For as these were once foretold, and disbelieved, and yet came to pass, so the Remainder will be brought to as certain an Iffue, in spite of Ignorance and Infidelity; for the very fame Prophets have foretold a two-fold Advent of Christ, one wherein He was to come in the Guife of an inglorious fuffering Mortal, and this is over; the other, wherein He shall come in His own Form, incircl'd with Celestial Glory, and His Hoft of Angels, when He shall raife from the Dead all the Men that ever had a Being, and shall inveft the Righteous with Bodies incorruptible, and make the ungodly, together with these wicked Spirits, feel His Vengeance in Fire everlasting.

7,

8.

LXVII. And the prophetick Predictions concerning this fecond Advent, you have thus deliver'd by Ezekiel, The Bones came together, Ezek. 37. Bone to his Bone, and the Flesh came upon them. And ev'ry Knee fall bow to the Lord, and ev'ry II. 45. 24° Tongue fhall confefs him. And for the Pains and Torments the Wicked fhall undergo hereafter, pray confider these Words, Their Worm I. 66. 24. Shall not dye, neither shall their Fire be quenched. And then shall they repent, when Repentance fhall be too late. And what the unbelieving Jews will fay and do in that Day, when they fhall fee Him coming in His Glory, the Prophet Zachary defcribes in this man

Here again you fee Juftin Martyr, as clear and exprefs ast Words can make him, for a general Refurrection to eternal Happinefs or Mifery, a Refurrection of all the Men that ever had a Being, against Mr. Dodwell, in his Epiftolary Difcourfe above-cited. Vide Sozom, Hift. Eccl. lib. i. cap. iii. verfus finem.

ner,

Zach.11.6. ner, Ho! ho! come forth, and flee from the Land of the North, for I have spread you abroad Zach.12.2. as the four Winds of the Heavens; and then will I make Jerufalem a Cup of Trembling, not of trembling with the Countenance only, but in their

Heart, and shall rend not their Garments, but Ibid. v. 12. their Minds: And Tribe fhall mourn to Tribe, Ibid. v. 1o.and they shall look upon him whom they pierced, If. 63. 17. and fhall fay, O Lord, why haft thou made us to and 64.11.err from thy ways? the Glory which our ForefaThese are thers were bless'd with, is turned to our Revarious Paffages out of proach.

the Prophet Zachary, as

LXVIII. I have a great many other Prophethey occur'd cies in Store, but I forbear, concluding what to the Me-has been produc'd, to be enough in Reason mory of Ju- for the Conviction of fuch as have Ears, that ftin, and the Senfe, and will admit 'em to a fair Hearing, and UnderPrefs Words ftandings prepar'd for Truth. I can hardly fet down by perfuade my felf, that you can take us for fuch

not the ex

bim.

Romancers, as those who drefs up Stories about the fictitious Progeny of Jove, mighty Talkers, but able to prove nothing. For what Motive cou'd ever poffibly have perfuaded us to believe a Crucify'd Man to be the first begotten of the unbegotten God, and that He shou'd come to be the Judge of all the World. Had we not met with thofe prophetick Testimonies of Him, proclaim'd fo long before his Incarnation? Were we not Eye-Witneffes to the fulfilling of them? Did we not see the Defolation of Judea, and Men out of all Nations, profelyted to the Faith by His Apoftles, and renouncing the ancient Errors they were brought up in? Did we not find the Prophecies made good

good in our felves, and fee Chriftians in greater Number, and in greater Sincerity from among the Gentiles, than from the Jews and Samaritans? For all forts of People are by the prophetick Spirit ftyl'd Gentiles, but the Jews and Samaritans ftand distinguish'd by the Name of the House of Ifrael and Jacob.

LXIX. And how this alfo was foretold, that there should be more Believers from the Gentiles than from the Jews and Samaritans, I propose this Prophecy to your Confideration, Sing, O Barren, thou that didst not bear, breakI. 54.1. forth into finging, and cry aloud, thou that didft not travail with Child, for more are the Children of the Defolate, than the Children of the married Wife. The Gentiles were the Defolate, a People not cultivated by the true God, but bewilder'd in the Worship of the Works of their own Hands, but the Jews and Samaritans had the Word of God deliver'd to 'em by the Prophets, and were always in Expectation of the Chrift; and yet, when prefent, they had Eyes and saw Him not, except a small Remnant, whom the prophetick Spirit foretold should be faved: He fpeaks thus in the Perfon of the People, Except the Lord of Hofts had 1 1. 9. left unto us a very small Remnant, we shou'd have been as Sodom, and we shou'd have been like unto Gomorrah. Now Sodom and Gomorrah are related by Mofes to be Cities, whose Inhabitants were abominably wicked People, and which God destroy'd with Fire and Brimstone, and faved not one alive, befides a Chaldean Foreigner called Lot, and his Daughters; and

that

that all this Country is a Defart, and burnt up, and barren to this Day, they who will give themselves the Trouble may fee the Truth of it with their own Eyes. And how the Gentiles fhou'd become the truest and most faithful Converts, the Prophet Jeremy thus intiJer. 9. ult. mates, All the House of Ifrael are uncircumcifed in the Heart, but the Gentiles in the Foreskin.

LXX. So many therefore, and fuch mighty Proofs as your own Eyes are Witness to, cannot fail, methinks, of generating a firm and rational Faith in the Minds of thofe who are Lovers of Truth, and not carry'd away with Opiniatry and Paffion; but the Inftru&tors of your Youth, who read 'em Lectures out of the Fables of the Poets, never let 'em into the Ground of these Fictions, and that they are the Work of Devilcraft only, the better

The Son of God no fooner enters upon his Prophetick Office, but the Devil atacks him in Perfon, and from Scripture; for as far as he was able to form any Conjecture from Scripture concerning the State of the new King and Kingdom, fo far he endeavour'd to impofe upon the World, by Rivalling it in his Kingdom of Darknefs; he had his Perfeus the Son of Jove by a Virgin, he had his Priefts and Sacrifices, his Baptifms and Mock-Communions, &c. He had reign'd a long time as the God of this World, and taken Poffeffion every where but in Judea, and was in the most flourishing Condition when Chrift came down to deftroy his Kingdom; and tho' thefe evil Spirits did confefs and tremble, and flee before Him, yet did their Power continue for fome Ages after, and feems to be permitted by Providence fo to do, on purpose as one great Argument to profelyte the World by; for to their Power over evil Spirits do the firft Chriftians conftantly appeal upon all OccafiNow after fo much Evidence from Scripture and Antiquity, to fay, as fome have done, that Poffeffions were nothing but Difeafes, and Oracles, and the like, were all pure Prieftcraft, which the Fathers by the true Name call Devilcraft, is in fhort to fay any thing, to render the Name of Prieft in general odious. But if the

ons.

Chriftians

better to delude Mankind, and hold 'em in Darkness, I fhall now prove. For these devilifh Spirits no fooner understood by the Prophets, that Chrift was to come, and the Ungodly to be punish'd with Fire, but they trump'd up that Crew of Jove's Sons abovefaid, imagining by this Forgery to debauch the World into an Opinion, that these Prophecies concerning Chrift were juft fuch another pack of Lyes as the Fables of the Poets; and these Stories they divulg'd among the Greeks, and all the Gentiles, when they learn'd from the Prophets, that these were the People that fhou'd moftly come over to the Chriftian Faith; but not diving far enough into the Senfe of the Prophets, they attempted to copy after them, and, like Men in the dark, blunder'd in their Imitation, as I fhall now fhew you.

LXXI. The Prophet Mofes then, as I have faid, was the ancienteft of Writers, and he deliver'd this Prophecy, which I have already quoted, The Scepter shall not depart from Judah, Genef. 49. nor a Law-giver from between his Feet, until 10. Shiloh come, and unto him fhall the gathering of the People be, binding his Foal unto the Vine and washing his Garments in the Blood of the Grape. Upon hearing these prophetick Words, the Devils fet up Bacchus for the Son of Jove, and make him the Inventor of the Vine, and

Chriftians of the firft Ages did caft out Devils fo frequently, as they fay they did, and which you will find, in thefe Apologies, they infift upon oftner than in any one thing in their Writings; then I leave it to any confidering Perfon, what Deference is due to the Judgments of those who were gifted with fuch a miraculous Power for the Propagation of the Chriftian Doctrine.

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