will attest the intire sum and compleat form of sound Words to have been from Heaven For God by granting Miracles to be wrought by Christ and his Apostles in Christ's Name did immediately seal to Gods sending Christ and Christ's sending his Apostles as Heavens Plenipotentiaries to treat with the World about the Matters of Eternal Life The miraculous descension of the holy Ghost upon our Saviour at his Baptism was to point him out to his Fore-runner John the Baptist as that true Light which according to Prophecy and the general expectation of the Jews was come into the World he it is upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descend Upon seeing of which and hearing that voyce from Heaven This is my well-beloved Son the Baptist asserts him to be that Prophet which God promised to send to communicate his whole pleasure to the sons and daughters of men Christ's transformation in the holy Mount was to confirm the three Apostles in the Truth of that Voyce they heard This is my Son hear him that is whatever he shall speak in my Name what terms soever he shall propound to the World what way soever he shall chalk out to reconciliation let them be observ'd let no other be expected For I have made him my Ambassadour and given him full power to treat with the World When the Apostles returned from working Miracles the Question that Christ propounded to them was Whom do men say I am and the question he put to such as upon hearing or seeing the miraculous Cures he wrought on others applyed themselves to him for Cure was Believest thou that I am be Infinite Examples might be produc'd But this Proposition Miracles do immediately confirm the Divine Authority of the Speaker and consequently the Truth of whatsoever he delivers is so evident as it needs no proof 4. Lastly Matters of Fact granted and the Supernaturalness of any one thing done in confirmation of the Gospel proved affords Christians of the meanest Capacities ability sufficient to confirm themselves in a full assurance of the Truth of all Gospel assertions to convince the subtilest Gain-sayers as that Laick did the Arrians in the Council of Nice and to answer all Objections that ever were made or can be invented from those seeming absurdities impossibilities contradictions c. which the wittiest Sophister can make himself believe he finds in the Evangelical Religion For there cannot be yea and nay with God nor any thing impossible to him to whom it is possible to raise the dead and to do such stupendious Works as were wrought for the demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Gospel Si Ratio contrà Scripturarum authoritatem redditur quamlibet acuta sit fallit verisimilitudine nam vera esse non potest rursùs si manifestissime certaeque rationi velut Scripturarum authoritas objicitur non intelligit qui hoc facit non Scripturarum sensum ad quem penetrare non potest sed suum potiùs objicit veritati nec quod in eis sed quod in seipso velut pro eis invenit opponit August Marcellino Ep. 7. If Reason be alledged against the Authority of divine Scripture be it never so acute it is not true but deceives us with an appearance of Truth with a shadow of Reason Again if the Authority of Scripture seem to oppose manifest and certain Reason he that alledgeth that Authority does not understand the Text he quoteth and objects against that Truth which Reason presents not the sence of Scripture which he is not able to dive into but his own conceipt Neither doth he oppose against such Reason what he finds in the Text but his own gloss and Comment which he frames to himself And therefore when that Affricane Light thought he found any thing in Scripture that seemed contrary to Truth he concluded That it was but either a shew of Truth or a shew of Scripture and that either the Copy was corrupt or the Translation false or that he himself did not understand the Text aright August Hieron Ep. 19. vel mendosum ese codicem vel interpretem non esse assecutum quod dictum est vel me minimè intellexisse The same Purity and infinite Perfection of the Divine Nature that makes it impossible for God to lye makes it impossible that he should give his approbation and the Imprimatur to a self-contradicting absurd or unreasonable Book § 6. Judicious Plutarch in his Treatise of the Fortune of Alexander compares his attempt to subdue the World to Hercules his Combat with Hydra in that though he had no sooner dispatch'd one War but another sprung up yet by searing the places of the neck where the heads grew which he cut off he prevented the pullulation of fresh heads from those places that is by fortifying the places he gain'd with Garrisons he prevented the rising of the conquer'd at his back by which means at last he conquer'd all Nations Of like difficulty and immense labour is the undertaking to subdue Atheism in an heart posfest with which is a world of Devices and a Tongue prompted by such an heart is a World of Iniquity if not Epicurean infinite Worlds Jacob. 3. 6. Three of this Hydra's most lofty and blasphemous Heads are already dispatch'd and the Topicks whence they were rais'd the necks on which they grew sear'd by so feeling an application of each Argument to the Serpents only beloved temporal and earthly concerns as it may be hoped his delicacy will hardly indure the pain of a new fracture in those tender parts by the reviving of those Arguments against the Gospel which speak him a mere Novice in the great affairs of the World and not to know the State of that virile Age of the Roman Empire when the Gospel was first publish'd or render him uncapable of knowing when to hum when to kiss in a Play-house or of maintaining his right to what he challengeth as his Fathers Heir as his Mothers Son It may be some daunting to the Atheists some encouragement to the Church to see so many heads lye gasping at the feet of the meanest of her Sons And perhaps satisfie the expectations of modest persons as to what my Title promiseth to see three of those Horns that have with the greatest spite and disdain been pushing at the Gospel cast out by one so unskilful a Carpenter A work for three of the ablest Artists for God allows to every Horn a Carpenter Zech. 1. 20. Had this Monster no more Horns than Zechary saw in that prophetical Vision had this Hydra no more heads than Alexander's World had Kingdoms than that Lernean Serpent which Hercules flew had heads be they seven according to Naucrates Erythraeus nine according to Zenodotus or fifty according to Heraclides Ponticus his opinion my success hitherto might give me hopes at last to excind the last of them But how many Heads this Monster of Monsters hath he only knows before whom Hell is bare-fac'd and who searcheth the above-measure
Proaem Empedocle Plinius sic nobile illud apud Graecos volumen Heraclidis septem diebus feminae exanimis ad vitam revocatae The like does Plutarch report of Aristaeus in his Romulus and of Thespesius de sera numinis vind We have here supererrogated having produc'd Pagan Testimony not only for the proving of matter of Fact to wit that this Article which we now profess was delivered by the Apostles to the Primitive Church but also their Confessions of the possibility of the thing believed § 6. Article 6. He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God The Argument of Christ's Divinity drawn from his assumption into heaven they darken with so great a volly of Examples of their own Hero's as it would tire me to take up those Arrows one by one But that he ascended with that body that was crucified Celsus one while attributed to to delusion it being impossible as he argues that a body can be made immortal that being the Creature of inferiour Nature not of God as the soul is and all other immortal beings This Principle he borrows of the Manichees out of the dispute betwixt Jason and Papiscus concerning Christ lib. 4. cal 22. 23. Another while granting it true he denys it to be a sufficient proof of Christ's Deity because Cleomenes had by what Art God knows obtain'd that agility of body as he could fly up as fast and as far as a dart could even out of sight and that was as far as the Disciples could see Christ ascend But the gift which Christ shed forth after his Ascension spake him to have ascended far above the highest Heavens And as to the truth of this assertion That this was an Article of the Apostolical faith that Christ did ascend into heaven This Epicures carping at it is proof sufficient and his not daring to stand to his first Cavil that it was impossible but flying to another Salvo But it was no more than others before him bad done who yet thereby obtained not the repute of their deserving divine Honours is a tacit Concession to the Truth of the thing it self which is more than I here need to prove I will therefore hasten to the next Article which because of its relation to this I shall annex to the same Section Article 7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead The Epicurean Beast runs full mouth upon this Article and raiseth this crie It is the common guise of all Fanatick Prophets to profess themselves God or the Son of God or the divine Spirit and to give out such pretences as your Jesus made I am come into the world to save it from those impending judgements that are ready to fall upon it for its sins happy they that believe in me I will appear for their salvation when I come again in glory and great power with the heavenly host at which my coming I will adjudge all that reject me to everlasting Fire and they that now despise my menacies shall then when its too late to repent mourn and lament No Christian Catechist can better express the mind of this Article than this Philosopher here doth lib. 7. cal 3. A man of greater Reading than Celsus will be hard put to it to find one man before Christ's coming who did so much as pretend to his being appointed of God to be the Judge of all men And for those Mock-christ's who afterwards would have rob'd the blessed Jesus of this Prerogative and challeng'd it to themselves not one of them could shew their Commission under Gods hand as he did § 7. Article 8. I believe in the holy Ghost 1. As this implies the Equality and Consubstantiality of the Spirit with the Father and the Son and his being therefore together with them to be worshipped as the Nicen Fathers expound it Porphyrie who for all Celsus his brags that he himself understood the bottom top and middle of our Religion was the best acquainted with our Scriptures both old and new of any Heathen Philosopher parallels it with his Master Plato's Opinion in St. Austin de Civitate 10. 23. quoted by R. vives and thus exprest by Porphyrie as St. Cyril contrà Julianum relates it Plato as well as the Christians held three Subsistences in the divine Essence to wit the All-Good and All-Great God the Father then the Creator God the Son and the third the Soul of the World the holy Ghost Tres Substantias in Essentia divina statuit Deum Opt. Max. deinde Creatorem tertiam Animam Mundi to wit that which moved upon the Waters the Lord and giver of Life as the abovesaid Fathers describe him What Beetle-brow'd Novices in Christianity are the Socinians who will not acknowledge the Revelation of the ineffable sacred Trinity to be communicated in these Evangelical VVritings wherein the Athenian Owls the Pagan Philosophers saw it so plainly exhibited as they not only take notice of it as an Article of our Religion in their Polemical Animadversions but offer to make proof that this point of Doctrine was embraced by their Wisemen even before it was attested by those wonders which God set as his seal for the confirmation of the Gospel So little did they deem it to be against Reason as by the conduct even of Reason they stumbled upon that Divine Notion which the Socinians will not submit their vain Reason to the belief of upon the strongest of all Reasons Divine Revelation proved to be so by the clearest of all evidences the demonstration of power exerted at the first manifest revelation of this Mystery at the Baptism of Christ when the heavens were opened and the Spirit descended upon the Son and a voyce was heard from the Father 2. As it implies still to go along with the same Father the Churches confession of her belief that the holy Ghost spake by the Prophets It is thus assronted by Celsus lib. 8. cal 16. what you boast of the Spirit speaking by your Old and New Testament-prophets we can out-vie if we had a mind to repeat those many Oracles of our Prophets and Prophetesses who sung future things with a Prophetick voice which they suck'd in from the Recesses of the Gods those many which were delivered from the Entrails of Sacrifices and premonstrated from other Prodigies or reveiled by the vive-voyce of the Gods themselves appearing in visible forms How many Cities have been founded by the advice of Oracles and been freed from Famine and Pestilence by following their direction or brought to utter ruine hy forgetting or despising their Counsels How many Colonies have been sent forth upon their Order thriving exceedingly while they followed their counsel To how many Princes and private men has it been fortunate or fatal to observe or sleight them How many barren Women have become fruitful How many maimed persons have recovered the use of their Limbs How many distracted persons the use of their Reason by following the advice of Oracles
deaths approaches Nero hath this Character given him by Suetonius Religionum usquequaque aspernator he perfectly contemned all Religion yet his Mothers Ghost dogg'd him into an acknowledgement of Judgment to come for after his Matricide he was scar'd with dreams terrified with visions wherein sometimes he hears the Apparritors voice summoning him to appear before the divine Tribunal sometimes he thinks the Furies arrest him and hale him into close and dismal Dungeons those antipasts of approaching vengcance drive him quite off his Stoicism in his last Act put him beside the Lesson his Master Seneca had taught him he could handle his Weapon dexterously in the Artillery-garden but he cannot find his hands in the pitch'd Field 'T is one thing to bark at the Lions Skin in the Hall another thing to meet the Lion in the Wood. He cannot at his death with all his Charms of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Age excita teipsum how ill do these fears become the Scholar of Seneca Caesar where art thou go too stir up thy courage Nero conjure down the terrours of death nor keep them within the Circle of his own heart but they break out in those gastly stareings of his Eyes as strike the Spectators with horrour Extantibus rigentibusque oculis usque ad horrorem visentium Sueton. Nero. so true is that of St. Cyril Jerus Catech. 18. Thou maist deny it with thy lipps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but thou carriest the Conscience of the Resurrection about with thee Epicurus made it his business to obliterate the Notions of the Souls Immortality and the Judgment attending us in the other World yet Cotta in Cicero de nat deor lib. 1. gives this Testimony of him Nec quenquam vidi qui magis timeret ea quae timenda esse negaret mortem dico Deos I never knew man that more fear'd what he said was not to be fear'd to wit Death and the Deity There is no Antidote strong enough to repel the thought of future Judgment from soaking into the spirits of those men that would most glad ly quit themselves of those thoughts The Atheist in heart cannot persevere to be an Atheist in Judgment he may cross the Book but the Debt is still legible he cannot make his Soul rasam tabulam not rase out of it the native Impresses of a righteous Deity he may think he has barrocado'd all the ways to his Soul and secured it from all Assaults of Fear that he has sufficiently immur'd his Judgment and made it impregnable but Judgment has a Party within will betray the Fort a self-accusing Conscience Conscia mens ut cuique sua est ità concipit intrà pectora pro facto spémque metúmque suo He may think he has extinguish'd the Fire but the Sparks of the Fiery Day are only raked up in the Embers and lie glowing on the bottom of the Hearth He may beat the thoughts of Eternal Vengeance from the Out-works and base Town the lower and bestial part of the Soul Fancy that 's only mur'd by Sense but they are so fortifyed in the Fort Royal in the white Tower of the rational Faculties as there they stand at defiance against all his Artillery as thence they make frequent Sallies and put all the Arguments wherewith they are beleaguered to the Rout thence they discharge whole Vollies of mortal Shot against the Atheist's Head if he once but dare to peep up above those Trenches under the Covert of which his Disbelief lurks To be sure the Dust that riseth under the Charriot Wheels of approaching Death blown into the most refractory A theist's Eyes will cure him of that his Purblindness of that Indisposition whereby he could not see afar off so far off as Judgment to come § 3. Articl 5. The Soul's Antipasts of the Resurrection to Eternal Life To whose Discipline we will leave him and attend to what the Soul speaks about that other part of glad Hope after Death whence comes that secret Applause she gives her self when she acts well that Exultancy of Spirit which ariseth from her reflecting upon her vertuous Actions Seneca speaks the Peasant's Sence as well as the Philosopher's when he saith Animum divina aeterna delectant nec ut alienis interest sed ut suis distrabe hoc inestimabile bonum non èst vita tanti ut sudem ut aestuem Upon the performance of Noble and Heroick Actions the Soul contemplates those Eternal Rewards that attend them in the World and delights and enjoys her self in those Rewards not as things she hath nothing to do with but as her own peculiar Portion without which Fore-tasts of Eternal Retribution which the Divine Justice will award to Pious Actions this present Life were not worth the while our sweating and toiling here were but lost Labour exactly to the Apostle's Sense 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this Life only we had Hope we were miserable Men If the Soul did not think that the Body shall reign with her with what Equity does she put it upon suffering for her Would not the Flesh grumble to be rid by her through Brush and Brake if she did not rest in hope of sharing with the Soul in the Reward of well doing Would Scoevola's Hand if it had not laid fast hold of Eternal Life have been kept so steady in that Fire wherein he sacrificed it for his Countrey 's Service then which as my Author saith the immortal Gods never saw a more noble one laid upon their Altars nor more bespeaking the Attention of their Eyes Could Pompei have perswaded his Finger to have the Patience to be burnt to the stump in the Flame of a Candle to convince King Gentius that no Torture could rack him to confess the Senates Counsel if he had not pointed it to its future Reward With what else could Theodorus charm his Tongue to hold its Peace while he tired his Tormenters and wore out the Rack with his Patience Or Alexander's Page his Arm not to shrug while it was carbonadoing with that live Coal that fell into his Sleeve out of that Censer he held while his Master was sacrificing till the smell of his burnt Flesh exceeded that of the Incense and till Alexander had fulfill'd those Rites which he lengthen'd out on purpose to delight himself with the Prospect of that invincible Manhood in a Boy With what else do the Indian Gymnosophists obtain of their Bodies a Compliance with their Austere Discipline of going naked in Frost and Snow all their Life long of hardning them with the Frosty Rigour of Caucasus one while and another while throwing them into the Fire under all which Burdens the poor Beast never groans nor expresseth the least Disgust against its Rider But would a good Man be thus merciless to his Beast were he not perswaded with that Strippling Martyr in the Book of Maccabees 2. 7. these I had from Heaven and for his Laws I despise them and from him I hope to have them again These
Idols and evil Spirits be true they counterfeit the presence of God and therefore command their Worshippers to be just that themselves may be thought to be good but because they are in their nature bad they are prone to do evil and to lead us to evil Porphyry de sacrif pag. 314 315. out of Plato tells us that as heat cannot cool us so the Divine Nature that is all Justice can do no unjust thing and therefore concludes That all those Spirits that either themselves commit or tempt us to commit immoralities though they would make the World believe they are Gods and their Prince the highest and holiest God are no better than Devils Plutarch in his Pelopidas reports That while the Theban Army lay encamp'd in Leuctra resolved to give battel to Cleombrotus and the Spartan forces Pelopidas was terrified with a Vision of Scedasus Daughters there ravish'd and slain by certain Spartans against whom when their Father could not obtain Justice at the hands of the Spartan State pouring out dreadful execrations upon them he slew himself upon his Daughters Grave These Pelopidas thinks he hears groaning about their Sepulchres and cursing the Spartans and their Father commanding him to sacrifice a yellow-hair'd Virgin if he desired to obtain victory over the Spartans Pelopidas communicates this Vision and Command to his Prophets and Associates by whom notwithstanding the allegations of the examples of Menaeceus Macaerias Pherecides Leonidas Agesilaus and Agamemnon in favour of it that Command was judged so barbarous as it was impossible it could procede from or the fulfilling of it be acceptable to any of the Gods for those that delight in human blood and slaughter are infernal Fiends c. Thus Salacus King of Aethiopia is commended for interpreting that Dream wherein he was counsel'd to assemble the Aegyptian Priests and to cut them off by the middle as proceeding from the diabolical injection of some Demons that envied his happiness and desired to make him obnoxious to the just displeasure of the Gods for so sacrilegious an Act chusing rather to lay down the Egyptian Crown which he had then wore 50 years and return into Aethiopia than to hold it at that price the Vision set upon it Herodot Eutyrpe 163. Lo here the point of this Objection turn'd against those that framed it for Jove was so far from gaining by his Viciousness the repute of being a God as the Vices of his Namesakes imputed to him dethron'd him from that Heaven to which his own Vertue had of old exalted him while they knew and believed no other of him but that he was the Founder of their Commonwealth that he gather'd them being formerly dispers'd like savage Beasts into human Societie that he taught them by Precept and Example the Trade of Vertue they ador'd him for a God But when they hear the Poets tell Stories of his Murders Incests Rapes c. they conclude him if those Stories be true a wicked Demon. Yea Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Venus and Harp of all Philosophy in his Treatise of Superstition Moral tom 1. pag. 389. strenuously maintains the Point That those who deny the Being of God are not so impious as they that conceive him to be such as the Poets feign him I had rather saith he men should in their discoursing of me say there never was any such man as Plutarch than say I was such a man as the superstitious account God to be sickle mutable prone to anger desirous of revenge for the least injury and that from these misconceits of the Gods men grew into the Opinion that there were no Gods Would God this Christian Age had not too sad experience of the truth of this Aphorism For since the Pulpit hath been made a Stage for Mimicks who are train'd up to no other Art wherein they are more dexterous than that of making Mows and wry Faces upon the Establish'd Religion of misrepresenting the Christian Faith and the Authour of it by fathering upon the Spirit their nonsensical uncharitable blasphemous Prattlings upon God the Father such inhumane and bloody Purposes and Decrees as make him look out of their Dress more ill-favour'd than the blackest Fiend upon God the Son the Institution of a Religion more barbarous than the Worship of Moloch this Stage-play Divinity hath brought in Atheistical Contempt of God and the Ministery But I dare not give my just Zeal its full scope in this place I now alledge this only to shew That the Law of Honesty Vertue and Morality is so deeply imprest upon the Human Soul as rather than Men who are not altogether brutified will be led to Acts of Injustice upon the suggestions of a Divine Command they will deny the Divinity of that Command and chuse rather to worship no God at all than one that 's represented with such Properties as bid defiance to common Honesty CHAP. IV. Christian Religion concords with the highest Philosophical Notions § 1. Divine Knowledg communicated from the Church to travelling Philosophers Our Religion elder than Heathenism by Heathens confession § 2. Christian Articles implied in Pagan Philosophy's Positions Man's happiness through Communion with God and Conformity unto God § 3. This Conformity and Communion effected by God-man God manifest in the Flesh born of a Virgin § 4. Plato falter'd under the burden of vulgar Error A man from God Whence Multiplicity of God-Saviours Pagan Independency Their mutual indulging one another § 5. Not many but one Mediator the result of the Heathen's second thoughts Plato ' s Sentence sentenced by Platonicks Nothing can purge but a Principle St. John ' s Gospel in Platonick Books The Christian Premisses yielded their Conclusions denied by Gentiles Plato ' s Sentence under the Rose § 1. The Church gave life to received none from the Philosophers THe Apostles however illiterate might perhaps spin out of their own bowels a course-spun Warp which might fit to an hairs-breadth the home-spun Woof of vulgar Conceptions But then how came they to a Doctrine so exactly suting the more refined Notions of the most eminent Philosophers Quis docuit psittacum suum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they were men of crazy or but vulgar Brains whence learn'd they to dogmatize to Grecize in their divine Philosophy so profoundly to distil a Doctrine so absolutely Philosophical as it either ecchoeth to what was taught in the most learned Schools or is such as the most sagacious Wits were hunting after but could not start and must ecchoe to upon its Proposals or recede from their own Principles Hence that of R. Obad. Caon in Psal. 45. Kings Daughters were among thy honourable Women id est opiniones sapientùm Nationum exterarum that is the opinions of the wise Gentiles And that of Lactantius Quod si extitisset aliquis qui veritatem distersam per singulos per sectásque diffusam colligeret in unum ac redigeret in corpus is profectò non dissentiret à nobis Lactant de divino
inflam'd with desire to understand how he may be happy in this Life and the future As to the Third Principle he saith he knows not what Name to give it except he should call it the Soul of the World because it gives Life and Being to all Creatures And in his Epistle to Dionysius he tells him that he writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Trine Divinity that is as Porphyry alledged by St. Cyril against Julian expounds him Three Subsistances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Essence of the Divinity Consonant to which Platonick Dictate is that Respond which the Oracle of Serapis gave to Thales King of Aegypt at the time of the Trojan War inquiring who was happier than he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Macrobius stiles the First Person The truly chief God the Second the Mind or Thinking of that God the Third The Soul or Spirit proceeding from that Mind Anima ex Mente processerat Mens ex Deo procreata est Macrob. in som. Scip. 1. 17. These Allegations bid fair for the proof of this Opinion That the Philosophers were not wholly strangers to the Mystery of the Trinity And in the last of them Macrobius makes confession of the Trinity in as plain terms as we Christians do and of the Order and Manner of the Procedure of the divine Persons plainer than the Grecian Church would yield or the Latin Church could prove the sacred Scriptures to declare I appeal to their Contests about the word Proceeding and the Clause de Filióque And to Macrobius a Greco-latin Platonick his so clearly asserting That the Mind was begotten of God the First Person and the Spirit proceeded from the Mind But that 's more than I do or need to produce them for the use that I have for them is only to give testimony that the Platonicks vouchsafed the name of a Principle to nothing but God the Father God the Word and God the Spirit and therefore it is not even by their Principles in the power of any other God by his Mediation to bring the Soul by Purgation into Conformity to or Communion with God nothing but a Principle can effect that and there are but three Principles Father Son and Spirit say the Platonicks To this Platonick Notion of a Principle our Saviour seems to allude John 8. 25. where to the Jews asking who he was he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in St. Austin's de Civitate 10. 24. and others St. Ambros. Hexameron lib. 1. cap. 4. of the Fathers judgment That he was the Beginning respondit se esse Principium To be sure the Platonicks did in a peculiar Notion denominate God the Word the Principle Which made Amelius when he read the Beginning of St. John's Gospel In the beginning was the Word apud Deum esse Deum esse per ipsum omnia facta esse the Word was with God and was God and by him were all things made cry out Per Jovem barbarus iste cum nostro Platone sentit Verbum Dei in ordine Principii esse This Barbarian is of our Plato ' s Opinion that the Word of God is in the rank of Principles c. And that other Philosopher whom Simplicianus B. of Millain informs St. Austin of de civitate 10. 29. to protest Those words of St. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deserved to be writ in Letters of Gold and to he hung up in the most conspicuous places in all Churches and St. Austin in his Confessions say that he had read the beginning of St. John's Gospel in the Platonick Books in sence though not in the very same words lib. Confess 7. cap. 9. procurasti mihi quosdam Platonicorum libros ibi legi non quidem his verbis sed hoc idem omninò There I read saith he and found proved by various Reasons That in the beginnning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God that by it all things were made Multis multiplicibus suaderi rationibus quòd in principio erat Verbum Verbum erat apud Deum There in the Platonick Writings I read That the Soul of man though it bear testimony of the Light is not the Light but God the Word of God is that true Light that Et quòd hominis anima quamvis testimonium perhibeat de lumine non est tamen ipsa lumen sed Verbum Dei Deus est lumen verum quod illuminat omnem hominem And that he was in this World and the World was made by him and that the World knew him not quia in hoc mundo erat mundus per eum factus est mundus eum non cognovit But that he came unto his own and his own received him not I did not read there Quià verò in suos venit sui eum non reciperunt quotquot autem receperunt eum dedit illis potestatem filios Dei non legi ibi There also I read that God the Word was not born of flesh or blood nor of the will of man or the will of the flesh but of God Item ibi legi quià Deus Verbum non ex carne non ex sanguine non ex voluntate viri neque ex voluntate carnis sed ex Deo natus est But that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us I did not read there Sed quià Verbum caro factus est habitavit in nobis non ibi legi In those Platonick Writings I found it said in various and many forms of speech That the Word the Son is in the form of the Father counting it no robbery to be equal to God because he is by nature God Indagavi quippe in illis Platonicis literis variè dictum multis modis quòd sit Filius in forma Patris non rapinam arbitratus esse aequalis Deo quià naturaliter id ipsum est But that he emptied himself taking the form of a servant to the death of the Cross is not mentioned in those Books Sed quià seipsum exinanivit formam servi accipiens in similitudinem hominum factus c. non habent illi libri Indeed that before and beyond all thine only begotten Son incommutably continueth coeternal with thy self and that mens Souls do out of his fulness receive what makes them happy and by participation of that wisdom that rests in him are made wise is affirmed in those Platonick Books Quòd enim ante omnia tempora suprà omnia tempora incommutabiliter manet unigenitus Filius tuus coaeternus tibi quia de plenitudine ejus accipiunt animae ut beatae sint quia participatione manentis in se sapientiae renovantur ut Sapientes sint est ibi c. This is a Testimony so weighty as we cannot question the truth of it being given in his Confessions made to God and so full as it not only proves this Particular That the Platonicks conceived
genitor posthac non versificabor Or not coneiv'd the Divine Mind not able to do that when it would which his did against his will Secondly had they been the result of humane Industry it could not be of those men that were not in Being till after he was in his Grave as the Christian Name it self was And lastly had he had Authority on his side which is the main proof in matters of fact he would rather have produced Witnesses to depose who was the suspected father by what Legerdemain they gain'd the repute of being Sibyls and that among the Romans where none could be canonized for such till they had undergone the severest censure that humane Wit could invent to try their legitimacy by than attempt to prove them Bastards by such weak reasons as have not force enough to repel the single Testimony of any one person that is not of profligated credit much less the united Vote of the uninterrupted succession of the whole College of the Quindecim-viri and most knowing Pagan Divines who before Tully was born upon serious examination had past them for Sibylline and after the divulging his reasons to the contrary persisted in the Opinion That they were not of humane Invention but divine Extraction Briefly I shall despair of ever disputing those men out of their preoccupations with whom the Rhetorical flourishes of one Orator or the Fancy of one Augur and he prejudic'd by interest is of more weight than the joynt authority of so many Sages and the general Voice of all people who had no temptation to be too favourable but rather over-severe in their sentencing those Books to be Sibyls which imported not only such alterations in general as the forethought of is naturally sormidable to all honest men of settled and composed spirits that love not to fish in troubled waters but particularly the erecting of a Monarchy in Judea that should over-top the Roman Empire Having therefore thus laid the foundation and proved the Sibylline Oracles to have been in common repute of divine Original and those to have past for Sibyls by the Vote of those Ages were best able to judge out of which the Primitive Church made her allegations I proceed to shew that all they who imbraced those Oracles and they were the far greater part of the cultivated World were of opinion if not faith that the Universal Redeemer could not be any created blessed Spirit but the Eternal God himself who to that end was to be incarnate this being the Respond of those Oracles they held to be divine § 5. Erythraea in the beginning of her Song celebrates the Son of the high God with these Titles Lactant. de vera sap 4. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The all-refreshing Creator who gives the sweet Spirit to all and whom God hath made the head over all Gods And concludes that Song thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Him hath God given to all that believe in him to bring them to honour or God hath given to all men that believe to crown him with honour or to esteem him the ancient of days for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 senex and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honor are so near a kin as the one is derived of the other and that in the judgment of Plato who in the 2. of his Polit. hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having old men in honour However Sibyl here teacheth That the same God is the cherisher the refresher the restorer of all who is the Creator of all and whom God hath made high above all Gods and given to them that believe to honour him as him that bringeth them to Glory Another Sibyl quoted by the same Father sings thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acknowledge him for thy peculiar or proper God who is the Son of God This brings to mind that fore-cited passage in Porphyry The intellectual Soul cannot by any Theurgical purgations be made capable to apprehend its proper God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as it confirms the legality of this quotation for it was from this Sibylline and no where else that I can find that that great Philosopher had this Notion so it implies the learned World's preoccupation with this conceit That none of their reputed Gods was that proper Saviour of Mankind who was to work out the Souls perfect Redemption and seems to be a transcript of that older one He is the Lord thy God and worship thou him Psal. 45. A Cure to be effected only by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word as Sibyl elsewhere expresseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Working all things and curing all diseases by his word They conceiv'd God might delegate particular Cures to Local Deities but the all-curing God must be the all-making God and that none could restore but that Word by which all things were created In manifest allusion to that of the Psalmist In them he hath set a tabernacle for the sun Another Sibyl thus warbles quoted by Lactan. de divino praemio 7. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God shall send a King from the Sun who shall make peace all over the Earth To which Julian alluded in that quotation of his which hath formerly been alledged who not daring to question the authentiqueness of this Sibylline and taking it for granted that the common Saviour must come from the Sun that his Aesculapius might according to this Oracle be qualified for that Office fancied him to have descended by the Sun-beams into this World And St. James in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of change The comprehensively good and every way perfect Gift the All-heal descends not from this visible Sun which every day appears in several habitudes and positions and every year is farther from us or nearer to us after the proportion of its moving toward the Northern or Southern Tropick from whence it casts several shadows to the several parts of the World some being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cast no shadows at all some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cast shadows on one side and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cast shadows round about But from that Fountain of Light that 's exempted from all mutation From inacceisible Light came that Sun of righteousness which arose upon all Nations with healing under his Wings This is the only God can save to the uttermost whom as the Oracle of the Milesian Apollo Lactant. de ira Dei describes the God of Judea infernal Devils fear Of which and the like Responds St. Austin de consensu Evangelist 1. 15. de civitate Dei 19. 23. writes thus Quidam eorum Philosophi sicut Porphyrius Siculus in libris suis prodidit consuluerunt Deos suos quid de Christo responderent illi autem Oraculis suis Christum laudare compulsi sunt nec
lib. 1. cap. 10. 11. But to spare the labour of multiplying Instances that place of Plato I mention'd at the beginning of this discourse is abundantly sufficient where those blessed spirits that descended to take care of Mankind are said to have given them Laws neither that of Origen against Celsus lib. 5. cap. 1. whom he charges in his affirming that never any God or Son of God came down from Heaven to reveal divine Counsels to oppose the Vulgar and received Opinion of Philosophers and proves that charge by many clear instances one of which we have Act. 14. 12. when St. Paul had by a word speaking presently and perfectly cured the man that was born lame the Lystrians conceived him to be Mercury appearing in humane form because he was the chief speaker clearly expressing this to be their Opinion that the healing God was to be the great Gods Messenger and to restore men's discomposed Minds as well as Limbs by his word the very Office which the Prophets assigned to the Messias and the Apostles and Evangelists applyed to Christ A prophet shal the Lord raise unto you of your brethren like unto me as touching his humane but infinitely superiour to me in respect of his divine Nature And that 's the scope of that so much abused Text all thy children shall be taught of God Isa. 54. 13. if Christ be better at expounding Scripture than our new illuminates Who when the Jews excepted against his affirming himself to come down from Heaven because they knew his Father and Mother supposing him to be the Son of Joseph as they said Joh. 6. ver 42. gives them this reply That no man could come to him that is as one that came down from Heaven and whom they were bound to hear under pain of extermination except the Father drew him ver 44. not as a log by main force of hand but as a man by strength of Argument by teaching him the meaning of that Text in the Prophet and they shall all be taught of God ver 45. which cannot be understood of the person of the Father for no man hath seen the father but the son ver 46. Nor of the Spirits teaching for that the Church had from the beginning thou gavest them thy good spirit Nehem. 9. 10. But of the Person of the Son who was in the Fullness of Time to assume Flesh and dwell among us and teach not only Jews but Gentiles what they must do to be saved So as in the last revelation of the divine Will God will no longer deal by proxy but himself in the Person of the Son will speak face to face which you might have learn'd in Hypothesi had you diligently weighed that Text of Isa. and though I in respect of my humane Nature am the son of Mary and as you suppose of Joseph whom you know yet at my Baptism you might have learn'd that I had another Generation for then my Father bare witness by a voice from Heaven that I was the son of God and at my transfiguration having avouched me to be his well beloved Son he gave command that I should be receiv'd as that Prophet whom all are to hear every man therefore that hath heard and learn'd this of my Father concerning me that I am that great Prophet that was to come into the World like to my Brethren as to my Manhood but equal to the Father touching my Godhead will certainly come to me and learn of me as to those whom my Father by these clear convictions and furthermore by that Seal he hath set to my Commission to teach in those Miracles I work does not draw into a full perswasion 't is impossible that they while they are under that obstinacy should come unto me Hence it is that our Saviour so much presseth and layeth so much stress upon the believing that he was he that should come to tell men all things hence St. Paul begins his Epistle to the Hebrews with the proof of this that Jesus of Nazareth was that divine Person the express Image of the Fathers person by whom according to the Prophecies that went before God hath spoak in the last that is the Evangelical Age. § 8. Humane Laws we say are Nets which small fish escape through and great ones break but Christ's Law is so framed his Gospel net so knit as the Vulgar fry stick in it by the Finns and Gills of common Sentiments And the greatest disputers are intangled in it by strugling It takes the poor of this World by the compliance with their innate Notions and the wise in their own craftiness By it Learning was pos'd Philosophy was set Sophisters taken in a Fisher's net Plato and Aristotle were at a loss And wheel'd about again to spell Christ's Cross. As our great British Divine and Divine Poet sings in his Church tit Providence in which Poem as he hath given us an abstract of Church-history so I fear there is a more discerning spirit of Prophecy expressed therein than in all our modern golden Dreams and Comments upon Daniel and the Revelation these Predictions being but guessings at if not perversions of the sence of dark Texts his the applications of as clear menaces as any are in the whole Bible and these too commented upon by the constant method of Providence in the World which usually so shapes its rewards and Punishments to mens demerits as for our knowing what will betide our selves we need not consult ambiguous Oracles but such plain sanctions of the royal Law as have been made good upon and befallen other Churches for examples to us for if we will not be diverted from following Egypt and Greece's steps we must arrive at their dismal end if we by our debaucheries of mind or life put the Gospel from us and draw upon our selves strong delusions a Revelation-Criticism will not secure the one to us nor us from the other But to return from this Digression The constitution of Christian Religion is such as it finds all that is of man left in man a party for it in the Market and all true Philosophy a party for it in the Schools of Philosophers saith Clem. Alexandr Strom. l. 1. pag. 94. whether of the Barbarians or Grecians I mean not the Stoick Platonick Epicurean Aristotelian but whatsoever any Sect rightly taught whatsoever they taught Pious or Just is but a Branch of eternal Truth pluck'd from the Tree of Life the ever-being Word An observation grounded upon these Prophecies I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches of it and build it as in the days of old build the old wasts raise up the former desolations the foundations of many generations Amos 9. 11. Isa. 61. 4. Isa. 58. 12. and this to the end that the residue of men that is the Gentiles might seek the Lord Act. 15. 16. as St. James expounds the Prophets which inforceth us to interpret those Prophecies not of Persons only but
c. What a vast distance there is betwixt these and Scripture-prophecies is discovered in my fourth Book pag. 8. 3. As it imports his working of those Miracles which God hath set as a Seal to the Gospel It has already been shew'd what attempts the Heathen made to out-vye that point of the Church's Faith and the Operations of that Spirit recorded in our Scriptures by tbe impostures and shadows of Miracles wrought amongst them To which I shall here add the confession of Celsus in Origen 2. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye believe he is the Son of God because he cured the lame and blind And that of Julian in Cyril lib. 6. except a man should reckon amongst great works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the curing of the lame and blind and the relieving them that were possess'd with Devils in Bethsaida and Bethanie What did Jesus do Here the most bitter Adversary of the Christian Cause bears witness that the Apostolical Church urged the World to a belief of the Gospel from the consideration of Christ's great works to wit his curing the lame blind possessed c. And makes open confession that Christ did do those great works which the Evangelists mention so that he hath nothing to say against the validity of the Churches Argument but only this That such works are not indications of a divine Power It is therefore incumbent upon him and his party to shew what other man did ever do such works or by what power less than divine they can be effected § 8. Article 9. The holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints How can you call your society Catholick either as to time since it was but erected the other day saith Celsus lib. 1. cal 19. or place seeing till of late it was shut up in Judaea a corner of Palestine lib. 4. 14. and since it peeped out into other parts of the World it s celebrated clandestinely and in holes lib. 1. cal 1. That so inconsiderable a part of Mankind as the Jews and Christians should boast themselves to be the whole Company of Mortals acceptable to the Gods is just as if a company of Bats and Emits or of Frogs and Worms should contend for preheminence in point of the Gods favour to them and say that they are the only creatures to which God vouchsafes to reveil his mind and that neglecting the whole World beside he only takes care of their welfare lib. 4. cal 11. Lastly how can your Church be Catholick in point of Doctrine seeing you dissent and rend your selves as a Sect from the Catholick Religion of the whole World lib. 8. cal 1. The truth is saith he lib. 1. 5. And are rent your selves into so many sects lib. 3. 4. We could allow your Religion to be acceptable to the God of Judaea and your Society upon that account in favour with that God But we cannot endure that pride that you will either be all or none that you applaud your selves as the All of the Universe which God respects and exclude all but your selves out of the divine favour that your Church should be the Catholick Receptacle of the whole Community of Saints and your Religion the Universal way of Soul-cure a thing never heard of before either among the Traditions of the Magi Gymnosophists or Philosophers this is that we cannot but with abhorrencie disgust That the Jews for Christian Religion is orignally Judaick that inconsiderable People and so much hated of the Gods as they cannot obtain of any of them so much room upon Earth as to dwell upon together should prescribe in matters of Religion to the whole World and not permit to other Nations their own as best for them but break the bond of universal Peace decry that National Independency which till this universal way of Salvation this common Faith was obtruded upon the whole World kept all Nations in a friendly Communion of heart in a charitable correspondency among themselves each one allowing other that Religion they esteem'd most convenient for themselves The Evangelical way of Salvation the Christian Faith and Christian Church are therefore called Common Universal and Catholick because it is that way of Salvation which God hath from the beginning propounded to all Mankind and been intirely embraced in all Ages and Places by all Persons who have preferr'd divine Revelations before their own Inventions who are therefore collectively stiled the Catholick Church 1. Celsus therefore equivocates in saying our Religion and Church were but erected the other day for though the Gospel as it is an History of the exhibition of the promised Seed could not commence before that Fulness of Time when Christ came into the World yet as it is the glad tydings of Salvation by that Seed it was preach'd in Paradise in which respect Jesus Christ is yesterday and to day the same Rock upon which the Church hath been built in all Ages 2. This Religion and Church was not shut up in Judaea a corner of the World but proclaim'd and establish'd in Eden first by God himself to and in the old World and next by Noah to and in the new World in the hearing and sight of all Mankind from whence as from the Center their Lines went to the utmost Circumference of suceeding Generations amongst whom whosoever retain'd the fear of God and wrought righteousness were accepted of God When indeed men grew weary of waiting for the Seed promis'd and became so vain in their Imaginations as to frame Gods and Saviours and Religions to themselves God preach'd the Gospel anew and repeated the old and Catholick Religion to his friend Abraham annexing thereto the Seal of Circumcision as a sign that the Seed was not yet come and that it was to come out of his Loyns by Isaac This was not only a peculiar Priviledge to his Posterity but a general advantage to the whole World For whither could men in common reason think themselves obliged to look when they found themselves at a loss in point of Religion but to Sem's Family to which they were directed by Noah's blessing the God of Sem And to which of Sem's stock could they repair but to Abraham whom Sem himself that King of Salem and Priest of the high God as some think had blessed in the name of that high God So that Abraham and his Seed by Isaac were Gods Standard bearers to lift up Christ as an Ensign to the Gentiles And to make these Standard-bearers higher by the head than all other Nations and the Ensign more conspicuous God lifted that People up above all others by signal favours while they walk'd in that way that he had appointed them punish'd them double to any other trangressors when they cast off the fear of Isaac he built his glorious Temple amongst them upon his own Hill adorn'd his Worship with such Ceremonies as at once rendred it august in the Eyes of Gentiles and instructive to their minds august as out-vying their Inventions in multitude
his Canopy and perceived saith Josephus that this Bird was the Angel or Messenger of Calamity a German Southsayer having foretold him that when he saw that Bird again which was then a Messenger of glad tidings to him as he interpreted an Owls sitting upon a Tree on which Herod Agrippa lean'd and rested his weary body born down with grief of mind to be he must expect death within five days Antiq. l. 18. 13. § 4. It would be too large a Digression here to discuss the Art or rather Craft of this kind of Divination the Vanity of it has already been discovered and is sufficiently evinc'd by this Example for this German promis'd Herod an happy Death and that he should leave his Children in the possession of his Wealth neither of which proved true his Son being kept many years from the possession of his Fathers Crowns during which time he was the Emperours Beads-man and his Soul passing out of his Body through those faetid Pores the Worms made in his Entrails Though God permitted the Augure to hit the point of truth in his Prediction that within five dayes after his second sight of that Bird he should die as he did the Witch of Endor's Familiar in Samuels mantle to tell Saul the sad tidings of his next days loss of Field and Life the divine Wisdom ordering mens Curiosity and Credulity in such cases to be their torment That other Point of Apparitions of Spirits this Text of Iosephus forceth me to speak to that I may illustrate his Paraphrase upon St. Luke and proceed upon clear grounds in paralleling the remaining parts of the story But yet I shall not be so prodigal of my Readers patience as to discuss whether this Angel of Herods mishap this Messenger of his death sate upon his Canopies Cord or only upon his Optick Nerve that is whether a Spirit assumed this form upon it self or painted it on Herod's Fancy For 't is all one as to our Case whether the File was a real one upon the Book or a painted one upon the Spectacles Nor whether good Angels appear in any but august Forms and by consequence whether this was a good or an evil Spirit I profess not to cure the itch of mens Curiosity but only to shew the agreement of St. Luke and Josephus in sence while one calls that an Owl which the other calls an Angel in order to which it will be sufficient to observe That good Spirits are more obedient than to refuse any form that God bids them take for the service of his Providence or the Ministry of his Saints as this was for St. Luke reports it as an occasion of the growth and multiplying of the Word why then should a good Angel more scruple at appearing in this homely form than a whole host of them did at appearing in the shape of Centaures and Chariot-horses for the encouragement of one poor servant of the Prophet nay than the eternal Spirit did at the appearance in the form of a Dove Is there not infinitely more distance betwixt the holy Ghost and an Arch-angel than is betwixt a Dove and an Owl Nay hadst thou been of Gods council what form couldst thou have advised him to command his Angel to take whom he sent to bring message to Herod of his approaching Death to torment him in the midst of his jollity with the fore-thought of it than of that Creature which he being perswaded of the Infallibility of the German Oracle in the last by experiencing the truth of the first part of it thought as verily to see five days before his Death as Simeon hoped to see the Lord Christ before his departure But that the Sceptick may not laugh in his sleeve at my transforming an Angel into an Owl though had he so much of Athenian Learning as he boasts of he would not think Minerva's Squirell so contemptible a Bird but that an Angel might assume her form and therein be more congruously plac'd than his so brutified a Soul as it lives by nothing but Sense is in an humane Body I do not positively assert this to have been a good Angel for as the heavenly attend as Voluntiers so the infernal Spirits as prest Soldiers are at the command of the Lord of Hosts and when he imploys them they are his Messengers the Angels of the Lord. God march'd through Aegypt when the First-born were slain with the Pestilence in the head of an Army of evil Angels Psal. 78. 50. by sending evil Angels among them he weighed his anger distributed it by a just proportion to the Egyptians while the Israelites were passed over and among the Egyptians so as it fell upon the First-born of Man and Beast while the rest escap'd they were given over to the Pestilence by the immission of so many Asmodei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuagint Sent by the hands of evil Angels Chald. Indeed which of his Creatures can God more properly make use of to be the Executioners of his wrath than evil Angels and yet the destroying Angel is called the Angel of the Lord 2 Samuel 24. 16. the Hangman is the Kings Officer Be this therefore a good or bad Angel it was that Angel of the Lord that smote Herod as both St. Luke stiles this Apparition and Josephus conformably unto him To proceed now in his Story therein the blewness of the Wounds this Messenger gave him is apparent both upon Herod's Soul and Body for as soon as he perceiv'd this ill-boading Angel he is struck to the heart with grief ex intimis praecordiis indoluit and his belly with gripings secuta sunt ventris tormina whereupon turning his eyes to his Parasites Behold saith he I whom ye called a God am commanded to depart this life fatal Necessity proves you layrs and I whom you stiled immortal am posting to the Chambers of Death with his speech his pain increaseth they therefore forthwith carry him to his Bed where after five days racking and gnawing pain in his Bowels he gives up his weary Ghost § 5. This part of Josephus his Text agrees with St. Luke's 1. In his assigning this stroak to a supernatural hand as inflicted upon him by the Angel of the Lord so palpably as Herod himself perceived that Spectrum to be the Messenger of God upon sight whereof he received these stroaks in Mind and Body as proved mortal of this supernatural immission Josephus speaks not so dubiously as he does of the last and mortal disease of Herod the Great Bel. Jud. 1. 8. upon whom the same malady of worms was as he saith by some conceived to be inflicted assiduis vexabatur coli tormentis inflatio ventriculi putredoque virilis membri vermiculos generans in revenge of Judas not he of Galilee but the Son of Sepphoraeus and Matthias the Son of Margalus whom that Herod a little before his Death as this a little before his slew St. James had put to death for taking down that Golden Eagle which Herod
de emend temp 6. tit quinta pascha pag. 561. being faln into a grievous and in humane appearance incurable Disease sent a Messenger to Jesus with a supplicatory Letter that he would please to come and heal him of these contents Abgarus Prince of Edessa to the propitious Saviour that hath appeared in the Flesh in the Confines of Jerusalem health I have heard of those miraculous Cures which thou doest without application of Medicines and Herbs for it is reported that thou givest sight to the blind causest the lame to walk cleansest the Leprous castest out Devils and unclean spirits curest the most inveterate sicknesses and recallest the dead to life from which I conclude one of these two things that either thou art God come from Heaven and doest those things or the Son of God that bringest such things to pass wherefore by these my Letters I beseech thee to take the pains to come and cure me of my malady wherewith I am sore vexed I have heard moreover that the Jews murmur against thee and go about to mischiefe thee I have here a little City and an honest people which will suffice us both To this Jesus sends this Reply Blessed art thou Agbarus because thou hast believed in me when thou sawest me not for it is written of me that they which see mee shall not believe in me that they which see me not may believe and be saved Concerning that which thou writest unto me that I would come unto thee I let thee understand that all things touching my Message are here to be fulfill'd and after the fulfilling thereof I am to return to him that s 〈…〉 me But after my Assumption I will send one of my Disciples unto thee who shall cure thy Malady and restore life to thee and them that be with thee Out of the same Records Eusebius reports how after our Lords Ascension Thaddaeus one of the seventy was sent to Edessa who cured and converted Agbarus and preach'd the Gospel to his Subjects c. I know that Gelatius in a Council of 70 Bishops Crab. Con. Tom. 1. decret Gelasti pag. 993. decreed those Epistles Apochryphal as he did also the VVritings of Tertullian and Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History to prevent their being received with the like reverence wherewith we embrace the Canonical Scripture but neither he nor any body else either Christian or Pagan question'd the Truth of this Relation till Nicephorus discredited it by his forged additions of Christs sending his Picture to Agbarus drawn on an Handkerchiefe and of the strange Effect that Image had when that City was besieged and those other ridiculous storyes relating to that business The Sceptick I know will except against these last Allegations that their Originals are not extant in answer to which I commend to the Umpirage of common Reason these Queries 1. Whether it stand with Reason that men who stood so much upon their credit as the ancient Christians did would appeal to common Records for the probat of these things had they not then been to be read in those Authors or Chronicles out of which they made their Allegations 2 By what means it came to pass that the Adversaries of our Religion who lived upon the place and had opportunity enough to-examine those Quotations and whom interest would have prompted to enquire into these things did not make their exceptions against the Apologists of the Christian Cause 3. Whether the Christian Church or the Pagan Adversaries were most like to obliterate those Antiquities the Christian whom they favour'd or the Pagan whom they confuted considering what artifices Julian the Apostate used to suppress Learning forbidding Christians to be trained up in prophane Literature Ec. Hist. 3. 10. Socratis Scholast which Facts of Julian Ammianus Marcel though a great admirer of him and the Pagan Religion condemns as worthy to be buried in eternal silence Illud autem inclemens obruendum perenni silentio quod arcebat docere magistros rhetoricos grammaticos ritus Christiani cultores Am. Marcel 22. 10. As that whereby Julian designed to deprive the Christians of the knowledge of those Pagan Writings and Records out of which the Christian Apologists had collected such palpable Testimonies for the defence of Gospel-history and to bury the Originals out of which they had made their Quotations in perpetual oblivion as advantagious to our Cause by their confessing the Truth of the Matter of Fact Lactantius by name whose scope was Quia nondum capere poterat divina prius humana testimonia ethnico offerre id est Philosophorum Historicorum ut suis potissimùm refutaretur Authoribus quo si eruditi homines se conferre caeperint evanituras brevi religiones fallas Because the Heathen World was yet uncapable of Divine first to offer it Humane Testimonies of Heathen Philosophers and Histories that it might at least be confuted by its own Authors Which method if Learned men would take false Religions would quickly vanish See more in Eusebius his Apology for Origen where he shews how he and other Christian Doctors foil'd the Pagans at their own Weapons and Dionysius the Areopagite his Epistle to Polycarp For not dealing in this way but by Texts of sacred Writ with Demetrianus Lactantius blames St. Cyprian Lact. de justicia l. 5. c. 4. Let Julian who was thus careful to suppress Pagan records bring up the Rear of Gentile Witnesses to the Truth of the Evangelical Writings as to their being rightly Father'd upon those Authors whose Names they bear who as Cyril Contra Julianum lib. 10. testifieth Apertè fatetur Petri Pauli Mathaei Marci Lucae esse ea quae Christiani legunt iisdem nominibus inscripta confesseth That the Books which the Christians read inscribed with the names of Peter Paul Mathew Mark Luke are the genuine Writings of those men § 5. I should put the utmost of my Readers patience to trial should I shew the Prints of Old-Testament-stories in the Antiquities of the Heathen I will therefore content my self with these few particulars and for the rest refer him to Blundel Vossius c. The History of Joseph was presented in the Aegyptian Apis saith Ruffinus lib. 2. historiae Ecclesiast and produceth Pagan Writers affirming that a certain King or Steward of Aegypt in a time of Famine relieved the people out of his Storehouses to whom therefore after his Decease they built a Temple wherein an Ox was kept at the publick Charge as an Embleme of the best Husbandman a creature saith Diodorus Siculus l. 1. cap. 2. exceeding helpful to Husbandmen which Varro l. 2. c. 5. de re rusticâ stiles the Husbandman's Companion and the servant of Ceres Upon which consideration was grounded that Athenian Law that no man should kill an Oxe that Plowed the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he is a kind of Husbandman and a partaker with man in his labour Aelianus var. hist. l. 5. c. 14. and therefore Appianus de belis Mithridat makes it an
after Aarons order made upon the Altar of his Cross by the oblation of himself a full and perfect Propitiation for the sins of the whole World and was then actually inflicted when in the virtue of that Attonement God sent him as a Priest after the Order of Melchisedech to bless the Nations by turning them from their sins If this God of Israel hath where he is invocated any Priests taken from among the Gentiles but those of Christs Institution that call themselves and are called that is known by the name of the Priests of the Lord. He may find this name scorned by such punie Antichrists as the Gospel tells us have ever been and foretells us will ever be in the Church but not of the Church who being under a Form of Godliness deny the Power and either out of a blind zeal or for a cloak of Covetousness decry the Evangelical Priest-hood casting contempt upon and practising to abolish that Name which the God of Israel hath said the Evangelical Ministers should be called by doing what in them lay to overturn the Foundation of Christian Faith For if there be not an order of Men taken out from the rest from among the people called the Priests of the Lord the Gentiles are not yet called nor that God whom we invocate the God of Israel nor that Jesus whom we worship the Christ the promised Messiah for of the days of Messias it is prophesied Is. 66. 8. I will gather all Nations and Tongues and they shall come and see my glory and this I will do by setting a Sign amongst them by erecting the Standard of the Cross For those that escape those of the Jews that save themselves from the untoward Generation by embracing Christ I will send to the Nations disperse them over the World to Tarshish Pul and Lud to Tubal and Javan to the Isles afar off that have not heard my fame neither have seen my Glory and they shall declare my Glory Preach Christ the Brightness of my Glory Heb. 1. 3. among the Gentiles And they shall bring all your Brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all Nations and of them that shall be converted out of all Nations I will take for Priests and Levites For as the new Heavens that I create remain before me so shall your Seed and your Name remain for ever And again Isa. 61. 6. Ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Ministers of our God See here what tender Consciences those tender ear'd men have and how well those Laodicean Church-men consult the promoting of the honour of Christ and the salvation of Souls through his Blood that rather than we should offend the itching ears of those white Devils would have us wave the use of so harsh a word so grating a name as that of Priests though it be of the mouth of the Lords naming and the bearing of it among the Gentiles one of those Demonstrations of the Spirit of Prophesie that Christ is come and that he whose Priests we are is the God that made Heaven and Earth Not but that the Romish Sacrificers have Sacrilegiously abused this name to the abetting their Sacrifice of the Mass or as if names or things whose use is not necessary may not be laid aside when abused as God took the name of Baal out of his peoples mouth after it had been appropriated to Idols and Hezechiah broke the Brazen Serpent after the Idolatrous use of it Yet he that upon that pretence would banish the name of Jehovah or other Names of God out of Christian use would leave us never a Name to call him by for all his Names that the Gentiles could get at the Tongues end they applied to their Idols and should we exterminate every Word or Thing that has been made an evil use of we must speak by Signs renounce our Creed our Meat Drink and Sleep How much more cautious should we be of entertaining those Principles of a squeasie and mis-inform'd Conscience as induce us to a disuse of that Name which God himself hath stampt upon the Ministers of the Gospel as their Memorial for ever But Odi prophanum vulgus arceo I should blame my self for making this excursion before the Atheist if it were not to inform him that in case while he is seeking for the accomplishment of this Prophesie he meet with such as disclaim this and call themselves by another Name and thereby be confirm'd in his Atheism the Church is free of his blood for there never hath been any Christian Church upon Earth whose Ministers are not known and called by the name of the Priests of Israel's God § 3. Let him enquire what Sacrifices and Oblations have been offered him since his Name was Great in all the World but that commemorative one of the great Propitiation which our high Priest made once for all That Thanksgiving-Sacrifice of the Eucharist that well-pleasing Sacrifice of a sweet odour we tender him in our Works of Charity in our honouring him with our substance that living and reasonable Service wherein we offer up our selves Souls Bodies and Spirits to the disposal of his Royal Law What Incense hath been burnt before him but Prayer from a Devout and flaming Heart What Libations have been powred out in his presence but penitential Tears flowing from a contrite spirit Let him travel Aegypt through and through he will find no Altar there erected to the God of Israel but that Table-throne of Grace whereon we offer to him his Creatures of Bread and Wine and make a Commemoration of his Son's Death No Pillar there set up to the Lord but the eternal Monument of his dear Love the Triumphant Standard of the blessed Cross. He will find the Jew the Assyrian the Aegyptian serving the God of Israel joyntly in the practise of no Religion but the Christian. And then I leave it to the Atheists Discretion to judge whether it be conceivable that that God who was so wise as to foresee and so powerful as to effect this great Change we see wrought in the World by the Gospel should be so far wanting to himself and those of Mankind that most sincerely love him as to have none to worship him in a way of his own Institution this sixteen hundred years ever since he by his Providence hath made it impossible to tender him that Worship himself had formerly commanded the place being destroyed where God will only accept of such like services and the Jews having been terrified from rebuilding it under Julian so as they never since durst reattempt it The Story of which their Consternation is thus reported by Greg. Nazianzen Oratione 48. in Julianum 2. Julian invited the Jews to return into Judaea and rebuild their Temple whereupon multitudes of them repair thither and busie themselves in that work with as much zeal as our City-Matrons exprest When those Forts and Lines of Communication were cast up whereby they
Where not only as to their Operation but Being are the Gods of Hamath and of Arphad Where are the Gods of Sephervaim Hena and Iva shall I say or the Gods of Europe Asia Affrica The Aegyptian Nile spawned Fish-Gods their Land brought forth Gods of Grass and Gods that eat Grass their Air was darkned with vollies of winged Deities In Greece the Genius of every species of Animals and Vegetives In Rome Pallor and Terror the Fever and Jaundice grew into Gods They had their he and she-deities for Conception Birth Puberty Marriage Merchandice c. Gods of the Closet of the Market Gods of the Close-stool and Chamber-pot such as 't is a wonder their own Jove did not thunder-strike the adorers of such as one would think Hercules might have scar'd into the holes of the earth with the shadow of his Club or blown away with his Fly-flap But that in the Exile of the lawful Soveraign every one has an equal right to the Crown and in that parity there is not a chip to chose betwixt a Peer and a Peasant a Calf will serve the Israelites for a God when they have forgot him that brought them out of Aegypt When men delight not to retain the Former of all things in their mind every Man will be a God-wright and frame an Image of the Deity of any thing that comes off the Wheel of his ever-running Imagination Yea Philosophy it self in those Times of Ignorance could not castrate the rank Fancies of Democritus and Epicurus of this prolifick God-teeming humour but that they spawn'd as many Gods that is eternal Beings as there are Atoms in their conceipted infinite Worlds In which particular I should think Laertius and Tully to have wronged their memories If I did not see in this Age of improved Learning and divine Light some mens Wind-mill-heads grinding the God head of the one eternal into as many and small grains as there are moats in the Universe If I did not see those Leviathans who make sport with and take their pastime in deriding the Notions of created Spirits and of the adorable Trinity of Persons in that one uncreated Essence as finding no bottom of that immense Ocean which Faith makes fordable to the meanest Christian themselves introducing an Hypothesis of more Spirits for take Divisibility from Matter and nothing remains but an Incorporeal Substance and he that talks of a crooked an hooked a three-corner'd Atome may with as much reason tell us of a Square or Triangular Circle except he can impose upon the World a new Grammar as well as Philosophy or perswade all Greece to forget its Mother-tongue than can stand betwixt York and Lancaster I could make infinite more room for them upon the Cartesian Ground but that is a Field large enough for all the Host of Heaven to incamp in and I shall enlarge their Quarters in my Reflections upon the other Hypothesis which the Doctrine of Atoms introduceth to wit as many Persons in the One Eternal Being as many distinct individual Subsistencies in the one Essence of Eternal Matter as we can imagine Moats in the Sun-beams should they dart themselves ten hundred thousand millions of times further upwards towards the Emperial Heaven than they do downwards to this Globe of Earth and spread themselves round about that vast Circumference in comparison of which this of our habitation is but an Atome For give Eternity to Matter and you give it the Essence of God make it subsist in Atomes each one distinguish'd from another and the result will be so many distinct Subsistencies in that one Essence Give to these Subsistencies a power of moving themselves which you must grant them or say they are moved by another and what can be elder than Eternity or by Chance Chance must be then before them and it must be the life of Reason and that will make e-every Atome an individual Person a Rational Hypostasis So that instead of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost subsisting in one undivided eternal Godhead This new Divinity commends to us more millions of divine Persons than could be reckon'd up in an age should all the men of that Age betake themselves all their life to their Counters That which we interpret A Troop cometh in the Story of Gad's Birth Gen. 30. 11. some Hebrews expound Fortune cometh upon which our learn'd Antiquary expends the first Chapter of his 1 Syntagme de Dais Syriis I will not undertake to determine which is the best Translation perhaps they may both stand with that Text though not better than their conjunction would suit the Birth of the Doctrine of Atomes For since Leah that blear-eyed purblind Epicuraean Philosophy grown under the Age of the Gospel past child-bearing hath upon the knees of her handmaid Zilpah Modern Atheism brought forth into the Christian Air her Son Gad or Fortune as that which made the eternal Atomes so happily meet as to fall into all those comely Forms whereof the World consists Gad or a Troop comes shall I say or a Legion or a Myriad of Troops of Deities God the crooked God the hooked God the obtuse God the sharp God the long God the short Atome for it would be a taking of that Name in vain to apply it to those infinite Forms into which those mens Fancies cast those eternal Beings which notwithstanding they call Atoms with a far greater Solecism than he committed with his Finger who pointed it to the Earth when he was speaking of the glorious Furniture of Heaven and shall rather bestow my time in transcribing that Exclamation which our divine Poet snbjoynes to the History of those and such like vanities of the Polytheists Ah! what a thing is Man devoid of Grace Adoring Garlick with an humble face Begging his food of that which he may eat Starving the while he worshippeth his meat Who makes a Root his God how low is he If God and man be sever'd infinitelie What wretchedness can give him any room Whose House is foul while he adores his Broom Let my stammering Muse add Nor dares not sweep't least from his foot arise So many Motes so many Deities Certainly Epicurus if he were true to his own Principles must have been a nasty Sloven and one whose disciples well deserv'd that compellation which the Satyrist gives them Epicuri de grege porci The Hoggs of Epicurus his Stie For he and his Litter of Followers must lie battening in their own Dung for fear of disquieting that eternal Matter a thing which the Deity does most abominate in their opinion and therefore does not interest it self in the affairs of the World but busies it self in dancing and frisking about and suffers it self to be carried whither Fortune pleaseth and not the Scavinger's Broom or Dung-rake I do not call Cartesius an Atheist though doubtless his Philosophy has made many but I think I may well enough call his a Feminine Philosophy in comparison of that of Plato or Aristotle grounded upon Principles
Israel and to have born up the Spirits of Idol-worshippers sinking under those burthens which Gods Prophets saw against false Gods whom according to their Prophesies we have seen broken to pieces like a Potters vessel with the Iron-rod of that Son of God whom he hath set up as King upon the Hill of Sion to whom he hath given the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his possession Who coming out of his Chamber as a Bridegroom that is Conjugatum carni humanae Verbum processit de útero virginali August de consens 1. 16. the Word Married to humane flesh came out of the Virgins Womb. Rejoyceth as a Giant to run his course not only from one end of the Hemisphere unto the other as they would bound Christs Kingdom who exclude America from the hopes of it but from one end of the Heaven to the other and if that be not plain enough nothing is hid from the heat thereof not any part of the round World that the corporeal Sun visits Mankind receives the cherishing warmth of its Beams and basks it self in that Fountain of Light The Serpent feels their scorching heat and flees therefrom Et adhuc isti fragiles contradictiunculas garrientes eligunt magis isto igne sicut stipula in cinerem verti quam sicut aurum à sorde purgari And will the crazy-headed Sceptick yet chatter and gaggle out his petit and bublie Exceptions which break with the least touch with the gentlest blast and choose rather to be consumed to ashes in this fire as stubble than to be purged by it from his dross as Gold § 3. Or is he of so thick-skin'd a Soul as not to feel the heat of Christs Divinity in those Prophetick Rayes emitted from his Spirit before he came in the Flesh as not to conceive that the accomplishments of Old Testament-Prophecies is a demonstration not only of their own but of the Gospels Divine Original which can be the Workmanship of none other Architect but of him who drew the Model and Idea of these new Heavens that new Creation that new face of things which we see produc'd in the Age of Christianity Humane Wit indeed might have drawn another Model perfectly resembling that might have fram'd an History parallel to Prophecy though they that could make the Counter-part so exactly answer the Original and write so perfectly after the Copy as the Apostles have must be Persons of a steady Hand excellently composed Spirits and solid Judgements And therefore all the Inference we drew in our Second Book from the Apostles proportioning every Limb and Line of their Story to the Old Testament-Draught was that they had thereby demonstratively acquitted themselves from all suspicion of being themselves deluded But it is out of the reach of Humane power to bring the Matters there prophesied of unto Birth the erecting of the Structure it self the production of what was fore-told into real existence cannot be the Effect of any but of him alone who hath as great an Infinity of Power to bring to pass as he hath of knowlege to foresee them And therefore having proved the Truth of what the Apostles reported that what they say was done in order to the accomplishment of Prophecy was done indeed he must be a person of very short Reason that from the improvement of the Premisses cannot improve the Conclusion and draw this Inference That as nothing but Omnisciency could foresee so nothing less than Omnipotency could effect That a Virgin should bring forth a Son externally so mean as those among whom he convers'd saw so little comliness in him as they Crucified him as an Impostor for saying he was the Son of God the King of the Jews that Messia promised in the Law and so much predicated by the Prophets and yet really so full of Majesty as he is become King of Kings hath subdued the World to his Obedience abolish'd all the Gods of the Nations and erected every where the Worship of that one God that made Heaven and Earth that God of whom Moses writes known formerly only in Jewry but now no where less known than among the Jews they being the greatest strangers to their own Prophets and their Fathers God being the greatest stranger to them of any Nation upon the face of the Earth § 4. But that I may not put the Sceptick to the expence of all the Reason he hath and that he may not think it is through penury of New Testament-prophecies that I pitch upon those of the Old and that he may grope out the Divinity of the Blessed Jesus in some palpable accomplishments of the Predictions he made in person as well as by Proxy I shall here mind him of this Note That Christ espoused all the Old Testament-prophecies commented upon them applied them and not only attested the coming to pass of what the Prophets had foretold in general but as it were individuated those generals by more particular and punctual Circumstances not so much as hinted by them of old and appeal'd to their accomplishment in that way and with those Circumstances wherewith he cloath'd them The prophets gave only the rough draught of what Christ drew to the life he lickt their rude Lumps into so distinct and explicite forms as the Prophecies became his own his Gleanings were more than their Vintage To instance in one for all Christ in his Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem referrs to Daniel when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel thereby appealing to its accomplishment as that which he was content to stand or fall by as to mens belief that he was the Messias as if he had said if you see it not within the Term of Daniels Weeks within so many years after my offering an Attonement for sin as Daniel states it after the Oblation of the Messias believe me not that I am he But withal he leaves it not in such curious Calculations as Daniel did but what he had writ in figures Christ transcribes in words at length and applies it to that Generation with that perspicuity and in such particularities as an Historian can scarce tell what has been done more punctually than Christ foretells what should be done 1. As to the time of its taking Effect there be some saith he standing here that shall not tast of Death till all these things shall be fulfill'd and in particular St. John shall tarry till Christ come to avenge himself on the Jewish Nation 2. As to the Instruments to be employed by Christ for the destruction of their place and Nation he describes them by their Banners the Eagles under which the Roman Legions those Birds of prey march'd when divine Justice conducted them into Judaea that they might flesh themselves upon that Nation whose Inhabitants their sins being ripe were as Carcasses fatted and prepared for them signified as Tacitus thinks by that prodigy of a Dog bringing to Vespasian a dead
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