Sentiments must necessarily have been invented by others than by the Apostles and for all their proof they alledged the very Opinions which were in Controversie Opinions otherwise so extravagant and so manifestly mad that it is not to be imagined how they could ever enter into the mind of man to conceive But certainly to accuse the Sincerity of the Church one must have in ones hands Originals quite different from those of hers or some demonstrative proof But they and their Disciples being called upon to produce some they are struck dumb and have left by their Silence an undoubted proof that in the second Age of Christianity in which they wrote there was not only an Index and manifest signification of Falsity in them Iren. Tertul. Aug. loc cit but there was not the least Conjecture that could be opposed to the Tradition of the Church What shall I say of the Consent and Harmony that is to be found in the Books of the Scripture and of that admirable Testimony which all the Times of the People of God gave one to the other The Times of the Second Temple presuppose those of the First and carry us back to Solomon Peace was only established by Combats and Fightings and the Conquests of God's People return us to the Times of the Judges to Joshuah and to the Children of Israel's coming out of Egypt In reflecting upon an entire People's coming out of a Kingdom where they were Strangers we shall remember how they got in thither The twelve Patriarchs appeared immediately and a People that were never look'd upon but as one single Family leads us naturally up to Abraham who was the Main-stock of it Were those People more wise and less addicted to Idolatry after their return out of Babylon It was the natural effect of a severe Chastisement which their own past Offences had drawn upon them If that People boasted that they had several Ages seen Miracles which never other People had seen they might also boast that they had had the knowledge of God which no other People had What would any have Circumcision the Feast of Tabernacles the Passover and the other celebrated Feasts in the Nation Time out of mind to signifie if not the things we find taken notice of in the Books of Moses that a People distinguished from all others by a Religion and by a Carriage so very peculiar who had kept from its Original upon the Foundation of Creation and upon the Faith of Providence a Doctrine so followed and elevated a so lively Remembrance of a long Succession of Facts so necessarily chained together Ceremonies so regulated and Customs so universal should be without a History to recount their Origine and without a Law to prescribe Customs to them for a thousand years whilst it continued in that Estate and that Esdras should all on the sudden begin to give them under the Name of Moses with a History of their Antiquities the Law that should form their Manners when that People who were then made Captives beheld their antient Monarchie utterly thrown down what more incredible Romance could any one ever invent And is it possible for any one to give Credit to it with joyning at the same time Ignorance to Blasphemy To lose such a Law after one has received it either a People ought to be quite exterminated or else through divers Changes be brought to such a pass that they have nothing but a confused Idea of their Original Religion and Customs If that Misery happened to the Jews and that the Law so well known under Zedekiah should be totally lost sixty Years after notwithstanding all the industrious Care of Ezekiel Jeremiah Baruch and Daniel without reckoning up the rest and in the time too when this Law had its Martyrs as the Persecution of Danâ—el and the three Children do plainly demonstrate If I say that holy Law was lost in so short a time and was so profoundly forgot till Esdras was permitted to re-establish it according to his own Fancy that was not the only Book which ought to be made them For he ought at the same time to compose all the Prophets both old and new that is to say those who had written both before and during the Captivity those that the People had seen write as well as those which they very well remembred not only the Prophets but also the Books of Solomon and the Psalms of Davâ—d and all the Books of History since in that whole History there can scarce be found one single considerable matter of Fact and in all those other Books so much as one Chapter which being taken out of the Books of Moses such as we have 'em can subsist one Moment Everything there speaks of Moses every thing there is sounded upon Moses and indeed every thing ought to be so for that Moses and his Law and the History which he wrote was effectually in the Jews all the Foundation both of their publick and private Conduct Indeed it was a very marvellous Enterprise in Esdras and very novel in the World to make at the same time so many Men to speak with Moses of a different Character and Stile and yet every one in a manner uniform and always like to it self And on a sudden to make so great and entire a People as they were to believe that those were the antient Books which they had always had in Reverence and the new which they had seen made as if they had never heard any thing spoke of and that the Knowledg of the present time as well as that of the time past was utterly defaced Such are the Prodigies we must believe if we will disbelieve the Miracles of the Almighty and refuse to receive the Testimony by which it was evident that they had told so great a People they had seen them with their Eyes But if that People were returned from Babylon unto the Land of their Fathers so new and so ignorant that they could scarce remember they had ever been so that without the least Examination they had received all that Esdras was pleased to give them How then is it that we see in the Book which Esdras wrote 1 Esdr 3.7.9 2 Esdr 5.8.9.12 13. and in that of Nehemiah his Contemporary whatsoever was there said of the divine Books With what Front durst Esdras and Nehemiah speak of the Law of Moses in so many places and that publickly as of a thing known to all the World and which all the World had in their Hands How were all the People seen to act naturally in Obedience to that Law as having had it always present with them But how was it said at the same time and at the Peoples Return that all that People admired the Accomplishment of the Oracle of Jeremiah concerning the seventy Weeks Captivity That Jeremiah which Esdras had been forging with all the other Prophets how had he on a sudden found Credit By what new Artifice were they able to
to destroy Christianity and found no better way than to foment Factions wherewith it was torn To him succeeded a Valens as much an Arrian as Constantius but more violent Other Emperours protected other Heresies with as equal heat and fury The Church learnt by all these Experiences that she was likely to suffer no less under Christian Emperours than she had done under those that were Infidel and that she was to shed her Blood not only for the defence of all the Body of her Doctrine but of every particular Article of it Indeed there was not any but what she saw assaulted by her own Children A thousand Sects and Heresies that had come out of her Bosom were risen up against her But if according as Jesus Christ had foretold she saw them rise against her she likewise saw them fall before her according to his Promises though they were oft-times supported by Emperours and Kings Her true Sons as St. Paul says were known by this proof Truth the more it was confessed was thereby so much the more confirmed and the Church remained like the Building whose Foundation was on a Rock unshaken VIII Particular Reflections upon the punishment of the Jews and upon the Predictions of Jesus Christ who had taken notice of it Whilst I have been endeavouring to shew you in an uninterrupted thred of Discourse the Progress of the Councells of God in the Perpetuity of his People I have hastily passed over many things which deserved very profound Reflections Let me now have your permission to return again to them thâ—t I may not leave you in a loss of such great and important matters And first I would beg of your Highness to consider with a more particular attention the fall of the Jews all the Circumstances whereof bear Testimony to the Gospel Those Circumstances are unfolded to us by Infidel Authors by Jews and by Heathens who without understanding the course of the Councells and Decrees of God have reported to us the weighty matters of Fact by which he was pleased to declare it We have Josephus a Jewish Author a very faithful Historian and well versed in the affairs of his Nation the Antiquities of which he hath illustrated by an admirable Work He hath written the last War whereby it was destroyed after he had been present at all and had himself served his Country in it with a very considerable Command The Jews do also furnish us with other very antient Authors whose Testimonies you will see They have antient Commentaries upon the Books of the Scripture and among others the Chaldee Paraphrases which they Print with their Bibles They have their Book called the Talmud that is to say Doctrine which they have as high a reverence for as for the Scripture it self 'T is a Collection of the Treatises and Sentences of their antient Masters and tho' the parts whereof that great work is composed be not all of the same antiquity yet the last Authors who are cited there lived in the first Ages of the Church There among a multitude of impertinent Stories which seem for the most part to begin after the time of our Blessed Saviour we find very fair remains of the antient Traditions of the Jewish People and Proofs sufficient to convince them And first of all it is certain by the Confession of the Jews themselves that the Divine Vengeance was never more terribly nor more manifestly declared than it was in their last desolation 'T was a positive tradition attested in their Talmud and confirm'd by all the Rabbies that forty Years before the Destruction of Jerâ—salem which came pretty near to the time of the Death of Jesus Christ there were continually seen in the Temple strange things Every day some new Prodigies appeared there R. Johan the Son of Zachai Tr. de fest expiat so that one day a famous Rabbi cried out O Temple O Temple what is that which moves thee and why art thou afraid of thy self What was more observable than that frightful noise which was heard by the Priests in the Sanctuary on the day of Pentecost and that audible voice that came from the inmost part of that sacred place which said Let us depart hence let us depart hence The Holy Angels which were the Protectors of the Temple did loudly declare that they were leaving it because that God who had made his abode in it for so many Ages had then reprobated it Josephus and Tacitus have also recounted that Prodigy to us It was only perceived by the Priests But there was another Prodigy which startled the Eyes of all People and never had any other People seen the like before Joseph lib. 6. de bel Jud. c. 12. Tacit. Hist lib. 5. c. 13. Four years before the War was declared a Countryman says Josephus cryed out A voice is gone out from the East a voice is gone out from the West a voice is gone on from the four Winds a voice against Jerusalem and the Temple a voice against Men and Women that are newly Married a voice against all this People And from that time neither Night nor Day did he leave crying Wo Wo to Jerusalem He redoubled his Cries on Feast-days Not any other word was heard to come out of his Mouth Those who complained of him those who cursed him those who gave him meat never heard any thing else come from him beside that terrible voice Wo wo to Jerusalem He was taken interrogated and condemned to be scourged by the Magistrates to every demand and at every blow he answered without complaining Wo to Jerusalem Being let go as a Madman he run up and down all the Country continually repeating that heavy Prophecy And so he held on crying for seven years and his voice never waxed hoarse nor weary Till at the time of the last Siege of Jerusalem he shut himself up in the City and upon the Walls thereof with a loud Voice he uncessantly cried out Woe Woe to the City woe to the Temple woe to all the People and lastly he added Woe also to my self which words were no sooner uttered but a Stone slung out of an Engine carried him away Might not one almost say may it please your Highness that the divine Vengeance became visible in that Man who only subsisted to pronounce its Decrees that it had filled him with its Power that so he might equal the Calamities of the People by his Cries and that at last he should be destroyed by an effect of that Vengeance which he had for so long a time before declared to make it thereby the more sensible and the more present when he was to be not only the Prophet and the witness of it but also to fall a Sacrifice to it That Prophet of the woes of Jerusalem was called Jesus and was the Son of Ananâ—s It seems the Name of Jesus a Name of Salvation and Peace was turned to the Jews who despised it in the person of our Saviour to a
perswade a whole Nation even the old Men who had seen that Prophet and had always looked for that miraculous Deliverance which he had foretold them of Esdras and Nehemiah could not have written the History of their Time some other must have done it in their Name and those who have made all the other Books of the old Testament would have been so esteemed by Posterity that the other Falsifyers would have gained little Credit to their Imposture No doubt but they would have been ashamed of so many Extravagancies and instead of saying that Esdras had of a sudden brought to light so many Books so different one from the other by the Characters both of Stile and Time one must affirm that he might have inserted into them the Miracles and Predictions which made them to pass for Divine An Error more gross still than the former since that those Miracles and those Predictions are so interspersed in all those Books so often inculcated and repeated with such different turns and so great a variety of powerful Figures in a word they have so constituted the whole Body of them that if we have ever but so much as opened those holy Books we must see that it was a great deal more easy perfectly to make a new Model of them than to insert in them those things which the Incredulous are so much puzled to find there And tho' it should be granted them whatsoever they ask yet the miraculous and divine Parts are so much the Foundation of those Books that they must be yet acknowledged whatsoever Aversion any may have to them And admit that Esdras might have added afterwards the Predictions of those things that had already happened in his time yet those which were fulfilled since which you have seen in so great a number who should superadd them God it is possible might have bestowed on Esdras the gift of Prophecy that so the Imposture of Esdras might seem the more probable and they might rather have a false one to be a Prophet than Isaiah or Jeremiah or Daniel Or else every Age might have had a prosperous Counterfeit who might impose upon the Faith of a whole Nation and that new Impostors thro' an admirable Zeal of Religion might have continually been adding to the divine Books after that the Canon might have been closed that they might be spread abroad with the Jews over all the Earth and translated into so many strange Languages Would not this have been out of eagerness of Desire to establish the Religion the way utterly to destroy it Would a whole Nation so easily suffer a Change of what they verily believed to be Divine whether thro' Conviction of Reason or thro' the power of Error Could any one hope to persuade Christians nay or Turks to add but one single Chapter either to the Gospel or to the Alcoran But perhaps the Jews might be more docile than other People or not so Religious as to preserve their holy Books What Monsters of Opinions must come into their Minds to make then willing to shake off the Yoke of divine Authority and not to regulate their Sentiments no more than their Manners but by their distorted Reason Let none say that the discussion of these Matters is perplexing and troublesom For if it should be so they must either lay the Charge of it on the Authority of the Church and the Tradition of so many Ages or else push on the Examination to the utmost Extremity and never believe they can be rid of it but say they require still more time than will be given to their Salvation But certainly not to turn over the Books of both the Testaments with an endless Labour we need only read the Book of Psalms where are collected so many antient Songs of Gods People to see there in the most divine Poetry that ever was the immortal Monuments of the History of Moses of that of the Judges and Kings imprinted by Song and Measure in Men's Minds And for the new Testament The bare Epistles of St. Paul so Lively and Original so strong as to time both of the Affairs and Motions which then were and in short of so pointing a Character those Epistles I say received by the Churches to which they were addressed and from thence communicated to other Churches will be sufficient to convince all honest Minds that every thing in the Scriptures which the Apostles have left us is according to the Original So likewise do they support one another with an invincible Force The Acts of the Apostles are but a continuation of the Gospel their Epistles suppose it necessary but that all may agree together both the Acts and the Epistles and Gospels do every where own the antient Books of the Jews St. Paul and the other Apostles are continually alledging what Moses hath said Act. 3.22.7.31 32 c. Rom. 10.5.19 what the Prophets have said and writ after Moses Jesus Christ calls to witness the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms as Witnesses who all depose the same Truth When he hath a mind to explain his Mysteries Ibid. 27. John 5.46 47. he begins at Moses and all the Prophets and when he tells the Jews that Moses wrote of him he lays down for a Foundation what was most certainly believed among them and brings them back to the very Spring Head of their own Traditions But however we will see what can be opposed to this so acknowledged an Authority and to the Consent of so many Ages For since in our days Men have been so presumptuous and daring as to print in all sort of Languages Books against the Scriptures we ought not to dissemble or conceal what they alledge for the decrying its Antiquities Therefore what say they to justify the Pentateuch's being supposititious and what can be objected to a Tradition of three thousand Years standing upheld by its own Power and by the course of things Nothing of Consequence nothing that is positive nothing that is of weight and substance Some little Chicaneries and Quarrels they have at Numbers Places and Names and such Observations that in all other matters are reckoned at most but as vain Curiosities uncapable of reaching the stress of the Case are here alledge to us by way of Decision of an Affair the most serious that ever was There are say they Difficulties in the History of the Scripture No Question to be made on 't which yet there would not be weâ—e the Books less antient or had they been supposititious and made as they are so bold to say by a cunning and industrious Man If they had not been so Religious as to give it us as they found it but had taken the liberty to correct it where it did not please them There are Difficulties which arise by length of time when places have changed their Name or Condition when Dates are forgot when Genealogies are no further known when there is no remedy for the Faults which a Copy
its first Rise that is to say Palestine Syria Aegypt lesser Asia and Greece but also in the West besides Italy the several Nations of the Gaules all the Spanish Provinces Africa Germany Great Britain in those Places that were impenetrable to the Roman Arms and also out of the Empire Armenia Persia the Indies the greatest Barbarians the Sarmatians the Dacians the Scythians the Moores the Getulians and even to the most unknown Islands The Blood of the Martyrs rendered it fruitful Under Trajan Saint Ignatius the Bishop Years of J. C. 107 of Antiochus was exposed to wild Beasts Marcus Aurelius unhappily prepossessed with the Calumnies wherewith Christianity was charged caused to be put to Death Saint Years of J. C. 163 Justin the Philosopher and the Apologist Years of J. C. 167 for the Christian Religion St. Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna St. John's Disciple about fourscore Years of Age was condemned to the Flames under the same Prince The holy Martyrs of Lyon and Vienna suffered unheard of Punishments following the Example of St. Photin their Bishop of ninety Years of J. C. 177 Years of Age. The Gallican Churâ—h fill'd all the World with its Fame and Glory Years of J. C. 202 St. Ireneus the Disciple of St. Polycarpus and St. Photin's Successor imitated his Predeccessor and dyed a Martyr under Severus with a great Number of the Fideles Faithful of his Church sometimes the Years of J. C. 174 Persecution a little slackened At a time when there was an extream want of Water which Marcus Aurelius suffered in Germany there was a Christian Legion obtained such a Showre as was enough to quench the Thirst of all his Army and it was so followed with Thunder that it frightned all his Enemies The name of Thunderstriking was given or rather confirmed to that Legion by this Miracle The Emperor was so concern'd at it that he writ to the Senate in Favour of the Christians At last the Southsayers Persuasions were to attribute to their Gods and to their Prayers a Miracle which the Heathens never thought so much as to desire Other Causes suspended or slackened the Persecution for a little while but Superstition a Vice which Marcus Aurelius had not the Power to resist the common Hatred and the Calumnies that were cast upon the Christians quickly prevailed again The Fury and Rage of the Heathens was re-kindled and the whole Empire did as it were swim in the Blood of Martyrs Still their Doctrine went on and attended their Sufferings In Severus his time and some while after Tertullian Priest of Carthage illuminated the Church by his Writings defended it by a most admirable Apologism and left it at last being blinded by an haughty Severity and seduced by the Visions of the false Prophet Montanus Some time but not long after Clemens Alexandrinus indeavoured to pull up the Antiquities of Heathenism by the Roots that so he might utterly put an end to them Origen the Son of the Holy Martyr Leonidas made himself famous throughout all the Church even from his most tender Years and taught great Truths though they were mixt with several Errors The Philosopher Ammonius joined the Platonick Philosophy to Religion and gained to himself the Respect of the Heathens In the mean while the Valentinians the Gnosticks and the other impious Sects set up their false Traditions against the Gospel Iren. lib. iii. 1. 2 3. De prasc adv Har. c. 36. St. Ireneus opposed the Tradition and the Authority of the Apostolick Churches to theirs especially that of Rome founded upon the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul Tertullian did the same The Church is not shaken neither by Heresies nor by Schisms nor by the Fall of our most eminent Doctors The Holiness of her Conduct is so clear and perspicuous that she forces even her Enemies to break forth into Praises of her The Affairs of the Empire are imbroyled Years of J. C. 235 in a terrible manner After the Death of Alexander the Tyrant Maximinus that had killed him made himself Master though he was of Gothick Race The Senate set up four Emperors against him who died all within less than two Years Among them Years of J. C. 236 were the two Gordians the Father and Son Years of J. C. 237 the Darlings of the Roman People The Years of J. C. 238 young Gordian their Son although he was extreamly young yet shewed the Wisdom of a gained Experience and defended with great Difficulty against the Persians the Empire weakned by those manifold Divisions He had regained from them several very important Places But Philip Arabius killed Years of J. C. 242 this good Prince and for fear lest he Years of J. C. 244 should be utterly undone by the two Emperors Years of J. C. 245 whom the Senate chose one after the other he clapt up a dishonourable Peace with Sapor King of Persia He was the first of the Romans that had by Treaty parted with any Lands of the Empire 'T is said He embraced the Christian Religion and at such a time when on the sudden he had got the better and indeed he was favourable to the Christians In hatred to this Emperor Euseb l. 6. c. 39. Decius who slew him renewed the Persecution with more of Violence than ever The Church increased on all sides principally among Years of J. C. 249 the Gaules and the Empire soon lost Decius Greg. Tur. l. 1. Hist. franc 28. who with gret Resolution and Vigour Years of J. C. 251 defended it Gallus and Volusian went Years of J. C. 254 quickly after and Emilius was but just seen as it were The Soveraign Power was given to Valerianus and that Venerable old Man ascended to it through all the Dignities He was only Cruel to the Christians Under Years of J. C. 257 him Pope St. Stephen and St. Cyprian Years of J. C. 258 Bishop of Carthage notwithstanding all their Disputes which yet broke not off their Correspondence received both of them the same Crown St. Cyprian's Error which rejected Baptism given by the Hereticks neither hurt him nor the Church The Tradition of the Holy See supported it self by its own Force against the specious Arguments and against the Authority of so great a Man although there were other very great Men that defended the same Doctrine Another Dispute did more Mischief Sabellius Years of J. C. 257 confounded together the three Persons in the Divinity and acknowledged in God but one single Person under three Names This Novelty astonished the Church Euseb Hist. Eccl. l. 7. c. 6. and St. Denys Bishop of Alexandria discovered to Pope Sixtus II. the Errors of this arch-Heretick This Pope Years of J. C. 259 quickly followed the Martyr St. Stephen his Predecessor He was beheaded and left a very great Contest to be maintained by his Deacon St. Laurence Then was it that the Years of J. C. 258. 259. Iâ—undation of the Barbarians began to appear Years of J. C. 260 The Burguignions and the
Constantinople and continued at Nice The Pope sent his Legates thither The Council of the Iconoclasts was condemned They are detested a Persons who led by the Example of the Saracens accused the Christians of Idolatry It was decreed that Images should be worshipped in Remembrance and for the Love of those whom they represented which is called in the Council a relative Worship and an honorary Adoration and Salutation opposed to the supreme worship and Adoration of Latria or entire Subjection which the Council reserved to God alone Besides the Legates of the Holy See and the presence of the Patriarch of Constantinople there appeared there the Legates of other Patriarchal Sees which were then oppressed by the Infidels Some disputed their Mission with them but that which was not at all contested was that far from disavowing them all the Sees accepted of the Council without shewing any Contradiction and it was received by all the Church The French encompassed with Idolaters or new Christians whose Ideas they were afraid to meddle with and on the other hand being harrassed with the equivocal Term of Adoration hesitated a long while Amongst all the Images they would only pay an Honour to that of the Cross absolutely different from the Figures which the Heathen believed were full of the Divinity They kept however in an honourable place and also in their Churches the other Images and hated the Iconoclasts What other Difference there was it made no Schism The French owned at last that the Nicene Fathers required to Images but the same kind of Worship all Proportions observed as they themselves paid to Relicks to the Book of the Gospel and to the Cross and that Council was honoured by all professing Christianity under the Name of the seventh general Council Thus have we seen the seven general Councils which the East and the West the Greek and the Latin Churches received with an equal Reverence The Emperors convoked those great Assemblies by the Soveraign Authority they had over all the Bishops or at least over the Chief on whom the rest depended and who were then Subject of the Empire The publick Carriages were provided by the Order of the Princes They assembled the Councils in the East where they made their Residence and they commonly sent thither their Commissaries to keep the Peace The Bishops so assembled brought with them the Authority of the Holy Ghost and the Tradition of the Churches From the beginning of Christianity there were three principal Sees which had the precedency of all others that of Rome that of Alexandria and that of Antioch Conc. Nic. Can. 7. Conc. C. P. 1. Can. 3. Conc. Chalced. Can. 21. The Nicene Council allowed the Bishop of the Holy City to have the first place The second and the fourth Council raised the See of Constantinople and would have that the second So that there were five Sees which afterwards were called Patriarchal The Precedency was given to them in the Council Among those Sees the See of Rome was always look'd on as the first and the Council of Nice regulated the others upon that Conc. Nic. Can. 6. There were also Metropolitan Bishops who were the Chiefs of the Provinces and who went before the other Bishops It was very late ere they began to be called Archbishops but their Authority was never the less When the Council was formed the Holy Scriptures were propounded the Passages of the antient Fathers Witnesses of Tradition were read It was Tradition which interpreted Scripture They believed its true Sence was that which the past Ages had owned it to be and none thought they ought to explain it otherwise Those who refused to submit to the Decisions of the Council were cursed with the Anathema After they had explained the Faith they regulated the Ecclesiastical Discipline and made Canons that is to say the Rules of the Church They thought the Faith did never change and tho' the Discipline might receive several Changes according to difference of Times and Places yet as much as possibly we can we ought to labour after a perfect imitation of Antiquity But the Popes were only there by their Legates in the first general Councils but they did however expresly approve of the Doctrine and there was but one Faith in the Church Constantine and Irene religiously executed Years of J. C. 787 the Decrees of the VII Council but the rest of their Conduct was intolerable The young Prince whom his Mother had persuaded to marry a Lady he could by no means love gave up himself to reproachful Applications and being weary of paying any longer a blind Obedience to the Imperiousness of his Mother he indeavoured to remove her from the Affairs which hitherto she had managed in spight of him Alphonso Years of J. C. 793 the Chaste reigned in Spain The perpetual Continence of that Prince deservedly conferred on him that famous Sirname and rend'red him worthy to release Spain from that infamous Tax of a hundred Maids which his Uncle Mauregate had granted to the Moores Seventy thousand of those Infidels slain in a Battle with Mugait their General signalized the Valor of Alphonsus Constantine did also indeavour to make himself famous against the Bulgari but the Success did by no means answer his Expectations He at last brought down all Irene's Power and being unable to govern himself as much as to suffer the Empire of another he repudiated his Wife Maria to marry Theodote who Years of J. C. 795 was one of her Maids of Honour His Years of J. C. 796 incensed Mother heightened the Troubles Years of J. C. 797 which were caused by so great a Scandal Constantine fell by her Artifices She gained the People again to her by lessening their Taxes and brought the Monks and the Clergy into her Interest by a shew of a visible Piety At length she was proclaimed sole Empress The Romans scorned her Government and so went over to Charlemagne who subdued the Saxons repressed the Saracens destroyed the Heresies protected the Popes drew over the Infidel Nations to Christianity re-established the Sciences and Ecclesiastical Discipline assembled famous Councils wherein his profound Learning was admired and the effects of his Piety and Justice was not only felt in France and Italy but it extended it self into Spain England and Germany and indeed where not To conclude in the DCCC XII Epoeha Charlemagne Or the re-establishment of the new Empire Year of our Lord that great Protector of Rome and of Italy or to speak more properly of all the Church and of all Christendome was chosen Emperor by the Romans without his ever dreaming of it and Crowned by Pope Leo III. who had engaged the People of Rome to that Choice became the Founder of the New Empire and of the temporal Greatness of the Holy See The End of the first Part. TO THE Dauphin YOVR Highness sees the twelve Epocha's which I have followed in this Abridgment I have chained to each of them the
paid to him Porphyry said so expresly and what is that else but to abolish all Religion and to leave him wholly without Worship whom however we acknowledge to be the God of Gods But what then were those Sacrifices which the Gentiles offered in all the Temples Porphyry had found out the secret of them There were Porphyr 2. de abstin Lab. aapud Aug. 8. de Civ 13. says he impure Spirits Deceivers Evil doers who through an extravagant Pride would needs be accounted as Gods and would make themselves be worshipped by men It was convenient to gratifie them for fear they should do us any hurt Some more gay and jolly were wroâ—ght upon by Speâ—tacles and Plays the more melancholy and reserved Humours of others were pleased with fat Odours and delighted in bloody Sacrifices What does it signifie to refuse these Absurdities there was so much that the Christians gained their cause This was certain that all the Gods to whom the Gentiles offered up Sacrifices were Evil Spirits whose Pride attributed the Godhead to themselves so that Idolatry to look upon it in it self seemed only to be the effect of a brutish Ignorance but to come up to the Source and Original of it it was a work brought from far driven on to the last Excesses by malicious Spirits 'T was what the Christians had always pretended what the Gospel had taught and what the Psalâ—ist so truly sang in these words Psal 96.5 for all the Gods of the Nations are Idols but the Lord made in Heavens And behâ—ld here the strange blindness of Mankind Idolatry tho' it was reduced to extremity and confounded by it self yet it was kept up in the World It was only to cloath it with some probability and explain it in words which carried a sound with them that charmed the ear and was enough to captivate the mind Porphyry was admired Jamblicus his follower was esteemed as a man divine because he had the art of wrapping up the Sentiments of his Master in terms that were seemingly very mysterious tho' in truth they were of no weight at all Julian the Apostate as cunning as he was was taken by those appearances which the Heathens themselves relate Enchantments whether true or false which the Philosophers boasted of their ill-understood Austerity their ridiculous Abstinence which even made it a crime to eat living Creatures Ennap Maxim Oribas Chrysanth Ep. Jul. ad Jamb Am. Marcell l. 21 23 25. their superstitious Purifications in a word their Contemplation which evaporated it self in vain thoughts and Chimâ—ra's and their words as little weighty as they seemed pompous and swelling put the cheat upon the World But yet I do not speak the bottom of all The holiness of the Christians behaviour the contempt of the Pleasures that it commanded and what is yet more than all the Humility which made up as it were the whole of the Christian Life these things offended Mankind and if we can comprehend it Pride Sensuality and Libertinism were the only Guards and Defences of Idolatry The Church was every day pulling it up by the Roots by her Doctrine but yet more by her Patience Yet those wicked Spirits who were never weary of deceiving men and who had plunged them into Idolatry were not now forgetful of their Malice They started up those Heresies in the Church which you have heard of The curious and inquisitive men and by that means vain and fickle and lovers of novelty would fain get to themselves a name among the faithful and could not be contented with that sober and temperate Wisdom which the Apostle had so much recommended to the Christians They launched too deep into those Mysteries which they pretended to measure out to our weak conceptions New Philosophers that mingled Humane Reasonings with Faith and undertook to lessen the difficulties of Christianity being able to digest all that folly which the World found in the Gospel Thus successively and with a kind of Method were all the Articles of our Faith assaulted the Creation the Law of Moses a necessary Foundation of ours the Divinity of Jesus Christ his Incarnation his Grace his Sacraments in short every thing occasioned matters for those scandalous Divisions Orig. lib. 5. cont Cels Celsus and others reproached us for them Idolatry seemed to ride in triumph It looked on Christianity as a new Sect of Philosophy which had the fate of all others and like them dwindled away of it self into several other Sects The Church seemed to them but a Humane Work that was ready to fall of it self And they concluded that it was not necessary in matters of Religion to refine more than our Ancestors nor to attempt to change the World In this Confusion of Sects which boasted themselves to be Christians God wanted not his Church He knew how to preserve to it a Character of Authority which Heresies were not able to master It was Catholick and Universal it continued throughout all times and extended it self on all sides Jer. 3.1 2 3 4. Tertul. de Carn Ch. 2. de praescrip 20 21 32. 36. It was Apostolick the Progress Succession the Chair of Unity and Primitive Authority belonged to it All those who had forsaken it first had acknowledged it and could not efface the Character of their Novelty nor that of their Rebellion The Heathens themselves looked on it as that which was the Stem the whole from whence all the parcels were detached the ever-living Trunk which the loâ—â— off Branches however left entire Celsus who reproached the Christians for their divisions into so many Schismatical Churches which he saw rise up yet observed one Church distinct from all the rest and always stronger which he also called for that reason the great Church There are some Orig. lib. 1. says he among the Christians who do not acknowledge the Creator nor the Traditions of the Jews meaning the Marcionites but goes he on the great Church receives them In the trouble which Paul of Samosata stirred up the Emperour Aurelian easily knew which was the true Christian Church to which belonged the House of the Church Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 30. either because it was the place of Prayer or else the House of the Bishop He adjudged it to those who were in Communion with the Bishops of Italy and that of Rome because he always saw the Gross of Christians in that Communion When the Emperour Constance embroyled all in the Church the Confusion he made in it by protecting the Arrians could not keep Ammianus Marcellinus as much a Heathen as he was from confessing that that Emperour strayed out of the right way of the Christian Religion Am. Marcel l. 21. simple and particular by it self both in his Dogmata and Conduct And it was because the true Church had a Majesty and a Right which the Heresies could neither imitate nor obscure but on the contrary they bore testimony to the Catholick Church tho' at the same time
promised Land and others those when they were re-established by visible Miracles To convince the incredulity of a People who were wholly devoted to their Senses God took a long extent of Ages in which he distributed his Miracles and his Prophets that so he might often renew the sensible Testimonies by which he attested his holy Truths In the New Testament he tooks another conduct He would no more reveal any thing anew to his Church after Jesus Christ In him was perfection and fulness and all the Divine Books that have been composed in the New Testament were made in the times of the Apostles That is to say that the Testimony of Jesus Christ and of those whom Jesus Christ hath been pleased to choose for the Witnesses of his Resurrection hath been sufficient for the Christian Church All that has come since has edified it but it has not been looked upon as purely inspired by God but what the Apostles have written or what they have confirmed by their Authority But in that difference which is found between the Books of the two Testaments God hath always observed that admirable order of making things to be written just at the times when they happened or at least when the memory of them was very fresh And so those that knew them wrote them those that knew them received the Books which bore witness of them and both the one and the other have left them to their Posterity as a most precious and invaluable Inheritance and they most carefully and piously have preserved them And thus was formed the Body of the Holy Scriptures as well the Old as the New Testament Scriptures which from their Original have been regarded as true in the whole as given by God himself and which have been also kept with that great Religion that it was thought none could dare to alter the least Letter of it without a strange Impiety And thus it was that they came down to us always holy always sacred always inviolable the one kept by the constant Tradition of the Jews and the other by the Tradition of the Christians so much the more certain as it was confirmed by the Blood and Martyrdom as well of those who wrote those Divine Books as of them that received ' em St. Austin and the other Fathers demand upon whose Faith we attribute the profane Books to certain Times and Authors Aug. cont Faust 11. 2. 32. 21. 33. 6. Every one readily answers that the Books are distinguished by the different Relations they have to the Laws Customs and Histories of a certain Time by the Stile it self which bears impressed the Character of particular Ages and Authors and more than all that Iren. 1.2.17 Tertul. adv Marc. 4. l. 4 5. Aug. de utilit ced 3. 17. cont Faust Manich. 22. 79. 28. 4. 32. 33. Cont. adv leg Porph. 1. 20. c. by the publick Faith and by a constant Tradition All these things concur to the establishment of the Divine Books to distinguish the Times and to mark out the Authors of them and the more Religion there was in preserving them entire the more indisputable is the Tradition which preserved them for us Thus hat it been always acknowledged not only by the Orthodox but also by Hereticks and even by Infidels Moses has ever passed in all the East and afterwards in all the World for the Legislator of the Jews and for being the Author of those Books that are attributed to him The Samaritans who had received them from the ten separated Tribes have as religiously kept them as the Jews You have seen their Tradition and their History Two People so opposite took them not one from the other but both received them from their Common Original in the Times of Solomon and David The ancient Hebrew Characters which the Samaritans still retain do sufficiently shew that they have not followed Esdras who changed them Thus the Pentateuch of the Samaritans and that of the Jews are two compleat Originals independant one on the other The perfect conformity that is seen in the substance of the Texts justifies the Sincerity of both those People They are faithful Witnesses that agree without understanding one another or to speak better who agree together notwithstanding all their Enmities V. sup 1. part p. 24 25 34 49 59 63 80 86 87. and which only Immemorial Tradition of both Parties hath united in the same mind Those therefore who say tho' without any reason that those Books being lost or having never been were set up or composed a new or altered by Esdras besides their being contradicted by Esdras himself as may very well be observed in the course of his History are likewise so by the Pentateuch which is even now at this day to be seen in the hands of the Samaritans so as it had been read in the first Agas by Eusebius of Cesaria St. Jerome and the other Ecclesiastical Author so as those People had kept it in their Original and a Sect so weak as that seems not to continue so long but to bear this Testimony to the Antiquity of Moses The Authors that wrote the four Evangelists received no less assured Testimony from the unanimous consent of the Faithful the Heathens and the Hereticks That great Number of various People who received and translated those Divine Books as soon as they were made agree in their date and in their Authors The Heathens have not contradicted this Tradition Nor Colsus who attacked those Sacred Books even in the first beginning of Christianity nor Julian the Apostate tho' he was neither ignorant of any thing nor omitted any thing that might descredit them nor has any other Heathen ever suspected them to be supposititious but on the contrary they have all given them the same Authors as the Christians The Hereticks although they were confounded by the Authority of those Books yet durst not say that they were not of the Disciples of our Lord. Nay some of those Hereticks saw the beginnings of the Church and before whose eyes were written the Books of the Gospel So that fraud if there could possibly be any would have appeared too near to have been successâ—ul 'T is true after the time of the Apostles and when the Church was already spread over the face of the Earth Marcion and Mannes always the most rash and the most ignorant of all the Hereticks notwithstanding the Tradition coming from the Apostles coâ—tinued by their Disciples and by the Bishops to whom they had left their Chair and the Conduct of the People and unanimously received by all the Christian Church were so bold as to say that there Evangelists were supposititious and that that of St. Luke which they preferred to all the others they knew not why since it came by no other way had been falsified But what proofs gave they of this nothing but meer Visions no positive Matters of Fact All the reason they gave was that what was contrary to their
Sacrifice to Libertinism Now can you believe that impiety did not lead them without any necessity in the World into all these Absurdities you have seen if against the testimony of Mankind and against all the Rules of good Sence it strives to take away from the Pentateuch and the Prophecies their constantly avowed Authors to dispute their dates with them For the dates are all in all as to this matter for two reasons First because Books that were full of so many miraculous deeds which are seen in them attended with the most particular Circumstances and advanced not only as publick but as present if they had been capable of being false would have carried their own Condemnation with them and instead of keeping themselves up by their own weight they wouâ—d long ago have fell of themselves Secondly because their dates being once fixed we can no more efface the Infallible mark of divine Inspiration which they bear impressed in the great number and the long course of memorable Predictions which we find them filled withal 'T is to shift off these Miracles and these Predictions that the wicked have run themselves into all these Absurdities that have surprized you But let them not think they shall escape God He hath reserved for his Scriptures such a mark of Divinity as can never suffer any prejudice 'T is the relation there is between the two Testaments They do not dispute at least that all the old Testament was written before the new here there is no new Esdras which can perswade the Jews to invent or to falsify their Scripture in favour of the Christians whom they Persecuted There needs no more By the relation of the two Testaments we prove that both are Divine They have both the same design and the same Consequence The one prepares the way to that Perfection which the other shews openly to all the World the one lays the Foundation the other finishes the Building in a word the one foretells what the other shews us accomplished Thus all the times are united together and the eternal design of divine Providence is revealed to us The tradition of the Jews and that of the Christians make together but one and the same Progress of Religion and the Scriptures of both Testaments are but one and the same Body and one and the same Book And because the discussion of the particular Predictions tho' in it self it be full of Light depends on many Deeds which all the World cannot equally understand God hath therefore chosen some of them which he hath made plain to the most Ignorant Those illustrious those bright and conspicuous Facts of which all the World is a witness are those Facts which I have here endeavoured to make your Highness comprehend that is to say the desolation of the Jews and the Conversion of the Gentiles happening together and both precisely at the same time as the Gospel was Preached and Jesus Christ appeared These three things united in order of time were yet much more so in the order of God's Decrees You have seen them go together in the old Prophecies but Jesus Christ the faithful Interpreter of the Prophecies and of the Will of his Father hath still better explained unto us that Bond of Unity in his Gospel He does it in the Parable of the Vine-yard so familiar in the Prophets The Father of the Family had planted this Vine that is to say the true Religion founded upon his Covenant and had let it out to Husbandmen that is to say to the Jews Matt. 21.38 And that he might receive the fruits of it he sent several times his Servants who are the Prophets But these unfaithful Husbandmen cause some to be put to death his goodness leads him to send them his Son and yet him they treat worse than they did his Servants At last he takes away his Vineyard from them and gives it unto other Husbandmen he takes away from them the Grace of his Alliance to bestow it on the Gentiles These three things ought therefore to concur together the sending of the Son of God the Reprobation of the Jews and the Calling of the Gentiles There needs no further a Commentary upon the Parable which the event has it self interpreted You have seen the Jews confess that the Kingdom of Judah and the State of their Commonwealth began to fall in the time of Herod and when Jesus Christ came into the World But if the Alterations which they made to the Law of God have brought upon them so visible a Diminution of their Power their last Desolation which yet continues must be the Punishment of a fat greater Crime That Crime is plainly their Ingratitude against their Messiah who came to instruct them and to make them free And it is from that time too that an Iron yoke has been over their heads and they have been long ago crushed with it but that God keeps them to acknowledge one day and to serve that Messiah whom they have crucified You then already see one averr'd and publick Fact that is the total Ruine of the State of the Jews at the time of Jesus Christ The Conversion of the Gentiles which was to happen at the same time is no less averr'd neither At the same time when the ancient Worship was destroyed in Jerusalem with the Temple Idolatry was attacked on all sides and the People who for so many thousands of years had forgot their Creator were now wakened from so long a seeming death of sleep And that all things might accord the Spiritual Promises are displayed by the Preaching of the Gospel in the Time when the Jews who had only received the Temporal ones being openly reproved for their Incredulity and made Captives over all the face of the Earth had no longer any worldly Grandeur to expect Then was Heaven promised to those who suffered Persecution for Righteousness sake the Secrets of the Future Life were preached and the true Blessedness was shown for from that abode where Death reigns where Sin and all manner of Evils do abound If we do not discover here a design always kept up and always followed it we see not here one and the same order of the Counsels of God who prepared from the beginning of the World what he finished in the fulness of time and who under different Estates but with a Succession still constant perpetuated to the eyes of all the World that holy Society by whom he would be served we deserve to see nothing and to be delivered up to our own hardness as to the most just and rigorous of all Punishments And that this Course of God's People might be conspicuous to the most undiscerning God made it sensible and palpable by Matters of Fact which none could be ignorant of unless he purposely shut his eyes against the Truth The Messiah expected by the Hebrews he came and he called the Gentiles as it had been foretold The People that owned him as come were incorporated with
those that looked for him and there was not between them one moments Interruption that People were dispersed over all the Earth the Gentiles ceased not to gather together and that Church which Jesus Christ hath built upon a Rock not all the Powers of Hell have ever been able to overthrow O what Consolation is this to the Children of God! But what Conviction is here of the Truth when they see that Pope Innocent the Eleventh who now most deservedly fills the first See of the Church we are continually ascending without any interruption even to St. Peter made by Jesus Christ the Chief of the Apostles from whence by running back to the Priests that served under the Law we go up even to Aaron and Moses from them to the Patriarchs and so to the beginning of the World what Course what Tradition what marvellous Connexion and Chain is here If our Minds which are naturally uncertain and by their doubtfulness become the Shittlecock of their own Reasonings have need in the Questions which concern our Salvation to be fixed and determined by some certain Authority what greater Authority is there than this of the Catholick Church which reunites in her self all the Authority of passed Ages and the ancient Traditions of Mankind to its first Original Thus the Society which Jesus Christ looked for during all past Ages at last founded upon the Rock and where St. Peter and his Successors were to preside by his Orders justified it self by its own Course and bore in its eternal duration the Character of the Hand of God 'T is also this Succession that no Heresie no Sect no other Society than only the Church of God was able to give to it self The false Religions could imitate the Church in many things and especially in saying as she did that God founded them but that Discourse in their Mouth was only a Discourse in the Air. For if God hath created Mankind and if in creating him after his own Image he hath never disdained to instruct him how to serve and please him Every Sect that doth not shew its Succession from the beginning of the World is not of God Here fall prostrate at the feet of the Church all the Societies and all the Sects that men have set up both within and without Christianity As for Example The false Prophet of the Arabians had the cunning to say that he was sent from God and after he had deceived the People most grosly ignorant he knew how to make his advantage of the Divisions of his Neighbourhood to extend into it by force of Arms a Religion that was wholly Sensual but neither has he dared to suppose that he was the Saviour expected nor could he in short give either to his Person or to his Religion any real or apparent Unity with past Ages The expedient he found to free himself from that was new For fear lest they should search into the Scriptures of the Christians for Testimonies of his Mission like to those which Jesus Christ found in the Scriptures of the Jews he pretended that both the Christians and the Jews had falsified all their Books His ignorant Followers believed him on his own word six hundred years after Jesus Christ and he declared himself not only without any precedent witness but also without any attempt either of supposing or of promising any one sensible Miracle which might authorize his Mission either by himself or any of his Followers So likewise the Heresiarchs who have founded new Sects among the Christians have had the Art to make the Faith more easy by denying the Mysteries which passed our Senses They were able to dazle men by their Eloquence and by a seeming shew of Piety to move them by their Passions to ingage them by their Interests to gain 'em over by Novelty and Libertinism either by that of the Mind or else by that of their Senses In a word they could easily either deceive themselves or deceive others for there is nothing more Humane but besides that they could never boast they had done any Miracle in Publick nor reduce their Religion to positive Facts whereof their Followers were Witnesses there was always a most unhappy mischief attended them which they could never conceal and that was their Novelty It will always be visible to the eyes of the whole World that they and their Sect which they have established will be detached from that great Body and from that ancient Church which Jesus Christ has founded where St. Peter and his Successors have kept the Primacy in which all Sects have found themselves established The moment of the Separation will be always so apparent that the Hereticks themselves can never be able to deny it and they will never dare so much as to attempt to make themselves to come from the Source by an uninterrupted Succession This is the inevitable weakness of all the Sects which Mankind has set up None can change the Ages past nor give themselves Predecessors nor ever make them to be found in possession The only Catholick Church fills up all precedent Ages by a Course of Succession that can never be disputed with her The Law came before the Gospel the Succession of Moses and the Patriarchs makes but one and the same with that of Jesus Christ to be looked for to come to be acknowledged by a Posterity which is to last as long as the World this is the Character of the Messiah in whom we believe Jesus Christ the same yesterday Heb. 13.8 and to day and for ever Thus besides the advantage which the Church of Jesus Christ hath of being alone founded on miraculous and divine Facts which they have written for all to see without any fear of being falsified as to the time in which they happened there is likewise in favour of those who lived not in those Times one Miracle that always is subsisting which confirms the truth of all the rest that is the Course of Religion which hath been always victorious over the Errors that have crept in which indeavour to destroy it You may add to this also another Chain and that is the visible uninterruptedness of a continual Punishment upon the Jews who have not yet received Christ so long ago promised to their Fathers They nevertheless expect him still and this their expectation which is always frustrated is one part of their Punishment They expect him and discover in their Expectation that he hath always been expected Condemned therefore by their own Books they confirm the truth of Religion they as I may say do carry all the Course of it written on their Foreheads and at one view we see what they have been why they are as we see them and for what they are reserved Thus four or five Authentick Facts and those more clear than the light of the Sun do discover our Religion to be as old as the World And consequently they discover that it hath no other Author than He who made the World