and the Moon this was the most specious Idolatry of any But the Egyptians who were the first teachers of Sciences had an Ox for their god The Grecians that far excelled them placed Fevers and humane Passions among the deities And the Romanes that surmounted them all in Wisedom have followed them in the like horrours worshipping even the Furies of Hell At this day the poor Americans adore the Thunder but the Chinois so sharp-sighted in every thing else adore the devil Certainly the Justice of God hath been willing to punish the ingratitude of Nations Those that had the most light to know God did not glorifie him as God by reasâ—n whereof he hath left them to the vanity of their sense permitting that the wiser they were they should become the greater fools And this is a thing very ordinary that if a worldly wise man hath in him the spirit of Superstition he becometh more superstitious then the vulgar Quest Whether it be a sufficient reason for adhering to a Religion to alleadge that in it may be sound salvation All the enquiry which many men make when a Religion is in dispute is onely to ask if in it a man may be saved It is of no importance that there are falshoods in their Religion provided say they that they may work out their salvation I speak not here whether they have any good ground for their opinion to think to be saved in a Religion in which themselves know that there are falshoods But supposing that such a crime hindereth not their salvation surely it is incompatible with the honour and love which we owe to the Author of salvation who abhorreth whatsoever is false in matter of his service It is an horrible contempt of God and a mad ingratitude to be well contented that God be dishonoured and that by our selves provided that we may be saved Again is there none other way to go to heaven God sheweth me the truth which leadeth to salvation Why then should I chuse rather to be saved in the profession of a lye if this might be then in the profession of the truth To refuse the truth because salvation may be also found in a lye of it self rendereth a man uncapable of salvation Such as a man is in his own nature such he imagineth that God is Strange horrid conceits of the spirit of man concerning this subject There is not a man if you consider him onely under the dictate of his own nature which doth not figure God unto himself quite other then he is All men conceive a God like unto themselves that is to say conformable to their humours and inclinations or imagine that he ought to be so One as he is a Libertine by no means will believe that God is so severe as he declareth himself to be but attributeth to him an unreasonable indulgencie Another fancieth to himself a god harsh and difficile Another who is afflicted by God complaineth of the excesse of his Justice Behold yet an horrible thing The most infamous wicked man maketh himself to believe that God is like unto him God hath said unto the wicked Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self Psal 50.21 Hardly could we believe that man could be capable of so prodigious a madnesse if God himself had not spoken it Many will object against this that they are far from it that such thoughts never entred into their hearts But though these cogitations come not to their full shape or form yet they are formed in part And howsoever a man choketh them in their conception yet there still remaineth some bud or other of them in the heart of man I passe by them who commit unlawful actions thinking that God also will take them as indifferent and that in this he resembleth them The first man from whom we inherit this disease of spirit imagined that God envied him that he was an enemy of his happinesse and by consequence malignant To know God well it behoveth us first to divert this secret inclination which moveth us to look upon him thorow the glasse of our own humours Of all the Attributes of God which is that which we see first And which is that which we see least The most visible of all and that which presenteth it self first to our eyes is his Power For howsoever all his Attributes are written in his works yet some are read before others And in the contemplation of this great masse of the Universe the first thing that cometh into our thought is the Power and Greatnesse of the Maker In the order therefore of the lessons which the Apostle affirmeth to be contained in the works of God his Power is first named as that which presenteth it self to be seen before all other his Attributes Rom. 1.20 On the other side that which we see last and know least is his Wisdom This proceedeth from many causes One of the courses which the Wisdom of God taketh is to conceal his Wisdom It worketh oftentimes by means ridiculous and abject it employeth means quite contrary to what it intendeth to produce it permitteth disorder and confusion in the world it giveth the upper hand to them that blaspheme against it it buildeth up and throweth down yea it hath chosen the folly of the world for one of its principal agents 1 Cor. 1.27 In all this the Wisedom of God is so much the greater by how much the lesse it appeareth But since to us it is very hardly to be perceived in the greater part of these actions it is very hard to know God by his Wisedom Naturally men may know him by his Power because it is seen as it were to the eye but in the Wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God 1 Cor. 1.21 Now in effect this is not to know God if a man know not his Wisdom Hence it cometh that many fall into Atheism For if on the one side they see a Soveraign Power supporting all things on the other part they see a confused multitude of events which seem not to be governed by a Soveraign Wisdom But one of the Attributes of God cannot be without the other It is impossible that he which is perfectly Powerful should not be perfectly Wise though his Wisdom be not so visible unto us as his Power The two greatest points of Religion The one is the Love of God toward man the other is the Love of man towards God The one is the greatest point of the Gospel the other of the Law As all Religion is reduced to the Law and the Gospel so the Law and the Gospel are referred to these two heads For as the first and greatest Commandment of the Law is that we love God so the first and greatest Article of the Gospel is that God-loveth us About these two Poles do move all the Luminaries of Religion Which are more culpable those who distrust the Power of God or those that doubt of his Mercy toward them
yeeld place unto Christ That the sin of Adam lost those that came after him but the death of Christ hath saved both them that went before and came after it As therefore the first Adam hath caused to die those which were born many ages after him so the second Adam hath quickned them which were dead many ages before him And this hath been one of the causes of the retarding of his coming to wit that he would shew his power working backward to the foregoing ages And finally That it was convenient before Christ died to make it known to the world that the expiation of sins could not be wrought any other way To this effect God proposed first the blood of beasts in Sacrifices afterward the blood of man in Circumcision afterward an infinite number of washings with all the works of the Law as if he would that men should assay all the means which could be imagined for the expiation of sins But this was to the end that they should acknowledge their impotency and should cast their eyes upon the future Sacrifice of Christ Now it was requisite that a good part of the age of the world should passe in the studie of these rudiments before God should send his Son Gal. 4.1 c. An admirable concurrence of the time of Redemption with the times of the most famous Ceremonies of the Law An observation upon this subject It concerneth us that we know the Yeer the Season the Days yea the Hours in the which Christ perfected the work of the Redemption The Law hath marked certain Times as notable among all others Among Yeers that of Jubilee which returned from fifty to fifty yeers in the which servants were set at liberty and lands alienated returned to their first owners Among the annual Feasts that of the Passeover which was the first and principal of all the solemnities of the yeer Among the Days the Sabbath of which the preeminencies are sufficiently notorious Among the Hours of the day that between the two vespers which we reckon the third after noon in which every day was offered the evening Sacrifice which was the conclusion of all daily Ceremonies Exod. 29.39 and in which also was slain the Paschal Lamb when his yeer-day was come Exod. 12.6 Now the Redemption met in all these times in the Yeer of Jubilee in the Passeover in the Hour of the Evening Sacrifice and in the Sabbath In the Yeer of Jubilee according to the most exact Chronologie which reckoning every fiftieth yeer after the division of the Land of promise to the yeer in which Christ died findeth that he suffered in the yeer of Jubilee in the Passeover as it is evident by the History of the Passion in the Hour of the Evening Sacrifice which the Jews called the ninth hour in the which Jesus Christ gave up the Ghost And finally in the Sabbath our Saviour all that day resting in the Sepulchre I know that many long time agone have considered all these particularities but in parcels every one separately That which I here observe is the general concurrence of all the times the most famous in the Law with the time of the Redemption which comprised and determined all To all this I will adde this Observation The yeer of Jubilee began the tenth day after the Equinoctial of September Levit. 15.9 and Jesus Christ died a few days after the Equinoctial of the Spring following Whence it appeareth that he died in the midst of the yeer of Jubilee between the six first months and the six last But the last six months which his death anticipated have been disjoyned from the precedent as appertaining no more to the yeer of Jubilee which hath been cut asunder in the middle that it might be rendered wholly dead A mysterious reason of the name which the Apostle giveth to the Sacrifice of Christ calling it A Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5.2 Many read these terms of the Apostle without knowing the importance nor seeing at what they aim The common Expositours will be contented to tell us that the Sacrifice of Christ is of a good smell that is to say pleasing to God We know that this is true but to know it well we ought to learn from whence the Apostle fetched this phrase and what it is at which he looketh back It behoveth therefore to observe that there were two kindes of Oblations under the Law One sort was accompanied with a perfume of Incense which was burned with them and for this cause they are called Offerings of a sweet savour Levit. 2.2.9 The others howsoever approved by the Law bare not the name of Oblations of a sweet savour because they were without perfume Levit. 2.12 And particularly it is to be noted that it was forbidden to burn any perfume upon the Oblations which were presented for sins Levit. 5.11 in which the Law-giver gave to understand that the memory of sin yea the Sacrifices which mentioned them were not of a sweet savour Numb 5.15 Upon this we are to consider why the Law declared that that which was offered for sins could not be of a sweet savour seeing that Christ was offered for sins and yet his Oblation was of a sweet savour to God his Father The reason is that the Legal Oblations removed not at all the infection of the sin which they represented rather themselves remained burdened with it But Christ bearing our sins upon him vanquished and carried away this corruption This point furnisheth us with an invincible argument against the Jews By the own sentence of the Law all the Expiatory Offerings which it prescribed failed of a sweet favour and could not content the justice of God From whence it followeth otherwise we are for ever miserable that there is another kinde of Offering another Sacrifice of Expiation quite other then those of the Law which abolisheth the stench of our crimes And this quality cannot appertain but to the body of Christ Isai 53 5 6. The Resurrection of CHRIST Nine examples of the Resurrection of the dead which have gone before or followed the Resurrection of Christ An Harmony between those that were raised under the Old Testament and those that were raised by the Son of God while himself was yet mortal THe Wisdom of God hath shewed the Resurrection of the dead in divers examples which it hath distributed with order and proportion Three before the coming of Jesus Christ Three by Jesus Christ himself before his death And Three after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Before the coming of Christ God raised the son of the widow of Sarephta the son of the Shunamite and one dead man that had been cast into the Sepulchre of Elisha 1 King 17. 2 King 4 and 13. Jesus Christ before his death raised the son of the widow of Naim the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus Luke 7.15 Matth. 9. Joh. 11. After the Resurrection of Christ God hath first caused to be seen that of many Saints
were bred in them he turned his discourse on that side The ways of this method are transcendent and appertain to none but him who can read in our hearts A conjecture of what our Lord wrote when the Pharisees demanded his judgement touching the punishment of the adulteresse Joh. 8. Once onely we finde that he read and once onely we finde that he wrote That which he read is recited Luke 4. but that which he wrote is not expressed The holy History saith that upon the demand made to him by the Pharisees stooping down he wrote with his finger upon the ground two several times Some of our most eminent Divines think that they were not characters that bare any signification but that they were lines onely or marks drawn without any other meaning or designe but to divert the importunity of the Pharisees and to make them know that they were unworthy of any other answer But to take it so this action doth not seem sufficiently grave and serious nor which is more sufficiently worthy of the wisdom of the Son of God It is therefore more credible that this writing was significative Now though it be hard to finde what was contained in it since the History hath passed it over in silence neverthelesse many Expositours ancient and modern have brought their conjectures Let it be permitted to me to expresse mine The Law Numb 5. ordained that a woman suspected of adultery should appear before the Priest who among divers other ceremonies took of the dust which was on the floor of the Tabernacle and mingled it with water in an earthen vessel afterward having put the woman to her oath he wrote in a note those curses to which she had submitted and finally blotted out the writing in the water which he gave her to drink having first declared that if she were innocent that drink which contained the blottings of this writing mingled with the dust should not be hurtful to her Now between this Law and the proceeding of our Saviour toward the Pharisees there are found divers resemblances The businesse is concerning a woman an adulteresse The Pharisees alleadge the Law of Moses Our Lord would that they should examine themselves He writeth in the dust on the floor of the Temple where this action passed as if he should say You your selves are you innocent Could you drink this dust which beareth the writing of the oath of execration Let him among you that is without sin cast the first stone at her Why God sent for the forerunner of his Son a Prophet rather then a King And why there was no Christian King for the space of three hundred yeers after the nativity of Jesus Christ God could have raised a King in stead of a man clothed with Camels hair to prepare the way before the Messiah But it would have seemed that the foundations of the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this world had been laid through the strength of the arm of man The Divine calling also hath appeared more evidently in the sending of a Prophet for men can make a King but none but God can make a Prophet For the same cause the wisedom of God would that the Gospel should be spread thorowout the world long time before any King or Emperour embraced the Christian Religion for it is not easie to finde in History any Prince which made profession of it before Constantine the Great Now the Gospel had been before preached for the space of two hundred and eighty yeers To declare that it was not at all planted under the shadow of humane greatnesse Of the humane nature of JESUS CHRIST An excellent gradation in the four Evangelists describing the Genealogiâ— of Jesus Christ ALl the Evangelists exhibite unto us the Saviour but every one of them in his particular method Saint Mark describeth not at all the Genealogie of Jesus Christ but beginneth his History at his Baptism Saint Matthew searched out his original from Abraham chap. 1. Saint Luke followeth it backward as far as Adam chap. 3. Saint John passeth further upward even to the eternal generation of this Word that was made flesh chap. 1. So they lead us to Christ mounting up four several steps in the which he is represented to us In the one we see him onely among the men of his own time then when he conversed with them In the second he is seen in the tent of Abraham In the third he is yet higher to wit in Adam And finally having traversed all ages thorow so many generations we come to contemplate him in the beginning in the bosome of the Father in that Eternity in which he was with God Beyond this general harmony resulting from the agreement of all the Evangelists together there is another particular which I shall by and by observe Why the Scripture giveth the name of Antichrist to him that denieth the Humanity of our Saviour rather then to him that denieth his Divinity This is Antichrist which denieth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh saith Saint John in his first Epistle chap. 4. This Heresie is marked as the most capital and as the greatest opposition to Christianity To deny the Humanity of Jesus Christ is to deny his death and consequently his resurrection and all the dispensation of salvation The Humanity of Christ is more neer unto us and more perceptible by us then his Divinity So that it is an inexcusable crime in man not to acknowledge the Man Jesus Christ Why Jesus Christ after his resurrection called himself no more the Son of man as before-times Jesus Christ before his resurrection is oftener called the Son of man then the Son of God But after he was risen when he speaketh of himself he is no more called the Son of Man Surely the resurrection hath not brought to nothing his Humanity but this name of the Son of Man includeth the weaknesse and sufferings to which he had rendred himself subject as man Now after being delivered out of this abasement and being declared the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead he hath changed his style and is no more called the Son of Man which was the name by which he called himself ordinarily before his resurrection After this he spake divers times to his disciples calling to their remembrance the necessity of his death of which he had before advertised them But he no more expressed the name of the Son of Man When he was yet mortal It behoveth saith he that the Son of man suffer But being raised from the dead Ought not Christ saith he to have suffered Why the most glorious miracles which our Lord wrought were often preceded by some action which witnessed those weaknesses to which his humane nature was made subject In the same time that our Lord went to display his divine power by some extraordinary miracle he often beginneth with some act of humane weaknesse If he appease the tempest it is after he hath been overcome