the High Priest slew in the Tabernacle but in a place separated with a veil from the Ark a sacrifice for the offenses of the whole people and once in the whole duration of the World a Man devoted thereunto offers himself in sacrifice and suffers death upon the Earth a place remote from the presence of God and sever'd from his especial mansion by the extent of the Heavens as with a veil to the end to oâ—tain remission to all them that seek it This being done the High Priest took the blood of the Victime and presum'd to enter into the Most-holy place within the veil and to appear before the Mercy-Seat And the same Man Holy and without spot after having suffer'd in the World taking confidence from his sufferings as having satisfy'd the justice of God dares attempt to ascend into the Heavens and pass beyond the veil to present himself before the Lord in the habitation of his glory For he no longer dreaded his presence having undergone all his wrath Lastly the High Priest dipping his finger in the blood sprinkled it seven times before the Mercy-seat Now the Septenary is a number of perfection as the Jews themselves acknowledge And the same Man who suffer'd death for the remission of sins being entred into the Holy of Holies in the Heavens abides there untill the consummation of Ages to represent his sacrifice continually before God and by this his intercession to render him eternally propitious unto us Let them therefore consider a little without passion or prejudice the correspondence and resemblance distinctly For whereas in all that external service God had regard to something to come what better interpretation can be made of this mystery then that the sacrifice of a beast prefigures that of a man the expiation of a corporeal defilement a spiritual purification the place where the victime was slain the World the veil the Heavens the Most holy place where the Ark was the habitation of Gods's glorious residence and the sprinkling made by the High Priest the perpetual intercession of him that offered up himself by the Eternal Spirit Wherefore let them either admit this explication thereof made by the Christian Religion or study to give more congruous and sutable Which I assure my self their attempts to effect will be so vain and all their inventions so extravagant that in respect of ours they will be but as darkness in comparison of light But that all these typical representations have been really acted and accomplish'd shall by the help of God appear hereafter with abundant evidence Now if our Christian Religion be thus excellent above that of the Jews in the understanding and application of their own Ceremonies it is also far superior to it in those which Christianity it self practises of which indeed it ought not to be destitute And first it is highly advantageous to us that they are few in number and consequently less painful and laborious Next that they are less carnal and material as not being appendances of a Religion which seem'd to consist wholly in out-side in the mean while till the spiritual things which it promised were really exhibited And lastly that they are eucharistical and commemorative of that truely propitiatory sacrifice which ha's been already offered and by consequence more proper to beget piety in our mindes because they represent and apply things past to us of which we have a perfect and cleare knowledge whereas the Jewish figur'd the same as future obscure and in a riddle Moreover he that shall duly consider the external face of the true Church its exercises of devotion its pompous simplicity and modest magnificence singing publick and solemn prayers due celebration of its mysteries without Idolatry or Superstition and on the other side without contempt of a Being so worthy of profound admiration and reverence and that excellent custom of instructing the people by Preaching and dispensing the Christian Doctrine to edification and comfort by exhortations and convenient reprehensions will find that there is a more pleasing and comely spectacle in the order of its divine ministry then in that butchery of sacrifices which was made in the Tabernacle where it was necessary to be always imployed in washing and cleansing away the blood and scouring all the utensiles of the service from the soile and fat of sacrifices And it may be also observed that whereas the Jewish Religion arrested the mind to sensible things affording them but very little taste of spiritual and intellectual as 't is the custome to retain children and instruct them in gross and sensual things for that their reason is yet but weak and they live principally according to the guidance of their senses On the contrary in the Christian Religion men are reclaimed from sense to understanding so that what is sensible in it is not capable to arrest our minds on it although it be profitable to lead us to the use of spiritual things where with our souls are abundantly fed and satisfied and this because that the Church under this Religion is come to perfect Age being indued with far greater strength of reason and understanding to comprehend them This the Prophets first taught us who have spoken so disdainfully of all those external ceremonies of the Mosaical Law as we have seen above in comparison of the internal virtues of the Soul And indeed nature it self would teach us the same though they had been wholly silent of it For since man being compos'd of body and soul is principally man by the faculties of reason and understanding the Religion which consists rather in corporeal exercises then in the instruction and perfectionating of the mind must be judged infinitely inferior to that which is concerned principally and almost solely about the Soul As for the Decalogue it ha's not been less illustrated by the preaching of the Gospel then the other Not that there ha's been any thing relating to piety and good manners taught by the Gospel which was not compris'd in the Moral Law Since this Rule of Justice and Perfection ha's been alwayes like to it self in all Ages But the understanding of it having been corrupted partly by the hypocrisie and partly by the profaneness of men the Christian Religion ha's reduc'd it to its primitive purity and restor'd it to the highest pitch of its natural perfection The Jewish Doctors upon this Commandment Thou shalt not kill thought that it was enough to abstain from the effusion of blood and otherwise either justified or excused wrath desires of revenge and words of spight and scorn The Christian Excellency teaches us that 't is not the external act of murder only that is forbidden but even the least motions of the mind that carry to revenge the most loose thoughts of mischief and the slightest words uttered in offense to our neighbor either by derision or outrage Then which what is more agreeable both to the nature of God who is so good and who is not the judge onely of
he had pronounced them with his own mouth may beget an immutable certainty that although the expressions be Allegorical yet the reality equals or surpasses them which unquestionably produces wonderful effects Whereas the opinion that other descriptions found in the Books of Poets are humane inventions disparages their authority and so renders them wholly ineffectual Let us proceed now to the other point of this Chapter Because as it hath been shewn all knowledge which we have of God comes either from a particular revelation or from contemplation of his Works and that all our piety is deriv'd from and regulated according to the measure of such knowledge it is of high importance especially to those who acknowledge no particular revelation to the end they may become truely pious towards God to have an exact knowledge of his Works namely of the World and the things contained therein I demand therefore whether they believe that God is the author of the World For if they do not but deny that he created the matter out of nothing of which it is compos'd or introduc'd the form into the matter which we behold in it they are as much at a loss as Epicurus to make out whence they learn't that God is powerful or what is the measure of his power so far are they from being able to assure themselves that it is infinite There is indeed a great Virtue requisite for the administring of Providence and which being duely considered by right reason is found to be infinite But if there hath ever been one person among the Philosophers that reason'd in this manner God governs the world Therefore his power is unlimited which I do not meet with any that ha's done there are found a thousand who conceived that God employ'd his utmost skill and ability in the government of the World and that his object was proportionable to his power so that being but sufficient to all the World he was not able to remove so much as one straw besides unless he should during that little space surcease his action by which he moves all this great mass of the Universe Whereas they which believe that God created the World and that he created it of nothing do necessarily imply in that belief this other that his power is immense since there is an infinite distance between Being and Not-being and those two terms as they speak cannot be conjoyn'd nor the one be pass'd from to the other but by a power of infinite extent Wherefore these people cannot adore God with assurance in reference to the infiniteness of his power For that right reason which is necessary to frame reasonings from the conduct of Providence which may infer the immensity of the power of God is not to be found in any of mankind since the corruption which befell it Moreover they deprive themselves of the fairest inducement to praise and thanksgiving which can be imagin'd For if God did not create the World he ha's not manifested any proof of his goodness in giving Being to the Creatures which is infinitely better then Not-being and consequently deserves an infinite gratitude if man were capable of performing it If particularly he did not create the World for man nor gave him that dominion which he challenges over all things by imagining himself the King of the Universe he does not ow him one word of thanks and ha's no reason to say as a great King once did Lord how illustrious is thy Name Whose power both Heaven and Earth proclame When I the Heavens thy Fabrick see The Moon and Stars dispos'd by Thee Oh what is Man or his frail Race That thou shouldst such a shadow grace Next to thy Angels most renown'd With Majesty and Glory crown'd The King of all thy Creatures made That all beneath his Feet hast laid All that on Dales or Mountaines feed That shady Woods or Desarts breed What in the Airy Region glide Or through the rowling Ocean slide Lord how illustrious is thy Name Whose power both Heaven and Earth proclame Which is reasonably a hymne more agreeable and well-pleasing to the Deity then the sume of all the Incense of Arabia But in the next place what duty will man think he owes to God even for his Being if he believes not that he receiv'd it from him And will he not rather be ready to place himself equal with him being not dependant of him for his Being since there is nothing more renders things equal one to another then Independance It is true it may perhaps be said that men are oblig'd to the Deity in as much as they depend of his Providence because if that did not preside over natural causes and cause them to produce things necessary to the support of Life we could not subsist and therefore he which gives the conservation of a being obliges as much or more then he which gives the being it self and he that feeds and defends then he that begets But this is a gross mistake of theirs and their pretended reason deludes them For if God be not the Author of the World how is he the Preserver of it Do's it not belong to him that made the Work to take the care of it Whence hath he authority to intermeddle in the Works of another or the World the necessity of being guided and preserved by the hand of God if it was not framed by the same And indeed God must either be the author of the World or Chance as Epicurus affirmed or as others Nature or it had never any beginning but hath existed from all eternity If it was Chance that made the world then consequently it is also preserved and governed by the same hazard And truely Epicurus was consistent with his own Principles when he denied Providence For if the World was thus framed by the fortuitous concourse of Atomes there is no need for Providence to put its hand to support it since it might be preserv'd in its Being by the same means by which it was produc'd the conservation of things being not more difficult then their first production If it was made by Nature I demand what that is For if by Nature they mean the order which is in the things of the World according to which causes produce effects sutable to themselves certainly and determinately namely both universal causes as the Heavens and particular as Animals and Plants they are not greatly mistaken We desire to know who is the Author of that order seeing order cannot be the author of it self For besides that nothing is able to produce it self into Being order is an effect of a Cause indowed with Understanding but hath no understanding it self in as much as Order is a disposition and relation according to which things are both conveniently marshall'd among themselves and rationally subordinated to some certain end Now who will say that this relation and disposition of things among themselves is it self indued with understanding And if the order of things did
familiarity with the language in which they writ to observe the same attentively For I am confident whatever some say there is not to be found in any Author Greek or Latin so magnificent and pompous an eloquence And if they understand them not in their natural language let them read them considerately in some version performed with care and diligence especially in those which are commonly call'd Living Tongues For though the Greek and Latine languages are in their own authors more rich and copious yet those which live if well manag'd are more plyable to these Translations and take off better the impression and graces of the language of the Prophets and this because they are capable of new words and phrases It will without question appear that all the reproaches profane men cast upon the Holy Books and disparagements of its style and eloquence are frivolous If therefore these Books teach the doctrine of the Trinity as we have shewn they do and are delivered to us by divine Inspiration as is clearer then the Noon-Sun what a folly would it be to go about to examine by reason the mysteries of the Divine Wisdom which it self ha's revealed Now concerning the correspondence these verities have with others unquestionable in the Doctrine which holds them forth it may seem sufficiently declar'd in the preceding discourse Man is fallen into a depth of misery and so is become an object of pity Now in whom can he excite it unless in him that is the Father of Mercy But it was by his sin and so he is an object of justice And from whom is he to expect punishment but from the supreme Judge of the World Will this Mercy display it self in pardon without punishing No that would be to the prejudice of justice Will this justice be executed upon man himself Nor so this would be to exclude all Mercy in which the Almighty takes delight What remains therefore but for God to substitute a pledge in the room of men Now it is requisite that this substitute suffer death and by consequence that he be man And it is requisite that his passion be of an infinite value and for this he must be God for no other is capable of making such a satisfaction And if he who is God be stricken by the hand of God by way of punishment do's it not necessarily follow that there are two distinct persons in God This redemption is unprofitable if it be not efficaciously applyed to man Who shall apply it to him Not himself A blind man might as well open his own eyes or a Carcase raise it self out of the grave And since this work of our salvation is common both to the Father and the Son what is more consentaneous then for them to consummate and apply it by a Virtue which is common to them both Now if it be common to both it is distinct from both How therefore is there not a Third This is that which men chiefly stumble at in the Christian Religion In all other things it is so consistent with reason that its greatest enemies dare not gain-say it In this indeed it is in no wise incongruous with reason provided it be attended to in a due maner we let not loose the bridle to its presumptuous curiosity These principles are likewise common to both the parties into which we have distinguisht all those which profess the Christian Name in Europe at this day If there be some things embrac'd by either which seem absurd to reason or contrary to piety yet it behoveth not forthwith to accuse Christian Religion for it It is meet to try the same by those Books which both equally own and explore them by the common Principles upon which their Religion is built For if they be conformable thereunto they will be found in no wise repugnant to right reason if not they must be held for humane inventions and Religion discharged of the blame CHAP. IX That Jesus is the Messias promised by the Old Testament Also Of the Divinity of the New WHereas we have evinc'd in the preceeding Discourse that the Christian Religion far surpasses in excellence of Doctrine that which the Jews of old profess'd how divine soever it was and consequently that it was substituted in its place it is now sufficiently clear since Jesus is the sole author of it and profess'd himself to be the Messias promised by the Prophets that he is really the person For how could an Impostor have been the interpreter and revealer of so celestial a Doctrine And this is chiefly the means by which he verily ought to be judg'd For 't is a man's Doctrine which manifests what he is Nevertheless our design would not be complete unless we also observ'd here briefly because others have most diligently and amply acquitted themselves in this matter the principal circumstances of his birth his Life and his Death For there ha's not been the least defect therein in relation to all that was heretofore either required or presignified by the Prophets Malachi had writ in these express terms chap. 4. Behold I will send you Eliah the Prophet before the comming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their Fathers From this place the Jews still expect the comming of Elias But what appearance is there that Elias himself should be fetcht back from Heaven to converse again here below on Earth That after so long an enjoyment of the felicities above he should return once more into the miseries of life Certainly as it was necessary for him at his reception into Heaven to be devested of the terrestrial qualities of his body and clothed with sutable ones to the place of his new abode so if he should redescende amongst us it would be requisite for him to resume qualities agreeable with a terrene condition and to despoil himself of his celestial glories Now he might well pass from worse to better from an earthly to a heavenly life but to return from better to worse would be a mutation of too much disadvantage Elias therefore was to come just as David was to come for the Prophets promised him also Not that the Son of Jesse and father of Solomon ought to arise from among the dead to repossess the Kingdom of Israel but the Messias of whom David was a type ought to be the conducter and Chieftain of spiritual armies and passing through many dangers and fights obtain peace to his people by his glorious victories Thus ought one to be born who being cloath'd with the spirit of Elias and leading the same manner of life might prepare the hearts of men to receive the Messias by preaching the doctrine of repentance with an extraordinary authority gravity And such was John the Baptist as our Evangelists describe him to us Isaiah had said in the seventh Chapter of his Prophecies Behold a Virgin shall conceive and
of the Understanding of necessary consequence the Corporeal Gestures which proceed from the same must be extreamly different one from another So that as the Adoration of an infinite thing is an ingulphing of the cogitation in ravishment and admiration of it's object conjoyned with as profound humility as the soul of man is capable of without limitation restriction or reserve so the exterior comportments appendant to the same ought to be such as may most express the acknowledgement of our selves to be nothing and our deference of all honor and glory to that which we venerate But since the honor which is render'd to a finite thing is exactly confined and determined by our mind onely to so much as it is judged worthy of the same that is according to the measure of its Virtues humility also bounding it self where it deemes the extent of those Virtues to be so it must needs be that the Gestures of the Body likewise in representing our submission will represent that we do not offer it without some limitation and that we esteem not the thing beyond the value of its being Hence it is evident that in so great an incertainty of the Nature of God which we see according to the Doctrine of the Epicureans a man cannot boast to know assuredly it will be consequent that his Disciples be brought to render him such honor as is no more competent to him then that which one should assign to a beast in respect to the excellence of its Understanding and so mock him with impertinent service Or rather in stead of adoring him as God we shall honor him as a man like as if one should make the same account of a Grand Personage and a Handsome Horse which would be no Worship rendred to God but an outrage done to him and a Sacriledge Or lastly in case a man should happen to be in the right it would onely be by hazard And with what zeal can that service be accompanied or how can it be acceptable to God which is rendred inconsiderately and at a venture The second consideration requisite to be perpended concerning the Nature of God is whether he be corporeal or not of which they can in no wise be assured if they will hold themselves to their Principles For if there be nothing in the world that declares him clearly to them how come they to have so raised and sublime a spirit as to be able to divine of what his substance is composed But because heretofore their predecessors in disputing this Point against the other Philosophers found themselves wonderfully implicated what side soever they took they answered in a kind of illusion of the World that it was not a corporeal but in a manner a corporeal essence And although they assever that to injoy the Pleasures in which the Felicity of the Deity consists it is necessary the same should be instructed with some kind of Organes correspondent to the senses of our Bodies from whence it seems to result that they hold it to be really corporeal yet when they are press'd to speak affirmatively they have not the presumption to determine it so but recur to those illusions of words which place it between Bodies and Spirits as it were in an Imaginary Predicament Now this is of greater consequence then they deem it to be For if God be a substance that partakes nothing of the nature of Bodies to possess our imaginations with an Idea of him of corporeal shape how excellent soever it be is in stead of honouring him to defame his glorious Majesty in as much as a Nature absolutely simple and spiritual far surpassing in dignity the condition of Bodies whoever conceives the same under the Idea of a body debases it many degrees beneath the worth of its being Wherefore if besides the image they so frame of it in their thought they proceed further to represent the same in Marble or Copper by artifice of the hand what is this less then doing the same wrong which should be done to an Excellent Understanding in saying it resembled a Gourd And if he be corporeal and they do not conceive him so they will fall into the same inconvenience I mentioned above of worshiping not the truth of the thing to which they pretend to render honor but the dreams of their own fancy To what I have already evinced I shall further adjoyn that it is natural to men when they think upon any thing to transmit their Minds to the place in which they imagine such thing to be which is the reason why although we never were among the Mores and Toupinemboults yet we cannot restrain our selvs when we sometimes call them to remembrance srom sending our thoughts to the places of the Geographical Charts in which the Regions of their habitations are designed And if a Peasant happily hear mention of those remote people he presently fancies before his Fys the Sea that lyes nearest his habitation because he ha's understood it is necessary to pass over that to arrive at the place of the world where those Savages abide It is indeed nothing at all Incongruous or strange that Nature should have given us such inclinations because they serve in some measure to recreate and arrest ouâ—â—inds whose thoughts being otherwise roving and without guidance would be lost and vanish of themselves as the irradiations of our eyes are dissipated in the wide Acr when there is nothing before us to arrest our view And notwithstanding we are conscious it is thus in all occasions yet it is more particularly remarkable when ever we find our selves agitated with some vehement passion of Love and Desire Fear or Hope Now if the Epicureans represent to themselves a Deity of a finite Nature whether Corporeal or Incorporeal it matters not I would demand of them to what side of him is it that their thoughts guide them Have they credible intelligence where God is in the Heaven or in the Air in the Sea or in the Center of the Earth For as for other men they indeed are perswaded that he is in the Heavens because they believe he hath there display'd at the beginning and doth likewise still display more Effects of his eternal Power and inexpressible Goodness But the Epicureans are persons that acknowledge no tract or appearance of these Attributes imagining that admirable and glorious Machine of the Celestial Fabrick to have been composed of so many Spheres in the fair order we behold onely by the accidental meeting of Atomes But if the Splendor of that Radiant Arche seems to them a more sutable residence for the Deity then habitation on the earth or in the recesses of the other Elements who hath informed them in which Hemisphere he is whether in ours or in that of the Antipodes Then if by that chance to which they ascribe all things they should hit so luckily or determine their sancies to think him on the side of our Hemisphere will not the Epicureans that are on
ancient Master is of a different strain However all this will not secure them from falling foul upon the difficulties above-mentioned of determining the extent of estimation which ought to be had of this Attribute because it will follow that there is some measure between It and the Essence of God Now it remains absolutely unknown to us whether the essence of God be infinite or not whence consequently the measure of Veneration which we ow him in regard of that Perfection is to us equally unknown Besides whereas the Faculties of all things are destinated to certain functions it will be difficult to be resolv'd what portion of power is necessary to render the Divine nature accomplisht since it cannot be understood that God either hath or ever will employ the same to the production of any effect And though it were frankly granted them that right Reason informs us either that there is no Deity or that it owns a power without circumscription Yet I dare maintain Men would make but small account of that Perfection which they knew no otherwise then by a simple ratiocination without having any actual testimony or proof of the same Who is he amongst us that cares never so little for the Great Mogul of whom it is related that he keeps thirty thousand Elephants or for any other mighty Potentate like him in those Oriental Countries because perhaps he is able to bring two or three hundred thousand armed men into the field when he pleases Do's not every one more value the authority of the meanest Gentleman in the Country where he lives if he be Lord of his village because he sees it and feels it and for that in case he offend him it serves to punish him and if he obey it he finds support by it These people assuredly have strange Imaginations and are made of principles wonderfully discordant Observe I beseech you the discourses of Epicurus when he is treating the question of the Supream Good They are universally drawn from the sentiments of the Body and from Pleasure to which our appetites naturally encline us He affirms that Nature do's not onely aspire but pine and groan after her Ease such is the violence of her inclination towards it He prescribes his Sage to refer all to his own utility and the contentment of his Senses as if he consisted onely of Body and were born for none but himself Doth he speak of the Deity and of the Honor which ought to be rendred to him He abstracts the thoughts of men so far from their proper Good he allows himself so little to be touched with the natural affection we bear towards our selves he alembicks his wits in such manner in the speculation of things purely intellectual phantastical without having any regard to his particular profit and his own satisfaction that you would judge he were all Spirit and had forgotten the care of himself and his Nature But to Character him compleately in one word he perfectly resembles that God whom he describes so negligent of humane affairs and such a lover of his own felicity For as according to his dictates God contents himself with the solitary injoyment of his eternal repose in delectation and profound vacancy from action without concerning himself with any care either of us or of our interests so Epicurus gives himself no other trouble then to seek out means how to pass his days in delights without anxious perplexing himself concerning God or things pertaining to him and so allows himself the same kindness Yet there is this difference that Epicurus do's not believe that he offends God in proclaiming openly that he takes no cognisance of things here below but dare not plainly aver that he is uncoâ—cern'd with the care of those in Heaven And nevertheless it really turns as much to the reproach of the Deity to leave all to go at random as it is horrible to make open profession of Impiety towards him But let us now proceed to the other Divine Proprieties Although the greatest part of Mankind hath always been lead to serve God by Fear of Vengeance which he inflicts on the contemners of his Majesty yet there was never any Nation but did acknowledge some remarkable Appearances of his Goodness in the Government of the Universe The whole world hath ever placed amongst his most resplendent Perfections this propensity which he hath naturally to do good to succour the Distressed to relieve the Oppressed to defend such as are injuriously outraged and even where no necessity impells or otherwise obliges him to expand himself in Liberality the Quality peculiar to benigne and generous Natures Hence have those glorious Titles been attributed to him by men upon this consideration as particularly by Homer who ordinarily stiles his Jupiter The Father of the Gods and Men not onely in as much as he is the Author of their Being as another Poet expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also for the care that he hath of them and the paternal affections he beareth towards them In effect the lustre of his Majesty dazles them when they list up their eyes towards the Heavens to contemplate there the umbrage or reverse part of him that appears in their splendor His Power astonishes them when they feel the Earth tremble under their feet or hear the tumultuous murmurs of Thunder in the clouds The admiration of his Wisdom confounds them when they come to consider that he beholds all things with one glance of his eyes and one simple indivisible apprehension the Heavens the Elements the Bodies that are composed of them the innumerable variety of their faculties and operations the cogitations of our minds and of all Intellectual Beings all things which are onely in possibility the Idea's of which are multipliable to infinity their accordances and relations their opposttions and Antipathies His Justice strikes them with dread when they Survey the strokes and examples of it in mankind by Pestilences and Wars by Famines and Tempests by over-flowes of Rivers and Inundations of the Sea by lightnings discharged from Heaven and other like demonstrations of his Vengeance In a word all his other Virtues excite either Fear or Wonder in the Spirits of men but the reflection upon his Goodness and the experience they have of it is that which rejoyces them and makes their Lives sweet and desirable As for Christians they not only admire and venerate the other Attributes of God more then ever any other people did but likewise set a higher estimate on this then other Nations ever have done and make it the prime basis on which their whole profession is supported On the other side the Epicureans if they have any knowledge of it it can be onely in an imaginary speculation in the same manner as we above convinced their conjectures concerning the Power of the Deity to be and if it fall out that they at any time praise and magnifie it it cannot be otherwise inferred but that their Devotion must be
most frequently miserable He might have ascribed to him at least as much care of Mankind in this particular as every Magistrate hath of his Commonwealth and every inferior Judge of his Precinct or Village But under pretext that there happen divers things whose causes and ends they are not able to comprehend and that many crimes are committed whose punishment is not inflicted before their eyes and that sundry upright men are in miseries whose deliverance they behold not when they esteem it timely to appear they infer that therefore God sees nothing of all this or that he regards it not As if a King had abandon'd the government of his State because such a one is not taken out of prison so soon as in their opinion he ought or that another escapes the Whip in the place where he deserved it who perhaps two days after is broken on the Wheel for another crime in the neighboring Province So likewise it may be reasonably said that in these cases they imitate the rash and precipitous judgement of an ignorant and impatient spectator that do's not expect till the last act of the Tragedy It may be further inquired whether the Epicureans do not yet in a greater measure blemish and obscure the Wisdom of God then they do his other Perfections For when they deny that there is a Providence in God seeing Providence is nothing but a foresighted and rational conduct of things to their end and of every particular thing to the purpose consentaneous to it it seems they consequently deny that there is a Wisdom in God For it is the part of Wisdom to propose to it self such a convenient end in the administration of things as it is of Providence to conduct them to that which they are designed whence as Providence cannot be without wisdom so is it likewise scarcely imaginable that Wisdom can consist without Providence Unless perhaps they here turn about to their abstracted speculations and attribute to God that Intellectual Virtue of which Aristotle speaks and composes of Knowledge and Understanding joyned together and makes to consist in the perfect cognition of all things and their principles But yet I know not how according to the doctrine of Epicurus this sort of Wisdom can find place in God For considering that there is an infinite number of things which depend on the Will of Man and that the inclinations of his will depend on the reasons and objects which perswade and move him how shall God see those things if himself hath nought to do to look into the Understanding of man to aâ—fect him with those reasons if he ha's no regard to the objects presented to us to move us if he do's not manage them to such effect as to perswade and attract if he neither incite nor restrain neither bend nor correct the motions of the Will If they say that he beholds events and by the events may divine of the causes from which they proceeded we reply that that is no more then the atchievment of conjecture and humane divination not of the Wisdom of a God who ought to behold effects in the womb of their causes and not the causes in the aspect of the effects In brief according to them God may perhaps know the things which exist but he cannot know the things which are to come any more then We and the next morning is to him in as much darkness as it is to us who are naturally very ignorant Creatures Lastly to speak openly he is a very wretched God if he be not as wise as the Sage of the Philosophers whose wisdom consists in governing himself reasonably and the things which are in his disposure according to the same rule I am not ignorant that Epicurius prohibits his Sage to intermeddle in the government of the World and the administration of the Commonwealth An Opinion so strange and pernicious to Humane Society that verily in this appears a signal effect of the Providence of God that he hath not permitted all other men to become as absolute fools as his pretended Sage For what would the World be in case wise men should forbear to meddle in it but a most horrid and tumultuous confusion without Laws order and Society and no better then a crue of cut-throats and robbers Plato without question had more Reason when he wished that either those who seriously imploy themselves in the study of Philosophy were Governors of States or they which govern States would seriously imploy themselves in the Study of Philosophy and affirmed that in such times Empires would be happy But to proceed I will admit the Sage to leave the Commonwealth to go at random yet certainly he will take care of his Wife and Children unless Epicurus represents us a Sage worse and more unnatural then Beasts Shall not God therefore take care but onely to provide himself new pleasures perpetually and imploy all his wisdom to effect that they never fail and be spent unmindful of those in the mean time that ought in some sort to be to him in the quality of children if not for being made by him at least for the affection they have to imitate his Virtues and become conformable unto him To conclude what kinde of admiration can any one have of such Divine Wisdom What other characters can be given of God then that he is a person wonderfully dextrous and industrious to invent means to produce his own contentment and render his felicity abundant and permanent that imploys all the powers of his understanding and directs all the sufficiencies of his Wisdom to that end but for any thing else he knows none of the transactions here below or if he do onely slights and derides them Are not these very fitting reasons to inducement to venerate the Deity in regard of his Wisdom Is it not very sutable to Epicurus to have been the inventor of such noble Philosophy to insult arrogantly over them that ascribe glory to God for having framed the World in the fair order wherein we behold it and poised the Earth in the middle extended the Sea about it and given air for respiration to animals for having modell'd all the Sphears of Heaven and infused into the Stars the Virtues of their influences for presiding every day over the mixture of the Elements in the composition of bodies and uniting Nations one to another by commerce for maintaining States amidst the contrariety of so many different humors and conducting the Universe like an Artificial Machine according to the genius of each of the parts that compose the same Certainly it is very easie to judge which of these two Opinions best deserves that exclamation of Lucretius Lib. 1. Deus ille fuit Deus inclute Memmi Qui princeps vitae rationem invenit eam quae Nunc appellatur Sapientia quique per artem Fluctibus e tantis vitam tantisque tenebtis In tam tranquillo tam clara luce locavit CHAP. V. The Continuation of the
executed in choler as ours is being carried thereunto by no other motive then for that he is Just But Justice is a Virtue exempt from all passion and turbulent agitation He hath a tender care over the Good without feeling the agitations and heats in his bowels which we do For he is not subject to our Evils Wherefore having no communion of nature with us he doth not behold or acknowledge the image of his natural condition in our calamities and fears not least the like should befall himself which is the principal and usual cause of our compassions He hath regard to them because he is Good Now Goodness is a propensity to do Good and not a perturbation excited in our affections and accompanied with regret or anguish But these frivolus objections are professedly answered in whole Treatises to which I refer the Readers to avoid detaining them with fruitless repetitions Let us therefore proceed to some other considerations which are more important to the matter in hand CHAP. VI. Of the Natural difference which is between Vice and Virtue and of the Terrors of Conscience Whether it can be deduc'd from them that there is a Providence IT is not my intention to be prolixe in deduction of the reasons which are imploy'd against the Epicureans in behalf of Providence It hath been done so often and by so many excellent personages aswell Pagans as Christians ancient and modern Poets and Orators Divines and Philosophers that to begin the same over again would be a work unprofitably undertaken And I cannot but wonder that especially in our times there should be people that yet call it into question and who have not been able to learn neither from Earth nor Heaven nor Men nor Angels nor from the mouth of God a thing that publisheth it self so loudly and clearly I shall onely make some reflections concerning the natural motions of our Hearts which may afford us some understanding thereof I would therefore willingly demand of these people whether they judge that there is any natural difference between Vice and Virtue so that Vice is naturally blamable and evil Virtue on the contrary honest and commendable in it self or whether they conceive this distinction to have been introduc'd onely to keep men in order and to discipline Commonwealths although otherwise they are things in their own nature indifferent For if they be of the Opinion that Archelaus was of from whom Epicurus Aristippus Carneades and many others learnt it that there is nothing in the naked essence of things that discriminates them and that the difference we find in them is proceeded onely from custome and as they speak from Positive Law whence comes that desire we are all possess'd with of being if not really at least seemingly honest persons in so much that the most wicked are offended when they are taken for such as they are and endeavor as much as possible they can to cloath their wickednesses with the appearances of uprightness and probity Certainly that desire could never be so universal were it not also natural and it could not be natural unless there be an essential difference between that from which we are desirous to attain honor and that for which we fear to meet with blame For why should Nature have inspir'd and principled us to prize the one more then the other or rather to love and affect the one and have a kind of abhorrence of the other if she her self had not placed more value and esteem on the one and blasted the other with some marks of her improbation and hatred And seeing there is oftentimes difficulty in the exercise of Virtue by reason of the conflict of our sensual appetites which resist the influences of that upon our minds and that on the other side it seems there are so many delights and pleasures in Vice which give it an easie victory and dominion over our appetites how comes it to pass that that which we call Virtue hath notwithstanding so much power over our minds as to oblige us to render it this advantageous testimony Indeed as there is perhaps no vice of so universal extent as that of hypocrisie so neither is there any that more clearly attests the excellence of Uprightness and Honesty For if Justice and Honesty is not able to obtain the rule of our affections which are in subjection to its enemy it appears at least that its Idea cannot be driven out of the understanding and that it enforces the Vitious to give sentence of condemnation against themselves Epicurus instructs his Sage to be careful of his reputation so far as not to suffer himself to be contemn'd because say his followers Contempt brings along with it very many inconveniences which cannot consist with Pleasure but are destructive to it so that if he owns no other motive to maintain a good esteem of himself but that then provided he be able to secure himself from contempt by any other means he will not be solicitous of having a good reputation Now he that sets no value at all upon a good repute is as careless of the actions that produce it For Renown stands in relation to the actions and habits of Virtue as the images that are emanent from the qualities of sensible things are to them and the bodies cloathed with them And the minds of men that judge of us and our actions are as the Mirrors that receive those images Therefore as if it were indifferent to Epicurus in what manner a Looking-glass did represent him and what images proceeded from his body fair or foul of a pleasant or horrid colour well proportion'd in their parts and lineaments or deform'd and extravagant he would give us to to judge that he did not trouble himself about the qualifications and structure of his Body so likewise the contempt that he should make of his reputation would sufficiently discover the little care he had of the constitution of his Soul But to be thus qualified a man must be both wicked and impudent in the highest degree which would be a wonderful quality for the perfection of a Wise man However as it is extremely sutable for an honest person to Love Virtue for it self and to indeavor to imitate him of whom the Athenians gave this Character He desires not to seem Just but to be so So that the perverse judgement that is made of him and his actions do not drive him to desert it and discourage him from continuing such so it is natural to men and principally to the most Virtuous to desire that their Virtue be acknowledged and esteemed according to its due value because as Aristotle saith this is its natural recompense But to come neerer to the matter in hand If it be indifferent of it self to be Vitious or Virtuous I demand whether it be also an indifferent thing to render honor to the Deity or not For if it be indifferent the Epicureans are in the wrong when they enjoyn it as meet to
we if the truth was there of which we are in despair ever to have any intelligence Shall we then have recourse to find it in the books of the Poets Truely it would be an excellent design to go about to build a Religion upon the model afforded us in the Theology of Hesiod the Hymmes of Orpheus the Poems of Homer the Odes of Pindar the Metamorphoses of Ovid and the divine Theology of the great Virgil who is so hard put to it to save the gods of the poor Aeneas from the sack of Troy and who trusses them up in the same fardel with the little Ascanius as companions of the same fortune It were more rationally credible that the beasts and trees held that rare converse together which Aesop reports of them in his Fables then to give belief to the adventures and exploits which those Poets ascribe to their Deities For in the first there would be nothing but childishness or at most but brutishness in the latter impiety and blasphemy And if as some would have it believ'd of them though perhaps themselves never thought of any such matter their intent was to cover under the veil of those fables several true mysteries pertaining to the knowledge of the Deity and understanding of the secrets of nature so far was the teaching the same after such a manner from being a divine intention that on the contrary the honor of the Deity hath thereby been unworthily impaired and the truth smother'd under most horrible lies It follows therefore that we go to the writings of Philosophers to which we cannot without great injury to truth ascribe the commendation of being proceeded from celestial inspiration since the authors themselves though sufficiently presumtuous do not pretend they were so And indeed we have shewn above that they were either wholly ignorant of the requisites to a true piety towards God or if they had knowledge of some few it was wonderfully obscure and dubious But how could the revelation of God have suffered them to groap and wander in that ignorance To conclude is it then to those Oracles of Delphos Dodona Jupiter Ammon and others the like that we owe the glory of this divine knowledge Truly it moves both shame and pity to hear themselves speak both of the original and faculty of divination and cessation of Oracles It was a heard of Goats that first brought that of Delphos which was the most famous and venerable of all into reputation But the virgins that were placed there to give answers to inquirers which they receiv'd by their obscene parts were not long there but there arise most notorious scandals of them All their predictions were ambiguous and doubtful like our Almanack-makers who prophesie by hap-hazard and themselves gave this account of it that the Daemons which spoke there not knowing things to come but by inspection of the Stars and so being able to gather from thence but incertain conjectures they shrouded their ignorance under the ambiguity of words capable of different interpretations to the end they might make good their credit whatsoever the event of things might be In a word afâ—er Plutark had bestirr'd himself on all sides to finde out the causes of these Oracles and their ceasing and sometimes conceiv'd them perishable and mortal Daemons sometimes immortal but that they chang'd place he seems to resolve upon this worthy Philosophy That the earth was in some places indued with certain prophetick Virtues which come by exhalations to be mingled and insinuated into souls fitting to receive those inspirations and so cause in them those Enthusiasmes and predictions of future things Afterwards when all the virtue is spent and the whole mass that was made thereof in the subterranean caverns evaporated then the prediction that was made by the Oracles of things to come ceases and is extinguish'd Without question those divinations could not but be very clear which proceeded onely from the fumes of the earth and the religious devotions very good that were paid to these divining exhalations and the persons who received the impressions of them in their souls But perhaps though the evidences of this divine revelation be lost I mean the books in which it was recorded yet it ha's remained in the memory of man and is preserved by practise as by a living transcript Be it so Let us therefore now examine the Pagan Religion in it self Which certainly if it was divine ought to have afforded a great knowledge of those supreme truths in the understanding of which consists the perfection of our souls And yet it ha's been pitifully defective herein For setting a part at present those principles of Christian Religion which seem most incredible and by reason of which profane men reject or suspect it there is no person that ha's a dram of common sense but will freely confess that we have beyond comparison more knowledge of the nature of the Deity and true virtue then the ancient Greeks or Romanes ever had which notwithstanding we have drawn from books more ancient then them by many ages and which condemn the Gods of all other Nations Whence therefore came it to pass that if they had that particular revelation we enquire after they were so ignorant of those indubitable truths of which we are so knowing who have learnt the same from those that are profess'd enemies to the Pagan Deities If what they believ'd in matter of Religion was truth whence do those truths which we perceive now so clearly and comprehend so certainly convince them of falshood And if the Gods which the Pagans ador'd were true Gods why do the books which have taught us so many excellent things whereunto humane reason cannot repugne call them Gods of clay And indeed they were marveillous Gods for even those that ador'd them knew their parents and could shew their tombes and tell a thousand debaucheries of them which confirm that they were so far from being worthy to reign in the heavens that on the contrary they deserved publick punishment upon earth Their thefts their rapes and adulteries their attempts against parents their whoredoms whereby if we believe their authors they filled the heavens with bastards their Sodomies and incests would not have been suffered unpunish'd by those that built Temples and Altars to them if they had apprehended them in the jurisdiction of their respective Republicks And the supreme Jupiter himself must not be excepted of whom Menelaus exclaimed with more reason then he imagin'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter pater nemo Deorum est te perniciosior What a kind of Religion is that whose Gods have had a beginning and that a long time after men of whose history we have certain knowledge For Jupiter and Saturne and Vranus are none of them so ancient as Abraham On the other side what Gods had the Nations before these came into the world Whosoever saith Plutark would search into the histories of the times that preceeded Theseus and Hercules shall find therein nothing
obscurities And indeed what a furious love of the Alcoran is it that causes a man to observe such things in it of which its author would not have us believe he ever thought and such as his interpreters reject and his followers detest and abominate For why are they so affected to the Law of Mahomet unless because it promises them all sorts of corporeal contentments And should any expound those things to them in a mystical way who doubts but that they would think his endeavor was to cause all the hope of their beatitude to vanish into smoke Moreover though for the Words and the Rime that book was written in an Arabick style good enough yet it is composed of parts so loose and incoherent amongst themselves that 't is a wonder how they that read it with so much admiration do not advert its impertinence For it is a hotchpot of several confused matters huddled together without any other connection then they have by chance and it is sufficiently apparent that it was built at several times and by divers hands and not followed according to one uniform and continued designe For he mingles therein the Histories before the Law with those after it those of the New Testament with the Wars of his own time and sometimes divides one into two or three pieces and contrarily sometimes ineptly molds two or three into one Prayers promises exhortations admonitions commandments and laws priviledges and histories descriptions of Paradise and Hell Philosophy and Divinity after his manner fables of times past and future the number of the Celestial Orbs and the death of a Cow are to be found jumbled together in one and the same Chapter And you would say sometimes that they are verily the ravings of a man in a fever or the enthusiasmes of a drunkard Vt nec pes nec caput uni Reddatur formae And if the order thereof be so perverted the matter is little better He saies that the Mind of man is a portion of the soul of God which he breath'd into him at his first creation and that under the shadow which the trees make they adore the Deity He swears by the Alcoran in one place and in another by his pen that that book was sent to him from Heaven That the Heavens would fall were it not for the Angels that pray for us That Jesus Christ had the soul of God That many deserted Christ because he was too eloquent And disputing against the Christians he proves that Jesus is not the Son of God and that God can have no Son in as much as he hath no need of any thing whatsoever He saies Men were created of shadow and Divels of flames of fire And as for the creation of the rest of the Universe he relates it in this manner God created the Earth in two days and fastned it to the mountains as it were by anchors and cables In the two next dayes he caused all sorts of herbs to spring up for the nutriment of animals After which the earth being thus framed began to emit exhalations and steams of which he formed the Heavens in two other days in which he placed the Stars and gave them principally in charge to chase away the Devils by the splendor of their light when they go to spy what is doing in Heaven Did he reason or rage when he writ all these excellent pieces of Divinity But then he interweaves the same here and there with I know not what putid fables He repeates a hundred and a hundred times so distrustful is he it will not be believ'd that God is the author of that rare book professes that all mankind together could not have made the least syllable of it He sprinkles the doctrine of the resurrection with shamefull and unprofitable fables Sometimes he goes about to discourse of matters treated on by the Writers of the New Testament and presently discovers that he understands nothing at all of them as where he makes a comparison of Christ with Adam Then in another place he trifles incongruously about the Table of the Lord and the Sacraments of the Gospel He boasts of having cemented the Moon together again which himself had cut in sunder He speaks of Predestination and the Providence of God as a Fatal Destiny and some say 't is by this means that he rendred his followers so adventurous in war because being perswaded that the decrees of that Destiny are inevitable they cast themselves without heed into the mouth of danger presuming they shall not dye in case it be not predestinated though their hearts were pierced with a hundred Javelins Lastly he contradicts himself at every turn But the thing for which he most frequently defends himself is his not doing of miracles and he will not allow anyone to require them from him though indeed he did all thing◠which no man ought to undertake unless he can prove his vocation by authentick miracles For he abolisht the constitutions which himself acknowledged were authoris'd by God as those of the Law and the Gospel He introduc'd a new form of Religion and invaded the dignity of soveraign Magistrates levying armes against Princes though he was but a private person giving liberty to slaves in spight of their masters with an absolute authority and maikng invasions and wars the most violent and bloody that ever were seen in the world But ought not he to have authoris'd himself by miracles to shew the right he had to do all this Who ever attempted any of those things as Moses or Elias or Christ or his Apostles but at sometime or other gave testimony of their celestial calling by miracles Certainly when I consider on the one side the absurdity and grosseness of almost every thing he saies I cannot but think he had great need of miracles to perswade the same to people of understanding and I should reckon it a miracle if any honest man could believe him And on the other side when I consider the nature of his doctrine and those to whom he perswaded it I conceive it no great miracle to have allur'd and drawn carnal minds by the gaudy baits of a carnal Paradise In a word it needs not to be much versed in that work to observe that it is a medly of all impertinent and bad things amongst which there is sometimes found some little good as there is in the Drugs of Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But what good there is there is overwhelmed in an abysse of falsities impieties fables and impertinences and it is not difficult to shew from what fountains he deriv'd it all The good doctrines and sentences which are sometimes met with by the way are taken from the Old and New Testament The hatred which be perpetually testifies against the doctrine of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ he receiv'd by contagion from the Arians and other hereticks that were in high repute in his time That vile pollution of Marriage by the licentious multiplicity
of wives and concubines came from the Schole of the Nicolaitans The rare carnal Paradise was the invention of Cerinâ—hus and the ancient Chiliasts and that other foist That Christ did not suffer really but onely some Fantasme in his place was forged by the Cerdonians and others of that stamp The greatest part of his Fables are borrowed from the Jews and some Apocryphal Authors that were current like false money in those times and his gross follies wherewith he hath larded and strewed it throughout came from his own ignorance and for that having himself no knowledge at all neither of the Old nor New Testament nor of the writings of the Jews nor profane histories nor the Poets he trusted to the memory of a lewd Monk and some false Christians or false Jews who never understood very much of them whence all that he relates out of them is delivered rashly and at random But on the other side though there were nothing but truth in the whole Alcoran nothing but what were rational in it self and consentaneous to the Holy Scriptures both for histories and doctrines yet the author of it ought nevertheless to be held for no other then an Impostor for that he dares to vaunt himself for a great Prophet For such a Prophet as he pretends to be ought not onely to declare things agreeing with those that were before him but either to reveal doctrines unknown till then or to expound those which were delivered enigmatically and to unveil them out of their obscurities and withall to make faith of his calling either by miracles or prophesies of things to come ratified by the events the prediction of which does not import the vivacity of humane wit by penetrating by conjectures into some things undiscern'd by vulgar eyes but the wisdom of God to whom the bottom of the most impenetrable secrets is conspicuous Otherwise all Divines that ever writ concerning Religion either Jewish or Christian congruously to the books of the Old and New Testament should be either Prophets or Apostles Besides were there no errors in the Alcoran yet how many books have we that treat the best things contained therein in a manner incomparably more excellent Wherefore he ought to be accounted a Deceiver and the father of Deceivers who being so ignorant so impertinent so absurd so discordant from truth so fabulous and pollute he yet glories that he is the greatest of all the Prophets by whose ministry God revealed himself to men Now if Mahomet himself was so gross and mad a fool his principal Doctors and interpreters had yet more need of manacles and chaines then he which I shall shew onely by the sample of two books which they have in esteem In one of which is described the journey of Mahomet into Paradise by the conduct of the Angel Gabriel He entred say they into the first heaven being mounted upon Alborach an animal something bigger then an Asse and having a humane face where he observ'd that that first sphere was of fine silver and so thick as would require the space of five hundred years to be travell'd over by a foot-man There they found an Angel so high as it would be a thousand years journey from his head to his foot with seventy thousand other Angels each of which had seventy thousand heads every head seventy thousand hornes every horn seventy thousand knots and the distance of fourty years journey between one knot and another Also every head had seventy thousand faces in every of which there were seventy thousand mouths in every mouth seventy thousand tongues and every tongue spoke a thousand languages in which they praised God seventy thousand times a day you may imagine what a rare melodious noise they made In the second heaven which is made all of burnished gold they found a great multitude of Angels greater then the former amongst whom there was one whose se et touch'd the earth and his head the eighth Heaven 'T is strange no body ever saw him at least in one of the hemispheres But all these were but pygmies in comparison of another whom they met in the third Heaven who was so prodigiously great that if he should hold all the world in the palm of his hand he could nevertheless shut it Yet betwixt him and those which were in the fourth heaven it is hard to say whether there were any proportion unless some new Geometry be f und out to express it For every one of them had seventy pair of wings in each of which were seventy thousand pinions and every pinion was seventy thousand cubits long But as for him that they saw in the fifth sphere the Poets with their Briareus never understood any thing of him for what was he with his hundred armes to the Angel that opened the gate to them who had seven thousand arms at the end of each of which he moved seventy thousand hands In the other spheres they scarce found Angels of so enormous a stature but in the eighth sphere they beheld I cannot tell what huge Gyant so dreadful that he could have swollowed the Globe of the Earth Sea as easily as a little Pill Is the true History of Lucian and the Chronicles of Garagantua to be compared to this In the other Book is recited the discourse between a Musulman and a Jew who puts questions to him about the principal points of his doctrine and here it is that the spirit of error and lying displayes its full sails He saies God created a large Carton or Paper-volume and a pen of so rare a shape that it was five hundred days journey in length and four and twenty in breadth and that with this pen which ha's four and twenty points he writes continually in that Paper all that ever was is or shall be in the world That the light of the Sun and the Moon were equal in the beginning so that the day could not be well distinguish'd from the night but the Angel Gabriel as he flew by struck the Moon with the end of his wing and made it loose half its light Mention is made there of an Ox of so immense a greatness that between each of his horns whereof he hath fourty there is the distance of a thousand years journey And yet he says this Ox is under the Earth which the Hollanders sail round about in less then a year And least the Sea should complain of being destitute of Mahometical Monsters he assignes a fish to it whose head is in the East and tail in the West which carries on his back the whole earth seas and mountains a heavy load indeed but the air and darkness which he casts into his burden do not much increase his weight He makes Rats to have been produc'd in the Ark of the sneesing of a Hog and Cats of the sneesing of a Lyon perhaps by reason of the resemblance of their snout and muzzle And he saies that Seraphiel whosoever he be is not worth much enquiry
in arms Now what is the cause of this misery but their Sins both such as are common to all men in general and particular to their own Nation For certainly God who lov'd them so tenderly and chose them out from all others to communicate his Covenants to them would not treat them so rigorously were there not some lawful cause in their extraordinary offenses And what a strange blindness and stupidity of mind is it to have so quick a resentment of evils relating to the body and not to acknowledge the cause of them What a depravity and perversity of understanding to groan under the strokes of the hand of God never to groan under the load of their own iniquity To pant incessantly after a Deliverer of the Body and never to think of the redemption of the soul They are driven out of Judaea and Heaven and Earth resound with their lamentations They are by their sins debar'd the hope of Heaven and make no matter of it They are inthralled to their corporeal enemies and murmure against God for it They themselves are sold to Satan and to Sin and do not understand the horror of this servitude They are impatient in a waiting the coming of some Person that may reassemble them from their dispersion and deliver them in reference to the body The Redeemer and Deliverer of their fouls is offer'd and preach'd to them and they reject him They flatter themselves with hope of a profound and plenteous tranquillity in all sorts of pleasures and delights of the Flesh and cheer up themselves with it They are invited to taste how good the Lord is in his compassions and they refute it Their thoughts are day and night upon gold silver silk scarlet fine linnen and jewels and their hearts leap with the fancy The Gospel tells them of riches and ornaments relating to the minde and they blaspheme it Is this the Posterity of that onely wife and intelligent people with whom God establisht his Covenants But above all the rest they do injury to the glory of that Messias who was promised to them to fancy him an earthly Prince For since themselves call his Kingdom the Kingdom of Heaven what other ought they to hope for but one spiritual and heavenly which beginning to be exercis'd here below in the souls of men which are of a spiritual nature is accomplish'd above in glory unspeakable And truly 't is to this that all the Prophets lead us from the first to the last What does that promise refer to The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head but to the consolation of man by the hope of being deliver'd from the Curse of eternal Death into which he is fallen by the deceit of the Evil One For as he sin'd principally with his soul which is the source and principle of the actions of the body and alone capable of understanding the laws of piety and obedience so it was consentaneous that the condemnation of death should be directed to the soul in case of rebellion And that other promise In thy seed shall all the families of the Earth be blessed and I will give this Land to thee and to thy Posterity after thee wherein did it profit Abraham if it aim'd no further then that Canaan which himself never possess'd and was not given to his Posterity till above 400. years after Was it either a sufficicent consolation to him in all the Crosses that he underwent or a Promise worthy of God who establisht his Covenant with him For which of us cares what will be done a hundred years after his death As for those words of Jacob untill Shiloh come they promise a Prince of peace about whom neither fire nor sword shall glitter but he shall be the author of peace between God and men It shall come to pass saith Isaiah that the Mountain of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountaines and shall be exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it But what to do Come shall they say and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths Therefore 't is to be enrich'd in the knowledge of the Name of the Lord and not in Jewels or Pearls to learn to moderate and subdue their Passions and not to conquer Kingdomes Also in the 25. chap. 6. vers In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of Wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well refined Can they take this according to the Letter It is certain there are some so stupifi'd with the wine of ignorance that they take it so and expect to be satiated with that horrible Leviathan which is powder'd up I know not where against the manifestation of the Messias Poor people who think the Prince of the Kingdom of Heaven will come to fill their bellies But behold what follows vers 7. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all Nations What is the meaning of this but that all Nations being involv'd in ignorance as in the black veil of night he will dispell all that darkness to the end they may behold the light of his knowledge that they may rejoyce I say in the light of that Sun of Righteousness who carries healing in his wings And thus through out all the Prophets which would be too long to recite there needs no more but to read them For it will be found that he is a Prince of peace upon whom the Spirit of the Lord shall rest the Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding the Spirit of counsel and might the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. That under his reign The Wolfe shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lye down with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lyon and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them c. That is He will unite the most hostile Nations together in the same society of Religion and cicurate and mollifie the fiercest people by the knowledge of the true God and render the most untractable natures gentle and sweet Which the Prophet himself expounds immediately after They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised reed shall be not break and the smoaking flaw shall he not quench So far is it that he shall batter all to pieces with Canon-shot or hew all down with the sword And as for his Glory it must needs be other then terrestrial and corporeal Since he was to be despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Since I say he
decree The Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And vers 12. Kiss the Son lest he be angry For whatever clouds they endeavor to obscure this place with it is as clear as the Noon-Sun that it cannot be applyed to David or any other besides the Messias No other can inherit so glorious a name as to be called The Son of God nor have the uttermost parts of the Earth for his possession and the Heathen for his inheritance So likewise that that promise made unto David When thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy Fathers I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish his Kingdom He shall build an house for my Name and I will establish the throne of his Kingdom for ever I will be his Father and he shall be my Son is applicable to Solomon though that which follows agrees to him But if he commit iniquity c. the too great magnificence of the words and the event of things cannot allow the Kingdom of Solomon having been first of all rent in two in the time of Rehoboam and afterwards his Throne for so many Ages so shatter'd to pieces that there are not the least reliques of it to be found in the world And in another place Vnto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given c. Of whom without question Solomon is to be understood where he introduces wisdom speaking thus By me Kings reign and Princes decree Justice By me Princes rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the Earth The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was made When there were no depths I was brought forth when there was no fountaines abounding with water Before the mountaines were setled before the hills was I brought forth When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he set a compass upon the face of the depth Then was I by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him For what a strange manner of speaking would this be if the intent were onely to express that God is wise To what purpose were it to give us notice so diligently that he was wise from the beginning if there be no other mystery in it seeing it is as impossible that he should ever be without Wisdom as his own Divine Nature What maner of expression is it of Gods being wise from all time for wisdom her self to cry out the Lord begat her Can any Poetical Fury excuse such extraordinary and uncouth fetches and especially in a Book whose style otherwise throughout though it seems writ in verse is as remote from enthusiasmes as the Heavens are from the Earth Now the Son is without question a Person distinct from the Father The Wisdom begotten from him which begets it The Branch shouted forth from him that emits it He that causes to sit from Him that sits at the right hand And reason consequently proves the same evidently For since it was requisite satisfaction should be made to that eternal and immutable Justice and it behoved him to be God that should make it to whom could he satisfie unless there be an other person likewise God in whom this Justice is considered For we have asserted and repeated many times that this Justice is a Perfection in God which consists in the hatred of evil and that God by punishing exercises the office of universall Magistrate and Judge of the World Wherfore it was necessary for the person who exercis'd this inexorable Justice to be distinct from him upon whom it was exercis'd the punisher from the sufferer For in one and the same matter and the same respect none can be Magistrate and Criminal both together Well will some say let Christian Religion stop there The Scripture and Reason hold forth these two distinct Persons But Christianity conjoines also a Third What necessity is there of multiplying thus the Persons of the Deity Indeed that which makes the Christian Doctrine seem strange in this point is that Humane Reason is not easily able to comprehend how divers persons really and distinctly subsistent can reside in one single and simple essence the union of essence being according to the judgement of Reason repugnant thereunto But if it be granted upon inducement of the Holy Scriptures and the necessary dependance of these truths so excellently coherent together that there are two distinct Persons in one single essence of God the Doctrine of a Third ought not to be scrupul'd For the Unity of the Divine Essence will be as little repugnant to the distinct subsistence of Three Persons as of Two It behoves us therefore to inquire in brief whether the Jews may finde this Third Person in their Books Now mention is so frequently made of the Spirit of God in the Books of the Prophets that it is some trouble to make choise in so great a multitude These are apparent amongst others I have not spoken in secret from the beginning saith Isaiah chap. 48. and now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me Are not the Lord and his Spirit distinct And yet to whom appertains it to send Prophets but to the Lord himself If the Spirit had not been God would Isaiah have call'd himself his Prophet And that it might not seem to be the Second Person who is call'd The Spirit he elsewhere puts all three distinctly in one and the same passage And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding the Spirit of Counsel and Might c. For it is clearer then the day That the Branch growing out of the roots of Jesse is the Messias upon whom seeing the Spirit of the Lord ought to rest and that He also as we have shewn is the Lord behold here is one only Lord distinguish'd into three Persons And in another place in the same terms The Spirit of the Lord is upon me What me The Prophet No. For it follows Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to binde up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound To proclaim the acceptable yeer of the Lord. Effects which transcend both the capacity and the condition of the Prophets times And to the same effect in another place Behold my servant to wit the Messias so styled in respect of his humane nature and because as he is Mediator he is employed by his Father for Redemption of the Church whom I will uphold mine Elect in whom my Soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him And that passage in the 1 chap. of Genesis is very remarkable though they except against it And the Earth was without form and void and the Spirit of
but full of such native decency and graces its narrations so equal and accompanied with so curious a facility that the truth of what it relates is resplendent throughout and seems to justifie it self with a confidence that none would call it in question an undubitable evidence of its generosity The discourses it assigns those it introduces are wonderfully pathetical and agreeable to the condition of the persons The things which it relates both of the creation of the World and the propagation of Mankinde upon examination of reason alone hold forth a higher evidence then that of verisimilitude And it is dubious whether the histories of the deluge of the conflagration of Sodom of the building of the Tower of Babel and the like more clearly convince the Fables we meet with in the books of Poets as a well-proportioned body discovers the deformity of the prodigious shadows it casts or whether those vain worn-out traces of these ancient verities bear a more irrefragable testimony to the same The Prophetical eruptions speak a spirit other then humane The Predictions found therein have been so ratifi'd by events that 't is too great obstinacy to disparage their credit by contradiction And if some things be related to have come to pass beyond the ordinary ways of nature as mysterious shadows of what was to appear afterwards and which really appear'd in due time there results a light truely admirable from the comparison of the Verity with the Figure And the miracles which he performed for confirmation of his doctrine and for accomplishing the enterprise which himself declar'd was committed to him which might have been refuted by a hundred and a hundred thousand persons if they had been counterfeit and for defence of which so many millions of men would at present lay down their lives clear him from all suspicion of fraud and imposture Proceed then to the books of Josuah the Judges Samuel and the rest which writ the histories of the Kings of Juda and Israel and there will appear in them such an excellent continuation both of matters and times such an exact description of Genealogies a narration of various occurrences arrived both in the Church and State in the persons of Kings and Prophets great and small Princes and Vulgar war and peace and all sorts of accidents which carry with them a thousand marks of verity by the correspondence they have with humane passions and affections and the resemblances we observe of them in the various adventures of ordinary life that a man must either bely his own faculties or give belief to such illustrious truths And remarkably here and there occur such excellent instances of the Divine Providence both in justice and mercy such illustrious examples of eminent piety and virtue in rare personages such grave admonitions and efficacious exhortations by the mouths of the Prophets that he must exceed rocks in stupidity that does not resent some lively emotions in his soul by reading them Then go forwards and read the book of the Patience of Job the Psalms of David and the Proverbs of Solomon Good God how fraught with wonders Sometimes you will meet with sentences so full of Wisdom both in reference to knowledge and moral virtue that the most excellent piece the Philosophers ever compos'd in that kind is dross and darkness in comparison sometimes with a complaint so lamentable that it may melt the most rigid hearts with compassion sometimes with the voice of God speaking and revealing himself from Heaven in a most august Majesty surrounded with lightnings and with a terrible voice resembling thunder In one place an ardent prayer in another testimonies of a fervent piety here a zeal for the glory of God and so inflam'd a virtue or else so violent a hate against vice that when you come to pass from reading of these books to those of the Philosophers or of any other whatsoever that ha's assai'd to write of such matters you will seem to be transported from Vesurius to Carcasus In the whole series of them are interspers'd predictions of future things so remote that no other but the Spirit of God durst have offered at them apostrophes to the Nations which were to be converted to the knowledg of the God of Israel exultations for the manifestation of the Messias so different from the ordinary thoughts and sentiments of men that we must forget who we are if we attribute the same to humane invention And throughout the whole body composed of members so well adjusted and disposed in so excellent a harmony together are universally diffus'd like blood replete with spirits vigor life consolation so lively efficacious and sensible to the soul into what perplexing inquietudes soever it falls that there is none so sweet a refreshment in any ardor nor soverain balm to whatsoever wound And lastly he that shall proceed from thence to the reading of the other Prophets unless he do it with much supinity and negligence will observe in each page sparklings and beams of a light and inspiration truely Divine Do they expound what the aim and use of the Law is they do it with most profound Wisdom Do they reprove and threaten in the name of God the gravity of their admonitions is inimitable and the denunciations of his judgements terrible so that no humane voice is able to stretch to so high a strain without breaking no affectation can be set out in a dress so stately constant and uniform Do they promise If temporal deliverances 't is with demonstration of so redoubtable a power that the very name of the Lord of Hosts which is so often repeated in them sounds a kinde of grandeur I know not how to express and which cannot arise from humane imagination If spiritual redemption by the Messias 't is in termes which represent an inexhaustible sea of benedictions and riches Do they foretell things to come if it be in obscure termes the very obscurity of the Prophecy is venerable and there is always something of greatness discernable cross the veil though not very distinctly if it be in plain words the names of persons designed intire Ages before their birth times predetermin'd and circumstances of matters most exactly taken notice of sufficiently argue that they are neither divinations of Daemons nor humane conjectures neither nature being capable of so remote a foresight Then their transports are so sublime and their flights so bold that no man durst attempt to soar so high the doctrine held forth is so directly intended to the glory of God and the salvation of man that 't is not possible any evil spirit should have been the author of it and the mixture of the Law with the Gospel is dispensed therein so wisely according to the condition of times and the oeconomy of Prophecies opening themselves by degrees maintained after such a rate that should men and Angels conspire together they would fall infinitely short of such an admirable wisdom And I entreat such Readers as have any
cripled members after long impotence For what are the works of Magicians usually but illusions and feats of jugling rather then actions surpassing the power of Nature Others of the Jews ascribe his admirable Works to the Cabala pretending that he stole the name of God out of the Temple and that to that ineffable Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was annexed the power of doing miracles But besides that this is a shameless fable and unworthy to be taken notice of what colour is there that four Hebrew Letters should have the power of resuscitating the dead And if the Name of God ennabled him to work Wonders was it with the permission of God himself or against his consent If against his allowance surely it would be a pitiful case should a man by subtlety steal the name of God and do miracles by it in spight of him to whom it belongs That God I say should have devested himself of his infinite power to transfer it to four small Hebrew Characters by a irrevocable donation If with his permission and consent then hereby he confirm'd the calling of Jesus and ratified the open and clear declaration he made of being the Messias Which he would never have done in patronage of an imposture God also foreshew'd that the Messias should suffer and David apparently specifi'd the manner of his Death otherwise to what end did he say They pierced my hands and my Feet since in those times of his there was not among the Jews any custome of a punishment in which they pierc'd the hands and feet from whence David might borrow this phrase For as for what they cavil upon the word they pierced me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it ought to be translated as a Lion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sence of the sentence which would by that means become imperfect and in suspence refutes it For what can this signifie As a Lyon my hands and my feet there being no connexion to that which precedes Now our Lord Jesus hath suffer'd death even the death of the Cross by which on the one side the words of David have been accomplisht and on the other that ha's been really brought to pass which was figuratively represented by the Lifting up of the Serpent besides that the Curse denounced against those which hang'd upon the tree is become expiated thereby David had said in the 16. Psalm Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see Corruption To what purpose spoke he thus if he meant it of himself seeing he is dead and in his dust with his fathers And yet he spoke it not extravagantly for the Holy Spirit which guided him did not suffer these words to escape him at randome To whom then ought they rather to be referr'd then to him of whom David was so express a type that he is styled by his Name Therefore since he was to dye and yet ought not undergo putrefaction in the grave it follows that he ought to rise again from the dead and this our Scriptures teach us of Christ and is of most evident verity though the Jews pretend dissatisfaction of it For why shall we not give credit to his Disciples who were eye-witesses of it since they gain'd nothing but persecutions and capital hatreds by maintaining it Who can imagine that men who naturally love Life should spontaneously abandon themselves to death to defend the delusion of a Death from which they could expect nothing Moreover David in the 68 Psalm saith Thou hast ascended on high thou hast lead captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men I beseech you who do's he speak of Is it of God as a person distinct from the Messias It cannot be Throughout all the whole space of Ages which pass'd before Penning of this Psalm never any deliverance was wrought for the people of Israel nor extraordinary favour shewn them whose greatness or manner may correspond to this passage and the strain of the whole Hymne testifies the contrary To whom can it sute but to him in whose time was to be seen the effect of the words which follow in the same place Princes shall come out of Egypt Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God By reason of which the Kingdomes of the Earth shall sing praises unto God and Psalms unto the Lord that is to the Messias Now our Lord is ascended into Heaven after his glorious resurrection whence he hath sent those admirable gifts of the spirit which have imbued the people of the Earth with the knowledge of the Lord whereof there need no other proofs then that the Nations heretofore the most ignorant and barbarous have now so much knowledge of the Nature of God and the truths of Religion that they exceed the Jews therein as far at least as they were exceeded by the Jews before the preaching of the Gospel Daniel had foretold that after that Christ should be cut off that is after he should have suffer'd death but not for himself The People of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary and Christ confirmed this Prophecy by foretelling that of Jerusalem and the Temple there should not be left one stone upon another Now who can doubt but that the event hath ratifi'd the Prophecy Lastly it was predicted that he should destroy the Kingdom of Satan and the worship of false Gods and since his times they have been no longer in repute even the most famous oracles have lost their very being Of which there needs no other testimonies then those of Pagan Authors who inquire after the cause of their cessation and of experience after so many Ages that their memory is quite abolisht Very good will some say but of all this we have no authors besides the Evanglists and the Apostles who are therefore justly suspected and lyable to exception as speaking in their own cause And moreover who will warrant to us say they that there were Apostles heretofore or if there were that those Writings were of their composing How frequent are cheats committed in such matters Here 't is difficult to dispute for what argument and how clear soever be brought the thing it self is of greater evidence And the Jews are very unjust and unreasonable if having no other warranty to give us of their Religion but the books of their Prophets whereunto notwithstanding they require we should yield an absolute belief and plye under those magnificent names of Moses David Jeremy Isaiah and the like they demand of us other evidence of ours then the writings of our Apostles For what reason is there to ascribe more to the former then the latter Yet let us comply in this with the obstinacy of men It is demanded whether there were Apostles heretofore But he that should demand whether there was a Caesar at Rome and an Alexander in Greece might with good reason be judg'd troublesome and impertinent for indubitating a thing of so constant credit