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SECT. XVII.

The same proved also from Predictions. THERE is another Argument to prove the Providence of God, very like to this of Miracles, and no less powerful, drawn from the foretelling of future Events, which was very often and very expressly done amongst the Hebrews; such as the (a) Man's being childless who should rebuild Jericho; the destroying the Altar of Bethel, by King Josiah by Name (b) above three hundred Years before it came to pass: So also Isaiah foretold the (c) very Name and principal Acts of Cyrus; and Jeremiah the Event of the Siege of Jerusalem, after it was surrounded by the Chaldæans; and Daniel (d) the Translation of the Empire from the Assyrians to the Medes and Persians, and (e) from them to Alexander of Macedon, (f) whose Successors to Part of his Kingdom were to be the Posterity of Lagus and Seleucus; and what Evils the Hebrews should undergo from all these, particularly (g) the

(a) The Man's being childless, &c.] with 1 Kings xvi. 34.

famous

Compare Joshua vi. 26.

(b) Above three hundred Years, &c.] CCCLXI. as Josephus thinks in his Ancient History, Book X. Chap. 5.

(c) The very Name, &c.] Chap. xxxvii. xxxviii. For the fulfilling, see Ch. xxxix. and lii. Eusebius, Book IX. Ch. 39. of his Preparat, brings a Testimony out of Eupolemus, both of the Prophecy, and the fulfilling of it.

(d) The Translation of the Empire, &c.] Daniel i. 32, 39. v, 28. vii. 5. viii. 3, 20. x. 20. xi. 2.

(e) From them to Alexander, &c.] In the forecited Ch. ii. 32 and 39. vii. 6. viii. 5, 6, 7, 8, 21. x. 20. xi. 3, 4.

(f) Whose Successors, &c.] Chap. ii. 33, 40. vii. 7, 19, 23, 24. viii. 22. x. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,

18, 19, 20.

(g) The famous Antiochus, &c.] vii. 8, 11, 20, 24, 25. viii. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26. xi. 21, 22, 23, 24,

25

famous Antiochus; so very plainly, (a) that Por

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phyry, who compared the Grecian Histories, extant Prod in his Time, with the Prophecies, could not make by praxcting it out any other Way, but by saying, that the Things ascribed to Daniel, were wrote after they back. Gus came to pass; which is the same as if any onedau Judoc should deny, that what is now extant under the Name of Virgil, and was always thought to be his, was writ by him in Augustus's Time. For there was never any more Doubt amongst the Hebrews me yico concerning the one, than there was amongst the Romans, concerning the other. To all which may be added, the many and express Oracles (b) amongst those of Mexico and Peru, which foretold the coming of the Spaniards into those Parts, and the Calamities that would follow.

And by other Arguments.

(c) TO this may be referred very many Dreams exactly agreeing with the Events; which both as to themselves and their Causes were so utterly un

25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45. xii 1, 2, 3, 11. Josephus explains these Places as we do, Book X. Ch. 12; and Book XII. Ch. 11; and Book I. Ch. 1. of his Jewish War. Chrysostom II. against the Jews; making use of the Testimony of Josephus, and Palichronius, and other Greek Writers.

(a) That Porphyry, &c.] See Jerom upon Daniel throughout. (b) Amongst those of Mexico, &c.] (Garcillazza de la Vega) Inca, Acosta, Herrera, and others, relate strange Things of these Oracles. See Peter Ciezza, Tome II. of the Indian Affairs.

(c) To this may be referred, &c.] What is here said, does not so much prove the Existence of God, who takes Care of the Affairs of Men; as that there are present with them some invisible Beings, more powerful than Men, which whoever believes, will easily believe that there is a God. For there is no Necessity that all Things, which come to pass different from the common Course of Nature, should be ascribed to God himself, as if whatever cannot be effected by Men, or the Power of corporeal Things, must be done by him himself. Le Clerc.

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known to those that dreamed them, that they cannot without great Shamelessness be attributed to natural Causes; of which Kind the best Writers afford us eminent Examples. (a) Tertullian has made a Collection of them in his Book of the Soul; (b) and Ghosts have not only been seen, but also heard to speak, as we are told by those Historians who have been far from superstitious Credulity; and by Witnesses in our own Age, who lived in Sina, Mexico, and other Parts of Ame

(a) Tertullian has made a Collection, &c.] Chap. xlvi. where he relates the remarkable Dreams of Astyages, of Philip of Macedon, of the Himerraan Woman, of Laodice, of Mithridates, of Illyrian Balaris, of M. Tully, of Artorius, of the Daughter of Polycrates Samius, whom Cicero calls his Nurse, of Cleonomus Picta, of Sophocles, of Neoptolemus the Tragedian. Some of these we find in Valerius Maximus, Book I. Chap. 7. besides that of Calphurnia concerning Casar, of P. Decius, and T. Manlius, the Consuls, T. Atinius, M. Tully in his Banishment, Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Simonides, Crasus, the Mother of Dionysius the Tyrant, C. Sempronius Gracchus, Cassius of Parmenia, Aterius Rufus the Roman Knight, Hamilcar the Carthaginian, Alcibiades the Athenian, and a certain Arcadian. There are many remarkable Things in Tully's Books of Divination; neither ought we to forget that of Pliny, Book XXV. Chap. 2. concerning the Mother of one that was fighting in Lusitania. And also those of Antigonus and Artucules, who was the first of the Race of the Osmanida in the Lipsian Monita, Book I. Chap. 5. and others collected by the industrious Theodore Zuinger, Vol. V. Book IV, the Title of which is concerning Dreams.

(b) And Ghosts have not only, &c.] See Plutarch in the Life of Dion and Brutus, and Appion of the same Brutus, in the Fourth of his Civilia, and Florus, Book IV. Chap. 7. Add to these Tacitus, concerning Curtius Rufus, Annal. XI. which same History is in Pliny, Epist. XXVII. Book VII. together with another; concerning that which that wise and courageous Philosopher Athenodorus saw at Athens. And those in Valerius Maximus, Book I. Chap. 8. especially that of Cassius the Epicurean, who was frighted with the Sight of Casar, whom he had killed; which is in Lipsius, Book 1. Chap. 5. of his Warnings. Many such Histories are collected by Crysippus, Plutarch in his Book of the Soul, and Numenius in his Second Book of the Soul's Immortality, mentioned by Origen, in his Fifth Book against Celsus.

rica; neither ought we to pass by (a) that common Method of examining Persons' Innocence, by walking over red-hot Plow-shares, viz. FireOrdeal, mentioned in so many Histories of the German Nation, and in their very Laws.

SECT. XVIII.

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The Objection of Miracles not being seen now, answered.

NEITHER is there any Reason, why any one should object against what has been said, because no such Miracles are seen now, nor no such Pre以 dictions heard. For it is sufficient to prove a Divine Providence, that there ever have been such. Which being once established, it will follow, that we ought to think God Almighty forbears them now, for as wise and prudent Reasons, as he before did them. Nor is it fit that the Laws given to the Universe, for the natural Course of Things, and that what is future might be uncertain, should

(a) That common Method, &c.] See the Testimonies of this Matter, collected by Francis Juret, upon the 74th Epistle of Ivon, Bishop of Chartres. Sophocles's Antigone tells us how old this is, where the Theban Relations of Oedipus speak thus:

We are prepared to handle red-hot Iron,

To pass through Fire, or to invoke the Gods,
That we are innocent, and did not do it.

Which we learn also from the Report of Strabo,' Book V. and
Pliny's Natural Hist. Book VII. Chap. 2. and Servius upon
Virgil's Eleventh Eneid. Also those Things which were seen
of old, in Feronia's Grove upon the Mountain Soracte. To
these Things, which happened contrary to the common Course
of Nature, we may add, I think, those we find made Use of
to preserve Men's Bodies from being wounded by Arrows.
See also the certain Testimonies concerning those who have
spoke after their Tongues were cut out upon the Account of
Religion, such as Justinian, Book I. Chapter of the Prætorian
Office; concerning a Præfect in Africa. Procopius in the First
of his Vandalics, Victor Uticensis in his Book of Persecutions,
and Eneas Gaza in Theophrastus.

always,

always, or without good Reason, be suspended but then only, when there was a sufficient Cause; as there was at that Time, when the Worship of the true God was banished almost out of the World, being confined only to a small Corner of

God iesham, it, viz. Judæa; and was to be defended from that Wickedness which surrounded it, by frequent Miracle, for Assistance. Or when the Christian Religion, as hudent concerning which we shall afterwards particularly treat, was, by the Determination of God, to be spread all over the World.

Wasons as

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SECT. XIX.

And of there being so much Wickedness. Knowind went SOME Men are apt to doubt of a Divine Pronot. Mirad, vidence, because they see so much Wickedness practised, that the World is in a Manner overwhelmed with it, like a Deluge: Which they contend should be the Business of Divine Providence, if there were any, to hinder or suppress. But the Answer to such is very easy. When God made Man a free Agent, and at Liberty to do well or ill (reserving to himself alone a necessary and immutable Goodness) (a) it was not fit that he should

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(a) It was not fit, &c.] Thus Tertullian against Murcian II. "An entire Liberty of the Will is granted him either Way, "that he may always appear to be Master of himself, by

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doing of his own Accord that which is good, and avoiding "of his own Accord that which is evil. Because Man, who "is in other Respects subject to the Determination of God, ought to do that which is just, out of the good Pleasure of "his own free Will. But neither the Wages of that which " is good or evil, can justly be paid to him who is found to "be good or evil, out of Necessity, and not out of Choice. "And for this Reason was the Law appointed, not to exclude, "but to prove Liberty, by voluntarily performing Obedience "to it, or by voluntarily transgressing it; so that in either "Event the Liberty of the Will is manifest." And again, afterwards: "Then the Consequence would have been that "God would have withdrawn that Liberty, which was once

"granted

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