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
his Note-book and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter unwillingly takes notice of it and so Erasmus understands them who tells us sero dat aut punit gravatim id facere videtur That whoso deferreth either to oblige or punish He seems unwillingly to do it It is thus that God delighteth not in the death of a sinner and that He willeth it not comparatively he wou'd rather that he should Repent and Live and interpretatively he delayeth to inflict Punishment as it were expecting an occasion that he might with Honor omit it And this in answer to the General Exceptions you put in namely The seeming Improportion betwen a Finite Transgression and an Infinite Punishment and the Inconsistency of Eternal Punishment with the End of Punishment As for the more Particular ones I shall in their order now consider them and first for that of the odd Circumstances of the most that are Christians You say Not to urge that the most that are Christians lye and live under such odd Circumstances that they are very near an impossibility wholly to subdue and suppress the influences of Sense and yet must they be Plagued or Punisht with Unspeakable and Eternal Tortures I answer no for 't is impossible for any while immur'd in the Body wholly to subdue the Influences of sense and should none arrive at Heaven but who had first arrived to a State of Perfection here on Earth Heaven would be empty and Hell full That Perfection which is to be our aim on earth cannot be our attainment or our achievement but in Heaven Here sin will be Indwelling in us as long as there is flesh incompassing us It is not Perfect but Sincere Obedience that is exacted by Grace For that Perfection cannot be attained in the present world by any that descend from Adam is evident in that Concupiscence or Lust is Original Native inlayed with our very Tempers We are begotten in sin and in the Fervency or Heat of Lust and Appetite and consequently having such Impressions made upon us in our very Rise and Conception and augmented and improved in us by our after Acts 't is as impossible for us totally to rid our selves of these as of any other Instincts and Propensions of Nature We may check them and restrain them but cannot destroy and eradicate them This Body must be new-moulded new-cast before it can be wholly freed of the lusts that infect it Therefore the Apostle when he would be Discharged from his sin thus expresses his Option who will deliver me from the Body of this Death I know that Jesus Christ was a Man and that he lived in the midst of Temptations without the Danger and the Power of any and that he is the Great Example of Divine Life but I also know the Devil who coming unto us doth find so much coming unto him found nothing in him For he not being begotten or conceived in the Ordinary way of Generation as all others are with the common Fervency and Heat of Lust or Appetite but on a Pure and cold Virgin and by the Holy Ghost had no Original Concupiscence or Lust to be awakened and excited in him as in us by the many Objects presented daily to the sense Now external causes work little without there be internal ones to co-operate Inefficax est causa Procatarctica sine Proegumena But to return Again the Christian Life here is compared to imperfect things to Fighting to Running to Growing to Walking in a word compared to Motions and what is Motion but Imperfect Act Actus entis in Potentiâ quatenus in potentiâ What is in Motion is but in tendency unto Perfection but hath not yet arrived to it In Motion there are two terms The Term from which and that in this is here on Earth And the Term to which and this is in Heaven and between these is the Motion Truly Sir Our Holiness is not our Righteousness to justifie our Persons 't is too Imperfect and Defective to do that 'T is not our Inherent but Adherent Righteousness not the Righteousness within us but the Righteousness imputed to us that must bottom all our Hopes And I the rather say this because I am a little jealous by reason of the supposition on which the Argument you urge is grounded that you hold the Opinion which is now the Ascendent That Imputed Righteousness is Phancy and that it was not the Design of Jesus Christ nor of the Gosple to advance and set up that but only that which inheres in us Were I sure of what I but suspect that you are indeed of this Opinion and that your Argument hath Aspect that way I should more fully set my self to oppose it and to establish that Egregious Verity and Truth of Christian Doctrine concerning Righteousness imputed as One that ministers as much unto the Comfort and Repose and Quiet of Conscience as any other But since I am not sure I shall say the less of it now Only thus much I will say that certainly the great Design of God in sending Iesus Christ into the world was to make His Righteousness the Righteousness of God Illustrious in opposition unto that of man or the Righteousness of the Law there being Nothing within the compass of the Humane Understanding that can more contribute to illustrate and set off the Infinite and Transcendent Majesty of the great God as to his Wisdom Goodness and Justice than the Declaration he hath made from Heaven of his Righteousness in Jesus Christ that he is Just and a Justifier Iust to Punish Christ that assumed on himself the sin of man and a Iustifier of those that are in Christ whose Punishment he bore The Inherent Righteousness that Romanists and others so insist upon is nothing as a Righteousness to boast of but that Pharisaical one displayed by our Blessed Saviour in the Instance of it which he gives in Luke I thank thee O God that I am not this nor that but do this and that Wherein there is an Acknowledgement of God as Author and Inspirer of all the Good he doth but withal an Exaltation and Advancement of self I thank thee there is the One I am no Extortioner no Adulterer nor Unjust I fast twice in the Week I give Tythes of all that I possess there is the Other It was very well done that he fasted that he gave Alms c. but yet not so well as to Incourage him to boast therein before God Verily the Great Design of Jesus Christ and Christianity is not to exalt but to depress self He that glories must not glory in the Flesh not in anything he is not in any thing he doth though by Divine Assistance For by that must all have been done that either was or could be done by Adam in Innocence it must have been done by Gods Assistance and yet for all that Room enough there was for Boasting and Glorying then in that Transaction whereas in this of Grace or in the Dispensation
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
Apocryphal and Doubtful Testimonies that which abundantly Evinceth the Prophecies ascribed to the Sibylls to be for substance theirs and that they spoke most clearly both of Jesus Christs Nativity and of his Kingdom is what hath been noted and insisted on before by Eusebius and St. Austin of old as well as many Moderns of late namely That Virgil in his fourth Eclogue written about thirty years before the Incarnation of our Saviour doth ineptly apply to Saloninus Son of Pollio the Sibylline Prophecies conceived in terms that agree exactly to the Great Redeemer and can to none else Ramus in his Learned Praelections on that fourth Eclogue though he seems himself to haesitate about the interpretation which so many worthy Persons make yet he offers much in favour of it Salonis in Dalmatia victis Pollio filium quo tunâ— erat auctus Saloninum cognominavit Virgilius igitur hac Ecloga 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ejus describit ex adjunctis quod ejus aetatis aetas aurea comes futura sit eique permulta tribuit quae Christo dicuntur a Sibyllis attributae Quae Christianis ita probata sunt ut Graeci hanc Eclogam Graece converterint Divus Hieronymus ad Plautinum affirmet Maronem sine Christo Christianum fuisse Divus Augustinus sentiat Spiritum sanctum per os inimicorum locutum Et satis constat Secundianum Pictorem Marcellianum Oratorem hujus Eclogae versibus consideratis Christianos factos esse Thus he And to speak plain English who can longer bark against the Sibylls with any face or think to elevate their Testimonies by consideration of the clearness and fulness of their Prophecies that reflects on what the Poet professeth to have receiv'd from them and could not from any after Christ viz. That in the last Age there should a Child be born of a Virgin that he should be King of all the World that he should take away the sins of men and that he should restore unto the Earth Eternal calm and peace all which and more too that Poet found in the Sibylls You well know what he sayes Ultima Cumaei venit jam Carminis aetas Magnus ab integno seclorum nascitur ordo Iam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Now is come the last age predicted by the Sibyll called Cumaean and that Great Ordinance appointed from the Beginning of the World is now fulfilled Now cometh the Virgin and now the Golden Dayes of the Kingdom of Saturn return again Thus he raiseth the Attention of the Reader and after goes on I am nova Progenies coelo dimittitur aelto Tu modo nascenti Puero quo ferrea primum Desinet toto surget gens aurea mundo Casta fave Lucina tuus jam regnat Apollo c. Te duce si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras Ille Deûm vitam accipiet Divisque videbit Permistos Heroas ipse videbitur illis Pacatumque regit patriis virtutibus orbem At tibi prima puer nullo munuscula cultu Errantes hederas passim cum baccare tellus Mistaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae Ubera nec magnos metuent armentâ—â— Leones Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabulâ—â— flores Occidet Serpens fallax herba veneni c. Aggredere ô magnos aderit jam tempus honores Chara Deûm soboles magnum Jovis Incrementum Aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum Terrasque tractusque maris coelumque profundum Aspice venturo laetentur ut omnia seclo c. Which Mr. Sands thus translates Now a new Progeny from Heaven to Earth Descends Lucina favour this Childs Birth In whom the Iron-age ends forthwith shall follow A Golden race now Reigneth thy Apollo c. Now shall our Crimes whose steps do still appear Be raz'd and Earth deliver'd from long fear The Life of Gods shall lead shall Heroes see With Gods commixt and seen of them shall be And with his Fathers Power th' appeas'd World guide Free Earth her Native Presents shall provide For thee sweet Boy wild Ivy Baccaris Smelling Acanthus broad Colocasis Goats to their homes shall their full Udders bear Nor shall our Heards the raging Lions fear The Cradle shall sprout flowers the Serpents seed Shall be destroy'd and the false poysonous Weed c. Dear Issue of the Gods Great Jove's Increase Produce those Times of Wonder Worth and Peace Lo how the World surcharg'd with weight doth reel Which Sea and Land and Profound Heaven do feel Lo how all Ioy in this wisht Times approach c. To whom can all this agree but to Christ And now having vindicated the Sibylls and evinced many of the Prophecies ascribed to them to be truly theirs I am next to do as much for Hermes Trismegistus whom all will readily acknowledge to have been inspired if Pimander and other cited works be his which to shew to be so is my present Business And verily did I not reflect upon the Lust some Critical and Learned men have of making Tryal of their Wits any way and this especially in elevating the Authority of Antient and received Writings of which we have a great instance in the Noble Francis Picus seconded by others who hath taken much pains to shew how little certain we are that any of the many Volumes generally reputed Aristotles are indeed his I say were it not for this Reflection I should extreamly admire how any Prudent and Judicious Persons of latter times should call in question the Legitimacy of Writings antiently received without question and for which they cannot name another Father there not being an Annius a Monk to Father the Pimander and Asclepius as there is to Father false Berosus and Manetho Again not to urge that Asclepius is commonly affirmed to have been translated by Apuleius and if it were so it cannot be conceived a Pious Fraud I will only add a Testimony out of Iamblicus who yet is pressed by some against them which well considered will signifie with you as much in favour of the Writings generally called Trismegistus's as it doth with me It is in his Mysteries where I find these words His ita discretis facile solvuntur dubia quae in Libris Aegyptiis quos Legisti concepisse dicis Qui enim sub Dercurii Titulo circumferuntur Opiniones Derturiales continent etsi saepe Philosophorum Graecorum Stylo loquuntur sunt enim ex linguae Aegyptia in Graecam translati à virâ—s Philosophiae non imperitis Stobaeus hath much out of them and verily there are as Learned and Judicious men of the Moderns who do assert the Authority of those Writings as any that deny it Marsilius Ficinus Patricius Steuchus c. are great names nor can I in Coringus himself find that against them which well weighed may over-balance what I have propounded now in Defence of them But to return there were other wayes of Revelation
Homer's For my part I am apt to think that Hell is of a Vast Extent and that the bounds and limits of it are not so strict and narrow as the most imagine It may not be confined within the Air nor within a certain Cavity and Hollow under the Earth Happily it is as large and comprehensive as the whole Elementary World which that indeed it is what already hath been urged about it upon the several Opinions does in some degree Evince And it may be Hell hereafter will not be the same with that which now is Hell But secret things belong to God This for the Place of Hell and for the Kind and Nature of the Punishment which is therein It doth not only consist in Loss and Deprivation but also in Pain and Exquisite Torments For this Reason it is called Fire and the rather called so because that Hell it self is styled in the Sacred Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word deriv'd from others in the Hebrew which signifie the Valley of Hinnon a Place wherein the superstitious Israelites with an Inhumanity that cannot be expressed did offer up their Children in the Fire to Moloch Not that Infernal Fire is Material and Corporeal or that it is a Proper but only Metaphorical Fire A Fire it is but such an one as is prepared for the Devil and for his Angels which if it were Corporeal or Material since Corporeal and Material Beings act not on Incorporeal Immaterial Spirits it could not be imagined to be Again as the Worm that never dyes is Metaphorical and Figurative so is the Fire that never goeth out Besides Hell is generally called Tartarus and that as Plutarch tells us for the Coldness of it ex frigore Tartarus appellatus est Nor is this a Fancy only of Poets or of some few Philosophers 't is Scripture That in Hell is Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of teeth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est algentem quassari contremiscere to shake and gnash ones Teeth for cold In Plato's Hell which he describes in his Phâ—do there is both Fire and Water But though in Hell there be no Proper Fire yet since the torments in it are frequently compared to Fire and with the addition of Brimstone it must needs consist whatever some imagine in some thing equally as Dire as Insupportable as Tormenting and as Vexatious as that Which that it does we have not only Plato's Testimony but if we will believe him the common sentiment of all the World to Evince and Prove iâ— It is saith he a Common and Receiv'd Tradition that Infernal Torments are most Atrocious and Insupportable a Tradition so received in his time that he most Pathetically inveighs against the Irreclaimable Obdurateness and Obstinacy of men whom that Consideration could not awe and terrifie You may read it in his own terms in his Book of Laws Again Infernal Torments are not only most Atrocious and severe but extended both to body and soul. And it is so great Reason that the Body should as well suffer as the Soul That some have thought it not unlikely that the soul as it did not sin but in the Body so it doth not suffer but with it That 't is Soul and Body in conjunction that do make man and it is man not the Soul without the Body not the Body without the Soul but Soul and Body soder'd into one Compositum that sins and that which sins must suffer The Man sins and the man must suffer But I drive it not so far for the Soul in state of Union to the Body as it liveth in it so it acteth by it the Soul as so is Actus corporis and is nothing but what relateth to the Body and consequently all its Actions are Organical yet since it can be separated and though not as Anima yet as Ens can subsist alone without the Body It is in that Estate Responsible and just it should for what it did in the other I say just it should For the Soul it guides the Body it governs it and to use a comparison that hath had the Honour to have been a Philosophers is to it as a Rider to his Horse who though he goeth no where but where the Horse carries him and Acteth nothing but by it yet since he governs the Horse which goeth as Directed no wonder if unhors'd and on his own legs he suffer for the Trespasses he made his Horse to commit He suffers on foot for what he did on Horseback All I infer is That 't is highly Reasonable that the man who sinned with his Body should suffer in it as well as in his Soul and that 't is Just that they who were together in the Crime should also be conjoyn'd in the Punishment as indeed they shall for we must all Appear before the Iudgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body 2 Cor. 5.10 So much for the first Particular that there are Eternal and Atrocious Punishments ordained to be inflicted in the other World both on Soul and Body for the sins of Men committed in this I am now in Prosecution of the Order I proposed to my self to Evidence the Second which is That there is not any Inequality in the Punishment ordained to the sin but great Equality and Proportion Which to effect with all imaginable Evidence and clearness I will first lay down a Truth acknowledged by all that know any thing viz. That every sin is committed against God who not only is most Excellent Majesty but also Infinitely Good unto the sinner himself and consequently that 't is Infinite in Aggravation Then in the second place I will make it Evident and Undenyable that that Infinite Aggravation which is in every sin by Reason of its Object is the Bottom Ground and Foundation whereon the Perpetuity of its Punishment is Erected Thirdly I will fully prove to Obviate some exceptions which may lye before me that though Insernal Punishments be all of them Perpetual and consequently Infinite protensively and in duration yet that Intrinsecally and Subjectively they are but Finite And when I have acquitted me of what I promise you on these points then in the fourth place I shall lay before your eyes in a full and more express delineation the great Equality and Proportion between the Sin and Punishment which I will abundantly confirm by many more considerations I shall add And for the first That every Sin is committed against God who not only is most Excellent Majesty but also Infinitely Good and to the sinner himself cannot be denyed by one that Understands the Nature of sin Against thee the Royal Psalmist saith thee only have I sinned The Wrong and Injury may be against man as that of David was against Uriah but the Sinfulness therein is only against God There is in every sin a Transgression Their Transgressions in all their sins or a Breach and Violation of the Law of God
no great matter nor is the eating of it in it self a Greater But then it is no small matter neither to offer an Affront to God Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth to scorn and contemn most Excellent Majesty to oppose his Will to break his Bands asunder and cast away his Cords which Adam did in eating And what is offer'd by the Atheist in order to extenuate and abate the Guilt doth extreamly aggravate and heighten it that he would break with God for but an Apple as one resolved to deny himself in nothing to keep in with God and Please Him who is his Maker and Soveraign Verily He that will break for an Apple will break for any thing Without doubt It was an Ample Demonstration of the Infinite Benignity and Goodness of God that He did not choose a greater matter to exercise the Vertue and Obedience of the First Man in who might very well have forborn the Apples of but One Tree when he had so many Others bountifully Accorded to him to Oblige and gratifie him Indeed had God Requir'd Proof of Mans Obedience in a matter absolutely necessary to his Comfort or Delight it might have minister'd some colour of Excuse for his Failure But now there is None 'T was but an Apple no more that God denyed him and would he run the hazard of Divine Displeasure and Expose his own Eternal Happiness for That What Pretext can there be for a Plea that he would be faithful in greater matters that broke his Faith for so small a One Some find the Breach of all the Commandments in This. Verily That Adam disobliged God for an Apple it argues the greater contempt of God and the greater Injustice in Adam For this I appeal to Aristotle who speaks home to All I have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those Injuries are greater which proceed from a greater Injustice on which consideration the least things done may be the greatest wrongs So Callistratus accused Melanopus that he had defrauded the Maker of Shrines of Three Half-pence c. But to Return This Sin Objecctively is Infinite and it is on this Infinity of Guilt and aggravation which is in Sin by reason of its Object that the Perpetuity of its Punishment or to use your own expression the Infinity thereof is grounded which is the Second thing to be Proved And the first Consideration to Evince it which I shall insist upon again hereafter when I more expresly shew the Proportion and Equality between the Sin and Punishment is that there is nothing else in the Punishment of meerly Finite Beings but the Perpetuity or Infinity of its Duration that can answer that Infinity and Vastness of Guilt and Aggravation which is in the Sin by Reason of that Infinite Goodness and Transcendent Majesty that is the Butt and Object of it Nothing in the Punishment but its Infinite Duration answers the Infinity of the Guilt and Aggravation in the Sin But beside this main consideration there is another that Establishes it namely that Eternal Death or Perpetuity of Punishment is threatned unto sin as sin every sin and therefore must be bottomed on something is in sin as sin in every sin which what it should be is unimaginable other than the Aggravation it receiveth from the Object which if you suppose it but to be then will all things be adjusted and as I shall evidently shew hereafter on the fourth Head will all lye Even and Square Nor is it a Barr unto the Truth alledged and Pleaded for but rather a Confirmation that the Punishment which Jesus Christ sustained in behalf of all that will receive him who suffering in their stead is understood to bear what they should was in its utmost Duration and Extent but short and momentany For as much as it is evident that the Punishment in Him receiv'd the same Infinity or Reputation from the Subject he being GOD-MAN that the sin of man Receiv'd from the Object which was GOD. For if in the One God was sinn'd against in the Other God suffered the Blood of Christ was the Blood of God The Sin was Infinite it was committed against an Infinite God the Punishment was infinite it was suffer'd by an Infinite Person Not that Christ suffer'd as he was God God as God cannot suffer but he who was God suffer'd Passions as Actions are of Persons or Supposites and as the Infinity of the Object made the Sin Infinite in Aggravation So the Infinity of the Subject suffering made the Punishment so in Value and Reputation Thus Christ suffering for us suffered but a moment though we had we suffered for our selves were to suffer to Eternity So congruous it is and so agreeable that the Perpetuity of infernal Punishment should be bottom'd on the aggravation which the sin receiveth from its object but yet as evident a Truth and as Perspicuous as it seemeth Many there are who cannot Acquiesce and rest contented with it Who think themselves obliged to Account for this Article in a very different way and manner from that so lately proposed They tell us tha◠men are therefore Infinitely Punished or as some express it Punished in Gods Eternity because they sin in their own they sin as long as they live and therefore suffer for it as long as God Lives Of which Assertion there are two senses of which I must acknowledge that they seem tolerable and to bear some Weight for in the third it is a Jingle most unworthy of the Gravity and Judgement of the men that use it The first is That thé Damned should they live for ever here they would sin for ever and so are Punisht not for what they have done but what they would do The Second that in Hell they never leave sinning and that therefore God will never leave Punishing Truth is it were all one to me and my design which is to evidence the Perpetuity of Internal Torments to have it bottomed on either these considerations one or both if I thought them able to support the weight of it or on the former I have laid But not having that Opinion of their great sufficiency and strength some others have and knowing that a weak and ruinous foundation most times betrayes the Fabrick I am unwilling a Doctrine of so much concernment and importance unto all mankind and to all Religion should be oblig'd to stand or fall with them Wherefore that for the future none may build upon them I shall bestow a little of my time and exercise a little of your patience to shew their Weakness For the first then that the Damned would sin for ever if they lived for ever here and that therefore they are Punished for ever I say it seemeth not an Account that can be owned with any safety to the honour of Divine Iustice seeing to those that weigh things and that know That only to be Just which is Equal it appears not so Consistent with it that the Punishment should be Actual Real Effectual
and threatning is nor are we able to defend our selves against so Good so Pious a Resentment if we soberly consider this That he that threatneth plainly shews he hath no mind to inflict and that Threatnings are fore-warnings of Evil designed and intended to this very End that those to whom they are made may timely shun and avoid it So Iohn O you Generation of Vipers who by menacing you with it hath fore-warn'd you to flee from the wrath to come Questionless he cannot but be Good in threatning evil who threatens it for that Reason that he may not be enforced to inflict it This was the sense of Clement of Alexandria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is manifest that who so threatens Evil has no mind to inflict it nor is he willing to do what he threatens But why Eternal Punishments will you say I answer That besides the Justice of it the menacing of Infernal Punishments the lusts of men are so Exorbitant and high is not sufficient to subdue and quench them there must Eternity be added to Extremity in the Torments to make the threatning of them an effectual means to reclaim men and when that is done too all is little enough there are millions in the world whom not that consideration as tremendous and as Direful as indeed it is is able to deterr and fright from their Vices If the threatning of Eternal Torments can effect no more how much I pray you would the threatnings of shorter ones effect Future things are distant and remote and what are so do seldome influence Great Punishments in another World would awe but little if they were not also Perpetual it is the Eternity that adds so much to the weight and the weight of the torments that makes them over balance when they are compared with the sin Purgatory is not half as scaring as Hell The Emphasis of the Punishment is as much upon the Duration as upon the kind of it Go you sayes Christ not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not barely into Everlasting Fire but into the Fire the Everlasting Fire the Emphasis is on the Everlastingness of it So Advantagious is the threatning of Eternal Torments and so useful to the World that the Soveraign Rector in taking that method has not only given Abundant Proof of his Wisdom and Prudence but also of as much Benignity and Kindness A Truth of which the Antient Heathen had a Glimpse and therefore they call'd the Furies who are the Executioners of Divine Revenge in the other World EUMENIDES not as most too frigidly and poorly have conceited by reason of their Imbenignity Inexorableness and Inclemency but for that by the Punishments which they are talkt of to inflict upon the Wicked they happily occasion very much Good Benefit and Advantage unto Mankind For so I understand Phornutus Revera saith he speaking of the Furies sunt Hae Deae venerandae Eumenides eò quod Naturea Benignitatem ad homines dirigunt vindicando scelera From what I have presented you on this Head it is not Difficult to Conclude what sense one ought to have of Mr. Hobb's Notion of Hell and of the Texts that concern it He tells us that the Texts that mention Eternal Fire Eternal Iudgement or the Worm that never dyeth contradict not the Doctrine of the Second and Everlasting Death in the Proper and Natural sense of the Word Death The Fire and Torment prepared for the Wicked in Geenna Tophet or what place so ever may contitinue for ever and there may never want men to be tormented in them though not every One nor any One Eternally For the Wicked being left in the State they are in after Adams sin may at the Resurrection live as they did Marry and give in Marriage and have Gross and Corruptible Bodies as all mankind now have and consequently may Ingender Perpetually after the Resurrection c. Now not to mention the Confusion and Perplexity in this Notion what will Mr. Hobbs make of that Description the Evangelist gives of Hell wherein the Torments of it are painted out so Dreadfully by Fire and Brimstone by a never Dying Worm c. It is but a solemn piece of Mockery a Bugbear a Mormo that can only fright those weaker Apprehensions that do not throughly understand and see it Hell to those that know it for all this Tragical Description of it in the Gospel is a Paradise of Pleasure such a Place as all the Wicked would elect and choose for their Heaven a Place of Eating and Drinking of Marrying and giving in Marriage and why not of Quaffing Carousing and making merry In a word no worse a Place than this Earth and the state of sinners in it no worse nor better so over-merciful a God we have than that of Men before the Deluge The wicked saith he being left in the state they were in after Adams sin may at the Resurrection live as they did As if the wicked in the Old World had in it suffered and undergone their Hell and that they had not been Reprieved for that time from the Wrath to come Here is a Hell for Sinners that would tempt them to be so Is this Wrath in the day of Wrath this the Utmost that God can do Is Tophet Prepar'd of Old and Geenna and the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and the Place prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels come to this Is this the Terrour of the Lord with which the Apostles perswaded men Who would care for Hell if this so soft and easie ae Place be Hell Ay but the Fire is Eternal And what if Fire and Brimstone prepared for the Wicked in Geenna be eternal and there never want men to be tormented in it but that there be an Eternal Succession of the Wicked to keep in and feed that Fire This will not Help the matter For though the Fire be Eternal yet seeing there is no one to lye Eternally therein The Punishment is not Eternal not doth the Perpetuity of the Fire bring an Aggravation to the Punishment and suffering of the sinner since if he feel it not Eternally it is to him all one as if it were but Temporal What doth it matter to a Criminal whose Execution is to be but short how long the Gibbet stand or how many others be hang'd on it after him So to Interpret Eternal Fire is to Trifle with it But this is a too Absurd and Gross Conceit for me to Exercise your Patience longer on it wherefore to Apply my self unto the last particular Not to mention what Abatement Goodness may be thought to make in Hell Torment since this is secret I shall only endeavour to demonstrate what suffices for my purpose that it is not want of Goodness no more than 't is Injustice to Inflict Eternal Punishments on those to whom they are threatned when the Good Designs and Ends for compassing of which they were so are altogether defeated And in
of the Life and Immortality by Jesus Christ there is Absolutely none at all No the Design of Christ and Christianity is instead of Pharisaical and Legal Righteousness which consisteth in our doing and performing of the works of the Law as by Divine Assistance and enablement we can to Institute another that of the Son of God the Lord our Righteousness who is appointed to invest and cover with his all those that sensible of their own Unrighteousness and Imperfection do apply themselves unto him for it Except your Righteousness exceeds the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees which consists in their own doing c. And the Christians doth Exceed it his is the Lord Christ it consists not in his own doing for himself which is but short and imperfect but in Christs doing for him which is full and Perfect That it doth so is evident in that the Publican in whom the Christian Righteousness is represented hanging down his head as one ashamed of himself and ashamed to come into the Divine Presence not boasting of performances and works but confessing and acknowledging of sins humbly imploring Grace and Mercy was rather Iustified than the Pharisee that is according to the Scripture Language was Justified and not the Pharisee The like of Paul who had as much according to the Law to boast of as another yet in the matter of Justification when he comes to make Reflection on his best Performances he in comparison of Christ esteems them all but Dung and Dross and is to far from standing on them in point of Righteousness that he first renounceth all Presensions of his own thereto and then intirely devolves himself on Jesus Christ for it Such is the Christians Righteousness 't is not his Holiness within but Christ without that Justifies him This is that method of Iustification of sinners that was contrived by Divine Counsel and Goodness and that is displayed in the Gospel God imputeth not sin unto believing sinners but imputeth to them the Righteousness and Sufferings of the Lord Christ he reckoneth as if sinners suffered in their own persons and did what Jesus Christ hath done and suffered for them and so acquitteth them and sets them free as those that by their Surety have contented Justice and satisfied the Law Thus is Christ made of God unto us Righteousness His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Satisfaction to Divine Justice by Suffering for in this sense I find the word to be often used even in Heathen Writings as well as his Performance is Reputed Ours Nor is this Licentious Doctrine and an Inlet to Profaneness for what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein know you not c. Rom. 6.1 2 3 4. But now being made free from sin and become servants unto God you have your fruit unto Holiness and the End everlasting life verse 22. Without Holiness no man shall see God Faith worketh by Love If ye love me keep my Commandments I would have offer'd more on this Exception but that you seem not to insist your self so much upon it It being Another to which I am proceeding that it seems awakens in you far more feeling and more vive Resentments For so I judge when I find you saying how much more dismal and tremendous doth it look that those People in America Japan China Lapland c. that lye under an unavoidable ignorance I mean morally so that yet these poor creatures for what they cannot help shall be cast into Everlasting Darkness c. Truly Sir I apprehend not the Reason why you instance in the Americans Iapaneses Chineses as People lying in a state of Unavoidable and Invincible Ignorance of Jesus Christ and of the Methods of Salvation since Jesus Christ is preached among them though with some mixture and the Christian Doctrine if you will believe History hath been witnessed to among them as at first it was among others both by the Martyrdom of those that brought it and by their Miracles You know by whose incitement the famous Francis Xavier that Papal Apostle undertook the Indian Expedition for the saving of souls and what success attended both him and those that followed him in that design in India China Japan whereof you have a large account not only in the Indian and Japanick Epistles but also in the Commentaries of Emanuel Acosta expressly written on that subject And how industrious and careful the Great Bishop hath been in this to be commended to advance the same Design in America and what the setled order for it is I make no question but you may have read in many which I might name But I will not give you the trouble of Reflecting longer on Modern and Recent Accounts since there are others far more Antient by which it may be made appear that Christ was early preach't among them But of this you may be pleased to consult Paget and Purchas cum multis aliis You see by this how fair an Opportunity I have to evade but am not Sophister enough to do so seeing as you mean the Objection there is something weighty and momentous in it namely that it seemeth inconsistent with Divine Goodness that poor Creatures lying under unavoidable and invincible Ignorance of Jesus Christ and of the method of Salvation by him should be damned to eternal Darkness and sorrow for what they cannot help and that to use your own expression there are no Reserves for their Acâ—ing for an happiness they have no notice of c. Believe it Sir it is no easie matter to account for all the Phaenomena of Providence and particularly for This of which when we have said all we can we cannot say as much in Vindication of Divine Goodness Justice or Wisdom in it as God can say in his own His thoughts they are as high above ours as the Heaven is above the Earth and what is unaccountable and dazeling to men is not so to God I say not this as if I thought the present Difficulty less accountable than many others but to let you see I have a right sense and apprehension of its being One wherein when I have told you what hath satisfied me about it for I have had the same Perplexities and the same scruples you will happily receive what also may conduce to satisfie you both from the Holy Scriptures and from Reason In order hereunto I shall by way of Premise explicate and settle a Verity that ought to be receiv'd by all Christians as Fundamental to their being so namely That there is no Salvation but by Iesus Christ which established I will in satisfaction of the scruple evince First That God is not obliged by his Goodness to dispense an equal light to all mankind but that being Free and Soveraign in all communications of his Grace he doth inqually dispense it to manifest himself so But yet that Secondly To whomsoever be affordeth least
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
That the Antient Persians owned none is certain And for the Greeks it was a Symbol of the sage Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingrave not any Image or likeness of God in a Ring whereby it signified as Iamblicus interprets him that God is incorporeal and invisible As for the Romans Numa interdicted unto them the use of all Effigies of the Gods and all Pictures so that in antient times and for the space of an hundred and seventy years that people had none Neque priscrs illis temporibus suit apud illos vel picta ulla Imago Dei saith Plutarch vel ficta sed primis centum atque septuaginta annis etsi templa aedificassent atque sacras casas struxissent nullum tamen omnino simulacrum efformavere nempe eo quod nefas esset praestantiora deterioribus assimulare neque eum aliter quam mente attingi posse senserunt So conformable a sense had many Antient Heathen unto that of the Second Command Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them And as for others who approved of the use of Images if we but Reflect upon the Reason which inclined them to do it there will be as much to be offered in extenuation and excuse of that commission as there can be for the Romanists Which truth I shall as easily perswade you of as I can read a passage to you in the admirable Max. Tyr. It a Deorum naturae saith he nec statuis per se nec imaginibus opus est sed cum infirma sit oppido mortalium conditio tantumque à divina quantum à coelo terra recedat signa ejusmodi excogitavit sibi quibus nomina Deorum nuncupationes tribueret Si quibus igitur tam firma sit memoria ut erecto statim animo coelum usque ipsum pertingere Deumque recta adire nihil iis fortasse opus sit statuis Verum rarissimi inter homines sunt hujusmodi And afterwards Videntur certè Legislatores mihi non aliter quam puerorum gregi has generi mortalium invenisse imagines honoris divini quasi signa quaedam vel notas queis ad memoriam ejus tanquam manuductione quadam via homines deducerent And again toward the conclusion of his Dissertation Deus enim omnium quae extant pater conditorque sole antiquior antiquior coelo omni tempore major omni aevo quicquid in natura mutatur Legislator line nomine quem nulia vox exprimit nulla oculorum intuetur acies cujus cum sensus nostros excedat essentia aurilium a verbis a nominibus animalibusque ab auri eboris argentique figuris à plantis fluviisque à montium jugis aquarumque scatebris aliquod petamus ut ad ejus hac ratione intellectum pervenire liceat Cumenim tenuitatis nostrae ita poscat ratio quicquid apud nos est pulcherrimum naturae illius dedicamus plane ut amantes solent qui eorum quos amant lubenter simulachra intuentur c. As for Reverence to the Name of God injoyned in the third Commandment Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain 't is evident how gâ—eat consideration the Disciples of Pythagoras had of that Duty by what Iamblicus affirmeth of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they were very sparing in the use of the names of the Gods Indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reverence an Oath was a Decree and Ordinance of that Great Master and that respect and Deference which he was sensible was due unto the Divine Name obliged him to make it Which same Reflection urged Periander to proceed farther 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes He an expression not to be translated better than in the words of Christ himself Swear not at all For the Sabbath the Learned Selden as well as others whom you may consult at your leisure hath amassed many Testimonies about it I will only mention that of Tibullus Luce sacra requiescat humus requiescat arator Et grave suspenso vomere cessat opus Solvite vincla jugis nunc adpraesepia debent Plena coronato stare boves capite Omnia sint operata Deo non audeat ulla Lanificam pensis imposuisse manum Which may very well be Paraphrased in the terms of the fourth Command Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy six dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh is the Sabbath in it thou shalt do no work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter nor thy Man-servant nor thy Maid-servant nor thy Cattle nor the Stranger that is within thy Gates So much for Piety to God As for Righteousness to man it would be infinite to instance all I might upon the several Commandments which concern it both out of Menander Phocylides Pittacus Theognis Pindarus Pythagoras Socrates Plato Cicero Seneca and others a work I find already excellently well performed to my hand by Stobaeus I shall therefore urge at present but that One Duty which is comprehensive of all the rest That we ought to do to others as we would be done unto by others which also is the Law and the Prophets All men know it to have been a Symbol of the Emperour Severus Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris Do not that to another which thou wouldst not have done unto thy self and what he expressed in so plain words is as plainly implyed both in that of Isocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upbraid no man with his Calamity for chance is common and thou knowest not what may befall thy self And in that of Seneca Seis improbum esse qui ab uxore pudicitiam exigit ipse alienarum corruptor uxorum Thou knowest how Unjust he is who expecteth that his own Wife should be Loyal and Chaste while he himself committeth Adultery with other mens And this for Righteousness to others As for Moderation Temperance and Sobriety it was a Symbol of Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That One ought not to Indulge himself in immoderate and profuse Laughter which as Iamblicus who best could interprets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implyed the Castigation and subdual of the Affections A Doctrine most comformable to that of our Apostle Mortisie therefore your members which are on the Earth Fornication Uncleanness Inordinate affection c. And the same Pythagoras hath another Symbol not impertinent viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pass not over a Yoke whereby as the lately mentioned Interpreter assures us he obliged his Disciples to the exercise of Iustice Equity Moderátion and indeed he doth it in an expression not unlike to that of the Scriptures wherein we read it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth of an heifer unaccustomed to
much the rather because I know that all things happen by an Eternal and Unchangeable Ordinance of God Long since it was Decreed what thou shouldst have of Joy or Sorrow So Seneca And with how much Justice doth the same Seneca in the same Discourse applaud that manly Speech of Demetrius In this One thing O Immortal Gods I can complain of you that you have not made known unto me what your Will was for of my self I had first of all come unto these things to which being now called I present my self Fourthly Not to mention what Apprehensions many of them had of Conscience and of the Interest it hath in all Our Actions That a Good one is a continual Feast an Evil one a continual Torment That the Goodness of the Heart ought to concurr to make the Action Good Actio recta non erit nisi recta fuerit voluntas ab hac enim est Actio Rursus Voluntas non erit recta nisi habitus animi rectus fuerit If the Will be not Good the Action which Proceedeth from the same shall never be Furthermore the Will shall be Perverse if the Habitude of the Spirit be not upright But not to stand on that I will add but One more but that a very useful and momentous one namely That they ought to Act nothing with Doubting and reluctant Minds but to be well Resolved of the Equity Justice and Lawfulness of things before they did them So Cicero Quocirca circa bene praecipiunt qui vetant quicquam agere quod dubites aequum sit an iniquum Aequitas enim lucet ipsa per se Dubitatio autem cogitationem significat injuriae Well therefore do they teach who forbid the doing of any thing whereof thou hast doubt whether it be Right or Wrong for Equity carries its own Light with it but Doubting declareth some Imagination and conceit of Injury This is according to our Apostle He that Doubteth is Damned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin And now Sir what remaineth to perfect my Discourse on this Head but that I Demonstrate that the Old Philosophers and other Wise Heathen in all their Actions of Religion designed something which they called communion with God Which that they did is manifest not only from the Doctrine of the Stoicks which some deride as too Fantastical and Aery but from that of the Platonists and other Sects Nisi Divina sunt ubique tollitur sacrificii virtus quae in quadam Deorum ad homines Communione consistit If there be no Deity then farewel the Virtue of Sacrifices or Religion which consisteth solely in the Communion of God with Men. Thus Iamblicus And saith the Apostle we have Fellowship with God The like is in Plutarch And this Communion with and conjunction unto God as they understood it to be inchoate and begun in the present world so they were perswaded that it was not to be Perfect and consummate but in a Future That here indeed as on a raging and tumultuous Sea men are Uncapable of Hearing and discerning God distinctly but that hereafter when they have emerged it they shall go to him and there shall Hear him and See him and Know him even as he is So Max. Tyr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But how shall we do to get out of this tumultuous Sea and come to see God Thou shalt see him entirely when thou shalt be called to Him nor will it be long before he calls thee in the mean time await till he do Old age is coming which will conduct thee thither and so is Death which though the weak fear and tremble at the Approaches of it yet every Lover of God doth both expect it with Joy and receive it with Confidence This is much but what is more surprizing I will now compendiously summ up the Articles of Christian Faith and Doctrine and by way of Parallel annex to them others not unlike them in the Books of Philosophers which though it may seem Presumptuous to attempt is yet no more than what the antient Fathers some of them in part have done as Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius and others of them as Lactantius for one acknowledged not impossible to be performed for fayes be Facile est autem docere pene universam veritatem per Philosophos Sectas esse divisam It is easie to evince that almost the whole Truth of Christian Religion is divided among the Philosophers in their several Sects Sed docemus nullam Sectam fuisse tam deviam nec Philosophorum quenquam tam inanem qui non viderit aliquid ex vero We assert that there was never a Sect so much out of the way nor one of all the Philosophers so vain but that both It and He had some Glympses of the Truth Quod si extitisset aliquis qui veritatem sparsam per singulos per Sectasque diffusam colligeret in unum ac redigeret in corpus is profecto non dissentiret à nobis Sed hoc nemo facere nisi vere peritus ac sciens potest Were there one that would collect together and reduce into a Systeme or Body all that Truth scattered in the several Philosophers and diffused throughout their several Sects Verily he would not differ from us So said the Father and so think I. To begin then That God is and is such an One as Holy Scripture hath described him that is that he is Father Almighty Wise Holy Good Just Maker of Heaven and Earth and that his Providence and Care extends to all his works are Truths so generally Acknowledged by wise men in all times that I dare not abuse your Patience by so Unnecessary a Performance as that would be to give you many Proofs and Instances on them out of the Antients You know how many Plain Testimonies concerning them are collected by Martinus in his Metaphysicks by Alsted in his Theologie and by the Noble Morney in his Book of the Verity of Christian Religion and by many others and in the Treatise which occasioned you the present trouble there are also some collected so that I need not add more on this Head but only one citation out of Plato For he having first confessed the little satisfaction which he had received in the Theogonie and Zoogenie of the Antients or those Discourses which were transmitted down by them in writing about the Origin or Generation of the Gods and Animals he Premises this as Fundamental to his own concerning the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there are Gods or which I take to be the true meaning that there is a God whose Providence and care particularly extends to all things both small and great and who is inflexible from what is Iust and Right And afterward in the same Discourse reflecting on the Perpetuity the Constancy the Order in the Motion of the Heavens not conceiving it imaginable how any lower Being
should be able to inspire and principle it He concludes that God did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I affirm it is God that is the Cause But to leave a Point that is not questioned I proceed to entertain you with another that almost deservs to be as little I mean the Doctrine of the Trinity which though denyed by the Modern Iews as we may read in Buxtorfe and called into question by many that profess themselves Christians yet it was undoubtedly acknowledged by the Antient Jews as you may find demonstrated in Morney and was intimated in that Form of Benediction which Galatinus mentions nor was it unknown unto the Gentiles which is now my task to Demonstrate And here I must profess how much I owe to the Learned and Industrions Patricius for saving me a great part of the labour which otherwise I must have put my self to by collecting out of Zoroaster and Hermes such Authorities as manifestly prove the point in hand which partly because they may not be so generally known the Author not lying in every bodies way and partly also to render this Discourse the more Absolute I shall compendiously repeat here For to begin with Zoroaster he speaketh of a Paternal Monad or Unite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Paternal Monad is and as Patricius well observes a Paternal is a Generative or Principiant Monad and so is this for he begetteth or Principleth the number next in Nature and that is Two the Son and Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Monad is Protended which begetteth Two which Two he calls the Diad and affirmeth of them that they alwayes sit with the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Diad sits with him In the beginning was with God Now a Monad and a Diad or One and Two makes Three or a Monad protended into a Diad is a Trinity of which he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Trinity whereof the Unity is the Principle shineth out in all the world But you will say here is a kind of Trinity indeed but of what Relation to the Christian Ours is a Father a Son the Wisdom of the Father and an Holy Spirit through which He worketh all and so was Zoroaster's for the first Principle which he mostly calleth the Monad otherwhere he calls the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father Ravished himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father perfected all things The Second Person which he somewhere calls the Fathers Power He calleth otherwhere the Fathers Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The self-begotten Mind of the Father considering the things which were made And for the third Person which as Patricius thinks he calls the Second Mind for the Self-Begotten is the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father Perfected all things and gave them to the Second Mind I say the third Principle is by him acknowledged to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The term of the Patèrnal Abysse and the Spring of Intellectual Beings To whom ascribing the Efficiency and Making of all things that are made he calls him the Maker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and the Maker c. So much for Zoroaster and there are as many and as pregnant Testimonies in Hermes as in Him all which it were too long to enumerate wherefore I shall only touch on some and those the Principal as that he speaks of God the Father and calls him the Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Mind God the Father Which had Zoroaster also ever done I should have thought the Second Mind to be the Son and that the saying which I quoted even now that the Father perfected all things and gave them to the Second Mind were to be understood of the Son to whom the Scripture tells us the Father hath given all things All Power in Heaven and Earth is given unto me but Patricius is express that Zoroaster never calls the Father Mind though Hermes do Indeed in my Opinion Hermes speaketh more expressly of the Son and Spirit and more consonantly to the Sacred Scriptures than Zoroaster for he saith of the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the First Mind proceeds the Lucid Word the Son of God Which Word he often calls the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is the Issue of the most Perfect the Perfect the Begotten the Natural Son By this Word he sayes the Father made the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Great Creator or Demiurgus the Father He made the whole World not with hands but by his Word And for the Spirit what clearer Testimony can be had of him than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God the Father Male Female Life and Light did by the Word principle another Demiurgical Mind which being the God of Fire and Spirit produced or effected the World In which Assertion as in the Holy Scriptures the Third Principle is compared to Fire and Spirit he shall baptize you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Holy Spirit and Fire which Spirit Hermes also representeth as the Ligament and band of Union between the Father and Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there is no other Union of this than the Spirit that containeth all things And it is this Spirit that he somewhere calls the Life for speaking of the Father and the Son he sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are indistant from one another for the Life is the Union of these two and so the Scripture speaks which also calls the Spirit the Life But in regard the Works of Hermes and Zoroaster are esteemed by many but Pious frauds though perhaps it were no hard task to evidence them very Antient and to restore them to their former credit a piece of Justice that the Learned Patricius hath in part done them I shall therefore add some other Testimonies not obnoxious to such suspicious in confirmation both of them and of the truths I have design'd to evince Not that I will much insist on the Trinity of the Antient Orpheus or his Three Creators and Makers of the World which some say he calls Phanes Uranos and Chronos concerning which you may peruse Reuchlin and Morney nor on the Testimonies of the Sibyls which yet are very plain and express nor on the three Kings of Plato neither under that Notion of which Patricius whom I have so often mentioned speaketh or on this that Plato in Gorgias if you will believe the Learned Du port teacheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 autorem scil fuisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Homer was Author of the Trine subsistence of the Demiurgical Principles The first I will insist upon is that of the Pythagoreans who as Aristotle noteth in his Book de coelo affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Universe and all things in it are terminated by three And it was as Plutarch tells us one of the Placits of Pythagoras Diis superis impari numero sacrificare inferis
he disguises the matter 't is most certain he believed better himself For what belief is more agreeing to the Christian Doctrine or more Orthodox than this That there is a God the Governour and Cause of all the world and of all things in it those that are and those that shall be And that there is a Father of that Universal Governour and Cause of all things As who would say that there is God the Son invested in all the Power both in Heaven and Earth and there is God the Father who is the Origin and Source of all that Power from whom the Son derives and receives it And this Belief was Plato's You shall have his own words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Swearing by the God the Governour of all both of things that are and of things that shall be and by the Lord the Father of this Cause and Governour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of whom if we philosophize truly and aright we shall all have as clear a knowledge as Happy men are capable of I am the more confirmed in the Pertinency of the present text by the Judgement passed on it by One of the most Learned as well as the most Antient of the Christian Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For I mention not Plato He in his Epistle to Erastus and Coriscus speaketh plainly of the Father and Son c. It might be added by way of Confirmation to the sense that I have given of Plato that the Platonists have had the like for proof whereof I will but offer what I find in St. Austin That the Good Simplicianus afterward Bishop of Milan told him that a certain Platonist said in his hearing that the beginning of St. Iohn's Gospel viz. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and onward to the end of v. 5. was worthy to be written in letters of Gold and to be read in the Highest places of all Temples And Amelius as Vives on St. Austin cites him has the very words of the Evangelist and quotes him And this for Plato I might also instance in other Gentile Writers that do seem to hint somewhat of this Divine Mysterie and there are who think there is no other meaning of the Pallas born of Iupiters brain of which both Poets and Philosophers have spoken so much than that God the Son the Saviour of the World is the Divine Wisdom begotten of the Fathers Understanding and because his Generation is Transcendent and Unspeakable to signifie her being so Pallas her Image as Herodian has assured us was by the Romans Worship't and Adored 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hid and Unseen Again how plain a Testimony to the Son of God the WORD is that of Zeno in Laertius and how agreeable to Christian Doctrine ◠viz. that there are two Principles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Active and a Passive Principle that the Passive Principle is matter but that the Active Principle effecting All is the WORD who is God For so I take it we may well translate his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which Word he farther saith that it is Eternal and that it maketh all things that are made in the whole Extent and Latitude of matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And for the Holy Spirit there is not only a general Testimony given to it by Poets and Philosophers who conformably to that of Moses in Genesis acknowledged a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Common Spirit of the World So Ovid Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus Illo Spiritus hic cèlsae semina Mentis habet Virgil. Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet So Manilius Hoc opus immensi constructum corpore mundi Membraque naturae diversa condita forma Aeris atque ignis terrae pelagique jacentis Vis animae divina regit sacroque meatu Conspirat Deus tacita ratione gubernat Et multa in cunctas dispensat foedera partes But a most particular one both as to its being God and which is the Scriptural Notion its Indwelling Inspiring Ruling and Governing in man Pray hear Seneca Prope est à re Deus faith he to Lucilius tecum est intus est God is not far from thee He is with thee He is in thee Ita dico Lucili Lacer intra nos Spiritus sedet c. This I say O Lucilius a Holy Spirit resideth in us who is the Observer and Register of all the Good and Evil we do This useth us as he is used by us There is no Good man without God How can any raise himself above the Danger of Fortune if not assisted by Him it is He that inspires Great and Generous Counsels Once it is certain a God dwelleth in every Good man though what that God is is not Certain Thus Seneca so like the Apostle You are the Temples of the Holy Ghost And so much for the Trinity as far as it was known among the Gentiles who if you will believe Macrobius as Fabulous and Idle as they were in other matters were not in the least so in this for saith he cum de his inquam loquuntur summo Deo Mente of which latter he had said before that it was nata profecta ex summo Deo nihil fabulosum penitus attingunt That the World had a Beginning was the General belief of most that ever lived in it and Aristotle himself as good as tells us that all Philosophers before him owned it Yes and that it was Produced by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divine Word was also asserted not only by the Aegyptians and Assyrians who if we may believe Hermes and Zoroaster plainly did so but by many Greeks particularly by Zeno in Laertius in the text before cited and by Plato in his Epinomis in these Terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together finishing the world which the Word the most Divine All things had made Visible St. Austin in his Confessions sayes that he had read the beginning of St. Iohns Gospel In the beginning was the word in Plato but not in the same words That Angels were Created and before man and for his advantage and Utility and consequently that then they were not Devils or enemies to man was asserted by the famed Apollo in one of his Oracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before us and before the Divine Production of the World there were Immortal Spirits created for our Utility That there was an Apostasie or fall of some of those Angels among whom there was a Chieftain whom they called Typhon or the Devil Isidis nomine Terram Osiridis amorem Typhonis Tartarum accepimus who degenerating from their Proper Natures instead of continuing friends became the mortal enemies of God and man is plainly intimated in the Doctrine of the Ancient Theologues who as Macrobius tells us
of the Daemons Who from the Beginning Assigned every One His Own Daemon and does in Sacrifices according to His Own Pleasure shew every Man His Own Nor is Iamblicus's Testimony the only One I have in this matter for Plato in his Convivium having spoken somewhat of the Nature and of the Offices of Love to the End he might Discourse more confidently of it Introduces one Diotima a Stranger but a Prophetess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and makes her answer Socrates inquiring what that Love should be That it was not God himself as he had apprehended it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Great Daemon Mediator between God and Man She sayes the Great Daemon for she supposeth there are many Daemons but this the Great One or LORD-DEMON 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are many and Diverse Daemons and Love is one of them I know you do not startle at the Name nor at the Thing Daemon though I believe some others will who are less acquainted with the Antient Learning and who know no other meaning of the word than what common usage now enstamps upon it But there will be little Reason for any man to Boggle at either if he can have the Patience but to hear Diotima describing the Demonial Nature That it is a middle one between God and what is Mortal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 't is its office to interpret and to carry the Prayers and Sacrifices of men to God and the Precepts and Commands of God with all his Gracious Retributions and Returns to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it filleth being of a middle nature Both the Upper and the Lower Region or is as a haps or common Ligament to bind the Universe in all its parts together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is the Rise and Spring of Divination or Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In fine That God and Man have no immediate communion or commerce together but what intelligence and Intercourse soever is between them Proceeds from this Daemonial Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Diotimae And how well has her Discourse it is so deep and so surprizing Rewarded our Attention to it For all she spake in General of the Daemonial Nature was intended as the scope of that Discourse evinces Principally if not solely for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Great Daemon and if she mention'd others it was by way of caution only to secure her self and Umbrage what she said that it might down the better amid the many Prejudices of the Vulgar that opposed it Nor durst Plato who was well acquainted with the Fate of Socrates and with the charge that made it more apertly explicate the matter It was the great Crime imputed to the Master and for which he was condemned and Executed that he Introduced New Daemons and it would have been a greater in the Scholar and after such Example less Excusable wholly to exclude the Old Wherefore it is not Injudicious to Understand the Proâ—hetess in the Argument preceding principally to Regard the great Daemon and who is He but Christ For it is He and indeed only He that is a Mediator between God and man and that participates them both It is He Interpreteth the mind of God and that presenteth all our Prayers and that Reporteth all his Answers and Returns By him alone we hold Communion and Intelligence with God 'T is he that filleth All things which no other Daemon can and in all the Aethereal Region in the form of God the Inferiour in the form of man and it is he that is the common Ligament that holdeth Heaven and Earth together by whom all the Parts and Members of the Universe Disbanded in the Fall are Re-united under one Head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Recapitulate is the Apostles word And well might Iesus Christ the Great Daemon of Plato be styled by him as he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love who as one composed all of Love has given greater Demonstrations in Effect of His than it is possible for Men to represent in words Nor is it contradicted by the Story which the Author tells us of the Origin and Rise of Love namely that it was the Offspring of Porus and Penia of Plenty and Poverty for what more easie Applications can be made of it than to our blessed Saviour who is the Issue of the Grace and Goodness of Almighty God and of the Indigency Need and Poverty of Man Had not Man been Indigent and Needy and God Infinitely Rich in Grace and Mercy Christ had never come As for the Resurrection of the Dead Another Article of Christian Religion it was Believed by the Druids it was Preached by the Sibylls it was implyed in the Doctrine of the Immortality of Humane Souls in the Sepulture of Bodies and in the Rights of Sepulchres which for that they preserved the Dust and Ashes of Men against the time of Restitution were esteemed all the World over Sacred and Inviolable So Phocylides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Humane to afford Earth unto Unburied Carkases Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not violate the Sepulcher of the Dead nor discover to the Sun things not to be looked on The next Verse is to the same Purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Infamous to dissolve the Humane frame or disturb his Ashes And why He annexes the Reason in the following Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And we hope that ere long the grave â—hall render up again to light the Reliques of the Dead And though in St. Pauls time â—he Multitude at Athens were so abâ—olutely unacquainted with the Resurrection of the Dead that when they had the Happiness to hear him Preach concerning it some of them apprehended him to speak of a God and all of a new and strange thing yet we know that at the same time there were Philosophers Rome that were most clear and full in their Belief and Faith of it who not unlikely with their other knowledges Received even this at Athens from some above the many Once Philosophy came from Greece to Rome and at Rome we have some Notice of this Article Seneca shall speak thereof Mors saith he intermittit vitam non cripit Veniet iterum qui nos in Lucem reponat Dies Death is but a sleep an Interruption not an Abolition of Life there wiâ— a Day come when we may Repossess the Light Thus He of the Resurrection of the Body which yet both Portius Festus and Pliny derided Democritus indeed seems to have spoken of it and that occasioned in part the Extravagant Sally and Talk of Pliny And having treated of the Resurrection of the Body I will now tell you why I premised to it nothing of the State and Immortality of the soul It was because I did esteem it as a Point supposed in all Religions and taken for granted However in regard you may
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
But they can't deny that some Particular Men lived in the world in other Nations that were belonging to the Heavenly Hierarchie And Vives in his Notes is of the same Perswasion But do you ask by what means Gentiles who were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and without the Line of that Communion became acquainted with those great Truths of which the Iews only had the solemn keeping I answer that as I have often intimated It was either I. By a Catholick or General Tradition from the first and most Antient Fathers Or 2. By some Extraordinary Revelation or Discovery made to them Or 3. By Communication from the Hebrews the Israelites and Jews who as a Church were a Candlestick to hold the Light committed to them out to all the Earth That most of those Doctrines I have noted were communicated down from hand to hand by Immemorial Tradition from the first and most Antient Fathers is not difficult to be conceived by those that know that as all men came from Adam in the first World so that in the second all did Descend from Noah who had the knowledge of the true Religion and instructed all his children in it which children cannot be imagined but also to instruct and teach theirs and so onward But this is not all for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mos majorum was a thing insisted on by all the Heathen who ever pleaded for the Rites of their Religious that they had received them from their forefathers and that they were of Antient Usage yes and that Plato whom Aristobulus the Iew affirmeth to have been a follower of the Law of his Nation and to be very studious of the Doctrines in the Sacred Oracles and whom Numenius for the same Reason styles the Attick Moses he sayes expresly That he Gleaned all he had and wrote in that kind out of Immemorial and Unwritten but almost expired and worn out Traditions For in his Politic in the Place which I have cited in my Advertisement to the Reader he plainly tells us That the points he speaks of were transmitted from our first Predecessors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That those that lived in the former Ages Preached it is his own Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were Preachers of the very things that now are causelesly rejected of many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The like in his Philebus which I also noted before wherein he sayes that the Antients better men than we and dwelling nearer to the Gods delivered to us the Report or Fame of these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yes and in his Republique he maketh Adimantus in Address to Socrates to speak the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deducing your Discourses from the Anâ—ient Heroes who were from the Beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Remains of whose Discourses are arrived even down to us 'T is very probable that these whom Plato calls the first Ancestors the Antients better men than we nearer to the Gods Heroes that were from the Beginning I mean the first Patriarchs for so I understand him Noah for instance and his children are the same designed by the fam'd Apollo when in answer to a grave and serious Inquiry made by Zeno Citticus how he might institute and frame and order his Life Best He sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he would institute and frame and order it best if he made it to conform to the Dead Apollo's Dead and Plato's Heroes are the same Thus by Oral Tradition or Report by which I mean a delivery down of Doctrines from hand to hand by Words or else by visible and significant Actions many things were transferred from preceding to succeeding ages But Report or Oral Tradition and Delivery is in it self a means of conveyance so Uncertain and fallible that when it passes many hands there can but little be consided to it in controverted matters for then it proveth most commonly so diversified and various that it is the cause of Controversies not the cure the persons that convey it are so lyable either to mistake and Imposture or to design Interest Nothing is more Obvious or more frequently experienced than this For the Report of an Accident but at One End of the Town albeit it may Retain as for the most part it doth some general likeness and similitude of the First and Original Truth yet 't is disguised with a thousand Errors though perhaps in some places with more in some with less according to the different Capacities Numbers Tempers Affections and Designs of those that have the conveying of it Report the further it goes the more it loses of Truth and the more it gains of Error In this Instance we have a lively Pourtraict of the False Religion of the Gentiles and the plain Reason why it seemeth in so many things an Apish Imitation of the True why it is so diversified in it self and yet withall Retaineth such Resemblance and Conformity with Ours It is because that all men came from one and that all men came from one and that not only Adam but Noah did instruct his children in the Mysteries of the True Religion and in the Rites of it and these again Reported to theirs and so onward But we may easily believe it to have hapned in this Tradition as it doth in all others that there was almost in every New delivery and Transmission for the mentioned causes some departure and Recess from the Former and thence arose so great Diversity in several parts of the World yet what also is in all Reports notwithstanding so much Variation in Particulars as there was among them all Retained some Agreement in the General and that Greater or Lesser as those that made them were either nearer to the first Reporters or more Remote or else were more or less Intelligent Faithful careful and sincere in Transferring them Cunning and Designing men foisted in something of their own and made the Catholick Traditions to father their conceits But others were more Honest Hence the Variety and hence the Agreement in the Religions of the World Now those General Articles Heads or Points of Religion wherein all men all the World over commonly agree and which are therefore called common sentiments though they be not what by some they be imagined Innate Idea's or Notions ingrafted and imprinted on the Minds of Men by Nature but as I have evinced them main and substantial Points of the first Tradition and consequently Retained in all the following with more or less Disguise yet be they as Infallibly and Indubitably true as if they were since 't is as impossible that they should obtain so Universally all the World over if indeed they were not the Traditions of a first and common Parent as that they should be false if they were For grant one first Parent common to all the World who could not but know the Truth and that he so delivered things to his Children and
is believed from thence transplanted into Gaul Which Opinion he confirms nunc qui diligentius eam rem cognoscere volunt plerumque illo discendi causa proficiscuntur And even to this day those who will more thoroughly understand that matter do for the most part sail over into Britain to learn it And indeed it cannot be imagined to be communicated from the Iews any other way than by Sea since the Intermediate Countreys through which it must have passed by Land have no Vestigia of it As for the second Point That the Britains received those Knowledges which were the foundation of the Druids Institution from the Orient is very probable because it is apparent by very ancient Story that they had no little Correspondence with it for not only Caesar but Diodorus Siculus mentions the Chariots that as in the Eastern Countreys they used in War which the rest of Europe did not and the latter faith expresly Britanniam tradunt incolere Aborigines qui Priscorum more vitam degunt utuntur enim in pugna curribus velut antiquos Graecorum Heroes usos in bello Trojano ferunt The Inhabitants of Britain are said to be Aborigines living after the manner of the Antients for in fight they use Chariots as in the Trojan War they say the Old Heroes of the Greeks did That the Phoenicians sailing hither and Jews perhaps with them brought those knowledges is most likely because they were the Merchants of the World and antiently most famous both for Navigatition and for Trade so that as Gold obliged them to sail to India Cinn might to visit Britain Britanni qui Juxta Velerium Promontorium incolunt which dwell at the Lizard mercatorum usu qui eo stanni gratia navigant Humaniores reliquis erga Hospites habentur Thus Diodorus So long ago was this Island fam'd for Tinn for which in Caesars time it drove a great Trade with the Gauls In fine not to mention that the name of Druid derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Oak a Tree of old in much Repute with the Hebrews that which renders it the less Unlikely that the Phoenicians inlightned by the Iews were founders of the Order of Druids is that conformity of Customs that the Gauls had with them in sacrificing men for expiation of God and for Redemption of their own souls they being framed to this Usage by the Druids upon a a Ground received from the Phoenicians Quod pro vita hominis as Caesar gives it nisi vita hominis reddatur non posse Deorum iminortalium numen placari That nothing can appease the Immortal Deity or content and satisfie for the life of man but the life of a man This Principle the rise of Humane Sacrifices whereon if the Story be not a corruption of that in Holy Writ of Iephta Agamemnon offer'd Iphigenia looketh high and doth effectually evince what I so often have inculcated that the Heathen usage of sacrificing men had its foundation in that great Tradition of the Seed of the Woman that he was to make his soul an Offering to God for sin and that no consideration could content Divine Justice for the Lives of men that had been forfeited to it in the fall but the Life of Christ a Man The Redemption of a soul is precious It is true I find in Diodorus that the Ethiopians were so great Pretenders unto Religion and Antiquity that they affirmed Worship itself to have had its Origin and Rise among them Asserunt Deorum saith he apud eos cultum primitus adinventum Sacra insuper Pompas celebritates aliaque quibus Diis honores impenduntur ab eis fuisse reperta Qua ex re ipsorum in Deos pietate religioneque inter omnes vulgata videntur Aethiopum sacra Diis admodum grata esse Hujus rei Testimonium asserunt Antiquissimum fere ac celeberrimum apud Graecos Poetarum qui in sua Iliade Iovem reliquosque una Deos introducit in Aethiopiam tum ad sacra quae cis de more fiebant tum ad odorum suavitatem commigrantes But 't is easie to imagine how they might receive their knowledge from the Aegyptians their Neighbours and consequently though we should not believe Iosephus that Meroe antiently was Saba how much they were indebted to the Queen of Sheba and the Iews that great Person so dispersing and spreading among the Heathen far and near the knowledge learned by her in the Royal Court of Solomon that she is in story celebrated for it for a Sibyll and so styled by some the Babylonian and by others the Aegyptian I impose not my conceits upon you what I now say is a matter vouched by as good Authority as any we can have for things of this Nature Hear Pausanias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After Demo there comes another who by the Hebrews that inhabit above Palaestine is reputed a Wife or Inspired Woman her name is SABBA whom some call the Babylonian some the Aegyptian Sibyll Thus He. Further I might here add what others have discoursed more at large before me that the Greek Philosophers immediately derived from the Jews some of the knowledge which they had of true Religion Clemens Alexandrinus undertook the Province long ago which since him others also have discharged it is his main business in his second Book of Stromata to demonstrate how Prodigious Plagiaries the Greeks were in all the Rites of their Religion and to instance what they stole from the Iews And though Laetantius gainsay what I am now about to tell you yet I find it in Porphyrie viz. That Pythagoras himself did travel to the Hebrews and was instituted by them and Aristotle though I think him not a Iew as some assert him yet if we may believe Clearchus his Disciple who in Iosephus tells you it he was instructed by a Iew a Coelo-Syrian In fine what to me is more than all I yet have said it is evident from the History of Sacred Scripture that it was the great Design and End of God who is most Wise and Good to give the rest of the World at convenient Periods some Intimations and Discoveries of himself by means of the Hebrews to the end that he might never leave himself without witness but might Refresh the knowledge which they had received of him by Tradition or otherwise when it was almost outworn and vanisht For this purpose while mankind was yet but of a narrow spread he ordained the travells of the Patriarchs and when afterwards it was of greater he set up the Nation of the Hebrews as it were a Beacon on a Hill in the midst of all the Earth to lighten it And more than that he orders several scatterings and dispersions of them first of the ten Tribes by Salmanazer then of the two by Nebuchadnezar into Countreys into which there was Resort from all the world After this he in his Providence obliged Alexander great Founder of the Grecian Monarchy to
visit Iewry to venerate Iaddus the Priest to Invest the Nation of the Jews with great Immunities and Priviledges From which time not only the People but their Usages and Laws became of so much Reputation that Ptolomy the Son of Lagus that great Patron of Learning and Lover of Books procured the Mosaick Writings to be solemnly translated into Greek then the Universal Language by which means the knowledge of Good as well as Copies of the Bible were dispersed and scattered throughout the whole Earth In a word who knoweth not that in our Saviours time there were Iews or Israelites of all Nations under Heaven of so large a spread then was the knowledge of God Acts 2. So beholding were the Gentiles and yet it cannot be denyed but that they so avers'd and hated the Iews to whom they were obliged that in their Writings they make no frequent mention of them and when they do any it is with hard words Reflecting on them as a People most conceited superstitious absolutely unworthy all remembrance for which Reason their Doctrines were by most despised or if received by some more knowing and discerning than the Rest and so proposed to others it ever was with much disguise and alteration left they should betray their Original Thus the Light shined in Darkness and the Darkness comprehended it not And so much by way of Demonstration of the knowledges the Gentiles had before Christ and of the Methods wherein it may be probably presumed they received them As for what they have been Owners of since and how they came to be so I shall only offer what is generally acknowledged that in the very first Age and Century the Gospel way communicated unto all the Earth either by the Apostles themselves or their Disciples and followers their sound went over all the Earth and their words to the End of the World and that there was not that Place and Region then inhabited wherein it may not be evinced by either plain and undoubted History or by apparent Probability that the name of Christ was heard of Go disciple all Nations saith our Saviour to his Apostles and the Fall of the Jews saith Paul shall be the Riches of the Gentiles Among the Fathers Tertullian Chrysostom Theophylact Hilary are of the same Opinion And in the Industrious Purchas you may read the several Peregrinations of the Apostles with the Proofs he gives of them It were easie for me to instance in the most Remote Regions how the Gospel came into them but that I judge it superfluous only because you mentioned China as an Example of the grossest Ignorance of God and Christ I shall mind you of the Antient Stone not many years ago discovered in it which affords an admirable Testimony that the Gospel penetrated thither by means of St. Thomas as also of the Chaldee Breviary rited by Alvarez Semedo which assures us of the early preaching of the Gospel of the same Apostle among the Chinesians Indians Aethiopians and Persians And for America it is evident from Vega who was born in Cusco and of the ' race of the Inca's That it was uninhabited long after the Incarnation of our Saviour and some have thought it worth their labour to evince That at least some of the Inhabitants in it are Iews And it would be worth ours had I leisure to display the admirable Methods wherein Providence hath from time to time revived the knowledge of Jesus Christ in Regions where it was effaced and worn out But you will say that perhaps the Antient Heathen might be so enlightned before Christ and so since and that those among them which were Humane and Civil might retain much of what they had received from their Ancestors or otherwise in points of Religion but that it is as evident there are a many Savage and Barbarous ones for instance not to mention any remote and distant times these in ours about the Bay of Soldania and Cape of Good Hope the Lapps and many others And shall these be damned to Eternal Torments for what they cannot help Shall these be cast into everlasting Darkness and Sorrows without Reserues c. I answer that besides that their Ancestors may long ago have had the opportunity of hearing the Gospel which they either entertained not or having entertained afterwards Revolted from it to Barbarity and Heathenism so that God in Righteous Judgement might punish them in their Posterity with the want of what they rejected I say besides that there is no Nation under Heaven so Inhumane Barbarous and Savage but that though it may not have as much as many others yet it hath sufficent light concerning God and concerning common Offices and Duties of men such as does leave them inexcusable and without Defence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Pauls expression Of this no Question can be made in as much as those that have the least light have more than they improve or live to which having there is no Reason for them to complain they have too little it is their Omission and no man may pretend the Advantage of his own Guilt as well as their Unhappiness they have no more who imploy not and improve not what they have Light is a Growing and Improvable thing they would have received more in using what they had The Blessed Spirit who is free and unconfined and who bloweth where he listeth would not have failed to Assist sincere and hearty endeavours This is certainly the cafe of all how Barbarous Rude and Savage soever they have sufficient Light and Means afforded to them to be better a Light within them and a Light without them Subjective and Objective Light First A Light within them This is the true Light that enlightens every man that comes into the world By the Light within I understand nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Practique Reason that Ray of Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness who is Original First and Primitive Reason by which a man enabled to discern Good and Evil Vertue and Vice Rectitude and Turpitude is agreeably inclined to Pursue one and to Refuse the other So Seneca I now therefore return unto that which thou desirest me to Resolve thee in how the knowledge of that which is Good and Honest came first unto us This Nature could not teach us for she gave us but the Seeds of Sciences and not Science it self Some say that we casually come to the knowledge thereof which is Incredible that the Image of Vertue shall casually appear unto any man But we suppose that by Diligence Observation and frequent conference of things estimated by that which is Good and Honest we have attained to this Knowledge c. I know that Archelaus Aristippus Carneades and others hold Opinion that neither Rectitude nor Turpitude Vertue nor Vice Good nor Evil are by Nature so but by Law and that there is nothing either Honest or Dishonest Vertuous or Vitious Good or Evil Essentially Intrinsecally and in
Conscience It is an Instinct or if you please a Natural Impression of a Future Judgement in the Mind of Man You may call it a Natural Habit. An Habit because it was at first an Adventitious Impression Natural because now it is Original and transmitted in the same way as other Natural Qualities This Impression of a future Judgement or the Fear of God as Judge might first be taken by Adam when after he had eaten the Forbidden fruit Hearing God coming he avoided him and fled which I the rather think because Natural Conscience before Illumination of it by Divine Grace is apter to accuse and terrifie for Evil done than to receive comfort for Good Which Impression so Received and Transmitted to Posterity is confirmed and strengthned or else weakned and abated in them and perhaps extinguisht by Education and Usage A constant Exercise of Religion by Preserving Fear of God preserves the Impression without that it first Abates and then Expires Men of no Religion will in time be men of no Conscience Conscience in Adam was Knowledge he feared God because he knew him In his children Instinct they naturally fear a Reckoning and can't help it Taking this to be the true Nature of Conscience that it is the Practique or Reflexive Power of the mind as formed with an Instinct of a Future Iudgement All its Operations are most easily conceived For then if a man Reflect and seriously considers either that he hath omitted what he ought to have done or else hath practised what he ought not he is conscious in it that he hath Incurred the Displeasure of a Superiour Power and consequently is full of Terrors and Horrors from an apprehension of his coming to Judge for it or if he be conscious that he hath Performed what he ought and consequently that the Power above him is well pleased this possesseth him with secret Joy as being one in Favour with his Master who will not fail one day to make him see the Effects of it Their Consciences Accusing or Excusing This Conscience naturally is in every man who by it is a Law to himself till he fear it Of this Conscience the Heathen have spoken much Hear one or two for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is conscious to himself of any crime be he never so stout his conscience makes him most fearful and Timid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For a man to be conscious to himself of having done no wrong in his whole life it affords him unspeakable Pleasure So much for the Light within But Divine Bounty infinitely transcending humane Apprehension hath afforded Man not only Light within but Light without For that which may be known of God is manifest unto him For the Invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen in the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-head and he left not himself without witness in that he did Good and gave us Rain from Heaven and fruitful Seasons filling our hearts with Food ' and Gladness This Light without is styled Natural Theologie and is a manifestation and Discovery in the things that are made and in the Providential Dispensation Government and Conduct of them That God is and that he is Almighty Infinite Eternal Immense All-wise All-knowing Bountiful and Benign which is principally shewed in the former And that he is Suâ—ream Rector and Governour of all that he loveth Righteousness and doth Right that he is Gracious and Merciful and that his Mercy is to All and over All his works and this is principally shewn in his Providence Hear Hierocles concerning Natural Theologie and perhaps Christologie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature having fashioned the Visible world according to Divine Measures did by Proportion every where in different manners conform it unto himself and express the Image of Divine Pulchritude in all the Species and kinds of Beings through the Universe in this one way in that another so that Heaven was to have Perpetual Motion Earth Stability but both of them to bear some Footsteps of Divine Similitude And so the Apostle who is the Image of the Invisible God the first born of every creature for by him as by an exemplar all things were made c. This Theologie indeed is â—ieroglyphical and Figurative Nature an Allegory God is represented in her and in Providence as a Cause in its Effects and as a thing is signified in the sign that sheweth it not to the sense but by it to the mind But as it is significant it is also suitable congruous convenient unto Humane Nature and consequently plain enough For as Man is an embodied and incorporated mind a Rational Discoursing Animal one that inferreth thing from thing so it is agreeable and sit that God should represent himself unto him in Types Figures Signs wayes wherein he is to exercise his Reason and Discourse Such is the Demonstration of Almighty God in the World It is not that of Colours to the eye but of Conclusions in the Premises unto the Mind the Theologie of Nature is significant and the World a System of Divinity AEnigmatical and Symbolical God is â—een and represented in it but so that while the Senses shew it is the Understanding that does see and read him The Invisible things of God are clearly seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being minded Sensibles are Signs and a Sign is what doth offer somewhat to the Sense but more to the mind God must be minded in things made or else no seeing of him in them so Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pursue the Footsteps or Vestigia of God And so Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Follow God or Imitate him who goeth not before us Visibly to the Eye but who is to be seen by the Understanding Harmonically in the Eutaxie and Goodly order of the World So much Light without and such a Light within have all and those who live not up unto it and don 't improve it are inexcusable and without the least Defence or Apologie so that they are without Excuse Now thou art inexcusable O man And I take it Jesus Christ himself in that so well known Parable of the Talents designed the Vindication of Divine Procedure in this Particular now before Us And if you will give me leave to say it even the satisfaction of your scruples For in the Distribution of the Talents to one five to another two to a third one conceive him by the first to intimate inlightned Iews and Christians by the second Civil and by the third Savage and Barbarian Heathens and then you have your case wherein be pleased to observe How he with one Talent when called to Account but Pleadeth for himself as you have pleaded for him by Reflection on his Master accusing him of want of Goodness and of as much Injustice for expecting from him what he could not do and for condemning him for what he could not help Then he which