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the Dealers in this Black Art, may induce you to believe that Souls after Death are in a State of Sensation; and moreover those Perfons who are violently caught up, and dash'd down again by departed Spirits, and who pass among you all for Dæmoniacks and mad, and likewife the Amphilochian, Dodonaan, Pythian, and other like Oracles, and alfo the Doctrines of many of your Writers, such as Empedocles, Pythagoras, Plato, and Socrates, and Homer's Ditch, and Ulyffes's Vifit to the Infernal Shades, and their Confabulations with him. Thefe, I fay, all argue the Immortality of human Souls, and feveral others of the fame Opinion about Spirits with our felves, with whom we defire the like Treatment, as having not a less but a much greater Faith in God, than they ever had, being under a full Expectation of being restor❜d to thefe Bodies, after they are dead and rotten, because we know that with God nothing is impoffible.

XXV. And truly what to any confidering Perfon would feem more incredible, were it not that we our felves are in a Body, than to be told, that 'tis poffible for Bones and Nerves, and Flesh to be fpun out from a feminal Drop, into fuch a thing as we fee Man to be; I speak this by way of Hypothefis; fuppofing, I fay, before you were in the ftate you now are, and

Such were the two Dæmoniacks in the Country of the Gerge fenes, who came out of the Tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no Man might pass by that way, Matt. 8. 28. and from their dwelling only among Tombs, thefe Spirits were concluded to be the Souls of dead Men.

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generated of fuch Parents, any one shou'd come and shew you this feminal Drop, and the Pi&ture of Man, and withal aver it to be poffible for fuch a Creature to rife out of fuch a Principle, which of you would think it credible, before he faw the Production? Not one, I dare fay, would deny it to be impoffible. In the fame manner you are now poffefs'd with a disbelief of a Refurrection, because you never faw a Perfon rise again from the Dead: But as at first you wou'd not believe it poffible for this little speck to work it self into a Man, tho' now you fee it true in Fact; fo ought you to conclude it as practicable for Humane Bodies cover'd in the Earth, and dead like Seed, to spring again in their Season at the Almighty Word, and put on Incorruption. But how fuitable fuch a Power is to God which those cut out for him, who affirm ev'ry thing to depart into that original Matter from whence it came, and after that Departure to be gone for ever, and irrevocable even beyond the Call of God himself; whether this, I say, is a becoming Notion of Almighty Power, I will not now enquire; but this I will venture to say, that these Gentlemen would never have believed it poffible that themselves and the whole World cou'd have been what they now find they are, and from fuch Principles.

XXVI. But we have juftly prefum'd it the

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This great Philofopher and Chriftian Martyr was fo far from thinking with our modern Reafoners, that his Faith ought to go

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most rational, to believe what may seem inconfiftent with the Nature of things, and to Men impoffible, rather than stand out and imitate others in a foolish Infidelity, especially Luk. 18.27. fince our Master Chrift hath taught us, That the things which are unpoffible with Men, are poffible with God; and likewife given Orders not Mat.10.28. to fear them that kill the Body, and after that have no more that they can do, but fear him who after he hath killed, is able to deftroy both Soul and Body in Hell.

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XXVII. Now Hell is that Place where the wicked Livers, and fuch as disbelieve the Revelations of God by Christ, shall fuffer; and the Sybil, and Hyftafpes have both given out that this whole Syftem of Corruptibles shall be destroy'd by " Fire; nay, the Stoicks have a Conceit, that God himself fhall be refolved into Fire, and that there fhall rise a new World refin'd from the Ruins of the old; but we conceive far more honourably of God, than to range the Creator of the Universe among things fubject to Alteration.

XVIII. If then we hold fome Opinions near of Kin to the Poets and Philofophers in greateft repute among you, and others of a diviner Strain, and far above out of their Sight, and

no farther than Clearness and Connection of Ideas, that he thought it reasonable, and becoming finite Minds, to believe beyond the Ken of mortal Eye, and to conclude that poffible to God, which to us might feem impoffible.

"Effe quoque in Fatis reminifcitur affore tempus, Quo Mare, quô Tellus, correptaque Regia Cœli

Ardeat, & mundi moles operofa laboret. Ovid. Metam. Lib. I.

have Demonstration on our fide into the Bargain, why are we to be thus unjustly hated and to ftand diftinguifh'd in Mifery above the reft of Mankind? For in saying that all things were made in this beautiful Order by God, what do we seem to fay more than Plato? When we teach a general Conflagration, what do we teach more than the Stoicks? When we affert departed Souls to be in a State of Senfibility, and the Wicked to be in Torments, but the Good free from Pain and in a blissful Condition, we affert no more than your Poets and Philofophers. By oppofing the Worship of the Works of Men's Hands, we concur with Menander the Comedian, and fuch as affirm the Workman to be greater than his Work; and by declaring the Logos, the First-begotten of God, our Master Jesus Christ to be born of a Virgin without any humane Mixture, and to be crucify'd and dead, and to have rose again and afcended into Heaven; we fay no more in this, than what you fay of those whom you style the Sons of Jove.

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XXIX. For you need not be told what a Parcel of Sons, the Writers most in Vogue a

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The Kingdom of Darknefs had well-nigh overcaft the whole World, when the Sun of Righteousness rofe upon it, the Worship of falfe Gods obtain'd every where but among the Jews, and this univerfal Idolatry being one of the greatest Obftructions to the Light of the Gofpel, and the prevailing Sin of these times, the Reader must be content to find the firft Chriftian Apologists very large upon this Head, in order to root out this pack of Vanities, and to ridicule and argue 'em out of the World; and because the Worfhip of a crucify'd Man, was that which they moftly ftuck at, Juftin makes a Parallel, and fhews that this Chrift, the God of

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mong you, affign to Jove; there's Mercury, Jove's Interpreter, in Imitation of the Logos, in worship among you, and your grand Teacher; there's fculapius the Physician fmitten by a Bolt of Thunder, and after that afcending into Heaven; there's Bacchus torn to pieces, and Hercules burnt to get rid of his Pains; there's Pollux and Caftor,the Sons of Jove by Leda, and Perfeus by Danae, and the Mortal Bellerophon, who fell from his Pegafus; not to mention Ariadne, and others like her, tranflated into Constellations, according to your Writers. Moreover, I would fain know, why you always deifie the departed Emperors, and have a Fellow at Hand to make Affidavit, that he faw Cæfar mount to Heaven from the Funeral. Pile? Nor can I think there is any need of repeating to fuch Knowing Perfons, the Extravagancies recorded of every Son of Jove, only to put you in Mind that they are recorded for the better corrupting and improving young Students in the Arts of Debauchery; for every one thinks it noble to equal the Gods in Wickedness. But far be it from Men of Sense to harbour fuch Opinions of the Gods, namely, that their Jove the Supreme, and Father of all the Gods, should be a Parricide, and the

Chriftians, neither as the Son of God, nor of a Virgin, nor as a crucify'd Man, could justly be objected against, and deny'd divine Worship, by thofe who had fo many Sons and Daughters of Jove, and fuch too as fuffer'd Death, in conftant Worthip amongst themfelves. But this kind of Idolatry being now quite out of Doors, I fhall not trouble the Reader with any Notes upon the Gods of the Heathen, as thinking it altogether unedifying, and therefore, once for all, refer the more Curious to the Remarks of Dr. Grabe, in his Edition of this Apology.

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