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<DATE>2014-07-04</DATE>
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<NAME>Simon Charles</NAME>
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<ITEM>Reviewed.</ITEM>
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<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
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<P><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> OR THE DOCTRINE OF A GOD AND PROVIDENCE, Vindicated and A&s;&s;erted.</P>
<P>By <HI>Tho. Gregory,</HI> M. A. late of <HI>Wadham</HI> College in <HI>Oxford,</HI> and now Lecturer of <HI>Fulham</HI> near <HI>London.</HI></P>
<LICENSE LANG="lat eng" SUBTYPE="imprimatur">
<P>IMPRIMATUR,</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED><HI>Carolus Al&s;ton</HI> R. P. D. <HI>Hen.</HI> Epi&s;c. <HI>Lond.</HI> &agrave; Sacris.</SIGNED>
<DATELINE><DATE><HI>September</HI> 3. 1694.</DATE></DATELINE></CLOSER>
</LICENSE>
<P><HI>London,</HI> Printed for <HI>I. Hindmar&s;h</HI> at the <HI>Golden Ball</HI> over again&s;t the <HI>Royal Exchange</HI> in <HI>Cornhill,</HI> and <HI>R. Sare</HI> at <HI>Grays-Inn-Gate</HI> in <HI>Holbourn,</HI> 1694.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 LANG="lat" TYPE="dedication">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<P>Viro Digni&s;&s;imo, Nec non Honorati&s;&s;imo Domino ac Patrono &s;uo, Reverendo admod&ugrave;m in Chri&s;to Patri <HI>HENRICO Epi&s;copo Londinen&s;i,</HI> Egregio Familiae ip&s;ius Nobili&s;&s;imae Ornamento, Virtutum juxta at&abque; Literarum Decori &amp; Prae&s;idio, Puri&s;&s;imae Eccle&s;iarum, Anglicanae, Propugnatori Acerrimo, Divinae Cuju&s;que Veritatis <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word">, Hoc &s;uum qualecunque opus, Quod in in&s;anientem <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word"> Sapi|entiam elucubratum e&s;t, Reverenti&acirc;, qu&acirc; pote&s;t, Maxima, Humillimoque Animi Grati&s;&s;imi Ob&s;equio D.D.D. Q.</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>Thomas Gregorius.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="preface">
<PB REF="3">
<PB REF="3">
<HEAD>THE PREFACE.</HEAD>
<P>THE unprejudic'd Reader (I pre|&s;ume) will mo&s;t ea&s;ily excu&s;e me, if I make no Apology for the Publication of the&s;e Papers; the undi&s;guis'd and in&s;olent Appearance of Athei&s;m now among&s;t us, and the unhappy over-flowings of Profanene&s;s and Infidelity &s;till rendring Di&s;cour&s;es of this nature (to the great Concern and A|mazement of all truly Pious and Thinking Per&s;ons) ab&s;olutely nece&s;&s;ary. I &s;hall there|fore only intreat the Reader, with all due &s;eriou&s;ne&s;s and attention, to con&s;ider the weight and importance of the Subject now before us. That we are not driving on the trifling, in&s;ignificant intere&s;t of a Par|ty, nor unaccountably wasting our precious
<PB REF="4"> time in the idle pro&s;ecution of airy, u&s;e|le&s;s, and empty Speculations; but endea|vouring the Extirpation of &s;uch Doctrines and Principles, as put the Foundations of the Earth entirely out of cour&s;e, involve all Mankind in Anarchy and Confu&s;ion, and over-&s;hade the intellectual World with Eternal Night and Darkne&s;s; ungrate|fully interpo&s;ing their malignant Blackne&s;s, and eclip&s;ing (as much as they can) the re|fre&s;hing Splendors and Brightne&s;s of the King of Glory. That therefore it highly concerns him, where-ever he &s;hall in this, or in any other more excellent Treati&s;e find any thing really de&s;tructive of &s;uch mon|&s;trous Doctrines, there re&s;olutely and cou|ragiou&s;ly to fix and bottom; and not to be led away with the &s;ophistical Harangues and delu&s;ive Impertinences of Thoughtle&s;s Men, nor (to the di&s;honour of his Ma|ker, the Grief of all Good Men, and the utter Ruine of his Pre&s;ent as well as Future Happine&s;s) mo&s;t &s;hamefully and inexcu&s;ably to fall from his own &s;tedfast|ne&s;s.
<PB REF="4"> This (I &s;ay) is all I think nece&s;|&s;ary to advi&s;e the Reader. Which if he vouch&s;afes to accept with the &s;ame ingenuity as 'tis offer'd, he'll (I hope) have no Rea|&s;on to repent his peru&s;al of the&s;e Papers. If not; However I have done my duty, and therefore &s;hall humbly leave the Event to Him; who&s;e is the Greatne&s;s, and the Power, and the Glory, and the Victory, and the Majesty for ever.</P>
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<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="5">
<PB N="1" REF="5">
<P>THough the voice of Nature and Rea|&s;on loudly proclaims this Truth, and all our &s;en&s;es are encountred with the cleare&s;t evidences and highe&s;t demon|&s;trations of a Providence; though our Fa|thers have told us what Works he hath done in their times of old, and our own eyes (if we do not wilfully &s;hut them) daily &s;ee his Glory: Yet (I &s;peak it to our &s;hame) there are not wanting &s;ome, even in this our day, who through their corrupt practices, and a|bominable impure conver&s;ations have &s;o de|bauch'd their Under&s;tandings, extingui&s;h'd the light of Rea&s;on, and &s;o deeply &s;unk the rational Soul into Fle&s;h and Sen&s;uality, that that noble Creature, which was de&s;ign'd for the conver&s;ation of Angels, and the everla|&s;ting Fruition of the prime Beauty it &s;elf, is &s;hamefully become like the Bea&s;ts that peri&s;h. As though God had left him&s;elf entirely without Witne&s;s, and we could trace no Foot&s;teps of his Providence in the World, they boldly open their Mouths in Bla&s;phe|my again&s;t him that made them; and their talking is altogether again&s;t the mo&s;t High. Like the rebellious <HI>I&s;raelites,</HI> they &s;till di|&s;tru&s;t
<PB N="2" REF="6"> his pre&s;ence; and though they daily and hourly enjoy the &s;weet effects of it, yet they murmuringly ask, whether he be in|deed among&s;t them, or not? Wherefore to obviate in &s;ome mea&s;ure that torrent of im|piety, which from the malignant influence of the&s;e unrea&s;onable Men, may unhappily ari&s;e upon the World, and di&s;turb the Peace of our Sion; I &s;hall endeavour through the gracious a&s;&s;i&s;tance of my ble&s;&s;ed Maker to &s;hew, that (notwith&s;tanding all the cavils and di&s;putes of Men of corrupt Minds) God doth in very deed Reign over all the World.</P>
<P>In order to this, it may perhaps be thought nece&s;&s;ary, that the ground-work of my Di&s;cour&s;e &s;hould be the irrefragable proof of the Deity it &s;elf. But I &s;hall wave the direct and immediate handling of that &s;ubject at this time, not &s;o much, either be|cau&s;e there may be many, who (like <HI>Epi|curus</HI>) deny his Providence, yet allow his Being: Or becau&s;e it has been copiou&s;ly done by many excellent hands already; as chiefly, becau&s;e the arguments, whereby I &s;hall endeavour to prove his Providence, do not &s;uppo&s;e, but nece&s;&s;arily and unavoida|bly conclude too for his Being. To premi&s;e then no farther; All that can be &s;aid, why God &s;hould not take care of the World, mu&s;t nece&s;&s;arily be re&s;olv'd into this disjunctive Propo&s;ition, that either he cannot, or that
<PB N="3" REF="6"> he will not. The former de&s;troys his Om|nipotence, Omni&s;cience, Omnipre&s;ence; The latter his Wi&s;dom, Ju&s;tice, and Good|ne&s;s; both by con&s;equence his very Being or Exi&s;tence. So that to proceed with the greater clearne&s;s and per&s;picuity, I &s;ee it ne|ce&s;&s;ary, before I take upon me the direct proof of a Providence, to &s;hew in the fir&s;t place, that (if I may have leave for the pre|&s;ent to &s;uppo&s;e there is a God) all the&s;e At|tributes do in&s;eparably belong to the Divine Nature, and con&s;equently that God is both able, and al&s;o willing to pre&s;ide over us, that &s;o the&s;e rubs and impediments being thrown out of the way, we may be the more ea&s;ily carried from his ability and willing|ne&s;s to &s;hew, that he actually does pre&s;ide over us.</P>
<P N="1">1. Then, God is Omnipotent, and &s;o is able to pre&s;ide over us. Some things indeed there are, which cannot be effected by the power of God him&s;elf. Whatever involves a contradiction, or is repugnant to his E&s;|&s;ential Perfections, falls not within the Sphere of the Divine activity. Thus God cannot cau&s;e a thing to be, and not to be, at the &s;ame time in the &s;ame re&s;pect, nor make that not to have been, which hath already been. He cannot want who is All-&s;uffi|cient; nor dye, who is e&s;&s;entially and ne|ce&s;&s;arily exi&s;tent. Now, whatever &s;ome of
<PB N="4" REF="7"> the later Heathens have thought, the&s;e things are &s;o far from derogating from the power of God, as that they are rather de|mon&s;trations of his Omnipotence, than ar|guments of Imbecillity. For every kind of faculty is nece&s;&s;arily determin'd to its own proper objects, as the Eye to things vi&s;ible, the Under&s;tanding to things intelligible, and the Ear to things audible, none of which can be ever charged with deficiency, provi|ded it duly exerci&s;eth its operations about its own proper objects. Now the object of power you know, is that only which is po&s;|&s;ible, or in other terms, that only which implies no repugnancy or contradiction. As then that Under&s;tanding is truly &s;aid to be infinite, which fully comprehends all things, that are intelligible, or that can be under|&s;tood, though it cannot make excur&s;ions be|yond its own bounds, or under&s;tand the things that are not intelligible, or to be un|der&s;tood; &s;o that power is as truly and pro|perly &s;aid to be infinite, which extends it &s;elf to all things &s;imply and ab&s;olutely po&s;&s;i|ble, and which can act or produce, what&s;o|ever can be acted or produc'd, without any po&s;&s;ibility of impediment or re&s;i&s;tance, tho' it cannot lanch out into the depth of impo&s;|&s;ibilities, or do tho&s;e things, which belong not to any power to be done. Being then tho&s;e things, that either immediately or con|&s;equentially
<PB N="5" REF="7"> imply a contradiction, do not belong to any power to be done, they no more dimini&s;h the rays of God's Glory, tho' he cannot do them, nor cau&s;e any greater derogation to his infinite power, than things audible or vi&s;ible detract from the excellen|cy of the Under&s;tanding, which dilates it &s;elf through the utmo&s;t regions of things in|telligible, or that can be under&s;tood. So then if it can be &s;hewn, that God is able to effect every thing, which is the proper ob|ject of power, or that can be done; that not all the powers in Earth or Heaven are able to make any re&s;i&s;tance to his will, but that when he hath purpos'd, none can di&s;annul it, when his hand is &s;tretched out, none can turn it back: If, I &s;ay, it can be &s;hewn, that his power is thus exalted above all oppo&s;ition what&s;oever, we mu&s;t acknowledge it to be ab&s;olute and infinite. And now what great Critici&s;m is there requi&s;ite to find out, that his power is thus ab&s;olute and infinite? It belongs to the natural notion of him, and 'tis impo&s;&s;ible for a Man rightly to attend to the Divine Nature, and not to cry out with <HI>Jeho&s;aphat, In thine hand, O God, is there not power and might, &s;o that none is able to with&s;tand thee?</HI> For if we have any true conception of him, he mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity ap|pear to be the fir&s;t of Beings, who exi&s;ts in|dependently and of him&s;elf, <HI>i.e.</HI> borrows his
<PB N="6" REF="8"> original from no other; but how can &s;uch a Being be limited or circum&s;cribed? Or who can &s;et him his bounds, which he &s;hall not pa&s;s? Nothing &s;urely can be limited, but by &s;omething which is before it. But was any thing before him, who is the fir&s;t as well as the la&s;t? Any thing coaeval with him, who only hath immortality? Again, all other things in the World be&s;ide God were either made, or not made: If not made, then they are &s;elf-&s;ub&s;i&s;tent; and if &s;elf-&s;ub&s;i&s;tent, then &s;ince every Being natu|rally de&s;ires its utmo&s;t perfection, they would que&s;tionle&s;s have inve&s;ted them&s;elves with all imaginable perfections, and &s;o would be independent and all-&s;ufficient. But, as <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib. de Mundo Cap.</HI> 6.</NOTE> <HI>Ari&s;totle</HI> well ob&s;erves, and daily experience proves true, nothing be|&s;ide God is thus independent and all-&s;ufficient, and con&s;equently nothing be&s;ide him &s;elf-&s;ub&s;i&s;tent. It remains then, that they were made. Made then they were either by them&s;elves, or by &s;ome other. By them&s;elves 'twas impo&s;&s;ible, for &s;o they mu&s;t both have been, and not have been at the &s;ame time in the &s;ame re&s;pect. They mu&s;t have been, becau&s;e they acted, <HI>viz.</HI> made them&s;elves, for nothing can act, but what is; they mu&s;t not have been, becau&s;e they were not yet made, and therefore they were in being, and not in being at the &s;ame time
<PB N="7" REF="8"> in the &s;ame re&s;pect. But this is a palpable contradiction. Made then they were by &s;ome other, and con&s;equently by God alone, nothing (as 'tis ob&s;erv'd before) being exi|&s;tent before all things but He. This is ac|knowledg'd by all, that allow the Creation of the World. To inferr then; He, who alone made the Earth by his Power, e&s;tab|li&s;h'd the World by his Wi&s;dom, and &s;tret|ched out the Heavens by his Di&s;cretion; He, who plac'd Man and Bea&s;t upon the face of the ground, and fill'd the &s;pacious plains a|bove with Myriads of his Holy ones: He, I &s;ay, who did all this only by the actual de|termination of his Will, mu&s;t needs be irre|&s;i&s;tible in Power, as well as incomprehen&s;i|ble in Wi&s;dom. For who can be equal to him in Power, to whom all Power original|ly belongs? Who can oppo&s;e, or make Head again&s;t him, who is the ble&s;&s;ed and only Po|tentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Is it po&s;&s;ible, that he &s;hould find any re&s;i&s;tance from the Work of his own hands? Or that the clay &s;hould hinder the potter from moulding it into what &s;hape he plea|&s;eth? Who then hath not known, who hath not heard, that the everla&s;ting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the Earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? Lift up your eyes on high, and behold that Royal Ho&s;t of Heaven. He bringeth them out by num|ber,
<PB N="8" REF="9"> he calleth them all by their names; by the greatne&s;s of his might, for that he is &s;trong in Power, not one faileth. When he commandeth, they fight from Heaven; The Stars in their cour&s;es &s;ought again&s;t <HI>Si|&s;era:</HI> Fire and Hail too, Snow and Vapour, Stormy-wind, all fulfill his word. Men do therefore &s;tand up, and ble&s;s his glorious name, which is exalted above all Ble&s;&s;ing and Prai&s;e. Angels and Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim, and all the company of Heaven ca&s;t their never-fading and immor|tal Crowns before the Throne, and wor&s;hip him, who reigneth for ever and ever. They cea&s;e not day nor night, &s;aying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory. Nay there is no Nation under Heaven, no time nor Coun|try, wherein many have not continually gi|ven him this Honour: He is ordinarily &s;til'd by the <HI>Greeks</HI> <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word">, and by the <HI>La|tins Jupiter Omnipotens, Pater Omnipotens, &amp; Opt. Max.</HI> The Orators and Poets too in many places &s;pake excellently to the &s;ame purpo&s;e: The &s;ence of all which is, (to u&s;e the words of the royal P&s;almi&s;t, and of the humbl'd Tyrant of <HI>Ba|bylon</HI>) <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>P&s;.</HI> 97.9. <HI>Dan.</HI> 4.35.</NOTE> <HI>The Lord is high above all the Earth, he is exalted far above all Gods.</HI> He doth according to his will in the Armies of Heaven, and among&s;t the Inhabitants of
<PB N="9" REF="9"> the Earth, and none can &s;tay his hand, or &s;ay unto him, what do'&s;t thou? Thus you &s;ee this one Eternal, Independent Being, God, is abundantly qualifi'd for the Govern|ment of the World upon the account of his Power. He is &s;o,</P>
<P N="2">2. In re&s;pect of his Knowledge, for he is Omni&s;cient, as well as Omnipotent, infinite in Knowledge, as well as infinite in Power. Many ways have been taken by learned Men for the proof of this Attribute; but being no Friend to fruitle&s;s, unnece&s;&s;ary di&s;|putes, I &s;hall indu&s;triou&s;ly wave all &s;uch ar|guments, as rather confound and perplex, than convince and re&s;olve the judgment, and endeavour with all the per&s;picuity imagina|ble to lay before you this truth. Wherefore not to tell you, that God may therefore be &s;aid to be Omni&s;cient, becau&s;e comprehen|ding within him&s;elf all the Ideas and E&s;&s;en|ces of things, together with all their po&s;&s;i|ble references and re&s;pects; you need only remember, that Knowledge is a perfection, which therefore cannot be wanting to that Being, which (as it appears from what has been already di&s;cours'd) is ab&s;olutely per|fect. It has often entitled Men to more than Humane Veneration; for, if we run over the Catalogue of the Heathen Deities, tho' &s;ome of them by trophies, victories, and a&s;|&s;aults did, as it were, take Heaven it &s;elf,
<PB N="10" REF="10"> yet we &s;hall find, that in the greate&s;t num|ber of them Knowledge was the ladder, by which they a&s;cended to Divine honours. If then &s;o great a mea&s;ure of this perfection has been in the Creatures, how mu&s;t all its lines nece&s;&s;arily Concentre in the Creator him&s;elf? He that made the eye, &s;hall not he &s;ee? He that gives to Man under&s;tanding, &s;hall not he know? Doubtle&s;s he &s;eeth not as Man feeth, but his Knowledge is ab&s;olute, infinite, and unbounded. Hell is naked be|fore him, and de&s;truction hath no covering. The black ob&s;cure chambers of Death are as clear to him as the Light; and the gloomy Regions of everla&s;ting darkne&s;s as bright as the noon-day: We indeed &s;ee through a gla&s;s darkly, but He comprehends every &s;ingle object with a mo&s;t perfect infallible view. We rea&s;on and inferr, premi&s;e and conclude, and yet &s;eldom arrive to the cer|tainty of a demon&s;tration; but He with one &s;ingle act of intuition glanceth through the whole po&s;&s;ibility of Being. The under|&s;tandings of the mo&s;t &s;earching inqui&s;itive Creatures, have been often puzled and &s;oil'd by &s;ome Phaenomena in Nature, and the An|gels them&s;elves, (as we &s;hall &s;ee at large in its proper place) though Creatures of noble faculties and exalted under&s;tandings, have not been able to &s;ee to the bottom of Divine determinations: But there is no creature,
<PB N="11" REF="10"> that is not manife&s;t in his &s;ight, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Heb.</HI> 4.13.</NOTE> but as the entrails of the &s;acrifice, and the other mo&s;t &s;ecret parts were all laid open and di&s;cernible before the Prie&s;t, by cutting the Sacrifice down the neck or back-bone, &s;o all things, even the thoughts of our hearts, and our mo&s;t hidden contrivances are naked and open unto the eyes of him, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> to whom we mu&s;t give an account. This has been generally ac|knowledg'd by all Nations in the World, and <HI>Plato</HI> has therefore call'd God the Soul of the World, becau&s;e he not only diffu&s;eth him|&s;elf through the whole ma&s;s, actuating or giving life and motion to all its parts, but chiefly becau&s;e he apprehended him to be no le&s;s con&s;cious to all our actions than our &s;pi|rits them&s;elves, as intimately acquainted with our greate&s;t privacies, being a di&s;cer|ner of our very thoughts and intentions. But not to in&s;i&s;t upon the te&s;timony of particu|lar Authors, That common cu&s;tom among&s;t all Nations of &s;wearing by him, and calling him to witne&s;s to the &s;incerity of their hearts, &s;ufficiently declares an univer&s;al belief of this Attribute. I &s;hould now proceed,</P>
<P N="3">3. To &s;peak a word or two of his Omni|pre&s;ence, an Attribute equally requi&s;ite to the great Governour of the World, as ei|ther his Omni&s;cience, or Omnipotence. But
<PB N="12" REF="11"> though both the Ancients and Moderns have que&s;tion'd this Attribute more than any other; yet the conce&s;&s;ions on both &s;ides prove enough for my purpo&s;e, and &s;o &s;ave me the trouble of enlarging here upon it. For though I cannot believe, but that God is (as the Ancient Philo&s;ophers tell us, when they de&s;cribe him to be a Circle, who&s;e cen|tre is every where, and circumference no where) not only in Heaven, but every where el&s;e too &s;ub&s;tantially and e&s;&s;entially pre&s;ent; yet if to &s;top the mouths of Gain-&s;ayers I &s;hould grant, that he is in this World only vertually and efficaciou&s;ly, by his Wi&s;|dom and Power, I &s;hould give nothing, that would any ways invalidate the truth of our a&s;&s;ertion, &s;ince one way or other they all acknowledge his Providence. Thus then 'tis plain, that the hand of the Lord is not &s;hortned, that it cannot &s;ave: But that (if he plea&s;e) he can without any the lea&s;t in|terruption of his own e&s;&s;ential happine&s;s, ex|tend his particular providence to every in|dividual thing in the World. And that he will be plea&s;ed thus graciou&s;ly to deal with us, we can have no rea&s;on to doubt, if we con&s;ider:</P>
<P N="1">1. That Wi&s;dom is e&s;&s;ential to his nature, and that therefore he cannot do any thing but for wi&s;e and great ends. Did he then by his all-creating voice call the beauteous
<PB N="13" REF="11"> Fabrick of this World out of the Aby&s;s of vanity, and nothing, only to &s;tand by, and behold &s;o goodly a Frame hurried about by the un&s;table methods of Chance and For|tune? What prudent Man, after he has built a &s;tately Ve&s;&s;el, ever commits it without Pilate or Mariner to the mercy of the Winds and Seas? Surely at this rate Natures God would be le&s;s wi&s;e than her &s;elf, who, as the Philo&s;opher truly ob&s;erves, does nothing in vain. But,</P>
<P N="2">2. God will take care of the World, be|cau&s;e he is ju&s;t. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right, was but a rational expo|&s;tulation of the Patriarch with God; for in|ju&s;tice is &s;o great a blemi&s;h, &s;uch a &s;tain and di&s;reputation, even to the Sons of Men, that many thereby have been expo&s;ed to &s;hame, and Judges them&s;elves been overthrown in &s;tony places. What ba&s;e unworthy thoughts then mu&s;t he have of God, who can pre&s;ume to rob him of this nece&s;&s;ary, this in&s;epara|ble Attribute? An Attribute &s;o e&s;&s;ential to the God-head, that we may as well &s;ay with the Fool there is no God, as deny this God to be infinitely ju&s;t. Can he then, who is independent and all-&s;ufficient, a circle of Ex|cellency, and an endle&s;s orb of Perfection, either be inclin'd through partiality, or cor|rupted with gifts, or be any other ways tempted to neglect or violate the Laws of
<PB N="14" REF="12"> ju&s;tice? Whatever they &s;uppo&s;e, who are at ea&s;e in Sion, and therefore cannot endure to reflect upon the di&s;mal appearances of the great day of accounts, yet certainly, as the Divine Philo&s;opher in his <HI>Theatetus</HI> &s;peaks, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> <HI>i. e.</HI> God is not, cannot in any re&s;pect what|ever be unju&s;t, but mu&s;t nece&s;&s;arily be ju&s;t in the highe&s;t degree. Though therefore he is &s;trong and patient, and doth not execute his anger every day; yet doubtle&s;s he is a righteous Judge, who will at length render to every Man according to his Works. The &s;ober Heathens were always of this mind, and therefore though St. <HI>Paul</HI> found &s;ome at <HI>Athens,</HI> who mock'd when they heard of the Re&s;urrection of the dead, yet we hear of none, that reply'd again&s;t the Doctrine of a future Judgment. They rightly under|&s;tood both the temper of their own Spirits, and al&s;o the nature of God's, and therefore had before-hand concluded, that there was a judgment to come. But now how can God judge the World in righteou&s;ne&s;s, if he will not vouch&s;afe to mind the things, that are in the World? How can he mi|ni&s;ter true judgment unto the People, if he &s;ees not, if he knows not what Men do upon the Earth? Since then Ju&s;tice is &s;o e&s;&s;ential to the God head, that he may as well cea&s;e to be, as to be ju&s;t: Since there|fore
<PB N="15" REF="12"> he will at length erect his Tribunal, when all the &s;eeming Inequalities, which &s;o much di&s;quiet our minds in his pre&s;ent di|&s;pen&s;ation, &s;hall be adju&s;ted, and the&s;e jar|ring di&s;cords become one perfect Harmony and Proportion: Since according to the &s;e|veral degrees of merit and demerit in the&s;e, that &s;tand to be judged, he &s;hall impartially de&s;tribute the &s;everal degrees of Rewards and Puni&s;hments, &s;o that the Heavens will be forc'd to declare his Righteou&s;ne&s;s, and An|gels and Archangels to applaud his Ju&s;tice: He mu&s;t not, he cannot be a Stranger to things done here below. He mu&s;t &s;earch us out, and know us, be about our Paths, and about our Beds, and &s;py out all our ways. There mu&s;t not be a word in our tongue, but he mu&s;t know it altogether. He mu&s;t under&s;tand all our thoughts, and pierce into the depth of our mo&s;t hidden coun&s;els, for el&s;e it might unluckily fall out, that there might at la&s;t be no Reward for the Righte|ous, though there &s;hould be a God to judge tho&s;e, that liv'd in the Earth. Wherefore by what means we are a&s;&s;ur'd of his Ju&s;tice, by the &s;ame we are &s;ecur'd of his Providence: But we are as &s;ure of his Ju&s;tice as of his very Being; and therefore mu&s;t conclude, that as &s;ure as God is, he will take care of the World. But</P>
<PB N="16" REF="13">
<P N="3">3. Who can rea&s;onably doubt of the kind Providence of Heaven, that has in the lea&s;t ta&s;ted that God is Good? This is the fir&s;t, the cleare&s;t Notion we have of him, the brigh|te&s;t and lovelie&s;t emanation of him, who is Loveline&s;s it &s;elf. He is &s;o good, that a Man may as &s;oon number the Stars of Hea|ven, the drops of Rain, or the days of Eter|nity, as fathom the depth of this immen&s;e, this unbounded Ocean. The Philo&s;ophers think no words high enough to expre&s;s it. <HI>Plato</HI> &s;tiles him <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, The <HI>Idea</HI> or very E&s;&s;ence of Goodne&s;s, and makes him under this Name the fir&s;t Hypo&s;ta&s;is in his celebrated <HI>Triad. Jamblichus</HI> to the &s;ame purpo&s;e calls him, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">; and <HI>Hie|rocles,</HI> <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. <HI>Seneca</HI> a&s;|&s;ures us, that <HI>Goodne&s;s</HI> is not only the prin|cipal Attribute of the Deity, but al&s;o the ve|ry Foundation as I may &s;o &s;ay, whereon all the others are built: <HI>Primus est Deorum cul|tus,</HI> &s;ays he, <HI>Deos credere; deinde reddere illis Maje&s;tatem &s;uam, reddere Bonitatem, &s;ine qu&acirc; nulla Maje&s;tas.</HI> The Doctors in the <HI>Talmud</HI> &s;peak much after the &s;ame rate; and if they &s;ay true, St. <HI>Au&s;tin</HI> (as the learned Chaplain ob&s;erves) <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Gregory's</HI> Po&s;thuma.</NOTE> needed not to have an&s;wered him &s;o roughly, who ask'd him what God employ'd him&s;elf about before the World was made? He was not making Hell for &s;uch bold In|qui&s;itors,
<PB N="17" REF="13"> but creating repentance, &s;ay they, or contriving all the ways how he might be merciful enough to the Man he is &s;o mind|ful of, and to the Son of Man he &s;o much regardeth. Nay, that this in very deed is his Favourite, his darling Excellence, in which his Soul takes mo&s;t delight and com|placency; The Holy Scriptures too do a|bundantly te&s;tifie: God is, &s;ay they, what? Wi&s;dom? or Ju&s;tice? or Power? or Maje|&s;ty? No, God is love. He is indeed a great and terrible God; infinite, as I have &s;hewn, in Power, infinite in Wi&s;dom, infinite in Ju&s;tice: But they &s;eem, as it were, to over|look all the&s;e Perfections, whil&s;t they tell us in the ab&s;tract, that he is Love. This is his name, and this his memorial throughout all Generations; His I &s;ay, truly, proper|ly, incommunicably His, as appears from our Saviour's an&s;wer to the Man, who (look|ing upon him only as a mere Man) called him good Ma&s;ter; Why calle&s;t thou me good? &s;ays he, there is none good but one, that is God. Now then, if God be thus e&s;|&s;entially good, who can imagine, but that he will take care of his Creatures? Good|ne&s;s, you know, is of its own nature com|municative; and like Fire, it naturally en|deavours to dilate it &s;elf, by turning all it lays hold upon into its own nature. Does the Sun then rejoyce to run his cour&s;e, and
<PB N="18" REF="14"> to communicate his Light to this lower World? Doth the fond Mother take plea&s;ure in cheri&s;hing her helple&s;s Babe, and, though not without pains and trouble, pre&s;erve it continually in her arms from all &s;uch things as may hurt it; and can we &s;uppo&s;e, that God, who, (as you have &s;een) is the Foun|tain, Perfection, and very E&s;&s;ence of Good|ne&s;s, &s;hould expo&s;e his helple&s;s Creatures to &s;tand upon their own legs, and to provide for them&s;elves? No, Thou&s;and Thou&s;ands, &s;ays the Prophet <HI>Daniel,</HI> 7.10. mini&s;ter un|to him, and Ten Thou&s;and times Ten Thou|&s;and &s;tand before him, all ready to receive his great commands, and with &s;wifte&s;t wing to execute his good plea&s;ure among the Children of Men. 'Tis their highe&s;t repa&s;t indeed to lay them&s;elves down at the Spring-head of Bli&s;s, and ince&s;&s;antly to drink out of the pure River of Life, which proceedeth out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb; yet in obedience to their great Lord they joyfully come down from their cele&s;tial Man&s;ions, &s;inging and prai&s;ing that infinite Goodne&s;s, which &s;o wonderfully provides for the pre&s;ervation of all his Crea|tures; &s;o that, if the Lord would be pleas'd to open our eyes, as he did the young Man's at the Prayer of <HI>Eli&s;ha,</HI> we &s;hould behold a bright and glittering Ho&s;t of auxiliary Spi|rits, not only watching over whole King|doms
<PB N="19" REF="14"> and Communities of Men, but like|wi&s;e continually incamping round about every &s;ingle, individual godly Man, and with the greate&s;t care and concern deliver|ing him night and day from the mi&s;chievous attempts of the Powers of darkne&s;s.</P>
<P>Thus I have done with the fir&s;t thing I propo&s;ed, having abundantly &s;hewn, that all the&s;e Attributes, Omnipotence, Omni&s;cience, Omnipre&s;ence, Infinite Wi&s;dom, Ju&s;tice, and Goodne&s;s, do in&s;eparably belong to the Di|vine Nature, and con&s;equently that God is both able, and al&s;o willing to pre&s;ide over us. I now proceed to con&s;irm and e&s;tabli&s;h the &s;ame Truth by &s;ome few Arguments, which (as I &s;aid before) do not &s;uppo&s;e, but nece&s;|&s;arily and unavoidably conclude too for his Being.</P>
<P N="1">1. Then, that there is &s;ome Great, Invi|&s;ible Being, who by his infinite Wi&s;dom and Almighty Power pre&s;ides over, and governs all things both in Heaven and Earth, will abundantly appear to any Man, who &s;hall &s;tand &s;till a while, and contemplate the wide Theatre of the World, and impartially &s;ur|vey the &s;everal parts of the Creation. The Greatne&s;s and Beauty of the Creatures will render the Creator proportionably vi&s;ible, and the operations of &s;ubordinate Agents lead us to a clear acknowledgment of the fir&s;t &s;upreme Mover. Ask the Heavens, and
<PB N="20" REF="15"> they will witne&s;s; the Cele&s;tial Bodies, and they will declare his Wi&s;dom. How comes the Sun to move by an oblique Circle, when his Journey would be more ea&s;ie and com|pendious through the Aequator, if an over|ruling Providence has not &s;o wi&s;ely ordered his motion, that he may in their due &s;ea&s;ons di&s;pen&s;e his benign and comfortable influence to all parts of the World, and yet not in|flame the Earth by his too near approaches? Who commandeth the Morning, and cau|&s;eth the Day-&s;pring to know his place? Who hath &s;o regularly di&s;tingui&s;h'd the Vici&s;&s;i|tudes of Light and Darkne&s;s, and &s;o orderly con&s;tituted the different &s;ea&s;ons of the Year? Who hath appointed the Moon for certain &s;ea&s;ons, and brings her out with her glorious train to illuminate the Earth, lea&s;t primitive Darkne&s;s entirely blot out the Light, and &s;o regaining its lo&s;t Empire, &s;it brooding with all its attendant horrors upon the face of the whole Earth? Who hath given the Pole-&s;tar for a Guide to the Mariner, and &s;o excel|lently qualifi'd the different and unequal mo|tions of the Stars and Planets, that though they never go together, yet they never in|terrupt or hinder one another in their cour|&s;es, but con&s;tantly move each in its order and &s;ea&s;on? Can any thing le&s;s, than an Al|mighty Arm, bind the &s;weet influences of <HI>Pleiades,</HI> or loo&s;e the bands of <HI>Orion?</HI> Or
<PB N="21" REF="15"> any thing le&s;s, than infinite Wi&s;dom, bring forth <HI>Mazaroth</HI> in his &s;ea&s;on, and guide <HI>Ar|cturus</HI> with his Sons? <HI>Epicurus</HI> his God in|deed, as <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Di&s;&s;ert.</HI> 29.</NOTE> <HI>Maximus Tyrius</HI> well ob&s;erves, was rather like a <HI>Sarda|napalus,</HI> than a Deity; &s;o delicate, tender, &s;oft, and effeminate, that the lea&s;t thought of bu&s;ine&s;s would di&s;turb his brain, and marr all his Felicity; <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, &s;ays he, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. The Immortal Being neither hath any bu&s;ine&s;s him&s;elf, nor creates any to others. And thus having di&s;carded his God both from creating and minding the World, from <HI>Leu|cippus</HI> and <HI>Democritus</HI> (as they from the <HI>Phoenician Mochus</HI>) he fondly conceited, that all this Beauty and Regularity in the motions of the Heavenly Bodies, and their immediate &s;ub&s;erviency to the u&s;e of Man|kind, could, without the contrivance of any Superiour, Immaterial Agent, be the natu|ral re&s;ult of homogeneous matter fortuitou&s;ly jumbled together. But how unworthy the&s;e &s;entiments are of the refin'd Spirit of a Phi|lo&s;opher, is &s;ufficiently evident from the common Principles of natural Rea&s;on it &s;elf. For every part of this beauteous frame, bears the faire&s;t and large&s;t characters of the grea|te&s;t Wi&s;dom and Goodne&s;s as can be ima|gin'd, &s;o that the Athei&s;t him&s;elf does not think much to grant, that he cannot &s;ee,
<PB N="22" REF="16"> how things could have been better ordered, though God him&s;elf &s;hould indeed have con|triv'd them. But could chance be the cau&s;e of this fair, this excellent effect, wherein we can di&s;cover no blot nor mi&s;take, but all the various parts are &s;o excellently adapted to their particular u&s;es, and yet with &s;o much order and regularity rendered &s;ub&s;ervient to one another, that the whole is nothing el&s;e, but a perfect pattern of beauty and propor|tion? Suppo&s;e the Brute matter being &s;et in motion by the Eternal Mind, (as our Neo|tericks would have it) &s;hould at length, af|ter infinite circumgyrations, applications, at|tritions, adhe&s;ions, and complications of it &s;elf in an immen&s;e &s;pace, amount to &s;ome more rude and imperfect delineations of na|ture; yet is it po&s;&s;ible we &s;hould imagine, that the particles of it could ever fall into that exact form, order, motion, and &s;ervice-ablene&s;s to the World, which the Heavenly Bodies are in, unle&s;s manag'd and di&s;pos'd by Divine Wi&s;dom and Coun&s;el? As well may we conclude, that the <HI>Mau&s;oleum,</HI> the Pyramids of <HI>Egypt,</HI> or any other &s;tately &s;tructure we ever heard of in the World, were never contriv'd and erected by the me|chanical wit of Man, but that the Iron, Stones, Timber, and all the other materials, playing and toying up and down without any care or thought, did upon a time very
<PB N="23" REF="16"> fortunately meet together, and after &s;everal trials and encounters on all &s;ides, at la&s;t &s;o happily hit upon one anothers humours and di&s;po&s;itions, that of their own accord, with|out the coun&s;el or contrivance of any Intelli|gent Being, they (combin'd together, and &s;et|tled them&s;elves in tho&s;e Beautiful and Magni|ficent Structures &s;o famous throughout the World. I am &s;ure the greate&s;t Speculati&s;ts of all Ages, who&s;e enlarged Souls lov'd fre|quently to a&s;cend into the&s;e outer Courts of Heaven, were always of this mind, among&s;t whom the judicious Roman Orator in parti|cular was &s;o deeply affected with the &s;en&s;e of the&s;e things, that he thought 'twas im|po&s;&s;ible for a Man &s;eriou&s;ly to contemplate the elegance and accurate order of them, and not plainly di&s;cern in them the Providence of God. <HI>Quid potest e&s;&s;e t&agrave;m apertum,</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>De Nat. Deor. Lib.</HI> 2.</NOTE> &s;ays he, <HI>t&aacute;mque per|&s;picuum, c&ugrave;m coelum &s;u&s;peximus, caele&s;tiaque contemplati &s;umus, qu&agrave;m e&s;&s;e ali|quod numen proe&s;tanti&s;&s;imoe mentis, quo hoec regantur?</HI> And again as emphatically in the clo&s;e of his &s;econd Book <HI>de Divinatione: E&s;|&s;e prae&s;tantem aliquam, Aetern&aacute;mque Natu|ram, &amp; eam &s;u&s;piciendam admirand&aacute;mque ho|minum generi, pulchritudo mundi, ord&oacute;que rerum Caele&s;tium cogit confiteri:</HI> That there is &s;ome mo&s;t Excellent and Eternal Nature, which ought to be honoured and admired by
<PB N="24" REF="17"> Mankind, the Beauty of the World, and the order of the Heavenly Lights compell us to confe&s;s: Nay that great &s;tickler for <HI>Epicu|rus,</HI> <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib.</HI> 15.</NOTE> <HI>Lucretius</HI> him&s;elf, was &s;o &s;tagger'd at the contemplation of all this order and regularity in the motions of the Heavenly Bodies, that he was forc'd to lay a&s;ide the peremptory, dogmatical hu|mour of his monopolizing &s;ect, and to re|&s;olve all his &s;earch and enquiry into the&s;e matters into a puny, precarious <HI>may be,</HI> which too, and that very often &s;carce &s;tands within the comprehen&s;ive bounds of po&s;&s;ibi|lity. And you know 'twas the &s;ame con&s;i|deration, that induc'd not only the ignorant and vulgar, who generally judge of things by their &s;en&s;es, but al&s;o the mo&s;t learn'd, in|genious, and contemplative Philo&s;ophers, the <HI>Zabii</HI> among&s;t the <HI>Chaldaeans,</HI> the <HI>Hiero|grammatists</HI> among&s;t the <HI>Egyptians,</HI> the <HI>Magi</HI> among&s;t the <HI>Per&s;ians,</HI> the <HI>Gymno&s;o|phi&s;ts</HI> among&s;t the <HI>Indians,</HI> the <HI>Pythagoreans</HI> and <HI>Platoni&s;ts</HI> among&s;t the <HI>Greeks,</HI> to wor|&s;hip them for Gods.</P>
<P>But let us de&s;cend a while from the&s;e bright Man&s;ions of day, and we &s;hall find, that even this lower World does not lie in &s;o much darkne&s;s and ob&s;curity, but that here al&s;o we &s;ee &s;uch palpable evidences of his Being and Providence, that though <HI>Abraham</HI> be ignorant of us, and <HI>I&s;rael</HI> ac|knowledge
<PB N="25" REF="17"> us not; yet &s;urely He is, as <HI>Plato</HI> &s;peaks, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, as well as <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word"> the Father and Governour of all things, as well as the Maker of them; Our Deliverer, our Guardian, our Pre&s;erver, and that in Him we live, and move, and have our very Be|ings. Who can walk through the liquid and &s;pacious Plains of the Air, &s;eriou&s;ly con&s;i|dering the admirable temperature of that Element, and not trace the Foot&s;teps of Pro|vidence in each Particle of it? What, but an All-wi&s;e Agent, who takes care for the welfare of his Creatures, could &s;o admirably adapt and accommodate it to the great ends of the Creation, making it the trea&s;ury of vital breath, without which we &s;hould im|mediately relap&s;e into our original du&s;t? Who bringeth the Winds out of his Trea|&s;ures, to di&s;&s;ipate noi&s;ome and contagious Vapours, le&s;t &s;tagnating in the Air they &s;hould by their corrupt tabifick matter occa|&s;ion many di&s;ea&s;es in Animals, and al&s;o by their cool refre&s;hing breezes, to temper and allay the &s;corching Beams of the Meridian Sun in &s;uch Regions, which otherwi&s;e through the extremity of heat would faint and langui&s;h near the Aequator? Who by the &s;ame officious Mini&s;ters bringeth the Cloud over the Earth, to cau&s;e it to rain on the dry and parched ground? Or who with moderate and gentle &s;how'rs impregnates the
<PB N="26" REF="18"> Womb of the Earth, and cau&s;eth the bud of the tender Herb to &s;pring forth? Again, who hath laid up the Waters, as it were in a Trea&s;ure-hou&s;e, not &s;uffering their wet, li|quid Particles to be mingled with the dry ones of the Earth, le&s;t the whole &s;hould be|come one uninhabitable Quagmire? What but an Univer&s;al Principle of Wi&s;dom and Coun&s;el, has rendred this va&s;t and wide Ocean, contrary to the nature of many o|ther Waters, of &s;o thick a con&s;i&s;tency, that 'tis admirably fitted and di&s;pos'd for the mu|tual commerce of one Nation with another? Or what, but &s;uch a Being cau&s;eth it con|&s;tantly to ob&s;erve its ebbs and flows, its Spring and Nepe-tides, and yet &s;till to re|tain its &s;altne&s;s &s;o convenient for the mainte|nance of its Inhabitants? What, but Omni|potence, could fetter and &s;hackle this mur|muring, re&s;tle&s;s, unruly Element; &s;hut its fury in with Bars and Doors, and curb the in&s;olence of its proud &s;welling waves only with reins of &s;and? Who, but He, &s;ilenceth the raging tempe&s;t, commands the fighting Winds to leave off their contentions, and &s;natcheth the Mariner, when at his wits end, from the devouring jaws of the Deep; after all gently wafting him to the Haven, where he would be? If tho&s;e Men, who confin'd the Providence of God to the narrower limits of the Heavenly Spheres, had ever gone
<PB N="27" REF="18"> down to the Sea in Ships, and occupy'd their bu&s;ine&s;s in tho&s;e great Waters, I doubt they would &s;oon have been of another mind, and have confe&s;s'd, that his Wonders were to be &s;een too in the Deep.</P>
<P>But we need neither contemplate the &s;im|ple and uniform lu&s;tre of the prime e&s;&s;ential Glory, variou&s;ly reflected in the dazling &s;plendors and brightne&s;s of the Heavenly Bodies, nor yet &s;earch the bottom of the Deep, if happily we may find him there: For do not even the Wilderne&s;s and the &s;oli|tary places rejoyce with joy and &s;inging; and the beauty and u&s;efulne&s;s, the variety and convenience of the Hills and Dales, of the Mountains and Valleys, of the Groves and Fore&s;ts declare the Glory of the Lord, and the Excellency of our God? Who can &s;ilently con&s;ider, that the &s;ame cold in&s;ipid ma&s;s of Earth, which (as Mr. <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Treat. Of the Wi&s;dom of God in the Creation.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Ray</HI> di&s;cour&s;eth) is grateful to no &s;en&s;e, and in all appea|rance de&s;titute of any warmth or prolifick vertue, &s;hould produce Trees and Plants, Herbs and Flowers, &s;o various in their &s;hape and colour, &s;o refre&s;hing in their odours, &s;o fragrant in their &s;mell, &s;o medicinal in their vertue, &s;o beneficial in their u&s;es, of &s;o love|ly and harmonious a beauty, and affecting all our &s;en&s;es with wonder and delight. That Springs and Fountains, Brooks and Rivers,
<PB N="28" REF="19"> Lakes and &s;tanding Pools of water &s;hould be &s;catter'd and di&s;pers'd all the Earth over, which otherwi&s;e in &s;ome parts, as in <HI>Egypt</HI> and <HI>India,</HI> would be utterly de&s;titute and void of Inhabitants. That &s;prings &s;hould break forth on the &s;ides of Mountains mo&s;t remote from the Sea; and hidden, undi&s;cer|ned ways be made for Rivers, through Straits, and Rocks, and Subterraneous Vaults, as though nature had cut them on purpo&s;e to derive the Water, which el&s;e would over|flow and drown whole Countries: That the Water thus pa&s;&s;ing through the veins of the Earth &s;hould be rendred fre&s;h and potable, which yet we cannot effect by any percola|tions; the &s;aline particles pa&s;&s;ing even through a ten-fold filtre. That in &s;ome places there &s;hould &s;pring forth metallick and mineral Waters, and hot Baths, and the&s;e &s;o con&s;tant and permanent for many Ages, and &s;o convenient for divers Medici|nal intentions and u&s;es; the Cau&s;es of which things, or the means and methods, by which they are perform'd, have not been as yet certainly di&s;cover'd. Who, I &s;ay, can &s;eri|ou&s;ly con&s;ider all this, and not gratefully acknowledge, that they are the gracious and miraculous effects of infinite Coun&s;el and Under&s;tanding? Again, do not all the va|rious kinds of Creatures, that move upon the face of the Earth, tell us that He is here,
<PB N="29" REF="19"> and direct us by their wonderful Operations to his Wi&s;dom and Goodne&s;s? How natu|rally doth every Animal &s;eek the pre&s;erva|tion of its Species, and choo&s;e as fit and pro|per means for the attainment of its end, as it could do, if it had a rational intelligent Soul? How with no le&s;s various, than curious arts do the Birds interweave and plat their Ne&s;ts to hatch their young ones in? And the Ant, (as all Naturali&s;ts agree) and the Squirrel (as is ob&s;erv'd by the very Vulgar, who fre|quently pillage its hoards of nuts) provi|dently lay up their trea&s;ure again&s;t the time of extremity? Nay, how do the fir&s;t of the&s;e, though they bring but one mor&s;el of meat at a time, and have not fewer perhaps than &s;even or eight young in the ne&s;t together, which at the return of their Dams do all at once with equal greedine&s;s hold up their heads, and gape for that mor&s;el, as though they were really able judiciou&s;ly to di&s;tin|gui&s;h, and count their number, not omit or forget one of them, but feed them all? With what re&s;olution as well as tenderne&s;s do the Creatures cheri&s;h and fo&s;ter their Young, the very weake&s;t and mo&s;t timo|rous of them, &s;uch as Hens and Gee&s;e, &s;hew|ing in their defence &s;o much bravery and courage, as even contrary to the motions of &s;en&s;e, and the in&s;tinct of &s;elf-pre&s;ervation, to encounter all manner of dangers to pre|&s;erve
<PB N="30" REF="20"> them from harm? 'Twould be no le&s;s plea&s;ant than profitable, to run through the &s;everal Cla&s;&s;es of Animals, and ob&s;erve what wonderful methods they all at other times u&s;e for their own pre&s;ervation. The <HI>Cretian</HI> Goats, as <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>De Nat. Deor. l.</HI> 2.</NOTE> <HI>Tully</HI> ob&s;erves are no &s;ooner wounded with poy&s;oned darts, but, as though their own coun&s;el and experience directed them, they incontinently fly to the Herb <HI>Dictamnus,</HI> who&s;e wonderful vertue immediately works the arrows out of their Bodies, and heals up the wound; and the Fi&s;h, call'd therefore <HI>Sepia,</HI> (&s;ays the &s;ame Author) a&s;&s;oon as pur&s;u'd by the Fi&s;hermen, blackens the wa|ter with her Blood, and &s;o makes her e&s;cape. The Lamb, as mo&s;t Naturali&s;ts take it for granted, will immediately acknowledge the Wolf its Enemy, though it never &s;aw one be|fore; and we daily &s;ee, that Poultrey, Par|tridges, and other Birds at the fir&s;t &s;ight know Birds of prey, and make &s;ign of it by a peculiar note of their voice to their Young, who thereupon pre&s;ently &s;ecure and hide them&s;elves. Nay, natural Agents them&s;elves act as con&s;tantly for wi&s;e and good ends, as the&s;e great Receptacles and Habitations of &s;en&s;e. They neglect their private Good and proper Ends, to maintain and promote the publick Good of the Univer&s;e. Thus the Waters a&s;cend upwards, the Fire downward
<PB N="31" REF="20"> again&s;t Nature, to prevent any Cha&s;m in the compages of the Univer&s;e; and every natural Body will rend and bur&s;t in pieces, rather than the order of the World &s;hould be violated by a penetration of dimen&s;ions. But can all this be the production of blind chance or nece&s;&s;ity, or rather the miraculous effects of infinite Goodne&s;s and Under&s;tan|ding? <HI>Ob Finem agere,</HI> &s;ays the learned <NOTE N="&Dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>De veritat. Relig. Chri&s;t. l.</HI> 1. <HI>c.</HI> 7.</NOTE> <HI>Grotius, non e&s;t ni&s;i intelli|gentis Naturae:</HI> To act for &s;ome end is the incommunica|ble property of an intelligent Being. Since then both natural and &s;en&s;itive Agents act con&s;tantly for &s;ome end, and yet (as ap|pears from their always repeating the &s;ame things exactly in the &s;ame method, without ever trying any new experiments, and their ineptitude to other concerns of no greater moment) cannot be directed in their ope|rations by any coun&s;el of their own; (This being a plain and evident token, that they cannot do otherwi&s;e, and con&s;equently that they act, not from Rea&s;on, but purely from nece&s;&s;ity) &s;ince, I &s;ay, they act with grea|ter Rea&s;on, than what they are capable of learning by imitation or in&s;truction, we mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity conclude, that there is &s;ome invi&s;ible, high and over-ruling Wi&s;|dom, who by his impre&s;&s;ion directs them as naturally to their proper ends, as the im|pre&s;&s;ion
<PB N="32" REF="21"> of the Archers hand drives the ar|row towards the mark; &s;o that, as the <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Cicero de Legib. lib.</HI> 2.</NOTE> Orator &s;peaks, he can by no means de&s;erve the name of a Man (of a rational, thinking, intelli|gent Being) who after a due con&s;ideration of all the&s;e things, can &s;till profe&s;s his igno|rance of that All-wi&s;e Being, who &s;o excel|lently ordereth and di&s;po&s;eth them.</P>
<P>But to come nearer home, whence has Man his Title of Soveraignty over his Fel|low Creatures, or who hath given him this Charter of Univer&s;al, unlimited Empire? All the Creatures do obei&s;ance to him, and in their &s;everal &s;tations pay Him con&s;tant &s;ervice. Some of them furni&s;h his Table with food and delicacies, others kindly pre|vent or remove his Di&s;ea&s;es by their medici|nal Vertues. Some cloath and adorn his Body, others a&s;&s;i&s;t him in, and ea&s;e him of his labours. Nay there are &s;ome, which &s;eem to have been created for no other end, than his &s;port and recreation; and if any turn Rebels, and di&s;own his Authority, they as con&s;cious of their guilt, immediately fly his Court, and betake them&s;elves to the Wilderne&s;s. Nay, though &s;ome &s;o far for|get their allegiance, as to become cruel and noxious to him they &s;hould obey; yet o|thers on the contrary bear him &s;uch good will and affection, that to &s;ave him the
<PB N="33" REF="21"> trouble of entring the li&s;ts him&s;elf, they bravely fight his Battels, breathing conti|nual defiance again&s;t the&s;e Enemies of their Lord. Thus the Hor&s;e is a virulent enemy to the Bear, the Dolphin to the Crocodile, the Elephant to the Dragon, and the Lizard to the Serpent. Now did his own &s;trength or policy thus bring Dominion to him, or his own right arm obtain him this victory? His might is va&s;tly inferior to that of many Creatures, and 'tis impo&s;&s;ible his Rea&s;on could ever implant &s;o much awe, and dread of him upon &s;uch, as never experienc'd it. Doubtle&s;s then his Power is deriv'd from &s;ome other Being, that is both &s;tronger and wi&s;er than him&s;elf and his Fellow Creatures, and that other being can be none but God.</P>
<P>Again, let a Man contemplate the &s;tru|cture of his own Body, and he will &s;ee &s;o plain an in&s;cription of Providence in each member of it, that he will be forc'd to &s;ay of it, what <HI>Heraclitus</HI> once did of his Stove; <HI>Etiam hic Dii &s;unt,</HI> Here al&s;o is that infinite|ly Wi&s;e and Powerful God, who ordereth all things in the World according to the coun|&s;el of his own will. For not to examine the infinite variety, delicate &s;malne&s;s, exqui&s;ite &s;hape, po&s;ition, and temper of the parts of this wondrous contrivance, and how they all unanimou&s;ly &s;erve their &s;everal ends: The admirable configuration of the parts of
<PB N="34" REF="22"> the Embryo in the dark rece&s;&s;es of the ma|trix without any care of the Parent, and the conveyance of its nouri&s;hment through the <HI>Va&s;a &V;mbilicalia:</HI> The natural clo&s;ing up of tho&s;e ve&s;&s;els upon the Birth of the Child, when it is to receive its nutriment another way, are full, pregnant, and un|controulable demon&s;trations of a Providence. Such Knowledge indeed is too wonderful and excellent for the groveling Atomi&s;t, and has in all Ages mi&s;erably detected the weak|ne&s;s of the unthinking injudicious Epicurean; but to unprejudiced Men it has read continu|al Lectures of the Divine Wi&s;dom and Good|ne&s;s, and al&s;o from profane irreligious Per|&s;ons extorted this confe&s;&s;ion; that God had fa&s;hion'd them behind and before, and that therefore they were fearfully and wonderful|ly made. Thus <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib.</HI> 3. <HI>de u&s;u Partium</HI></NOTE> <HI>Galen,</HI> who was no great Friend to Religion, ob|&s;erving that there was nothing in an Human Body, either &s;uperfluous or defe|ctive, nothing rude, unpoli&s;h'd, imperfect, or irregular; but that all, even its mo&s;t mi|nute, incon&s;iderable parts were &s;o curiou&s;ly adapted to their particular u&s;es, and yet &s;o wi&s;ely and regularly admini&s;tred to the &s;up|ply of the whole, that the whole frame was nothing el&s;e but perfect elegance and beau|ty, the mo&s;t accurate order and exacte&s;t &s;ymmetry imaginable, was wound up to
<PB N="35" REF="22"> &s;uch an extatick admiration of the Wi&s;dom, that contriv'd it, that after he had long rack'd and tortur'd his brains to find (if po&s;&s;ible) &s;ome way or other to evade this confe&s;&s;ion, he at la&s;t entirely over-born with the pre&s;ence of &s;o evident and undeniable a truth, broke out into this rapturous expre&s;|&s;ion: <HI>Compono hic prefect&ograve; Canticum in Cre|atoris no&s;tri laudem, qui ultr&ograve; res &s;uas orna|re voluit meli&ugrave;s, qu&agrave;m ull&acirc; arte po&s;&s;ent.</HI> Here in truth do I compo&s;e an Hymn in prai&s;e of our Creator, who of his own free Goodne&s;s has been pleas'd to adorn and beautifie his Creatures, beyond what either Art or Wit can imitate or imagine: And for the &s;ame rea&s;on &s;ome <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Vide Orig. cont. Cel&s;. l.</HI> 8. <HI>p.</HI> 416. <HI>&amp; Jamblich de My&s;ter. Aegypt.</HI> &sect; 5. <HI>cap.</HI> 16.</NOTE> Philo&s;ophers have been induc'd to believe, that eve|ry particular part of a Man's Body, had a particular Genius or good Angel to &s;uperintend it.</P>
<P>La&s;tly, If from the Body we appeal unto the Soul, we &s;hall find, that from premi&s;es granted by the Athei&s;t him&s;elf, &s;he will &s;o clearly and undeniably conclude too for a Providence, that as <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>In&s;titut. l.</HI> 6. <HI>c.</HI> 9.</NOTE> <HI>Lactantius</HI> ob&s;erves, he can by no means de|&s;erve the title of Rational, who is ignorant of God, the great Parent of his Soul. For why does not the Needle more naturally turn towards its beloved North,
<PB N="36" REF="23"> nor the Heliotrope more zealou&s;ly affect the Ki&s;&s;es of the ri&s;ing Sun, then the Soul of Man, e&s;pecially when by often reflecting upon her own excellencies &s;he has di&s;dain|fully &s;haken off tho&s;e plummets, which &s;ink her down into matter, dilating and &s;preading her &s;elf boundle&s;ly beyond the utmo&s;t &s;phere of Finite Beings, points with her full bent and verticity to the Fruition of &s;ome Infi|nite Good, as to the only centre, whereon &s;he can finally re&s;t? We find by experience, that the&s;e noble intelligent Creatures are too large for the Circle and Embraces of Na|ture; a&s;piring above the gratifications of &s;en&s;e and materiality, to the everla&s;ting po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of a Spiritual and Immortal Ble&s;|&s;edne&s;s. They can indeed refre&s;h them&s;elves with the excellency of the Creatures, and di&s;cover &s;uch variety of &s;weetne&s;s and beau|ty in their natures, as will plentifully enter|tain them with delight&s;ome &s;peculations. But for pure re&s;t and peace, for plenary ac|quie&s;cence and termination of de&s;ires, 'tis no where, I &s;ay, to be found within the whole Latitude of the Creation. The Depth &s;aith, it is not in me; and the Sea &s;aith it is not in me, &s;o that though our perver&s;e Wills &s;hould pur&s;ue their beloved Prey through all the va&s;t Wilderne&s;s of the World, and force our en&s;lav'd Under&s;tandings to follow the cha&s;e with them, yet after all their toil and labour
<PB N="37" REF="23"> they mu&s;t at la&s;t &s;it down weary and di&s;&s;a|tisfy'd, find them&s;elves poor and indigent in the mid&s;t of all their Enjoyments, and weep with the in&s;atiable <HI>Macedon,</HI> becau&s;e they cannot find a World, &s;ome &s;olid and &s;ub&s;tantial Happine&s;s, which may fill the utmo&s;t capacity of their craving appetites, and refre&s;h them with an inexhau&s;tible &s;pring of uninterrupted delights. But whence is it, I ask again, that our Souls have the&s;e capa|cious, the&s;e dilated de&s;ires; unle&s;s there is &s;ome Being of &s;uch ample, copious, and &s;o|lid excellence, as may an&s;wer to the full ex|tent of them? Some object within the Lati|tude of its Entity proportionable for them to fix and bottom upon? That is in other terms, unle&s;s there be a God and Provi|dence? Again, whence is it, that the Dread of &s;ome great, invi&s;ible Power, and the an|xious expectation of a judgment to come, are &s;o twi&s;ted and interwoven with our very Beings, that (notwith&s;tanding the trium|phant Shoutings, Poetical Rants, and noi&s;ie Acclamations of the jolly and o|ver-flu&s;h'd <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lucreti|us Lib.</HI> 1.</NOTE> Champion of <HI>Epicu|rus</HI> to the contrary) the acute&s;t Athei&s;t with all his arts and rea&s;onings could never totally era&s;e them; but that, in &s;pight of all his di&s;putings to the contrary, they &s;till revive and awake, as &s;oon as the Clouds begin to thicken, and the Face of the Sky
<PB N="38" REF="24"> to grow black? We daily &s;ee, that neither Hope nor Fear, neither Love nor Hatred, nor any other Pa&s;&s;ion is in vain, &s;o much as in Brutes; but that all their &s;everal in|&s;tincts and affections have real Objects in nature corre&s;ponding to them. Can we then &s;uppo&s;e, that the Object of Man's dread alone hath no real exi&s;tence; but that he naturally trembles at an invi&s;ible No|thing; and is horribly afraid of the &s;hadow of an Imagination? This would be to render him with all his Rea&s;on the mo&s;t contem|ptible and ridiculous Creature upon the face of the Earth, and to &s;et him in a Cla&s;s, even below the Ape, that looks pale, and flies away from the &s;ight of a Snail. Certainly then, as the Divine <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Hierocles in aur. Car. pag.</HI> 282.</NOTE> Morali&s;t &s;peaks, our Maker has imprinted the&s;e common notions upon us, that they may infallibly lead us to the knowledge of him&s;elf.</P>
<P>Some, I know, endeavour to evade the force of this argument, by telling us, that if the&s;e things were indeed Natural and E&s;&s;en|tial to the Soul, they would be Univer&s;al, and every where equally receiv'd. But &s;ome People, &s;ay they, have been di&s;cover'd, which have neither any &s;en&s;e of a Deity, nor Forms of Religious Wor&s;hip; &s;uch are the <HI>Cannibals</HI> in <HI>America,</HI> and the Inhabi|tants of <HI>Soldania</HI> in <HI>Africk.</HI> Nay more, even
<PB N="39" REF="24"> &s;ome of the Sons of Learning and Wi&s;dom have been famous for the &s;ame Principles, utterly excluding the object of Religion out of the World.</P>
<P>Now to an&s;wer directly to this objection, be pleas'd to con&s;ider with me, that as for the fir&s;t part of it, <HI>viz.</HI> That there are &s;ome People in <HI>America</HI> and <HI>Soldania,</HI> who pro|fe&s;s no Religion at all, it is entirely fal&s;e. The thoughts indeed of the&s;e People are low and groveling, and, like Frogs not yet perfected out of the mud of <HI>Nile,</HI> their better half &s;ticks clo&s;e to their Mother Earth. Their notions are poor, ignoble, and altogether unworthy of the exalted excellency of the Divine Nature; but yet we are a&s;&s;ur'd by <HI>Vo&s;&s;ius</HI> from a <HI>Polonian</HI> Gentleman, who was among them, that even in the&s;e decays and ruines of Human Rea&s;on, there &s;till appear &s;ome &s;parks and glimmerings of Divine Truth, whil&s;t the wilde&s;t and mo&s;t barba|rous among&s;t them are not de&s;titute of Reli|gious Rites and Ceremonies, but after the way, which they receiv'd from their Fathers, continue to wor&s;hip their Idols or fal&s;e Gods. <HI>Etiam&s;i ignorent,</HI> as <HI>Tully</HI> &s;peaks of &s;ome &s;uch People in his days, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>De Legib. Lib.</HI> 1.</NOTE> <HI>qua|lem habere Deum deceant, tamen habendum &s;ciunt,</HI> &s;o that <HI>Epicurus</HI> his <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word">, or Notion of a Deity antece|dent to all Arts and Sciences, and con&s;e|quently
<PB N="40" REF="25"> Natural and E&s;&s;ential to the Soul, &s;hines even upon the minds of <HI>the&s;e</HI> Men in the glorious di&s;plays of its native Lu&s;tre and Brightne&s;s.</P>
<P>But if we &s;hould grant, that (as our Ad|ver&s;aries will have it) this part of the Obje|ction is indeed true, <HI>i.e.</HI> that the&s;e <HI>Ameri|cans</HI> and <HI>Soldanians</HI> have really no apprehen|&s;ions of any thing above them&s;elves, but live &s;ecurely without any thought either of a God or Providence in the World; yet (what|ever they think on't) 'tis mo&s;t evident at fir&s;t &s;ight, that neither this &s;o indulgent a conce&s;&s;ion will, though they make the mo&s;t of it, do us any prejudice at all. For how can it po&s;&s;ibly &s;hake or undermine the foun|dation of our Argument, which is rais'd up|on the natural con&s;titution of Mankind, when there has not been &s;o much force and vio|lence done to the natural Faculties, as to put them entirely out of cour&s;e, when 'tis rela|ted by the very &s;ame Hi&s;torians they quote, that the&s;e <HI>Cannibals</HI> and <HI>Soldanians</HI> are &s;o wild and &s;avage, &s;o barbarous, &s;tupid, and &s;otti&s;hly ignorant, that they &s;eem to retain nothing of Men be&s;ides the external &s;hape, being as to their Intellectuals almo&s;t wholly degenerated into the Nature of Brutes? If a Man may lawfully take his mea&s;ures from &s;uch a company of People as the&s;e, and up|on the bare Authority of &s;uch profound
<PB N="41" REF="25"> Theori&s;ts run counter to the inqui&s;itive, learn'd, and judicious Per&s;onages of all Ages, (which we &s;hall &s;hew by and by to have all concurr'd in their acknowledgment of a God and Providence.) He may for the &s;ame rea&s;on be allow'd to conclude, that there is no &s;uch thing as Rea&s;on, becau&s;e Mad-men and Idiots have little or no &s;hare of it, and that Light and Colours are pure Figments and Chimaera's, becau&s;e &s;ome with <HI>Demo|critus</HI> have put out their eyes, and cannot &s;ee them. He may fairly and rea&s;onably de|ny, that Honey is &s;weet, becau&s;e a &s;ick pa|late can't reli&s;h and ta&s;te it, and that the members of Bea&s;ts are ever regular and uni|form, becau&s;e the womb of nature is &s;ome|times di&s;torted through mon&s;trous Produ|ctions. But the Wi&s;er Heathen has taught us long &s;ince, <HI>Quod &s;pecimen Naturae cujus|libet &agrave; natur&acirc; optim&acirc; &s;umendum e&s;t,</HI> that the E&s;&s;ay of any kind is not to be taken from By-blows and &s;uch like, but always from the be&s;t and mo&s;t u&s;ual part of it; &s;o that if (indulging, I &s;ay, our Adver&s;aries this fir&s;t part of their objection) we can but &s;hew, that this Doctrine of a God and Providence, has been con&s;tantly maintain'd by the una|nimous &s;uffrage of the Learn'd and Thinking of all Ages, we may &s;afely conclude, that either the <HI>Idea</HI> of &s;uch an over-ruling Being is indelibly written and engraven upon the
<PB N="42" REF="26"> Soul, and &s;o congenial or con-natural to it, or (which is all one) that upon a due exer|ci&s;e of her natural Faculties, &s;he is nece&s;&s;ari|ly and unavoidably lead to the acknowledg|ment of &s;uch a Being.</P>
<P>And now that it has been thus generally acknowledg'd, I think we have little or no rea&s;on to doubt; For to &s;peak freely on my own part, I mu&s;t needs confe&s;s, that I could never yet prevail with my &s;elf to believe, that there was ever any &s;uch thing, as a &s;peculative Athei&s;t in the World. Such a one I mean, who after a fair hearing of his Rea&s;on, and a long, &s;erious, and impartial &s;tudy in the Book of Nature, could retain his infidelity, and at la&s;t &s;eriou&s;ly write A|thei&s;t. And this I therefore &s;ay, becau&s;e, as the School-men judiciou&s;ly determine, 'tis equally impo&s;&s;ible, that our Intellect &s;hould be invincibly ignorant of this Truth, which is written in &s;uch fair and large characters, if not upon the tables of our hearts, yet cer|tainly upon every leaf of the Book of Na|ture, that 'tis to our under&s;tanding, what the light of the Sun is to our eyes, the fir&s;t, and the plaine&s;t, and the mo&s;t glorious ob|ject of it, as 'tis that our Touch &s;hould not perceive the Fire to be hot, when we put our hand into it. And al&s;o becau&s;e I could never yet meet with any in&s;tance in Hi&s;to|ry, that could convince me, that I am here
<PB N="43" REF="26"> in an error. For as for tho&s;e in&s;tances of Learned Men, &s;uch as <HI>Diagoras, Theodorus, Protagoras,</HI> and a few others, who (as our Adver&s;aries object) were anciently look'd upon as rank, Profe&s;s'd Athei&s;ts, I cannot conceive, why they &s;hould be branded with &s;o ignominious a Character. Their gene|rous, unprejudic'd way of Philo&s;ophizing de&s;erves a better name; and I am apt to be|lieve, were their Cau&s;e fairly heard, the im|partial Judges of Rea&s;on and Learning would acquit them rather with appalu&s;e and acclamations, than pro&s;ecute them (as &s;ome blind and ignorant Zealots have done) with hard cen&s;ures and uncharitable &s;urmi&s;es. For that they were really far enough remov'd from the confines of Athei&s;m, properly &s;o call'd, will appear more than probable, if we never &s;o little reflect upon the unhappy con&s;titution of the times they liv'd in. 'Twas, you know, when all, that was tru|ly &s;acred and Religious, had almo&s;t bid a final adieu to the Habitations of Men, and fled back with &s;orrowful wings to its primi|tive and uncorrupted Man&s;ions above. Men, and tho&s;e too of no ordinary Parts and Im|provements, took up with low, unmanly Opinions, &s;ome of them (as you have &s;een) Deifying the inanimate Ho&s;t of Heaven, and others out of a fond and ob&s;tinate partiality to their lu&s;ts and affections, making the
<PB N="44" REF="27"> Deity &s;trike &s;ail to their corrupted Humors. The Poets by their leud and &s;candalous Fa|bles, had rendred the Vulgar Deities vain, loo&s;e, and contemptible, and by a&s;cribing human pa&s;&s;ions and exorbitancies to their Gods, and &s;o filling Heaven it &s;elf with all the enormities of the vile&s;t Debauchery, had infinitely &s;candaliz'd the minds of thinking Men. Upon this the Stoicks and other dog|matical Writers (not only after Chri&s;tianity came into the World, when they were pre&s;|&s;ed with the&s;e villainous and &s;hameful Sto|ries of their Gods, as <NOTE N="&Verbar;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Pr. Ev. L.</HI> 3. <HI>c.</HI> 6.</NOTE> <HI>Eu&s;ebius,</HI> and before him <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Cont. Cel&s;. L.</HI> 3. <HI>p.</HI> 123.</NOTE> <HI>Origen</HI> would have it; but al&s;o, as <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>De Nat. Deor. L.</HI> 2. <HI>c.</HI> 24. <HI>Edit. Lond.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Tully</HI> de|mon&s;trates from the examples of <HI>Zeno, Cleanthes,</HI> and <HI>Chry&s;ippus,</HI> long before the time of its appea|rance) took great pains for the credit of the Divine Nature to my&s;ticize the&s;e loo&s;e and extravagant Writers; and others both by &s;ober and &s;erious Arguments, and likewi&s;e by jeers and &s;coffs, cutting &s;a|tyr, and biting &s;arca&s;ms, endeavour'd all they could, to explode and whip the&s;e Poetical Deities out of the World. What wonder therefore, if not only by the unthinking, &s;u|per&s;titious Multitude, but al&s;o by tho&s;e lear|ned Men them&s;elves, who really thought them to be Gods, &s;uch Per&s;ons were ordi|narily look'd upon as Profane, Irreligious,
<PB N="45" REF="27"> and Athei&s;tical? This, we are &s;ure, was the ca&s;e of <HI>Anaxagoras,</HI> who is accus'd by <HI>Plato</HI> him&s;elf for debauching the minds of the young Gentlemen of <HI>Athens</HI> with Athei&s;ti|cal Principles, only becau&s;e he deny'd the Sun and Moon to be Gods: And 'twas no otherwi&s;e with <HI>Socrates,</HI> who, as he tells us him&s;elf in <HI>Plato</HI>'s <HI>Euthyphro,</HI> was arraign'd and condemn'd to death for no other rea|&s;on, but becau&s;e he theologiz'd freely and boldly, not fearing publickly to declare his di&s;like of tho&s;e vile, unworthy &s;tories, which Poets and Painters commonly imputed to the Gods. And for all our Objectors can alledge to the contrary, this too was the ve|ry ca&s;e of all our other reputed Athei&s;ts: So that upon the whole you &s;ee, that we have no rea&s;on at all to condemn the&s;e Lear|ned Men for Athei&s;ts, and con&s;equently that neither this &s;econd part of the Objection, does any thing enervate the force of our Argu|ment.</P>
<P>But &s;uppo&s;e we &s;hould likewi&s;e indulge our Adver&s;aries this part of their Objection, and allow, that &s;ome Learned Men did real|ly and in good earne&s;t profe&s;s an entire di&s;|belief of a God and Providence in general; yet neither will this conce&s;&s;ion do us any di&s;&s;ervice at all. For can it be thought a greater prejudice to the &s;tanding Laws of Nature, that there &s;hould be Mon&s;ters a|mong&s;t
<PB N="46" REF="28"> us in re&s;pect of our Minds, than 'tis, that there are &s;uch in re&s;pect of their Bodies? Mon&s;ters, I &s;ay, and that not without rea|&s;on; for that they mu&s;t really have been &s;uch, Men of di&s;torted thoughts and unna|tural imaginations, may be &s;ufficiently e|vinc'd in that the Opinions of the fore-cited Learned Men, being look'd upon as purely Athei&s;tical, were no &s;ooner broach'd, and &s;ent abroad, but that they were univer&s;ally rejected and dete&s;ted by all, and the Authors of them per&s;ecuted and devoted unto death, as the noi&s;om and pe&s;tilential corruption of Human Rea&s;on. For certainly that opinion, which is univer&s;ally rejected, can never be the Off-&s;pring of right Rea&s;on, which is common to all, but mu&s;t needs owe its Birth either to a deprav'd, corrupted intellect, or at lea&s;t to an unaccountable affectation of &s;ingularity, &s;uch as He was famous for, who contrary to the evidence of &s;en&s;e taught &s;now to be black.</P>
<P>Having thus clear'd the way by &s;hewing the weakne&s;s and invalidity of each part of this objection, I now proceed in the</P>
<P>Second place more explicitely to confirm and e&s;tabli&s;h this Truth, by the unanimous &s;uffrage and concurrent Te&s;timony of all Nations in the World. And indeed if we con|&s;ult the Records of the fir&s;t and be&s;t Ages of the World, when Men together with the
<PB N="47" REF="28"> pure&s;t air imbib'd al&s;o the pure&s;t Principles, we &s;hall not find &s;o much as one di&s;torted member, one prodigious Birth, one &s;ingle, individual Per&s;on among&s;t all the ancient Nations, who doubted either of the Being of God, or call'd his Providence in que&s;tion. Though the God of this World had &s;o blin|ded their under&s;tandings, that the true and genuine Light of uncorrupted Truth could not break in upon them; yet even in this di&s;mal night of Ignorance and Darkne&s;s, this Labyrinth of errors and mi&s;ery, they were naturally carried by the clew of their Medi|tations to the knowledge of &s;ome Supreme Governour, &s;ome fir&s;t mover, as <HI>Aristotle</HI> &s;peaks, which gave Life, Breath, and Mo|tion to all things in the World. We read indeed of &s;ome rude and &s;avage People, who, as though they had the mark of <HI>Cain</HI> &s;tam|ped upon them, liv'd like Vagabonds and Fugitives, without Cities, Hou&s;es, or any thing of Literature or Civil Polity among them: But yet we never hear of any, who did not de&s;ire, as the <HI>Jews</HI> love to &s;peak, to be gather'd under the Wings of the Divine Maje&s;ty, and to enjoy the happy Privilege of his immediate Protection. Rather than &s;eem debarr'd of this ine&s;timable Ble&s;&s;ing, they would carry their Idols about with them in Carts, and that they might not be entic'd away by the inchantments of their Enemies,
<PB N="48" REF="29"> bind their very Gods in Chains, and their Deities in links of Iron. In &s;hort, they were not more divided from one another by Seas, Mountains, and De&s;arts, than united and made one by this unanimous te&s;timony. For the Author of the Book <HI>de Mundo,</HI> (who, for all I yet &s;ee, was no other, than the fore|cited Philo&s;opher him&s;elf) a&s;&s;ures us, that <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> and &s;o on. 'Tis a very ancient Tradition, convey'd down to all &s;orts of Men from their Progenitors or Fore-fathers, that all things are from God, and that by Him they all &s;ub&s;i&s;t, and that no nature is of it &s;elf &s;ufficient to pre&s;erve it &s;elf, if left alone and de&s;titute of the Divine Influence and A&s;&s;i&s;tance. Which a&s;&s;ertion is likewi&s;e confirm'd by the concurrent te&s;timony of <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Di&s;&s;ert.</HI> 1.</NOTE> <HI>Max. Tyrius,</HI> who declares, that though in other things Men very much differ'd from one another, yet all throughout the whole World, Learn'd and Unlearn'd, Wi&s;e and Unwi&s;e, agreed in this, unanimou&s;ly acknowledging one Supreme God, the King and Father of all things in the World. <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. But in all this contention, &s;trife, and di&s;cord, &s;ays he, you may find every where throughout the whole World one
<PB N="49" REF="29"> con&s;entient or agreeing Law and A&s;&s;ertion, That there is one God, the King and Father of All. And <HI>Proclus</HI> upon <HI>Plato's Timaeus;</HI> <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, &s;ays he, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. All Religions and Sects acknowledge that one Highe&s;t Principle of all, and all Men call upon God for their Helper. Now that the&s;e Learned Men did not over-ha&s;tily and imprudently take up things upon tru&s;t, but were certain and well a&s;&s;ur'd of the truth of what they thus deliver, not only their great Abilities and known Characters in the World may incline us to believe, but likewi&s;e the be&s;t and mo&s;t Au|thentick Hi&s;torians, and al&s;o the Rites and known Cu&s;toms of the&s;e Nations them&s;elves put beyond all manner of di&s;tru&s;t. For to begin with the <HI>Chaldaeans:</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib.</HI> 3. <HI>cap.</HI> 8.</NOTE> <HI>Dio|dorus Siculus</HI> a&s;&s;ures us, that, tho' they a&s;&s;erted the Eternity of the World, yet they were far enough from be|ing Athei&s;ts, believing <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> that the order and di&s;po&s;ition of the whole World is by a Divine Providence. And however their Idolatry hinted at by <HI>Job,</HI> in adoring the Sun in his Strength, and the Moon, when &s;he walk'd in her Brightne&s;s: Their impious mode of Divination by their <HI>Tali&s;|mans,</HI> Figures not unlike the <HI>Jewi&s;h Tera|phim,</HI>
<PB N="50" REF="30"> the <HI>Greeks</HI> <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word">, and the <HI>Popi&s;h Agnus Dei:</HI> Their <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word">, or Hearths, where they pre&s;erv'd their Eternal Fire, the Symbol of the Sun, with many other things of the &s;ame nature, &s;hew their formal com|pliance with the Vulgar Poly|thei&s;ts: We find them in an Ora|cle, quoted by <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Pr. Ev. L.</HI> 9. <HI>c.</HI> 10. <HI>Vi|deas etiam Gallaeum, qui ad Si|byllinorum calcem hoc inter alia oraculum laudat.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Eu&s;ebius</HI> out of <HI>Porphyry,</HI> joyn'd with the <HI>He|brews,</HI> as wor&s;hipping with them in an holy manner one &s;elf-exi|&s;tent Deity:
<Q><L><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 line"></L>
<L><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 line"></L></Q> And then for the <HI>Egyptians:</HI> 'Tis the Do|ctrine of the Father and Founder of all their Theology, <HI>Tri&s;megistus,</HI> (if <HI>Cedrenus</HI> quotes him right) that there is one Infinite, Su|preme, Eternal Being, who as he created all things, &s;o he &s;till continues to pre&s;erve, &s;up|port, and uphold them all. <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, &s;ays he, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> <HI>i. e.</HI> Neither good nor bad Angels, nor any other E&s;&s;ence is without him, for He is Lord of All, the God and Father of All, and by him, and in him do all things &s;ub&s;i&s;t. Now though <HI>Cedrenus</HI> po&s;&s;ibly gather'd this from &s;ome other An|cient Hi&s;torian, rather than from <HI>Hermes</HI>
<PB N="51" REF="30"> him&s;elf, yet we are &s;ure, that 'tis really <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> an Hermaical Opinion, or the <HI>Egyptian</HI> Doctrine: For notwith&s;tanding the outward compliance likewi&s;e of the&s;e Men, with the multifarious Polythei&s;m and Idolatry of the profane and ignorant Vul|gar, we are certify'd by <HI>Origen, Porphyry,</HI> and <HI>Jamblichus,</HI> (the la&s;t of which e&s;pecial|ly was mo&s;t intimately acquainted with their my&s;terious Rites) that in their Arcane and Recondite Theology, which was commu|nicated only to their Kings and Prie&s;ts; they did acknowledge one Supreme, Indepen|dent, Self-&s;ub&s;i&s;ting Being, who created all the Powers of Heaven, whom he employs as his Deputies and Vice-gerents to pre&s;ide over, and take care of the &s;everal parts of the Univer&s;e. And accordingly in their Hie|roglyphicks, or &s;acred Symbols they repre|&s;ented him by a Scepter with an Eye in it, &s;ignifying thereby, &s;ays <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib. de I&s;id. &amp; O&s;i|rid. p.</HI> 371.</NOTE> <HI>Plu|tarch,</HI> that he both &s;ees and go|verns all things. Nay this Philo|&s;opher is &s;o far from endeavouring to prove this Fundamental truth, that throughout that whole Book <HI>de I&s;ide &amp; O&s;i|ride,</HI> he takes it for a thing granted and ac|knowledg'd on all hands. Thus in the be|ginning of it: The end of all Religious Rites and My&s;teries of that <HI>Egyptian</HI> God|de&s;s <HI>I&s;is,</HI> &s;ays he, was <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">
<PB N="52" REF="31"> the Knowledge of that fir&s;t Being, who is the Lord of all things, and intelligible only by the Mind: And then <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Pag.</HI> 381.</NOTE> afterwards he tells us, that they therefore wor&s;hip'd him &s;ymboli|cally in the Crocodile, becau&s;e that Animal alone being without a Tongue, was look'd upon as a very apt Re&s;emblance and Imita|tion of him, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. For the Divine Rea&s;on having no need of Speech, and wal|king &s;ilently and without noi&s;e throughout the World, governs and di&s;po&s;eth all hu|mane Affairs according unto Right. <HI>Or|pheus,</HI> who certainly (for here I mu&s;t beg leave with all due re&s;pects to di&s;&s;ent from &s;ome eminent Philologers of later times, who look upon the whole Hi&s;tory of him on|ly as a mere Romantick Allegory, utterly devoid of all truth and reality) fir&s;t brought the Rites of Religion into <HI>Greece,</HI> exactly treads in their &s;teps, for in his Hymn to <HI>Mu|&s;oeus</HI> (which &s;ome erroneou&s;ly think him to have compil'd in oppo&s;ition to his other &s;up|pos'd Polythei&s;tical Writings) having fir&s;t a&s;&s;erted the Unity of the God-head, he &s;hews at large the extent of his Dominion and So|veraignty; telling us, that he is the cau&s;e of all the Mi&s;eries and Calamities Men &s;uffer in the World, and that there is no evil (of Pu|ni&s;hment,
<PB N="53" REF="31"> I &s;uppo&s;e, he means) in the Ci|ty, which the Lord has not done. That he both made, and al&s;o pre&s;erveth all things by his great Power and out-&s;tretched Arm. That his Dominion is al&s;o in the Sea, and his Right-hand in the Floods. That though he dwelleth in the thick darkne&s;s, which no mortal Eye can approach, yet he invi&s;ibly walketh round the World, and ob&s;erveth e|very thing that is done under the Sun. And la&s;tly, that the glorious and invincible Le|gions of Angels, which &s;tand about his Throne, are commi&s;&s;ion'd and &s;ent out by him to take care of his Creatures here be|low. But if this Poem mu&s;t be allow'd to be &s;uppo&s;ititious, (though I &s;ee no rea&s;on, why the whole of it &s;hould) made and father'd upon <HI>Orpheus;</HI> either, as <HI>Vo&s;&s;ius</HI> thinks, by <HI>Jews;</HI> or by <HI>Chri&s;tians,</HI> as others; yet that this in very deed was the Doctrine of this Great and Ancient Man, is probable from the Pythagorick and Platonick Theology, which (as <HI>Porphyrius, Jamblichus, Syria|nus,</HI> and <HI>Proclus</HI> unanimou&s;ly inform us) was deriv'd in a very great mea&s;ure from his Principles and Traditions, and al&s;o certain and indubitable from &s;ome Fragments of his acknowledg'd and cited by <HI>Pagan</HI> Writers them&s;elves. For as I can hardly believe all that to be genuine or truly Orphical, that is, to have been written either by <HI>Orpheus</HI> him|&s;elf,
<PB N="54" REF="32"> or &s;ome other ancient Heathen accor|ding to the <HI>Oral Cabala,</HI> or Tradition from him, which now goes under his name, &s;o neither on the other hand, can I with any rea&s;on, upon <HI>Herodotus</HI>'s &s;ingle Authority, reject all that as &s;purious and &s;uppo&s;ititious, which in his own confe&s;&s;ion was by all the Learned and Ancient <HI>Pagans</HI> before his time, and we are &s;ure by all &s;ince (<HI>Ari&s;totle</HI> only excepted, who therefore embrac'd his &s;oli|tary opinion, becau&s;e contradictory to the <HI>Pythagoraeans</HI> and <HI>Platoni&s;ts</HI>) con&s;tantly ac|knowledg'd to be his. Thus then in &s;ome Ver&s;es of his quoted by <HI>Proclus</HI> upon the <HI>Timaeus:</HI> The mo&s;t High God, &s;ays he, is the Fir&s;t and the La&s;t. All things were pro|duc'd by him out of nothing, and he is a|bove, and through them all. If you climb up into Heaven, He is there; if you go down into the profundity either of the Earth or Sea, He is there al&s;o. He giveth Life and Breath to all things, and from him they derive all their power and efficacy. The Sun, Moon, and Stars are in, and by Him; and he is that one Great King and Potentate, who Made and Governs all things both in Heaven and Earth. This Doctrine was af|terwards embrac'd by all the &s;ucceeding <HI>Greek</HI> Poets, who are of any repute either for their Antiquity or Learning, out of every one of which might be cited &s;everal remark|able
<PB N="55" REF="32"> pa&s;&s;ages to this purpo&s;e, had not the skilful collections of many excellent Pens rendred it altogether &s;uperfluous. From them therefore pa&s;s we on to the Ancient Philo&s;ophers, among&s;t whom I know not &s;o much as one Sect, but what either generou|&s;ly declar'd, or one way or other betray'd their Belief of it. <HI>Epicurus,</HI> I know, with his Followers is generally thought to have deny'd it, and truly, I think, 'twould have been no great wonder if they had. For &s;ince there is no vice, as an ingenious and learned Author of our own ob&s;erves, to which we are more univer&s;ally obnoxious, than that of exce&s;&s;ive fondne&s;s and partiali|ty to our &s;elves, which makes us too often dote upon the deformities, and even to ido|lize the vices of our own temper, how &s;hould we think it &s;trange, if &s;o &s;oft and voluptuous a Sect, who delighted in nothing &s;o much as the delicious entertainments of their de|bauched Sen&s;es, and the &s;inful Retirements of &s;olitary Groves, and &s;ilent Gardens, &s;hould fan&s;y their God to be altogether &s;uch a one as them&s;elves, a Being wholly &s;eque&s;tred from action, and confin'd to an Extramun|dane Paradi&s;e, where he &s;at &s;urrounded with all imaginable Plea&s;ures, and lu&s;ciou&s;ly en|tertain'd with a con&s;tant &s;ucce&s;&s;ion of Mai|den delights? What wonder, I &s;ay, was it for Men thus to think of their God, who
<PB N="56" REF="33"> really judg'd this to be the very top of happi|ne&s;s, and who therefore would have liv'd no otherwi&s;e, had they been Gods them&s;elves? Their <HI>Lu&s;ts</HI> and <HI>Affections</HI> induc'd them thus to corrupt and &s;ophi&s;ticate their notions of God, and, like the <HI>Ethiopians,</HI> being black them&s;elves, to repre&s;ent the Deity too in the colour of their own complexions. But tho' 'twould have been no great Wonder, if <HI>Epi|curus</HI> had really thus thought of the Deity, yet the ca&s;e, I conceive, was quite other|wi&s;e with him. Whatever his Doctrine and pretences were, His actions &s;ufficiently pro|claim'd his Providence. We may ju&s;tly in|vert that of <HI>Tully,</HI> and &s;ay of him, <HI>verbis &s;u&s;tulit, re po&s;uit Deos,</HI> he weakly deny'd him in Words, whil&s;t his actions and beha|viour &s;trongly a&s;&s;erted him. Whence el&s;e tho&s;e fears and torments, tho&s;e anxious and jealous thoughts, for which he was &s;o remar|kable? <HI>Nec quenquam vidi,</HI> &s;ays the fore ci|ted Author of him, <HI>qui magis ea, quae timen|da negaret, timeret, mortem dico, &amp; Deos.</HI> But if he had a full and abiding conviction upon his mind (as certainly were there no God, the mo&s;t prejudic'd Per&s;on in the World might at length acquire) again&s;t the reality of a Providence, why did he &s;o much dread it above all other Men? <HI>Mentiuntur igitur,</HI> as <HI>Seneca</HI> &s;peaks, <HI>qui dicunt &s;e non &s;entire e&s;&s;e Deum.</HI> They do but lye, and
<PB N="57" REF="33"> deal treacherou&s;ly, who &s;ay they believe there is no God. 'Tis their de&s;ire, but not their thoughts, and though they &s;peak ne|ver &s;o great &s;welling words again&s;t him, yet their actions will &s;ome time or other betray them, and either by running under the Bed, when it Thunders, as <HI>Caligula;</HI> or by drea|ding, as <HI>Hobbs,</HI> to walk alone in the dark; or by &s;ome other evidence of a &s;lavi&s;h, un|manly Fear of him, God will extort from them an acknowledgment of his Providence. But we &s;hall let the&s;e Men pa&s;s, having grea|ter witne&s;&s;es than they. The <HI>Pythagoraean, Cynick, Academick, Peripatetick,</HI> and <HI>Sto|ick</HI> go hand in hand, and though Light and Darkne&s;s will as &s;oon meet, and kindly em|brace each other, as &s;ome of the&s;e Philo&s;o|phers be ever united and reconcil'd in their other differences, yet here they lovingly come together, and concentre in the &s;ame point. Witne&s;s <HI>Plotin, Porphyry,</HI> and <HI>Plu|tarch,</HI> who have written large Tracts upon this Subject, wherein they abundantly vin|dicate the Divine Wi&s;dom and Ju&s;tice from tho&s;e malicious a&s;per&s;ions wicked Men ca&s;t upon it; proving beyond all contradiction that the Affairs of this World are manag'd and di&s;pos'd by an All-wi&s;e Being, who &s;u|perintends and takes care of every particular thing in the World; and though the Glow|worm of Human Rea&s;on cannot penetrate
<PB N="58" REF="34"> into the depth of his Coun&s;els, yet that 'tis highly unrea&s;onable Men &s;hould cavil or re|pine at the &s;eeming inequalities of his Di&s;|pen&s;ation, who cannot but &s;teer all his actions by the unerring compa&s;s of Infinite Wi&s;dom. Witne&s;s the <HI>Stagyrite</HI> him&s;elf, who, though (according to the Genius of the natural Phi|lo&s;opher) he &s;ometimes &s;eems to be no do|ter on a Deity, yet in his Book <HI>de Mundo,</HI> (which in <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Paraen. ad Graecos p.</HI> 6.</NOTE> <HI>Just in Martyr</HI>'s judg|ment is a mo&s;t excellent compen|dium of all his Philo&s;ophy) he no le&s;s elegantly than truly tells us, that God is both the Father and Pre&s;erver of all things, and though the Heaven of Heavens be the peculiar habitation of his glorious Maje&s;ty, yet that his Paternal care and Providence extends it &s;elf to the utmo&s;t bounds of na|ture; moving, upholding, and di&s;po&s;ing all things in the Earth, and Sea, and in all o|ther places. In &s;hort, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> &s;ays he, What a Pilot is to a Ship, a Charioteer to a Chariot, the Prae|centor to a Quire, Law to a City, and a General to an Army, the &s;ame is God to the World. But, not to in&s;i&s;t altogether up|on the Authority of this excellent and (I think) Genuine, though by &s;ome &s;u&s;pected Book; 'tis undeniably evident from other
<PB N="59" REF="34"> Writings, which all allow to be his, that <HI>Laertius</HI> has done this Philo&s;opher great in|ju&s;tice, in telling us, that he confin'd the Providence of God to the Heavenly Regions, for in the 12th. of his <HI>Metap. cap.</HI> 10. he expre&s;ly declares, that the Divine Provi|dence extends it &s;elf, even to every thing that creepeth upon the face of the Earth, to the Fowls of the Air, to the Fi&s;h of the Sea, and to what&s;oever walketh through the paths of the Sea. Nay &s;o &s;elf-evident and undeniable does this Philo&s;opher think this A&s;&s;ertion, that he believes a Man mu&s;t de|ny all his Sen&s;es, abjure his Rea&s;on and Un|der&s;tanding, and be degraded into the very lowe&s;t cla&s;s of unthinking, unintelligent Be|ings, before he can be induc'd to call it in|to que&s;tion; and therefore if any one &s;hould be &s;o &s;tupidly ignorant, as to profe&s;s his di|&s;tru&s;t of it, let him be urg'd to confe&s;s it, &s;ays he, <HI>Argumento poti&ugrave;s bacillino, qu&agrave;m Philo&s;ophico,</HI> rather with that of a good cud|gel, than any other di&s;pute. Witne&s;s la&s;t|ly <HI>Thales, Pythagoras, Anti&s;thenes, Plato, Theophra&s;tus, Zeno, Epictetus, Hierocles, Dama&s;cius,</HI> and all tho&s;e other great and learned Men, who either before, or after the appearance of Chri&s;tianity, flouri&s;hed in <HI>Greece,</HI> of all which 'tis unque&s;tionably evi|dent, that they con&s;tantly acknowledg'd a God and Providence. Advance we there|fore
<PB N="60" REF="35"> farther from the&s;e Men, to &s;ee what entertainment this Doctrine found among&s;t the <HI>Latins. Seneca</HI> has written whole Tracts about it, and hath (as I told you &s;ome of the <HI>Greeks</HI> had done before him) from the cleare&s;t Principles of unbia&s;s'd Rea&s;on &s;uffi|ciently &s;hewn, that the unequal di&s;pen&s;a|tions of Good and Evil in the World, do in|deed no ways prejudice the Wi&s;e Govern|ment of Providence. <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Nat. Quae&s;t. Lib.</HI> 2. <HI>cap.</HI> 45.</NOTE> He a&s;&s;ures us withal, that the <HI>Hetrurians,</HI> to whom the <HI>Romans</HI> ow'd mo&s;t of their Religious Rites and Ceremo|nies, were of the &s;ame Opinion. That they acknowledg'd the &s;ame Supreme Deity, who was the Maker, Pre&s;erver, and Governour of all things in the Univer&s;e; whom there|fore, as the <HI>Arcadians</HI> and <HI>Greeks</HI> call'd him <HI>Pan,</HI> becau&s;e he both fram'd the World har|moniou&s;ly, and al&s;o by his All-wi&s;e Provi|dence &s;till keeps the &s;ame in tune, &s;o the <HI>Ro|mans</HI> &s;til'd him <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Id. de Benef. Lib.</HI> 4. <HI>cap.</HI> 7.</NOTE> <HI>Stator,</HI> not becau&s;e at the Prayers of <HI>Romulus</HI> (as the Hi&s;torians pretend) he made the <HI>Roman</HI> Armies when flying from their Enemies, to &s;tand; <HI>&s;ed quod &s;tant bene|ficio ejus omnia,</HI> but becau&s;e by his means all things &s;tand, and are upheld in their being. <HI>Tully</HI> for the &s;ame rea&s;on calls him <HI>Providen|tem, Cogitantem, &amp; Animadvertentem, &amp; omnia ad &s;e pertinere putantem.</HI> And in ano|ther
<PB N="61" REF="35"> place, <HI>&s;it per&s;ua&s;um civibus,</HI> &s;ays he, and &s;o on. Let all the Citizens a&s;&s;uredly know, that God takes particular notice what kind of Per&s;ons we are, with what mind and de|votion we perform the acts of religious Wor|&s;hip, and that he will deal with us accor|ding to our Works, whether they be good or bad. And (not to mention other Books, out of which quotations would be endle&s;s) in his &s;econd <HI>de Natur&acirc; Deorum</HI> he has &s;o fully and convincingly prov'd the Provi|dence of God from the wonderful <HI>Phoenome|na</HI> in nature, that that unparallell'd Treati&s;e &s;eems to be nothing el&s;e, but a continued Comment upon that of the Royal P&s;almi&s;t: <HI>O Lord, how manifold are thy Works, in Wi&s;|dom ha&s;t thou made them all, the Earth is full of thy goodne&s;s.</HI> To the&s;e &s;ub&s;cribe the whole cla&s;s of <HI>Latin</HI> Authors, neither Law|yer nor Phy&s;ician, neither Orator nor Poet, nor any other of what profe&s;&s;ion &s;oever war|ping from this Truth. Add we to the&s;e the <HI>Per&s;ian Magi,</HI> whom <HI>Suidas</HI> calls <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. And <HI>Apollonius Ty|anaeus,</HI> who, as <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Apollon. Epi&s;t. ad Euphrat.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Philostratus</HI> tells us in his Travels into <HI>India,</HI> made &s;ome &s;tay in <HI>Per&s;ia,</HI> and convers'd with them twice every day, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> Mini&s;ters of the Gods. Add we likewi&s;e the <HI>Indian Brachmans,</HI> who, though they neither wor&s;hipped Images as
<PB N="62" REF="36"> others, nor ate what was Animate; though they never allow'd them&s;elves the liberty of drinking either Wine or Beer, but were con|tented with the ea&s;ie Provi&s;ion of a cool run|ning Stream, yet were therefore, &s;ays <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Eu&s;eb. de Pr. Ev. L.</HI> 6. <HI>c.</HI> 8.</NOTE> <HI>Bardi&s;anus Syrus,</HI> far re|mov'd from the confines of malig|nity, becau&s;e they attended whol|ly upon God, agreeing with the <HI>Groecians,</HI> as <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib.</HI> 15. <HI>p.</HI> 730.</NOTE> <HI>Strabo</HI> tells us, in this, that God is the Creator and Governor of the World. Add we la&s;tly the <HI>Thracians,</HI> the <HI>Briti&s;h</HI> and <HI>French</HI> Druids, and the <HI>Aethiopick</HI> Gymno&s;ophi&s;ts, who as it appears from Authors of unque&s;tionable Authority, do all bear witne&s;s to this truth. In &s;hort, there is no Nation under Heaven &s;o fierce and cruel, &s;o wild and barbarous, &s;o &s;tupid and bruti&s;h, but what has its Altars and Sacrifices, its Vows, and Prayers, and Invocations; &s;o that upon the whole we may &s;afely conclude, that this Doctrine of a Providence is confirm'd by the con&s;tant and univer&s;al &s;uffrage of all Mankind, <HI>Non enim,</HI> as <HI>Seneca</HI> truly &s;peaks, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>De Benef. Lib.</HI> 4. <HI>cap.</HI> 4</NOTE> <HI>in hunc furorem omnes mortales con|&s;en&s;i&s;&s;ent alloquendi &s;urda Numina &amp; inefficaces Deos;</HI> For though the Divine Nature be really in it &s;elf as Great and Excel|lent as <HI>Epicurus</HI> would have it, yet unle&s;s Men had been fully per&s;waded, that it did
<PB N="63" REF="36"> not ab&s;tract it &s;elf from the concernment of this World; all its Greatne&s;s and Excellency would only have admini&s;tr'd to its own &s;a|tisfaction, whil&s;t 'twould have been impo&s;&s;i|ble, that all Mankind &s;hould by con&s;ent have been &s;o extravagantly fond and ridiculous, as to have wor&s;hipped a Being, who would neither hear them, nor help them. Let then this great Antipronoii&s;t, but &s;tand to his own Argument, <HI>viz.</HI> that that mu&s;t needs be true, which all Men allow, and he will &s;ee, that for the &s;ame rea&s;on he believes a God, he mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity embrace likewi&s;e, that <HI>Anum Fatidicam Stoicorum,</HI> as he &s;coffingly terms Providence.</P>
<P>But becau&s;e there were never wanting &s;ome Per&s;ons in the World, &s;o exce&s;&s;ively fond and partial to them&s;elves, as to ima|gine, that they alone enjoy the happy <HI>Go|&s;hen,</HI> the Dwellings of Light, the Regions of Wi&s;dom and Knowledge, whil&s;t all the other part of Mankind lie in Ignorance and Dark|ne&s;s, and the &s;hadow of Death, &s;o that nei|ther the concurrent and harmonious Te&s;ti|mony of the Creatures, nor yet the con&s;en|tient acknowledgment of all Mankind in ge|neral can work their wi&s;er Souls into a ju&s;t Belief of this Doctrine of a Providence, I now proceed in the third place to &s;hew, that God has in all Ages given &s;uch &s;ignal Evi|dences, and unque&s;tionable Proofs of his Pre|&s;idence
<PB N="64" REF="37"> over us, that we may as well doubt of our own Exi&s;tence, or of any thing el&s;e we conver&s;e with in the World, as of the Di|vine Pre&s;ence among&s;t us. And this I &s;hall do,
<LIST>
<ITEM>1. By &s;hewing, that &s;uch extraordinary Puni&s;hments have over-taken &s;ome wicked Per&s;ons in this Life, that they could be no|thing le&s;s than the effects of Divine Ven|geance.</ITEM>
<ITEM>2. From Prophecies,</ITEM>
<ITEM>And la&s;tly from Miracles.</ITEM>
</LIST></P>
<P N="1">1. Such extraordinary Puni&s;hments have overtaken &s;ome wicked Per&s;ons in this Life, that they could be nothing le&s;s than the ef|fects of Divine Vengeance. The Wicked in|deed are generally the Men, who of all o|thers, if we look only upon things before us, are the mo&s;t Happy. Though they never &s;o much grind the face of the Poor, and in|&s;ult over their Neighbours, who are more righteous than them&s;elves; Nay, tho' they &s;tretch out their mouth to Heaven, and their bla&s;phemous di&s;cour&s;es go to the ends of the Earth, yet as though God did indeed turn away his face, and would never &s;ee it: The&s;e are the Men, that pro&s;per in the World, that &s;pend their days in Wealth, and then in a moment (without any more trouble) go down into the Grave. This, I confe&s;s, has in all Ages rais'd no &s;mall &s;cruples in the
<PB N="65" REF="37"> minds even of Thinking Men. 'Twas not only the great knot of the Ancient Morali|ty, and the mo&s;t gravelling Problem of all the Heathen Philo&s;ophy, but that likewi&s;e, which chiefly exercis'd the Faith of &s;ome of tho&s;e, who liv'd in the Sun-&s;hine of Divine Revelation. By rea&s;on of the pro&s;perous and flouri&s;hing condition of the Ungodly, and the frequent calamities and oppre&s;&s;ions of the Righteous, they were apt to que&s;tion the ways of Providence, and almo&s;t induc'd to conclude, that they had cleans'd their hearts in vain; and wa&s;h'd their hands in inno|cency. This the Royal P&s;almi&s;t tells us was his ca&s;e, <HI>P&s;.</HI> 73. v. 2, 3. My feet, &s;ays he, were almo&s;t gone, my treadings had well nigh &s;lipt, I &s;aw the wicked in &s;uch pro&s;perity; And the Prophet <HI>Jeremy, cap.</HI> 12. <HI>v.</HI> 1. though not daring to di&s;tru&s;t the Righteou&s;ne&s;s of God, yet complainingly pours out his troubled thoughts in this an|xious Expo&s;tulation: Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee; yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments, wherefore doth the way of the wicked pro&s;per?</P>
<P>Now to remove the Doubts, and &s;atisfie the &s;cruples of &s;uch di&s;contented Spirits, we need not extend our hopes beyond the ruins of the Grave, nor entertain our &s;elves with the Contemplation of tho&s;e Rewards and Pu|ni&s;hments, which attend the different &s;orts
<PB N="66" REF="38"> of Men in another World. Let us but go with <HI>David</HI> into the Sanctuary of God, and weigh them in the Balance of that place, and we &s;hall &s;oon learn the unhappy condi|tion of the&s;e Men. Though their trium|phing is but &s;hort, and they &s;hall peri&s;h for ever like their own dung; though they &s;hall flee away as a Dream, and &s;hall not be found; and be chas'd away as a vi&s;ion of the Night: In &s;hort, though they &s;hall be turn'd into Hell, and the Sins of their Youth &s;hall lie down with them in the du&s;t; yet we &s;hall be &s;atisfy'd, that the hand of God frequent|ly finds them out here, and that they have &s;ometimes their portion of mi&s;ery too in this Life. How oft is their Candle put out? and how oft cometh &s;udden de&s;truction up|on them? Their Excellency may mount up to the Heavens, and their Head reach unto the Clouds, yet becau&s;e they have oppre&s;s'd and for&s;aken the Poor, they do but &s;uck the poy&s;on of A&s;ps, and the Viper's tongue &s;hall &s;lay them: And this is no new ob&s;ervation, for 'twas known, &s;ays <HI>Zophar,</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Job</HI> 20.</NOTE> in the days of old, and found true ever &s;ince Man was plac'd upon the Earth; &s;o that God is known by the judgment, which he executeth, whil&s;t the wicked is trapt in the works of his own hands. Tho he &s;uffers his own People to be evil entrea|ted through Tyrants, and many of tho&s;e
<PB N="67" REF="38"> Tyrants to go down to their Graves in peace, yet when the Sins of Men are grown loud and clamorous, and with outragious cries perpetually alarm his Throne, that the In|habitants of the World may learn Righteou&s;|ne&s;s, and the mouth of all wickedne&s;s be &s;topt; that Men and Angels may admire his Ju&s;tice, and be forc'd to confe&s;s, that though Clouds and Darkne&s;s are &s;ometimes round about him, yet Righteou&s;ne&s;s and Judgment are always the Habitation of his &s;eat; He often (as &s;ome &s;ober Heathens them&s;elves have ob&s;erv'd) by the dreadful Me&s;&s;engers of his wrath loudly proclaims his Providence to the World, a&s;&s;uring us by his remarkable &s;everities to the greate&s;t of Men, that neither the Multitude of their A&s;&s;o|ciates, nor the Depth of their de&s;igns, nor the Unaccountablene&s;s of their actions to the Sons of Men, can any way &s;ecure them from the Omnipotent arm of Divine Ju&s;tice, when their Sins have provok'd him to vi&s;it their tran&s;gre&s;&s;ions with Rods, and their ini|quities with Scourges.</P>
<P>The &s;ad untimely Ends of the Per&s;ecutors of Chri&s;t and his Servants do abundantly il|lu&s;trate this Truth; for did they dye the common death of all Men? Or were they vi&s;ited after the vi&s;itation of all Men? No, The hand of Divine Ju&s;tice &s;eiz'd them ter|ribly at la&s;t, and by the greatne&s;s of their
<PB N="68" REF="39"> Puni&s;hment made abundant recompence for the deferring its Execution. <HI>Herod</HI> the Te|trarch, who to gratifie the revengeful Spirit of a naughty Woman, murder'd <HI>John</HI> the <HI>Bapti&s;t,</HI> and al&s;o with his Men of War &s;et our Saviour him&s;elf at naught, was not long after depriv'd of his Tetrarchy, &s;poil'd of all his &s;ub&s;tance, and bani&s;h'd with his belov'd <HI>Herodias</HI> to <HI>Lions</HI> in <HI>France,</HI> where he liv'd and dy'd ingloriou&s;ly; And the dancing Dam&s;el, who caus'd the good Man to be be|headed, walking over a frozen River, fell in, and had her Head cut off by the Ice. <HI>Pilate,</HI> after great di&s;graces receiv'd in <HI>Jury</HI> from tho&s;e very Per&s;ons, whom to oblige he had done &s;o much violence to his Con&s;cience, as even again&s;t its full convictions to deliver up the innocent and faultle&s;s <HI>Je&s;us</HI> to be cru|cify'd at their will, and many disfavours like|wi&s;e &s;hewn him from his Ma&s;ter, the Empe|rour at <HI>Rome,</HI> who &s;tript him of all his Ho|nours, and bani&s;h'd him to <HI>Vienna,</HI> where he liv'd in ignominy and contempt, impa|tient at length of his calamity, kill'd him|&s;elf with his own hands; And the two <HI>He|rods, A&s;calonita,</HI> or the Great, who forc'd the Child <HI>Je&s;us</HI> to fly into <HI>Egypt,</HI> and then &s;lew all the innocent Babes in <HI>Bethlehem,</HI> not &s;o much as &s;paring his own Son for his &s;ake; and his Grand&s;on <HI>Agrippa,</HI> who murder'd St. <HI>James,</HI> and, only becau&s;e he &s;aw it plea|&s;ed
<PB N="69" REF="39"> the <HI>Jews,</HI> intended to do the &s;ame to St. <HI>Peter</HI> al&s;o, were both at la&s;t for their Pride, and Cruelty, and outragious Wicked|ne&s;s requited with &s;hame and contempt, be|ing after un&s;peakable angui&s;h and torture both of Body and Mind eaten up alive with Vermin. <HI>Nero,</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ju&s;t. in Vit. Ner. c.</HI> 48.</NOTE> whom for his bruti&s;h and extravagant manners his own Writers &s;cruple not to call a Bea&s;t in Human Shape, and the very Mon&s;ter of Mankind, a few Months after he had put to death the two great Pil|lars of the Church, St. <HI>Peter,</HI> and St. <HI>Paul,</HI> fell mo&s;t ignominiou&s;ly by his own hands; <HI>Domitian, Maximin</HI> the <HI>Thracian, Decius,</HI> and <HI>Valerian</HI> mo&s;t infamou&s;ly and barbarou|&s;ly by the hands of their Subjects and Ene|mies. <HI>Diocle&s;ian,</HI> who in compliance with the importunities of his <HI>Cae&s;ar</HI> and Son-in-law, <HI>Galerius Maximianus,</HI> rais'd a mo&s;t fierce and univer&s;al Per&s;ecution again&s;t the Chri|&s;tians, was &s;oon after by the very &s;ame Per|&s;on forc'd to put off the Imperial Purple, and to retire into a Private Life, where &s;urviving all his Honours, (his Images and Statues being broken down while he was yet alive) he at la&s;t, no longer able to bear up under the heavy pre&s;&s;ures of &s;o calamitous a condi|tion, with his own hands, put a final period to his mi&s;erable life; And that Execrable and Bloody Tyrant, that depos'd and &s;uc|ceeded
<PB N="70" REF="40"> him, <HI>Galerius Maximianus,</HI> who com|manded all the Poor in his Dominions to be gathered together, and then to be Shipp'd off, and drown'd in the Sea, only becau&s;e they could not pay him tribute, made it his particular delight and daily recreation to re|vel in the Blood and Slaughter of his own Subjects, and al&s;o in a mo&s;t provoking man|ner exalted his voice, and lifted up his eyes on high even again&s;t the Holy One of <HI>I&s;ra|el;</HI> cau&s;ing by Royal Edict the very Boys in their daily exerci&s;es at School to bla&s;pheme the Holy <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> and de&s;troying his Servants by all the exqui&s;ite Methods of the mo&s;t in|genious cruelty and torture, was likewi&s;e for his exorbitant Villainies and outragious Wickedne&s;s (as his own broken heart to the Glory of God, was at length forc'd to con|fe&s;s) repaid in his own coin, and made a &s;tanding Monument and everla&s;ting Trophy of the Divine Ju&s;tice, being with infinite horrors, and agonies, and pains, and con|vul&s;ions of Body and Mind long prey'd up|on, and at la&s;t eaten up alive with Vermin. The <HI>Cae&s;ar</HI> likewi&s;e and Succe&s;&s;or of this Sa|vage and Barbarous Tyrant, <HI>Maximinus,</HI> who, envy'd his Predece&s;&s;or (notwith&s;tan|ding the heavy Judgment of God upon him) the glory of his unparallell'd Wickedne&s;s; and therefore (not to mention his other out|ragious Villainies) when about to engage his
<PB N="71" REF="40"> Colleage <HI>Licinius,</HI> mo&s;t &s;olemnly vow'd to <HI>Jupiter,</HI> that, if he &s;hould come off crown'd with Victory, he would not only &s;uppre&s;s, and hinder the farther growth and progre&s;s of Chri&s;tianity, but utterly extingui&s;h and root it out altogether, that it might be no more in remembrance, quickly reap'd the Wages of his impiety, being &s;oon after &s;eiz'd with &s;uch violent pains and torments in his Body, together with unconceivable horrors and agonies of mind, that he roar'd out for the angui&s;h and bitterne&s;s of his Soul, be|came frantick and like a Mad-man, rolling up and down upon the ground, going upon his Belly, and eating dirt like a Serpent, bea|ting his Head again&s;t the Wall with &s;uch vio|lence, that both his eyes bur&s;t out, leaving his Body a fit habitation for the darker Soul, 'till at la&s;t confe&s;&s;ing, that his &s;piteful, un|ju&s;t, and virulent proceedings again&s;t <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> and his Religion, had brought all this upon him, and mournfully imploring the Mercies and Forgivene&s;s of the offended <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> he en|tred upon his portion in the Regions of Eter|nity. <HI>Julian,</HI> Uncle to <HI>Julian</HI> the Apo&s;tate, who even again&s;t the Emperours will, rais'd a Bloody Per&s;ecution again&s;t the Chri&s;tians, rifled the Church at <HI>Antioch</HI> of all its rich and &s;acred Furniture, and not content there|with, defil'd the Holy Table in a mo&s;t re|proachful manner, &s;poil'd it of all its pre|cious
<PB N="72" REF="41"> Ve&s;&s;els, throwing them upon the ground, in&s;ulting, ridiculing, and bla&s;pheming the Holy <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> was immediately &s;eiz'd by the hand of Divine Ju&s;tice, his Bowels rotting within him, his Excrements coming out at his very Mouth, and Worms, notwith&s;tan|ding the con&s;tant and mo&s;t skilful applica|tions of able and indu&s;trious Phy&s;icians, not cea&s;ing to feed and prey upon his entrails, 'till (at that very time too, when the An|&s;wers of the Heathen Oracles, which had been con&s;ulted about his Life, were, all of them with one mouth pronouncing that he &s;hould recover, reading to him) they ended his mi&s;erable Life. And yet his Apo&s;tate Nephew, the Infamous <HI>Julian,</HI> though he had every day, even after his vile, inexcu&s;a|ble revolt, miraculous proofs and uncontrou|lable demon&s;trations from Heaven of the Di|vinity of Chri&s;t, dar'd notwith&s;tanding to rally and recollect the &s;catter'd, defeated Forces of the Prince of Darkne&s;s, and pro|fe&s;&s;edly to wage War again&s;t the Son of God. Nothing could cool or allay the rage and madne&s;s of this bigotted Apo&s;tate. Not all the Glories, and Victories, and Triumphs of the Cro&s;s, which daily expos'd him and his impotent <HI>Daemons</HI> to &s;hame and con|tempt. Not the confe&s;s'd Excellency of the Chri&s;tian In&s;titution, who&s;e unparallell'd
<PB N="73" REF="41"> Rules and Cu&s;toms he adopted into the Hea|then Religion, that, &s;ince it would not up|on its own, it might upon tho&s;e Pillars &s;tand &s;afe and immovable. Not the late example of the Renowned <HI>Con&s;tantine,</HI> whom the im|perial Standard of the Cro&s;s rendred Invin|cible and Glorious. Not the lamentable and tragical Ends of all the preceding Tyrants and Per&s;ecutors. Out of mere Spight and Malice, after full conviction of his Errors, he endeavour'd by all the Arts and Methods of Malice and Sophi&s;try, of Policy and Cruel|ty, to lay wa&s;t the Habitation of <HI>Zion,</HI> and to make <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> the unhappy Seat of Ruin and De&s;olation. But behold the Ju&s;tice of the Divine Providence, which &s;oon likewi&s;e overtook this impious, incorrigible Wretch. Before he had reigned two full years, which he &s;pent in bla&s;pheming Chri&s;t, and catch|ing at all advantages of deriding whatever had any Relation to him, he fell ignomini|ou&s;ly, as he confe&s;s'd him&s;elf in his bla&s;phe|mous <HI>Vicisti, Galilaee,</HI> by the immediate hand of the offended <HI>Je&s;us.</HI> And indeed &s;uch extraordinary pa&s;&s;ages, back'd with the mo&s;t authentick and unque&s;tionable te&s;ti|mony, happen'd about his Death, that he mu&s;t needs be of a very perver&s;e and ob&s;ti|nate Di&s;po&s;ition, who can imagine it to have been the effect either of Chance or Na|ture.
<PB N="74" REF="42">
<NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Hi&s;t. Eccl. l.</HI> 6. <HI>c.</HI> 2. <HI>p.</HI> 637, 638.</NOTE> <HI>Sozomen</HI> tells us, that an intimate Acquaintance of this Ty|rant, ha&s;tening after him into <HI>Per|&s;ia,</HI> and forc'd, for want of the convenience of an Inn, to take up his lodg|ing in a Church, &s;aw there a Vi&s;ion, which a&s;&s;ur'd him, that he was &s;lain; and that an Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Philo&s;opher at <HI>Alexandria,</HI> nam'd <HI>Didymus,</HI> who had long mourn'd and fa&s;ted for the Afflictions and Calamities he had brought upon the Church, with &s;trong cryings and tears, be&s;eeching God for her deliverance, was the very &s;ame day inform'd by Hor&s;emen in the air of the &s;ame thing, and commanded to &s;ignifie it to <HI>Athana&s;ius</HI> the Bi&s;hop. <HI>Julian</HI> the Monk likewi&s;e the very &s;ame day this Tyrant receiv'd his deaths wound, whil&s;t he was praying and earne&s;t|ly interceding with God for the pre&s;erva|tion of his Church, from that Bloody Per&s;e|cution he had threatned to bring upon her upon his Victorious Return from <HI>Per&s;ia,</HI> had the &s;ame reveal'd unto him. On a &s;udden, &s;ays <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Hi&s;t. Ecc. l.</HI> 3. <HI>c.</HI> 24.</NOTE> <HI>Theodoret,</HI> he dry'd his Eyes, and was fill'd with joy, which di&s;play'd it &s;elf in the chear|fulne&s;s and &s;erenity of his countenance. When his Friends, that were about him, be|holding this &s;udden change, ask'd him the Rea&s;on of it, he an&s;wer'd, That the Wild Boar, which had wa&s;ted the Lord's Vineyard,
<PB N="75" REF="42"> had now paid for all the damages he had done to it; that he lay dead upon the ground, incapable of en&s;naring or harming it any more. And we are told by <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Annal. Tom.</HI> 3. <HI>p.</HI> 24.</NOTE> <HI>Zonaras,</HI> that a certain Gentile Judge of <HI>Antioch,</HI> watching all night at the <HI>Praetorium,</HI> &s;aw a &s;trange Con&s;tellation in the Heavens, the Stars forming them&s;elves into the&s;e words: <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> This day is <HI>Julian</HI> &s;lain in <HI>Per&s;ia.</HI></P>
<P>But of all the Mi&s;eries or Calamities, which have happen'd either to any particular Per|&s;on or Nation &s;ince the Creation of the World, none ever bore more manife&s;t Cha|racters of the Divine Vengeance, than the <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word">, or utter Deva&s;tation of the <HI>Jewi&s;h</HI> Nation. Here I &s;ee &s;uch a cloud of &s;orrows, &s;o thick and black drawn before us, that none but He, who inhabiteth the thick Darkne&s;s, could thus blacken and conden&s;e it. How dreadfully hath God covered the Daughter of <HI>Sion</HI> with a Cloud, and ca&s;t down from Heaven to Earth the Beauty of <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> and remembred not his Foot&s;tool in the day of his anger? She, that was once the Beloved City, the Perfection of Beauty, and the Joy of the whole Earth; how &s;ud|denly was &s;he for&s;aken of all her Lovers, and became a deri&s;ion to her Enemies, and their Song all the day long? To pa&s;s by, as le&s;s
<PB N="76" REF="43"> con&s;iderable, tho&s;e great oppre&s;&s;ions and in|dignities, which from the A&s;cen&s;ion of <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> to the beginning of the Siege this mi&s;erable People underwent, from the &s;everal outra|gious Governours &s;ent them from <HI>Rome:</HI> Af|ter a long, clo&s;e Siege, wherein through the innumerable multitudes of the People, who were all now a&s;&s;embled at <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> to cele|brate the Pa&s;&s;over, they were reduc'd to &s;uch extremity, that the dung of Bea&s;ts was thought delicious Fare; Nay, that the &s;ofter Sex threw off the tenderne&s;s of Nature, Wo|men feeding even upon the Fruit of their own Wombs. After the Red Hor&s;e had march'd furiou&s;ly before them, all bloody with the effects of a Civil War, and the Pale Hor&s;e had follow'd after him with Death upon his back, and the Grave at his heels. After the unconceivable outrages and barbarities of three Factions within, who &s;laughter'd and butcher'd one another, even in their mo&s;t Holy Places: And a Famine had &s;o merci|le&s;ly rag'd among&s;t them, that it fill'd their Hou&s;es with dead Women and Infants, and the Streets with the carca&s;&s;es of Elder Men; that the young Men pale and wan, like the cold gha&s;tly Shades of Night, walk'd &s;ilently about the Market-place, fainting and drop|ping down as they walk'd, and yielding up the Gho&s;t; and others, envying the happy &s;tate of tho&s;e, whom Death had kindly con|vey'd
<PB N="77" REF="43"> to Re&s;t before them, went down alive into their Graves, and there quietly re&s;ign'd them&s;elves up to the friendly embraces of the King of Terrors: In &s;hort, that, as their impartial Hi&s;torian relates, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Jo&s;eph. de Bello Juda|ico Lib.</HI> 6. <HI>cap.</HI> 16.</NOTE> a hun|dred and fifteen thou&s;and eight hundred and four&s;core dead Bodies were in le&s;s than three Months carried out of one Gate: Tho&s;e la&s;tly came, out of who&s;e mouth i&s;&s;u'd Fire and Smoak, and De&s;truction. The <HI>Roman</HI> Army, like a mighty Torrent, broke in upon them, which with the &s;agacity of an Eagle pur&s;u'd them whither&s;oever they fled, and &s;paring neither young nor old, Prie&s;t nor People, put infi|nite numbers of all &s;orts to the Sword, that none could pa&s;s the narrow Streets for heaps of dead Bodies. They ras'd the Wall of the City, &s;et fire to its &s;tately Buildings, nay, &s;par'd not the Temple it &s;elf, who&s;e Flames, though &s;preading with that Horror, and ra|ging with that fury, that the Hill whereon this &s;tately Fabrick was &s;ituate, &s;eem'd to have been burnt up by the Roots, were yet wonderfully allay'd, and abated by tho&s;e continual &s;treams of Blood, which flow'd from the Bodies of the &s;lain. The Cro&s;s, which forty Years before, again&s;t all the Laws of God and Man, they &s;o outragiou&s;ly demanded, became their own mo&s;t ju&s;t and equal portion, when the Crucifiers of the
<PB N="78" REF="44"> Lord of Life were them&s;elves in &s;uch va&s;t multitudes crucify'd by their in&s;ulting Ene|mies, that there was left no &s;pace for the Cro&s;&s;es, nor indeed Cro&s;&s;es for their Bodies to be crucify'd upon. The flower of their Youth was led to <HI>Rome</HI> in triumph, all un|der &s;eventeen Years of Age &s;old into Bon|dage, and the re&s;t &s;ent bound, &s;ome to <HI>Egypt</HI> to groan and faint again under the heavy pre&s;&s;ures of intolerable &s;lavery, others into divers Provinces to fight with Bea&s;ts in the Theatres; &s;o that, tho', as my <NOTE N="&Verbar;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Id. de Bell. Jud. l.</HI> 7. <HI>c.</HI> 14.</NOTE> Author atte&s;teth, even in the mid&s;t of all their mi&s;eries they would not return to him, that &s;mote them, but for all this &s;inned yet more, and provok'd the Holy One of <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> being as proud and arrogant as if all things were well with them; yet, as he confe&s;&s;eth, 'twas their wickedne&s;s and impiety, which excee|ded the provocations even of <HI>Sodom</HI> and <HI>Go|morrah,</HI> that led their Young Men into Cap|tivity, and deliver'd up their whole Nation into the Enemies hand. Tho&s;e mercile&s;s Flames, which devour'd their Hou&s;es and Temple, did in a lively manner repre&s;ent unto all others the Burning of God's Wrath again&s;t them; And the Brave, Victorious <HI>Roman</HI> General a&s;cribed all the Glory of his &s;ucce&s;s to God, confe&s;&s;ing that his Arms and Engines would have prevailed nothing at all,
<PB N="79" REF="44"> unle&s;s He in a mo&s;t extraordinary manner had a&s;&s;i&s;ted him in the War, and overthrown their Walls and Bulwarks. Nay, <HI>Eleazer</HI> him&s;elf (the Captain of tho&s;e <HI>Sicarians</HI> or Cut-throats, who fir&s;t revolted from, and al&s;o la&s;t held out in the Ca&s;tle <HI>Ma&s;&s;ada</HI> again&s;t the <HI>Romans</HI>) exciting his de&s;ponding Follow|ers, to the glorious exploit of di&s;patching with their own hands all their Wives and Children, and then bravely to do the &s;ame Execution upon them&s;elves, (which accor|dingly they did) to enforce his exhortation tells them plainly, that 'twas ab&s;olutely im|po&s;&s;ible for them ever to dream of Victory, God manife&s;tly fighting again&s;t them, having for all their unparallell'd Villainies irrever&s;i|bly de&s;tin'd their Nation to utter Ruin and De&s;truction. And indeed what el&s;e &s;pake tho&s;e many Signs and Pre&s;ages of their ap|proaching De&s;truction? <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> as <HI>Eu&s;ebius</HI> calls them, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Hi&s;t. Eccle&s;. L.</HI> 3. <HI>c.</HI> 8.</NOTE> tho&s;e Sermons, as it were, of God him&s;elf, whereby he declared his irrever&s;ible Decree again&s;t them? The Comet, which in form of a fiery Sword hung over the City for a whole Year together, &s;hedding its de|&s;tructive and pe&s;tilential influence upon the Inhabitants? That &s;trange Light, which be|fore the fir&s;t Revolt, and the beginning of the War, the People being gather'd together to the Fea&s;t of unleavened Bread, &s;aw at
<PB N="80" REF="45"> nine of the Night for half an hour together, &s;o gloriou&s;ly &s;hining about the Altar and the Temple, that it &s;eemed to have recalled the Brightne&s;s of Noon-day? That wonderful Apparition, which before the Sun-ri&s;ing was &s;een in the Air all over the Country of Cha|riots and Armed Men in Battel Array, pa&s;|&s;ing along in the Clouds, and encompa&s;&s;ing the City round about? The Inner-Gate of the Temple, which tho' all of ma&s;&s;ie Bra&s;s, and that at Night had always twenty Men at lea&s;t to &s;hut it, and was fa&s;tned with locks and bars of Iron, was &s;een at the fir&s;t hour of the Night to open of its own accord? <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> The Voice, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Eu&s;. loco &s;upr&agrave; lau|dato.</HI></NOTE> as it were of a great Multitude, which on the Fea&s;t-day call'd Penteco&s;t, the Prie&s;ts heard in the Inner-Temple, when the Guardian-Angels took their leave of it, and call'd upon one another to depart thence? That dreadful wo, which for &s;even Years and five Months, one <HI>Je&s;us</HI> with a mournful Voice continued to de|nounce again&s;t the City, Temple, and Peo|ple, 'till at length beholding the Beginning of tho&s;e Sorrows, he had &s;o long foretold &s;hould come to pa&s;s, to a&s;&s;ure the People of their final completion, he cryed wo to him|&s;elf al&s;o, and was immediately &s;truck dead with a Stone &s;hot out of an Engine? Nay, to look forward, how came <HI>Turnus Rufus</HI>
<PB N="81" REF="45"> with a Plough-&s;hare to tear up the very Foundations of the Temple, not &s;o much as leaving one Stone upon another? Or what meant that dreadful Eruption of Fire, which (as with unque&s;tionable Authority tho&s;e two Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Hi&s;torians, <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib.</HI> 3. <HI>c.</HI> 20.</NOTE> <HI>Socrates</HI> &amp; <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib.</HI> 5. <HI>c.</HI> 22.</NOTE> <HI>Sozomen</HI> relate) hindred this unhappy People, when <HI>Julian</HI> the Apo&s;tate, in hopes to have proved <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> a fal&s;e Prophet, gave them encourage|ment, from laying the Foundations of the Temple; and not only con&s;um'd and calci|ned the in&s;truments and materials they had prepar'd, but al&s;o by a terrible Earthquake &s;hook down the Hou&s;es and Buildings, that &s;tood about the place, and kill'd them upon the &s;pot, that attempted the Work? What, I &s;ay, &s;pake all the&s;e, but that God had quite thrown off this treacherous, perver&s;e, and &s;tiff-necked People, and given a final divorce to his Spou&s;e for her abominable Fornica|tions? She had kill'd the Prophets, and &s;ton'd them, that were &s;ent unto her with Letters of Peace and everla&s;ting Mercy. She would not be reclaimed either by Mercies or Judgments, but the Arms of Divine Good|ne&s;s were &s;tretched out all the day long to a di&s;-obedient and gain-&s;aying People. Though they had evident and uncontroulable demon|&s;trations, that <HI>Je&s;us</HI> was the <HI>Me&s;&s;iah;</HI> all their De&s;criptions and Prophe&s;ies exactly
<PB N="82" REF="46"> concentring in his Per&s;on, and not only they them&s;elves, but even the very Heathen Nations ju&s;t then, when he came, in&s;tantly and every moment expecting his coming; though the Heavens bow'd them&s;elves to let down the Heavenly Ho&s;t to celebrate his coming, and one of them cloath'd with the Brightne&s;s and Similitude of a Star, called the <HI>Levantine</HI> Princes to a&s;&s;ure them, that their King was come; yet, as though they re&s;olved to fru&s;trate the Decrees of Heaven, and to break the very Golden Chain of Pre|de&s;tination, they would not that he &s;hould reign over them; but becau&s;e he appeared not with that glorious Retinue and Maje|&s;tick Grandeur, which they expected, and in which he &s;hall appear at his Second Co|ming, in&s;tead of Echoing forth their Ho&s;an|na's to the Son of <HI>David,</HI> reproached and vi|lified him as but the de&s;picable Son of a poor, indigent Carpenter. Though he &s;pake as never Man yet &s;pake, did &s;uch Works as no Man could have done, unle&s;s the Holy Spi|rit of God had in a mo&s;t extraordinary man|ner been with him; Though his Conver&s;a|tion, per&s;onal Perfections, and the whole tenour and circum&s;tances of his life did all, as <HI>Jo&s;ephus</HI> him&s;elf confe&s;&s;eth, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Antiquit. Jud. L.</HI> 18. <HI>cap.</HI> 4.</NOTE> exceed all mea&s;ures of Human Greatne&s;s or Wi&s;dom, yet they &s;lighted his Doctrine, as the talk only
<PB N="83" REF="46"> of an idle, illiterate Per&s;on, and traduced his Miracles as a trick of impo&s;ture, and the effects of a black Confederacy with the In|fernal Powers, and could afford him no bet|ter titles, than tho&s;e infamous ones of Glut|ton, Drunkard, Traitor, and Friend in the wor&s;t &s;en&s;e of Publicans and Sinners. Nay, as though all this, and infinitely more had been too little for afflicted Innocence to &s;uf|fer, they violently laid hands upon his Sa|cred Per&s;on, treated him as the vile&s;t Mi&s;|creant, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> as the Filth of the World, and the Off-&s;couring of all things, haling him through all the &s;tages of contumely and di&s;grace, and at la&s;t by their tumultuous out-cries, and ma|licious &s;ugge&s;tions prevailing with the Go|vernour to put him to death. And now one would expect, that their Rage and Madne&s;s again&s;t him &s;hould terminate in his death, and lie buried and extinct in the Sepulchre, where they had laid him. But, alas! Ma|lice is re&s;tle&s;s as motion, in&s;atiable as the Grave, and implacable as the Powers of Darkne&s;s. To fill up the mea&s;ure of their iniquities, they per&s;ecuted him in his Apo|&s;tles, &s;courging &s;ome of them in their Syna|gogues, and putting others to death, only becau&s;e they atte&s;ted what their Adver&s;aries them&s;elves knew to be true, <HI>viz.</HI> that they had &s;een him alive after his Re&s;urrection.
<PB N="84" REF="47"> And thus the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermo&s;t, drove them out of their own Land, di&s;pers'd and &s;cattered them o|ver the face of the whole Earth, making them the &s;corn and deri&s;ion of all, that are round about them, and yet (which is &s;ingu|larly to be ob&s;erved) never &s;uffering them by their mixture, with other Nations to loo&s;e them&s;elves, as the ten Tribes of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> have done, as though he intended them for a &s;tanding Memorial and everla&s;ting Exam|ple of his Power and Vengeance. And all this according to the punctual Predictions of Him they had rejected, even of the Ever-Ble&s;&s;ed and Immortal <HI>Je&s;us.</HI> Which brings me to my &s;econd particular, which is to &s;hew, that God hath likewi&s;e by Predictions or Prophe&s;ies given indubitable Evidence of his Being and Providence in the World.</P>
<P N="2">2. Tho' the ob&s;ervations of the Star-gazing <HI>Chaldaeans</HI> and <HI>Aegyptians,</HI> and the &s;everal kinds of Predictions u&s;ed by the South-&s;ayers among the <HI>Romans,</HI> (as <HI>Tully</HI> in his &s;econd Book <HI>de Divinatione,</HI> and that other of his <HI>de Fato</HI> has &s;hewn at large) and the <HI>Effata</HI> likewi&s;e of the Heathen Oracles them&s;elves (as, be&s;ides this Author, <NOTE N="&Verbar;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Apud Timaeum, Charmidem, &amp; Phaedrum.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Pla|to,</HI> <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Vide variorum Notas in Virgil. Aeneid.</HI> 6. <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 99, 100.</NOTE> <HI>Ae&s;chylus,</HI> <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Vide variorum Notas in Virgil. Aeneid.</HI> 6. <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 99, 100.</NOTE> <HI>Tacitus,</HI> <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Vide variorum Notas in Virgil. Aeneid.</HI> 6. <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 99, 100.</NOTE> <HI>Plutarch,</HI> and many other <HI>Pagans</HI> of great Antiquity and Learning have jointly ob&s;er|ved
<PB N="85" REF="47"> were generally &s;o vain, ridiculous, and uncertain, that the <HI>Stoicks</HI> would &s;carce al|low a wi&s;e Man &s;o much as to honour them with his pre&s;ence; yet that there have real|ly been &s;ome Predictions or Prophe&s;ies con|cerning future things, which in their various circum&s;tances were purely contingent, is &s;o univer&s;ally atte&s;ted by the unanimous &s;uf|frage of all Mankind in general, (<HI>Epicurus</HI> him&s;elf not denying it) that 'tis impo&s;&s;ible any Man can be ignorant of it, who is ne|ver &s;o little conver&s;ant either with Sacred or Profane Writers. For to &s;ay nothing of tho&s;e many &s;trange and wonderful Oracles, where|by (as <HI>Grotius</HI> collects from <HI>In|cha, Aco&s;ta, Petrus Cieza,</HI> and o|thers) <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>De Verit. Rel. Chri&s;t. Lib.</HI> 1. <HI>Cap.</HI> 17.</NOTE> the wild uncivilized <HI>Ame|ricans,</HI> in the Kingdoms both of <HI>Mexico</HI> and <HI>Peru,</HI> were foretold of the coming of the <HI>Spaniards</HI> many Ages before their arrival, and of the oppre&s;&s;ions and calamities, which would thence en&s;ue: Tho&s;e ten Prophete&s;&s;es &s;o famous throughout the World, call'd from their knowledge of Divine Coun&s;els <HI>Sibyllae,</HI> whether divinely in&s;pir'd, (as with &s;ome great and learned Authors I am very apt to think) or (as o|thers) acted only by the Devil, who from the Writings of the Prophets learn'd tho&s;e truths they pronounc'd, foretold (as vou
<PB N="86" REF="48"> &s;hall &s;ee by and by) &s;uch things, as could originally flow only from &s;uch a Being, who&s;e under&s;tanding is infinite.</P>
<P>But, alas! we need not borrow light from the faint, and cold glimmerings of the&s;e twinkling Stars, having the glorious and un|corrected Rays of the Sun it &s;elf to guide us in our &s;earch. I mean the Sun of Righte|ou&s;ne&s;s, our Ble&s;&s;ed Saviour, who by his Di|vine Spirit did in all Ages of his Church, not only fore-&s;hew the tran&s;cendent My&s;te|ries of his own Incarnation; but reveal like|wi&s;e to his Servants the Prophets, other things, which in the fulne&s;s of time &s;hould al&s;o come to pa&s;s. Such was the promi&s;e given to <HI>Abraham</HI> of his Po&s;terity's return|ing out of the Land of <HI>Egypt</HI> after four hun|dred Years &s;lavery there, and inheriting the Land of <HI>Canaan.</HI> Such was the Prophecy concerning <HI>Jo&s;iah,</HI> which, as <HI>Jo|&s;ephus</HI> witne&s;&s;eth, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Antiq. Jud. L.</HI> 10. <HI>c.</HI> 4.</NOTE> was given three hundred &s;ixty and one years before he was born. Such was the calling of <HI>Cyrus</HI> by name in <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Cap.</HI> 45.</NOTE> <HI>I&s;aiah</HI> a hundred years likewi&s;e before his Birth. Such, la&s;tly, were <HI>Daniel</HI>'s Prophe&s;ies con|cerning the Kings both of <HI>Greece</HI> and <HI>Rome,</HI> with many others. Now there is no Man, tho' never &s;o Athei&s;tically inclin'd, who can in rea&s;on call in que&s;tion the truth of the&s;e
<PB N="87" REF="48"> Prophe&s;ies. <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Vide Ju|&s;tinum M. in Paraen. ad Graecos p.</HI> 9, 10. <HI>Gro|tium de Ve|rit. Rel. Chri&s;t. L.</HI> 1. <HI>c.</HI> 16. <HI>Et e|ruditum Dodwellum in Tractatu &s;uo de Hi|&s;tori&acirc; San|choniatho|nis c.</HI> 31, 32.</NOTE> The very Infidels will ri&s;e up, and &s;top the mouths of &s;uch daring Men, and the Wi|&s;e&s;t and mo&s;t Con&s;iderate of the Heathens them&s;elves pronounce them unrea&s;onable. For no &s;ooner did <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> vouch&s;afe to take off his veil, and to make him&s;elf known to the Sages of <HI>Greece:</HI> No &s;ooner did the Prophets leave their more private Retirements in their own Land, and &s;hew them&s;elves pub|lickly in the Schools of the Philo|&s;ophers; but Men of the greate&s;t Authority and Learning ro&s;e up, and did them Reve|rence. They were unwilling indeed to give them the Chair, or to dethrone their irre|fragable Ma&s;ters for their &s;akes; yet for their great antiquity, known abilities, and &s;pecial integrity, All except <HI>Porphyry</HI> (who to e|vade the Authority of <HI>Daniel</HI>'s Prophe&s;ies, does not blu&s;h to affirm, that they were written in the times of <HI>Antiochus</HI> after the things were done, and impos'd upon the World under that Prophet's name, tho' 'tis apparent from <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Antiq. Jud. L. XI. cap.</HI> 8.</NOTE> <HI>Jo&s;ephus,</HI> that they were &s;hew'd to <HI>Alexander</HI> the Great in his advance towards <HI>Je|ru&s;alem,</HI> above one hundred and fifty years before <HI>Antiochus</HI>) allow'd them the credit of Venerable, Faithful, and Di|vine
<PB N="88" REF="49"> Writers. Since therefore 'tis granted on all hands, that the&s;e things were by &s;uch and &s;uch Men thus punctually foretold; &s;ince being foretold they as punctually came to pa&s;s; we mu&s;t either a&s;cribe them to &s;ome other cau&s;e, or re&s;olve them wholly into the Providence of God. But now what cau&s;e in nature can be found &s;ufficient for the pro|duction of &s;uch great, &s;uch wondrous Ef|fects? To pa&s;s by the Dreams of <HI>Philo Ju|doeus, Plutarch, Maimonides,</HI> and others, concerning I know not what progno&s;tick Vertue in Human Souls, as not worth a con|futation: Of all Created Beings, the Ange|lick Nature partakes mo&s;t of the Divine. They are Creatures of noble Faculties and enlarged capacities; and among&s;t all tho&s;e glorious Endowments God has been plea&s;ed to be&s;tow on them, their Knowledge cer|tainly can't be the lea&s;t, from which the Philo&s;ophers have given them their names. Can then the&s;e <HI>Doemons,</HI> the&s;e Intelligences produce their cau&s;e? or bring forth their &s;trong Rea&s;ons? Can they bring them forth, and &s;hew us what &s;hall happen? or declare to us things for to come, that we may know them? No. Their under&s;tanding indeed is great and wonderful; but the Divine alone is infinite and infallible. They can pene|trate far into the depth of natural cau&s;es, and from circum&s;tances and &s;igns, &s;hrewdly con|jecture
<PB N="89" REF="49"> at future Events. But becau&s;e the things are in them&s;elves contingent, and may be or not be, either as the Will of Man, or the Cau&s;es in Nature, on which they depend, vary or not vary, their Predictions can ne|ver be certain or infallible; it being the in|communicable Prerogative of &s;uch a Being, who &s;earcheth the hearts and trieth the reins, and &s;pieth out all our ways; who knoweth all the foldings of our hearts, all the turnings and windings of our un&s;ettled Re&s;olutions; who ruleth all things, and directeth all their Operations to their &s;everal Ends, and upon who&s;e will the actions of all depend, to fore|&s;ee the certain Effects depending purely up|on tho&s;e Cau&s;es. Hence aro&s;e that known Ambiguity in the Heathen Oracles; the De|vil (as the wi&s;er <HI>Pagans</HI> (you have &s;een) them&s;elves have ob&s;erv'd) not daring to an|&s;wer plainly and directly to the Que&s;tion propos'd, lea&s;t the Event &s;hould at la&s;t di&s;|cover his ignorance, and manife&s;t him to be (what he really was) an Impo&s;tor and the Father of lyes; and upon this ac|count, &s;ays <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>In Virg. Aeneid.</HI> 4. <HI>v.</HI> 196.</NOTE> <HI>Servius, Jupiter Ammon</HI> was pictur'd with Rams Horns, becau&s;e his an&s;wers had as many turnings and windings as they.</P>
<P>But now if the Knowledge of the&s;e ab|&s;tracted Spirits was thus mi&s;erably foil'd (as
<PB N="90" REF="50"> that greate&s;t Patron of Pagani&s;m, <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">.</NOTE> <HI>Porphyry</HI> him&s;elf is forced to confe&s;s) in things only contin|gent; then how much le&s;s can they attain to the knowledge of tho&s;e things, which be|long only to God? Tho&s;e things I mean, which depend neither upon any natural cau&s;e, nor upon the will of Man, but whol|ly and entirely, as the Apo&s;tle &s;peaks, upon the will of God. Tho&s;e things, which he determined in him&s;elf before the World be|gan, and which are the pure Emanations of his free Goodne&s;s and Mercy: Such as the Incarnation, Pa&s;&s;ion, and bitter Death of the Son of God for the &s;ins of Mankind. His Re&s;urrection and A&s;cen&s;ion into Hea|ven. His Rejection of, and exemplary Ven|geance upon his Crucifiers the <HI>Jews,</HI> and the calling of the <HI>Gentiles;</HI> all which were not only foretold by the Holy Prophets; but &s;ome of them likewi&s;e (as <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Praefat. in Orac. Sibyll. &agrave; Gallaeo in lucem edita</HI></NOTE> <HI>Op&s;o|paeus</HI> him&s;elf confe&s;&s;eth; and the whole Cla&s;s of the primitive Fa|thers, but e&s;pecially <HI>Con&s;tantine</HI> the Great, in an Oration written by him in <HI>Latin</HI> to a Synod of Prelates in his days, has learnedly a&s;&s;erted; and the rea|&s;ons alledged by <HI>Gallaeus, Vo&s;&s;ius,</HI> and other Learned Men to the contrary do not im|pugn) particularly pre&s;ignify'd by the ten fore-mention'd Prophete&s;&s;es of the Heathen
<PB N="91" REF="50"> World. Which of all the ab&s;tracted Spirits, I &s;ay, hath known this Will of the Lord, or who hath been here his Coun&s;ellour? Now indeed, the Apo&s;tle tells us, <HI>Ephe&s;.</HI> 3.10. unto Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places, <HI>i. e.</HI> to the Heavenly Princes and Po|tentates, Angels and Archangels, is made known by his di&s;pen&s;ations in the Church the manifold Wi&s;dom of God. But, alas! before his actual de&s;cent into the lower parts of the Earth, They were at &s;o wide a di|&s;tance from the knowledge of the&s;e &s;ecrets of the Lord, that though he had in &s;ome mea|&s;ure revealed and communicated them to his Church, their under&s;tandings were never|thele&s;s confounded, and they could only gather &s;ome general, dark, and ob&s;cure no|tices of them from the Shadows and Praefi|gurations they then lay under. They knew, it mu&s;t be confe&s;s'd, that Mankind was to be redeemed, the <HI>Me&s;&s;iah</HI> cut off, and the <HI>Gentiles</HI> called. But what Death he &s;hould die, and how the <HI>Gentiles</HI> &s;hould be called, they were not able to apprehend. They &s;tu|dy'd and &s;eriou&s;ly meditated upon the&s;e things, de&s;iring, as St. <HI>Peter</HI> tells us, to look narrowly into them, and clearly and di&s;tinctly to di&s;cern all the particular me|thods and contrivances of Providence: But, after all their &s;earch and &s;tudy, their puny, finite under&s;tandings were lo&s;t in the intri|cate
<PB N="92" REF="51"> <HI>Maeanders</HI> of Divine Coun&s;els, and en|tirely &s;wallowed up in the unfathomable Profundity of Eternal Determinations. And for this rea&s;on St. <HI>Paul,</HI> I conceive, may be under&s;tood, <HI>Col.</HI> 1.26. to call the Go&s;pel a My&s;tery, becau&s;e 'twas hidden, as he there &s;ays, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. Not from Ages per|haps, as we render it, but from Angels, which among&s;t tho&s;e Hereticks the Apo&s;tle there makes it his bu&s;ine&s;s to confute, were, (as <HI>Irenaeus</HI> di&s;cour&s;eth at large in his di&s;|covery of the <HI>Valentinians</HI>) commonly known by that name. Now then, &s;ince 'tis mo&s;t evident, that there have been certain and infallible Predictions both of &s;uch things, which con&s;idered in their own cau&s;es were purely contingent, and al&s;o of &s;ome others, which were farther advanced above the Sphere of Created Under&s;tandings; bor|rowing their whole entity from the free de|terminations of the Divine Will; &s;ince it is as evident, that &s;uch certain and infallible Predictions could proceed from nothing le&s;s, than Infinite Wi&s;dom and Goodne&s;s; we can have no po&s;&s;ible pretence to di&s;tru&s;t any lon|ger the good Providence of God, who has in all Ages vouch&s;afed to make &s;uch gracious Revelations of his Will, and by the mo&s;t convincing, undeniable Proofs, perpetually to atte&s;t his pre&s;idence over the Sons of Men. But though the ca&s;e be thus, plain,
<PB N="93" REF="51"> and to all thinking, intelligent Per&s;ons, put beyond all po&s;&s;ibility of di&s;tru&s;t; yet Mira|cles being generally looked upon to be the mo&s;t effectual means not only for the con|ver&s;ion of Infidels, but al&s;o for the &s;atisfa|ction of doubting Souls; Being they are the mo&s;t immediate Credentials of Heaven, tho&s;e which do nearlie&s;t affect our &s;en&s;es, and con&s;equently have the &s;tronge&s;t influ|ence upon our minds, I proceed la&s;tly to &s;hew, that God has not been wanting in his part even in this thing; but that by many undoubted Miracles, al&s;o he has to all the World atte&s;ted this great truth.</P>
<P N="3">3. Many fal&s;e Prophets indeed have ever been in the World, who by &s;igns and lying wonders have mi&s;erably beguiled the Souls of the over-credulous and incogitant. <HI>Simon Magus,</HI> you know, by his juglings and im|po&s;tures &s;o bewitched the unthinking Peo|ple of <HI>Samaria,</HI> that they all gave heed to him from the lea&s;t to the greate&s;t, acknow|ledging him to be the mighty Power of God. And when he afterwards came to <HI>Rome,</HI> by his Diabolical Sorceries he worked him&s;elf into &s;o good an Opinion with the Emperor, that he <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Videas Ju&s;tinum M Apol.</HI> 2. (<HI>Reve|r&acirc;</HI> I) <HI>p.</HI> 69. <HI>&amp; Ter|tull. Apol. cap.</HI> 13.</NOTE> erected a Statue to him with this In&s;cription: <HI>Simoni Sancto Deo,</HI> to <HI>Simon</HI> the Holy God. After him <HI>Cerinthus, Menander, Ba&s;ilides,</HI> and others
<PB N="94" REF="52"> came upon the Stage; and <HI>Barchochebas, David el David,</HI> and others are memorable for their mi&s;erable delu&s;ion of the <HI>Jews.</HI> But chiefly &s;uch great and glorious things are &s;poken by &s;ome Heathens of that Fanatick, Lying, and Pedantick <HI>Pythagorean, Apollo|nius Tyanaeus,</HI> that <HI>Hierocles</HI> has the impu|dence and malice to parallel him with our Saviour him&s;elf, and his Apo&s;tles. He has the impudence and malice, I &s;ay, to do this; for that it could be nothing el&s;e, not only <HI>Eu&s;ebius</HI> of old, and <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Cudworth in his In|tellect. Sy&s;t. p.</HI> 268. <HI>and Parker in his Divine Authority of the Chri|&s;tian Reli|gion Parag.</HI> 27.</NOTE> two mo|dern Authors of our own have clearly evinc'd from <HI>Philostratus's</HI> own account of his life, but even the <HI>Pagans</HI> them&s;elves have like|wi&s;e demon&s;trated: for during his life time, they generally looked upon him only as a <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 word">, or infa|mous inchanter, accu&s;ing him for this very Crime before the Empe|rour <HI>Domitian,</HI> who, having heard the cau&s;e, &s;lighted and de&s;pi&s;ed both him and his accu|&s;ers, and di&s;mi&s;t him the Court for an idle, vain, fanta&s;tick Fellow.</P>
<P>The&s;e things, I confe&s;s, have done uncon|ceivable prejudice to the Authority of true and real Miracles, and laid grievous &s;tum|bling-blocks in the ways even of con&s;idering Men. For &s;ome have hence too ra&s;hly con|cluded, that not only God, but the Prince
<PB N="95" REF="52"> of Darkne&s;s likewi&s;e, when&s;oever he plea&s;eth, may be the Author of a true and real Mira|cle, and con&s;equently that the working of them do no ways inferr a God and Provi|dence in the World; and others as ha&s;tily, that there was never any &s;uch thing as a real Miracle in the World, but that all we hear of, were pure cheats, &s;ophi&s;ms, and delu&s;i|ons. The&s;e latter might as well have in|ferr'd, That there are no Jewels, becau&s;e there are Counterfeits; and that legitimate demon&s;trations are but Figments and Chi|maera's, becau&s;e there are al&s;o Sophi&s;ms and Paralogi&s;ms. But I ha&s;ten to the Fir&s;t.</P>
<P N="1">1. Then, Neither the Devil, nor any o|ther Created Being what&s;oever can be the Author of a true and real Miracle, and con|&s;equently if there have ever been any in the World, (as you &s;hall &s;ee by and by there have) they clearly and undeniably inferr a God and Providence. By a Miracle we un|der&s;tand no more, than a &s;upernatural effect evident to Sen&s;e. Or (to u&s;e the De&s;cription of a great Divine of our own) every true Miracle is a production of &s;omething out of nothing; and that either in the thing it &s;elf, or in the manner of producing it. In the thing it &s;elf, when it is of that nature, that it cannot be produced by any &s;econd cau&s;es; as the rai&s;ing of the dead. In the manner of producing it, when, though the thing lies
<PB N="96" REF="53"> within the po&s;&s;ibility of &s;econd cau&s;es, yet it is performed without the help of any of them; as in the cure of Di&s;ea&s;es without any u&s;e of means, by a word &s;peaking, by the touch of a garment, and the like. Now the Devil being a finite Agent, which can|not exceed the bounds of Nature, can by no means be the cau&s;e of &s;uch miraculous Effects. His Power indeed is great, and his Faculties are exalted, and therefore from hid|den, undi&s;cerned Cau&s;es he may, as <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>De Ab&s;ti|nenti&acirc; L.</HI> 2. <HI>p.</HI> 203.</NOTE> <HI>Porphyry</HI> truly ob&s;erves, and indeed has produced &s;uch &s;trange, prodigious Effects, as (if it had been po&s;&s;ible) might have &s;educed even the very Elect. But yet we know, that, as a Creature, he has his bounds and limits pre|&s;crib'd him, and that hitherto he may come, but no farther, and here of pure nece&s;&s;ity his Operations mu&s;t be &s;taid. For how can the narrow, &s;canty Womb of Nature fully and adequately comprehend the infinite Di|men&s;ions of a &s;upernatural Conception? Or a Being be &s;ummoned to appear out of the un&s;earchable depths of emptine&s;s and nothing by any thing le&s;s, than the voice of irre&s;i&s;ti|ble Omnipotence? Who can alter the fix'd, immutable Laws of Nature? turn things out of that cour&s;e and order, wherein they were placed at the World's fir&s;t Production, and wherein they have con&s;tantly, regularly, and
<PB N="97" REF="53"> nece&s;&s;arily moved ever &s;ince? Surely none but He, who is the great Spring of all the motions of this great Machine of the World; who &s;ets every wheel and cau&s;e a going, and is therefore glorious in Power, fearful in Prai&s;es, becau&s;e alone doing wonders. Hence then we may &s;afely conclude, that all tho&s;e Works, which the Magicians did of old, how great and wonderful &s;oever, never arrived to the height of a true and proper Miracle; but that they were only the productions of natural cau&s;es, which together with the manner of their production being altogether unknown, cau&s;ed wonder and a&s;toni&s;hment in the Spectators. Having therefore thus proved, that an Infinite Being alone can be the Author of a true and real Miracle, I pro|ceed in the next place to &s;hew, that there have been &s;uch things as true and real Mira|cles in the World, and con&s;equently, &s;ince an Infinite Being alone can be the Author of them, they clearly and undeniably inferr a God and Providence.</P>
<P N="2">2. Now I &s;hall not here tell you from <HI>Ta|citus</HI> and <HI>Suetonius,</HI> how <HI>Ve&s;pa&s;ian</HI> opened the Eyes of a Blind Man in <HI>Egypt</HI> by his Spittle, or from <HI>Spartianus,</HI> how a Woman was likewi&s;e cured of her Blindne&s;s only by ki&s;&s;ing the Knees of the Emperour <HI>Adrian:</HI> the various artifices, which were then u&s;ed
<PB N="98" REF="54"> to a&s;&s;ert the Divinity of the Emperours ren|dring the&s;e things very liable to &s;u&s;picion. Neither &s;hall I endeavour to confirm this truth by any argument drawn from the pre|tended Miracles among&s;t the <HI>Romanists</HI> at this day, &s;ince I doubt not, but that upon a &s;evere, impartial &s;crutiny they would ap|pear to be as fal&s;e and counterfeit, as tho&s;e above-mention'd; the end of them all being in truth the very &s;ame, <HI>viz.</HI> to draw Men's minds off from the &s;implicity of the Go&s;pel, and to render the whole Creation again &s;ub|ject to vanity. I &s;hall only then appeal to the unexceptionable Writings (for &s;o, you have &s;een, the Heathens them&s;elves acknow|ledge them) of <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and the Prophets, and to the as indi&s;putable Hi&s;tories (as will ap|pear in its proper place) of Chri&s;t and his Apo&s;tles, which &s;eem to be nothing el&s;e than one continued te&s;timony of this great truth. See then that great Law-giver and Prophet entred the li&s;ts with the Wi&s;e Men and Sorcerers of <HI>Egypt,</HI> whil&s;t <HI>Pharaoh</HI> and his People, as a Cloud of Witne&s;&s;es, &s;tand by, and behold this great conte&s;t. They &s;eem to &s;tand a while upon the &s;ame level; neither &s;ide having any vi&s;ible preheminence from the three fir&s;t attempts. The Magi|cians Rods, as well as his, are (to all ap|pearance) turned equally into Serpents:
<PB N="99" REF="54"> The Rivers too at their command flow on in &s;treams of Blood; and the Frogs hear their call, and from their watery Beds obe|diently come up upon the Land. But, &s;ee, the mighty Rod now animates the du&s;t, and the old hungry Serpent complains for want of Food. Where now are the Wi&s;e Men, the Sorcerers, and Magicians? Or how do his powerful Antagoni&s;ts keep their ground? Surely, as the Prophet &s;peaks, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>I&s;.</HI> 19.11.</NOTE> the Princes of <HI>Zoan</HI> are Fools, the Coun&s;el of the Wi&s;e Coun&s;ellours of <HI>Pharaoh</HI> is become bruti&s;h. Their a&s;&s;i&s;tant Spirits are non-plus'd and confounded, and therefore they are forced to acknowledge, that this in very deed is the Finger of God. March we hence with the &s;ame <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> to the Banks of the <HI>Red-Sea,</HI> and there behold the wonders he does too in the deep. No &s;ooner does he lift up his Rod, and &s;tretch out his hand over the Sea; but the deep Waters acknow|ledge his commi&s;&s;ion, and obediently retire. He triumphantly conducts the Redeemed of the Lord, through the mid&s;t of the Sea up|on dry ground, and the Waters are a Wall to them on their Right Hand, and on their Le&s;t. Again, he gives the Signal, and the Sea returns to its &s;trength, and overwhelms the <HI>Aegyptians</HI> with their Chariots and their Hor&s;e-men. I might farther recount to you
<PB N="100" REF="55"> the Miracles he &s;hewed after this in the Wil|derne&s;s. How he brought Waters out of the hard Rock, &s;o that the &s;treams ran withal in dry places: How he fed his murmuring Ho&s;t with Manna and Quails; and by his Prayer cau&s;ed the Earth to open her Mouth, and to &s;wallow up the factious and rebelli|ous Company of <HI>Korah.</HI> I might remind you likewi&s;e of the continued &s;eries of Mira|cles under the Mo&s;aical Oeconomy: Of the wonderful effects of the Waters of jealou&s;ie; of the extraordinary plenty of the &s;ixth year; of <HI>&V;rim</HI> and <HI>Thummim,</HI> and of the &s;pecial &s;ecurity of the Coa&s;ts of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> every third year, though their Enemies very well knew, that all their Males at that time went up to Wor&s;hip at <HI>Jeru&s;alem.</HI> I might, enlarge, I &s;ay, upon the&s;e, and many other in&s;tances of the &s;ame kind, which occur in the Wri|tings of the Old Te&s;tament; but I &s;hall therefore forbear mentioning any more, be|cau&s;e all the&s;e &s;cattered Rays did at la&s;t con|center into one point, and with united Glo|ries &s;hine together, when the Sun of Righte|ou&s;ne&s;s aro&s;e upon the World. Then e&s;pe|cially did the Divine Providence give uncon|troulable demon&s;tration of it &s;elf to Mankind, when (as <HI>Mahomet</HI> in his <HI>Alcoran,</HI> and the <HI>Rabbins</HI> them&s;elves in their <HI>Talmud</HI> confe&s;s) the Man <HI>Chri&s;t Je&s;us</HI> did &s;uch Works, as no
<PB N="101" REF="55"> Man could have done, unle&s;s God had been with him. The Gods of the Heathen, as <HI>Arnobius</HI> remarks, could never cure any Di|&s;ea&s;e without &s;ome Pre&s;criptions; and <HI>Ae&s;|culapius</HI> him&s;elf, though celebrated for his Phy&s;ick throughout the World, was really no better than a Mountebank or ordinary Emperick. Nay their great <HI>Jupiter Capito|linus,</HI> though arm'd with thunder, and &s;o frighting the World with his pretended Om|nipotence, was to far from being able to rai&s;e the Dead, cure the Blind, or heal the Lame, that he could not &s;o much as cure a Wart, a Pimple, or any other the mo&s;t trivial thing, without pre&s;cribing &s;omething or other for its removal. But now our Saviour never u&s;ed any &s;uch means, having no need of any adjacent matter, of the virtue of Herbs, or any other Medicine. His Commi&s;&s;ion was large and unbounded; His Power Divine, Infinite, and uncontroulable. He made the Lame Man to leap as an Hart, and the Tongue of the Dumb to &s;ing. By his word he &s;ilenc'd the Winds, and walk'd upon the furious Sea, as the <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lactant. Divin. In|&s;titut. Lib.</HI> 4. <HI>cap.</HI> 15.</NOTE> <HI>Sibyll</HI> &s;peaks, with his feet of Peace. He open'd the Eyes of him, that was born Blind; heal'd all manner of Di|&s;ea&s;es; rais'd the Dead to life after four days Burial, and all this only with a
<PB N="102" REF="56"> word of his Mouth, or a touch of his Hand. He cured them that were far off, as well as tho&s;e, that were nigh; and that with a bare Fiat, without &s;ending any other Medi|cine, than health it &s;elf to his Patients. He &s;aw into the very brea&s;ts of Men, di&s;cover'd their mo&s;t &s;ecret thoughts and intentions, and accordingly either reprov'd or commen|ded them. Neither did the&s;e refre&s;hing Wa|ters break out only in the Wilderne&s;s, or the&s;e whole&s;ome &s;treams flow only in the de&s;art; for he did not (as &s;ome now-a-days do) huddle up his actions in the dark, or lay the &s;cene of his Miracles in an ob&s;cure, un|known corner among&s;t his Friends only and Followers; but when his time was come, he &s;hew'd him&s;elf openly to all the People, had his conver&s;ation among&s;t his &s;worn Enemies, the <HI>Scribes</HI> and <HI>Phari&s;ees,</HI> to whom he pro|ved his Commi&s;&s;ion beyond all contradi|ction. Nay, even in the mid&s;t of his grea|te&s;t weakne&s;s, when he lay to tured and bleeding upon the Cro&s;s, he was &s;till &s;o migh|ty, &s;o irre&s;i&s;tible in power, that he opened the Graves, &s;plit the hard Rocks a&s;under, rent the Temples veil, and (as not only the Evangeli&s;ts, but <HI>Phlegon</HI> likewi&s;e, Gentle|man to the Emperour <HI>Adrian,</HI> in his general Hi&s;tory of the <HI>Olympiads;</HI> and <HI>Thallus,</HI> ano|ther Heathen cited by that accurate Chro|nologer,
<PB N="103" REF="56"> <HI>Africanus;</HI> and, as we are a&s;&s;ur'd by <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Apol. c.</HI> 21</NOTE> <HI>Tertullian,</HI> the publick Records of the <HI>Roman</HI> Empire wit|ne&s;s) darkened the Sun, and put Nature in|to &s;uch clo&s;e mourning, that 'tis reported of <HI>Diony&s;ius</HI> the <HI>Areopagite,</HI> who was after|wards St. <HI>Paul</HI>'s Convert, that being then at <HI>Egypt,</HI> and ob&s;erving this unnatural E|clip&s;e, (the Moon then being in a direct op|po&s;ition to the Sun) he cried out that ei|ther the God of Nature was &s;uffering, or that Nature her &s;elf would be &s;uddenly di&s;&s;olv'd; &s;o that <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Vid Orig. in Cel&s;. Lib.</HI> 2. <HI>p.</HI> 80.</NOTE> <HI>Cel&s;us</HI> betray'd either in|tolerable ignorance or malice, when he &s;coffingly asked <HI>Origen,</HI> what mighty Work our Saviour did at his Crucifixion. La&s;tly, He was not (as <HI>Mahomet</HI> and other Impo&s;tors are) long holden by the bands of death; but accor|ding to his own prediction he gloriou&s;ly tri|umphed over Death and Hell; rais'd that Temple, which his Enemies thought they had de&s;troyed, on the third day; vouch&s;a|fed to wear a Veil over his glorified Body for forty days conver&s;ation with his Di&s;ci|ples, and then before them all (Angels and Arch-angels &s;inging all the way the unparal|lell'd triumphs of this King of Glory) a&s;cen|ded into the highe&s;t Heavens, whence not many days after he made good his promi&s;e
<PB N="104" REF="57"> to his Di&s;ciples, &s;ending down upon them the Holy Gho&s;t, whereby they were fully commi&s;&s;ioned and impowered to propagate the Go&s;pel throughout all the World.</P>
<P>Now then, Courteous Reader, if all the&s;e things are true, how can we any longer di|&s;tru&s;t the good Providence of God? And that they are all true no Rational Man can deny. That <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> thus liv'd, and thus dy|ed; that he wrought many Miracles, and at la&s;t under-went the no le&s;s ignominious, than painful death of the Cro&s;s, is granted on all hands. 'Twas not only written by St. <HI>Matthew</HI> for the u&s;e of the <HI>Jews</HI> in <HI>He|brew</HI> eight years after his A&s;cen&s;ion, (as, not to mention <HI>Ju&s;tin M. Athenagoras, Irenaeus,</HI> and the other Writers of the Age next after the Apo&s;tles) is &s;ufficiently evident from <HI>Clemens Romanus,</HI> a Familiar of St. <HI>Paul;</HI> and from <HI>Ignatius, Polycarp,</HI> and <HI>Papias,</HI> Di&s;ciples of St. <HI>John,</HI> who all quote this Go|&s;pel) when if it had been liable to &s;u&s;picion, it might ea&s;ily have been di&s;proved, &s;ince there were many then alive, on whom his Miracles were &s;aid to have been wrought: Many, who had been Eye-witne&s;&s;es of the &s;ame; but al&s;o recorded by tho&s;e Heathen Writers, <HI>Tacitus</HI> and <HI>Suetonius,</HI> and never &s;o much as que&s;tioned either by <HI>Julian, Cel|&s;us, Trypho, Hierocles, Porphyry,</HI> or any o|ther
<PB N="105" REF="57"> the mo&s;t avow'd Enemies to Chri&s;tia|nity. That he was not devoured by the&s;e wild Bea&s;ts, though his Garments were dy'd and dipp'd in Blood, the Souldiers, that kept the Watch, confe&s;&s;ed upon examination to <HI>Pilate,</HI> <NOTE N="&Verbar;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Vide Ter|tull. Ap. cap.</HI> 21.</NOTE> who thereupon wrote the whole Hi&s;tory to his Lord <HI>Ti|berius,</HI> which &s;o much <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Id. cap.</HI> 5. <HI>Vide &amp; Vo&s;|&s;ium in hunc locum Tertulliani in tractatu de Sibyll. Orac. c.</HI> 11. <HI>p.</HI> 58.</NOTE> affected him, that, when the Senate re|fu&s;ed to receive <HI>Je&s;us</HI> into the number of their Gods, he &s;et up his Image in his own private <HI>La|rarium;</HI> gave liberty to any to believe on him that would; and prohibited the Officers to mole&s;t them under pain of Death. But we have yet a greater Witne&s;s than all the&s;e. For that <HI>Je&s;us</HI> our Saviour is now alive, and not only Governour over all the Land of <HI>Egypt,</HI> but Lord and King too of all the Nations in the World: That he did actually fulfill his promi&s;e to his Di&s;ciples, and continually watcheth over his Spou&s;e, the Church, with the wakeful Eyes of his e&s;pecial Providence, is plain beyond all contradiction.</P>
<P N="1">1. From the &s;udden and miraculous down|fall of the Kingdom of Satan; and &s;econdly from the no le&s;s &s;udden and miraculous pro|pagation of the Chri&s;tian Faith, notwith&s;tan|ding all the oppo&s;ition, that it met with in the World.</P>
<PB N="106" REF="58">
<P N="1">1. I &s;ay, This is plain from the &s;udden and miraculous Downfall of the Kingdom of Satan. For tell me, O Man, who&s;oever thou art, who art apt to di&s;tru&s;t the good Providence of God, how that almo&s;t unlimi|ted and univer&s;al Dominion of Satan had been &s;o &s;uddenly overturn'd, if an Almigh|ty Arm had not taken away the Pillars, which had &s;o long &s;upported it, and &s;o cau|&s;ed it to fall into ruin and deva&s;tation? How had the powerful and innumerable Legions of the Prince of Darkne&s;s been beaten out of the &s;trong holds, which they had &s;o long po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed, if the Lord of Ho&s;ts him&s;elf had not broke in upon them, and overcame them, and rifled them of all the armour, wherein they tru&s;ted, and &s;o divided the Spoil? When the Son of God was plea&s;ed to bow the Hea|vens, and to come down, and dwell among Men, he &s;carce found a place, where to lay his head. The true God indeed was well known in <HI>Jury,</HI> and his name was great in <HI>I&s;rael:</HI> But the Wor&s;hip of fal&s;e Deities, like an univer&s;al deluge, had, as it were, over|whelmed the face of the whole Earth. De|vils and Idols had u&s;urped his Dominions, and imperiou&s;ly &s;way'd mo&s;t of the Nations of the World. And yet how are the Migh|ty fallen? and the Gods, which made not the Heavens and the Earth peri&s;hed? The&s;e
<PB N="107" REF="58"> great Lords, which &s;eemed to have rai&s;ed to them&s;elves an everla&s;ting Empire over the Sons of Men, were almo&s;t in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye di&s;po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed of their Lodgings, thrown out of their Fortre&s;&s;es, and forced to leave the Temples, wherein they had &s;o long dwelt. No &s;ooner was the joyful News of the <HI>Me&s;&s;iah</HI>'s Coming u&s;her'd in by the Doxologies of the glorious Inhabitants of the Courts above; but that as the Heavens rejoyced, and the Earth was glad, &s;o the gloomy Regions of Everla&s;ting Darkne&s;s, were on the contrary fill'd with nothing, but Lamentations and Mournings, and Wo. Tho&s;e weak and feeble Rays, which the Sun of Righteou&s;ne&s;s, even through the Cloud of Infancy darted upon the World, &s;o affrighted and amazed them, that the&s;e Bea&s;ts of Prey immediately gat them away, and hid them&s;elves clo&s;e in their Dens. The mo&s;t famous Oracles in the World, which began to li&s;p and &s;tammer, as his coming drew near, now at his Appearance are gene|rally doom'd to &s;ilence: the Devil either not replying at all to the humble interroga|tions of his admiring Votaries, or whining out his an&s;wer in lamentations and com|plaints, that his voice was to be no more re|covered, but that the bright Glory of his Oracles was utterly gone from him. Nay
<PB N="108" REF="59"> to prevent all Cavils and Di&s;putes, and that the greate&s;t Sceptick might have no rea&s;on to doubt, that this was God's doing; but that all the Hou&s;e of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> might a&s;&s;uredly know, that 'twas his Arm, his Arm alone, that thus miraculou&s;ly brought Salvation to them, by re&s;cuing them from the mi&s;erable thraldom of the&s;e proud, u&s;urping Tyrants, the Impo&s;tor at la&s;t entirely di&s;mantled him|&s;elf of his accu&s;tomed di&s;gui&s;es, and plainly confe&s;s'd to the Emperor <HI>Augu&s;tus,</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Vide Sui|dam in Augu&s;t.</HI></NOTE> that 'twas not the deficiency of Prophetical Vapours, nor the ge|neral incredulity of Mankind, nor yet the Mortality of his own nature; but purely the <HI>Hebrew</HI> Child, which con|&s;trained him to hold his Peace,
<Q><L><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 line"></L>
<L><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 line"></L></Q> <HI>i.e.</HI> There is an <HI>Hebrew</HI> Child, who, though in the appearance of weak fle&s;h, is King of the Ble&s;&s;ed Gods, that commands me to leave this Hou&s;e, and to return to Hell. And upon this account that Emperour built an Altar in honour of Chri&s;t with this In&s;crip|tion: <HI>Ara Primogeniti Dei,</HI> The Altar of the Fir&s;t Begotten of God.</P>
<P>But as the beginning of the Declen&s;ion of Satan's Kingdom was thus confe&s;&s;edly from the Son of God, the Prince of Darkne&s;s kee|ping
<PB N="109" REF="59"> his Po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ions &s;afe and &s;ecure, 'till this &s;tronger warrier took away his arms, and plundered him: So that he did not content him&s;elf with the&s;e le&s;s con&s;iderable Ovations, but &s;till pur&s;ued his conque&s;ts, and by tho&s;e very &s;ufferings, whereby his Enemy thought to have quelled him, gloriou&s;ly triumphed over the Grave, Death, and Hell. That by rai&s;ing him&s;elf to life, he utterly deve&s;ted him of all his Power, and dragged him with all his Legions &s;hackled and unarmed at the Wheels of his Triumphant Chariot, the Pri|mitive Heroes and fir&s;t Champions of the Faith made publickly di&s;cernable to all the World. How gloriou&s;ly did the <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Tertull. Apol. c.</HI> 23.</NOTE> Father di&s;play the triumphant Banners of his exalted Saviour, when he challenged the Per&s;ecutors of Chri|&s;tianity upon the pawn of his own Blood for a Sacrifice to their Vengeance, &s;hould he be baffled in the encounter, to let him make publick trial before their Tribunals of his Power, in controuling tho&s;e di&s;armed and impotent Spirits, which the deluded <HI>Romans</HI> and other <HI>Gentiles</HI> adored and magnified as Gods? Nay, how victoriou&s;ly did the Glo|ry of <HI>Christ</HI> then &s;hine forth, when not on|ly the Learned and Experienced, but (as <HI>Origen</HI> tells <HI>Cel&s;us</HI>) <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib.</HI> 7. <HI>contra Cel&s;um p.</HI> 334.</NOTE> the meane&s;t al&s;o of the People, the very Babes
<PB N="110" REF="60"> in Chri&s;t triumphed and in&s;ulted over the&s;e Hell-hounds, where-ever they met them? In the name of <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> they forced them out of their Lodgings, and compelled them even in the pre&s;ence of their Wor&s;hippers and greate&s;t Adorers to confe&s;s plainly what they were. <HI>O &s;i audire eos velles, &amp; videre,</HI> &s;ays <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Pag.</HI> 191. <HI>Edit. Oxon.</HI></NOTE> St. <HI>Cyprian</HI> to <HI>Demetrian,</HI> the &s;tubborn and prejudiced Pro|con&s;ul of <HI>Africa.</HI> And <NOTE N="&Verbar;" PLACE="marg"><HI>In Octavio.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Min. Felix</HI> appeals to the Heathens them&s;elves for the truth of the&s;e things. He tells them, that their own eyes had &s;een their greate&s;t Gods ca&s;t out of the Bodies they had po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed, by the ordinary Chri|&s;tians; that their own ears had heard the &s;ame Gods confe&s;s, that they were no Gods, no not &s;o much as good Spirits; but De|vils, wicked, Apo&s;tate Angels, who made it their bu&s;ine&s;s to abu&s;e the World, and to en&s;nare as great a part of Mankind, as they could, into Ruin and Perdition. In a word, <HI>Ju&s;tin Martyr, Irenaeus, Arnobius, Lactan|tius,</HI> and all the other Primitive Defenders of the Faith mo&s;t ju&s;tly, as well as trium|phantly enlarge upon this point; which is acknowledged, even by <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Apud Eu&s;ebium de Pr. Ev. L.</HI> 5. <HI>c.</HI> 1.</NOTE> <HI>Porphyry</HI> him&s;elf, who, di&s;|cour&s;ing of that plague, which furiou&s;ly raged at <HI>Me&s;&s;ina</HI> in <HI>Sicily,</HI>
<PB N="111" REF="60"> where he dwelt, expre&s;ly a&s;&s;erts, that there|fore <HI>Ae&s;culapius</HI> could afford them no a&s;&s;i|&s;tance, becau&s;e <HI>Je&s;us</HI> was wor&s;hipped in the World. So that, you &s;ee, 'tis plain from the Downfal of Satan's Kingdom, that <HI>Je|&s;us</HI> our Saviour, though once per&s;ecuted and &s;lain, is yet alive; and that as he always did, &s;o he &s;till continues to take care of the World.</P>
<P N="2">2. This is no le&s;s apparent from the as &s;udden and miraculous Propagation of the Chri&s;tian Faith, notwith&s;tanding all the op|po&s;ition, that it met with in the World. For how &s;oon did the &s;ound of the Go&s;pel go out into all Lands, and its words even to the ends of the Earth? How &s;wift, I &s;ay, upon the Mountains were the Feet of them, that carried the&s;e glad Tidings, this Go&s;pel of Peace? Had they rode upon the nimble&s;t Morning Ray, or gone flying upon the Wings of the Wind, they could &s;carce have &s;ooner vi&s;ited all Quarters of the World. <HI>Egypt, Africa, Libya, Mauritania;</HI> yea, the wandring, barbarous <HI>Scythians;</HI> the rude, naked, &s;tupid <HI>Indians</HI> within the com|pa&s;s of forty years were turn'd unto the Lord, and the remote&s;t corners of the We&s;t too (where, as <HI>Tertullian</HI> ob&s;erves, the <HI>Ro|man</HI> Eagle, how triumphant &s;o ever, could never penetrate) &s;tretched forth their hands
<PB N="112" REF="61"> unto God. But could the Arm of fle&s;h thus break through whole troops of Evil Angels, that &s;tood with drawn Swords in their hands to &s;top them in their way? or mere Man grapple and contend with all the Powers of Earth and Hell? Could a few ob&s;cure, un|known Fi&s;hermen, who had neither Riches, nor Honour, nor Learning, nor Kindred to recommend them to the World, by their own in&s;inuations &s;o wonderfully engro&s;s the judgment and affections of all People, as to cau&s;e them for their &s;akes to bid a final adieu to the Traditions of their Fathers, and to throw off all the Rites and Ceremonies of that Religion, which for &s;o many Ages had prevailed among&s;t them? Whence was it then, that where-ever they came, they &s;o gloriou&s;ly triumphed over the prejudices of Men's minds, grappled &s;o &s;ucce&s;sfully with the &s;tubbornne&s;s of the <HI>Jew,</HI> and baffled the fine notions and &s;peculations of the <HI>Greek?</HI> That, though they pretended to know no|thing among them, but <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> and him Crucified; Preached no other Doctrine, but &s;uch as called Men off from the advantages and plea&s;ures of this World to tread in the &s;teps of a poor, crucified Saviour, which too (though thus har&s;h to Fle&s;h and Blood) was back'd at pre&s;ent with little other encourage|ment, than the invi&s;ible Rewards of another
<PB N="113" REF="61"> World; yet the Word of God &s;o mightily grew and prevailed, that Men of all &s;orts and profe&s;&s;ions, <HI>Greeks</HI> as well as <HI>Barba|rians</HI> gave up their names to <HI>Chri&s;t,</HI> and manfully li&s;ted them&s;elves under the Cap|tain of our Salvation? Whence was it, I &s;ay, that though among the <HI>Jews</HI> and <HI>Co|rinthians</HI> in the fir&s;t &s;etting out of the Go&s;pel, not many Wi&s;e, not many Migh|ty, not many Noble were called; yet &s;ud|denly after in all Nations under the whole Heaven, Men of acute Parts, piercing Un|der&s;tandings, and rai&s;ed Abilities became Pro&s;elites? That Orators, Criticks, Law|yers, Phy&s;icians, and Philo&s;ophers of all Sects daily came over, and proved valiant Souldiers in the cau&s;e of God, and of the Lamb? What induced the proud, haugh|ty <HI>Stoick,</HI> who thought him&s;elf never a whit inferiour, neither in Happine&s;s nor Vertue to the Deity him&s;elf, grate&s;ully to accept the mercies and guidance of a Cru|cified Saviour, and humbly to &s;ubmit his Almighty Rea&s;on to the great, my&s;terious Truths of the Go&s;pel? What enticed the fo&s;t, luxurious <HI>Epicurean</HI> to divorce his darling Lu&s;ts for the embraces of the Ho|ly and Immaculate <HI>Je&s;us?</HI> or the refined Academick &s;o willingly to renounce his former &s;entiments; and, though not with|out
<PB N="114" REF="62"> out the lo&s;s of many of his fine notions, to embrace the Faith? Surely none but He, with whom tho&s;e things are po&s;&s;ible, which are impo&s;&s;ible with Men; and in who&s;e hands are the hearts of the Sons of Men, as the Rivers of Water, which therefore he turneth whither&s;oever he will.</P>
<P>Again, if this Doctrine had not been in very deed from God, and continually &s;upported by the Hand of Providence, how could it po&s;&s;ibly have out-weathered tho&s;e many Storms and Tempe&s;ts, tho&s;e Thunderings and Lightnings, whereby its Profe&s;&s;ors were &s;o grievou&s;ly torn and &s;hattered, even in its infancy and fir&s;t de|livery into the World? They no &s;ooner appeared with it abroad, but they were looked upon as common Enemies, and therefore were every where oppo&s;ed, and every where &s;poken again&s;t. Like their great Ma&s;ter, they were de&s;pi&s;ed and re|jected of Men; the Subjects of continual Sorrows, and mo&s;t intimately acquainted with Grie&s;s. They had neither Kings for their Nur&s;ing Fathers, nor Queens for their Nur&s;ing Mothers; but on the contrary all the greate&s;t Powers and Potentates of the World combin'd together for many Ages,
<PB N="115" REF="62"> to extirpate and bani&s;h them from off the Face of the Earth. Since then they were thus naked and de&s;titute, &s;tripped of all outward advantages, and expo&s;ed to the fury of &s;o many wild Bea&s;ts, unle&s;s the Lord him&s;elf had been on their &s;ide, how could they have born up again&s;t all this oppo&s;ition, and in &s;pight of all the united Forces of their vi&s;ible and invi&s;ible Ene|mies &s;o gloriou&s;ly have lifted up their Heads in triumph; looking down with a brave and generous di&s;dain upon the weak attempts of their Adver&s;aries? How could they with &s;o much gallantry, with &s;o in|vincible a patience and magnanimity have undergone the mo&s;t exqui&s;ite torments, which the ingenious cruelty of Men or Devils could invent; looking upon their Chains as their Ornaments, and accoun|ting the In&s;truments of their Tortures the En&s;igns of their Honour and Happine&s;s? In &s;hort, How could they, not as the <HI>Stoicks</HI> and <HI>Epicureans</HI> thra&s;onically &s;peak of their Wi&s;e Man, but really and truly (as the Apo&s;tle remarks) have taken plea|&s;ure in Bonds, in Impri&s;onments, in Chains, in Reproaches, in Per&s;ecutions, in Di&s;tre&s;|&s;es for Chri&s;t's &s;ake; profe&s;&s;ing to glory in nothing, but the Cro&s;s of Chri&s;t?</P>
<PB N="116" REF="63">
<P>Many, I confe&s;s, from a hardy, robu&s;t con&s;titution have been enabled to undergo very fiery Trials, and we read of &s;ome, e&s;pecially among the <HI>Stoicks,</HI> who have in the mid&s;t of their Pains derided their Tor|mentors, and re&s;olutely and couragiou&s;ly born up their Spirits under the heavie&s;t oppre&s;&s;ions. But, alas! what's all this to the incomparable bravery of our primitive Heroes, when (as the Chri&s;tian in <HI>Min. Fe|lix</HI> triumphantly tells his Adver&s;ary) the very Women and Children were of &s;o in|vincible a courage, &s;o un&s;haken a re&s;olution, that they infinitely exceeded the very bra|ve&s;t Deeds, even of the mo&s;t celebrated <HI>Greeks</HI> or <HI>Romans?</HI> But now was it po&s;&s;i|ble, that they &s;hould &s;o far have forgotten the weakne&s;s of their Sex or Age, as thus gallantly to have encountered all &s;orts of dangers, boldly to have defended naked Truth in the face of Death it &s;elf, and to have laughed at Cro&s;&s;es, Swords, Fire, Racks, and all other dreadful In&s;truments of Torture, if Chri&s;t him&s;elf had not &s;tood by them, charming them with the &s;weet|ne&s;s of his Love, and the hopes of Immor|tality? Nature, you know, recoils and &s;tarts back at the fir&s;t &s;ight of the&s;e things; and how efficacious &s;oever the Principles of Phi|lo&s;ophy may &s;eem to &s;ome Men, &s;ure I am
<PB N="117" REF="63"> they could not in&s;pire their greate&s;t and bolde&s;t Profe&s;&s;ors with courage enough for &s;uch formidable Encounters. The <HI>Aegyp|tians,</HI> (who among the Heathens bear the title of the elde&s;t Sons of Wi&s;dom, and are al&s;o particularly taken notice of for their eminent Learning, by the unerring Re|cords of Divine Revelation) to avoid the fury of the Vulgar, lock'd up the whole Body of their Divinity, under My&s;tical Hieroglyphicks. And the untimely Death of <HI>Socrates</HI> &s;o chill'd and pall'd the Spi|rits of his Divine Pupil, that to be in good Terms with the Publick, and to di&s;|po&s;&s;e&s;s the People of the Opinion, that he was addicted to the &s;entiments of his Ma|&s;ter, he prudently turn'd <HI>Pythagorean;</HI> wrap'd up his notions in Aenigmatical, Cab|bali&s;tical Allu&s;ions; and, as he acknowledg|eth him&s;elf in one of his Epi&s;tles to <HI>Diony|&s;ius,</HI> publi&s;hed none of his Maxims, but un|der the name of <HI>Secrates,</HI> that he might not be accountable for his own Doctrine in a time, when the nicety of the People of <HI>Athens</HI> was offended at every thing. Nay <HI>Ari&s;totle</HI> him&s;elf, to e&s;cape that &s;torm, which threatned him from <HI>Areopagus</HI> for &s;ome of his (as they were e&s;teemed) unorthodox Opinions, in a panick fear ha&s;tily pack'd up, and got him from <HI>Athens;</HI> and that other|wi&s;e
<PB N="118" REF="64"> great and excellent Philo&s;opher, <HI>Jam|blichus</HI> unworthily took Sanctuary at a my|&s;terious &s;ecrecy, &s;ealing up his dogmata, be|cau&s;e not favoured as formerly by the Roy|al Authority, under a profound and perpe|tual &s;ilence. In a word, <HI>Jo&s;ephus</HI> in his &s;e|cond Book again&s;t <HI>Appion,</HI> univer&s;ally char|geth the wi&s;e&s;t Men of <HI>Greece</HI> with cowar|dice in this matter. They hold, &s;ays he, the very &s;ame things concerning God as the <HI>Jews</HI> do, <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span"> but had not the courage to teach their Doctrine to the Vulgar, be|cau&s;e they were prepo&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed with contra|ry Opinions. Whence, I &s;ay, abundantly appears the in&s;ufficiency of the&s;e weak and beggarly Elements, and that nothing le&s;s than an almighty Arm could have &s;up|ported the &s;inking &s;tate of the Church in the&s;e primitive times. El&s;e how came it to pa&s;s, that &s;he did not expire upon the Rack, or breath her la&s;t in the Sea? That &s;he was not devoured by wild Bea&s;ts, or utterly con&s;umed in the Fire? that, tho' &s;he was &s;o mi&s;erably hara&s;&s;ed and torn by her Enemies, that &s;ome of them erected Trophies and triumphal Arches in memory of their ab&s;olute Conque&s;ts and Victories over her, yet all this noi&s;e and out-cry
<PB N="119" REF="64"> was as empty as the Monuments they had rai&s;ed for her, while&s;t, <HI>Phoenix</HI> like, &s;he &s;prang more youthful and vigorous from her own A&s;he, and that Ocean of Blood, which was thought to have choaked or drowned her, &s;erved only, as the Father ob&s;erves, to render her Soil more fertile? That, la&s;tly, when &s;he was weak, then e|&s;pecially &s;he was &s;trong; &s;o &s;trong, that at length &s;he put to flight all the Armies of Satan, wre&s;ted the worldly Power and Empire out of his hand, and then victoriou&s;ly employed it again&s;t him&s;elf?</P>
<P><HI>Mahomet</HI>'s impo&s;ture, I confe&s;s, diffu&s;ed it &s;elf in a very little time over a great part of the Ea&s;t. But to &s;ay nothing, how 'twas originally de&s;igned for the gratifica|tion of Men's Lu&s;ts, and by an indu&s;tri|ous compliance with the di&s;&s;olute man|ners of tho&s;e Orientals prepared and qua|lified for their more ea&s;ie Reception: It was carried, you know, upon the point of the Sword, and forced its way into the World by Rapine and Violence. But the Chri&s;tian Church was of another nature. 'Twas her peculiar honour and privilege to grow victorious by &s;ufferings, and to triumph in Per&s;ecutions; &s;o that every Eye may &s;ee, that 'twas not her own Arm,
<PB N="120" REF="65"> that upheld and protected her; but that God alone, becau&s;e he had a favour unto her, would not &s;uffer tho&s;e, that believed not, to exalt them&s;elves again&s;t her. For &s;urely none but He, whom the Winds and Seas obey, could by his voice allay the Rage and Fury of the&s;e Storms and Tem|pe&s;ts. None but He, who ca&s;teth out the Coun&s;els of Princes and maketh the devi|ces of the People to be of none effect, could thus defeat the Machinations, eva|cuate the De&s;igns, and controul the Pow|er of the greate&s;t Potentates of the Earth. La&s;tly, none but He, who by things, which are not, brings to nought things, that are, could by &s;uch weak and fooli&s;h things both non-plus the Wi&s;e, and con|found the things, that were Mighty. <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">. 'Twas the word of God, continually led on by the conduct of Providence, and there|fore could not be with&s;tood by the force or power of any created Beings; but maugre all the oppo&s;ition of Men and Devils, un|controulably enlarg'd its Conque&s;ts to the ends of all the Earth.</P>
<P>And thus I have di&s;patch'd my &s;everal Meditations upon this Subject; having, I hope, to the full &s;atisfaction of unprejudi|ced
<PB N="121" REF="65"> Per&s;ons evinced the Reality of a God and Providence in the World. I &s;hall on|ly now briefly deduce &s;ome practical infe|rences from &s;ome con&s;iderations upon the Attributes of the Divine Nature, and con|clude.</P>
<P N="1">1. Then, You have &s;een, that God is Omnipotent. Hence let us learn to adore his Maje&s;ty, to revere his Power, and ne|ver to provoke him to anger by our Sins, who is able in the mo&s;t dreadful manner to revenge him&s;elf upon us. If we fear to incurr the di&s;plea&s;ure of an Earthly Prince, becau&s;e as in the Light of his Countenance is Life, and his Favour is as a Cloud of the Latter Rain, &s;o on the contrary the Fear of him is like the roaring of a Lion, and his Wrath as the Me&s;&s;engers of Death; then &s;urely we &s;hould much more beware of provoking the hea|vy Wrath of the King of Kings, who&s;e voice is like the dreadful thunder, and who&s;e indignation cau&s;eth everla&s;ting De|&s;truction. For is it not ab&s;urd to fear to offend them, that kill the Body, and af|ter that have no more, that they can do; and not to tremble and quake to commit tho&s;e Sins, whereby he is incens'd, who is able to de&s;troy both Body and Soul in Hell?</P>
<PB N="122" REF="66">
<P>But let the Contemplation of this At|tribute, not only deterr us from &s;inning again&s;t God; but teach us likewi&s;e to fly unto him, and after we have faithfully di&s;charged our duty, con&s;idently to re|lie upon him in all our dangers. For thus we &s;hall find a &s;tay and &s;upport in all our weakne&s;&s;es, and a &s;ure and ready help in time of need. The wick|ed indeed, and &s;uch as put not their tru&s;t in God, &s;hall flee, even when no Man pur&s;ueth; but we &s;hall be coura|geous and bold as a Lion. We &s;hall be rai&s;ed above both the Love and Fear of this pre&s;ent World, and (what St. <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom</HI> mo&s;t <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Qu&agrave;m e|nim mor|tem vel a|troci&s;&s;imam pro nihilo duxerit, lo|cupleti&s;&s;ime te&s;tatur flagranti&s;|&s;ima illa huju&s;ce Martyris Epi&s;tola ad Romanos.</HI></NOTE> truly re|ports of that primitive Martyr, St. <HI>Ignatius</HI>) with as much ea&s;e and freedom lay down our lives, as other Men can put off their Cloaths; being fully a&s;&s;ur'd, that the &s;ame Almighty Goodne&s;s, which leads us through this Val|ley of tears, can and will al&s;o &s;afe|ly conduct us through the black and gloomy Regions of Death in|to the bright and glorious Man&s;ions of Bli&s;s and Immortality.</P>
<P N="2">2. You have &s;een, that God is al&s;o
<PB N="123" REF="66"> Omni&s;cient and Omnipre&s;ent; that he is with us in our mo&s;t private retirements, and, as the fore-mentioned Martyr adds in his Epi&s;tle to the <HI>Ephe&s;ians,</HI> knows all the turnings and windings of our very thoughts and intentions. Let us then ne|ver flatter our &s;elves, that we &s;hall huddle up our wickedne&s;&s;es in darkne&s;s and ob|&s;curity, but always remember, that, though no mortal Man can behold us, yet the eye of Heaven is upon all our actions. 'Twas the advice, I remember, of a Learned <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Senec. Ep.</HI> 11.</NOTE> Heathen to his Friend, that where-ever he was, or whatever he was doing, he &s;hould &s;till &s;uppo&s;e him&s;elf in the pre&s;ence of &s;ome reverend and worthy Per&s;on; for this, he thought, would be a very effectual way to re&s;train him from doing any thing ei|ther un&s;eemly or unlawful. And how hap|py he was in his ob&s;ervation, we daily experience, when the bolde&s;t Sinner of us all &s;carce ever pre&s;umes to lay open his corruptions before &s;uch as he re&s;pects. Thus the Morning is to the adulterer, even as the &s;hadow of Death, and there|fore his eye, though impatiently, waiteth for the twilight, and then too he di&s;gui|&s;eth his Face, that no eye may &s;ee him. And having committed, he is a&s;hamed to
<PB N="124" REF="67"> own it; and if accu&s;ed, he &s;tiffly denies it; he wipeth his mouth, &s;aith <HI>Solomon,</HI> and &s;aith, I have not committed iniqui|ty. But do we thus honour and revere our Fellow Creatures, and yet dare behave our &s;elves wantonly in the pre&s;ence of Him, before whom the Holy Angels re|verently veil their Faces? Do we think our &s;elves &s;ecure, if we can hide our im|pieties from &s;uch, who are Malefactors like unto our &s;elves; when yet God, who is to be our Judge, our own Con&s;ciences, which mu&s;t be produced as witne&s;&s;es a|gain&s;t us, and Satan our accu&s;er, are all privy to them? Do we, I &s;ay, thus dread the knowledge of mortal Men, who, &s;hould they know our faults, would per|haps either conceal, or at lea&s;t not be a|ble to puni&s;h them: And are we not a|fraid to act our Villainies before Him, who will one day bring to light all the&s;e hidden things of darkne&s;s, and to our e|ternal reproach and confu&s;ion of face di&s;|play them in their own mo&s;t black and frightful colours, before the general a&s;&s;em|bly of his Saints and Angels? My Brother, I am per&s;uaded you very well know, that the&s;e things ought not &s;o to be. Since then we live in the pre&s;ence of &s;uch a God, who is of purer eyes, than to be|hold
<PB N="125" REF="67"> iniquity with the lea&s;t approbation; let us with all care and diligence reform our lives, and by our pious conver&s;ation demon&s;trate to all the World, that we do with the good Ante-diluvian Patriarch in very deed walk with God. Let us make us clean hands, and pure hearts, and become holy before the Lord. Let us no longer delight in vanities, &s;ow the Wind, and reap the Whirlwind, but (what the <HI>Per&s;ians</HI> are &s;aid to do once a year again&s;t their venomous Vipers) let us march out again&s;t our &s;ins, beat down their &s;trong holds, and bring into &s;ub|jection every proud thought and imagi|nation. Thus we &s;hall approve our &s;elves to Men and Angels, to Chri&s;t and his Father, who, when we have thus prepa|red their Lodging, will come unto us, and dwell with us, and rejoyce over us to do us good. Thus being at la&s;t di&s;|burthened of the di&s;advantages and en|cumbrances of mortality, we &s;hall be tran&s;lated pure and undefiled into the glorious Habitations of holy and unpol|luted Spirits there no longer <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, ob&s;curely, as it were in a riddle, but clear|ly, di&s;tinctly, even face to face to contem|plate the interiour beauties of the Lord.</P>
<PB N="126" REF="68">
<P>Again, you have &s;een, that God is All-wi&s;e, and that therefore he cannot do any thing, but for the be&s;t and greate&s;t ends. Let this &s;upport and bear up our Spirits in all our Afflictions, &s;ince, as <HI>Job,</HI> (who had no &s;mall &s;hare of them) &s;peaks, they do not &s;pring out of the du&s;t, but come purely from that Being, who wi&s;ely or|dereth all things for our good. If we would &s;eriou&s;ly lay the&s;e things to our hearts, and not content our &s;elves with a bare habitual knowledge of them, but in all our troubles and di&s;tre&s;&s;es actually apply them to our con&s;iderations, neither the ca|lumnies or reproaches of our adver&s;aries, nor yet the unkind returns of our Friends; neither the frowns of Monarchs, nor the menaces of Fortune would be able to ruffle and interrupt our happine&s;s, but the con&s;ideration that it is the Lord, who &s;uffereth all the&s;e things, would happily prevent and &s;tifle all murmurings and re|pinings, all reluctancies and di&s;putings, and enable us, like the good Old High-Prie&s;t, to &s;ay with perfect re&s;ignation to the Divine Will: <HI>Let him do what &s;eem|eth him good. Talis e&s;&s;et ani|mus no&s;ter,</HI> as the <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Sen. Ep.</HI> LIX. <HI>&s;ub finem.</HI></NOTE> Philo&s;opher expre&s;&s;es it, <HI>qualis mundi &s;tatus &s;uper lunam.</HI> Though all things
<PB N="127" REF="68"> without &s;hould &s;eem cloudy and tempe|&s;tuous, yet our minds, like the &s;uperlu|nary Regions, would be full of peace and tranquility. With the bravery and gal|lantry of the <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Habac.</HI> 3.17,18.</NOTE> Prophet we &s;hould every one of us trium|phantly cry out, even at our lowe&s;t ebb: Although the Fig-tree &s;hould not blo&s;&s;om, neither &s;hould Fruit be in the Vines; the labour of the Olive &s;hould fail, and the Fields &s;hould yield no meat; the Flocks &s;hould be cut off from the Fold, and there &s;hould be no Herds in the Stalls; <HI>i. e.</HI> though all the ordinary &s;upplies of Human Life &s;hould &s;ail: <HI>Yet will I re|joyce in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my Salvation.</HI></P>
<P N="4">4. You have &s;een, that God is All-ju&s;t, and that he will at length render to eve|ry Man according to his Deeds. Let this remind us to be ju&s;t in all our A|ctions, that when <GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">, as <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><GAP LANG="grc" DESC="foreign" RESP="OXF" EXTENT="1 span">.</NOTE> <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom</HI> &s;peaks, <HI>i. e.</HI> This ju&s;t Judge, who is no re&s;pecter of Per&s;ons, no receiver of Bribes, &s;hall call us to an account, we may do it with joy and not with grief. Sure I am, if we would once con&s;ider to
<PB N="128" REF="69"> purpo&s;e, that God will one day mo&s;t cer|tainly come again&s;t Sinners, armed with all the weapons of the hotte&s;t indigna|tion and &s;ury, the hardie&s;t and &s;toute&s;t of the Sons of Men would &s;hake and trem|ble with <HI>Felix,</HI> and ha&s;ten to flee from the wrath which is to come. We &s;hould not take up only with the form of god|line&s;s, but &s;hew the power and efficacy of it in our lives and conver&s;ations; we &s;hould &s;ift and &s;earch our Souls to the bottom, and prepare to meet our God with hearty repentance and humiliation. We &s;hould never venture to over-reach our Brethren, to make a prey of the help|le&s;s Orphan, or with the <HI>Phari&s;ee,</HI> to de|vour Widows Hou&s;es; but &s;quare all our actions according to the exacte&s;t rules of equity and ju&s;tice. For who is he among&s;t us, that can grapple with Hell? Who can dwell with everla&s;ting Burnings? If the Righteous, Ju&s;t, and Holy &s;hall &s;carcely be &s;aved, where &s;hall the Wicked, the Un|ju&s;t, the Extortioner appear, when God &s;hall come in the Clouds of Heaven to deal fury to his Adver&s;aries, and recom|pence to his Enemies? When Heaven and Earth &s;hall fly away from the face of the Judge, who&s;e Throne the <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Dan.</HI> 7.9.</NOTE> Pro|phet tells us is a Flame of Fire,
<PB N="129" REF="69"> and who&s;e Chariot-wheels burning Fire? When the Sun being turned into Dark|ne&s;s, and the Moon into Blood; the Stars falling from Heaven, and that too pa&s;&s;ing away with a great noi&s;e, and the Firma|ment melting with &s;ervent heat; In a word, when the Devils and other repro|bate Spirits lamentably howling, and Hell dreadfully dilating her &s;elf to receive them all, the &s;ight &s;hall be &s;o terrible, that the Heavenly Attendants them&s;elves &s;hall trem|ble; <HI>Cherubims,</HI> as the <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Chry&s;o&s;t. in loco &s;u|pr&agrave; citato.</HI></NOTE> Father tells us, &s;hall quake, <HI>Seraphims</HI> be a&s;toni&s;hed, Angels be &s;eized with horrour, Arch-Angels with amazement, and all the created Powers of Earth and Heaven &s;hake and tremble. Again then, &s;ince all the&s;e things will certainly come to pa&s;s, let us take care to live in all Holy Conver&s;ation and God|line&s;s, that when&s;oever our Lord &s;hall come, whether in the Evening, or at Midnight, or at Cock-crowing, he may not find us unju&s;tly harra&s;&s;ing our Fellow Servants, and &s;o cut us a&s;under, and give us our portion with the Hypocrites; but indefa|tigably employed in that ble&s;&s;ed Work of do|ing Ju&s;tice, and loving Mercy, that &s;o being found covered with the robes of Righteou&s;|ne&s;s, we may al&s;o be cloath'd with the gar|ments of Salvation.</P>
<PB N="130" REF="70">
<P>La&s;tly, You have &s;een, that God is Good; &s;o Good, that, as the ve|ry <NOTE N="&dagger;" PLACE="marg"><HI>Hier. in aur. Car. p.</HI> 130. <HI>Edit. Lond.</HI></NOTE> Heathen confe&s;&s;eth, he can|not do any thing, but what tends to the Happine&s;s and Wel|fare of his Creatures. Let us then never be &s;o ungrateful, &s;o di&s;inge|nuous, as to affront or offend our Friend and Benefactor. Him, who both at fir&s;t in his mercy brought us forth out of the aby&s;s of emptine&s;s and nothing, and al&s;o &s;till graciou&s;ly upholds us with his hand from falling into the &s;ame original nothing again. Him, who, when we had made our &s;elves Slaves to Sin, Children of Wrath, and Heirs of Eternal Damnation, humbly di&s;robed him&s;elf of all his Glories, and for our &s;akes &s;ubmitted to the mo&s;t ignominious, as well as painful Death of the Cro&s;s. Him, who pur&s;ues us with the daily offers of his Grace, and even lays &s;tratagems of mercy for our refor|mation. But to &s;peak more particularly; all we, who &s;tile our &s;elves Chri&s;tians, have e&s;pecially ta&s;ted, and &s;een how gra|cious the Lord is. We have long &s;ate under his &s;hadow with great delight, while&s;t his Banner over us has been con|tinually Love. We have plighted our Faith, and in our Bapti&s;m given him our
<PB N="131" REF="70"> Hearts, and &s;aid with the enamour'd and pa&s;&s;ionate Spou&s;e in the <HI>Canticles:</HI> I am my Beloveds, and my Beloved is mine. Shall any one of us then, after all the&s;e charms and endearments, after &s;o many ties and obligations to Love and Obedi|ence, go backward, and walk no longer with our God? God forbid, that this &s;hould ever be laid to our charge. For, alas! This is (then which, as that glorious Martyr, St. <HI>Polycarp</HI> generou&s;ly confe&s;&s;ed to the Proconful, nothing can be more ba&s;e) even to betray our Lord and Ma|&s;ter, after the obligations of Intimacy and Di&s;ciple&s;hip; and to break the Tables of his Law, after we have been with him on the Mount, and &s;een the Back-parts of his Glory. This is to provoke God after he hath been mo&s;t gracious, and to de&s;pi&s;e his goodne&s;s merely becau&s;e he is merci|ful. This is to multiply iniquities, be|cau&s;e he is ready to multiply Pardons, to kick again&s;t the Bowels of his Compa&s;|&s;ion, and to rebel again&s;t the Scepter of his Grace held forth in the tenders of it. And can we think, that the Men, that do the&s;e things, &s;hall die the common death of all Men, or be vi&s;ited after the vi&s;itation of all Men? No: However we may flatter our &s;elves, God will undoubted|ly
<PB N="130" REF="71"> make a new thing, and puni&s;h them in a far greater mea&s;ure, than any other Sin|ners, that all may under&s;tand, that the&s;e Men e&s;pecially have provoked the Lord. They &s;hall have the deepe&s;t &s;hare in the horrors of that dreadful day, when God &s;hall plead with them from Heaven in the thunder of his Judgments, becau&s;e they de&s;pi&s;ed, and neglected, and turned their backs upon the &s;till voice of his Mercy. They &s;hall be irrevocably condemned to the lowe&s;t place of Torments, and be made the wonder and a&s;toni&s;hment of Men and Angels to all Eternity. O then, con&s;ider this ye that fearle&s;ly offend your good God, le&s;t his abu&s;ed Mercy thus turn into fury, and he pluck you away, and there be none to deliver you. Con&s;ider, I &s;ay, all this, and quit your &s;elves like Men. Rouze up the drow&s;ie, &s;leeping faculties of your un|thinking, unreflecting Souls, and then I can ea&s;ily promi&s;e my &s;elf, that you will out of mere gratitude, mere ingenuity take care &s;o to behave your &s;elves towards your unwearied, your eternal Benefactor in this World, that, when your Bodies &s;hall lie down in their Beds of Darkne&s;s, he will receive your enlarged Souls into tho&s;e &s;erene and peaceful Man&s;ions, where with all the company of ble&s;&s;ed Spirits, they
<PB N="131" REF="71"> &s;hall joyfully expect the glorious dawn|ing of that Thrice-happy day, when Bo|dies and Souls &s;hall be re-united, and with Joy and Singing enter into the Glory of the Lord.</P>
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<DIV1 TYPE="publisher's advertisement">
<PB REF="72">
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