Son are Thoughts which must create a new Heaven as it were in Heaven it self I mean they will enlarge our Souls to the utmost Capacities of our Natures and fill and actuate them with such Divine Ardors of Love as if we had been kept necessarily from all Sin seem impossible to have been raised in us The Angels themselves rejoyce over one Sinner that repenteth and that Joy must have been wanting to them who are of so much higher and more excellent a Nature than we are of if there had been no Possibility either of Sin or of Repentance And the wonderful Dispensation of the Gospel is an eternal Subject of Praise and Adoration an eternal Fountain of Love and Joy and Happiness to all the Blessed Spirits in Heaven The more the Divine Attributes are displayed the more Adorable the Majesty of God will appear and will become the greater Object of our Praise and Veneration those that are wise and good will be made the wiser and better by it and the happier in the Contemplation of the Divine Perfections Now a Governour in his Laws and in the Method and Order of his Government has regard chiefly to the Good and Obedient and has little Concern for the rest And we must consider God not only as the Father but as the Governour of Mankind and tho' an earthly Father perhaps would by all means possible preserve his â—on from incurring Punishment yet a good Governour when the Ends of his Government can be better obtain'd by leaving him to his Liberty would not restrain him by any Force or Violence Therefore if the Liberty of Choice in Men and the Possibility of their Sin and Damnation be for the Glory of God and for the Benefit of good Men and be no Injury to the Bad this is a sufficient Account why man was not necessarily restrained from Sinning tho' Damnation be the consequence of it CHAP. XIII Of the Fall of the Angels and of our First Parents IN the Beginning God created every thing perfect in its kind and endned the Angels and Man with all intellectual and Moral Perfections suitable to their respective Natures but so as to leave them capable of sinning For it pleased the infinite Wisdom of God for the Reasons already alledg'd and for many more and greater Reasons perhaps than any man is able to imagine to place them in a State of Tryal and to put it to their own Choice whether they would stand in their present Condition of Innocence and Happiness in which they were created or fall into Sin and Misery We have little or no Account in the Scriptures of the Cause or Temptation which occasioned the Fall of Angels because it doth not concern us to be acquainted with it and therefore it little becomes us to be inquisitive about it Indeed it is very difficult to conceive how Beings of so Great Knowledge and Purity as the Fall'n Angels once were of should fall into Sin But it must be considered that nothing is more unaccountable than the Motives and Causes of Action in Free Agents when any Being is at Liberty to do as it will no other Reason besides its own Will need be enquir'd for of its Actings What is liable to Sin may sin whatever the Motive be and to enquire after the Motive is to enquire what Motives may determine a Free Agent that is an Agent which may determine it self upon any Ground or Motive But how perfect and excellent soever any Creature is unless it be so confirmed and established in a State of Purity and Holiness as to be secured from all possibility of Sinning it may be supposed to admire it self and dote upon its own Perfections and Excellencies and by degrees to neglect and not acknowledge God the Author of them but to sin and rebell against Him And it is most agreeable both to Scripture and Reason that Pride was the cause of the Fall of Angels For those Excellencies which might secure them from any other Sin proved a Temptation to this and the greater their Perfections were the greater was the Temptation as in a Man who is guilty of Spiritual and Pharisaical Pride all that is good and commendable in him affords him only matter for his Sin So that where there is a freedom of Will and a possibility of Sinning the very Perfection of Nature in a Creature may be made an Occasion to sin and that which excludes other sins may prove a Motive and Temptation to Pride which therefore we have reason to conclude was the Sin of the Fall'n Angels As to the Fall of Man however the Thing may be disputed the Effects of it are visible in the strange Proneness of Humane Nature to act against Reason and Conscience that is to act in plain contradiction to it self and its own Principles This is a State in which it cannot be supposed that Mankind was at first created by the infinitely Good and Holy God And the most plausible Opinion and that which has most generally obtained among the Heathens is that the Souls of Men had a Being before they came into this World and were sent into Human Bodies in Punishment for what they had done amiss in a precedent State But this is mere suspicion and Conjecture without any possibility of Proof and there is this plain Reason against it that â—o man can be punished for his Amendment who knows nothing of it For it is inconsistent with the Nature and end of Punishment that the Offender should not be made sensible of his Fault especially when the Punishment is designed for his Amendment as it is said to be in the present Case If it can be supposed that Men may possibly retain no Remembrance of what they did in another State yet if their Faults were not kept in Memory they should be brought to their Remembrance if this Life were designed as a State of Punishment in order to Amendment But the State of this Life is so far from being thought a Punishment that Men naturally are of nothing more fond nor dread any thing more than to leave it And tho' Men meet with great Afflictions here yet those do not befall those only or chiefly who by their Proneness to Evil in this Life might be supposed to have been the greatest Offenders in a former State and every Calamity has not the Nature of Punishment The Sufferings and Miseries which we endure by reason of Adam's Transgression are not so properly Punishments as the Effects and Consequences of his sin But Personal Faults such as are supposed to have been committed in a State of pre-existence require a proper Punishment and if the Punishment be for Amendment as it is supposed to be in this present State both the Fault and the Punishment must be known with the Cause and End of its being inflicted and the greatest Offenders must undergo the severest Punishment The Account which the Scripture gives us of the Fall of our First Parents may be considered either 1.
the performing any good Action Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above Jam. i. 17. 3. We learn from hence that God can bring Good out of Evil and doth often over-rule even the worst Actions to the accomplishment of the best Ends and putteth no Trust in his Saints Job xv 15. There is a Remarkable Instance to this purpose in the Case of Jacob and Esau when Jacob came by fraud and subtilty and depriv'd his Brother of the Blessing (p) Casaub in Athenae Lib. 1. c. 11. It was in Ancient times customary to offer that of which they were to eat in Sacrifice especially on so Solemn an Occasion as a Father's giving his final Blessing and as in this Case foretelling the Fate of his Posterity And therefore when Jacob had by subtilty got the Blessing of his Father Isaac could not recall it to conferr it upon Esau because what was done in so solemn a manner had a Religious Obligation amounting to that of an Oath and Oaths tho' obtain'd by fraud were Obligatory as we learn from the Case of the Gibeonites he had blessed Jacob before the Lord and the Prediction that the Elder should serve the Younger Gen. xxv 23. with Esau's despising and selling his Birth-right might now probably come into Isaac's Mind whereupon tho' he did not approve of the fraud by which the Blessing was obtain'd yet he knew it to be irrevocable and that the Divine Purpose and Prediction would be accomplish'd thereby and what he had by a Prophetick Spirit conferr'd it was not in his power to recall The Relation therefore of this Matter doth not justifie Jacob's behaviour in it but manifests the over-ruling Providence of God to make any Means whatsoever instrumental to his gracious Ends which can never be disappointed by any Actions of Men for if they depended upon humane Actions these would often fail them the best Men being subject to so much frailty and sin 4. Tho' God of his Mercy doth accept of the imperfect Services of the Righteous forgiving upon their habitual Repentance the Sins and Frailties which are mix'd with the best Actions and pardoning the worst Actions likewise after a particular Repentance and Amendment of Life yet these stand upon Record for the glory of God's grace in their Repentance and Forgiveness and for a memorial and warning to future Ages that Men may neither presume upon their own Righteousness nor despair of God's Mercy But because they are pardon'd they are not always censur'd And I think the ill Actions of Good Men are seldom or never mention'd with a mark of God's displeasure unless the Series of the History require it and then the reproof is mention'd which pass'd at the time of the Commission of them as in the Case of David of Hezekiah and St. Peter But where no such Censure was pass'd at the time of the Action the Action it self is barely related and nothing further said of it because the Crime being forgiven God forbears to shew any further displeasure against it such is his Mercy to Repenting Sinners And there could be no necessity as I have observ'd for any Censure upon the account of others who may know by the plain Rule of God's word what Actions are sinful tho' they are not always styl'd so in relating the Commission of them CHAP. XVIII Of the Imprecations in the Psalms and other Books of the Old Testament ONE of the greatest Excellencies of the Christian Religion is the Universal Charity which it enjoyns and we shall find that Charity was likewise the Doctrine of the Old Testament and that there is nothing in the Book of Psalms or any other part of the Old Testament contrary to this Doctrine which will appear if we consider the peculiar Reasons for those expressions which may seem to imply any thing contrary to it I. Many of those Expressions are used in reference to the Nations upon whom after signal Acts of Mercy and Forbearance on his part and repeated provocations on theirs God had commanded the Israelites to execute his Judgments and the Sins of the People of Israel were the cause that this was not accomplish'd and therefore it was lawfull for them to pray that they might have grace to repent and that their Sins might be no hindrance to them in the fulfilling his will but that God would enable them to execute vengeance upon the Heathen Ps cxlix 7. And it was lawful likewise to pray against all the other Enemies of God that he would abase their Pride and make them to know themselves to be but Men Ps ix 20. lxxiv. 22 23. cxxxix 21 22. II. David being King had the Sword of Justice committed to him he was the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that did evil and therefore when his Rebellious Subjects were too strong for him as in the Rebellion of Absalom he might make his Appeal to God and beseech him to take the matter into his own hand If he might punish his Subjects he might pray to God that he would enable him to do it And in Foreign Wars if he might kill his Enemies he might pray for Victory and Success over them III. It is lawful to pray that publick and notorious Malefactors may be punish'd for it is lawful to discover them and bring them to punishment and it must needs be lawful to pray that that may be done which it is lawful for us to do It is lawful to seek redress of private Injuries and therefore it is lawful to pray that they may be redress'd for we may pray for success upon any honest undertaking If this be done out of a love to Justice and a necessary care of our own preservation not out of malice and a thirst after Revenge but with the most favourable construction that the worst Actions are capable of and with hearty Prayers to God for his Blessing upon the Offender in giving him the grace of Repentance and granting him whatsoever happiness in this World may be consistent with the honour of God and Justice towards other Men and the Salvation of his own Soul IV. God was the peculiar Law-giver and Political Governour of the Jews and Temporal Rewards and Punishments were the Sanction of the Laws which he had given them For the Mosaical Law is called the ministration of Death and the Ministration of Condemnation 2 Cor. iii. 7 9. because the promises of the Law as such belong'd only to this Life and a Curse was denounc'd against every one that continu'd not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. iii. 10 11. God had expresly threatned to inflict Punishment in this Life for the transgression of those Laws and therefore to pray to God that his Judgments might overtake Evil doers was no more than it is in other Governments to prosecute Offenders before the Magistrate they appealed to God to put his Laws in force against them and not to
Prophesies of him than in his Person Again Obscurity was necessary because some events could never have been brought to pass if they had been expressly and in plain terms foretold unless God would have forced men to the Accomplishment of his Predictions which must have taken away the Liberty of Human Actions For men would scarce have ventured upon such Actions as they knew before-hand must end in Affliction and great Calamity and perhaps in the ruin of themselves or of their Families or Nation and yet it may be necessary that these things should come to pass for the wise ends of Providence and for the Good and Salvation of Mankind Few would have shewn that Courage and Resolution which St Peter and St Paul did in preaching the Gospel if they had been told so long before as St Peter was that it must end in Martyrdom or if the Holy Ghost had witnessed in every City concerning them as he did of St Paul saying in express terms that bonds and afflictions did abide him most other men would have been moved tho he was not by any of these things Acts xx 23. For we find that the Disciples upon this account were earnest with him not to go up to Jerusalem So difficult is it for the best men in the best cause to resolve to meet certain and apparent Dangers The nature therefore of some things requires that they should not be more particularly described in the Prophesies concerning them For either they must have been obscurely spoken of or else they could not have been prophesied of at all because if they had been clearly foretold they could never have come to pass which implies a contradiction for it is impossible that what God declares by his Prophets should not be fulfilled If all that was to befal the Church of Christ had been set down with the circumstances of time and place and persons by St John in the Revelation so as to prevent the objections of those who except against the obscurity of that Book this certainly would have proved a great discouragement to many Christians in the performance of their Duty and must have hindred the bringing to pass the events unless God should have over-ruled the minds of men and forced them upon acting which had been to deprive them of their Freedom of Will 4. If Prophecies had punctually foretold the things to be fulfilled in all their Circumstances men would have purposely contrived to frame their actions in such a manner as to appear to fulfill many of them and whenever they had been fulfilled it might have been supposed to have been by design and contrivance Which would have been only to act a part or live by a rule and pattern described and set before them but when the obscurity is such that they become fulfilled without any Intention or Knowledge of the Person employed in fulfilling them this manifests the wisdom and providence of God If Prophecies had been less obscure men would have been the more prone to venture upon the commission of sin in order to fulfil them We find by experience how apt all Enthusiasts and such as perswade themselves that they have a clear and perfect knowledge of the obscurest Prophecies are to think any thing lawful to be done which may bring about those events that they fancy to be the Accomplishment of them And if the events of all Prophesies had been concealed under no obscurity of words and circumstances but had been obvious and visible to every Reader the number of such undertakers would have been much greater for it is a hard matter to make men distinguish between the accomplishment of Prophecies and the sin which is often committed in the accomplishment of them but when they can serve their Interest by it they are willing to believe the worst actions lawful which may fulfil a Prophecy and the clearer Prophesies had been the more occasion and pretence had been given to such dilusions to which none are now subject but such as think them clear and perswade themselves or would perswade others that they throughly understand them 5. Another reason is that sometimes a Prophecy may be delivered obscurely in mercy to the Instruments who are to bring about the event foretold by it For God foreseeing that some men notwithstanding the clearest Revelations would persist in their wickedness and become instrumental in accomplishing the prediction may in mercy to them forbear to discover the particulars of the event lest thiâ— should add to their guilt and prove a greaâ— aggrâ—vation both of their â—rime and punishmenâ— Our Saviour tho he knew from the beginning who it was that should betray him yet concealed it till his last Supper and then discovered it to Judas in the mildest manner to move him to Repentance if he had not hardned himself against it not to make him desperate upon the discovery of so wicked a design Again other Prophesies may be hid in obscurity for a judgment upon those who are obstinate and will not make a due use of the means afforded them of Salvation but harden their hearts and resolve to continue impenitent against all the methods which God has been pleased to use to reclaim them For of such our Saviour gives this reason why he spoke to them in Parables that seeing they might see and not perceive and hearing they might hear and not understand lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Markiv 12. For when God has both by Miracles and other Prophesies unquestionably clear and plain admonish'd and forewarn'd 'em of the folly and danger of their ways and they will take no notice of it but reject his Revelations and just affront his mercy it is very for him to deny them that further Declaration and Manifestation of his Will and Power which might effectually produce a true Faith in 'em and bring 'em to Repentance especially when the obscurity of Prophesies may be conducing to the methods of his Providence and to his gracious designs of mercy towards other men who have not stood out in so bold a defiance of his other Declarations of himself God endureth with much long-suffering thevessels of wrath fitted for destruction he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth and therefore the obscurity of Prophesies may be in mercy to some to prevent the aggravation of their sins and for a judgment upon others to harden them 6. It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing but the honour of Kings is to search out a matter Prov. xxv 2. The obscurity of Prophecies may be designed to abate the confidence and confound the pride of some and to provoke the diligence and industry of others For as some men care to be at no pains to attain the most useful and necessary knowledge so others despise all that is obvious and have no satisfaction in the knowledge of such things as are easily known by others as
in so few Generations of Men supposing it had ever been known to Adam's Posterity If it were never known but the Relation of it were always conveyed down in Metaphor and Allegory then this Allegory must pass for Historical Truth in those Ages and the Reason why it was delivered to them in Allegory must be because that manner of delivering it was most suitable to that Age and most credible and every way most proper and if it were most fitting that it should be thought to have happened so this is a good Argument that it did really happen so since there is nothing hinders but it might so have happened and it was most probable at least to the first Ages of the World that it did so come to pass or else it would not have been requisite to relate it in this manner 3. The Fall of our First Parents brought a Curse upon their Posterity And here it must be acknowledg'd that God may bestow his infinite Grace and Mercies upon what Terms he pleaseth and therefore he might ordain that the Happiness or Unhappiness of their Posterity should depend upon the Obedience or Disobedience of our First Parents 1. God might ordain that the Condition of their Posterity in this World should depend upon it so that they should have been immortal upon their Obedience and should become mortal upon their Disobedience that they should be made subject to Cares and Labours to Diseases and Dangers by reason of the Fall of our First Parents from which otherwise they should have been exempt This is esteem'd just in all Governments amongst Men that Children should be reduced to Poverty and Disgrace by the Fault of their Parents from whom Riches and Honour were to have descended upon them And this way of Proceeding is just both in Humane Laws and in the Dispensations of Providence because God and our Country have an antecedent Right and Interest in us superior to any Man 's private Title or Welfare and this they may justly make use of to restrain Men from those Crimes out of Love and Concern for their Posterity from which no consideration of themselves could have with held them The Experience of the World has found this to be the most effectual Remedy with many Men and therefore the wisest and justest Governments have made use of it and the most wise and just God might think fit to deal in this manner with our First Parents by representing to them that the Happiness or Misery of their Posterity depended upon their Good or ill Behaviour in this one Instance of their Duty We daily see that Children commonly inherit the Diseases of their Parents and an extravagant and vicious Father leaves his Son Heir to nothing but the Name and Shadow perhaps of a Great Family with an infirm and sickly Constitution and little or nothing to support and relieve it Now if these Miseries and Calamities had been entail'd upon all the Race of Mankind from Adam the thing would have been the same in the Nature and Justice of it for Numbers cannot alter the Nature of Things as it is now when they descend upon some only from their immediate Parents And therefore it must be much rather just that the Fall of our First Parents should make their whole Race only liable to such Calamities but not involve All necessarily in them 2. The Communications of God's Grace and the Favours and Blessings of his more immediate Presence might depend upon the Behaviour of the First Parents of Mankind He might send them out of Paradise and might withdraw his free and usual Communications of himself from them and their Posterity upon this Forfeiture by their Disobedience 3. The Proneness which we cannot but observe in our selves to Sin might proceed from hence We daily see and feel the corruption of our Nature by whatsoever means we became subject to it So that it is in vain to object that it would be unjust that all Mankind should be involv'd in Adam's Sin For the Condition which we are in is matter of Fact of which no man doth or can doubt The Question is only how we come into this Condition and since we are born in it and it is our Natural and Hereditary evil the Justice and Goodness of God is cleared and vindicated by assigning a Cause for it from the Imputations of such as must acknowledge the same corruption of Nature but will allow no Cause or Reason for it except the arbitrary Will and Pleasure of the Creator The Children of vicious Parents are generally most enclin'd to Vice and if Men may partake of the evil Dispositions and Inclinations of their more immediate Parents why might not the Corruption of the Humane Nature in our First Parents descend upon all their Posterity 4. The Happiness of Men in the next Life might depend upon the Obedience of our First Parents For when God proposed to bestow upon Men Rewards of Glory and Happiness which far surpass any Pretences of Desert or Claim of Right that they in a State of Righteousness and Innocency could have been able to make since the Promises were so great and the Happiness so far exceeding any thing to which Men could pretend a Right we must be very unreasonable unless we will confess that God might bestow his own Gifts upon his own Terms He might therefore debar Men from Heaven upon the Transgression oâ— our First Parents because the Promise of Heaven was â—n act of his free Bounty For no Man can pretend that an Innocent Creature which preserves its Integrity must for that Reason be advanced to the unspeakable Joys of Heaven No Creature can be profitable to his Maker and an unprofitable Servant can merit no such Reward And what God was not obliged to bestow tho' Men continued in the State of Innocency he might with all the Justice and Reason in the World refuse when Men became divested of their Innocency and thereby forfeited all pretences to that Happiness which was promised upon condition that our First Parents had continued in their Primitive and Original State of Righteousness 5. God might ordain that all Men should become liable to Eternal Misery by the Fall of our First Parents and that those who would not accept of Means appointed of Salvation by Faith in Christ to rescue them from it should perish eternally We no sooner read of the Fall of Man but Christ is forthwith promised even before the Curse was denounced upon Adam and Eve for their Offence the Seed of the Woman is immediately promised to bruise the Sepents Head and afterwards the Judgment is denounced first upon Eve and then upon Adam for their Transgression and the Seed of the Womans bruising the Serpent's Head is to be understood of Victory over our Spiritual Enemies and that Conquest which should be obtained over Death and Hell by Christ For the Temporal Punishment which was to befall Adam and Eve and their Posterity is afterwards added and therefore this Promise
humanae vitae speculum constitutum est Novatian de lib. Judaic c. 3. signification of such Prohibitions is implied in the Proverb alleged by St. Peter concerning Dogs and Swine which are two of the Animals prohibited the Jews 2 Pet. ii 22. Sacrifices and Offerings were to represent to them that they depended upon God for all they had and therefore they were to offer something of every kind in Acknowledgment that they had received all which they enjoyed from him They were likewise designed to signify to them that their Sins deserved Death even Everlasting Burnings The daily Sacrifices were to be Remembrances to them of that Acceptable and Living Sacrifice which they were to offer to God a broken and a contrite Heart and an Innocent and Blameless Life Ps iv 4 5. Cxli. 2. And the Scriptures frequently testify how little Pleasure God took in the Sacrifices of Beasts and in Burnt-Offerings Incense and Oblations and how small Regard he had to them He never required these things for themselves and upon their own Account or because there is any thing acceptable to him in them Psal xl 6 4. l. 8 li. 17. To do Justice and love Mercy is more acceptable to God than all Sacrifices Prov. xxi 3. Jer. vii 22 23. This is so evident throughout the whole Old Testament that the Scribes and Pharisees in the most superstitious and corrupt Age of the Jewish Church could not but confess that the Love of God and of our Neighbour is of more Account in God's sight than all the Sacrifices and Oblations in the World Mark xii 37. The Ceremonial Part of the Law was always to give place to the Moral thus Acts of Charity were to be done tho' it happened that they were performed by the violation of the Jewish Sabbath and the Prophets were upon necessary Causes held exempted from the Legal Observances For I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than Burnt-Offerings Hos vi 6. 3. All the Jewish Worship appointed by the Mosaical Law was Typical of Christ and his Gospel By a Type we are to understand the Likeness and Resemblance which one thing has to another as that of the Impression to the Seal or of the Shadow to the Substance or of the Picture to the Man whom it represents Thus the Death of Christ was typified or resembled or represented and prefigured by the Death of the Beasts which were Sacrificed they were signs appointed to keep up the Remembrance that Christ was to be Sacrificed and were very apt and proper to put Men in Mind of it It was acknowledged by the Jews and received from the Beginning as a certain Rule for the Interpretation of Scripture that there was a Typical as well as a Literal Sense of it relating to the Messias and his Kingdom Circumcision was to signify to them that Christ was to be born of the Seed of Abraham to whom Circumcision was first enjoyned upon the Promise made to him of Isaac from whom Christ was to descend And the Blood shed in Circumcision was Typical of that Blood which Christ was to shed for us The most probable Account of the Origiginal of Sacrifices is that they were at first of Divine Institution and were appointed soon after the Fall of Man as Types of the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ who was promised to be sent to die for the Expiation of Sin For tho' there be a natural Reason why we shouuld not Offer unto the Lord our God of that which doth Cost us nothing but should Honour the Lord with our Substance 2 Sam. xxiv 24. Prov. iii. 9. and should present some part of the best of what we have in Devotion and Gratitude to him from whom we have received the Whole Yet no sufficient Reason can be given why Beasts should be Slain in Sacrifice before they were used as far as it appears for Food by Men or how it should be imagined that God would accept of the Blood of any Creature or be pleased with the taking from it that Life which he had given it or why a peculiar Efficacy towards the Expiation of Sin was supposed to be in the Blood unless it had been upon the Account of the Blood of Christ which was Typically prefigured by the Blood of Beasts By Faith whereof Abel offered his Sacrifice and was accepted Heb. xi 4. The Paschal Lamb was a plain Type of Christ for which Reason Christ is styled the Lamb of God and our Passover which is Sacrificed for us Jo. i. 29. 1 Cor. v. 7. And for the same Reason the Feast of the Passover was appointed to the Israelites just before their Escape out of Aegypt to be a Type to thâ—m of that Deliverance which Christ was to accomplish of which their Deliverance out of Aegypt was but a Figure Aaron was a Type of Christ and all the Sacrifices he offered were Types of Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross They were appointed to take away the Legal Uncleanness to restore Men to a State of Legal Purity which was Typical of Moral and Spiritual Purity and to put the Legal Worshipers into such a Condition as the Law required to qualify them for the Legal Service and Worship and herein they were Figures of that one Sacrifice which was to be offered up once for all in Attonement for the Sins of all Mankind Hebr. ix 14. whereby Men might be rendred Capable of paying God an acceptable Service in Spirit and in Truth Legal Purifications were Typical of that Purification which is by the Blood of Christ Tit. ii 14. 1 John i. 9. And the smoak of the Incense ascending signified how the Prayers of the Saints come up before God Rev. v. 8. viii 3 4. The State and Dispensation of the Gospel is exprest by the Prophet Malachi under the Figure of Incense and a Pure Offering Malach. 1.11 The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is written upon this subject to shew that all the Legal Rites and Ceremonial Worship were but Shadows and Types and Figures of Christ and of that Redemption Righteousness and Sanctification which was to be wrought by him and that therefore they were to cease when in him they had received their Accomplishment Their Incense and Purificatitions their Sacrifices their Temple and the Priests themselves were all but so many Types of Christ and his Kingdom under the Gospel Christ had been promised to our first Parents immediately after their Fall and this Promise had been renewed to Abraham with an Assurance that he should descend from Isaac and Circumcision was instituted as a perpetual mark in the Flesh of that Covenant and all Sacrifices from the beginning of their Institution were as so many Types and Memorials of the Sacrifice of Christ which was promised before any Sacrifice had been offered And more especially that of the Passover at the deliverance of the Israelites out of Aegypt was a lively Representation of our Redemption by the Death of Christ They had ever
him out of their sight he was not snatch'd away from them by a swift and violent motion like Elijah and carried up in a fiery Chariot which might dazle their sight that they could not discern him in his Ascent but he was lifted up and removed from them leisurely and by degrees they looked stedfastly towards Heaven as he went up by a visible and easie motion and they had a clear view of him 'till at last a Cloud received him out of their sight It is probable that all the Disciples to the Number of about an hundred and twenty mentioned Acts i. 15. were present to behold the Ascent of our Saviour (q) Apud Euseb Hist lib. 1. c. ult The Apostle St. Thaddeus declared tho' this as well as many other things is not inserted into the Scriptures that a great multitude of the Saints and Heavenly Host went up with him we read of the Appearance of two Angels upon this Occasion who acquainted the Disciples that this same Jesus whom they had thus evidently seen taken up from them into Heaven should so come in like manner as they had seen him go into Heaven And St. Paul informs us that the manner of his Coming at the last Day will be with his mighty Angels or the Angels of his Power 2 Thes i. 7. From whence we may conclude according to the Account of St. Thaddeus that the Holy Angels visibly attended him in his Ascension The Disciples were all much surprized at a thing so wonderful and stood gazing up into Heaven after him 'till they were certified not only by their own Senses but by the Message of the Angels that he was gone from them into Heaven no more to be expected from thence till the Day of Judgment We have therefore the plainest and fullest Evidence that can be desired both of the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour He shewed himself alive to his Disciples after his Passion by many infallible Proofs he was seen of them forty days and Conversed and Discoursed with them tho' we are not told after what manner and by what Intervals of time he was pleased to vouchsafe them his Presence this being concealed from us as very many of the Particulars are of his former Life before his Crucifixion But at the end of the space of forty days whilst he was in the midst of them he ascended into Heaven in the sight of them all in such a manner that they distinctly saw and beheld him and kept their Eyes fix'd upon him in his Ascension and a Vision of Angels besides informed them that he is to return in the like manner when he shall come to Judge the World CHAP. XXVIII Why some Works of Nature are more especially ascribed to God why Means was sometimes used in the working of Miracles and why Faith was sometimes required of those upon whom or before whom Miracles were wrought I. ALL the Powers of Natural Causes proceeding from God that may justly be ascribed to him which is wrought by them for he works as truly by Second Causes as by his own direct and immediate Power in producing any Effect The Order and Frame of Nature was Originally by his Appointment and by his Care and Providence and Influence it is upheld and therefore the Scriptures ascribe the effects of Natural Agents to God as the Author of them because these can do nothing but by his Support and Influence and the continuance and preservation of Natural Causes in the production of their Effects for so many Ages in one constant Tenour is a manifest and wonderful Demonstration of the Divine Power and Wisdom But those things may be said more especially to be done by God himself whereby upon some extraordinary Occasion his Power and his Will are more particularly manifested or his Promise is fulfilled for in those things his Care and Providence is more concerned to bring them to pass and therefore God may employ a more than ordinary concourse to sustain and influence the Powers of Nature that they may not sail in such Cases to produce their Effects according to their usual and setled Course II. Miracles are more peculiarly the Works of God because they are wrought without the concurrence or subserviency of Natural Means For tho' sometimes outward Means were used in the Miraculous Curing of Diseases yet they were such as could have no effect in the Cure but rather the contrary as when the Man that was born blind recovered his Sight by washing in the Pool of Siloam at our Saviour's Command after his Eyes had been anointed with Clay made of Dust and Spittle The Ointment made of Dust and Spittle was so far from having any effect towards the Cure that it would have been much more likely to have put out the eyes of a Man that had seen and the washing afterwards could only remove that which was so far from being a Remedy that it must have been an obstruction to the best sight As many Miraculous Cures were wrought by our Saviour without any more than a word speaking and sometimes even without so much as that to shew that he had no need of Means so when any Means were used they were such as apparently could not tend to the Cure and were not used as Remedies but as Circumstances in the working his Miracles to raise the Attention of the Beholders to imprint what was done the deeper upon their Memories and to give the greater Credibility to the History of his Miracles For all matter of Fact is to be proved or disproved by Circumstances and the more Circumstances concurr in any Action the less liable it is to Mistake or Imposture Our Saviour therefore was pleas'd that his Miracles should always be accompanied with remarkable Circumstances which were sometimes of one kind and sometimes of another the better to work upon the variety of Mens Tempers and Dispositions but whatever outward Means was at any time used by him it could have the Nature only of a Circumstance and was no more proper and effectual to produce the Miracle than any other might have been Some he touched some he only spoke to and others he sent to the High-Priest that he might be a Witness of the Cure Now the touch the speaking or the sending could have no effect as outward Means but only as they were attended with an inward and Divine efficacy But all these were considerable Circumstances to excite the Observation of those who were present at these Cures and to preserve the Remembrance of them to Posterity III. Tho' our Saviour had the most absolute and unconfined Power of working Miracles at all times and before all Persons whensoever he pleased yet we may observe that he sometimes refused to exercise it For tho' he could always do his Marvellous Works yet it was not fit that they should be always done but then only when they might be useful and serviceable to the Ends for which they were wrought and to his Design of coming