No man then had the impudence to deny the Eclipse of the Sun the Earthquake the rending of the veil of the Temple and the rest of the astonishing things that then hapned The first of them is mentioned by a Pagan-writer and though the Apostles published both that and all the other continually yet there is no book either of Jew or Gentile who were enemies great enough to his Religion that goes about to disprove them And as for his miraculous works they were generally done openly at Feasts in the Synagogues on the high-ways and were so commonly talkt of that the Rulers feared all the world would run after him xii John 19. Therefore the Apostles could not falsifie in the report of these things but they might be easily confuted Which no man ever attempted but both Jews and Gentiles acknowledged that he wrought Miracles for his Apostles also wrought them every where and so did their Successors in some Ages after To these the Ancient Christians appeal as an undoubted testimony to their Faith which they could not be so silly as to mention were there any dispute whether there had been Miracles wrought or no. His Resurrection also was attested by Five hundred people who saw him together at once and it was proved beyond contradiction by the strange descent of those miraculous gifts upon his Apostles according to his promise Which came upon them also at a Feast when all the Nation though living in far distant Countries were assembled together and a great company of Proselytes also and devout people were present to be witnesses of it Yea the Apostles themselves as is notoriously known went over all the world and openly showed the power of Jesus which was in them Now if all these be true Witnesses or rather if you grant there were such Witnesses which no sober man can deny they being visible here on Earth in the company of so much people there can be no doubt remaining of this that Jesus is the Son of God They proclaim this so loudly with one voice that S. John had reason to say We beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father They beheld it in his Preaching and Life they beheld it in his bloudy Death but especially in the power of his SPIRIT both before he died and in raising him up from the dead and they beheld it also when they were with him in the holy Mount and had the Testimony of the rest of the Heavenly Witnesses Which were heard on Earth though they were in Heaven as men of high quality and of unblemished integrity with the hazard of all they had did constantly affirm And though some of those Heavenly Witnesses might not be believed so much at the first which is the cause I suppose that our Saviour bids his Apostles as you have heard not declare what the voice from Heaven said till after his Resurrection xvii Matth. 9. yet when they had received such great testimony that they were good men and men of God by having the Holy Ghost bestowed on them to bestow upon others also and when by this they were able to demonstrate his Resurrection then all the rest that they alledged as a proof that he was the Son of God did highly merit belief also and there was no reason to suspect the truth of such reports as were verified in so authentick a manner For with great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus iv Acts 33. And the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus was a powerful Witness that there was nothing so great said of him by the voices from Heaven but it ought to be received as the undoubted truth of God Who at sundry times and in divers manners testified to his Son Jesus that by some means or other the most obstinate hearts might be convinced and those tongues which blasphemed him might confess him to be the Lord. A PRAYER ALL thy works praise thee O holy Jesus they all show the greatness of thy power and declare thee to be the Lord. All thy Saints therefore ought to bless thee and to speak good of thy Name who didst manifest forth thy glory in such miraculous works upon Earth and art now crowned with such glory and honour in the Heavens Great was the glory of that Almighty love which gave health to the sick feet to the lame eyes to the blind and life to the dead How gloriously didst thou triumph over the Devil and all the powers of darkness declaring thy self to be the Redeemer of the World by delivering those who were oppressed by him Great was thy Majesty and therefore greatly to be praised Those triumphs ought to have been attended with the most joyful shouts of Praise and Thanksgiving to thee as the Saviour of men and the Lord of Men and Angels All that saw thy wonderful works ought with never-ceasing love to have glorified thee the great Lover of mankind the Repairer of our ruines the Restorer of our happiness our mighty Deliverer from all our Enemies and the inexhaustible Fountain of life and all other good things which thou every where dispensedst to them How ought all our hearts now to overflow with love to thee the blessings of whose goodness so overflowed in all places that none can tell the number of them Especially when we remember how by the mighty working of the same Spirit which glorified thee so on Earth thou art raised from the dead carried to Heaven set at the right hand of God and made the King of glory This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes This is the sovereign Balsam of all our wounds This is our solace and comfort in the greatest troubles This raises our Spirits when they are oppressed and gives us life in death it self Be thou honoured and acknowledged by me and by all mankind with the humblest the most hearty and affectionate devotion to thy service Be thou ever praised as much as thou wast reproached and blasphemed Let thy Name be sweet and mentioned with delight and joy throughout all the World Live O blessed Jesus in the glory wherein thou art inthroned Sit and reign there till all thine Enemies become thy foot-stool For among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and hast done wondrous things Thou art Lord alone O give unto the Lord ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength Ascribe unto the Lord the glory due unto his name O worship him in the beauty of holiness Say among the Heathen the Lord reigneth who was dead but is alive again and liveth for evermore O sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the Earth Yea sing unto the Lord a new song and worship him all ye Gods For thou
together to believe it Were they drawn away with mere words And with the danger of their lives followed a poor despicable Preacher when they saw nothing that was wonderful for strange to perswade them to this worship What vain senseless imaginations are these Therefore they believed and suffered themselves to be torn in pieces rather than deny it because they saw all these things done by him and by his Preachers who were sent through the whole world to carry the benefits of our Father to mankind and to bestow the gifts of healing both on their Souls and Bodies But our Writers have not set these things down faithfully They have extolled small matters and ambitiously magnified them beyond their just proportions Why so I beseech you By what reason shall we believe any of your writings if this History of ours must be rejected In which but a few things of the many that were done are recorded by men of truth and honesty Did any God come down from Heaven and write with his own hand the stories that you believe Or is there any thing of that nature writ against ours Then you believe men and so do we Your Books were writ by men and so were ours And whatsoever you will say of ours look for the same to be retorted upon your own Will you have all things contained in your writings to be true so are all contained in ours Do you say ours are false the same we say of yours And how will you help your selves You cannot say that you saw the things that you believe no more than we But others saw them and therefore you believe them and so do we But ours were writ by rude and unlearned men and therefore not to be believed Consider if this be not an advantage to our cause and a stronger reason to conclude that these writings are stained with no lies but delivered with a simple mind ignorant how to amplifie things and so set them off with deceitful dresses As for that which follows concerning the trivial sordid stile wherein they said the Apostles writ it does not in the least render the faithfulness of their relations suspected and therefore I pass it over and omit his reply to it though I cannot well neglect this pertinent observation of Erasmus in his Preface to his Paraphrase upon S. Lukes Gospel The language says he of the Gospel is so simple and rude that if any body compare it with the History of Thucydides or Livy he will want abundance of things and be offended at as many How many things do the Evangelists pass by How many do they but just touch in two or three words In how many places do they disagree in the order of their Narration and in how many others do they seem to thwart one another These things might make a Reader less like them and not give such credit to what he reads For on the contrary they that wrote humane Histories how solicitous were they about their entrance upon their work How scrupulously did they weigh their words What care did they imploy to observe a decent order to set down nothing but what was plausible and exactly described And with what art do they endeavour to set things lively before our eyes With what pleasures do they intice and detain the minds of the Readers that they may not at all grow weary of them And yet these elaborate Monuments for the greatest part are lost and those that remain are not read with any assurance that they report nothing but the truth For who is so credulous as to believe that Titus Livius tells never a tale in his History But there are millions of men found who had rather die ten times than think there is one sentence false in the Evangelical story Is it not plain by this that it is not a business of humane power and prudence but conducted by a Divine vertue What Philosopher is there that ever had the confidence to propound such Paradoxes as these with hope to be believed That one Jesus was crucified and by his death saved mankind that he was God and Man born of a Virgin that he rose again from the dead and sits at the right hand of God the Father that he taught they were blessed men who mourned hungred and thirsted were afflicted ill-spoken of and killed for the profession of his name and that one day they should live again and see him sit in judgment to give immortality to the pious and endless pains to the ungodly What is there plausible and taking in all this And yet the humble low stile of the Gospel perswaded men of this so that thousands millions will rather forsake their lives than this plain truth which a few private unknown poor mean disciples of his delivered to the World What should move us then to distrust these records of the faithful WITNESSES of Christ which are come down to us through the hands of all Ages since so as they were delivered to them What do we see now more than our Forefathers did in Arnobius his days or those which succeeded that gives us any cause to suspect their truth Are they altered from what they were If any company of men had been so bold as to venture at such a change they would first have mended the stile no doubt and placed things in greater order and method according to the exactest rules of art But that they are untained an uncorrupted and in no material passage vary from what they were in former Ages appears by what all Christian Writers have transcribed out of them into their Books which agrees with that which we now read They are the same now that ever they were They contain a relation of those things which converted as Arnobius says the incredulous world who did not want wit nor learning no more than we but saw great reason to renounce all the fables which had been told of their Gods and to believe what they read here concerning Jesus For it is the testimony of God Almighty they evidently perceived that is recorded in those Books Which when we receive our faith will not be less divine than theirs in the first Age because we both receive the Witness of God only they saw or heard it and we read the record of what they saw and heard Which makes no considerable difference 〈◊〉 the nature of the testimony For the 〈◊〉 â—â—ny of any man standing upon aâ—â—â—â—ed record is as good an evidence 〈◊〉 he were alive in person to give it No man loses his cause when his Witnesses die if they have already given their evidence in any Court of Record And therefore there is no reason that our Lord Jesus should lose his authority among us because the Apostles his WITNESSES have left the world and so has the WITNESS of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost since that which they testified to mankind stands upon authentick record in the holy Gospel which cannot with any show of reason be
but continued blinder than the Egyptian Magicians when it did so many wonders would shut their eyes against any other means of conviction which could not be expected it must also be remembred because God himself had no higher evidence to give them than this of his SPIRIT But then you must not understand this speech of our Saviour as if he meant that those persons to whom he spake these words had run themselves at that instant into this unpardonable sin but that if they still proceeded to blaspheme it when the SPIRIT had finished its testimony that is done all those things which still were behind for their conviction then they would fall into it and remain in it irrecoverably For you must remember that under the word SPIRIT is comprehended the power that raised Christ from the dead and presented him to God in the Heavens that he might receive of him the promise of the Holy Ghost which he shed upon the Apostles abundantly as a witness of his Resurrection and glorious Exaltation If after this that Jesus was risen again from the dead ascended into Heaven and showed himself to be there by sending the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles they did not believe but still blasphemed the holy name of Jesus and the SPIRIT of God saying That they were drunk who were filled with the Holy Ghost as here they said Jesus had a Devil then they were uncapable of obtaining remission of sin because there was nothing more to be done for their conversion but they must be abandoned to the hardness and impenitence of their hearts This I am sure must be the meaning because our Lord himself after he had pronounced the Pharisees unpardonable who spake against the SPIRIT whereby he cast out Devils tells them expresly that there was one sign more remaining to convince them which is a demonstration they had not yet sinned incurably nor could not till that sign was past and that was the sign as you heard of the Prophet Jonas ver 39 40. which he grants them again xvi 4. should not be denied them Now every body understands by this His Death and Resurrection with those things that followed upon it the sending of the Holy Ghost to enable his Apostle to go and teach all Nations as Jonas went after he came as we may say out of his grave and preached to the great City Nineveh But then this was still the SPIRIT that was thus continued to them by that our Lord being raised and it working wonders also at his Death which if they continued to resist when it had fully done the whole office of a witness and was all poured forth then they were under the absolute sentence of condemnation In brief To blaspheme the SPIRIT in this comprehensive sence of the Word including the Resurrection and that which followed to prove it was the unpardonable sin and none else And thus our Saviour's meaning is to be expounded if one should speak a word against the Son of man that is Him despising him because of his poor Parentage and calling him the Son of a Carpenter or some such name this though blameable might be pardoned propter corporis vilitatem as S. Hierom speaks because of the meanness of his outward appearance Nay if a man proceeded so far as to call him a glutton a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners this also might find pardon because he did not hitherto speak evil of the works proper to a God but only of those belonging to a man And more than this should he call him deceiver or seducer when he heard him teach the people it would not be unpardonable because no man is to be believed merely upon his own word But if when these men saw the mighty works of the SPIRIT justifying his preaching to be Divine they still continued to speak evil of him this was a very dangerous blasphemy because they could not after this call him a seducer or false Teacher but they must reproach the holy SPIRIT as well as him and call that the work of the Devil which was performed by the power of the Spirit of God And if when the HOLY GHOST was come from Heaven upon the Apostles witnessing that he was quickned by the SPIRIT and by the same SPIRIT presented to God in the Heavens they still went on to speak evil of him then there was no hope of remission because they blasphemed the last remedy for their recovery which was the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven to perswade them to repent and believe on his name And that we must take our Saviour in this sence is further apparent from the name of the HOLY GHOST which he uses when he speaks of this unpardonable sin never calling it the blasphemy against the SPIRIT but always the blasphemy against the HOLY GHOST which you know was not as yet given when our Saviour spake these words In the beginning of this discourse xii Matth. 28. he mentions only the SPIRIT But then coming to describe the danger of blaspheming it he doth not say that the blasphemy of the SPIRIT simply that is of those present works of his was unpardonable but that the blasphemy against the HOLY GHOST when it was come should never be forgiven Which must needs be understood as I have already argued concerning the contempt and reproachful usage of those following witnesses the Resurrection Ascension and the preaching of the Apostles endowed with power from on high because though the SPIRIT now wrought among them yet the HOLY GHOST was not come to be his ADVOCATE and plead his cause and therefore could not as yet be blasphemed by them By HOLY GHOST then in our Saviour's language here I suppose is meant all that was left still to be done for his Justification and that it is so wide a word in this place as to include in it the SPIRIT also For he was speaking before of the SPIRIT and therefore when he alters the phrase he doth not leave out the testimony of that but imbraces it within the compass of a larger word which it was necessary to use that he might show when that sin which they had begun in a desperate manner would be so complete that it could never be undone And that was when the HOLY GHOST had consecrated the Apostles to their great office which supposes his Resurrection and filled them with all Divine gifts among which you know was a power xiv John 12. to do greater works than these which our Saviour is here speaking of called the SPIRIT Then if they did not believe there was no remedy but they must perish in their infidelity But till then they to whom our Saviour speaks were not arrived at this hopeless condition because they had hitherto only blasphemed the SPIRIT not the HOLY GHOST which was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified But when it was given and they reproached that as they had done the SPIRIT then they were under irrecoverable condemnation
therefore we ought to study this place of holy Scripture and have it much in our thoughts that so our Faith may stand in the Power of God For otherwise how shall we be able to follow the Apostolical Precept which would have us when we are questioned to render a reason of the hope that is in us 1 Pet. iii. 15. We may be able to stand our ground though we be ignorant of the true causes of belief but the enemies of it will look upon it as a foolish obstinacy if we have not so much understanding as to give some other account of our Faith than they give for theirs Suppose they should say Why are you a Christian whence is it that you look for a Resurrection a Glorious body and Eternal life in another world Would they not think us very stupid if we could say nothing to them but that so we have been always taught and are resolved to believe Would not this be as good a reason for them as it is for us and make us unworthy of the name of Christians who know our Books no better which bid us give and furnish us with a reasonable account Consider therefore what Answer you would shape to them that should make such a demand The Apostle says it is fit they should have a reason what is the best that you can offer for their satisfaction shall I tell you The plain Answer is this That Jesus whose Religion we follow was the Son of God and therefore we believe these things because the Son of God taught us so who cannot deceive us and we will not exchange this for any other perswasion though we should die for it It is certain enough that every body who hears this will presently consent to us that he is a fool who doth not stoop to him and comply with us if it be certain that Jesus is the Son of God But how do you prove that will be the next question Here is the labour this is our work and whence will you fetch convincing Arguments to make them yield to you this weighty point There is no such Compendious Abridgment of them any where that I know of as in this place of S. John which furnishes us with reasons both many and mighty to perswade us and others that Jesus is the Son of God You may tell them that the Father Almighty said so by voices from Heaven in the audience of credible persons and that the Word said so as they may be informed of S. Paul who had no reason greater than this to force him to leave all and with the daily hazard of his life to follow Jesus You may alledge the testimony of the Holy Ghost both at his Baptism and afterward the marvellous sanctity of his Doctrine and Life the Confession he made at his bloudy Death the Glory of his Miraculous works his Resurrection from the Dead the Power of the same Spirit in his Apostles after he was gone to Heaven all the Miracles which were wrought long after their times in the places where the holy Martyrs of Jesus suffered together with the wonderful success of these Witnesses who perswaded innumerable People in all Countries to become the subjects of this crucified King Christ Jesus Study this place therefore I say again very well that you may be able to oppress any gain-sayer with the great weight of those reasons which you render of your faith And study it likewise till you feel the faith of Jesus doing something in your hearts till that faith which hath so good a cause have sutable effects that is till it change you as it is ever apt to do into the nature of that cause from whence it flows It comes from God see that it carry you to him and change you into his likeness It relies on his Testimony be sure that it make you perfectly of his mind It comes with the authority from the Word of God it self and from the Holy Ghost let it mightily inspire you with devotion to him and set your affections on things above where Christ is now at God's right hand It relies upon the Purity of his holy Doctrine and Life and therefore ought to purifie our hearts that we may behave our selves in all holy conversation and godliness It is founded on his Bloud on which we can never look but it will deaden our affections to this World and make us crucifie the flesh with its passions and lusts It stands upon the power of God and should therefore make us strong in the Lord and in the power of his might It grows as you see upon sundry roots and flows from several heads and therefore should dispose those in whose hearts it is planted to be abundant in the work of the Lord and to bring forth much fruit that we may be known to be indeed the Disciples of Jesus whose faith is supported by such numerous Witnesses And this now will lead me to the next thing which S. John here makes to be the necessary consequent of this faith and therefore ought not to be omitted IV. If there be such great such abundant reason to believe that Jesus is the Son of God then there is as great a necessity lying upon us to be obedient unto him and punctually to observe all his commands This Faith both requires our submission and obedience to him and also gives us power and ability to perform it It is a meer trick of the Devil another piece of his Sophistry when He cannot dig up the foundation of Christianity which I told you was his first indeavour to hinder all superstructure upon it by perswading Christian People that Faith and Obedience are no necessary Companions but that they may be good believers and yet not keep Christ's Precepts Some think they need not and others which is the same cheat in another shape think they cannot But I appeal to every Man's conscience if he be a believer whether he do not perceive his heart over-awed and his will inclined to reverence and subjection and all his powers mightily moved to tender their service when he seriously thinks that Jesus is the Lord to whom God the Father hath committed all Judgment and will render to every Man according to his works Do you not feel this faith carrying a great authority with it Nay is there not an irresistable energy and vertue in it while you attend to it pressing you to conformity with his holy will Who can gain-say this And who can say then that his Faith does not both engage and inable him to be obedient to his Saviour if he do but mind what he believes He never thinks of that but it powerfully urges and constrains him to yield himself to be a faithful Servant of Jesus in every thing that he declares to be the mind and will of God These uncontrollable inclinations declare to us so plainly the tendency and natural disposition of Christian Faith that we cannot but see it is so far from
thy Majesty O thou most mighty Jesus whose power is not the power of flesh and bloud but the power of God who raises those to life who are dead Great was the joy which filled thy Disciples hearts when they first saw thee alive from the dead and called thee their God Georg. Nâ—comed Serm. ix None can understand the beauty of that sight O the brightness of that appearing What a light diffused it self then through the whole Creation What a fragrant smell did the very earthquake breath forth when like a publick crier it proclaimed the Resurrection What was the savour of the ointment which was then poured out How was the whole world then transformed and made new The Angels themselves leaped for joy to see it How sweet was the sound then of their doxologies With what divine splendours were they then adorned How beautifull did those preachers of thy resurrection appear and how great was the glory and the happiness which they came then to proclaim O those Words of theirs which brought us the news of victory over the Enemy which proclaimed the destruction of Death and published thee to the World the Resurrection and the Life O that sweet and above all things desirable voice of thine which by the women that were carrying spices to thy grave sounded joy to the World The Heavens then opened their gates and received the glad tidings which were brought to us as if they had been their own The Intellectuall powers rejoyced and took a pleasure in our happiness The Spirituall as well as Sensible World was inlightned The clouds of sadness were dispelled from one end of the world to the other and the rays of joy possessed all Guilty Nature put off the robes of heaviness and was cloathed with garments of light The hand-writing of the Curse was torn in pieces and promises of Blessing were sealed in the room thereof By that new Salutation when thou saidst ALL HAIL the world was filled with the sweetest and everlasting joy For thou art the Preacher and the Cause and the very Exultation of all joy the Authour of good things the giver of pleasure the joy which can never be taken away the sweet light the spectacle above all others desirable the intellectuall tranquillity and peace Wisedom it self and Power Incorruption and Eternity Security and Delight the onely unchangeable and inconceivable Beauty Sanctity it self and Honour and Righteousness and Glory above measure glorious O how many Names would my Mind bring forth to express thine unutterable excellency It is onely my weakness that hinders and want of words But thou who art the infinite not to be named Good far above all the titles that Mind can invent who regardest not words but rather an inflamed heart who thy self broughtest the joyfull news of thy Resurrection shine now into our Minds by the bright beams of thy appearing Let us see intellectually the superexcellent beauty of the intellectuall Sun Let us inwardly injoy the incomparable sight of our Lord and Master Let us hear his divine voice speaking some sweet and joyfull word to us O thou gracious Lord come and draw us from these present thiâ—â—◠〈…〉 deeps and 〈…〉 never-decay 〈…〉 the quires of those that keep perpetuall festivals above For thou art both light and life and resurrection and the joy of those that triumph in the heavens To thee it becomes us to give together with the Father and the Holy Ghost glory honour and adoration now and ever world without end Amen CHAP. XII Concerning the Testimony of the Holy APOSTLES of our Lord. THere is nothing now wanting to compleat this Discourse unless it be to shew that if the Testimony of the APOSTLES of our Lord be at all intended when St. John saith He CAME by Water and Bloud and the Spirit as in the former Treatise I proved we have reason to think it is they also bear Witness to this Truth and by them God hath given us this Record that we have Eternall Life and that this Life is in his Son That Jesus had Disciples the Talmudists themselves confess who tell us in the same place where they speak of his being hanged on the evening of the Passeover that they were five MATTHAI Talmud Bab. Tit. Sanhed c. vi NETZER NEKAI BUNI and THODA They do not love to speak the truth but to the Four Evangelists to which perhaps they have respect they have added one more and report not one of their names aright except the first and in the last have a little varied from the Name of Judas the Brother of St. James But thus much we gain from their own Records that known Disciples our Saviour had who professed to believe on him and owned him for their Lord and Master These persons we can make no question would be carefull to communicate to the World what they had received from him because they lookt upon him as the Son of God and estemed his words as so many Oracles which his Crucifixion could not disparage Accordingly there are Books that pass under their Names besides the four Gospels which no man ever laid any claim to or pretended to be the Authour of but onely themselves and therefore we have no cause to think they were not of their inditing Now if you examine them you will find that after his Ascension to heaven and the coming of the Holy Ghost their business was to go about and preach this Truth and the certainty of it to all the World as their Lord and Master had delivered it to them They were so fully perswaded of it that they could not forbear to publish such glad tidings of great joy to the whole Earth It was the very end of their Apostleship and that which moved them to undertake so great a task as St. Paul tells us when he calls himself an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of Life which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. i. 1. appointed by God that is to publish the promise of Eternall Life which he had received from Christ Jesus who would certainly give it to all that believed on him And it is the very Character which the other great Apostle gives of himself 1 Pet. v. 1. that he was a Partaker of the glory that shall be revealed This incouraged him to be a Witness of the sufferings of Christ as he saith just before and not to be daunted as he had been though he followed him to a cross because now he clearly saw he had a right as a Friend of his so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Philem. 17 * Vid. Scipion. Gentil ibid. to a share in that unseen glory where He was which should one day be revealed In this they desired that all mankind might have a portion with them 1 Joh. i. 3. by becoming Members of their Society And therefore it was the constant strain of all their Sermons to invite them to it by shewing that Jesus
The Resurrection of Iesus Mat 28 2 And behold there was a great earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven came rolled back the stone from the doore and sate upon it And for feare of him the keepers did shake became as dead men And the Angel sayd unto the woman Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus that was crucified He is not here for he is Risen as he sayd JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION Justified by Witnesses IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH In Two Parts The First shewing That Jesus is the SON OF GOD the Second That in him we have ETERNALL LIFE By SYMON PATRICK D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysost in Johan Hom. lxvii Printed for R. Royston MDCLXXVII THE Witnesses TO CHRISTIANITY THE WITNESSES TO CHRISTIANITY OR The Certainty of our FAITH and HOPE In a Discourse upon 1 S. JOHN v. 7 8. BY SYMON PATRICK D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner 1675. TO The most Reverend Father in God GILBERT By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please Your Grace TO permit these Papers to go abroad under your Name which are writ in defence of that most holy Religion of which your Grace is the prime Minister in this Kingdom They contain an explication but of a very few words yet in them lies the whole Evidence for the Christian Cause I hope I have done something to clear their sence and to illustrate divers other passages in the holy Books I have at least done my endeavour and opened the way to the plainest and most Apostolical method of asserting the truth of our Religion They that come after may supply the defects and rectifie the mistakes which they find in this account that I have given of the Witnesses to Christianity Who speak so fully and with such Authority that it is a matter of just wonder there should be any Infidels in Christian Countries We can find no other cause of it but that in stead of considering upon what grounds our Faith relies they scornfully presume that it hath none If they would but lay aside their lightness and become serious and if they would be so humble as to think it is possible they may learn of one of the despised Ministers of Jesus Christ I doubt not they would with a little study soon see him to be so great a Lord that they ought to have a due respect to the meanest of his Servants for his sake Nay they would not envy to them such high Dignities as your Grace worthily holds in the Church of Christ For the Lord himself is honoured in the honour that is done to his Ministers And thereby they are made capable to do him still better service and with the more authority to promote the honour of his Religion Of which how much your Grace hath deserved by your prudent care and vigilance for its preservation and by the countenance and encouragement you give to those that labour in its service posterity perhaps may be better judges than this present Age. Though that cannot be so ungrateful as not to acknowledge your great Munificence and Bounty of which there are such publick and lasting Monuments as declare you to be Primate of all England not only in the dignity of your Office but which is more in the generosity of your Spirit Long may our Soveraign enjoy such a wise Counsellor the Church such a Prudent Governour Learning such a liberal Patron and Benefactor and when through mere Age you must resign and exchange it for a higher and better place your See such a Successor As for my self if your Grace will be pleased to pardon this Address and reckon me in the number of those that reverence your Vertues as well as your Greatness I shall not doubt but my Design in this Work will obtain your Graces approbation and that your known Candor will pass a favourable Judgment upon the weak endeavours of the Churches and Your Graces affectionate Servant SY PATRICK THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE scope of this Discourse which is to prove that Jesus is the Son of God pag. 1 c. The meaning of that phrase in this place p. 8. and in some other places of Scripture p. 10. derived from the Old Testament p. 14 15. many passages in that relating to this matter explained Ib. and p. 16 17 c. A Prayer p. 22 c. CHAP. II. Concerning the Witnesses in general p. 25. and particularly of the testimony of the FATHER p. 29. which was given three times p. 30. first at his Baptism which is explained p. 30. unto 42. Secondly in the Holy Mount which is explained at large in many remarkable circumstances which accompanied it to p. 56. Thirdly in the way between Bethany and Jerusalem to p. 66. There the pretences of the Jews to a Bath Col under the second Temple is considered and confuted to p. 78. The difference between this voice which testified to our Saviour and that in ancient times p. 78. to the end A Prayer CHAP. III. Concerning the Testimony of the WORD p. 85. Who the WORD is p. 86. Why so called p. 87. First testimony he gave to S. Steven p. 90. The second to S. Paul p. 101. Christ's first apparition to him considered and expounded at large p. 104. a second p. 115. others p. 116 c. Third testimony of the WORD to S. John p. 122. Several other visions he had of him p. 128 c. An Answer to an objection about the Authority of the Revelation p. 135. To another which gives an account of the sence of two places in S. John 's Gospel which seem opposite p. 137. A Prayer 142. CHAP. IV. Concerning the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST p. 147. First at our Saviour's Baptism p. 148. When the SCHEKINAH or Divine Glory descended Ib. what it was 149 c. of its coming down p. 153. like a Dove 155. and making his abode in him p. 159 c. which was never known before p. 164. Whereby he was anointed p. 165. And now began his reign 168. The Alcoran confesses this descent of the holy Ghost p. 173. Whereby he became the Temple of God 176. As appears by six demonstrations of a Divine Presence in him from p. 177. to 198. The second Testimony of the HOLY GHOST on the day of Pentecost 199. explained by three observations 201. to 225. The last Testimony of the HOLY GHOST 225. to 238. A Prayer 239. CHAP. V. Concerning the Witnesses on EARTH 245. First of the WATER 248. As it signifies the purity of Christ's Doctrine and Life 249. The purity of his Doctrine 250. And the purity of his Life 261. Both these proofs of his Divinity 267. to 275. The Testimony of
resolving it either way to give with their own mouths so great an advantage to him whom they questioned and opposed But by saying nothing they plainly confessed that if they had gone on to dispute with him He would have had the better of them and have made it appear from John Baptists testimony that He had an authority far greater than that which they must have acknowledged in him For though our Saviour thought good for brevity-sake to propound this argument to them by way of question and so let them reason it out within themselves yet it was as forcible they plainly felt as if he had pleaded with them in this manner My Authority which you call in question is every evident I have it from Heaven and not from Men as I prove by this argument If the Baptism of John be from Heaven then from thence I come now you cannot deny if you will speak out that his Baptism is from thence and therefore I make the conclusion that my Authority is Divine The consequence was as clear as the Sun that if John was sent by God then so was Jesus in that quality wherein he appeared because John as you shall see gave this testimony to him which could not be questioned after they had granted him to be a Prophet The only thing that could be denied in this Argument was that John's Baptism was from Heaven or that God authorized him to say and do what he did But this they durst not oppose because then to rid themselves of one Enemy they should bring the whole Nation as we say about their ears who did not take John for a counterfeit but thought that he was a Prophet INDEED xi Mark 32. Nay they themselves never adventured to call John before their Council much less advised how they might put him to death as they did our Saviour But on the contrary many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to his Baptism iii. Matth. 7. They were as inclinable to reverence him as the people For God who had spoken heretofore to that Nation so long by Prophets whom they thought themselves bound to believe had plainly manifested him to be one Nay he was not a common Prophet but one of an extraordinary rank The Prophet of the Highest his Father calls him and more than a Prophet in the language of our Saviour as you shall hear presently What should they do then which way should they turn themselves now that they durst not deny the Proposition upon which this consequence evidently depended that Jesus was the Christ Their only resuge was silence For though thereby they acknowledged him too hard for them and suffered his Divine authority to stand supported by this unanswered Argument yet they had rather part so and shamefully break off the disputation which they themselves had begun than let him go away with their express confession and testimony that if the Prophet of the Highest might be believed he was their Christ It was no disadvantage to our Saviour but to their own cause that they answered they could not tell whence John's Baptism was For hereby it appeared He had so much to say for himself that if they would say any thing in this matter and not obstinately hold their peace they must say as He did that He was the Son of God For John Baptist whose Heavenly authority they durst not deny though they would not confess it received all men into this belief when they came to him that there was one COMING after him who should gather Disciples as he did and that he was the Christ This he told them was the very end of his Preaching and Baptizing to prepare the way of the Lord to make them fit and ready to entertain the next Prophet that should appear as greater than him even as the Son of God And therefore when Jesus did openly appear and come to his Baptism and John saw the Spirit descend and remain on him then he told them in plain terms that this was the person whose way he came to prepare and that they must receive him as the Son of God and the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world i. John 29 30 34. And that which he said at this time there is no doubt he declared at all times when the people came to be baptized For thus the Jews describe Jesus when they disputed with some of John's Scholars about his Baptism iii. Joh. 25. HE TO WHOM THOU BAREST WITNESS behold the same baptizeth c. ver 26. Thence he is frequently called one of his WITNESSES and said to come for this end that he might be a WITNESS to him that ALL men through him might believe that is might be perswaded that Jesus was the WORD of God by this testimony of John i. John 6 7 8. And our Saviour afterwards appeals to this Testimony of his and bids the Jews consider it v. John 32 33. For you know says he that he bare WITNESS to me when ye sent to him And I know that the WITNESS which he WITNESSETH of me is true And great reason there was that they should consider it and be convinced by it For John was a burning and a shining light as it there follows ver 35. and they themselves were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light If that fit was over and now they were less delighted in him it was merely because he testified of Jesus There was nothing else to damp their affection for otherways they could not but confess him to be an illustrious person Who shined with the greater splendour because He was miraculously conceived in his Mothers old Age and his Birth was predicted by an Angel and his Father struck dumb because he believed not his Word and this Angel appeared in the very Temple at the Altar of Incense and therefore was not like to be a delusion And his Father was indued with the Spirit of Prophecy and his tongue unloosed when this Child came to be Circumcised Then He spake concerning his quality by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and John appeared to be prophetically endowed from a child God also took care of his education in the Wilderness where he was trained up to a resemblance of Elias so that his life and manners transcended all in that Age and his Spirit and Doctrine was so powerful and convincing that it was hard for them to say who he was the people admiring his sanctity and preaching held him for a Prophet and some of the Priests and Levites having such an esteem of him that it was a question among them whether he was not the CHRIST They were sent you know from Jerusalem to enquire about it i. John 19 20 c. and yet this Person who shined with such a lustre whom Jesus himself calls the greatest that had been born of women of whom he was baptized declares to these persons who came to ask who he was that he was not worthy so much
even when thou wast scorned and rejected of men Great was the splendour of thy Majesty under the mockery of a Crown of Thorns and under the reproach of the Cross it self And great was thy Love O thou Lover of Souls who wouldst shed thy own most precious Bloud to work and confirm thy Faith in our hearts that believing on thee we might have life through thy Name O how expensive was thy Love which never thought it had done enough till thou hadst assured our hearts by giving thy self for us How infinitely are we indebted to thee who hast so dearly purchased our eternal joy with thy most bitter sorrows I ought to have the greater regard to all that thou hast said either concerning thy self or concerning the obedience I owe thee or the happiness thou hast promised me because thou hast sealed all in so sacred a manner and chosen to die that thou mightest bear witness to thy Truth For this end thou camest into the world and hast honoured thy self with the Name of the True and faithful witness the beginning of the Creation of God who hast shown us the path of life by thy bloudy and most ignominious death O that none of us who are called by thy Name may ever prove so base and unworthy so ungrateful and disrespectful to thee so insensible or forgetful of thine amazing goodness as to forsake that course which thou thy self hast begun and into which thou hast led us by thine own example Let none of us prove unlike thee who art the beginner and the finisher of our Faith Let us never degenerate from the Original from whence we come nor dishonour the very Author of what we are by actions unworthy of his children But be pleased graciously both to excite and assist our pious endeavours to follow thee and to witness a good confession as thou hast done at least in our lives and conversation That they may testifie to all how much we reverence thee by our observance of thy commands and justifie the truth of thy Word that thy yoke is easie and thy burden light by our chearful free and ready observance of them And if thou wilt have us to witness a good confession also by our bloud or by parting with any thing that is as dear unto us for thy names sake O that we may then imitate thee the true and faithful witness by continuing faithful to thee unto death Let no Soul of us ever faint in our mind much less draw back for fear of any thing that may befall us But still go on and couragiously meet whatsoever opposes us in our way to Heaven Help us to stand fast in the Faith to quit our selves like men and to be strong as becomes thy faithful servants and souldiers who have vowed to be true to thee unto our lives end O Blessed Jesus who can think that he does or endures too much for thee Who can complain of thy service or repine at the sufferings it may require When he thinks of thy labour and pains to secure our hope in God of an eternal redemption from all miseries and troubles and from all sin the cause of them by shedding thy own most holy bloud We are unworthy to bear the Name of thy servants if we should be so ungrateful to thy memory as not to celebrate that love with perpetual praises and thanksgivings And how fearfully shall we reproach our selves if we continue to commemorate it and yet grudge to deny any thing for thy sake or behave our selves as if we would renew thy sufferings by our continued sins Far be it from any of us to think any thing so dear to us as Truth and Righteousness that holy Truth which thou hast delivered to us O that we may read with such an affection the whole history of thy love and all the Laws thou hast left to govern us and the gracious grants thou hast made us as if we saw them written in thy most precious bloud By which thou hast testified the greatness and sincerity of thy love and assured us of the truth of thy Word and consecrated thy self also to be a merciful and faithful High Priest who canst have compassion on us and ever succour and relieve us when we are tempted as thou wast And may we be so sensibly affected herewith as to depend on thy intercession with the stronger Faith and with greater care and diligence tread in those steps which thou hast in such a manner markt out to us and persist in them so stedfastly that none of the terrors of this world may make us step aside and turn from thy Commandments Give us grace O Blessed Lord in the worst condition to express that resolution that undaunted resolution that constancy that confidence in God that zeal for his honour and glory that charity towards our enemies that humble resignation and that patient meekness which appeared in thee under thy greatest sufferings Arm us with the very same mind and spirit which we see in thy self That we who believe in a Saviour who abased and humbled himself so low who was so content to be poor and little regarded to bear all the slanders and scorn as well as the cruel torments which the malice of men could inflict upon him may not be proud and insolent covetous and ambitious impatient of pain or a little disparagement but constantly endeavouring to conform our selves to thy glorious pattern which we have before us may rejoyce in that faithful saying That if we be dead with thee we shall also live with thee if we suffer we shall also reign with thee Amen Now unto the faithful Witness the first-begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Bloud and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning the Third Witness upon Earth the SPIRIT THere is one Witness more that remains still to be examined whose testimony was notorious and very well known for it was upon the Earth viz. that of the SPIRIT In the sixth verse S. John brings it in after the other two I have now treated of though in the eighth Verse it be set before them And there he adds this illustrious character of it which is not given to the two former it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness because the SPIRIT is the TRUTH Which is not to be understood as if the other two were not Witnesses for they are called so expresly in this eighth Verse or as if they were not truth for I have abundantly proved that they are But this mark is set upon the SPIRIT to denote it to be the most eminent Witness of the Three The witness or that Witness that which excels the other two in clearness and notoriousness that which was alwayes accounted most powerful to prove a truth that against which nothing
to prove the truth of that which the person that wrought them delivered And therefore as their miracles demonstrated the truth of that message which Moses and the Prophets brought from God So our Saviour's evinced the truth of his which was that they were only the Servants but He the Son of God This was as strongly attested by what he did as any thing the Men of God taught in former times was by their works Yea his miracles bare as fair a proportion in their bigness and number to this high and great thing which they were to prove that he was Gods Son as the miracles of Moses and the Prophets bare to those lesser truths which they were brought to establish And here for to put a period to this part of my discourse it will be very useful to observe the different way of proceeding for the establishing and promoting a Religion instituted by men and a Religion whose author is God This I find very well noted to my hand in a learned Writer of the Jewish Nation whom I have already mentioned * Sepher COSRI Part 1. sect 80 c When men says he make Laws and setle a Religion whose original is from their own minds and devised by themselves though they may pretend that it comes from God yet they are not able to make it take place without the power of the Sword or the countenance and assistance of some Prince who by his Authority shall cause it to be received But a Religion that is indeed Divine is planted in a Divine manner When Laws are derived from God he establishes them by his power and might and over-aws men by such wonders as without any humane force procure obedience Thus says he our Religion began When the Children of Israel were in grievous servitude and when the Land promised to their Fathers was in the hand of potent Kings God sent Moses and Aaron armed with no power but that of working miracles changing the ordinary and usual course of Nature and inflicting in a moment grievous plagues upon the Water the Earth the Air the Plants the Beasts and the Bodies of Men throughout all the Land of Egypt whereby the Prince that kept them in bondage was forced to let them go And in their Journey they were conducted by the guidance of a bright Cloud and they passed through the Sea and they were fed with Manna in the Wilderness XL. Years and saw one Miracle after another which convinced them they ought to submit to that Word of the Lord which Moses spake unto them To this purpose that Writer very rationally discourses Now just as He shows that Moses proved his Mission from God so I have briefly related how our Saviour likewise demonstrated that he was the Royal Prophet whom Moses foretold God would send into the World In an Age when they not only groaned under the Roman Yoke but were also superstitiously inthral'd to a number of Rites and Ceremonies devised by their Elders superadded to all the burden of the Law of Moses and moreover grievously oppressed by the Devil as all the rest of the World likewise were far more than they God raised up a mighty Salvation to them out of the house of his servant David Our Lord that is on a sudden appeared as a Redeemer and Deliverer from the bondage in which they lay not with any worldly policy or force but meerly with the Spirit and Power of God 1 Cor. ii 5. who sent an Herald but without the power of Miracles to proclaim his coming And as soon as he had done crying his mouth being stopt by Herod's throwing him into Prison our Lord presently came forth shining most gloriously in the illustrious works that he did every where which were such as that time called for as Moses his miracles were proper to the occasions and necessities of his days And some of them were very like those wrought by Moses and others bear as great a resemblance to them as twins are wont to do to each other who lie together in the same womb He healed more than Moses killed He turned their water into wine as Moses did the water of the River into bloud He walkt upon the very surface of the Sea and called one of his Disciples to accompany him there He fed multitudes with a little quantity of bread as Moses had fed the Israelites in the Wilderness This he did more than once and that in a Desart too showing what he was able to do if there had been the like need that there was in former times Then they should not have asked what sign shewest thou equal to Moses they mean what dost thou work vi John 30. For it was plain enough he could have fed them forty years in that manner as well as once which was the thing they seem to desire when they say in the next words ver 31. Our Fathers did eat Manna in the Desart as it is written He gave them bread from Heaven to eat That is He did not feed them for one day or two as thou hast done but a long time and that from Heaven let us see thee do so that we may leave him and follow thee And if he had not done enough already to work faith in them and they had lived now alway in a Desart as their Fathers did then no doubt he would for that he could was evident else how should he have fed them thus miraculously at all Many other miracles also declared that he had the same power in the Air that he had on the Earth and could as easily have brought bread from Heaven as multiplied the Loaves which had now filled so many of them The very Devils were as subject to him as the meanest creature in the World And He raised the Dead by his powerful word which Moses never did All which is recorded by the Apostles to show what cause they had to believe in Jesus and how his Religion was planted and propagated in the world as the other wonders are recorded by Moses to show with what authority he came and how he setled the Israelites in the belief of his Laws And there is no more cause to question whether Jesus be the Son of God the Lord of the World who came with such a SPIRIT than there was then to doubt whether Moses was his servant and the Lawgiver of that people among whom he did such wonders Nor so much neither for the greater his pretences were the greater reason there was that they should have been discountenanced by such a SPIRIT as was in him if they had not been true It is incredible that God should let the world be abused so long by so many miracles and so great that never was the like without any the least confutation and abused by a lye of so dangerous a nature and so reproachful to his Name and so directly opposite to his Government which this Person if he were an Impostor and said he was his Son
we understand thereby their holy preaching and living For it is said ver 3. that they had power to prophesie which signifies that they were endowed with extraordinary gifts for Prophets were next to Apostles in the Church to interpret and expound the holy writings and prove out of Moses and the Prophets as our Saviour did xxiv Luke 27. all things that concerned him both his sufferings and his glory And this they did cloathed in sackcloth that is in the habit of mourners for the abominations I suppose which they saw committed and the provoking infidelity of those to whom they preached Which was a notable mark of their great piety and charity as you may learn from ix Ezek. 4. and v. Matth. 4. They are said also to be the two Olive-trees ver 4. that is like Zerubbabel and Joshua two famous persons among the Jews after the captivity who were represented by this Emblem iv Zach. 3. King and Priests unto God men endowed with great authority and illumination from above and with as great purity For they had so much of the oil of gladness that they imparted it to others to the Candlesticks that is the Churches wherein they shined For so S. John teaches us in the beginning of this Book to interpret Candlesticks which is a great argument of the excellency of these men who by the witness of their life and doctrine made all those who were under their care to testifie some way or other to the same truth that they did At least by their lives for they are said to stand before the God of the Earth Which is an Hebrew phrase signifying to minister unto God to be imployed in his worship and service as the Priests and People were at the Temple and therefore sets forth the piety and devotion of these persons whose business it was to serve God even then when it was most dangerous so to do And as by Water so by Bloud also they bare witness of him For they had war made against them and in the fight since they would not yield they were killed ver 7. Nay it was notorious to all that their persecutors had not only drawn the sword against them but that they had resisted unto bloud for their dead bodies lay in the street of the great City ver 8. and they would not suffer them to be put in graves ver 9. which shows the enraged malice which they bare to these zealous WITNESSES who had tormented them ver 10. by the sharpness of their arguments and by their constant reproofs of their infidelity and wickedness Nor was the Witness of the SPIRIT wanting for they approved themselves as Ministers of God to speak in S. Paul's language and Witnesses of Christ by wonders and miracles so great that they might be compared to the two great Prophets Moses and Elias who appeared with our Saviour on the holy Mount For they sent fire out of their mouths ver 5. and had power to shut up Heaven that it should not rain ver 6. both which were the known works of Elias They had power likewise over the Waters to turn them to bloud and to smite the Earth with all plagues as often as they pleased ver 6. which is the plain description of men like to Moses who brought such plagues on the Egyptians as these had power to do upon those who were like them both in hardness of heart and in oppression of the faithful servants of God And therefore I suppose they are described with a power to hurt and destroy rather than with that healing and saving vertue wherewith the first Witnesses of Christ principally came to signifie that their rebellious enemies should be punished for their rejecting Jesus and doing despight to the SPIRIT of grace which once came to them in a more healthful and salutary manner casting out Devils turning Water into Wine healing all manner of Plagues and Diseases and that as often as they themselves pleased to desire And more than this you read ver 11. that after the time appointed by God for it he restored these Prophets to life again and thereby made their testimony something like that of his Son 's That is men animated with the very same spirit stood up in their place to the amazement of all their opposers Who were so far from being able to hurt them that they were as safe as if they had been in Heaven The presence of God was with them as in the cloud which preserved the Israelites from all danger And he advanced them to great honour by the Heavenly gifts wherewith they were adorned As Elias is said to come though he did not appear in person but another in his spirit and power and David is said to be raised up to reign over the Jews xxx Jer. 9. because his Son that is Christ was set upon his Throne so did the Spirit of life from God enter into these witnesses and they stood upon their feet when he raised up other Apostolical persons in their stead who were not less eminent than those who were dead but full of the same spirit of wisdom holiness burning zeal and might and power also from God This frighted all their enemies as well it might when they saw the Christian Cause would not die do what they could But if they killed some others started up in their room to witness unto Jesus and assert the same truth by wonders by their admirable preaching by their holy life and by death it self if nothing else would satisfie them For thus all the MARTYRS testified to him Whose BLOUD witnessed not only that they believed his Religion and that they valued the favour of Jesus more than their lives but that they had very good reason so to do or else men of such wisdom would not have endured such torments as they freely exposed themselves unto with so much chearfulness as we find they did For as S. Hilary tells us Some gloried in the chains which they wore in prison others being beaten till they died did nothing but give thanks others readily laid down their necks to be cut off and more ran to those piles which they saw built to burn them and with a devout haste leapt into those fires at which the ministers of their torments trembled and there were those who were thrown into the Sea not as if they were to be drown'd but went to partake of the refreshment of eternal bliss So he writes upon those words of the Psalmist lxv 10 12. Thou hast tried us as silver is tried we went through fire and water c. The fruit of which was that thereby many were converted unto Christ Their death gave life to others who seeing their zeal their constancy their meekness their patience and their charity became Proselytes to that faith for which they suffered A new race of illustrious Martyrs rose up in their stead in whom they yet lived For there was no other cause as that Father adds upon the following
being separable from obedience that this is essentially included in it and freely flows from it if it may be but suffered to have its course and not be crossed in its clear intention and design If you be not convinced of this by what you feel you may learn it of S. John who tells you here what the natural issue of our faith is and what duty it exacts for it is the scope of these words which I have expounded to lay such a foundation of belief as may unavoidably inforce obedience unless we forget what our belief is He begins you know this Fifth Chapter of his Epistle with this Principle that every one who believes Jesus to be the Christ is born of God and from thence infers in that and in the second Verse that such a person cannot but love God and all his Brethren which Love cannot be discerned by any thing but by keeping his Commandments FOR THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD ver 3. THAT WE KEEP HIS COMMANDEMENTS Here is the natural fruit of Faith This is its Progress if you do not stop its motions It begets in our heart a great Love and Love is to be Obedient and that to all God's Commandments which respect either our duty to him or to our Neighbour It is in vain to say we believe in Jesus if we do not heartily love God who sent him to us And it is in vain to pretend love to God if we keep not his Commandments And it is as vain to say we have a dutiful respect to his Commandments if our neighbour have any cause to complain of us For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also iv 20 21. Here now they who have less understanding of the grounds of Faith may make up what is wanting in their knowledge by the heartiness of their Devotion to God and the unfeignedness of their love to all their Brethren If they be mightily affected with what they believe and out of an honest love in their hearts to his holy Precepts be very diligent in their obedience it will supply the defect that is in their understanding of the Reasons why they believe in Jesus For if a small argument in a weak and dull understanding does the same work with a strong argument in a quick and piercing where lies the difference but only that the One can serve Religion more with his mind and discourse the other meerly with his good will and his pious life But will any man presume to be so impious as to imploy his will to find out ways to excuse his Obedience to him whom he acknowledges for his Lord He should rather consider seriously how reasonable and how necessary it is that he who knows so well what Jesus is and how he came should above all other Men do him the most faithful and zealous service For if we do but observe how many arguments here are to perswade us to this Faith in Jesus with what Authority he was sent and with what power he came to us we shall think it was for some very great work and fell it impossible while we are sensible of this not to do what he requires though now perhaps it seem impossible to be done He is not come of himself but hath the mark and stamp of the Supreme Lord upon him He evidently shows that he hath a Commission from God and brings as I may say the Broad-seal of Heaven with him to warrant what he demands though it be never so great a tribute of Obedience Here are Witnesses to him above all exception and they all bid us behave our selves submissively towards him and not deny to do any thing that he would have us Him hath God the Father sealed as he tells us vi Joh. 27. and by his Voice from Heaven commands us to HEAR HIM Which was as if he had said If you will believe him that cannot lye then Jesus is the TRUTH to every word of whose mouth we ought to hearken that is faithfully obey and observe For as God is said to hear us when he grants our desires so we hear him or his Son when we fulfill his pleasure The WORD likewise 2. when he appeared to S. Paul made him an Apostle for obedience to the faith among all Nations i. Rom. 5. And told him expresly that he appeared to him for this end that he might send him to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God xxvi Act. 16 18. The HOLY GHOST likewise 3. is a Witness of this which was given to those that obeyed him v. Act. 32. But lookt upon all wickedness as an high affront to it at which it was grieved and by which it was quenched nay forced to depart as not induring to dwell in the same House with filthiness and impurity Unto which the Water 4. or the Holy life and purity of our Saviour in all his actions as well as his Doctrine was directly opposite And tells us that we must be obedient if there were no other reason for it but this alone that the Son of God himself was so in every thing Did God exact obedience of him that he might demand none of us Will he set us free from that duty and service to which his dearly beloved Son was strictly tyed He fulfilled all righteousness and observed even that Law of Ceremonies to which we have no obligation And do we think to be hereby excused from paying all those respects which are naturally due from Creatures to the author of their being and which we cannot but owe to those who are of the same kind with us What is it that hath so perverted the understanding of Christian People as to possess them with apprehensions quite contrary to common reason What ailes us that we cannot see the end of Christ's coming nay that we overlook the plain words of his holy Scriptures which tell us that he left us an example and expects that we should follow it and be made conformable to him and be renewed after his image in righteousness and true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord This the Bloud 5. speaks still more effectually For he would dye rather than disobey God He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross ii Philip. 8. which was the reason why God so highly exalted him and gave him that Name which he hath above every Name There was no other way whereby he could ascend up into Glory And therefore it is madness for us to think to leap up thither and skip over the holy life of Jesus Especially since he declares that his Bloud was shed to which perhaps we trust for redemption though we remain in our impurities that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of
and true Witness the beginning of the Creation of God iii. 14. By the name of AMEN which he gives himself he would have them understand that by him all the promises made to the Church shall undoubtedly be fulfilled according to that of St. Paul 2 Cor. i. 20. In him all the promises of God are Yea and in him Amen He may be believed for he is a Witness who affirms and testifies nothing but the very truth which can never fail because he is the Efficient cause of all things by whom they were at first created and by whom mankind is now repaired and therefore is the Head of all creatures especially of all Christians who shall rise again from the dead to immortall life So I expound the last words the beginning of the Creation of God as Andreas Caesariensis doth who takes in both senses of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have of the word Creation which signifies not onely Principium the beginning or originall but Principatum the principality or dominion which the Son of God hath over all creatures of which he is the Authour What may we not expect from so great a Prince who hath such an absolute command over all things And why should we doubt of his Sovereignty who appeared in such an amazing splendour to St. John and proclaimed in these and other such like Titles the supereminent glory of his Majesty Or why shoul◠we question his truth who had approved himself so many ways the true and faithfull Witness especially by sending the Holy Ghost as you shall hear presently to bear witness to him according to his promise We ought to rely upon his word and to fear nothing but lest we should reject or distrust the testimony of a Person so great and so just whose power appeared from his very first entrance into the world to be so far transcending all creatures that the Apostles might see before his ascension to the glory wherein St. John beheld him that as he had the Words of eternall Life so he had that Life in himself which in due time he would bestow upon them For though He had all the passions of a man Greg. Nazianz orat xxxv p. 575. yet he had all the perfections likewise of God that none might be so profanely contumelious as to contemn his Deity because he took upon him the grossness of our Humanity He was born of a woman but she a Virgin that was humane this Divine He was wrapt in swaddling-cloaths when he was an infant but shaked off the cloaths that wrapt him in the sepulchre when he was dead He was laid in a manger but then glorified by Angels pointed to by a Star and worshipped by the Wise men He was driven into Egypt but there drove away the errours of the Egyptians The Jews saw no beauty in him but he shone upon the mountain brighter then the Sun prefiguring the glory to which he should ascend He was baptized and tempted as Man but he took away the Sins of the World and got the victory as God He was hungry but fed many thousands and is himself the heavenly Bread which giveth life He was thirsty but gave the waters of life and made rivers of living waters flow from those that believed on him He was called a Samaritan and they said he had a Devill but he put Devills to flight and tumbled whole legions of them into the deep and made the Prince of Devills fall like lightning from heaven He was sold for thirty pieces of silver but purchased the whole World with the great price of his own bloud He was led as a sheep to the slaughter but was the Shepherd of Israel and now is of all the World He was dumb as a lamb before the shearers but is the WORD preached by the voice of one crying in the wilderness He was wounded and bruised but healed every sickness and all manner of disease He was lifted up on the tree and there fixed but restored us to the tree of life and saved the thief who was crucified with him He laid down his life but had power to take it again and the veil rent the rocks were cleft and the dead were raised He died but he gives life and by death extinguished death He was buried but rose again out of the grave He went down into hell but he brought up Souls with him and ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the quick and the dead and to examine all such discourses as detract from his glory O my Soul for ever praise him and let thy heart rejoyce in his holy Name Love him as thy Life confide in his word depend on his power and expect from him the blessing of Eternall Life For he is the AMEN the faithfull and true witness who cannot lie the beginning of the Creation of God whom all Creatures without a voice confess to be their Lord. The Heavens cry Proclus Orat. xiii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was God who bowed them and came down to be a man for our sakes The Sun cries It was my Lord who was crucified in the flesh at the light of whose Divinity I was afraid and withdrew my beams The Earth cries It was He that formed me who suffered which made me quake and tremble at the horrid fact The Sea cries He was not my fellow-servant who walkt with one of his Disciples upon my back The Temple cries He that was worshipped here is now blasphemed and therefore I rend my garments Nay Hell cries He was not a mere man who descended hither for whom I received as a Captive I found to be the Omnipotent God And if we ask the heavenly powers and desire the Angels and Archangels and the whole host of heaven to tell us Who was he that appeared on earth and was crucified in the flesh they will all answer aloud in the words of the Prophet David The Lord the God of hosts he is the King of Glory To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII Concerning the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST the Third Witness in Heaven NOW I proceed to examine the Testimony which the Third Witness in Heaven gave concerning this future state which is the HOLY GHOST the Third Person in the Blessed Trinity Who openly assures us by as many ways and by the same means that we have eternall Life in Christ Jesus as he did that Jesus is the Son of God And that I may not be tedious in a business wherein we have already received such satisfaction let us take but a small taste of those three Testimonies of the Holy Ghost which I alledged in the former Treatise I. And first you know that there was a visible appearance of the HOLY GHOST at our Saviour's Baptism when the Divine Glory came down from heaven and rested on him in the sight of John the Baptist whereby he was persuaded that this was the Messiah the King of
for so villanous a Murther But they granting that his Bloud was shed by them we shall soon prove it was for another cause even that which is recorded in our Books Which none ever undertook to confute though they were put forth in the face both of Jews and Romans who might long since have exposed our Religion to shame if Pontius Pilate could have averred out of the Records of the Court where our Saviour was judged that things were not so as his Disciples have related And that this Bloud of his so shed and upon such an account as we have received is of very great force to induce us to believe another World and an eternall Happiness there for us with Jesus I am now to demonstrate and shall easily make good unless we will entertain such low and slight thoughts of him as no man can suffer to lodge in his mind who attends to the Doctrine he preached and all the arguments which prove him to be the Son of God That alone indeed is sufficient to justify all that he preached particularly that God by him will give Eternall Life to those that obey him If he be so nearly related to God as even his Bloudy Death I shew'd in the former Treatise proved him to be we may believe him when he says that As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself But I shall wave this generall way of reasoning though undeniable and offer some things more particular to every one's serious consideration I. It is apparent by the whole story which it would be too long to relate that to lay down his life was an act perfectly voluntary in our Saviour who if he had pleased might have avoided it He might have chosen whether he would have died or no for no man as he said x. Joh. 18. could take his life away but he laid it down of himself openly professing I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again He need not have faln into their cruel hands it is plain unless he had freely consented to it And when they were about to apprehend him many legions of Angels were ready for his rescue if he had pleased to lay his commands upon them xxvi Matt. 53. Nay when he made the Souldiers feel his power so that they went backward and fell to the ground xviii Joh. 6. he could withall have escaped and gone his ways as he had done at other times when this reason alone is given why they did not apprehend him as they attempted because his hour was not yet come vii Joh. 30. viii 20. that is He did not see it to be the fittest time for him to resign up himself to their power Now it cannot enter into man's deliberate thoughts that he would have so freely without any constraint or resistence given up his life especially when by preserving it he might have lived in great repute esteem and admiration of the people yea have been honoured for escaping out of the hands of his enemies if he had not been sure of ETERNALL LIFE and a greater glory in the Heavens which he should win by going so willingly out of this present world He that saved others could surely have saved himself and spoiled their jeer xxvii Matt. 42. if his will had not been otherwise resolved He that raised Lazarus from the dead could have more easily struck all his opposers dead at his feet if it had been his pleasure What should make his will then thus bent upon death What hindred the putting forth of his power for himself which it is manifest he so often used for the benefit of others What could move him so tamely like a Lamb to give his throat to the bloudy knife and to hang so meekly upon an infamous cross if it were not the contemplation of an incomparable felicity which he hoped to obtain by his Obedience to God and bearing witness to the Truth All men of sense cannot chuse but look upon this as an undoubted Argument that he himself stedfastly believed and had good assurance of the truth of what he preached For who is there that can find in his heart to die and die in such a manner so painfully and with such ignominy for that which he thinks in his conscience is false nay does not know to be certain It is next to an impossibility that any man in his wits should so far forget himself as to be forward to throw away all he hath against the strongest inclinations and perswasions of nature which abhors death and most of all a cruell and disgracefull death merely to justifie a lie which humane Nature is ashamed of without the help of torments to make it odious There have been sundry examples of rashness and foolish boldness but none can be produced nor easily imagined of such an one as this For what can a man propose to himself who lays his life at the stake to make good that which he believes hath no truth in it What can he hope to get by such a mad resolved obstinacy No man attempts any thing without an end much less will he expose his life to the least hazzard without a cause of some moment What can you see then in this case weighty enough to be cast into the balance against a man's life which should make him sacrifice it freely as our Saviour did Riches and all the Pleasures they can provide for us could be of no consideration because they will doe a man no service when he is dead and our Saviour had no posterity to whom to leave them Honour and Fame also seem to be of as little value for what satisfaction is it to be talkt of in the world when we have left it and hear nothing of what is done in it Yet this is all that can be imagined to have any power in this business One may possibly you may fansy for to get a great Name in the world by being the Authour of a new Opinion or Sect throw away his life though he know that he doth but broach a lie A strange supposition this is which a man in his right senses one would think should not be inclined to make But since some have pretended it is possible I shall briefly shew that it could have no hand in our Saviour's Sufferings As will appear if we consider either the Circumstances of his Death or the quality of his Doctrine or the manner of his Life II. The Circumstances of his Death were such that if they be but a little examined you will presently find there is no place for this conceit For 1. it stands upon good record that He himself knew of his death beforehand and foretold it with the manner of it and yet was so far from endeavouring to avoid it that he went of his own accord to the very place where he knew they would come to apprehend him This is a plain declaration that he was
hear plainly shewed they were not merely big words which they spake of being with God and our Saviour to see the Glory which the Father had given him but things which they heartily expected For does any man find such inclinations in himself as should make him imagine they would have left their trades their houses their possessions their wives kindred friends all that is desirable in this world and perswade those who were the dearest to them to doe so too if they had not had an assurance upon such grounds as were apt to convince others as well as them of the recompence they should meet withall hereafter in a better life Who can believe that St. Paul would have quitted all his Dignities his hopes of greater preferment his esteem and reputation with the wisest and chiefest persons in the Nation his ease and quiet and every thing else and betaken himself to the troublesome service of a despicable Master if he had not known and seen it as clearly as the Sun in the firmament that Jesus whom he served was raised from the dead and made the King of Glory and would prefer all those that proved faithfull to him unto the greatest honour in the heavens For what reason should those good men live as having nothing and all the time be as chearfull as if they possessed all things Did they not look upon themselves think you as heirs of a Kingdom which could not be taken away from them Reade St. Paul's description of himself to Timothy 2. iii. 10 11. who he says had fully known his doctrine and manner of life not onely what he had been wont to teach but how he had followed his own instructions what his purpose and aim had ever been his fidelity his lenity towards offenders his charity to all Christians his patience under troubles of all sorts for he was persecuted and endured great afflictions by that means at Antioch where they thrust him out of the city at Iconium where an assault was made upon him to stone him at Lystra where they actually stoned him And in how many other places he had been vilely used Timothy he says could not be ignorant having been a companion with him in his travels xvi Act. 3. Now what think you of such a person as this Do you take him for a dolt and an ignorant sot Was this great Apostle a mere lump of clay who was sensible of nothing and imagined others so senseless as that he might without any reason propound this example to Timothy for his imitation How came they to be so stupefied as to chuse rods and whips and stones and all other miseries when they might have lived in ease and peace Nay to glory in these things alone as if there had been nothing that could have done them such honour 2 Cor. xii 5 They did both hunger and thirst as I noted from the same Apostle in my former Book 2 Cor. iv 11. they were naked and buffetted they had no certain dwelling-place they laboured working with their own hands being reviled they blessed being persecuted they suffered it they were made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things Which things no body in his wits can think men of their understanding would have endured if they had not been provided of meat which the world knew not of and been nourished and sustained with the hope of glory and assured of eternall mansions in the heavens and known that they should inherit a blessing and be made more honourable and glorious with Jesus for ever then the World for the present could make them vile and contemptible These things are so clear that the bare recitall of them is sufficient to satisfie us they were no deceivers nor men of light belief who took things upon trust without good evidence but had the greatest reason to endeavour to baptize all Nations into this belief as they did by an indefatigable diligence which was no small testimony of the power and glory of the Lord Jesus II. And their BLOUD speaks as much For as none of them saith St. Paul xiv Rom. 7. lived to himself so none of them died to himself but consecrated even his bloud to the Service of Christ if he pleased to command it Whereby they sealed to this Truth and shewed they were so far from doubting of immortall Life by the Lord Jesus that they unfeignedly desired to be dissolved and to be with him Witness St. Stephen who was stoned because he said he saw the Lord Jesus in the highest glory which he was never more assured of then when he died for then he recommended his Spirit to him as our Saviour had done his to God the Father Witness Antipas a faithfull Martyr Witness all those Souls whom St. John saw beneath the Altar who had all learnt from our Saviour what they must expect in his Service when he said The Brother shall deliver up the Brother to death and the Father the Child and the Children shall rise up against their Parents and cause them to be put to death And ye shall be hated of all men for my Name 's sake Under which afflictions they had nothing to support them but that which he immediately adds He that endureth to the end shall be saved x. Matth. 21 22. These few words were a sufficient incouragement to them and made them not regard their lives for the sake of Christ Jesus who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospell For the which cause saith St. Paul I suffer these things and am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day 2 Tim. i. 10 12. And for this cause he would not have Timothy to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of him his prisoner ver 8. but to imitate him by being partaker of the afflictions of the Gospell which he endured as he adds in the next Chapter ver 10. for the elects sake that they also might obtain the Salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternall glory The Apostles nothing doubted that they themselves should obtain Salvation and immortall glory this way and they hoped likewise by their constant sufferings even to the death to draw others also to the faith or confirm them in it that they might have a share with them in this happiness and be willing to suffer for it For it is a faithfull saying he adds that if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him ver 11 12. I shall conclude this with that Discourse of St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 30 31 32. where he alledges this among other reasons to confirm that Church in the belief of the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come that He and the rest of the preachers of Christian Religion would not
so glorious a purchace Or suppose a man will chuse to lose all his worldly goods which he hath got that he may preserve his liberty and not be inslaved here is a greater Good still which will dispose a man to kiss his cords or his chains and sing like Paul and Silas in the innermost prison Or suppose again that to save his life a man should embrace the chains and fetters which tie him fast to his oar nere is something still beyond this which is the onely thing that can make a man chearfully sacrifice his life for the loss of which nothing else can make him any recompence The reason is because there is no proportion between this and all other things either as to greatness or goodness not so much as between a Kingdom and a barly-corn 5. And therefore I may adde that it will make us in love with all piety at once and with all the means leading to it though never so troublesome It doth not work upon us after the way of Art but as Nature it self doth It doth not teach us vertue and godliness by little parcels as a Statuary first forms one part of his statue and then another now working on the face and then on the hands or feet but instills it altogether in the whole mass as I may so speak and works in us such an universall love to goodness as to have a ready will presently to doe whatsoever God would have us Just as you see the spirit of Nature or a particular Soul work in the formation of the body of a plant or of an animall in the womb which it begins in all its proportions together and so proceeds on still to bring the parts to a greater bigness and strength even so doth this mighty Good operate when it touches the heart not inclining it first to the grace of temperance and then by another touch to the grace of charity and after that by a third to the grace of contentedness c. but at once begets an hearty love to universall goodness and forms the whole body of Christian Vertues all together which grow up after the same manner all alike there being the same power inspiring us unto all Which may spare me the labour of shewing what a Motive it is to inforce the practice of every particular Vertue Which it makes easie also because this one thing which is the reason for all is easily kept in our mind Eternall Life is like a short Sentence which contains in it the pith and strength of a long Discourse or like unto a little Leaven which infuses it self into the whole mass wherewith it is mixed And it makes all Divine graces intire and perfect also For where the mind is once impregnated with it and it hath begun a Divine life there it will never produce a monstrous birth No lim of the New man if I may so speak shall here be wanting It will not suffer us I mean to be defective in any part of true piety nor shall one part draw all the nourishment to it and overgrow the rest It will not let us spend our zeal about some particulars while we are cold and remiss in other Christian duties but make us equally affected and spirited unto all From whence likewise arises another benefit that while by the thoughts of this we excite our selves to any one grace we promote our growth also in every one When we stir up our selves to the practice of our present duty we are disposed thereby to the like chearfull obedience on any other emergent occasion When we call up our Souls by this to doe God's will it impowers us also though we should not then think of it to suffer what he would have us And while we animate our selves hereby to suffer one thing it enables us to doe and suffer all O the power of this Divine Good if it once seat it self in the very throne of our hearts How it makes them beat with the love of God and with the love of our neighbour How it inspires us with resolution with confidence with zeal with joy with all other pious affections It will let us scruple none of God's Commands because it is of equall force to make us submit to all Neither prophaneness nor hypocrisy neither listlesness nor despondency can ever lodge in that heart where this belief is deeply rooted that God will give to our little short labours here an immense eternall recompence in the other World 6. One cannot imagine how it should be otherwise if we go on to consider once more how naturally this belief fills our hearts with love to that blessed God who is so good as to design us such inconceivable Blessedness and to his will as the onely way and means to be partaker of it We shall easily be perswaded that the Will of him who promises us immortality must needs be the Rule of Goodness It will never enter into our hearts to suspect that he who loves us so much can enjoyn us any thing but what is truly good for us And so our wills and affections will readily bow and stoop to his without any dispute at all about it But I have said too much already about this business to have any room left for a new argument of the power of this great Good IV. Let us proceed rather to consider what the matter is that a Motive in it self so great and so powerfull should have so little power upon mens hearts to move them to vertue and goodness One may justly wonder at it and ask What is the cause that men are so dull so sluggish so backward to doe well since the reward is so certain so transcendent and it is as certain they will miss of it in any other way but this of vertue and piety Where is the Violence which the holy Gospel speaks of and which in all reason was to be expected when the Kingdom of heaven was opened One would have thought upon the report of so great a Blessedness men would have throng'd into heaven and with eager violence striven to thrust in themselves before others into such preferment as was offered them in our Saviour's Kingdom His Disciples sure thought that men could not chuse when they heard such news but all flock to his fold and prepare themselves to receive his blessing And there have been those * Maldonate and de Celada who have fansied the Apostles were so possessed with these thoughts that this was the reason they were troubled to hear our Saviour say whither he went they could not go that is at present xiii Joh. 33. because they imagined all would run so thick towards the Bliss which he promised that if they went not to heaven with him then it was to be questioned whether there would be any room left for them and all places might not be taken up before they came And to comfort them our Saviour say they bid them not be troubled for in
his father's house were many Mansions xiv 1 2. that is there was room for all comers though never such multitudes The discourse indeed of our Saviour there shews that this is but a fancy yet if we consider the haste men make in any other advantageous offers and how they will strive to prevent and circumvent one another to gain any preferment here in this world they might well think that men would come in as great crowds to heaven as we have seen them sometime come to Church and would all run as men do in a race contending earnestly who should carry away the crown For bonorum quorundam sicut malorum est intolerabilis magnitudo the greatness of some goods as well as of some evills is so excessive and intolerable as Tertullian if I forget not somewhere speaks that it weighs down all that can be cast into the scale against it and suffers not our wills as you have heard to deliberate about it Whence is it then that we see so little care and concern about that far more exceeding eternall weight of glory that good which is so vast that in this state we cannot bear the very thoughts of it In stead of that forwardness which might have been expected there is a strange backwardness so much as to think of these things A prodigious numness and stupidity hath seized on the hearts of Christian people who seem to have no life at all in them To what shall we impute it seeing the Sun of righteousness hath shone so brightly and strongly on them with these chearfull beams of Eternall Life which he hath brought to light through his Gospell Is there any thing here that can pretend to vie with the Eternall Life he hath revealed I will not stay for an Answer the disparity is so great between this and all other goods What is it then which makes men so indifferent Is there little or no hope that God will bestow such great and glorious things upon such vile wretches as we are No he hath promised and prepared them as you have heard and he cannot be worse then his word nor lose all his own preparations What is it then that stifles their endeavours after this immortall bliss Will he not give it but upon very hard terms and such rigorous conditions as are enough to freez the warmest resolutions when we think of them Not this neither For he hath prepared these good things for those that love him And what is there more easie what more pleasant and chearfull then love especially of the first and chiefest Good which will certainly make all our duty as easie and delightfull as it self is Or will you say that we cannot love him it is an impossible Condition For shame consider that the very offer of such glorious things is enough to make us love him intirely if we did believe them Were we perswaded that he will bestow upon good men such happiness with himself so great so long it would inflame our hearts with the most ardent passion towards his service Therefore I have already named the true cause of all mens coldness and sloth After all our search we shall find it nothing else but this They do not believe They are not perswaded of the certainty of the rewards in the other World or have not fixed this belief in their Minds for if they had it would not easily slip out again They are moved strongly by what they see with their eyes and feel with their hands and taste with their tongues but faith hath little or no place or power in their hearts This is proved to be too true by the lives of men which are so base and unworthy as if they did not hope for the happiness of a fly in the other World Therefore every one of our business must be to awaken that faith in our Souls which we profess that Divine principle which is of such force as to overcome the World For it is manifestly true which the Apostle writes that without faith it is impossible to please God We shall never doe any thing worthy of him unless we believe that God is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him As on the contrary it is no less manifest that if we do believe we shall not onely please him but we shall please our selves in doing so and find it most delightfull to be religious It will marvellously inliven us and infuse as it were a new spirit and soul into us so that we shall differ as much from our selves as the corn doth when it is sown in the ground and when it shoots up again in all its verdure and beauty It will make us adorn our selves I mean with all the fruits of righteousness and beget in us such a spirituall life as will fructify and increase in all good works And here consider first That the things themselves propounded to our belief are such as we cannot but desire it should be true that God intends to bestow them on us Who is there that would not willingly live for ever that doth not think Immortality the greatest prerogative of humane Nature provided we may live always in joy and pleasure in uninterrupted contentments and never-fading delights Though they should be less then our Lord hath promised there is no heart but above all things wishes to be so happy To see onely the beautifull orders of the heavenly hosts the glorious Company of the Apostles the goodly Society of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the venerable Quire of Pastors the whole multitude of holy men and women who celebrate a perpetuall feast of joy to live in happy friendship with them to love them and to be beloved of them to bear a part in their eternall Song of praise and thanks to God how desirable is it above any thing that we can fansy in this world No man hath so little love to himself as not to wish he might be numbred among those Saints in glory everlasting It 's impossible we should not be pleased with the thoughts of having a consortship in such an incomparable happiness were we but perswaded that it is not a dream but a reall truth There needs nothing more to bring it into all mens favour but onely to be satisfied that there is such an Happiness And that 's the other thing I would propound to your thoughts That as we naturally desire such an Happiness so if we consider the evident demonstations we have of it in the Gospell this and a great deal more appears to be the undoubted inheritance of all good Souls who shall see God and be with our Lord and behold his glory Which wonderfully recommends the Christian Religion to us wherein we are gratified in our most important desires and have those things made sure and certain to us which we would all fain have for our portion For what is the generall intent of the Gospell but to discover to mankind immortall life
Peter says that those heavenly Ministers have so great a value for the Gospell that they desire to look into these things wondering that we Gentiles should be made not onely fellow-citizens with the Saints but equall to themselves They rejoyced when they heard the good news that our Lord was come down to men and it seems he hath told us things beyond all their expectation Shall not we then set a due esteem upon them and look into them and consider them who have them so near unto us and are so much concerned in them Then it were better for us if we had no eyes or if we lived in those places where no such things are to be seen for none will be so miserable as they that might have been exceeding happy and chose to remain miserable and that when so few thoughts would have secured their happiness For there is no way to be undone but onely by not believing or not considering the Gospell of God's grace Secure but these two passages and strict piety will necessarily be our imployment and Eternall Life our reward No temptation will be strong enough to make us neglect our work and I am sure faithfull is he who hath promised and will not fail to pay us more then our wages VI. And what now remains but to put those in mind who obediently believe in the Lord Jesus what cause they have to entertain themselves beforehand with great joy in the comfortable expectation of God's mercy in Him to Eternall life Let all his true-hearted Disciples who hear his voice and follow him rejoyce yea let them be glad in him with exceeding joy Let them say O how great is the goodness of God! how rich are those blessings which he hath laid up for them that love him how exceeding great and precious are the promises he hath made them Our calling in Christ Jesus how high is it what is there nobler then his kingdom and glory To which also he hath called us by glory and vertue Heaven and earth concur in the most glorious and powerfull manner to give us assurance that it shall be well exceeding well with all those that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Why should we suffer our selves then to be dejected at any accident in this world which falls cross to us Shall we take pet when any thing troubles us and let our spirits die within us who have such glorious hopes to live upon and mightily support us Jesus is alive He is alive for evermore And in him is Eternall life for all his followers The Father the Word the Holy Ghost are come to comfort us with this joyfull news The Water the Bloud and the Spirit all say the same and ask us why we are so sad when life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospell It is the desire of the Lord Jesus that we would not mourn as though he still lay in his grave and could doe nothing for us He is certainly risen and gone into the heavens where God hath made him exceeding glad with his countenance And it will adde to his joy if it be capable of increase to see us rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory And therefore let us doe him the honour to glory in his holy Name and let us say alway Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. i. 3 4. We ought to say so with joyfull hearts even when death it self approaches which of all other is the most frightfull Enemy of mankind but is made our Friend by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospell 2 Tim. i. 10. Which hath given us as the same Apostle saith such everlasting consolation that it would be a great reproach to it to receive Death timorously which Wise men before our Saviour came concluded might be for any thing they knew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of all goods Our Lord assures us they were right in their conjectures and hath made that certain which Socrates whose words those are left doubtfull Plato Apolog Socr. And therefore we ought not to leave the world as if it were the greatest unhappiness that could befall us It is for him onely to fear death as St. Cyprian speaks * L. de Mortalitate p. 208. who would not go to Christ and he onely hath reason to be unwilling to go to Christ who doth not believe he shall begin to reign with him This is the onely thing as he writes a little after which makes men take death so heavily quia fides deest because Faith is wanting because they do not believe those things are true which He who is Truth it self hath promised But though they give credit to what a grave and laudable person promises they are wavering about that which God saith and receive it with an incredulous mind For if they believed they would entertain that which now seems dreadfull as St. Greg. Nazianzen * Orat. xviii p. 284. says that blessed Martyr did whose Death he doubts whether he should call his departure from this life or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his departure of God or the fulfilling of his desire And thus if we may believe Calcidius the famous Trismegistus died Fr. Archangel Dogm Cabalistica saying to his Son that stood by him My Son hitherto I have lived an exile from my country but now I am going safe thither And therefore when a little while hence I shall be freed from the chain of this body see that you do not bewail me as if I was dead For I am onely returning to that most excellent blessed City whither the Citizens cannot arrive unless they take death in their way There God onely is the Governour in chief who entertains his Citizens with a marvellous sweetness in comparison with which that which we now call Life is rather to be termed Death And what if in our passage to it we should fall into divers temptations or trialls of our sincere affection to the Lord Jesus There is no reason that this should dishearten us and deaden our spirits For it is the singular privilege of a Christian to rejoyce in the Lord alway iv Phil. 4. especially when he suffers for righteousness sake In that case the Apostles thought it an honour that they were counted worthy to be beaten and suffer shame for his Name v. Act. 41. And St. James thought their example was not unimitable by other Christians to whom he saith i. 2. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations And so they did as you reade in the Epistle to the Christian Hebrews of whom the Apostle gives
words as these Lay not up your treasures upon Earth and the luxurious are told that he who soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption and the proud are told that he who exalteth himself shall be abased the angry are exhorted when one cheek is smitten to turn the other they that live in discord are taught to love their enemies the superstitious are instructed that the Kingdom of God is within us to the curious it is said continually look not at the things that are seen but to those which are not seen and lastly it is said to all Love not the world nor the things that are in the world if these things are read throughout the world if they be chearfully heard with great veneration if after so much bloud such fires so many crucifixions of Martyrs the Church is grown more fertile and hath propagated it self to the most barbarous Nations and to omit the rest if men are every where so converted to God that every day all mankind answers almost with one voice LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS UNTO THE LORD why should we drowsily still continue in a sottish unbelief There is nothing can be said in the excuse of such Souls as having received notice of such a marvellous Love of God to mankind and such evident proofs that it is no fancy will not be perswaded to entertain the belief of it But when light is come into the world chuse to remain in darkness and will be guided merely by themselves when there is a revelation come from God Which ought to be entertained with the greatest joy as the thing which the world wanted and wisht for and without which they could meet with no resolution of their doubts nor certain directions how to please God whom they had so highly offended In this the Christian Religion gives us full satisfaction and propounds nothing to our practice but what the wisest men ever said was best to be done and took for the most excellent piety As for that which it propounds to our belief it is all made credible by this one great Truth which is proved by a number of Witnesses that Jesus is the Son of God We ought to receive that which such a person taught either with his own mouth or by those whom he inspired and sent in the same manner as the Father sent him For if it be so reasonable as I have demonstrated to be a Believer then it is as unreasonable to be an Unbeliever and no man will be able to open his mouth to justifie such a sin against so many Witnesses as will appear to testifie that they called him to the faith by the clearest and the most powerful evidences that ever were For if the Jews were bound to believe in Moses having no more testimony from God than you have heard we are much more bound to believe in Jesus who hath more and greater Witnesses that he not only came from God but is gone to God and hath all things given into his hands whether in Heaven or in Earth As it was said of them therefore xiv Exod. ult that they believed the Lord and his servant Moses so let it be said of every one now that we believe the Lord and his Son Jesus For this very end were these words written by S. John that we may believe on his Name ver 13. And this is the summ of what God would have us to do the Commandment he hath given us That we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another iii. 23. If we do the former we shall see an evident consequence of the latter For when we are perswaded that He is the Son of God we cannot but see that we ought to receive every word that he says with affectionate reverence and to let every thing that is said concerning him into our very hearts so that we fear him and love him and become obedient to him and depend upon his word and as he himself hath taught us honour him as we do the Father Almighty For we are assured by those who heard him and were with him from the beginning and were witnesses of his Resurrection and received the Holy Ghost from him that He was the WORD MADE FLESH and that the Word was God and all things were made by him and is the Son of God not by office only but in his nature and essence and having assumed our Flesh therein reigns Lord of all for ever For what reason should we refuse to receive that which is so credibly witnessed to be the very Truth of God They that report these things were so pious as I have proved that they cannot be suspected to have invented them nay the very end for which they published them quits them from all suspicion of fraud and forgery For they aimed at nothing but by making man sensible of his great Dignity and the high honour God hath put upon him to possess his heart with an ardent love to God and to his Neighbour and to make him perfectly subject unto his will And is there not great reason if we believe what these Witnesses say that we should apply our best endeavours to please him by living soberly righteously and godly and by abstaining from the least appearance of evil Think what Jesus was and then resolve with your selves what regard is due to his Word Will not the wicked man tremble when he hears him say that none shall go to Heaven but they that do the will of his Father which is in Heaven Then he does not believe that these are the words of the Son of God or does not mind what he reads Who can with any face call him Lord Lord and not acknowledge that he ought to do the things that he says And to acknowledge this and not do those things what a madness is that if we believe our Lord is able to call us to a severe account for our neglect of his will What is there that can recommend chastity and purity of heart to our affection together with mercifulness meekness peaceableness poverty or contentedness of spirit the humility of little children saith in God's providence and such like vertues if this will not that the Son of God hath preacht them to the world as the most amiable qualities in the eyes of God without which we shall never see him nor inherit his Heavenly Kingdom Are not these his words Do not his Sermons teach us these Lessons And if we do these things does he not say we shall have everlasting life and enter into his joy and see the glory which God hath given him For what cause do we question whether this be the way to happiness Do not the same Witnesses which tell us that he is the Son of God testifie withall that he came to teach us Gods will and that this is his will which by the Gospel is declared unto us Why do we not seriously believe it then let me ask again
Are not the Witnesses good who affirm that Jesus is the Son of God Have we not examined them and find no cause why we should reject them Or will you receive nothing upon the credit of a Witness That 's a very strange obstinacy which rejects so certain a way of knowing many things that cannot be otherways known For the notices of things do not come to us all one way but by divers means either by our Senses or by our Reason and Discourse or by Report By all these ways the knowledge of things is conveyed to our Mind And if we refuse to be informed by any of them there are a great number of things certainly true and of great consequence to us of which we must remain ignorant That there are other Countries far distant from this where we live and that such and such things are there to be had and have been there done most Men can know by no means but only by report for there are but few that can go and see And he that will not receive the testimony of another in this case deprives himself of a considerable piece of knowledge whereof others partake and which might be as useful to him as it proves to them But if for this wilful loss he shall pretend to assign a just cause saying that he cannot believe any thing unless it be demonstrated to him by clear and evident consequences from Principles of known reason he will become ridiculous For it is absurd to expect the knowledge of any thing in any other way but that which is proper for its conveyance to us To demand a proof of a matter of reason from our senses or for what we discern by our senses from our reason is equally ridiculous and so it is to demand an evidence for things of Faith which we know by report only either from our Senses or our Reason That there are some things come to our notice only by Faith is plain from what passes every day And it is as plain that they must be proved to be true in their proper way that is by the soundness of the Testimony upon which we receive them As no man requires a reason for what he sees and feels nor asks that he may see with his eyes that of which he reasons and discourses so he ought not to seek for a testimony of sense or reason for that which he can know by no way but by report As for example no Man demands a reason to prove that the Sun shines In this his sense gives him satisfaction and if he were born blind no reason could prove to him that it was not Night Nor does any man that is in his wits require that he may behold God with his eyes whom he knows by discourse and the reason of his mind and knows him also by that to be invisible In like manner it is altogether preposterous when a man comes and reports that such a person dyed on such a day to ask for a reason to prove it or to demand that he may see it for it is impossible to see him dye again upon that day That is not a thing to be known either of those ways by sense or reason but only by the testimony of others who were present at that time and are we think worthy of belief Why do we ask then for any other proof that Jesus was born of a Virgin at such a time did such wonderful works preached such an holy Doctrine was crucified dead and buried rose again from the dead ascended to Heaven and sent from thence the Holy Ghost These are not things now to be seen or felt nor can we gather them from the meer discourse of our own reason which tells us nothing of them But we have them by report from a great many Witnesses who say they saw and heard and felt all that which they would have us believe There is no other use of reason in this case but only to examine and judge whether this report be credible and founded in the testimony of God Now that is evident to any impartial enquirer from what hath been said concerning these Witnesses whose report there is no reason to suspect as it is certain it can never be disproved Why should we then be so much our own enemies as to deprive our selves of this saving knowledge of Jesus Christ That is why do we not give credit to the report of these Witnesses concerning Jesus since by the only proper means whereby such things can be proved I have made it good that the Father declared him to be his Son and He appeared in Glory to testify to himself and the Holy Ghost demonstrated he could be no less and his Life Death Resurrection and all the rest of which there were so many upright Witnesses assure us that it is a certain truth Would we be so difficult to be perswaded to go to a Man or a Place where several honest neighbours informed us upon their word nay upon their life we should be promoted to great honor or be possessed of a fair estate Do we not believe one another in our daily traffick and drive considerable bargains merely upon the credit we give to some persons who inform us of the advantage we may make by them Do not men undertake long journeys and more dangerous voyages merely because they are told that such an one is dead to whom they are heir or that such rich commodities are to be had in exchange for meaner goods Who is there that does not desire his Witnesses may be accepted and their testimony taken for good proof either to clear his innocence or to settle his estate Now says the Apostle immediately after the alledging of all these Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth to prove the truth of Christianity If we receive the Witness of men the Witness of God is greater for this is the Witness of God which he hath testified of his Son The meaning of which is this If men whose honesty you cannot impeach give their testimony in a Court of Judicature it is never disallowed nor can you be permitted to set it by and make nothing of it but it is necessarily admitted for an end of strife The weightiest causes are decided all matters depending are determined and judged according to the evidence that is given by witnesses of unblemished faith In the mouth of two or three witnesses as the known saying was every word or rather matter is established That is brought to an issue and concluded if any controversie have arose to unsettle it Nay the testimony of one man if we have no reason to suspect his credit is in our own private thoughts though not in Law satisfaction great enough to assure us of the truth of what he says And we think it such a reproach to give him the lye that we cannot but believe him finding a desire in the same case to be believed our selves Now if things stand thus between us and
5. is most lively represented there But this is not all that is intended by it for even those * Arias Montanus who in that sense were already mortified and renewed by receiving the Holy Ghost before their baptism as Cornelius and his family proceeded notwithstanding to receive that holy washing and by their submersion took upon them the likeness of the dead and by their emersion appeared as men risen again from the dead If there were no other death to be escaped but that in sin and no other resurrection to be expected but that to newness of life why were they who had attained these baptized as dead men and being already dead to sin why again sustained they the image of death out of which they believed and professed they should come This very action of theirs proves that they lookt for another resurrection after death which is the resurrection of the body And this profession of theirs was so much the more weighty as they were the more learned and instructed being already taught by the Holy Ghost By whose power they were already dead to sin and made alive to God and by whose instruction they professed to believe that as there is another death viz. that of the body so they should overcome it by the mighty power of Christ raising their very bodies from the dead There are severall other interpretations of this place as that of Epiphanius * Haeresi 38. who expounds it of those who received Baptism at the point of death but I shall not trouble the Reader with them because they all conclude the same thing that Baptism was a publick profession of the hope of immortality and a Seal also of the promises of God not onely to that particular person who at any time received it but to the whole Church both to the living and the dead Who as oft as Baptism was repeated had an open assurance given them from God by whose authority it was administred that they should rise again to everlasting life And so I shall dismiss this First Witness on Earth which is the more to be regarded because though it be not so great in it self as those which speak from heaven yet to us it is very considerable and cannot be denied by those who cavill at some of the other For all men acknowledge the Life and Doctrine of our Saviour to be incomparably excellent and John the Baptist stands upon record in Josephus for a person of severe and strict sanctity and the whole Christian Church who were not so childish as to build their hope on a sandy foundation but stood immovable as you shall hear like a house upon a rock when all the world storm'd and made the most furious assaults upon them believed thus from the beginning as appears by their holy profession which they made when they entred into the gates of the Church by Baptism The mighty power of which WATER OF LIFE they have thus celebrated with their praises Greg. Naz. Orat. xl Baptism is the Splendour of the Soul the Change of the life the Answer of the Conscience towards God It is the help of our weakness the putting off the flesh the attainment of the Spirit the Communion of the Word the Reformation of God's workmanship the drowning of Sin the participation of light and the destruction of darkness It is the Chariot which carries us to God our fellow-travelling with Christ the establishment of our faith the perfecting of our minds the key of the Kingdom of heaven the foundation of a second life * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. xi At this the heavens rejoyce this the Angels magnify as of kin to their brightness this is the Image of their blessedness We would willingly praise this if we could say any thing worthy of it Let us never cease however to give him thanks who is the Authour of such a gift Greg. Nyssen L. de Baptismo Christi returning him the small tribute of a chearfull voice for such great things as he hath bestowed on us For thou truly O Lord art the pure and perpetuall fountain of Goodness who wast justly offended at us but hast in much love had mercy on us who hatedst us but art reconciled to us who pronouncedst a curse upon us but hast given us thy blessing who didst expell us from Paradise but hast called us back again unto it Thou hast taken away the fig-leaf covering of our nakedness and cloathed us with a most precious garment Thou hast opened the prison-doors and dismissed those that stood condemned Thou hast sprinkled us with pure water and cleansed us from all our filthiness Adam if thou callest him will be no longer ashamed he will not hide himself nor run away from thee The flaming sword doth not now incircle Paradise making it inaccessible to those that approach it but all things are turned into joy to us who were heirs of sin and death Paradise and Heaven it self is now open to mankind The Creation both here and above consents to be friends after a long enmity Men and Angels are piously agreed in the same Theology For all which Blessings let us unanimously sing that Hymn of joy which the inspired mouth in ancient times loudly prophesied I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my Soul shall be joyfull in my God For he hath cloathed me with the garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness he hath decked me with ornaments as a bridegroom and as a bride adorned me with jewels lxi Isa 10. This adorner of the Bride is Christ who is and who was before and who will be blessed both now and for ever Amen CHAP. X. Concerning the Testimony of the BLOVD the Second Witness on Earth THE next Witness which comes in order to be examined is the BLOUD by which I told you we are to understand the Crucifixion and Death of the Lord Jesus with all the attendants of it This is a Witness which the greatest enemies of Christianity cannot but confess was heard to speak in his behalf The stubborn Jews who will be loth to grant that a voice from heaven declared him the Son of God cannot deny that their forefathers imbrued their hands in his bloud For in the Babylonian Talmud * Vid. Horae Hebr. in Matt. p. 3â—9 Tzemach David ad an 3761. it is delivered as a tradition among them that they hanged Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the evening of the Passeover and that a Crier went before him forty days saying He is to be carried forth to be stoned for conjuring and drawing Israel to Apostasy If any one can speak any thing for him to prove him innocent let him appear It is an hard matter to have any truth from these fabulous people without the mixture of a tale together with it When they cannot gainsay what we believe that their Nation were the great Instruments of his death they endeavour to find false reasons