light he affords enough to leave them inexcusable and without cause of complaint because he doth afford them more than they improve or use And Thirdly What in this occasion will abundantly illustrate and set off Divine Goodness as well as Justice he requireth not from men according to the light and means they have not but according unto what they have expecting less from them to whom he hath afforded less and only more from these who have the opportunities and the means of doing more And First By way of Premise I lay it down as Fundamental in the Christian Doctrine and Profession That there is no salvation but by Iesus Christ for it is he the Son of God that hath assumed humane Nature that hath satisfied in it the Divine Justice that by his Obedience and Death hath rendred God Attonable to man and that hath procured all the terms whatever they be on which Divine Majesty is pleased to transact again with us and to receive us into favour He is the Prince of peace that Glorious Intercessor that hath gone between the wrath of God and us but for whom Apostate Adam had been lost for ever and there had been no more reserves for Happiness or overtures of Grace for him and his Descendants than for the faln and Apostare Angels Christ is the Foundation-Stone the Chief Corner-Stone in this building God so lov'd the world that he gave his Son This is my beloved Son through whom I am well pleased Sacrifice and Offerings thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared for me Lo I come The Lamb slain from the beginning of the world This I take it is the meaning of that known expression There is no other name given under Heaven by which we can be saved but the name of Iesus viz. That no other Person is to be acknowledged to have the Honour of being the Procurer of Peace and Reconciliation for us with the Divine Majesty and of having marked out the way to glory but only Jesus Christ it being too important and momentous an Affair for any but Emmanuel or Jesus one that is God as well as man to undertake to manage For who but God-man could dare to go between God and man Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people that it might be fulfilled They shall call his name Emmanuel which is by Interpretation God with us The Connection must be noted it evinces that he only could be Iesus that was Emmanuel thou shalt call his name Iesus that it might be fulfill'd they shall call his name Emmanuel as if Iesus and Emmanuel were but One name There is no other name given but the name of Jesus whereby we can be saved It is not the name of Moses nor of Pythagoras nor Plato nor of Mahome◠or of any other meer man these are not names that merit this honour It is Iesus is the only name it must be God with us that saves us The Practical Belief of This is called faith in Christ and is a thing so absolutely necessary to salvation that without it 't is impossible to please God or be accepted with him But as absolutely necessary to salvation as belief is it is not so in every Degree or every Act of it there are Degrees of Faith and there are several Acts there is a Formal and explicite apprehension and belief of this Truth in so many terms that there is One God the Father Almighty Propitiated and Attoned towards men and that there is One Mediator Jesus Christ God-man that hath attoned and propitiated him And as there is a Formal and Explicit so there is a Virtual and Implicit Apprehension and Belief of it which he has that believes that God is that he is Gracious and Benign that he pardons sin and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him And one may as well implicitly and virtually Believe as Will For as he implicitly and virtually doth will the means although he doth not actually Reflect and think upon them that effectually doth will the End so he that does explicitly believe that God is gracious and well-pleased He doth implicitly believe in Christ in whom alone he is so the explicit belief of the Conclusion is the implicit and virtual belief of the Premises This Virtual and implicit Faith he may be said to have who feareth God and worketh Righteousness whether he be Jew or Gentile for he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness cometh unto God by doing so and he that cometh unto God must needs believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder A Faith that many of the Gentiles were as well the Owners of as the Jews for which they were accepted of God So Peter Of a truth I perceive that God is no Respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is Accepted with him And doubtless there were many Cornelius's and Iohn is plain He that worketh Righteousness is born of God Such Gentiles are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Fearers of God Acts 12. 16. 26. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Worshippers v. 43. I pray Sir consider Rahab the Harlot and what kind of Faith it was for which she has the Honour of a Monument unto this day and for which her self and all her household were saved viz. The Lord your God is a God in the Heaven above and in the Earth beneath This was her Faith and the Ground and Basis of it what was it but Report and Fame We have heard how the Lord dryed up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Aegypt and what God did unto the two Kings of the Amorites We have heard All heard but she only believed savingly and therefore hid the Spies which the rest would kill This was her Faith she had heard of God the True God and who had not and she believed that God was and that he was a Rewarder therefore she hid his Servants which was her work of Righteousness All believed and trembled we heard and our hearts melted which is the Faith of Devils but she believed and wrought Righteousness she hid the Spies Her 's was a saving because a living a working Faith 'T is true some of the old believers are Illustrious Instances of Faith and of its vigor and power for though the day of Christ were far off yet they saw it clearly and distinctly Abraham sayes Christ saw my day though far off So Jacob The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come unto him shall the gathering of People be and so Iob I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall behold him standing on the earth But yet I find them not explicitly a Praying in the name of Christ or doing any thing therein So hitherto sayes he unto his own Disciples you have asked nothing in my name nor were
they yet obliged since he was not to be so exalted but after he had drunk of the brook in the way it was then the Comforter the blessed Spirit was to come and give his Testimony for him in the Hearts of men after which His Name was to be honoured When I am lifted up I will draw all men unto me In that day you shall ask in my Name Before all was done in the Name of God but since the Comforter all in Christs Name There is no other Name under Heaven given that is no other name of any Person on earth is appointed in which we can approach to God and so be saved Indeed the Antients prayed towards the Debir or Oracle or Ark which typified Christ and so implicitly and figuratively prayed in his Name but yet explicitly and formally they did not I confess there are not a few both Pious and Learned that herein differ from me who believe the Antients prayed Formally and Explicitly in the name of Christ and who apprehend themselves abundantly confirmed in that belief by one expression in Daniel Now therefore O God hear the Prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary that lyeth Desolate for the Lords sake for the Lords sake that is say they for Christs sake But to omit that for the Lords sake may be refer'd to desolate as it is in some Translations wherein the Comma is not put to desolate but to Sanctuary as if the sense were that for the Lords sake the Sanctuary was desolate I say omitting that and taking it for granted to referr to hear and lift up the light of thy countenance yet whosoever doth compare it with the following Verses must needs acknowledge that for the Lords sake is for Gods sake for his Name sake his Honours sake it being so explained v. 19. O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord consider and do it defer not for thine own sake oh my God for thy Name is called upon this City and upon this People And thus much by way of Premise I now apply my self to give a more particular answer to the Exception by making evident and clear the several Propositions which I mentioned for that end and which evinced and made out will abundantly illustrate this matter and absolutely satisfie your mind in a scruple which cannot but be much abated already And first That God is not obliged by his Goodness to afford equal light to all For though Divine Goodness be a Perfection essentially inherent in him yet in the Exercises of it he is Free and Sovereign the emanations of that Glorious Attribute not being as some imagine them as Unrestrainable and necessary as those of Light from the Sun and Heat from Fire No it is as well a great Truth as commonly received and that the Divine Goodness is seated in the Divine will and is as it were a certain mode of it The Goodness of Almighty God it is his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Good pleasure Good-will and consequently being but a certain kind or manner of will must in all the exercises of it be as free as this is Divine Goodness is nothing but the Divine Good-will or a Propensity in the Divine Will to be doing all the Good that in his Infinite Wisdom he sees meet Now the will of God if to discourse thereof as of Mans be not too great Presumption is not a Necessary and Determined but a Free and Undetermined Principle and the Nature of it as to Liberty and Freedom consisteth in an Unrestrained Unconfined Amplitude of Acting Whereof he cannot doubt that seriously considers what of another Purpose I noted in my former Treatise viz. That as what is lower on the Scale of Being and more immersed in matter is more confined and determined so that what is higher and superior and more spiritual is in proportion according to the measure of its advancement on the Scale more undetermined and free For thus a little to illustrate and set out the matter in Examples Plants and Vegetables are less determined in respect of Action than are the Minerals and Fossils Again the meerly Sensitive or Irrational Animals are less determined than the Vegetables Men less than they and not improbable the Angels less than men But God who is above them all a Pure Act possesses Amplitude of Action as Infinitely much transcending all theirs as is his Being All Determination and confinement is from Matter all Indetermination and Unconfinement from Form God is therefore most Free and Undetermined because most Formal and most Pure Act. But by this Infinite Amplitude and Liberty of Action I would not have you understand me to intend wilfulness as if the Will of God which is the Principle and Rise of all External Actions were meer will and that in that Will there were not also Wisdom Justice Goodness and Holiness For it were to have a most Unhappy and mistaken Apprehension of me as if I coin'd a Notion of the great God and of the freedom of his Will that could not be endur'd by any that did either know or fear him No But by this Amplitude of Action or Liberty of the Divine Will I mean no other but a most illimited Capacity and Power in God to do what seemeth best and most agreeable unto himself to do and that is best and most agreeable for him to do which is most convenient and congruous and most becoming all his Glorious Attributes his Wisdom his Benignity his Sovereignty Majesty c. as who would say it is a Free Unconfined Unnecessitated Undetermined Power of doing or not doing what he pleases Now he doth what he pleaseth that does whatever pleases him and what can we imagine to please God but what is most agreeable and congruous to him and what is most agreeable and congruous to him but what suiteth best with all his Attributes So that it is not meer will that is the Principle or Reason of the Divine Actions but as the Holy Scriptures happily express it it is counsel counsel of Will His Will is will it is Soveraign and Free but it is also wise and Good and Just and Holy God does what he will and because he will But yet whatever he does is Wise and Good and Holy because his Will is so But you will say I grant enough for your Argument as now I have explained my self for if the meer and naked Will of God be not the sole Reason or Rule of his Acting but that his other Attributes do influence and guide him in it and so his Goodness and Benignity doth challenge some share then seeing there is no Respect of mens Persons with him but that in his sight all are equal and also seeing Goodness obligeth not to make a Difference where there is none already 'T is Unconceivable how any should be made and how he should not deal alike benignly be Bountiful and Good alike to All. I answer That
and hell there are so many and so obvious Testimonies both of Poets and Philosophers of which occasionally I have mentioned some already that to offer any in so plain a matter and here especially may seem superfluous yet that I be not altogether wanting unto this Article in its Order since I have not yet been so to others in theirs I will present you One Evidence concerning it and because it will indeed be absolutely unnecessary after that to offer more I will Present but One. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the Law and Sanction of God concerning Men in the Reign of Saturn and the same was alwayes and even now is in force And what is that Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That whosoever among men did live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteously and Holily should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whensoever he dyed go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the Islands of the Blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there to dwell in all felicity without the Mixture of Evils This was the Law for the Good So Christ Blessed are they that dye in the Lord thenceforth they rest from their labours and their works follow them There shall be no night there There shall be no Curse there But what is the Law for the wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But he that lived without God or Impiously in the World and Unrighteously was to go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Place of Punishment and Iustice which they call Tartarus And Dives in Hell c. I confess the Life Everlasting by which I understand that Glorious and Immutable Condition or Estate to be possessed by the Godly in the Resurrection or the Re-union of the Body with the Soul is an Article wherein if in any the Gentiles generally were but Dark And yet what is not easily believed it is true that some of them had Light and Information of it for that very Poet whom I lately cited for the Resurrection from the Dead immediately to what I have already quoted out of him on that head adds this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Afterwards viz. after the Resurrection they shall be Gods And not the Poet only but the Old Magi believed Another and that an Immortal Life So Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Who saith he speaking it of Theopompus affirmeth that according to the Doctrine of the Magi men shall live again and then be Immortal A Belief that is not much short of that the Christians had of old I know faith Iob that my Redeemer liveth that in the latter Day He shall stand upon the Earth and that I shall see him with these Eyes When I awake saith David I shall be satisfied with thy Likeness And what is that Likeness I know how some understand it viz. That it does consist in Holiness or in the correspondency of our Natures to the Divine But I rather understand it as Analogie and common sense of Scripture prompts me to consist in Glory I mean in the conformation of the Vile Bodies of Believers to the Glorious Body of Iesus Christ. For as they have born the Image of the Eart hly they shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly Beloved we are now the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when He shall Appear we shall be lik◠〈…〉 is He that shall 〈…〉 Christ and the 〈◊〉 proveth it 1 Ioh. 2. 28. But to conclude this tedious Entertainment of the Gentile Divinity I will only add that many Heathen held Opinion that the World should have End by Fire Of which perswasion Generally were all the Stoicks Seneca is press and full At illo tempore solutis Legibus sine modo fertur Qua ratione inquiris eadem qua Conflagratio futura est Utrumque sit cum Deo visum ordiri meliora Vetera finiri At that time absolved from all Laws it doth observe no measure How can that be dost thou say Why in the same manner wherein the Conflagration shall both the one and the other is when it pleaseth God either to give beginning unto new Things or else to put an end to old c. Ovid sayes as much Esse quoque in Fatis 〈…〉 affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus correptaque regia coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laboret That time shall come when both the Earth and Sea With Heavens Arch so Glorious to behold Shall burn and shall turn unto Decay So also Lucretius Una dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi Accidet exitium coeli terraeque futurum The World which stood so many years Shall in one day destroyed be Destruction likewise shall appear For Heaven and Earth most suddenly To this also agreeth the Poet Lucan his words be these Invida fatorum series summisque negatum Stare diu nimioque graves sub pondere Iapsus Nec se Roma ferens Sic cum compage soluta Secula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora Antiquum repetens iterum Chaos omnia mistis Sidera Sideribus concurrent ignea pontum Astra petent tellus extendere littora nollet Excutietque fretum Fratri contraria Phoebe Ibit obliquum bigas agitare per orbem Indignata diem poscet sibi totaque discors Machina divulsi turbabit foedera mundi The Fates envy the States of mortal men The Highest Seats do not continue long Great is the fall under the greater burden And Greatest things do to themselves great'st wrong Rome was so great whom all the World did fear That Rome her self she could no longer bear So when this well couch't frame of World shall burn And the last hour so many ages end To former Chaos all things shall Return The Envious Fates this Issue do portend Then all the Planets shall confus'dly meet And fires coelestial on the floods shall fleet The Earth shall grudge to make the Sea a shore And cast it off and push the flood away The Moon enrag'd shall cross her Brother sore And seek to alter course to shine by day Thus all at odds in strife and out of frame They shall disturb the World and spoil the same So great a Light was that afforded to the Gentiles in all Essential points of true Religion which perhaps if we possessed all the Volumes perisht by the Injury of Times and the Destiny of Letters would have appeared much greater yet so great it seems now by what Discourses I have made already the which I might enlarge on every Article That none that does unprejudicedly weight them can have cause to wonder either at Clement's or at Lactantius's sense in favour of the old Philosophers or that St. Austin should say That the Jews dare not averr that no man was saved after the Propagation of Israel but Israelites Indeed there was no other People properly called the People of God
Sons worshipping him and desiring a certain thing of him And he said unto her what wilt thou She said unto him Grant that these my two Sons may sit the one on thy right hand and the other on the left in thy Kingdom But Jesus answered and said Ye know not what ye ask Thus much of Prayer Secondly Thanksgiving All must be acknowledged and ascribed to God Archilocus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ascribe all unto the Gods God for they do he does often raise men out of their calamities that lay before upon the Black Earth and as often overturns and throws upon their backs those that stand most firmly And this acknowledgement or Praise must be 1. In Word Pythagoras in Iamblicus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as much as there is a God and He Lord of all it is most meet to acknowledge and confess him to be the Good Psalm 92.1 It is a Good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is most just that Hymns and Praises of God the Gods mixt with Prayers be sung to him Philippians 4.6 In every thing give praise to God by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving The Antients had their Paeans or Laudatory Songs and one eminently called so Laetumque choro Paeana canentes 2. In Deed. And that 1. By Tything The Antient Heathen generally paid Tythes to their Gods as an acknowledgement High-rent or Honourary to their Soveraign an Usage I should be apt to believe derived from the Aegyptians were that true which Batricides sayes that by the Ordinance of Joseph they paid to Pharaoh the Tenth but since Moses speaks but of a Fifth I rather derive the Custom from a much higher Original Once it obtained generally to tythe their Spoils and their Goods 1. Their Spoils Agis gave the tenth to God Post haec Agis Delphos profectus est ac Decimam Deo obtulit And the Greeks also under the command of Zenophon when by his admirable conduct they were returned safe into Greece devoted the tenth of their Spoil Hîc etiam Pecuniam de captivis collectam partiti eam quae Decimae nomine aut Apollini aut Ephesiae Dianae vota fuerat consecrandam Praetores acceperunt With which money dedicated to Diana of Ephesus that Great Captain builds a Temple and an Altar and endows it Ante templum pila erecta est in qua incisae literae Sacer Dianae ager Qui posside at atque ex eo fructum capiat Annonae decimam illum Deae solvere reliquum in sartâ tecta conservare oportet Deam ipsam qui se fraudavit vindicturam The same Zenophon tells us of Agesilaus that he also Tythed Atque Amicorum quidem solum saith he ab omni praeda tutum praestitit Hostium verò ita fruitus Agro est ut duobus annis centum talenta amplius Deo apud Delphos Decimam dedicavit And Tarquin the Proud was in this Respect no less Religious He built the Capitol of the Tenths of Spoils Hoc opus viz. Capitolium sayes Dionysius Tarquinius ex Decimis Suessanae praedae perficere cogitans c. And after him Pesthumius also did consecrate the Tenths as sayes the same Dionysius De spoliorum decimis Ludos Sacra Diis fecit XL. tatentorum impendio c. According well to what we read of Abraham Gen. 14.20 Heb. 7.2 And he gave him Tythes of all viz. the Spoils 2. Yes and the Antients did not only consecrate the Tenth of the Spoils which they took but also of all their other Substances and Goods as is plainly intimated in the Question which we read in Plutarch Cur multi Divitum Herculi Decimam bonorum suorum consecrant But of Hercules his Tenth be pleased to consult Diodorus of which also I find some mention made in Cicero Oresti nuper prandia in semitis decimae nomine magno honore fuerunt Yes and long before Hercules the old Pelasgi that built and dwelt at Spina Mittehant Delphos Deo Decimas ex maritimis proventibus and others of them were obliged by the Oracle at Dodona when they were at Rest and setled Decimas Phoebo mittere capita Jovi So that the very Heathen by the Light they had were acquainted that an High and Honorary Rent must issue out of all our estates and all our increase unto God the Owner and the Lord of All not unlike to what we have thereof in Solomon Honour the Lord with thy substance and with all the increase of thy substance And this for Tything 2. Vowing is another way of Real Paying of Thanks It was One of the Laws of the Twelve Tables Sancte vota reddunto And I render it in the words of David Make Vows and pay them unto God Which in part omitted by the Tyrrheni or as Dionysius the Pelasgi they were punisht for it with a thousand Evils and were told so by the Oracle Consulentibus autem Oraculum quo Deo quove Daemone laeso paterentur talia quomodo quaerendum his malis Remedium Respondit Deus eos Voti compotes non reddidâ—sse quae voverant multum debere insuper Laborantes enim sterilitate Pelasgi omnium Rerum Jovi Apollini Cabiris Decimas voverant eorum quae ipsis nascerentur in posterum potitique voto frugum omnium pecorum portionem sortiti obtulerant Diis quasi vovissent haec sola Well you will say but though the World both knew and Gloâ—ified God yet according to the Testimony of the great Apostle they Glorified him not as God God is a Spirit but the Gentiles becoming vain in their Imaginations and conceits of him changed the Glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to Birds and four-footed Beasts and Creeping things Indeed it cannot be denyed that generally the Heathen were depraved in their thoughts of God but Universally they were not What apprehensions many of them had of Idols and of the superstition representing the Creator in the shapes of Creatures you may well imagine by a passage in Strabo He discoursing somewhere of the Occasion why Moses reputed by him an Egyptian Priest abandoned and left his Countrey namely That he held the Institutions followed in it not to be endured That the Egyptians who attributed unto God the Images of wild Beasts or Cattle had no better sentiments and apprehensions of him than the Greeks that represented him in Humane Figure And that God containing all things was not to be adored in the Shape or Figure of any who sayes that Noble Geographer possessed of this Opinion and Belief begat a firm perswasion of the same in not a few good men whom he conducted to the Place where now Ierusalem stands I might dilate on this head in shewing out of Seneca and Tully in many places what apprehensions both of these had of Idols but I should be too prolix
Speucippus Clearchus and Anaxalides in Laertius affirm it commonly discours'd at Athens that he was born of a woman who had never known man and consequently that he was begotten of God For when Ariston his reputed Father would have taken that Possession of Pericthiona for so the Mother of Plato was call'd which the Marriage Condition did entitle him and give him Right unto he could not possibly effect it but was Restrained by Apollo whom he saw in a Vision Protecting and defending Her from his Embraces to keep her pure until she was delivered of That with which she went The Story is known and to be seen both in Laertius in the life of Plato and in Illustrius So far from being incredible is that Essential Part of the History of Christ that he was born of a Virgin and conceived by the Holy Ghost And what I pray you should incline the Heathen to imagine Extraordinary Persons to have been begotten of God or to be Gods incarnate but what mov'd the Iews in the Gospel to think that Jesus Christ was that Prophet they lookt for and others of them to imagine Simon the Aegyptian and some Barchochebas to be the Messiah Namely that they were informed there was such an one to come whom accordingly they did expect and the extraordinary and surprizing advantages of which the Persons they beheld with admiration were possessed inclined them to believe that this or that was he And indeed the frequent Apparition of the Angel of the Covenant the Lord Christ to the Patriarchs might be also some occasion of this Belief But this may pass but for a Probable Conjecture It is certain Iob was a Gentile that he lived in the Land of Uz and that he saw his Redeemer and as certain that Balaam another Gentile Prophesied of Christ and saw his Day and that the Magi or Wise men in the Evangel had such Discoveries of our Blessed Saviour and such Conduct to him as none other Mortal ever had the like which ought to be noted Nor shall I blush to Urge the Testimony of the Sibylls on which so many Antient and Learned Fathers have insisted as on their Principal Plea There are many scatter'd up and down his Institutions by the Elegant Lactantius and summed up by St. Austin which I will not touch I will only mention the Acrostich which I find in Vives his Notes upon St. Austin taken out of Eusebius and I the rather pitch on this because I find in Cicero some speech of such an Acrostich of one of the Sibylls written with much Art that should speak as this doth of a KING that was to come whereof you may hear more anon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I n sign of DOOMES DAY the whole earth shall sweat E ver to Reign a King in Heavenly Seat S hall come to Iudge all flesh The Faithful and U nfaithful too before this God shall stand S eeing him high with Saints in times last end C orporeal shall he sit and thence extend H is doom on Souls The Earth shall quite lye waste R uin'd o're-grown with Thorns and men shall cast I dols away and treasure Searching Fire S hall burn the ground and thence it shall enquire T hrough Seas and Skie and break Hells blackest Gates S o shall free Light salute the blessed States O f Saints the Guilty lasting flames shall burn N o act so hid but then to Light shall turn N o breast so close but God shall open wide E ach where shall cryes be heard and noise beside O f Gnashing teeth The Sun shall from the Skie F lye forth and Stars no more move orderly G reat Heaven shall be dissolv'd the Moon depriv'd O f all her Light places at height arriv'd D eprest and Valleyes raised to their seat T here shall be nought to Mortals high or great H ills shall lye level with the Plains the Sea E ndure no burthen and the Earth as they S hall perish cleft with Lightning every Spring A nd River burn The fatal Trump shall ring U nto the World from Heaven a dismal blast I Ncluding Plagues to come for ill deeds past O ld Chaos through the cleft mass shall be seen U nto this Barr shall all Earths Kings convene R iuers of Fire and Brimstone flowing from Heav'n To this I will but add a Tristich out of Reuâ—hline which he sayes he found among the Sibylls though I fear it spurious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And which he thus translates Ipsa Dei soboles magni ventura Parentis Mortali similis sub carne videbitur aegra Quatuor ergo ferat vocales consonat una The meaning is that the Son of God should be incarnate and that his Name should be Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IHSUH as that Author interprets it But of this Sit fides penes Authorem But if the Reputation and Credit of the Sibylls be Disputed concerning which I shall Presume to offer somewhat hereafter That of Poets and Philosophers is more received I will but mention the Druids of whom I find in Spotswood that it is Reported that they prophesied of the Incarnation of the Son of God But in regard he citeth not his Author and I my self have never met with any to strengthen that Assertion I think it best to pass it over as also what Clemens Alexandrinus citeth out of Pindarus about a Saviour that shoulâ—â—well with Themis nor will I stand on what the Antient Hermes after he had talked with Pimander speaketh of himself as a Type perhaps in that sense in which the Prophet David did saying Thou wilt not suffer my soul in Grave nor thine Holy One to see corruption So Hermes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I Raising them up again was made the Guide of Mankind shewing them the Way How and in what manner they may be saved Once who hath heard of Jesus Christ that can without Reflection on him read the Greek Stories of Mercury when he shall find in them that they make him Leader of the Graces that they called him Diactor a Messenger to go between the Gods and Men and Socus or Saviour That they assigned him a Rod with two Serpents twined about it to indicate his Office which was to make Peace and to Destroy the Enmity In fine That he was the
expect I should say something not to mention that Pherecides Syrus Master of Pythagoras is said by some by others Thales to be the first that asserted it which I will then credit when I am convinced that before them there was neither Worship nor Theologie I affirm it a Doctrine so Universally believed and known to be so that it were superfluous to be much in Citations You shall therefore have the trouble but of reading one Testimony which for Pregnancy and Fulness of its Sense and its Conformity with that of Holy Writ will supersede all others It is Moschion's or as some Menanders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Permit the Dead to be covered with Earth And every thing whence it came into the Body Thither to Return the Spirit to Heaven And the Body to Earth So Solomon Then shall the dust Return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall Return unto God that gave it And Socrates was sure of it that he should go to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Gods Lords As for Iudgement 'T is manifest by a Passage which I cited out of Iamblicus upon the first Argument that the great Pythagoras both believed and taught it And what Apprehensions the more Antient Times had and how conformable to those that Christians have from Christ in Matthew is deduceable from the Old Story of Erus Son of Armenius which we have in Plato and which I mention'd in the Preface to my former Treatise The Story is this Erus Son of Armenius was in a great Combat slain with many others and after ten dayes when the Bodies of the rest all purified and rotten were removed his was found as sweet and as found as ever which his friends carrying home in order to perform to it all the requisite Funeral Ceremonies on the twelfth day from his decease as they were laying him upon the Funeral Pile Behold Erus reviv'd and being reviv'd related all that he had seen and heard from the time that he first departed His Relation follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He said That after the Separation of his Soul from the Body he went with many in his company and at last arrived at a certain Divine Place whence he saw two Openings or Hiatus in the Earth one near another and as many also above in Heaven right opposite to them That betwixt these Openings there sate Judges That these Iudges after they had taken Iudicial Cognizance of all Persons and Matters and accordingly had passed Sentence commanded the JUST 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go to the RIGHT HAND up into Heaven Which they did carrying on their Breasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Records of all the Good things acknowledged in that Iudgement to have been done by them But the Wicked and UNJUST 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were ordered to the LEFT HAND and to descend to the Infernals they also bearing but upon their backs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intimations as it were Records in writing of all that they had done That Erus himself for his part when he came before the Iudges was told by them that he must return again to Mortals to Report to them all that he had seen and heard and therefore that he should exactly observe c. And how agreeable I say is this Relation of Erus for so much of it as concerns Judgement to that we have from Iesus Christ who tells us that in the last day there shall a Separation be made as of Sheep from Goats The Sheep shall stand at the RIGHT the Goats at the LEFT HAND and that then the Good omitted by the Wicked as that performed by the Just shall come to Light and stand Eternally Recorded with the Sentence passed on them to shew Divine Justice You have another Old Story to Demonstrate the Antient Faith of Gentiles in the point of Iudgement who maketh Socrates to tell it to one Callicles Therein he speaks of Two wayes one to Heaven another to Hell Of three Iudges Rhadamanthus Judge of the Asians Aeacus Judge of the Europeans and Minos presiding over both with a many other not impertinent matters But as he tells the Tale it is so prolix and after what I have already said from Erus so unnecessary here that I will not give my self the trouble to Transcribe or you to Read it only there is a passage in it that imports how Just and how impartial a Judgement that shall be which for that it is Important and concerning I think not fit to omit For Socrates having in Discourse on some part of his Relation said what the Holy Penmen in many places also do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That many of the Dynastes or Rulers of the World are wicked thence he takes occasion to resume his Story and to tell how Uprightly how Equally how Impartially Judge Rhadamanthus does Acquit himself towards them and others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the foresaid Rhadamanthus taketh such an one in hand to examine him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He taketh cognizance of nothing in him neither of what Rank or Quality he is or from whom descended but only that he is Wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and finding him so dismisseth him to Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Putting on him ◠Mark to signifie that he is Curable or else Incurable It seems they held Purgatory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if he see another soul that of a man that hath lived Holily and according to Truth and Justly whether it be that of a plain and Unlearned man or else of another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Principally I say O Callicles if it be a Philosophers I had almost rendered it if a Christians One that minds his own matters and is no busie-body in other mens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he huggs and sends to the Islands of the Blessed AEacus does the like Minos sits by superintending according to Ulysses in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holding a Golden Scepter and ordaining Right to the Dead This for the Iudgement to come But if any urges that the Testimonies I have cited do concern the Particular one which every soul assoon as it abandons and forsakes the Body undergoes rather than the General wherein all men all together souls and bodies re-united shall appear at the Bar I say 1. Particular Judgement and General differ not essentially but accidentally 2. And who knows but that they meant both But 3. If they apprehended not the Article in all its Circumstances so distinctly as we now do it will not much matter if for all they did believe the substance That All must answer one day for what they do in the Body and be Rewarded accordingly Since this sufficeth for both the Ends of that Discovery namely to Influence the Humane Life and to Justifie Divine Procedure As for the two States of heaven