Works of Thomas Jackson ..

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THE WORKS

THOMAS JACKSON, D. 1).

SOMETIME

PRESIDENT OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD,
AND DEAN OF PETERBOROUGH,

A NEW EDITION, IN TWELVE VOLUMES,
WITH A COPIOUS INDEX.

VOLUME I.

OXFORD:
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

MDCCCXHV.

Ik

GENERAL CONTENTS.

VOL, I.

Advertisement.

Some Particulars of Dr. Jackson''s Life from A.Wood's Athense
Oxonienses.

Dr. Jackson's Will, and an inventory of his effects.
The Epistle Dedicatory, A. D. 1673, by Barnabas Oley.
Preface by Barnabas Oley.
Vaughan's Life of Jackson.
Address to the Christian Reader.

The eternal Truth of Scriptures, and Christian Belief, thereon
wholly depending ; manifested by its own Light.

How far the Ministry of Men is necessary for planting true
Christian Faith ; and retaining the Unity of it planted.

VOL IL

Blasphemous Positions of Jesuits and other later Romanists,
concerning the Authority of their Church.

VOL. IIL

Justifying Faith : or, the Faith by which the Just do live. A
Treatise containing a Description of the Nature, Properties,
and Conditions of Christian Faitli. With a Discovery of
Mispersuasions breeding Presumption or Hypocrisy ; and
Means how Faith may be planted in Unbelievers.

VOL. IV.

A Treatise containing tlie OriLinal of Unbelief, Misbelief,
or Mispersuasions, conrerninG^ the Verity, Unity, and
Attributes of the Deity : with Directions for rectifying
our Belief or Knowledge in the forementioned Points.

a 2

iv

TABLE OF GENERAL CONTENTS. '

VOL V.

A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes.

VOL. VL

Divers Sermons, with a short Treatise befitting these present

Times [A. D. 1627. circiter.]
Christ's Answer unto St. John's Question ; or, an Introduction

to the Knowledge of Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

VOL. vn.

The Knowledge of Christ Jesus ; or, the Seventh Book of
Commentaries upon the Apostles' Creed ; containing the
first and general Principles of Christian Theology ; with
the more immediate Principles concerning the true Know-
ledge of Christ.

VOL. VIII.

The Consecration of the Son of God ; or, the Ninth Book of
Commentaries upon the Apostles' Creed.

VOL. IX.

A Treatise of Christ's exercising his everlasting Priesthood ;
Man's Freedom from Servitude to Sin eflfected by Christ's
sitting at the Right Hand of God, and there oflSciating as a
most compassionate High Priest in behalf of Sinners.

VOLS. X. XI.

Of Christ's Session at the Right Hand of God and Exaltation
thereby ; of his being made Lord and Christ ; his coming
to judge both the Quick and the Dead, &c.

VOL. XIL

The Holy Catholic Faith and Church ; to which is adjoined
a Treatise of Christian Obedience.

ADVERTISEMENT,

A. D. 1844.

This Edition contains the Works of Dr. Thomas
Jackson, as collected and put forth by Barnabas Oley,
in 3 vols, folio in the year 1673, together with the
Preface of the same Editor, and a Life of Dr. Jackson
written by Edmund Vaughan, a contemporary and fellow
of his own colleoe. To these are now added the brief
account of the Author, contained in the Athenge
Oxonienses of A. Wood, together with notes and cor-
rections compiled from authentic sources, and copies of
Dr. Jackson's Will and the inventory of his effects,
obtained from the registry of the University. The
whole is concluded by a new Index, which, it is con-
fidently expected, will afford the greatest assistance to
the reader, who may wish to know Dr. Jackson's
complete sentiments on any subject discussed in his
Works.

The numbers in the margin denote the pages of the
folio edition.

OP

DR. JACKSON'S LIFE,

FROM A. WOOD S ATHENE OXONIENSES,
Vol. II. col. 664. ed. Bliss.

Thomas JACKSON, the ornament of the university in
his time, was born at Witton on the river Weer in the bishopric
of Durham on the day of S.Thomas the Apostle, an. 1579,
^became a student in Qut'en''s coll. under the tuition of ''Cra-
kanthorpe, in Midsummer term 1595, was admitted scholar of
C. C. coll. 24 March 1596, and prob. fellow i o May 1 606, being
then M. of A. and had laid the grounds carefully in arithmetic,
grammar, philology, geometry, rhetoric, logic, philosophy.

* [became a student. In this
matter he was indebted to the libe-
rality of Ralph, the third lord Eure,
of Witton, lieutenant of the princi-
pality of Wales for king James I,
as he gratefully acknowledges in
the Dedication of his two first books
of Commentaries.]

^ [Crakanthorpe. Who was a
friend of lord Eure, and went with
him as chaplain when he was sent
by king James as embassador ex-
traordinary to the emperor of Ger-
many. A. Wood speaks of Cra-
kanthorpe in the following terms :
" Being a noted preacher and a
profound disputant in divinity, (of
which faculty he was a bachelor,) he
was admired by all great men, and
had in veneration especially by the

puritanical party, he being himself a
zealot among them, as ha\'ing with
others of the same college, enter-
tained many of the principles of
Dr. John Rainolds while he lived
there. He was a person esteem-
ed by most men to have been re-
plenished with all kind of virtue
and learning, to have been profound
in philosophical and theological
learning, a great canonist, and so
familiar and exact in the fathers,
councils and schoolmen, that none
in his time scarce went beyond
him." Ath. Ox. V. ii. col. 361.]

c [bebuj then M. of A. He be-
came B.A. July 23, 1599, M-A.
July 9, 1603, B.D. June 25, 1610,
and D. D. June 26, 1622. Fasti
Oxon.]

a 4

SOME PARTICULARS OF

Oriental languages, histories, &c. with an insight in heraldry and
hieroglyphics. All which he made use of to serve either as
rubbish under the foundation, or as drudges and day-labourers
to theology. In 1622 he proceeded D. D. and two years after
''left his coll. for a benefice in his own country, which the pre-
sident and society thereof had then lately conferred on him.
But he ^keeping the said living not long, was made vicar of

[left his college. He quitted
the college, and it is probable that
he soon afterwards resigned his fel-
lowship. It is surprising that both
Wood and Vaughan, the latter of
whom was a fellow of the college at
the time, should have stated that
he was presented to a benefice in
the county of Durham by the pre-
sident and fellows of his own col-
lege. The living to which they refer
was the rectory of Winston, in the
patronage of the bishop of Durham,
and he received it from bp. Neile,
whose chaplain he also became
about the same time. The mistake
may probably have arisen from this
circumstance. In the year 1616 the
president and fellows had engaged
by a formal act to present Dr. Jack-
son to one of their livings when it
should next become vacant, and
this engagement may have been
supposed by his biographers to
have taken effect when he became
rector of Winston. But the li\dng
in question was in Somersetshire,
and did not become vacant till the
year 1625, at which time, accord-
ingly, Dr. Jackson having become
incapable of holding it, owing to
his preferment in the north, it was
presented to a different person.
These facts are obtained from Mr.
Pullman's papers in the possession
of the college.]

« [keeping tlie said livinr/ not lony.

Vaughan also says, in speaking of
the rectory of Winston, "from
thence he removed to the vicarage
of Newcastle," and thus both bio-
graphers appear to have believed
that Dr. Jackson ceased to be rector
of Winston at the time when he
became the vicar of Newcastle. But
the fact was otherwise. He resided
indeed at Newcastle, but it appears
from Rymer (Fcedera, vol. xviii. p.
660.) that he obtained a dispensa-
tion, bearing date May 12, 1625, to
enable him to hold the two livings
together. He was instituted to the
vicarage on the 27th of November
1623, and continued to discharge
the duties of it to the time of his
resignation in the year 1630, when
he was appointed to the headship of
his college. (Brand's Hist, of New-
castle, vol. i. p. 305.) From the
dedication of his Discourses to bi-
shop Neile, in the year 1624, we
learn that he was at that time re-
siding in Oxford : but it also ap-
pears, that he was only absent for a
time, and with permission from the
bishop ; and in dedicating the sixth
book of his Exposition to the earl of
Pembroke, in the year 1627, we
find him dating from his study at
Newcastle upon Tyne.

In speaking of Dr. Jackson's re-
moval to Newcastle, Vaughan says
that it was " with consent from the
same college obtained, where no re-

DR. JACKSON'S LIFE.

ix

S. Nicholas church in Newcastle upon Tine, where he was
much followed and admired for his excellent way of preaciiing,
which was then puritanical. At length being elected president
of C. C. coll., partly with the helps of Neile bishop of Durham,
(who before had taken him off from his precise way, and made
him his chaplain,) but *^more by the endeavours of Dr. Laud,
and also made chaplain in ordinary to his majesty, he left the

quest could be denied him," and
these words would seem to imply,
that he requested and received per-
mission from the college to hold his
fellowship together with his prefer-
ment in the north. But the more
probable interpretation is, that the
words refer to the rectory of Win-
ston, which, on Vaughan's supposi-
tion of his having received it from
the college, he could not have con-
tinued to hold together with the
vicarage without their consent. He
had probably resigned his fellowship
some time previously, as according
to modern practice, it would be
impossible to retain a fellowshij) in
that society for any considerable time
after institution either to Winston
or to Newcastle.

The vicarage of Newcastle was in
the patronage of the bishop of Car-
lisle, but it would appear from the
words of the Dedication already
noticed, that Dr. Jackson was in-
debted to his friend the bishop of
Durham for his appointment; un-
less we suppose the words to refer,
not to his presentation to the living,
but merely to his institution, which
he would certainly receive from the
hands of bishop NeLle. He says,
" These pa})ers contain only the
first fruits of my labours in that
worthy and famous congregation
which it pleased your lordship about
a year ago to commit unto my
trust." 'lliis description, however,

applies exactly to the large and
flourishing town of Newcastle, but
is utterly out of place in reference
to so remote and limited a popula-
tion as that of Winston.

But it is clear that the two bio-
graphers are again in error. Surtees
states (Hist, of Durham, vol. iv.
p. 36.) that Dr. Jackson was insti-
tuted to the rectory of Winston in
the year 1625. If this date be cor-
rect, Newcastle was the first of the
two livings to which he was now
presented. The statement of Sur-
tees is confirmed by the dispensa-
tion contained in Rymer's Fcedera,
which bears date May 12, 1625, and
speaks of Winston as the living al-
lowed to be held together with the
other.

The name of Jackson appears
frequently on the records of the
town of Newcastle. Sir John Jack-
son, knt. was recorder about the
year 1620, and William Jackson,
town-clerk and sometime sheriflp,
died Aug. 8, 1630. Surtees' Hist,
of Durham, vol. iii. p. 271.]

^ [more by the endeavours of
Dr. Laud. This account is scarcely
consistent with the statement of
Vaughan, but it may stiU be per-
fectly correct, as Laud, then bishop
of London, had a few months pre-
viously been appointed chancellor
of the University, and had already
taken an active part in its proceed-
ings.]

X

SOME PARTICULARS OF

said vicarage, and was made s prebendary of Winchester, ^ vicar
of Witney in Oxfordshire, and 'dean of Peterborough in the
place of Dr. Joh. Towers promoted to the episcopal see thereof,
by the favour of the said Laud, an. 1638. He was a person
furnished with all learned languages, arts and sciences, especi-
ally metaphysics, which he looked upon as a necessary hand-
maid to divinity. He was also profoundly read in the fathers,
and was of a wonderful and deep judgment, as it appears by
his works that are much admired by ail persons. None wrote
more highly concerning the attributes of God, and more
vigorous in some of his works, against the church of Rome,
than he. — "I speak it in the presence of God," C^saith one,)
" I have not read so hearty, vigorous a champion against Rome,
(aniongst our writers of his rank) so convincing and demon-
strative, as Dr. Jackson is. I bless God for the confirmation
which he hath given me in the Christian religion against the
Atheist, Jew, and Socinian ; and in the Protestant against
Rome," &c. In a word, he was a man of a blameless life,

s ^prebendary of Winchester. He
was installed June 18, 1635, and
obtained the appointment from the
crown, which in that instance had
the right of presentation, on the
promotion of Dr. Wren, the former
prebendary, to the see of Hereford.
Dr. Jackson's two patrons. Laud
and Neile, had then become arch-
bishops of Canterbury and York,
and he had had opportunities of
making himself favourably known
to the court in his office as one of
his majesty's chaplains.]

^ l^vicar of Witney. He was
presented by the king in right of
the prerogative during the vacancy
of the see of Winchester, to which
the patronage of the living belonged.
He was instituted July 8, 1632,
and on his resignation his successor
obtained institution on the 12th of
November, 1637. Vaughan says in
his Life of Dr. Jackson, that he
gave his vicarage of Newcastle to

Mr. Alvye of Trinity college, and
the vicarage of Witney, after he
had incurred much expense respect-
ing it, to Mr. Thomas White, then
proctor of the University. How
far Dr. Jackson's .recommendation
of these two clergymen may have
had weight with the bishops of Car-
lisle and Winchester, the patrons of
the two livings in question, cannot
now be ascertained, but it is clear
that he could not have had any ab-
solute right of presentation to them.]

> [dean of Peterborough. This ap-
pointment was made late in the year
1638 or early in 1639, but there is
no entry in the Register of his in-
stalment. (Le Neve, Fasti.) Browne
Willis (Survey of Cathed.) says,
that he was admitted to the deanery
on the 17th of January, 163!.]

^ saith one. Barnabas Oley, in
the Life of George Herbert. Lond.
1652, and in 1675. [Herbert's Re-
mains, sign. A 12.]

DR. JACKSON'S LIFE. xi

studious, humble, courteous, and very charitable, devout to-
wards God, and exemplary in private and public, beloved of
Laud archb. of Cant, and blamed by none in any respect, but
by the restless presbyterians; the chief of whom, Will. Prynne,
who busily concerned himself in all affairs, doth give him 'this
character in the name of the brethren. — "Dr. Jackson of
Oxon is a man of great abilities, and of a plausible, affable,
courteous deportment, till of late he hath been transported
beyond himself, with metaphysical contemplations to his own
infamy and his renowned mother's shanie, I mean the uni-
versity of Oxon, who grieves for his defection ; from whose
duggs he never sucked his poisonous doctrines." — " Also that
he is" (as in "^another place he tells us) "of civil conversation
and learning, which made his errors and preferments more dan-
gerous and pernicious, and that it was his Arminian errors, not
his learning or honesty, that were the ground of his advance-
ment to his dignity," &c. " He tells us also in another place,

' this character. In his Anti-
Arminianism, or the Church of
England's Old Antithesis, printed
1630. p. 270. [edit. 1629. p. 133.
The passage goes on as follows,
" his evidence hath been blanched
and blasted by a parliament exami-
nation, e.xcepted against by the con-
vocation house, answered by some,
disowned by most of our divines."]

™ as in another place. Canterb.
Doom, p. 532.

" [He tells us also. In his Ap-
pend, to Anti-Arminianism, pub-
lished in 1630. In the preceding
year the house of commons had
adopted the following Protest, "We,
the Commons in parhament assem-
bled, do claim protest and avow for
truth the sense of the Articles of
Religion, {which were established
by parliament in the 13th year of
our late queen Elizabeth,) which by
the public act of the church of
England, and by the general and
current expositions of the writers of

our church has been delivered unto
us. And we reject the sense of the
Jesuits and Arminians, and all
others wherein they differ from
us." This Protest was occasion-
ed by the appearance of the
royal Declaration, published toge-
ther with the Thirty-nine Articles
in 1628, which prohibited all dis-
putes and speculations on the Cal-
vinistic points, and the effect of
which was to condemn the Cal-
vinistic interpretation that had hi-
therto prevailed. But the complaint
of the puritans was not merely that
they were prohibited from express-
ing their sentiments, but that the
opi)osite party, who were equally
included under the prohibition, were
favoured by the court and the arch-
bishop, and allowed to publish their
opinions with impunity. It was in
November 1627 that Dr. Jackson
sent forth his treatise of the Divine
Essence, which forms the sixth book
of his Exposition ; and as he had

xu

SOME PARTICULARS OF

"that he was convented in the Jast parliament, yea openlv
accused in the last convocation for his heretical Arminian
books, which have been censured by Mr. Hen. Burton in his
Seven Viols, and ]iarticularly answered bv the acute and
learned Dr. Twisse," &c. The parliament that Prvnne means,
was that which sate in 1628, wherein he had like to have been
» sore handled for certain tenets, I cannot say, so far driven bv

already acquired the reputation of
being an Arminian.. and did not
disguise his sentiments in his new
publication, he met \^'ith much cri-
ticism and hostihty. The following
are the words of Henry Burton, in
his book called The Seven Vials
(p. 112): "The other day comes
forth a third book, the author of it
(I dare say) of no small correspond-
ence with the former. He on the
other side pleads for Arminius, and
that not now obvoluto capite as the
former, but aperta f route et ex pro-
fesso. In his Epistle dedicator)'
(wherein he seeks to endear his
service to a great Mecsenas [lord
Pembroke] of one of our famous
academies, God grant he aim nut
at some of the learned chairs where-
in to vent his not ' popular' nor
' pulpit' speculations) he gives a
dangerous by-blow to the opposites
of Arminius and his doctrines in
these words, ' If the man which most
mislikes the Arminian or Lutheran
doctrine in the points most contro-
verted through reformed churches
will but agree with me in these two,
That the Almighty Creator hath a
true freedom in doing good, and
Adam's offspring a true freedom in
doing e\-il, I shall not dissent from
him in any other points contro-
verted, unless it be in this one, that
there needs be no other contro-
versy at all between the Arminians
and their opposites in point of God's

pro^•idence and predestination.' In
so saying he would seem to imply,
that the opposites of Arminius, in
the point specially of predestination,
do hold a kind of stoical fatality and
servitude in Adam's offspring, ne-
cessitated by divine decree unto aU
their e\Tl actions." The same ob-
jections were urged by more able
opponents, as for instance, by Dr.
S. Ward, in a letter addressed to
abp. Usher, and dated at Cam-
bridge, May 16, 1628, in which he
says, " Dr. Jackson hath lately set
forth a book of the Attributes of
God, wherein, in the preface to the
earl of Pembroke, he doth profess
himself an Arminian, ascribing to
the opposites of Arminius, as I
conceive, that God's decrees before
the creation take away all possibi-
lities of contrary events after the
creation. This conceit, as I con-
ceive, maketh him elsewhere to im-
pugn aU di^-ine predefinitions, as
prejudicious to man's liberty and
freedom ; which' is a most siUy con-
ceit." Usher's Life, p. 394.]

o [sore handled. This passage is
taken by Wood from Oley's Life of
Herbert, (Herbert's Remains, sign.
A 10,) where it nms thus: "He
[Jackson] had like to have been
sore shent by the parhament in the
year 1628 for tenets in dinnity, I
can not say, so far driven by him,
as by some men now they are with
great applause.".

DR. JACKSON^S LIFE.

xiii

him, as by some men since, and now, they have, and are, with
great applause. His works are these,

The eternal TrtUli of Scriptures, and Christian Belief,
thereon wholly depending, manifested by its own Light. Lond.
1613. qu. [Bodl. 4to. J. 26. Th.] This is the first book of
his Comments on the Creed,

Hoio far the Ministry of men is necessary for planting true
Christian Faith, and retaining the unity of it planted. Lond.
1613. qu. [Printed with the formei'.] This is the second book
of his Com. on the Creed.

Blasphemous Positions of Jesuits and other later Romanists,
concerning the Authority of the Church, Lond. 16x4. qu.
[Bodl. 4to. J. 6. Th.] This is the third book of his Com. on
the Creed.

Justifying Faith: Or, the Faith by which the Just do live.
A Treatise containing a Description of the Nature, Properties,
and Conditions of Christian Faith. Lond. J 6 15, and 1631.
qu. This is the fourth book of his Com. on the Creed.

A Discovery of Mispersuasiotis, breeding Presumption, and
Hypocrisy, and 3Ieans how Faith may be planted in Unbe-
lievers.— Printed with the former book called Justifying
Faith, &c.

Treatise containing the Original of Unbelief, Misrepre-
sentation, or Mispersuasions concerning the Verity, Unity,
and Attributes of the Deity, &c. Lond. 1625. qu. This is the
fifth book of his Com. on the Creed.

Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes. Lond.
J 638. qu. the first part. [Bodl. 4to. M. 43. Th.] The second
part was also printed there in 1629. qu. [Bodl. 4to. C. 39. Th.]
Which two parts make the sixth book of his Comments on the
Creed. The first part was dedicated to Will, earl of Pembroke,
with a plausible epistle, wherein, as Pone saith, "The author
professeth himself an Arminian, and patron of their tenets.
And from chap. 8. to the 20th he professedly maintains a
mutability in God's eternal decrees of election and reprobation,
depending upon the actions and wills of men, universal grace
and redemption ; with other Arminian errors. This book,
though publicly complained of, was never called in by the bishop

P one saith. Prynne, Canterb. Doom, p. 166.

xvi

SOME PARTICULARS, &:c.

Novatian denying the Reception of some sort of Sinners.
(2.) &c.

Tioenty Sermons, or thereabouts.

Most of which books, sermons, and treatises, having been
published at several times, were collected together, (with others
added to them,) and printed at Lond. 167a, 73, [by Barnabas
Oley] in three volumes in fol. [Bodl. Z. i. 5, 6, 7. Jur.] with
the author's life prefixed, (as it was before the three first books
of Comments on the Creed. Lond. 1653. fol.) written by
Edm. Vaughan, sometimes fellow of C. C. coll., whom I shall
mention elsewhere. Our author Dr. Jackson also wrote

An Historical Narration— I have not yet seen, nor do
I know farther of its title. It was licensed by Dr. Edw. Mar-
tin, domestic chaplain to bishop Laud, without his privity, for
which he turned him out of his service, (as he ^ himself saith,)
and the book was called in and suppressed. But Prynne, an
implacable enemy to that bishop, ^ saith, that the said Histo-
rical Nai'ration, which was the vilest imposture that ever was
thrust upon our church, was licensed by the said Martin with
Laud's privity, and that the calling of it in, was the act of
archb. Abbot upon Prynne's complaint, and the public scandal
it gave, much against Laud's will, who ever since connived at
the sale of them. At length after our author Dr. Tho, Jack-
son had spent sixty years or more in this life, mostly in studies
and devotion, he surrendered up his devout soul to him that
gave it on the 21st of Sept. in sixteen hundred and forty, and
was buried in the inner chapel of Corp. Ch. coll., but hath no
memory at all over his grave.

r himself saith. See in Canterb. Doom, p. 508.
* saith, that. Ibid. p. 510.

DR. JACKSON'S WILL.

the name of God Amen. In the yeare of our Ld. God
1640, Sept. the 5th, I, Thomas Jackson, being in a sickHe
and weake estate of body, but (God's name be praysed for it)
in perfect health of soule and mind, and in sound memorie, doe
thus dispose of my selfe and of my worldly estate.

First, I bequeath my soule and comend my spirit into the
handes of my gratious Creator and Redemer. Secondly, I
comit my body without any dissection unto the grave, in hope
of a ioyfull resurection, through the power and efficacie of the
glorious resurrection of my Saviour Jesus Christ, and my
desire is, that my body may be buyried in the chappell of
Corpus Christi colledge, without all funerall pompe or so-
lemnitie besides Comon prayers according to the rites of our
Church of England. For my temporall and worldlie estate :
First, I bequeath to Corpus Christi colledge in Oxford my
box of gold, wherin I have usuallie kept the Founders ring;
and allso I give to the said colledge, all those bookes which
are mentioned in a sch^le annexed to this my will. I likewise
give to my servant Richard Benson diverse bookes mentioned
in the same schedle. Ite, I give to good wife Hans fourtie
shillings. Ite, I give to the pore of St. John's parish thirtie
shillinjis.

And I doe constitute and appoint Christopher Downes my
sole exequutor of this my last will and testament, and farther
I give the third part of my clere estate, debts and legacies
being payed, to my neece Ann Penn, and I doe request and
appoint my deare and loving brother Dr. Shelde, warde of AH
Soules, and my loving friend Robert Newlin, oveseers of this
my will, and heartyly desire the, that they would afford my
exequutor upon all occasions their best advise, counsell, and
furtherance; and I farther comend to their care and custodie
ail my papers and manuscripts, to be perused and published as

JACKSON, VOL. I. b

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

A.D. 1673.

TO

THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,

G I L B E H T,

BY DIVIKE PROVIDENCE, LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,

HIS GRACE,

Primate of all England, and Metropolitan, and one of his Majesty's
most honomrable privy council.

May it please your Grace,

Our most holy and wise God, who at first commanded light
to shine out of darkness, was pleased, as in former ages, so in the
late times of public calamity, to make his face to shine upon his
servants, who chose rather to quit all externals than to lose
peace of conscience ; to become aliens to their mothers, than
complices with strange children.

T have alway cause to remember many, and at this time a
necessity to relate some sweet contrivances of God's providence
manifested in those days.

One was, God's creating for me, out of the infelicities of
those times, this happiness then to be made known unto your
Grace.

b3

xxii THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, A. D. 1673.

A second was, God's improvement of this blessing, so as
to bring on a greater, by inclining your heart, not only to
take notice of so mean a person, but with memorable alacrity
to gratify my desires of viewing the precious and excellent
manuscripts of the reverend and learned Dr. Jackson, of
blessed memory.

The third was, that after these two favours sown in tears,
(times of the church's affliction,) there was another reaped
in joy, at the blessed time of restitution ; a preferment to a
prebend in the cathedral church of Worcester, bestowed upon
me by his sacred Majesty, but by your Grace's voluntary
mediation.

There be due, by way of justice unto patrons and benefac-
tors, two things — improvement and gratitude.

I do therefore here make unto your Grace a solemn legal
tender of an ancient debt, a multitude of most humble, dutiful,
and cordial thanks, due unto your Grace for all your favours :
beseeching your Grace, not only to pity, but to accept them
even for that quality which makes things sometimes to be
rejected — their plainness and simplicity ; and to believe that I
neither think my debt lessened by what I now pay, nor find
mine heart any whit emptied, but that it still remains full, and
fully resolved to practise the more excellent way of paying
thanks by prayer in the closet, rather than by publishing
them in print.

The improvement of your Grace's favour in my prebend
must appear in the employment of the profits, (which were
neither spent in profuseness, nor hoarded up in avarice, nor
bestowed upon relations,) and discharge of incumbent duties ;
and these were performed with fidelity, and to the best of my
abilities, and with frequent reflections that your Grace did
place me there.

And for those rare manuscripts, though I improved them
first to my private comfort in time of affliction, to my employ-

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, A.D. 1673. xxiil

merit in a time of cashierment or sequestration, and into a
library wlien I had twice lost my books ; yet soon after, as I
received them from your Grace most freely, so I freely de-
livered them for public good : and having now passed the press,
some ones of them (which have been twice printed) are become
thousands, and others are improved above an hundred-fold.

From this I receive comfort, that my private deficiency in
thankfulness to your Grace may be supplied abundantly from
a public stock. For wherever this author's works shall be
read, it will be known to all, that besides what they owe unto
your Grace for your constant care and continual vigilancy over
the church, they are indebted to your Grace entirely for a third
part of these learned Comments upon the Creed, or rather
wholly for them all ; the other parts being not likely to have
come forth (as they now come) unless impelled by what
your Grace communicated ; and so will find themselves obliged
to acknowledge a great debt of thanks to your Grace, and to
pay that debt in prayer to God, that he will prolong your
days, continue your health, and assist you in your government.
That God will graciously please to bestow this blessing upon
this church, shall be the daily prayer of

Your Grace's most obliged, grateful, and dutiful
son and servant,

BARNABAS OLEY.

b 4

A

PREFACE
TO THE CHRISTIAN READER,

PARTICULARLY TO THE YOUNGER SORT OF STUDENTS IN DIVINITY,
AND ACADEMICAL MEN.

A.D. 1673.

Grace, mercy, and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the part of ingenuity to acknowledge by whom a man
hath profited.

M. Aurelius Antoninus most gratefully mentions some
single rules of morality which he received from such and such,
the prudent instructors of his youth.

It is a piece of charity to shew unto others those mines
that have enriched ourselves, or the fountains out of which
we have drawn cleansing and quenching, nourishing and
healing waters.

We do not well to conceal from those in the city (though
they have shut us out as unclean) the great good we have
discovered during our exclusion, (thus much in effect said
the Samaritan lepers, 2 Kings vii. 9.)

" O that my lord was acquainted with the prophet in Israel !"
(said Naaman's little captive maid,) " he would cure my master's
leprosy," 2 Kings v. 3.

" Come, see a man that told me all that ever I did," said the
Samaritan woman to her neighbours, John iv. 29.

If I mistake not, I shall in some acceptable measure at once
perform (at least resemble) all the forementioned offices,
when I have in short told the Christian, more signally the
learned, or reader willing to learn, thus much ; that what

a See his Meditations in Enghsh, (and in Greek and Latin,) put out
by the learned Dr. Casaubon.

XXVI

OLEY'S PREFACE

acquired skill I have in theology, what understanding I have
got in holy scripture, (under God,) I owe it in a manner all
to this author : hie v'lr, hie est. This is the man whom I
acknowledge to have been my master, and mystagogus in
(liviiiis. From him I learned how to use my small stock
of human learning in the pursuit of divine. By him was
my soul convinced of the truth of scriptures, and stored with
arguments to persuade others; that at least it was worth their
labour to try, whether faithful practice of scripture rules would
not produce a willing submission to the authority of scripture.
I did not know what a monster that idol infallibilitv was,
till I saw it drawn out by his pencil. I had swallowed, and.
Faith is an as I thought, concocted, the common definition of faith, by
mTth'or'^^^^ full particular assurance. But when I read this author,
goodness of I perceived that plerophory was the golden fruit that grew
revealeth^in o° the top-branch, not the first seed, no not the spreading
Ms word, be root of that tree of life, by feeding on which the just do live;

it historv, /- 7 . r- 111

inyster\-,' and that true jiducia can grow no raster than, but shoots
precept,pro- ;yg( parallel with, fidelitas. I mean, that true confidence

mise, or ' i . 1 • 1 ' • • 1 i-

threat. towards God is adequate to smcere and conscientious obedience
to his holv precepts.

Before I had read this author, I measured hypocrisy by the
gross and vulgar standard, thinking the hypocrite had been
one that had deceived men like himself : but in this author I
found him to be a man that had attained the magisterium
Satancp, even the art of deluding his own soul with unsound,
but h\crh and immature persuasions of sanctity and certainty ;
and that not by the eubcia, or cogging of unrighteousness,
but bv virtue of some one or more excellent qualities, wherein
he outstrips the very saints of God.

From him I learned many instances and exemplifications of
that holy but heavy doom of our Saviour, The things which
are in high esteem icith men are abomination in the sight
of God}': and that the common notions of the world touching
good and evil are as distorted and monstrous, as if a man
should define an humble meek man by cowardice, or a prudent
Christian to be one that had conquered his conscience.

And I hold mvself obliged further to profess, that I have
not onlv reaped from this author's sown fields an harvest of

Luke svi. 15.

TO THE READER, A.D. 1673. xxvii

knowledge, but also some weighty sheaves of consolation.
He hath so convincingly (above others) proved out of Moses,
the Prophets, and the Psalms, (and the Jews also,) that our
blessed Lord Jesus is the Christ, that my soul rests upon
it as upon a basis immovable.

It will be consequent to what was last said, and seasonable
here to teil the reader, that he will find in this author an
eminent excellency in that part of divinity which I make
bold to call Christology, in displaying the great mystery of
godliness, God the Son of God manifested in human flesh.
And this he never thinks well done, till he have laid the type
or shadow of the Old Testament upon the substance in the
New ; until he have laid the prophecy (as Elisha laid his
body upon the dead child) face to face and eyes to eyes upon
the holy child Jesus. And his powerful dexterity in this
kind hath purchased him so high an esteem amongst the
learned (though much dissenting from him in opinion), that
in their works they have quoted him, and commended him
as an author.

This gives me the cue to turn my speech towards my
reverend brethren of the church of England. I speak this
only to the younger clergy, (it would be presumption to think
upon the elder in this period,) and I speak it with all ima-
ginable respect and tenderness. Those that have compassion
on the multitude, that teach the people knowledge, and
for their edification do seek out acceptable words in writings
upright and true, that mean to tread the good old way for
better instructing the poor of the flock, may find in this
author's works matter proper for christenings, communions,
funerals, fasts, for every dominical and festival in the year ;
but abundance of matter for those days, on which our church
commemorates the great benefits received by the incarnation,
birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus
Christ.

As for expounding the doctrinal and opening the more
difficult places of holy scripture, this author seems to have
a rare felicity therein above the professed commentators or
expositors, whether protestants or papists. And often when he
pretends but to take one verse as the centre of his discourse,
he illumiiiales the reader in a great circimifercnce of the

xxviii

OLEY'S PREFACE

context. I shall say more, (he that will try, I hope, shall
find my words true,) he that will carefully peruse this good
author's works shall thereby have a goodly prospect of the
Old and New Testaments opened unto him, shall mightily
improve in the understanding of the holy Bible. And putting
a case, that besides the holy Bible and fathers I should be
confined to the use of one author (whom I would choose)
and no more, I should make choice of this author's works.
And I am further persuaded that were his works translated
into Latin, the Christian world (of what division soever that
keeps the foundation) would confess itself confirmed by him,
and a debtor to him.

And now having this opinion rooted in my heart, I hope
the reader will approve, at least pardon, if I pronounce this
author the divine of his rank and age ; and if in token of
my private thankfulness for good received from him, I breathe
out, first towards heaven, Benedic anima mea Domino, &c.
(Psalm ciii.) and then towards men on earth tokens of good-
will.

Qui te genuere beati,

Et mater felix, et fortunata profecto

Si qua tibi soror est, et, quae dedit ubera, nutrix. Ovid. Met. IV. 322.

Happy were the parents that had such a son of understand-
ing. Blessed was the womb that bore him, and the paps
that gave him suck. Blessed was that alma mater, that
had such a name writ in her matricula, (in whose blessing
her other sister was blessed also,) and that phrontisterion
which had him first a nursing son, and the other which had
him afterward a nursing father of her children. Blessed
were the places where these apostolical feet of beauty trod,
when he went abroad evariffelizans pacem, evangelizans bona.
And blessed be the memory of that man, whose hand (like
the hand in the margin) pointed out first unto me this author.
His name is sweet, and his bones shall one day flourish out
of their dust.

If others at the first view (nay, after some reviews) of this
author, come not up to my rate or esteem of him, I have
their excuse as ready in my pen, as mine own blame is fresh
in my memory. For when a fatherly friend of mine (Mr.
Ni. Ferrar of happv meniorv, thinking my younger years

TO THE READER, A.D. 1673.

XXIX

had need of such an instructor) commended this author unto
my reading ; for some time after I wished he had lent me
his understanding together with his books ; yet with frequent
reading I first began to like, at last I mastered and made
mine own so much of him as enabled me to improve and
impart his sense to others: I often took his matter, and
preparing it to their capacity, preached it in popular audi-
tories. I shame not to tell this, because I think it no plagium,
I know my title to it was just by donation ; the author intend-
ed it for this purpose ; his very design being to afford helps
to younger students, and to give the abler hints and provoca-
tions for searches into the less beaten but more profitable
paths, the abstruser but richer veins of theology.

It is to be expected that two objections will militare against
the labours of this great author, and either break the arms,
(weaken the hands at least,) or dazzle if not darken the eyes
of the industrious reader. The one is, that his style is obscure,
the other, that his doctrine is Arminian. The second part of
this preface will endeavour with humility and reason to an-
swer them. And to the former of these, I say his style is full
and deep, which makes the purity of it seem a kind of dark-
ness ; and though it abound in substantial adjectives, yet it is
more short than other authors in relatives, in eking and helping
particles, because he writ to scholars ; his stream runs full,
but always in its own channel and within the banks ; if any
will yet say it overflows, he must give me leave to tell him it
then enriches the ground. His pen drops principles as
frequently as ordinary men's do sense ; his matter is rare, his
notions uncouth parcels of truth digged e prqfimdo, and so at
first aspect look like strangers to the ordinary intellect, but
with patience and usance will cease to be so; and the reader
shall assuredly find this most certain token of true worth in
him, that the more he is acquainted with him the better he
shall like him. The probability of this proof I gather from
one of those responsa prndentHm which long since I read in
Plutarch. A professed orator had made a speech for one, who
upon the first reading went about the conning of it with much
cheerfulness and contentment, but after that two or three days
familiarity and repetition had begot in him a fn.stidium, he
came to the orator and told him : " Sir, at the first or second

XXX

OLEY'S PREFACE

reading I liked this oration verv well ; but now I am quite of
another mind ; to say the truth, I loath it heartily." " Well,"
says the orator, " how oft mean you to speak this oration to
the people ? any more than once ?" " No," said he, " but
once only." " Go your way then ; they will like it as well as
you did at first time, I warrant you." But, reader, if thou wilt
believe thirty or forty years' experience or versation of this
author, thou wilt find at every return new matter both of
observation and delight in him.
Now for the second objection.

1. It is a mere noise, the fancy of a prejudicate mind ; the
reader must in justice examine particulars before he pass his
judgment ; and then in wisdom not suffer himself to be de-
prived of a rich treasure upon poor pretences. It would fret
a son of valour to find himself robbed by a weakhng and
a coward, that had first possessed his fancy that some visors
(supported with stakes in the twilight) were stout fellows
ready to come in, if he did not deliver his gold.

2. I may with modesty aver, that I know not one word in
all his works that can possibly be so wrested by the dissenting
as to give offence to the objector.

3. I find him throughout the whole body of his writings
most religiously careful to give unto God the things that be
God's, even the glory of his grace, his most gratuitous grace
in Christ, preventing, exciting, furthering, and making to per-
severe in all works or courses of Christianity, and that so
requisite and intrinsical to every holy action, that all our
sufficiency is from it. By the grace of God we are what we
are, and do what we do. And surely had the great goodness
of the Lord been taught and tendered in such manner as this
author sets it forth, this age had felt itself better thriven
in Christianity and in the power of godliness than it now is.
Sin had not so abounded, but grace had superabounded, and
reigned through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus
Christ our Lord.

4. Nor can any man, think I, produce one passage that
intimates, much less infers, any inordinate prelation of the
strength of nature, he making the chief use of that poor rem-
nant of free-will left in us sons of Adam, to consist, not in
meriting or preparing, but in our not being so untoward

TO THE READER, A.D. 1673.

XXXI

patients as we mio-ht possibly be, in not doing that evil which is
in our power to do.

5. Nor will any man speak evil of him, but he that himself
narrows the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and engrosses that
plenteous ransom he paid for all the sons of Adam, to some
small number of such as he conceits himself to be.

Finally, if the worst be given that this objection pretends to,
the offence will be mud) assuaged, if the ordinary i*eader do
but know that the Lutheran, i. e. a considerable part of the
i-eformed church, is of that opinion, and that the other name is
used mostly to inflame the odium.

In sum, this man of God knew he might not strive, nor
multiply questions to gender strife ; therefore he demands but
two postulata of the dissenting man ; 1. That God hath a true
freedom in doing good ; 2. That man hath a true freedom in
doing evil. From him that agrees with him in these two, he
will not dissent in other points. See his Epistle before the
sixth book'^.

But from such as teach that all events are so irresistibly de-
creed by God, that none can fall out otherwise than tliey do,
or that nothing can be amended that is amiss, he justly
differs. For besides that the tenets be Turkish being pressed
they yield a morbid bitter juice, and put out a forked sting.
Their necessarv consequent being, that either there is no moral
evil under the sun, or that the Fountain of goodness (who
is ultoi- et intentator malorum) his will Is the cause of such
evil.

The expectation of the reader quickens me to give over the
commendation of the whole, and to render him an account of
the parts, how they be now disposed in this new edition. And
to satisfy that, I willingly now address myself.

This great author, having framed to himself an idea of that
complete body of divinity, which he Intended for his own
more regular proceeding and the reader's better understand-
ing, did direct all his lines in the whole periphery of his
studies unto the heads contained in the Creed, as unto their
proper centre.

He published in his lifetime nine books of Comments upon
c Of this edition, vol. v. p. 4. See Busbequius, Epist. 4.

xxxii

OLEY'S PREFACE

the Creed, and part of a twelfth ; besides twelve sermons or
treatises relating to two of the nine books aforesaid.

There were published in the year 1654 and 1657. (that was
nigh twenty years after their author's death,) the tenth and
eleventh books of Comments upon the Creed. For which two
excellent books, as also for what additions are de novo made
to the former in this new edition, the church is indebted to
the most reverend father in God, Gilbert, by Divine Pro-
vidence, lord archbishop of Canterbury, &c. (who procured the
papers from the reverend Doctor Newlin, successor and execu-
tor to the author, and the careful preserver of his manuscripts,)
besides what she owes his Grace for his indefatigable vigilancy
and care of her welfare.

These twelve books, and the twelve treatises or sermons, are
in this present edition disposed into three tomes.

In the first tome are contained five books: viz. The

I. Of the eternal truth of scripture.

II. How necessary the ministry of man is for planting of faith.

III. Blasphemous positions of Jesuits, &c. about the
church's authority.

IV. Of justifying faith: or that faith by which the just
doth live.

V. Of the originals of unbelief, misbelief, mispersuasions, &c.
In the second tome be contained the four next books: viz.

The

VI. Of the Divine essence and attributes. To which are an-
nexed nine of the twelve sermons or treatises, (mentioned
above, four of which make up that treatise which the author
intituled, About the Signs of the Times,) as relating to the
discourses about God's providence contained in that book :
which nine ai'e now reckoned with and as parts of that sixth
book.

VII. Of the knowledge of Christ : before which be placed
as introductions, two sermons, (Bethlehem and Nazareth, the
woman a true help to man,) and Christ's answer to St. John's
disciples, the remaining three of the twelve: as also two
sermons, one, about the wise men of the East; the other, Ra-
chel's tears, never printed before. All which constitute the
seventh book.

TO THE READER, A.D. 1673.

xxxni

VIII. The humiliation of the Son of God.

IX. Of the consecration of the Son of God to his everlastin<^
priesthood.

In the third tome be contained three books : viz. The

X. Which treateth of many useful and weighty subjects.
Of original righteousness in Adam. How sin found entrance
into the world. Of original sin. Of man's servitude to sin.
Of freedom of will. Of mortification. It contains also a
grave answer to Mr. Burton's exception. A paraphrase upon
the eleven first chapters of Exodus. Christ's exercising his
everlasting priesthood : and divers other matters, very con-
siderable.

XI. Which treats of Christ's exaltation, and session at
God's right hand. His being made Lord and Christ. His
coming with power to judge the quick and the dead ; to
raise the bodies of the dead ; to award life and death ever-
lasting secundum opera: where the question about merit is
well handled. To which are annexed about twenty SL'rmons,
one of which (placed before the sermons of blood) upon Genesis
xlii. 21. was never printed before.

XII. Contains a treatise of the holy catholic church. To
which is annexed, A treatise of Christian obedience, never
printed before, which is conceived to be a part of the second
book of that treatise.

I have always sufficient reason to suspect the weakness of
my judgment: and I do here very seriously reflect upon the
feebleness of my memory, which hath sometimes been so nulli-
fied) but for a very little moment, I bless God) by the sudden
ingruence of a lethargy or apoplexy, that I could not
remember the name of any one in my parish, where I have
been vicar forty years. And therefore beforehand, begging
pardon if I fail, I tell the reader, that I do now intend, and
deliberate to recollect, and here set down all such particulars as
may any way contribute to the benefit or content of the reader
to the credit or caution of the stationer. I insert this latter
term, because the very last time I did the office of a prefacer
for one, (as I am now doing for three,) my imperfect shallow
sense — by the printer's leaving out the first letter and word,
and somewhere divers words — was turned into perfect nonsense :
so that one who blamed me as censorious for an hard word in

JACKSON, VOL. I. C

XXXIV

OLEY'S PREFACE

that preface not put in by me, was very candid that he did
not blame me as senseless, for more words left out by the
printer.

The first particular I think of (consequent to what is said
before concerning the ordering of the books in their several
tomes) is, to shew to which article of the Creed (respectively)
these books of Comments upon the Creed do relate.

I should wholly wave this labour, (because useless to the
learned,) but that I know some that love and read this author
who are no great scholars. Now these may be willing to
know, that the first five books relate only to the first article, or
first part of the article, " I believe in God :" the five being
chiefly if not wholly spent in declaring what belief is, what
motives we have to believe holy scripture, what helps be
needful for plantation of faith, what errors be negatively,
privatively, or positively opposite to faith ; with their originals.

The sixth book, (with the nine appendices,) treating of
God's essence and attributes ; very largely of his infinite
power and providence visible in the creation and government
of the world, relate to that part of the article wherein we
profess our faith " in God the Father Almighty, Maker of
" heaven and earth.'"

All the five sermons or treatises placed tome ii. fol. 401*.
being figured and counted with the seventh book, as parts of
it, because introductive to it : the seventh book itself, the
whole eighth and ninth, the latter part of the tenth, and
the former part of the elventh books, relate to the articles
concerning our blessed Saviour, from his conception to his
coming to judgment, inclusive.

How this learned author proves, by reason, that the resur-
rection of the body is possible ; how he confirms a Christian's
faith, that it is future, and shall be, see tomeiii. fol. 421, &ct.

He that would taste the joys or see a glimpse of the glory
in life everlasting, let him read tome iii. fol. 498, &c|.

He that would see the dreadful torments of death eternal,
may without danger take a view of them (torn. iii. fol. 448
(Sec.) ; and seeing so fear them, that (by God's grace) he never
come to feel them.

* Of this edition, vol. vi. p. 195,
J Vol. X. p. 394, &c.

f Vol. X. p. 234, &c.
§ Vol. X. p. 291, &c.

TO THE READER, A.D. 1673.

XXXV

The twelfth book hath (in the former part of it) a most
rational and solid discourse of the holy catholic church.

It is meet here to let the reader know, (that he may serve
himself of what he finds dispersed upon those heads,) that
this author's comments upon the other three articles, as also
his devotions, his soliloquies or meditations upon the " holy,
blessed, and undivided Trinity," are not found ; which loss I
do most heartily lament. And my sorrow for his lost book of
Prodigies is not turned into joy, but rather returned upon me,
by what I have seen written, either joro or con, upon that sub-
ject ; either by the excessive collection of particulars accounted
prodigies, or by that very learned tract, in part occasioned by
that collection. Our great author would have been an excel-
lent answerer or moderator in those disputes. Surely there is
a right use of real prodigies, and of all the tragical acts and
accidents which have been since those books were written.
And that is, not to stir up men to censure or disturb states,
but to serious repentance, to more constant and fervent prayers
for the peace and prosperity of prince and peojjle, of church
and state. And he that makes not such use of them adds one
to the number of them.

Another particular, not needless to be known, is this. The
author's works at first were, printed by piecemeal, as they
came offhand, some at Oxford, some at London, some fifty-
seven, some forty-seven, others thirty-seven years ago. The
fourth book " Of justifying faith," was twice printed in quarto;
once in the year 1615, a second time (divers years after) with
some small variation in obedience to the king, who prohibited
divines to meddle with quinquarticular controversies : this last
edition is made according to the first impression of that fourth
book, as being conceived to be the better.

The nine sermons printed and placed all together, (torn. ii.
fob 287. &c*.) which upon the first folio bear this title, " Divers
" Sermons, with a short Treatise befitting these present Times;""
and afterward fol, 349,351 1- have this title set before the four
latter sermons, "A Treatise concerning the Signs of the Times>
" or God's Forewarnings :" these, making (in then- titles)
mention of time and times, may make an inquisitive reader

* Vol. vi. p. I, &c.

c 2

t Ibid. p. 1 10.

XXXVl

OLEY'S PREFACE

desirous to know the time when these sermons were preached ;
and that was, as 1 suppose, about the year of our Lord 1635.
My conjecture is grounded upon these three particulars:

1. All the nine were printed at Oxford in the year 1637.

2. Some of them were preached at Newcastle, some before
the king ; which may seem to imply some distance of time.

3. The great visitation by wind, which did so affect (I
should say astonish) our great author, happened upon the
fourth of November 1636, not long before those troubles in
Scotland began, which brought on that parliament which
begun November 3, 1640.

It is meet the Christian reader be secured, that this great
author hath not been injured by perverting his sense. And
what better argument than this can be given — that no alter-
ation hath been made where the matter seemed to require a
correction ? For example: in the Epistle to the Reader, tomei.
line 14*, there the word tonsc'tence looks as if it would be
changed into conscious, or to be construed for guilt. So tome i.
fol. 13. line 25 tj And yet . . . after these two words conjecture
would insert two more to complete the sense, viz. they perse-
cuted. But the temptations of these probabihties did not
prevail to make the addition to the one, or the alteration in
the other. The reader may perhaps of himself find one or
two such passages in the second tome, fol. 7 and 9;^:, which yet
were not tampered with.

This tenderness of doing the author wrong hath begot a
care of doing all those persons right who had any interest in
his writings. Those to whom the author did dedicate his
books were either right honourable patrons, right reverend
fathers, or right religious sons of the church. Whilst they
were living, he honoured their persons, and that every pious
reader may have remembrancers to honour the memories of
them dead, all the Epistles dedicatorv prefixed to the several
books are printed in tliis edition — And who will deny such
honour unto the saints ?

I challenge Invention herself to contrive a memorial equal
to the merit of that noble person, who was God's instrument
to divert our author (mv pen had a mind to write convert)
from being a merchant, to become a divine : this was the

* Vol. i. p Ivii. line 15. f Ibid. p. 23. line 4. X ^'o\. v pp. 16 and 20.

TO THE READER, A.D. 1673. xxxvii

right honourable Ralph lord Eiire, baron of Malton, &c.
To this [discerning noble lord did the author (in such exact
decorum as he always kept) dedicate the first fruits of his
printed labours, having before consecrated them and all the
other unto God. I never knew this noble lord, nor any of his
posterity; yet can I not forbear to say — Blessed be his me-
mory ! and wherever the writings of our author are read, let
this which he hath done be reported of him !

The next advertisement is about the titles or briefs upon
the tops, and the figures at references on the sides of the
leaves: bothj^which (as I suppose) were the work of the cor-
rector. There is now and then a mistake in a title ; and if
there be any in the figures, in regard the quarto pages were
changed into folios, and the folios in the new and old are not
of the same content, the reader knows on whom to bestow his
pardon.

I cannot call to mind (though I have summoned all my
faculties) any thing worthy to stay the Christian reader any
longer at the door of this goodly edifice; unless he will be
content to hear a short relation how this great author's works
come to be printed in this manner. And I the rather tell it,
because it was a thing which I had heretofore attempted, but
without effect, (and so had another pious gentleman to his
cost, which was all lost,) and because it is now effected by
God's moving the hearts of three stationers voluntarily to un-
dertake the thing: and truly they deserve very hearty com-
mendation, not only for expiating the presses from those sinful
abuses which this author lays to their charge, (tom. ii. fol. 331.
and tom. iii. fol. 711*.) by printing an author so full of all
excellent learning, good morality, and true divinity, and by
designing to do it so well, but also for vanquishing all the
difficulties which stood in the way to hinder the design ; which
were more than any mere spectator can imagine, unless ex-
perienced in like affairs.

The right of the printed copies (which the stationer takes as
his own freehold) was dispersed in five or six several hands, so
that it cost them a considerable deal of pains and sum of
money to get a propriety to themselves. And this inclines me
the more to excuse their sending abroad papers for subscrip-

* See vol. vi. p. 76. and vol. xi. p. 1 1 6.

c 3

xxxviii OLEY'S PREFACE TO THE READER

tions, and inserting my name ; both without my consent ; who
looked upon the former as no great credit to the author, and
the latter as crediting me with an employment which I did not
discharge.

For I here acknowledge that my service to the public con-
sists only in assisting the stationers with direction how to
order the books; in preparing the manuscripts not before
printed, in making an index, collecting the errata, and picking
tliis preface (with some small addition and alteration) out of
three composed before ; which poor Gibeonitish (yet divine)
drudgery I shall think highly rewarded, if it prove acceptable
to those that most freely committed the manuscripts to my
hands : and I hope it will the rather be accepted, because
I transmitted all the manuscripts (that be printed) to the
stationer, as freely as I received them from the gracious donor.

But if my poor labour be serviceable to the church of
England, and by divine acceptation become imputable to mine
account, I shall most humbly acknowledge it for a reward of
His infinite bounty, who amongst other blessings undeserved
hath let me live to see this work done, before I go hence and
he no more seen.

The reader's
Most humble servant in Christ,

B. OLEY.

THE LIFE AND DEATH

OF

THE REVEREND, LEARNED, AND PIOUS

DR. JACKSON,

DEAN OF PETERBOROUGH, AND PRESIDENT OF CORPUS CHRISTI
COLLEGE IN OXFORD.

Written by a late Fellow of the same College.

Being earnestly desired by an intimate and powerful friend
to deliver some character of that reverend and learned Dr.
Jackson, (late president of our College,) I might very well
excuse myself, from my unworthiness to undertake so weighty
a task. I must seriously confess, it was not so much the
importunity of that friend which prevailed with me, as the
merit of the man which extorted it, and made me resolve
rather to run any hazard of my own reputation, than not to
pay the honours due to his memory. The respect and inter-
est which he gained in the hearts of all men that he conversed
with, (and most from them that knew him best,) was too great
to be buried in his grave, or to be extinct with his person. A
good name is compared to a rich and pleasant odour, which
not only affects the sense, whilst he that wears it is in pre-
sence, but fills the house, and makes you inquire who had
been there, although the party be gone out of the room. For
his birth, he was descended from a very worthy family in the
bishopric of Durham. His life seemed to be consecrated
to virtue and the hberal arts from his very childhood : he
had a natural propensity to learning-, from which no other
recreation or employment could divert him. He was first
designed (by his parents) to be a merchant in Newcastle

c 4

VAUGHAN S LIFE

where many of his near friends and alliance lived in great
wealth and prosperity ; but neither could that temptation lay
hold upon him.

Therefore (at the instance of a noble lord) he was sent to
the university of Oxford ; for which highly esteemed favour
he returns his solemn thanks, in the very first words and
entrance of this book. He was first planted in Queen's College,
under the care and tuition of the profound Ur. Crakanthorp,
and from thence removed to Corpus Christi College ; where
although he had no notice of the vacancy of the place till the
day before the election, yet he answered with so much readiness
and applause, that he gained the admiration as well as the
suffrages of the electors, and was chosen with full consent,
although they had received letters of favour from great men
for another scholar. A sure and honourable argument of the
incorruptedness of that place, when the peremptory mandamus
of the pious founder, nec prece, nec pretio. (presented with the
merits of a young man and a stranger,) shall prevail more than
all other solicitations and partialities whatsoever. This relation
hnth been often assured unto me from one of the electors (vet
living), ]Mr. John Hore of West-Hendred, a man of reverend
years and goodness. There was now a welcome necessity laid
upon him to preserve the high opinion which was conceived of
him, which he did in a studious and exemplary life, not subject
to the usual intemperances of that age. Certainly the devil
could not find him idle, nor at leisure to have the suggestions
of vice whispered into his ear. And although many in their
youthful times have their deviations and exorbitancies, which
afterwards prove reformed and excellent men ; yet it pleased
God to keep him in a constant path of virtue and piety.

He had not been long admitted into this })lace, but that he
was made more precious, and better estimated by all that
knew him, by the verv danger that they were in suddenly to
have parted with him; for walking out with others of the
younger companv to wash himself, he was in imminent peril
f)f being drowned — " The depth closed him round about, the
weeds were wrapped about his head. He went down to the
bottom of the mountains: the earth with her bars was about
him for ever" — yet God brought his soul from corruption,
,ronah ii. 5, 6, that (like Moses frotn the flags) for the future

OF DR. JACKSON.

xli

good of the church and government of tlie college where he
lived, there might be preserved the meekest man alive, or (like
Jonas) there might be a prophet revived (as afterwards he
proved) to forewarn the people of ensuing destruction, if
perad venture they might repent, and God might revoke the
judgments pronounced against them, and spare this great and
sinful nation. It was a long (and almost incredible) space
of time wherein he lay under water, and before a boat could
be procured, which was sent for, rather to take out his body
(before it floated) for a decent funeral, than out of hopes of
recovery of life. The boatman discerning where lie was by
the bubbling of the water, (the last signs of a man expiring,)
thrust down his hook at that very moment, which by happy
providence (at the first essay) lighted under his arm, and
brought him up into the boat. All the parts of his body
were swollen to a vast proportion, and although by holding
his head downward they let forth much water, yet no hopes
of life appeared, therefore they brought him to the land, and
lapped him up in the gowns of his fellow students, the best
shroud that love or necessity could provide. After some
warmth and former means renewed, they perceived that life
was yet within him, conveyed him to the college, and com-
mended him to the skill of Dr. Channel, an eminent physician
of the same house, where with much care, time, and difficulty,
he recovered, to the equal joy and wonder of the whole
society. All men concluded him to be reserved for high
and admirable purposes. His grateful acknowledgments to-
wards the fisherman and his servants that took him up knew
no limits, being a constant revenue to them whilst he lived.
For his thankfulness to Almighty God, no heart could conceive
nor tongue express it but his own, often commemorating the
miracle of divine mercy in his deliverance, and resolving here-
after not to live to himself, but to God that raiseth the dead.
Neither did he serve God with that which cost him nothing;
I must rank his abundant charity and riches of his liberality
amongst the virtues of his first years, as if he would strive with
his friends, patron and benefactors, utnim illi largiendo, an
ipse dispergendo vimeret, whether they should be more boun-
tiful in giving, or he in dispersing; or that he was resolved to
pay the ransom of his life into God's exchequer, which is the

xlii

VAUGHAN'S LIFE

bodies of the pooi". His heart was so free and enlarged in this
kind, that very often his almsdeed made him more rich that
received it than it left him that gave it. His progress in the
study of divinity was something early, because (as he well
considered) the journey that he intended was very far, yet not
without large and good provisions for the way. No man
made better use of human knowledge in subservience to the
eternal truths of God, produced more testimonies of heathens
to convert themselves, and make them submit the rich presents
of their wise men to the cradle and cross of Christ. He was
furnished with all the learned languages, arts and sciences,
as the previous dispositions or beautiful gate which led him
into the temple ; but especially metaphysics, as the next in
attendance, and most necessary handmaid to divinity, which
was the mistress where all his thoughts were fixed, being wholly
taken up with the love and admiration of Jesus Christ and
him crucified. The reading to younger scholars, and some
employments imposed by the founder, were rather recreations
and assistances than diversions from that intended work.
The offices which he undertook (out of duty, not desire)
were never the most profitable, but the more ingenuous; not
such as might fill his purse, but increase his knowledge. It
was no small accession of respect unto him, (or rather a conse-
quent of thegood repute which he had already gained,) that those
two noble hostages, Mr. Edward and Mr. Richard Spencers,
sons to the right honourable Robert lord Spencer, baron of
Wormleighton, were commended to his charge, whom he restored
fully instructed with all good literature, the glory of learned
and religious nobility, and the very ornaments of the country
where they lived ; for which faithful discharge of his great trust
he (and his memory) were ever in singular veneration with that
whole family and their alliances. His discourse was very facetious
(without offence) when time and place and equality of persons
permitted it. He was entregens, (as our neighbours speak
it,) a man (upon occasions offered) of universal conversation.
When he was chosen into office, the governor of the college
was wont to give this testimony of him, That he was a man
most sincere in elections, and that in a dubious victory of
younger wits, it was the safest experiment for an happy
choice, to follow the omen of his judgment. He read a lec-

OF DR. JACKSON.

xliii

ture of divinity in the college every Sunday morning, and
another day of the week at Pembroke College, (then newly
erected,) by the instance of the master and fellows there. He
was chosen vice-president for many years together, who by his
place was to moderate the disputations in divinity. In all
these he demeaned himself with great depth of learning, far
from that knowledge which puff'eth up, but accompanied with
all gentleness, courtesy, humility, and moderation. From
the college, he was preferred to a living in the bishopric
of Durham (in their donation), and from thence (with consent
from the same college obtained, where no request could be
denied him) removed to the vicarage of Newcastle, a very
populous town, furnished with multitudes of men, and no small
variety of opinions. It was a difficult task (and only worthy
of so pious an undertaker) so to become all tilings to all men,
that by all means he might gain some: i Cor. ix. 22. This was
the place where he was first appointed by his friends to be
a merchant ; but he chose rather to be a factor for heaven.
One precious soul refined, polished, and fitted for his Master's
use, presented by him, was of more value to him than all
other purchases whatsoever. He adorned the doctrine of the
gospel (which he preached and professed) with a suitable life
and conversation ; manifesting the signs of a true apostle ; in
all things shewing himself a pattern of good worliS, in doctrine,
incorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be
condemned ; that they which were of the contrary part might
be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of him. Tit. ii. 7, 8.

I lately received letters from a gentleman, who lived there
at the same time with him, who gave this testimony of him : —
He was a man very studious, humble, courteous and chari-
table. At Newcastle, (when he went out,) what money he had,
he usually gave to the poor, who at length flocked so unto
him, that his servant took care that he had not too much
in his pocket. At a certain time Dr. Henderson, the town's
physician, his neighbour and intimate acquaintance, (having
made a purchase,) sitting sad by him, and fetching a sigh,
he demanded what was the reason. He said that he had a
payment to make, and wanted money. Dr. Jackson bade him
be of good cheer, for he would furnish him ; and calling for
his servant, told him the physician's need, and asked what

xliv

VAUGHAN'S LIFE

money he had. The man stepping back silent, the doctor
bids liini speak. At length the man said, Forty shillings. He
bade him fetch it ; for ]\Ir. Henderson should have it all :
at which Mr. Henderson turned liis sadness into laughter.
Dr. Jackson demanded his reason : he said, that he had need
of four hundred pound or five hundred pound. Dr. Jackson
answered, that he thought forty shillings was a great sum,
and that he should have it, and more also if he had it. Thus,
in a place of busy trade and commerce, his mind was intent
upon better things, willing to spend and to be spent for them,
not seeking theirs but them. After some years of his con-
tinuance in this town, he was invited back again to the uni-
versity by the death of the President of the same college, being
chosen in his absence at so great a distance, so unexpectedly,
without any suit or petition upon his part, that he knew
nothing of the vacancy of the place, but by the same letters
that informed him that it was conferred upon himself. A
preferment of so good account, that it hath been much desired
and eagerly sought after by many eminent men, but never
before went so far to be accepted of. Upon his return to
Oxford, and admission to his government, they found no
alteration by his long absence and more converse with the
world, but that he appeared vet more humble in his elder
times ; and this not out of coldness and remission of spirit,
but from a prudent choice and experience of a better way ;
not without the great example of Paul the aged, who when
he had authority to command that which is convenient, (yet
for love's sake,) chose rather to beseech. He ruled in a most
obliging manner the fellows, scholars, servants, tenants, nemo
ab eo t7-istis discess'it, no man departed from him with a
sad heart, excepting in this particular, that by some mis-
demeanor or willing error they had created trouble or given
any offence unto him. He used the friends as well as the
memory of his predecessors fairly. He was prcesidei^s pa-
cificus, a lover and maker of peace. He silenced and com-
))osed all differences, displeasures, and animosities by a prudent
impartiality, and the example of his own sweet disposition.
All men taking notice that nothing was more hateful unto
him than hatred itself, nothing more offensive to his body
and mind; it was a shame and crucltv (as well as presumption)

OF Dll. JACKSON.

xlv

to afflict his peaceable spirit. It is a new and peculiar art
of discipline, but successfully practised by him, that those
under his authority were kept within bounds and order, not
so much out of fear of the penalty, as out of love to the
governor. He took notice of that which was good in the
worst men, and made that an occasion to conmiend them for
the good's sake ; and living himself tanquam nemini igiios-
ceret, as if he were so severe that he could forgive no man,
yet he reserved large pardons for the imperfections of others.
His nature was wholly composed of the properties of charity
itself. Charity suffereth loi>g\ and is hind, &c., beareth all
thinga, believeth all tlmigs, liopeth all thhigs, endureth all
things. I can truly avouch this testimony concerning him,
that living in the same college with him more than twenty
years, (partly when he was Fellow, and partly when he returned
President,) I never heard (to my best remembrance) one word
of anger or dislike against him. I have often resembled
him in my thoughts (with favour of that honourable person
be it spoken) to him (whose name sounds very near him'')
who being placed in the upper part of the world, carried on
his dignity with that justice, modesty, integrity, fidelity, and
other gracious plausibilities, that in a place of trust he contented
those whom he could not satisfy, and in a place of envy
procured the love of them who emulated his greatness, and
by his example shewed the preeminence and security of true
Christian wisdom before all the sleights of human policy, that
in a busy time no man was found to accuse him ; so this good
man (in that inferior orb which God had placed him) demean-
ed himself with that Christian innocency, candour, wisdom and
modesty, that malice itself was more wary than to cast any
aspersions upon him. I shall willingly associate him to those
other worthies his predecessors in the same college, (all living
at the same time.) To the invaluable bishop Jewel, Theolo-
goriim quos urbis Christianns per aliquot annorum centenarios
prodhxit maximo, as grave bishop Goodwin hath described him,
the greatest divine that for some former centuries of years the
Christian world hath produced. To the famous Mr. Hooker,
who for his solid writings was surnamed The Judicious, and
entitled by the same, Theulogoruni 0a.07tium, the Oxford of
divines, as one calls Athens, The Greece of Greece itself. To

•1 Dr. Juxon.

xlvi

VAUGHAN'S LIFE

the learned Dr. Reynolds, who managed the government of the
same college with the like care, honour, and integrity, although
not with the same austerities.

He willingly admitted (and was much delighted in) the
acquaintance and familiarity of hopeful young divines, not
despising their youth, but accounting them as sons and
brethren, encouraging and advising them what books to read,
and with what holy preparations, lending them such books as
they had need of, and hoping withal that (considering the
brevity of his own life) some of them might live to finish
that work upon the Creed which he had happily begun unto
them. This was one of the special advices and directions
which he commended to young men : " Hear the dictates of
your own ctmscience quod dubitas ne fecer'is^ making this the
comment upon that of Siracides, " In all thy matters trust (or
believe) thine own soul, and bear it not down by impetuous
and contradictious lusts." &c. He was as diffusive of his
knowledge, counsel, and advice, as of any other his works of
mercy.

In all the histories of learned, pious, and devout men, you
shall scarcely meet with one that disdained the world more
generously : not out of ignorance of it, as one brought up
in cells and darkness; for he was known and endeared to men
of the most resplendent fortunes : nor out of melancholy dis-
position ; for he was cheerful and content in all estates ; but
out of a due and deliberate scorn, knowing the true value,
that is, the vanity of it. As preferments were heaped upon
him without his suit or knowledge, so there was nothing: in
his power to give, which he was not ready and willing to part
withal to the deserving or indigent man. His vicarage of
St. Nicholas' church in Newcastle he gave to Mr. Alvye of
Trinity College, upon no other relation but out of the good
opinion whicli he conceived of his merits. The vicarage of
Witney near Oxford, after he had been at much pains, travel,
and expense to clear the title of the rectory to all succeeding
ministers, when he had made it a portion fitting either to give
or keep, he freely bestowed it upon the worthy jVIr. Thomas
White, then proctor of the university, late chaplain to the
college, and now incumbent upon the rectory. A college lease
of a place called Lye in Gloucestershire, presented to him as a
gratuity by the fellows, he made over to a third, (late fellow

OF DR. JACKSON.

xlvii

there,) merely upon a plea of poverty. And whereas they
that first offered it unto him were unwilling that he should
relinquish it, and held out for a long lime in a dutiful op-
position, he used all his power, friendship, and importunity
with them, till at length he prevailed to surrender it. Many
of his necessary friends and attendance have professed, that
they made several journeys, and employed all powerful me-
diation with the bishop, that he might not be suffered to resign
his prebendship of Winchester to a fourth ; and upon know-
ledge that by their contrivance he was disappointed of his
resolution herein, he was much offended that the manus
mortua, or law of mortmain, should be imposed upon him,
whereby in former days they restrained the liberality of
devout men toward the colleges and the clergy. But this was
interpreted as a discourtesy and disservice unto him, who knew
that it was a more blessed thing to give than to receive. But
that which remained unto him was dispersed unto the poor,
to whom he was a faithful dispenser in all places of his abode,
distributing unto them with a free heart, a bountiful hand, a
comfortable speech, and a cheerful eye. How disresj)ectful
was he of mammon, the god of this world, the golden image
which kings and potentates have set up ! before whom the
trumpets play for war and slaughter, and nations and lan-
guages fall down and worship, besides all other kind of
music for jollity and delight, to drown (if it were possible)
the noise of blood, which is most audible, and cries loudest in
the ears of the Almighty. How easily could he cast that away
for which others throw away their lives and salvation, running
headlong into the place of eternal shriekings, weeping, and
gnashing of teeth ! If it were not for this spirit of covetous-
ness, all the world would be at quiet. Certainly (although
the nature of man be an apt soil for sin to flourish in, yet)
if the love of money be the root of all evil, it could not grow
up in him, because in him it had no root; and if it be so hard
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God and the
narrow gate which leads unto life, then he that stooped so low
by humbleness of mind, and emptied himself so nearly by
mercifulness unto the poor, must needs find an easier passage ;
doubtless tliey that say and do these things shew plainly that
they seek another country, that is, an heavenly ; for if they

xlviii

VAUGHAN'S LIFE

had been mindful of this, they niio;ht have taken opportunity
to have used it more advanta<Tcously.

His devotions towards God were assiduous and exemplary,
both in pubHc and private. He was a diligent frequenter of
the public service in the chapel very early in the mornino-,
and at evening, except some urgent occasions of inf5rn)ity did
excuse him. His private conferences with God by prayer and
meditation were never omitted upon any occasion whatsoever.
When he went the yearly progress to view the college-lands,
and came into the tenant's house, it was his constant custom
(before any other business, discourse, or care of himself, were
he never so wet or weary) to call for a retiring room to pour
out his soul unto God, who led him safely in his journey.
And this he did not out of any specious pretence of holiness,
to devour a widow's house with more facility, rack their rents,
or enhance their fines. For excepting the constant revenue to
the founder, (to whom he was a strict accomptant,) no man ever
did more for them or less for himself. For thirty years
together he used this following anthem and collect (commanded
by the pious founder) in honour and confession of the holy
and undivided Trinity: Salva nos, libera nos, vivifica nos, O
beata Trinitas, &c. " Save us, deliver us, quicken us, O
blessed Trinity. Let us praise God the Father, and the Son,
with the Holy Spirit, let us praise and superexalt his name for
ever." " Almighty and everlasting God, which hast given
unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the
power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity ; we
beseech thee that through the steadfastness of this faith, we
may evermore be defended from all adversity, which livest
and reignest,'" &c.

This he did perform, not only as a sacred injunction of the
founder (upon him and all the society), but he received a
great delight in the performance of it. No man ever wrote
more highly of the attributes of God than he, and yet he
professes that he always took more comfort in admiring than
in disputing; and in praying to and acknowledging the
majesty and glory of the blessed Trinity, than by too curiously
prying into the mystery. He composed a book of private
devotions, which some judicious men (having perused the

OF DR. JACKSON.

xlix

same) much extolled and admired, as being replenished with
holy raptures and divine meditations, which is not now to
be found.

Thus iiave many other famous scholars and polemical men
(in their elder times) betaken themselves to catechising and
devotion ; as Parens, bishop Andrews, bishop Usher. And
Bellarmine himself seems to prefer his book De Ascensione
Mentis ad Deiim, " Of the Ascension of the Soul to God," be-
fore any other part of his works. " Books," says he, " are not
to be estimated ex ninltitudine Jbliomm, sed ex Ji itctibus^
by the multitude of the leaves, but the fruit. My other
books I read only upon necessity, but this I have willingly
read over three or four times, and resolve to read it more
often ; whether it be," says he, " that the love towards it be
greater than the merit, because (like another Benjamin) it
was the son of mine old age," &c.

He seemed to be very prophetical of the ensuing times of
trouble, as may evidently appear by his sermons before the
king, and appendix about the signs of the times, or divine
forewarnings, therewith printed some years before, touching
the great tempest of wind which fell out upon the eve of
the fifth of November, 1636. He was much astonished at it;
and what apprehension he had of it appears by his words :
" This mighty wind was more than a sign of the time, the very
time itself was a sign, and portends thus much ; that though
we of this kingdom were in firm league with all nations, yet
it is still in God's power, we may fear in his purpose, to
plague this kingdom by this or the like tempests more
grievously than he hath done at any time by famine, sword,
or pestilence ; to bury many living souls, as well of superiors as
of inferior rank, in the ruin of tlieir stately houses or meaner
cottages," &c. ; as you may read in more words in the second
tome of these his works, now printed a newin folio, fol. 394*.
This was observed by many, but signally by the prefacer to
Mr. Herbert's Remains. I shall not prevent the reader, or
detain him so long from the original of that book, as to repeat
the elogies which are there conferred upon him : I cannot
forbear one passage in that preface, wherein he makes this
profession : " I speak it in the presence of God, I have not

* Vol. vi. p. 187.
JACKSON, VOL. I. d

1 VAUGHAN'S LIFE

read so hearty, vigorous a champion against Rome (amongst
our writers of his rank) so convincing and demonstrative as
Dr. Jackson is. I bless God for the confirmation which he
hath given me in the Christian religion against the Atheist,
Jew, and Socinian, and in the Protestant against Rome."

As he was always a reconciler of differences in his private
government, so he seriously lamented the public breaches of
the kingdom. For the divisions of Reuben he had great
thoughts of heart. At the first entrance of the Scots into
England, he had much compassion for his countrymen, al-
though that were but the beginning of their sorrows. He well
knew that war was commonly attended with ruin and calamity,
especially to church and churchmen ; and therefore that prayer
was necessary and becoming of them : Da pacem Domine in
diebus notstris, S)X. " Give peace in our time, O Lord, because
there is no other that fighteth for us, but only Thou, O God."
One drop of Christian blood (though never so cheaply spilt by
others, like water upon the ground) was a deep corrosive to
his tender heart. Like Rachel weeping for her children, he
could not be comforted. His body grew weak, the cheerful
hue of his countenance was impaled and discoloured, and he
walked like a dying mourner in the streets. But God took
him from the evil to come ; it was a sufficient degree of
punishment for him to foresee it ; it had been more than a
thousand deaths unto him to have beheld it with his eyes.
When his death was now approaching, being in the chamber
with many others, I overheard him with a soft voice repeating
to himself these and the like ejaculations : / ■wait for the Lord,
my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope ; my soul waiteth
for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning. As
for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be
satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. And he ended with
this cygnean cantion, Psal. cxvi. 5, Gracious is the Lord and
righteous, yea our God is merc ful. The Lord preserveth the
simple : L was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto
thy rest, O my sotd, for the Lord hath dealt bountfully with
thee. And having thus spoken, soon after he surrendered up
his spirit to Him that gave it.

If you shall curiously inquire what this charitable man left
in legacy at his death ; I must needs answer, that giving all in

OF DR. JACKSON.

li

his lifetime, as he owed nothing but love, so he left nothing
when he died. The poor was his heir, and lie was the ad-
ministrator of his own goods, or (to use his own expression in
one of his last dedications,; he had little else to leave his
executors hv.t his papers only, which the bishop of Armagh
(being at his funerals) much desired might be carefully pre-
served. This was that which he left to posterity in pios iisus,
for the furtherance of piety and godliness, in perpetuam clee-
mosynavi, for a perpetual deed of charity, which I hope the
reader will advance to the utmost improvement. He that reads
this will find his learning christening him the divine, and his
life witnessing him a man of God, a preacher of righteousness,
and I might add, a prophet of things to come. They that
read those qualifications which he in his second and third book
requires in them which hope to understand the scriptures
aright, and see how great an insight he had into them, and
how many hid mysteries he hath unfolded to this age, will say
his hfe was good, superlatively good. The reader may easily
perceive that he had no design in his opinions ; no hopes but
that blessed one proposed in the beginning, that no preferment,
nor desire of wealth, nor affectation of popularity, should ever
draw him from writing upon this subject ; for which no man
so fit as he, because (to use his own divine and high apo-
phthegm). No man could properly write of justifying faith,
but he that was equally affected to death and honour.

Thus have I presented you with a memorial of that ex-
cellent man, but with infinite disadvantage from the unskilful-
ness of the relater, and some likewise from the very dis-
position of the party himself. The humble man conceals his
perfections with as much pains as the proud covers his defects,
and avoids observation as industriously as the ambitious pro-
voke it. He that would draw a face to the life commands
the party to sit down in the chair in a constant and unremoved
posture, and a countenance composed, that he may have the full
view of every line, colour, and dimension ; whereas he that
will not yield to these ceremonies must be surprised at un-
awares by artificial stealth, and unsuspected glances, like the
divine who was drawn at distance from the pulpit, or an
ancient man in our days, whose statue being to be erected, the

d 2

lii VAUGHAN'S LIFE OF JACKSON.

artificer that carved it was enforced to take him sleeping.
That which I have here designed (next to the glory of God,
which is to be praised in all his saints) is the benefit of the
Christian reader, that he may learn by his example as well as
by his writings, by his life as well as by his works. Which is
the earnest desire of him, who unfeignedly wishes the health
and salvation of your souls.

E. VAUGHAN.

THE

ETERNAL TRUTH OF SCRIPTURES,

AND

CHRISTIAN BELIEF,

THEREON WHOLLY DEPENDING; MANIFESTED BY ITS
OWN LIGHT.

DELIVERED IN TWO BOOKS OF COMMENTARIES UPON
THE apostles' CREED.

The former containing the positive Grounds of Christian Religion in
general, cleared from all Exceptions of Atheists or Infidels ; the latter
manifesting the Grounds of Reformed Religion to be so firm and sure,
that the Romanists cannot oppugn them but with the utter overthrow
of the Romish Church, Rehgion, and Faith.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

RALPH, LOUD EURE,

Baron of Malton and Witton, Lord President of his Majesty's Court
established in the Principality and Marches of Wales.

My singular good Lord.
Right Hoxourable,

Though few others would, I trust your lordship will,
vouchsafe countenance to these Commentaries, rude and im-
perfect I must confess, but whose untimely or too hasty birth
(if so it prove and must be censured) hath not been caused by
any inordinate appetite, but only from a longing desire of
testifying that love and duty which I owe unto your honour-
able family and person, as in many other respects, so chiefly
in this; — that being engaged unto a more gainful, but not so
good a course of life, and well nigh rooted in another soil,
I was by your lordship's favourable advice and counte-
nance transplanted to this famous nursery of good learning.
Wherein (by His blessing who only gives increase to what
his servants plant or water) I have grown to such a degree
of maturity, as these raw meditations argue, or so wild a
graft was capable of. Coarse and unpleasant my fruit may
prove, but whiles it shall please the Loird to continue his
wonted blessings of health and other opportunities, altogether
unfruitful by his assistance I will not, altogether idle I
cannot be. Such as these first fruits are, (much better I dare
not promise,) the whole after-crop, 1 trust, shall be ; both
for the sincerity of my intention, acceptable (I doubt not)
to my God ; the latter, I hope, more ripe in the judgment
of men, than can in reason be expected the first fruits of the
same man's labours should be. Thus humbly beseeching
your honour to accept these as they are, and to esteem of

Ivi

•THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

them (howsoever otherwise) as an undoubted pledge of a
mind endeavouring to shew itself thankful for benefits al-
ready received ; and much desiring the continuance of your
honourable favours ; I continue my prayers to the Almighty
that he would multiply his best favours and blessings upon
you.

Your lordship's

much devoted chaplain,

THOMAS JACKSON.

Corpus Christi College in
Oxford, October 5.

TO THE

CHRISTIAN READER.

Ignorant altogether I am not of the disposition, though
not much acquainted with the practices of this present age :
wherein to liave meditated upon so many several matters
as I here present unto thy Christian view, will unto some,
I know, seem but an effect of melancholy, as to have taken
the pains to pen them will argue my want of other employ-
ments, or forlorn hopes of worldly thriving. Unto others,
(and those more to be regarded,) so soon in print to pubHsh
what had been not so well concocted and more rawly penned,
will be censured as a spice of that vanity which usually haunts
smatterers in good learning, but wherewith judicious clerks
are seldom infected. To the former I only wish minds more
settled, or less conscience* of their own extravagances and care-
less mispence of choicest time ; faults apt to breed a mislike of
others'" industry in such courses as will approve themselves in
His sight that sits as judge and trier of all our ways, how-
soever such as desire to be mere bystanders, as well in church
as commonwealth's affairs, may upon sinister respects mutually
misinform themselves. For many of the latter, I am afraid,
lest, being partly such and so esteemed, they preposterously
affect to be taken for more judicious scholars than indeed they
are ; for the fostering of which conceit in others, their un-
willingness to publish what they have conceived aright may
well he apprehended as a means not improbable. Not to
expose their meditations to public censure, is and hath been
(as the Christian world too well can witness) a resolution
incident to men of greatest judgment ; though no such essen-
tial property as necessarily argues either all so minded to be,
or all otherwise minded not to be alike judicious. Certain

* See al)o\ e. p. xxxvi. line 17.

Iviii

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

it is, the more excellent the internal feature of men's minds
is, the greater disparagement to them will an ordinary repre-
sentation of it be ; and to adorn their choice conceits with such
outward attire as best beseems them would require too great
cost and charges. Thus from perfection ofttimes springs
defect; whilst judgment too much overgrowing fancy, and
drying up that kind affection whereby the fruit and virtue
of one soul is diffused unto another, makes men more jealous
of diminishing the high estimate of their fore-prized worth
than zealous of their inferiors'' good, which many times might
be reaped in greatest abundance from such labours as yield
least contentment to their authors. In this respect alone can
I gratulate my imperfections ; hoping, that as my meditations
can neither please the delicate for their form, nor inform
the judicious for their matter, so they may prove neither
oflensive for the one, nor unfruitful for the other, unto many
of a middle and inferior rank.

At the least, I trust they will occasion some others, whom
God hath blessed with better ability and opportunity, to hunt
that out which in this long range I may chance to start, or
make full conquest of that goodly field wherein that inestimable
pearl lies hid, for whose discovery these my travels may haply
yield some observations not impertinent. To this end have I
purposely trained my wits to untrodden paths, to adventure on
new passages, unto that true treasure which all of us traffic for,
ofttimes one to another's hinderance, the more because we beat
one place too much, whenas many others might afford us the
same or greater commodities better cheap. Though the truth
be one, yet it is not always of one shape, whiles we look upon
it divers ways. The mine wherein it lies is inexhaustible,
ofttimes more full of dross and rubbish where most have
digged ; and though the inward substance of it be the same,
yet the refining of it admits variety of inventions. Do not
prejudice me, charitable reader, so much as in thy secret
censure, as if these premises might seem to argue my dissent
in any conclusions which our Church professeth ; the event,
I trust, shall acquit me, and condemn all my accusers, if any
I have; and how I stand affected in points of spiritual obe-
dience to my superiors thou mayest be informed, if it please
thee but to peruse some few sheets of these my first fruits,

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

lix

which I presume thou wilt, surely thou oughtest, ere thy
censure pass upon me. If in the explication of some points I
fully accord not with some well esteemed domestic writers,
I trust Sarah's free-born children may enjoy that privilege
amongst themselves which is permitted the sons of Hagar
in respect of their brethren, though all absolute bondmen to
their mother. Yet that I do not thus far dissent from some
of my mother's children upon emulation or humour of contra-
diction, thou wilt rest satisfied upon my sincere religious pro-
testation, that the whole fabric of this intended work was
set, and every main conclusion resolved upon, before I read
any English writer upon the arguments which I handle.
From some indeed, which had written before me, I have since
perceived a direct dissent in one or two points of moment ;
but wherein they had (in my judgment) contradicted the most
judicious writers of our church, and all antiquity I am acquaint-
ed with, more rashly than I would do the meanest this day
living. Yet shall they, or whosoever of their opinion, find
the manner of my disputing with them such as shall not,
I trust, exasperate, howsoever the dissonance of matter may
dislike them. For outlandish or foreign Latin writers, I
ingenuously confess, when I first laboured to be instructed in
the fundamental principles of faith and manners, some points,
which I much wished, I found they had not handled, in others,
wherein I misliked nothing as unsound, I could not always
find that full satisfaction which (methought) a more accurate
artist (for a mean one I was then myself) would require.
The greater since hath been my desire either of giving, or,
by my attempt, of procuring satisfaction. liut will not others,
when I have done my best, so think and say of mine, as I
have done of these much better endeavours ? It were great
arrogance to expect any less. Notwithstanding, if what they
shall find defective in my labours move them to no worse
patience, than what I thought (at least) was so in theirs that
every way go before me, hath done me ; nor I, nor they, nor
the church of Christ, (by this means partaker, and free to
dislike or approve, of both our labours,) shall, I trust, have
any great cause to repent us of oiu- pains. For thy better
satisfaction, I will acquaint thee with the particulars which
moved me to write.

Ix

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

First, in unfolding tlic nature and properties of Christian
faith, to omit the errors of the Romish church, (wherein it is
impossible it should ever come to full growth,) many in
reformed, too much followed in particular sermons, did strive
to ripen it too fast. I have heard complaints immediately
from the mouths of some yet living, of others deceased, that
they had been set too far in their first lessons ; that the hopes
they had out of hand directly built upon God^s general promises,
applied to them by their instructors, were too weighty, unless
the foundations of their faith had first been more deeply and
surely planted. That certainty of justification, and full per-
suasion of inherent sanctifying grace, whereat these worthies
(whose footsteps I precisely track not) aim, is, I protest, the
mark which I propose unto myself, but cannot hope at the
first shoot to hit ; if at the second, third, or fourth, (as shall
please God,) it must content me. In the mean time, I hope,
I shall neither offend him nor any of his, as long as I gather
ground of what I prosecute, and still come nearer and nearer
the proposed end. The first step, methought, that tended
most directly to this certain apprehension of saving faith, was
our undoubted assent unto the divine truth of scriptures in
general : and for the working of this assurance, means subordi-
nate I could conceive none better for the kind, (particulars
others haply may find more forcible,) than such as I have
prosecuted at large in the first book : not ignorant, that such
as moved me more might move others less, those every man
most that were of his own gathering, wherein the disposition
of the Divine Providence (always concurrent to this search, so
men would mark it) is most conspicuous. For this purpose I
have proposed such variety of observations, as almost every one
able to read the scriptures oi" other authors, of what sort or
profession soever, students especially, may be occasioned to
make the like themselve.s, well hoping to find a method as
facile and easy for establishing the assent of the simple
and altogether illiterate unto those articles whose distinct
explicit knowledge is most necessary to salvation. But many,
I know, will deem the broken traditions or imperfect relations
of heathen men (for these I use) but weak supporters for so
great an edifice, nor did I intend them for such service.
Their ignorance, notwithstanding, and darkened minds, do

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

Ixi

much commend the light of divine truth ; so may the experi-
ence of their vanity dispose our minds to embrace the sta-
bility of God's word with greater steadfastness. We know the
virtue and benefit of the sun, not so much by looking upon it-
self continually or directly, as by the variety of other objects or
colours, al! present with it to the eye, but altogether invisible
or indistinguishable without it: so for my part, I must profess,
that such historical narrations, poetical fictions, or other conceits
of heathens as they themselves knew little use of, nor should I
have done had I been as they were, being compared with this
heavenly light of God's word, did much affect me even in my
best and most retired meditations of sacred mysteries; their
observation, as it were, tied my soul by a new knot, or fest,
more surely unto that truth, which I knew before to be in
itself most sure, most infallible. Yea, even in points wherein
my heart imto my seeming was best established, it much did
nourish, augment, and strengthen belief already planted, to
observe the perfect consonancy of profane with sacred writers,
or the occasions of their dissonancy, to be evidently such
as scriptures specify : that of many events wondered at by their
heathenish relaters, no tolerable reason could be given but
such as are subordinate to the never-falling rules of scripture.
And whosoever will, may, I presume, observe by experiment
the truth of what I say. There is no motive unto belief so
weak or feeble, but may be very available for quelling tempta-
tions of some kind or other, either in speculation or practice ;
of times such as are absolutely more weak or feeble, more effec-
tual for expelling some peculiar distrust or presumption, than
others far more forcible and strong for vanquishing temptations
of another kind in nature most grievous. Many, half students,
half gallants, are often tempted either to distrust the com-
mendations of this Eden which we are set to dress, or distaste
the food of life that grows within it, from delights suggested by
profane books, wherewith commonly they are first acquainted,
and hence much affect the knowledge their authors proffer, as
likely to deify them in the world's eyes. Our proneness to be
thus persuaded is a witness of our first parents' transgression,
and these suggestions as relics of Satan's baits, whereby he
wrought their bane. But what is the remedy not to tread in
any heathen soil, lest these serpents sting us? Rather, the best

Ixii TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

medicine for this malady would be a confection of that very
flesh wherein such deadly poison lodged. Other arguments may
more persuade the judicious, or such as in some measure have
tasted the fruits of the Spirit ; but none the curious artist
better than such as are gathered from his esteemed authors.
Even such as are in faith most strong, of zeal most ardent,
should not much mispend their time in comparing the de-
generate fictions or historical relations of times ancient or
modern with the everlasting; truth. For though this method
could not add much increase, either to their faith or zeal, yet
would it doubtless much avail for working placid and mild
affections. Tlie very penmen of sacred writ themselves were
taught patience, and instructed in the ways of God's provi-
dence, by their experience of such events as the course of time
is never barren of, not ahvays related by canonical authors, nor
immediately testified by the Spirit, but ofttimes believed upon
a moral certainty, or such a resolution of circumstances concur-
rent into the First Cause or Disposer of all affairs, as we might
make of modern accidents, were we otherwise partakers of the
Spirit, or would we mind heavenly matters as much as earthly.

Generally, two points I have observed, not much, for ought I
know, if handled at all by any writer: albeit their fruit and
use would fully recompense the best pains of any one man's
lifetime, though wholly spent in their discussion, whose want,
in my mind, hath been the bane of true devotion in most ages.
The first is an equivalency of means in the wisdom of God so
proportioned to the diversity of times, as no age could have
better than the present, howsoever they may affect the extra-
ordinary signs and wonders of former generations. Of this
argument, here and there, as occasion shall serve, in this work ;
elsewhere at large, if God permit. The second is an equiva-
lency of errors, hypocrisy, infidelity, and idolatry ; all which
vary rather their shape than substance in most men ; through
ages, nations, and professions, the ignorance of God remaining
for the most part the same, his attributes as much (though in
another kind) transformed by many in outward profession
joined with the true church, as in times past by the heathen.
The truth of which assertion, with the original causes of the
error, and means to prevent it, are discussed at large in the
article of the Godhead. Many likewise, for ought their con-

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

Ixiii

science (because not rightly examined) will witness to the con-
trary, are strongly persuaded they love Christ with heart and
soul, and so detest, as well the open blasphemy or professed
hatred which the Jew, as the secret enmity the Jesuit or other
infamous heretics bear against him : whenas ofttimes the only
ground of their love to him is their spite to some or all of
these, as they are deciphered to them in odious shape ; the
only original of their despite to these, the very dregs of Jewish,
popish, or other heretical humours in themselves, by some
light tincture of that truth which they outwardly profess, exas-
perated to more bitter enmity against them with whose internal
temper they best agree, than otherwise they could conceive ; as
admission to place of credit or authority makes base minds,
conscious of their own forepast villainies, more rigid censurers of
others' misdemeanours, or cruel persecutors of such malefactors
as themselves in action have been, and in heart yet are, (were
all occasions and opportunities the same,) than any moderate or
sincere man in life and action could be. Of the original of this
disease, with the crisis and remedy, as also the trial of faith
inherent, in the articles concerning Christ and remission of
sins.

From the manner of Jerusalem's progress to her first de-
struction, and discovery of the Jews' natural temper, (the princi-
pal subject of mysubcisive or vacant hours from meditations, and
other necessarvemployments of my calling,) I have observed the
original as well of most states' as n)en's miscarriages professing
true religion, to have been from presumption of God's favour
before dangers approach, and distrust of his mercy after
calamities seize upon them : the root of both these mispersua-
sions to be ignorance or error in the doctrine of God's provi-
dence, whose true knowledge (if I may so speak) is the fertile
womb of all sacred moral truths, the only rule of rectifying
men's wills, persuasions, and affections, in all consultations or
practices private or public. Unto this purpose much would it
avail, to be resolved whether all things fall out by fatal neces-
sity, or some contingently ; how fate and contingency (if com-
patible each with other) stand mutually affected, how both
subordinate to the absolute immutability of that one everlasting
decree. Want of resolution in these points (as far as my ob-
servation serves me) hath continually bred an universal three-

Ixiv TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

fold want : of care and vigilancy for preventing dangers in
themselves avoidable ; of alacrious endeavours to redeem time
in part surprised by them ; of patience, of hearty submission
to God's will, and constant expectation of his providence, after
all hope of redemption from temporal plagues long threatened
by his messengers is past. For here we suppose (what out of
the fundamental principles of Christian religion shall in good
time be made evident) that in all ruinated states, or forepast
alterations of religion from better to worse, there was a time
wherein the possibility of misfortunes which afterwards befell
them might have been prevented ; a time wherein they might
have been recovered from imminent dangers wherewith they
were encompassed ; a time after which there was no possibility
left them of avoiding the day of visitation, never brought
forth but by the precedent fulness of iniquity, but always
necessarily by it. In the discussion of these and other
points of like nature, (because more depending upon strict
examination of consequences deduced from the undoubted
rules of scripture, than upon authorities of antiquity, skill
in the tongues, or any other learning that required long expe-
rience or observation,) I laboured most, whilst those arts and
sciences which are most conducible to this search were freshest
in my memory. And could I hope to satisfy others in all or
most of these, as fully as I have long since done myself, I
should take greatest pleasure in my pains addressed to this
purpose. But would it please the Lord in mercy to raise up
some English writer, that could in such sort handle these
points, as their use and consequence, or necessity of present
times requires; succeeding ages (I am persuaded) should have
more cause to bless the day of his nativity, than of the greatest
statesmen or stoutest warriors this land hath yielded since the
birth of our fathers this day living. It shall suffice me
to begin the offering with my mite, in hope some learned
academics (for unto them belongs the conquest of this golden
fleece) will employ their talents to like public use. What
I conceive, shall be (by God's assistance) unfolded in as plain
and unoft'ensive terms as the nature of the subject will bear, or
my faculties reach unto, partly in the article of God's provi-
dence, partly in other discourses directly subordinate unto it.
Lastly, for the full and perfect growth, at least for the

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

Ixv

sweet and pleasant flourishing of lively faith, one of the most
effectual means our industry, that can but plant or water,
attains unto, would be to unfold the harmony betwixt pro-
phetical predictions and historical events concerning the king-
dom of Christ and time of the gospel : a point, for ought I
know, not purposely handled by any modern writer, except
those whose success cannot be great, until their delight in con-
tention and contradiction be less. Notwithstanding, what-
soever I shall find good in them or any other, without all
respect of persons, much more without all desire of opposition
or occasion of contention, (a matter always indecent in a
Christian, but most odious and loathsome in a subject so
melodious and pleasant,) I will not be afraid to follow, intend-
ing a full treatise of the divers kinds of prophecies, with
the manner of their interpretations, before the articles of
Christ's incarnation, passion, and ascension.

These are the especial points, which, for the better con-
firmation of true Christian faith, and rectifying persuasions
in matters of manners or good life, are principally aimed
at in these meditations. The main obstacle the atheist stum-
bles at, is the article of the body's resurrection. Whose passive
possibihty shall (by God's assistance) be evidently demon-
strated against him by the undoubted rules of nature, whose
priest or minister he professeth himself to be. That de facto
it shall be, the scriptures, whose truth ere then will appear
divine, must assure us; nature cannot, though thus much
were in some sort known and believed by many natural men
from traditions of the ancient, or suspected from some notions
of the law of nature not quite obliterated in all sorts of the
heathen, as shall in that article (God willing) be observed.
But why, our assent unto this and all other articles in this
Creed being in good measure established, the momentary
hopes or transitory pleasures of this world should with most
in their whole course of life, with all of us in many particular
actions, in private and secret temptations, more prevail, than
that exceeding weight of glory, which Christian hope would
fasten on our souls, to keep unruly affections under, hath
often enforced me to wonder; and wonderment hereat first
moved me to undertake these labours, if by any means I
may attain unto the causes of this so grievous an infirmity,

JACKSON. VOL. I. e

Ixvi

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

or find out some part of a remedy for it. Doubtless, had the
heatlien pliilosopliers but known or suspected such joys as we
profess we believe and hope for, or such a death, or more than
deadly torments, as after this life ended we fear, their lives and
manners would as far have surpassed the best Christians" now
living, as their knowledge in supernatural mysteries came
short of the most learned that are or have been in that pro-
fession : and yet whatsoever helps any Christian or heathen
had for increasing knowledge or bettering manners, are more
plentiful in this than any precedent age, so that the fault
is wholly in ourselves, that will not apply medicines already
prepared, as shall (God prospering these proceedings) be
declared in the last article of this Creed.

For controversies betwixt us and the Romish church, besides
such as are directly opposite to the end and method proposed,
I purposely meddle with none : of that rank, some (as that of
the church's infallibihty) undermine the very foundation ;
others (as the doctrine of merit and justification, the propitia-
tion of the mass) unroof the edifice, and deface the walls of
Christian faith, leaving nothing thereof but altar-stones for
their idolatrous sacrifices. For this reason have I built with
one hand, and used my weapon with the other : laving the
positive or general grounds of faith against the infidel or
atheist in the first book, and guarding them in the second by
the sword of the Spirit against all attempts of Romish San-
ballats or Tobiahs, who still labour to persuade our people the
walls of Christ's church here erected since our forefathers'
redemption from captivity, unless supported by their supposed
infallibility, are so weak, that if a fox should go upon them he
should break them down^. In the third, (which was at this
time intended, but must stav a while to bring forth a fourth,)
I batter those painted walls, whose shallow foundations are
discovered in the second. The other controversies about the
propitiatory sacrifices of the mass, merits, and justification,
I prosecute in the articles of Christ's passion, and of final
judgment.

By this, beloved reader, thou mayest perceive my journey
is long, and may well plead my excuse for setting forth so
soon : but from that course which I have chosen, or rather
* Nehem. iv. 5.

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER. Ixvii

God hath set me, I trust nor hopes of preferment, nor any
desires of worldly wealth, nor affectation of popularity, by
handling more plausible or timeserving arguments, shall ever
draw me away. So far I am from aiming at any such sinister
end, that since I begun to comment upon the nature of
Christian faith, I never could nor ever shall persuade myself
it possibly can find quiet lodging, much less safe harbour, but
in an heart alike affected to death and honour ; always retain-
ing the desires and fear of both (either severally considered,
or mutually compared) in equal balance. Both are good
when God in mercy sends them ; both evil, and hard to
determine whether worse to unprepared minds, or whilst pro-
cured by our solicitous or importunate suit, or bestowed upon
us in their Donor's anger. Only this diflFerence I find : death is
mankind's inevitable doom, but worldly preferment neither so
common to all nor so certain to any : the less (in reason)
should be our endeavours either for providing it or preparing
ourselves to salute it decently, though coming of its own
accord to meet us. But what meditations can be too long, or
what endeavours too laborious, for gaining of an happy end, or
giving a messenger of so importunate and weighty consequence,
as death one way or other brings, correspondent entertain-
ment? This Christian modesty I have learned long since of the
heathen Socrates, to beseech my God he would vouchsafe me
such a portion of wealth, or whatsoever this world esteems, as
none but an honest, upright, religious mind can bear : or, to
use the words of a better teacher, that of all my labours under
the sun, I may reap the fruit in holiness, and in the end, the
end of these my present meditations, everlasting life.

Thine in Christ,

THOMAS JACKSON,

I

THE ETERNAL

THE 1

ETERNAL TEUTH OF SCRIPTURES,

AND

CHRISTIAN BELIEF,

THEREON WHOLLY DEPENDING; MANIFESTED BY ITS
OWN LIGHT.

THE FIRST BOOK OF

COMMENTS UPON THE CREED.

THE FIRST GENERAL PART.

SECT. I.
/ believe m God the Father, &c.

If ill any at all, most of all in this present argument,
may the truth of that usual axiom best appear,

Dimidium facti, qui bene coejnt, habet.

Whafs well begun, is well nigh done.

If God shall enable me rightly to unfold the con-
tents and meaning of this first word believe, I may
justly presume, the one half of this intended work to
be finished in it, seeing it is an essential part of every
article in the Creed : such a part, as, if it be under-
stood amiss, we cannot possibly understand any one
proposition of this whole confession aright. I shall
not therefore seem tedious, I trust, unto the judicious
reader, although I be somewhat long in unfolding the
nature and conditions of belief ; the divers acceptions
and degrees of the same ; with the means how it is
or may be wrought in our hearts.

JACKSON, VOL, I. B

2

Of Belief in goieral.

BOOK I.

Whether we speak of the act and operation of be-
lieving, or of the disposition and inclination of the
mind, whence this operation proceedeth, it skilleth not
much : he that knoweth the true meaning of the one,
without any further instruction may know the other.
And because the act or opei'ation is more easy to be
known, let us begin with the most common and gene-
ral, that is, with the best and most usually known ac-
ception or notion of belief.

2 CHAP. I.

O f Belief in general.
TO believe a thing, is to assent unto it as true,
without any evident certainty of the truth thereof,
either from our sense or understanding.

2. That belief is an assent ; that to believe is to
assent, all agree : but what more besides assent is re-
quired to some, especially to Christian belief, is much
controversed among divines : of which (God willing)
in the articles following.

3. That evident certainty, either of sense or under-
standing, must be excluded from the assent which is
properly called belief, is evident and certain by our
usual and common speech. Thus whiles we demand
of him that relates any thing unto us for true, (as news
or the like,) whether he know his relation to be cer-
tainly true, or no ; if he neither have immediately
heard nor seen the things which he relates, but have
only taken them at the second hand, his usual answer
is. Nay, I know not certainly, but I verily believe they
are true, for divers reasons and credible reports : but
if he had either seen or heard them himself, he would
not say, I believe, but I know they are most true.
For evident certainty doth drown belief.

4. Yet is this evident knowledge (whether sensitive

CHAP. I.

Of Belief ill general.

3

or intellectual) to be excluded only from the thing it-
self which is to be directly believed, not from other
things that are linked or united to it by nature.

5. That which we evidently know, may ofttimes
be the cause why we believe some other matters that
have affinity with it. As he that seeth it very light
in the morning, when he first openeth his eyes, may
probably believe the sun is up, because he evidently
seeth the air to be light. But no man (if you should
ask him the same question) would say, that he be-
lieved the sun was up, when either the heat thereof
doth scorch his face, or the beams dazzle his eyes ; for
now he knoweth this truth directly and evidently in
itself. Nor is there any man that hath his right
raind, that will say he verily believeth twice two make
four ; for this is evident, and certain to ordinary capa-
cities, and he that only believeth this, knoweth no-
thing. For what men know certainly and evidently,
they will not say they only believe, but know ; what
they so know not, they may truly and properly say
they believe, if their assent to it be greater than to the
contrary.

6. Some again distinguish this unevident assent
(which is properly called belief) from other assents or
opinions, by the grounds on which it is built. The
ground of it (in their opinion) is authoritas docentis,
the authority of the teacher or avoucher of the points
proposed to be believed.

7. This distinction in some cases is true, but it is
not necessary to all belief ; nor doth it fully and pro-
perly distinguish belief from other unevident assents
or persuasions. For even those assents or persuasions
which seem most to rely upon authorities, may be
strengthened by other motives or inducements ; yea 3
our belief, or relying upon authorities, usually (always

B 2

4

Of Belief in general.

BOOK 1.

if it be strong) ariseth from experiment of our author's
fidelity and skill, as shall appear hereafter. For our
present proceedings we take it here as granted, or
supposed, that this word belief, as it is usually taken,
is more general than that assent or persuasion which
relies upon authority; yet not so general as to com-
prehend these assents or persuasions, which are evi-
dently certain.

8. It may be objected, that the apostle calleth evi-
dent knowledge belief, when he saith. The devils be-
lieve there is a God, and tremble. For it should
seem, that the devils know as evidently that there is a
God, as we do that the sun did shine but yesterday, or
this morning. For they once enjoyed the presence of
God, and saw his glory, and since have had evident
experience of his power.

9. Of God's being (no doubt) they have evident cer-
tainty ; albeit of his other attributes their knowledge
is not so direct nor evident, but conjectural, or a kind
of belief. Wherefore unto this place of our apostle
we may answer two ways ; either that under this word
belief he comprehends not only their assent unto the
being or existence of the Godhead, but their assent
unto other attributes of God, which they know not so
evidenth^. and therefore may be said to believe them.
Or if he understand only that assent which they gave
unto the existence or being of the Godhead, he calleth
this (though joined with evident knowledge) a belief,
in opposition or with reference unto the belief of hy-
pocrites, (against whom he there speaks,) which was
much less then this assent of devils. For albeit that
which is greater in the same kind cannot be properly
and absolutely said to be the less ; as we cannot pro-
perly and absolutely say that four is three, but rather
contains three in it: yet upon some reference of the

CHAl'. I.

Of Belief hi general.

5

greater unto the less contained in it, or unto some
other third, we may denominate the greater with the
name of that which is less in the same kind : as we
may say of him that promised three and gave four,
that he gave three, because three is contained in four.
So the philosopher saith, that habitus est dispositio,
"every habit is a disposition," not absolutely and pro-
perly, for it is more ; yet because it is more, with
reference unto that which is less, or unto the subject
in whom it is, we may say it is dispositio, that is, it
contains disposition in it, albeit no man would say
that habitus were dispositio, if he should define it.

10. And men usually object to such as scoff at mat-
ters of religion, that the day will come, wherein, if
they repent not, they shall believe the things which
now they little regard ; albeit they cannot be said in
that day to believe them, if we speak properly and
absolutely, without reference to their former incredu-
lity : our meaning is, they shall do more than believe
them, for they shall feel them. Nor can we say pro-
perly that the elect after the resurrection shall believe
the articles of faith ; seeing all agree, that of these
three principal virtues, faith, hope, and love, only love
shall then remain. The reason is that which you have
heard already ; because evident knowledge must be
excluded from the nature of faith and belief ; and the
godly shall then clearly see Christ face to face, and 4
fully enjoy the fruit of his passion, which now they
only believe.

11. As for certainty, we may not exclude it from
the nature of belief, unless this speech be warily un-
derstood. For the certainty of the articles of our faith
ought to be greater than the certainty of other know-
ledge ; for we must believe them, although they be
contrary to the capacity of our understanding: for

B 3

6

Of Belief in general.

BOOK T.

even this must we believe, that many things (as all
supernatural things) surpass the reach of our under-
standing. Yet this we may safely say, that the cer-
tainty of the articles of our belief, [as of Christ his
death, of his and our resurrection,] cannot be so great
to us in this life as it shall be in the world to come,
when we shall evidently know them. This rule then
is infallible ; That the knowledge of any thing is more
certain than the belief thereof ; although the belief of
some things (as of Christ his passion) be more certain
than the knowledge of other things ; as namely, than
the knowledge of human sciences. So then out of this
it is evident, that belief taken generally doth neither
exclude all certainty, nor necessarily require any; see-
ing some belief hath a kind of certainty adjoined with
it, and some cannot admit it. Wherefore it remaineth,
that assent is the essence of belief in general ; I say,
such an assent as is not joined with evidency.

12, This assent may be weaker or stronger, and so
come nearer unto, or be further from certainty, accord-
ing to the nature of that object whereunto we give
assent ; or according to the nature of that whereupon
our belief is grounded ; or lastly, according to our ap-
prehension either of the object, or that which is the
ground of our assent. Excess in the first of these [to
wit, in certainty or stability of the object] doth rather
argue a possibility of firmer belief, or more credibility,
not more firm or actual belief. For as many things
are more intelligible than others, and yet are least un-
derstood of many : so many that are most credible are
least believed.

13, Excess in the second of these, whence the as-
sent of belief may be strengthened, [that is, in the
ground of belief,] dotli rather argue a stronger hypo-
thetical belief, than any absolute belief ; unless the ap-

CHAP. I.

Of Belief in general.

7

prehension or conceit of this ground be strong and
lively. In ordinary reports or contracts, it skills not
of what credit the party be, unto whose credence or
authority we are referred for the truth of any promise
or report ; unless we have good inducements to think
that he did either say or promise as we were told. If
we be not thus persuaded by some apprehension of
our own, we give only conditional assent unto the re-
port or promise, and believe both with this limitation,
[if he say so, whose credit we so esteem.] But if we
can fully apprehend that he said so, we believe abso-
lutely.

14. As in science or demonstrations it is requisite
both that we know the true cause of the effect, and
also that we apprehend it certainly as the true cause ;
(otherwise we have only an opinion ;) so in true and
absolute belief it is requisite that we have both a sure
ground of our belief, and a true apprehension of that
ground, otherwise our belief must needs be conditional,
not absolute. It remaineth therefore that we set down,
first the nature of the objects that may be believed ;
secondly, the several grounds of belief; and thirdly, 5
the manner of apprehending them ; albeit in some the
apprehension of the object itself, and the ground of
belief, are in a sort all one ; as* in that belief which is
not grounded upon the authority of the teacher. This
rule is general ; wheresoever the objects are in them-
selves more credible, the ground may be more strong,
and the apprehension more lively, so men be capable
of it, and industrious to seek it : and equal apprehen-
sion of such objects as are more credible in themselves,
(upon such grounds as are more firm,) makes the belief
stronger than it could be of objects less credible, or
upon grounds less firm. Ceteris paribus, every one of
these three ; first, greater credibility of the object ;

B 4

8

Of Belief in general. book i.

secondly, surer ground of belief ; thirdly, more lively
apprehension of the object or ground, increase belief.

15. For the objects of belief, (whence this assent
must be distinguished,) they are either natural or
supernatural : but first of that which is natural. The
objects of natural belief are of two sorts, either scibilia
or opitiahilia ; either such things as may be evidently
known in themselves, but are not so apprehended by
him that believes them ; or else such things as we can
have no evident or certain knowledge of, but only an
opinion. And of this nature are all the monuments of
former ages, and relations of ancient times, in respect
of us which are now living : all future contingents, or
such effects as have no necessary natural cause why
they should be, nor no inevitable let or hinderance
why they may not be ; as whether we should have
rain or fair weather the next month, whether such or
such nations shall wage war against each other the
next year. These matters past, and contingent which
are not yet, but may be, albeit they agree in the general
nature of opinabilia, that neither of them can be ex-
actly known, but only by opinion believed ; yet both
differ in that which is the ground of our assent or
belief. The ground or reason why we believe things
past, (as that Tully lived in Julius Caesar's time, or
that the Saxons inhabited this land,) is the report of
others. The ground or reason why we believe future
contingents, is the inclination or propension which we
see in second causes to produce such effects ; or the
coherence betwixt any natural or moral contingent
cause, and their possible or probable issue. As if we
see one kingdom mighty in wealth, and at peace and
unity in itself, bearing inveterate hate to another ; or
if we know that the one hath suffered wrong not likely
to be recompensed, and yet able in politic estimation

CHAP. I.

Of belief in general.

9

to make itself amends ; we believe that such will
shortly be at open hostility one with another. Or if
we see the air waterish, we believe it will shortly rain.
Yet are not the grounds why we believe things past,
and the grounds of believing future contingents, al-
ways so opposite, but that they may jump in one, and
conspire mutually for the strengthening of belief. For
we would believe our former conjecture of war or
weather a great deal the better, if a cunning statesman
should give judgment of the one, or an astronomer, or
some that we know very weatherwise, his opinion of
the other. For now, besides the probability of our
own conjectures, we have other men's authority to
confirm our belief. In both kinds, (either where the
grounds of each are several, or where both conspire
together,) as the ground of belief, or our apprehension
of the ground is greater, so our belief waxeth stronger. 6
Thus we believe the Roman stories of Caesar's times
more firmly than the relations of Herodotus concern-
ing matters of Egypt or other countries ; because more
writers, and they such as are less suspected of vanity
or imposture, do testify the truth of the Roman af-
fairs.

16. Other things which are credible, or may be
believed, are (as we said) scihilia ; such things as may
be exactly known by natural reason, though not of the
party which only believes them ; (for exact knowledge
always expels mere belief of the same thing in the
same party.) That the sun is bigger than the earth,
or that the motion thereof is swifter than any arrow's
flight, may be known exactly by a mathematician ; but
ordinary countrymen (such as are not rustically way-
ward) do believe it; evidently and exactly know it
they cannot. The ground of their belief in such a
case is authorita.s docentis. And this authority of

10

Of Belief in general.

BOOK I.

teachers or others, upon whose assertions we rely, con-
sisteth partly in a persuasion of the teacher's or re-
later's skill in those matters which he teacheth or
relateth, and partly in his honesty, fidelity, or veracity
in his dealings or sayings. And as these are reputed
greater, so do we more believe him in these things
which he avoucheth for true, and rely more securely
upon his authority. For as we said before, ccBteris
paribus, the certainty of belief increaseth as the ground
of belief doth, both for the number of points believed,
and for the firmness of the belief itself. If two of the
same faculty teach us divers things, whereof we have
no other groimd but their assertion, we believe him
better whose skill and fidelity we account of better ;
and the more the parties be that report or avouch the
same thing, the more we believe them, if they be re-
puted skilful and honest. And where the authority is
the same, both for extension and degrees, yet we be-
lieve the things taught better, from the better or more
immediate apprehension of the authority. As if Ari-
stotle, Euclid, or Archimedes were alive, and in that
reputation for skill in their several professions which
their works are in ; we would believe those conclusions
which we heard them teach, better than such as we
had from them by others, or (as we said) at the second
hand. For though the authority in both cases were
the same, yet should not our apprehension of it be so,
but more immediate in the former. We see by daily
experience, how opinions only grounded upon the
authority of teachers for their skill iu such matters
well reputed of, do enforce others (especially inferiors
in that kind of skill) to give an assent unto the same
truth, although they have good show of reason to the
contrary. As what countryman is there, but would
think he might safely swear that the earth were

CHAP. I.

Of Belief in general.

11

an hundred times greater than the sun ? yet if an
astronomer, (of whose skill he hath had experience in
other matters which he can better discern,) one whom
he knew to be an honest plaindealing man, not accus-
tomed to cog with his friend, should seriously avouch
the contrary, that the sun is bigger than the earth ;
few countrymen would be so wayward as not to believe
their friend astronomer, albeit (his authority set aside)
they had no reason to think so, but rather the con-
trary. And it were a sign of ignorant arrogancy, if
punies or freshmen should reject the axioms and prin-
ciples of Aristotle, usual in the schools, because they 7
have some, reasons against them which themselves
cannot answer. For reason might tell them, that others,
(their betters,) which have gone before them, have had
greater reasons to hold them than they can yet have
to deny them. This persuasion of other men's skill
or knowledge will win the assent of modest and in-
genuous youths unto such rules or axioms as other-
wise they would stiffly deny, and have witty reasons
to overthrow. But albeit this assent which men give
to conclusions they know not themselves, but only
believe upon other men's asseverations, may be very
great ; as many countrymen will believe an astronomer
affirming that the sun is greater than the earth, better
than they will the honestest of their neighbours in a
matter that may concern both their commodities : yet
if the relators or avouchers could make them conceive
any probable reason of the same conclusions, [as if the
astronomer in the mentioned case could shew, how
every body the further it is from us seemeth the less,
and then declare how many hundred miles the sun is
from us,] men's minds would be a great deal better
satisfied, and this assent or belief, which formerly did
only i-ely upon authority, would be much strengthened

12 Of assent uyito objects s?q)ernaturaL book i.

by this second .tie or holdfast. And if we would
observe it, there is usually a kind of regress betwixt
our belief of authorities, and our assent unto conclu-
sions taught by them. First, (usually,) we believe
authority, and afterwards the conclusions taught by it,
for the authoi'ity's sake. But after we once find ex-
periment of the truth of conclusions so taught, we
believe the authority the better from this experimental
truth of the conclusion.

17. Out of all these acceptions and degrees of belief
or assent, something may be gathered for better ex-
pressing the several degrees of true Christian belief ;
which, like Jacob's ladder, reacheth from earth to
heaven. The first step whereof is belief or assent unto
things supernatural.

THE FIRST GENERAL PART.
SECT. TI.

CHAP. II.

Of assent imto objects supernatural.

THINGS supernatural we call such as the natural
reason of man cannot attain unto ; or such as naturally
can neither be known or assented unto as probable,
but are made known or probable by revelation. Such
are the mysteries of our salvation, and the articles
of Christian belief. For no article of our belief (if
we consider them with all the circumstances, and in
that exact manner as they are proposed in scripture
to be believed) could ever have come into corrupted
man's cogitation, unless God had revealed it unto him.
Seeing then we cannot know them in any sort by
8 human reason and authority, neither can human rea-
son or authority be the ground of our assenting to

CHAP. II. Of iissent unto objects supernatural.

13

them ; it remaineth then, that authoritas docentis, the
word of God, be the ground of our belief.

2. Here then must you call to mind what we said
before, that authoritas docentis did consist in two
things ; namely, in the skill and fidelity, or sincerity
of the teacher : and by how much we know those to
be greater, by so much is our assent or belief strength-
ened. Now it is evident to reason that God is in-
finitely wise, and therefore cannot be deceived ; whence
necessarily it followeth, that he knoweth and can tell
us the truth. Again, it is evident that God is most
just and true, and therefore will not deceive us, but
will tell us the truth if he profess so. Again, we
cannot conceive of God aright, but we must conceive
of him as omnipotent and full of power ; and conse-
quently such an one as needs not in policy, or jealousy
of our emulating him in knowledge, to tell us other-
wise than he knows. And therefore Aristotle repre-
hends the poets for saying, that the gods did envy
men knowledge. His resolution is in English to this
effect,

That poets should tlie gods belie.
More like, than gods should men envy a.

3. And if the heathen were of opinion that the gods
did not envy men knowledge, then must they needs
believe, that if they taught them any, they would teach
them true knowledge. Wherefore this must be laid
down as a certain ground. That whatsoever God teach-
eth us is most true. Nor is there any (admitting there
were a God) but wovild assent unto this. But here is
the difficulty. How can we be assured that God doth
teach us any of these things ? or, how shall we know

" Arist. jMetapliys. lib. I. cap. (uBexfrai elvai, aWa Koi KOTO. Trjv
2, 13. AXX' ov't€ to 6f'Lov <j)6ovepov irapuLfj-Lav noXka -^evBovTui aoiboi.

14 Of assent unto objects supernatural. book i.

that this we call sci-iptui'e is the word of God ? If our
apprehension of this ground be sure, our faith is firm
and absolute : if our apprehension hereof be doubtful,
our faith must needs be unstable, or at the best but
conditional.

4. Let us first, therefore, look what this conditional
assent or belief doth bind us unto.

Although many that firmly believe whatsoever God
saith is true, either do not acknowledge or do not firmly
believe that these scriptures are the word of God ; yet
thus much in all sense and reason any natural man
will grant ; there be great presumptions and proba-
bilities, why they should be taken for the word of
God. And he that doth acknowledge but thus much,
doth by this acknowledgment bind himself to reverence
them above all human writings. For all men natur-
ally know, that if they be God's word, they are worthy
all possible reverence. Wherefore if a man suppose
it only as probable that they are, or know nothing to
the contrary why they may not be, God's word ; he is
bound to reverence and esteem them above all words
or writings of man. As for example ; if any subject
in this land should receive letters concerning some
lawful and indifferent request from any other his
equal or fellow subject, whom he had great reason
well to respect ; suppose he certainly knew that they
were such a man's letters, and no counterfeit : yet if
9 he should receive letters in his majesty's name, con-
taining the same or other as reasonable request : al-
though he knew not so certainly that these were his
majesty's letters, as that the others were some well
respected subject's, yet is he in duty bound to use
them with greater respect and reverence than the
former. The bare presumption and probability that
they were the king's letters doth bind him to inquire

CHAP. II. Of assent unto objects siipernatural.

15

further, whether they were his letters or no : nor were
his fault excusable, if he should shew any sign of dis-
loyalty or irreverence towards them, until he knew
that they were not such as their title or superscription
did import.

5. He that hath but the same probability that the
scriptures contain in them God's own words, as that
Livy his histories contain the Roman affairs, must
needs esteem of them infinitely above all human works.
And this fruit hypothetical or supposed belief may
bring forth, even in the imregenerate or natural man.
And what hath been said of reverence to the scrip-
tures upon this supposal, is also most true of man's
actions. If men do but believe it as probable that the
scriptures are the word of God ; this belief will pro-
cure many good moral actions, and much amendment
of life, though not such spiritual perfection as God in
his word requireth. And the reason of this assertion
is evident. For we see daily that men undertake
actions of great difficulty and danger, not so much
according to the probability of attaining some good,
as according to the greatness of that good which pos-
sibly may be attained. So we see many, that might
live in ease at home with certainty of moderate gains,
to undertake voyages to the West or East Indies, only
upon this resolution, that if it be their luck or lot to
be rich, there they may have enough, although the
adventure be subject to great dangers, and obnoxious
to infinite casualties. And many there be that will
not usually lay out a penny, but upon very fair ground
of some gain or saving thrift, who yet will be well
content to venture a crown or an angel in a lottery,
where there may be some possibility, though not pro-
bability, of obtaining twenty or thirty pounds. These,
and infinite other examples, obvious to daily expe-

16 Of assent unto objects supernatural. book i.

rience, may serve as a perfect induction of our general
assertion. That the mere possibility of obtaining some
great and extraordinary good, is of greater moment in
swaying men's actions, than certainty of accomplishing
petty desires, or greatest probabilities of purchasing
ordinary commodities or delights. To deduce then
out of this general the particular we intended. In
the scripture are promised to all such as love God
and do his will, far greater blessings than human
knowledge could ever have conceived. The like is
true in avoiding dangers. Men oftentimes undertake
matters of more difficulty and charges, to prevent some
grievous mischances which may ensue, than they
would do to escape some imminent but ordinary daa-
ger, or to release themselves from some smaller harms
that already have befallen them. Could men consider
these things seriously, and account of them but as
probable ; what is there in this life, which in any rea-
son they should not venture for the obtaining of so
great a good ? Were men but jirobably persuaded that
there were (as the scriptures and the articles of our
belief tell us) a life everlasting, full laden with all the
fruits of true life, joy, peace, and all choicest pleasures,
without any annoyance ; how could they not be most
10 ready and willing to spend this whole transitory life
(whose days are but few, and most of them evil, full
fraught with grief and distress) in the service of God,
who would thus reward them ? Yea, how could they
not be desirous to lay down this life itself, upon hope
of obtaining such a life ? For this life, compared to
that to come, hath not the proportion of a farthing to
whole millions of gold, or all the treasures in this
world. Nor is the case herein like unto that of ad-
ventures or lottery ; where a man may venture his
life or goods if he list, but if he do not, none calleth

CHAP. III.

Of general incitemetiis, Sfc.

17

him to an account for not doing it ; but in the scrip-
tures everlasting torments, grief, and perpetual horror
are threatened to all such, as frame not their lives
according to God's will in them revealed.

CHAP, III.

Of general incitements to search the truth of Scriptures or
Christian belief.

1. WE may hence clearly see how inexcusable, even
in the judgment of flesh and blood, all men are, that
either by hearing or reading have any access unto the
gospel, and do not use the best endeavours of their
natural wit (if God as yet have touched their hearts
with no better grace) to search out the truth thereof.
For seeing in the scriptures are proposed to every
man's choice everlasting life or everlasting death ;
what extreme madness is it for men to enter into any
course of life, or to undertake any matter of moment,
which may exact their chief employments, before they
have diligently looked to the main chance ! before
they have tried the utmost of their wits, and others'
best advice, to know the tenor of their own estate !
We see daily what great pains men of no small ac-
count do take in the study of alchymy, spending their
spirits, and most of their substance, in trying conclu-
sions, and searching out the truth of those things for
which they have but weak grounds of i)hilosophy or
reason ; only the conceit of the good they aim at
(which is rather possible than probable for them to
attain) enforceth a kind of hope, and encourageth them
to go forward.

2. To speak nothing of the good the scripture pro-
miseth, the very conceit of eternal death (methinks)
should move, either the chymicks, (which spend much
gold only upon hope of getting more,) or any other

JACKSON, VOL. I. C

18 Of general incitements to search the truth of book i.

man whatsoever, to spend all the treasure, whatsoever
either this their art, or all other could yield, to secure
themselves from such horrible torments, as the scrip-
tures threaten to their contemners or negligent hear-
ers. And why should not all men then in reason
bestow most time and pains in searching the truth of
those things which concern their soul's estate ; whose
security in all reason they should purchase with the
highest hopes, and utmost aim of all other travails in
this life? Here then (as I said) the full height of
man's iniquity, and his inexcusable madness, is most
plainly discovered ; that having these two motives,
11 which in natural reason do sway all human actions,
offering themselves to encourage him in searching the
scriptures ; yet notwithstanding, most men bestow less
labour in them, than in other ordinary studies. First, if
we compare the good they set before us, as a recompense
and reward of our travails, it is beyond all comparison
greater than the scope of any other trade or science.
For here is a double infinity of solid good : first, they
promise joy two ways infinite, both in degree and con-
tinuance. Secondly, they threaten unto their contem-
ners and despisers death and torments doubly infinite,
both in degree and continuance. Now if the proba-
bilities of the truth of scriptures were far less than is
usually found in other studies, or human hopes ; yet
could this in human reason be no reason why we
should labour less in them than in other affairs ; see-
ing the incomparable excess of the good they promise
doth abundantly recompense this. But if the proba-
bility of the truth of scripture be in natural reason
equal to the probabilities which men usually take for
their grounds in many greatest attempts ; then cer-
tainly not to bestow as great pains and travail, in try-
ing the truth of their promises, as in any other human

f HAP. III. Script ures or Christian belief .

19

attempts, or affairs, doth argue infinite madness. Ask
we the chymick what reason he hath to toil so much
in the study of Paracelsus, or other intricate writers of
his faculty; (the like we may say of any physicians;)
their answer (as you may read in their writings)
is this : Many philosophers in former ages have la-
boured much in this study, and have set down good
rules of their experiments ; who (as is probable) would
never have taken such pains upon no ground. And
verily this tradition, or the authority they give to
their writers, is their chief motive. For I think few
of their ancient authors have bequeathed to their suc-
cessors any gold made by this art, thereby to encou-
rage them. If then tradition, consent of time, or ap-
probation of authors, or relation of experiments, be an
especial inducement for men to adventure their charge,
pains, and travail in this faculty, as in all other affairs :
without all controversy the scriptures in all these mo-
tives have an especial prerogative above all other fa-
culties or sciences, albeit human reason were admitted
judge. For the authority of God's church is far more
general than the consent of any writers in any one
faculty whatsoever. The consent of time likewise is
greater. For no age since Christ's time in these civil
parts of the world, but by the report of other writers,
as well as Christians, hath yielded obedience unto
scriptures as the word of God. Men of most excellent
spirits and learning in every age have addicted their
studies unto this truth. About the time of our Sa-
viour's coming, curious arts, and other civil disciplines
did most flourish. The Grecians sought after wisdom
and secular philosophy, with the like ; the Romans
after policy, state-knowledge, and discipline of war;
all the world almost (above others, those places where-
in Christianity was first planted) was then set upon

c 2

20 Of general incitements to search the truth of book i.

curious arts : yet we see how the study and search of
scriptures in short time did prove, as Aaron's rod
amongst the magicians' serpents. It hath devoured
all, and brought them to acknowledge allegiance unto
it ; using the help of best secular arts, as it were nu-
triment for the growth of Christianity, and expelling
12 the rest as excrements out of the church. Nor can
the atheist name any age, wherein the heathen had an
Oliver to oppugn our profession, but we had a Row-
land to defend it. If they had a Porphyry or Celsus
to oppose philosophy against it, we had an Origen (a
man*^, by their own confession, of the most rare wit and
hope for philosophy then living) to forsake philosophy
and follow Christianity. It was not despair which
made him and many other excellent scholars Chris-
tians : but the sure hope which they found in this
profession made them contemn all other hopes, and
cleave to it with their hearts and souls ; albeit their
souls should for so doing be violently separated from
their bodies. This trial, I am persuaded, few of their
greatest philosophers would have endured ; but they
had the potentates of the world, as ready to applaud
them as to disgrace the Christians ; and yet the Chris-
tians multiplied as the Israelites did by oppression in
Egypt. How resolute they were, if we may not be
believed bearing witness of our own profession, let
Pliny ^ testify, in whose judgment constancy and reso-

Porphyrius in vita Plotini, an essent Christiani ? confitentes

page 13. nXaTuftKoi fxiv' Xnfjiiivios iterum ac tertio interrogavi, sup-

Ka\ 'Qpiyevrjs, ois rjfiels to TrXeioroi/ plicium minatus ; perseverantes

Tov \p6vov npoaecpoiTrja'afiev, dvbpd- duci jussi. Neque eilim dubita-

aiv, ovK oXt'-ycp t(ov kuO' eavToiis fls bam, qualecunque esset, quod

crvvecTiv dieveyKovaiv. faterentur, pertinaciam certe, et

Epist. lib. X. Ep. 97. In iis, inflexibileni obstinationem de-

qui ad me tanquam Christiani bere puniri Propositus est

deferebantur, hunc sum sequu- libellus sine autore, multorum

tus modum. Interrogavi ipsos, nomina continens, qui negant se

4

CHAP. III. Scripticres or Christian belief.

21

lution was the only crime in our profession deserving
punishment. And for this cause he took want of re-
sokition, in such as had been accused before him un-
der the name of Christians, as a sufficient argument
that they were not Christians in deed or heart; for
such, as he had been informed, could not be enforced
to any such idolatrous practice as he persuaded these
men unto.

3. Lastly, the experiments which are related by
authors of this profession, men (in any reasonable
man's judgment) as much to be believed herein as
any other writers in theirs, are far more notable and
apt to produce belief, and hope of attaining the truth
in this profession, than any others can have in theirs.
The experiments of others were but ordinary and na-
tural ; these are extraordinary and supernatural. If
the atheist should impudently deny the truth of their
report, we may convince him with St. Augustin's
acute dilemma : If the miracles related by our writers
be true, they give evident experiment of the truth of
scripture : if there were no such particular miracles,
but all feigned, then this was a miracle above all mi-
racles, that Christian religion should prevail against
all other arts, power, or policy, without any extraor-
dinary event or miracle. It was not so easy a matter
to cosen all the Roman emperors, and their deputies,
with feigned tales ; the world, which hated Christians
so much, was inquisitive enough to know the truth
of their reports. I may conclude ; Nisi Veritas magna
fuisset non prtsvaluisset. It was miraculous doubtless,

esse Christianos, aut fuisse, tliure, ac vino supplicarent, prae-

cum, prseeunte me, Deos appel- terea maledicerent Cliristo ; quo-

larent, et imagini tiiae, quam rum nihil cogi posse dicuntur,

propter hoc jusseram cum si- qui sunt rcvcra Chrisliani. Er-

mulachris numinum adferri, go dimittendos putavi.

c 3

22 Of general incitements to search the truth of book i.

that it should so increase without arms ; without any
promise of carnal pleasure or security : but even
against their natural inclination that did profess it,
and all the world's opposition against it. It had ene-
mies both private and public, domestic and foreign,
even the flesh and sense of those which followed it
fought against it.

4. Mahomet since that time hath found a multitude
13 of followers ; but all either enforced to follow him by
threats of shame, disgrace, and tortures in this life ;
or else allured thereto by fair promises of carnal plea-
sures, to be perpetual without interruption in the life
to come. He hath set his followers such a course, as
they might be sure both of wind and tide. And if the
haven whereat they arrive were as safe as their
course is easy, they were of all men the most happy.
But Christianity from its first beginning was to row
against the stream of flesh and blood, and to bear out
sail against all the blasts that the Devil, world, or flesh
could oppose against it. In a word, the increase of
Mahumetism hath followed the barbarous Turkish
monarchy's advancement, as moisture in bodies doth
the increasing fulness of the moon. And it had been
an extraordinary miracle, if a barbarous multitude
(never acquainted with any civil pleasures) should
not have composed their minds unto their emperors,
in following a religion, framed, as it were, to court the
senses and woo the flesh. But Christianity then flou-
rished most, when the scorching heat of persecution
was at the height : when the countenance of emperors,
as terrible to their foes, (for their heroical valour,) as
plausible to their friends, (for their lovely carriage,)
were most fiercely set against it. What princes either
more terrible to their enemies, or more amiable to
their friends, than Trajan, Dioclesian, or others of the

CHAP. III. Scriptures or C/iristia?i belief.

Christians' persecutors were? What man living is
there of civil education, that would not have loathed
Mahomet, and the whole succession of the Ottoman
family, in respect of these Roman princes? And yet a
great part of their native subjects, men as otherwivSe
excellently qualified, so of a quiet and peaceable dispo-
sition, yet ready always to venture their lives for these
heathen princes, in most dangerous service against the
enemies of the Roman empire, but most ready to fol-
low the crucified Christ through fire and sword, against
their emperor's command, (dearer to them than this
mortal life,) and all the world's threats or allurements.
It were sottish to think that such men had not perfect
notice of some higher power's commandment to the
contrary, (whom they thought it safer to obey,) when
they contradicted the commandments or fair allure-
ments of these supreme earthly powers. And it were
as silly a persuasion to think, that if the great Turk
would change his religion for any other, that might
yield like hopes of carnal pleasure after this life, any
great number of his subjects would lose their dignities
for refusing subscription,

5. The brief of what hath been or may be said, con-
cerning the grounds or motives of our assent unto
objects supernatural, may be comprised in these four
propositions following ; of which the first two are
axioms evident in nature, and received by all ; the two
latter, undoubted axioms amongst true believers, but
suppositions only to mere natural men, or novices in
Christianity.

6. The first : The style or title of these sacred books
pretending Divine authority, bind all men to make
trial of their truth, commended to us by our ancestors,
confirmed to them by the blood of martyrs their pre-
decessors, to use the means which they prescribe for

c 4

24 Of general mciiements to search the truth of book i.

this trial; that is, abstinence from things forbidden, and
alacrity in doing things commanded by them.

7. The second : Ordinary apprehension, or natural
14 belief of matters contained in scriptm'es, or the Christ-
ian creed, are of more force to cause men to undertake
any good, or abstain from any evil, than the most firm
belief of any ordinary matters, or any points of mere
natural consequence.

8. The third : Objects and grounds of Christian
belief have in them greater stability of truth, and are
in themselves more apt to found most strong and firm
belief, than any other things whatsoever merely credi-
ble.

9. For as the most noble essences, and fiz'st princi-
ples of every art, are most intelligible ; so are Divine
truths of all other most credible. Not that they are
more easy to be assented to of any at their first pro-
posal, but that they have a greater measure of credi-
bility in them : and as their credibility and truth is
inexhaustible, so belief of them once planted can never
grow to such fulness of certainty as not to receive
daily increase, if we apply our minds diligently unto
them : so that true Christian belief admits no stint
growth in this life, but still comes nearer and nearer
to that evidence of knowledge which shall swallow it
up in the life to come. For the conceit of impossibili-
ties or repugnances in nature, objected by the obdurate
atheists to make the principles of Christian religion
seem incredible, (that they might, like old truants, have
the company of novices in Christianity to loiter or
mispend good hours with them.) we shall by God's
assistance dispel them, and all other clouds of like
errors, in unfolding the truth of those articles which
they most concern.

10. The fourth : The means of apprehending the

CHAP. III. Scriptures or Christian beleif.

25

truth of scriptures, and experiments confirming their
Divine authority, are, both for variety of kinds, and
number of individuals in every kind, far more, and
more certain, than the means of apprehending the
grounds of any other belief, or the experiments of any
other teacher's authority.

11. Some particulars of every kind, vi^ith the general
heads or commonplaces whence like observations may
be drawn, we are now to present, so far as they con-
cern the confirmation of the truth of scriptures in
general. For the experiments which confirm the
truth of such particular places of scripture as teach
the articles of our Creed expressly, will come more
fitly into the unfolding of the articles themselves.

THE SECOND GENERAL PART 15

OF

THE FIRST BOOK.
SECT. 1.

Of observations internal or incident unto Scriptures, without
reference to any relations or events, other than are specified
in themselves.

ALTHOUGH the experiments confirming the truth
of scriptures be, as I have said, many and diverse, yet
all may be reduced into these general heads or kinds.
They may be found either in the style or character of
these writings themselves ; the affections or disposi-
tions of their writers ; or in events or experiments
(whatsoever the course of times affords) answerable to
the rules set down in scriptures.

26 Of historical characters of Sacred Writings, book i.

CHAP. IV.

Of historical characters of Sacred Writings.
TO any man endued with reason not perverted, the
books of Moses give more perfect proof of matters
done and acted, than any other history in the world
can possibly do : albeit we set aside the secret charac-
ters of God's Spirit speaking in them, which we sup-
pose can be discerned of none, but such as have the
mark of the Lamb answerable to it engraven upon
their hearts : but now we seek such inducements to
belief, as may persuade the natural unregenerate man
of the historical truth of these sacred volumes.

2. The prejudices arising from the strangeness of
matters related by him, the reader shall find mitigated
in the next discourse. In the mean time I must re-
quest him to suspend his judgment of them, and only
to intend the lively charactei's of historical truth in
other relations, of matters neither strange nor incredi-
ble in themselves. Either Moses wrote a true history,
or else his words are but a fiction ; either poetical to
delight others, or political to advantage himself or his
successors. Let such as doubt of their historical truth
duly examine whether many things related by him
can possibly be referred to any of these two ends. As
for example, if these relations. Gen. iv. 1. and the 25.
had not been either real adjuncts of some famous truth
then sufficiently known, or else appointed by God to
be notified for some special purpose to posterity;
how could it possibly have come into any man's
thought, or to what end should it have gone thence
into his pen, to shew the reason why Evah should call
her first son Cain, or her third Seth.

3. He that would set himself to contradict, might
reply : Moses his invention was so copious, as to fore-
cast that those insertions might make his history seem

CHAP. IV. Of historical characters of Sacred Writings. 27

more probable ; or that he spake unawares, according 16
to the custom of the times wherein he lived. But why
then should he omit the like in all the generations from
Cain and Seth unto Noah ? the reason of whose name
given him by his father he likewise specifies Genesis
V. 29, Then Lamech hegat a son, and called his
name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us con-
cerning our work and sorrow of our hands, as touch-
ing the earth which the Lord hath cursed. It was
doubtless from some diversity in the matter presup-
posed unto this work, not from the workman's choice
or invention, why the reason of these three men's
names should be specified, as afterwards will more
plainly appear. For the positive notes, or sure tokens
of a true history, they are most plentiful in the stories
of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. Each part of which
the Divine providence (whereof these are the most
ancient, most perfect, and most lively patterns) would
have set out with such perspicuity of all circum-
stances, that the reader might be an eyewitness of
their historical truth. The subject and issue whereof
is in itself so pleasant, as will ravish sober and atten-
tive minds, and allure them to follow the main current
of Divine mysteries, which flow from these histories
mentioned, as from their first heads or fountains. To
point at some few, rather than handle any particulars.

4. If we may judge of the truth of men's writings
by their outward form or character, as we do of men's
honesty by their looks, speech, or behaviour ; what
history in the world bears so perfect resemblance
of things done and acted, or yields (without further
testimony than its own) so full assurance of a true
narration, as the stories of Abraham's departure out of
his land, his answers to God, Sarah's distrust upon
misconceit of God's promises, her seeking to fulfil it

28 Of historical characters of Sacred ff^ri tings, book i.

by giving her maid to Abraham, the manner of her
speech upon her maid's contemning her, the debate
and issue of her controversy, the dialogue between the
angels of God and Abraham, with Sarah's apology for
laughing at their message ; Abraham's journey to
mount Moriah, his servant's expedition to Aram Na-
harim, with his commission to provide his young
master a wife ? There appears not in any of these the
least surmise of any political respect, nor any sign of
affected delight or poetical representations : seeing this
author falls immediately into other matters, and re-
lates every thing (though many of most diverse natures)
with such natural specification of every circumstance,
as unless our hearts were prepossessed with belief that
he had writ them by his direction, who perfectly
knoweth all things, as well forepast, as present or to
come, we would be persuaded that most of them were
relations of such as acted them, uttered to their familiar
friends immediately upon the fact, whilst all circum-
stances were fresh in memory.

5. How others are affected I cannot tell ; methinks
when I read that story. Genesis xxxiv, I am trans-
formed into a man of the old world, and become a
neighbour of old Jacob, overhearing him and his sons
debating the slaughter of the Sichemites : the old
man complains ; Ye have troubled me, and made me
stink among the inhabitants of the land, as well the
Canaaniies as the Perizzites: and I being Jew in
number, they shall gather themselves together against
me, and so shall I and my house be destroyed. And
they answered and said. Shall he abuse our sister as
a whore f

17 6. Or if this description, though issuing as natu-
rally out of the real disposition of the true (no feigned)
parties described, as brightness out of the body of the

CHAP. IV. Of historical characters of Sacred Writings. 29

sun, yet because but short, may seem more imitable by
art ; I will propose a longer dialogue betwixt this old
man and his sons for a pattern ; of which the fairest
colours that art or invention can put upon any feigned
subject will come as far short as Solomon's gaudy, but
artificial attire, did of the native beauty of wild lilies ;
or any dye that art can give, of the natural splendour of
finest pearls, the onyx or other more precious stone.
The story is, Genesis xlii. from the 2l9th unto the
d Genesis xlii. 29. And they Then Reuben answered his fa-

came to Jacob their father unto
the land of Canaan, and told him
all that had befallen them, say-
ing, ver. 30, The man, 7vho is
lord of the land, spake roughly
unto us, and put as in prison as
spies of the country. Ver. 31.
And we said unto him, We are
true men, and are no spies. Ver.
32. We be twelve brethren, sons
of our father : one is not, and
the youngest is this day with our
father in the land of Canaan.
Ver. 33. Then the lord of the
country said unto us. Hereby
shall J know if ye be true men ;
leave one of your brethren with
me, and take food for the famine
of your houses, and depart ; ver.
34. a7id bring your younsxe.st
brother unto me, that I may know
that ye are no spies, hut true
men : so will I deliver you your
brother, and ye shall occupy in
the land. Ver. 35. And as they
emptied their sacks, behold, every
man's bundle of money was in
his sack, and when they and
their father saw the bundles of
their money, they were afraid.
Ver. 36. Then Jacob their father
said unto them, Ye have robbed
me of my children : Joseph is
not, and Simeon is not, and ye
will take Benjainin : all these
things are against me. Ver. 37.

ther, saying. Slay my two sons,
if I bring him not to thee again:
deliver him to mine hand, and I
mill bring him to thee again,
Ver. 38. But he said, My son
shall not go down with you : for
his brother is dead, and he is
left alone : if death come unto
him by the way wliich ye go, then
ye .shall bring my gray head with
sorrow unto the grave. Chap,
xliii. I. Now great famine was
in the land. Ver. 2. And when
they had eaten up the corn which
they had brought from Egypt,
their father said unto them, Turn
again, and buy us a little food.
Ver. 3. And Judah answered him,
saying, Ttie man charged us by
an oath, saying. Never see my
face, except your brother be with
you. Ver. 4. If thou wilt send
our brother with us, we will go
down and buy thee food. Ver. 5.
But if thou will not send him, we
will not go down : for, &c.

Ver. 6. And Israel said.
Wherefore dealt ye so evil with
me, as to tell the man whether ye
had yet a brother, or no? Ver. 7.
And they answered. The man
asked straitly of ourselves, and
of our kindred, saying. Is your
father yet alive? have ye any
brother? and we told him ac-
cording to these words: could

30 Of historical characters of Sacred TFritings. book i.

15th verse of the xliii. chapter. The circumstances
which I would especially commend unto the reader's
consideration, are, first, the old man's jealousy, v, 36,
upon his sons' relation what had befallen them in their
journey, and the governor's desire of seeing Benjamin,
ver. 31—35 : his peremptory reply, ver. 38, to Reu-
ben's answer, ver. 37 : the manner of his relenting,
chap, xliii. 6, upon necessity of their going for more
food ; and his sons' peremptory refusal to go without
Benjamin, in the five first verses of the xliii, chapter :
his condescending, ver. 11, upon their just apology
for mentioning their youngest brother to the governor;
and Judah's undertaking for Benjamin's safe conduct
back and forth, in the 10, 9, 8, and 7th verses : lastly,
the close, or epiplionema of his speech, ver. 13 and 14.
Whilst I compare one of the circumstances with an-
other, and all of them with other precedent and conse-
quent, (chiefly with Judah's speech to Joseph, Genesis
xliv. from the sixteenth verse to the end of the chap-
ter,) although I knew no other scripture to make me
a Christian, this one place would persuade me to be-

we know certainly that he would
say, Bring your brother down 9
Ver. 8. Then said Judah to Israel
his father, Send the botj ?rith me,
that ire may rise and go, and
that we may live and not die,
both we, and thou, and our chil-
dren. Ver. 9. / vjill be surety
for him ; of my hand shall thou
require him : if I bring him not
to thee, and set him before thee,
then let me bear the blame for
ever. Ver. 1 o. For except ye had
made this tarrying, doubtless by
this we had returned the second
time. Ver. 1 1 . Then their father
said unto them, If it jnusf needs
he so now, do thus : take of the

best fruits of the land in your
vessels, and bring the man a
present ; a little rosin, a little
honey, spices, aiid myrrh, nuts
and almonds. Ver. 12. And take
double money in your hand ; and
the money that was brought again
in your sacks' mouths, carry it
again in your hand, lest it were
some oversight. Ver. 13. Take
also your brother, and arise, and
go agaiii to the man. Ver. 14.
And God Almighty give you
mercy in the sight of the man,
thai he may deliver you your
other brother, and Benjamin :
hut I shall be robbed of my
child, as I have been.

CHAP. IV. Of historical characters of Sacred Writings. 31

come a Pythagorean, and think that my soul had been
in some of Jacob's sons, where it had heard this con-
troversy, rather than to imagine that it could have
been feigned by any that lived long after.

7. Or if we consider not the particular relations
only, but the whole contrivance and issue of this story,
what pattern of like invention had Moses to follow ?
If the atheist grant such a Divine providence as he 18
describes, let him tell us whence he learned it. If from
any more ancient description, let this be suspected for
artificial ; if not, let this be acknowledged for the first
natural representation of it. Without either a former
pattern to imitate, or true resemblance of such a Divine
providence in events immediately to be related, how
could such a supreme power, governing and disposing
all things contrary to the designs and purposes of man,
be by mortal man conceived ? More probable is the
poet's fiction, that Minerva should be conceived in Ju-
piter's brain, than that human fancy should bring forth
a more omnipotent, more wise or excellent deity, than
the poets make their Jupiter, without any true image
of his providence manifested in the effects. But after
the manifestation of it in the story of Joseph, and the
live picture of it taken by Moses, all imitation of it
was not so difficult; though he that would seek to imi-
tate him fully should herein come as far short of the
solid marks of his historical truth, as the Egyptian's
jugglers' tricks did of true miracles.

8. As all these, and many other places yield un-
doubted characters of true historical narrations, so do
his speeches unto this people, Deut. xxix, xxx, xxxi,
infallible symptoms of a dying man, and one that
indeed had borne this mighty nation, as an eagle bears
her young ones upon her wings. These admirable
strains of his heavenly admonitions and Divine prophe-

32 Of historical characters of Sacred Writings, book i.

cies, compared with the lively images of former truths,
witness that he was the Janus of prophets, Vates ocu-
latus tarn prceteritorum quam J'uturorum, "one that
could both clearly see what had been done befoi*e his
birth, and what should fall out after his death :" both
which shall hereafter (God willing) better appear, by
matters related and events foretold by him.

9. But to proceed : the whole historical part of the
Bible, not Moses his books alone, yield plenty of such
passages, as being compared with other circumstances,
or the main drift and scope of the entire stories, whereof
they are parts, leave no place for imagination, either
why they should, or how possibly they could have
been inserted by art or imitation ; or have come into
any man's thoughts, not moved by the real occurrence
of such occasions as are specified in the matters re-
lated. And seeing all of them are related by such as
affect no art ; many of them by such as lived long
after the parties that first uttered or acted them ; we
cannot conceive how all particulars could be so natu-
rally and fully recorded, unless they had been suggested
by his Spirit who giveth mouth and speech to man,
who is alike present to all successions, able to commu-
nicate the secret thoughts of forefathers to their chil-
dren, and put the very words of the deceased, never
registered before, in the mouths or pens of their suc-
cessors for many generations after, as distinctly and
exactly as if they had been caught in characters of
steel or brass as they issued out of their mouths.

10. When I read that speech in Ovid'^ —

Sive es mortalis, qui te genuere beati,
Et f rater f(£lix, et fortunata profecto
Si qua tibi sorer est, et quce dedit ubera nutrix.

^ Metamorph. lib. 4. Fab. 7. 322.

CHAP. V. Of the Harmony of Sacred PTriters.

S3

If mortal thou, thrice happy sure thy parents be;

Or if thou any sister hast, thrice happy she ;

Thrice happy nurse, whose breasts gave suck to thee —

I see no inducement to believe this for a true story, 19
because I know the end and aim of his writing was, to
invent verisimilta, to feign such speeches as best be-
fitted the persons whose part he took upon him to
express, thereby to delight his hearers with variety of
lively representations. But when I read that narra-
tion of our Saviour's apology for himself against the
Jews, which said he had an unclean spirit, Luke xi. 14,
and a woman coming in with her verdict, JVow blessed
is the womb that bare thee, and the paps that gave
thee such, ver. 27 ; this unexpected strain, with our
Saviour's reply unto it. Yea rather, blessed are those
that hear the word of God, and keep it, ver. 28, so
briefly inserted into the story, enforce me to think
that it was penned by one that sought only to relate
the truth, part of which was this woman's speech. But
with the means of knowing the New Testament to be
the word of God, I will not here meddle ; the Old
Testament sufficiently proveth it, besides many other
experiments to be prosecuted in the unfolding of sun-
dry articles.

CHART.

Of the Harmony of Sacred Writers.

ANOTHER inducement for believing the truth of
the Old Testament is the harmony of so many several
writers, living in such distance of ages, handling such
diversity of arguments, and covering them with styles,
for the majesty of some, and the familiarity of others,
more different than Virgil's verses and the rudest
countryman's talk ; and yet all of them retaining the
selfsame relish. Whiles we read Tully, Virgil, Livy,
Sallust, and Ovid, though all living near about one

JACKSON, VOL. I. D

34

Of the Harmony of Sacred fF'riters. book i.

time, yet their writings differ as much as flesh and
fish. Many learned men like some one or few of these,
and 3^et nnich mislike others, reputed as excellent
writers in their kind, living about the same time :
much more might he that should have read the com-
mon or vulgar historiographers, poets, or orators of
that time, have contemned them as base in respect of
the former. But the prophets of the Old Testament,
and the historiographers of the same, though differing
infinitely in degrees of style and invention, yet agree
as well in the substance or essential quality of their
writings, as the same pomander chafed and unchafed.
There is the same odour of life and goodness in both,
but more fragrant and piercing in the one than in the
other. And no man that much likes the one can
mislike the other; he may like it less, but dislike it he
cannot, if he like the other.

Omnibus est illis vigor et ccfilestis origo^.

2. Many other inducements of this kind are set
down at large by that flower of France and glory
of Christian nobility, in the 24th and 25th chapters
of his book of the Truth of Christian Religion ; as
also in Ficinus and Vives, whose labours it is hard to
20 say whether he hath more augmented or graced. One
especial motive is from the drift and scope of all these
sacred writings, whether histories, prophets, psalms,
or the gosjjel. The end and scope of all these is only
to set out the glory of God and the good of mankind.
In their most famous victories, and good success of their
best contrived policies, they ascribe the glory wholly
to God. There is no circumstance inserted to erect
the praise of man, not of the chiefest managers of such
affairs. They account it the greatest praise that can
be given unto their worthies, to let the world know
e yEneid. lib. 6. ]. 730.

CHAP. V. Of the Hurnioni/ of Sacred Writers. 35

they were beloved of God, and that God did fight for
them. Not one writer in this sacred volume bewrays
the least sign of envy towards others that lived with
him, or had gone before him : not one that giveth the
least suspicion of seeking his own praise by lessening
others' deserts, as if he had corrected wherein others
had erred, or finished what they had well begun, but
left imperfect. No intimation in any of them to let
posterity understand that it should think itself be-
holding to them for their good directions. They seek
no thanks, as if they undertook their labours volun-
tarily, only for the good of others ; but proclaim a
necessity laid upon them for doing that which they
do, and a woe if they do it not. They spare not to
rehearse the iniquity and shame of their progenitors
and nearest kinsfolks, with God's fearful judgments
upon them for the same, to register their prince and
people's, or their own disgrace (as the world counteth
disgrace) to all posterity : so God's name may thereby
be more glorified, and his church edified, Jer. ix. 23,
24 : Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor
the strong man glory in his strength : — hut let him that
glorieth glory in that he under standeth and knoweth
the Lord. Jeremy himself revealeth his own slackness
in undertaking his appointed charge, Jer. xx. 7, 8. 14—
18 ; he nowhere bewrays any desire of praise, as if
he had excelled all his equals in wit : all that is good
in him or his people he giveth to God. Daniel, who
did excel in the interpretations of dreams and prophe-
cies, and had the state of many kingdoms for many
years to come revealed unto him ; so as if he would
have challenged the revelation of his country's return
from captivity, he could not have been disproved, yet
ingenuously sheweth that he learned this out of the
prophecy of Jeremy, Dan. ix. 2 ; although his measure

D 2

Of the Harmony of Sacred ffrifers. book i.

of knowledge was exceeding great, yet he affects not
the reputation of knouhig- ahove that measure which
God hath given him, Romans xii. 3.

3. This one quality (iu them all) of not seeking
their own nor their country's praise, but only the
praises of their God, and the profit of his church, (if
we consider it well,) may sufficiently testify that they
speak not upon private motions who were thus clear
from all suspicion of private respects. Nor can we
suspect that they should thus conspire together unto
one end from the will and purpose of man. For what
man could limit others' thoughts, or rule their wits
which lived after him? Least of all can chance be
imagined the author of so many several writers' con-
stancy in conspiring thus to one end in several ages.
Let us conjecture what causes we can, St. Peter must
resolve the doubt, 2 Peter i. 20, 21: All of' them spahe
as they icere moved by the Holy Spirit, which was
present one and the same to all. If they had not spoken

21 as they were moved by the Spirit, but as if they had
moved themselves to find out matter, or stretched their
wits to enlarge invention ; then would the later sort
especially have catched at many by-narrations, and in-
serted many Trapepya, little pertinent to that foundation
which others had laid before them. But now we see
the continual drift of their writings so seriously set
upon one and the selfsame end, as if they had all
wrought by another's direction, who had cast the plat-
form of the edifice himself, not minded to finish his
work in any of the first workmen's age ; and yet will
have the latter to begin where the other left, without
any alteration or tricks of their own invention.

4. All these properties of these sacred writers do
sufficiently witness their motives to have been divine,
but more abundantly whilst we consider the vanity of

f HAP. V. Of the Harmony of Sacred Writers.

37

the Jewish people, if we take them as they are by
nature, not sanctified by the Spirit of God. For natu-
rally they are given to magnify their own nation more
than any other people living, yea, to make God be-
holden unto them for their sanctity; few of them
would seek the praise of their God, but with reference
to their own. Hence our apostle St. Paul brings it as
an argument of the truth of his gospel, 2 Cor. iv. 5.
in that he did 7iot }weach himself, hut Christ Jesus the
Lord; and himself their servant for his sake : so doth
our Saviour, John vii. 18. He that speaketh of' him-
self seehetli his own glory : hut he that seeketh his
glory that sent him, the same is true, and no un-
righteousness is in him. This sincerity in teaching,
{especially in a man of Jewish progeny,) when it is
tried to continue without all affectation or dissimu-
lation, is the true KpLTtjpiov, or touchstone, the livery
or cognizance of a man speaking by the Spirit of God.
The like lively characters of sincerity are not to be
found in any else, save only in these sacred writers, or
such as have sincerely obeyed their doctrine. And in
many of those books which our church accounts apo-
cryphal, there evidently appears a spice of secular
vanity ; howsoever the penmen of them were truly
religious sanctified men, and have sought to imitate
the writings of the prophets, and other writers of this
sacred volume. But much more eminent is the like
vanity in Josephus, a man otherwise as excellent for
mere natural parts, or artificial learning, as his coun-
try yielded any, not inferior to any historiograj)hers
whatsoever.

5. Seeing in this whole body of scriptures there ap-
pears one and the same spirit, albeit the members be
of diverse fashion and quality; this sacred volume
itself may serve as a lively type or image of that

D 3

38

Of the Harmony of Sacred Writers. book i.

unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, which ought
to be in the church and mystical body of Christ,
Ephes. iv. 3 : they all endeavour to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace : none of them pre-
sumed to understand above that which was meet for
them to understand : all according to sobriety, as
God dealt to every one of them the measure of faith :
they are as many members of one body, 2chich have
not one office, ver. 4 : and we may see that verified
in the canon of the Old Testament which St. Paul at-
tributes unto the church in Christ ^ ; There are diversi-
ties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And again, to one
teas given the spirit of wisdom, as unto Solomon; to
another knowledge, as unto Ezra, Nehemiah ; to a?i-
other faith, as unto JNIoses, Abraham ; to another pro-
9.9.phecy, as imto Esay, Jeremy : All these gifts ivere
w?'ought by one and the same Spirit, which distri-
buted to every one as he would. The best means to
discern this harmony in their several writings would
be to retain the unity of the Spirit by which they
wrote. But alas ! we have made a division in the
body of Christ, whilst one of us detracts, envies, or
slanders another ; or whiles we wrangle unmannerly
about idle questions, or terms of art, our jars (ours
that have the name of Christ's messengers) make all
the world besides, and ourselves ofttimes, (we may
fear,) doubt of the true and real unity betwixt Christ
and his members, now eclipsed by our carnal divisions.
But howsoever, these hei'e mentioned are, in their
kind, good motives unto sober minds ; and the more
diligent and attentive men are, to observe these and
the like, the more fully shall they be persuaded that
these writings are the dictates of the Holy Ghost.

^ 1 Cor. xii. 4, 14, II.

CHAP. VI. Of the Affections or Dispositions 8fc.

39

CHAP. VI.

Of the Affections or Dispositions of the Sacred Writers.

WITH the experiment of this kind we may rank
the vehemency of affection which appears in many of
these sacred writers, most frequent in the book of
Psalms. And to distinguish feigned or counterfeit
from true experimental affections, is the most easy
and most certain kind of criticism. He that never had
any himself, may safely swear that most poets, ancient
or modern, have had experience of wanton loves. For
who can think that Catullus, Ovid, and Martial had
never been acquainted with any but painted women,
or written of love mattei's only as blind men may talk
of colours ? Or who can suspect that either Ovid had
penned his books de Tristihus, or Boetius his Philo-
sophical Consolation, only to move delight ; (as children
ofttimes weep for wantonness ;) or feigned these sub-
jects to delude the world, by procuring real compas-
sion to their counterfeit mourning? But much more
sensibly may we feel the pulses of our Psalmists' pas-
sions beating their ditties, if we would lay our hearts
unto them. Albeit we seek not to pi'ove their Divine
authority from the strength of passion simply, but
from the objects, causes, or issue of their passions.
And the argument holds thus : As the ethnic poets'
passions, expressed in their writings, bewray their ex-
perience in such matters as they wrote of ; as of their
carnal delight in love enjoyed, or of earthly sorrow for
their exiles, death of friends, or other like worldly
crosses : so do these sacred ditties witness their pen-
men's experience in such matters as they profess ; as
of spiritual joy, comfort, sorrow, fear, confidence, or
any other affection whatsoever. If we compare Ovid's

g Tristia, lib. 2.
1) 4

40

Of the Affcctiom or Dispositions book i.

elegy to Augustus with that Psahn of David in num-
ber the fifty-first, why should we think that the one
was more conscious of misdemeanour towards that
monarch, or more sensibly certain of his displeasure
procured by it, than the other of foul offences towards
God, and his heavy hand upon him for them ? David's
penitent bewailing of his soul's loss, in being separated
from her wonted joys, his humble entreaty and impor-
tunate suit, for restauration to his former estate, argue
23 he had been of more entire familiar acquaintance with
his heavenly, than Ovid with his earthly lord ; that
he had received more sensible pledges of his love, was
more deeply touched with the present loss of his fa-
vour, and better experienced in the course and means
of reconcilement to it again. Have mercy upo7i
me, O God, according to thy lovingkindjiess : ac-
cording to the multitude of thy compassions jiut away
mine iniquities. Wash me throughly from mine ini-
quity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know
mine iniquities, and my sin is ever before me. Against
thee, against thee only have I sinned, and done evil
in thy sight^. What was it then which caused his
present grief? Bodily pain? exile, loss of goods, want,
or restraint of sensual pleasures ? yea, what was there
that worldly minded men either desire or know, which
was not at his command ? And yet he, well for health
of body, only oppressed with grief of mind, most de-
sirous to sequester himself from all solace which his
court or kingdom could afford, in hope to find his
company alone who was invisible, and to renew ac-
quaintance with his Spirit — Create a clean heart (O
God) and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not
away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. He accounts himself but as an exile, though
h Psalm li. 1, 2, 3.

CHAP. VI.

of the Sacred Writers.

41

living in his native soil, but as a slave, though abso-
lute monarch over a mighty people, whilst he stood
separate from the love of his God, and lived not in
subjection to his Spirit. If one in hunger should loathe
ordinary or coarse fare, we would conjecture he had
been accustomed to more fine and dainty meats. Here-
by then it may appear that David had tasted of more
choice delights and purer joys than the carnal mind-
ed knew, in that he loathes all earthly comfort in this
his anguish, (wherein he stood in greatest need of
some comfort,) desiring only this of God : Restore me
to the joy of thy salvation, and establish me with thy
free Spirit. So far was he from distrusting the truth
of that ineffable joy, which now he felt not (at the
least) in such measure as he had done before, that he
hopes by the manifest effects of it once restored, to
dissuade the atheist from his atheism, and cause las-
civious or bloodthirsty minds to wash oflf the filth
wherein they wallow with their tears. For so he
addeth, Then shall I teach thy umys unto the iviched,
and sinners shall he converted unto thee. Deliver me
from blood, O God, which art the God of my salva-
tion, and my tongue shall sing joyfully of thy right-
eousness. Open thou my lips, O Lord, and my mouth
shall shew forth thy praise ; which as yet he could
not shew forth to others, because abundance of joy did
not lodge in his heart ; for God had sealed up sorrow
therein, until the sacrifice of his broken and contrite
heart were accomplished. From the like abundant
experience of this heavenly joy, the Psalmist, Psalm
Ixvi. 16, bursteth out into like confident speeches, in-
viting us, as Christ did his apostle Thomas, to come
near and lay our hands upon his healed sore, and by
the scars to gather the skill and goodness of him that
had thus cured him beyond all expectation : Come

42 Of the Affections or Dispositions book i.

a7id hearken, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you
what he hath done to my soul. I called unto him with
my mouth, and he was exalted with my tongue.
Praised he God, which hath not piit hack my prayer,
nor his mercy Jrom me\ The fulness of his inward
joys was such, and God's providence over him so ma-
nifest and wonderful, that the present age wherein he
4 lived could not (to his seeming) but take notice of it,
whilst the particulars, wherein the Lord had heard
him, were in fresh memory : and all posterity, he pre-
sumes, out of the abundance of his own belief, should
still believe the goodness of God, from this experimen-
tal relation of his goodness towards him. He that
hath least experience of the like in himself, would he
but attentively mark the fervency of those men's zeal,
and vehemency of their godly passions, expressed in
these here mentioned, and many like unaffected strains,
could not but acknowledge that famous inscription,
which a later degenerate lascivious poet (out of such
a vainglorious humour, as moves some basely descend-
ed to usurp the arms of noble men, whose names they
bear) sought to bestow on all, even upon such as
himself was, Vates in name but not in quality, to
belong of right only to these psalmists, or ancient
sacred poets.

Est Dens in vohis, agitante calescitis illo :
Impetus hie sacrcB sembia mentis habet^.

Sure in your breasts God's Spirit hath his seat,
'Tis Divine motion breeds this heavenly heat.

For who can imagine that the author of the seventy-
fourth Psalm, ver. 9, should complain without some
touch of that Spirit, which he knew had been more
plentiful in such as had gone before him ; W 3 see

> Psalm Ixvi. i6, 17, 20.

^ Ovid. Fasti, lib. vi. 1. 5.

CIIAl*. VI.

of the Sacred Writers.

43

not our signs: there is not one prophet more : not any
that hiowefh how long. Ver.lO. O God, how long shall
the adversary reproach f shall the enemy hlasphenie
thy name for everf 11. Why withdrawest thou thine
hand, even thy right hand ? draw it out of thy bo-
som and consume them. 12. Even God is my King
of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
These sober and constant motions, as it were, of
systoles and diastoles, between despair and hope, ex-
pressed in this and the forty-fourth Psalm, argue that
those wonders and noble works which they had heard
with their ears, and their fathers had told them, were
no fables, but matters truly and really acted, which
had left deep impression in their forefathers' hearts,
who had so thoroughly felt and tasted the extraor-
dinary goodness of their God, that the longing desire
of like favour is transfused as hereditary to posterity,
as the desire of such meats as parents best affect, and
use most to feed upon, usually remains in their chil-
dren.

2. Or, to use the author of the forty-second Psalm
his own comparison, braying doth not more sensibly
notify the harfs panting after the water-brooks, than
that Psalm doth his thirsting after the Spirit of life ;
which sometime had been diffused through his facul-
ties, and had fructified in joy and comfort, but now in
these storms of affliction lay hid in his heart, only
supporting it with hopes of like fruit against a better
season ; as the sap whereby trees flourish in summer,
retiring to the root in winter, preserveth them sound
within, so that although frosts may nip, and storms
outwardly deface them, yet they break forth again,
and bear fruit in the spring. And although I never
mistrusted the truth of that dissension betwixt the
willingness of the spirit and weakness of the flesh.

44

Of the Affections or Dispositions book i.

25 oft mentioned in scripture ; yet, I know not how, it
addeth more life to my belief, whilst I see this conflict
acted by the author of the forty-second and forty-third
Psalms. The flesh complains, as if his heart were
ready to close with dejected fear; My soul is cast
down within me, all thy waves and floods are gone
over me. The spirit, like a good physician, by reite-
rating that speech of comfort, Why art thou cast
down, O my soul, and why art thou so disquieted
within me, raiseth it up again, and dilateth his heart
with hope in God, against all hope in worldly sight.
For so he concludeth both these Psalms, JVait on
God ; for I will yet give him thanks : he is my pre-
sent help, and my God. Generally, though the Psalm-
ist's complaints be ofttimes grievous, yet they never
end them but with hearty prayer; though God oft-
times lay great plagues upon them, yet is their con-
fidence always as great, that he will heal them. The
beginning of their mournful ditties always represents
the storms of grief and sorrow that had gone over
their souls ; their end and close is like the appearing
of the morning star, foreshewing the removal of the
shadow of death wherein they sat. Their sudden
transitions from grief to joy is even as the breaking
out of the sun from under a thick tempestuous cloud ;
so that the outward character of their songs is a lively
representation of that truth, which one of them out of
his inmost experience hath left registered to the world ;
His wrath endureth hut the twinkling of an eye, and
in his pleasure is life : heaviness may endure for a
night, hut joy cometh in the morning. Psalm xxx. 5.

3. This patience in adversity, and confident expec-
tation of deliverance from above, compared with the
heathen's impatience, always ready to accuse their
gods in their unexpected calamities, and seeking to

CHAP. VI.

of the Sacred Writers.

45

vent their grief in poetical invectives against them, in-
fallibly testify that the one did only know the Divine
powers by hearsay, the others by experience ; and that
God was near to this people in all which they called
upon him, and beheld the affairs of the heathen only
afar off.

4. Yet beside these particular lively characters of
experimental joy or grief, fear or confidence ; their
consonancy with the historical truth of alterations in
the state of Jewry will much illustrate the former
observations. For albeit the Psalmists, in their great-
est distresses or calamities, murmur not against the
Lord God as the heathens do ; yet the tenor of some
late mentioned, with divers other Psalms, argue that
the people of God, in those times wherein they were
written, either had not such manifest signs of God's
favour, or else found not such speedy deliverance from
the dangers feared, or calamities suffered by them, as
the prophet David in the twenty-seventh Psalm, ver. 1.
and other of their godly ancestors, had done. The Lord,
saith David, is my light and imj salvation ; whom
shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of my life ; of
whom shall I he afraid ? — Though an host pitched
against me, mine heart shoidd not he afraid : though
war he raised against me, yet I tvill trust in this :
to wit, upon his former experience of God's mercies
specified, ver. 2. When the wicked^mine enemies, came,
and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they
stumhled and fell. But greater was his confidence
from the more often experience of God's favour, when
as his case otherwise, for the multitude and malignity
of his enemies, was more desperate : Psalm iii. 1. Many
were his adversaries that rose up against him ; and
many that said unto his soul, (when he fled from hisj
son Absalom,) ver. 2. There is no help for him in his

46

Of the Affections or Dispositions book i.

God. Yet he, as an expert soldier, cannot be terrified
with stales or brags, but betaketh himself unto his
■weapons, ver. 3. Thou, Lord, art a huchler for me; my
glory, and the lifter up of my head. So little is he
dismayed, that after his prayers he taketh his quiet
rest : ver. 4. / did call upon the Lord with my voice,
and he heard me out of his holy mountain. I laid me
down and slept, and rose again, for the Lord sus-
tained me. Ver. 6. / will not be afraid for ten thou-
sands of the people that should beset me round about.
The same confidence, raised from the experience of
God's assistance, was in the author of the forty-sixth
Psalm, God is our help and strength, a very present
help in troid)le : therefore will we not fear, though the
earth be moved, and though the mountains fall into
the midst of the sea. The manner of David's carriage,
his confident presaging of good success, in times more
apt to breed despair in others less experienced in as-
sistance from above, expressed in sundry Psalms, com-
posed when he fled from Saul, yield abundance of ob-
servations pregnant for this purpose.

5. Otherwhiles this kingly prophet expostulates the
wrongs offered by his enemies so confidently, and re-
lateth his own integrity in such pathetical and serious
manner, that unless the inscription of his petitions, or
other historical circumstance, did give us notice to
whom he tendered his complaints, we would think
that they had been so many reports of what he had
openly pleaded at some bar, or court of civil justice, in
the personal presence, sight, or audience of some visible
judge, ready to give sentence for him upon the first
hearing of his cause. If any civil heathen, that never
had heard of any invisible God, should have taken up
some of his Psalms (the ninth for example) in the
streets, he would have imagined that the author of

niAP. VI.

of the Sacred Writers.

47

them had either heard some supi'eme magistrate in his
time deeply protesting his resolution for righting the
poor, or else had been most intimately acquainted with
the integrity of his proceedings in matters of justice,
that he durst so confidently avouch unto the world on
his behalf, Psalm ix. 8, He shall Judge the tvorld in
righteousness, and the people with equity ; ver. 9- The
Lord also will he a refuge for the poor, a refuge in
due time, even in affliction; ver. 10. And they that
know thy name will trust in thee : for thou. Lord, hast
not failed them that seek thee. So lively was David's
and other ancient psalmists' experience of the invisible
God's assistance always ready, as well in war as in
peace, as well in executing judgment upon their trea-
cherous, deceitful, or secret enemies, as in giving them
victory over their professed and potent foes.

6. But posterity had not oftentimes so full expe-
rience of the same assistance, as appeareth from the
manner of their complaints. The reason of this diver-
sity in the ancient and later psalmists' apprehension
of God's favour, either in delivering them from dan-
ger or righting them from wrong, was from the diver-
sity of times, the later not yielding so manifest and
frequent documents of God's mercy or justice as the
former had done. As God's plagues upon the ancient
Israelites were ofttimes sudden, and (for the time)
violent ; so their deliverance from them was speedy,
because their stubbornness was less, and the sins for
which they were to repent, of less continuance. But
the continual increase of this people's wickedness, in
their successions, and posterities' slackness in sorrow-
ing either for their own or predecessors' sins, made 27
God's plagues inflicted upon them more durable, as
appeareth by the long captivities and oppressions of
this people in later ages, if we compare them with the

48

Of the Affections or Dispositions book i.

often but short afflictions which in former times had
befallen them. This long durance of great calamities
made posterity less apprehensive of God's promises
than their forefathers had been ; at the least, whiles
these continued, they were less acquainted with God's
favour than their predecessors were. And from the
want of like sensible experience of his present help in
time of trouble, later generations are more querulous
and less confident in their prayers uttered in their dis-
tress, as we may see in the ninety-eighth and other
Psalms, conceived by the godly amongst this people
in the calamities of later times. Thus we may see
how truly the diversity of God's dealing with his peo-
ple in different ages is represented in the character,
style, or affection of these sacred writers, all much
diffei'ent in former and later ages : much more may
we presume, that the general and true diversity of
times, and God's diverse manner of proceeding with
mankind in their several generations, is most truly
related and exemplified in the historical relations of
the same sacred volumes ; of which in the section fol-
lowing.

7. Thus much of experiments or observations drawn
from the character or tenor of these sacred writings
themselves, or their writers' affections represented in
them. These I have gathered, not that I can hope to
persuade any man so much by reading them, as by
occasioning him to observe the like, whiles he readeth
these sacred volumes. For every man that readeth
them with attentive observation, may apprehend much
more for the framing of true belief in his own heart,
than he can express to others ; yea, to seek to make
full resemblance of our inward belief, or such experi-
ments as confirm it, by outward discourse, were all
one, as if a man out of the slight impression or transi-

THAP. VI.

of the Sacred Writers.

49

toiy representation of his own face which he had
lately beheld in a glass, should seek to describe it as
fully and perfectly to another man's apprehension, as
if he had looked upon it with him in the same glass.

8. As the representation of our bodily shape is
lively and perfect whilst we behold it in a true and
perfect glass, but the memorial or phantasy of it when
we are gone thence, imperfect and dull : so is the ap-
prehension of our own, or experiments of others' be-
lief, sensible and fresh, whilst we set our hearts and
minds unto this perfect law of liberty, the only true
glass of our souls ; but more hard to retain in memory,
or to be fully represented to another by discourse, than
our bodily shape is by a bare description. And as
in the art of painting, general rules may be given for
the right drawing of pictures, yet he that will take any
particular man's must look upon the live face itself, or
use the benefit of his glass : so in this case, there may
be good directions given how men should draw expe-
riments, or take observations of this kind, which being
taken, cannot be fully imprinted in another by him
that took them ; but every man must have continual
recourse unto this spiritual glass, which far surpasseth
all bodily glasses in this ; that in it we may see, not
only the true shape and proportion of our souls as
they are, or of what fashion they should be ; but it
hath also an operative force of assimilating them unto
the patterns of godly and religious men's souls repre-28
sented herein, yea, even of transforming them into the
similitude of that image wherein they were first cre-
ated. The ideas of sanctity and righteousness contained
in this spiritual glass are the causes of our edification
in good life and virtue ; as the idea or platform in the
artificer's head is the cause of the material house that
is biiilded by it.

JACKSON, VOL. I. E

50

Of Experiments and Obsei'vations.

BOOK I.

SECT. II.

Of Experhne7its and Observations external, answer-
able to the Rnles of Scripture.

CHAP. VII.

Cuntaining the Topic, tvlience such Observations must be

draicn.

1. If the books of some ancient rare author, who had
written in sundry arts, should be found in this age,
all bearing the author's name and other commendable
titles prefixed, a reasonable man would soon be per-
suaded that they were his whose name they bore ; but
sooner, if he had any positive arguments to persuade
himself of their antiquity, or if they were commended
to him by the authority or report of men in this case
credible. But besides all these, if every man accord-
ing to his experience or skill in those arts and facul-
ties which this ancient writer handles, should upon
due examination of his conclusions or discourse find
resolution in such points as he had always wavered in
before, or be instructed in matters of his profession or
observation whereof he was formerly ignorant, this
would much strengthen his assent unto the former
reports or traditions concerning their author, or unto
the due praises and titles prefixed to his works; albeit
he that made this trial could not prove the same truth
so fully to another, nor cause him to believe it so firm-
ly as he himself doth, unless he could induce him to
examine his writings by like experiments, in some
faculty wherein the examiner had some, though less
skill. And yet after the like trial made, he that had
formerly doubted would believe these works to be
the supposed author's, and subscribe unto the titles

riiAP. Of Experiments and Observations,

51

and coinmendations prefixed, not so much for the for-
mer's report or authority, as from his own experience.
Now we have more certain experiments to prove that
the scriptures are the word of God, than we can have
to prove any men's works to be their supposed au-
thor's : for one author in any age may be as good
as another, he perhaps better of whom we have lieard
less. We could in the former case only certainly be-
lieve that the author, whosoever, was an excellent
scholar, but we could not be so certain that it was
none other but he whose name it did bear; for there 29
may be many Aristotles and many Platos, many ex-
cellent men in every profession, yet but one God that
is all in all ; whose works we suppose the scriptures
are, which upon strict examination will evince him
alone to have been their author.

2. The means then of establishing our assent unto
any part of scripture, must be from experiments and
observations agreeable to the rules in scripture. For
when we see the reason and maimer of sundry events,
either related by others, or experienced in ourselves,
which otherwise we could never have reached unto by
any natural skill ; or generally, when we see any ef-
fects or concurrence of things which cannot be ascribed
to any but a supernatural cause, and yet they fully
agi'eeing to the oracles of scriptures or articles of
belief : this is a sure pledge unto us, that he who is the
author of truth, and gives being unto all things, was
the author of scriptures.

3. Such events and experiments are diverse, and ac-
cording to their diversities may work more or less on
diverse dispositions ; soine may find more of one sort,
some of another, none all. Some again may be more
induced to believe the truth of scriptures from one
sort of experiments, some from others. Those obser-

E 2

52 Fables ought nut to prejudice Divine 2Vutli. book i.

rations are always best for every man, which are most
incident to his vocation. With some variety of these
observations or experiments we are in the next place
to acquaint diverse readers.

CHAP. VIII.

Tliat Heathenish Fables ought not to prejudice Divine Truth.

1. Nothing more usual to men, wise enough in their
generation, than for the variety or multitude of false
reports concerning any subject, to discredit all that are
extant of the same. And all inclination unto diffidence
or distrust is not always to be misliked ; but only
when it sways too far. or extends itself beyond the
limits of its proper circumference, that is, matters of
bargain or secular commei'ce. As this diffident temper
is most common in the cunning managers of such
affairs, so the first degree or propension to it were not
much amiss in them, did they not transcendere a
genere ad ge7ius ; that is, were not their mistrust
commonly too generally rigid and stiff. For most men
of great dealings in the world, finding many slippery
companions, hold it no sin to be at the least suspicious
of all : others, being often cozened by such as have
had the name and reputation of honest men, begin to
doubt whether there be any such thing indeed as that
^hich men call honesty ; and from this doubting about
the real nature of honesty in the abstract, they resolve
undoubtedly, that if any man in these days do not deal
ill with others, it is only for want of fit opportunity to
do himself any great good. But as facility in yielding
assent, unless it be moderated by discretion, is an
infallible consequent of too great simplicity, and lays a
man open to abuse and wrong in matters of this life ;
so general mistrust is the certain forerunner of infi-
delity, and makes a man apt enough to cozen himself.

CHAP. VIII. Fables ought not to prejudice Divine Truth. 53

without a tempter, in matters of the life to come ;
though otherwise this is the very disposition which 30
the great tempter works most upon : who for this
reason, when any notable truth of greater moment
falls out, labours by all means to fill the world with
reports of like events, but such as upon examination
he foresees will prove false : for he knows well, that
the belief of most pregnant truths may by this means
be much impaired, as honest men are usually mis-
trusted when the world is full of knaves. And to
speak the truth, it is but a very short cut betwixt
general and rigid mistrust in worldly dealings, and
infidelity in spiritual matters ; which indeed is but a
kind of diffidence or mistrust : and he that from the
experience of often cozenage comes once to this point,
that he will trust none in worldly affairs but upon
strong security or legal assurance, may easily be trans-
ported by the variety or multitude of reports in spi-
ritual matters notoriously false, to believe nothing but
upon the sure pledge and evidence of his own sense or
natural reason. This is one main fountain of atheism ;
of which (God willing) in the article of the Godhead.
In this place I only desire to give the reader notice of
Satan's policy, and to advertise him withal, that as
there is a kind of ingenuous simplicity, which if it
match with sobriety and serious meditation, doth pre-
pare our hearts to Christian belief; so there is a kind
of suspicion, by which we may outreach the old serpent
in his subtilty, and prevent his former method of de-
ceit. So whilst we read or hear variety of reports
concerning any notable event, or many writers beating
about one matter, every one of which may seem im-
probable in particular circumstances, or else their di-
versity such as makes them incompatible ; we should
be jealous that there were some notable truth, whose
belief did concern us, which Satan hath sought to dis-

E 3

54

Observations out of Poets in general, look i.

parage by tlie mixture, either of gross improbable
fruitless fables, or else of dissonant probabilities.

2. Truth is the life and nutriment of the world, and
the scriptures are the veins or vessels wherein it is
contained ; which soon corrupts and putrifies, unless it
be preserved in them as in its proper receptacles, as
both the fabulous conceits of the heathen, and foolish
practices of the Romish church in many points may
witness. But as from Asphaltites, or the Dead sea, we
may find out the pleasant streams and fresh springs of
Jordan ; so from the degenerate and corrupted relish
of decayed truth, which is frequent in the puddle and
standing lakes of heathen M'riters, we may be led to
the pure fountain of truth contained in these sacred
volumes of scripture.

3. The experiments, which now we seek or would
occasion others (chiefly young students) to observe,
are such as the heathen did guess at, or men out of
the works of nature, by reading of poets or ancient
writers, may yet doubt of : whereas the true resolution
of them only depends upon the truth set down in
scripture.

31 CHAP. IX.

Observations out of Poets in general, and of Dreams in
particular.

1. The most exquisite poems are but a kind of pleasant
waking dream, and the art of poetry a lively imitation
of some delightful visions. And as nothing comes into
a man's fancy by night in dreams, but the parts or
matters of it have been formerly in his outward senses;
(for even when we dream of golden mountains or chi-
meras, the several ingredients have a real and sensible
truth in them ; only the frame or proportion is such,
as hath no sensible example in the works of nature;)
so in ancient poems, which were not made in imitation
of former, as pictures drawn from pictures, but imme-

CHAP. IX. mid of Dreams in particular.

55

diately devised (as we now suppose) from the sensible
experiments of those times, (as pictures drawn from a
living face,) many parts and lims have a real and
sensible truth, only the composition or frame is ai*ti-
ficial and feigned, such as cannot perhaps be paralleled
in every circumstance with any real events in the course
of times. And albeit the events, (which the most an-
cient poets relate,) through long distance of time, seem
most strange to us, yet is the ground (of their devices
especially) such, as upon better search may always be
referred to some historical truth, which yielded stuff
to poetical structure, as day's spectacles do unto night's
visions. This Aristotle had observed out of the prac-
tice of the best ancient poets, and prescribes it as a
rule to poets, to have always an historical truth for
their ground. Nor durst poets have been so audacious
in their fictions at the first, seeing their profession was
but either to imitate nature, or adorn a known truth ;
not to disparage any truth by prodigious or monstrous
fictions, without any ground of like experience. For
this is a fundamental law of their art ;

Ciiruudmn, itf gnnndo tto/i semper vera profainur,
Fiiigenfes, saltern s'lnt illu simillima veris.
Though rtirs not true that feigning poets sing,
Yet nought on stage but in truth's likeness bring.

None, I think, will be so foolish as to take Homer
in the literal sense, when he tells us' how Iris by day
and Sleep by night run errands for the greater gods,
and come with these and the like messages unto kings'
chambers :

Oil xpT] Tiavvvxi-ov ivheiv Bov\ri(l)6pov "Avbpa^.

Who will by counsel guide a state.

Must early rise, and lie down late.

1 M.Hieron. Vide Poeticoruiii, II. e. 398. et B. 20 —

lib. 2, 1. 305. 24.

E 4

56

Observalious out of Poets in general, nooK i.

Yet with such artificial and painted plumes often-
times are covered true and natural bodies, though the
messengers be poetical and feigned ; yet these kinds
of night messages had an historical truth : for not the
32 poets only, but many great philosophers of the old
world, have taken nocturnal presages for no dreams or
fancies. Hence did Homer usurp his liberty, in feign-
ing his kings and heroics so often admonished of
their future estate by the gods : he presumed at least
that these fictions might carry a show of truth in that
age, wherein such admonitions by night were not un-
usual. And his conceit is not dissonant unto the sacred
story, which bears record of like effects in ancient
times, and gives the true cause of their expiration in
later.

2. So usual were dreams among the patriarchs,
and their interpretations so well known, that Jacob
could at the first hearing interpret his young son
Joseph's dream", What is this dream that thou hast
dreamed f Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren
come indeed and fall on the ground before thee ?
Nor did he take it only for a fable, no more than his
brethren had done his former for a fancy ; for, as the
text saith, his brethren envied him ; but his foither
noted the saying. And Joseph himself coming to
riper years, was as expert in interpreting Pharaoh's
and his servants' dreams p : Then Joseph said unto
him. This is the interpretation of it: The three
branches are three days : within three days shall
Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto
thine office : and thou shalt give Pharaoh's cup into
his hand, after the old manner when thou wast his
butler. And ver. 19. Within three days shall Pha-
raoh take thine head from thee, and shall hang thee
on a tree, and the birds shall eat thy Jlesh from off

° Gen. xxxvii. lo.

P Gen. xl. 12, 13 .

fHAC. IX. mnl of Dreams in pm'tknlar.

57

thee. These considerations will not suffer me to mis-
trust divers ancient historiographers, making report
how princes and fathers of families have had fore-
warnings of future events, either concerning them-
selves, their kingdoms, or posterity. Nor were all
dreams among the heathens illusions of wicked spirits:
for Elihu spake out of the common experience of those
ancient times wherein he lived ; God speaketh once,
or ttvice, (that is, usually,) and one seeth it not. In
dreams and visions of the night, when sleep falleth
upon men, and they sleep upon their beds; then he
openeth the ears of men, even by their corrections,
which he had sealed, that he might cause man to turn
away from his enterprise, and that he might hide the
pride of man, and keep back his soul from the pit,
and that his life should not pass by the sword ^. A
lively experiment of Elihu his observation we have,
Gen. XX. 3. When Abimelech king of Gerar had taken
Sarah, Abraham's wife, God came to him in a dream
by night, and said to him. Behold, thou art but dead,
because of the woman which thou hast taken ; for she
is a man's wife. And again, ver. 6, 7, God said unto
him by a dream, I know that thou didst this even with
an upright mind; and I kept thee also that thou
shouldest not sin against me : there/ore suffered I not
thee to touch her. JVow then deliver the man his wife
again ; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for
thee, that thou mayest live : but if thou deliver her
not again, be sure that thou shalt die the death, thou,
and all that thou hast. And Moses witnesseth the
ordinary prophecy of ancient times to have consisted
of dreams and visions, Numb. xii. 6, 7, 8, If there be a
jyrophet of the Lord amongst you, I will be known
unto him by a vision, and will speak unto him by a
dream. My servant Moses is not so, (that is, he is

1 Job xxxiii. 14 — 1 7.

58 Observations out of Poets in general, book i.

no ordinary prophet,) unto him will I speak month to
mouth, and by vision, and not in dark words ; but he
shall see the similitude of the L,ord.

3. These allegations sufficiently prove that night-
dreams and visions were frequent, and their observa-

33 tion (if taken in sobriety) to good use, in ancient times
even amongst the nations, until they forgot, as Joseph
said, that interpretations were from God"^, and sought
to find out an art of interpi'eting them : then night
visions did either cease, or were so mixed with delu-
sions, that they could not be discerned ; or if their
events were in some sort foreseen, yet men being igno-
rant of God's providence, commonly made choice of such
means for their avoidance, as proved the necessary
occasions or provocations of the events they feared.

4. Much better was the temper of the nations before
Homer's time : they, amongst other kinds of prophesy-
ings and soothsayings, held dreams and their interpre-
tations (as all other good gifts) to be from God. As
no evil was done in the Grecian camp which the gods,
in their opinion, did not cause, so Homer brings in
Achilles advising Agamemnon to consult their gods'
interpreters with all speed for what offence committed
against them they had sent the pestilence into their
camp^

'AAA' aye hr] riva fiavTLV epeiofj-ev, rj lepija
*H Koi oveLpoTToKov, /cat yap r ovap e/c Atoj €(ttlv.
But to what priest or prophet shall we wend.
Or dreamer? for even dreams from Jove descend.

All those kinds of predictions had been in use
amongst the heathens, as they were amongst the Israel-
ites ; albeit in later times they grew rare in both : for
the increase of wickedness throughout the world, the
multiplicity of business and solicitude of human af-
fairs, and men's too much minding of politic means,
r Gen. xl. 8. ^ Homer II. A, 6o.

f HAi'. IX. a)id of Dreams in particular.

59

and other second causes of their own good, did cause
the defect of true dreams and other Divine admonitions
for the welfare of mankind.

5. This cause the scriptures give us, 1 Sara, xxviii. 6 :
Saul (who had followed the fashions of other nations,
not the prescripts of God's word) osked counsel of the
Lord, hut the Lord answered him not, neither hy dreams,
nor hy Urini nor hy jwophets. His sins had made a
separation between him and the God of Israel, who for
this cause will not afford his presence to his priests or
prophets that came as mediators betwixt Saul and him;
much less would he vouchsafe his Spirit unto such priests
or prophets as were carnally minded themselves. This
was a rule so well known to the people of God, that
Strabo " from the tradition of it (for Moses his story he
had not read) reckons up this as a special point of
Moses his doctrine concerning the worship of the God
of Israel ; his words are to this effect : " Moses taught,
that such as lived chastely and uprightly should be
inspired with true visions by night, and such men it
was meet should consult the Divine powers in the
temple by night- visions : but others, who were not so
well minded ought not to intrude themselves into this
sacred business ; or if they would, they were to expect
no true visions, but illusions or idle dreams ; from
God they were not to expect any.'' Yet may it not be
denied, but that the heathens were ofttimes, by God's
permission, truly resolved by dreams or oracles (though
ministered by devils) of events that should come ; but
seldom were such resolutions for their good : so the
witch, which Saul most heathen-like consulted, when
God had cast him off, did procure him a true predic-34
tion of his fearful end. This is a point wherein I
could be large, but I will conclude. As the heathens'
relations of sundry events, usual in ancient times, con-
t i.e. hy priests. '°- Strabo, lib. i6. p. 761.

60

Of Oracles.

BOOK I.

firm the truth of the like recorded in scripture ; so the
scriptures give the true causes of their being, ceasing,
or alteration ; which the corrupt and polypragmatical
disposition of later ages, without revelation from the
Cause of causes and Disposer of times could never
have dreamed of ; as may partly appear from what
hath been said of dreams, more fully from that which
follows next of oracles.

CHAP. X.

Of Oracles.

I HAVE often and daily occasion (for the satis-
faction of my mind in sundry questions that might
otherwise have vexed me) to thank my God, that as
he made me a reasonable creature, and of a reasonable
creature a student or contemplator, so he did not make
me a mere philosopher : (though Plato thought this
deserved the greatest thanks, as being the greatest
benefit bestowed upon him by his God :) but never
was I more incited in this respect to bless the day
wherein I was made a Christian, than when I read
Plutarch's tract of the causes why oracles ceased in
his time. Whether heathen oracles were all illusions
of devils, or some uttered by God himself for their
good, (though ofttimes without success, by reason of
their curiosity and superstition,) I now dispute not.
That oracles in ancient times had been frequent ; that
such events had been foretold by them as surpassed
the skill of human reason : all records of unpartial
antiquity bear uncontrollable evidence. Nor did the
heathen philosophers themselves, which lived in the
ages immediately following their decay, call the truth
of their former use in question : but from admiration
of this known change, they were incited to search the
cause of their ceasing. Plutarch^", after his acute search
Lib. de Defectu Oraculorum. [Vol. ii. page 434.]

CHAP. X.

Of Oracles.

61

of sundry causes and accurate philosophical disputes,
refers it partly unto the absence of his demoniacal
spirits, which by his philosophy might die or flit from
place to place, either exiled by others more potent, or
upon some other dislike ; and partly unto the alteration
of the soil wherein oracles were seated, which yielded
not exhalations of such a Divine temper as in former
times it had done ; and without a certain temperature
of exhalations or breathing of the earth, the demoni-
acal spirits (he thought) could not give their oracles,
more than a musician can play without an instrument.
And this decay or alteration of the soil of Delphi, and
like places, was (in his judgment) probable, from the
like known experience in sundry rivers, lakes, and hot-
baths, which in some places did quite dry up and
vanish ; in others, much decay for a long time, or
change their course ; and yet afterwards recover their
former course or strength, either in the same places, or
some near adjoining. Thus he expected oracles should
either come in use again in Greece, or else burst out
in some more convenient soil. The atheists of this
age (our English homebred ones at least) have alto-
gether as great reason to deny the decay or drying up
of rivers and lakes, as to suspect the frequency of3
oracles, or other events in times past : for neither they
nor their fathers have had any more experience of the
one than of the other. Plutarch's testimony (amongst
many others) is authentic for the use and decay of
oracles : but neither his authority, nor the reasons
which he brings, can give satisfaction to any man that
seeks the true cause of their defect. He refers it,
indeed, in a generality to the gods ; not that they
wanted good-will to mankind still, but that the matter
did decay which their ministers (the demoniacal spirits)
did work upon, as you heard before. We may upon
sure grounds with confidence affirm, that even this

62

Of Oracles.

BOOK I.

decay of matter, which he dreams of, (had it conferred
ought to the use of oracles,) was from God. And he
(as the Psalmist speaks that turneth the floods into a
tvl/derness, and drieth up the icater-springs, and
maketh a fru'itfi.d land barren^ for the iniquity of
them that dwell therein, did also bring, not only the
oracle of Delphi, so much frequented amongst the Gre-
cians, but all other kinds of divinations, used amongst
his own people in the old world, to desolation : and by
pouring out his Spirit more plenteously upon the
barren hearts of us heathen, hath filled the barbarous
nations of Europe with better store of rivers of com-
fort than the ancient Israel, his own inheritance, had
ever known. Or if we desire a more immediate cause
of these oracles' defect amongst the heathens, the time
was come, that the strong man's house icas to he en-
tered, his goods spoiled, and himself hound; 7ww the
prince of this world was to he cast out^.

Plutarch's relation of his demoniacal spirits mourn-
ing for great Pan's death, about this time, is so strange,
that it might perhaps seem a tale, unless the ti'uth of
the common bruit had been so constantly avouched by
ear-witnesses unto Tiberius, that it made him call a
convocation of wise men, as Herod did at our Saviour's
birth, to resolve him who this great Pan. late deceased,
should be. Thamous, the Egyptian master, (unknown
by that name to his passengers, until he answered to
it at the third call of an uncouth voice, uttered si tie
authore from the land, requesting him to proclaim the
news of great Pan's death, as he passed by Palodes,)
was resolved to have let all pass as a fancy or idle
message, if the wind and tide should grant him pas-
sage by the place appointed ; but the wind failing him
on a sudden, at his coming thither, he thought it but a
little loss of breath to cry out aloud unto the shore as

^ Psalm cvii. 33, 34. y 3Iatt. xii. 29. John xii. 31.

CHAP. X.

Of Oracles.

63

he had been requested, "Great Pan is dead." The words,
as Plutarch relates, were scarce out of his mouth, be-
fore they were answered with a huge noise, as it had
been of a multitude, sighing and groaning at this won-
derment. If these spirits had been by nature mortal,
as this philosopher thinks, the death of their chief
captain could not have seemed so strange ; but that a
far greater than the greatest of them, by whose power
the first of them had his being, should die to redeem
his enemies from their thraldom, might well seem a
matter of wonderment and sorrow unto them. The
circumstance of the time will not permit me to doubt,
but that under the known name of Pan was intimated
the great Shepherd of our souls, that had then laid
down his life for his flock; not the feigned son of
Mercury and Penelope'', as the wise men foolishly
resolved Tiberius : albeit even this base and counterfeit
resolution of these heathens' coining, bears a lively
image (for the exact proportion) of the Divine truth, 36
charactered out unto us in scripture. For it shall
appear by sufficient testimonies, in their due time and
place to be produced, that sundry general, confused, or
enigmatical traditions of our Saviour's conception,
birth, and pastoral office, had been spread abroad
amongst the nations. Hence, instead of him, they
frame a Pan, the god of shepherds ; instead of the
Holy Spirit, by whom he was to be conceived, they
have a Mercury (their false god's feigned messenger
and interpreter) for Pan's father ; instead of the blessed
Virgin, who was to bear our Saviour, they have a
Penelope for their young god's mother. The affinity

2 Ota Se TToXXojj/ av6pu>TC(ji)V nap-
uvTcov, Taxy TOV Xoyov ev 'Pwprj
(TKehacrBrivai, Kai tov Qapovv yeve-
(tBiu peTairepTTTOv vtto 'Vifiepiov Kai-
(Tapoi' ovT(a fit TntTTevijai tw Xoyo)
TOV Ti^tpiov, waTf Bi(i7Twddve(T0tn

Kai ^t]Te'iv TTfpl TOV Ilavos. eind^eiv
8e Toiis nepi avTov (piXoXoyovs crv-
Xvovs ovTas, TOV e'l ''Eppoii Ka\ Ilrj-
veXonrji yeyevrjpevov. Plut. ubi Slip.

[page 41Q.]

64

Of Oracles.

BOOK r.

of quality and offices in all the parties here paralleled,
made this transfiguration of Divine truth easy unto
the heathen ; and the manner of it cannot seem im-
probable to us, if we consider the wonted vanity of
their imaginations, in transforming the glory of the
immortal God into the similitude of earthly things,
most dislike to it in nature and quality. Thus ad-
mitting Plutarch's story to be most true, it no way
proves his intended conclusion, that the wild goatish
Pan was mortal : but the scriptures set forth unto us
the true cause why both he, and all the rest of that
hellish crew, should at that time howl and mourn,
seeing by the great Shepherd's death they were become
dead in law ; no more to breathe in oracles, but quite
to be deprived of all such strange motions as they had
seduced the ignorant world with before. All the antic
tricks of Faunus, the satyrs, and such like creatures,
were now put down ; God had resolved to make a
translation of his church ; and for this cause the devils
were enforced to dissolve their old chapels, and seek a
new form of their liturgy or service. Whilst the Israel-
ites were commanded to consult with God's priests,
prophets, or other oracles, before they undertook any
difficult war or matters of moment, Satan had his
priests and oracles as much frequented by heathen
princes upon the like occasions. So Strabo^ witness-
eth, that the ancient heathen, in their chief consulta-
tions of state, did rely more upon oracles than human
policy. If Moses were forty days in the mount, to
receive laws from God's own mouth ; Minos will be
Jupiter's auditor in his den or cave for the same
purpose. In emulation of Shiloh, or Kirjath-jearim,
whilst the ark of God remained there, the heathens
had Dodona ; and for Jerusalem they had Delphi,
garnished with rich donatives of foi'eign princes as
a Lib. citato. ^ Plat, in Minoe. [Vol. ii. p. 319.]

CHAP. X.

Of Oracles.

65

well as Grecians ; so magnified also by Grecian writers,
as if it had been the intended parallel of the holy city.
Insomuch that Plutarch thinks the story, commonly
received of that oracle's original, to be less probable,
because it ascribes the invention of it to chance, and
not to the Divine providence, or favour of the gods,
when as it had been such a direction unto Greece in
undertaking wars, in building cities, and in times of
pestilence and famine. Whether these effects in ancient
times had been always from the information of devils,
(as I said before,) I will not dispute. That this oracle
had been often consulted, it is evident ; and that often-
times the devils deluded such as consulted them, is as
manifest. But since that saying of the prophet was
fulfilled, / will put my law in their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts^ ; since the knowledge of truth
liatli been so plenteously made known and revealed,
and the principles of religion so much dilated and en-
larged by discourse, the Devil hath chosen proud hearts 37
and busy brains for his oracles ; seeking by their sub-
tilty of wit and plausibility of discourse to counterfeit
and corrupt the form of wliolesome doctrine, as he did
of old the truth of God's visible oracles by his apish
imitations.

3. This conclusion then is evident, both from the
joint authority of all ancient writers, as well profane
as sacred, that God in former times had spoken unto
the world by dreams, visions, oracles, priests, and pro-
])hets ; and that such revelations had been, amongst
the Israelites, as the stars or night-lamps ; amongst
the heathen as meteors, fiery apparitions, or wander-
ing comets, for their direction in the time of darkness
and ignorance. But when both the sensible experience
of our times, and the relations of former ages, most
c Pint. ibid. [j). 418.] '1 Jer. xxxi. 33.

J AC KSOK, VOL. I. V

66

Of Oracles.

BOOK I.

impartial in this case, have sufficiently declared unto
us, that all the former twinkling lights are vanished ;
the reason of this alteration, I see, men might seek by
natural causes, as Plutarch did ; but this doubt is
cleared, and the question truly resolved by our apostle
in these words, At sundry times and in divers man-
ners God spake in the old time to our fathers btj the
prophets; in these last days he hath spoken unto us
by his Son, whom he hath made heir of all things, by
whom also he made the world; who, being (as the
apostle there saith) the brightness of his glory ^, hath
put the former lights, which shined in darkness, to
flight. The consideration hereof confirms the truth of
our apostle to all such as are not blinded in heart,
where he saith, that the night was past, and the day
was come : for the sudden vanishing of all former
lights, about this time (assigned by Christians) of our
Saviour's birth, abundantly evince that this was the
Sun of righteousness, which (as the prophet had fore-
told) should arise unto the workV. It was the light
which had lately appeared in the coasts of Jewry, then
approaching Italy, Greece, and other of these western
countries, which did cause these sons of darkness (the
demoniacal spirits) to flit westward, as darkness itself
doth from the face of the sun, when it begins to ap-
pear in the east. And Plutarch tells us, that "after
they had forsaken the country of Greece, they haunted
little desert islands near adjoining to the coasts of this
our Brittany ; where they raised such hideous storms
and tempests, as navigators report they have done of
late in that island called by their own name Both
reports had their times of truth ; and the like may be
yet true in some places more remote from commerce
of Christians. But the heathen (as heathenish minded
e Heb. i. I. Malacli. iv. 2. g Plut. ibid. [p. 419.]

< rr.\p. X.

Of Oravfes.

67

men do even to this day) sought the reasons of such
alterations from sensible agents, or second causes,
which have small affinity with those effects ; or if they
had, yet the disposition of such causes depends wholly
upon his will, who, though most immutable in himself,
changeth times and seasons at his pleasure. And
wheresoever the light of his gospel cometh, it verifieth
that saying of our apostle, Ecce vetera trans'ierunt, et
nova facta sunt omnia : and new times yield new ob-
servations, which cannot be taken aright, nor their
causes known, without especial directions from this
rule of life. By which it plainly appeareth, that the
second main period of the world since the flood, (whose
beginning we account from the promulgation of the
law, and the distinction of the Israelites from other
people, until the time of grace,) yields great alteration
and matter of much different observation from the
former. And in the declining, or later part of this 38
second age, we have described unto us, as it were, an
ebb or stanch in the affairs of the kingdom of Israel,
going before the general fulness of time : after which
we see the tenor of all things in Jewry, and of other
kingdoms of the world, quite changed. But the parti-
culars of this change I intend to handle hereafter : I
now would prosecute my former observations of the
old world.

4. Continually, whilst we compare ancient poets or
stories with the book of Genesis, and other volumes
of sacred anticjuity ; these sacred books give us the
pattern of the waking thoughts of ancient times. And
the heathen poems, with other fragments of ethnic
writings, (whose entire bodies, though not so aged as
the former, being but the works of men, have perished,)
contain the dreams and fancies which succeeding ages
by hearsay and broken reports had conceived, concern-

F 2

68

Of the. ApimrUions of the Heathen Gods, book i.

ing the same or like matters. So no doubt had God
disposed that the delight which men took in the un-
certain glimpse of truth in the one, should inure their
minds the better to observe the light which shineth in
the other ; and that the unstable variety of the one
should prepare men's hearts more steadfastly to em-
brace the truth and stability of the other, when it
should be revealed unto them. And as any man al-
most, if he be observant of his former actions, cogita-
tions, and occurrents, may find out the occasion how
dreams (though in themselves oftentimes prodigious,
absurd, and foolish) come into his brain or fancy;
so may any judicious man, from the continual and
serious observation of this register of truth, find out
the original, at least, of all the principal heads or com-
mon places of poetical fictions, or ancient traditions,
which cannot be imagined they should ever have come
into any man's fancy, unless from the imitation of
some historical truth, or the impulsion of real events
stirring up admiration. For admiration (as shall af-
terward appear) did breed, and imitation spoil, the
Divine art of poetiy.

CHAP. XI.

Of the Apparitions of the Heathen Gods and their Heroics.

1. Were all the works of ancient poets utterly lost,
and no tradition or print of their inventions left, so as
the art of poetry were to begin anew, and the theatre
to be raised from the ground ; the most curious wits in
this or near adjoining countries, might for many gene-
I'ations to come beat their brains and sift their fancies,
until they had run over all the forms and compositions
which the whole alphabet of their phantasms could
afford, before they could ever dream of bringing the
gods in visible shape upon the stage, or interlacing

CHAP. XI. Of the Apparitiuii.s uf the Heathen Gods.

m

their poems with their often apparitions. And unless
ensuing times should yield matter of much different
observations from that which these present do, this
invention would be accounted dull, and find but sorry
and unwelcome entertainment of the auditors or spec-
tators. That the like invention finds some acceptation
now, it is because men's minds have been possessed
with this conceit from the tradition of their fore- 39
fathers. For many inventions, which in succession
cease to be of like use and consequence as they were in
former times, become yet matters of delight and sport
unto posterity ; as shooting continues still an exercise
of good recreation to us of this land, because it hath
been a practice of admirable use and consequence unto
our worthy ancestors. But whence came this conceit
of the gods appearing in sensible shapes, into Homer's
and other ancient poets' heads ? How became it a com-
mon place of poetical invention, whilst poetry itself
was but beginning? Surely as God had spoken in
divers manners unto the old world, so had he appeared
in divers forms, perhaps, not only to the Israelites, but
unto other nations also, before the distinction of this
people from them ; howsoever, as the devils had coun-
terfeited God"s manner of speaking to his people, so
did they the manner of his, or his angels' apparitions.

2. Such apparitions of God or his angels, the sacred
story tells us, were frequent, not only in Abraham's,
Isaac's, Jacob's, and the patriarchs' times, but in the ages
immediately going before the times that Homer wrote
of; so that the traditions of these undoubted experi-
ments (if Greece or Asia had not the like in Homer's
time) might then be fresh and unquestionable. So
God appeared to Moses in the bush '\ his angel to Ba-
laam ', to Gideon ^, to Manoah and his wife'. The like
^ Exod. iii. 2. » Numb. xxii. 22. k Judg. vi. 11. ' Judg. xiii.3.

r 3

70 Of the Apparitions of the Heathen Gods, book i.

apparitions in times following were more rare in Israel ;
not that the date of God's or his angels' extraordinary
presence was uttei'ly expired, but their presence was
seldom apprehended, by reason of that people's blind-
ness of heart, and want of prophets' eyes. For Elisha's
servant had not seen so much as a glimpse of any
angel, albeit a mighty host of these heavenly soldiers
had pitched their tents about him, unless his master,
by his prayer to God, had opened his eyes. His master
and he may be a perfect emblem of the heavenly and
worldly wise. The servant did see the host of the
Assyrians as clearly, perhaps moi'e clearly, at the least
he descried it sooner than his master did : And when
the servant of the man of God arose early, to go out,
behold, an host compassed the city ivith horses and
chariots. Then his servant said unto him, Alas, mas-
ter! hoiv shall we do'? And he answered. Fear not:
for they that be with us are more than they that be
with them. Then Elisha prayed, and said. Lord open
his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the
eyes of the servant; and he looked: and, behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots round about
Elisha^. This place, and that other of the angel's ap-
pearing to Balaam, may instruct us, that such appa-
ritions might be conspicuous to some one or few whom
they concerned, though not to others present with
them : and that the eyes of some, which were open
enough to worldly spectacles, might be close shut to
these celestial visions, as the ears of others have been
in like case. For St. Paul only heard the voice which
cried aloud unto him, though those that were with him
saw the light^ that shone at his conversion, and were
astonished at it. From the like experience about
Greece or Asia in his own, or the usual tradition of
2 Kings vi. 15, &c. " Acts xxii. 9.

CHAP. XI. Of the Apparitions of the Heathen Gods. 71

the like in former times, did Homer bring in Pallas
appearing thus to Achilles :

Oio) (j)aLvoiJ.4vri, tG)v 6' aXk<av ovtls 6paTo°.

Of all the rest, not one but he

The goddess did, though present, see.

3. As the end and purpose which Homer assigns 40
for these apparitions of his gods, so are both these,
and many other particular circumstances of his gods
assisting the ancient heroics, such as might justly
breed offence to any serious reader, if a man should
avouch them in earnest, or seek to persuade him to
expect more than mere delight in them. Yet I cannot
think that he would have feigned such an assistance,
unless the valour of some men in former times had
been extraordinary, and more than natural. Which
supernatural excellency in some before others, could
not proceed but from a supernatural cause. And thus
far his conceit agrees with scripture ; that there were
more heroical spirits in old times than in later, and
more immediate directions from God for managing of
most wars. And from the experience hereof, the an-
cient poets are more copious in their hyperbolical
praises of their worthies, than the discreeter sort of
later poets durst be, whilst they wrote of their own
times. Not that the ancient were more licentious, or
less observant of decorum in this kind of fiction than
the other ; but because the manifestation of a Divine
power in many of their victories was more seen in an-
cient than in later times ; so that such fictions, as to
the ancient people might seem (by reason of these ex-
traordinary events then frequent) very probable, would
have been censured as ridiculous and apish in succeed-
ing ages, wherein no like events were manifested. The
like extraordinary manifestation of God's power in
o Iliad A. [198.]
F 4

72

Of the ^-Jpparilwihs of the Ih-nthen Gods, book f.

battle, and of this heroical v^alour inspired into men,
we see most frequent in the ancient stories of the
Bible, as in the books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Sa-
muel ; some one man in those times was worth a
thousand others ; but in the histories of the later kings
of Judah and Israel, such extraordinary heroical spi-
rits are very rare. ''One or two miraculous victories
Israel had in Elisha's, and Judah iu Hezekiah's time ;
but by the power of angels : no extraordinary valour
of any man was much seen in them. And these few
excepted, their battles, their victories, and manner of
fight, come near unto the nature of other nations in
the same time. Generally from Rehoboam's time the
histories of Judah and Israel fall much more within
the compass of modern and ordinary observation, than
did the events of former ages. And if we had any
perfect register of such matters as had fallen out in
other nations and kingdoms during the time of Moses,
Joshua, and the Judges, we should find them much
more consonant to the sacred stories of these times,
than are any histories of later times, or of former ages,
wherein any historiographer of better account did live.
And albeit I cannot excuse Herodotus and Ctesias,
either from affecting fabulous narrations, or too great
facility in admitting the superstitious report or hear-
say traditions of others : yet is men's mistrust of them

o The reader may add the
like observation of giants fre-
quent in the times of Moses and
Joshua, but afterwards seldom
mentioned in the sacred stor^".
A representation of which histo-
rical truth we have in two or
three speeches of Xestor, [Iliad
a. 272. J7'.i56.] in which he inti-
mates that in his youth (which
was about Joshua's time) tliere
had been many giants and men

of stature and strength unusual
in the time of the Trojan wars.
His Cyclops, for the manner of
their habitation and other quali-
ties, are live pictures of the Ana-
kims expelled Hebron, and the
mountain countries of Judah. by
Joshua. \'id. ^lasium in cap. xi.
Josucc, ver. 21. et August. De
Civit Dei, lib. xv. cap. 9. et Vi-
vem. in Comment.

ciiAi". XI. i)f tlif yJppariUoiia of the Heu'lien Gods.

73

usually more universal than in scholastic discretion
and observation it need to be ; only because the like
events have not been usual in any age throughout
these parts of the world, since the times whereof they
wrote. No marvel if many since that time suspect the
signs and wonders of the old world, when as the
Psalmist, that lived before most heathen writers that
are extant, (besides such as relate like strange events,)
complains, Ps. Ixxiv. 9, We see not our signs : there is
not one prophet more. Generally after Judah had
been captived by the Gentiles, that and other kingdoms
lie as it were under one parallel, and may almost be 41
measured by the same line: the elevation of the Jew
and Gentile is muchwhat the same, and the same
celestial observation may serve for both. The priests
after their return from captivity were forbidden to
eat of the most holy thing, till there arose up a priest
with Urim and Thummim, Ezra ii. 63. " But either
no such did arise at all, from the erection of the second
temple until Christ's time ; or if any did, it was but
to give this people a farewell of God's extraordinary
speaking unto them, either by priests or prophets."
Josephus confesseth, that " revelations by Urim and
Thummim did finally cease 200 years before his time''."
But more probable is the opinion of others, that this,
as all other kind of prophecies, and many extraor-
dinary signs of God's power and presence (sometime
most frequent in that nation) did cease with that gene-
ration which returned from captivity, or immediately
after the finishing of the second temple : as if God
during all that time had appointed a fast or vigil, as
an introduction to the time of fulness, Joel ii. 28.
wherein their sons and daughters should prophes?/,
and their old men dream dreams, and their young
P Autiq. lib. iii. cixp. 9. [ulii.s ca]). 8. p. 164.]

74 The Reasons of our mistrusting of Antiquities, book i.

men see visions, and his Spirit should he poured out
on all jiesh ; as well upon the servant as the master ;
as well upon the Gentile as the Jew, Mai. i. 11. For
this cause, as I said, God had enjoined this long fast
in Judah, to humble the Jew, and teach him that he
was no more his God than the Gentiles' ; and imposed
silence to all his prophets, disinuring his chosen Israel
from his wonted call ; that so this people might grow
more mild, and apt to herd together with his other
flock, now to be brought into the same fold, wherein
both might jointly hear the great Shepherd's voice.
As God elsewhere had threatened, so it came to pass,
that visions had ceased in Judah, before the rising of
the Roman empire ; and likely it is that presages by
dreams, or like means, formerly usual among the an-
cient heathen, did either altogether determine or much
decrease in many nations about the same time. For
which reasons the Romans of that age, being the only
wise men of the world, (given too much by nature
unto secular policy,) did give less credit to the rela-
tions of the ancient Greeks, or the events registered by
their ancestors in their own country. The like incre-
dulity remaineth in most of us, but may be easily re-
moved by discovering the root of it.

CHAP. XII.
The Reasons of our inistrustiug of Antiquities.
1. It is the common practice of men to measure mat-
ters of ancient times by observation of the limes and
place wherein they live ; as commonly we pass our
censure on other men's actions and intentions, accord-
ing to our own resolutions and secret purposes in like
cases. And besides this general occasion of mistaking
other men's actions, and events of other times, every
particular sort of men seek to assign causes of things
suitable unto their proper faculties. The natural phi-

(HAP. xu. The Reasons of our niislrustiiig of Antiquities. 75

losopher striveth to reduce all effects to matter and
form, or some sensible quality ; the mathematician, to
abstract forms or figures, or insensible influences ; the
politician thinks no alteration in public states or pri-
vate men's affairs falls out, but from some politic cause
or purpose of man : and whilst in the annals of anti-
quities he reads of sundry events surpassing the reach
or skill of man's invention, or contrary to the ordinary
course of nature, he attributes all unto the simplicity 42
or credulity of their ancestors. Albeit if we should
search the true cause of their credulity in yielding
assent unto such strange reports, it will easily confute
the error of posterity ; for this credulity in such parti-
culars, could not have been so great in their ancestors,
unless their minds had been first inclined to the gene-
ral, from the tradition of their predecessors. But why
their forefathers should either have invented such
strange reports, or be so inclinable to believe them ; if
we search into the depth or first spring of this per-
suasion, we cannot imagine any other cause, but the
real and sensible experience of such strange events as
they reported to posterity. Tiiis did enforce belief
upon the first progenitors of any nation ; and from the
fulness of this persuasion or actual belief in them, was
bred this credulity or aptness in posterity to believe
the like, which yet in success of time did by little and
little wear out. It is great simplicity and uncharitable
credulity in us, to think that either the most ancient
or middle ages of the world, were generally so siinple,
credulous, or apt to believe every thing, as some would
make them. It had been as hard a matter to have
persuaded men of those times that there were no gods,
no Divine power or providence, as it would be to per-
suade the modern atheists that there is an almighty
power which created all things, governeth and dis-

70 The Reasons of our mistrusting of Antiquities, book i.

poseth of all things to his glory. The most politic
atheist now alive is as credulous in his kind as the
simplest creature in the old world was ; and will yield
his assent unto the epicures' or other brutish philoso-
phers' conclusions, upon as light reasons as they did
their belief unto any fable concerning the power or
providence of the gods ; the reason of both their cre-
dulities in two contrary kinds is the same. The often
manifestation of an extraordinary power in battles,
or presence in oracles, and sensible documents of re-
venge from heaven, made the one prone to entertain
any report of the gods, though never so strange ; and
the want of like sensible signs or documents of the
same power in our days (whilst all men's minds are
still set upon politic means and practices for their own
good) doth make the other so credulous and apt to
assent to any politic discourse, and so averse from
belief of the prophets or sacred writers, which reduce
all effects to the First Cause. But this we cannot do so
immediately as the ancient did ; because God useth
his wisdom more in the managing of this politic world,
than he did in times of old ; and men naturally are
less apprehensive of his wisdom than of his power ;
so that his present ways are not so obvious at the first
sight unto sense as sometimes they were, though more
conspicuous to sanctified reason now at this day than
before, and the manner of his proceeding more apt to
confirm true belief in such as follow his prescripts,
than ever it was. For the same reason were the an-
cient Israelites more prone to idolatry than their suc-
cessors were, after the erection of the second temple,
or either of them were at any time to serve their God.
For the sensible signs and bewitching enticements of
some extraordinary jjowers, mistaken for Divine, were
then most common ; and God's wonders and miracles

CHAP. XII, The Ttcas(»)is of our mistrusting of Antiquities. 77

grew more rare, because they swerved from his com-
mandments. What Jew was there, almost, in the time
of the Maccabees, but would have given his body for
an holocaust, rather than sacrifice to any of the hea-
then gods ? the undoubted experience of long woe and
misery for their former idolatry made them so averse
from this sin. And the certain signs of the Messiah's
approach did support them from falling into atheism. 43
Such violence as these later willingly suffered at the
hands of heathen princes, rather than they would con-
sent unto idolatry, their forefathers in the wilderness
were as ready to offer unto Aaron, for not furthering
them in their idolatrous imaginations. So we read,
Exod. xxxii, when God had but for a while withdrawn
his extraordinary presence from them, and Moses, his
instrument in working miracles, had been but a short
time out of their sight ; they complain he tarried long,
and gather themselves together against Aaron, and
say unto him, Uj), and make us gods to go hejbre us ;
for of this Moses, the man that brought us out of the
land of Egypt, ive know not what is become of' him.
There was no danger lest they should turn atheists ;
this was a sin unknown in that age. And this people
had experience enough of extraordinary powers in
Egypt, which they took for gods. So far are they
from thinking there was no God that guides the
world, that they thought there were many ; and if one
did withdraw his presence, another might serve to
conduct them : one they must have, otherwise all help
of man was in vain. As Jannes and Jambres had
withstood Moses' miracles with their magic, so had
the devils their masters sought to work wonders
about the Egyptian idols, which did stupify the people.
For albeit their wonders were not so great as God's,
yet were they more delightful to their outward sense ;

78 The Reasons of our mistrusting of Antiquities, book r.

for their service for the most part was sport and play.
They were never dainty to shew their juggling tricks
for their own advantage ; always pliable to the hu-
mours and lusts of men ; whereas the omnipotent ma-
jesty of God would have all to frame their lives and
actions according to his written laws, which might
not be altered or misinterpreted at the pleasure of
men ; nor would he vouchsafe to work his miracles in
all ages, or unto such as were unworthy spectators of
them. Thus had Satan his oracles and sacrifices oft-
times better frequented than God had his : as in these
times, such preachers as will accommodate themselves
unto the people's humours are most frequented, but
such as hold this sin as sacrilege and dishonour to
their God, are despised and set at nought. And though
we may not mitigate Aaron's fault, nor diminish these
Israelites' transgression, (as their foolish posterity doth,)
by transferring the blame of this idolatrous fact upon
the magicians which followed the host of Israel out of
Egypt ; yet it is more than probable from the circum-
stance of the text, (besides the tradition of the ancient
Hebrews,) that there was some magical or demoniacal
skill practised in the sudden moulting of this Egyptian
god, whence this people's superstition towards it was
increased. i The heathen princes of those times were
no babies, as wary (we may presume) upon what occa-
sion to forego their children, as raisers are to part with
money: and yet these were wrested from them, and
their blood shed by their own hands, to pacify the
rage of powers then manifestly known for supernatu-
ral. But when both God's wonders grew rare, and
the Devil's tricks waxed scant, either by restraint from
above, or of their own free choice, as if by their long
continuance they had grown out of request ; they see
1 Plutarch de Defectu Oracul. p. 742. Ed. H. Steph.

CHAP. XIII. Of the Diversity of Events in different Ages. 79

it more boot to draw the politic world unto atheism,
which never did flourish until the rising of the Roman
monarchy. Unto this main inconvenience of the late
Romans, and other worldly wise men's distrust of
wonders past, this second mischief did accrue, that
sundry writers of those times did hold it a part of
their profession, to fill their books with such stuff as
they found in ancient stories, as if their histories or
poems had not been current, without as many parts or44
heads of invention as others had in former ages. And
this experience of counterfeit wonders meeting with
the want of experience of any true wonders of that
time, did concur as form and privation for the pro-
ducing of infidelity in men's minds already disposed to
this evil by secular policy. And these were enough to
carry our minds below the lowest degree of any cre-
dulity, or suspicion of truth in like reports, unless the
scripture did forewarn us of this guile and policy of
Satan, which we may the better prevent, if we dili-
gently observe, first, the difference of times and places;
secondly, how strange fables and lying wonders re-
ceive being from notable and admirable decayed truths,
as baser creatures do life, from the dissolution of more
noble bodies.

CHAP. XIII.

Of the Diversity of Events in different Ages.
1. The diverse characters of different times rightly
taken, give us as easy and perfect a crisis between the
fictions of later, and the true annals of former ages, as
out of ordinary discretion men usually make between
foolish travellers' reports of great wonders in Spain or
France, and the judicious records of uncouth sights
and strange events in the East and West Indies. And
we have altogether as little reason to deny either the
general truth of strange events recorded by the an-

80 Of the Dii'ers'id/ of Events i/i different Ages, book i.

cieut, or the prototypes of poetical inventions in for-
mer times, for the want of like experience in later, as
we have to discredit Benzos ^Martyrs, or other late
navigators' observations of the East and West Indies ;
because many who have travelled France, Spain, and
Italy, while they make true relations of their travels,
relate no such event as the Indies afford many. And
yet gulls, when they fly abroad, will relate (among such
as know them not) as strange matters of near adjoining
countries, as lie that hath compassed the utmost ends
of the world. Now it were a great folly to discredit
all late navigators for the absurdity of some few gulls,
and as great madness it weve to disparage all ancient
stories for the absurd and preposterous imitation of
later writers, against all experience of later times. For
diversity of times j'ields as great diversity of observa-
tions, as the diversity or distance of place; only this is
the difference — daily observation yields experiments of
this diversity in place, whereas the word of God alone,
which endures for ever, giveth us the sure rules and
grounds of alterations in the events of different ages.
And yet in many remote places lately made known
unto the inhabitants of Eui'ope, such strange events as
antiquity hath told us were sometimes frequent in
these countries which we now inhabit, are not at this
day altogether unusual. And the face of time is now
there muchwhat such as the ancient registers of times
have pourtrayed unto us ; as if the affairs and fashion
of this visible world were framed according to some
invisible patterns or supercelestial characters, which
varying their aspect in revolutions of time, did now
(by reflecting that force upon those remote countries,
M'hich they did on these near adjoining in times past)
produce the like shape and fashion of things there as
4o they have done here. And those places shall in time

CHAP. xiii. Of the Diversity of Events in different Ages. 81

come to the selfsame temper and disposition which we
now enjoy : and the posterity of such as now live
there shall hereafter suspect the undoubted stories of
our times concerning their ancestors, as we do many
ancient stories of Jewry, Syria, Asia, or our own coun-
tries, for want of like modern experiments in our land.

2. For the better rectifying of our assent, which
must be by the right balancing of credulity and mis-
trust, it shall not be amiss to consider, that, besides
these general diversities of times and places, particular
kingdoms and nations have their several ages propor-
tionable to infancy, youth, virility, and old age in men.
Nor is the period either of the whole age, or the seve-
ral parts thereof, one and the same in all, but varies in
divers kingdoms, as the course of life, or several ages,
do in divers men. Some kingdoms bear age well unto
a thousand ; some, to six hundred years : others break
and decay in half that time. Again, as in the course
of man's life diversity of ages requires divers manners
or conditions ; so, in the same people or nation some
events are usual, as best befitting them in that degree
of their growth which answers to youth or infancy,
which seldom or never fall out in that part of their
age which answers unto mature or old age in men,
because not convenient for their constitution then ;
and yet the want of like experience makes them as
distrustful and incredulous of what formerly had been,
as old men are forgetful of their own disposition or
temper in youth. Generally, when the fulness of any
nation's iniquity (wherein their decrepit age consisteth)
is come, they grow more and more incredulous : so as
they verify the Latin proverb concerning the disposi-
tion of old men : Nullus senex venerattir Jovem : more

true of states ; * u
' As they grow old,

Their zeal grows cold.

JACKSON, VOL. I. G

82 Of the Diversity of Evmts in different Ages, book i.

3. As the world was redeemed by Christ, so do
nations begin a new computation of their ages from
their admission to Christianity. Some were come to
youth or virility in that profession, before others were
born in Christ : as Asia and Africa, for the most part,
were Christians before Europe. Again, the ancient
inhabitants in some provinces had been Christians,
long before other people that afterward subdued them,
and lived in their countries : as the Britons in this
island had been long partakers of God's mercy in
Christ before the Saxons ; and the ancient Gauls be-
fore the Franks, which afterward seated themselves in
their habitations. Generally, miracles were usual in
the infancy of Christianity, as we read in ecclesiastical
stories : nor can it be certainly gathered when they
did generally cease. To say they endured no longer
than the primitive church, can give no universal satis-
faction, save only to such as think it enough for all
the world to have the light of the gospel locked up in
the chancel of some one glorious church : for some
churches were but in the prime or change, when others
were full of Christian knowledge. The use of miracles
at the same instant was befitting the one, not the other.
For God usually speaks to new-born children in Christ
by miracles or sensible declarations of his power, mercy,
or justice : as parents deter their children from evil in
46 tender years by the rod, or other sensible signs of
their displeasure ; and allure them to goodness with
apples, or other like visible pledges of their love : but
when they come to riper years, and are capable of
discourse, or apprehensive of wholesome admonitions,
they seek to rule them by reason. Proportionably to
this course of parents doth God speak to his church :
in her infancy, (wheresoever planted,) by sensible do-
cuments of his power ; in her maturity, by the ordin-

CHAP. XIII. Of the Diversity of Events in different Ages. 83

ary preaching of his word, which is more apt to ripen
and confirm true Christian faith than any miracles are,
so men would submit their reason unto the rules set
down in scripture, and unpartially examine all events
of time by them, as elsewhere, God willing, we shall
shew,

4. These grounds, well considered, will move any
sober spirit at the least to suspend his assent, and not
suffer his mind to be hastily overswayed with absolute
distrust of all such miracles, as either our writers
report to have been wrought in this our land at the
Saxons' first coming hither, or the French historiogra-
phers record in the first conversion of the Franks, or
in the prime of that church.

5. And the Franks and Saxons before their conver-
sion to Christianity were muchwhat of that temper,
in respect of their present posterity, as Greece was
of in Homer's, or Italy in the days of Romulus, in
respect of Cicero's or Plutarch's time : nor would I
deny but that admonitions by dreams were usual
amongst them, as they had been amongst the Eastern
nations.

And without prejudice to many noble patriots and
worthy members of Christ this day living in that
famous kingdom of France, I should interpret that
dream of Bassina"", queen unto Childerick the first, of
the present state of France : in which the last part of
that threefold vision is more truly verified than it
was ever in the lineal succession of Childerick and
Bassina, or any of the Merovingian or Carlovingian
families.

6. The vision was of three sorts of beasts ; the first.

See Aimoinus (aliter Anno- Francise Histor. printed in folio,
nius) de Gestis Francorum, lib. i^>i3. Hanoviae.
I. c. 7. et 8. in the f'orpus

G 2

84 Of the Diversity of Events in different Ages, book i.

lions and leopards ; the second, bears and wolves ; the
third, of dogs or lesser creatui'es, biting and devouring
one another. The interpretation which Bassina made
of it was registered certain hundred years ago : that
these troops of vermin or lesser creatures did signify
a people without fear or reverence of their princes, so
pliable and devoutly obsequious to follow the peers or
potentates of that nation in their factious quarrels,
that they should involve themselves in inextricable
tumults to their own destruction.

7. Had this vision been painted only with this gene-
ral notification, that it was to be emblematically un-
derstood of some state in Europe : who is he that can
discern a picture by the known party whom it repre-
sents, but could have known as easily that this was a
map of those miseries that lately have befallen France;
whose bowels were almost rent and torn with civil and
domestic broils ? God grant her closed wounds fall not
to bleed afresh again. And that her people be not so
eagerly set to bite and tear one another, (like dogs or
other testy creatures,) until all become a prey to wolves
and bears, or other great ravenous beasts ; which seek
not so much to tear or rent in heat of revenge, as lie
in wait continually to devour and swallow with un-
satiate greediness the whole bodies of mighty king-
doms, and to die her robes, that rides as queen of
monsters upon that many-headed beast, with streams
47 of blood that issue from the bodies squeezed and
crushed between their violent teeth ; yea, even with
the royal blood of kings and princes. Many such
examples of admonitions by dreams and other extra-
ordinary signs of future woe or calamities, both foretold
and fulfilled many hundred years since Bassina and
Childerick's days, I could bring, which might confii-m
the historical truth of the like mentioned in scriptures

CHAP. XIV. Of the orighml ami right Use of Poetry, &)C. 85

to any civil heathen, as they have enforced such as we
most suspect for atheists to acknowledge a Divine
power or providence in them. And I know not what
reason any professor of truth can have to deny the
like presignifications in later times upon extraordinary
occasions, or in some transmutations of kingdoms ; if
he have so much religion as not to doubt of Nebuchad-
nezzar's vision. But of such signs, (whether good or
ominous,) and of their lawful use, elsewhere. Of the
use of prophecies amongst the heathen and barbarous
people, and of that offence which soine take at such as
seem to give any credit to them, as if this M^ere against
the truth of scriptures, we may perhaps take occa-
sion to speak, when we come to unfold the divers
kinds of prophecies amongst the Jews with their inter-
pretations. Thus much may suffice for the removal
of that prejudice which atheists, infidels, and other
worldly-wise men have of their ancestors' credulity or
fabulosity, which were not incident to primary anti-
quity, but unto ages'in succession nearer to those times
wherein wonders had been plentiful : as commonly the
braggadocian humour doth haunt the degenerate race
of worthy ancestors, before their^ posterity come to be
sneaks or peasants, which in the race of private persons
answ^ers in proportion to infidelity, the common symp-
tom of decrepit age in kingdoms.

CHAP. XIV.

Of the original and right Use of Poetry, with the jManner of
its Corruption by later Poets.

1. The positive truth, which (in the removal of im-
pediments and offences) hath been made more than
probable in the former discourse, may yet be made
more evident from more particular observations con-
cerning the manner how monstrous fables have de-

G S

86 Of the original and right Use of Poetry j book i.

scended from true wonders : which will best appear
by setting down the original and right use of poetry.

2. A poet being (as his name imports) a maker,
according to the Latin proverb, is not made by art,
but framed to this Divine faculty by nature. Not that
any amongst the Romans became poets on a sudden :
but that many very fruitful wits in all other kinds of
learning, could not be forced by any industry, art, or
culture, to such a temper as was befitting this plant of
Eden, which groweth not in any modern breast with-
out more tender care and greater cherishing than any
other slip or branch of the tree of knowledge ; and yet
when all is done seldom comes to any proof, unless it
borrow grounds from the ancient : as tender plants
48 can hardly be removed from a better soil to a worse
without some of the earth wherein they naturally
grow. Were arts to begin anew, poetry, which was
the first and most common among the ancient, in all
probability would spring the last, and grow the slowest
amongst us. Their wits of old were not naturally or
generally better than ours : why then was the way to
Parnassus, which unto us, using all help of art and
imitation, is laborious and hard to ascend, so plain and
easy to them, without any guide or help ; all other
artificial learning being then either unknown or very
scant ? Such knowledge or observations as they had
or cared for, they knew not otherwise how to convey
unto posterity, than by poetical numbers and resem-
blances. He is a poet by nature (saith that excellent
poet and divine philosopher) " that is apt to be
ravished with the true and native beauty of such ob-
jects as are represented to his senses, and can express
his conceit by such pleasant resemblances, as often as
he shall have occasion to utter his mind in writing or
set speech." " This inclination or disposition is as the

CHAP. XIV. ^vith theMunnerof ila Corruption by later Poets. 87

ground or soil wherein poetry doth naturally grow,
whether in ancient or modern breasts ; but the ancient
had this advantage : the fashion of the world in their
times was more apt to ravish their thoughts with
admiration ; wonderful events were then frequent :
nor did their frequency abate, but rather increase won-
derment, because their variety was great, and the ap-
prehension of invisible or supernatural powers in them
usual. So that admiration was then enforced upon
men, and the breasts of such as diligently observed
these events, or were any way disposed by nature to
the faculty, were inspired with lively and sublimate
affections, apt to vent themselves in such poetical
phrase and resemblances as we cannot reach unto, un-
less we raise our invention by art and imitation, and
stir up admiration by meditation and study. And be-
cause neither our senses are moved with any extra-
ordinary effects of God's power, nor our minds bent to
observe the ways of his wisdom, so as we might be
stricken with true admiration of thein, we have fewer
good sacred poems than of any other kind. But as the
ancients' chief learning did consist of poetry, so the
excellency of their poetry was chiefly seen in the
proper and native subject of this faculty, that is, in
matters of sacred use or observation : whence the title
of vates did descend unto secular or profane poets,
which retained the number and manner of speech used
by the former.

3. That such as were vates indeed wei*e taught the
sublimity of speech by admiration of extraordinary
events, may be confirmed by the historical narrations
of the sacred story ; wherein poetical hymns or songs
are the usual consequents of strange or wonderful
events. As, Judges v, after the victory gotten over
Sisera, Then sang Dehorah and Sarah the son of

G 4

88 Of the original or right Use of Poetry ; book i.

Abinoam, the same day, saying. Praise ye the Lord,
&c. So likewise Hannah, after the Lord had heard her
prayer, and taken away her barrenness, burst out into
the like poetical hymn, 1 Sam. ii. So did the blessed
virgin upon her cousin Elizabeth's salutation, and
John Baptist springing in her womb, take up her
song, Luke i. 46, 3Iy soul doth magnify the Lord, &cc.
So doth Zachary, John Baptist's father, take up his
prophecy, Luke i. 68. and Simeon, Luke ii. 28. So
likewise after the manifestation of God's wonders in
49 the Red sea, all his people (as if they had been baptized
in a sacred Helicon) presently turn poets, Exod. xv. 1.
And again, Numb. xxi. after they had returned to
Beer, the well which Moses had opened out of the hard
rock with his rod, Israel (as if they had washed their
mouths in Hippocrene) had their voices tuned to an
high strain of poetry ; The7i Israel sang this song,
Rise up, well; sing ye unto it : the princes digged this
well, the captains of the people digged it, even with
their staves.

4. That the frequent use of poetry among the an-
cient heathen did arise from like occasions, may be
gathered from Strabo^ ; who from antiquity, better
known to him than us, avoucheth it as unquestionable
that all other set speech, whether historical or rheto-
rical, was but the progeny of poetry, falling in latter
times from its wonted state and dignity ; whereas the
ancients knew no other branch of artificial or set
speech, but only poetry. Albeit to speak properly,
it was (in respect of the efficient or impulsive causes)
rather superartificial, than natural or artificial ; and
rhetoric and history only artificial. This opinion will
not seem strange, if we consider that the wiser sort in
those times did commend such matters only to writing
s Strabo, lib. i. fol. 15.

CHAP. XIV. with the Manner of its Corruption by laterPoets. 89

as might inflame posterity with devotion and love of
virtue. For poetry, as the same author tells us, was
accounted by antiquity prima qucedam philosophia, a
kind of sacred moral philosophy, appropriated, as it
seems, at the first, to the relation or representation of
supernatural events or Divine matters only ; of which
the most ancient had best experience, and were im-
pelled to communicate them to posterity, elevated (as
is observed before) by the excellency of the object, to
this celestial kind of speech, which is most apt to ra-
vish younger wits, as itself was bred of admiration.
This use of poetry appears in some fragments of most
ancient poets, in their kind proportionable to the book
of Psalms, of Job, and the songs of Moses, the only
pattern of true poesy ; whose subjects, usually, are the
wonderful works of God manifested unto men. Some
degenerate footsteps of these holy men, the heathen,
about Homer's time, did observe ; using their poets and
musicians for planting modesty and chastity amongst
other virtues in their auditors. * So Agamemnon left
the musical poet as guardian to Clyternnestra, who
continued chaste and loyal until i^gisthus got the poet
conveyed into an uninhabited island. For this reason
was poetry" taught children first throughout the Gi'e-
cian cities, as Moses had commanded the Israelites to
teach their children his divine poem, Deut. xxxi. 19,
and xxxii. 46. And they much wrong that divine
philosopher that think he was any further an enemy

* {(f>pe(Ti yap Ke\prjT dya-

Hap yap er)V kcil doihoi dvrjp, <a

TToXX' eVeVeXXfi'
'Arpfidrji, Tpolrjv8( kiwv e'ipvcrBai

AXX ore 5)j piv fMoipa deS>v intbrjcre
dapfjvai.

Arj Tore tov pev doihbv ayatv is vr)-

(Tov ipr)pr)V
'KaWintv olmvo'imv i\(ap Ka\ Kvppa

yevfcrdaf

Trjvd edeXaiv idekovaav dvr)yayev ovbe
dopovbe. Horn. Odys. [r. 266.]
1 Strabo, lib. i. fol. 15.
X Plat. lib. X. de Repub.

90 Of the original and right Use of Poetry ; book i.

unto the sacred faculty, than only to seek the reforma-
tion of it, by reducing it to its first natural use, which
was not mere delight, as Eratosthenes dreamed, right-
ly taxed by Strabo^ for this error. That might per-
haps be true of the comical Latin poets ;

^ Poeta qiium jjrirnwn animum ad scribendum appulit.
Id sibi negoti credidit solum dari,
Populo ut placerent qiias fecisset Fabulas.

When first the poet bent his wits to write,
The only mark lie aim'd at was delight.

50 Which notwithstanding had neither been the only
nor chief use ; no end at all, but rather an adjunct of
poetry amongst the ancient ; by the wiser and better
sort of whom nothing was apprehended, at least ap-
proved as truly delightful, which was not also honest
and of jirofitable use for bettering life and manners.
The law of nature being then less defaced, they could
read it without spelling, and comprehend all the three
elements of goodness jointly under one entire conceit,
as we do the product of divers letters or syllables in
one word, without examination of their several value
apart. But when the union of this Trinity, wherein
the nature of perfect goodness consists, was once dis-
solved in men's hearts, and delight had found a
peculiar issue without mixture of honesty or utility ;
the desire of becoming popular poets did breed the
bane of true poesy ; and those sacred numbers, which
had been as amulets against vice, became incentives
unto lust. Or if we would but search the native use
of poetry by that end which men not led awry by
hopes of applause, or gain, or other external respects,
but directed rather by the internal impulsion of this
faculty, and secret working of their souls, do aim at ;
y [Ibid.] z [Terence, Andrise Prologus.]

CHAP, xiv.zoi/h the Manner of its Corruption by later Poets, 91

it principally serves for venting extraordinary affec-
tions. No man almost so dull, but will be poetically
affected in the subject of his strongest passions. As
we see by experience, that where the occasions either
of joy for the fortunate valour, or sorrow for the mis-
haps of their countrymen or alliance are most rife,
this disposition is both most pregnant and most com-
mon. And as speech or articulation of voices in general
was given to man for communicating his conceits or
meaning unto others ; so poetry, the excellency of
speech, serves for the more lively expressing of his
choicer conceits, for beautifying his darling thoughts
or fancies, which almost disdain to go abroad in other
than this exactly proportioned attire, the soul's wooing
suits, (if I may so speak,) whereby she wins others to
sympathize with her in abundance of grief, or to con-
sent with her in excessive joy, or finally to settle their
admiration or dislike where she doth hers. And the
more strange or wonderful the matter conceived or to
be represented is, the more pleasant and admirable
will the true and natural representation of it be ; and
the more he that conceives it is ravished with delight
of its beauty or goodness, the more will he long to
communicate his conceit and liking of it to others.
Whence such as had seen the wonders of God, and
had been fed with his hidden manna, sought by their
lively and hearty representations to invite others, as
the Psalmist doth, to taste and see the goodness qf the
Lord^, as birds and beasts, when they have found
pleasant food, call (on their fashion) unto others of the
same kind to be partakers with them in their joy :
until Satan, who hunts after the life of man, as man
doth after the life of birds, did invent his counterfeit

a Psalm xxiv. 8.

92 Of the original and right Use of Poetry ; book i.

calls to allure our souls into his snare. For when men
had once taken a delight in the natural representation
of events delightful in themselves, he stirred up others
to invent the like, albeit there were no real truth or
stability in the things represented, and the manner of
representation usually so light and affected, as could
argue no credence given by the authors to their own
report, but rather a desire to please such as had never
set their minds to any inquisition of solid truth, whose
unsettled fancies cannot choose but fall in love with as
51 many fair pictures of others' pleasant imaginations as
are presented to them. For as to view the connexion
of real causes with their effects, (most of all, if both be
rare, or the concurrence of circumstances unusual,) doth
much affect the judicious understanding; so the quaint
or curious contrivance of imaginary rarities set forth
in splendent artificial colours, doth captivate the fancies
of such as are not established in the love of truth.
But (as the orator said of such as applauded the tra-
gedy of Pylades and Orestes) how would such men's
souls be ravished, could they upon sure grounds be
persuaded that these stories were true, albeit devoid of
artificial colours or poetical contrivances never used by
sacred antiquity? in whose expression of wonders the
phrase is usually most poetical, as naturally it will
always be, where the mind is much affected ; their in-
vention less artificial or affected than our historical
narrations of modern affairs ; the character of their
style (as was intimated before) doth argue that they
sought only to set down the true proportion of matters
seen and heard, with such resemblances as were most
incident to their kind of life. And from the efficacy
of such extraordinary effects upon their souls, is it that
the prophets so often express the same things in diverse
words, as if all they could say could not equalize the

CHAP.xiv. with the Manner of itsCorniption by later Poets. 93

sensible experiments which did move their hearts and
fancies (as the musician's hands or breath doth his
instruments) to sound out such pathetical ditties. Nor
had their ditties any greater disproportion with their
subject, than our songs of famous victories have with
theirs, or other passionate ditties with their composers'
affections : albeit he that hath experience of love, or
abundant grief or joy, will speak in another dialect
than ordinarily he useth, without any touch of affecta-
tion.

5. Hence we may clearly discern, whilst wonders
decayed, and men sought as great delight in feigned,
as their forefathers had done in true representations ;
how the disproportion betwixt representations and the
real events, or experiments of the times wherein the
later poets lived, became so monstrous and prodigious.
This fell out just so as if the armourers of this age
should not observe the stature of men now living, but
fashion their armour by old Guy of Warwick's har-
ness ; or our painters not look upon the bodies of
modern Englishmen, but take their proportions from
some ancient pictures, which had been truly taken
about some thousand years ago, in some other coiuitry
that had yielded men of more ample stature in that
age than this land of ours did in any. Such an error
as this, which we have mentioned in poetry, would
quickly have been reformed in any other faculty that
had concerned men's temporal profit or commodities,
or whereof others had been as competent judges as the
professors ; for so, when they had begun to wander
or digress a little from their right end, they should
presently have been called to this account ; Qtiid ad
rem f your work may be pretty, but not to our pur-
pose. But when such admirable events, as were well
worth poetical expression, decreased, and worldly cares

94 Of the origmal and right Use of Poetry ; book i.

did multiply as men increased ; the Divine art of poetry,
which admits not many competent judges in any age,
was counted no better than a matter of mere delight
or recreation ; and for this reason the prodigious re-
presentations of it, so monstrously disproportionable to
52 the truth represented, (because ofttimes more pleasant
to men wearied with other studies or employments
than the bare narration of the truth.) were never re-
formed. And so at length that audacious licentiousness
of fictions, for moving delight, did in the judgment of
posterity disparage the very patterns or prototypes
of poetical representations whereunto later poems had
been framed : as many tall fellows in this present age,
if they should see the true image or picture of some
ancient giants, would swear that the painter had
played the poet ; were it not that the dead bodies or
limbs of some ancient people, lately digged out of the
ground, did by their unusual bigness teach us to esti-
mate (as we say) ex pede Herciilem, how great others
might have been, whose big limbs and bones have not
come unto this age's sight.

6. But most of these strange events were such as
did continue no longer than while they were a-doing,
wherefore we must seek out the true proportion of
these heavenly bodies by their shadows, represented in
the later profane poets. The original and manner
of whose digression from the patterns of the ancient
Divine poets, or rather from Divine truth, the pattern
of ancient poetrj' itself, was partly as you have heard,
partly as folio weth.

7. God's wonderful works have been more plenteous
in Asia than in other parts of the world, more plen-
tiful in Judjea and the regions about it than in other
parts of Asia, most plentiful in them about the Israel-
ites' deliverance out of Egypt. In that time, and in

CHAP. XIV. with the Manner of its Corruption hy later Poets. 95

the ages before, or immediately succeeding it, artificial
learning was very scant, and characters either not in-
vented or their use very rare in most places. The
fresh memory of such wonders presupposed, the lively
image either of such licentiousness in coining fables, or
confounding true histories with the mixture of false
and unnatural circumstances, (as these wants every
where in all times naturally breed,) we may clearly be-
hold in the modern Turks ^, who are as abundant in
prodigious fables as defective in good learning ; and
for want of printing or neglect of writing, have no per-
fect character of the world's fashion in times past, nor
any distinct order of former events. It is but a petty
solecism among them to affirm, that Job the Hushite
was chief justice, and Alexander the Great, lieutenant
general unto king Solomon.

8. The like confusion of times and places might be
more incident unto the Asiatic nations before Alexan-
der's time, because their ancestors had been acquainted
with more strange events latelier forepast than the
modern Turks are. Now always the more strange
the events be, the more ready they be to mount upon
the wings of fame ; and once so mounted, the more apt
to receive increase in every circumstance, and vary
their shape whilst they fly only from mouth to mouth
in the open air, not fashioned or limited at their first
birth, by some visible character or permanent stamp
set upon them.

9. From this vicinity of true wonders in Jewry, or
thereabouts, were the Medes, Persians, and Syrians,

^ Nullum habent Turcae tern- gistrum Curise fuisse Jobum ;

j)orum neque iptatum rationenij ejus exercitus praefectum Alex-

mireque historias omnes miscent andrum Magnum ; aut his etiam

et confundunt : cum iis in men- absurdiora. Busbequius, Epist.

tem veniet, non verebuntur af- i. [p. 59.]
firuiare, Regis Solomonis Ma-

96 Of the original and right Use of Poetry, Sfc. book i.

so much addicted to fabulous narrations, that their
deh'ght in such traditions did make their later writers
ambitious in the skill of coining wonders, as Strabo
tells us. And Greece, as it received artificial learning
first from Asia, so did it drink in this humour with it.
For the traditions of God's miracles in Jewry, and the
53 regions about it, having been far spread when Greece
began first to tattle in artificial learning, the Grecians
(always children in true antiquity, as the Egyptian
priest told one of their philosophers) were apt to coun-
terfeit the form of ancient truths, and misapply it to
unseemly matters or foolish purposes ; as children will
be doing that in homelier stuff, which they see their
elders do in better. Finally, the same humour which
yet reigns amongst men, might possess most of the
heathen. There is no famous event that falls out
(though it be but a notable jest) but in a short time is
ascribed to a great many more than have any affinity
with it. As many of Diogenes' conceits have been
fathered upon Tarleton : and what the Christians say
of St. George, the Turks ascribe to Chederley*^. If it
be any story concerning wayfaring men, every hostler,
tapster, or chamberlain will tell you that it fell out in
their town, or in the country thereabouts. And though
you hear it in twenty several places, yet shall you
have always some new tricks of addition put upon it.
In like manner did the reports of sundry events, which
either fell out only in Jewry, or upon occasion of God's
people, fly about the world, sometime with cut and
mangled, but most usually with enlarged, artificial
wings, as if the same had been acted every where, or
the like invented upon every occasion.

c Strabo, lib. xi. fol. 507.

<1 Or, Chederles ; Busbequius, Epist. i. [p. 58.]

cnAi'. XV. Of some parfinilar Fables resembling 8fc.

97

CHAP. XV.

Of some particular Fables resembling some trne Stories of the

Bible.

1. To draw some instances from the first fountain. The
well of Beer^ mentioned before, did prefigure Christ, the
Rock and Fountain, whence issue streams of waters
imto eternal life. And that sacred poetical spirit, which
now possessed them, was as a prcBliidium to those
hymns and songs uttered by Christ's apostles and his
disciples, when the Spirit of God was poured upon
them after Christ's glorification. Neighbour countries,
amongst whom the fame of this event was spread,
might easily hence take occasion to ascribe the effect
unto the well. And hence had Greece her Helicon,
and others (by her) reputed sacred wells, whose waters
drunk did make men poets on a sudden. Besides that
the opportunity of such places as Helicon and Par-
nassus were, did dispose men's minds unto this faculty,
the demoniacal spirits, which for this reason would
frequent the same, might inspire such with poetical
fury as did observe their rites and ceremonies, coun-
terfeiting the spirit of Uivine prophecies, as they had
done God's voice in oracles. Who can doubt, if he
compare both stories, but that the fable of Hippocrene
or Aganippe in Boeotia, so called because digged by
an horse's foot, as poets feign, did take beginning
from the story of this sacred well which Moses digged
with his rod ; and (as the Israelites have a tradition)
the princes afterwards, with their staves? And the
Phoenicians which followed Cadmus into Europe, are
made such wanderers by the poets as the Israelites
were in the wilderness : and Cadmus himself, the
founder of Hippocrene or Aganippe, amongst other of
his inventions, is said to have been the first that taught 5^

e Numb. xxi.
KsoN, vor.. I. H

98 Of some particular Fables resembling book i.

Greece the use of letters, or that wrote histories in
prose ; and in one word, another Moses. The fiery
serpents, which stung the Israelites murmuring for
want of water, might grow in short time to be dra-
gons ; and hence, as it is most likely, are Cadmus'
companions said to be slain by a dragon, whilst they
sought for water ^ The sun, as we read in the story
of Joshua, at his prayer once stood still in the vale of
GibeonS. The occasion is in the same place specified,
that Joshua might have a day of the Amorites ; such
a day as was never before it nor shall be after it. This
strange miraculous event the heathen people of those
times had noted, and delivered it by tradition unto
their posterity ; who after the manner of this world
sought to assign some causes of it. The poets in ages
following ascribe it (with some additions) unto that
unnatural prodigious murder which Atreus had com-
mitted ; and for aught we know, besides the reasons
specified in sacred writ, God might use this, partly as
a means to make Greece and other countries, that
should hear of Atreus' bloody fact, stand amazed at
such foul impiety, whereat the heavens did blush, and
the sun stood still. The times of Atreus his fact, and
Joshua his victory, come near to one point, if Statins
the i)oet be not far out in his chronology. For he tells
us, that this horrible fact of Atreus was committed
about the time of the Theban war ; for which reason
the Mycenae, amongst other good neighbours, did not
aid king Adrastus and his Argives against the The-
bans.

Milite I'icincB imllo juvere BlycencB.

Fiinerea dnm namqiie dopes, mediigue recursus

Solis; et hinc alii miscehant prcctia fratres^.

^ Numb. xxi. 6. Ovid. Met. S Josh. x. 13.
1. 3. fab. I. vel 2. h [Thebaid. lib. 4. 1. 306.]

CHAP. XV.

some Stories in the Bible.

95)

Their Mycene neighbours only send no aid,
Their tragic cheer had bred such bloody broils.

Whose direful sight the blushing sun had staid,
Whilst fierce I'evenge in heart of brothers boils.

2. And some chronologers, whose skill in this faculty
and other good literature I especially reverence, refer
the siege of Troy to the time of Judges, or age fol-
lowing Joshua ; whereas the Theban war was in the
age before : for Tydeus, father unto Dioniedes, (who
was one of the greatest sticklers against Troy,) was
one of the greatest chieftains in the Theban war.

3. From the forementioned humour of seeking to
play the poets or painters in adorning true stories, or
of vain curiosity in inventing the like ; we may easily
conjecture what variety of reports would in that
temper of the world be extant of Samson's consecrated
hair, wherein his inconquerable strength, as the sacred
story tells us, did consist'. Let Dalilah, Samson's wife,
be but mistaken for his daughter; (as few reports of
foreign or forepast matters but vary as much in some
circumstance or other;) and for Samson and Dalilah
you have the famous legend Nisus and Scylla. This
mistake was very easy. For such as heard of Dalilah's
treacheiy, without any particular certainty of that cir-
cumstance, whether she were his daughter or wife,
might justly suspect that she was his daughter, one
that wanted an husband, doting upon some foreigner
who)n she hoped to win unto her love by this practice.
Or perhaps Scylla had beti'ayed her father Nisus, upon
hope of satisfying her lust; and Ovid (with other 55
poets) having heard of like practice, did stage-play-like
put Samson's hair upon Nisus his head ; as usually
the Grecian poets have borrowed their best stage attire
from the glorious wardrobe of Israel. Other circum-

• Judg. xvi. I J, 1 8.
H 2

100

Of some pari kill (I r Fdbles reseinlAing book i.

stances of this story are very like ; save only that
Ovid*^ feigns Nisus his unvanquishable fortune to have
been seated in one hair, which was of the colour of his
costly robes.

■ Cui splendidus astro

Inter honoratos medio de vertke canos
Crhiis inhcerelxtf, magiii fidiicia regni.

One scarlet bright, amids the ranks of white and reverend
hairs,

He had, whereon did hang the hope and hap of his affairs.

But Samson's strength was in his locks, as he told
Dalilah^; There never came razor upon my head ; for
I am a Naxarite unto God from my mother's womb :
therefore f I he shaven, my strength will go from me,
and I shall he weak, and be like all other men. For
the means and opportunities whereby Dalilah did, and
Scylla is feigned to have compassed her intended trea-
son, they are the very same. Dalilah, as it is said,
made Samson sleep upon her knee, and she called a
man, and made him to shave the seven locks of his
head ; and so Ovid brings in Scylla, taking the like
opportunity of her father's sleep ;

Prima quies aderat ; qua curis fessa diurnis
Pectora sommis habcf. Thalamos tacitiiriia paternos
Tntrat : et (/leu faciims !) fatali nata purentem
Crine simm spoliat^^.

First sleep was come, and weary limbs were at their sweet
repose.

When she unto her fatlier's bed in sliest silence goes :
But let no silence cloke her shame, (O detestable theft !)
Her father of his fatal hair the daughter hath bereft.

4. Not much greater variety is there between the
story of Lot's wife's transformation into a pillar of

^ Ovid. Metam. 1. 8. fab. i. [1. S.j ' Judges xvi. 17. '■' [v. 83.]

CHAP. XV.

some Stories in the Bible.

101

salt, and Niobe's into a stone". The poets feign that
Niobe was transf'orined upon her grief for death of
her children : and the Jews have a tradition, that
Lot's wife was overtaken with that hideous shower of
fire and brimstone, whilst she stayed behind her hus-
band to see what would become of her friends and her
kinsfolk which remained in Sodom. And it is proba-
ble out of that chapter", that Lot's sons-in-law re-
mained in Sodom, and likely their wives too, Lot's
other daughters. For so it is saidP, (not without em-
phasis in the original,) TaJee thy wife, and thy two
daughters, which are J'onnd, or, (as the Chaldee Para-
phrase,) which are found faithful with thee; (that is,
which are not corrupt by conversing with others
abroad;) lest thou he destroyed with others in the pun-
ishment of this city. Whether this tradition of the
Jews be true or no, it makes little for my present pur-
pose. Very ancient it is, and whether true or false,
might give occasion to the former fable, as other stories
of the Bible do sometimes the rather, because the sense
is mistaken. As the common opinion is that Lot's wife
was transformed into a jMlar of salt, when as no cir-
cumstance of the text doth enforce so much, but rather
leaves us free to think, what is more probable, that
fearful showers of God's vengeance, wherewith Sodom
was destroyed, were heaped upon her, so that her body
was wrapt up in that congealed matter, which was
perhaps in forin like to some thunderstone, or the like,
from which it could not be discerned, being as it were
candied in it.

5. If such a transformation of Lot's wife seem
strange, what will the atheist say unto the destruction
of Sodom and the five cities ? Or if this seem more

" Ovitl. Met. 1. 6. fab. 3. aliis 4. " Gen. xix. 14. p Verse 15.

H 3

102 Of some particular Fables resemblvig Sfc. hook i.

strange and incredible, because their destruction vanish-
eth whilst they perished, what can he say to the salt sea?
Doubtless, unless God had left this as a lasting monu-
ment to confute the incredulity of philosophers by an
ocular and sensible demonstration, they would have de-
nied the truth of this effect, as well as they doubt of the
cause which the scriptures assign of it. Is the violence
of that storm, which destroyed the five cities, strange,
and above the force of nature ? so is the quality of
that sea, and the soil^i about it, contrary to the nature
of all other seas, or inland lakes. And let the most
curious philosopher in the world give any natural
cause of it ; and the disproportion between the cause
and the known effect will be more prodigious in na-
ture, than the cause M'hich Moses gives of it is strange.
Some cause, by their confession, it must have ; and
though the storm were raised by a supernatural power,
yet admitting the violence of it to be such as the scrip-
ture tells us, and the fall of so much durable matter,
no cause can be conceived, so probable in nature, as
that which Moses gives ; as out of the grounds of phi-
losophy, and divers experiments in nature, I could
easily prove. But Strabo'', that great philosopher, and
no credulous antiquary, hath eased me of this labour.
For albeit he held the Syrians for a fabulous people ;
yet the evident marks of God's wrath, that had been
kindled in that place, (as concavities made by fire,

q Haud procul inde campi,
quos fenint olim uberes niagiiis-
que urbibus habitatos, fulmiiium
jactu arsisse^ et manere vestigia,
terramque specie torridain, vim
f rugiferam perdidisse; nam cuncta
spoiite edita, aut mami sata, sive
herba teiius aut tiore, sen solitam
in speciem adolevere, atra, et
inania velut in cinerem vanes-

cunt. Ego sicut Judaicas quon-
dam urbes igne coelesti tlagrasse
concesserim, ita halitu lacus infici
terram,corrunipi superfusum spi-
rituni, ecque fcetus segetum et
autumni putrescere reor, sole,
coeloque juxta gravi. Tacitus,
lib. v. Hist. [cap. 7.]
»■ Strabo, 1. 16. p. 764.

CJIAP. XVI. Of Noalis mid Deucaliun s Flood.

103

distillation of pitch out of the seared rocks, the noisome
smell of the waters thereabouts, with the relics and
ruins of the ancient habitations,) made the tradition of
neighbour inhabitants seem probable unto him ; that
there had been thirteen populous cities in that soil, of
which Sodom was the chief, whose circumference then
remaining was sixty furlongs. But (as the custom is
of secular philosophers) he seeks to ascribe the cause
of this desolation rather unto earth than heaven, and
thinks the lake was made by an earthquake which
had caused the bursting out of hot waters, whose
course was \\])on sulphur and brimstone. And it is
not unlikely that the earth did tremble whilst the
heavens did so terribly frown, and the Almighty gave
his fearful voice from out the clouds : and once having
opened her mouth to swallow up those wicked inhabit-
ants, the exhalations of whose sins had bred these
storms, became afterwards a pan or receptacle of moist-
ure, infecting all the waters which fell into it with
the loathsome qualities of those dregs of God's wrath
which had first settled in it ; as bad humours, when
they settle in any part, plant, as it were, a new nature
in the same, and turn all nutriment into their sub-
stance.

CHAP. XVI. 57

Of NoafCs and Deucalion'' s Flood, with other iniscellane Ob-

servatio7is.

1. Not any son so like his natural father, as Deuca-
lion's flood is like Noah's. Every schoolboy, from
the similitude of their substance, at the first sight can
discern the one to be the bastard brood of the other ;
albeit Ovid, from whom we have the picture of the
one, hath left out and added divers circumstances at
his pleasure ; which assures me that he had never read
the sacred story, (as some thiidi he did,) but took up

H 4

104

Of Xuali's and Deiuatioiis Flood. book i.

the confused tradition of it, which had passed through
many hands before his time : for other poets which
had come to Plutarch's^ reading, though not to ours,
make mention of Deucalion's ark, his dove's returning
to him again before the water's fall, his prognostica-
tion of the water's decrease by her ])erpetual absence
at her last setting out. This tradition was so com-
monly received in Greece, that some etymologists think
the famous hill Parnassus did take its name from the
ark's abode upon it, as if it had first been called Lar-
nassus ^ These are sure testimonies that such a flood
had been : but that in Deucalion's time any such had
been, or that the ark did stay in Greece, hath no show
of truth. See St. Augustine, De Civit. Dei, lib. 18. cap.
10. et L.Vives.

2. If Trogus Pompeius' works had come entire into
our hands, or had they light upon a more skilful and
sincere epitomist than Justin, we should have found
more evident prints of the story of Noah's flood, in
that controversy between the Scythians and Egypt-
ians ; whether were the most ancient people : as Justin
relates it, lib. 2. [cap. 1.] thus it was.

3. The Egyptians thought the heavens over them
had been in love with their soil, and that from the
conjunction of the one's mildness with the other's fer-
tility, the first people of the world had been brought
forth in Egypt. The Scythians alleged it was most
probable that their country was first inhabited, because
if fire had shut up the womb of their mother earth,
this element did forsake theirs first, as being the cold-
est country: or if water had covered the face of nature,

* Pint, de Solertia Aniinalium. yeveo-dai xeifiavos fxkv, fttrto iraKiv

[\'ol. ii. p. 96S.] Oi fiiv ovv ixv6o- ivhvo)X(VrjV. evdias 8e, tiTTonTaaav.

Xoyoi Tu> Ka\i(t>vt (paai Treplarepav ' 'Atto r^s XdpvaKOs, which word

tK Trjs XdpvaKos a(pi(ixevr}v, drjXcofjia Plutarch useth in that place.

CHAP. XVI. Of Nod/i's and Deucalioii's Flood.

105

and made it unapt for conception by too much moist-
ure, this veil was first put off in Scythia, as being the
highest part of the inhabited land. Unto these reasons
of the Scythians the Elgyptians yielded, as Justin re-
ports. Both of them erred in tiie manner of man's
propagation ; both again held a general truth, in
thinking mankind had some late propagation, and that
kingdoms had not been so frequented with people in •
former generations as now they were. The Scythians
agreed herein with scripture, that the higher parts of
the world which they inhabited, or parts near unto
them, were first dried up from the waters ; for in the
mountains of Armenia the ark stayed, and Noah went
first on land in that country. The story of whose
preservation in this deluge, and the propagation of
mankind from him and his children, not being ex-
pressly recorded to the Scythians, they imagine that
men had grown like mushrooms after rain, because
they had been so few, and now were come unto such 58
great multitudes. Nor did Noah only go first on land
in Armenia", but his posterity had their habitation in
the mountainous countries, until their multitude caused
them to seek more room ; as we may gather Gen. xi.
1, 2. Then the whole earth ivas oj' one language and
one speech. And as they ivent from the east, (that is,
from Armenia,) they found a plain in the land of
Shinar; and there they abode. Some broken traditions
of this truth might cause the ancient Scythians to
stand upon their pantofles, and plead priority of nature
frou) superiority of place. And this conceit of antiquity

" Tres vero Noe filii Senuis, dis, iiec audentibus a celsiore

Japhetus, et Clianias centum loco desceiidere, idem faciendi

aiiiiis ante diluvium nati, primi autores et exemplum fuere. Jo-

relictis montibus planitiem habi- seph. lib. i. Antiq. cap. 5. [aliis

tare coeperuut, et aliis recenti cap. 4. p. 18.]
etiam turn cladis niemoria pavi-

10() Of Noalis mid Deucalion s Flood. book i.

being propagated to posterity, they seek to fortify their
title to it (called in question) by such reasons as were
alleged before. And even in these their reasons, though
false in particular, there appears a certain general
glimpse of Divine truth : for in that they take it as
granted that either fire or water had stopped the course
of nature, this is an infallible argument that they had
heard of the dominion allotted by fate to those two
elements over other bodies ; albeit they did not rightly
apprehend the manner of the world's destruction by
them, nor whether's course was first passed. This tra-
dition of the world's destruction by fire and water, and
the distinction of their courses, (though not so plainly
revealed in the Old Testament,) had come more dis-
tinctly to Ovid's hand ^ ; who bringeth in Jupiter, re-
solving to plague the old world rather by water than
fire, because it was to have a fatal dissolution by fire :

Esse quoqne in Fads reminiscilnr uffore tempiis,
Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia coeli
Ardeat ; et mundi moles operosa lahoret. Ver. 256.
He calls to mind the day would come, (for Fates had set
the same,)

When sea and land, heavens, elements, and all this mun-
dane frame

Should sweat with heat, and melt as wax before the fearful
flame.

4. The Egyptians likewise had many reasons why
they might justly think themselves a very ancient
people, and those not dissonant unto scripture ; which
witnesseth Egypt to have been a mighty kingdom,
every way better replenished than any other country
that we can read of in times so ancient ; first possessed
by Mizraim, the son of Cham, by whose name it is

Met. 1. I. fab. 7. [line 253.] forte sacer tot ab ignibus aether
Janique erat in totas sparsurus Conciperet Hamnias, totusque ar-
fulmina terras j Sed. timuit, ne desceret axis.

cHAi'. XVI. Of Nvah's and Deucalion's Flood. 107

continually called by the sacred writers, as well the
prophets and late historiographers as by Moses ; and
in the Eastern languages bears that name until this
day, as Mercerus^ tells us. This Mizraiin also did
propagate sundry particular nations in short time, as
we find registered Gen. x. 13, 14. All which might
make for the Egyptians' conceit of their antiquity.
And albeit the old Canaanites were as ancient and
populous a nation (though not so united in a king-
dom) as the Egyptians; yet, before these altercations
arose, or (at least) before any other people took no-
tice of them, their posterity was rooted out by the
Israelites, who though they came in the others' place,
yet came not into competition with the Egyptians for
antiquity in the judgment of any heathen writer; be-
cause the Israelites were no people till the time that
Egypt was one of the mightiest nations upon earth ;
and the heathen being ignorant, (as making little reck-
oning of their original,) took them for a colony of the 59
Egyptians, as appears by Strabo^ who in recompense
of this his error hath elsewhere acquainted us with
another experiment, which may confirm the antiquity
of Moses' story concerning Shem's posterity.

Moses tells us, Gen. x. 23, that Aram, son of Shem,
and brother to Ashur, had Uz, and Chul, and Mash
unto his sons. The Aramites no question had their
name and propagation from Aram. Some think the
Arabians, or other countries about Idumsea, or both,
had their original from Uz : others, that the Massiani
in Arabia were so called of Mash : Josephus, that the
Armenians were the progeny of Chul. Consonant to
all these opinions is Strabo his observation'' of these

y Com. in Gen. cap. lo. v. 6.
Vid. et Josephuni, lib. i. Antiq.
cap. 7. [aliis 6. p. 22.]

^ Lib. 16. [p. 760.]
^ Sed scripturani mutare cum
sit vetusta, non est necesse ; ciil'

108

Of Noah's und Dencalioji's Flood.

BOOK I.

people ; whom the Grecians call Syrians, the Syrians
themselves call Arama?ans ; and his collection is, that
the Armenians and the Erembi (that is, the ancient
Arabians) have taken their denomination from the
same name, a little varied (as the custom is) by con-
tinuance of time and variety of dialect. That these
three nations did all proceed from one stock, he gathers
from the similitudes and perfect resemblances of their
nature, customs, and manner of life.

5. But for the first habitation or antiquity of Ar-
menia or Scythia it skills not much. That mankind
had a new propagation about the time assigned by
Moses of the universal flood, and that the nations were
propagated from those regions which Moses tells us
were allotted to the sons of Noah, and inhabited by his
nephews, is apparent frorn the sudden increase of arts
and sciences : which were in a good measure perfect

panda potius riominis mutatio
qiiic frequens est et usitata om-
nibus gentibus ; et videntur qui-
dam literarnm mutationibus te-
merariis earn efficere. Optinie
omnium existimo Possidoniuni,
hie quoque a t^entium cognatione
et comuuiiiitate interpretationem
vocum ducere. Nam Arnienio-
rum, Syrorum, et Arabum, mul-
tum cognati(mis prse se ferunt
nationes, sermone, vita, corpo-
rum forma, maxime ubi degunt
in vicinia. Idque ostendit ]\Ie-
sopotamia ex tribus his conllata
j)opuIis. IMaxinie enim in his
similitudo est illustris : quod si
qua est varietas pro eo atque alise
partes aliis magis ad septentrio-
iieni, aut meridiem vergunt, aut
in medio sunt sita; ; nihilominus
tamen communis affectio obtinet.
Assyrii quoque Ariani et Arme-
nii inter se atque istorum sunt
assimiles- Estque colligendum

harum gentium nomina esse af-
finia : qui enim a nobis Syri, ii
ab ipsis Syris Arama-i dicuntnr,
bisque conveniunt Armenii et
Arabes, et Erembi, Strab. 1. i .
[page 41.] This opinion of
Strabo confirms Josephus' ob-
servation concerning the chang-
ing of nations' names. Lib. i.
Antiq. c. 6. [aliis cap. 5 page 20.]
Porro gentium qua;dani adhuc
servant derivatam a suis condi-
toribus appellationem, qufedam
etiam mutaverunt, nonnullae in
familiarem accolis et notiorem
vocem sunt versa;, Grsecis potis-
simum talis nomenclature auto-
ribus. Hi enim posterioribus
sitculis veterem locorum gloriam
sibi usurparunt, gentes nomini-
bus sibi iiotis insigninnt, dumque
tanquam ad suum jus attinerent,
mores quoque proprios in illas
invehunt.

CHAP. XVI. Of Nonli's and Deiimlion's Flood.

100

in those countries, in times as ancient as any profane
history can point unto ; yet seated only in a narrow
room, whence they were derived, as from a centre, to
more remote parts of the world. The ripeness of litera-
ture, civil discipline, and inventions amongst the As-
syrians, Chaldeans, and Egyptians, before the like did
so much as bud forth in Greece, Italy, or other coun-
tries, far distant from the former, doth argue that these
were the stock, and others but slips or branches
transplanted thence. Again, the state and pomp of
these eastern countries, before Greece, or Italy, or any
other western people, did grow into the fashion of a
kingdom or civil nation, demonstrates unto us, that the
inhabitants of those places were the heirs of the world,
who had the court, kingdom, and metropolis amongst
them, and other nations but as colonies of men of
meaner sort, not so near allied unto the firstborn ; or
(as it were) of a younger house, and a far ruder edu-62
cation. And it is most likely, or rather evident, that
the sons of Japhet did first inhabit Scythia, or the
northern parts of Asia Minor, and other parts near
adjoining, before they came into Greece, or other coun-
tries of Europe. And these were the sons of Noah's
meanest posterity, until the fulness of Shem and Cham's
iniquity were accomplished. For as God's promise
unto Abraham was not accomplished in his person,
but in his posterity, many generations after his death ;
so neither did his curse upon Cham take place till the
same time. The execution of God's curse upon the
one was the collation of his blessing upon the other :
but the enlarging of Japhet's race came long after
both. Thus the Egyptians were the first great princes ;
the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians the next ; the Gre-
cians and Romans after them ; and in later times the
race of Ishmael hath been the mighty people : for of

110

Of NoaKs and Deucalimi's Flood. book i.

him the Saracens lineally descend, and the Turks, by
adoption heirs of the same promise''. iSo truly doth the
scripture tell us the truth of all antiquity, and the true
causes of nations' increase : but of this elsewhere. To
conclude this story of Noah.

6. The former argument drawn from the sudden
increase and propagation of men, the scarcity of arts,
civil discipline and inventions, with other experiments
better known to them than us, enforced certain of the
ancient philosophers to hold a perpetual vicissitude,
some of general, some of particular deluges, whereby
the works of antiquity, once come to perfection, had
been, and continually should be, defaced ; either gene-
rally throughout the world, or in sundry countries ac-
cording to the extent of the inundation. This opinion
might seem more safe, because not easy to be disproved
in the old world, in which the wisest living (besides
the people of God) had no distinct knowledge of any
thing that had happened a hundred years before his
own birth ; much less what mutations should follow
after his death : but unto us their i)rognostication is
like unto some late prophecies of doomsday, confuted
by a world of witnesses, even by the continuance of
every thing after that time, which, by their prophecies,
should have imposed a fatal end to all things. We
may truly use the mocker's words to these mockers of
truth ; Since the old 'philosophers died, all things con-
tinue alike; seed time and harvest have been still dis-
tinct, nor hath there been any flood to destroy either
the whole earth, or any entire nation thereof. For
assurance of which promise the Almighty hath set his
bow in the cloud ; whose natural causes, though the
philosophers can in some sort assign, and shew the

Vid. Fagium in cap. i6. [v. 12.] Genes, et Paraeum. [Comment,
in Gen. page 1101.]

CHAP. XVI. Of Noah's and Deucalion's Flood. Ill

manner how diversities of colours arise in it ; yet the
ancient poets saw more, (than either they themselves
have left expressed, or later philosophers sought to
conceive,) when they feigned Iris to be Thaumantis
fil'ia, the daughter, or (as we of this age would say)
the mother of wonderment; the messenger of the great
god Jupiter and his goddess Juno. The occasions of
this fiction (had they been well acquainted with them)
might have informed philosophers, that the rainbow
had some better use than a bare speculation how it
was made ; some final, besides the material and efl^cient
cause, unto whose search the admirable form or com-
position of it did incite men naturally. And the ancient
philosophers (who were for the most part poets, and
endued with more lively notions of the first and su-
preme Cause of all things) did usually assign a final 03
cause, (commonly) supernatural, of such effects as pro-
ceeded from efficient and material natural causes. As
the Pythagoreans thought the thunder (whose matter,
form, and efficient they well knew) was made to terrify
such as were in hell ; not erring in the general, that it
had some such like use, though mistaken in the par-
ticulars, whom it was made to terrify. Natural philo-
sophy gives us the material and sensible efficient causes;
the scripture only the true and supernatural end, which
leads us to the immortal, invisible, and principal effi-
cient Cause of all natural effects, even of nature itself.
And Aristotle acknowledgeth the motions or disposi-
tions of the matter to depend upon the end or final
cause : albeit he gives no final cause at all of main prin-
cipal, much less the supreme or principal final cause of
all natural effects, but confounds the form with the
end, against his own principles, and contrary to the
analogy between nature and art, which is the ground
c Arist. 2. Post. Phys. 2. ]. c. 3.

112

Of Noah's and Deucalion' s Flood. book i.

of all his discourse about the matter, form, and effi-
cient. For the artificial form is not the end of the
artist's work, but rather incites the spectator to view
and admire his skill, from which his gain or fame may
redound. And these (one or both) are the principal
end of all his labours : so is the glory of the first and
supreme efficient Cause the principal and utmost end
of all the works of nature ; and nature itself (if I may
so speak) the art or skill of the first and supernatural
Cause. But as Aristotle's philosophy is imperfect,
because it leads us not either unto the first Cause or
last end of all things ; so it is fully sufficient to confute
such divines as think there were rainbows before the
flood. \Vhich opinion hath no pretence of scripture to
enforce it : and grounds in nature it can have none,
unless they will avouch this evident untruth, that
every disposition of the air, or every cloud, is fitly dis-
posed to bring forth the rainbow. And if other natural
causes, with their motions and dispositions, depend
upon the final ; such as acknowledge the truth of scrip-
ture have no reason to think that either the clouds or
air had that peculiar disposition which is required
unto the production of the rainbow, before the flood,
when this wonderful effect could have no such use or
end as it hath had ever since. For it was ordained,
as the scripture tells us'', to be a sign or witness of
God's covenant with the new world, a messenger to
secure mankind from destruction by deluges. Now if
it had appeared before, the sight of it after the flood
could have been but a silly comfort to Noah's timorous
posterity ; whose mistrust, lest the like inundation
should happen again, was greater than could be taken
away by any ordinary or usual sign, if we may believe
such testimonies'^ of antiquity as we have no reason to
'1 Gen. ix. i 2 — 14. ^ Joseph. Hist. Noae. Ant. lib. i. [cap. iii. p.i 7.]

CHAP. XVI. Of NoaKs and Deucalion's Flood.

113

suspect. I omit the discussion of their opinion who
think the x'ainbow doth naturally argue such a temper
of the air, as is unapt for the present to conceive any-
excessive moisture. Either from these reasons in na-
ture, then well known, or from the tenor of God's
forementioned covenant, communicated to the ancient
heathen people by tradition, doth Jupiter in Homer
make Iris the messenger of his peremptory command
unto Neptune, to desist from aiding the Grecians.

'Ayyekirjv Tivd tol, TaLT^o)(^e Kvavoyaira, 62
^HkOov hivpo (j}€pov(Ta TTapa Atos atyto'xoto'
nava-d/jLevov a eK^Kevcre /JiaX'?? TtToXip-oio,
"Epx^ea-Q,^ jj juera ^SA.a de&v, rj els aXa blav S.
From Jove I come a messenger to him that Neptune hight,
His pleasure is, that thou henceforth ne come in field or fight :
But hence to heaven, or to wide sea address thy speedy flight.

7. The true mythology of which fiction I should,
from the circumstance of the story, conjecture to be
this. The swelling of waters and abundance of moist-
ure did advantage the Grecians and annoy the Tro-
jans, for whom fair weather was best, as having
greatest use at that time of service by horse. For this
reason is Neptune by Iris commanded to get him into
the sea, which is as much as to say, the overflow of
waters and abundance of moisture was now to be
assuaged ; and Apollo on the other side sent to en-
courage Hector and his Trojans ; the meaning is, that
Jupiter would now have fair and dry weather.
'AAA' aye, vvv iTmevcrLV iiroTpwov TTokiecrai,
Nrjvn-lv ent yKa(j)vpfj(TLv (Kavv4p.ev co/cea? ittttovs'

f Vid. Ammian. Marcel, lib. tas legimus sacpe Irim de coelo

2o. in fine. Et quoniam indi- mitti, cum praesentium rerum

cium est permutationis aurae (ut sit status mutatio. See Joh.

diximus) a sudo aere nubium Peckham, Archiep. Cantnarien-

concitans globos, aut contra ex sis Perspectiva Communis, lib.

concrete immutans in serenam 3. in fine. [Prop. 21.]
leetitiam ccclum : ideo apud poe- S [Iliad. O. i 74.]

JACKSON, VOL. I. I

114

Of Noah's and DeiicalioiCs Flood. book i.

Yiaaav Xeiavea, rpeyf/CD 6' jjfpwas ^A\aiovs^.

Go to ! prepare the troops of horse, (for tliey must do the deed,)
And charge thine enemies at their ships, but charge them with
all speed.

Meantime FlI go before and smooth the vvay, you follow must;
I'll turn the Grecian chieftains back, or lay them in the dust.

Such mysteries of nature are often wrapt in poetical
fictions, though many of them not so easy to be dis-
cerned in such distance of time, this kind of divinity
being now worn out of date. But we that have this
supernatural commentary upon the works of nature,
may see in the mixt colours of the rainbow more
clearly than in any prophetical vision, the old world's
destruction by water; and this presents future con-
sumption by fire, whose brightness is predominant in
the waterish humour. The resolution of the cloud, by
the heat of sunbeams reflected upon it, prefigures unto
us the melting of the elements with fire, 2 Pet. iii. 12.

8. Scarce any thing in the frame of nature, no not
the untruths of poetical fables or lying stories, but
bear witness of the Divine truth revealed in scrip-
tures ; so men would not be preposterous in their ob-
servations, like Julian the Apostate, who sought to
discredit the sacred story of the tower of Babel by the
poets' fictions of the giants' war against heaven, as if
there had been no more probability in the one than in
the other. If he could have shewed us any poem of
the same subject more ancient than that story, he
might have had some piece of an excuse for his im-
piety, some pretence for accusing the scripture of
poetical imitation ; but if the poets have been imitators
of Moses, or other writers of this story, the blame must
lie upon them, either for wilful corrupting of the truth,
[hlliad. o. 258. T

CHAP. XVI. Of NoaKs and Deiicalioti''s Flood.

115

or (which is most likely) for taking the hyperbolical
phrase of scriptures in a strict sense, as if they had
meant to build a tower up to heaven indeed, when as 63
the phrase importeth no other intendment in them,
than only to build an exceeding high tower, Avhich
might secure them from inundation, (as some think,) or
else endure as a monument of their fame, or a refuge
whereunto they might resort and continue tlieir com-
bination.

9. But the later Grecians, having their consciences
convict with the evidence, not their affections con-
quered with the love of truth, were driv^en into more
desperate impudence, to say that our Saviour Christ
had taken those divine sentences which they could
not but admire, out of their divine Plato ; whereas
Plato himself (as St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, out
of testimonies not now producible, gather) had his best
divinity from such as wrote of Christ, although the
medley of their divinity and his philosophy is but like
the mingling of Jordan's sweet streams with the salt
sea-. That Plato had either read, or been instructed
by such as had read the books of Moses, he will easily
believe that shall read the speech of Aristophanes in
the Dialogue of love, or banquet discourse. " In the
beginning," saith he, " there were three sorts or sexes
of men, not these two only which are now extant,
male and female ; but a third common nature composed
of these, whose name now only remaineth, without any
such real nature, as the word Androgyni imports

10. This opinion (doubtless) was conceived from a
misconceit of Moses his meaning, in making divers
mention of our first parents' creation. Gen. ii. He
makes first mention of Adam's creation, then of Evah's,

e Aug. lib. 2. de Doctr. Plato in Conviv. [vol. 3.

Christ, cap. 28. '^9-]

I 2

116 Of NoaKs and Deucalion'' s Flood. book i.

distinct from it. But Gen. i. 26, 27, and ch. v. 1, 2. he
seemeth to relate both their creations so jointly and
briefly, that a man, not acquainted with the Hebrew
dialect, nor the mysteries of matrimony represented in
that story, might think that neither distinct man or
woman had been there created, but Androgyni. Fur-
thermore God said. Let us make man in our likeness
according to our image, and let them rule over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heaven, and
over the heasts, and over all the earth, and over
every thing that creepeth or moveth on the earth.
Thus God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him ; he created them male
and female. And a secular artist that afFecteth artifi-
cial, being ignorant of Moses his method, might think
that these were not repetitions of the same, but dis-
tinct stories of divers creations. From the like igno-
rance of the Grecians in the eastern tongues, or some
default in the written copies which they followed, did
the river Perath enlarge its name by translation from
one tongue to another, as it doth its streams by pass-
ing from place to place. For if we join the Hebrew
pronoun or article with the noun, whereby this river is
named in scripture, the compound is only different in
termination from the same river's name in Greek.
Moses, Gen. ii. having mentioned three rivers of the
garden, addeth. And there was a fourth, which is Pe-
rath, ^Hu Perath, or rather, Hu Prath, which words
conjoined are Huphrath. All these argue that the
sacred antiquity of Jewry was unto other nations, as
Nilus to Egypt, the main stream or principal river
whence they drew most of their inventions, either of

' Which, according unto the Hebrew Beth is the Greek Beta,
Greek termination, is Euphra- not Betha.
tes, not Euphrathes, as of the

CHAP. XVI. Of NoaKs and DeucaliorCs Flood.

117

necessity or delight; albeit these cuts or petty streams
thence derived, did quite alter their native quality in
the conveyances, receiving infection from the soil
through which they ran, or putrifying the cisterns
wherein they settled.

11. For confirmation of all, we may add this. The 64
Greek alphabet hath been taken from the Hebrew, as

is evident to such as will compare both. The Grecians
themselves acknowledge, that they had their very let-
ters from the Phoenicians, who were next neighbours
to Judaea.

12. To recollect the sum of all that hath been said
throughout this discourse. As both the first elements
and sundry primitive words of the Greek and Hebrew
scarce differ so much one from another as three from
four, or one digit number from the next unto it, and
yet after many deflections from the first roots or
themes of both, and new frames of words by artificial
composition, (a thing as natural to the Greeks as
spreading branches to the vine,) the languages them-
selves, or whole product of both elements, are much
different ; so are the principal or first heads of the
Grecian inventions derived for the most part from the
Hebrews, although by successive artificial imitation
their variety grow greater, and their resemblance of
Divine truth the less. So likewise were logical con-
ceits first clothed, like nature's children, in terms not
much abhorrent from common and civil use ; but after
divers reflections of artists' imaginations and endless
revolutions of conceit upon conceit, the logicians' dia-
lect is become a distinct language from all others ; so
that a man may as well speak Greek to a mere Latin-
ist, as logic-latin to a mere humanitian. Thus much
of the heathen's digression from the historical truth of
scriptures. It remains that we compare the moral use

I 3

118 Of Sacred Writers' Sobriety and Discretion, book i.

and issue of their inventions with the end, scope, and
fruit of these Divine writings.

CHAP. XVII.

Of Sacred Writers' Sobriety and Discretion in retuting true
Miracles, comjtared especially with later Heathens'' vaniti/,
in coining fruitless Wonders.

1. Albeit the superstition of later Gentiles was
most opposite to the most true, most ancient religion of
the Israelites ; yet if we trace the most civil sort of
them backwards in their sinister ways, we shall find it,
and the right path of the Israelites, like the two oppo-
site branches of Pythagoras his letter, jumping as it
were in one trunk. Sundry fragments of Orpheus,
Linus, Pythagoras, yea of Euripides, much later than
the former, with many sayings of other ancient poets
and philosophers, do witness that their authors had
many notions of good and evil, not much dissonant
from the moral law of God, fully consonant (for their
general truth) unto the good sentences of Job's friends ;
albeit even these were mingled with many particular
errors of the Divine providence. Much more did the
most of the heathen, since the division of the Jews
from other people, by their sacred laws, go much every
day more than other awry from those good rules of
life which had been naturally engrafted both in the
Jews' and Gentiles' hearts. These excellent sayings of
65 the ancient heathen, and their posterity's credulity to
believe all reports of their gods, demonstrate that they
had observed many wonderful experiments and evident
documents of a Divine providence, and communicated
the same unto posterity, both in plain' literal moral
discourses and allegorical or mystical fictions. In thus
doing, perhaps not intending so much, that their suc-
cessors should expect the same events or course of

CHAP. XVII. Of Sacred TVriters' Sobriety and Discretion. 119

things to continue for ever, as that they should learn
to reverence these sacred powers, to glorify them as
Divine, who could always alike effect what they in-
tended, though by means most contrary. But unto
the heathen, destitute of God's written word, the best
observations of their ancestors became quickly like a
calendar out of date, they could not discern the works
of God, nor his inward secret calling, when once the
course of his proceedings, or manner of his speaking to
them changed. Thus Planetiades in Plutarch'^ ascribes
the defect of oracles unto the carelessness or malig-
nancy of the gods, as if, these once taken away, they
had no other means left for procuring the welfare of
mankind. But in Jewry the true doctrine of the Di-
vine power or providence was well known. For God
by Moses had both given them his written oracles as
an absolute epheraerides of all things that had been
since the first moment of time, by whose rules they
were to discern all other succeeding predictions, and
also continually raised them up prophets like yearly
astronomers, to continue the ephemerides which Moses
had made for the direction of man's life, and to in-
struct them as it were in a monthly calendar of every
particular alteration or change unto which tiiat great
lawgiver in his general predictions could not descend.
From this reason it is that the penmen of the sacred
story do not always relate the same or like events, but
assign divers manners of his working and speaking to
several ages. Some afford us lively monuments of his
power, others, patterns of his wisdom ; some, examples
of his justice, others, of his mercy; yet all of them con-
tinually acknowledge him to be the only author of
their good, albeit the manner of procuring it be diverse,
yea contrary. Thus Ezra, Nehemiah, and other godly
^ Plut. de Defectu Oraculorum. [vol. 2. p. 413-]

I 4

120 Of Sacred Writers Sobriety and Discretion, book i.

men of that time, ascribe their redemption from Baby-
lonish captivity, as immediately to the wonderful work-
ing of their God, as their fore-elders did their deliver-
ance from Egyptian thraldom, although no such mira-
cle of his power were seen in the later. The former
deliverance had confirmed his omnipotent ability of
doing what he would, the latter, his infinite wisdom in
doing what he could, by what means he would ; and it
was his good pleasure to be glorified in sundry ages
by divers manifestations of his several attributes.

2. But the heathen wanting his word for their di-
rection, after they had once begun, knew not how to
make an end. If God cease to shew his miracles in
any one kind, which they had heard of before, either
they sought to continue them by feigning the like,
(more ready to play upon former reports than to ob-
serve the course of God's proceedings in their own
times,) or else from the variety of wonderful events,
whose cause they knew not, they imagine a plurality
of gods. Others, from these men's superstition and
curiosity were {jrone to suspect the truth of what had
been, after once such sensible events or experiments
66 begun to cease. This gave the first occasion unto
atheism, which hath most abounded since the propa-
gation of the gospel, whose glory hath quite extin-
guished those petty lights which purblind heathen
only used for their direction, being most conspicuous
to the flesh or sense, as the gospel is to the Spirit.
For as dim or weak sights can make some shift with
starlight or candles that shine afar off, but are quite
put out by looking upon the bright sun ; so hath the
brightness of Christ's glory revealed, put out the eyes
of corrupted nature, in such as loved darkness more
than light, and would not seek for any remedy at his
hands, which giveth sight to the blind. Yet might

CHAP. XVII. Of Sacred Writers' Sobriety and Discretion. 121

this their disease be sooner cured, if they would com-
pare other countries' vanity in feigning u^onders with-
out occasion, with this religious sobriety of the later
writers of the Bible, or other godly men, who have
written of Jews' affairs, not one of them since Heze-
kiah's time relating such wonders as their fathers had
told them. This sobriety in them evidently shews
that the former miracles were no fictions of human
fancy ; otherwise the Jews, living between Hezekiah's
and Christ's time, would have been copious in their
inventions of the like, as we see by experience that
the learned Jews since our Saviour's time have been
most ridiculously apish in coining, and the illiterate as
gross in believing, most absurd and filthy fables. That
this people, during the whole time of the second tem-
ple, added no books to the canon of the Bible, confirms
their forefathers' care of admitting none in former
times, but upon evident and sure experiments of their
Divine authority. Again, it was most miraculous that
this people, which had prophets and sacred writers
in every age before the Babylonish captivity, should
after their redemption thence lie so quiet, that not the
most learned among them did ever challenge the name
of prophet, though they had men of Divine spirits, and
excellent observation in heavenly matters, as appears
by the author of Ecclesiasticus, the Book of Wisdom,
and other books of good use amongst all religious
men, though not canonical amongst the Jews them-
selves. Answerable to this sobriety of the learned
was the disposition of the unlearned among this peo-
ple ; which during the former period of time, wherein
they wanted prophets, were generally most averse
from all idolatry, whereunto they were most prone,
while prophecies were most plentiful amongst them,
and yet continued still as far from atheism as idolatry.

122 Of Sacred Writers' Sobriety mid Discretion, book i.

The reason of all which I have given before. "God had
enjoined a general silence throughout this land, that
all might hearken more attentively unto the crier's
voice, appointed to prepare the ways of the Lord ;"
after whose message once fully accomplished, as it had
been after the ringing of a market bell, every mounte-
bank throughout their coasts sets to sale the dreams
and fancies of his own brain for Divine prophecies.

3. Lastly, the heathen in their most sacred tradi-
tions, and matters of greatest consequence, add circum-
stances according to the occurrents of their own times,
which suit no better with the substance or essence
of their ancestors' observations, than a pigmy's slipper
with a giant's foot. How shamefully doth the wanton
poet feign his gods to long after such matters as he
himself did most delight in ! The best end and use of
his greatest gods' apparitions are ofttimes to accom-
67 plish beastly lust ; Divine truths are usually trans-
formed into the poet's private affection. Ovid's de-
scription of Jupiter's coming to Semele' is not much
unlike the manner of God's passing by '"Elijah upon
the mount, and therefore not altogether unbeseeming
the majesty of the great King, if all circumstances
were answerable to the substance of the description ;
but it is brought to an absurd, profane, and foolish
purpose. So likewise "Semele's petition unto Jupiter,
is but "Moses his request unto God, effeminate and

1 yEthera conscendit' nutuque
sequentia traxit | Nubila, quels
ninibos immistaque fulgura ven-
tis I Addidit, et tonitrus et inevi-
tabile fulmen. Lib. 3. Jletam.
fab. 3. [1. 299.]

I" I Kings xix. 11, 12. And,
behold, the Lord went by, and a
mighty strong wind rent the
mountains, and brake the rocks

before the Lord, and after the
wind an eartltquake, and after
the earthquake, Jire.

^ Det pignus amoris | Si modo
verus is est, quantusque et qualis
ab alta | Junone excipitur, tantus
talisque rogato Det tibi com-
plexus, suaque ante insignia su-
mat. Ovid. lb. [283.]

o Exod. xxxiii. 12, 13. and 18.

CHAP. XVII. Of Sacred Writers' Sobriety and Discretion. 123

transformed in sundry circumstances to the poet's hu-
mour. Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 18, desired to see the
glory of the Lord, and the Lord answered him, Thou
canst not see my face : for there shall no man see rny
face and live. Yet willing to confirm this his servant's
faith, he condescends thus far to his suit'': Whilst my
glory passeth hy, I ivill put thee into a cleft of the
rock, and will cover thee with mine hand whilst I
pass hy : and thou slialt see my hack parts : hut my
face shall not he seen. Either from some mistaking
of this place, or from experience of others' sudden
death upon such apparition of the Divine majesty, as
Moses and Elias by peculiar dispensation had escaped,
did that tradition spring which Manoah conceited so
deeply, Judg. xiii. 22. And Manoah said unto his
wife. We shall surely die, hecause we have seen God ;
as Gideon had done likewise, Judg. vi. 22, Alas, my
Lord God! for hecause I have seen the angel of the
Lord face to face, I shall die^. This tradition had
come to Ovid's hands'", who makes that majesty, which
he had described to be so great, so improvident withal,
as to grant her foolish request, on whom he doted, to
her utter ruin ; and so impotent, that he could not pro-
tect her, albeit he strove to cover her with his hand ;
and so finally neither the god could enjoy his love, nor
his best beloved her life. Such are the consequences

Then Moses said unto the Lord,
See, thou sai/est unto me, IjCad.
this people forth : and thou hast
not shelved me whom thou wilt
send with me : thou hast said
moreover, I know thee by name,
and thou hast also found grace
in. nnj sight. Now therefore, I
praij thee, if I have found favour
in thtj sight, shew me now the
may, that I may know thee, and

that I may find grace in thy
sight. Again he said, I beseech
thee she7V me thy glory.

P Exod. xxxiii. 21, 22, 23.

q Hence was that of Homer,
lib. I . Odyss. 'O 8e, (ppecrlv tjO-i
vor)<Ta<;, | Qaixfiricreu Kara 6vfx6v 6t(T-
(raro yap 6eov fluai.

>■ Corpus mortale tuinultus |
Non tulit irtliereos douisque ju-
galibus arsit. [Ibid. 309.]

124 Of Sacred Tfrilers' Sobriety and Discretion, book i.

of later heathens' greatest miracles ; but in the sacred
story, wherein are specified events as strange as poets
relate any, such causes are assigned of them as are
more weighty, and the manner of their relation more
grave and serious than the events are rare ; if God at
any time appear, either in vision by night, or corporal
shape by day, it is for some extraordinary purpose.
All the miracles or wonders wrought in Israel, were
to bring that people unto the knowledge of the true
God, to rely continually upon his providence ; a matter
moi'e hard, if we consider the frailty of our own flesh,
than the effecting of any miracles reported to have
been wrought for the Jews, Why his wonderful
works should be most frequent amongst this people,
this reason is as plain as probable, from the end. This
people was placed as a light unto all the nations of
the world besides : they enjoyed extraordinary prospe-
rity that others might be allured to reverence them,
and taste the goodness of their God ; their unusual
judgments and strange kind of afflictions were as so
many proclamations unto the world, to beware of like
rebellion ; seeing all the world was set on wickedness,
and God had appointed a day wherein he would judge
the world in righteousness, necessary it was to set out
a pattern of his mercy and justice in some people ; and
68 without wrong to any other, it was his especial favour
to make choice of Abraham's seed for this purpose, on
whom he showered his mercies in greatest abundance,
whilst they were obedient and faithful in the works of
Abraham ; but when they rebelled, and vexed his holy
Spirit, then he turned to he their enemy, and he
fought against them^, making them continual exam-
ples of his unpartial judgments, as shall appear in the
next section.

« Isa. Ixiii. lo.

CHAP. XVII. Experiments drawn from the Revolution Sfc. 125

SECT. III.
THE THIRD SECTION

OF

THE SECOND GENERAL PART.
LIB. I.

Containing' Experiments draivn from the Revolutioti of
States, or God''s Public Judgments, but especially of the
Estate of the Jeivs from Time to Time.

Of all external experiments, the most firm and
solid, for assuring the truth of these Divine oracles
unto our souls, are gathered from the revolution of
states, or God's judgments upon several lands and
people. In the observation of which, the continual
story of the Jewish nation doth best direct us. The
intercourse of their particular afflictions, before our
Saviour's time ; the manner of their recovery from
them, as from so many spices of some grievous disease
growing upon them ; " the epidemical disease which
through every generation haunts theirs, since they de-
sired our Saviour's blood to be upon them and their
children t ;" are so many probata, or tried experiments,
that these celestial precepts contain the only method
of preserving the public or private welfare of mankind,
whose observations may cure, whose neglect will breed,
all the misery that can befall any people. And this
method I would wish every Christian to follow ; first,
diligently to consider the state of the Jews from time
to time, for it evidently confutes the atheist, and con-
firms the truth of the Old Testament ; and the truth
of it established doth most evidently confute the Jew,

t Crantzius 1. lo. Wandal. c. qui perpetuo illis fluat, whose
1 8. Christiano sanguine abutun- fatliers cried, Hix hlood be on
tur ad restinguendum cruorem us and our clnldren.

126

Of the State of the Jetvs in general, book i.

and witness the truth of the gospel unto us, as shall
be proved (God willing) in due place.

69 CHAP. XVIII.

Of the State of the Jews in general before our Saviour s
Time, with Tnlli/s Objection against them.

1. It is storied of Alphonsus the Great", that being
sometime prisoner to his enemies, he did so carry him-
self amongst them, and prescribe them such conditions
for his release, as might argue that they had overcome
him only by chance. This was not so strange in a
prince, so famous and venerable for the integrity of his
whole life, and so amiable in his carriage towards his
enemies ; a man, as it were, made to overcome and
quell all the spiteful malice or base intendments that
could be devised against him, by his heroical open
heart, and bountiful hand towards all, and indefatiga-
ble clemency even towards such as sought to outvie it
by ingratitude, and just provocation of his heaviest
displeasure. But that the Jews, a people whom others'
prejudicial conceit of their peevish, selfconceited sin-
gularity, (raised from their strict observation of laws
contrary to the customs of other people,) had made for
the most part odious, ere known unto the world, should
victi victoribus leges dare^, being captives give laws
unto their conquerors, even to such as sought to tri-
umph in their disgrace, as birds over an owl caught
in a snare ; did justly minister occasion of wonderment
to simdry heathen, and might have taught the proudest
and mightiest of their enemies, that they had overcome

w Enimvero tanta fuit autori- cutos arbitrati Ant. Panonnitan.

tab Alphonsi, ut etiani victus 1. 4. de diet, et Fact. Alphon.

conditiones dixerit^, et victores [section 22.]
victi metu cesserint, quasi vieto- ^ August, (ex Seneca) 1. 6.

riam casu non virtute se conse- de Civit. Dei, c. 1 1 .

( HAP. XVIII.

before our Suviuiir's Time, S^c.

127

them only by permission or chance, or (if these words
seem unfit) for want of that good hap and favour in
their battles, which they after their overthrows find-
ing, became by it in a sort conquerors of their ene-
mies, even whilst they were detained in captivity.

2. The full height and amplitude of those fortunes,
whereof this people was only capable, would bring the
natural man (could he fully comprehend them) within
perfect ken of that incomprehensible, omnipotent power,
which was only able to effect them. But because these
cannot be taken by any ethnic observations, which
reach not near those ancient times wherein their extra-
ordinary success was most conspicuous ; we must
gather them from the manner of their state's declining,
since it hath been known to ethnic or other writers,
not liable to suspicion of partiality on their behalf.
God in his providence (as Moses' prophecies compared
with later, and the succession of their histories, testify)
had ordained, as the fulness of time and their iniquity
drew near, his favours toward them should decrease
by such an uniform proportion, that their contraction
in later might notify their excessive greatness in for-
mer times. The manner of their deliverance from the
Babylonish captivity (to such as rightly observe the
diverse manner of God's proceeding in different ages
before specified) will give the true estimate of wonders
wrought for their forefathers : and Cyrus' favour to-
wards them will appear most credible, from the repre-
sentation of like extraordinary kindness shewed them
in Egypt by Ptoloma^us Pliiladelphus y ; who, though
their supreme lord by right of conquest, set at liberty
a hundred thousand of their bodies, captivated by his

y Of the favours that God 1. 1 2. c. 2, 3. I. 1 4. c. i6 et 17.
procured the Jews from divers [aliis c. 8.] 1. 16. c. i o. [6.] I. iq.
kings, &c. see Josephiis, Antiq. c. 4 — 7. 6, 7.^

128

Of the State of the Jews in general, book i.

70 father, to submit himself unto their laws, which he
(directed by the Divine providence) caused to be trans-
lated into the most known tongue then on earth,
through which the nations (as it were through a per-
spective glass) might better discern the new Star of
Jacob, which was shortly to arise.

3. It is a point without the circumference of politic
observation, plainly arguing such a celestial providence
as can control the purposes of the greatest princes, why
Jerusalem, so often ruinate, should still be repaired
again ; or the temple continue in such beauty after
it had so often fallen into the enemy's hands ; espe-
cially seeing the flourishing state of the one was ap-
pi-ehended by their conquerors as a great encourage-
ment, and the fortification of the other as a great op-
portunity of this people's rebellion ; upon which con-
sideration Artaxerxes did inhibit the execution of
Cyrus' grant for the reedifying of Hierusalem ^. The
city walls had been razed since the time of the Baby-
lonish captivity, (which was before any heathen his-
toriographer of note,) first by Ptolomy the First ; se-
condly, by Pompey the Great ; and yet repaired before
Vespasian's time, who overthrew their strongest muni-
tions, as Adrian afterwards did the same, once again
repaired.

4. The truth again of that favour which they found
under the Egyptians (though otherwise known by un-

z Ezra iv. 17. i Esdr. ii. 25, by Sosius, 1. 14. c. 28. Qc. 16.
&c. Jos. [c. 2. page 550.] 1. 1 1 . p. 735.] et 1. 1 5. c. i. p. 740. re-
Antiq. cap. 3. Etsi Canibysem edifying in Caius his time. Jo-
pro Artaxerxe habeat. Appi- sepli. Antiq. 1. 14. c. 17. ^c. 10.
anus de Bell. Syriac. []cap. 50.]] p. 705.^ and in Claudius his
Yet here is omitted the reedifi- time. Empto jure muniendi,
cation by Hircanus in Julius his struxere muros in pace tanquam
time. Jos. Ant. 1. 14. c. 16. ad bellum. Tacitus, Hist. 1. 5.
\_c. 8. p. 698.] Their demolishing Qcap. 12.]

CHAP. XVIII. Of the State of the Jexvs in general. 129

partial writers,) is more than credible in itself, from the
extraordinary favour which they found amongst the
nations, about the time of their conquest by Pompey.
Tully tells us in his oration y;;-o Flacco^, that gold
was transported out of Italy itself, and all the rest of
the Roman provinces, for garnishing the temple of
Hierusalem, The prohibition of this practice in Asia,
enacted by Flaccus governor of that province, was
afterward laid to his charge, though the like had been
decreed by the Roman senate in the time of Tully's
consulship. It was no little prejudice unto his cause,
that Pompey in the conquest of that city did think so
reverently of the Jews' religion and temple, that albeit
he'' viewed the golden table, candlestick, and other
vessels of like metal, with many costly ornaments, and
two thousand talents of their sacred treasure ; yet did
he not diminish so much as one jot of it, nor spoil
Jerusalem's temple of any ornaments, to beautify the
temples of his Roman gods. This abstinence of Pom-
pey, Tully in the forecited place acknowledgeth, albeit,
(for bettering the cause he had in hand,) unwilling to
confess that Pompey did abstain for any religious re-
spect of the Jews or their laws : for after many shifts,
he takes this as the best argument to elevate the Ro-
mans' conceit of the Jewish religion*'; " Whilst Jeru-
salem flourished and the Jews were quiet, yet their
sacred rites were altogether dissonant unto the splen-
dor of the Roman empire, the gravity of that nation,

* [|Cap. 28.] tate nominis nostri, majorum in-

^ Jos. de Bell. Jud. 1. i. \c. stitutis abhorrebat. Nunc vero

7.] boc magis, quod ilia gens, quid

c Cicero pro Flacco. Qibid.] de iniperio nostro sentiret, os-

Sua cuique civitati religio, Laeli, tendit armis ; quam chara diis

est, nostra nobis. Stantibus Hie- immortalibus esset, docuit, quod

rosoiymis, pacatisque Judaeis, ta- est victa, quod elocata, quod ser-

men istorum religio sacrorum a vata.
splendore liujus imperii, gravi-

JACKSON, VOL. I. K

130

Of Pompey's ill Success

BOOK I.

and the institution of their ancestors : much more (as
he thought) should the Romans now make less account
of that nation, \yhich had given perfect proof what
good-will they had borne unto the Romans, by their
late taking arms against them. And what good-will
the immortal gods did bear to them, their late fortunes
did witness ; in that they had been vanquished, made
tributary, and (as he thought) were at the Romans'
disposition for their preservation or destruction."
71 5. If these Jews' late subjection were any disparage-
ment to their religion, much more might Pompey's
and Tully's overthrow discredit the Roman gods, which
Pompey's faction did reverence more than Caesar's ;
yea Fortune itself, on whose favour"^ Tully relied after
he had fallen out with all the rest, could not be ex-
cused, if earthly calamity were any just presumption
of impiety against Heaven. But if Tully would have
sought but the first fountain of his country's rack,
want of reverence to the Jewish temple and their re-
ligion was cause of Pompey's and Crassus' overthrow,
and their overthrow the ruin of the Roman state.

CHAP. XIX.

Of Pompey^s ill success after his entry of the Sanctum San-
ctorum : the inanner of his death Jilting his sin. Of Cras-
sus, Cassius, 8)C.

The on. 1. I KNOW the secular politician can espy many
^Poi^e^s oversights in Pompey's proceeding against Caesar, and
fortune's assifiTU Other causes of his disaster : but he that had

sudaen al- S

teration. gone iuto the temple of the Lord with more reverence
than Pompey did, might have understood that it was
his unhallowed progress into the most holy place,
which had set an untimely period to his greatness'
growth. This was the mainspring or head of all his
d Lib. Epist aJ Attic.

CHAP. XIX. after his Entry of the Sanctum Sanctorum. 131

other particular errors observed by secular i)oliticians.
Hitherto he had marvellously prospered in all his ways;
Fortune had been his guide, and Felicity his attendant.
Although his wisdom and experience would not suffer
him to oversee any thing that lay within the compass
of warlike skill, yet happy chance delighted to have a
finger in his proceedings, always bringing somewhat
to his aid and furtherance, from beyond the hemisphere
of human policy ; so as the issue and product of all his
enterprises were still discerned to be greater than could
amount from the particular means forecast by him or
his counsellors for their achievement. He had the
help of wind and weather to prosecute his foes by sea^;
the favour of moon and stars ^ to make him conqueror
by land. Thus Fates had been his friend, until his
ascending the holy mount : but upon his descent thence.
Fortune (to use the Roman's language) began to turn
her wheel upon him. His wonted providence and
forecast s forsook him; and he that in his younger
days (when his heart was as full of hopes as his blood
of spirits) had used greatest vigilancy to prevent all
dangers in matters of smaller moment, whose loss
might easily have been recovered ; now in that age,
whose usual symptoms are timidity and too much care,
suffers those consultations on which his own, his
fi'iends', his country's fates and fortunes wholly de-
pended, on which the whole state of the world did in

^ See TuUy de Lege Rlanilia,
Qcap. 12 et 16.] of Pompey's
felicity in his African expedi-
tion, and piratical war.,

f As in his conquest of Mi-
thridate. See Flor. de Gest.
Rom. 1. 3. cap. 5. Nocturna ea
dimicatio fuit. Et luna in par-
tibus, quippe quasi coinmilitans,
cum a tergo se hostibus, a facie

Romanis praebuisset, Pontici per
errorem longius cadentes umbras
suas, quasi hostium corpora pe-
tebant. Vid. Stadii comment,
in locum.

g Vid. Plut. in Pompeio, Qvol.
i. p. 657.3 et Appianum lib. 2.
Qcap. 61. sqq.3 de Bell. Civili,
et Dionem, in initio lib. 42.

K 2

132

Of Pompey's ill Success

BOOK I.

a manner hang, to pass away as in a dream ; yielding
his irrevocable consent to whatsoever any parasite
should propose, in points wherein error and oversight
were incorrigible, and their consequence, if bad, reme-
diless ; with as great speed and little care, as a man
would answer Yes, or Yea, to some idle question pro-
posed unto him betwixt sleeping and waking. An-
swerable to this his sottish demeanour. Victory, which
72 before had wooed him, once in his last extremity, (like
a wanton minion disposed to flout her blind, decrepit,
doting lover,) seems a little to make toward him, either
wanting eyes to discern her, or wit to give her enter-
tainment''. But not Victory herself could make him
victorious, in whose death and overthrow the Almighty
would have his judgments seen. For seeing it could
not content him to have vanquished so many kings
and kingdoms, but he will provoke the King of kings
in his own house, by his unmannerly intrusion into
his most secret closet, reserved alone, of all places of
the earth besides, (though all the earth besides were
his,) for his holiness' presence, and his priests ; it
seemed just to this Lord of heaven and earth, the su-
preme Disposer of all success, to give the kingdoms
subdued by Pompey into his fatal enemy's hand, not
leaving him so much firm ground of all his conquests
as might decently cover his miserable corpse. " Since
the foundations of the earth and sea were laid', never
had so high a flow of all good fortunes, so sudden, so
strange, so low and naked an ebb," ut cui viodo de-

'' Such ^vas Caesar's censure. ipsius, vitae fuit exitus : in tan-

i Hie, post tres consulatus, et turn in illo viro a se discordante

totidem triumphos, domitumque Fortuna, ut cui modo ad vic-

terrarum orbem, sanctissimi viri, toriam terra defuerat, deesset

in id evecti super quod ascendi ad sepulturam. Vellei. Pater,

non potest, duodesexagesinium Histor. lib. 2. Qcap. 53.]
annum agentis, pridie natalem

CHAP. XIX. after his Entry of the Sanctum Sanctorum. 133

Juerat terra ad victoriam, deesset ad sepiilturam : that
he, who, as the Roman orator saith, had conquered
more provinces than almost any of his countrymen had
seen, he*^ that had commanded 1000 ships, restored
the use of the sea to the nations again, and freed all
others from the violence of pirates, sole lord of that
element, and the coasts adjoining ; should (upon that
very day, which in memory of this matchless victory^
he had celebrated some few years before at Rome with
greatest triumph and solemnity) become a prey to a
beggarly Egyptian boat, and fall into such base huck-
sters' hands as knew not the worth of so great a prize,
but (as if he had been some ravenous sea-monster, that
had lived by public harms, of whose death only some
petty commodity might be made) present his head to
the chief magistrate in hope of reward, leaving that
body, whose goodly presence had overcharged the
greatest temples, like a pestiferous carrion, or some
offensive garbage, or forlorn spawn, rather hid than
buried™ in a little heap of sand.

^ Qui mare universum, quod ' The piratical was the most
Ronianis parebat, paeaverat, in honourable war that ever any
eo ipso periit, qui olim mille navi- Roman undertook, and justly
bus (tot enini ferunt) prsefuerat, deserved a glorious triumph : but
tunc in navicula prope ^gyptum Pompey triumphed in his sin,
occisus est, idque ab eo Ptolo- whilst he included Jewry's con-
maeo quodamniodo, cujus patrem quest, as part of that day's glory,
ipse in eam regionem ac regnum which the Lord for this reason
reduxerat. Dion. Hist. Roin. would have defaced by his mi-
lib. 42. (^cap. 5.] et statim post, serable death, as he had polluted
Sic Pompeius, inter Romanos ha- the solemnity of God's sabbath
bitus antea potentissimus, ut A- in Jerusalem, for he took it on
gamemnon etiam cognominare- the sabbath day. Vid. Joseph,
tur, quod mille navibus et ipse lib. i. de Bell. Jud. cap. 5. [aliis
cum imperiopraefuisset, tunc qua- c. 7. p. 67.] And Dion. 1. 66.
si unus de extremae sortis ^gyp- [cap. 7.] says that Titus did
tiis, ad montem Cassium inter- so, ev airfj rfj Kpovov f^fxtpa, r)v
lit, ea ipsa die, qua quondam de p-uKiara tri koX vvv 'lovSaloi a-e-
Mithridate et piratis triumphum l3ov<n.

duxerat : ut ne in his quidem «" Ta vaoU ^pldovri Trdcnj (nrdvis

extrema cum primis convenerint. fTrXero rvp^ov ; vix caperet tem-

K 3

134

Of Pompey's Factions,

BOOK I.

2. The strange stupidity, and more strange destiny
of this famous prince, so wise by nature, so well ex-
perienced, and always before this time most fortunate,
did argue to the heathens' apprehension that " he was
9eo/3Xa/3>;9°,"as we would say, "taken in the brain by the
hand of God, and his hopes blasted from above." But
such is the preposterous dulness of human sagacity in
Divine matters, that even where the print of God's
ways is most sensible and perspicuous, the wisest of us
run counter still until his word direct our footsteps,
and his Spirit give life unto our senses. For the most
73 religious amongst the Romans, deeming Pompey such
The Ro- as tjjgy thought themselves, one that had never given

mans pre- •/ o ^ o

posteious just offence to any of their gods : upon his miscarriage

andimpious ,. , . , 'ta. .

collections either altogether disclaim i' the Divine providence, or
pey'" over- ^Ise exclaim against the ingratitude or malignity of
throw. celestial powers ; as if there had been no other god or
gods, but such as they and Pompey had well deserved
of. Whereas his fatal overthrow, whom their gods
they thought had most reason to favour, should have
instructed them that there was a God of gods in Jewry,
which did bear rule over the ends of the world, who
would not be worshipped after their fashion, as Pom-
pey dreamed. For the reason of his desire to see the
most holy place, was, to be resolved whether the Ro-
mans, which worshipped the gods of every nation sub-
dued by them, had not that God already which the
Jews adored : but finding no graven imaged, nor like-
plum queni parva recondit arena. Q Romanorum primus Cn.
Epitajih. Pompeii apud Appian. Pomp. Juda?os domuit. Tem-
I. 2. de Bell. Civ. [cap. 86.] plumque jure victorise ingressus

o Appian. ibid. [cap. 8 1 .] est. Inde vulgatum, nulla intus

P Hence were these and like Deum effiwie, vacuam sedem, et
complaints : Marmoreo Licinus inania arcana. Tacitus lib. 5.
tumulo jacet ; at Cato parvo, [cap. 9 ] Histor. Vide Florum
Pompeius nuUo j quis putet esse 1. 3. c. 5. [in fine.]
Deos ?

CHAP. XXI. and other Romans' ill Success.

135

ness of any thing in heaven or earth, many Romans,
which till that time had lived in suspense and admira-
tion who this God of the Jews should be, held their
concealed mysteries for mere gulleries, and thought it
folly to worship they knew not whom, for incerti
Judcea Dei ; yet were his judgments upon this great
peer of Rome, the first among that people that had to
do with the Jews, most certain, yet judgments mixed
with mercy and long-suffering. Seeing Uzzah, and
Uzziah king of Judah, for intermeddling in the priests'
office, were smitten, the one with sudden death, the
other with continual leprosy until his dying day, who
can expect that this alien should escape unpunished
for like presumption ? Nevertheless, because he did
approach the most holy place, though with an unsanc-
tified heart, yet with no sacrilegious hands, he had a
longer time of repentance than his next peer in might
amongst the Romans, his predecessor in like miserable
and disgraceful death, though his successor in like, but
more shameful, sacrilegious, base profaneness.

3. That sacrilege was one especial cause of Crassus' The mis-

carriage o

miscarriage in the Parthian wars, the heathens of thatcrassus
time had observed ; and it may be, Plutarch, from un-themann
written traditions the nurse of error, did mistake the "^.^jj^^j j,
story. Sure it was not the goddess of Hierapolis, but
the God of the holy city, which made the young and
aged to stumble one against another. Or if Crassus
and his son had this first omen of their overthrow at
their egress out of this goddess's temple ; this doth

Lucan. 2. lib. [liii. 593 ]

* TiVfTat Se TTptoTov avTW arjp.eloi'
arro rrjs Qeov ravT-qs., fjv ol pev 'A-
<f)poblTr^v, ol Se "Wpav, ol de rrjV
ap)(as Kai o'Treppara irdaiv vypwv
Trapa^ovaav alrlap Koi (ftvaiv vopi-
Cov<rL, Kai TTjv irdvTcav eis dvOpanrovs

apx^rjv ayaOiav KaTadei^aaav i^iov-
Toyv yap (K tov Ifpov, npuiTos ia(j)dXrj
Kara tcis nvXas 6 veavlas Kpdaaros,
eiV €77 avTto TrepiTTftToiv 6 Trpecr^v-
Tepos, &c. Plutarch in Crasso.
[vol. i. p. 553.]

K 4

136

Of Vompeys Factions,

BOOK I.

not argue that it was either solely or principally for
this offence therein committed; albeit even sacrilegious
wrongs against the heathen gods did oft redound to
the true God's dishonour, being not intended by worldly-
minded men so much against them in particular, as in
contempt of Deity, or Divine power simply : nor are
such warnings usually sent immediately* upon the
principal fact, but rather after continuance in the like.
And the vicinity of this place's name" (which was a
second witness of Crassus' sins) might have put him
in mind of his former misdeeds in Jerusalem, with
whose sacred treasure he had dealt just so, as Plutarch
74saith he did with the treasury of that goddess of Hier-
apolis. Which makes me suspect that Plutarch did
mistake the story. For as Josephus tells us, he took
away the two thousand talents which Pompey left un-
touched, and eight thousand besides. But such was
the heathens' prejudice of the Jews, that the least in-
jury offered to their idol gods was more than the most
grievous sacrilege that could be devised against the
God of Israel. The worst that could be done against
his temple, was, in many of their opinions, but as re-
proachful words, which can bear no action, because not
easily appliable to any determinate person : with many
of them it was all one, wow esse Deos, et non appa-
rere, represented in some visible shape or image. Thus
Polybius, otherwise an ingenuous writer, imputes the

t As the destruction of Hie- xmipKeirai 8e rov woraftov crxpivovs

rusalem did not immediately fol- rerrapas Ste'^ova-a rj Bafi^vKr], fju Koi

low upon our Saviour'Sj but "^dea-aav Koi 'Upav ttoXiv KoKovcrtv,

upon his servant S. James's un- eV ^ rifiacrw rrjv 'S.vpiav 6eav TTjv

just death. 'Arapydriv. It was beyond Eu-

u This Hierapolis was Bam- phrates, whereas Crassus had

byca or Edessa, where Dirceto ominous signs of his destruction

the great Syrian goddess was at his first passage over that river,

worshipped, as appears from Plutarch, [p. 554-1
Strabo's i6th book: [p. 748.]

CHAP. XIX. and other Romans' ill Success.

187

cause of Antiochiis Epiphanes' sudden and fearful
death, unto his intended pillage of the goddess Arte-
mis' temple ; whenas this miscreant was guilty of that
actual crime before, for ransacking the temple of Jeru-
salem. (See Josej)h. Antiq. 1. 12. c. 13. [aliis cap. 9.
p. 621.] ) But as the plenary cause of Crassus' mi-
serable and shameful death, was his shamelessly mi-
serable and sacrilegious mind in general ; so in the
means or manner of his end, the Almighty would have
his particular offences against his priest and temple to
be most eminent and conspicuous. Eleazar^ the high
priest, seeing him wholly bent to make a golden har-
vest of the Parthian expedition, feared lest he should
rake all the sacred treasure into his coffers. For pre-
venting of which mischief he presents him with a
golden beam, whereon the hangings of the temple hung,
hoping thereby to redeem the rest of the sacred trea-
sure ; but he having gotten this into his hands, which
otherwise he could not have found, (being covered
with wood,) contrary to his oath, most agreeable to
his humour, seized upon all the residue. Yet gold,
which he thus greedily sought, as (to his seeming) the
only sure nerve of war, by the Almighty's disposition,
became the indissoluble chain of his dismal fates. As
love to it had made him perjure himself to circumvent
God's priest, so did it expose him to circumvention by
a perjured villain^, who, having found out his api)etite.

y Eleazarus cum videret Cras-
sum totum esse in coUigendo
auro, timens omnibus templi or-
namentis, trabem hanc, redemp-
tioneni pro omnibus ei dedit, cum
prius eum jurejurando obstrinx-
isset, nihil aiiud loco moturum,
contentum eo quod ipse trade-
ret, acstimatuin plurimis aureo-
rum millibus. Ha3c trabs inserta

erat trabi cavse ligneae, quod cae-
teris omnibus ignotum, solus sci-
ebat Eleazarus. Crassus tamen
et banc pro reliquo templi auro
accepit, et mox violato jureju-
rando totum quantum intus erat
egessit. Joseph. Ant. lib. 14. c.
12. [aliis cap. 7. p. 694.]

2 Maximam autem calamitatis
partem Augarusipsis Osroenus at-

138 Of Pompey's Factions, book i.

prepared a fit bait for his bane. For by feeding this
greedy thirst of gold, he insinuated himself into the
society of his secrets, which he disclosed unto the Par-
thian. Had Crassus' wits naturally been so dull, or
had he usually shewed himself so gross and sottish as
he proved in this expedition, he had never borne any
place among the Romans, much less had they ever
permitted him to manage any foreign wars. But partly
from his prodigious stupidity % uncapable of any warn-
ing by so many ominous signs and tokens, as did stupify
his whole army besides, partly from his more than
brutish facility, in taking an uncouth way, (as if he
had been a tame beast before the drover,) until he
came to the very stand, where his enemies stood with
their bows bent, and their arrows of death made ready
75 upon the string for his destruction, all the Roman
writers agree, that he was led awry by sinister fates.
Now if they had but once read what God he was that
had blinded Absalom to disclaim Achitophel's good
counsel, and ratify Hushai's plot for his overthrow,
2 Sam. xvii, they would easily have granted that the
same God, and no other, had infatuated^ Crassus' heart

tulit. IsRomanisantefoederejunc- ^ Turn Cassiani rursum aegre

tus, sub Pomp. Barljaroruni partes ferebant, et oniisso Crasso, qui

turn potiores habuit. Quod idem monitores audire gravabatur con-

Alchaudonius quoque Arabs fe- viciis incessebant Abgarum, (in

cit, semper potentiori se solitus Greek, Acbarus ; in Dion. Au-

adjungere : caeterum hie quia garus ; and in Plut. in Crass,

manifesto defecerat a Romanis Ariamnes.) Sceleratissime ho-

caveri facile potuit. Augarus minuni, quis te malus diemon ad

autem, quum Partho studeret, nos adduxit.'' quibus veneficiis,

simulavit se Crassi amicum, libe- quibus praestigiispersuasistiCras-

raliterque ei pecuniam suam im- so ut per vastas solitudines iter

pendens, et exploravit omnia faceret, Numidae latrorum prin-

ejus consilia, et Partho enuncia- cipi magis decorum quam Ro-

vit. Dion. lib. 40. [cap. 20.] mano imperatori.'' Ille versipellis

a Vid. Plutarch, in Crasso. confortabat eos blanditiis, et hor-

Ep- S59-] Dionem 1. citato, [cap. tabatur, durarent paulisper: mi-

17.] Appian. de Bell. Parth. lites vero sublevabat accurrens,

[vol. 3. p. 37.] et cum risu cavillabatur : quid.

CHAP. XIX.

and other Homans' ill Success.

139

to renounce Cassius, and other grave experienced Ro-
man warriors' wholesome advice, and betake himself
wholly to the barbarous fugitive Augarus' directions,
suborned by the Parthian to betray him.

4. But Cassius, much wiser than his general in this
one particular of mistrusting foreigners, was after-
wards as far overseen in the main chance, and over-
taken with that sin which had caused Crassus' blind-
ness: first, polluted with like sacrilege*^, and cruel op-
pression of these Jews : then with his own blood**,
shed by his servant at his commandment, upon as gross
an oversight as Crassus had committed. So shall they

per Cairipaniam vos iter facere
putatis, ut requiratis fontes ac
rivos et umbras, scilicet, balne-
asque et coiitinuata pene diver-
soria ? non ineministis vos trans-
ire per Arabum et Assyriorum
confinia ? Ita turn Abgarus Ro-
manos quasi psedagogus quidam
castigabat : et priusquam depre-
henderetur in perfidia abequita-
vit, non clam, sed ex consensu
Crassi, fingens se curaturum ne-
cessaria et turbaturum consilia
hostium. Appian. de Bell. Partli.
[pag. 39.] Augarus, si quod
utile consilium Crassus cepisset,
dehortatus hominem est : sin
damnosum, confirmavit ; ac tan-
dem hujusmodi rem confecit.
Crassus Seleuciam contendere
decreverat, quo se tuto cum ex-
ercitu ac commeatu prseter Eu-
phratem ac trans eundem perve-
nire posse cogitabat : a Seleucia
(quam ut a Greecis hominibus
habitatam, facile sperabat in su-
am potestatem venturam) ad
Ctesiphontem urbem baud diffi-
culter se trajecturum. Id con-
silium, tanquam multo tempore
opus habiturum, ut repudiaret,
ac potius adversum Surenam,

qui prope cum parva manu esset,
iret, Augarus persuasit. Quibus
constitutis, cum Crassum ut per-
iret, Surenam (cum quo sub spe-
culandi praetextu frequenter con-
grediebatur) ut superare posset,
paravisset, Romanos nihil solici-
tos, ac tanquam ad certam jam
victoriam proficiscentes, eduxit :
in eisque tum per insidias oppri-
mendis Parthum adjuvit. Dion,
lib. 40. [cap. 20.] As he came
into this danger by Augarus'
treachery, so was he slain after
he had yielded himself unto Su-
renas, contrary to his oath and
promise. Vid. Appian. 1. citato,
[p. 62.] et Strabon. 1. 16. [p.
747-]

So saith St. Augustin de
Civit. Dei, 1. 18. c. 45. Postea,
(i. post Pompeii victoriam de
Judaeis) Cassius templum spoli-
avit. Of his cruel exactions in
Judsea, vide Joseph. Antiq. 1. 14.
c. T 8. [[aliis c. 1 1 . p. 7 16.]

•1 Of his gross error in mistak-
ing his victorious friend for his
persecuting enemy, vide Vellei-
um Paterculum, 1. 2. et reliquos
Rom. hist, autores.

140

Of Pumpeifs Pactions,

BOOK I.

all, sooner or later, be infatuate, that rob God of his
honour, and put their trust in wrong and violence.
And thus till this time did they perish all, as many as
bare ill-will to Sion ; for Hierusalem's hour was not
yet come, because the Day-spring had not visited her
from on high. The glory of her temple was not as
yet revealed ; unto whom, after her children had of-
fered greater disgrace than the Romans had done to
their temple, the staff of her wonted stay begins to
break, the bonds of her former jjeace untwine, and only
one part of her double fates remain ; if theu^ she fall,
she riseth not again, she hath no inclination left but
to destruction ; the burden of the fathers' sins, and
the yoke of captivity due thereto, grows heavier and
heavier in the descent upon posterity, without all hope
of recovery, much less of revenge, upon; such as offer
her greatest violence ; but rather happy shall that man
be thought, and highest earthly honour shall^ be the
wages of his service, that rewards her children as they
had served their Lord and Saviour. But these times
were not come in Crassus' or Cassius' days, in which
some relics of her ancient hopes remained, to see the
rods and scourges of her correction consume and wi-
ther, after once the Almighty had taken off his punish-
ing hand. And if unto these three above mentioned,
we add the like destiny of Antony and Scipio, and the
ill success of the other Romans who had aught to do
with these Jews before our Saviour's time; we may
76 conclude, that although the Romans were then lords
of the earth, yet this people, whom they held as base,
retained the privilege of God's I'oyal priests. Although
the souls of all flesh were the Lord's, who for this
cause revenged the oppi'essed in every nation ; yet
Israel only (as the prophet speaks) icas as a thhig
hallowed unto the Lord, his firstfruits ; all such as

CHAP. XIX. and other Romans ill Success,

141

devoured them did offend, evil should come upon
them^, although inflicted by their own or their serv-
ants' hands at their appointment. Lastly, if we call
to mind the former distinction of ages, and the diverse
manner of God's dealing with them, before and after
the Babylonish captivity ; the contraction or abridg-
ment of their large privileges, in the long succession
of times foretold by ancient, and acknowledged by
their own later writers : we cannot mistrust the am-
plitude of their fundamental charter, or their historical
narrations of what the Lord had done of old unto Ja-
bin, Sisera, and Sennacherib, would we (allowing some
different condition of times) compare theirs with Pom-
pey's and his complices' unusual fates. God's power God's judg-
was more immediately manifested in the one, his wis- p^mpe'y^s'''*
dom more admirable in the other, his justice the same'^*'^"""

' " were most

in both. Yet a Roman would reply: If Pompey hadi^st, be-
cause thev

so grievously offended, why should he not have borne had partid-
the whole burden of his sins? So he should, had sfJlf''
either he alone offended, or the Romans suffered him
to have lived a private life ; but if they will associate
themselves as members to their natural head, and pro-
fess their service and allegiance unto him, that stood
as proscribed by the court of heaven ; God's quarrel
with the whole faction is most just, all of them are
guilty of their general sins, all liable to the plagues
and punishments due thereto. Yet, besides that Pom-
pey's intolerable presumption and profaneness, accord-
ing to the usual course of God's justice, might propa-
gate his destiny unto such of his adherents as had been
free from any actual wi'ong done to the Jews, or con-
tempt of their God and religion in particular ; a great
many of his chief followers had polluted themselves
with the like sin in Jerusalem. For, as Josephus tells
e Jerem. ii. 3. Levit. xxiii. 10.

142

Of Poinpeys Factions,

BOOK I.

us^, Pornpey went not into the most holy place alone,
but accompanied with a multitude. All of them, no
doubt, had sinned presumptuously against the admoni-
tions and threatenings of God's priests ; and this peo-
ple's curse (it seems) did follow them, whither they
themselves durst not ; for, as the same writer testifies,
" No other calamity in that war did grieve the nation
so much, as this polluting of their temple."

5. Whatsoever Tully's or other politic Romans' con-
ceit of this people in his time was ; many amongst the
Romans, as well as in most other nations, had (with-
out question) either observed the like fatal mischances
of such as vexed them, or else had felt some good in
observing their laws, whose persons unknown they
hated. In one or both which respects, these Jews
stood upon better terms with their conquerors, than
any other captives did. And unless it had been a re-
ceived opinion amongst other Romans, that this had
been a people favoured of the Divine powers ; why
should Tully have objected their late conquest by
Pompey to prove the contrary? And, methinks, it
might have moved him and others, so much devoted
77 to the Roman gods before, to have thought these Jews
did serve a better God than they knew any, after they
had seen their own state utterly ruined without all
hope of recovery, and their gods either unwilling or
unable (as Tully doubtfully complains) to redress
those miseries and calamities, of which they should

f Judaeorum quidem 1 2 millia comitibus in templum ingressus,
occiibuerunt : Romanorum vero ubi neminem praeter pontificem
perpauci, sed phires sauciati adesse fas erat, quae intus erant
sunt. Nihil autem gravius in candelabra cum lychnis et men-
ilia Clade Judaeorum genti visum sis in quibus libare atque ado-
est, quam sanctum illud Area- lere moris est, et vascula ex auro
nuni, neque cuiquam prius vi- cuncta spectavit. Joseph, de
sum, alienis esse detectum. De- Bello Judaico, 1. i. c. 5. [aliis
nique Pompeius una cum suis cap. 7. p. 68.]

CHAP. XIX. and other Romans' ill Success.

143

at least have given them warning, when as Hieru-
salem's walls, which Pompey had demolished, were
(according to this people's hope, from which no power
on earth could deject them, being supported by the
express promise of their God) reedified within twenty
years, and they graced with great privileges for their
good service performed to Cassar. For chiefly by their
means became he lord of Egypt, the first and surest
ground of his good success in Afric ; as Josephus^ out
of the public decrees and testimonies of Roman writers
boldly avoucheth, challenging the heathen to disprove
him or his testimonies, if they could, though this they
easily might have done, if he had cited them amiss,
because the originals were then every where extant.

6. The former testimonies alleged out of Tully,
(whose works we have,) so well agreeing with Jose-
phus, who it seems had never read them, will not suf-
fer any ingenious man to suspect the truth of that
which the same Josephus cites out of Strabo the Cap-
padocian, whose works are lost. " The Jews," sadth he,
" have crept into most cities, nor can a man almost
name any place in the inhabited world, where they
once get footing, but they hold possession. Egypt,
Cyrene, and many other nations have admitted their
rites, and in lieu of them, nurse huge multitudes of
Jews using their own domestic law. Besides that a
great part of Alexandria is assigned to their use, there
be colonies of this nation throughout Egypt which en-
joy magistrates of their own, for determining all con-
troversies of right and wrong, in such sort and form
as is used in absolute states l^" Saint Augustine ' hath

g Vide Joseph. 1. 14. Antiq. colae^ inquilini, et quarti Judaei,

cap. 14 — 17. [aliis cap. 8. et 9. hoc jam in omnes urbes subrep-

p. 696.] sit, &c. Jos. Ant. 1. 14. c. 12.

Quatuor erant genera in [aliis c. 7. p. 694.]

Cyrenensium urbe, elves, agrl- • Seneca inter alias clvilis

144

Of Pompey''s Factions, ^c.

BOOK I.

the same observation out of Seneca's books, concerning
superstition, which this reverend father had perused,
though, with divers others of that famous philoso-
pher's works, now lost.

7. What Strabo had observed of these Jews in Svl-
las, and Seneca in his time, is intimated by Tully in
fewer words. " You know well," saith he unto his ad-
versary, " what a great faction it is ; how closely they
band together, what sway they bear in assemblies^."
But how great soever the number of this people was
at Rome, they durst not have been so bold in the
mistress city of the world, unless their patrons there
had been many. And it seems by Tully's conclusion,
in the forementioned place, that the bare unkindness
offered by Flaccus to this nation, was worse taken at
Rome, than the wrongs and violence which he was
accused to have done to sundry other people. " The
gold," saith he, "for which Flaccus was accused, is in
the treasury : you charge him not with theft, but only
seek to make him odious : your speech is turned from
the judges, and directed to the company^"

theologiae superstitiones repre- causas ritus sui noverunt, et ma-

hendit sacramenta Judaeorum. jor pars populi facit, quod cur

Christianos tameu jam tunc Ju- faciat, ignorat Aug. 1. 6. de

daeis ininiicissimos in iieutram Civit. c.ii.

partem commemorare ausus est, ^ Sequitur auri ilia invidia

ne vel laudaret contra suae pa- Judaici. Hoc nimirum est illud,

triae veterem consuetudinem, vel quod non longe a gradibus Ati-

reprehenderet contra propriam reliis haec causa dicitur, ob hoc

forsitan voluntatem. De illis crimen hie locus, abs te, Laeli, et

sane Judaeis, cum loqueretur, ait, ilia turba quaesita est. Scis

cum interim usque eo sceleratis- quanta sit manus, quanta con-

sima; gentis consuetudo conva- cordia, quantum valet in con-

luit, ut per onines jam terras cionibus, &c. Cic. Orat. pro

recepta sit, victi victoribus leges Flacco. [cap. 28.]

dederunt — . Mirabatur hac di- 1 Aurum in aerario est, fur-

cens, et quid divinitus ageretur, tum non reprehenditur, a judici-

ignorans, subjecit plane senten- bus oratio avertitur, vox in co-

tiam, qua signiticaret, quid de ronam turbamque elfunditur.

illorum sacramentorum ratione Cic. Orat. pro Flacco. [ibid.]
sentiret. Ait enim : lUi tamen

( HAP. XX. Tacitus Ids Objections against the Jews refuted. 145

CHAP. XX. 78

Tacitus Objections agaimt the Jews refuted, by their palpa-
ble grnssiiess, and more compettnt Testimony of other Hea-
then IVriters.

1. Unto this their powerfulness in persuading other
nations to renounce their own, and embrace their laws
and religion, Tacitus™ ascribes the increase of these
Jews' estate ; albeit he nialiciously attributes this at-
tractive force unto the impiety of their laws, as if by
sympathy they had wrought most upon wicked and
depraved natures. But wherein did their impiety con-
sist ? " What we Romans esteem sacred, they account
profane; what is polluted to us, is lawful to them"."
This argues that either the Roman religion or theirs
was superstitious and profane : and he, like a true
patriot and right Romanist, loath to suspect that reli-
gion wherein his forefathers had prospered so well,
charges the contrary orthodoxal with superstitious im-
piety. Most true it was, that the Jews of his time
were a wicked people, but every way of the losing
hand ; their strength, which had been long in gather-
ing, was suddenly broke by Titus, and their wonted
means of increase, l)y addition of proselytes, quite cut
off. For after the temple's destruction, nullus ad
amissas that amicus opes ; from the first day of our
Saviour's ministerial function, they did not win half
so many Gentiles to Judaism, as our Saviour and his
disciples did Jews unto Christianity. Tacitus then
spake not of such Jews as lived in his time, when
their strength and greatness was in the wane ; but of

Hi ritus quoquo modo in- congerebant. Tacit. Hist. 1. 5.

ducti, antiquitate defenduntur. [cap. 5.]

Caetera instituta sinistra, fceda, " Profana illic omnia, quae

pravitate valuere. Nam pessi- apud nos sacra. Rursiim con-

mus quisque spretis religionibus cessa apud illos, quae nobis in-

patriis, tributa et stipes illuc cesta. Idem ibid. [cap. 4.]

JACKSON, VOL. I. L

146 Tacitus his Objectiom against the Jews refuted, book i.

their ancestors, during the time of the second temple.
Nor Avas it that, which was most wicked indeed in
this people, or their predecessors, (as their particular
opposition, or contrariety unto Divine truths,) but
rather what was only good in them, as their con-
stancy in their religion, and steadfast profession of
Abraham's faith, common to them and the Christians,
The which was the ground of this politic's hateful censure,

grounds of ox

worldly for this rcasou alike bitter against them and the Chris-
hatredT-^ tians. That either should be so resolute in defence of
Ce profet t^^^^'^' ^wn religion, was, in his opinion, a pernicious
truth^ superstition, liable to any punishment that could be
injposed, as another Roman writer » of his time was
not ashamed to avouch. If wilfulness simply deserve
punishment, the carnal minded make no scruple in
what measure it be inflicted, seeing the more grievous
the torture is, the greater it always argues their wil-
fulness or obstinacy to be that will undergo it rather
than obey their superiors, so as the crime seem always
commensurable to the punishment, though it could be
increased in iiifinitum. And Tacitus seems well to
approve of Antiochus's savage cruelty against the Jews,
as a medicine that would in time have wrought a re-
formation, if the Parthian had permitted this cruel
chirurgion to have applied his patients with change of
such corroding plaisters. So immoderate is the ambi-
tious man's desire, that to be lord of others' bodies
79 doth but whet his appetite, and stir up a longing to
become lord of their faith and consciences also. And
to refuse absolute obedience in matters spiritual, as

o Interim in iis, qui ad me tus, perseverantes duci jussi.

tanquam Christiani defereban- Neque enim dubitabam, quale-

tur, hunc sum sequutus modum. cunque esset quod faterentur,

Interrogavi ipsos, an essent pervicaciam certe, el injiexibilem

Christiani confitentes iterum ac obsfinationem debere pitniri, Plin.

tertio rogavij supplicium mina- Epist. 1. lo. Epist. loo. alit. 97.

CHAP. XX. Tacitus his Objections against the Jews refuted. 147

well as temporal, unto such as are competent judges of
the one, not of the other, is a sin as hateful as rebel-
lion, the foulest crime that can be conceived or fashion-
ed in the politician's brain.

2. Besides these general motives, which would min-
ister enough of matter for superiors to condemn their
inferiors ; it did in particular exasperate Tacitus, and
other politics of his temper, to see so many natural
Romans renounce their name and country, forsake
father and mother, friend and alliance, for maintenance
of Jewish religion. And albeit that nation had sus-
tained incredible calamities by the Romans, yet it
vexed him to remember, that they should be able to
have done the Romans i' so much mischief, always stir-
ring when others were quiet ; being, to his seeming, a
base people in respect of many other subject to the
Roman empire. Perhaps his hate to Christians was
propagate from his inveterate malice against tliese
Jews, in whose region Christianity (as he confesseth)
did first spring. But Pliny's*! testimony will suffi-
ciently quit the Christians from those imputations,
which Tacitus'" unjustly layeth upon them. As for
that impiety wherewith he chiefly chargeth the Jews'

P Judaii (ut est gens ea, irae,
si semel ea correj)ta fiierit, acer-
bissimae) multa ac gravia mala
quidem Romanis intulerant, lon-
ge tamen pliira passi sunt. Dion,
lib. 4Q. [cap, 2 2.]

q Artiruiabant auteni banc esse
summam, vel culj)iB suae vel er-
roris, quod essent soliti slato die
ante lucent convetiire, carmenque
Chrisfo quasi Deo dicere secum
inviceni ; seque sacramento non
in scelus aliquod obstringere ;
sed ne furta, ne latrocinia, ne
adulteria conimitterent, ne fidem
fallerent, ne depositum appellati

abnegarent . Quo magis ne-

cessariuni credidi ex duabus an-
cillis, quae ministry dicebantur,
quid esset veri, et per tormenta
quserere. Sed nihil aliud inveni,
quam suj)erstitioneni pravam, et
imniodicam : ideoque dilata cog-
nitione ad consuienduni Te de-
cucurri. Plin. Epist. 1. lo. Ep.
loo. aliis 97.

>" Transgressi in morem eorum
idem usurpant, nec quidquam
2)rius imbuuntur, quam contem-
nere Decs, exuere patriam ; pa-
rentes, liberos, fratres, vilia ha-
bere. Tacit. Hist. 1. 5. Qcap. 5.]

L 2

148 Tacitus his Objections against the Jews refuted, book. i.

religion, it iiiii)lies an evident contradiction. " Such as
conform themselves," saith he, "to their customs are
likewise transformed in mind. The first precept where-
vrith they are seasoned, is to contemn the gods, to put
off all natural affection to their country." If the Jews
did either forsake father or mother, or other kindred,
it was for the love of their God, religion, and country.
For, unless the greatness of their love to God droM^ned
the other, no people in the world did ever match them
in love to their kinsfolks, friends, and countrymen.
But if they persuaded the Romans to esteem the glory
of Rome as vile, in respect of Hierusalem, and account
Romish rites and ceremonies, compared with theirs,
as sacrilegious and profane ; they did that but upon
good and warrantable grounds, which any true Roman
would have done upon far worse ; that is, they sought
their country's good, by winning the good-will of
others to their estate and religion.

3. But what madness possessed Tacitus his mind,
that he should think, or rather write, (for I do not
think that he thought, or cared what he wrote, when
he avouched,) that the wickedness of their laws was a
means of alluring wicked or lewd companions to their
observance ? I would their greatest enemies were ad-
mitted judges ; whether such as indeed were, or such
as any civil heathen would so account, not such as it
pleased Tacitus only, out of mere pride and spleen, to
call wicked persons, would not in all likelihood be
more ready to subscribe unto the rites of Venus or
Bacchus, (whose service Tacitus so well likes,) or any
other of the Romish gods, than tie themselves unto
Judaical ceremonies; which, once subscribed unto, were
80 to be most strictly observed by aliens as well as Jews ;
nor could they be throughly acquainted with their
laws, or admitted to other mysteries, until they had

CHAP. XX. Tudtus his Ohjevtions agciinst the Jews refuted. 149

communicated with them in that sacrament of circmn-
cision, always most loathsome and grievous to flesh
and blood. What pleasures of the flesh, what disso-
luteness or luxury, or what that can be properly called
sin or enormity, did their laws maintain or nourish,
or their rites or ceremonies any way insinuate ? All
that Tacitus (comparing their rites with those of Bac-
chus) could in conclusion say against them, was, "That
Bacchus his rites were merry and pleasant ; theirs,
absurd and base^"

4. Unto these political surmises of Tacitus, alto-
gether ignorant of foreign antiquities, I will oppose
the judgment of Strabo', a less partial writer, and a
professed antiquary, living about our Saviour's time ;
from whom, amongst others, we may gather, that the
famous and conspicuous hill of Sion stood as a problem
to oi)pose the nations; and from admiration of her
strange and unobservable fortunes and change, were
so many opinions blazed abroad of those Jews' origi-
nal and state. Of all that were extant in his time,
capable of any credit, this following went best for cur-
rent, and did sway the most: to wit; that these Jews
(as you heard before of his error in this particular)
were descended from the Egyptians ; the cause of their
departure out of Egypt was to seek a place where
they might worship God aright, persuaded hereunto
by Moses, whom he takes for an Egyptian priest, but
one that condemned the Egyptians for painting beasts,
the Africans and Grecians for using pictures of men
to represent God ; deeming it a madness to imagine
that he that contained all things could be represented
by any visible or sensible creature. Chastity and ho-

s Liber festos laetosque ritus lib. 5. [cap. 5.]
posuit ; Juclii'orum mos iibsur- ' Strabo's testimony of tlie
(Ills sordidusque. Tacit. Hist. Jews' religion. Lib. 16. p. 761.

L 3

1 50 Tacitus Ids Objections against the Jews refuted, book i.

liness were the dispositions of such as sought him, or
could hope to know his will ; and for this purpose or-
dained sacrifice, neither chargeable to such as should
use them, nor otherwise offensive by their undecency,
lewdness, or absurdity. '"^With these persuasions," saith
he, "Moses prevailed with the better sort, and such as
feared God, to forsake Egypt : and seated once about
Jerusalem, neighbour countries did associate them-
selves unto them, allured by the equity of their laws,
and the purity of the religion which they professed ;
whence he erected a new kingdom, and that no mean
one. And his successors for a time continued in his
institutions, just, and rightly religious. But after
they had (as Tacitus likewise observeth) joined the
priesthood to support their kingdom, they grew more
superstitious y, tyrannical to their own, and noisome
neighbours to other countries. ^Yet was their hold
or fort still had in honour ; not detested as a nest
of thieves, or seat of tyrants, but reverenced as a
temple." Thus far Strabo. Who, although he were

* 'EKeii^os fxiv ovv Toiavra Xiyuiv
eTTfKTev fvyvoifiovas dfSpas ovK oAi-
yovs — Koi TTapadoxreLV vTTiar)(yovp,e-
vos ToiovTOv (Ti^aafMov Ka\ Toiavrrjv
UpOTVouav , rjris ov8e SaTrdvais o)(\r]-
aei TOVS xpatpivovs, ovre 6€0(j)opiais,
oijTf oXXatj TTpaypareiais aroTTois.
oStos p-fv oiiv evdoKiptjaas tovtois
wvecrTTjcraTO apxv^ '"'7'' TV)(ovaav,
arravTav '!rpo(T)(a>pr^(Ta.vTaiv pabiccs
TO)V kvkKco dia TTJV opikiav kol to.
TrpoTeivopeva. ol fie SiaSe^dpevoi
Xpovovs jue'v Tivas iv Tois avTo'is fite-
fidvov SiKaioTTpayovvTes, Koi Ocoae-

I3US (OS dXr]dwS OVTCS.

y Yet was Strabo somewhat
offended with circunicision^ and
their sabbaths, as being ignorant
of tlieir causes ; as their sabbaths
indeed were then superstitious.

'■*llv S' Specs evTrpeneid Tts rrepi

TOV OKpoTToXlV aVTMV, OVK oos Tvpav-

veiov j3b(\vTT0pev'j)V, aXX (OS Upov
crepvvvuvTcov re koi (Tf^pevoov. Stra-
bo, lib. 1 6. p. 761. See Dion's
acquittal of these Jews from
Tacitus' imputations. Diversum
a reliquis nominibus obtinent^
cum aliis in rebus, usuque vitae
quotidiano, turn eo praesertim
quod nullum ex caeteris diis co-
lunt, nnum autem quendam sum-
mo studio venerantur. Nec ul-
lum simulachrum Hierosolymis
unquam habuerunt, nimirum
suum ilium Deum Ineffabilem
et formac expertem, religioso
ejus cultu caeteros mortales su-
perant. Dion. lib. 37. [cap. 17.]

CHAP. XX. Tacitus his Objections against the. Tews refuted. 151

mistaken in sundry particulars of this people's anti-
quity, (as all beside themselves of necessity were, by
reason this sacred volume was kept secret from all
such as did not observe their rites,) yet from tradition
he had learned as much as could be known of them in
general ; that Moses their first lawgiver was a prophet,
and one that relied not upon policy, but the Divine
oracles; that this people in ancient times had been
much better, and had prospered accordingly.

5. With this Strabo the geographer, that noble his- 81
torian Dion Cassius well accords, but more fully with
Strabo the Cappadocian, whose works, now lost, Jose-
phus cited. " This^people," saith Dion, " differ from
others, as in many other points and daily practice of
life, so especially in this, that they worship no other
gods, but only one of their own, whom they hold to
be invisible and ineffable, and for this cause admit not
any image of him ; yet do they worship him more de-
voutly and religiously than any other people do their
gods." But who this God of theirs was, or how he
came at first to be thus worshipped, how greatly he
was feared of this people, were points he listed not to
meddle withal, many other had written thereof before
him. It seems he gave but little credence unto Taci-
tus' discourse of their original, for he ingeniously pro-
fesseth, " that he knew not whence they had this
name of Jews, but others that followed their rites,
although aliens by birth and progeny, did brook the
same name or title ; even amongst the Romans them-
selves there were of this profession." He addeth,
" Although this people had been often crushed and
diminished, yet did they rise and increase again, above
the control of all other laws, only subject to their own*^."

" Regio ipsa, Judaea ; gens, menti unde initium ceperit haud
Judsei appellantur. Id cogno- scio. Quin, et alii homines qui

L 4

152 Means of the Jews tlwiving in Captivity, S^c. book i.

Thus he spake of the Jews living in Poinpey's time,
after which they had been often crushed before Taci-
tus wrote, yet recovered strength again.

CHAP. XXI.

The means of iheUe Jews thriving in Captivity. In what
they exceeded other People, or were exceeded by them.

1. These allegations, and many other, which out of
heathen writers I could bring, sufficiently prove, that
albeit these Jews tasted of as bitter calamities as any
other did, yet had they this strange advantage of all ;
that whereas all other were forsaken of their friends in
their adversity, and their laws usually changed by
their conquerors, ofttimes abrogated or neglected by
themselves upon their ill success; these Jews still
found most friends, and their laws (never forsaken by
them) most earnest favourers, in the time of their cap-
tivity and distress : " This was quite contrary to nature,
politic observation, or custom of the world." Where-
fore seeing nature and policy can afford us none, we
must seek resolution from their laws. The reasons
subordinate to the cause of causes (God's providence)
were these. In the time of their distress, they did
more faithfully practise their laws themselves, and had
better opportunity or greater necessity of communi-
cating them unto others ; they being of themselves
always most potent to allure sober and discreet minds
to their observance, made known and not prejudiced
by the foolish or sinister practice of their professors.
So their great lawgiver had foretold, Deut. iv. 5 — 8.

secundum eorum statuta vivant, men anctum est, ut etiam con-
id gerunt, quanquam alienigenaj. dendi leges licentiam sibi vindi-
Est id genus liominum ajjud carit. Or as some read, ut legum
Roinanos etiam, atque tanietsi quoque potestatem vicerit. Dion,
su-'pe imminutum fuerit, ita ta- ibid.

( HAP. XXI. Means of the Jews thriving in Captivity, Sfc. 153

Sehold I have taught you ordinances and laws, as
the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do
even so in the land whither ye go to jjossess it. ICeej)
them therefore and do them ; for that is your wisdom
and understanding in the sight of the people, which%1
shall hear of all these ordinances, and shall say. Only
this people is wise and of understaiiding, and a great
nation. For what nation is so great, unto whom the
gods come so near unto them, as the Lord our God is
near unto us in all that we come unto him for f AndaoA was
what nation is so great, that hath ordinances and^MuahXeto
laws so righteous as all this law, which I set ^^^^ than toTny
you this day? That they had not in later times so j^J^^"" p*^"-
great prosperity as others had, was no argument that
their God was not more near to thein, than the gods
of other nations to their worshippers ; for he was the
God of gods, and Lord of lords, wliich did good to
every nation ; yea, he made the Romans so great a
nation, albeit they knew it not. That these Jews were
now in subjection, and the Romans lords, was no ar-
gument that he was better to the Romans than to
them, or that they were a less nation, if we make an
equal comparison. For if God should often recover a
man from dangerous diseases, and propagate his life
unto two hundred years, in health and strength com-
petent for old age, this were no argument to prove
that he were not more favourable to him than to men
of younger years or middle age, whose strength is
greater for the present, but they unlikely to recover
health often impaired, or to renew life once lost in
human estimation, or to account half so many years.
In like sort was this people's often recovery from so in what
many overthrows and captivities, their long continu- jg"^,j^''igijt
ance a distinct nation from others, more extraordinary '["'y l'*'

•' thoiijrlit a

than the Romans' present strength or greatness. And'"'g'ity

tion.

154 Jleans of the ,/eivs thriving in Captivity, ^c. book i.

albeit many other empires and states were larger than
the kingdom of Israel was at any time, yet no other
people could be said so great a nation as this. For
others continued the same rather by identity of soil, or
like form of government, than by any real or material
unity or identity of people ; their increase was merely
political, and their greatness rose by way of addition
or accumulation ; that is, by admitting such mixture
of others, that from the first erection of the kingdom,
ere it came to its full greatness, the number of aliens
might overspread and hide the natural inhabitants, or
progenies of such as laid the fundamental laws there-
of, which were seldom so continuate by direct succes-
sion, as they might be rightly distinguished from
others. And as Theseus his ship was accounted one
and the same, because it retained the same form,
though not so much of the same timber whereof it was
first built, as did go to the making of half the keel ; so
the greatest states amongst the heathens retained per-
haps some few fundamental laws, or relics of ancient
families descending from their first founders, in which
respect alone they might be taken for one kingdom,
but not so properly termed one people or nation, to
whom greatness could be truly attributed, seeing a
great many of several people were to share in this
title. But these Jews (besides the perpetual unity of
their particular, as well as fundamental laws, less
varied either by change, addition, or abrogation, than
the laws of any other nation) continued still one and
the same people by a strict union of succession, their
growth was natural, after the manner of vital aug-
mentation. For albeit they admitted some mixture
of strangers, they could notwithstanding always dis-
83tinguish the progeny of foreign stocks from their
natural branches, which they could still derive from

CHAP.xxi. 3fe(uts of the Jews thriving in Captivity, &, c. 155

their several stems, and these all from one and the
same root ; so that after so many changes, and altera-
tions of their state from better to worse, and back
again ; after so many glorious victories, as scriptures
mention gotten by them over others, and so many
captivities of their persons and desolations of their
coimtries, as others had wrought, they remained still
one and the same people, by such a kind of imity, as a
great oak is said one and the same tree, from its first
spring to its last fall, whether naked and bereft of
leaves by blasts of autumn or winter's frost, or spoiled
of boughs by the lopper's ax, or beautified with plea-
sant leaf, or farspreading branches. If the glory of
other kingdoms were more splendent for a flash, pre-
sently to be extinguished, (as being greater than their
corruptible nature was capable of ;) this no way im-
peacheth God's promise for making Abraham's seed a
mighty nation, seeing it was not at any time so great
a people as at all times it might have been, had they
observed the means appointed for their growth. How The
incomparable the height of Sion's roof, above other
nations, might have been, we may guess from the ca- ^jJI^^'j^^"^,
pacity of her foundations. The known altitude and'i'seased

r ^ 1 estate, ar-

contmuance of her walls, though never finished to hergueshow
founder s desire, yet such as whoso shall look upon I'ie'their ^"
with an unpartial eye, must acknowledge ordained for ^'-^",1 '{jj^^.^
extraordinary strength and greatness. For take we ''•^"'.'if^

JO o they follow-

this kingdom with its defects, what wonder can revo-ed their
lutions of time afford like to this late mentioned ? that precepts
by such an unity of natural propagation from one root selvation of
(almost perished before it sprouted) and distinct lineal
succession never interrupted, Abraham's seed should
continue one and the same nation for two thousand
years : sometimes the mightiest amongst coeval king-
doms, a scourge and terror to all neighbour countries ;

156 Means of the Jews thriving in Captivity, &;c. book i.

and after many grievous wounds and deadly, (in their
estimation that gave them, received from others,) still
preserved alive, to see the successive rise and fall of
three great and potent monarchies, yet able in decrepit
days to hold play with the fourth, the mightiest that
ever was on earth, even whilst it was in its best age,
full strength and perfect health, free from any intes-
tine broils, secure of all external assaults. Much better
were these Jews able to encounter the Roman empire,
in Tacitus his life time, than it (within three himdred
years after his death) to defend the imperial seat
against barbarous, silly, and foolish nations, unhatched
when the Roman eagle's wings were spread over the
most famous kingdoms of the eartlu Suppose the
Roman empire had received, at the same time, but
half so terrible a blow in Italy as the Jews had done
The Ro- in Jewry and Hierusalem under Vespasian and his
had P™w^^on, how easily had the commotions of their relics,
theiike jj^ Traiau's and Adrian's times, shaken the Roman

push hefore

it fell, asjt yoke from off the nation's neck! or if the other ten
Jews in tribes' return had been but half so entire and complete
time'r"* Judah's and Benjamin's were, the Roman eagles
had never come to prey upon their carcasses in the
territories of Judaea. But it was their strong God,
which before had scattered Israel amongst the nations,
and at the time appointed shut these Jews up in Hie-
rusalem, as in a prison.
84 2. Again, other kingdoms gained little by their
greatness, save only magnificent names or swelling
titles. No other people enjoyed so great prosperity,
so good cheap, as this sometimes did, and all times
might have done. No other had so good assurance or
security of that prosperity or peace they enjoyed, as
this people had, unless themselves had made a wilful
forfeiture ; nor was the public health or welfare of any

CHAP. XXI. Means of the Jews tlirivvig in Captivity, &/€. 157

other state or kingdom so fully communicated to every
particular and inferior member. For usually the titu-
lary or abstract brightness of that glory, wherewith
other great states outwardly seemed most to shine,
was maintained with the perpetual harms, and inter-
nal secret mischiefs of many private persons, as great
flames are not nourished without great store of fuel :
whereas the prosperity of David's throne, as in other
points so in this, was established like the moon : that
whilst they turned unto their God, their state was
capable of greatest splendour, without consumption of
their natural parts or substance. And even whilst
other states did for their sins prevail against theirs,
yet such peers as had been principal instruments of
their woe, and took occasion to disgrace their laws or
religion, in their captivity and distress, had for the
most part (as was observed before) fearful and disas-
trous ends : and might more justly have taken up
that complaint, after their spoils of Jewry, which Dio-
medes did after the destruction of Troy,

Quicuinque Iliacos ferro violaviinus agros,

infanda per orbein

Suj)])licia, et scelerurn jjwnas expendimus omnes^.
What did Troy's fall, or Phrygian spoils, the Grecian's state
advance ?

Whom fearful plagues haunt through the world ; such was
the victor's chance.

Many of them (no doubt) before their dying day,
had observed as he did, that they had fought against
some god, whilst they wronged this people, and would
have been as unwilling to bear arms against them
again, as he was against the relics of the Trojans ;
JVec rnifii cUni Teiicris iilliim post enita helium
Pergaina; nec veterwn nie/ni/ii Icetorve malorum.

[/Eneid, xi. 1. 255.] c [ibid. 1. 279.]

158 Means of the Jeivs thriving in Capttvity,S)C. book i.

With Troy my spleen to Trojans ceas'd ; her flames quench

th' heat of war:
I little joy of what is past ; rub not a bleeding scar.

3. For these and many like consequents, this people
in the issue and upshot of their greatest calamities
had both reason to rejoice, and the heathens just cause
to say, The Lord had done great things for them^,
albeit he often suffered them to be conquered. For
even this sickliness of their state was a means of its
long life, their scourges and phlebotomies a sign of
God's tender care over their health, until they grew
proud of his favour, and waxed obdurate by his often
fatherly corrections, as one of their own writers well
observes : The Lord doth not long wait for us, as for
other nations whom he punisheth, when they are to
85 come to the fulness of their sins. But thus he dealeth
with us, that our sins should not be heaped up to the
full, so that afterwards he should punish us. And
therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us : and
though he punish with advej'sity, yet doth he never
forsahc his people^.

•4. Finally, their decay and increase was such as
could not be measured by the rules of policy. Hence
was it that Tacitus was not tacitus, but a tatler,
transported from him.self, his wonted sagacity and in-
genuity, as being quite out of his natural element^
while he meddled with their affairs. That contrariety
which he observes betwixt theirs and the Romans' re-
ligion, was as great betwixt their policies. What was
good in the one was naught in the other : that which
Rome did think might preserve her in health, was
apprehended, by the wisest amongst this people, as
ready poison for their state. Those plots which would
have crushed any other people, once brought under,

d Psal. cxxvi. 2. ^2 ^lacc. vi. 14.

CHAP. XXI. Means of the Jews thriv'mginCaptivity,SfC. 159

did oft work their advancement, and their enemy's
fall. Whence both their rising and falling, and conse-
quently the success of such as opposed themselves
against them, were, in other nations' apprehension,
sometime in their own, merely fatal, altogether incor-
rigible by worldly policy, especially in more ancient
times. Hence did the wise men of Chaldea, upon the
first notice of the wind's turning for them, read Ha-
man's destiny, but too late ; If Mordecai he of the
seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall,
thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely
fall before him^. Achior the Ammonite's speech to
Holofernes, whether truly uttered by him, or feigned
by the penman of that story, was framed (no doubt)
according to the known experience of those times, and
contains such advice, as a faithful counsellor, well ac-
quainted with their estate, upon like occasion should
have given unto his lord, not so well acquainted with ^nto what

^ ^ time this

it. This he was bound unto by the rules of poetry, history is
which the author of that book (unless perhaps hisfen-^'tee
memory failed him in the circumstance of time, an sevenis.
escape incident to fictions, for their affinity with lies) P'"^- ^-^
very well observes, if his work be rather to be cen-
sured for a poem than an history : his advice was this :
And ivhiles they sinned not before their God, they
prospered, because the God that hated iniquity was
with them. But when they departed from the way
which he appointed them, they were destroyed in many
battles after a ivonderful sort, and were led captive
into a land which was not theirs, and the temple of
their God was cast to the ground, and their cities
ivere taken by the enemies. But now they are turned
to their God, and are come up from the scattering
wherein they were scattered, and have possessed Hie-
rusalem, where their temple is, and dwell in the

^ Esther vi. 13.

160 MeaiisoftheJeu'stltriviiigbi Captivity, 6) c. book i.

mountains U'hich were desolate. Wow therefore, my
lord and governor, if there he any fault in this peo-
ple, so that they have sinned against their God, let us
consider that this shall be their ruin, and let us go
up, that we may overcome them. But if there be none
iniquity in this people, let my lord pass by, lest their
Lord defend them, and their God he for them, and
we become a reproach before all the woi'Id?. The
first root of all such effects or known experiments as
in ancient time yielded matter to their neighbours of
this or like observation, was God's first promise unto
Abraham : And I will make of thee a great nation,
and will bless thee, and make thy name great, and
thou shalt he a blessing : I will also bless them that
bless thee, and curse them that curse thee : and in thee
86 shall all the families of the earth be blessed^. Which
promise, as it doth concern the temporal state of the
Jews, was to be limited, according to the tenor of
Achior's speech, and did then only take effect, when
they followed Abraham's footsteps, and lived in faith-
ful obedience to God's laws, or having transgressed
them, did turn again with their whole heart to seek
The causes the God of their fathers. From experience of their

of the hea- . , i t i • i i •

then s in- good success lu such cascs, partly, 1 tnmk, were their
theJe«°sTn n^'g^ibour couutries so savage and merciless towards
their dis- them in their greatest distress, always crying, upon
like occasion, as the Edomites did in the day of Hieru-
salem, Down with it, down with it, even to the
ground! Because they could not hope for any revenge,
but by waiting the turning of their fates, and taking
them in the ebbing of their fortunes ; for when they
begun to rise, they knew there was no means to stay
them. The Arabian's' immane and savage practices

tress.

g Judith V. 1 7-2 1 . ' Judeea terra quali nunquam

^Gen. xii.2. ante motu concussa, magnam

CHAP. XXI. Means of tlie Jews thriving in Captivity, &;c. 161

upon their ambassadors, seeking compassion to their
lamentable estate torn and ruinate by the mighty hand
of their God, in a fearful and prodigious earthquake,
do argue a deep-rooted memory of their ancestors'
strange overthrows (mentioned in scripture) by this
people's forefathers, and these later Arabians long
lying in wait to do these Jews a mischief, if they
had not been restrained by the mighty hand of God ;
who now, as they suppose, being turned their enemy,
they apprehend this opportunity of working a full
revenge. Nor are their hard hearts mollified with
their public misei'ies, nor their inveterate malice so
quenched with their ambassadors' blood, shed in the
seventh year of Herod's reign, but it burst out again
in Vespasian's time. For these Arabians, though never
(as Am. Marcellinus, lib. 14. [c. 8.] notes) any true
friends or well-willers to the Roman state, were the
forwardest men to assist Titus in Hierusalem's last and
fatal siege. For the same reasons were the nations
round about them as earnestly bent to hinder the re-
edifying of Hierusalem, after the return from captivity,
as these were now to pull it down, as fearing lest this
people's good fortunes should rise again with their
city walls. ]5ut, as Nehemiah notes, ajter the enemies
had heard that the wall was finished, theij were
afraid, and their courage failed them, for they knew
that this work was wrought by God. Nehem. vi. 16.

per totam earn regionem jactu- stiiim auimos, quasi siibversis

ram fecit pecudum : quiii et ho- J uclffiorum iirbibus et extinctis

ininum oppressa sunt minis a-di- hominibus, nulli jam superes-

um circiter decern millia. JMili- sent. Legates itaque gentis, qui

taris tamen multitudo nihil de- rebus afflictis pacem petituri ve-

trimenti accepit, utpote sub dio nerant coniprehensos necaverunt,

agitans. Ha;c clades etiam in nioxque magna alacritate jjrope-

majus aucta rumoribus, quos raverunt ad hostilem exerciturn.

nuncii, gentilium odiorum non Joseph. Antiq. 1. j 5. c. 7. [aliis

ignari, dabant auribiis Arabuni, cap. 5. p. 752.]
immane quantum extulit ho-

JACKSON, VOL. I. M

1G2 Means of the Jews thriving in Captivity, c^ t. book i.

5. These and like observations make me think it
was not skill in astrology, or such arts as the magi
used, (whereunto this of all people was least addicted,)
which first hatched that oi)inion of the Jews' descent
from the magi ^ : rather the later heathen, ignorant
of their original, and not able to derive that strange
success which did haunt them, or their demeanour
answerable thereto, from ordinary or natural causes,
referred all to magic spells, or some art of divination.
So unwilling is flesh and blood to acknowledge such as
they hate for the beloved of the Lord ; and so power-
ful is the prince of darkness, either to blind the hearts
of the worldly wise, or to avert their eyes from be-
holding an unpleasant truth, that if at any time the
finger of God appear in the deliverance or good success
of his people, the infidel or natural man ascribes such
effects as magicians (unless upon presumption of tra-
vellers' privilege amongst the ignox'ant) durst not arro-
gate to themselves, unto magical or other like arts ;
because the corruption of their nature is more capable
of such practices than of true belief in God, and they
87 more prone in distress to fly unto sorceries or magic
charms, than with true faith and firm constancy to
expect the deliverance of the Lord by such means as
the faithful Israelites did'. So when the Christian
legion had, by their prayers, relieved Antoninus's army,
ready to swound for thirst, with plenty of water, in as
miraculous sort as Elisha did sometime the host o.f
Israel'" ; the heathens, acknoM'ledging the effect for
supernatural, ascribed it to Arnuphis, the Egyptian
sorcerer, his acquaintance with Mercury, and other
supposed gods of the air. In like sort the modern

^ Refert Diog. Laertius in p. 260.]
Prooemio, p. 6. 2 Kings iii.

1 Dion Xipliil. [in Antonino,

CHAP. XXII. The Heathens' Objections, 8fc.

163

Jew, acknowledging" many wonders wronght by our
Saviour, takes it for a sufficient argument, that all of
them were wrought by magic skill, only because the
Evangelist saith, he had been in Egypt"; so is he
blinded with wilful malice, that he cannot see how, by
this objection, he lays all the wonders which Moses
wrought, open to the like exception of atheists, infidels,
and heathen. For both Moses, in whom he trusts,
and Abraham in whom he glories, and all the pa-
triarchs, from whom the Jews descended, had been in
Egypt in ripe age, where our Saviour came not, but in
his infancy. As for his miracles, the testimony of
Moses, and other prophets, whose Divine authority is
acknowledged by the Jew, shall evince them wrought
by the finger of God. In the meantime the estate of
the Jews since their death, sufficiently known to all
the M'orld, and foretold by them, shall manifest against
the atheist, that they all wrote by the Spirit of God.

CHAP. XXII.

That alt the Heathens' Objections against, or doubts concern-
ing the Jews' Hastate, are prevented or resolved by Jewish
Writers.

1. Out of that which hath been hitherto premised,
this conclusion stands firm, supported both by foreign
writers' observation, and these Jews' own confession,
that they were a people remarkable for their unusual
prosperity and calamity. I am fully persuaded it
would have given full satisfaction to any ingenuous
Roman or later heathen, that this was a people be-
loved of God, had they known as much as we do :
that all they could object in contempt of the Jews, or
their religion, had been (conceived before by the Assy-
rian and Babylonian, but falsified in the event) fully
° See Munster on the second chapter of Matt. Hebr.
M 2

164 Heathens' Objections against the Jews'' Estate booki.

answered by Judaical writers, and plainly foretold by
their prophets ; lest such events as occasioned others
to contemn them, might have proved temptations to
the godly amongst this people, as if they had been
forsaken of their God. The days had been, wherein
the Babylonians had taken themselves for men, and
their idols for gods, as good as Rome had any; and
these Jews for as base a people as the world yielded ;
They had gathered captimtij as the sand, moched the
kings, and made a scorn of the prifices, deriding
every strong hohl'^: and hence (as the Prophet fore-
saw) they were as ready as the Romans to take cou-
rage in transgressing and doing wickedl}^ imputing
this their power unto their god. But the Prophet is
not herewith dismayed, nor templed to think his God's
power was less than theirs ; albeit, to shew himself a
true patriot of Israel, he complains of their intolerable
presumption, which in due time he well foresees should
be abated. Art not thou of old, my Lord, my God,
miyie Holy One ? ice shall not die : O Lord, thou
hast ordained them for Judgment; and O God, thou
hast established them for correction. Thou art of
pure eyes, and canst not behold wickedness : ivhere-
fore dost thou look upon the tra^isgressors, and hold-
est thy tongue uhen the wicked devoureth the man
that is more righteous than he ? and makest men as
the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things, that
have no ruler over them f They take up all ivith
the angle, they catch it in their net, and gather it in
their yarn, whereof they rejoice and are glad. There-
fore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense
unto their yarn, because by them their portion is fat,
and their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore stretch
out their net, and not spare continually to slay the

° Hab. i. 9, I o.

CHAP. XXII. prevoded or resolved by Jewish Writers. 165

nations ? No ; he knew their time was limited, and
other nations, as Jeremiah saith, when his time was
come, were to serve themselves oj" him ; though God at
that time had exposed the princes of Judah to his
violence, for their violent oppression of their brethren,
as Habakkuk expressly notes in the beginning of his
forementioned prophecy. These Jews, before the event
did prove the contrary, were as incredulous they should
be brought into captivity by the Babylonian, or such
foolish idolaters, as the Romans were of their great
prosperity under David or Solomon. And for to beat
down this proud humour in them, the prophet Ezekiel
foretells, that for their extreme cruelty the Lord
would punish them by the most wicked of the heathen :
Make a chain : for the land is full of the judgment
of blood, and the city is full of cruelty. Wherefore I
will bring the most wicked of the heathen, and they
shall possess their houses : I will also make the pomp
of the mighty to cease ; and their holy places shall be
dejiled. When destruction cometh, they shall seek
peace, and shall not have it. Calamity shall come
vpon calamity, and rumour shall be upon rumour;
then shall they seek a vision of the jjrophet; but the
law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from
the ancient. And lest any should marvel, why God
would so use his chosen people, he gives the reason in
the words immediately following, because he was a
God of justice. The king shall mourn, and the princes
shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of
the people in the land shall be troubled: I will do
unto them according to their ways, and according to
their judgments will I judge them; and they shall
know that I am the Lord^\

2. More particularly, both Tully's objection, con-
P Ezek. vii. 23,
M 3

166 Heathens' Objections against the Jews'' Estate book i.

cerning their overthrow and conquest, is directly an-
swered ; Strabo and Seneca's doubt, concerning their
thriving in captivity, fully resolved ; and Tacitus' false
imputations of their increase, sufficiently cleared by
the Psalmist : They ivere stained ivith their own
works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.
Therefore was the ivrath of' the Lord kindled against
his people, and he abhorred his own inheritance. And
he gave them into the hand of the heathen ; and they
that hated them were lords over them. Their enemies
also oppressed them, and they were humbled under
their hand. Many a time did he deliver them ; but
they provoked him by their counsels, therefore they
were brought down by their iniquities'^. Had Tully
read thus much, he might have been fully satisfied
that it was not love or hate of his immortal gods
89 which made the Romans conqueroi's, the Jews cap-
tives : but it was their love to sin, only hateful to
their God, which brought them in subjection unto the
Romans ; and made Caesar, whom Tully and other
Romans hated, lord over them, as they had been over
the Jews. And if Strabo, Seneca, Tacitus, or others,
that either envied or marvelled at these Jews' prosperity,
had read what follows in the same Psalm, they had
rested better satisfied with the reason that the Psalm-
ist there gives, than with such as blundei-ing politi-
cians guess at : For although they had been brought
down by their iniquity, yet their God, who had given
them into their enemies' haiid, saw when they were in
affliction, and heard their cry: and he remembered
his covenant towards them, and repented according
to the multitude of his mercies and gave them favour
in the sight of all them that led them away captives
The Psalmist had better understanding of God's deal-
« 1 Psalm cvi. 39. Psalm cvi. 43—46.

CHAP. XXII. preve/ited or resolved by Jewish Writers. 167

ing with these people than Tully and Strabo had ;
and in confidence of God's mercies, which they had
often tasted, he concludes with this prayer : Save us,
O Lord our God, and gather us from among the
heathen, that we may praise thy holy name, and
glory in thy praises^. Though this godly Psalmist
saw this people in greater distress than they were in
Tully 's time, yet he attributes not their captivity and
oppression unto any want of good-will in their God
towards them, but unto their ingratitude towards him :
for if they had been thankful unto him, the blows
that light on them should have been spent upon their
enemies. But as another Psalmist complains in the
person of his God, Psalm Ixxxi. 11. My people would
not hear my voice, and Israel would have 7i07ie of me.
Sol gave them over unto the hardness of their hearts:
and they have ivalked in their own counsels. O that
my people ivonld have hearkened unto me, and Israel
had ivalked in my ways ! I would soon have humhled
their enemies, and turned my hatid against their ad-
versaries. The haters of the Lord should have been
subject to them, and their time shotdd have endured
for ever. I would have fed them (saith the Lord)
with the finest wheat : and ivith the honey out of the
rock would I have satisfied thee.

3. This one place, to omit many other, abundantly ^"'d's espe-

cial favours

proves the former assertion, that if this people had towards the
continued in well doing, all the nations should continu-fvay*'i'm-°
ally have wondered at their extraordinary prosperity ? J'l^fj^^rt'Jai
But here a Christian may as well doubt, as the heathen j"i'gments.
wonder, why Israel after so many transgressions, as
the author of the hundred and sixth Psalm complains
of, was not destroyed at once, as other great and
mighty nations had been. For the more abundant

P.sal. cvi. 47.
M 4

168 Heathens Objections against the Jews Estate book i.

favours their forefathers had found, and the greater
God's blessings (laid up for their posterity) were, the
greater was their ingratitude in rebelling, their rebel-
lion itself so much more wilfully heinous ; and always
the more wilful or heinous any sin is, the more griev-
ous, certain, and more speedy punishment it deserves.
How could that most Just and Holy One, which so
often protesteth he respecteth no men's persons, spare
this most ungrateful, stubborn, and rebellious people,
longer than any other ?

4. The full and necessary consequence of these col-
lections is thus much and no more : the final extirpa-
tion of these Jews had been accomplished many ge-
nerations before it came to pass, had the Lord been
only just, or respected only their deserts whom he so
often preserved, when justly he might have destroyed
them. But if we look further into the ways of God's
providence, the true end and reason of destroying
90 others, and preserving them, will appear one and the
same. For that sudden execution of his justice upon
others, which did so much advance his glory, equally
jiractised upon them, had as greatly impeached it a-
mongst the nations. This cause of their long preser-
vation the Lord himself assigns, Deut. xxxii. 26. /
have said, I would scatter them abroad, I would make
their remembrance to cease from amongst men : save
that I feared the fury of the enemy, lest their adver-
saries should wax proiid, and lest they should say.
Our high hand, and not the Lord, hath done all this.
Again, as the Lord was most just, so was he most kind
and merciful towards all, (none excepted,) even towards
the Gentiles, in these Jews ; for by their strange de-
liverance and restoration the other might have learned,
that their God was a God of gods, and Lord of lords,
most worthy to be honoured of all the world, as he

CHAP. XXII. prevented or resolved by Jewish Writers. 169

himself addeth in the forecited place t : For the Lord
shall Judge his jjeople, ami repent towards his serv-
atifs, ivhen he seeth that their power is gone, and none
shut up in hold, nor left abroad. When men shall say.
Where are their gods, their mighty God in whom they
trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and
did drinJe the ivine of their drink offering P let them
rise up and help you; let him be your refuge. Behold
now, for I, I am he, and there is no god ivith me.
Thus, since these Jews began first to be a nation, as
well the wane as the increase of their estate, or (to
use our apostle's words) as well their diminution as
abundance, might have yielded the docile and well-
disposed greater riches, than the spoils of their cities
and country did the proud and mighty amongst the
Gentiles. And albeit they ofttimes sinned more griev-
ously than others did, yet were there always left some
godly amongst this people, which in their distress
knew themselves, and could teach others the right way
to repentance ; of which the heathen, one and other,
were altogether ignorant. And this was an especial
cause, though subordinate to the former, of their long
preservation. For when they were not so extreme bad
as to continue in former sins, but unfeignedly called
upon the Lord in their distress, he heard their prayers;
and being once received to his, they found favour at
their enemies' hands. So Solomon had observed, When
the ways of a man please the Lord, he will mal e also
his enemies to he at jjeace ivith him^. The truth where-
of we have seen continually experienced in these Jews,
before our Saviour's time, though much degenerate
from their ancestors. But their posterity, as much
degenerate from them as tliey from the other, go as far
beyond the middle sort in punishment, as they came
t Deut. xxxii. 36 — 39. " Prov. xvi. 7.

170 Heat/tens' Objections ugaiitut the ./etas' Estate book i.

short of their first forefathers in all graces and favours
bestowed upon them by their God. Though these
(such, I mean, as lived since our Saviour's time) cry
unto the Lord, yet doth he not hear them, although
their distresses have been more and more grievous
many hundred years together, than their forefathers' ?
^^"hat is the reason ? Because thexj have turned their
ears continually from hearing the law, therefore their
prayers are continually turned into sin. Prov. xxviii. 9-
Psal. cix. 7.

5. Thus though the alteration of the Jewish state
be such as all the world might wonder and stand
amazed at ; such as would make the wisest heathen
giddy, that should seek to compass the true causes
thereof by politic search ; yet unto us Christians, that
have the oracles of our God, their estate cannot seem

91 strange ; seeing nothing, good or bad, that hath be-
fallen this people, from their first beginning to this
present day, but is foretold in the sacred story, which
hath continually proved itself as infallible a prognosti-
cation for what is to come, as it is an authentic register
of all things past.

6. The particular calendars, wherein their good or
dismal days are distinguished, according to the diver-
sity of their ways, we may find Levit. xxvi. After
Moses had proposed extraordinary blessings, if they
would walk in the laws which he had given them, he
threatened them with plagues and calamities in their
own land ; with bodily sickness, incursion of enemies,
oppressions and spoil of goods, strange overthrows in
battle, and fearfulness of heai't, ver. 16. And if these
would not reclaim them, then he threateneth to punish
them seveji times more according to their sins : as
with barrenness of soil, prodigious famine, and scarcity
of fruit, ver. 18. And yet, if they hold on still to walk

CHAH. XXII. jjrcveuted or resolved hi/ Jewish Writers. 171

stubbornly against him, he threateneth to multiply the
former plagues seven times ; by sending wild beasts
among them, ivhich should sjwil them, and destroy their
cattle, and make them Jew in number, and your high-
ways shall be desolate, ver. 21. The like multiplying
of his plagues for the increase of their stubbornness he
reiterates twice again : Yet, if by those you will not be
reformed, &c. He increaseth all the former plagues
seven times again, ver. 23 and 28. The first and se-
cond degrees of the plagues threatened were in part
fulfilled in the days of Gideon, Samson, Samuel, and
Saul. The third likewise (by wild beasts) we see ful-
filled in the days of Jehoram king of Israel, 2 Kings
xvii. 25, 26. The fourth and fifth likewise we see in
part fulfilled in their captivity, in the days of Manas-
seh, Jehoiachiin, and Zedekiah ; and in the time of
Ptolemy the First, under Antiochus Epiphanes. Both
their own and other stories give us full experiments of
this prophecy. As their stubbornness did increase, so
God's plagues here threatened did wax more grievous :
these later calamities being, at the least, seven times
greater (both for extent and durance) than the former
persecutions, which they suffered by the Philistines,
Moabites, Aramites, and Ammonites. But the last
plague, which containeth all the rest more than seven
times, was not accomplished till after our Saviour's
death : after which time, all the rest (in part fulfilled
before) are more than seven times multiplied upon
them. In their former overthrows or captivities they
suffered the violence of war, and oftentimes felt the
extremity of hostile laws : but after these storms were
past, so they would submit themselves unto their con-
querors, they usually found (as was shewed before)
more than ordinary favour at their hands. But since
our Saviour's death, the memory of their former plagues

172 Heathens Objections agahistthe JeicsKstate,^-c. book i.

hath been but an invitation of the lilce, or worse ; tlieir
continual bad usage prescribing the lawfulness of their
abuse. In the xxviiith of Deuteronomy, the extraor-
dinary blessings and plagues which were to overtake
this people, either in their life or death, are more ex-
actly calculated. And albeit their blessings might
have been more and more admirable, than the curses
that have befallen them : yet IMoses, it seems, fore-
seeing, or fearing what would be. rather than hoping
tlie best that might be, is almost four times as long in
calculating their plagues as their blessings. So have
the miseries of these later Jews been four times as long
as the prosperity of their worthy ancestors ; if we
would take an exact measure of the one, from the sa-
92cred histories before the Babylonish captivity; of the
later, from experience and relation of Jewish or heathen
writers. And yet no plague, either known by experi-
ence or related by any writers, but is evidently fore-
told by Moses. His particular predictions shall be in-
serted, as the events shall give the occasion, through-
out this discourse. To becjin with that most horrible
plague, Deut. xxviii. 53, ikc. And thou shalt eat the

fruit of tJtjj hody, even the flesh of thy sons and thy
daughters, ivhich the Lord thy God hath given thee,
during' the siege and sfraitness, icherein thy enemy
shall inclose thee : so that the man that is tender and
exceeding dainty among you, shall be grieved at his
brother, and at his wife that lieth in his bosom, and at
the remnant of his children which he hath yet left :

for fear of giving unto any of them of the flesh of his
children wlium he shall eat : because he hath nothing
lift him in that siege and straitness, wherein the enemy
shall besiege thee in all thy cities. The tender and
dainty woman among you, which never could venture
to set the sole of lie r foot ou the ground, for softness

CHAP. XXIII. The fulfilling of Moses Prophecies, &;c. 173

and tenderness, shall he grieved at her hushand that
lieth in her bosom, and at her son, and at her daughter,
and at her afterbirth that shall come out from bctweeyi
her feet, and at her children which she shall bear:
for when all things lack, she shall eat them secretly,
during the siege and straitfiess wherein thine enem,y
shall besiege thee in thy cities. This prophecy" we
see fulfilled to an hair's breadth in Vespasian's time.

CHAP. XXIII.

The fulfilli)ig of Moses' and others'' Propliecies, fouchitig the
Desolation <f Jeivry and Destruction of Jerusalem : and
the Sig)is of the Time, witnessing God's wonderful Hand
therein.

1. Seeing that part of Tacitus is lost, whence we
might have known more concerning their calamity
than we can find now in heathen writers, we must take
the conclusions answerable to Moses' predictions from
Josephus, a Jew by birth, no way partial for Christians.
And his conclusions (to omit Moses's authority or other
inducements) cannot seem improbable from such pre-
mises as the Roman writers have confirmed, though
little intending such inferences as we now make from
them. Do those calamities of the Jews, related by
Josephus and Eusebius, seem strange? They justly
may, if we consider this people as natural or ordinary
men, not as patterns of God's extraordinary judgments.
Strange might their judgments seem, and incredible to
the Romans or worldly-wise, unless other circum-
stances of that time, witnessed by the Romans them-

* It was verified in that wo- last siege did seethe hers, in that

man of Samaria, who in the manner, as Josephus tells, book

siege and famine boiled her son, 7. chap. 8. [aliis lib. 6. cap. 3.

3 Kings vi. 29; — fulfilled in p. 381.] of the Jewish Wars,
that noble woman whicli in the

174 The fulfilling of Moses ami others' Prophecies, book i.

selves, were as rare. But if, by the Romans' opinion,
every unusual effect in nature did portend some such
strange event in human affairs ; why should not the
wisest of them in that age expect some extraordinary
or miraculous matters of Vespasian's time ? yet (ex-
cepting what he did to those stubborn Jews) his other
acts wei'e but ordinary, and required no pompous or
magnificent prologues : whereas many signs, either
foreshewing his exaltation to the empire, or confirming
his right unto it, or authority in managing it, were
such as no heathen, I think, hath ever heard of before,
but most consonant unto God's wonted signs in Israel,
93 whilst their kings did prosper. Seeing the wisdom of
the wise, and understanding of the prudent amongst
this people, had been long hid, as the Lord had threat-
ened by his prophet Esay, chap. xxix. and they them-
selves had complained, ff^e see not our tolcens, we
have not one 'prophet more ; whence was it that Jose-
phus the Jew should become a prophet for Vespasian's
good, who had already brought much, likely to bring
more harm upon his country and him, now captived
and imprisoned by him ? So Suetonius and Tacitus ^

> Et unus ex nobilibus cap- God made him as a mouth to
tivis Josephus, cum conjiceretur those other dumb signs which
in vincula, constantissime asse- Roman writers relate, by his ap-
veravit fore, ut ab eodem brevi pointment foreshewing Vespa-
solveretiir, verum jam impera- sian's exaltation ; as Dion notes :
tore. Sueton. in Vesp. [cap. 5.] for speaking of other signs he
It is not probable that either saith : Sed haec quidem omnia
Suetonius, Tacitus, or Dion egebant interpretatione. At Jo-
should take this testimony from sephus, natione Judaeus, ante ab
Josephus, (though he relate it, eo captus constrictusque vinculis
book 3. chap. 14. [aliis c. 8. p. ridens ait; nunc quidem me
249.] of the Jewish Wars,) but vincies, post annum autem sol-
from the Romans that were ear- ves, qunm fueris imperator fac-
witnesses of it. It is less pro- tus. Igitur Vespasianus ut alii
bable again that Josephus should quidam, ad priucipatum natus
learn this from any prophecies erat. Dion. Hist. Rom. lib. 66.
concerning Christ, for he knew [cap. i.]
Vespasian was no Jew : rather

CHAP. XXIII. touching the Desolation of Jewry, ^c. 175

(no factious friends for Jews or Christians) tell us, .To-
sephus did solace himself at his commitment, with
this ; that Vespasian the emperor should shortly re-
lease him. Though Vespasian at that time was far
enough from such hopes, in the judgment of the
Roman state, which had appointed him general in the
Jewish wars^, because his mean birth and obscure family
did minister least suspicion of affecting the splendour and
dignity of the Roman empire, if he should prove con-
queror. Did the rest of his unruly countrymen con-
ceit any such matter of Vespasian, as Josephus did?
then had they not continued stubborn as they did.
But although Israel knew him not, and his people had
no understanding % yet the dumb ox knew him to be
his owner, and appointed lord of the earth, and in
sign of his submission to him, having cast off" his yoke,
ran furiously into the room where he sat at supper ;
where affi-ighting his attendants from him, he straight
prostrates himself before his feet, (as if he had been
weary,) offering his neck to his clemency. Oracles
had ceased in Jewry, (at least from speaking any good
unto the Jews,) yet the oracles of Carmel assure
Vespasian of good success in all that he should set
his hand unto.

2. As these and many other presignifications were
more than natural, so the means of his advancement
(if we respect only the purpose of men) were merely

2 Suetonius in Vespasiano. daeam Canneli Dei oraculum con-

[cap, I.] sulenteni, ita confinnavere sortes,

a Prandente eo quondam, ca- ut quicquid cogitaret aninio vol-

nis extrarius triclinio nianum veretque quantundibet magnum,

Immanam intulit. Ccenante rur- id esse proventurum polliceren-

sus, bos arator dequsso jugo, tri- tur. Suet, in Vesp. [cap. 5.]

clinium irrupit, ac fugatis mi- Dion Cassius reports that of the

nistris, quasi defessus, procidit ox and dog, and other particulars

ad ipsos accumbens pedes cer- besides. Lib. 66. initio,
vicemque subuiisit. Apud Ju-

176 The fulfilling of Moses and others' Prophecies, book i.

casual : nor is it possible for the atheist to imagine
their concurrence contrived by policy.

3. But herein we may clearly see God's covenant of
exalting this people, and humbling their foes, quite in-
verted. All the plagues threatened to such as bare ill-
vtMll to Sion, light on her friends and inhabitants ;
all the blessings promised to such as prayed for Je-
rusalem's peace, are heaped upon them that work her
ruin. More particularly do they verify that prophecy
of Moses, Deut. xxviii, 43, The stranger that is amongst
you shall climb up on high ; and thou shalt come down
beneath alow. For these children of the kingdom,
taking violent but false hold upon God's truest pro-
mises, do, by their unseasonable desire of exalting
themselves above the nations, hoist him up to highest
dignity, that was ordained to pluck them down from
their seat, and bring them below all other people. The
manner of it was thus :
94 4. ^ There was a constant opinion through the East,
that Jewry about this time should bring forth the Mon-
arch of the w orld. In confidence of which prophecy
the Jews (as the Roman writers observe) did rebel.
Vespasian, (otherwise likely to have lived in danger,
and died in obscurity and disgrace, whereunto Nero
had designed him,) appointed, for reasons afore alleged,
to manage these wars, gets renown for his good ser-
vice among the Romans ; good-will of the eastern

^ Percrebuerat oriente toto
vetus et constans opinio : esse in
fatis, ut eo tempore Judaea pro-
fecti rerum potirentur. Id de
imperatore Romano, (quantum
eventupostea patuit,) prsedictum,
Judaei ad se tralientes, rebella-
runt : caesoque praeposito, lega-
tum insuper Svriae consularem
supjietias ferentem rapta aquila

fugaverunt. Ad hunc motuni
comprimendum, cum exercitu
auxiliari, et non instrenuo duce,
cui tamen tuto tanta res com-
mitteretur, opus esset, ipse po-
tissimum delectus est, ut indus-
triae expertee, nec metuendus
uUo modo ob humilitatem ge-
neris ac nominis. Sueton. in
Vesp. [cap. 4.]

CHAP. XXIII. touching the Desolation of Jew)y,&)C. 177

nations, and upon Nero's death, and civil broils thence
ensuing, partly by promise of assistance from the Par-
thian, partly by other unexpected occurrents, had the
empire thrust upon liim, otherwise *" backward of him-
self to entertain hopes suggested to him from Heaven
by many wonderful signs and tokens.

Yet after all this, being made emperor on a sudden,
before he could bethink himself what belonged to so
high a place, he wanted (as the historian notes'') au-
thority and majesty to countenance his proceedings:
and these again are confirmed unto him, at his first
entrance into the empire, by means more miraculous
than the former. Since Rome began was it not heard,
that any Roman had opened the eyes of the blind ;
unless this man had been from God, he could have
done nothing. Why then do the heathen rage, and the
people murmur a vain thing, against God, and his
anointed, the Christ, as if he had not healed him which
was born blind, with spittle? when as Vespasian, late
elected emperor, did cure one desperately blind, by
spitting upon his eyes ; or whence came that virtue
into this new emperor's feet, that he should heal a lame
and withered thigh by treading upon it ? Both these
effects were well known unto the most judicious Ro-
man writers of those times, so constantly avouched by
them, as can leave no place for suspicion in ages fol-
lowing"'.

c Nec tamen quidquam ante Vespasianus an talis caecitas ac
tentavit, promptissimis atque debilitas ope humana superabiles
etiam instantibus suis, quam so- forent. Medici varie disserere.
licitatus quorundamet ignotorum Huic non exesam vim luminis et
et absentium fortuito favore. redituram si pellerentur obstan-
Suet. ibid. [cap. 6.] tia: illi elapsos in pravum artus,

Sueton.[ibid. q. 7.] Autoritas si salubris vis adhibeatur, posse
et quasi majestas quaedani, ut sci- integrari. Id fortasse cordi Deis,
licet inopinato et adhuc novo prin- et divino ministerio principem
cipi deerat : haec quoque accessit. electum : denique patrati reme-

e Jistimari a medicis jubet dii gloriam penes Cuesarem ; ir-
JACKSON, VOL. 1. N

178 The fulfilling of 3Ioses and others' Prophecies, book i.

5. What shall we Christians say to these things ?
Only this ; in both these cures there was the finger of
God pointing out Vespasian to the world, as^ Christ's
right hand appointed for some extraordinary and pecu-
liar service, even to inflict the plagues foretold by hirn
upon these Jews, which had reviled, traduced, and cru-
cified the Lord of glory for the like, and infinite other
95 far greater miracles wrought amongst them. These
strange calamities, had they fallen in Nero's, or other
like emperor's time, might have been attributed to
their cruel disposition: but that Vespasian^, for his
natural inclination another Moses, scarce provocable
to revenge practice of treason against his person in
private men, should work that strange desolation upon
a whole land, hath this signification, that he was
God's instrument only in this business ; what he did,
he did impelled by him, not of his own motion or in-

riti ludibrium penes miseros fore.
Igitur Vespasianus cuncta for-
timae suae parere ratus, nec quid-
qiiam ultra incredibile, Iseto ipse
vultu,erectaquie astabat multitu-
dine, jussa exequitur. Statim con-
versa ad usum manus, ac ca>co re-
luxit dies. Utrumque qui interfu-
ere nunc quoqxie mcmorant, post-
quam nullum mendacio pretium.
Tacitus histor. lib. 4. [cap. 81.3
Suetonius Qlib. cit. cap. 7.] hath
the same story with the same cir-
cumstances.

^ Seeing they had rejected the
true son and heir of David, the
Lord raised up Vespasian, (as it
were an adopted son and lively
pattern of old David both in
meanness of birth, manner of ex-
altation and humility,) to rule
them with an iron rod, and feed
them with the sword. Suetonius'
character of his patience and dis-

position, hath a perfect relish of
David's spirit. IVIediocritatem
pristinam neque dissimulavit un-
quam, ac frequenter etiam prae
se tulit. Quin et conantes quos-
dain originem Flavii generis ad
conditores reatinos comitemque
Herculis cujus monumentum ex-
stat via Salaria referre, irrisit
ultro. Adeoque nihil ornamen-
torum extrinsecus cupide appe-
tivit, ut triumphi die fatigatus
tarditate et taedio pompa; non
reticuerit : metito se plecti, qui
triumphum quasi aut debitum
majoribus suis, aut speratum un-
quam sibi, tarn inepte senex
concupisset. Sueton. in Vespa-
sian. Qcap. I 2.3

g Neque caede cujusquam un-
quam laetatus, justis suppliciis
illacrymavit etiam et ingeniuit.
Idem. Ibid. [cap. 15.3

CHAP. XXIII. touching the Desolation of Jewry, <§-c. 179

clination. And because he had'' diligently executed
that which was right in God's eyes, and had done unto
these Jews, according to all things that were in God's
heart, he had (by what revelation God best knoweth)
Jehu's blessing sealed unto him, that his son should
sit upon his throne : so confident was he in this per-
suasion, as after the discovery of many, to scorn all
conspiracies, though daily intended against him ; a-
vouching still, either his sons, or none, must succeed
him in the empire, as both of them did. Though the
latter, (much degenerate from so worthy a father,
most dislike unto his noble brother,) was most un-
worthy, and uncapable of so high a place, but only
from his father's deserts, which God had ordained,
should be rewarded with this honour. Had either of
his sons rendered according to the reward bestowed
upon them, more sceptres had sprung from the Flavian
stock : but as it grew apace, so did it quickly fade ;
Titus, the fairest branch to all men's seeming, being
plucked off, to his great heart's grief, in the blossom,
for what secret sin, God knoweth best, this one was
grievous enough, to have deserved a more grievous
death, that apprehending his fate's approach, he durst
so confidently look Heaven in the face, and expostulate
his imtimely death as unjust, seeing he never had of-
fended the sacred powers thereof but only once. The
signs of those times were extraordinary, could the Ro-
mans have rightly observed them : but these great con-
querors were taken with their captives' error in not

^ Convenit inter omnes tam parte vestibuli Palatinae domus

certum eum de sua suorumque positam examine aequo : cum in

genitura semper fuisse : ut post altera parte Claudius et Nero

assiduas in se conjurationes ausus starent, in altera ipse ac filii.

sit affirmare senatui, Aut filios Nec res fefellit : quando totidem

sibi successuros aut neminem. annis, parique temporis spatio

Dicitur etiam vidisse quondam utrique imperaverunt. Sueton.

per quietem, stateram in media in Vespas. [cap. 25.]

M 2

ISO The fulfillhig of Moses' and utiiers Prophecies, book r.

discerning, or misapplying them. As the spring sun,
which naturally re viveth all other living creatures, often-
times prepareth such human bodies as are fullest of life
and blood, but most neglective of the opportunity of
taking physic, or using diet convenient for that season,
to hot and desperate diseases, never perceived in their
summer's growth, until they be ripe of death in the
autumn : so albeit the Sun of Righteousness, Avhose
coming into the world was to give life unto it, did
first arise in Jewry ; yet by her children's confidence
in their wonted temper, so whole and sound unto their
seeming, that of all other people they only needed no
physician, the very beams of saving health did secretly
dispose their evil disposed hearts to violent death,
which burst out in the latter end or autumn of that age,
Avherein he appeared. For that generation with whom
our Saviour Christ Jesus conversed on earth, was not
fully past, until this people began to swell with in-
solent and proud hopes of sovereignty over others, and
by their untimely provocation of the Romans, bring
sudden destruction upon themselves ; as stout and full
bodies, by violent and unseasonable exercises, are
soonest brought down from the height of their strength
unto the grave. The Romans again, seeing these Jews
defeated, and themselves possessed of their hopes,
(^"espasian being called to the empire during these
wars, which Titus his son did gloriously finish, to the
96 utter ruin of that nation,) think sure their gods had
been more potent than the God of the Jews, and apply
the prophecy, meant of Christ, imto Vespasian S as if
he had been that monarch of the world, which, accord-
ing to the common received opinion throughout the
East, was at this time to arise in Jewry. So doth the

• Suetonius in Vespas. et Ta- Tacito infra paragr. 8. et ex Sue-
citus. Hist. 1. 5. Vid. annot. ex ton. supra,4.

CHAP. XXIII. touching the Desolation of Jewryy 8fc. 181

God of this world still blind the eyes of the worldly-
wise with fair shows or earthly shadows of heavenly
things, that they cannot or care not to look into the
body or substance of Divine mysteries, for whose re-
presentation only those are given ; otherwise uncapable
of any cause either in nature, reason, or policy. Ves-
pasian the emperor (indeed) was the second type or
shadow of the Messiah, that great monarch and prince
of peace, whose endless kingdom shall put down all
wars for ever. For seeing by the fall of these Jews, as
Saint Paul saith, salvation is come unto the Gentiles ;
it pleased the wisdom of our God, to have their destruc-
tion solemnized with the selfsame signs that his birth
had been, which brought forth life unto the world.

For immediately after their fatal overthrow by
Titus, Janus had his temple shut, and Peace a temple
erected by Vespasian. Thus Divine suggestions effect
no more in most men's thoughts, than diurnal intention
of mind doth in hard students' broken sleeps; which
usually set the soul a working, seldom finding any dis-
tinct representation of what she seeks, though content-
ing herself ofttimes for that season with some pleasant
phantasm, as much different from the true nature of
that she hunts after, as the clouds which Ixion em-
braced were from Juno. Vespasian's secret instinct in
this devotion did aim no doubt (as it was directed by
all signs of the time) at the true Prince of Peace,
but was choked and stifled in the issue or passage,
and his intent blinded in the apprehension, by the pal-
pable and gross conceits of Romish idolatry, wherein
he had been nuzzled ; as men's inbred desire of true
happiness is usually taken up and blindfolded by such
pleasant sensible objects, as they most accustom them-
selves unto. And yet, God knows, whether this vir-
tuous emperor's last hopes were inwardly rooted in

N 3

182 The fulfilling of Moses and others Proj)hecies, book i.

pride and presumption of heart ; or rightly conceived
there, were only brought forth amiss. As if a man
should first apprehend the state of blessedness or rege-
neration in a dream, the representation of it would be
gross, though the apprehension sound. Quite contrary
to his son's disposition, when he himself apprehends
death coming upon him, (which the physicians and
astronomers could not persuade him to beware of,) he
solaced himself with this saying, "Now shall I be a
god"*:" his inward hopes of a celestial state after this
life might (for ought that any man knows) be true and
sound, and the representation only tainted with the
Romans' gross conceit.

6. But whatever became of him in that other world,
his entrance into this, his continuance herein, and de-
parture hence, were in all the world's sight of unusual
and extraordinary observation. The disposition of the
times, by the most irreligious amongst the Romans,
were referred to Fates or Divine Powers, who had not
graced the birth, life, and death, or long flourishing
reign of Augustus, with half so many tokens of their
presence upon earth, or providence over human affairs.
What effect or issue can the Roman assign answerable
unto them ? Rome could not invite the nations to
come and see, whether any prosperity were like hers,
for hers had been far greater and of longer conti-
97 nuance, than now under Vespasian ; who was suddenly
called away by a comet from heaven ^ and Augustus his
sepulchre opening of its own accord to welcome him to
his grave. Whereat then did all these signs point?
They should have been as a new star to lead the wise
men of the west unto Hierusalem, now crying out of
the dust unto the careless Roman, Have ye no regard.

^ Dion, Xi})li. [V'espasian. in l Dion, ex Xiphil. lib. 66.
fine.] [Ibid.]

CHAP. XXIII. touching the Desolation of Jewry, ^c. 183

all ye that pass by ? behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, ivhich is done unto me,
wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of
his fierce wrath'^f It was not Titus and Vespasian
that had afflicted her, they were but his deputies that
was Lord of Sion, who had decreed what they ef-
fected. For this cause did neither the father nor the
son take the name of Judaicus" ; albeit the difficulty
of the war, begun by the father, and the famousness
of the victory achieved by the son, (according to the
custom of the Romans observed by them in their tri-
umphs and other solemnities,) did solicit them here-
unto. For what victory gotten by any Roman was
like unto this, either for the multitude of the slain, or
the captives? Nothing in this kind could seem strange
unto the politician, if it liad proceeded from Tacitus'
pen. But Satan, it seems, by God's permission, hath
called in that part of Tacitus, as a book too dangerous
for his scholars to read ; lest, giving credence unto it,
they might believe him less, and Christians more, in
any other points ; and yet, praised be the name of our
gracious God, who envies no man the truth, and hath
left us abundant records of this story, all answerable to
his sacred word and prophecies of old concerning
Hierusalem. From that part of Tacitus which is left,
we may gather how consonant his conclusions would
have been unto that faithful and most ingenious his-
toi'ian Josephus, with whom he jumps in these par-
ticulars ; that this people were of " bodies healthful
and ableo, their city exceeding strong?," every way

"' Lamen. i. 12. creti sunt. Dion. lib. 66. [cap.

n His de causis uterqiie im- 7.]

peratoris nomeri obtinuit, neuter ° So are they not now.

tamen Judaicus cognominatusest, P Fons perennis aquae^ cavati

licet alia multa, ut par erat tam sub terra montes, et piscinae ser-

magna parta victoria, atque im- vandis imbribus : praeviderant

primis arcus triumphales eis de- conditores ex diversitate morum,

N 4

184 The fulfilling of Moses and others'' Prophecies, book i.

well provided against long siege. Which assertion
would have ministered suspicion to such as measure all
stories by rules of policy, unless some Roman writer
had avouched it, seeing Pompey had razed the city
walls, and Sosius had taken it by force in Augustus'
time ; since continuing in subjection unto the Romans
until the last and fatal rebellion. But Tacitus tells us,
that these Jews made their benefit of Claudius his
covetousness, and purchased license to fortify the city
in time of peace against war : during which it grew
more populous than before, by the relics of other
ruinated cities resorting unto it. And albeit he differ
from Josephus in the number of the besieged ; yet he
acknowledgeth six hundred thousand of all sorts, the
women as resolute as the men ; armour and munition
enough for as many as could ; and yet more in this
people that durst use and manage them, than could be
expected in such a number. Their seditious and fac-
tious, their stubborn and desperate minds against God
and man, and their own souls, neglective of fearful
signs from heaven, and other prodigious tokens fore-
telling their desolation, are pathetically described by
the same writer. The preparations likewise on Titus
his part we may gather from him, to be as great as
any Roman ever used. His army, at the first approach
to the city, thought scorn to expect the help of famine
to make the besieged yield ; and yet after one or two

crebra bella; iiide cuncta, quam-
vis adversus longum obsidium :
et a Pompeio expugnatis, metus
atque usus pleraque nionstravere.
Atque per avaritiam Claudiaiio-
rinn temporum, empto jure mu-
niendi, struxere muros in pace
tanquam ad belhim : magna col-
luvie, et caeterarum urbium clade
aucti. Tacit. Hist. lib. 5. [cap.

12.] The writers of sacred story
complain of defect of water in
Hierusalem since that time.
V. Strab. 1. 16. [p. 761.] Est
locus saxosus aquis ipse quidera
abundans. This barrenness was
only about Hierusalem ; for Ta-
citus acknowledgeth the fertility
of Judaea.

CHAP. XXIII. touching the Desolation of Jewry, S^'c. 185

assaults made to little purpose, enforced to desist, until
all the engines of battery, either of ancient or modern
invention, were ready. And all these circumstances
we have fully set down in this fragment of Tacitus
which is left.

7. Were that register of Hierusalem's " tragical 98
funerals" (to use his words) now extant as entire as he
intended it, what other conclusion from the former
premises could we expect, than such woe and miseries
as Moses and Jeremy had foretold, and others have
related to us ? Josephus (as if Jeremiah's spirit had
directed his pen) saith, their misery did far surpass all
plagues inflicted upon any nation, either by God or
man. " The multitude of Jews dead in the wars, was
equal to the number of living men in Israel imder king
David," when Jacob's posterity flourished most, besides
fifty thousand taken captives. The number (albeit he
maketh it eleven hundred thousand) cannot seem
strange, if we consider the confluence of this people
from all nations almost under heaven unto Hierusalem
at their passover^. Dion telleth us, that besides the
natural inhabitants of Jewry, strangers, not only of
Jewish progeny, but such as observed their rites and
customs, did flock to the city's defence, both from those
parts of the Roman empire, through which they were
scattered, and from the countries beyond Euphrates
not subject to the Romans : consonant herein to
Josephus where he telleth us that the greatest part
of the slain were strangers, but most of Jewish pro-

1 Josephus says, that the high then might the number of cap-
priest (requested by Cestius, tives be 97,000 and destroyed
in Nero's time) numbered the in the siege 1,100,000, as he
people in Jerusalem at Eas- says.

ter ; and (reckoning but ten to >■ Book 7. ch. 17. [aliis lib. 6.

a lamb) found 2,700,000 per- cap. 9. p. 398.] of the Jewish

sons purified and sound. Well Wars.

186 The fulfilling of Moses' and others' Prophecies, book i.

geiiy. " The whole nation" (to use his words) " was
shut up by fates, as in a prison ;" or to speak more
significantly, foiled by the Romans in the field, they
were driven into the city as into a slaughter house.
And here the Psalmist's curse beginneth to seize upon
the nation, that which should have been for their good,
proves the occasion of their fall : the effect of God's
blessing upon Abraham proves a plague to his seed :
the huge number, wherewith God had multiplied them,
which had late made them swell with hopes of victory
in the open field, brings grievous famine suddenly upon
them once enclosed in the city : and famine no sooner
got within the walls, but lets in her fellow messengers
of God's wrath ; first breeding the pestilence by the
carcasses of the famished, then disposing the bodies
of the living to receive this and such other loathsome
infectious diseases, as hunger and the huge multitude
of the besieged in such a strait place would quickly
breed ; and yet they so desperately set to increase these
miseries, as even in their greatest penury to receive
fugitives from Titus' camp. For, as Dion storieth,
divers of his soldiers fled to the besieged, being partly
wearied of the difficult siege, partly animated thereto,
by a rumour bruited throughout the Roman army, that
this city could not be taken.

8. Thus, all occasions conspire to work them woe
whom God will plague. The general persuasion of
the East, that Jewry, about this time, should bring
forth the Monarch of the world, ministers matter for
their false prophets to work upon : and from their
trust in their prophets it was, that neither the present
adversity which they felt, nor prodigious signs from
heaven, could dissuade or terrify the seditious from
their enterprise untiappily undertaken. God (no doubt)
had so disposed, that the Roman soldiers should de-

CHAP. XXIII. toticlihig the Desolation of Jeivry, ^-c. 187

spair of victory, to give countenance to these false
prophets, and make these castaways, who still delighted
most in lies, more confident in the ways of death.
Though the signs, recorded by Tacitus % (and Josephus
in his 7th book, 12. chap, [aliis lib. 6. cap. 5. p. 388.] of
the Jewish Wars,) might seem fearful, yet their inter-
pretation was ambiguous : they might as well menace
their enemies' harm, as their destruction ; howsoever,
to regard them much might argue heathenish super- 99
stition ; and indiscreet avoidance of superstition makes
hypocritical professoi's of true religion preposterously
stubborn in imitation of true confidence. They could
pretend the prophet's admonition : Learn not the way
of the heathen, and he not afraid of the signs of
heaven ; though the heathen be afraid of such .
For the customs of the jteople are vain, Jer. x. 2 :
and hence assume his resolution to themselves, Pa-
veant illi, ne autem paveas tu ; Let the idolatrous
heathen tremble and quake, but why should Isi-ael be
afraid of these apparitions of their God ? Or if a man
would have measured all by politic observations, it was
more likely the Romans should have forsaken the siege,
than the besieged have fallen into their hands. Sut
God was against them, and they could not he for
themselves. For, as Dion notes*, (which I think

s Tacitus, concurring with
Josephus in relation of those
horrible signs, addeth : Pauci in
metum trahebant : pluribus per-
suasio inerat^ anticjuis sacerdotum
Uteris contineri, eo ipso tempore
fore, ut valesceret oriens, pro-
fectique Judaea rerum potirentur,
quse ambages Vesj)asianum ac
Titum praedixerant. Sed vulgus
more humana^ cupidinis, sibi
tantam fatorum magnitudinem
interpretati, ne adversis quidem

ad vera mutabantur. Tacit. Hist,
lib. 5. [cap. 13.] Unto all the for-
mer mischiefs these did accrue :
Praelia, dolus, incendia inter ip-
sos, et magna vis frumenti am-
busta. Tacit. Hist. lib. 5. [cap.

t Cumque vicina qusedam aedi-
ficia succendissent, velut hac
quoque via Romanos, etiamsi
maxime circulo illo potirentur,
ab ulteriori progressu rejecturi :
simul et ipsum destruxere mu-

188 The fulfilling of Moses' anrf others' Projjhecies, book i.

Josephus omitteth,) they themselves, by making way
for their more commodious defence, did (against their
will) demolish the chief muniment of the temple; at
which breach the Romans entered, but not without
some stay, amated only with reverence of the place.
Nor did the success answer their resolution in the
assault, (albeit they were far more in number than the
defendants,) until Titus commanded part of the temple
to be set on fire : but then, as the same author witness-
eth, some offered their bodies for sheaths unto the
Romans' swords; some killed their fellows, requited
instantly with like kindness from them again ; some
leaped into the fire ; " All accounted it their happiness
to perish with the temple." Dion. 1. 66. [cap. eod.]

9- The Lord had often professed his dislike unto
their solemn feasts, and his loathing of their sacrifices;
both fully manifested in this their last calamity. Such
as the stench of their dead was now to their polluted
senses, such had the abomination of their sweetest
incense long been to his holiness, now to be purged
with the priests' own blood sacrificed in the flames
and ruins of the temple : the city, as oft before, was
now taken upon the sabbath day. Other particular
miseries, described by Josephus and Eusebius, I leave
for this time to the reader's private meditations : de-
sirous only in these generalities, to justify theirs or
other ecclesiastical writers' reports, against all sus-
picions cast upon them by atheists or infidels, from the
testimony of such as infidelity itself cannot suspect for
partial. Both sorts afford us evident documents of the
Divine truth of scripture ; and might afford us more
than we are aware off, were we better acquainted with

rum, et inviti munitionem, qua templum patefactus fuit. Dion,
teniplum includebatur, exusse- lib. 66. [cap. 6.~]
runt. Ita Romanis aditus ad

CHAP. xxiu. touching the Desolation of Jetviy, 8jc. 189

the ancient manner of interpreting scriptures amongst
the Jews, in our Saviour's and his apostles' time: of
which hereafter. If now upon occasions of these re-
lations concerning Jerusalem's last day, and the signs
of the times ensuing, I interpret one or two places
otherwise, than such as are most followed in our times
do, the Christian reader, I hope, will grant me pardon,
upon promise of such satisfaction as shall befit one
ingenuous Christian to expect of another to be made ;
when I shall come to explicate the divers kinds of
prophecies amongst God's people, with the right man-
ner of their interpretations.

CHAP. XXIV. 100

The fulfilling of our Saviour's Prophecy, Matt. xxlv. tvith
others, concerning the Times ensuing JerusalenCs De-
struction.

1. Reading Josephus, I cannot but acknowledge
Jeremiah's Lamentation, as well for a prophecy of
these late times under Vespasian and Titus, as an
history or elegy of the miseries that had befallen Jeru-
salem by Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord, I know, had
then done that which he purposed: but now more
properly hath fulfilled his word that he had deter-
mined of old time: he hath thrown down, and not
spared: he hath caused thine enemies to rejoice over
thee, and set up the horn of thine adversaries. — Arise,
cry in the night: in the beginning of the watches poiir
out thine heart lihe water before the face of the Lord:
lift up thine hand towards him for the life of thy young
children, that famish for hunger in all the corners of
the streets. These words perhaps were meant, in divers
measures, of both calamities ; but the complaint fol-
lowing, of the later only under Titus : behold, O
Lord, and cotisider to whom thou hast done thus.

190

On the fulfilment of

BOOK I.

Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a
span long ? shall the priest and the prophet he slain
in the sanctuary of the Lord ? the young and the old
lie on the ground: my virgins and my young men
are fallen hy the sword; thou hast slain them in the
day of thy wrath ; thou hast killed, and not spared.
Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors
round about ; so that in the day of the Lord's ivrath
none escaped or remained : those that I have nourish-
ed and brought uji hath mine enemy consumed^.

2. Many particulars, here set down by Jeremy, are
not so much as once intimated by the sacred story,
which describes the siege by Nebuchadnezzar. But
no calamity either intimated by any historical relations
of those times, or prefigured in Jeremy's complaint,
but in this later siege by Titus, is most exactly fulfil-
led : as if the Lord had but sown the seeds of destruc-
tion and desolation by Nebuchadnezzar, which now
being come to their full growth and ripeness, this peo-
ple must reap according to the full measure of their
iniquity. They are as dry stubble, and the Romans
as a consuming fire. Nebuchadnezzar's host perhaps
slew some, but had no occasion to make a general mas-
sacre in the temple, destitute of defendants ere it was
taken, the king and his greatest commanders being
first fled into the wilderness ; nor was it destroyed
until the heat of war was past, and most of the people
led into captivity. But w^hilst in this later destruction
by Titus, it fell by the furious heat and brunt of war,
the number of such, as were either willing or forced
to end their days with it, was of all sorts exceeding
great": and, which was most miserable, many who had
taken their farewell of life, and had bid death welcome,

^ Lament, ii. 1 7, &c. lo, ii. [aliis lib. 6. cap. 4 et 5. p.

" Joseph, de Bell. Jud. 1. 7. c. 385.]

CHAP. XXIV. our Saviour's Prophen/, Matt. xxiv. 191

revived again to renew their more than deadly sor-
rows, and to reiterate their bitter complaints, which
this lamentable accident could only teach them to act
aright, and utter with such tragical and hideous ac-
cent, as was befitting a calamity so strange and fearful
as never had been known before. Even such as famine
had caused to faint, having their vocal instruments
clung togethei", and their eyes more than half closed up
with death, upon sight or noise of the temple's crackling
in its last and fatal fire, roused up their spirits, and re-
sumed their w^onted strength, to proclaim unto all 101
neighbour x-egions in shrill and loudest outcries, that
there was never any sorrow like unto this sorrow
wherewith the Lord had afflicted them in the day of
his fierce wrath ; and yet they blow the fire which it
had kindled, ventilating and enlarging the devouring
flame, (whose extinction the abundance of their blood
did otherwise seem to threaten,) by violent breathing
out their last breath into it. The ghastly confusion of this
fearful spectacle and hideous noise are so lively express-
ed by Josephus and others, that they may well serve the
Christian reader as a map of hellish misery. I only
prosecute the fulfilling of Jeremy's prophecy in par-
ticulars related by Josephus >': as of the woman's eat-
ing her child, a thing 'never heard of in that or any na-
tion before : of the priests' slaughter both in the temple
and after the destruction of it. For Titus, otherwise
inclined to mercy, seeing it consumed by fire, which he
sought by all means to save, commanded such of the
priests, as had escaped the flame, in a by-room adjoin-
ing, to be executed, telling them, It was fit they should
perish with the temple, for whose sake might it have

y Joseph, lib. 7. c. 8. De Bel- z go the circumstances of his
lo Judaic, [al. lib. 6. cap. 3. p. relation plainly shew. It was
381.] worse than that, 2 Kings vi.

192

On the Fulfilment of

BOOK I.

stood, he willingly would have saved their lives.
Again, the massacre of the promiscuous multitude of
women and childi'en, unfit for war, are particularly
described with all the circumstances by Josephus, book
7. chap. 11. [al. lib. 6. cap. 5. p. .388.] of the Jewish
Wars. "Of six thousand persuaded by a false prophet
to repair unto the temple, there to expect signs from
God of their deliverance, not one man, woman, or child
escaped."

3. Thus Moses foreshews the grievous plagues
which hung over this nation's head, but then afar off:
Jeremy after points out the vezy place where they shall
fall ; our Saviour Christ only knew the distinct period
of time, wherein both the former prophecies should be
accomplished. I will not trouble the reader with re-
hearsal of particular calamities foretold by him^ ; their
observation is already made unto his hand by Eusebius,
and will apply themselves, being compared with Jose-
phus; so perhaps will not some places of scripture follow-
ing, though as much concerning the same times. For the
better understanding of which, we must call to mind
what was observed before ; " that Hierusalem was the
Lord's own seat, and the Jews a people set apart by him,
and distinguished of purpose from others, to exemplify
his mercy and justice in their prosperity and distress."
Consequent hereunto his pleasure was, that in the desola-
tion of Jewry and destruction of the temple, other nations
should be put in mind of their mortality, and not think
in their hearts that these were greater sinners than any
other nation ; but rather that he who plagued them
was Lord of the whole earth, as well as Jewry ; that
the like and more fearful judgments did hang over
their heads, unless they would learn, by the known ca-
lamities of this people, to avoid them. So saith the
Matt. xxiv. Luke xxi.

THAI'. XXIV. our Sai'iour's Prophecy, Matt. xxiv.

193

Lord to all the earth without exception'". For, lo, I
begin to plague the city where my name is called upon,
and should ycu go free ? Ye shall not go quit : for I
will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the
earth, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore jwophesy
thou against them all these words, and say unto them.
The Lord shall roar from above, and thrust out his
voice from his holy habitation ; he shall roar up)on his
habitation; and cry aloud, as they that press the grapes,
against all the inhabitants of the earth. The sound
shall come to the ends of the earth ; for the Lord hath 102
a controversy tvith the nations, and will enter into
judgment with all flesh ; and he ivill give them that
are wicJeed to the sword. And thus saith the Lord
God of hosts, Behold, a plague shall go forth from
natio7i to nation, and a great ivhirlwind shall be
raised from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of
the Lord shall be at timt day from one end of the
earth even unto the other end of tJie earth : they shall
not be mourned, neither gathered, nor buried; but
shall be as the dung upon the ground. Howl, ye shep-
herds, and cry ; and wallow yourselves in ashes, ye
principal of the floclt : for your days of slaughter are
accomplished, and of your dispersion ; and ye shall
fall lihe frecious vessels. And the flight shall fail from
the shepherds, and the escaping from the principal
of thefloclc. Thus when the city and temple was first
destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, all the nations round
about them were enforced to taste of the saine cup.
Babylon herself that began the carouse, which she
meant not to pledge, hoping to make herself sport to
see others drunk with the blood of their slain, was com-
pelled at length to drink so deep of the dregs, till, (as
the Prophet speaketh,) all her strong men did fall,
^ Jer. XXV. 29 — 35. .

JACKSON, VOL. I. O

194

On the Fulfibnoit of

BOOK I.

cmd her j^i'inces slept their everlasting sleep. This
prophecy notwithstanding concerns the second destruc-
tion of Hierusalem, as literally as the former : and
sundry plagues here mentioned, for ought that can be
gathered from any history, sacred or profane, were not
in any degree verified of the nations, in the days of
Nebuchadnezzar, or his son. But scarce any nation
was free from such calamities as are here described, in
the time of Titus and his successors, as shall be de-
clared anon. Rome herself, which had rejoiced at
Judah's misery, and triumphed in Israel's woe, trodden
Hierusalem under her feet, and given her dust and
ashes for a covering to her nakedness, was shortly after
pinched at the heart with like sorrows ; howsoever her
outward robes of majesty did cover her secret wounds
from their eyes that lived after, or beheld her estate
only afar off, not acquainted with her inward gripes or
smothered outcries. All is not sound within, that is
fair without, nor they furthest from danger who feel
least pain for the present : such as since have lived se-
curest, neither regardful of Hierusalem's misery, nor
the calamities of other nations that ensued them, alto-
gether unacquainted with any like sorrows of their own
times, shall have their deepest share in the horrors of
that dreadful day, whereof these were but shadows and
maps to represent unto us in some proportion the in-
conceivable affrightments that shall then appear. But
as no man knows of that day and hour, so neither did
the prophets themselves distinctly conceive the manner
of it : they did see it only in these adumbrations, which
in process of time grew still more lively. The second
destruction of Hierusalem, and the signs following it,
exceeds the former in the distinct prefiguration of the
latter day, as much as a map of a particular coimtry
taken at large, doth the representation of the same in

CHAP. XXIV. our Saviour's Prophecy, Matt. xxiv. 195

a general map of the whole earth, of like quantity.
And as maps have a distinct quantity of their own,
easy to be known by sense, but which no man measures
so much for itself, as for to know the capacity of the
country which it represents ; so have most prophecies
of the Old Testament a distinct, peculiar, natural, or
literal sense verified in the time of the Jaw, which is
not so much to be respected as the mysteries of the
gospel, or matters of the world to come prefigured by
these events past : the most secret of which mysteries,
after some one or few circumstances be revealed, may 103
be distinctly known. For the proportion of one cir-
cumstance or event with another, is all one in the
latter and in the former ; so that by the distinct
knowledge of the former we may discern the lattei*,
after it be paralleled in any one part : as by the mea-
sure of a map we find out the quantity of the ground
represented. For this reason hath our Saviour Christ
pictured us out the last day by the calamities of Hieru-
salem only. For (under correction) I should think that
no one part of his prophecy, Matt, xxiv, from the 15th
to the 36th verse, but is literally meant, and hath been
verified of Hierusalem's fatal day, and the times en-
suing. For so our Saviour concludes ; Verily I say
unto you. This generation shall not pass till all these
things he done. All what ? All he had spoken of be-
fore. What ! did the sign of the Son of man appear ?
did he send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet,
to gather the elect from the four winds ? No. Christ
is not yet come : the elect are not thus gathered. Yet
upon Hierusalem's destruction they had the watch-
word given ; the nations had then a glimpse of his last
coming in glory : then it sounded the first time unto
judgment ; and the sun and moon were seen in tragical
attire, that the whole world might take notice of such

o 2

196

On the Fulfilment of

BOOK r.

a woeful tragedy towards, as we expect : wherein the
whole frame of nature, even the earth itself, this stage
of mortality, shall be actors ; and all mankind were
then set to learn their parts. Our Saviour's coming
with power and great g^ory, mentioned in the ninth
verse, must be understood in such a sense, as he is said
to have come in his kingdom, or with jiower, at his
transfiguration. And that first verse of the ninth of
Mark will best interpret the place above cited. Matt,
xxiv. 34. Sundry learned interpreters, I know, ex-
pound both places otherwise''. But, to omit the for-
mer for this present, the continuation of our Saviour's
speech doth enforce this my interpretation of Saint
Matthew. For having spoken of the calamities that
were shortly to fall out in Judah and Hierusalem, (as
all agree,) in the former verses, he addeth, verse 29-
And immediately after the trihidations of those days
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and
the powers of heaven shall he shaken : and then shall
appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven : and
then shall all the kindreds of the earth mourn, and
they shall see the Son of man come in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory. And he shall
send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and
they shall gather together his elect from the four
wi?ids, and from the one end of heaven to the other.
No w learn a parable of the fig tree ; When her bough
is yet tender, and it bringeth forth leaves, ye know
that summer is near: so likewise when ye see all

•1 Some interpret these words to the substance. And Christ's

of the gospel's promulgation, transfiguration was both a lively

which is called the fowcr of type and a pledge of his future

God: but it is usual in pro2)he- appearance in power and great

cies, to attribute that unto the glory,
type or pledge which is proper

CHAP. XXIV. our Saviour's Prophecy, Matt. xxiv. 197

these th ings, know that the kingdom of God is near,
even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This genera-
tion shall not pass, till all these things he done. Some
refer these words, immediately after, to the troubles
of the church ; as if their meaning were this : And im-
mediately after God hath made an end of the troubles
of his church, these signs shall follow. But who
knows when that shall be ? whereas our Saviour's
words must be referred to those days whereof he had
spoken, which were comprised within determinate and
set bounds, and would shortly manifest themselves ; so
as all men might be certain when to expect those
signs, which he promised to all the world for the con-
firmation of his doctrine and their faith. The full and
natural meaning of the place is as if he had said : 104
When you have seen Hierusalem's fatal day, then look
for such signs in the sun and moon as I have told, for
the one doth prognosticate the other's approach, as cer-
tainly as the budding of the fig tree doth summer.
The like connexion of these fearful signs with Hieru-
salem's desolation we have in St. Luke, chap. xxi. 25.
Having spoken before only of the tribulation of Hieru-
salem, he continueth his speech : Then there shall he
signs in the siin, and in the moon, and in the stars ;
and upon the earth trouhle amongst the nations, with
perplexity ; the sea and the waters shall roar; and
men's hearts shall fail them for fear, and for looking
after those things which shall come on the world : for
the powers of hea ven shall he shaken. And then shall
they see the Son of man come in a cloud tvith power
and great glory. And when these things begin to
come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth near. And he spake to
them a parable ; Behold the fig tree, and all trees ;
when they now shoot forth, ye seeing them know of

o 3

198

Oil the Fnlfilinent of

BOOK I.

your own selves that summer is then near. So likewise
ye, u'hen ye see these things come to pass, knotv ye that
the kingdom of God is near. VeriJy I say unto you. This
generation shall not pass, till all these things he done.
As u e are bound by Christian faith to believe that this
prophecy is not yet, but shall be fully accomplished at
the last day ; so in truth I should suspect my heart of
infidelity, if I did not acknowledge it truly verified
(in such a sense as I have intimated) immediately after
the destruction of Hierusalem. The former distinction
of our Saviour's coming in power, or to present the
terrors of the last day, and his last coming unto
judgment indeed, he himself hath intimated ; for he
gave his disciples infallible signs when they might
certainly expect the former, verse 33, Heaven and
earth shall pass, ^c. hut of that day and hour,
(to wit, of the last judgment,) no man, no not the
angels of heaven, hut my Father only hnoweth. As if
he had said ; This last day shall not come with such
observation as the former will : the'signs here described
shall not prognosticate, but accompany it : in the for-
mer, there were signs in the sun and moon ; but in the
latter, both sun and moon shall cease to be : in the
former, the powers of heaven were shaken, the earth
did tremhle, and the sea did roar ; in the latter, the
heavens shall he gathered like a scroll, and pass away
with a noise, the elements shall melt with heat^, and
the earth with the works that are therein shall he hurnt,
the sea shall he no more^ : the whole frame of nature
shall be dissolved on a sudden, and such as until that
time mind earthly matters, confining their thoughts
within this sphere of moi'tality, shall be entrapped in
the ruins, and prest down to hell with the weight of
it ; only such as being in this world are not of it, but
^ 2 Pet. iii. 12. f Revel, xxi. i.

CHAP. XXIV, our Saviour's Prophecy, Matt.xxlv.

199

have their conversation in heaven, where their Re-
deemer sits at the right hand of God, shall escape
these sudden and fearful dangers, as birds that are
without the compass of the trap when it begins to fall;
seeing it Avill be too late for men to begin their belief
then ; too late to fly from death, when destruction hath
surprised them ; or to cry for mercy first, when God's
judgments begin to seize upon the world. The atheist
or careless worldling may gather both the terrors and
calamities of that day, from the often mentioned lively
representation of it under Titus : for even in his time
the heavens and the earth did threaten to pass away,
that all the world might know Christ's words should
not pass away. The fire of God's wrath, which Moses 105
had foretold sliould eat the foundations of the moun-
tains in Jewry; and such as Josephus^' tells us had
been kindled in the holy mount, did devour the foun-
dations of the movmt Vesuvius in Campania*'. The
consequences thereof, with other prodigious concomi-
tants, were so strange and fearful, that if we compare
the ingenious heathen historiographer's description of
them, with the forecited place of St. Luke, his relation
doth as fully answer our Saviour's prediction, as the
historical narrations of events past, contained in scrip-
ture, do the prophecies that had gone of them before.

4. " The sudden earthquakes were so grievous, that
all the valley was sultering hot, and the tops of the
mountains sunk down ; under the ground were noises
like thunder, answered with like bellowings above.
The sea roared, and the heavens resounded like noise;
huge and great crashings were heard, as if the moun-
tains had fallen together ; great stones leaped out of

S Bell. Jud. 1. 7. c. II. [aliis compare the 1 6th and 20th Epi'st.
lib. 5. cap. 5. p. 388.] of Pliny's sixth book of Epistles

h It is worth the labour to with l^ion ; and consider.

O 4

200

On the Fulfilment of

BOOK. I.

their places, as high as tops of hills ; and after them
issued abundance of fire and smoke, insomuch that it
darkened the air and obscured the sun, as if it had
been eclipsed, so that night was turned into day, and
day into night. Many were persuaded that the
giants had raised some civil broils amongst them-
selves, because they did see their shapes in the
smoke, and heard a noise of trumpets : others thought
the world should be resolved into the old chaos, or
consumed with fire ; some ran out of their houses
into the streets ; others from the streets or highways
into their houses; others from sea to land; some
again from the land to the sea." So Dion. 1. 66. [cap. 23.]
5. These questionless were the signs of the Son of
man, that made all the kindreds of the earth thus
moui'n. For the calamity was public: the abundance
of ashes and dust was such, that it overspread Egypt,
Afric, and Syria, choking not only men, but beasts
and birds, poisoning fishes, and spoiling the grounds
where it came. The inhabitants of Rome (whither
this infection came a few days after the fire kindled in
Campania) thought that the frame of the world had
been out of joint: that the sun did fall down to the
earth, and the earth ascend up to heaven. And albeit
the ashes and dust did not such present harm there, as
it had done every where else ; yet it bred a most
grievous pestilence breaking out not long after : and in
the year foUowing, whilst Titus went to view the
calamities of Campania, a great part of Rome was
burnt by fire issuing out of the ground. Amongst
other harms, these following were most remarkable :
it consumed the temple of Serapis, of Isis, of Neptune,
the Pantheon, the Diribitorium, the temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus, unto which the Jews were not long before
enjoined to pay that tribute which they formerly had

CHAP. XXIV. OUT Saviour's Prophecy, Matt. xxiv. 201

done to the temple of Hierusalem. Thus though the
ark be taken, yet will it be the downfall of Dagon
their chief god that took it: and though Hierusalem
lay buried in her ruins, for her people's grievous sins,
yet shall her's, as all sacred pensions sacrilegiously
employed, devour the seats of their possessors. But
what can we more say, than this noble historiographer
hath said of this event : Id malum D'winum potius
quam humanum fuit^: this was a calamity more than
human, in which the finger of God was evidently seen.
And as it was a type of the last day ; so may it, and
the like following, confirm the truth of Sodom's de-l06
struction. Nor did God speak only once in this lan-
guage to the Roman : (to omit other wonderful works
of God in these times, to be recounted in their proper
place.) The like fearful earthquakes, with other pro-
digious concomitants, fell out in Trajan's time at
Antioch ; but the harms not terminate within her
territories, or the cities about her, herewith destroyed.
For abundance of soldiers and multitudes of other
people did repair from all quarters to the emperor
wintering there ; some in embassages, some for suits,
some upon other businesses, some to see plays and
pageants. Whence the damage, as this author saith,
did redound to all that were subject to the Roman
empire. This out of question was the Lord's doing,
that all the world might hear and foar his wondrous
works, and wondering inquire after the true causes
and meaning of them. Thus Antioch, as well as Edom
and Babylon, is overtaken with the Psalmist's curse,
for rejoicing- in the day of Jerusalem. Besides the
massacres of the Jews there committed when Titus
came unto that city ; the inhabitants after their insi-
nuating gratulations, petitioned with all humility and

• Dion. lib. 66. [cap. 24.]

202

On the Fuljilment of

BOOK I.

policy^, that the i-elics of this people (for whom there
was no place left in their own land) might be extirpate
thence, comprising the Christians, no doubt, under this
name.

6. Many particulars, then known, are not registered
by such heathen writers as now are extant ; and many
signs of those times not regarded by any heathen : all
which might witness the truth of our Saviour's predic-
tions, and expound their meaning, were they as well
known to us as to the faithful then living ; whose me-
ditations, it seems, were so wholly taken up with these
contemplations, that they had no leisure to leave their
comments in writing to posterity. That dreadful woe
directed against the women of Hierusalem, with child
and giving suck, did take these Antiochians at the re-
bound. Women in such cases could not die but a
double death, and yet how many such were slain none
can tell. Of an infinite company of all sorts, starved
by their close imprisonment in houses, whose foun-
dations were sunk, the roof remaining, " only one wo-
man was found alive, which had sustained herself and
her child by her milk ; another child found in the like
concavity alive, sucking his deceased mother's dugs^"
In fine, saith the author, there was no kind of violent
disaster, which did not at this time befall men. For
the earthquakes being caused by the Divine power,
men's wits were not their own, nor knew they what
medicine to seek for these mishaps. Such as were on
the housetops had no list to descend to fetch any thing
out ; such as were in the field, had no mind to return
back to fetch their clothes ; Trajan himself was drawn
out at a window by no mortal creature; (as this writer

^ See Jos. lib. 7, de Bell. Jud. c 21 . or 24. [aliis cap. 5. p. 412.]
' Dion. 1.68. [0.246125.]

CHAP. XXIV. Our Saviour s Prophecy, Matt. xxiv. SOS

thinks ;) so astonished with this disastrous sight, that
for many days after the earthquake had ceased he
durst not come into any house. See Dion. 1. 68.

7. Neither of these strange signs of the Son of man
fell out in any corner of the world, but the one in the
chief, the other in the second city of the empire, at
that time the emperor's court: so that the whole
world's representative (as we may so speak) was in
danger, and all men, at least men of all sorts, at their
wit's end ; and by their terrors all mankind had public
warning to prepare themselves against that terrible
and dreadful daij : these being such types of it, as the 107
first destruction of the holy city and temple by Ne-
buchadnezzar, was of the second by Titus ; so as that
which is truly said of the one, may in an higher de-
gree be truly avouched of the other.

8. Of these times again was that of the prophet
meant" ; / will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And
I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth,
blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke : the sun shall be
turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before
the great and terrible day of the Lord come. But
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. If we rightly observe the prophet's method in
this place, it will botli justify and illustrate the former
interpretation of Jeremy and our Saviour's prophecy.
First he speaks (none can deny) of Christ's coming in
the flesh, and effusion of the Holy Gliost upon all peo-
ple ; / will jwur out my Spirit upon all flesh. By the
Spirit, the gospel was to be communicated to all na-
tions : and thus (as the evangelist witnesseth") at the
first descending of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles,
there were resident at Hierusaleni men that feared

n> Joel ii. a8, 30, 31. Zach. xiv. 7. n Actsii. 5.

204-

On the Fulfilment of

BOOK I.

God of every nation under heaven^ : and all these at
their baptism received the gift of the Holy Ghost,
whereby they might manifest the power and virtue of
the gospel unto the countries where they lived. If we
compare the generality of St. Luke's speech in that fifth
verse with our Saviour's, Matt. xxiv. 14; A7id this gos-
pel of the Mngdom shall he preached throughout the
whole world for a witness unto all nations; and then
shall the end come : we cannot doubt but our Saviour's
prophecy was verified before the destruction of Hieru-
salem, which was the end he meant should come. But
why should the prophet Joel, immediately after his
description of the time of grace, add in the second
place, / will shew wonders in the heavens and in the
earth, hlood, and fire, and pillars of smoke f Doth he
call the people of God again unto mount Sinai, to fire,
blackness, darkness, arid tempest, unto the sound of
trumpets, the voice of words, which they that once had
heard should not desire to hear any more f No : but
he would have the world understand, that after the
gospel was once proclaimed throughout it, the Lord
would shew himself as terrible a judge to all such as did
not embrace the glad tidings thereof, as he had done be-
fore to the Israelites at the promulgation of the law.
Both that fearful sight in mount Sinai, and those other
prodigious apparitions in Italy and Syria, were types
and representations of that dreadful day. The former
was seen and testified by the Israelites only, because
the law was only revealed to them : the horrors of the
latter are registered by heathen writers, known and felt
by the principal nations of the world, and from them
diffused to all others, (as earthquakes, which begin at
the centi'e, leave their effects upon the whole surface of
the earth,) because the gospel was at that time com-

o Acts ii. 5.

CHAP. XXIV. Our Saviour's Prophecy, Matt. xxiv. 205

municate to all the inhabited or frequented parts of the
world. Those jwodigious signs then, which the pro-
phet Joel describes, and the heathen witness to have
been so frequent among the nations, presently after
Jerusalem's destruction, and the extirpation of the
Jews, were added as so many seals, to assure the truth
of the prophets and gospel ; and to testify both to Jew
and Gentile, that if either the one did follow his Jewish
sacrifice, or the other his wonted idolatry, after the
truth of God's new covenant with mankind was sealed 108
and proclaimed, there remained no more sacrifice for
sins, but a fearful looJeingJbr of judgment and violent
fire : that there was no other name under heaven able
to save them from such everlasting flames, as they
now had seen some flashes of, but only the name of
Jesus, whom the Jew had crucified. So the prophet
Joel concludes, Whosoever shall call upon the name of
the Lord, that is, of Jesus, (for now all Israel might
know for a surety, that God had made that Jesus whom
they had crucified, hoth Lord and Christ,) he shall
he saved. The fruits of calling upon the name of the
Lord, and that distinction betwixt the state of the elect
and reprobate, intimated by the prophet in the last
verse of that chapter, shall be most fully manifested in
the day of judgment : for such as have watched and
prayed continually, always expecting their Master's
coming, shall upon the first apprehension of his ap-
proach lift up their heads, as knowing that their re-
demption draweth near. But for the riotous or care-
less liver, he shall not be able to stand before the Son
of man : instead of calling upon his name, he shall cry
unto the hills, Cover me, and to the mountains. Fall ye
ujwn me. Yet was the same distinction between the
reprobate and the elect truly notified by the confident
carriage of the Christians in those fearful times lately

206

On the Fulfilment of

BOOK I.

mentioned, (which did so much affright the heathen,)
as we may gather from Antoninus the emperor's de-
cree, inhibiting the Christians' persecution by the com-
mons of Asia. It seems the other had accused the
Christians as hurtful persons and offensive to the gods;
unto which the emperor makes reply in this manner? :
" I know the gods are careful to disclose hurtful per-
sons ; for they punish such as will not worship them,
more grievously than you do those whom you bring in
trouble, confirming that opinion which they conceive
of you, to be wicked and ungodly men. — It shall
seem requisite to admonish you of the earthquakes,
which have and do happen amongst us ; that being
therewith moved, ye may compare our estate with
theirs : they have more confidence to Godwards than
you have." I will shut up this discourse for the pre-
sent with that saying of our Saviour^, Remember Lofs
wife: and his exhortation, Take heed to yourselves,
lest at any time your hearts he oppressed with sur-
feiting, and drunJeenness, and cares of this life, and
lest that day come on you unawares. For as a snare
shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the
whole earth. So did the former calamities in Titus'
and Trajan's time, which were as the days of Noah ;
they ate, they drank, and rose up to play : and when
they said, Pax et tuta omnia, sudden destruction came
as an unexpected actor upon the stage. For as you
heard before, one cause of the great concourse unto An-
tioch at that direful season, was to see plays and prizes :
and in the former under Titus, two whole cities were
overwhelmed with the tempest of God's wrath, while

P Eiiseb. [Histor. Eccles.] 1. 4. laneum et Pompeios, ])opulo se-

c. 13. dente in tlieatro, penitus obruit.

1 Luke xxi. 34. Dion. 1. 66. [cap. 23.]]
Duas integras urbes, Hercii-

CHAP. XXIV. our Saviour's Proj^hecy, Matt. xxiv. 207

the citizens were sitting in the theatre. So "must all
such fruitless spectacles, or pleasant (but unseasonable)
comedies, be concluded with their spectators' tragedy
in the catastrophe of this great and spacious amphi-
theatre."

All that follows, till you come at the ninth paragraph, was 109
an Appendix in the former edition ; yet set before the
whole Book ; and so must be accounted, and allowed for
in the reading.

Albeit lawful in every age it hath been, to vary (if
without dissension) from former interpreters, in un-
folding Divine mysteries, without censure of irregu-
larity, so the explication be parallel to the analogy of
faith : yet partly, to clear myself from all suspicion of
affecting novelties ; partly, more fully to satisfy the in-
genious and unpartial reader, I have thought good to
acquaint him with some observations, which have al-
most betrothed my mind unto that exposition of our
Saviour s words related by St. Matthew and St. Luke,
which I here commend to his Christian considera-
tion.

That happily will cause others to suspend their
judgments, which for a long time did retard my per-
suasion, and inhibit my assent unto the truth I here
deliver. For albeit the reasons alleged seemed very
probable, whilst weighed apart, but far more pregnant
from comparing the concurrence of all circumstances,
which led me to that opinion : yet on the other side
strange it seemed, that my best grounds being borrowed
from the relation of antiquity, no ancient writer, living
shortly after those times, should have observed the like.
But whilst I considered again how the Almighty, whe-
ther in his just judgment for the sins of that present,
or in his wisdom and mercy for the greater good of

208

Oicr Saviour's Prophecy, Matt. xxiv. book i.

future generations, had deprived us of all their sacred
meditations, that lived about Titus's time, or immedi-
ately after : both effects, as I conceived, might have one
and the same just cause, though secret and only known
to God, not fit for us to make any further inquiry after,
than might stir us up to true admiration of his wisdom.
And truly admirable his wisdom seemed in this, that
the canon of the New Testament being finished in the
most known tongue then extant in the world, (in
which respect besides others, the gospel of the kingdom
might be truly said to be preached through the whole,
for a witness to all nations,) he would have it severed
from all other writings, as well by the subsequent as
precedent silence of ecclesiastical sacred writers. He
that would not have cmy prophet in Israel after the
erection of the second temple, would not for the same
cause only known to him, have any writings of men
(otherwise most religious and devout) to be extant in
the age immediately following the gospel's promulga-
tion, that it thus shining like a solid or compact glo-
rious star in the transparent sphere, environed every
where with vacuity, might more clearly manifest itself
by its own light to be supercelestial.

Necessary it was the period of that generation,
wherein our Saviour lived and died, should have the
110 Divine truth of his gospel confirmed unto them by
signs (as the prophet speaks®) m the heavens and
in the earth, to increase their care and diligence in
commending it to posterity, who were to rely on it im-
mediately, not on their forefathers' relation of signs
past. The like or more eflfectual, and as fully answer-
able to the rules set down in it, they could not want,
so long as they carried souls or minds careful to observe
and practise what is presci'ibed. And who knows

s Joel ii. 30.

CHAP. XXIV. The Signs in the Sun and Moon are jiast. 209

whether the Lord had not appointed, that the serious
consideration of those prodigious signs, which followed
the publishing of the gospel, should sleep in all or most
intermediate ages, till these latter days wherein we live,
wherein such observations are more seasonable, we
being the men on whom the latter ends of the world are
come. Happily had ecclesiastic writers commented upon
those times, our curious modern wits, too much ad-
dicted unto gentilism, would have given less credence
to the pregnant testimonies of profane authors, as
suspecting, lest Christians (in whose custody their
writings for many generations have been) had infected
either the whole discourses or some peculiar circum-
stances pertinent to their purposes, or apt to counte-
nance their opinions, otherwise improbable in the
world's judgment. But now, by how much the silence
of ecclesiastic authors in these narrations hath been
greater, and the testimonies of heathen writers more
plentiful or pregnant, so nuich the more unexcusable
is the curious and unregenerate artist, or incredulous
atheist. That most generations, since those times
whereof we treat, should expect signs in the sun and
moon, to come before the day of judgment, cannot seem
either strange in itself, or prejudicial to this doctrine
which we deliver, if we call to mind how men other-
wise truly religious have been usually ignorant or mis-
taken in the meaning of Divine mysteries, until the
time appointed for their revelation, or until they unfold
their enigmatical construction by the approach or real
existence of the events foretold. Thus, many well af-
fected to our Saviour and his doctrine did expect Elias
should come before the kingdom were restored to Israel,
even whilst tliey had John Baptist (of whom that
prophecy was properly meant) amongst them ; yea,
after he had sealed his embassage with his blood.

JACKSON, VOL. I. p

210

Our Saviour's Prophecy, Matt. xsiv. book i.

Even in the apostles' time, that our Saviour should in-
stantlj* come to give final judgment, was an opinion
(as it seems from St. Paul his admonition to the Thes-
salonians^} generally received amongst Christians : first
occasioned as is most probable from misconstruction
of our Saviour's prophecy, Verily I say unto you. This
generation shall not jxiss till all these things be done,
and this misconstruction caused from a common error
or ignorance in not distinguishing betwixt the typical
and the mystical or substantial sense of prophecies ;
ofttimes, both alike literally and necessarily imported
in the selfsame words.

From this error of Christians in misapplying our
Savioiur's words unto the substance, which, for that time,
were only appliable to the type, was the like tradition
propagated to the heathen of those times ; as may be
gathered from Lucan, who lived when St. Paul flou-
rished, and died by the same tyrant's appointment.
His description of the last day is but a poetical descant
upon our Saviour's words related by three of his evan-
gelists : The sun shall uax dark, and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall,
and the powers of heaven shall be shahen.

WX ^ sic, cum compage sohita,

Secula tot mundi suprema coegerit fiora.
Antiquum repetens iterum ctiaos, omnia mistis
Sidera siderihus concurrent : ignea ponturn
Astra petent : tellu-s extendere littora nolet,
Excutietque f return : fratri contraria Phoehe
Hit, et ohliquurn bigas agitare per orbem
Indignata, diem poscet sibi : iotaque discors
Macfiina diiulsi turbabit fcedera mundi.
When the last hour hath summed up time, and when
This frame resolves into its first chaos ; then
The stars shall justle, reel^ fall foul, and drop

t 2 Thess. ii. I. ^ Lucan. lib. i. [line 72.]

CHAP. XXIV. 77ie Sifftis in the Sun and Moon are past. 211

Into the sea. Churl earth will grudge, and stop
The water's course. The moon shall counter-move
The sun, and claim to rule the day. Thus love,
(Love, that atoned each atom wnth his brother.
Made feuds, (in league or truce,) to kiss each other;)
Love, ligament of the miiverse, turned hate ;
All falls in pieces . See you doomsday's fate!

The Romans might well hav^e taken their martyred
poet for a prophet, at least in this prediction, when
within few years after they did behold the sun and
moon, with all the host and powers of heax^en, tragi-
cally acting what he had penned. ''The Romans' con-
ceit of that rueful spectacle, whose admiration had
brought her great philosopher^', nature's curious se-
cretary, to his untimely death, in Dion's words, book
66. [c. 23.] was thus : Postremo tantus fiiit cinis, ut
inde pervenerit in Africam, Syriam, et JEgyptum,
introieritqiie Roniam, ejusque aerem compleverit, et
solem obscuraver 'it. Nec med'iocris et'iam IRomcB tre-
pidutio comphires ad dies accidit, [or as some read, id
Romce accidit paucis post diebus,^ quum omnes ig?io-
rarent id quod factum erat in Campania, nec quid
esset, conjectura assequi possent. Itaque etiam ii pu-
tare coeperunt omnia sursum deorsum Jerri, solemque
in terram cadere, ac terram in caelum conscendere'^.
So well doth this heathen express the prophet's words,
/ will sheiv wonders in the heavens and in the earth,
blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke, Joel ii. 30. But
most admirable is the consent between the same pro-

* A preamble to such effects tis littora ohstantia. Plin. lib. 6.

they might have seen in that ca- Epist. i6.

lamity at Vesuvius, Jam navibus y It was he that writ the

cinis inciderat : quo propius ac- natural history.

cederet calidior et densior. Jam ' See the fourth paragraj)h of

pumices etiam, nigrique et am- this chapter, where this is En-

busti, et fracti igne lapides : jam glished.

vadum subitum, ruinaque mon-

P 2

212

Our Saviour's Froi)hecy, Matt. xxiv. book i.

phet and Pliny the younger, who was an eyewitness of
the first rising of that smoke, portending such dismal
times. That great and terrible day of the Lord, hejbre
which (as the prophet speaks) the sun was to he turned
into darkness, and the moon into blood, was not to be
terminated unto one set, natural, or artificial day, but to
be extended unto all the prodigious calamities, which after
Jerusalem's destruction successively ensued throughout
the world, or, (as another prophet speaks",) unto the
continuance of that great controversy which the Lord
had with the nations : before which, the burning of Ve-
suvius was as a beacon to give warning to all flesh.
And the ingenious reader will, I hope, be incited, by
Pliny's expressing the beginning of that prodigious
sight, to admire the hidden mysteries that are often
enrapt in the enigmatical propriety of prophetical
words, rather than censure this observation following
112 for a tale of smoke or critical conjecture, set beyond
that region wherein these fiery comets appeared. The
word in the original, rendered by jnllars, properly sig-
nifies a palm-tree ; from the analogy betwixt pillars
and whose long trunk and broad top, it comes to sig-
nify a }nllar or supporter. Pliny the younger, setting
down the occasion and manner of his uncle's death, re-
sembles the first apparition of that huge and strange
cloud unto a pine-tree^ ; for to no other (as he saith)
he could more fitly compare it, though for this reason
it might altogether as fitly have been compared to a
palm-tree'^, had that tree been as well known in Italy
as in the region wherein the prophet lived that did

* Jer. XXV. 31. of palm-trees, "merito dicentur

b Pinaster nihil est aliud quam externae. Nulla est in Italia

pinus silvestris mira altitudine, sponte genita — . Teretes atque

et a medio ramosa, sicut pinus in procerje sunt — coma omnis in ca-

vertice. Pliii. Hist. 1. 16. cap. 10. cumine." 1. 13. c. 4.
c Pliny the philosopher saith

CHAP. XXIV. Tlic Signs in the Sun and Moon are past. 213

foretell this strange apparition so long before. Pliny's
words are these: Mater meet indicat ei apparere nubem
imisitatu et magnitudine et specie. Surgit ille — as-
cendit locum, ex quo maxime miraculum illud conspici
poterat. Nubes, incertum procul intueiitibus ex quo
monte, ( Vesuvium fuisse postea cognitum est,) orieha-
tur : ci/Jus form am non alia magis arbor quam j)inus
expresserit. A^am longissimo velut trunco elata in
altuni quibusdam ramis diffundebatur . Credo, quia re-
centi spiritu evecta, dein senescente eo destituta, ant
etiam pondere suo victa, ifi latitudinem vanescebat,
Candida interdum, interdum^ sordida et maculosa,
prout terram cineremve sustulerat. Magnum id, pro-
piusque noscendum ut eruditissimo viro visum est.
It was told him, "that there appeared a cloud, for big-
ness and shape never the like seen. Up he gets — and
goes to an advantage whence he might the better see
that strange sight. A cloud rose, (as yet the beholders
knew not from what mountain, afterwards it was fovmd
to be Vesuvius,) much resembling a pine-tree, for it
seemed to have as it were a long trunk, and boughs
spreading out above. Sometime it appeared white,
otherwhile dusky and dappled, (or stained and spotted,)
according to the blended proportions of earth and ashes.
He thought it a strange sight indeed, and worthy his
adventuring nearer to view it," &c. That the sun was
turned into darkness, that with this smoke was mixed
fire, may appear from the same author's words a little
after : Jam dies alibi, ilUc nox omnibus noctibus tii-
grior, den.norque, quam tamen foices^ multce, variaque
lumina solvebant. Plin. Ep. 1. 6. Ep. 16.

This, which occasioned wonderment to the hea-
then, was (no doubt) a sufficient warning to all godly

^ Representing blood and fire ^ Fiery meteors,
as the prophet had foretold.

p 3

214

Our Saviou)-'')) Prujjhecy, Matt. xxiv. book i.

Christians to betake themselves to their prayers: to
expect the confirmation of their faith by their mighty
deliverance from those dangers, wherein innvnnerable
heathens utterly perished, vi'hich made the hearts of all
mankind (besides) to fail. This corporal preservation
of the elect from fear or danger, whilst castaways pe-
rished, and trouble raged among the nations, was that
redemption which our Saviour speaks of.

And when these things hegin to come to pass, then
look up, and lift up your heads ; for your redemption
draweth nigh^. For this was a sure type or pledge of
their and our everlasting redemption. And before the
bursting out of that fire, and the erection of those
pillars of smoke before mentioned, God, as our Saviour
foretold, had sent his angels to gather his elect together,
either to places free from those general calamities, or
miraculously to preserve them in the midst of them.
113 For to deny or suspect the truth of Dion's relations, I
have no reason : and yet what other cause to assign of
those giants' apparitions in Vesuvius, and the towns
about it immediately before that danger, I know not,
but only that which our Saviour had given.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of
a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect
front' the four winds, and from the one end of the hea-
ven to the other?-.

Thus Dion ; Ita vero res acta: viri multi et magni
omnem riaturam humanam excedentes, quales expri-
muntur gigantes, partim in ipso monte, partim in
agro circumjacente, ac in oppidis interdiu noctuque
terrain ohire, atque aera jwrmeare visebantur. Post-
hcBc consecuta est maxima siccitas, ac repente ita
graves terrce motus facti, Sec. 1. 66. [c. 22.]

The like gathering of the elect, ecclesiastic writers
* Luke xxi. 28. s Matt. xxiv. 31.

CHAP. XXIV. The Signs in the Sun and Moon are past. 215

mention in the siege of Jerusalem and Jewish wars ;
the godly sit at ease and in peace, whilst the obstinate
and seditious were overwhelmed with calamity upon
calamity. And yet all the calamities which accom-
panied Jerusalem's destruction did in greater measure
afflict the heathens within few years after it was de-
stroyed. Above other places, God's plagues haxmted
the Roman court, that all the world might take notice
of our Saviour's prophecies. And the Romans, albeit
they knew not who had given the advice, resolved yet
to practise as our Saviour advised. Let him (saith our
Saviour) that is upon the housetop not come down
into the house, neither enter therein, to fetch any thing
out of his house : and let him that is in the field not
turn hack again unto the things which he left behind
him to take his clothes^. So Pliny testifies that in
the times above mentioned, albeit the piunice stones
did fly about men's ears in the open fields ; yet they
held it more safe during the earthquake to be abroad
than within doors, arming their heads with pillows
and bolsters against the blows they expected. In com-
mune consultant, intra tecta suhsistant, an i?i aperto
vagentur : nam crehris vastisque tremoribus tecta nu-
tahant, et quasi emctci sedihus suis, nunc hue, nunc
illuc ahire, ant referri videhantur. Sub dio rursus,
quanquam, levium exesorumque pumicmn casus metue-
batur : quod tamen malorum collatio elegit — . Cervi-
calia cajntibus imposita linteis constringunt. Id muni-
mentuni adversus incidentia fuit. Plin. Ep. 1. 6.
Ep. 16.

This was the beginning of that great and terrible
day of the Lord, foretold by the prophet, wherewith
the world was for a long time shaken by fits, as it were
by a deadly fever, as may appear fi-om the like cala-

li Murk xiii. 15, 16.

V 4

216 Our Saviour's Proj)fieci/, Mutt. xxiv. book i.

mities in Trajan's times, related by Dion. Our Saviour
himself expounds the prophet's words not of one day,
but days ; Jbr f/iere shall he in those days such tribu-
lation, as was not from the heginning of the creation
which God created, neither shall be\ So terrible were
these days, that, as our Saviour in the next words add-
eth, except the Lord had made an end of them, theij
had quickly made an end of all mankind. Even at
that time the world by the ordinary course of God's
justice should have been destroyed, but he spared it at
the instant prayers of his chosen, as he would have
saved Sodom after judgment was gone out, had there
been but a few such faithful men in it, as in the fore-
mentioned times the world had many. So merciful is
our God, so loving unto all the works of his hands,
that his Son cannot come to judgment so long as he
shall fnd faith upon the earth. Whosoever, saith the
prophet, shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved ; yea, he shall save others, as our blessed Saviour
114- more fully foretells what the prophet saw but in part :
Except that the Lord had shortened those days, no
flesh shoidd he saved: but for the elects sake, which he
hath chosen, he hath shortened those days^. Other
prophecies there be of those times, which seem to inti-
mate a final destruction of all flesh without delay : and
so, no doubt, the prophets themselves conceived of the
world, as Jonah did of Nineve, which he looked should
instantly have perished upon the expiration of the time
he had foretold. Wrath they had seen go out from the
Lord, of force enough to have dissolved the frame of
nature, but could not usually foresee either the number
of the faithful, or the dispositions of men's hearts upon
their summons : but this great prophet, who only fore-
saw all things, not only foretells the calamities or judg-
• Mark xiii. 19. ^ Jjark xiii. 20.

CHAP. XXIV. The Signs in the Sun (md Moon are past. 217

merits due unto the world, but withal foresees the
number of the elect, their inclination to hearty prayers
and repentance, by wliich he knew the fierce wrath of
God, whose representation the prophet saw^, should be
diverted from the world ; that his stroke should be a
little broken.

Out of such Fathers™ as lived in the ages following,
it is evident the calamities of these times had been
such, as did threaten the world's end ; many relics of
that grievous disease, wherewith the world was sick
almost unto death, remained until St. Cyprian's time.
But as Jerusalem's plagues did prognosticate the storms
of God's wrath which were shortly after to be showered
upon the nations ; so these castaway Jews prefigure
the heathen's temper ; of whom that saying of our Sa-
viour holds as true, T/ief/ are like unto children sitting
in the marhetplace, and crying one to another, and
saying, JVe have jriped unto you, and ye have not
danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not
wept ".

In our Saviour's time, God invited them with peace
and plenty, which they foolishly attribute to their gods,
or their own policy : after his death he threatens them
with the former calamities, all which they falsely as-
cribe" (as the superstitious in like cases usually do) to
the alteration of religion, and the decay of idolship.

Would God the temper of this present age were not
much worse than either the Jews or Gentiles was ; not
such as did threaten the final destruction of the world,
from which faith hath utterly perished ! But of this
argument, as far as befits Christian sobriety to inquire,

1 Joel ii. nobis debeaiit imputari omnia

™ Vide Cyprianum ad Deine- ista, quibus nunc mundus qua-

trianum. [j). 150.3 titur et urgetur; quod dii vestri

" Luke vii. 32. a nobis non colantur. Cyprian.

" Dixisti per nos fieri, et quod ad Deniet. ^p. 142.3

218

Our Suvioui-'a Prophecy, Matt. xxiv.

BOOK I.

by God's assistance, in its proper place. Thus much in
this place I have added, to persuade the reader, that
for ought any man knows, or for any precedent sign
can be expected, it may this night soimd to judgment :
watch we therefore, and pray continually, that we may
be counted worthy to escape all these things that shall
come to pass, and that we may stand before the Son of
man.

9. Thus much of the prophecies concerning Hieru-
salem's destruction, and the signs of those times. Ere
we return to survey the Jews' estate since, it shall not
be amiss to note, how upon the expiration of their in-
terest in God's promises, confirmed unto their father
Isaac, the seed of Ishmael began to enter upon the other
moiety of his promise made to Abraham.

115 CHAP. XXV.

That the Sai-acens are the true Sons of Ishmael : of their Con-
ditions and Planners, answerable to Moses' Prophecy.

1. That the sons of Isaac and Ishmael (for more
than 3000 years after their father's death, in countries
almost as many miles distant from their original seat,
whither scarce any other Asiatics come) should kithe
each other with as little scruple as if they were full
cousin germans, to me hath seemed an argument, that
the Lord had appointed both, for continual signs unto
the nations : the more, whiles I consider with what
difficulty of search, variety of conjectures, and uncer-
tainty of resolution the best antiquaries amongst the
natural inhabitants of those countries assign either
their first planters there, or the regions whence they
came.

CHAP. XXV. The Saracens are the true Sons of Ishmael. 219

2. But howsoever such as we call Saracens are best
known to tlie modern Jews of Spain by the name of
Ishmaelites; yet in these latter days (disposed to quarrel
with former ages) some begin to suspect, others to
contradict the common receiv^ed opinion, as well con-
cerning the Saracens' natural descent from Hagar and
Ishmael, as their pretended original from Sarah, Abra-
ham's lawful wife. Unto which bold assertion, or
needless scruple, though utterly devoid of all ground,
either of reason or authority, we are thus far beholden ;
it hath occasioned us to seek the groimd of the contrary
out of antiquity, as well secular as ecclesiastic : whose
pregnant consonancy with the sacred oracles is per-
tinent to this present, necessary for subsequent dis-
course, in itself neither unpleasant, nor unprofitable to
the judicious Christian reader.

3. Of Abraham's base-seed, some (in scripture) are
denominate from their mother, known by the name of
Hagarens ; others from her son, their father, are called
IshmaelitesP : some take their names from his sons, as
Kedar, Duma, Naphish, Jetur'i, &c. Not any people in
scripture (to my remembrance) take their name from
Nebaioth his eldest son ; which adds probability to their
opinion who think such as the heathen call Nabath«i
were in scripture termed Ishmaelites, as sole heirs to their
first progenitor's name : their seat was in the best part
of Arabia Petraea, near unto the Midianites, as is pro-
bable from the story of Joseph ; who in one place is
said to be sold unto the Ishmaelites, in another to the
Midianites, these being near neighbours, as it seems,
and copartners in traffick. As the Nabathaeans are not
mentioned in scripture, so neither do I find the name
of Ishmael in any ancient heathen writer : all of them, I

P So these two are dislin- >" Goropius Becanus in His-
guished, i Chron. xxvii. 30, 31. panicis. [p- 97.]
1 1 Chron. v. 19.

220

The Saracens are

BOOK I.

think, being of Strabo his mind, who (book 16.) profess-
eth, that he omits the ancient names of the Arabians,
partly because in his time they were out of use, partly
for the harshness of their pronunciation ; unto which
exception the name of Ishmael was most obnoxious.

4. The seat of such as the scripture calls Hagarens
was in the desert Arabia, betwixt Gilead and Eu-
phrates, as we may gather from 1 Chron. v. 9» 10.
This people were called by the heathen, 'A7|oaioJ, Agrtei,
(a name more consonant to their name in Hebrew, njrr
than the Latin Hagareni,) rightly placed by Ptolomy in
116 the desert Arabia, and by Strabo, (book 16, [p. 767.])
in that very place* which the scripture makes the
eastern bounds of Ishmael's posterity : their metropolis
or chief city in later times was Atra^ or Atrje, and the
inhabitants thereof Atreni, unless both Dion and Hero-
dian either mistook, or have been mistaken to have
written, Atreni for Agreni. But to omit the particular
denomination of Ishmael's seed, they were best known
to ancient heathens from the manner of their habitation
in tents" : and Scenitae Arabes was a name general,
and, I think, equivalent to his race, unless perhaps the
Midianites or Idumaeans might share with them in this
name, as they were partakers of their quality : which
is not so to be appropriated unto either, as if they had
neither house or town ; for the tents of Kedar are most
famous in scripture, yet saith the prophet, Let the wiU

* To wit, next unto the Chau-
lotaeans or inhabitantsof Havilab.

t This name, (Atreni,) it seems,
was peculiar to the inhabitants
of Atra, the chief city of the Aga-
renes, or Agrfeans, as Petrse
was the metropolis of the Xa-
bathaeans : so that the Atreni
and Agareni differ as the Pe-
traeni and Xabathaei.

'I Caslius Augustinus Curio, in
his Historia Saracenica, Q. i. in-
itio,^ speaks of a city called
Scene, (perhaps it should be
Scense,) in Arabia Deserta. And
Strabo, in his i6th book, (of Ca-
saubon's edit. [[p. 748.],) tells of
Scena; : Au^ovcri 6e T^r SeXevKeiai
al ^icrjvai (r\oivovt OKTcoKaidena.

CHAP. XXV. the true Sons of Ishmael.

221

derness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the
towns that Kedar doth inhabit, Isaiah xlii. 11. Nor did
he mean as many tents as would make a town ; for even
in Moses' time they had their places of defence, as ap-
pears Gen. XXV. 16. These he the sons of Ishmael, and
these he their names, hy their towns, and hy their castles;
twelve jrrinces of their nation, or rather twelve heads of
so many several houses, tribes, or clans ; which kind of
regiment they continued, till four hundred years after
Christ. And the heathen writers, both Greek and Latin,
better express Moses' words in the forecited place DN''liO
D/ION'? than sundry modern interpreters do ; who call
them dukes or princes, being to the Grecians'' (pvXapx^oi
'Apd^wp, to the hatmsPhy larch iAr ahum, or to the later
writers Saracenorum, albeit some Latin writers ^ call
them Regidi Saracenorum.

5. The proof of our intended conclusion depends
upon these two premises ; the first, that the Saraceni
wei'e the same people whom the ancients call the
ScenitfE Arahes, as is expressly avouched by Ammianus
Marcellinus in sundry places^, and every one will ac-
knowledge, that compares the ancient and later Romans*"*

X Strabo lib. i6. [p. 748.] in
descript. Syri<E, et lib- 2. Qp.
130-]

y Ammian. Marcell. lib. 23.
[cap. 3.]

z Lib. 23 [cap. 6.] : Hcenitac
Arabes quos Saracenos posteritas
appellavit.

11 Whom the ancient writers
call Phylarchi Arabum, the later
call Phylarchi Sjaracenorum, as
appears by Sextus Rufus, and
Jornandes. Montes Armenia;,
prinium per Lucullum Romana
arma viderunt ; per quem et
Osroene et Saracenorum Phy-
larchi devicti Romanis se dedi-

derunt. Jornandes [de regn.
success.] lib. i. So he calls
them by anticipation, as in scrip-
ture places are ofttiines called
by those names which are best
known in the writer's time ; not
by the names which they bare in
those ancient times of which
they write. So likewise, Sextus
Rufus in his breviary of the Ro-
man story, speaking of the con-
suls' time, mentioneth the Sara-
cens ; albeit no mention is made
of them or their Phylarchi, by
any Roman that lived within 200
years of Pompey's conquests.

The Saracens are

BOOK I.

writing the same stories. The second, that the Scenitae
Arabes were the seed of Ishmael ; which doth appear
by the identity of their habitation, condition, and
quality.

6. First, it is evident out of Pliny and Strabo^
that the Scenitae Arabes were seated eastward about
the river Euphrates, noisome neighbours to Chaldsea
and Mesopotamia ; some part whereof in Strabo his
time they inhabited : on the west part they bordered
upon Egypt and Ethiopia : so Ammianus Marcellinus
in his 22nd book, describing the situation of Egypt,
saith, " It bordered on the east upon the cataracts of
Nilus, and the Scenitae Arabes, whom now we call

11 '7 Saracens*^." And in his 14th book, describing the situa-
tion of the Saracens, he makes Assyria their border on
the East, and the confines of Blemyae and the cataracts
of Nilus on the west. And Moses, Genesis xxv, saith, the
sons of Ishmael dwell from Shur, which is towards
Egypt, unto Havilah, which is toward Ashur, in the
way from Egypt thither. This land of Havilah, or
(according to the orthography of the Hebrew) Chavilah,
famous in scripture for gold, I'etained the same name in
Strabo's time^^; the inhabitants called by him Chau-
lota?ans, next neighbours to the Hagarens, or Agraei,
whose country Severus suspected to have had good
store of gold.

7. ''If Aram. Marcellinus had but known how fully

^ Mera fie Tr]v MeaonoTaiilav to. c Egyptia gens, qua Orientem

«Vros 'Eiffipdrov ravra b' iariv ijre e regione prospicit, Elephantinam

(idaifxccv 'hpafila Traaa, acpopi^optvr) et Meroen urbes ^thiopum, et

rwTf 'Apal3ia> koXtto) iravTi, Kai tm Cata-dupos rubrumque Pelagus

XlepfTiKoi), Koi o(Tr)v oi ^KrjVLTiii Koi ol et Sceiiitas praetenditur Arabas,

^vXapxoi KaTexovo-i-", f''''' qi'os Saracenos nunc appellamus.

(fypciTrjv Ka6r)KovTes, Kai Tr)v 'S.vplav. Amm. Marcell. lib. 2 2 . [cap. 15.]

Strabo 1. 2. ed. Casaub. p. 130. d Lib. 16. initio descript.

Et lib. 16. [p. 749.] Syria Orien- Arabiae. [p. 767.]

tem versus terniinatur Euphrate The description of the Sa-

et Arabibus Scenitis. racens' situation and conditions

tHAP. XXV. the tme Sons of Ishmael.

223

Moses had prevented him in his observations of these
Saracens, (gathered from his experience of their beha-
viour,) many hundred years before the Romans had
heard of such a people ; nay ere they themselves were
any nation ; it would perhaps have moved him to have
thought better of Moses' writings, and worse of his
master Julian for oppugning them. And if neither
love, nor fear of God, or time religion, methinks natu-
ral civil modesty should enforce men to believe his
report of things past, that can so clearly point out the
nature of men many hundred years before they come
into the world. For so we must esteem Moses' words
of Ishmael and Hagar, though historically verified in
their persons, yet withal a typical prophecy of their

out of Aminianus Marcellinus,
in his 14th book, [cap. 4.] com-
pared with Moses' characters of
Ishmael, and his prophecy of his
posterity. Gen. xxv. 1 8. and Gen.
xvi. 6. and 12. Saraceni nec
amici nobis unquam nec habendi
[alii legunt, nec hostes optandi]
ultro citroque discursantes, quic-
quid inveniri poterat, niomento
temporis parvi vastabant, milvo-
riim rapaci vitm similes ; qui si
praedam despexerint cclsius, vo-
latu rapiunt celeri, aut si impe-
trarint non inmiorantur. Super
quorum moribuspauca expediam.
Apud hasgentes, quariun initium
ab Assyriis ad Nili cataraetas
porrigitur et confinia Blemya-
rum, omnes pari sorte sunt bel-
latores, seminudi, coh)ratis sa-
gulis pube tenus aniicti, equo-
rum adjumento pernicium, graci-
liumque camelorum per diversa
reptantes in tranquillis vel tur-
bidis rebus. Nec eorum quis-
quam aliquando stivam appre-
hendit, vel arborem colit, aut ar-
va subigendo quaeritat victum,

sed errant semper per spatia lon-
ge lateque distenta, sine lare,
sine sedibus fixis aut legibus, nec
idem perferunt diutius ccelum,
aut tractus unius soli illis un-
quam placet, vita est illis semper
in fuga, uxoresque mercenariae
conductae ad tempus ex pacto :
atque ut sit species matrimonii,
dotis nomine futura conjunx
trictam vel hastam et tabernacu-
lum offert marito, post statum
diem si id elegerit discessura :
incredibile est, quo ardore apud
eos in Venerem uterque sex us
solvitur. Ita autem quoad vixe-
rint, late palantur, ut alibi mulier
nubat, in loco pariat alio, libe-
rosque procul educet, nulla copia
quiescendi permissa. Victus uni-
versis caro ferina est, lactis-
que abundans copia, qua susten-
tantur, et herbae multiplices, et
si quae alites capi per aucupium
possunt. Et plerosque nos vidi-
mus frunienti usum et vini peni-
tus ignorantes. Hactenus de
natione perniciosa.

The Saracens are

BOOK I.

posterity's conditions. And it is a demonstrative argu-
ment, that their wildness was foretold by his Spirit
that only can command nature, and prescribe limits to
the free thoughts of man, in that this progeny
(throughout so many hundred generations) vary no
more from their first progenitor's agrest and fierce qua-
lities, than the wild plants of the forest, never accus-
tomed to human culture, do from the trees whence they
are propagate.

8. Ishmael, as Moses tells us, was begotten of Flagar,
an Egyptian hireling : the matrimony of Saracen women
in Ammianus his time was mercenary, and upon com-
pact for a time''. Hagar conceived Ishmael in Abra-
ham's house, but ready to bring him forth in the wil-
derness, whither he and she were sent again, after her
return unto her mistress ; the Saracen women of Am-
mianus his time marry in one place, bear children in
another, and bring them up in a third far distant ;
never permitted to live in rest : and in show of matri-
mony, they bring a spear and a tent for their dowry,
being indeed a perfect emblem of their mercenary rov-
ing life : for these they may by covenant take with
them at the end of their service, and be packing from
their masters to seek their food in the wilderness, as
their mother Hagar taught them. Who would think,
] 18 but that it were more likely one should die rather of
hunger than thirst in the wilderness ? Or who could
imagine that Abraham (unless directed by some secret
instinct, presaging that rude and sharking life, where-
unto this wild slip's progeny was ordained) could suffer
Ishmael and Hagar to go to the wilderness out of his
house, which God had blessed with all manner of store,
only furnished with a little bread and a bottle of water,
so quickly spent, that the child had almost died for
See the last note, out of Am. Jlarc.

CHAP. XXV. The signs of the Sim and Moon are past. 225

thirst, before God did provide him more. This did
portend, that his posterity should be pinched with like
penury, scant of water, (their best drink,) straitening
their territories (as Strabo tells us^) in Arabia; and
after they had enlarged the bounds which Moses set
them, even in Mesopotamia itself', they are confined to
dry and barren places; nor could the prophet' better
express the future barrenness of Babylon, and the
regions about, than by intimating it such, as the sons of
desolation, which sought their food out of flint, should
not be able to inhabit. That water, many years after
Strabo's time, was the Scenite Arabian's best or only
drink, appears from Pescennius Niger's reply unto his
soldiers,*^ pretending lack of wine as cause of their lack
of courage, or faint service ; " You may be ashamed,"
saith he, " of this excuse, whereas they that foil you
are but water-drinkers." And Ammianus saith, he
knew very many of them in his time, that neither
knew use of wine nor corn. Moses describing the
manner of Ishmael's life, said he was an archer in the
wilderness. None of the Saracens, if we may believe

g Ta 5' c^^y T^y M.€(roTtoTap.las rens or Ishmaelites, were called
fiexpi' KotXrjs 2vpias, TO piv nXriai- by later, Arabians: nor is it

fiiav, ^Krjuirai KaTexovcriv "Xpa^es, (if at all) to mention the Ish-

' Isaiah xiii. 20. From which tibus, Vinum non cepinius ; Eru-
place we may gather that snch bescite, incjuit, illi qui vos vin-

usual after Jehoshaphat's time

maelites or Hagarens ; the name
of the Arabians being then equi-
valent to the Ishmaelite, if we
take them generally, as may be
gathered likewise from Josephus
in sundry places ; amongst others,
from his 13th [aliis c. 12. p. 36.]
chapter of his first book of An-
tiquities.

^ Tumnltuantibus iis qui a
Saracenis victi fuerunt, et dicen-

as the ancient writers of sacred
story would have termed Haga-

JACKSON, VOL. I. C

cunt aquam bibunt. Vide aelium
Spartian. in Pescennio Nigro.

226

Our Saviour s Prophecy , Matt. xxiv. book i.

Ammianus, did ever set his hand to the plough, but
got their living for the most part by their bow*.
For as were they, such was their meat, wild flesh or
venison, herbs or milk, or such wild fowls as the wil-
derness did afford, and they could catch. For their
own wildness he compares them to kites, ready to spy
a prey, but so untame withal, that they would not stay
by it, as crows or other ravenous birds do by carrion,
but presently fled with what they caught unto their
nests. So notoriously was their wildness incorporated
into their nature, that the more tame they grew, the
less right they seemed to have unto their names, as
Strabo intimates.

9. Yet did they not more fully resemble Ishmael
and Hagar's conditions, than preposterously imitate
Abraham's rites or religion. Their father Ishmael
was about thirteen years old when God established his
covenant with Abraham ; and for this reason not cir-
cumcised until that age™: the Saracens till this day
circumcise not their children before that time°; when
as they might with as good reason defer it till about
119 the hundredth year of their age, because Abraham was
thereabouts when he first received this seal of God's
covenant, Abraham erected altars, and Jacob anointed

1 The Saracens have been fa-
mous for their artillery through-
out all their generations.

™ Isaacum octavo mox die cir-
cunicidunt, qui mos adhuc Judaeis
durat, ut post totidem dies cir-

cumcisionem celeLrent . Ara-

bes vero post decimum tertium
annum id faciunt. Ishmael enim
generis eorum autor, Abrahamo
e concubina natus, post tantum
temporis est circumcisus. Jose-
phus Antiq. 1. i. c. 12. et 13.
This custom was continued by

the Saracens of Spain and Afric.

° Lud. Vives, de Verit. Fid. 1.
4. CI 2. says, the Saracens cir-
cumcise their children at 1 4 years
old. The Turks, I know not
whether upon ignorance of Ish-
mael's age, at the time of his
circumcision, or upon other occa-
sions, (perhaps mistaking years
for days,) circumcise their chil-
dren at eight years old. Philip.
Lonicer. tom. 1. 1. 2. part. 2. cap.
24.

CHAP. XXV. The signs of the Sim and Moon are past. 227

the stone, in the place where God had appeared to him:
the Saracens from these or like traditions celebrate
their sacrifices unto a stone with apish and childish
solemnities °. God commanded Moses (ignorant belike
of that religious and decent custom which his fore-
fathers in like cases used) to put off his shoes, when he
was to tread on holy ground ; which rite was after-
wards observed by the Jews in their more solemn vows,
and the p Saracens to this day have their imdipedalia
sacrificia. Abraham, if we may believe Josephus^,
from his sober contemplation of the heaven and stars,
began to detest the idolatry of the heathen, and to
adore that Divine providence, by which these supposed
gods were guided : the Saracens falling back to heathen-
ism, adore Lucifer or the morning star; and from
their forefathers no doubt the Israelites learned this
idolatry in the wilderness. And as I should conjecture
their habitation in tents, and wandering life was not
continued, throughout so many generations, so much
upon necessity, as in imitation of Abraham's using
tents, necessary in that time for him that would jour-

o Saracenis autem (quando- thers ; tlieir testimonies notwith-

quidem et ijisi de ea re aliquid standing we may admit without

dicere velle videntur) sufficiat ad prejudice to that controversy be-

confusionem quod in erenio la. twixt us and them,
pidi inanimato sacrificia faciant, P Nunc quoque Mauri et Sa-

acclamentquehanc vocem Chobar, raceni, ejusmodique genus homi-

quod a partibus acceptum per num. templa, in quibus sacra

puerilia mysteria et festa pera- facturi sunt, non ingrediuntur

gant. Synodus Nicena secunda. nisi calceis depositis. Gyraldus

Actione quarta in Epist. Ger- de Symb. Pythag.
mani Episc. ad Thorn. Episc. q Joseph. Antiq. 1. i. c. 8.

Claudiopolios. [Concil. ed. Hard, [aliis c. 7.] Vide Hieron. in

t. 4. p. 247. D.] The Jews vita Hilarionis. Et Riberam in

and Saracens had objected wor- quint. Amos, numero 72. Of

shipping of images to the Chris- the occasions of these Saracens'

tians of that age, and this synod idolatry, and preposterous imita-

usetli this apology better beseem- tion of the patriarchs, vide Sozo-

ing a scolding butter queen than men. lib. 6. c. 38.
such as should be reverend fa-

Q 2

228

The 'Beginning and Progress

BOOK I.

ney throughout so many countries as he was enforced
to do.

CHAP. XXVI.
The Beginning' and Progress of Ishniael's Greatness.

1. The chief strength of Ishmael's sons in ancient
time did consist in artillery, as we may gather from
the prophet, Isaiah xxi. 16. Yet a year, according' to
the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar
shall fail: and the residue of the number of the
strong archers of the sons of Kedar shall be few:
for the Lord God of Israel hath sj^ohen it. Though
the plague here threatened by the Assyrians did over-
take them ; yet, as St. Jerome notes, they escaped the
rod of God's wrath better than most of their neigh-
bours, by reason of their speedy removal from place to
place, most of them such as were never out of their
dwelling, whilst they had tents, and camels, and wastes
to range in. Afterwards they continued troublesome
neighbours unto Syria, until it was annexed to the
Roman einpire'', by whose valour the strength of their
archers was again diminished, and the reign of their
Phylarchi cut short. But their country first brought
into the form of a province by Trajan, in whose time
the Hagarens (so soon are they weary of ci^il subjec-
tion) begun to revolt, and for aught I find were never
brought again to perform perfect obedience unto the
Roman or any other people.

2. Their city, saith DionS was neither great nor
rich, yet had it Zoar's privilege : he that preserved the
one from the storms of fire and brimstone, which de-

ISOvoured far greater neighbour cities, did guard the
other against the violence of two most potent em-
perors, who had overrun the mightiest kingdoms of

r Strabo, lib. i6. « Lege Histor. apud Dion. 1. 68. [cap. 31.]

CHAP. XXVI. of IshmaeVs Greatness. ^29

the earth. The heathen thought the sun, to whom
their city was consecrated, did protect it. But can they
shew us any prophecy of old, given by Phoebus for this
people's good ? we can shew them the express promise
of Abraham's God, more than two thousand years be-
fore, for making them and their brethren a mighty
nation. Let the atheist judge, whether their God's arm
was shortened, or whether his miracles, which the
scripture tells us were wrought for the sons of the free
woman, whilst they followed their father's steps, can
seem incredible, being compared with the wonderful
deliverance of the Agarens, the sons of the bondwoman,
from Trajan and Severus, both besieging them in per-
son. The soil about their city was barren, and when
Trajan besieged it, very hot ; so that the violence of
the siege could not be long. These signs the politicians
could assign of Trajan's ill success. But whence was
it, that as oft as the city was assaulted, the soldiers
were annoyed with lightnings, thunders, whirlwinds,
and hail ? affrighted or dazzled with the apparition of
rainbows ? whence was it that flies should corrupt and
spoil their meat, whilst they did eat it? By these and the
like means, wonderful in the heathens' sight, was Trajan
forced to give over the siege, which he had followed,
not without great danger of his life, by coming within
these strong archers' shot in viewing the city, shortly
after (as if he had fought before with men, but now
against God) falling into a disease, whereof he died.

3. About eighty years after', the emperor Severus,
disdaining (as Trajan had done) that these Hagarens
should stand out still against the Romans, when all the
rest about them had yielded, being repulsed with loss
of men and munition, made great preparation for the
second assault, in which, (after great loss of his sol-
* See Dion. lib. 75. [cap. 10.] where he calls them Atreni.

Q 3

230

The Begiiodug and Progress

BOOK I.

diers,) having overthrown part of the city wall, he
caused the retreat to be sounded in policy, hoping the
besieged would have come to entreat for peace and li-
berty, which he was not minded to grant, but upon con-
dition they would bewray the hidden treasure supposed
to be consecrated to the sun. But they continued re-
solute a whole day, giving no intimation of any
treaty for peace. The soldiers in the mean time were
so discontented, that on the morrow following, the Eu-
ropeans, before most resolute, would not enter at the
breach : and the Syrians, enforced to undertake the
service, had a grievous repulse. "So," saith Dion",
" God delivered the city, recalling the soldiers by Se-
verus, when they might have entered, and restraining
Severus the second day by the soldiers' backwardness."
The conquest after this breach was in martial esteem
so easy, that one of his captains confidently undertook
to effect it, without the hazard of any other man's life
besides, so he might have but 550 European soldiers
assigned him. To which fair proffer the emperor, (as
pettish as they had been peevish,) in a distracted chafe
replied: "But where shall I find so many soldiers?"
and so departed into Palestina. Thus are the proud
assaults of greatest monarchs,in their height of strength,
but like the billows of a swelling tide, which break
over the banks, and immediately fall again ; the Al-
mighty hath set bounds to both, which they must not
pass; and under his protection may Ishmael rest, as se-
121 cure from the Roman forces, to whom he had given
all the regions round about them, as Edom did from
the Israelites, when they slew mighty kings, and cast
out far greater neighbour nations. It is probable that
these Hagarens, after their good success against Trajan
and Severus, did propagate their name to all the sons
1 Lib. 75. [cap. 12.]

CHAP. XXVI. of IshmaeVs Greatness.

231

of Ishmael ; as whole nations in like cases take new-
denominations from the ringleaders unto revolt. So-
zomen" and St. Hierom^, both living shortly after this
people was generally known by the name of Saracens,
avouch without question, (what they could have given
reason for, had they foreseen posterity's incredulity,)
they usurped the name of Sarah, in hope to extinguish
that note of bastardy, imported in their former name
of Hagai'ens : as great men's bastards, in few descents,
will attempt the changing of their ignominious coat.
And in all ecclesiastical writers, the names of Saracens
or Hagarens are vised promiscuously as equivalent ;
which argues that the name of Hagarens had some-
times been common to all the race of Ishmael, not ap-
propriate to the Agraei, or such as the scripture calls
Hagarites.

4. It is evident out of Ammianus, that the name of
Saracens was not ancient. The first certain mention
of it is in Ptolemy ; who describes a region called Sa-
racene in the west part of Ishmael's territories, as they
are described by Moses, and a people called Saraceni,
in the wealthy Arabia, near unto the mountains, which
the Scenitae inhabit. Whether the fertility of the soil
might make them scorn their former name, as it would
cause them loathe their ancient seat ; or whether given
or taken upon other occasions ; the whole progeny, as
well in the desert Arabia as elsewhere, was willing to
make the benefit of it, as an argument to persuade the
world they were free-born, and true heirs of that pro-
mise whence the Jews were fallen. For Mahomet, as
all writers agree, used this plausible etymology as a
fair colour to countenance his foul blasphemies : and a
grave relater of truth"', not accustomed to make speeches

« Lib. 6. cap. 38. Ezech.

V Comment, in 21 Isa. et 25 ^ Ibi ab Saracenis coepta est

Q 4

232

The Beginning and Progress

BOOK I.

for dead men to utter, brings in the latter Saracens in
the siege of Torutum, (which was a mile from Tyre,)
using their name derived from Sarah as an argument
to persuade their true descent from Abraham, for
whose sake they hoped for favour at Christians' hands.
But they could not so easily change their nature as
their name ; the greater they grow in might, the more
exactly they fulfil that prophecy of Ishmael ; Aiicl he
shall he a wild man, his hand shall he against every
man, a7id every man's hand against him. For a long
time they continued, like forward, but poor gamesters,
not able to set at more than one at once, and that for
no great stake, without some to bear their part ; until
at length, by their treacherous shuffling from side to
side, and banding sometimes with one, sometimes an-
other against some third, they grew so flush, that they
durst set at all, and take Asia, Europe, and Afric to
task at once.

5. Sometimes they took part with Mithridate, and
other eastern nations, against Lucullus and Pompey,
and yet ready to join with Pompey against the Jews.
Some of them again were for the Parthians against the
Romans, others for the Romans against the Parthians,
some now for the one, then for the other, as Alchau-
donius and Augarus" before mentioned. Some again
for Pescennius Niger against Severus, others against
Pescennius, afterwards one while for the Persian, and
122 another while for the Romans, as in the times of Con-
stantius and Julianus. The latter of whom they reve-

oratio, quae commiserationem, humanitate^ sub uno patre Deo,

efflagitaret. Communem esse humanarum rerum varietate jam

Deum quern utrique colerent, se victos saepe ante victores,

ritum diversum. Illis Abraham Krantzius Saxon. 1. 7. c. 12.

esse generis principium, quod a J' Osroenus Dioni, aliis Arabs,

Sara geniti Saraceni dicantur, quanquam et Osroeni Arabes

fratres esse, communi praeditos origine, Alesopotamise incolse.

CHAP. XXVI. of Isltmael's Greatness.

233

renced most of any Roman > ; and yet at length, not
satisfied in their expectations, revolting from him ^.
Afterwards they serve under the Romans against the
Goths * : and yet while the Goths and other barba-
rous people clasp with the Roman eagle in the west,
these foul harpies pluck off her train in the east ; and
not therewith content, take their flight toward the
west, to snatch the meat out of the other buzzard's
mouth, and beat them one after another from the prey
which they had seized on in Spain and Afric ; at-
tempting the like in France, Greece, and Germany;
displuming the breasts, and ofttimes ready to devour
the very heart, even Italy and Rome itself.

6. Finally, as Ishmael began first to give proof of his
might, when Isaac's strength began to fail, so can we
scarce name any place where Isaac's seed have been
scattered, whither the dread of Ishmael's hath not fol-
lowed them : that such Christians, as would not suffer
the miserable estate of the one to sink into their souls,
nor learn to fear God's judgments shewed upon them,
might apprehend the other, as present executioners of
like woe and vengeance upon themselves. It is well
observed by the author of the tripartite work, Touch-
ing the Sacred War, (annexed to the council of Late-
ran,) that the persecution of Christians by the Sara-

y Cum armigera gradiens ma-
nu in statione quadam sub pc4-
libus mansit, ubi Saracenorum
reguli gentium genibus supplices
nixi, oblata ex auro corona, tan-
quam mundi nationumque sua-
rum Dominum adorarunt, sus-
cepti gratanter ut ad furta bel-
lorum adpositi. Ammian. Mar-
cell. 1. 23. [c. 3.]

z Hos Saracenos ideo patie-
bamur infestos, quod salaria
muneraque plurima a Juliano ad

similitudinem praeteriti temporis
accipere vetiti, questique apud
eum, sohim audierant iniperato-
rem bellicosum et vigilantem,
ferrum habere . non Aurum.
Ammian. lib. 25. \_c. 6.]

^ A naked Saracen issuing
from his own company, set upon
a body of Goths, slew one, set
his mouth to the wound, and
sucked the blood. So saith Am-
mian. Marcel, in the end of his
last book.

234 Beginning and Progress of Ishmael's Greatness, book i.

cen, hath been every way greater and more grievous
without interruption than all the persecutions under
the Roman emperors, or any foreign enemies. These
provocations by thfs foolish nation witness the truth
of God's threatenings to the ancient Jews, and that our
pride of heart hath been like theirs : for the assuaging
whereof his pleasure hath been, to bring the most
wicked of the heathen to possess our houses, and to
defile the holy places. According to their judgment
hath he judged the most part of Christendom. Such
servility as the Jews suffered under the Greeks and
Asiatics, have they endured under the Saracen and
the Turk, who is but a proselyte of Ishmael, and heir
by adoption of that promise, Gen. xvii. 20, / will
multiply him exceedingly, and I will malee a great
nation of him. Besides his participation with him in
the covenant of circumcision, (the best pledge and
ground of Ishmael's greatness,) the manners and condi-
tions of the Turks and Saracens have great affinity ;
the Turk also is a wild man, yea this is the significa-
tion of his name (as Chalcocondylas and Lonicer ex-
pound it^). But though both Turks and Saracens, by
Christians' continuance in their fathers' sins, have been
perpetual scourges of Christendom ; yet hath God at
sundry times given us manifest signs of help laid up in
store, so that we would turn to him with our whole
hearts. The strange and almost incredible, though
most undoubted victories, which Christians sometimes
had over them, do lively represent the miraculous vic-
tories of the Jews over the heathen, related in scrip-
tures. To omit others, it might be remembered as an

^ Uterque in limine suae his- things grow promiscuously. And

toriae. Arabs likewise is as much if I mistake not, only the deso-

as homo agrestis, or incultus. late barren parts of that country.

And Arabia, as much as terra which we call Arabia, is so called

agrestis et inculta : in which all in sacred story.

CHAP. XXVII. The Persecutions of the Jews by Trajan, ^c. 235

irrefragable witness as well of the multitude of God's
mercies towards us, as of Ishmael's posterity, that three
hundred and eighty thousand of them should be slain 123
all in one day by one Christian general*^. Unless the
Lord had raised us up a Gedeon then, he only knows
howquickly these parts of Christendom might have been
rebaptized in their blood, and borne the name of Sara-
cens ever after. And, as a German writer well ob-
serves, the French kings might well brook that title of
ChristiaJiissinii, ivom that admirable exploit of Carolus
Martellus, the next means under God's providence that
other parts of Europe had not Saracen tyrants instead
of Christian princes. Of such particular experiments,
as the histories of Turks and Saracens afford, answer-
able to the prophecies in scripture concerning them, we
shall have fitter occasion to speak hereafter.

CHAP. XXVII.

The Persecutions of the Jews by Trajan, and the Desolation
of their Country by Adrian : their Scattering through
other Nations, foretold Inj Moses.

1. Though the greatness of the Jews' former
plagues under Vespasian had made their number less
in their own land ; yet Egypt, Cyrene, and Cyj)rus,
had too many of those snakes within their bowels,
until their deadly stings, provoking others, did i)rocure
their own destruction. In the latter end of Trajan's
reign, the manner of their outrageous massacres, prac-
tised upon both Greeks and Romans*' in the foremen-

* See Crantzius Hist. Sueciae. d The Jews did eat their flesh;

lib. 4. cap. ult. and French Hist, besmeared tliemselves witli their

Serres ([A. D. 730.] and the blood ; wore their skins ; sawed

Latin Hist, of France. And them asunder ; cast them to

Nauclerus 2. vol. Generation. 25. beasts; made them kill one an-

Cselius Aug. Curio Historia Sa- other, &c. Dion. 1. 68. in fine,
racenica. lib. 2.

236 The Persecutions of the Jews hy\Trajan, and book i.

tioned countries, was as heinous as the facts them-
selves ; though these heinous beyond all credence, if
not related by most credible and most unpartial writ-
ers. Besides the particular butcheries which they com-
mitted throughout Egypt, about Cyrene these Jews
did slay two hundred thousand, and in Cyprus two
hundred and fifty thousand. The Lord, no doubt, had
smitten them, as he had threatened, Deut. xxviii. 28,
with this madness and blindness of heart, that they
might hereby provoke this puissant emperor's indigna-
tion ; which otherwise would have slept, but now pur-
sues them throughout his dominions, not as enemies,
or rebels of the empire, but as noxious creatures to
human society, with revenge suiting to their former
outrages. Partly for the Cyprians' better security in
time to come, partly in memory of their former mi-
sery, and these Jews' infamy ; it is publicly enacted,
that no Jew, though driven by tempest thither, should
presume to set foot within their coast, upon pain of
present execution, as already condemned by his very
appearance on that soil, which had been tainted with
the deadly venom of his countrymen.

2. But lest posterity, little respective of Jewisb af-
fairs, (through negligence of the Roman writers,) should
forget, or, from the inconsiderate frailty of human na-
ture, less observe these two most grievous persecutions
of the Jews than was behoveful for testification of
Moses' or Christ's prophecies, and confirmation of
Christian faith ; in Adrian's time (like traitors that
had fainted upon the rack before their full confession
taken) they are recovered to greater torture. And lest
121 the nations in that or ages following, should not ac-
knowledge them to have been such a mighty people as
the sacred story makes them, they are made a spectacle

e Dion. ibid.

CHAP. XXVII. Desolation of their Country by Adrian. 237

to the world again, to shew their natural strength by
their grievous lingering pains in dying. This was
that which Moses had said, Deut. xxviii. 59 ; The
Lord will malie thy plagues ivonderful, and the
plagues of tJiy seed, great plagues, and of long con-
tinuance, sore diseases, and of long durance. Yet
their destruction now, as at both times (always) before,
was from their own procurement. For Adrian, causing
new iElia, built by him where Hierusalem stood, to be
inhabited by others. Christians as well as Jews, and
permitting the use of their country-religion to all ; the
Jews began first to repine while Adrian was near, after-
wards to mutiny upon his departure out of these east-
ern provinces.

3. The fresh memory of their former desolation
made their strength seem little, and the apprehension
of their weakness made the Romans' care for prevent-
ing new dangers less than otherwise it might, and in
reason should have been. But as men environed with
darkness have great advantage of such as stand in the
light; and presumption of good-casting in the begin-
ning brings svich as intend the aftergame well, to better
possibility of winning the stake : so these Jews, partly
through the Romans' confidence of their strength,
partly by their own secresy in meeting, security of
harbour in caves and dens purposely digged in the
earth, and diligent providing necessaries for war; from
little and contemptible beginnings gather such strength
and resolution, that they can be content to set the
whole stock upon it, offering battle unto the choicest
warriors of the empire, to Julius Severus^ that noble
general himself, called to this service (such was the

f Hadrianus optimos quosque qui ex Britannia cui pracerat,
duces adversum eos mittit, quo- contra Judaeos missus est &c.
rum primus fuit Julius Severus Dion. Hist. Roni. 1. 69. Qc. 13.]

238 The Persecution of the Jeius by Trajan, and book i.

danger) out of this island of Britain. And albeit the
Romans in the end had the victory without contro-
versy, yet would they not have wished many triumphs
at the same price f?^. This people's last conflict with
death and destruction, now seizing upon them, may
witness to the world that they had been a principal part
of it, now so generally and deeply affected with their
last pangs. For as this judicious and unpartial writer
saith, " the whole w^orld, in a manner, was shaken
with this commotion of the Jews." Dion, 69th book.

4. But as the preacher observeth, that riches are
oftentimes reserved to the owners for their evil ; so these
Jews' extraordinary strength was given them for like
destruction. The greater danger their mutiny had
occasioned to the empire, the greater was the emperor's
severity in punishing their rebellion past, the greater
his care to pi'event the like in time to come. In battles
and skirmishes were slain of this people 580,000, be-
sides an infinite number, consumed with famine and
diseases, during the time of this lingei'ing w'ar, pro-
tracted of purpose by the Romans, not willing to try
it out in open field with such a forlorn, desperate
multitude. Now as Moses had expressly foretold
125 and Dion* (living not long after this time) emphatically

g Periere quoque ex Roniauis
coniplures in eo bello. Quam-
obrem Hadrianus, cum scriberet
ad Senarum, non est usus illo
exordio, quo uti imperatores
consueverunt : si vos liberique
vestri valetis, bene est ; ego qui-
dem et exercitus valemus. Dion,
ibidem, [c. 14.]

^ Deut. xxviii. 62.

■ Julius Severus nulla ex parte
ausus est aperte cum liostibus
congredi, multitudine ipsorum
atque desperatione cognita, sed

eos singulatim militum legato-
rumque numero aliquo adoriens,
et commeatum prohibens atque
includens, serius quidem, sed
minore cum periculo, et adte-
rere et exhaurire, et exscindere
potuit, ut pauci admodum eva-
serint, et quinquaginta eorum
arces munitissimae, vicique cele-
berrimi atque nobilissimi non-
genti octoginta quinque funditus
eversi sint. Csesa sunt in ex-
cursionibus prteliisque hominum
quingenta octoginta millia : eo-

CHAP. XXVII. Desolation of their Country by Adrian. 239

notes, they were left few in number, their land laid
waste, fifty of their strongest munitions utterly razed,
985 of their chief and most populous towns sacked and
consumed by fire.

5. This mighty destruction of these Jews, and ge-
neral desolation of their country by Romans, and their
tributaries of these western countries^, a people strange
and perhaps unheard of to their ancestors, are everlast-
ing monuments of the truth of Moses his prophecy, Deut.
xxviii. 49 — 52; The Lord shall bring a nation upon
thee from far, even from the end of the world, flying
swift as an eagle ; a nation ichose tongue thou shalt not
understand ; a nation of a fierce countenance, which will
not regard the person of the old, nor have compassion
of the young : the same shall eat the fruit of thy cattle,
and the fruit of thy land, until thou he destroyed: and
he shall leave thee neither wheat, wine, or oil, neither
the increase of thy Jcine, nor the flocks of thy sheep,
until he have brought thee to nought. And he shall be-
siege thee in all thy cities, until thy high and strong
tvalls fall down, wherein thou trustest, in all the land:
and he shall besiege thee in all thy cities throughout
thy land, which the Lord thy God hath give?i thee.
Thus at length Judah as well as Israel, hath ceased to
be a nation not without manifest signs' foreshewing
their fatal expiration. Solomon's sepulchre, which they

rum autem qui fame, morbo, et
igni interieruiit, indagari multi-
tudo non potuit, ita ut oninis
pene Judaea deserta relicta fu-
erit. Dion. Hist. Rom. lib. 69.
[c. 13 et 14 ]

k Adrian and Trajan were
both Spaniards by birth, Julius
Severu.s was called to their de-
struction out of this island,
wherein Vespasian had given

best proof of his good services.
Their ensigns (being eagles) were
as emblems of their swiftness to
execute God's wrath upon this
people : and Moses in this place,
by Divine inspiration, alludes
unto the Roman eagles.

1 Signs foreshewing Jewry's de-
solation by Adrian, recorded by
Dion 1. 69. [c. 14.] and others.

240

Persecutions of the Jetvs by Trajan, and book i.

held in greatest honour, a little before this war, did
fall asunder of its own accord ; as if it would have
signified unto them, that God's covenant, made with
Solomon for Judah's peace and restauration, was now
utterly void, and finally cancelled by its rupture and
fall. Wolves and hyaenas did howl throughout their
streets, and devour this people in the fields: these
are the Lord's messengers of woe and vengeance to
this ungracious seed, whose fathers had killed and
stoned his prophets, sent unto them for their good.
Yet is not the wrath of the Lord ceased, but his hand
is stretched out against them still. For Adrian"', after
this strange desolation, by public decree ratified with
the senate's consent, prohibits any Jew to come within
the view of Jewry. This he did only in a politic respect,
lest the sight of their native soil might inspire this
people with some fresh desperate resolutions, but
herein made, though unwittingly, God's angel to keep,
by his powerful sword, this wicked progeny of those
rebellious and ungracious husbandmen, that had killed
their Lord's first-born, out of that paradise which he
had set them to dress and keep. The same mighty
Lord, having now (as it were) disparked the place
which he had walled and fenced about, and graced
with many charters of greatest privileges, doth by his
arm stretched out against them still, scatter the relics
of this rascal herd throughout all the nations under
heaven. So as this remnant (left by Adrian) and their
race, have been as the game, which God's judgments
have held in perpetual chace for this fifteen hundred
years.

6. Thus are God's judgments executed upon this
people ; according to the order and course of Moses

m Jornandes de Regn. sue- 1. 4. c. 6. ex Aristone Pellaeo.
cess, (in octa.) p. 103. Euseb.

CHAP. XXVII. Desolation of their Country by Adrian. 241

his sentence, pronounced against them almost two
thousand years before. For after he had foretold that
paucity, whereunto this last war had brought them,
Deut. xxviii. 62, he adds immediately, verse 63, As the
Lord hath rejoiced over you to do you good, and to
midtiply you ; so he will rejoice over you to destroy,
and bring you to nought ; and ye shall he rooted out
of the land whither thou goest to possess it. And thel^B
Lord shall scatter thee amongst all people, from the one
end of the world to the other. Such as were captivate
in this war were transplanted by Adrian into Spain,
his native country"; where they had their synagogues
since his, until Ferdinando and Isabel's time. Of their
ill rest there, and in other of these western nations,
(foretold by Moses in the very next words,) we are now
to treat: but fii'st to advertise the reader, that the
state of these Jews", from this time until the expiration
of the Roman empire, caimot easily be gathered from
any Roman writers ; who seldom vouchsafe the Jews
or Christians any mention, unless enforced thereunto
by some such famous war or mutiny, as fell out in
Vespasian's, Trajan's, or Adrian's time ; or by some

" Quos vero Hadrianus in eo
bello Judaeos cepit, in Hispaniam
exulatum misit, (ha:c fuit decima
eorum captivitas,) porro ex eo
tempore, ad fcelici.ssima usque
tempora catholiconim regum
Ferdinandi et Isabella;, atque
etiam EmanueKs invicti Portu-
galliae regis publica; in Hispania
Judaeorum Synagogue fuere Jo.
Vasaeus, Chron. Hispan. An.
Christi 137. vide Pet. Ant. Beu-
ter. 1. I o. c. 19.

" So the continuer of the his-
tory of the sacred war complains.
NuHi miruni erat, nos rerum
per Jud.Tcam gestarum notitia
destitui, ob Romanorum turn in

JACKSON, VOL. I.

Judaeos turn in Christianos invi-
diam, quorum quidem tempore,
et devotionem et pietatem, su-
perstitiosam quandam persuasi-
onem credebant. Nulla igitur
eorum ratione habita, nec nienti-
onem de his habere dignati sunt.
Adde quod qui Syria; pra;fectus
erat, banc cpioque viribus, opibus,
armis, militibus exutam, regebat.
Cumque Christiana res pace
quam bello magis aceresceret,
tumultu nunquam inclaruit Ju-
da;a, neniinem imperatorum se-
ditione nobilitavit. Basil. Johan.
Herold. lib. i. cap. 15. [c. 9,] de
Contin. Bell, Sacri,

242

Persecutions of the Jeivs by Trajan, (§*c. book i.

other event redounding to the Romans' glory; whereas
Jewry, after this time, was not famous for any tumult,
till Rome's captivity; the Jews wanted strength, and
Christians willing minds, to erect any emperor's praise
by their seditions. So that whatsoever calamity either
of them suffered by the Romans, was passed over by
Roman writers as private wrongs, not worthy of regis-
tering in their annals.
Why Ro- 7. No marvel then if they took no notice of our
make no Saviour, or his acts, all tending to peace and loyalty.
miTsaTio^ur as Tacitus notes'', Judaea was most quiet in Tibe-
christ or I'ius' time ; which was the best news the Romans

hjs acts.

cared to hear thence : only Tacitus' spleen to Christians
(it seems) had made him inquisitive of their first ori-
ginal, whose author he acknowledgeth to have been
one Christ, put to death by Pontius Pilate, in the reign
of Tiberius.

8. The estate of these Jews in general, between
Adrian's and Honorius' time, may be gathered out of
the reverend Fathers of the primitive church ; who
usually stopped the heathens' or blasphemous atheists'
mouths, by proposing their condition, then known unto
all the world, for such as our Saviour had foretold.
But these reverend Fathers' observations, and such
scattered testimonies of their estate and quality, as can
be gathered out of Roman writers, during that flou-
rishing age of Fathers, and continuance of the Roman
empire, will come in more fitly in the article of our
Saviour's passion.

P Tacit, lib. 5. Histor. Ergo Auctor nominis ejus Christus,
abolendo runiori Nero subdidit qui, Tiberio iniperante, per pro-
reos, et quaesitissimis poenis af- curatoreni Pontium Pilatum sup-
fecit, quos per flagitia invisos, plicio atfectus erat. Tacit. An-
vulgus Christianos appellabat. nal. lib. 15.

CHAP. XXVIII. Of the Jews Estate in Europe, ^^c.

243

CHAP. XXVIII. 127

Of the Jews Estate after the Dissolution of the Roman Empire,
generally throughout Europe, until their co/ning into
England.

1. After the dissolution of the Roman empire,
they had some hopes of taking root under the shelter
of Theodebert and Theodorici, kings of a great part of
France, and other provinces then annexed to that king-
dom. And whilst the bishops of those countries made
merchandise of sacred orders, these Jews purchased
Christians for their bond slaves ; until Gregory the
Great, by his fatherly admonitions and reproof, wrought
a reformation of these two foul enormities, and open
scandals of Christianity. Their number after was
much increased throughout most parts in France, by
their sudden decrease in Spain, caused by Sisebodus
king of the Goths, and lord of that country ■"; who had
urged them to profession of Christian religion, or per-
petual exile from his dominions. JSuch as made choice
of banishment, before baptism, fled in troops into
France: where in short time they and their country-
men, there residing before, had as hard entertainment
under Dagobert, though peaceably admitted at the first.
^Some think the fame and honour which the Goth had
purchased amongst Christians by his late fact, did en-
flame the Frank with a zealous desire of like glory : others
from more particular information of ancient writers,

1 Tunc temporis, Galliaruni utcuiique non placebat, &c. Pa-

ej)iscopi, sacros ordines non nisi pyrius Masson. lib. i. annal.

pretio et qua-stu conferebant ; Francorum, p. 63.
uti ne hodie quidem faciunt : ot Vide Crantziuni, lib. 4.

Judaei, genus iiominuni ca?lo Suecife, c. 33.
quoque ipsi invisum, Christiana « Paul. yEniil. in Dagoberto.
mancipia possidebant, Gregorio

R 2

244

The Jews' Estate in Europe after the book i.

as well French^ as Spanish refer the original of both
persecutions unto Heraclius the emperor ; who seeking
his fates in the stars, pulls down God's judgments from
heaven upon these Jews, scattered from the east to
west. By this means, he had learned (whether by
mere skill in astrology, or otherwise, is not now to be
disputed) that the wings of his empire should be
clipped by a circumcised people. This foreknowledge,
howsoever gotten, was not given him for his good, (for
his fears came upon him whence he least suspected,)
but for these Jews' mischief: for he, deeming them the
likeliest, or the only men, that could bring his fates
upon him, inserts the former persecution as a condition
of peace, then concluded between him and Sisebutus ;
afterwards prevails with Dagobert, for enforcing all
the Jews throughout his dominions, either to renounce
circiimcision, France, or their lives. And no doubt
but he, that could prevail thus far with these western
kings, did also deal effectually with other sovereign-
ties of Europe nearer unto his iinperial seat, for dis-
enabling of this nation from effecting what he feared :
much more would he seek their extirpation or conver-
sion throughout his own proper dominions. And so I

t Heraclius cum Uteris ab-
unde esset instructus, ad ultimum
astrologus efficitur : agnoscens
itaque insignis siderurrij inipe-
rium suum a circumcisa gente
Tastandum, et autumans id de
Judeeis fuisse praenionstratum,
per internuntios Dagobertum
rogavit, regem Francorum, ut
cunctos Judaicse stirpis qui in
provinciis illi subjectis manebant,
Christianos fieri praeciperet,
eos vero qui nollent aut exilio
aut niorte damnari. Quod Da-
gobertus volens effecit, omnes

qui noluerint baptisma suscipere,
procul a finibus eliminans Fran-
ciae. Porro Heraclio non de Ju-
daeis, sed de Saracenis fuerat
prseostensum. Aimoinus sive An-
nonius, lib. 4. cap. 22.

u \lde Hispan. histor. Fran.
Taraphae, (bound up with Va-
saeus.) &c. in Sisebuto. I suppose
Sisebodus in Crantzius, and Si-
sebutus in Tarapha, and Vasaeus,
are the same. As also that Egica
a succeeding king, or Egican, in
^^asaeus, and Egyta in Tarapha,
be the same.

CHAP. XXVIII. Dissolution of the Roman Empire. 245

find his persecution of the Jews recorded, by such as wrote 128
his life", as one of the chief mernorables in his reign:
which confirms their report, though otherwise authen-
tic, who refer the two former persecutions, under
the Goth and Frank, unto the occasions above men-
tioned.

2. Shortly after, the progeny of such as had been
enforced to baptism by Sisebutus^, for their revolt
from Christ, and conspiracy against Egica (his anointed)
and his kingdom, were adjudged to perpetual servitude,
throughout all the provinces belonging to Spain : pro-
hibited the use of their rites and ceremonies, not per-
mitted to inhabit together; but, as if the Lord had used
the land of Jewry as a marl-pit, to fat the soil of this
nation where his vine was planted, after he had led
forth the Jews thither in heaps, he scatters their heaps
over the whole surface of the land. All parents not
suffered to commerce with their children at all, after
the seventh year of their age, committed by public
decree to the education of Christians, appointed in
riper years to be given in marriage unto their sons and
daughters ; that so the succession of infidelity might

" Judaeos etiam invitos ad
baptismum compulit fllatheseos
studiis operani dedit, haruspiciis
et prsestigiis daemonuni fidem
adhibuit, Append. Aur. Vietoris.

y Hoc tempore Judiri perfidi
non solum tunicam sacri baptis-
matis, quam su.sceperant, macu-
larurit : sed etiam contra resjcm
regnumque conspirare ausi sunt,
in quos haec poena statuta, ut
omnibus suis rebus nudati, tam
ipsi perfidi, quam uxores eorum
et filii, ac reliqua posteritas per
cunctas Hispaniarum provincias,
servituti subjacerent perpetuae,
manerentque usquequaque dis-

])ersi. Praeterea quicunque eos-
deni Judseos, in servitutem reci-
perent, in nullo eos permitterent
rituum suorum ceremonias cele-
brare aut colere. Filii vero eorum
ab aetatis anno septimo, nuliam
cum parentibns suis habitatio-
nem, aut societatem babere per-
mitterentur, sed fidelissimis
Christianis nutriendi traderen-
tur, et fiHae eorum ac fibi Chris-
tianis in matrimonium darentur,
ne infidelium patrum suorum se-
mitas quibuslibet occasionibus
iterare possent. Vasaeus in
Chron. Hispan. anno 694.

R 3

246 The Jews' Extate in Europe after the book i.

be abolished. But Christian princes' consultations pre-
vail as little for their good, as Pharaoh's policy for
their forefathers' harm : they must multiply, that God's
plagues may be multiplied upon them. This last here
mentioned, in their estimation not the least, though
otherwise intended by the state of Spain, was by the
disposition of the Divine providence brought to pass,
that another prophecy of Moses niight be fulfilled :
sons and thy daughters shall be given unto
another people, and thine eyes shall still look for them,
even till they fall out ; and there shall he no power in
thy hand, Deut. xxviii. 32.

3 Of their estate from this accident, till three hun-
dred years after, nothing memorable hath come unto
my reading; dishonourable it was, in that their name,
throughout this time, seems quite put out ; miserable
we may presume it, in that their wonted curse is not
expired, but rather increased in ages following, in
which we have express, distinct, undoubted records.

4. About the year one thousand, they were so vexed
throughout most parts of Europe, that, as Moses had
foretold, and my author^ (little thinking of Moses'
speeches) expressly notes, they coidd find no rest. A
company of them, seated about Orleans, out of their
devilish policy, address an embassage to the prince of
Babylon, advertising him, that the Christians in these
western parts were joining forces to assault him,
hoping hereby to make him invade Christendom, by
whose broils they expected, either better security from
wonted dangers, or fitter opportunity of fishing for
gain in troubled streams. But the tenor of their em-
bassage being either known or suspected by the Chris-

^ Judsei ea tempestate, in verlerent nesciebant, &c. Pa-
pluribus Europse locis graviter pir. Massonus ex Glabro.
vexati, quid agerent, aut quo se

CHAP. XXVIII. Dissolution of the Roman Empire. 247

tians, the ambassador upon his return was called in
question, convict, and sentenced to the fagot. Nor
could the heinousness of the fact be expiated by his
death ; the rest of his countrymen (generally presumed
to be as treacherous, when occasion served) were made
away, without any formal course of law, by fire, water,
sword, or what instrument of death came next to hand; 129
this fury of Christians raging against them as far as
the fame of their villainy was spread, which was quickly
blazed throughout Europe.

5. Ere this time Ishmael was come to his full growth,
and his posterity having prosecuted their old broken
title to the land of promise, through their division had
left the possession of it to the Turk : and so far is
Isaac's seed from all hope of possessing the good things
thereof, that the very love which Christians, the true
seed of Abraham, bare unto these lovely dwellings of
Jacob, breeds his ungracious posterity's woe, unto
whom the inheritance belonged. For no expedition,
either made or intended by Christians for recovering
Jewry from the Turk and Saracens, but bringeth one
plague or other upon the Jew ; so provident is this
people to procure their own mischief, and as it were
to anticipate God's judgments upon themselves, by
such devices as their former embassage, whose effect
was to hasten the sacred war; which in the age fol-
lowing, undertaken upon other occasions, more than
doubles all their wonted miseries. For it being in-
tended against the Turk and Saracen, these other infi-
dels were apprehended as a fit subject for such soldiers,
as were indeed bent for Asia and the Holy Land, to
practise licentious hostile outrages upon by the way.
Others again made a show of setting forward against
the Turks or Saracens of Asia, intending indeed only
to spoil the Jews of Europe ; unto which purpose that

R 4

248 The Jews' Estate in Europe after the book i.

worthy edict of the Claremont council ministered this
occasion.

6. The joint consent of hishops and others there
assembled'^, testified aloud in these terms, Deus viilt,
Deus vult, having found (as it seems) some lavish
commendations, as if it had been the voice of God, and
not of man, brought forth a rumour of a voice from
heaven, calling Europeans into Asia : the report vras
not so vain, as the people of those times credulous.
For beside such as were appointed, or would have been
approved by the council, huge multitudes of all sorts,
conditions, and sexes, run like hounds to the false hal-
loo ; some pretending the Holy Ghost's presence in
visible shape. Amongst the rest, one Emicho^ with
a great band of his countrymen gathered from the
banks of Rhine, having ranged as far as Hungary, and
there either despairing of his hoped prey in Asia, or
only using this expedition, generally countenanced by
Christian princes, as a fair pretence to catch some
booty nearer home, falleth upon the Jews about that
country, compelling them either to live Christians or
die. Besides the spoil of their goods, twelve thousand

^ Aventinus Boiorum Anna-
lium libro quinto, p. 361. Ex
Germaniis caelitus voce edita (ita
praedicant) Deus vult, Galliis,
Hispaniis, Britanniis, Italia, Si-
cilia, innumerabilis liominum vis,
duces, praefecti, tetrarchae, dy-
nastae, episcopi, sacrificuli, mo-
naclii, fceminae sacratse, cives,
opifices, agricolae, viri, mulier-
culae cum cunis, pastores cum
pecore, relictis regno, urbibus,
castellis, sacerdotiis, templo, con-
tuberniis, uxoribus, liberis, prae-
diis, aratro, in Asiam gregatim
migrant ; sub specie religionis
(ita sunt humana) nefanda sce-

lera impune perpetrant. Anse-
rem praeferunt Spiritum sanctum
esse. Carolum magnum revix-
isse praedicant — .

c Emicho quoque dynasta cum
Rheni accolis unde oriundus e-
rat, ad Pannoniam processit. li-
que omnes Judaeos sub jugo re-
ligionis nostrae mittere conantur,
philosophiam nostram recipere
recusantes compilant, bonis om-
nibus spoliant, extorres urbibus
agunt, domibus eliminant atque
contrucidant. Duodecim turn
millia Judaeorum in nostra re-
gione caesa fuisse, in annales re-
latum est.

CHAP. XXVIII. Dissolution of the Roynan Empire. 249

of their persons were slain by Emicho and his com-
plices, as the annals of these countries do testify. The
like had been practised a little before by one Godescal-
cus, a Dutch priest ; who had persuaded the king of
Hungary that it was a charitable deed to kill these
uncharitable Jews, until his beastly life did discredit
his doctrine, and Christians begun to feel the harms of
such licentious pilgrimages, after the Jews being ex-
hausted, could not satisfy his and his followers' greedy
appetites.

7. About the same age, Petrus Cluniacensis'^ direct- 130
eth a parenetical discourse unto Lewis the French
king, for furtherance of his intended expedition against
the Saracens ; shewing him withal a ready means of
maintaining his army, making the perfidious Jews
purchase their lives with loss of their goods. But
more vehement, if not more Jewish, was Rodulphus
Vilis the German monk, delivering it in sermons as
sound doctrine throughout both Germanics, that for
the better supply of the sacred war, (which Christians
he thought were bound in conscience to undertake,)
the Jews, being as great enemies to Christianity as the
Saracens were, might not only be robbed of all their
goods, but ought to be put to death by Christians ; as

Per id tempus Judici in
Gallia et Gerniania rerum siia-
rum sedeni ac doniicilium non
pauci habebant ; Petrus Clunia-
censis literas ad Ludovicum scri-
psit quae extant ; iis laudat con-
silium regis de bello pro Chris-
tianis adversus Arabes Persas-
que suscipiendi) : deinde, expo-
sita Judajorum perfidia atque
improbitate, Auferatur ait, vel
maxima ex parte imminuatur
Judaicarum divitiarum male par-
ta pinguedo, et Christianas ex-

ercitus, qui ut Saracenos expug-
net, pecuniis, vel terris propriis,
Cbristi domini sui amore, non
parcit, Judieorum thesauris tarn
pessime acquisitis non parcat, re-
servetur eis vita, auferatur pe-
cunia. Serviant populis Chris-
tianis, etiam ipsis invitis, divitiffi
Judieorum. Crudelior in eos
Rodulphus Vilis IMonachus fuit,
&c. Papirius IMassonus libro
tertio in Ludovico septimo, p.
244.

250

The Jews Estate in Europe after the book i.

a good omen to their future success against the Sara-
cens. And unless saint Bernard, with other grave
divines of that age, had sounded a counterblast to this
furious doctrine, f)oth by mouth and pen, this monk's
prescript had been practised generally throughout Ger-
many, ready enough to hold on as she had begun to
evacuate herself of Jewish blood, always apprehended
by that people as the worst humour in their body
politic : many such general massacres have been in-
why the tended against them in divers countries ; but God still

Lord would . , , . , . , ,

not have raised up one or other to solicit their cause, because he
utteriy'de- hath an ear continually unto the Psalmist's petition,
stroyed. gQ much for thcirs as Christians' good ; Slay

them not, lest my jyeople forget it : but scatter them
abroad by thy power. Psalm lix. 11. Unless God had
given them such trembling hearts and sorrowful minds
(as Moses had foretold) through Germany, France, and
other countries, they had not been scattered so soon
through this island ; whither they were first brought
from France, by him that brought many grievances
thence unto this nation. But the evil which he in-
tended hath God turned to our good. For God's Israel
planted here until this day, may hear and fear his heavy
judgment, manifested upon these Jews in the time of
our forefathers ; albeit at their first coming they found
some breathing from their wonted persecutions. But
so prodigious is all appearance of prosperity in such as
God hath cursed, that these Jews' hopes of ease and
welfare are an infallible symptom of great distemper
in the public state wherein they live. Twice only I find
in all the legend of their wandering, they had obtained
some freedom, and hopes of flourishing in the lands
where they were scattered : once in France, in the time
of Theodebert and Theoderic, when sacred orders (as
you heard before) were set to sale ; once in England,

CHAP, xxviii. Dissolution of the Roman Empire.

251

under William Rufus, whose conditions were such, that
whosoever would give enough, might have whatsoever
lay in his power to grant. Their estate in England, dur-
ing other three kings' reign until Richard the First, yields
little matter of observation : this people's hate had not
as yet broken out against them, but was all this time
in gathering ; and after their first planting here, they
were to have a time to bring forth fruit for others to
eat, a time to gather wealth for others to spend, as
Moses had foretold.

8. Most miserable in the meantime was their estate
throughout the Eastern empire, as one of their own
writers (Benjamin Tudelensis, who went on pilgrimage
to visit his countrymen, wheresoever dispersed through-
out the world) complaineth of their general hard usage 131
amongst the Grecians, instancing in such as were
seated about Constantinople*^, within whose walls they
might not come, but upon occasion of public commerce
or business ; in winch case they were allowed passage
only by boat, having their habitation, as it were, in an

6 Nulli Judsei intra urbem
habitant, exclusi enim ab illis
sunt bracliio aquaruni, atque in-
ter illud et Sophi;« maris bra-
chiuni aliud conclusi, neque in
urbem ire permittuntur nisi na-
vigio, idque negotii et commercii
causa; suntque Judsei circiter
bis mille^qui cum magistris con-
gregantur, hoc est sapientum
discipulis, inter quos primas ob-
tinent Abtalion niagnus et Ab-
dias et Aaron Cuspus, et Jose-
phus Sarginus, et Eliakim gu-
bernator ; ex illis quidam sunt
artifices vestium sericarum,quam-
plurimi vero mercatores sunt,
iique ditissimi. Nulli Judifio
illic equo vehi licet, prater Se-
lomoiiem ^gyptiuin Medicum

regium, cujus officio Judaei re-
creantur, suamque captivitatem
solantur, quam gravem sentiunt:
oppido enim invisi sunt Gra3cis
Judaii omnes, nullo bonorum ac
malorum discrimine; propter co-
riarios, qui dum pelles conficiunt,
inipurani aquam in plateas, ante
suas ipsorum portas, effuiulunt :
ideoque omnes gravi jugo pariter
prcmuntur, atque in plateis va-
pulant, et coguntur violenter in-
servire. Verum Judaei ipsi di-
vites, ut dixi, sunt, virique boni
ac misericordes, pricceptorumque
observatores, qui captivitatis mi-
seriani ipquo ferunt aniuio. Ben-
jamin Tudelensis in Itinerario,
P- 3'-

252

The Jews Estate in Europe after the book i.

island. Amongst two thousand of this servile congre-
gation there residing, not one permitted to come on
horseback, save only Solomon the emperor's physician ;
whose exaltation (perhaps not fourteen handfuls above
ground) was held as a public grace of the whole na-
tion, the chief solace of that miserable and servile
usage, which all the rest, without difference, good or
bad, did sustain, daily beat and scourged in the open
streets. Yet must we believe this relator ; that these
Jews were wealthy, good, and merciful men, observant
of the law, such as could patiently endure this miser-
able captivity. But patience perforce, according to the
proverb, is no j)atience. If God had granted them
ability or opportunity, they had quickly shewed their
Jewish minds by Jewish actions. And why he keepeth
them continually under, unwilling to hear their cry,
though they cannot, we Christians may easily perceive
The fulfil- the cause. For so his prophet Samuel had foretold ;
mi'^r* pro- -^nd ye shall cry out at that day because of your king
the Jews '^'Jiom ye have chosen you ; and the Lord will not hear
living after you at that dav. Which words, as a learned convert

ourSa- ,

viour's Jew rightly observeth% were not fulfilled in Samuel's
I Sam. viii. time ; whose opinions may be fortified by these rea-
sons.

9. Samuel's authority over that people was not so
strictly linked with God's, but that they might reject
the one for their present judge, still retaining the other
for their supreme Lord : and who can deny, that the
God of their fathers did rule over them in David's,
Solomon's, Jehoshaphat's, and Hezekiah's times ? Sin
no doubt they did in abandoning God's priest and pro-
phet, to follow the fashions of other nations, in sub-
mitting themselves unto a king. And Samuel, like a
good physician, forewarneth them of that incurable
f Johan. Baptista de Confut. Jud. parte tertia.

CHAP. XXVIII. Dissolution of the Roman Empire. 253

disease, which this new-fangle and intemperate act did
even then prognosticate : whose fatal crisis notwith-
standing did not ensue, until they (overgrown with
desperate, wilful, and intemperate malice) had rejected
him with open mouth, who was both priest and pro-
phet, and their lawful king ; whose kingdom was ?ioi
of this icorld, whose sovereignty was so vinited with
the Divine Majesty, that " in casting him away, they
could not but cast off God, that he should not reign
over thems,"

10. Again, before that time God always heard their
cry, and redeemed them from all foreign bondage ; and
such as Samuel there describeth, was neither general
nor perpetual under their own kings : neither did the 132
best of such use any, nor the worst all, or most part
of the natural Israelites, in such sort as he there
threateneth ; yet all the miseries there threatened,
1 Sam. viii. 11 — 17, have been since accomplished in
full measure, if I may so speak, in length, breadth, and
profundity. First, this servility hath been extended
over all the nations, without exception. Secondly, the
continuance of it hath been exceeding long and per-
petual without interruption ; and so must continue,
until they confess their forefathers' rebellion, and ac-
knowledge him for their king, whom rejecting, they
rejected God ; for he that will not so honour the Son,
cannot honour the Father as King. Lastly, those
marks of servility set forth by Samuel have been so
deeply imprinted in this generation rejected of God,
that his prophecy, compared with modern histories
concerning them, will seem but as painted wounded

S God's words in that seventh so will they serve thy Lord and

verse are as if he had said : Let thy Redeemer. Sunt verba (opi-

it not grieve thy righteous Spi- nor) Filii Dei seu secundae per-

rit that they grow weary of thee, sonae Trinitatis, i Sam. viii. 7.
but let them have their will, for

S54

The Jews' Estate in Europe after the book \.

men in a cloth of arras, to the bleeding relics of a scat-
tered, vanquished army. For neither under any Ca?sar,
(though they made choice of Caesar for their king,) nor
under any other kings or states, have they lived as
free denizens, capable of public office or honour : the
best of them are but as slaves, prohibited to use the
meanest of Christians so : the most of them, as Samuel
foretold, are admitted in commonwealths, for manual
services or other handicraft employments ; captains I
think none of them have been ; unless perhaps in some
desperate services : many of them in greater cities are
suffered to follow merchandise, that they may serve
the state as sponges ; always surer to be squeezed for
the moisture they have sucked, than to be nourished
by it : sundry of them are curious artificers, and pro-
fess ingenious trades ; like silly silkworms, permitted
to exercise their skill in precious stuff, to fill princes'
coffisrs, and find their countries clothing.

11. The possession of fields and vineyards hath not
been so usual amongst this people, as their spoil amongst
such as possessed any : so this Jew relateth it as a
special prerogative of CalonymusS the son of Theodo-
rus, (both in their lifetimes,) chief of the synagogue in
Narbona, and lineally descended (as he pretendeth)
from David, that he might quietly possess the fruits of
his grounds. The princes, it seemeth, of that and like
places, did take other Jews' fields and vineyards, and
best olive trees, and gave them unto their servants,
rather tithing than taking the tenth of their seed and
vineyards; for that usually was the Jews' part, the

= Ex Narbona proficiscitur lex David recta genealogia, qui prae-

in omnes nationes ; ubi sapientes dia et fuiidos habet a principibus

sunt et magni et suspiciendi, ini- regionis, nullius hominis vim aut

primis Calonynius Filius Tlieo- impetuni metuentia. Benjamin,

dori bonae memoriae ex semine Tudelens. in Itin. p. 14.

CHAP, xxviii. Dissolution of the Roman Empire. 9.55

other nine (as Samuel foretold, 1 Sam. viii. 14 — 16.)
fell unto princes' officers' lot.

12. But the greater these dispersed sons of Isaac
servility was, the more it commendeth the fidelity of
God's word concerning the sons of Rechab, who, as
this author relateth, live united in form of a kingdom
or nation not subject to any foreign yoke ; rather
able to offend their neighbours, than likely to receive
harms from them. Their estate to this author's days
continued such, as they themselves acknowledged unto
Jeremy; only experience (it seemeth) had taught them 133
to build cities, for their better security against the in-
cursion of foreigners, which was not against their oath

in case of necessity, as appeareth from Jeremy xxxv.
9 — 12. Because in other points they have obeyed the
commandment of Jonadah their father, and Jeept his
precepts, and done according to all that he had com-
manded them ; therefore Jonadah hath not wanted a
man to stand before him until this day ; that is, their
estate hath continued such as their father left them,
much better than the estate of Abraham's sons by
Sarah ; though this Jew at his return to Paris, then
flourishing with all manner of arts and sciences, found
his countrymen marvellous great students in divinity,
and in much better state than might be expected to
continue any long time.

13. Lewis the seventh, albeit instigated thereto, (as
was said before,) had not shorn them so near upon his
expedition to the Holy Land, but that they might
bear fleece again for his son to pluck off. Their syna-

^ Est urbs enim ipsa Theima externae gentis jugo subdita. Un-

magna et frcquens. Horum regio de prodeuntes incolaj finitinias

inter montes qui septentrionales et remotiores etiam gentes diri-

dicuntur, sedeciin dieruni itinore piunt omnes quotquot sunt usque

protenditur. urbibus magnis et ad Arabes ; qui cum ipsis fcedus

munitissiniis exculta, nulloque habent. Idem, p. 75.

256 The Jetv's Estate in JEm'ope after the book i.

gogues had remained still beautified ; and their private
wealth, either before his death much increased, or in
The perse- his time HOt much impaired. But Almighty God, who
the Jews in ^" testimony of his rejoicing to do them good, had
der'phiiip ^s^is^d up Cyrus to Belthazar's throne, to release their
pus Au- nation from that captivity which Nebuchadnezzar had

gustus.

brought upon them ; to give the world as perfect a
proof of his rejoicing over them to destroy them, and
bring them to nought, Deut. xxviii. 63. did advance
Philippus Augustus', son unto the former Lewis, unto
the crown of France, to defeat the Jews throughout
that kingdom in an instant, of all their former hopes.
No sooner was he enthroned king, but presently he
giveth forth his edict ; that their synagogues should be
spoiled of all donatives and ornaments belonging to
them ; and, informed of the grievances vi'hich Christians
sustained by them, granteth a general release of all
debts due unto them from Christians, confiscating all
their lands and immovable goods. This was done
that Moses his prophecy might be fulfilled in part,
Deut. xxviii. 30, 31, 32.7%o?/ sh(dt build an house, and
not dwell therein : thou shall plant a vineyard, but
shalt not eat the fruit thereof: thine ox shall be slain
before thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof: thine
ass shall be violently taken away before thy face, and
shall not be restored unto thee: thy sheep shall be
given unto thine enemies, and no man shall rescue
them for thee : — the fruit of thy land, and all thy la-
bours shall a people which thou knowest not, eat : arid
thou shalt never but suffer wrong and violence always.

' An. 1 1 79. Kalen. Octob. Lu- riis omnique supellectile spoliari

dovici patris consensu Philippus mandavit : cumque eos audisset

apud Rhemos regium ornatum Christian is molestos esse, primum

nomenque sunipsit, praesente debita omnibus remisit, deinde

Henrico regis Angliae filio, et fundos eorum et res non moven-

cseteris regni proceribus. Quam- tes, fisco addixit. Pap. Masson.

primum honorem ilium adeptus lib. 3. Annal. Franc, initio Phil,

est, JudtEorum Synagogas dona- Aug. p. 250.

CHAi*. XXIX. The fulfill'mg of other Prophecies of Mo.tes. 257

CHAP. XXIX. 134

Of the fulfilling other particular prophecies of Moses i?i the
Jeivs'' persecutions, in England, Germany, France, and
Spain.

1. That they should not once or twice, in this or
that age, in some one or few kingdoms only, but
always, in every place, where they have come since
their rooting out of their own land, suffer such wrong
and violence, must needs be thought to have proceeded
rather from Divine justice, than man's injustice, which
could not but have varied with the diversity of times
and places, and the several dispositions of parties,
amongst whom in this their long pilgrimage they have
lived. And yet this brief enumeration (following) of
their particular spoils and hard usages since Philippus
Augustus' time, throughout the most civil and best
governed states of Europe, will abundantly confirm the
truth of Moses' general induction, in the place now
cited, 77iou shall never but suffer wrong and violence
always. To begin with their persecutions in this land.

2. Had Henry (the eldest son of Henry the Second, The la-

who was present at the forenamed French king's coro- massrcre of

nation"", acquainted with these severe edicts against the ^Jj^^^^'^^^j^g

Jews) lived to enioy the crown of England after his

' •' ° First his co-

father, as he was entitled king with him ; the grievous ronation

wrongs and violence, immediately after befalling these

Jews throughout this kingdom, had been ascribed to

this politic imitation of the French king his brother ;

at least men would have thought, they had been done

by his sufferance or connivance. But God had taken

him away, and yet these Jews' entreaty continues much

worse under Richard the First, who never intended

them like harm ; only upon his coronation day, (with

his reign begins their woe, which ends not till their final

"1 Papirius Massonus, loco citato.

JACKSOK, VOL. I. t

258

The fulfilling of other

BOOK 1.

extirpation hence,) not willing to be beholden unto them
for their presents, or (as some think) partly afraid lest
admitted to his pi-esence they might practise some sor-
cery upon his body, he gave command that no Jew should
come either within the church, where he was crowned,
or the palace where he was to dine. But they desirous to
present him with some gift, in hope to have their char-
ters and other privileges granted by other kings con-
firmed by him, press in at the palace gate amongst
others, making (perhaps) more haste but worse speed ;
one of them receiving a blow for his forwardness by
one of the king's servants, who might well justify the
fact by the king's command to keep them out. The
people about the gate apprehend the matter so, as if
this Jew had been beat by the king's commandment,
and so they thought might all the rest of that crew :
and hence fall upon them with such weapons as they
could find, as it was easy to find bats to beat these dog-
gish Jews home to their kennels, where they found but
silly shelter : for albeit their houses were strong, yet the
rage of the people was too great against them. With
the multitude the former rumour was enlarged, that it
was the king's pleasure to have all the Jews destroyed:
and, as the axiom is, men's own desires are quickly
135 believed. So far more apt they were to apprehend
this rumour as true, than to examine whether it were
true or no, that the lord chief justice and other officers,
sent from the king to appease the tumult, were more
likely to catch harm themselves, than to free these
Jews from present danger: some of whose houses now
flaming gave the people light to spoil and rifle others
in the dark. For so violently were they set to wrong
them, and eat their labours, that they could not be sa-
tisfied from dinner-time on the one day, to two o'clock
on the other : many of these Jews in the mean time

CHAP. XXIX. particular Prophecies of Moses.

^59

being roasted, or smothered with their goods ; others
leaping out of the fire, fell upon their enemies' weapons.
Although the outrage was such, as in a peaceable
state might seem intolerable ; yet was the heinousness
of the offence quite swallowed up by the multitude of
the offenders. But as the English escaped unpunished,
so the Jews were not amended by their correction.
Their stubbornness, as the scripture tells me, did first
procure their blindness, and their blindness becoming
hereditary hath confirmed their stubbornness to pos-
terity.

3. The former violence which they suffered would The brutish
have been a sufficient caveat to any people in the world the Jews,
besides to have carried themselves with more modera-
tion in a strange land : but not the flies so stupid and
senseless in discerning the causes of their smart, as

this people is. Their perfidiousness and daily sucking
of Christians' blood, had made them most odious in
this as in other lands ; and though a number of them
be massacred to-day for like attempts ; yet the rest are
as ready again to-morrow to seize upon every sore, either
to exhaust the relics of life from such as are shrunk in
their estate by cruel exactions and damned usury ; or
else to intrude themselves, as wedges or instruments
of divisions, into every breach that shall appear amongst
Christians, or between them and others. In which
practice they have been continually crushed. Finally,
their general carriage is so odious and preposterous,
that, albeit the Christian magistrates conspire together
for their good, they themselves will certainly provoke
their own misery.

4. The lamentable death of those Jews in London Their mas-
had purchased pity and compassion towards the rest, LynnTn
(as the king's proclamation for their peace and security No'^o'^.
did witness,) but their brethren of Lynn cannot abstain

s 2

260

The fulfilling of other

BOOK I.

from offering that violence, from which the king had
privileged them, to one of their own lineage, for be-
coming a Christian ; attempting forcible entrance into
the church, Avhither he had fled for sanctuary. Unless
they had thus riotously violated the king's peace, the
Christians had not assembled together, and the inhabit-
ants were afraid at all to meddle with them. But so God
had provided, that a great company of foreign mariners
should repair unto this mutiny ; who, moved with in-
dignity of the attempt, could not content themselves
with the rescue of the convert, (at the first perhaps
onlyintended,) but assault these mutinous Jews, through
fear repairing to their houses ; which the other first
rifle, then burn, together with their owners, departing
unpunished with spoil.

5. The end of the king's proclamation being once
frustrate, by this strange accident, though not pur-
posely or directly violated by the inhabitants of this
place ; his subjects elsewhere are willing enough to
imitate the fact, without any occasion of like wrongs,

136 offered by the Jews, only upon opportunity of doing
violence by the king's absence, and the present mustering
of soldiers for the Holy Land ; upon whom, transported
hence, their partners in evil, here at home remaining,
might post over the whole blame of the fact, of part
whereof no doubt his soldiers had been guilty. The
like massacres of these Jews ensued at Stamford, at
Lincoln, and St. Edmondsbury shortly after ; but of all
others most memorable and lamentable was that which
in the same Lent befell them at York.

6. The Jews there dwelling had heard by this time
what had been done unto their brethren in London
and Lynn, and see now the like or greater violence in-
tended against themselves : so that as Moses in the
forecited place, Deut. xxviii. 34, addeth, they became

CHAP. XXIX. particular Prophecies of 3Ioses.

261

mad for the stffht of their wronsc and violence which The hom-
their eyes did see. One of their learned rabbins per- racy of the
suades four hundred of his company, besieged with g^^",^ "t\„ii.
him in a strong tower by a furious multitude, to prove jl^^'^^™''^
themselves (such as the vroi-ld had long taken them,
and were now persecuted for) right cut-throats indeed,
rather than fall into their enemies' hands ; himself con-
firming his doctrine by his example, in cutting his
wife's throat first, then his children's, and lastly by
killing himself. The residue of the four hundred,
which he had persuaded unto this unnatural and Jew-
ish act, not only willing to imitate him herein, would
before their death have enforced many others, that
would not yield unto this rabbin's advice, to a more
violent death, had they not conveyed themselves into
a strong turret, within the main tower, which defended
them from the flames that consumed their goods.
And yet these poor souls, that had scaped their fellows'
violence, were born to suffer the like of their Christian
enemies ; to their shame, who had promised them life,
upon condition they would yield themselves and^ be-
come Christians ; which whether they meant in heart
or no as they promised, he that trieth the secrets
of all hearts doth know. Sure I am, their professed
Christian enemies did turn Jews in heart, that treach-
erously killed them befoi'e any trial made of their sin-
cerity towards Christ.

7. All these wrongs and violences were committed
only by the people, much against the magistrates' minds ;
but hereafter the supreme magistrates, kings them-
selves, (as if they had learned wit of their subjects,)
took the monopoly of wronging the Jews into their own
hands. To omit what Richard the First had done
unto them, their hard usage under king John, Henry
the Third, and Edward the First, makes me think that

8 3

262

The fulfilling of other

BOOK I.

Moses, in the last words of his often mentioned pro-
phecy, Deut. xxviii, spake in his language that said,
Patria est uhiamque bene est: so as England, and
every place in Europe, wherein their condition of life
hath been more hard and burdensome than their fore-
fathers' had been in Egypt, may be said to be thatEgypt,
whereunto the Lord had threatened to bring them
again by ships". King John's exactions were so griev-
ous, that they had rather suffer than do what he com-
manded, many of them being imprisoned and tortured
before they would yield what he demanded. What an
intolerable thing was it for a private man in those times
137 to pay ten thousand marks, for refusal of which that
poor Jew of Bristol was so pitifully used"; but with God
it was just, to punish him by his own greediness of gain;
for unless his money had been as dear to him as meat
to such as make their belly their god, he would have let
his gold go, before he had lost seven teeth of nine.
The French 8. King Henry the Third first demands the third

klllff pGI'SG- • • *

ciited them

part of all their movables for his supplies ; then pun-
time as mis! ^^^^^^ them grievously by the purse, for a murder se-
flHtthew cretly committed by them ; and thirdly, makes them
Paris inti. buy their miserable peace by the third part of what
was left : finally, he brought them to such extreme
poverty, that his brother, to whom he let them out to
farm, could (it seems) make nothing of them ; and so
they were freed from this brutish servitude (as Moses

"1 Yet were it worth inquiry, in Spain, made them more ready

whether such as have been trans- to redeem their peace. Vide

ported out of Spain or other Mat. Paris.

countries of Europe, were not " Vide orationem pontificis ju-
sent into Eygpt ; or what enter- daeorum, suorum calamitates de-
tainment they iind there. They plorantis apud Mat. Paris. Aaron
came out of Egypt without ships, the Jew paid Hen. III. 30,200
for the sea gave them passage, marks. Holinsh. anno 1250. p.
Deut. xxviii. 68. The report of 242.
their persecutions about this time

mates.

CHAP. XXIX. particular Prophecies of Moses.

26S

in the forecited place had foretold) for want of a buyer.
The king surely did not so much pity them, as he did
himself and his posterity, who should have gotten
nothing of them, if the bargain with his brother had
gone forward ; whereas his successor, Edward the
First, accounted their goods as his own, and for non-
payment of what he demanded, the whole generation
scattered throughout this land were shut up in one
night, where they enjoyed no day, until they had fined
at the king's pleasure ; who yet perhaps did recover
but as much as he and his subjects were endamaged,
by two hundred and odd of their countrymen, all con-
demned some eight years before for circumcising,
counterfeiting, and washing his coin. This king, al-
beit their wealth under him was much diminished, had
this advantage of his predecessors. The English, de-
sirous to have them banished, and they, as willing to
spite the English by their staying here, were both for-
ward to purchase their contrary desires by large offers
to the king, until the English at last did outvie them
by a fifteenth, which the parliament granted for their
utter avoidance of this land ; so much welcomer was
their room than company.

9. All their immovable goods, with their obligations
and bills of debt, were confiscated : thus (as Moses saith)
they had huilded houses, hut could not dwell therein ;
vineyards they had i^lanted which they could not carry
with them, never to return hither again, they nor their
seed to eat of their fruit : yea, even the gold and coin,
with other riches which they were permitted to trans-
port, were reserved to many of their owners' evil.
The sea, which gave their forefathers passage from
Egypt, did swallow up a great number of those wealth-
iest Jews at their departure out of this land. And,
howsoever both his fact that exposed them to danger

s 4

264

The fulfilling of other

BOOK I.

was most impious, and his speeches scurrilous, in turn-
ing them off to pray to Moses, when he miglit have sav-
ed them, yet if we consider the concourse of circum-
stances, and opportunity tempting- him, otherwise ill dis-
posed unto this fact, his profane jesting at their miserable
death was a sensible document of the Almighty's re-
joicing to destroy them, and bring them to nought.
Of these Dunnp- this time of their abode here (which

Jews mas-

sacresin was two hundred and odd years) their general perse-

Germanv, • ^ \ t-A

after their cutions throughout Oremiany (that have come unto

banishment j'\ j. -c • ^^ rii*

out of Eng. ™y readuig) were not so rire as in the ages rollownig.
Lbot't'that year 1286i', (in which they had been generally

time. imprisoned throughout this land,) they had stabbed a
child throughout his whole body with needles, at
ISSMunchen in Bavere, taking his blood in a bason; to
use it, as the suspicion was then, in sacrifice, for
staunching that issue of blood, wherewith this people
(Christians know why) is continually pestered. These
butchers were detected by the drover, an old hag,
taken in the very manner, while she was stealing a
second for the same purpose. The body of the
former being found out by her directions, the fresh
print of infinite wounds filled with gore, imploring ven-
geance, as it were with so many watery and blubbered
eyes, did so enrage the multitude, that they could not
expect the judge's sentence, but fall immediate upon
these Jews, notwithstanding the princes' servants, and
their chief magistrates' earnest endeavours to appease
the tumult, conveying as many Jews as they could
into their synagogue, which the people, bui'ning with
fury, set on fire, and with it burned an hundred and
eighty Jews.

11. lYet this was but as a little flash in the firepan to

P Avent. Boior. Annalium, lib. 1 Aventinus, lib. 7. [p- 453-]
7. p. 442." Boior. Annalium.

CHAP. XXIX. particular Prophecies of Moses.

265

that general fury, which the people of this and other
countries of Germany did discharge upon this cursed
seed about ten years after. The alarum to this bloody
fact was a rumour, true or false, by God's disposition
a means to bring destruction upon them whom he
rejoiced to destroy ; as soon condemned by the multi-
tude, as accused for stealing away the consecrated host,
as they term it, and amongst other indignities, for
braying it in a mortar, until it bled again. One
Rindeflaish, of what spirit God knows, by profession a
husbandman, (whether one of the raisers of this ru-
mour, or only taking opportunity upon it blazed abroad
by others,) proclaims that he was sent from heaven to
destroy the Jews, wheresoever scattered upon the face
of the earth : and with that conjuring acclamation,
" As many as bare any love to Christ, or wished the
safety and welfare of Christendom, let them follow
him," gets so many followers, that through eight
or nine cities, named by mine author, and many others
omitted, they rob, spoil, and kill these Jews, now
become as obstinate and stubborn as the others were
violent. For after they had gathered their goods and
household-stuff together, lest the Christians should be
any better by it, or they themselves by Christians, that
would have enforced them to baptism, the men with
their wives and children cast themselves into the fire,
and so perish with their ill gotten goods. The signs
of the time, with which in particular we are not
acquainted, did fully persuade both priest and people
that all was done by God's special appointment : and
Aventinus himself saith, Irani (Uvinam fuisse necesse
est; because the emperor, most desirous to revenge
their wrongs, was enforced to give place to this per-
suasion, and dissemble his grief. The magistrates of
Regineburgh (the ancient metropolis of Bevere) with

266

The fulfilliug of other

BOOK I.

much ado persuaded their people to forbear execution
of their wratb, and expect more certain warrants from
heaven for their proceedings.

12. ""Not many years after this their general calamity
throughout Bevere and old France, they and the lepers
conspire to poison the fountains throughout the French
kingdom, and are both made away on heaps by the
people, dying for the most part by the contrary ele-
ment, witiiout any conviction or arraignment, which
forty of them, imprisoned at Vitrie in Campania % did
wisely prevent, by killing themselves all in one gaol.
So cunningly doth the Almigbty plot their overthrow,
139 ever since he became their enemy, that it is ofttimes
hard to say, whether man's purposes for their good or
evil bring greater plagues upon them. Not fifteen
years before this time, ^ Philip the Fair had apprehended
all the Jews throughout his dominions in one day,
robbed them of their goods, and rid his land of them.
About ten years after this, their banishment by public
edict, (not five years before the late mentioned persecu-
tion,) Lewis the Tenth ^, son to this Philip, intending
their good, revokes his father's edict for their perpetual
banishment, and brought them back again into France ;
where these malefactors were, by the appointment of
God, to suffer just punishment for their villainies there
committed by their fathers and them, and their bodies
serving for fuel to the flame, prepared by God to

>■ Superest ultimus Philippi 1. 3. Fran. Annal. in Philippo

annus: illo, leprosos, Judasosque Longo, p.380.
in Gallia vexatos constat, propter * Idem ibidem,
suspicionem veneni in puteos * Uno die Judsei tota Francia

sparsi — . Autores sceleris Ju- capti, bonis eorum fisco addictis,

dsei a morbosis et miseris homi- regni finibus excedere jussi sunt,

nibus esse dicebantur ; quare in Papirius Masson. lib. 3 . Anna-

utrosque saevitum, plebe, (nulla Hum Francorum, p. 363.
expectata judicii forma) igni illos " Idem Papir. in vita Ludo-

cremante. Papirius Massonus, vici. Hutini, p. 372.

CHAP. XXIX. particular Prophecies of Moses.

267

purge the air which their blasphemous mouths had
polluted.

13. ''The like plagues, but far more general, from
like provocation, did befall them, about the year 1337,
and the times ensuing till 1348". They hoped Christ-
ian religion should have died in the wars between the
emperor and the pope ; the state of Christendom they
saw deeply endangered in these civil broils : and they,
according to their Jewish policy, seek to thrust it over
head and ears in blood, poisoning the fountains through-
out Germany, offering like violence to the sacraments
as they had done before ; and by this just provocation
were so dealt withal by one Hartmannus and his com-
plices, as they had been used some forty years ago by
Rindeflaish. The rehearsal of all particular outrages
committed against them, during the time of the pope
and emperor's vai-iance, would take up more room in
this discourse, than all the rest hitherto reckoned*.
Most memorable is that of the Jews inhabiting Worms;
who, persecuted by the people, implore the bishop's in-
tercession for their safety : the conditions of their
peace, procured by him, were, to be washed from their
sins ; and having respite given to deliberate upon the
point, they pollute themselves with their own blood,
without returning any further answer to the bishop
that had interceded for them.

14. This and the like barbarous impiety, committed
by others of this cursed race at Vitrie, almost forty, at

Aventinus lib. septimo An- sponte injecerunt incendio, ne

nalium Boior. [p. 477.] probris Christianorum expositae

y The like plague befell them ad extremum necarentur. Krant-

at Prague about the year 1389, zius Wandalorum Hist. 1. 9. c.

for the like contumely offered by 23.

their children to the host (as 2 Vide H. JNIutium et Bertol-

they term it). Incensis domibus, dum Presbyt. Constant,
fceminae cum parvulis se sua

S68

The fulfilling of other

BOOK I.

York, above an hundred years before, cannot be as-
cribed to the revolutions of the heavens, or successive
reign of some unruly stars ; all of them were from His
will, in whom there is no shadow of change. In these
last massacres, as in the former, the magistrates in
many places had minds willing enough to save them,
but durst not venture their bodily presence for their
rescue. Albeit the manner of the Christians proceeding
against them be usually such, as none but Jews would
justify ; yet this is an evident argument, that the Lord
of lords and King of kings hath ordained them to suffer
wrong, whom the greatest powers, in such civil states
as Germany, France, and England are, cannot right.
For although the Palsgrave, with some others inclining
unto them, had taken their protection upon them in
these last persecutions ; yet even this pity, whether
true or pretended, did cause their further wrongs, by
grievous exactions, for maintaining the war begun in
their defence. So strangely doth the wisdom of God
bring that to pass which his servant Moses had fore-
told, Deut. xxviii. 29- IViou shall not prosper in thy
14;0 ways: thou shalt never hut he oppressed with wrong
and he polled evermore, and no man shall succour thee.
Even succour itself by their distempered appetites is
turned into sorrow. Though all Christian kings and
states should conspire together for their weal ; yet (as
I said before) they will conceive mischief, and bring
forth their own destruction, by bursting out into such
shameful acts, as deserve grievous punishment in sight
of God and man. So in the year 1410% they go about
their wonted practice of crucifying a Christian child in
contumely of our Saviour Christ ; but their intent
being known before they had opportunity of acting it,
the marquess of Misna, and landgrave of Turing, find
a Krantzius, lib. lo. Wandal. cap. i8.

CHAP. XXIX. jmrticiclar Prophecies of Moses.

269

room enough for their coin in their coffers, but leave
none for them, stript naked of all they had within any
part of their dominions. Or if they do sometimes that
which in itself is good, they do it with such malicious
minds, that God gives them but the reward of wicked-
ness : so in the year 1421^', for furnishing the poor
Christians of Bohemia with money and munition
against their Antichristian persecutors, they were ge-
nerally imprisoned throughout Bevere, quite bereft of
all their money and coin, and lastly banished all the
dominions belonging to Frederic duke of that province.
Nor doth their inbred spite to Christians, or their
plagues due thereunto, wear out in that age. For, in
the year 1497, they were burnt at Stenneberge in the
province of Stargardia*', for their wonted violence and
indignities offered to the blessed eucharist.

15. Thus much of their estate in England, France,
and Germany, until the year 1500. Of their estate in
Germany since, if God permit, elsewhere, because it
yields matter of distinct observation from the former.
Now briefly to acquaint the reader with so nmch of
their affairs in Spain, as may testify some other parts
of Moses his prophecy in the formentioned place. In
the year 1482, the measure of their iniquity was grown
so full, that this land could not bear it : and they them-
selves become so abominable to Ferdinand and Isabel
his queen, that none of this seed must stay within their
dominions, unless they will become Christians, as sun-
diy of larger possessions amongst them in outward
profession did, the rest were scattered thence into other
countries, most into Portugal, welcome for their money

b Krantzius, lib. ii. Saxon, zius, 1. 8. Wandal. cap. 8. anno

cap. 7. 1330. Of these Jews' estate -in

f Krantzius Wand. lib. 14. Spain and Portugal about the

cap. 17. The like facts and mas- year 1500, see Osorius, lib.

sacres of the Jews at Cheracho, primo de gestis Emanuelis. [p.

are related by the same Krant- 5.]

270

The fulJilUng of other

BOOK I.

to sojourn there a certain time : after which as many
as were found in Portugal, were tliere to remain as
slaves unto the king; such as would, were to be trans-
ported at his cost and charges. The king himself
(unless Osorius be partial for him) was careful to per-
form his promise, to secure them of peace during their
abode, and of safe passage at the time appointed. But
the mariners having once gotten them aboard, did
make their ships as so many prisons, or houses of tor-
ture, to wrest their wealth out of their hands, length-
ening the time by circular and unnecessary turnings,
back and forth, until the Jews had quite spent all their
provision, afterwards enforced to buy their food, and
other necessaries of the mariners, at what rate they
pleased. And, not content with spoil of their goods,
they abuse the bodies of their wives and daughters to
their lust, not pleasant enough, unless sauced with other
contumelies and indignities practised upon their fathers
and husbands. Finally, by these mariners' too much
thinking that their passengers were Jews, and might
be used accordingly, they forgot that they themselves
were Christians, and stain that sacred profession with
all manner of base villainy and impiety. Partly through
141 this delay in shipping over the first company, partly
through the abuses done unto them, so shameful, that
the fame thereof was brought unto their fellows' ears
by the wind, which served the mariners back to Por-
tugal : the latter sort remaining in expectation of safe
passage, either could not or would not be transported
at the day appointed, and so by their staying became
captives to John then king of Portugal. But Emanuel
his successor not long after sets them free, using all
other fair means to bring them unto Christ, until Fer-
dinand and Isabel his confederates, solicit these ill-
thriving plants' ejection out of Portugal, as unfit to

CHAP. XXIX. particular Prophecies of Moses.

271

settle in any Christian soil*^. After long debatement
with his counsellors for their exile or stay, the fresh
examples of their expulsion by so many other Christian
kings and princes did move Emanuel to their imitation.
So that either they must avoid his dominions by a cer-
tain day, or else remain there either free men in Christ,
or slaves and captives unto him : as many of them did
against their wills, not able to provide themselves of
shipping, having but one port at last allowed them for
their passage : whereas at the first promulgation of
the king's edict against them, they had choice of three.
The greatness of their number, best appearing by their
confluence about the day appointed for their passage,
moved the good king with compassion, to see so many
thousand souls should desperately run the ways of
death ; and seeing no hope of diseasoning the old and
withered stocks, fit fuel for everlasting flames, he
was the more desirous to recover some of their young
and tender grafts, by watering them with the water of
grace : and for this purpose gives strict commandment,
that all their children under fourteen years of age
should be taken from their Jewish parents, and trained
up in the school of Christ. This sudden and unexpected
divorce, though intended in compassion of the children,
brought greater misery on the parents, than if their
own flesh had been torn from their bones. There a man
(so his heart would have served him) might have seen
silly infants haled from their mothers' breasts, more
willing to embrace death than part with them ; and
yet for pity, (lest their hands by holding fast, might
prove their children's racks,) suffering them to be
drawn out of their tender embracements, with far more

d The Jews ejected out of rium, lib. i . de gestis Emanuelis.
Portugal, and their miserable [p. 13 et 14.]
usage under Emanuel, vide Oso-

272

The fnlfillmg of other

BOOK 1.

grief and sorrow of heart, than they had been brought
out of the womb; fathers enclasping their sons and
daughters, willing to die in their arms, had these beat
off (as hoops from vessels which they environ) from
their children's bodies, and either broken or benumbed
with blows. A voice was heard through Portugal,
surpassing that in Ramah, nothing but mourning and
weeping and lamentation, many a Leah blearing her
eyes with weeping for her children, and would not be
comforted ; men and women filling the heavens with
more hideous outcries than the Egyptians did at their
forefathers' departure out of Egypt, when the first-
born of every family throughout the land was slain at
midnight. But these were bereft at once of all their
loving children, in the open sun. Many of them, not
able either to rescue or dispatch their own bowels,
became mad with the sight that their eyes had seen,
and killed themselves : others, having better opportu-
nity, account it a part of their happiness to be able to
prevent their children's washing in the sacred font, by
drowning them in draw-wells and ditches. In both
these calamities, at the two forementioned transporta-
142tions, we may see those prophecies of Moses exactly
fulfilled. Dent, xxviii. 30. Thou shalt betroth a wife,
and another man shall lie ivith her: and again, ver. 32,
Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto an-
other people, and thine eyes shall fail at the sight
every day, and there shall be no power in thy hand.
Many Moors, professing Mahumetism, were transported
from Portugal the same time, but had no such violence
offered them : what was the reason ? God would have
a manifest distinction between this and other people.
The barbarous Moors had some power in their hands,
and the Portugals abstain from like usage of them ;
lest the report coming to the African Mahumetans'

CHAP. XXIX. particular Prophecies of Moses.

273

ears, might have moved them to avenge their wrongs
upon poor Christians, living amongst them. But these
Jews nowhere had any nation, none to avenge their
grievous wrong, which the Lord God of their fore-
fathers had ordained they should suffer, at all times,
in all places wheresoever they have come, without re-
dress.

16. Nor do their fates change with their name or
profession. For what violence was ever offered to any
of this race, like to that which these late converts
christened Hebrews (but still Jews in misfortunes)
suffered in Lisbon^ in the year 1506. Two thousand
massacred in three days' space ; many not suffered to
die of deadly wounds, were dragged by their mangled
limbs into the market-place, where the bodies of the
living and slain, with others half alive, half dead, were
burnt together on heaps. The spectacle was so hor-
rible, that it quite astonied the rest of this miserable
progeny, at other times as desperately set to suffer, as
monks furiously to inflict any torture. Parents durst
not mourn for their children, nor children sigh for
their parents, though each haled in others' sight to the
place of torments, lest these significations of their grief
and sorrow might bewray them to be of the tormented
kindred, with whom the least suspicion of alliance
was sufficient to make them inherit like plagues, ere
the breath was out of their predecessors' bodies. Oso-
rius'^ description of these distressed souls' perplexity,

s The lamentable massacre of serat, ut ne lamentari quidem

these Jews at Lisbon ; and the cladem illam, et deplorare mise-

natural consequence of monkish riam suam possent. Qui se oc-

devotion towards Christ's image cultabant, quamvis lilios aut pa-

therein represented. Osorius lib. rentes suos ad supplicium abripi

4.de Rebus GestisEmanuelis. [p. viderentj ne lugubri gemitu pro-

127.] derentur, vocem emittere non

^ Ingens eo die stupor adeo audebant. Sic autem eos metus

miserrimae gentis sensus oppres- examinaverat, ut vivi non mul-

JACKSON, VOL. I. T

The fulfilling nf other

BOOK I.

shewed in their gesture and carriage during this mas-
sacre, may serve, albeit he meant nothing less, as a
paraphrase upon the last words of Moses' often-men-
tioned prophecy. There (that is, in the utmost parts
of the earth) the Lord shall give thee a tremhUng
heart, and a sorroujul mind, and thy life shall hang
before thee. The disposition of the Divine providence
in affording opportunity to this licentious outrage was
muchwhat like to that described before in Lynn. A
great part of these tragical actors were German and
French mariners, which had repaired to Lisbon for
other traffick, but returned home unpunished, burdened
Mdth the spoil of these Hebrews' goods, but more
heavily laden with guilt of their blood : albeit their
souls were not so deeply died therewith as the Lisbon
monks, who had instigated them and others to this
butchery, inflamed themselves with this furious zeal,
only by an unseasonable speech of one poor Hebrew
apprehended by the other as derogatory to our Saviour.
For whilst the others, by long gazing upon the picture
of his wounded side through a glass, took the reflex of
light, thence cast upon their dazzled eyes, for a mir-
acle, the silly Hebrew, whether openly to contradict, or
unawares, (uttering to some bystanders what he thought,)
bewrayed his incredulity, how a piece of dry wood
should work miracles.
143 17. Whilst I read so many christened souls thus
butchered like beasts for one's denial of Divine honour
to a lifeless image, I could not but pause with myself ;
and now I must commend it to the Christian reader's
consideration, whether that part of Moses' prophecy,
and there thou shalt serve other gods, ivhich thou
hast not known, nor thy fathers, wood and stoned,

turn a mortuorun! sin<ilitudine Emaiiuelis, lib. 4. [p. 1 28.]
distarent. OsoriusdeRebu^5Ge.st. g Deut. xxviii. 36, 64.

CHAP. XXIX. particular Prophecies of Moses.

275

may not be understood of the convert Jews throughout
the pope's dominions, thus ofttimes urged to commit
idolatry with stocks and stones, upon more tyrannical
terms, if they gainsay, than their forefathers were
either by the Assyrian, Chaldaean, Egyptian, Roman, or
any whosoever had led them captive out of their land.
If the monkish apologizer reply, there is great differ-
ence between the heathen idol and their image wor-
ship ; I grant the idolatry is of a diverse kind ; and so
it seems Moses meant when he threatened this people,
that after their final transplantation by Adrian, and
their scattering through Spain, and these western
countries, they should serve such gods as their fathers
had not known. For this people's forefathers, before
Moses' time and after, had known the heathen gods too
well. If the Romanist yet rejoin, that in worshipping
Christ's image, they worship Christ, I will not deny
but he may think so : for so the Jews thought they
honoured Moses, because they honoured the letter of
his law. But, to omit other reasons, this and other
like outrageous facts, committed upon as light occa-
sions, shall convince their nice school-distinctions of
foul error, and turn their lies with such violence into
their throat, that (as St. Augustine interprets the Psalm-
ist of these Jews) / shall even break their teeth in
their moutlis^\ For if the zeal these monks of Lisbon
bare unto this image had been directed unto Christ,
they had in some good measure been transformed into
the similitude of his gentle, meek, and merciful dispo-
sition. It was wood-worship doubtless which had
made them so mad and furious : it was their continual
adoring of stones, which had turned their hearts of flesh
into hearts more full of fire than the flint, and harder

^ Psalm Iviii. 6.
T 2

276

General Collections out of the

BOOK I.

than the hardest adamant. But of the effects of monk-
ish pity towards Christ or the crucifix, as also of the
Jesuits' doctrine concerning image-worship, elsewhere,
if God permit. Thus much of these Jews' estate from
time to time may suffice for our intended purpose, to
be further collected in the chapter following.

144 CHAP. XXX.

General Collections out of the particular Histories before
mentioned ; the strange Dispositions of the Jews; ami
God's Judgmeitts upon them, alt testifi/ing the Truth of
Divine Oracles.

1. I CANNOT but approve ^Crantzius his judgment
of these Jews, that they are a perfidious and wicked
people, worthy to be spewed out of the confines of
Christendom, as many princes have expelled them their
dominions. But as the same author observeth, how-
soever Christian governors (as the world now counts
Christians) are most opposite in outward show to the
religion ^^'hich they profess ; yet they agree too well
with them in their love unto this world's god ; by
whose means these Jews, after they have been expelled
one country, find admission into some other, or else
into the same again ; as they did into France whence
they were expelled by the father, and brought in again
by the son ; and into ^Ravenna, whence banished (for

> Gens perfida, agens qnod
solet nms in pera, 8cc. Crantz.
Libro Undecimo, Saxon, cap. -.

Abierunt hoc anno ex hac
parte Judsei, Pii 5. Pontificis
max. jussu, qui acerrimo di])lo-
mate externiinari illos ex eccle-
siasticae ditionis civitatibus man-
daverat. Quanquam enim illos
tolerabat ecclesia, miserata illo-
rum %-icem, ut Christianis fre-

qututi illorum aspectu, Christi
Dei mors versaretur ob oculos ;
et Judaei Christianorum exeui-
plis, ac doctrina, ad amplecten-
dam Christiana fidei veritatem,
quani reliquias Israel, juxta di-
vini vatis oraculum, accepturas
constat, incitarentur : a qua si
ablegarentur ad alienos longius
multo abessent: tamen, cum, et
usuris gravibus exigendis, et la-

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 277

their combination with thieves and robbers, and sa-
crilegious persons, for sorceries or magical charms, in
winning women to their own or others' lust) by Pius
Quintus in the year 1568, they were recalled by Sixtus
Quintus in the year 1587. As if the former of these
kings and popes had cast their hooks into another
man's liberties, and their successors had drawn them,
when they had caught the prey. For so in truth these
Jews are like roving hounds or spaniels, which catch
a prey wheresoever they come, and carry it unto any
prince or potentate that will give them harbour. They
never stand upon better terms with any prince or peo-
ple than notorious or cunning malefactors do with
grave judges or great statesmen ; who ofttimes wink
at such villainies as they hate, for some further pur_
pose. Nor could these Jews ever hitherto purchase
their ease and quiet, as they have often done their
admission into divers countries. Since their rooting
out of their own land, they have continued as hares
hunted from their seat ; no sooner find they any place
of habitation in these ends of the world, but the cry of
God's judgments strait pursues them. If for a time
they may seem to gather strength, or to recover them,
selves from that faintness of heart; it is but to, take
their feese (or rise) with greater force to their break-
neck. In the pits, which they dig for Christians, are
their own feet always taken. The best advantages
which they can espy and entertain with greed?ness for

tronibus furibusque etiam rerum expediret, tanti vim morbi'celeri

ecclesiasticarum recipiendis, ma- remedio coercere, omnino eos

gicis artibus, ac lenociniis muli- rejiciendos ex civitatibus decre-

erum exercendis, illorum impie- vit. Hieron. Rubeus, lib. xi.

tas jam eo processisset, ut pro (initio) hist. Raven,
communi omnium incolumitate

T 3

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General Collections out of the

BOOK 1.

their good, are but baits, laid by the Almighty's hand
to entrap them : and whilst his judgments hunt them
one way, and they take another to escape them, in the
very places (whereunto they fly for refuge, as foxes
chased do to their holes) is the fatal gin set for their
souls ; as appears out of the histories here set down,
which are but so many experiments of Moses his rule,
Deut. xxviii. 65 — 67. Also among these nations tJiou
shall find no rest, neither shall the sole of thy foot
have rest: for the Lo?'cl shall give thee there a trem-
bling heart, sinking eyes, and a sorroiifid mind: and
thy life shall hang before thee ; and thou shall fear
both day and night, and shall have no assurance of
thy life : in the morning thou shalt say, fV ould God
it were evening! and at evening thou shalt say. Would
God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart
which thou shall fear, and for the sight of thine eyes
which thou shalt see.
Of the 2. But as no money could hitherto purchase their
conceit"*' peace and security from calamities ; so neither could
which most their calamities, though continually most grievous,
have of the redeem their estimation in the world, nor all the
toTd by WU). blood of their slain (though their massacres have
prophets'.^^ bccu numbcrless) till these times, allay, much less
extinguish that hateful and loathsome conceit, which
most men have entertained of them. To ascribe all
this to their forefathers' sins against our Saviour, is
true, but too general to give satisfaction in all particular
doubts which their estate might minister. For why
the children should inherit their father's cui'se, without
continuance in like sins, is a point which admits no re-
solution. Again, why this people above all other
creatures should continue their devilish temper still,
having tried such change of air, diversity of soils, con-

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 279

versing among so many severally disposed people,
seems yet more strange. I have read of trees, leaving
their poison with their native soil, by transplantation
bringing forth edible and wholesome fruit ; wolves in
few generations will become as kind as dogs. Lions
and bears by often presence of men, grow more tame ;
generally beasts of most wild nature, by often housing
will come near the nature of domestic creatures. Rude
idiots by frequent intercourse with men of better fashion,
in time will take some tincture of civility and discretion.
Of all sensible creatures, only the Jew, in so many de-
scents, after so many grievous corrections, for his own,
and his forefathers' sins, can no more leave his Jewish
disposition, than the leopard can his spots. It further
increased my admiration, why the whole progeny,
being utterly banished this land above three hundred
years ago, their memory should still remain for a pat-
tern of mischievous minds, either apt to do, or fit to
suffer any violence : the very name of a Jew serving
this people as a perfect measure, either to notify the
height of impiety in the agent, or to sound the depth
and bottom of an abject, worthless, forlorn condition
in any patient. Better we cannot express most cut-
throat dealing than thus — None but a Jew would have
done so ; lower we cannot prize anyone of most abject
condition, than by comparing him to a Jew. For so in
common speech we exaggerate enormous wrongs done
to the most odious or despised amongst us — This had
been enough for a Jew to suffer, or I would not have
done so to a Jew. All these plagues are come upon
them, for continuing in their forefathers' steps ; and to
make their Creator the author of their villainous ininds
were impiety : his word endures for ever, Perditio tua
ex te, O Israel. Yet, is it possible that any people,
endued with the light of reason, should continue so ob-

T 4

280

General Collections out of the

BOOK I.

stinate and obdurate, as willingly to deserve all men's
hate they have to deal with ? I know not better how
to resolve this doubt, than our apostle did his, of
their forefathers' unbelief, after so many miracles
wrought amongst them: Therefore, saith he, could
146 they 7iot believe, because Esaias saith, He hath blinded
their eyes &c. Johnxii. 39, 40. Therefore must I say,
they could not but continue hateful and opprobrious
amongst all people with whom they have conversed, be-
cause Moses had said, Deut. xxviii. 37, Thou shall be a
wonder, a proverb, and a common talk among all people
whither the Lord shall carry thee. So likewise had Je-
remy xxiv. 9. / will give them for a terrible plague to
all the Miigdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a
proverb,for a common talk and for a curse, in all places
where I shall cast them. If any man then further ask,
Why Israel is cut off from the land which God had
given him, and made a proverb, and a common talk
amongst all people ; God himself hath taught us how
to answer — Because they have forsaken the Lord their
God, which broiight their fathers out of the land of
Egypt, &c. This the Lord himself foretold, and gave
them warning of, even when he specified the articles of
his covenant, made with Solomon for their peace.
1 Kings ix. 6 — 9. These authorities may suffice to
stay all such doubts as might arise from curious in-
quiring after the causes of these peoples' incessant
misery ; which cannot seem strange, because foretold ;
nor unjust, in that they were born to more extraordi-
nary prosperity; from which being fallen, by following
their own ungracious ways, they are now reserved, as
Pharaoh after many admonitions was, for marks or
butts, against whom the arrows of God's wrath and

1 Such speeches do not import but of our instruction or per-
an absolute cause of the thing, suasion concerning it.

CHAP, XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 281

vengeance must be shot, to the terror of others, and
manifestation of his power.

3. These grounds supposed, the consideration of
their many and cruel massacres, their often spoiling
and robbing, and other outrages, which, according to
the forecited prophecies of them, they continually suffer,
would the atheist but lay it to his heart, would wring
thence, what the Divine oracles have uttered ; that
this had been a people appointed to destruction, never
suffered to multiply imto a nation ; as if God had used
them as men do wild beasts, nursing only so many of
them, as may make sport by their destruction. So
likewise their continual wandering up and down in the
world, without any rest, doth abundantly witness ;
that albeit they bear the shape and nature of men, yet
are they no natural part of the world ; but have the
same proportion in the civil body, or society of man-
kind, that bad humours have in our natural and ma-
terial bodies ; which by course of nature should be ex-
pelled her confines, but, being retained, run from joint
to joint, and lastly breed some grievous swellings in
the extreme parts. And, amongst other most tried and
demonstrative experiments of Moses' often-mentioned
prophecy, this is not the least ; that Spain and Por-
tugal, for these later years, have been the chief recep-
tacle of these Jews : as if Hercules' pillars, accounted
by the ancients the utmost ends of the world, were not
the full period of their peregrination westward, whom
the Lord had threatened, Deuteronomy xxviii. 64. to
scatter amongst all people, from the one end of the
world unto the other. There they have been in great-
est abundance for many years, as it were expecting a
wind for their passage to some place more distant from
their native country. And who knows whether that
prophecy, Deuteronomy xxviii. 41 — Thou shalt beget

282

General Collections out of the

BOOK I.

sons and daughters, hut shalt not have them; for they
\Vl shall go into captivity — hath not been fulfilled, in the
Jews inhabiting that kingdom? Whether many of
their stock, whom Emanuel detained in Portugal, have
not been transported since into America ? or whether
many of the Spanish colonies have not a mixture of
J e wish progeny in them ? Nay, who knows, whether
the West Indies were not discovered, partly, or espe-
cially for this purpose, that the sound of these preachers,
unto whom God hath appointed no set diocese, might
go out into all lands with the sun, and their words
unto the ends of the world, until they return unto the
place whence they were scattered? But these conjec-
tures I leave to be confuted or confirmed by future
times, desirous to prosecute briefly some observations
of forepast miseries, not yet ended.

4. As God's judgments upon this people have had no
end, so neither have the grounds or motives of Christ-
ian belief any limits ; every degree of their fall is a
step unto our rising. Enough it were to condemn the
whole Christian world of infidelity, if it should not be
rapt with admiration of God's mercy towards us, as
it is manifested only in his severity towards them.
But if, unto their perpetual grievous calamities here
recounted, we add their like continual stubbornness of
heart, we shall prove ourselves more stiffnecked than
this people itself, unless we take up Christ's yoke and
follow him ; under which only we shall find that ease
and rest unto our souls, which they have wanted ever
since his death, and, without repentance, must want
everlastingly. Angels, men, and devils, yea all the
world, may clearly see, that the God of their fathers
hath cast them off ; that they have borne no signs or
badges of his ancient wonted favours, whilst innume-
rable grievous marks and scars of his fearful indignation

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 283

against their fathers still remain unhealed in the chil-
dren, after more generations, than their ancestors' seat of
prosperity had been in the promised land. And yet
even these latter, as all the former, since their scattering
thence, continue their boastings of their prerogatives,
as if they were his only chosen people. A grievous
distemper of body and mind hath run in their blood
for almost 1600 years ; the children still infected
vv'ith their father's disease ; all raving and talking, like
men in a phrensy, as if they were wisdom's first-born,
and heirs of happiness. This their unrelenting stub-
bornness is an irrefragable argument, that they are the
degenerate seed of faithful Abraham. For stubborn- a compa-
ness is but a strong hope malignified, or (as we say) ^^Xm
grown wild and out of kind. If the scripture had not f^"''*'

c i bornness

described his nature and quality with his name, we"''ththe

steadfast-

might have known by these modern Jews, that their ness of

n . -iiii i?i 1 Al)rahain's

nrst progenitor had been a man or strong hopes, faith,
against all hopes in the sight of men : but these go
further, continuing stiff in their persuasions of God's
favour towards them, contrary unto the grounds of
hopes, either in the sight of God or man, insolent in
confidence, even whilst they are at the very brink of
deepest despair. Abraham looked for a son, after the
chiefest strength of his body was decayed, and Sarah
his wife by course of nature past all possibility of con-
ceiving : but his hopes were assuredly grounded upon
His faithfulness which had promised the same : these
hope for a Messiah, after the fulness of time is past
and gone, and their country, being the land of his na-
tivity, covered with barrenness and desolation; without
all grounds of hope, quite contrary to the predictions
of God's prophets, whom they believe in gross ; after 143
whose meaning, they grope as palpably now in the
sunshine of their Messiah's glory, already revealed, as

284

General Collections out of the

BOOK I

if it were in Egyptian darkness. Yet even the fulness
of that joy, which most of them do look for in the
days of their Messiah, (were their hopes of his coming
as probable as they are impossible,) could not in reason
support any other men's nature, to sustain that per-
petual violence, disgrace, and torture, which they en-
dure throughout so many successions, in this wearisome
time of their expectation. Abraham was approved of
God, for his readiness to sacrifice his son Isaac at his
command. These his degenerate sons have crucified
the Son of Abraham's God ; and for their infidelity and
disobedience have been cast out of that good land,
which was given to Abraham and his righteous seed ;
and for their stubbornness in like practices, their pos-
terity continue exiles and vagabonds from the same,
not to this day willing to offer up the sacrifice of a con-
trite heart, for their disobedience past, but rather (add-
ing thirst to drunkenness) bless themselves, when
they hear the words of that curse promising peace
unto themselves, thougJi they walk on according to the
stubbornness of their forefathers' hearts'". Their own
desires they will not break. But Christian children
they can be well content to sacrifice, kill, and mangle
throughout all ages", wheresoever they come, as their
often practices in England, France, and Germany
witness ; and the Jews of Lincoln, executed at London
for this crime, did confess to be a solemn practice, as
oft as they could conveniently come by their prey.
Thus out of the mouths of infants and children will
God have his praise erected still : their blood hath

Deut. xxix. 19. At Prague in the year 1240. (or

" VideSocra^em, lib. 7.cap. 16. thereabout) they crucified a

Krantzium, lib. lo.Wandalorum, Christian. Die sacra Parasceues

c. 18. Papirium Masson. lib. 3. Krantzius, lib. 7. Wandalorum,

p. 335. ex Villaneo. Vide Ho- c.40.
linshed, an. 40. Hen. III. et alibi.

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 285

sealed, and their cries proclaimed the truth of our Savi-
our's words, that these Jews are of their father the
Devil, and the lusts of their father they ivill do. John
viii. 44. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
always delighted much in such sacrifices as were most
dis])leasing unto God.

5. If Christian sobriety did not teach us to acknow-
ledge God's judgments always just, although the man-
ner of his justice cannot be apprehended, much less
exemplified to ordinary capacities, by the wisest of the
sons of men ; the consideration of these Jews' per-
petual temper would half persuade us, that the souls
of such, as had either procured, consented unto, or ap-
proved our Saviour's and his apostles' death, had been
sent from hell by course, into the bodies of these Jews
here scattered in these western parts, as so many mes-
sengers from the dead, to shew the malignant heat of
those everlasting flames, by their unquenchable thirst
of innocent blood. But neither doth scripture warrant,
nor natural reason enforce such suppositions, either for
acquitting God's severity upon this people from in-
justice, or his goodness from suspicion of being the
author of their villainous minds, though he be the sole
Creator, as well of theirs as their godly forefathers' souls.
For these their wicked posterity's plagues are just, be-
cause their souls, which he hath made, will not receive
correction by their own or their fathers' plagues conti-
nually inflicted upon them since our Saviour's death ; but
still, as it were, hunt out God's judgments, which lie per-
petually in wait for them, by treading in their ungra-
cious predecessors' steps. In one word, though the God
of their fathers have made their souls ; yet they make
pride of heart, inveterate custom, examples of their
progenitors, their God. For us Christians, let us ad-
mire the wisdom of our gracious God, that so disposeth

286

General Collections out of the

BOOK I-

our enemies' mischievous minds unto our good ; rather
than inquire, how their villainies can stand with his
justice. This their unsatiable desire of crucifying them,
unto whom the kingdom of heaven belongs, doth confirm
our faith, in that main article of their fathers' crucifying
the Lord of glory. And no doubt but God, in his all-
seeing wisdom, hath permitted the like hellish temper
to remain in all generations of these Jews, that the
former most horrible, and otherwise almost incredible
act, with the actors' devilish malice, might be more
lively and sensibly represented to all posterities, which
had not seen or known them by experience. And
God's judgments upon these modern Jews, for their
forefathers' sins, hereby may appear most just, in that
they make them their own by imitation : plainly testi-
fying to the world, that they would do as their fore-
fathers had done, if the same tragedy of Christ's pas-
sion were to be acted over again ; yea, inasmuch as
they practise the like upon his living members, they
are guilty, as well as their forefathers, of his death.

6. Generally, the outward carriage and inward tem-
per of these modern Jews are such, as all that have
any experience of them, may perceive the excellent
qualities of their worthy progenitors, and the extraor-
dinary prerogatives whence they ai'e fallen, as sensibly
and undoubtedly, as we can know by the lees, or cor-
rupt remainder of any liquor, what the virtue and
strength thereof was in its prime. The present de-
pression of this people, below all others amongst whom
they live, rightly taken, doth give us the true excess
of their exaltation, in former times above the nations,
as perfectly as the elevation of the pole which we see,
doth give us the degrees of the other's occupation.
Finally, if we compare the estate of such as lived in Tul-
ly's times, with these modern Jews' estate lately men-

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 287

tioned ; the great prosperity of their ancestors under
Joshua, Judges, David, and Solomon, may be gathered
from these differences as exactly and as clearly as the
third proportionable number out of two others already
known. This is that golden rule, whose practice I
would commend to all young students. For, from the
known differences of their estate from time to time, we
may be led unto the perfect knowledge of God's power
and providence, of his mercy and bounty to such as
love him, of his judgments upon such as hate him and
transgress his laws. Finally, nothing in scripture can
seem incredible, if men would consider the wonderful
exaltation and depression of this people.

7. ^This admirable difference between the true Israel-
ites of old, and these modern perfidious Jews, is most
lively represented unto us in that parable of divers figs,
which Jeremiah saw, Jerem. xxiv. 1, 2. The Lord
shewed me, and, behold, two hasJcets of figs were set be-
fore the temple of the Lord — one basket very good
figs, like the figs that are first ripe: a7id the other very
naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so
evil. No man, I hope, will challenge me, for extend-
ing this text beyond its literal sense. One part of
which, by the prophet's own exposition, is to be under-
stood of such as were led captive by Nebuchadnezzar,
signified by the good figs : the other of Zedekiah,
with the residue of Hierusalem, and them that dwelt
in the land of Egypt, represented by the bad figs.
My prophet indeed applies it only unto them of his 150
own time; of whom I confess it was literally meant:
but not, only of them ; but more principally, more fully
and directly, of the Jews, about or since our Sa-
viour's time, and his apostles or their followers. The
parable, with the consequence thereof, is true of both ;
' Vide Ezech. vi.

288 Gejieral Collections out of the book i.

inasmuch as both are particulars, contained under that
general division, which ™ Moses had made of blessings
and cursings to befall this people in divers measures,
according to their constancy in good, or stubbornness
in evil. Unto this general prediction, the prophets do
still frame their prophecies, as corollaries or appen-
dices ; and so must they be applied by us, not only to
the present times wherein they wrote, but to the times
of the Messiah, in which both Moses his general, and
the prophets' particular prophecies were more fully
accomplished, than in any age before. That which
Jeremy in the third verse of that same chapter said of
the figs, was true of this people in all ages : The good
amongst them were very good, the naughty always
very naughty: but the difference greater betwixt the
better sort of the ancient, and the worse of latter, than
betwixt the best and worst of such as lived in the mid-
dle age ; greatest of all betwixt the good and bad in
our Saviour's time, or immediately after. These words
again of the prophet, verse 6 and 7, are altogether as
literally, more peculiarly meant of Christ's apostles and
disciples, than of Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, and the
rest which returned from the captivity of Babylon :
For I will set mme eyes upon them for good, and I
will bring them again to this land: and I will build
them, and I will plant them, and not root them out.
And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am
the Lo7'd: and they shall be my jieople, and I ivill be
their God: for they shall return imto me with their
whole heart. So is that curse, verse 9, 10, more fully
verified of the Jews, about or after our Saviour Christ's
time, than of Zedekiah, and his complices : / will even
give them for a terrible plague to all the kingdoms of
the earth, and for a reproach and for a proverb, for a

*" Vide supra, cap. 22, paragr. 6. page 170.

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 289

common talk, and for a curse iyi all places, where I
shall cast them. And I will send the sword, the fa-
mine, and the pestilence among them, till they he con-
sumed out of the land that I gave unto them and to
their fathers. In like sort I must needs with all ortho-
doxal antiquity, not contradicted for more than a thou-
sand years, acknowledge the Psalmist's prayer, Ps; lix.
to have been more directly meant, at least more notably
fulfilled, in the Jews of later times, than of his enemies
amongst whom he lived ; Slay them not, O God, lest
my people forget it; hut scatter them abroad hy thy
power, and put them down, O Lord our shield, for the
sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips ; and
let them he taken in their pride, even for their perjury
and lies which they speak. The infallible grounds of
thus interpreting these two places, and the like, shall
be fortified (God willing) when I come unto the pro-
phecies concerning Christ's incarnation, passion, or
exaltation ; my warrant at this time, for the latter
here alleged, shall be the end of the Psalmist's wish,
verse 13, Consume them in thy wrath, consume them,
that they he no more: and let them know that God
ruleth in Jacoh unto the ends of the world. Their
strange massacres in these ends of the world, whitiier
they have been scattered, do better confirm our faith of
God's providence, and mercy towards us, than David's
enemies' exile and scattering, did his people, of God's fa-
vour towards him and them. And it is to be observed,
that he saith not. Let them know in Jacoh, that God 151
ruleth unto the ends of the world. For we the adopted
sons of Abraham, though living in these extreme parts
of the world, which he never knew, are the true
Jacob; and the natural sons of Abraham according to
the flesh, though living in the promised land, have no
inheritance in Jacob ; all are Jews. So doth he, which

JACKSON, VOL. I. U

290

Collections out of the

BOOK

sits upon the circles of the heavens, weigh all the king-
doms of the earth as in a balance, debasing some, and
advancing others at his pleasure : and so doth the light
God's fa- of his gracious countenance towards any land or people,
the andent chauge or Set, in revolution of times, as the aspect of
plr^'ieied ^^^^'^ doth uuto such as compass the earth. And yet,
by like as the same observation of the sun's motion from con-

blessings

upon the trary tropics to the line, serveth our English in sum-
mer, and the navigators of opposite climes in winter;
so is the same light of God's countenance, which shone
upon the Jews, before, turned to the Gentiles, after the
fulness of time. Abraham had the promise of Canaan
often renewed unto him ; but neither he nor his
posterity possessed it, until the fulness of the Canaan-
ites' iniquity were accomplished. We Gentiles had the
promises of being engrafted into Israel, as it were,
conveyed unto us in the building of the second temple,
and afterwards renewed in the translation of these
sacred writings (the instruments of our inheritance)
into the Greek tongue, but were not partakers of the
blessings of Jacob, until the iniquity of Abraham's pos-
terity, according to the flesh, was full. Again, as the Ca-
naanites were not utterly destroyed, albeit the Israelites
were commanded so to do ; but some relics were re-
served in the promised land to a good purpose, by the
wisdom of God : so neither were these Jews utterly
extinguished, but a remnant was scattei'ed abroad
amongst the Gentiles, that they might know God's
mercy towards them by his judgments upon the other;
and though Christian princes have oft received them,
upon as unjust respects, as the Israelites did permit the
Canaanites to dwell amongst them, yet God hath still
rectified their error, and turned their evil imaginations
to the great good of his chosen. God's favours to-
wards them of old, and of us of late, might be thus

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 291

paralleled in many points : and as Moses made nothing
about the ark, but according to the fashion that was
shewed him in the mount"; so is there no event or
alteration of moment under the gospel, but had a pat-
tern in the Law and Prophets. The celestial observa-
tions which were taken for these Israelites' good, might
continually serve for the direction of the Gentile, if he
would observe the several signs of divers ages, as
mariners use divers constellations in divers latitudes,
and gaze not always upon the same pole. The igno-
rance in discerning the signs of times^ was a symptom
of the Jew's hypocrisy, and cause of his continual ship-
wreck in faith. For suffering the fulness of time
(where he and the Gentiles should have met as at the
equator) to pass away without correction of his course,
or due observation of the sudden change of heaven's
aspect ; he lost the sight of his wonted signs, and since
wanders up and down, as mariners destitute of their
card, deprived of all sight, either of sun, moon, or
stars : or rather, like blind men groping their way
without any ocular direction: yet even this their The .Tews'
blindness is or may be a better light and direction an especial
unto us, than their wonted sight and skill in scriptures ['(^^"(-gJJ^"
could afford us. First, this might teach the wisest
amongst us, 7iot to he high minded, but fear ; seeing
wisdom hath perished from the wisest of mankind,
even from God's own chosen people. Secondly, this
palpable blind obstinacy, which hath befallen Israel,
might persuade us Christians (were not we blind also)
to use that method, which God himself did think most
fit, for planting true faith in tender hearts. Christian
parents, whether bodily or spiritual, should be as care-

n Exod. XXV. 4o.Heb. viii. 5. ° Matt. xvi. 3. Luke xii. 54.

u 2

29a

Collections out of the

BOOK I.

ful to instruct their children what the Lord had done
unto these Jews, as the Israelites should have been, to
tell their sons what God had done unto Pharaoh.
His hardness of heart was nothing to their stubborn-
ness ; Egyptian darkness was as noontide to their
blindness ; all the plagues and sores of Egypt were
but fleabitings to God's fearful marks upon these
Jews : yet is all this come upon them, that the fulness
of the Gentiles might come in p. With a more mighty
hand hath God brought us out of the shadow of death,
and dominions of Satan, than he brought the Israel-
ites out of Egypt, out of the house bondage : with a
more powerful and harder stretched out arm, hath he
scattered these Jews among all people, from the one
end of the world to the other, than he brought the
frogs, flies, and caterpillars into Egypt. And it should
be as a token in our hands, and as frontlets between
our children's eyes, that the Lord hath redeemed us
through a mighty hand^. When Israel departed out of
Egypt, the Egyptian did not furnish him with weapons
for his defence, or apologies for his dejiarture. These
Jews scattered abroad, are made such messengers as
Uriah was of their own destruction, bearing records
against themselves, but sealed up from their sight ;
holding Moses their chief accuser in greatest honour ;
or to follow that faithful follower of Christ, S. Augus-
tine, in his similitude to this purpose : although these
Jews be desperately blind themselves, yet they carry
those looking-glasses before them, which long since put
out their eyes by their too much gazing on them, so as
now they can hold them only in their hands, or turn
their faces towards them, not able to discern their mis-
shapen visages in them ; but we Gentiles which come

P Rom. xi. 25. <1 Exod. xiii. 9, 14, 16.

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 293

after them, do herein go before them, that we may
clearly see their deformity and hideous blindness, first
caused by the glorious beams of the Divine majesty
shining in these sacred fountains, whilst they used
them (as Narcissus did his well, or little babes do
books with fair pictures) only to solace themselves
with representation of their godly forefathers' beauty,
set out in them in freshest colours ; not as looking-
glasses to discover, much less to reform what was
amiss in themselves, whom they in the pride of their
hearts still presumed to be in all points like their wor-
thy ancestors.

8. If unto all their miseries throughout so many
ages, we add their perpetual stupidity and deadness of
heart to all works of the Spirit ; if to this again we
add their incomparable zeal and courage, in preserving
the letter of the law ; and lay all unto our hearts :
what is it we can imagine the Lord could have done
unto his vineyard, that he hath not done to it ^' f He
hath commanded the clouds not to rain upon the natu-
ral branches, that the abundant fatness of the root
might be wholly communicate to us Gentiles, by nature
wild grafts. He hath laid his vineyard in Israel waste,
and left the hill of Sion, his wonted joy, moi'e desolate
than the moimtains of Gilboah, that the dew of all his 153
heavenly blessings might descend upon the valleys of
the nations. Let us not therefore tempt the Lord
our God, in asking further signs for confirmation of
our faith : for no sign can be given us equivalent to
this desolation of the Jews. Such as the days of Jeru- The desoia.
salem were in her distress, such we know (but how far jews°the^
more grievous, we cannot conceive) the day of judg-™,'**!^^'^*"'
ment shall be ; even a day of wrath, and a day of ven- f'"'

ing Chris-

geance ; an end of days, and an end of comfort; a be- tian faith,
r Esa. V. 4- 6.

u 3

294

Ge7ieral Collections out of the

BOOK I.

ginning of an endless night of sorrow, troubles, woe,
and miseries to the wicked®. Such as the condition of
these Jews hath been, for more than fifteen hundred
years ; such shall the state of unbelievers be without
end, without all rest or security from danger, disgrace,
and torture, ten thousand times more dreadful and in-
sufferable, than what the other at any times have
feared or felt. What else hath been verified of them
as in the type, must be fulfilled in unbelievers, as in
the body or substance. These shall fear both night
and day, and shall have no assurance of their life ; but
in stead thereof, an inevitable perpetuity of most griev-
ous death. In the morning they shall say. Would
God it were evening ; and at evening they shall say,
JVoidd God it were morning; and wish that time
might be no more, or that no days of joy had ever
been ; that all their mirth had been exchanged for sor-
row, even whilst it was first conceived within their
breast, that so no memory of sweet delights or pleasures
past might add gall unto the bitterness of their present
grief, nor minister oil unto that unquenchable flame
wherein they fry. Thus much of God's extraordinary
mercies and judgments towards these Jews, and of the
experiments which their estate from time to time hath
afforded for the establishing of our assent to scrip-
tures.

9. Particular judgments upon any land or people,
as remarkable and perspicuous to common sense, as
heretofore have been, we are not in this age to expect.
The approach of this general and fearful judgment, we
may justly think, doth swallow up the most of them,
as great plagues usually drink up all other diseases.
The conversion of these Jews we may probably expect,
as the chief sign of later times ; only this last part of
s Levit. xxvi. 44.

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 295

Moses' prophecy, Leviticus, chap. xxvi. 44, hath not
been as yet fulfilled, but must be in due time, for so he
saith ; Yet notwithstanding this, (even all the plagues
and curses which he had threatened, and we have seen
fulfilled in these Jews,) when they shall he in the land
of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither
will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to
break my covenant with them : for I am the Lord
their God. But I will remember for them the cove-
nant of old, when I brought them out of the land of
Egypt, that I might be their God : I am the Liord.
And the continuation of their former plagues seemeth
much interrupted, the plagues themselves much miti-
gated, in this last age, (since the gospel hath been
again revealed,) as if their misery were almost expired,
and the day of their redemption drawing nigh. Yet
would I request such as with me hold their general
conversion, before the end of all things, as a truth pro-
bably grounded on God's word ; not to put that evil
day far from them, as if it could not take them un-
awares, until God's promise to this people be accom-
plished. For (were that the point now in hand) 1 154
could, methinks, as probably gather out of scriptures,
that their conversion shall be sudden, as at all ; and
such as many parts of the world shall not so soon hear
of, by authentic reports or uncontrollable relation, as
sensibly see at our general meeting before our Judge.

10. Like experiments might be drawn from the revo-
lutions or alterations of other states, ofttimes wrought
by such causes as are without the reach of policy, but
most consonant to the rules of scriptures ; or from the
verification of such rules, in God's judgments upon
private persons. But these observations cannot be made
so evident to ordinary readers, before the doctrine of
God's providence be unfolded. Wherefore I must refer

U 4

296

General Collections out of the

BOOK I.

A parallel
of the Is-
raelites' ie-
liverance
from Egyp.
tian, and
ours from
Home Ba-
bylonish
thraldom.

them partly to that place, partly to others of my labours,
which have been most plentiful in this argument. Only
that mutation in our deliverance fz-om the servitude of
the Komish church may not be omitted. For if we
compare it with the Israelites' departure out of Egypt,
the manner of God's providence exemplified at large
by Moses in the former, is as a perfect rule to discern
the same 'power in the latter ; and the fresh experiment
of the latter confirms unto our consciences the truth of
the history concerning the former. God from the
spoils of the Egyptians furnished the Israelites with
all things necessary for their journey ; the same God
had revived the study of tongues, and revealed the art
of printing, a little before our forefathers departed out
of Babylon, that they should not come away empty,
but well furnished to wage war with their enemies,
whom they had robbed of their chief jewels, leaving
small store of polite literature, or skill in scriptures
amongst them ; though they have increased their fa-
culties that way since. If we diligently view the dis-
position of God's providence before those times, we
cannot but acknowledge that it was the same power
that first caused light to shine out of darkness, which
then renewed the face of the earth again, and brought
the light of ingenious and sacred literature forth of the
chaos of barbarity, obscurity, and fruitless curiosity,
wherein it had been long enclosed. It is, methinks, a
pleasant contemplation, to observe how the worthies of
the age precedent did bestir themselves in gathering
and dressing armour, not used for many hundred years
before, no man knowing for what purpose, until the
great Commander of heaven and earth gives out his
commission to the captains of his host, for invading
his enemy, the man of sin. Little did that noble, re-
ligious, and learned king Alphonsus, or Laurentius de

CHAP. XXX. particular Histories before mentioned. 297

Medicis, with such like, think of Luther, Zuinglius,
Calvin, Bucer, Melancthon, or other champions' depar-
ture from the Romish church, when they gave such
countenance to polite learning and learned men, from
whom these had their skill : yea, these men themselves,
and their fellows, did little think of such projects, as
God by them after effected, when they first began to
use those weapons by which they finally foiled their
mighty adversaries. Again, we have as it were a
fresh print of God's dealing with Pharaoh, in his like
proceedings against the pope. Pharaoh being delivered
over to the stubbornness of his own heart, had it so
hardened at last, that he desperately loseth both life
and kingdom, whilst he wrangles with the Israelites
for their cattle. The pope's heart likewise was so far
hardened for his former pride, and so strangely besot-
ted with the sweetness of his own cup, that he cannot 155
forego the very dregs, but will have all swallowed down,
even indulgences themselves ; that so the Lord's name
might be glorified in his shameful overthrow. Unless
it had been for such a notorious and palpable blindness
of heart, in retaining that more than heathenish and
idolatrous abomination ; the just causes of Luther's
revolt had not been so manifest to the world, nor
others' departure from the Romish church so general.
All this, as it was the Lord's doing, so ought it to
seem wonderful in our eyes. For in this our deliver-
ance was manifested the selfsame power, wisdom, and
providence, for the steadfast acknowledment of which,
all the former miracles in Egypt had been wrought ;
then necessary to the Israelites, but not to our fore-
fathers, who had believed the truth of Moses' miracles;
instructed by the rules of God's providence in them
manifested, to discern the same infinite power and wis-
dom in their own deliverance : the manner of which

298 Collections out of the forementioned Histories, book i.

was truly miraculous, as Chemnitius * well answered
the papist Jew-like requiring signs or miracles for
Luther's doctrine, which had the same signs to confirm
it, that Christianity itself first had :

Vir sine vi feiiri, vi verln, et inermibus armis,
F'ir sine re, sine spe, contiidit orbis opes.

Sans dint of sword, by strength of word,

And armless harmless pains ;
A wealthless wight, hopeless in sight.

Hath crashed Rome's golden veins.

11. Luther's success was apprehended by the worldly-
wise men of those times as impossible, as the predic-
tions of Pharaoh's overthrow by Moses would have
been to such in that age as knew not the will or power
of God. And Albertus Krantzius*, a man as of an
excellent spirit, so of far greater place and authority
in Germany than Luther was, and one, that from as
earnest detestation of the Romish church's pride and
insolences, notified as great a desire of reformation as
Luther had ; yet thought he should but have lost his

s Interim si pontificii omnino quod tandem videret papae au-

cum Judseis signum habere ve- thoritatem, quousqiie processis-

lint, accipiant hoc, quod nos set, et diflideret, ne unus homo

summi miraculi loco habemus, tanto negotio ])ar esset, de seipso

Tinicum viruni eumque miserum spem abjecit, et optavit, ut om-

monachum, absque omni mun- nes docti viri conjunctis studiis

dana vi, Romanorum pontificum papam in ordinem redigerent.

tyrannidem, qure tot secuHs non Idem dixit, quum paulo ante

tantum potentissimis regibus.sed mortem, infirmus, Lutheri pro-

et toti orbi formidabilis fuit, op- positiones de indulgentiis vidis-

pugnasse, prostravisse superasse, set, Lutherum in bonam causam

juxta elegantissimos versiculos : ingressum esse, sed unius ho-

Harmon. Evangel, cap. 5. muncionis vires nihil valere ad

t Dolebat sanctissimo viro non tantam pontificis potentiam in-

soluni vitam eorum, qiiibus reli- fringendam, quae nimium invalu-

g-ionis confessio mandata erat, isset. Et lecti et approbatis pro-

nefariis sceleribus inquinari, sed positionibus Lutheri, exclamasse

serpere etiam in religionem max- fertur, Frater, &c. Johan.Wolf.

imos errores. Ideo de illis ever- in praefat. ad Krantzii opera,
tendis plurimum laborabat : sed

CHAP. XXX. Of Experiments in Ourselves, ^c.

299

labour in oppugning that greatness whereto it was
grown. The same bishop, a little before his death
being made acquainted with Luther's purpose, after
approbation of his good intents to reform the abuse of
indulgences, burst out into these despairing speeches
of his good success : Frater, f rater , obi in cellam, et
die ; Miserere mei, Deus. " Brother, brother, get
into thy cell, and take up a psalm of mercy."

12. Would God the incredulity and careless carriage
of the Israelites after their mighty deliverance, had not
been too lively represented by the like in most reformed 15Q
churches. When that generation was gathered to
their fathers, would God another had not risen after
them, which neither knew the Lord, nor the worJcs
which he had done for Israel, Judg. ii. 10 ; a genera-
tion as much addicted unto sacrilege, as abhorring idols,
Rom. ii. 22 ; dishonouring God by polluting that law
of liberty wherein they gloried.

Lib. I. Sect. IV. Pars II.

Of Experiments in ourselves, and the right framing of Be-
lief, as well unto the several Parts, as unto the whole
Canon of Scriptures.

Though these we now treat of be the surest pledges
of Divine truths, without which all observations of
former experiments are but like assurances well drawn
but never sealed ; yet are they least of all communica-
ble unto others. He that hath tried them may rejoice
in them, as of that good treasure hid in the field, which
he that hath found can be content to sell all that he
hath, and buy the field wherein it is ; that is, (to mo-
ralize that parable for good students' use,) he can be
content to addict himself wholly or principally unto
this study, suffering others to discourse of such mat-
ters as they most delight and glory in ; sealing his own

300 Facility and Use of the proposed Method, ^c. book i.

mouth with that Hebrew proverb, Secretum meum
mihi. It shall suffice, then, to set down some general
admonitions for the finding of this hidden manna :
albeit thus much cannot be so well performed in this
place, seeing the search hereof is not so easy or certain
without the doctrine of God's providence ; and the
matter or subject of the most or best experiments in
this kind belong unto particular articles of this creed,
to be prosecuted in their proper place, according to the
method used in these general introductions, by com-
paring Divine oracles with the experiments answerable
unto them.

157 CHAP. XXXI.

Shewing the Facility and Use of the proposed Method by
Instance in some, whose Belief unto Divine Oracles hath
been confirmed by Experiments ansiverable unto them.

1. The method is such as the simplest Christian
may easily learn, and the greatest professors need not
St. Peter's to coutemn. For St. Peter himself, that great doctor
known ora- of the circumcisiou, did profit much by this practice,
firmerby oftcu heard, that God was no accepter of per-

experiment. gojis_ fhjg truth was acknowledged by Elihu, who
had never heard nor read the written law of God : He
acceptetk not the person of princes, and regardetli not
the rich more than the poor: for they he all the work
of his hands^. The like hath the Wise Man from the
same reason : He that is Lord over all will spare no
person, neither shall he fear any greatness : for he
hath made the small and great, and careth for all
alike^. The same in substance is often repeated in the
Book of Life : and no man could deny it, that had
heard it but once proposed, if he did acknowledge God
for the Creator of all. Notwithstanding the fresh ex-
periment of God's calling Cornelius to Christian faith,

" Job xxxiv. 19. " Wisd. vi. 7.

CHAP. XXXI. Facility and Use of the projjosed Method. 301

confirmed St. Peter in the right belief of Divine oracles
to this effect : and as it seems, taught him the true
meaning of that place, Deut. x. 16 : Circumcise there-
Jbre the foreskin of your heart, (as if he had said,
Glory not in the circumcision of the flesh,) ayid harden
your nechs no more. For the Lord your God is God
of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, mighty, and
terrible, which accepteth no persons. From this place
alone the proud Jews might have learned, that the
Lord was God of the Gentiles as well as of them ; and
from the abundance of his inward faith, enlarged by
the foreinentioned experiment, St. Peter burst out into
these speeches : Of a truth I 2i^rceive that God is no
accepter of persons : but in every nation he that fear-
eth him is accepted with him^.

2. The same method the Lord himself hath com-
mended unto us in many places of scripture, wondering
ofttimes at the dulness of his people's hearts, that
could not from the experiments of his power, might,
and majesty, shewed in them, or for them, acknowledge
those principles of faith which Moses commended unto
them in writing: O, saith he, that they ivere wise,
then would they understaiid this ; they would consider
their latter end ! How should one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight, except their strong
God had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up f
And again. Behold now, for I am he, and there is no
gods with me^. Why should they believe this? They
were to take none for gods, but such as could do the
works of God. What were these ? Such as God avouch-
eth of himself in the next word : / hill, and I give
life; I wound, and I make whole: neither is there
any that cati deliver out of my hand. These, and like
effects, specified in the former place, often manifested
> Acts X. 34. ^ Deut. xxxii. 29, 30. 39.

302 Facility and Use of t lie proposed Method. book i.

amongst this people, might have taught them the truth
Naaraan of the former oracle, albeit Moses had been silent. For
written* ^^^^o the finger of God, manifested in Naaman the Syrian
Ksp^riment g^^eral's cure, (which was but one part of the former
confinned effccts appropriated unto God.) did write this Divine

in the truth i x i

of what was oracle as distinctly in his heart, as Moses had done it in
the word" the book of the law. For after he was cleansed (from
i^^his leprosy), he turned again to the man of God, he
and all his company, and came and stood before him ;
and said. Behold, now I know there is no God in
all the world, but in Israel^. And again, lliy ser-
vant will henceforth offer neither burnt sacrifice nor
offering unto any other God, save unto the Lord^.
This was as much as if he had said. Behold now, for
the Lord is he, and there is no other God with him :
he woundeth, and he maketh whole ^.

3. If the cure of leprosy, contrary to human expec-
tation, could so distinctly write this Divine oracle in
an uncircumcised Aramite's heart, without any pattern
or written copy, whence to take it out ; how much
more may the Lord expect, that the like experiments
in ourselves should imprint his oracles already written,
by Moses and other his servants of old, in our hearts
and consciences, that have these patterns of Naaman
and others registered to our hands, admonishing us to
be observant in this kind ! But alas ! we are all by
nature sick of a more dangerous leprosy than Naaman
knew ; and yet the most of us far sicker of Naaman's
pride than of his leprosy. If God's ministers shall
admonish the curious artists or Athenian wits of our
times, as Elisha his prophet did Naaman ; they reply
with Naaman in their hearts ; "We looked they should
have called upon the name of the Lord their God, and
made us new men in an instant : and now they bid us
* 2 Kings V. 15. b Ver. 17.

CHAP. XXXI. Facility and Use of the proposed Method. 303

wash ourselves again and again in the water of life,
and be clean. Are not the ancient fountains of Greece,
(that nurse of arts, and mother of eloquence,) and the
pleasant rivers of Italy, (the school of delicate modern
wits,) better than all the waters of Israel ? Are not
TuUy and Aristotle as learned as Moses and the pro-
phets ?" Thus they depart from us in displeasure.

4, But if the Lord should command us greater things
for our temporal preferment, or for the avoidance of
corporal death or torture, would we not do them ?
How much rather then, when he saith unto us. Wash
yourselves often in the holy fountain, the well of life,
and ye shall be clean, even from those sores which
otherwise will torment both body and soul eternally !
Yea, but many read the scriptures again and again,
and daily hear the word preached publicly, and yet
prove no purer in life and action than their neigh-
bours. The reason is, because they hear or read them
negligently ; not comparing their rules with experi-
ments daily incident to their course of life : their pre-
paration and resolution are not proportionable to the
weight and consequence of this sacred business ; their
industry and alacrity in observing and practising the
prescripts commended to their meditations by their pas-
tors, do in no wise so far exceed their care and dili-
gence in worldly matters, as the dignity of these hea-
venly mysteries surpasseth the pleasures or commodi-
ties of this brickie earthly life : and not thus prepared
to hear or read the scriptures, to hear is to contemn ;
to read is to profane them : even the often repetition
of the words of life, without due reverence and atten-
tion, breeds an insensibility or deadness in men's souls.
Yet should not such men's want of sense breed infi-
delity in others : rather this experience of so much
hearing, and little doing God's will, may confirm the

304) Facility and Use of the proposed Method. book i.

Better ef-
fects of ex
periments
less won-
derful in
Anna.

truth of his word concerning such teachers and hear-
159 ers: many in our times, not monks and friars only,
but of their stern opposites not a few, having a show
of godliness, hut denying the power thereof', crept into
houses, and led captive simple women, laden with
sins, and led with divers lusts, ever hearing and
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth
And as the philosopher said of his moral auditors' in-
docility, that it skilled not whether he were young or
of youthful affections ; so it is not the difference of sex
but resolution, that makes a good scholar or non-pro-
ficient in the school of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Many
men have weak and womanish, and many women,
manly and heroic resolutions, towards God and godli-
ness.

5. The infirmity which vexed the religious Hannah
was not so grievous as that of Naainan : she was in
our corrupt language, as many honest women at this
day are, by nature barren ; or, if we would speak as
the prophet did in the right language of Canaan, the
Lord had made her barren : weary she was of her
own, and, according to the ordinary course of nature,
she saw no hope of being the author of life to others.
Yet in this her distress she prayed unto the Lord her
God, and he granted her desire. From this experiment
of God's power, though not altogether so remarkable
in ordinary estimation as Naaman's cure, she fully
conceives not only the truth of the former oracle, ac-
knowledged by Naaman, (but more emphatically ex-
pressed by her, There is none holy as the Lord ; yea,
there is none besides thee : atid there is no god like
our God*^,) nor that other attribute only of wounding
or making whole, (so lively uttered, ver. 6 : The Lord
Jcilleth, and maketh alive ; hringeth down to the grave.

c 2 Tim. iii. 5 — 7.

^ I Sam. ii. 2.

CHAP. XXXI. Facility and Use of the projwsed Method. 305

and raiseth up,) but God's word, planted in her heart by
her fresh experience, grows up like a grain of mustard
seed, and brancheth itself into a faithful acknowledg-
ment of most of his attributes : the Lord is a God
of knowledge, and hy him entei'prises are estahlished.
The bow and the mighty men are hroJcen, and the
weak have girded themselves with strength. They
that were full are hired forth for hread ; and the
hungry are no more hired : so that the barren hath
borne seven ; and she that hath borne many children
is feeble. The Lord maheth poor, and maketh rich :
bringeth low, and exalteth. He raiseth up the poor
out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the
dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them
inherit the seat of glory : for the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them.
He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked
shall be silent in darkness ; for in his own might shall
no man he strong. Nor doth it contain itself within the
bounds of ordinary belief, but works in her heart like new
wine, filling it not only with songs of joy and triumph
over her envious enemies ; Mitie heart rejoiceth in the
Lord, my mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because
I rejoice in thy salvation : but also with the Divine
spirit of prophecy ^ ; The Lord s adversaries shall be
destroyed; and out of heaven shall he thunder upon
them : the Lord shall judge the ends of the world ;
and shall give power unto his king, and exalt the
horn of his anointed. Ver. 10.

6. The like docility was in the blessed Virgin, of Different
whom perhaps Harmah was the type : both of them onlike ex-
verified that saying, Verbum sapienti sat est ; one ex- •j^'jl",*^"^'^
periment taught them more than five hundred would I'ai ties,witii

their causes

e De prophetia HaniiBe, vide Augustinum, lib. 17. De Civ. Dei,
c. 4.

.TACK.SON, VOL. I. X

306 Facility and Use of the jrroposed Method. book i.

do most of us : the reason was, because their hearts
were so much better prepared. For, as heat in some
160 bodies, by reason of the indisposition of the matter,
causeth heat and nothing else ; in some scarce that ;
in others brings forth life, and fashioneth all the or-
gans and instruments thereof : so experiments of God's
power, in some men's hearts, breed only a persuasion
of his might or operation in that particular, as in those
foolish Aramites^, who, vanquished in battle by the
Israelites, whom he favoured, questioned %vhether he
were a God as well of the valleys as of tlie mountains ;
in others, the same or less apprehension of his power
or presence, begetteth life, and fashioneth this image
in their hearts, which thence will shew itself unto
others in such ample and entire confession of his attri-
butes, as Hannah and the blessed Virgin uttered. Some
again are so ill disposed and indocile, that the whole
moral law of God might sooner be engraven in hardest
marble or flint, than any one precept imprinted in
their hearts by such wonderful documents of his power,
as would teach the godly in an instant both the Law
and Prophets. Imagine some men in our days had
been cured by like means of such a malady as Naa-
man was ; or some women blessed from above with
fruit of their wombs, after so long sterility as Hannah
endured. Who could expect that one of ten in either
sex should return to give like thanks to God, in the
presence of his priests or prophets ? Were Elisha now
living, he must be wary to work his cure by his bare
word ; (and so perhaps he should be censured for a
sorcerer;) in any case, he might not use the waters of
Jordan, or other like second causes : otherwise curious
wits would find out some hidden or secret virtue caused
in them (at least for the time being) by some unusual
f 1 Kings XX. 23.

CHAP. XXXI. Facility and Use of the. proposed Method. 307

but benign aspect of some planet or constellation, in
whose right they should be entitled either full owners
or copartners of that glory, which Naanian ascribed
wholly unto God. And poor Hannah, in this politic
age, should not be so inuch praised for her devotion or
good skill in Divine poesy, as pitied for a good, honest,
well meaning silly soul, that did attribute more to
God than was his due, upon ignorance of alterations
wrought in her body by natural causes. For it is not
the custom of our times to mark so much the ordering
or disposition, as the particular or present operation of
such agents. If any thing fall out amiss, we bid a
plague upon ill fortune, or curse mischance : if aught
aright, we applaud our own or others' wits that have
been employed in the business, or perhaps thank God
for fashion sake, that we had good luck. He is to us,
in our good success, as a friend that lives far off ; who,
we presume, wisheth well to such projects as he knows
in general we are about, being unacquainted with the
particular means that must effect them, or no principal
agent in their contrivance. Hence do I not marvel,
(though many do,) if such men in our times as reap
the fruits of the fields which God hath blest, in greatest
abundance, make no conscience of returning the tenth
part to him that gave the whole ; wlien as not one of
a thousand, either in heart or deed, or out of any dis-
tinct or clear apprehension of his power or efficacy, or
true resolution of all effects into the first fountain
whence they flow, doth attribute so much as the tenth,
nay as the hundredth part, to God's doing in any event,
wherein the industry of man or operation of second
causes are apparent. We speak like Christians of mat-
ters past, recorded in scripture; but in our discourses
of modern affairs, our paganisms and more than hea-
thenish solecisms, bewray the infidelity of our thoughts 161

X 2

308 Facility and Use of the proposed Method, book i.

and resolutions. And albeit we all disclaim Manes'
heresy, that held one creator of the matter, and another
of more pure and better substances ; yet are we infect-
ed, for the most part, with a spice of his madness, iu
making material agents the authors of some effects,
and the Divine power, of others. Nor can I herein
excuse the school-divines themselves, ancient or mo-
dern, domestic or foreign ; the best of them (in my
judgment) either greatly erred in assigning the subor-
dination of second causes to the first ; or else are much
defective, in deriving their actions or operations imme-
diately from him, who is the first and last in every ac-
tion that is not evil, the only cause of all good unto men ;
as shall appear (God willing) in the article of his pro-
vidence, and some other treatises pertinent unto it,
wherein I shall, by his assistance, make good these
two assertions : the one, that modern events, and dis-
positions of present times, are as apt to confirm men's
faith now living, as the miracles of former would be,
were they now in use, or as they were to instruct that
age whex'ein they were wrought ; the second, that the
infidelity of such in this age, as are strongly persuaded
they love Christ with their heart, and yet give no more
than most men do unto his Father's providence, may be
greater than theirs that never heard of either, or equal
unto the Jews' that did persecute him.
General di- 7. Until the article of the Divine providence, and that
the right other of the Godhead be unfolded, these general direc-
^^ri? °^ tions for experiments in this kind must suffice. First,
mentsin ^^^^ every man diligently observe his course of life,

ourselves. j o j

and survey the circumstances precedent or consequent
to every action of greater importance that he under-
takes, or events of moment that befall him. Secondly,
that he search whether the whole frame or composition
of occurrents be not such, as cannot be attributed to

CHAP. XXXI. Facility and Use of the proposed Method. 309

any natural, but unto some secret and invisible cause ;
or whether some cause or occasions precedent be not
such, as the scripture hath already allotted the like
events unto. Would men apply their minds unto this
study, experience would teach them, (what from enu-
meration of particulars may be proved by discourse,)
" that there is no estate on earth, nor business in
Christendom this day on foot, but have a ruled cause
in scripture for their issue and success." Nor is there
any prescript of our Saviour, his evangelists or apo-
stles, but his people might have a 'prohatum of it,
either in themselves or others ; so they would refer
themselves wholly into his hands, and rely as fully
upon his prescripts, as becomes such distressed patients
upon so admirable a Physician.

8. But many who like well of Christ for theirThe causes
Physician, loathe his medicines for the ministers hisman/'in
apothecaries sake, and say of us, as Nathanael said of 1"^^^^
him ; Can there any good thing come from these
Galileans'? They will not with Nathanael come near tiie tmth of

II i/'Aji y • f • • y D'vine ora-

and see, but keep aloor. And what marvel, it spiritualties,
diseases abound, where there be spiritual medicines
plenty, when the flock, be they never so soul-sick,
come only in such sort to their pastors, as if a sick man
should go to a physic-lecture for the recovery of his
health, where the professor, it may be, reads learnedly
of the nature of consumptions, when the patient is
desperately sick of a pleurisy ; or discourses accurately
of the plethora or athletical constitution, when his
auditor (poor sool) languisheth of an atrophy ? Most
are ashamed to consult us (as good patients in bodily
maladies always do their physicians) in any particu-
lars concerning the nature of their peculiar griefs: 162
so as we can apply no medicine to any but what may
as well befit every disease. Whereas, were we through-

X 3

310 Facility and Use of the proposed Method. book i.

ly acquainted with their several maladies, or the dis-
positions of their minds, the prescript might be such,
or so applied, as every man might think the medicine
had been made of purpose for his soul ; and, finding his
secret thoughts with the original causes of his malady
discovered, the crisis truly prognosticated, he could not
but acknowledge, that he who gave this prescript, and
taught this art, did search the very secrets of men's
hearts and reins, and knew the inward temper of his
soul, better than Hippocrates or Galen did the consti-
tution of men's bodies. Finally, would men learn to
be true patients, that is, would they take up Christ's
yoke, and become humble and meek, and observe but
for a while such a gentle and moderate diet, as from
our Saviour's practice and doctrine might be prescribed
by their spiritual physicians upon better notice of their
several dispositions, they would in short time, out of
their inward experience of that uncouth rest and ease,
which by thus doing their souls should find, believe
with their hearts, and with their mouths confess, that
these were rules of life, which could not possibly have
come from any other, but from that Divine i1E,sculapius
himself, the only Son, yea the wisdom of the only wise,
invisible, and immortal God. The more unlikely the
means of recovering spiritual health may seem to natu-
ral reason, befoi'e men try them, the more forcible
would their good success and issue be, for establishing
true and lively faith. But such as can, from these or
like experiments, subscribe unto main particular truths
contained in scripture, and acknowledge them as Di-
vine, may be uncertain of their number or extent;
doubt they may of the number of books wherein the like
are to be sought : and again, in those books which are
acknowledged to contain many Divine revelations and
dictates of the Holy Spirit, they may doubt whether

CHAP. XXXII. Brief Resolution of Dotihts, &(c. 311

many other prescripts, neither of like use nor author-
ity, have not been inserted by men.

CHAP. XXXII. 1

Containi7ig a brief Resolution of Doubts concerning the Ex-
tent of the general Canon, or the number of its integral
Parts.

1. The full resolution of the former doubt, or ra-
ther controversy, concerning the number of canonical
books, exceeds the limits of this present treatise, and
depends as much as any question this day controversed,
upon the testimonies of antiquity. The order of Jesuits
shall be confoimded, and Reynolds raised to life again,
ere his learned vv^orks, lately come forth upon this argu-
ment, (albeit unfinished to his mind, whilst he was
living,) be confuted by the Romanists : or, if any of
the Jesuitish society, or that other late upstart congre-
gation, will be so desperate as to adventure their ho-
nour in Bellarmine, or other of their foiled champions'
rescue, they shall be expected in the lists before they be
prepared to entertain the challenge, by one of that
deceased worthy's shield-bearers in his lifetime : whose
judgment in all good learning I know for sound ; his
observation in this kind, choice; his industry great;
his resolution to encounter all antagonists, such as will
not relent. For satisfaction of the ordinary reader, I
briefly answer,

2. First, that this is no controversy of faith, nor
need it to trouble any Christian man's conscience, that
we and the papists differ about the authority of some
books ; it rather ought to confirm his faith, that men
disagreeing so much in many opinions, so opposite in
their affections, should so well agree about the number
of no fewer than two and twenty canonical books of

X 4

312 Brief Resolution of Doubts concerning book i.

the Old Testament. Had their authority only been
human, or left to the choice of men, whether they
should be allowed or rejected, many that now admit
them would reject them, because opposite religions did
embrace them. That all sorts of protestants, papists,
and ^Jews do receive them, is an infallible argument
that he who is Lord of all did commend them to
all. Nor doth our church so disclaim all which the
Romans above these two and twenty admit, as if it
were a point of faith to hold there were no more : it
only admits no more into the same rank and order
with the former, because we have no such warrant of
faith, or sure experiments so to do. Many of them
discover themselves to be apocryphal : and albeit some
of them can very hardly, or not at all, be discerned for
such by their style, character, or dissonancy to canon-
ical scriptures ; yet, that none of them indeed are or
can be admitted for canonical, without manifest tempt-
ing of God, :s evident from what hath been observed
before, concerning God's unspeakable providence in
making the blinded and perfidious Jews (Christ's and
our bitterest enemies) such trusty feoffees for mak-
ing over the assurances of life unto us. For seeing
by them he commended unto us only so many books
of the Old Testament as our church acknowledgeth ;
164 this is an infallible argument that his will was, we
should admit no more : had any more been written,
before the reedifying of the temple by Zerubbabel, no
doubt the Jews would have admitted them into their

g The testimonies of the an- canonical than our church doth ;

cient Israelites and modern Jews did it only ujion this error, that

for the canon of the Old Testa- they thought there had been

nient is most authentic. For more in the canon of the Hebrew,

even tliose ancient Fathers which upon whose testimonies they

our adversaries allege to ac- relied ; as will be made clear

knov\'ledge some more books for against the papists.

CHAP. XXXII. the Extent of the g-eneral Canon.

313

canon. For all such as should be written after, the
prophet Malachi, who is the last of their canon, hath
left this caveat in the last words of his prophecy for
not admitting them ; Remember the law of Moses my
servant, ivhicli I commanded to him in Horeh, in all
Israel, with the statutes and judgments : as if he had
said, You must content yourselves with his writings,
and such as you have already, consonant to his ; for
any others of equal authority you may not expect,
until the expectation of the Gentiles come. For no
prophet shall arise until that time, as he intimates in
the last words, Behold I will send you Elijah the
prophet, before the coming of the great and fearful
day of the Lord : and he shall turn the hearts of the
fathers unto the children, and the hearts of the chil-
dren to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth
with cursing. The ministry of others for converting
souls, he supposed should be but ordinary, by the
exposition of the Law and Prophets : and the authority
of such (writ they as much as they listed) could not be
authentic or canonical.

3. Some others again of reformed churches in these
our times, have from the example of antiquity doubted
of the authority of some books in the New Testament;
as of 'Jude, of James, the Second of Peter, and some

^ Consonant hereto is that^ John no prophet was to be ex-
Matt, xi. 1 3. Lex et prophetae pected, but Moses' law (illus-
ad Johannem, &:c. ; that is, trated by events recorded in his-
their writings were the complete tories and prophetical comnien-
rule of faith, and infallible means taries till Malachi's lime inclu-
of salvation until John. Yet can sive) was to be the immediate
it not be proved, that any book medium for discerning the great
held by our church for apocryphalj prophet. See lib. 2. c. 17. numb,
is contained either under the Law 3. et 4. et 1. i. c. 17.
or Prophets, as the historical * The Divine authority of
books of the Hebrew canon are. some books in the New Testa-
Evident it is, that the books of ment, especially the Apocalypse,
Judith and Jlaccabees were since doubted of by the ancient, brought
Malachi's time : from whom till to light in later times.

31 4 Brief Resolution of Doubts concerning book i.

others. Which doubt is now diminished by their con-
tinuance in the sacred canon so long time, not without
manifest documents of God s providence in preserving
them, whose pleasure (it may seem) was to have these
books, of whom the ancients most doubted, fenced, and
guarded on the one side, by St. Paul's Epistles, and
other canonical scriptures, (never called in question
by any, but absurd and foolish heretics, whose humour-
ous opinions herein died with themselves ;) and on the
other, by the book of the Apocalypse ; of whose author-
ity though many of the ancients, for the time being,
doubted, yet he that was before all times did foresee,
that it should in later times manifest itself to be his
work, by events answerable to the prophecies contained
in it. And albeit many apocryphal books have been
stamped with Divine titles, and obtruded upon the
church as canonical, whilst she was in her infancy, and
the sacred canon newly constitute ; yet the Divine
Spirit, by which it was written, hath wrought them out,
as new wine doth such filth or grossness as mingles with
it whilst the grapes are trodden. St. John's adjuration
in the conclusion of that book hath not only terrified
all for adding unto, or diminishing itself ; but hath
been, as it were, a seal unto the rest of this sacred vo-
lume of the New Testament, as Malachi's prophecy was
to the Old ; the whole canon itself, consisting both of
the Old and Xew, continues still as the ark of God,
and all other counterfeits as Dagon.
165 4. Were not our Roman adversaries' doctrine con-
cerning the general principles of faith, an invention
devised of purpose by Satan to obliterate all print or
impression of God's providence in governing his church,
out of men's hearts; how were it possible for any man
endued with reason, to be so far overgrown with phren-
sy, as not to conceive their own folly and madness, in

CHAP. XXXII. the Extent of the general Canon.

315

avouching we cannot know what books are canonical,
what not, but by the infallible testimony of the present
Rornish chui'ch. But of those impieties at large here-
after. I will now only infer part of their conclusion,
which they still labour, but never shall be able to prove,
from premises which they never dreamt of. For lAiTierein
profess among others, this is not the least reason 1 mony of
have to hold the Apocalypse for canonical scripture, ghfirchT^^
because the Romish church doth so esteem it. Nor

some canon-
could reformed churches' belief of its authority be so jcai books

is most

strong, unless that church had not denied, but openly available,
acknowledged it for canonical scripture. As the same
beams of the sun reach from heaven to earth, and
from one end of the world to another ; so do the same
rays of God's power extend themselves from genera-
tion to generation, always alike conspicuous to such as
are illuminate by his Spirit : for who, thus illuminate,
can acknowledge his pi-ovidence in making the Jews
so careful to preserve the Old Testament, and not as
clearly discern the same in constraining the Romish
church to give her supposed infallible testimony of the
Apocalypse ? Doubtless, if that book had been the
work of man, it had been more violently used by that
church of late, than ever the New Testament hath been
by the Jewish synagogue, or any heretic by the Ro-
manists, seeing it hath said far more against them,
than any whom they account for such ever did. But
God, who made Pharaoh's daughter a second mother
unto Moses, whom he had appointed to bring destruc-
tion afterwards upon her father's house and kingdom,
hath made the Romish church of old a dry nurse to
preserve this book, (whose meaning she knew not,) that
it might bring desolation upon herself and her children
in time to come. For by the breath of the Lord shall
she be destroyed ; her doom is already read by St. John,

316 Brief Resolution of Doubts Sjc. book i.

and the Lord of late hath entangled her in her own
snare, whilst she was drawing it to catch others. Her
children's brags of their mother's infallibility, where-
with they hale most silly souls to them, were too far
spread before the Trent council, too commodious to be
called in on a sudden. Had they then begun to deny
the authority of this book, (though then pronouncing
their mother's woe more openly than any prophecies
of old had done the ensuing desolations of the Jews,)
every child could have caught hold on this string, that
this church, (as they suppose,) always the same, never
obnoxious to any error, had in former time acknow-
ledged it for authentic and Divine : albeit no question
but many of them since have wished from their hearts
that their forefathers had used the same as Seraiah
did Jeremiah's books, which he wrote against Babylon,
Jer. li., that both it and all memory of it had been
drowned in the bottom of the deepest sea, and a mill-
stone thrown upon it by God's angel, that it never
might rise up again to interrupt their whorish mother's
beastly pleasures, by discovering her filthy nakedness
166 daily more and more. For conclusion of this point for
this present : that this and other canonical books had
been long preserved, or rather imprisoned by the Romish
church in darkness and ignorance, until the Almighty
gave his voice, and caused them to speak in every
tongue, throughout these parts of the world ; doth no
more argue her to have been the true and catholic
church, than Moses' education in Pharaoh's court, dur-
ing the time of his infancy or nonage, doth argue the
Egyptian courtiers to have been God's chosen people.

CHAP. XXXIII. Brief Direction for resolving Doubts, S^c. 317

CHAP. XXXIII.

A brief Direction for preventing Scruples and resolving
Doubts, concerning particular Sentences or Passages in
the Canon of Scripture.

Unto the second demand, How we know this or
that sentence in any book of canonical scripture, to
have been from God, not inserted by man ? some per-
haps would say, This must be known by the Spirit.
Which indeed is the briefest answer that can be given:
but such as would require a long apology for its truth,
or at least a large explication in what sense it were
true, if any man durst be so bold as to reply upon it.
Consequently to our former principles, we may an- How our
swer, That our full and undoubted assent unto someto"!.me™'
principal parts doth bind us unto the whole frame ofJ^'^gP^''^.^
scriptures. But you will say, We believe such special''^".'''''

, sciiptures,

parts from undoubted experience of their truth in ourtiethour
hearts, and without this our belief of them could not their whole
be so steadfast: how then shall we steadfastly believe*'^'"'"'
those parts, of whose Divine truth we have no such
experiments ? for of every sentence in scripture, we
suppose few or none can have any : yet even unto
those parts whereof we have no experiments in parti-
cular, we do adhere by our former faith, because our
souls and consciences are as it were tied and fastened
unto other parts wherewith they are conjoined, as the
pinning and nailing of two plain bodies in some few
parts, doth make them stick close together in all, so as
the one cannot be pulled from the other in any part,
whilst their fastening holds. It will be replied. That
this similitude would hold together, if one part of ca-
nonical scripture were so firmly or naturally united
to another, as the diverse portions of one and the same
continuate or solid body are : but seeing it is evident

I

318 Brief Direction for resolving Doubts, &)C. book i-

that so they are not, who can warrant the contrary,
but that a sentence or period, perhaps a whole page,
might have been foisted into the canon by some scribe
or other ? Here we must retire unto our first hold, or
principles of faith. For if we steadfastly believe from
experiments or otherwise, that some principal parts of
scripture have come from God, and that the same are
sure pledges for man's good, the only means of his
salvation : this doctrine or experience of God's pro-
vidence once fully established, will establish our faith
and assent unto other parts of his word, whereof
167 (should we take them alone) we could have no such
experiments. For he that knoweth God or his pro-
vidence aright, knows this withal, that he will not
suffer us to be tempted above our strength. And once
having had experience of his mercies past, we cannot,
without injury to his Divine Majesty, but in confidence
of it, believe and hope, that his all-seeing wisdom and
almighty power will still (maugre the spite of death, hell,
Satan, and their agents) preserve his sacred word sin-
cere, without admixture of any profane, false, or human
inventions that might overthrow or pervert our faith
begun. Hereto we may refer all former documents of
his care and providence in preserving the canon of our
faith from the tyranny of such as sought utterly to
deface it ; and the treachery of others, who sought to
corrupt it. And it ought to be no little motive unto
us thus to think, when M-e see Austin, Gregory, and
other of the ancient vA^iters, either maimed, or man-
gled, or purged of their best blood, where they make
against the Romish church ; or else her untruths fa-
thered upon them by her shameless sons, in places
where they are silent for her : and yet this sacred
volume untouched and uncorrupt by any violence of-
fered to it by that church ; only it hath lost its natural

CHAP. XXXIV. Some brief Admonitions to the Reader. 319

beauty and complexion by long durance in that homely
and vulgar prison, whereunto they have confined it.

2. But as fi'oni these and like documents of God's
care and providence in preserving it, and of his love
and favour towards us, we conceive faith and sure
hope, that he will not suffer us to be tempted with
doubts of this nature above our strength : so must we
be as far from tempting him, by these or like unneces-
sary, unseasonable, curious demands. How should we
know this or that clause or sentence (if we should find
them alone) to be God's word ? Why might not an
heretic of malice have forged, or a scribe through neg-
ligence altered them ? It should suffice that they
have been commended to us not alone, but accompanied
with such oracles as we have already entertained for
Divine. And if any doubt shall happen to arise, we
must rely upon that oracle, of whose truth every true
Christian hath, and all that would be such may have,
sure trial. Deus cum tentatione simul vires dabit :
" God with the temptation M'ill give issue ;" yea, joyful
issue to such temptations as he suffers to be suggested
by others, not unto such as we thrust ourselves into
by our needless curiosity. When we are called unto
the search of truth by Satan or his instruments' objec-
tions against it, the Lord will give us better reasons
for our own or others' satisfactions, than yet we know
of, or should be able to find, but by the conduct of his
untempted providence.

CHAP. XXXIV. 168

Concluding the First Book with some brief Admonition to
the Reader.

1. To conclude this treatise as it was begun. The
greater the reward proposed to the faithful practice, or
the punishment threatened to the neglect of these Di- '

320 Some brief Admoyiitions to the Reader. book i.

vine oracles ; the greater is the madness of many men
in our time, who in contemplative studies, whose prin-
cipal end is delight, can undergo long toil and great
pains, never attaining to exact knowledge but by be-
lieving their instructors, and taking many theorems and
conclusions upon trust, before they can make infallible
trial of their truth : and yet in matters of their salva-
tion, which cannot be exactly known, but only believed
in this life, and whose belief must be got by practice,
not by discourse, demand evidence of truth, and infal-
lible demonstration, before they will vouchsafe to be-
lieve or adventure their pains on their practice ; and
finally, so demean themselves in speech and resolution,
as if God Almighty should think himself highly graced,
and our Saviour, his Son, much beholden to them, that
they should deign to be his scholars, sooner than Ma-
homet's or Machiavel's. But we that are his messen-
gers must not debase his word, nor disparage our call-
ing, by wooing them upon such terms, or professing
to shew them the truth before they be willing to learn
it : one first principle whereof is this, that such as
will seek may find starting holes enough to run out of
Christ's fold, and escape his mercies proffered in his
church. And as many reasons are daily brought, suf-
ficient to persuade a right disposed understanding of
the truth of scriptures ; so no argument can be found
of force enough to convince a froward will, or persuade
perverse affections. These are they which make a
many altogether uncapable of any moral, most of all
of any Divine truth ; and must be laid aside at the
first entrance into the school of Christ, and continually
kept under by the rod of his judgments, and terrors of
that dreadful day. Unto such as account these conse-
quences less dreadful, or their dread less probable, than
that they should (for a time at least) lay aside all per-

CHAP. XXXIV. Some brief Admonition to the Reader. 321

versity of will or humour of contradiction, to make
sure trial of those Divine oracles for their good ; we
can apply no other medicine but that of St. John : He
that is filthy, let him he filthy still, Rev. xxii. 11.

2. Thus much of general inducements to belief. In
the observation and use of all these and others of what
kind soever, we must implore the assistance of God's
Spirit, who only worketh true and lively faith, but
(ordinarily) by these or like means. These scriptures
are as the rule or method prescribing us our diet and
order of life ; these experiments joined with it are as
nutriment ; and the Spirit of God digesteth all to our
health and strength. Without it, all other means or
matters, of best observation, are but as good meat to
weak or corrupt stomachs : with it, every experiment
of our own or others' estate, taken according to the
rules of scriptvu'e, doth nourish and strengthen faith,
and preserve our spiritual health. Many in our days
uncessantly blame their brethren's backwardness to
entertain the Spirit, or rely upon it only; being more 169
blameworthy themselves for being too forward in be-
lieving every spirit, and seeking to discern** canonical
from apocryphal scriptures by the Spirit, and again to
try true from false spirits by the scriptures, without
serious observation and settled examination of experi-
ments answerable unto sacred rules. Such men's fer-
vent zeal unto the letter of the gospel, is like an hot
stomach accustomed to light meats, which increase ap-
petite more than strength, and fill the body rather with
bad humours than good blood.

k This is that circle whicli be retorted upon the enthusiast,

the adversary opposeth as a but not on our church, as shall

countermine to us, whilst we appear in the fourth section of

seek to overthrow their circular the second book,
belief. The objection may justly

JACKSON, VOL. I. V

Some bnef Admo)iitioii to the Reader. book i.

3. The Spirit no doubt speaks often unto us when
we attend not ; but we must not presume to under-
stand his suggestions by his immediate voice or pre-
sence ; only by his fruits, and the inward testimony of
an appeased conscience, (which he alone can work,) must
we know him. He that seeks (as Ignatius Loyola'
taught his sons) to discern him without more ado, by
his manner of breathing, may instead of him be trou-
bled with an unwelcome guest, always ready to invite
himself where he sees preparation made for his better,
and one (I am persuaded) that hath learned more kinds
of salutations than Loyola knew of, able to fill empty
breasts or shallow heads unsettled in truth, with such
pleasant, mild, and gentle blasts, as are apt to breed
strong persuasions of more than angelical inspira-
tions.

4. God grant the carriage of ensuing times may ar-
gue these admonitions needless : which further to pro-
secute, in respect of times late past and now present,
could not be unseasonable ; but thus much by the way
must now suffice me, purposed hereafter (if God per-
mit) to treat of the trial of spirits, and certain appre-
hension of inherent faith : about the general means of
whose production, and establishment, the question (most
controversed in these days) is ; whether beside the tes-
tification of God's Spirit, which (as all agree) must (by
these late mentioned or other means) work faith in our
hearts ; the testimony or authority of others besides
ourselves, be necessary, either for ascertaining our ap-

1 Proficientibus (ut admonet niter, placide et suaviter, sicut

P. noster Ignatius L. exercit. aqua irrorat spongiam. lUis vero

de dignosc. spirit.) Spiritus ma- qui in deterius proficiunt.experi-

lus se dure, implacide et vio- entia docet, contra evenire. Del-

lenter, quasi cum strepitu quo- rius disquisit. Magic, lib. 4. cap.

dam, ut imber in saxa decidens, i. q. 3. sect. 6.
infundit. Bonus vero iisdem le-

CHAP. XXXIV. Some brief Admonition to the Reader. 323

prehension of the Spirit thus working, or for assuring
the truth of experiments wrought by it in our souls ?
or if no other besides the testimony of God's Spirit and
our own conscience be necessary, either after their
sentence given, or whilst they give it, how far the au-
thority or ministry of men is necessary or behoveful,
either for bringing us acquainted with the Spirit of
God, or for the assistance and direction of our con-
science in giving right sentence of the truth or true
meaning of God's word ? Of these questions, and others
subordinate to them, we are to dispute at large in the
books following.

y 2

173 HOW FAR THE MINISTRY OF MEN

IS NECESSARY FOR

PLANTING TRUE CHRISTIAN FAITH ;

AND RETAINING THE UNITY OF IT PLANTED.

THE SECOND BOOK OF
COMMENTS UPON THE CREED.

As in the first intention, so after some prosecution of
this long work ; my purpose was, to refer the full ex-
amination of the Romish church's pretended authority
in matters spiritual, unto the article of the catholic
church : which (with those three others of the Holy
Ghost, communion of saints, and forgiveness of sins,
for more exact method's sake, and continuation of mat-
ters, in nature and sacred writ, most united) I have
reserved for the last place, in this frame of Christian
belief : annexing the articles of the body's resurrection,
and everlasting life, unto that of final judgment,
whereon these two liave most immediate and most di-
rect dependance.

2. But, after the platform was cast, and matter for
structure prepared; upon evident discovery of the Je-
suits' treachery, in setting up the pope as a secret com-
petitor with the blessed Trinity, for absolute sove-
reignty over men's souls ; (and for this purpose con-
tinually plotting to have the doctrine of their chiuxh's
infallibility planted as low and deep, as the very first

How far the Ministry of Men is necessary (^-c. 325

and fundamental principles of belief :) albeit in laying
the former foundations, I had come to ground firm
enough (if free from undermining) to bear all I meant
to build upon it : I was, notwithstanding, in this place
constrained to bear the whole foundation, and all about
it, unto the very rock, on whose strength it stands ;
lest this late dismal invention (concerning the pope's
infallibility) might prove as a powder-plot to blow up
the whole edifice of Christian faith ; as it certainly will,
if men suffer it to be once planted in their hearts and
consciences. The Jesuits' speculative positions of their
church's transcendent authority, are as the train, the
pope's thunderbolts as the match, to set the whole
world on combustion, unless his lordly designs (though
in matters of faith and greatest moment) be put in
execution, without question or demur : as shall (God
prospering these proceedings) most clearly ai)pear in
the sequel of this discourse.

Wherein are to be discussed : 174

1. Their objections against us ; the points of differ-
ence betwixt us ; with the positive grounds of truth
maintained by us.

2. The inconveniences of their positions : erection of
triple blasphemy by the overthrow of Christianity.

3. The original causes of their error in this ; and
such erroneous persuasions, as held by them in other
points, not descried by us, prove secret temptations for
others to follow them, or serve as previal dispositions,
for their agents to work upon.

4. The possible means and particular manner, how
orthodoxal may be distinguished from heretical doc-
trine, or the life-working sense of scriptures from ar-
tificial glosses.

These points discussed, and the positive grounds of
Christian faith cleared, as well against the open as-

Y 3

326 TFhat Ohedieiice is due to God's Word, book ii.

saults of the professed atheists, as the secret attempts
of underinining papists ; we may with better security-
proceed to raise the foundation (laid in the first gene-
ral part of the fii'st book) to the height intended.

175 SECT. I.

What Obedience is due to God''s Word, what to his 3Ies-

se/igers.

The whole scripture (saith the apostle) is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable to teach, to re-
prove, to correct, and to instruct in righteousness : that
the man of God may be absolute, being made perfect
unto all good ivorhs^. What or whom he means by
the man of God, is not agreed upon by all that ac-
knowledge his words in the sense he meant them, most
infallible and authentic. Some hereby understand only
such men as Timothy was, ministers of God's word, or
prophets of the New Testament ; and so briefly elude
all arguments hence drawn to prove the sufficiency of
sci'iptures for being the absolute rule of faith, at least
to all, as well unlearned as learned. Yet should they
in all reason (might God's word rule their reason)
grant them to be such unto all such as Timothy was,
public teachers, men conversant in, or consecrated
unto, sacred studies ; but even this they deny as well
as the former, though the former in their opinion be
more absurd for us to affirm, especially holding the
Hebrew text only authentic. Briefly, they charge us
with debasing Peter, for advancing Paul ; or rather,
for colouring or adorning our pretended sense of Paul's
words ; that is, for giving too little to Peter's succes-
sors, or the church ; too much to scriptures ; too little
to spiritual, too much to laymen.

2. These are plausible pretences, and sweet baits to
a 2 Tim. iii. i6.

SECT. I.

witut to Ids Messengers.

327

stop the mouths and muffle the pens of clergymen in
reformed churches; unto most of whom, (as they ob-
ject,) besides the spiritual sword, little or nothing is
left for their just defence against the insolencies of
rude, illiterate, profane laics. And yet who more
earnest than they in this cause, against the church,
against themselves ? yet certain it is, that no man can
be truly for himself, unless he be first of all for truth
itself, of which he that gains the greatest share, (what
other detriment or disparagement soever in the mean-
time he sustain,) in the end speeds always best. And
seeing to lie, or teach amiss, is a matter altogether im-
possible to Omnipotency itself ; to be able and willing
withal to defend a falsehood, or set fair colours on foul
causes, is rather impotency than ability ; hence was
that,Quicqiiid jjossumus j)ro veritate possumus. Seeing
by truth we live our spiritual life, to weaken it for
strengthening our temporal hopes can never rightly
be accounted any true effect of power, but an infallible
argument of great and desperate imbecility.

3. For these reasons, since I consecrated my labours
to the search of Divine truth, my mind hath been most
set to find it out in this present controversy, whereon
most others of moment chiefly depend. And as unto the
Romanist it is (though falsely) termed, the cathoUc,\lG
so should it be unto us, to all that love the name of
Christ, the very Christian cause ; a cause, with which
the adversaries' fortunes, our faith, their temporal,
our spiritual estate and hopes, must stand or fall ; a
cause, whose truth and strength on our part will evi-
dently appear, if we first examine what the Antichris-
tian adversary can oppose against it.

328

The Sum of the Romanists' E.rrejjtions book ii.

CHAP. I.

2''he Sum of the Romanists" Exceptions against the Scrip-
tures.

1. Their objections against scriptures spring from
this double root : the one, that they are no sufficient
rule of faith, but many things are to be believed which
are not taught in them : the second, that albeit they
were the complete rule of faith, yet could they not be
known of us, but by the authority of the church ; so
that all the former directions for establishing our as-
sent unto the scriptures, as unto the words of God
himself, were vain, seeing this cannot be attained unto,
but by relying upon Christ's visible church.

The former of these two fountains or roots of error,
I am not here to meddle with : elsewhere we shall.
That the scriptures teach all points of faith set down
in this creed they cannot deny, or if they would, it
shall appear in their several explications : so that the
scripture, rightly understood, is a competent rule for
the articles herein contained. Let us then see whether
the sense or meaning of these scriptures, which both
they and we hold for canonical, may not be known,
understood, and fully assented unto, immediately and
in themselves, without relying upon any visible church
or congregation of men, from whose doctrine we must
frame our belief, without distrust of error or examina-
tion of their decrees, with any intention to reform them,
or swerve from them.

2, "^That the scripture is not the rule whereon pri-
vate men, especially unlearned, ought to rely in mat-
ters of faith, from these general reasons or topics they
seek to persuade us. First, admitting the scriptures
to be infallible in themselves, and so consequently to

^ The Romanists' first objection set down here, is answered in
the next chapter, &c.

CHAP. I.

against the Scriptures.

329

all such as can perfectly understand them in the lan-
guage wherein they were written : yet to such as un-
derstand not that language they can be no infallible
rule, because they are to them a rule only as they are
translated : but no unlearned man can be sure that
they are translated aright, according to the true intent
and meaning of the Holy Ghost : for if any man do
infallibly believe this, and build his faith hereupon,
then is his faith grounded upon the infallibility of this
or that man's skill in translating ; whereof he that is
unlearned can have no sufficient argument, neither out
of scripture nor from reason. Nay, reason teacheth
us that in matters of ordinary capacity most men are
obnoxious to error, and the most skilful may have his
escapes in a long work : for —

Opere in Inn go fas est obrejiere somniim

^liquaiido bonus dorniitat Homerus :

a man may sometimes take Homer napping, even in 177
that art whereof he was master. Much more may
the greatest linguist living (in a work of so great diffi-
culty as the translation of the Bible, not another man's,
(though that more easy to err in than a man's own,)
but the work or dictates of the Holy Ghost) prove an
Homer, but a blind guide unto the blind. Many things
he cannot see, and many things he may oversee ; and
how then can any man assure himself, that in those
places whereon we should build our faith, he hath not
gone besides the line ; unless we will admit an infallible
authority in the church, to assure us that such a trans-
lation doth not err?

3. Again, in those very translations wherein they
agree Luther gathers one sense, Calvin another;
every heretic may pretend a secret meaning of his pri-
vate spirit. Who shall either secure the people dis-
This objection is answered, chap. 19, &c. lib. 2.

330

The former Objection

BOOK II.

tracted by dissensions amongst the learned, or the
learned thus dissenting, unless the infallible authority
of the church ? Finally**, without such an infallible
authority, controversies will daily grow : and unless it
be established, they can never be composed, seeing
every man will draw in the scriptures as a party, to
countenance or abet his opinion, how bad soever.
^The ground of all which inconveniences (though the
sectaries cannot see it) is the natural obscurity and
difficulty of scriptures. These are the main springs,
or first fountains, whence the adversary's eloquence in
this argument flows. And it will be but one labour
to stop up these and his mouth. Or granting them
passage, we may draw his invention against us dry, by
turning their course upon himself.

CHAP. II.

The former Objection (as far as it coticerns illiterate and
laymen) retorted and answered.

1. If to suppose such an authority were sufficient to
confirm any translation, or secure the world of sincere
translations, or to allay all controversies arising about
the true sense and meaning of scriptures, we were very
impious to deny it. But if we have just cause to sus-
pect, that such as contend for it have but put this in-
fallible authority, as the astronomers have supposed ;
some, epicycles and eccentrics ; some, the motion of
the earth ; to salve their phenomena, which otherwise
might seem irregular : we may, I trust, examine, first,
whether the supposal of this infallible authority in the
church do salve the former inconveniences, secondly,
whether greater inconveniences will not follow upon
the putting of it, than are the supposed mischiefs, for

^ This is retorted and answered, chap. 26, &c.
c Answered, chap. 12.

CHAP. 11. concerning illiterate and laymen answered. 331

the avoidance of which this infallible principle was in-
vented, and is by the favourites of this art sought to
be established and persuaded.

2. That this supposed infallible authority of the That the
church visible doth no way salve the inconveniences mayTs well
objected against our positions, is hence evident. As ""^Jj^^g
the scriptures themselves were written in a tongue nof^^crip.

^ tures, as the

common, nor understood of all nations, but of some fght mean-
few : so likewise the decrees of this visible church, pope's de-
concerning the authority of translations, are written jn'"^^'^^"
a tongue neither common to all, nor proper at this day 178
to any unlearned multitude, but to the learned only.
Sometime they were written in Greek ; but in later
years all in Latin, or some other tongue (at the least)
not common to all Christians : for no such can this
day be found. Nor is the pope (or his cardinals) able
to speak properly and truly every language in the
Christian world, of which he challengeth the suprem-
acy. He would be the universal head indeed : but he
hath not, nor dare he profess he hath, an universal
tongue, whereby he may fully instruct every person
throughout the Christian world, in his own natural,
known, mother tongue. For Bellarmine^ brings this
as an argument why the Bible should not be translated
into modern tongues, because if into one, why not into
another ; and the pope (as he confesseth) cannot un-
derstand all.

3. Tell me then, you that seek to bring the unlearned
lay-sort of men to seek shelter under the infallible au-
thority of the Romish church ; how can you assure

^ Tot vero translationes, mu- possint postea facile tolli. Cum

tationes, sine gravissimo periculo neque pontifices, neque concilia

et incommodo non fierent. Nam de tot Unguis judicare possint.

non semper inveniuntur idonei Bellarni. lib. 2. de Verbo Dei,

interpretes : atque ita multi er- cap. 15. in fin.
rores committerentur qui non

332

The former Objection

BOOK II.

them what is the very true meaning of that church ?
They understand not the language wherein her deci-
sions were written. What then ? must they infallibly,
and under pain of damnation, believe that you do not
err in your translations of them ? or must they stead-
fastly believe, that you interpret her decrees aright ?
Nay even those decrees, which you hold infallible, con-
demn all private interpretation of them : and your
greatest clerks daily dissent about the meaning of the
Trent council in sundry points. Yet, unless the lay
people can steadfastly believe, that you interpret the
church's sentence aright ; your supposed rule of the
church's infallibility in confirming translations or senses
of scripture, can neither be a rule infallible, nor any
way profitable unto them. For it hath no other effect
upon their souls, save only belief ; sand they have no
other means to know that this which they must believe
is the church's sentence, but your report : then can
they not be any more certain of the church's mind in
this or that point, than they are of your skill or fide-
lity; neither of which can be to them the infallible
rule of faith. For, if they should be thus infallibly
persuaded of your skill or fidelity, then were their
good persuasion of you the ground and rule of their
faith ; and so they must believe that you neither did
nor could err in this relation : whereas your own doc-
trine is, that even the learnedest among you may err :
and you cannot deny, but that it is possible for the
honestest Jesuit either to lie or equivocate. Otherwise
your infallibility in not erring were greater than your
pope's or church's : for they both may err unless they
speak ex cathedra. Now whether the pope speak this
or that ex cathedra, or whether he speak or write to

g Were their objections against Jesuits' honesty or fidelity, should
us pertinent, not the pope's in- be the rule of most lay-papists'
fallibility, but the priests' and faith.

CHAP. II. concerniyig illiterate and lay-men answered. 333

all or no, is not known to any of the common people
in these northern countries, but only by your report :
which if it be not infallible, and as free from error as
the pope himself, the people must still stagger in faith.
Nor do I see any possible remedy : unless every man
should take a pilgrimage to Rome, or unless you would
bring the pope throughout these countries, as men use
monsters or strange sights. Yet how should they be
certain that this is the pope, rather than some counter-
feit ? or how should they know Rome, but by others ?
Or can you hope to salve this inconvenience by an
implicit or hypothetical faith ? as, that it were enough
for the lay people to believe absolutely and steadfastly, 179
that the pope or church cannot err : but to believe
your report or informations of his sentence in doubtful
cases, only conditionally ; if it be the pope's mind : if
otherwise, we M'ill be free to recall our ])resent belief.
This is all which I can imagine any of you can say for
yourselves. And may not we, I pray you, say as much,
if thus much would serve for us ? Might not we by
the selfsame reason teach the people to admit of trans-
lations, but only conditionally, as far forth as they
shall be persuaded that this was the meaning of the
scripture or the word of God ? For questionless, it is
more certain that God cannot err, than that the pope
cannot. And it is more necessary unto Christian be-
lief to hold, that God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
neither can nor will speak a lie, than that the pope
cannot, or will not teach us amiss. That the pope and
his cardinals do arrogate thus much unto themselves,
is more than the lay and unlearned people can tell, but
only by yours and others' relation : but that the God
of heaven neither can nor will teach amiss, is a principle
not controversed by any that thinks there is a God.
4. Let it then first be granted, that God is freer

334

The former Objection

BOOK II.

from error, from deceiving, or being deceived in points
of faith, or matters of man's salvation, than the pope
is, although he speak ex cathedra. From this position
it follows most directly and most immediately, that if
the lay unlearned people of this land have as good
means and better, to know that these books of scripture
are God's own words, than they can have to know that
this or that canon in any council was confirmed by the
pope's teaching ex cathedra : then must the same peo-
ple believe the one more steadfastly than the other ; to
wit, God's word, as it is read unto them in our church,
more steadfastly than the pope's interpretations, injunc-
tions, or decrees. Let us compare the means of know-
ing both. First, if the pope's decrees be a certain
means of knowing any truth : they are as certain a
means of knowing those scriptures which our church
admits to be God's word, as of any thing else ; for the
pope and his council ^ have avouched them for such,
although they add some more than we acknowledge.

5. If the worst then should fall out that can be ima-
gined ; as if we had reason to despair of all other
translations save only of the vulgar, yet that it were
the word of God we might know, if by no other means,
yet by consent of the Romish church; and all the peo-
ple of this land might be as certain of this decree, as
of any the pope can give. But take the same scripture
as it is translated into our English, the people may be
as certain that it is the word of God, as they can be
that the Trent council was lawfully called, or by the
pope confirmed, yea much more certain. The Jesuits
may tell them, that these very words (being first En-
glished) were spoken in the Trent council, and con-
firmed by the pope. Why should they believe it ?
Because they avouch it seriously, whom they think
Concil. Trident. Sessione quarta.

CHAP. II. concerning illiterate and laymen ansivered. 335

able to understand Latin ? Suppose not only one, or
two, or three, but the whole assembly of our clergy
tells the same joeople, that these (reciting the points of
our salvation) are the very words of God himself ; and
are for substance all one in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin,
and English. What difference can you here imagine?
That the Trent council decreed thus, the modern Jesu- 180
its have it but from tradition of this age : that God
spake thus, we have the consent of all ages. Yea, but
it is easier to render the Trent council's meaning out
of Latin, than the meaning of God's word out of He-
brew or Greek. Whether it be so or no, the unlearned
people cannot tell, but by hearsay : yet, if we would
take the vulgar Latin, this foolish objection were none :
for it is as easy to be rendered, as the Trent council;
and if the Trent council be true, it is the word of
God. All then is equal concerning the difficulties
that may arise from the skill or ignorance of the trans-
lators of the one or other ; the pope's decrees or scrip-
ture. Our ministers know to render the meaning of
scripture, as well as yours do the meaning of the
councils. Let us now see whether it be as likely that
our ministers' fidelity in telling them as they are per-
suaded, and as they believe themselves, be not to be
presumed as great. To call this in question, were ex-
treme impudency and uncivility, especially seeing we
teach, that the people should be thi'oughly instructed
in the truth : whereas you hold it for good Christian
policy to hold them in ignorance. Our permitting the
free use of scriptures to all doth free us from all sus-
picion of imposture or guile : of which in the Jesuit
or learned papist, the denial of like liberty is a foul
presumption. Further, let us examine whether from
the matter or manner of the pope's decrees, there can
be any argument drawn to persuade the people that

336

The former Objection

BOOK II.

these are his decrees, and no other man's : more than
can be gathered from the matter and manner of scrip-
ture phrase, to persuade a man that these are God's,
and can be no man's words : and here certainly we
have infinite advantage of you. For no man of sense
or reason, but must needs suffer himself to be per-
suaded, that it is a far easier matter to counterfeit the
decrees of the Lateran or Trent council, or the pope's
writs, interpretations, or determinations ; than artifi-
cially to imitate the invincible and majestical word of
God, either for the matter or the manner'.

6. The sequel is this : that if the scriptures received
by us be obnoxious to any the least suspicion of being
forged ; then from the same reasons, much more liable
to the same suspicion are those which we account the
pope's decrees, and therefore in respect of us, much
less to be believed ; although otherwise we should
grant the pope's decrees (which without controversy
were his decrees indeed) to be as infallible as the eter-
nal and immutable decrees of the Almighty. God's
word ofttimes unto atheists hath discovered itself by
the majesty of style and sublimity of matter, to be
more than human, and therefore Divine, not able to be
imitated by any lying spirit. If any Jesuit will deny
this, let him make trial of imitation in the prophecy of
Isaiah, the beginning of St. John's Gospel, the relation of
Joseph and his brethren's dialogues, the Book of Job,
&c. The majesty of speech, and other excellencies M'hich
appears in them, (especially if we consider the time
wherein most of them were written,) doth argue a Divine
spirit ; in whose imitation the most accurate writers of

' Granting the pope to be as received by us and them, be-

infallible as God himself ; yet cause it is more free from sus-

were not his decrees related by picion of forgery, than they can

his messengers to be so much be- be; harder to be counterfeited

lieved, as God's ^\Titten word, than they are.

CHAP. II. concerning illiterate (aid lay-men answered. 3f37

later ages (albeit no man writes excellently but from
some beam of Divine illumination in the faculty) are
but apish, if we read the same scriptures in the tongue
wherein they were written, or in sundry modern 181
tongues capable of the Divine splendour which shines
in the original ; with which the Latin (especially in
prose) hath greatest disproportion of all learned or co-
pious tongues. As for the pope's decrees, they bewray
themselves both for the matter and manner, to be
only human, and therefore easy to be imitated by the
spirit of man, subject to many eiTors. Nor doth the
pope challenge to himself the gift of prophecy, but
only of legal decisions : which are no otherwise writ-
ten, than many write, and contain no deeper nor more
supernatural matter, than many may invent : most of
them usually penned in a base and barbarous logic
phrase : his style at the best is not peculiar, his cha-
racter easy to be counterfeited by any man that can
pen a proclamation, or frame an instrument in civil
courts.

7. To recollect what hath been said. First, seeing God
is more to believed than men ; secondly, seeing we
have better arguments to persuade the people that these
scriptures daily read in our churches are God's own
words, than the priests and Jesuits have, that the
tidings which they bring from beyond sea are the
pope's or church's decrees or sentence : we may and
ought teach them to rely immediately upon God's
word preached or read unto them, as the surest and
most infallible rule of faith, the most lively, most ef-
fectual, and most forcible means of their salvation.
Or if the Jesuits will teach them to believe the pope's
decrees given ex cathedra, or the church's opinion in-
definitely taken Jide divina, by infallible faith; but the
Jesuits' or priests' expositions or translations of them,

JACKSON, VOL. I. Z

338

The former Objectioii

BOOK II.

only conditionally, and with this limitation, [if so they
be the pope or church's decrees :] we may in like sort
with far greater reason, teach the people to believe the
scriptures or the word of God absolutely, and our
translations or expositions of it but conditionally or
Mith limitation, so far as they are consonant to the
word of God. Seeing it is as probable, that we may
expound God's word as rightly and sincerely as the
other can the church or pope's edicts ; we have better
reason to exact this conditional obedience and assent,
in the virtue and authority of God's M'ord, which we
make the rule of faith ; than they can have to exact
the like obedience by virtue of the pope or church's
edict, M'hich is to them the mistress of faith. For it is
more certain to any man .living, that God's word is
most infallibly true, than that the pope cannot err.
Wherefore if the absolute belief of the pope's infalli-
bility, and conditional belief of the Jesuits or priests
his messengers' fidelity or skill, be sufficient to salvation:
much more may the absolute belief or assent unto the
infallibility of God's word, and such conditional and
limited belief of his ministers' fidelity, be sufficient for
the salvation of his people : who, as hath been proved,
cannot be more certain that the Romish church saith
this or that, than we can be of God's word. For they
never hear the church or pope speak, but in Jesuits' or
priests' mouths. And although they knew he said just
so as those say; yet may a man doubt in modesty,
whether the pope's words be always infallible ; but of
the infallibility of God's word can no man doubt.

8. And here I cannot but much wonder at the pre-
posterous courses of these Romanists, who holding an
182 implicit faith of believing as the church believes, (in
many points,) to be sufficient unto salvation ; will yet
fasten this implicit faith upon the present church of

CHAP. II. co7icernvtg illiterate and lay-men answered. 339

Rome, and not refer it rather unto that church as it
was under St. Peter's jurisdiction and government.
For if universality be (as they contend) a sure note of
undoubted truth ; then must it needs be more un-
doubtedly true, that St. Peter could not err in matters
of faith, than that this present Romish pope and his
cax'dinals cannot so err. For all papists hold this as
true of St. Peter, as of this present pope ; and all pro-
testants hold it true of St. Peter, not in the present
pope : and so did all the fathers without controversy
hold it most true, that St. Peter did not teach amiss in
his apostolical writings. So that imiversality is much
greater for St. Peter, than for this pope that now is, or
the next that shall be.

9- For these reasons, (fully consonant to their own
positions,) all papists, methinks, in reason, should make
the same difference in their estimate of St. Peter and
later popes, which a French cardinal (as the tradition
is at Durham) once made betwixt St. Cuthbert and
venerable Bede. Albeit St. Cuthbert was accounted
the greater saint amongst them whose greater bene-
factor he had been, (in which respect they brought the
cardinal first unto St. Cuthbert's tomb :) yet, because
he knew him not so well, but only by their report, he
j)rays very warily ; Sancte Cuthherie, si sanctus es,
or a pro me. But afterwards, brought unto Bede's
tomb then in the consistory ; because he had been fa-
mous in foreign nations, from the commendations of
less partial antiquity ; he fell to his j)rayers without
ifs and ands ; T^enerabdis Seda, quia tu sanctus es,
ova pro me.

10. Proportional to this caution in this Frenchman's
prayer, should every modern papist limit his belief of
the present pope's infallibility in respect of St. Peter's ;
and say thus in his heart : As for St. Peter, I know he

z 2

340

The former Objection

BOOK II.

believed and taught aright : and I beseech God I may
believe as he believed, and that my soul may come
whither his is gone : as for this present pope, if he be-
lieve as St. Peter did, and be likely to follow him in
life and death, I pray God I may believe as he believes,
and do as he teacheth ; but otherwise, believe me, I
would be very loath to pin my belief upon his sleeve,
lest haply he run headlong to hell with that which
should have drawn me up to heaven : for in this life I
walk by faith, and by faith I must ascend thither, if I
ever come there ; and therefore I dare not fasten my
belief upon any man, whom I would be loath to follow
in his course of life. But most surely might this im-
plicit faith be fastened upon God's written word, con-
tained in the writings of Moses, the prophets, apostles,
and evangelists. We know, O Lord, that thou hast
taught them all truth that is necessary for thy church
to know. And our adversaries confess, that thy word
uttered by them (rightly understood) is the most sure
rule of faith : for by this they seek to establish the in-
fallibility of the church and pope. They themselves
speak ai'ight, by their own confession, where they
speak consonantly unto it. Wherefore the safest course
for us must be, to search out the true sense and mean-
ing of it ; which is as easy for us as them to find, as
in the process of these meditations, God willing, shall
appear.

183 11. '^Unto the main objection, concerning the means

of knowing scripture to be scripture, we have partly

answered (or rather prevented it) in the first treatise :

and throughout this whole intended discourse we shall,

God willing, explicate the former general means or

k A brief answer to the ob- the rule of their faith. See c. ii.

jection concerning the illiterate, parag. 3 and 4. How far such are

In what sense the scripture or to rely upon their instructors' au-

written word may be said to be thority, see c. 8.

CHAP. II. coiicembig illiterate and lay-men answered. 341

motives, as also bring other peculiar inducements for
the establishing of true faith, unto the particular arti-
cles in this creed contained. For the present difficulty,
concerning the rule of illiterate laymen's faith, or such
as understand not those languages in which the Holy
Ghost did write ; we answer briefly, that the language,
tongue, or dialect, is but the vesture of truth ; the
truth itself for substance is one and the same in all
languages. And the Holy Spirit who instructed the
first messengers of the gospel with the true sense and
knowledge of the truths therein revealed, and furnished
them with diversity of tongues to utter them to the
capacity of divers nations, can and doth, throughout
all succeeding ages, continue his gifts, whether of
tongues or others, whatsoever are necessary, for con-
veying the true sense and meaning of saving truth
already taught, immediately to the hearts of all such,
in every nation as are not for their sin judged
unworthy of his society""; of all such as resist not his
motions, to follow the lusts of the flesh. And as
for men altogether illiterate, that cannot read the
scriptures in any tongue, we do not hold them bound
(nor indeed are any) to believe absolutely or expressly
every clause or sentence in the sacred canon to be the
infallible oracle of God's Spirit, otherwise than is be-
fore expressed" : but unto the several matters or sub-
stance of truth, contained in the principal parts there-
of, their souls and spirits are so surely tied and fasten-
ed, that they can say to their own consciences, where-
soever these men that teach us these good lessons

1 See chap. 16. the scriptures to the Jews (as to

^ The want of skill in sacred our forefathers they had for a long

tongues in former ages, was for time been) as a sealed book. Se

their ingratitude towards God, chap 13 parag. 3, 4, 5.

and loving of darkness more than " Lib. i . cap. 34.

light. For the like reasons were

z 3

342

The former Ohject'um

BOOK II.

learned the same themselves, most certain it is, that
originally they came from God, and by the gracious
providence of that God (whose goodness they so often
mention) are they now come to us.

Such are, the rules or testimonies of God's provi-
dence, the doctrines or real truths of original sin, of
our misery by nature, and freedom by grace : such are,
the articles of Christ's passion, and the effects thereof;
of the resurrection, and life everlasting. Unto these,
and other points of like nature and consequence, every
true Christian soul, indued with reason and discourse,
gives a full, a firm, and absolute assent, directly and
immediately fastened upon these truths themselves, not
tied or held unto them by any authority of man. For
albeit true and steadfast belief of these fundamental
points might be as scant, as the true worship of God
seemed to be unto Elias in his days ; yet every faithful
soul must thus resolve: » Though all the world besides
myself should worship Baal, and follow after other
gods ; yet will I follow the God of heaven, in whom
our fathers trusted ; and on whose providence whoso
relies shall never fall. So likewise must every Chris-
tian both in heart resolve, and outwardly profess with
Peter, (but with unfeigned prayers for better success,
184 and diligent endeavours by his example to beware of all
presumption,) though all the world beside myself should
adjure Christ, and admit of Mahomet for their media-

o Thus much Canus granteth,
de loc. Theol. lib. 2. cap. S.resp.
ad 4. Ad haec, si omnes hi, qui
me docuerunt, imo adeo angeli
coelorum mihi astruent opposi-
tum ejus, quod fide teneo, non
ex eo fides mea labefactaretur.
Juxta Pauli apostoli prtescriptum
ilhid. Licet nos aut angehis, &c.
Gal. i. 8. Consequently hereunto

he proveth the last resolution of
faith not to be into the veracity or
infallibility of the church, taxing
Scotus, Gabriel, and Durand, (as
the margin telleth us:) but his
reason holdeth good against all
such as make the church's infal-
libility the rule of faith : as shall
be shewed, God willing, in lib. 3.
sect. 3. see lib. 2. cap. 10.

CHAP. II. concerning illiterate and lay-men answered. 343

tor ; yet would not I follow so great a multitude to so
great an evil, but always cleave unto the crucified
Christ, my only Saviour and Redeemer, who, I know, is
both able and willing to save all such as follow him,
both in life and death. So again, though all the subtilty
and wisdom of hell, the world, and flesh, should jointly
bend their force, and stretch invention to overthrow the
glorious hope of our resurrection from the dead ; yet
every faithful Christian must here resolve with Job, and
out of his believing heart profess, / atn sure that my
Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand the last on the
earth : and though after my skin this body he de-
stroyed, yet shall I see Qod in my jiesli : tvhom I my-
self shall see, and mine eyes shall behold, and none other
for me, Job xix. 25. As we hope to see Christ with
our own eyes immediately and directly in his person,
not by any other men's eyes ; so must we in this life
steadfastly believe, and fasten our faith upon those
points and articles, which are necessary for the attain-
ing of this sight of Christ, in and for themselves, not
from any authority or testimony of men, upon which
we must rely ; for this were to see with the eyes of
others' faith, not with our own.

12. Many other points there be, not of like necessity
or consequence, which unto men, specially altogether
unlearned, or otherwise of less capacity, may be pro-
posed as the infallible oracles of God : unto some of
which it is not lawful for them to give so absolute and
firm irrevocable assent as they must do unto the for-
mer, because they cannot discern the truth of them in
itself, or for itself, or with their own eyes, as (it is
supposed) they did the truth of the former.

z 4

344

Heads of Agreement or Difference

BOOK I

CHAP. III.

The general Heads of Agreements or Differences hettrixt tts
and the Papists in tliis Argument.

1. All the difficulties in this argument may be re-
duced to these three heads. First, How we can know
whether God hath spoken any thing or no unto his
church. Secondly, What the extent of his word or
speech is ; as, whether all he hath spoken be written,
or some unwritten ; or how we may know amongst
books written, which are written by him, which not.
Likewise of unwritten verities, which are Divine, which
counterfeit. Thirdly, How we know the sense and
meaning of God's word, whether written or unwritten.

2. These difficulties are common to the Jews, Turks,
Christians, and all heretics whatsoever : all which
agree in this main principle, That whatsoever God
hath said or shall say at any time, is most undoubtedly
and infallibly true.

3. But for this present, we must dismiss all ques-
tions about the number or sufficiency of canonical
books, or necessity of traditions. For these are with-
out the lists of our proposed method. All the profes-
sors, either of reformed or Romish religion, agree in
this principle, That certain books (which both acknow-
ledge) do contain in them the undoubted and infallible
word of God.

185 4. The first point of breach or difference betwixt us
breachbe- papist, is, concemiug the means how a Chris-

twixtus. tjgjj man may be in conscience persuaded (as steadfastly
and infallibly as is necessary unto salvation) that these
books (whose authority none of them deny, but both
outwardly acknowledge) are indeed God's words.
The second. 5. The sccoud point of difference (admitting the
steadfast and infallible belief of the former) is, concern-

CHAP. III.

betwixt us and the Papists.

345

ing the means how every' Chi-istian man may be in
conscience persuaded,^ as infallibly as is necessary to
his salvation, of the true sense and meaning of these
books jointly acknowledged, and steadfastly believed of
both.

6. In the means or manner, how we come to believe Onr agree-
both these points steadfastly and infallibly, we agree cerning the
again in this principle: that neither of the former "^'j^stgnai'^
points can (ordinarily) be fully and steadfastly believed, J""jfjg"
without the ministry, asseveration, proposal, or in-pi<'nt'"g

1 /> 1 1 faith.

structions of men, appointed by God for the begetting
of faith and belief in others' hearts ; both of us agree,
that this faith must come by hearing of the Divine
word.

7. Concerning the authority of preachers, or men
thus appointed for the begetting of faith, the question
again is twofold.

8. First, whether this authority be primarily, or in The points

, . , , ^ , . of difference

some peculiar sort, annexed to any peculiar man or i,etwixt us,
company of men distinct from othei's by prerogative p'!°j:'„yjjf^g
of place, preeminence of succession, and from him or p*^^^"""**'
them to be derived unto all others set apart for this manner of

. . 111'. n their heget-

mmistry ; or whether the mmistry of any men, or ting faitii
what place or society soever, whom God hath called to
this function, and enabled for the same, be sufficient
for the begetting of true faith, without any others'
confirmation or approbation of their doctrine.

9. Secondly, it is questioned, how this ministry of
man, which is necessai-ily supposed, (ordinarily,) both
for knowing the word of God, and the true meaning
of it, becomes available for the begetting of true belief
in either point. In whomsoever the authority of this
ministerial function be, the question is. Whether it
perform thus much, only by proposing or expounding
the word, which is infallible ; or by their infallible

346

Heads of Agreement or Difference book ii.

proposal or exposition of it ; that is, whether for the
attaining of true belief in both points mentioned, we
must rely infallibly upon the infallible word of God
only ; or partly upon it, and partly upon the infallibi-
lity of such as expound it unto us. Or in other words
thus : Whether the authority or infallibility of any
man's doctrine or asseveration concerning these scrip-
tures, or their true sense, be as infallibly to be believed
as those scriptures themselves are, or that sense of
them, which the Spirit of God hath wrought in our
hearts, by sure and undoubted experience.
Other 10. These are the principal roots and fountains of

of the difference between us, concerning our present contro-
dlfferences. vcrsy, wheucc issue and spring these following. First.

whether Christ (whose authority both acknowledge
for infallible) hath left any public judge of these scrip-
tures which both receive, or of their right sense and
meaning, from whose sentence we may not appeal ; or
186 whether all to whom this ministry of faith is com-
mitted, be but expositors of Divine scriptures, so as
their expositions may by all faithful Christians be ex-
amined. Hence ariseth that other question. Whether
the scriptures be the infallible rule of faith. If scrip-
ture admit any judge, then is it no rule of faith : if all
doctrines are to be examined by scripture, then is it a
perfect rule.

The Ro- 11. Our adversaries', especially later Jesuits', positions

manists' as- , - i • <» i

sertions. are thcsc. The mfallible authority of the present
church, that is, of some visible company of living men,
must be as absolutely believed of all Christians, as any
oracle of God : and hence would they bind all such as
profess the catholic faith, in all causes concerning the
oracles or word of God, to yield the same obedience
unto decrees and constitutions of the church, which is
due unto these oracles themselves, even to such of

tHAl'. III.

betwixt lis and the Papists.

347

them as all faithful hearts do undoubtedly know to be
God's written woz'd.

12. The reasons pretended for this absolute obe-
dience, to be performed unto the church or visible
company of men, are drawn from the insufficiency of
scripture ; either for notifying itself to be the word of
God, or the true sense and meaning of itself. Conse-
quently to these objections they stiffly maintain, that
the infallible authority of the present church is the
most sure, most safe, undoubted rule in all doubts or
controversies of faith, or in all points concerning these
oracles of God : by which we may certainly know
both ; without which we cannot possibly know either,
which are the oracles of God, which not, or M^hat is
the true sense and meaning of such as are received for
his oracles : one of the especial consequents of these
assertions is, that this church's decisions or decrees
may not be examined by scriptures.

13. Our church's assertions concerning the know-Our
ledge of God's word in general, is thus: "As God's assertLns
word is in itself infallible, so it may be infallibly ^P- to^^'^o^'the
prehended and believed by every Christian, unto whom former,
he vouchsafeth to speak, after what manner soever he
speak unto him." Yea whatsoever is necessary for any

man to believe, the same must be infallibly written in
his heart : and on it once written, there he must imme-
diately rely, not upon any other authority concerning it.

14. Or if we speak of God's written word, our for-
mer general assertion may be restrained, thus :

15. We ai'e not bound to believe the authority of
the church, or visible company of any living men,
either concerning the truth or true sense of Divine
oracles written, so steadfastly and absolutely as we are
bound to believe the Divine written oracles them-
selves. Consequently to this assertion we affirm.

348

Mean betwixt the Extremes book ii.

16. That the infallible rule whereupon every Chris-
tian, in matters of written verities, (absolutely and
finally, without all appeal, condition, or reservation,)
is to rely, must be the Divine written oracles them-
selves : some of which every Christian hath written in
his heart by the finger of God's Spirit, and believes
immediately in and for themselves, not for any author-
ity of men ; and these to him must be the rule for ex-
amining all other doctrines, and trying any matters of
faith.

187 But because most in our days, in matters of faith
and Christian obedience, miss the celestial mean, and
fall into one of the two extremes ; it shall not be amiss,
while we seek to divert their course fi-om Scylla, to
admonish lest they make shipwreck in Charybdis.

CHAP. IV.

Shewing the Mean betwixt the two Extremities ; the one in
Excess, proper to the Papists, the other in Defect, proper
to the Anti-papist.

1. It is a rule in logic, that two contrary proposi-
tions (for their form) may be both false : and hence it
is, that many controversers of our times, (either in love
to the cause they defend, or heat of contention,) not
content only to contradict, but desirous to be most
contrary to their adversaries, fall into error with them.
No controversy (almost) of greater moment this day
extant, but yields experiments of this observation,
though none more plentiful than this in hand, concern-
ing the visible church's authority, or obedience due to
spiritual pastors.
The first 2. The papists on the one side demand infallible
extremuy gggent, and illimited obedience unto whatsoever the

held by the '

papists. church shall propose, without examination of her doc-
trine or appeal ; which is indeed (as we shall after-

CHAP. IV. of Papist and Anti-papist.

349

wards prove) to take aM'ay all the authority of God's
word, and to erect the present church's consistory
above Moses and St. Peter's chair. On the other side, The second
sundry, by profession protestants, in eagerness of op- amlp J. '''''
position to the papists, affirm, that the church, or spi-^'^'^'
ritual pastors, must then only be believed, then only be
obeyed, when they give sentence according to the evi-
dent and express law of God, made evident to the
hearts and consciences of such as must believe and
obey them. And this, in one word, is to take away
all authority of spiritual pastors, and to deprive them
of all obedience, unto whom (doubtless) God, by his
written word, hath given some special authority and
right, to exact some peculiar obedience of their flock.

IVow if the pastor be then only to be obeyed, when
he brings evident commission out of scripture for those
particulars unto which he demands belief or obedience,
what obedience do men perform unto him, more than
to any other man whomsoever ? For whosoever he be
that can shew us the express, undoubted command of
God, it must be obeyed of all : but whilst it is thus
obeyed, it only, not he that sheweth it unto us, is obey-
ed. And if this were all the obedience which I owe unto
others, I were no more bovmd to believe or obey any
other man, than he is bound to obey or believe me ;
the flock no more bound to obey their pastors, than
the pastors them. Yet certainly God, who hath set
kingdoms in order, is not the author of such confusion
in the spiritual regiment of his church.

3. Seeing then it is most certain that the Romanists 188
do foully err, let us see how their error may be fully
contradicted, not strive to be most contrary unto them,
but rather to seek out the mean between these two er-
roneous extremes.

4. Infallible assent, and illimited, unreserved obe-

350

Mean betwixt the Extremes book ii

dience, we may not perform to the present church, or
any visible company of men ; but to the scripture only,
made known, and evident to our consciences. This
assertion is directly and fully contradictory unto the
papists.

The third 5. Conditional assent, and cautionary obedience, M^e
assertfoit ^^^7 ^'^^ must perform to our spiritual pastors, over-
contradic- ggg^.g a^d s'overnors, albeit we see not express com-

tory to the ' O ' i

twofoimer missiou out of scripture to warrant these particulars

extremes, i i i . t •

and only whcreuuto they demand assent or obedience. It is
to the"mth. sufficient that they have their general commission for
obedience expressly contained in scripture. This as-
sertion directly contradicts the other extreme, or con-
trary assertion, and of all the three only doth not con-
tradict the word of God, which expressly teacheth, that
some peculiar obedience is due unto spiritual govern-
ors. Unless we hold, that when Christ ascended on
high, and led captivitij captive, his donation of spi-
ritual authority was but a donation of bare titles, with-
out realities answering unto them. To some, he gave
to he apostles ; to some, prophets ; some, evangelists ;
That some sotnc, pastors aiul teachers, Ei)hes. iv. 11. Though
ohedience, pi'opliesying iu soiue degree hath ceased, and the emi-
though not jigyj(.y Qf apostleship be dead with the apostles ; yet

so great as J ^ ^ i ^ j

the Romish pagtQj-s remain, and teachers must continue in Christ's

church doth

challenge, church uuto the world's end. If pastors we be, then
spiritual uiust We havc our shepherd's staff ; if teachers, a rod
goiemois. ]^eep our scholars in awe. The same apostle from
these grounds, thus exhorteth the flock : Obey them
that have the oversight of you, and snhmit yourselves:
for they watch for your souls, as they that must give
account, that they may do it with joy, and not with
grief: for that is unprojitahle for you. Heb. xiii. 17.
What manner of submission, or what kind of obe-
dience, doth he here exact ? Only spiritual, will the

CHAP. IV.

of Papist and Anti-papist.

351

carnal gospeller reply. But what manner of obedience is
this spiritual ? the least of all others ? It is doubtless
in their esteem, which fear no loss, but what is sensible
for the present, nor know not the virtue of any thing,
but what is palpable ; unto all such, to be spiritual is
all one as to be invisible, and to be invisible, is all one
as not to be at all. This is the last resolution of most
men's conceit of all spiritual authority in our times.
But such as dread the majesty of that invisible God,
and fear to grieve his Holy Spirit, will be most afraid
of contemning spiritual authority. Disobedience to it,
though in a prince, is as hateful to the King of kings
as the sin of witchcraft : for no subject is more bound
to obey his prince in civil actions, than his pastors in
spiritual. He that said, Touch not mine anointed,
said also, Do tmj prophets no harm. Of princes it is
said by the apostle, He that resisteth them, resisteth
God P. To pastors it was said, (by the Wisdom of
God, by whom princes reign,) He that heareth you
heareth me ; he that despiseth you despiseth me ; and
he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me^^: and
elsewhere, JVhose sins ye remit, they are remitted ;
whose sins ye retain, they are retained'^. These are
prerogatives of priests, and were not esteemed as words
of course, or formality, in the ancient and primitive 189
church ^ It was the just fear of disobedience in the
flock, which first gave occasion to pastors to usurp this
tyranny over them which now they practise. For as
idolatry and superstition could not have increased so
much in the old world, unless there had been evident
documents of a Divine power in ages precedent; so
neither could this extreme tyranny over Christ's flock
have been either usurped in the middle, or continued

P Rum. xiii. <i Luke x. 16. John xx. 23. s Vid.

lib. I . cap. I 2.

352

Mean betwixt the Extremes book ii.

to the latter ages of the Christian world, unless the
flock had made it a main matter of conscience to dis-
obey their pastors and overseers, whose authority they
knew from those places of scripture, then well ex-
pounded by the practice of holy men, to be exceeding
great.

6. St. Peter foresaw that this antichristian authority
was likely to spring from the people's reverent conceit
of their pastors' authority : and because the flock was
bound most strictly to obey them, he willeth the pas-
tors not to be too lordly in their commands. Feed
the flock of God ichich dependeth upon you, caring
for it, not hy constraint, hut willingly ; not for filthy
lucre, hut of a ready mind ; not as though ye were
lords over God's heritage, hut that ye may he ensam-
ples to the floch^. So doth St. Paul : Take heed there-
fore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, whereof the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own
hlood : for I know this, that after my departing shall
grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the
flock^. Unless the flock, for their parts, had been bound
to strict obedience, usurpation of lordship over them
had not been so easy, especially when there was no
power beside the pastoral staff to keep them under :
nor could their pastors have had any such opportunity
to attempt it, as might justly occasion these caveats
from these two apostles, which by their moderate car-
riage had prescribed a contrary example to their suc-
cessors. Easy it had been for the flock to have spared
themselves, or kept aloof from such merciless over-
seers ; whose designs, though they could not with safe
consciences contemn, avoid they might, by circumspect
aud careful attending to other true shepherds' voices,
t I Pet. V. 2, 3. 1 Acts XX. 28, 29.

CHAP. IV.

nf Pupist and Anti-papist.

353

who by their skill in scriptures, and true knowledge
of the Apostles' rules, knew how to limit the former
large commission directed to pastors, after they begun
degenerate into wolves. For this cause, neither of
these apostles direct these admonitions to their flock,
as if it were permitted them to limit their obedience at
their pleasure, but unto their pastors. And St. Peter,
in the words immediately following this admonition
unto pastors, exhorts the flock unto obedience ; Like-
wise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elders^;
without any the least intimation that they might dis-
obey, as soon as the other began to domineer. Not
that the flock may not refuse to obey their overseers
in some cases ; but our apostles did foresee, that the
people would be always most prone to disobedience,
upon less occasions than was requisite : and yet dis-
obedience, unless upon evident and just occasions, he
knew to be as dangerous, as blind obedience in matters
unlawful ; the one usually is the forerunner of super-
stition and idolatry ; the other, the mother of carnal
security, schism, and infidelity. And according to our
apostle's fear, did it fall out in the church of God. The
first mischief which befell her in her prime, was from the 190
want of due reverence, and awful regard of ecclesiastic
injunctions and constitutions. Hence did heresies
spring in such abundance; Satan had sown their seeds
in proud hearts; and the civil magistrate's facility to
countenance every prating discontent, or forth-putting
vocalist, in preaching what he list, though contrary to
his governor's constitutions, was as the spring sun to
cherish and bring them forth. And as the Romish
church, upon the depression of such rebellious spirits,
did raise herself above all that is called God: so in
truth it cannot be denied, but that many in reformed
" I Pet. V. 5.

JACKSON, VOL. I. A a

354 Of the Diversity of Human Actions, ^c. book ii.

congregations, by seeking to cure her disease, have cast
the church of God into a relapse of her former sick-
ness, which was the usurpation of too much liberty in
her children. For the avoidance whereof, we are now,
as God hath enabled us, to advise.

CHAP. V.

Of the Diversity of Hiitnan Actions : the Original of their
Laufi/lness, Unlanfiduess, or Indiffertncy : which ivithout
Question belong to the proper Subject of Obedience, which
not.

1. Of the subordination of spiritual governors a-
mongst themselves, we shall have fitter occasion else-
where to treat : now we are to inquire the limits and
bounds of spiritual authority in general, only so far
forth as it concerns the rectifying of their belief who
are bound to obey.

2. Out of the places before alleged, these truths
necessarily and immediately flow. There is some pe-
culiar authority in the priesthood or ministry, which
is not to be found in other men. This authority in
them is as essentially subordinate to Christ, as the
authority of any other magistrates is unto the princi-
pality or sovereignty of that nation wherein they live.
Disobedience unto spiritual governors doth redound
as directly and fully unto Christ's, as disobedience to
inferior magistrates doth unto the prince's or supreme
governor's dishonour ; for he that heareth Chrisfs
messengers heareth him ; he that despiseth them de-
spiseth him : and yet it is as evident again in some
cases they may be disobeyed. The difficulty is, in
which they are to be obeyed, in which not ; or in one
word, what is the proper subject of obedience due unto
them.

3. All obedience is seen, either in doing what is

CHAP. V. Of the Diversity of human Actions, Sfv.

355

commanded, or abstaining from what is forbidden : all Thegenerai
disobedience, in refusing to do what is commanded, subiect of
and doing that which is forbidden by superiors, or
men in authority. Things commanded or forbidden
are of three sorts ; either good in themselves, and re-
quired ; or else simply bad, and prohibited by the law
of God or nature ; or finally, indifferent ; neither com-
manded nor forbidden by either of the former laws.
Again, of good things, some are better, some less good.
And so of evil, some are more, some less evil. Things
indifferent only admit no degrees ; but our persuasion
of their indifferency, as also of the two other kinds,
may be stronger or weaker. Our persuasion in all Persuasions
three kinds may be pure or mixed. Our persuasion of mixed.'
any kind is then pure, when thei*e is no surmise or
persuasion of any contrary quality in the action to be 191
undertaken ; then mixed, when we are partly per-
suaded that it is of this or that nature, but not without
some surmise or probability that it may be of another
qualitj'^. The mixture of our persuasion likewise may or thevari.

, , . oi , • I 1 11 "lixture

be diverse. Sometimes we may be strongly persuaded of persua-
that the matter enjoined is good, and yet have some^y^"^j\.g ^,,3
weak persuasions or surmise that it is evil ; or contra- "*

actions or

riwise. Sometime we may have an eqvial persuasion dou'^ts

11.1. , ., '''iK'erning

both ways, and think it as probably good as evil, their law-
Sometimes we may have a strong persuasion that it is I'Jjawfui-
indifferent ; and a weak, that it is good or evil, or
contrariwise. Sometimes we may have a weak per-
suasion or conjecture that it may be a great good,
and a strong persuasion that it is but a little evil ; or
contrariwise. Sometimes a strong persuasion that it
is a thing indifferent, and yet some surmise that it is a
great evil, or great good. Finally, as the good or evil
apprehended by us, so our apprehension or persuasion
of their truth, or the truth of that indifferency, which

A a 2

356

Of the Diversity of human Actions, 8fc. book ii.

is found in some actions, may be divided into as many
degrees as we please : from the multiplicity of whose
different combination, the variety of human actions (if
we would descend to mathematical mensurations of our
conceits, or calculate every scruple, which curiosity of
speculation might breed in matters of practice) may be
in a manner infinite. But because most men measure
matters of conscience as they do commodities of little
worth, only grosso modo; for our present purpose it
will suffice to suppose three degrees of good, and thi*ee
of evil, and as many of our persuasions concerning the
lawfulness, unlawfulness, or indifferency of our actions.

4. Of things good in themselves, or so apprehended
by us, without any suspicion or scruple of evil in them,
there is no question. Every man's conscience hath
authority sufficient to enjoin their practice, and other
authority is scarce seen in the substance of such ac-
tions. For seeing the good itself is to be done, one
time or other, in some measure, only the alacrity of
doing it being enjoined ; in what time or measure it is
to be done, or other like circumstances, do properly
come within the subject of obedience.

5. Concerning pure persuasion of things indifferent
likewise, there is no difficulty of moment. For no man
that understands what he saith, will once deny, that
every lawful governor is to be obeyed, in things ac-
knowleged for merely indifferent. Only this question
may be made, whether things indifferent in the gene-
ral, or unto many or most men at ordinary times, be
indifferent in the individual, to this or that particular
man, at some peculiar seasons ? Either he makes no
conscience of his ways, or else he is besides himself,
that denies obedience unto any lawful magistrate ; save
only in such matters as at that time seem unlawful for
him to do, though indifferent in the general, or at

CHAP. V. Of the Diversity of human Actions, S;c. 857

other seasons, or to other men. Hence ariseth the first
degree of difference betwixt governors and private per-
sons, that in things acknowledged for indifferent unto us,
at this very instant, we are not bound to follow private
men's advice ; but a magistrate's or governor's com-
mand we are in conscience to obey, and to make choice
of whether part he shall appoint.

6. If we speak of private resolutions concerning The mie

, . . TTTi •! private

thmgs evil, this rule in general is most certain: Whilst resolutions
we are persuaded that any action is evil, without any "pp^ew^.
conceit or persuasion of good in the same, the adven-^^.'^'*™'^'''''^'
turing upon it is desperate, and the performance of it 192
unlawful. And yet, as he that exchangeth a commo-
dity worth eleven shillings, for another not worth five,
sustains greater loss, than he that hath a crown taken
from him, without any thing in lieu thereof ; so may in what

„ . , . , , . case some

a man otttimes wrong his own soul and conscience matters ap.
more, by undertaking actions which have some show Jl^^gjlgiy"
or probability of eoodness in them, than in undertaking V''"

>■ J » ' r> undertaken

others which have none, but are only apprehended as with less
evil. This falls out only and always then, when the timif others
difference between the greatness or probabilities of the p.,','.,'!^,
evil feared in the one, and the goodness hoped in the l^'^^l''^',"''''^
other action, is greater than the quantity or proba-p=»'^b
bility of the former evil, which admitted no mixed
apprehension of good. The reason is plain, because
the mixture of good doth only recompense so many
degrees of evil as itself contains of good. Now if in
the actions of equally mixed persuasions, the propor-
tion between the evil and good be such, as is between
eleven and five; the overplus of the evil will be as six;
and so shall it make that action wherein it is, worse
than that which hath but five degrees or parts of evil,
albeit without all mixture of any contrary persuasion,
or conceit of good. But always where the evils feared

A a 3

358

Of the Diversity of human Actions, 8^c. book ii.

are equal, and tlie probabilities of their ensuing like-
wise equal, any mixed apprehension of some good pro-
bably incident to the one, not to the other, doth make
the action whereto it is incident less evil, according to
the degrees, either of the good apprehended, or of our
probabilities that it may be accomplished : and yet
shall the action still be evil, as long as the evil which
we fear is greater than the good which we can hope
for ; or (these being equal) the probabilities greater
that the evil should fall out, than the good. For if to
prefer a less good before a greater be evil, much more
to adventure upon a great evil, in hope of a lesser
good ; most of all to adventure upon any great or pro-
bable evil, without probability of any good to counter-
vail it in the choice.
The rule of 7. Concerning mixed ])ersuasions of good and evil,

private le- . . . -itti

solutions in tins rule js general lor private resolutions: VVhereso-
probabiy*^ ever the probabilities or persuasions of the goodness of
good as evil, gj^y, actiou ai'c as great as the persuasions and proba-
bilities of the evil that may ensue, and the measure
of the goodness apprehended as great as the quantity
of the evil feared, a man of his own private accord
may as safely adventure upon the action as the omis-
sion of it, referring the event to God's providence,
which favoureth positive actions more than privations,
works rather than idleness, and the following of that
which is good, more than abstinence from evil. A
lawful governor's command, whether spiritual or tem-
poral, must in this case rule all private choice, either
for doing or omitting it : the case is all one as in
things merely indifferent ; for here is an indifferency
of persuasions. These rules are evident in private
resol-utions.

The chief 8. All the difficulty couceming the subject of obe-

points of , . , . . , , . . /.

difficulty dience unto governors, is, either in pure persuasions or

CHAP. VI. Sincere Obedience to laivful Authority, Sfc. 359

the evil that may be in matters commanded, without conceiuing

the subject

any probability of good ; or else, where the mixture or ot .,i,e-
persuasions is unequal in respect of the evil feared ; or*^'^"'^^"
lastly, where (supposing- the probabilities of good and
evil are equal) the quantity of the evil which men fear
is greater than the quantity of the good which they 193
hope ; the points of difficulty are especially two :

9. First, whether injunction of public authority may
oversway any degree of our private persuasions, con-
cerning the unlawfulness of any opinion or action ; as,
whether we may safely adventure upon such actions,
or embrace such opinions, as we ourselves judge evil,
without any show or conceit of good ; or such as we
are more strongly persuaded that they are evil than
good ; or such, wherein the evil which we fear, seems
greater than it can be recompensed with the good
which we can hope for, though it were as likely to
ensue.

10. Secondly, if public authority may oversway any
at all, what kind of private persuasions these be, or
how far they may be overswayed by it.

CHAP. VI.

I'lidt sincere Obedience unto laivful Authority iiiuhes sundry
Actions Imvful and good^ which without it ivould be alto-
gether tinlau'fnl and evil.

1. Many in our days are persuaded, that no injunc-
tion of authority ought to move us to any thing, which
privately we deem evil, either absolutely or unto us.
Obedience in matters lawful they acknowledge to be
good, and acceptable in the sight of God ; but the
goodness of it not so great as may warrant our under-
taking actions, either suspected for unlawful, or already
condemned for such, in the consistory of our private

A a 4

360 Sincere Obedience to hiw/id Authority, 4*r. book ii.

conscience : for this, in their opinion, were to do evil
thai good might ensue.

2. But here men should consider, that many actions
may be evil, whilst undertaken by private men upon
private motions, which are not evil, once allowed or
enjoined by authority : not that any authority can
make that which is evil good ; but that it may add
some circumstance or motive, whereby the same action
which, barely considered, was evil before, may now by
this addition or alteration become not evil, because not
altogether the same. For Abraham upon private in-
stigation or secular motives to have killed his son, had
been hideous and monstrous cruelty, one of the greatest
breaches imaginable of the law of nature ; but being
appointed by God so to do, to have killed his son had
been no manslaughter. Not that God in this particu-
lar did (as some speak) dispense with the law of na-
ture ; for dispensation had made his action or purpose
only not unlawful; whereas God's commandment >
did not only exempt his resolution from that precept,
Tho/i shidt not kill, but placed it in the highest rank
of goodness. For he had done better in killing his
son upon this motive, than in saving of his enemy's
life out of his private resolution or goodness of na-
ture. Most true it is (for a prophet said it) of the
194general, Ohedience is better than sacrifice ^; the truth
whereof was most undoubtedly most perspicuous in
this particular, by which that very action, which other-
wise had been most cruel murder, became more accept-

y Abraham noii solum iion est tus execrabilis Deo jubente lau-

culpatus crudelitatis crimine, ve- dabilis. Aug. contra Faust. Man.

rum etiam laudatus est nomine 1. 22. c. 73.
pietatis, quod voluit filium ne- z Abraham's obedience made

quaquam scelerate, sed obedien- that action, which without it had

ter occidere. Aug. de Civit. Dei, been worse than murder, to be

lib. I. cap. 21. Spontaneus mo- better than sacrifice.

CHAP. VI. Sincere Obedience to hncful Authority, ^c. 361

able in the sight of God, than any sacrifice that ever was
offered, save only that, wherein greater obedience than
Abraham here intended, was actually performed.

3. But some, perhaps, will here demand, what ar- How far the
gument can be drawn from obedience unto Divine, stance seiTr-
Supreme authority, for justifying obedience unto sub-
ordinate powers, in matters which, in our private ^sti- p"""-
mation, we deem unlawful ? Shall we equalize man
with God, or human authority with Divine? No, but
we should know, that all lawful powers are from God,
and he that resisteth them resisteth the authority of
Divine power. Abraham's warrant for killing his son
was more authentic and express, than we can have for
any particular action, which we privately conceive as
evil : but not more authentic and express, than many
Divine precepts for obedience unto lawful governors
are. As his warrant was better, so had his action
without it been more desperate, than such as superior
powers usually impose upon inferiors. The former
instance then was brought, principally, to mitigate the
rigour of their preciseness, who stiffly maintain, that
no obedience can legitimate such actions, as without it
would be evil ; but all must be performed only in mat-
ters presuj)posed good and lawful, or at least, acknow-
ledged for indifferent unto private men, before enjoined
by public authority. The contradictory to which imi-
versal negative appears most true, in this particular
affirmative of Abraham's resolution and obedience :
from which we may further argue thus : As the im-
mediate interposition of Divine authority made that
action holy and religious, which otherwise had been
barbarously impious ; so may the interposition of au-
thority derived from God, make some actions, which,
barely considered, would be apparently evil, despei*ate,
or doubtful, to be honest, good, and lawful. To beat

362 Sincere Obedience to lawful Authority, ^c. book ii.

one that is sui juris, at his own disposition, and in his
right mind, against, or one that is not such, with his
consent, were insolent wrong ; because we have no
power over the one, the other none over himself, to
authorize such usage of his body. What would it be,
then, in private men, to beat such as they know for
God's ambassadors, though requested by them so to
do ; when as the very request might seem to argue
some present distemper or distraction of mind ? No
doubt, but he tliat refused to smite his neighbour pro-
phet (whether Elisha or some other ; the story is in
the First of Kings ^) did not only pretend, but truly
had some scruple of conscience, lest he should offend,
either that general law of not doing wrong unto his
neighbour, or that peculiar precept, Do my j)rophets
no harm : and yet for his disobedience to the prophet's
command, became a sacrifice to the lion. But he that
took the prophet's authority for his warrant, though
he smote, and in smiting wounded him, yet did he not
hurt his own conscience a whit, but rather by thus
doing preserved it whole, notwithstanding the former
precept of doing God's prophets no harm. •'To rifle
195 a Spanish ship upon private quarrels, were piracy in
an English navigator ; to kill a Spaniard, murder :
but suppose the king's majesty, upon wrong done by
that nation to our state, not satisfied, should grant his
letters of mart ; to rob them of their goods were no
piracy, to take away their lives no murder : yet were
the outward action in both cases the same, but the cir-

^ I Kings XX. 35 — 37. si sua sponte atque authoritate

^ IMiles, cum obediens potes- fecisset, in crimen efFusi humani

tati sub qua legitime constitutus sanguinis incidisset. Itaque un-

est, hominem occidit, nulla civi- de punitur si fecerit injussus,

tatis suae lege reus est homicidii: inde jjunietur nisi fecerit jussus.

imo nisi fecerit, reus est imperii Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. i. c. 26.
deserti atque contempti. Quod

( HAH. VI. Smcere Obedience to lawful Authority, ^c. 363

cumstances diverse, and the party that now undertakes
it hath better motives than before he had.

4. Many instances might be brought unto this pur-
pose, all evidently evincing thus much in general, that
sundry actions which, undertaken out of private choice,
would be wicked, (because we conceive in them some
evil, without any conceit of possible good to set against
it,) may by injunction of public authority become law-
ful to us ; because we have new motives and better
warrants for to do them ; nor can our adventure upon
such actions be censured for desperate, as before it
might well have been. For first, whilst men of skill
and judgment, appointed by God to advise in such
matters, are otherwise persuaded than we in private
are ; the rule of Christian modesty binds us to suspect
our own persuasion, and consequently, to think there
may be some good even in that action wherein hereto-
fore we thought was not ; wherein as yet we ourselves
see none, yet may safely persuade ourselves that others
see, either more good or less evil. And unto this per-
suasion we must add this consideration also : that per-
formance of obedience itself is a good and acceptable
action in the sight of God. Or to come nearer the
point,

5. The goodness of our sincere obedience alone is
not a consequent only of the action, but either an es-
sential part, or such a circumstance or motive prece-
dent, as brings a new essence for its concomitant,
whereby the evil (which we out of private persuasions
fear) may be countervailed, as well as if we did con-

c He that doth that which in seeing the goodness of obedience

his private opinion he suspecteth is no consequent of the action,

for evil because enjoined !)y hiw- but a motive precedent. Tlie

ful authority, in this respect doth same reason holds in avoidance

not evil that good may ensue, of scandal or bad example.

364 Sincere Obedience to laicfid Authority, S)C. book ii.

ceive some good px'obably included in the very object
of the action itself, which might be equivalent to the
evil feared. At the least then, some actions, which
privately we would avoid as altogether evil, may upon
the former motives be as lawfully undertaken, as those
which we hold as probably good as evil.

6. But as every conceit of any good is not sufficient
to countervail all conceit of evil, which may appear in
the same matter; so neither may all authority counter-
vail every private persuasion in any man ; but the
greater or more public the authority is, the more
should it prevail with all private persons for the un-
dertaking of such actions as otherwise would seem
unlawful. The like may be said of the danger or
scandal which might arise from the example of our
disobedience, or non-performance of obedience. The
greater the harm is likely to ensue such neglect of
obedience, the more we are bound to be less scrupulous
in obeying, for these are not mere consequents of the
action. The reason why men often mistake them for
such is, because they distinguish not between the real
harms themselves, or scandalous events which follow
the action, and the serious forecast of their danger.
For as the means are precedent to the real assecutiou
of the end, and yet the intention of the end doth al-
ways go before the right choice of means, and, as it
196 were, seasons them for the production of what we in-
tend ; so albeit the real events or harms be mere con-
sequents, yet the mature and prudent forecast of dan-
ger likely to follow any action or resolution, must be
admitted into the consultation precedent, and ought to
sway our consciences, according to every degree of
their probabilities unpartially conceived, as well as if
we were as probably persuaded of so many degrees of

CHAP. VI, Sincere Obedience to lawful Authority, 8^c. 365

inherent goodness in the action itself or its essential
object. For the avoidance of any evil equally probable
is as good as the attaining of an equal good. If the
danger which we justly fear may follow our neglect of
obedience, whether in things forbidden or commanded,
be as great as the evil which (upon like probability)
we conceive in the very action itself ; it should make
us as willing to do what we are commanded, as to re-
fuse ; albeit we set apart the goodness which may
arise from the mere act of obedience itself.

7. That both goodness of mere obedience, as obe-
dience, and also the danger of evil likely to ensue our
denial thereof, are either essential parts of the object,
or such internal motives precedent, as may raise a new
form in the action; may be gathered from what hath
been said afore, of things indifferent. For the injunc-Someobe-
tion of authority, as none, I think, will deny, makes liteTthTt*^
things which to have done, or not to have done, was J,!^^'*
before indifferent, now not to be such, but necessary

^ tions : be-

and good. So as not only the obedience is to be thought cause any

J 1 , . 1 ■ 1 1 • • obedience

good, but the very action wherein obedience is seen, (though in
though before indifferent, is now inherently good, and ^^^1^^*^*'
the omission of it would be in itself evil, and not by

' •! actions

consequent only. For obedience either is, or causeth ^hich with.

out it were

a new form or essential difference, which doth as it indifferent,
were sublimate the outward action, to an higher na-good/'^"'^
ture and quality than it was capable of before. For
the same reason may this goodness of obedience, and
the due consideration of harms which may follow its
refusal, make such actions, as before had been evil for
us out of private resolutions to have undertaken, not
to be any more evil, but good. The difficulty only is,
what private doubts or dislikes may be countervailed
by public authority, or what certain rule may be given
when they may, and when they may not.

366 Sincere Obedience to lauful Authority, Sf-c. book ti.

To^ve 8. General rules in this case are very hard to be
whafac^'^''* S^^^'^' because the circumstances may be many and
tions may diverse. The authority may be greater or less ; so

of evil lie- J • <D

come good may their dislike that are to perform obedience be of

bvobdieme, , , . . . - ™i • • • ti • i

is verj'dif- the things eujoined. 1 he injunction likewise may be
more or less peremptory. Sometimes it may seem to
resemble rather an advice, than absolute command ;
sometimes rather to adjure, than command; sometimes
the parties in authority may be of less, and the parties
of whom obedience is exacted, of greater reach, and
deeper insight in those matters whereunto obedience
is enjoined, according to the diversity of the subject of
obedience, which sometime may be such, wherein men
of experience or practice are to be most believed,
wherein concurrence of judgments and multitude of
voices may argue more truth ; sometimes the subject
of obedience may be matters of abstruse speculation,
wherein one man of profound judgment is more to be
believed, than five hundred but of ordinary capacity.
For as things visible, but far distant, so matters of
abstruse speculation, cannot be discerned by multitude
197 of eyes, but by clearness of sight; and as he that
could discern ships in the Carthaginian, from the Lili-
baean haven, saw more than all Xerxes' army could
in like distance ; so doth it oft fall out, that some one
profound judicious contemplator sees clearly that truth,
which all the wits of the same age had not been able
without him to discover. Such men may sin in obey-
ing authority, whereunto others in yielding obedience
sin not ; because they can discern the unlawfulness of
the command itself better than others. But unless a
man can justly plead this, or some other like peculiar
reason or privilege, it is a very suspicious and danger-
ous case to disobey lawful authority, (whether spiritual
or temporal,) in such matters as he thinks others of

CHAP. VI. Sincere Obedience to Umfnl Authority^ Sfc. 367

his own rank may with safe conscience obey, or in
such matters, whereiinto he sees many men, by his
own confession of great judgment and integrity of life,
yielding obedience with alacrity. For if thus he think
of them, he cannot but suspect himself and his persua-
sions of error ; nay he cannot be otherwise persuaded,
but that the commandment, or public injunction of
authority, is not absolutely against God's command-
ment ; for so it could not be obeyed, with safe con-
science, by men of skill and integrity. And this I take A certain
to be the safest general rule that can be given in thisaiuhm'ty"
case: Not to consider the particular matters enjoined,
with such of their circumstances or consequents as we^j'ho"*

whose ob-

out of our private imaginations conceive or fear, soservation
much as the general form of public injunction, as itaienceis
indistinctly concerns all. If we can truly discern thel'j'j^g^^jjg,
law or public act itself to be against God's law, ^^ii^l ti',a°"^^fg
such as will lay a necessity upon us of transgressing
God's commandments, if we yield obedience to parti-
culars enjoined by it ; our apostles have already an-
swered for us, // is better to obey God than men'^.
Christ had commanded them to preach the gospel :
the priests and other governors forbid them to preach
Christ. Here was a contradiction in the laws them-
selves. But God commands us to obey the powers
ordained by him ; and their commandments are parti-
cular branches of God's general cominaiidments for
this purpose : and he that disobeyeth them, disobeyeth
God, unless their commandments be contrary to some
other of God's commandments. And it is a course as
preposterous as dangerous, to disobey authority, be-
cause we dislike the things commanded by it, in re-
spect of ourselves, or upon some persuasion peculiar to
us, not common to all. For seeing obedience is God's
'I Acts iv. 19.

368 Sincere Obedience to laivful Authority, 8fc. book ii.

express commandment ; yea seeing we can no more
obey, than love God, whom we have not seen, but by
Such as obeying our superiors whom we have seen : true spirit-

disol)ev .

puUic in- ual obedleuce, were it rightly planted in our hearts,
il^n^'suspi- would bind us, rather to like well of the things com-
feariest sanded for authority's sake, than to disobey authority
their prac- foj. private dislikc of them. Both our disobedience

tice might ^

occasion to the oue and dislike of the other are unwarrantable,

evil, are . , ^ «

usually unless we can truly derive them from some formal con-
thelr"o\vn tradiction or opposition betwixt the public or general
fXinto*^ injunction of superiors, and express law of the Most

that very High,
sin which

they seek 9- It will be replied, that albeit the genei*al form
toa\oi . py|j|jg injunction be not absolutely unlawful, nor
the things enjoined (for this reason) essentially or
necessarily evil ; yet are tliese most unexpedient, and
may be grand occasions of great evil.

He that is thus persuaded might, as far as became
198 his place, dissuade any public act concerning such
matters ; and yet withal was bound to consider,
whether the want of such an act might not occasion as
great evils as he fears may follow the practice of
such obedience as it commands ; or whether other
might not as probably foresee some equivalent good
which he sees not. But after such acts are publicly
made, and obedience duly demanded, ^he that denies it
upon fear only of some evil that may follow, doth give
great occasion to others of committing that evil which
he himself by this refusal certainly commits, he opens
the gap to that capital mischief of public societies,

e In vitium ducit culpte fuga, good. Thus from an unnecessary

si caret arte. As we may not do fear of the former men fall into

evil that good may ensue, so may the latter, (which is but a sister-

we not omit any good lest evil sin,) by denying obedience which

might happen thereon ; and yet in itself is good, for fear lest they

obedience by all men's consent is should give occasion of evil.

CHAP. VI. Sincere Obedience to lawful Authority, fyc. 369

anarchy and disobedience. In doubts of this nature,
it will abundantly suffice to make sincere protesta-
tion in the sight of God, or if need require, before
men, that we undertake not such actions upon any
private liking of the things enjoined, but only upon sin-
cere respect of performing obedience to superiors, whom
God hath appointed to make laws for us, but not us to
appoint them what laws they should make, nor to
judge of their equity being made, save only where the
form of the commandment is contrary to some of God's
commandments, so as the particulars enjoined become
thereby essentially and necessarily evil. In such case,
the laws of superiors are already judged and con-
demned by God's law, by which whilst they stand
uncondemned, tliey shall condemn us for disobedience
both to God's laws and them, albeit we stand in doubt,
whether that which they enjoin would not be most
unlawful for us to do, if we were left unto our private
choice. For seeing the case stands in controversy be-
twixt us and our suj)eriors ; we should do as we are
commanded by them, and refer the final decision to the
supreme Judge, whether they do well or ill in mak-
ing such laws, as to us may seem to be occasions of
evil, but whether they shall prove so or no, he best
knows that only can prevent the danger. We, as I
said before, might advise if we were thereunto called,
for the mitigation or abrogating of such laws, but
judge or condemn them, by the probabilities or fears
of their consequents, we may not, but only where they
are already judged by the law of God. What private
man is there that knows the secret intents or purposes
of the state, in most actions of public service? Can any
man doubt but that a great many oft fear some danger-
ous consequents of those services wherein they are em-
ployed ? Why then do most men think themselves

JACKSON, VOL. 1. B b

370 Sincere Obedience to lawful Authority^ 8jc. book ii.

bound to obey tbe state, against their private doubts
or fears ? " It is enough tliat we know such busi-
nesses," (as for example, wars with foreigners,) " not
to be unlawful in the general V and the determinations
of wars, or like business, to be referred to the king and
his council : but whether this or that war be justly
undertaken by them or no ; common soldiers, nay
captains are not to judge, nor to detract obedience,
albeit they suspect the lawfulness of the quarrel, or
could wish for peace if they were in place to deter-
mine of such matters. But if the whole state should
command promiscuous use of women, adultery, mur-
der of our brethren uncondemned by law, blasphe-
199 my, or the like: such commandments were not to
be obeyed, but we are rather bound to suffer death
ourselves, than to be their instruments in such actions :
for here is a direct contradiction betwixt the forms of
such laws and the laws of God.
What hath 10. From what hath hitherto been delivered, we

been spoken i , i • • i •

of authority ^lay coIlcct, that superiors, or men in authority, are to
api^Ied'to' obeyed in such points, as their inferiors are not at
thoritjr'*" leisure to examine, or not of capacity to discern, or not
of power or place to determine whether they be lawful
or no. Thus much at the least is common to all abso-
lute authority, of what kind soever. And from the
former places alleged, containing the commission of
priests or ministers, it is most evident, that the lawful
pastor or spiritual overseer hath as absolute authority

f Thus much St. Austin tak- tur, vel, non esse contra Dei prae-
eth as granted by all. For he ceptuni certum est, vel, utrum sit,
brino-eth in these words follow- certm non est: ita ut fortasse
ing to infer a conclusion denied reum regem faciat iniquitas im-
by his adversary. Vir Justus, si perandi, innocentem auteni mi-
forte sub rege nomine etiam sa- litem ostendat ordo serviendi.
crilego militet, recte potest illo Aug. 1. 22. contra Faustum Ma-
jubente beliare, civicae pacis or- nichasum, cap. 75.
dinem servans. Cui, quod jube-

CHAP. VI. Sincere Obedience to Imvfnl Authority, &)C. 371

to demand belief or obedience in Christ's, as any civil
magistrate hath to demand temporal obedience in the
state or prince's name : and if any of Christ's fold deny
obedience, or appeal from his pastor, without just and
evident reason, he doth thereby deny Christ, and en-
danger his own soul, as nmch as he doth his body
that resists a lawful magistrate, when he is charged
by him in his prince's name to obey. And as in tem-
poral causes, if a man appeal without just occasions,
from an inferior court to a higher, he is not thereby
freed, but rather to be returned to the inferior court
from which he appealed, or to be censured (besides his
other facts) for his unlawful appeal : so likewise, such
as upon pretence of ignorance in God's word, or liberty
of conscience, appeal from ordinary ministers to Christ
the chief Shepherd, are not thereby presently acquitted, .
but stand still liable to the censure of their pastors,
either to bind them if they continue obstinate, as well
for this their disobedience in appealing from them, as
for their other sins ; or to loose and remit their sins, if
they repent. For God hath appointed his ministers to
govern his church, and governors are to be obeyed
in that they are governors, unless such as are to per-
form obedience do perfectly know, or have reasons
(such as they would not be afraid to render to Christ
in that dreadful day) to suspect, that their pastors
in their commands go beyond their commission, or
the express laws and ordinances of Christ Jesus, the
supreme Governor and Commander both of pastor and
people.

11. But many men ai*e ofttimes strongly persuaded, Uuto what
that the very form of the law or their superiors' injunc-st^ds
tions, are opposite unto God's laws, when in truth Ing^fr^^^,.
they are not. And hence they think they deny obedi-|y p^^^^^"""*-
ence upon sincerity and conscience, when indeed they t'^e laws <.i

B b 2

37^ Sincere Obedience to lawful Authority, Sfc. book ii.

supenois iJo not, but HI both cases are merely blinded by affec-

are against . . . ' . i t

(iod's laws, tion. The question is, wliether denying obedience
in his'lhi*' upon such persuasions, they do well or ill ? That the
if he diso' P^'i'suasion is evil, is withovit controversy. The diffi-
beyupon eulty IS, whetlier (the persuasion remaining in full

sucli strong

but ill strength, without any mixture of suspicion, or appre-
pereuasions. hension of their error) they add a new sin of disobedi-
ence, besides the sinfulness of their erroneous persua-
sion, or that habitual affection whence it springs : that
is, whether they should do better in obeying against
the full strength of their persuasion, or in disobeying,
whilst it remains? If they obey, they sin against
their consciences, and prefer the laws of man before
God's : if they do better in disobeying, it may seem an
unhappy error, which exempts them from the yoke of
obedience, wherevinto the orthodox are subject. The
answer is easy ; Whosoever shall deny obedience upon
such persuasions doth commit disobedience actually :
not that it were better for him to obey, (supposing
the strength of his persuasion to the contrary,) but
he actually sins in that he suffers not the strength of
his persuasion to be broken by the stroke of authority,
but rather suffers it to confront authority : so that his
sin (if we will speak precisely) consists only in the exer-
cise of his former persuasion, or in the motion of his
habitual affection ; not in any proper act of that pecu-
liar habit or vice^, which we call disobedience. That
whei'eunto he stands bound by authority, is to adjure
his former persuasion, that he may with safe conscience
obey; or (to speak more distinctly) he is not bound
immediately to obey in the particulars now enjoined,
nor to renounce his persuasion without more ado, but

& It may be questioned whe- dience consist only in the formal

ther there be any such peculiar oj)position between some one or

vice distinct from all untoward other affection^ and the law, seek-

afFection, or whether all disobe- ing to restrain it.

CHAP. VII. Actions properly said not of Faith, &c. 373

to enter into his own soul and conscience, to examine
the grounds or motives of his persuasion, to rate his
own wit and judgment at its due worth and no higher,
to renoinice all self-conceit, or jealousies of disparage-
ment, in yielding to that he had formerly impugned,
that so he may sincerely and uncorruj)tedly judge of
the truth proposed, and esteem aright of authority,
and others' worth that yield unto it. If we would
sincerely obey in these points, which are the immedi-
ate and first principles of true Christian obedience, the
grounds of erroneous persuasions would quickly fail :
so as we should be always ready to obey in the par-
ticulars, whereiuito obedience was justly demanded.
But of the grounds, occasions of erroneous persuasions,
and their remedies, by God's assistance, more at large
in the article of the Godhead, and some other treatises
of Christian faith.

CHAP. VII.

ff^hat Actions arc properUj stnd to he not of Faith, in the
Apostle's sense : what manner of Dould it is ivliich makes
them such.

1. Against all that hath been hitherto delivered
concerning this point, that happily may be yet ol)ject-
ed, which hath always bred greatest scruple for yield-
ing obedience in doubtful cases. For our apostle saitb.
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin ; but whilst men
obey spiritual governors, in those particulars, for
which they shew no scripture, this obedience is not
of faith ; (for faith is always ruled by the word ;) ergo^
this obedience is sinful, even in this respect alone, that
it hath not the word for its warrant, but much more
if we doubt whether the things enjoined be good or
bad : for doubting breeds condemnation, as our apo-

Kom. xiv. 23.

B b 3

374

Actions properly said not of Faith book it.

stle in the same place gathereth. He that douhteth is
condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith.
201 2. Unto the former part of this objection the answer
is easy and brief : Seeing God's word commands obe-
dience in general unto spiritual pastors, and that in
most express terms ; it doth warrant our obedience in
particulars, which are not forbidden by the same word.
But for clearing of the latter objection, because this
place of St. Paul is as often m-ged to as little purpose
as any other in the whole book of God besides, it shall
not be amiss to consider, first, in what sense it is true.
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Secondly, what
manner of doubt it is, that makes a thing to be not of
faith, in that sense which our apostle means.
Three di- A thing may be said to be of faith three ways : first,
iii^'^o'f'this^trictly and properly, that is said to be ex fide, " of
phrase, not fgitfi " which is au act or exercise of the habit or virtue

of fatlh. '

The Hrst of faith ; as to believe in God, in Christ, or to assent

meaning. i

unto any article in the Creed. In this sense, no man I
think doth urge this place of our apostle, IVhatsoeier
is not of faith is sin. For then all deeds of charity
should be sinful, seeing they are no acts or exercises
of the habit of faith, but of charity, which is a distinct
habit from faith, according to best divines : nor can
we properly say, that such works flow from faith, as
the fruit doth from the root, seeing charity is no branch
of faith, but a coeval stem of infused sanctifying grace,
the common root to both. Such acts then may be said
to be of faith, only because the doctrine of faith en-
joins them, and the habit or virtue of faith inclines the
soul unto them, and moves charity unto the exercise
The second of them. And this is the second sense or meaning of
meaning, ^j^^ speecli cxfidc, " of faith ;" that is, those things are
said to be of faith, or to proceed from faith, which are
commanded by the doctrine of faith, or unto which we

CHAP. VII.

in the Apostle's Sense, 8)<:.

375

are inclined or moved by the habit or virtue of faith.
But neither is it always true, JVhatsoeve?' is not of
faith, in this sense, is sin. For so no recreation, no
merriment, not eating- and drinking, with many other
works both of reason and nature, generally nothing
merely indifferent, could be truly of faith ; at the least
at this or that time. How then are not all these sin-
ful, seeing they are not of faith, in none of the former
senses, being neither acts of faith, nor enjoined by the
doctrine of faith ? This necessarily enforceth us to seek
a third signification of the former words.

4. Thirdly then, that is said to be not of faith, what- Tie third
soever is not warrantable by the doctrine of faith,
whatsoever conscience, or the virtue of faith, being ['^J'"'"
consulted, cannot countenance or allow, but rather dis-
suade. And in this sense, all that may be said to be
ex fide, " of faith," whatsoever is warrantable by the
doctrine of faith, whatsoever faith, conscience, or the
law of reason and nature can approve or allow of,
either absolutely, or at that present whilst they are
undertaken, albeit they do not enjoin them, or impel
us unto them (at the least) for that season. As for
example, if a man, free from necessary employments
of his calling, should ride half a score of miles to be
merry with his honest friend ; this were neither an
act of faith, nor an exercise enjoined by faith, and yet
truly of faith, in our apostle's sense, and no way sinful,
because warrantable by the doctrine of faith : neither
faith, nor conscience, nor law of nature, would con-
demn him for so doing. But if his dearest friend lay
on his death-bed, and did expect some comfort by his
presence, his absence upon such light occasions would
be sinful, because it could not be of faith. Neither
the doctrine of faith, nor the law of reason, could
countenance such an action. Such resolutions may

B b 4

376

Actions properly said not of Faith book ii.

202 properly be said, 7iot of faith, because they cannot
proceed btit from some inclination or disposition op-
posite to the habit of true faith, and the dictates of
natural well-disposed, much more of sanctified con-
science. Suppose some man's conscience were so scru-
pulous, as to doubt whether he might ride so far to be
merry with his friend, when he had no urgent occa-
sions to withdraw him ; and another so confident, and
fully persuaded in his mind, as to make no question
whether he should meet his friend in a plague house,
or when his own father lay a dying. The question is,
whether of these two doth sin the more ; or if both do
not sin, whether of them is freed from sin, and by
what means ? The former, as is supposed, doubts of
the action, and yet doth it : the other doth the like,
but worse, and doubteth not. If that journey which
in itself is 1 nvful, (supposing the former case,) becomes
unlawful to the one, because he doubts it is unlawful ;
then may the other's confident persuasion make his
expedition lawful unto him, although in itself (suppos-
ing the caj;e above mentioned) it were unlawful. For
who can give any reason, why confidence of persuasion
may not as well legitimate what otherwise is unlawful,
as doubt or scruple illegitimate that which otherwise
were lawful and warrantable. So that, according to
these grounds, the former party above mentioned should
sin, not the latter. And our apostle's speeches (unless
they admit some restraint) M'ill infer thus much /
Tiiiow and am persuaded through the Lord Jesus,
that there is nothing unclean of itself: hut unto him
that judgeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is

' Our apostle's words, unless fident persuasion might acquit

the universality of their form be us, as doubting condemn us in

restrained by the matter or sub- any action. Yet confidence of

ject, infer as forcibly, that con- persuasion doth never acquit us.

CHAP. VII. in the Apostle s Sense, S^c. 377

unclean. And again, This man esteemeth one day
above another day ; another man counteth every day
alike : let every man be J'ully persuaded in his mind :
as if he added, and then there is no danger^. And
yet if we should but consult natural reason, who could
deny that he that made an idle journey, whereby he
might endanger his own, or neglect his father's life,
did sin most grievously ; albeit he were most fully
persuaded to the contrary : yea the stronger his per-
suasion were, the greater his sin. On the contrary, he
that should undertake the like journey, having no
serious occasions to withdraw him, if the truth be
rightly scanned, did not sin at all, unless perhaps in
doubting whether he sinned or no. For every doubt
of what we do, doth not make our action sinful, or
not of faith: which is now to be discussed.

5. If that speech of our apostle. He that doubteth is
condemned if he eat, were to be universally understood
of all doubts, or all actions ; we should never have an
end of doubting, nor any beginning of many good and
most necessary works. This very persuasion, were The effects
it throughly and generally planted in all men's hearts, scnipuiosi-
were enough to bring all states to utter anarchy, and apostie's"'^
to set the whole world in combustion. For what en-'^^^"'"'

versally un-

terprise is thei'e of greater moment, but diverse menderstood

f T • 1 • I r would iie-

wiU be of diverse mmds concernnig the lawfulness orcessaniy
unlawfulness of it? Who could not by this exception ex- contrary^ to
cuse himself from performance of necessary allegiance ov^^l^^^°^
service ? If the king's majesty should wage war against
the Spaniard, he that were addicted to their religion
might reply, I should be as willing as another to do
my king and country any service, but I doubt whether

but in matters presupposed in- equality in the matter,
different ; no more can doubting ^ Rom. xiv. 14. and 5, 6.
condemn us without some in-

378

Actions properly said not of Faith

BOOK II.

I may afford him my goods to the hurt and damage
of Roman catholics : the cause I am afraid is most
203 unlawful, and will bring God's plague upon this land,
therefore I may not hazard my life in it, nor adventure
to shed the innocent blood of our holy mother the
church's children. The like might a Lutheran say, if
war should fall out betwixt our state and the Saxons;
or if with some other reformed churches, the like might
be said by most in our land : finally, there would be
continual distraction in the managing of all public
affairs. But such scrupulous demurs in civil matters
are either seldom made, or quickly answered by the
temporal sword. And are they less dangerous in cases
as little doubtful, (wherein the consequents feared are
of no less moment,) when they are given to the chief
managers of our spiritual warfare, in times wherein
disobedience threatens dissolution of Christ's army,
that must fight his battles against Satan and the man
of sin ? Is the authority of binding and loosing, open-
ing and shutting the kingdom of heaven, less than the
authority of life and death, or the disposing powers of
obedience temporal goods ? What should be the reason then,
pie'yea"' ^^^^ evcry scruple should be held sufficient to deny
even the obedience (in matters of greatest consequence) unto

scruple or " ^ '

douht itself, spiritual, more than temporal authority? Out of
^fjaith, as doubt, that rule of St. Paul doth no more warrant the
poti'tive ac'- ^ue than the other. The true reason is, most men
tion, of fgg^j, temporal censures, more than either God's or his ;

whose law- ' '

fulness they an Ordinary gaol, more than hell; and had rather be
whence tiie doorkccpers in great men's houses, than glorified saints
whk^'ma'ny lu hcaveu I but of this hereafter. To proceed then
thripo-"'" ^^^^ apostle's rule. Were it universally to be
stie's rule, uudcrstood, it would bring all Christian souls into such

IS most "

forcible perpetual, miserable, inextricable perplexities, as they
themselves, should always Hvc in suspense, and scarce resolve

CHAP. VII.

hi the Apostle's Sense, Sfc.

379

upon any thing. For his rule holds as true in the
omission of what should be done, as in the commission
of what we think should not be done. Suppose then
thy pastor commands thee to obey in this or that par-
ticular, which he verily thinks either necessary to be
undertaken by all Christians, at all or most times ; or
else most expedient for thy soul's health, the setting
forth of God's glory, or the good of others, at this
present. But thou art contrary minded, and doubtest
whether thou mayest do it lawfully or no. Why? be-
cause thou hast no warrant for it out of scripture, or
because he brings no necessary reasons why thou
shouldst do it, but bare probabilities, which cannot
oversway that doubt which thou hast framed unto thy
conscience. But he can shew thee express command-
ment out of scripture, that thou shouldst obey him.
Thou wilt say. In things lawful only. This he avouch-
eth to be such ; thou deniest it. He can shew thee
again express words of scripture, that thou shouldst
not be wise in thine own conceit, but be willing to
learn of thy pastor, w/io is tJie messenger of the Lord
of hosts, at whose mouth thou shouldst seek the law,
and on whom, as our apostle saith, thou dost depend.
Tell me then, first, by what place of scripture thy dis-
obedience in this particular can be warranted ? How
canst thou choose but doubt, whether thy denial of
obedience be of faith or no, seeing God's word com-
mands thee, in general terms, to obey, and nowhere
wills thee to disobey in this particular. Or if thou
thinkest thou hast some general warrant for disobe-
dience, because thou supposest this particular to be
unlawful ; yet how canst thou but doubt, whether
thou hast learned the precepts of Christian modesty as
thou shouldst ? Whether thou hast learned to deny
thyself and thy affections ? whether thou hast learned

380 Actions properly said not of Faith book ii.

to reverence thy pastor as God's messenger, not taking
any offence at his person ? Finally, whether thou hast
abandoned all such delights and desires, as usually are
the grounds of false persuasions, and impediments of
sincere obedience ? If thou canst not be fully and truly
resolved in these, then must thou doubt (whether thou
wilt or no) whether thy doubt or scruple itself be of
faith or conscience, or of humour only. And if thou
canst not but doubt herein, then mayest thou assiu-e
thyself, that thy denial of obedience is not of faith, and
therefore sinful : if the apostle's rule (as thou suppos-
est) were universally true, that whosoever doth any
thing, of whose lawfulness he doubts, doth sin, because

A man in he doth it not of faith. But I dare not deny, but that
either suudry of Christ's flock may sometimes either deny, or
perform obedience unto their pastors, not without

thority, not Joubt or scruplc whether they should do so or no, and

without

doubt, and yet uot siu iu either. In performing obedience they
)^et wit ou ^.^ ^^^^ unless the doubt be very great or probable,
and the evil which they conceive in the action extraor-
dinary. Again, in denying obedience they sin not,
albeit they doubt whether they should do so or no : if
the evil, which upon mature deliberation and serious
forecast they much suspect, be extraordinary, such as
cannot be recompensed by the goodness, which appears
in the act of obedience, nor in the fruits of the action
itself, which their pastor proposeth as a motive to un-
dertake it. According to those grounds must our
apostle's speech be limited. He that douhteth is con-
demned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith.

6. What then ? Is every man that eateth any thing,
which he doubts whether it were better for him not to
eat, straight condemned ? God forbid. He that hath
such a tender infant's squeamish conscience, as to think
thus, had need to have a very ancient, grave, wise, and

CHAP. VII. in the Apostle s Se^ise, fyc.

381

moderate stomach : and it were fit he never came at
any feast or table furnished with variety of dishes.

7. But for a direct answer to our apostle's speech.
It must be granted, that they of whom he speaks did ^
sin in eating when they doubted "\ For if they had
been as fully persuaded in their minds, as the apostle
himself, and sundry others of their brethren were,
they had not sinned in eating the selfsame meat : yet
for all this they sinned not in eating (simply) when
they doubted, but in eating such meats when they
doubted : other meats they might have eaten with
little or no offence ; albeit with more uncertainty,
whether it had been better for them to eat or no.
Nor was it so much a positive doubt, as rather a rash-
ness, or want of settled resolution, in many of them,
which made them sin ; as may appear from the cir-
cumstance of the place : yet was this eating not only a
sin, but a most grievous sin, in all that did eat such
meats, without a constant and well grounded resolu-
tion. Both the sin, and the extraordinary grievous-
ness of it, did hence arise ; they had eaten of things
sacrificed to idols, or other meats (in their judgment)
accursed by the law, which they suspected not only to
be unlawful to be eaten, but doubted whether in eating
them they should not be partakers of the table of
devils, initiated to the sacraments of idolatry, or sepa-205
rated from the Israel of God, or finally become apo-
statas from faith, and the holy doctrine. As on the
one side, the evil which they feared was extraor-
dinarily grievous, and the reasons of their fear such as
could not easily be cast off, but would be always likely

m It was not the doTibt or For the evil which upon great

scruple, but the quality of the probabilities they feared^ was

things doubted of, which made incomparably greater than any

their actions, of whom our apostle good possible to ensue upon their

speaketh, so grievously sinful, eating.

382 Actions pi'operh/ said not of Fa\[\\ book ii.

to breed despair after the action were past, albeit many
of them did shake off all doubt for the present : so on
the other jjart, there was not quid pro quo, not the
least possible surmise of performing any degree of any
good or acceptable service in the sight of God, by their
eating. For, as St. Paul in the same place notes, the
hingdom of God is not meat or drink, but righteoiis-
ness and peace, whosoever in these (as if he had said,
not in eating and drinking) serveth Christ, is accept-
able unto God, and is approved of men. Those then
of whom he there spake, accounting it a chief part of
their righteousness to abstain from all unclean things,
their danger in eating was in quantity exceeding great,
and for the quality spiritual : their loss in abstaining
from such meats (being provided of others) was in
quantity as nothing, and for the quality merely corpo-
ral. Wherefore thus to have eaten, with the least
scruple of such grievous danger, was worse than
Esau's alienating of his birthright for a mess of pot-
tage. And albeit they had doubted to-day, and grown
resolute to-morrow, upon no better motives than the
bare examples of others ; or in an humour or bravery,
because they would not doubt any longer, but use
their liberty as others did : yet had such resolutions
been deadly. For opinions of this nature may not be
cast off in a moment, nor may a man adventure upon a
doubt of such fearful consequence, but upon great
motives of some spiritual good; the probabilities of
attaining which may countervail the evil feared : or
upon serious deliberation, and perspicuous discovery of
their former error, and causeless scruple. From these
grounds did our apostle infer that exhortation. Let every
man be fully persuaded in his mind""^. He exacteth
not this fulness of persuasion in matters of ordinary

•1 Verse 5.

CHAP. VII.

in the Apostle's Sense, 8fc.

383

consequence ; too much curiosity in them always occa-
sioneth less diligence or circumspection, than were
requisite for establishing our minds with true faith,
in points of greatest moment: nor did he mean such
fulness of persuasion hot spirits usually enforce upon
themselves, without mature and sober deliberation.
For such resolutions, albeit they may seem most
strong, as indeed they are for the time exceeding stiff ;
yet are they easily to be undermined by Satan, the
inward temptations of the flesh, or other occurrents;
and after once they begin to fail, such as lean most
unto them, fall so much the more headlong into deep-
est despair, by how much they have been stronger
or higher pitched ; as it seems some of these, to whom
he writes, had been too bold in eating, and were after-
wards tortured by the sting of conscience. The end of
our apostle's exhortation was this, seeing their persua-
sions, concerning the unlawfulness of such meats, had
been (as it were) bred up with the parties doubting,
they should in no case adventure upon the contrary
practice, but upon long and well-settled resolution,
grounded upon a sincere and clear manifestation of
their former error. For as the physicians of our
bodies do not always apply such medicines as they
know most forcible to expel the present disease, if the
same be contrary to our former long accustomed diet;
(for vitioscB consuetudini indulgendum est, there must
a care be had that a custom, though depraved, be not 206
too violently thwarted, or too suddenly broken off ;) so
likewise must skilful physicians of the soul, not seek so
much to expel inveterate opinions (though erroneous)
b)'' present force of strongest arguments, or eager
exhortations ; but rather suffer them to wear out their
strength by little and little, never infusing contrary
persuasions, but mitigated and qualified, and that

384 Actions properly said not of Faith bookii.

sparingly, as opportunity shall serve. Otherwise, what
one saith of nature herself —

Expel/as fiirca licet, usque reciirret :

Though with strong hand she be outthrown,
She still repairs unto her own —

will prove true of that altera Jiatura, inveterate cus-
tom. It, suddenly expulsed, will one time or other
return as violently ; and so shall the relapse be much
worse than the disease itself.

8. For these reasons did they also offend most griev-
ously, who by their example or instigation did cause
their weak brethren to eat such meats as they made
this conscience of : for so they caused them, for tchom
Christ Jesus died, to perish for their meats sake as
it is, verse 15. Whereas the loss of meat, or life itself,
should, by the rule of charity, be accounted gain, in
respect of our brethren's inestimable danger, which
may ensue upon such actions. Better it were we
should suffer ourselves to starve for meat, and so pro-
cure our own corporal, than occasion their eternal
death by our example: so saith our apostle; If meat
offend my brother, I icill eat no meat ichile the world
standeth, that I may not offend my brother. It were
better for me to die, than that any man should make
my rejoicing faifi°. Nor did our apostle in this place
speak hyperbolically, or more than he meant to have
performed, if he had been called to such a trial of his
resolution, as some of his forefathers had been. So we
read, when Antiochus's officers, out of great love (as
they esteemed it) unto the good old man, had permitted
Eleazai', one of the principal scribes, to make choice of
such flesh as he would, and might safely eat by his

^ See I Cor. viii. 1 1 . Rom.xiv. 15.
o ( Cor. viii. 13. ix. 15.

CHAP. VII.

iti the Ajjostles Sense, ^c.

385

country laws ; only requesting him to dissemble by his
silence, as though he had eaten the things appointed
by the king, even the flesh of his idols' sacrifices ; al-
beit he might have had life upon this condition, yet he
confidently answered, and willed them straightways to
send him to the grave. For it hecometh not our age,
said he, to dissemble, whereby many young persons
might think that Eleazar, being fourscore years old
and ten, were now gone to another religion ; and so
through mine hypocrisy, for a little time of a transi-
tory life, they might be deceived by me, and I should
procure malediction, and reproach to mine old age.
This eating which he refused, could never have been
of faith, that is, no way warrantable, by the doctrine
or principles of faith, which had taught him the con-
trary ; as he well expressed in the next words follow-
ing, For though I were now delivered from the tor-
ments of men, yet could I not escape the hand of the
Almighty, neither alive nor dead. Wherefore I will
now change this life manfully, and will shew myself
such as mine age requireth^.

9. And it should be considered, that the parties of 097
whom our apostle speaks in the forementioned place, T'"! Pf'""

' ' ' ci])al cir-

were never enjoined by any lawful superiors, either """stances

. ., , . , , , to 1)6 COIl-

civil or ecclesiastic, to eat such meats as they madesidered,pe-
scruple of: yea the very original or fountain of their [hosTof'
scruple was from the express law of God, denouncing '^p^^^^"""^
fearful judgments against all such as polluted them- speai^eth.
selves with unclean meats : so that their eating, albeit
solemnly enjoined by the greatest powers on earth,
could not fall within the subject of true obedience, be-
cause the laws enjoining it (as they conceived) stood
actually condemned, by the express law of God to the
contrary, in defence whereof many of their ancestors
1 2 Mace. vi. 21 — 24, &c.
JACKSOK, VOL. I. CO

886

Actions properly said not of Faith

BOOK II.

had exposed their bodies to most grievous tortures ;
and the refusal of such meats, as they made scruple of,
had been always accounted the justest title of glorious
martyrdom amongst the Jews. And albeit these laws
concerning unclean meats were indeed antiquated at
the alteration of the priesthood ; yet should we not
marvel, if at the first planting of the gospel, many good
Christians did make great conscience of eating such
meats as were forbidden by them, when St. Peter him-
self, long after our Saviour's ascension, durst scarce
take God's own word against his written law, then not
abrogated (as he supposed) in this case. For when
there came a voice unto him, saying^, Arise, Peter ;
Jcill, and eat. Peter said, N^ot so, Loi'd ; for I have
never eaten any thing that is poUnted or iinclean.
And the voice came unto him again the second time,
saying. The things that God hath purified do not thou
account polluted. Nor was Peter, as it seems, yet
fully satisfied ; for it is added in the next words. This
was so done thrice: and the vessel was drawn up
again into heaven. All these circurastanc-es abundantly
evince, that it was not the bare doubt or scruple, but
the quality of the things doubted of, and the inveterate
opinion, or abominable conceit, which the Jews, or other
of their instruction, had of the meats themseh'es, that
made their eating to be ovk ck Tr/o-rea)?*, so far from being
of faith, that it rather seemed to overthrow it. Had
the excess of the danger thev feared been less, or had
there been any ordinary possibility of any proportion-
able good to set against it ; their sin in eating had been
less, albeit the grounds of their scruple had been greater,
or their persuasions one way or other less settled.

r Acts X. 13. phrases, as usual in the Hebrew

5 This phrase includeth a con- dialect, as the Latin compounds

trariety or opposition unto faith, immitis, immisericors, &c.

as t;:: 'j* and many like

CHAP. VII. in the Apostle's Sense, SfC.

387

10. Albeit this exposition of our apostle may seem
strange and new to many honest and well disposed
minds in our church; yet in truth, the manner of the
deduction only is new, the doctrine itself is generally
held by all divines, though not expressly in conclusion,
yet in the premises, wherein it is essentially contained,
and may be most evidently deduced ; thus,

11. All sin consists either in preferring none before
some, the less before a greater ; or a coi'poral before a
spiritual good ' : the heinousness of sin, in the excess of
difference, betwixt the true good neglected, and the
seeming good embraced, which is either absolutely evil,
or else a far less good, which in competition with the
greater good is likewise to be accounted evil. Now, if
whatsoever be not of faith be a sin ; then by the for-
mer rules it is a sin, because a less good is preferred
before a greater, or some evil chosen without any pro-
portionable good, that might serve as a sufficient re-
compense. But if the nature of actual sin consist in
one of these two; it is questionable, how or in what 208
case, doubting or scruple of what we do, doth make

our actions sinful. Briefly, it is an external cause ornowscru-
circumstance concurring to the making of a sinful Ji'Jfj^i,°of
action, not any essential part or internal circumstance
of the sin itself once caused. And it thus concurs only, '"^ike our

actions sin-
when that which in itself is evil, or proves so in thefui.

event, would not be evil unto us, unless we had some

doubt or scruple ; that is, some notice or apprehension

of it as evil : in such cases indeed we should not sin,

unless we had formerly doubted : but to speak exactly. As when

we do not sin, because we do what we doubt of, but f^!f,.g^|g

because in doing some actions, when we doubt, we^j^^'^'^^^

exactly prefer evil before good; which otherwise wes"od^that

hoped.

t The former interpretation necessarily followeth from grounds of
divinity acknowledged by all.

c c 2

388 Actions properly said not of Faith book ii.

should not, albeit we did the selfsame action. For it
could not be evil to us, without the apprehension of its
nature, so as the apprehension of it concurs to the
making of it evil. And because in all doubts or scru-
j)les there is some apprehension of evil, therefore
when we doubt, in cases above mentioned, our actions
are not of faith, but sinful. But if either we could
be fully persuaded to the contrary ; that is, if we could
out of sincerity of conscience and settled judgment
discern that very thing which either we ourselves some-
time did, or others yet, apprehend as evil, not to be
truly evil, the same action which before had been,
shall not be now sinful unto us ; because we now prefer
not evil before good. Or again, albeit the thing were
in itself evil, (being prohibited by some positive law,)
but we upon invincible or unculpable ignorance did
not apprehend it for such ; we should not actually
sin in doing it, because in this case we could not truly
be censured for preferring evil before good, (seeing the
apprehension maketh it evil to us,) albeit we did prefer
that which was evil before that which is good. As, for
example, if a proselyte should have eaten swine's flesh,
being altogether ignorant (not by his own, but the
priest's negligence) of the Israelites' law to the con-
trary ; he had done that which was evil, because for-
Maium non bidden by the law; but not ill, because he had no ap-
I'wie. prehension of it as evil, but did eat it without all scru-
ple, as well as the strong in faith did in St. Paul's time.
As doubting, in those cases wherein we have an appre-
hension of some excess of evil, makes men's actions not
to be of faith ; and want of doubt (so all other circum-
stances be observed) makes them to be according unto
The same fajfi^ . gQ ofttimes falls out, that such as nothing

action, ' o

though doubt whether they do ill or no, do sin far more than

simply evil

ill both, such, as not without great scruple of conscience make

CHAP. VII.

m the Apostle's Sense, S^c.

389

the same sinister choice. For, ofttimes the causes why may be

less of

men make no scruple, or why they apprehend not the faith in
evil which they d o, are such, as will necessarily make d^^ij

con-

their actions worse, than if they had doubted, and y^t [iJll^j"';'^'^^
had done the same. This rule holds always true, when other that

' _ ^ doth It not

the cause, why men doubt not of their actions, is some withoiit
inordinate desire of gain, pleasure, or other like corrupt
affection, or some strong humour of contradiction : not
steadfast or well-grounded resolution, not pure simpli-
city, or invincible ignorance, not occasioned by default
or negligence in our vocation. If scruple either hath
not been conceived, or else expelled upon these later
motives, our actions are thereby justifiable or excusable :
but where strength of inordinate affection or desire
either expels or impairs a scruple (of some excessive
evil) which hath been conceived, (though amiss,) or hin-209
ders the conceiving of some such doubt or scruple, in
matters whose unlawfulness might well be doubted of,
or rather might clearly be discerned, and ought with
resolution to be avoided ; there the action is so much
the more sinful, as the scruple is less, or their confi-
dence or boldness that undertake it greater. The differ-
ence betwixt him that in this case doubteth, and him
that doubteth not, is altogether such as moralists ac-
knowledge betwixt the actions of intemperate and in-
continent men.

CHAP. VIII.
JVlio most transgress our Apostle's former Rule : with Di-
rections for squaring our Actions unto it or other Rules
of Faith.

1. From what hath been said in this point we may
safely gather, that none in our days so much transgress,
as those that persuade themselves they most precisely
keep this rule of our apostle, which indeed was the
rule of conscience and of nature. They of all others

c c 3

390

Who most transgress

BOOK II.

transgress it most, that make no scruple of denying
obedience, but confidently adventure upon any course
of life, against their pastor's serious admonitions for
their spiritual good. For whosoever doth anything
for his own private commodity, or bodily good, which
(though he doubt not) might upon due examination
and attention to his pastor, seem doubtful whether it
may not endanger his soul, or impair his spiritual
estate, doth in so doing sin against his own soul, and
wound his conscience: because there is no proportion
between the good which he seeks and the evil which
he might justly fear". Such actions too well resemble
our first parents' sin, who preferred the momentary
pleasures of their licorish taste, before the perpetuity
of their estate in paradise, wherein did grow much
better fruit than that they so greedily longed for.
And we may as truly say, that our first parents were
condemned for eating, as those that doubted of the
lawfulness of what they eat. They did not eat of faith
more than the others, but less ; although they were
persuaded that God rather had dealt hardly with them
in forbidding them to eat, than that they should give
just offence to God in eating. But the bolder they
were, the greater was their sin, and less of faith, nay
most against faith ; because their incontinent desires
had expelled all fear, and made them confident.

2. The best method to square our actions to the rule
of faith would be this. First, to be rightly instructed
and persuaded in what order or rank of goodness

« Hoc itaque de uno cibi ge- poena transgressionis postea sub-

nere non edendo, ubi aliorum secutum est,) tanto majore injus-

tanta copia subjacebat, tam leve titia violatum est, qiianto faci-

prseceptum ad observandum, tam liore possit observantia custodiri.

breve ad memoria retinendum, Aug. de Civ. Deij lib. 14. cap.

(ubi praesertim nondum volun- 12.
tati cupiditas resistebat, quod de

CHAP. VIII. the apostles former Rule, Sfc.

391

obedience to spiritual governors ought to be i)]aced.
Secondly, (having found out the true nature and
quality, and due estimation of obedience in general,) to
account the degrees of goodness which appear in this
or that particular act of obedience. And these are to
be taken, according to the generality or sovereignty of
the authority commanding, or according to the manner
and tenor of the command or charge itself ; as, those
commands are to be obeyed with more alacrity (al-
though they proceed from the same or equal authority)
in which obedience is demanded upon stricter or more 2
adjuring terras, or wherein the zealous desires of men
in authority, are either more fully and significantly ex-
pressed to all, or more lively intimated unto us in par-
ticular,

3. Thirdly, to calculate the inconvenience or scan-
dals that may arise from our disobedience. For albeit
we might deny obedience in sundry particulars with
far safer consciences than others could, yea, although
it were indifferent for us (as perhaps in divers cases it
is to some men) to perform or deny obedience ; yet
we should always have an especial care that we em-
bolden not others (who have not the like motives, or
cannot be so well persuaded) to do the like by our ex-
ample''. For so we may commit the selfsame sin
which they that were strong in faith did, by causing
others to eat such meats as they either made scruple

" This is a point, which, I am
persuaded, many have less re-
garded than had been requisite,
as not considering that our apo-
stle's rule might be violated, as
well by the omission of some
actions, as by the commission of
others, or that this same offence
might be given to weak and ten-
der consciences, by emboldening

them to deny obedience, as was
given in our apostle's time, by
emboldening them to eat of things
suspected for unlawful. Nor
can we doubt but many in our
time have made scruple of mat-
ters enjoined by lawful authority,
only from the examj)le of others
whom they reverenced.

c c 4

392

Who most transgress

BOOK II.

of before they eat, or else were upbraided by their con-
sciences after they had eaten : and (as I intimated be-
fore) unless disobedience be upon evident and well
grounded resolutions, it is as dangerous a sin as a man
can practise, and of all sins that are, it is most properly
said to be ovk ck TriWeo)?, not of faith, seeing faith and
obedience (amongst all other virtues) are of most strict
alliance : neither is there any breach or defect of faith,
but in some disobedience or other ; no sin, but in dis-
obedience to the rule of faith. Which latter (God willing)
shall afterwards more plainly appear.

4. Lastly, we are diligently to consider the hopes,
or probabilities of goodness either inherent, or conse-
quent to the actions themselves, which are to be under-
taken.

5. All these considerations must be put in opposite
balance to our doubts, or fears of evil, whether inhe-
rent or consequent to the same actions, or matters en-
joined, if we were left to our own choice ; or to the
probabilities or jealousies which we may have, that
the form of a public command is contrary to God's law.
Although for doubts or scruples conceived out of pri-
vate dislike to the things enjoined, only because we see
no express warrant for them out of scripture, or be-
cause they go against our consciences ; we need not so
much to oppose former considerations to oversway
them, as seek to extirpate them. For after the inter-
position of authority, we may rather suspect that these
doubts are not of faith, but of humour, unless we can
derive them from some opposition, betwixt the public
edicts enjoining obedience, and the law of God, which
must be presumed to countenance, as long as it doth
not contradict, superiors' injunctions, because it gives
authority and commission to make them. Every doubt
or scruple that such edicts are formally or directly

CHAP. VIII. the Apostle's former Rule, Sfc.

393

contrary to God's law, is not sufficient to deny obe-
dience unto them : nor do spiritual governors, in de-
manding obedience to such as their inferiors suspect to
be against God's law, oppose human authority to Di-
vine, or desire men to obey them rather than God, as
some frivolously have objected. Indeed the least pro-
bability or suspicion of disobeying God should make
us refuse to obey man, in case our disobedience unto
man redounded only to man, and not to God. But in-211
asmuch as Christ hath said, He that Jieareth you,
heareth me, disobedience unto spiritual governors is
disobedience unto Christ, yea unto God. And there-
fore obedience may not be denied unto such, but upon
great and weighty motives, and serious examination of
such reasons as move us to think that their edicts are
contrary, or opposite to God's laws. Otherwise we
should prefer a conjectural conceit or surmise of obey-
ing God rather than man, before a greater probability
of obeying God by obeying man. For it is certain in
general, that men in spiritual authority should be
obeyed, and that in obeying them we obey God ; but
uncertain and conjectural, (according to our supposi-
tion,) whether in this particular they should be dis-
obeyed, and therefore uncertain whether God, by our
denial of obedience, should be disobeyed or obeyed.

6. Albeit I must confess, there must a difference be By obeying
put betwixt the immediate and direct disobeying of IhoHty, ^de-
God's express laws, resulting from obedience unto py^f^p""*!^
man's laws that are opposite unto them: and the dis-t^^gene-

ral,)wemay

obeying of God's laws mediately or by consequence ; in some par.
that is, by disobeying men's laws, whose authority is joined by it,
derived from them. As if a private man should obey ^|f,g''a,[tjj^rl
a public magistrate commanding him, or his Pastor J.'g^j.^'^^®^^^''
persuading him, under some fair pretence to tell a He, ™mediate.
or prejudice his neighbour by false reports, he doth '

394

Who most transgress

BOOK II.

immediately and directly disobey the ninth command-
ment by thus obeying man. And this sin may justly
seem greater than his that should deny obedience to
public authority in such matters as are by it com-
mended unto him for good, and as much tending unto
God's glory as the former did to his dishonour ; but
yet such as the party denying obedience is not so per-
suaded of, nor hath any such particular, express, or
immediate law of God for doing this, as the other had
for not doing the former. This latter then disobeys
God's law, which commands obedience to authority in
lawful matters ; but not so directly and immediately
as the former did the ninth commandment. Wherefore
the former sins are worse in their kind ; the worst of
them is worse than the worst of the latter; the least
of the former, worse than the least of the latter kind :
Hard to de- but in what degree or proportion they are worse, is
w^t de- hard to define, and therefore a very difficult point to
determine, what degrees of probabilities, or what mea-
shouid,by gyre of fear, lest we should disobey God's laws imme-

obeying

man's laws, diately and directly, by obeying man's that seem oppo-
God'Tkws site unto them, should oversway our general certainty
that God's deputies on earth are to be obeyed, or our
expel all habitual inclination to Christian obedience grounded

fear of dis- "

obej-ing hereon. Most certain we are, that they must be obeyed

man's laws, , i . i

whose au- lu all lawiul cascs, or where their laws are not opposite
^neraj'is "uto God's : and if we were certain that theirs wei-e
from God's, contrary to God's laws, we are as certain by the doc-
trine of faith that they should be disobeyed. But
when we doubt whether their decrees be against God's
laws, we cannot but doubt, and doubting fear, lest we
should disobey God directly in obeying them. And
by the former reasons it is evident, that if the doubt
were equal on both sides ; that is, were it as probable
that their commands are against God's as not ; we

CHAP. VIII. the Apostle's former Rule, ^c.

395

were bound in conscience not to obey them ; because
we should commit a greater sin in obeying them, if
they were indeed opposite, than we should in disobey-
ing them, supposing they were not opposite or contrary 212
to God's laws. For in the one case we should disobey
God's laws directly and immediately ; in the other
only mediately, and by consequence. Now of two
evils equally probable, the less must be adventured
upon, and the greater more eschewed.

7. Yet ofttimes again it may fall out, that the Sotnetimes
things commanded by public authority may be in fng'^man^J"
themselves very good, and commanded, at least in
their universal, by some particular law of God. As if pbey God's

' ' laws, both

a spiritual governor should in the name of Christ com- mediately
mand or adjure a man (otherwise backward, and fear- diateiy.
ing the face of great men) to witness the truth for his
poor neighbour's good : if obedience in this case were
denied, both God's particular commandment should be
immediately and directly transgressed, and that general
law also be transgressed by consequence, which com-
mands obedience to God's ministers or ambassadors.
And it is all one, whether the matter enjoined be ac-
tually known for such as I have said, unto the party
denying obedience ; or might have been known upon
due examination, and supposal of his former obedience
to his pastor in other points. The further prosecution
of these matters I leave unto the learned, that pur-
posely write of jurisdiction : whereof by God's assist-
ance, according to the talent which God hath given us,
in the article of the catholic church. It may suffice
for our present purpose, to have shewed, that it is not
every doubt or scruple of the unlawfulness of supe-
riors' commands, that can warrant denial of obedience
to them ; and that all inferiors are bound to a sober,

396

TVho moat transgress

BOOK II.

diligent, and unpartial examination of their own hearts
and consciences ; to a resolute denial or abandoning of
their own affections or desires, that they may be more
fit to discern the truth itself, and more sincerely weigh
the consequence of their superiors' admonitions, before
they can plead the liberty of conscience for rejecting
them, or appealing from them.

8. Whether any such opposition as I have spoken
of can probably be found between any express law of
God and our church's public injunctions of such rites
and ceremonies as many painful labourers in God's
harvest have made scruple of, or whether such scru-
ples have been first conceived upon probable discovery
of such opposition, after such serious and due examin-
ation, I leave it to their consciences that have made or
do make them ; beseeching God for the good of his
church, and his glory sake, to inspire many of their
hearts but with this cogitation ; whether were more
likely, that they themselves should commit any act of
infidelity or popery, by continuance in their pastoral
charge, upon such terms as many of their religious
and learned brethren do ; or whether atheism and in-
fidelity should increase abundantly throughout this
land by their silence. Many of them I know have
held the things enjoined not absolutely evil, but sus-
picions or occasions of evil. And could we in such
cases usually take but half that pains, in seeking to
prevent the particular evils which public acts (we fear)
may occasion, as we do in censuring them for inconsi-
derate, or occasions of evil, or finally, as we do in
breeding jealousies of their unlawfulness : the evils
213 which we fear would not fall out half so fast, as by
this means they do ; besides that, the unity of faith
should always be faster kept, in the stricter bond of

CHAP. VIII. the Apostle's former Hule^ 8fc.

397

love; and true obedience in things essentially good,
and necessary for the preservation of God's church,
would be more plentiful and cheerful.

9. But my purpose in this place was only to search
out the limits of true obedience unto spiritual author-
ity in general, so far as it concerns the rectifying of
their faith, or edification in manners, who are to be
governed and instructed by it. None of them can justly That the
pretend (ordinarily) any scruple of such consequence as obedi^n^,"^
inferior ministers may. If they could but duly consi- H ^y"'

J J J stie s rule,

der, and unpartially esteem the goodness which accom- i^hatso.

€V€v is not

panics obedience, (which is better than sacrifice,) and of faith is
the evil of disobedience, (which is as the sin of' witch- to mme^^
craft,) these two laid together would be more than™^^^^°;_
equivalent to any evil that laymen or inferiors usually ^'^^^^ssent
conceive in such actions, as they deny obedience indienceunto

1 • -ivT • 1 • IT- their pas-

unto their pastors. Nay, in this unbelieving age, tors as hath
wherein it is more to be complimental than religious, (^"j^g^^"'
it is thought an answer good enough, so it be compli-
men tally performed unto their pastors — We would do
as you advise or enjoin us in Christ's name, if we cer-
tainly knew that it were Christ's will, or agreeable to
God's word. Whereas in truth, in giving such an-
swers, when neither they certainly know nor are care-
ful to learn, whether their advice be contrary to God's
word or no, they sin directly against Christian faith,
advancing their own humours above God's word, which
commands obedience unto pastors, preferring the li-
berty of their unruly wills before the safety of their
consciences. And it is prepostei'ous to plead ignorance
of God's will before them, whose instructions therein
they are bound duly to hear, and hearing to obey,
until they can light on better, or find them false, upon
serious and due examination ; that is, they must obey
them not absolutely and irrevocably, but with limita-

398

Who most transgress

BOOI II.

tion and caution. And questionless if men did infal-
libly believe, or absolutely from their hearts obey, that
which they undoubtedly know to be God's will, they
would never make question, but that for which they
have presumptions that it is part of God's will, or that
which is commended unto them for his will, by such
as he hath appointed to be messengers of the same,
should be conditionally believed, and without caution
obeyed, especially when it is delivered solemnly upon
deliberation and premeditation, or out of that place
whence he hath appointed them to learn his will.
Did not priests (as the proverb is) forget that ever
they were clerks, or such as take themselves for
great proficients, that they were sometimes novices
in the school of Christ, they might remember how
they came unto that absolute and infallible belief of
those Christian principles, by which they hope for sal-
vation, by entertaining this conditional belief which
we speak of, and by yielding like obedience unto Di-
vine truths, now fully, but at the first imperfectly,
known for such. And albeit such general articles of
Christian faith, as are necessary for all to believe, nei-
ther increase nor diminish their number ; yet if we
descend unto the diversity of men's estates and call-
ings, and difference of time and place, Christian faith
receiveth perpetual increase, not only in its proper
strength, or as we say, by way of intention, but in
214 extent also unto many particulars, either directly con-
tained (though not so easy to be discerned) as essential
parts under the former general principles, or else an-
nexed unto them collaterally as limbs or borders. Be-
sides, all Christian duties, or matters of practice, are
not promiscuously fit for every time or place, but must
be severally proportioned to their diversity. Again,
the same duties (I mean of the same kind) must be

CHAP. VIII. the j4pnstle's former Ride, Sfc.

399

performed in different measure, according to the dif-
ferent exigence of time, place, persons, or other occur-
rents. In all these and many more respects, is this
conditional assent and obedience unto pastors most
necessary. And ere men can retain steadfastly that
which is best, they must make trial of all, or many
things of different kinds : and yet trial of spiritual
medicines without spiritual physicians' prescripts, is so
much more dangerous to ordinary men's souls, than
like trial of physic-conclusions is to their bodies, by
how much such men are more ignorant of the state of
their souls than of their bodies. The necessity and
use of what hath been delivered concerning obedience
in general, will appear in sundry points to be discussed
hereafter. In respect of which (especially of that point
concerning the manner, how we may know the sense
of scriptures, and that concerning the nature of Chris-
tian faith) some further unfolding of this conditional
assent and obedience will be likewise necessary.

CHAP. IX.

Of the Nature, Use, Conditioyis, or Properties of conditional
Assent or Obedience.

1. The first step in the way to life, is from this in-
fallible ground of nature — Whatsoever God hath re-
vealed concerning matters of man's salvation, is most
true, and by all means to be obeyed. This principle
all men absolutely capable of reason, acknowledging a
God, do believe ; and from their absolute belief hereof,
they yield a conditional obedience and reverence unto
those books which we call scripture. From the trial
of whose truth, we rise a step or degree higher, and un-
doubtedly acknowledge certain general principles con-
tained in scripture (without whose belief no man ordina-
rily can be saved) for the oracles of God, or Divine re-

400

Of the Nature or Properties

BOOK II.

velations ; and unto them we yield absolute obedience.
This second step brings men within the lists or borders
of Christianity, where no Christian man is to set up
his rest. Even the meanest that bears that name,
once come to years of discretion, or capable of instruc-
tion, must hold on his progress still, thus resolving
with himself : " Though I must be as a child for inno-
cence, yet not in knowledge of God's will. A shame
it were I should always be a babe in that profession,
which of all is only necessary ; a shame I should ac-
custom myself to milk, for this were to nourish unex-
pert babishness in the word of righteousness. A Chris-
tian I was from my cradle, and now as old a Christian
as a man : but strong meat is Jit for them that are of
age, which have (or should have) their wits exercised
through long custom, to discern good from evily ; not
the fundamental principles of Christian religion only,
215 without which none can be saved ^, not he that hath
professed Christianity but an hour. These are grounds,
which once surely laid, must (as the apostle speaketh)
be Jeft^, that we may be led on to 'perfection, not al-
ways hammering upon the foundation of repentance
from dead works, of faith towards God, or of baptism,
of laying on of hands, of the restirrection from the
dead, and of eternal judgement, but seeking to build
upon these whatsoever is befitting present times or
seasons, whatsoever may make our election sure. And
they who laid the former foundations in my heart,
seek yet my further edification in many points, of
whose truth my conscience as yet hath no such firm
persuasion or lively taste as it now hath of the former:
but is so affected towards these latter, as it was to the

y Heb. V. 14. (or would be) he thus minded.

z Phil. iii. 10, 14, 15. Let ^ Heb. vi. i, 2.
therefore as many as be perfect

CHAP. IX.

of conditional Obedience.

401

other before better acquaintance with thein. Should I
for this reason forthwith deny obedience to my in-
structors ? or withdraw assent from matters proposed
by them ? God forbid : for he hath commanded all,
not excepting me, to obey their overseers in the Lord.
Must we obey them whilst they plant, and may we
disobey them whilst they water? how then can I
expect that God should give increase unto that faith
which they have planted in my heart? heretofore I
trusted them, and I found their sayings true, even the
oracles of the living God: all which I so esteem, as I
had rather adjure this present world, than utterly dis-
claim any, which upon like trial might prove such.
What if I know not this particular to be such ? I may
in good time be as well persuaded of it as of the
former ; if so, I will vouchsafe to make like trial of it,
by sincere religious obedience."

2. Nor doth the greater steadfastness, or infallibility
of the point believed, necessarily exact either obedience
of an higher nature, or more intention, or alacrity in
the act, than may without offence be performed, unto
some other points of doctrine less infallible, or less
evident to their consciences, who must obey. Infalli-
bility of itself exacts only a more full and absolute title
over our obedience, than probabilities or presumptions
can expect. For that which is infallibly and absolutely
believed for a Divine truth, exacts such obedience
(both for quality and degree) as is conformable to the
nature of the thing proposed, without all limitation
condition, or reservation ; that is, perpetual and abso-
lute allegiance. That which is but probably or condi-
tionally assented unto as Divine truth, (whatsoever the
nature of the thing proposed, the end and consequence
pretended, or exigences of other circumstances be,) can
exact only conditional or cautionary obedience : yet obe-

JACKSON, VOL. I. . D d

402

Of the Nature or Properties

BOOK II.

dience, for the quality, suitable to the nature of the
thing proposed, and for the alacrity, or intention of the
act, proportionable to the end or consequence pretend-
ed, and avouched by God's ambassadors. So that if
they commend it unto us, as fit to be entertained in
some higher rank of goodness, or as most necessary for
the present time, albeit we ourselves do not appre-
hend the same as expressly commanded by God ; yet
may we perform obedience, both as sincere for the
quality, and entire for degree, as we do unto some
other things, which we steadfastly believe to be com-
manded in God's word. But we must not tender our
obedience under the same style or title. Absolute
obedience, of what kind soever, we may not yield unto
it, until it be absolutely known for God's will. When
it is once known for such, we must absolutely yield up
216 the same obedience, which before was but conditionally
yielded : as a man may pay the same sum upon cau-
tion, before he be throughly persuaded of the demand-
er's right unto it ; which after his right be fully known,
he pays absolutely. In this case, these four things
must be considered.
tcTbecon"'* 3. First, the assurance or probability which we can
sideredior havc, that the thing proposed is God"s word. Which

the rectify. ' & 1 r

ing or right sometimes may be grounded upon reasons, (either
oifr'^arsen'f commuuicatcd unto us by our pastor or others, or con-
p"^^^"'^^ cei ved by ourselves,) as well as upon authority: some-
times all the assurance, which men of less capacity can
have, is only from the pastor's authority. Secondly,
the title, or pretended nature of the truth proposed.
Thirdly, the act or quality of obedience. Fourthly, the
manner or limitation of our obedience.

4. The act or quality of our obedience (so we be more
probably persuaded that it is God's word, than other-
wise, or know nothing to the contrary) must be pro-

CHAP. IX.

of condltio7ial Obedience.

403

portioned to the title or nature of the thing proposed,
which is commended unto us as a spiritual good. So
that our obedience must be religious and spiritual, not
merely civil : although our best motive, why we hold
it to be a Divine oracle, or spiritual good, be the au-
thority of our teacher, which is but human ; but now
he exacts not obedience to his own authority, but unto
God's word, (as he affirms :) which because we know is
Divine, therefore we must yield religious obedience
to it ; and therefore religious, albeit conditional obedi-
ence unto this precept, which we probably know to be
Divine, and assent unto conditionally as such. The
act of our obedience in this particular must proceed
from the same habit, from which our acts of obedience
unto such truths as we infallibly believe for Divine
do : for even this very act is performed primarily and
absolutely to God's word in general, unto which we
owe religious and spiritual obedience : and unto this
particular (enjoined by our pastor) oiily secondarily,
and upon supposition that it is part of God's word.
So as if the particular by him enjoined should in the
event prove no part of God's word ; yet obeying it
only upon the former motives, it might be truly said
we had obeyed God's word, not it ; as he that shews
kindness to a stranger, upon presumption that he is a
brother or alliance of his dear and familiar friend,
albeit he were mistaken herein, may be said to have
done a friendly office, rather to his known acquaint-
ance, for whose sake he used the stranger kindly, than
unto the stranger himself thus kindly used upon a mis-
take. But albeit the quality be such as God's word
absolutely known requires ; yet the manner of our
obedience must be limited by the degrees of probability,
or moral certainty, which we have of this })articular,
that it is God's oracle. Where the probabilities are

D d 2

404

Of the Nature or Projwrties

BOOK IT.

less, and the inducements for belief of this particular
weaker, there the condition of our assent, and reserva-
tion of our obedience, must be more express : that is,
we must stand further off from yielding absolute, and
be more inclined to renounce this present conditional
obedience (which we yet perform) upon lesser motives
to the contrary, than we would if our probabilities
for believing it were greater. Where the probabilities,
217 or inducements for belief of this particular are greater
and stronger, there we must the more incline unto
absolute and irrevocable obedience or assent unto the
Same particular : and be more unready, or unwilling
to recall our assent, or renounce our obedience, but
upon greater and more evident reasons. Only there
we are to fix our belief absolutely ; only there we
may safely, undoubtedly, and fully pass over our full
and absolute obedience unto it, without all condition,
limitation of time, or resefvation : when the truth of it
shall be as fully confirmed, and manifested to our con-
sciences, as the others are, unto which we have for-
merly yielded absolute obedience, without appeal or
reservation : or when we can as clearly discern, and as
steadfastly believe, the consonancy of this particular
with the former's, as we can the former's with God's
word.

5. And whereas we said before, that the only
motives which some men have to believe the sense
and meaning of sundry doctrines, (necessary perhaps
unto them in particular at some seasons, when God
shall call them to some extraordinary point of obedi-
ence,) might be the authority of their teachers : this
authority may be greater or less, according to the
quality of the minister or spiritual governor. As the
world goes nowadays, this function is committed to
some, in whose mouth the word of God, or any good

CHAP. IX. of conditional Obedience. 405

doctrine, may rather seem to lose its virtue and power,
than his any way bind men to obedience, unless besides
his commendation of what he proposeth, they have
other motives to persuade them that it is God's word,
or wholesome doctrine. If the minister, who should,
carry God's message, be such a one as sir Thomas
More jested upon, " that he would not for any good
hear him say the Creed, lest he should take it for a lie
coming out of his mouth :" it is doubtful what the
people should do in such a case, albeit he exact obedi-
ence upon their vow in baptism, if they have no other
motive but his authority. Yet for all this, it is not
best to be too bold in contemning his admonitions or
adjurations, unless they be apparently false. In this
case, others more sincere and skilful, or such as have
authority to examine his doctrine, should be consulted,
his may not be neglected in all particulars, upon a
general prejudice of his lewdness or simplicity. For
though his life be bad, yet may his meditations for
that present, wherein he publicly speaks, be good and
fruitful unto them, so they will yield due obedience
to his doctrine. And although a man should know
a constable, or some greater officer, that pretends com-
mission from the king, to be a notorious lying knave
or treacherous companion ; yet were it not the safest
way to tell him he lied, when he charged him to obey
him in the king's name, nor to make a scoff of his
authority, or reply he would not believe he had any,
because he might abuse himself and it at other times :
if so he do at this time, he may answer it before his
betters hereafter : but in the meanwhile, it were best
for the party commanded to obey him, until he be
certain that he did either feign authority, where he
had none, or else abuse it in this particular. He that
should yield obedience, being thus (perhaps wrong-

D d 3

406

Of the Nature or Properties book ii.

fully) charged in the king's name, (so he yield it for
this reason, and upon this condition,) shall not be
thought guilty of disloyalty, albeit be be hereby
218 brought to commit some fact, distasteful to his majesty,
or public peace. For the fault in this case must be re-
turned upon the author : if so the party obeying did
not know it to be simply unlawful, and against the
king's peace, or had no opportunity of consulting other
public officers, but hath been abused, by the craft and
cunning of the other, who hath concealed his end,
intention, or other circumstance which made the fact
unlawful. It is enough to disclaim his former obedi-
ence when he knows the truth. And if officers should
not be obeyed in the king's name, until men sought
the truth, whether they had a lawful commission, or
but a counterfeit, or whether they did not go beyond
their commission, the king's majesty should want a
great deal of necessary service, and the commonweal
be at an ill pass for continuance of public peace. Did
most men fear God, as much as men ; or the Son of
man, the Judge of quick and dead, as much as earthly
judges ; they would not so often withdraw their neck
from the yoke of Christian obedience, (being charged
to undertake it in Christ's name, and as they would
answer it at that dreadful day,) upon such silly excep-
tions against the meanness, baseness, or lewdness of
the minister's person. Be he as they list to make him
for his life, it hath pleased God to make him his mes-
senger, his officer to demand obedience of them. And
shall it serve their turn to say. We will not believe
that God sent him with this message, or sure he goes
beyond his commission ; when they know nothing to
the contrary, but only will take occasion from his per-
son to discredit his doctrine, if it control them in the
pursuit of worldly affairs ? And God knows for whose

CHAP. IX.

of conditUmal Obedience.

407

sake it is ; we all may fear it is especially for the infi-
delity and disloyalty of this people towards hins, and
their disobedience to his messengers, that he sends them
such idle, foolish, or lewd pastors, as they have in
many places. Because the laity of this land are so
prone and headstrong to cast off Christ's yoke, and to
deny due obedience to his faithful ministers ; he there-
fore sets such watchmen over them in many places, as
they shall have no lust to obey in any thing that they
shall propose unto them, but harden their hearts in
infidelity and disobedience. Albeit I should prosecute
this point a great deal further, I should not much
digress from my main purpose and drift, which God he
knows is no other, but to bring home silly souls from
yielding this blind obedience to the Roman foreign
yoke. For the diverting of which fi-om this land's
and people's necks I know no better means, than to
take up Christ's yoke upon us. For questionless, this
open malapert scoffing disobedience to all ecclesiastic
power now openly professed by the meanest, and
countenanced by many great ones of the laity, is the
sin, which to all that know God's judgments, or have
been observant to look into the days of our visitation,
cries loudest in the Almighty's ears, (more loud by
much than friars, monks, and Jesuits' prayers do,)
for God's vengeance upon this land : for vengeance to
b6 executed by no other than our sworn, inveterate,
malicious enemies ; by no other grievances, than by
the doubled grievances of the long enraged Romanists'
iron yoke, which is now prepared for us ten times
more heavy and irksome than was that which our
forefathers have borne. It were hard to determine,
whether atheism and infidelity amongst professed pro-
testants, or superstition and idolatry amongst the pa-
pists, have more increased thoughout this land in later 219

D d 4

408

Of the JVature or Properties

BOOK II,

years; or whether the Romish priests and Jesuits
have been more industrious and earnest to sow the
seeds of the one, than sundry which oppose themselves
most eagerly against them have been to foster and
cherish the other: both perhaps (unto their seeming)
for a good intent ; neither intending either mischief
expressly and directly ; for so the reluctation of consci-
ence would have abated their endeavours : nor could
idolatry or infidelity have grown so fast, had their
foster-fathers seen them in their proper shape. But
both have masked in sheep's clothing, both had their
faces covered with zeal.

6. Sure, if there be degrees of malignancy in hellish
ghosts, the most potent factions of most malignant
spirits throughout the infernal anarchy, (the one upon
emulation of the other's might or abilities in doing
evil,) strive for glory by doing greatest mischief in this
land. The one part hath made choice of their fairest
means, by soliciting, partly desperate discontents, partly
silly souls, (under pretence of ancient catholic religion,)
to superstition and idolatry ; the other, by driving
proud and disobedient minds, upon their deadly dislike
of popish tyranny, to cast off the yoke of Christian obe-
dience, and under pretence of Christian liberty, to rush
headlong into hypocrisy, atheism, or infidelity. For
even where the best and most industrious ministers
are throughout this land, how scarce is this Christian
obedience to be found ! Let the pastor's skill and sin-
cerity be never so great, let him tell his flock, for
whose souls he must answer, that they must do thus
and thus, if they will be saved ; they can be diligent
perhaps to hear him, and say he spake exceeding well;
i. e. very ill of others, (as they conjecture,) but not of
them or their adherents. If for his good lessons in
the pulpit he have good words returned at table, he

CHAP. IX.

of conditional Obedimce.

409

seeth the best fruits of his labour. For if one of his
flock shall have an advantage against his neighbour, or
have picked a quarrel vrith his lease ; or let a gentle-
man be disposed to put off his tenants, or enhance their
rents to their utter undoing ; let any, gentle or mean,
have but good hope to make his own great gain by
some other's loss ; here if we try him, and charge him
upon his allegiance unto Christ to remit his hold, to let
go all advantage, and be good unto his fellow-servant,
or poor brothel*, these are matters the minister must
meddle no more with than another man ; the law can
determine whether he do right or wrong, and this
case belongs propei'ly unto the lawyer. As if the power
of God's Spirit, or authority of his ministers, did con-
sist only in words, and required no other obedience,
than a formal speculative assent unto their general
doctrine, not a full resignation of men's wills, or hearty
submission of affections, unto such rules as they shall
prescribe, for the preservation of a good and upright
conscience in particular actions, or intercourse of
human affairs. Or if one of a thousand will be so good
as to grant that he is to obey the precepts of Christ
before the customs of our common law, or other civil
courts, yet even the best of such, when it comes to
points of private commodity, will dispense with his
pastor, and reply ; " I would do as you admonish me,
if I saw any express command for it in God's word,
or any evident necessity that should bind me to re-ogo
nounce that right which law doth give me : but for
ought I can perceive, I may prosecute my right in this
present case with a safe conscience, and you do not
know all particular circumstances which belong unto
this matter ; if you did, or were in my case, I am per-
suaded you would be of my mind." This, although it
be the only shelter, under which the infidelity of later

410 Of the Nature or Properties book ir.

ages takes its rest, the only dormitory wherein hypo-
crisy sleeps profoundly, and never dreams of further
danger ; yet is it a most silly excuse and shameless
apology, in the judgment of any that knows, or know-
ing rightly esteems, the principles of Christianity.
For suppose thou see no evidence that Christ hath
commanded thee to confess his name in this particular,
doth the law lay any necessity vipon thee, to make thee
prosecute thy supposed right ? If it did charge thee
upon pain of death so to do, thou hadst some pretence
to obey it ; albeit thou shouldst fear him more that
could condemn thee, and the interpreters of it, to ever-
lasting death : but the law doth leave it to thy choice,
whether thou wilt use the benefit of it or no : and thy
pastor, upon penalty of incurring Christ's displeasure,
commands thee that thou use it not. Thou repliest.
Thou seest no evidence that Christ commands thee.
But dost thou absolutely and infallibly know that he
doth not call thee at this time, to try thy obedience in
this particular ? If thou canst, out of sincerity of heart
and evidence of truth, fully inform thy conscience in
this negative, (so the end of thy proceedings be good,)
thou mayest be the bolder to disclaim thy pastor's
summons. If thou canst not, how wilt thou answer
thy Judge, when thou shalt appear before him, why
thou, out of the stubbornness of thy heart, didst more
respect thy private gain than his heaviest displeasure ?
For suppose thy hope of gain were great, (as it is
usually to such as thou art, more great than certain,)
yet cannot the greatness and certainty of it counter-
vail the least danger of incurring his wrath, nor could
the certainty of worldly gain counterpoise, much less
oversway, the least surmise or probability of incurring
thy soul's destruction, unless thy mind had been set
more on gold than upon thy God ; more inclined to

CHAP. IX.

of conditional Obedience,

411

private commodity and self-love, than unto Christ thy
Redeemer. Or shall thy answer stand for good in his
sight, when thou shalt say unto his messenger, It is
more than I know, that Christ commands me ? Then
should the damned be justified at the day of judgment,
when they shall truly rejily, they knew not that ever
Christ did su})plicate unto them suh forma pauperis.
Most of them, we may safely swear, had less probabi-
lities to believe this in their lifetime, than thou hast
now to persuade thee of this particular : although thy
j)astor's authority and frequent admonitions were set
aside ; which make thee so much the more inexcusable.
For thou mightest have known by him that God had
commanded thee as much, unless thy bad desires had
made thee blind. But neither shall theirs or thy igno-
rance herein help. For ignorance which is bred of
bad desires, corrupt affections, or greedy appetites,
brings forth hardness of heart and infidelity : so that
seeing, thou shalt not see ; and hearing, thou shalt not
hear, nor understand the warnings for thy peace,
because thou hast formerly shut thine ears at thy pas-
tor's admonition, or raged at his just reproof. And 221
the law of God binds thy soul, upon greater penalty,
and better hopes, than all laws in the world besides
could bind thy body, even upon hope of everlasting
life, and penalty of everlasting death, to lay aside all
self-love, all worldly desire, for the finding out of the
true sense and meaning of it, as well as to obey it,
when thou knowest it. And when any point of doc-
trine or practice, either in general or particular, is
commended to thee by thy pastor, God's word doth
bind thee to search, with all sobriety and modesty, the
truth and force of all motives, inducements, or proba-
bilities which he shall suggest unto thee ; all private
respect laid aside, lest thou become a partial judge of

Of the Nature or Properties

BOOK II.

evil thoughts : and if thou canst not find better resolu-
tion, it binds thee to rely upon his authority. And
even in this again, God's word (so perfect a rule is it)
doth rule thy thoughts, to discern the fidelity, since-
rity, or authority of thy teacher.

Unto such as approve themselves, as St. Paul did
to every man's conscience in the sight of God^, or to
such as make not a merchandise of the ivord of God,
hut speak in Christ as of sincerity, and as of God in
the sight of God^, Christian people are bound to yield
greater obedience. Generally, unto such as, in their
lives, express those characters of faithful dispensers,
set down by St. Paul, and other penmen of God's word,
every auditor is bound to yield greater obedience than
unto others, in points wherein he hath no other motives
to believe, beside his pastor's authority. For this is a
dictate of common reason, and cannot but command
the assent of every sanctified mind ; that such men are
most likely to have the meaning of God's Spirit, which
walk according to God's Spirit, and seek not their own
gain, glory, or pleasvu*e, but Christ's glory, his will
and people's good : and such again are most likely to
use greatest sincerity in delivering the truth, which
they know, without partiality or respect of persons.
Again, men are bound {cceteris paribus) to believe
them best, and obey them most, of whose skill and
sincerity in dispensing the mysteries of faith, they have
had most comfortable and spiritual experience. For
the article of God's providence binds us hereto, and
wills us to reverence our fathers in Christ, either such
as (by his word) first begot faith, or nourished it in us
more than others.

Thus much concerning this point I have thought
good to insert in this place, because the true and
*^ 2 Cor. iv. 2. ^2 Cor. ii. \ 7.

CHAP. IX.

of conditional Obedience.

413

sincere practice of obedience, according to that mea-
sure of truth, or belief which men have, though but
imperfect, is the excellentest means for attaining the
clear sight of Divine truth, and that perfect measure of
sanctifying belief which in this life can be looked for,
as shall (God willing) afterwards appear.

CHAP. X. 222

Wherein this conditional Belief diff'ereth from the Romans'
implicit Faith. That the one is, the other not, subordinate
to God''s Word, or Rule of Faith.

1. As this opinion of conditional assent unto Divine
truths, not absolutely known for such, holds the mean
betwixt the two extremes, or contrary errors above
mentioned, so is this conditional assent itself a mean,
betwixt that absolute belief which all acknowledge to be
necessary in some principal points of Christian faith,
and that implicit belief, which the Romish church
exacts in all points whatsoever. Our assent unto many
articles of faith is actually and expressly absolute.
The implicit belief of the Romanists is but potentially,
or rather virtually, and implicitly absolute : this con-
ditional belief hitherto mentioned, not so much as
potentially, much less implicitly or virtually absolute.
That properly is believed by an implicit faith, which what
is not actually and expressly assented unto in the par-'f
ticular ; but yet is so essentially and immediately con-
tained in some general article or point of faith abso-
lutely or expressly believed, that this particular likewise
is assented unto in gross, whilst we assent unto it, and
may be as absolutely, as expressly, and distinctly assent-
ed unto, as the general, when it is once explicated and
unfolded. In this sense we say, the conclusion is im-
plicitly contained in the premises, the corollary in the

414

The Difference of conditional Belief book it.

theorem, or the immediate consequent in his necessary
antecedent. For he that grants one of these absolutely,
must upon the same terms grant the other, at the
first proposal of it unto him. But this conditional or
reservative belief may be of such points, as are not
certainly and infallibly contained in any principle of
faith, absolutely, expressly, actually, or infallibly ac-
knowledged ; much less so essentially and immedi-
ately contained in any, that a man cannot absolutely
grant it but he must absolutely believe them. And
albeit ofttimes they may be infallibly deduced from
known undoubted principles of faith, yet is not the
deduction so immediate, as can be made clear and evi-
dent to all capacities, at least not at the first sight, with-
out any further increase of knowledge in spiritual
matters. And before the deduction be made as evident
and apprehended as infallible, as are the general arti-
cles whence they are deduced, the particulars deduced
from them may not be so infallibly and absolutely
believed as the generals are. The papists, besides
their explicit belief of some few main points, demand
an implicit belief of as many particulars as the church
shall propose : so as whatsoever the church shall pro-
pose, with them once proposed, admits no conditional
belief: all must be absolute, albeit the parties believing
cannot discern any necessary or probable deduction of
the particulars from general points absolutely and ex-
pressly believed. It is enough that they know them
to be proposed by the church. For once believing,
"Whatsoever the church saith is most infallible,"
(which is the main article of the Roman faith,) no man
223 can deny any particular proposed by it to be infallible,
more than he can deny the conclusion for certain, after
he hath granted the premises for such. Consequently

CHAP. X.

from implicit Faith.

415

to these positions, they make the visible church the
rule and mistiness of men's faith ^, as they speak. For
albeit a man at this present think otherwise of many
points of greatest moment, than the church or pope doth,
or though he think not at all of many things, which they
in time may propose unto him ; yet after they have pro-
posed, either a contraiy opinion to that which his con-
science tells him is God's word, or a new and strange po-
sition, which he never thought of, he must without more
ado believe both absolutely and expressly, and so finally
retract, extend, enlarge, abridge, direct, and frame his
faith, according to that rule and standard which they
shall set him. Hence (God willing) shall appear the That the
madness of some great scholars amongst them, who
holding the church to be such a rule of faith, would f"*'^

<^ he resolved

persuade us (if we would be so simple) that their last '"to the

!• c r • t • • !• scriptures

resolution of faith is, not into the church s authority, or the first
but into the scripture. For nothing can be resolved*™''^*
beyond its rule, and to make the church's authority
such an absolute, authentic, unquestionable rule of
faith, as the papists do, and withal to seek the resolu-
tion of any point of faith further than it, or to derive it
from scripture, doth argue such a medley of folly and
impiety, as if some gullish gentleman, desirous to
prove the antiquity of his house, should draw his pedi-
gree from Adam's great grandfather, and yet hold
the records of Moses for most undoubted and true,
which affirm Adam to have been the first progenitor
of all mankind. Whether they seek to resolve their
faith into the scriptures acknowledged by us and them,
or into other unwritten revelations, pretended for Di-
vine truths, their folly will still appear the same, so
long as they hold that impious and blasphemous opin-
ion, making the church's authority such a rule of faith,
g A speech well beseeming the servants of the great whore.

416 In what Sense the Scriptures ore held book ir.

as hath been said. Their injuries and contumelies
unto God's written oracles (as hath heretofore been in-
timated) are especially two. First, they deny them to
be any entire rule, for the number of precepts. Se-
condly, they make those very precepts, which are ac-
knowledged for Divine, insufficient for the establish-
ment of true faith unto themselves, without the
church's authorit}'. We acknowledge them every way
sufficient for the edification of Christ's church in faith
and manners : and consequently both to our positions,
and the truth, we teach, that all matters of faith must
be finally resolved into these Divine written verities,
which for this reason we acknowledge the only infal-
lible rule of faith : the meaning of which assertion is
here to be further explicated, that so the truth may be
maintained against their objections.

224 CHAP. XI.

In what Sense we hold the Scriptures to he the Rule of Faith.

1. When we affirm that the scriptures are the only
infallible rule in matters of faith and Christian obe-
dience, we understand such a rule in those matters, as
Ai'istotle's Organon may be said of logic : supposing it
were sound, and free from all suspicion of error in
every point, and contained in it all the general and
imdoubted principles, from which all true forms of ar-
gumentation must be deduced, and into which all must
be finally resolved. To illustrate this truth by a known
practice. Our younger students are bound to yield
their absolute assent unto Aristotle's authority in mat-
ters of logic ; but not unto any interpreter that shall
pretend it, save only when he shall make evident unto
them that this was Aristotle's meaning. And while
they so only, and no otherwise yield their assent, they

CHAP. XI.

to be the Rule of Faith.

417

yield it wholly and immediately unto Aristotle, not to
the interpreter, although by his means they came to
know Aristotle's meaning- ; which once known, without
any further confirmation of other testimonies or au-
thority, commands their obedience and assent. But
ere they can fully assent unto this great master, or
throughly perceive his meaning, they must condition-
ally assent unto their private tutors, or other expositors,
and take his sense and meaning upon their trust and
credit. In like manner (say we) in all matters, doc-
trines, or controversies of faith, and Christian obedience,
we are bound to yield our assent, directly, absolutely,
and finally unto the authority of scriptures only : not
unto any doctor, expositor, or other whosoever he be,
that shall pretend authority out of scripture over our
faith, save only when he shall make it clear and evi-
dent unto us, that his opinion is the true meaning of
the scripture. And thus yielding our absolute assent
unto the truth explained by him, we yield it not to him,
but unto the Author of truth, whose words we hold to
be infallible in whose mouths soever ; and once known
to be his words, they need not the testimony or author-
ity of him, that did bring us to the true knowledge of
them. And before we be brought to see their truth
with our own eyes, and feel it by our sense, (by the
effects or experiments of it upon our own souls,) we are
to limit our assent and obedience (as it is set down be-
fore) according to the probabilities, or unpartial in-
ducements, which we have of the expositor's skill and
sincerity in dispensing Divine mysteries. And these
motives or inducements, which we have of his skill and
sincerity, must be framed according to the rules or
precepts of scripture, not according to our affections
or humours : we may not think him most to be believed
that is in highest place, or hath the greatest stroke

JACKSON, VOL I. E e

418 In ivhat Seiise the Scriptures are held book ii.

in other affairs. For as the faith of Christ, so must
our persuasion of the faithful dispensers, or skilful
seedsmen of faith, be had without respect of per-
sons.

225 2. If we yield assent or obedience unto any expo-
sitor, or other, otherwise than upon these conditions
and limitations, then, as we said before, whilst we
yielded absolute obedience unto his doctrine that per-
suaded us to true belief, because we perceived that
which he spake to be the word of God, we did not
yield it unto him, but unto God's word, delivered and
made known unto us by him ; so here again by the
same reason (only inverted) it will evidently follow,
that if we believe any man's doctrines or decisions to
be the word of God, because he speaks it, or because
we hold his words to be infallible, we do not truly and
properly believe the word of God, (suppose his doctrine
were the word of God,) but his words and infallibility
only. Hence again it follows, that if we yield the same
absolute and undoubted assent imto his authority, which
we would do unto God's word immediately known in
itself and for itself ; or rely upon his infallibility in ex-
pounding God's word, as fully as he doth upon the
word, (which it is supposed he knows immediately in
itself and for itself :) by doing thus we rob God of his
honour, giving that unto man which is only due to
him. For the infallibility of this teacher hath the same
proportion to all that thus absolutely believe him, as
the infallibility of the Godhead hath unto him ; and
his words the same proportion to all other men's faith
that God's word hath unto his. God's word is the rule
of his, and his words must be the rule of all other
men's faith. Or, to speak more properly, God must be
a God only to him, and he a God to all other men.
3. Here it will be demanded, how men, altogether

CHAP. XI.

to be the Rule of Faith.

419

illiterate, can examine any doctrine by scriptures? If i" fiat

them, how can they be said to be the rule of their
faith? In such a sense as Aristotle's works (supposing '^'"^
them only authentic, and all his opposites counterfeits
or new-fangles) may be said to be the rule of blind
men's logic ; for albeit they cannot read his works,
yet are they capable of his general and undoubted
rules, seeing they have (as well as other men) a natu-
ral faculty of discerning truth from falsehood, and can
distinguish betwixt rules derived from the pure foun-
tain of truth in that kind ; and precepts drawn from
conjectural, erroneous, and corrupt surmises of shallow
brains, if both be distinctly proposed unto them. And
the rules of truth once fully apprehended and embraced,
serve as a touchstone to discern all consequences and
conclusions, which shall be suggested unto them by
others : so as they will admit of nothing for sound and
true logic, but what may be resolved into the former,
or some other principles, which they can perspicuously
and immediately discern to have been drawn from the
fountain of ti'uth, by the same natm-al faculty or ability
by which they did discern the former : for the faculty
will still be like affected with all principles of like na-
ture, use, and perspicuity. In like sort must the first
and general principles of faith be derived from scrip-
tures, (the only pure fountain of supernatural truths,)
unto all illiterate hearts, by the ministry of the learned.
For hearts, though illiterate, once illuminated by God's
Spirit, are as apt to discern spiritual principles, from
falsehood or carnal conjectures, as the natural man is
to discern natural truths from errors of the same kind. 226
And these general and fundamental principles of faith,
engrafted in their hearts, serve as infallible rules for

E e 2

420 In what Sense^the Scriptures are held book ii

discerning the consonancy or dissonancy of such parti-
culars as shall be suggested unto them ; ^as shall (God
willing) hereafter be declared : nor may they without
injury to God's Spirit or inward grace, admit any other
precepts into the same rank or society with these, but
either upon evident and distinct deduction from them,
or sure experiments of their like spiritual fruit and use,
for the amendment of life, and procuring that peace of
conscience, which no natural man can conceive, much
less can it be caused by mere natural precepts. For we
suppose (what afterwards will manifest itself) that all
truths necessary for men to believe have a distinct re-
lish from all falsehood, or other unnecessary or super-
fluous truths : and may be known by their fruit, so
men will be careful to preserve the sincerity of their
spiritual taste.

Qua scrip- 4. God s written word then is the only pure fountain
and rule of faith ; yet not such immediately unto all
as it is written, but the learned or spiritual instructors
only, whose hearts and consciences must be ruled by it,
as in all other spiritual duties, so especially (as they are
instructors) in this, that they may not commend any
truths, or principles of faith, unto the illiterate, but
such as are expressly contained in God's written word,
or (at least) are in substance the selfsame with these
written truths. If the unlearned, through God's just
judgment, absolutely admit of other principles, and
equalize them with these ; such shall lead them into
error, and pervert their faith. If they doubt of any
man's doctrine, whether it be truly spiritual, or conso-
nant to the foundation of faith, they may appeal to
scriptures, as they shall be expounded to them by
others. Finally, they are tied to no visible company
of men, whom they must, under pain of damnation,
follow : but for their soul's health, they may try every

CHAP. XI. to he the Rule of Faith.

421

spiritual physician. If they will be humorous they
may, but at their own peril, both for temporal punish-
ment in this life, and for eternal in the life to come.

5. For conclusion : the scripture according to our
doctrine, and the general consent of reformed churches,
is the only infallible rule of faith, in both respects or
conditions of a perfect rule. First, in that it contains
all the principles of faith, and points of salvation : so
that no visible church on earth may commend any doc-
trine to others, as a doctrine of faith, unless it be com-
mended to them for such by the scriptures, by which
every one's doctrine, that acknowledgeth God for his
Lord, must be examined, as by a law uncontrollable.
Secondly, in that these principles of faith are plainly,
perspicuously, and distinctly set down to the capacities
of all that faithfully follow their practical rules most
plain, most perspicuous, and easy, to all capable of any
rule or reason : so that this sacred canon needs no as-
sociate, no addition of any authority as equally infal-
lible, nor more perspicuous than itself, to supply what
it wants ; only the ministry of men skilful, and indus-
trious in the search or exposition of it, is to be sup-
posed. And all these (be they never so excellent and
well conversant in them) are \mio scriptures but as the
ordinary expositors of classic and authentic books are
unto the chief authors or inventors of the science con- 22
tained in them : supposing that the first authors were
men of extraordinary and infallible skill, and their ex-
positors (as they usually are) but of ordinary capacity
or experience in those faculties.

6. Finally, the books of scriptures are to be reputed ^^1;,^"^^''
a more absolute rule for all matters of faith and Divine

;eries, than any books or writings of men are, for feith, above

other respects so in this, that they give as more facile,

E e 3

ill respect of

Hmo far it may be granted book ii.

so more infallible directions, for finding out their true
sense and meaning, than any other writings do, or
writers could have done, who, though present, could
not be so fully assistant, but cannot so much as afford
their presence, to their expositors in the search of
truths, rather professed than fully conceived, much less
infallibly taught by them : whereas the Spirit of truth
which first did dictate, is every where present, always
assistant to such as seriously and sincerely seek the truth
contained in these Divine oracles, conducting them from
knowledge to knowledge, both by all such means as
artists have for increasing their skill, and by other
means extraordinary, such as none in any other faculty
can have, nor any may hope for in the search of scrip-
tures, but only such as delight in and meditate upon
them day and night.

SECT. II.

That the pretended Obscurity of Scriptures is no
just Exception ivhy they should not be acknow-
ledged the absolute Rule of Faith; which is the
Mother-objection of the Romanist.

CHAP. XII.

Huiv far it may he granted the Scriptures are obscure j witfi
some Premonitions for the right state of the Question.

1. It is first to be supposed that these scriptures,
for whose sovereignty over our souls we plead against
the pretended authority of the Romish church, were
given by God for the instruction of all succeeding ages,
for all sorts of men in every age, for all degrees, or

CHAP. XII. the Scriptures are obscure, 8^c. 423

clivers measures of his other gifts in all several sorts or
conditions of men. This diversity of ages and condi-
tions of men in several callings, whoso well considers,
may at the first sight easily discover our adversaries'
willingness to wrangle in this point : whose usual
practice, (as if they meant to cast a mist before the
weak-sighted reader's eyes,) is to pick out here and
there some places of scriptures more hard and difficult,
than necessary or requisite to be understood of every
man, perhaps of any man in this age. The know-
ledge of all, or any of which, notwithstanding, those
that live after us, (though otherwise, peradventure,
men of far meaner gifts than many in this present
age,) shall not therefore need to give for lost or despe-
rate, when they shall be called unto this search.
For God hath appointed, as for every thing else, so for
the revelation of his word, certain and peculiar times
and seasons. Daniel, though full of the spirit of pro-
phecy, and one that during the reign of Nebuchad-
nezzar, and Balthasar his son, had (as it were) con-
tinually travailed of revelations concerning the estate of
God's church, and the affairs of foreign kingdoms for
many generations to come : yet knew not the approach-
ing time of his people's deliverance from captivity, un-
til the first year of Darius, son of Ahashuerosh. And this
he learned by books. ^Even in the first year of his
reign, I Daniel understood hy books the number of
the years, whereoj' the Lord had spohen unto Jere-
miah the prophet, that he would accomjiUsh seventy
years in the desolation of Jerusalem. And of his own
revelation he saith, ^And Daniel was commanded to
shut up his words, and seal up his book unto the end
of the time, or, as some read, unto the apjiointed time:
and then many shall run to and fro, and knowledge

* Dan, ix. 2. ^ Dan. xii. 4.

E e 4

424

How far it may he granted

BOOK \\.

shall he increased. For at the time appointed, as he
intimates in the words following, others, though no
prophets, were to know more of this prophecy than the
prophet did himself. Then I heard it, hut 1 under-
stood it not : then said I, O my Lord, what shall he
229 the end of these things P And he said, Go thy way,
Daniel : for the words are closed up and sealed till
the end of the time.

2. The prophets of later ages did see revelations of
matters, which had been hid from the ancient seers.
And as it fared with them in the succession of visions,
immediately inspired fi'om God, not framed in imita-
tion of any precedent written word, but to be then
first written for posterity's instruction : some saw one
vision, some another, alvs'ays such were seen by the
present prophet as most concerned the present times.

All scrip- So fares it still with the ministers of God's church, and
alike per- Christian people throughout all succeeding ages, where-
au"^^es* visions have failed, and only the Avritten stories of
former visions are reserved for perpetual direction :
some part of God's will contained in scripture is re-
vealed in one age, some in another ; always that which
is most necessary for the present time is most easy to
be understood by the faithful then living, so they seek
the meaning of it as they should, not upon curiosity of
knowing mysteries for the rarity of that skill, but for
the edifying of Christ's church, which is sometimes
out of reparations in one point, sometimes in another :
for which cause God suffereth the knowledge of sun-
dry places to grow and increase, according to the ne-
cessity of the present times, nourishing (as it were) a
continual spring, for repairing or beautifying of his
temple.

3. For this reason, those places which seem most
plain and easy unto us, might be more hard and diffi-

CHAP. XII. the Scriptures are ubscurey 8fc,

425

cult to such in former times, as should have sought
their meaning too curiously ; yea, it might have been
curiosity in that age to have sought half so much
knowledge in them as we now see at the first sight,
because the time of their revelation now is, was not
then come.

4. It is but a silly shift for our adversaries to say, Later ages
that some of the ancient Fathers did otherwise inter- bdiTved in
pret the Apocalypse, than our men do : the perfect in-t|^jf„^of't^e
terpretation and knowledge of which book, more P^cu- ^P°'^^|yp^^
liarly concerns this latter, than that flourishing age of mer.
ancient Fathers, most of all these days wherein we

live, in which the true and perfect meaning of it were
most likely to be revealed, as (God be praised) in good
measure it hath been, and daily shall be more and
more, unless the daily increase of our sins deserve the
contrary. Many godly men, yea, disciples in our Sa-
viour's time, were ignorant of sundry mysteries, which
since his glorification have been communicated to the
meanest of his flock by the Holy Spirit, who never
fails to reveal God's will, either by extraordinary or
ordinary means, so men be not negligent to inquire
after it by lawful means. For God is as far from par-
tial respect of ages as of persons ; so the persons of se-
veral ages respect his word alike, and as they should.

5. The like observation we may take from the di- All scrip,
versity of place or nations. As the knowledge of Jere- aiiiTe per!
my's prophecies did more concern the state of Judah hecaI°se^not
under Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, than the prophecv of "^'l^*-

i I J sary to all

Isaias or some more ancient prophet did ; so in this nations in

1 1 1 1 /• i> t ''^^ same

our age, the knowledge oi some one part of either their age.
prophecies, and the manner of Judah his progress (in
their times) to her overthrow, may more concern this
our land, than the knowledge of some other parts of
the same or other prophets. And yet those other

426

How far it may be granted

BOOK n.

whose knowledge concerns us less, may at this instant
concern some other land or people more. Always, the
230 gracious providence of our God directs the study and
industry of all that love him, to the search of those
points which most concern them ; but suffers the en-
deavours of such, as by their transgressions have pro-
cured his wrath, to run at random, never seeking after
those things which belong unto their peace, until his
judgments overtake them.

6. These collections are no paradoxes, but truths,
probable enough of themselves to win the assent of
sober and unpartial minds, so capable of external for-
tification, as they may easily be made evident and
strong enough to convince the froward minds of such
as delight most in contradiction. From their truth
supposed (which we are ready to make good against
all gainsayers) it necessarily follows, that this question
about the scripture's obscurity or perspicuity, cannot
be universally meant of all and every part of scripture
Theques- in rcspcct of all persons and ages; as whether no part
ceining the be obscurc or difficult to all or any this day living,
difficulty of Fo'' from this diversity of ages, we may easily discern
scriptures, gQi^e things kept secret from the ancient patriarchs,

cannot be ° i ir ^

ineantof aU by the wisdom of God made manifest unto us; and

scriptures, . i i . r ^ -r~\- •

in respect somc thiugs again, by the disposition of the Divine
or aJimen. providcncc, bccome obscure and difficult unto us, which
were more manifest unto them ; as the particulars
concerning the mystery of man's redemption were more
obscure to them than us ; although the mystery itself
was in some sort revealed to them, in the prophetical
and Mosaical writings. So likewise all the prophetical
predictions or prelusions unto the time of grace, are
better and more distinctly known of us than them ;
because the express knowledge of these particulars
more concerns us that have lived since, than those that

CHAP. XII.

the Scriptures are obscure, Sfc.

427

lived before the fulness of time. So the Israelites' Ju-
daical constitutions, their types and ceremonies, were
much more plain and easy unto them than us ; because
the knowledge of these matters, if we speak of their
judicial law, more concerned theirs than any other
state, as their types and ceremonies did their persons,
unto whom the Messias was to be pourtrayed or sha-
dowed out, more than any in this? present or other pre-
cedent age, since he was manifested in our flesh and
substance. The knowledge of the moral law, the end
and scope thereof, (the observation of God's command-
ments, and doctrine of repentance after their trans-
gression,) was equally perspicuous to both, because
equally necessary, most necessary to both for their
salvation.

7. Again, from the diverse conditions of men living Divers de-
in the same age, this resolution is most evident and fcWp^'tuie's
most certain. The same portion of scripture may be
difficult unto some sort of men, and easv unto others, f'"^ <i'»«is-

- _ ity of men s

without any prejudice to their sufficiency for being the conditions
perfect and infallible rule of faith to all. For what
we said before of diverse ages, we may conclude again
of diverse sorts or conditions of men. Sundry places
are more necessary and requisite to be understood of
this or that sort, and other places of others : nor are
all places necessary for the one to know, requisite for
men of another condition or calling to search into.
Thus the knowledge of many places is necessary for
him that is a public reader, teacher, instructor, or ge-
neral overseer of God's flock : which to search into, or
laboriously to examine, would be curiosity in him that
had no such calling, especially if engaged to any other,
which might justly challenge the greatest portion in
his best endeavours, or take up the most part of his
choicer hours for study.

4^8 Hmv far it may be granted book ii.

231 8. In this assertion we avouch no more than our
adversaries must of necessity grant, and expressly do
acknowledge in their supposed infallible rule : which
they do not suppose should be alike plain and easy to
all sorts or conditions of men, in all points. They
would judge it damnable presumption for the most
learned amongst their laity, to profess as great skill in
the canons of their church, as their cardinals, bishops,
abbots, or other principal members of it either have
or make show of ; a great presumption of heresy in
any of their flock, to discuss the meaning of their de-
cretals as accurately as their canonists, or sift other
mysteries of their religion as narrowly as the casuists
do. Should one of their greatest philosophers, that
were no clergyman or professed divine, profess he
knew the meaning of that canon in the Trent council,
Sacramenta conferunt gratiam ex opere operato^, as
well as Soto, Valentian, or Vasques did, Suarez or
other their greatest schoolmen in Spain or Italy now
living do ; it would breed as dangerous a quarrel in
their inquisition, as if he had entered comparison with
a rabbin in a Jewish synagogue for skill in expound-
ing Moses' law.

9. That the scriptures therefore may be said a suf-
ficient rule of faith and Christian carriage, to all sorts
or conditions of men, it is sufficient that every Chris-
tian man, of what sort or condition soever, may have
the general and necessary points of catholic faith, and
such particulars as belong unto a Christian and reli-
gious carriage in his own vocation, perspicuously and
plainly set down in them. And no doubt but it was
God's will to have them in matters concerning one
calling not so facile unto such as were of another pro-
fession : that every man might hence learn sobriety,
Sessione 7. Canone S.

CHAP. XII.

the Scriptures are obscure, i^c.

and be occasioned to seek, if not only, yet principally,
after the true sense and meaning of those scriptures,
which either necessarily concern all, or must direct
him in that Christian course of life whereunto his God
hath called him. But shall this difficulty of some
parts (which ariseth from the diversity of vocations)
be thought any hinderance, why the whole canon of
scripture should not be a perfect rule to all in their
several vocations ? Suppose some universal artist, or
complete cyclopedian, should set out an absolute sys-
tem or rule for all secular sciences : it would be a ridi-
culous exception to say, his works could be no perfect
rule for young grammarians, rhetoricians, logicians, or
moralists, because he had some difficult mathematical
questions, or abstruse metaphysical discourses, which
would require a grounded scholar's serious pains and
long search to understand them throughly : and if he
should admonish young students to begin first with
those common and easy arts, and not to meddle with
the other, until they had made good trial of their wit
and industry in the former: this would be a good
token of a perfect teacher, and one fit to rule our
course in all those studies which he professeth. And
yet the scriptures, (which the Jesuits would not have
acknowledged for the rule of Christian life,) besides all
the infallible rules of life and salvation, (common to
all,) admonish every man to seek after the knowledge
of such things as are most for edifying, or most befit-
ting his particular calling.

10. And even in St. Paul's Epistles, (which are the Of the pre-

, c- 1 • ■> • • ji ' tended diffi.

common places or our adversaries invention in this cuities in
argument,) after he comes to direct his speeches (as in^pifj^gj*
the latter end of them usually he doth) unto masters 232
of families, servants, or the like ; or generally where
he speaks of any Christian duty, (either private or

430

How far it may be granted

BOOK II,

public,) his rules are as plain and easy to all men in
this age, as they were to those householders or serv-
ants, or the like, unto whom they were first directed.
So plain and easy they are unto all ages, and so fa-
miliar, especially to men of meaner place, that I much
doubt whether the pope himself and all his cardinals
were able in this present age to speak so plainly unto
the capacity, or so familiarly to the experience of men
of their quality unto whom he wrote. For, setting
aside the absolute truth and infallibility of his doc-
trines, his manner of delivering them is so familiar, so
lowly, so heartily humble, so natural, and so well be-
fitting such men's disposition in their sober thoughts,
as were impossible for the pope to attain unto or imi-
tate, unless he would abjure his triple crown, and ab-
stract himself from all court state or solecisms ; unless
he would for seven years addict himself unto famili-
arity with such men in a pastoral charge. It was
an excellent admonition of one of their cardinals, (if I
mistake not, and would to God our church would
herein be admonished by him,) " to begin always with
the latter end of St. Paul's Epistles." For once well
experienced in them, we should easily attain unto the
true sense and meaning of the former parts, which
usually are doctrinal, and therefore more difficult than
the latter. Yet the true reason of those difficulties in
the foi'iner parts containing doctrine is, because he
wrote them against the disputei's of that age, especially
the Jews. Even in this age they are only seen in
matters that concern learned expositors of scriptures,
not necessary for private and unlearned persons to
know. And the especial reason, why his doctrine in
some Epistles (as in the Epistle to the Romans) seems
obscure, difficult, and intricate, is, because learned men
of later times have too much followed the authorities

CHAP. XII.

the Scriptures are obscure, S^c.

431

of men in former ages, who had examined St. Paul's
doctrine, according to the rule or phrase of those arts
or faculties with which they were best acquainted, or
else had measured his controversy with the Jews, by
the oppositions or contentions of the age wherein they
lived. Were this partiality unto some famous men's
authority (which indeed is made a chief rule in ex-
pounding scriptures, even by many such, as in words
are most earnest to have scriptures the only rule of
faith) once laid aside, and the rules of faith, elsewhere
most perspicuously and plainly set down by St. Paul,
unpartially scanned : his doctrine in that Epistle would
be so perspicuous and easy unto the learned, as it
might by them be made plain enough and unofTensive
to the unlearned. For the light of truth, elsewhere
delivered by this lamp of the Gentiles, (might it be
admitted as a rule, against some expositions of that
Epistle,) would direct men's steps to avoid those stum-
blingblocks which many have fallen upon. But to
conclude this assertion ; their difficulty (take them as
they are) is no just exception against this part of scrip-
ture : because it remains difficult still, even for this rea-
son, that it is held generally for difficult, and is not made
a rule indeed for our directions ; but other men's opin-
ions or conjectures concerning it are taken for an
authentic rubric, by whose level only we must aim at
our apostle's meaning, from which we may not, with- 233
out imputations of irregularity, swerve in the decision
of points (to say no worse) as now they are made hard
and knotty.

11. Thirdly, from the diversity of capacities or dif- '^''"i''"''?

./I more oi- less

ferent measure of God's gifts, in men of the same pro- '''ffi™''
fession, we may safely conclude, that the difficulty of same pro-
the same portion of scriptures unto some, and facility from^tVie
and perspicuity unto others of like profession, cannot ^jf^'^'j^J.^'^^

432

How far it may be f^r anted

BOOK II.

their natn- justly impcach them of greater obscurity than befits
tiesor God's the infallible rule as well of theirs as of all other men's
st'owed^^ faith, in their several vocations. For as men's callings
upon them. diverse, and God's gifts to men in their diverse
callings in nature and quality different, so likewise is
the measure of his like gifts to men in the same calling
not one and the same. To some he gives more know-
ledge, to others less ; yet all he commands, not to pre-
sume above that which is written, and every man to
limit his desires of knowing that which is written, by
the distinct measure of God's gifts in himself, not to
affect or presume of such skill as they have, unto whom
God hath given a greater talent. And besides this,
that the scripture is the inexhaustible storehouse,
whence all men have their several measures of Divine
knowledge, as well he that hath most as he that hath
least : even in this again it is a perfect rule, that it
commands all sapere, idque ad sohrietatem, to be wise
according to that measure of knowledge which God
hath given them, and not to seek to know, at least
not to say. Why should I not know as much as any
other of any profession ? for this were pride and arro-
gancy, (the fatal enemies of all true Christian know-
ledge,) if so his gifts be less than others'. And for the
avoidance of these main obstacles of Christian know-
ledge, or true interpretation of scriptures, the scripture
hath commanded every man to think better of others
than of himself, and not to he wise iti his own conceit.
AU scrip- 12. From the former general will follow this particu-
Iiikepel-- lar : albeit some parts of scripture be very obscure
aU ra^ni^s-*" uuto some ; the same perspicuous unto other ministers
goTpef oT preachers of the word : yet may the whole canon be
menof God. the infallible rule of faith unto both, according to the
diverse measure of their gifts, rightly and unpartially
taken. If the one either fail in the exposition of sun-

CHAP. XII.

the Scriptures are obscure, Sfc.

433

dry places, which the other rightly expounds, or cannot
apprehend so much in them as the other doth : he is
in sobriety of spirit bound to acknowledge his own
infirmity, and content himself with that knowledge,
which is contained within the measure of God's gifts
bestowed upon himself : and this again he is to take
by the same rule. So that the scriptures are a perfect
rule to both, to all ; for direction in the search of
Divine knowledge, for limitation of men's desires
whiles' they seek it, or conceit of what they have got-
ten. That they do not so thoroughly instruct or furnish
some, as others, (though all men of God,) for exact
performance of their ministerial function ; can be no
argument of their insufficiency, to make all such in
their place and order competently wise unto salvation,
more than it would be to prove Euclid's Elements (or
other more absolute mathematical work) an insufficient
and imperfect rule for instructing surveyors or other
practical mathematicians, (whose skill lies only in mea-
suring triangles, circles, or other plain or solid bodies,) 234
because containing many questions of higher nature
and greater difficulty, (as of the circle's quadrature, of
lines or numbers surd, or asymmetral,) well befitting
the exercise of speculatory, learned mathematical wits.

CHAP. XIII.

T/ie true state of the Questioti about the Scripture's Obscuriti/
or Perspicuity : latto ivhat Men, and for what Causes,
tliey are obscure.

1. The question then must be. Whether the scrip-
tures be an absolute rule of Christian faith and manners
to every man in his vocation and order, according to the
measure of God's gifts bestowed upon him? We affirm.
It is such to all. None are so cvmning, none so excel-

JACKSON, VOL. I. F f

434.

The State of the Question

BOOK II.

lent or expert in Divine mysteries, but must take it for
a rule, beyond whose bounds they may not pass, from
which they daily may learn more ; none so silly, but
may thence learn enough for their salvation, so they
will be ruled by it. And yet even of those points
which are perspicuously set down to the diverse capa-
cities of men in the same or several professions, the
question is not, Whether any can fully comprehend
their entire meaning? Certain it is, in this life they
cannot. But neither will our adversaries, I hope,
avouch, that the infallible authority of their church can
make us so comprehend the full meaning of mysteries
contained, either in scriptures, or her pretended un-
written traditions. Of scriptures the best learned
Christian may say with the heathen Socrates, Hoc
unnm scio, me nihil scire, " I know this one thing,
that I knoAv nothing ;" nothing as I should, or as fully
as I then shall, when I shall know as I am known :
for in this life, we know but in part, and we prophesy
in part^.

2. Lastly, even in respect of places (though contain-
ing points of salvation) only thus imperfectly known,
(though as perspicuous and clear as can be required
the rule of faith should be,) the question is not, whether
they be very obscure and difficult unto some, or unto
the major part of mankind : if we consider them as
they are, or may be, not as they should or might be,
that is, if we consider them as disobedient to the truth
known, or careless to amend their lives by this light
of scripture. For unto all such as hate it, this very
light itself proves an occasion of falling. Nor could
any thing be more plainly or perspicuously set down in
any other rule of faith imaginable, than this very point

c I Car. xiii. i 2.

CHAP. XIII. ahout the ScrijHiire's Obscurity, S^c.

435

we now handle is in scriptures, to wit, that such parts
of them as contain matters necessary to salvation, are
most easy to some, most hard to others. And alheit
they might, through the iniquity of mankind, prove
difficult to all, or impossible to be understood of most
now living, (living as for the most part we do,) yet
were this difficulty or impossibility of understanding
them aright, (upon these suppositions,) no hinderance
at all, why they should not be a complete rule of faith,
to all no just reason for admitting any infallible author-
ity besides theirs.

3. For of such as admit any authority equivalent to 235
theirs, it must be fvu-ther demanded, Whether the pj?|ff'j„\g
infallibility of it can take away that blindness of heart, f''*®"'''''
which by God's just judgments lights upon all such the weak-
as detain the knowledge of God or his sacred word in impeitii;eii-
unrighteousness? If, for their sins, God punish them q'^^ !,dver-
with this spiritual darkness, in discerning his will re- ^^^'^^"^^^"1^"
vealed in his written word ; no other infallible author- "pi'""'

It they ne

ity (as we suppose) can take away those scales from hereto le-

,. I'li-t !• •!• 1 ^ilueed, as

their eyes, which hinder their sight m the means ot shall appaar
their salvation. If men have been called to this light, ti^ukrs^^r
and prefer darkness before it : either they must receive

' ^ J next sec-

sight and direction from it again, or continue still int><'"-

ignorance and the shadow of death ; but doth God lock
up all or most men's eyes in such darkness ? No ; for
this blindness (by our doctrine) befalls only such as
have deserved it by the foreinentioned sins, which
once removed by repentance, the rule of life shall en-
lighten them ; unrepented of, no other rule or author-
ity shall teach them the way to life.

4. Since we thus grant that the scriptures may be
obscure to most men by their own default, but perspi-
cuous to others free from like fault or demerit ; it
remains we further inquire whether the same scrip-

F f 2

43G

The State of the Question

BOOK II.

tures do not most plainly set down, first, the causes
why they are so obscure to some and perspicuous to
others ; secondly, the remedy or means how their
obscurity or difficulty may be prevented. If they
plainly teach these two points, this is a sure argument
that they are, if not, that they cannot be, so excellent
a rule of faith as we acknowledge them. For this
very point (that the scriptures, in respect of diverse
persons, are obscure and perspicuous, though obscure
to none but through their own default) is a principle of
Christian faith, and therefore must be plainly set down
in the absolute complete rule of faith. And (to omit
others in their due place to be inserted) what can be
more perspicuously taught, either by scriptures or
other writings, than this truth, God giveth grace to
the humble, and resisteth the 2}roiid'^; or this, He
will confound the wisdom of the wise, or such as glory
in their wisdom^ f These and like rules of God's jus-
tice in punishing the proud and disobedient, hold as
true in the search of scripture, as in any other matter,
yea especially herein. Thus were the Scribes and
Pharisees (men of extraordinary skill in scriptures)
blinded in the most necessary points of their salvation,
though most plainly set down in scriptures. For
what could be jnore plainly set down than many testi-
monies of their Messias ? Many places of far greater
difficulty they could witli dexterity unfold : how chanc-
ed it then they are so blinded in the other? They
were scattered in the proud imagination of their
hearts, and glorious conceits of their prerogatives in
being Moses' successors : and in their stead, simple
and illiterate, but humble and meek spirited men,
raised up to be infallible teachers of the Gentiles, to

Prov. iii. 34. James iv. 6. e Isaiah xxix. 14. i Cor. i. 19.
1 Pet. V. 5. and iii. 19.

CHAP. XIII. ahnid the Sciiptwes Obscnriti/, Sfc.

437

unfold those mysteries of man's redemption, (which the
Scribes and Pharisees could not see,) with evidence of
truth to enlighten the silly and ignorant, and convince
the consciences of their learned proud oppugners. By
their ministry, prophetical and Mosaical mysteries
became a light unto the Gentile, whose life had been in
the shadow of death : whilst a veil was laid before the
hearts of the most learned Jews, so that even whilst
the Sun of Righteousness, which enlightens every man 23G
that comes into the world, did arise in their coast, and
ascend unto their zenith, they grope their way, as men
that walk in dangerous paths by dark night.

5. Was the scripture therefore no rule of faith unto
these Jews, to whom it was so difficult and obscure ?
Or is it not most evident that this blindness did there-
fore come upon Israel, because they hated this light,
being carried away with loud cries of Templum Do-
mini, Templum Domini, as the papists now are with
The church, The church : and for words of supposed
disgrace offered to it, (only upon a svu'mise that Christ
had said, he would destroy and build it up again,)
brought to seek the destruction of the glory of it, even
of the Lord of glory. Thou that wouldst make others
believe the pope is such, dost thou believe the scrip-
tures to be infallible ? How is it then, whilst thou
readest God's judgments upon thy brother Jew, thou
dost not tremble and quake, lest the Lord smite thee
also (thou i)ainted wall) with like blindness? seeing
thou hast justified thy brother Pharisee's stubborn
pride, wilful arrogancy, and witting blasphemy in
oppugning scriptures. And as for all such whose
hearts can be touched with the terror of God's judg-
ments upon others, in fear and reverence I request them
to consider well, whether one of the greatest Roman
doctors were not taken with more than Jewish mad-

F f 3

438

The State of tlie Qiiestiun

BOOK II.

ness in mistaking scripture in itself most plain and
easy, who to prove the scripture's obscurity to be such
as in this respect it could not be the rule of faith,
allegeth for his proof that place of the prophet ^ : And
the visiofi of them all is become unto you as tJte word
of a book that is sealed up, which they deliver to one
that can read, saying. Read this, I pray thee : then
shall he say, I cannot ; for it is sealed^.

6. The pi'ophet relates it as a wonder, that they
should not be able to discern the truth. AVhat truth ?
an obscure or hidden truth, impossible to be understood?
This had been a wonderful wonder indeed, that men
should not be able to understand that, which was im-
possible to be understood. Wherein then was the
true wonder seen ? In this, that they, whose eyes had
formerly been illuminated, by the evidence and clear-
ness of the Divine truth, revealed by God's messenger,
should not be able to discern the same, still alike clear
and perspicuous ; but now to be shut up from their
eyes, as appeareth by the similitude of the sealed book,
whose character was legible enough, bvit yet not able to
be read whilst sealed ? A man might as well prove the
sun to be dai'k, because Polyphemus, after Ulysses had
put out his eye, could not see it, as the scriptures by
this place to be obscure. The prophet's words entire
are these'' : Stay yourselves, and ivonder ; they are
blind, and make you blind; they are drunken, but
not ivith ivine ; they stagger, but not with drink.
For the Lord hath covered you ivith the spirit of
slumber, and hath shut itp your eyes: the prophets

f Disce ex iino omnes. Ga- piiiict. 7- panig. 4.] against us

ther how mad Baal's other priests which make most phiiiily for us.

are in this argument from Valen- S Isai. xxix. 11.

tian's Jewish phrensy, in urging ^ Isaiah xxix. 9, xo, &c -er.

scriptures [torn. 3. disp. 1. qu. r. 13.

CHAP. XIII. (ihont the Scriptnr(Ps Obscurity , 8fc.

439

and your chief seers hath he covered. And the visio7i
of them all is become unto you, &cc. And more plainly:
Therefore the Lord said. Because this people come
near me ivith their mouth, and honour me with their
lips, hut have removed their heart from me, and their
fear toivard me was taught by the precepts of men :
(doth he not mean the blind obedience of modern pa-
pists as well as ancient Jews ?) therefore, behold, I ivill
do a marvellous work in this people, even a marvellous
ivork and a wonder : for the wisdom of the ivise men 237
shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent man
shall be hid. The Lord himself foretells it as a wonder,
that this people should be so ignorant in the word of
God ; and yet will the Jesuit make us believe the word of
God is so obscure that it cannot be unto us the rule of
faith, when as without the knowledge and light of it
(not which it hath in itself, but which it communicates
to us) there is no vision, no knowledge in the visible
church, but such wonderful darkness as the prophet
here describes.

7. Let the reader here give sentence with me,
whether it were not wonderful Jewish blindness, or
wilful blasphemy in Valentian', so confidently to a-
vouch, " that the veil which St. Paul saith is laid
before the Jews' hearts, was woven (a great part) out

i Velamen quod ipse Paulus
(2 Cor. iii. 15.) affirmat usque in
hodiernum diem, cum legitur
Moses, esse positum supra cor
Judicorum : profecto textum (ut
ita dicam) bona ex parte est ex
ditticultate scripturarum illarum.
Valent. torn. 3. in Aquin. disp.
I. quEcst. 1. punct. 7. parag. 4.
He addeth immediately : Hoc
enim (ut antea monuimus) est,
scripturam esse ditHcilem, ejus-
niodi eam esse, et tarn multa, ut

ilia intelligatur, requiri, ut pro.
olive fuerit Judaiis, et sit aliis
omnibus, non percipere veram
ejus sententiam : quod quia dare
nobis coguntur, velint, nolint
sectarii, recte ac necessario inde
concludimus, ommunem illam
regulam et niagistram tidei, quam
necesse est, esse propositam fide-
libus omnibus, non esse scriptu-
ram ; cum non sit cognitu facilis
ipsis hominibus. Hue et illud
IsaiaB 29 pertinet.

F f 4

440

The state of tlie Question

BOOK II.

of the difficulty of scriptures," such scriptures as the
sectaries (so he terms us) contend about : and for
proof of this blasphemous assertion to bring the fore-
cited place. Ere their allegations of this or like places,
brought to prove the scripture's difficulty or obscurity,
can be j>ertinent, they must (according to the state of
the question already proposed) first prove this obscurity
or difficulty to be i)erpetual and ordinary, not inflicted
as a punishment upon hypocrites, or such as love dark-
ness more than light. And this they never shall be
able ; this one place alleged by Valentian most evi-
dently ])roves the contrary. For this was an extraor-
dinary and miraculous judgment upon these Jews for
their hypocrisy, as appears, verses the thirteenth and
fourteenth. And unto such as they were, we acknow-
ledge the scriptures, by the just judgment of God, to
be most difficult still ; but deny such difficulties to be
any bar wh)'^ they should not be the complete rule of
faith. If the Jesuits will avouch the contrary, let them
tell us whether any other rule could in this case supply
their defect, be it unwritten tradition, or viva vox in-
faUib'dis aiithoritatis, "the infallible teaching or preach-
ing of the visible church or pope." This, I presume,
they will be ashamed to affirm. ^For this prophecy

So our Saviour expoundeth feruled in hearins. this sayins; ?

it, ilatt. XV. ver. 7 — g. O hi/- he answered. Even/ plant, which

poc7-iles, Esaifis prophesied jvell of m\/ heavenly Father hath not

you, saying, This people, &c. planted, shall be rooted up. Let

using the words before-cited out them alone: they be blind leaders

of the 13th verse of Esay, cap. of the blind. And if the blind

xxix. Out of both places it ap- lead the blind, both .ihall fall

pears that their hypocrisy and into the ditch. So the prophet

disobedience to the truth known, had said in the 14th verse. The

caused this blindness: and what wisdojn of their wise men (to wit,

the })ro])het threatened, ver. 14, the Pharisees) shall perish, and

our Saviour ratifieth. Matt. xv. the understanding of the prudent

12 — 14. VoT ivhen his disciples shall be hid; and in the 9th

said unto him, Perceivest thou verse. They are blind, and make

not that the Pharisees are of- you blind. For this cause our

cjiAP. XIII. about the Scripture s Obscurity , &;c. 441

was fulfilled of the Pharisees which lived in our Sa-
viour's time, and heard him preach the doctrine of sal-
vation as plainly as the pope can do : yet neither
could his doctrine nor miracles win them to his Father.
Why could they not ? Because they had, as the pa-
pists now have, (though not so openly,) disclaimed the
scriptures for the rule of their faith, and did follow the
precepts or traditions of men ; and God (as we said
before) hath so decreed, that such as neglect the truth
known, or love darkness more than light, should be
given over to this reprobate sense ; that the more evi-
dent the truth is, the more hateful it should be to
them : as the hate of these Scribes and Pharisees to
our Saviour was greater than their fore-elders' had
been to the prophets, because the light of his doctrine 238
was greater, his reprehensions more sharp, and their
deeds and hypocrisy worse than their fathei's'. No
marvel then, if it be so hard a matter to recover a
learned papist, or make a Jesuit recant his error in
this point, seeing they are farther gone in this Jewish
disease of contemning God's word, following traditions
and precepts of men, for the rule of their faith, than
these Jews themselves were ; not likely therefore they
would have yielded to our Saviour himself, if they had
lived in his time. Nor should the ingenious reader
think we hyperbolize or overlash, when we charge
them with deeper blasphemy in this point than these
Jews were guilty of : as if this were strange, seeing
they are such great scholars, and profess that they love
Christ as well as we : for so would these Jews boast
of their antiquity and skill in scriptures, and thought

Saviour in the forementioned pounds the parable unto them

place calleth not them as he did as he did to his disciples, verse

the multitude, to hear and tin- 15.
dersland, verse 10. Nor ex-

442

Huiv men must be qualified

BOOK II

that they loved God, and his servant Moses, as well as
Christ and his apostles did. But it was God's purpose
to confound the wisdom of the worldly-wise ; of the
Scribes and Pharisees then, and of the learned priests
and Jesuits now.

CHAP. XIV.

Hoiv men must be qualified, ere they can understand Scriji-
tures aright : tlutt the Pope is nut so qualified.

1. Out of the forementioned places it is evident,
that God's word (otherwise plain and perspicuous) was
hidden from this people's eyes for their hypocrisy ;
and the same blindness continues still in their posterity
for continuing in like sin. But can it be proved as
evidently, by any other place of scripture, that unto
such as do the will of God, and practise according to
his precepts, the same word shall be plain and easy, so
far as is necessary for their salvation? Yes, infinite
places may be brought to this purpose. And lest any
man should except against the extent of such bountiful
promises, as if they included some condition of learning,
great dexterity of wit, or the like, whereof many men
are not capable ; our Saviour Christ adds the univei'sal
note ; If any man will do his will, he shall know of
the doctrine, whether it he of God, or ivhether I speak
of myself^. If any man will do his will :^ not if any
man will learn the learned tongues, or study the
Scribes' and Pharisees' comments, which this people
supposed to have been the only (as they were good)
means for understanding scriptures aright, whilst sub-
ordinate to this principal condition here mentioned by
our Saviour. The occasion of the multitude's admiring
his doctrine, was, that he who had never been scholar
to their rabbins should be so expert in scriptures (as
it is, verse the fifteenth). Our Saviour's reply to this
1 John vii. 17.

CHAP. XIV.

to understand Scriptures aright.

443

their doubt conceived by way of admiration (in the
sixteenth verse) is, that he had his learning from God,
and not from man : My doctrine is 7iot mine, hut Jiis
that sent me. And as he was taught by his Father to
deliver and teach the heavenly doctrine, so might the
simplest and most unlearned amongst them be like-
wise taught of God to discern whether the doctrine
were of God, or whether he spake of himself : if they
would do the will of God, and seek his glory, not ^39
their own, as Christ did not seek his own glory, but
his that sent him. Yet might these Jews have brought
the same excej)tions against our Saviour's rule for dis-
cerning doctrines, which the papists now bring against
the scriptures, why they should not be the infallible
rule of faith ; as shall appear hereafter. In the mean-
tiine whom shall we believe, the modern Jesuit, who
will swear one thing sitting, and the contrary standing;
or Christ Jesus, whose word (as he himself) remains,
yesterday, to-day, the same for ever"^ ? Even at this
day, (as well as at that time, when he spake this
oracle,) if any man will do the will of God (which
sent him), he, amidst the variety of men's opinions
concerning matters of faith, shall know of the doctrine
whether it he of God, or whether men speak of them-
selves, without recourse unto the infallible authority of

II' Our Saviour fully confirm-
etli this truth unto us, which the
Psiihnist had before in effect de-
livered, Psahii XXV. 14. The
secret of the Lord is revealed
unto them thai fear him ; and
his covenant to give them under-
standing ; and verse 9. Them
I tint he meek will he guide in
judgment : and teach the humble
his waij. Vide etiam verse i o and
12. This evidently confuteth

their folly, who think, or rather
say, our Saviour spake in this
place of his own peculiar doctrine
and authority. Albeit Canus (a-
niongst others) might be excused
(by such as would salve his cre-
dit) by the common answer, Non
locutus est ex sua sententia, as
appeareth by the manner of his
reply, lib. 2. de loc. Theol.
cap. 8.

444

Hoiv Men must he qualified

BOOK II.

such as sit in Peter's chair ; who are to Peter hut as
unto Moses the Scribes and Pharisees were, unto whom
God's church in Jewry, about our Saviour's time, was
not much beholden for doctrines of faith, or decisions
of doubts, concerning the truth of scriptures, or prin-
cipal mysteries taught by Moses.

2. Will you hear what Bellarmine (the only cham-
pion that ever Rome had, for eluding evident author-
ities of scripture) could answer unto this place? ""Our
Lord and Saviour did not intend in this speech to
shew us that all honest-minded men might understand
every place of scripture by themselves : but to teach

n Non hoc dicit Dominus lit
ostendat omnes virus bonos per
se intelligere posse omnia loca
scriptiirariini : sed ut doceat vi-
res probos carere quibusdain im-
pediiiieiitis, propter qutE alii qiii-
deni nec per se, nec per alios,
fidei veritatem intelligere pos-
sunt, lit Johan. v. 44. Luke xvi.
14. Bellarni. toni. i. lib. 3. cap.
10. Canus in his first answer to
this place seems willing to assent
unto the truth : Concedimus, in-
quit, liberaliter doctrinam ciiique
in sua vita et statu necessariam,
illi fore perspectam et cognitam,
qui fecerit voluntatem Dei. Sic-
ut enim gustus bene affectus
differentias saporum facile dis-
cernit, sic animi optima affectio
facit, ut homo doctrinam Dei ad
salutem necessariam discernat,
.lb err»re contrario qui ex Deo
non est. Quic vero ecclesia? sunt
communia, nec ad judicium, nec
ad fidem spectant singuloruni, ea
non a quovis discerni et judicari
possunt, quantumcunque is Dei
faciat voluntatem. In his second
answer he bewrays a willingness
to dissent from us, or perhaps a
fear not to say somewhat against

us : and therefore, to such as
will not be satisfied with the for-
mer, he gives a second answer,
in effect the same with Bellar-
mine's. We may admit both
their conclusions, without harm
to our cause. From that whicli
Canus granteth of private men,
(both in his answer to the se-
cond and third argument,) we
may conclude against him thus :
As God giveth them the spirit of
discerning true from false doc-
trine, in points necessary to sal-
vation, without all respect of
persons : so likewise will he, by
his providence, direct the learned
or spiritual overseers in every
nation, (without respecting per-
son, place, or other prerogative,)
for discerning apocryphal from
canonical books. _ Nor is there
any more reason to appropriate
their discretion to the pope or
clergv of Rome, more than to
appropriate the gift of discerning
truth from falsehood in pointsne-
cessary to salvation, to their ser-
vants. Vid. Can. lib. 2. de loc.
Theol. cap. 8. responsione ad se-
cundum et tertium.

CHAP. XIV. to understand Scriptures aright.

445

us that good men are free from (livers such impedi-
ments, as disenable others for understanding the true
doctrine of faith, either by themselves, or by others'
help. For some became uncapable of true faith by
pride and desire of worldly honour, others by covetous-
ness. All these things heard the Pharisees also which
were covetous, and they mocked him."

3. That all honest-minded men should be able to
understand all places of scriptures, we never affirmed ;
that without the ministry or help of others they
should (ordinarily) understand any aright, we never
taught. This notwithstanding we constantly avouch :
without this condition of doing God's will, not men
otherwise furnished with the best gifts of art and na-240
ture can ever be competently qualified for spiritual in-
structors : by performing it, the simple and illiterate
shall be made capable of good instructions, and enabled

to discern true doctrine from false. By our Saviour's
rule in the very next words, (more infallible than any
other pretended infallibility can be,) we may discern
the pope, of all others to be no true, much less any in-
fallible teacher, unless of lies and antichristian deceit.
For he that seeheth his own glory^ (as what pope is
there that doth not so ? many seek the popedom by
their predecessor's blood,) he speaks of himself; not
the word of him, whose vicar he boasts himself to
be.

4. To place the apostle St. Paul's authority next in
file unto our Savioiu-'s : "Fashion not yourselves

he unto his beloved Romans) like unto this present

o Rom. xii. 2. upon which jam per fidem in Christum ac-

place he whom Bellarmine com- cepistis transformemini in novos

mends as one of the most excel- atfectus, ut sic reddamini apti ad

lent interpreters of later years intellit>;endum, quid a vobis jus-

(next to Jansenius) saith thus: tificatis ])er totam vitam requirat

Per renovationem mentis quam Deus. Quid gratum sit bene-

446

How Men must be qualified

BOOK II.

world: but he ye changed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may jjrove what is the good will of
God, and acceptable and perfect. Being fashioned
like unto the present world, they were altogether dis-
proportionable unto the kingdom of heaven, uncapable
of heavenly mysteries ; but being renewed in their
minds, they might prove, taste, and relish aright the
meaning of God's word revealed. Of such as disannul
the scriptures for being the rule of faith, and transfer
this canonical dignity upon the pope, I would gladly
be resolved, whether this his holiness' infallibility can
take away the veil which is laid before the Jews'
hearts, or this desire which reigns in most men, of
fashioning themselves unto this present world ; whether
he can in all such as profess Christianity, root out
those lusts and concupiscences, those {cornece fibrce)
stiff and stubborn heart-strings, as are the very threads
whereof this veil is made which makes the scriptures
so difficult, and so eclipseth their light in respect of
men. If he cannot, well may he make them under-
stand or believe his own decrees ; but never rightly
apprehend or steadfastly embrace the spiritual mys-
teries of their salvation. That rule of St. Paul's is
still most infallible : the natural or carnal man is
altogether uncapable of the things of God's Spirit; of
those things which are in themselves most evident;
neither can he know them. If you will not believe his
authority as infallible, he gives you a reason for the
truth of the conclusion, J'or they are spiritually dis-

placitum et acceptum Deo. Si- gamus, quiB sit voluntas Dei :

mile quiddam docet Apost. Eph. sed quod riostro sensui veliemen-

5. Probantes quid sit benepla- ter arridet, interpretamur id esse

citum Deo. Nisi enim niacta- voluntatem Dei. Sasbout in hunc

verimus cupiditates carnis nos- locum. Vide annotat. ex Beda ad

trae, non possum us esse idonei, paragraph. 5.
ut in actionibus nostris intelli-

CHAP. XIV. to understand Scriptures aright. 447

cerned. Is it then the pope's infallibility, or the
framing of our lives according to God's holy word,
that must purge the errors of our young and wanton
days, and make us cease to be homines -^v-^ikoi, natural
or carnal men, and become spiritual? If the pope's
infallibility cannot perform this, to what use doth it
serve ? The scriptures will be difficult still, and their
sense insipid to such as have not their hearts thus
cleansed. If without his infallibility, (by the industry
of faithful pastors, attentive hearing, and serious me-
ditation of his sacred word,) our lives may be amended,
and we of carnal men become spiritual ; we shall dis-
cern the things of God, what is his will and mercy to-
wards us in Christ ; we shall know of every doctrine
necessary unto our salvation, whether it be of God or
no, much better than the pope and his cardinals can
do, if they be carnals. For our apostle adds, The spi-
ritual man judgeth and discerneth all things, and is
judged oj^ nonev. The sense of which words some of 241
your schoolmen much mistake, when they hence gather,
that the pope may judge princes : but the spirituality
(so in common talk we call the clergy) may not be
judged by any temporal or lay power. Our aj)ostle
means, (nor will a learned interpreter, though a papist,
deny it,) that in matters of faith, and in the truth of
Divine mysteries, the truly spiritual (that is, such as
are renewed in the inner man, not such as bear the
name or title of spiritual men in their corrupt lan-
guage) see and understand those things, which the

P Apostolus, I Cor. ii. 15, Sentent. dist. 25. q. 2. art. i.

comparando temporalem faculta- conclus. 2. No marvel if Va-

tem ad spiritualem, ait, quod lentian grossly mistake this place,

animalis homo non percipit ea wherein this grave divine, as

quae sunt Spiritus Dei, sed spiri- Bellarmine instyles him, is so

tualis dijudicat omnia, et ipse a sottish,
nemine judicatur. Soto in 4

448

How men must be qualified

BOOK II.

wisdom of God hath hidden from the wisest and most
glorious teachers of the world, from all carnal men, of
what gifts soever they may be in other matters ; as
appears by our apostle's discourse in that place. AVhich
doctrine of our apostle, how truly it is verified in the
wise men of Rome, the Jesuits I mean, (to give them,
what by our proverb we are bound to give their mas-
ter, their due,) men of famous industry and excellent
reach, in all subtle and profound arts : but how igno-
rant and besotted in matters of faith and mysteries of
man's salvation their doctrine in this j)resent contro-
versy, being compared with this axiom of our apostle,
may abundantly witness, to the astonishment of all
sober-minded Christian readers.

5. They cannot deny, that matters of faith and
Christian life, the mysteries of man's salvation, are
matters belonging to the Spirit of God ; and that a
lewd, naughty, ambitious, luxurious man, and heretic,
is Jiomo ^fvy^iKo^, a carnal man, they will not offer to
call in question. Again, that many of their popes be
such as I have said, (naughty, wicked, luxurious men,)
they openly confess. Some of them grant that •! Hono-
rius was an heretic. '"Valentian will not dispute

q Denique quod Honorius et
nonniilli alii poiitifices in erro-
rem lapsi fuisse dicuiitur (quaii-
quani de millo prorsus satis com-
pertum est, pertinacitererravisse)
id qiiidem utcunque res habeat,
non nisi ad privatum attinet per-
sonarum vitium : atque adeo ni-
hil nobis obstare potest, ut qui
non tarn ipsas personas, quam
authoritatem illam apostolical se-
dis in definiendo defendimus,
sicut supra, Augustiui etiam
exemplo, respondebanius, Valent.
torn. 3. disp. I. quaest. i. punct.
7. paragr. 4 1 . cas. 11.

Valentianus loco citato. Ad
fidelitatem Dei erga ecclesiam
spectat, ut impediret in eo casu,
quo minus per pontificem ilium
controversia falso definiretur. Id
quodfacere Deus possitaut ponti-
liceni de medio tollendo, ne ipse,
sed successor potius rem decer-
neret ; aut interna mentis illus-
tratione, vel alio aliquo modo
pontilicem ab errore revocando.
Neque vero hujusmodi provi-
dentia Dei in similibus casibus
miraculosa esset censenda, sed
esset potius quidam efFectus ejus
legis ordinarise, qua Deus per

CHAP. XIV. to understand Scriptures aright.

449

this particular de facto, whether he were one or no,
but that the pope or popes may hold heretical opinions
he granteth : albeit thus tainted with heresy, they can-
not propose their heresies ex cathedra, to be believed
by others; (believe Valentian herein who list;) for
God by his providence would prevent this mischief.
But howsoever, the pope and his cardinals may (by
their own confession) be carnal men with a witness \
Now St. Paul saith plainly, " Homo animalis non potest
cognoscere ea quae sunt Spiritus Dei ;" N^o earned
or natural man can conceive the things of the Spirit
of God^, 1 Cor. ii. 14. (for this indefinite proposition
in materia necessaria may have this universal note,
" Homo animalis non potest cognoscere ;" 2s o carnal
man can perceive .) The Jesuits affirm the contradic-
tory unto St. Paul's doctrine, as an undoubted article of
faith. The pope (say they) albeit homo animalis,
though a most wicked man, though otherwise an here-
tic, (the worst of carnal men,) cannot but discern the
things that belong unto the Spirit, all the mysteries of
man's redemption, all points whatsoever necessary to
man's salvation. For he cannot err in deciding such
matters if he speak ex cathedra. More unhappy man
Honorius, more fools have the whole generation been,
that ever would shut their mouths, or cease to sjjeak
ex cathedra even to the last gasji.

promissiones de veritate factas,
sese obstrinxit ecclesiae. Ac sane
hujus rei exenipluin illud pro-
ferri potest, quod cum Joannes
22. existimaret, sanctorum ani-
mas ante diem judicii divinam
essentiam non videre, idque eo
tempore, quo in ecclesia (sicut
Canus etiam lib. 6. de locis theo-
logicis, cap. ult. ad i. argument.

JACKSON, VOL. I.

notavit) nondum erat satis ex-
jilicata lia?c controversia, et ad
rem definiendam sese compararet,
])riusquam id faceret, e vita ex-
cessit, et Benedictus successor
contrariam sententiam definivit.

^ Homines animales cum ad-
ditamento.

t Quis autem carnalis et ani-
malis homo non per i^hantasmata
G g

450 Hotv men must be qualified book ii.

6. Tliat sundry lewd and wicked men may learnedly
discourse of spiritual matters, and deduce necessary
consequents out of truths supposed, or commonly re-
ceived for Divine, in such points as contradict not
their affections^', or tempt them not to become partial
judges of evil thoughts : that we are to reverence and
obey God's word, manifested to our consciences, though
by their ministry, we deny not. But that such wicked
monsters of mankind as many of their popes have been,
and may be, should so conceive and discern all the
principles and grounds of faith, be so familiarly inti-
mate with the Holy Spirit, that their decrees, (in mat-
ters which concern their own pomp and glory, in mat-
ters whose loss would breed their temporal ruin,)
should be held for the infallible oracles of God, the

sui cordis evagetiir, et constitu-
at sibi Deuiii, qualis ei pro suo
carnali sensu placuerit, atque
ita credit tantum longe aliter
quam Deus est, quantum a veri-
tate vauitas differt. Verissimam
quippe sententiam dixit aposto-
lus, plenus luniine veritatis. Ani-
malis, inquit, homo, non perci-
pit qiice sunt Spirilus Dei. Et
tamen de iis hsec dicebat, quos
jam fuisse baptizatos ipse mani-
festat. Beda in hunc locum ex
AugustinOjl. 3. deBaptismo. This
opposition betwixt the spirit and
the flesh is (as we say in schools)
formal, or ^irectly contrary : so
as this rule and that other late
mentioned, (Rom. xii.) hold as
true in the pope as in any. If
he fashion himself as much to
this, he is as disproportioned to
the world to come as any other:
if he be as carnal as other men,
he is altogether as incompetent
a judge of things belonging to

the Spirit of God as others are,
whosoever. Beda in the same
place addeth. Ad animales perti-
net vetus Testamentiim, ad spi-
rituales novum — . Veteris au-
tem sacramenta ces^averunt, sed
concupiscentiae tales non cessa-
verunt. In illis enim sijnt, quos
apostolus jam per sacramentum
novi Testamenti natos, adhue
tamen dicit animales, non posse
percipere quae sunt Spiritus Dei.

^ No carnal affection, or desire
habituate, but harbour some one
or other heresy, if the soul be
well searched, or the predomi-
nant desire or affection directly
crossed ; as shall (God willing)
hereafter appear ; so that men
of lewd life or vicious, only con-
ceive well, either of such spirit-
ual matters as are not directly
opposite to their peculiar vices,
or else of such generalities, as
may be prosecuted without pre-
judice to their affections.

CHAP. XIV. to understand Scriptures aright.

451

only rule of faith, for all other Christians to rely upon
continually : thus to deny the infallible presence, or
illumination of God's Spirit, to all faithful and godly
men throughout the world, and to appropriate it to a
succession of such sons of Belial as their own writers
picture out unto us in their legends of popes' lives, is a
blasphemy against the Godhead, (I pray God it prove
not so against the Holy Ghost",) of such huge and
ugly shape, that I much marvel how it could possibly
creep into any Jesuit's pen, being scarce able, I think,
to get out of the wide, vast, gaping mouth of hell itself,
in whose entrails it was conceived. Was it more in
heat of passion (perhaps) to say, that the Devil was a
familiar of the Son of God, than to teach it as an arti-
cle of faith, that the holy and eternal Spirit is a per-
petual associate, an infallible assistant, or familiar com-
panion of Satan's first-born, of conjurers, enchanters, or
incarnate devils ? Was it so horrible and infamous a
crime in Simon Magus, to offer to buy the gifts of the
Holy Ghost? and is it less sin in such as he was, con-
jurers, sorcerers, to seek after as great, or greater
spiritual prerogatives, (as great as St. Peter had,) by
the same means that he did ? Is it no sin for the Jesu-

" The matter of the Jews' blas-
phemy against the Holy Ghost,
was their charging Christ, in
whom he rested, with an un-
clean spirit, as appeareth in
Mark iii. 22. and 30. The form
or soul (if I may so speak) of
that sin in them was their enter-
tainment of that conceit against
the evidence of their own consci-
ences ; Christ's life and actions
bearing witness of his sanctifica-
tion by the blessed Spirit. The
matter of this sin in the Jew
and modern Jesuit is all one,
for it is the selfsame impiety.

only inverted, to say or think
the Devil is authf)r of good-
ness, or the Holy Ghost of mis-
chief ; to make the Devil a fa-
miliar of the Son of God, and
the son of Satan an associate of
the Holy Spirit. • Whether the .
pope's works do notofttimes as
truly testify his impurity as
Christ's did his sanctity, the ad-
versary will scarce question, I
will not conclude; but God grant
the Jesuits' parasitical enconii-
ons of their popes' sacred author-
ity be not wilful, as were the
Jews' detractings of our Saviour.

G g 2

452

How men must he qualified

BOOK II.

its to beg this as a postulatum, or main axiom of
faith, that whatsoever the pope (such a pope as hath
gotten his triple crown and spiritual power by simony)
243 shall decree esc cathedra, should be esteemed and
reverenced as the dictates of the Holy Ghost ? Did
that old Magus want wit to insert this condition to
his request, that whomsoever he should lay his hands
upon ex cathedra, he might receive the Holy Ghost ?
popeMath ^^8'^^ Peter have conferred this extraordinary

no such ab- gift as Well upon him, as he did his infallibility upon

sjhiteaii- I '^ r>, r

thoiityas the pope ? Snnon did not desire the monopoly of be-
from'^st!"'^^ stowing the Holy Ghost, but could have been content
pj^^^y 'gP'""^'" to have shared with others in this prerogative ; Give
Peter's per- T/^g also tMs power^. But his brother in wickedness,

emptory

denial of the Romish Levi, of what spirit soever he be, must have
Simon Ma- this jirerogative alone, that whatsoever he shall speak
must be the oi-acle of the Holy Spirit. Is it more to
have the Holy Ghost attend on Simon Magus' hands,
but not on them alone, than to have him tied only
unto the pope's tongue or pen ? The spiritual preroga-
tive which he sought, and that which the pope usurps,
are (on the pope's part at least) equal. The manner
or means of seeking them, in both alike the same.
For we hear in the corner of the world, wherein we
live, that your elections of men into Peter's chair, do
not go gratis. I confess I do not believe the cor-
ruption of your clergy so firmly, as I do the articles of
my creed, because I have not express warrant for it out
of this sacred canon, which 1 make the rule of my faith :
but ere you can make us believe the pope's infallibility,
as an article of faith, you must make evident proof to
the contrary : you must make it clear by testimony
from above, that neither any state of Italy, or foreign
prince, doth make request or suit unto your cardinals,

^ Acts viii. 19.

CHAP. XIV. to understand Scriptures aright.

4.53

that his kinsman, his countryman, or favourite may
be elected pope before another. We have far greater
reason to believe that such offers are both made and
taken, than to think that, if a foreign prince or do-
mestic potentate should offer a cardinal some thousands
of ducats for his voice, he would answer, (like one that
would be Peter's successor in sincerity,) Thy money
perish with thee, that thinhest the gift of the Holy
Ghost can be bought with moneys.

7. Yet if the cardinal take any gift upon this condi-
tion, or respect any prince's favour in such election ; his
and the party's sin soliciting him hereto, is altogether
as great as Simon's was. For the request is in effect
thus much : Let such a man have this prerogative, that
on whomsoever he shall lay his curse, to whomsoever
he shall impart his blessing, the one shall be accursed,
the other blessed from above ; whatsoever he shall de-
termine in any controversy shall be the dictate of the
Holy Ghost. And he that yields his voice upon such
conditions, doth take upon him to bestow that upon
the pope which St. Peter denied to Simon Magus:
the pope thus chosen, doth usurp that as bestowed
upon him which Simon Magus did seek ; his practice
and profession is continually as villainous as Simon's
desires were, when he sought after this ; his blessings
are no better than Simon's charms.

8. It is no marvel if the Jesuits be so eag-er in this
argument, or the politic papists so forward to disclaim
the scriptures for the rule of Christian faith. For if
men should so esteem of them in heart and deed, those
few rules out of them already alleged would quickly
descry the pope and the clergy of Rome (I mean their
cardinals and statesmen) to be of all others the most 244
incompetent judges, either of scripture sense, or contro-

y Acts viii. 20.
Gg3

454.

How Men must be qualified

HOOK II.

versies in religion thence depending : or were the use
of scriptures freely permitted to their laics, without the
glosses and false representations of the Jesuits, priests,
or friars, they might quickly see, that the silliest soul
among them, might sooner be partaker of the life
working sense, than their great statesmen can be, if so
they would frame their lives, according to the known
rules thereof, better than such great ones do. For
silliness, or simplicity of wit or understanding, doth
not so much hinder, as singleness of heart, or sincerity
of conscience further men, in the search of truth neces-
sary to their own salvation. That promise of our Sa-
viour {hahenti dahitur^) hath its proper place and
peculiar force in this point. Whosoever he be that
yields sincere obedience unto the least part of God's
word known, to him shall be given greater knowledge.
And of such is the prophet's speech most true. They
shall he all taught of God, from the greatest to the
least^. As well the mean scholars and silliest souls, as
the greatest and wisest doctors. ''For with great worldly

2 IMark iv. 24, 25. And he
said tmto tliem, Take heed what
ye hear : with what measure you
mete, it shall be measured nnto
you : and unto you that have
more shall be given. For unto
him that hath, shall be given; and
from him that hath not, shall be
taken away even that he hath.

^ Jer. xxxi. 34.

^ Apostolus autem spiritu sanc-
to locutus ait, Scientia injiat, cha-
ritas vero cedi/icat. Quod recte
aliter non intelligitur, nisi scien-
tiam tunc prodesse, cum cliaritas
inest : sine hac autem inflare, id
est, in superbiam inanissimae qua-
si veiitositatis extollere. Augus-
tin. lib. 9. de Civit. Dei, cap. 20.
The like affection in the pope or

clergy of Rome maketh them ar-
rogate so much unto themselves
in this business of establishing
belief. That which St. Austin
addeth in the same place, seem-
eth in proportion true of them.
Est er<io in dajmonibus scientia
sine charitate: et ideo tam innati,
id est, tam superbi sunt, ut ho-
nores divinos, et religionis servi-
tutem, quam vero Deo deberi
sciunt, sibi sategerint exhiberi,
et quantum possunt, et apud
quos possunt, adhuc agunt. And
again : Contra superbiam porro
daemonum, qua pro meritis pos-
sidebatur genus humanum, Dei
humilitas quaj in forma servi ap-
paruit, quantam virtutem habeat,
animae hominum nesciunt, im-

CHAP. XIV.

1u understand Scriptures aright.

455

wisdom there is always great pride, the greatest adver-
sary to true and sanctified Christian knowledge : and
the best sort of secular learning puffeth up. All the
skill which men so minded can attain unto in heavenly
matters, is but like lessons got by rote. It must be
quite forgotten, at least utterly renounced and laid aside,
before we can be admitted into the school of Christ,
in which all in this life are but parvuli, petties or
children, for their simplicity and harmless minds, for
lowliness and nullity of self-conceit. Hence saith our
apostle*^. If amj man think himself ivise, let him become
a fool that he may learn wisdom aright. And our Sa-
viour Christ saith unto his disciples, Except ye be con-
verted, and become like little children, ye shall not
enter into the kingdom ofheaven^^; that is, they cannot
be capable of this heavenly doctrine. For true and
sanctifying grace must be engrafted in this harmless
simplicity and childlike disposition.

9. It is the nature and proj)ertyof God's word to beinge"uous
plain and facile unto such as are of disposition sembla- (such asi the
ble to it ; as to the sincere of heart, single in life, and meant
plain in dealing ; but obscure and difficult unto the "..i',i"o^n,.
worldly-wise. The simplicity of it, and the subtilty "♦'^cium

"I simplex

of the politician, or secular artist, parallel as ill, as a est) and
straight rule or square with a distorted crooked stick : fng "re qua-
The testimony of the Lord (saith the Psalmist) is sure, sy|ni,Sng
and giveth wisdom to the simple^. The word in the '''''' ^^'^

" _ tenial pro-

original silly or credulous^, such as in M^orldly affairs priety of

11.,, , . scriptures.

are more easy to be deceived, than apt to deceive : and
is rendered by the Septuagint vrjiria, parvidi, which

munditia elationis inflatae, dx- xxxvii. 24.

monibus similes superbia non sci- «' Matt, xviii. 3.

entia. iriD Psalm xix. 7.

c I Corinth, iii. i8. Vide Job f Matt. xi. 25.

G g 4

456 How Men must be qualified book ii.

word it pleased our Saviour to use, when he intimates
this perspicuity of God's word unto such little ones : /
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, be-
24:5 cause thou hast hid these things Jrom the wise, and
men of understanding, and hast opened them unto
bahes. It is so, O Father, because thy good pleasure
was such. Such as in this whole discourse we have
supposed, (and this place doth prove ;) that is, such as
had decreed that the doctrine of life should be most
difficult and hard to proud, disobedient, or craftily-
minded men, but most perspicuous (because to be reveal-
ed by God) unto such little ones. And again (lest any
man should presume upon his wisdom or dexterity of
wit) he tells us expressly, no man knoweth the Father,
but the Son ; and he to whom the Sou will reveal hims.
And his will is, to reveal himself and his word unto
all and only such as we have said, to little ones, or
such as become little children, casting off the burden
of age, which hath brought such faintness and weari-
ness upon their souls, that they cannot hope for any
good success in the course which tends to everlasting
life, until they be disburdened of all former cares. And
hence in the next verse his words are general, Come
unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden. So
they will take up his yoke which is easy, and his bur-
den which is light, he will free them from all the
grievances and discommodities of their former yoke,
learning but this one lesson of humility and meekness
of him, it will teach them all the rest ; for by it they
shall Jind rest unto their souls ; which Christ will re-
fresh, not as the pope doth with anathemas binding
unto negatives, but with the true taste of this water of
life.

S Matt. xi. 27.

CHAP. XIV. to undersla/ul Scriptures aright.

457

10. Nor will any of our adversaries, I hope, be so
perverse, as to say our Saviour's doctrine in this place
did hold true only for that time, wherein the knowledge
of Christ, and doctrine of his gospel, was to be first pub-
lished''. For such perversity would bewray so great
ignorance in scriptures, and little experience in the
course of Christianity, as they would be ashamed to be
suspected of. For who sees not this opposition between
worldly wisdom and heavenly knowledge, to continue
still in their several professors throughout all ages.
Nor can any man be sure his faith is not humourous or
hypocritical, vmless he be transformed into such a little
one as Christ here speaks of, and have true humility
surely planted in his heart. This is the fundamental
or first principle, whereinto faith must be resolved:
even all those graces or pledges of God's favour whereon
most rely in trial of their spiritual estate, nuist be ap-
parently seated in this lowliness and simplicity, or else
every man through the multiplicity and subtilty of his
own heart, shall be overseen in his persuasions.

11. A lively experiment of our Saviour's doctrine,
and our assertion in this point, we have in St. Austin',
as himself witnesseth : " I purposed to look into the
sacred scriptures, that I might see what manner of
writings they were. And lo I light on a matter alto-
gether hid from the proud, and yet not laid open unto
children, in progress lowly, in process or issue stately,
and wrapped in mysteries. Finally, such as my qua-

h Or if they will, we shall incessu humilem, successu ex-
meet with their exceptions in the celsam et velatam mysteriis : et
article of the Godhead, and other non eram lego talis ut intrare ad
treatises hereafter. earn possem. Nam ilia erat quae

i Institui (inquit) animum in- crescebat cum parvulis ; sed ego

tendere in scripturas sacras, ut dedignabar esse parvulus, et fastu

viderem quales essent. Et ecce turgidus mihi grandis esse vide-

video rem non compertam su- bat. Aug. lib. 3. Confess, cap. 5.
perbis, neque nudatam pueris, sed

458

Ho7v Men must he qualified

BOOK II.

lity made me uncapable of entrance unto it. For the
property of it was to grow up with little ones, but I
disdained to be a little one, and, swollen with fastuous
conceit, in mine own eyes I seemed a great one." Here
246Valentian'' (sucking poison out of this reverend father's
honey) demands importunately, whether it be a matter
of no difficulty, " to procure our freedom from this tu-
mour of viciousness ; to have our hearts purged from
that soot which is as the Jewish veil unto them." And
finally, "whether it be so easy a matter" (as we, to his
seeming, make it) " to become humble and meek, with-
out which virtues the scriptures were obscure and diffi-
cult unto Austin himself', otherwise a man of excellent
wit."

12. Methinks this cumbersome Jesuit's choleric
strain, and foolhardy passionate carriage in this whole
controversy, doth lively resemble a strong sturdy lub-
ber, that had thrust himself unawares into a quarrel,
which he is no way able to make good ; yet so stub-
born, that he will not give over, but fights, and winks,
and cries, and (hit he miss he) lays about him. For
can any man think he sees where these fierce blows
will light ? As much as we have said. Is most clear out
of this very place of Austin, which he would throw
upon us. Most clear it is, that unto such as follow

^ An vero nullius difficultatis
res est, ab hoc tiimore vitiorum
vacuum esse, eorumque fuligine
velatum cor, instar Judaeorum^
non habere, sed humilem fieri ac
docilem discipulum ad hujusmodi
Spiritus sancti disci pi i nam capes-
sendam. Valent. tom. 3. disp. i.
quaest. i. punct. 7. sect. 4.

1 St. Austin supposeth the
scriptures to contain in them the
words of life, but intimateth no
other means by which either the

scripture should become more
plain, or the saving truth which
they taught be otherwise mani-
fested to his soul, than only by
practising such rules as the scrip-
tures prescribe for their right
understanding, whence the mad-
ness of this Romish doctor may
again appear. See the second
part of this last folly, in the an-
notations unto the third para-
graph of the sixteenth chapter.

CHAP. XIV. to understand Scriptures aright.

459

our Saviour's method, set down before, that is, unto
such as will become like little children, and begin
(as it were) anew again ; the scripture (which for
the present seems hard to all far entered into the
world's school) is perspicuous, clear, and easy to be
learned. But whether it be hard to become such
a one, or whether it be a difficult matter to lay aside
all pride and self-conceit, is no part of the point now
in question, nothing at all to this intended purpose.
To man, no doubt, it is most hard, or rather altogether
impossible. But what it is to man once made partaker
of the grace of God, and power of his Spirit, let Christ
Jesus the fountain of grace be judge. He hath told us,
that his yoJce is easy, and his burden light"^. Or
will they reply, that his yoke is easy indeed to bear,
when it is taken up, but hard to take up. Our Sa-
viour's next words imply the contrary : but of this
question we shall take occasion hei*eafter. Only now
1 say the Jesuits of all other are most uncapable of
this plea. For they hold freewill in men, whereby
they may assent unto grace offered : and if men have
freewill, and Christ offer his grace unto such, as use it
well, the learning of humility, and taking up his yoke,
will be easy through grace, though impossible to na-
ture. But let this question concerning grace and free-
will stand still, as it doth, in controversy betwixt us
and them and the Lutherans. This is granted by all ;
that if Christ grant his grace to all that will endeavour
to follow his precepts, then it is easy to all, to learn
this first lesson of Christianity, lowliness and meekness,
the rudiments of true knowledge in scripture, without
which all other learning in them is but verbal. As this

Matt. xi. 30. His yoke and and humility which Valentian
burden is the practice of patience saith is so hard.

460

Huiv men must be qualified

BOOK II.

is confessed by all, so would I be resolved by any
Jesuit, whether, if it be Christ's pleasure to deny his
grace to any, it be not altogether impossible for him to
learn this lesson perfectly, or to become a good pro-
ficient in the school of Christ, although the pope, their
247 supposed infallible teacher, should vouchsafe to cate-
chise him ejc cathedra. What hath this Jesuit got
then, by his fierce objecting this difficulty of learning
humility, for to make the scriptures seem obscure ; if
the same obscurity, the same impossibility of under-
standing them aright, still i-einain, albeit the pope
himself should stretch his plenary power to illustrate
them with his infallible authority?

13. Or will it not be more hard for the pope (being
so highly placed in secular honour and dignity as he
is) to stoop so low as a little child for lowliness of
mind, than it will be for us poor and silly men. If it
be more hard for him than us so to do, we are more
likely to become better scholars in Christ's school than
his infallible holiness, more likely to be more cei'tain
of the true sense or meaning of scriptures than he can
be, much more certain (in all necessary points) hereof,
than he can be of his infallibility. For this lesson of
true humility must of necessity be learned, ere we can
proceed in the true knowledge of these mysteries. Sup-
pose this be a very hard lesson to learn, yet {cceteris
par 'ihiis) it will be harder as men's places are higher,
or their dignities greater ; hardest of all to men of
highest place and greatest dignities, especially if their
advancements to such preeminences be (as many popes
and cardinals have been) per saltiun, or ah exfremo in
extremum sine medio, like lazy beggars suddenly
mounted on stately steeds : shall then this difficulty
late objected, deprive these scriptures of this dignity
which we plead for ? Shall this debar them from being

CHAP, xif^ to understand Scriptures aright.

461

the infallible rule of faith ? Or rather do they not, in
giving this very rule of learning humility, and thus
forewarning of their impossibility to be understood
without it, approve themselves to be an excellent rule
of faith ; a more excellent rule for these superexeellent
Divine mysteries, than any other rules are for ordi-
nary, petty, or trivial arts ? For suppose Bellarmine,
or any other moi-e exquisite, though he an excellent
teacher of the Hebrew tongue, should in his Grammar
have given this caveat, (easy to be confirmed by sound
reason and experience,) that whosoever would become
perfect in that language, should begin his study in his
younger days, before he were engaged to subtle or
profounder studies, or given to deep meditations of
realities, otherwise it would be very hard for him to
descend again unto grammar rules, and begin like a
schoolboy to con declensions, conjugations, without
which, and many other petty rules about altering of
vowels, he could never hope to be an absolute Hebri-
cian : had Bellarmine set down these or like caveats
more at large, should this admonition be accounted
any just exception why his Grammar (otherwise sup-
posed authentic) should not be a perfect rule for learn-
ing Hebrew ? or must we for this reason have stretched
our wits to invent some infallible teacher of Hebrew
for such men ? I am sure he that should have found
the truth of his admonitions by experience in himself
or observation in others, would commend his judgment
herein, and think so much better of his Grammar, or
wish that he himself had known, or others would ob-
serve these admonitions, whiles they were young, and
rather use Bellarmine than experience for their school-
master in this point.

14. Doubtless it is for want of acquainting youth
and childhood with the former rules of scripture,

462

How Men must he qualified, Sfc.

BOOK II.

248 which make the scripture generally either seem ob-
scure or difficult, or causeth men mistake them seeming
evident. For when they are grown to man's estate,
or be embarked in worldly affairs, or invested in secu-
lar dignities, before they have studied scriptures, or
practised the former precepts ; this seeming difficulty
either nioveth them to seek for other rules more easy
to their capacity, or not to care for any rule of faith at
all, or else to transform this, which God hath given for
reforming his image in them, into the nature of their
corrupt affections. Were this lesson of becoming like
little children throughly planted in our hearts when
we were children, true knowledge in other parts of
scriptures would grow with us, and faith, (once planted
in humility, while our hearts were tender, and easy to
be wrought upon by this plain and easy precept,) albeit
at the first but like a grain of mustard seed, yet having
got the start of pride, and desire of secular glory in the
spring, should afterwards flourish in all heavenly
knowledge, and fructify in every good and acceptable
work, without the husbandry, lopping, or pruning of
an infallible teacher. But if we, either through our
own wilfulness or parents' negligence, have perverted
the ways of our youth, that they will not parallel this
straight and easy rule, shall God's righteousness be pre-
judiced by our iniquity? Shall not his ways (this way of
life) be equal, because our ways are unequal? Must we
become like Seneca's blind woman, who accused every
place wherein she could not see, for being too dark :
must the scriptures for our blindness of heart be
thought obscure ? Not in themselves, (saith the Jesuit,)
but unto us. How unto us ? or unto which of us ? Only
to such as are therefore become blind, because they
have not in time been made acquainted with this light.
For otherwise the scriptures were written to enlighten

CHAP. XV. Romanists' Ohjections against Scriptures, 8fc. 463

us, not themselves, or such as wrote them. And unto
such as are blinded in their own desires, difficult they
are and obscure, without any respect of persons : to
the poi)e, as well as to any meaner man, not more
proud or carnal than he. Thus we see our adversaries
cannot offer one blow against us in this point, but we
can make it fall more heavy upon themselves. And
well were it, if their objections did light heavy only
upon the objectors themselves, for they have deserved
it. But here I must entreat the Christian reader to
consider well upon whom their usual objections of
scripture's obscurity are most likely to fall : upon us,
for whose good they were given ; or upon God the
Father who gave them ; his Son that partly spake
them ; his Holy Spirit who only taught them ; his
prophets, apostles, evangelists, or other his blessetl
ministers which wrote them.

CHAP. XV. 249

The Ronumists'' Ohjections against the Scriptures for being
obscure, do more directly impeach their first Author and
his Messengers their Penmen, than us or the Cause in
hand.

1. That these scriptures {which our church holds
canonical, and we now maintain to be the rule of faith)
were given for the good of Christ's church, or multi-
tude of faithful men throughout the world, our adver-
saries will not deny ; or if they would, the scriptures,
which expressly to deny they dare not, bear evident
testimony hereof. Infinite places are brought to this
purpose by such as handle that question. Whether the
wi'itten word contain all points necessary to salvation ?

2. St. John saith he wrote his Gospel that we might T^^e perspi-
helieve. By what authority did he undertake, by scriptures
whose assistance did he perform this work ? Under- ii°se^ve^he

464 Romanists Ot/jections against the Scriptures book ii.

ru™)Vov ^^^^^ ^^^^ Crod's appointment, effected by the
ed from the assistance of his eternal Spirit, to the end we might
they were believc the truth. What truth? That which he wrote
concerning the mysteries of man's salvation. But how
ists' careful f^j. jj^j jjg intend this our belief of such mysteries

endeavours

to make should be Set forward by his pen ; unto the first rudi-

them plain. i . i

ments only, or imto the midway of our course to hea-
ven ? Questionless unto the utmost period of all our
hopes : for he wrote these things that we might believe;
yea so believe in Christ, as by believing we might have
life through his name^. Was he assisted by the eternal
Spirit, who then perfectly knew the several tempers
and capacities of every age ? And did he by his direc-
tion aim at the perfect belief of succeeding ages, as the
end and scope of all his writings? And yet did he
write so obscurely, that he could not be understood of
them for whose good he wrote ? Out of controversy
his desire was to be understood of all, for he envied no
man knowledge, nor taught he the faith of our glori-
ous Lord Jesus Christ icith respect of persons^. He
wished that not the great Agrippas, or some few choice
ones only, but all that should hear or read his writings
to the world's end, might be not almost, hut altogether
such as he was, faithful believers. From his fervent
desii'e of so happy an end as the salvation of all, he so
earnestly sought the only correspondent means, to wit,
posterity's full instruction in the mysteries thereto be-
longing. And for better symbolizing with the igno-
rant, or men (as most of us are) of duller capacity in
such profound mysteries, his paraphrase upon our Sa-
viour's speeches is ofttimes so copious, as would be
censured for prolixity or tautology in an artist. But
seeing the common salvation of others, not his own
applause, was the thing he sought, he disdains not to
o John XX. 31. P James ii. i.

CHAP. XV. do more impeach t/iem than zis.

405

repeat the same thing, sometimes in the same, other-
whiles in different words, becoming in speech as his
fellow-apostle was in carriage, all unto all, that he
might at leastwise of every sort gain some^: ofttimes
solicitous to prevent all occasion of mistaking our Sa-
viour's meaning"", though in matters wherein ignorance
could not be deadly, nor error so easy or dangerous as
in those other profundities of greatest moment, which
he so dilates and works upon, as if he would have them 250
transparent to all Christian eyes.

3. Do not all the evangelists aim at the same end ?
Do they not, in as plain terms as they could devise or
we would wish, divulge to all the world the true sense
and meaning of our Saviour's parables, which neither
the promiscuous multitude to whom he spake, nor his
select disciples or apostles themselves, until they were
privately instructed,) understood aright, as they them-
selves testify : so little ashamed are they to confess
their own, so they may hereby expel or prevent like
ignorance in others. Tell me, were not our Saviour's
parables expounded by his blessed mouth, as plain
rules of life as may (without prejudice to his all-suffi-
ciency) be expected from any other man's ? Are not
his similitudes (wherein notwithstanding are wrapt
the greatest mysteries of the kingdom) drawn from
such matters of common use, as cannot change whilst
nature remains the same ? for the most part so plain
and easy, as will apply themselves to the attentive or
well exercised in moi'alities ? Strange it seemed unto
our Saviour, that his disciples should not at the first
proposal understand them ; Perceive ye not this para-
ble f how should you then understand all other para-
hies^ f Yet happy were they, that they were not

'I I Cor. ix. 2 2. " John xxi. 23. and ii. 21.

s Mark iv. 13. Matt. xv. 16.

JACKSON, VOL. 1. H h

466 Romcmists' Objections against the Scriptures book ii.

ashamed to bewray their ignorance by asking when
they doubted, though in a point of little difficulty.
This good desire of progress in their course begun,
brought them within the hemisphere of that glorious
light, whereby they were enabled afterward to discern
the greatest mysteries of the kingdom. And unto their
question concerning the meaning of that great parable
of the sower, which is one of the fundamental rules of
life, our Saviour immediately replies. To you it is given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: hut
unto them that are ivithout, all things are done in
parahles : that they hearing may hear, and not under-
stand; lest at any time they should turn, and their
sins should he forgiven them ^

4. Had our evangelists only set out the text, and
concealed the comment, it might have ministered mat-
ter of suspicion whether all Christians throughout all
generations, whilst this gospel shall endure, should he
taught of God from the greatest to the least of them ;
or, whether Christ had not appointed some great infal-
lible teacher as his vicar-general, to supply the same
place successively in the church, that he himself had
borne amongst his disciples ; one, on whose living voice
all the flock besides were in all doubts or difficulties to
rely, as the apostles did on Christ's in the unfolding of
this parable. But seeing they have plainly revealed
to us in writing, what was revealed to them (concern-
ing the meaning of this and other parables of greatest
use) from our blessed Saviour's mouth ; their written
relations of these n)ysteries with their expositions must
be of the same use and authority unto us, as Christ's
living words were unto them. And as they were not
to repair unto any other but their Master alone for

t Mark iv. ii. These words confirm tlie truth of the state of
the question proposed by us.

CHAP. XV. do more impeach them thmi ns. 467

the word of eternal I'tfe^^ ; not to admit any other in-
fallible teacher for declaration of his meaning: so may
not any Christian to this day infallibly rely upon any
man's expositions of his words, already expounded by
himself and related by his apostles; these laid up like
precious seed in our hearts, the diligent labours of
God's ordinary ministers only supposed, would bring
forth the true and perfect knowledge of other precepts 251
of life, in abundance, competent to every man in his
rank and order.

5. For seeing what our Saviour imparted to his dis-
ciples in private, is now by God's providence plainly
communicate unto us : this is an argument beyond
exception, that we are not in their case, who in that
parable are said to be ivithout, but of their number to
whom it is given to know the mysteries of the king-
dom of God ; unless we will in life and manners imi-
tate hypocrites rather than Christ's disciples. And lest
we should prove like these Jews, which having ears
to hear would 7wt hear, though invited thereto by our
Saviour''; our evangelists inculcate again and again the
causes of this dulness in hearing, or conceiving what is
heard, or averseness from the truth in some sort con-
ceived. They tell us, the Jews, sometimes for am-
bitiony, sometimes for covetousness^, generally for pre-
sumption pride, and hypocrisy, in saying they had
Abraham for their father, did make themselves un-
capable of saving knowledge. To what purpose do
men, guided by the Spirit of God, inculcate these or
like admonitions so oft? That the growth of such car-
nal affections might in all succeeding ages be pre-
vented : that Christian parents, forewarned by the la-
mentable issue of this stubbornness in Abraham's seed,

" .John vi. 68. " I\Iark iv. 9. Y John v. 44. and xii. 42.

' Luke xvi. 14. John viii. 39. Matt. iii. 9.

H h 2

4G8 liomanists' Objections agamst the Scriptures book ii.

might teacli their children these heavenly lessons,
which had been so distasteful to the Jews, before these
or other inveterate humours had brought them to the
same or like distemper. For, (as I observed before,
and this parable directly proves,) might celestial seed
take root in children's hearts before these secular weeds
sprung up; their souls should continually receive bless-
ing from God, and daily drink in these streams of life,
which found no entrance into such Jewish barren soil, as
did hear nothing hut thorns and hranihles, whose end
was to he hurned^, as altogether unworthy of more
watering.

6. Shall either the world, devil, or flesh, be able to
breed the least suspicion in any Christian heart ; whe-
ther God, who enabled the apostles and evangelists to
speak so plainly to the capacity of all sorts of men in
every nation, cannot, either by increasing internal doci-
lity in succeeding ages, or sublevating their dull ca-
pacity by facility and plenty of external means, repair
whatsoever the injuries of time might detract from the
perspicuity of writings apostolical or evangelical ? So
that although the decay of dialects, absoluteness of
phrase, or alterations of customs, (whereunto they al-
lude as well known then, because in use,) might breed
some difficulty unto posterity ; yet (unless true faith be
decayed with them, or all characters of God's provi-
dence worn out of our hearts) how can we distrust,
whether he, by whose wisdom as well Divine mys-
teries unheard before, as skill to utter them in every
language, were extraordinarily and immediately infused
into illiterate souls, without the help or ministry of
man ; cannot or will not, by his good blessing upon
our endeavours in the ordinary course of attaining
skill in sacred tongues, continue the use of tongues
^ Hebrews vi. 8.

CHAP. XV.

do more impeach them than us.

4G9

and all other good means whatsoever, necessary or ex-
pedient, either for our right understanding, or commu-
nicating the infallible truth already taught, without any
other's infallible assistance besides his, who can teach
us as infallibly by means in themselves not infallible,
as he hath done others without any means at all. To 25
doubt of God's providence in this point, were to doubt
whether he were the same God still : and if the same,
he will (albeit by other means) perform the same effects
still ; unless the sins of the Christian world deserve
the contrary, and pull that blindness, which (in our
Saviour's time) reigned in those Jews, upon themselves
by like hardness of heart, pride, or hypocrisy. And if
so they do, what shall this supposed infallibility of the
pope avail ? Is his teaching more infallible than Christ's
was ? shall he loose where God hath bound ? shall he
disannul what the Almighty hath ratified? shall he
make the scriptures clear to them, before whose hearts
the Lord hath laid a veil? or shall he give sight,
where he that made the eye hath called for blindness ?
O that they could remember this who have forgotten
their God, and cannot see, that whosoever accuseth the
scriptures of difficulty or obscurity doth indict the om-
nipotent of impotency, in not being able to perform
what by his apostles he intended.

CHAP. XVI.

That ail the Pretences of Scriptures'' Obscurity are but Mists
and f^apours rising from tlie Corruption of the Flesh, and
may by the pure Light of Scriptures rightly applied easily
be dispelled.

1. Unto this and all demands of like nature — If
the scriptures be not obscure, how chanceth it that so
many find such difficulties in them, even in those places
which seem to contain in them matters of faith ? — the

H h 3

470 All Pretences of Scriptures' Obscurity book ii.

answer is already given : It was the Almighty's good
pleasure to decree, that the scriptures should be plain
and easy to such as faithfully practise their most plain
and easy precepts, but hard and difficult to be under-
stood aright of such as wilfully transgress them, or
knowing them to be God's word, do not glorify them
as his word : most difficult, most impossible to be un-
derstood of such as acknowledging by what spirit they
were written, yet renounce their authority, or disclaim
them for the rule of their faith. All such, though for
the clearness of their undei'standing in other specula-
tions they may seem to have angelical heads, yet for
Divine mysteries, have but Jewish or obscure hearts:
and being blinded in their minds, they imagine the
scripture whereon they look to be obscure. This an-
swer notwithstanding, though most true, will not sa-
tisfy all. For seeing this blindness in most men is not
voluntary, at the least not wilful or affected, the cap-
tious will yet demand. How shall they help it ? The
scriptures plainly teach how they may be holpen.
What can be more plain than that rule. If any man
want ivisdom, let him ask ofGod^ : yea, many do so,
and yet go without it. So they must, as the scripture
telleth us, [f they ask ayniss. Doth the scripture then
serve as a straight rule to direct them how they should
ask aright ? Yes. For what rule can be more plain
than that of St. John^', Whatsoever we ask we re-
ceive of him, because we keep his commandments, and
do those things ivhich are jjleasing in his sight ? The
promise indeed is plain, but the condition hard : for the
first thing we would ask of God is grace to keep his
commandments. But what hope have sinners to re-
253ceive this, seeing he heareth only such as keep his com-
mandments? Will this or any other rule of scripture
James i. '-^ i John iii. 22.

CHAP. XVI.

are curnul Mists, Sfc.

471

help us out of this labyrinth ? It will not fail us, nor
forsake us. For if we have but a desire to amend our
lives, Christ's words are as plain as forcible*', he
quencheth not smoking flax, a bruised reed he will
not hreah^. And this is his coinrnandment, that we try
the truth of this and other like sayings of comfort by
relying upon his mercy ; or, if we do but seek after
repentance, we do that which is pleasing in his sight ;
for he is not pleased in the death of a sinner, but re-
joiceth at his repentance. If we be wanting to our-
selves in the practice of these rules, the pope's infallible
authority shall never be able to supply our negligence;
his blessing, where God hath laid his curse, shall do as
little good as Balaam's endeavour to curse the Israel-
ites did them harm whom God had blessed. Observing
the former precepts well, the word of God, which these
men (belike out of their own experience) challenge of
obscurity, should be a lantern unto our feet, and a
light unto our paths^, as it was unto David's.

2. For the reader's further satisfaction, may it please
him but unpartially to consider what two of the most
learned Jesuits, in matters of modern controversies,
could answer unto this last place of the Psalmist, Bel-
larmine would have two strings to his deceitful and
broken bow. " First," saith he, " it may be answered,
that the Psalmist speaks not of all scriptures, but of
the commandments only." If this answer of his could
stand for good, it would serve as a new supporter to
our former assertion grounded on our Saviour's words
in the seventh of John. For thus the commandments
shall not be obscure, but a lantern unto our feet, and if
we follow them, they will be (as I have shewed before)
a perfect light unto us, to discern true doctrine from
false. And in this respect, all good commandments
6 Matt. xii. 20. ^ Psalm cxix. 105.

H h 4

472

jiU Pretences of Scriptures Obscurity

BOOK II.

(not the Decalogue, or these ten only) are properly a
light, whereby we may clearly know, as to avoid evil,
so to discern that which is good. And by this light was
David conducted unto that true wisdom which his
enemies wanted : Hi/ thy commandments thou hast
made me iviser than mine enemies^. But what reason
had Bellarmine to think, that David in the foremen-
tioned verse should mean the commandments only ?
For there he saith plainly. Thy word "f~im, which is
much more general than "TTiliy "iTniiiO commandments
or testimonies : yet David saith, that he had more un-
derstanding than all his teachers, not the infallible
teacher that sat (if any such there were) in Moses'
chair excepted. So that his commandments are a light,
his testimonies a light, and his word a light. And the
best interpreters, as well theirs^ as ours', take these
words, testimonies, precepts, commandments, words,
promiscuously throughout this whole psalm. Any one
254 of these (most of all the most general of all words)
signify at least all scripture which serves for man's
direction in the way of life.

3. None can be restrained to the Decalogue only.
This, Bellarmine saw well enough. Wherefore his se-

g Psalm cxix. 98.

^ Synonymus autem usurpat,
(etsi Hilarius iieget) pro divina
lege et sapientia, hu;c, utroque
nurnero, legem, mandata, statuta,
viam, judicia, testimonium, priE-
cepta, justitiam, aequitatem, jus-
tificationes, sermones, verbum,
eloquium, veritatem. Nam vel
non dilferunt, vel cum re idem
sint, eandemque Dei legem doc-
trinamque signiticent, ratione et
notatione duntaxat distinguun-
tur, quatenus legis divinae quali-
tates, iiota;, perfectiones, pro-
prietates variae sunt ac multipli-

ces. Genebrard. com. in primam
partem Psal. secundum nos, 119.

> Vide iVIoUerum in eundem
Psalmum. [v. 105.] Verbum pro-
pheticum lucerna; comparans a-
postolus Petrus, habemus, inquit,
certiorem propheticum sermo-
nem, cui bene facitis, intenden-
tes veluti lucernee lucenti in ob-
scuro loco. Quod itaque hie ait,
lucerna pedibus nieis verbum
tuum et lumen semitis meis :
verbum est quod scripturis Sanc-
tis omnibus continetur. Aug. in
versum Psalmi citatum, Lucerna
pedibus, &c.

CHAP. XVI.

are carnal Mists, Sfc.

473

cond answer is ; It may (it must) be granted, that he
speaks of all, or ratlier of the whole scripture. " But
the scrij)tures," saith he, " are called a lantern and a
light, lion quia facile intelUgantur, not because they
are perspicuous and easy to be understood, scd quia
intellectce cum fuerint illustrant mentem, but because
Avhen they are understood they illuminate the mind
or understanding." Thus much we have said be-
fore, and still do grant, that the scriptures are not
plain and easy unto all, live they as they list ; nor
do they shine unto such as are blinded in the pride,
vanity, or corruption of their hearts : yet a light in
themselves, and a light to all that love not dai-kness
more than light. A light, not after they are imder-
stood, for David ^ got true understanding by their
light ; whose property is, as well to shew the way how
to avoid that blindness, which causeth them to seem
obscure, as to illuminate the clearsighted. For as by
the sun we see what bodies are not transparent or
penetrable by its light ; so by scriptures we discern

^ The entrance into tht/ nords
sheweili light, and giveth under-
standing unto the simple, Psalm
cxix. 130: and ver. 104, Bij thy
precepts I have gotten under-
standing: therefore I hate all
the irays of falsehood. From
wliicli words St. Augustine ga-
tliers tliis doctrine: A maudatis
tuis intellexi. Aliud est man-
data tua intellexi, aliud est a
mandatis tuis intellexi. Nescio
er<;o quid aliud se signiticet in-
tellexisse a mandatis Dei ; quod
est, quantum niilii videtur, faci-
endo mandata Dei, pervenisse se
dicit ad earnm reruni intelligen-
tiam (juas concupiverit scire.
Propter quod scriptum est, con-
cupisti sapientiam, serva manda-

ta, et Dominus praebet earn tibi,
ne quisquam pra'posterus ante-
quam habeat luimilitatem obe-
dientiae, velit ad altitudinem sa-
pientiiB pervenire, quam capere
non potest, nisi ordine vene-
rit. Audiat ergo altiora te ne
quyesieris, et fortiora te ne scru-
tatus fueris, sed quae priecepit
tibi Dominus, ilia cogita semper.
Sic lionio ad occultorum sapien-
tiam pervenit per obedientiam
mandatorum. Cum autem dix-
isset, qua; tibi pra!cepit dominus
ilia cogita : ideo addidit semper,
quia et custodienda est obedien-
tia, ut percipiatur sapientia, et
j)ercepta sajjientia, non est dese-
renda obedientia. Aug. in Psal.
I 18. (v. 1 04.)

474 All Pretences of Scripluren' Obscurity book ii.

what be the obstacles that hinder the intromission of
their splendour (in itself and for itself most apparent)
into our hearts. And the glimpse of their scattei'ed
beams, appearing through the chinks and ruptures of
that veil of corruption which nature hath woven about
the eyesight of our souls, doth enlighten us so far as
we begin to desire the veil's removal, that we may-
have a full fruition of their marvellous and comfortable
light : as men in the morning, after long and irksome
darkness, (unless desirous with the sluggard in the
Proverbs to have a little more sleep,) are occasioned to
open their windows, when they see the sunbeams ap-
pear in at the chinks. My meaning is, those precepts
whereof I spake before (to learn humility and meek-
ness— God's threatenings to sinners — his sweet promises
to the penitent — to pray for wisdom from above — and
infinite other like) are so jiei'spicuous and clear, that
they cannot but find entrance into enveiled, if not
withal maliciously w ilful or sluggish hearts ; and find-
ing entrance, cannot but suggest considerations what
their former life hath been, and whereunto their now
professed hopes do call them, that now it is time they
should arise from sleep, seeing salvation draweth
nearer than when they first believed: that the night
is past, and the day at hand, therefore time to cast
away the worhs of darkness, and put on the armour
of light: to walk honestly, as in the day ; not in glut-
tony and drunkenness, neither iti chamhering and
wantonness, nor in strife and envy^. Unto hearts thus
prepared, the scriptures need no other commendation
than their own, no infallible proposer's authority to
illustrate or confirm their truth, more than the sun
doth a more glorious stax', to manifest his brightness
unto men endued with perfect sight. For unto such
^ Rom. xiii. 1 1 — 13.

CHAP. XVI.

are cciriKil Mists, <§-c.

475

as walk like children of the gospel's light, nothing
necessary to their soul's health can be hid in dai'kness ;
not the day of destruction, which shall come as a snare
upon other inhabitants of the earth, can steal upon
them as a thief in the night\

4). But unto infidels, haughty, and proud-minded
men, unto such as delight in sin, and love to sleep in
sinful pleasures, unto such as scorn to be controlled
in their courses, the light of God's word, if it once
shine, or send some scattered rays into their hearts, it
shines not so again, for they draw a curtain, and
spread the veil, lest further intromission of such beams
might interrupt their pleasant sleep. This did Luther
well teach, (had he been as well understood,) that the
scripture was only obscure or difficult unto infidels or
proud minds. But Bellarmine*^ replies, ^t certe Da-
vid non erat superhus aut infidelis : " Sure David was
neither a proud man, nor an infidel," and yet the
scriptui'e was obscure and difficult to him. Let him
be accounted both, that thinks David was either a
proud man or an infidel. But the question is not,
whether he were, but what was the cause he was not
such : was it not ' f/ie perfection of God's law which
did convert his soul f was it not the certainty of God's
testimonies that gave wisdom unto his simplicity f
Yes, by these precepts he had gotten understanding,
to hate all the ways of falsehood. And except that
law had been his delight, he had perished in his
affliction"^. How then doth Bellarmine prove that
law was obscure to him, which, as he himself confesseth,
had given light U7ito his eyes"^ f If it were not, why

' iThess. V. 3. n Psal.xix. 8. Videbat Lu-

^ Bellarm. lib.3. deverboDei, therus posse objici, unde sint tot

c. 1. controversise, si scriptura esttam

' Psal. xix. 7. cxix. 104. clara: duo effugia excogitavit;

» Psal. cxix. 92. unuHij quod scriptura, etiamsi all-

476

All Pretences of Scriptures' Obscurity

BOOK II.

did he pray to God to understand it ? Then I perceive
the Jesuits' drift in this present controversy is to
establish a rule of faith, so easy and infallible as might
direct in all the ways of truth without prayer to God
or any help from heaven. Such a one it seems they
desire, as all might understand at the first sight, though
living as luxuriously as their popes, or minding world-
ly matters as much as their cardinals ; nisi velint
nimiuin esse caci, unless they would, as Valentian
speaks, desire to be blind.

5. Surely more blind than beetles must they be,
that can suffer themselves to be persuaded, that ever
God or Christ would have a rule for man's direction
in the mysteries of salvation, so plain and easy, as he
should not need to be beholden to his Maker and Re-
deemer for the true and perfect understanding of it.

cubi sit obscura, tamen illud idem
alibi clare proponit. Alterum,
quod scriptura, licet per se claris-
sima, tamen superbisetinfidelibus
sit obscura obeorum coecitatem.et
pravum aifectum. Addit Bren-
tius in proleg. : Contra Petrum a
Soto, tertium effugium, quod eti-
am interdum sit oliscura, propter
phrases aliense linguae, id est,
Hebraicse et GraeccE, tamen sen-
sus ejus clarissimus sit. Quae
sententia manifesto falsa est :
nam scriptura ipsa de sua diffi-
cultate atque obscuritate testi-
moniimi perhibet. Psal. cxix. Da
mihi intellectunij et scrutabor le-
gem tuam. Ibid. Re vela oculos
meos, et considerabo mirabilia
de lege tua. Ibid. Faciem tuam
illumina super servum tuum,
et doce me justificationes tuas.
Et certe David noverat totam
scripturam, quae tunc erat, et
noverat phrases linguae He-

braicae, nec erat superbus aut in-
fidelis. Bellarm. lib. 3. de verbo
Dei, cap. i. Bellarmine would
provethe scriptures to be obscure,
because David prays to God for
the right understanding of them.
And Valentian would persuade
us to rely upon the church's in-
fallible authoritj", because it is a
hard matter to pray unto God (as
St. Augustine did) for the gift of
interpretation. His words are
these : Quid autem precatio ad
Deum pro sapientiae interpreta-
tionisque scripturae dono ? An
exigua difficultasest et pieet per-
severanter illud cum eodem Au-
gustino lib. 11. Confess, cap 2.
orare : Domine attende, &c. Va-
lent. tom. 3. disp. i. quaest. i.
punct. 7. paragr. 4. These words
of Valentian immediately follow
his former observation upon
St. Austin, noted paragr. 11.
chap. 14.

CHAP. XVI.

are carnal Mists, 8fc.

477

This is a wisdom and gift, ichicJi cometh onhj from
above, and must be daily and earnestly sought for at
the hands of God : who (we may rest assured) will be
always more ready to grant our petitions herein with
less charges, than the pojDe to give his decisions in a
doubtful case. Had David asked this wisdom of him
that sat in Moses' chair, we might suspect the pope!
might be sued unto. But David's God is our God,
his Lord our Christ, our Redeemer, and hath spoken
more plainly unto us than unto David, who yet, by his
meditations on God's written laws, added light to Mo-
ses' writings, as later prophets have done to his. All
M'hich in respect of the gospel's brightness are but as
lights shining in dark places : yet even the least con-
spicuous amongst them such as will give manifest
evidence against us to our eternal condemnation, if we
seek this wisdom from any others than Christ's, his
prophets' and apostles' doctrine, by any other means
or mediatorship than David did his, from God's law
written by Moses.

6. Let us now see what Valentian can say unto the
forecited testimonies'', and to that other like unto it:
T Wc have also a most sure word of the prophets, to
which ye do icell that ye take heed, as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place^, until the day dawn, and
the day star ariseth in your hearts. " "It is true,"

P Psal. cxix. 105.

q 2 Pet. i. 19.

Yet might the prophets' writ-
ings, if any place of scripture,
seem obscure.

* Concedimusigiturpari modo,
sacras literas, quae divina? doctri-
nae continent lumen, tanquam lu-
cernani esse per se ipsam splendi-
dissimam semper, atque fulgen-
tissimam. Sed nobis tamen con-
siderandum est, quomodo sit hoc

lumen non in se modo lucidum,
verum etiani (ut regius propheta,
Psal. xviii. dicit) illuminans ocu-
los. Nunquid qua ratione unus-
quisque ingenii proprii atque
industria? sua- finibus illud tan-
quam modio quodam exiguo com-
prehendit ? Alinime vero, sed
quatenus est divinitus in eccle-
sia' catholics? authoritate tan-
quam in candelabro positum, ut
luceat omnibus qui in domo sunt.

478 All Pretences of Scriptures Obscurity book ii.

saith the doctoi*, " the word of God is a light, and this
light is clear, and illuminates the eyes. But it must
be considered how it comes to enlighten our eyes :
do you suppose that it effects this, inasmuch as every
man doth comprehend it, within the bounds of his pri-
vate wit or industry, as it were in a little bushel ?
Nothing less. But it effects it, as it is placed in the
authority of the catholic church, as in a candlestick,
where it may give light to all that are in the house.
For we shall shew," saith he, " in due place, that this
authority of the church is the living judge and mis-
tress of faith. And therefore it is necessary that she
should carry this light, which is contained in holy
writ, and shew it unto all that associate themselves
to her, and remain in her bosom ; although they be
unlearned men, and such as are not able by themselves
to behold this light, as it is contained in the scriptures
as in a lantern."

7. He that could find in his heart to spend his
groat or go a mile to see a camel dance a jig ; let
him but lay his finger on his mouth, that he spoil
not the pageant with immoderate laughing, and he
may (without any further cost or pains) be partaker
of as pretty a sport, to see a grand demure school di-
vine, laying aside his wonted habit of metaphysical
proof, turned doctor Similitude on a sudden, and swag-
gering it in the metaphorical cut. For what one joint
or strain is there, in this long laborious vast similitude,
that doth any way incline unto the least semblance of

Matt. V. Hanc enim ecclesiae gregantiir, in eaque manent, licet '

authoritatem docebinms postea ineruditi siiit alioqui, nec valeant

suo loco, esse in universum judi- ipsi per se aspicere lumen illud,

cem atque magistram fidei vivam: ut in ipsis Uteris Sanctis tanquam

idcirco necesse est, ut lumen il- in lucerna continetur. Valent.

lud fidei, quod in divinis literis torn. 3.disp. i.qusest. i.punct. 7.

splendet, praeferat ipsa atque os- parag. 4.
tendat omnibus, qui ad eam ag-

CHAP. XVI.

are carnal Mists, 8fc.

479

truth, or can be drawn to illustrate any such meaning
as this man intended, or any way to break the force
of our writers arguments drawn from the forecited
places ? Fov, first, what semblance is there between a
private man's interpretation, or comprehension of scrip-
ture sense, and the putting of a light or candle under
a bushel ? For what though some one, some few, or more
such men, will apprehend this or that to be the full
meaning of some controversed place in scripture ? I
am (by our church's doctrine) no more bound to believe 257
them, than I am to believe the pope of Rome, whom
I never saw nor knew. I am bound to believe neither
of them more, than if they should tell me, that the
whole light of that candle which shines alike to all,
were only comprehended in their eyes. For by our
doctrine I may behold the same light of scriptures
which they do, as freely as they ; judge of it by mine
own eyes and sense, as well as they ; not only submit
my sense and judgment unto theirs. But if we should
(as this Jesuit would have us) permit the judgment of
all scripture sense, wholly and irrevocably unto the
pope and his cardinals ; as if their consistory were
the complete hemisphere, or rather the oAosphere, the
whole sphere wherein this heavenly lamp doth shine :
then indeed we should see no more of its light than
we could of a candle put under a bushel, or locked up
in some close room ; in which case we might believe
others, that it did shine there still, but whether it did
so or no, we could not judge by our own eyes. And
in like manner would this doctor persuade us that we
should judge of this light of scriptures, only by the
testimony or authority of such as see it shine in the
consistory at Rome, not with our own eyes. Had the
Lord permitted but one grain of good wit to have re-
mained in this bushel of bran ; not impudence in grain

480 All Pretences of Scriptures' Obscurity book ii.

could \vithout blushing have offered to accuse our
church for liiding the light of scriptures under a bushel;
whenas we contend, the free use of it should be per-
mitted to the whole congregation. But he disputeth
of the light, as blind men may of colours. He lived at
Ingolstade, and the light of God's word was at Rome,
locked up within the compass of the consistory, so that
he could not see to make his comparison of it. Se-
condly, what proportion is there between the church's
authority (such authority as he claims for his church)
and a candlestick ? Let the consistory be supposed the
candlestick, wherein the word of God doth shine as a
light or candle. Doth it indeed shine there ? Unto
whom ? To all that will associate themselves to that
church? Come then, let every man exhort his neigh-
bour to repair to the mountain of the Lord. Shall we
there immediately see the truth of scriptures clearly
and distinctly with our own eyes, because the pope or
Ti'ent council holds out unto us the book of canonical
scripture ? May private spirits discern their true sense
in matters of faith, as clearly as if they were a light
indeed to thee ? O no ; you quite mistake his mean-
ing in making such collections : let Valentian explicate
himself in the end of this fourth paragraph.

8. "After the church hath once gathered any opinion
out of scriptures, and thereupon opposeth the scripture
(thus understood by it, according to the apostolical
tradition) unto contrary errors; it is extreme impiety
and wickedness to desire anj' more, (either concerning
the authority or interpretation of that parcel of scrip-
ture,) under what pretence soever, of difficulty, obscur-
Sity, or the like. For that scripture" — I pray mark his
words well — " which is commended and expounded
unto us by the authority of the church, that scripture
now [ea Jam), even for this reason {hoc ipso), is most

CHAP. XVI.

are carnal Mists, S^c.

481

authentic, and shines most splendently, most clearly,
like a light, videlicet, as we have formerly expounded,
put upon a candlestick^ ;" nay in good sooth, just like
a candlestick put upon a light or candle. For in this
country wherein we live, we see the candlestick by
virtue of the light, not the light by means or virtue of
the candlestick. And yet if your church be the can-
dlestick, as you suppose, and the scripture the light,
(as you expressly acknowledge,) we must by your doc-
trine discern the light of scriptures only by the com-
mendation, explication, or illumination of your church,
the candlestick. And this illumination is only her
bare asseveration ; for scripture she seldom expounds,
but only by negatives or anathemas. The best cor-
rection that can be made of this untoward, crooked,
unwieldy similitude, would be this : Whereas this doc-
tor supposeth the pope to be the church, and saith
further, necesse est ut lumen illud jidei quod in divinis
Uteris splendet prceferat ecclesia; let him put lucem
for lumen, and so the pope (being by his assertion the
church) may be truly called Lucifer. And then, as
when cloth shrinks in the wetting, men shape their gar-
ments accordingly, making sometimes a jerkin of that
which was intended for a jacket; so out of this un-
handsome ill-spun similitude, which was marred in the
making, we may frame a shorter, which will hold ex-

^ Posteaquam ecclesia senten-
tiam aliquam ex scriptura colli-
git, scripturamque proinde, iit
est a se secundum aposti>licam
traditionem intellecta, contrariis
erroribus oppouit : summa iin-
probitas est, aliquid prfrterea de-
siderare in ejusmodi scripturw
vel authoritate, vel interpreta-
tione, quocunque id fiat sive dif-
ficultatis sive obscuritatis prfp-

JACKSON, VOL. I.

textu. QuBR enim scriptura per
autlioritatem ecclesiae commen-
datur, expHcaturque, ea jam hoc
ipso et maxime est authentica,
et splendidissime clarissimeque
luct'tj tanquam lucerna, videlicet
(ut supra exponebamus) posita
super candelabrum. Tom. 3.
disp. I. quaest. i. punct. 7. para-
gi-aph. 4.

I i

482 Jll Pretetices of Scriptures' Obscurity book ii.

ceeding well, on this fashion : Even as Satan, being the
prince of darkness, doth to men's seeming transform
himself into an angel of light ; just so doth the Roman
Lucifer, being (by Valentian's confession) but the can-
dlestick, labour to transform himself into the light
itself, and would be taken for such a light or candle
as should make the very light of heaven itself (God's
word) to shine most splendently and clearly by the
glorious beams of his majestical infallibility once cast
upon it. For otherwise, unless the supernatural glory
of his infallibility do infuse light, or add fresh lustre
to this light or lantern of truth, the candlestick natu-
rally gives no increase of perspicuity to the light or
candle, which will shine as clear in a private man's
hands (so he will take the pains to hold it) as in a
public candlestick. But that which I would have the
serious reader to observe especially, is this speech of
his ; Scripture, as once commended unto us, or ex-
pounded by the church's authority, becomes thereby
most authentic, and shines most clearly and most splen-
■dently". For this same doctor, (if a doctor may be
said the same, affirming and denying the same,) in the
beginning of that dispute would gladly shuffle so, as
he should not be taken with that trick, which will
discredit their cause for ever, and descry their villain-
ous blasphemy in this doctrine of their , church's au-
thority. There he would persuade us, that he doth not
allow of this speech, " I believe this or that to be a
Divine revelation, because the church doth tell me so:"
or of this, " The church is the cause why I believe
the Divine revelations :" whereas this speech of his
{Quce scriptura per authoritatem) doth infer the au-

" Quae scriptura per authori- maxime authentica est, et splen-
tatem ecclesiae conimendatur ex- didissime clarissimeque lucet.
plicaturque ea jam hoc ipso, et

CHAP. XVI.

are carnal Mists, 8fc.

483

thority of the church to be the very principal and im-
mediate cause of our assent unto scriptures.

9. Secondly, I would have the sober Christian readers
to observe what an unhallowed and unchristian con-
ceit it is, to admit the scriptures for a lantern, and yet
to affirm that Christians cannot behold the light there-
in contained, but only as the church of Rome doth
hold it out ; what is this else but to call the people
from the marvellous light of the gospel unto the fear-
ful lightnings of the law " ? and to make the pope
that mediator which the people implicitly did request
when they desired that Moses might speak to them,
not God y. If we be in Christ, then are we not called
into mount Sinai, to burning fire, blindness, darkness,
and tempests ; this light of the gospel is not environed
with a fearful cloud or smoke, threatening destruction
if we should go up into the mount to hear the Lord
himself speak : ive have an advocate with the Father,
and need not look for a Moses to go up for us, while
we stand trembling afar off. For as our apostle tells us,
Heb. xii. 22, we are come unto the mount Sion, and
to the city of the living God, the celestial Jerusalem,
and to the company of innumerable angels, and to the
congregation of the firstborn, which are tvritten in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits
of just and -perfect men, and to Jesus the mediator of
the new testament, and to the blood (f sprinkling, that
speaketh better things than that of Abel. What
is the consequence or effect of this our calling ? Our
apostle makes this inference, ver. 25, See therefore
that ye despise not him that speaketh. Whom did he
mean ? the pope or cardinals? But they would be but

" Yet have the papists in man might approach but the
times of darkness borne the priest,
people in band that tlie Bible Y Exod. xx. 19.
was the holy mount which no

I i 2

484 The Mosaical Writings were a perfect Rule book ii.

of like authority as Moses was ; but he that speaketh
unto us is of far greater. For so our apostle collects,
See that ye despise not him that speahetli : for if they
escaped not which refused hirn that spake on earth,
much more shall we not escape, if we turn away from
him which speaketh from heaven. The Israelites, I
suppose, had despised Moses, if they had admitted any
other infallible teacher besides him, whilst he was
alive, or believed any other as well as his writings
after his death, but only so far forth as they could
discern their words to be consonant unto his. If Mo-
ses' writings were to these Jews a plain rule of faith,
then much more must Christ's word, registered by his
apostles and evangelists, be the rule of faith unto us.
That Moses' doctrine was their rule of faith, a rule
most plain and easy, these places following abundantly
testify.

260 CHAP. XVI r.

That the Mosaical Writings were a most perfect Rule, plain
and easy to the ancient Israelites.

1. So perfect directions had Moses left for posterity's
perpetual instruction, that a great prophet in later
ages^, desirous to bring God's people into the right
paths which their fathers had forsaken, and for this
purpose pi'ofessing to impart to them whatsoever he
had heard or learned from his godly ancestors, doth
but trace out the print of Moses' footsteps, almost ob-
literate and overgrown by the sloth and negligence of
former times, wherein every man had trod what way
he liked best. And though the same prophet descend
to later ages, as low as David's, yet he proceeds still
by the same rule, relating nothing but such historical
events or experiments as confirm the truth of Moses'
Divine predictions, such as are yet extant in canonical
z The author of the 78th Psalm, ver. 3, 4.

CHAP. XVII. to the ancient Israelites.

485

scriptures. So perfect and absolute, in his judgment,
was that part of the Old Testament which then was
written, to instruct, not only the men, such as he was,
but every child of God, that he presumes not to know
or teach more than in it was written. And thus much
this people should have done by Moses' precept with-
out a prophet for their remembrancer : A?id these
words, ichi-ch I command thee this dmj, shall he in
thine heart : and thou shall rehearse them continually
unto thy children, and shall talk of' them when thou
tarriest in thine house, and as thou icalkest hy the
WMy, and lohen thou liest down, and when thou risest
up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine
hand, and they shall he as frontlets between thine
eyes. Also thou shalt write them upon the posts of
thine house, and upon thy gates'^. And again, Set
your hearts unto all the words which I command you
this day, that you may command them unto your chil-
dren, that they may observe and do all the words of
this law. For it is no vain word concerning yon, hut
it is your life : and hy this word you shall prolong
your days ^.

2. Questionless they that were bound to observe and
do this law were bound to know it ; and yet Moses
refers them not to his successor, as if it were so ob-
scure that it could not possibly be known without his
infallibility ; but on the contrary, he supposeth it so
plain and easy, that every father might instruct his
son in it, and every mother her daughter. It was
their own daily experience of the fruits and benefits in
obeying, of their harms and plagues in disobeying his
precepts, which was to seal their truth unto their con-

^ Deut. vi. 6. See Sasbout scripture of a child.
on the words of St. Paul, 2 Tim. ^ Deut xxxii. 46.
iii. Thou hast known the holy

I 1 3

486 The 3Tosaicul Writings were a perfect Rule book ii.

sciences. For without such observation, without squar-
ing their lives and comparing their thoughts and ac-
tions unto this straight and plain rule, all other testi-
monies of men, or authorities of their most infallible
teachers, were in vain. The miracles which they had
seen to-day were quite forgotten ere nine days after.
Nor could their persuasions or conceit of Moses' infal-
libility serve them for any rule, when they had shaken
off these inward cogitations, and measured not the
truth of his predictions by experiments. In their
temptations they were as ready to disclaim Moses, as
always they were to distrust God, whose mighty won-
261 ders they had seen. To what use then did the sight
of all God's wonders, or of miracles wrought by Moses,
serve? Motives they were, necessary and excellent, to .
incline their stubborn hearts to use this law of God
for their rule, in all their actions and proceedings : and
to cause them set their hearts unto it, as Moses in his
last words commands them'". For this law, as he had
told them before, was in their hearts^.

3. Would any man that doth fear the Lord or re-
verence his word, but set his heart to read over this
book of Deuteronomy, or the one hundred and nine-
teenth, with sundry other Psalms, but with ordinary
observation or attention, (that so the character of God's
Spirit, so lively imprinted in them, might be as an
amulet to prevent the Jesuits' enchantments,) it would
be impossible for all the wit of men or angels ever to
fasten the least suspicion on his thoughts, whether the
ancient faithful Israelites did take this law of Moses
for their infallible rule in all their proceedings. For
nothing can be made more evident than this truth is in
itself ; that the Israelites' swerving from this rule was
the cause of their departure from their God ; and the oc-
« Deut. xxxii. 46. ^ Deut. xxx. 14.

CHAP. XVII.

to the ancient Israelites.

487

casion or cause of their swerving from it was this devil-
ish persuasion, which Satan suggested to them then,
(as the Jesuits do unto the Christian people now,) that
this law was too obscure, too hard, too difficult to be
imderstood ; no complete rule for their actions without
traditions, or relying upon priests, or men in chief au-
thority^. This hypocrisy Moses did well foresee would
be the beginning of all their miseries, the very watch-
word to apostasy. For which cause he labours so
seriously to prevent it ; Deut. xxx. 14, For this com-
mandment which I set before thee this day, is not hid
from thee, neither far off, hut the word is very near
unto thee, even in thy mouth, aiid in thy heart, to do it.
How was it in their mouths and in their hearts, when
it was so obscure and difficult unto them after Moses'
death? It was in their hearts, and in their posterity too,
had they set their hearts to it. But as it is true. Pars
sanitatis est velle sanari, " It is a part of health to be
willing to be healed ;" so was it here Pars morhi, nolle
sanari, more than a part of this their grievous disease
(their blindness of heart) was their proneness to be
persuaded that this word or doctrine, which Moses
here taught, was too obscure and difficult for them to
follow. They first began (as the Jesuits do) to pick
quarrels with God, for which their stubbornness he
gave them over to their heart's desire ; and this his
sacred word, which should have been a lantern unto
their feet, and a light unto their paths, as it was to

6 Their priests' authority was
never more stood upon, than in
those times wherein Moses was
in least request, and their skill
in his writings as little. So in
Jehoiakim's days they oppose
their priests and other state pro-
phets unto Jeremy. Jer. xviii.
1 8. Then said they, Come, and

let IIS imagine some device agamst
Jeremiah; for the lam shall not
perish from the jxriest, nor cou7i-
sel from the wise, nor the word
from the prophet. Come, let us
smite him with the tongue, and
let us not give heed to any of his
words.

I i 4

488 The Mosaical TVritings were a perfect Mule bookii.

David's, became a stumhlingbloch, and a stone of
offence, 1 Cor. i. 23. What was the reason? By their
swerving from this plain and straight rule, their ways
became crooked, and their actions unjust. And it is
the observation of the wise son of Sirach, As God's
ivays are right and plain unto the just, so are they
stumhlinghlocJcs unto the wicked^. Not Moses him-
self, had he been then alive, could have made this, or
any other true rule of faith, plain unto these Jews,
whilst they remained perverse and stubborn. And had
they (without Moses' or any infallible teacher's help)
cast off this crookedness of heart, Moses' infallible doc-
trine had still remained easy, straight, and plain unto
them. For it was in their hearts, though hid and
262 smothered in the wrinkles of their crooked hearts. In
our Saviour's time they will not assent unto the word
written, nor unto the Eternal Word, unto which all
the writings of the prophets gave testimony, unless
they may see a sign « : What was the cause ? They
had not laid Moses' commandments to their hearts.
For had they (from their hearts) believed 3foses^\
they had believed Christ K For all whose miracles,
wrought for their good in their sight and presence,
they cannot or will not see that his words were the

f Ecclus. xxxix. 24.

S John vi. 30. I Cor. i. 22.
Quod vero subjungit Mala-
chias, Mementote legis Moisi
servi mei quam mandavi ei in
Choreb ad omnem Israel : prae-
cepta et judicia opportune com-
memorat, post declaratum mag-
num futurum inter observatores
legis contemptoresque discrimen:
simul etiam ut discant legem
s])iritualiter intelligere, et inve-
uiaiit ill ea Christum jier quern
judiceni facienda est inter bonos
et malos ijisa discretio. Non eniui

frustra idem Dominus ait Judae-
is, si crederetis Moisi, crederetis
et mihi, de me enim ille scripsit:
carnaliter quippe accipiendo le-
gem, et ejus promissa terrena
rerum caelestium figuras esse ne-
scientes in ilia murmura corru-
erunt, ut dicere auderent : Vanus
est qui servit Deo. Et quid
amplius quia custodivimus man-
data ejus, et quia ambulavimus
simplices ante faciem Domini
omnijiotentis. August, de Civi-
tate Dei, lib. 20. cap. 28.
John V. 46.

CHAP. XVII. to the ancient Israelites. 489

words of eternal life, as Peter confesseth, John vi. 68.
Nor would any Jesuit have acknowledged as much,
had he been in their place. For why should he? Any
other might say he had the Spirit of God, and that he
was the Messias ; and what if Peter, one of his fellows,
late a fisherman, did confess him ? the Scribes and
Pharisees, principal members of the visible church,
deny him to be their Messias. And how should they
know his words to be the word of God, unless the
church had confirmed them ? If Christ himself should
have said in their hearing as he did to the Jews, John
V. 46, Moses wrote of me, consider his doctrine, and
lay it to your hearts ; a Jesuit would have replied, You
say Moses wrote of you, but how shall we know that
he meant you? Moses is dead, and says nothing, and
they that sit in his chair say otherwise. And verily
the Scribes and Pharisees had far greater probabili-
ties to plead for the infallibility of that chair, than the
Jesuits can have for their popes' : who, had they been
in the others' place, could have coined more matter out
of that one saying of our Saviour, Matt, xxiii. 2, Se-
dent in cathedra Mosis, for the Scribes and Pharisees'
infallible authority, than all the papists in the world
have been able to extract out of all the scriptures that
are or can be urged, for the pope or church of Rome's
infallibility.

4. The Scribes and Pharisees (though no way com-
parable to the Jesuits for cunning in painting rotten,
or subtilty in oppugning causes true and sound) could
urge for themselves against such as confessed Christ,
that none of the rulers nor of the Pharisees did be-
lieve him, hnt onhj a cursed crew of such as knew not
the law, John vii. 48. They could object the law was
obscure, and the interpretation of it did belong to
them. But could these pretences excuse the people for

490 The Mosaical PTritings were a perfect Ride book ii.

not obeying Christ's doctrine ? You will say, perhaps,
they could not be excused, because Christ's miracles
were so many and manifest. These were somewhat
indeed, if Christ had been their accuser. But our
Saviour saith plainly, that he ivouhl not accuse them
to his Father^. And for this cause he would not work
many miracles amongst such as were not moved with
the like already wrought, lest he should increase their
263 sins. If Christ did not, who then had reason to accuse
them ? Moses, as it is in the same place, did ; Moses,
in whom they trusted, and on whom they fastened
their implicit faith ; Moses, of whom they thought and
said. We will believe as he believed ; Moses, whose
doctrine they (to their seeming) stood as stiffly for
against Christ's new doctrine, (as they supposed,) as
the Jesuits do for the catholic church (as they think)
against heretics and sectaries, as they term us. Why
then is Moses, whom thus they honoured, become their
chief accuser ? Because while they did believe on him,
only for tradition, or from pretence of succession, or
for the dignity of their temple, church, or nation, they
did not indeed believe him nor his doctrine. For had
they believed his doctrine, they had believed Christ;

^ Our Saviour's miracles and
manner of life, so fully suitable
to the IVIosaical types and pre-
dictions of him, condemned the
Jews of ^\•ilful malice and af-
fected blindness for not laying
Closes' law unto their hearts,
whose spiritual sense would have
brought forth the light of the
gospel therein contained, as the
branch in the root. So that
Moses condemns them immedi-
ately, because he was their school-
master, and would have taught
them Christ, so they would have
practised his rules which they

acknowledged. Christ's miracles
condemn them mediately, and
leave them without excuse for
not looking more narrowly into
the spiritual sense of Moses'
writings, which would have en-
lightened them to have discerned
the glory of Christ and his gos-
pel in his works. So as there is
no contradiction, but subordina-
tion betwixt those places which
tell us Christ's words did con-
demn them, and others wherein
Moses or the prophets are said
to condemn or leave them ^^•ith-
out excuse.

CHAP. XVII.

to the ancient Israelites.

491

Jbr he wrote of Christ. So he might, (thinks the
Jesuit,) and yet write so obscurely of him, as his writ-
ings could be no rule of faith to the Jews without the
visible church's authority. Yea rather they should
and might have been a rule unto them for their good
against the visible church's authority, and now remain
a rule or law against both, to their just condemnation,
because the doctrine of Christ was so plainly and
clearly set down in these writings, had they set their
hearts unto them. Even the knowledge of Christ, the
Word of life itself, was in their months, and in their
hearts. For that commandment which Moses there
gave them, was that word of faith which St. Paul, the
infallible teacher of the Gentiles, did preach, as he
himself testifies, Rom. x. 8. If any man ask how this
place was so easy to be understood of Christ, or how
by the doctrine of Moses' law, the doctrine of the gos-
pel might have been manifested to their consciences ;
my answer is already set down in our Saviour's words :
Had they done God's will, (revealed unto them in that
law,) they should have known Christ s doctrine to have
been of God.

5. Had they, according to the prescript of Moses'
law, repented them of their sins from the bottom of
their hearts, the Lord had blotted all their wickedness
out of his remembrance. And their hearts once purged
of wickedness, would have exulted in his presence that
had made them whole ; faith would have fastened upon
his person, though never seen before. ^ Not the moon

1 IMalachi iv. 2 — 4. 2. But under the soles of your feel in the

unto you that fear my name shall day that I shall do this, saith the

the Sun of righteousness arise. Lord of hosts. ^. Remember the

and. health shall he under his lam of Moses mi/ servant, which

wings ; and ye shall go forth, I conimatided unto him in Horeb

and grow up as fat calves, for all Israel, with the statides

3. And ye shall tread down the and judgments .
wicked ; for they shall be dust

492 The Conclmion of this Controversy, Sfc. book u.

more apt to receive the sunbeams cast upon it, than
these Jews' hearts to have shined with the glory of
Christ, had they cast away all pride and self-conceit,
or the glory of their nation ; but unto them, (as now
they are, and long time have been,) swollen with pride
and full of hypocrisy, Christ's glory is but as clear light
to sore or dim-sighted eyes ; they wink with their eyes
lest they should be offended with the splendour of it.
This doctrine of Christ and knowledge of scriptures in
points of faith shall be most obscure to us, if we follow
them in their foolish pretences of their visible church :
most clear, perspicuous, and easy, if we lay Moses'
commandments to our hearts. For truth inherent
must be as the eyesight, to discern all other things of
like nature.
264 CHAP. XVIII.

Concluding this Controversy according to the State proposed,
with the Testimony of St. Paul.

1 . We may conclude this point with our apostle. Si
evangelium nostrum tectum est, lis qui pereunt tectum
est: in quihus deus hujus scecuU exccBcavit mentes, id
est, infidelihus, ne irradiet eos lumen evangelii glorice
Christi, qui est imago Dei. If the gospel be obscure,
or rather hid, (for it is a light, obscure it cannot be ;
God forgive me if I used that speech, save only in our
adversaries' persons,) it is hid only to such as have the
eyes of their mind blinded by Satan, the god of this
world^. Of which number may we not (without
breach of charity) think he was one, who, seeing the
light and evidence of this place, would not see it, but
thought it a sufficient answer to say. Apostolus non
loquitur de intelligentia scripturarum, sed de cogtii-
tione et fide in Christum " ; " The apostle speaks not

■n 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. Dei, caji. 2. Resp. ad 5. arg.

" Bellarm. lib. 3. de Verb. The reason why Bellarmine with

CHAP. XVIII. The Conclusion of this Controversy, Sfc. 493

of understanding scriptures, but of knowing and be-
lieving in Christ." It is well the Jesuit had so much
modesty in him as to grant this latter, that he spake
at the least of knowing Christ. For if the knowledge
of Christ be so clear to the godly and elect, then are
the scriptures clear too, so far as concerns their faith.
For St. Paul wrote this and all his Epistles only to
this end, that men might truly come to the knowledge
of Christ. But he meant of a perfect and true know-
ledge, not such as Bellarmine (when he gave this an-
swer) dreamed of ; iit neque sit imer, neque anus
Christiana, qnce non sciat Christum natiim, et incar-
natumfuisse. St. Paul's gospel was sufficiently known,
(in this man's sense of his words,) because there is
" neither Christian child nor old wife, but knows that
Christ was incarnate and born." Too many, I fear,
of his and his fellows' catechizing, know Christ no
otherwise than old wives or little children know ordi-
nary matters or stories past, that is, only by old wives'
tales, lying legends, or tradition. And on this fashion
and better did the Jews know Moses, and believed on
him ; yet did they neither know him nor his doctrine
as they should have done, nor in such a sense as the
scripture useth this word Jetiowledge. Such as he
would have us content ourselves withal is rather blind-
ness than knowledge, and makes a man never a whit
the better Christian, but a greater hypocrite.

2. Let Bellarmine's answer stand thus far for true,

his fellows and many other great gospel, makes such as admit it

scholars besides, make such hy- content themselves with it only,

pocritical glosse;^ of scriptures, never looking into the meaning

plainly teaching what they deny, of the Spirit, if it once contra-

is their not considering that the diet their desires. Of this fal-

same inordinate affections which lacy in the 3rd sect, of the 4th

made the Jews to reject the very book,
liistorical truth or letter of the

494 The Conclusion of this Controversy &)C. bookii.

that the knowing of Christ and belief of the gospel are
manifest to all that are not given over to Jewish blind-
ness. And what it is to know Christ or believe the
gospel in St. Paul's phrase, (by God's assistance,) we
shall further explicate in the articles following. To
know Christ was all St. Paul desired, because it con-
tained all knowledge of scriptures ; and whether St.
Paul did not desire to know scriptures, or whether he
had not his desire herein, let Christian consciences
judge.

3. And because I must conclude this point (as I
promised) with this testimony of St. Paul : Beloved
Christian, whosoever thou art, that shalt read these
meditations, ask counsel of thine own heart, consult
with thy conscience, consider well, and give sentence

265 betwixt me and this Romish doctor, what kind of
knowledge St. Paul here meant: whether an implicit
or hearsay knowledge of Christ and his kingdom in
gross, or an express, distinct, true knowledge (raised
from Moses and the prophets' consonancy with the
gospel) of scriptures necessary to men's salvation in
their several courses of life. I will not wrong thy
judgment so much, as to seek arguments or authorities
of expositors, for thy information in this plain un-
doubted case. It shall suffice to rehearse the words of
that law, about whose sense we now contend, and by
which we must be tried, from the twelfth verse of
the third, to the sixth verse of the fourth chapter of
the Second to the Corinthians.

4. Seeing then ive have such trust, we use great
boldness of speech, and ice are not as Moses, which
put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel
should not look unto the end of that which should be
abolished. Therefore their minds are hardened. For
until this day remaineth the same covering tmtaken

CHAP, xviii. The Conclusion of this Controversy, S^c. 4-95

awcaj in the reading of the old testament. Yet
was the old testament the only scripture in those
times easy to be understood, but for this veil. And
this veil (as the apostle adds, verse the fourteenth) put
away, these scriptures then which were so difficult
to the Jew, are easy to all that are in Christ, by whose
death the veil was rent, and that light which shone on
Moses' face as the sun upon the eastern sky in the
dawning, was fully manifested to the inhabitants of
the earth since the Sun of Righteousness did appear.
For the publishing of the gospel is the putting away
of the former veil. But for the Jews, even until this
day, (saith the apostle,) when Moses is read, the veil
is laid over their hearts. Nevertheless when their
hearts shall he turned unto the Lord, the veil shall
be taken away^. For this doctrine of St. Paul (as
often hath been said) was in their hearts and in their
mouths, Deut. xxx. 14.

The apostle concludes. Now the Lord is the Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty^;
liberty indeed in respect of that servitude which
was under the law ; then they were servants because
they knew not their master's will, John xv. 1 5. But
since the ministry of the new testament, tve all
behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord with
open face. Out of our apostle's discourse, this is most
evident, that it was the glory of his ministry, and evi-
dence of doctrine which made him so confident in the
execution of this function. God, saith he, hath made
us able ministers of the new testament, not of the
letter, but of the spirit, 2 Cor. iii. 6. And this, com-
pared with the ministry of the old, did far exceed it
in glory and perspicuity, as he proves from the sixth
verse to the eighteenth.

° 2 Cor. iii. 15, i6. P aCor. iii. 17. ci 2 Cor. iii. i 8.

496 The Conclusion of this Controversy, ^c. book ii.

5. The judicious reader, though not admonished,
would of his own accord observe how the apostle takes
clearness and perspicuity as an adjunct of the new
testament's glory ; the Jesuit's, quite contrary, would
make the scripture's dignity and majesty mother of
difficulty and obscurity But because it was so much
more glorious and perspicuous than the ministry of the
old testament was, the apostle infers, 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2,
Therefore, seeing we have this ministry of the new
testament, {so glorious and persjncuous,) as we have
received mercy, we faint not-, hut have cast off the
^QQcloke of shame, and walk not in craftiness, nei-
ther handle ive the word of God deceitfully, (for why
should any when it will approve itself?) hut in decla-
ration of the truth approve ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God. What proof could he
make to their consciences, but only from the evidence
of that truth which he taught, and his sincerity in
teaching it ? These two would bind all such as made any
conscience of their ways to admit his doctrine. Whence
he infers in the very next words, verse 3, If then oiir
gospel he hid, &c. Briefly refuting all the Romanists'
objections in this argument, before they were conceived,
jjunctim,even to an hair's breadth : for this would have
been their commonplace, had they lived in St. Paul's
time. You may boast and say, your doctrine of the
new testament is evident and manifest ; but what
wise mrai will believe you, when a great many, as
good scholars as yourself, think the contrary most
true. Unto this objection of the Jews then, of the

Cum enim scripturam obscu- ejusmodi sapientiae et scientiae

ram esse dicimus, non vitium ali- Dei,et imbecillitatem ingeniinos-

quod indoctrinaipsa divinitustra- tri profitemur. Valent. torn. 3.

dita inesse sentimus, sed majes- disp. i.qiiaest. t. punct. 7. sect. 4.
tatem atque altitudinem potius

CHAP. XVIII. The Conclusion of this Controversy, <|-c. 497

Jesuits now, of Satan both now and then, and always
frequent in the mouth of hell, our apostle answers
directly (as from his doctrine we have done all the
Jesuits' arguments) : If the gospel he hid, (as indeed
to some (too many) it is,) yet it is hid only to them
that perish, whose minds the god of this world hath
blinded, that the glorious gospel of Christ, which is
the image of God, should not shine unto them.

The gospel then did shine, yet not to blinded eyes.
To whom then ? Only to such as were indued with
the spirit of liberty : seeing the new testament, as he
said, was the ministry of the Sjnrit, of which these
Jews were not partakers, because they followed the
letter or outside of the law, and had Moses' writings
(as children lessons they understand not) at their
tongue's end, not in their hearts.

END OF VOL. I.

JACKSON, VOL. I.

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