976 Light is a strange work of God there [is (om

976 Light is a strange work of God there [is (om. E)] nothing in the whole external creation wherein appears a more admirable contrivance. Now this appears to be the same in this solar system and in all those infinitely distant systems.

[This long entry is an argument for the unity of G ag the notion that there are many gods upholding the universe. It uses the Newtonian discoveries of gravitation to say that all the innumerable bodies and stars seem to be governed by the same laws; therefore there must be only one administrator of these laws, and a multiplicity of gods each with its own system of laws and therefore conflicting with one another's domains wouldn't work in the smooth fashion in which the universe actually does. My Q: who on earth is E arguing ag? Who on earth is a polytheist? No one. So what gives? Someone must be saying that the cosmos argues for a multiplicity of gods.]

partly it is that it is said that X shall come in the glory of his Father, & so when X shall recieve his consummate glory & reward & his new creation shall be compleated, he will recieve this glory from the hands of the Father [next a new sitting]

¶When it is said in SS. that God made the worlds by X & that all things were made by him whether visible or invisible &c-- the natural signification of such expressions don't import that he made himself, or made that of himself which was made any more than when it is said that God shall put all things under his feet excepting him that put all things under him the expressions import that he was put under himself & whereas it is said that without him was not any thing made that was made, I answer to this 1. That the evangelist is there speaking of the work of creation that we have an account of in ss. that was wrought in the beginning of the world 2 Tho the expression is so universal yet it is not natural to understand it of any thing more than that all things that were created besides himself the Creatour. 3. Tho the creation of the human nature of X bent by X economically or dont especially belong to him as a work appointed him in the order constituted among the persons of the Trinity with respect to their operations & actions ad extra yet tis true the creation of the human nature of X is not without the Son as all the persons of the Trinity do concur in all acts ad extra, as the creation of the world & raised [sic] the bodies of saints &c are especially the work of the Son of God in his economical office but yet they are not done without the Father & are often ascribed to the Father. The Father & the Son produce the same works Joh. 5.17.19.20.21.

¶Tho the man X Jesus be a creature the chief of all creatures yet at the same time that tis asserted of him that he created all things visible & invisible yet there is an evident distinction made between this first born of every creature that is the maker & all things in heaven & earth visible & invisible that are made by him Colos. 1. 15.16.17.18.19. Who is the image of the invisible God the first born of every creature For by him were all things created that are in heaven & that are in earth, visible & invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him & for him & he is before all things & by him all things consist and he is the head of the body the church who is the beginning the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. The things that are here spoken of X are spoken of him as God man either so actually or so by constitution or immutable undertaking & appointment all things are from him as God man but he him [sic] as God man is from the Father he is here spoken of as the image of the invisible God the image i.e. of the F. the Father is the author of his own image as in Heb. 1. 4. He is called the brightness or the shining forth of the Fathers glory & the express image of his person. which shews that the glory of this image as it exists in the view of the creature comes immediately from the Father as light does from the sun or as effulgence does from a luminary & yet there he is spoken of as the Author of all things in the last words preceding the Apostle speaks of his making the worlds in the next of his upholding all things by the word of his power . in that place in Colos. 1. he is spoken of as the image of the invisible G. as the first born of every creature. Therefore as he is the first born of every creature and by his incarnation whereby he is a creature he is born of God the Father and so by his second birth his resurrection whereby he is the first born from the dead, spoken of v. 18. he is also from the F. & all his fullness & glory is from the F. /p. 2/ as it follows in the next v. For it hath pleased the F that in him all fullness should dwell. all Xs fullness is from the Father altho all the creatures fullness be from him & he filleth all in all fills all things both in heaven & in earth.

¶Thus tho X has made all things yet his own human nature as [mg] & do [sic] shew forth more immediately the glory of the Son of God yet Xs own human nature with all its fullness & glory (which is more than all other crea as much as all other creatures in heaven & earth with all their glory put together) is from the glory of the F (as the expression is Rom. 6. 4..) & in him they shall behold the glory of the Father (as they will when he comes in the clouds of heaven when it is said he shall come in the glory of the F) as they will behold the glory of the Son in the glory & fullness of the creatures that are from the Son & also in the glory of the human nature of X tho not as the cause of that glory yet as the subject of it

¶as the Father never produced any other external work but only the human nature of X & the glory he is advanced to as God man so God never spake with an external voice but when it was either to or concerning his Son it is meet that as the Person is from the Father so every thing appertaining to him should be from the Father [finis] [N.B. This No. is at least partly inspired by the previous eschatological speculations. It is also one of the first to deal specifically with the "oeconomy of the Trinity."]

¶959. HEATHENS had what they had of truth in divine things by TRADITION from the first fathers of nations or from the Jews]. [E's brack's. here and following] add this to 953 & what follows 956.] Plato in his Cratylus tells us plainly that they the Grecians recieved letters from <the gods by> certain barbarians more antient than themselves. Gales Court of Gen. P.1. B.1. C.2. p.12. The words of Diodorus Siculus are these Biblioth. lib. 1. According to that antient institution of life which was in Egypt under the gods & heroes in those fabulous times it is said that Moses was the first who perswaded the people to use written laws and to live thereby -- Moses a man commemmorated to have been of a great soul & well ordered life Gale. P.1. B.1. C.9. p. 89. Pausanias speaking of Silenus [which is the same with the Shiloh that Jacob foretold. See SS. No 403]. he says Eliacon. 2.

The monument of Silenus remains in the countrey of the Hebrews. Gales Court of Gen. P.1. B 2. C. 6. p.69.

¶Tho Sanchoniathon derived the best part of his historick philosophy or mythology from some Jewish priest or minister of the true God is openly acknowledged by Porphyry, who was his own countreyman a Tyrian being called in the Tyrian tongue Malchus and therefore best able to know as also a great admirer of Sanchoniathon, but bitter enemy to Christians and so as we may suppose would not mention willingly any thing that might tend to the honour of the Xtians God, yet this Porphyry plainly confesseth in Lib. 4. against Xtians that Sanchoniathon besides the help he had from the commentaries of the cities and from the monuments or memories of the temples had for his assistance in composing his history

So Euseb. & Bochart & Vossius Porphyrie moreover says that Moses & Sanchoniathon gives the names of persons & places alike. Bochart says ""This Ierombalus is the same with Jerubbaal as the learned have formerly observed". that which strengthens the suspicion is that presently after Gideons death the Israelites worshipped Baal-Beryth or Beryti, from the City. [see further No 962.].

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Porphyry acknowledges that Plato took many things from the Hebrews as Theodoret observes. Grotius de verit. B 1. Sect 16. notes. [The last is a later addition at bottom of MS p.] [finis]

¶960 ORIGINAL SIN. as mysterious as this doctrine is and as unreasonable as it is thought by many who wont recieve it from such plain revelations as we have of it some of the wisest of the heathen recieved it only from those distant & dimm traditions they had from the antient progenitors of mankind or from the Jewish church So Plato Timaeus Locrus fol. 103. says ""The cause of viciosity is from our parents and first principles, rather than from our selves; so that we never relinquish those actions which lead us to follow those primitive blemishes of our first parents &c" whence elsewhere he says ""there is well nigh in every one an ingenit evil and disease" So Plato de Legibus The greatest evil of all is implanted in many men, and fixed in their souls, wherein men pleasing themselves at last grow so intangled as they cannot wind themselves out." This ingenit corruption he terms self-love. &c-- Again Plato (Gorgias fol. 493) terms this state of man under sin a moral or spiritual death & that according to the opinion of the wise. & therefore he & other philosophers used to say that the body was the sepulcre of the soul. & Grotius affirms that the philosophers acknowledged that it was connatural to men to sin. Plato mentions the corruption of the will & seems to disown any free will to true good albeit he allows some or natural disposition to civil good in some great heroes. Yea he brings in Socrates refuting that opinion that vertue was teacheable & he discourseth very largely & divinely touching the irregularities of the passions & affections. add to this 966. [finis]

¶961 SABBATH. A seventh days sabbath was generally observed by pagan idolaters Linus the antient poet makes mention of a seventh day observed among the saints so Hesiod speaks of the seventh holy day So Porphyry in his book of the Jews quoted by Euseb. tells us that the Phenicians consecrated to their principal god Saturn, whom they also called Israel one day in seven as holy &c. And the Grecians in commemoration of Apollo's victory over Python are said every seventh day to sing an hymn to Apollo who instituted the Pythick games or holy days the first seventh day after his victory. Aulus Gellius L. 13. C.2. speaks of certain ethnic doctors that were wont to philosophize only on the seventh day: to which suits sutes that of Lucian in Pseudologista touching the seventh day's being granted to schoolboys as an holy-day: whence also Lampridius in Alex. Severus observes of him that the seventh day, when he was in the city he ascended the capitol, and frequented the temples. Thus Clem. Alexandrinus says not only the Hebrews but also the Greeks observe the seventh day as holy So Euseb. 14 de prep. Evang. L 13. affirms that not only the Hebrews but almost all the philosophers and poets, acknowledged the seventh day as more holy. Yea Josephus in his last book against Appion affirms, That there could be found no city, either of the Grecians or barbarians, who own'd not a seventh days rest from labour. This sabbath or seventh days rest which the holy seed of Noah observed as holy to God, the idolatrous seed consecrated to the sun, their supreme god and called it dies solis, Sunday. This idolatrous translation of the sabbath from God to the sun seems to have been very antient, & therefore not so much in imitation of the Jewish church as of the patriarchs & holy seed of Shem so Lud. Capell. Thesaur. Salmur. de cultu ""In the most antient writings of the Ethnicks viz. of Homer, Linus Orpheus, Callimachus &c-- There are extant various testimonies of a seventh day, sacred in general, as also of a seventh day recurrent, observed by the ethnics as sacred which observation seems to have been derived to them from the fathers & long usage" The like I find in /p. 4/ Usher his Discourse on the Sabbath p. 73. The heathens says he had their knowledge of God from the first fathers by tradition who lived before the dispersion. Gales Court of Gen. P.1. B.2 C.9. p. 150. see further 974. & 1013. [finis]

¶962. add this to 959. TRADITIONS of the heathen &c--] [E's brack.] from the city Berytum whence Sanchoniathon sprang so Judg. 8. 33. Whence it is most likely that Gideon making a league, or having frequent commerce with some Berytian person of great fame it gave occasion to this piece of Jewish idolatry, otherwise unknown for we find not the name Baal Beryth mention'd else-where. Nonnus [?] teacheth us, that this town of Beryth or Berytum recieved its name from Beroe the daughter of Venus and Adonis, who was worshipped in these parts for a goddess". [beg. " ?] Thus Bochart Certain it is from the Scriptures above mention'd that those of Beryth or Berytum where Sanchoniathon lived had a great commerce or correspondence with the Jews in or immediately after Gideons time and the Jews recieved from those of Beryth their idol Baal Beryth or Baal of Beryth. So we may suppose they communicated to these Phenicians some of their own Scriptural traditions, out of which Sanchoniathon composed his History. Whoever this Jerombalus was yet certain it is that he was priest of the true God for Iao is the same with Jah or Jehovah for so the Greeks called the God of the Jews. So in the oracle of Clarius [?] Apollo ""Let him be thy greatest God, whose name is Iao. So Diodorus lib. [sic] saies [sic] that Moses among the Jews owned the God called Iao as the author of his laws. & the Gnosticks in Irenaeus reckon up seven names of God whereof Iao is the second. and Jerom in his Commentaries on Ps. 8. reads it Jaho. Gales Court of Gen. P.2. B 1 p. 50.51.52.

¶""Not only sacred by also many of the profane writers have mention'd Abraham as Hecataeus who writ a book particularly of Abraham so Euseb. Also Alexander Polyhistor. who says that Abraham born in the tenth generation after the flood was the inventor of astrology among the Chaldeans. Damascenus Hist. lib. 4. writes that Abraham coming from Chaldea with an army reigned at Damascus. Hence he passed into Canaan leaving a great memory behind him at Damascus. but when Canaan was press'd with famine he travell'd thence into Egypt and entring into debates with those priests, he much profited them both on the knowledge of things, and also for piety and the ordering their manners & life Alexander reports that he lived some time at Heliopolis, neither did he profess himself to be the inventor of astrology, but to have recieved it from his ancestors by whose hands it was conveyed unto him even from Enoch. Artapanus reports that the Hebrews were so named from Abraham who lived 20 years in Egypt where he taught Pharetates the Egyptian king the knowledge of the stars & thence returned into Syria." Thus Lud. Vives. Baleus (de Script. Brit. Cant[?] 10. fol. 3.) tells us out of Phil Malphius, of the lives of learned men that Abraham found out the Syriack and Chaldee letters also many principles of astrology, for he was a prudent & holy man and excellencty[sic] learned as to human matters: And after this abode among the Egyptian wise men. he was the first that instructed them in astronomy & arithmetick, for before his coming into Egypt the Egyp-/p. 5/tians were altogether ignorant of these sciences so Baleus. Berosus the famous Chaldean historian says, in these words ""In the tenth generation after the flood, there was among the chaldeans, a just & great man, & well skilled in the knowledge of the heavens." Josephus Antiquit. l 1. c 7. cites this passage of Berosus and adds that Abraham who was the tenth from Noah was signified by it And this is confirmed by what is said of Abraham by Eupalemus in Euseb. That he was the inventor of astrology and the Chaldaic art of divination. which is an evident confession of an heathen. Gales Court of Gen. P.2. B.1. C.1. p. 9.10

¶I find a great confirmation of what has been mentioned touching Abrahams philosophy in Hornius Hist. Philosoph. l. 2. c. 10. ""Abraham was a man renowned not only among sacred but also among profane writers viz of who [sic] Hecataeus wrote a whole book, and Berosus. Nic. Damascenus, Alexander. Eupalemus, Mela, with many others cited by Eusebius, make mention of him &c--Orpheus sung that God of old revealed himself to one Chaldean alone <see further of this No 1014 ( > ------------ When he came into Canaan, it may not be doubted, but that the Phenicians drew from him the rudiments of purer wisdom, for he was much in favour with the princes of that countrey and venerable among their kings Gales Court of Gen. P.2. B.1. C.1. p. 9.10.11.12. That the Chaldeans recieved their skill in astrology & astronomy as aforesaid is the more probable if we consider the great advantages the antediluvians were under to observe the heavens & gain experience of their influences on the earth by reason of that perpetually clear heaven they enjoyed and by reason of their long lives and the skill they gained was probably transmitted to some of their posterity through many generations and those of their posterity among whom their other traditions were upheld viz. their traditions about religion, were most likely to retain these for 'tis probable these traditions were communicated together. And particularly their traditions concerning the nature and influences of the heavenly bodies would be most likely to [be (om. E.)] upheld in the church of God in which were upheld the traditions concerning the manner & ends of their creation of God, how they were created to rule the day & night & to be for times & for seasons for days & for years. & also because the knowledge the antidiluvian patriarchs by observation & experience had of these things tended much to shew forth the power & wisdom of the great Creatour & Governour of the world 'Tis therefore most likely that the skill of this nature which Noah had from his ancestours or by his own observations in his long life should be upheld in the family of Shem and the line of Abraham in whose line the sacred traditions of these patriarchs was chiefly upheld

¶Coroll 1 That so much is said in antient tradition & history of Abrahams great skill in astronomy & astrology & his teaching the Chaldeans & Egyptians & Phenicians those sciences, & that this was the /p. 6/ original of these sciences among these nations from whom the Greeks recieved them is a great confirmation that the antient astrology had its first rise from the great experience and long observations of the antediluvians, tho' it soon exceedingly degenerated & was so mix'd & corrupted, that at length it became a diabolical art

¶Corol. 2. These things also confirm that human learning & all usefull & noble knowledge and not only knowledge in things divine & spiritual was originally from the chh of God in all ages of the world as the light of the gospel has most evidently been the occasion of all civility & all noble & usefull knowledge in these all such knowledge since Christ So that [no (om. E.)] barbarous nation has recieved so much as civility but from the chh of X.

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¶Plato in his Cratilus fol. 426. acknowledgeth that the first institution of letters was from the gods by certain barbarians. By which it is exceeding likely he has reference to the revelations God made of himself to the Jews or their ancestours that he means by certain barbarians This is confirmed by what we find in Tatianus (contra Graecos Oratio) Thus translated ""It becomes not you O Grecians to prosecute the barbarians with so much enmity, and to be so invidious against their placits. for what is there of study among you, which drew not its origine from the Barbarians" Then having largely explicated the chief parts of the Grecian learning he proceeds to demonstrate that the Mosaic wisdom which he calls barbarick was most antient ""Therefore saith he I have bid adieu to the vain glory of the Romans, to the frigid eloquence of the Athenians, and their contentious studies, and have embraced the barbarick philosophy, which how it is more antient than your disciplines, I now proceed to explicate". This he demonstrates very accurately by evincing that Moses was more antient than Berosus who writ the Chaldean annals yea than Cadmus &c--whence he concludes thus ""Hence it appears that Moses was more antient than those antient heroes & it is but equal that we give credit to the elder, rather than to the Grecions, who drew their dogmas, not rightly understood from the others fountain. For many of the Grecian sophists, being induced by a certain curiosity endeavoured to deprave, & pervert whatever they learn'd from Moses, or the like wise men: which they did partly that they might make that their own, which they drew from others, partly that under a feigned composition of speech, concealing what they understood not they might corrupt the truth by their comments." Thus Tatianus. Plato makes mention of certain Syrian & Phenician fables that he calls ineffable So Plato de repub. l. 3. tells us of a Phenician fable touching the fraternity of all men made out of the earth. Bochart in his Phaleg tells us that Herodotus calls the Jews Phenicians. So Xenophon tells us the Jews were called Syrians. G. C. of Gen. P.2. B.3. C.2. P.227.228 add to this 969. [finis]

¶963. GODS MORAL GOVERNMENT & SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. TRADITIONS OF THE HEATHEN CONCERNING THEM] [E's Brack. here and following] add to this to num. 954.]. Iamblicus tells us ""that Pythagoras proposed, that all things we resolve to do, should tend to the solemn acknowledgment of the divinity, that the whole of mans life should consist in following God which is the ground of all philosophy. For since there is a God (says he) we must acknowledge it is in his power to do us good. Now all give good things to such as they love, and delight in: Therefore it is manifest that such things are to be performed in which God delights, from whom alone good is to be sought for" Gales Court of Gen. P.2. B.2. C.8. p.184. Pythagoras instituted that God should be worshipped with a pure mind, & such decent CEREMONIES as were by him appointed. So Diogenes Laertius. Pythagoras says he held that honours are to be performed to the gods according to their own appointment with a white garment & chaste body, & soul, which purification is acquired by expurgations, washings, sprinklings, & separation from whatever is unclean. Ibid. p. 185. [It appears very likely that Pythagoras had these notions from the Jews.]. The doctrine of the Persian Magi from Zoroastres was ""That there is one supream being independent & self existing from all eternity, that under him there are two angels one the angel of light who is the author & director of all good, & the other the angel of darkness who is the author & director of all evil. And that these two out of the mixture of light & darkness made all things that are: That they are in a perpetual struggle with each other: and that where the angel of light prevails there is most good, & where the angel of darkness prevails, there the most evil. that this struggle shall continue to the end of the world that then there shall be a general resurrection and day of judgment, where in just retribution shall be render'd to all according to their works. after which the angel of darkness & his disciples shall go into a world of their own, where they shall suffer in everlasting darkness, the punishment of their evil deeds, and the angel of light & his disciples shall go into a world of their own, where they shall recieve in everlasting light, the reward due to their good deeds, & that after this they shall remain separated forever, & light & darkness be no more mix'd together to all eternity. And all this the remainder of that sect, which is now in Persia & India, do without any variation, after so many ages still hold to this day. Thus Prid. Part. 1. p. 304.305. citing for the proof of these things in the margin Diogenes Laertius & Plutrach & Shahristanus Religio vet. Persarum. see also p. 331.

¶Seneca says ""All men have engrafted in 'em an opinion concerning Gods, neither is there any nation SO VOID OF LAWS OR GOOD MANNERS that it doth not believe there are some gods." Barrows Works. vol. 2. Serm. 7 p. 88.

¶There was a general concurrence of the heathen nations that the gods did constantly exercise both benignity & justice suitable to the deserts & needs of man; encouraging & assisting blessing & rewarding vertuous & pious men controlli controuling [sic] & chastising such as were outrageously unjust & impious. That God at seasons used to declare his mind to men, his approbation or displeasure in regard to their doings, by accidents preternatural and prodigious. To these opinions were answerable divers common practices such as deprecating divine vengeance, making acknowledgments to God in hymns & praises, expiating guilt & appeasing Gods wrath by purgations & sacrifices, fortifying testimonies & promises by oath, or appeal to divine knowledge & justice, invoking upon condition Gods judgments upon themselves or others which is called cursing . So Dr Barrow. Vol. 2d of his works. p. 93. (See further No 978.

¶See Dr Clarks. Evid. p 61. 62. 63. 65. 68. 69. 72. 94.a.b. 107. 118. 119. 122. [finis; last ref. may be later than "see further" ref.]

¶964. MYSTERIES. The wiser Heathen were sensible that the things of [the (c)] God[s c] are so high above us that no other is to be expected than that what appertains to them should appear exceeding mysterious & wonderfull to us & that 'tis therefore unreasonable to disbelieve what we are taught concerning them on that account. ""This is fully expressed by that great symbol of the Pythagoreans, ["the" xo and "Pythagoreans" changed to "Pythagoras"--by c] viz. Concerning the Gods disbelieve nothing wonderfull nor yet concerning divine things. [E's underlining] This, says Iamblicus, if applied to divine Revelation is excellently usefull [xo by E] declareth the superlative excellency of Gods Instructing us, & puts us in mind that we ought not to Estimate the divine Power by our own Judgment. The Pythagoreans stretched this Rule beyond the line of divine Revelation to the belief of Every Oriental Tradition Gales Court of Gen. P. 2. B 2. C. 8. p. 190. [Printed as Part II, § 4, M. O., p. 390.]

965. SPIRITUAL PRIDE. See Gales Court of Gen. P.2. B.2. C.10. §17. p.204. Albeit the Pythagoreans were thus famous for Judaic mysterious wisdom, and many moral as well as natural accomplishments, yet were they not exempted from boasting & pride, which was indeed a vice most epidemick, and as it were congenial among all the philosophers; but in a more particular manner among the Pythagoreans So Hornius Hist. Philosoph. l. 3. C. 11. ""The manners of the Pythagoreans were not free from boasting They were all , such as abounded in the sense and commendation of their own excellencies, and boasting even almost to the degree of immodesty and impudence as great Heinsius ad Horat. has rightly observed". Thus indeed does proud nature delight to walk in the sparks of its own fire. And altho' many of these old philosophers could by the strength of their own lights, & heats, together with some common elevations, and raisures of spirit (peradventure from a more than ordinary tho not special & saving assistance of the Spirit) abandon many grosser vices, yet they were all deeply immersed in that miserable cursed abysse of spiritual pride. So that all their natural moral & philosophick attainments, did feed nourish, strengthen and render most inveterate this hell bred pest of their hearts yea those of them that seem'd most modest, as the Academicks who professed they knew nothing, and the Cynicks who greatly decried both in words & habits the pride of others, yet even these abounded in most notorious & visible pride. So connatural & morally essential to corrupt nature is this envenom'd root fountain & plague of spiritual pride especially where there is any natural, moral or philosophick excellence to feed the same: whence Austin rightly judged all these philosophick vertues to be but splendid sins. [finis]

¶966. add this to 960. ORIGINAL SIN. Socrates asserted 1. The spiritual infinite eternal nature of God and his unity, which was the great article for which he suffered a kind of martyrdom. 2. The corruption of human nature or 3 A native blindness in which all men are inveloped. 4. That vertue was not teacheable or requirable by nature or art, but the product of divine inspiration Gales Court of Gen. P.1. B.3. C.3. p.215. [finis]

¶967. INFUSED GRACE. Socrates held that vertue was not teachable or acquirable by nature or art, but the product of divine inspiration. Thus Plato in Meno fol. 89. brings in Socrates thus discoursing ""Having therefore often sought if there were any preceptors of vertue, after all my endeavours I could find none" So fol. 99. ""vertue is neither from nature nor teacheable, neither gain'd by science." Then he brings in Socrates concluding more positively thus ""vertue then is neither from nature, nor teacheable, but it comes by divine inspiration, without the concurrence of human understanding in those to whom it is communicated" Thus Plato. Yea he adds in the same fol. 99. ""That God useth the most unskillfull instruments in communicating this grace to men" Socrates also asserted that all true knowledge of God came by divine infusion. So Plato in his Alcibiad. fol. 124. brings in Socrates thus bespeaking Alcibiades ""We have need of a common council, by what means we may become best. Neither do I affirm this only of thee Alcibiades that thou wantest discipline, but that I my self mostly need it. Neither do I at all differ from thee, this one thing being excepted; that my tutor viz. God is better & wiser than thine viz Pericles." so again Plato Alcibiad fol. 135. brings in socrates thus dialogizing with Alcibiades Socrates dost thou know by what means thou mayst avoid this inordinate motion of thy mind? Alcibiades Yes. Soc. How? Alcib If thou wilt Socrates Socrat. Thou speakest not rightly Alcibiades Alcib. How then must I speak? Socrat. if God will. Again Plato in his Theat. fol. 151. brings in Socrates alluring Theaetetus, a young man of an happy ingeny to his philosophy in order whereto he affirms that he was i.e endowed with a midwifes faculty to draw forth the conceptions of mens minds. But withal he adds that God alone was the efficient, & he only a midwife employed by God & says, God has compelled me to play the midwife but forbad me to generate & fol. 210. he expressly says I and my mother recieved this midwifes faculty from God Gales Court of Gen. P.2. B.3. C.1. p.215.216. See N 1028 [finis]

¶968. HUMILIATION. TRUSTING IN OUR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS OR WISDOM OR STRENGTH.]. [E's brack.] Socrates lays this down as the first principle & foundation of all philosophy know thyself So plato Alcibiad. 24. brings in Socrates advising him to the study of himself thus, 'But believe me and the Delphick oracle, ""Know thy self." He tells us fol. 134. that they who know not themselves, know nothing of their own goods or ills, nor of any such thing that belonged to them, yea that they know nothing of other affairs, and therefore could never make good politicians or governours of families. He also affirms that all sin proceeds from [mg.] from a conceited ignorance, which makes men presume they know what indeed they are ignorant of. He shews how many have errd from the best mark, because they trusted in their own opinion; whereas those who are conscious of their ignorance, will commit themselves to the teaching of others. He says this is the best modesty & wisdom to know a mans self. He gives us the root of this self knowledge viz. the knowledge of God. He also informs us touching its true object & act viz that it is a reflex knowledge of the soul its habits acts &c-- & the more effectually to convince Alcibiades of his and proud arrogance Socrates draws a parallel 'twixt him & the Persian monarchs thereby to shew him how inconsiderable he was. So Plato Alcib. fol. 102. See Gales Court of Gen. P.2. B 3. C.1. p.220. [finis]

¶969. add this to 962. TRADITION of the Heathen from the antients & Jews.] [E's brack.] Aristobulus a Jew who flourished about 200 years after Plato cited by Clem. Alexandrinus as also by Eusebius says thus of Plato. ""He followed our law or institution and diligently inspected or searched into all those things mentiond therein. Clemens Alexandrinus, & Eusebius make mention of one Clearchus Solensis a disciple of Aristotles who testifieth that he saw a certain Jew, with whom Aristotle had conversation Eusebius's words are these, Clearchus a peripatetick philosopher in his first Book of Sleep, saith ""That whilst Aristotle lived in the maritime regions of Asia, amongst other students of philosophy, there associated himself to him a certain studious inquisitive Jew, who conversing familiarly with Aristotle and his disciples he communicated more than he recieved (which last according to Clearchus's relation are Aristotles words). Then Eusebius adds Honoured Clemens makes mention also hereof in Strom. 1. concerning which he thus speaks clearchus the peripatetick (says he) knew a certain Jew who had conversation with Aristotle. Gale C of Gen. P.2. B.4. C.1. p 358 See concerning Zoroastres & the Persian magi & how much they derived from the Jews of the antient patriarchs by tradition Prid. Connec. P.1. from p.300 to 306 & p. 310, 311. & especially 318, 319. It was probably through his hands that the Greeks derived many of their traditions from the antient patriarchs & Jews. For as Prid in his Connec. P.1. p. 322. 323. observes ""The Greeks had the name of Zoroastres in great esteem, speaking of him as the great master of all /p. 11/ human & divine knowledge. Diogenes Laertius in Procenio. Plato Aristotle Plutarch & Porphyry mention him with great honour & so do others. Plyny saith much of him, & particularly remarks that he was the only person that laughed on the day that he was born; & that the pulsation of his head was then so strong, that it heaved up the hand laid upon it, which last he saith was a presage of his future learning. Solinus tells us the same story of his laughing on the day of his birth & saith that he was optimarum artium peritissimus. And Apuleius's character of him is that he was omnis divini arcani antistes. Cedremus names him as a famous astronomer among the Persians; & Suidas says of him that he excell'd all others in that science and they who write of Pythagoras do almost all of them tell us that he was the scholar of Zorastres at Babilon & learned of him & his disciples the magians, most of that knowledge which after wards render'd him so famous in the west. So saith Apuleius, & so say Iamblicus, Porphyry, & Clemens Alexandrinus. For the Zabratus & Zoratus of Porphyry & the Na-zorotus of Clemens were none other than this Zoroastres" see further of this matter in Prid. Part 1. p. 323.324.325.326. See further No. 973. [finis]

¶970. add this to 955. TRADITIONS of the TRINITY among the HEATHEN]. [E's brack.] Plato in Epistle 6. fol. 323. discourseth particularly & distinctly of the way & means of the worlds restoration & conservation ""Let there (says he) be a law constituted, and confirmed by oath, calling to witness the God of all things, the Governour of beings present, and things to come; The Father of that governing cause whom according to our philosophy we make to be true being, who may be evidently known by all so far as it comes within the compass of happy knowing men."

¶Serranus on this place tells us, that some understand this description of Plato to refer to the Trinity as his Logos in Epaninonde has a peculiar respect to the Messias So Sandford tells us that this Trias or Trinity of the gods so famous among all nations was as some conjecture but a certain vestigium or footstep of the most sacred Trinity. Gale C. of G. P.1. B.3. C.5. p. 64. See also Gale. C of G. P.2. B.3. C.4. p.263.---- In this series we may rank the Platonick Trias Trinity, on which Plotinus his scholar, & Proclus after him spend such mystical & sublime discourses. Its confess'd that Plato gave some foundation for such an imaginary Trinity for he makes mention of , or and The Father, the Word or mind, & the universal spirit or soul. See also Gale. C. of Gen. P.2. B.3. C.9. p.319. The Platonists in their Trias make the soul of the world their universal spirit to be the third . From some traditional notice of the Trinity is probably that form of expression in Dan 4. 8. & other places of that book. The Spirit of the holy gods, which probably they had a notion of the same way that they had of the Son of God Dan. 3. 25 p. from p. 300 to 306. & p. 310, 311. & especially p. 318, 319.

¶The heathen wise men had a tradition among them that Love was the first & chief of the Gods. So said Parmenides. Barrows works. vol. 2. p. 92. see further 992. [finis; Barrow ref. is prob. later than 970 but before 992.]

¶971. XTIAN RELIGION TRAD[IT]IONS among the Heathen or Notions of their wise men concerning A MEDIATOUR or the need of one] [E's brack.] Plato discoursing professedly and at large concerning the daemons in his Politicus, but more particularly in his Symposium as also de legibus, teaches concerning [xo c] 1. Touching their natures, that they are made gods, visible gods; idols & images of the great God who was Maker of all things so Plato de Legib. 13. 2. Touching their office he says they were placed in the middle 'twixt the great God & man to be mediatours or porters for the conveying the sacrifices, & prayers of men to the gods: as also for the transmitting gifts & all good things from God to men together with an interpretation of the mind and will and precepts of God to men. whence 3. He says there is by the mediation of these daemons a communion and friendship maintain'd betwixt God and men which otherwise could not be So Plato Sympos. fol. 202. &c-- 4. as to the dignity of these daemons, he makes 'em to be co-rulers with the great God So Plato Politiculs [sic] fol. 251. See Gales Court of Gen. P.2. B 2 C. 8. p. 188. See No. 979. 2d p. near the bottom this mark . [finis; 14-15 1. sp. blank before next]

¶ 972. XTIAN RELIGION. That Jesus truly had the Spirit of Prophecy APPEARS BY THE FOLLOWING FACTS.

¶I. He foretold his death and the circumstances of it This he did very particularly and at several times Math 16. 21.

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He told his d. that he must go unto Jerusalem, & there suffer many things of the elders & chief priests & scribes and be killed Mark 10. 33, 34. & Math 20. 18. 19. He foretells [xo c] <old> [c] more particularly the manner of their proceeding against him That the chief priests & scribes should condemn him to death But that they should not put him to death but deliver him to the Gentiles to mock & scourge & crucify him. So Luke 21. 31. 32. 33. He foretold likewise the manner how this should be brought about Math 20. 18 That he should be betrayed into the hands of men & Math 17. 22. 23. The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men & they shall kill him. And he did particularly point out before hand the man that was to betray him, Math 26. 23 & v. 25 see Joh. 6. 70. & Joh. 13. 18.---33. He foretold that his d.<isciples [c]> should forsake him Math 26. 31 <& Joh. 16. 32.> all of you shall be offended because of me this night for it is written I will smite the shepherd & the sheep shall be scattered. <Christ long beforehand fortold the time <<when [c]>> & place where he should suffer & die, Luke [mg] Luke [sic] 13. 32. 33.> and when Peter declared his confident /p. 2 of No./ resolution to stick [xo c] <adhere> [c] to him he foretold that he should deny him with very particular circumstances of the time and manner of it Mark 14. 29. 30. 31 Math 26. 34, 35. Joh. 13. 38.

¶II. 2. He punctually foretold his resurrection with the circumstances of it. That he should rise again the third day Math 16. 21. So also Math 17. 23. Luke 9. 22 Luke 18. 33.-- [That if they destroyed that temple in three days he would build it up again John. 2. 19. That as Jonah was three days & three nights &c--- <Math 12. 40. See also Math 17. 9. & Mark 9. 9. 10.> ---- that he should lay down his life & take it again Joh. 10. 17. 18.].[JEs brackets] & told his d. that after he was risen he would go before them into Galilee Math 26. 32. which was accomplished Math 28. 16. So X often foretold his ascension into heaven Joh. 6. 62. Joh. 7. 33. 34. Joh. 8. 21. 22. 23. Joh. 14. 1---4 v 28. Joh. 16. 5---7. v. 28. Joh. 17. 5. 11.

¶III. 3. he foretold the descent of the H. Gh. on the Apostles in miraculous powers & gifts Luke 24. 49 Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endowed with power from on high. He specifies the place where the H. Gh. should descend and what the effects of this descent of the H. Gh. upon them should be. he tells [xo c] <told> [c] them particularly Mark 16. 17. 18 And these signs that [shall c] follow them that believe, In my name shall they cast out devils, & they shall speak with new tongues They shall take up serpents and if they shall drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them They shall lay hands on the sick & they shall recover all which was punctually fulfilld in [xo c] <as appears by> [c] the second of Acts & the following part of that history

¶IV. 4. He foretold the destruction of Jerusalem before the end of that age with the signs foregoing it & the concomitant circumstances of it. concerning this three things may be considered--

¶First. Our Saviours general prediction of the siege of Jerusalem & of the total destruction of the city. This our Saviour foretells <Luke 19. 14 with 27.> [Ibid. v. (c)] Luke 19. 41. 42. 43. 44. And when he was come near he beheld the city & wept over it, saying if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong &c-- For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another &c-- So Josephus tells us Lib. 6. That Titus raised a wall round about Jerusalem & kept them in on every side so that none could come out tho many thousands were famished with hunger [xo c] Math 23. 38 Christ says to Jerusalem Behold your house is left unto you desolate <and the two preceding verses represent the destruction as exceeding terrible. See also Luke 13. 32 to the end Luke 17. 25 to the end In the last v. 'tis implied the destruction should be by the Romans, as also Math 24. 28.> And at the beginning of the next chapter [xo c] <Luke XXIV> [c] when the d. were shewing him the beautifull structure of the Temple he foretells that there should not one stone be left upon another which should not be thrown down. <See also how X prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem & the greatness of it Math. 22. 6. 7 & Math 21. 33---45. & Luke 20. 9.---19.> so Josephus tells us Lib. 7. Bell. Jud. That when the Romans had taken the city Caesar gave order to lay it waste to the ground excepting some part of the wall which was left for the guards of soldiers & three of the strongest towers which he order'd to be left for /p. of No./ a standing monument of the Roman courage But all the rest of the city was so levelld that no man that should come to see it could believe that it was ever inhabited and the Roman History tells us that Turnus Rufus with a plough share did tear up the foundation of the Temple & left no part of it not so much as under ground undissolved

¶Secondly. We may consider our Saviours prediction of the signs which should forerun the destruction of Jerusalem viz. these eight

¶1. He foretells <that> [c] there should be false & counterfeit Christs or Messias Math 24. 4. 5. Take heed that no man decieve <you> [c] for many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ, & shall decieve many. This our Saviour gives as one of the first signs & therefore St Luke adds Chap. 21. 8 The time draweth near and it accordingly happend Josephus mentions several of these of whom tho Josephus do[es c] not expressly say that they called themselves the Messias yet he says that which is equivalent that they under took to rescue the people from the Roman yoke, which was the thing which the Jews expected that the Messias should do for them and therefore we find Luke 24. 21. That the d. that were going to Emmaus say we hoped that this had been he that should have redeemed Israel That being it seems a common periphrasis of the Messias. Such an one Theudas pretended himself to be not that Theudas of whom Gamaliel speaks Act. 15.[5 c] 36 but another of the same name who about 12 years after our Saviours death when Cuspius Fadus was procurator of Judea rose and seduced the people of whom Josephus Lib. 18 gives this account that being a sorcerer he rose up and decieved many. This man perswaded a great multitude to bring their goods and follow him down to the River Jordan which he promised by his command to divide and to give them a safe passage over it. But whilst he was thus playing the fool among the people, Fadus sent some forces, & surprized him and his company, killing many of them, and cutting off his head, & so there was an end of him. such likewise were those impostors who about 22 years after our Saviours death were so rife among them when Felix was governour of Judea of whom Josephus tells us that they drew multitudes after them into the wilderness, promising to work great signs & wonders before them. See Math 24. 26 if they shall say unto you he is in the desert go not forth. Such an one likewise was the Egyptian Prophet who as Josephus tells us came to Jerusalem much about the same time and perswaded the people to follow him to Mt Olivet perswading them that from thence they should see the walls of Jerusalem fall & so might enter the city which Felix understanding sent soldiers and slew & took several of them. But the Egyptian impostor himself made an escape which is the reason of that saying of the /p. 4 of No./ chief captain to Paul Act. 21. 38, Art not thou the Egyptian which before these days made an uproar &c-- such another was that impostor (if he be distinct from the former) who as Josephus tells us about three years after under Portius [sic] Festus the Procurator decieved the people with vain promises of deliverance, & ease from their oppressions if they would follow him into the wilderness but Festus sent soldiers and destroyed him and his company Thus were these words of X fulfilled Joh. 5. 43. I am come in my Father's name and ye recieve me not If another shall come in his own name him ye will recieve.

¶2. The next sign our Saviour gives is wars & rumours of wars famines pestilences earthquakes &c-- <Matt XXIV [c]> v. 6. 7. About this time the Jews began to be set upon in several places by the command of the Emperour & many thousands of em were slain at Alexandria & Babilon as Josephus tells us and there was a fear & rumour of a general war denounced against them by Caius Caligula the Emperour unless they would recieve his statue into the Temple. upon this rumour the whole nation was in a great astonishment, insomuch that the Jews left their business, & neglected to till their grounds expecting the Romans would have fallen upon them of which consternation both Josephus and Philo give us a particular account Our Saviour adds See that ye be not troubled for these things must come to pass but the end is not yet. that is when ye see the nation in this danger from the Romans be not ye troubled as the Jews will be thinking now will be the ruin of the nation. This & other things will happen before the final end come & accordingly it fell out for so Josephus & Tacitus tell us that this storm was blown over by the sudden death of the Emperour. verse 7. Nation shall rise up against nation. which happend under Claudius & Nero, the two next Roman emperours when in several cities as Caesaria & Ptolemais & many others the Jews & those other nations that inhabited those cities fell upon & destroyed one another as may be read at large in Josephus. and Kingdom against kingdom This seems to refer to the several provinces or tetrarchies in Palestine which were also called kingdoms which at this time had cruel wars against one another as the Jews & the Galileans against the Samaritans, and several others that Josephus speaks of And there shall be famines & pestilences Accordingly Josephus tells us that under Claudius Caesar there was a great famine in Judea viz that which was prophecied of by Agabus Act 11. 28. And this Grotius very probably supposeth to be the reason, why St Paul in his Epistles written about that time is so earnest with the Xtians to send relief to the saints that were in Judea. Pestilences [E's lines] they usually follow famine & earthquakes in divers places which happend in the times of Claudius & Nero. Philostratus speaks of a great earthquake that happend in Crete in the time of Claudius & in several other places as Smyrna Chios Samos &c-- not long before the destruction of Jerusalem. Tacitus speaks of one in Asia about the same time

¶3. Fearfull sights & signs from heaven. So St Luke Chap. 21. v. 11. There shall be fearfull sights & great signs from heaven. Josephus gives us a clear comment upon this Bell. Jud. Lib. 7. Says he this wretched /p. 5 of No./ people believed impostors and counterfeits but those great signs & prodigies which did forerun their desolation they neither minded nor believed a little before their destruction he tells us there hung over the city a fiery sword, which continued for a year together. A little before their rebellion against the Romans, there appeared a comet, which shined so clear in the Temple, & about the altar as if it had been day. and the same day an heifer that was led to be sacrificed brought forth a lamb in the middle of the Temple. The eastern gate of the Temple which was of massy brass and very heavy and could scarce be shut by the strength of twenty men and was constantly made fast with strong locks and bars flew open at midnight which when it was told to the magistrate and he came to see it they could scarce get strength enough to shut it. One evening not long before their destruction there were seen in the air chariots & armies hovering over the city. At the feast of Pentecost the priests going one night into the Temple, according to their custom first heard a noise & afterwards a sudden voice saying Let us go hence and which is very terrible one Jesus a plain country-man four years before any troubles began when the city was in a deep peace came up to Jerusalem and upon one of their festivals began to cry out with a loud voice A voice from the East a voice from the west a voice from the four winds a voice against Jerusalem & the Temple a voice against bridegrooms and brides a voice against the people And thus he went about crying day & night. and being seized on by the magistrate & punished and tortured he would not give over but still went crying about wo, wo to Jerusalem & thus he continued for seven years & 5 months together and was neither weary nor hoarse till the city was besieged & then he was quiet but one time went up upon the walls & cried with a loud voice Wo, wo to the city & the Temple and the people, and added wo also to my self, and immediately was struck dead by a stone out of a cross bow. These things are all related by one of the most prudent historians who lived at that very time & that very place and he says that many were alive when he wrote & could attest all this. verse 8. all these things are the beginning of sorrows. The Scripture usually compares the greatest sufferings & afflictions to the pains of a woman in travail to which our Saviour here alludes These were but the first pangs, nothing to those throws that should come at last.

¶4. Another sign which our Saviour foretold as a forerunner of the destruction of Jerusalem, was <the [c]> persecution of Xtians They shall deliver you to be afflicted and shall kill you. St Mark expresseth it more particularly Mark 13. 9 But take heed to your selves for they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten, & ye shall be brought before rulers & kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. And these did partly happen before the foremention'd calamities. For we find the fathers in their apologies every where complaining that the Jews & heathens /p. 6/ laid the blame of all the calamities & judgments which befell them as famines pestilence and earthquakes upon the Xtians as the causes of them and from this pretence they many times took occasion to persecute them. They shall deliver you to be afflicted. This was fulfilld in delivering some of the Apostles to be whipp'd & imprison'd by the chief priests and rulers, as Peter & John or giving them up to the Roman Power as they did James and Peter to Herod Paul to Gallio Felix & Festus & last of all to Nero. and shall kill you Thus Stephen was killed by a popular tumult & the two James's were put to death under colour of a judicial process the one stoned by the council of the Jews & the other put to death by Herod. And ye shall be hated of all nations for my names sake which was exactly fulfill'd

¶5 Christ foretells that on [sic] this persecution many should be offended i.e. fall off from Xtianity as we read of many in the Epistles of the Apostles. and they shall betray one another & hate one another which was remarkeably fulfill'd in the sect of the Gnosticks who did not only decline persecution themselves, but joined with those that persecuted the Christians as Ecclesiastical History tells us

¶6. That likewise upon this occasion of persecution many false prophets should arise and decieve many ver. 11 which seems to refer to Simon Magus & the other heads of the Gnostick sect. v. 12. & because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold which seems to refer likewise to the Gnosticks of whom St John in his first Epistle doth frequently make mention referring to their name as he that saith I know him & keepeth not his Com. &c-- of whom he doth so much complain of their want of love to the brethren

¶7. That there should be an universal publication of the Gospel through the Roman Empire before the great desolation should happen v. 14. which was accomplished by the preaching of the Apostles especially the Apostle Paul. v. 14. This gospel of the K. shall be P. in all the world for a witness unto all nations i.e. that they might be convinced of the unreasonable obstinacy of the Jews before God brought these dreadfull calamities upon that nation. and then shall the end come that is the final destruction of the Jews the total desolation of the Jewish Church & common wealth according to the prophecy of Jacob. Gen. 49. 10 which puts these two signs together that the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be

¶8. The last & most immediate sign & forerunner which he gave of their destruction is the standing of the abomination of <the> [xo c] Desolation in the holy place v. 15 when ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the Prophet Daniel standing in the Holy Place, then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains which in Luke. 21. 20 .21. is expressed thus And when ye shall see Jerusalem compass'd with armies Then know that the desolation thereof is nigh Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains. Tis the Roman armies therefore, compassing /p. 7/ Jerusalem that is called the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place because Jerusalem was the holy City and so many furlongs about it were counted holy. Now when the Roman army should approach within the limits of the holy ground then the abomination of desolation might be said to stand in the holy place But the word abomination seems particularly to refer to the Roman ensigns upon which were the images of their emperours which the Romans worship'd as Suetonius expressly tells us and Tacitus calls them Bellorum Dii their gods of war. Now it was an abomination to the Jews to see these idols set up within the limits of the Holy City. To which I may add what Josephus tells us afterward that the Romans after they had conquer'd the city set up these ensigns in the ruins of the Temple and sacrificed to them. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains. which refers to the time when Jerusalem was first compass'd by the Roman army under Cestius Gallus who after ward withdrew his siege and at this time Josephus doth say that many did flee foreseeing the approaching danger.

¶Having thus treated of the forerunners of the destruction of Jerusalem which X foretold I proceed

¶THIRDLY to consider the concomitant & subsequent circumstances of it

¶1 The unparallel'd greatness of their calamity & destruction v. 19. For then shall be great tribulation such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time neither ever shall be. This is a very material circumstance of this prophecy. There could appear no probability that things would come to that extremity for it was not the design of the Roman government to destroy any of those provinces which were under them. But that such a calamity should have happend to them under Titus who was the mildest & furthest from severity of all mankind, nothing was more unlikely And that any people should conspire to their own ruin and so blindly & obstinately run them selves into such calamities, as made them the pity of their enemies was the most incredible thing. St Luke expresseth the dismal calamity that should happen to them in other words Luke 21. 22. 23 For these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfill'd But wo unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days for there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people And to this Josephus fully gives testimony as will appear both by what he says in general concerning their calamity and by the particular account of their miseries & sufferings

¶In general he tells us that never was any age so fruitfull of misery as this was and almost in our Saviours words in his Preface to his Books of the Siege of Jerusalem he says “that all the calamities that had fallen upon any nation from the beginning of the world were but small in comparison of what happen's to the nation of the Jews in that age” and in his sixth Book he says that “as there was never any nation so wicked so never any nation suffered such calamitous accidents” But this will appear

¶By a brief & particular enumeration of their calamities Not to mention the burning and destroying of several of their chief cities, as Zabulon Gadara, Japha, Jataphatah, Jopa [sic] and several others I shall insist chiefly upon the sufferings of the people themselves by their tumults & seditions /p. 8 of No.; MS. p. 19/ against the Romans. Before the coming of Vespatian there were slain at Jerusalem & in Syria 2000 at Askalon 2500 at Ptolemais 2000 at Alexandria 50000 at Joppa 8400 at Mt Asamon 2000 at Damascus 10000 and afterward at Askalon by Antonius a Roman commander 18000 in all almost 100000 By Vespatian in Galilee and other parts very great numbers at Japha 15000 at Mt Gerizim 11600 at Jotapatah (the city of which Josephus our historian was governour) 40000 at Joppa 4000 at Tarichaea near[ly] [c] upon [xo c] 8000 at Gamala 9000 at Giscala 2000 in all fourscore and ten thousand. Afterwards by their own seditions at Jerusalem 8500 at several times and afterward by the faction of the Zealots 12000 of the chiefest & noblest of the citizens were slain at one time at the river of Jordan by Placidus 13000 besides many thousands drowned so that the river was filled up almost with dead carcasses at two towns in Idumea by Vespasian 10000 at Gerasa 1000 in all 45000. Whilst Vespasian was thus wasting the cities of Judea the faction of the Zealots filled all places at Jerusalem even the Temple it self with continual slaughters And after they had conquerd Ananus who stood for the people against the Zealots and got all into their own hands they were divided into parties and made slaughter of one another and one party let in Simon, who headed a seditious multitude which he brought out of the country and after that they were subdivided into three parties Johns & Eleazars & Simons which held several parts of the city and day & night continued to destroy one another In which seditions all their granaries of corn and magazines of arms were burnt so that tho provision had been laid <up> [c] in the city that would have sufficed for several years yet before they came to be besieged by Titus they were almost reduced to famine And after they were besieged at the first they united a little against the Romans yet after a few days they divided again into factions and more of them were slain by one anothers hands and with more cruelty than by the Romans Insomuch that Titus the general of the Romans wept several times to consider the misery they brought upon themselves and there [sic] very enemies were more pitifull to them than they to one another After two months siege the famine began to rage within and then all manner of cruelties were exercised by the soldiers upon that miserable people and at last they were brought to such necessity that many endeavoured to flee out to the enemy and yet were not permitted But as many as were suspected of any endeavour to escape were cruelly kill'd It is not to be imagind what barbarous inhumanities in those straits all exercised one toward another snatching the meat out of one anothers mouths and from their dearest friends & their very children An so obstinate were they that neither those calamities that they suffer's nor the severity of the Romans in crucifying many thousands of them before the walls and threatening them all with the same death in case they would not yield in ripping open the bowels of two thousand of them in a night who fled out of Jerusalem upon a report that they had swallowed gold <(see Note on Math 24. 17. 18)> (as many of them had) nor all the kind messages of Titus, offering peace to them and using all manner of intreaties & perswasions not to run upon their own ruin, could prevail with them to accept of a peace and thus they /p. 9 of No./ continued till by famine and force the city was taken and then their provocation of the Romans to cruelty towards those they had got into their power was so great that Titus was not able to withold the soldiers from exercising great cruelties towards them. In short from the beginning of the siege to the taking of the city there were famished and slain by the factions among themselves & by the Romans 1100000 the greatest number & with the saddest circumstances that is to be read of in any story

¶And after this the Temple was burnt and made desolate the whole city destroyed and all their whole land siezed by the Roman Emperour & the remnant of the people in other parts of the nation were persecuted with great severity. Great numbers of the Jews were destroyed at the taking of the Castle of Herodion and Machaenes & Massada and in the thickets or woods of Jandes And there were great slaughters of the Jews in other parts at Antioch in all places about Alexandria and Thebes and at Cyrene so that it was visible that there was wrath upon this people

¶2. Another circumstance which was to follow the destruction of Jerusalem was the arising of false Xs & false Prophets v. 23. 24. And then if any man shall say unto you lo here is X or lo there believe him not for false xs & false prophets shall arise, & shall shew signs & wonders Such was Jonathan who presently after the destruction of Jerusalem, as Josephus tells us drew many into the wilderness of Cyrene pretending that he would shew signs & wonders to them Therefore our Saviour adds behold I have told you before Wherefore if they shall say unto you Behold he is in the desert go not forth. There appeard in Egypt Crete & Cyprus several other impostors who gave out themselves to be Christs and false prophets who applied the prophecies of the old Testament to these counterfeit Messiahs as they did that of Balaam concerning a star coming out of Jacob to Barchochebas because his name signified the Son of a Star and this was a notorious impostor in the time of Adrian the Emperour not many years after the destruction of Jerusalem about 20 as I remember Eusebius counts he had a great number followed him which put to death many Xtians because they would not renounce X & join with them against the Romans and that was the cause of the death of some hundreds of thousands of them.

¶3. Another subsequent circumstance was the Jews being led into captivity & dispersed into all nations. This St Luke adds Luke 21. 24. They shall be led away captive into all nations. I need not prove this out of history we see the effect of it to this day

¶4. That Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles till the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled [Referring to the times of the Gentiles mentioned in the 12 of Daniel & other parts of that prophecy called Time times & 1/2 Which as appears by some parts of Dan. 12, particularly v. 6. 7. 8. was to be a very long time as has accordingly happend.] [JEs brackets]

¶REFLECTIONS on the foregoing Prophecies of X. and their exact fulfillment.

¶1. The predictions tho very improbable new and very extraordinary yet were fulfill'd in a very great degree. Such were the unusual signs forerunning the destruction of Jerusalem such was the universal publication of the Gospel all over the Roman Empire such were likewise the circumstances of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple as that it should be an utter desolation which was strangely accomplished, when as Josephus tells us the very mountain upon which the Temple stood was almost burnt up & [xo c] consumed /p. 10/ with <by> [c] the fierceness of the fire. [By which it seems that there was a miraculous fierceness in the flames The effect was very miraculous, & it became a resemblance in the vehemence of the heat & in such an effect of the last conflagration] [JEs brackets] and the Roman History gives account of the plucking up of the very foundations of the Temple by Turnus Rufus. But the most remarkeably [sic] circumstance of all was the strange and unexampled calamities which should attend this destruction such as never befell any people before and accordingly no history makes mention of so vast a number of men that in so short a time did perish in such sad circumstances fourteen or fifteen hundred thousand within less than a years space and more of these by far cruelly murderd by one another than by the Romans with the utmost extremity of misery by intestine seditions & most extreme famine and if the days had not been shortend as our Saviour says no flesh could have been saved If things had gone on at this rate a little longer not one of the Jewish nation would have been left alive [but for the sake of their posterity that were the elect Jews that are to be called in the last ages of the world those days were shortend. These elect were in the loins of those Jews that were saved] [E's brack.] It was exceeding unlikely that such a calamity should happen on the Jews under Titus who was the mildest & furthest from cruelty of all mankind and it was a strange thing that a people should be so besotted as so madly to conspire together to their own ruin and so blindly & obstinately run themselves into such calamities as to make them to be the pity of their very enemies.

¶2 The providence of God hath so ordered it as to preserve to us a more punctual & credible history of this destruction of Jerusalem than there is of any other matter whatsoever so long since done And tis worthy to be noted that this matter is related not by a Xtian (who might have been suspected of partiality and a design to have paralleld the event with our Saviours prediction) but by a Jew both by nation & religion, who seems designedly to have avoided as much as possibly he could, the very mention of the Christian name and all particulars relating to our Saviour tho no historian was ever more punctual in all other things. And he from whom we have a relation of these things was one that was [xo c] an eye witness of all those sad calamities that befel that nation of the Jews and during the war in Galilee against Vespatian, [sic] was one of their chief commanders and being taken by the Romans was in their camp all the time <of the siege> [c] of Jerusalems being besieged. and as he was able to give us the truest account of those matters being an eye-witness so hath he alwaies had the repute of a most faithfull historian. Joseph Scaliger who was a very good judge in these matters gives this character of him that he was diligentissimus omnium scriptorum the most painfull historian and the greatest lover of truth of any that he had ever read “of whom (says he) I confidently affirm that not only in the Jewish affairs but in all foreign matters one may more safely rely upon his credit than upon all the Greek & Latin historians put together” and furthermore there is no antient history extant that relates any matter with so much particularity of circumstances as Josephus does this of the Jewish wars especially the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.

¶And that the providence of God may appear more remarkeable in this /p. 11/ history which is the only punctual one that hath been preserved down to us of this great action it will be worth our observation how remarkeably this person was preserved for the writing of this history When Vespatian made war upon Galilee, Josephus was chief commander there, and was besieged there by Vespatian in the city of Jotapatah which after a long & stout resistance being taken by the Romans he with forth more hid themselves in a cave, where at last they were discovered by the Romans; which Vespasian hearing of sent & offered them life And Josephus would have accepted of their offer, but the rest would not permit him to yield himself, but threaten'd to kill him & when by no perswasions he could take them off from their obstinate resolution he was glad to propound this to them that they should cast lots two by two who should die first & he that had the second lot should kill the first & the next him & so one and the last should kill himself The providence of God preserve Josephus and another to the last lot and when all the rest were kill'd Josephus perswaded him to yield himself up to the Romans and so they two escaped with their lives by which remarkeably <e> [c] providence he was preserved to write this History

¶3 It seems very plain from this relation which Josephus gives that the Jewish nation were remarkeably devoted by God to destruction, and most fatally harden'd and blinded to their own ruin. This Josephus every where takes notice of that there was a sad and black fate hung over the nation, and God seem'd to have determined their ruin and after the destruction of Jerusalem when the Castle of Massada was besieged by the Romans Eleazar the governour in his speech to the soldiers, reckons up the sad symptoms of Gods displeasure against them, and tells them that from the beginning of the war it was easy for any one to conjecture that God in great wrath had devoted the nation which he formerly loved to destruction.

¶And indeed <I> [c] all along the hand of God was very visible against them for when in the beginning of their rebellion Cestius Gallus the Roman commander, had an opportunity to have taken Jerusalem and to have put an end to the war Josephus tells us that God being angry with them would not permit it but did reserve them for a greater and sadder destruction [N.B. Cestius Gallus when he compassed Jerusalem with armies & thereby gave Xtians in the city the sign of its approaching destruction that X had foretold was <as> [c] appears by this passage caused by a strange & unaccountable hand of God to raise the siege when he had a fair opportunity to have taken the city to give opportunity to the Xtians to flee to the mountains agreable to Xs direction See 1st paragraph of p. 7. of this num.]. [E's brack.; xo c] and afterward when Vespatian renewed the war against them Josephus tells us that he used all kind of earnest perswasion with his countrymen to prevent their ruin by submitting to the Roman government But they were obstinate and would not hearken to any moderate counsels And when the sedition of the Zealots began in Jerusalem, Josephus takes notice that all the wisest men amongst them, and those who were most likely by their interest & moderation to have saved the city, were first of all cut off by the Zealots, so that there were none left to perswade the people to moderate things <measures.> [c] /p. 12/

¶They provoked the Romans against them all manner of ways. Their seditions among themselves continued when the enemy was before their walls and when in probability they might have held out so long as to have wearied the Romans, by their own seditons they burnt all their granaries & provisions of corn, and magazines of arms as if they had consulted the advantage of the Romans against themselves: and which was very remarkeable Josephus tells us that before the siege the fountain of Siloam was almost dried up, and all the springs about Jerusalem so that water bore a great price But as soon as Titus came before Jerusalem the springs broke out again and there never was greater plenty which if <I> [c] it <this> [c] had not happen'd the Roman armies could very hardly have subsisted and [xo c] after the Temple was destroyed when Titus would have given John & Simon & the rest of the Zealots their lives, they would not submit but were all destroyed by their own obstinacy . at Massada rather than yield to the Romans 900 men women & children kill'd one another So that when the Romans entered the castle they found them all dead excepting one woman & a child that had hid themselves

¶Philostratus tells us that when some of the nearer nations would have crown'd Titus for his victories over the Jews he refused it saying that he deserved nothing on that account for it was not his work but God had made him the instrument of his wrath against that people So that there were never greater acknowledgments of a divine hand against any people than at this time against the Jews. Never was there greater courage and contempt of death in any people and yet they were conquer'd by numbers much inferiour to them. Never was any soldier so mercifull as Titus was and so sollicitous to have spared the effusion of blood & yet he was necessitated against his nature to exercise great cruelties towards them. Many times he endeavoured by the most severe inhibitions to restrain the cruelties of the soldiers towards them; and when he found that they ript open the bowels of the Jews that fled out of Jerusalem in hopes to find gold which they had swallowed and [xo c] <he> [c] would have put all to death that were engaged in that cruelty, but that he found them so many & notwithstanding this when he forbad the like cruelty to be exercised for the future, under the most severe penalties yet Josephus says that the soldiers did not forbear privately go do it and tho in other cases such a severe prohibition would have taken place yet says he because God had devoted that people to ruin all the ways which Titus used for the saving of them turned to their destruction. Nay there was as much blood shed among themselves, by the dissensions between those that desired peace with the Romans & those that would not hearken to it as by the Romans <I may here add from Dr. Doddridge on Rev 6. 4 that under Trajan and Hadrian A.D. 100 to A.D. 138. the Jews had a 1000 cities & fortresses taken & destroyed & 580,000 men slain.> [""I may add" etc. a later addition.]

¶4. It must needs be for some very great sin that God sent these dreadfull calamities upon that nation Josephus says that it was surely for some greater impiety than that nation were guilty of when they were carried away captive to Babilon. Nay he says that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrha [sic] were but small in comparison of <with> [c] these the Jews were guilty of; so that he says they were so ripe for destruction that if the Roman army had not come when it did he did verily believe that either an earthquake would have swallowed up the city or a deluge overflown them or fire from heaven have consumed them which is very much the same with that the Apostle says of them 1 Thes. 2. 16 that they were filling up the measure of their sins that wrath might come upon them to the uttermost /p. 13/

¶5. The punishment that was inflicted on them hath very shrewd marks & signatures upon it, from which it is easy to conjecture for what sin it was that [xo c] they were thus punished. Titus laid his siege to Jerusalem at the very same time and season that the Jews crucified X, viz at the time of the Passover and the very day that he began his siege he crucified one before their walls and afterwards almost the only cruelty that the Romans exercised towards them by the command and permission of Titus was crucifixion Insomuch that sometimes were 500 crucified in a day, till they wanted wood for crosses. So that they who earnestly cried out against our saviour Crucify, Crucify, had at last enough God made em eat of the fruit of their own ways & filled them with their own devices: and they who bought X for thirty pieces of silver, were afterwards themselves sold at a lower rate

¶6. Their religion was remarkeably struck at and affronted as if God intended to put an end to that dispensation, and to abrogate their law Most of their great calamities happen'd to em on the sabbath day, and upon their great festivals. Cestius Gallus sat down with his army before Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Titus besieged them at the time of the Passover and Jerusalem was taken (as Dio in his Roman History observes) on the sabbath day that day for which the Jews have so great a veneration. The Zealots profaned the Temple by making it a garrison; and by the rapine & bloodshed committed in it. They brought the priesthood into contempt, by chusing the meanest of the people into the highest offices; they turned the materials of the Temple into instruments of war. The Romans themselves were as much grieved to see how the Jews profaned the Temple as the Jews themselves ought to have been, if it had been so profan'd by the Romans. they <These> [c] are the very words of Josephus. And tho Titus gave express orders & used great endeavours to save the Temple, and hazarded himself to quench it when it was on fire, yet he could not do it but it was burnt to the ground. and [xo c] afterward when the priests came to him and supplicated to [xo c] him for their lives contrary to his usual clemency he commanded them to be slain, saying they came too late & it was fit they should perish with the Temple and now that [that] was destroyed for the sake of which they should have been saved he saw no reason to spare them Afterward the Roman ensigns were set up upon the ruins of the Temple, and the soldiers sacrificed to them & their Law was carried in triumph at Rome before Vespatian & Titus

¶I will add but one circumstance more to shew that that dispensation was at an end. God seemed to have wholly given over his particular Care of that people, & to have no longer regard to the covenant made with them, in which he had promised that when they came up three times a year, from all parts of the land to serve the Lord he would so order things by his providence that the enemy should make no advantage of their absence from their borders; nay the enemy should not then desire their land; and yet notwithstanding this at the time of the Passover when the whole nation were met at Jerusalem Titus came upon them and enclosed them all in the city

¶upon the whole if so particular a prediction as this of our saviours concern- /p. 14/ [ing (om. E.)] the destruction of Jerusalem <with so many circumstances so contingent & improbable,> so punctually answerd by the event, be not an argument of divine inspiration, then there can be no evidence of any such thing as a spirit of prophecy. Suppose the Jews say true that Jesus X was an impostor and consequently justly put to death by them what greater reflection upon the providence of God can be imagined, than that this person should be permitted to foretell, that such & such calamities should befall them that had put him to death, as a punishment upon them for that sin: and afterward all this should happen in so remarkeable a manner, as the world cannot give the like instance Is it in the least credible that the divine providence should permit such things as of necessity would give credit to an impostor, & would be good evidence to a prudent considerate man that he was divinely inspired

¶we come now to the

¶V. and [xo c] last instance of our saviours prophetick spirit viz. in those predictions which foretell the fate of the gospel in the world

¶1. What discouragements & difficulties the first publishers of the gospel should meet with our Saviour foretells two great discouragements

¶First from the persecutions which the powers of the world should stir up against them <Of> [c] This our saviour gave his disciples early notice of [xo c] when he first called them together & sent them forth Math 10. 16. 17. 18 Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves but but [xo c] beware of men for they will deliver you up to the councils & they will scourge you in their synagogues & ye shall be brought before governours & kings for my sake & v. 21. 22 <[see also Luke 10. 3.]> [E's bracks.] And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death & the father the child, and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause em to be put to death & ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake and elsewhere he says think not that I am come to send peace on earth &c-- <Math. 10. 34. &c> and a little before his death he tells his disciples Math 24. 9. Then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you & ye shall be hated of all nations for my names sake, & Luke 21. 12. But before all these things they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, & into prisons, being brought before kings & rulers for my names sake, and many other things there are that X said that was [xo E] to the like purpose, as Math. 10. 16. 24-25 28 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. Luke 12. 3.---12. Mark 8 31 to the end so Math 16. 21 to the end Luke 12. 49.---53. Luke 14. 26 to the end Luke 9. 22.---26. Luke 17. 33. Joh. 12. 24.25.26. Joh. 15. 18.---21. Joh. 16. 1---4. which prophecy is exceeding<ly> [c] full & plain. & v. 20, 21, 22. & v. 33. Chap. 17 14.15.16. Math 5. 10.11.12. Luke 6. 20,21.22.23. Math 8. 20. & Luke 9. 58 Luke 11. 49.50.51. Math 20. 22, 23. Joh. 12. 25. Math 23. 34. Luke 14. 25---33. Many particulars with many circumstances are implied in Math. 22. 1---10.

¶Particularly he foretold the two sons of Zebedee James & John that they should be put to death Math 20. 23. Ye shall indeed drink of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. we have an account of the fulfillment of this with respect to James in Acts 12. 2. And Ecclesiastical History gives us <an> [c] account of the same concerning John tho' he remained till after the destruction of Jerusalem which X might have some respect to in Joh. 21. 22. where he says what if I will that he tarry till I come /p. 15/ He likewise foretold Peter what kind of death he should die viz that when he was old he should be crucified <Joh. 13. 36. 2 Pet 1. 14.> Joh. 21. 18.19. Verily verily I say unto thee when thou wast young thou girdedst thy self and walkedst whither thou wouldst But when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee & carry thee whither thou wouldst not And the Evangelist adds This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God. And accordingly he was crucified about forty years after, as Eusebius tells [xo c] & several of the fathers <tell us [c]>

¶Secondly another great discouragement which our Saviour foretold they should meet with was the rising of false Xs & false prophets, as Math 24. v. 5 & 24 [& Math 7. 15]. [E xo bracks.] but of these I have spoken already

¶2. X likewise foretold what assistance the Apostles should have in carrying on their work. He told 'em he would be with them in it He told 'em that they should recieve power by a Spirit that should come upon them whereby they should be qualified to be witnesses unto him in Judea & Jerusalem & Samaria and to the utmost parts of the earth. Luke 24. 49. Act. 1. 8. [See also Joh. 7. 38, 39. Joh. 14. 16. &c---& v. 26. Joh. 15. 26 & 16. 7---14. Now 'tis most evident that they were endowed with some extraordinary spirit & uncommon influence that endowed them with power strength courage activity comfort & eloquence and answered those purposes that X spoke of in an extraordinary manner. nothing is more evident than <that> [c] they were in an new and very extraordinary manner endowed with a spirit or influence that carried <them> [c] quite above themselves & made 'em quite new men as to gifts of knowledge courage, eloquence, zeal & activity steadfastness & resolution & other things to qualify em for that work of being witnesses for X or preaching X in such a manner as to tend to success. X foretold that by this Spirit that he promised they should be raised to vastly higher degrees of knowledge Joh. 14. 20. 26. & 16. 13, 14, 23. This was most evidently fulfill'd he promised that they thereby should be endowed with eloquence & courage readiness of mind & great force of speech Math 10. 19. 20 & Luke 21. 14, 15. This also was exceeding<ly> [c] apparent. It was foretold that his followers should be endowed with miraculous gifts Math 7. 22. in which it is implied that these gifts should be very common See also. Math 10. 1. Luke 10. 9. 19. & especially Mark 16. 17. 18. This also was evidently fulfill'd X foretold that this should be in a few days after his ascension Act. 1. 8. which accordingly came to pass] [E's]

¶3. X foretold what success the gospel should have. That it should be published in all nations Math 24. 14. That they should make disciples in all nations Christ being with them to cause it to be so Math 28. 18 19. 20 & that they should bear witness unto X to the utter most parts of the earth Act 1. 8. That he would build his church upon a rock and the gates of hell should not prevail against it. [See also Math 4. 19 & 5. 14. & 13. 24, 25 &c---& v. 31, 33, 38&c---47&c-- & 26. 13. see Luke 5. 10 with <the> [c] context Luke 10. 18. 19. & 13 18---22. & 24. 47. & Joh. 14. 12. & 15. 16. & 17. 2,3. It was particularly foretold that there /p. 16/ should be a great harvest of souls in a little time in Samaria Joh. 4. 35. 36. 37. 38. as it came to pass.] [E's brackets]

¶It was foretold that the act of Mary in anointing Christs head should be declared wherever the gospel should be preached through the whole world Math 26. 13. As it has come to pass.

¶Note that the foregoing things in this number are mainly taken out of Dr Tillotsons Works Vol. 2. Serm. 183 184. 185. 186. 187.

¶Christ also foretold the destruction of other cities of Palestine besides Jerusalem Math 11. 21. 22, 23, 24. Luke. 10. 12---15.

¶He foretold that he should not appear to the Jews after his resurrection but only to his disciples Math 23, 39. Luke 13. 35. Joh. 7. 33, 34. Joh. 14. 19.

¶He foretold the calling of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews & their envy at the gentiles on that account. Math 8. 10, 11, 12. Math 12. 45. & 20. 12,---16. & 21. 33---43. & 22. 1---10. Luke 13. 25---30 parable of the Prodigal Son Luke 15. Luke 14. 15---24. & 19. 9, 10. Joh. 9. 39. & 10. 16.

¶Concerning that objection that the four gospels containing these prophecies were written after the destruction of Jerusalem & so after the fulfilment of the principal things. See P. 126. . [Note in space left at end of no.] [MO prints this, 87-88]

¶See Mr. Wests Observations. p. 160&c--

¶See Bp. Kidders Demonstration of the Messiah Part II. p. 5---14.

________________

¶See B.9. P. 92. N. 1316 See No. 1044

[MO. 61-88, §48. pp. 87-88 prints P. 126. . The last items were entered in space left (about 5 lines) at various times. The West & Kidder refs are prob. not much later than 972 (hand), but hard to use for dating.]

¶973. TRADITIONS of the Heathen from the Antients & Jews. add this to Num. 969.]. [E's] The author of the book de mundo dedicated to Alexander says thus . ""Tis an antient saying, & running the race of all men, that from God all things, & by God all things were constituted, & do consist." Barrow's Works. Vol. 2. p 89. Plato in his Timaeus p. 105. says. ""We must yield credence to them, who first avouch'd themselves the offspring of God and did sure, clearly know their own progenitours: It is indeed impossible to distrust the children of the gods, although otherwise, speaking without, plausible or necessary demonstrations; But following law we must believe them, as testifying about matters peculiarly belonging to themselves." Barrows Works Vol. 2. p. 90. Plato speaking of the immortality of the soul and a future state of rewards and punishments says ""We must believe the reports of this kind being so many and so very antient". And Cicero says ""We suppose that souls abide after death from the consent of all nations" and again saith he ""I cannot assent unto those, who have lately begun to discourse that souls do perish together with bodies and that all things are blotted out by death; The authority of the antients doth more prevail with me" & Seneca saith ""When we dispute concerning the eternity of souls, the consent of men either fearing or worshipping the inferi (i.e the state of things after death) ""Hath no slight moment with us" Even Celsus himself an Epicurean philosopher & great enemy of our faith confesses ""That divine men have deliver'd it, that happy souls should enjoy a happy life hereafter" The opinion concerning man having sometimes been in a better state (both in regard to complexion of mind and outward accommodations of life) but that he did by his willfull miscarriages /p. 28/ fall thence into this wretched condition of proneness to sin & subjection to sorrow was an antient doctrine if we take Plato's word. And concerning it Cicero hath these remarkeable words ""From which errours & miseries of human life we may conclude that sometime those antient prophets or interpreters of the divine mind in the delivery of holy mysteries, who have said that we are born to undergo punishments, for the faults committed in a former life, may seem to have understood somewhat." 'Tis true those authors assign this fall to the souls singular persons in a state of praeexistence, but it is plain enough how easy it might be to mistake and transform the story" Barrow's Works vol. 2. p. 91, 92.

¶There were some things that were very general among the heathen nations that they did not recieve from the first fathers & founders of nations but from the Jews or their ancestours as particularly the practice of ""paying tythes that very determinate part, of the fruits of the earth, of the spoils of war, of the gains of trade, by way of acknowledgment, & thankfullness to the donor & disposer of all things" See Dr. Barrow Vol. 2. p. 93.

¶Aristotles words in his Metaph. 12. 8. are very remarkeable. ""There were (saith he) things conveyed traditionally by the primitive and antient men, & left in a fabulous dress to their posterity: that there are these gods, and that divinity, maintains (or encompasses) all nature: but other things were to these fictitiously superinduced for perswasion of the vulgar sort, & for the use of laws and publick commodity: Hence they speak of the gods as having an human shape, or resembling other living creatures, and other things consequent upon or agreable to these sayings: from which things if we separate that only which was first deliver'd, that they deem'd the gods the first beings, we may suppose what they said divinely spoken. And 'tis according to probability, all art and philosophy being, as might possibly, often invented and lost again, that even these opinions of them, have as reliques been preserved until now: The opinion then of our fathers, & that which came from the first men, is only thus far manifested to us." Thus did that philosopher, with a sagacity worthy so great a man, discern that through that coarser oar [sic] consisting in great part of dross & feculency, a pure vein of truth did run down from the source of primitive tradition. so Dr Barrow Vol. 2. p. 94. 95. . ""There is (saith Cicero de divin.) an antient opinion drawn even from the heroical times, that there is among men a certain divination, which the Greeks call prophecy or inspiration, that is a presension [sic] & knowledge of future things" Barrows Works. Vol. 2. p. 99.

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¶This is a very great argument that the heathen nation[s] borrowed many things from the Jews & Jewish patriarchs in their principles & practices that several great nations used the rite of circumcision which undoubtedly began with Abraham as appears both by sacred & profane accounts (see what the Phenicians say of Saturns being circumcised & all his friends in Note on Gen. 1. 27, which is evidently taken from the story of Abraham) Herodotus says, that the Colchians, Egyptians, & Ethiopians, & the Phenicians & Syrians that lived in Palestine used circumcision, & questions whether the Egyptians borrowed the custom from the Ethiopians or the Ethiopians from the Egyptians & Diodorus Siculus speaks of the Colchians & Egyptians as using circumcision. This is taken from an extract of Shuckfords History in the Republick of Letters Vol. 5. p. 53. 54.

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¶Another argument that the heathen derived much from the Jews is that the name of Jupitor, or Iao Pater, was derived from Jehovah which name was not revealed <to before Moses or much> or at least not much known before More [sic; Moses] So the heathen songs to Bacchus & Apollo that began with were evidently derived from the Jews Hallelujah. See No. 1012.

¶ [see Note on Ps. 106. 1. [E's brack.]

[Finis. The Notes ref. is at bottom of p. & may have been written after the ref. to No. 1012.]

¶974. add this to 961. SABBATH & BEGINNING OF THE SABBATH]. [E's] There are plain testimonies that the practice of dividing time into weeks or systems of seven days was general among heathen nations & that they antiently began the or account of the daily revolution of the heavens from the night, grounded probably upon the report that night did precede day or (as Hesiod phraseth it), that night did beget day. ---- dies natales, & mensium, & annorum initia sic observant, ut noctem dies subsequatur. Caes. de Gal. l. 6. so Barrow Vol. 2. p. 93. [finis]

¶975. UNITY OF GOD. TRADITIONS & OPINIONS OF THE HEATHEN concerning it Hereto the suffrage of mankind doth in a manner agree. for however they worshipped a multitude of inferiour deities, yet that there was one supream God, Author & Governour of the rest, & of all things beside, transcending in power & wisdom, & all kind of perfection, was evidently the common opinion. Whom therefore we see the poets, the best interpreters of popular opinions do style the Father of Gods & men, the King of the gods, the Most high, most great, most excellent &c--. ""The greater popularity (as Tertullian speaks) of mankind even when idolatry obscured the sense of divine providence, did however appropriate the name of God especially to one: in their usual expressions being wont to say, if God grant, & what pleases God, & I commend it to God. And if the vulgar had in some measure the wiser sort appear to have had more clear & full apprehensions & perswasions concerning it Plato in his Timaeus refers the making of the world to one whom he calls the Father & Maker of the universe Aristotle when he hath occasion to speak of God doth usually speak in the singular; so do other philosophers as the Stoicks in their famous precept deum sequi. sometime they do expressly signify this to be their opinion. ""There are many popular gods (saith Antisthenes) but one natural one." ""Being really one (saith the author De mundo) he hath many names, according to the several affections he discovers, & the operations he exerts" with whom Seneca thus agrees so often as you please you may diversly name the Author of things. there may be so many appellations of him, as there be gifts & offices & operations. Him our people fancy to be Father Bacchus, & Hercules & Mercury, call him also nature Fate & Fortune. all these are but names of the same God variously using his power" Barrows Works. Vol. 2. p. 96.

¶The heathen philosophers used generally to speak of the world as one hence unity was one great property which in their metaphysicks they ascribed to the world & Plato and many others of the heathen philosophers discerning that the whole world in all its distinet [distant A] parts was united as the different members of one body all animated & governed by one influence, hence they called God the anima mundi the soul of the world.

¶Si ab uno deo inspirati omnes & animati sumus, quid aliud quam fratres sumus, & quidem conjunctiores quod animis, quam qui corporibus: ergo pro Belluis [Bellicis?] immanibus habendi sunt, qui hominibus nocent. Lactant. 10. 6. Barrows Works Vol. 2. p. 117. Socrates & Plato (saith Plutarch) did suppose three principles of things God, Matter, & Idea. ---- Anaxagoras also (as the same author) and Aristotle before, did assert two principles the one passive, the matter consisting of an infinite number of small particles the other active, understanding which ranged those troops of little bodies into order. To the same effect Pythagoras's conceits tho' expressed with much obscurity are reduced. Thales's opinion was in effect the same who (as Cicero tells us) said that ""God was that mind that fashion'd all things out of water" /p. 30/ The Stoicks also were of the same opinion ""It seems to them (saith Laertius in Zeno's Life) that there are two principles of all things the agent & the patient, that the patient is the matter void of qualities but the agent reason which is therein that is God" see Barrows Works Vol. 2. p. 133. Strabo lib. 15. speaking of the Brachmanni says ""In many things they have the same sentiments with the Grecians that the world had its beginning & shall have its end & that God the Framer & Governour thereof influenceth the whole"

¶Maximus Tyrius asserts that it was a constant opinion recieved by all nations that there was one supream God the Cause of all things. In his first dissertation he says ""In the great discord, confusion & debates that are amongst men, the whole world agree in this one constant law and opinion, that God is the sole King & Father of all: but that there are many other gods the offspring of him, who assists [sic] in his government. This is affirmed by the Greeks and by the barbarian, by him who dwells on the continent and him who lives on the sea shore, by the wise and by the foolish" and Lactantius adds from Antisthenes

¶""The Maker of the whole world"

So likewise Sophocles

¶""There is really but one God the maker of heaven & earth & sea & winds" Grotius De verit. B. 1. sect. 16.

¶A certain king of Peru was perswaded to deny that the sun could be God from this argument that his motion is not various like that of creatures endowed with freedom of will but certain & determinate See the History of the Inchas Grotius De verit. B 4. Sect. 5.

[Finis. Considerable space left before beginning of next number, in which the Grotius material was evidently added later after the Barrow material, which prob. made up the orig. number.]

BEING OF GOD UNITY OF THE world

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¶976. UNITY OF GOD. The uniformity concord, & perfect harmony which appears in the constitution & conservation of things, their conspiring to one end, their continuing in the same order & course do plainly declare the unity of God; even as the lasting peace of a common wealth, composed of persons different in affection & humour, argues one law that regulates & contains them, as the orderly march of an army shews it managed by one conduct, as the uniformity of an house declares it contrived by one architect. Barrows Works Vol. 2. p. 96. . This is most apparent concerning the solar or our planetary system. 'Tis plain tis one system. We will therefore consider the union there is in the whole visible universe or between the fix'd stars . and first I will shew wherein there is a manifest agreement between these distant parts of the universe, whereby it is evident that there is oneness in the cause of all. & Secondly I would take notice wherein these distant systems are united one with another whereby they all become one great system

¶I. I would observe wherein there is a manifest & marvellous agreement in those distant parts of the universe whereby it is evident that they agree in their cause and they do so agree in these following respects /p. 31/

¶1. They agree in this that they all of them are in comparison of the expanse of the heavens but little spots or specks separated one from another. Why should it so happen concerning so many millions & that there should appear no other matter in the universe but what is thus collected why should it not have happen'd as well, that one side of the heavens should be all one lucid body the rest vacant or one part of the heavens a continued body another full of spots or here and there a continuity of matter & here and there a vacancy here and there spots of many different kinds &c-- Were it not for some common cause ordering it so that all the bodies that should appear through the immense expanse of the universe should be in such small compact collections of matter.

¶2. They not only all agree in this that they are all distinct compact & comparatively very small bodies or little particles. but they are also all of /mg./ of them exactly of the same figure all round no was [sic; A & T: now] whether we suppose that this is owing to the mutual gravitation of their parts or not it clearly on either supposition argues the oneness of the efficient Cause. Their being all of a round figure is indeed most probably owing to the mutual gravitation of their parts. for that is evidently the cause of the round figure of all the heavenly bodies near us as of the earth & all the rest of the planets primary & secondary & in the sun that is by far the most like the fix'd stars of any body near us 'Tis demonstrable that a mutual gravitation of the parts of matter according to the quantity of matter and the square of distance obtains in all these & the round figure in all of them appears evidently in all of them to be the consequence of this

¶Therefore seeing we behold the same effect the same round figure in the many millions of heavenly bodies that are far distant there is all reason to conclude it to be from the same cause. Now on this supposition that such a wondrous power or law should take place every where through the whole universe & all the matter that is contain'd in it in all the innumerable distant systems that are in it, which power is demonstrable [sic] not from matter it self but from the established law & continual power of the Creatour I say this shews the whole corporeal universe to be but one, & that all is created & upheld & governed by the same first Cause & every moment under the influence of the same divine power.

¶But upon the other supposition that no such law obtains in other parts of the universe but only in this solar system then the universal agreement of the many millions of fix'd stars in the same round figure is a clear argument of one common first Cause For if there be no such internal cause or power belonging to the nature of these bodies themselves that should as it were naturally incline 'em to such a figure rather than any other then it would be a strange thing if any two of them should happen to be of the same figure for in themselves they must be supposed indifferent to all kinds of possible figures which are infinite and therefore are as likely to be in one of all these infinite figures as another. but much more strange would it be that every one of such a vast multitude not only that are seen with the <naked eye> but the more & more that are discovered by telescopes should without the exception of one be exactly of the same figure /p. 32/ without a common cause

¶3. Another remarkeable instance of their agreement is their all being perfectly at rest without the least sensible motion or change of their situation from one thousand years to another. upon whatever supposition we go as the next or immediate reason of this yet such an agreement in so many millions of such bodies will argue a common cause. if we suppose that the law of gravitation holds throughout the universe then this is a wonderfull thing that they don't run together by vertue of that mutual gravitation & must be owing to the care of some one common Disposer Whether it be by limiting that power, & causing that it shall not take place beyond such bounds least these distant bodies should disturb one another . For if their gravitation don't reach one another it must be by an arbitrary limitation contrary to the laws of gravitation in the respective systems for the grand law is that every part of matter should tend to every other part according to square of distance however vast the distance is in proportion to the bigness of those parts . Thus 'tis demonstrable that the smallest parts of the matter of this solar system tend to all other parts however distant & however small. Thus if we divide the two globes of the earth [and the sun (om. E; mg.)] into never so small parts parts never so many million times smaller than rays of light yet 'tis evident that each of these small parts in the globe of the earth tend to each of these small parts in the globe of the sun according to the square of distance because tis evident by experience that these two whole globes tend to each other according to the quantity of matter & square of distance. but the whole matter of both globes is made up of these small parts. but these small parts are as far distant one from another in proportion to their diameter as the fix'd stars are & the case is exactly the same between two fix'd stars as to their situation proportion & respect they bear one to another as between two similar parts of this solar system whose distance is in the same proportion to their diameter but we see that with respect to the one the law of gravitation holds & if it dont with regard to the other it must be by an arbitrary limiting & cutting off this power at certain limits contrary to the law that obtains elsewhere on design and if there be this arbitrary designed limitation of such a power every where at certain limits between so many millions of heavenly bodies to prevent mutual disturbance this shews a common disposer, & that the whole is regulated by a common wisdom & a common will & a common power that governs every where

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¶ Gravitation is a power of that nature that unless it be arbitrarily limited in some places contrary to its own laws that universally & immutably obtain in other places must extend it self infinitely because we see that it in fact does in some places extend it self infinitely in the solar system For the matter of the mutually attracting globes is infinitely divisible & therefore [we (om. E.)] may say that there are some parts of matter that are infinitely small in proportion to the distance to which their attraction is extended . but that attraction may be looked upon as infinitely extended that is extended to a distance that is infinite in proportion to the bigness of the attracting body.

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¶But upon the supposition that the law of gravitation does obtain every where /p. 33/ through the whole universe acting being maintain'd invariably every where which is most likely still the rest of the fix'd stars will be an [cf. 2nd ¶ below]

¶And further more the rest of the fix'd stars upon this supposition of their not being attracted one by another, is a great evidence of the ordering of one common Cause For all allow that matter in it self is indifferent to motion or rest yea 'tis indifferent to either rest or any of the infinitely various degrees of motion. Hence it would be a strange thing if there appeared but one body suspended in free space in the midst of the expanse of the heavens if that should happen to be in a state of perfect rest . it would be an infinite number to one whether it would or no because it would be as likely that it would be in either of the infinite number of degrees of motion as at rest so that a state of rest is to be reckon'd but as one state amongst an infinite number of other states to all which the body in it self is indifferent, and as likely to be in one of them as another. (Hence we see no such thing nothing in this world or system like any bodies like this in this world lower world replacing the sun which is one of the fix being suspended in free space yet remaining at rest, excepting the sun that is one of the fix'd stars). but how can we conceieve [sic] of so many millions of bodies suspended in the open expanse of the universe & all of them so fix'd in their places that there shall be no sensible motion from one thousand years to another without the ordering of a voluntary wise disposer & that every one should agree in it without one common cause.

¶But upon the supposition that gravitation extends & obtains through the whole universe acting every where by the same laws that are universally & invariably maintain'd (which is most likely) still the rest of the fix'd stars will be an evidence of one common Cause that disposes all . Whether we suppose that the fix'd stars are placed at so vast a distance one from another that their mutual attraction should disturb them so little that their motion occasioned hereby should be so small as not to be discerned by us at this distance in many thousand years such a disposal every where through the whole innumerable multitude of these bodies shews a common care extending through the whole as the Cause or if we suppose besides their great distance one from another such an artfull disposal among themselves [that (om. E)] their attractions should balance one another so wonderfully as to keep all in rest & quietness (which is the most probable supposition of all) This still more evidently & remarkeably shews the care influence & government of a common Cause. or if lastly we suppose these stars to be all fix'd in a solid sphere that shews the universe all to be one building & that 'tis one Architect that has thus built such a bespangled arch or roof to encompass this our system on every side

¶4. Another thing wherein they all agree is that they all shine by their own light with an exceeding great & sparkling brightness & lustre. Matter does not seem in it self to have any great tendency to this here in our world we see very few things /p. 34/ that shine by their own light and those that do don't shine with one ten thousandth or millionth part of this brightness none of them. we see here very few bodies that will of themselves enkindle and burn & those that do continue so to do but a little while before they go out but we behold in the heavens either with naked eyes or glasses many thousands & millions of bodies all alike in this all shining with their own light & shining from age to age & all shining with a brightness like the light of the sun. This seems to shew a common Cause.

¶5. Tho' there is so vast a number of them and they are so vastly distant one from another yet all seem remarkeably to agree in their internal nature <being replete [sic] with a like kind of particles & all agreeing> & in the laws of the intestine motion & mutual action of their minute parts . This appears because the effects of that intestine motion & mutual action of their minute parts is exactly the same from that intestine action they all continually send forth as it were an infinite quantity of their minute parts parts of the same kind in like manner affecting the organ of our sight and all causing the like sensation in us & in like manner reflected & refracted by glass water & other bodies. they are all emitted in the same manner all with as it were an infinite celerity and in like manner disposed to penetrate transparent bodies & to be absorbed by opake & dark bodies & in every respect subject to the same laws with the particles of matter emitted by the sun whatever the powers be by which the internal minute parts of the sun act on one another by which many of those minute parts leap forth to such a distance if it be a mutual attraction & repulsion there are most evidently the same powers or the same laws of intestine motion by which the inward parts of the fix'd stars act on one another because the effects are so exactly the same & the minute parts of those bodies that by means of that action, are emitted even to such a distance as we are are still here governed in their motions by just the same laws as the rays of the sun being reflected & refracted by different degrees of refrangibility causing <the same> different colours or sensations in our organs of si us. This exact agreement of the inward nature which creating Power has given all those bodies & in the laws of the motion of their minute parts producing such wonderfull effects is a most remarkeable evidence that one common Cause that has made & does uphold & influence & actuate & govern all <Such an unity of invention or device shews the unity of the cause. Light is a strange work of God there [is (om. E)] nothing in the whole external creation wherein appears a more admirable contrivance. Now this appears to be the same in this solar system and in all those infinitely distant systems.

¶II. I would observe wherein these distant systems do not only agree together but are united one to another so as to become one great system which is a further evidence that they all have one Cause

¶1 The parts of these different systems are communicated to & diffused through each other . as by the rays of light that are transmitted . Thus I suppose there are beams of light from several millions of fixed stars diffused every moment through every part of this solar system so that there is not a hair's breadth destitute of some of their beams, one second of time unless where the beams are intercepted by some opake body which is but a very small part of the system & consequently we may suppose that each star thus diffuses his parts through millions of the systems of other stars.

¶Now upon a supposition of several gods as the creatours of the several system[s] then we must suppose that the same gods that made these different stars have /p. 35/ clothed 'em with their light and have created and do maintain their beams & their powers. hence we must either suppose that many millions of Gods that are the authors of the diverse systems are present in each system at once & throughout that system each one by his power & energy accompanying the rays of his own system maintaining their motion & action in every part of it every moment & so that the god of each distinct system is present every moment by his might power & energy throughout every minute part of the systems of millions of other gods, at the same time that those millions of other gods are all of 'em also in like manner present by a like power & energy all of them through every part of each system . or else we must suppose that all those many millions of gods tho entirely distinct & indepent [sic] have by mutual perfect & immutable consent agreed to observe the parts of the systems of the other gods & to by their own power at the boundaries of the systems and from those limits to take care of them & by their power & energy to uphold them & actuate them . both which appear very absurd but of the latter I would say more afterwards

¶2. The parts of these different systems are not only communicated to & diffused through one another but act upon one another & there is a mutual action & reaction between their different blended parts by the same laws of matter & motion Thus for instance the rays of the fixed stars dont only enter this system are diffused through it but they act upon the parts of it & the parts of this react upon them by the laws of this system so the rays of the fixed stars act on our organs of sight & so there is action & reaction between them & our air as appears by the twinkling of the fixed stars & the refractions of their rays by the atmosphere & between them & water & glass & other transparent bodies and also between them & all opake bodies that do reflect them as appears by their being enlighten'd by them in a star-light night. Now how unreasonable is it to suppose any other than that this action & reaction are both by the laws & influence of the same God.

¶3. These parts of different systems that are continually transmitted into and diffused through each other are liable to be converted into parts of those other systems, as Sir Isaac Newton has shown how rays of light after frequent reflections & refractions do at length loose their motion & do stick to the solid parts of other bodies. & what can be supposed in this case but absurdity supposing the matter of different systems be created & upheld by different gods

¶4 Antient observation shews the fix'd stars have a great influence upon and a kind of government over sublunary things the weather & the frame & temperament of the bodies of plants & animals

¶These things shew that all these different systems take hold of one another & influence and act upon one another as the different wheels of a machine /p. 36/ It is reasonable therefore to suppose that all have one maker. since we see the machine to be one 'tis unreasonable to suppose any other [than (om E)] that one & the same artificer made it & that one & the same owner possesses & mai it & takes care of its motions & not that one made & takes care of one wheel & another another See p. 181. B.9. N 1343. [later add]

¶If any should object that possibly this great agreement & analogy & union that there is between the different parts of the universe, may not be from the unity of the efficient but from the mutual agreement of different efficients [finis]