their obtaining a far more exceeding weight of eternal Glory but not universal Precepts obliging all Christians Gerson de religionis perfectione Religio Christiana sub uno supremo Abbate Christo sola est salutaris perfecta nibilominùs distincta gradibus meritorum ordinum qui votis aliquibus se subjiciunt ultrà legem communeâ— Christi Christian Religion profes'd under one supreme Abbat Christ is the only saving and perfect Religion It is notwithstanding distinguish'd according to the degrees of Merits and Orders So as they are most perfect who subject themselves to certain Rules beyond the common Law of Christ. Thus did these esteem the Royal Law to be an excellent Rule of Life and Heart for such as aim'd at perfection of Grace and Glory but for those that could content themselves with the common scantling they might be saved by that Religion by which their Fore-fathers had been saved there was no necessity of practising so chargeable and austere a Doctrine as that of Christ. The moralized Gentile had that Opinion of the Christian Religion in comparison of his own as he had of his own in comparison of all the rest the Jew had that esteem of Christ compared with Moses as he had of Moses compared with all other Legislators or to come to an Instance will both administer more light to this business and whereof we have from the Ancients a better account as he had of the common Jewish Religion in comparison of those stricter Sects of the Pharisee and Essene as leading to that height of Virtue as few are capable of attaining to to that Communion with God as is inaccessible saving by persons of a better Clay and therefore obtains the good word of all that are not brutified and led by untamed Passions as that which leads to the most perfect Beatitude and a trade of Life far excelling all others but not practicable in common Converse and therefore obtains observance from few As Philo speaks of the Essenes Meritò ut absolutae probitatis receptum in multis orbis regionibus a Graecis atque barbaris ordo tendens ad faelicitatem perfectissimam Philo de vita contemplativa They are deservedly entertain'd as men walking by a Rule of absolute perfection in many regions of the World both Grecians and Barbarians applaud their Order as tending to the most perfect happiness It is adored and reverenc'd at a distance by all but not approach'd to except by such as a kind of divine fury drives on to lay violent hands upon it having first laid violent hands upon themselves and thereby become dead to this mortal Life amore correpti rerum caelestium quasi divino furore perciti prae immortalis cupidine vitâ hac mortalidefuncti Id. Ibid. Josephus himself is a notable Example of this praising the Heroick degree of Virtue as absolutely the best but yet chusing a more remiss degree as best for him for though he far prefers in point of worth the Essene above the Pharisee in his discourses of them Antiq. 15. 13. he presents the Pharisee as indulg'd by Herod out of that respect he bore to Pollio a chief Master amongst them but out of the reverence which Herod had to the Religion it self of the Essenes he remitted to them the taking of the Oath of Allegiance which he imposed upon the other two Sects as conceiving the Essenes Virtue and Justice would oblige them more to duty than an Oath would the Pharisees or Sadducees And he spends so much of a long Chapter cap. 7. de Bell. Judaic 2. in commending the Essenes for that admirable degree of Temperance Tolerance Pacateness of Spirit contempt of Earth love of Heaven which they attain'd to as he almost forgets to describe the two other Sects as not worthy to stand in competition with this And in the History of his own Life gives the preheminency for Virtue to the Essenes whose Rules he followed under Bannus three years without intermission Yet when he came to near twenty and began to consider where he was and how to provide for a subsistence in this world sutable to his mind he chose the Religion of the Pharisees whom he saw on the sunny-side of the hedge as most conducible to a Civil Life as a way wherein he might safely walk towards the obtaining immortal happiness though not administring so large an entrance into it as that of the more mortified Essenes yet more easie to be kept without loss of his Secular Interests and laying more in the way Preferment c. As he himself informs us in the History of his own Life Jamque undeviginti annos natus civilem vitam aggressus sum addictus Pharisaeorum placitis Of whom notwithstanding he gives this Character that they were a slie and arrogant kind of Men pragmatical in Affairs of State enemies to Kings beguiling silly Women with shews of holiness Antiquities l. 13. c. 3. But however that Sect he chuseth as most convenient for a Civil Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocrat de pace Thus he adhered to the Religion of Moses in practice though he honour'd Christ's Doctrine in heart before it with Philo his Eunuch philosopher Philo de Josepho approving it in judgement as the most wholesome but relishing the other as more tooth-some loquitur ut oportet sed sapit contrarium Of the same make were those multitudes of Believers to whom Jesus would not trust himself knowing what was in them those of the Rulers and Pharisees who believed but did not practice his Doctrine for fear of being cast out of the Synagogue through love of the praise of men c. such were the Gnosticks the Ebionites the Hemerobaptists and the whole Frie of Mungrel-Christians who not being able to expung out of their Minds an honourable Opinion of Christ nor out of their Wills an enmity to the pureness of his Doctrine compounded the quarrel betwixt Conscience and Affection betwixt Reason and Passion § 3. Of Christ's working of Miracles which he propoundeth as another Cause of so many Disciples flocking after and adhering to him Josephus thus writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic fuit mirabilium operum patrator He was a dâ—er of admirable Works Every word and almost syllable hath its Emphasis 1. The VVorks wrought by Christ were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonderful beyond and beside the ordinary course of Nature not only in the opinion of the Vulgar who are easie to be imposed upon by Thaumatourgists by reason of their ignorance in the Reason and Cause of Effects but in the judgement of the most knowing persons for doubtless such was Josephus and such those with whom he convers'd in order to his receiving satisfaction in this Case and therefore if he had not been well assured that as it was beyond the power of the most approved minds to find out so it was out of the Sphere of Natures Activity to afford Causes of such Effects he would not have given them this Atrribute
Suetonius was not reputed legal and therefore Vespasian would not date the beginning of his Reign from that but from Tiberius Alexander his proclaiming him and making the Legions take the Oath of Allegiance Sueton Vespasian 6. But this was in Egypt how can he then be said to be created Emperour in Judea Suetonius helps us to unty this Knot with a two-fold Note First his proclaiming in Egypt and Judea were so near contemporaries as the difference was indiscernable that in Egypt being on the Calends of July that in Judea the 5. of the Ides or as Tacitus dates it the Nones of the same Month Histor. 2. that is but one day betwixt them however Aegypt got the start of Judea by so much Yea but secondly the Egyptian Legions proclaimed him his absence he was present and in the Head of the Judean Regiments when he was proclaimed by them Suet. Vespas 6. Observe here what shifts the Writers of that Age were put to that they might make the Prophecy fit Vespasian as one that was born not Man but Monarch in that place which the Oracle assigned for him that was to be sole Lord of the World The wresting of the Prophecy to this sence was one of those Wings which bore up the contenders for the Universal Monarchy in their pursuit after the favour of the Jews and Jewish Legions The other was the art the Jews had to dub any one a Jew whom they pleased to adopt into Abraham's Line those that came not from the Loyns of Abraham and by that means to qualifie him for the Rule of the Universe who could creep into their favour Other men who are not Jews born if they live after their Law are called Jews saith Dion an Historian so far from favouring either Jew or Christian as on the same page speaking of our God he saith whatsoever God he be Dion l. 37. Of which Art they gave a notable Experiment upon Herod Agrippa who bursting out into tears at his hearing that passage of the Law read Thou shalt set one of thy brethren King over thee and not a stranger Deuteron 17. 15. was cheared by this general Acclamation of the Synagogue Be of good chear King Agrippa thou art our Brother Lightfoot harm 130. our Brother on the surer side by Religion though not by Blood A Brother of this Make was Herod the Great whom some Jews took for the Messiah Euseb. chronic ex Epiphanio lib. 1. tom har 20. conceiving that his being a Proselyte in Religion though an Edomite by birth did sufficiently qualifie him and concluding that the Sceptre being now departed as indeed it was in the Vulgar sence from Juda the full time of Messiah's Exhibition was come according to Jacob's Prophecy a Conclusion cannot be avoided except we take the two Clauses of that Prophecy conjunctim and interpret the departure of the Sceptre to denote the final Extirpation and Unpeopling of that Nation that is Judah shall not cease to be a Commonwealth till Messiah come and the Gentiles be gathered to him But of this elsewhere Upon these two Principles It is enough to qualifie a person for the Universal Monarchy that he be created Emperour in Judea or the utmost which the Prophecy requires is that he who gains that prize be a Jewish Proselyte they that ran in this Race strain'd hard to obtain the good will of the Jews andto be esteemed favourers of them and their Religion To the obtaining whereof how far those Roman Competitors proceded Josephus expresseth at large in that whole Chapter whose Title is Of the Honours confer'd upon the Jews by the Romans Antiq. 14. 17. And how far Julius Caesar by name had obliged that Nation appears from Suetonius Julius 84. his ranking the Jews as chief Mourners of all Foreigners at his Obsequies continuing many nights and days to frequent his Sepulchre with grievous lamentations as if the anointed of the Lord shall I say or their anointed Lord the breath of their Nostrils of whom they said under his shadow we shall grow up into the promised Kingdom had been snatch'd away from them Augustus came not much behind him in this Race nor Tiberius witness Philo Augustus jussit è suis ipsius reditibus offerri quotidie victimas viz. tuurum agnos duos sinebat Judaeos solos coetus facere c. Augustus commanded that the daily sacrifices should be offer'd to wit an Oxe and two Lambs at his own charge he permitted the Jews alone liberty of publick assembling c. Tiberius at the Jews intreaty caused Pilate to remove the consecrated Shields out of his Palace and during his whole Reign protected the Religion of the Jews Julia Augusta ornavit Templum hoc aureis phialis calicibus aliis donis plurimis pretiosissimis cùm habeas tot exempla domestica optimae erga nos voluntatis serva quae illi omnes ad unum conservarunt Agrippae apologia Philo Jud. legatione pag. 647. And Julia Augusta adorn'd the Temple of Jerusalem with golden Vials Cups and many other most precious gifts seing therefore saith Agrippa in his Apology you have so many home examples of good will to the Jews be you also benevolent to them as every one of your predecessors were § 5. That those Competitors had in their Eye and were animated to those stupendious Undertakings by the Eastern Oracle at least made use of the Worlds Credulity in that point towards the establishing themselves in the Empire grows upon me almost into an Article of Humane Faith when I ponderate the Arts they used to bring the World into a perswasion that they were men pointed at from Heaven as more than men and destined to Honours beyond humane Capacity Such was Julius his deriving his Pedigree on his Mothers side from Ancus Martius on his Father's side from the Immortal Gods Suet. Jul. 6. est ergo in genere sanctitas Regum ceremonia Deorum Such was the Dream he had the night after he had bedewed Alexander's Image in the Temple of Hercules with tears for that he was arrived at those years at which Alexander had conquer'd the World and had done nothing worthy of memory of committing Incest with his Mother which the Fortune-tellers interpreted to prognosticate his obtaining Dominion over the whole Globe of the Earth our common Mother Id. ib. 7. Conjectores ad amplissimam spem iucitaverunt arbitrium Orbis terrarum portendi interpretantes Such was his teaching his Horse to endure no Rider but himself and his erecting his Statue before the Temple of his Great-great grandmother Venus that from thence he might make a publick show of his Hoof which being cleft like a man 's into Toes the Southsayers affirmed to point out I was almost saying with the finger his Master to be that person to whom the Empire of Mankind was destined Id. ibid. 61. eùm haruspices imperium orbis terratum significare pronunciassent ejus instar pro aede Veneris genetricis dedicavit He had
Doctrines For the Gentile was grafted in not only upon the cutting off of the Jews but upon the raising up of those Foundation-truths which not only among the Jews but the many Generations of the Heathens had been buried under the rubbish of humane Vanities built upon them This interpretation induc'd the Apostolical Synod to reestablish the Precepts of Noah as an Expedient to gain upon the Gentiles The Platonicks conceived all knowledg to be nothing else but reminiscentia an awakening of the mind to see innate Notions The Notions of the Gospel were not innate yet so imprest by Tradition upon all mens minds as the embracing of it is call'd a man's coming to himself Psal. 22. 27. All the ends of the world shall remember themselves and turn to the Lord. And therefore true Philosophy is so far from being a Prejudice against as it is an Introduction to a Preparation for the Gospel When the Philosophers saith Isidore Pelusiota saw in that grain of Mustard-seed all that Truth Vertually laying which they had been seeking for how many of them bidding adiew to their own Opinions betook themselves to the shady Branches of the Tree of life and there found rest how many Pythagoreans formerly the Masters of pride and disdain became the Scholars of our meek Jesus How many Platonicks letting fall their Crests proudly lifted up through an opinion that they excell'd all men in the Art of Discourse sat down at Christ's feet under the shade of the Mustard-tree How many Aristotelians how many Stoicks scorning that Wisdom whereof they had made greatest boast thought themselves happy if they could be enter'd among those Disciples of Christ who observe his word Isidor Pelusiota lib. 4. ep 76. Our Religion is nothing else but the last and best Edition of that which was either writ on mens Hearts or promulg'd in Paradise to the old and by Noah to the new World who is therefore stil'd the Treacher of Righteousness which being Pentheus like pull'd Limb from Limb by the several Sects each party getting some relicks and scraps of it the Apostles gather'd up its scatter'd Limbs and fram'd them into a perfect and compleat Body of Divinity again clothing its Bones with the Flesh 〈…〉 lling its Veins with the Blood not of slaughter'd Beasts but of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World and presented it to the World wherein there was no Nation so barbarous but if they came near and felt it they might find something in it of which they might say This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone whatever I retain either of right Reason or solid Religion is comprehended in this This is that express Image of the Father of which I had the rough-draught All the Wisdom I have retain'd or learn'd I meet with in this foolishness of Preaching of this the Apostle was so confident as to the Jew he became a Jew to the Gentile a gentile 1 Cor. 9. 20 22. not by a sycophantick and temporizing compliance with the least of their Errours but by taking advantage of the truths they held as Mediums by which he argued them into an assent to the Gospel dealing with every man at his own suresby-weapon and upon his own sound Principles He did not flatter them as Clisophus did King Philip who when the King's Eye was wounded bound up his and when the King had received a hurt on the shin that made him halt halted with him as if he had been lame and never saw the King make sower faces but he look'd as if he were eating the same sharp sawce Nor conform to them as the Arabians did to their King who if he were lame of any Limb they mutilate that Limb of their Bodies Or the Dionisiocolaces to that Tyrant who because he was purblind groped about for the Dishes that were set before them till he had got his hand into his Athen. dipnosoph 6. 6. But St. Paul conform'd to Jew and Gentile in their seeing Eye and soundest Limbs Pleading with the Jew from old Testament-texts With the Gentile from the Law of Nature and the common Traditional Religion that in the Jews mouth and heart before the giving of the Law by Moses that Word whose sound went into all the World by oral preaching the seed of the Christian faith Rom. 10. With the Philosopher from his most sublime Verities Such as the several Sects with whom the Apostle had to do could not deny without contradicting those Notions they were most assured of the truth of and yet were not able to defend against the assaults which their other erronious Opinions made upon them upon any other but Gospel-grounds the only Sanctuary and City of Refuge for all divine Truth in seperation from which like a Beam cut off from the Sun a Stream from the Fountain a Branch from the Tree a Limb from the Body it cannot subsist This Tent-maker so contriv'd his Tabernacle wherein he plac'd the Sun of Righteousness his Gospel wherein he exhibited Christ give me lieve to lisp and stutter now with those I am opposing who speak of the Gospel as the device of men for I shall hereafter demonstrate it to be the Contrivement of God as it excludes all bad Airs takes in all the Light that was before scatter'd among several Sects So as Christ keeps open house in it for all comers the way-faring man though a fool may turn in hither and find lodging where his Soul may be at rest a Table furnish'd with plain Cates suting his Countrey-palate The wise man may here be entertain'd in as much state as heart can wish In the Muse's Chamber in Apollo's Dining-room his vast Soul cannot have that room to expatiate her self in as in Solomon's Curtains in Sarah's Tent nor find that satisfaction in Plato's Academy in Zeno's Porch in Aristotle's Walk as in our King's Galleries in the Prophets Schools in Christ's upper Chamber nor meet with that abstruce Learning in the Egyptian Hierogliphicks as in the embroidered hangings of Christ's Presence-chamber Now how men of crazy Intellects could frame so excellent a Model of Wisdom so perfect a Mirrour of all Metaphisical Science truly so called we may sooner strain our Brains out of joynt by stretching our mind to imagine then imagine with the least shew of probability To which labour in vain I leave the Sceptick while I lead the Christian Reader to the Law and Prophets and shew him what Ammoniâ—s St. Origen's Master of old urged the Philosophers with Euseh Eccl. 6. 13. viz. That the Gospel is calculated exactly to the Meridian of the old Testament in whose Types Precepts and Predictions there is not one imaginary Line but hath its paralel in that 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
apply themselves forthwith to the Guards at every Gate to the Watchmen that went up and down the City with a Saw ye not heard ye not can ye tell no tydings why was not Jerusalem all in an uproar at the news How easily might the Discipies have been taken in the manner who by the Soldiers own confession could not be gone far before they awoke for they had not time to shut the Cabinet after they had stoln the Jewel to roll the stone to the Sepulchres mouth again after they had taken out the Corps which certainly they would have done had they not been prevented on purpose to hide from the Soldiers so certain an indication of the removal of the Body till they were got out of their reach It had been worth the while to have turn'd every stone to find whither the Disciples had convey'd it that they might have laid it forth to open view of the people to affront the Apostles preaching of the Resurrection But the proud are robbed they have slept their sleep as their own Prophes in a holy scorn and derision of them had foretold and in the hands of the mighty there is found nothing Nothing but this palpably feigned Tale can be invented to prejudice the truth of Christ's Resurrection by a Council of the subtilest and most implacable enemies Christs name ever had and that after whole nights plotting upon their pillow for they suspected Christ would rise from the dead what to do what to say in case their fears should come to pass yea after comparing notes and taking counsel together Had they so drain'd their heads of devilish policy in compassing Christs Death as they could invent nothing to disprove his Resurrection by but this pitiful shift as Euphranor bestow'd so much art in carving the Image of Neptune as he could not tell how to go to work with the other Gods I begin now less to wonder at the observation I am upon than I did when I first took it up It seemed strange to me that Gospel-history should pass through so many Ages so currently as not to meet with the least rational Contradiction as to any Clause or Tittle of it from any of those millions of desperate enemies it hath met with all along in its passage down to us save only in this case But I see in this very case the Devils good will to oppose it especially in this Article of the Resurrection this being that wherein Christ triumphed over him and we in Christ 'T is Christ that dyed yea rather that rose from the dead is the acme of the Apostles glorying And his want of skill or power or heart to oppose it ever since Christ triumphed so gloriously over him and his Instruments in this Debate about his Resurrection as no man how great soever his enmity was against it would so far under value his own Reputation as to hazard it in gainsaying the Reports of the Gospel So that this little Stone ever since it was cut out of the Mountain has not met with any contradiction that could put it to a stop but what it has with ease run over I would not be too peremptory in affirming what hath not been done there may be more Antagonists against our Religion than I have read but this I may safely say that after some considerable enquiry and most serious perusal of all the ancient Authors opposing Christianity that I could compass a sight off I have not read nor heard of one person who offered to assert himself an Eye-witness of any one thing contrary to the Evangelical Story § 2. These Testimonies of Adversaries are sufficient to evince the Truth of the delivery and though the impossibility of the Apostles either deceiving or being deceived which hath been demonstrated in the first and second Book does manifestly evince that they delivered nothing but the Truth yet that the Atheists mouth may for ever be stopt I shall ex abundanti produce the Testimonies of strangers and enemies for the proof of the Truth of the things delivered There is we see no Comparison betwixt the Allegations of Plaintiff and Defendant Their exceptions are to our Evidences as the dust upon the Ballances to the weight in the Scales lighter than vanity Were it a drawn match betwixt us were the Scales equally ballanced the weight of the Testimony of By-standers of persons that did not interest themselves in the quarrel as it relates to Religion but nakedly record the great Emergencies of the World as Historians especially of such of them as in point of Religion side with our Adversary will add over weight to our Scale and cast the ballance on our side so irrecoverably as it shall not be in the power of Scepticism it self by injecting Queries to pull down the other Scale or with all the doubts it can raise to with-hold its assent to the indubitable Truth of our Evangelist in those things that are hardest to be believed and of that importance as the belief of them necessarily inforceth and demonstrateth the Truth of the rest of their Histories Josephus a Jew and a Priest of Aaron's Order as himself informs us in the History of his own life in that part of his Jewish Antiquities for the truth whereof he appeals against the Exceptions of one Justus a bold lying Pamphleter to the Roman Records in the custody of Vespasian and King Agrippa that Agrippa who was so zealous of the Law as he wish'd he might no longer live than he might be serviceable towards the promoting of the Jewish Religion and therefore fell down dead at Caligula's feet when he perceived him inexorably set against the Jews for refusing to erect his Statue in their Temple Philo Legatione ad Caium And if the Testimony of such an Author confirm'd by such Evidences in the custody of so great an enemy to our Religion be not sufficient to prove the Truth of it in those parts of it it hath relation to what will satisfie Now this Josephus Jud. antiq lib. 18. cap. 9. relates the whole History of John Baptist exactly in the tenour of the Evangelists thus Herod putting away his own Wife the Daughter of Aretas the King of Arabia and taking from his Brother yet living his Wife Herodias had not long after War with Aretas in which Battle Herod's host utterly perished after which for Herodias her sake and through her ambition he was deprived of his Kingdom and with her banish'd to Vienna in France What manner of man doth this speak the Baptist to have been in the opinion of the people when they impute Herod's mishap to the murthering of him rather than the Sanhedrim reputed sacred persons or his own Children a cruelty more than salvage against which Barbarities though Josephus declaims yet he does not impute to them Herod's falling into the displeasure of God but to his beheading John lib. 16. cap. ult and his following the counsel and humours of Herodias 18. 9. wherein he had the
the point of obtaining Divine Honour at the Romans hands Augustus erected an Altar To the first begotten Suidas his story of Augustus his Altar defended Augustus his unhappiness in his Issue might probably put him upon referring the choice of a Successour to the Oracles determination His slighting Apollo argues the Answer he received not to have made for Apollo's credit § 5. Some passages touching this Argument in Tertullian cleared from the Anabaptistical gloss Where the Emperours and Senates shooe pincht them How much this State-maxime prejudic'd the Apostles § 1. NOtwithstanding that the World was so well fortified against Seduction by its being so well seen in the above-mentioned Arts yet had the Gospel found it in a disordered posture through its defect of polity this might have given an advantage to the Assaylants to subdue it to the belief of things not rationable or credible While every man is left to do what is good in his own eyes as the Jews were when there was no King in Israel the stragling Sheep may easily become the prey of Wolves and Foxes How many vast valiant expert and while well marshall'd terrible and inconquerable Armies have through want of Discipline in a disordered march been put to the Rout by a less strong and worse skill'd Enemy But the Gospel charged the world when it stood in a full field and well ranked body to receive the on-set not in that condition wherein the Danites found Laish careless and heedless without a Magistracy to put them to shame in any thing and keep them in order which was the great incouragement their Spies gave them to make an attempt upon that City Weem's Exercitations on Judg. 18. 7 8 10. For that part of the world wherein the Apostles obtain'd most ground was then united under the newly erected Standard of Augustus as General and under the Conduct of twelve as famous Gown'd Captains I mean Lawyers and Politicians as ever appear'd at one Muster viz. Sleidan Clav. Hist. lib. 2. Lucillus Balbus P. Octavius Balbus C. Aufidius C. Juventius C. Orbius Sext. Papirius Lucius Servius Sub. Rufus Tesâ—a Offilius Casselius Tubero all flourishing in the Reign of Augustus who himself was the most substantial and well weighed Statist that meer Nature has exhibited to the world equal'd by few that have had the benefit of Sacred Politiques but for that they may thank their studying Machiavel more than Melchisedeck Of him the Heroick Poet under the shadow of Counsel draws as high an Encomium as any Prince is capable of in point of prudence for the Administration of Empire Excudent alii spirantia molliùs aera Tu regere Imperio populos Romane memento Hae tibi erunt artes Let others learn to mould brass do thou learn to govern men To these succeeded Sleidan Clav. Hist. l. 2. Caesius the two Aufidii l'acuvius Flavius Priscus Varus Labeo Father and Son the Son of that repute as he left his name to a Sect of Lawyers Nerva Father and Son to one of whom Coccejus Nerva Tacitus ascribes all kind of Knowledge both in Humane and Divine Laws and reports him to have been a man of that foresight in Civil Affairs as to prevent the seeing of that mischief which the dissoluteness of Tiberius at his beloved Capreae would immerse the Empire in he chose to end his dayes by a voluntary death notwithstanding the Emperours perswasions to the contrary Annal. lib. 6. both the Longini from whom the Cassian Sect had its Sirname and Original All these under Tiberius Alsted Cron. Juridicorum who in point of vafrous cunning deserv'd the name of Fox as much as he upon whom our Saviour bestowed that title Herod This was the Scheme of that Heaven of the Roman Empire when the Son of Righteousness enter'd upon his race from the one to the other end of it through the Zodiack of his Twelve Apostles beyond the circumference of whose Doctrine once deliver'd that Sun never moves in his illuminating the world with saving Light all pretended supernatural Revelations eccentrical to that are but the dwindles of blazing stars The two Luminaries Augustus of stay'd policy Tiberius of versatile craft moving successively through a Zodiack of Twelve Statists stars of the greatest magnitude that ever shin'd at once in the firmament of that State The two first Judges of the Universe that enter'd upon that preferment by way of inheritance assisted each of them with a full Jury of as able Lawyers as ever past Verdict together sitting successively upon the Bench when the Cause of the Gospel was first pleaded as if they had been impannell'd on purpose to take notice of the Evidence brought into Court The Empires skill in Law was at its highest exaltation when the Royal Law came out of Sion our great Law-giver disdaining to vie the Arcana of his Empire with any State-maximes but the very best of humane invention Would the blessed Babe have ventured to thrust in his head among these sage Councellours had he not been the everlasting Councellour the Antient of Dayes to set up his Post against this Post had it not been like that at the Temple Gate stability it self to erect his Kingdom against this so well model'd an Empire had not his been the gift of him that said Thou art my Son c § 2. Especially if it be further considered That the genius of the Roman Polity disgusted the introduction of any Foreign over the head of its own Domestick Religion Ovid shuts up the discourse of the translation of Aesculapius with an Epiphonema His tamen accessit delubris advena nostris though he had begun it with this Salvo of the Roman maxime Not to receive any foreign God till he had given a sign of his renouncing his former Altars quáque ipse morari Sede velit signis calestibus indicet optant Annuit his motisque deus rata pignora câ—istis Et repetita dedit oráque retro Flectit antiquas abiturus respicit aras c. Met. 15. The Senate would not allow their General Lutatius in the Punick War to consult the Oracle of the Goddess Fortune at Praeneste for this reason alledged by Valerius Max. cap. 3. l. 1. because the Roman Republick ought not to be administred by the Conduct or Counsels of any God but their own Tiberius himself saith Tertullian Apolog. cap. 5. could not obtain of the Senate an Edict to have our Jesus canonized for a God at Rome though he moved earnestly for it upon Pilate's Letters informing him what had past in Judaea Celsus that fierce enemy of Christian Religion in Orig. l. 4. Cal. 11 12. will allow the Jews their own Religion and if they please to esteem Christ their Lord and King illa se jacret in aula he will not envy him that honour in his own Countrey but that that obscure and despicable Nation should impose a God and a Religion upon the whole world this is that he so highly disgusts The Pestilence raging and the people running
Confiscation Imprisonment Banishment or Extirpation And if Judgment be not speedily executed defertur non aufertur 't is not forgiveness but forbearance till their Punishment may be of more advantage to the Republick So that whereever they have been allowed to reside they have been kept as Poultrey in a Coop only till they were fat enough to kill and pluck to have either Life or Estate taken from them Christian States use them only for Spunges as our King Henry did Emson and Dudley permitting them to suck in great Estates by Usury and Brokage and when they are full squeasing them into the Exchequer Upon this point of State after they had been plunder'd they were banish'd England by Edward 1. anno 1290. Out of France by Philip the Fair 1307. Out of Portugal by Emmanuel 1497. Out of Naples and Sicily by Charles 5. 1539. Under no less Vassalage are they in the Turk's Dominions where Achmad the year after the Christians lost Rhodes gave the Jews of Egypt no longer time than while he stayed in the Bath to deliberate upon this Question Whether they would aid him with all they had in his Rebellion against Sultan Selim or provoke him to extirpate the memory of Israel from off the face of the Earth Scaliger Canon Isagog lib. 2. pag. 157. Ever since God's removing his Court from amongst them they have been howling under these burdens of Oppression but procure no relief cannot obtain of God to revenge their quarrel cannot prevail with him to pour out his threatned Judgments to smite with his plagues those people that have fought against Jerusalem this Jerusalem below who is yet in bondage with her Children Her adversaries flesh hath not consumed away while they stood upon their feet their eyes have not consumed away in their holes and their tongues in their mouth Zach. 14. 12. Haec passos non esse Romanos qui Hierusalem subverterunt omnibus perspicuum est Nos autem dicemus omnes persecutores qui afflixerunt Ecclesiam Domini etiam in praesenti saeculo accipisse quae fecerint Legamus Ecclesiasticas historias quid Valerianus quid Decius quid Dioclesianus quid Maximianus quid saevissimus omnium Maximinus nuper Julianus passi sunt tunc rebus probabimus etiam juxtà literam prophetiae veritatem esse completam saith St. Jerom upon this Text That the Romans who overthrew Jerusalem did not suffer such things as these is manifest to all men but we Christians may say that all Persecutors who afflicted the Lord's Church have received even in this world the punishment of their Tyranny Let us read in Church-history what Valerian what Decius what Dioclesian what Maximianus what the most cruel of them all Maximinian and Julianus the last of them have suffer'd and then we shall be able to prove from matter of fact that the verity of this Prophecy hath received its accomplishment even according to the letter See more instances in Evagrius Scholasticus his Invective against Zosimus the Ethnick for reviling of Constantine lib. 3. cap. 41. For these that St. Jerom names Decius being defeated by the Goths and his Son slain was enticed by the Enemy into a Fen where he was drown'd Carion Cron. lib. 3. Valerius being perswaded by an Egyptian Priest to persecute the Church and to offer humane Sacrifices in the fourth year of his Reign was taken Prisoner by Sapor King of Persia who for several years made use of him when he got on horseback in room of an Horsingblock and in his extreme old Age fley'd off his Skin from the Neck to the Feet Idem Ibid Dioclesian and Maximian vex'd that all their rage could not suppress the Christians laid down the Empire and betook themselves to a private Life from that time unto his end Dioclesian pined and wasted away with diseases but Maximian hanged himself Euseb. Ec. hist. lib. 7. 29. lib. 8. 2. 5. 14. 19. Socrates l. 1. c. 22. Maximinian overcome by Licinius at Tarsus died of the Lowsie Disease in the midst of most cruel Tortures a corrupt Matter issuing from a Fistulá in his Privities eating up his Bowels and an unspeakable multitude of Vermine swarming out and breathing a deadly stench yielding an intollerable and horrible Spectacle to the Beholders such as the Physicians were not able to bear the noysomness of but some of them were poyson'd with it Euseb. Eccles. hist. l. 8. cap. 16. Julian in a Battel with the Persians was wounded in the Liver by an Arrow but from what hand it came is not known Calistus one of his Guard who wrote his Life in Heroical Verse saith it was some Devil that ran him through Socrates Scholast l. 3. c. 19. but he himself apprehended it was the Arrow of Christ's revenge and therefore taking the blood which ran from the wound in the hollow of his hand he threw it up towards Heaven and cried out Vicisti tandem Galilaee now at last thou hast over-match'd me oh Jesus of Galilee and with that despairing voice breathed out his impure Soul What such thing hath befallen the Prosecutors of the People of God's Indignation What one Testimony of the Divine Displeasure hath been shown upon such as have made havock of that now-accursed Nation which was sometimes so dear to God as he that touch'd them had as good have touch'd the Apple of his Eye At the hand of what Nation of what Man of what Beast hath God required their Blood And that all this was done in contempt of their Nation not Law and not because their Fathers God could not but would not help them is manifest from his opening his ears and lending his hand in that very juncture to persons of other Nations who owned the God of Israel of which we have a notable instance in Izates King of the Adiabeni whose Mother Helena releived the Jews in the Famine in the Reign of Claudius After whose departure from her Son his Nobles understanding that he was circumcised dissembled their displeasure against him till they had the opportunity of engaging Abias the King of Arabia to assist them in dethroning Izates but he trusting in the God of Israel put his Enemies to a total rout and brought his Rebels to condign Punishment And when after this his Subjects still disgusting him because he had embraced a Foreign Religion procured Vologesus King of Parthia to come against him with so numerous an Army as he blasphemously boasted the God of Israel whom he had chosen was not able to deliver him out of the hands of his men Izates return'd him answer that he knew his Forces were not comparable to those of Vologesus but God was stronger than all Mortals and prostrating himself before God having enjoyn'd to himself and Wife and Children a Fast with Ashes on his head he pours out his Prayer Oh Lord our Governour If I have not fruitlesly dedicated my self to thy goodness and chosen thee for the high and only God come to my aid not so much
vestris semper metalla suspirant de vestris semper bestiae suginantur nemo illic Christianus nisi planè tantum Christianus aut si aliud non jam Christianus Malefactors condemned to perpetual imprisonment to the Mines and to the Beasts are of your own the Pagan Religion among such there is not one Christian or if there be he is there for no other Crime but only that of being a Christian for if he be an Offender in any other point he is no longer a Christian. A seditious a factious a traitorous Christian was then a non-ens that could no where be found When they could maintain that nunquam vel Nigriani vel Albiniani vel Cassiani inveniri potuerunt Christiani Tert. ad scap c. 2. No Christian had been a Traytor to his Prince When the worst effect of Christian Faith appear'd to be that it procur'd the Husband a chaste Wife the Father an obedient Son the Master a faithful Servant Vt domi habeat uxorem jam pudicam maritus non jam zelotipus filium subjectum pater famulum fidelem dominus Tert. apol cap. 3. Of the same importance is that of Rab. David Chimchi in Ps. 1. 3. 4. Mundus documentum à viro bono recipit per umbram viarum fructum operum ejus non sic impii nullum commodum per eos venit sed damnum velut gluma per ventum in occulos hominum pulsa vel super hortos domos cadit Vicars Decupla The World receiveth good Instruction from a good man grown good by meditating in Gods Law by the Tract of his Ways by the Fruit of his Works But as for the ungodly it is not so there is no benefit to be reapt of them but incommodity they are like the Chaff which the Wind scatters and beats into mens eyes to afflict them or into Gardens and Houses to annoy to foul and disfigure humane Society § 3. Reply 2. Though humane Testimony in Religious Matters be the feeblest of all Arguments to prove or disprove the Truth of Doctrine delivered or the goodness of things done yet it is of as much validity to evince the delivery of Doctrine the Doing of such Things in this case as in any other we must not indeed so much as admit it into the Juries Chamber much less into the Judges Seat to give sentence what is de jure but yet it must be allowed even in the Lords Courts a place among the Witnesses to declare what it knows de facto to give in evidence whether the Action under debate was done or not whether an Action be legal or criminal is the Judges Office to declare but whether the Actions which are brought before him were done or no is the Witnesses Office to discover If the question be What Doctrine was delivered hy Christ Moses Mahomet what Orations were writ by Tully what Poems by Homer humane Testimony and undoubted Tradition must umpire this but if it be what-like Doctrine Orations Poems those are Reason regulated by the Maximes of every such Art or Science whose subject is under debate must cast the scales and determine that Controversie Reason I say may and must be exercised about Religion in discerning the true from the false we must not chuse our Religion as men draw lots unseen nor as Children in that Libian Province where women were promiscuously and in common frequented drew Fathers each of them taking him for Father to whom in a great assembly chance or instinct directed their first steps Herodot He that 's a Christian but perchance may perchance be no better than no Christian the blessed Jesus is well content that Merchants who deal with him should see his Ware before they buy Indeed that God should endow our Souls with Reason and make us differ from Brutes only that we might rule them and not our selves in what highliest concerns us that he should put a golden Mattock into our hands on purpose that we should digg Dung hills and not rather for hid Treasure that he should communicate to us a Ray of the invisible World only that we may contemplate the visible and employ that Light that Candle of the Lord in the search of things only on this side of Eternity hath not the least congruity with that Decorum observ'd by him in all his Works which are fram'd in Number Weight and Order And those Morning Stars which the Divine Goodness hath fixed in the Orb of our body are from the height of their Native Heaven faln into the lowest Abyss of Reptile-spiritedness if they be content with and submit to such drudgery such Gally-slavework and not exert their noblest Powers upon the noblest Objects in the study of God and the way to the eternal Possession of him In which Case though we make it Reasons duty to judge of the Religion which is true yet we set not Reason above the true but only the Unreasonableness of the false The King of France set not Joan of Acres that holy Maid of France as the Primitive Rebel-covenanters stiled that their Enthusiastick Sister as a Judge over himself nor our King Henry the Eighth of glorious memory the Cardinal and his guests over himself when they put them to it to judge which of those Gallants was the of King France which of these Guisers was the King of England Reason may without the least suspition of usurping the Office of a Divider or the Authority of a Judge over him determine which is the King in a crowd of Guisers provided that when she has discover'd him she give him the Chair of State I mean Reason in her Debates about the true Religion after she hath by Principles of common Sence discover'd it to be of divine Revelation from those manifest Impresses of its sacred Original it brings with it into the World must be regulated by Maximes of that now acknowledged heavenly Science We allow her to walk round about Sion to mark well the Bull-warks and count her Towers but in judging of their Strength or Comeliness she must not walk by the exotick and forreign Rules of inferiour Sciences but by the Domestick Principles of that Architectonick Art the Municipal Laws of that holy State while she sojourns in the City of God she must conform to the Customs thereof That may be a good Reason in one Science that 's a grand Solecism in another The Asses adjudging the Palm to the Cuckow from the Nightingal was therefore absurd because it was not grounded upon Principles of Musick the Art wherein they strove for preheminency had he past the same Sentence upon the same reason he did that in case of contest betwixt two publick Criers the Determination would have been grave substantial and becoming a wiser Animal But to return from this Digression Humane Testimony as to Matters of Fact touching Religion is of as much validity as in any other Subject For although the Actions relate to Religion they are not reported under that consideration but barely
utter'd to Constantine in his Panegyrick Quod Ceres mater frugum quod Jupiter moderator aurarum quicquid illi parciùs dederunt nobis amen ex beneficio tuo natum est whose contexture speaks no more but this that Constantine's remitting to the Flavians the Customes due to the Imperial Crown had made them amends for what they suffer'd either through unseasonableness of the weather or barrenness of the ground But to enlarge here would carry me too far from my intended Scope which was to shew how by inches the Gospel gain'd upon the Roman Emperours To proceed therefore in that discourse §3 Christianity so far gain'd upon Valens though an Arrian as he would not aid the Gothes but upon condition of their embracing the Christian Faith which they did so cordially as when by the Treason of Stillico they were set upon in their march toward Gallia where the Emperour had allotted them quarters by some Companies of Jews on the Lord's day they scrupled to make resistance though in their own defence because they would not shed blood on that day which was dedicated to the honour of our Lord till the Jews abusing this their over-religious Opinion in observing no mean in slaughtering them taught them man by man to betake themselves to those arms which altogether they had resolv'd rather to die than use upon that day Vives de Getis praef ad August de civitate dei Yet Valens neither received Christ for God nor restrain'd his own Subjects by any penal Law from the publick Worshipping of Idols any more than Valentinian the Elder of whom Marcellinus lib. 30. cap. 12. Hoc moderamine principatus inclaruit quòd inter religionum diversitates medius stetit nec quenquam inquietavit neque ut hoc coleretur imperavit neque illud nec interdictis minacibus subjectorum cervicem ad id quod ipse coluit inclinabat sed intemeratas has partes reliquit ut reperit He was famous for this moderation of Government that he standing Neuter among the diversities of Religions neither disquieted any man nor commanded that any one Religion should be observ'd rather than another nor did he by threatning interdicts bend the necks of his subjects to that Religion which he himself profest but left as he found all those parties inviolated It prevail'd so far upon Gratian as he refused the Pontifical Stole when it was tender'd him by the College of Pagan Priests saying it was unlawful for a Christian to be installed in or to manage the Office of Great Pontiffs But I do not read that he prohibited the College to officiate or the inferior Priests to sacrifice for I find Heliadius the sometimes Master of Socrates Scolasticus to have officiated as a Priest of Jupiter and Ammonius as a Priest of Apis at Alexandria in the Reign of Theodosius the Elder and the Temples of Idols every where standing and frequented if I may call that frequenting when notwithstanding that there had not yet been made any penal Laws against Gentilisme the assemblies there were so thin'd and the number of Pagans faln to that ebb as Julian the Apostate to gain the Empire and the good will of the Provinces was fain to counterfeit himself a Christian Ammian Mar. Julianus And Jovinian obtaining the better of him threatned his Army when they elected him Emperour with a refusal to accept of that Office except they would renounce Julian's and accept of the Christian Religion Socrat. l. 5. which had been a strange piece of Fool-hardiness had not the Christian Party of the Roman Legions been then more numerous for all that so many Christians had parted with the military Belt rather than continue in those Commands which they could not injoy under that Tyrant Julian except they would forsake the Ensign of the 〈◊〉 Nay when the Imperial Laws were against the Faith it so prevail'd as the Idol-Temples under Trajan were in a manner dis-frequented as Pliny informs him lib. 10. Epist. This I here insert that my Reader may know it was not by force nor might of the Secular Arm that the new Jerusalem was forwarded in its building Marrie that the Idol-Temples should go down without hands that the Earth should open her mouth and swallow them up quick or that God should beat them down with Thunderbolts would have been a most groundless and presumptuous expectation And therefore this Emperour Gratian served Christ in putting his hand to that work by demolishing the Altar in the Capitol where the Senators till then had been Sworn and confiscating the revenues of it which gave a colour of Equity to the Petition of those that begg'd of Valentinian that it might be rebuilt and the service thereof maintain'd out of the Treasury a colour which St. Ambrose handsomly wipes off quod enim vel fisco vel arcae est vendicatum de tuo magis conferre videbere quà m de suo reddere l. 5. ep 30. by telling the Emperour that that would be a restoring of the Pagan service at his own proper charges and not a restoring of what belonged to that Altar as its Revenues for being confiscate they were now become the Revenues of the Imperial Crown but that Gratian did subvert any but that Altar or set any mulct upon Idolaters is more then I can find in any good Authors Theodosius the Elder was the first Emperour that universally prohibited the publick practice of Gentilisme through the Empire commanding their Temples and Altars every where to be thrown down and their Statues to be melted into Pans and Kettles for poor people The execution of this Decree at Alexandria was committed to the care of Theophilus the Bishop of that See who in ransacking those depths of Satan those Cages of unclean Birds brings to open light those shameful Mysteries and Obscenities as the Revelation of them drives the Pagans to that rage as they furiously make head against the Christians and slaughter such numbers of them as the Governour with his Military Bands was fain to come into their rescue and to aid the Bishop by whose help he utterly abolished the Idols Temples and all their Statues but one which he erected in the open Market to be a witness to future of the folly of former Ages in adoring such mis-shapen Monsters at which Helladius was more vext than at his destroying all the rest Socrates lib. 5. cap. 16. This Emperour pull'd down the Crows Nests but restrain'd not the Boyes from climbing the tree nor hindred the Birds from building Nests in private corners For the Gentiles were still permitted their secret Chappels and Conventicles even in the Imperial Cities and Courts Some of whom were in that favour with the Emperours as that they were admitted to places of highest honour emolument and trust Macrobius a Grecian by Birth and a zealous Gentile by Religion was Prefect of the sacred Bedchamber to Theodosius and had so much interest in his Masters Affection as for his sake he made that Decree That they who bore
Children from the Roman Suburbs but it was for their contempt of thy holiness for daring to abuse the piety of Roman Matrons towards thee for diverting to their proper use the presents and rich donatives which the proselytes of thy religion committed to their hands to conveigh to thee he vindicated thy honour upon thy bastard Sons not their crime with thy ruine as he did that of the Priests of Isis at the same time he left thy walls standing and thy Religion free and under the care of thy most indulgent foster-father King Agrippa one of his greatest Favourites Thy Clients under Nero found that favour in the Imperial Court by means of his Wife Poppaea a zealous Votary to thy Religion as they obtain'd a Decree for the Demolishing of that Tower which the Roman President had erected to out-face thy holy of holies Yea by Poppaea's interest in Nero's affection so great as to gratifie her jealousie that the Womb that bare him corrival'd Poppaea and had a greater share of Nero's love than she would spare from her self that womb must be ripped up So benign an aspect did his Reign malevolent to all other cast upon thy Children as they were thinking once to have added twenty Cubits to thy height and dimensions to those parts of thy Foundations that had proved too slender to bear that weight of magnificence Herod had laid upon them Joseph antiq 15. 14. Under the Monster of men the Bane of the World thou makes shew of rising to greater renown and when thy Children waxed so wanton under the Indulgence of the Empire as to kick against its Majesty as I have seen children when they are strutted with the Milk Play with the Breast till their scratching it procures them a Motherly blow and play with its Authority and to call for stroaks Good God ' what gentle correction was designed for them Vespasian the Love and Darling of Mankind he who counted that day lost wherein he perform'd not some office of Humanity is the Rod that 's laid upon their back the Empire takes up an handful of Marsh-rushes to chastise her Rebels with was she like to draw blood with such a Rod Could the stroak of so soft an hand have caused blewness much less Mortality of wounds had not the vengeance of Heaven gangren'd the place Could that gentle silk twine have pull'd down thy Towers that Lambs Horn have pusht down thy walls had they not been seconded with the unseen power of that Sentence Christ had past upon thee Ask thy Neighbours the Chaldeans whether they could observe any Signes of thy Ruine among those Lights God had plac'd in the Firmament to be Signs That book was never more studied by the Eastern Astrologers than in that age when the expectation of the arising of the Star of Jacob that bright Morning-star had put the whole East into as passionate a Contest who should see it first as that betwixt the seven Princes of Persia who hung forth the Imperial Crown as his prize whose Horse should first Neigh after the Sun was up And for nothing more was that Book then studied than to know the Fortunes of thy Children when and where that person was to be born who was to be King of the Jews that thy King whose Star three of the Magi saw but to the rest it appeared not However had there been any sign in any of the Heavenly Houses of thy Ruine they would certainly have discovered it whose eyes were then so intent upon that Heavenly Volume on purpose that they might there read thy Concerns but in vain shouldst thou solicit the wisest of them the rising of the Sun of Righteousness which neither thou nor they observed was the only Sign was given thee that Sign of Jonas his coming out of the Whales-belly the Bowels of the Earth after he had been three dayes and three nights therein buried that Sign thou mightst have known if thou would when time was but now that and all other Signs of Christs coming against thee are concealed from thee And as vain am I in discoursing with thee whose head layes so low in the dust as thou canst not hear me Nor have I more to say to my Reader upon this Argument for the divine Original of our Religion but only § 6. First that he would weigh not only the strength of the Argument but the Modesty of Religion in her begging no more of the Sceptick pro concesso than what Cartesius himself begs and hath granted him without all dispute as a Ground of his Philosophical Discourse all he begs is the Consequence of this Proposition Cogito ergò sum All that she begs for the probat of her Author is the consequence of this praecogito ergò praesum And if Thinking be an indisputable evidence of Being Fore-thinking must be as good an evidence of Fore-being If finite Cogitation will prove finite Being then infinite Precogitation will prove an infinite Fore-being if the Argument à Conjugatis be of any force And by what evidence can a Philosopher prove to another that himself thinks without the proof whereof no man is bound to believe that he is by the like whereto it may not be proved that there is an Eternal Fore-thinking Being If he present me with a well framed Poem or Oration or some exquisite piece of Art I should conclude that his thoughts were not a wool-gathering while he composed them but is this any whit more evident than that he must be all mind who has form'd so excellent and comly a piece as the World is which the Grecians therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is so beautiful and of so exact a Symmetry of parts Nay to speak properly no man can prove that he thinks but only that he hath thought for the Medium he proves it by must be the Effect of thinking be it a wise Word or Action before either of them can come to the knowledge of another person the thinking which fram'd them is past and gone But God by Prophecy giveth us fore knowledge of his fore-knowledge before the Effect thereof take place and during that intervall exposeth himself to the Censure of the World giving us a larger time to think of his forethinking and to ponderate the infiniteness of it and to arm our selves against delusion than we may with good manners expend in discussing the thoughts of men And by this means we are render'd more expedite to judge thereof when the Event falls out than we can be of any other kind of humane thoughts but such as are employ'd in framing Prognostications the sufficiency whereof any Child may judge of when the time is come when the Effect should follow 2. That to this Argument for the divine Authority of Scripture this consideration will add no small weight That All the Old Testament-Prophecies according to their several times of accomplishment have been fullfill'd to a Tittle in their Evangelical sence but in any other sence that 's
the Illumination of Faith could not understand what Christ meant when he spake to them of his Resurrection and were ready to give up their hopes that he was he that should redeem Israel when they saw him giving up the Ghost and hanging down his Head upon the Cross as St. Thomas though he had seen Lazarus rais'd from the dead and heard it reported by credible Witnesses that Christ was risen would not believe it As Celsus Orig. cont Cels. l. 2. cal 41. rather than grant the Truth of the Christian Hypothesis denied the possibility of it As it seemed good to the holy Ghost to confirm the report of Christs Resurrection by all those Signs which the Apostles wrought after his Ascension by the name of the Holy Child Jesus while with great power they gave witness of his Resurrection Acts 4. 33. Yea so much did divine Goodness condescend to Humane imbecility as to give a fuller proof of that point so far above Reasons comprehension and much more out of the Sphere of Natural Power than the report of Eye-witnesses than the Confession of Adversaries than the Seal of those Miracles afforded by that Grace that was upon all the Publishers and fell upon all the Receivers of that Doctrine a Grace enabling them to live up to the Gospel and to bring forth those Fruits of Holiness Righteousness Temperance Meekness as sufficiently commended to the morallized part of the World that Root of Faith from whence they issued as far outstript the most glorious glittering productions of the Moral Philosophers as infinitely transcended the results of fantastick Credulty and put all other Religions to the blush at the sight of their own impotency CHAP. XII The Supernatural Power of Salvifick Grace § 1. The Church triumphs over the Schools § 2. Christianity layes the Axe to the Root § 3. The Rule imperfect before Christ. § 4. The Discipline of the Schools was without Life and Power § 5. Real exornations before Verbal Encomiums § 1. HEre Christian Reader I must crave thy help and beg thy aid towards the convincing the World of the Divine Original of Christian Religion which though it apparently bear the stamps of heavenly Wisdome in its Prophecies of in finite Power in its Miracles commends it self more to the Consciences of men by engaging its Fautors to a Conversation answerable to its Sacred Rules than by affording the most substantial Grounds of discoursing in its Defence by any other Arguments Religion is better maintain'd by Living than Disputing A Gospel-becoming Converse falls under the Observation and speaks to the Hearts of all men even of those who are not able to fathom the depth nor feel the ground of the most rational verbal Discourse well exprest by the Apostle of the Circumcision 1 Pet. 3. 1. Dr. Hammond annot in the Argument whereby he perswades Christian Matrons to be in subjection to their own though Gentile Husbands that if any obeyed not the Word submitted not to the Gospel upon the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power they also without the Word which the Apostles preach'd in confirmation of the Resurrection of Christ might be won by the Conversation of their Wives while they beheld their chaste Conversation that Modesly which the true fear of God Christian Religion which alone rightly Disciplines persons in that fear taught them In his motive 1 Pet. 2. 12 13. to Christian Subjects to yield obedient subjection to their Heathen Magistrates and in that point particularly to lead an honest life among the Gentiles that whereas they were evil spoken of as Jews by reason of the turbulency and frequent rebellions of their Countrymen the Gentiles might see that Christian-Jews were of another spirit than the rest of that Nation and upon that account might revere them for their good works and glorifie God the Author of a Religion that had made them so much more meek regular and quiet under the Heathen Government which was over them than the other Jews were when the Proconsuls should be sent to make enquiry of the Commotions made by the unbelieving Party of that Nation It was by this Argument that the old Laic-Confessor silenc'd convinc'd and converted that proud and subtile Philosopher who bore up himself against all the Reasonings of the Learned Teachers of the Nicence Council Crab. tom 1. pag. 249. In the name of Jesus Christ saith he O Philosopher hear the Dictates of Truth There is one God Maker of Heaven and Earth who Created all things visible and invisible by the power of his Word and confirm'd them by the Sanctity of his Spirit This Word therefore which we call the Son of God having mercy on Mankind vouchsafed to be born of a VVoman to converse with Men and die for them and will come again to give sentence upon the Lives of all men By the belief of those things we Christians are freed from Error and from that Religion wherein Men live like Beasts into a state of living like Men. Upon this the Philosopher cries out that he is a Christian and assures his Fellows he was drawn to it not upon light grounds but by that ineffable Vertue which attended the embracing of Christianity In this Argument the ancient Patrons of the Christian Cause triumph'd over all other Religions and Disciplines The Christian Churches saith Origen contr Cels. lib. 3. cal 8. compared with other Societies are really the Lights of the VVorld who is there that must not confess if he make an impartial collation of them that the worst part of the Church excells vulgar assemblies for the Church of God at Athens for instance is meek and quiet c. the Pagan Assemblies seditious turbulent c. And to that Calumny of Celsus that the Christians invited the worst of sinners Origen makes this Reply that the Christian Philosophy did dayly reform the most degenerate Natures not by converting one or two in so many Ages as Phaedo who coming Piping hot out of the Stewes into Plato's School took those impresses from his Doctrine as Plato in his Dialogues brings Phaedo in discoursing of the Immortality of the Soul Or Palemon who by attending to Philosophical Discipline became of a Ruffian so temperate as he succeeded Xenocrates in his School but great multitudes Christs Fishers of men caught them by whole shoales when these Philosophical Anglers drew them up by unites Tertullian apolog 46. outvies the greatest Philosophers with common Christians Thales one of the seven VVisemen could not satisfie Craesus when he askt him what God was but required time for the return of an answer and the more he thought upon it was further off from finding a solution when every Mechanick Christian hath found and can shew all that can be askt concerning God though Plato says the framer of the Universe is neither easie to be found out nor to be exprest If we compare them in point of Chastity we read that one part of the Attick sentence against Socrates condemn'd him of Sodomy