into those Mansions of which they had been by him sufficiently inform'd At this Thomas far from acknowledging any suchinformation complains in the 5th verse that they were ignorant both of the place and the way to it Our Saviour answers that the place was no other than the Society of his Father whom they had sufficiently known by conversing with Him This far from removing the mistakes of the Apostles gave occasion to the discovery of a far greater ignorance in them For in the 8th verse Philip desireth him to shew the Father to them thereby manifesting how widely he had hitherto mistaken the Doctrine of Christ and what gross notions of the Father he entertain'd So strange an ignorance drew a sharp expostulation from our Saviour Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not knoâ—…n me Philip ver 9. Thereupon declaring unto him what sufficient means he had already given them of knowing the Father and promising to enable them yet further to a more perfect knowledge of him by sending the Comforter the Spirit of Truth He assureth them of a more clear and express Revelation of this matter at his Resurrection by manifesting himself and consequently the Father to piously disposed Persons who loved him and kept his Commandments Although he intended not to manifest himself in the same degree and manner to the whole World At this Judas Lebbaeus seems to be astonished and in a passionate exclamation which includeth somewhat of despair in it saith unto him ver 22. Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the World as imagining this illustrious manifestation to be no other than taking possession in a solemn and magnificent manner of that Glorious Worldly Kingdom which himself with the other Apostles in vain expected to be founded by their Master Such strange mistakes of which the meanest Christians would be ashamed in the present Constitution of the Church might justly be admired to have proceeded from those who were the familiar attendants of Christ through a Triennial Preaching Acquainted with all his Discourses and honoured with a familiar Conversation if we enquir'd not more narrowly into the causes of things and reasons of the divine dispensation OurSaviour himself seems not in the least to be surprized at it But only after a short answer to Lebbaeus his question hence taketh occasion to renew the promise of that remedy which he had ever design'd and often before promis'd I mean the Mission of the Holy Ghost in these words These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you As if he should say These answers I have briefly given to your doubts and scruples such as the shortness and necessity of the time would permit which still remains to me to be spent in your company I had before sufficiently explained all these Mysteries to you Provided your minds by removal of all prejudices by ordinary endowments of right apprehension and using due diligence had been rightly disposed to receive them But since you still continue ignorant of those great Truths and infinitely mistake my Doctrine And not only so but suffer your selves to be possess'd with terror and amazement at the news of my departure I will not forsake you or leave you destitute of the means either of consolation or better instruction but abundantly provide for both by sending to you after my Ascension another Comforter Even the Holy Ghost whom the Father at my Intercession and for my sake will send unto you He shall erect your drooping Spirits and remove your grief by administring consolation to you And dispel your Ignorance by enlightning your minds with clear notions and true Interpretations of whatsoever I have Taught unto you and recalling into your mind all those Doctrines and Lessons of mine which you may have forgotten These words being thus explained represent to us I. The promise of sending a Comforter II. The Person to be sent the Holy Ghost III The Office to be performed by the Holy Ghost when sent Which however various is perfectly included Either in the diverse significations of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Comforter which may be taken as an Advocate a Monitor or a Consolator Or in the annexed action of Teaching thâ—…m all things and bringing all things into their remembrance whatsoever Christ had said unto them At present I shall consider no more than the latter branch of the Third Point that is the Office of Teaching the Apostles which was to be performed by the Holy Ghost And in handling this I shall in the first place inquire what were the Causes and Reasons of this prodigious Ignorance of the Apostles after so long and so excellent Instruction Secondly I shall prove that the permission of this Ignorance till the sending of the Holy Ghost was not in the least repugnant to the Divine Wisdom or the design of the Gospel Thirdly I shall draw some few conclusions from both First then the Causes and Reasons of this so long continued Ignorance of the Apostles Of these I take the chief and most fundamental one to have been their Ignorance of the true sense of Scripture For the better explaining of this Cause I will premise some few Observations As 1. The Conformity of the Life and Actions of Christ to the Prophesies of the Old Testament was to the Jews the best and principal Argument of the Divinity of Christ of his Divine Mission and the Truth of his Revelations Miracles indeed might create a great probability of the truth of these Articles But such a conformity alone could demonstrate it since Miracles were common to inferâ—…our Prophets and sometimes even to false Prophets But an intire agreement of the precedent Prophesies was appropriated to the sole Person of the true Messias This appears from the nature of the Old Testament and end of writing it which taken in all its parts is chiefly designed to point out the future Messias by certain plain Notes and Indications whereby he might easily be discover'd to the Jews The Historical Books are imployed in describing his Genealogy The Psalms and Prophets in foretelling the time of his coming the manner of his Life his Passion Resurrection and Doctrine Now it would be highly injurious to the Wisdom of God that he should professedly cause so many Books to be written chiefly to design the Messias And yet design him by such Characters as should not be proper to him alone but might be common to other Persons So that the agreement of those Prophesies to the Person of Jesus Christ was to the Jews a most demonstrative proof that he was the true Messias Miracles indeed were in their respect also necessary to him But that chiefly because it was before Prophesied of the Messias that great and
the natural reason and sense of Mankind are most perfective of it as hath been already in some measure shown Neither are they contrary to any precedent Revelation For although they tend to abolish and destroy the Mosaick Institution This doth not in the least derogate from the truth of it The Mosaick Law by the very Nature of it was fitted only for the Nonage of Revelation and to continue no longer than till the times of Reformation should come But which cleareth the matter beyond all doubt God had expressly foretold to the Jews that he would put an end to their Dispensation and institute a new and more perfect Covenant Infinite places to this purpose might be alledged out of the Old Testament I shall name but one In the aforementioned passage of Jeremy God tells them Behold the days come that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt But this shall be the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel The Christian Religion doth not only not contradict the Jewish Revelation but also receive infinite Confirmation from it God by foretelling the coming of the Messias with all the Circumstances of it had abundantly provided that when he should come unless a fatal Blindness and Stupidity intervened he should not be rejected by those for whose sake he came God had promised his coming to our first Parents had assured Abraham That in him all the Nations of the carth should be blessed had revealed to Jacob That before the departure of the Scepter from Judah Shiloh should come and had declared to the Jews by the mouth of Moses That he would raise up a Prophet from among them like unto him whom they should be bound to hear in all things But all this is inconsiderable in respect of that full and more clear Manifestation given by God in after Ages The most Wise God choosing to prefigure him by more express Characters according as the time of his coming drew more near In the Psalms and Prophets the manner and place of his Birth the Nature of his Office the meanness of his Condition the manner and bitterness of his Sufferings the Triumphs of his Resurrection in a word all the Circumstances of his Life and Death are so plainly pointed out and related that nothing less than a perverse Blindness could doubt of the Person designed by them Among the latter Prophets Daniel foretold that he should come at the end of seventy weeks of years and Malachi the last of all that he should come before the Second Temple was destroyed and honour it with his Presence So that all the Miracles which were wrought in Confirmation of the Jewish Religion tend most effectually to establish the Christian Faith Not only because all the Characters assigned by the Prophets to denote the future Messias met most exactly in the Person of our Saviour but because they can meet in no one else For the time prefixed for the Accomplishment of the Prophecies concerning the Messias is plainly expired and yet no other Person hath yet appeared to whom the Characters of the Messias can with any shew of Reason be applied So that either the Jewish Religion is wholly false or the Christian infallibly true Then as for the Miracles of our Saviour it is impossible to imagine any more wonderful in their Operation more beneficial in their Nature more Convictive of their Divine Original or better attested than they were So great and stupendious that they forced even his Adversaries to confess That no man ever did such works as he convinced the multitude That even when the Messias should come he could not do greater works than those and induced the Roman Centurion watching at his Cross even at the lowest ebb of his Fortunes and after he had lost his Life by an ignominious Punishment to acknowledge him to be the Son of God They were not performed once or twice but frequently upon all occasions and for many years together by himself and his Apostles Not in Corners or before a few Confidents but in the Face of the world in the publick Streets before vast multitudes and in all parts of the Earth They tended not so much to raise the amazement and astonishment of Spectators as all false Miracles do as to relieve the Infirmities cure the Diseases and procure the benefit of some part at least of Mankind and therein by a wonderful mixture of Wisdom served no less to declare the Goodness than the Power of God That the History of the Miracles and Life of our Saviour as it is delivered to us in the Books of the New Testament is true we have all the Reason in the world to believe These Books were written by Persons who were Eye-witnesses of what they relate or at least who received Instructions from such They had all the advantages which could possibly be required of knowing the truth of them And so could not be mistaken in their Relations and that they should wilfully deceive us we have no reason to believe We might with as much reason call in doubt and dis-believe all the Relations of former Histories which depend upon no other Authority than that of their Writers yet should we justly esteem him Mad who should doubt whether there were ever such Persons as Caesar and Alexander in the world and we daily regulate our Actions and found our Concerns upon matters attested with no better Proofs But to our comfort and entire conviction Christianity hath yet much greater Evidence The Writers of these Books are known to have been Persons of unquestioned Integrity who far from managing any worldly design or interest in this matter quitted all the Conveniences of Life underwent the most toilsome Labours and Miseries suffered Punishments Contempt and Scorn and at last laid down their Lives in Attestation of the truth of what they had related Not to say that they confirmed the truth of their report by Miracles while alive and that their Holiness Sincerity and miraculous Power was in like manner attested for some Ages after by many pious and learned Persons who laid down their Lives in Testimony of their veracity and wrought Miracles in Confirmation of it until a great part of Mankind being by these convincing Proofs converted to the belief of Christianity and the truth of them fully made known to the world Miracles became no longer necessary All these things happened in a learned and inquisitive Age and were Matters of the greatest moment concerning no less than the eternal Happiness or Misery of Mankind So that on both these Accounts if the least ground of Forgery or Imposture could have been discovered in the Christian Religion it would have been impossible for it to have gained any Success or made any progress in the World Especially if
God in the day when I chose Israel and lifted up my hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob and made my self known unto them in the land of Egypt when I lifted up my hand unto them saying I am the Lord your God In the day that I lifted up my hand unto them to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them flowing with milk and honey which is the glory of all lands Then I said unto them Cast ye away every man the abomination of his eyes and defile not your selves with the Idols of Egypt I am the Lord your God To say no more this appears evidently from the name of JEHOVAH under which God was constantly worshipped from the giving of the Law till the coming of Christ. For this name imported no more than the Immutability of the Divine Nature and Constancy in effecting his Promise the Completion of which should necessarily as often return into their Minds as that most Holy Name was taken into their mouths And therefore at that moment in which the Promises were compleated God made himself known unto the Jews by this name Jehovah saying unto Moses Exod. VI. 3. And I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of El Shaddai or God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was not I known unto them As if he should say I was known indeed unto your Forefathers by my Attributes of Greatness and Omnipotence whereby they were intirely satisfied that I was able in due time to conferr upon them all those Benefits which I had promised to them but my Attributes of Veracity and Immutability were not sensibly made known to them by the Completion of those Promises These now you see performed and consequently are convinced that I am a God true to my Promise and invariable to my Resolutions By this Name or under this Notion will I be henceforward worshipped by you The exceeding Care which God took to perpetuate the Memory of these Benefits among the Jews does manifest it to have been the best means of preserving Religion and the true Worship of himself among them To this all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Law in some mea sure tended but especially the grand Festival of the Passover was instituted for no other Purpose than to continue the remembrance of their Deliverance out of Egypt Annual repetitions of the History of those Benefits were enjoyned and Parents commanded to teach them to their Children on the severest Penalties The greatest part of the Book of Deuteronomy which was in more frequent use among the Jews than any other Book of the Old Testament is employed in repeating the Favours of God and urging the Duty of gratitude arising from them And as if the whole Duty of that People consisted in retaining the Memory of those Favours Moses in one place seems to require nothing else of them Who after he had described the Excellency of that Law and Religion which God had revealed to them subjoyns Only take heed to thy self and keep thy soul diligently least thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen and least they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life but teach them thy sons and thy sons sons Deut. IV. 9. He was sufficiently assured That if this grateful remembrance were preserved among them it would draw along with it an universal Obedience to the whole Law And therefore as our Savioâ—…r summed up the whole Duty of Man in the Love o God and our Neighbour so he comprized all in a thankful remembrance of the Divine Benefits Afterwards when the deplorable Idolatry of the Jews for which God caused them to be led into Captivity had almost effaced the Memory of their miraculous Deliverance out of Egypt and by a new Prodigy of Mercy God had brought them out of Captivity and replaced them in their ancient Possessions he tells them he would not any longer be worshipped by them as the Author of that almost forgotten Benefit of their Deliverance out of Egypt the Memory of which was grown faint among them but as the Author of the late Restitution the remembrance of which was yet fresh in their Minds and might therefore be supposed to produce a greater Sense of gratitude in them For thus he bespeaks them Jerem. XVI 14 15. Therefore behold the days come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt But the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North and from all the lands whither he had driven them and I will bring them again into their Land that I gave unto their fathers The same words he repeats in the XXIII 7th and 8th Verses So studiously did God indeavour to oblige the Jews to pursue their own Happiness in the true Worship of him by heaping new Benefits upon them and inculcating the Memory of them in all solemn Acts of Worship Under the Gospel also God continues to be worshipt as the Author of some signal Benefits as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we obtained Redemption from our sins and Deliverance out of the spiritual Egypt the bondage of Sin and the Devil In every Act of our Christian Worship the Memory of this Benefit is presented to us while we are taught to direct our Prayers to him and to worship him in the Notion of the Father which cannot be without recalling to mind his infinite Mercy manifested in our Redemption which was designed by him and effected by his only begotten Son All the Sacraments and external Worship of the Christian Religion tend no less to preserve the Memory of this Benefit than did the Rites of the Jewish Law to Commemorate their Deliverance out of Egypt particularly the Holy Eucharist which was intended for the constant and most solemn Act of the Christian Worship was instituted to this very Purpose to preserve a lively Memory of that great and final Act of our Redemption to represent to us the Death of our Saviour and continue the Memory of those stripesby which we were healed and of that blood by which we were cleansed If by the degeneracy of latter Ages it hath in great measure failed to produce that Effect for which it was at first intended that is to be ascribed to that deplorable disuse of the Celebration of it which crept into latter Ages and is continued in our times That universal decay of Religion and Piety which we all acknowledge and lament cannot with so much Reason be attributed to any other cause as to this the Memory of our Saviours Passion and with that of our Redemption sensibly decayed in the minds of Men when that venerable Mystery began to be discontinued which was instituted on purpose to continue for ever a lively Representation of it in the Church Men perhaps may retain an Historical remembrance of