would seem to carry something of inhumanity of which it is incongruous that he should propose himself an example God who is so good hath so many other means in his hand to lead men to Virtue would never willingly employ any thereunto for which he might be accus'd of barbarousness and cruelty especially seeing it is an accident so frequent that in a Town of a thousand families there do's not pass one day in the year in which it do's not happen 'T is true for certain great and important considerations Kings are excused if they sometimes commit some act of injustice or violence But this must be very rarely done and onely when the safety of the State is concern'd Yet Lucretia could not contain from crying out upon the death of Iphigenia who was sacrific'd for the safety of all Greece Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum But that there should dye five or six times as many Children in the Cradle as attain to mans estate seems an irregularity which not onely an Epicurean but the most devout and pious amongst the Philosophers cannot but judge unsupportable Above all other considerations the Fear which the thought of death begets naturally in all men deserves our animadversion For how couragious so ever any may endevour to appear 't is as Aristotle calls it the most terrible of all terrors And as one hath observed if Julius Câ—sar who was magnanimity it self said that the most unexpected death was the sweetest and most desirable which testifies that he resented some dread when he thought of it what may we think of the horrors which other men have of it And this Fear does not arise onely from the apprehension that a man shall exist no more but it hath something of I know not what other violence and bitterness For otherwise nature and reason being two things which accord very well together if death were purely natural reason would finde something in that consideration wherewith to be comforted and gently drink off that Cup. But experience shews that the consolations taken from the necessity of Nature and the example of so many other deaths are too weak and of too little efficacy when the business is to strengthen a soul that trembles at the presence of death Which if there have been some that were generously resolv'd to undergo they have been very few in number and almost none in comparison of so many men yea Nations to whom the alarms of death have been terrible and hideous For I do not put in the rank of such as resolve generously against it those Caitifs that tye the rope to their own necks and drink to their companions upon the Ladder For this is so far from true generosity conjoyn'd with the discourse of reason that it is meer stupidness and more then bestial brutality And it is diligently to be observed that they who believe not that their Soul is immortal comfort themselves more easily then others do with the consideration of the necessity of death and say that as the Generations which preceeded their Birth belonged nothing at all to them because they were not yet in being so they ought not to care for those which follow after their death in regard they shall be no longer and that Agamemnon is dead and Romulus and Patroclus and the Scipio's Qui multis quam tu meliores improbe rebus And I believe the greatest part of those that have shewn so high a courage in contemning death among the Pagans had not much consideration of their future condition As it is clear by Socrates who says in Plato that he knew not which was best to live or to dye and that it were a folly to redoubt a thing of which there is no certain knowledge whether it be desirable or to be feared Whereas they that think seriously of immortality find nothing in nature that encourages or comforts them A sure evidance that death hath something of terror in it which does not proceed from nature but from something else for they would at least have more ground of consolation then the others in the subsistence of the better part of their essence Now whence can that horror be but onely that death is the forerunner of divine vengeance and makes up a part of it already If hereupon they agree that it is a punishment for sin certainly since all other Philosophers have held it to be simply natural they cannot know it to be so by any other way then that divine revelation that hath inform'd us by what gate it entred into the World For none of the Ancients ever found out or could so much as divine in a dream what was the cause of it And so far were they from having it come into their minds that on the contrary some have believed that Death was rather a gift and gratification to us from the Deity then a punishment inflicted by his Justice Which opinion the innumerable miseries of humane life greatly concurr'd to render authentick the undergoing whereof being look'd upon as so dolorous that sometime the deliverance from them ha's been accounted the greatest good that could arrive Or if some few have not dared to affirm absolutely that death was a Good yet they maintain'd at least that it was no Evil since it rescues men from all calamities which they suffer To fear death said Socrates to his Judges is nothing else but to seem to be wise and not to be so For it is to pretend to know that which we do not know because none knows what death is nor whether it be not the greatest good that can befall a man To which Plutark refers that exhortation of an ancient Greek Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metuenda non est mors arumnarum exitus So also the greatest part of the reflections of Cicero upon this matter in the first of the Tusculane Questions fall into the Dilemma of Socrates To wit that if the soul be extinguish'd with the body and so the sense of all things be absolutely abolish'd death cannot really be an Evil because a man being thereby wholly depriv'd of existence and exempted from among the nature of things that which is not is equally incapable both of Evil and Good But if the soul survive the Body death is so far from being an evil that it ought rather to be accounted in the number of the greatest goods seeing it delivers from the evils of this present life and puts a man in possession of the contentments of a better upon which he does not omit to mention the converse with the Heroes wherein Socrates placed the greatest part of the hopes of his joy But the business is of higher importancy For though the Light of Nature should have taught men that death is an effect of the justice of God yet is it impossible as we shall see in due place for the same to discover to them the remedy thereof And I conceive that though the reason of man should have been able
conscience summons him before the Tribunal of God and he reflects seriously on the immortal state of his soul the memory of all this vanishes and ther 's nothing to animate and comfort us but only the knowledge of the things which are reveal'd to us in these divine writings which moreover both the multitude and the constancy of such as have maintained with their blood to be of Divine original do justly challenge admiration For since it ha's not been through ferocity of courage that they underwent death with such alacrity being simple men for the most part and humble and quiet-minded in their whole lives nor through ambition of vain glory from affecting which they were very remote in all their conversation nor through a blind and obstinate headiness and opiniastry having always shewn themselves submissive to all good reasons and respectful towards all persons and especially towards superior Powers nor through brutish stupidity since in all other matters they appear'd men of sober judgements capable of reason and prudence nor through ignorance of the nature of Death seeing they preach't to others that 't is an effect of the vengeance of God upon the Sin of men and were fully perswaded of the immortality of their souls but the onely hope of glory promised in those books raised them beyond all fear they must needs have had a high perswasion of their verity since it was capable to ingenerate so powerful and impregnable a confidence in their minds And whereas there were many things which might have reclaim'd and deterr'd them from embracing these Books as the continual afflictions which they promise in this life for such is the gratification they hold forth here to those which receive them the love of their estates honors and children which naturally possesses the mindes of men the reproach of an ignomious death which is so intolerable to minds that own any thing of generosity the severity and reiteration of torments sufficient to shake the most firm resolution it follows that there must have been some more then humane inducements which fix'd their minds so unmoveably on an object expos'd to so numerous incomfortable perplexities and violences Then consider especially the almost infinite multitude of Martyrs and their long perseverance through so many Ages For had there been but two or three it might have been deem'd Nature had intended some extraordinary exploit in them or that they were transported by some foolish fancy and every Religion might produce some like example But what charm could have been potent enough to induce so many millions of men women and children of all ages conditions sexes and in so many most bloody persecutions renewed from time to time and age to age to despise death so magnanimously in maintaining a doctrine which had no other trouble attended it may seem ought to have been disgustfull to them both because it oppos'd their passions which we follow so willingly and depriv'd them of all the sweetnesses and delights of life Nevertheless those Violences have been the means to propagate it throughout the whole Earth and resolution and patience the arms wherwith it ha's destroy'd the empire of the false Gods and expelled the Demons from government of the World Other kind of Armies it never depended on to extend its conquests even to the ends of the World and subdue the greatest and most flourishing Empires All other Religions are confounded or if any are still upheld 't is only by the favor of Princes force of arms This though all the powers of the world were enemys to it at it's birth though it never attempted any thing but by the Voice onely never us'd other rampart for defence but an invincible patience ha's born up through 1600 years and overcome the hearts of Princes themselves But of this subject there are express Treatises to which we refer the Reader and proceed to examine in the next Chapter a certain Opinion excogitated of old by some giddy spirits and reviv'd in our dayes against the Divinity of Christ which though destitute of all apparence of reason do's not cease to take root and grow amongst many persons and therefore requires our consideration Place these two leaves which you find with Stars between 510 and 511. CHAP. X. That those who affirme Christ took upon him the appellation of God though he was not so onely that he might thereby render his Dâ—ctrine more authentique are apparently destitute of all reason THere are some people in these dayes who conceive they render the Christian Religion very acceptable when they give this account of matters pertaining to it That true Religion consists in the internal piety of the soul towards God and in the sincere and constant exercise of true virtue towards men That of all Religions the Christian is that which holds forth most knowledge of the nature of God and true virtue reducing the humane mind to the principles of nature it self and rectifying it from all the perverse opinions which the corruption of depraved Ages had induc'd into it But because the naked and plain proposing of these matters would have been very little effectual with men their own affections inclining them more powerfully to vice then virtue and for that the exhortations of a man merely man would not have been very prevalent Christ who was the chief and most excellent promoter of it that he might render his preaching more authentick assum'd the glorious appellation of the Son of God and pretended to be God too to the end that it being natural to us to receive with reverence what proceeds from the Deity his Doctrine might be more readily and firmely embrac'd his pretended divine dignity and the danger of rejecting what God is author of conciliating a sacred and venerable authority unto him Whence it was that like as when some great structure is to be built scaffolds are erected round about it which of themselves make no part of the Work but are serviceable for conveying materials upwards and for the standing of workmen so in the structure of Christian Religion some positions were employ'd which of themselves are but mere fictions but yet conduce to the establishing of profitable and excellent truths Such are the doctrine of the Trinity that of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of Justification by means of Christ's death and others which depend on these which are in their judgement Pious Frauds as they speak useful to very advantageous effects and might be imploy'd with a safe conscience because 't is a good thing to deceive when the delusion renders men better more happy and more wise Now this Opinion is so strange and swarmes with so many absurd impieties that not the scarcity but the abundance of Arguments which arise all at once in the mind of whosoever considers it renders me anxious where I should begin For in the first place it is requisite that they take away all correspondence between the Old Testament and the New and deny that our
induce an intire belief of this important verity and which hinder that this tradition is not worn out as so many others have been which had less firm rooting in our Minds All men have been alike perswaded that there is a God and very few have doubted that he is a Rewarder of Virtue and Punisher of Vice Now neither the compensation of the one nor the Penalty of the other is always fully administred in this World even in the judgement of those who have had no great knowledge of the Nature of Sin nor what punishment is competent thereunto And this is the observation from whence they inferr'd that there must be some other time then that of our sojourning in the Body in which that retributive justice should be executed Whence the Opinion of the Souls immortallity ingrafted on the stock of the perswasion of such a Deity hath fix'd its roots so deep that it hath been impossible ever to be eradicated And we have above demonstrated that it must either be acknowledged that those two Propertys must be in God or that he is necessarily ignorant that they are in him But there is hardly sound any one yet that has suppress'd Nature in himself to such a degree Wherefore there must be an other time then that of our abiding in the Body which is appointed to render recompenses and punishments to Souls since they are here dispensed so disproportionately to Vice and Virtue I know well that Pomponatius who under the pretense of defending the Immortality of the Soul hath fought against it and making profession to be a Peripatetick hath embraced the sentiments of Epicurus in this particular answers that although the soul of man should be mortal yet it would have recompense enough for the exercise of Virtue in the possession of Virtue it self Since it is a thing so excellent in its own Nature that it is contented with it self as the Stoicks speak and that all remuneration which it receives besides is either superfluous or not necessary unto it But supposing this to be true of Virtue that they which practice it are sufficiently recompensed by injoying it yet it would not be equally true of Vice that they which addict themselves thereunto are punished enough by doing so For the Impious possessing very frequently so great contentments of Life that the most part of Good men which have lived in all Ages have been scandaliz'd thereat can it reasonably be thought that there is satisfaction enough in this Philosophical speculation that in as much as Vice is the greatest of all Evils it is therefore a sufficient penalty to their Crimes Nature teaches us and the practice of all Nations confirms it that Vice being a Moral Evil that is such as consists in a thing which is of it self dishonest and meriting blame the punishment thereof ought to be in suffering a Physical Evil that is such as consists in the feeling of something which is contrary to nature and painful to it And there was never yet such a Law-giver heard of that established a constitution to punish a man for Robbery by causing him to commit adultery It is so natural to men to esteem not onely that the Punition of Vice consists in Pain but that it is congruous to the natural order of things that whosoever commits Evil in the First manner should be repaid Evil in the Second that they number Nemesis amongst the Virtues which denotes the indignation that we are inflamed with in beholding Good arrive to those that are Evil and on the other side Evil betide them that have otherwise deserved Whence because they believed it proper to the Deity to maintain the orders of nature and to correct the irregularities and deviations that happen therein they have sometimes been carried so far as to doubt that there was a God in as much as they observed according to their apprehension the Just and Pious evilly entreated and the Wicked passing their days in ease and delectation as ample as their wishes Every one knows the verses of Claudian in reference hereunto touching the life and death of Ruffinus and Antiquitie furnishes us with store of other the like testimonies Yea it hath befallen even the Prophets themselves to exclaim upon this occasion Does God in Heaven see what 's done here below Does he observe events and govern Fate For lo Vngodly men like Palm-trees grow And Righteous languish in forlorn estate Either therefore there is a strange Irregularity in Nature or being crimes escape with impunity in this world contrary to what they deserve there must of necessity be vengeance reserved for them in that which is to come Now concerning Virtue although it be natively embellish'd with many beauties incentive of our Love yet so it is that it cannot be it self the price and recompence which appertains to it For what is Virtue but the fair habits of our minds and particularly the good actions which proceed from them And what is a recompense but that which is given in consideration of such good actions and which consequently ought to come other where then from themselves In truth there is not less natural correspondence between Virtue in which Moral Goodness consists and Physical Goodness which is placed in the injoyment and preception of what we naturally desire then there is between there contraries And the discontentment which we conceive in beholding them which take pleasure in Virtue to suffer remarkable calamities in their Lives do's not appear less reasonable to us then the displeasure which we apprehend at the Prosperity of the wicked Which disorder when it happens in the nature of things that good men become miserable do's not less perplex the belief we have of Providence nor less incite us then the other to doubt of the existence of the Deity Witness that complaint of Ovid upon the death of Tibullus Cum rapiant mala sata Bonos ignoscite fasso Sollicitor nullos esse putare Deos. And although the Inclinations which induce Providence to compensate Virtue are not of the same nature with those that oblige it to the punishment of Vice because the inducements to this Latter are sounded on his Justice the rectitude of which ought to be exact and rigorous whereas the former arise from pure Goodness or Mercy yet the notions which we have of the Deity not permitting us to have a less good opinion of his goodness and Mercy then of his Justice the scandal is equal to us in both the one and the other defect Thus you see the same Prophet after his hesitancy at the belief of Providence by reason of the Prosperity of the Wicked immediately after complains that his integrity and his innocence were unprofitable unto him seeing they did not repreive him from the Evils which he continually endured And he professes that this thought gave him so much inquietude and trouble and the inequality of things seemed to him so preposterous and scandalous that he could not well reassure himselfe
wicked in thought and will Now what acceptable service can that person render to God whose mind is possess'd with evil desires Or how can any thought of the Deity find admittance in that soul in which reason is dethroned to yield the rule to heady and precipitous passions Wherefore it appears that whereas we are in search of a doctrine capable to subordinate the appetites of men to Reason and Reason it self to true Piety which is the onely source of Virtue that of these people perverts the right use of Reason in stifling and effacing Piety and by that means gives up the reins to the insolence of our lusts and affections It may perhaps be demanded by some how it follows that because the ancient doctrine of Epicurus is incapable of exciting men to piety and repressing those violent inclinations which naturally hurry us to vice that therefore in the present times in which men have sublimer apprehensions of the Deity then he had not to mention that they are more fully assured of this Truth That there is a God the doctrine of the modern Epicureans should be no more effectual thereunto Is it reasonable to bound the effects of the knowledge men have now adays according to the measure of what they had in the Ages of old Should any advocate of that sect make us this objection we are not unprovided of many things to return him in answer And first in reference to that truth which is the foundation of all others That there is a God supposing the Epicureans of our time to retain the discipline of their predecessors That the world was not created by him that he do's not govern the same nor ever revealed himself particularly to us by any oracle how is it come to pass that we have a more certain knowledge of his Being seeing we have no other reasons nor testimonies thereof then those which men had heretofore And for that Common notion to which they recur how comes it to be more lively and deeply impress'd in our minds at this day then it was in the minds of those that liv'd a thousand years ago Are not they always the same race of men and is it not always the same Nature that brings them into the World But concerning the knowledge of the nature it self of the Deity I shall readily admit that a man whose brain is better made then that of Epicurus was would not be guilty of so many absurdities as he is Aristotle or Plato would never have described God after that fashion which he hath imagin'd him But so it is that this knowledge hath never been so well display'd by those who have had no other guide besides the light of reason as to yield a possibility of founding a more distinct belief thereof upon their imaginations at this day For I am of opinion they have gone as far as the mind of man in the condition it is since the first Lapse is capable to attain without being extraordinarily assisted by God himself And notwithstanding how great variety ha's there been among them in this particular What absurdities and impertinences have they not asserted The beginning of Cicero's Books De natura Deorum supply us with abundant evidence hereof where the opinions of the Philosophers concerning this matter are recited Good God! What dotages and extravagances do we meet with Anaximander makes the Gods equally lyable to being born to death with us and determine to them their intervals for the duration of their being Pythagoras affirms that God is a spirit diffused through the Universe from which our souls are clipt off like pieces sever'd from the whole and so divides him into a thousand millions of fragments Parmenides fancies him to be a crown of luminous fire wherewith the Heavens are inviron'd Empedocles distinguishes not the nature of the Gods from that of the Elements which he conceives to be divine and immortal although they undergo an infinite variety of Forms Antisthenes will have an infinite number of popular Deities and one natural Xenocrates is contented to assign us eight of which he saith the Sun Moon and other Planets make seven and the eighth is distributed amongst the fixed Stars Chrysippus holds that there is an innumerable multitude of Gods though he seems to establish one Principal consisting in a certain power of Reason expanded through all the parts of Nature Perseus acknowledges no other Deities then those which men have consecrated accordingly as they conceiv'd some considerable benefit bestowed on them by any one Cleanthes esteems the whole world to be God which also was afterwards the opinion of Pliny Diogenes Apolloniates imagined that God was made of Air. Protagoras knew not what he is nor whether there were any at all Democritus jumbles him and hurries him like his indivisible bodies framing an infinite variety of images of him In a word 't is deplorable to consider how ignorant forlorne and extravagant the mind of men is in its imaginations and although Aristotle and Plato have had something more rational conceptions in this particular yet there is discernible in them always abundance of weakness and inconstance Nevertheless those Philosophers whose Fancies are rehearsed in that Treatise with so much derision were men of as good entendments and sufficiencies as the Epicureans of our days and the greatest part of them had moreover to assist them in this Meditation the belief of a Providence which was a light to conduct them to a clearer knowledge of what they were in search after Therefore what are they able to do at this day who besides being not more intelligent then those of old do renounce the assistance of that aide For in so difficult a chase the former have undoubtedly more advantages in traversing the thickets by being acquainted with the footsteps of that they are in pursuit of although but obscure lightly impress'd and pass'd over by bad searchers then they who take no notice of any at all and who if any presents themselves to their sight shut their eyes that they might not see them or on set purpose expunge and confound them The knowledge of arts is indeed growing by degrees to greater politeness accordingly as men improve them by other inventions and experiences As it is probable Physick is more skillfully practis'd at this day then it ha's been heretofore by reason of new observations made in Anatomy and new tryals of the Virtues of Drugs Plants and Minerals But in case no dissections had been made of humane bodies for this two thousand years or no new proofs experienc'd of medicaments it would be necessary to remain contented with the measure of knowledg which the Ancients had attain'd to in that art Now being in the opinion of these people God is not in any thing more particularly revealed to us then to our Predecessors If the Epicureans will keep themselves to the Maximes of their Sect they must either content themselves with what they have received from them or if they
and Virtue and that he is as an Unwritten Tablet or Wax susceptible of all impressions whatsoever without being either more or less worthy of Veneration or contempt dishonor or Praise for being either pure or polluted with Crimes just or Tyrannicall Good or Evil. If the Epicureans acknowledge what all sorts of arguments constrain them to do that there are certain Laws establisht by Nature according to which things are accounted Good or Bad and actions likewise Vitious or Virtuous in as much as they disagree from or correspond to the same they must also of necessity confess that there ought to be a Providence which after the last Act is concluded will repay the rewards of Goodness to them that have merited them and heap Vengeance upon such as have stored up the same for themselves by their evil actions Semblably as he that offends his Father or Mother deserves chastisement so in sinning against Nature in whose Laws is comprehended that of Fathers over their Children and who is the common Mother to us all without doubt we shall be obnoxious to correction For every deviation from the right way requires a correction or reducement wherefore the correction of a Person that departs from the precepts of Nature is his amendment but the correction of a vitious action is the punishment of him that committed the same Truely the Political Laws by which penalties are appointed for Crimes are not onely just in as much as they are necessary for the conservation of Commonwealths which their violation would ruin they are also so because that wickednesses though they brought no dammage to the State are of themselves punishable and that Nature teaches us that aswell in moral matters as in others Monstres which so far transgress its rules ought to be exterminated to the end their enormity do not turn to her dishonor But whereas Political Laws establish penalties onely to corrupt actions and do not punish intentions and thoughts 't is not for that bad thoughts and intentions are not as deserving of punishment as actions but because the will and intention is not apparent either to the Magistrates or Witnesses besides if all evil aims and purposes and such crimes as are committed in the mind onely were liable to penal animadversion the number of criminals would be so great that the frequency of executions would beget too much horror and the world would soon become depopulated and desart Now it is not reasonable to punish any offences but such as are proved by good evidence and it were better the world should be peopled with tolerable inhabitants then to be reduc'd to so gastly a desolation by punishments and deaths Yet there are a sort of intentions which coming to the knowledge of Judges are capitally punished as those which lead to attempts against persons in Soverainty In which there is not onely a bare regard so far as if such fore-thought design had grown to effect the Commonwealth which is under the Magistrates care might have suffered considerable prejudice but it is considered in as much as the prejudice set aside the design it of it self is too abominable to be pass'd over with impunity such horridnesses requiring to be expiated with proportional punishments Therefore seeing the counsels of which wicked actions are produced are naturally as vicious as the actions themselves which is more the actions are not vicious unless as far as they proceed from bad counsels Whereas actions are punished because of their enormity there would be too notorious a Defect and too great a Disorder in the nature of Things if there were not some power superior to that of Soveraign Magistrates which may give laws to thoughts and deliberations Now if there be any such Power it is necessary that the same have a clear cognisance of thoughts and deliberations that it call those to account that are culpable therein making their Conscience intervene as a witness against which there lies no exception and at length begin to punish them by such remorse as the apprehension of judgement begets in their breasts till afterwards it take a severer vengeance on them Now this is that which we call the Providence of God which punishes a part of those things which are done in this Life to take away all misapprehension that he endures others without exemplary punishment out of connivence and to give every one grounds of belief that he refers them to another time in which the Vengeance he will execute on them shall compensate its deferring by a greater measure of severity Of what I have now represented every man hath ten thousand witnesses in himself For the terrors which all men experience when they have committed some wickedness and whereof they do not cease to feel the effects though they be assured of exemption from penalties constituted by publike laws do sufficiently declare that there is some thing that frightens us within with the denunciation it there makes of another sort of vengeance Certainly if there were nothing to be dreaded besides the punishment which every Magistrate inflicts in his Territory what reason is there that soveraign Magistrates themselvs should be terrified with the same It is true these people object to us in this particular that those terrors are not natural but are bred of the false opinion which hath possessed the minds of all men that the Deity is incensed by reason of our offences to which they add that the profound ignorance of people hath augmented those affrightments to them as little children sear bug-bears in the Dark so that if we had not been prepossessed with such a perverse opinion by our Ancestors we should have always lived free from that fear in a perfect security They adjoin moreover that if there be any such natural Apprehensions wherewith men are discruciated they are those of the Accidents of Fortune which may arrive to all the dispensation of which is erroneously ascrib'd to Providence Divine For so speaks their Poet Nec miser impendens magnum timet aere saxum Tantalus ut fama'st cassa formidine torpens Sed magis in vita Divum metus urget inanis Mortales casumque timent quem cuique serat sors But in case this were no better grounded then on a false opinion men have been continued in whence comes it to pass that the same should have so universally possessed the minds of all Nations For who is he amongst all the people of the World that can avouch himself an exemption from these Fears In every Nation what person ha's not at some time or other had more or less experience of them Certainly that which is universal hath some foundation in Nature and that which persists constantly and maintains it self alwayes in the same sort cannot but be very deeply rooted therein on the other side vain and panick fears are incontinently dissipated and are of very short duration Time saith Cicero wears out the Errors of Opinion but it confirms the judgements and sentiments of Nature
vigilant care for the good and conservation of men is rebated so much without question is defaulked from their piety towards him And whereas as we shall see in its due place man is by nature alienated from God and extremely averse and reluctant to be reduc'd to him how clear knowledge soever he ha's by his word of this wise Providence how could those doubts and darkeness ever introduce him to an ingenious and free devotion I conclude therefore that all the Religion of the Ancients who liv'd without a particular Revelation had there been no other particulars to make it so but this was either languid or forc'd and that consequently to beget in the hearts of men a true and since respect towards God it is needful that himself instruct us in the knowledge of his Providence But that which follows shall shew the same more evidently CHAP. V. Of what great moment it is to know whether Death be a Natural Accident or Not And that such knowledge cannot be attain'd without special Revelation DEath is the most ordinary thing in the World For all that are born must necessarily dye Yet there is nothing of whose Cause and End Philosophers have been more ignorant All of them look't upon it as a thing purely Natural which befalls us as inevitably as naturally because our bodies being composed of the Elements which include discordant qualities hot and cold dry and moist so long as these continue in good harmony and are mixed in a perfect temperature they are maintained in vigor but when one comes to prevail against another or one of them fails through absumption of the moisture in which it consists or any other way there necessarily follows a dissipation of the compages Which happens in like manner to all other bodies which have the same principles of their generation the union after a certain time being dissolved and the bodies corrupted Indeed if the Soul of Man were mortal as his body is they would have reason for this opinion and Death would be natural to us as it is to other creatures but it befits onely Epicurus who believes the humane Soul corruptible to hold Death for a thing simply natural if every one will speak agreeably to his principles and not run into absurdities and extravagances For Man is not the Soul onely he is the body to that is to say the body is not only the case of his Soul wherein she is included for a time but a part of man which enters into his composition and without which he cannot be called man Now what a disorder is it in the Nature of man that half of his essence should be extinguish'd at the end of fourty or fifty years and the other half his Soul remain for ever after despoiled of it Unless the wild Metempsychosis of Pythagoras be admitted and that our Souls do not cease to go out of some bodies and re-enter into others sometimes into a horse and sometimes a bird and sometimes a man or if it be confin'd onely to humane bodies that he who was a great Philosopher two thousand years ago is now a Cow-heard and that great Prince who discomfited Darius neer the City of Arbela at this present a Porter in the Market An Opinion I conceive they against whom I dispute will not own Shall the Soul then remain eternally a Widow She that cherishes the body so much that she forgets her own interest to be complacent to it She that is not separated from it but with so great regret that the best marriage in the world is not dissolved with so much reluctancy and tears In which respect since these people acknowledge a Providence how come they not to observe that if death be a thing purely natural a good part of that Providence is lost death taking the body from its jurisdiction so that it cannot repay it the rewards of Virtue nor make it feel any penalty for its Vices Or if it be a punishment to the Body to exist no more why do those dy who in consideration of their Virtue and Piety ought to obtain some recompense for their bodies For the course of the World is such as we noted above that in this life neither the greatest part of crimes are sutably punisht nor the least part of compensations distributed and the Colicks Megrims Catarrhs Palsies Goutes and Stone hinder us from boasting of having found our corporeal beatitude here Yea if death be a thing natural as they conceive it cannot be a punishment to the body for the Vices to which it is addicted For that which is natural may indeed be an infirmity or misery but not a punishment which ha's no place but in retribution for sin and because things which are purely natural arrive to us whether we sin or not And besides the Vicious would be no otherwise treated then he which is not so and he that is not Vitious would have no better a condition then he that is culpable Which perverts all order of Justice and all Wisdom of Providence But there daily falls out a certain accident in Life of which in case death be natural noman can give a pertinent reason nor acquit the Providence which governs the world of blame Namely that Infants dye at their birth and even some are extinguish'd in the Womb. To what purpose were it to have lodg'd a Soul so little a time in a body that it had not so much leasure as to know its habitation And since as they teach 't is the Soul it self that fashions and disposes and contrives its mansion why is it ruin'd before she can enjoy it without hope of ever seeing it re-edified And as to the poor wretched body which is not yet sensible of its condition what is it the better for having been so little a while or what hath it committed that it must be no longer I know well that it is taught that it is better to Be then Not to be and I do not gainsay it but yet a Being of so little duration is of no great comfort and he would seem not to satisfie right reason who being ask'd why he breaks an excellent piece of workmanship incontinently after he had made it without having reap'd any use of it either to himself or any other should answer that it was sufficient that he had given it a being of half an hour For it was not to experiment his art that God framed little Infants there are Proofs enough of that in so many millions of men he knows it without tryal and is so expert therein that every work of his being perfect he ha's no cause to repent of or be displeased with it If it be answered that 't is for the exercise of Parents to train them to patience were there no more in it but this the action indeed would have for its end to frame men to Virtue in which their resemblance with the Deity consists but the means that God used to bring them to it
certainly to conjecture what the cause of death is God himself would have purposely hid it from them least not being able to discover the remedy of it despair should sink and ruine all the World All other ignorances have been prejudicial and very often pernicious to men to this alone we owe the conservation of humane Society So that we may pertinently apply to this in particular that which Horace speaks generally of the ignorance in which it hath pleased God we should live touching events to come Prudens futuri temporis exitum Caliginosa nocte premit Deus The sole Word of God which is the special revelation we are in quest of is that which accords all these differences and clears up all the difficulties and confusions We shall not dispute at present whether in his first creation the body of man was naturally so well constituted that through prudence whereby he was able to avoid all hurtful things and the use of aliments which the blessing of God rendred as efficacious for the conservation of life by the good and pure qualities which he at first indued them with as now they are often full of noxious juices since the curse of God blasted them for our offence he might without other assistance from the Deity avoid all alteration and corruption either by disease or Age. God hath in the composure of Gold and Diamonds and other like things given sufficient proof of his power and hath so exactly temper'd the contrary qualities of the Elements in the constitution of certain bodies that they seem not subject to any corruption whatsoever And the long life which the first Men liv'd even after sin and the examples of the like we meet with in several profane Histories and some also though few which may be found in the Histories of these latter times give us enough to judge how firm and durable the life of man would be were he as exactly and perfectly fram'd and the aliments that support him as good as the estate of Nature in its integrity could have promised We onely affirm that though as the Philosophers thought the body of man being composed of the Elements and consequently including contrary and repugnant qualities would have carried in its self the seeds of death yet this revelation teaches us that the Wisdom of God would have so provided therein that if no disorder had hapened in the World through sin the propensity which our bodies have to their own dissipation would have been restrain'd and hindred by his Providence For he would have repell'd all sorts of eternal accidents he would have hindred the intemperature of the humors both by preserving them in right harmony and supplying man with aliments indued with excellent faculties and void of all noxiousness and by infusing new vigor of life in time of necessity to hinder the approach of Old-age would have maintained man in a vigorous and flourishing consistence and so given him the immortality of which we have now nothing left but the desire Whence likewise the union of the Soul and Body would have continued to eternity not subject to any important change or evil accident So that admitting death to be an accident that sutes with the natural principles of the composition of their bodies yet the cause that they do dye is because it having been covenanted that the consequences of a mortal condition should be hindred upon condition that man continued in obedience sin supervening hath changed the dispensation of all that and effected that death is become in quality of a punishment and vengeance And this ought nor to be deemed strange For there are things which considered in themselves have nothing so shameful in them but that they may well endure either the presence of another or the publike day-light which yet through the disorder befallen in nature are become ignominious Nakedness which of it self is not dishonest is become unseemly through sin which hath caused rebellion in the corporeal appetites against reason So that they who affirm it indifferent to go naked or clothed shew that extreme profaness hath worn out of their foreheads that shame which causes others to express their consciousness of sin and the unseemliness of the irregularity of our sensual faculties so as to be asham'd of their impudence who are not so themselves Wherefore though death were a natural accident which yet it is not the horror of it is too great to acknowledge no more in it but pure nature and its motions For why then do Infants dye We learn from the same revelation that that so sudden separation of the soul from the Body is not for ever but that the being which is given them though at first it seem's to have been allotted for a moment onely and by consequence little better then not-being shall endure eternally when the considerations shall cease for which it suffer'd the Eclipse of the time that it was to appear in this Life For the being of man when it hath once had a beginning is of perpetual duration and the time of Death is but as an Eclipse of his course But this is not the place for this discourse and therefore we shall add but a word more and pass forward Whether we consider the justice or the goodness of God this revelation amply furnishes us what to answer in defence of both He takes away little children at their birth and notwithstanding does not incur thereby any blame of cruelty because before they were born they deserved that punishment by reason of the natural infection of sin which they drew from those that begat them And indeed as we crush the Eggs of Scorpions before they are hatcht not because they have as yet deserved to be destroy'd for any wound which we have received by them but because in growing up the seeds of venome which that brood hath by nature will infallibly be exerted to our mischief so is it sometimes expedient for God to stifle from the wombe such children as have so many seeds of vice in them that coming to years would do much more mischief then any Scorpion in the World This the Philosophers never understood and therefore could not return in answer But if there opinion were admitted it would be requisite to defer judging of the merit of Infants till they come to the age that ennables them to manifest and display their Vice Moreover God resumes some of them back to himself whom he pleases to render happy by his goodness Nor is it necessary that he should permit them a longer abode in this life that so they might be capable of happiness for their practises of Virtue because he do's not give it as a Salary deserved from his justice by our Virtues but as a beneficence purely out of his liberality which likewise the Philosophers never thought of for according to them if there remains any beatitude to be hoped after this Life it cannot be aspir'd unto but by Virtue How then can Infants obtain
not less necessary because all animals equally breath the air So the condition of unhappy persons is not less painful and grievous by being common to all nor the sentiment of great calamities more light by seeing others groan under the same misfortunes Besides this kind of consolation seems to me to have something of barbarism and inhumanity in it If it happen to any one to be condemned to the Gibbet either justly or unjustly is it meet for him to desire to behold other of his compatriots executed with him for the diminishing of his unhappiness It was a thing which discomforted Phocion at his condemnation to death that he had fellow-sufferers his great humanity inducing him to wish that if possible that heavy sentence might have fallen onely upon his own person But they may seem to have had more reason who comforted themselves with the hope of death that would put an end to all things Yet who sees not that this was but the consolation of desperate people For what difference is there between a man that desires death through impatience of his pain and him that kills himself saving that one ha's more courage or is transported with greater despair then the other Death is naturally accounted an Evil and even by most men the greatest of all Evils nor is there any shame or pain but they will undergo for preserving their Lives even so far as to suffer the mutilation of their arms and legs Cut off my feet and after that my leggs said Mecoenas and my thighs also if you please Provided I do but live t is enough What kind of consolation then can that be which is naturally so much abhorr'd And how great must their misery be who place all their comfort in that which is naturally abhorr'd Must not nature have reduc'd us to a deplorable extremity when there remains no other comfort for us but such as theirs is who being stretcht forth on the Wheel on a Scaffold are told that their sentence is mitigated onely to be hanged But yet they which think of the immortality of their Souls cannot comfort themselves by all these means unless they be well perswaded of the pardon of their sins which have drawn all these miseries upon them For if they indure so great evils in this life for their offenses what can they expect in the other Certainly we see for the most part such a person that desired death through impatience of his pain timerously slinks from it when he sees it approaching and would bargain with any body that could make his Gouts last for fifty years Lastly there have been some that would draw matter of glory from humane miseries and who held that they were the tryals of Virtue esteeming it best for a man to indure evil because otherwise he can have no knowledg of Patience which is the most excellent virtue of all One suffered himself to be brayed in pieces without groaning and another in the violent fits of the Stone said Do thy worst Pain yet I shall never confess that thou art evil But in truth this is a foolish wisdom this Indolence as Plutark says is not bought but at the price of brutality To be a Philosopher of this fashion a man must put off all humane passions and be converted into a Stone As if it were not natural to man to sigh and complain and when he is wrastling with an extreme pain to wish his deliverance But yet those are greater fools who find cause of pride and vanity in their suffering Is it such a cordial chearing to a man who ha's the Colick Gout Megrim or Tooth-ache who is afflicted with poverty shame and contempt of the World who hath lewd children that threaten the Gallows that is oppress'd and tyrannis'd by great adversaries hated tormented persecuted and reviled by inferiors for one to come and tell him that his patient suffering of all this will acquire great glory to him in the world Certainly if the glory and the sorrow were weigh'd one against another I conceive there is no man of sense and that is subject to all these evils but would give all the glory which Caesar and Alexander had both together to be delivered from them The most ordinary consolation as we touched above hath been to reproach and accuse God and Nature which they affirmed was a good mother to other Creatures but to man an incompassionate Stepdame thus adding impietie to misery And they have been even so foolish as to conceit that the greatest part of our mischiefs proceed from I know not what malevolence in the Deity as if he bare a hatred or envy either to the condition or to the prosperity of men One faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And indeed I see not how in the natural impatience of our minds men in so many miseries as they are beset with in the world could contain from accusing the goodness of God unless they had been instructed by the Word of God of the source whence they flow upon us 'T is that alone teaches us that 't is a beginning of vengeance upon the Wicked and a fatherly exercising of chastisement upon the Good Who therefore receive the same with humility in reverence to the will of God bear it with patience as a thing which they have deserved and far worse and rejoyce themselves in hope that his wise Providence will so proportion their afflictions and their strength that they be not overwhelmed with the burden And that which surpasses all humane imagination It reveals such a glory to them for the injoyment of which they are prepared by these sufferings that in comparison of its weight and its eternity all that they indure here is light and scarce of a moments duration There it is that this encouraging exhortation becomes effectual Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentiorito CHAP. VII Of the Remission of Sins What knowledge men naturally have thereof And how much it is the interest of true Piety to he assured of the same Also Of the Resurrection of the Body WE have proved above against the Epicureans that there is such a difference between Vice and Virtue that it is not Places or Times or Laws of Magistrates or Customes of Nations that renders the one commendable and the other worthy of blame but their proper nature and essence which abides eternally equal and uniform We also shewed consequently that as the recompense of goodness is congruous to virtue so vice ha's a due right to punishment For otherwise what is the meaning of all those terrors of conscience which we shew'd above to be natural to men And to what end were the Providence of God himself Who should have taken the rewards of Virtue out of one of his hands and the arms of vengeance against Vice out of the other Wherefore I take it now for granted
actions but likewise of cogitations and to the nature of man whose outward actions are neither good nor evil but onely so far as they proceed from the good or evil source of the internal affections Upon this Commandment Thou shalt not commit adultery they condemned the act indeed which defiles the bed of ones neighbor wanton thoughts and lascivious glances they made no great reckning of The Christian Religion teaches that he that looks upon the wife of his neighbor with desire after her hath committed adultery in his heart Then which what is more sutable to the holiness of God and more reasonable in reference to that which ought to be in men For what great advantage were it to have kept the body unpolluted with filthy actions if yet the soul should be full of impure cogitations Moses in his Political Laws the administring and superintendency of which belong'd to the Magistrate alone constituted the retribution of Eye for Eye and Tooth for Tooth that so the violence of outrages might be repress'd by the fear of a penalty semblable and adequate to each sort of crime The Jewish Doctors extended this to private revenges as if they had been permitted by this sanction But the Christian Purity reforms this error by teaching that a man ought to be so far from doing himself reason for an injury that it is more commendable to be so dispos'd as to receive and dispense with reiterated wrongs and insolences Then which what is more befitting them that believe there is a God in Heaven who preserves the rights of every one who watches over all by his Providence and who hath declar'd that vengeance belongs to himself And thus also it is in the Law of Divorce and Polygamy abrogated by the Gospel which reduces marriage to the estate of its primitive institution an estate so worthy and becoming in regard of its natural honesty and so recommended even by their own Prophets And truely what likelihood is there the Jews should be lest to eternity in that ancient hardness of heart for which it had been indulg'd to them or that the example of the Jewish incon inence should be made authentick in other Nations So also concerning light and unprofitable Swearing which the Doctors of the Jews tolerated provided exact care were us'd to perform what was incumbent by virtue of the oath Christian Religion ha's abolisht the same as a profanation of the holy and sacred Name of God which must not be pronounced but with great reverence And is not this to reduce men from the shell to the marrow of the Law from the outside to the inside from the body to the soul and even to the most spiritual part of the soul And that these and such like have been the corruptions which the Doctors of the Jews have introduc'd in their Law the testimonies are but too frequent in their Books But there is yet something further considerable For there are two things in every good Law First the Righteousness of the command which it contains and Secondly the Right of punishment due to the transgression of it both which arise from the natural difference which is between Vice and Virtue and their necessary appendances Punishment and Reward Now Christianity hath not onely reduc'd the Law to its integrity in relation to the first but hath also wonderfully illustrated it in the second in which the Ignorance of men had debas'd it two ways For first if there were some among the Jews that had a little deeper knowledge in the Nature of the Law and esteem'd it the rule not onely of actions or intentions accomplisht but also â—f thoughts yet they accounted sins committed in thought or word onely so light that they scarce believ'd God ought to inflict any punishment for them and judged them very venial in themselves Secondly though in sins perpetrated by scandalous actions they beheld a turpitude which deserv'd severe chastisement yet they had all this opinion that God would readily forgive them without other satisfaction then by pitiful sacrifices Perhaps not that they thought sacrifices could impretate remission by their own value as being equivalent to the deserved penalty for to believe so they must have been too like the victimes which they jugulated But because God remitting the same freely was contented with the acknowledgement made of the demerit by killing the sacrifice For every man that slayeth a beast in his own stead confesseth that he hath deserved death But the Gospel hath restored it in this point to its pristine Majesty and reinstated it in the prerogative of a severe avenger of the sins of men for as we shall see hereafter the belief of its inexorable severity in this point conduces highly to conciliate honor and reverence to it First then the Gospel hath taught men that those which they lookt upon as piccadillo sins according to the custome of the world are of a henious nature when weighed in the balance of God's justice so that men are to give account even of their idle words and that the most inward thoughts of their minds the least ticklings of their appetites if they be dissonant from the rules of the Law which require a perfection in which nothing can be impeached render men obnoxious to the curse that is annexed to it And truely should not the Gospel affirm it the Law it self holds forth as much For I demand whether the Decalogue does not contain the rule of the most exquisite and consummated perfection that can and ought to be in humane nature If it does not then seeing all things which can concern the Moral perfection of man that are neither commanded nor prohibited in this Law are reputed as mean that is neither good nor evil but indifferent in themselves it will follow that there may be some defect of moral perfection in man which nevertheless shall not be at all reprovable for mean and indifferent things whether they be done or not bring neither praise nor blame So that a man that ha's all the moral perfection which the Law requires but yet sailes of that which it does not shall notwithstanding merit as much praise as he which ha's that which it commands not and that which it does command together Which is as absurd as if one should say that an Angle made with a right Line and another that cuts the same decussatim deserv's as well the title of a right Angle as that which is composed of two right Lines one of which falls perpendicularly upon the other For it is not more necessary to an angle that it be compos'd of two right lines whereof one falls perpendicularly upon the other to be approv'd for a right angle then it is necessary to a man to have all moral perfections possible in order to being perfect with humane perfection Moreover the Decalogue being nothing but the renewing of the Natural Law which was for a rule of Life to the first man in the Garden of Eden and of which
for he shall bear their iniquities Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath powred out his soul unto death and he was numbred with Transgressors and bare the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors In conscience now is this to be a Prophet or to preach our Gospel Is this to foretell things to come or to point with the finger to things present or to relate pass'd Certainly let any man choose the clearest passage of the New Testament concerning this matter and compare it with these recited and it will be hard to distinguish which is that of the Apostle and which of the Prophet We conclude therefore that the Holy Scriptures of the Jews agree with the Doctrine of satisfaction and have foretold it and that Right Reason induces yea inforces to believe it CHAP. VIII That the Promised Messias ought to be both God and Man whence it follows that there are several persons in one simple Divine Essence Also Of the Divinity of the Old Testament THe third Objection against Satisfaction remains to be dissolv'd Namely that the punishment of one alone is not sufficient to obtain impunity for all men Indeed there is either no satisfaction or it ought to be proportionate both to the ossenses of men for whom it was made and the Justice of God that was incensed and consequently must be of an infinite worth and value For to fancy to our selves a satisfaction admitted by God infinitely below the demerit of the offense by way of Acceptance as they speak that is that he should be contented as fully paid for all though he receives but a small part is a thing not consistent either with the Wisdom or Goodness of God or the nature of his Justice as we declar'd it above Not with his Justice For since it is impossible for that to leave the sins of men unpunisht by reason it is the Hatred and Detestation of Evil a Perfection which is not divine if it be not infinite extreme nor extreme infinite if it be not wholy inexorable how could it be contented with the punishment of one alone for a satisfaction belonging to all mankind seeing it should thereby take vengance only for the offense of one remit the sin of all others freely without punishment For to speak properly there is no real satisfaction in an Acceptance but onely for so much as is receiv'd all the remainder of the debt exceeding what is receiv'd is freely forgiven and there is none but a fictitious and imaginary satisfaction for it Now it is not competent to an implacable justice to be pay'd with empty formalities and fictions Secondly not with his Goodness For it there be nothing in his Nature that hinders him from remitting gratuitously and without satisfaction the offenses of all men saving one what can there be in it to hinder him from forgiving that one also If I say there be nothing to hinder him from being contented with the death of one single man onely which of it self is of value onely to be satisfactory for one for payment for the infinite offenses of an almost infinite number of men why did he not likewise exercise this his infinite goodness towards this person that so it might be complete and no vengeance eclipse its lustre Since also be it by Acceptance or no it is perpetually necessary that the person who is to make the satisfaction be perfectly innocent and exempt from sin For God would not accept a polluted victime and he were uncapable of appeasing the wrath of God for another who had provoked him by his own offense Whence it should seem he could scarce justifie his Goodness if freely pardoning sinners he should without any need at all revenge himself upon an innocent person Lastly 't is not consistent with his Wisdom For to what end were it to make such an ambages and intricacy where the way is so plain and short What could be more easie then to pardon plainly without digressing to a satisfaction wholly defective in it self and complete onely because he that receives it will absolutely have his justice contented with it The reason alledged is that he might shew that his justice is terrible when he pleases and ingenerate in the minds of mortals so much greater horror of their offenses Certainly if the design be to render Divine Justice sormidable it appear'd so incomparably more in Noah's Flood the conflagration of Sodome and many other dreadful judgments then in the Death of one single man And if men must be made to know how worthy their Sin is of detestation and Hatred the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem with the unparallel'd mortality and slaughter that was seen there is a much more authentick Document to that purpose and an Instance that speaks lowder and farther beyond comparison But I believe men are not possess'd with much dread of the wrath of God when they are preach'd to that it is appeased with so small a matter It remains therefore necessarily that the Satisfaction be of an infinite weight and value to the end it may be proportionate to the sin of men and to the infinite Majesty of God himself But who can make it such No man surely who is nothing more then man For the condition of his Nature is too low and the bâ—unds of his dignity and excellence too narrow to correspond to so great an effect It would be very much if One could pay for one besides that the surety must abide in eternal destruction and having sav'd an other perish himself for ever Then all men in geneneral cannot make it For since Sin committed against an infinite Majesty deserves an infinite punishment the Offense increasing as Philosophers and Jurists teach according to the proportion of his dignity against whom it is committed and since the punishment of men cannot be infinite unless it be eternal should all men in general present themselves to undergo the wrath of God they would become overwhelm'd by it to all eternity far from redeeming themselves by a sufficient satisfaction Thirdly the Angels are equally unable For besides that there is not communion and affinity enough between men and them to be conveniently substituted as Pledges for them in suffering those pains whatsoever dignity the Angelical Nature possesses whatsoever excellence it may have above the humane yet it could never arise to equal the Majesty of God in order to satisfying his Justice after a proportional manner For at most they are but Creatures and there is an immense disproportion between the Creature and the Creator And he had good reason who said Behold He putteth no trust in his servants and his Angels he chargeth with folly Because though upon comparison of Angels with men they are of more transcendent purity and excellence yet if they be compar'd with God all their excellence is despicable and were it not that God upholds them
Lord Jesus was the Messias Because the preaching of Christ was grounded on this point That God had heretofore by his Prophets promis'd a Messias to the people of Israel who should be the Redeemer of the Nation and he was sent accordingly by God for that end in the fullness of time t in which regard he invited all the world to receive him as the Supreme Prophet Let them speak it out therefore confidently whether Christ be the Messias promised by the Old Testament or not For if he be not it behoveth to become Jews and to account him as they do for the greatest Deceiver that ever was upon the earth and hence forward turn our Churches into Synagogues reducing all Christian order to the ancient manner of the Tabernacle If he be the Messias promised by the Old Testament he is God for that describes him to be such as we have shewn by irrefragable proofs And that those Books of Moses David and the Prophets are divine what we have spoken above in the matter leaves it no longer doubtful Nevertheless admit for the present they be writings purely humane surely these excellent Theologers will not deny least the reading shame them but that they agree all in this particular That from the Nation of the Jews ought one day to arise a great and rare personage who should be King in Israel and should be called the Son and the Branch of the Lord himself And this hath been the expectation of that people in all times with which they comfort themselves still in their deplorable desolation But what moved them to speak in this manner if they had no other instinct but from their own mind Who incited Moses to set this fraud first on foot Why did the others many Ages after so carefully cherish ratifie and augment it in several circumstances with other false prophecies What profit did they reap by deluding the world with such a hope They must have had intelligence so many ages before with a man who was not yet in being to foretell that he should exist and this man born by chance at the just time which they presum'd to determine must have taken occasion from these fortuitous predictions and the expectation rais'd by them in the minds of men to declare himself the person whom so many prophets in so many different times had unanimously presag'd was to exist Now it would be a strange case that Moses should first of all without any necessity of so doing or advantage by it in reference to his design of governing the people of Israel and the establishment of his power take up a fancy of the future arising of some great Prophet and then another should come two or three hundred years after and revive this prediction made at randome and enlarge and clear it up with other new for this opinion was successively more and more confirm'd and rooted in the minds of men and that at length at the time prefixt and the set period there should be found one both confident enough to draw all those presages to his advantage and so favor'd by fortune that all the circumstances of his birth his life and his death should meet together in his person Surely ther 's as much likelihood in this as in the Imagination of Epicurus concerning the framing of the world by the casual lighting together of Atomes But there 's something yet more strange If they were predictions purely humane and also fortuitous like the Ephemerides of Nostradamus being they were cloath'd in magnificent terms and there was nothing promis'd less then a King sitting upon the throne of David who was to restore the Commonwealth of Israel faln into so miserable an estate under the power of the Romans If Jesus were merely man and intended to advantage himself by the foolish hopes of that people what a preposterous madness was it to take the course he did In stead of exciting the people to sedition against the Romanes he commands to pay tribute and pays it himself to give example In stead of insinuating into the affections of daring adventurous men and such as he might use for Captains he makes choise of a dozen poor Fishermen and people of such condition to have them continually in his train Instead of erecting his Nation to magnanimity he betakes himself to preach humility and obedience In stead of imploying the virtue of doing miracles he was so mighty in to astonish Herod or Pilate in some surprise or battail he heals the lame and the blind and the dumb and the paralytick And that which is if these Opinionists be credited the height of folly instead of raising men into hope of his victories he foretells to them which followed him that he was to dy upon the Cross and sharpely reproves one of them who went about to disswade him from that purpose of his Was this the way if it was a humane Design to be get in the world already posses'd with hope of a Messias for a great Earthly King a belief that he was the person which was promised by their Prophets Surely Mahomet us'd not this course who takes arms in hand gives freedom to slaves and because he knew his doctrine could not support it self by the prop of truth plants it in all places where he can by wars and battles Wherfore to conceive a person should endevor to serve himself after this manner of the presumptions and expectations of men is not to fancy a man but a lunatick In the next place I ask whether Jesus Christ when he called some persons with him to serve him in the work he undertook as nothing is more apparent then that he had twelve peculiar Apostles he discover'd this secret of his pretended Divinity to them or whether he abus'd them aswell as other men For if he discover'd the same to them 't was a wonderful complot that he should style himself the Son of God deport himself for very God and they profess themselves his messengers sent immediately from him to promulgate his doctrine and at last for their reward he should be ignominiously crucifi'd and each of them respectively after divers dangers both by Sea and Land after imprisonments stonings tortures and racks should conclude their miserable and painful lives by cruel and shameful deaths Truely though he chose Fishers and men of low condition yet I believe there was none among them so stupid as to be capable of being perswaded to partake in this enterprise upon these conditions For as for his having induc'd them to it by this onely consideration that great good should come thereby to the World and that the Nations should be converted by their word from Idols to the true God there was so little colour in the thing that he would never have been believ'd so little of that generosity in them which leads men to promote the universal good of the world without appearance of other recompense then misery and death that none of them would have