Church but at last they beleeve it for God the Fathers sake whose voice they find speak in Scripture which is the foundation of true faith being the last principle into which faith can be resolved Mathe. Are there any other reasons to prove God beside Scriptures Phila. None better then Scripture to them that beleeve it but because many beleeve not the Scriptures as the Heathen denie the whole Bible and the Jewes halfe of it namely the N. T. therefore reason must be found to convince such The heathen know not the true God and the Jews know not God in Christ and so one worships a false God and the other the true God but in a false manner And we need not scruple at reason in this point because God gave reason before Scriptures and holy Reason before holy Writ to divers men which lead them to Religion and therefore though it be well proved to us out of the Old Testament that there is a God of the Jewes whom the very Heathen feared 1 Sam. 4.7 8. And also out of the New Testament that to us there is but one true God of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 8.6 by whom are all things and we by him And beside we know that nothing can testifie better of the truth of Gods being then the truth of Gods writing yet for other mens sakes who beleeve not the Scriptures and yet by reason may be induced to beleeve them it is good to urge reasons Now the first reason to perswade men that there is a God is Because it seems written in the minds of all nations by a naturall impression or mentall presumption which forceth rather to worship any thing for a god then no god at all Rom. 2. Cic. de Nat. De. lib. 1. p. 198. Cic. lib. 1. Tusc pa. 112. Rom. 1.2 which sheweth the first Commandement written in their hearts that they shall acknowledge a god though what god it is they know not and so they worship divers things for gods which are not so From hence it is that some have worshipped Sun and Moon some worshipped Beasts Serpents some the Images of Men some Crocodiles some Devils under strange shapes of Satyrs whose upper part was manlike and the under part like a Goat the Aegyptians worship * Shor-apis an Oxe head the Bramenes of India worship the first thing they meet in the morning as the god of the day Orteli Cosm So in Baida they worship a piece of a red clout tied to a crosse-stick like a banner some worship a Crosse as the god of raine This may be some old traditions of the Crosse antiquated I would they that understand their language would bring that God to them whom they ignorantly worship as Paul did to the Athenians it would prove a happy voiage I know the Papists use some endeavours among them to little purpose till they have convinced their understanding and so they do but draw them from one superstition to another and can give as little reason for one as the other yea I beleeve the subtill Indian observing the Idolatry of the Papists think their own Religion to be as good as the Papists Mathe. How comes men to be so sottish Phila. Through ignorance and immoderate passions of love and fear For as through ignorance some worshipped Fortune and Vices as contumely and impudence as did the Athenians Clem. Rom. l. 5. Recog others Flora and Priapus as did the Romans some worshipped Nymphae and Hymen and Mons Veneris which words signifie the secret parts of womens bodies fo which they made gods and goddesses as some inamoured Gallants do of their mistresses And thus the Devill hath taught men to debase themselves even unto hell Isa 57.9 So by fear men worshipped Serpents and Crocodiles and other hurtfull creatures as the Indians do the Devill for fear he should harm them others worshipped the Images of both under certain shapes called Telesmes which were made to defend them from something they feared So Love erected strange Idols As those that passionately desired to preserve the memory of their friends did after their death set up an Image of them which in processe became a sanctuary for offenders Dioph. Laced in Antiq. as did the Image of Synophanes son which he set up in love of his memory to which Image his servants offered incense and did fly to it for pardon of their offended master and upon reliefe would offer it gifts of thankfulnesse From hence came superstition the end whereof was Cicero that their friends might be superstites or survivors when they were dead that is kept in memory after death So Ninus set up the Image of Belus his father in his new built City Niniveh which became a sanctuary to all kind of offenders and in processe of time came to be religious worship Sophocles which even some heathen Poets confuted From Belus came Baal so often named in Scripture signifying Lord as Baal-Sephon Exod. 14.1 the Lord of the watch Tower and Baal Berith the Lord of the Covenant Judg. 8.33 and Baal-zebub the Lord of flies Dan. 3.1 And it is very likely that Nebuchadnezzars golden Image Dan. 2.38 was to be a memoriall of himselfe because Daniel had told him that he was the head of Gold but God crossed his purpose by the delivering of the three children from the fiery furnace However his Babylonians set up their god Bel which is very likely that they had brought from the Assyrians by conquest Mathe. But in what times did this false worship arise Phila. Certainly it arose first in Cain's posterity of whom it is said Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call on the name of the Lord where the Hebrew word huchar signifieth to prophane as Num. 30.2 And Jewish Rabbies so take it R. D. Kimchi though the Chaldee Paraphrase doth not for they say that then they began to call men by the name of gods and lords and placed the souls of their famous men in the stars and called the images here on earth by the name of god and began to give them divine worship This being a prophaning of that true Religion which was held in the family of Sheth you find in the fifth of Genesis men are ranked into two sorts sons of God and sons or daughters of men but when these sons of God of the line of Sheth married with the daughters of men which were of Cain and became infected with their Idolatry god drowned the world Yet this Idolatry ceased not but after the flood it began again in the race of Nimrod Belus and Ninus who were all Idolized by their followers placing their souls among the stars and erecting their Images here upon earth to which when they did sacrifice they beleeved that thereby the souls departed Elat in Symp. were called to their Images and took cognisance of their cases and then like patrons sollicited them before
the gods or spirits of the stars above whose dwelling was not with mortals as said the Chaldean Astrologers to Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 2.11 â—esiod For the soules of these men they thought to be preserved to be Tutelaries and Patrons to defend their States Cities or Countries yea their houses which spirits or daemons they called Lares or Penates Cicero de Nat. Deor. of all which we find some footing in holy Scriptures but among heathen writers many thousands Mathe. I pray shew me some instances of them Phila. First I have shewed you those before the flood and some after it Now as their languages were divided so their Colonies were collected and then dispersed themselves about the world which division of languages and dispersion to remote places occasioned divers Religions The next you find are Penates the houshold gods of Laban the Syrian Gen. 31.30 whom some think that Rachel stole that her father might not enquire of them to follow Jacob. The next you find are those that were found in Israels travels towards Canaan Numb 25.3 Israel joined himselfe to Baal Peor Psal 106.28 and did eat the offerings of the dead i. of those sacrifices that were offered to the Idols of the dead men whom the Midianites worshipped for gods The next you read of is Michals Teraphim Images set in his house to worship in the shape of a man which by the help of a spirit gave them answers Zach. 10.2 Judg. 17. The next are such as the Jewes borrowed of the heathens in their apostacy from God as Moloch Vid. Aben Ezra in Gen. 31. Levit. 18.21 Amos 5.26 whose tabernacle they took up and carried about as their Priests did the Ark of God and Chiun and Rempham and Ashteroth which were types of the Sun and Moon as was Tamuz also taken for the Sun for whose departure to the winter Tropick they foolishly wept Procopius in Esa 18. Ezek. 8.14 and at his return as wantonly rejoiced You may take them all in a summe 2 Chro. 33.3 Manasses worshipped the whole hoste of heaven i. their superiour gods and set up altars to Baalim i. their inferiour lords or Idols representative And thus you see they had gods many and lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 as you may find them reckoned up by Rabshecheth 2 Kin. 18.34 upon severall nations Rab. Jarchi in 2 Kin. 17. and more particularly in 2 Kin. 17.30 where their Idols be named and signifie birds and beasts as the Jewish Doctors say So you read of Nisroch the god of Niniveh and of Rimmon the god of Syria 2 Kin. 5.18 and in the New Testament of Diana of the Ephesians 2 Kin. 18. Macrob. Satur. lib. 1. cap. 18. Origen contra Celsum lib. 6. fol. 76. col 3. Thus their sin robbed the true God of his titles Lord and God Gen. 1.2.3 chapters and gave it to the creatures as Jehovah to Jove turning the glory of the invisible God into vain similitudes Rom. 1. Which may teach man to bewaile his wofull estate as Henoch did three hundred years the fall of Adam by whose fin his progeny is ignorant of that God with whom he was familiar so it may teach Christians to beware of Idolatry lest we apostate as the Jewes did whom God forbad all such worship by commanding them to have a God and him for that God and none but him Exod. 20.3 So Christ in his Gospell saith as much that we must have a Mediatour and him for that Mediatour and none but him And therefore to abhor papistry which sets up the old heathen Religion by teaching that Saints are to be our mediatours and their Images may be worshipped which if they be not animated by the soules of Saints they do worse then the heathen to worship them If they be yet it is but heathenish to trust to their mediation as the heathens did who by this did but prove there was a God to be worshipped but knew not who nor how And therefore as the heathens set up the images of men departed to be the protecting patriots of such Cities and Country so have the Papists set up Saints for divers places as the Lady of Lauretta instead of their Minerva and St Dunstan for Vulcan and many others Mathe. What other reason is there to prove a God Phila. There needs no other nor can there be any more demonstrative than practise from natures principles among all men of all nations in all ages who beleeving there was one but could not find him did adore the creature for him and lest they should misse him they multiplied their gods as the stars of heaven and the species of things in the earth and yet doubting whether they had him or no they would make use of other mens gods as well as their own Gen. 31.53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor be witnesse So Jonah 1.5 The mariners cried to their God and Jonah was roused to call upon his God So the heathens were wont to close their praiers thus All ye gods and goddesses Ser. in Georg. Giraldus Syntag 17. Theophylact in act 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian in Philop. Herodot lib. 8. help us And the Arabians built Altars to the unknown God and so did the Athenians Act. 17.23 From whence the Countries adjacent to it swore by him that was unknown at Athens Beside though God allowed no such worship yet he suffered avenging Angels to punish Atheists as they that neglected the oblation made to Geryon were struck with some disease as saith Diodor Siculus lib. 5. Lucian who barked against Christ was devoured by dogs So one Artabanus a Persian Generall contemming Neptune was drowned by an inundation with a great part of his army These things God suffers to shew that though he love no false gods yet he likes not that they who have no Religion should contemn any Religion But another reason that proveth there is a God is this because all things in nature are bounded in place and operation beyond which they cannot passe be their apperites never so large as the Sun though it soften wax it cannot soften clay because it is limited by the nature of the subjection which it worketh Indeed one thing is bounded to another Prosp lib. de provid p. 181. from the center to the highest heavens 2 Esdras 4.14 15. Therefore there must be some principle who set these bounds or else all nature by vastnesse of desire would be in an uprore and confusion one thing striving to exceed another Claudian in 4 Consul Honorii 186. Arist lib. 1. de anima c. 2. top 1. p. 786. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist lib. de mundo top 2. top 2. p. 1572. And therefore Anaxagoras said there was a thing called a Mind which infinite Spirit gives limits to all things in the world this name he gave to God And Aristotle saith there is a certain infinite thing which is the beginning of all things and containeth
all things One called it a mind the other nature i. such a Nature as doth naturate all things else and limits all things in nature therefore he cals God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. in Hym. Dion Halic Antiq. Rom. lib. 2. circumspection And I conceive upon the same grounds the Greeks worshipped a god called Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter the limiter And so did the Romans worship Jovem terminalem the bound-setting god all which sheweth that God is the bounder of nature and that which boundeth nature is God And indeed if there were not such a limiter as God is mans appetite naturall sensitive and intellective nature could never be satisfied for all the labour of man is for his mouth Eccl. 6.7 and yet the soule is not satisfied with good why because such a man looks not in using the creature upon the chiefe good which is God For the righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soule because he makes Gods glory the end of his eating but the belly of the wicked wanteth true content Nor could mans sensitive appetite be ever satiated Pro. 13.25 not the eie with seeing nor the ear with hearing nor the heart by having what it desireth Alexander hearing Democritus pretend more worlds grieved that he had not conquered one Nor can our intellectuall appetite or our desire of knowledge be satisfied in the search of things since the place of wisedome is not found either in height or depth and that the son of Syrach saith Job 28.14 Eccles 24.21 that he that eateth of wisedome shall have the more hunger for the more we know the more we see something we know not so that to read much is a wearinesse to the flesh and that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow therefore there must be something above all naturall science to satisfie this desire or such desires are given in vain Again there must be a God because there must be a cause of things for nothing can make or beget it selfe without something that was in actuall being before which must be a selfe essence or being and that is God or nothing and of nothing comes nothing Mathe. The being of a Godhead being so evident and plain how came Atheisme or the denying of a God into the world Phila. By neglect of naturall principles which manifests a godhead to resist which is not only foolish but impious So Rom. 1.21 when they knew God they did glorifie as God 2. By setting wit above wisedome and disputing against principles which may not be denied though being prime truths they cannot so easily be proved no more then we can give reason why fire should burn rather then water though we know it doth so and he that will not beleeve it because one cannot prove it should even be burnt to convince him 3. By mistakes of men who writing against the heathen gods have been thought to deny all Godhead So Diagoras rather denied the Athenian gods than denied the true God So Theodorus said that he was misunderstood because he delivered his words with the right hand but his auditors took them with the left Morn c. 1. de Relig. And Protagoras rather voided the disputing of the question then denied a God to be I beleeve there have been as bad if not worse Atheists then they As those that fall into Antatheisme making their belly their god Phil. 3.19 or their pleasures Eurip. 2 Tim. 3.4 and some pretend there is neither God nor Devill heaven nor hell like the Poets Cyclops Arnob. lib. 8. cont genti who wil not leave their impudence til they be thunder-struck or be transfixed by the darts of the divine wisedome and vengeance Yet there are some closer Atheists who say that policy first brought in Religion And this too many children have by rote by reading Poeticall Tragedies and some other books and so suck in that while they are children which they ruminate on too much when they be older As Euripides brings in one Siphysus relating that men being full of vices the wiser sort were fain to make Lawes to bridle their exorbitancies but yet could not suppresse their secret evils at last a crafty man told them the way was to put into the peoples head that there was one called God Lue. in Treg who heard saw and understood all things This man was a close and cunning Atheist like Lucian who brings in a carping Cynick and an Epicure disputing against Jupiter as if he had no hand in it himselfe And I beleeve there be many who will not denie God in publick Tull. de Nat. deor l. 1. Sen. lib. 2. nat Q. c. 24. who yet are content among weak and witty men to consent to it Some learned Romans thought Religion but a witty invention to keep men in awe and it may well be said so of their Religion and such as their Numa set up by the help of the Nymph Aegeria But these men understood nothing of the Jewish or Christian Religion set forth of God and his Son Jesus Christ Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 2. And therefore as the Romans refused to receive Christ as God in open Senate in the time of Tyberius so God gave them up to worship Simon Magus a conjurer for a god in the time of Claudius Let no man therefore think Religion a fiction lest he think God also a figment Mathe. As there is a God so I pray tell me is there no more but one Phila. If there be any God at all he can be but one for these reasons 1. Because whatsoever is God must be the chiefest good from which word good the word God is derived Now there cannot possibly be two chiefs or superlatives nor more then one superiour from whence the Great Turk takes his Axiom one God in heaven and one Sultan upon earth yea the Pope would have but one Catholick Bishop and one Catholick King which is but a tyrannicall usurpation For God that is one above all in heaven and earth never gave any such dignity to any either in heaven or earth but only to the Son who is one with the Father 2. Whatsoever is God must be the first of all things Now there can be but one first and so but one god for what is first is but one Now nothing cannot be first for then nothing must be second and so consequently no world no creatures But such seconds there are and therefore there must be a first thing sprung of it selfe making all but made of none no not himselfe i. not the subject matter of himselfe and so framed of some other being but this one ariseth from himselfe and can be resolved no farther then into himselfe 3. If there were more gods then one then one must differ from the other in some essentiall property and so one God must have that which the other hath not and so one or both are imperfect and so there can be but one God
as to break the Sabbath rather then an holy day or the Lent fast and flesh eaten on Friday is more punished then theft or adultery Again he maintains the doctrine of devils by forbidding marriage and meats 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3 and maintains heathenisme for true Religion by commanding the worship of images and the adoration of dead Saints which was the practice of the heathens in worshipping of their Daemons Beside this Antichrist doth equall if not prefer the blessed Virgin Mary before Christ as may be seen by the titles they give unto her as the Turks set Mahomet above Christ And farther his religion is patched up of other petty Antichrists and therefore certainly he is the great Antichrist For as the Valentinian hereticks and Marcion when they were confuted by Scripture they said that the Scriptures were insufficient obscure and of no authority so do the Papists Aug. cont Pelag. Epipha her 42. So as the Pelagians held free will to remain in man fallen for the choosing of any spirituall good so do the Papists So the Marcionite held women might baptize so do the Papists Iren. l. 1. c. 13. The Carpocratians denied to Lay men the reading of the Scriptures so do the Papists that their mystery of iniquity may not be discovered The Manicheans held the body of Christ to be but imaginary so do the Papists in that they tell us of the body of Christ in the Sacrament without its true proprieties Aug. haer 71. And as they gave only the bread in the Sacrament so do the popish Priests The Tassiani did forbid Priests marriage so doth the Pope Euseb lib. 5. eccl hist c. 17. Montanus invented lawes for fasting so did the Papists The Collyridiani worshipped the Virgin Mary whom Epiphanius cals idolaters haeres 79. The Marcionits preferred virginity above all things Epiph. haeres 2. so do the Papists The Carpocratians had images of Christ to worship so have the Papists And the hereticks called Apostolici admitted none into their fraternity unlesse they deprived themselves of their goods and renounced matrimony so do the popish Monks and Friers The Armeni worshipped the crosse so do the Papists And also in many other things the Pope licks up the vomit of old heathenisme and heresie and differs from the true Christian Religion in sixty and odd severall points But beside the papacy appeareth to be the great Anrichrist because he denieth Jesus to be Christ not in words 1 John 2.22 but in effect because he denieth the person of Christ and his office For in his doctrine of transubstantiation in the Lords Supper he denieth the proprieties of Christs humane nature and by consequent his Mediatorship So he makes void his Propheticall office as if he had not perfectly revealed the will of his Father John 15.15 and therefore the Pope deviceth other doctrines as necessary to salvation So he disanuls Christs Priestly office by setting other Priests to offer a sacrifice of the masse for quick and dead Heb. 10.14 and annihilates his sole Mediatorship and intercession 1 Tim. 2.5 by appointing the mediation of Saints Also he abrogates Christs Kingly office by assuming to himselfe all power in heaven and in earth Concil Lateran sess 10. yea arrogates to himselfe power over soules departed to send them to purgatory and fetch them out at his pleasure Clem. 6. in sua bulla Rev. 13.13 Nicol. Lyra. in cap. 4. Daniel or to canonize them Saints as he thinks fit Again he useth false signs and lying wonders 2 Thes 2.9 pretending to cast out devils and make images to sweat weep or smile which kind of wonders if they had any semblance of truth yet are not to be expected in these latter times however they were necessary in the first planting of the Church Greg hom 19. in Evang. and ministers are rather to be judged to be true because they do none rather then otherwise saith Chrysost in 49. hom on Mat. for they were necessary that the world might beleeve yet after men do beleeve Aug. lib. 22. de civil dei it were strange to expect miracles But beside the Pope exerciseth the power Civill and Ecclesiastick as Rev. 13.12 whereby the power of the first beast is meant in authentique Writers the power of the Roman Empire which was much wounded and weakned Rev. 13.12 but healed by the Popes taking on himselfe the authority thereof and so becomes rich and potent being adored with gold and silver and adorned with purple and scarlet Rev. 17.4 And farther you may know this beast by his marks of cruelty and therefore as the first beasts bodily shape is likened to a Leopard Rev. 13.2 his mouth like a lion and his feet like a bear as if all the cruell properties of Daniels beasts were met in him together with the blasphemous tongue of Antiochus Epiphanes whom Polybius cals Epimanes the mad man So the Popes cruelty and tyranny is set forth in the second Beast Rev. 13.11 like a lamb but spake like a dragon exercising it on true Christians as it is foretold Rev. 13.15 17. that all that would not worship the first beasts image that is the Pope himselfe should be killed and that none should buy or sell but such as bore some mark of his obedience Otto the first to Pope John the twelfth 942. as the mark of the Beast by his ordination of Priests and oath taken of Emperours and Princes or that bore his name by imposition on the people called Papists of Papa Grat. distinct Q. 3. the Pope or Roman Catholicks or else that had the number of his name by subjecting themselves to the soveraignty of the Latine Church as Michael Paleologus was fain to promise to Gregory the tenth 1273. at Lions in France that he would subject himselfe and his people to him till which time he would suffer no aid to go out of the West to relieve the Christian Greek Churches in the East And thus he sits in the Temple of God as a politick tyrant that is in their consciences whom he hath seduced and commanded to serve him who would seem to be the true Church and Temple of God and yet are in the mean time but the Citizens of spirituall Babylon which is interpreted to be Rome by St John built on seven hils It is true that he speaks of two beasts Rev. 17.9 Rev. 13.1 11. the first is generally taken to be the successive heathenish estate of the Roman Empire which persecuted the Christians openly the other the successive estate of Popes after the apostacy from the Gospel-truth who by idolatry superstition and persecution and Seat in Rome became the image of the first Beast It is simple to think that Antichrist is one man as it were to say that Israel were the name of one man only whereas it is the name of a whole nation also So Sion is the name of a hill yet it signifieth also the Church And