Righteousness a State of pure and undefiled Light whose happy and glorious Inhabitants are perfectly delivered from the Bondage and Servility of Corruption and Goodness and Justice and all the Moral Excellencies of Divinity enthron'd within their sacred Breasts And every good Man does not only presage but really possesses in this Life a part of his future Happiness when the Divine Nature throughly informs possesses and actuates the Powers and Faculties of his Mind and he faithfully attends to and is guided and governed by its Laws and Suggestions And he whose Soul and Spirit thus becomes an Habitation of Righteousness is in a sense Deified and God dwells in him and he is united to that Omnipresent Spirit of Love and Purity For that Divine Nature the Participation of which is the End and Design of the whole Gospel is not Power and Wisdom but something more precious and soveraign for if a man had all Power that he could remove Mountains and with his breath stop the constant Gyres and Circulations of the Earth and if he had all Wisdom and Knowledge to understand the abstrusest Theory in Nature and Providence and could perswade with the Rhetorick and Oratory of an Angel yet if he had not Charity the Bond of Perfection which not only consolidates and holds together the great Body Politick of Heaven and Earth but is the Root and Center in which all the lines of Beauty and Excellence in Human Souls unite and meet he would have no more of the true Life and Spirit of Christianity in him than a tinkling and sounding Piece of Brass Love is the Joy of Men and Angels the Glory of Heaven and the first pregnant Spring and Source from whence issued all the numerous Productions of the Spiritual and Corporeal Life For God is Love and Love is that to speak with Reverence makes the Divinity a Uniform Being all other Modes and Attributes being too fluctuating arbitrary and unsetled to be the Basis and Foundation of that ever-to-be-adored Author of all things And as Goodness is the most pretious thing in the Deity and for that reason alone obtains the first place in acting so is it that which consummates and completes all moral Agents that derive from him Power and Wisdom and all other Modes being nothing but the several Explications and Diffusions of absolute Goodness But that we may not mistake ourselves the Philosopher tells us of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Harlotry as well as a Heavenly Venus whereby the Soul is enamour'd with these fading Beauties and ensnared by the powerful Inescations of Sense and Corporeity and this weakens and destroys the Soul but 't is the celestial Venus that is the beautiful and perfective Object of Human Minds and by its Union with it changes and transforms the Soul into its glorious Image And what we have hitherto said is no more than what the natural Sentiments of our own Souls bear witness to and all the moral part of Ethnick Philosophy attests which was wholly employed in laying down Rules and Precepts for the regulating mens Lives and putting a stop to the bold Intrusion of Vice and this was universally acknowledged the only way to acquire a Cognation and Affinity with God And what was judged laudable and decorous then and approved as most excellent is made much more so by the Christian Oeconomy which sets the Attainments of a rational Soul at a higher pitch than the secular Wisdom and Philosophy of the Gentiles could arrive to For what more ennobles and inspirits the Mind of Man with true Glory and Magnanimity than the captivating his irrational Desires and suppressing all inordinate Lusts and Appetites and the introducing a Spirit of Love Meekness Temperance and Sobriety What more Divine and Godlike than Charity to bind up an aking head and dry up watry eyes and relieve him who was fighting with the Pressures of Want and Poverty What greater Pleasure can we reasonably imagine than that which results from an Act of Goodness and Bounty whether it respect the Souls or Bodies of our fellow-Creatures in extricating him who was involved in a Labyrinth of Misery and bringing the cheerful Day to him who sate in a Night of Ignorance and Error Which things if duly considered as they are very agreeable and proportionate to our higher and rational Soul so they depretiate the grosser Satisfactions of our viler parts and make good this first Proposition That the true Felicity of Human Souls results from their Participation of the Divine Nature 2. The Gospel shews us the true way to obtain this complete Perfection of our Spirits that it is by an universal Purification of our Minds from all Pollution whatever and an entire Resignation of ourselves to the Conduct of the Divine Life and Light But it will be said that Philosophy teaches as much as this and the Pythagoreans Platonists and Stoicks asserted the highest Perfection of the Soul to consist in her Union with God which is obtained by a perfect Extirpation of all irregular Motions and an abstraction of the Soul from her Love and Sympathy with the Body and transforming her wholly into Intellect For the Passions and sensual Affections being once subdued and the Rational Life excited the Soul becomes presently like unto God as Porphyry speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Hierocles shews us the Scope and End of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Purgation of the Mind namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore although the Heathens by the Light of Nature proceeded to the eradication of Vice out of their Minds yet they retained still an arrogative Life ascribing the Attainments and Perfections of their Souls and their whole Progress in Virtue to their own solitary Endeavours and this their Spiritual and subtle Pride tainted and infected the best of their other Performances So that though they were glorious Lights in their Generations yet they fell short of the Character of a true Christian which is an entire Subjection of a Mans self to the Government and Command of the Life of God being perfectly dead to all Self-seeking and Interest and no otherwise affected to ourselves than if we were not And this heavenly Temper the Divine Providence reserved for the meek and humble Soul of the Messias to bring into the World who hath resumed that as the most compendious way to Blessedness which was rejected by the wise men of the World 3. He that shall impartially and without Prejudice peruse the Evangelical Histories shall find that there is not any thing recorded in them vain and trivial but such as is of the highest moment and importance and some way or other useful and advantageous for the Propagation of Christianity in the World and for those things which seem most liable to the Exceptions and Cavils of vile and prophane Persons I shall endeavour to shew their Reasonableness and how becoming and decorous it was to insert them in the Histories of the Gospel It is too well known that there
and this Truth being of so high and great concern we not only believe but are ready to give all possible Satisfaction to the Jew and Heathen To the Jew we say that it was long ago declared by their own Prophets Isa ix 6. For unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderful Counseller the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace This the more antient Rabbins always interpreted of the Messias and 't is but a groundless Conceit of R. Solomon's to transfer it to Hezekiah for who sees not that these Appellations of the mighty God and the everlasting Father cannot possibly agree to Hezekiah Again Chap. vii 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel i. e. God with us God dwelling and conversing in Human Nature And by the Heathens this Mystery was not thought impossible since Julian believes that Aesculapius the Son of Jupiter descended from Heaven and was incarnate appearing first at Epidaurum then in many other places that he might cure the Bodies and restore the Souls of men to their pristine Rectitude and Perfection And is there any greater Difficulty in believing that the Word the blessed Son of God was once incarnate and dwelt among us But further to make out this great Truth to those that already believe the Histories of the Gospel to be true 1. We may take a view of those many Operations Jesus performed in the Nature he assumed some of which were incommunicable and only proper to the Deity such are to work a true and real Miracle to forgive Sins and to institute true and religious Worship He was hungry which shewed him to be a man and yet fed above five thousand with five loaves and two fishes whereby he manifested his Divinity He thirsted yet to others he gave rivers of living waters to fertilize their Souls and quench and allay their Thirst He was weary yet he calls to him all those that are weary and heavy laden and promises Refreshment though he were dumb and opened not his mouth yet was he that Word by which all things were made He lays down his Life yet had he Power to take it up again 2. There is nothing in the Divine Nature to contradict or prejudice this Union but very much to be drawn from thence for it For Divine Goodness willing universally to communicate itself in measures and degrees assisted by an eternal Wisdom found out this way of Union with Human Nature as most fit for an Universal Communication wherein the Divine Life is perfectly exhibited and all Perfection is as it were epitomized 3. There is a mighty Congruity and Sutableness in this Mystery with the Design of perfecting and restoring lapsed Souls For the eternal Logos bringing out of his Ideal Fecundity into actual Existence the whole Rational Creation it is highly agreeable with Divine Wisdom that by the same Word all fallen Beings should be again restored that the first and blessed Cause of their Existence should also be the Author of their Recovery and Return to the perfect Law of Gods own Nature And if beside we consider that all the Creatures are but the Effects and Emanations of that mighty and potent Word outwardly produced and brought into actual Life and Being the Conjunction and Union of the eternal Mind with Human Nature will appear exceeding congruous 4. No Dishonour can accrue to the blessed Nature of God by such a state in which there is no Evil Turpitude or Defilement The Brightness of the Divine Sun is no whit obscured by the adjunction of the Humanity but the Humanity is made more glorious and transcendent by being exalted into the Fellowship of the Divinity 5. The Obscurity and Incomprehensibleness of this Mystery ought not to prejudice our Belief of it since that many things in Nature are in the dark to us and that faint and glimmering Knowledge which we have of them is only cojnectural not demonstrative we know there is an Union between Soul and Body but the manner of it is unknown and hid from us and if we believe no further than we can comprehend we must be Scepticks in Religion as well as Philosophy Yet somthing we may collect from the Union of Soul and Body as also of other Natural Compositions that forasmuch as they are extremely distant and unlike in their Nature and Proprieties and yet united to the making of one Compositum therefore the Immensity of the Divinity can be no hindrance from taking Humanity into an Union and Association with it 6 We cannot doubt but that God who is immense and omnipresent may manifest a peculiar Presence in this or the other particular place as seems best to himself That infinite Nature which pervades and is extended through the vast Capacities of immense Space can as easily actuate inhabit and fill a Human Soul and Body nor is the Divinity contracted or diminished by being united to a Creature but being diffused through all places manifests itself by a more special Inhabitation in the sacred Temple of the Soul of Jesus We see the Soul of Man dilating itself through our corporeal Fabrick expressing its Activity and Presence by the exceeding quick Sensibility of every part and yet hath its peculiar Center and Residence in the Brain and cannot God in whom are found all possible Perfections manifest his peculiar and Divine Presence to the ever faithful and obedient Soul of the Messias Hitherto I have declared the great Excellency and Becomingness of the Truths of the Gospel and shall conclude this general Head with the Recitation of two or three Objections more made by the Jews against our Saviour and recorded in the Histories of the Gospel Object 1. The first we find in John vii 48. Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this People who knoweth not the Law are cursed Answ 1. To this I return that inasmuch as the great Synagogue and Rulers of the Jews rejected Jesus and would not acknowledge him to be the expected Messias the more reason had others to believe in him for their own Prophets long ago predicted the Rejection of the Messias by the Jewish Nation who should be so obstinately blind that they should not know him when he came into the world as we read in Psal cxviii 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner so likewise in Isa vi 10. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed To which purpose is that Saying of R. Judas in the Talmud That when the Son of David shall come there shall be few wise men in Israel and the wisdom of the Scribes shall stink and the Schools of the Prophets shall
were governed only by the Dictates of their corrupt and lawless Wills and the whole Earth was filled with Violence and Oppression and the greatest part of Mankind became so brutish in their Imaginations that they made themselves Gods of Gold and Silver Wood and Stone and served the Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beside the Creator who is God blessed for ever 4. Wherefore when this way proved unserviceable and ineffectual for Mans Restauration God entred upon a new Dispensation and revealed himself more plainly to the Jews chusing Jacob for his Portion and Israel for the Lot of his Inheritance and communicated to them Laws and Statutes and Judgments fencing and hedging in the impure Eruptions of their Natures by Judicial Decrees and besieging Vice and Iniquity by the actual Promulgation of a Law But this Religion of the Jews lying altogether in the Performance of external Duties in Types and outward Rites and Ceremonies was not able to perfect the Nature of Man and bring him to that happy state he was possessed of before his Fall for as the Apostle tells us Rom. xiv 17. the Kingdom of God consists not in meat and drink but which is far more valuable in true Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and Man being a Man by his Soul and not by his Body it is plain both that the Religion whose grand Purpose and Intent is to instruct and perfect the Mind is much superior to that which concerns the Body and also that there is some degree of Perfection that the Nature of Man is capable of which is not attainable by the observation of the Law of Moses therefore it is necessary that there be some other way sound out to recover all Mankind from that sad and calamitous condition of Vice and Sin they now lie under For we must know that the Soul of Man consists of a perceptive and plastick Part which is the same with St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inner and outward man and the Judaical Oeconomy being wholly fitted for the gratification of the Plastical or Animal Life it is impossible it should refine and purifie that more spiritual part of Man or in the Scripture-Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make him perfect that did the service 5. Wherefore when the fulness of time came and mens minds were in some measure prepared for the reception of so heavenly a Doctrin Almighty God resolved to put in execution his last and most perfect Determination which was to send down his beloved Son into the World who should by a plain and familiar way teach and instruct Mankind and recover the lapsed World to a state of Righteousness and Truth Now then God walks no more at a Distance nor hides himself any longer under the obscurity of Types and Shadows but hath dispelled the Clouds and Adumbrations of the legal Services by the full and bright approach of the Sun of Righteousness who hath pitched his Tabernacle amongst us and teaches us his Will by a way of condescending Wisdom suiting and proportioning himself to the most shallow Capacities This is that which the Apostle 1 Cor. i. 21. calls the Foolishness of Preaching wherein God hath stooped down to us clothing himself in the frailties of human Nature and adapting the results of his Will to our narrow and weak Apprehensions And this is that Oeconomy which in Dan. ix 24. is called an everlasting Righteousness which the Messias should bring into the world For when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those various Schemes and exteriour Dispensations of Religion wax old pass away and vanish this shall remain for ever and never be abolished as being nothing else but the essential Prescriptions of Holiness those eternal Rules of Righteousness and Goodness that are founded in the very Nature and Being of God 6. The Gospel then being of so great Consequence and inestimable Benefit to Mankind it will be necessary for every man to know and enquire into the Reasons of his Belief upon what Grounds he gives credit to the Christian Religion that his Faith being built upon a solid and sure Foundation he may not be ashamed of his Profession but according to the holy Apostles Advice ready at all times and upon every occasion to give an Answer to every man that asketh him a Reason of the Hope that is in him 1 Pet. iii. 15. Now the Excellency of the Christian Religion appears I. That it is intelligible II. That it is true III. That it contains nothing light and trivial but grave and sober Truths delivered in that decorous and becoming Majesty as well suited with that Blessed Spirit which inspired the Prophets and Apostles IV. That it is every way fitted and accommodated for an effectual Recovery of lapsed and degenerated Mankind CHAP. I. THat the Gospel is intelligible cannot but appear to every one that is acquainted with it for though there may be some things wrapped in Clouds and Difficulties yet they are such as do not so nearly relate to Practice but are of a more speculative Consideration But as for the whole Duty of Man in order to Holiness and a good and pious Life it is laid down in such easie and plain terms that no man can have any reasonable excuse for himself if he do not know and practise the Will of God For the Divine Wisdom foreseeing that the greater number of Believers throughout the World would not be men of deep Reason but rather of great Love and Faith and such as would cordially adhere to their Saviour against all Oppositions though they could not syllogistically maintain the Reasonableness of every part of the Doctrin they professed God I say foreseeing this hath suited the Gospel to the meanest Capacity and there needs no great Skill to be a good Christian but rather an hearty and sincere applying ourselves to the Practice of what is so fully discovered to us The Goodness of Almighty God is such that he considers the several States and Conditions of men in the World and makes allowance for those whom his Providence hath so placed as that they are not in a capacity of attaining to any great measures of Knowledge and accepts of the constant and sincere Inclination and Bent of their Wills in practising what they know and they shall never be called to an account for what they had no opportunity of gaining And although he that knows much and apprehends the Reasons of things and makes this Knowledge instrumental to the purifying and purging his Soul from Vice be far more excellent than he whom Nature has made of a slower Apprehension yet this man is in no wise contemptible but dear and acceptable in the sight of God who never fails to reward honest Simplicity and Innocency and to recompense every degree of hearty Love with a suitable proportion of Glory But that we may see before our eyes the Plainness and Perspicuity of the Gospel in all matters that concern
Destruction of Jerusalem and Lazarus being then alive when the others wrote their Gospels they purposely omitted it lest the reciting and recording so eximious and convictive a Miracle might exasperate the Jews against him and bring him to ruine but being dead St. John might safely transmit it to Posterity in his Gospel Again It is very improbable they would deceive others For Cui bono to what end or purpose or what Design could they aim at in deceiving the World Honours and Preferments they could not expect they being all in the hands of the Pagans or of the Jews their bitter Enemies who hated the holy Jesus with an implacable hatred and for that very reason persecuted all his Adherents nor could they hope for Riches when the Profession of Christianity exposed them to the Loss of all temporal Goods neither could the Gospel be preached without the neglect of mundane affairs But perhaps some will say they imposed upon the World that they might be the Authors of a new Sect But 1. either they believed the Doctrins which they taught to be true or they did not if they did not believe them we cannot easily imagine they should so far forth put off all Humanity and good Nature which they so seriously and frequently inculcate in their Writings as to expose so many thousand innocent Persons to Death upon their Assertion of a Falshood yet if they could be so prodigiously cruel to others would they be so prodigal of their own Blood as to throw it away upon an uncertain Delusion If they thought them to be true as it is most likely they did their Writings shewing that they were in good earnest then 't is certain that it was not the poor and trifling Glory of being the Authors of a new and unheard of Sect but the real Good and Advantage of Mankind which animated and encourag'd them to such an Undertaking 2. It is not the manner of Cheaters to provoke to so many Witnesses as we find the Apostles did St. Paul asserting the Resurrection of our blessed Lord beside the Testimony of the twelve Apostles brings in five hundred upon the Stage at once to confirm the same Truth the major part of which were then alive when he wrote that Epistle 1 Cor. xv Add to this that a Lie is strictly forbidden by their Writings and those that delight in it menaced with eternal Destruction Eph. 4.25 Col. 3.9 Rev. 21.8.3 3. Suppose men could be so wicked yet would the Goodness of God suffer such a Cheat to be put upon the World If we look upon the whole frame of the Christian Religion it is such that the more good any man is the more likely to adhere to it and the most harmless and innocent Persons in the world are most apt to be charmed and overcome by it But surely to them that believe a just and righteous Providence governing the affairs of the World it is apparent that God would not have suffered an Error so universally to prevail nor those who most of all resemble his blessed Nature in Justice Mercy and Compassion to be involved in Obscurity and Ignorance and eternally to perish in a Delusion since he may and acting according to his Nature must necessarily detect it Now because the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God dismantling the Prisons of Death and freeing himself from the Chains and Fetters of the Grave is the great Pillar and Foundation of the Christian Doctrin therefore it will be requisite to wipe off those Spots the mouth of Envy and Detraction hath cast upon it To this end I shall examine that Objection of the Jews who seeing the clear and evident Proofs of the Resurrection of Jesus invented this Elusion of it That his Disciples came by night and stole him away while the watch slept To which the many improbable and unlikely Circumstances it is attended withal will be a sufficient Answer and Reply As 1. how unlikely is it that his Disciples who just before fled every one from him should now resume such Courage as to venture to steal his Body from a Guard of Souldiers 2. It is not likely that all the Watch should be asleep at one time 3. If they were yet 't is hard to imagine that his Disciples should come just at that time 4. How could they roll away the Stone and take out the Body which surely would have made no small noise and yet none of the Guard hear them 5. Suppose they had taken away the Body Quid ex cadavere emolumenti what benefit could they have expected from a dead Carcase would the dead and infamous Body of an Impostor be a sufficient Motive to induce them to deny Friends and Relatives worldly Interests and Profits yea Life itself to maintain his Credit by telling the World a fair Story of his Resurrection if indeed there were no such thing This being then sufficiently evidenced that Christ rose from the dead it is an undeniable Confirmation that all his other Miracles were true And indeed it could not suit with the Justice of God to leave his Soul in Hell or suffer his Flesh to see Corruption For the Innocence of the Lord Christ was bright as the noon-day and all his Sufferings being undergone upon our account and having made a full and perfect atonement for Sin the righteous Providence of God was engaged to raise him up and instate him in that blessedness which he merited for himself by his voluntary Humiliation and Condescent According to what the Apostle affirms of him Acts ii 24. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was not possible i.e. it was not meet suitable or agreeable to the Justice of God that he should be holden of it We have seen the Objection of the Jew and I shall now conclude this Particular by considering what the Heathen and Atheist hath to say against the Resurrection of Jesus and he brings his Exception after this manner If Jesus did really rise from the dead why did he not then shew himself alive to all or at least to the chief Priests and Rulers of the Jews who condemned him to be crucified and not only to his own company and that not constantly to them but like a Spectrum or Ghost appearing and then vanishing away But it is no wonder if impure and Atheistical men do not apprehend the Divine Dispensation of Jesus in the Flesh since there is a perpetual Antipathy between their gross and feculent Souls and the Holy Spirit of heavenly Wisdom but to them that are sincere there is nothing in this instance but may admit of a fair Apology We must know then that the Soul of the Holy Jesus being vitally united to the eternal Logos and never lapsed from the pure and immaculate Regions of Blessedness with the rest of Mankind but so qualifying his Glory as to fit himself for an Union with a terrestrial Body must have even
wholly Intellectual he will not only esteem the Effluxes and Emanations of the Rational Life to be the Foundations of his Felicity but seek the Amplification and Diffusion of it and reduce all exorbitant Motions to its Rules and Determinations And if we will not impose upon ourselves nor degrade our Minds below the Folly and Triflingness of Children but act like Men who prefer Things before empty Sounds and Names the eternal Rules of Justice Righteousness and Goodness will appear infinitely more eligible than any thing else in the World beside for let a man be possest of the most glorious and splendid Advantages and Satisfactions that possibly can grow out of the Earth and let him extract the Flower and Quintessence of Sublunary Delights and he will find them at the best very dilute and flashy and too base and disproportionate Objects of a pure active and indefatigable Mind And were it not that men are cheated into an Esteem and Approbation of them partly from the Example of others who daily run the greatest Hazards and Labours in their Acquisition and Purchase and partly from the innate Pravity and Iniquity of their own Spirits which being preingag'd in an early Contention after the things of Sense are more forcibly struck and moved by the Emissions and Radiations of the Corporeal World it were exceeding improbable they should forego such valuable and excellent Pleasures as those of Virtue and Holiness for the small and inconsiderable though the most refined Joys of this Region of Mutability especially when they are perpetually attended with such instant Satieties and afflictive Circumstances That blessed Author of our Felicity the Lord Christ who both knew the Soveraign Good of our Spirits and designed the Cementing and Restauration of the broken and distracted World by entring into it makes it his first care and business to purge and refine our Minds from the Dross and Pollution of material Concretions by bringing down the Price of terrestrial Love and setting a low Estimate upon what the World calls Happiness Riches and Honours and all the choicest Gratifications of the inferior Life and propounding not only such Precepts as in their own nature tended to the raising and elevating the Powers and Faculties of our Souls to their highest and most enlarg'd Perfection and which by our Conformity to them should fully satisfie all our rational Thirsts and Appetites but likewise revives our languishing Resolutions and reinspirits our Minds with new Strength and Vigour by his own Example as the most attractive and powerful Means that possibly can be offered to an ingenuous Nature All the time that he conversed upon Earth he went about doing good transcribing the fairest and most amiable Perfections and Attributes of the moral Essence of God for our Imitation redressing and healing the Imperfections of Mankind and casting a benign and auspicious Influence upon the distempered World by propagating and diffusing the holy Life of God into all capable Receptacles And that he might shew us what a small and mean Valuation he puts upon mundane and temporal Felicities and how little they contribute to the Advancement of that which is the Flower and Summity of our Souls he commands great Temperance and Moderation both in the Prosecution and Use of them and declares a high Dislike against all Exorbitancy and Excesse condemning all anxious and solicitous Thoughts about these momentany Concernments as criminous and faulty And what he enjoined upon his Disciples and Followers he himself always observ'd and practis'd never disquieting his holy Breast with doubtful and corroding Cares nor charging Heaven with Partiality and Unkindness though he became so poor for our sakes that he was forced by a Miracle to pay his Tribute-penny to the Roman Governour His blameless and immaculate Soul no impure touch of Pleasure ever defiled nor unjust and unhallowed Action ever stained and sullied its native Brightness but remained to his dying upon the Cross a spotless Temple eternally consecrated to the Divinity residing in it But that which did most of all allure and attract the Hearts and Spirits of men was his exceeding and superlative Charity which not only burnt bright within its own Orb but by a sacred Influence and Communication melted and thaw'd the benum'd and frozen World into a soft pliable and sequacious temper and set abroad a Godlike Spirit of universal Tenderness Pity and Compassion upon the Earth And that so illustrious a Person might want nothing to recommend his Life to Mankind as the most complete Pattern of the Divine Nature his Patience exhibited in a noble sufferance of all those Ignominies and Disgraces put upon him made him no less conspicuous than those other radiant Virtues rendred him acceptable to God and Man And if there be any thing more that is worthy and decorous and perfective of the Nature of Man it was eminently contained in the Lord Christ whose glorious Mind was too large and great to bring forth any poor and abject Design but took the whole World into his Care and folded the Creation within the Arms of dear Compassion By all this and much more we are taught wherein consists the greatest Excellency Beauty and Dignity of our Souls namely in the Acts of Goodness Righteousness and Mercy in profound Humility and Self-Denial in Patience Longanimity and uncorrupted Purity of Body and Spirit For these and such like Heroical Exertions of our Minds bring not only a present Delight and Gratefulness with them but pervade by a secret and insensible Influence all our Animal Powers and diffuse a certain Savour and Relish of themselves throughout our inferior Faculties As it is with Vice and Sin every pitiful and degenerate Production of which spreads its contagious Nature and leavens our whole Man with its poysonous and infectious Inspirations so much more will Truth and Righteousness disseminate a healthful Efflux and hallow our vital Capacities as being the most congenerous and agreeable Objects of our intellectual Parts The Life of God which alone ought to have the Soveraign Command over the whole rational Creation and which will in due time conquer and triumph over the dark and apostate Principality that Life I say of universal Sanctity and Righteousness is an immortal thing like its great Source and Parent and is always passing through the World and will not rest any where but in such a fit and congruous Subject as bears some Analogy and Similitude with itself And being once seated there unless it be forcibly driven out by rebellious Lusts to which it proclaims an irreconcileable War it will continually dispread its lovely Nature and enlarge its Kingdom by the total Consumption or Conversion into its own Likeness and Quality whatever resists and hinders its Progress and at last when freed from the sluggish weight of Mortality like a quick and active Flame carry up the Soul with Joy and Triumph into Heaven to which it always breaths and aspires Heaven itself is nothing but the blessed Mansion of
are a sort of Men in the World whose Minds are so deeply tinctured with Sadducean and Atheistical Principles that being otherwise furnished with a quaint Volubility of Speech and some Smatterings of Philosophy in this knowing Age deem it the highest Improvement of their Wit to laugh and jeer at that profound Wisdom which is found in Christianity now accusing its Dogmata of Impossibilities and Contradictions and then scoffing at the Historical Part as Fabulous and Romantick clearly discovering that their grand Drift is to leaven the Minds of men with that pernicious and venomous Doctrin That there is nothing but Matter in the World To begin therefore with the Birth of the blessed Jesus and the Circumstances attending of it as of the Star which led the Wise Men to him and of their Adoration of him that these things are not indecorous and ridiculous nor impertinently recorded but sutable and agreeable to the Nativity of so great a Person That a Virgin should conceive and bring forth a Child ought to be no such strange thing to the Jew since their Prophets have foretold that it should so come to pass particularly in Isa vii 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his name Immanuel And if this were not to be understood of a pure and immaculate Virgin where were that Sign which God by his Prophet ushers in with such Solemnity Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God ask it either in the depth or in the height above for nothing is more ordinary in the World than that a young Woman should bring forth a Child Add to this that the Jewish Rabbins teach that the Generation and Nativity of the Messias shall not be after the manner of other Creatures by carnal Copulation but after an extraordinary manner and his Father shall be unknown till he himself reveal him Nor ought it to be thought a thing impossible by the Gentiles since they affirm many of their Heroes to be the Sons of the Gods and Plato is said to be begotten on Perictione by Apollo who forbad Aristo to have any familiarity with his Wife till Plato was born But to them that believe a just and righteous Providence governing all the Affairs of the Universe it is obvious to conceive that all Souls are sent into the World according to their Demerits in a former Life and therefore as a deeply lapsed Soul descends into an inequal and monstrous Body from which Adunation can result no other than a brutish cruel and intemperate Life and a Pronity to all other Vices arising from such an Asymmetral and inhospitable Society so the pure and immaculate Soul of Jesus must assume a terrestrial Body after an unusual manner more pure than the rest that it might be free from Sin and Pollution as well as fitted to converse with Men and that he might in it teach an extraordinary Temperance Justice and Goodness and all other Virtues by his Life as by his Doctrin For neither would the Justice of God precipitate so great a Soul into an unfit and incongruous Habitation nor its eximious Purity admit of an Union with an inquinated and filthy Body Nor is it any whit incongruous that an unusual Star should attend the Rising of the glorious Sun of Righteousness for though it be commonly said of Comets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no one appears to the World but portends some Mischief which Historians plentifully observe and hence is that of Claudian Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus Aether Et nunquam coelo spectatum impune Cometen Yet Origen in his first Book against Celsus affirms that Chaeremon the Stoick in his Treatise of Comets proves by several Instances out of Histories that Comets sometimes presage the Approach of good things If then those great and wandring Globes be looked upon as the Presignificators of great Changes and Alterations in the World what wonder is it that the Birth of Jesus who should work so mighty a Mutation upon Earth and introduce a Religion universal and common to all Mankind should be declared by a new and stranger Star And if it be said that it is impossible for a Star in the Heavenly Regions to design punctually so small a place as a particular House upon Earth I answer that the Magi found the House wherein Jesus was not only by the disappearing and vanishing of the Star over it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a diligent Search and Inquisition after the Child perhaps of the Shepherds who were not far distant keeping watch over their Flocks It remains now that we Apologize for the other part of the History viz. The coming of the Wise Men from the East to Jerusalem to which purpose it will be requisite to consider the Quality of these Magi who probably were none of these grosser sort of Sorcerers that make an express Compact with the Devil but such as receiving from others certain forms and mysterious Conjurations use them as they were delivered to them without enquiring further into their Nature And perhaps the black Society may oblige themselves to attend such dark and hidden Mysteries whether the Transactors of them know them to be theirs or not But whether these Magi were such or had a more open and visible Commerce with evil Spirits it matters not since this is certain that the airy Principality can act no further where a more divine and excellent Power intervenes Wherefore through the mighty Virtue of the Divinity residing in the Soul of Jesus and the unexpected descent of a glorious Host of Angels to these terrestrial Regions singing an Anthem of Praise at the Birth of Jesus it came to pass that the Power of the airy Principality was on a sudden restrained and an universal Chilness and Horror ran through the dark Kingdom so that they were unable to attend their own Hellish Mysteries which the Magi perceiving their usual Incantations not succeeding nor the accustomed Effects following their secret Rites and Ceremonies they began to think the Cause of this unexpected Accident to be extraordinary and knowing the Prophecy of Balaam that a star should come out of Jacob and a scepter rise out of Israel conjectured that the Man foretold to come with the Apparition of a Star was now born into the World and believing him to have a transcendent Power over the aereal Agents resolved to come and worship him presenting him with the choicest Gifts of Arabia Gold and Myrrh and Frankincense as to a King a Man and a God And if any man desire a further Mystery he may take the learned Grotius his Observation that by these three are denoted those three Evangelical Sacrifices which through Christ we offer unto God viz. Works of Charity and Mercy Phil. iv 18. Incorrupted Purity of Body Rom. xii 1. and Prayers Psal cxli. 2. We that are Christians are taught in the Gospel that Jesus Christ the Saviour of Mankind is God as well as Man
become Brothel-houses 2. The holy Jesus wanted not Disciples even among the wise men of the Jews such was Simeon the Just the Scholar of Hillel who was filled with the Holy Ghost and after whose Death that Divine Spirit which inspired the great Synagogue departed from them John the Baptist who not only acknowledged Christ himself but sent his Disciples to him as to that Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world and Gamaliel is said to have followed the Apostles and to have been Simeon's Scholar And St. Paul who was a man of great Repute and Esteem with the Jews and sate at the feet of Gamaliel yet was afterward an Apostle of the holy Jesus and Josephus further informs us that the more sober and serious Jews who were Lovers of the Truth were such as followed Jesus and those that were studious and zealous for the Law sharply rebuked Ananus the High Priest for commanding the Disciples of Jesus to be stoned Object 2. Acts i. 6. Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel It was a current Opinion among the Jews in our Saviours time that the Messias should be a Temporal Monarch and redeem them from the yoke of the Romans as appears from this Question of the Disciples who doubtless spake the general sense of the Jews but they finding nothing in the Attempts and Actions of Jesus tending that way hence they could not believe him to be the promised Messias Answ Christ came into the World such as he was foretold to be that is humble and meek not with the Splendor and Glory of an earthly Prince but poor and despicable a man of sorrows and without form and comliness as it is predicted by Zechariah the Prophet Zech. ix 9. and Isa liii The End and Design of his coming was to appease the Anger of God by devoting himself for the Sins of men to destroy the Kingdom of the Devil and to make one body of Jews and Gentiles of which he himself should be the Head And 't is no way fit and agreeable for such an Undertaking to appear in earthly Splendor and Glory filling the World with Blood and Slaughter like another Alexander or Caesar by the Puissance of mighty Armies Wherefore the holy Jesus being to disseminate and promote the blessed Life of God upon Earth shewed his Divinity more refulgent by Vileness and Contempt his Power by Weakness and Infirmity his Glory by the Scorns of men and his Almighty Life and Virtue by Death and the Grave And if he had otherwise descended from the celestial Mansions than the Scriptures relate Man had entituled himself to part of the Glory of his Undertaking and the more splendid the Divine Life had appeared to outward view with the fainter Lustre had it shone in itself Besides that that Doctrin which Christ was to bring into the World and render acceptable to men by his own Example was quite contrary to the Gratifications of the Animal Life and too vile and base to be essential to the Perfection of Human Nature Object 3. Mat. xxvii 40. If thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross Answ He that came into the World clothed with human Flesh and in the several Actions of his Life manifested himself to be a true Man would now in this last Act keep a Decorum that as he was born into the world like other men partaking really of Flesh and Blood and all the Frailties and Infirmities of Mankind Sin only excepted so he would die like other men and suffer a real Separation of his Soul from his Body that we might be conformable to him in his Death and die unto Sin crucifying all our inordinate Lusts and Affections and descending into the Grave with him by a profound Humility and Mortification which is a sufficient Answer to this insulting Cavil of the Jews that if Jesus were the Son of God he must needs demonstrate it by a miraculous Descent from the Cross CHAP. IV. That-Christianity is every way fitted and accommodated for an effectual Recovery of lapsed and degenerated Mankind TO this purpose we must consider Man as a rational Being endued with Liberty of Will and a Lord of his own Actions and consequently must be treated according to those Faculties and Qualifications bestowed upon him by the gracious Bounty of his Creator And this being the Nature of Man he is not to be dealt withal like a Stock or Stone that is wholly inert and sluggish nor like a Beast that is acted and led only by the impulse of Sense but as indued with Reason and Intellect and capable of discriminating between real Good and Evil and this Principle in Man cannot be forced without the Destruction of his Nature but is allured and drawn by moral Arguments Wherefore the Design of God in the Gospel being to wind men off from Sin to a serious pursuit of Virtue and Goodness he makes use of such Arguments as are most powerful and efficacious for that end and most sutable to the Nature of Man As 1. What can more deter men from Wickedness and Vice than the sober pressing upon them the Consideration of a future day of Judgment wherein the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will impartially look into their Lives and dispose of them according to the moral Frame and Disposition of their Spirits To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality eternal Life But to them who do not obey the Gospel he will recompense Tribulation and Wrath. He that is convinc'd that the Scriptures are the Word of God must likewise believe that though God be patient and long-suffering not willing that any should perish yet he is likewise just and hates all Sin whatever and to convince all unbelieving and Atheistical Persons of his Displeasure against Wickedness and Vice he has appointed a Day wherein he will judge the World a Day wherein Jesus Christ the blessed Son of God shall visibly descend from Heaven accompanied with innumerable Legions of mighty Angels before whose Throne all wicked Men and Devils shall stand with Paleness and Horror expecting the Pronuntiation of that dreadful Sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire which final Doom and Sentence shall presently be executed upon them for through the stupendious Operation of the Son of God the infernal Treasures of Fire shall be opened and an universal Deluge of Flame shall spread itself over the Face of the aged Earth which shall be cleft and riven by terrible Eruptions of sulphureous Matter breaking forth with horrible Rage and Fury from the lower Regions and this together with Showers of Fire raining down from thick and pitchy Clouds shall wrap Universal Nature in a sheet of Flame and complete an external Hell where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched Tell me then O Man thou that thinkest Righteousness but an idle Name on whose hard and stubborn soul a Discourse of another