An explanation of the grand mystery of godliness, or, A true and faithfull representation of the everlasting Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the onely begotten Son of God and sovereign over men and angels by H. More ...

BOOK VII (Book 7)

CHAP. I. 1. That the Subject of the Third part of his Discourse is The Reality of the Christian Mystery. 2. That the Reasonableness of Christian Reli¦gion and the constant Belief thereof by knowing and good men, from the time it is said to have begun til now, is a plain Argument of the Truth thereof to them that are not over-Sceptical. 3. The Averseness of slight and inconsiderate Witts from all Arguments out of Prophecies, with their chiefest Objections against the same. 4. That the Prophecies of the Messias in the Old Testament were neither forged nor corrupted by the Jews. 5. An Answer to their Objections concerning the Obscurity of Prophecies. 6. As also to that from Free Will. 7. That all Pro∣phecies are not from the fortuitous heat of mens Phansies but by divine Revelation, proved by undeniable Instances. 8. A particular reason of true Prophets amongst the Iews, with some Examples of true Prophe∣cies in other places. 9. A notable Prophecie acknowledged by Vani∣nus concerning Julius Caesar's being kill'd in the Senate.

1. WE are come now to the Third Part of our Discourse, wherein the doubtfull Dawnings of this great Myste∣ry we are clearing up will break out into a fuller Light, and the Progress of Truth will be like that of Righteousness, that shi∣neth more and more till perfect Day.

The Possible, as also Reasonable Idea of Christianity, which I have hi∣therto represented, is but as the Seminal Forme of a Plant hid in the seed under ground; but we shall now exhibit it as it were to sense, shot up in∣to open view, and demonstrate That this Possible Idea has already arri∣ved to a Real and actual Existence in the World.

Which being a matter of so great consequence, we will not huddle it up at once, nor yet make any steps more for pomp then for use and the fuller conviction of the Truth we are to prove.

2. And truly the very first step I shall make, or rather have partly made already, I hope, to any indifferent man will seem not a little con∣siderable. We have very amply and intelligibly declared how highly-Reasonable the Frame of our Religion is, how becoming and consistent all those things are that Christ is recorded to have done or suffered. Add therefore to the Reasonableness of the thing it self, the constant and perpetual Tradition thereof for true, and that it has been so seriously be∣lieved in all Ages, that as well the Learned as Unlearned, as well the Noble as Ignoble, have been ready, nay have actually laid down their Lives for a witness thereof. And methinks no man that is not over-Sceptical, but this Consideration should fetch off his assent. For the Fame of those things that are seriously reported and constantly believed

by knowing and judicious men, cannot rationally be called into questi∣on, unless the things themselves affirmed seem unreasonable, or else over-artificial and in too trim and cunning a dress of Reason. That the things recorded are very Reasonable, I have already demonstrated: And how little of the cunning Artifice of either Logick or Rhetorick they par∣take of, I dare appeal to any that peruse them. Wherefore if any man persist in his Unbelief, the impediment is not in the Mystery offe∣red to him, but in himself, that has no desire it should be true, either out of Pride, as not being willing to find himself to have been ignorant hitherto of the true Religion, or out of the love of either the Pleasures or Profits of this present World, which the Belief of Christianity does naturally curb.

But we proceed to what is still more close and cogent. That the Iews have for this many hundred years expected and do still expect him whom they call their Messias, every one knows, as also that this name Messias is the same with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 from whence our Religion is denomina∣ted. Wherefore if I can prove That this Messias is already come, and that Iesus whom we worship is that Christ, I have then performed the Promise of the Third Part of my Discourse; which is to prove That Christianity (the Idea whereof I have hitherto described,) is not a mere Idea, but a real Truth.

Which first I shall attempt from Prophecies, after from History: the comparing of both which together will be so strong an Argument, that to the unprejudiced it cannot appear less then a perfect Demonstration.

3. I know some are of so impatient and superficial a Spirit that they vilifie the very name or mention of Prophecies, as arguments of no vali∣dity, because they cannot find themselves at leisure to weigh the force of them. But if they will rationally speak against them, they must alledge some of these four Objections, viz. That either they are often forged, or at least corrupted by some wily Politicians to serve some State-design: Or are so obscure that there is no certain sense or meaning of them: Or if there be, that it does not infallibly import that things thus predicted will surely come to pass, there being so great dependance of the affairs of the World upon the actings of men: Or lastly, to strike home, that there never was nor ever will be any Prophecies from any extraordinary Inspiration, but that some men have very hot Phansies, and their minds running on future things vent what they think; and their Predictions, like Dreams, sometimes prove true, sometimes false; and that the report of those that have hapned true has begot that false perswasion of there being Prophets in the World.

4. Such slight Considerations as these doe marvellously gratifie the Light-minded and Atheistical, but more severely looked into will prove of no force.

For as for the first Objection, it is plain it can have no place here, if we consider with what holiness and veneration the Iews look upon the very outward Letter of those Divine Oracles committed to their custo∣dy. Besides that it is ridiculous to suspect them either to have foisted in or any way altered such Prophecies as we are here to make use of, they being

such as will manifestly make against themselves: Which is a mighty Priviledge that Christianity has, that in maintaining of her Cause she can so boldly appeal to those Records that have been ever kept in the hands of her Enemies. Nor can the Christian, if he would, corrupt these Prophecies, but he would be forthwith discovered by the Iews. Whence neither Atheist nor Pagan can rationally suspect any foul play of this kind.

5. As for the pretended Obscurity or Ambiguity of Prophecies, I deny that they may all justly be termed Obscure. Besides that, the words of them that are so in some measure, ever fit one sense better then another; and where there is any such ambiguity, that sense is to be accounted true that has been judged so by men unprejudiced, and, all things considered, appears most proper and easie. The Satisfaction of which Answer will be better understood when we descend to Examples, then by general Precept.

6. The third Objection cannot be urged by any but such as are over∣doting Idolizers of the Faculty of Free will, and forget that some Pro∣phecies are not conditional but absolute, as certainly all those are that are of so vast and Moliminous Concernment to the World as the appearing of the Messias is. Whose coming, if it had been conditional, nothing could be thought to hinder but Sin. Which in this case is as absurdly inferred, as if one should argue that the sickness of the Patient keeps away the Physitian, when it rather occasions his coming. And one end of Christ's coming, as I have abundantly shewn already, is to be a Sa∣crifice for sin, and to renew the World in Righteousness.

7. The last Objection is the most perverse and lubricous, but yet such as is easily mastered, if we consider how punctually and particular∣ly many things have been prefigured in Prophecie, and, that usually those that have prophesied, have also done Miracles, or something mi∣raculous and extraordinary has hapned unto them; that they have seen * 1.1 Visions of Angels and have been assisted by supernatural Powers. An eminent Example whereof is that Prophecie of the man of God out of Iuda against the Altar at Bethel, which was accompanied with the drying up and restoring of the hand of Ieroboam,* 1.2 and the rending of the Altar and pouring of the ashes for a sign that his Prophecie was true. Which yet was so punctual and particular, that he names the very name of him that was to doe this vengeance against the Altar at Bethel, viz. Iosias; though it was a prediction of a thing that was not to come to pass within three hundred years. So Isaiah prophesied of Cyrus by name, and what God intended to doe by him in reference to his people, some hundreds of years before Cyrus was born. And Daniel so punctually foretold the Translation of the Empire from the Assyrians to the Medes and Persians, and then to Alexander of Macedon, whose successors in part the posterity of Lagus and Seleucus should be, and what great evils the Jews should suffer from them, that Porphyrius comparing the Greek History with Daniel's Prophecie, had no other way to evade, but by pretending they were wrote after the event. Which is so frivolous a subterfuge, that it is not worth answering.

8. For being there is a Deity, and that the Iews in a more then or∣dinary manner lived under a kinde of Theocracy, and were a people with whom it was usual to have Prophets and inspired Messengers from God; why should it seem strange to Porphyrius or any else, that God should by his holy Angels instruct the Prophet Daniel so particularly and perfect∣ly concerning things to come, wherein his own Nation was so nearly concerned? For even there where Providence seems to take less care, the greater mutations of States and Kingdomes have been foretold by the Priests and Magicians of the Country. As it hapned to Moteczuma King of Mexico, before the invasion of the Spaniard, as you may see in Acosta and other Writers. And Valens the Augur, in Varro, is said to have prophesied at the first building of the City of Rome, that it should continue twelve hundred years; which fell out accordingly.

9. And * 1.3 Vaninus himself, that prophane Wit, was not so far besot∣ted with Epicurean Incredulity, but that he does acknowledge, nay rather assert with a serious appeal to all History as well ancient as of late daies, if great changes in the affairs of the World have not been predicted miraculously one way or other; and himself instances in one notable Prophecie engraven in a table of brass found in Capys his Sepulchre con∣cerning the murdering of Iulius Caesar in the Senate. Which Capys notwithstanding, King of Italy, lived near a thousand years before Iu∣lius Caesar. So that if a man be not very grosly stupid, he musts needs confess that all Prophecies are not from the mere ravings & roamings of a buisie Phansie, but from some higher and more infallible Principle; and that it is far more rational, when Events answer to Prophecies of great concernment, to impute it to Providence rather then to Chance. I know Vaninus referrs all to the Celestial bodies or influence of the Stars: But how groundless and childish his conceit is, I shall evince in its * 1.4 due place.

CHAP. II. 1. The genuine sense of Jacob's Prophecie. 2. The Inference there∣from, That the Messias is come. 3. That there had been a considerable force in this Prophecie, though the words had been capable of other tole∣rable meanings: but they admitting no other interpretations tolerable, it is a Demonstration the Messias is come. 4. The chief Interpretations of the Jews propounded. 5. That neither Moses nor Saul can be meant by Shiloh, 6. Nor David, 7. Nor Jeroboam, nor Nebuchadonosor. 8. That in the Babylonian Captivity the Sceptre was rather sequestred then quite taken away; with a further urging of the ineptness of the sense of the Prophecie, if applied to Nebuchadonosor. 9. Their sub∣terfuge in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 noted and refuted. 10. The various significations of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and their expositions therefrom. 11. An Answer to them in general. 12, 13. An answer to their evasion by interpreting of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a

Tribe. 14. An Answer to their interpreting of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a staffe of main∣tenance. 15. An Answer to their interpreting it a rod of correction. 16. An Answer jointly to both these last Interpretations. 17. That their Variety of Expositions is a demonstration of their own dissatisfaction in them all.

1. BEing now well assured of the force of such Arguments as are drawn from Prophecies, let us proceed and make use of them for the proving the matter in hand, That Iesus, whom we worship, is the very Christ. Which we will doe by producing first Such as prefine and cir∣cumscribe the time of his coming, and then Those that more perfectly cha∣racterize the properties of his Person.

Of the first sort is that most ancient and eminent Prophecie of Iacob on his death-bed,* 1.5 The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a Law∣giver from between his feet, til Shiloh come, and unto him shall the ga∣thering of the People be. That our inference may be the more unexce∣ptionable, let us briefly run over the words.

The Sceptre. The Hebrew word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which the Seventy interpret 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Aquila 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Symmachus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Onkelos 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. All which denote the same thing, the Soveraignty or Power Political.

From Iudah. By Iudah according to warrant of Scripture is to be understood, not only the Tribe of Iudah precisely, but what-ere ac∣cession or cooptation there was into that Tribe, as appears from Mala∣chy 3.4.

Nor a Lawgiver, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The Seventy render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The word naturally signifies a Commander or Decreer. I believe those that have translated it Dux, have not missed of the mind of the Seventy's inter∣pretation. Let 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 therefore signifie, one that gives laws or com∣mands to the people. Which is an unexceptionable meaning of the word, as all acknowledg, and is of nearest affinity with the former, according to that usual way in Scripture of repeating the same thing twice, in words little different in signification. Of which instances are innume∣rable.

From between his feet, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The Seventy turn it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, ex semine Iudae, in that sense that Iuda has been in∣terpreted. That is to say, that Iuda shall have a Prince, Governour, or Political power of their own, or shall be governed or rul'd by those of their own bloud.

Till Shiloh come: that is, Till the Messias come; as all the ancient In∣terpreters of the Iews ever expounded it, their judgements being then unprejudiced. Only they, as well as others, have varied about the No∣tation of the name Shiloh, as you may see in Martinius. Some will have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 put for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which is as much as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifying Fi∣lius, from whence is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Secundina. Others will have Shiloh to be a noun of the same forme with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and expound it, Salva∣tor, Pacificus, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The Seventy seem to have read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which they render 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, till he come for whom so great and illustrious things are reserved. Others, as the Vulgar Translation, read

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 missus. * 1.6 Which reading alwaies pleased me above any of them, and I have the suffrage also of the incomparable Hugo Grotius upon that place.

And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 may either signifie Congregatio, Expectatio, Obedientia or Confractio. None of the senses but agree with the Prophecie; but the second and third are capable of a more easy Critical Account.

2. It is plain from this brief and warrantable exposition of the words, that the natural and genuine sense of Iacob's prophecie is this, That, what∣soever become of the Tribes of Israel, Juda, and what ever part of the Tribes have any coalition with it, and goe under one name and title, shall not fail to have a Political Power and Government of their own, till the Messias come. This, I say, is the most easie and natural sense of this Prophecie, and such as has been ever given by their own Expositors, till that sad mistake of killing their Messias perverted their Judgments. Wherefore, before themselves became guilty, and while they were fit to be judges, we appeal to them, if Iacob's Prophecie does not plainly foretel, That the Political Power and Government of the Jews shall not cease till the Mes∣sias come. But it is evident it has ceased: therefore of a certain the Mes∣sias is come.

3. Which this Prophecie would sufficiently assure us of, though there were other tolerable interpretations to be made besides this; it be∣ing reasonable to conclude, that where there may be various senses made of words, that is the truest that flowes the most naturally, and seems to doe so to such as are unprejudiced. But to be still more certain of the truth of the sense of this Prophecie which has been already given; though both Jews and others have set their wits on tenter-hooks to find other meanings thereof, they have light upon none but what are intole∣rably vain and foolish.

4. It will not be amiss to give you a tast of the chiefest of them. First therefore, Those that would not have the Messias understood by Shiloh, they understand either Moses, Saul, David, Ieroboam or Nebu∣chadonosor. First, Moses, because when he was sent to deliver the chil∣dren of Israel out of Aegypt, Iuda surrendred the Sceptre to him, though he was of the Tribe of Levi. Secondly, Saul, because he was crowned in Shiloh. Thirdly, David, viz. implying that the Sceptre was in Iuda, and should there continue til David's time, in whose ••eign there was an accession of some people brought under his Rule. Fourthly, Ieroboam, as being he who was crowned in Shiloh, and took the Scep∣tre from Iuda. Fifthly, Nebuchadonosor, because he took the Sceptre from Iuda, and carried the people captive, and rased Ierusalem and the Temple to the ground. But to these may be answered briefly:

5. To that concerning Moses, That he could not take the Sceptre from Iuda, Iuda having none. For all the Tribes together were not a Po∣lity then, much less any one of them, but were miserable underlings and bondslaves to that cruel Tyrant Pharaoh. To that of Saul, That he was not created King in Shiloh, but in Mizpeh; nor that Saul the Benjamite could take the Sceptre from Iuda, he having none yet, as was said be∣fore;

besides that ridiculous Syntax of Shiloh's coming, which is a place, not a person, according to this interpretation: as also it is very frigid to applie the last clause of the Prophecie to Saul.

6. To that of David may be answered much-what the same with that to the former, That Iuda before David's time, though it had a prece∣dency and Seniority, yet wielded no Sceptre over the other Tribes, nor had any distinct Jurisdiction more then the other had: And that it is very inept, if we read the whole Prophecie, which immediately before speaks so magnificently of Iuda's Courage and Prowess, to think it presently falls so flat, as only to predict that Iuda shall not lose his Seniority or Precedencie til David come. And still, which makes it more harsh, the words naturally seem to import, that Iuda shall lose his Sceptre when Shiloh or David is come, though it be the first time then that he takes it up. I say the words do naturally implie so, though not neces∣sarily: but admit they do not, but the royal Sceptre continue with Iu∣da for many hundreds of years afterwards, as it did, and that even then when almost all the Tribes were lost; how frivolous do they make this Prophecie of Iacob, in setting off so petty things in such magnificent terms, and leaving out the most notable matters that belong to that Tribe? And lastly, that that addition to the Jurisdiction of David does not so well fit nor fill up the sense of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as that of the Messi∣as the Jews expect.

7. To that of Ieroboam, That Ieroboam was not anointed King in Shiloh, but in Sichem a city of Ephraim: And that this conspiracy did not take away the Sceptre from Iuda, but rather gave occasion to Iuda of being a kingdome of it self, and such as was not dissolved for many hun∣dred years after, whereas before it was but a part of the kingdome of Israel.

And lastly to that of Nebuchadonosor, That this Interpretation puts a very foolish and frivolous sense upon the Prophecie, as if it ran thus; That the Sceptre shall not be taken from Iuda, till some one come and take it by force. As if Iacob would venture to foretel that Iuda would not be such a fool as to give away his Sceptre, though he might be so either cowardly or unfortunate to have it wrested out of his hands. Wherefore he that is prophesied of here must be to the Jews more then a mere Robber or Despoiler, and must have some special relation to them of either being their King or Prophet in some more then ordinary manner; or else the sense will be very flat and inept, as if he should say, The Sceptre will not be taken away before it be taken away.

8. Besides, the Sceptre was not so much taken away by the Babylo∣nish captivity, as sequestred for a time, during which space they were as∣certained from God by the mouths of his Prophets, that they should re∣turn again within the space of seventy years. So that it was rather an Interregnum then an abolition of the Iudaical Politie. Which some would have to continue in some small degree amongst themselves even in that interval of their Captivity, as having their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, who had a power over all the people of Iuda. But that is more then is worth the contending for. God's obligation by the

mouth of his Prophets to bring them back within seventy years, and the smallness of the continuance of their Captivity in respect of the enjoiment of their Liberty afterwards, are sufficient of themselves to make that Captivity onely a suspension, not a taking away, of the Sceptre from Iuda. To all this you may add the unsutable Connexion of this Prophecie with the foregoing verses, where Iuda is so magnifi∣cently spoke of for his stoutness and courage; to which presently it is subjoined (according to this interpretation) that the Sceptre shall never be taken away, till some vanquish him and take it away, as it seems Ne∣buchadonosor did: Which is as incoherent and insipid sense as can be imagined, as I partly intimated before.

But to interpret it, as the ancient Jews have interpreted it, of the Mes∣sias, the coherence is very perfect, viz. That this stout warriour Iuda shall not finally lose his Sceptre, till that special Messenger of God and expectation of the Nations come, viz. the Messias, who shall be of a more universal concernment then to that little handfull of the World, the Iews.

9. The next starting-hole they seek, they think they have found in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, phansying that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 may there signifie (as it does sometimes) in aeternum; but the accent Athnack in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which is as much as a Co∣lon in Latine, hinders them from that evasion.

10. The last pretended Ambiguity is in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which, say they, may signifie either a Tribe or a Staffe, viz. of support and aid, or a Rod of ca∣stigation and affliction. Taking it for a Tribe, the Prophecie may run thus, That the Tribe of Iuda shall never be taken away, til the Messias come; or thus, That the Tribe of Benjamin, whatever become of the rest of the Tribes, shall not be taken from Juda, &c. Taking it for a Staffe, the sense is this, That Juda, be he in what captivity or oppression soever, yet he will be supported and succoured by some or other, til the Messias come. Taking it for a Rod; That the Rod of castigation and affliction will never be taken away from Juda, til Shiloh come.

11. To which I answer, and first in common to them all, That 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 being thus put in the Prophecie, and so naturally answering one to another, if 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 did as ordinarily signifie a Scribe as one that had Political Power and Rule, yet it were somewhat a forced thing to expound it so in this place, the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 directing so naturally to the other sense; & still more forced if you take notice of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ex semine ejus, a thing not stood upon in those inferiour offices of a Scribe or Ex∣pounder of the Law. To which you may add that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is never so expounded in Scripture by the Seventy, but alwaies either 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. So that though they might shuffle off the right sense of the Prophecie in the beginning thereof, yet the following part de∣fends both it self and the other from that violence and injury. For there must be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, Political Power, in Iuda, till Shiloh come, let 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifie what it will.

12. But to touch upon them also in several; where we must take notice that the Tribe of Iuda, not his Person, is the subject of this Prophesie. The sense therefore of the first Interpretation will be this,

That Judah will not be taken from Judah, till Shiloh come. Which is very ridiculous. But so far as it is possible Iudah is taken from Iudah, and therefore Shiloh is come. For Iudah is taken all apieces and scattered a∣mongst the nations in all the quarters of the World. Or if they will a∣gainst reason phansy the person of Iudah the subject of this Prophecie, (of which the sense will then be, Iudah his tribe shall not be taken from him, till Shiloh come,) the Patriarch would have expressed himself more determinately and said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, otherwise 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 natu∣rally signifies, no Tribe at all should be taken from him, whereas Ten have been carried away at a clap and never yet returned. Besides if 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 may signifie his own Tribe, that is properly taken from him too, and lost, they not being under his Rule, that is, under the Govern∣ment of Iuda; but he is like a Commander whose Armie is quite routed, and all carried away from him Captive, and under the command of strangers: and though they bear his name still, what is that if they be not under his power? Surely the Patriarch's mind was taken up with mean matters on his death-bed, if there be no more in the Pro∣phecie then so.

13. The Second Interpretation, understanding still 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for a Tribe, is lyable to the like Exceptions with the first, and the foolery of it still more palpably deprehendible. For here it is exceeding evident that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, will necessarily signifie, Not a tribe shall be taken from Iuda, &c. For it is as if one should say, that a Sheep shall not be taken out of the fold, till Dametas come. But if Dametas coming, there should be found onely one left, the other Shepheard would think himself deluded; if he that promised him should pretend he has kept his word in keeping but one Sheep in the Fold. For it were a foolish fallacy to plead, that he promised that a Sheep should not be taken away, and that there is a Sheep that is not. So that it is plain that by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, one particular Tribe, Benjamin, cannot be understood, and therefore none at all. For all the rest were carried away by Salmanassar into per∣petual Captivity.

14. To the Third Interpretation we answer, That Iacob is distri∣buting peculiar Benedictions to every one of his Sons; but this is common to them all, and therefore not to be affixed to Iuda: And then, that it is a petty business amongst such illustrious predictions and encomiums of Iuda, that he shall not be put to such utter streights but that he shall be able to live, though an underling, and dependent on other People; so that this is a very wretched and dilute sense of the Prophecie.

15. And the Fourth is as ill, if not worse. For First, as before, what is common to all the Tribes, and yet belongs more to the other Tribes then to Iuda (the Ten I mean that were carried away by Salma∣nassar) is here appropriated to Iuda, and that in the midst of encomiums and blessings. Read the whole Prophecie concerning Iuda, and at the first sight you will discover the unreasonableness of this patch, if this be the meaning of this part of the Prophecie. Besides, the Prophecie accor∣ding to this sense could not be true. For Iuda was a flourishing king∣dome

or commonwealth for many hundreds of years together, as appears out of their own History.

16. And lastly, in answer to both these last Interpretations at once; The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 simply set down as it is here without any other circumstan∣ces to determine the sense of it, never signifies either the Staffe of main∣tenance or the Rod of chastisement. So that they might as well expound it a Crutch, as either. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 will certainly signifie a Crutch: and therefore taking that liberty that they take, the sense of this Pro∣phecie may run thus, A Crutch shall not depart from Iuda, nor a Scribe from betwixt his feet, till Shiloh come: that is, That Iuda never will want a Scribe with a Crutch, that is, an halting Scribe, a Scribe that will make lame and crooked Expositions of the Law in defence of that capi∣tal errour of theirs, till the second Coming of the Messias.

17. I have given you a brief tast of the fond Evasions the Jews make use of, to hide the plain sense of this Prophecie of Iacob: con∣cerning which it is worth the taking notice, That as their Expositions are very vain and seem so to us, so it is manifest that they are unsatis∣factory even to themselves, in that they have produced so many. For what could put them upon excogitating a new one but a dissatisfaction in the old? and though they have pumped out as many as they can, they do not know which to adhere to.

CHAP. III. 1. The Prophecy of Haggai. 2. The natural sense of the Prophecy. 3. That the Second Temple could not be more glorious then the First but by receiving the Messias into it. 4. That Herod's Temple could not be understood hereby. 5. An Answer to their subterfuge concerning Ezekiel's Temple. 6. That the Prophecy of Malachi addes further force to that of Haggai. 7. That the Prophet could understand no other Temple then that which was then standing.

1. BUT if they could have found out any tolerable Evasion in this Prophecy, yet their work is not done, there being other plain Predictions to the same purpose:* 1.7 As in Haggai, For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry land: And I will shake all Nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater then that of the former, saith the Lord of hosts, and in this place will I give peace.

2. The natural sense of which Prophecy is plainly this: The Prophet encourages the people to work and build the Temple, because that though it should not be so costly as the former in ornaments of Gold

and Silver, which yet it were an easie thing for God to bestow if he would, (The silver is mine and the Gold is mine;) yet the glory of this latter house shall be greater then the former, in that it shall be honoured with the presence of the Messiah in it, who is called here The Desire of all Nations: and as he is elsewhere styled The Prince of peace, so is his coming set out here by the Gift of Peace; And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts.

3. Now we demand of the Iewes, in what respect this Second house was more glorious then the former, if the Messiah came not into it while it was standing. That it was a pitiful Structure in comparison of Solomon's Temple, the weeping of the old men at the rearing of the edifice was a plain Demonstration. Besides that the Rabbins themselves say it was destitute of five Prerogatives the other had: viz. The Urim and Thummim, the Shechina, Fire from Heaven, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Spirit of Prophecy. The evasions of the Jews here are very poor and inconsiderable: viz.

4. That though the Temple at first was not so glorious, yet when Herod had reformed it, it was more splendid and stately then Solomon's. Which is not only false, but if it were admitted to be true, would not salve the meaning of the Prophecy. For all those external Ornaments could not compensate the losse of the five Preeminences above-named. Besides that it is ridiculous to make so petty a design of building a fine Temple to be expressed with such exceeding high language as if the greatest Miracle in the World were to be exhibited, (which yet was done by Herod, the vilest of men) I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry land, &c.

And the second Alledgement, That this latter Temple stood ten years longer then the former, is still more frivolous. And therefore at last they are forced to quit this Temple, and affix the Prophecie on a third, viz. Ezekiel's Temple. Which is yet unbuilt, though it be above two thousand years since that Prophecie; whenas the Pro∣phet said, Yet a little while, and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth, &c.

5. But the Jews will be still obstinate, and still urge that it is plain how magnificent a Temple Ezekiel's is, and that it is clearly prophesied of, and must be at last, and that therefore they will not expect their Messias till then. But to this I briefly answer, First, That it may be, that Vision of the Temple was nothing else but an exhibition of the Temple of Solomon, such as it was when Nebuchodonosar destroyed it. To which opinion Grotius is very inclinable. Secondly, if it be a more magnifi∣cent structure, That the Prophecie is not absolute, as that of the Messiah, but conditional; as seems to be expresly intimated in the very Pro∣phecie, Ezekiel 43.* 1.8 Upon which, I conceive, it may be a representa∣tion of such a magnificent Structure as the Iews would have raised even in their Messiah's time, if they had not refused him, that they would have pulled down Herod's Temple as built by the hands of so execra∣ble a Wretch, and raised this structure of Ezekiel. This had been the natural issue of their embracing the Messiah; but the counsel of God

must stand. Or lastly, That the whole Vision is of a mere Mystical or Spiritual meaning, which the Vision of the holy waters and the strange virtue of them, as also the Trees there mentioned (* 1.9 Chap. 47.) seem shrewdly to insinuate. So that no argument drawn from the Temple of Ezekiel can enervate the force of this Prophecie of Haggai, it being so very clear in it self, and the other so many waies interpretable to a compliance therewith.

6. The truth whereof will be still more evident if we adde that of Malachi;* 1.10 Behold, I will send my Messenger, and he shall prepare the way be∣fore me: and the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his Temple; even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.

Which Prophecie is parallel to the foregoing Prophecie, and does more fully describe the person of the Messias, whereby we may be the better assured that they are both meant of him: and the time here again seems plainly enough to be predefined, viz. That he would come into that Temple that the Iews had then standing, though it had not been long rebuilt, and grace it with his presence before it should be ut∣terly ruined and laid wast.

7. This certainly is the natural sense of this Prophecie, and it is a very harsh thing to think that Malachi had any other Temple in his mind but this. But this Temple has been laid level to the ground a∣bove one thousand six hundred years agoe, and therefore the Messias either came into his Temple then, or the Prophecie is false. For there never was any since for him to come into, nor is now, nor will be again for ever, at least before his coming. For how shall the Jews build them a Temple before they have found the Messias? So that the Messias will be first, and the Temple after, if at all. But certainly this Prophecie of Malachi supposes the Temple first and ready built, and that the Messias in due time will be born into the World, and come into it. Which therefore was the Second Temple.

CHAP. IV. 1. The Prophecie of Daniel. 2. The Exposition of the Prophecie. 3. That the said Exposition is as easie and natural as the meaning of any writing whatsoever; and what an excellent performance it would be to demon∣strate out of Chronologie, That the Passion of Christ fell two or three daies after the beginning or before the end of the Last week. 4. The summe of the sense of the whole Prophecie. 5. That the Circumscription of the Prophetical Weeks is not made by the vastation of the City, but by the ac∣complishment of those grand Prophecies concerning the Messiah. And that no Epocha can be true that does not terminate upon them.

1. THE last Prophecie which we shall alledge is out of Daniel, Chap. 9. where he meditating upon that Prediction of Ieremie,

that seventy years should be accomplished in the desolations of Ierusa∣lem, and praying earnestly to God in behalf of the people, the Angel Ga∣briel by express command was sent to him to impart this Prophecie to him.

I. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy City, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of Sinnes, and to make re∣conciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the Vision and Prophecie, and to anoint the most Holy.

II. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the cōmandement to restore and to build Ierusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be Seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, the street shall be built again and the wall, even in troublesome times.

III. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a floud, and to the end of the warre desolations are determined.

IV. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

2. This is so eminent a Prophecie, and so mainly to the purpose, that we are concerned to annex some short notes upon every verse, that the sense may appear more plain; and if there be any diversity of inter∣pretations, that we may the better shew that none does prejudice the main scope we drive at.

I. Seventy weeks, that is, weeks of years. Of which sense there is no doubt with either Jew or Christian. And seventy of such Weeks, not so precisely as that what is foretold may not come to pass before the seventieth Week be quite run out, or may not run out into some part of a following week; the reckoning being by Weeks and not by Years, as Mr. Mede also has well observed, and is a Supposition that no body can justly cavil at.

Are determined. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, cut out, as some would have it, imply∣ing that immediately after the expiration of these, the Jews would into Captivity again. But that curiosity is more then needs, and not so con∣formable to the sense of the Prophecie: so that in my apprehension our English Translation has the odds of it.

Upon thy people and upon holy City. i. e. Near upon the expiration of the Seventieth week the people of the Jews shall be no longer the people of God, nor their City holy, their Religion naturally ceasing upon some act of theirs, whereby a better, according to the purpose of God, shall be brought in.

To finish transgression, or, to fill up, perfect, or compleat transgression. For so will the * 1.11 word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here signifie, and seems to be the most na∣tural sense in this place: As if the Angel should say, Seventy weeks shall the scourge be taken from thy people, wherein they will again fol∣low their own evil waies and increase their sins to the very height: Which they did the most notoriously by killing their Messiah.

And to make an end of sin. Or, to put an end to the Judaical Sin-offerings. For so will 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifie; and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which is as much as to seal, denotes a putting an end to a thing by fulfilling and completing it, as towards the latter end of this verse, to seal up the Vision and Pro∣phecie, the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is used.

And to make reconciliation for iniquity: or, to expiate iniquity. For so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies: But the sense is much-what the same in both.

And to bring in everlasting righteousness. i. e. Such a Law or Religion which shall endure for ever, and according to which if we live, that will be our Justification, not the works of Moses's Law nor those Offerings nor Sacrifices.

And to seal up the Vision and Prophecie. i. e. To fulfill and accomplish the Prophecies, viz. those great important Prophecies concerning the Messiah.

And to anoint the most Holy, viz. the most holy Person that ever lived. For though 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 be the feminine gender, and may seem to signifie ra∣ther Sanctity in the abstract, or Res sancta, yet the Jews themselves un∣derstood it of a Person; Moses Gerundensis of the very Messiah: and it is used of any thing consecrate to God, whether Field, Man, or Cattel, Levit. 27.28. Besides that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 need not be a Noun of the feminine Gender, but be the same that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sanctus, as appears from Levit. 21. 7. and Numb. 6.8. or the words there are to be read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and there∣fore again confirme that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 belongs to Persons consecrated as well as Things. If it had been meant of the most holy place of the Temple, it had in all likelihood been 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. But if 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 might go for the most holy Place, Christ was also * 1.12 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the most eminent manner imaginable: For in him dwelt the * 1.13 Godhead bodily.

II. From the going forth of the commandement to restore and to build Ierusalem. viz. From the Decree or Command of Artaxerxes in the seventh year of his reign mentioned Ezra 7. whereby Ezra was ina∣bled to constitute Magistrates and Judges over the people, to have power of life and death amongst themselves and to live after their own Political Laws. In which concession cannot possibly but be in∣cluded a licence or decree to build up the houses of Ierusalem. Be∣sides that, as Funccius also pleads, their Liberty of living under their own Magistrates is the truest and most substantial sense of buil∣ding their City: and vers. 18. there is express leave given to make what use they please of the Remainder of those liberal Contributions which were given for Sacrifices and religious Services. Whence it is plain the power of building the City was included in this Commission; onely Ezra cared not to begge that expresly that would be involved in a greater Grant and such as might incline the King's Spirit more power∣fully, viz. matters of Religion, as you may see vers. 23. Wherefore this is the proper Decree for rebuilding the City, or else none. For the Ti∣tles of the other Decrees are either for building the Temple, or else re∣strained to the rearing of the Walls of the City, the houses having been built before, as you may see by reading the History of Ezra and Nehe∣miah.

Unto Messiah the Prince: That is, Unto the Manifestation of that Person that is so well known and so much expected by the Iews under the name of their Messiah, the word being never used absolutely but concerning him.

Shall be seven weeks, and sixty two weeks: that is, sixty nine weeks, there being no mystery in the parting of these Numbers, saving an He∣brew Idiom to be understood from Ezekiel 45.12. and Genes. 5. often in that chapter, as also 8. vers. 3. as Grotius comments upon the place. Funccius offers at something more considerable, That the State of the Iewish Commonwealth should be more unsettled for the first seven weeks or thereabouts, as is to be understood out of Ezra and Ne∣hemiah.

The street shall be built again and the walls, even in troublesome times. That is, not only the Area of Ierusalem shall again be replenished with houses, but the wall shall also be built again, though in troublesome and unsettled times; as appears in the above-mentioned History: For the builders were fain to have their Swords in readiness as well as their Trowels.

III. And after the sixty two weeks, which succeed immediately the se∣ven weeks, that is to say, after sixty nine weeks shall Messiah be cut off, viz. the above-named Messiah the Prince. For that must needs be the most natural meaning thereof; and, as I said before, Messiah is never put thus absolutely but here: whence doubtlesly the Jews gave him whom they expected for their Redeemer the name of Messiah.

Cut off. If it were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, it might signifie transfixus or affixus, as Funccius, would have it: but it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which signifies to cut off, not only from life, but, as Mr. Mede observes, from reigning as a King. And in respect of the Iews he was cut off in both these senses. For he was the Messiah their Prince whom his own people cut off from life, and thereby from themselves, that they should be no more his people nor he their King: And therefore it follows 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which is not, and not for him∣self; but the sense is, The Messiah shall be cut off by the hands of the people of the Jews, and that people shall be none of his. This exposi∣tion of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Manasseh Ben Israel likes so well, that he applies it where it is not so natural and easie, or else is tautological. For he inter∣prets it of Agrippa the last king of the Jews, whom, he saies, Vespasian slew some three years before the destruction of the Temple, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and so the Kingdome was no longer Agrippa's nor any of his Race. But in this sense concerning the Messiah, it being presupposed that he is cut off by the Jewish People, it is very easie to conceive that they are the Nominative Case to the Verb understood in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and that the people that cut him off should be no longer his people, by reason of this hai∣nous Act of theirs. So that upon this act the Iews ceased to be the people of God; and thus being given over, at last comes that vengeance prophesied of in the following words, that their City and Sanctuary should be destroyed by those that were designed to be the people of the Prince the Messiah. For so Mr. Mede interprets the place excellently well in my judgement, rendring 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Populus Principis futurus;

understanding thereby the Romans, in which Empire Christ was to have chiefly his Church and Kingdome. And it is most natural that as Mes∣siah before was the same with Messiah the Prince, so the Prince here should be the same with the Messiah, the sense fitting so exceeding well. Whenas if the Messiah be not understood here by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, but only some Prince and people at large [the People of the Prince which shall come,] the sense thereof will be more lax and dilute, which would be more knit together and made of a more even Contexture upon Mr. Mede's Hypothesis.

And the end thereof shall be with a floud. That is, After the destru∣ction of the City, the Roman armie will overflow Iudaea.

And to the end of the war desolations are determined. Grotius in∣terprets 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for, and renders it, Pro fine belli erit definita a desolatio. De∣us hunc exitum bello isti praefinivit, terrae vastitatem, God has determined that issue of the war, the devastation of the Land.

IV. And he shall. Mr Mede renders it, Nevertheless he shall. For indeed the conjunction 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 has the force in a manner of any conjunction, and may be rendred according as the sense directeth. And the most ge∣nuine sense seems that which Mr. Mede has given, That though Israel was cast off, yet a Remnant according to the election of grace should be wone off to Christ by the preaching of the Gospel of his Kingdome: which should be done before and after his Passion, by himself and his Apostles. This is that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or new Covenant, * 1.14 which adorns the very Title-page of the Greek Testament. And the Seventy turn it in this place 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

Confirm the Covenant. That is, as I said, the Covenant of the Gospel: See Funccius upon the place.

With many, i. e. with several; for so the word signifies frequently: though it be true also that many of the Jews were converted and en∣tred the Covenant within the space of this one week, which is the se∣ventieth or last week.

And in the midst of the week, or, of that week. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 may either signifie in one half-part of the week, as Grotius interprets it, or else simply, in the midst of the week. In which interpretation the midst need not signifie mathematically the middle part of the Week equidi∣stant from the extremes, but any part within the extremes: so that the second or sixth year of the week may be said in this sense, and that tru∣ly, in the midst of the week. So that the Angel may mean no more by this expression then that what he foretells shall be done after the last week begins and before it ends.

He shall make the Sacrifice and Oblation to cease. viz. The Messiah then suffering shall antiquate and put an end to the Jewish Sacrifices and Oblations. For he that was prefigured by them being come, and ha∣ving been sacrificed and made an oblation, it is plain that those other ceased as to right and efficacy, that is, were abrogated or abolished by the excellencie of his Person, who offered up himself once a Sacri∣fice and Atonement for the sinnes of the whole World. If Chrono∣logie will but admit of it, the wit of man cannot find out a more beco∣ming

interpretation then this concerning his making the daily Sacrifice to cease. Which is as it were the Scope of the whole Prophecie. For to intimate within what week the Messiah should suffer, upon whose death the Antiquation of Moses's Law and the Introduction of the everla∣sting Righteousness depended, is a thing more decorous, & more befitting so precise an Accuracy, then the Destruction of the Temple, which other Interpreters say is meant by making the Sacrifice to cease. Besides, it had been more proper and compendious to have named the Temple then the Oblations and Sacrifices, if there had not been something of an higher nature meant by this Expression. The main drift therefore of the Prophecie is, more curiously to define the time, as of his Manifesta∣tion, so likewise of the Death of the Messiah, which I question not but may very well be hinted at here in this Expression; and what was spoke more at large and indeterminately in the foregoing verse touch∣ing his being cut off, may here, for time, be more punctually defined: And as at the mention of his Death before, there was annexed that Vengeance upon them that murdered him; so here, where it is repeated again, the same Vengeance is repeated.

And for the overspreading of abomination he shall make it desolate. The Hebrew is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Which with Mr. Mede I would render thus, And commanding over a wing of abominations he will be a destroyer, i. e. over an armie of Idolatrous Gentiles, namely the Roman Armie. See also Grotius upon Matth. 24. v. 15. Whose Inter∣pretation, though it differ something from Mr. Mede's, yet in my opi∣nion does confirm it very much: He proving by several citations out of Authors, that the Romans bore upon their Standards the Images of their Gods, which in Hebrew is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. We shall only instance in that one of many out of Tacitus; Fulgentibus aquilis, signisque & simu∣lacris Deûm in modum Templi. So fitly is this Wing of Abominations interpreted of an Armie of Idolaters.

Even until the consummation and that determined. Read, and even until the consummation, i. e. the finishing of this destruction.

Shall be poured upon the desolate. Read, it shall continue upon the distressed, viz. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The Roman armie shall continue upon Ie∣rusalem til they have brought it to utter devastation: or, it shall be spread like water poured out upon the desolate, in that sense that Inundation was interpreted in the foregoing verse. For, as I intimated before, this is but a repeated Prediction of the same Vengeance upon the same oc∣casion, namely, the consideration of their murdering their Messiah, which is implied in that expression, He shall make the Sacrifice and Oblation to cease, himself then becoming a Sacrifice according to the eternal coun∣sel of God.

3. The sense which we have given of this Prophecie is so coherent and of one piece, though taken out of several Interpreters, that no sense can be applied to any Writings more naturally. So that, as I said, if Chronologie will but favour the Interpretation, it is most certain that what we have given is the meaning thereof. And Funccius, who has made the Seventy weeks expire exactly with the breath of our

Saviour upon the Cross, if he could have found the ending but a year sooner, had given a tolerable and commendable account of this Prophe∣cie according to the latitude of the sense of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 above mentio∣ned. And it is not a thing hopeless, but that he and other Chronolo∣gers may be mistaken a year in their Computations. But whoever out of his industry and skill in History and Chronologie shall demonstrate to the World, That the Passion of our Saviour fell out some two or three years before the ending or else after the beginning of the last Week, his Invention will be more to Christian Religion then either the Venae Lacteae or the Circulation of bloud to Physick and Philosophy. For the fulfilling of this Prophecie will appear so clear and complete, that if Porphyrius were alive again, he would again be driven to say it was writ post eventum, that is to say, That the Jews have contrived a Prophecie to confute themselves withall.

4. The good news therefore that the Angel Gabriel imparts to Daniel in this Prophecie is this, That they should return out of Captivity; and that from the going out of certain Decree to rebuild Ierusalem and give it the form of a City, that is, a power of being governed by their own Laws and Magistrates, that from that time forward God had determined Seventy weeks for them, that he would give them his special Protection so long, and they should be his People, and their City should be holy, their Oblations and Sacrifices should not be antiquated, nor their Law and Religion abrogated: But within that time a new Law or Religion should begin, which should never have an end, which therefore is called the Everlasting Righteousness; and that the Iudaical Sin-offerings should then cease, that is, should be no lon∣ger warrantable or effectual. For the Messiah should by that time be come, whom they will slay, and he shall by his Death put an end to all other Sacrifices, his bloud being sufficient to reconcile the whole World to God. But though the design of Divine Providence herein was holy and good, yet the Jews crucifying him out of malice and envie, (enor∣mous wickedness having blinded their eyes) the people of the Jews shall be cast out of God's favour, nor shall they be the People of the Messiah, but a People that shall be the Messiah's, viz. the Romans, shall come and destroy their City and Sanctuary with an utter Destruction.

5. This is a short and easie account of the whole Prophecie, in which it plainly appears, That the foretelling of the destruction of the City is but an Appendix to the main Prophecie, and comes but in by the by, as an effect of that foul act of the Jews in slaying their Prince: But that the circumscription of the Prophetical Weeks is made by those main Designs they were allotted to the Jews for, that is, they should not expire till the Everlasting Righteousness was brought in, till the Pro∣phecies were fulfilled, and the most Holy was anointed, that is, till the Messiah was come, till he suffered, rose again, ascended into Heaven, sent down the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, and set the Christian Religion on foot in the World. All which was done in the last week. After which the City was to be destroyed by the Romans; but there was no need of precisely setting down the time when.

But the noise and clatter of the devastation of it has so disturbed the Judgments and Phancies of many learned Writers, that they have very crookedly and unnaturally haled on the extent of the Weeks to reach the destruction of the City, and so have caused a needless obscurity in so pregnant a Testimonie of the Truth of our Religion. For indeed there can be no genuine or satisfactory Interpretation of Daniel's Weeks, un∣less they all of them, the seven, the sixty two, with the single week, follow one another continuedly in one line, and such an Epocha be pitched upon, as that at the expiring of the sixty nine Weeks the Messiah may be manifested to the World, and in the seventieth Week be cut off, and be made a Sacrifice for sinne, and so abrogate the Jewish Law, and bring in the Everlasting Righteousness, &c. To which the Epocha from the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus does fairly lead, nor is there any other tolerable besides it; which is a further confirmation of the truth thereof. To say nothing, how there is none of the three Decrees, but that which went out in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, that can so fitly be called a Decree for rebuilding the City, as I have intimated already.

CHAP. V. 1. The Application of the First verse of the Prophecie to prove That the Messiah is come. 2. The Iews evasions propounded and answered. 3. An Application of the Second verse of the Prophecie, with a Con∣futation of those Rabbins opinions that make Cyrus, Jehoshua and Ze∣robabel, or Nehemiah their Messiah. 4. An Application of the Third verse, with a Confutation of the Jews fiction of Agrippa's being the Messiah to be cut off.

1. I Have compleated the sense of the Prophecie of Daniel, and that with more accuracy then this present occasion required, I speak in regard of pitching upon that Epocha with Funccius, which is set down Ezra 7. For without being so particular there is strength enough in the Prophecie to evince, That the Messiah is already come.

For from the First verse thereof it is very clear, That within Seventy Weeks the Most Holy was to be anointed, and an Everlasting Righteous∣ness to be brought in. Now I demand of the Iews or any else, take their Epocha where they will, if they can finde any Everlasting Righte∣ousness, Law or Religion, that was brought in before the Expiration of Daniel's Weeks, if it be not this of Christianity: but by the Prophecie there must be some Law or everlasting Righteousness brought in by that time. And what or who was that most Holy that was anointed within these Weeks, if it was not the very Christ whom we Christians worship? The Iews themselves acknowledge the Second Temple was not anointed: therefore it must belong to some Person; which must be the Messiah mentioned in the following verse. I may add also, how is Vision and

Prophecie fulfilled, (the most eminent whereof was concerning their Messiah) I say, how are they compleated within the space of these seventy Weeks, if the Messiah be not yet come?

2. The Iews have no way in the World to evade here but by forcing the most absurd interpretation upon this Verse of the Prophecie that can be imagined; as if the sense were, That those things there foretold should come to pass after the seventy Weeks. Whenas it is plain That the casting the Weeks so into parts, and expresly foretelling that in this part this shall come to pass, and in that, that; it is plain, I say, from hence, That the main scope of the Prophecie is to tell what things will come to pass before their expiration. Which we shall be the better as∣sured of if we examine the fondness of the other Supposition, and ap∣ply it to the words of the Text, which are these,

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy City, or, cut out for thy people and for thy holy City, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to finish trans∣gression, &c. If these things that follow in this verse be to be understood as foretold to come to pass after the seventy Weeks, what is the sense of the preposition 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉? Questionless there can be but these two senses of it; either so as the Septuagint have translated it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, viz. that transgression may be finished, as also our English Translatours have rendered it, which doubtless is the true sense; or else it must sig∣nifie the same that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and there is no sense imaginable besides these two that can be pretended.

If the first, the gross Absurdity is this, That whereas there has been about three hundred Weeks for the compleating those things mentio∣ned there in that verse, and they not yet done, according to the Jews opinion; yet the Prophecie mentions only Seventy, and those wherein they themselves confess nothing at all was to be done of them; then which nothing can be imagined more wilde and ridiculous.

If the second, I answer that the Seventy and other unprejudiced In∣terpreters alway turn it according to the former sense. Nay, that Abar∣banel and Manasseh, who otherwise pervert the sense of this Prophecie, yet they translate it so too, and yield that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 never signifies 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 until. And lastly, if it did so, yet the sense of the Prophecie would be pittiful∣ly lame and imperfect, if we compare it with the Event. For the sense would be, Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, until or be∣fore that the everlasting righteousness be brought in, the most Holy anointed, Vision and Prophecie perfected, &c. Which certainly supposes that with∣in a little time after, at least after less then Seventy Weeks, these things should be fulfilled; and yet there has thrice seventy Weeks gone over since the expiration of the first Seventy, and no tidings of any such things. Wherefore it is more clear then the Meridian Sun, that the things there understood were to come to pass within the Seventy weeks expressly spoke of by the Prophet Daniel.

3. Again, from the Second verse of this Prophecie we demonstrate, That the Messiah is come: Because from the going out of the Com∣mandment or Decree to rebuild the City to the Messiah is but sixty nine weeks. Wherefore imagine what Decree you will, the time is run out,

and many hundred years besides. And that this Prophecie is to be un∣derstood of that great Messiah their Prince and Redeemer, appears plainly enough because he is called here by Daniel 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 absolutely, as being his Proper Name, whenas in all other places of Scri∣pture it is an Appellative. Whence it is more then conjectural that the Iews had the name of their Messiah out of this place, and understood it of that Messiah we speak of. But after that unhappy mistake of theirs in refusing their Messiah when he came, they have forced other Interpre∣tations, though utterly unapplicable to the Text; some understanding by Messiah King Cyrus, others Nehemias, others Iehoshua the Priest, others Zerobabel: none of which conceits are so much as possible. For the Epocha from which they must reckon, must be from some Command or Decree to rebuild the City. For so the words run, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 From the promulgation of the Decree to restore, &c. That that is the sense of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is plain from Esther, chap. 1. ver. 19. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, let there goe forth a royal Command or Decree. Whence it is plain that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is as much as a Decree, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Promulgation of it; as may be understood also from Luke 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. And the parti∣cle 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth put the business out of all controversie that this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is, as the Seventy often translate it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a Command, not a Foretelling or Talking of things; because 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 does not signifie concerning the restoring, but to restore. So that none that have any either com∣mon sense or but moderate skill in the Hebrew, but will confess that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies, From the Decree to cause to return, &c.

From whence it is very manifest that none of those Persons which the Jews here offer can be accepted for the Messiah mentioned in this Pro∣phecie. Not Cyrus; because if you will apply him to the first Decree, which was his own, the account is absurd at first sight. For thus you must reckon from the Edict of Cyrus to the same Cyrus. The other Decrees are after Cyrus, and therefore the sense will be more absurd, if any thing can be more. The reason is much-what the same concerning Iehoshua and Zerobabel, for they were the very persons that immediately execu∣ted Cyrus his Decree. And for Nehemias, he is a great many years too late from Cyrus his Decree, and as much too near to that Decree that went out the seventh year of Artaxerxes. This I speak in reference to that Evasion they seek in the parting of the number of this Prophecie into seven Weeks, and sixty two Weeks, as if it should be but seven Weeks from the Decree to the Messiah, that is, fourty nine years. But besides that it is plain, Chronologie will not fit their turn for this subterfuge, it is further evident that if it would, it will yet appear ut a Subterfuge. For unless you will joine the Seven Weeks and the fifty two Weeks together, it will not make good sense, as any one that examines it will easily understand; and that the Messiah is not to come within the first Seven Weeks, appears in that he is to be cut off after the sixty two Weeks.

4. Which shall be a third argument (from the Third verse of the Prophecie) That the Messiah is come. After sixty two weeks the Mes∣siah shall be cut off, that is, not until the last Week begin and before it

expire. For there is no question but the Seventy Weeks being thus di∣vided into parts for the setting out the time of the coming and appearing of the Messiah even to his death, that what he did visibly or suffered in the World is circumscribed within those Weeks; and therefore we may safely conclude that before the Seventy Weeks expired the Messiah was cut off, that is, that he was cut off above sixteen hundred years agoe, to wit, before the destruction of the City, as plainly appears in the Text, that makes the sacking of Ierusalem a consequent of his death: and the number of the Weeks, pitch upon what Decree you please, must needs expire many years before the taking of the City, and there∣fore the Messiah was cut off, and consequently came into the World so many years agoe.

Here the Iews, to evade so manifest a Demonstration, tell us a story of one Agrippa their last King, and of Mumbas his sonne, whom they say Vespasian slew at Rome three years and an half before the destruction of the Temple. This was he that was cut off from the Kingdome of Iu∣daea, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and it was no longer his nor his Posterities. This is the most specious Answer they have made yet, but yet upon examination will be found excessively weak. For first it is plain from Records of History and Antiquity, That Agrippa the last King of the Iews lived nigh upon thirty years after the Destruction of Ierusalem. And then in the second place, if we should suppose their fiction to be true, the last week of the Seventy will either expire many years before, or run out beyond the cutting off this Agrippa, if you make, as you ought, the De∣cree for building of the City the Epocha of the account, and affix it to the seventh year of either Funccius his Artaxerxes or Scaliger's. To all which you may adde that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 being put here so absolutely, it can∣not but be understood of the great Messiah the Jews did and do still ex∣pect, their own Rabbins expounding it so while they were unprejudiced; and that it is most natural to understand the same person spoken of in the whole Prophecie; who is first prefigured in the expression of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (which their own Doctors also interpret of their Messiah) by which if the Temple had been meant, it had been rather 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. And therefore again an anointed Person being understood in the first verse, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 mentioned in the second and third must be the same Person; and there being in the first joyned with the mention of him not only so sa∣cred a Title as the Most Holy, but also the bringing in of everlasting Righteousness, the expiating of sin, and fulfilling of Prophecies, it is plain that so mean a person as Agrippa (or any else they have or can name) is unapplicable to this Prophecie of Daniel; such things being there fore∣told as are utterly incompetible to him: but such as will anon appear from other Prophecies to be singularly competible to the great Messiah the Jews expected, and are the Characteristicals of his Person, as we shall fully make good in its due place.

CHAP. VI. 1. How convincing Evidences those three Prophecies of Jacob, Haggai and Daniel are, That the Messiah is come. 2. That it was the General Opinion of the Jews, That the Messiah was to come about that time we say he did. 3. Josephus his misapplication of the Prophecie of Daniel to Vespasian. 4. A further confirmation out of Tacitus, that the Jews about those times expected their Messiah. 5. Another Testimony out of Suetonius.

1. IN the mean time it is so plain and apparent from these Prophecies of Iacob and Haggai, That the Messiah is already come; that any one, though secluded from all Commerce with these parts of Europe, and knowing nothing of the face of things here, if he had but onely certain information that the Iewish Politie and Temple were destroyed, and could but read the above-named Prophecies, he would be sure that the Messiah was come into the World: as also out of this Prophecie of Daniel he might without any intelligence at all (provided only he took notice of the Epocha of Decrees, and how that the Weeks from any one of them would be expired many hundred years ago) infallibly in∣ferr That the Messiah was certainly come. These things are so perfect∣ly clear, that it is needless to add any thing else to confirm the belief of them.

2. Which yet some do by appealing to the judgement of their own Rabbins, if they themselves did not conclude that their Messiah was to come about that time we say he did. Nehemias, a Jewish Rabbin, that lived some fifty years before Christ, did openly declare out of the Prophecie of Daniel, that the coming of their expected Messiah could not be prolonged above fifty years; as appears out of Grotius, if he was not misinformed by Stoctoxus. But by what he answers to Sarravius, one would think that he saw the place with his own eyes;* 1.15 Ostendit istum mihi locum olim Hagae Stoctoxus. And that this was not one Rabbin's opinion, but the apprehension of many of their wise men, is manifest from what Iosephus has written, De bello judaico lib. 7. cap. 31. To 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. That which excited them most of all to the warre, was a doubtful Prophecie found in the holy Writings, as if about that time some one from their Country should be Emperour of the World. This the Iews took as properly belonging to them, and many of the wise men were deceived in their judgements about the matter. Out of which words it plainly appears that the learned of the Iews, and in a manner the whole Nation, was perswaded that their Messiah, whom they thought would be the Prince of the known World, was hard at hand. In which per∣swasion they were so serious that they ventured their Lives, Liberty,

Temple and City thereupon, that being the greatest thing that anima∣ted them to that infortunate Warre. Of their firmness in which opinion a further argument is, that they were so ready to phansy this or the o∣ther their Messiah about those times. For there were many looked upon for a while as such, as Herod, Iudas Gaulonites, Ionathas, Bar∣chochab and others.

3. Neither does Iosephus his note upon the Prophecie that gave the Iews this confidence, he calling it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, an ambiguous Prediction, derogate any thing from the clearness thereof concerning the Time. But the character of his Person, it seems, was not so per∣fectly set out, but that they missed the knowing of him when he was come: and therefore it was necessary for Iosephus to say that the Oracle was ambiguous. But it were ambiguous indeed, if it were, as he would make it, more applicable to Vespasian then to the true Messiah. For that Messiah there prophecied of was to be cut off, which Vespasian was not; and that before the last week, whenas Vespasian besieged Ie∣rusalem about fourty years after. Besides that it is ridiculous to resolve the solemnity of the holy Oracles of the Prophets into so petty a busi∣ness, as in stead of their foretelling that one of the Iewish Lineage should become a great Prince, and sway the sceptre over the Nations (which prediction was alwaies looked upon as some peculiar Honour and Priviledge to the Iews) that only a forraigner coming to Iudaea, and for no better end then to sack their City, destroy their Temple, and make vassals of them and slaves, that this man after should be chosen Emperour of Rome, as others had been before him. Whether awe and fear might baffle the understanding of Iosephus so as to think this a true Glosse, though it be but servile flattery, I will not dispute: but whether he thought it false or no, that it is so, I think I have put out of Controversie.

4. But what Iosephus records concerning the opinion of his Nation, that they thought the coming of their Messiah to be about that time, is got into the History of the Pagan Writers also.* 1.16 Cornelius Tacitus writes so like to what Iosephus has set down, that it seems something like a translation of him, as in his speaking of the Prodigies that did fore∣run the destruction of the City; Visae per coelum concurrere acies, ruti∣lantia arma, & subito nubium igne collucere templum. Expassae repentè delubri fores, & audita major humanâ vox, Excedere Deos, simul ingens motus excedentium. That is, Armies were seen skirmishing in the Heavens, weapons glittering, and the Temple filled with light from the sudden flashing of the clouds. The door also of the Temple instantly flung open, and a voice was heard bigger then the voice of any man, That the Gods go out, and withall a mighty bustle of them as going out together. After this present∣ly he addes, Quae pauci in m••tum trahebant: pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri, co ipso tempore ut valesceret Oriens, profectique Judaeà rerum potirentur: quae ambages Vespasianum & Ti∣••um praedixerunt. i. e. Which some few interpreted as a dangerous Presage: most were perswaded that it was contained in the ancient Books of their Priests, that at that very time the East should grow potent, and that those

come from Judaea should obtain the Empire: which ambages presignified Vespasian and Titus. In which he plainly intimates that the Opinion of the near approach of their Messiah was so strong, that it bore against all the ill Prodigies, nay made them interpret them to a good sense, as if this excedere deos was but their hastning out to take possession of the Nations; which was true in no other sense then in that Christ, who was the peculiar Guardian Angel, as I may so speak, of the Jews before, became afterward the worship of the whole Empire. Or if you will, God, who was in a manner Topical before, restrained to Iudaea, be∣came the known and acknowledged God of the whole Earth.

5. Suetonius in the life of Vespasian (cap. 4.) in express terms calls this Expectation of the Iews, veterem & constantem opinionem. Percre∣buerat, saith he, Oriente toto vetus & constans opinio, esse in fatis ut eo tempore Judaeâ profecti rerum potirentur. Id de Imperatore Romano, quan∣tum eventu postea praedictum patuit, Judaei ad se trahentes, rebellarunt, &c. An ancient & constant opinion had grown very common over all the East, that the fates had so destined, that at that time those that came from Ju∣daea should become masters of all. Which fate, as appeared by the event, foretold of the Roman Emperour, the Jews interpreting in favour of themselves, rebelled, &c. By which expressions of Suetonius we may un∣derstand how assured the Iews were, that that was the time of the coming of their Messiah, and that the fame of it was not contained within their own Precincts, but had spred over all the East, and that the whole World was at a gaze in expectation of the Great Prince of the Iews.

CHAP. VII. 1. That it being evident the Messiah is come, it will also follow that Jesus is he. 2. That the Prophets when they prophesied of any emi∣nent King, Priest or Prophet, were sometimes carried in their Prophe∣tick Raptures to such expressions as did more properly concern the Mes∣siah then the Person they began to describe. 3. That these References are of two sorts, either purely Allegorical, or Mixt; and of the use of pure Allegories by the Evangelists and Apostles. 4. Of mixt Alle∣gories of this kind, and of their validity for Argument. 5. That eminent Prophecie of Isaiah, that so fully characterizes the Person of Christ. 6. That the ancient Jews understood this of their Messiah, and that the modern are forced hence to fancy two Messiahs. The Soul of the Messiah appointed to this office from the beginning of the World, as appears out of their Pesikta. 7. The nine Characters of the Mes∣siah's Person included in the above-named Prophecie. 8. A brief In∣timation in what verses of the Prophecie they are couched. 9. That this Prophecie cannot be applied to the People of the Iews, nor adequately to Jeremie's person. 10. Special Passages in the Prophecie utterly unap∣plicable to Jeremie.

1. WE have, I think, sufficiently demonstrated That the time of the coming of the Messiah is expired, and therefore (the Predictions of him and Promises being not conditional, as I have above in∣timated, but absolute,) it undeniably follows that he is come. Upon which we might immediately infer, especially considering the Time of his coming, That Iesus Christ is he. For whom else can they possi∣bly pitch upon? But we shall proceed more punctually, and suspend that Inference, until we have laid before you those Prophecies that characterize his Person, What a one he should be, What he should doe, and What should betide him.

2. Of which there is none so full as that of Isaiah, Chap. 53. But before I enter upon it or any other, it will be very convenient, for the preventing of all Cavils and Tergiversations, to set down a Supposition which is both rational in it self, and allowed of, nay highly magnified, in things where their Interest does not lie at stake, by the most learned of the Iews. And it is this, That that eminent Person whom they call their Messiah, being at last to give them a visit in this World, and as the very sense of his Name imports, which signifies Anointed, being to be the Top and Flower of those three Functions in which this Anointing was used, viz. Prophet, Priest and King; it is very rational to conceive, how in their Actuations by the Spirit of God, when he fell upon the Pro∣phets, that while they prophesied or spake of some more considerable Priest, Prophet or King (that Wisdome guiding them which is omni∣scient and more moving then any motion, which reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly orders all things) they were so actua∣ted and transported, that in that fatidical Rapture they were caught up into, the sense of their Mind and Words was carried further then the particular Person they began to describe. So that according to this Supposition we will of our own accord acknowledge that several, and those of the most eminent Prophecies that characterize the Person of Christ, did first touch upon some other Person, which was but a fainter Resemblance of him. But that after this glance they are carried to their main scope they drive at, where they pierce and are fixt, as an ar∣row stuck in the mark.

3. Now this Reference is of two sorts, either a Perfect Allegorie, or Mixt. That I call a Perfect Allegorie, when all the expressions concer∣ning the Person first spoke of do very well and naturally fit him, but may be interpreted (and that more exquisitely it may be) of some more illustrious Person that comes after. Such Allusions as these are used by the Apostles and Evangelists to the great confirmation of our Faith, however the Iews are scandalized at it. For there can be no other sense of it then this, viz. That either these Interpretations which they put upon the Prophets were the known Interpretations of the Iews, and therefore very accommodate to perswade the Iews by; and it was a sign they were right Interpretations, they being made before prejudice had blinded them. Or else, that these Expositions were their own, that is, that they arose in their own minds first; which was impossible

they should, they being but Allusions, unless the certain knowledge of what hapned to our Saviour Christ had put them upon it. So that those allusive Proofs are to us strong Confirmations that the History of the Gospel in those things that seem most incredible is certainly true. I will content my self with that one instance (though I might alledge many others) of Christ's being born of a Virgin. Certainly unless they had known that de facto he was so, or that their wise men had inter∣preted that of Isaiah Chap. 7. to that sense, it is incredible that they should ever alledge that place for it; and they making no use of any other but this, which is only allusory, it is plain the certainty of the Event was that which cast them upon the Interpretation.

4. I call a Mixt Allegorie that which is partly allusoric, as being applica∣ble first to some more inferiour Person, whether King, Prophet or Priest, and then to the Messiah, and partly simple and express, not applicable to any but the Messiah himself; the Prophet being so actuated by the Spi∣rit of God, that in the sublimity of that divine Heat he is in, his sense and expressions reach out further then the Person that is the Type, and strike into such Circumstances that are not at all true but in the Anti∣type. And these Predictions of this nature concerning the Messiah are as Demonstrative to those that are not intolerable Cavillers, as if the Prophecie had been wholly carried to the Messiah, without glancing or touching upon any other Person.

5. These things being premised, let us return to Isaiah, and peruse his whole Prophecie, that we may the more accurately judge thereof. Chap. 53.

• 1. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed?
• 2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness: and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
• 3. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and ac∣quainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him: he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
• 4. Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
• 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
• 6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
• 7. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
• 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement: and who shall de∣clare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of my people was he stricken.
• 9. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was deceit in his mouth.
• ...

• 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sinne, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his daies, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
• 11. He shall see of the travel of his Soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
• 12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoile with the strong; because he hath poured out his Soul unto death; and he was numbred with the transgressours, and he bare the sinne of many, and made intercession for the transgressours.

6. The ancient and wisest of the Iews ever interpreted this Chapter of their Messiah. And the later Rabbins being convinced of the clear∣ness of the Prophecie, and respecting the Authority of those wise In∣terpreters before them, have been some of them forced to acknowledge two Messiahs, the one the Son of Ioseph, the other of David. The former a suffering Messiah, the other victorious and triumphant, rather then to deny the evidence of this Prophecie. Out of which there is al∣so a special Tradition set down in an ancient Book amongst the Iews, which is called Pesikta, which further confirms our assertion of their interpreting of it concerning the Sufferings of the Messiah; How that the Soul of the Messiah was ordained (and did gladly accept the condi∣tion) to suffer, from the beginning of the World. The Tradition runs thus, * 1.17 That when God created the World, he put forth his hand under his Throne of Glory, and brought forth the Soul of the Messiah and all his Attendants, and said unto him, Wilt thou heal and redeem my sons after six thousand years? He answered he would. God said again unto him, Wilt thou undergoe the chastisements to purge away their iniquities, (according as it written (it is the Rabbins own application) Certè morbos nostros tulit?) The Soul of the Messiah answered, I will undergoe them and that right gladly.

7. This is enough to confirm that it was the Opinion of the ancient and unprejudiced Iews, That this Prophecie was meant of their Messiah: and, as I said, there is not any one Prophecie so full of Characteristi∣cals of his Person as this, though not all of the like Clearness. But I dare say no less then these nine are in some sort or other included in it. 1. His being rejected by the Jews; 2. And being made a Sacrifice for sin. 3. His Resurrection. 4. His Ascension. 5. His Apotheosis. 6. The excellency of his Doctrine. 7. His Reception by the Gentiles. 8. The Destruction of their Superstition and of that divine Honour done to unwarrantable Persons. 9. And the Eternity of His Kingdome.

8. I shall briefly intimate in what verses of the Prophecie every of these are hinted. His Rejection by his own is plainly intimated vers. 1, 2, 3. His Suffering and being a sacrifice for sinne, ver. 4, 5, 6, 7, 10. His Ascension and Resurrection, vers. 8, 10. His 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ver. 9. He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, that is, with the wicked rich men, that is, great Potentates of the Earth who were rich, powerfull and injurious, those many Nimrods in the World,

whose Sepulchres and Monuments were after magnificent Temples, and themselves deified as Gods. Because he had done no violence. The reason is incomparably solid: For if the Princes and Emperours of the World had divine honours done to them after their death who were but Magnifici Latrones, as one calleth them, much rather should the Messiah, who did no violence, but was so faithfull and good in all things, be exal∣ted unto this Honour, have Temples built to him, and be worshipped as a God. The 12 verse does further confirm this sense, Wherefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death. Which spoil cannot be so aptly understood of any thing as this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, it being mentioned so upon these terms, after his pouring out his Soul un∣to death. One verse illustrates another so, that I think there can be no doubt of the sense. The excellency of his Doctrine is understood vers. 11. which sets out the success of the Gospel. His Reception by the Gentiles vers. 10, 11. For if the Gentiles had not come in, there had been small satisfaction; the Jews being excluded, or rather they exclu∣ding him. The Destruction of their Superstition and unwarrantable Wor∣ship they did to unworthy Persons, this is included in their Reception of Christ. The long Duration of his Kingdome, v. 8. And who shall declare his generation? that is, the permanency of his own royal Per∣son, and the succession of his Church that will adhere to him for ever.

9. This is a punctual and very reasonable account of this Prophecie: but be it how it will, yet this is out of question, That the Suffering and Glorification of the Messiah is here prefigured, and that if that in the general be not understood, there is no good sense to be made of this Prophecie. For to distort it to the affliction of the Jewish people, is very harsh, nay impossible, as appears from vers. 8. For the transgressi∣on of my people was he stricken. Wherefore it was not the People of God that are here stricken, but some person struck by reason of them. The most tolerable application of the Prophecie is to the afflictions of Ieremie, of whom Grotius has expounded it, (though not excluding Christ) and has made sense of it in so many places, that I do not deny but that it may be understood of Ieremie in the first and less-considera∣ble meaning; but that withall the application to Christ is not merely al∣lusory, but that such things are spoke in this Prophecie as cannot but with an exceeding deal of lameness and ineptness be applied to Ieremie.

10. And truly the very beginning of the Prophecie is too magnificent by far for the affairs of Ieremie; Who has believed our report, &c. for there is nothing so incredible in all those transactions concerning him. Again vers. 5. With his stripes we are healed. It is ridiculous to attempt an application of these words to Ieremie. For he was no Sin-Offering to appease the wrath of God, but what he suffered was rather for their mischief. And that is as foolishly applied to him, vers. 8. And who shall declare his Generation? as if it were understood of Ieremie's Longevity, then whom far less considerable men have lived much lon∣ger. So frigid and frivolous is this Interpretation. Neither without violence can that Phrase, For he was cut off out of the land of the living,

(especially considering the mention of the grave in the next verse) be understood otherwise then of the inflicting of Death: Which was not Ieremie's case. So verse 20. when thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sinne: To interpret that of Ieremie is plainly to dote. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies a Sin-Offering or Sin it self; but God made Ieremy neither Sin nor Sin-Offering for his People. And lastly, to say nothing of the unfit∣ness of that expression, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, to be applied to that petty business of Ieremie, chap. 40. v. 5. where the Captain of the Guard is said to give him Victuals and a Reward, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, he ac∣commodated him for his Journey (the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 shewing what the whole gift was, only a Viaticum; and it had been the greatest reproach imaginable for the Prophet to have received any thing more, to have made himself rich with the spoils of his own country-men) I say, to say nothing of the unfitness of that expression to be applied to so small a matter; the words following are so full and home, because he hath pou∣red out his soul unto death, that they cannot signifie less then an actual dying; nor is there any example that they signifie otherwise. And therefore the division of the spoil with the strong must be after death, and denote his Apotheosis. It is plain therefore as well out of the confes∣sion of the Rabbins themselves, as out of the words of the Prophecie, that it is not merely an allusorie Prefiguration of the Messiah, but a down-right Description of him in such Circumstances as are incompeti∣ble to any besides him, and therefore, as I said, is as valid as if it had all been meant of him alone.

But because all the Characters of him here included are not so full and clear as in other places, and those that are the clearest are of so much importance, that it will not be any loss of labour to adde other con∣firmations to them, I shall evidence every one of them more fully from other Prophecies.

CHAP. VIII. 1. Further Proofs out of the Prophets, That the Messiah was to be a Sacrifice for sinne. 2. That he was to rise from the dead. 3. That he was to ascend into Heaven. 4. That he was to be worshipped as God. 5. That he was to be an eminent Light to the Nations; 6. And welcomely received by them. What is meant by His Rest shall be glo∣rious. 7. That he was to abolish the Superstition of the Gentiles. 8. And that his Kingdome shall have no end. 9. That all these Cha∣racters are competible to Jesus whom we worship, and to him only.

1. THE first mark of the Messiah was his Rejection, that he should be rejected of the Jews; but those places that foretel his Kil∣ling, more strongly implying his Rejection, we need add nothing parti∣cular

thereof. That the Messiah was to be slain, and be a Sacrifice for sinne, besides that full and copious prediction of Isaiah, is clear out of Daniel, who saith that after sixty nine weeks the Messiah was to be cut off; and then adding afterwards that in the half of the seventieth week he should make the sacrifice to cease, it is plain that his Death and cea∣sing of the Jewish sacrifices and oblations were in one Week, and that thereupon his Death was a Sacrifice, whereby those Iudaical Oblations were antiquated. For it is well known that the Temple and their Ob∣lations continued about forty years after the Passion of Christ: so that it cannot be understood of the outward destruction of the Temple, and Prohibition of Sacrifices; and therefore it must be understood of the nulling of the Validity and Authority of them, their Law of sacrifi∣cing being abrogated by that transcendent Sacrifice of the body of our blessed Saviour upon the Cross. For there is nothing else that can be imagined to cease or take away the Iudaical Sacrifices in the midst of the last Week but that. To these we might adde Psalm 22. and Zachar. 12.10. but what has been alledged already is more then enough.

2. Let us now rather see what has been foretold of his Resurrection from the dead. And in my mind that is a very clear Prediction thereof Psalm 16. v. 8. where David being transported in his Spirit by a di∣vine power writes higher matters then are competible to any but the true David, the Messiah himself. I have set the Lord alwaies before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoyceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope: For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy pre∣sence is fulness of Ioy, and at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore.

This is so natural a description of one raised out of the Grave before he corrupt there, and ascending into the presence of God in the Heavens to enjoy Eternal Life, that nothing can be more express. But David was never raised out of the grave himself, but his flesh saw corruption. Wherefore it appears that it was a Prophecie of some other, viz. the Messiah, of whom David was a Type.

3. The Ascension of the Messiah is lively prefigured Psalm 68. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of Angels: the Lord is amongst them as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascen∣ded on high, thou hast led * 1.18 Captivity captive: thou hast received gifts or men, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell among them.

If this be applied unto Christ, the sense is easie, especially if you take notice how the Lord was amongst them in Sinai, that is, there was one chief Angel, whom some would have to be Christ, which sustained the person of God, who might have the name of Adonai, as Christ also has, and is styled the Angel of the Covenant, Malachi 3.1. In lieu of him is here the Messiah himself attended with many Squadrons of An∣gels, and receiving gifts of his Father to communicate to the World, that God might dwell amongst them, that they might be brought in to be of his Church.

4. This Prophecie also plainly points at his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 but there are also other places that make it still more clear, as Psalm 110. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool: and then vers. 4. The Lord has sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedeck. The Jews themselves of old acknowledged this Psalm to be a Prophe∣cie of the Messiah; and the first and fourth verses are such that they can bear no other sense, but that the Messiah was to be greater then Da∣vid, and to be a King, Priest and Intercessour at the right hand of God for ever.

Also Psalm 45.6. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the Sce∣ptre of thy Kingdome is a right Sceptre: Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of Gladness above thy fellows. Him that the Psalmist speaks of here he calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and it cannot signifie an ordinary King or Magistrate, because he saies, his throne is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, for ever, absolutely, as R. Moses Aegyptius expounds that Phrase. Wherefore most justly does the Chaldee Paraphrast make this Psalm a Prophecie of the Messiah, whose 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Divinity is plainly expressed in these verses I have recited.

I will add one place more out of the Prophet Isaiah, chap. 9. v. 6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the govern∣ment shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonder∣full, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of peace: of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdome, to order and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will doe this. I do not doubt but that this Prophecie is in some sort referrable also to Hezekiah, and hits upon him first, but the main scope of it is the Messiah; and that therein his Di∣vinity and the Eternity of his Kingdome is set out, both the Testimony of the Chaldee Paraphrast, the Translation of the Septuagint, and the expressions in the Prophecie according to the Hebrew Text is evidence enough. For they translate 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and his name shall be called Wonderfull Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of peace, after this manner, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 * 1.19 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Which exposition cannot possibly be sense, if referred to Hezekiah, but agrees very well with the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the Messiah. Besides the English translation, Of the increase of his Government and Peace there shall be no end, is so exactly according to the Hebrew, that it is plain all the expressions are not competible to Hezekiah; and Grotius himself, who loves to stretch the sense of every particular expression of these kind of Prophecies to the person they first aim at, yet he acknowledges ingenuously that they are more fitly and more plainly applicable to the Messiah. Which to any indifferent man is satisfaction enough that they were meant of him; especially if he consider that the ancient

Iews, who may well be thought to understand the Genius of their own Prophets the best, have long since, before this inveterate contest betwixt the Iew and Christian, interpreted them so.

5. The sixth Character of his Person is the Excellencie of his Doctrine. This is intimated, as I said, Isaiah 53. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many; but is more fully express'd Malachi 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come into his Temple, (which might have been produced as another Prophecie of the Divinity of the Messiah) even the messenger of the Covenant, whom you delight in; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiners fire, and like fullers sope: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of Silver; and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and sil∣ver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in Righteousness. Where∣by is plainly denoted the purity and sanctity of that Law and Spirit that the Messiah was to communicate to his serious followers, that he would throughly purifie them and purge them from their Hypocrisie and Sinfulness.

And again, Isaiah 42. Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my Soul delighteth: I have put my Spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoaking flax shall he not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the Isles shall wait for his law. Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the Heavens and stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein; I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant un∣to the people, for a light of the Gentiles: To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.

And Isaiah 49. Listen, O Isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far. The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowells of my mo∣ther hath he made mention of my name. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft, in his quiver hath he hid me. And verse 5. And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Iacob again unto him: Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glori∣ous in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Iacob, and to restore the desolations of Israel; I will also give thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that thou maiest be my Salvation to the end of the earth. My Salvation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, with an allusion to the very name of Isaiah 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which signifies, The Salvation of the Lord: Which seems to be alluded to in the first verse also, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. Which is so near a kin to the name of

Iesus, that the Messiah may seem to be prefigured in the very name of the Prophet Isaiah as well as in his Person: As it must be confessed that both these two Prophecies do in some measure belong to Isaiah himself first. But considering how the more excellent Kings and Prophets were to be Types of the Messiah, and that the language is so very high, it can∣not be doubted but that in these Divine raptures and exaltations of Spirit, the Minde and Tongue of Isaiah was carried above what was competi∣ble to his own Person, and therefore must naturally be transferred to the Messiah; it being plain from other places, that there was at last to come some one transcendent Prince and Prophet anointed in an higher manner and measure then any other. Which the Iews expected, and called their Messiah. And therefore it is therewithal manifest, that their Messiah was to be an eximious Teacher, Prophet or Law-giver.

6. The seventh Character is that he should be very welcomely received of the Nations; that which these last Prophecies also intimate. But I shall add others also. To this sense the Jews themselves interpreted that ancient Prophecie of Iacob 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to him shall be the ga∣thering together of the Nations; the Seventy, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and he is the hope or expectation of the Nations. And there is yet one, more ancient then that, which implies it; viz. the Promise to Abra∣ham that he should be a Father of many Nations, and that in his seed all * 1.20 Nations of the Earth should be blessed. Of which other Prophecies al∣so witness. Isay 2.2. And it shall come to pass in the last daies, that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the moun∣tains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all Nations shall flow un∣to it. The Jewish Doctours themselves acknowledge this to be under∣stood of the times of the Messiah. And chap. 11. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people: to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious; or, Him shall the Gen∣tiles seek, viz. in a devotional way, shall pray unto him, and sing prai∣ses unto him. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is often used in that sense, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. And his rest shall be glorious, & sepulcrum ejus erit gloriosum; so some turn it, and truely not rashly nor without cause. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in several places signifies the rest of the dead. Job 3. v. 17. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; which the Seventy render, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: It is in Iob's description of the state of the dead. Also Proverbs 21.16. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, He shall rest in the congregation of the dead, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is better; for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 are all one, as appears Psalm 88. v. 11. Lastly, Psalm 23. v. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Aquae requietum, implies such a rest as Sleep, the brother of death. For there is nothing more prone then to lye and sleep on the shadie banks of a River. Wherefore 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 may very well signifie Dormitorium ejus, or Sepulcrum ejus, erit gloriosum; that is, That it shall at last be exalted to the nature of a Temple, he shall have Divine Ho∣nour done unto him, and the Gentiles shall pray unto him and adore him: as is intimated in the words immediately going before. But this was more then we needed to charge this Prophecie with, though it be probable enough it is contained in it.

There are sundry other places that serve for the proof of this seventh Character: but because it is sufficiently enough demonstrated already, and little or no controversie made of it, I pass to the eighth.

7. Which is the Messiah his abolishing the Superstition of the Gentiles, that is, such worship as they had no divine warrant for, they being so grosly mistaken in the Object. This is so plainly included in the two last Characters, that I need add no other proof. But if there were need, that in the 2, and 110 Psalms might further confirme it. Where he is constituted a new King and Priest; and therefore implies new Religion and Laws, and such as the heathen were ignorant of be∣fore; but such as they must obey upon pain of high displeasure.

8. The last Character is the long Duration of the Messiah's Kingdome. Psalm 89. v. 35. Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lye unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the Sun be∣fore me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Also Psalm 45. v. 6. Thy throne, ô God, is for ever and ever, the sceptre of thy Kingdome is a right sceptre, &c. Which Prophecie makes good the former, and shews how it is to be fulfilled in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the Messiah. See also Psalm 72. which the He∣brew Rabbins do acknowledge to be understood of the Messiah. Also Daniel 2.44. and 7.27. This Character is so clear, that I need not insist any longer upon it.

9. These are the main Marks and Characters of the Person of the Messiah, by which we may infallibly find out who he is. And who indeed can he be according to these Characters, but Iesus whom we Christians worship? For what competitor for the Messiahship but he, was, being a Iew, rejected by the Iews and crucified? Who is it that arose from the dead and ascended into Heaven but he? Who ever de∣livered so pure Doctrine to purge the World from wickedness and to enlighten the Nations as he? It is he therefore whom the Nations waited for, and have received: It is he for whose sake they parted with their old vain and impure Superstitions, by whose Doctrine they are brought to the knowledge of the Eternal God: And lastly it is he whom for his bitter sufferings God has exalted above Angels and Archangels and all the host of Heaven, and has set him at his own right hand to be a Priest and King over his Church for ever.

CHAP. IX. 1. The peculiar Use of Arguments drawn from the Prophecies of the Old Testament for the convincing the Atheist and Melancholist. 2. An Application of the Prophecies to the known Events for the conviction of the Truth of our Religion. 3. That there is no likelihood at all but that the Priesthood of Christ will last as long as the Generations of men upon Earth. 4. The Conclusion of what has been urged hitherto. 5. That Christ was no fictitious Person, proved out of the History of Heathen Wri∣ters, as out of Plinie, 6. And Tacitus: 7. As also Lucian, 8. And Sue∣tonius.

9. That the Testimony out of Josephus is supposititious, and the reasons why he was silent concerning Christ. 10. Julian's purpose of rebuil∣ding the Temple at Jerusalem, with the strange success thereof, out of Am∣mianus Marcellinus.

1. WE have now made a very considerable Progress in the proof of the Reality of Christian Religion, That it is more then a mere Idea. Let us here make a stand and breath a while, and contem∣plate with our selves the peculiar Use and advantage of this present Argument, for the stopping the mouths as well of the bold Atheist as the suspicious Melancholist. For indeed it is too true, and every good man could wish it were not so, that the latter Ages of the Church have not dealt faithfully with the World, but beyond the bounds of all mo∣desty and conscience obtruded upon the people fond Legends and for∣ged Miracles, as if they were given up into their hands onely to be im∣posed upon and abused. Which consideration does cast some men in∣to an unchangeable misbelief of the whole business of Christianity, and makes them look upon it all as a mere Fiction and Fable. For they measure the Genius of the Primitive Church by what they see practi∣sed before their eyes now-adayes, and look upon the whole Tribe of the Priests as Impostors. Which censure though it be most unjust, yet it will be very hard to convince these Censurers but that it is very true, unless by some such Argument as now lies before us, viz. That the ancient Prophecies in the Old Testament could not be forged by the Christian Priests, and that the Jews would not forge them against themselves.* 1.21 Nay they that know any thing of the Jews, will ac∣knowledge them so religiously addicted to the Letter of these holy Writings, that knowingly and wittingly they durst not alter a tittle. Wherefore all those Prophecies we have alledged are real, and we have made good they clearly foretel That the Messiah should come many hundred years ago; therefore it is plain he is come.

2. I therefore demand of either the Prophane or Melancholick, who is this Messiah, if Iesus be not he. Nay I appeal to them if the very Characters of his Person be not certainly to be known by their own Senses agreeably to the Prediction of those infallible Oracles. The Prophecies have said, He should be rejected of his own. Ask the Iews, they will acknowledge they have rejected him. The Prophecies foretold he should be cut off, be killed by them. Ask the Iews, they will not deny but that they did condemn him to death, but deservedly, as they contend for their own excuse. The Prophe∣cies foretold his Doctrine should enlighten the Gentiles. Ask thine own eyes if the Gentiles be not turned from their vain & unwarrantable Superstitions to the knowledge of that one God that made heaven and earth, and of Iesus Christ whom he hath sent. The Prophecies pre∣figured his rising from the dead and his ascending up into Heaven: and ask thine own Conscience if thou dost not believe that this was alwaies the belief of the Christians; and consult with thine own Reason, if it had been possible that the Death of Christ could have drawn all the

World after him, if it had not been seconded with his Resurrection. Certainly those that believed on him before, had deserted him after his death, if he had not risen from the dead: but of that more fully hereaf∣ter. Lastly, the Prophecies foretold that the Messiah should be wor∣shipped as a divine Person, and receive divine Honour, and that God would make him a King and Priest for ever. Ask thine own senses, if thou dost not find it so. How many thousand Temples are there con∣secrated to his name? in how many Nations and Kingdomes of the earth is he honoured as the Son of God; Prayers offered unto him, and in his Name, and Praises sung unto him with all solemnity and devotion imaginable?

3. And for the Duration of this his royal Priesthood, it has continued already a faire time, about one thousand six hundred years, as may be infallibly gathered out of History. And as appears from these ancient Prophecies of the Jews, he is a Person so holy and sacred, and upon whom the eyes of Providence have been in such a wonderfull manner fixed, infinitely above any Person that ever was yet in the World, that it is impossible that the Testimonies given of him should ever be oblite∣rated by succession of Time; nothing but an universal Conflagration being able to make an end of all the copies of the Jewish Oracles or of the Christian Gospel. And therefore it is a thing beyond all Likeli∣hood, nay I may say all Possibility, that this Honour and Kingdome of Christ upon Earth should ever cease till the Earth cease to have Inha∣bitants. I do not deny but the insupportable Wickedness of the Chri∣stians, their Faithlesness, Ferocity and Uncleanness, their accursed Hypo∣crisie and open Prophaneness, may make this Kingdome of Christ very itinerant and to pass from one Nation to another People; but it will ever be the Religion of some People and Nation or other: Or if not, there will at least be sincere Professors of his Name in several Nations and King∣domes, as in the persecuted estate of the Primitive Church; which will certainly leaven the World again with the Christian Religion, with more glory and purity then ever, unless a fiery Vengeance from heaven step betwixt, and Christ come again visibly so Judgement in the clouds.

4. The thing therefore that I say is this, That though a man should be so cautious forsooth and so crafty, as that because these latter Ages have been guilty of so much Falseness and Forgery, he will believe no Records of the Church at all, no not so much as the Holy Gospels and the Epistles of the Apostles; yet he may have sufficient assurance from the Prophecies of the Old Testament (which, unless he will be egregi∣ously foolish and unreasonable, he cannot have any pretense to suspect as supposititious) That Christianity is no Fiction, but a real Truth; if he will but compare the Prophecies with the Events of things as they lye before his eyes, and with the free Confession of those that are open Enemies to the Christian Religion, I mean the Nation of the Iews.

5. For the firmer belief whereof, he may also help himself some∣thing from those strinklings that are found in prophane Writers. For if thou wilt be so prodigiously melancholick and suspicious as to doubt

whether there ever were such a man as Christ, the very History of the Heathens may assure thee thereof; they mentioning these things so time∣ly, as that there could be no errour about the existence of the Person they speak of whether he ever were in the World or no. For Plinie, Tacitus, Lucian and Suetonius, all of them flourished so near the time of the taking of the City of Ierusalem, (viz. Plinie about twenty, Tacitus thirty, Lucian and Suetonius about forty or fifty years) that they could not but have certain information whether he was a fictiti∣ous Person or real, from the captive Iews, who would not have failed to stifle a Religion they hated so, if it had been but a Figment at the bottome. Plinie in his Epistle to Trajan finds the Christian profes∣sours in good earnest, even to death: Whose dangerous and mischie∣vous errour he might easily have confuted, if the History of Christ had been but a Romance; but he found them immovable, nor could he help it. Which constancy of theirs he calls pervicaciam & inflexibilem obstinationem, a Pervicacity and inflexible Obstinacy. Which is ridicu∣lous to think can befall men in a mere Fiction within the time that search may easily discover to be false, and that they should stand out to the exposing of themselves to death and torture. He writes in the same Epistle that he put two maid-servants on the rack, Sed nihil aliud inveni quàm superstitionem pravam & immodicam, But I found nothing else (saith he) but a perverse and immoderate Superstition. And of those that fear made desist from the profession of their Religion, Affir∣mabant hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere, &c. They affirmed that this was the sum of their either fault or errour, that they were wont on a set day to meet together early in the morning before day∣break, and sing an hymne to Christ as to a God. Which is a sign that be∣times the Christians followed Christ, not as a mere eminent Moralist, that gave excellent precepts of life, better then ever any did, but that they held his Person truely Divine, and adorable for some wonder∣ful considerations or other.

6. But this Inquisition and bloudy Persecution of the Christians began higher then Trajan's time, to wit in Nero's, who, to smother that abo∣minable act of his in firing the City of Rome, did most salvagely pu∣nish the Christians, as if they had been the Authors of it. Tacit. An∣nal. lib. 15. Ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos, & quaesitissimis poe∣nis affecit, quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat. Auctor nominis ejus Christus, qui Tiberio imperitante, per Procuratorem Pon∣tium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat. Repressaque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat, non modò per Judaeam originem ejus mali, sed per Urbem etiam, quò cuncta undi{que} atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebran∣turque. Igitur primò correpti qui fatebantur; deinde indicio eorum mul∣titudo ingens, haud perinde in crimine incendii quàm odio humani gene∣ris, convicti sunt. Et pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis con∣tecti laniatu canum interirent, aut crucibus affixi, aut flammandi; atque, ubi defecisset dies, in usum nocturni luminis urerentur. Wherefore Nero to suppress the rumour of his own vile act, by suborning false witnesses

got those to be accused who being hatefull for their wickedness were com∣monly called Christians, and punished them with exquisite tortures. The Author of that Sect was one Christus, who in the reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate the Deputy. Which damnable superstition, suppressed for a time, broke out afresh, not only in Judaea the first source of that Mischief, but also in the City of Rome, whither all villainous and shamefull things flow from all parts, and are held in great esteem. Where∣fore they were first laid hold of that confessed themselves Christians; after∣ward by their discovery a huge multitude were condemned, not so much for be∣ing guilty of firing the City, as that they were hated of all mankind. They ad∣ded also reproaches to their death, clothing some of them with the skins of beasts, to be worried by dogs; others were crucified, and others were burnt after day-light, to serve in stead of lynks or torches. This Persecution was not thir∣ty years after the Passion of Christ. I appeal now to any one, if he can think it possible that these that lived so near to that time when Christ was said to be crucified, that they might make exact inquiry into the matter; I appeal to him, if he can think it possible they could expose their lives and fortunes to the hatred and cruelty of the Heathen, if they were not most certain that there was such a man that was crucified at Ie∣rusalem: and demand further, he dying so ignominious a death, whe∣ther it be again possible that there should not be some extraordinary thing in the Person of Christ, to make them adhere to him so after his death, with the common hatred of all men and hazard of their lives.

7. And therefore Lucian, in his Peregrinus, does rightly term Christ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that great man crucified in Palaestine. For at least he spoke the opinion of Christ's followers, if not his own. And the doctrine of the Christians he calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the marvellous wisdome of the Chri∣stians, whom he affirms to renounce the Heathen Deities, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and to worship their crucified Sophist, or their crucified Master and Teacher. And in his Philopatris, if it be his (and if it be not, it is not much material, being it must be of some Writer coetaneous to him) there are some inklings of very high matters in Christianity, as of the Trinity, of Life Eternal, of the Galile∣an's Ascension into the third Heaven, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, walking up the Air into the third Heaven, where having learned most excellent matters he renewed us by water. Which is likely to be some intimation of the Ascension of Christ into Heaven, or else of Paul's being rapt up into the third Heaven, though the Narration thereof be depraved. And Critias in that Dialogue swears 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, By the son that is from the Father. And he and Triephon jearing Divine Providence betwixt them, as being set out by the Religious, as if things were written in Heaven, Critias asketh Triephon if all things, even the affairs of the Scythians, were written there also. To which Triephon answereth, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, all things, if so be CHRESTUS be also amongst the Nations. All which passages intimate what a venerable Opinion there was spred in the World concerning Christ, and that

therefore there was some extraordinary worth and excellency in his Person. Which Conclusion I shall make use of in its due place.

8. In the mean time I shall onely add that mention made of him in Suetonius, in Vita Claudii, cap. 25. where he is called Chrestus, as be∣fore in Lucian's Philopatris he was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Iudaeos, impulsore Chresto, assiduè tumultuantes Româ expulit, He expelled the Iews out of Rome, they making perpetual tumults by the instigation of Chrestus. Which is the highest Record of our Religion that is to be found in prophane Writers; and no marvel, it reaching so near the Passion of Christ from whence our Religion commenced. For the reign of Clau∣dius began about seven years after Christ's Passion, and ended within thirteen years. And that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, Taci∣tus himself gives witness in what we have above recited. But a more accurate Chronologie of these things cannot be expected but from them who are more nearly concerned, viz. the Christians them∣selves.

9. Iosephus his Testimonie had reached higher in time, if we could be assured that what he seemed to write of Christ was not foisted in, by some thankless fraud of unconscionable Superstitionists, or short-sighted Politicians, that could not see that the solidity of Christian Religion wanted not their lies and forgeries to sustain it. But, for my own part, I think it very unlikely that Iosephus, being no Christian, should write at that rate concerning Christ as he does, besides other reasons which might be alledged. And therefore for the greater compendium, I shall be content to acknowledge that what is found in his Antiquities concerning the crucified Iesus is supposititious,* 1.22 and none of his own. Which Omis∣sion I impute partly to his Prudence and partly to his Integrity. For certainly he knowing the affairs of Iesus so well as he did, could not in his own judgment and conscience say any thing ill of him, more then that he was crucified; which was no fault in him, but in his unjust and cruel Murderers: and simply to have nominated him in his History, without saying any thing of him, had been a frigid, lame business; and to have spoke well of him, had been ungratefull both to his own Coun∣try-men the Iews and also to the Pagans. Wherefore it being against his Conscience to vilifie him and revile him and his followers, so as the Heathen Historians have done; and against his Prudence, being not convinced that he was the very Messiah, to declare how excellent a per∣son he was; it remains that in all likelihood he would play the Politician so far as not to speak of him at all.

10. We shall produce but one Testimony more out of Pagan Histo∣rians, and that is out of Ammianus Marcellinus, concerning Iulian's purpose to re-edifie the Temple of Ierusalem, that the Iews might sacri∣fice there according to their ancient manner. Which was looked upon to be done more out of envy to the Christians, then in love to the Jews; and in an affront to that universal and inestimable Sacrifice of the body of Christ once offered upon the Cross, which was to cease the Jewish Sacrifices, and to put an end to the exercise of the Mosaical ceremonies. Ruffinus and Sozomen declare the matter more at large; but we shall con∣tain

our selves within the recitall of what Ammianus has written, (lib. 23. near the beginning) who being an Heathen, puts as fair a gloss upon the Emperour's Action as he could; but the Event is plainly enough set down, and such as does much confirm the Truth of Chri∣stian Religion. Julianus imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens propagare, ambitiosum quondam apud Jerosolymam templum (quod post multae & internecina certamina obsidente Vespasiano, postea & Tito, agrè est expugnatum,) instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis; negotiumque maturandum Alipio dederat Antiochiensi, qui olim Britan∣nias curaverat pro Praefectis. Cum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alipi∣us, juvaretque Provinciae Rector; metuendi globi flammarum prope fun∣damenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum, exustis aliquoties ope∣rantibus, inaccessum; hocque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente, cessavit inceptum. Julian having a mind to propagate the memorie of his Reign by the greatness of his Acts, purposed to rebuild with immense charges that once-stately Temple at Jerusalem (which with much adoe after many a bloudy battel was taken, after siege laid to it by Vespasian first, and then by Titus.) This business was committed to the care of one Alipius of Anti∣och, who had once been Deputy of Britain for the Governours. Where∣fore when this same Alipius did stoutly urge on the work, and the Governor of the Province gave him his assistance; dreadfull balls of fire breaking out near the foundation with frequent sallies, burning up sundry times the workmen, made the place inaccessible. And thus the Enterprise ceased, the Element directed by a peremptory destiny beating them off from their work.

CHAP. X. 1. Further Proofs that both Iews and Pagans acknowledge the Reality of the Person of Christ and his doing of Miracles. 2. The force of these allegations added to the Prophecie of the Time of Christ's coming and the Characters of his Person. 3. That the Characters of his Person are still more exact, but not to be insisted upon till the proof of the Truth of the History of the Gospel. 4, 5. That the transcendent Eminency of Christ's Person is demonstrable from what has already been alledged and from his Resurrection, without recourse to the Gospels. From whence it necessarily follows That his Life was writ. 6. That the Life of Christ was writ timely, while Eye-witnesses were alive, proved by a very forcible Demonstration. 7. That Eternal Happiness through Christ was the hope of the First Christians, proved out of Lucian and S. Paul; and of a peculiar Self-Evidence of Truth in his Epistles. 8. That the first and most early meaning of Christianity is comprised in those Writings. 9. That Eternal Salvation depending upon the Knowledge of Christ, it was impossible but that the Apostles should take care betimes that the Miracles of Christ should be recorded. 10. That

the Apostles could not fail to have the Life of Christ written, to pre∣vent the erroneous attempts of the Pragmatical, to satisfie the Importu∣nity of Believers, or in obedience to divine Instigation. 11. That it is as incredible that the Apostles neglected the writing of the Life of Christ, as that a wise man in the affairs of the World should neglect the writing of his Will when he had opportunity of doing it. 12. That, it being so incredible but that the Life of Christ should be writ, and there being found writings that comprize the same, it naturally fol∣lows, That they are they.

1. THese Testimonies out of Heathen Writers may suffice to take off that fond and groundless suspicion of the whole History of Christ being a mere Allegory or Fiction. A thing that the greatest Enemies thereof had never the face to object to the Christians, neither Iews nor Pagans, nor our modern Atheists, especially the more nasute sort of them, such as Pomponatius and Vaninus, who do not only acknowledge Christ's Person, but his Miracles; only forsooth they referre them to the influence of the Stars and celestial Intelligences, of which I shall speak in its proper place. The Iews also acknowledge his Miracles, but add that he was a Magician: And Iulian himself and Celsus, who wrote against the Christians, never had the face to deny but that Iesus of Nazareth did once live in Iudaea, and did strange things; though the one revolted from him, and the other never believed in him. And Hie∣rocles, that highly-moral Pagan, does not deny the Miracles of Christ, nor the excellencie of his Person, but contends that Apollonius Tyaneus may at least come into competition with him. And to say nothing of Ti∣berius his purpose of having him entred into the catalogue of the Ro∣man Deities by a decree of the Senate, because the report thereof is from parties, viz. from Eusebius out of Tertullian; we may more appo∣sitely adjoin that Adrianus Severus and Heliogabalus, though in vain, attempted afterward the same thing. And particularly of Severus, Lam∣pridius an heathen Historian writes, that this Emperour intending to erect a Temple to Christ, and to worship him amongst the rest of the Gods, was hindred by the Priests, qui consulentes sacra, repererant omnes Christianos futuros, si id optatò evenisset, & templa reliqua deserenda: who by some way of divination or other had found out, that if the Emperour's mind was fulfilled all would turn Christians, and the other Temples would be left desolate. So that there was a very high and venerable opinion of Christ, even with those that were not Christians.

2. Which evidences out of prophane Writers surely even alone, can have no small force to beget the belief of that which I now contend for, viz. That Christ did once live here on Earth, and that he was a Person very famous and remarkable for some things in him, done by him or hap∣ning to him. To which Testimonies if you add those clear Prophecies that foretold that the Jews Messiah was to come about that time that Christ is said to have lived (in which both the Heathen and Christian stories do agree) and those Characters that we know for a * 1.23 certain do belong to him, such as I have already largely enough insisted upon; it is

impossible, unless Scepticism be heightned unto a disease as perfect as either Madness or down-right Mopedness, but that any one should be∣lieve more of Christ then I contend for at this present.

3. And yet the Characters of his Person set out in the Prophecies are still more exact then what I have produced hitherto, to prove that he was indeed the expected Messiah. As that he should be of the Family of David, of the Tribe of Iuda▪ born of a Virgin, and in Bethlehem; that he should open the eyes of the blind, and make the lame walk, and other such like miracles; that he should be put to such a death as that his hands and feet should be pierced, that they should cast lots for his garment, and give him vinegar to drink, &c.

But these particularities having no force till we have proved that the History of the Gospel is true, we must defer making any use of them till we have cleared that point. In the pursuit whereof we must endeavour to prove these three things. 1. That the Life and Death of Christ was writ in a serious manner by some or other; not Romantically but Histori∣cally, as Plutarch, Tacitus and Suetonius are conceived to have writ the Lives of Illustrious Persons and Emperours. 2. That it was mature∣ly writ, while there were living Eye-witnesses of the things related. 3. And that those Gospels we receive now-adays, are the true Copies of those that were so maturely written.

4. The first part seems to me fully demonstrable from what we have proved already, without any recourse to the History of the Gospel, viz. That there was a very transcendent Eminency in the Person of Christ, as to whom both the Time and main Characters of the expected Mes∣siah did so exactly agree: Whence he could not but attract the eyes of the World after him, and gain very zealous and faithfull Followers, that would at least by word of mouth divulge the things they saw and observed so strange and Miraculous in him. Whence he could not escape having his Life and Death written by some Pen or other, especially it being so certain he * 1.24 rose from the dead, as it is.

5. For the Jews having crucified him, nothing could be more odi∣ous to them then that report of his Followers, That God miracu∣lously raised him from the dead; whereby Christ was acquitted by a special hand of Providence of all their wicked aspersions and false accu∣sations, and themselves condemned of the highest crime they could imagine themselves capable of, even the murdering of their Messiah. Wherefore the attestation of that which would make them so odious and execrable even in their own eyes, if it were true, must needs make the Attestors thereof very hatefull to them and unsupportable; and therefore raise against them all the mischief they possibly could. Whence it is impossible that the Disciples of Christ should maintain so hainous a falshood, no not if they had made no conscience of lying; and yet still more impossible, if we consider their Simplicity and Innocency, a pro∣perty in them of which I think it never came into the mind of any one to doubt. I conclude therefore, That a Person so plainly prefigured by ancient and sacred Prophecies, so refulgent in miraculous Vertues and unheard-of Providences, one who for the Wonders he did, by the

unbelieving Iews was accounted a Magician, by the Heathen Philoso∣phers and Atheists acknowledged a Worker of Miracles, and by his own Followers proclaimed the expected Messiah, and the onely-begot∣ten Son of God, whom he had miraculously raised from the dead after the Iews had crucified him; I say, That a Person thus wonderfully qualified above any that ever yet came into the World, should fail of ha∣ving his Life historically recorded, is a thing farre more incredible then the greatest Miracle that ever was yet upon Record.

6. And now in the second place, That this History or Record of his Life and Death was timely enough written, viz. while the Eye-witnesses of those things which he did or hapned to him were yet living, is also very clear, if we consider the great importance of compleating such an History in due time. For certainly it could not but seem a matter of very weighty moment, Christ being believed by his Disciples to be so holy and divine a Person as he was, and that their faithful adherence to him was their onely assurance of Everlasting Life. Which great Truth of a blessed Immortality they were evidently taught by that suc∣cess their Messiah had upon earth, which was as ill as could be, he being so spightfully abused and crucified in so ignominious a manner; whenas yet they might with the rest of the Iews have expected that he should have broke the Romane yoke, and been a glorious and victorious Prince to their great advantage in this World. But they saw that Providence wa∣ved this, and by an high hand exalted him into another Kingdome, raising him from the dead and taking him visibly into Heaven. Which was so palpable a Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality, and of a pe∣culiar advantage to the followers of this great Favourite of the Al∣mighty, when they were to enter into that other state; that the power of Conscience and the Sense of their own good in the other Life would make them very careful and officious to preserve the memory of their Divine Teacher, who both shewed them the way to and the certainty of Immortal Happiness. Which piece of Gratitude they were still more strictly bound to perform, it being so obvious for them to look upon Christ as a publick gift of God to the World, not to be restrained to that Age then present, but to be transmitted to all Posterity; nor con∣fined within that little handful of Followers he left behind him, but to be made known to all Israel: nor could they long be ignorant but that the Gentiles also should have share in him, especially upon his Rejection by the Jews, and so he was to become the Light and Salvation of all Nations from Age to Age according to the Prophets.

7. That this was the early sense of the Church concerning the know∣ledge of Christ for eternal Salvation, the nature of the thing it self, as I have already intimated, doth plainly demonstrate. For what meaning could they possibly make of God's raising him from the dead, and visi∣bly assuming him into Heaven, but that he should be a palpable Pledge of that future Happinesse which was to accrue to them that would be his faithfull Adherents and Followers? This questionlesse was the belief of the Apostles and all succeeding Christians, as the * 1.25 Heathens them∣selves witnesse of them, though in a jearing manner. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, But being catechized and instructed, be perswaded by me, if you desire to live for ever. This Theam is much insisted upon by the Apostle Paul every where in his Epistles. Which though I may seem too hasty in naming so soon, while I am but driving on a method to demonstrate That there are very time∣ly Records of Christianity within the Ages of Eye-witnesses of the things that are recorded; yet I think I have not done preposterously, if we consider that there is a peculiar kind of Self-evidence in that Apo∣stle's writings that they are not supposititious or fictitious: It being, in my judgement, out of the power of man to imitate that unaffected fer∣vour, those natural and yet unexpected Schemes of high and serious zeal, those parenthetical exundances of weighty sense and matter, swelling out, I had almost said, beyond the bounds of Logical cohe∣rence, that vigorous passion and elevation of spirit, and yet all so un∣suspectable of any humane artifice, that we cannot but be assured that he that wrote these Epistles was throughly possessed and transported with the belief of the things he wrote. I am sure I cannot but be assured, and find my self in an utter incapacity of doubting thereof, who yet am naturally as melancholy and suspiciou•• as other Mortals, as I could prove by early specimens of this kind, if modesty would permit me to parallel the follies and errours of my childhood with the mature conclusions of such as have affected the repute of being the great Wits of the World.

8. Wherefore being so fully perswaded in my self, and never meet∣ing with any one that could have the face to deny but the Epistles of S. Paul were the Writings of one that was in very good earnest, my appeal to them in this place for the sense and meaning of the first and Apostolick faith I could not hold unseasonable. But it is evident in these Epistles that the Writer of them lived within the Age of the Eye∣witnesses of the wonderful things that were either done by, or hapned to Christ. Whence it plainly appears also, That that sense of the Gospel which Paul declares in these Epistles was the first and most early meaning that the Apostles conceived concerning the Mystery of Christianity, viz. That Christ's Passion was an expiation for sin, and that we are purified by Faith in him, and that our Eternal Salvation depends on the know∣ledge of him.

9. Now I appeal to the most Sceptical man living, if a matter of so vast moment as this, that concerns the common Salvation of Mankind in that future and Eternal state, can be sluggishly and carelesly prosecuted by those that knew both the truth and importance of that affair, and had a more then ordinary engagement to look after it, and whose consciences could not but threaten them with the loss of Everlasting life, if they did not use all honest endeavours to set on foot the most effectual way they could the certain knowledge of so concerning a Mysterie. And whether it be possible to conceive the First Christians so sottish and devoid of sense, as not to see how necessary it was to record the circumstances of the Birth, Life, and Death of our Saviour, and all the Miracles that he did, while the mouths of unbelievers and gainsaiers might be stopt by recourse to Eye-witnesses of the things that were to be related of him.

10. And if we could imagine any such supine carelesness or back∣wardness in the Apostles themselves, who were the fittest to write these Records, or at least those that were throughly informed by them; yet the Forwardness and Pragmaticalness of others, who could not hold their hands from writing of such strange matters as hapned in Iudaea, though not sufficiently instructed in the truth of them, would even force them to write down the truth of the History of Christ so timely, for the preventi∣on of errour, and to set their own name to the Record. To say nothing of the Importunity of the newly-converted Christians, who could not but be extremely desirous very punctually to know all things concerning that Divine Person whose name they now religiously professed, and whom they acknowledged to be the onely-begotten Son of God. Where∣fore the Apostles themselves, or else some throughly instructed by them, could not chuse but draw up a Narration of the Birth, Life, and Death of Christ, and the many considerables therein, for the Comfort and satisfaction of their Proselytes, and that there might be a true Rela∣tion of these things to Posterity for ever. To all which you may adde, That if it were possible that all these should fail, (which I think is in∣credible,) yet Providence would not fail, and supernatural Inspiration, to drive them on to the seasonable Accomplishment of so important a Work.

11. In my Judgement these are an undeniable Demonstration, that the History of Christ has been so timely recorded as we contend for, by either the Apostles or those that were intimately acquainted with them. And that it is infinitely more improbable that this has not been done, then that one of a great estate and many children, and wise in the affairs of the World, should, when it was in his power to write, neglect the writing of his Will. A thing that none would believe, un∣less this Will of his after his decease could not be found; nor then haply neither, but rather suspect some body has burnt it. But if it be found, and appear such as becomes a man of his wisdome and discretion to have made, it will not be in the power of any man to doubt of it that is not interessed in the matter: and if any do, he will be looked upon as a very fool or fraudulent fellow, that sought some advantage by questioning the Will.

12. The case is very highly the same here, in these Records of Chri∣stianity we speak of. For according to plain deduction of Reason we see it impossible but that they should be writ so timely, and the out∣ward Event answers punctually to these Demonstrations of our own mind. For there are two Records of the Life and Death of Christ written by two of his Apostles, viz. Matthew and Iohn, a third by Mark who was much conversant with the Apostle Peter, and a fourth by Luke who was a great companion of S. Paul, whose Acts together with others of the Apostles he also recorded, and ends the narration before Paul's departure from Rome into Spain. Whence we may con∣clude that Luke wrote his Gospel while Paul was yet alive, of whose transactions himself was an Eye-witness, as Matthew and Iohn of all the things they wrote, or at least most of them; and the rest they had from

other Apostles, who were by when they were not, or from the mouth of our Saviour himself. This Conclusion is so plain, that it is as ri∣diculous to deny it, as for one to deny the above-mentioned Will, which none can do without being hooted at for a Fool. For when we see external Events such as plain and undeniable Reason cannot but compute even necessary to come to pass, it must be either Folly or Fraud that makes any doubt or deny they are really come to pass, when they are exhibited thus manifestly to their outward senses.

CHAP. XI. 1. Other Proofs, That the Life of Christ was writ by his Apostles or his Followers, out of Grotius. 2. An Answer to a foolish surmise that those Records writ by the Apostles might be all burnt. 3. That the Copies have not been corrupted by either carelesness or fraud.

1. THis it self was a sufficient Demonstration to prove that the Histo∣ry of the Life of Christ was writ so timely as I affirm, and namely by some of his own Apostles, and those that were coetaneous to them, particularly by Matthew, Mark, Luke and Iohn, according as the Title of each Gospel does import. But we will not neglect to men∣tion what Grotius also makes use of in this place, viz. That these Go∣spels are cited under these names by Iustin, Irenaeus and Clemens, the first Fathers of the Church: That Tertullian affirms that in his time the original of some of them were extant, though betwixt an hundred and two hundred years after they were written: That all the Churches acknowledged them as Authentick, before there was any cal∣ling of Councils about that matter: That neither Jew nor Pagan ever made any controversie thereof: That Iulian, though an enemy to Christianity, did expresly confess that these Writings that are under the name of Peter, Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, were indeed their writings: and lastly, That it is as fond a thing to doubt thereof, as to question whether those Poems that go under Homer and Virgil's names be in very deed their Poems or no. Which arguments certainly cannot but have their due weight with them that are not over-pervicacious: but, as I think, I had sufficiently evinced the Conclusion before.

2. Against which I do not see what the most perverse Wit can in∣vent or object, unless he will say That the first Records the Evangelists wrote, and the faithful Copies taken from them, were burnt, and that these that we have now-adays are an After-Forgery of the Church. Which is as bold and foolish an allegation, as if a Son, who did not like his share appointed him in his Father's Will, though the Will appear as authentick as any can do, should pretend that they had burnt the true Will, and forged this to his damage: whenas yet he cannot prove the least tittle of this Imputation. Nay I may say it is far more

foolish then this. For this may be feasable, to burn a single Writing, and then make a new one in the stead. But it is altogether impossible for the Enemies of the Church ever to have suppressed or made away with those First true Copies of the Gospel; which doubtlesse were in the custody of many thousand persons in severall parts of the world. For the Writings being so very little in bulk, and of so great concernment, what Christian would not have a copy of them that was but able to reade? Besides that there is not the least hint in History of any such thing. Nor indeed can any Historian witnesse of matters of this kinde. For who could assure him, if there had been any attempt of burning them, that they were all burnt? and if any were but left, they would multiply again in a moment: and that but few would be delivered up, we may be very well assured, when they bore such love to that Truth they conteined, that they preferred it before their own lives.

3. It is therefore undoubtedly true, that the Copies that we have this day of the Evangelists are Transcripts from their first Originals, without any Interruption. The only scruple that remains now is concerning our third and last Conclusion, whether they may not be altered and depra∣ved in some measure in so long succession of time, either by chance, or the pious frauds of the Church. To which I answer in the first place, That it is incredible but that the Gospels should escape as well as the Writings of Plato, Aristotle, or Tully, if we look at only such alterations as may proceed from the heedlesnesse of the Transcribers; and yet no man doubteth but that their Writings do now fully communicate their mindes to the World concerning those things they do declare, as fully and perfectly as they themselves writ them. And as for any pious frauds of the Church, I answer, That the Church was more simple and honest in the Apostolical times and some Ages after, within which com∣passe so many Copies of the Gospel were extant, and so dispersed throughout the World, that they could not adulterate those Writings if they would. For as I have said already, those Writings being of so little a bulk, and consequently the Transcription of them so easie, the Copies would be multiplied almost equally to the number of Christians, I mean of those that could reade; and being so holy a Writ, the Transcri∣ption be made with all possible care and circumspection. For certainly Christians were very serious in their Religion in those dayes. Besides it is very reasonable to believe, that a special Providence would keep off both chance and fraud from wronging so Sacred Writings in any thing materiall; and if not materiall, what are they the worse? Not to men∣tion how Awe and Reverence to such holy Writings would naturally hold them off from mingling any thing by way of fraud or intermed∣ling with them: and the Effect makes good this presage. For in peru∣sing of them we plainly discover that Harmony and agreement of one thing with another, that we may be well assured that there is nothing spurious or adulterate foisted into the Text. The multitude of various Lections also further confirms our Conclusion; which is an argument of the multitudes of Copies I spoke of: and the collection of these various readings a Testimony even of the faithfulnesse of these later Ages oft he

Church, and of the high reverence they had to these Records, in that they would not so much as embesell the various Readings of them, but keep them still on foot for the prudent to judge of. And lastly, upon perusall of those various Readings, the clear discovery that nothing at all is lost of the Truth of Christian Religion by any of them (and consequently no detriment or prejudice done to any but such as are more for factions and opinions then the real power of Godliness) this also ratifies the Truth we drive at, namely, That those Copies of the Gospel which we daily peruse are incorrupted, and that therefore those things contained in them are certainly true, as being writ by the pens of those who had suf∣ficient knowledge of what they declare, being either Eye-witnesses of the same, or conferring with them that were, and both of that unsus∣pected Integrity, that the like is not to be found in any Witnesses else in the World.

CHAP. XII. 1. More particular Characters of the Person of the Messiah in the Prophe∣cyes. 2. His being born at Bethlehem; 3. And that of a Virgin. 4. His curing the lame and the blinde. 5. The piercing of his hands and feet.

1. THus have we undeniably demonstrated the Truth of the Gospel and the things therein contained, and consequently the Certainty and Reality of the Christian Religion: which being done, we can now more seasonably adde some few Characters more of the Person of the Messiah so particular and expresse, that it may justly ravish us with the admirati∣on of so punctuall a Providence as is discoverable therefrom in Predicti∣ons and Prophecies. I will not instance in many, because we have alrea∣dy finished our designe; and those that love to abound more in matters of this nature, may consult others that have handled them more fully and copiously. We shall only resume what we above mentioned, of his being born at Bethlehem, of the Family of David, and that of a Virgin; his making the blinde to see and the lame to walk; the piercing of his hands and feet; and their casting lots for his vesture. That these things were true of him, the Gospel plainly testifies: and that they were prophesied of him, is as plain out of the Prophecies of the Old Testament, which we shall here recite.

2. And first that of Micah,* 1.26 But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from the dayes of Eternity. This is a very particular description of the Per∣son of the Messiah from the place of his birth. And it was the confessed glosse of the chief Priests and Scribes upon this Text, as appears Matt. 2.4, 5. To which Episcopius addes the suffrage of the Chaldee Paraphrast

and R. Solomon Iarchi. But that which makes this prediction and the divine Providence more admirable are the Circumstances of its comple∣tion. For Bethlehem was not the Town of abode of either Ioseph or Ma∣ry, nor went they thither at that time of their own accord, nor upon an ordinary occasion: but Augustus, (surely not without some special inci∣tation from above,) made a Decree that all the World, that is, all un∣der the Romane Empire, should have their names enrolled in publick Records. Wherefore all went to be enrolled, every one into his own Ci∣ty. Whence it was that Ioseph also went up from Galilee out of the Ci∣ty of Nazareth into Iudaea, unto the City of David which is called Beth∣lehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. Whence, as Groti∣us would infer, it is evident that Mary was of the house of David as well as Ioseph, else she would have resorted to the City of her own stock or kindred, and not to Bethlehem. But the admirable hand of Providence that all take notice of in this matter is this, That from this act it was so manifest to all the World that Christ was of the lineage of David, and was, according to the Prophecie, born at Bethlehem. A thing which if it had not been true, the Iews could have easily confuted. But the Christians were able to make good what they asserted, by appealing to these Records kept in the Roman Archiva, and were to be seen, as Iustin, Tertullian and Chrysostome do affirm, in their Ages. Which blows away all the foolish and fabulous Parachronisms of the Iews con∣cerning the time of Iesus at one blast.

3. The next Character of his Person is that he was to be born of a Virgin. Which the Evangelists affirm he was, and two Prophecies predict he should be. The first Genesis 3. from God's own mouth, That the seed of the woman should break the serpents head. Which seed certainly was Christ, who could not be properly called the seed of the woman more then the seed of the man, but that it was a prefiguration that Christ should be born of a Virgin without the help of a man.

The other Prophecie is that of Isaiah ch. 7. v. 14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a sonne, and shall call his name Immanuel.

This Prophecie I confess is applicable, and that with much ease and perspicuity, to some certain Maid or Virgin, suppose one that the Pro∣phet Esay was to take to wife, at the time he spoke this Prophecie to King Ahaz. The first sense whereof is only this, That within such a compass of time that this Maid should be married, bring forth, and educate her infant, that is to say, within the time of his infancy, the Sy∣rian and Israelitical forces should unsuccessfully leave Iudaea, and in the interim there should be no such scarcity as was feared by Ahaz, which is intimated in that Phrase, butter and honey shall he eat, &c. The name also of the Child was therefore called Immanuel, God with us, because he was used as a sign of God's special assistance and Providence over Ahaz and his Kingdome.

Moreover I cannot affirm that any of the ancient or modern Jews ever interpreted this Prophecie of the Messiah. Of which notwithstan∣ding

there can be no worse consequence then this, That the first meaning thereof being so easie & obvious, and made good by event, and none of the Jews ever venturing to applie it to the Messiah, that nothing but the cer∣tain knowledge of the Evangelist that Christ was indeed thus born, could move him to make this application of it to the manner of his birth. But that being certainly known, as also that Principle of the Jewish 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of giving an higher and fuller sense to the Historical or Prophetical pas∣sages in the Old Testament (all things hapning to them in types) it were impossible but that this Interpretation should be made of this Pro∣phecie; it belonging more perfectly and properly to Christ then to I∣saiah's son: whose mother was only a Virgin before she was his mother, but Mary the mother of Christ was a Virgin both before and after; and the Prophets son merely a nominal Immanuel, but Christ was truly God with us, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily: And last∣ly, the Prophet bidding Ahaz ask a sign of God, either in the depth or in the height above, it is plain that by a sign is meant some wonderfull pro∣digious sign out of the course of Nature. And therefore when the Pro∣phet saies, God himself will give a sign, Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, &c. it is manifest that this sign is to be prodigious or preternatural; which was never fully nor properly accomplished before the true Emmanuel was born of his ever-blessed mother the Virgin Mary. For the deliverance of Iudaea from the two Kings within the space of the Childs infancy was not a Sign, but the thing signified, and a Type of the great deliverance to be wrought by Christ. What the Iews cavil concerning the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, is very weak and frivolous. They that know any thing in the Hebrew tongue, are well assured that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies properly a Virgin, such as never knew a man. Which ap∣pears both from the derivation and the constant use of its signification. To which you may add, That it is thus translated in this very place by Onkelos, Ionathan and the Seventy. Insomuch that this Prophecie seems to me more certainly to be applicable to Christ in the most proper sense thereof then any Prophecie else (which has any other reference then to him alone) that was ever applied to the Messiah by the Jews themselves.

4. That of the lame, the deaf and blind, is in Isaiah ch. 35. v. 5. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. Which words though they may have a Metaphori∣cal completion in the daies of Hezekiah, yet there is no question but the proper and reall fulfilling of them was intended for the Messiah, as is very sutable to what goes immediately before, vers. 4. Behold your God will come, he will come and save you. And certainly God could never be said to come so properly at any time, as in the person of our blessed Saviour, who is rightly styled God blessed for ever.

5. My last instance shall be Psalm 22. which the ancient Rabbins do freely and apertly confess to be a Prophecie concerning the Messiah. In which some particular passages, however express and precise, did never happen to any other that they can entitle to the Psalm, but did punctu∣ally and literally happen to him. As that vers. 18. They parted my gar∣ments

among them, and cast lots upon my vesture: which is verified exactly Matth. 27. v. 35. And then again verf. 16. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. I know not whether I should add also vers. 14. I am poured out like water; and parallel it with Iohn 19. v. 34. But the particular prediction of that former circumstance seems admirable, that the manner of his death should be so punctually set down by the Prophet. For this was very really and literally fulfilled in his Crucifixion; wherein the hands and feet of Male∣factors were pierced with nails whereby they were fastned to the Cross. Nor ought the various readings of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 weaken the perfect∣ness of this prediction. For when they have made the best they can of it, yet are they, whether they will or no, forced to acknowledge that there is some special execution or mangling done on the hands and feet, by the sense of the Text. But that it is just so as we ordinarily interpret it, the suffrage of the most learned of the Jews themselves,* 1.27 as Iacob Ben Chaiim, Moses Hadarsan, and the Seventy do sufficiently confirm. To which also the Exposition of the Chaldee Paraphrast, Aquila, and the Masora contribute something. To which we may add, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 with∣out another word is not sense, and that there might by some neglect first be a change of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 into 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which sound both alike, and then of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 into 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which are writ almost like, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 having no difference but of bigness, and that not much, and therefore are very often con∣founded. This is more likely then the leaving out a whole word, which they that read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 do. That allegation also of Grotius against this rea∣ding does not want its weight, namely, that the similitude of the Lion is used but three verses before, and therefore not likely to be used again so soon, especially it being mentioned also some four verses after. Lastly, the Event ought to make an end of this Critical controversie with those that are not prejudiced. And though it will not stop the mouths of the contumacious, yet it will chear the hearts of those that are pious and ra∣tional with the pleasure of the contemplation of so punctual a Provi∣dence over the affairs of men.

CHAP. XIII. 1. That if the Gospel of Christ had been false and fabulous, it would not have had that success at Jerusalem by the preaching of the Apostles. 2. The severity also of the Precepts and other hardships to be undergone would have kept them off from being Christians. 3. As also the incre∣dibleness of the Resurrection of Christ, and of our being rewarded at the Conflagration of the World. 4, 5. The meanness also and contempti∣bleness of the first Authours would have turned men off, nor would they have been listned to by any one, if the Resurrection of Christ had not been fully ascertain'd by them. 6. Which the Apostles might be sure of, being only matter of Fact; nor is it imaginable they would declare it without

being certain of it, by reason of the great hazards they underwent thereby.

1. I Might note other remarkable Particulars out of this Psalme and other places that do contribute to the more punctual characterizing the Person of Christ; but I have already exceeded the limits of my own design, which was to engage in these things only so far as might suffice to demonstrate the Reality of the Mystery we treat of. Which when we have confirmed by one Argument more, and answered an Ob∣jection or two, we shall then put an end to this Third part of our Dis∣course.

The last Argument therefore is briefly this, A Religion so unassisted by men, nay, so opposite to them, both their natural Belief and Inte∣rest, could never have spred it self so in the World, if it had been false and fabulous, and not really true at the bottome. How mightily it spred it self, appears out of the History of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, as also out of the Epistles of S. Paul, even then when the greatest opposers of it, the Jews, were upon the spot, to whom it was ne∣cessary for them first to preach it, and who had opportunity to enquire diligently touching the matter of Fact, of every thing that was alledged by the Apostles after the Passion of Christ, as done by him or hapning to him, or done by themselves, after they had received the Gift of the Holy Ghost according to promise, and wrought such Miracles as he did. There were many thousands of the Jews converted, whom it is impossi∣ble to imagine, at least all of them, (and the more inquisitive and nasute might have undeceived the rest) to have been so supine and careless, as not to enquire diligently into things in a matter of so great importance as their Eternal Salvation, and of so present dammage and loss to them that they forfeited the favour of all their countriemen, and unavoidably charged them and their Rulers with the most impious Crime that ever Mortals could commit.

2. But the Success rested not here, but reached out of Iudaea into all parts of the Romane Empire, there being gained innumerable companies of Believers every where, till at last Nations and Kingdomes and Sce∣ptres, and, in a word, the whole Roman Empire became Christian. This is the Truth of the story, which no man can deny; and that this story could not be true, unless the Christian Religion be true also, I mean those miraculous things which are recorded of Christ and his Apostles, is further demonstrable, as well from the harshness as the incredibility of the Doctrine of this Religion, as also the weakness and contemptibleness of the first Founders and Disseminators of it. For whether we consider the Precepts of Christianity, they are very strict and severe, very unkind and unwelcome to flesh and bloud, such as the Animal life cannot at all relish nor entertain, unless some extraordinary thing be adjoined, that forces admittance. Self-denial, Mortification, the putting a man in a way of necessary or very probable persecutions and afflictions from with∣out, besides the renouncing of those pleasures that no external power hinders him of, can be no acceptable news to the natural man. Besides

the Scoffs and Reproaches of the world that would undoubtedly follow their change of Religion. Which change could not but seem still more grievous and intolerable, in that it was to be whole and entire from the present Superstition they were educated in, which they were utterly to renounce. Whence their hazard and infamie could not but be greater.

3. In the undergoing of which hardships they had nothing to sus∣tain themselves but the belief of such things which a man would think might startle them most of all, that is, their Reward after this life, no other waies ascertained to them, but by the rising of one from the dead after he had been three daies buried; which was exhibited to them as a pledge of that blessed Resurrection which those that embraced the Chri∣stian doctrine should enjoy at the burning of the World, and turning the Earth into ashes and cinders. A thing so incredible to humane wit, that no man unless he was really convinced by some infallible way that it was so indeed, could ever admit of, or abstain from denying with an addition of scoffs and derision, as it fell out with the Epicureans and Stoicks, Acts 17.18. Wherefore without all controversie the first embracers of Christianity entertained it upon no other terms but manifest proof of Eye-witnesses, and the Evidence of such persons as they saw very faithful and serious, and as had the effect of this great power of God, that raised Iesus Christ from the dead, manifestly residing upon themselves, where∣by they were able to doe Miracles; as is also recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

4. Now for the First Authours and Founders of this Religion, how weak and contemptible they were as to worldly concernments, appears plainly from hence, that they were not recommended to the World ei∣ther for their nobility of Birth, or skill in humane Arts and Sci∣ences, nor had they any secular power to assist them, nor any force of arms to either overcome others, or defend themselves, for all they were exposed to so great and imminent dangers perpetually. Our Savi∣our himself was but of mean Parentage, a Carpenters Son, crucified betwixt two thieves as a hainous Malefactor. What therefore can there be imaginable that should move his Apostles and Disciples to ad∣here to him so faithfully after his death, and to expose themselves to all manner of jeopardies, all manner of sufferings, whippings, imprison∣ments, long journies, tortures, and death it self? What should cause them to disturb their own peace so, and the peace of all men, if there were not some very miraculous thing at the bottom, and such as was wor∣thy to alarme all the World? What message could they have brought to those several Nations they travailed to, that themselves would not be ashamed of carrying, if it had been only so, That the Jews had cruci∣fied one Iesus, the Son of Ioseph a Carpenter, betwixt two thieves at Ierusalem, who yet was a very good and Just man? It may be so, would the Gentiles say; More shame for them; what is that to us? But this man was the promised Messiah, and did very strange Miracles, cast out devils, healed all manner of diseases, and was declared the Son of God by an audible voice from the Heavens. As for the Miracles you mention, would the Gentile reply, we have heard strange things done by those

that are called Magicians; and we had no acquaintance with the party you speak of, to discern whether he was so good as you pretend. For mens Judgments are ordinarily partial out of affection and friendship: and it is strange that if he were so good as you make him, and declared from the clouds to be the Son of God, that God would suffer him so ignominiously to die betwixt two Thieves on the Cross. Which is a sign that if he did any Miracles, they were but from such powers as are sub∣ject to the Magistrate, and through that faithfull Providence that at∣tends the affairs of men, can doe nothing when the Magician is appre∣hended, imprisoned and condemned. Truly if there had been no more then this in the Story, it seems impossible that the Cause should have had such Success as it has had.

5. Wherefore certainly the First Preachers of the Gospel added to all this, to the admiration and astonishment of the hearers, That this Ie∣sus, whom the Jews had thus crucified, was by the miraculous hand of God raised out of the grave the third day; That after his Resurrection he conversed with his disciples both apart and together; That he was seen of above five hundred at once; That he staid upon earth for * 1.28 fourty daies, and was seen visibly afterward to ascend into Heaven. Which things as they were above all expectation marvailous, and did, if they were true, fully argue not only the Innocency but transcendent Divinity of the Person of Iesus; so were they so incredible, that none could believe them, especially to their present peril, unless from such as were Eye-witnesses of the same, and could send them to many more that were Eye-witnesses, and of unsuspected integrity of life; or for the better compendium, shewed that they were true messengers sent from God, by some Signs or Miracles they did upon the spot.

6. This therefore was the main of their message, which was nothing but matter of Fact, which themselves knew certainly to be true, and seri∣ously and earnestly declared it to the World, not by any Art or Elo∣quence. For the Apostles were but poor illiterate persons, Fishermen, Publicans, and the like, had no other weapons to win men to the Faith, but by a simple, though earnest and serious, narration of those things they knew for certain, and did avouch with that confidence, that they gave up their ease, livelihood and lives, for a pledge of the truth thereof. Which Testimonie could not possibly be false, it being (as I said before) concerning matter of Fact, namely, the Resurrection of Christ, where∣in so many could not be deceived: Nor is it imaginable how they should goe about to deceive others against their own Consciences, or without sufficient knowledge in a thing that gained them nothing but perpetual Hatred and ill will, Imprisonments, Tortures and Death. In the mean time, by these poore contemptible Instruments, that had neither Political power on their side (but were oppressed by it) nor had any Art nor Eloquence (excepting only Paul, who yet made use of neither) and by succession of such as they had converted, within a few Ages all the World in a manner swarmed with Christians of all qualities and de∣grees, noble and ignoble, learned and unlearned, though invited thereto by no secular advantage, but rather being perpetually exposed to misery

and persecution. All which things seriously considered together with the exactness and perspicuity of Prophecies concerning the Messiah, can∣not but seem to any indifferent judge a Demonstration for the Truth of Christian Religion no less certain then Mathematical.

CHAP. XIV. 1. Objections of the Jews against their Messiah's being come, answered. 2. A pompous Evasion of the Aristotelean Atheists supposing all Mi∣racles and Apparitions to be the Effects of the Intelligences and Heaven∣ly bodies. 3. Vaninus his restraint of the Hypothesis to one Anima Coeli. 4. His intolerable pride and conceitedness. 5. A Confutation of him and the Aristotelean Atheisme from the Motion of the Earth. 6. That Vaninus his subterfuge is but a Sel-contradiction. 7. That Christianitie's succeeding Judaisme is by the special counsel of God, not by the Influence of the Starres. 8. Cardanus his high folly in calcu∣lating the Nativity of our Saviour, with a demonstration of the ground∣lesness of Vaninus his exaltation in his impious boldness of making Mahomet, Moses and Christ sidereal Law-givers of like Authority. 9. That the impudence and impiety of these two vain glorious Preten∣ders constrains the Authour more fully to lay open the frivolousness of the Principles of Astrology.

1. THE * 1.29 Objections we were a mentioning are from two hands; from the Iew, or from the Atheist. That from Iew is chiefly this, That the condition of the times under Christ is not conforma∣ble to what is prophesied concerning the times of the Messiah. There is not that Peace and Concord, no not in Christendome it self, neither in the Church nor State; nor is Idolatry extirpated, nor the Israe∣lites replanted and setled in their own land: all which things notwith∣standing are foretold to come to pass in the dayes of the Messiah. Whence, say they, it is plain he is not yet come. But I briefly answer, 1. That the Prophetical Promises of the coming of the Messiah were absolute, as I have * 1.30 already noted, the Extent of the Effect of his com∣ing conditional; men being free Agents, and not fatal Actors, in all things, as the Iews themselves cannot deny. 2. That the nature of the Gospel tends altogether to the accomplishing of those Promises of universal Peace and Righteousness, and did begin fair in the first times of the Church as much as respects the Church it self. 3. That whatever Relapse or Stop there has been, things are not so hopeless but in time they may be amended; and that they, in those days when they are true Converts to Christ, may, if they will then desire it, return to their own Land. But after this serious conversion and real renovation of their Spirits into a true Christian state, I cannot believe they will con∣tinue so childish as to value such things; but will find themselves in

the Spiritual Canaan already, and on their march to that Ierusalem which is above, the Mother of us all, and that it will not be in the power of any but themselves to turn them out of the way.

2. The other Objection, or rather Evasion of that wholesome use that may be made of the Truth of the History of Christ, is from that sort of Atheists that love to be thought Aristoteleans: For there are two chief kinds of Atheisme, Epicurean and Aristotelean. The former denies all Incorporeal substance whatsoever, and all Apparitions, Miracles and Prophecies that imply the same. Who are sufficiently confuted al∣ready by this undeniable declaration we have made. The other are not against all Substances Incorporeal, nor against Prophecies, Appari∣tions and Miracles, though of the highest nature; insomuch that they will allow the History of Christ, his Resurrection, and Appearance af∣ter death, the Prophecies concerning him, and what not? But they have forsooth this witty Subterfuge to save themselves from receiving any good therefrom, in imagining that there is no such Particular Provi∣dence as we would inferre from hence, because all this may be done by the Influence of the Celestial Bodies, actuated by the Intelligences apper∣taining to each Sphere, and deriving in a natural way from him that sits on the highest of the Orbs such influences as according to certain Pe∣riodical courses of Nature will produce new Law-givers, induing them with a power of working Miracles, assisting them by Appariti∣ons and Visions of Angels, making them seem to be where they are not, and appear after they cease to be, namely after their death: when in the mean-time there be neither Angels, nor Souls separate, but all these things are the transient Effects of the power of the Hea∣vens and Configuration of the Celestial bodies, which slacks by de∣grees, and so the Influence of the Starres failing, one Religion de∣caies and another gets up. Thus Iudaisme has given place to Christianity, and Christianity in a great part of the World to Mahometisme, being Establishments resulting from the mutable course of Nature, not by the immediate finger of God, who keeps his throne in the Eighth sphere, and intermeddles not with humane Affairs in any particular way, but onely aloof off hands down, by the help and mediation of the Ce∣lestial Intelligences and power of the Starres, some general casts of Pro∣vidence upon the Generations of the Earth.

3. A goodly speculation indeed, and well befitting such two witty Fools in Philosophy as Pomponatius and Vaninus: the latter of which seems not to give himself up to this fine figment altogether fully and conformably to the ancient doctrine of Aristotle, but having a great pique against Incorporeal Beings, is desirous to lessen their number as much as he can, and seems pleased that he has found out, That one only Soul of the Heavens will serve as effectually to do all these things as the Aristotelean Intelligences; and therefore ever & anon doubts of those, and establisheth this as the onely Intellectual or Immaterial Principle and highest Deity; but such as acts no otherwise then in a natural way by Periodical Influences of the Heavenly Bodies. Where you may ob∣serve the craft and subtility of the man, what a care he has of his own

safety, and how he has imprisoned the Divinity in those upper rooms for fear of the worst, that he may be as far out of his reach as the Earth is from the Moon. So cautious a counseller in these matters is an evil and degenerate Conscience.

4. This is the chiefest Arcanum that the Amphitheatrum and famed Dialogues of this stupendious Wit will afford; who was so tickled and transported with a conceit of his own parts, that in that latter Book he cannot refrain from writing down himself a very Good for wisdome and knowledge. Whenas, assuredly, there was never any mans Pride and Conceitedness exceeded the proportion of his wit and parts so much as his. For there is nothing considerable in him but what that odd and crooked Writer Hieronymus Cardanus had, though more mo∣destly, vented to the world before: onely Vaninus added thereto a more express tail of bold Impiety and Prophaneness.

5. I have elsewhere intimated how the attributing such noble Events to the Power of the Starres is nothing but a rotten relick of the an∣cient Pagan Superstition; and have in my Book Of the * 1.31 Immortality of the Soul plainly enough demonstrated that there is no such inherent Divinity in the Celestial Bodies as that ancient Superstition has avouched or modern Philosophasters would imagine. And I shall here evidently prove against this great Pretender, That his removal of the Deity at that distance from the Earth is impossible. For there are scarce any now that have the face to profess themselves Philosophers, but do as readily acknowledge the Motion of the Earth, as they do the reality of the Antipodes, or the Circulation of the Bloud. I would aske then Vaninus but this one question, Whether he will not admit that the Sun is in that Heaven where he imagins his Anima coeli•• and whether this Heaven be not spred far beyond the Sun, and be not also the Re∣sidence of this celestial Goddess of his. There is none will stick to answer for him, that it is doubtlesly so. Wherefore I shall forthwith inferre, that let his unskilful phansy conceit us at this moment in as low a part of the Universe as he will, within the space of six months we shall be as far above or beyond the Sun as we are beneath him now, and yet then phansy our selves as much beneath him as before. Which plainly implies that our Earth and Moon swim in the liquid Heavens, which being every where, this Deity of Vaninus must be every where, though his degenerate Spirit was afraid of so holy a Neighbourhood, nor could abide the belief of so present a Numen. Thus has the Annual Course of the Earth dashed off all that Superstitious power and sanctity that ancient Paganisme has given and the Aristotelean Atheist would now give to the Sun, Planets and Starres; and we are forced even by the light of Nature and humane Reason to acknowledge the true Principle from whence all miraculous things come, that is, a God, every where present, in whom we live and move and have our being.

6. Besides this, suppose that all Prodigies, Apparitions and Pro∣phecies were from the intermediate Influence of the celestial Bodies, these Intelligences or that Anima Coeli working thereby upon the persons of men, to inspire them, and turning the Aire into representa∣tions

and visions to converse with them; This covering is too scant to hide the folly of this sorry Sophist, his Supposition plainly ruining it self. For he does acknowledge that those Inspirations and Prophecies are true that are thus derived from those ••idereal Powers. But it is evident that those that have been the most illustrious Prophets, have had converse with Angels, and talked with them, and have so recorded the matter to the World. As for example, the Prophet Daniel who discoursed with the Angel Gabriel; Christ also discoursed with Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor, and Moses with the Angel of God on Mount Sinai. Besides Christ, who was so highly inspired and assisted from Heaven, has over and over again pronounced a future Happiness after this life. All which, allowing them for a while to be the dictates or representations of the Astral Influences, I demand of Vaninus, how he comes to be wiser then those that were so miraculously assisted, That these Visions of Angels should not be so as they that saw them have rela∣ted, That Moses and Elias should not be the Spirits of Moses and Elias, but onely transient Figurations of the Aire raised by the Influence of the Heavens. Moreover I would ask of him if he think that that Heavenly assistance that can according to his own acknowledgement inform men of things to come at a thousand years distance, (for such was the prediction of the death of Iulius Caesar in the Senate, though a matter very contingent,) cannot certainly inform them whom it plea∣ses so wonderfully to assist, whether the Souls of men be mortal or im∣mortal, which is far more cognoscible to those aethereal Powers then the other. Wherefore this wretched Figment of his to excuse himself from the acknowledgement of the Existence of Angels or Daemons, and the Subsistence of the Soul after death, from which he so much ab∣hors, will stand him in no stead, but argues him more intoxicated, whif∣ling and giddy, in admitting the truth of such Narrations, and yet de∣nying the genuine consequences of them, then they that give no cre∣dence to the Narrations themselves.

7. That which was objected of Christianity justling out Iudaisme, and of Mahometisme in a great part of the World justling out Christia∣nity, is partly false and partly nothing to the purpose. That Christia∣nity has properly justled out Iudaisme, is very false. For Iudaisme has rather been ripened into the perfection of Christianity, then been sti∣fled and sufflaminated by any Counter-blast of those sidereal Influen∣ces he dreams of. For we see how things have gone on in one con∣tinued design from * 1.32 Abraham to Christ, as the Prophecies and the Predictions in Scripture plainly testifie. God promised to Abraham that in his seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed. Iacob fore∣tells on his death-bed, that the Jewish Polity and Religion should not fail till the Messiah, a Iew and Son of Abraham, was come, to whom the gathering of the Gentiles should be: and so in other * 1.33 Prophecies which we have already recited and applied. From whence it is manifest, that it is the hand and counsel of God who is constant to himself, and whose Wisdome and Providence reaches from end to end, that has begun and carried on this matter according to his own will and purpose, and not

any Bustles or Counter-blasts of various Aspects of the Heavenly bo∣dies, that do and undo according to the diversities and contrarieties of their Schematisms and Configurations.

8. Nor could any thing but Levity of minde and Vain-glory induce Cardan to pretend the calculating of our Saviours Nativity, whenas the year of his Birth is so uncertain amongst the most accurate Chrono∣logers, and Astrology it self a thing wholly groundlesse and frivolous, as I shall demonstrate anon. Nor is it any specimen of his Wit, but of his grosse Impiety, so boldly to equalize the rise of Mahometisme to that of Iudaisme and Christianity, as if Moses, Christ and Mahomet were all Astrall Law-givers, alike assisted and inspired from the influence of the Stars. A conceit that Vaninus is so transported with, that he cannot tell what ground to stand upon when he cites the passage out of Cardan, he is so tickled with Joy. But that this exultation of his is very chil∣dish and groundlesse, appears, both in that he falsly attributes Prophe∣cies, Divine Laws and Miracles, to the influence of the Stars (a super∣stitious errour that arises only out of the ignorance of the right Systeme of the World;) and then again (if it were true) that he imagines Ma∣homet (who was a mere crafty Politician, and did neither Miracles, nor could prophesie) to be a Law-giver set up by the miraculous Power of the Heavens, such as enables Divine Law-givers and Prophets to do reall Miracles. To which you may adde the ridiculous obstinacy of this perverse Sophist, who the more we give him of what he contends for, (viz. that Mahomet also is a Star-inspired Prophet, that is to say, illu∣minated from the Anima coeli, which according to his opinion is the highest and most infallible principle of miracles and divine wisedom,) the more ample testimony we have against his own folly, that so perem∣ptorily denies the existence of Daemons, and Subsistence of the Soul after Death. Which are openly avouched by this third Witnesse of his own in∣troducing: and therefore he abhorring so from such Truths as are cer∣tainly dictated from the Celestiall Bodies, did not excesse of Pride and Conceitednesse blinde his judgement and make him senseless, he could not but have found himself stung with that lash of the Satyrist,

O curvae in terris animae, & coelestium inanes!

But I have even tired my self with running the Wilde-goose chase af∣ter these fickle and fugitive Wits, whose carelesse flirts and subsultorious fancies are as numerous, as slight and weak, against the firm and im∣movable foundations of solid Reason and Religion.

9. I should now pass to the Fourth Part of my Discourse, did not the reflexion upon the insufferable impudence of Cardan, in pretending to cast our Saviours Nativity, and that villainous insulting of Vaninus thereupon, (as if all Religion was but an Influence of Nature and tran∣sent blast of the Starres) invite me, nay indeed provoke me, to lay o∣pen the Vanity of their accursed Art, wherein they have combined to∣gether to blaspheme God, and to make Religion contemptible and use∣less to the world.

CHAP. XV. 1. The generall Plausibilities for the Art of Astrology propounded. 2. The first Rudiments of the said Art. The Qualities of the Planets, and their Penetrancy through the Earth. 3. That the Earth is as pervious to them as the Aire, and of their division of the Zodiack into Trigons, &c. 4. The essentiall Dignities of the Planets. 5. Their accidentall Digni∣ties. 6. Of the twelve Celestiall Houses, and the five wayes of erect∣ing a Scheme. 7. The Requisitenesse of the exact Knowledge of the mo∣ment of Time, and of the true Longitude and Latitude of the place. 8. Direction what it is, and which the chiefest Directours or Significa∣tours. 9. Of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Apheta and Anaereta, and the time when the Anaereta gives the fatall stroke.

1. I Shall therefore make this short Digression to expose to your view the extreme folly and frivolousness of the pretended Art of Astrology, whose main general Reasons and particular Principles are in brief as fol∣lows.

First, They alledge, that it is a thing beyond all belief, that such an innumerable company of Starres, whose light is not considerable, nor their position so exact for ornament, should be made for nothing else but to look upon. Therefore, say they, there is some other Mystery in it, and that they are endued with certain hidden Influences, and have their severall peculiar Virtues, as distinct as the Herbs and Flowers of the field, and it is their Art of Astrology that professeth the Knowledge thereof.

Again, the Earth and Water being such simple bodies as they are, the various productions in Nature could not be, were it not for that in∣finite Variety of those Celestiall bodies, the Starres, and their severall influences upon the Earth. This their great Champion Sir Christopher Heydon urges as a principall Argument for them.

Thirdly, That it is plain that the Moon hath a moist influence, and that at her full the Brains of Beasts generally, the Eyes of Cats, and the meat of Shell-fishes are swell'd to a greater bigness; and that they are lessened in the change.

Fourthly, That the Moon also, to our wonderment, guides the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea, whose influence is equally seen when she is under the Horizon as when above, when near our Nadir as when near our Ze∣nith. Whence, say they, it is plain that the Heavenly bodies have not only a power or influence, besides Light, but more searching and pene∣trating then Light it self, as being able to make its way through the thickness of the Earth, and to reach its effect on the further side there∣of. Both which wonders they further confirm from the Magneticall Needle, hat looks toward the Pole-starre, though on the other side of the Tropick of Capricorn; where the Northpole will be hidden twenty or thirty degrees below the Horizon. Whence it is manifest, say they, that the influence of the Pole-starre pierces through the bowels of the

Earth, and is a notorious argument of that secret and irresistible virtue of the rest of the Heavenly bodies.

Fifthly, The Station, Direction and Repedation of the Planets is a thing so strange and mysterious, that it is not likely they should make those odde motions, unless those waglings this way and that way, those goings backward and forward were a certain reeling or spinning the Fates and Fortunes of Things or Persons here below.

Sixthly and lastly, Yearly experience teaches us that the approach of the Sun renewes the World, and makes an annuall Resurrection of Plants and Insects, and such living creatures as are born of Putrefaction, and have no other Father then the fiery-bearded Sun. If then this one Planet does such rare feats, certainly the rest of the Planets and fixed Starres do not stand for cyphers, but have their virtues and operations as well as he, whose efficacy and influence, say these Starre-gazers, our Art does punctually and particularly define. You may adde if you will out of Origanus, the heat of the Dog-Starre, and the moist influence of Arcturus and the Hyades. These are the generall Plausibilities that these Deceivers endeavour to countenance their Profession by. But we shall now set down the main particular Principle and fundamentall Ru∣diments of their so-much-admired Science, as they would have it estee∣med, and then shall orderly answer to them both.

2. According therefore to Origanus, whom I shall chiefly follow in setting down these Astrologicall Principles, I do not say all, but what is sufficient; nor will I set down any but what they acknowledge for Principles, nor omit any that are so considerable as these I set down;

First, It is taught by them, That the Planets have the most influence upon Terrestriall bodies, but that the fixt Stars also as well as they have virtues so potent as to pierce the very penetrals of the Earth: That of the Planets the Sun is hot and moist rather then drying: That Mars is hot and parchingly drying: That Saturn hinders the warm influence of the other Starres, and is in an high degree frigefactive, as also exsicca∣tive. From these two Qualities contrary to the Principles of life, Sa∣turn is termed Infortuna major, Mars, Infortuna minor; because heat is not contrary to life, though driness be. Iupiter is also deemed For∣tuna major, because he has sufficient moisture well tempered with heat. But Venus, Fortuna minor, because her moisture exceeds her warmth. From this distinction of hot, cold, dry and moist, the Planets are also di∣vided into Masculine and Feminine, Diurnall and Nocturnall, &c. So that if these conceits of drinesse, moistnesse, coldnesse, and heat fail, all the rest fail.

3. But I think that Principle more observable which is touched upon already, That the influence of the Starres and Planets do pass freely through the Earth: which is implied in that Aphorisme of Ptolemy ci∣ted by Origanus, Masculescere & efficaciores dici Planetas, qui ab Hori∣zonte ortivo vel occiduo deducuntur ad Meridianum supra vel infra terram. Effoeminari verò qui contrá. Which plainly implies, that their influences pass as easily through the Earth as through the Air: otherwise surely

those Planets that tended from the Western Horizon toward the Meri∣dian under the Earth, would have the disadvantage of it. That also goes upon the same Hypothesis that the Earth is no impediment, namely, That Iupiter being Consignificatour in the second House, denotes Riches; and that by how many more Planets there be in the sixth House, by so much more subject to diseases the Childe will be. That the sixt Starres and Planets do most potently act in the Cardines of the Celestiall Theme, of which Imum Coeli is one. Which supposes the Earth as pervi∣ous as the very Air to the Celestial influences.

To omit other divisions of the Signes into Mobilia, Fixa, and Bi∣corporea, into Masculine and Feminine, &c. I shall only set down that more noised division of them into Trigons, viz. The Fiery Trigon, Aries, Leo, Sagittarius; the Earthly, Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn; Aere∣all, Gemini, Libra, Aquarius; Watery, Cancer, Scorpius, Pisces.

4. They teach us also fine things of the Dignities of the Planets: which are either essential or accidentall. An essentiall Dignity is nothing else but the encrease of the innate virtue of the Planet by being in such or such a signe of the Zodiack, as Origanus has defined.

The first essential Dignity is the House of the Planet. As for example, Leo is the House of the Sun, Cancer of the Moon. And because there are more Signes then Planets, it fals to the share of the rest to have two Hou∣ses apiece, so aspected to the Houses of the Luminaries as becomes the goodnesse or malignity of their Natures. As for example, Capricorn and Aquarius must be the Houses of unfortunate Saturn, because their aspect is opposite to the Houses of the Luminaries. Sagittarius and Pisces the Houses of Iupiter, because the aspect to the foresaid Hou∣ses of the Sun and Moon is a benigne aspect, namely, Trine. But now Mars has Aries and Scorpius for his Houses, because he forsooth himself being a malignant Planet may have his Houses in a malignant posture to the Houses of the Sun and Moon, namely, in a quartile a∣spect, &c. And as to be in their own Houses is a Dignity, so to be in the Signe opposite they call Exilium, and account it a great detriment to the Planet.

To second essential Dignity is Exaltation: as Aries is the exaltation of the Sun, because his efficacy is so apparent in Spring, and therefore his Casus must be in Libra: which must on the contrary be the exaltation of Saturn, that Planet being of a cold temper contrary to the Sun. The Dragon's head also is exalted in Gemini, as Albumasar out of Hermes has given us to understand, and depressed in Sagittarius.

The third essential Dignity is Triangularity or Triplicity, whereby certain Planets are constituted the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of their respective Trigons. Sol and Iupiter of the Fiery Trigon; the Moon and Venus of the Earthly Trigon; Saturn and Mercury of the Aereal: and because there are not eight Planets, but seven only. Mars is the sole Trigonocra∣tor of the Watery Triplicity. I omit to say any thing of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or dignity of Terms, in which the two Luminaries are not concern'd.

Carpentum, which is the fifth Dignity, is but a coacervation of the four precedent. Persona or Almugea is when there is the same configuration

betwixt the Sun and Moon and another Planet as there is betwixt their Houses. Decanat is the Prefecture of the Planets over every ten de∣grees of the Signs in the Zodiack. Mars over the first ten degrees of Aries, Sol over the second, Venus over the third; Mercury over the first ten of Taurus, the Moon over the second, Saturn over the third; and so on, according to the order of the Planets, till all the ten degrees of the Zodiack be gone through.

The last essential Dignity is Gaudium, which is competible only to those Planets that have two Houses, and is when a Planet is plac'd in that House which is most agreeable to his Nature.

The chief of these Dignities are House, Exaltation, and Triplicity. For the first has five Powers, the second four, and the third three. But 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 has but two, and Almugea and Gaudium but one apiece.

5. The accidental Dignities arise either from their posture to the Sun, or from their motion in their Orbs, or from their mutual Configuration.

In regard of their Position to the Sun they are either in Cazimi, or Combust or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or free from Combustion, or Oriental or Occidental. To be in Cazimi is to be corporeally join'd with the Sun, and gives the Planet five Fortitudes. To be Combust or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is to be distant some ten or fifteen degrees from the Sun, &c. This position puts four or five Detriments on the Planet. To be free from Combustion adds five fortitudes. Saturn, Iupiter and Mars from their conjunction to their opposition with the Sun are Oriental, and gain two fortitudes; but from their Opposition to their Conjunction are Occidental, and incur two detriments.

In regard of their Motion the Planets are either Direct, Retrograde, Swift, Slow or Stationary. Direction has four Fortitudes, Retrogradati∣on five Debilities, Station two Debilities.

Configuration or Aspect is either Sextile, Quartile, Trine, Opposition or Conjunction. The Conjunction of benign Planets adds five forti∣tudes, of malign five debilities. Sextile and Trine are benign Aspects, Quartile and Opposition malign, &c.

6. But to climbe nearer to the top of their Artifice, let us now set down their witty contrivance of the Heavens into twelve Houses in their Erection of their Astrological Scheme. The first House begins at the East Horizon, and is to be numbred according to the Series of the Signs Eastward, and is called Horoscopus and Domus Vitae. The second 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and Domus Lucri. The third 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and Domus Fortunae. The fourth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Imum Coeli and Domus Patrimonii. The fifth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and Domus Liberorum. The sixth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and Domus Aegritudinum. The seventh 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and Domus Nuptiarum. The eighth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and Domus Mortis. The ninth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and Domus Religionis. The tenth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Cor Coeli and Domus Honorum. The eleventh 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Domus Amicorum. The twelfth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Domus Carceris. Every one of these Houses has its Consignificatour. The first house Saturn, the second Iupiter, the third Mars, the fourth Sol, and so on, according to the Ptolemaical or∣der of the Planets. According to which also they constitute their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Afridarii, giving the Planets a Septennial dominion in

succession from the Nativity. The first Septennium to the Moon, the se∣cond to Mercury, the third to Venus, &c.

Now this Erection of a Scheme and distribution of the Heavens into twelve Houses is no less then five manner of waies, as * 1.34 Origanus has set down. The first of Iulius Firmicus, who draws his Circles through the Poles of the Zodiack. The second of Aben Ezra, who divides the Aequator into twelve equal parts, as the other did the Zodiack, by the drawing of six great Circles through the mutual sections of the Horizon and Meridian & through each thirtieth degree of the Aequator. The third is that of Campanus, who divides the principal Vertical into twelve equal parts by archs drawn through the common intersections of the Meridian and Horizon. Fourthly Alcabitius draws the circles through the Poles of the World and certain equidistant points in the semidiur∣nal and seminocturnal archs of the Ascension of the Ecliptick. And lastly, Porphyrius divides the two Oriental parts of the Zodiack interce∣pted betwixt the Horizon and Meridian above and below into three equal parts apiece. So many waies are there of building Houses or Castles in the Air.

7. That the Erection of a Scheme may foretell right the Fate of the Infant, the time of the Birth is to be known exactly. For if you miss a degree in the time of the Birth, it will breed a years errour in the pro∣gnostication; if but five minutes, a month, &c. For which purpose also it is a necessary to know the Longitude and Latitude of the place.

8. After the Erection of so accurate a Scheme, they pretend to be able to foretell the time of the main accidents of mans life, and that either by Profection annual and Transition, or by Direction. The last is the chief: and therefore not to fill your eares over-much with the wretched gibberish of Gypsies, when I have intimated that the first of the two former run all upon Aspects, and that Transition is nothing else but the Passing of a Planet through the places of the Nativity, whether its own or of other Planets or of the Horoscope, &c. I shall force my self a little more fully to define to you, out of * 1.35 Origanus, the Nature of Direction. Which is the invention of the Arch the Aequator which is intercepted betwixt two circles of Position, drawn through two places of the Zodiack, the one whereof the Significator possesses, the other the Promissor, and ascends or descends with the Arch of the Ecliptick in the posture of the Sphere given. The term from whence the computation is made is the Significator; the term to which, the Promissor. As if Sol be directed to Mars, Sol signifies Dignities, and Mars the nature of those dignities; and the distance of the time is computed by Direction. I shall omit to tell you that all the Planets and all the Houses are capable of Direction, if we would accurately examine a Scheme. But the chief∣est Directors or Significators are, 1. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which the Arabians call Hylech from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Latines Emissor or Prorogator vitae. 2. The Moon for the Affections of the Mind. 3. The Sun, even then also when he is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, for the condition of Life and Dignities. 4. The Horoscope for Health and Peregrinations. 5. The Medium Coeli for Marriage and procreation of Children. 6. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or the

Part of Fortune for increase or decrease of Riches.

9. But the chiefest of all is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as respecting Life it self, which is directed to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Interfectour, or Slayer. Which is, suppose, either some Planet which is present in the eighth house, as Saturn or Mars, or the Almuten of the eighth house, or the Planet join'd to the Almuten, or the Almuten of the Planet, or the Almuten of the Lord of the eighth house. But the huge mystery is, and that a sad one, that when the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 comes to the place of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, the Emissor unto the place of the Interfector, then wo be to the brat that ever he was born under so unlucky Starrs; for there is no remedie but he must die the death. Nor will his * 1.36 Alcochodon, or Almuten Hylegii avail him any thing, when his Hyleck or Emissor is once come into the hands of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or that Celestial Butcher.

These are the most fundamental and most solemn Fooleries (for so I must call them) of their whole Art: and I shall now set my self to demonstrate them to be so, after I have answered those more general Plausibilities they would countenance themselves by.

CHAP. XVI. 1. That the Starrs and Planets are not useless though there be no truth in Astrology. 2. That the Starrs are not the Causes of the Variety of Productions here below. 3. That the sensible moistening power of the Moon is no argument for the Influence of other Planets and Starrs. 4. Nor yet the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, and direction of the Needle to the North Pole. 5. That the Station and Repedation of the Planets is an argument against the Astrologers. 6. That the Influ∣ence attributed to the Dog-star, the Hyades and Orion, is not theirs but the Sun's, and that the Sun's Influence is only Heat. 7. The slight occasions of their inventing of those Dignities of the Planets they call Exaltations and Houses, as also that of Aspects. 8. Their folly in preferring the Planets before the fixt Starrs of the same appearing magnitude, and of their fiction of the first qualities of the Planets, with those that rise therefrom. 9. Their rashness in allowing to the influence of the Heavenly Bodies so free passage through the Earth. 10. Their groundless Division of the Signs into Moveable and Fixt, and the ridiculous Effects they attribute to the Trigons, together with a demonstration of the Falseness of the Figment. 11. A Confutation of their Essential Dignities. 12. As also of their Accidental. 13. A subversion of their Erection of Themes and distributing of the Hea∣vens into twelve Celestial Houses. 14. Their fond Pretenses to the know∣ledge of the exact moment of the Infants birth. 15. A Confutation of their Animodar and Trutina Hermetis. 16. As also of their Method of rectifying a Nativity per Accidentia Nati. 17. His appeal to the skilfull, if he has not fundamentally confuted the whole pretended Art of Astrology.

1. WHerefore to their First general Pretence, That the very Be∣ing of the Starrs and Planets would be useless, if there be nothing in the Art of Astrology, I answer, That though there were certain virtues and influences in every one of them, yet it does not fol∣low that they are discovered in their Art: and then again, That though there were none saving that of Light and Heat in the Fixt Starrs, it will not follow that they are useless. Because the later and wiser Philo∣sophers have made them as so many * 1.37 Suns: which Hypothesis our Astrologers must confute before they can make good the force of their first Argument. And for the Planets, they have also suggested that they may have some such like use as our Earth has, i. e. to be the mother of li∣ving Creatures, though they have defined nothing concerning the natures of them; whereby their opinion becomes more harmless and unexceptio∣nable, as it is in it self highly probable: Forasmuch as the Earth, as well as Saturn, Iupiter and the rest, moves about the Sun, and is as much a Planet as any of them; as the best Astronomers doe not at all stick now-adaies to affirm. Which does utterly enervate the force of this first general Pretence of the Astrologians.

2. To the Second I answer, That the Starrs are but Lights of much the same nature as our Sun is, only they are further removed, so that their contribution is much-what the same. And again, Nothing turns off their more subtil Influence, according to their own concession; and therefore though there were this Variety in them, yet because all this Variety reaches every point of the Earth, the Product would be the same, unless the particles of the Earth were diversified by some other cause, which assuredly they are. And thirdly, That neither their own Variety, nor the influences of the Heavens, if they be merely material, are sufficient causes of Productions here below. Fourthly, That the ce∣lestial Matter is every where, and that the Earth swims in it, as Wood does in Water, so that we need not have recourse to so remote un∣known activities. And lastly, That that general 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Spirit of Nature, is also every where ready to contrive the Matter into such shapes and virtues as its disposition makes toward. And this is enough and more then enough to take off the edge of the Knights ar∣gument.

3. I do acknowledge that the Moon in her full swells certain things with moisture; which Effect is both sensible and palpable, and also rea∣sonable, by reason of her proximity and of the reflexion of the Sun's beams from her body, which being but of a moderate power, melt the Air and Vapours into an insinuating liquidness, but do not dissipate them, as his direct beams doe by day. Which feat I do not doubt but that any other of the Planets would perform, if they were so plac'd that their discus would seem of equal bigness with the Moon's, and she were remo∣ved into their place. But it is an insufferable folly to argue from such both reasonable and palpable effects of the Moon, that the other Planets also and Fixt Starrs have as powerfull effects upon us; which yet we can de∣prehend by neither Reason nor Experience.

4. The like may be answered concerning the Flux and Reflux of the Sea; the ground whereof is rationall from what Des-Cartes has set down in his Princip. Philos. part. 4. namely, That the Ellipsis of the celestiall Matter is streightned by the Moons body, which makes the Aether flow more swift: which is a plain and mechanicall solution of the Phaenome∣non. And then we finde by certain experience that this Flux and Re∣flux depends on the course of the Moon, so that there can be no deceit in the business. But when there is no Reason nor sufficient Experience that this is the Cause of that, to attribute the one to the other is no good Logick. And to that of the Loadstone and Polar-Starre I say again, as I have said already, That it does not follow, because there are some sensible effects from the Heavens, certain and constant, that there∣fore we may imagine what effects we please to proceed from this or that particular Starre without due Experience or Reason for the same. And then in the next place, That it is not so much the influence of the Hea∣ven, as the Magnetisme of the Earth, in which this direction of the Needle toward the North consists. For the Needle varies in certain Meridians, and some three miles from Rosseburg, a Town near upon the very corner where the Finnick Seas and Sinus Finnicus are joyn'd, the Needle amidst a many Sea-Rocks turns about, nor ceases so to do for the space of a whole mile. Which is a further demonstration that the Dire∣ction of the Needle depends upon the Magnetisme of the Earth. But truly if the Events that Astrologers take upon them to predict did as steadily point to the Causes they alledge, this Planet or that Configura∣tion of Planets, Signes or Starres, as the Needle and Axis of the Earth to the North; though they could give no reasons thereof, I could easi∣ly allow their Art. But there being such demonstrative Reasons against their Grounds, and no certain Experience for them, these particular Al∣legations concerning the Moon and Pole-Starre will stand them in no stead.

5. The Station and Retrogradation of the Planets is a very consider∣able Argument against them, and shews how foolish and imaginary their Art is that is upheld by such gross mistakes. For they that understand the right Systeme of the World, know very well that those Phaenome∣na are not reall but seeming: which is a scurvy slur to these Astrologers. But this I shall meet with again hereafter.

6. To the last I answer, That neither the Dog-Starre, Arcturus, the Hyades nor Orion are conceived to have any such Effects as are attributed to them, but then when the Sun is in such places of the Zodiack as himself without them would bring forth. And therefore they do fal∣laciously attribute to those Starres what is really the virtue of the heat of the Sun approaching nearer us, or abiding longer upon us. And as for the wrath of the Dogge, which is abated already in some consi∣derable measure, how tame a creature think you will he be, when the Anticipation of the Aequinoxes shall appoint him his Kennell as low as Capricorn, if the World should so long continue? These may serve for Poeticall Expressions (such as that of Virgil, who attributes that to the Signes which belongs to the Sunne;

Candidus auratis aperit cum Cornibus annum Taurus— When the white Bull opens with golden horns The early year:)

but they will not endure the severity of the Laws of an Art, which is, to speak properly, not to entitle things circumstantiall and concomi∣tant to reall Causality. But as for the Sun's efficacy it self, I will not deny it, nor yet acknowledge it any more then in the generall influence of heat, which cherishes and excites the seminal Principles of things in∣to act and perfection. Which is no more mysterious then the Aegyptians and Livia's Maids of Honour hatching of Egges without the help of the Hen; the same which the Sun does to the Ostriches left upon the sand. And I will also acknowledge that the rest of the Stars do not stand for cyphers, but that at a competent distance they will have their effect: which the Sun it self has not when removed from us but to the other side of the Aequator, whereby his rayes become more ob∣lique. How inconsiderable then think you would he be, if he were re∣moved as farre as the fixt Starres, all whose influence put together can∣not supply his absence in the depth of Winter? Whence it is plain, that it is a very fond inference to argue that those remote bodies of the fixt Starres and Planets have an influence upon us, because the Sun and Moon that are so near us have; whenas if they were as far removed, their in∣fluence would assuredly be as insensible as that of the five Planets and fixt Stars.

7. And yet notwithstanding such is the intolerable Impudence of the Inventours of Astrology, that they have at randome attributed such things to the other Planets and Starrs as they have only ground for, if any at all, in the two Luminaries. As for example, because they might observe some more sensible mutation in the Air and Earth at the Sun's entring Aries, it would be the more tolerable to phansie that Sign his Exaltation. But now to appoint places of exaltation to other Planets, as Taurus to the Moon, Libra to Saturn, is a mere running the Wild∣goose chase from one single hint to matters where there is nothing of like reason or experience. So likewise because they had some intimati∣on to make Leo the House of the Sun, his heat being then most sensi∣ble, and Cancer the House of the Moon, because then she would be most vertical to us; they have without either fear or wit bestowed Houses two apiece upon the rest of the Planets, though there be neither rea∣son nor effect answerable.

And lastly, for Aspects, in all likelihood the sensible varieties of the Phases of the Moon in Opposition, Trine and Quartil, gave them first occasion to take notice of Aspects: and then another thing happening, though independent on the course of the Moon, namely, that every se∣venth day, in an acute Disease, is Critical, and that there are usually at those returns the greatest stirrs and alterations in the Patient, and the Quartil Aspect of the Moon happening also about seven daies from the Conjunction, and then about seven daies more she being in Opposition; this natural circuit of Fermentations in acute Diseases, has given them

occasion to slander the Moon in those cases, and for her sake to re∣proach the aspects of Opposition and Quadrature in all the rest of the Planets. Such small hints as these are the solidest foundations of the phantastick structure of Astrology. Which we shall now something more nearly lay battery to, and so shatter it, that it shall not so much as find room in the Imaginations of men.

8. To begin therefore with the First of their Principles I have set down, That they prefer the Planets before the Fixt Starrs (I mean those so remote ones, that they seem but about the bigness of the grea∣ter Starrs) is without all reason; the Planets being but heaps of dead matter much like that of the Earth, and having no light but what they reflect from the Sun. For that which seems to be the innate light of the Moon, is but the reflexion of the Sun's beams from the Earth. Where∣fore their activity and influence may justly seem less then that of the Fixt Starrs which shine not with borrowed but innate light. And for their powerfull penetrating into the Bowels of the Earth, that is a mistake arising from the supposed influence of the Moon on the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, even when she is on the other side of the Earth; to which with the like fallacious inference I have * 1.38 answered already. But then, for the Qualities of the Planets, where they define the Sun to be hot and moist rather then drying, but Mars hot and parching dry, and Saturn dry and cold; what will not these impudent Impostours dare to obtrude upon us, when they will vent such stuff as is liable to confu∣tation by our very Senses? For does not our very Sense tell us that the Sun is the most hot and drying Planet that is? His heat it is, and not that of Mars, that withers the grass and flowers, and parches the tops of Mountains, and even rosts the Inhabitants of the Earth when they ex∣pose their bodies to his more direct raies. But what Faculty could ever inform us that Mars was such a parching and heating Planet, and Saturn so cold? Assuredly he that will expose his head to their Acronychal raies, which are most potent, and shall profess he feels more cold from one and heat from the other, then he does from the other parts of Heaven, will approve himself as mad as that old Dotard that pretended that he could as often as he listned plainly hear the Harmony of the Celestial Sphears. All the Planets are opake Bodies, and whatever their colour is, are as cold as Earth. For neither yellow nor red clay cast any more heat then white, nor has any soil any sensible influence but what is drawn in by the nose, which sometimes proves wholesome and savory and sometimes of∣••ensive. But how our Star-gazers Proboscides should be drawn out to that length as to smell out the different virtues of the Planets, I can no way understand. Wherefore the pronouncing of Mars hot and dry, and Saturn cold and dry, &c. is a shameless foolery, and a demonstration of the vanity of the rest of their allotments of the first qualities to the Planets. And since from these they are reputed Benign or Malign, Masculine or Feminine, and the like, all this part of their pretended Science is but a Rhapsody of Fooleries also.

9. To the Second, of the Earth's being so pervious to the influence of the Starrs and Planets, I say, First, That it is a Principle without

proof, as I have already evinced: and then Secondly, If I give them it, they will be fain to vomit it up again, it being destructive to their whole Art. For if the raies and influence of the Stars and Planets have free passage through the body of the Earth, the whole Ceremonie of erect∣ing a Scheme for such a Longitude and Latitude is needless; nay, as to the Heavens, the fates of all men would be alike. For that hidden influ∣ence which governs all would reach to all points from all parts of Hea∣ven at once.

10. Thirdly, Concerning the division of their Signs into mobilia and fixa and hicorporea. The mobilia are the Equinoctial and Solstitial Signs. The latter whereof might deserve better the name of fixa then mobilia. And in my apprehension the Tempers of the Year might as well be said to be begun, suppose the cold in Sagittarius and fixed in Capricorn, and the heat in Gemini and fixed in Cancer, as begun in Capricorn and fixed in Aquarius, &c. But we will wink at small matters. That of the fiery, earthy, watry and aiery Trigons is more notorious, and I cannot but smile when I read the Effects of them. As for example, in Physick, as Dariot has set down, the Moon and Ascendent in the Fiery Signs comfort the virtue attractive, in the Earthy Signs the retentive, the Aiery the dige∣stive, and the Watery the expulsive. Would any man dare to administer Physick then without consulting the precepts of Astrology? Also in Husbandry that's a notable one of Sir Christopher's,* 1.39 who tells us how we may cause a Plant to shoot deep into the Earth or higher into the Air, by setting of it at such an aspect of the Moon. Namely, if the Moon be in the Earthy Triplicity, the root will shoot more downward into the Earth; if in the Aiery, more upward into the Air. Which is a rare Secret. Now to omit the groundless and arbitrarious division of the Zodiack into these four Trigons, of which there is only this one hint, that I can imagine, namely, the fitness of Leo for one part of the fiery Trigon, the Sun being most hot in that Sign; (From which little inlet all the four Elements flew up into Heaven, and took their places in their respective Triplicities in the Zodiack with great nimbleness and agility, playing at leap-frog & skipping over one anothers backs in such sort, that dividing themselves into three equal parts, every Triental of an Element found it self a fellow-member of a trine Aspect:) The best jest of all is, that there is no such Zodiack in Heaven, or, if you will, no Heaven for such a Zodiack as these Artists attribute these Triplicities to. For this Hea∣ven and this Zodiack we speak of is only an old errour of Ptolemie's and his followers, who not understanding the true System of the world, and the motion of the Earth, in which is salv'd the anticipation of the Aequi∣noxes, have phansied a Heaven above the Coelum stellatum, and a Zodiack that did not recede from West to East as the starry Zodiack does. And this Figment, which later Ages have laughed off of the Stage, is the only Subject of these renounced Trigons and Triplicities, which therefore are justly laughed off of the Stage with it. Which discovery is a demon∣stration that the whole Art of Astrology is but upon frivolous and mere imaginary Principles, as we shall further make manifest. And therefore those Physicians proclaim themselves either Cheats or Fools,

that would recommend their skill from such vain observations.

11. Fourthly, Now for the essential Dignities of the Planets, sith it is nothing but the increase of their innate virtue by being in such or such a Sign, and these being the Signs of that Zodiack which has no Heaven, nor is any thing; it is manifest that the whole doctrine of es∣sential Dignities falls to the ground. But we will also cast our eye upon the distinct parts of this vain Figment. And therefore as to the first essential Dignity, the House of the Planet; There is no sagacious Per∣son but can easily smell out the meaning of making Leo the House of the Sun; namely, not that that Sign has any virtue to increase heat, but that the Sun then has been long near the Tropick of Cancer, and so has more then ordinarily heated the Earth by so long a stay in so advantage∣ous a posture. And this is it, not the being in his House then, that makes the heat so great; for those beyond the other Tropick sure are cold enough. The same may be said of Cancer, the Moons House, that it is posture, not the nature of the place, that makes her virtue more then to us, but less to our Antoeci. From this small hint from Sense and mistakes of Reason, have they without all Reason and Sense bestowed Houses on the rest of the Planets, guiding themselves by the conceit of the Malignity and Benignity of Aspects. Which to be a mere Figment I have * 1.40 noted already, it having no ground but that rash joining together of Critical daies with the Aspects of the Moon.

What a small preferment Astrological Exaltation is, you may under∣stand from Albumazar's liberality, who amongst the Planets has advan∣ced the head and tail of the Dragon to the same Dignity, which yet are nothing but Intersections of the imaginary Circles of the course of the Moon and the Ecliptick. But of this Dignity I have * 1.41 spoke enough al∣ready, and therefore I pass to the next.

As for the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Lords of the Trigons, what great pitty it was there were not just eight Planets, that each Trigon might have had its two Consuls, and Mars not rule solitarily in his watry one? But the foolery of the Trigons being already confuted, I need add nothing fur∣ther concerning this Dignity. The Prerogative of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is destroyed by that first general Argument, the parts of the Signs being as fictitious as the whole. And as for the Carpentum or royal Seat or Throne, it being a compound Dignity compacted of the former, the parts being but imaginary, it is evident that the whole is a mere No∣thing.

And that Persona Planetae or Almugea is as little, appears from hence, in that Aspect is an empty conceit, raised upon no solid ground, as I have more then once already intimated.

And that the Lords of the Decanats have but imaginary Provinces, is again plain, for that their whole Zodiack wherein all those fripperies are lodged is but imaginary, and their order also of assignation upon a false Hypothesis, viz. according to that ranging of the Planets that is in Ptolemie's System.

And lastly, Gaudium, the last of the Essential Dignities, supposes two falsities; that there are Houses in this fictitious Zodiack, and that

Planets are Masculine and Feminine: which Supposition has been con∣futed already. So that all these essential Dignities are devoid of all sub∣stance and reality, and the numbring of their particular Fortitudes is the telling out so many nullities to no purpose.

12. Nor can you hope for a better account of their Accidental Dig∣nities. Cazimi, Combustion, and Freeness from combustion, how fond and inconsistent conceits are they? For first it is unreasonable, if they know the nature of the Planets, of the Sun, and of the celestial Vortex, to make a Planet in Cazimi to gain five Fortitudes. For beyond the Sun the Planet is at the furthest distance it can be from us: and Saturn, Iupiter and Mars a whole diameter of the Suns orbit more distant then when they are in opposition to the Sun: and Venus and Mercury half of their own. Besides, how can their virtue pass the body of the Sun, or the bearing of the Vortex against the Planet and against us, and all the attemps of influence from the Planet not be eluded? Again, if Cazimi on this side the Sun be good, why should not beyond the Sun be bad? And if Venus or Mercury in the body of the Sun be so consider∣able, how much more are the spots of the Sun that are far greater? which their ignorance could never reckon in the compute of their Dig∣nities. Besides, what wilde and disproportionable jumps are these, That Cazimi should be five fortitudes, and yet Combustion, which is to be but a little distance from the Sun, should be five debilities; and yet to be free from combustion, that is further removed from the body of the Sun, should be again five fortitudes? Things so arbitrarious ground∣less, that none but sick-brain'd Persons can ever believe them.

That also is notoriously foolish, That Saturn, Iupiter and Mars from their * 1.42 conjunction with the Sun to their opposition should have two fortitudes, and from their opposition to their conjunction should have two debilities. For in a great part of that Semicircle that carries from opposition to conjunction, they are far nearer, and therefore much stron∣ger then in the beginning of that Semicircle that leads from their con∣junction to opposition.

Moreover those Dignities and Debilities that are cast upon Planets from Direction, Station and Retrogradation, the thing is mainly ground∣ed upon a mistake of the Systeme of the World, and ignorance of the Earths annuall motion, and from an Idiotick application of accidents or phrases amongst men. And therefore because when things succeed ill they are said to go backwards, and when we are weary we goe more slow or stand still to breath us, or when we are most vigorous we run swiftest; therefore must Station be two debilities, Retrogradation no less then five, but Direction must be five fortitudes. Whereas in reason Station should rather seal on the effect of the Planet more sure. But the truth is, a Planet is neither stationary nor retrograde truly, but in appear∣ance, and therefore these Debilities no true ones but imaginary.

The last Accidental Dignity is Configuration or Aspect, the vain grounds whereof have been * 1.43 already taxed. To which I add, That it is ut∣terly unreasonable to conceive that Sextil and Trine should be good, and yet Quartil that is betwixt both be stark naught. Nay it were far more

reasonable to conceive that if Conjunction and Sextil were good, that Quartil should be better then Trine, as being further from Opposition, and because the Planets thus aspected are in better capacity both of them to strike with more direct raies on the Earth, then if they were in a Trine Aspect. And therefore I know no reason imaginable that could move them to have so ill a conceit of Quartil aspect, but because of the great unquietness of acute diseases that happens about every seventh day, which is the time also of the Quartil aspect of the Moon: and therefore the whole mystery of Aspects is to be resolved into this rash Misappli∣cation.

You have seen now how little worth all the Astrological Dignities are; and yet out of these huge Nothings of their fictitious Art is the whole fabrick built of whatever Predictions they pretend to: So that we may be assured that all is vain and ridiculous.

13. Concerning their twelve Houses of the Nativity, the division is arbitrarious, and their erecting of a Scheme so many waies and that with like success, an evidence that the success is not upon Art but for∣tuitous. The Configuration also of the Houses and those * 1.44 Septennial 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Alfridarii do intimate that the whole business is but a Figment, going upon that false Hypothesis of Ptolemie, That the Pla∣nets and the Earth have not the Sun to their Centre. But this is not all we have to say against these Celestial Tenements. For either the Earth is pervious to all the raies of the Planets and Starrs, as well be∣neath as above the Horizon, or only they above the Horizon shed their Virtue on the Child. If the former be true, all Nativities are alike. If the latter, why have they any more then six Houses, and why any at all under the Horizon? And in good sadness what is the meaning that their Horoscope and the sixth House, being Houses of so great concernment, should be under the Horizon; especially when they are pleased at other times to pronounce that a Star or Planet that is Vertical is most efficaci∣ous? And can it be thought any thing but a mere phancie that led them to make the Horoscope the House of Life, namely, because the Starrs arise from thence, and are as it were born into the World? whence (as I have shewed their custome to be in other things) they have feigned the rest of the Houses at random. And that you may still be more sure that there is nothing in these Houses, (or rather that the Houses them∣selves are nothing) they are but the Distribution of that imaginary Zodiack and Heaven, which (I told you * 1.45 before) the errour of Ptole∣my brought into the World, into twelve imaginary Sections, beginning at the East point of this Zodiack: So that their Art is perpetually built upon Nothing.

14. Now for the exact time of the Nativity, That one should know the very moment when the Child is born, I say it is a Curiosity nothing to the purpose. For first, if the hard and thick Earth be pervious to the raies of Heaven, how easily may those thin coverings of the Womb be penetrated continually by the power of the Starrs? and therefore even then is the Childe as much exposed to them, as when it is newly born. Or if it be not; why may not it some moments after its being

born, be still as liable to their influence as in the moment when it was born? For cannot these Influences that penetrate the very metalline bowels of the Earth pierce a Child's tender skin without any resist∣ance? But supposing this Curiosity to be to the purpose; how hard and lu∣bricous a matter is it to come to that exactness that they pretend to be requisite? For first they must know the exact Longitude of the Place, (a thing of extreme uncertainty) or else the exactness of Time will doe them no good. And yet again, their affectation of exactness seems ridiculous, when we cannot well determine the proper Time of his Birth. For he is born by degrees, and few or none come out, after first they appear, in a shorter space then half a quarter of an hour. Where∣fore their Head being exposed to the starry influence, why should not that celestial infection pervade their whole body? But suppose that to be the moment of their birth, wherein the whole body is first out, how shall this moment be known? By an exact minute watch, such as Tycho had, and Sir Christopher Heydon professes himself to have had, which would exactly give him the minute and second Scruple of Time. But how few Nativity-casters can boast of the same priviledge? Or if they could, to what purpose is it, when it seldome happens that they are in the same house, much less in the same room where the party is delivered? Wherefore the report of the Midwife is the best certainty they have: and how many Nativities have been cast without so much as that? And yet they will confidently predict Fates and Destinies upon an uncertain time given them. For they can, say they, correct it, and reduce it to the right moment of the Nativity, and that by no less then three several waies; by Trutina Hermetis, Animodar, and Accidentia Nati: which how bold and groundless a boast it is, let us now see.

15. Trutina Hermetis goes upon this ground, That that degree of the Zodiack the Moon is in at the time of Conception, the same is the Horoscope of the Nativity. But what a foolish subterfuge is this, when∣as the exact time of Conception is as hard to be known as that of the Nativity? And if it were known, there is yet no certainty, some co∣ming sooner, some later, as every Mother, Nurse or Midwife knows full well; nor will any of them presume to tell to a day when a woman shall be brought to bed.

In Animodar the Nativity is either Conjunctional or Preventional, that is, either after or before the Conjunction of the Sun and Moon. If the Interlunium precede the time of the birth, the degree is to be no∣ted in which it happens; if the Plenilunium, that degree in which that Luminary is that is above the Horizon in the time of Opposition, the Sun by day, the Moon by night. The degrees thus given, the Almu∣ten Almusteli is to be found out, which is the Planet that has most digni∣ties in that place of opposition or conjunction; which are Trigon, House, Altitude,* 1.46 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and Aspect. Then the degree of the Sign is to be noted in which the Almuten was at the time of the estimated birth, &c. For I need not hold on; enough has already been said to demonstrate the whole process a ceremonious Foolery. For the computation being to be made from the place of the Almuten Almusteli, and his election by

Dignities, and Dignities being nothing but empty phansies and vani∣ties, as I have already proved, the Correction of the Nativity by Animo∣dar must needs be idle and vain. Besides that, the Almuten being one and the same, as belonging to one and the same Conjunction or Opposition of the Luminaries, how can it be a rule to Children born at the same times in divers Climates? For it is evident the Horoscope alters with the Clime And lastly, not only Picus, a foe to Astrology, professes how false both this method of Animodar as also that rule of Hermes is, and clashing one with another; but Origanus himself, a friend to the Art, advises us rather to listen to the relations of Mother Midnight then to give any credit to either of these waies.

The most certain way of correcting a Scheme of Nativity in Origanus his judgment, is per Accidentia Nati, whether good or bad, as Ho∣nours, Preferments, Gifts, Sickness, Imprisonment, Falles, Conflicts, &c. which way notwithstanding at the first sight is very lubricous. For it is at least disputable and uncertain, whether there be Liberty of Will in man or no. But I will venture further, that for my own part, I think it demonstrable from inward Sense, Reason and Holy Writ, that there is Free-will in men; whence it will necessarily follow, Quòd mul∣ta accidunt hominibus praeter naturam praeterque fatum. Diseases there∣fore, Imprisonments, Disgraces and Preferments may be brought upon us by the free Agency of our selves or others, and that sooner or later ac∣cording as mens Vertues or Vices act. Which takes away all certainty of computation per Accidentia Nati.

16. Besides that the manner of it is very frivolous and ridiculous. For it being threefold, as Origanus has set down, Profection annual, Transition, and Direction; there is none of them that are any thing more then mere phansies and figments. For what can be more vain and imagina∣ry then their annual Profection, which makes the Horoscope and the rest of the Houses move thirty degrees a year till the whole period be finished in twelve? Is this circuit of the Nativity-Scheme any where but in their own brain? And then their Predictions or Corrections are by Aspects of the Cuspe of the Root with the Cuspes of the present Scheme cal∣culated for this or that year. And how Aspects themselves are nothing, I have again and again taken notice.

And for Transition, what is more monstrous then to think that a Planet by passing the same place in which it self or other Planets were at the Nativity, should cause some notable change in the party born? As if the Planets walked their rounds with perfumed socks, or that they smelt stronger at the Nativity then other times, and that another Planet come into the trace thereof should exult in the scent, or the same increase the smell: or what is it that can adhere in these points of Heaven that the Planets were found in at the Nativity? or why is not the Whole tract of the same scent? or why not expunged by the passage of other Planets? But what will not madness and effascination make a man phansie to up∣hold his own Prejudices? And truly these two Origanus himself is wil∣ling to quit his hands of, as less sound and allowable: but Direction is a principal business with him.

Which yet in good truth will be found as frivolous as the rest. For as in Transition, so also in Direction, the great change must hap∣pen when a Planet, or Cuspe, or Aspect come to the place where such a Planet or Cuspe were at the Nativity. When the Significator comes to the place of the Promissor, then the feat does not fail to be done. For the Promissor is conceived as immovable, and such as stands still and ex∣pects the arrivall of the Significator: which is a demonstration that this Promissor is either Imaginary space or Nothing: and which of these two think you will keep promise best? Nay the Significator also, if it be the Horoscope or any other House, is imaginary too, as I have demonstrated. And if it be a Planet, seeing yet the Planets move not as a Bird in the Aire, or Fishes in the Waters, but as Cork carried down the stream; it is plain how this Planet never gets to that part of the celestiall Mat∣ter in which the Promissor was at the Nativity, the Promissor ever sli∣ding away with his own Matter in which he swims: and therefore if he hath left any virtue behinde him, it must again be deposited in an Ima∣ginary Space. Which is an undeniable argument that the whole mystery of Direction is imaginary.

Wherefore if Profection annuall, Transition and Direction are so vain that they signifie nothing forward, how can we from Events (though they should be judged and reasoned from exactly according to these phan∣tastick Laws) argue backward an exact indication of the time of the Nativity? If they could have pretended to some Rules of Nature or Astronomy to have rectified a Geniture by, they had said something; but this recourse to their own phantastick and fictitious Principles proves nothing at all.

17. And thus have I run through the eighth and ninth Sections of the foregoing Chapter before I was aware. And he that has but moderate skill in the solid Principles of Naturall Philosophy and Astronomy, and but a competent patience to listen to my close reasonings therefrom, cannot but acknowledge that I have fundamentally confuted the whole Art of Astrology, and that he has heard all their fine terms of Horoscope, and Celestiall Houses, Exaltation, Triplicity, Trigons, Aspects Benigne and Maligne, Station, Retrogradation, Combustion, Cazimi, Significator, Pro∣missor, Apheta, Anaereta, Trigonocrator, Horecrator, Almugea, Almuten, Alcochodon, together with the rest of their sonorous Nothings, to have fallen down with a clatter like a pyle of dry bones by the battery I have laid against them. And truly here I would not stick to pronounce that I have perfectly vanquished the enemy, did I not espy a little blinde Fort to which these Fugitives usually make their escape. And surely by the Title it should be a very strong one; they call it Experience or Observa∣tion of Events, which they boast to be accurately agreeable to their Pre∣dictions.

CHAP. XVII. 1. Their fallacious Allegation of Events answering to Predictions. 2. An Answer to that Evasion of theirs, That the Errour is in the Artist, not in the Art. 3. Further Confutations of their bold presumption, that their Art alwaies predicts true. 4. That the punctuall Correspondence of the Event to the Prediction of the Astrologer does not prove the certainty of the Art of Astrology. 5. The great Affinity of Astrology with Dae∣monolatry, and of the secret Agency of Daemons in bringing about Predictions. 6. That by reason of the secret Agency or familiar Con∣verse of Daemons with pretended Astrologers, no argument can be rai∣sed from Events for the truth of this Art. 7. A Recapitulation of the whole matter argued. 8. The just occasions of this Astrologicall ex∣cursion, and of his shewing the ridiculous condition of those three high-flown Sticklers against Christianity, Apollonius, Cardan and Va∣ninus.

1. BUt here their Hold is not so strong as their Impudence great, that they will so boldly bear us in hand, that by virtue of the Princi∣ples of their Art they have foretold any thing to come. There are ma∣ny ludicrous wayes of Divination wherein no man is in good earnest, and yet the Predictions and present personall Descriptions of men some∣times fall right: but no sober man will impute this to Art but to Chance. It was but a fallacy of Neptune's Priest, when he would have carried the Spectator into admiration of that Deity from the many Donaries hung up in his Temple by Votaries. But he whom he would have thus im∣pos'd upon was too cunning for him. For he demanded straightway a Catalogue of those Votaries that had suffered Shipwrack. And so do I of those Predictions that have proved false. Cardan, a reputed Prince in this faculty, complains that scarce ten in fourty prove true: And Pi∣cus, a narrow searcher into the Art, professes that he has found of his own experience nineteen in twenty false; and that in the Prognosticati∣on of Weather, where no free Agents intermeddle to interrupt or turn off the naturall influence of the Stars.

2. But all the Aberrations that either themselves or others may have observed will not bring off the more devoted Admirers of Astrology to acknowledge the vanity thereof. For their excuse is, first, That by Hi∣story, private information, and by their own experience they are assu∣red that the Predictions do sometimes fall punctually true to a year, nay, to a day, and sometimes to an hour, and that the circumstances of things are so particularly set out, that it cannot be Chance but Art that arrives at that accuracy. And then secondly, That the profession of others, and also their own observation, does witness to them, that when there is any mistake, the Errour is in the Artist, not in the Art. For when they have examined their Astrologicall Scheme, they finde the Event was there signified, and that it was their own oversight to miss it. But to

answer to the latter first, I say, they cannot pretend their Observation universall; and they that understand Astrology best, will acknowledge there is that intanglement usually and complication of things, that it requires a very long time to give due judgement according to Art con∣cerning a Nativity. And therefore, I say, the Representation of the Event being so doubtfull, if they chance to predict right at first, they easily perswade themselves that was the meaning of the Celestial Theme. If they miss, they will force on their way further, till they finde out what is answerable to the Events; which then must needs be the mea∣ning of the Art, though the Artist oversaw it: nor will they urge them∣selves to any further accuracy of inquisition, for fear they should finde it disagree again; or rather out of a strong credulity that if it hit right, it is surely from the true meaning and principles of their beloved Sci∣ence: whenas in truth their Themes have no certainty in their repre∣sentation, but are as a piece of changeable Stuffe or creased Pictures, look this way it is this colour, that way that, this way a Virgin, that way an Ape; or like the Oracles of Apollo, who was deservedly called Loxias, whose crooked Answers winded so this way and that way, that nothing but the Event could tell whither they pointed.

3. I might adde further, that the pretence of the Schemes themselves (be they never so exact) I say the pretence of their alwayes representing the Events aright, is a most impudent and rash Presumption; because (as I have intimated already) the Objects of their Predictions are so alterable by the interposall of free Agents, which interrupt ever and a∣non the series of Causality in naturall inclinations. Whence in reason a man can expect no certain Predictions at all from the significations of the Stars, nor that any triall can be made whether there be any thing in the Art or no. And it cannot but seem to every one a very bold sur∣mise, to imagine that all that fall in one fight by the edge of the Sword, or suffer shipwrack in one Storm, or are swept away in one Pestilence, had their Emissors and Interfectors in their Nativity answerable to the times of their Death. The Artists themselves dare not avouch it, and therefore bring in an unobserved caution of having recourse to Eclipses, Comets, and blazing-Stars, to calculate the generall fortune of the place, nay, of their Parents and Ancestors, and of their familiar Friends, of which there is no news in the most famous Predictions of Astrologers: and therefore these and the like considerations being left out, it is a signe their divinations fell true by chance. Wherefore it is a shameless piece of Imposture to impute the truth of Predictions to Art, where the Rules of Art are not observed; I may adde where they are so palpably by Experience confuted. For so it is in Twins, whose natures should be utterly the same according to their Art; and if they could be born at one moment, the moment of their death should be the same also. And yet those undissevered Twins born in Scotland, who lived till twenty eight years of their age,* 1.47 prov'd very often dissenting brethren, would wran∣gle and jangle; and one also died before the other. In answering to which instance, in my judgement, that ingenious Knight Sir Christopher is very shrewdly baffled.

4. And now to the* 1.48 former, I say, The reasoning is not right, to conclude the certainty of the Art from the punctuall correspondence of the Event to the Prediction. For it is also true that the Event has been punctually contrary thereto. And therefore this is as good a de∣monstration that it is no Art, as the other that it is: But it is easie to conceive that both may happen by Chance. Again, as for that exact Punctuality of time, it is most likely to be by Chance, because (as I have proved above) there is no way of rectifying a Nativity to that accura∣cy they pretend. And for particular Circumstances in Horary Questions, why may they not be by under-hand information, or some tricks and juglings that are usuall amongst Cheats? But if the Predictions of Astro∣logers be free from this, and yet be punctuall in time and other circum∣stances, and so many that it may seem improbable to be imputed to Chance, (though Chance has such a latitude, that it is difficult to say any thing is not by Chance that happens, suppose but four times seldo∣mer then the contrary) it will not yet follow that they are free from other things which are assuredly worse, more horrid, and more execra∣ble; such as the consulting of Ghosts and Familiar Spirits: a wickedness that that zealous Patron of Astrology, Sir Christopher Heydon, acknow∣ledges to be too frequently palliated under the Pretence of this Art.

5. And truly for my own part I do not much doubt but that Astro∣logy it self is an Appendix of the old Pagans Superstition, who were Worshippers of the Host of Heaven, and whose Priests were Confede∣rates of the Devil; and therefore it is no wonder if Daemonolatry creep in upon Astrology, and renew their old acquaintance with one another. And assuredly it is a pleasant Spectacle to those aiery Goblins, those Haters and Scorners of Mankinde, to see the noble Faculties of men de∣based and intangled in so vile and wretched a mystery, which will avail nothing to Divination unless these 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 these malicious Deceivers act their parts in the Scene. For it is not unconceivable how these invisible Insidiators may so apply themselves to a mans curiosity that will be tampering and practising in this Superstition, that (sup∣pose) in Horary Questions, they may excite such persons and at such a time to make their demands, that according to the foreknown Rules of Astrology the Theme of Heaven will decypher very circumstantially the Person, his Relations, or his Condition, and give a true solution of the demand, whether about Decumbitures, Stollen goods, or any such questions as are set down in Dariot's Introduction. Which needs must enravish the young Astrologer, and inflame him with the love and ad∣miration of so strange an Art. And as for Nativities and punctuall Pre∣dictions of the time of ones death, and it may be of the manner of it, (which either only, or most ordinarily happens in such as are addicted to, or devoted admirers of this Art) it is very suspicable that the same invisible Powers put to their helping hand to bring about the Effect; and so those whose misfortunes and deaths are predicted, must to the pot, to credit the Art, and be made Sacrifices to the lust and ambition of those rebellious Fiends, to whose secret lash and dominion men expose

themselves when they intermeddle with such superstitious Curiosities as are Appendages to ancient Paganism, and were in all likelihood inven∣ted or suggested by those proud and ludicrous Spirits, to entangle man in by way of sport and scorn, and to subjugate him to the befoolments of their tricks and delusions. For it is not unreasonable to think that by certain Laws of the great Polity of the Invisible World they gain a right against a man without explicit contract, if he be but once so rash as to tamper with the Mysteries of the Dark Kingdome, or to practise in them, or any way to make use of them. For why not here as well as in the Ceremonies of Witchcraft? (But I must not make too large excursi∣ons.) And therefore I think it the safest way for every one that has given his name to God and Christ, not to meddle nor make with these Superstitious curiosities of Astrology, either by practising them himself, or consulting them that do, that no ill trick be put upon him by being made obnoxious to the invisible scourge, or by making others so in whose behalf he consults.

6. I say then, these vagrant Daemons of the Air either secretly insi∣nuating themselves into the actions of Astrologers, or after more appa∣rently offering themselves to familiarity and converse, for to grace their profession by oral revelation of things past, present, or to come in such a way as is above humane power; I demand how it shall appear that Car∣dan's, for example, and * 1.49 Ascletarion's deaths, and others more punctu∣ally, that I could name, predicted by themselves or others, was not by the familiarity of Daemons, but the pure principles of Astrology. And so of whatsoever Honour or other Events that have been found to fall out just according to Astrological predictions, I demand how it can be pro∣ved that Astrology was not here only for a vizard, and that a Magician or Wizzard was not underneath. By how much accurater their Predicti∣ons are, by so much the more cause of suspicion.

7. Now therefore to conclude, seeing that the Principles of Astrolo∣gy are so groundless, frivolous, nay contradictious one with another, and built upon false Hypotheses and gross mistakes concerning the Nature and System of the World; seeing it has no due object by reason of the interposing of the free Agency of both men and Angels to interrupt per∣petually the imagined natural series of both Causality and Events; seeing there is not sufficient Experience to make good the truth of the Art, they that have practised therein having not observed the pretended Laws thereof with due accuracy, and therefore if any thing has hitherto hit true, it must be Chance, which quite takes away their plea from Events; so that their Art is utterly to seek, not only for Principles, which I have demonstrated to be false, but for Experience and Effects, which hitherto have been none; (And assuredly they make nothing of pronouncing loudly that such or such a Configuration will have such an Event, though they never experienc'd it at all, or very seldom: as it must needs be in the conjunction of Saturn, Iupiter, and Mars, which returns not in seven hundred years;) seeing also that those Predictions that are pre∣tended to have fallen right are so few, that they may justly be deemed to have fallen right by Chance, and that if any thing has been foretold

very punctually and circumstantially, it may as well, nay better, be suppo∣sed to proceed from the secret insinuations or visible converse with the aiery Wanderers, then from the indication of the Stars; and lastly, seeing there is that affinity and frequent association of Astrology with Daemono∣latry and ancient Pagan Superstition; that person certainly must have a strangely-impure and effascinable passivity of Phancie, that can be bound over to a belief or liking of a Foolery so utterly groundless as Astrology is, and so nearly verging toward the brinks of Apostasie and Impiety.

8. I have now finished my Astrological Excursion, to which I was strongly tempted, in a just zeal and resentment of that unparallel'd pre∣sumption and wicked sauciness of the vain-glorious Cardan, who either in a rampant fit of pride and thirst after admiration, or out of a malici∣ous design to all true Piety, would make the world believe that the Di∣vinity and Sacrosanctity of Christian Religion was subjected to his imaginary laws of the Stars, and that the fate of Christ the Son of God, miraculously born of the Holy Ghost, was writ in his Nativity, which forsooth he pretended to have calculated: As if all that Iustice, Meekness and power of working of Miracles were deriv'd upon our Saviour from the Natural influence of the Configuration of the Heavens at his Birth; and as if he did not willingly lay down his life for the World, * 1.50 as he himself professes, but were surprized by Fate, and lay subject to the stroke of an Astrological 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Sidereal Interfector. As also to meet with that enormous Boaster and self-conceited Wit, the prophane and giddy-headed Vaninus, a transported applauder and admirer of that wild and vain supposition of Cardan, upon which he so much dotes, that it is the very prop and master-piece of his impious Writings, the both Basis and Finishing of all his villainous distorted doctrines against the Truth and Sacredness of Christian Religion. To which two you may add also Apollonius, though long before them, a high pretender to divine Revelations, and hot Instaurator of decaying Paganism; but with∣all a very silly affected of * 1.51 Astrological predictions, by which it is easi∣ly discoverable at what a pitch he did either divine or philosophize. And methinks it is a trim sight to see these three busie sticklers against Chri∣stianity, like three fine Fools so goodly gay in their Astromantick Dis∣guises, exposed to the just scorn and derision of the World for their so high pretensions against what is so holy and solid as the Christian Faith is, and that upon so fond and frivolous grounds as this of Astrology.

Notes

• * 1.1

  See Book 5. ch. 17. sect. 2.
• * 1.2

  1 Kings ch. 13. v. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
• * 1.3

  In his De ad∣mirandis Na∣turae Arcanis, Lib. 4. Dialog. 52.
• * 1.4

  See Chap. 14. sect. 2, 3, 4, 5. &c. And chap. 15, 16, 17.
• * 1.5

  Genes. ch. 49. ver. 10.
• * 1.6

  See Book 4. chap. 8. sect. 8, 9, 10.
• * 1.7

  Haggai 2. v. 6, 7, 8, 9.
• * 1.8

  Vers. 10, 11.
• * 1.9

  See Ezekiel 47. v. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
• * 1.10

  Malach. ch. 3. v. 1.
• * 1.11

  The Septua∣gint render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ad consumman∣dam praevari∣cationem.
• * 1.12

  See Revel. 21. v. 22.
• * 1.13

  •• Coloss. 2.9.
• * 1.14

  See Book 9. chap. 5. sect. 7, 8, 9.
• * 1.15

  See Sarrav. Epist. pag. 52.
• * 1.16

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 Histor. ab Exc•••••••• N••∣ronis lib. 5. cap. 13. See Book 6. chap. 2. sect. 8.
• * 1.17

  See Hulsius De Messia pag. 309. and Horn∣beck l. 6. c. 1.
• * 1.18

  See Book 1. ch. 9. sect. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
• * 1.19

  As if they meant it of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.20

  Genes. chap. 12. v. 3. and chap. 18. v. 18. also chap. 22.18.
• * 1.21

  See chap. 1. sect. 4.
• * 1.22

  Antiquitat. Ju∣daic. l. 10. c. 4.
• * 1.23

  See c. 9. sect. 2.
• * 1.24

  See further ch. 13. sec. 4, 5. and ch. 8. sect. 2.
• * 1.25

  See Lucian his Philopatr.
• * 1.26

  Micah 5.2.
• * 1.27

  See Grotius on Psal. 22. v. 18.
• * 1.28

  Acts 1. v. 3.
• * 1.29

  Chap. 13. sect. 1.
• * 1.30

  See Book 7. 〈…〉〈…〉 6.
• * 1.31

  〈…〉〈…〉 book 2. chap. 11.
• * 1.32

  See Book 5. chap. 17. sect. 2.
• * 1.33

  Book 7. ch. 5, 7, 8.
• * 1.34

  De Motibus part. 2. cap. 11.
• * 1.35

  De Motibus part. 2. cap. 15.
• * 1.36

  Alcochodon est stella virtu∣tis, ex qua de annis quibus natus secundum Naturae cursum victurus est judicium sumi∣tur, nisi ratione directionis vel alterius violen∣ti & subiti ca∣sûs vita nati citiùs abrumpa∣tur. See Origan. de effect. part. 13.
• * 1.37

  See Book 3. ch. 1. sect. 6. Also Immortal. Book 3. ch. 19. sect. 4, 5, 6.
• * 1.38

  See sect. 4.
• * 1.39

  See Sir Christo∣pher Heydon his Defence of Ju∣dicial Astrolo∣gy, c. 7. p. 186.
• * 1.40

  See sect. 7.
• * 1.41

  See sect. 7.
• * 1.42

  See chap. 15. sect. 5.
• * 1.43

  See Sect. ••.
• * 1.44

  See chap. 15. sect. 6.
• * 1.45

  See sect. 10.
• * 1.46

  See Origin. par. 2. cap. 113.
• * 1.47

  See his De∣fence of Judi∣ciall Astro∣logy, cap. 11.
• * 1.48

  Sect. 2.
• * 1.49

  Sueton, in vita Domitiani sect. 15.
• * 1.50

  John 10.18.
• * 1.51

  See Book 4. ch. 4. sect. 2.