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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65709	Aonoz tez kisteōz, or, An endeavour to evince the certainty of Christian faith in generall and of the resurrection of Christ in particular / by Daniel Whitbie, chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God, Seth, Lord Bishop of Sarum ...	Whitby, Daniel, 1638-1726.	1671 (1671)	Wing W1731; ESTC R37213	166,618	458

to conceive It blows off all our prejudices buoys up the sinking Spirit with fresh supplies of grace and spiritual assistance and all the comforts of a never failing promise that God will never leave us nor forsake us Heb. 13.5 but will make the heaviest of afflictions be instrumental to work together for our good Rom. 8.32 It quells all feares Jealousies of the desponding Spirit by giving full assurance of our pardon on the most reasonable and easy termes and representing our heavenly Father not only willing to receive but so gracious as to invite the Prodigal It rendreth our discouragements the best of motives assuring us that our afflictions will augment our joys and that our thorns will blossom into crownes of glory And what can weigh against such powerful motives when life the first of mercies and the foundation of all others and death the last and most dreadful evil are such low trifles as are not worthy to be compared to them § 5. AGEN it layes the highest obligations on us to endeavour the welfare of our Brothers Soul Heb. 5.2 2 Tim. 2.25 Luk. 17.3 Heb. 10.24 It calls upon us to a instruct the ignorant and them that oppose themselves to the truth to warne the unruly Person to rebuke him and not suffer Sin upon him It requires us to support the weak and to administer comfort to the feeble minds to stirr up and provoke each other to the greatest heights of love and piety and goodness In prosecution of these ends it shews how much our Lord hath done and suffered by emptying himselfe of all his glory and taking on him the infirmities of humane nature by entring on that life of miseries which did at last conclude in an accursed ignominious death by interceding dayly for mercy to us and by conveying of his Gifts and favors to all the members of his body lastly by guiding all the Acts and ways of Providence to the best compliance with the good welfare of his servants It shewes how much the God of Heaven hath been concern'd for them in employing his Wisdome from eternal ages in thoughts of mercy to them in sending his Beloved from his own bosome to redeem them by his bloudy sufferings his Spirit first to convince them of Sin and misery the more assuredly to fright them into the armes of mercy and then to sanctifie and by so doing to fit them for those mansions of eternal bliss he hath prepared for them and lastly sending his Embassadours by their most passionate entreaties to bessech them to be reconcil'd to him § 6. SUCH is the nature of the Christian Faith so good and pious are it's Precepts so well suted to the interests and apprehensions of man-kind whereas the wisdom of the hearthen world the faith they own'd the religious customes they espoused were such as overthrew religion in the foundations of it such as made it to be consistent with the most vile impurities only serviceable in the promotion of the devils Kingdom or such as did exceedingly deface the beauties of it and obstruct it's influence Morality was either wholy slighted and Vice or Vertue deemed to be only what humane laws commanded and forbid or their conceptions of it were so gross and so exceeding various that not one duty of the moral Law was left unquestioned by them The 1 common issue of their search after the knowledge of those things was only Scepticisme and the most knowing men were they who did renounce all knowledge of them § 7. TO touch upon those things which do exceedingly obscure the influence or ruine the foundations of true Piety some of those heathens plainly deny'd the 2 being of a God and many of them 3 doubted and demur'd upon it especially when a 4 cross act of providence did tempt them to it As for his over-ruling providence we find it exploded by the school of 5 Epicurus By 6 Aristotle and his party it was confined to heaven whence it is well infer'd by † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Euseb praep l. 15. c. 5. Atticus that his opinion is in effect the same as to the interest of Vice and Virtue with that of Epicurus This great concerne was by the 7 Platonist and 8 Pythagorean that I add not the 9 whole heathen world committed to inferior demons this being their professed Tenet August de C. D. l. 9. c. 16. quod nullus Deus miscetur homini by which denyal of Gods immediate power engaged to create preserve and govern us they 10 rob'd us of our chiefest motives to adore and imitate him who thought us thus unworthy of his care Some 11 doubted of the thing others allowed a general but 12 denied a special providence and hence took liberty to sin at pleasure The 13 Stoicks mostly did restrain the actings of this providence unto the great concerns of earth and held it unconcern'd for lesser matters Scarce any of the heathens could afford a satisfying answer to that grand objection which was made against it from those adversities which hapned to the best and those prosperities which did attend the vilest persons § 8. 2ly THEY were as much mistaken in their conceptions of his attributes and the nature of a Diety renouncing the only true God they knew not where to stint the number of their Deities some held them 14 thirty thousand others conceiv'd them to be numberless and yet they stood obliged to worship all the rabble of them that none might be offended because slighted by them for as Tertullian tells them Cum alii alios colitis Apol. c. 13. utique quos non colitis offenditis praelatio alterius sine contumelia alterius esse non potest quia nec electio sine reprobatione and therefore when calamities befel them they paid their homage to an 15 unknown Deity and made addresses in these doubtful formes Quisquis es sive Deus sive dea Plaut Rud. Act. 1. Sc. 4. Plutar qu. Rom. 61. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that unknown God or Goddess who as they presum'd might be incensed by the neglect of service And albeit the wiser sort of heathens acknowledged one Supreme and all-ruling Deity yet did they worship Demons not only such as they accounted good but 16 evil and pernicious least they should destroy them They pay'd their homage to the 17 Sun and Moon and to the whole host of heaven to 18 men with whom their Forefathers had conversed and to whose 19 departed souls their superstition did give an Apotheosis upon designs of policy To 20 Emperors and all that had been knowing men especially if they had suffered for their Country They advanced the 21 meanest creatures into Deities earth fire water aer the herbs and cattle of the field the fishes of the sea their leeks and onions and pay'd their homage to those Idols which were nothing in the world and which is yet more vile they worshipped those parts which nature

better than that Gross and palpable Idolatry which then reigned in all parts of the Gentile world nor could more debase the nature of mankind then it was done already by a Luis enim non sentiat cujusmodi spiritus talibus obscoenitatibus delect entur nisi vel nesciens utrum omnino ulli immundi Spiritus Deorum nomine decipiant vel talem agens vitam in qua istos potius quam Deum verum optet propitios formidet iratos August de C. D. l. 2.2.4 those 1 barbarous and inhumane rites those 2 ridiculous 3 brutish filthy ceremonies which it was therefore the Devils business to confirme by frequent answers of his Oracles by miracles and predictions by Auguries their feasts solemnities and modes of worship That he knew not how to change these for worse it sufficiently appears by the care that his instruments took to prevent all innovations in religion and specially the bringing in of new Gods least the only true God should come in among the rest It appeares likewise by the wayes he now takes in the dark corners of the earth where he has power to doe what he pleaseth and nothing doth please him better than to keep them under the same Gross and palpable Idolatry But in case the Devil had been once minded to have changed his method of all methods in the world he never would have pitcht on this For nothing can be more contrary to his design then those things which are brought in by the Christian Religion which cautions us so oft and so severely against those wiles and Methods which had so long seduced and captivated the Heathen World unto his pleasure whith tends wholly to promote true Love and to knit men together in the bonds of Charity to instill those laws of Purity and Virtue that contribute so much unto the Welfare of mankind which press us with so much zeal to imitate divine Perfections become the fairest transcripts of a Deity and so the Greatest Sticklers against Satan and his Kingdome Would the enemy of mankind endeavour to promote that doctrine which carries such repugnance to his nature which sets the blackest brand on Pride and Envy Malice Falshood and Hypocrisy and all that viperous brood of fleshly lusts which are the proper characters of that evil one If so he very ill deserves the name of Satan the Destroyer the devouring Lyon or the evil one Besides Christianity was raised upon the ruines of the Devils kingdome and the Church built on the confusions of his Babel no sooner did the Joyfull voice sound in the Heathens eares but it 4 struck dumb his Oracles silenced his Tripods and his Pipes the very presence of a 5 Christian or a 6 Martyrs Bones would put a stop unto his Service at their command their Gods were 7 forced to confess they were but Devils and could do 8 nothing where the name of Christ was Invocated and so were forced to forsake those Seats they had so quietly possessed Thus as the Prophet had foretold Zeph. 2.11 they famished those earthly Gods the Foolishness of Preaching out-witted all their Policies the Weakness of the Gospel overcame their Strength it outed them of their Possessions it forced the Conjurer to become the Convert Acts 8.13 19. the Magicians to burn their Books and made the very name of Daemon become the hatred of good Men. Orig. in Celsum p. 234 It was this extorted that Ingenious Confession from the Mouth of Porphyry That since the Blessings of a Saviour all others were in vain expected from the Heathen Deities whose Statues and whose Powers were become Insensate It was that which forced the Heathen to enquire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what so benum'd their Deities what chased them from their Dens and Altars and this made the Christian so triumphantly * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. p. 99. vide Euseb Praep. Evang. l. 1. c. 1. August de C. D. l. 4. c. 29. cry out Ubi sunt dii vestri ubi Prophetae ubi oracula ubi auguria ubi Sacrificia Again If what they did was by the power of Magick and Infernal Arts whence should they learn and by what means obtain to such dexterity that all the Wit and Learning in the World could neither equal nor detect their Subtilty nor do what was the daily work of Idiots and Mechanick Souls If we enquire of the Jew or Gentile they will derive this skill from the Aegyptian Magi with whom our Saviour did converse which they imagine without the least pretence of Evidence as having nothing else to say But were it so How came this Doctrine to convert even those Aegyptian Sorcerers and make them suffer so much for the Christian Faith Euseb Hist Eccles l. 8. c. 8. How is it none of them did e're contend with this new Moses in the power of working Miracles as of old they did though they had more prevailing Motives so to do or manifest those slights to the deceived World with which they were so well acquainted How is it Secondly That of those many which did desert the Christian Faith none ever did confess their skill in Magick Produce one Book or one Instruction which they had received from Christ or his Apostles to work such wonderful Effects Thirdly Why did they constantly profess so great an enmity unto that Art of Magick which the Jews and Heathens exercised that even their Artists when converted condemned their Books of Magick to the Flames In fine Matth. 9.4 12.25 Mark 2.6 8. 9 33. Joh. 2.25 Christ was acquainted with the thoughts of Men knew the Conceptions and the discourses of their very Souls rebuked the Pharisees and Scribes for what they did conceive within their hearts which things assure us that he was assisted by a greater Power than that of Good or Evil Angels we having neither heard or known that this hath been attempted or pretended by them though to be able so to do or to have it only believed that he is able would be highly instrumental to the preserving the Devils Power and the establishment of his Kingdom ANNOTATIONS On the 2d Chapter 1. THose Barbarous inhumane rites 1. eviration Matri deum Homines suis ipsi virilibus litant Lact. l. 1. c. 21. vide August de C. D. l. 7. c. 26. Tatian or cont Gentes Prudentium Hymno in Romanum Samiâ testâ Matris Deum sacerdotes virilitatem amputant Plin. l. 35. c. 12. vide Herodian l. 1. c. 20. Tibullum l. 1. El. 4. Voss de Idol l. 1. c. 20. l. 2. c. 35. 2ly incision of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian de Dea syria p. 419. Ille viriles sihi partes amputat ille lacertos secat ubi iratos deos timent qui sic propitios mirentur Senec. apud August de C. D. l. 6. c. 10. vid. l. 7. c. 26. Hoc Matri Deorum factum esse vide apud

State and their denial of all future punishments and from their false conceptions of the rise and fatality of Sin That these opinions are destructive to the service of a Deity and the concernments of Religion That they received opinions which destroyed morality This proved from their mistakes and errors 1. Touching the duties and concerns of love charity to their neighbour And secondly touching the laws of Chastity Justice and of truth Heathen Philosophy proved ineffectual not only to reforme the world but the Professors of it The wickedness of their lives The accounts and reasons of it Theresult of all in confirmation of the Christian Faith § 1. BUT that which is the Crown of all and indeed potissima demonstratio a most convincing evidence of the Assistance of the holy Spirit towards the propagation of the Gospel is the excellency of the Christian precepts and the subservience they bear not only to our future but to our present welfare § 2. IT were endless to insist upon the incredible Power of Christianity when cordially embraced to sheath the Sword beat it into plow-shares to still contentions and bind the hand to its good behaviour to prevent all waies of being cruel to our neighbours life or prejudicial to his estate and Fortunes or injurious to his name or honour by taking up or venting a reproach against him or by discovering those Errors and infirmities which Charity doth bind us to conceal It were infinite to recount those liberal provisions it hath made for Love and Charity pity and compassion and whatsoever may indear my Brother to me and draw forth all my powers to assist him It gives the truly generous and publick Spirit it commands every man to seek his Brothers weal and shew him all that kindness which he could expect or beg when under like necessity It bids us burn when others are afflicted and weep with those that weep That is it bids us be as forward to relieve them under all their pressures and afflictions as if their afflictions were our own Now what can further be required to our present happiness than the security of what a present we enjoy from any hand of violence and the assurance of our Brothers help towards the enjoyment of the thing we want Nor is it less conducive to the publick good Christianity gives such a relish of sublimer Bliss as disintangleth the more noble Soul from all the trivial concernes of earth It tells us that the freindship of this world is enmity to God that he who beares affection to these earthly things is but pretender to the love of heaven It inspires into us that contentmēt which allayes the hell torment of an inordinate still gaping appetite It transformes the man into humility and meekness and so prevents the tumult disturbance of the haughty Spirit It enforceth peace upon us by the strongest motives and threatneth an eternal flame to the Incendiary It moulds the Soul into a simple honest and sincere deportment and interdicts those flattering Addresses which belye the thoughts and Conscience of the Speaker and more then this it cannot do in order to our publick welfare since that can never suffer but from unjust and treacherous factious and turbulent proud worldly or rapacious Spirits § 3. CHRISTIANITY is a Religion highly perfective of humane nature and such as best comports with the concernments of our Souls and most advanceth its most noble faculties It gives the best discoveries of the Divine existence and of Providence and of that obedience and homage which we owe unto a Deity and of those attributes which are the only grounds and most prevailing motives to it viz. The Truth and Freedome the Justice Power Goodness the Wisdome Unity and Omnipresence of a Deity all which must be entirely owned as the foundations of reall Piety It presents us with such admirable discoveries of Wisdome Justice Goodness Mercy and Compassion in the contrivance and procurement of Pardon and Salvation to us by the death of Christ as Judaisme could never boast It holds forth the clearest light to guide our darke and purblind Reason into the paths of vertue and to secure us from the splitting rocks of Vice It gives the best and largest Comment upon those duties of the moral Law which are so imperfectly and so obscurely hinted by the light of nature and so much questioned and disputed by the Gentile World as wee shall see hereafter It discovers to us those impediments which would retard and clog us in the performance of our duty that so we may avoid them It makes the evil thought as guilty as the evil action and calls as much for purity of heart and freedome from every vile affection as from those actions that doe issue from them It setleth the floating soul on the firm Basis of divine veracity and for the Heathens faint surmises and the Jews darker shaddowes of good things to come it gives the Christians lively hopes and full assurances of Faith It tenders the holy Spirit as an earnest of our future bliss and assures us if we doe the will of heaven we shall know what is so In fine the knowledge of a future endless bliss and misery is the result of Gospel revelation which upon all these grounds doth best provide for the information of our understanding in what it is concern'd to know in order to our future happiness to wit the being of a God and our engagement to adore and serve him what will procure his Favour and will provoke his Indignation and what concernes we have sincerely to avoide the one and to pursue the other § 4. NEXT it presents the Will with the most soveraigne motives and engagements unto duty and bindes that on us with most powerful cords of Love and the amazing mercies of our God and Saviour The obligations of repeated vows and Covenants especially of those of Baptisme and the Sacred Eucharist the convictions of our conscience the laws and Sanctions of that Majesty who strikes an awe upon it and the example of our Saviours which doth at once prescribe to our obedience and provoke us to it It pains forth sin to us in its own dress attended with the dangers of present and a dreadful expectation of eternal miseries and those enhanced by all the aggravations which love and mercy conscience and duty the light of reason and religion the experience of our selves and others can afford it It presents Goodness to us in its fairest and most tempting aspects assures us that the ways of God are Good honourable safe and easie and full of comfort and present satisfaction to the Soul It courts the affections with the most admirable delights that heaven can tender it surrounds us with the pleasures of a virtuous life the joys of charity the comforts of an upright conscience the smiles of heaven and its concernment for the good man's welfare here and happiness hereafter such happiness as far exceeds what we are able