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Sect.3. "this, adds the fame Author, they "were not to be blam'd for fparing "themfelves the Labour of reafoning "more exactly than we find they ❝ commonly did. That Truth and Falfhood fhould be determin'd by a Majority of Voices, or certain Periods of Time,feems to me to be the most ridiculous of all Follies.

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39. But if Antiquity can in good earneft add any worth to an Opinion, I think I need not fear to ftand to its Decifion: "For if we confider the "Duration of the World, (fays and "ther celebrated* Writer) as we do "that of Man's Life, confifting of

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Infancy, Youth, Manhood, and old "Age; then certainly fuch as liv'd "before us were the Children or the "Youth, and we are the true Antients "of the World. And if Experience

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(continues he) be the most confi"derable Advantage which grown "Perfons have over the younger fort, "then, queftionlefs, the Experience "of fuch as come laft into the World " muft

* Monfieur Perrault dans les Parallelles des Anciens des Modernes.

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"must be incomparably greater than Ch. 3. "of those that were born long before "them for the laft Comers enjoy not "only all the Stock of their Predecef"fors, but to it have likewise added "their own Obfervations. These Thoughts are no lefs ingenious than they are juft and folid. But if An tiquity be understood in the vulgar Senfe, I have no Reafon to despair however; for my Affertion too will become antient to Pofterity, and fo be in a condition to fupport it self by this commodious Privilege of Prefcrip tion.

40. Yet feeing I am not likely to live till that time, it cannot be amifs to make it appear that these fame Fathers, who have the good luck to be at once both the Young and the Old of the World, are on my fide. 'Tis not out of any Deference to their Judgments, I confefs, that I take these Pains. I have freely declar'd what Value I set upon their Authority in the Beginning of this Book: but my De fign is to fhew the Difingenuity of those, who pretending the highest Ve neration for the Writings of the Fas I

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Sect. 3. ther's, never fail to decline their Sentence when it futes not with their Humour or Interest.

41. Clemens Alexandrinus has every where the fame Notion of Mystery that I have, that the Gentiles had, and which I have prov'd to be that of the Gospel. In the 5th Book of his Stro-· mates, which merits the Perufal of all that are curious to understand the Natüre of the Jewish and Heathen Myfteries; in that Book, I fay, he puts the Matter out of all Doubt, and quotes feveral of thofe Texts of Scripture, which I have already alledg'd to this purpose. Nay he tells us, that the Christian Difcipline was call'd * Illumination, because it brought hidden things to light, the Mafter (CHRIST) alone removing the Cover of the Ark, that the Mofaick Vail. He adds in exprefs Words, that thofe things which

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* Δια τετο φωτισμός ἡ μαθητεία κέκληται, ἡ τα κεκρυμμένα φανερώσασα, ἀποκαλύψαντα μόνον το DISAGING TO TEμa ↑ xilwrs. Pag. 578. edit. Col. 1688.

† Αλλα και τα μυςήρια τα αποκεκρυμμένα

Αποςόλων, καὶ ὑπ' αυτή παραδοθέντα ως από το χωρίς παρελήφασιν· ἀποκεκρυμμένα δὲ ἐν τῇ παλαιά Namun, á vivipareguin tois aglois. Idem ibid. pag. 576.

were myfterious and obfcure in the Ch. 3. Old Teftament are made plain in the New.

42. Every one knows how the Pri mitive Chriftians, in a ridiculous imitation of the Jews, turn'd all the Scripture into Allegory; accommodating the Properties of thofe Animals mention'd in the Old Testament to Events that happened under the New. They took the fame Liberty principally with Men, where they could difcover the leaft Refemblance between their Names, Actions, or State of Life; and carry'd this Fancy at length to Numbers, Letters, Places, and what not. That which in the Old Testament therefore did, according to them, reprefent any thing in the New, they call'd the Type or Mystery of it. Thus TYPE, SYMBOL, PARABLE, SHADOW, FIGURE, SIGN and MYSTÉRT, fignify all the fame thing in Justin Martyr. This Father affirms in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew, that the Name of Jobua was a Mystery reprefenting the Name Jefus; and that the holding up of Mo- Exca. 17I 2

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Sect. 3. fes's Hands during the Battel with the Amalekites in Rephidim, was a Type or Mystery of Christ's Cross, whereby he overcame Death, as the Ifraelites there did their Enemies: and then he adds the following Remark; *This is to be confider'd, fays he, concerning those two holy Men and Prophets of God, that neither of them was able in his fingle Perfon to carry both MYSTERIES, I mean the Type of his Crofs, and that of being call'd by his Name. In the fame Dialogue he calls the Predictions of the Prophets STMBOLS, PARABLES and MYSTERIES, explain'd by the fucceeding Prophets.

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43. When Tertullian in his Apolo gy juftifies the Chriftians from those inhu

* Ἦν δὲ καὶ τᾶτο ἐπ' αμφοτέρων ἢ ἁγίων ἀνδρῶν ἐκείνων και προφητῶν τι θες, νοῆσαι γεγενημένον· ὅτι αμφότερα τα μυσήρια εἷς αυτών βαςάσαι ἐκ ἦν δυνα τὸς λέγω δὲ τὸν τύπον τῆ ςαυξε, καὶ τὸν τύπον ἢ τῷ ὀνό uatos nanorws. Pag. 338. edit. Col. 1686.

† Εἰ μή τὶ τᾶτο ἐκ ἔπιςαθε, ὦ φίλοι, ὅτι πολλὲς λίγες τῆς α πακεκαλυμμένως και εν τραβολαις ἤ μυςήεις ή εν συμβόλοις ἔργων λελεγμένες, οι μετ ̓ ἔκεινες τις είποντας ἢ πράξαντας γενόμενοι προφῆται εξηγή avto. Pag. 294.

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