of the Nations in Haggai The Lord whom they sought in Malachi should come and that suddenly to that Temple The texts are Haggai ii 7. Mal. iii. 1. Both which places are clearly meant of the Messias and the latter of them is so interpreted by Aben Ezra and David Kimchi two of the learnedest Blasphemers of Christ in the Jewish Nation I shall offer but one Testimony more and it is from that Prophet whom I think no man without invincible obstinacy can read and consider and not be a Christian so unquestionable he is for his Authority so evident in his Predictions so punctual in the Circumstances of them I mean the Prophet Daniel who bewailing the desolation of Ierusalem and the 70 years Captivity of his Nation was told by an Angel they should soon be restor'd and Ierusalem be rebuilt But farther that after 7 times 70 that is after 490 years from the going forth of the Commandement for the rebuilding of Ierusalem they should be a Nation no more That within the last 70 of these years the Messias should come the holy One should be Anointed Dan. ix 24. and that he should be cut off but not for himself Verse 26. and then that a Prince should come and destroy the holy City and the Sanctuary as there it follows in the end of the Chapter How Easie a thing was it for any considering man in Christs daies to Reckon within a small matter of those 490 years I say within a small matter because there might be some doubt where to fix the Beginning of that reckoning whether it should begin at the First Commandment for the rebuilding of Ierusalem or at the Last which was about 50 years after Which possibly was the cause why R. Nechonia ben Hakkana who lived about 50 years before Christs Incarnation said as Grotius tells us for I know not his Author we are now within 50 years of the Messias and R. Iose who lived about 50 years after Christs death said according to R. Iacob in Caphtor we are now past the time of the Messia Certain it is that the 100 years between these was a time of great expectation of some extra ordinary Person to come into the World which Expectation began in Iudea and from thence it spread even all the World over Among the Gentiles there were strange Intimations of an Universal King that was then to be born as may appear from Cicero and Virgil from Suetonius and Tacitus in their several Writings Among the Iews it was a Question in every mans mouth where is he that should be born so the Pharisees to Iohn Baptist Art thou he and so the Baptist to our Saviour Art thou he that should come so the People among themselves Is not this that Prophet They were at it upon every Occasion and dearly they paid for it at last For they put the Nations about them all into a ferment with these Discourses and then into a rage with their Commotions which could never be laid but with the Destruction of their Temple and Government according to those Prophesies which being read to them in their Synagogues every Sabbath day as St. Paul saith they fulfil'd because they understood not And as for those obstinate wretches whom God suffered to outlive that Destruction when the terrour of it was a little over and they begin to recollect themselves and to consider what hope they had left of the Promise the Scepter being now departed from Iuda there being no Temple left and the 490 years long since expired what a Confusion they were in 't is not possible to express nor easie to imagine without reading of their Talmud where in the 4th part 4th Book 11th Chap. you may find them casting up among themselves what hopes they had left of their Messias One reflects upon that Prophesie of the School of Elias that the World should last 6000 years 2000 years before the Law and 2000 under the Law and 2000 under the Messias which makes well for us because Christ came much about the year 4000 but made ill for them because that year was then past and gone Another makes mention of two old Prophesies that the Messias should come after 85 Jubilees that is about the year 4200 but those Prophesies gave them no comfort that year also being past and gone A third said all our prefixed times are at an end a fourth that the Messias was come already and lived somewhere incognito a fifth wisht the bones of him broken that should keep any more reckoning of time A strange and a certain accomplishment of that most antient Prophesie concerning the state of the Jews after their rejection of the Messiah that God would sinite them with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart that they should grope at noonday as the blind gropes in darkness a Prophesie that ought not to be lightly past by but I must not go beyond my line I have shewed that our Prophet was foretold and that a time was set for his coming and that in Christs daies that time was come Now what could the Jews desire more but some Token to know him by And such a Token was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text. It signifies properly a Sign though we translate it a Miracle which obliges me to shew what a Miracle is and how fitly it was ordein'd to be the Sign of the great Prophet A Miracle according to the derivation of the word is such a work as is apt to raise Wonder and Admiration in us And admiration proceeds from the ignorance of causes Therefore Fools wonder at many things because they know the causes of few things Wise men admire at those things which proceed from occult causes in nature though the things are very usual and ordinary All men admire at those things which are unusual and extraordinary which if they also exceed the whole power of nature so far as any man is able to judge of it then they are properly and strictly called Miracles In every work by the laws of Nature there must be an Active cause naturally able and ready to work and there must be a Passive matter fitly disposed for it without both which nothing can be done If any thing be done without either of these then it is said to be Supernatural 1 st On the Passive part when either there is no matter at all as in the Creation of the world out of nothing or when there is such a matter as has no fitness for such a use as it was in the Creation and will be at the Resurrection of living man out of the dust of the Earth 2ly In respect of the Agent when the work is above the reach of any natural cause above the power of any Creature that we can know of as the staying of the Sun in Ioshuah's daies or when no second cause is imployed in it or such a cause as has no
nay to invocate them more then God for God is not so often pray'd to as the Virgin Mary but that these blessed Creatures themselves as well as their deluded worshippers have been abused intolerably by the forgers of Miracles I shall instance but in one Doctrine more I might do it in many for there is hardly any one of their upstart Doctrines which has not been taught or promoted this way but this is the transcendent foppery of all the Doctrine of Transubstantiation A Miracle it self they call it in their Manual which teaches them to say thus at the Elevation Oh Miracle Oh the Goodness c. This is done by no Iugling but in the open sight of all the lookers on And what do the Lookers on Discern Do they see any visible change of the Elements no not the least shadow of alteration But what is it that they believe a Miracle Nay more than a Miracle flat Impossibility and Contradiction A subject to be without accidents and accidents without any subject They believe the same body to be at the same time in so many several places and whole in every place in Heaven upon Earth both here and at Rome and in both the Indies Oh monstrous belief had not this need to be supported with Miracles It was propagated by them and Bellarmine proves it by them because some have seen the Host to bleed others have seen a Child in the place of it and he tells us that St. Anthony of Padua's horse forsook his Oats to go and worship it I am sensible that these things are very ridiculous and therefore I am ashamed to mention any more of them And yet I hope you will excuse us if we mention in our Sermons such things as have been the chief Arguments of theirs and such Arguments as their great Masters of Controversie despair not that some may possibly be fools enough to believe them But if I should proceed into their Legends and Lives if I should spread before you the filth of those lewd Romances I should seem to have too little regard to this Place and to this Presence They are stuft with such absurd Tales such idle and extravagant Prodigies as if the Devil had invented them in a wanton humour being not content to have affronted the true Miracles of God and to have had his Will upon the Doctrine of Christ but he must insult also and sport himself with the Ignorance and Superstition of Men. I cannot think of these things without some wonder at those men who knowing that these things are written in their own Books and that some of us are able to Read them can yet be so impudent as to revile and scoffe at the Reformation That happy Recovery of Christian Religion without which their old Tales would have been Gospel still and the Cheat would have proceeded farther still and 't is hard to imagine what a Monster by this time Christianity would have grown I know some of them say that they themselves are the better for it which yet may be a very great Question For though the Crafts-men among them are grown more wary of late daies in shewing of their Tricks and the Writers of them bring their Matters more within compass than their Predecessors did yet they can never wipe off the shame of their Old doings while they read Lessons in their Churches collected out of those Legends and while they Retain those Doctrines nay they make them part of their Creed that owe some their Being and all their Reputation to those gross and palpable Impostures For us we have great cause to bless God for the Reformation which like Christianity when it first appear'd in the world has chased away these Demons and their Oracles from among us I do not hear they work any Miracles among us of late daies unless this be a Miracle which I think is no Wonder that some persons for some causes are won over to so corrupt a Religion For our parts we pretend to no new Miracles nor have any Occasion while we content our selves with the old Doctrines While we hold to the Prophet that God has sent us we may rest in those Miracles that He wrought for us God grant we may be wrought by 'em into a due Faith and Obedience First we owe a duty of Faith to the Doctrines of our Prophet to all that have been taught by him and his Apostles and are left written for us in the Holy Scriptures In which Scriptures though there be many things hard to be understood which ignorant and unstable Souls wrest to their own Damnation yet all those things are Plainly deliver'd which are Necessary for us to know Which were therefore collected by the Apostles into the Creed and own'd by the Fathers under the name of the Apostolical Tradition the Profession of which was necessary for every man at his Baptism to make him a Christian and was sufficient for any man that was Baptiz'd to be known by as a Member of the Catholick Church This is the Tradition not of one or two but of all Ages This is the Faith not of this or that but of all Churches as far as Christianity goes it is the same Faith and Tradition still This has the seal of God to it in all the Miracles of Christ and of his Apostles and of the Primitive Christians Whosoever Adds to it or Varies from it especially if he pretend to Miracles of which the Scripture has forewarn'd us we are bound to defie both Him and his Doctrines If we hold our selves close to this Faith and if This should happen to deceive us what have we to say but with St. Victor Oh Lord it is thou that hast deceiv'd us Thou hast given such plain Demonstrations such visible Testimonies of thy Almighty hand to it that if This should be false we know not what can be true For there is no possible way of certainty of things removed from bodily sense no way to make any thing surer to our belief then that is by which we are made sure of this that this Faith this Christian Doctrine was taught by that Prophet that was sent from God Lastly we owe the duty of Obedience to his Precepts to those Rules of life which he has given us in the name of God Rules that like their Author are full of Justice and Goodness then which nothing can be more fitly contrived to make us live happily here in This world and to prepare us for a Better life in the world to come Nor do they provide only for the Private but also for the Publick They both Direct and Secure every man in his own proper Station So that he were neither a Friend to Himself nor a Lover of humane Society that should not heartily submit to these Laws though he were led to it by no other consideration but that of their own Goodness and Utility But withall when we consider from what hand they come and by whom and in what manner they were sent how can we acquit our selves in the breach of these Laws of the highest Ingratitude and Rebellion against Almighty God That good God that has been pleased to require nothing of us but such things as of themselves are truly best for us and yet as if that were not enough to oblige us has recommended 'em by such a Prophet and confirm'd them to us by undeniable Testimonies Unless we Obey these Laws what can we expect from Him what Ought we to think of our selves If the Iews out of a misunderstanding of God's Counsel did oppose and reject it If that whole Generation of men were overwhelmed with such Calamities as no other Nation ever felt no other Age ever knew If their whole Posterity were sent wandring about the World to make us fear that great God that has sent these Examples to our doors How shall We ever hope to escape if we neglect so great a Salvation as is now offered to us What Examples may God make of us in This World What Judgments must we look for in the Other What Penalties what measure of Wrath can be too much for such ungrateful Wretches such Rebels against the Supream Majesty of God I beseech you pardon me this great Vehemence if any degree of Vehemence can need pardon in the pressing of things that so infinitely concern you That these things do so we shall be more sensible hereafter It is but a little while and He that is now our Prophet shall come to be our Judge and shall call us to a strict Account before him Then will the Observation of his Laws be a Comfort and a Joy Then will the Neglect of them cause Horror and Desperation 'T will be a restless Grief to reflect how easily we were won to Neglect them how easily we might have Observ'd them We have yet the Opportunity before us Good God give us Hearts to Consider it Now in this time of Advent so to remember the First coming of thy Son when He came to be our Prophet that we may be prepared and ready for his Second coming when He shall come to be our Judge To whom c. THE END * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers. 9. * In their Comments on the place * In their Comments on the place * In Teshuba Cap. 9. * In their Comments on the places * In their Comments on the places * De veritate Christ. Relig. l. 5. §. 14. a L. 1. Epist. 1. l. 2. de Divinatione b Eclog 4. c De Vespasiano c. 4. d Hist. l. 4. * Act. xiii 27. * In Sanhedrin c. Chelek * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Deuter. xxviii 28 29. * Joh. iv 49. * In Hilcheth Melachim c. 11. * Ibid. in Sanhedrin †In Berachoth c. Meemathe korin * Israel's Conciliator Part. 1. Q. 11. in Deut. * Joh. xxi 25. Luk xviii 8. v. Rycaut of the Ottoman Empire l. 2. c. 2 3. * In Aboda Zara. * Iustin M. in Apol. 2. Tertull. in Apol. c. 21. v. Euseb. Hist. l. 2. c. 2. * Mat. xii 39. * Mat. xxviii 20. * Mat. xxiv 24 25. Which Text is thus applyed by the Fathers Chrysostom Austin c. v. Ambros. in 1 Cor. xii in fine * De Civ Dei l. 22. c. 8 9 10. * de Sacram. Eucharistiae l. 3. c. 8.
disposition for it no activity but what is Supernaturally given it in all such cases a work is said to be Miraculous This kind of work God is pleased to make use of as the Seal of his Commission to any Person as the Attestation of his hand to any Doctrine so that if any Person or Doctrine be Blameless in other respects and only Questionable for its Authority it sufficiently clears its Authority to be from God that he sends it or suffers it to come to us with the Testimony of Miracles Thus Moses being sent from God to the people of Israel was appointed to take two or three Witnesses along with him namely two or three Signs to assure that captious people that he was truly a Prophet sent from God First he turns his Rod into a Serpent and then that Serpent into a Rod again he makes his hand in an instant become leprous and immediately restores it again he takes up water out of the River and poures it out perfect blood upon the ground Thus also that Prophet like unto Moses Deut xviii 15. was promised to come with signs like him Verse 21 22. To the same effect are many other Texts of the old Testament But I think that one is enough if I can show that the Jews did believe it that they depended upon it and were ready on all occasions to exact this proof of a Messias It is not unlike that the Devil himself who is certainly a great Textuary had some thought of this when he tempted our Saviour to command the stones to become bread But as for the Jews it was unquestionably their way which St. Paul observes 1 Cor. i. 21. the Iews require a sign tell them of their Prophet and presently they call for a Sign How often were they upon these termes with our Saviour He could be no Messias for them unless he would shew 'em a Sign Though some of them before hand were resolv'd not to be convinc'd with it yet none of 'em were to be satisfied without it nay not without many signs as he tells them Joh. i. 5. Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe And 't is observable of Barcozba that famous Impostor who set up for a Messias their own way pretending to make 'em a great flourishing People which so won him their hearts that for a while they generally adher'd to him yet at last distrusting him for want of success they put him to death only for want of a sign Which though Maimonides denies as also he does this Doctrine for fear of being prest with the undeniable Miracles of our Saviour yet the Talmud affirms both these as to that of Barcozba IV. 4. 11. And as to this Doctrine I. 1. 1. as also the Midrash Coheleth c. 1. teaching that all past Miracles shall be as nothing in comparison of the Miracles of the Messias Which being the antient Tradition of the Jews founded in the promises of God deriv'd to them in the prophesies of Scripture which Scriptures were read to them every Sabbath day it is no wonder that the Jews did set their hearts on this way of tryal It remains to shew how Christ did answer their Expectation Who as he was a Prophet above all other Prophets so his Miracles were farr above all other Miracles Never any one did Miracles like him even his Enemies being Judges no nor all that ever were before him according to their own computation For whereas all the Prophets before him in three or four thousand years did but 74 Miracles besides Moses who did 76 if their reckoning were true Our Saviour alone in three or four years time at most did more than it was possible to keep account of insomuch that as St. Iohn says in a proverbial expression if they were all to be reckoned together the whole world could not contain the Books that should be written Whatsoever any man else did of this kind whether Prophet or Apostle he did it by a borrowed and limited Power which he could neither communicate to others nor exercise it himself but by Gods especial appointment but for Christ who had the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him he did what he pleased and when he pleased by himself or by others being determin'd by nothing but by his own Goodness and Wisdom What part of the Creation doth not afford us an instance of his Power who had the blessed Angels at his call and the damned Spirits subject to his will who commanded the seas and the winds and they obeyed him who guided the Fishes in the deep which way he pleased but especially for men that were his peculiar charge he provided against all their necessities and wants their infirmities and miseries He fed them by Miracle he heal'd them by Miracle of sundry diseases which were otherwise incurable of inveterate Dropsies and Leprosies of a Palsie of 38 years of Blindness from ones birth what could one do more but to raise men from the dead and thus he did divers particularly Lazarus who had lain four daies buried in the grave And these things he effected as well absent as present in an instant as by sensible degrees by the applying of his hand by the touch of his garment by the word of his mouth by the motion of his will to shew that any means would serve that no means were necessary that all times and places were alike to the Soveraign vertue that he imploy'd in the working of his Miracles Which works being so evident testimonies of a Divine Authority and being design'd for so universal a Benefit it was necessary that they should be as evidently and universally known And this our Saviour seems to have considered in all his Miracles If any of them were done Privately which were but few in comparison he commanded them not to be spoken of that there might be no suspicion of Imposture But for the generality of his works he did them Openly and publiquely before multitudes or in throngs at Feasts or in Synagogues or in the streets and in the open Sun many of them in the Temple and that at Passeover times in the face of his watchful Enemies and before a whole Nation of witnesses This Miracle in my Text was done in a Desert but it was in the presence of 5000 persons whom the Fame of Christs works had drawn thither to observe him and therefore they could not well be surprized in the manner of it nor could they be deceived in the Action it self for they saw and felt and tasted the effects of it He fully satisfied their hunger and so farr their hopes that they determined to look for no other Messias being assur'd that this was He This of a Truth is that Prophet that should come into the world I have done with the reason of their Judgment and should next proceed to the Use of it but that I am sensible of an Objection in the way which some have started at