by Moses or by Christ I insert this clause as the case then stood because Christ and his Apostles denyed not but plainly affirmed That Salvation had been of the Jews that is that Salvation was attainable in the Jewish Religion by all those that in observance of it look'd to the end of it Christ. But the Question then was Whether the great Prophet that is in the bosom of the Father being come and his Law being gone out of Sion and the word of the Lord himself from Jerusalem that old Religion had not lost its salvifick Power which that it had the Apostle maintains and proves by many Arguments amongst which this is not the least That God expected more now from the sons of men to testifie the sincerity of their Love to him and to make them capable of his acceptance of them as sincere than he did during those darker Revelations of his Grace and more sparing allowances of divine Aid In the demanding whereof the old Religion coming short was thereby disinabled and become uncapeable to save it being possible that a man might after the coming of Christ perform what it required on condition of Salvation and yet not make those returns to God for the rich Revelation of his Grace by Christ as he would accept of for good payment or as might denominate him an honest man a man keeping a good Conscience towards God and not dealing fraudulently with him As he must do if he pay no more Rent of Thankfulness and Obedience now that his Farm is improv'd and manur'd with the Lamb's Blood then was by Contract payable before that Improvement 2. And that therefore Justification by Faith implies God's demand of a greater rent now under the Gospel than would have passed for good payment during the first Lease or Law of Works Not as if either then or now that Righteousness of Heart or Life that was or is required could or was intended to be paid as the least part of our Ransom as a Fine for our Forfeiture of the original Contract betwixt God and us in a state of Innocency No it cost more to redeem a Soul by way of price than all the Righteousness of Angels and Men summ'd up together can amount to that must be let alone for ever and wholly exterminated from the limits of our discourse touching Justification when the Question is Whether we are justified by faith or works But Christ having stood to and fulfill'd the Terms of that Covenant whose Condition was Perseverance in Innocency and paid the Forfeiture that we had made in both which he supererrogated exhibiting that active and passive Obedience which infinitely exceeds in worth what was required of us For that Law demanded man's Obedience or Death but he tender'd both and in both not only man 's but God's the Person subjecting himself to Obedience being God-man upon which consideration our Kinsman not only redeem'd the Inheritance that we had lost but purchas'd a better for us It were therefore against all Reason and Equity that he should be denyed a power to dispose of his own Purchace to whom and upon what Terms he pleaseth which his good pleasure he hath from time to time by some means or other revealed and at the last in his own person communicated wherein it hath pleased his infinite Wisdom to proceed in this Method that in all other former dispositions of the good things he had undertaken to purchase for us he accepted of less acknowledgment from us than in this his last will and Testament made after his actual Purchace bequeathing Himself and Benefits upon different Terms and Conditions suitable to the Revelations of his Grace the Emanations of divine Power and the Obligations he hath laid upon us Hence is that observation of St. Jerom on Gen. 6. 9. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation Signanter ait in generatione sua ut ostenderet non juxtà justitiam consummatam sed juxta justiciam generationis suae fuisse justum It is to be mark'd that he calls him just in his Generation to signifie that he was not so in respect of consummate Justice but that he was just for a man of that age for one that lived under that Dispensation of the Covenant of Grace Christ observing in these his disposals that generally-acknowledged Rule of common Equity so often inculcated in the Evangelists That to whom men concredit much of them shall much be required and of them that have received little of them little shall be expected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to expect the same things à summo minimóque of Children and of men the same tale of Brick from them to whom Straw is given and them that must gather Stubble in stead of Straw to lay equal burdens upon unequal strengths to require the same Interest for the loan of different Summs of them to whom hundreds were and of them to whom thousands are concredited is extremely unequal But the account of the difference betwixt Moses and Christ as the Antinomians casts it up is as monstrously unjust as John Scotus his partition of the two great Fishes to himself who was a little man and the one little one to the two tall Persons that sat next him at the French King's Table giving this Reason to the King accusing him of making an unequal division contrary to his order that he had exactly perform'd his Majesty's Injunction for here meaning himself and the two great Fishes upon his own Trencher is one little one and two great ones there pointing to the two proper and corpulent Person 's and the little Fish he had laid before them are two great ones and one little one The Joque might pass as witty from his Jeaster but sure the Action could not arride the King as just and becoming a Philosopher except Scotus came nearer to Truth than he did here to Justice when to the King asking him what was the difference between a Scot and a Sot he answered the Table if it please your Majesty the King sitting right over against him Camden's Remains by no better Rules of Equity do the Solifidians proceed in their discriminating the two Testaments assigning the Gyants work to the Pigmie and the Pigmie's to the Gyant A partition that may pass for currant with silly Women laden with Lusts and those monsters of men whose souls are fallen down into their Paunch or Groin those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons of dislocated Minds whose Intellects are put out of joynt by being precipitated from the Pinacle of the Head to the baser parts those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brutish Animals that corrupt themselves in those things they naturally know who make no other use of Religion but to bribe and gag Conscience or to be a Pander to their Lusts such a Cover may fit such Pottage-pots Such Lettice may sute such lips The Image of God in the Gospel thus turn'd heels upwards may please such as have no other thoughts concerning him
the most daring enemies of our Jesus and the Nation to which they are peculiarly calculated being dispersed and ceasing to be a Nation Nay after themselves have in effect renounc'd the Religion of Moses and betaken themselves to the Religion of the Patriarchs which yet is unpracticable among them in the point of Sacrifices so that they worship God in a way which neither their Fathers nor their Fathers-fathers knew A way taken up by themselves since the demolishing of their Temple and dispersion of their Nation wherein they add and take from their own Law contrary to the Divine Sanction In vain do they urge those Texts that seem in the Letter to import the perpetuity and irrevocableness of Moses Law such as Deut. 29. 29. Things revealed belong to us and our children for ever Lev. 23. 14. First fruits a statute for ever and the passover a statute for ever Ex. 12. 17. For if they will allow David to speak in Moses his Language when he applies ever to the Temple Psal. 132. 13. This is my rest for ever and allow their own eyes to interpret David's ever now they see the place of his residence for ever demolished the Chain wherein they think themselves still bound to Moses will fall off of its own accord can the ever of Oblations possibly be stretched beyond the ever of that Sanctuary to which they are limitted As vain is the exception against the cogency of this Argument from the Instance of the first Temples laying waste during the Babylonish Captivity during which time though the Law as to the practise of it was in some points suspended yet it was not abolished For 1. The Law had a shrewd shake and was loosen'd in its sinews by the ruine of the first Temple Gods withdrawing then the Ark of his Presence and Covenant from them was a sign he would quickly grow weary of sitting on Mount Sion now that his foot-stool was removed his not vouchsafing to give them Fire from Heaven for their Sacrifices in the second as he had done in the Tabernacle and first Temple and yet accepting their Offerings made by strange fire so directly contrary to the Law was an Argument that he stood not so much upon Levitical punctilios as he did at first when he punish'd Nadab and Abihu with suddain death for offering with strange fire If the Jews will avouch their own story upon Dan. 6. 4. Ut invenirent occasionem Danieli ex latere regis where interpreting latus regis to be the Queen or the King's Concubines they tell us that Daniel was an Eunuch they must be forc'd to a confession that God stood not much upon the Ceremonial Law when he preferr'd an Eunuch who by that Law was not to come into the Congregation into that intimate Communion with himself as to reveal to him more of his Counsel than he did to any Prophet beside Moses Jerom. in locum I urge these Instances as Arguments ad hominem they being the Jews concessions though in themselves not true as I shew elsewhere It is from their own Premisses I infer this Conclusion That God weaned them by degrees from Moses antiquating one Ceremony after another till at last Christ cancell'd the whole Hand-writing of Ordinances breach upon breach was made in that wall of partition till Christ took it wholly away and rac'd it to the ground 2. God promised to return that Captivity to restore to them their own Land and to repair the ruines of the first Temple but this Captivity will never be return'd the second Temple will never be repair'd but both Nation and Place are to be perpetual Desolations Of this I make proof elsewhere and therefore here shall propound this only Argument to evince the truth of it viz. That during the desolations of the first the Spirit of Prophecy was not with-held from them God raised them up Prophets in Babylon he then set them up Way-marks guides to their Cities again he whistled to his Flock scatter'd in that gloomy and dark day of their wandring to prevent their total dispersion and to keep them within the hearing of Cyrus his Proclamation But since the desolating of the second Temple they have had no Voice no Vision none to answer how long no Prophets have risen up among them but false ones as themselves acknowledg such as Ben Cozba of whom their Taba in Taanith per 4. halac 6. and Maymon in Taanith per. 5. quoted by Dr. Lightfoot Vespacian 1. Sect. 1. thus write It was on the 9. day of the Month Ab that the great City Bitter was taken where were thousands and ten thousands of Israel who had a great King over them whom all Israel even their greatest wise men thought to have been Messias And before him and Jerusalem's fall according to our Saviour's Prediction the many false Christs of whom Josephus in the History of that Age gives many instances § 3. As the Ceremonial Law fell with its own weight was disannull'd by its own Vote and cancel'd by vertue of its own Ordinances So that Old Testament-law which cannot be shaken 1. Is confirm'd and establish'd in the Gospel upon better Principles and more powerful Motives 2. And improved by our Royal Lawgiver in many branches of it that budded not under that Testament 3. And in the whole of it to the utmost heroick degree of Christned Morality 1. That an humane Soul cloathed with Mortality is capable of 2. Or can be drawn to by the most powerful Attractives of the Spirit of Grace 3. Most plentifully poured forth upon all that sincerely embrace the Gospel Of all which points I shall speak distinctly not only because they demonstrate that Christ came not to destroy but to perfect and fill up the Law but do also present Christ and the Gospel to us in a quite other form than the faithless Solifidian draws them in whose Models of Christianity look as if they were designed to shame Religion 1. The Salvifick Grace teaches us in the Gospel to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live godly righteously and soberly with more masculine and strenuous Motives than were propounded under the Law The Argument then was I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage but that which was but implyed in that is in the Gospel clearly expressed and obedience prest from our deliverance from the bondage of Satan the vassalage of our own Lusts the chambers of eternal Death The motive expressed there was That thy days may be long in the land a land slowing with milk and honey here the darkness of Type that was upon the face of that earth is dissipated the waters that overwhelm'd it are divided from it and the dry Land made to appear that Land that is very far off far above all visible Heavens The Childrens Rattles and Nats being laid aside the Gospel openly hangs out Prizes becoming men of full age to run for in that Race
the Flesh born of a Virgin § 4. Plato falter'd under the burden of vulgar Error A man from God Whence Multiplicity of God-Saviours Pagan Independency Their mutual indulging one another § 5. Not many but one Mediator the result of the Heathen's second thoughts Plato's Sentences entenced by Platonicks Nothing can purge but a Principle St. John's Gospel in Platonick Books The Christian Premisses yielded their Conclusions denied by Gentiles Plato's Sentence under the Rose CHAP. V. None of their Local Saviours were able to save § 1. Their white Witches impeded in doing good by the black Lucan's Hag more mighty than any of their Almighties § 2. None of their Saviours Soul-purgers § 3. Porphiry's Vote for one universal Saviour not known in the Heathen World Altars to the unknown Gods whether God or Goddess § 4. The unknown God § 5. Great Pan the All-heal his death § 6. Of their many Lords none comparable to the Lord Christ to us but one Lord. CHAP. VI. God the Light Man's Reliever § 1. Plebean Light mistaken for the true All-healing Light Joves and Vaejoves Mythology an help at a dead lift § 2. Wisdom begotten of God Man's Helper the Fathers Darling § 3. Made Man Sibyls maintain'd as quoted by Fathers Come short of Scripture-Oracles § 4. Virgil out of Sibyl prophesied of Christ. The Sibyllines brought to the Test. Tully's weak Exceptions against the Sibyllines § 5. Sibyl's Songs of God Redeemer the Eternal Word the Creator Apollo commends Christ. Local Saviours exploded CHAP. VII Man healed by the Stripes and Oracles of God-man § 1. Jew hides face from Christ. Greatest Heroes greatest sufferers the expiatory painfulness of their Passions § 2. Humane Sacrifices universal § 3. Not in imitation of Abraham Porphyry's Miscollection from Sancuniathon Humane Sacrifices in use in Canaan before Abraham came there And in remotest Parts before his facts were known In Chaldea before Abraham's departure thence § 4. It was the corruption of the old Tradition of the Womans Seed's Heel bruised Their sacred Anchor in Extremities § 5. The Story of the Kings of Moab and Edom vulgarly mistaken different from Amos his Text. King of Moab offer'd his own Son the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul § 6. What they groped after exhibited in Christs Blood § 7. Mans Saviour is to save Man by delivering divine Oracles Heroes cultivated the world by Arts and Sciences § 8. Gospel-net takes in small and great The Apostles became all things to all men how CHAP. VIII The Gospel calculated to the Meridian of the Old Testament § 1 In its Types § 2. Its Ceremonials fall at Christs feet with their own weight The Nest of Ceremonies pull'd down That Law not practicable § 3. Moses his Morals improved by Christ by better Motives Moses faithful Christ no austere Master Laws for Children for Men for the Humane Court for Conscience Christ clears Moses from false Glosses § 4. It was fit that Christ should demand a greater Rent having improved the Farm St. Mat. 5. 17. explain'd Christian Virtue a Mirrour of God's admired by Angels St. Mat. 7. 26. urged The Sanction of the Royal Law § 5. St. Paul's Notion of Justification by Faith only explain'd it implies more and better work than Justification by the works of the Law Judaism hath lost its Salvifick Power Much given much required The Equity and Easiness of Christ's Yoak Discord in the Academy none in Christs School CHAP. IX Gospel-History agrees with Old Testament-prophecy § 1. Christ's Appeal to the Prophets § 2. The primary Old Testament-Prophecies not accomplishable in any but the blessed Jesus Jacob's Shilo Gentiles gathering Scepter departed at the demolishing of their King's Palace § 3. By consent of both Parties Not till the Gentiles gather'd Children to Abraham of Stones Gentiles flock to Christ's Standard § 4. Signs of Scepter 's departure Price of Souls paid to Capitol Not formerly paid to Caesar. Mat. 17. 25. explained § 5. Jews paid neither Tythes nor his Pole-money to any but their own Priests before Vespasian who made Judah a vassal to a strange God such as their Fathers knew not CHAP. X. More Signs of the Scepter 's departure § 1. Covenant-Obligation void They return to Aegypt c. § 2. Temple-Vessels Prophanation revenged of old not now regarded § 3. Titus and Vespasian rewarded for their service against the Temple § 4. Judah's God deaf to all their Cries § 5. They curse themselves in calling upon the God of Revenges § 6. Jewish and Gentile Historians relate the Watch-word Let us depart § 7. Jacob thus expounded not by Statists but the Apostles CHAP. XI The Prophecies of Daniel's Septimanes and Haggai's second House not applicable to any but the blessed Jesus § 1. Porphyry and Rabbies deny Daniel's Authority The Jews split their Messias § 2. The unreasonableness of both these Evasions § 3. Daniel's Prophecy not capable of any sence but what hath received its accomplishment in our Jesus § 4. Daniel's second Epocha § 5. Christ the desire of all Nations fill'd the Second Temple with Glory § 6. That Temple not now in Being § 7. The conclusion of this Book Book III. THE ARGUMENT 3 We have as good grounds of Assurance that the matters of Fact and Doctrine contain'd in the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles were done and delivered accordingly as they are therein related as we have or can have of the Truth of any other the most certain Relation in the World THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Universal Tradition of the Church a good Evidence of the Gospels Legitimacy § 1. The inconquerable force of Universal Tradition § 2. No danger of being over-credulous in our Case § 3. Reasons interest in Matters of Religion § 4. We have better assurance that the Evangelical Writings and History are those mens Off-spring whose Names they bear then any Man can have that he is his reputed Fathers Son § 5. The Sceptick cannot prove himself his Mothers Son by so good Arguments as the Gospel hath for its Legitimacy § 6. Bastard-slips grafted into Noble Families The Sceptick in Religion is a Leveller in Politicks CHAP. II. The Suffrage of Adversaries to the testimony of the Church § 1. Pagan Indictments shew what was found Christianity in Pagan Courts § 2. Christian Precepts and Examples Civilized the Courts of Heathen Emperours § 3. Pliny's information concerning Christians to Trajan § 4. What it was in Christians that Maximnus hated them for CHAP. III. The Substance of Christian Religion as it stands now in the Gospel is to be found in the Books of its Adversaries § 1. The Effigies of the Gospel is hung out where it is proscribed § 2. Hierocles attempting to outvie Jesus with Apollonius hath presented to the World the Sum of Evangelical History § 3. More Apes of Christ than Apollonius § 4. Christs Doctrine may be traced out by the footsteps of the Hunters who pursued it CHAP. IV. Every Article of the Apostles Creed to be found
and oblations to which saith he as we partake of the common nature we must be compell'd in order to the saving of our bodies and estates from the destructive effects of their anger Vnde meritò compellemur improbam potestatem demulcere Porph. de sacrificiis l. 2. 316. The freedom of Seneca's speech in his book of Superstition is such as he reprehends the Urban Religion more copiously than Varro did the theatrick and fabulous saith St. Austin de civit 6. 10. And so vehemently that the sharpest taunts which Tertullian gave the civick worship were not comparable to those bitter declamations of Seneca against it as Tertullian himself testifies to the Gentiles face in his Apology cap. 12. O impiae voces Sacrilega convitia infrendite inspumate iidem estis qui Senecam aliqua re pluribus amarioribus de vestra religione perorantem non reprehendistis Thus I find Tertullian's Text corrected by the copy of P. Pitheus in the Preface to Seneca's second tome When I speak thus reproachfully of your Gods saith Tertullian you cry out O impious expressions O sacrilegious raylings grind your teeth spit in my face and yet you are the same men who did not reprehend Seneca though he made a formal speech against your Religion in far more and sharper words But what liberty this Philosopher took in writing he denied to himself in living Philosophy did but make him half free not free indeed as the son of God makes his Disciples for he worshipt what he reprehended he did what he condemned he ordered what he blamed Aug. de civit 6. 10. Affuit ei libertas scribenti viventi defuit quasi liber locutus est ut servus vixit colebat quod reprehendebat agebat quod arguebat quod culpabat adorabat That he might not seem negatively superstitious to the world he thinks with the wise but walks with the crowd and in the temple does what he sees others do conforming himself to the Laws and Customs of the City in the outward act keeping his Philosophy to himself in the inward man And seasoning his precedent reproofs of the madness of the Urban Religion that his Citizens might better relish both writing and writer with these grains of Salt sprinkled upon them Sapiens servabit tamen haec omnia tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam diis grata Yet a wise man must observe all these things as commanded by the Laws not as acceptable to the Gods Than which Aphorism bating his notion of more Gods than one applyed to indifferent Rites never any thing was uttered either of more truth or more tending to peace for the wisdom from above teacheth us to keep our faith to our selves and in our external actions conform to the Laws where they enjoyn nothing that the supreme Law hath prohibited But as he applies it it is the most unsavoury expression that ever fell from his pen for thus he proceeds Omnem istam ignobilem eorum turbam quam longo aevo longa superstitio congessit sic adorabimus ut meminerimus cultum ejus magis ad morem quà m ad rem pertinere We should so adore this whole rascal company of these Gods which ancient Superstition in a long tract of time hath scraped up on an heap as to bear in mind that the worship of this crew be ascribed to custom rather than be thought pertinent to true devotion So heavy did the Vulgars dotage and the sanction of the Laws lie upon the loins of these most strong sinewed Philosophers as it made them bend under it one part of the discourse upon this subject interfere with another and their life differ from their doctrine § 5. 2. But this does only consequentially imply the common peoples and the commanding parties zeal to the then establish'd Superstition Valerius maximus speaks it out directly in words at length and not in figures who writing to Tiberius makes this use of all the stories he produceth of men contemning the Religion of those times that whatsoever mischiefs befel them or their posterity though many Ages after the decease of the Promeritors were inflicted upon them in revenge of that contempt If the Army under Varro miscarry at Cannae it is because he had not celebrated the Circean Festivities with due Ceremonies l. 1. cap. 2. Sect. 3. If the once noble family of the Potitii fall into decay if thirty Youths of that house dye all within the compass of one year 't is because Appius Censor committed that Priestly Function which Originally belonged to the Potitii to persons of a sordid abstract thinking that office to be too mean for that then flourishing Family If Turullius Antonie's Lieutenant cut down the sacred Grove about Aesculapius's Temple and Caesar in that place discomfeit his Army that is interpreted a divine revenge taken upon the delinquent and an expedient used by that reputed God to vindicate his own honour and regain a greater veneration If on the other hand the Roman affairs be more under the eye of indulgent Providence than the concerns of any other people 't is in reward of their scrupulous care and cautious observance of the least punctillios in matters of Religion If Posthumius have good success in the Affrican wars he may thank Mitellus the Pontiff who would not permit him to budg one foot out of the City till he had obliged the God of War by solemn invocation to be on his side and his own religious obsquiousness in submitting the Fasces to the Mitre Innumerable such instances might be produc'd but what more can be required to demonstrate the devotedness of the Roman Empire in Tiberius his reign to the received Religion than that which this Author gives upon occasion of mentioning L. Furius Bibaculus who being Praetor notwithstanding that the privilege of his place exempted him from the execution of that office at the command of his Father who was one of the Colledge of the Salii condescended to go in procession bearing the sacred Ancile before his father with his six Mace-bearers before himself Upon which story Valerius hath this note Our City hath ever deem'd that all things ought to be set after Religion wherefore the greatest Generals have vouchsafed to officiate Divine Service thinking they should then best manage Secular affairs when they did well and constantly serve the Divine Power Hence Lucilius in Ciceron de nat Deor. lib. 2. Pub. Claudii temeritas qui etiam per jocum deos irridens c. imputes P. Claudius his overthrow and punishment to his temerity in deriding the Gods In this posture lay the World at the dawning of the day of the Gospel enjoying it self in the warm and close embraces of her Sacred Animals her Statues into which were charm'd the Spirit of the holy Gods as the Amorado thought and those thoughts so fixed as though the World knew they were Venuses of its own carving and had explicite reasonings with its self answerable to those in the Prophet Is. 44. yet so had
which forbids me to dissemble I am a Christian I cannot dissemble Cursed Sectarian Rebels the stain of the Christian Name You made Lyes your Refuge and were made up of nothing from Head to Heel but dissimulation steering your course by that more than Machiavilian Maxim Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare Blessed Charles the Glory of the truly Christian Religion Thou writes after the Copy which thy Master set thee in his own Blood who rather than he would dissemble or not bear witness to the Truth before Pilat would incurr the Rabbles clamorous Cry to have that holy and just One crucified Such such were thy Mothers Children among whom thou now triumphs Such assurance did the Apostolical Church the glorious Company of Martyrs give of their prizing Truth at that rate as they thought that it was to be bought but not sold upon any terms in their refusing to accept of deliverance from the the most tormenting pains that humane strength could inflict or devillish subtilty invent at the price of a Monasyllable-lye What reason then to suspect the Truth of that Testimony which men of such Principles and inconquerable Veracity have given to the Truth of Gospel-history or that they should put their heads together to compact a Fable so long-winded § 2. The Apostles Impartiality How groundless such a Suspicion is will more appear if we cast into the Scales the Consideration of the Apostles and Evangelists Impartiality in their delivering the whole Truth even those Passages in Christ's and the Churches Stories which they could not but foresee would be a derision and stumbling-block to inquisitive Adversaries and a disparagement in the opinion of the Vulgar to Christ and themselves Such as concern their own mean Extract their sordid and scandalous imployments before their Call St. Matthew a Publican a Trade filthy and sordid even in the repute of Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Artimedorus An honest Publican was so rare even at Rome it self as Sabinus for managing that Office uncorruptly had Statues erected to him with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the honest Publican Sueton. Vespas 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So many Publcans so many Harpies Theocritus being demanded what was the cruellest Beast answered of those on the Mountains the Bear and Lion of those in Cities Publicans and Sycophants But much more infamous among the Jews especially if those that undertook that Office were Jews insomuch as Tertullian de pudicitia cap. 9. to take off that aggravation of infamy from St. Matthew will by no means have him to have been a Jew But he is more tender of St. Matthew's crediâ—â— than St. Matthew himself is who writes himself a Jew-publican as St. Jerome proveth Ep. ad Damasum part 2. tract 1. epist. 15. Accusing himself saith Eusebius Hoc quidem nullus Evangelistarum indicavit non Coapostolus Johannes non Marcus non Lucas sed ipse Matthaeus suam ipsius vitam non dissimulans planéque ipse seipsum accusans Euseb. Evang. demon 3. 7. St. Peter James and John our Saviour's select Confidents and as it were the Squires of his Body were called from their Fisher-boats to be Fishers of men They stick'd not to repeat their own weaknesses and failings their presumptions diffidences forsaking forswearing their Master Their Ambition their carnal Conceptions of the Kingdom of the Messiah their dulness of mind to believe the Resurrection with all the aggravating Circumstances of their Lapses From all which the malicious and vafrous Celsus Orig. contrà Celsum lib. 2. calum 18 19. passim takes occasion to deride them to calumniate the blessed Jesus and to disparage the Christian Cause which as Origen replies they would never have administred occasion to the busie enemy to object had not love to Truth constrained them to communicate to the World the whole Truth even that that made towards the proving of Christ to be perfect Man as well as what demonstrated him to be God and that which spake themselves to be what they were by Grace and to do what they did not in their own Name or Strength of their own Vertues but in the Merits and Power of the Name of Christ a Conceit walked among the Jews that extraordinary Holiness might attain to Miraculous Workings Industry bringeth to Purity Purity to Cleanness Cleanness to Holiness Holiness to Humbleness Humbleness to Fear of Sin Fear of Sin to partaking of the Holy Ghost say their Rabbies Lightfoot harm an Christ. 33. But the Apostles derive not their Power of working Miracles by any such Pedigree they make themselves nothing that Christ might be all in all to them § 3. No partial Compliance Yea whereas in Cases of Fact and Practice as private men they might warp aside from the Truth of the Gospel and it would have been in such Cases a promoting of their private Interests either to have said nothing or to have divertised their Reports so as might have rendered the Business most plausible on their own Partie's side Yet we find that even where their particular Interests clash and interfere their Reports agree and are as full in what makes against as for that Party with whom themselves sided in that Case of Fact To instance in the Case of St. Peter and Paul mentioned Gal. 2. That Evangelist who convers'd with St. Peter and was appointed to be his Companion to the Circumcision Gal. 2. 9. St. John writes his Gospel so as it favours St. Paul's Case more than St. Peter's commemorating more at large than St. Luke Christs Intensions to cast off the Jewish Nation to abrogate the Ceremonial Law describing that Nation as a People not to be temporized with opening their Malice Pertinacy and insatiable Thirst after Christ's Blood extenuating the Sin of the Romans in putting him to Death in comparison of the Crime of the Jews in rejecting betraying delivering up and bartering away the Lord of Glory St. Matthew who wrote by St. Peter's Direction to the Hebraizing Jews writes as much in dis-favour of that Nation which St. Peter favour'd and sided with in his Contest with St. Paul as any other Evangelist reporting that John the Baptist warned them not to claim Propriety in nor Privilege from Abraham That Christ preferr'd believing Gentiles before mis-believing Jews to the Honour of being related to him in Consanguinity That Christ found more Faith in some Gentiles than he did in Israel That Christ should say that many should come from East and West and sit down with Abraham in the Kingdom of God and the Children of the Kingdom be thrust out That Christ urged the Law of Charity as vacating the Law of Cermonies even of Old in the case of David eating the Shew-bread And lastly Christs Doom upon such like as St. Peter temporized with to the scandalizing of believing Gentiles that is they that had swept the House and emitted the unclean Spirit by an accepting of Christ for a Messiah but did afterwards suffer him by their Judaizing to
Moses faithful Christ no austere Master Laws for Children for Men for the Humane Court for Conscience Christ clears Moses from false Glosses § 4 It was fit that Christ should demand a greater Rent having improved the Farm St. Mat. 5. 17. explain'd Christian Virtue a Mirrour of God's admired by Angels St. Mat. 7. 26. urged The Sanction of the Royal Law § 5. St. Paul ' s Notion of Justification by Faith only explain'd it implies more and better work than Justification by the works of the Law Judaism hath lost its Salvifick Power Much given much required The Equity and Easiness of Christ's Yoak Discord in the Academy none in Christs School § 1. THe Gospel is so fram'd as it exhibits to us the Substance of the Law 's Types wherein the things pertaining to the Person Office and Kingdom of the Messias were umbrated without reference to which most of them are such childish and beggerly Toys as the instituting of them is manifestly unworthy of infinite Wisdom and that solemn pomp of signs and wonders that went before them as inducements to the Israelites to receive them with due reverence would be in the most candid Interpretation of impartial Reason no better than the Mountains swelling and going in hard labour to bring forth a ridiculous Mouse From which imputation of folly observed and objected by the Heathens against their Lawgiver the most learned Mythologist Philo Judaeus though he attempt to vindicate Moses yet missing Moses his Scope and not looking to the end of his Law he falls far short of his purpose and makes worse work of it than a Novice-Christian would that has but learn'd this Principle the Law was a shaddow of good things to come but the body that casts those shadows is Christ A Tast whereof he gives us in his Treatise of Circumcision wherein having premis'd how unlikely it is that so severe a Ceremony should be taken up upon weak Grounds he lays down these wise reasons for it 1. The prevention of the growing of the Carbuncle in that part Just as if a man should advise to have the Head chop'd off to prevent the aching of it 2. That that Membrane might not be a receptacle of uncleanness upon the same reason they must not only with the Egyptian Priests shave off their hair which he grounds upon the same reason but slit their Noses and crop their Ears and dismember themselves of other Vessels receptory of Excrements 3. For the procuring of Foecundity of which he saith it is a necessary Cause aiunt enim ità semen rectà ejaculari integrum nec diffluit per sinus preputii As if Nature could not frame her own Tools in a form fittest for the use she intends them And yet these Grounds of Circumcision he saith came to his ears by the Tradition of divine men his Ancestors who most diligently expounded Moses Of the like grain are the Reasons he gives why God prohibited the planting of Groves about the Tabernacle because it was not meet to bring man's or beast's Dung near the Tabernacle to manure the Trees and make them flourish Philo de monarchia 2. Of Gods commanding the Priests to wear linnen while they officiated Because such garments are not made of a matter proceeding from mortal Creatures as woollen are Eadem cum ratione insanit with the same kind of reasons he plays the fool in making the High Priests Apparel a resemblance of the World his Jacinth colour'd Vest tipifies the Sublunary his Pectoral the Celestial Region the two Emeralds on either Shoulder the two Haemispheres the twelve Stones therein the twelve Signs of the Zodiack Its name Rationale does denote that all things comprehended by the Heavens were made and adorn'd upon Principles of the best Reason Thummim or Verity does denote that no lye can come into Heaven Urim or Clarity that all the light which is in the sub-celestial flows from the celestial Bodies The Flowers on the Fringe do tipifie the Earth whence they spring the Pomgranates Water called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their fluidness the Bells the Harmony and Concent of the Parts of the World among themselves Philo de monarch 2. With how much more credit do the Evangelists bring off Moses when they present Christ as the substance of that Mannah that Bread of Heaven that Angel's Food wherewith the Jews were sustained in the Wilderness of that Rock of which they all drank of that brazen Serpent lifted up to heal those who were stung of fiery Serpents of that Pascal Lamb by the sprinkling of whose Blood they were preserved from the stroak of the destroying Angel a Lamb of the Flock without blemish a perfect man of the stock of Abraham and without sin and taken up carried in procession into Jerusalem on the same day whereon their Paschal Lamb was seperated from the Flock his Blood the thing signified by the Blood of Bulls and Goats his Divine Nature by the Goat that was dismist the Scape-goat his human by the Goat that was sacrificed his Body the substance of Tabernacle and Temple wherein the God-head dwelt bodily his Priest-hood as to the offering of the great Propitiatory typified by Aaron's Priesthood as to his Blessing in the vertue of that Sacrifice by Melchisedech's Time would fail me to enumerate particulars See more of them in St. Jerome's Preface to his Exposition of Hosea Velum Templi scissum est ominum Judaeorum secreta patuerunt Verus Helizaeus aquas steriles atque mortiferas sapientiae suae condivit sale fecit esse vitales Marath aqua legis ligno patibuli dulcorata est The Veil of the Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom to signifie that all the Jews Mysteries were by Christ laid open He being that true Elisha who with the salt of his Wisdom season'd those steril and mortiferous Waters of the Sanctuary and made them healthful It was by the wood of his Cross that the bitter water of the Law was sweetned The Apostles setting the Watch of the Gospel so exactly to the Dial of the Ceremonial Law as to keep touch with all its Minute-shadows their drawing the features and proportion of Christs Face so as to resemble that Image which the glassy Sea of Mosaical Rites reflects So as in those Draughts we see his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of Grace as to himself full of truth as to them and thereby also rendring the Law it self full of Grace and worthy to be esteem'd the progeny of the Divine Mind speaks them to have had their wits about them § 2. The Gospel is perfectly consonant to the Old Testament in respect of its Precepts and Ordinances It hath indeed abolished the Ceremonial Law but without clashing with the Sanction of that Law and upon clear and indubitable Old Testament-principles where we hear God saying he would make a new Covenant with them not according to the Covenant he made with their Fathers when he
a Decorum do the Evangelists observe in their giving an account of Christ's improvement of the whole body of the Moral Law to the highest pitch that Humane Nature in this Warfare-estate is capable of or can be induc'd to by the powerfullest Motives or greatest Assistance and of his requiring an higher degree of inherent Grace and the exerting thereof in more noble Acts of Obedience to be performed both by the outward and inward Man in order to God's accepting of us through Christ to Salvation as Persons Justifiable without impeachment to God's Justice in condemning others or to the truth of divine and irrevocable Menaces from the charge of Unbelief and Hypocrisie then was required in the Mosaical Covenant Such a pitch of Theological Virtue of Evangelical Righteousness Christ more than once calls aloud and distinctly for as that without which men cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I am not come to destroy but to fulfil thé Law Mat. 5. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word that when it is applyed to a word or a Prophecy signifies to perform or fulfil but in other cases it is to fill up to compleat to perfect as 2. Chron. 24. 10. they cast oblations into the Chest till they had made an end till they had fill'd it and used by Christ in this sence Mat. 23. 32. fill ye up then the measure of your fathers whereupon Eusebius saith admonebat etiam eos ut altiùs saperent iis quae Judaeis a Mose praecepta fuerant c. Euseb. demon evang 3. 7. Christ also admonish'd his hearers that they should savour such Heroick verities as were higher than those that Moses gave in command to the Jews expressed well by the Ancients by the similitude of a Vessel that had some Water in it before but is now filled up to the brim The holy Waters that were but Ankle-deep and ran in the middle of the Channel before are made by Christ Bank-high and Chin-deep the Image of God in Wisdom Righteousness Holiness to which Old Testament-believers were to conform under pain of being rejected as Bastards not Sons was but a rude drawn piece in comparison of that Image which Christ drew to the life and requires conformity to now under the same pain That this is Christ's mind in this Text is manifest from what he adds Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees the most knowing Expositors of their Law and the strictest Sect of their Religion ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven From the following Instances in this Chapter of several particulars of the Law barely set down first and then improv'd by Christ in this form But I say unto you from his commanding us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is From his rejecting that rich man who had from his youth kept all the Commandments in the general and express sence for his refusing to come up to those terms of forsaking all when call'd to it which Christ had made necessary to the rendring of men qualified by the Tenour of the Gospel-law for the Kingdom of Heaven From St. Peter's stiling Christians A peculiar people a nation of kingly priests that hold forth the virtues of God and are partakers of the divine nature From St. John's telling us That he that is of a Christian Hope and sure none but such as have Christian Hope hold the Christian Faith purifieth himself as Cod is pure and that he that doth righteousness is righteous as God is righteous Which Texts though they imply not â—inless perfection much less equality with God in holiness as some blaspheniously gloss upon them yet they can import no less than such a Conformity to God's in Christian Virtue as renders it as to its Genius and Complexion super-humane and those that are endowed with it the Shrines and Temples of God wherein a more noble spirit resides than Adam was capable of in his state of Innocency As is observ'd by Grotius that wonder of men for Reading Judgment and which crowns both Modesty Ad vitam coelestem nobis dandam requirit Deus sanctitatem animi eximiam quae illum Adami non modó ex quo lapsus est sed eùm in quo primùm est conditus statum longè excedat nos Angelis aequat manente tamen discrimine eo quòd corpora humana ab Angelicis distantia secum ferunt Grotius ad Cassand consult articul 2. To our being capable of receiving the heavenly Life God requires an eminent sanctity of mind even such as doth far exceed that which Adam had not only after he fell but when he was first created and equals us to Angels bating this difference which humane Bodies distant from the substance of Angels carry about with them Yea I humbly conceive that the poorest sincere Christian hath a love to God a knowledg or apprehension of God of a more generous kind a more noble tincture than Cherubims and Seraphims have who have their names from ardency of Love and perspicacity of Understanding as if their essence were made up of delighting in and contemplating of the divine Goodness Not that we either love or know God more or better than they do I have more knowledg of my Ignorance and Chilness than to harbour such a Luciferian thought than to set my triumphant Throne above those Stars of the intellectual Heaven But there is in our poor cole almost choak'd with and buried in ashes that peculiar sparkishness that flows from our leaded frail Glass those vivid Reflections of the divine Light and Heat as draw the admiring eye of those Flames of Fire those pure Christal Mirrors after them 1 Pet. 1. 12. Which things the Angels desire to look into as wondring to see in 1 Tim. 3. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it put Angels into an exstacy to contemplate the Mystery of the Gospel and desirous to learn of the Church the manifold Wisdom of God Eph. 3. 10. these friends of the Bridegroom being ravish'd with contemplating the conjugal knowledg and love which the Bridegroom and his Bride have of and bear towards one another so illustrious is the foresight thereof in the Glass of the holy Trinity whence the Angels that fell learn'd it non speculando verbum sed suscipiendo illuminationem à Verbo Bonávent l. 2. dist 4. 9. 1. Not by beholding the word but by receiving illumination from the Word moved envy in Lucifer and his confederate Angels Hieron Zanch. de operibus Dei l. 4. cap. 2. quia inviderunt hominem hanc dignitatem This was the Devil's great sin that he envied Man's happiness and the glimmerings of it in those righteous persons who walk'd with God before Christ's Incarnation made them the Objects of the envy of the the Devil's Seed 1 John 3. 12. though they were but faint glimmerings of that Grace which Christ calls for and requires in his Gospel-Law where the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist
observance of his Commands I put it to the Consciences of the whole Tribe of these lisping Divines to say whether Christian Jew or Pagan did not all confess that how saving soever the respective Religions which they stood for were yet they would not benefit him that was not true to them that did not cordially embrace them and accept of what they promised upon the terms which they propounded Let them ask a Jew or a Mahometan what it is that constitutes a Christian and makes him capeable of the benefits of that Religion they will readily reâ—â—â—ve as plain and true an answer from them as we can give either of them if they ask us what constitutes a Jew or Mahometan To wit A cordial Compliance with and Conformity to the Law of Christ as that which constitutes a Jew is complying with the Law of Moses a Mahometan with the Law of Mahomet in observance whereof they expect undoubtedly to be saved because they make no question but that their respective Lawgivers were sent of God who cannot lye So far do our new Illuminates fall short of Pagans Jews and Mahometans in the knowledg of the true Notion of Faith as it signifies our Act as what these fumbling Theologues grope for in the dark of their own bewildered Imaginations lay so bare fac'd to every smatterer in Religion to every Novice initiated in Judaism and Gentilism as well as Christianity that none of them ever moved question about it but were wholly taken up in disputing whether Faith as it signifies the divine Object of our Belief that is Christian Religion were able to save them who cordially embraced and lived up to it Till the Gnosticks to maintain Libertinism perverted the common use of that Notion in the aforesaid Question and wrested St. Paul's Doctrine to import Justification by a Faith short of that of Devils viz. by a bare frigid assent to the truth of the Gospel in so remiss a degree as it did not work fear for had they by Faith been moved with fear or hope they would have prepared an Ark to the saving of themselves in order to their obtaining that hope This forced St. James to demonstrate the falsity of that Thesis in the Gnostick's sence of Faith and to infer that a man is justified not by Faith only as Faith signifies our Act from those very Instances of Abraham and Rabab whence St. Paul concluded Justification by Faith only as it signifies the Object of Christian Belief without Works that is by a faithful adhering to and practice of Christian Religion without the help or observance of Moses his Law That having been the ancient and catholick way of Salvation wherein eternal Life was attainable before Judaism was in being and whereby they that were true to it in all Nations to whom the sound of Moses his Trumpet never reach'd obtain'd pardon of sin and God's acceptance of them to eternal life through that blood of the Redeemer which was promised in God's Covenant of Grace with Adam tipified in the Blood of Sacrifices long before Moses and exhibited and actually tenderd as an Oblation propitiatory for the sin of the World in the Fulness of Time predicted by the Prophets After which because the foundation and pillar of it was believing that Jesus of Nazareth was that Seed of the Woman promised to the Patriarchs and that Seed of Abraham promised to the Jews of which later and more distinct promise all the circumstances did so meet together and concenter in the blessed Jesus as they must renounce Faith in Moses and their own Prophets that did not believe that he was that person fore-appointed of the Father to break the Serpents Head Thence this Religion was called Faith and the Professors of it Believers names whereby in common use they were sufficiently discriminated from all others and therefore used by St. Luke in his History of the propagation of Christian Religion and by St. Paul in his disputations about Justification without the addition of any Epithete to signifie The whole and entire Oeconomy of that Religion or way of knitting God and man together which Christ propounded and the adherers to And expectants of Salvation in that Way Of the same importance and equipollency are the Notions of anointing and Christian the first importing that Religion which Christ was anointed to preach and the later persons imbued with that Religion as also master or teacher sent from God and disciple but not so free from ambiguity as these of faith and believers Upon the like Reason Works of the Law are used to denote Works directed to be performed by the Religion of Moses in order to mens finding acceptance with God unto eternal Life And the relations conducing thereunto his Writings having obtained universally where they were spoke of the name of the Law with the addition sometimes of the Law of Moses or the Law of 〈◊〉 Jews when the Discoursers upon that Subject were Jew and Gentile because the Gentiles hold their Religions to be Divine Laws as well as the Jew did his But when the Christian discoursed with a Christian or a Jew they stiled it the Law without such addition they being both agreed that it was Divine and the only Divine Law in writing that had been communicated to the World before the exhibition of the Messias And to abreviate that demonstration in continued discourses on that Subject where it was often to be repeated instead of the Works of the Law that is injoyned by that Law they used the simple term Works In the room whereof they sometimes used the name of that Work which obliged them to all the rest viz. Circumcision Hence these Terms Circumcision Works Works of the Law the Law the Law of Works in the sacred Writings are equivalent and imply the terms of that Covenant God made with the Jews by the Mediation of Moses as abstracted both from that he made with the Patriarchs before and by Christ after Moses This for the verbal Terms which are easie to be understood by him that observes what was the great Question agitated in those Times Isidor Clarius in Rom. 3. 20. Si cogitaremus quae versaretur eo tempore controversia non erit admodùm difficilis scopum assequi hujus Epistolae at sine hac consideratione luditur opera But whoever attends not to St. Paul's scope in that Epistle shoots at random and spends his fools bolt to no purpose As to the thing it self I hope these papers will have the fortune to fall into no mans hand of so perverted a judgement or obtuse wit as shall not at the first hearing give their vote and assent to these Proposals 1. The grand Question in debate betwixt St. Paul and the Jew was Whether the well-pleasing of God and his acceptance of us as persons intituled by his gratious Covenant to his promise of Pardon and eternal life was obtainable as the case then stood by obedience and observance of that Religion which was instituted
but how they may either escape his spurns or banish the opinion of a Deity out of their minds or make him truckle under their God of Gods their Belly Such Jovinian Libertinism may take with such Jovialists as St. Jerom describes Favent tibi crassi nitidi dealbati adde si vis â—uxta Socraticam irrisionem omnes sues canes quia carnem amas vultures quoque aquilas accipitres bubones de tuo armento sunt imo inter tuos sues grunniunt quòd multi acquiescunt sententiae tuoe indicium voluptatis est non enim taâ— te loquentem probant quà m suis favent vitiis Pro magna sapientia reputas si plures porci post te currant quos Gehennae succidiae nutrias post praeconium tuum semper pseudo-prophetae dulcia pollicentur ad modicum placent egregia sanè vox audiat sponsa Christi Jerom. cont Jovinian par 1. tract 2. ep 6. cap. 49. Such beastly hearers may applaud such filthy dreamers as he tells Jovinian Ibidem Tibi cedunt de via nobiles tibi osculantur divites caput nisi enim tu venisses In aviariis tuis non turtures sed â—pupae nutriuntur c. Thou hast for thy favourites and abetters of thy licentious Doctrines a company of old fatguts of young spruce painted Monsieurs you may add if you please to make up the number such as Socrates in derision calls Sows and Doggs and because thou art all for the Flesh Vultures also Eagles Goss-hawks and Owls If I see any with shining Faces with periwigg'd Heads with curled Locks with rosie Cheeks they are of thy drove they grunt among thy Hoggs The reason why so many acquiess in thy Opinion is because pleasure votes for it they do not so much yeild to the Reason of thy Discourse as to the sway of their own vitious Inclinations Dost thou think it a point of great wisdom that thou canst draw a company of Swine after thee which thou feeds and flatters till they come to be hung up in Bacon-fliches in the smoke of the infernal Pit It hath ever been the Custom of false Prophets to speak pleasing things and delight men for a moment An excellent Doctrine indeed and such as becomes the chaste Spouse of Christ to hear However by prophesying such smooth things thou hast obtain'd that respect as Noble men give thee the wall and rich men fall upon thy neck and kiss thee for if thou hadst not opened and widen'd the way the reeling Drunkard and belching Epicures could never enter into Paradise nor those Lapwings not Turtles which are only bred in thy Aviaries soâ—â— into the highest Heaven if thou hadst not brought it down to them But how a Doctrine fram'd to please and gratifie such like She-men as these they commonly being in every sence the Major Party how such a Codpeice-Religion and Tap-divinity as the Antinomian has perverted the Gospel into should take with any grave sober and studied Divines with any of our well-bred Gentry or with any of those of a courser Clay that have but any spot of Grace or the least glimmerings of common Sentiments of Good and Evil is to me unconceavable And I must sit down wondering in silence at this strange sight that God should be presented with the approbation of any that are not unman'd as conniving at those Immoralities Immanities Debaucheries in the New wherein he has afforded more Light to discover the exceeding sinfulness of them more Assistance against them stronger Motives to avoid them and threatned a much more grievous Punishment against them that do them which he would not connive at under the Old Testament As if God had sent his Son into the World to set Hell loose and enlarge the Devil's Kingdom to proclaim impunity to all manner of Licentiousness to give men Passes to go to their own place to that that Judas went to without stop molestation or trouble of Conscience Whereas the difference lies point blank on the other hand as has been proved the Law of Faith demanding so much more Work than the Law of Works did as our Vails are more our Reward greater our our Helps of all sorts more plentiful and our Obligations more constraining then theirs were to whom that Law was given So as in this diversity of Terms or Conditions the same general Rule is laid down in both as their Basis and Summ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind with all thy soul and with all thy strength which last Clause being a qualification of the Precedent renders this Proposal a fit Basis for any Covenant that God ever made or can make with Mankind for Justice can require no more nor mercy less in general than that we love God and express our love to him according to our strength than which Angels cannot do more nor the weakest Christian less whose loving God with all his strength argues as much sincerity as Angels show in their loving him according to theirs the Gnat moves with as good a will though not with so great a force as the Eagle and therefore its industry as commendable as his And the Ant is as laborious in carrying a grain in her mouth as the Elephant is in carrying a Castle upon his back Angels that are mighty in strength and according to that fulfil God's Commands reap no greater commendation from Christ than the Angel of the Church of Laodicea did who had but a little strength and kept Christ's word For it is according to what men have and not according to what they have not that God and man expect returns should be made by them whom thay oblige God therefore having given to Man a power not to sin demanded his perseverance in Innocency or a sin-less Obedience in our first Parents In which they faising and God inflicting as a penalty upon them and their Off-spring naturally descending of them the withdrawing of that power which he was not bound to bestow at first much less to restore after they had forfeited it he was pleased to make another Covenant with them of his mere Grace and Bounty That as to Satisfaction of his Truth and Justice in the Expiation for the breach of that first Covenant he himself would provide a Lamb in the Merits of whose Blood every man should have a share that did but love him with all that strength which God had left him or should afford him From which different Degrees of afforded Strength arose the different degrees of Love and Obedience to God required as Conditions of God's accepting our love to him as sincere in all the After-Covenants which he made with Man Now for the Apostles to fit these super-added strings to the Polycord of the Old Testament to tune the still voice of the Gospel to the shrill tones of the Law to make Christ's Pipe accord with David's Harp the Trumpet on Mount Sinah with the Law that went out of Sion to set their new Song to the old
the dead her golden Mantle as a prize Orpheus Protesilaus Theseus Hercules cal 41. I have often wonder'd that the blessed Jesus would sit still while his picture was drawing by such cursed hands to such a contumelious end against his sacred person But his omniscience foresaw that an Age was approaching when it would be disputed whether that be his true portraiture that is drawn in the Gospel whether he was such an one and did those miraculous Works as he is there described to be and declared to have done And his mercy provided for the satisfaction of all that are not peevishly captious by permitting the Heathen to draw one after that in all points so like it as the most curious eye can find no more difference betwixt that which the Church hangs forth to be worship'd and that which the Heathen World hung out to be scorn'd than there was from it self in that homely piece which the Sexton hung up for the Image of our Saviour over the Altar and the Priest caused to be taken thence and hung in the Belfry for the Picture of the Devil if I may use in so sacred a business so homely an illustration That which the Pagans drew and hung in the Belfrey is the same with that which the Church drew and set over the Altar not one prodigious Circumstance in this that is not in that the Clay presents as full a proportion of the golden Key as the Wax So that had we lost the impression of it in the Churches Wax in the sacred History we mightmake another by taking the Pattern of it that 's drawn in the Clay of Pagan Fables which emulate and counterfeit the sacred stories of Christ's mighty Works § 4. 2. We may infallibly know which way the Lamb of God has gone by following the steps of his pursuers where they have been hunting to death his Doctrine as well as works There being not one Branch of Christ's Royal Law planted on the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden that the Pagan Antagonists have not attempted to graft upon the Wildin of the Forrest or transplanted grafts of into their Discourses against that Law Can any man question whether Christ preach'd that Sermon in the Mount that Breviate of Christian Morality in that very form wherein the Evangelists record it that observes how many exceptions the World made against Christianity upon the account of that Sermon of which Marcellinus thus complains to St. Austin Epist. 4. The Pagan Philosophers in this place saith he perswade those that are not well setled in the Christian Faith to waver by propounding such like Scruples How can Christ's erecting a new Law stand with the goodness of the old if they of old said well why does he come after them with his but I say unto you How is it consistent with God's Immutability to command one thing by Moses another by Christ Ista varietas inconstantiae Dominum arguit Respon Their Fellowphilosopher Jamblicus will tell them Deus diversos suppeditat modos non quidem distractus ipse sed individuo nutu formâque simplici suggerit omnes diversis temporibus suggerit diversos non ipse per tempora varius de mysteriis pag. 74 76. God vouchsafes several ways to reveil himself not that he is distracted in mind but he suggests them all by one individual will and simple form divers in divers ways in divers times but he himself is not various but one in all times having so good an Antidote prepared by a Pagan Philosopher's hand I shall venture to lay before my Reader the discourse of that grunting Philosopher Celsus who upon the same Instances calumniates Christian Religion as charging Mutability on God How comes it to pass that God by Moses should commend the getting of wealth and of power to fill the Earth with Progeny to extirpate whole Nations c. but his Son makes Laws directly contrary not so much as allowing access to the Father to any man that shall seek to grow rich or aspire to greatness dominion or honour in the World and commanding us to take no more thought for food than the fowls of the Air for cloathing than the Lillies of the Field c. Uter mentitur Moses vel Jesus an forte Pater cum hunc mitteret oblitus erat ejus quòd Mosi priùs mandaverat an damnatis propriis legibus mutavit sententiam cum contrariis mandatis misit nuntium Orig. con Cels. 7. 7. But let 's hear the remainder of the Philosopher's Exceptions in Marcellinus who thus proceeds How destructive to Commonwealths how unpracticable among men is that Law of Christ which commands us not to return evil for evil to turn the other Cheek to him that smiles on the one to give our Coat also to him that takes away our Cloak to go two miles with him that constrains us to go one For who can endure that any thing should be taken from himself by an enemy and not seek reparation that the plunderers of the Roman Provinces should not be forc'd by right of War to make restitution c. Here the Philosoper mis-applies to publick Justice what Christ enacted against private Revenge Deo gratias informs the same Father St. August Epist. 49. that the Disciples of Porphyry made these Exceptions against the Evangelical Precepts If none but he that does these sayings of Christ lays a sure foundation of hope for eternal life what became of those that lived before Christ must we exclude our Fore-fathers from hope of salvation If there was a door open for them what need any other now This hath been answered before out of Jamblicus But thus the Platonicks proceed Does not your Christ ridiculously contradict himself when in one place he threatens eternal punishments to them that believe not in him and in another saith with what measure men mete it shall be measured to them again for if punishment be to be proportion'd by measure and measure be circumscribed by the bounds of time what mean his threats of infinite suffering The Platonick's Falacy here lies in two things 1. In their wresting Christ's saying with what measure into a compliance with their Master 's Placit That all penal Purification as they call'd it was limited to certain Periods of Time after the expiration whereof the Soul was to be restored into the state wherein it was before it contracted guilt in pursute of which Placit St. Origen thought the Devils should be discharged after a long imprisonment 2. In their making Christ's expressions of eternal fire of the worm that never dies c. to contradict that former notion of receiving by measure whereas it is manifest that Christ speaks not of measure of time but proportion of kind and degree betwixt doing and receiving good or evil To return to Pagan Testimony for the truth of Christ's delivering that his Royal Law which the New Testament hangs out the Table of we find the Adversary attesting to Christ's
that office should in point of honour be equall to the chief Military and urbane Magistrates among whom Macrobius to have the precedency Isaac Pontan in notis ad Macrobium pag. 1. ex Scaligero Optatus a Pagan had the Military Government of Constantinople committed to his charge under Theodosius and his Son Arcadius Socrates hist. eccl 7. 16. with as much impunity was Gentilism practised in the Metropolis of the Western Empire under his Brother Honorius at the beginning of whose Reign when the Gothes under Alaricus took Rome there were very many Heathens not only in the City but Senate by whose order it was determined that the Pagan Worship should be restored and celebrated in those Temples which had by Theodosius been converted to the use of the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozomen 9. 7. for I see no necessity of collecting from this passage that any other Temples were then standing but what were transferr'd to a Christian use to which that passage of Orosius l. 7. cap. 38. adds strength where he writes that Attalus the Governour then of the City and a Pagan for he was Christned by a Gothish Bishop after he was joyn'd with Alaricus sending for the Thuscian Magi who promised by Thunder and Lightning to drive away the Barbarians enter'd presently into consultation with the Senate about restoring to their Idol-Gods their Sacred Places and celebrating their Rites So I render his continuò de repetendis sacris celebrandis tractatur Sacris comprehending Places as well as Ceremonies and repetendis implying the recovering of sacred things out of the hands of those who then had the possession of them and therefore not applicable to the Gentile Sacrifices which the Christians never touched but their Temples which were converted from the service of Idols to that of the true God as that Magnificent one of Serapis of Alexandria was at the same time and by the same Decree of Theodosius So numerous were the Pagans then in Rome as Dr. Hammond thinks and not but upon good grounds that it is Pagan Rome is threatned in that Prophecy Rev. 17. 14. and according to that Prophecy punished by Alariâ—us the Christian Party being some departed with Honorius their Emperour some with Innocentius their Bishop unto Vienna Come out of her my people Rev. 18. 4. as Lot out of Sodom saith Orosius l. 7. c. 39. and the rest overpowered by the Gentile Faction animated by the hopes they had of Attalus that he would professedly favour and set up Gentilism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and restore the Anâ—â—ent Temples and Feasts and Sacrifices Sozom. l. 9. § 4. Hitherto then we see the Dragon the old Serpent the Devil still abroad and at work even in the Imperial City at his old Trade of seducing the Nations to Gentilism and which is more prevailing with them to endeavour the restauration of the Pagan Religion after it was prohibited by penal law by Theodosius for Eugenius and Arbogestes with a mighty Army attempted to restore Ethnicism which Theodosius had utterly abolisht saith Mr. Meed vol. 2. Book 3. chap. 10. after whose subduing of those two Tyrants Ethnicism never made head more in the Roman Empire saith the same learned Author Indeed the whole current of History makes it evident that Ethnicism never after that appeared in the field against Christianity yet we find it after that conspiring in the Senate to subdue the Faith by the help of the Gothish Arms invited thither by the Heathens and therefore so dreaded by the Christian Party as multitudes of them upon the irruption of the Barbarians either conceal'd or dissembled their Religion to save themselves from the rage of the enemy till contrary to their expectation they perceiv'd that God had turn'd the sword of the Goths against the Pagans St. Jerom. ep 6. ad prin ep 8. and that Alaricus had given order to his Soldiers they should neither touch persons nor goods which they found in the Christian Temples And we find it after that practised in private Chappels tilâ— Honorius made it capital for any to worship Idols either in publick or private Quis enim nostrum quis vestrum non laâ—dat Leges ab Imperatoribus datas adversus sacrificia Idolorum at certè longè ibi paena severior constituta est illius quippe impietatis capitale supplicium est saith St. Austin to the Patron of the Donatists epist. 48. which of ours which of yours do not commend those Imperial Laws against the Sacrifices of the Pagans though the pain inflicted by those Laws be far more severe than that which the Law inflicts upon the Novatians for those make it death for any to commit those Gentile Abominations At which period of time if I would be positive I would fix the beginning of the thousand years which we have in this long discourse been pricking to its seat For it is most natural to interpret the Chain wherein Satan was bound to have been those Imperial Laws and the Key of the bottomless Pit that Supream Authority and power of Life or Death invested by Gods Ordinance in them that bear the Sword and actually exerted in those Laws by opening the mouth of the Pit and making it gape upon such as should persist in those impious and inhumane Idolatries by the Ghastly look of that terriblest of terribles the Pagan was frighted from that Diabolical Worship and by that fear of his shut up Satan and deprived him of power any longer to deceive Insomuch as immediately after the promulgation of those Laws though all did not embrace Christianity yet the whole Empire renounc'd Politheism all strife thereabout being supprest and so eradicated even out of the most talkâ—ive Schools of the Grecians as if any Sect of Error then rose up against the Church and the Faith it durst not step upon the Stage to contend with the Christian but cover'd with the Christian name so that the Platonicks themselves â—â—d it not been for some plausible Placits they could adhere to without fear of incurring the penalties of the Imperial laws must of necessity have generally submitted their pious necks to the yoak of the only invincible King Christ and have acknowledged that Word of God made Flesh who spake and that was believed which the boldest of them were afraid to reveal to the world August dios ep 56. But I dare not be peremptory in determining the precise Moment All that I assert in this is That if the Thousand years of Satan's binding â—e begun at all the beginning of them cannot be dated lower than the promulgation of those Imperial Edicts neither do any place them lower who are of opinion that the Millenium is not yet to begin From whence I inferr this irrefragable Conclusion If the Millenium be precisely the term of 1000 years Satan at the utmost was let loose in the year of Grace 1400 that then the Christian World has outlived Grace 270 years according to the least compute of that Hypothesis And
abolition of Idols so they laid a sure ground for the Fathers of the succeding century to conclude that the beatum Millenium the Reign of the Saints on the Earth with Christ and the time of Satan's binding was then commenc'd when they saw Paganism wholly exterminated from the Earth Idols either broken or cast into holes all the then known World over For the Fathers generally never dreamt of the Antipodes but in scorn of their possible being For a Millenary I will name Lactantius Institut lib. 3. cap. 24. Quid illi qui contrarios vestigiis Antipodes putant Num aliquid loquuntur aut est quispiam tam ineptus qui credat esse homines quorum vestigia sunt superiora quam capita aut ibi quae apud nos jacent universa pendere fruges arbores deorsùm versùs crescere pluvias nives grandinem sursùm versùs cadere in terram miratur aliquis hortos pensiles inter septem mira narrari cùm Philosophi agros maria urbes montes pensiles faciunt For an Antimillenarian St. Austin who de Civitate 16. 9. censures the relation of the Antipodes to be an incredible Fable Now St. Austin who lived to see the utmost bounds of the Empire and of this upper Hemisphere subjected to Christs Septer and freed from the service of Idols speaks of those Prophesies which foretel that Christ should reign from Sea to Sea and to the worlds end as then fulfilled and Lactantius would have joyned with him in that triumphant Song had he lived to that Age and seen that one God alone exalted in the Earth who in his time was rival'd with so many false Gods § 3. But you will say this was triumphing before the Victory a mistake of the Fathers to think the whole VVorld was become Christs when one half of it stood out against him In answer to this Objection some say and have perswaded themselves to think that America hath not been long inhabited but that it was first possest by such Pagans as from the Light of the Gospel and the penalties of the Imperial Laws fled thither before the face of Jesus as the Tyrians to Carthage from before Joshua If this surmise were true it would be a good Salvo and give light to those passages in Old Testament prophesie where it issaid the Idols shall go under ground be cast to the Moles and Bats to that Hemisphere which was then uninhabited c. But it is wholly against reason that a place so near that part of the World where Noah's Posterity first seated themselves as some question whether it be not the same Continent and others confess them sever'd by a narrow Sea Fullers Miscelan l. 2. c. 4. should not more early be found out Noah having taught the World how the Seas might be made passable and those parts where he seated his children so crowded with inhabitants as men to enlarge their quarters and to avoid hunger which breaks stone walls forc'd their way to new seats through the most inhospitable Climates Secondly I therefore prefer here this answer that this upper Hemisphere in the common dialect of the Prophets signifies the whole world God being pleased to accommodate his language to the Conceptions of the vulgar And therefore he himself put that new Song into the Churches mouth wherein she triumph'd in her Christ as install'd sole King over the VVorld when he gain'd that eminent part of it into his possession that had been the Stage of Scripture-history and of the Apostles Peregrination and was at that time both when they were given out and began to receive their accomplishment the only known VVorld Not that I subscribe to that of Mr. Meed that this Hemisphere is to be solely partaker of that universal Restauration which the Scriptures mention and what Nation soever are out of its bounds are reserv'd for Christs Triumph at the day of judgement and to be destroyed with that fire which shall consume those Armies that shall compass the holy City which that learned person conceives shall be listed by Satan in America and thence drawn up against the Camp of the Saints that is as he opines the old VVorld men wholly reigning with Christ. For this is not only contrary to Experience whereby we learn that that new VVorld is coming in a pace to Christ. Vide Heylin Amer. 2019. But other express Prophesies that mention the round VVorld and all that dwell therein all Nations whom God hath created as portions of Christs Inheritance that mention every Tongue and every Knee confessing to and bowing to the God of the whole earth c. And therefore as those that lived before the discovery of this new found VVorld might when they saw the old converted appropriate that universal Restauration unto it in Faith and Charity extending themselves to the utmost bounds of the explicite hope of those Centuries which preceded that subjection of that old VVorld to the Royal Law So we to whom the knowledge of the new VVorld is communicated by our excluding of that from the benefit of Redemption transgress the Law of Faith Hope and Charity 1. Of Faith for though the belief of the being of the Antipodes be no Article of Christian Faith yet the belief of their future Call upon supposition of their being is that is he that knows there are Tongues and Knees under the Earth is bound to believe that in Gods appointed time every knee there shall bow to every tongue there shall confess to the only true God Yea were I sure by a certainty of Reason or indubitable Intelligence that men inhabit the VVorld in the Moon I were bound to be sure by an equal certainty of Faith that the Inhabitants of that VVorld shall have their season of Grace as well as we 2. Of that Hope which the Primitive Church had which expresly dilated it self to the expected Conversion of all Nations and implicity upon supposition that there were Nations and Languages there of those of the lower Hemisphere And 3. Lastly of that Charity wherewith the first Christians embrac'd all that VVorld they could grasp with their minds From which Christian Charity how far do they deviate from whose Pens fall such unmerciful Sentences such bitter things against the poor Americans as the defence of their Hypothesis naturally draws from our Modern Millenaries from the guilt of which uncharitableness they will hardly be acquitted by wiping their mouths and ascribing this severity justo at nobis incognito Dei judicio to the just but to us unknown judgement of God upon that so great a part of the VVorld For though the deferring of their Conversion so long may piously be ascribed to the secret and incomprehensible counsel of the all wise God at the depth whereof in this case of his having mercy upon some of the most barbarous Gentiles so early in the day of the Messias and so long before he had mercy on far more civilized Nations Reason and Religion
Israel and to have born up the Spirits of Idol-worshippers sinking under those burthens which Gods Prophets saw against false Gods whom according to their Prophesies we have seen broken to pieces like a Potters vessel with the Iron-rod of that Son of God whom he hath set up as King upon the Hill of Sion to whom he hath given the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his possession Who coming out of his Chamber as a Bridegroom that is Conjugatum carni humanae Verbum processit de útero virginali August de consens 1. 16. the Word Married to humane flesh came out of the Virgins Womb. Rejoyceth as a Giant to run his course not only from one end of the Hemisphere unto the other as they would bound Christs Kingdom who exclude America from the hopes of it but from one end of the Heaven to the other and if that be not plain enough nothing is hid from the heat thereof not any part of the round World that the corporeal Sun visits Mankind receives the cherishing warmth of its Beams and basks it self in that Fountain of Light The Serpent feels their scorching heat and flees therefrom Et adhuc isti fragiles contradictiunculas garrientes eligunt magis isto igne sicut stipula in cinerem verti quam sicut aurum à sorde purgari And will the crazy-headed Sceptick yet chatter and gaggle out his petit and bublie Exceptions which break with the least touch with the gentlest blast and choose rather to be consumed to ashes in this fire as stubble than to be purged by it from his dross as Gold § 3. Or is he of so thick-skin'd a Soul as not to feel the heat of Christs Divinity in those Prophetick Rayes emitted from his Spirit before he came in the Flesh as not to conceive that the accomplishments of Old Testament-Prophecies is a demonstration not only of their own but of the Gospels Divine Original which can be the Workmanship of none other Architect but of him who drew the Model and Idea of these new Heavens that new Creation that new face of things which we see produc'd in the Age of Christianity Humane Wit indeed might have drawn another Model perfectly resembling that might have fram'd an History parallel to Prophecy though they that could make the Counter-part so exactly answer the Original and write so perfectly after the Copy as the Apostles have must be Persons of a steady Hand excellently composed Spirits and solid Judgements And therefore all the Inference we drew in our Second Book from the Apostles proportioning every Limb and Line of their Story to the Old Testament-Draught was that they had thereby demonstratively acquitted themselves from all suspicion of being themselves deluded But it is out of the reach of Humane power to bring the Matters there prophesied of unto Birth the erecting of the Structure it self the production of what was fore-told into real existence cannot be the Effect of any but of him alone who hath as great an Infinity of Power to bring to pass as he hath of knowlege to foresee them And therefore having proved the Truth of what the Apostles reported that what they say was done in order to the accomplishment of Prophecy was done indeed he must be a person of very short Reason that from the improvement of the Premisses cannot improve the Conclusion and draw this Inference That as nothing but Omnisciency could foresee so nothing less than Omnipotency could effect That a Virgin should bring forth a Son externally so mean as those among whom he convers'd saw so little comliness in him as they Crucified him as an Impostor for saying he was the Son of God the King of the Jews that Messia promised in the Law and so much predicated by the Prophets and yet really so full of Majesty as he is become King of Kings hath subdued the World to his Obedience abolish'd all the Gods of the Nations and erected every where the Worship of that one God that made Heaven and Earth that God of whom Moses writes known formerly only in Jewry but now no where less known than among the Jews they being the greatest strangers to their own Prophets and their Fathers God being the greatest stranger to them of any Nation upon the face of the Earth § 4. But that I may not put the Sceptick to the expence of all the Reason he hath and that he may not think it is through penury of New Testament-prophecies that I pitch upon those of the Old and that he may grope out the Divinity of the Blessed Jesus in some palpable accomplishments of the Predictions he made in person as well as by Proxy I shall here mind him of this Note That Christ espoused all the Old Testament-prophecies commented upon them applied them and not only attested the coming to pass of what the Prophets had foretold in general but as it were individuated those generals by more particular and punctual Circumstances not so much as hinted by them of old and appeal'd to their accomplishment in that way and with those Circumstances wherewith he cloath'd them The prophets gave only the rough draught of what Christ drew to the life he lickt their rude Lumps into so distinct and explicite forms as the Prophecies became his own his Gleanings were more than their Vintage To instance in one for all Christ in his Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem referrs to Daniel when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel thereby appealing to its accomplishment as that which he was content to stand or fall by as to mens belief that he was the Messias as if he had said if you see it not within the Term of Daniels Weeks within so many years after my offering an Attonement for sin as Daniel states it after the Oblation of the Messias believe me not that I am he But withal he leaves it not in such curious Calculations as Daniel did but what he had writ in figures Christ transcribes in words at length and applies it to that Generation with that perspicuity and in such particularities as an Historian can scarce tell what has been done more punctually than Christ foretells what should be done 1. As to the time of its taking Effect there be some saith he standing here that shall not tast of Death till all these things shall be fulfill'd and in particular St. John shall tarry till Christ come to avenge himself on the Jewish Nation 2. As to the Instruments to be employed by Christ for the destruction of their place and Nation he describes them by their Banners the Eagles under which the Roman Legions those Birds of prey march'd when divine Justice conducted them into Judaea that they might flesh themselves upon that Nation whose Inhabitants their sins being ripe were as Carcasses fatted and prepared for them signified as Tacitus thinks by that prodigy of a Dog bringing to Vespasian a dead