Christian religion's appeal from the groundless prejudices of the sceptick to the bar of common reason by John Smith.

§ 3. In the tenth Century.

The History whereof Baronius (Baron. ad annum, 900.) ushers in with this warning to his Reader, that now he would see the Abomination of Desolation standing in the most holy place; and with these expressions of his own re∣sentment of that Age: fie for shame! alas for sorrow! that so many Monsters (A thing horrible to be seen) should be thrust into the Chair that deserves reve∣rence of Angels. The truth is, his Predecessors in Chronology, had with so open a Mouth, and full Cry, pursued the Barbarity of the then Popes, and had followed the scent so close: as Baronius his Fox-like Art, which had serv∣ed him in the preceding Centuries, to find out Stratagems to cast off the Dogs, fail'd him in this: so as for him to have denied, dissembled, or blanch'd over the matter with extenuations would have spoken him so plainly to have been a man of a brazen forehead, as would have tempted the most easily credulous, and ductile Novices to have suspected his fidelity in all the rest: for him (whose declared intention was to present the Church of Rome as the most ho∣ly Catholick Church, as the new Jerusalem, without the compass of whose pearly Walls, there is no possibility of Salvation; and her Bishops as so ma∣ny Vice-Christs, yea, Vice-Gods upon Earth:) to bring upon the Stage above fifty Popes from John or Joan the eighth to Leo the ninth (within the compass of two hundred Years) who, by the common Vote of approved Historians, were little better than Incarnate Devils: (apotactici, apotastatae potius quam A∣postoli (Gerebrand ad an. 909.) without a puling Parenthesis, without shed∣ding his Crocodile-tears; would have spoke him a Man of an Iron Heart, and too like that Age, of which thus he writes (Bar. ad an. 900.) A new Age beginneth, which for rudeness and barrenness of all good, is called the Iron Age; for its turning it self, as Wax to the Seal, to all Forms and Resemblances of Evil, the Leaden: and for want of Writers, the dark Age: And for him, whose design in compassing Sea and Land was to gain Proselytes to the Church of Rome, to have presented his reader abruptly, and without fortifying his eye with some caution, with such a prospect, might have startled a good Catholick in the point of Infallibility, and have diverted him from looking for a visible Church within the Roman Pale in that Age, whereof, a Monster, born with a Doggs head, and presented to King Lewis (as the Author of Fasciculus temp. conceives) was the lively Emblem; (ad annum, 914.) In that Age where∣of Baronius himself (ad an. 908.) gives this further account; Thou seest Reader, the most lamentable estate of this time, when Whores did advance, and pull down Popes at their pleasure: Of which Luitprandus gives a notable in∣stance in the History of John the thirteenth (lib. 2. cap. 13.) who com∣ing

to Rome about business with the Conclave, with his beauty inflam'd the lust of one Theodora, a most shameless Strumpet. This Venus (to draw a Curtain over that filthy part of the story)

—videt hunc, visúmque cupit, potitúrque cupito:

and for his hire procures him a Bishoprick; but so far from Rome, as he could not give her those frequent Visits her insatiable lust required; and therefore she procures him the Papal Chair, that she might lie at Rack and Manger with her Stallion, his Holiness forsooth, than whom (as Baronius (Bar. ad an. 900.) witnesseth) there never lived a more filthy Beast. To be sure, this Centaur, that had so much of Horse below, had but little of Man above; his Soul could hardly dilate it self vigorously to the Head, which spent it self so much at the Tail; who ever gives the golden Ball to Venus, gives it iratâ Minervâ. This is the Engls•• of that [Libidinibus dediti de∣bilitatur operatio circa intelligibilia.] (Aquin. Sum. 2. 2. q. 5. ar. 3.) This, for kindreds sake in beastliness, brings to mind the Legend of Pope

Benet 9. (though out of due order of Time) who being at the Age of twelve years made Pope, by the procurement of his Father the Marquess of Tuscia, could not so much as read Mass; but was put to that sorry shift of procuring the Conclave to consecrate Gregory to be his Suffragan to per∣form that Office for him (Fascicul. ad ann. 1033.) This Tyrant, Monster and Opprobry of the Church (as Baronius (Baron. ad ann. 1033.) calls him) was skill'd in nothing but the Black Art; by means whereof he enticed Fe∣males into the Woods (as Cardinal Benno affirms) and that upon the evi∣dence of those Magical Books and Journals were found in his Study, after his Judas-like death (for he was strangled in the Woods by Devils) which things (saith he) every Boy in Rome knows to be true. Platina characte∣rizeth him, as one that from his very youth was contaminated with all shameful Vices and Turpitude; given more to Hunting than Praying; the most pernicious and wicked of all the Popes: and for proof hereof tells us, that, of a certain, his Ghost appeared to an Heremite in a prodigious form, having the Body like a Boar, the Head like an Ass: The Platonick Idea, the express Image of a Letcher; an Animal compounded essentially of the Loins of a Boar and the Brains of an Ass. History, indeed, affords plenty of Examples of men, that have been indefatigable Wenchers, and yet never-tired Martialists; famous in the Cabins of Mars, and Cabinets of Venus; but the Fancy of Poets could never stretch it self so far, as to fan∣sie. Apollo (as they did Mars) in bed with Venus. In Mahomet, who sub∣dued Constantinople and the Eastern Empire, the passions of Amorousness and Ambition were almost equiballanced: but when they strove in him for preheminence, the Mutinous heat did ever gurmandize the Amorous flame. That couragious Captain Ladislaus, King of Naples, proposed to himself, as the principal Scope of his Ambition, the execution of his Sensuality, and enjoyment of some matchless Beauty: but herein he shewed himself a man of stronger Nerves than Head-piece, and came to die like a fool, by the stratagem of a poyson'd Handkerchief, in the the arms of that Wench, for whose mortal imbraces he had yielded that Victory to the Florentines which they were ready to yield to him, (Lord Mountagne's Essays) Mark Antony was both a couragious Souldier, and a passionate Amorado; but for want of Wit, suffered his pleasures so far to make him forget the Con∣duct of his affairs, as he may thank Cleopatras dalliances, for his Ruin and loss of Empire.

Julius Caesar as he was the first sober man (in Cato's judgment) that ad∣drest himself to the ruin of the Common wealth; so he was the only pru∣dent man of a wanton lascivious Complexion; the only wise man, that addicted himself to all manner of Amorous Licentiousness: yet his plea∣sures could never make him lose one minute of an hour, nor turn one step

from the occasions that might any way farther his advancement (as that Noble Humanist and great Critick of Men, the Lord Mountagne observes.) But if I may with the lieve of his learn'd Ghost dissent from that Judg∣ment he passeth upon Caesar; I would rather think, he did but court Venus in complement, as an Handmaid or Pander to his Ambition; a Trick of State used of old: For Herodotus reports, that Cyrus made love to Tomyris, and courted her to become his Wife; but she, smelling it was only in Complement to her, but in Reality to her Crown, chose rather to answer his suite, in the Field of Mars, than the Gardens of Venus. (Clio; pag. 95.) And that Nitocris, the Queen of Egypt, drew those Nobles, that had an hand in the Murder of her Brother, into mortal Snares, by a train of Love∣powder. (Herod. Eutirpe.) But never more familiarly than in that Age of the first Caesars. Cleopatra courted Herod to come into her imbraces, not so much out of Love as treacherous Policy, (Joseph. ant. Jud. 15. 5.) A∣grippina prostituted her self to Lepidus, and afterwards to Pallas, and at last to her own Son Nero: not out of Lasciviousness, but out of Design to obtain and keep the Sovereignty: [spe••dominationis] (Tacit. annal. 5. 14. 198.) And lastly, Augustus (Sueton. Octavius 69.) his Intimates excused his familiarity with the Senators Wives, as done, not for the satisfying of his lusts, but out of Reasons of State, that he might, by those Subagitati∣ons of their Wives, bolt out the secrets of their Husbands; with whose Heifers he ploughed, that he might read their Riddles. Augustus (saith Dion.) made so much use of Woman-kind when he was fifty years old, as the Senate thought to gratifie him with a License to have to do with whom∣soever he pleased: (Dion. lib. 44.) I am apt to think, Julius might grind in so many Mills, upon the like Design, as having Cato's concurrence; who in open Senate charged Julius and his Allies, with endeavours to insinuate themselves into places of greatest Trust and Command, by the Panderage of Marriages, [Per nuptiarum lenocinia & hujusmodi mulieres:] this was Cato's sence of Caesar's matching his Julia to Pompey, and his marrying Calpurnia, (Plutarch. C. Caesar.) And his Collegue Bibulus preferr'd this Complaint a∣gainst him; That it was the Kingdom he courted, in making love to the Queen of Bithinia; [Bithinicam Reginam fuisse cordi nunc Regnum.] (Sue∣ton. Julius 49.) Caesar was but a kind of a Lay-smock-simonist. So that for all him, we are yet to seek for one Instance (in all History) of a noted Wanton, that has not been a notorious Fool. But to return from this Deviation, to which the proving of the Medium I here urge (It was a Lascivious, ergò a Sottish Age) hath drawn me.

John 12 or 13. (for the Popish Writers are not agreed under what num∣ber to place him; Joan (the She-pope) is the Davus here, turbat omnia) was a Pig of the same Litter, if the learned Council of Lateran were not mis∣taken; for the Fathers there assembled, prefer to Otho the Great, these Ar∣ticles against him (Luitprand. lib. 2. cap. 7.) That he ordained Deacons in a Stable: That he made Boys but ten years old Bishops: That in playing at Dice he invocated the Devil: That he made a Brothel-house of the Lateran Palace; lay with Stephana his Father's Concubine, and drank the Devil's Health. And when in answer to this Charge he sent out his Bulls to bel∣low Anathema's against them, they made bold to return this Reply. You write, by the suggestion of empty-headed Councellors, Childish Threats—we despise your threatned Excommunication, and throw it back upon your self: Judas the Traitor, when he would kill the Lord of Life, whom did he bind but himself, whom he strangled in an unhappy Rope?

Pope Lando, this John's Predecessor, was so inconsiderable a person, and his Life so obscure (saith Platina) as many Historians make no reckoning of him at all, but leave his Name and Story out of the Catalogue of Popes, and does thus express the degeneracy of that time: Not only were those fa∣mous Lights which in the days of yore render'd Italy illustrious, extinct; but the very Nurseries, where so excellent roots shot forth, were altogether laid waste and ••uin'd.

Pope Sergius 3. is complemented by the same Author in the Style of a rude and unlearned man: and the Reader desired to observe how the Popes of this Age were degenerate from their forefathers: For these throwing the service of God behind their backs, like raging Tyrants exercised enmities upon one another; and having none to bridle and keep them in, greedily pursued their own lusts. So devoid of Understanding were those Brutes, as they needed Bit and Bridle: and therefore the Council of Rhemes (held in this Centu∣ry) did prudently, in superseding their purpose of sending to the Pope for Advice in a difficult point, when they heard it averr'd in open Court, that scarce a man in Romo could read the Christ-cross-row, [Romae jam nullum ferè esse qui literas didicerit] (B. Hall. hon〈…〉〈…〉 of mar. lib. 1. Sect. 23.)

§ 4. The 11. Century was invelop'd with so thick a Cloud, as the very Light that was in it was gross Darkness; teeming with sixteen Popes, immedi∣atly succeeding one another (from Gerebert or Silvester 2. to Hildebrand or Gregory 7. inclusively) who lighted their Candle at the Devil's flame; ex∣ceeding Jannes and Jambres in Jugglery; and rising (by the black Art) in the Smoke of the bottomless Pit to the Papal Throne, if Cardinal Ben∣no have not belyed them. Nauclerus (vol. 2. generat. 31.) extends the line of this sacred (auri sacra fames) Succession to that length, as he joyns to these, 28 Popes succeeding Silvester, that were his Disciples in Necro∣mancy, and committed those Villanies, as it would make a man's hair stand on end to hear. Bellarmine himself (Chronologia Cent. 11.) confesseth, that in this Century there was more Sanctity under the Robe, than under the Gown: that we are less beholding to the Popes of this Age, for preserving a Succession of Religion, than to Secular Princes; which had gone wholly to wrack (for all St. Peter's Successors) if it had not been supported by the Piety of (Christ's Vice-gerents) the Emperour Henry and his Wife Chunagand; Ro∣manus, Emperour of Constantinople; C••ute King of Denmark and England; Stephen King of Hungary, and his Son St. Emeric; St. Robert, the French King; Ferdinand the Great, King of Castile, and his Wife Sanatia. For all those greater Lights that God made to rule the Day, the Church had been benighted, if it had not been for these lesser Lights, these Secular Princes. If the Earth had not helpt the woman, and God given her the Eagles Wings of both Empires, East and West, and provided a place for her in the Courts of Secular Princes, When Satan had set up his Throne in St. Peter's Palace, the Dragon (there Rampant) had destroyed her: he that then would look for the holy Church of Rome, must have looked beyond the Court of Rome, for there sate Hell's Plenipotentiary, if Platina be to be trusted.

Silvester 2. (anno—998.) who contracted with the Devil for the Papacy, at the price of Body and Soul, whereof he was to give livery and seisure at his death, (Platina Silvest. 2.) [Pontificatum postremò, majore conatu adju∣vante Diabolo consecutus est, hac tamen lege, ut post mortem totus illius esset, cujus fraudibus tantam dignitatem adeptus est.] O••••phrius (in Platinam) seeks to evade the Dint of common Fame touching Silvester, by this evasion; That he was a great Mathematician, and the ignorance of that Age so great too, as the Vulgar reputed them Witches, who had any thing in them above the pitch of common Learning: but himself misdoubts the validity of this, to elude the clear and concurrent Testimonies of so many grave and sober Authors. Truly I could heartily wish (for the sake of the Christian name) that his Argument had been cogent, in that branch of it wherein he would defend Sivester against the Charge of Sorceries: for the very medium he useth will serve my present turn, and demonstrates what a thick Mist of barbarous Ignorance, covered the face of that Age, which esteemed them black Swans who exceeded the common size of Geese: And him a great Clerk, who was but the Scholar of the Saracens, the most stupid kind of men; of whom he received that Mathematical Table. which neither he nor they nor any body else understands [abacum certè primus 〈◊〉〈◊〉

Saracenis rapiens, regulas dedit quae à sudantibus Abacistis vix intelliguntur (C. Malmesbur. 2. 10.) However the Devil was too cunning for him, for [Statuae cap••t à Saracenis Hispaniensibus edoctus in oraculum sibi conflavit Sil∣vester secundus.] but his Oracle deceived him by Equivocation, promising he should not die till he read Mass in Jerusalem, meaning a Church in Rome so called, wherein he was singing Mass, he died miserably; (C. Malme••buriensis 2. 10. referente Seldeno de d••••s Syriis, in Teraphim.)

But of all these Mathematicians none came near Benet 8. The rest rode the Devil during life, but he after his death; they curvetted upon that Beast in this World, he in Purgatory. The Prince of that bottomless Pit (whereof they were the Clavigers) held their Bridles while they rode in Procession; but the gentle Elephant takes up this spiritual Porus upon his own back, when death had dismounted him from his Papal Mule. Some report (saith Platina, in ••en. 8.) that his ghost sitting upon a black Horse ap∣peared to a certain Bishop, who asking the reason of his being in that equippage, is told, that all the alms he had given before proved inavailable, because they were given of goods got by Rapine; and is therefore intreated, by this Knight of Silvester's Order, to bestow in alms (in his name) certain sums of money; directing him to the place where he had bid them, The Bishop did as he was bid; dismounts from his Episcopal Throne, and turns Monk. One part of this Story, that Benet was relieved in Purgatory by Alms, is prest by the Papists, as one of their best Arguments for Purgatory, and the benefit of Suffrages: have they any reason then to deny the rest of it? Must they alledge it in defence of their Service for the Dead; and may we not alledge it in con∣demnation of that Service, as being instituted not by the Pope sitting in St. Peter's Chair, but on the back of a Fiend? let them forethink how they shall escape the Curse, if they will buy and sell by different weights; de∣liver out by strik'd and take in by heap'd measure. (How great was the Darkness, when the great Lights that rule the day thus gave the Candle to one another, which they had lighted at the Devil's fire!) But I must laquey it no longer, at the side of this rank Rider. Baronius calls me to attend on

John 21. whom he affirms to be in the lowest Purgatory, to have been unworthy of the Papal Dignity, into which he entered by unworthy means, and managed with Tyranny. Of whom some reported (saith Platina) that he was a mere Laick before he was created Pope. In whose time all affairs at Rome were managed by Enchanters and Necromancers (if we may credit Gratian.)

But horror surprizeth me while I walk thus far after these Triple-crown'd Magicians; those damps of the Infernal Pit threaten to stifle my spirits: I will therefore withdraw my thoughts from these Sulphureous streams, and retire to those Histories, from whence we may take a less offensive prospect of that Cloud, which, from an handful at first, did by degrees overspread the Western Hemisphere, with such blackness of Darkness, as the sight of it extorted from Alphonsus de Castro (cont. haereses lib. 1. cap. 4. edit. Colonens.) this Confession; That some Popes were such great Clerks as they had no skill at all in Grammar, A Confession the Modern Papists are so asham∣ed of, as they have expunged that Clause out of later Copies, and gelt that Colen-edition, anno 1541, of that sentence.

And from Matthew Paris, in the Life of our William the Conquerour, this, That he was then esteemed a wondrous great Scholar that had but learn'd his Grammar, [stupori erat caeteris qui Grammaticam didicerat.]

And from Theoderique Niem. this, [That Pope Boniface could neither write, nor read Mass, hardly understanding the Propositions of Advocates in the Consisto∣ry: in so much as ignorance did then bear away the prize in the Roman Court.

And from Lupus Abbot of Ferrara, this (in his Letter to King Lewis) [That they were accounted troublesom who were desirous of knowledge; and that illiterate Age gazed upon such as wonders.]

And from Agobard (in his Works of the Paris Edition, anno 1605. pag. 128.) this; [That God had made the Priests of that Age so vile, as Gentlemen retain'd them not ••s their instructors, but as Trencher-chaplains, to wait at Table, to lead Doggs, to feed Horses, &c.]

In the midst of which great and mischievous ignorance (saith Platina) (Bonifac. 9. circa finem an. 1389.) one happiness befel Italy, by Chry∣solitus Byzantius his bringing thither the Greek Letters, which had not sound∣ed there for 500 years before.

So childish in understanding was that Age wherein the Blasphemies of Mahomet and Popish Innovations (for they commenc'd and took their de∣grees together like Twins) were presented to the World; so dark that night wherein those Tares were sown; in so dead a sleep were the Centinels, when the Cackling of these Geese about the Capit••l was esteemed merito∣rious. So barbarous was was that World upon which Rome imposed her unsociable Paradoxes, of the Pope's Supremacy over Bishops, over Kings, &c. as that of Bernard (Serm. in Concil. Rhemensi) may fitly be applied to this Subject; I will set my seat in the North, that is, far from the Sun of know∣ledge, far from the warmth of Vertue; in the midst of Boreal storms, of blustering winds of war and tumults. Pliny did not with more hazardous difficulty travel, in obtaining the knowledge of the burning of Vesuvius, by ocular demonstration and approach to it, while the flames flew about his ears, than men could (in that boysterous Age when this two-fac'd Antichrist ap∣peared) in obtaining the knowledge of worldly Affairs, in informing them∣selves in the Natural History of those blazing Stars, those burning Moun∣tains, which chose a time to break out, and draw the Ages of the World after them, when the smoak and sparks of War did every where fly about and threaten to stifle the approachers.

Whereas Christ's Star arose in the still Calm of Peace, when, without interruption of their course, men might go or send to the place over which it stood, from all parts of the World. Never was the Air more clear from foggs, more free feom winds, than when the Gospel came flying in the midst of Heaven. But I shall speak of the latter Branch of this Position, after I have taken a view of the World's Complexion in point of Knowledge, when Pagan Theology obtained footing.

§. 5. If we trace the Original of Pagan Theology, the Stories of those many Gods Incarnate, those Thieves and Robbers (as our Saviour calls them) that came before him, we shall find, they had their Births in that rude and obscure time, when by reason of the late Confounding of Languages, the World was in the greatest incapacity of mutual Commerce: when every Nation (retaining some rough draught of the promised Seed) growing so numerons, as it was not possible men should be kept in order without Laws, and no Laws likely to awe them so much, as those that claim'd an heavenly Original. [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] All Nations did cry up their own Laws as of a divine Original. (Aelian. Var. hist. 14. 34.) the Serpent put it into the heads of the Founders of Commonwealths, to sub∣orn their familiars and favorites to cry themselves up, as the promised Seed, as Gods born of Womans seed. The Multitude, partly out of Am∣bition to be accounted the Favorites of Heaven; partly out of State Policy, to keep their Posterities in awe with the Notion of a Deity, partly through the Legerdemain of cunning Impostors, readily either imbrac'd or seem'd to imbrace those Fables. Thus every Nation, while none of any other Language had dealings with them, or could observe their shuffling, agreed among themselves to take him for a Virgin-born Theanthropos, who seemed most worthy of that honour, by his publick spiritedness and success in doing Common Good. And by this means the World had the unhappy opportunity of inventing what fictions the Inhabitants of every corner of it pleased, without fear (or indeed possibility) of being detected, and of licking them into that

shape, by that time their nearest Neighbours could come to the knowledge of them, as might render their Stories plausible to that rude Embrio of Mankind. From which Consideration, Josephus (Antiq. 1. 1.) commends Moses's his Ingenuity, in that, when he had the start and advantage of all Writers in the opportunity of feigning (both in respect of the Date of his Writings and their Subject) impunè and without fear of detection; (none of the Pagan Writers daring to refer either the Pedigrees of their Gods, or the Institution of Laws, or the History of Humane Affairs, to so old a Date as he pitcheth upon, by above three thousand years) yet he carrieth on his History without the least mixture of Forgeries, abuseth not the World by improving the opportunity of being as fabulous as the vainest Poets: the Secundine of whose fabulous God-incarnations wherein they were se∣cretly formed, was the advantage which the ignorance of the World, and its wanting light to discover the fraudulency of their Traditions, administred to them. That this is the true state of this Case; appears,

First from the industrious Care which their Inventors and Nurses took to conceal the Conceptions of those monstrous Issues of their brain: well ex∣prest by Clemens Alexandrinus, interpreting Midas his fostering Silenus, his concealing his own ears, &c. to devote his care to keep secret what Silenus imparted to him concerning his Foster-child Bacchus (Protreptic. 3. pag.) And more fully by a more authentick Author, as to this case, Macrobius (in his Saturnalibus 1. 7.) where Praetextatus tells Evangelius (who I conceive in that Conference personates the Christian) requesting him to declare the O∣riginal of the Saturnalia [Saturnalium originem il'am mihi in medium profer∣re fas est: non quae ad arcanam Divinitatis naturam refertur, sed quae aut fa∣bulis admixta disseritur, aut à physicis in vulgus aperitur. Nam occultas & manantes ex meri veri fonte rationes nè in ipsis quidem sacris enarrari permitti∣tur, sed si quis illas assequitur, continere inter conscientiam tectas jubetur.] I may reveal that Original of the Saturnalia, which is either fabulous or physical, not that which relates to the secret nature of Divinity: for the secret reasons which flow from the fountain of pure Truth may not be declared, no not in the administration of the sacred Rites themselves, but whoso knows them, is bound to conceal them in his own conscience, Numa (the parent of the Roman Re∣ligion) buried under ground the Books wherein he had laid down the Cir∣cumstances of his Traditions, and by what means he came to the know∣ledge of them, and of their acceptableness to the Gods. Five hundred years after their interring, these Writings obtain a resurrection, being turn∣ed up before the Plough of Terentius (say Cassus Hemina and Pliny (lib. 13. cap. 13.) of Paetilius (say Livy and Valerius.) The finder conveighs them to the Pretor; he communicates them to the Senate; the Senate, upon this ground that the divulging of them would not make for Credit of that Re∣ligion they communicated the grounds of, takes order that the like tempta∣tion to Ath••ism should never come in the way of, never be laid before their successors, and therefore adjudgeth them to the flames. So fearful were they of having Numa's secret Congresses with his Aegeria come to the knowledge of the Vulgar, of having the Sheets shown, which bare the tokens of their Bed-converse, while he begat on her that Nymph the issue of his Religious Rites; lest upon that inspection she might be found no Virgin, but a Suc∣cuba: of which Numa himself was so not only jealous but conscious, as, though he durst not burn (for fear the Goddess should turn a Vixon (as St. Austin noteth) yet he thought it fit to bury those sheets; thinking length of time would take out the stains, or hoping they would never come out of their grave. (Austin. de civit. 7. 34.)

The Athenian Goddess banish'd from her Service the tattling Crow, pro∣claiming her self thereby to be a Deity that loved not to be brought to light, liked not to have all that said of her Mysteries, which that tell-truth Bird would prate; and upon that account prefers the Owle, the Bird of night, before her. Servius upon Virgil conceives Virgil, from the Custom at her

Rites, to have borrowed his [procul hinc profani—] and so fearful was that Goddess of being discovered, as she would be conjured to do anything with that form of charming [Esse I will reveal thy mysteries;] and sadly complains against Numerius the Philosopher, the first that did divulge them, that he had spoiled the repute of her Chastity.

The Eleusine Mysteries grew into a Proverb for their Secretness, that be∣ing the only thing in them that had any form of Religion; and therefore accounted so sacred, as Wine was interdicted those solemnities, for fear Truth should go out, if that Tongue-loosing Liquor went in.

It was the Egyptians care to keep the Original of their Deities as obscure as the head of their Nilus: of which they gave a digital Demonstration, in their painting their Mercury with his hand laid upon his mouth; thereby teaching his Priests to seal up their lips, (Plut. de Iside.) A Lesson they had got so by heart, as it is reported for one of the most renowned Conquests which Alexander made, that he extorted from one of them, by the rack of the fear of inevitable death, the confession of this secret, That their reputed Gods were nothing else but Men, famous in, and useful to their Generations. A My∣stery which he intreates Alexander might not be divulged, but that after he had communicated the secret to Olympia, he would strictly injoyn her to burn the Letter; that what tended so much to the defamation of Reli∣gion, might not come to publick knowledge. The Poets paint to the life this sedulity of the old World to conceal their God-births, in their Fable of Pallases committing the new-born Ericthonius to the custody of Cecrops Daughters; with a severe charge not to prie into the Ark wherein he was lock'd up. And the Carvers by the Tritons that were set upon the Temple of Saturn, who had their Tayles immers'd and buried in the earth; to denote that the Religions of the former Ages were concealed: (Macrob. Saturn. 1. 8.) Whereto Orpheus had respect in that Proverbial form, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Let prophane ears be sealed up, I am going to sing of the Gods: Horace in his [Odi prophanum vulgus, & arceo—favete linguis, carmina non priùs audita musarum sacerdos, virginibus puerisque, can∣to.] And that Prose-Poet Petronius, [Major enim in praecordiis dolor saevit, qui me usque ad necessitatem mortis deducit, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 scilicet juvenili impulsi licentiâ, quod in sacello Priapi vidistis, vulgetis, Deorúmque consilia proferatis in populum: pro∣tendo igitur ad genua vestra supinas manus, petóque & oro, nè nocturnas religio∣nes jocum ••isúmque faciatis, néve traducere velitis tot annorum secreta, quae vix mille homines noverunt.] (Petronii Arbitri Satiricon.) But my greatest trouble is my fear, that by the impulse of ••••venile licentiousness, you should tell what you have seen, and blab abroad the secrets of the Gods: I therefore stretch out my supine hands to your knees, begging and beseeching that you would not make a mock of our night religions, and that you would not traduce the secrets of so many years, which scarce one thousand men do know.

Secondly, as Trafficking of one Nation with another increas'd, the World grew past this kind of Child-bearing, gave over teeming with these fictiti∣ous God-men. If any had the face to show a big Belly with such Conceptions, in that Age wherein they could not lay it, but be observed of others, their Births proved abortive. Alexander bid as fair for the repute of a Divine Ori∣ginal from Jupiter, as Hercules had done, his Mother fathering him with as much probability as Alomena had fathered Hercules upon that God, if we nakedly compare the Gossips stories, and the Fiction of Dianas assisting her in her labour, while her Temple at Ephesus was burnt down; which gave occasion to Egesias Magnesius to say, she was imployed about a work of more concern than the saving of her own Temple, (Plut. Alexand.) The admirers of Plato (Guarin. vitâ Platonis) told as streight a Tale of his be∣ing Apollo's Son, as Antiquity had told of Aesculapius, and without that self-contradiction of a bearded Son and beardless Father, (for which the Sicilian Tyrant (Valerius Max. 1. 1.) pull'd the Father by the Chin and the Son by the Beard.) Caesar's Star was as valid an Indication of his Deifica∣tion,

as Romulus his Thunder and Lightning was of Quirinus's; yea the Senate's Decree for Caesar was past with a more Rational Vote among the Vulgar, (Sueton. Julius 88.) who by seeing a Comet during the seven days of his Funeral Solemnities, were brought into the opinion of his Assumpti∣on into the Chorus of the Gods, upon better grounds than the old Senate could or did lay before the then Vulgar, to bring them into a belief that Ro∣mulus was translated into their number; they offering no other argument but the single word of Proeulus.

Those later Tales which the Procounesians, Cyzicens and Metapontines told of Aristaeus being turned into a God-crow, are no more unlikely, than the Elder Latins Stories of Picus being metamorphosed into a God-jay; yet as Celsus (that great Patron of Pagan Theology) confesseth (Orig. cont. Cels. lib. 3. calum. 8.) No man now esteems Aristaeus a God; no not after Apollo's Oracle had charged the Metapentines to erect him Altars. Why were not those of a younger house, of a later Edition, embraced with an equal Credulty? but because the ancient Figments could not be traced up to their obscure Springs, nor impartially examined, till by a prolix Series of Ages the be∣lief of them had been rivetted in mens minds; but these After-broods were brought forth in a season, when the knowledge of Contingencies was com∣municable from Sea to Sea, and By-standers pried into the Actions of their Neighbours. An ingenious Hint of which Truth the close of that foremention∣ed Fiction administers of Cadmus's Daughters, whom Pallas could not charm from prying into her Depositum. The Off-spring of the many-tongued Cecrops, of that Age wherein men of several Languages were no longer Barbarians to one another, cannot keep Minerva's Counsel, but will be peeping into the Cradle, where the new-born Deity is laid to nurse, till (infantémque vident apporrectúmque draconem) they see the serpentine feet, the fraud upon which the fiction is framed.

Thirdly, as the Theology of those obscure Times came to be enquired into by Foreigners, traversing the several Climates, on purpose to find out the Originals of things, it grew by degrees into that discredit, as at last it was wholly exploded for fabulous, and its Gods detected to have been but Men. Diodorus Graecus, Thallus, Cass. Severus, Cornelius Nepos, yea all that write upon that subject, have openly published Saturn to have been no o∣ther than a Mortal (saith Tertullian, Apol. 10.) And if you look for Argu∣ments to prove it, where can you find more convincing ones than in Italy it self, whither he retired in flight from the pursuit of his rebellious Son; from whose lurking there it derived its name Latium. St. Austin (de civi∣tate 8. 5.) hath this Note upon the Story of the Egyptian Priest's revealing to Alexander, the nakedness of the Heathen Gods, not only Picus and Romulus, the Gods of the lesser & later Nations; but Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and all the rest of the 12 Deities majorum Gentium, of the greatest Antiquity, are found by search to have been sometimes men, & creatures of his making that is the great God & Creator of all things, as Plato & Cicero speak, (de leg. l. 2.) (Tusc. qu.) (in Timaeo.) And, indeed, what do they hint to us, or rather speak fully out, of Jupiter himself (the Parent of all their Gods) that placed the Image of his Nurse besides him in the Capitol. Do not they assent to Euemerus, who, not as a fabulous Tattler, but as a diligent Enquirer, hath drawn the Natural and Moral History of all those Gods, (de Civitate 6. 7.) But we will hear the Heathens tell their own Tales of what they had found concerning their Gods. Trismegistus, in his Aesclapius, (cap. 9. & 13.) translated by Porphyry (that grand Pagan Adversary to the Christian Name) affirms, that men made all those Gods who are worshipt in Temples: a thing, saith he, that passeth all admiration, and argueth our Ancestors to have erred exceedingly, touch∣ing the Nature of the Deity. Yea, he proves this by Induction of particu∣lars. (Aug. de civ. l. 8. c. 26.) Thy Grandfather, O Asclepius, the first Inventor of Physick, hath a Temple erected to him in a Mountain of Lybia, near the Croco∣diles shore, wherein his Mundane man, his Body, lies interr'd. And Hermes, after

whom I am named, hath his Tomb in Hermopolis, a City in Aegypt of his founding. Varro in his Antiquities, dedicated to Julius Caesar the great Pon∣tiff, gave so plain demonstration of this, from the Rites and Solemnities used in their Divine Worship, as the Senate decreed his Book to be burnt (August. de civit. 8. 25.) Valerius Maximus, in his Epistle Dedicatory to Tiberius, saith, that all our Gods we have received of our Ancestors, but the Caesars we have handed down to Posterity, [reliquos accepimus, Caesares dedimus.] A ma∣nifest Confession of a Pagan, and that to the face of a Pagan Emperour, that the Gods they had received were of the same kind with those they gave, i. e. Mortals.

The Roman Demosthenes in his Tusculane Questions concludes thus; If I listed to ransack the Antiquities of the Greeks, I should find that the same Gods whom we esteem greatest, have had their Original among us Mortals: For the verifying hereof, do but enquire whose the Tombs are that are shewed in Greece, and consider with thy self what their Ceremonies and Mysteries are; for having access to them thou wilt without doubt understand far more than I averr.

By this means Euemerus fram'd that History which the Grecians abusive∣ly called sacred, for which himself was tearmed Atheist, numbred by Theodori∣cus Cyrenensis and Aelian, with Diagoras and Theodorus, and stiled by Timon (in his Syllis) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, insolent old Knave; consisting of the Collections of the Titles and Monuments of the most ancient Temples, and thereby prov∣ing Tully's Assertion, wherein he had the suffrage of Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, and the most eminent of their Scholars; yea of all persons but doting old Wives, not only in that, but in other points of Theology, [quae verò anus tam excors inveniri potest, quae illa, quae quondam credebantur portenta, extimescat; o∣pinionum enim commenta delet dies, naturae judicia confirmat.] Cirero de nat. Deor. l. 2. p. 54.) What old wife is to be found so witless, as to fear such things as af anci∣ent time were accounted portents? For time (saith he) obliterates the devices of o∣pinions, but confirms the sentiments of Nature.

But the Testimonies already alledged are abundantly sufficient to evince what reason the Romans had to stile Saturn (whom the Greeks called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, i. e. Time, the father of Truth: even for this cause (saith Plutarch) because time reveals all things. To be sure, in this case he brought to light those things touching the birth of Heathen Gods, as gave ground enough to the Poetical Fiction, of Saturn's devouring his Off-spring: and to that Proverb of the Gre∣cians, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉▪ the Grow sings another note than the Owl; for, if I may hold up my Candle to that Sun of restored Learning, the great Erasmus; I conceive this to be the importance of it, that the after-times of mutual commerce among the Nations of the World, taught the Crow to prate other stories of their feigned Gods, than the Owl had whooted in that obscure and independent Age wherein those Fables were hatched: when men had never gone out of sight of the Smoak of their own Chimneys, and mea∣sured themselves by themselves. Gorgias and Protagoras, saith Aelian, were the most famous men of all Greece, though as far from Wisdom as Boys are from men. It was only while they were caged up in their Countrey's Know∣ledge, that they retain'd the Note they were taught to sing, Jove is a God, Juno is a Goddess, &c. which they forgat as soon as they are turn'd loose, like Annon's Birds in the same Author. Briefly, the day hath revealed all false Religions to be mere Impostures; but that of Divine Institution, pro∣fessed by the Patriarchs, out-lasted the old World, exerted its head above that Flood, which over-top'd the highest Mountains, and shewed its face more bright as it grew in Years. Noah illustrated Enoch, Moses Noah, the Prophets Moses. All whose Commentaries upon that Evangelical Grain of Mustard-seed, sowen by God's hand in Paradise, as Science (truly so called,) came to per∣fection in the Apostatized World, gained repute amongst the most rational, inquisitive, and civilized Nations. And when that Religion had attain'd its ultimate perfection by Christ's filling up the Law and Prophets though the

Judaick, which virtually contains the Christian, hath not, in its letter, with the Vail upon Moses his face, obtain'd one Proselyte: yet the Christian, which is the explanation of that; and presents the Old Testament so bare-fac'd, as the way-faring man, though a fool, cannot err in expounding Moses; hath procured acceptance every where, (where it hath come among Men, and not Brutes) hath at no time, in no place, been under a Cloud, since its first ris∣ing; but when or where a Cloud hath been drawn over Mens Minds, and their foolish Hearts benighted in blackness of Darkness. This Wisdom hath been justifyed of Wisdom's Children, and the more Trials upon the Test of right Reason it has undergon, the greater Approbation it hath obtained.