full of danger Again how wisely did our Saviour from time to time defeat and render unsuccessful the Plots and Machinations of the Pharisees and his other enemies against him We find in Matth. 22. 15. the Herodians or those of the Jews that adhered to the Caesarean and Roman Authority and the Pharisees who esteemed it as an usurpation combining together to intangle him in his talk And they so ordered their plot as that they might get an advantage from whatsoever he should say either to render him Obnoxious to Herod and the Roman Party or to Inrage the most popular and highly esteemed Sect of the Jews the Pharisees In order hereunto they cunningly put to him this Question viz. Whether it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar If he should answer that it was he would make himself lyable to the latter mischief if that it was not to the former and the far greater Now as is to be seen in the 19 20 21. verses our Saviour with such admirable prudence contrived his answer that vers 22. both factions are said to wonder at it and to be basfled by it When they had heard these words they marvelled and left him and went their way Diverse other Instances there are of a like nature as in Iohn 8. 3. to 9. Matth. 21. 23. to 27. Matt. 22. 41. to 46 c. And thus we have sufficiently and fully enough proved that it was the whole business of our Saviour's life to make men in all respects Pertuous and Holy and that thereunto were subservient as his Discourses with them so his Actions likewise and whole Behaviour Plus docent exempla quà m praecepta Examples are the most natural and easie way of teaching and they are so by reason of Mankinds being so greatly addicted to imitation and I say it doth from our past discourse sufficiently appear That our Saviour's whole Conversation was a rare exemplification of all kinds of Vertue and true Goodness CHAP. VI. That to make men truly Virtuous and Holy was the Design of Christ's unimitable Actions or Mighty works and Miracles And that these did not onely tend to promote it as they were convincing Arguments that He came forth from God but were also very proper to effect it in a more immediate manner BUt it cannot be amiss if we moreover adde That it was not onely the Design of our Saviour's imitable Actions to teach the world Vertue but also of those which are not imitable viz. Of his Miracles and Mighty works And that these did not onely tend to the promoting of that Design as they were convincing and infallible Arguments that he came forth from God but were likewise very proper to effect it in a more immediate manner For they were not onely Argumentative or a proof of the Truth of his Doctrine but also Instructive and minded men of their Duty Those Miracles which he chose to work were of such a nature as to be hugely fit to accomplish at one and the same time both these businesses They were not such as the foolish and carnal Jews expected that is signs from Heaven that were apt to produce directly no other effect than that of pleasing their Childish Phansies or striking their senses with admiration and astonishment by making prodigious and amazing shews and Representations before their eyes but most of them were expressions of the greatest kindness and Charity to Mankind For instance his Healing the sick of all manner of Diseases his making the lame to walk and the blind to see and the deaf to hear his cleansing the Lepers Feeding the Hungry Raising the Dead and ejecting of Evil Spirits out of those that were miserably possessed with them and tormented by them c. In Acts 10. 38. The Apostle expresseth our Saviour's working of Miracles by this Phrase Doing good who saith he went up and down doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil And in his Miracles did he give Instances of great kindness and good-will even unto those which did least deserve it For he made use of his Divine Power for the Healing relief of the Disingenuous and Unthankful Ill-natured and Wicked as well as of the better-disposed and more worthy persons Therein imitating his heavenly Father as he required us to do who maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth Rain on the Iust and on the Unjust Matth. 5. 45. And as I take it the last Miracle that before he ascended the Cross was wrought by him was the Cure of one of those his Enemies that came with Clubs and Staves to apprehend him And the few Miracles besides those that consisted in doing kindnesses to Men for those we have on record are almost all such were such as by which he gave us an Example of other Vertues As particularly of Piety Trust in God and zeal for him Of his Piety and Trust in God his Fasting fourty days and fourty nights was a great evidence It was so of his Trust in him and constant adhering to him as by thus doing he put himself by his Father's appointment upon most violent and strong temptations in Conflicting wherewith as hath been shewn he came off a most Noble Conquerour Of his Zeal for God was his whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple no small expression and I adde it was so also of his most gracious and loving respect to the contemned Gentiles whose Court as Master Mede and others have most evidently demonstrated they were whip'd out of they making their house of Prayer a Den of Thieves as our Saviour told them And this may deservedly be numbered among his Miracles because it is unconceivable how a Man unarmed in no Authority and of mean esteem in regard of his Parentage poverty and low Circumstances should strike such a fear into those people as to force them without the least offer of Resistance to flee before him if the cause thereof were not extraordinary and more than natural And even that Miracle which might seem the most inconsiderable namely his causing his Disciple Peter to catch a Fish with a small piece of money in its mouth was also Instructive of a Duty It being an Instance of his Loyalty to the Supreme Magistrate for the money was expended in paying Tribute and taken out of the Sea in that strange manner for no other purpose In short I know no one Miracle that our Saviour wrought but over and above its being a Seal for the Confirmation of his Divine Mission it teacheth some one or other good Lesson and is proper for the bettering of the Souls of those that seriously consider it And that great Miracle which after his Ascension according to his promise he shewed in sending the Holy Ghost did promote the business of making men holy in a far higher way than that of Example For the grand standing office of the Spirit in the world is the exciting in us Holy Desires and the assisting of
too lofty for them that considers Christ's was not Now these are all such motives and helps to holiness the like to which none but those who have the Gospel ever had 4. That this Son of God was an expiaatory Sacrifice for us We have already shewn what cogent Arguments to all holy obedience are herein contained 5. That this Son of God being raised from the Dead and ascended into Heaven is our High Priest there and ever lives as the Author to the * Hebrews saith to make intercession with his Father for us The Heathens it is confessed had a notion of Daemons negotiating the affairs of men with the Supreme God but they could never have imagined in the least that they should be so highly privileged as to have one who is the Begotten Son of this God and infinitely above all persons dear to him for their perpetual Mediator and Intercessor I need not say what an encouragement this is to an Holy Life And as the Doctrine of God's giving his Son which containeth the five forementioned particulars is such as the highest improvement of reason could never have caused any thing like it to have entered our thoughts or that is comparable thereunto for the effectual provoking of men to the pursuance of all Holiness of Heart and Life so Secondly The Doctrine of his sending the Holy Ghost to move and excite us to our Duty and to assist chear and comfort us in the performance of it may go along with it How could it have once been thought without Divine Revelation that a person indued with the Divine Nature and Infinite Power and Goodness should take it upon him as his Office and peculiar Province to assist mens weakness in the prosecution of vertue But this doth the Gospel assure us of as also that those which do not resist and repel his good motions shall be sure to have alwaies the superintendency of this Blessed Spirit and that he will never forsake them but abide with them for ever and carry them from one degree of Grace to another till at length it is consummate and made perfect in Glory And to this I adde Thirdly The Doctrine of our Union with Christ through this Spirit which Union to speak in the words of the Learned Dr. Patrick in his Mensa Mystica Is not only such a Moral one as is between Husband and Wife which is made by Love or between King and Subjects which is made by Laws but such a Natural Union as is between Head and Members the Vine and Branches which is made by one Spirit or Life dwelling in the whole The Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. As the body is one and hath many members and also the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body Now see what use the Apostle makes of both these 1 Cor. 6. 15 19 20. Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot God forbid And then he thus proceeds in the 19 and 20 Verses What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own but ye are bought with a price Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your Spirit which are God's What helps and incitements we have to the perfecting of Holiness in the fear of God from these two Doctrines is inexpressible Lastly The Doctrine of the unconceivably great Reward that shall be conserred upon all good and holy persons which the Gospel hath revealed is such as could not possibly by the mere help of Natural Light enter into the thoughts of those that were strangers to it We are therein assured not only of another life and that good men shall therein be rewarded but likewise that the reward that shall be conferred upon them shall be no less than an Hyperbolically Hyperbolical Weight of Glory as are the words of S. Paul 2 Cor. 4. 1â—… Those that overcome are promised that they shall sit with Christ on his Throne even as he overcame and is set down with his Father on his Throne Rev. 3. 21. In short the happiness that our Saviour will reward all his faithful Disciples with is so expressed as that we are assured it is inexpressible and likewise far exceeding the short reach of our present conceptions of which their souls are not only to partake but their bodies also they being to be made as vile as they are in this state like the Glorious Body of Jesus Christ and though sown in Corruption and dishonour to be raised in â—…lory 1 Cor. 15. Now though as we said the learned Heathens did many of them by the exercise of their reason make it probable to themselves that their souls were immortal and that in another world vertuous persons shall be richly rewarded yet no reasoning of theirs could ever enable them so much as to conjecture that this reward shall be such an immensely great one as that the Gospel assures us of there being an infinite disproportion betwixt the best services that the most vertuous persons are in a possibility of performing and such a reward as this is and it being also impossible that so great a felicity as that of the Soul only should be a necessary and natural result from the highest degrees of holiness that are attainable in this low and imperfect state But yet it is too well known to be concealed that the Pythagoraeans and Platonists do speak very great things of the happiness of Heaven and those of them that discourse intelligibly concerning it do give in the general the Gospel-notion of it I have found Simplicius somewhere in his Comment on Epictetus calling it an eternal rest with God And the Pythagoraean verses conclude with these two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When from this body thou' rt set free Thou shalt mount up toth ' Sky And an immortal God shalt be Nor any more shalt die Where by Thou shalt be an immortal God the Commentator Hierocles understands thou shalt be like to the immortal Gods and by them he meaneth as appears by his Comment upon the first verse those excellent spirits that are immediately subordinate to their Maker the supreme God and the God of Gods as he calls him by which he seemeth to understand the same with those called in the Scripture Arch-Angels for I find that he gives the name Angels to an order next below them So that according to him it was the Pythagoraean doctrine That good men shall when they go to Heaven be made in state and condition like to those that are likest to God Almighty But how they should learn this by mere natural Light is unimaginable That which is most probably conjectured is that they received these with several other notions from the
Christ yet this use of them was so mystical and reserved so impossible to be collected out of the letter of the Law that without a special Revelation from God the eyes of the Israelites were too weak to serve them to pierce through those dark clouds and shadows and to carry their observation to the substance So that proceeds he I conceive those Sacrifices of the Law in this respect are a great deal more beneficial to us Christians For there is a great difference between Sacraments and Types Types are onely useful after the Antitype is discovered for the confirmation of their faith that follow As for Example Abraham ' s offering of Isaac by Faith did lively represent the real oblation of Christ but in that respect was of little or no use till Christ was indeed Crucified it being impossible to make that History a groundwork of their Faith in Christ. The like may be said of the Legal Sacrifices And for a clear understanding of the direct use of this Law I refer the Reader to that Sermon Where it is fully and in my opinion as judiciously discoursed as I have ever elsewhere met with it Secondly Nor were these special Favourites of heaven upon any other accounts in circumstances for the obtaining of a thorow reformation of life renovation and purification of nature comparable to those which our Saviour hath blessed his Disciples with For though they had as we said for the substance the same Spiritual Precepts which are enjoyned in the Gospel over and above the Mosaical Law yet these were inforced by no express promises of eternal happiness or threatnings of eternal misery Nor was so much as a life to come otherwise than by Tradition or by certam ambiguous expressions for the most part of their inspired men or by such sayings as onely implyed it and from which it might be rationally concluded discovered to them As for instance in that place particularly where God by his representative an Angel declared himself to his servant Moses to be the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob from whence our Saviour inferred that Doctrine for this Reason That God is not the God of the dead but of the living And that the notices they had hereof were not very plain and clear is apparent in that there was a Sect among them viz. the Sadduces that professed to disbelieve it and yet notwithstanding were continued in the body and enjoyed the privileges of the Jewish Church But that one forecited Assertion of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. 10. putteth this out of all question viz. That Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel From whence we may assuredly gather thus much at least viz. That in the Gospel is manifestly revealed Life and Immortality which was never before made known so certainly I adde moreover that the Israelites were required to keep at such a distance from all other Nations that they could not but be by that means greatly inclined to morosity self-conceitedness and contempt of their fellow-creatures And were ever and anon employed in such services as naturally tended through the weakness of their natures to make their spirits too angry and fierce not to say cruel As for instance that of destroying God's and their enemies and sometimes their innocent children too and the cattle that belonged to them And several connivances and Indulgences they had as in the Cases of Divorce and Polygamy and Revenge which did not a little conduce to the gratifying of Sensuality and the Animal life in them All which are taken away by our Saviour Christ. These things with diverse others made it in an ordinary way impossible for those people to arrive at that height of vertue and true goodness that the Gospel designeth to raise us to And though we find some of them very highly commended for their great Sanctity we are to understand those Encomiums for the most part at least with a reference to the Dispensation under which they were and as implying a consideration of the Circumstances they were in and the means they enjoyed And thus have we shewed what a most admirably effectual course our Blessed Saviour hath taken to purifie us from all filthiness both of the flesh and spirit and to make us in all respects Righteous and Holy And how much the Christian Dispensation excelleth others as to its aptness for this purpose And from what hath been said we may safely conclude That neither the world nor any part of it was ever favored by God with means for the accomplishment of this work comparable to those which are contained in the Christian Religion So that well might S. Paul call the Gospel of Christ the power of God to Salvation that is both from misery and the cause of it Well may the weapons of the Christian Warfare be said not to be carnal and weak but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds and casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Great reason had Clemens Alexandrinus to call our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Instructer and School-master of Humane Nature and to say as he doth in the following words That he hath endeavoured to save us by using with all his might all the instruments of Wisdom or all wise courses and draws us back by many bridles from gratifying unreasonable appetites And Iustin Martyr speaking of the Gospel had cause pathetically to break out as he did in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c O thou expeller and chaser away of evil affections O thou extinguisher of burning lusts This is that which makes us not Poets or Philosophers or excellent Orators but of poor mortal men makes us like so many Immortal Gods and translateth us from this low earth to those Regions that are above Olympus And well again might the same good Father having throughly acquainted himself with the Stoick and Platonick Philosophy by which latter he thought himself to have gained much wisdom and at last by the advice of an old man a stranger having studied the Gospel thus express himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I found this alone to be the safe and profitable Philosophy and thus and by this means became I a Philosopher Symplicius faith thus of Epictetus his Enchiridion That it hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much of powerfulness and pungency that those which are not perfectly dead must needs come to understand thereby their own affections and be effectually excited to the rectifying of them Could he give such a Character as this of that little Book of his BrotherHeathen what can be invented by us high enough for the Gospel That as very fine a thing as it is being most apparently extremely weak and insufficient for the purpose upon the account of which he praiseth it if
take any advantage from words uttered in the very pangs of death accompanied with unsupportable torment to the prejudice of those they are spoken by it being not ordinarily supposable that those can be themselves that are in such Circumstances and why the man Jesus or our Saviour according to his humane nature should not be under as great disadvantages as others in such a condition He being as was said no less sensible of pain than others were no reason can doubtless be given by us But however we stand not in any necessity of this Reply But I say secondly Though we should suppose our Saviour to be now as perfectly master of his thoughts as he ever was these words may not be understood in so harsh a sence for they were but a repetition of the first verse of the 22. Psalm and thereby he declared himself to be the true Messiah for whom it is apparent and by the Antient Jews themselves not doubted that this Psalm was penned and is not to be understood to relate to David's case only but also to his whom he often personated and was a Type of Nor can it be gathered from our Saviour's rehearsal of these words that it is in the least probable that he either concluded or at all doubted that he was utterly rejected and cast off by his Father but the contrary For several verses in the forementioned Psalm do give us assurance that they are not there to be so understood for David doth diverse times afterward not onely pray for but likewise expresseth good hopes nay and undoubted assurance of a gracious deliverance and praiseth God for it too as if it were already effected So that this sad complaint of the Blessed Iesus as it could not be occasioned by the least distrust so it may be more than presumed to have proceeded from the highest and intensest degree of Love which caused in his soul the most pungent and smart sense of his Father's hiding his face and absenting himself though but for a while from him But the least favourable interpretation that it is capable of is no worse than this viz. That our Saviour did thereby express how excessive the misery was which he then felt especially since the word Lama doth signifie How as well as Why. But lastly his Dying words and the last he uttered did express his retaining his confidence in God as much as he might seem to be cast off by him to the very last which were these Father into thine Hands I commend my Spirit I will instance in one Vertue more wherein our Saviour was also singularly exemplary Whereas he advised his Disciples to be wise as Serpents and Innocent as Doves they beheld in his Conversation a pattern to walk by in followiug the former as well as the latter part of this advice Nor was the Wisdom of the Serpent less Conspicuous in him than was the Innocence of the Dove Prudence is the first of the Primitive vertues or of those from whence all other take their Original and are derived She is the chief Governness of humane actions and those which are performed without her direction do want a main circumstance that is necessary to give them the denomination of truly vertuous A rash and heady doing of those actions which are for the matter of them praise-worthy will render them culpable as to the manner of their performance And he that hath no regard to Prudence though he may do good things and possibly may some times mean well yet he will never merit the Commendation of a Well-doer I say therefore that our blessed Saviour as he hath by his Example no less than by his Doctrine taught us the exercise of all other vertues so hath he of this also and his prudence did wonderfully discover it self through his whole life As very great as was his zeal for the Glory of God and the good of men it was not too strong for nor over-match'd his Reason it was not a blind Zeal but he was ever very careful to give each of his Actions their due Circumstances As eagerly as he was bent upon accomplishing the work that he was sent into the world about he was not for making more haste than good speed He shewed great prudence in his injunctions his preaching and several discourses He never urged any duties unseasonably and had a care not to give such severe Precepts to his Novice Disciples as might discourage and overburthen them He was not for putting a piece of new Cloth into an old Garment nor new Wine into old Bottles He very wisely timed his discourses did not preach all his Doctrines at once What was said of the Orator Demosthenes cannot be truly affirmed of him viz. That he knew what to say well enough but not what not to say For as he well understood what Doctrines to Preach so did he also what not to Preach He spake the word unto them as they were able to hear it Mark 4. 33. And said he Iohn 16. 12. I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now He knew both when to speak and when to hold his peace and in whatsoever he said he considered the genius temper and capacity of his Auditors He would not cast Pearls before Swine as he cautioned his Disciples not to do for this reason Lest they turn again and rend them When he thought good to deliver those Doctrines that were likely to exasperate as that of the calling of the Gentiles and rejection of the Jews c. he chose to fold them up in Parables unfolding them in private to his Disciples who were fitly disposed for the receiving of them and therefore had the favour bestowed upon them to understand the Mysteries of the Kingdom as he told them We find that till he knew his time of suffering was come he wisely still avoided danger wherein he properly shewed the wisdom of the Serpent one while by withdrawing himself as Matth. 12. 14. and at other times as was now said by concealing those Doctrines which he was well aware the unbelieving Jews would be so far from embracing and making good use of that they would take occasion from them the more industriously to design his Ruine We read Ioh. 10. 33. to 36. That he would not expresly owne himself to be the Son of God in any other sense than such a one as he might acknowledge with the least danger and concealed that which he very certainly knew would but confirm them in their opinion of him as a wicked Blasphemer and make him so much the more obnoxious to their Spight and Rage So far was he from running headlong upon sufferings and making himself through a rash and indiscreet zeal lyable to those that hated him so far was he from being in love with Persecution that he did as the Apostle exhorted the Ephesian Christians to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buy out or gain time because the days were evil and
Image and the Statues of their Gods and cursed Christ did affirm That this was the Greatest fault or Errour they were guilty of that they were wont upon a set day to assemble together before it was light and to sing a Hymn to Christ as to a God and to bind themselves by a Sacrament not to any wickedness but that they would not commit Thefts Robberies Adulteries that they would not be worse than their words that they would not deny any thing instrusted in their hands when demanded of them which done it was their custome to depart and to meet again ad capienduÌ„ cibuÌ„ promiscuuÌ„ tamen innoxiuÌ„ to eat a common but innocent and harmless meal which was doubtless the Agape or Feast of Charity which was in the primitive times in use among the Christians after the Celebration of the Lord's Supper This was an excellent account of them and much too good to be expected from wicked Apostates such having been ordinarily observed to be of all others the most deadly enemies of Christianity and the professors of it But to return to our Author he a few lines after adds that he put two Maid-servants upon the Rack to extort from them as full a discovery as he could of the Christians Crimes but he could not find any they were guilty of except obstinate and excessive superstition So he called their constant perseverance and diligence in observing the Precepts of their most excellent Religion And the Emperour Antoninus Pius as much an enemy of Christians as he was writes thus in an Epistle to the People of Asia which is to be seen in Iustin Martyr and affixed to the Apology he directed to him viz. That they could make no proof of the Crimes they laid to the Christians charge and that they overcame them by chusing to lay down their lives rather than to do the things they required of them And that he thought it sit to advertise them that the Christians when Earth-quakes happened were not under such dreadful fears as they were and that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indued with a firmer confidence and trust in God And there next followeth another Epistle of the Emperour Antoninus Philosophus to the Senate and People of Rome wherein he gave them an account of an eminent danger that he and his Army were in in the Heart of Germany by the sudden approach of nine hundred and seventy thousand Barbarians and Enemies And how that finding his strength to oppose them very small he commanded all those to appear before him who were called Christians as suspecting 't is like either their sidelity or courage and perceiving there were a great number of them very sharply inveighed against them Which saith he I ought not to have done in regard of the vertue which I after found to be in them whereby they begâ—… the fight not with Darts and Weapons and sound of Trumpets which thing they approved not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of respect to God whom they bear in their conscience Wherefore proceeds he it is meet that we should know that those whom we suspect for Atheists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have God willingly inclosed or of his own accord inhabiting in their Conscience For laying themselves flat upon the earth they prayed not only for me but also for my whole Army which was then present that they might be a means of solace and comsort to us in our present hunger and thirst for we could not come by any water for five days together But as soon as they were postrate upon the Ground and prayed to a God whom I knew not immediately there fell Rain from Heaven upon us very cool and refreshing but upon our Adversaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiery Hail-storm And their prayer was instantly accompanyed with the presence of God as of one invincible and insuperable Therefore let us permit these people to be Christians lest they praying to have the like weapons imployed against us they should obtain their desire And a few lines after the Emperour declared it his Will and Pleasure That whosoever accuseth a Christian as such for the time to come he shall be burnt alive What better satisfaction can be desired by us concerning the truth of the forementioned Fathers account of the Christians that lived in their days than that which the Pens of these their enemies have given to us There is one thing more I will adde concerning the primitive Christians viz. That the most calm meek peaceable gentle and submissive temper recommended in the Gospel did mightily discover its self in them And thereby we may judge what kind of people they were as to the other parts of Christianity it being impossible that such an excellent spirit should be alone and unaccompanied with the other Vertues Though they were for the most part very sorely persecuted yet as Tertullian saith in his Book ad Nationes Nunquam conjuratio erupit there was never any uproar or hurly-burly among them And having in his Apology ask'd the two Emperors and the rest this Question If we are commanded to love our Enemies whom have we then to hate He thus proceeds How often do you your selves rage against the Christians who are obedient unto you and moreover suffer them to be stoned and burnt by the rout of common people but yet what Revenge did ye ever observe them repaying for the injuries done unto them as stout hearted as they are even to death it self If it be objected as it is by some that this might be attributed not to their good temper but to mere necessity seeing they knew themselves too weak to succeed in any rebellious or violent attempt Let the same Tertullian give an answer and he doth it in the very next words In one night saith he with a few Firebands they could revenge themselves sufficiently upon you if they thought it lawful to render evil for evil Nay and not only so but he tells them plainly that they were in circumstances to manage the parts of hostes exerti open enemies against them as well as of vindices occulti â—…ly and secret revengers and that they could raise an Army if it pleased them numerous and powerful enough to cope with them and withal he thus proceeds Hesterni sumus vestra omnia implevimus c. Though we are but as it were of yesterday yet you have no place but is full of us your Cities your Islands Castles Towns Council-houses your fortresses Tribes Bands of Souldiers Palace Senate Court Sola vobis relinquimus templa Your Temples onely are empty of us And he goes on Cui bello non idonei c. What battles are not we able to wage with you who are so willingly slain by you but according to the Laws of our Religion we esteem it better to be killed than to kill Nay he next tells them poâ—…uimus inermes nec rebelles c. We need not take arms and rebel to
revenge our selves upon you for we are so great a part of the Empire that by but departing from you we should utterly destroy it and affright you with your own Solitude and leave you more enemies than loyal Subjects And so far were they from making use of the advantages they had to deliver themselves by the way of violence That as not long after he saith to them they prayed for the Emperours and those in Authority under them for peace and a quiet state of affairs among them and as some where he adds very ready also to give them assistance against their enemies The story of the Thebaean Legion is wonderful to astonishment it consisted of just six thousand six hundred sixty and six men and all Christian. These when Maximianus Caesar went about to compel them to offer Sacrifice to the heathenish Gods at a place called Octodurum they fled to another called Agaunum when he sent after them to require them to obey that his command they drew up together into a Body and with one voice professed that they could not do it Maximianus thereupon commanded that every tenth man of them should be slain upon the place which accordingly was immediately done without the least resistance Mauritius the General of this Legion thus addressed himself to the Souldiers Quà m timui ne quisquam quod Armatis facile est c. How fearful was I lest any of you being in Arms and therefore no hard matter to do it should attempt the defending of your selves and by that means prevent a happy and most glorious death And so goes on most excellently to encourage them rather to submit to death than resist their Emperour When every tenth man was slain the Emperour repeated his command to the survivers and they all thus answered Milites quidem Caesar tui sumus c. We are it is confessed thy Souldiers O Caesar for the defence of the Roman Republique nor have we ever proved either traytors or cowards but this command of thine we cannot obey For know we are all Christians yet all our bodies shall be subject to thee c. At last Exuperius their Ensign concludes thus Non nos adversum Te Imperator armavit ipsa quae fortissima est in periculis desperatio c. Despair it self hath not armed us against thee O Emperour behold we have all our weapons in our hands and yet resist not because we had rather die innocent than live nocent And thereupon they were all put to the slaughter not a man of them once offering to defend himself You may find the Relation of this more at large taken out of Fucherius by Grotius and set down in his Book De jure Belli Pacis Origen also tells Celsus that he or any of his party were able to shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing of Sedition that the Christians were ever guilty of And yet what Tertullian said of the Roman Empire in General this Father elsewhere in the same book speaketh of Greece and Barbary viz. That the Gospel had subdued all that Country and the greater part of this and had brought over to Godliness souls innumerable Thus you see how far the Primitive Christians were from the tumultuous fiery and boisterous Spirit that Christendom above all other parts of the world hath been since infested with And thus we have shewn that there was once a time God grant that the like may be again when the success of the Christian Religion in conquering mens lusts and rectifying their Natures was greatly answerable to the efficacy that it hath for this purpose And so we pass to the second Inference CHAP. XVII The Second Inference That we understand from what hath been said of the Design of Christianity how fearfully it is abused by those that call themselves the Roman Catholiques That the Church of Rome hath by several of her Doctrines enervated all the Precepts and the Motives to Holiness contained in the Gospel That she hath rendered the Means therein prescribed for the attainment thereof extremely ineffectual That she hath also as greatly corrupted them Diverse Instances of the Papists Idolatry Their Image worship one Instance Their praying to Saints departed another Other Impieties accompanying it mentioned Some account of their Blasphemies particularly in their Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Their worshipping the Hoast the third and Grossest instance of their Idolatry Some other of their Wicked and most Anti-christian Doctrines SEcondly By what hath been said concerning the Design of the Christian Religion we easily understand how fearfully it is abused by those that call themselves the Roman Catholiques Nor need we any other Argument to prove Popery to be nothing less than Christianity besides this viz. That the Grand Design of this is to make us holy and also aimeth at the raising of us to the most Elevated pitch of Holiness and is admirably contrived for that purpose But the Religion of the Papists as such doth most apparently tend to carry on a Design that is diametrically opposite thereunto To serve a most carnal and corrupt interest to give men security in a way of sinning and pretendeth to teach them a way to do at one and the same time effectually the most contrary and inconsistent works That is to deprave their natures and save their Souls and even in gratifying their wicked inclinations to lay a firm and safe foundation for eternal happiness So that if this as they pretend it alone is be the Christian Religion we must needs ingenuously acknowledge that what we said in the Introduction was by Celsus and Iulian charged upon it is no calumny but an accusation most just and well deserved For as the Church of Rome hath rendred diverse excellent Precepts of Holiness contained in the Gospel very in-effectual by making them Counsels onely not Commands and also not a few of its Prohibitions unnecessary by her Distinction of sins into Mortal and Venial understanding by Venial sins such as for the sake of which no man can deserve to lose the Divine favour and therefore making them really no sins So hath she enervated all the Evangelical Commandments both Positive and Negative and made them sadly insignificant by a multitude of Doctrines that are taught by her most Darling-sons and decreed or allowed by her self That one Popish Doctrine of the Non-necessity of Repentance before the imminent point of Death and that though the Church requireth it upon Holy-days yet no man is bound by the Divine Law to it until that time is of it self without the help of any other sufficient to take away the force of all the holy Precepts of our Saviour and to make them utterly unsuccessful to the Embracers of it And this other goeth beyond that in aptness for this purpose viz. That mere Attrition or sorrow for sin for fear of Damnation if it be accompanied with Confession to the Priest is sufficient for Salvation For as the former maketh a Death-bed-repentance onely necessary