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

Christian Religion's APPEAL To the BARR of Common Reason, &c. The First Book. (Book 1)

It was morally impossible, that the Apostolical Church should delude the World with feign∣ed Miracles or Stories.

CHAP. I.

The Contents.

The Age wherein the Apostles flourish'd was sufficiently secured against the Impostures of Empiricks by its Knowledge in Physicks. Igno∣rance in Naturals the Mother of superstitious Credulity. The Dark∣ness at our Saviours Crucifixion compared with that at Romulus his Death. Heathen Records of the Darkness of Christ's Passion.

Sect. 1. HOW easily, how certainly, would the fraud have been de∣tected, had our Saviour and his Apostles wrought their wonderful Cures and stupendous Works by the Appli∣cation of Natural Causes? That Age wherein they were done, being an Age of the most improved Wits in Natural Science, that the benign Genius of any Age had, till then, or hath to this day, produced. Pliny, that great Secretary of Na∣ture, so industrious a searcher into her Mysteries, as, in pursuit of the knowledge of the Causes of Vesuviums Conflagration, he made so near an approach to that burning Mountain (while the dreadful fragor of that fierce Eruption put the most undaunted Spirits into that fright, as they fled as fast, and far, from it, as their heels would carry them) as he was stifled with its Sulphu∣reous Steam: choosing rather to die in the attempt of seeking out, than to live in the ignorance of, Natures secrets; and to throw himself into its fla∣ming Mouth (by which it vented what was in its Heart) rather than not to know, from what abundance of the Heart, its now opened and gaping Mouth

spake. This unparallel'd Example for our modern Virtuosi (who think they infinitely oblige Humane kind (and let them never r••ap the fruit of their ingenuous labours, who grudge them that honour!) by the Experiments they make, at the Expence of so much sweat, and with the hazzard of stop∣ping their own breath with the Exhalations of their Furnaces.) This so di∣ligent an Attender upon Natures Cabinet-council, was our Saviour's Con∣temporary, by that compute of his age which his Nephew Plinius Secundus gave to Cornelius Tacitus (Lib. 6. Epist. 16.) requesting from him an account of his Unkles death, that he might, in his History, transmit to posterity the memory of so brave an Exploit.

A little before him in years (and not behind him in sagacity after Natures footsteps) flourish'd Mithridates King of Pontus, (whose name to this day is famous in Dispensatories: [Regum Orientis post Alexandrum Magnum maxi∣mus,] the greatest of all the Eastern Kings, after Alexander the Great: so potent, as he held the Romans in play 40 years, and in his ruine involved almost the whole East and North (L. Florus, Appianus, &c.) having 25 Provinces under his Dominion; and understanding as many Languages as well as the Natives; so that he answered all Embassadors in their Mother Tongue. (Agellius noct. Att. l. 17. c. 17.) Ingentis industriae consiliique 〈◊〉〈◊〉, &c. (Eutropius l. 6.) A per∣son of such vast industry and contrivance, as he enquired of his Subjects scattered through his large Dominions (and sent the most skilful of them to search) what was the Virtue of every Root, the Property of every Plant, that grew in such variety of fertil Climes: By which means he grew to that skill in the Botanick Art, as he composed Commentaries upon that Subject (I had almost said from the Cedar to the Hyssop) which Pompey, in rum∣maging amongst his Treasures, found and received with very great delight. (Plutarch▪ Pomp.) This Princely Philosopher, who [tam Marte quàm Mercurio] both at pen and pike, excell'd all Kings, not only of his own, but former Ages, (Just. hist. l. 47.) flourish'd not above 60 years before the Virgins Con∣ception. (Alsted. cron. Medicorum.)

About the same time, the Natural History of Animals was so well improv∣ed, as Aelian (who lived under Adrian) in the Preface to his History of Ani∣mals, makes an Apology for his writing upon that Subject, after so many famous Authors; and bids his Readers expect nothing new from his Books, but stile and method, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.]

A while after Mithridates (still nearer Christs time) began the Secta Me∣thodica; of which Themison Laodicaeus was the Institutor: his immediate Suc∣cessors were Dioscorides, an acquaintance of Mark Antony, (and M. Antony himself is reported by Scribonius (in his Epistle to the Lantgrave of Hess) to have emulated the ancient Egyptian Kings in the knowledge of Physical Operations) Antonius Musa Physician to Augustus, Antipater, Thessalus, ••rallia∣nus, Scribonius, Agathinus Magnus: all under Tiberius; who, by help of that Library which Lucullus (in emulation of Mithridates) had erected at Rome (Plutarch. Lucull.) (whence Tully confessed he borrowed his most refined philo∣sophical Notions) rendred that Age the most learned of all Ages, (Sleidan Clav. l. 1.) and lick'd the Off-spring of the Empiricks (then come to its full growth) into form, platting their scattered Flowers into Garlands, setting their Woods into orderly Rows: Nature seeming ambitious, not only to strow the way before that Root and Off-spring of David (that Rose of Sharon) with Roses; but to adorn the Temples of the God of Nature, at his Incar∣nation, with Wreaths of Flowers, framed by men of such skill in that Art, as none of their Progenitors equall'd (Apollo and his Son A sculapius not except∣ed; for the Father was a mere Jugler, and the Son drove a pedling Trade at, Epidaur, with Water-germander and Swallow-wort: (Tertul. Apol. ad gent. cap. 23.) The latter of those Herbs bears his name indeed, as if he had first found out its Vertues: but Tarquilius (quoted by Mornay de ver. Christia∣nae Rel. cap. 22. pag. 388.) will not allow him the honour of that; but saith, Chiron taught him the properties of that and the other Simples.) Neither have

any of their Successors exceeded them, or better merited the surname of Great, than one of them (Agathinus) did: who had the honour of that Title conferred upon him, in an age wherein nothing was reputed so, but what really was great. Albertus, indeed, bore away the compellation of Magnus; but that was when the World was such a Pigmy in liberal Science, as whosoever therein attain'd to the ordinary Stature of Man, was account∣ed a Giant.

Sect. 2. Before the World had learnt to spell the Characters of Nature, it was a matter of no great difficulty, to impose upon her Credulity, whatever any Craftsmaster pretended to read to her out of that Book. Be it (for in∣stance) that Berenices her devoted hair was conveighed out of Venus Temple (where it was offered for her husband, and brother Ptolomies Victory) into the Zodiack, and there placed ad caudam Leonis: Conon the Mathematician can perswade the credulous people, that he can point them to the brightness of her golden locks sparkling out in seven Stars, which to this day retain the name of Berenices hair, (Hyginus, Poetic. astronom. tit. Leo. pag. 217.) Or that while the Moon was under an Eclipse, she was assaulted with charms, threatning to hale her head-long from her Orb; except her ears were stopt with the louder noise of Trumpets and Cymbals;

Cantus & è curru lunam deducere tentant, Et facerent si non aera repulsa sonant. Propertius.

This was enough to sound the females especially (as partaking most of the ductile spirit of our Mother Eve) of that Hemisphere wherein the Eclipse was visible, to their Kettle-Drums, or the more shrill Trumpet of their clamo∣rous Tongues.

Una laboranti potuit succurrere Lune.

An effect of ignorant Zeal no less ridiculous, than that which (in Aug. de Ci∣vit. 10. 16.) Vives reports, of his own knowledge, concerning that grave Se∣nate, which (at that time that barbarous ignorance had almost put out the eye, not only of Religion, but of common sence, and that Maxime [Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion] had reduc'd Germany to a zeal without knowledge) to do the world right, solemnly sentenc'd that Ass to be ript up whom his wise Master had accused to have drunk up the Moon; he having seen her shadow at the lips of the wiser beast of the two, while he was a drinking; and she immediately sculking behind a cloud, and there continuing till the Executi∣oner freed her from the belly of the Ass. And yet such doctrine past for cur∣rant, before the knowledge of that upper was descended, from the father of lights, upon the lower world, not only among the vulgar, but such as past then for great men and sublime wits, elevated above the ordinary pitch: such were those famous philosophising Poets, Stefichorus and Pindar, as Pliny affirms. Pliny natural. Hist. lib. 2. Viri ingentes & supra mortalium naturam in defectibus stellarum scelera aut mortem aliquam paventes syderum—Quo in metu fuisse Stefichori & Pindari sublimia ora palam est. Yea whole armies at first dismay'd at the sight of an Eclipse, as a Prodigy, have by a favou∣rable interpretation of that Prodigy, by help of their inscience of the natu∣ral cause, been animated to that height of courage, as they have defeated their late formidable adversaries, Plutarch. Dion. Thus Milthas the Augur cheated Dions Army, trembling at the omen of the Moon Eclipse, (hapning at the instant of their offering sacrifices, for the success of that battle they were the next day to ingage in,) by assuring them it portended the di∣minution of the Syracusian Dionysius; there being nothing below the Moon so gay and splendid as that Peacock-feather'd King. The same Plutarch in his book de Superstitione tells, how Nicius the Athenian General (an Eclipse hapning when he was about to ingage the enemy) counted it so ominens as he durt

not think of fighting, but sate still till the enemy had surrounded him, and taken or slain 40000 of his army.

Sect. 3. I shall not force the Moon beside her well-known seasons, nor my discourse beyond its due bounds, by inserting here St. Austins (De Civitate 3. 15.) observation upon the politick use, which the Roman Senate made of that Eclipse of the Sun that hapned at the translation of Romulus: they per∣swading the multitude to ascribe it to the vertue and splendor of that new made God, outshining the Sun: And his comparing it with that, that fell out at Christs passion, on the fourteenth day, at the full of the Moon, when those great luminaries (in the course of nature) were to be directly opposite to, and as far from each other, as East and West, as North and South; and that there∣fore the Moons body could not, at that time, be brought as a skreen before the Sun, by any power less than his that measures the whole circumference of Heaven with his span, and at his own pleasure dispenseth with those other∣wise unchangeable ordinances, (Jeremy 31. 36.) Upon which consideration Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Paul's convert, (Act. 17. 33.) cryed out to his then fellow Student, Either God is suffering for, or sympathizing with the suffering world. But hear we the account that himself gives of this (in his Epistle to Bishop Polycarp) Apollophanes, (you say) calls me a patricide, because I urge the sentences of the Grecians against the Grecians. But ask him (I pray you) what he thinks of the Suns Eclipse hapning while our Saviour was upon the Cross: For we were both together at Heliopolis, and stood unexpectedly beholding the Moons interposition of her self before the Sun, from the ninth hour till almost sun-set: If thou canst or darest (Apollophanes) refel these things, or deny them, was not I with thee, both seeing, and with admiration inquiring into this wonder? Didst not thou thy self then fall a divining what the matter might be? Didst not thou then burst out into these words? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. (These are mixings of Heaven and Earth, as Plutarch speaks (in his Treatise of exile) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) Oh good Dionysius what change of divine things does this portend? Did not I then reply, Oh Apollophanes, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, either the frame of the world is dissolving, or God is suffering?

Whoso questions the genuineness of this authority may be, confirmed in the truth of the things, viz. that the Pagan Philosophers observ'd that E∣clipse, and conceived it miraculous, by what St. Origen tells Celsus, (Orig. cont. Celsum, lib. 2. colum. 27.) that Phlegon a Pagan Writer had recorded and made mention of this Eclipse as a wonder in the thirteenth or fourteenth Book of his Chronicle. And by Tertullian his asserting to the faces of the Roman Judges, that this Eclipse was entred in their own publick Records as a Prodigy, Tertul. apol. cap. 27. Eum mundi casum in archivis vestris habetis: To which Records he would never have appealed before those adversaries of Christ, in whose custody those Records were, had he not been so well verst in their Antiquities and publick Rolls, as he was sure there they might find this mi∣racle entered.

The signs in Sun and Moon, which the Heathens urged to obtain belief of those Deities they introduc'd, were shown to an age that had not learnt the first Elements (or forgot them) of the Book of Nature; but suffering a greater Eclipse of knowledge, than the Sun did of light, permitted it self to be led, as a blind man in a string, whither its guides pleased. But the signs of Christs coming, of our Gods manifestation in the flesh, were presented to an age in which the greatest mysteries of Nature, her most hidden secrets, were by the sagacity of inquisitive wits, found out and ransack'd. (Aristotle is stiled by some the praecursor of Christ, in naturalibus, Heylin. Geog. pag. 2.) And par∣ticularly the reason of Eclipses so familiarly known, as that at Christs pas∣sion was generally esteem'd to have faln out beside the common rule, non ex canonico syderum cursu, to use St. Austins Phrase (De Civitate 3. 15.) Quam solis obscurationem non ex canonico syderum cursu accidisse satis ostendit, quòd tunc erat Pascha Judaeorum. The bastard slips of Pagan Gods grew up, when men

scarce knew men from trees: but the root of Jesse put forth the branch, when the earth was covered as much with the knowledge of Vegetables, from the Hysop to the Cedar, as with Vegetables: when the Physical Sciences stood in a full body ready to receive the Gospels charge. No hopes then of atchieving any things worthy its pretensions, but by breaking through the thickest ranks of the best disciplin'd natural Philosophers.

CAP. II.

Poetry improv'd to the utmost about our Saviours birth.

Sect. 1. POesie, that art of feigning, that ape of Gods creating power, framing most exquisite pieces out of nothing but the Ideas of the mind, was screwed up to its loftiest strain, when our divine Apollo, the God of wis∣dom, the wisdom of God, modulated his sacred Pipe; if I may without prophaning it, allude to that Evangelical passage, we have piped unto you, &c. It is Bullingers observation [Seculum hoc si quod aliud poetarum feracissimum] (in Dan. par. 2. tabul. 5.) That this was an age of all others most fertile in Poets.

It was not long before our Saviours birth, that the most eminent Greek Poets flourished.

Such were,

	Anno mundi.
Sophocles	3490
Bacchilides	3540
Eupolis, Aristophanes	3660
Menander, Cratinus	3670
Theocritus, Aratus	3680
Lycophron, Callimachus	3700

By whose pregnant and witty invention how far Poetry was improved, may be sufficiently evidenc'd from what the most judicious Plutarch (Moral. tom. 2. compar. Aristophanis & Menandri) delivers concerning one of them, viz. Me∣nander: That his style was so squared and tempered, as it kept an equal tenour in the greatest variety of expressing the several passions: That he could make his sho••e fit every foot, his visor every face, his vest every body: That he had an art of affecting all sorts of persons; and so framed his Poesie, as it was the common Note-book of all the good men that Greece had brought forth, proceeding every where with a most inevitable power of perswading.

The Latine Muse, having those admirably sweet-ton'd Nightingals of Greece to set her lessons, got upon the wing, and soared the highest pitch al∣most as soon as she had broke the shell, at the dawning of our Saviours day; when flourish'd Plautus, Terence, Pacuvius, Lucretius, Archias and Catulus. Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Manlius, Gallus, Propertius, Tibullus and Ovid were almost our Saviours contemporaries: Whom succeeded Persius, Seneca, Lucan, Silvius, Italicus, Martial, Juvenal. (Sleidan. clavis, lib. 1.)

As if the Muses had been contending which Quire should excel other: That which before his birth sang his Genethliacon (whereof Virgil was the Master, and performed his part so well in discanting upon the Sibylline Ora∣cles (in his fourth Ecloque) as St. Austin doubts not to affirm that he there∣in congratulates the Nativity of our Jesus, and supposes St. Paul to have cast one corner of his eye upon that and other the like gentile Testimonies, in his farewel speech to the Jews, Loe we turn to the gentiles, i. e. betake our selves to those Testimonies to the truth, which they have given. (Aust. tom. 6. fol. 27. Contra Judaeos, Paganos, &c. oratio.) [Convertimus nos ad gentes: demon∣stramus nos etiam & gentibus testimonium Christo esse prolatum, quoniam veritas non tacuit clamando etiam per linguas inimicorum: nonne quando poeta ille

facundissimus inter sua carmina dicebat [Jam nova progenies coelo dimittitur alto] Christo testimonium perhibebat] And the learned Vives (in Aug. de Civitat. 10. 27.) disproves Servius his application of it to Asinius Pollio, as inuring on Virgil the brand of a false Prophet; the Civil Wars of Rome long out-last∣ing his Consul-ship.) Or that which after his death sang his Epicaedium: That which sounded his coming into the world; or that that sounded the march to his conquest of the World: The Satyrist, setting his Trumpet to his mouth, and lifting up his voyce to make that crowd of bestial immora∣lities make way, that wholly bid defiance to the sober instructions of the Go∣spel: or the Comick gently distilling those principles of vertue into mens minds, as prepared the world for a more ready imbracing of the Royal Law.

To be sure the masculine poetry of that age, ushered Christs doctrine into the Empire, as the Baptist did into Judaea (for what the Law was to the Jew, that the liberal Sciences were to the gentile, a School-master, to bring them to Christ, as Clemens Alexandrinus (Stromat. 1.) affirms) and, as it were, set the game for the net of the Gospel, as the same learned Father observes: Or, as Theons Musicians in Aelian, (Aelian. var. hist. 2. 44.) prepared the expectant spe∣ctators, with their incentive Songs, for a more plausible reception of the ex∣press Image of the eternal Father, riding upon his white horse, conquering and to conquer. So serviceable was Poetry to the Gospel, as St. Paul quotes it thrice in confirmation of the Divine Truth. But it would have done it as great disservice, had it been the figment of the Apostles brain, and not His Poem, (to use the Apostles phrase, Ephes. 2. 10.) who gives to man the power of invention, and of framing Ideas.

Sect. 2. It is bad halting, we say, before a Criple: 'tis worse counterfeiting before a Poetical age, an age so well seen in the art of feigning. Homers fig∣ments past for truth, Hesiods God-births for good Divinity, while they singly monopolized the spirit of Poetry, and had that spirit elevated to extraordina∣ry degrees of divine heat, by the antiperistasis of the coldness of the cir∣cumjacent impoetical age, wherein they flourish'd: but not when all was full of Poets. Tully himself then, though a knee-worshipper of those Gods, yet in heart explodes them: that Poet in prose quickly smelt them out to be fig∣ments. A babe will buss a baby of clouts, bewray that innate principle of Ido∣latry, (that Pope i'th' belly) at the sight of the most rude-drawn picture. In the simple age of our fore-fathers, it was argument enough, with the vulgar, to conclude a story true, if they had read it in a Ballad. It was no demon∣stration of Apelles his art, that he dr••w Alexanders image so near the life, as Bucephalus neigh'd at sight of it (Aelian 2. 3.) [Alexander, at Ephesus, see∣ing an image of himself, that Apelles had drawn, did not praise it to the liking of the Painter; who therefore hangs it in the sight of his horse, and he neighing at it, as he used to do at the sight of his Master, Apelles told Alexander, he per∣ceiv'd his horse was better skill'd in the art of painting, than himself.] I should ra∣ther have concluded it well done, had Alexander himself not disprov'd it, who was better able to judge of its artificialness than his horse, [Quid enim vacua rationis animalia arte decepta miremur?] (Valer. Max. 8. 11.) It would have been, to me, no absolute commendation of the Painters art, to have seen the Birds pecking at Zeuxes Grapes, (for I frequently see the like cheat put up∣on silly fish, whom every Boy and Country Swain can have to leap at a made Fly:) but had I behold Zeuxes, in scorn, offering to pull aside Parrhasais his painted curtain, that the spectaters might take a view of the picture (as he supposed) behind it, I should hardly have refrained those loud applauses of so admirable an Artist, as would have scared away the Birds from Zeuxes Grapes. The Metaphor from Painters to Poets is not far fetcht. The Pri∣••••itive Church must have had as stupendous a degree of daring any thing, as Parrhasus: If they had a mind to deceive with fables, they must devise them so cunningly, as the most critical age in the art of devising, cannot de∣tect the forgery. Had their draught of the way to heaven, through the veil,

been a painted curtain, it must have been shadowed with such incomparable dexterity, as to cheat, with its show of substance and reality, an age, not of Babes, Brutes and Birds, but of Painters.

CAP. III.

Our Saviours age too much skill'd in the black-art to be cheated with magick tricks.

Sect. 1. YOu may surmise perhaps (as both Jew and Gentile of old ob∣jected) that Belzebubs hand was in this draught: That they that made the show cast mists before the worlds eyes, and by diabolical inchant∣ments fascinated the otherwise clearest sighted spectators. (Celsus in Origen. lib. 1. cal. 5. 7.) Vide August. de consensu Evangel. lib. 1. cap. 9. [Ita vero isti deci∣piunt, ut in illis libris quos Christum scripsisse existimant, dicant contineri eas ar∣tes quibus eum putant illa fecisse miracula quorum fama ubi{que} percrebuit.] Tom. 4. pag. 162. But before whom were these supposed pranks play'd? was it not before a generation so well (so ill seen (quo melior eo deterior) in those kinds of arts, as he that could have the confidence that way to deceive the world, must think himself able (as we say) to cheat the Divel?

So famous was Ephesus of old, for its skill in the Black-art, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. were proverbially used in the ancient Comicks. The forms of whose diabolical mysteries claim as great antiquity, as Jove him∣self: (for they that rock'd him in his cradle, the Idaei Dactyli, were the inventors of the six Ephesian charming words, as Clemens Alexandrinus testifieth, (Stromat. 1. 5. 18.) and in our Saviours time were grown to that bulk, as the price of the Books, writ upon that subject, found then in one City, and in the hands of those Citizens that were converted, amounted to 50000 pieces of Silver: which summ, whether it amount to 9000 French Crowns, as Calvin; or but 8700, as Beza computes, and the Independent brethren plead (in their rea∣sons against the Presbyterians inference from the Church of Ephesus:) or to more, as the Presbyterians urge, (in their answer) (for they are ever for the greatest summ) is one of those many fruitless, endless questions, with which, as with knotty wedges, the now Church has been cleft in pieces. At the lowest rate, it demonstrates, to what an height those curious, cursed arts were then grown to. Can we think that St. Paul would have singled out that place where Satan was inthron'd, to have wrought miracles in, for the confirmation of the Divinity of the Gospel, had they not been special miracles (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉!) as St. Luke stiles them? Act. 19. 11, 12. Would he have given ex∣periments of the healing vertue conveyed from his body to aprons and hand∣kerchiefs, where counter-charming amulets were of that common use, as the proverb of Ephesia Alexipharmaca speaks them to have been? What would it have profited, to have invocated the name of the Lord Jesus over the sick, there, where were extant such a number, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, of books teaching how to unravel the Conjurers work; had the Apostle not been as∣sured that the vertue of that name, (and of his own body, through that name) was, both as to cause and effect, above every name, above any word they could find in their books of curious Arts? that name of Judahs Gods imposing, having infinitely more power, than the word of Ida's Tactyls in∣vention; though it came not with that boysterous harshness, as did their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. as Clemens reckons them in the place above quoted.

Sect. 2. This Image of Diana, this counterfeit of the Divine Magia, de∣scending from faln Jupiter, was not only worship'd at Ephesus, and in all Asia, but throughout the Roman Empire. In whose Metropolis, the Sect

of those black Philosophers was grown so numerous under Tiberius; as his decree to banish them the City had taken effect, if the multitude of Families, which that hook threatned to extirpate, and their promise to give over the practice of those curious arts, had not made the Emperour relent. (Sueton. Tiberius 36.) By this connivance, Magical operations attain'd to that perfe∣ction in Nero's Reign, as men could not promise themselves to find their grounds on that side of the hedge next morning, where they left them over-night. For Pliny (lib. 28.) reports, that at that time an Olive-yard, belonging to Vectius Marcellus, was by Magick removed one night unto the other side of the high-way. A thing so strange, as I should hardly give credit to Livies re∣port, but that I find Apuleius make mention of it in his Apologie, as a thing so usual and ancient, as the Laws of the twelve Tables made provision a∣gainst it, by making it capital.

The naming of Apuleius his Apology, brings to mind the occasion of it: which was to purge himself of the crime of Magick, wherewith he was charged before Claudius Maximus, Lievtenant of Africa: as Apollonius Thy∣aneus was of the same crime before Domitian: A pair of the fiercest Pagan ad∣versaries to our Religion. August. de Civitat. 8. 19.

The Jews indeed had a sharper edge against us: and as strange a back as Hell could forge, coming not one whit behind the Gentile in his proficiency in the black Art, being grown more Samaritan than the Samaritan himself. 1. Not only in their charmings, by the explication of (the Tetragrammaton) Jehovah in twelve, and in forty two letters; to which they imputed that force, as they affirm'd (with no less blasphemy to their own than our Religion) that Moses wrought all his miracles by means of Shemhamphorash, the twelve-let∣ter'd explication of the name Jehovah, ingraven on the rod of God: And that our Jesus by vertue of the same, sowed within his skin, effected those great works which he performed. And that Rabbi Chanina, by vertue of the two and forty letter'd name of God, did whatsoever he would. (The Jews father'd this Art upon Solomon, who they say left forms of conjurations, of the effica∣cy whereof one Eleazar gave proof before Vespasian, and his Sons, and their whole Army, Josephus being present, as himself reports, (Antiquit. lib. 8. cap. 2.) Yea, that whosoever knew these explications, being modest, humble, of a middle age, not given to anger or drunkenness, and wore them about him, would be belov'd above and below, in heaven and in earth, rever'd and fear'd of men, and heir of this and the world to come. Buxtorf. lexic. voce 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. 2. But in their Wisemens reading certain verses over wounds, laying Phylacteries upon sick persons, charming away serpents and an evil eye: of which practices the Jerusalem Talmudists (amongst whom our Saviour converst) make frequent mention. In particular, they tella story, (in Sotah) of R. Meirs being too hard for an Inchantress; and (in Sanhedrim) R. Joshuah out-vying a Sama∣ritane conjurer of Tyberias, quoted by Dr. Light foot in his Harmony. It were endless to trace Josephus through all those passages, where he describes Judaea in our Saviours time, to have been over-run with Magical Juglers. Under Felix (saith he) Judaea was again full of Magical Impostors and Seducers of the unskilful vulgar, who by their inchantments drew companies into the wilderness, promis4ng they would shew them from heaven manifest signs and prodigies: at the same time a certain Jew out of Aegypt came to Jerusalem, professing himself a Prophet; who perswaded the multitude to follow him unto Mount Olivet, pro∣mising that from thence they should see the walls of Jerusalem fall so flat, as through their ruines, there should be a way opened into the City. (Joseph. Ant. Jud. 20. 6.) Which Aegyptian in another place he styles Magician. (Jos. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Jud. 2. 12.) Nay, he scarce mentions a sticker in the Jewish wars, upon whom he sets not this brand, that he was a jugling conjurer: Such was John the son of Levias, &c. (Josep. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. J. 4. 4.)

Sect. 3. The Primitive Church was so beset with these snares of Hell, as she thought good to caution her Catechumens of the danger of falling into them, ••not only by informing them, that in their renouncing the Devil and

all his worship at Baptism, they renounc'd Auguries, Divinations, Amulets, Magical Inscriptions on Leaves, Witchcraft, Incantation, and calling up of Ghosts (Id. Catech. illuminat. 4.) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. But by inserting into the Greek Liturgies, this form of abre∣nuntiation; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, I renounce Conjurations, Charmes, Amulets, and Phylacteries: St. ••yril Catech. Mystag. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Idem Cat. &c.

But what need we any other Witness of the infamy of that Age, for the then general spreading of this Diabolical Art, than the Satyrical reflections which their own Poets made upon it? Juvenal in his sixth Satyr, Horace in his Epode against Canidia, and Virgil in his Pharmaceutria, do in the chain of their Golden Verses, hale that Cerberus out of his Kennel, into so clear a Sun-shine, so manifestly discover those depths of Satan, and bring to light those hidden things of darkness; as the reading of their Poems is enough to initiate their over-curious Readers in those mysteries of iniquity which were then working, and the translation of them might lay a temptation before the ductile vulgar, to essay the efficacy of their Charmes and Philtres. I there∣fore refer the Reader to the Poets themselves, and to his own impartial judg∣ment, for the determination of this Question, whether it carry any (the least) shew of probability, that the Apostles of our Lord would have ventur'd, in the strength of Diabolical Arts, to have wrought Miracles before an Age so expert therein, and so abilitated either to out-vie, or at least to detect them? Would they have shewn themselves before these Thieves which were set to take them, had they been Thieves? (for I remember Clemens Alex. by the Authority of Aristotle calls Conjuring the Art of Thieving, Stromat. 1.) Durst Moses (the History of whose contending with the Egyptian Magicians is mentioned by Heathen Writers; Plin. Nat. Hist. speaks of Moses, Jannes and Cabala; (lib. 30. c. 1.) Numenius the Philosopher (in Eusebius praep. Evang. 9. 8.) speaks of Jannes and Jambres skill'd in the Egyptian Rites, and infe∣riour to none in Magical Arts. Celsus (in Origen. lib. 4. pag. 205.) mentions, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the History of Moses, Jan∣nes and Jambres.) Durst Moses, I say, have thrown down his Rod among the Magicians Rods, if he had not been sure it was the Rod of God, and that the Serpent it grew into, would eat up theirs? To what degree of fa∣scination must that man be bewitcht, that will play the witch in Egypt (the School of Conjurers) before and against Jannes and Jambres (the Masters of the School?) It has ever been the happy lot of Gods dreamers, to tell and Interpret Dreams, before persons of as great skill in that profession, as Art could advance men to: Joseph before all the Magicians and Wife-men of Egypt, after they had been baffl'd and non-plust, interprets Pharoah's dreams; and that was his Argument to the King, That it was not he, but God that gave Pharoah that answer of peace, Gen. 41. 8, 15, 16. Daniel tells Nebu∣ehadnezzar his forgotten dream, after that neither his pricking them on with promises, nor lashing them with the whip of menaces, could force the whole teame of Magicians, Astrologers, Sorcerers and Chaldeans, to make one strain, one offer towards the drawing back of his dream into his memory, they standing (as so many restiff Jades yoaked to a tree) and ecchoing, to the sound of those lashes he laid on them, their sense of the impossibility of that injunction: There is not a man upon earth can shew the Kings matter; ne∣ver any King, Lord, or Ruler asked such things of any Magician.] This Que∣stion has no place assigned it, in any of the twelve Celestial Houses, It is a rare thing that the King requires, and there is no other can shew it, except God, whose dwelling is not with slesh, Dan. 2.

The truly Divine (Theourgist) worker of Miracles has ever perform'd his Operations before them, who were greatest Artists at counterfeiting; Simon Peter before Simon Magus. Arn••bius (Cont. Gentes, lib. 1.) speaking of Rome; In qua cum homines essent Numae artibus occupati, non distulerunt tamen res

patrias relinquere & veritati coalescere Christianae; viderant enim currum Si∣monis Magi, & quadrigas igneas Petri ore difflatas, & nominato Christo evanu∣isse. In Rome they that had been used to Numa's Arts lost all when they saw Simon Magus's Charriot and fiery Horses dispell'd with Peter's mouth, and va∣nish at the name of Christ. That this was not a Fable invented by the Chri∣stians, appears from Suetonius his mentioning one to fly in the Air in the 12 th of Nero, who in his fall bespatter'd Nero's Robes with his blood, which some interpreted to be an unlucky presage of Nero's approaching miserable death by his own hands. Who could this be but Magus? with whom for St. Peter to have contended for precedency, in arbitrating the Divine Power, (Magus giving himself out to be the Mighty power of God) would have been the act of a frothy brain, if he had not known himself to have been Peter (a Rock, against which the gates of Hell could not prevail.) St. Paul wrought one of his before Elymas the Sorcerer, with whom for him to vie, would have been the part of one more blind in his inward, than he made Elymas in his outward sense, had he dealt with him at his own weapon; and not with those weapons of his warfare, which he knew were mighty through God, to the casting down all Satanical power, exalting it self against their Gospel. Besides these already mention'd, the follower of Magus, Menander, (as Eusebius affirmeth, l. 3. cap. 26.) [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] was not in∣feriour to his Master in Magick, but more vainly profuse in his portentous under∣takings. The persecution by Valerian was raised upon the instigation of the Magicians, complaining to the Emperour that the Christians hindered their Inchantments: [for the Godly did then and do at this day (saith Dionysius Alexand. in Euseb. Eccl. Hist. 7. 10.) so far prevail that they being present did as it were blow away and scatter the bewitchings of those detestable devils.] Un∣der Domitian, Apollonius Tyaneus wrought such Magical feats as Hierocles in Eusebius compares with, nay prefers before, the Miracles which our Saviour wrought; one of which was the calling of fire down from Heaven, (Philo∣strat. de Apollonio Tyaneo, 5. 5.) Antipas was accused under the same Empe∣rour, for that he drove away the Devils that were worshipt at Pergamos, and hindred them from receiving the Sacrifices that were offer'd to them, (vide Dr. Hammond's Notes on Revel. 2. 13.) That which moved Julian the Apostate his choler against the Christians of Antioch was his conceiving Apollo's Oracle at Daphne to be silenc'd by the Corps of Babilas the Martyr, and the Christians singing at their translation of that Corps, that triumphing Psalm, Confounded be all they that worship graven Images, &c. (Ruffin. Eccles. Hist. 1. 35. Socrates Eccles. Hist. 3. 9.) Before so great a number of expert black Artists, that Spouse of Christ would never have ventur'd to shew the effects of that power her Heavenly Husband had endowed her with, in that day of her Espousals, had she not deem'd it to have been from above, and able to over-master all infernal Principalities.

CHAP. IV.

The World never better seen or practised, in sound Politiques, than in our Saviours time.

§ 1. The world secured against Innovations by the soundness of its then Politiques. While the Shepherds sleep the flock made a prey. The Emperour Augu∣stus (a solid States-man himself) had a most sage Council. Tiberius, a versatil head-piece seconded with wise Sages. § 2. The genius of the then Roman policy disgusted the introduction of a strange God. Tiberius upon Pilates information moving the Senate to Canonize our Jesus, is repulst. The Romans admit of no foreign Gods till they have renounced their old Tem∣ples and Altars. Constantine upbraided Licinius with his imbracing a strange God. Our Jesus the first foreign God which the Roman State im∣brac'd. § 3. Of Simon Magus his deisication at Rome. § 4. Christ got the start of Magus in the point of obtaining Divine Honour at the Ro∣mans hands. Augustus erected an Altar, To the first begotten. Suidas his story of Augustus his Altar defended. Augustus his unhappiness in his Issue might probably put him upon referring the choice of a Successour to the Oracles determination. His slighting Apollo argues the Answer he re∣ceived, not to have made for Apollo's credit. § 5. Some passages touch∣ing this Argument in Tertullian cleared from the Anabaptistical gloss. Where the Emperours and Senates shooe pincht them. How much this State-maxime prejudic'd the Apostles.

§ 1. NOtwithstanding that the World was so well fortified against Sedu∣ction, by its being so well seen in the above-mentioned Arts; yet had the Gospel found it in a disordered posture, through its defect of polity, this might have given an advantage to the Assaylants to subdue it to the be∣lief of things not rationable or credible. While every man is left to do what is good in his own eyes, as the Jews were when there was no King in Israel, the stragling Sheep may easily become the prey of Wolves and Foxes. How many vast, valiant, expert and (while well marshall'd) terrible and in∣conquerable Armies, have through want of Discipline, in a disordered march been put to the Rout by a less strong and worse skill'd Enemy? But the Gospel charged the world, when it stood in a full field and well ranked body to receive the on-set; not in that condition wherein the Danites found Laish, careless and heedless, without a Magistracy to put them to shame in any thing, and keep them in order, which was the great incouragement their Spies gave them to make an attempt upon that City: (Weem's Exercitations on Judg. 18. 7, 8, 10.) For that part of the world, wherein the Apostles ob∣tain'd most ground, was then united under the newly erected Standard of Augustus, as General, and under the Conduct of twelve as famous Gown'd Captains (I mean Lawyers and Politicians) as ever appear'd at one Muster, viz. (Sleidan. Clav. Hist. lib. 2.) Lucillus Balbus, P. Octavius Balbus, C. Au∣fidius, C. Juventius, C. Orbius, Sext. Papirius, Lucius Servius, Sub. Rufus, Tes••a, Offilius, Casselius, Tubero, all flourishing in the Reign of Augustus; who himself was the most substantial and well weighed Statist that meer Na∣ture has exhibited to the world, equal'd by few that have had the benefit of Sacred Politiques: (but for that they may thank their studying Machiavel more than Melchisedeck:) Of him the Heroick Poet, under the shadow of Counsel, draws as high an Encomium as any Prince is capable of in point of prudence for the Administration of Empire,

Excudent alii spirantia molliùs aera, Tu regere Imperio populos, Romane, memento. Hae tibi erunt artes—

Let others learn to mould brass, do thou learn to govern men. To these succeed∣ed (Sleidan. Clav. Hist. l. 2.) Caesius, the two Aufidii, l'acuvius, Flavius Pris∣cus, Varus, Labeo Father and Son, (the Son of that repute as he left his name to a Sect of Lawyers) Nerva Father and Son (to one of whom, Coccejus Nerva, Tacitus ascribes all kind of Knowledge both in Humane and Divine Laws; and reports him to have been a man of that foresight, in Civil Af∣fairs, as, to prevent the seeing of that mischief which the dissoluteness of Ti∣berius, at his beloved Capreae, would immerse the Empire in, he chose to end his dayes by a voluntary death; notwithstanding the Emperours per∣swasions to the contrary, Annal. lib. 6.) both the Longini, from whom the Cassian Sect had its Sirname and Original: All these under Tiberius, (Al∣sted. Cron. Juridicorum) who in point of vafrous cunning, deserv'd the name of Fox, as much as he, upon whom our Saviour bestowed that ti∣tle, Herod.

This was the Scheme of that Heaven of the Roman Empire, when the Son of Righteousness enter'd upon his race from the one to the other end of it, through the Zodiack of his Twelve Apostles (beyond the circumference of whose Doctrine once deliver'd that Sun never moves in his illuminating the world with saving Light; all pretended supernatural Revelations eccen∣trical to that, are but the dwindles of blazing stars.) The two Luminaries (Augustus, of stay'd policy, Tiberius, of versatile craft) moving successively through a Zodiack of Twelve Statists, stars of the greatest magnitude that ever shin'd at once in the firmament of that State: The two first Judges of the Universe, that enter'd upon that preferment, by way of inheritance (as∣sisted each of them, with a full Jury of as able Lawyers as ever past Verdict together) sitting successively upon the Bench, when the Cause of the Gospel was first pleaded; as if they had been impannell'd on purpose to take notice of the Evidence brought into Court. The Empires skill in Law was at its highest exaltation, when the Royal Law came out of Sion; our great Law-giver disdaining to vie the Arcana of his Empire, with any State-maximes, but the very best of humane invention. Would the blessed Babe have ven∣tured to thrust in his head among these sage Councellours, had he not been the everlasting Councellour, the Antient of Dayes; to set up his Post, against this Post, had it not been, like that at the Temple Gate, stability it self; to erect his Kingdom, against this so well model'd an Empire, had not his been the gift of him that said, Thou art my Son, &c?

§ 2. Especially if it be further considered, That the genius of the Ro∣man Polity disgusted the introduction of any Foreign, over the head of its own Domestick, Religion. Ovid shuts up the discourse of the translation of Aesculapius with an Epiphonema,

[His tamen accessit delubris advena nostris]

though he had begun it with this Salvo of the Roman maxime, Not to re∣ceive any foreign God till he had given a sign of his renouncing his former Altars,

—quáque ipse morari Sede velit, signis calestibus indicet, optant. Annuit his motisque deus rata pignora c••istis, Et repetita dedit—

—oráque retro Flectit: & antiquas abiturus respicit aras, &c. (Met. 15.)

The Senate would not allow their General Lutatius, in the Punick War, to consult the Oracle of the Goddess Fortune at Praeneste, for this reason, (al∣ledged by Valerius Max. cap. 3. l. 1.) because the Roman Republick ought

not to be administred by the Conduct or Counsels of any God but their own. Tiberius himself (saith Tertullian, Apolog. cap. 5.) could not obtain of the Senate an Edict, to have our Jesus canonized for a God at Rome, though he moved earnestly for it, upon Pilate's Letters informing him what had past in Judaea. Celsus that fierce enemy of Christian Religion (in Orig. l. 4. Cal. 11, 12.) will allow the Jews their own Religion; and if they please to esteem Christ, their Lord and King, illa se jacret in aula, he will not envy him that honour in his own Countrey: but, that that obscure and despi∣cable Nation should impose a God and a Religion upon the whole world, this is that he so highly disgusts. The Pestilence raging, and the people run∣ning for help to every God they could think of (in the Consulship of A. Cor∣nelius Cossus and T. Quintius Pennus) there was strict charge given to the Ediles [ut animadverterent, nè qui, nisi Romani Dii, nen quo alio more quàm patrio colerentur:] (Liv. lib. 4. 30.) That they should take care, that no other Gods, but Roman, nor they, after any other rites than Roman, should be wor∣ship'd: Esteeming the innovation of Religion a greater plague than the Pe∣stilence; and scorning to be beholding for their deliverance from that deadly malady to the help of any but their own Gods. 'Tis true, the Romans re∣ceived most of the Gods and Religions of those Countries which they con∣quer'd: but this was done upon supposition that they were turned Roman. For as the Egyptians of old had an Art to make Gods, (as Trismegistus not without admiration observes) so the Romans had a way to make the Gods of other Nations their own, to make them forget their own Country and Fa∣thers house, to forsake their own Altars and Rites for the Roman; hinted by the Poet:

[Discessêre omnes adytis arisque relictis Dii quibus imperium hoc steterit—Eneid. 2. * 1.1

And more fully exprest by Vives, in Aug. de Civit. 2. 22. When the Romans besieged any City which they intended to demolish, (that they might not seem to wage war with its tutelar Gods, and turn them out of doors against their will, by pulling down their Temples about their ears) the General, by certain charms, obtained of them to forsake the tutelage of the City destin'd to ruine, and betake themselves to the stronger side, to the conquering party. Thus Camillus decoy'd the Veijan Gods; Scipio, the Carthaginian and Numantian; Mummius, the Co∣rinthian. And lest others might serve their Guardian God with the same sauce, they concealed (as divers Authors have thought mention'd by Servius in his Epist. vir. Illustriss.) the true and proper Name of their City: for publishing of which secret Valerius Soranus was severely punisht. (Goodwins Antiquit.) A strange oversight in so wise a State, to trust their Cities fortune to the cu∣stody of that unruly member, the tongue. The Tyrians would have taught them a surer way; who, to secure their Patron Hercules, or Apollo, (for Dio∣dorus Siculus, (in telling the story, how the Tyrians besieged by Alexander the Great, and being warn'd by a Vision, that Apollo threatned to forsake the tuition of their City, bound the Image with a chain) indifferently calls their Idol sometimes Apollo, sometimes Hercules; a good argument that the Ty∣rian Hercules was Apollo, and Apollo the Sun, which performs his twelve la∣bours in passing the twelve Signs of the Zodiack (Diodor. Sic. Biblioth. lib. 18. pag. 548.) whether soever of them was their Patron, to secure his resi∣dence among them in spite of Charms, bound him fast to the pillar of his Temple with a Golden chain. It was upon the same score, that Numa caused Mamurius to make eleven shields, so like the Ancile of their Patron Mars, wherein they conceived the happiness of their City to lie (as Thebes her good fortune in Nisus his golden lock, and Meleagers life in the fagot-slick)

as it was impossible to discern one from another. (Plutarch. Numa.) This in imitation of Dardanus, of whom Dionys. Halicarnas. (lib. 1. cap. 7.) out of Callistratus, Satyrus, and Aratinus, reports, That Dardanus drew a coun∣terfeit Palladium, like that which Minerva bestowed upon him, with a promise, that Troy should stand while it kept that Palladium; and that it was the coun∣terfeit which the Grecians stole; Aencas bringing the true to Lavinium. The form of this evocation of Tutelar Gods, and infranchizing foreign Deities, and naturalizing them into Roman, Macrobius (Saturn. 3. 9.) sets down, as he found it in Sammonicus Serenus his 5. Book Of hidden Secrets. [If it be a God, if it be a Goddess that hath the People and City of Carthage in protection, and thou especially (whosoever thou art) the Patron of this City and People, I pray and beseech and (with your leave) require you to abandon the City and Peo∣ple of Carthage, to forsake the places, Temples, Ceremonies, and inclosures of their City; to go away from them, and to strike fear, terrour and astonishment into that people and City; and having left it, to come to Rome, to me, and mine: and that our Temples, Places, Ceremonies and Cities, be more acceptable, and better liked of you; that you would take the charge of me, of the People of Rome, and of my Soldiers, so as we may know and understand it. If you do so, I vow to build you Temples, and to appoint for you Solemn Games.] No peny, no Pater Noster, no room in Rome, for any God that will not turn Roman, and wear the City badge. Upon this custome Tertullian (Apol. 24.) grounds this Note: Tot sacrilegia Romanorum quot trophaea; tot de Diis quot de gentibus triumphi; tot manubia quot manent adhuc simulachra captivorum Deorum. i. e. Look how many Trophees the Romans have erected over conquer'd Cities and Countries, so many Sacrileges have they committed upon the Gods of those places; they have had as many Triumphs over the Gods, as over Countries; the many Images of captive Gods remaining to this day in that City, are but so many spoils taken in war.

§ 3. So exceeding wide of the mark of truth is that fools bolt of the vulgar opinion, that Rome was conquer'd by the Gods of the Nations whom she conquer'd: for in very deed she gave the Gods no other quarter, than she did the men, capitulating with them upon no better terms than those which Jacobs Sons tender'd to Sechem. [We cannot do this thing (to give Divine Honour to a God that is not Italianized) but in this we will consent unto you, if you will be as we are.] It would not stand with the Polity of that stately Lady, to marry a strange God, to be baptized in his Name; till by a strange Art of Palingenesie, he had baptized himself into the Roman Name, in the blood of his deserted Father and Mother, the people and place of his first birth. Jupiter must become Capitoline, Mars Quirinal, before those Hills will afford room for their Temples. The Egyptian Serapis must turn the Indian Bacchus Italick before they can be worshipt at Rome. Serapide jam Romano aras, Baccho jam Italico furias, &c. (Tertull. Apolog. 6.) Aesculapius his ••mp (his Serpent) must come away with his Idol, before he can have re∣ception in that City. The Mother of the Gods (in their repute) must shew her readiness to forsake the patronage of her antient pupils, and to embrace the Office of Protecting S. P. Q. R. by following the slender twine of the Vestal Nuns garter, before she can arrive on Tibers shore. Male and Female Deities must veil the bonnet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to Goddess Rome, (so termed in the Inscriptions of antient Roman Coyns, set down by Goltzius in Thesauro) before she will bend the knee to them. To the Goddess Rome, the people of Smyrna built a Temple, and therefore were prefer'd by the Senate before the rest of the twelve Cities who stood in competition with her in that contest that was moved by those Cities in the Senate, which of them should have the priviledge granted to build a Temple to Augustus, (Tacit. Hist. 3. Annal. 4. p. 110.) taxed by our Propertius:

—colitur nam sanguine & ipsa More Deae: noménque l••ci ceu numen adorant.

The very City of Rome it self is worshipped as a Goddess by Sacrifices; and they adore the name of the place as a Deity. Thus hath Antichristian Rome, both Pagan and Papal, exalted her self above all that, in the most extensive sence, is called God or worshipped. What hopes then could the Apostles have, had they been supported by no other but an arm of flesh, to obtrude upon that Empire, that unknown, that strange God whom they preacht? A thing, First, so ill resented by that State in Constantine the Great; as Licinius, in his Speech to his Soldiers (mentioned by Eusebius in the Life of Constantine, lib. 2. cap. 5.) whets their courage, and animates them to the fight by this argument alone, That the Army they were to ingage against had imbrac'd a strange God, and intended to fight under his colours. Secondly, Of so harsh a sound in the ears of some Christian Theologues, as not knowing how to put a good sence upon that phrase when they met with it in Daniel, (Dan. 11. 39.) they have mangled the coherence, making a meer hotch-potch of that prophecie, and perverted its sence, forcing it (to point at the marks of Antichrist) from its plain intendment to describe the conquest of Christ, and his subduing the Empire to an abrenunciation of the Gods of its Ancestors, and the acceptance of himself, that foreign God to them, (Mede in locum) that (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) unknown God (Act. 17.) that only Potentate, God blessed for ever, that should set his conquering Banners upon the Walls of that proud City, that had set hers upon the Temples of all other strange Gods; and gather that Eagle as a Chicken under his, that had made the Gods of all Nations creep under her wings; the full experiment whereof he gave in the Reign of Constantine. And that's the clear importance of Daniels prophecie, and of Li∣cinius his Argument. The first perverter of Daniels words to a sinister sence, was the Patriarch of those hackney Commentators, that think it a strange thing, that the Empires embracing a strange God, should be taken in a good sence, and import the Christning of it into the name of our Jesus. But if the Name of a foreign God startle some of our Divines, it is less to be wonder'd, that, Thirdly it should grate so harshly upon Pagan-Roman ears, as that State could never be charmed into the imbracing of any strange God upon his own terms, before or beside the blessed Jesus; [nisi homini placuerit Deus, Deus non erit; homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit] (Tert. Ap. contr. Gent. 5.) all others, before their reception, were capitulated with, and forc'd to lay their Crowns of Divine Honour at the Senates feet, before they were permitted in that City to wear them on their own heads: they must undeifie themselves, and become no Gods of other Cities, before they are allowed to be Gods in that. From which custom Eusebius (Hist. 2. 2.) ascribes it to a signal providence, that our Jesus was not received, by the Senate, for God, upon Tiberius his motion; Which no doubt (saith he) was done to this end, that the wholesome Doctrine of the Divine Preaching might not need the approbation of men, the commendation of such men: i. e. That Christ might not seem to enter at the common door, in a precarious way, with cap in hand, till the Senate was pleased to bid him be cover'd: that his Divinity might not, like that of other Gods, (as Tertullian speaks ubi prius) de humano arbitratu pensitari, pass for no more than it weighed in the unequal scales of humane arbitre∣ment, but settle it self among them by its own weight, and over them upon his own terms.

§ 4. There is but one instance in all History that bears any semblance of opposition to this last assertion [That our Jesus was the first foreign God whom the Romans received without capitulations] and that is of Simon Ma∣gus; who seems to have prevented our Saviour in the honour of being pro∣claimed a God there.

Which knot some attempt to untie, or rather rashly to cut asunder, by a back-blow against the truth of those current Stories which Eusebius (out of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus) reports of Simon's Deification; the sword with which they wound the credit of this History comes out of the forge of Peter

Ciaconius, who suspects this to have been Justin's mistake, because about the place where he reports Simons Image to have been erected, there was, Anno Christi, 1574. the basis of a Marble Statue digged up, with this inscription, SIMONI SANCO DEO FIDIO: But to this answer it may be replyed, That though it be very certain that there were Pillars or Statues in Rome and Reatina bearing such like inscriptions [SEMONI SANCO FIDIO DEO: SANCTO SANCO SEMONI DEO FIDIO: SANCO FIDIO SEMO PATRI, (Ovid. Fast. 6.)

Quaerebam Nonas Sancto Fidióne referrem, An tibi Semo pater: tunc mihi Sanctus ait, Cuicunque ex istis dederis, ego munus habebo, Nomina terna fero: sic valuêre Cures.

whom Vossius rationally concludeth to have been Hercules from the testimo∣ny of Varro, (lib. 4. de L. L.) and of Festus, [Herculi aut Sanco; qui sci∣licet idem est Deus.] Vossius de Idololatria, lib. 1. cap. 12. pag. 46, 47. Etiam inter indigites Deos Romanis fuit Semo Sanctus: qui & Fidius, quia per eum jurando fieret fides. Inscriptio Romana, SEMONI SANCO DEO FI∣DIO SACRUM; & alia, SANCTO SANCO SEMONI DEO FIDIO SACRUM: Yet the place assigned by Ovid agrees not to that, which Justin Martyr assignes to Simon Magus,

[Hunc igitur veteres donârunt aede Sabini, Inque Quirinali constituêre Jugo.]

In whose Temple Tanquill or Caia Caecilia resided with her whorle and distaff, as out of Varro Pliny reports, (lib. 8. cap. 48.) Now, though Justin might easily mistake [Semoni] for [Simoni] yet sure he must have had a beam in's eye if he took a Temple on the Quirinal Hill for a Statue on Ti∣bers Bridge. And that Tertullian should follow him in that mistake, being so great an Antiquary, and which is more, by Profession a Lawyer, and therefore skill'd in the Roman Fasts and lect dayes, is still a greater wonder: And therefore notwithstanding Vossius his Arguments to the contrary, I still think those great Lights of the Primitive Church did not ground their story of Simon Magus upon such palpable mistakes. And as to Ciaconius his rea∣son from the so late invention of that Statue dug up in or near the place where Justin reports Simons Statue to have been placed, I would think, That the Authority of Justin and his writing this by way of Apology for the Christian Religion to the Emperour, within that Century wherein it was done; and Tertulian's mentioning it in his Apology, (who was a man better skill'd in that Cities Antiquities than to be imposed upon in a thing of which he might have had ocular demonstration,) are enough to blunt the edge of this sword, if not to turn it against those that use it; and make men of sober minds ra∣ther suspect those diggers deceived, and that new-found basis to be a confir∣mation of Justins History, That coming so near the Inscription of Magus his Statue mentioned by him, and the difference betwixt that and this being, in all reason, imputable to the teeth of time, which corrodes the most durable Marble; against which, while the Characters could bear up themselves, they presented this Motto, SIMONI SANCTO DEO FILIO: besides the canker of Age, a blow with a Mattock might sooner make an alteration in a Letter or two, in one Image besieged with Mattocks, than the Mothes conspire to gnaw out a piece of a Letter in three several Authors. I have ever dislik'd too much Criticisme in the consuring of approved Authors, as the Devils engine, insensibly, to screw men up to infidelity, and disbelief of the sacred Scripture it self, that being conveyed down to us in the same way of pen or press-tradition that other writings are. But to the Objection, from Magus his Canonization, this will be answer sufficient; That whatever ho∣nour

was conferr'd at Rome upon him, was given him as the Perkin Werbeck of the blessed Jesus, as his shadow and counterfeit; for he giving out him∣self to be that very Jesus who appear'd in Judaea; (Iren. contr. haer. 1. 20.) and by his inchantments, (Justin Mart. Apoleg.) perswading many of the Samaritans, and some of other Nations, by Name, Roman Citizens, and perhaps that Mushrome Emperour Claudius, that he was indeed that person whom he personated, and upon that ground had a Statue erected to him: So that Simon obtain'd Divine Honour under Claudius, according to Justin Martyr, or by Claudius, according to Irenaeus and Tertullian, no otherwise than Dru∣sus his shadow obtain'd Imperial, and the pseudo-Alexander Regal, Honour, at the hands of those deluded Greeks and Jews, that took them for the per∣sons whose parts they acted. His Image was the Image of the supposed Christ, from the belief of whose Deity, first embrac'd, proceeded the Opi∣nion that that first begotten of the Devil, who gave himself out to be that Jesus which was Crucified at Jerusalem, was the Holy God. To speak all in a word, and but too intelligible, Simon Magus was the James Naylor of that Age, to whom his deluded Followers cryed Hosannah, taking him to be him whom he counterfeited.

§ 5. And yet (to cast in over-weight) had this Sorcerer's Statue stood upon its own, and not a borrowed basis; he would not have prevented our Jesus in an early obtaining Divine Honour, who as he was censed in his Cratch by the Wise-men of the East, so he had an Altar erected to him in his non∣age, by the Emperour of both East and West, if Suidas (in the Life of Au∣gustus) play the part of a faithful Historian; for there he tells us [That Au∣gustus consulting the Oracle of Apollo, who should be his Successour, received this Answer,

Hence, hence Augustus from my silenc'd Cell, I must not thine, my own fates I may tell. Our Tripos is turn'd Infant by the Babe Of Hebrew birth; our self to dismal shade Of lowest Hell must forthwith pack away; So bids that Boy whom all we Gods obey.

Whereupon Augustus reared an Altar in the Capitol, with this Inscription, ARA PRIMOGENITI FILII DEI, The Altar of the first-be∣gotten Son of God. Christ then got the start of Simon Magus, in point of Time, as much as Augustus preceded Claudius; in point of Place, as much as the Capitol is above the bridge of Tyber; in point of Title, as much as [Pri∣mogenitus] the first begotten, excells [Sanctus] the Holy Son of God; and Lastly in point of the Divine Honour conferr'd, as much as the dedicating of an Altar is an higher degree of sacred homage, than the erecting of a Statue.

If the Authority of Suidas, backt with Nicephorus and Cedrenus their mentioning the same Story, be not of sufficient weight to make it currant; we have those Historical Observations to cast into the seales, as will make it down weight.

1. Augustus his unfortunateness in his Off-spring might in all reason put him upon consulting the Divine Wisdom in the point of Succession; the only hopeful branches of the Caesarean Tree, Caius and Lucius, both dying within the space of 22 months of one another; the two Julia's, his Daughter and Niece, being for their infamousness, thrust by his own Decree into exile; Agrippa for his sordid and salvage disposition dis-inherited; (Sueton. Octavius 65.) and his only remaining Heir Apparent Tiberius, (that dirt mixt with blood, as Theodorus Gadareus called him, Tacit. Annal. 1. Sueton. Tiberius 57.) not able to conceal from so piercing an eye, those latent seeds of cruelty and arrogance, he began so early to put forth: so far incurring Augustus his dis∣pleasure,

as if he had not been prevented by death (suspected to have been procured by Livia in favour of Tiberius) he had a purpose of re-adopting Agrippa: of which he made more than shew, in the affectionate visit he gave him, in his exile, a little before his end. This his so great mishap in his Family-concerns, himself was wont to express his deep resentment of, not only in calling his three Children his three Wens and Impostumes, but in that his Proverbial exclamation,

—〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,

Happy they that live without Wives, and die without Children! (Suet. Octav. 65.) Here was, if ever, Deo dignus vindice nodus, a snarle in his fortune requiring the aid of a Divine Solution. To which, no doubt, but so over Religious a Prince would apply himself. For if mans natural propensity to invocate the Divine, when humane counsel fails, was radicated in Tiberius, (notwithstanding his irreligiousness, [Circa Deos ac Religiones negligentior] Suet. Tiber. 69.) so deep, as he in the like case (to counterfeit Augustus in commendable things, where his native pravity would permit him to write after so good a Copy) durst not appoint his Successour, till he had supplica∣ted the Gods, by some manifest token to determine whom he should choose, Joseph. Antiq. 18. 8. [Consilium cui impar erat fato commist] (Tac. an. 6. 137.) Can we reasonably suspect Suidas of falsehood in reporting Augustus, where he found the last Act of the Comedy of his life thus perplext, to have call∣ed Apollo into the Scene, to unite this knot, referring the choice of an Heir, where he had so bad choice, to the umpirage of the Divine Wisdom?

2. And that the Answers which that, and whatever other Oracles he con∣sulted, gave, were as little to the credit of the Gods, as Suidas reports them to have been, appears from that low esteem which in his old Age he had of both, exprest by his condemning to the flames, when he was great Pontiff, two thousand Oracles, (Sueton. Octav. 31.) though at his entrance into that Office, he was so devout an Adorer of the old Religion, consisting in a great part of those Oracles, as he preferr'd his Augurate above his Empire; fast∣ning his name at his reforming of the Calender, rather on that month when he commenc'd Augur, than on that wherein he began his Reign: and pro∣testing, that if any of his Nieces had been old enough he would have pre∣ferr'd her to the place of a Vestal, fallen void by the death of one of those Nuns; with that protestation upbraiding the Senators irreligiousness, exprest in their making means that their Daughters might not be called to that lot.

Touching Apollo himself, and the rest of the twelve great Deities what his thoughts were grown to, by that time he was grown old, he more than intimated in his erecting of that strange Order of Table-Knights (Sueton. Octav. 70.) instituted (as not only Antonius but the common Libels object∣ed against him) in contempt of Apollo, whom Augustus as Master of the Or∣der personated, and the other eleven he and she Deities, whom the rest of the Knights represented in that his supper of the twelve Gods,

Impia dum Caesar Phoebi mendacia ludit, &c. * 1.2

This was the burthen of the City Song, descanting upon his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 his twelve Gods, discovering that degree of sacrilegious impiety (to speak in the then modern Roman dialect) towards the Gods of the greater Nations, and especially to Apollo, as so devout a person as Augustus was, could not have arrived to, by any other wind, but what blew from that coast which Suidas points out; He durst not without the leave of these Gods have been thus fa∣miliar with them.

§ 6. This may suffice to vindicate Suidas, and prove the truth of this po∣sition, That the Polity of Rome was so averse to the entertainment of a fo∣reign God, as our Jesus was the first strange God that that Empire embrac'd, either by Publick Edict of the Senate, or the private Conscience of the Em∣perours, as Tertullian (Apol. cont. gentes, cap. 21.) distinguisheth, Ipse pro sua conscientia Christianus; He as to his own private perswasion being already a Christian. Senatus respuit, Caesar in sententia mansit, (Id. ibid. cap. 5.) The Senate rejected Tiberius his motion for the Canonization of Christ, but Tibe∣rius persisted in the Opinion of Christs being God. Sed & Caesares ipsi credidissent super Christo, si aut Caesares non essent seculo necessarii, aut si & Christiani po∣tuissent esse Caesares, (Id. ibid. cap. 21.) Yea, even the Emperours themselves would have become Christians, if they had not been hamper'd with secular in∣terest, or if that Christians could have been Caesars. Upon which passages, be∣cause they give both light and strength to the preceding discourse (though not without hazard of spilling my Readers patience) I shall venture to make these reflections.

1. To clear that clause [aut si & Christiani potuissent esse Caesares] from the Anabaptistical gloss; this Note will be sufficient, That Constantine and his Successors reconciled this inconsistency of Christianity and Empire, and there∣fore it was not absolute but only occasional and temporary; nor of all Em∣pire or Civil command, but particularly respected the Roman Empire. For there were Christian Magistrates, and that under the Emperour, very early in the Primitive Times, both Martial, as Cornelius, and Civil, as Sergius Pau∣lus, as Judicious Grotius observes. [Ob temporum circumstantias quae vix fere∣bant exerceri sine actibus quibusdam cum Christiana lege pugnantibus, (Grotius de Jur. bel. & pacis, l. 2. 9. 3.) The circumstances of those Times were such as did scarcely permit the Office of the Emperour to be exercised without certain Acts contrary to the Christian Law.]

2. It will be therefore worth the while to enquire, what that Secular In∣terest was, in which the Emperours were so involv'd, in that juncture, as it was a Remora to their casting their assistance on Christ, and a bar to him that was a Christian to become Emperour. Let him that tied, untie this knot: let Tertullian himself (Apol. 5.) determine, who infers the story of Tiberius above-mentioned, with an [ergo] from that old Decree quoted by him in the preceding clause. Vetus erat decretum, nè qui Deus ab Imperatore conse∣craretur, nisi à Senatu probatus, There was an old Decree, that none should be Canonized for a God by the Emperour, (Euseb. interpr. Tertul. [ab Imperatore] by [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] Hist. Eccles. 2. 2.) whereby this seems to have been an ancient Constitution made under their Kings (who were also Generals in War, and were hereby prohibited to adopt new Gods either at home or abroad without the Vote of the Senate) and renewed with this alteration of Name when the Senate held the Soveraignty at home, and the Emperour or General abroad without limitation of their Power while their Commission lasted, saving in this particular, that they should not at their conquest of Na∣tions or Cities make any foreign God Free of the Roman State, till he had first been approved of by the Senate. In which Decree Reason bids that we should take Emperour, not in the then new, but in its old sence, as it signi∣fies a General, as the next words [ut M. Aemilius de deo suo Alburno] im∣port: for Aemilius was in no other sence an Emperour but as he was the Roman General, whose Office it was to evocate the Gods of conquer'd Ci∣ties (as we have heard before) and offer them fair quarter. Now lest the General might dubb upon the place any such God; this Decree was added, by way of caution, to that former which Crinitus (Tri••. de honest. discipl. lib. 10. cap. 3. vide Junii notas in Tertul. Apol. cap. 5.) out of the Books of the Pontiffs, delivers, in these terms [Separatim nemo siet habens deos novos sive advenas, nisi publicè adscitos privatim nè colunto] which Law Cicero thus translates, Separatim nemo habessit deos, neve novos: sed nè advenas, nisi pub∣licè

adscitos, privatim colunto, (Cic. de legib. l. 2. p. 318.) Let no man have any new or strange Gods; Let not any be worshipt in private that are not pub∣lickly infranchised; that is, till those signs they gave, of their renouncing their former Cities and People, and their coming over to the Roman, had been canvast in the Senate and approved of. Upon which Eusebius hath this Note (Hist. Eccl. 2. 2.) out of Tertullian, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, If God do not please man he shall not be God: well exprest in the following clause, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, With you humane judgement confers divinity.

By this we see where the Senates and Emperours shooe pinches in the case of our Jesus: His not complying with them in this great maxime of State; his not induring this humane test; his not condescending to their terms, of renouncing Judaea's, and undertaking the patronage of the people and City of Rome. Pilat's writing him in his Letter to Caesar, as he had writ him in the Inscription over the Cross, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, was that very thing which would not down with the Senate; that which made the Evangelical Doctrine too strait a glove for their gouty hand: had it not been for this they would have drawn it on: And had they drawn it on, Ti∣berius would have worn Christs colours, and not only have prohibited the persecution, but have commanded the profession of the Christian Religion: the Senate's sticking at his Canonization, being that secular concern which stifled the light of his Conscience; he choosing rather to save his Crown than his Soul. The fear of suffering shipwrack of a good Conscience upon the shelf of this temptation, together with the custom of exhibiting an oath to the Emperour, at his ingress to the exercise of that dignity [not to over-top the Senate in those privileges the ancient Laws had establisht them in] and also the College of the Pontiffs installing him in the great Pontificality, and committing to him the chief ordering of the affairs concerning the Ethnick Ceremonies; a thing that Gratian said (and thereupon refused the pontifical Stole) was unlawful for a Christian (and 'tis a wonder how the former Chri∣stian Emperours could wear that Stole without galling their shoulders) (vid. Mord. vol. 2. pag. 746.) These circumstances (I say) were the Lion in the tho∣row-Christians way to the Imperial Crown, and made the Inauguration in that dignity incompetent to a Christian indeed, as not being tenable or at∣tainable in that juncture but upon those terms, which were in effect and in∣terpretatively, an abrenunciation of Christ.

From all which may be inferr'd, for a conclusion of this Argument, the invincibleness of the Empire to the obedience of Christ, by an arm of flesh, and the ridiculousness of attempting to batter down this strong hold, (where∣with the Empire had immur'd it self, against the fiercest assaults the illumi∣nated consciences of their own Emperours could make) without the greatest assurance of the Divine aid. Had Aegypt been the head of the worlds Em∣pire, (that Wind-mill head turning its sailes about to every new wind, to the imbracing of every new and strange Deity) or Greece, which both Di∣vine and Secular Histories describe to be in love with novelties: It would have been a business of no great difficulty, to have reduc'd it to the belief of a well-coucht new Fable. But to prevail with it, to renounce its old and imbrace a strange God, when Rome was become its Metropolis, hic labor, hoc opus est. To poak out Leviathan, from under that shelf of prejudice against a strange God, by the Apostolical rod, into the Net of the Gospel; to draw him to that shore he had such an antipathy against, by that slender silken twine wherewith the Apostles fisht for men; to intice him with the bait of a foreign Deity cloathed in so mean and outwardly despicable flesh; can be imputed to nothing less, than the cooperation of that power, with those mean in∣struments, that's able to subdue all things to it self, and bring to nought things that are, by things that are not. The making of that stone, which the Gentile as well as Jewish builders, of all others rejected, the head stone of the corner, higher than the highest in the Capitol, was the Lords doings; a work

not to have been attempted without extream madness, but in the confi∣dence of his Almighty assistance.

CHAP. V.

A prospect of the Holy Age, the Age wherein the Gospel was first publisht, in respect of its skill in Theology.

§ 1. Natural Theology then in its highest acmen by the improvement of the Py∣thagorick, Platonick and Sacratical Philosophy. Within that Century lived Varro: his Encomium. Scaevola and Caesar great Divines. Cicero and Cratippus well seen in Natural Theology. Seneca the Miracle of Humane Divines. Thrasea under Nero a Martyr for Moral Divinity. § 2. Prophetical Theology exploded by Pagan Philosophers. Divination by Dreams and Oracles censur'd by Cicero. Apollo's Oracles ambiguous; at last silenc'd. Phoebus Philippizing. Chaldean prognosticators vain. Prae∣nestine Lots and Auguries decided. Divination by Prodigies taunted. This a barr to credulity towards the Gospel. § 3. Historical Divinity decried in the Schools (when the History of the blessed Jesus was first published) as reporting things unworthy of God. The Apostles could never have hoped to induce the disputers of this world to a belief of as unlikely stories, had they had no more than an arm of flesh to trust to. The conclusion of the whole matter. God's Tabernacle set in the Sun shining out in its greatest lustre of humane Sciences. § 4. The Civick Religion both with the Vulgar and Politicians in high respect in our Saviours Age, proved, from the Philosophers salvo's, by consequence, and directly from several examples. The world was injoying her self Pigmalion-like in the warm imbraces of her-own-made sacred animals.

§ 1. ALthough the World by this four-double shield (of knowledge in Arts Physical, Poetical, Demoniacal and Political) was thus well guarded against the surprizals of Impostures: yet had it wanted the eye of Theology, a cunning Stalker might possibly have catcht it on its blind side: Had the Sun of Metaphysical knowledge been cold set upon it, the Apostles might have presumed, in the darkness of that night, to have dazeled its eyes with the splendor of the Gospel, and to have struck it with their fish-spear, or have drawn their net over it, while it lay astonish'd with the strangeness of that sight: As we see Salmons caught with the flame of a broom-fagot, and Larks with a low-bell. In order therefore to our clearing the Apostles from the charge of designing to put a cheat upon the world, it will be expedient to take a view of the posture it then stood in, in point of Religion; which though miserably depraved, with the inventions of its own foolish and judi∣cially darkned heart, through its letting slip, in that vast tract of time, what was once deliver'd to it by the Sons of Noah; and in lieu of the old tradi∣tion taking up, and filling its hand with vain imaginations: yet (whether it were through that Ages improving of Natural Principles, or retrieving of Supernatural, either by a more familiar converse with that Nation, to whom God had concredited the custody of his Oracles; or by means of the divulg∣ing of the Septuagint; or by Gods blessing upon their faithfulness in a little;) never did any Age before it, since the first General Apostasie, stand better de∣fended against Impostors in Religion than this did. The Three Sects that only deserve the name of Divine, the Pythagorick, Socratical and Platonick, being about our Saviours time grown to that improvement, as more substan∣tial Divinity occurrs in the writings of one Roman, who then turn'd his stile that way, than in all the Volumes of preceding Philosophers.

Then lived Varro, so indefatigable a Student and Writer, as Terentianus

Carthaginensis (in his Phaleucick Verses) sings of him after this manner:

[Vir doctissimus undecunque Varro; Quae tam multa legit, ut aliquid Ei scribere vacâsse miremur; Tam multa scripsit, quàm multa Vix quenquam legere potuisse credamus.] * 1.3

Gellius reports (lib. 5.) that he writ 490 Books. A man of that profound Learning, as Tully (transported with the admiration of it) in his Academick Questions, while he's commending him for a Divine, forgets that himself was an Academick Philosopher; and, contrary to his profession of hesitancy and suspension of assent to all other propositions, speaks positively and confi∣dently of Mark Varro, that he was, without doubt, of all men the most acute and learned (Academ. Quaest. lib. 1.)—[Cum M. Varrone hominum fa∣cilè omnium acutissimo, & sine ulla dubitatione doctissimo] and a little after, While we were wandring (saith he) in our own City as strangers, thy Books (O Varro) did as it were bring us home to our selves, that we might at length know where we are, and what we are. Thou hast open'd to us the Antiquities of our Country, the description of the Times, the Laws about Holy things, the Offices of Priests, Domestick, Publick Discipline, the definitions, distinctions, properties and causes of ALL THINGS both HUMANE and DIVINE.

That African Tully St. Austin praiseth Varro in as high a stile as this Ro∣man, giving him this Encomium (de Civitate 6. 2.) [Quis M. Varrone cu∣riosiùs ista quaesrvit? quis invenit doctiùs? quis distinxit acutiùs? quis conside∣ravit attentiùs? quis diligentiùs pleni••sque conscripsit?] Who hath with more curiosity inquired into those things (concerning Religion and the Divine attri∣butes) than Varro? who with more learning found them out than he? who with greater attention weighed, with more acuteness distinguisht, with more copiousness and diligence writ of these things than M. Varro?

But we cannot have a clearer demonstration of the brightness and magni∣tude of this Star, (which Providence order'd to arise in the Heathens Hemi∣sphere, as an Usher to the Sun of Righteousness) than his obtaining (while he lived and was obnoxious to the envy of his Emulators) by a general vote the Sir-name of the most learned of all the Gown-men: and the Virgin∣honour to have his Statue (in his life-time) plac'd in that Library which Asinius Pollio erected at Rome.

Then lived Scaevola the Pontiff, whom St. Austin stiles the most learned Pontiff (Vives in Aug. de Civ. 6. 2.) out of whose Theological polemical writings St. Austin produceth some sound and Gospel-proof Divine maximes. To whom Tully, a man read as much in Men as Books, applyed himself to learn Divinity, after the death of, his former master in that Science, Scaevola the Augur. (Aug. de Civit. 4. 27.)

Then lived Caesar; who acquitted the Office of High-Priest as dexterously as that of Emperour; in his directing the world to time her devotions, by re∣forming the Calender, so near the precise Rule, prescribed by God to those Luminaries, which he hath placed in the Heavens, to measure Times, as it served the whole World to calculate Seasons by, above 1500 years; in which large tract of time, that Julian Account has not misreckon'd 13 dayes; whereas he found the computation so corrupt, as he could not bring the hand of his reformed Calender to the right hour of time, without the intereala∣tion

of three months. (Sueton. Jul. 4.) And in the rest of his pontifical ad∣ministrations, not failing the expectations of the Electors, who were two to one for him more than all his Competitors obtain'd the Votes of, though the other Candidates for that Office so far exceeded him in Age and secular Dig∣nity, as Caesar had nothing to commend him to the Electors, but his quali∣fiedness for that function, by the worth of his parts, Id. Ib. cap. 40.

Then lived Cicero; as great a Proficient in the Colledge of Augurs, as in the Schools of the Orators. Witness his Books de Divinatione, de somnio Scipionis, de Seneciute, de Legibus, his Paradoxes, and Academick questions; wherein he traceth the Deity, by the foot-steps of the Creature and common Providence, more near its seat of inaccessible light than he durst openly, or in his own person, express; and therefore communicates his conceptions upon that subject by way of Romance under borrowed names, as Plate had done before him in the like case [sed nimirum Socratis carcerem times] (Lactant. de fal. rel. 1. 3.) both of them skulking under the shades of deceased Philo∣sophers, for fear of the impending whip of the Areopagites over Plato, of the Imperial Laws over Cicero: both of them having heard the sound of the whip laid, on Socrates before Plato's, on Varro's back before Cicero's face: for that Roman Socrates (for opening too wide, and not running with the com∣mon cry) had been soundly lasht by the then great Hunter the Roman Nim∣rod, having his Person proscribed, his Library rifled, and his Books burnt, as disfavouring the Religion of that State; yet for all this Tully sets this Royal Game, and gives the World notice (as it were by wagging his tail when he durst not open his mouth) where it was squatted, against the Apostles should come with their Net.

Then lived the Learned Cratippus, whom Cicero, in the Proem to his Of∣fices, stiles the Prince of Modern Philosophers: but, his commending his Son to his Nurture, was a commendation of him, in fact, beyond all the streins, even of his, Rhetorick.

Then lived Virgil; of whom Vettius (in Macrob. Saturn. 1. 24.) Equidem inter omnia, quibus eminet laus Maronis, hoc assiduus lector admiror, quia do∣ctissimè jus pontificium, quasi hoc professus, in multa & varia operis sui arte ser∣vavit; & si tantae dissertationi sermo cancederet, promitto fore ut Virgilius noster Pontifex maximus asseratur.] Of whose admirable skill in Theology he giv∣eth instances (in the third Book of Saturnals) to make good this his general commendation: That amongst all the praise-worthy qualifications of Maro, which in his daily reading of his Works he took notice of, he wonder'd at this, that throughout the whole Series of his Poems he so learnedly observ'd the Pon∣tifical Law, as if he had been Professor of it; and if I had time (saith Vettius) to discourse that point, I promise you I could obtain from you an assent to this, That Virgil deserves to be accounted worthy of the high Priest-hood.

Then lived that miracle of humane Divines, Seneca the Philosopher, the Glory of the Heathen, the shame of the modern Christian World; who gave the greatest experiment of the power of Stoicism, that ever man did, in his rooting the sentiments of a Deity, and, with them, Morality, so deep in that most barren heart of Nero, as those Seeds sown there by him flourish'd, and bore excellent fruit for the first five years of his Reign▪ in spite of the natural dyscrasie of that Monster, and the temptations to an earlier Apostasie, which an absolute Sovereignty laid before him. (Vid. Tacit. an. 15.) And who was himself as much a Philosopher in the inward of his Soul, as in the outward habit of his Beard and Gown; as much a Moralist in practice, as contempla∣tion and precept: As the great Humanist of France the Lord Nountaigne (Essayes l. 1. c. 32.) hath more than Essay'd to vindicate him to have been, against Dion's calumniations; (Xiphil. è Dione. Nero. pag. 519.) grounded upon Tigellinus and his parties reports; whom to have his enemies and slan∣derers was Seneca's honour: Tigellinus being a person of so filthy and calum∣niating a tongue, as Dion himself (but three pages before he condemns Se∣neca, upon the suggestions of Tigellinus) commends that sarcastical Apothegm

(as he calls it) of Pythia against him: who when she was urged by him to accuse her Lady Octavia Augusta of dishonesty, spate in his face, and said, The privities of my Lady, Tigellinus, are more clean than thy mouth. As himself de∣monstrated, in his discourse with Nero, after he was grown the object of Ti∣gellinus's envy, for his wealth, and of Nero's hatred, for the freedom he used in rebuking him; than whom, no man better knew (as he told Granius Si∣loanus) how far Seneca's genius was averse to flattery, or how much his brave spirit was elevated above love to the world, or fear of death. And in his conference with his Wife betwixt his condemnation and death, where∣in he recommended to her (who was most privy to what he was at home with himself) the remembrance of his vertuous life (in those actions of it wherein there had been least personating) as the best expedient against her immoderate sorrow for his departure. And lastly, as the ancient Fathers of our Church implyed, in their opinion, that he had familiar converse with St. Paul; conceiving it scarce possible, that he could, in Life and Doctrine, hit so right upon the sence of Evangelical precepts without some such In∣terpreter.

Then lived Thrasea, that Martyr (under Nero) for Natural Theology, whom Tacitus calls the light of the Roman world, and thus prefaceth his Story: At last Nero covets to extirpate vertue it self, in putting Thrasea to death: having no other cause of displeasure against him, but his going out of the Senate, as refusing to give his Vote for the condemnation of Agrippina, upon the barbarous motion of her unnatural Son; and his not appearing at those Funeral Solemnities wherein Divine Honours were conferr'd upon that Court Drabb Pop∣paea. A person of that Divine presence and discourse, as his friends were con∣fident he would have thunder-struck the Senate and Nero himself, if they could have perswaded him to have stooped so far from the contempt of death, as to plead for his life, and make his defence. In which point, through his belief of the Souls immortality (of which he was discoursing with Demetrius the Philosopher at that instant) he was of so well a com∣posed mind, as he did not so much as change countenance, (except it were to a more chearful aspect) at the news of his condemnation. (Tacit. l. 15.) [Illic à Quaestore reperitur laetitiae propior.] And while his life was breathing out at the veins of both his arms, he spent not his breath in effeminate la∣mentations, but in discourses upon that endless life to which he assur'd him∣self he was hasting; and calling the Questor who was sent to see his execu∣tion, Look here (saith he) young man, we are pouring out this offerings (Jovi liberatori) to God Redeemer. I pray God divert the Omen, but verily thou liv∣est in such times, as it's very behoofeful to get thy mind fortified against all tem∣poral evil, by such examples of constancy, as thou seest me set before thee.

§ 2. But I go about to number the Stars, in attempting to reckon up all the Philosophers then flourishing, when the Christian Philosophy was first commended to the world: I will therefore cease the further prosecution of that point, and glance at their Dogmata, the Divine Axioms they deliver'd, touching Divination by Auguries, and prophetical Theology; where that I may avoid tedious repetitions I shall in a manner confine my self to the Col∣lector of the opinions of others, Tully, who though himself an Augur, not only derides Divination by Birds, by Dreams, by Oracles, &c. but evinceth the vanity of them by Chrysippus his reasons, affirming, in general, that they are the productions of superstition, which dispersed through the Nations of the world, taking occasion from humane imbecillity, had almost opprest all mens minds, and tyrannized over them. [Ut verè loquamur, superstitio fusa per gentes, oppressit omnium ferè animos, atque hominum imbecillitatem occupa∣vit.] de Divinat. l. 2. pag. 265.

1. In particular he explodes Divination by Dreams from several instances: Of one that, being to run in the Olympick Games, dreamed he saw himself over-night carried in a Charriot drawn with four horses; which one interprets

to signifie that he should win the prize, because of the horses swiftness: an∣other, that he should lose it, because he had seen four swift Creatures before himself. Of another, who dreamt he saw an Eagle; That portends thou shalt win (quoth one Augur) for that's the swiftest bird: Thou shalt lose (saith another) for the Eagle pursueth all other birds, and is her self pursued by none, therefore she's alwayes hindmost. [Quae est ista ars conjectoris elu∣dentis ingenio? an quicquam significant, nisi acumen hominum ex similitudine ali∣qua conjecturam modò huc, modò illuc ducentium?] Pag. 2. 64. What is this else but the Art of a Guesser wittily shifting off his want of wit? What do those interpretations signifie, but mens quickness of wit, from some resemblance or other drawing their conjecture sometimes this way, sometimes that?

2. Divination by Oracles he derides, as fasten'd by impostures upon thë Divine Spirits motions: [Id certe magis est attenti animi quàm furentis: hoc scriptoris est non furentis, adhibentis diligentiam, non insani.] Pag. 251. When their being, most-what, given in Verse speaks them to be the result of hu∣mane industry: And their ambiguity fathers them upon persons providing for saving their own credit, let come what will. [Partim falsis, partim casu ve∣ris, (ut fit in omni oratione saepissimè) partim flexiloquis & obscuris, ut interpres egeat interprete, & ipsa sors referenda sit ad sortes; partim ambiguis, &c.] p. 252. They being sometimes false, sometimes true by chance (as it frequently falls out in all kind of discourse) sometimes so equivocal and obscure as the Interpreter needs an Interpreter, and the Question what is the meaning of the Respond is harder to answer than the question which was put to the Oracle; and sometimes so ambiguous, &c. Such as that which Herodotus reports Apollo to have given to Craesus,

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Craesus Halym penetrans magnam pervertet opum vim.

which Oracle would have proved true, whatever had betided Craesus in that expedition; whether, (as he interpreted it) he had made spoyl of the Ene∣mies, or (as it fell out) of his own wealth: But what reason have I (saith Tully) to believe that Apollo did give this Respond, or to deem Herodotus to make a truer report of Craesus, than Ennius did of Pyrrhus: for what man living can think that Pyrrhus received from Apollo's Oracle this Respond?

Aio te Aeacida Romanos vincere posse; Pyrrhus the Romans shall defeat.

For first, Apollo never spoke Latine; secondly, the Greek Writers make no mention of this Respond; thirdly, before Pyrrbus his time Apollo had given over versifying; and lastly, though Aeacus his Progeny were a stolid Generation, that acted by main strength, not by policy, being belli-potents not sapienti-potents;

(Bellipotentes sunt magi', quàm sapientipotentes] ex Ennio.)

yet they could not be so thick-scull'd but to understand that this Verse pro∣mised no more to them than to the Romans; that amphibolie which de∣ceiv'd Craesus might have deceiv'd Chrysippus; but this not Epicurus himself. This affected obscurity of Oracles Macrobius complains of (in som. Scipion. 1. 1.) [qualis solet in divinationibus esse affectata confusio?] How great an affected confusion useth to be in divinations? And touching Oracles that prove true by chance, Cicero alledgeth this Example among others; The Water-man in Copponius's Fleet foretold indeed such things as fell out: but that was no more than we all fear'd; only, what wisdom taught us to hide, the extremity of it forc'd him to reveal his fear.—I appeal to the Gods and Men, to say, whe∣ther 'tis more likely, that the Gods should communicate their Counsels to that

half-witted Seaman, or to some of us who were present at the same time, in the same Fleet, such as Cato, Varro and Copponius himself.

But (which is chiefly to be considered here) if our Ancestors have not imposed Fables upon us touching these Oracles, how come they to be ceast, not only now, but a long time ago, so as nothing can be more contemptible than Delphos is at present? saith Tully (in the place forequoted.)—[Sed, quod caput est, cur isto modo jam Oracula Delphis non eduntur; non modo nostrâ aetate sed jam diu, jam ut nihil possit esse contemptius?] They that say the vertue of that place, whence those breathings issued, that impregnated the mind of the Prophetess, are decay'd through age, speak as if they were discoursing of Wine or Pickles; such things in∣deed in time will grow insipid: but what length of time can wear out Divine Power? and what more Divine than such breathing from the ground, as makes the mind foresee things to come, and enables it to compose in Verse its praecon∣ceptions? But when did Delphos lose this Vertue? not till men began to be less credulous of old wives tales, and to ponderate the unlikelihood of such stories. It is almost 300 years ago since Demosthenes said Apollo's Priestess did Philip∣pize: as much in effect as if he had said, Philip had corrupted the Oracle, and put words into the Prophetesses mouth. Whence we have reason to suspect, that in the rest of the Delphick Responds there was jugling, as Cicero argues; and upon these considerations he grounds this resolution: [Nec ego Publicio ne∣scio cui, nec Martiis vatibus, nec Apollinis opertis credendum existimo, quorum par∣tim ficta apertè, partim effutita temerè, nunquam nè mediocri quidem cuiquam, non modò prudenti probata sunt. I think we ought not to believe either I know not what Publicius, or Mars his Prophets, or Apollo's Ridles, whereof some be∣ing apparently feigned, others rashly blabbed out, were never approved of by any, not only prudent but moderate person.] But I know not how, those superstitious, and almost fanatick Philosophers, had rather have any thing be, than themselves wise; they had rather think that Prophetick breath to have breath'd out its last (which if ever it was in being would have ever been, as Divine and not expirable) than not believe things incredible. Sed nescio quomodo isti philosophi supersti∣tiosi, & penè fanatici quidvis malle videntur, quàm se non ineptos. Evanuisse mavultis id, quod si unquam fuit, certè aeternum esset, quàm ea quae non sunt cre∣denda non credere.] pag. 264.

3. The Chaldaean Astrology he stiles monstrous; [Ad Chaldaeorum monstra veniamus:]—(pag. 241.) and quotes this sentence of Eudoxus, Plato's Scholar, (one, in the judgement of most learned men, second to none in that Science,) The Chaldaeans are not at all to be regarded in their Predictions and Calculations of Nativities: And Panaetius, (though a Stoick) affirming that Archelaus and Cassander, the prime Astrologers of that Age, never used this kind of Divination: And Scylax Halicarnasseus, an intimate acquaintance of Panaetius, and an excellent Astrologer, wholly repudiating the Chaldean way of prediction. Of which Opinion also was M. Crassus, who in his Expedi∣tion against the Parthians, being told by an Astrologer, it would not prove prosperous, by reason of some ill aspect he found in Scorpio; Tush, saith he, I fear not Scorpio, but Sagittarius (Heylin. Cosm. Persia. 10. Parthia;) mean∣ing the Parthians those excellent Archers. Yea, Tully himself after the sta∣ting of the grounds laid down in defence of Judicial Astrology, explodes the Chaldean Principle of the Conjunction of the Stars with Moon; they being so vastly distant in height from her, as 'tis not imaginable how at that distance they can infect her; (pag. 143.) brings in Examples of many thousands who all had the same end, though born at different times and under various Schemes; and of divers who had differing Fortunes, though born at the same time. And cryes out; Oh incredible dotage! worthy of a worse name than folly! And having named L. Turutius Firmanus his Calculation of Romes Nativity, though he were Tully's Familiar, yet he upbraids his folly with this exclamation; O vim maximam erroris! (pag. pag. 245.) Oh the wonderful force of Errour? Must the Cities birth-day belong to the influence of Stars? Say we, that it is of concern to a Child, to have the Heavens in such a posture at his

birth; can this have any influence upon brick and mortar, the Cities materials? But what need more be said toward the refelling of the Chaldean vanity, than daily experience of the not coming to pass of their Divinations? How many things do I remember the Chaldeans to have predicted, of Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar, of this tendency, That none of them should die, but in an old Age, at their own homes, and in great Renown: Insomuch as to me it seems very strange, that any man living should give the least credit to these men, whose Prognostications they so every day refell themselves by the event. [Vt mihi permirum videatur, quenquam extare qui etiam nunc credat iis, quorum praedicta quotidie videat re, & eventu refelli.]—(pag. 246.)

4. Touching Divination by the Praenestine Lots: he laughs at the invention of them by Numerius Suffucius. [Tota res est inventa fallaciis, aut ad quae∣stum, aut ad superstitionem, aut ad errorem: (pag. 240.) The whole business is a cheat, invented either for the sake of gain, or superstition, or errour.] And to the Stoical subterfuge to the omnipotence of God, he replies; Would God he could make the Stoicks wise, that they might not, with a miserably distracting so∣licitude, believe all they hear, though never so incredible. But as for this kind of Divination (saith he) 'tis now every where exploded but at Praeneste.

5. As to the original tradition of the Art of Augurizing, he thinks the story of Tages so ridiculous, as it deserves not a confutation; and calls him∣self a greater fool, than those were that believed it, for spending so much time in evineing the impossibility of it. [Sed ego insipientior quàm illi ipsi, qui ista credunt, qui quidem contra eos tamdiu disputem]—(pag. 127.) It was (saith he) ingeniously said of Cato; That he wonder'd, how this kind of Pro∣phets could refrain laughing, when they saw one another: how few of their pre∣dictions have taken effect? and those that have been follow'd with events sutable, what reason can be alledged that they did not fall out by meer chance? King Pru∣sius, when Hannibal (lodging then with him in his Exile) had a mind to give battle to the Enemy, said, he durst not, for that the entrails of the sacrifice por∣tended ill luck; but Hannibal replyed, Wilt thou give more credit to the in∣wards of a Calf, than an experienc'd General? [Carunculae vitulinae mavis quàm Imperatori veteri credere?] Did not Caesar himself, though forbidden by the Chief Aruspex, waft over his Army into Africk? which if he had (as he was advised) deferr'd to do, till after winter, he would have had the whole body of the Enemy united before his arrival. What need to enumerate the Responses of such Fortune-tellers as have had contrary effects? In this our Civil War, good God! how many things did they delude us with? What strange Responses were sent us into Greece from Rome? What said they of Pompey, &c? Can there be a greater madness than that men should modulate their affais, and tune their Counsels after the Notes of Birds? Which kind of Divining that it was out of request with intelligent persons long before Tully's age, appears from that story which Josephus (Joseph. cont. App. lib. 1.) relates from Haecateus Abde∣rita to this purpose; [As Alexanders Army was marching towards the Red Sea, the Augur espying a Bird, commanded that the Army should make a halt: one Mosellanus asking what was the matter, the Augur shewed him the Bird, telling him, that if she sate still, the Army must not march; if she flew back again, they must face about, &c. Mosellanus, without other reply, bends his Bow and kills the Bird: the Augur and the Army storming hereat as an impious act: What mad men are you (answers he) thus to trouble your selves, about a silly Bird? How could she advise us what way to take for our safety, that could no better pro∣vide for her own? who had she known what would have come to pass, she would have kept her self out of the reach of mine arrow.

6. The Roman Oratour is as free of his Sarcasms against Divination by Prodigies; taunting first the reports of the Prodigies themselves, as not di∣gestable to a considerate mind. It was reported (saith he) to the Senate, that it rained blood, that the river flowed with blood; that the Images of the Gods were all on a sweat: Do you think that Thales, Anaxagoras, or any Natural Philosopher would have given credit to the Messengers that came

with such tidings? and next charging with levity and inconsiderateness, the exposition and application of them. What levity of mind does it argue, to conceive, if a Mouse corrode the shields of Lanuvius (as before the Marsick War) this portends some sad fate to attend our Armies? As though it made any matter whether Mice should have gnawn Shields or Bran! If we make such things grounds of fear, I had cause to fear some mischief would betide the Common-wealth, when I was Consul, not so much from the provisions that Cataline made, as from the Mice, gnawing (of all the Books then in my Study) Plato's Common-wealth: Or should Epicurus his Book touching pleasure be corroded, we must conclude the price of Viands would rise in the market. If the foaling of a Mule, the trembling of the Earth, the appear∣ance of Meteors in the Skies (or any thing that seldom happens) portend mis∣chief to ensue; to be wise must be ominous: for I believe Mules births to be more frequent and less rare than wise men. Such as he, to whom a person applying himself to know the meaning of a Prodigy (as he conceiv'd) had befallen him, when he found a Snake to have wrapt her self about the Barr of his door, receiv'd from him this answer: If you had found the door Barr wrapt about a Snake, it had been a prodigy indeed. The Male and Female Serpents found in the house of C. Gracchus imported no more to him or his Wife, than a pair of Mice there found: and though upon his letting the Fe∣male escape, Gracchus died; his death must be imputed to the sharpness of his disease, not to the emission of the Serpent, any more than Troy's endu∣ring a Ten years war is chargeable upon Calchas his nest of Sparrows, and not rather the valour of the Trojans, and dissensions of the Greeks: Or Silla his victory, to the Serpent appearing on the Altar as he was a sacrificing, and not rather his own wise managing of that Battel. The Ants carrying grains of Wheat into Midas his mouth, and the Bees sitting on Plato's lips (when they lay in their cradles) may perhaps be meer fictions; but be they true, the predictions made upon them were only witty conjectures, and the fall∣ing out of their fortunes accordingly was fortuitous. As to Roscius, the sto∣ry may be false; but if it be true, that he was in the Cradle swathed about with a Snake, this is not to be wonder'd at, especially in his birth-place, So∣lonium, where Snakes usually crawl about the harth: but rather the Respond that was given upon it, that Roscius would be a most noble and famous per∣son. For to me it seems a wonder, that the immortal Gods should portend the future famousness of a Stage-Player, and not of Scipio Africanus. What if Flaminius his Horse trip and cast his Rider, is this a strange thing? What if the Ensign-bearer cannot pluck up his colours? may be he stuck them down with a better will than he plucks them out. Needed Dionysius his Horse a divine inspiration to move him to swim out of the River; or the Bees to fasten on his Main? If the Spartans hear the clashing of Armour in Hercules his Temple, and if his Temple doors at Thebes open of their own accord, or the Shields there hung up be found fall'n down and lying on the ground, why should we look on those things as the effects of special and not com∣mon providence? The setting of the golden Stars of Castor and Pollux at Delphos so as they never appear'd again, argues they fell into some Thieves pocket: But that the Greek Historians should write, that there never befell to the Lacedemonians a greater Prodigy, than an Apes overturning Dodona's Urn, and scattering the Lots deposited in it, I again and again wonder at, far more than at that busie creatures spilling a Pot full of Lots.

This was the then School-doctrine concerning Divinations: Whatever Antiquity had propounded touching that subject, that Age made no reckon∣ing of, if it would not abide the test of Reason. Would it not then have been prodigious madness for the Apostles to have attempted to impose up∣on that Age with the Evangelical History, wherein there is so frequent men∣tion of Dreams, Visions, Responds from Heaven, and Prodigies, as unlikely in their own nature, as most of those against which Cicero makes exception? Could they think that that Age, whose proud reason exalted it self above and

against the Authority of their own Annals, publick Records, and the unin∣terrupted Tradition of their Forefathers; would stoop to the Authority of a company of poor Fishermen, in things more above the sphere of reason than those things were they had rejected, though backt with so great Authority, meerly because they could not apprehend the reason of them? What hope could they have that the disputers of this world (termed so signanter by our Apostle, 1 Cor. 1.) who would thus exactly weigh and tell money after their Father, would let the Apostolical Shekle pass as currant without bringing it to the Tally? That the inquisitive disceptators of this Age (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) who with their altercation and Ergo's had turn'd out of their Creed the Amen of their Progenitors; would at the perswasion of illiterate persons, turn their Ergo into Amen to the Evangelical Philosopher? Durst the most learned of them St. Paul have challenged them to a dispute, with a Where is the disputer of this Age, had he not been well assured that he spake, that wisdom, and by that spirit, which none of them were able to resist? that Evangelical Prophecies, Divination, Oracles, Dreams, Visions, and Prodigies moved in a region above those blasts that had scatter'd all other such like things pretending to Divinity?

§ 3. The Divine Sentences we read in the former Section are found writ∣ten in the Porch of Philosophical Divinity: for Divination is no otherwise reducible to Divinity than as the Proem to the Discourse, as the portal to the house: we will in this repeat the Sermons ad Clerum that were preacht in the Church, take Notes of the Doctrine of the Schools that had Divinity for its Text, when it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to confound the wisdom of the prudent. In which juncture I find the whole body of Eminent Philosophers, (however Sceptical in most, and jarring in many) yet with one mouth consenting in this point, that, of all kinds of Theology, the Poetical and Fabulous is most destructive and dangerous.

Cicero, in his Tusculan Questions, (Lib. 2.) speaking of this kind of Di∣vinity, calls those points he there mentions, the fictions of Homer, shaping God after the pattern of man; of which kind of Divinity he saith, [I thought, then when I wrote those Books, and am of the same opinion still, that I cannot do my self or friends a greater courtesie, than if I wholly eradicate and throw down to the lowest stone the foundations of it; (de Divinat. lib. 2. pag. 265.) In his de Natura Deorum, (lib 2.) he introduceth Lucillius Balbus thus discoursing. [Seest thou not how from natural things happily and profitably invented, Reason hath been forc'd aside (equivalent to St. Pauls [becoming vain in their imagina∣tions)] to counterseit and feigned Deities? which thing hath produc'd false Opi∣nions, turbulent Errours, and most doting Superstitions. The Shapes, Ages, Ap∣parel, Ornaments, Off-springs, Marriages, Kindreds of the Gods are all drawn after the Copy of humane infirmity. Yea, the Gods are presented to us as men subject to passions of mind: We hear the Poets discoursing of their Lusts, Anger, Envy, Sickness, &c. which things to believe or affirm of God is a thing full of vain and extreme folly and levity.

Seneca, in his Book against Superstition, quoted by St. Austin, (de Civit. 6. 10.) but not extant (except some diligent hand have of late retriev'd it from the mothes) does boldly, copiously, and vehemently inveigh against Theatrick Divinity; affirming that the world, through Poetical delusions, worships them for Gods, who if they should animate, (and appear to men in) those Images in which they were worshipt, would be thought monsters. [Numina vocant, quae si spiritu accepto occurrerent, monstra haberentur.] Dost thou think (so Tully proceeds) the dreams of Titus Tacitus, of Romulus, of Hostilius ever a whit more true than Poetical Fables, or any thing more lewd than these? How they came to put their Gods into such monstrous shapes, Hyginus informs us (in his Poetick Astronomy tit. Sagittarius.)—[Ita Jovem fecisse, ut cùm omnia illius artificia uno corpore vellet significare, crura ejus equina fixisse, quòd equo multum sit usus; & sagittas adjunxit, ut ex his, & acumen, &

celeritas esse crederetur: Caudam satyricam, quòd Satyris aeque ac Musis sit delecta∣tus.] A right Jack of all trades, painted with all the Escutcheons and Arms belonging to his several professions.

But Tully is no where more unmannerly and sawcy with the Poetical Gods, than in his Morals, where forgetting the gravity of a Stoick, he pours out such like Sarcasms as these upon the Poetical Jove: Seeing Jupiter is descri∣bed by the Poets pencil to have been so exceeding salacious, why does he not yet beget Children if he be alive? hath age gelt him? the Law of Papias re∣strain'd him? or hath he obtain'd the priviledge of three Sons?

Of Scaevola's Doctrine, touching this point, St. Austin (de Civit. 4. 27.) giveth this account; That he maintain'd the Poetical stories of the Gods to be nugatory and trifling, feigning many things of them unworthy of them: making one a Thief, another a Murderer, another an Adulterer, Incestu∣ous, &c.

Varro's Assertion was (as the same Father (de Civit. 6. 15.) reports it) that in fabulous Divinity there are many things, not only contrary to the dignity and nature of God, but such as cannot, without great opprobrie and absurdity, be affirmed of the most debaucht and despicable man.

I shall have occasion afterward of reassuming this point, and introducing more Testimonies: I will therefore let Cicero who spake first speak last; who writes to Atticus (his great familiar, and therefore this he spake under the Rose) that he would give his Daughter Livia that vertuous Education, as (if the world understood what he did) she should be worshipt as a Goddess, rather than either Juno or Minerva: for she is not (saith he) in any laudable thing inferiour to the best of the Poetical Goddesses. The greatest part of his third Book de Nat. Deorum, he spends in exploding the Stoical and Poetical Divi∣nity; If the Planets must therefore be concluded Deities, because of their regu∣lar motion; let's take Tertian and Quartan Agues into the number of Gods. If Jupiter and Neptune be Gods, are not their Brethren so too; Orcus, Acheron, Cocytus, Styx, Phlegeton, &c? why, next, are not Charon and Cerberus re∣puted Gods? Nostri quidem Publicani, cùm essent agri in Boeotia deorum im∣mortalium excepti lege Censoriâ, negabant immortales esse ullos, qui aliquandò homines fuissent: Our Sequestrators, when the Law of the Censors had excepted the Lands in Boeotia belonging to the immortal Gods, would find no such lands; alledging that the Deities there having been once mortal men, could never turn into immortal Gods.

Thus, though Socrates his death over-awed those in whose memories the fate of that Philosophical-proto-Martyr was fresh, yet length of time having pretty well digested that cold flegm and crude fear, which Socrates his Aco∣nite had bred in former Ages; the whole company of the then modern Phi∣losophers (except Epicurus his herd of Hogs) began, about our Saviours time, to prick up their bristles, and proclaim their dislike of that fabulous Divinity, that had in former times obtain'd credit in the world.

In which Age, thus well secured from seduction by the most plaufible and insinuating fables, for the Apostles to assault the world with naked and plain stories, of one Jesus of Nazareth, born at Bethlem, King of the Jews, &c. and of things as much exceeding humane belief, as any the most unlikely fictions of the vainest Poets, would have been the most sottish attempt that ever was undertaken by the most insensate changelings, had not the adven∣turers been themselves throughly perswaded of the truth of those unlikely stories, and perfectly instructed with a power to demonstrate the truth there∣of to others.

St. Paul's disputing at Athens (the great Mart of Learning) concerning the Living God, his offering to prove to the Philosophers face, that Jesus of Nazareth is that God, by a bare telling (by babling over as they at first re∣puted it) the History of Christ, had been ground enough for Agrippa's charge, [Paul, thou art beside thy self,] if his own consciousness to its truth, and the irrefragable demonstrableness thereof to others, by Gods Hand and Seal set

to it, had not animated him to that attempt. Could that chosen vessel hope to vend his commodities, had they been adulterate, among such cunning Merchants; his Gemms, had they been but Bristol-stones, among such know∣ing Lapidaries? Would he have shown his Treasures of Wisdom to an Age so inquisitive, and so happy in its inquest, after Wisdom, had they not been such as would abide the severest scrutiny, even of them that had tryed all former stuffs of the same nature, in appearance, and exploded them as spu∣rious; of them, whom the authority of Homer, the antiquity of Hesiod, the reverence of Orpheus, or the fear of Municipal Laws could not impose silence upon, when they saw the world imposed upon in matters of Religion by po∣pular fictions? The light of Natural Knowledge, even in Divine things, had never shone brighter, neither had the windows of mens minds been ever set more wide open receive in the beams thereof, than when the Gospel was first exposed to the world: Had not therefore this Eaglet been the genuine Off-spring of supernatural light, it would not have ventur'd to out-face this noon-day-sun of Natural Knowlege. For that which we read [in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun] the Ancients read [posuit in sole Taber∣naculum] he hath set his Tabernacle in the Sun; and some of them expound it to be a Prophecy of the Apostles publishing the Gospel (the summ whereof is the Tabernacling of God in man) in the clearest day of Humane Know∣ledge that had till then shined out upon the world; or, as the Prophet para∣phraseth, when men should run to and fro, as dissatisfied with former science falsly so call'd, and by that disquisition and canvassing of old traditions, in∣crease in Knowledge. Christ did not shuffle in his Doctrine in the dark, but produc'd it, when all kind of Humane Literature was improved to that Gi∣antick stature, as none before that, reached to; and whoever since have stood Candidates for the repute of excellent Humanists, have not by a general vote obtain'd the honour they stood for, except they have been found imitators or emulators of that Age. Among Poets, he bears away the Laurel, even at this day, as the best Lyrick, Heroick, Satyrist, Comick, Tragick, &c. who approacheth nearest those that then flourish'd, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Juvenal, Terence, Seneca, &c. Among Orators he hath the general applause, that shoots nearest the mark which Pliny set himself; who was so far from taking as an opprobrie what M. Regulus objected against him, that he was Tully's Ape, as he gloried in his being esteem'd an emulator of so unparallel'd a precedent, protesting that the eloquence of his own Age was too low a lure for him to fly at, (Plin. secund. lib. 1. ep. 5.) Among Politicians he's reputed the craftiest that most resembles Tiberius, he the solidest that writes best after the copy of Augustus. Among Patriots, Cato's, among Historians and Martialists, Caesar's transcripts, are the only men of account, in our modern Calculations of mens deserts. As for Divine Philosophy the Platonick, which attain'd to its full growth about our Saviours time (Aristotle being then, and many hundred years after, scarce taken notice of, till (in the Reign of Severus) Aphrodisaeus brought him into credit) hath ever been in St. Austin's judgement (de Civit. 8. 4.)—[non quidem immeritò excellentissimâ gloriâ claruit] of best esteem, and such as all other Sects must strike top-sail to in those Seas. Aristotle in∣deed, justly carries away the name of Daemon (for his universal insight into all things) yet he must yield to Plato the title of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, for his surpassing Know∣ledge in things Divine. Now it was against the Sun of Platonick Philoso∣phy, shining out in his greatest splendour, that the Primitive Church held up the Gospel. It was in this Galaxie they shed the milk of the Word; had it therefore not been sincere, the whiteness of this milky way would have be∣wrayed the adulterate mixture. This observation Tertullian urgeth to the Gentiles in his Apology, (Apolog. 21. cap.)—[Christus non rapaces, & feros ad∣huc homines multitudine tot Numinum demerendorum attonitos efficiendo, ad humanitatem temperavit, ut Numa; sed jam expolitos, & ipsae urbanitate de∣ceptos in agnitionem veritatis oculavit.] Christ did not temper to humanity wild and savage men, by amazing them with a multitude of Deities, whose favour

must be purchast as Numa did: but gave the faculty and means of seeing the true Religion to those that were already polisht, and deceiv'd with Urbanity it self: (Let me add) with Religion it self, and that Religion abetted by the greatest Champions that ever appear'd in its defence. What would Christ's squadron of Fishers have been in the hands of such Goliahs, had they not been the Army of the living God?

§ 4. The world, in respect of its sentiments touching Religion, was im∣mured within another wall, a fourth defence against surprisal, when the Go∣spel made an on-set upon it, enough to have sunk the assaylants spirits into a despondency of obtaining the victory, had not that brazen wall, of their being not couscious to themselves of having any base design upon it, been their Royal Mount, and the Lord of Hosts their Leader: nothing less than this could have animated them to attempt, to impose a new, which the Learned party were so much prejudic'd against (as has already been shewed) and wrest the old Civick Religion out of its hands; at that time, when the vulgar through the sly insinuations of the Politicians had as great, if not hotter, zeal for it than ever: As is apparent, from the most illumina∣ted Philosophers providing salvo's, for the securing the grandeur of the Ci∣vick Devotions, and the then establisht Religion, against the side-blows them∣selves seem'd to give it, in their commending of Natural, and decrying Fa∣bulous Theology: though they quitted their hands of this (indeed impos∣sible) undertaking so awkly, joyn'd the Asses head of these salvo's to the Lions body of their preceding discourse, so unhandsomly, and thereby made the parts so incongruous, discoherent, inconsequent, nay, contradictory to one another, as they could not have devised, how to have more openly sig∣nified to the diligent Reader, that they set these pack-sadles upon the backs of their generous Palfreys, not for the ease or satisfaction of their own, but to gratifie the deluded consciences of the rabble, (who by this means might ride a cock-horse without galling in that most tender part (which they mis∣call Conscience) which their sharp-backt reasoning of fabulous Divinity into contempt, would otherwise have gall'd) and to make their own peace with the State, for paring its Religion too near the quick. These were the weights St. Austin observ'd to hang at the lines end, and pull the soaring Varro down again, when he was upon the wing, and flying aloft in pursuite of the Poets Fables, with as opprobrious language as ever came out of that grave mans mouth; Vide Aug. (de Civit. lib. 6. cap. 4. 5. 2.)—[Hic certè ubi potuit, ubi ausus est, ubi impunitum putavit, sine caligine ullius ambiguitatis expressit—Quid existimare debemus, nisi hominem acerrimum ac peritissimum—oppressum fuisse suae Civitatis consuetudine a clegibus?] Here indeed where he might, where he durst, where he thought his liberty of speech not punishable, he declares his mind without the darkness of the least ambiguity.—And when we hear him plead for that in our Temples, which he had condemn'd in our Poets, what can we deem but that this sharp-sighted, and most skilful Divine was opprest with the custome and laws of the City? This was it which clipt the tongue of Cicero, when he was hotly declaiming against Divinations, and made him eat his words, and seemingly to cross out all he had writ, with such dashes of his pen as these (de Divinat. lib. 2. 217.)—Quam ego Reipublicae causa communisque re∣ligionis colendam censeo] As vain as it is, it ought to be retain'd for the sake of the Republick and Vulgar Religion. Again, [retinetur autem & ad opinionem vulgi, & ad magnas utilitates Reipublicae]—(de Divin. 2. 235.) Though in this Antiquity err'd, yet this errour is to be retain'd, to keep up in the vulgar an opi∣nion of Religion, and for the benefits that thence accrew to the Common-wealth. And therefore P. Claudius, and L. Junius, for sailing contrary to the Omens ex∣hibited, are worthy of the punishment they underwent; for they ought to have ob∣served the Rules of our Religion, and not with that contumacy have sleighted the manner of the Countrey: Tamen postea Reipublicae causa retentam, &c. (Id. 237.) To conclude these Quotations with what he concludes his Treatise of Divina∣tion.

[Nec verò (id enim diligenter intelligi volo) Superstitione tollendâ reli∣gio tollitur; nam et Majorum instituta tueri sacris, ceremoniisque retinendis, sa∣pientis est.] Neither is Religion destroy'd in rooting out Superstition, (I would have you mark that diligently) for it is the part of a wise man, to maintain the institutions of our fore-fathers, in retaining sacred Rites and Ceremonies. Did ever words coming out of one mans mouth, at one breath, blow hot and cold, as these do. Oracles, Auguries, inspection of Entrails, observation of Birds, mindings of Prodigies, &c. are vain superstitious things; and Superstition must be rooted up: but as vain as they be, they are the institu∣tion of our Fore-fathers, Rites and Ceremonies appointed by our Religion: and therefore a wise man must not reject them.

This made Porphyry fetch so many doubles before he squatted down on his seat, before he came to a full point, in that discourse of his touching Sa∣crifices: one while affirming that all bloody Sacrifices are the food of evil Spi∣rits, and to be abstained from by wise Men. (Porph. de Sacrif. l. 1. 315.) [vir igitur prudens atque temperans cavebit ejusmodi sacrificiis uti.] And yet with the same breath making it necessary for Cities to make evil Spirits propi∣tious to them, by such sacrifices, hereby tying them (as it were by the teeth) not only from doing them mischief but to do them good. [Civitatibus fortè necessarium hos daemones conciliare.] (Id pag. 316.) Of which kind of Dae∣mons he had, in the precedent page, past this doom, that they never do good. Absurdissima opinio vel à bonis mala, vel à malis bona contingere posse, p. 312. firmiter credendum, neque bonum unquam laedere, neque prodesse malum daemonem; non enim caloris est ut inquit Plato frige-facere. (pag. 314.) It is a most absurd opinion that either bad can come from good Spirits, or good from bad: we must therefore firmly believe that a good spirit never hurts, that an evil spirit never profits any man; for it is impossible that heat should make cold, saith Plato. And that their malicious and libidinous natures are not tamed or allayed, but fed, and made more fierce by such oblations. [His pinguescere solet; vivit namque vaporibus & fumigationibus & nidore sanguinis, & carnium vires assu∣mit.] (pag. 315) And yet at last granting a liberty, nay imposing a neces∣sity upon his wise man, to do as the vulgar do; that is, with bloody sacrifi∣ces to cokes impure Spirits: (and this by the authority of Theophrastus, and consent of Pagan Divines, and example of Philosophers,) and to mitigate their malignity by Sacrifices, Prayers and oblations: to which, saith he, as we partake of the common nature, we must be compell'd in order to the sav∣ing of our bodies and estates from the destructive effects of their anger. [Vn∣de meritò compellemur improbam potestatem demulcere.] Porph. de sacrificiis l. 2. 316.

The freedom of Seneca's speech in his book of Superstition, is such as he reprehends the Urban Religion more copiously than Varro did the theatrick and fabulous, saith St. Austin (de civit. 6. 10.) And so vehemently that the sharpest taunts, which Tertullian gave the civick worship, were not comparable to those bitter declamations of Seneca against it; as Tertullian himself testifies to the Gentiles face in his Apology (cap. 12.) [O impiae voces, Sacrilega con∣vitia! infrendite, inspumate, iidem estis qui Senecam aliqua re pluribus & ama∣rioribus de vestra religione perorantem non reprehendistis.] (Thus I find Tertul∣lian's Text corrected by the copy of P. Pitheus in the Preface to Seneca's second tome.) When I speak thus reproachfully of your Gods (saith Tertullian) you cry out, O impious expressions! O sacrilegious raylings! grind your teeth, spit in my face, and yet you are the same men who did not reprehend Seneca, though he made a formal speech against your Religion, in far more and sharper words. But what liberty this Philosopher took in writing he denied to himself in living; Philosophy did but make him half free; not free indeed, as the son of God makes his Disciples: for he worshipt what he reprehended, he did what he condemned, he ordered what he blamed; [Aug. de civit. 6. 10.) [Affuit ei libertas scribenti, viventi defuit; quasi liber locutus est, ut servus vixit, colebat quod reprehendebat, agebat quod arguebat, quod culpabat adorabat.] That he

might not seem negatively superstitious to the world; he thinks with the wise, but walks with the crowd: and in the temple does what he sees others do; conforming himself to the Laws and Customs of the City, in the outward act; keeping his Philosophy to himself in the inward man. And seasoning his precedent reproofs of the madness of the Urban Religion, (that his Citizens might better relish both writing and writer) with these grains of Salt sprinkled upon them: [Sa∣piens servabit tamen haec omnia tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam diis grata.] Yet a wise man must observe all these things, as commanded by the Laws, not as ac∣ceptable to the Gods. Than which Aphorism (bating his notion of more Gods than one) applyed to indifferent Rites, never any thing was uttered either of more truth, or more tending to peace: for the wisdom from above teacheth us to keep our faith to our selves; and in our external actions, conform to the Laws, where they enjoyn nothing that the supreme Law hath prohibited. But as he applies it, it is the most unsavoury expression that ever fell from his pen: for thus he proceeds. [Omnem istam ignobilem eorum turbam, quam lon∣go aevo longa superstitio congessit, sic adorabimus ut meminerimus cultum ejus magis ad morem quàm ad rem pertinere.] We should so adore this whole rascal company of these Gods, which ancient Superstition in a long tract of time hath scraped up on an heap, as to bear in mind that the worship of this crew be ascribed to custom ra∣ther than be thought pertinent to true devotion. So heavy did the Vulgars dotage and the sanction of the Laws lie upon the loins of these most strong sinewed Philosophers, as it made them bend under it; one part of the discourse upon this subject interfere with another, and their life differ from their doctrine.

§ 5. 2. But this does only consequentially imply the common peoples, and the commanding parties zeal to the then establish'd Superstition. Vale∣rius maximus speaks it out directly in words at length, and not in figures; who writing to Tiberius, makes this use of all the stories he produceth of men con∣temning the Religion of those times; that whatsoever mischiefs befel them or their posterity, though many Ages after the decease of the Promeritors, were inflicted upon them in revenge of that contempt.

If the Army under Varro miscarry at Cannae, it is because he had not ce∣lebrated the Circean Festivities with due Ceremonies (l. 1. cap. 2. Sect. 3.) If the once noble family of the Potitii fall into decay, if thirty Youths of that house dye all within the compass of one year, 'tis because Appius Censor com∣mitted that Priestly Function, which Originally belonged to the Potitii, to per∣sons of a sordid abstract, thinking that office to be too mean for that then flourishing Family. If Turullius Antonie's Lieutenant cut down the sacred Grove about Aesculapius's Temple, and Caesar in that place discomfeit his Ar∣my, that is interpreted a divine revenge taken upon the delinquent and an ex∣pedient used by that reputed God, to vindicate his own honour and regain a greater veneration. If, on the other hand, the Roman affairs be more under the eye of indulgent Providence, than the concerns of any other people, 'tis in reward of their scrupulous care, and cautious observance of the least punctil∣lios in matters of Religion. If Posthumius have good success in the Affrican wars, he may thank Mitellus the Pontiff, who would not permit him to budg one foot out of the City, till he had obliged the God of War, by solemn in∣vocation, to be on his side: and his own religious obsquiousness, in submitting the Fasces to the Mitre. Innumerable such instances might be produc'd, but what more can be required to demonstrate the devotedness of the Roman Em∣pire in Tiberius his reign to the received Religion than that which this Author gives upon occasion of mentioning L. Furius Bibaculus, who, being Praetor, (notwithstanding that the privilege of his place exempted him from the exe∣cution of that office,) at the command of his Father, (who was one of the Colledge of the Salii) condescended to go in procession, bearing the sacred Ancile before his father, with his six Mace-bearers before himself. Upon which story Valerius hath this note: Our City hath ever deem'd that all things ought to be set after Religion: wherefore the greatest Generals have vouch∣safed

to officiate Divine Service, thinking they should then best manage Se∣cular affairs, when they did well and constantly serve the Divine Power. Hence Lucilius (in Ciceron. de nat. Deor. lib. 2.) [Pub. Claudii temeritas, qui etiam per jocum deos irridens &c.] imputes P. Claudius his overthrow and punish∣ment to his temerity in deriding the Gods.

In this posture lay the World, at the dawning of the day of the Gospel. enjoying it self in the warm and close embraces of her Sacred Animals, her Statues, into which were charm'd the Spirit of the holy Gods, as the Amora∣do thought: and those thoughts so fixed, as, though the World knew they were Venuses of its own carving; and had explicite reasonings with its self answerable to those in the Prophet (Is. 44.) yet so had the veneration of An∣tiquity, the commonness of Custom lull'd it into a Lethean forgetfulness of its own handy-work, as the perswasion that they were Gods indeed, and that to their Religious Observances they were indebted; for all the benefits were powred down upon them, could not be eradicated by the closest and most convincing Arguments. The conceit, that they had found the Lips of those Statues warm, in propitious responds; their bosoms soft in gracious returns to their votaries; that they had felt the beating of their Pulses, in their de∣clared liking or disliking of Persons and Actions proportionable to the Worlds Genius; had so far prevail'd with this Pigmalion, as his knowledge of the contrary is cast into a dead sleep, while he is entertaining himself with these pleasing dreams.

Now had the Apostle attempted to interrupt the world, in those fancied enjoyments with fancies, had they instead of those Sacred Animals, thrust in∣to the Bed a dead Image, or a Pillow stufft with Hair; what could they have expected, but to have been deservedly clamour'd against, as men upbraiding the World with the imputation of more insensate Stupidity, than can possibly seise upon a Rational Soul, what▪ leave those Gods, under whose wings I have been brooded to this perfection of honour and happiness, whose present relief I have as often found as invocated; for one that was but the other day in Clouts, and could not save himself, when he was dared to do it to his face, nor be heard, in that fervent Prayer for releif he preferr'd to him, whom he called his God and Father?

What reply could they have return'd to these expostulations, had they seen no more in Christ than Man? had they not known him to be the living (as well as express Image of the living) God? to be that eternal word, which by his power bears up all things, and of power enough to bear down before him those strong men, who had got such firm possession of the house, as none (no not among the most Rational Philosophers) could 〈…〉〈…〉out but a strong∣er than they.

CHAP. VI.

The Advantage the World had to try Apostolical Doctrine by the Touch-stone of the Septuagint.

§ 1. The Septuagint was the worlds guard against all possible delusion. The light of the Original Tradition shon out of the East; Judaea the Navil of the earth had plenty: thither Pithagoras, Socrates, Plato, &c. finding a Fa∣mine at home, travell'd for the Corn of Heaven, &c. § 2. Josephus, and the Church History of the Translation of the Seventy, defended a∣gainst Scaliger's exceptions. Hermippus and Aristaeus reconciled by Ana∣tolius. The Authority of Socrates comes short here of Josephus. § 3. The Sanhedrim held correspondency with the dispersion; no harder a task for the Jews, whose Mother-tongue was Hebrew; and who for Commerce sake were forc'd to learn the Greek, the common Language of the Empire, to turn the Hebrew into Greek: than for the Belgick Churches amongst us, to turn a Dutch Bible into English. § 4. Whence Ptolemy learn'd that curse he pronounc'd upon them that should add or take from the Seventy's Translation. Whence the fiction of three days darkness, and the application of Solomon's text, there is a time to rend. § 5. The Legend of the gold∣en letter'd Jehova. Ptolemy might be a bad man, and yet curious in point of Learning. He was a kind of Jewish Prosylite, and as good a one as Herod, Poppaea, &c. God can make bad men Instruments of good. The Fathers and Primitive Churches esteem of the Septuagint. § 6. The Candor of the blessed Jesus in sending the picture of the Messiah, drawn by the Prophets be∣fore be came in person, that there might be no mistake of the person: in ap∣pealing to a Religion pre-existing to and co-existing with that of his erect∣ing.

§ 1. THis Age wherein the Gospel was first preach'd, had (besides all those fore-mentioned guards against surprisal) the advantage of a peculiar Expedient, to try the truth of what the Apostles publish'd even at their own bar, and by their own avowed Principles; and to have proved it false, had it indeed so been, to the Apostles own faces, themselves being Judg∣es: by means of Ptolemy's having procured (some hundreds of years before our Saviours incarnation) the Translation of the Old Testament into that Tongue that had 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the vulgar Tongue of the Empire some while before, and was in the age of the Apostles familiar to the learned Romans. Those sa∣cred Oracles having been lock'd up from former ages in Hebrew, a Tongue barbarous to the Western World. So that it could have no knowledge of the Contents of those Divine Writings but what was communicated, by the O∣ral Tradition of Jewish Teachers. From whence, notwithstanding those most famous and incomparably knowing Philosophers, that travell'd for Learning into Judaea, Aegypt, and the Countries circumjacent, gather'd such Maxims as served them, like so many straight Rules, to discover, in a great measure, the crookedness and deviations of the commonly received opinions, touching God and Nature. The first Graecian Theologists, Pherecydes, Py∣thagoras and Thales, are acknowledged with one mouth to have been the Scho∣lars of the Aegyptians, Chaldaeans and Hebrews (as Josephus saith, contra Ap∣pion. lib. 1.) for the confirmation of which, he alledgeth the authority of Hermippus, a Pagan Historian, who (in the life of Pythagoras, lib. 1.) writes that Pythagoras did translate out of the institutions of the Jews, many things into his philosophy; and Clearchus, Aristotle's Scholar, who, in his Dialogue of the Jews, brings in his Master, confessing he had learned the best part of his knowledge of a certain Jew. The Swarm, that hived in Plato's mouth, came from Mount Carmel, and was a Call of the School of the Prophets there.

The Honey which that Attick Bee made, was gathered from the Flowers of Moses's Paradise and Solomon's garden; of which, his Philosophy so perfect∣ly relisheth, as many of our ancient Christian Writers, wondering at the con∣gruity of his Doctrine to Christian Verity, conceived he had conference in Ae∣gypt with the Prophet Jeremy: of which opinion St. Austin sometimes was, but retracted it upon the account of that light which Cronology gave him to see his error, (it being thence apparent, that Plato was born almost an hun∣dred Years after Jeremy was dead,) and pitcheth upon this, that this busie and industrious Bee suck'd that part of his Philosophy from the lips of an In∣terpreter (as he did the Aegyptian) as well as he could, (de civit. 8. 11. ti∣tulus.) [Unde Plato illam intelligentiam potuerit acquirere, qua Christianae pie∣tati propinquavit.] Whence Plato might possibly acquire that Understanding whereby he approach'd so near to Christian Religion. Of which that learned Father, there, makes proof, by instancing in several Platonick Sentences and Notions, so agreeing in the Main, and yet differing in the Circumstance, as speaks Plato to have partly understood Moses his sence, but not his words.

But what need I urge the Authority either of St. Austin, or Justin Mar∣tyr, who in his Exhortatory to the Gentiles; or Eusebius, who in his Prae∣paratory to the Gospel: or Theodoret, who in his Books of the Affections of the Greeks, write, that Plato did translate many things into his, out of Mo∣ses his Books. When Numenius the Philosopher stiles Plato the Moses of Greece. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; What is Plato but Moses, speaking in the Attick Dialect? Vives in Aust. de civit. lib. 8. cap. 11.

God, planting his word in Judaea, the Center of the habitable Earth, left all men without excuse, who by natural Sentiments, finding a Dearth at home, did not travel thither to buy Corn: so that it is not to be wondred at, that inquisitive men should come out of all Nations, and hang upon the Skirts of the Jews.

But towards the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, the day Star of the Septuagint arose in the sight of the Gentile Empire: Temple light, confin∣ing it self no longer to that Kingdom of Priests, diffused its beams, not faint∣ly through the Crannies of verbal Tradition to a few, but in their full Lu∣stre to all through its Windows, made by this Translation as wide on the out-side as the material Temples were on the inside. So that those Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets, to which the Apostles appeal'd for the proof of what they taught, had been, for some hundreds of Years, made common to Gen∣tiles, and in every man's hand that listed to read them; by which means the World is put into a capacity to try (by that Touch-stone) of what Metal the Gospel was. A way of tryal it would never have ••ood to, much less have called for, had it been conscious to it self of the least Adulterate Mix∣tures. Is it possible by false transcribing, to put a cheat upon that man, that has the Original in his custody? Why? the Old Testament is the Origi∣nal draught of the Messiah. The Gospel pretends it self to be the Trans∣script of that Original. And therefore had the Serpent intended to have cheated the World by a false Copy, he would have taken Pen in hand, before the time of the Apostles, before the Original Deed had come to its hands.

This Argument, that never sufficiently praised Apologist for the Christian Faith, Tertullian (as his use is,) pithily and strenuously presseth to the Con∣science of the Gentiles, (Apol. advers. gentes, cap. 18.) [Nec istae nunc la∣tent, Ptolemaeorum eruditissimus (quem Philadelphum supranominant) & om∣nis literaturae sagacissimus, cum studio bibliothecarum Pisistratum (ut opinor) ae∣mularetur, inter caetera memoriarum, quibus aut vetustas aut curiositas aliqua ad fam••m protrocinabatur, ex suggestu Demetrii Phalerei grammaticorum tunc probatissimi, cui praefecturam mandaverat, libros ae Judaeis quoque postulavit, proprias scilicet & vernaculas literas, quas soli habebant.—Sed ne notitia vacaret, hoc quoque Ptolemaeo 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Judaeis subscriptum est, sep••uaginta duobus interpretibus indultis: quos Menedemus quoque Philosophus provi∣dentiae vindex de sententiae communione suspexit. Affirmavit haec quoque v••∣bis

Aristaeus, ita in Graecum stilum ex aperto m••nimenta reliquit. Hodie apud Serapaeum Ptolemaei bibliothecae cum ipsis Hebraicis literis exhibentur. Sed & Judaei palam lectitant, vectigalis libertas vulgo aditur, sabbatis om∣nibus: qui audierit, inveniet Deum, qui etiam studuerit intelligere, coge∣tur & credere.] The Old Testament Scriptures (wherein is laid up the trea∣sure of the whole Jewish, and from thence of our Religion.) Quibus the saurus totius Judaici sacramenti collocatus & inde etiam nostri. (Id Ib. paulo inferius.) are now divulged. For the most learned of the Ptolemy's Sur-named Philadelphus, a diligent inquirer after all kind of literature, emulating (as I suppose) Pisistra∣tus his Library; among other memorials, which either their Antiquity or rareness commended to publick Fame, upon the suggestion of Demetrius Phaleraeus, whom he appointed Library-keeper, required of the Jews those Books that were writ in their Mother Tongue, and no where extant but in their own custody alone.—But that the World might no longer be destitute of the knowledge of them, the Jews yield to Ptolemy's request, and give Licence to Seventy two Interpreters to translate their Bible: for whom Menedemus the Philosopher, Menedemus, (non ille Cynicus Coloti Lampsaceni Discipulus: sed Socraticus Phaedonis filius.) Jo∣sep. autiq. 12. 3.) Not the Cynick who was the Scholar of Colotus Lampsace∣nus, but the Son of Phaedon and the Disciple of Socrates, (that defender of the Doctrine of Providence) by reason of those Scriptures agreement with his Opinion, had a very great respect. Aristaeus also hath affirmed to you these things, having left manifest Memorials thereof in Greek. (Hieron. prefat. in pentateucham.) [A∣ristaeus Ptolemaei 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,] not the Procounaesian whom Strabo condemns as a fabulous and jugling Historian, who lived in the Reign of Cyrus and in the fabu∣lous age of Greece, though Josephus Eusebius and others stile this man Aristeus. (Franc. Junii not. in locum Tertulliani.) Ptolemy's Library, together with the Hebrew Scripture which they translated, is at this day to be seen in the Temple of Serapis. [Serapium templum it a exornatum ut post capitolium—nihil orbis ter∣rarum ambitiosues cernat, in quo bibliothecae fuerunt inaestimabiles & septuaginta voluminum millia, Ptolemaeis regibus vigiliis intentis, composita, bello Alexandrino dum diripitur civitas, sub Dictatore Caesare conflagrasse (Am. Marcellin. lib. 22.) The Temple of Serapis (so beautified as next to the Capitol, the whole world af∣fords not a more stately Piece: wherein were Libraries of inestimable value, and 70000. Volumes gather'd together by the two Ptolemies,) was burnt in the Ale∣xandrian War when Caesar was Dictator; yet through special Providence, if not the whole Library, yet at least the Hebrew Testament which the Seventy translated into Greek escaped the fire, as is manifest from this Appeal of Tertullian to that Hebrew Copy. And if you be unwilling to go so far, to inform your selves in the truth of these things 〈◊〉〈◊〉 you may have assurance of it at home; for in Rome the Jews read this Translation publickly, and as long as they pay their Composition for enjoy∣ing this liberty, the Vulgar repair every Sabbath to their Synagogues, where he that hears may find the true God, and he that labours to understand what he hears cannot chuse but become a Christian.

§ 2. The learned Scaliger with-holds assent to this so currant Story of the Ptolemaean Version, conceiving that book of Aristaeus (out of which Jo∣sephus, and from him the Fathers borrowed that story) to have been feigned by some Grecizing Jew, to get the greater Reverence and Authority to that Translation. (Scalig. animadvers. in Eusebium ad an. 1234.)

We will consider his reasons, not so much for the weight of them: as for the esteem of the Author; (to whose inestimable parts, some perhaps may not think fit to cast in that Allay, which the judicious and impartial Doctor Heilin mixeth with them; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, but of equal ar∣rogance. Heilin Belgium. 362. pag.) and importance of the effect for it, up∣on every slight critical exception, we suffer the credit of those generally ap∣proved Historians, whose fidelito has pass'd for current, and gained the pre∣scription of so many Ages, (who had better means of detecting the falsity 〈◊〉〈◊〉 we have, and as much honesty to put them upon the improvement of

those means,) we shall, at the long run, turn all faith out of doors, except it be of this Article, that every modern Mercury is Trismegistus, ter maximus & omnia solus. One with whom wisdom was born and shall dye, Job. 12.

Scaliger's First Objection.

Hermippus (in Diogenes Laertius) affirms that Demetrius Phalereus, whom Aristeus brings in as the procurer of this Translation, was so far out of favour with Ptolemy Philadelphus (for perswading his father to dis-inherit him) as in the beginning of his Reign he banish'd him: what can therefore be more improbable than the report of Aristaeus?

Answer, 1. Should we grant to Hermippus in Diogenes, an equality of Autho∣rity to Aristaeus in Josephus (which to him that considers the disproportion, either of time or place betwixt Josephus and Diogenes, will seem a very une∣qual Match,) yet this would not prejudice the story of Aristaeus, as to that Circumstance the learned Critick cavils at. If we weigh what Anatolius Bishop of Laodicea affirms in Eusebius; (Eus. ec. Hist. 7. 31.) where commending Aristobulus, he saith, he was one of them who were sent to translate the sacred Scripture of the Hebrews unto the gracious Princes Ptolemaeus Philadelphus and his father, (Am. Marcellinus also useth the plural number, [Ptolemaeis regibus vigiliis intentis composita.] lib. 22.) which passages, as they fully re∣concile the seeming contradictions of the Fathers, in their Computations of the time of this Version (St. Jerom and Eusebius placing it in the beginning of Philadelphus, Irenaeus attributing it to Ptolemy Lagi, and Clemens Alexandri∣nus questioning to whether of them it should be referred; are not adverse, but divers expressions of the same date, viz. the later end of Lagi his Reign, in the two last years whereof his Son was his Colleague.) So it clearly solves the Objection, for after Lagi his death, (possibly) Philadelphus, at the begin∣ning of his Reign alone, might bannish Demetrius; and yet in the beginning of his Reign with his Father, be so far from discovering his displeasure against him, as to hide his grudge from his Father's apprehension (whom he could not but think would stand betwixt Demetrius and harm) he might very well put him upon that imploy about his Library, which was like enough to take up all the thoughts of so bookish a Man, and to divert them from being im∣ploy'd about the securing of himself from that fatal stroke he intended for him as soon as his Shield was taken away, as soon as the days of mourning for his Father should come. But to put it beyond all doubt that the Translation was forwarded by Demetrius Phalereus under Lagi. Clemens Alexandrinus states it thus, the Scriptures of the Law and Prophets were translated as men say, in the Reign of Ptolemy Lagi; or as some say, in the time of Philadelphus, (cum maximam ad eam rem contulisset diligentiam Demetrius Phalereus, & ut verterentur vehementer procurasset,) after that Demetrius Phalereus had (to wit under Lagus) used a great deal of diligence towards the effecting of that thing. (Clem. Storm. 1. 110.) As if this sagacious and most learned Father had so many hundreds of Years before smelt Scaligers Objection.

Answer, 2. But to answer thus, from the Allegation of this Laodicean Bishop, may seem to some, to have too much of the Laodicean temper in it, to be too luke-warm a Reception of so hot a Charge, against so great an Authority, as the story of the Septuagint comes armed with: to gratifie, therefore, the just Zeal of them that are of that perswasion, let us weigh the opposed Testimonies in an equal Ballance. In one Scale we find Hermippus, in the other Aristaeus: say they yet hang in an equal poyse, (jam sumus ergo pa∣res) I can give free lieve hitherto to suspend assent. Let then the overweight that is cast into both these Historians, cast the Scales. 1. The voucher for Hermippus is Diogenes Laertius; who about the ear of Christ 145. wrote the Lives of the heathen Philosophers: an Author of good credit and judgment, where he writes intentionally, but every occasional dash of his Pen, as this was, touching the Septuagint, cannot seem with intelligent persons to be

of credit sufficient, to dash out the authority of Josephus, who voucheth A∣ristaeus his story, and not only lived nearer the time of this transaction, by al∣most an hundred years, but upon the place where the chief part of it was perform'd; a man so peculiarly qualified by all helps imaginable for the giv∣ing a full and faithful account of the Jewish affairs; as he that knows how well skill'd he was in their Antiquities. and how free he stood under the pro∣tection of the Roman Emperours, and of his own Judgment (being a Pha∣risee and Priest in Judaea, and therefore not of the Alexandrian Interest) of any temptation to flatter the Jew in general, much less the Alexandrian and Greecizing faction: and how accurately he discharged that part of the Jewish History the matter whereof fell under the ocular inspection of men then living when he put it forth: (in so much as Agrippa for his part gives him those Testimonies. (Josephi vita.) It appears by thy Writings, that thou needest no information in any of these things whereof thou writest, and again, I have read thy Book, wherein thou seemest to me to write History more accurately than any man else). And how strenuously he maintains, against Appion's Cavils, his Hi∣story of the Jewish Antiquities, (proving the truth of those passages against which Appion excepts, by the Testimony of those Witnesses, whom the Grae∣cians themselves esteem most worthy of belief, (Cont. App. lib. 1.) And the self-contradiction of those were alledged against the truth of this History): And how well he vindicates (against Justus his exceptions) his History of the Jewish wars; not only in retail, but in gross, appealing to common sence, to judg whether of them were more like to hit the mark of truth! Justus, who did not publish his History until twenty Years after the writing of it (when those Caesars, King Agrippa, and Captains that managed the Wars, were de∣ceased); or himself, who out of consciousness to the truth of his own Histo∣ry, dedicated and delivered it into those Emperour's hands, through whose hands the Affairs had past which he wrote of, and in whose custody were kept the Journals of all those Proceedings.

He, I say, that knows these things, and hath the Art to judg of Hercules by his foot, or rather of his foot by his body, will think that Josephus came not short of the mark he set himself in his Writings, exprest thus, (at the close of the Jewish Wars.) Touching the truth of this History, it will never repent me, confidently to affirm, that that alone hath been the mark I aimed at in all my Writ∣ings: Nor that he overshot himself in that bold assertion, (at the end of his Antiquities) I dare add that no other Writer, Jewish or Forreign, could have pro∣secuted this Argument more faithfully than I have done.

2. If Aristaeus had no other Second but Josephus, his credit would be strong∣er back'd than Hermippus's is by Laertius: how much better armed then is he than his Antagonist, since Josephus brings with him the Jewish Archives, and makes himself a Principal in this Combat, by producing out of them the same Circumstances that Aristaeus relates: for thence he bringeth the Epistle of Ptolemy to Eleazar the High Priest, and Eleazar's to Ptolemy, wherein are contained the substance of what he quotes Aristaeus for, (and therefore imputes it to Apion's want of reading, if he knew not of those Letters: Joseph. cont. Ap. 2.) Is it not strange that the Chambers of the Jerusalomitan Temple should be the Receptacle of those Alexandrian Records that were forged in fa∣vour of the Greecizing Jews?

3. Add to this, that as Josephus is not only a Second to, but a Principal with Aristaeus; so he is not his only Second, but with him appear on Aristaeus his side, of Jewish Writers Philo Judaeus who gives the same ac∣count of this Seventie's Translation, (in his Book 2. De Vita Mosis, cirea initium.) And of Christian Doctors. Eusebius, Justin Martyr and Tertulli∣an; of the Validity of whose Judgments; to discourse severally would take up too much time, I shall therefore confine my self to Tertullian: who, had there been any weight in Hermippus, as Laertius reports him, to counter-bal∣lance Aristaeus his Testimony, would have as soon discerned it as the Eagle-eyed Scaliger; or at least suspected it, and that suspicion had been a caution to

him to forbear all edging an Author of a crack'd credit, to such circumspect Adversaries as he had to deal with: who, could they have found this flaw in Aristaeus, Tertullian would quickly have had it on both sides of his ears, and have been told, with a witness, what kind of fellow that Aristaeus was, whose Memorials (communicated to the Gentiles: for so I interpret his, (vo∣bis) he had quoted, for the proof of the Ptolemean Version. Besides all this, Tertullian mentions Menedemus, and therein confirms the story of Jose∣phus touching him, and appeals for the truth of the whole story to that ve∣ry Hebrew Bible which the Seventy brought with them to Alexandria, as be∣ing then to be seen in the Temple of Serapis, when he writ his Apology, and those many Greek Copies of the Translatours at that day, openly in the Jew∣ish Synagogues, which any man that pleased might go, and hear read; and lastly, refer all this, but especially, the preserving of the Hebrew Copy out of which the Translation was made, when so many Thousands of Secular Books were consumed by fire, to a gracious purpose in God, to make his sav∣ing health known among all Nations. The Tradition then, of the Septua∣gint is strengthened with such Authority, as whatever is brought against it by way of inartificial Argument, is less considerable than the dust upon the Bal∣lances. We will therefore proceed to his Artificial ones, and to

§ 3. His Second Objection,

Drawn from the unlikelihood of every Tribe's yielding six men apiece, so well skill'd, both in the Hebrew Text, and Greek Tongue, as to be a∣ble to translate the one into the other: and of Eleazar's being in a Capacity, to summon every Tribe; ten of them being so long before dispers'd, and not under the High-Priests Jurisdiction. A Stone, which also the learned Ju∣nius stumbles at, and is forc'd by, out of the Road of the common Tradi∣tion, to an opinion that the number of those Translators was not proportio∣ned to the Tribes, but the great Sanhedrim.

To the later Branch of this Argument I answer: that the dispersion was as much at the disposal and devotion of the great Council at Jerusalem, as the Inhabitants of Judaea: not so much out of awe of its power, which could not reach so far; as out of an innate and inbred Ambition to be held, and kept a peculiar and distinct people from the Gentiles, among whom they convers'd: and out of their devotedness to their Law and worship. (Light∣foot. Har. in act. 9.) Nay, in all probability, there was a better correspon∣dency betwixt Judah and Israel, after the scattering of Israel, than when they continued two distinct Kingdoms in their own Land; as having then no sha∣dow of Authority, wherein they could center, but that Council to whom they made application, and whose determination they followed in all dubious and adiaphorous Cases: So as nothing more frequently occurrs in the Jewish sto∣ries, than Communications of Intelligence and Counsel betwixt them of Judaea and other Countreys; than Letters missive from the High Priest and Estate of Elders, upon all emergencies, to the brethren of the twelve Tribes dispersed (for there was a dispersion of the two as well as the ten Tribes, James cap. 1. 1.) in such forms as these, [To our brethren that dwell in the up∣per South-Countrey, to our brethren that dwell in the lower South-Countrey, peace be unto you; We give you to understand.] [To our brethren of the Captivity of Babilon, of Media, of Greece, and to the whole Captivity of Israel, peace be unto you; We give you to understand, that since the Lambs are yet little, and the time of the first ripe Ears is not yet come, that it seemeth good to me and my fellows to add thirty days unto this Year. (Lightfoot harm. on act. 9.) and if they kept a correspondency in such trivial things, can we think they had not com∣munication together in a business of so great and general concernment to the whole Nation, as was the translating of their Scripture into a foreign Lan∣guage. The sound then of Aaron's Bells rang in the ears of the dispersion: and Eleazar power to cluck his farthest scatter'd Chickens under his Wings:

whether, in probability, six of them, in every Tribe, were sufficiently fea∣ther'd for such a flight, abilitated for such a work, comes next to be conside∣red, as being the first branch of Scaliger's second Exception.

Now that every Tribe was able to set out six men a piece, furnish'd with a∣bility to translate their Mother-Tongue, (which Religion constrained them to retain) into the Greek (which their Secular Necessities forced them to learn) seems to me a far less wonder than that a man of so large an heart, as he, should strain at it. Hebrew out of which Language the Translation was made, is the Tongue which that whole Nation speak among themselves to this day. Hammond. An. in Mat. 12. 27. For although the Vulgar at their re∣turn from the Captivity, had forgot the old Character, (and therefore Ezra was fain to turn them to their A B C, to teach them to spell and understand the reading,) wherein was fulfilled that Prophecy, [Give the Book to him, and he shall say, I am unlearned, and cannot read it.] (A thing no more strange than that many among us that can read Latine exactly in the usual Roman Letter, when they are put to read their Neck-verse in an old Print, would lose the benefit of the Clergy, did they not beforehand con their lesson) yet to the end the book might not continually be lock'd up from vulgar know∣ledge under a strange Character. It pleased God, when the affairs of that People were come to that settlement, as to allow time for that work, to stir up the great Council, by the appointment, and with the conduct of Ezra to transcribe the Bible into those Characters that were then and are now vulgar∣ly known. From whence arose that dangerous opinion of some unheedful both Jews and Christians, that Ezra restored the Old Testament by a spirit of Prophecy, after it had been quite lost, and no where to be found. (Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 25. Cont. haer.) upon the same Stone stumbled Clemens Alexandri∣nus, speaking of Ezra. [Per quem divinitus inspiratorum eloquiorum facta est recensio & renovatio: & pascha salutare celebratum.] (Strom. lib. 1. pag. 107.) I call this a dangerous Opinion, truly it deserves a worse Epithite, as that which wholly gives up the strength of Israel into the Enemies hand, and absolutely deprives us of the benefit of pleading in evidence to the supernatu∣ralness of those Revelations, the wonders that Moses wrought. And that the vulgar Jews after the Captivity spake Hebrew, is manifest from the Testimony of Josephus (in his Antiq. Judaic. lib. 11. 5.) where he hath this story, that Nehemiah, as he was walking before Susa the Metropolis of Persia, overheard certain Strangers as they were travelling towards the City, discoursing among themselves in Hebrew; and drawing towards them, he asked, from whence they came? they answered him, from Judaea, and inform'd him in what bad state the Jewish Affairs were, which bad News was the occasion of his looking so heavily as the King took notice of it. Yea, that the Vulgar understood it at their Conquest by Titus, is manifest from Josephus's speaking to them in the name of Caesar, in Hebrew: that not only the Captain of the Rebels, but the vulgar might understand him (Bel. Jud. 7. 4,) Itaque Josephus, ne soli Joanni haec intimarentur sed pluribus, constitit ubi exaudiri possit & mandata Cae∣saris Hebraico Sermone disseruit.]

2 The Greek into which the Hebrew Text was translated, was the com∣mon Tongue of most of those Nations, into which the Jews were dispersed; and to all of them the badge of their subjection to the Grecian Empire, and the then common Key (as Latin was afterwards, and is now in the Western part of the World) to all Provinces, to unlock their minds to one another in natural commerce; so that without the knowledg of that, they must have in∣terdicted themselves of Fire and Water. That the Jews by that time the Law was translated, had upon this account gained the knowledg of the Greek, ap∣pears from the so commonness of that Language amongst them for a while af∣ter, as it is stiled by their own Rabbies, their vulgar Tongue: in the Babilon Go∣mara in Megilla, fol. 9. Col. 2.) They say there are four Languages brave for the World to use; the Vulgar, the Syrian, the Roman and the Hebrew, and some add the Asserian; and that by vulgar, they here mean the Greek, is clear

from Midras Tillius, (fol. 25. Col. 4.) where, speaking of this passage, the Greek is named in room of the Vulgar; and from their interpreting that Pro∣phecy of Noah, [Japhet shall dwell in the Tents of Sem.] by they shall speak the Language of Japhet, (that is, the Greecian,) in the Land of Judea, (read Dr. Lightfoot, Harmon. anno Christi. 62. Nero. 8. pag. 141.

To bring this so much disputed Point among those whom too much or too little Learning makes mad, to the capacity, even of Idiots: the Belgick Churches in England, express to the life the state of the Jewish in the disper∣sion, as to their perfect understanding their own, and our Tongue: what Dutch is to them; Hebrew was, yea is, to the Jews: and what Greek was to the Jews inhabiting the Siro-Grecian Empire, that is English to the Dutch with us. And I think it were an easie thing, out of one Congregation of them to single out more, than Aristaeus reports Eleazar to have cull'd out of one whole Tribe; able without Hesitancy, Variance or Mistake to turn their Belgick Bible into English, and in as short a time as that Translation was compleated in, viz. 72. Days; without administring occasion of Wonder (to a man less seen in the nature of things, than the excellent Scaliger,) how that place (Exodus 24. 9.) [Of the chosen of Israel none did disagree, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] could be applyed to the Translators: for, indeed, it must have been through God's laying a judicial hand upon them, had they varied one from another, in translating out of, and into those Lingua's they had at their Fingers ends.

§ 4. Scaliger's Third Exception.

Against the common story of the Seventy is, that it stands not with rea∣son that Ptolemy should have been so ready in propounding that Scripture form of Execration. [If any man shall add or take from this Book, let him be accursed.]

Answer, What improbability can this be burden'd with? seeing (as Ari∣staeus there saith) this Form of cursing was common to Greeks and Romans as well as Jews: and if it had not, yet Ptolemy might have learnt it out of Scripture; for he did not pronounce this Curse till he had heard the Law read to him out of the Greek Translation by Demetrius, and had expressed how exceedingly he admired the Wisdom of the Lawgiver, and enquired of Demetrius how it came to pass, that neither any Historian nor Poet had made mention of so admirable a Law: and received from him this satisfactory An∣swer, that this Law was so divine, and worthy of such Veneration, as none of them durst meddle with it; and if any had been so venturous as to lay un∣washen hands upon it, they were sure, not to escape the revenging hand of Heaven: for Theopompus the Poet, being minded to insert some passages out of this Law into his Poems, was struck with madness for thirty days, that is, till in some lucid Intervals, suspecting what was the cause of that divine displeasure against him, he retracted his purpose by repentance, and cryed Pec∣cavi, in his humble addresses to God, for approaching that holy place with his shooes on. And Theodectes, intending to transplant some Slips out of that inclosed Garden into his Tragick Scenes, was afflicted in his eye, till he had acknowledged his Errour, and begged the restoring of his sight. Can it then seem strange that Ptolemy's ears being filled with such like discourse, his mouth should be filled with that Execration against them that should add Prophane to this holy Book, or take from it to add to the Prophane? Sure∣ly no: if we take in one thing more out of Josephus, preceding this fact of Ptolemy, viz. that Demetrius summoning all the Jews of Alexandria, read to them the Translation, in the presence of the Translators; and yet the whole Assembly approved it with one voice, making suit to the King, that he would with his Royal Sanction ratifie the unalterableness of it: could he have de∣vised a form of Sanction more Royal and Obliging than this?

Scaliger's Fourth Objection.

If Eleazar and the Jerusalem Sanhedrim had approved this Translation, why did the Hebraizing Jews so hate it, as to keep an Annual Fast, and day of afflicting their Souls in remembrance of it? why did they say there was three days of darkness when the Law was translated? and apply to this time and action that of Solomon (Eccl. 3.) [There is a time to rent.] Thus pro∣ceeds that learned Man to Catechise his Readers: If a Puny, whose ambition it is to sit at the feet of that great Oracle, may have leave to solve these que∣ries, I would thus unty these knots with which he snarles this story.

The great Council appointed the Seventy to translate the Bible, to gratifie Ptolemy, but never intended that Translation should be used in Synagogues. Neither does Josephus (Antiq. 12. 2.) assert any thing of that tendency; but that the whole Assembly of the Jews of Aegypt, with their Magistrates and Elders passed their joynt Vote that it should be allowed to be read in their publick Assemblies. Now it was this Vote which the Hebrews abominat∣ed, it was not to the Translation it self: but what past towards the ratifying of it for this use, in those three days of darkness, wherein it was read to the Jews of Aegypt, and obtained this approbation, to which they applyed that Sentence of the Royal Preacher, [There is a time to rent,] the Aegyptian Jews, giving hereby to their Brethren of Judaea the like scandal to that, which the Latines gave the Greeks, by inserting [de filioque] into the common Creed, without common consent; and laying a Foundation for that Schism, which about an hundred Years after this, was perfected by Onias, who with the consent of Ptolemy Philometor, (Jos. Antiq. 13. 6.) (in pretence of fulfilling that Prophesie Isaiah 19. 18.) [There shall five Cities in Aegypt speak the Lan∣guage of Canaan, and one of them shall be the City of the Sun] erected, at He∣liopolis, a Temple after the similitude of that at Jerusalem, and a Church of Jews there (whereof he became High Priest) distinct from that in Judaea, (whereof Alcimus was his Priest) by the name of Helenists or Grecians; as Scaliger observes, and Doctor Hammond demonstrates, from (Act. 11. 20.) where they that upon St. Steven's Martyrdom, travell'd to Antioch, are said [To preach the Lord Jesus to the Greeks;] that is, to the Grecizing Jews; for it is said of the same men, in the preceding verse, that in that their Pe∣rambulation they preached to the Jews only. A plain proof that the com∣pellation of Greeks was not imposed upon them, from their living in Greece, but their holding of that Church, which used the Greek Translation of the Seventy.

§ 5. Scaliger's Fifth Objection.

His objecting the Story of some Neoterick Jews, touching their razing out the Golden Letters of the Name Jehovah, in that Copy which was present∣ed to Alexander the Great, and writing them with Ink, as an Argument, that Josephus is lead by Aristaeus beside the way of Truth, when he saith, that the Copy of the Law, which Eleazar sent to Ptolemy, was writ in Golden Letters; had never been raised by him, upon so Sandy a Foundation, neither had such Rabbinical Fables obtained that High Place among his Golden Lines, as he here assigns them, had he call'd to mind, either what St. Origen writes in answer to Celsus, (In Cels. lib. 2.) [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,] the Writings of Modern Jews are mere Fables and Trifles. Or what sometimes dropp'd from his own Pen. (de em. temp. l. 6.) Manifesta est Judaeorum inscitia—multa, quae ad eorum Sacra & Historiam pertinent, nos melius tenemus quam ipsi.] The Ignorance of the Jews is most manifest, we are bet∣ter acquainted with their Religious Customs, and the Histories of their Affairs than the Jews themselves are. Josephus his single word hath more weight with me than hundreds of Modern Rabbies.

Scaliger's Sixth Objection.

The last Stone which Scaliger turns is Ptolemy himself: under this in∣deed he finds those Worms of Parricides committed upon his Brethren, those Moths of Incest committed with his Sister, as fret his Surname Phi∣ladelphus (till they change it from its natural Gloss, and make it look as im∣posed upon him abusively) but not Aristaeus his Credit.

For first, these Immoralities hinder not, but that he might be ambitious to have his famous Library grac'd with Books so much commended, not only by publick fame and inkling of the Nations (speaking in the language of that Prophecy Deut. 4. 6.) [What Nation is there so great that hath statutes and Judgments so righteous as this Law?] but by the suggestions of Deme∣trius, that the Jewish Scriptures contein'd a most wise, sincere and divinely-inspired Law, and that Hecataeus Abderita assigned that as the reason why neither any Poet nor Historian made mention thereof, because 'tis sacred and not to be taken into a prophane mouth: How must this set an edge upon his curiosity, and incite him after the obtaining a sight, and coming within view of those Books, which, at a distance, cast so alluring a smell into his quick-scented nostrils!] Ptolemy was in Tertullian's Judgment [Omni lite∣raturâ sagacissimus:] (Apol. cap. 18.)

Secondly, had we learnt to extend the line of Christian Charity but half as far as it will reach, we should pass a milder sentence than that of Scaliger and Weenobus, upon him, whom God anointed to be his Servant, to bring his Law from Jewish Captivity; and conceive him to have been almost if not altogether a Proselyte: for upon the assurance that Aristaeus gave him, that so far as he could find by most diligent enquiry, the best and highest God, the Maker of the World, whom he worship'd (under the name of Jupiter) was worshipped among the Jews, after a more excellent rite and form of Divine Service, than among any other people upon earth; that that God, who gave to him his Kingdom, had given to them their Law: he presently ordered the Manumission of all the Jews in his Dominion, at his own vast charge, in redeeming above 120000 out of the hands of those they were Vassals to. And upon Demetrius his suggesting to him, that the Jewish Scriptures contein'd a most wise, sincere and divine Law, he order∣ed Embassadors to be sent to Eleazar the High Priest with Letters after this Tenure.—After, I had obtained the Principality, I set at liberty a∣bove an hundred thousand Jews, &c. thinking that this would be an accept∣able, thank-offering to God, for that providence whereby it pleased him to prefer me to this Supremacy.—I have sent also Oblations for the Temple, twenty golden, and thirty silver Vials, five golden Flaggons, a Table of Gold, an hun∣dred Talents to buy Sacrifices with, and for other uses of the Temple. Those presents were as rich and curious as hands could make them, or Art, in∣stigated to do their best by the Kings diligent eye upon them while they were a working: and that the memory of this his Zeal for the House of God might be continued, he not only caused the Workmen to engrave their names upon the pieces which each of them wrought, together with the Donor's; but the whole procedure of this business to be entred in the pub∣lick Records. Of this Ptolemy thus writes Philo Judaeus (de vita Mosis, lib. 2.) Ptolemaeus fuit is Philadelphus, virtutibus regiis, supra omnes aetatis suae superiorumque seculorum principes, nobilis, cujus nunc quoque ex tanto temporum intervallo decus est inclitum, ob tot relicta per civitates regionesque monumenta magnificentiae, ut in proverbium abierit sumptuosa opera ab illo Philadelphea denomi∣nata.—Talis princeps captus nostrae Legis amore, in Graecam linguam è Caldai∣ca transferendam curavit.] This Ptolemy Philadelphus was for Kingly Ver∣tues famous above all Princes of his and former Ages; who is now also after so long a space of time renown'd for leaving so many monuments of his magni∣ficence in Cities and Countries, that sumptuous works are proverbially called Phi∣ladelphian.

This so eminent a Prince, being taken with the love of our Law, caused it to be translated. Lo here, what sooting our Charity may have, to hale us to the more favourable opinion, touching this great Instrument of conveighing the knowledge of God's Law out of Jewry to the ends of the Earth! And the same Charity may cover the multitude of Crimes laid to his charge, they being neither more nor greater than what may be observ'd even in Cyrus himself, who past in God's muster for one of his anointed ones, and (whose Proselytism stood him in as much, as his did Ptolemy) if we would permit the Bee to metamorphize it self into a Dung-fly, upon whom might she not find sore places to fasten and sit upon. Ptolemy slew his Brethren, but Brethren (if even Scaliger's Oracle Hermippus be infallible) whom their Mother sought to promote to the Crown before her Step-son Ptolemy; and was this any more than Solomon did to Adonijah, upon the same account? He married his Sister! But (to say nothing of those alleviations of its guilt, which from the Customariness of the thing, and Reasons of State might be pleaded) was not the Family of the Herods a proselyted Race, and yet intangled in incestuous Marriages? of one of whom (and he the most zea∣lous of them all for Judaism, Herod Agrippa) History records, (Lightfoot, Har. Vit. 25, 26.) that he succeeded his Brother-in-law-uncle Herod, and lived with his Aunt-sister Beronice in more familiarity than was for their credit. Of another of whom, Herod Antipas, sacred Records report Cruelty and Incest, if not equalling Ptolemy's in all, yet exceeding it in this circum∣stance, that the one had the Baptist, the other Aristaeus to reprove him; who had he equal'd Herod's Monitor in the share of Elijah's Spirit, Ptolemy perhaps would have repented. But that worse men than Ptolemy have past for good Proselytes, needs no other examples to be proved by, than that of Herod the Great, for a Male; whom Josephus describes as a Monster in point of Morality, and yet so zealous a Jew, as the Building of the Temple cost him far more than the Translation of the Bible did Ptolemy. And Poppaea a Female; who for all that she had so much Debauchery in her, as to Nero∣nize Nero himself, yet could lisp out [The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord] with such a grace, as Josephus mistook her for a very religious Woman.

Thirdly, should we grant the worst of Ptolemy that can be imagin'd; Is he the first bad man whom God hath made an Instrument of good? of whom that All-ruling Providence hath serv'd her self which useth to bring about her own wisest Counsels by foolish Instruments; her greatest Designs by the most unlikely means; the best Things by the worst Men: and would not permit evil Men, could she not make good Use of them? The truth is, the Argument from Persons to Providence, or from Providence to Persons, is like those Islands near St. Omer, of which Heylin (in his Belgi∣um. pag. 367.) reports, that though their surface be so firm, that Cattel do graze upon them, yet for want of a solid foundation towards the centre, by fastning Cords to the Bushes which grow upon them, a man may draw them which way he will. And such an Island the Josephian History of the Seventy seem'd to be to Scaliger, no wonder, then that that Remover of Mountains (to borrow the Rabbies Paraphrase of an Almighty Wit) should tie his Cords to these passages therein; or that his sinewy Arm (able to roll the Earth about, if he had but a place whereon to fasten his foot) should give the Truth of it those Twitches, as make the whole Island seem to float, in those mens Eyes who ponderate his Authority more than his Reasons. But God be thanked, though he move, he cannot remove this firm Land, whose foundations are laid upon the Universal consent of all the Fathers un∣to St. Jerome: and that consent pleaded as a Catachistical point by St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech. 4. titul. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) where he tells his Ca∣techumens that they may safely rely upon the 22 Books of the Old Testa∣ment, translated by the Seventy, as being delivered to us by the Apostles and ancient Bishops, who were far wiser than we, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.] And by St. Austin (De Civit. 18. 42, 43.) the Title of the former Chapter being this [Scripturas Veteris Testamenti singulari Dei providentiâ in Graecum trans∣latas,] That the Old Testament was by the singular providence of God translated in∣to Greek.] And of the latter this [De authoritate Septuaginta omnibus praeferendâ That the authority of the Septuagint is to be preferred before all:] which last Assertion he makes to St. Jerom's face (Epist. 8.) [Septuaginta, quorum est gravissima authoritas—eis praeeminentem authoritatem in hoc munere sine con∣troversia tribuendam existimo;] The Seventy, whose authority is most weighty—I think we ought, without all dispute, give them the preeminence of authority. And maintains it by such solidity of Argument (Epist. 10.) [Neque e∣nim parvum pondus habet illa, quae sic meruit defamari (quôd in multis a∣liter se habet quàm Haebraeorum codicum authoritas) & quâ usos Apostolos, non solùm res ipsa indicat, sed etiam te attestatum esse memini.] Can that Trans∣lation be of small weight (although thou art pleased to defame it, as not agree∣ing with the Hebrew Text) which that the Apostles used, is not only plain in it self, but acknowledged by thee? and (Epist. 19.) [Sed insinuare digneris, à quibus Judaeis, &c.] Be pleased (I pray thee) to tell me, by what Jews this Translation could possibly be corrupted, so as to disfavour the Christian Cause? Not by those who before the Advent of Christ translated it, for they had no tem∣ptation. The Jews indeed, since the propagation of Christianity, may be thought to have had a good will, either to substract, or to adulterate those Texts in the Old Testament, out of which we fetch convincing Arguments, in defence of our Faith. But how is it possible they could have an opportunity? seeing the Trans∣lation of the Seventy is not only dispers'd through the World; but, by reason of Christ's and his Apostles making their quotations out of it, is so tena∣ciously adhered to by all Christian Churches, as they cannot endure to hear what recedes from it in the least tittle: Of which he gives this notable Instance (Epist. 10.) That a certain Bishop reading out of St. Jerom's Translation, in the History of Jonas, [haedera] instead of [cucurbita] the people were so incens'd, as they had like to have proceeded to the Deposition of their Bi∣shop, for corrupting sacred Writ. By such Solidity of Arguments (I say) St. Austin maintains the preheminency of the Authority of the Septuagint against St. Jerom; as that learned Father pleads his own old age, for an excuse, for his not answering them. But the excellent Vossius hath lately so well managed this Province, so irrefragably maintained the Authority of the Septuagint, as all that can be said after him is but labour in vain. Neither indeed did I intend to stand by the Seventy any longer, than I might signifie to the Sheep of Christ, that they may without fear graze upon it, and find that pasture which greater Cattel (of a far larger size than the Modern breed, and whose weight would have sunk it down, had it not been firm Land) have found there: and may chew the Cud of that Observation, for the defence whereof we have made this too large Digression: Were it not that the allowing the matter to have fallen out, as Scaliger fancieth, rather than as Josephus relateth, would render the whole Story juiceless. For say, as he states the Case, that the Jews of Egypt, be∣ing brought to a necessity of disusing their own tongue, and of learning Greek, procured this Translation for their own use; this will make little or nothing to the proof of that Position which the Patrons of the Christian Cause have with one mouth affirmed; viz. That the knowledge of the Law of Moses was the forerunner of the Knowledge of Christ, among the Gen∣tiles: to whom it would still have been a Book sealed up, had it been confin'd to the Cabinet of the Synagogue. But as Josephus tells the Story, it affords a most substantial Basis to that universally receiv'd Opinion, that the Day-break Glimmerings of the Law of God did (out of Judea) appear brighter and brighter to the Gentiles; till at last the whole Body of it arose visibly, (in the Septuagint) as the Day-star to the Sun of of Righteousness. [Volebat Deus gentes non multos post annos vocare per Evangelium—quocirca

curavit codicem sacrum maturè in vulgarem linguā converti, quo legi passim posset ab omnibus per orbem gentibus] (Bullenger in Daniel, par. 2. tab. 4.) If God had a purpose to conveigh the knowledge of his Will to the Gentiles by that Trans∣lation, would he have put that Candle under the bushel of the Jewish Syna∣gogue, and not rather have set it on the Pharos of Ptolemy's Library? If the Law was to be the Gentiles Schoolmaster unto Christ, where could it have set up School better than there, where was the greatest frequency of learned men from all parts of the World; drawn thither, as soon as that Translation was finish'd, by the beneficence of that Philomuse (as Tertulli∣an (advers. Valentin, cap. 12.) stiles Philadelphus (in Junius his emendati∣on of the corrupt Reading of that passage) of whose bounty to proficients in Learning, not only himself, in his Letter to Eleazar the High Priest (at his dismission of the Seventy, (Joseph. Ant.) but Aelian in his various History, (lib. 13. cap. 13.) gives testimony; affirming, that though he exceedingly delighted in Converse with Learned men, yet he took more pleasure in sowing his Temporals upon them, than in reaping their Spiri∣tuals. [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.] And after his death, by the fame of his Library, where Learning kept open house for all comers (Can. cron. lib. 2.) [Communia fuerant omnibus disce∣re volentibus, &c.] and flourished in the days of his Son Euergetes no where in all the World more than it did there. A place so beautiful (saith Am. Marcell. lib. 22.) as it was second to none in the whole World, but the Ro∣man Capitol; and its greatest Ornament being a Library of seventy thou∣sand Volumes, all preserved there entire, till in the Alexandrian War (in the Dictatorship of Caesar) while the City was a pillaging, the Temple was set on fire, and the greatest part of the Books burnt. Now from the beginning of Philadelphus unto our Saviour's Birth (that is from the year of Rome built 469. to the year 751.) were almost 300 years (Bullinger in Daniel:) during which time the Old Testament had been communicated to the Gentiles, before the coming of him to whom it pointed.

§. 6. Lo here! how candidly, how open-heartedly the Blessed Jesus dealt with the World! dispersing his Picture, before he came to call her beloved, that had not been beloved; that at his congress with her, there might not be error personae, or that the World might not have this to plead, that she had (or ever she was aware, or had well consider∣ed the Person) suffered a surprizal upon her Affections; sending the Se∣ptuagint as the Prologue to his and his Apostles Acts, to communicate to the Expectants the Argument of the ensuing Poem, and communica∣ting the old Grounds of that new Ditty, which was to be sung at his and their appearing on the Worlds Stage: an argument it was no newly devised Fable, but an old Plot; and a certain Expedient whereby the mistakes of the Actors might have been discern'd had they committed any. Would Christ have given the World an opportunity to take the length of his foot that was to come, by the Sandal of Moses, and of judg∣ing whether that Sandal fitted his foot when he was come, if he had in∣tended to delude it? I appeal to all Histories for an instance, of any Re∣ligion but Christ's, that durst abide the Test, much less appeal to the Principles of another Religion, then in being, when it self stood for ac∣ceptance, and acknowledged by the Candidate to be in force. The Ro∣man Pagan-Religion durst not stand a trial by the Books of its Founder, Numa Pompilius, but cried away with them to the fire, as soon as they were produc'd. The Papal Church supprest her Religion (in the Christi∣an part of it) by locking the Scriptures up in strange Tongue from the inspection of the Vulgar, when she imposed her Antichristian Innovations. And Mahomet, though he ground his impious Superstition upon Moses and Christ, as he pretends, yet he decried them both, when he intro∣duc'd

his Alcoran. But our Jesus professeth, that he came not to destroy, but to fulfil (to fill up) the Law and the Prophets; that he would not dash one tittle out of them, till all was fulfilled: and yet he communicated the knowledge of them to the World some hundreds of years before he instituted his Royal Law, and requires the Worlds Vote for the passing of that Law, upon no other terms than its Conformity to what Moses and the Prophets had writ. The greatest advantage imaginable for the detection of false Play, and such as he would never have given the World, had he intended to have put tricks upon it. How does Celsus in the Person of a Jew busie himself to find Lines and Features in our Saviour's Face not answering the Old Testament draught of the Messiah? Here he hath too much of God, there too much of Man; here he's to White, there too Ruddy. How does the Jew himself labour, to make himself believe he sees those Forms in him, that bear no proportion to the Prophetical Description of the Messi∣ah; one while the Place of his Birth is too manifest, another while too obscure, &c. had these men of an evil Eye, discovered the least dispropor∣tion betwixt the Model and that Temple it self wherein the Godhead dwells bodily, in what triumph would they have set their conquering Banners upon it? Would Christ have yielded them the opportunity of skulking behind Moses's Ark, of marching covertly under his Tabernacle, and of making so near approaches to the Rock of Ages, as from thence to spy out where the Fortifications were lowest and weakest? had he not known his weakness to have been stronger than the strength of of men; and him∣self to have been such an exact Copy of Moses, as the most maliciously pry∣ing Eye could not find the least real Disproportion betwixt Jesus of Naza∣reth, and that Picture of him which the Septuagint had delivered to the World, so long before his appearance.

CHAP. VII.

The World over-run with Barbarous Ignorance when the Impie∣ties of Turk, Pope and Pagans imposed themselves upon its Credulity.

§ 1. Platinas his Censure of the sixth Century: Pope Sabinian, an Enemy to Learning; monstrous Presages. Phocas (in Baronius his stile, the Red Dragon) gave the Title of Universal Bishop to Boniface the third. § 2. As Darkness increased, the Pope incroacheth, till at last he set his foot upon the Necks of Princes. The Eyes of those Centuries, the Lights of the Church, (as they will be called) were Darkness. Formosus, Stephen, Romanus, Theodore the second, John the tenth, and nine Popes succeeding him in less than nine Years, Benedict the fourth, Leo the fifth, all Heads of the Ro∣man Church, like that Head in the Carvers Shop, brainless. These in the ninth Century. § 3. The Popes of the tenth Century, Baronius stiles A∣bomination in the holy Place. Gerebrand reckons from the Hermaphrodite, Pope John or Joan, above fifty in two hundred Years, who were little better than Incarnate Devils; amongst whose Predecessors was John the thirteenth a Stallion, Benet the ninth in time succeeds, a Monster made up of a Boar below, and an Ass above. § 4. The Popes of the eleventh Century light their Candle at the Devil's Match. Silvester compounded with the Devil for the Papacy: Onuphrius his Evasion obviated. Benet rides the Devil in Purgatory: He was a wonderous great Scholar that bad learn'd his Gram∣mar. § 5. Paganism crept in in the dark before Commerce. Heathens care to conceal their God-Births. Minerva turns the tatling Crow out, and takes the Bird of Night, the Owl, into her service; the Eleusine Mysteries. Mercury's hand upon his mouth. Alexander must not reveal Aegyptian My∣steries, nor Petronius his Ruffians, the Secrets of Priapus. As Traffick in∣creased, the World gives over teeming with new Gods. Alexander, Pla∣to, Caesar, Aristaeus, were born out of time to be made Gods. As the The∣ology of those obscure times came to be inquired into by several Nations comparing Notes, it grew out of Credit. Euemerus his Sacred History, Annons Birds.

§ 1. THese Arguments for the fidelity of the Apostles, drawn from the State of that Age wherein they made their report, will recieve that Accession of Strength, as will make them impregnable, by comparing it with those Ages wherein all false Religions have been hatched, No Religious Impostors having hitherto dared to peep out, but in Barbarous Times.

To begin with those are next to us, both in time and place; those Anti∣christian Twins, of the Mahometan and Papal Impiety, chose the midnight of Cimmerian Darkness to be born in; an Age as infamous for Ignorance, as that of the Apostles was famous for Knowledg. The Pope, by the Decree of Phocas, obtained the Universal Supremacy over Bishops,—Anno. 606. Mahomet put forth his Alchoran,—Anno. 622. Urbanity was in its highest Exaltation when the Cedar of the Gospel was planted, in its lowest de∣pression when these Tares were sowen; that an Age elevated above the Ela of common Humanity, this sunk down below the Gamut of the most brutish Bestiality. He that would make an equal partition of that Verse in the Psalms betwixt them, must assign the first part for the Motto of that [Man being in Honour,] the last clause for the motto of this [is become like a Beast that perish∣eth.] For, whether it hapned through the innate inconstancy of humane Af∣fairs, in whose still-running Wheel, those Spokes which were then upper∣most, were now become lowermost, nothing persisting in one Stay; but ei∣ther flowing till it comes to its Spring Tide, or ebbing till it falls to its neep;

either waxing towards a full, or waining towards a change: Or whether the just hand of Heaven withdrew natural from them who made no better im∣provement of supernatural Light: Or upon whatever inscrutable reasons of incomprehensible Wisdom, it came to pass: such was the Genius of the World, when Hell drew out those her two Nipples, Turk and Pope, (those Soveraigns of Eastern and Western Babel, of the second Edition; (Herbert's Church Militant;) when that Janus-Anti-Christ set back to back, and entred the Lists against Christ; the one antiquating, the other adulterating the Go∣spel, by the Introduction of their new Religions; as there was none then vi∣sibly appearing, but the Ass, to umpire the Contest betwixt Christ and them; to determine who sung best; these Birds of Prey, or that warbling Nightin∣gale, that Bird of Paradise. The Worlds Ears were never grown to a more Ass-like length, than when those Silvans, and barbarous Pans contended before it, for preheminency above our truly Divine Apollo.

That such was the face of the World then, when Papal Innovations, and Mahometan Blasphemies commended themselves to her, will best appear, by taking an impartial Survey of that Age, as it is limned out by the Pencils of Popish Historians, as 'tis measured by their own Chain.

Touching the Ignorance and Immorality of which Age, (Cent. 6. 590.) Platina gives a shrewd hint, in his commendation of the then Pope, when the day was shutting in; telling us that Gregory the great had no Peer, for Learning, among all the Popes which succeeded him, good Literature was then on the decaying hand among the chief Bishops; much more therefore among the inferiour Clergy, whose preferment lay at their feet, and whose highest Ambition was to bear the Image of their Ghostly Fathers. If that great Luminary which God made to rule the Day (as the Italian Parasite brags) was eclipsed, how must Darkness needs spread it self over the faces of the lesser Stars? nay, which of them durst shew so little obsequiousness to them, of whom they borrowed light; as not to chuse rather to hide that in∣nate knowledg they had, under a Bushel, than set it on the Table, to out-brave the Sun; having so fair an Item given them, that light offends weak Eyes, in the immediate Successor to the learned Gregory?

The rude and unlearned Sabinianus, (Platin. Sabinianus, 604.) upon whom Platina's Pen lets fall these blots; that he was of so obscure Parentage, as the place of his Birth could not be traced out, but yet more obscure in good parts and manners; burning with that spightful Envy against his learned Predeces∣sor, as he attempted to burn his Books, to pull that Light, the Splendour whereof dazled the Eyes of this Owl, out of the Firmament. This was he that instituted the burning of Lamps on the Day time in St. Peter's Church: A charitable and seasonable work! to furnish the Church with corporeal and typical Light, when the substantial and spiritual Temple-Lamp was dwindl∣ing out: and a kind of Prodigy portending the decay of Knowledg; as those other did of Humanity (all but the outward shape) which Platina re∣ports to have appeared in the short Span of his Papacy? and than which (he saith) never any appeared greater: A fourfooted boy, and two Sea-monsters in a perfect humane Shape, manifestly representing the degeneracy of that Age; grown, even under Gregory, to a stupendious degree of Brutishness, If Ulric Bishop of Auspurg be to be believed (and they that doubt the vali∣dity of his Testimony, may find a solid and unanswerable Vindication of it in Bishop Hall's defence of the Honour of the married Clergy, lib. 5. § 1.) who in his Letter to Pope Nicholas the first, writing against the Decree of single life of Priests, produceth the practice of Gregory the first, who once condemned marriage of Priests, but when at the cleansing of a Pond (near his own Collegiate Church) he saw cast up, with the sludge, above 6000. Sculls of Infants, he condemned and retracted his former Decree. Good God! how had this Age lost the common Sentiments of Humanity; which could put this Sence upon St. Paul, [It is good not to marry,] as if he therein made the committing of Fornication, and (to cover the shame of that from

the World) the perpetration of such barbarous Murther upon so many inno∣cent babes more eligible, than to enter into that State, which himself stiles ho∣nourable. And if they of his own Colledg and Family, that lived under his in∣spection, commenced to such a Degree of insensate Savageness, what may we think of others, that had not upon them the restraint of their Bishop's eye; yea, what can be deemed of so brutified an Age, but what Gregory him∣self thought of it? that it was next door to that, wherein Antichrist would shew himself: that now the way was strawed for the coming of that Son of Perdition: as he intimates in that Letter, wherein he returns to the Empe∣rour (expressing how ill he took Gregory's raising of so much Dust in oppos∣ing John of Constantinople, and advising him, that for so frivolous a Word, he would not give so great a Scandal) this Answer, I say boldly, that whosoe∣ver desireth the Title of Universal Bishop, fore-runs Antichrist in Pride, and with the same Pride is brought into all Error. And in his Letter to John himself, who, I pray (saith he) before you ever used this proud word, but he, who despising the Legions of Angels, (sociably joyned with him) would needs burst out unto the top of singularity, and be alone above all. And in his Treatise on Job, saying, Now ere Antichrist himself come, some do preach him by their manners, and others by their words.

The Trentish Anathema would fall heavy upon me, should I deny this Pope's infallibility in defining matters of Faith (as this is of Antichrists com∣ing): but I fear not those Bruta fulmina, those causless Curses: yet am led into the belief of this his Prophecy, by little less than Ocular Demonstration of the palpable Effect; for within a Year after Gregory's decease (next after the fore-named Sabinianus.)

Boniface the third (anno 606.) is created Pope, and obtains at the hand of Phocas the Emperour (that Parricide, that perjured Murtherer, who slew his Lord Mauritius, and took possession of his Crown, (as Baronius stiles him,) that red Dragon, that gave the spiritual Kingdom to the Beast) that the Bishop of Rome should be called Universal Bishop, the very Title that Gregory affirmed to be the badg of Antichrist.

§ 2. It was an Age, we see, of gross Barbarism, when Mahometanism in∣croached upon the World; and the Bishop of Rome over the Church, in the claim of Supremacy over his fellow Bishops, he came on the blind side of the Beast, when he skipp'd up into the Saddle. Let us now observe that as this Darkness grew thicker and thicker, he advanced his Power higher and higher, till at last he set his Foot upon the Necks of Kings, and obtained a Soveraignty over Secular Princes. And because it would be an endless work, here to tra∣vel through the Histories of several Nations, and thereout collect the Com∣plaints and Confessions that every where occur of the Worlds general deprav∣edness, I shall consine my self to the History of the Popes (those reputed lights of the Church,) for if I demonstrate the Eye to be dark, he is a very weak Reader that cannot thence conclude, the whole body to be full of Dark∣ness.

Formosus (saith Platina (Century the ninth, Platin. Formosus, an. 891.) after he had abjured Rome, and with a prophane Habit, had put on prophane Manners) obtained the Popedom, not by Vertue, but Bribery; upon whose Pa∣pacy, he makes this mournful Reflection, I know not by what Destiny it hap∣pened, that at this time the Vertue and Integrity of Popes failed: most unhappy times (I think) they were, seeing in the Opinion of Plato, the Vulgar follow the Example of their Leaders. Times that would have been in all respects superla∣tively miserable, had it not been for the Vertue and Learning of one man, Remi∣gius Altisiodorensis, who like Shammah, one of David's Worthies, stood it out alone, against the whole Body of the Philistines. A dark time it must needs be when but one Star appears in the whole Circuit of the Firmament.

Stephen the sixth, or seventh, (Plat. Stephanus, 895.) that wicked man saith Baronius (ad an. 900.) entred into the Sheep-fold like a Wolf, and ended his

Life in an Halter like a Dog: then all things were turned topsie turvy, at Rome, both civil and sacred confounded, and the advancing of the Pope in their Power that had the longest Sword.

Romanus succeeded Stephen, and as soon as he was warm in his Chair, re∣scinds the Acts of his Predecessor: for those Popes ('tis Platina's Verdict Pla∣tin. Romanus, 897.) minded nothing else but to extinguish the Name and Cre∣dit of their Ancestors; than which there can be no greater sign of a base and narrow Soul: and those certainly are not fortified against the edacity of time by their own Vertue, that endeavour with Canine Teeth of Envy to pick bare and gnaw the Bones of those Mens Memories, whom their Vertues have cloathed with immortal Fame: and none are more conscious of their own disability to rise thither themselves, than they that seek by Detraction to throw down others from those Stairs of Honour, to which their merits have exalted them: thus and further does the quondum Library-keeper of the Va∣tican dilate upon this Argument, even till he seems to me to grow passionate, and to write, as if the remembrance of that hard measure he himself received at the hands of Paul the second, had put Vinegar, if not Gall, into his Ink, to dilate, if not to imbitter it: men are never more fluen〈…〉〈…〉 than when they are prompted with the remembrance of Injuries; I will therefore leave fol∣lowing him in this passionate Vein: alass, the plain story of these Monsters is enough to make Christian ears tingle: and more than I would repeat, were it not to lay naked the folly of that proud Plea of that Chairs infallibility, when their Decrees are as contrary to one another, as white to black, and sometimes among half a score of Popes immediately succeeding one another, not one is to be found, that had wit enough to frame one Canon longer lived than themselves: For

Theodore the second rescinds the Acts of Romanus, treading in the steps of these seditious Popes that went before him (saith Platina, Theodore, 897.) And

John the tenth (John 10. Platina 897.) served Theodore with the same sauce: the Bucket which Theodore pull'd up; John depresseth, and that which he sunk down, now rises up: for he antiquates the Acts of Stephen, and his second; and revives the Decrees of Formosus. The reasons of this Counter-scuffle Platina assigns partly to the Pope's forsaking St. Peter's Steps, and partly to the supine negligence of secular Princes, laying the Reins upon those mens necks, who were [adeo socordes & nullius pretii ut actum esset] so slothful and worthless, as the Church had been utterly undone, if God, for his E∣lect's sake, had not shortned the Reigns of these Prodigies: for at this time no less than nine Popes succeeded one another in less than nine Years. Of whom

Benedict the fourth was one; a man noted by Platina (Platina Bened. 4. 899.) for nothing, but his doing nothing worth noting: but of the then times he thus complains, Mens Industry in all kinds of Vertue waxed cold and decre∣pit, for want of the Spur of Encouragement: they that sate still, or ran-counter, attaining to the Goal of Preferment, before them who pursued it, in a direct course of real Merit. Then did the Line of Charles the Great, by the slothfulness of succeeding Princes, lose both the Kingdom of France, and the Empire of Rome. Then did the Splendour of the Roman Name, by the negligence of the Roman No∣bles and Commons, sit in obscure Darkness. And we can affirm, that the very same Fate befell the Pontifical Dignity; for of Old, the Renown of the Bishops of Rome waxed great by their Sanctity and Learning (even among the many Ene∣mies, and obstinate Persecutors of the Christian Name.) But when the Church began towantonnize, the Licentious Liberty of sinning brought forth these Mon∣sters, who, by Circumvention and ••ribes, did rather invade than legally possess St. Peter's See.

Leo the fifth (Platin. Leo 5. 903.) was so obscure a person, as Historians write him, Terrae filium, a Son of the Earth, not being able to mention his Countrey: within a Month after his Consecration, he is thrown out of his Chair into Prison; and the Papacy posseffed by a single-Sol'd-Priest, of so ig∣noble

an Abstract, as we cannot learn of the most diligent Enquirers, either his Countrey, or Surname; but only, that the Name he was known by be∣fore he was Pope, was Christopher. He, (Christophorus, 903.) obtaining the Chair by wicked Arts; what he had got over the Devil's Back, he lost under his Dam's Belly; being within seven Months after his Installment, thrust into a Monastery. This is the last of the nine short liv'd Popes; whose Hi∣story, Platina thus concludes, These Popes as so many Monsters, God was pleas∣ed (for the good of Mankind) to snatch away in a short time. And upon the last, hath this Note; Observe how despicable the Lives of those Popes had made the Papacy, when such an obscure fellow could thrust the Pope beside the Cushion almost in a Moment, without Opposition, Disdain, or so much as murmur of either Clergy or Laity.

Such was that Head of the Christian World, out of which that other Lamb∣like Horn of the Beast budded, with which he pusheth at the Crowns of Princ∣es▪ did ever Head more resemble that in the Carver's Shop, or better de∣serve Aesop's Ape's Aphorism for its Motto? [Oh pulchrum caput.] Oh brain∣less head! except that which it grew to, by that time this Beast became a Buck of the first ••ead.

§ 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.

CHAP. VIII.

The Apostolical Age was fortified against Surprisal by the Exter∣nal Advantages of Posts and Peace.

§ 1. They find as speedy a way for conveyance of News, as we: Vibullius, Cae∣sar, Sempronius, Tiberius, their incredible Posting. Intelligence flew in Persia as fast as Cranes. The Roman Eagle as swift of Wing as the English Unicorn is of foot. § 2. That Age enjoyed so long a Peace, as Intelligence might pass without Interruption: Janu's Temple shut by Augustus, a rare thing in the Roman Annals. § 3. Tiberius had a peaceable Reign, so had Caligula; all the Warlike Marches that he made was in pursuit of the Cowardly Ocean, running from him at the Tide; and in lopping down the Bows of a Coppice. Palsey-headed Claudius felt no shakings in his Em∣pire, no Trumpet of War then sounded, but that of the Silver Triton in the Ficine Lake. In Nero's third Year they had much ado to draw the Sword, it had layen so long rusting in the Scabbard. § 4. This peaceable Season was the Seed-time of Christ's Labourers, wherein they dispenc'd the Gospel through the Empire.

§ 1. WE have taken A Prospect of that Age, wherein the Gospel was first brought to light; and found it so well fortifyed by the in∣ner Works of improved Reason, as would have made the most daring At∣tempters despair to subdue it to the belief of most cunningly devised Fables: and therefore, that the Apostles should be so fool-hardy, as to assault it with feigned Tales, as to think to outvye that Sun of Knowledg, then shining in the greatest Lustre: by holding a Farthing Candle of Old Wive's Stories be∣fore it, is a conceipt so gross as can hardly seise upon minds that are not ex∣ceedingly byassed with Partiality.

Let us now take a view of the Out-works, the External Fortifications which that Age had to secure it from the Surprisals of Impostors: And that, first, in respect of the Dexterity of that Age in point of quick dispatch of Intelligence; in which Art, it lagg'd not behind; but rather out-stripp'd ours. The Eng∣lish Unicorn is not more swift of foot now, than the Roman Eagle was of Wing then; as appears from Caesar's reporting Vibullius to have posted Night and Day, taking at every Stage a fresh Horse, that he might certify Pompy that Caesar was at hand, (Caesar's Comment. 3. 3.) By Suetonius writing of Caesar, that he used to run an hundred Miles a day on an hired Chariot; by the help of blowen Bladders making his way over Rivers; and by that means per∣forming long Journeys with that incredible Celerity, as he oftentimes arrived at his Journeys end, before the News of his setting forth had come thither, (Suet. Jul. 57▪) [longissimas vias incredibili celeritate fecit, expeditus meritoria rheda centena passuum millia per singulos dies, &c.] By what Livie relates of Sempronius Graccus, that in the Roman Wars against Antiochus, he went

by Post from Amphiss'a to Pella in three Days, Pliny Hist. 37. pag. 759. [Per dispositos equ••s prope incredibili celeritate.] By what Val. Maximus has re∣corded of Tiberius his posting to visit his Brother Drusus, (why lay sick in Germany,) with that Rapid and Precipitate Haste, as he hurried over the Alps, and that rugged Region bounding upon them, at the rate of two hun∣dred Miles in the space of twenty four Hours, (Val Max. 5. 5. 3.) [Iter quam rapidum & preceps corripuerit eo patet quod Alpes Rhenumque transgressus, Die & Nocte, mutato subinde Equo, ducenta Millia passuum evasit.] By what Philo Judaeus, (de legatione ad Caium. pag. 639.) reports of Petronius his not dar∣ing to proceed to the fulfilling of Caligula's command to erect his Image in the Temple, for fear the Jews should from all parts of the World presently be about his Ears, by reason of that incredible quick way of dispatch of News they had inured themselves to. Indeed those parts of the Empire that bor∣dered upon Judaea, and wherein the Apostles of the Circumcision chiefly conversed, and spread the Gospel, were, long before that time, put into a posture for the most speedy conveyance of Advertisements, by Cyrus: who that he might have News brought him of all Emergencies from all the parts of his vast Empire, would have trial made how far an Horse could go out-right at full speed without bating: at which distance he caused Stages to be set, and fresh Horses to stand: which kind of posting, some (as Xenophon saith) affirm to be equivalent for swiftness to the flying of Cranes (Xenophon. Cyrus. 8. 43.) [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.] And sure the Eagle had an Eye to see, what advantage it would be to her, to imp her wings with the Cranes Feathers; to improve the Roman Art of posting, by the accession of this of the Persian. An Art perhaps conveighed thither out of Judaea, and communicated by Daniel, at what time he was set over the Presidents of the Provinces: how∣ever, 'tis certain, it was of old in use among them, for we read of Hezechiah's sending his Proclamations by Post; and hear Deborah bewail the days of Shamgar, for that in them the Courriers were forced to take▪ By-ways: so that the Apostles could not be ignorant of that ready way of communicating In∣telligence, which the Empire had then learnt. Palladius was able to ride post unto the furthest Bounds of the Roman and Persian Dominions, and back a∣gain in thirty days to Theodosius the Emperour at Constantinople, [Socrat. Scol. Eccl. Hist. 7. 19.] And (which comes nearer the times of the Apostles) Cice∣ro reports that Caesar writ to him out of Britain the 1. day of September, and the Letters came to his hands the 28. day of the same Month, [Sleidan clavis Hist. lib. 1.] And therefore, for them to have gone up and down with pom∣pous stories of things done in Judaea, when they could not but know, that who so pleased, might in a Months time, or less, have detected the forgery, would have been such a piece of Temerarious Madness, as 'tis scarce imagi∣nable, how twelve men's heads at once could be intoxicated with it.

§ 2. That Age was externally fortified against the assaults of Impostors, by reason of that universal Peace through the World, that ushered the Prince of Peace into the World; so as Intelligence might pass from Nation to Na∣tion through the Universe (as Blood by Circulation, through the Veins of an healthful Body) without the least Obstruction. Times of Distraction are the most promising Seed-times of Lyes: he who in fishing for men, dubbs his Hook with a counterfeit Fly, will chuse to fish in troubled Waters: he that has learn'd the black Art of inventing News, will chuse a Season to practise in, when an Embargo is laid upon the Packet-boats: when the Bridges are broken down, the High-ways unoccupied, when through the noise of Arms, men cannot hear, nor are at leisure to listen after, what falls out in the re∣moter parts of the World: as in the Battel betwixt Flaminius and Hannibal; at which, they that were present by reason of the Hurly-burly among them∣selves,

perceived not the most clamorous Effects of the then prodigious Earth-quake, that demolished the best parts of the chiefest Cities, diverted Rivers from their wonted Channels, and tumbled down with a hideous Fragor the tops of Mountains, (Plutarc. Fab. Maximus, 72.) Such Confusions are the fittest Seasons for the Father of Lyes to cast his Spawn, for Satan to throw a∣broad his poysoned Arrows: that before time, (the Mother of Truth) can give them a check, his fry may be of Age to shift for themselves; his stories may stick so fast in Mens Minds, as the hand of Truth, afterwards, will have much ado to pull them out, and not leave some Splinters, if not the pile head behind.

The Apostles of the blessed Jesus used not this craft, his Fisher-men angled in calm Waters, his Seedsmen scattered the Gospel in those pacate days, as gave men leisure to ponderate every Circumstance of the News they brought: Men might then sit peaceably under their own Vines, and ruminate upon the fruit of our Royal Vine, that chears the Heart of God and Man. The whole Empire, at Christ's Birth, (brooding under the Dove-like Wings of the Ro∣man Eagle) enjoyed that Halcionian Calm, as she had not been blessed with the like, but once, in that large Tract of time betwixt Numa and Augustus; and that but for a piece of a Year; and yet that short breathing time from War reported as a Miracle: Numa (saith Livy) that erected Janus s Temple was the first, who, in token if Peace universally obtained through the Roman Territo∣ries, shut up the Gates of that Temple; Manlius the second, and Augustus the third: Providence having bestowed this gift upon our Age, that we should see Peace setled, (after the Conquest of Mark. Anthony at Actium) by the Emperour Au∣gustus, both by Land and Sea (Livius lib. 1. pag. 12. 6.) [Bis post Numae regnum Janus clausus fuit, semel T. Manlio consule post Punicum primum Bellum perfe∣ctum. Iterum quod nostrae aetati Dii dederunt ut videremus, post bellum Actiacum ab imperatore Caesare Augusto, pace terra marique parta.] How short liv'd that Peace was in the Consulship of Manlius, Vives informs us out of Eutropi∣us (if I mistake him not) for I no where, in Eutropius, meet with a passage, looking that way, but rather the contrary) saying that after Manlius and At∣tilius had, upon their Triumph for the Conquest of Sardis, shut the Gates of Ja∣nus; they were some Months after opened again, in token of the Illyrick War. But however I mistake Vives, or he Eutropius; the thing it self is manifest enough, from that place of St. Austin, upon which he comments; for (saith he) one (and not all out one) Year of Peace (among those many that intervened betwixt Numa and Augustus) wherein, after the first Punick War, the Ro∣mans had lieve to shut up the Gates of War, is recorded as a Wonder, (August. de civitate 3. 9.) [Vix, post tam multos annos ab urbe condita usque Augustum, unus post primum Punicum bellum pro magno miraculo commemoratur annus, quo belli portas Romani claudere potuerunt:] An Assertion, which St. Austin had ground enough for, (that the Atheist may not object that these are the Piae fraudes of Christians,) out of Plutarch, who writes, that the Temple of Ja∣nus did not continue long shut in the Consulship of Manlius and Attilius: for forthwith, immediately after that it was opened again; a new War rolling in upon, and assaulting the Empire, (Plut. Numa.) [M. Attilio & T. Manlio Coss. haud multum temporis clausum, deinde Continuo ingruente irrumpenteque bello apertum est.] Upon which, he there gives this Note: 'Tis seldom, but that the Roman Empire is ensnarl'd in some or other War; It being so vast a body, and on all sides incircled with restless Barbarians, (Id. Ib.) [Quod certe difficile aut etiam ra••o factum quàm aliquo bello semper suspensum imperium teneatur: nam cum propter ejus mgnitudinem, barbaris nationibus undique circumfusum ac septum esset: iis repugnare cogebatur.]

And yet it was a time of the singing of this rare Bird, when our Prince of Peace exhibited himself to the World. This is that Caesar (saith Philo Ju∣daeus, speaking of Augustus) who, finding the World as a boisterious Sea, tos∣sed every way with tempestuous Winds; charmed its Waves asleep, and restored to it such Serenity, as not only open Wars were every where exiled, but private

Robberies: this is he, who reduc'd that Chaos of Confusion, that the World had been buried under in former Ages, unto that well setled and comely order, which we see it in in ours: this is he that has moulded the most savage Nations into Mansuetude and humane Societies, (Phil. de legat. ad Caium.) [Hic est ille Caesar qui depul∣sis undiquaque ruentibus procellis serenitatem orbi restituit: qui & aperta bella sustulit, &c.] But Philo perhaps plays the Orator, and describes with Re∣torical Flourishes the flourishing of the Imperial Olive; let us therefore en∣quire of Suetonius that uncorrupted Oracle of Pagan History; from whom we have this Respond. Janus Quirinus that had not been shut in but once and again from the first founding of Rome unto this Age, was in a far shorter space shut in three times By Augustus, peace being setled by Land and Sea, (Suet. O∣ctav. 22.) [Janum Quirinum, semel atque iterum a Condita Urbe, memoriam ante suam clausum, in multo breviore temporis spatio, Terra Marique pace parta, ter clausit.] (for that is the true reading (not as Beroaldus would have it, the third time) as both Jasenius observes out of Lipsius, and the Context imports.)

Augustus was Christ's Cryer, to proclaim silence in the World, before the publication of the Gospel: that men might without distraction weigh what was told them. The worst Juncture that an impostor could have pitched upon to shew his Pranks in: when as Bullenger observes, Rust had riveted the Sword to the Scabbard. [Ipsa etiam rubigo obsignavit.] (Bulleng. In Daniel. par. 2. tab. 5.)

§ 3. If exception be made against the Cogency of this Argument; that Christ indeed was born under Augustus, but what is that to the publication of the Gospel: seeing that began in the Baptist's preaching under Tiberius, till when, and some time after, Christ walk'd incognito. And therefore, the times might be grown turbulent enough for a Legerdemain's passing without discovery by that time the Apostles began to preach. I shall put by this Bar to Faith by making good this Assertion,

That the Peace setled by Augustus, was continued under Tiberius, Caligu∣la, Claudius, and so much of Nero's Reign: as for thirty Years after the Go∣spel began to be preach'd, the World enjoyed Peace, so as any, who had a mind to enquire, might have informed himself of the truth of what had past in Judaea: the passage of Intelligence being no where interrupted.

1. For the peaceableness of Tiberius his Reign, (Anno Christi 17.) let Philo Judaeus speak (Philo de legatione ad Caium) who accusing the Alexandrians of extream madness, in giving that Divine Honour to Caligula, which they neglected to give to Tiberius: presents his happy Reign in these Words. In the three and twenty Years of his Reign he left no Seed, no not so much as a Spark of War, by Sea or Land among Greeks or Barbarians; but nourish'd Peace and the fruits of Peace to his dying day. And a little before, during his Em∣pire, the East, West, North, South-Provinces consented together in that calmness of Peace, that there was nothing to be seen in City or Countrey, but Festivities, Altars, Victims, chearful and pleasant Countenances, &c.

2. In what state of Tranquility the Empire stood under Caligula (Anno Christi, 40.) Suetonius will inform us (Suet. Calig. 43.) [Militiam resque bel∣licas semel attigit adeo delicate ut verri sibi vias & conspergi &c.] who affirms that he never made Warlike Expedition but once, and that undertaken merely out of Curiosity, (not need,) and managed with that Leisure and Delicacy, as he commands the Countrey (as he marches) to sweep the Ways, and sprinkle them with Water, to allay the Pride of the Dust, and teach it (better manners than to fly in his face) quietly to crouch at his and his Army's feet. In which E∣quipage, marching as far as Belgium, the first Enemy he encounters is a Cop∣pice: against which he furiously leads on his Army, and (as if his eyes were set counter to his that was born blind) taking Trees for men, and perswad∣ing his followers into the same Faith (so ancient is that Roman Maxim of im∣plicite Faith: The Pope carries Men's Eyes in his Pocket, and must be believ∣ed, even in the point of Transubstantiation, contrary to ocular Demonstra∣tion)

by the help of native Ladders, they scale the living wooden Walls, lop off the Arms of their resolute Foes (that like Pompey's Souldiers in Thessa∣ly, scorn'd to give ground (Caesar comment. 3. 33.) and returns in Tri∣umph to the Camp; each Souldier carrying the Spoil he had taken, the Branch he had cut down, in his hand: (Suet. Calig. 45.) an Argument, they had, through long Peace, forgot the Formalities of Warlike Ovations: for (if the Masters of those Ceremonies be to be believed) they ought to have worn them as Civick Crowns on their heads, seeing that never Field was won with so little expence of Citizen-blood, except the second and last he fought against the Sea; which proud Enemy (partaking of the quality of the neighbouring French Shore,) coming on, in its Flow, with a more than mas∣culine, but falling back, in its Ebb, with a less than woman-like Spirit; gave ground, and yielded the Field to the Romans: who, falling upon the Spoil that the cowardly Ocean had scattered in her retreat, turn their Swords into Plough-Shares, to furrow up the Sands for the gathering of Cockle-shells; and their Helmets into Fish-Panniers, to carry them away. (Suet. Calig. 46.) So far did Providence here over-do the Prophecy of the peaceableness of the Kingdom of the Messiah; of which, that one tittle might not fall to the ground, God permitted those Diabolical and Damnable Traytors (for such perswasions come of Satanical Injections, and they that resist shall receive Damnation) Bessus, Sabinus, and their Confederates, to turn their Bodkins into Pruning-hooks, to pluck up this Cumber-ground-weed Caligula; when he was but intending to break the Peace, and deluge the Empire in Blood: having no other quarrel against the World, but its being over-happy through its abundance of Peace; looking on the Tranquillity of that Age with an e∣vil eye, as not made famous by any signal Calamity, and threatning to burn the Memory of this turbulent-spirited Monster in Oblivion, under that pile of Prosperities, which Peace had heaped upon it: the only thing he had to complain of, and ground his wish upon (that some such slaughter of Armies, Famine, Pestilence, Conflagrations, Earth-quakes, &c. might infest the World in his days, as might render them famous to Posterity) the only thing he be∣wailed, was his seeing nothing to be bewailed. (Suet. Calig. 31.)

Claudius his Successor (Anno Christi, 44.) was none of the wisest Princes, no more dexterous in the management of publick Affairs, than suted Seneca's conceit of him, (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Claudii:) that Agrippinas poysoned Mushromes precipitated his Birth into the Rank of Immortals, so long before his head (though paralytical with Age) was ballasted with Wit, as the Gods would not admit him into their Colledge; ingeniously expressed in that of the Satyrist, (Juven. sat. 6.)

Tremulúmque caput descendere fecit In caelos—

Or Nero's Sarcasm, who used, when he spake of his departing this life, to pronounce [Morari] the first Syllable long; making that ambiguous word give out this to be his Sence: Nero has ceast to play the fool among Men. [Morari inter homines desiit.] (Suet. Nero, 33.) Or the Sence of all Romans: who, when Nero, in his Funeral Sermon, in praise of Claudius; began to praise his discretion, were not able to refrain themselves from bursting out into open laugh∣ter, (Tacitus annal. 13. 176.) [Postquam ad providentiam sapientiamque defle∣xit, nemo risui temperare, quanquam oratio a Seneca composita multum cultus prae∣ferret, &c.] Or those ominous Prognostications his own Relations made of him: Augustus not daring to allow him to be seen at publick Sports, with∣out a Tutor to admonish him, touching his behaviour; for fear, lest by his rude Deportment, he should render himself and his Family, the Vulgar Laugh∣ing-stock. (Suet. Claud. 4.) [Fraebenda materia deridendi & illum & nos non est, &c.] Angusta esteeming him a most despicable Changling; his Mother using, when she had a mind to impute to any one the height of Folly, to

call him as very a Fool as her Son Claudius; and his Sister Livilla replying, to one that told her, her Brother Claudius would in time become Emperour, God forbid, so great a Plague should befall the Roman People. (Suet. Claud. 3.)

Yet the Reign of Claudius (of this so very a—as the only wise Act he did (if Patience may be call'd an Act) was the suffering himself to be called to his face old fool (Suet. Claud. 15.) was so wisely ordered, by the Wisdom of him by whom he Reigned; as there were no Commotions in the Empire; but what the Jews caused through their violent opposing of the Gospel; and that short-breathed Civil War, raised by Furius Camillus, and allayed by Miracle in five days: for after the Vote was past in the Rebels Council of War, that they should forthwith march to their new Elect mock-Emperour; The Anci∣ents not being able, with all their strength, to remove their Colours from the ground wherein they were stuck, was interpreted by the Army, as a Word of Command from Heaven, to return to their Allegeance unto that Power that was of God, (Suet. Claud. 13.)

And that Bloodless Expedition Claudius undertook in his own Person into Britain (Suet Claud. 17.) [Expeditionem unam omninò suscepit, eámque modi∣cam,] (not then a Roman Province: and by that Age, reputed a new World, and no part of the old (divisos orbe Britannos) then in Arms against the Ro∣man Legions, as disgusting that Caligula should first give protection to the Rebel-Son of the King of Britain, and the Fugitives that came over with him to the Roman Camp in Belgium: and afterwards lead them in Triumphs as Captives, and detain them as Hostages in Rome: (the way of Belgium has, of old, been the Road to Rome for British Fugitives: too much trodden by our Modern Church-Fugitives, whose doting upon the too too homeliness (I had almost said Sluttishness) of the Church in the Vale, proves their first step towards their admiring the over-curious Attire of her on the Hills: (Herbert: British Church, 102.) she in the Valley is so shy of dressing, that her Hair doth lie about her Ears. But to return (from following these Straglers) to Claudius his Colours displayed in Brittain: he so quickly folded them up (be∣fore they had been stain'd in Blood) as within six Months after his marching thence, he returns in Triumph to Rome.

These are all the Commotions that fell out in his Reign by Land, and by Sea they had none, save that Scenical Naumachy in the Ficine Lake, where no Trumpet, but that of the Silver Triton, sounded to the Fight. Tacitus commends Cassius, the Deputy of Syria, under Claudius; for keeping up, and restoring Martial Discipline, as far as the peaceableness of that Age would permit; wherein, [militares artes per otium ignotae erant,] by long continued Peace the Art Military was grown out of knowledg, (Annal. 12. 157.) This Peace, and its Daughter, Plenty, gave him both Opportunity and Ability to perfect those magnificent Works of the Aqueduct, begun by Caligula; the draining of the Ficine Lake, and building the Ostian Haven; Works so stu∣pendious as neither Augustus nor Tiberius durst attempt them: hence that Encomium Nero gave him in his Funeral Speech; that during his Reign, no∣thing sad befel the Empire from Foreigners, past with the general Vote (Tacit. ann. 13.) [Nihil regente eo reipublicae triste ab externis accidisse pronis animis ad auditum.]

Search we the Annals of Nero, (Anno Christi, 57.) and in the first, and best part of his Reign, we hear no noise of War,

In his first indeed the Parthians make a flourishing of their Ensigns, and a brandishing of their Swords against Armenia. But, first, this was out of the Confines of the Empire; for Armenia was not reduc'd into the form of a Pro∣vince, till Trajan's Reign, (Heylin. Geograph. 799.) And, secondly, the Par∣thian was perswaded to fold up his Colours, and put up his Sword, before they had been rowled and bathed in Blood: (Tacit annal. 13. 179.) [Datis∣que obsidibus solitam prioribus reverentiam in R. Populum continuare:] chusing rather to give Sureties for their future good Behaviour towards the State, and her Confederates, than try the Roman Mettle.

In his next Year there was [Pax foris.] Peace every where abroad; no Brawls, but what Nero procured by his Night-walks among the Stews: no Blood-shed in any but those obscene Quarrels (Tacitus ibid pag. 184.) [Pax foris, faeda domi lascivia, qua Nero lupanaria veste servili in dissimulationem sui, frequentavit comitantibus qui vulnera obviis inferrent—adeo ut ipse quoque acci∣peret ictus.

His third was so barren of Action, had so little wind stirring▪ as Tacitus complains his storifying Vein is becalm'd, his Pen can find no Pasturage in that Years Occurrences; except he should, instead of Annals, write Diurnals, and go about to commend the Foundations, Beams and Bulk of that Amphithea∣ter which the Emperour erected in Campo Martio; or in a Tragick Strain record the Wounds of Fencers, and Slaughters of wild Beasts, there received and perpetra∣ted; that being the only Martial Camp for that Years Wars, which that in∣quisitive Historian can give us Intelligence of, (Id. Ib. pa. 186.) [Nerone secundò L. Pisone Coss. pauca memoria digna evenere, nisi cui libeat laudandis fundamentis & tabulis quîs molem Amphitheatri apud campum Martium extruxe∣rat, volumina implere.]

In this long Vacation the Roman Prowess had contracted so much Rust; as Corbulo, in his Expedition against the Parthians, making a new attempt upon Armenia, in Nero's fourth, found the laziness of the Roman Soldiery, a greater prejudice to him than either the boysterous Strength or perfidious wi∣liness of the Enemy, (Id. ibid. pa. 187.) [Sed Corbuloni plus molis erat adver∣sus ignaviam militis, quam contra perfidiam hostium quippe Syria transmotae legio∣nes pace longa segnes munia militum aegerrimè tolerabant.] The Legions of Sy∣ria (a Door-neighbour to, if not comprehending, Judaea, and the great Road that the Apostles of the Circumcision travell'd) had so far unlearnt War, that they could not bear the hardships, nor perform the office of Soldiers. Nay, [Satis constitit fuisse in eo exercit•••• Veteranos qui non stationem non vigilias iniissent, vallum fossamque quasi nova & mira viserent:] (Tacit. an. 13. 187.) of a certain (saith Tacitus) there were many Veteran Soldiers that had never stood Centinel, that wondered at the sight of Trenches and Rampires, as new and strange things: that came to the Muster in quirpo; without Head-peices, Breast-plates, &c. neat and trim Carpet-knights; as having spent their lives in Garrisons and City-delicacies: as having never perform'd service in the Field. In so much as Corbulo durst not emplòy them; but is forced to send as far as Germany and Spain, to levy men for that Armenian War: who (notwithstanding, that through the Midwifery of their Native horrid Clime, they were born hardy Soldiers) yet their Nurture and Education in the soft and warm bosom of that pacifick Age, had so far temper'd the natural Steeliness of their Mettal, as it turn'd Edge; so much effeminated their innate sturdiness, as they were not able to sustain the sharpness of that War; but ran away so fast from their Co∣lours, as the General (with all the Art he can use, and the utmost severity of Martial Law) can scarce prevent the mouldring away of his Army (Tacit. an. 13.) [quia duritiam caeli militiaeque abnuebant deserebantque; remedium se∣veritatis quaesitum est—qui signa reliquerat statim capitis paenas luebat, &c.] Corbulo (saith Dion) restored Military Discipline, which had been slighted and neglected. (Ziphil. e Dione Nero, pa. 518) [Nam Corbulo restituta re militari quae antea dispersa & neglecta erat.]

Is it possible to conceive a fuller accomplishment of that Prophecy (Is. 2. 4.) that when the Word went out of Sion, the Law from Jerusalem, there should be such aboundance of Peace; as the World should unlearn War? can we expect a more perfect Transcript of that Prediction, than is here drawn by the Pens of those Authentick Historians? where can we better fix the Epocha of its taking effect, than in this Age; wherein the most Warlike Nations were grown so incredibly inexpert at War, as they are here described: when, for sixty Years together, Nation did not rise up against Nation: In the last half of which (from the fifteenth of Tiberius, when the preaching of the Gospel began in the Baptist's Ministry, unto Nero's fourth) that Prophetical half hour

(reckoning Minutes for Years) wherein its preaching was fully known in all the World: there was an universal silence in the Heaven of the Roman Empire; no noise of War, no clashing of hostile Armour heard within its Precincts. (I here only allude to that passage (Revel. 8. 1.) [there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour,] I undertake not its Exposition.) Saving some dry blows in Judaea, where had been the Vision of Peace: nor in its Borders saving Armenia; Olive plants growing round about it, save on that Coast whither Noah's Dove brought the Olive Branch (If the Septuagint mistake not in translating Arrarat Armenia (Isa. 37. 38. 2 King. 19. 37.) A remarka∣ble Providence! that God should prepare a place of rest for the reception of the Ark and Tabernacle of his own pitching, every where, but where the Arks of Noah and Moses had rested: and a fair intimation to the Proselytes of the Gate, that rested on Noah's seven Precepts: and the Proselytes of the Cove∣nant; who trusted in Moses, that that which they had taken up with was not their true rest.

§ 4. It being thus evident out of the undoubted Histories of those times; that beside that thirty Years space of Peace through the whole Empire, from the birth of our Saviour unto the fifteenth of Tiberius (wherein our great High Priest was officiating in the Temple, and within the Veil of his Flesh) (It is Doctor Lightfoot's Observation, that St. John, in that half hours silence, alludes to the People waiting silently at the Door, while the Priest was offici∣ating in the holy place.) Peace was then continued for other thirty Years e∣ven unto the fourth of Nero: It remains now, that we prove, that during that last thirty Years of silence, the Line of the Gospel was drawn out, not only through all the Earth (the Land of Jury) but to the ends of the World (the utmost Bounds of the Roman Pale.) Would the Atheist, for proof of this, acquiess in sacred Testimony, I would alledge that of St. Paul, (Ro. 15. 19.) where he writes, that in his own line he had proceeded from Jerusalem, (the Center) round about unto Illyricum, fully preaching the Gospel, so as he had no place left in those parts, over which, the Line of some Apostle had not been sttretch'd. And then leave him to compute (though St. Paul labour'd more than they all, and therefore must have twelve to one reckoned to his propor∣tion) how far the lines of all the rest were stretched out before the general Peace was broke: seeing the single Line of one of them had reach'd so far in Nero's second Year (as Doctor Lightfoot dates that Epistle.) But to deal with the Atheist at his own Weapon, I shall urge him with the Testimony of Ta∣citus; who having occasion thereof ministred to him, from Nero's charging Christians with the setting Rome on fire; speaks of our Religion, as famously known, and by multitudes embrac'd at Rome, long before that bloody Edict in Nero's twelfth. The common People (saith he) call them Christians, from one Christ; who in the Reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate, Go∣vernour of Judaea: whose Religion, though by Edicts suppressed, presently upon its appearance, yet grew under those Weights, and brake out again, not in Judaea only, where it had its Original, (i. e. the Center whence its Line was drawn) but even in Rome it self: having reached so far, and got so many Proselytes: as though the Vulgar looked upon Christians as Persons of an execrable Religion, as Enemies to Humane Kind, and deserving the Extremities of most inhumane Affli∣ctions and Punishments; yet there was none of them so hard hearted, as not to relent, to see such huge Multitudes of them led to the Slaughter, grieving that so much humane (though as they thought Malignant) blood should be poured out. (Tacit. annal. 15. 233.) Ergo abolende rumori N••ro subdidit reos, & quaesitissi∣mis paenis affecit, quos per stagitium risos vulgus Christiarios appellabat; auctor ejus nominis Christus, qui Tiberio imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum sup∣plicio affectus erat; repressaque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpe∣bat non modo per Judaeam originem ejus (whence their Li••e went out) sed per Urbem etiam—Igitur primo correpti qui fatebantur, deinde Ingens eorum mul∣titudo haud perinde in crimine incend•••• quam odio humani generis connicti sunt—

unde quanquam adversus sontes & novissima exempla meritos miseratio orieba∣tur.—] Nay, to that height was Christian Religion grown at Rome in the be∣ginning of Nero's Reign; as Suetonius (Sueton. Nero, 16.) reckons his mak∣ing Edicts for the suppressing of it among those Reformations he made at his coming to the Crown. It will be in vain to urge to our Scepticks, St. Paul's Testimony that the Gospel had got footing in Nero's Family: yet it may per∣haps seem to him less improbable, that that Grain of Mustard-seed should sprought up in that barren Soil and malignant Influence, if he be minded of the State of Affairs under Aurelian; and that in spight of that Juncture, our Religion so throve, even in the Court; as he suspects the Christian Party (even among his Senators) impeded the passing of the Decree for consulting the Si∣bylline Books, when the Marcomanni invaded the Empire, by that handsome Evasion, that the Emperour was so valiant as he needed not consult the Gods: which though Vopiscus interprets as a point of Flattery; yet the Emperour laid it to another Father; in that Letter he sent to the Senate, to hasten their passing that Decree, in these words (transcribed by Vopiscus.) Miror vos (san∣cti Patres) tamdiu de aperiendis Sibyllinis dubitasse libris, perinde quasi in Chri∣stianorum ecclesia, non in Templo Deorum omnium tractaretis.] I wonder, holy Fathers, that you should be so long debating the question, whether Sybill's Books, (in this Exigent) should be consulted, like as if you were handling this point in the Church of Christians, and not in (the Capitol) the Temple of all the Gods. (If he had reason to suspect there was so great a Party, in his Council, of Chri∣stians, so soon after the persecution raised by Valerianus, as they might possi∣bly impede the passing of that Decree: what reason have we to conceive it un∣likely that Christ should have his Church in Nero's House?) (Vopiscus Aurelian.)

And if (notwithstanding the opposition it there found) Christianity had gained that rooting in Rome it selfe, as so huge a number dare seal the truth of it with their dearest Blood. I dare refer it to all unbiassed Minds, to think, how it must spread in those parts of the Empire that were nearer Judaea (as the main body of it was) and less under inspection: and then to pass their judg∣ment, whether Heathen History does not Eccho to that of the Apostle, where he saith, that not only the Christian Faith was known at Rome, but the Faith of the Roman Christians was famous through the World, at his writing his Epistle to them which bears date the second of Nero.

CHAP. IX.

The Judean Stirs were the Empires Advantage against Surprisal.

§ 1. Objections from the Commotions in Judea answered and retorted: Those inconsiderable and not so great as that delicate and repining People would represent them. § 2. The Stirs that were in Judea put the Ministers of State upon a more diligent enquiry into what there fell out; whereby they got a more full information of the state of that great Controversie be∣tween the Jews and Christians. § 3. The Judean Commotions drew the Imperial Eagle to fix her eye more narrowly upon Emergencies there, as things of highest State-concern; in respect of that then famous Eastern Pro∣phecy of one to arise at that time in Judea, who should be King of the U∣niverse. § 4. At that time when the Erection of an Universal Monarchy was (according to that Prophecy) expected, appeared Persons of a more Lordly Spirit amongst the Romans than any former Age had brought forth. Caesar and Pompey's Ambition sprung from this Prophecy. The then great∣est Spirits courted the Jews favour, and used means that they might be that oriundus in Judaea. § 5. The arts which the Roman Candidates for the Universal Monarchy used, to bring the World into an opinion that they were designed by Heaven to something extraordinary. Julius his Dream; his cloven-footed Horse; his Mules; his Triton; his pressing to have the Title of King, because the Sybils had prophesied one at that time would be King of all the World. The Fathers quotations of Sybils vindicated. § 6. Augustus had his Education amongst the Velitri, who had a Tradi∣tion of the tendency with the Eastern Prophecy, that one of that City should obtain the Kingdom of the whole World. The Roman Prodigy before his Birth. His Mother Atia conceives him by Apollo. Her Snake-mole. Nero's Bracelet. Atias Dream of her Entrals. Nigidius his Prognisti∣cation. The Prediction of the Thracian Priests. His Fathers Vision. Cicero's Dream. § 7. Tiberius his Omens. Scribonius's Prediction. Livias crested Chick. The Altars of the conquering Legions. His Dye cast into Apon's Well. Galba's Mock-prophecy. § 8. Titus and Vespasian's Motto, Amor & deliciae, in English, the desire of the Nations. The Pro∣digie of Mars his Oak. The Gypsies Prediction. Dirt cast by Caligula into his Shirt. The Dog bringing a Man's hand, The Oracle of the God of Carmel. His curing the Blind and Lame, &c.

§ 1. I Would therefore here draw this Argument to a Conclusion, but that I am jealous, that the first Branch of it may possibly be ex∣cepted against, and that Age we are speaking of denied to have been so calm, as we have reported it to be, and that because of the frequent mention of Troubles in Judea, made by Josephus, Philo, &c. I shall therefore chuse ra∣ther to incurr the censure of being tedious, than of omitting what is ne∣cessary towards the stopping the Mouths of unruly talkers, or depriving the Atheist of all possibility of Subterfuge from the force of this Argument, while I demonstrate that this Objection does not only, not diminish from, but adds to its strength.

1. The Commotions in Jury, the uneavenness of that hilly Country, no more hinder the smoothness of the Universe, than Mountains (those Wens of the Earth) hinder the roundness of it; being no more considerable (in so vast a Body) than a few Nail-heads on the Rim of a Wheel: a point Mathematically demonstrable in the Moons Eclipse, upon whose Body the Earth (notwithstanding those Exuberances) casts the shadow of hers so ex∣actly circular, as the most piercing Eye cannot detect it of the least inequa∣lity. This is the highest account these Judean Stirs can amount to, though we cast into the sum, those (perhaps) over-weight Aggravations thrown

into the Scales; either by Philo, on purpose to heighten Caligula's Tyranny, and the Divine Indulgence to his Nation, in preserving it from ruine under his Oppressions. (Philo de legatione ad Caium) [Valeant igitur humana prae∣sidia quae nos deserunt, modò in anima spes firma maneat Deum nobis servato∣rem non defore, qui saepe gentem hanc eripuit exitio] (pag. 637.) Or by Jo∣sephus; that he might present the sufferings of that People equivalent to their sin, which he equals to Sodoms; telling us, he believes, the Land was so polluted, as, had not the Romans purged it by the fire of that deso∣lating War, God would have expiated the sins of it, by Fire and Brimstone poured down from Heaven upon it. (Joseph. de bel. Jud. 6. 16.) [Si Romani contra noxios venire tardassent, aut hiatu terrae devorandam fuisse civitatem pu∣to, aut dil••••io perituram, aut fulminum, ut Sodomae, incendia passuram, multo enim magis impiam progeniem tulit quàm illa pertulerat.]

But if we weigh them in an equal Ballance, they will be found so short, as they could not for any considerable time, ••ay so slight, as they could not at all dam up the Current of Intelligence; as being rather Contusions than Wounds, no Blood almost but Christian, following those Blows; as might be evinc'd out of both these Jewish Authors, in those passages where they interweave not Passion with their History. But I shall rather call Tacitus, as one less partial and without all exception) to hold the Scales; who giv∣ing an account of the affairs of Judea, states them thus: (Tacit. lib. 5. 346.) [Sub Tiberio (Judaeis) quies: Jussi a Caesare (Caligula) effigiem ejus in Tem∣plo locare, arma potiùs sumpsere; quem motum Caesaris mors diremit. Felix per omnem sevitiam & libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exeruit, duravit tamen patientia Judeis us{que} ad Gessium Florum.] The Jews had peace during the Empire of Tiberius; under Caligula, his command to erect his Image in the Temple caused no small stirs; but by his timely death, they were allayed before they came to blows. Towards the latter end of Claudius, and the begin∣ning of Nero's Reign, Felix indeed with a servile Genius (as a beggar on horse-back) vapoured over them in all kind of licentiousness and cruelty; yet the patience of the Jews held out, and they did not make insurrection, until Florus became Governour of Judea in Nero's 11. year.

§ 2. This blustering in Jewry was so far from being an Euroclydon to overturn to the Packet-boats, or a cross Wind to stop Intelligence; as it proved as fair a gale as could blow, to wast over the knowledge of what fell out there touching our Saviour, into the rest of the Empire, and render∣ed it still less possible to the Apostles to delude the World; to whose Do∣ctrine, had it been the wild Oats of their own Invention, these blasts would have proved a fanning Wind, and have scatter'd it as chaff before them.

1. For these Stirs, being about Religion, (Christo impulsore) as Suetonius states them, (Sueton. Claud. 25.) [Judaeos, impulsore Christo, assiduè tumultu∣antes Roma expulit,] the blind man stumbling upon the true sence of Christ's Menace (I am come to send fire on the Land;) or as Lysias states them to A∣grippa, Questions, Altercations, Debates touching their own Superstition, and one Jesus; administred occasion, to those that were interested in taking cognizance of these Debates, to bring those matters to the severest Test. While the Jew clamoured against the Christian, as unworthy to live, and impleaded him at the Bar of the Roman Ministers of State; and the Impe∣rial Law prohibited the proceding against the accused (indictâ causâ) [Lex Sempronia; nè quis indictâ causâ] (Cicero pro Cluentio) till he had been heard what he could say for himself: the Roman Magistrates, before whom these Contests were determinable, are necessitated to bring the Antagonists face to face, and to hear the Business in question disputed pro & con. by Plaintiff and Defendant, by Jew and Christian. (Act. 25. 16.) It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die (to grant this favour to the Plain∣tiff, that the Defendant should be be given up to ruin; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉)

before he be permitted to speak for himself, having his ad∣versaries face to face.

Thus Lysias the chief Captain finding all Jerusalem in an uproar about St. Paul. though (in a prejudicate Passion) he had examin'd him at first by scourging; yet repenting of that way of process to find out what the matter was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, (Act. 22. 30.) for which the Jews cried so against him, as not justifiable by the Imperial Law; the morrow af∣ter, that he might know the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he commanded his accusers, the chief Priests and all their Council, to appear and draw their accusation against him: And brought St. Paul down, and set him before them to make his defence. By which way of hearing, both he and Festus came to know the state of the Question controverted betwixt the Jew and Christian to have been about Jesus, whom the Jews affirmed to be dead, but St. Paul maintained to be risen from the dead, and to be alive, (Act. 23. 29. 25, 20.)

Thus Felix, though he had a mind to do the Jews a pleasure, and make St. Paul pay his old scores he had run himself into, by his pillaging that Nation, and cast him, as a bolus, into the mouth of that Cerberus which was open'd against him in complaints to the Court of Rome, yet so well does St. Paul manage his Cause before him, as he durst not deliver him up to their fury, having, by hearing St. Paul defend himself and his Religion in the presence of his Adversaries, attain'd to a more perfect knowledge of the Chri∣stian way than he had before; (Act. 22. 24.)

Thus Agrippa, though so passionate an affector of Judaism, as he fell down in a dead swoon at the feet of Caligula, while he was venting his Choler a∣gainst it: and when he came again to himself, protested to his Physicians, standing about him and officiating about his recovery, that nothing made him content to live, but some faint hopes that his life might be serviceable to that poor Nation; and (to make those words good) as soon as his trembl∣ing hand could hold a Pen, he writ an Apology for them unto Caesar. (Philo Jud. de legatione ad Caium.) Yet this Agrippa (bribed for the Plaintiff by so violent a zeal) upon hearing Festus make report of the issue of the Trial before him, and St. Paul's allegations in his own defence, had like to have given Sentence for Christian Religion against the Jewish, being almost perswaded to become a Christian, and did give Sentence for St. Paul against his Adversaries: This man hath done nothing worthy of bonds, much less of death: but might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed to Caesar. (Act. 26. 28, 32.)

The further we pursue this Instance, the clearer footsteps we see it leave of this Truth, that the Broils in Judea made the Gospel more conspicuons. For if we trace St. Paul's Cause to the Gates of Rome, and thence to Caesar's Tri∣bunal; the ratling of his Chain there makes the Gospel more famous, (Phil. 2▪ 12, 13.) alarms the Court to make more dilgent enquiry into those con∣tingencies in Judea concerning Christ; for maintaining the Truth whereof St. Paul was accused of the Jews and had appealed unto Caesar; before whom for St. Paul to have stood in defence of what he had taught, had been an Act of most temerarious madness, if it had been in the power of the most viru∣lent and vigilant Adversaries, by bringing his Doctrine to a scrutiny, (and that before Judges disaffected to it) to have fastened upon it the least imputa∣tion, or but suspicion, of Forgery.

§ 3. The Judean Commotions drew the Imperial Eagle to fix her pierce∣ing Eye more narrowly upon Emergencies there, as things of highest concern to the interest of the Roman State.

That famous Eastern Prophecy, That some about that time should appear in Judea, who, with that Crown on his head, should trample all others under his feet, gave so lowd a Report, as the sound of it awaken'd both East and West to an expectation of its accomplishment. Though Josephus, Tacitus, Sueta∣nius,

and that nameless Interpreter of the Sybilline Oracles (in Tully's second Book de Divinatione) mist it as well as Virgil in the Application of that Pro∣phecy; Tully's Interpreter applying it to Caesar, to whom he advised the Senate to give the Title of King, if they consulted the good of the Roman State and of themselves, (Cicer. Divin. l. 2. pag. 250. 251.) [quorum inter∣pres dicturus in Senatu putabatur, eum quem revera regem habebamus, appel∣landum quoque esse regem, si salvi esse vellemus;—ut quidvis potiùs ex illis libris proferant quàm regem; quem Romae posthac nec dii, nec homines esse pati∣entur.] Virgil to Asinius Pollio; Suetonius to the Emperour of Rome indefi∣nitely (Sueton. Vespas. 4.) [quantum eventu patuit id de Imperatore Romane praedictum.] Tacitus and Josephus to Vespasian and Titus (Joseph. Bell. Jud. 7. 12.) (Tacit. hist. 5.) [antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri eo ipso tempore—quae ambages Vespasianum & Titum praedixerunt.] Yet this Triumvirate of judicious Historians mentioning it, as an ancient, universal, and and unin∣terrupted Tradition, argues it to have been famously known at Rome (Su••∣ton. Vesp. 4. [percrebuit vetus & constans opinio toto Oriente esse in fatis—] where if the repute of it had not been as great as its sound, they would not have ventur'd to fasten the accomplishment of it upon such eminent Persons: Nor durst those Fortune-tellers in Suetonius have attempted to corroborate Nero's heart, against those cold Qualms came over it, through fear of his loss of Empire (threatned by the Calculaters of his Nativity) with the hope of obtaining Judeas Crown, and, with it, the Sovereignty of the World: Nor would Nero have been inclin'd to those hopes of advancement to the sole and absolute Supremacy, not only over the Earth, but Sea; which he was wont to express, in telling his most intimate friends, that he expected to have that Homage paid him by the Finny Inhabitants of the Ocean, as the Fish would bring to shore those precious treasures he had lost by ship∣wrack. (Sueton. Nero 40.) [Sposponderunt tamen ei destituto ordinationem O∣rientis: nounulli nominatim Regnum Hierosolymorum:—cui spei pro∣nior.—]

Weekly Intelligencers, Monthly Prognosticators, that write to the capa∣cities of the easily-seduced Vulgar,

(Plebeium in circo positum est, at{que} aggere fatum)

may quote Merlin or Mother-Shiptons Prophecies; may, for the incourage∣ment of that Party they are bribed to induce into vain hopes, urge the be∣lief of that German Oracle with the stinging Tail,

—Vulpes, Leo, Nullus—

May apply the Vulpes to a Prince of the most candid Open-heartedness that ever liv'd; the Leo, to the Meekest Lamb that ever was led to slaughter, save that Lamb of God, whose steps he followed: and yet obtain that be∣lief at the Rabbles hand, as shall put them upon venturing Life and Limb, Estate, Body and Soul, in being instrumental towards the fulfilling of them. The Bull-ringle Astrologer (if I may not be thought to tread heavy on Eu∣nius his Grave in that Translation of his (de Circo Astrologus) may transcribe the Millenary Prophecy (out of Alsted) [quum Deus constituet in Septentrione, per Leonem septentrionalem magna cum admiratione illorum qui divinam Apo∣calypsin & harmoniam illam quam hîc exserto digito monstramus nihili faciunt:] (Alsted. Chron. 88. axiom. 6.) of a Lion of the North that should do wonders and bring to full effect, whatsoever our whimsical Commenters dream of: (who if they fall asleep with the Apocalypse in their hand, or but under their Pillow, they awake Prophets, inspired with ten times more Visions than ever St. John saw) and apply that Lion to him, that proves a dead Lion before that years Almanack be out of Date (as Lilly did to the then King of Sweden.) Yet in the mean while, he shall so lord it over the faith of the

ductil people, as in the expecting the blessings of Heaven, they will nei∣ther set their faces with the Persian, to the warm mid-day-sun; nor with the Jew, to the West; nor with the Christian, to the East; but with the Loadstone, to the North: being in this (as in all things else) singular and cross to all men, looking that ab Aquilone should come their chief good, whence all others expect nothing but cold Blasts and the worst of Evils.

But what legitimate Historian did ever apply, to well-settled Princes, Prophecies that were not of undoubted Credit? (It could not but add to the esteem of Daniel's Prophecy, that Jaddus should tell Alexander the Great, out of Daniel, that a Grecian Prince should subdue the Persian Mo∣narchy; which Alexander interpreting of himself, it fell out accordingly; (Joseph. Ant, 11. 8.) Or what Prince, that had a just Title to his own, was ever induc'd to grasp at a foreign Crown, upon suggestions taken up out of the high way. That Oracle, therefore, which this Pair-royal of incompa∣rable Historians (both for Prudence and Sincerity) do with joynt consent apply to such Royal Persons, the application of which to themselves those Persons shew no disgust against, but a relishing of; must have been a Nail fastened by Masters of Assemblies so deep in Roman minds, as rendred it a sure Nail, and able to bear all the weight they hang upon it; and of such repute and esteem, as to engage the Empire to cast a watchful Eye over the Occurrences in Judea (the place assigned for the appearance of this great King of Kings) even from the first dawning of of that time which they conceived the Oracle pointed at: and an evil and envious Eye upon the Preachers of the Gospel, from that time they began to publish the accom∣plishment of it in our Jesus. Of both which points we have sufficient Evi∣dence in those historical Tables, wherein we have the Complexion of that Age drawn by the Pagans Pencils.

§ 4. First, That the Roman State had a strict Eye upon that Prophecy and (upon its account) on the Judean Affairs, from the time that the Commence∣ment of it was suspected to bear Date, and its Effects to take place, may be gathered from the appearance of those great Spirits, in that nick of time, the like of whom the Roman Earth had not produc'd in that long Tract of preceding Ages, as to their Ambitions of settling an Universal Monarchy in their own persons. Is it not strange that the juvenile Age (as Florus calls it) of that State, which teemed with far braver Spirits in all other respects, brought not forth a Caesar or a Pompey, who could not brook either Superiour or Equal? but that Persons of that temper must be reserved for the confines of that season, wherein one was to be born who should Lord it over the World? Was it through the defect of favourable Constellations, or not rather through the Influence of the Prophecy concerning the the Star of Jacob, that the Blood of Ancus Martius ran down so many Generations, before it could make so happy a Conjunction with the Blood of Venus (running from Aene∣as, in the Veins of the Julian Family) as to produce a Caesar; one whom no∣thing could content but to be (in Martial's phrase) omnia solus, in plain English, King of the Company? Let the Star-gazer try his skill here, in Calculating the Nativities of Caesar and his Progenitors: and if, in compar∣ing their Schemes, he find any so material Difference as this, that they were born before, but he after the divulging of this Propheey, he shall be my great Apollo. In the interim I shall take the boldness to opine, that that famous Oracle was the Soul of their Courage, the Mark of their Ambition.

2. In which Opinion I am no little confirm'd, when I observe how these Candidates for the Universal Monarchy, Pompey, Caesar, Augustus, M. Anthony, &c. courted the Jews good will (just as they did the Peoples of Rome when they stood in Competition for Offices at their disposal) with Indulgences un∣usual to be conferr'd upon Nations far better deserving (for all that fidelity

and service of theirs to the Romans, upon which Josephus grounds those favours, being in that more partial to his Country-men, than in any other passage of his History; for of all Nations they bare the Roman Yoak with most Impatience:) and with such fawning obsequiousness, as was scarce be∣coming either the Majesty of the Roman State, or the loftinefs of those Mens Minds, whom the ambitious hopes of obtaining the Penelope of an U∣niversal Monarchy spur'd on to those daring engagements against the whole World; and when their united force had conquer'd that, against one another: had they not conceived that the readiest Expedient to gain the Mistress, was to obtain the good Will of the Handmaid; that he who was to be King of Clubs in the World (to rule it with a Rod of Iron) must first be King of Hearts in Jewry, and sit upon the Hill of Sion, with a golden Sceptre of Benevolence reached out as a Lure to their Affections, as a mean to obtain from the Jews an Opinion that he loved their Nation, and was therefore wor∣thy of the highest honours that could be heap'd upon him. And had not this Conceit been taken up and cherished, partly by their misinterpreting [Oriundus] in the Prophecy, as not importing that that King of Kings was to have in Judea a Natural Birth, as a man, but a Civil one, as a Monarch: This is manifest from their applying this Prophecie to Vespasian, who was not born Man in Judea, but only there proclaim'd, or (as Josephus more sutably to the Roman Notion stiles it) created Emperour. By this Oracle (saith he) was manifestly portended the Empire of Vespasian, who was Creat∣ed Emperour in Judea. (Bel. Jud. 7. 12.) For in very deed he was proclaim∣ed Empercur before, by the Legion of Maesia which was sent to aid Otho: who hearing he had lost the day, and kill'd himself, march'd on neverthe∣less, plundering and spoiling, as far as Apuleia: and fearing at their return they should be called to an account, they elect Vespasian Emperour; but this, saith Suetonius was not reputed legal: and therefore Vespasian would not date the beginning of his Reign from that, but from Tiberius Alexander his proclaiming him, and making the Legions take the Oath of Allegiance. (Sue∣ton, Vespasian. 6.) But this was in Egypt; how can he then be said to be cre∣ated Emperour in Judea? Suetonius helps us to unty this Knot, with a two-fold Note: First, his proclaiming in Egypt and Judea were so near con∣temporaries, as the difference was indiscernable; that in Egypt being on the Calends of July; that in Judea the 5. of the Ides: or as Tacitus dates it, the Nones of the same Month (Histor. 2.) that is, but one day betwixt them; however, Aegypt got the start of Judea by so much. Yea, but secondly, the Egyptian Legions proclaimed him his absence; he was present and in the Head of the Judean Regiments, when he was proclaimed by them. (Suet. Vespas. 6.) Observe here what shifts the Writers of that Age were put to, that they might make the Prophecy fit Vespasian, as one that was born, not Man, but Monarch, in that place which the Oracle assigned for him, that was to be sole Lord of the World.

The wresting of the Prophecy to this sence was one of those Wings which bore up the contenders for the Universal Monarchy, in their pursuit after the favour of the Jews and Jewish Legions. The other was the art the Jews had to dub any one a Jew, whom they pleased; to adopt into Abraham's Line, those that came not from the Loyns of Abraham, and by that means to quali∣fie him for the Rule of the Universe, who could creep into their favour. [Other men who are not Jews born, if they live after their Law, are called Jews:] saith Dion, an Historian, so far from favouring either Jew or Chri∣stian, as on the same page (speaking of our God) he saith, whatsoever God he be, (Dion. l. 37.) Of which Art they gave a notable Experiment upon Herod Agrippa; who bursting out into tears, at his hearing that passage of the Law read, [Thou shalt set one of thy brethren King over thee, and not a stran∣ger] (Deuteron. 17. 15.) was cheared by this general Acclamation of the Synagogue, Be of good chear, King Agrippa, thou art our Brother; (Light∣foot harm. 130.) our Brother on the surer side, by Religion, though not by

Blood. A Brother of this Make was Herod the Great, whom some Jews took for the Messiah (Euseb. chronic. ex Epiphanio, lib. 1. tom. har. 20.) conceiv∣ing that his being a Proselyte in Religion (though an Edomite by birth) did sufficiently qualifie him; and concluding that the Sceptre being now departed (as indeed it was in the Vulgar sence) from Juda, the full time of Messiah's Exhibition was come, according to Jacob's Prophecy: a Conclusion cannot be avoided, except we take the two Clauses of that Prophecy conjunctim, and interpret the departure of the Sceptre, to denote the final Extirpation and Unpeopling of that Nation; that is Judah shall not cease to be a Com∣monwealth, till Messiah come and the Gentiles be gathered to him. (But of this elsewhere.)

Upon these two Principles, [It is enough to qualifie a person for the U∣niversal Monarchy, that he be created Emperour in Judea; or the utmost which the Prophecy requires is, that he who gains that prize be a Jewish Proselyte:] they that ran in this Race strain'd hard to obtain the good will of the Jews, andto be esteemed favourers of them and their Religion. To the obtaining whereof, how far those Roman Competitors proceded, Jose∣phus expresseth at large, in that whole Chapter, whose Title is, Of the Ho∣nours confer'd upon the Jews by the Romans (Antiq. 14. 17.) And how far Julius Caesar, by name, had obliged that Nation, appears from Suetonius (Julius 84.) his ranking the Jews as chief Mourners, of all Foreigners, at his Obsequies, continuing many nights and days to frequent his Sepulchre, with grievous lamentations, as if the anointed of the Lord (shall I say) or their anointed Lord, the breath of their Nostrils; of whom they said, under his shadow we shall grow up into the promised Kingdom, had been snatch'd away from them. Augustus came not much behind him in this Race, nor Tiberius; witness Philo [Augustus jussit è suis ipsius reditibus offerri quotidie victimas, viz. tuurum & agnos duos; sinebat Judaeos solos coetus facere, &c.] Augustus com∣manded that the daily sacrifices should be offer'd, to wit, an Oxe and two Lambs at his own charge; he permitted the Jews alone liberty of publick assembling, &c. Tiberius at the Jews intreaty caused Pilate to remove the consecrated Shields out of his Palace; and during his whole Reign protected the Religion of the Jews. [Julia Augusta ornavit Templum hoc aureis phialis, calicibus & aliis donis plurimis & pretiosissimis: cùm habeas tot exempla domestica optimae erga nos voluntatis—serva quae illi omnes ad unum conservarunt (Agrippae apologia:) (Philo Jud. legatione, pag. 647.) And Julia Augusta, adorn'd the Temple of Jerusalem with golden Vials, Cups, and many other most precious gifts seing therefore (saith Agrippa in his Apology) you have so many home examples of good will to the Jews, be you also benevolent to them, as every one of your pre∣decessors were.

§ 5. That those Competitors had in their Eye, and were animated to those stupendious Undertakings by, the Eastern Oracle; at least made use of the Worlds Credulity in that point, towards the establishing themselves in the Empire: grows upon me almost into an Article of Humane Faith, when I ponderate the Arts they used to bring the World into a perswasion, that they were men pointed at from Heaven, as more than men, and destined to Honours beyond humane Capacity.

Such was Julius his deriving his Pedigree, on his Mothers side, from Ancus Martius; on his Father's side, from the Immortal Gods. (Suet. Jul. 6.) [est ergo in genere & sanctitas Regum & ceremonia Deorum.

Such was the Dream he had (the night after he had bedewed Alexander's Image, in the Temple of Hercules, with tears, for that he was arrived at those years at which Alexander had conquer'd the World, and had done no∣thing worthy of memory) of committing Incest with his Mother: which the Fortune-tellers interpreted to prognosticate his obtaining Dominion o∣ver the whole Globe of the Earth, our common Mother, (Id. ib. 7.) [Con∣jectores ad amplissimam spem iucitaverunt, arbitrium Orbis terrarum portendi in∣terpretantes.]

Such was his teaching his Horse to endure no Rider but himself, and his erecting his Statue before the Temple of his Great-great grandmother Venus; that from thence he might make a publick show of his Hoof, which, being cleft like a man's into Toes, the Southsayers affirmed to point out (I was almost saying with the finger) his Master to be that person to whom the Empire of Mankind was destined, (Id. ibid. 61.) [eùm haruspices imperium orbis terratum significare pronunciassent, ejus instar pro aede Veneris genetricis dedicavit.] He had seen, belike, the Septuagint, which translates that Passage of the Eastern Prophecy (Zech, 9. 9.) Thy king comes riding upon (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) the son of an Ass, and therefore thought that Beast upon which the King of Sion was to ride, was to be some strange Monster, and in some of his Limbs to resemble a Man: and his mistaking [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,] an Ass for a Horse, was but a taking of that word in its largesence, wherein, according to its Etymon (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) it signifies any Beast that's serviceable for Man's use, (jumentum qùa∣si juvamentum:) not near so hard a Translation, as the Syriack gives the Verb in the same sentence (if Scultetus have rendred it right) equitavit su∣per asinum, he sat on horse-back upon an Ass. And yet (as if he would be sure not to miss the sence of that Oracle) the first days journey he made in his expedition to conquer the World, he performed on Mules (Asses Colts on the surer side.) (Suit. Jul. 31.) [dein, post solis occasum, Mulis è proximo pistrino ad vehiculum junctis iter ingressus.]

Such was (that I may follow him to Rubicon, whither he's hastning, as fast as his slow-pac'd Mules can carry him) the Story of a Triton appearing there to him, who snatching a Trumpet from one of his Soldiers, sounded a March over that River; while Caesar stoo'd musing on its Banks, and disput∣ing with himself whether he had best procede or retire, (as if he had been waiting for a messenger's voice to prepare his way) (Id. ibid. 32.) [cunctanti tale ostentum factum—tunc Caesar, eatur, inquit, quò Deorum ostenta vocant: jacta est alea. While he demurr'd the Vision appeared; whereupon Caesar gives this word to his Army, let us go whither the Gods call us, by this strange messen∣ger: the Die is now cast.

Such was his procuring the Interpreter of the Sybilline Oracles to make a Motion in the Senate, that, if they wish'd well to themselves, they would confer upon Caesar the Title of King: for that Sybil had sung, that he, who was to bring the whole World to his obedience, was to be a King, (de divin. 2. 251. [eum quem revera regem habebamus, appellandum quoque esse regem, si salvi esse vellemus.] upon which Tully makes this reflexion, [quidvis potiùs ex i••is libris proferant quàm regem, quem Romae posthac nec dii nec homines esse pati∣entur;] let them alledge those Oracles for any thing they will, rather than for a King; for though Caesar was indeed our King, and did really play the Rex o∣ver us, yet the name of King is grown so odious since the Tarquins, as neither Gods nor men will permit it to take place at Rome. This Sibylline Interpre∣ter could be••no other but either Anthony (the Flamen Dialis Caesaris) who saluted him King, and set a Diadem on his head, in the name of S. P. Q. R. which Caesar commanded to be set on Jupiter's head: this was a made busi∣ness between him and his Flamen (Dion, hist. lib. 44.) Or L. Cotta. [pro∣ximo autem Senatu L. Cottam quindecim-virum, sententiam dicturum; ut, quo∣niam libris fatalibus continetur, Parthos, nisi à rege non posse vinci, Caesar rex appellaretur:] (Sueton. Julius 29,).

Upon which Passages, both because I have not (in my small reading) ob∣served them to have been taken notice of by any; and yet (in my weak judg∣ment) they give in the most clear and full proof of that point I am now handling, and serve to the justifying of the Ancients, against the Exceptions of over-wise Modern Criticks, in many things of good use; I shall make bold to make these Animadversions.

1. This place of Tully vindicates the Fathers from the calumny of using pi∣o••s fraud in their quoting of Sibyls Verses concurrence with Scripture-prophecy touching the Messiah; for that the Acrosticks which the Fathers urged were

in being before Christ's Incarnation, and therefore not forged by the Chri∣stian Church, is manifest, from Tully's excepting against that kind of Verse, (wherein the Prophecy of one to arise that should be King of Kings, was writ) as savouring more of humane Industry than of Divine Inspiration. [Ea, quae 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 dicitur, mag••s est attenti animi quàm furentis. Atqui in Sibyllinis cu∣jus{que} sententiae primis literis illius sententiae carmen omne praetexitur; hoc scripto∣ris est non furentis; adhibentis diligentiam, non nisum.] Those Acrosticks St. Austin translates (tom. 6. contr. Judae. pag. orat. page 27.) whose first letters of every Verse make [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.]

2. Here we have the Imperfection of the most sacred Oracles that were committed to the Heathen-world, in comparison of those God concredited to the Jews; even there where they handle the same Subject: For our Scri∣pture Oracles not only foretel of one to be King of Kings (as an individuum vagum) but express the Place, the Time of his Appearance, the Line he is to come of, &c. But these of Sibyl neither describe Time nor Place nor Stock, saith Lactantius, (de vera sapient. l. 4. c. 15.) [denunciabant enim monstrosa quaedam miracula quorum nec ratio nec author nec tempus designaba∣tur.] And Tully in the place forequoted, [Hoc si est in libris, in quem hominem, & in quod tempus est? callidè enim qui illa composuit, perfecit, ut quodcunque accidisset, praedictum videretur, hominum & temporum definitione sublatâ:] If there be such a Prophecy, of what man or what time is it spoken? for the com∣poser hath subtilly left out the mention of such circumstances. And therefore that Circumstance [that he should arise in Judea] the Romans had not out of Sibyls Books, which had been many hundred years in their custody, but out of the Oriental Tradition (fama per Orientem;) from whence also they had the Description of the time, when or when abouts this King was to ap∣pear, (circa id tempus.)

3. Hence I observe, that that Interpreter of Sybil, expounded her Oracles by the help of the Eastern; for thus Cicero writes: [Quorum interpres nuper falsa quaedam hominum fama dicturus in Senatu, &c.] that is, he misinterpreted Sibyl, by expounding her Oracles according to that common fame which was noised in the East; and so ratified the Eastern Oracle, that is the Jewish, and a strange Religion; which he taxeth those kind of Expositors for, in these words: [Valeántque ad deponendas potiùs quàm ad suscipiendas Religiones:] they should rather be interpreted to the abandoning than the advantage of strange Religions; or rather not be read at all, but kept hid, except when the Senate commands them to be search'd, in order to the diversion of the divine displea∣sure; which was the only use our forefathers made of them: as his next words import; [Sibyllam quidem sepositam & conditam habeamus, ut id quod prodi∣tum est à majoribus; ni jussu Senatus, nè legantur quidem libri.]

4. That Caesar's using this stratagem to procure to himself the Title of King, by an Argument drawn from the danger would otherwise accrew to the Ro∣mans (si salvi esse vellemus) that is, by threatning them with an expectation, that some Nation or other would have the wit to take hold of the opportunity; and, now that the whole World was expecting the accomplishment of that Prophe∣cy, would tender a Person to the Romans themselves to be their King, if they did not in this particular get the start of other States, and therefore it would be their wisest course to change the name of Dictator into that of King; this strate∣gem (I say) of Caesar, was looked upon by Cicero to be of that consequence & ten∣dency, to the over-turning of that Form of Government, under which that City had grown up to those dimensions of Greatness; and to the Introducti∣on of Monarchy, as that Commonwealths-man thinks it worth the while to obviate those Pretences, by invalidating the Authority of all Oracles, and by charging the Antistites, to whose custody those Oracles were commit∣ted, that they would (as the better Ages before them had done) still keep them still secret, and not permit the People of Rome to be sollicited, by Arguments drawn from thence, to think of changing the Government, and bringing in a new Form. To dispatch at once this Point of the Sibylline

Oracles; I find a great deal of pudder about them, both under Augustus and Tiberius, which (I think) must be imputed to Julius his troubling those wa∣ters, in his fishing for the Title of King out of them: (Tacitus. annal. lib. 6. 125.) which in effect he obtained; for he came into the Senate in Scarlet, after the guise of the Alban Kings. The Senate gave him the Title of Re∣deemer, and ordered a temple to be built and dedicated to Liberty, with this Inscription on his Ivory Statue [The Unconquerable God] and that his Image should be erected in the Capitol by the ancient K. standing upon the Globe of the World, with this Inscription; Semideus est. (Dion. 43.) Hinc illae lacrymae in Tully. And truly, when I diligently read through his two Books of Divination, he seems to have had no other Scope in his whole Treatise, than to prevent those destructive (as he thought) Alterati∣ons of Polity, which the belief of Sibyls Prophecy and the Eastern Fame, would incline the City to, if their great Commanders were suffered to tread in Caesar's steps, and to urge the belief of them (upon the Senate) and their Authority, in order to the restoring of the so long-since exploded Kingly Government.

§ 6. But Tully washeth the Ethiopian, while he seeks to eradicate the belief of this Prophecy out of the minds of the People; or to disswade the Great Ones from giving out themselves for the persons pointed at in this Oracle. For though Augustus rejected the Title of Lord (as also that of Emperour) and made shew, once, of deposing the Imperial Crown; yet in those pretensions to humility, this Politick Prince set his face counter to the Stairs towards which he rowed, and as to his ambition of the Universal Crown, his History is far more fertile of such like stratagems than Julius's. Sue∣tonius reckons no less than 17 Prodigies, which spoke Augustus to be a person de∣sign'd by Heaven for that Universal Monarchy, or something equivalent to it. I shall name those only which bear manifest prints of the Oriental Prophecy.

The Velitri had an old Tradition, that a Citizen of theirs should, in pro∣cess of time, gain the possession of the whole World: (quandóque rerum po∣titurum) the very words whereby both Suetonius and Tacitus express the sence of the Eastern Oracle;) the Devil being in this God's Ape, and by this animating them to wage War with the Romans, till their striving for a dead Horse (as the Jews in Vespasians Wars) had brought them to the brink of ruin, and would utterly have destroyed them, if they had not at last been perswad∣ed, that that Respond portended the Sovereignty of Augustus, who was educated though not born amongst them, (Suet. Octav, 94,) [Penè ad exi∣tium suicum populo R. belligeraverant: serô tandem documentis apparuit, osten∣tum illud Augusti potentiam portendisse.] Observe, still, how the Roman writers stretch the Sence of [Oriundus.]

Julius Marathus relates (and Suetonius from him) that, some Months be∣fore the Birth of Augustus, a Prodigy was seen at Rome, and heard to de∣clare, that Nature was teeming with one who should be King of the Ro∣mans: [Prodigium Romae factum publicè, quo denunciabatur Regem pop. R. naturam parturire, &c.] at which the Senators were so dismaid, as a Vote had like to have past (upon the same score that Herod slew the Bethlemitish Children) to put to death all the Males that should be born that year: but that the Senators, whose Wives were big bellied, in hope that their Issue might attain that honour, hindred the promulgation of it.

His Mother Atia made report (which Suetonius saith he read in Asclepia∣des Mendetes his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) how Apollo cuckolded her Husband Octa∣vius, by his Proxie, a Dragon (sacred to him) creeping into her bed, and committing with her, while she was celebrating his, nightly Rites. (Augustum natum mens•• decimo, & ob id Apollinis filium existimatum, &c.) Of the truth whereof she produced this Evidence, that from that time she had a Mole, in form of a Dragon, imprest so in grain upon her Body, as it could not by any art be obliterated: in remembrance of which, and in token that

Nero was of Apollo's Line, his Mother Agrippina made him wear a Bracelet of Snake-Skin on his Right Arm; which those whom Messalina sent to murther him in his Bed, thinking to be a Snake indeed, they ran away affrighted, not daring to lay violent hands upon him whom they deemed, by that sight, to be under Apollo's Protection. (Sueton. Nero 6.) An exact Transcript of those Lines in the Oriental Prophecy, that describe him that was to be King of Na∣tions, to be the Son of God: only we may observe here the prints of his cloven Foot, whose Interest it is to disturb the right order of Sacred Prophe∣cies, by jumbling together into one Mass its most Heterogeneal Parts; by joyning, in this Omen, in one Person, the Womans and the Serpents Seed.

The same Atia, while she was with Child of Augustus, dreamt that she saw her Entrails trailing round about the Earth, and the whole Circumference of Heaven: and her Husband, that he saw a Sun-beam dart out of her Womb (Suetonius Octav. 94.) [Explicari per omnem terrarum caelique ambitum.] Fan∣cies injected into them from those Passages in the Eastern Prophecy, that deli∣neate the King of the Jews in Colours borrowed from the Sun, sending forth his Light, drawing out his Line to the ends of the World.

P. Nigidius, (on that Day wherein Catiline's Conspiracy was discust,) ob∣serving his Father Octavius to come tardy to the Senate (as having been de∣tained at home till his Wife was brought a Bed of Augustus) enquiring the Hour, and Calculating his Nativity, affirmed with much Vehemency, [Do∣minum terrarum orbi natum.] (Sueton. ibid) that a Child born that hour would become Lord of the Universe (Nigidius, in Calculating the time of King Messiah's Birth, shot not so wide of the Mark set by Daniel, as many of our commentators do, who have the Accomplishment of his Prophecy to give them aim: (Vide Meed, Daniels Weeks.)

A like Prediction Octavius received from the Thracian Priests, of whom he asked the Fortune of his Son; and was confirmed in the Beleif of it when the Day following his Son (or the Devil in his shape) appeared to him, in a Form more August than that of a Mortal, with a Scepter, a Thunder-bolt, and o∣ther of Jove's Accoutrements, as if he had been his express Image.

I shall shut up the Legend of Augustus with the Dreams of Cicero, (an Ene∣my both to Dreams and Monarchy) yet he, the first time he took Notice of Augustus, (but then a Youth) affirmed he had, the Night before, seen such a Boy as that standing at the Gate of the Capitol, to whom Jupiter gave a Whip: And of Quintus Catulus, who saw Jove deliver to him the Seal of the Common-wealth, take him into his Bosom, present him to the Noble Youths as the Umpirer of all Controversies, and lifting his own hand up to his Mouth after Augustus had kissed it, Manifest Transcripts of those Texts, wherein the Messiah is presented as one whom we must hear, whom we must kiss; as one in the bosom of the Father, and to whom is committed the Key of the House of David, &c. wherewith, if those Persons had not been preoccupated, and either read, or heard them in the Day, it could never have come into Mens Minds, in the Night, to dream at this rate: Neither can there be a better Reason given, why the Romans should feign, fancy, and fasten such things as these upon their Emperours; than that they might, by these Lures, draw the Eyes of the World to expect the fulfilling of the Eastern Prophecy in these Persons.

§ 7. But of the same Mint came those Presages which were coyned con∣cerning Tiberius. Such as that of the famous Mathematician Scribonius, who while Tiberius was yet a Child, promised great things of him; and amongst others, this, that he should be a King without Kingly Ensigns or Badges of Royalty. Suetonius (Tiberius, 8.) imputes the later part of this Prediction to the Author's not being acquainted with the Grandeur of the Caesars: but in reason it should be father'd upon his acquaintance with the Oriental Pro∣phecy, which presents the King of Kings his coming without external Pomp.

And that of Livia, who casting many Figures to find out whether she was with Child of a Boy or Girl, among the rest, took an Egge from under an Hen, which in her own and Maids bosome she hatch'd, till there came forth a cristed Bird, a young Cock, that must teach the old ones to crow up Ti∣berius to be that white one, that Darling of Fortune, to whom the Fates had decreed the universal Crown: A Crown which the East held in her hand for him; of which he received an assurance, when the sacred Fire kindl∣ed of its own accord upon the Altars at Philippi (dedicated to the memory of the conquering Legions) as he passed by them in his Eastern Expedition into Syria. (Suetonius ibid.) The likeliest piece of Leger-de-main the Serpent could possibly play, to fascinate that Region into a belief that he was their promised King; among whom, answering by Fire had formerly been reput∣ed a final Determination of the Contest betwixt God and Baal; and in whose Records, Fire is frequently mention'd as a Precursor to the Exhibition of their Messias.

To this that story is akin, of the appearance of Fire issuing out of his Tu∣nick while he lay at Rhodes: an Omen far before the Eagles liting upon the top of his House, and not inferiour to the lucky chance he had at Passage, for the umpiring of that grand Question then in the World, which of the Pretenders was the true Heir to the Universal Crown? saving that those flash∣es were transient; but the Golden Die, which he cast into Apon's Well, by the advice of Gerious Oracle, was in the days of Suetonius (as himself testifies) to be seen in the bottom of the Water, presenting uppermost the highest number.

What needed all this ado to render these persons, in the repute of the World, fit to wear the Diadem, as being more than men; but that the World had learn'd, by the Eastern Prophecy, that he whose due it was, was to be God-man: or, in the Roman Phrase,—Chara Deum soboles: what need was there to draw the Lions Skin upon these Emperours, but to make them look like the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, to make the Pagan Emperour, that mock Christ; the eldest Son of Perdition, be taken for the Christ, the King of Kings. Let me here observe the policy of this Vafrous wit Tiberius to se∣cure the Judaean Crown from the surprisal of others, but especially of the Jews themselves; after the History of our Saviour was come to light (for Jo∣sephus hints that Stratagem as laid after Christs passion) from whom, and Sue∣tonius (his Tiberius 36.) we learn, that Tiberius (notwithstanding the love he pretended to that Nation, commended upon that account by Philo,) practised to weaken the Strength, and abate the courage of the Jews, by distributing their Youth, under pretence of training them up in Martial Discipline, into Provinces far distant from Judaea, and colder Climates; four Thousand of which, for instance, were sent into Sardis: why this pretence? but to cloak his drift from the Jews Eyes, whose Favour he thought was necessary, in or∣der to his being born King of the Jews when time serv'd: and why must that Nations strength be thus weaken'd by dispersing their Youth through the Provinces? but to prevent their snatching at the Eastern Monarchy.

Galba (for to produce the Arts which every Emperour used, of this tenden∣cy, would be an abuse of my Readers Patience) was invited by Vindex to the accepting of the Empire, in words as fully expressing the Eastern Prophecy, as the Tongue of man can utter: Ut humano generi assertorem ducemque se accommodaret (Sueton. Galba, 9.) that he would lend himself to Man-kind as its Saviour and Leader: And encouraged to undertake it, by an Oracle as like that of God's, touching his Christ, as if they both had come out of the same Mouth, but that the Drivel of the Serpent bewrays its Original in alter∣ing the Scene, in putting Spain in the room of Jury. The sence of the O∣racle (saith Suetonius) was this: That one was to arise out of Spain who was to be Prince and Lord over all. Observe, by the way, the Roman Sence of Oriundus, (of which before) for Galba came not out of Spain as a Native; but that being his Province, there he first erected his Emperial Standard: and

withal, the Craft of Galba, in taking the advantage of this utmost Western Province its distance from the East, to impose upon the Legions there resid∣ing this gloss of the Oriental Oracle; that that Person, whose coming the whole World was expecting, was to come out of Spain. But to return to our Spanish Oracle; this was brought to him by an honest Maid, who came fortified with this Story; that a Priest of Jupiter of Cleve, admonish'd by a Dream, had haled it out of the Repository of that God's Temple, having been uttered two hundred Years ago by a Woman Prophetess. Perhaps Ma∣rius attempted to redeem Gallia with the aid of those ten Thousand Fanaticks, who esteemed that sordid Peasant a God: upon the Encouragement of the Fame of this Prophecy; his Story Tacitus relates (Histor. l. 2. pag. 310.

But what need of Conjectures, when I am oppressed with Numbers of cer∣tain and manifest Instances;

§ 8. From amongst which I shall singleout Vespasian to conclude with; because he and his Son Titus actually estated themselves in the possession of that which their Predecessors sued for, (viz.) the repute of being amor & de∣liciae humani generis (that is, in the Prophets Language) the desire of all Na∣tions; of being that King of Kings mentioned in the Prophecy: A Title con∣ferred upon them, not only by the Gentile Chronologers of that Age, but by Josephus himself, a Jew and a Priest (such wonderful Delusions was the most sober and discreet Party of the unbelieving Jews given unto) and that upon the account of those Impresses which, they conceived, Heaven had stamp'd upon them, and pointed them out by, for that Universal Monarchy.

Such was that Prodigy of the Oak sacred to Mars, and standing in the Fa∣vian Suburb, which, when it was sere, on a suddain put forth three branch∣es, at the three Births of his Mother Vespasia: the first a slender one at the Birth of her eldest Child, a Girl, who died within a Year: but the last at the Birth of Vespasian as big as a Tree; upon which, his Father Sa••inus, hav∣ing consulted the Fortune-tellers, told his Mother that she had a Grand-child born that would be Emperour: at which she nothing but laugh'd, wonder∣ing that she being, for all her Age, in perfect Memory, should have a Son grown already into his dotage (Suetonius Vespasian, 5.)

Such was the Interpretation that was made of Caligula's throwing Dirt in∣to the Lap of his Soldier's Coat: (a Punishment inflicted upon him, for his not taking Care enough, to have the Way watered and swept before him and his Army, in his Belgick Expedition) that, in process, of Time, the Earth should be cast into his Lap.

Such was the Dog's bringing to him a man's hand, the Oxe's crouching down at his feet; Cypress's rising up again, of its own accord, and flourish∣ing the next Day, after it had by the Violence of a Tempest been blow'n down, and by its own weight (in that fall) pull'd up by the Roots: they who report∣ed these things, had a mind to perswade the World, that he was the Branch growing from the withered Root of Jesse, the man, under whose Feet, God had put even Sheep and Oxen, &c.

Of the same tendency was the Respond he received in Judea from the O∣racle of God Carmelus; that whatsoever he undertook should succeed well, (Suet. Vespas. 5.) that is, in the Prophets Language; the Pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand: Heylin (Cosmography Syria, Phaenicia, 689.) thinks the Heathen called the Jews God Carmelus, from that Familiarity that Elias had with him on the Mount Carmel; and that miraculous Experiment by which he confuted Baal's Prophets there, gave them the ground of that o∣pinion, that Oracles were given there by God: If this was a Respond of the God of Israel's; he answered Vespasian, and those Jewish Priests that consult∣ed the Oracle, after their own Heart, and according to that Idol of the Mes∣siah they had set up, having rejected the substance.

But I conceive, Suetonius here hath respect to Josephus his assuring him, that he should be Emperour, and prosper in all his Undertakings, &c. (Bel.

Jud. 5. 12.) which Presages he (being a Priest) father'd upon the spirit of God's Revelation to him: of these Predictions of Josephus Suetonius (in the same place) makes mention. As also of an Eagle coming from the East, and chasing away that, which had (in the sight of the Armies) conquered ano∣ther Eagle in the Battel of Betrick; where Otho's Army was discomfited by Vitellius, and a while after Vitellius by Vespasian.

Such was his curing the blind and lame after the Physicians had in vain tryed their Skill upon them; the one with his Spittle, the other with tread∣ing upon his hand (Tacit. hist. 4. 390.) so perfect an Ape was Vespasian of our Jesus in these things, as I wonder not that he should train up his Son Titus to that exactness in the Act of Counterfeiting; as he was wont to boast, he could resemble any man's hand, and could be, if he had a mind to it, the ve∣riest Falsifyer in the World: (Suet. Tit. 3.) the true Son of such a Father, as could not only counterfeit Mens Hands, but God's Arm, that Arm that rules for him!

Whether these Stories were feigned, or true, as most of them, and those the unlikeliest, doubtless were; there being many Eye Witnesses of them alive and testifying the Truth of them long after his Death, when they had no tem∣ptation to lye, as Tacitus affirms (Histor. lib. 4.) and Suetonius his Father then serving in the Wars, as Tribune of the tenth Legion. Whether those strange things were the Effects of Satanical Power, or the Gifts of God to that Em∣perour, marking him out for that signal Service he performed against Jeru∣salem (as the excellent Doctor Juxon, if my memory fails me not, hath somewhere expressed) is not here to be discust: for it comes all to one, as to the use I make of these Relations: which I produce to prove, that by these means Vespasian came to be look'd upon as the Person pointed at in the orien∣tal Prophecy: and this is no more than is with one Mouth asserted by all those three Historians, who, in a manner, were upon the place where these things were done.

That Authority and Majesty (saith Suetonius) (Vespasian, 7.) that was wanting to Vespasian, in respect of the obscurity of his Family; was by such Omens and Prodigies made up: Authoritas, & quasi majestas quaedam, ut in∣opinato & adhuc novo principi deerat, accessit haec quoque, &c. Upon considera∣tion of the many Signs fore-shewing his Reign (saith Josephus) (Bel. Jud. 5. 12.) it was thought that Vespasian came to the Empire by God's special Provi∣dence, and that a certain just order of Fate had brought about the whole World to his Obedience. And Tacitus (Ibid. lib. 4.) writes, that by those Miracu∣lous Contingencies, the Favour of Heaven, and the Inclination of the Gods towards him was manifestly declared; and by them Vespasian was so animated, as he thought nothing impossible to him, or without the Verge of his For∣tune: Multa miracula evenere queis coelestis favor & quaedam in Vespasianum in∣clinatio numinum ostenderetur—Igitur cuncta fortunae suae patere ratus: nec quicquam últro incredibile.

CHAP. X.

The more open Practices of soaring Spirits in grasping at the Judean Crown; their hopes to obtain it, and (as to some of them) their Conceit of possessing it.

§ 1. Cleopatra's Boon begg'd of M. Antony denyed. Herod's Eye blood-shot with looking at the Eastern Prophecy. § 2. Vespasian jealous of Titus. The Eastern Monarchy the Prize contended for by both Parties in the Jewish Wars. Mild Vespasian cruel to David's Line. § 3. Domitian jealous of David's Progeny. (Genealogies. Metius Pomposianus his Genesis and Globe;) his Discourse with Christ's Kindred about Christ's Kingdom. Clan∣cular Jews brought to light. Trajan puts to death, Simeon Bishop of Jeru∣salem for being of the Royal Line. § 4. Glosses upon the Eastern Prophecy under Adrian involve the Empire in Blood, Jewry in Desolation, Fronto taxeth benumm'd Nerva for conniving at the Jew.

§ 1. THese were their secret Practices to wind themselves into the possessi∣on of the Eastern Kingdom; in all which they cast a corner of the eye, (and that which they took aim with) upon the Oriental Prophecy, and upon its account on the concern of Judea. We shall now give such Instances of their open and over-board Practices, as speak those great ones, who tra∣vell'd with the hopes of the Universal Monarchy, to have had their Eye and Ear open to every Leaf that fell there, where the Throne was to be erected.

Cleopatra expressed her extream desire of the Kingdom of Judea, in her seeking to undermine Herod's Interest in M. Antony's Affections: which when she could not effect, she attempts to ensnare Herod in the Cords of Love, sol∣liciting him to the use of her body, by all the Allurements which her Craft or Wantonness could suggest (Joseph. Ant. lib. 15. cap. 4.) But the old Fox smelt the Train, and escap'd the Trap, (though baited with that Flesh, for the enjoyment whereof, his Master Antony lost both Crown and Life) and withal so well perceived what thirst the Queen of Egypt had after the Waters of Israel, as he was once minded to have quench'd it in her Blood, being con∣fident that nothing else, save the enjoyment of Judea's Crown, could satiate her Longings; (Id. ib. cap. 5.) towards the obtaining whereof, when these Methods proved ineffectual, she betakes her self to the all conquering Wea∣pons of Tears and Prayers, beleaguering Antony with dayly Requests, and endearing Arguments that Wit or Love could invent to assault his Mind with, whose heart, she knew, lay already at her Feet. But Antony turns a deaf Ear to his Cleopatra's Suit, bribes her to hold her Peace by giving her Coelo-Syria, but will by no means hear of parting with Judea's Crown, no not to her that is dearer to him than his Life. (Id. Ibid cap. 4.) What makes him, in this Case, thus inexorable? had it been his Respects to Herod, his Affection to Cleopatra would more than have counter-ballanc'd that; was it the largeness of that Kingdoms Bounds? for Bulk it was the wreckling of all Kingdoms; too mean a Gift for Antony to bestow on Cleopatra, if in his Surveigh of it he had not taken in the Eastern Prophecy, and valued it according to the rate which that had set upon it. Whose Crown, while Herod held, he only held the Stakes, till the Game was up that Augustus and Antony were a playing: had the Emperial fallen to his Lot, Herod's Diadem would have been at his Devotion: he might, when he saw an Opportunity have taken it off his Head (who was but a Deputy King) and set it upon his own with a wet Fin∣ger; but not from Cleopatra's with dry Cheeks. But Antony, as a Man ef∣feminated, doth but lisp out his Emulation of this Crown, his envying that any head should wear it as absolutely his, but his own.

Herod's Eye, by looking at this Oracle, grew apparently Blood-shot▪ he writes his jealousie of the accomplishment of this Prophecy so plain, as a man may run and read it in the Blood of the Innocents, Sanhedrim and Royal Line, thinking (Joseph. ant. 14. 17.) by these means, to frustrate its Effects, and to secure to himself and his Masters at Rome the Ground they hold: and yet fearing some of that Race might escape his evil Eye; to make all sure, he caus∣eth all the Genealogies he could lay Hands on to be burned: that by disturb∣ing the Succession he might make the Title disputable, and bring it to be de∣termined by the longest Sword, while Tongues and Pens were contending a∣bout endless and headless Genealogies (Euseb. Eccl. hist. 1. 9.) A Design had taken sad effect, had not St. Paul by his Apostolical Prohibition timously pre∣vented it, and had not merciful Providence snatch'd some Authentick Re∣cords, as Brands, out of the Fire; out of which the Evangelist drew the double Line of our Saviour; for that some Draughts of David's Posterity did escape, the Talmudists assure us, when they tell us, that by the Tract of such Records R. Levi derived Hillel (our Saviours Contemporary) from the Family of David. (Lightfoot har. § 10.

§ 2. The Fear that his Son Titus, (after this Conquest of Judea) would as∣sume the so much spoken of Kingdom of the East, made Vespasian look askew upon his staying there so long, and upon the Honours there conferr'd upon him by the Legions. (Suet. Titus 5.) [Unde nata suspicio est quasi descisseret a patre Orientisque regnum sibi vindicare tentasset.—] Insomuch as Titus, for the Removal of that Jealousie, hastens upon the first Rumour of it to Rome, and pithily confutes it in three Words: veni, Pater, veni; I am come, Father, I am come. And indeed he had reason to think his Father must needs be ten∣der of that Point, the securing of that Kingdom to himself being the Errand upon which he sent his Son into Judea: for it was for the Decision of the Controversie about Title to the Universal Monarchy that those Fatal Wars were commenc'd: that that Combat was undertaken, which (in the Judgment of Josephus) was the bloodiest that ever was sought; each Party drawing in for Seconds all the force they could raise; and selling their Lives to one another, at the highest Price that the utmost Spight of Foes. Contempt of Death, and Gallantry of Spirit could set them at: A War managed with a greater Fierce∣ness of Spirit than the Pregnant Wit of Homer could fancy in his describing the Wars of Troy: and (to say all in Word) answerable to the esteem which both Parties had of that Helena for whom they contended; (Joseph. Prefa. Bel. Jud.) while the Jew (saith Josephus (Id. Ib. Preface to Jewish War:) pro∣mised to himself the Universal Sovereignty, and the Roman was loth to let go his hold: they came to try the Title by the Sword.

Particularly, that this was the Prize which the Jew ran for in that Race is manifest from the clear Testimonies of Josephus, (Bel. Jud. 7. 12.) saying, That which chiefly excited the Jews to this War was an Ambiguous Oracle found in their Sacred Books, that about that time some one was to arise in their Coasts that should obtain the Empire of the Globe of the Earth. And of Suetonius (Vespasian 4.) who, speaking of the Eastern Oracle, tell us, that the Jews applying it to themselves was that which occasioned and encouraged them to rebel. Id Judaei ad se trahentes rebellarunt; for our confirma∣tion in the truth of those Evidences, beside the Credit of the Authors, we have the Qualifications of the Persons who fomented this Rebellion, of the Ring-leaders of this Defection; who were those Impostors, that by Magical Tricks perswaded the unwary Multitude, that they were either the Christ or his Fore-runners: in this second Rank I martial them, who drew Disciples into the Wilderness; the Stage erected by the Prophets, for that Cryer that was to prepare the way for the Messiah; before whom these Anti-baptists plain the Way by levelling the Roman Power set over them by God, by with-hold∣ing Tribute, and surprising Castles, by excluding Caesar out of their Prayers and Sacrifices; which was, saith Josephus, the Seminary and Fomes of the

war (Bel. Jud. 2. 17. initio.) Under the first Rank I place (by name) Me∣nahem the Son of Judas of Galilee, (Id. Ib. fine.) that cunning Sophister, who after the time of Christs Birth, about ten or eleven Years (when Arche∣laus his Goods being confiscated, Cyrenius was sent to take an Account there∣of; and also to tax Syria (to which Provence Judea was then annext) this occasioned Judas his Insurrection, and not that first taxing of all the World at our Saviour's Birth) drew the Jews into Rebellion upon occasion of the taxing under Cyrenius, and had so well train'd up his Sons in this bad Art; that two of them start up false Christs under Tiberius Alexander, to wit, James and Simeon, (Joseph. Ant. Jud. 10. 3.) The last of this Galilean's Sons that trod in his Father's Steps was this Menahem (of whom that Story may very well be intended that Doctor Lightfoot (Harmony § 9.) quotes out of the Gomarists) who, taking with him certain of the Nobility, went to Massada Castle, where was Herod's Armory; and arming himself and his Company, marches to Jerusalem as a King, &c. But to this Point Josephus speaks home (Jud. Bel. 7. 12.) [Sed quod maxime eos (Judaeos) ad bellum excitaverat, re∣sponsum erat ambiguum in sacris libris inventum, quod eo tempore quidam esset ex eorum sinibus orbis terrae habiturus imperium, id enim illi quidem quasi proprium acceperant multique sapientes interpretatione decepti.] But that which chiefly in∣cited the Jews to this was an Ambiguous Oracle found in the Sacred Books, that a∣bout that time one was to arise in their Coasts who was to have the Empire of the whole World, which they appropriated to themselves: &c.

2. That the Romans aimed at the same Mark, though we need no other E∣vidence than the Emperour's taking upon himself the honour of being reput∣ed that King, (of which before) for his bearing away that Title, as the Spoils of conquered Judea, argues that to have been the Golden Ball he contended for; quod primum in intentione ultimum in executione; yet I shall back this with one other historical observation, viz. Vespasian's enquiring out, and put∣ting to death all he could find of David's Off-spring (Euseb. ec. hist. 3. 12. 44.) whom, after so long a deprivation of the exercise of Royal Power, as had by Prescription rendered them, in all other Capacities, inconsiderable and mere private men, nothing could make so formidable, as to put that mild Prince (who wept over the Fall of Jerusalem, and Slaughter of obstinate Re∣bels) upon that Bloody Design of murdering so many Innocents, whose only Crime was, that they were his Posterity, out of whose Loins was to come, he that was to be Lord of the Universe; nothing (I say) could have forced Ve∣spasian (contrary to the strong Bias of his natural Inclination) to so inhumane an Undertaking, had not that Maxim (which led Julius Caesar to the viola∣tion of common Equity) led Vespasian (the first good Natur'd man that ever imbrewed his Hands in so savage an Act) to the Violation of the Law, not only of common Humanity, but of his own Benign and more than Humane Nature, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.] If the Law of Equity be to be waved at all, it is to be waved for an Empire. Nothing, but a Design to obtain and secure to himself this Universal Monarchy, could have been a Prize worthy Vespasi∣an's running for, through this Way of Blood, where he drives his victorious Chariot, not (as Tullia) over the insensate Corps of a dead Father, but over his own tenderly yearning Bowels, that he might with more Security hug the Penelope he had been courting in the Wars; of whose Embraces he could not promise himself the quiet Possession, as long as any of that Rival Line sur∣vived. He had learned by Experience, that the Jews were so confident that their Messiah must spring from the Root of Jessee, as while there was any Branch sprouting thence, they would gather to it, and put their Confidence in the Shadow of it; and many of their Wise Men were thereby deceived; while the Factious Impostors had any of that Linage left, to throw out as a Ball of Contention, they would never leave camping and striving with the Romans for the Goal; and therefore he thought it his wisest Course, by the Extirpa∣tion of that Family, to take up the Ball. He had seen that writ, in the Rub∣rick of Roman and Jewish Blood, which Tacitus hath transcribed; that the

Jews were so pertinacious in applying to themselves the Grandure promised in the Eastern Prophecy, as all the Misery they endured, all the Desolations brought upon them by that War, could not make them despond, and give up their Hapes of the arising of that Phoenix out of their very Ashes: (Ta∣cit. hist. 5. pa. 398.) Ne adversis quidem ad vera mutabantur:] and therefore concluded, they would never leave scraping in the Embers for Sparks, (to set the Empire on Fire by renewed Commotions,) till they were quenched with the last drop of Blood he could find in the Veins of any of David's Loins. Jo∣sephus tells a Story of the Jews Obstinacy, which he himself wonders at; that they had taught their Children a kind of Apathy; insomuch as they could not by any Torments be forc'd to acknowledg Caesar Lord, no not after the razing of their City and Dispersion of their Nation. He proceeded therefore to the Extirpation of David's Issue upon the same Account that Ulisses did to the slaying of Astianax, elegantly expressed by the Tragick Poet; ex Hectoris na∣to superstite possit alter oriri Hector paterni vindex sanguine—sic parvus ille armenti comes primisque nondum cornibus findens cutem cervice subito celsus & fronte arduus gregem paternam ducit. From David's Off-spring may arise a David that may repair the Ruines of the Kingdom. These yet Lambs, whose budding Horns have not yet cut the Skin, may in time grow Rams, and in the Front of their deluded Followers batter down the Walls of Rome. An a∣dorable depth of Providence! in the Net which the Jews laid for Christ, was their own Feet taken: their [whosoever makes himself a King is no Friend to Caesar] was a manifest Reflection upon the Oriental Prophecy of a King to a∣rise in Judea; their Gloss upon it betrayed the Holy Jesus into the hands of the Roman Power: their Plea against King Jesus was, they for their part had (Bel. Jud. 7. 29.) no King but Caesar; and if Pilate would not condemn him, as an Enemy to Caesar, who gave out himself to be the King of the Jews, let him look how he would answer it before Caesar: their refusing Jesus of Naza∣reth for their Lord was the Meritorious Cause of their Ruine, the Offence they gave God. And their refusing Caesar for their Lord, for that King mentioned in that Prophecy, was the occasion of their Ruine; and the unpar∣donable Offence which Caesar took at them.

§ 3. A State-Maxim communicated by Vespasian to his Successors, whom we find so vigilant over Occurrences in Judea, as they seem to be startled at e∣very Blast blustering in Lebanon's Forrest, no less than if it had portended the casting down of the Cedar of the Empire, and the exalting of the then low Shrub and Sear-Stem of David.

Domitian, before he came to the Emperial Crown, had upon reading that of Virgil,

Impia quam caesis gens est epulata Juvencis.

conceived so great an Abhorrency of Blood-shed: as he was about making a Decree (in the beginning of his Reign against sacrificing of Oxen to the im∣mortal Gods; (Suet. Domit. 9.) but by that time he had learn'd Arcana Im∣perii, he can, (without Regret) sacrifice to his own Jealousie, and the safety of Goddess Rome, not only the Blood of innocent Lambs reputed to be of the Royal Line of Judah, but even of those that attempted to communicate their Genealogies to the Knowledg of the World; whereof we have an ac∣count in Suetonius (Domit. 10.) (if I mistake him not) where he writes of Domitian's crucifying Hermogenes Tarsensis, and the Transcribers of his Hi∣story, because of some Figures or Schemes he had drawn up in it: for I take this Hermogenes to be that Countrey-man of St. Paul, whom he (2 Tim. 1. 15.) mentions among those that had forsaken him, and departed from him (I suppose to Judaism) and whom Dorothens reckons for an Heretick; and his Heresie to have been the abetting of Jewish Fables and Genealogies relating to the Messias. This starting of new Game, and raising of new Hydra's

Heads (as Domitian conceived it) the Empire could not but look upon with an evil Eye, as that which would find their Hatchet as endless Work as those Genealogies were. Perhaps Metius Pomposianus his [imperatoria genesis] and [depictus orbis terrae,] for which he was banished, were judged to be of the same Tendency. [Suet. Domit. 10.) [Quod habere imperatoriam genesin & de∣pictum terrarum orbem vulgo ferebatur.] To be sure, the Story which Eusebi∣us relates, paints him as casting a jealous Eye upon David's Stock. He com∣manded (saith he) (Eccles. hist. 3. 17.) such as lineally descended of David to be put to Death; among whom some Christians were brought before him, and accus∣ed to have come from the Ancestors of Jude, our Lord's Brother; and therefore of David's Line: of whom the Emperour (fearing the coming of the King of the Jews as Herod had done) demanded whether they were of the Stock of David: which they acknowledging, he enquires what Moneys and Land they had; and finding by their Answer that they had no Moneys, and but thirty nine Acres of Land apiece; out of which, by the Sweat of their Brows, they earned their dayly Bread (of the Truth of which Answer the Brawniness of their Hands, contracted by hard Labour, was Demonstration sufficient.) He question'd them about Christs Kingdom; where, and when, and in what manner it should come: to which they answering, It was not Earthly, but Coelestial, that it should be at the End of the World, when he would come to Judg the Quick and the Dead: he not only dis∣mist them, as too mean Persons to be his Rivals, but stayed the Persecution formerly raised against the Church; perceiving he had no Ground to fear that the Christians would raise any Commotions in the Empire upon the Account of the Eastern Kingdom.

Which yet he so much feared from the Circumcision, as when he was in∣form'd that some of them lived incognito in Rome, he caused a privy Search to be made of all suspected Persons; among whom Suetonius reports, that when he was a Youth, he saw the Emperour's Attourney in open Court search one Old Man of Ninety Years. (Suet. Domit. 12.) [Judaicus siscus acerbissime actus ad quem deferebantur qui dissimulata origine—interfuisse me adolescentulum memini cum a procuratore frequentissimoque concilio inspiceretur nonagenarius senex an cir∣cumcisus esset.] So vigilant was he over the Affairs of that Nation, as he will not suffer so much as one decrepit Jew to live from under the Observation of his Eye: fearing that the least Spark, if it were raked up under the Ashes of Obscurity, might live to an Opportunity of setting the Empire on Fire.

Under Trajan, Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem was put to Death for no other Crime, but that he was accused to have been of the Blood Royal, and lineal∣ly descended from David's Loins: (Euseb. ec. hist. 3. 29.) an Argument that Trajan cast as envious an Eye as his Predecessors had done upon the Eastern Oracle; and upon that Account on Christians, but unjustly: Though he had Reason enough to be jealous of the Jews, who blustered in his eighteenth Year, (Dionis, Nerva, Trajanus) as if they had been possessed of a Raging, Seditious, and Fanatick Spirit, and kindled so Firie a Sedition at Alexandria and Cyrene, under their upstart Kings Lucas and Andrew, as could not be quench'd, but by the Blood of many Myriads of them: with what more than Anabaptistical Cruelty the Cyrenians sought to establish their Mock-Christ King; Dion in the Life of Trajan declares, telling us that their Sword made no difference betwixt Romans and Grecians, that not content with their Swords drinking of Blood, themselves eat the Flesh of the Slain; with whose Skins apparell'd, and Entrails (yet bleeding) girt, they ran up and down like Furies, and birkened those whom they met with from the Rump to the Crown of the Head; putting to Death above twenty Thousand. The Cyprian Jews (as the same Author relates) at the same time, and upon the same occasion, used that more than Savage Cruelty in Butchering twenty five Thousand in that Island, as produc'd the enacting of a Law, that whatever Jew should thence-forward touch upon their Coast should presently be put to Death. This made Trajan jealous of the Jews of Mesopotamia, lest they should joyn Forces with their Brethren; as they of Aegypt had done, in defence of their home-spun

King: for the Prevention of which, he sent Lucius Quincius to banish them the Province. These things saith Eusehius (Eccles. hist. 4. 2.) were re∣corded by Heathen Historiographers then living. Now what but the Impor∣tance of the Case, (as that wherein the Emperial Crown lay at Stake) could have made Trajan thus jealous, being a Prince naturally averse to that Passion; of which he gave sufficient Proof in his Carriage to Sura; who, though he was vehemently accused to him of Treason, yet inviting the Emperour to Supper; he not only came, but came without Guard, and committed his Throat to Sura's Barber. (Dionis, Nerva, Trajan.)

§ 4. In the eighteenth Year of his Successor Adrian, the Eastern Prophe∣cy ripens the Jews into another Rebellion, under the Conduct of another Changling-Messiah, Barchochebas; that Son of the Star (as his Name im∣ports,) who gave out himself to be that Star of Jacob who was come from Heaven, as a Light to shine comfortably upon the Jews, and conduct them out of the Roman Bondage. It is not unworthy of Observation that this Antichrist was as virulent an Enemy to the Christians as Romans, and that up∣on the same Quarrel, viz. their affirming that the Oriental Prophecy had al∣ready received its Accomplishment. For in that general Point they agreed a∣gainst the Jew, to the utter vacating of Barchochebas his Claim: though they vastly dissented in their applying of it, the one to our Jesus, the other to the Roman Emperour (Spartian. Adrian.) The occasion of this Rebellion (saith Spartianus) was Adrian's prohibiting them Circumcision; fearing, be like, that Nation would never suffer the Romans quietly to enjoy the Possession of the Universal Monarchy as long as the Seal of the Covenant of the Messiah re∣mained with them; as long as they were permitted to bear that mark in their Flesh, which was instituted as a Sign that the King of Nations was to come from Abraham's Loins: For why else should he forbid it to them, and not o∣ther Nations, but because other Nations used it only as a Religious Mundi∣fying Rite; but the Jews over and beside that, as a Political Badg, to distin∣guish them from all others, as that Nation which God had singled out to this peculiar Privilege, that he who was to reduce the whole World to his Obedi∣ence, was to come out of that Stock, [Oriundus esset ex Judaea.] From hope of which that he might force them to an absolute Despondency; he erected a Temple to Jupiter, affronting the Ruines of that which had been the Temple of the God of Abraham; upbraiding them with the Imbecillity of that God whereon they depended, as not able to preserve his own Sacrifices from be∣coming a Prey to the Roman Eagle.

This Insurrection (saith Dion) caused a Concussion in the whole World: indeed, as the contending Parties stated the Case, the whole World was concern'd in it, the Question being whether Barchochab, or the Roman Emperour, was the Per∣son specified in the Eastern Tradition? which Question, though it was in the Effect and Issue of that War, determin'd against the Jew; who was not only routed in that Fight, but had five Hundred of his most eminent strong Holds dismantled, nine Hundred eighty and five of his most Populous and Famous Towns sack'd and burn'd down to the Ground, and fifty Thousand of men of Arms slain, and a very great Multitude consum'd with Famine, Fire, and raging Maladies; insomuch as almost all Judea was turn'd into a Forrest (a Desolation answerable to the Presages of it: Solomon's Sepulchre fell flat to the Ground without hands: Wolves and Hyenas were heard howling up and down their Cities, &c.) Yet for all this Adrian thought not himself suffici∣ently secured against his Fears of a new King arising in Judea, that might dis∣possess him of his Empire, till he had buried the Memorial of their Metropo∣lis in its own Ruines, and out of them built a new City hard by the place where that had stood, calling it after his own name, Aelia: and wiped the whole Land of its Natives as a Man wipeth a Dish, making it capital for any of them so much as to look back upon their Native Soyl, no not afar off, from the Tops of Hills, as if he had been jealous that their Eye might glance and

inject the Spawn of Rebellion into that King-teeming Soil, except it were pitch'd with the foot of Strangers.

Nerva was the only Emperour from Julius to Trajan, whom Pagan Histo∣ry paints not looking asquint on Judea: the reason of that may be; either the shortness of his Reign, wherein he had scarce room to look about him, and learn the Concerns of the Empire: or the Fearless Habit of his Soul, and his Contempt of the most formidable Pretensions: having that Confidence in his own Integrity, as to assume Virginius Rufus to be his Colleague in the Con∣sulship, whom the Roman Legions had proclaimed Emperour; to cause Crassus Calphurnius, with the rest of his Fellow-Conspirators, to sit down by him on the Stage, and put Swords into their Hands, bidding them try whether they were sharp enough; signifying (saith my Author) he had not much cared if they had slain him upon the Place: And as to offer his naked Throat to the drawn Sword of Aelianus Casperius, accused to him of Treason, (Dion. Cos. Nerva.) How be it there is one Passage in his Story may confirm us in this Opinion; that it was a Maxim of Roman Policy, to keep a Jealous Eye over Judea: to wit, Dion's reporting his prohibiting any of the Jewish Sect to be medled with, as the chief ground of Fronto's Speech, that it was of evil Consequence to the Commonwealth, to have him to Reign, under whom nothing is indulged to any; but of far worse to live under him, under whom all men were wink∣ed at: in which Sarcasm Fronto reckons his Connivance at the Jews, as an un∣politick Act, and the Effect of his Natural Oscitancy, aggravated with dull Old Age. The Consul is the Eye of the Republick; his Eye, we see, is up∣on Judea though the Emperour's be not.

We have seen the Emperours for almost, two Hundred Years, handing down to their Successors this Principle of State. Every Motion in Judea is narrowly to be observed; for from thence the East does, with the highest Confidence, expect the arising of one that shall Lord it over all States; dur∣ing which Time the Gospel was dayly brought under Examination before the Roman Tribunals; where the Church asserts, the Synagogue denies Jesus of Nazareth to be that King: Is it possible then that in discussing that Question, and those Contingencies in Judea, which the Church alleadged in Proof of her Assertion, Interest of State should not sollicit the Agents of the Empire to the Exercise of so much more Diligence in this than other Cases brought be∣fore them, as they apprehended the great Interest of the Empire to be more concern'd in this than in others: (the Trial of the Title to that Crown which the Eastern Prophecy made promise of, cost more Blood than has been shed in umpiring the Titles of all other Crowns:) So that upon this Account the Tu∣mults in Judea occasioned that severe Scrutiny of what the Church reported, as would have dash'd her out of Countenance, had those Reports been false; and have render'd it impossible for her, to shuffle any thing into the Story of Christ, which would not abide the severest Test. This Medium we have seen attest∣ed under the Hands of Secular Historians, of that Disaffection to Christian Religion, as it could not but be far from their thoughts, wittingly to let any thing fall from their Pens, that might be interpreted or applied to the advan∣tage of the Christian Cause: yet he that guided the Asse's Mouth to rebuke the madness of the Prophet, hath order'd the Pagan's Pen to draw that Image of those Times, as it will puzzle the most daring Atheist to invent any proba∣ble Salve for his absurd Hypothesis, that possibly the Apostles (as well as the Promoters of other Religions) might impose upon the World; a Conceipt grounded merely upon his Ignorance of those Times, and especiall the then great Interest of the Empire: which that it put the Empire upon a strict Enqui∣ry into what the Evangelists preached: if what hath been observed be not suffi∣cient to convince his Reason, I shall demonstrate it to the Atheists Sense, from matter of Fact, in the Instance of St. Paul's Appearance and Apology before Nero; the only Emperour (except that short liv'd Beast Calignla, and that ne∣ver-living Fool Claudius) whom I have omitted in my Discourse of the Em∣perours Jealousie the over Judean Assairs relating to the Eastern Prophecy; and

that purposely, that I might, in a peculiar Tractate, handle St. Paul's appearing before him; and therein clear this Hypothesis.

CHAP. XI.

St. Paul's Apology before Nero was in Answer to some Interroga∣tories put to him, through the Suggestion of his Adversaries, touching the matter of the Eastern Prophecy. Ex. gr. Is not this Jesus, whom thou preachest to be risen again from the Dead, that Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye call King of the Jews.

§ 1. Tertullus his Charge against St. Paul, a Ring-leader of Nazarites. Ly∣sias his Interrogatory, art not thou that (Alexandrian) Egyptian? Nero put in hopes of that Kingdom which St. Paul preach'd Christ to have obtain∣ed. Poppaea Nero's Minion. Disciples slink away. § 2. Why St. Paul stiles Nero a Lion of the Kingdom of God. The Lions Courage quails at St. Paul's Apology. Nero, after that, trusts more to his Art, than Gypsies Prophecies. § 3. St Paul's Appearance within Nero's Quinquennium. Pallas, Foelix his Brother and Advocate out of Favour in Nero's third. Festus hastens St. Paul's Mission to Rome; the Jews, his Trial. § 4. Ne∣ro, not yet a Lion in Cruelty, but in Opinion, Judah's Lion. St. Paul's Doctrine tryed to the bottom, before Nero desponds. An Apology for this Pil∣grimage through the Holy Age: its Use,

§ 1. FEstus who sent St. Paul bound to Rome; and to whom it seemed un∣reasonable to send a Prisoner, and not withal to signifie the Crimes laid against him (Act. 25. 27.) thus states it to Agrippa; Paul affirmed Jesus, whom the Jews said was dead, to be alive. Now Christ's Resurrection necessa∣rily implies, that he was that Son of God, whom God had decreed, should have the Heathen for his Inheritance, and the uttermost Parts of the Earth for his Possession. Besides, Festus could not be ignorant that Tertullus the Jews Advocate, had laid this to St. Paul's Charge in open Court, that he was a Ring-leader of the Sect of the Nazarens; that is, them that held Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised King of the Jews. Now this having been the declared Sence of the Jewish Antagonists before Pilat, and the urging of that upon him, the thing that forc'd him, against his Conscience, to give Sen∣tence against our Saviour: and Festus having had so fair a Warning of the Jews watching Opportunities of accusing the Roman Deputies to Caesar, by their accusing his immediate Predecessor, Foelix; would not, sure, give them that Advantage against himself, which his concealing so main a point of their Accusation, and an Article so nearly concerning Caesar's Crown, would have administred.

2. Lysias, at St. Paul's Apprehension, perceiving he could speak Greek, that is, was of the Grecizing or Alexandrian Sect, questions him whether he were not that Egyptian (that is, Alexandrian Jew) who the other Day made an Uproar: For under Foelix, this Egyptian among many others) by Pretext of Miracles and Inchantments, did seduce the unwary Multitude into an Opini∣on that he was the Christ. Now this Question, [art not thou that Fellow who the other Day gave himself out to be the promised Messiah the King of the Jews?] coming first out of the Captains Mouth, argues what lay uppermost on his Heart, as to the faithful Discharge of his Service to Caesar: this being either particularly given in Charge, or concluded on by his own Rational Deducti∣ons (from that Juncture of Affairs) that the Roman Ministers of State should chiefly fix their Eyes upon such like Emergencies as boaded the fulfil∣ling

of the Eastern Prophecy: We may therefore, without offering Violence to our Reason, from the Method of Lysias his proceeding, in the Examinati∣on of St. Paul, at his Attachment; calculate the Order of Nero's Process, at his Argument; and draw this Conclusion. That Nero (as we say) Christned his own Child first, first inform'd himself of what most nearly concern'd his own Interest, by propounding Interrogatories of the same Importance with that Question of Lycias.

3. Those Expressions in the Predictions of the Fortune-tellers in Suetonius [ut destitueretur & destituto ei &c.] (they told Nero, that after he had been deserted of his own Subjects, and deprived of the Emperial Crown, the Crown of Judea should be set upon his Head, and with that the Sovereignty of the World.) are so exactly like the Language of the Prophets, fore-telling that the great Shepherd must first be smitten, and his Flock scattered from him, before he was to gather all Nations into his Fold; that the great King must first suffer, before he was to enter into his Glory. As the Suggestion of such like hopes to Nero could hardly proceed from any but a Jew: and a Jew well read in their own Prophets (or in the Satyrist Phrase.)

—Interpres Legum Solimarum.

For in those Writings only is declared the two-fold Estate of Messiah, his Examination, and his Exaltation: and both of them in such seeming Hyper∣boles, as the Jew (to this Day) cannot imagine how they can possibly meet in one and the same Person. From which Consideration, I am induc'd to think that the [quidam] those Individuums Vagmus in Suetonius, who promis'd to Nero those Golden Mountains, after he had been over Head and Ears in the Mire and Clay, were Jewish Proselytes; and either the very Persons, or those who gave to those Persons a Text to preach on, whom St. Paul reports to have preach'd Christ of evil Will, of Envy, supposing to add Weights to his Bonds, (ad Philip. cap. 1.)

And I am the rather enclin'd to this Opinion when I observe;

1. How famously infamous the Jewish Religion was at Rome, and in Ne∣ro's Reign too; for being abetted by Persons who drive the Gypsie-Trade there, and got their Maintenance by telling favourable Fortunes. (Juvenal Sat. 6.)

Qualiacunque voles Judaei somnia vendunt. The Jew will tell you what Fortune you please.

2. How wide a Door to the Emperour's Ear was then opened for these Ear∣tickling Prophets, by means of that Love Nero bore to Poppaea, A zealous Jewish Proselytess, with whom it was but yet Honey-Month; Nero being but newly fallen into acquaintance with her; who would, no doubt, improve the Interest she had in Caesar's Affections, to the advantage of her Religion, some (at least) pleasing Principles whereof ('tis probable) that Night-Raven would croak into his Ears, and gain Access to him for those that professed it. Of whose Zeal for the Jews, and Influence upon the Emperour in the Motions she made in their behalf, Josephus gives Proof in two Stories.

The first of himself, in these Words: (Josephi vita circa initium,) When I was twenty six Years old I went to Rome, upon this Occasion, when Foelix was Governour of Judea, he sent certain Priests my Acquaintance and very good Men, for a small Cause to Rome, to appear before Caesar; for whose Deliverance, I de∣siring to find some means, went to Rome; where (by the Help of a certain Jew, great in Nero's Favour,) coming into the Acquaintance of Poppaea Caesar's Wife, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] in the general Sence [his Woman] in the Jewish Sence only [his Wife,] who reputed some kind of Concubines, Wives, for she was, as yet, not his Wife, but Minion,) by her Means I forthwith obtained their release, and return'd home with great Largesses bestowed on me by Poppaea.

The other, of some Jewish Agents, that went to Rome to obtain of Caesar, that that Counter-Wall which they had built to hinder Agrippa's Prospect in∣to the Temple, might not be demolished, as Festus had commanded; whose Suit was granted by Nero, at the Entreaty of Poppaea, a Religious Woman, and their Mediatrix (Joseph. Antiq. 20. 7.) Neither King Agrippa, nor the Noble Festus can obtain Nero's Ear, if it be prepossessed by Poppaea,

3. And as those Prophets had this Opportunity of addressing themselves to Nero, and insinuating into his Favour: so not only the sordid Love of Filthy Lucre (to be gain'd by this Man-pleasing Trade of Prophesying smooth things) (a Crime the Jewish Prognosticator was so famously guilty of, as the Satyrist brings upon the Stage the Jewish Gypsie, begging, while she infuses into the Ear, her favourable Interpretations of Solomon's Laws)

[Arcanam Judaea tremens mendicat in aurem, Interpres legum Solimarum.] (Juvenal Sat. 6.)

But much more, their Hatred to Christ, might prompt them to apply that Eastern Oracle to Nero, as the likeliest Champion they could single out to stand for it in Competition with our Jesus, as far as Pride and Fury could carry a Man. Now what greater Incentive of Nero's Rage against the Christian could they possibly invent? what Point of Christian Doctrine could have been more enviously wrested, more maliciousty applyed, in order to St. Paul's closer Imprisonment, to the adding Affliction to his Chain than this? [That Jesus, whom Paul affirms to be alive, is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews; that very Person (in his Opinion) whom the Divine Oracles point at; and there∣fore it were for the behoof of Caesar to put Paul under so close a Custody as may re∣strain him from the Liberty of disseminating that Doctrine, which will not only dis∣mount Caesar from his hopes of obtaining that of Judea, but even from the Posses∣sion of the Emperial Crown.] A malicious Insinuation, and so formidable, as I wonder not to hear St. Paul complain, (2 Tim. 4. 16.) that all his Acquain∣tance shrunk from him, at his making his first Answer [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,] no Man stood with me (that is persevered to stand by me as abettors of my Cause) implying that they came with him, at his giving an Appearance; but durst not stay with him, at the hearing of Nero's Charge; this Verb be∣ing of the same Importance with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (which the Apostle seems to use (Phil. 1. 25.) in Allusion to this Passage,) and fully answering to the Lords standing with him [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,] which he clearly sets in opposition to their not standing with him, but forsaking him leaving him as we say) in the Suds, [in limo profundo & luto immersum] at the very Pinch; [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,] a Verb of a singular Emphasis, adding to [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] the signification of the Point, the Nick of Time, wherein they left him; and that Emphasis is strained here to the highest Pitch, by St. Paul's annexing it to [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,] they forsook me in, in my Apology; for the Preposition wherewith the Verb is decompounded, is repeated before the Noun. In the very Interim of my Answer, as I was beginning to make my Apology to the Charge drawn up against me, they withdrew, not daring to abet me in a Point of that dangerous Consequence: for that it was through some sudden Surprisal of invincible Fear, that they gave Ground, is manifest from St. Paul's praying for them, (which he would not have done, had they wilfully, and not out of Infirmity withdrawn themselves:) but much more by Gods hearing that Prayer in behalf of one of them, most signally branded for forsaking him, and embracing the World (I mean Demas,) whom we find returned to St. Paul and himself the next Year (Colossians 4. 14.) [Luke the beloved Physician, and Demas salute you.] If that happy Improver of O∣riental Learning, Doctor Lightfoot hath rightly calculated the Date of that E∣pistle; (Harm of New Test. Nero 6. Pag. 137.) yea in behalf of many of them, as St. Paul himself hints (Ph. 1. 14.) many of the Brethren, waxing confident in the Lord by my Bonds, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear.

If it seem strange, that a Charge of this Nature could be unexpected, and not fore-thought on by them, and that they should not come armed by preme∣ditated Resolution to receive it. I answer,

1. They were under a peremptory Prohibition to premeditate (in this Case) what to answer: When ye are brought before Kings and Rulers, for my Name's sake, settle it in your Hearts not to meditate before, what ye shall answer; for I will give you a Mouth and Wisdom, which all your Adversaries shall not be able to gain-say or resist: (Luk. 21, 12, 13, 14, 15.) and (Mat. 10. 18.) You shall be brought before Governours and Kings, for my sake; but when they deliver you up, take no Thought, how or what to speak; for it shall be given you in that same Hour, what ye shall speak. And therefore, how obvious soever the Conjecture was, that Nero would object to St. Paul, his preaching of Jesus to be King of the Jews to be of dangerous Consequence to the Civil State; yet the Disciples were bound up from premeditating what Answer to give to that Charge: so that both Charge and Answer could not but be unexpected, and render them obnoxious to Surprisal.

2. The Spirit intending these Tryals for a Testimony against those before whose Tribunals they were brought, did not suggest to them those kind of Answers, which were likeliest to allay the Rigour of the Charge, to alle∣viate the supposed Crime, by informing the Adversaries in the Nature of Christs Kingdom (as those before Domitian:) but such as were of most im∣mediate Tendency, towards the convincing of their Judges, that that Jesus was indeed, (what they were accused to preach him,) the Emperours Lord. Let the Emperial Law make it Treason to proclaim any Man above Caesar, they will not mince the Matter by Distinctions, but stand upon the Proof of what they assert; that the Man Christ is higher than the highest; and are content to undergo the utmost Penalties, if they cannot make Demonstration of this, so as Nero himself shall not be able to gainsay or resist: No Wonder then that the Disciples (having, perhaps, not yet heard of that Promise of immediate Divine Assistance, (to be sure,) not yet seen an Experiment of it,) should, as soon as they heard St. Paul joyn Issue with his Adversaries in this Point, slip away from him, as not daring to abet him in this Apology.

§ 2. 4. That the great Crime which the Christian Doctrine was charged with, at St. Paul's Appearance before Nero, was its applying the Eastern Ora∣cle to Jesus of Nazareth, may be evinc'd from St. Paul's (2 Tim. 4. 16. 17.) stiling Nero [The Lion,] [The Lord delivered me from the Mouth of the Lion.] Which Compellation, why the Apostle should fasten upon him, I cannot, in my shallow Apprehension, fancy any other more probable Reason, than that he did it in an holy Triumphant Mockage of those Figure-flingers, by whom Nero was induc'd to hope that he should prove that Lion of the Tribe of Ju∣dah: His Hope not being able to bear up it self against the Evidence brought in by St. Paul, in open Court, that the Throne of the Kingdom of David was full already, being possessed by Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: From which Title of Christ, the Gospel is usually stiled the Kingdom of God: for Instance (Act. 1. 3.) where our Saviour is said to instruct his Disciples, in his forty Days Converse among them betwixt his Resurrection and Ascension, (in things concerning the Kingdom of God: (Luk. 9. 11. he spake unto them of the Kingdom of God:) not touching external Rites and Modes of Discipline, (as his pretty Petit-deputy Kings, the Disciplinarians, give us in hand.) No, St. Luke flies an higher Pitch, and means the very Gospel it self; so called, because the Sum of it is comprehended in asserting Jesus to be the Christ, the anointed King of the Jews. The Truth of which, how they should demon∣strate, from the Miracles he wrought, from his Resurrection, &c. was the Subject of Christs then Conference with them; for that he did not so much as explain to them then the Nature of this Kingdom, but reserved that for his Vicar-general, the Holy Ghost, appears from their yet palpable Ignorance of it expressed in that Question which with one Mouth they propounded to him

immediately before his Assention, (Act. 1. 6, 9.) [Lord, wilt thou, at this time, restore the Kingdom to Israel?] Strange! even beyond Admiration, that he should instruct them in what external Modes, his Kingdom should be ad∣ministred, and yet leave them under such gross Darkness as to the thing it self.

Of this Kingdom (I say) St. Paul, in his Answer before that self-conceited Lion makes such a Defence, gives such infallible Proofs, as he quells Nero's Courage; and so far dashes out of Countenance his hopes of Judea's Crown, as he comes (after this Trial) to these Resolves, (Suet. Nero 40.) [Praedictum à Mathematicis olim Neroni erat, fore, ut destitueretur und•• illa vox 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. quo majore venia meditatur citheredicam artem, principi sibi gratum, privato necessariam.] that in Case the first part of the Predictions of the Mathema∣ticks prove true (touching his loss of the Imperial Dignity,) he would for his future Subsistence rather trust to his Skill in Musick; and, as we say in the North (pardon the homeliness of the Proverb) Fiddle for Shives among old Wives, then depend upon the later part of their Oracle, (promising him the Crown of Judea.) In despair of which, he was wont to comfort himself a∣gainst pinching Poverty, in case, of loss of Empire, with that his famous A∣phorism: [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉;] An Artist may live any where: which he said in reference to his Dexterity in Musick; and therefore, (in the Opinion of Suetonius,) was less Blame-worthy for his studying to excel in that Art, as that which administred Delight to him in his Good; and was in∣tended for a necessary Livelihood in his bad Fortune, it served in Prosperity for Sauce, and he hoped in Adversity it would find him Meat. [Principi sibi gratam, privato necessariam.]

With which Hope the Senate ingeniously twitted him, in their offering him a Crown Laureat, after his disappointment of those African Treasures he dream'd on, at second hand, from Cesellius Bessus, whom that he might not imitate in the desperate murthering of himself, for Shame and Grief, the Senate kindly offer him this Cordial, and bid him take Heart of Grace, for though those Mountains of Gold, fancied to have been heaped up by Dido, had proved Sand; yet his warbling Voice and Fingers would be an Elixar; and charming the World into a Royal Mine, whence he might draw, out at the Pit-hole of the ravish'd Ear, Treasure enough to supply his Wants. (Ta∣cit. annal. 16.) [Intereà Senatus ut dedecus averteret offert imperatori victoriam cantùs, adjecit facundiae coronam, quo lu. &c.]

And truly, this First-born of the Muses bestowed so much time upon tun∣ing his Harp, as he had not time to tune the Commonwealth; and rested so much in his Skill, as he refused the Honour of Poet Laureat, except he could deserve it, by the Worlds Equal, rather than obtain it by the Senates partial Vote. (Id. Ib.) [Sed Nero nihil ambitu nec potestate Senatus opus esse dictitans se aequum adversus aemulos & Religione Judicum meritam laudem assecuturum, &c.] In order to which, he keeps his Commencement Act in the Theatre. In his Management whereof (as if he were inuring himself to the most ser∣vile Congies and Scrapings of Mendicant Fidlers, against the time he should make use of it, to procure him a Subsistence) (Suet. Nero, 23. & 24.) [quam autem Trepidè anxiéque certaverat—Juvenes reverendissimè alloquebatur priusquam inciperet—In certando ità legi obediebat, ut nunquam excreare ausus, sudorem quoque frontis brachio detergebat, &c.] he observes all the Ceremonies that Law or Custom had prescribed to Vulgar Musicians: [Not to sit down, though never so weary of standing; not to wipe off his Sweat, but in the Garment he wore over his Tunick; not to blow his Nose, not to spit, but into his Handkerchief; to make a Leg, and kiss his hand to the Spectators: from whom, with a feigned or real Fear, he expected the Sentence of Approbation or Dislike, as if his All had laid at Stake.] (Tacit. ann. 16. 246.) The atrum ingreditur cunctis citharae legibus obtemperans, nè fessus resideret, nè sudorem nisi ea quam gerebat indutui veste de∣tergeret, ut nulla oris aut narium exerementa viserentur: postremo flexus genu & eatum illum veneratus sententias Judicum opperiebatur ficto vel vero pavore.

This Mimical Scene was acted a little before Poppea's death (in the 9. year of his Reign: [post finem ludicri Poppaea mortem obiit] (Tacit. ann. 16.) an apparent Argument, that he had not then recovered those hopes of the Ju∣dean Crown, that St. Paul had discust from him, four years ago: And that the show he made in his 7. year of his assurance that after the Brittish and Ar∣menian Wars were concluded, he had passed through that Thorny way, which the Fates had chalked out for him to his future Greatness; (exprest by his shutting up the Temple of Janus, as if he expected thenceforward there would never be any more War;) (for so Torrentius and Fenerus read that place of Suetonius [Britanniâ Armeniâ que amissâ & rursùs u••••âque receptâ, de∣functum se fatalibus malis existimabat—post perductum in theatrum Tirida∣tem—ob quae geminum Janum clausit, tanquam nullo residuo bello:] (Nero 40. & 13.) [tanquam nullo residuo bello] was grounded only upon that Promise which the Astronomers made to him, of his recovering the Empire, after he had lost it: but had no relation to the Promise of the Judean Crown. The hopeful Interpretation he made of his recovering Britain and Armenia a∣mounting to no more but this, that thenceforward he should quietly injoy the Imperial Diadem; at least to the 63. year of his age: according to that mistaken gloss he made of the Delphick Respond, bidding him beware of sixty three (which the Oracle meant of Galbus, but he interpreted of his own age.) [Consulto Delphis oraculo septuagessimum ac tertium annum cavendum sibi audivit.] (Id. Ib.) His very enquiring at that Oracle argues his then dis∣satisfaction in the Certainty of the Prognosticators Promise: and the words of it import, he must not look about him for another, but hold his own. Against the expiring of which good Fortune, in case that his Life should out∣last it, he providently forecasts to maintain his old and desolate age (after his loss of Empire) by the practice of Musick. At so low an Ebb are his ambitious hopes of that Crown of Judea, which the quidam, in Suetonius, pro∣mis'd him; as he who (in an expectation of being exalted to that Domini∣on as would subject under him the very Fishes of the Sea) was vaunting ere-while that that they would turn Porters to him, and conveigh his wreckt Treasures to the shore, is now forecasting to angle for necessaries with a Line made of Lute-strings.

Proclus (de sacrificiis) assigns the reason of the Lion's flying and trembl∣ing at the Crowing of a Cock, to his revering that Creature of the Sun (as he himself is) as partaking more of the Genius of the Sun than himself does. Nero, that self-conceited Lion, upon hearing St. Paul to crow up our Jesus to be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, to pertake more of the Genius of that Person pointed at by the Eastern Oracle, than all the Potentates of the World were capable of; lets fall his Crest so low, as the Apostle mocks his, as Elijah had done Baal's Prophets, with this cutting Irony: Baal is a God, Nero is a Lion. A doughty God, a doughty Lion! he has now so far lost the hope of obtaining it himself, as he bewrays his fear, that Ruffinus Crispin may, upon no other account, than that (being the son of a Jewish Proselitess, Poppaea) he was observed to act the part of a King among his play-fellows; whom he therefore order'd to be thrown overboard, as he was a fishing (Sueton. Nero 35.) and upon that part of the Prophecy that described the King of the Jews to be a Jew born, perhaps, his extreme desires were grounded of hav∣ing Issue Male by Poppaea himself; as being thereby qualified so far, and by the surest side, for that Kingdom. (Tacit. ann. 16. 246.) [Quippe liberorum cupiens, &c.]

§. 3. These are rational presumptions that St. Paul calls Nero a Lion under no other notion, but as one of the Fortune-tellers making, The observati∣on I shall next make upon Nero's History, compared with this compellati∣on, comes not much short of a Demonstration, viz.

That Nero was not, when St. Paul gave him this name, a Lion in any other sence, but as in the anticipation of his own hopes (and Opinion of his

his flattering Claw-backs) he personated and rivall'd that Lion of Judah. Whence Teridates [Veni ut te deum meum non secus ac Mithran, i. solem cole∣rem: equidem is ero quem tu me fato quodam efficies, tu enim fatum meum es & fortuna.] (Xiphilin. è Dione, Nero pag. 521.) thus courts him: [I am come (Nero) to worship thee as my God, no otherwise than I worship Mithra, the Sun, the Persian God. I will be what you by certain fate will make me; for you are my fate and fortune.] upon Nero's giving out him himself to be that Uni∣versal K. mentioned in the Oriental Prophecy (being interpretively the mak∣ing himself God) was that Opinion perhaps grounded, which some of the Ancients, in their Discourses of the Revelation of Antichrist (upon the 2. Epistle to the Thessalonians 2. 4.) had taken up; to wit that Nero should risea∣gain and be the Antichrist (mentioned by St. Austin, de civitate Dei, lib. 20 cap. 20. pag. 1373. a.) And though Nero did not distinctly call himself the Christ, yet he did so in effect, in conceiting himself to be him, that (accord∣ing to the Eastern Prophecy) was to come: that being the common Peri∣phrasis of the Christ, one that should come. [Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another:] as that other more limited one was the Definition which the Jews gave of him, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] he that should redeem Israel, (Luk. 24. 21.) In this sence then he was (at the time of St. Paul's Apology before him) a Lion, that is, a Mock-lion. But I shall make it appear, that so early in his Reign as St. Paul's appearing before him, he was not in any other respect a Lion. The Apostle therefore must speak in a Language to whom all were then Barbarians, if he give him that Appellation, upon any account, but that.

For the clearing of this, it will be necessary first to state the time of St. Paul's appearance before him; which will appear to have been at the utmost very early in Nero's fifth year: If we consider

1. That Felix (who when he went out of Office left St. Paul bound) had had an hearing before the Emperour while Pallas was so much in his favour, as by his Intercession, to procure his pardon, and remission of the punish∣ment due to those high misdemeanours, of which the Jews accused him; of which Josephus (Antiq. Jud. 20. 7.) gives full Testimony. When Festus (saith he) came into Felix room in the Government of Judea, the chief of the Jews of Cesarea went to Rome to accuse Felix: and he had been certainly punish∣for his unjust dealing with the Jews (so unjust as Tacitus cries shame of him for his cruel Tyrannicalness over them) had not Nero been very favourable to him, at the intreaty of his Brother Pallas, who was then very much in Caesar's esteem.

2. That it was early in Nero's Reign that Pallas was out of Nero's favour, and that partly by reason of his abetting Agrippinas pride, partly by Poppaeas growing into favour, who could not brook Agrippinas Party, of which Pallas was the chief; having indear'd himself to her, by making up the match betwixt Claudius and her, and by the Use of her Body: that Nero so far disgusted Pallas, for bolstring up his Mother Agrippina in her Animosities, as he dismist him from meddling in publick Affairs, at the almost beginning of his Reign, Tacitus affirms, saying, Nero being highly displeased with those, that animated his Mother, remov'd Pallas from lording it in the Court, in the first year of his Empire, Nero 1. and Antistius Vetus being Consuls. (Tacitus an. 13. 179.) [Nero offensus iis quibus Agrippinae superbia innittebatur, dimo∣vit Pallantem curâ rerum, qui à Claudio impositus velut arbitrum regni agebat.]

How early Poppaea came into favour with Nero, the same Author informs us, in these words. [Nero the third time and Valerius Massella being Con∣suls, Poppea by her arts and flatteries began to obtain power over Nero's Af∣fections.] (Id. Ibid.) [Nerone tertio & Valerio Massella Coss. Poppaea pri∣mùm per artes & blandimenta valescere.] In which arts she succeeded so suc∣cesfully, in encroaching upon Nero's Affections, and made such haste; as Jo∣sephus dates the business of the Counter-wall, wherein Poppaea carried so great a stroke, at the beginning of Festus his Government, (Ant. 28. 8.)

And that her rising was the fall of Agrippina and her Party, Tacitus tells

us (in his next Book of Annals) Caius Vipsanius and Fonteius being Consuls, Nero no longer forbore the parricide of his Mother; being instigated thereunto by his affection to Poppaea, growing every day more hot: she taunting him, as be∣ing his Mothers Pupil; and despairing to marry the Son, while the Mother was alive. (Tac. an. 14. 196.) [Diu meditatum scelus non ultra distulit, flagrantior indies amore Poppaeae, &c.]

So as it cannot be imagin'd, but that Poppaea had (at the farthest) at the be∣ginning of Nero's fourth wrought Pallas wholly out of all favour; insomuch as his interceding for his Brother Felix would, then, have been of little a∣vail, towards the obtaining his pardon of those grievous Crimes the Jews charged him with before Nero.

3. That Festus, who came in Felix's Room, at his first arrival in Judea, did (through the Jews Importunity) hasten St. Paul's Trial. For the third' day, after his coming into the Province, he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusa∣lem: where after he had tarried (as some Copies read) no more than eight or ten days; or (according to the Vulgar) more than ten days, that is, all out ten days inclusively, he went down to Cesarea (as he promised at his first coming to Jerusalem, that he would depart thither shortly (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) (Act. 25. 1, 4, 6, 7.) and the very next day, sitting upon the Judgment-seat, commands Paul to be brought to his trial.

4. That after St. Paul's Appeal to Caesar, his mission to Rome was accele∣rated. For after certain days, King Agrippa comes to Cesarea, to salute the new Governour Festus; where after he had been many days, (many for a Vi∣sit) not enough for a Month, nor perhaps for a Week. In all reason, the re∣spect Agrippa bare to the Roman Emperour would invite him to give the new Governour, he had sent into Judea, a visit, as soon as his occasions would permit; which, if not very urgent, must give place to his waiting upon the mouth of his Lord Paramount, to receive Instructions from Festus, as well as to congratulate his preferment: And good manners would hardly permit him, to make a burden of a visit, by any long stay with him. However, at this visit, Festus acquainting him with St. Paul's Case, he desires to hear St. Paul himself: and on the next morrow, St. Paul is brought forth, and pleads his own Case; upon hearing of which, Agrippa and Festus consulting, it is determined that he should go to Rome, and upon that Determination he is forthwith sent: where, early in the Spring (after he had winter'd at Maltha) he arrives.

5. That his first Answer before Nero, was soon after his arrival at Rome. For first, he gives Timothy an account of it, who was then at Ephesus, desiring him to come to him before winter, (2 Tim. 4. 21.) In order to which, we must allow some time for the carriage of the Letter (it being sent not by Post, but Tychichus, (whose frequent visiting the Churches in his passage would retard the delivery of it;) some to Timothy's providing for so long a Jour∣ney; and some to his setting things in order at Ephesus, before he could possibly leave his Charge there. Now this Episte Dr. Lightfoot dates reasonable early, in the 5. year of Nero, and that was before he had initiated him∣self in open and avowed Cruelty, by his Mothers blood. For the Quinqua∣tria (at which Feast Nero, pretending a desire of reconciliation with his Mo∣ther, by his flattering Letters invited her to the Baiae, to celebrate that Feast with him) was about the latter end of March, (Sueton. Nero 34) when one half of Nero's fifth was expiring, he beginning his Reign the 13. day of October, (Sueton. Claud. 33.)

And secondly, his Adversaries must have an incredible degree of Patience, more than they exprest at home, if they did not hasten his trial, that they might return home before Winter, but suffered him to stand at the Bay with them in that free custody (wherein with his Keeper he was permitted to dwell in his own hired house, and to receive all that came in unto him) (Act. 28. ult.) If those Dogs of the Circumcision gnasht their teeth at him, through the Grates of that Custody he was in, under Lysias, Felix and Festus: being so

ragingly mad, that they could not fasten their Teeth upon him, as they at∣tempt to take him, by force, out of the Guards hand, that Lysias had set upon him, to prevent their tearing him in pieces, (Act. 21. 3. and 23. 10.) set twenty Couple of Blood-hounds in lurch, to kill him, if they can but inveigle him out of the Castle-gates (Act. 23. 13, 15.) and (25. 3.) They would certainly bark at the length of his Chain, at Rome, and do their ut∣most to shorten it; and bring him to a speedy Trial, to make his Answer very early in Nero's fifth year, as Dr. Lightfoot states it. St. Jerome puts this past all doubt, when, speaking of the Acts of the Apostles, he saith, [Cujus historia usque ad biennium Romae commoranti Paulo pervenit, id est, usque ad quartum Neronis annum: ex qua intelligimus in eadem urbe librum esse compostum.] (Jeron. de viris illustribus, Lucas) [St. Luke's History reacheth to St. Paul's two years imprisonment at Rome, that is, to the fourth year of Nero: where∣by we understand that that Book of the Acts of the Apostles was writ at Rome.]

§ 4. Which being premised, it remains that in the Second place I show, that at that Time St. Paul appear'd before Nero, he was so far from being visibly stain'd with Acts of Cruelty, as his Quinquennium (for the Justice of it) past into a Proverb. The Emperour Titus was wont to say, that the best Princes exceeded not Nero's first five years. Seneca (in his Book de clemen∣tia) gives him, during those years, this Encomium: [Potes hoc, Caesar, prae∣dicare audacter, omnium quae in fidem tutelámque venerunt, nihil per te, neque vi, neque clam Reipublicae ereptum; & nulli adhuc principum concessam concit∣pisti innocentiam; nemo unus homo uni homini tam charus unquam fuit, quàm tu populo Romano: magnum longúmque ejus bonum.] Thou maist boldly (Caesar) publish this; that of all those things which have been committed to thy trust, thou hast not either by violence or fraud robb'd the Common-weal of the least of them; and thou hast coveted (a thing which hath not been granted to any of thy Pre∣decessors) to carry thy self innocently; neither was any one man so dearly be∣loved of one man, as thou art of all the people of Rome, being their great and lasting good; during which time, though he was a bad Man, yet he was a good Emperour. The Circean Cup of Court Delicacies had early metamorphos'd him, into a beast of Epicurus his Stie, wallowing in all manner of Bestial Sensuality: but he was not, as yet, grown up into so fierce, tearing and bloody a Beast, as to merit the name of a Lion. He was suspected indeed to enter like a Fox, to have been acces∣sorie to his Mother Agrippinas poysoning of Claudius, (in that he was wont to call Mushroms, the meat of the Gods; because by them, impoyson'd, his Predecessors had been translated into the number of the Immortals:) And he was principal in the Murther of Germanicus; but was so far from avouch∣ing that Act, as he would have the Poyson prepared in his own Closet, [Cubiculum Caesaris juxta decoquitur,] (Tacit. annal. 13. 180.) and obliged his Shee instrument to secresie, by the trible Bond of Donatives, Threats and Promises: (Suet. Nero 33.) and cast over it the Cloak of this Pretence, That the suddenness of his Brother-in-law's death was to be laid to the charge of an Apoplexy, which, to his knowledge, he had been troubled with from his Cradle, (Tacit. annal. 13. 181.)

Nay, so far was Nero from reigning yet (visibly) like a Lion, as Tacitus af∣firms, that the death of Julius Silanus was procured by his Mothers craft without his knowledge; and Narcissus his, against his will: the only per∣sons (besides Germanicus) whose death, as unjustly procured, is bewail'd by the Historians of that part of his Reign: [Ignaro Nerone per dolum Agrip∣pinae.] [Ad mortem agitur invito Principe.] (Id. ibid. 176.) Yea, so tender would he then seem of shedding Blood, as he never signed the most just Condemnation of any Malefactor (till the last of his five first years was al∣most expired) without regret, and repeating his wonted Wish [Vtinam ne∣scirem literas] Would God I had never learnt to write, (Sueton. Nero 10.) So

artifically did he dissemble, or his Tutors Barrha and Seneca divert, his Na∣tural inclination to Cruelty (which they perceived would not be tamed by love of Vertue) by giving way for the more free vent of his amorous Passi∣ons; laying his bloody Mars asleep in the bosom of his bucksom Venus, (Tac. ann. 13.) [quo faciliùs, si virtutem aspernaret, voluptatibus concessis re∣tinerent;] as all men conceived good hopes of him, that after he had al∣laid the Edge of his juvenile Salacity, he would prove an excellent Prince. This was the sence which the World then had of Nero: and thus the Opi∣nion of the Primitive Church, exprest by Eusebius, (Eccles. hist. 2. 22.) that St. Paul made his first Apology before him, in that first part of his Reign, while he was milder both in Affection and Carriage, than he proved after∣wards. And St. Jerome (de viris iliustr.) is right in that Note he makes; [Sciendum autem in prima satisfactione, necdum Neronis imperio stabilito, nec in tanta scelerae irrumpente quanta de eo narrant historiae:] St. Paul's first ap∣pearance before him was, when his Empire not being establish'd, he had not run into those wickednesses which Histories tell of him, that is, it was before he grew so outragious, as to deserve the name of a Lion, for his Cruelty, or upon any other imaginable account; but for his being, in his own Conceit, an Anti-Lion to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

Can we then imagine that Nero would let go his hopes, so deeply im∣printed, before he had canvast and heard, what the Jews could say against what St. Paul alledged, for proof of this, that Jesus of Nazareth is King of the Jews, Would not Poppaeas Zeal ingage her to muster up all the force she could possibly raise, of malicious Jews, to enter the lists, and confute Christ's Champion on this ground which if they let him win, and make good a∣gainst them, they must bid an eternal Vale to their admired Law and Tem∣ple, and bow their stubborn knees to that crucified God, whom they so much despised? And if that command she had over Caesar's Affections (so sovereign as Tacitus undertakes, from that Topick, to vindicate him from the Aspersion cast on him by some, that he wilfully kick'd her out of his, to make her bed in the Grave) (Tacit. an. 16. 246.) [Poppaea mortem obiit fortuitâ mariti iracundiâ, à quo gravida ictu calcis afflicta est; neque enim ve∣nenum crederem—quia amori uxoris obnoxius erat;] had not been fee enough to bribe him against St. Paul; yet sure the pleasure he took in rolling that sweet morsel of Judeas Crown under his Tongue; which he had in his hope swallowed, and must regorge, if St. Paul carry the day, would set his wits on work to seek evasions and starting-holes in every corner of his Apolo∣gy; in the whole Web of whose Discourse, upon that subject, how glad would his own dear interest have made him, could he have found one Wemb through which he might have seen the least glimmering of a possibility, that those emergencies in Judaea (then under contest before him) were not such as St. Paul reported them to be. Can we think that Christian Apologist could satisfie Nero in that point (as St. Jerome in the place forecited insinu∣ates, by his [in prima satisfactione]) which he so much desired to disbelieve, till he had throughly weighed and canvas'd all St. Paul's and his Adversa∣ries Pleas, and found the Apostle to be irrefragable?

Briefly: To sum up the whole of this Argument. A man may without any violent elevation of his mind, fancy Judea (that Navel of the Earth) to have been a Stage erected for the Actors, in the midst of the Theatre of the World; and the Inhabitants of the Empire sitting in a round, as spectators and observing what was there acted, with the greatest silence imaginable. We are made, saith St. Paul, a theatre to men and Angels. What hinders but we may interpret that Text by Daniel (10. 13.) the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia, and Vers. 14. Michael one of the chief Princes, and (Chap. 12. 1.) Michael the great Prince that standeth for the children of thy people: and by Angels, understand the Angel-presidents over Nations, those Eyes of the Lord (according to Mr. Mede) that run through the Earth. To be sure they might at that time have seen all the World sitting still and at rest; yea,

themselves then resting from impeding, withstanding, opposing, deteining one another, in behalf of their several Jurisdictions, and had leisure to sit down, for company, with their Pupils, and fix their running Eyes upon that strange sight was a showing in Judaea, upon that one Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands. However this Text can imply no less than A∣ction upon the Stage, Tumultuations in Judea, with silence among the Spectators, Peace in all the World about: and that Peace allowed the Em∣pire, without the least distraction, to trie to the bottom the grounds of those Commotions; and those grounds being of highest concern to the Spe∣ctators (res tua tunc agitur.) It must needs be morally impossible, that the Christian Church could, by any the handsomest Legerdemain, delude that Eagles Eye, so fixedly pitch'd on these Occurrences, and so steadily pearch'd upon that Olive-plant of an Universal Peace: an attempt to cheat the Spectators in such a Juncture would have been such an Act

—quòd ipse Non sani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes,

as he that had but half an Eye would swear to be the undertaking of scarce half-witted men.

I am now come to a Period of this tedious and toilsom Pilgrimage through the holy Age (if I may call the Time so, as well as the Place, which Christ separated from all other Ages, wherein to manifest himself in the flesh, and divulge his Royal Law) undertaken not out of curiosity, to see Fashions; but upon the same account which I have observed many of the Ancients to have travelled to the holy Land, to inform themselves more explicitly in the Evangelical History: to confirm themselves more feelingly by ocular De∣monstration in the truth of that History; or to delight their inamour'd Souls with the Contemplation of the places where the Blessed Jesus convers'd: here he wept, here he pray'd; here he fasted; this was the place of his Birth, this of his Baptism, this of his Transfiguration; on this Hill he gave his Royal Law, on this he foil'd the Tempter, on this his sacred Feet printed their farewel-kiss to the Earth; such Meditations could not but deeply affect & con∣firm the Religious Pilgrim. This put me upon enquiring whether the same Re∣ligious Use might not be made of travelling through the holy Age, and this En∣quiry upon making trial; aiming at the informing my self (as it were by ocu∣lar Inspection) whether it was an Age likely to be imposed upon, as our Mo∣dern Scepticks insinuate. In which travel I have been forc'd to take Secular Writers for my Guides; that I might frame my Journals in a Language which they, whose couviction I endeavour, profess themselves to understand, and to take pleasure in the sound of; entertaining my self with those hopes, that Secular History, as well as

A Verse may take him whom a Sermon flies, And turn delight into a sacrifice.

And that our great Criticks in Humanity may deign to peruse a Discourse that hath cost the Author so many weary steps, and not think him immo∣dest in this request, that they would, in order to their own satisfaction, with him (who for their sake hath travell'd over the Mountains of the Leo∣pards, that he might take and give them a prospect of that Age) vouch∣safe to take one view of it from Mount Sion, and mark one Bulwark more it had against treacherous surprizals, grounded upon the Candour and Inte∣grity of its Assailants; enough to have secur'd it, had it not been intrench'd and without which all the Fortifications, we have seen the remains of, would be but so many Monuments of the Subtilty and Stratagems of the Conque∣rours. It will therefore be necessary, in order to a full sail Assurance of the truth of our general Proposition, to turn our sail to this Wind, our thoughts to this Observation.

CHAP. XII.

As no Age was less like to be Cheated than that wherein the Apostles flourish'd; so no Generation of Men was less like to put a Cheat upon the World than the Apostolick and Primitive Church.

§ 1. The Apostles and Primitive Churches Veracity evinc'd, by their chusing Death rather than an Officious Lye to save their lives: Pliny's testimony of them. § 2, 3. They hide not their imperfections; nor the Truth to please Parties, or to avoid the Worlds taking offence. The offence which Heathens took at some Gospel-passages. § 4. All false Religions make lyes their Refuge. Pagan Forgeries. § 5. Papal Innovation founded on ly∣ing Legends. Sr. Thomas Moor upon St. Austin. Gregory Turonen∣sis and Simeon Metaphrastes devout Lyars. The Story of the Baptist's Heod.

§ 1. 1. THeir avowed Principles touching making a Lye (though with an intention to serve God by it) were, That the Devil is the Father of it (Joh. 8. 44.) That whoso love or make a Lye shall be exclud∣ed Heaven, and detruded into the society and torments of Devils, (Apocal. 22. 15.) Now, had Men of this Profession abused the World, with false Stories in a matter of so high a concern as Religion, it would have render'd them, in the opinion of all men, the veriest miscreants that ever liv'd; would certainly have allayd that confidence they used in justifying the truth of their Reports to the faces of men, who were upon the place where the things reported were done. If you say this was but a colour and mere pretence, to gain the repute, of men hating a lye, that so they might more easily insinuate the belief of their Stories into their credulous and prepos∣sess'd Hearers; that surmise will be answer'd, beyond all possibility of a ra∣tional Reply, by producing clear Evidences of their actual conforming and pertinacious adhering to those Principles, against the strongest Temptations to wave them, that could possibly be laid in their way. [Vide quàm sollicitè Paulus distinguat quae à se sunt, & quae à Domino, 1 Cor. 7. 10, 11. quàm for∣midet dicere, quae vidit, in corpore an extrà corpus viderit!] (2 Cor. 12. 2.) Grotius.) [Quam probabilitatem habet, talium documentorum auditores suspi∣cari mentitos, quaecunque suum praeceptorem effecisse testificati sunt? aut quàm credibile faciant si putent illos omnes sibi inter se consensisse in mendacium, &c.] (Euseb. demonst. Evang. 3. 7.) Observe, saith Grotius, how carefully the Apostle distinguisheth betwixt what he saith and what the Lord saith; how fearful he is to determine whether he was in the body or out of the body when he was rapt up. Have we the least reason (saith Eusebius) to suspect that the hearers of such instructions did feign whatsoever they testifie their Master to have done; or is it in the least probable that they should all conspire together to lye. But let us here what Pagan Writers give in evidence here.

Pliny, being appointed by the Emperour Trajan to take special cognizance of the Causes of Christians, and to give him the best information there∣about, which his utmost diligence in enquiring could arrive to, gives him this account of them; That in their Assemblies for Divine Worship they used so solemnly to bind themselves (at the receiving of the holy Sacrament) not to falsifie their word, but to speak the truth; as he could not induce any of them (by any methods of either cruelty or flattery that he could invent) to say they were not Christians, (Plinii Epist. lib. 10. ep. 103.) In so much that Tra∣jan gave order, that from his Ministers of State should procede in examin∣ing the Causes of Christians upon this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, That if any of them that

were accused, being ask'd whether he were a Christian, should say he was not, he should forthwith be dismist, as not guilty of the charge laid against him, (Trajanus Plinio, epist. 104.) And this grounded upon Pliny's Observation, [Nam ad hoc cogi non possunt qui sunt reverà Christiani;] for they that are so indeed cannot be forced to deny themselves to be Christians: but would persevere to the last gasp in the midst of the greatest torments to roar out, this good Confession; I am a Christian; I tell thee (bloody tormentor) who I am; thou wouldst, by the rack, force me to deny my self to be what I am: I cannot, I dare not lye, I am a Christian. Tear off my flesh with hooks, break my bones with strappadoes, pull asunder my joynts with skrews; while thou leaves me a tongue in my head, I must speak the truth, I cannot but tell thee to thy face, I am a Christian, I worship God through Jesus Christ, (Tertul. apol. 21.) [dicimus & palàm dicimus, & vobis tormentibus dicimus, lacerati & cruentati vociferamus, Deum colimus per Christum, &c.] Could a more feeling proof be given of their abominating a lye than this? They who would rend their Garments, at Acclamations made to themselves, as Gods; that would not take to, but spurn at divine honours laid at their feet; will rather have the skin torn off their flesh, their flesh off their bones, their bones by continued and lingring pains drain'd of marrow, than suffer the most exquisite tortures to rack from them that self-officious Lye, (or so much as a consent by silence, to them who would have them say) that they were not Christians. The great∣est testimony of a tenacious love to Truth that ever was exhibited; what could tempt them to recede from it, whom assurance of Life, exemption from the torturing Rack, and the horror of the most grim-fac'd Death that wittiest malice could contrive, could not tempt? Balaam put in a good Caution for his speaking truth, when (for all his love to the wages of un∣righteousness) he assured Balak, That if he would give him an house-full of Silver and Gold he durst not speak more or less than what God should put into his mouth: But the Primitive Church put in a far greater pledge, limb and life it self, for her Veracity. And yet this was all the inducement they can possibly be imagin'd to have, to persist in their Lye (if the Gospel be a Lye) as Eusebius excellently (Demonst. Evang. 3. 7.) [Non enim exiguum erit hujus audaciae proemium; siquidem non vulgares nos pro tantis certaminibus manent coronae, sed quae supplicia videlicet à legibus omnium hominum, ut par est, contradicentibus injuncta est, vincula, tormenta, carceres, ignis, ferrum, cruces & boluae, ad quae omnia promptissimo animo est accedendum: iisque malis eun∣dum obviàm intrepidè quae praeceptorem nostrum nobis pro exemplo ostentant: quid enim pulchrius quàm nulla ratione, & diis & hominibus fieri inimicos, &c.] We have reason sure to persist thus inflexibly in asserting this truth of the Gospel; for we know we are to reap no small reward of this boldness, to receive no vulgar Crowns for such strivings; but those punishments (to speak plainly) which by the Laws of all men are adjudged meet to be inflicted upon those that contradict them, bonds, racks, goals, fire, sword, crosses and wild beasts: To all which we come with a most ready mind, and without all fear go to meet those evils that present our Master to us for an example; you must think sure we take a great deal of de∣light in making our selves without all reason enemies to the Gods and men, &c. If we had not assurance of the Truth which we profess, and did not so far abhorr to conceal, much more to deny, what we know is Truth, as, rather than do so to save our lives, we persevere to our last breath in bearing witness to it.

It was a truly Christian and Heroick Answer (well beseeming the Roy∣al Champion and Defender of the Apostolick Faith) which our late King of blessed Memory, Charles the First, gave to a person who counsell'd him to temporize with his Rebels, in a dissembling compliance with those their not only unjust but impious Proposals, which his truly tender and rightly informed Conscience disgusted; telling his Majesty, he might, after he had reestablish'd himself in the possession of his just Rights, and the Affections of his then abused Subjects, watch an opportunity of retracting those ex∣torted Concessions. Oh Friend, replies the King (laying his hand upon his

pious heart) there is that here which forbids me to dissemble; I am a Chri∣stian, I cannot dissemble. Cursed Sectarian Rebels! the stain of the Chri∣stian Name! You made Lyes your Refuge, and were made up of nothing from Head to Heel, but dissimulation, steering your course by that more than Machiavilian Maxim [Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare.] Blessed Charles, the Glory of the truly Christian Religion! Thou writes after the Copy which thy Master set thee in his own Blood, who rather than he would dissemble, or not bear witness to the Truth before Pilat, would incurr the Rabbles clamorous Cry, to have that holy and just One crucified: Such, such were thy Mothers Children, among whom thou now triumphs: Such assurance did the Apostolical Church, the glorious Company of Martyrs, give of their prizing Truth (at that rate, as they thought that it was to be bought, but not sold upon any terms) in their refusing to accept of deliver∣ance from the the most tormenting pains, that humane strength could in∣flict, or devillish subtilty invent, at the price of a Monasyllable-lye. What reason then to suspect the Truth of that Testimony, which men of such Principles and inconquerable Veracity have given to the Truth of Go∣spel-history, or that they should put their heads together to compact a Fable so long-winded?

§ 2. The Apostles Impartiality.

How groundless such a Suspicion is, will more appear, if we cast into the Scales the Consideration of the Apostles and Evangelists Impartiality, in their delivering the whole Truth; even those Passages in Christ's and the Churches Stories, which they could not but foresee, would be a derision and stumbling-block to inquisitive Adversaries, and a disparagement in the opinion of the Vulgar, to Christ and themselves. Such as concern their own mean Extract; their sordid and scandalous imployments before their Call: St. Matthew a Publican, a Trade filthy and sordid even in the repute of Gentiles [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] (saith Artimedorus.) An honest Pub∣lican was so rare, even at Rome it self, as Sabinus, for managing that Office uncorruptly, had Statues erected to him with this Inscription [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] for the honest Publican, (Sueton. Vespas. 1.) [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,] So many Publcans, so many Harpies. Theocritus being demanded what was the cruellest Beast? answered, of those on the Moun∣tains, the Bear and Lion; of those in Cities, Publicans and Sycophants: But much more infamous among the Jews, especially if those that under∣took that Office were Jews: insomuch as Tertullian (de pudicitia cap. 9.) to take off that aggravation of infamy from St. Matthew will by no means have him to have been a Jew. But he is more tender of St. Matthew's credi••••, than St. Matthew himself is, who writes himself a Jew-publican, as St. Je∣rome proveth, (Ep. ad Damasum, part. 2. tract. 1. epist. 15.) Accusing him∣self, saith Eusebius: [Hoc quidem nullus Evangelistarum indicavit, non Coa∣postolus Johannes, non Marcus, non Lucas; sed ipse Matthaeus suam ipsius vi∣tam non dissimulans planéque ipse seipsum accusans, Euseb. Evang. demon. 3. 7.] St. Peter, James and John (our Saviour's select Confidents, and as it were the Squires of his Body) were called from their Fisher-boats to be Fishers of men. They stick'd not to repeat their own weaknesses and failings, their presumptions, diffidences, forsaking, forswearing their Master. Their Am∣bition, their carnal Conceptions of the Kingdom of the Messiah, their dul∣ness of mind to believe the Resurrection; with all the aggravating Cir∣cumstances of their Lapses. From all which the malicious and vafrous Cel∣sus (Orig. contrà Celsum, lib. 2. calum. 18, 19. & passim) takes occasion to deride them, to calumniate the blessed Jesus, and to disparage the Christian Cause: which (as Origen replies) they would never have administred occasion to the busie enemy to object, had not love to Truth constrained them to communicate to the World the whole Truth; even that that made towards the proving of Christ

to be perfect Man, as well as what demonstrated him to be God, and that which spake themselves to be what they were by Grace, and to do what they did not in their own Name, or Strength of their own Vertues, but in the Merits and Power of the Name of Christ: a Conceit walked among the Jews; that extraordinary Holiness might attain to Miraculous Workings: Industry bringeth to Purity, Purity to Cleanness, Cleanness to Holiness, Holiness to Humbleness, Hum∣bleness to Fear of Sin, Fear of Sin to partaking of the Holy Ghost, say their Rabbies (Lightfoot harm. an. Christ. 33.) But the Apostles derive not their Power of working Miracles by any such Pedigree; they make themselves no∣thing, that Christ might be all in all to them.

§ 3. No partial Compliance.

Yea, whereas in Cases of Fact and Practice (as private men) they might warp aside from the Truth of the Gospel: and it would have been, in such Cases, a promoting of their private Interests, either to have said nothing, or to have divertised their Reports so, as might have rendered the Business most plausi∣ble on their own Partie's side. Yet we find that even where their particular Interests clash and interfere, their Reports agree, and are as full in what makes against, as for that Party, with whom themselves sided in that Case of Fact.

To instance in the Case of St. Peter and Paul (mentioned, Gal. 2.) That E∣vangelist, who convers'd with St. Peter, and was appointed to be his Com∣panion to the Circumcision (Gal. 2. 9.) St. John writes his Gospel so, as it favours St. Paul's Case more than St. Peter's; commemorating more at large than St. Luke, Christs Intensions to cast off the Jewish Nation, to abrogate the Ceremonial Law; describing that Nation as a People not to be temporiz∣ed with, opening their Malice, Pertinacy, and insatiable Thirst after Christ's Blood; extenuating the Sin of the Romans in putting him to Death, in com∣parison of the Crime of the Jews in rejecting, betraying, delivering up, and bartering away the Lord of Glory.

St. Matthew (who wrote by St. Peter's Direction to the Hebraizing Jews) writes as much in dis-favour of that Nation which St. Peter favour'd and sid∣ed with in his Contest with St. Paul, as any other Evangelist: reporting that John the Baptist warned them, not to claim Propriety in, nor Privilege from Abraham. That Christ preferr'd believing Gentiles before mis-believing Jews to the Honour of being related to him in Consanguinity. That Christ found more Faith in some Gentiles, than he did in Israel. That Christ should say that many should come, from East and West, and sit down with Abraham in the Kingdom of God, and the Children of the Kingdom be thrust out. That Christ urged the Law of Charity, as vacating the Law of Cermonies, (even of Old, in the case of David, eating the Shew-bread.) And lastly, Christs Doom upon such like as St. Peter temporized with, to the scandalizing of believing Gentiles, (that is, they that had swept the House, and emitted the unclean Spirit by an accepting of Christ for a Messiah,) but did afterwards suffer him (by their Judaizing) to return, and bring them into a worse Bon∣dage to the Ceremonial Law than they were in before;) that their last E∣state, that of Judaick Christians, should be worse than their first, of Juda∣ism.

It were easie to multiply Instances, and to point to those Passages in St. Mark, (who wrote his Gospel to the Grecizing or Alexandrian Jews (whose Bishop he was) from St. Peter's Mouth;) that make clearly for St. Paul, and against St. Peter: but for Brevities sake I wave that, and come to shew, that on the other Hand, St. Luke, who was St. Paul's Amanuensis in that Go∣spel (of his writing but St. Paul's inditing) challenging therefore a Propriety in it, and calling it his Gospel, (Rom. 2. 16.) does no more favour St. Paul's than St. Peter's Cause; presenting St. Peter as the Mouth of the whole Col∣ledg of Apostles, in confessing Christ to be the Son of God, the King of the

Jews: and receiving from Christ, upon that Confession, the Privilege of be∣ing the first-laid Stone in the new Jerusalem; upon which, Christ would build his Church. And in his History of the Acts of the Apostles, demon∣strating how Christ made good that Promise to him. For though all the Twelve were so many Pearly Foundation-Stones, upon whose Persons and Preaching the Gospel-Church was built; and though all of them were Doors in the City of God, and had the Keys given them to open the Door of Faith to the Jew and Gentile: Yet St. Luke gives the Preheminence to St. Peter, in order of Time; reporting him, with his Brother Andrew, to have had the first explicit call to Christianity, and after that to the Apostolical Office; and and so his Person to have been laid as the first Stone in the House of God, and in the Foundation of the Apostles: and informing us how his Key of Do∣ctrine, after Christ's Assension and assuming of his Kingdom, did at Jerusa∣lem on the Day of Penticost; and some while after, at the House of Corneli∣us, first open the Door of Faith both to Jews and Gentiles: how his Sermons were the first Pearly Foundation-Stone, upon which the Catholick Church of Jew and Gentile was built. Nay, St. Luke relates those Passages with such Circumstances as are of greatest Tendency towards the heaping of Honour upon St. Peter's Person; presenting him, not only as the Stone, upon which those individual Converts were laid, but in their Persons (as their Represen∣tatives) the whole Church of believing Jews gathered from every Nation un∣der Heaven to his Sermon on the Day of Pentecost: and of Gentiles, repre∣sented by Cornelius, a Roman: a Name (in the Idiom of that Age) equipol∣lent to a Citizen of the World: God, the King of the Jews (his peculiar He∣ritage) and Caesar, the Emperour of the Romans, sharing the World betwixt them. The Poet came nearer the Truth (in the Evangelical Sence of [all the World] then he was aware of in his—

[Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet.]

If any of our own Furiosi fasten his Canine Teeth upon this Interpretation of the Rock and Keys, and cast up his Snout in the Air, as if he smelt Pope∣ry in't: he may know (if he have not confin'd himself to the Circle of Mo∣dern Systems, or be not too proud to learn of his Betters) that I yield St. Pe∣ter no more than the greatest Champions of the Christian of Old, and of the Reformed Religion of late, have granted him; and yet upon such clear Scri∣pture-Grounds as speak it to be no more than his just Due: they that think the Papal Church and Cause advantaged by this Concession, may do well to joyn Heads with the Jesuits (to whom they are already joyn'd by the Tail) and try if, with his Ram, they can batter down the Walls of our Jerusalem about the ears of them, who (through God's Grace) have hitherto defended her upon this Ground; and amongst them by Name that Bl. Martyr Arch-Bi∣shop Laud (against Fisher, pag. 237. &c.) For my own part, I shall rather be of none, than of that Religion which stands in need either of a Lye, or the Dissimulation of Truth to support it.—But to return to St. Luke, who (though St. Paul's Scribe) makes the most honourable mention of St. Peter of any of the Evangelists: reciting his being with Christ at his Trans∣figuration (a Privilege which St. Peter himself glories in (2 Pet. 1. 18.) Christs praying for him that his Faith should not fail; and Injunction to him when himself was converted to strengthen his Brethren: Reporting the History of his Denial of his Master more favourably than any of the rest; therein omit∣ting the Aggravations of his denying Christ the second time with an Oath, the third time with cursing and swearing; both which are recorded by St. Matthew's Pen: describing St. Peter every way as well instructed as St. Paul in the State of the Controversie betwixt them, touching God's accounting the Gentiles holy as well as the Jews, touching God's antiquating the Law that put difference of clean and unclean upon Meats, and his freeing both Jew and Gentile from the insupportable Yoke of Legal Ceremonies. In all which

St. Luke reports St. Peter to have been so well instructed, as the Synod ground∣ed its Decree touching those things upon the Evidence which St. Peter gave (Act. 15.) And lastly introducing St. Paul, doing the same thing in Effect which he rehuked St. Peter for, [shaving his Head, purifying himself, circum∣cising of Timothy, &c.] and that upon the same Ground that St. Peter plead∣ed, [That he might not offend those weak believing Jews, who were, as yet, zealous of the Law, and had not learn'd that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.] A thing which, not only, scandalized the Pagan Madaurenses, and opened the Blasphemous Mouth of Porphyry to accuse St. Paul of Procacity and Partiality; but put St. Origen and Chrisostome to their Wits End to answer his Calumnies: And occasion'd those sharp bickerings betwixt St. Austin and Jerome as have been a Bone of Contention among the School-men to this Day, and like to be till the Last Day: [Vide August. tom. 2. Epist. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19.]

This is such an Argument of Impartiality in the Evangelists as hath no Peer. Alexander laid his Finger upon his Scar while Apelles was drawing his Picture. Aelian (Var Histor. 2. 23.) would not give Nicodorus the Mantinean his full Praise, because he was affraid, thereby, to honour the Memory of Diogoras (a reputed Atheist) who help'd Nicodorus to frame his excellent Laws: and Virgil because the Nolanes would not permit him to draw their River over his Grounds expung'd the Name of this City out of his Verses, placing instead of that Ora: (A. Gelii noct. attic. 7. 20.)

Talem dives erat Capua, & vicina Veseno [Ora] jugo.—

When, before that, it was [Nola] jugo. Compare the History of the Guelfs and Gibellines, the Papal and Imperial Parties, the Roman and the Car∣thaginian Writers, the Netherlands and the King of Spain's Favourites: Or (to come nearer home) the London and Oxford-Diurnals; and you will find the same Occurrencies, the same Exploits, so interchangeably chequer'd with Black and White, so variously drawn in Chalk or Charcoal (according to the different Interests of the Pen, and the Respect is born to Parties) as the same Person shall be painted, here a Saint, there a Devil: the same exploit pre∣sented, by one, in fair and lovely Tables; by another, ill-favoured, dis∣torted, and with Heels turn'd upwards: the same Action writ by one in Oyl, by another in Gall. But the Holy Apostles of the blessed Jesus, mov∣ed out of the Magnetick Sphere of all Carnal and Selfish Respects; were not in their Writings, led by any Byass, beside the streight Line of Truth. [A∣micus Socrates, Amicus Plato, &c.] St. Peter is my Friend, St. Paul my Friend, but only for the Truth's sake, and therefore I respect the Truth before their Per∣sons, was their common Apothegm.

§ 4. All false Religions make Lyes their Refuge.

It will add Strength to this Argument, to observe that all other Religions do professedly make Lyes their Refuge. The Poetical Age of Greece, which brought forth the Gods and Religions of that Nation, was wholly fabulous and Nugatory. The first true Historian amongst them that set Pen to Paper was Diodorus Siculus, who lived in the Reign of Julius Caesar; of whom Pli∣ny writes, that he was the first Greek Author that wrote seriously; for which that Nation was grown so infamous as the Term of Ay-lyer was proverbially cast upon them by their own Prophets. For the Latin Heathenism its stand∣ing in need to have Fables support it, we have the Testimony of Schaevola the great Pontiff, who (as he is alledged by St. Austin (de Civitate, 4. 27.) though he acknowledged the Philosophical Theology to come nearer the Truth than the Urbane; yet will by no Means allow the Vulgar to have Knowledg of it, because it detects and decries many things as unbecoming the Gods, which the

Vulgar ascribes to them; and 'tis more profitable for the People (saith he) to believe our Stories, though false, than the just Consequences of Philoso∣phical Reasonings, though never so never so true. And of the incompara∣ble Varro, in whose Fragments quoted by St. Austin, and collected by Scaliger we have this Point of Doctrine, [It is expedient for the Vulgar to have Lyes imposed upon them.] (de Civitate, 3. 4.) [Varro falsa haec esse quamvis penè fatetur, tamen utile civitatibus dicit ut se viri fortes, etiamsi falsum sit, ex diis genitos esse credant; ut eo modo animus humanus velut divine stirpis fiduciam gerens res magnas aggrediendas praesumat audaciùs, agat Vehementiùs, & ob hoc impleat ipsa securitate faeliciùs,] For valiant Men to believe they are God-born, does ani∣mate and quicken their Courage. Upon this Ground Scipio cherished Men's O∣pinions of him, that he came of Divine Seed: and Alexander is told by Dioge∣nes (in Lucian) that the Lye which his Mother and the South-sayers made of him, [that he was the Son of Jupiter Hamon] was for his behoof, as making him more couragious in himself, and more formidable to others, (Lucian. dial. Diog. &c.) A brave Religion (cries that Iearned Father) for an infirm Man to fly to (for Help and Resolution in his searching after Truth to set him free,) which makes him believe 'tis more for his avail to believe Lies than to know the Truth. Enough, one would think, to startle the most Credulous Fool, and make him cautious of pinning his Faith upon those Men's Sleeves that are not ashamed to profess they think it an Act of Piety towards the Gods, and of Charity towards Men's Souls, to bring Men into a Beleif of forged Stories. And yet Philosophers use to lye for their own Gain, and for the Honour of their Countrey, saith Lucian (in Philopseuden.) [Mentiuntur quià in rem vident conducere,] [patriae suae plus majestatis ex hujusmodi figmentis conci∣liant,—&c.] And Herodotus proves Homer (in honour of the Greeks) to have feigned Helena to have been at Troy: she being detain'd in Egypt by Pro∣teus, together with the Treasure of Menelaus, till his return from the Trojan Wars, when he received both Wife and Goods untouch'd by Proteus, who had taken them from Alexander, forc'd upon that Coast by Tempests, as he fled with Helena, and discovered by his own Servants: adding to this Story of the Egyptian Priests (as a Confirmation of its Truth) how unlikely it is, that Priamus would involve himself in so dangerous a War in defence of Pa∣ris his Minion; especially, after it had cost him the Life of two of his Sons, and so many of his best Subjects: [I cannot think (saith he) but he would have delivered her to the Grecians, had she been in his own Bed-Chamber (not only in his Sons) to prevent, at least, a fatal Overthrow, &c.] but what Credit is to be given to Versijiers—farewell Homer, and the Cyprian Song. (Herodot. Eutyrpe.) The same Authour (in his Thalia) brings in Darius telling his Fellow-Confe∣derates [that Men may lye for the Common Good, and that therefore he would not scruple to invent something that he should say his Father gave him in Charge to say to Smyrdis.] Lactantius observes, this was the common Principle of the most knowing Heathen Theologies (Lact. de fals. relig. l. 1. c. 3. tit. de literato∣rum errore.) Of those many Instances he brings, I shall only alledg that of Tully; who, when he had said enough to overthrow all Pagan Religion, con∣cludes, notwithstanding, that those things were not to be disputed among the Vulgar: for Fear that such Disputation might extinguish the received Re∣ligions: with Lactantius his Note, upon which his blowing hot and cold, I shall conclude this Section: How is that Man to be discoursed with; who, when he perceives himself to be in an Errour, does wittingly stumble, that the whole Mul∣titude may dash their feet against the same Stone; who pulls out his own Eyes that other Menntay become blind?

§ 5. The greatest part of the Papal as well as Pagan Religion is grounded on palpable, and by themselves acknowledged, Forgeries. We may for I∣mage-Worship, Invocation of Saints departed, Adoration of the Host, Pur∣gatory, and all its Appurtenances, thank their fabulous Legends, writ (for∣sooth) out of a Religious and Charitable Intent, to beget Devotion in the

People, to catch them by this Holy Fraud of feighned Miracles and Aparati∣ons: One of the most ancient whereof and which hath a Thousand times more Authority (in Weight) to back it, than whole Thousands of the rest, Baronius (anno 250. § 5.) confesseth to be a mere Fable, and to have no better Rise than a Pretence, to make Glory redound to God and his Saints by a Religious and well-meant Lye.] This Tale is told (at second Hand) be Gregory Nazien∣zen (in his Funeral Oration for Cyprian) being a Story of Cyprian's Conversi∣on, upon Occasion of the blessed Virgins preserving a Virgins Chastity, against the Charms of his not only Courtship but Conjurations & Magical Spells. When the whole World of Antiquaries know that St. Cyprian, before his Conversi∣on, was not a Conjurer at Antioch (where the Legend brings them upon the Stage with his Wench Justina,) but a Professor of Oratory at Carthage, (Pon∣tius Diaconus de Passion. Cypriani;) and converted thereby Caecilius, far e∣nough from Antioch. Such Tares were so early sowen in the Church, as there is nothing in the Writings of the Fathers, we had need be more cauti∣ous of taking up upon their Word, than Stories of this Nature, than (tristia quaepiam & superstitiosa mendacia) certain over-serious and too Religious Lyes: which oftimes are told with that Confidence and Authority (saith a Zealous and Learned Romanist, Sir Thomas Moor: (Epist. Thomae Ruthalo. praefix. Luciani Cynico.) as some old Crafty Knave perswaded the blessed. Father St. Austin, (that most grave Man and bitter Enemy to lying) to report, for a Truth, that Fable of the two Curinas; the one returning to Life, the other depart∣ing, as a thing falling out in his time: which Lucian (in his Philopseudes) the Names only changed, (so long before St. Austin was born) derides.; (It was Demilus the Smith and Cleodemus, in Lucian; Curina the Common-council∣man, and Curina the Smith in St. August. (tom. 4. de cura pro mortuis, cap. 12.) and this Curina the Common-council-man who was restored to life upon the Instant of Curina the Smith's Death, was afterwards baptized by St. Austin, to whom, a while after, he told this strange Story (attestantibus honestis ci∣vibus suis) some honest Citizens avouching the Truth of it.) I make no great doubt but many a Godly Lye of the like Tendency has been told by the Inde∣pendent Catechills, when they gave an Account of the manner of their Con∣version. But to return to Moor's Discourse: It is (saith he) less to be won∣dered at, if those Men affect the Minds of the gross Vulgar with their Figments, who think they have done God an eminent piece of Service, and obliged Christ eternally to themselves; if they have but devised such a Tale of some Saint, or such a Tragedy concerning Hell, as will make an old doting woman cry, or tremble at the Report of it. Hence they have not suffer'd the Life scarce of one Martyr or Virgin to pass without the Intermixture of such like Lyes. Pious Lyes! As if (forsooth) there were, otherwise, danger that Truth could not support it self, and stand on her own Legs, except she were underprop'd with Lyes: neither have they been affraid to contaminate that Religion with Figments which Truth it self insti∣tuted, and intended should consist of naked Truth; nor did they see, that such Fa∣bles are so far from promoting it, as nothing can more prejudice Religion: for (as St. Austin testifies) as soon as Men smell-out the intermingled Lye, they suspect the Truth it self: whereupon I often grow jealous, that the greatest part of such Tales was devised by some Paultry Fellows and Hereticks, who had a Design to make Sport with the incautions Credulity of simple (rather than prudent) Men; and to take away Credit from true Christian Histories, by interweaving them with feigned Fables; wherefore (saith this ingenious Authour) undoubted Credit must be given to those Histories which the Divinely-inspired Scripture commends unto us; but for others, let us (having, with Judgment, applied them to the Doctrine of Christ, as unto Critolaus his Rule) receive or reject them: if we would be free from vain Credulity, and superstitious Fear. How soon would there be an end put to most of the Controversies betwixt us and the Modern Church of Rome were all of that Communion, of the truly Catholick Judgment of this Gen∣tleman, in this Particular. For I cannot call to mind any considerable Point 〈◊〉〈◊〉 betwixt us, where their Opinion hath no better or other ground 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Forgeries.

The declared Intent of the Latin Church Legend, is to perswade People to a devout Worshipping and Invocation of those Saints of whom those Tales are forged; the Collector of them concluding almost every Story with this Ex∣hortation; Let us pray unto him, that by his Merits and Intercession we may ob∣tain Salvation. What a Monstrous Story, without either Head or Foot, does Marcellinus Comes tell of the finding of the Baptists Head! (Cronic. Indict. 6. Vincomalo & Opilione Coss.) [The Ghost of the Baptist appeared to two Pilgrim Monks, commanding them to take up his Head, where it was buried, in Herod's Palace: they take it up, and carry it away with them in their Scrip; till they, giving the Scrip to be carried to a Potter of Emissa (who had cast himself into their Company;) He, advised by St. John in a Dream, steals away from them with the sacred Relick back again to Emissa; where at his death he commits it, seal'd up in a Box, to the Custody of his Sister: she, not knowing what it was, left it to her Successor: at last it comes into the Clutches of Eustochius (an Arrian Pres∣biter) who, by means thereof, works strange Cures; pretending he did them by his own Holiness: but his Knavery being found out, he is banished the City, and leaves the Baptists Head behind him. In the place where it was reposited some Monks happen'd to build their Cells, to whose Abbot Marcellus, (in process of time) St. John discovers where his Head was buried, and he finds it the twenty fourth Day of February in the sixth Indiction, Vin. & Op. Coss.] This Tale is well made in that Treatise, De revelatione Capitis Baptistae, wrong father'd upon Cy∣prian, as Erasmus hath well concluded, from that Story-writer's mentioning Pipin King of Aquitane, long before whose Reign St. Cyprians head lay un∣der a clod. This Marcellus (saith this Author) was commanded by the Baptist to carry his Head to Jurannus Bishop of Alexandria, that it might be there interr'd, where the rest of his Body rested. But there it rests not long; for (within a while) his Ghost appears to one Foelix a Monk; and commands him to go to Alexandria, and take his Head thence, and conveigh it to Aquitane, and there deposite it as I shall direct thee: (Had I been in this Monks place I should have concluded this had been the Ghost of Herod, again separating the Baptists Head from his Body,) The Monk, with seven Companions, gets away with the Baptists Head to Sea; where, in token that they should escape a Storm they were in, the Bap∣tist's Ghost (in the same Form that the Holy-Ghost appeared in when Christ came up out of the Water,) appears in the shape of a Dove, and sits upon the Poop, till they safely arrived in Aquitane; where, by the Grace of this Relick, King Pipin totally routs the Vandales (then invading his Countrey) with the loss only of twenty of his own Men; who, by applying the Baptists Head to their Corps, were all re∣stored to Life: and, which is the greatest Wonder of all, St. Cyprian writes all this, many Scores of Years after himself was Martyred. Of the same Stuff, and upon the same Foundation, are built the two Books De miraculis Martyrum, writ by Gregory Turonensis; who shuts up his first Book, thus. [It behoves us there∣fore, to desire the Patronage of Martyrs, &c.] and his second thus: We there∣fore, well considering those Miracles, may learn that it is not possible to be saved but by the help of Martyrs and other Friends of God. But Simeon Metaphrastes deserves the Whet-stone from all that ever professed this holy Art of Lying for the advantage of Truth: who, notwithstanding, that in his Preface to the strange Romance of Marina, he blames others for forging Stories of the Saints, and polluting their true Memorials with most evident Doctrines of Devils and Demoniacal Narratives; yet himself splits upon the same Rock, and so Shipwracks his Credit with all Intelligent Persons; as Baronius himself is ashamed of him (in notis ad martyrologium Roman. Jul. 13.) I need not mul∣tiply Instances, the World swarms with lying Legends. Their avowed Doctrine of Mental Reservation, of Equivocation to promote the Cause of Re∣ligion, casts up as wide a Gulf betwixt Gospel-Tradition and theirs, as is be∣twixt Heaven and Hell, the God of Truth and the Father of Lyes, Quomodo Deus Pater genuit filium veritatem: sic Diabolus genuit quasi filium Mendacium. (August. 42. tract. in Johan. 8. 44.) these introduc'd by Persons that account it meritorious of Heaven to forge the grossest Fables, so it be in service of the

Church (which the Apostle calls speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie) 1 Tim. 4. 2. (vide Meed in locum.) Those publish'd by Men, who less fear'd dying than lying, who chose rather to suffer the cruellest Death, to lay themselves ob∣noxious to the Calumnies of captious Adversaries, through their Parasie, their Freedom of Speech, then to tell the most innocent and officious Lye: and therefore the unlikeliest Men in the World to abuse the World with Fig∣ments and devised Stories: and Persons from whose Hand a Man might with more safety and security have taken a Cup suspected to have Poyson in it, than a Cup of Wine from the Hand of the most Divine Philosoper, as Apollodorus said of Socrates in comparison of Plato: (Athenaeus dyprosoph. l. 11. c. 22.)

Notes

• * 1.1

  To their old Cells and Altars the whole crew Of Guardian Gods (Troy falling) bid adieu.]
• * 1.2

  While impious Caesar and his Godded rout Spurn Phoebus Tripos with insulting foot.
• * 1.3

  The learned Varro useth to expend So many hours in reading, as we deem A winged minutes scantling can scarce lend It self unto his pen: yet that doth seem To trust more notions to his sweating Page, Than quickest eye can run o're in an Age.