Will to do good and ascribed no more to Grace but that by it we had our Nature and that by our good Works we obtain Grace they also rejected the Doctrine of Predestination they say the number of the Elect may be increased or diminished that Faith is by Nature but the increase of it from God and that Charity is from Men. They hold that their elect ones have no Sin nor can sin if they would that the Concupiscence of the Flesh is from God and that rich Men that are baptized cannot be saved unless they give away all that they have Celestinus and Julianus were his chief Followers in these Errors St. Augustine and Alypyus his Friend wrote against them They were condemned by five African Councils and also by a sixth Synod at Carthage Anno Christi 419. in the tenth Year of Honorius L. 24. Priscillianus a Spaniard some say a Galatian Father of the Priscillianists under Gratian the Emperour spread his Heresie first in Spain three hundred forty Years after Christ from thence like a Canker it ran through all the West This Heresie was made up of former Heresie for with the Manichees he held the World was made by an evil God with the Sabellians he confounded the Persons of the Trinity with the Origanists he held the Pre-existence of Souls with Astrologers that all humane Events depended upon the Stars with the Stoicks that we sin necessarily and coactively with the Enaratites they abstained from Flesh and with the Gnosticks they rejected the ancient Prophets as ignorant of the Will of God He was condemned in his Absence by the Synod of Aquitane but at his Return into Spain he troubled all things At last he was put to death with Felicissimus Armenius Latronianus and Euchocia his Companions Priscillianus himself confessed unto Euclius the Prafect That he kept Conventicles in the Night with filthy Women and that he used to pray amongst them He was condemned of Heresie at Rome by Damasus from whom he appealed to the Emperour Maximus who put him to Death His Body was carried into Spain by his Party by whom he was esteemed first as a Saint then as a Martyr insomuch that at last in matters of Religion they used to swear by his Name LI. Apollinaris Presbyter in Loadicea was the Author of the Apollinarists he divided Christ's Humanity affirming That he assumed Man's Body and a sensitive Soul but not the reasonable or intellective Soul of Man because that was supplied by the Divinity Instead of the Trinity they acknowledge only three distinct degrees of Power in God the greatest is the Father the lesser is the Son and the least of all the Holy Ghost They held that Christ's Soul was consubstantial with his Divinity and that he took not his Flesh from the Virgin but brought it from Heaven that Christ had but one Will that Souls did propagate others and that after the Resurrection the Ceremonial-Law should be kept as before This Heresie brake out three hundred and fifty Years after Christ under Valens the Emperour It was confuted in the Roman Synod by Damasus Bishop of Rome and Petrus Bishop of Alexandria and in the Synod at Constantinople utterly condemned and exploded LII The Adamians or Adamites so called either from one Adam their Author or from Adam the first Man whose Nakedness they imitate sprung up shortly after the Gnosticks and were called Prodiciani from one Prodicus whom they followed of this Sect there be many extant at this day They held it unlawful for Men or Women to wear Cloaths in their Congregation and Assemblies seeing their Meetings were the only Paradise on Earth where they were to have Life Eternal and not in Heaven as Adam then in his Paradise so Christians in theirs should be naked and not cloathed with the Badges of their Sin and Shame They rejected Marriages as diabolical therefore they used promiscuous Copulation in the dark they rejected also all Prayers to God seeing he knew without us what we wanted LIII The Elcesei so called from Elcesa an Impostor and Sampsei from a spotted kind of Serpent which they represented in their changeable Dispositions were much addicted to Judicial Astrology and Sooth-saying They held two Priests one below made of the Virgin a mere man and one above they confound Christ with the Holy Ghost and sometimes they call him Christ's Sister but in a masculine Name to both which Persons they give Longitude Latitude and Locality To Water they ascribe a Divinity and so they did to two Whores Marthus and Marthana the Dust of whose Feet and Spittle they worshipped as holy Relicks they had a certain Apocrypha Book the reading whereof procured Remission of Sins and they held it no Sin to deny Christ in time of Persecution This Heresie began to spread about two hundred and ten Years after Christ under Gordian the Emperour LIV. The Valesians so called from one Valens an Arabian who out of the Doctrine of the Gnosticks or Tatians condemned Marriage and Procreation Therefore his Scholars after the Example of Origen gelded themselves thinking none can enter into Heaven but Eunuchs whereas the Eunuchs Christ speaks of be such as by Continence subdue the Lusts of the Flesh This Heresie springing under Julianus Philippus Emperour about the Year of Christ two hundred and sixteen LV. The Heicitae professed a Monastical Life but withal taught that the Service of God consisted in holy Dances and singing with the Nuns after the Example of Moses and Miriam Exod. 15. upon the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea Gnosimachi were Haters and Despisers of all Learning or Book-Knowledge teaching that God required nothing from us but a good Life Of these we have too many in this Age. But Christ tells us that Life Eternal consists in Knowledge and God complaineth by the Prophet that his People perish for want of Knowledge So Christ sheweth that Destruction fell on Jerusalem because she knew not her day and the Lord complained that his People had less Knowledge than the Oxe or the Ass therefore God hath given Lips to the Priest to preserve Knowledge and Christ by his own Knowledge hath justified many saith the Prophet The Armenii taught that the Holy Ghost proceeded only from the Father and not from the Son that Christ rose from the dead on the Sabbath day whereas the Scripture tells us plainly that he arose the third day They observed also the Jewish Sacrifices they used first to baptize the Cross then to worship it they taught it was not Man that sinned but Satan by tempting him and that Man had not propagated by carual Copulation if he had not sinned They denyed Original Sin and held that all who dyed before Christ were damned for Adam's Sin they ascribed no Efficacy to the Sacraments and yet held Baptism absolutely necessary they placed the Children of unbaptized Infants if they were of faithful Parents in earthly Paradise if of unfaithful in Hell they never baptized without administring the
going up into the upper Chambers she finds this deplorable representation of immodesty and impudence but the power and influence of Prophetical integrity brought the Woman to that pass that she was drawn in to wallow in the same mire of unshamefacedness whom therefore he advised to continue always a constant adherer to the unblameable Truth Going out of the House in this posture about three of the clock the other men and Women marched barefoot after him crying out with a horrid Voice Woe woe woe the heavy wrath of God the heavy wrath of God c. In this fanatick Errour did this Hypocondriack Rabble run about the Streets making such horrid noise that all Amsterdam seem'd to shake and tremble at it as if it had been assaulted by a publick Enemy The Burghers not having the lest hint of such a strange and unlook'd for accident for this furious action happen'd in the dead of the night took up Arms and getting these People lost to all shame and Modesty up to the Palace clapt them into Prison Being so disposed of they would own no thoughts of shame or Chastity but would justifie their most white and naked truth In the mean time the Fire being smelt they brake into the House where it was and wondring at their casting of their Clothes into the Fire which had since reached the Bed they made a shift to quench it But the other distracted and mad People such as deserved to be sent to their Kindred the Savages and Heathens inconvincibly persisted in their pestiferous Opinion and so upon the fifth of May the same year they expiated their wicked Impieties with their Death Ones farewel Saying was Praise the Lord incessantly Anothers was O God revenge thou our Sufferings Others cryed out Woe woe shut thine eyes LVIII The next we will bring upon the Stage are John Reeves and Lodowick Muggleton who would perswade us that they are the two last Witnesses and Prophets of Christ sent by his Spirit to seal the fore-heads of the Elect and Reprobate that one John Robins is the last great Antichrist and Son of Perdition spoken of by the Apostle in the Thessalonians because he sheweth lying signs and wonders and assumes to himself the Titles of the only God in that he calls himself Adam and Melchisedeck and Father of Jesus Christ in saying the three Persons in Trinity are Adam that is Himself Abel that is the Son Jesus and Cain that is the Holy Ghost many such Blasphemies they ascribe to him They affirm also that Christians using the Sword of Steel are ignorant of Jesus and Enemies to his Gospel and they teach that the two uncreated Substances of Earth and Water were eternally resident in the Presence of God the Creator that Death was from Eternity that the Person of the reprobate Angel or Serpent entred into the Womb of Eve and there died but quickened in her all manner of uncleanness that there is no Devil at all without the Body of Man or Woman but what dwells within them so that the Devil spoken of so often in the Scripture is man's Spirit of unclean Reason and cursed imagination that God the Father was a Spiritual man from Eternity and that in time his Spiritual Body brought a Natural Body that if the very God-head had not died that is say they the Soul of Christ which is the Eternal Father had not died all men had perished eternally that Moses and Eliah are Angels and did represent the Person of the Father in Heaven as they did the Person of the Son on Earth that Eliah was made Protector of God when God became a Child and that he filled the Lord Jesus with those great Revelations of his former Glory which he possessed in Heaven when he was the immortal Father and that it was Eliah who spake these words This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased they say also that all the Ministry in this World whether Prophetical or Ministerial with all the Worship taught by them is a Lye and abomination to the Lord. Again they declare that whereas there are three Witnesses on Earth Water Blood and Spirit that by Water is meant the Commission given to Moses and the Prophets under the Law by Blood the Commission given to the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel and by the Spirit is meant the Commission of the two Witnesses that were to come in this last age whose Ministry is invisible and Spiritual cutting off all formal worshipping of an invisible spiritual personal God they say there is hardly a Minister in the World that confesseth an invisible God but they preach a God of three Persons that is a Monster instead of one true Personal God they say that the true God is a distinct Body or Person as a Man is a distinct Body or Person Again they say that there is no Christian Magistrate in the World that hath any Authority from Christ to set up any invisible Form of Worship and that the Spirits and Bodies of men are both mortal both begot together and both of one nature that the Spirit is nothing without the Body and that is the Spirit alone that walks and works eats and drinks and dyes for the Spirit is a natural fire of Reason they say also that the Bodies or Persons of holy men wherein they lived and died shall not appear again any more but when the Saints are glorified they are absolutely of the very same glorious nature both in Spirit and Body as God is and that Believers Spirits are of the very same Divine nature of God This is the Sum of their Divinity and Philosophy as may be seen in their transcendent Spiritual Treatise as they call it which is sull of transcendent nonsence and blasphemies for here they lay the axe to the very root of Christianity in giving a new Father to our Saviour Jesus Christ in calling the Blessed Trinity a Monster in denying the Creation whilst they make Earth and Water eternal in making Angels and mens Souls mortal in making weak man Gods Protector and Author of that Divine knowledge which was in Christ in denying the Ministry of the Gospel and the Power of the Magistrates and the outward Worship of God and making the Souls of men corporeal in denying also the Resurrection of the Flesh and transforming men into the Divine nature By these and other wicked Tenets permitted and countenanced among us at this time we see what Christian Religion is come to in this Land LIX But before I quit this Theme it will not be altogether unseasonable that I give an account of the Ranters who are a sort of Beasts who neither divide the hoof nor chew the cud that is to say unclean ones such as hold no small correspondence with the Quakers their Lives and demeanours are much alike only what the Ranters act upon the Stage by an open profession of lewdness and irreligion the other do it within the Curtain by crafty and seemingly
Eucharist they held Baptism without Crism ineffectual they used Rebaptization they permitted the Husband to dissolve Matrimony when he pleased and denyed Prayers for the Dead and the Eternity of Hell Fire and that the Souls were not in Bliss till the Resurrection and taught that then there should be no Women at all but that they should be converted into Men. Chazinzarii were so called from Chazus which in their Language signifieth the Cross for they taught that the Cross was only to be worshipped therefore they were named Cross-Worshippers they professed all Nestorianism The Thnetopsychitae held that the Souls dyed with the Bodies Theocatus Nostor were such as reprehended some of God's Actions and Words Ethnophrones were Paganising Christians who with Christianity taught Gentile Superstition But passing over the rest let us pass on to Mahomet the greatest of all Impostors The Life of Mahomet SOME Men have brave Names but mean Actions some brave Actions and mean Names and some both brave Names and Actions In the first number Mahomet may not be unfitly reckoned who in excellency of Name was second to none and yet in depravity of Manners had few Equals for we are assured by the learned in the Arabian Language that Mahomet comes of a Word signifying Praise and Honour and that this Notation of his Name was but a Presage of his future Actions whereby he merited and purchased both Others say Mahomet imports Thanksgiving which is to be understood with respect to their Duty of Gratitude who believe he procured great Benefits for them And that there might want nothing of lucky Abodement in the Name of this great Impostor some of his flattering Doctors paraphrase it by a Man of Desires But be his name what it will we shall proceed to give an account of the Life of this Impostor according as we find it written by the Saracens themselves The Book of the Generation of Mahomet the Messenger of God the Prayer and Salvation of God be upon him from Adam and Eve to the time when God brought him forth gracious perfect and fit for himself When as Rabachbar had learned out of the Scriptures and by Astrology that this Prophet should be born to the World he heard that there was a Man born in Jeseras a City of Arabia having all such Marks and Tokens as he had fore-seen by the Prophesies and his Arts viz. a spot on his Fore-head a print between his Shoulders c. and to satisfie his desire he went thither to see where finding those Tokens fulfilled in young Mahomet he thereupon expounded the dark Mystery of his far-fetch'd Light learned of his Master Kabelmedi in this manner When Adam was newly created as he stood up his Brain shaked and made a Noise as the Leaves do which are shaken with the Wind whereat Adam wondring God said unto him The sound which thou hast heard is the sign of the Prophets and Messengers of my Commandments take heed therefore that thou commit this Seed of Light only to worthy Loyns and to a clean Womb and this Light of Mahomet that should be born shined from the face of Adam as the Sun or Moon at the full And when he had begotten Seth that Light passed instantly from the Face of Adam into the Face of Eve insomuch that the Birds of the Air and Beasts of the Earth wondred at her Beauty yea the Angels every day saluted her and brought her Odours out of Paradise till she brought forth Seth alone having before at every Burthen brought forth a Brother and a Sister Seth inherited this Light which remained between Heaven and Earth the Angels thereby ascending and descending upon Seth and crying always Rejoyce thou Earth worthy of the Light of Mahomet on him be Prayer and Salvation of God Adam drawing near to his end declared unto him by his Testament the Mysteries of that Light and the Genealogy of the Prophets Then descended Gabriel accompanied with threescore and ten thousand Angels bearing every one of them a white Leaf and a Pen which signed the Writing for the Continuance of the Order of the prophetical Generation Seth received this Writing and was cloathed with a double red Garment shining as the Sun as soft as the Violet Flower From him it passed by Succession to Noah and Sem then to Abraham at whose Birth two Lights from the East and West meeting in the midst lightned the whole World and the Angels were heard singing that it was the light of the Prophet Mahomet who should be born of his Seed whose Words should be the virtue of God This Light passed from Abraham to the face of Hagar being with Child and after to Ishmael and God told him that the Soul of Mahomet in the beginning of the Creation was mingled with his and that his name in Heaven should be Asmet in Earth Mahomet and in Paradise Abvaltrazim At this Sarah grieved untill three Angels comforted her with the Promise of Isaac From Ishmael it removed to Keydar his Son who being endued with seven Gifts marryed Nulta of the Land of Isaac but being warned by an Oracle he took to Wife Algadira an Arabian and after by divine warning carried the Chest of this Light unto Jacob. Then was Hamel born to him and received the same Light in which succeeded Thebickt Hamiessa Adoth Adure Adne Machat Nizar Musar Aliez Madraca Hoocima Knieva Anofro Melic Falhrem Luic Galiben Kab Murran Cudai Abdamenef Hesim a man by divine Testimony free of all uncleanness To him did all Kings offer their Daughters in Marriage and amongst the rest Constantine which he refused and married Selina the Daughter of Geit and had by her Abdalmutalib whose Light caused Rain in the Drought To him an Elephant prostrated himself and said with Man's Voice Selvation be on you and on the Light that shineth out of your Reins Divinity Fame Honour and Victory be on you and that there should proceed from him a King greater than all the Kings of the Earth Another time as he slept on the Stone which was placed by Abraham in his Oratory at Mecca he dreamed of a Chain reaching East and West and to Heaven and to the Depth which was presently converted into a flourishing Herb. Noe and Abraham presented themselves Interpreters of this dream Abdalla's Son the Father of Mahomet had a Tutor given unto him to defend him from his Enemies who seemed a Man but was none He was preserved from the lying in wait of the Jews by threescore and ten Angels which seemed men He wedded Hermina and therefore two hundred Women perished for his love some hanging some burning themselves When the prescribed time was come in the Month Dulheia on a Friday night God bad Ariduran to open the Gates of Paradice that the innermost of his Secrets might be manifested for it pleaseth me said he this night to transport the Light of my Prophet from the Reins of Abdalla into the Womb of Hermina and that it come into the World This
Egypt the Captain presenteth the Alcoran to the Bassa to kiss and then it is laid up again the Captain is feasted and presented with a Garment of Cloth of Gold They used to cut in pieces the Camel whith his Furniture which carried the Alcoran and reserve these pieces for holy Relicks The Alcoran also is elevated that all might see and adore it which done every one with Joy returns to his own home Now as to the Ceremonies they use in their Circumsicion they are circumcised about eight years of Age the Child is carried on Horse-back with a Tullipant on his Head to the Temple with a Torch before him on a spear deckt with Flowers which is left with the Priest as his Fee who first nipped the end of the Skin of the Child's yard with Pincers to mortifie it then with his Sissers he nimbly cuts it off presently a powder is laid to ease the Pain and afterwards Salt The Child's hands being loosed looketh as he is taught â—y the Priest towards Heaven and lifting up the first Finger of his right hand saith these Words God is one God and Mahomet is his Prophet Then he is carried â—ome in haste after some Prayers and Offerings of the Church sometimes the Child is circumcised at home â—nd receiveth his name not then but when he is Born They Feast then commonly three days which ended â—â—e Child is carried with Pomp to the Bath and from thence home where he is presented with divers gifts from his Parent 's Friends Women are not circumcised but are tyed to make the Profession of their Mahumetan Faith They believe the forbidden Tree was Wheat which had seven Ears whereof Adam plucked one wherein were five Grains of which two he eat two he gave to Eve and one he carried away This Grain was bigger than any Egg and being bruised brought forth all kinds of Seed They believe that Adam was received after the expulsion from Paradise into India and Eve into Nubia that Adam was covered with three Leaves of Taradice Eve with her Hair they met together in Araffe Further as concerning Eve she was made of a Rib of the left side for otherwise she had been as strong as the Man They believe the Devils first dwelt in the Earth seven thousand years after them Angels They say the Ground of Paradice is of Gold enammelled with Emeralds and Hyacinths planted with every fruitful Tree watered with streams of Milk and Hony and wine the Day is of a thousand years Continuance The People shall have whatsoever can be desired they shall be cloathed in all Colours except black which is the proper Colour of Mahomet They shall all be of the Stature of Adam in Resemblance like Christ never encreasing or diminishing As soon as they are entred shall be set before them the Liver of the Fish Albehbut and whatsoever Dainties they can desire they shall not need going to Stool any more than the Child in the Womb but they shall sweat out all Superfluities of Scent like Musk they shall eat but for Desight not for Hunger unlawful Meats as Swines Flesh they shall refrain And if you list to know why this Beast is unclean understand That Jesus on a time called forth Japhet to tell his Disciples the History of the Ark Who told them That by the weight of the Ordure the Ark leaned on one side whereupon Noe consulting with God was bidden to bring in the Elephant thither out of whose Dung mixed with Mans came forth a Hog which rooted in that Mire with his Snout and by the stink thereof was produced out of his Nose a Mouse which knawed the Bords of the Ark Noe fearing this danger was bidden to strike the Lyon on the Fore-head and by the Lyon's Breath was a Cat engendred mortal Enemy to the Mouse But to return from this stinking Tale to refresh our selves with the like Sweets of this Paradise They believe that there they have the Wives that there they had and other Concubines whom how when wheresoever they will That Wine shall be lawful there though here unlawful the reason whereof Mahomet said was That the Angels Arots and Merot were sometime sent to instruct and govern the World forbidding Men Wine Injustice and Murder But a Woman having whereof to accuse her Husband invited them to Dinner and made them drunk They inflamed with a double heat of Wine and Lust could not obtain that their desire of their fair Hostess except one would teach her the Word of ascending to Heaven and the other of descending Thus she mounted up to Heaven and upon enquiry of the matter she was made the Morning Star and they put to their choice whether they would be punished in this World or the World to come they accepting their Punishment in this are hanged by Chains with their Head in a Pit of Babel till the day of Judgment Hell saith Mahomet hath a Floor of Brimstone smoaky pitchy with stinking Flames with deep Pits of scalding Pitch and sulpherous Flames wherein the damned are punished daily the Trees bear most loathsome Fruits which they eat The day of Judgment shall be in this sort In that day God will command the Angel of Death to kill every Creature which being done he shall ask him if nothing be alive Adriel the Angel of Death shall answer nothing but my self then go thy ways betwixt Paradise and Hell and last of all kill thy self Thus he folded in his Wings prostrate on the Earth shall strangle himself with such a bellowing noise as would terrifie the very Angels if they were alive Thus the World shall be empty forty Years Then shall God hold the Heaven and Earth in his Fist and say Where are now the mighty Men the Kings and Princes of the World Tell me if you be true whose is the Kingdom and Empire and Powers Repeating these Words three times he shall raise up Seraphiel and say Take this Trumpet and go to Jerusalem and sound This Trumpet is of five hundred years Journey At that Sound all Souls shall come forth and disperse themselves unto their own Bodies and their Bones shall be gathered together Forty years after he shall sound again and then the Bones shall resume Flesh and Sinews After forty Years the third Sound shall warn the Souls to re-possess their Bodies and a Fire from the West shall drive every Creature into Jerusalem When they have here swam forty Years in their own Sweat they shall with much vexation come to Adam and say Father Adam Father Adam Why hast thou begotten us to these Miseries and Torments Why sufferest thou us to hang between Hope and Fear Pray to God that he will finish his Determination of us between Paradise and Hell Adam shall excuse his unworthiness for his Disobedience and send them to Noe Noe will post them to Abraham Abraham to Moses he shall send them to Jesus Christ to him they shall come and say The Spirit Word and Power of God let