biblioth lib. 18. pag. 548. whether soever of them was their Patron to secure his residence among them in spite of Charms bound him fast to the pillar of his Temple with a Golden chain It was upon the same score that Numa caused Mamurius to make eleven shields so like the Ancile of their Patron Mars wherein they conceived the happiness of their City to lie as Thebes her good fortune in Nisus his golden lock and Meleagers life in the fagot-slick as it was impossible to discern one from another Plutarch Numa This in imitation of Dardanus of whom Dionys. Halicarnas lib. 1. cap. 7. out of Callistratus Satyrus and Aratinus reports That Dardanus drew a counterfeit Palladium like that which Minerva bestowed upon him with a promise that Troy should stand while it kept that Palladium and that it was the counterfeit which the Grecians stole Aencas bringing the true to Lavinium The form of this evocation of Tutelar Gods and infranchizing foreign Deities and naturalizing them into Roman Macrobius Saturn 3. 9. sets down as he found it in Sammonicus Serenus his 5. Book Of hidden Secrets If it be a God if it be a Goddess that hath the People and City of Carthage in protection and thou especially whosoever thou art the Patron of this City and People I pray and beseech and with your leave require you to abandon the City and People of Carthage to forsake the places Temples Ceremonies and inclosures of their City to go away from them and to strike fear terrour and astonishment into that people and City and having left it to come to Rome to me and mine and that our Temples Places Ceremonies and Cities be more acceptable and better liked of you that you would take the charge of me of the People of Rome and of my Soldiers so as we may know and understand it If you do so I vow to build you Temples and to appoint for you Solemn Games No peny no Pater Noster no room in Rome for any God that will not turn Roman and wear the City badge Upon this custome Tertullian Apol. 24. grounds this Note Tot sacrilegia Romanorum quot trophaea tot de Diis quot de gentibus triumphi tot manubia quot manent adhuc simulachra captivorum Deorum i. e. Look how many Trophees the Romans have erected over conquer'd Cities and Countries so many Sacrileges have they committed upon the Gods of those places they have had as many Triumphs over the Gods as over Countries the many Images of captive Gods remaining to this day in that City are but so many spoils taken in war § 3. So exceeding wide of the mark of truth is that fools bolt of the vulgar opinion that Rome was conquer'd by the Gods of the Nations whom she conquer'd for in very deed she gave the Gods no other quarter than she did the men capitulating with them upon no better terms than those which Jacobs Sons tender'd to Sechem We cannot do this thing to give Divine Honour to a God that is not Italianized but in this we will consent unto you if you will be as we are It would not stand with the Polity of that stately Lady to marry a strange God to be baptized in his Name till by a strange Art of Palingenesie he had baptized himself into the Roman Name in the blood of his deserted Father and Mother the people and place of his first birth Jupiter must become Capitoline Mars Quirinal before those Hills will afford room for their Temples The Egyptian Serapis must turn the Indian Bacchus Italick before they can be worshipt at Rome Serapide jam Romano aras Baccho jam Italico furias c. Tertull. Apolog. 6. Aesculapius his â—mp his Serpent must come away with his Idol before he can have reception in that City The Mother of the Gods in their repute must shew her readiness to forsake the patronage of her antient pupils and to embrace the Office of Protecting S. P. Q. R. by following the slender twine of the Vestal Nuns garter before she can arrive on Tibers shore Male and Female Deities must veil the bonnet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Goddess Rome so termed in the Inscriptions of antient Roman Coyns set down by Goltzius in Thesauro before she will bend the knee to them To
having bestowed this gift upon our Age that we should see Peace setled after the Conquest of Mark. Anthony at Actium by the Emperour Augustus both by Land and Sea Livius lib. 1. pag. 12. 6. Bis post Numae regnum Janus clausus fuit semel T. Manlio consule post Punicum primum Bellum perfectum Iterum quod nostrae aetati Dii dederunt ut videremus post bellum Actiacum ab imperatore Caesare Augusto pace terra marique parta How short liv'd that Peace was in the Consulship of Manlius Vives informs us out of Eutropius if I mistake him not for I no where in Eutropius meet with a passage looking that way but rather the contrary saying that after Manlius and Attilius had upon their Triumph for the Conquest of Sardis shut the Gates of Janus they were some Months after opened again in token of the Illyrick War But however I mistake Vives or he Eutropius the thing it self is manifest enough from that place of St. Austin upon which he comments for saith he one and not all out one Year of Peace among those many that intervened betwixt Numa and Augustus wherein after the first Punick War the Romans had lieve to shut up the Gates of War is recorded as a Wonder August de civitate 3. 9. Vix post tam multos annos ab urbe condita usque Augustum unus post primum Punicum bellum pro magno miraculo commemoratur annus quo belli portas Romani claudere potuerunt An Assertion which St. Austin had ground enough for that the Atheist may not object that these are the Piae fraudes of Christians out of Plutarch who writes that the Temple of Janus did not continue long shut in the Consulship of Manlius and Attilius for forthwith immediately after that it was opened again a new War rolling in upon and assaulting the Empire Plut. Numa M. Attilio T. Manlio Coss. haud multum temporis clausum deinde Continuo ingruente irrumpenteque bello apertum est Upon which he there gives this Note 'T is seldom but that the Roman Empire is ensnarl'd in some or other War It being so vast a body and on all sides incircled with restless Barbarians Id. Ib. Quod certe difficile aut etiam raâ—o factum quà m aliquo bello semper suspensum imperium teneatur nam cum propter ejus mgnitudinem barbaris nationibus undique circumfusum ac septum esset iis repugnare cogebatur And yet it was a time of the singing of this rare Bird when our Prince of Peace exhibited himself to the World This is that Caesar saith Philo Judaeus speaking of Augustus who finding the World as a boisterious Sea tossed every way with tempestuous Winds charmed its Waves asleep and restored to it such Serenity as not only open Wars were every where exiled but private Robberies this is he who reduc'd that Chaos of Confusion that the World had been buried under in former Ages unto that well setled and comely order which we see it in in ours this is he that has moulded the most savage Nations into Mansuetude and humane Societies Phil. de legat ad Caium Hic est ille Caesar qui depulsis undiquaque ruentibus procellis serenitatem orbi restituit qui aperta bella sustulit c. But Philo perhaps plays the Orator and describes with Retorical Flourishes the flourishing of the Imperial Olive let us therefore enquire of Suetonius that uncorrupted Oracle of Pagan History from whom we have this Respond Janus Quirinus that had not been shut in but once and again from the first founding of Rome unto this Age was in a far shorter space shut in three times By Augustus peace being setled by Land and Sea Suet. Octav 22. Janum Quirinum semel atque iterum a Condita Urbe memoriam ante suam clausum in multo breviore temporis spatio Terra Marique pace parta ter clausit for that is the true reading not as Beroaldus would have it the third time as both Jasenius observes out of Lipsius and the Context imports Augustus was Christ's Cryer to proclaim silence in the World before the publication of the Gospel that men might without distraction weigh what was told them The worst Juncture that an impostor could have pitched upon to shew his Pranks in when as Bullenger observes Rust had riveted the Sword to the Scabbard Ipsa etiam rubigo obsignavit Bulleng In Daniel par 2. tab 5. § 3. If exception be made against the Cogency of this Argument that Christ indeed was born under Augustus but what is that to the publication of the Gospel seeing that began in the Baptist's preaching under Tiberius till when and some time after Christ walk'd incognito And therefore the times might be grown turbulent enough for a Legerdemain's passing without discovery by that time the Apostles began to preach I shall put by this Bar to Faith by making good this Assertion That the Peace setled by Augustus was continued under Tiberius Caligula Claudius and so much of Nero's Reign as for thirty Years after the Gospel began to be preach'd the World enjoyed Peace so as any who had a mind to enquire might have informed himself of the truth of what had past in Judaea the passage of Intelligence being no where interrupted 1. For the peaceableness of Tiberius his Reign Anno Christi 17. let Philo Judaeus speak Philo de legatione ad Caium who accusing the Alexandrians of extream madness in giving that Divine Honour to Caligula which they neglected to give to Tiberius presents his happy Reign in these Words In the three and twenty Years of his Reign he left no Seed no not so much as a Spark of War by Sea or Land among Greeks or Barbarians but nourish'd Peace and the fruits of Peace to his dying day And a little before during his Empire the East West North South-Provinces consented together in that calmness of Peace that there was nothing to be seen in City or Countrey but Festivities Altars Victims chearful and pleasant Countenances c. 2. In what state of Tranquility the Empire stood under Caligula Anno Christi 40. Suetonius will inform us Suet. Calig 43. Militiam resque bellicas semel attigit adeo delicate ut verri sibi vias conspergi c. who affirms that he never made Warlike Expedition but once and that undertaken merely out of Curiosity not need and managed with that Leisure and Delicacy as he commands the Countrey as he marches to sweep the Ways and sprinkle them with Water to allay the Pride of the Dust and teach it better manners than to fly in his face quietly to crouch at his and his Army's feet In which Equipage marching as far as Belgium the first Enemy he encounters is a Coppice against which he furiously leads on his Army and as if his eyes were set counter to his that was born blind taking Trees for men and perswading his followers into the same Faith so ancient
for a light to the Gentiles that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth Isa. 49. 6. and when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And Rom. 4. 16. That the promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all as it is written I have made thee a father of many nations Paralel or answerable to him whom he believed even God who quickneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were who against hope believed in hope that he should become the Father of many Nations answerable to him that is as God is not the God of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles so should Abraham be the Father both of Jewish and Gentile-believers the believing of which as to the Gentiles was as noble a degree of Faith as that whereby Abraham believed the Promise that in Isaac his Seed should be blessed when he was about to sacrifice him this being no more against hope than that God would raise up a seed to him of Gentiles dead in Sins And to the second they answered that the Jew need not trouble his head with contriving how or where God would find Subjects if he were rejected for the Gentiles were flocking in apace to the Standard of Messias and ere long the Fulness of them would be come in and so all Israel be saved that is Dr. Ham. annot in Rom. 11. 12. 25. they should every where act the Call of the Gospel come in in such numbers as they would in every City and eminent Town afford matter enough for the constituting of Evangelical Churches or visible Assemblies of Christians there by which means the Jews will at length be provoked to believe and so all the true Children of Abraham Jews and Heathens both but particularly the Remnant of the Jews shall repent and believe in Christ. And for them that will not be gain'd by these Methods God may cast them off upon gainful Terms having in lieu of them a great multitude of Subjects which no man could number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues Rev. 7. 9. Christ foretells that upon the Builder's rejecting the precious Stone and its becoming a Corner-stone the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to another Nation Mat. 21. 42. 43. And according to this Prophecy of Christ and Application of Jacob's Prophecy which Christ and his Apostles made to the time of Jerusalem's final Desolation God did then remove his Scepter from Judah that ceasing then to be God's Kingdom and the Kingdoms of the World becoming the Kingdoms of God and of his Christ within a few Centuries afterwards when Christs Royal Law came to be established and protected by the Imperial Sanction and the Edict of Princes become Christian. In whose Territories in the mean time God had his imperial Cities his Cities on Hills that could not be hid Christian Churches so visible and conspicuous as spake him to be King of all the Earth in the same sence that he had been King of Judea that is in respect of his Kingdom of Grace of his golden Scepter Briefly there was such a gathering of the Gentiles to Shilo before that rejected King's coming to destroy miserably those bloody Rebels and to root out their Place and Nation as he need not be to seek for Subjects when he cast off Judah and chose the Gentiles any more than when he refused the Tabernacle of Joseph and chose the Tribe of Judah Psal. 78. 67. 68. for the Gospel had then been preach'd to and brought forth fruit in all the World God manifested in the Flesh had been preach'd to the Gentiles and believedon in the World as hath been formerly shewed § 4. But then this being laid for a Ground that the Scepter 's departure imports properly and firstly the Removal of the Thearchy from the Jews and translating it to the Gentiles and the time of its departure being thus stated to have been in such a Juncture as wherein God might and did break up his Court in Judea without impeachment of his Truth or Honour which he could not do before It will be obvious enough that that Prophecy consequentially to this implies as the effect of it a gradual withdrawing of their outward Polities Liberties and Privileges thereon depending as the Sun being set the light of it departs by degrees till it wholly disappear Of which though we can make no Demonstration while it is in Motion it takes such minute and insensible steps much less from thence convince an obstinate and captious Adversary that the Sun is set if it be not seen at its going down till the Light of it be impair'd to a degree beyond what the most gloomy Sky the thickest Mist or the most dismal Eclipse can reduce it to yet when its Light is dwindled into such a degree of privation 't is a palpable evidence that the Sun its Fountain is departed our Horizon As therefore I have been forc'd to prove that the Scepter notwithstanding any loss of Light it did or could sustain before the Gentiles flock'd in to our Saviour's Standard was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 departed there having been from David to Christ no greater diminutions of its Light then had been from Jacob to David and therefore the Jew upon the same reason that he will not look downwards in Judah's Line for Shilo as low as our Jesus must look upwards for him beyond David for if those castings down of the Crown to the ground which it sustain'd by the Apostacy of the ten Tribes the Babylonish Captivity the Persecution of Antiochus the Dictatorship of the Macabees or what else occurs in the History of that Interval speak the departure of the Scepter much more must it be departed in the interval before David in the Egyptian Bondage or under the Judges of which time their own Scriptures affirm that there was then no King in Israel Nor till our Saviour's time which is my Herculean Argument was there any such concourse of a new People to Israel's God as could have justified him from the imputation of making a losing Bargain should he have cast off his far more numerous old and have adopted that new People Though I confess that great access of Proselytes in Solomon's Reign said to be an hundred three and fifty thousand by Dr. Lightfoot in his Parergon of the fall of Jerusalem cap. 12. might occasion the Jew to think it was the Gentiles gathering to Shilo and boaded the departure of the Scepter in the falling away of the ten Tribes and doubtless those Gentile Converts together with the Levites and those that feared God adhering to the house of Judah being so numerous as in the worst of times there were seven thousand of them fill'd up the rent that was made in Judah's Royal Robe
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the incautelousness of the Scribe put in room of the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else is explicative and should be rendred by etiam i. e. he begot Herod even or to wit Philip. 2. Josephus in his mentioning the Sons of Herod the Great does no where name more Herods than three to wit Herod by Malthace Herod by Cleopatra Simon 's Daughter and Herod by Mariamne the Daughter of Alexander the High Priest Now this last Herod dyed while he was at School at Rome Bel. Jud. 1. 18. and therefore he could neither be that Herod by whom nor that Herod from whom Herodias was taken 3. Herod in his last Will provides for no other sons but Archelaus Antipas and Philip and therefore both these Herods must have starved if their Father had not provided for one of them under the name of Antipas and for the other under that of Philip. 4. Josephus puts a Key into our hands Bel. Jud. 2. 8. The Kingdom of Archelaus being reduc'd to a Province the remainder of Herod's sons to wit Philip and Herod called Antipas govern'd their own Tetrarchates In this honour they both continued from within one year after our Saviours Birth to within one year after Tiberius his Death and one of them unto the Reign of Caligula Of both which Josephus giveth this account viz. Agrippa this was that Herod Agrippa who was eaten up of worms after six months grievous imprisonment by Tiberius was at Tiberius his Death not only set at Liberty by Caligula but had the Kindom of Judaea bestowed on him and the Tetrarchate of Philip but then newly deceas'd This Preferment of Agrippa did so sting Herodias as Herod could have no rest from her importunities till she had got him to Rome in order to his strengthning his Court interest for his own and against Agrippa's Promotion But Agrippa so well plays his Game against his Uncle Herod as he is forc'd to flee to Spain and leave his Tetrarchate by Caligula's order unto Agrippa Antiq. 18. 9. 14. Neither doth Josephus only mention these two Tetrarchs as then in being when our Saviour was upon earth but all the Circumstances relating to them recorded in sacred Writ We read in the Gospel of Caesarea Philippi St. Matt. 16. 13. so called because Philip the Tetrarch of a Village named Paneas made it a City and named it after Cesar as Josephus writeth Jud. Ant. l. 18. cap. 3 where he describes its Scituation ad Jordanis fontes answerable to the Topography of the Evangelists who describe Christ's peregrination after he departed from Jerusalem to avoid the treachery of the Jews who sought to kill him into that part of Galilee which appeartain'd to Philip's Tetrarchate so as though the Cities about the Sea of Galilee or Tiberias or the Lake of Geneseret all in Philip's Precincts he passeth over that Sea and along the Coasts of Jordan till he came to Caesarea Philippi A wealthy Inhabitant of which City he had before that cured at Capernaum who in a grateful memorial of that mercy had caused to be ingraven the History of that Cure to wit two Statues one representing her self kneeling before the other of our Saviour with a garment down to his feet where there grew an Herb which when it became so high as to touch the Hem of his Garment had the medicinal virtue to heal all Diseases these Statues remain'd intire till by the command of Julian the Apostate they were cast down and his own erected This Statue Eusebius affirmeth to have stood there in his time and that when he went to Caesarea on purpose to inform himself of the truth he saw it with his own eyes Eccl. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 14. I therefore mention this story at large that the Romanists may see how little it makes for their Image-worship seeing it was erected only as a Monument of that benefit this Woman receiv'd and had not divine honour conferr'd upon it for all this miraculous effusion of divine Virtue into its Neighbour plant And that our Divines may learn a more substantial way of resolving the Popish Sophisms than by denying what is most apparently true upon such weak Reasons as a learned man offereth viz. why all this at Caesarea since the Woman was cured at Capernaum But whoever affirm'd the memorial of this Cure to have been erected in the place where it was done and not of the Womans aboad on whom it was wrought or who can think but she whose Faith was so strong as to believe she should be healed if she could but touch the Hem of Christs Garment and Wealth so competent as she could erect those brazen Statues at her door could want either will or means to travel for the Cure of so tedious and noisome a disease as far as from Caesarea to Capernaum not half so far asunder as London and the Bath or that she could think to meet with Christ any where more likely than at the place of his home Capernaum or of fixing the memorial of so great a Mercy any where more conveniently than at her own door This touch given for the Cure of such impetuous Fluxes of indigested Notions I return to Caesarea concerning which Josephus hath this story That antiently the head of Jordan was reputed to be in its Confines till Philip the Tetrarch by observing that the Chaff which he caused for trials sake to be cast into a Well an hundred and twenty Furlongs from it called Phiale came out at the Springs of Jordan near Caesarea discover'd that Well to be the head of it from whence working like a Mole underground till it came to Paneas and there breaking out in two Fountains it made those two Whirl-pools in the Caverns under the Earth which swallowed up the Sacrifices which the Pagan Priests once a year cast into Paneas making the silly people believe it was miraculous This I report not for any mention is made hereof in sacred Writ but for the illustration of that Story in Eusebius Eecl hist. l. 7. c. 14. which he receiv'd from the mouth of Astyrius his familiars how Astyrius by invocating the Name of Christ caused the Sacrifice to swim at the top by a miraculous power contrary to that natural motion of it downward and sucking of it in by the subterraneal Vorago whence the Priests took occasion to abuse the Credulity of the Vulgar If we slide down the Stream of Jordan thirty four Miles we arrive at the Sea of Tiberias or the Lake of Genesareth and on the Bank of that Lake at Bethsaida another of Philip's Towns improved by him into a City whence St. Luke stiles it the City Bethsaida as it is called Chap. 9. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating it had but newly commenc'd a City And now we are upon this Lake we will take notice of the Issue which Christ's Execration of Bethsaida Corazin Capernaum and the other Towns bordering upon it had of which Josephus Bel. Jud. l. 3.
Town Gamale who with his Companion Sadducus a Pharisee solicited the people to defection saying that the Taxing was nothing else but a manifest profession of servitude It is not to be imagin'd saith Josephus how much these men disquieted the whole Nation while they fill all places with slaughter and plunder and a promiscuous robbing of friends and foes and the murder of the best men under the pretext of asserting the publick Liberty Insomuch as they created such a deadly few'd in the Nation as neither forreign War nor Extremity of Famine could draw the enraged Factions from one anothers Throats till at last the mischief proceeded so far as the Temple of God was consumed with hostile flames for to speak the truth Judas and Sadduck were the Authors of all the succeeding Calamities while to the three old ones of Pharisees Sadducees and Esseans they introduced this fourth Sect of Gaulonites and drew multitudes of such after them as were given to change and affected Novelties which did not only for the present disturb the publick Weal but was the seminary of all future slaughters But for the date of this Insurrection of Judas or as he names him Bel. Jud. 2. 7. Simon of Galilee he sets it down most exactly in Gamaliel's Phrase Jud. Antiq. l. 20. 23. where speaking of two sons of this Judas or Simon James and Simon whom Alexander the Successor of Cuspius Fadus crucified he calls them the sons of that Judas of Galilee qui agente Syriae Censum Quirinio Judaeos solicitavit ad defectionem à populo Romano c. who while Quirinius was making the Tax of Syria solicited the Jews to a defection from the Romans At one breath informing us that Cyrenius began to make that Tax of Syria in Judaea and that after he had laid it there Leaving Coponius to gather it he himself went into Syria to lay it there during which Leavy Judas made Insurrection against Coponius while he was collecting it in Judaea Or as Josephus De Bel. Jud. l. 2. c. 7. yet more clearly expresseth the precise juncture Coponio disceptante Galilaeus quidam Simon nomine defectionis arguebatur quia indigenas increparet si tributum Romanis pendere paterentur dominósque post Deum ferrent mortales While Coponius was reasoning with them about paying their Tax laid by Cyrenius a certain Galilaean Simon by name the Greek hath Judas was convict of making defection because he reproach'd his Country-men as grievously offending God if they should permit Tribute by head to be paid to the Romans or acknowledge mortal Rulers after God had been their King From the whole we learn that there were two Taxings while Cyrenius was Governour of Syria the first as St. Luke stiles that which was made at our Saviour's Birth an enrolling of the whole Empire a Term so equipollent to that of the whole World both in Sacred and Secular Writ as Bartolus pronounceth him an Heretick that will not say the Emperour is Lord and Monarch of the whole World that this first Tax was a mere enrolment of mens Ages Dignities Lineages c. and therefore no wonder if we hear of no commotion in Judaea upon the account of that nor find it mention'd in Josephus the Jews being in that no more concern'd than the rest of the World And least of all that St. Luke should be so ready in drawing the Line of Joseph and by consequence of the blessed Virgin up to David even through those Generations which the Sacred Old Testament-rolls make no mention of notwithstanding that Herod had burnt all the Genealogies he could and durst lay hands on seeing Joseph had now given in an account of his Line into those mens hands out of which Herod durst not have snatcht it if he had lived to an opportunity of attempting it which he did not but deceased within one half year after our Saviour's Birth leaving behind him this new Edition of Judaean Chronology to serve the Christian's use and stop the Worlds mouth from excepting against those Records which were so solemnly delivered to the Custody of the Roman Archives before the name of the blessed Jesus was known or Controversie concerning him raised in the World as St. Chrysostom in his 8. Hom. on St. Matthew observes and Tertullian suggests in his fourth Book against Marchion A providence which St. Luke sets an accent upon in his prefacing the Genealogy of Joseph which he lays down in his third Chapter by giving us this Circumstance of our Saviour's Birth in his second that it fell out at what time Joseph of the House and Lineage of David was gone up with Mary to the City of David Bethlehem there to have his Lineage enroll'd in such a crowd of his more wealthy Kindred who would certainly have excepted against the draught of his Line if they could have found any flaw in it as took up all the Inns in the Town and forc'd this poor kinsman into a Stable And this enrolment made by Roman Officers with the assistance of their Augures to take him sworn to the truth of what he alleaged touching his stock and with other such Formalities mention'd by Dionysius Hallicarn lib. 4. as it was not possible that Forgery could in this case escape undetected Our Josephs name-sake this famous Jewish Historian in the History of his own Life presseth this very Argument against the Calumniators of his Pedigree against whose suggillations he proveth his Extract from the Priests of the first Order and of that Family of Priests who for a long time obtain'd both the High Priesthood and Kingdom of of Juda out of that Succession of his Kindred which was inserted into the publick Tables that is into those Roman Records which were taken of every mans Stock at the universal Taxing for the publick Records of the Jews had been burnt by Herod before Josephus was born and there is no Track in History of transcribing Genealogies after that into any publick Registers but what Augustus caused to be made at the first Enrolment of the Empire Yea what evidence but that which was transcribed out of that Dooms-day-book could be ground sufficient of that triumph which Josephus sings Hanc generis nostri successionem ut est in tabulas publicas relata huc transcripsi parvi faciens calumnias This succession of our Family as it is enter'd in the publick Rolls I have transcribed hither and now I value not the calumnies of busie wicked men For whatever Records he could appeal to besides those were in comparison of them but private and not exempted from possibility of adulteration which that first description left no place for Neither were the Priests enroll'd at the second Tax they being exempted from payment of such Taxes as were at that time levied The second Taxing and under Cyrenius also was this which Gamaliel mentions and Josephus writes at large of as being of Syria only to which Province Judaea then belong'd and therefore pertinent to his subject This being not
the chief of our Nation sentenc'd him to be crucified yet they that had loved him from the first did not relinquish him for he shewed himself again alive to them the third day after his death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which Text this Jewish Priest gives witness to the Truth of what the Evangelists declare touching the most material points of Christ's Death that he was crucified and that under Pontius Pilat and that by the instigation and accusation of the Jewish Elders and Chief Priests and the main Circumstances of his rising from the dead that it was on the third day that he gave Demonstration of it the very day he rose not to all but certain VVitnesses whom he had chosen to go in and out with him from the beginning that this Demonstration was so palpable and convincing that it animated the Disciples to adhere to him not withstanding his preceding ignominious Death This is all so clear that it need no Comment no other Reflection but this That as Josephus could not be ignorant of the Allegation of the Jewish Priests he being himself a Priest and afterwards an Associate of the Priests of Jerusalem that his Disciples had stole him away so he makes so little account of it as he thinks it not worth the mentioning but not withstanding that report without any circumlocution affirms plainly that Christ did shew himself alive the third day to his Disciples on whom he bestows that Epethete which our Saviour gave them in his question to St. Peter Simon lovest thou me more than these How strong is that Truth upon which the whole Fabrick of Christian Religion is built since the Evidence of it prevail'd so far with a Jew in Religion more than Birth as to obtain from him this full Testimony and that upon Record for the perpetual memory of the thing and in a Book dedicated to him that persecuted the Professors of this Truth CHAP. VIII Josephus confirms St. Lukes History of Herod Agrippa § 1. He paints him in Evangelical Colours as the Jews Favourite as a Prodigal as much in the Tyrians debt and therefore displeased with them c. § 2. He dates his Death according to St. Luke St. James martyred in the third and Famine at Rome in the second and third In Judaea in the fourth of Claudius § 3. He describes his Death after St. Lukes Stile Two Acclamations immediately after the second he was struck by a Messenger of Death an Owl § 4. Angels assume what form the divine mandat prescribes Evil Angels God's Messengers § 5. Herod the Great dyed of the like stroke Josephus gives the natural Symtomes of Agrippa ' s disease § 6. A digression touching St. Paul ' s Thorn in the Flesh. § 1. HE gives as full a Testimony to the History and Acts of the Apostles as to Christ in all those particulars where the Affairs of the Church are interwoven with the Affairs of the Empire or the Kingdom of Judaea that is where-ever their History comes in his way 1. Herod Agrippa the Son of Aristobulus his Story in Josephus goes hand in hand with St. Luke's Story of him 1. As to his personal Qualifications He is described by St. Luke Act. 13. to have been so great a Favourite of the Jews so ambitious to gratifie them and so zealous and forward a Professor of their Religion that to serve their interest and to do them a pleasure he beheaded St. James and imprisoned St. Peter with an intention to have sacrificed his Blood also to that Peoples humour In the same habit of Soul does Josephus paint him not only in those Texts which have been formerly alledged but also in the seventh Chap. of his ninteenth Book of Antiquities Where shewing his different Temper from that of Herod Antipas he tells us that Antipas out of an odium against that Nation manifestly shewed more good will to the Grecians than Jews adorning foreign Cities with Gifts Bathes Theaters Temples c. but not vouchsafing to grace any one Town of the Jews with any memorable either Ornament or Bounty But Agrippa on the other hand though he was beneficent liberal and courteous to all yet he was above all others benign to and ready to help in their greatest exigencies his own Country-men the Jews willing to have had his constant residence in Jerusalem being so religious an observer of his Countries Rites as he let no day pass without sacrifice nor suffered himself at any time to be polluted with Legal uncleannesses insomuch as when one Simon who had in a publick Assembly calumniated him behind his back as impure and not fit to be admitted to Temple-Worship was convented before him he was not able to instance one particular wherein Agrippa had miscarried touching the Law Another of his Qualifications hinted by St. Luke is his profuse Gallantry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because their Country was maintained by the Trade they drive at Court Acts 12. 20. the Royalty and Gallantry of Herods Court maintain'd their Country with Trade The Maritine Towns and Countries of Tyre and Sidon being chiefly maintain'd by their Court trade by vending there their rich and costly Commodities for back and belly those Peacock-feathers that made him so gay on the Judgement-seat as to procure him divine adoration if their acclamations were any thing else than an artifice of those cunning Tyrian Merchants to cry up and inhance the price of their own Wares and to intimate to this ambitious Prince that what had gain'd him the repute of a God was well worth the price he had given for them for I cannot think that Royal Apparel could dazle those Eyes which were dayly inured to the richest Rarities of Nature or Art and I have strong impulses to opine that Herod's fine Cloaths stood yet unpaid for in those Merchants Books and that he stormed so furiously against them either for that they had set the Dice upon him in their price or dun'd him for payment for I could never yet learn what other cause of quarrel he could have with those Merchant-Towns nor how that ambitious Prodigal could maintain that Pomp he kept without running upon the Tick nor for what they that but five days before call'd him a God should at his death curse his Memory but because he died so much in their Books and his Lands were not bound to pay his Debts And I doubt not but my intelligent Reader will be partly of my mind by that time he has heard Josephus speak to this point This King saith he was so born to Liberality and demeriting of people by Largesses as he took extream pleasure in making his name famous by Munificence and cared not what expence he was at to purchase the repute of a munificent Prince l. 19. 7. Before Calignla prefer'd him Joseph Antiq. lib. 18. 8. he brought himself to that penury with the Splendour of his dayly Attendance and immoderate Liberalities that he durst no longer shew his face in Rome but
not see the approaching Light of that Pretious Stone God was about to lay in Sion to the proximity of that Age to the appearance of that true Light of that only infallible living Oracle This by the way To this Testimony of Josephus for the Second Temple's enjoyment of this Oracle the Son of Sirach seems to give his Suffrage Chap. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law is as faithful as the Responses of Urim and Thummim of that Oracle which from its Clarity and Veritie had these names given it interpreted by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Light and Truth The first used by Siracides and is the Radix of that Sirname of Apollo Delius so called properly enough if Apollo be the Sun but cannot be applied but abusively to his Daemon or Genius that gave Oracles most of which were darker than darkness it self The latter given to that famous Saphire which the Antient Kings of Aegypt who were also Priests wore about their neck as Aelian reports Var. Hist. 14. 34. This for the illustration of the Terms as to the Text it self it imports that at the making of that Book of Wisdom which the Author saith was in the Reign of Evergetes the Oracle of Urim and Thummim was still in being for he brings that in as a thing Notius notorious and well known to illustrate the perspicuity and faithfulness of the Law Lastly though it was wanting at their first Return before the Temple was finish'd yet they expected it would be restored and therefore Ezra 2. 62 63. the Tirshata would not take them into the number of Priests that could not shew their Pedigree Till there should rise up a Priest with Urim and Thummim and in all reason was restored as soon as the Temple was finish'd a Vision whereof Zachary seeth c. 3. where Joshua is cloth'd with that change of Raiment wherein it is promised him He shall judge Israel Post ablationem vestium sordidarum restitutam mundi sacerdotii dignitatem promittitur quòd ipse judex sit domus ejus After the taking away of his filthy Raiment and restoring to him the dignity of a clean High-Priest-hood it is promised to him that he should judge Gods house as St. Jerom from the Hebrews expounds that Text a clear Paraphrase of the Pectoral of Judgment of the stones whereof Zachary affirms that they are the ingravings of God c. and in the 6 Chapter of Zach. vers 14. and 10. I find Tobijah among those that attend upon the holy things who was one of those whose Pedigree could not be found and were therefore excluded from the Sanctuary till a Priest should arise with Urim Nehem. 7. 62. § 4. As to the Spirit of Prophesie its being under the Second Temple in both those Degrees of it implied Revel 4. 2. that which inspired holy men with Prophecy or to be Prophets and to Preach and that which inspired them to be Penmen or to write Prophecies Is so palpable by the date of the Prophecies of Haggai and Zachary as nothing but malice can hoodwink the Jew from seeing it And though it be true the Sun set upon their writing Prophets about the Reign of Alexander the Great yet they had speaking Prophets as long as the Temple stood of which Josephus gives many instances of Judas whose Prophecies used to prove so infallible as when he saw Antigonus going to the Temple the afternoon of that day on which he had prophesied he should die and that at Straton's Tower which was 600 Furlongs distant he cried out to his Disciples in the words of the Prophet Jonah when God spared Ninivie after he had threatned the destruction of it within 40 days I now grow weary of my life seeing Antigonus his life convinceth me to be a false Prophet for it is impossible he should die this day at Straton's Tower who is here alive after so much of the day is spent and at so great a distance from that place But there was a Tower in the Palace of that name in the Vault whereof Antigonus was Murdered in his return from the Temple and news thereof brought to Judas while he was tormenting himself for fear of the miscarriage of his Prophesie Joseph an t 13. 19. Of one Jesus who four years before the beginning of that War which ended with the Desolation of Jerusalem at what time the City enjoy'd as much peace and plenty as ever coming up to the Feast of Tabernacles suddenly broke out into these Exclamations A Voyce from the East a voyce from the West a voyce from the four Winds a voyce against Jerusalem and the Temple a voyce against the Bridegroom and the Bride a voyce against this whole Nation and without ceasing day or night carried this burthen of Prophesie through all the Streets and Lanes of the City from which no punishment could restrain him And to spare the alledging of more Examples Of himself who prophesied to Vespasian that he should be Emperour against which Vespasian making this Exception How canst thou foreknow my Fortunes that couldst not foresee thine own Captivity nor the taking of Jotopata of which thou was Governour Why replied he I told the Jotopatanes that within 47 days they should be destroyed and my self become a Prisoner to the Romanes By this we see how false as well as blasphemous this Assertion is that the Second Temple wanted the Spirit of Prophecy and how far wide of Daniels sence the modern Jews are in expounding The sealing of Prophecy whereby he means the fulfilling and ratifying thereof by the Blessed Jesus to be the cessation of it of which cessation of all Prophecy they sometimes make the Aera to concur with that of the defiling the Temple by Epiphanes sometimes with that of the League which Judas Maccabeus made with the Romanes sometimes to the first year of Seleucus Nicanor Whereas speaking Prophets continued to the end of the Jewish State and writing Prophets ceas'd long before the eldest of these Dates and therefore the Author of the Book of Maccabees speaks of that as falling out a considerable time before the discumfiture of Judas by Alcimus and Bacchides 1 Mac. 9. 27. So there was a very great Affliction in Israel the like whereof was not since the time that a Prophet was not seen amongst them that is a writing Prophet Vide comput Jud. Scal. de emend temp lib. 7. pag. 628. 654. That the Shechina or Majesty of the Divine presence wherein God appeared to be present by the appearance of Angels those Courtiers of Heaven either in a lucid flaming shining appearance as that Host of Heaven those Angels of God's presence that pitcht their Camp before Israels Camp in the Wilderness appeared in the night or in a thick Cloud or Smoak such a bodily appearance as they assumed on the day vide Hamond an on Mat. 3. 16. that this Majestick presence of the Lord did fill the Second Temple as well as the First is attested by the
abolition of Idols so they laid a sure ground for the Fathers of the succeding century to conclude that the beatum Millenium the Reign of the Saints on the Earth with Christ and the time of Satan's binding was then commenc'd when they saw Paganism wholly exterminated from the Earth Idols either broken or cast into holes all the then known World over For the Fathers generally never dreamt of the Antipodes but in scorn of their possible being For a Millenary I will name Lactantius Institut lib. 3. cap. 24. Quid illi qui contrarios vestigiis Antipodes putant Num aliquid loquuntur aut est quispiam tam ineptus qui credat esse homines quorum vestigia sunt superiora quam capita aut ibi quae apud nos jacent universa pendere fruges arbores deorsùm versùs crescere pluvias nives grandinem sursùm versùs cadere in terram miratur aliquis hortos pensiles inter septem mira narrari cùm Philosophi agros maria urbes montes pensiles faciunt For an Antimillenarian St. Austin who de Civitate 16. 9. censures the relation of the Antipodes to be an incredible Fable Now St. Austin who lived to see the utmost bounds of the Empire and of this upper Hemisphere subjected to Christs Septer and freed from the service of Idols speaks of those Prophesies which foretel that Christ should reign from Sea to Sea and to the worlds end as then fulfilled and Lactantius would have joyned with him in that triumphant Song had he lived to that Age and seen that one God alone exalted in the Earth who in his time was rival'd with so many false Gods § 3. But you will say this was triumphing before the Victory a mistake of the Fathers to think the whole VVorld was become Christs when one half of it stood out against him In answer to this Objection some say and have perswaded themselves to think that America hath not been long inhabited but that it was first possest by such Pagans as from the Light of the Gospel and the penalties of the Imperial Laws fled thither before the face of Jesus as the Tyrians to Carthage from before Joshua If this surmise were true it would be a good Salvo and give light to those passages in Old Testament prophesie where it issaid the Idols shall go under ground be cast to the Moles and Bats to that Hemisphere which was then uninhabited c. But it is wholly against reason that a place so near that part of the World where Noah's Posterity first seated themselves as some question whether it be not the same Continent and others confess them sever'd by a narrow Sea Fullers Miscelan l. 2. c. 4. should not more early be found out Noah having taught the World how the Seas might be made passable and those parts where he seated his children so crowded with inhabitants as men to enlarge their quarters and to avoid hunger which breaks stone walls forc'd their way to new seats through the most inhospitable Climates Secondly I therefore prefer here this answer that this upper Hemisphere in the common dialect of the Prophets signifies the whole world God being pleased to accommodate his language to the Conceptions of the vulgar And therefore he himself put that new Song into the Churches mouth wherein she triumph'd in her Christ as install'd sole King over the VVorld when he gain'd that eminent part of it into his possession that had been the Stage of Scripture-history and of the Apostles Peregrination and was at that time both when they were given out and began to receive their accomplishment the only known VVorld Not that I subscribe to that of Mr. Meed that this Hemisphere is to be solely partaker of that universal Restauration which the Scriptures mention and what Nation soever are out of its bounds are reserv'd for Christs Triumph at the day of judgement and to be destroyed with that fire which shall consume those Armies that shall compass the holy City which that learned person conceives shall be listed by Satan in America and thence drawn up against the Camp of the Saints that is as he opines the old VVorld men wholly reigning with Christ. For this is not only contrary to Experience whereby we learn that that new VVorld is coming in a pace to Christ. Vide Heylin Amer. 2019. But other express Prophesies that mention the round VVorld and all that dwell therein all Nations whom God hath created as portions of Christs Inheritance that mention every Tongue and every Knee confessing to and bowing to the God of the whole earth c. And therefore as those that lived before the discovery of this new found VVorld might when they saw the old converted appropriate that universal Restauration unto it in Faith and Charity extending themselves to the utmost bounds of the explicite hope of those Centuries which preceded that subjection of that old VVorld to the Royal Law So we to whom the knowledge of the new VVorld is communicated by our excluding of that from the benefit of Redemption transgress the Law of Faith Hope and Charity 1. Of Faith for though the belief of the being of the Antipodes be no Article of Christian Faith yet the belief of their future Call upon supposition of their being is that is he that knows there are Tongues and Knees under the Earth is bound to believe that in Gods appointed time every knee there shall bow to every tongue there shall confess to the only true God Yea were I sure by a certainty of Reason or indubitable Intelligence that men inhabit the VVorld in the Moon I were bound to be sure by an equal certainty of Faith that the Inhabitants of that VVorld shall have their season of Grace as well as we 2. Of that Hope which the Primitive Church had which expresly dilated it self to the expected Conversion of all Nations and implicity upon supposition that there were Nations and Languages there of those of the lower Hemisphere And 3. Lastly of that Charity wherewith the first Christians embrac'd all that VVorld they could grasp with their minds From which Christian Charity how far do they deviate from whose Pens fall such unmerciful Sentences such bitter things against the poor Americans as the defence of their Hypothesis naturally draws from our Modern Millenaries from the guilt of which uncharitableness they will hardly be acquitted by wiping their mouths and ascribing this severity justo at nobis incognito Dei judicio to the just but to us unknown judgement of God upon that so great a part of the VVorld For though the deferring of their Conversion so long may piously be ascribed to the secret and incomprehensible counsel of the all wise God at the depth whereof in this case of his having mercy upon some of the most barbarous Gentiles so early in the day of the Messias and so long before he had mercy on far more civilized Nations Reason and Religion