nature and the combined power of all second causes And upon this account we may presume these works are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament and our Saviour said to be declared the Son of God with power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That the effect be viâ—â—ble and discernible Without this they can be of no effect to us at all And where miracles are brought as a proof of something else there is great need they should be very evident and apparent Our Saviour's words to John's disciples imply no less They came to know whether he were the Christ or not Matt. 11.4 5. Jesus answered and said unto them go and shew John again these things which ye do hear and see The blind c. Our Saviour dealt sincerely with them and appeals to their senses in the case Shew John those things which ye do hear and see A miracle which is brought to prove a doctrine or doubtfull question had need be more clear than the question is which it is brought to prove And therefore when it is considered as a proof of something else it is necessary that it should be it self very evident and plain For that cannot be judged a good Medium to prove the question by which is not more evident than the question it self Our Saviour's works are brought by him as a proof of the truth of his doctrine Miracles would in this case signifie nothing if they were not very evident The Jews have a proverb to this purpose Buxtorf Lexicon Rabbin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they say of a man that brings an insufficient proof that his surety wants a surety He that is surety for another had need to be of good credit himself Hence it is that these miraculous works in the New Testament are so frequently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. signs And those things which are signs of something had need be more plain and discernible than the things which they signifie and represent and which they are brought to prove Thus are these works frequently called in the New Testament Joh. 2.11 23.3.2.20.30 And in the Old Testament they are expressed by words of the same import and though those words of themselves do not imply a miracle Such among the Hebrews are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which see Abravenel on the Pentat f. 138. co 4. yet they are to be considered according to the subject matter and when they are applied to this purpose they do imply that the miracle must be very evident and clear For the effect can carry no conviction with it if it be not discernible They would have had no reason to believe our Saviour upon the account of his works had they not been visible in their effects He may be presumed to be raised from the dead who by the actions of a living man is able to convince the standers by 'T is a vain thing to pretend a miracle is wrought when no man is able to discern the change of things Jesus turned water into wine Joh. 2.11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him But had the water retained the taste and colour of water and not of wine he had neither manifested his glory nor would his disciples have been moved upon this account to have believed on him But the change was so discernible that the Governour of the feast perceived it by its taste ver 9. Indeed the Church of Rome pretends in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation that the bread and wine in the Sacrament are substantially changed after consecration and yet no man living can discern any such change at all Durandus tells us that there are in that change no less than eleven miracles Durand Rational Divin Offic. l. 4. c. 21. of which no express reason can be given I do not think it worth my while to reckon them up after him Sure I am we have no reason to believe any such thing And 't is a vain and foolish thing to vaunt of so many miracles when there is no appearance of any one and 't is a very unreasonable thing that the Church of Rome should oblige us to believe a miracle which we are not able to discern A miracle which convinceth us of the truth of a Doctrine must be the object of sense it must be seen or felt or discernible some such way And 't is a vain thing to call upon us to believe that which is the motive and ground upon which we believe something else I shall as soon believe a dead man raised to life who yet lies in his grave without either breath or motion as much as the earth in which he lies or that a blind man is perfectly cured who yet hath recovered no sight at all as to believe that to be flesh and bloud which all my senses tell me are bread and wine The miracles which Christ did were wrought that men might believe not the miracles for them they saw but that he was the Christ the Son of God He requires men to believe him and his doctrine for the sake of his works But the Church of Rome would have us believe not onely a doctrine which is not revealed but a miracle also not to say more than one which is not discernible by any of our senses We must believe a miracle though we do not see it and be condemned for Hereticks if we do it not Such a Faith so Catholick and large an one does the Church of Rome require A faith which I am sure we shall never attain unto till that time come which God of his mercy prevent that we are given up to believe a Lie In the mean while we have just reason to believe the doctrine false when we find the miracle a mere pretence And 't will be time enough to believe this doctrine of Transubstantiation when we are able to discern a substantial change I shall prove that the Messiah was to work miracles when he came into the world And this I am obliged to doe because our Saviour appeals to his works as a good proof that he was the Christ the Son of God Indeed Maimonides as I intimated before denies that the Messias was to work miracles But this is not the sense of the Jewish Nation but an opinion that the Jews fly to for refuge For when they are not able to deny the matter of fact they are forced to say that the Messias was not to doe any miracles at all That Jesus lived and that he did wonderfull works they are not able to deny but then the obstinate Jew that cannot deny the works of Jesus yet will affirm that the doing of such works was not a sign or character of the Messias in whose time we are not to look for miracles I shall consider the truth of this pretence And 1. 'T is very certain
quaked greatly These things were very terrible and so were other works which we read of afterward which spoke indeed the presence and power of God but then they spoke his anger too The Sons of Aaron were destroyed by fire Miriam is struck with leprousie the earth swallows up Korah and his company and the fiery serpents plague the people On the other hand our Lord saves but does not destroy Instead of killing or inflicting plagues and diseases upon men he feeds the hungry cures the sick cleanseth the Lepers restores the blind and lame dispossesseth the Demoniacks and raises the dead 4. Our Saviour confirmed his doctrine by raising himself from the dead Moses dyed as well as the other Prophets And though the Jews tell us upon a trifling ground that he did die by the kiss of God's mouth and not after the ordinary manner of men yet they cannot deny that he dyed and 't is not affirmed by any that he rose from the dead He dyed on this side the Land of Promise and was buried over against Beth Peor Deut. 34.8 but the Jews are so far from affirming that he rose again that they knew not where his Sepulchre or place of burial was So that there was no room left for their fraud None could take away his Body and pretend he was risen from the dead Our blessed Saviour did rise from the dead notwithstanding all the art used to prevent it aswell as the spreading of it He had many witnesses of his Resurrection some whereof sealed the truth with their Bloud I shall now consider the pretended miracles of the Church of Rome not that I think them worthy to be compared with those of our blessed Saviour But that Church hath boasted of Miracles and we have large accounts of the wonders which have been wrought within the verge of her own Communion And not to inlarge too far I shall confine my self to those three marks or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which a learned Writer discoursing of this argument hath pitched upon 1. Whereas the miracles which Jesus wrought were grave and serious works substantial and such as proclamed the power and goodness and the wisedom of the Authour of them there is nothing more ridiculous and trifling than many of those which are reported to be done in the Church of Rome Such are the many stories which are told of our Saviour and the Virgin Mary They tell us that she frequently comes from Heaven offers her self in Marriage and brings knacks along with her and bestows them upon her friends and familiars They tell us also of our Saviour that he appears in his Mother's armes as a little Child that sometimes he goes from her and that he was once almost lost in the Snow They tell that the Virgin Mary's house in Nazareth upon discontent removed from thence and travail'd from place to place for the space of about two thousand miles Durand Rational Divin Offic. till it sate down at Loretto They tell that when one of their Preachers who was blind preached though there were no auditours to do it yet the stones that were about him cryed out Amen at his concluding I am ashamed to report the ridiculous stories which they tell of men who carried their heads in their hands after they had been Beheaded for several miles together of others who spake after they were dead of Sheep and Asses running to hear St. Francis preach and of Swine falling dead under his curse Of St. Dominick who hung in the air like a bird and at his Devotions forcing the Devil to hold a light and burn his fingers at that service of Christina who contracted her self at prayer into a round form like that of an Hedgehog and who could climb the highest trees like a Squirrel and swim in rivers like a Fish Of Catharine of Sienna who desired a new heart and thereupon Christ came to her opened her Breast took out her heart goes away with it and brings another and tells her that was his own I will not entertain you with the Stories of the sweating and speaking and motion of their Images of the great feats which have been done by the relicks of Saints and holy water and such like things Such Pranks as these are reported which look more like the feats of Demons of Hob-goblins and Fairies than the finger of God The works of Jesus spake the great wisedom power and goodness of God they were works of great mercy and relief But these stories are Romances and false representations or which is worse they look like the works of an evil Spirit who is abroad ready to deceive them who obey not the truth These things can serve no good and wise purpose and that is not all for they serve a very evil one These false stories are a temtation to men to question the true Men will be too ready to suspect the miracles of Christ when they find themselves imposed upon by those who profess themselves his followers 2. The miracles which Christ did were to confirm the truth of the Christian doctrine But these pretended miracles are brought to confirm a doctrine which Christ and his Apostles never taught Christ and his Apostles taught all Christian doctrine and all the necessary matters of faith And now though an Angel from Heaven should Preach any other Gospel we ought not to receive him Gal. 1.8 9. Were the works of the Church of Rome like our Saviour's works and their doctrine the same with his these works would be of great use to convince unbelievers but not at all requisite where the doctrine was believed before For the doctrine of the Church of Rome it is the same with that of the holy Scriptures or it is not If it be the same there is no need of miracles especially among them who believe the holy Scriptures to confirm that which hath been sufficiently confirmed already But if it be not the same we are not to regard miracles in that Case Nay if an Apostle or Angel from Heaven should Preach another Gospel let him be accursed We shall find that the pretended miracles in the Church of Rome are alledged for the confirmation of the Novel doctrines of that Church not of the Christian doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles We are told that Christ spake intelligibly several times out of the Wafer to a Spanish Franciscan Again that upon the Altar he turned himself from the form of a Consecrated Wafer into that of a little Child and then from that of a Child to that of a Wafer Again that a Woman's Bees not thriving she stole a Consecrated Wafer and put it into one of her Hives The devout Bees in honour to that fall to work and with their honey-combs make a little Church with windows with roof and door with belfry and Altar upon which they laid the Host and did fly about it continually praising the Lord All this is for the confirmation of the doctrine of Transubstantiation
weak and very unlikely means This He did and none but He could doe and and therefore this is a sufficient proof that the Gospel comes from God and that that Jesus whom we Preach is the very Christ 2. Nor yet was the Gospel propagated by force of Arms as the Religion of Mahomet hath been which has made its way in the world by the dint of Sword But Christianity was not thus planted it denounced no War to those that refused it it gave out no menaces to that purpose This it neither did nor would nor could it do The Senate of Rome shall not need fear the Galileans Sword Jesus sent abroad no fighting men there is no Horse prepared for this battel no Spears or Bows These are the Servants of the Prince of peace who are so far from War that they come to require the nations to learn War no more and to beat their Swords into Plough-shares and their Spears into Pruning hooks The Gospel had no potent Princes or States that favoured it that stood up for its defence and maintenance there were none of these powers that took upon them the Title of Defenders of the Faith Nay and they were so far from doing it that they were its avowed enemies and drew their Sword against it So that the first Preachers came naked and unarmed into a furious and potent and idolatrous world Preaching the Gospel of peace and the severe Religion of a crucified Jesus The armour they had was Spiritual and an Armour of light an armour which the victorious Romans had neither used nor yet feared They were girt about with truth that was all their military girdle They put on the breast-plate of righteousness the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God and had their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Eph. 6. These were the armour of the first Preachers of the Gospel and who could expect that they should with these overcome mighty Kingdoms and Provinces And yet with these preparations did they succeed and overcome the greatest nations and brought them into the obedience of the Gospel Let us hear what the Apostle says to this purpose We do not War says he after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.3 4 5. This is evident then that they did not force the Gospel upon the world they did not convey it by the Sword or Battel-bow they neither did nor could do this and yet for all this it succeeded and conquered aye and triumph't also over all the power the policy the strategems of the Devil and all his instruments And got that ground without blows and force which it had never gotten with it To what then must this victory be imputed Not to the Pike and Sword but to the energy and force of Truth and to the mighty blessing and miraculous providence of God It was God that brought this to pass which men could never have done And this is a sufficient Evidence that this Religion comes from God Had it been a lye it could never have had that success by these unlikely means had it been from the Devil or the World sure it would have made use of the instruments and strategems of War to have made room for it in the world But that which is from God needs none of these assistances and helps And this doubtless is a very good argument of the truth of the Christian Religion that it did not make its way by the power of the Sword nor was it preserved that way The Religion of Mahomet indeed spread far but it was by the help of these carnal weapons To the instruments of War and the dissensions and back-slidings of Christians under God's permission it own much if not most of its success Nay what was it else that did uphold Idolatry but the instruments of War and slaughter False Religions are forced to use this force and violence which the truth which comes from God and hath his blessing does not need The pure and undefiled and primitive doctrine of the Gospel did not use nor yet need these aids Indeed the Apostatized Church of Rome which hath falsely called her self the Catholick Church since she left the true Faith of the Gospel hath betaken her self to these carnal weapons And 't is easie to know the cause of it also For when she wanted the evidence of truth she then was fain to run to the power of the Sword By this Sword she cut asunder those knots she was not able to untie And whom she could not confute she would condemn to the fire and fagot The Secular Power must be called in to uphold her grandeur and power St. Peter's Keys are not sufficient unless she unsheath his Sword she is now bolstered up by the powers of this world and when she wants aid from the sword of the Spirit she will derive it from the Sword of Princes Her proceedings shall need to be no objection against what I have said Who though she call herself the Catholick Church is very far from deserving that name and hath rather shewed herself by these her actions the Synagogue of Satan than the Church of Christ she hath declared her cause to be bad which could not be maintained and upheld without the assistance of Secular force The first planters of the Gospel used none of these weapons We read of none they burned for Hereticks no Common-wealths interdicted for hindring their worldly greatness no Navies or Armies raised against those that would not acknowledge them as their Superiours These have been the pitifull arts of that unclean Church of Rome which is an argument that however she vainly boasts her self Catholick yet she does not shew her self in these things at all Christian For the Church of Christ never got its growth by these carnal weapons 3. It was propagated by sufferings by patient enduring of tribulations Prayers and Tears were the onely weapons of the Primitive and undefiled Church of Christ The Bloud of Martyrs was that fruitfull feed that did so strangely increase and multiply Which is an argument that Jesus was the Christ and this Religion came from God Had it been otherwise it had not been possible but those first persecutions had quite rooted it out of the world Had it not been of God it must needs have so fallen out We see in the greatest Rebellions how soon they are stopped when the chief Heads and Leaders are taken and punished This puts an end to any Insurrection or Confederacy And so would it have done by Christianity also had it not been from Heaven and been accompanied with truth and righteousness So that fire and sword cannot vanquish it prisons and
been perverted by some men and scoffed at by others In all that I have done I have sincerely pursued after truth if I have any where mistaken I shall most readily and thankfully hearken to him who shall shew me my Error I do intend a second part in which I design to examine the objections which we find in the Jewish writers against the truth which I have defended in this first and against the Religion which Jesus taught I shall in that particularly consider their pretenses for their unbelief And they are such as these viz. That their law is of perpetual obligation that the promise of the Messias was conditional and the time of his coming not fixed that there are some Prophecies relating to the Messias and his times not fulfilled in Jesus c. I do very well know that there are in the Church of England a great number of men who are better sitted for such an undertaking than I am I should be so far from esteeming it a disappointment if any of them would prevent me in what I design farther that it would be matter of rejoycing to me And if what I have done already may be but an occasion to excite some other person to doe better I shall think my time well spent and be very well content that what I have here offered should be laid aside or overlooked The Contents of the several Chapters contained in this Book CHAP. I. Of the name Jesus That this name by which our Saviour was called and distinguished from other men is no objection against the Prediction Isa 7.14 The importance of the name Jesus In what sense our Lord is said to be a Saviour His Salvation compared with the deliverances mentioned in the Old Testament Of the word Christ Of anointing things and persons and the design of it Of the anointing of Jesus Some account of the Jewish constitutions about anointing with their holy Oil. pag. 5 6. CHAP. II. It is agreed between Jews and Christians I. That there was a Messias promised and II. That there was such a person as our Jesus and III. That there was at that time when Jesus lived a general expectation of the Messias That hence it was that there appeared so many Impostours about that time An account of some of them from Josephus Of the promises of the Messias and the gradual revealing of them A Passage in Maimon concerning the Afternoon-Prayer misrepresented by a late learned writer Several particulars relating to the Messias predicted pag. 42. CHAP. III. Of the birth of Jesus Of his lineage and kindred Of the place of his birth The seeming difference in the account of Bethlehem by the Prophet Micah and St. Matthew reconciled Of his being born of a Virgin A particular explication of 1. Tim. 2.15 She shall be saved in Child-bearing The time of his birth agreed with the predictions and general expectation of some great Person Several testimonies to this purpose The miserable shifts and evasions of the Jews pag. 58. CHAP. IV. That the Messias was to be a Prophet Deut. 18. v. 18. considered That our Jesus was a Prophet like unto Moses shewed in sundry particulars That the Messias was to converse much in Galilee according to the prediction Isa 9.1 2 3. That place more particularly considered That our Jesus did so Several other Characters of the Messias belonged to Jesus That the Messias as was predicted was to doe stupendious works pag. 87. CHAP. V. The works of Jesus Mat. 11.4 5. considered Of the miracles which Jesus did The vanity of the Jews in attempting to disparage them The opinion of Maimonides that the Messias would not work miracles considered and the Authour of Tractatus Theolog Polit. What a Miracle imports That the Messias was to work miracles proved against Maimonides That they are a good argument of the truth of a Doctrine That Jesus did work true miracles This proved at large pag. 105 106. CHAP. VI. The Miracles which Jesus did compared with those which were really wrought by the hands of Moses with the pretended ones of the Church of Rome and with those storied of Apollonius Tyanaeus and some other Heathens Of the sufficient assurance which we have that Jesus did those works which are reoprted of him pag. 161. CHAP. VII That the Messias according to the predictions of him was to suffer This proved against the Jews Of the vanity of their twofold Messias the Son of Joseph and the Son of David The reason why the Jews make use of this pretence That Jesus did suffer That he suffered those things which the Messias was to suffer Luk. 24.26 46. and Act. 3.18 considered Zech. 9.9 to be understood of the Messias this proved against the Jews at large Of the kind of Christ's death Crucifixion was none of the Jewish capital punishments Of the Brazen Serpent Numb 21. St. John ch 3.14 considered The Jewish Writers acknowledge that the brazen Serpent was symbolical and spiritually to be understood Of the time when Jesus suffered that it did exactly agree with the type of the sufferings of the Messias A large digression concerning this matter Exod 12.6 considered Castalio justly censured for his ill rendring that place Of the two Evenings among the Jews The ground we have for it in the Scriptures The testimony of R. Solomon Of the practice of the Jewish Nation as to the time of offering their evening Sacrifice and the Passeover This shewed from their best Authours An objection from Deut. 16. v. 6. answered Jesus died at that time when the Paschal Lamb was to be slain Of the place and many other particulars relating to the sufferings of Jesus Of the great causes and reasons of the sufferings of Jesus Of the Burial of Jesus pag. 191 192. CHAP. VIII Of the Resurrection of Jesus That we have sufficient evidence that Jesus did rise from the dead That we have the most unexceptionable humane Testimony Why the same number of men are called the eleven and the twelve elsewhere when they were but Ten John 21.14 Explained This confirmed by the Testimony of an Angel and by Divine Testimony That Jesus removed all cause of doubting of the truth of his Resurrection That there were a select number of Men chosen to be witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus That these witnesses as also the Evangelists are worthy of belief That it was foretold that the Messias should rise from the dead The words Ps 11.5 This day have I begotten thee are justly applied to this matter This proved against the Jews at large That Jesus rose from the dead is an undeniable proof that he is the Messias and of the greatest importance to us Of the time when Jesus rose from the dead Why on the third day And how he could be said to rise on the third day who was but one whole day in the Sepulchre and how this agrees with Matt. 12.40 where Jesus said he should be three days and three nights in the heart of the
these all having obtained a good report by faith received not the promise God having provided some better thing for us This is the great perfection of the Christian institution that it gives the clear promise and sure hopes of Eternal life And 't is mentioned as doing so when it is compared with the Mosaical institution Heb. 7.19 For the Law made nothing perfect i. e. it did not perfect those very men who lived under it and submitted to it For it not giving a full pardon for offences and not affording express assurance of Eternal life it was not powerfull enough to perfect those who were under it But then follows what the Gospel doeth But the bringing in of a better hope did by the which we draw nigh unto God Where we find the Gospel called the bringing in of a better hope and that must be the hope of Eternal life for the hope of temporal good things was brought in by the Law of Moses Agreeably hereunto it is also said of Jesus that he was made a surety of a better Testament Heb. 7.22 And a Mediatour of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises Heb. 8.6 And it is elsewhere said of Jesus that he hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 2.10 And the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks to the same purpose elsewhere Heb. 9.6 7 8. He tells there were two parts of the Sanctuary which he calls two Tabernacles and that the Priests went always i. e. constantly twice every day into the first Tabernacle accomplishing the service of God viz. to offer incense and to take care of the Lamps But into the second went the high Priest alone once every year not without bloud which he offered for himself and the errours of the people Thus the High Priest at the day of expiation onely was admitted into the Holy of Holies The meaning of this is expressed in the following words The holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing The meaning of which words is plainly this That the holy Spirit by this appointment in the Mosaical institution Pag. 332. 333. did intimate that the way to Heaven was not laid open during that dispensation And this will evidently appear from what hath been said before to this purpose 2 Pet. 1.3 4. St. Peter blesseth the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope Or an hope of life as it is in another Greek Copy and that of Eternal life also as appears from the following words by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you Here we have an encouragement incomparably great and such as will sufficiently move us to obedience The hope of eternal life is enough to engage us to obey the precepts of Jesus and to reconcile us to all the labour and difficulty which may at any time attend upon our obedience Eternal life imports more than we can express or comprehend something more excellent than what our eye hath seen our ear hath heard or our shallow mind is able to conceive Crowns and Scepters Feasts and Triumphs worldly Success and prosperity are but little and faint resemblances of the eternal unspeakable and inconceivable happiness This it clearly revealed the promise is often repeated the thing promised is expressed by words of the highest import and in such a manner as speaks the thing it self too big to be expressed and too glorious to be comprehended by men who dwell in the body It is a reward stupendiously great and therefore very powerfull it is spiritual and therefore engageth us to be so too it is conditional and therefore is fitted to secure our duty The faint hope of riches of honour of temporal good things hath a mighty force The hope of Heaven where it is well grounded where believed and considered with due application will be of great force to render us patient and diligent and fervent in our obedience I proceed to consider The help and power to obey this Religion which the Religion of Jesus is attended with The laws of our Saviour have the promise of Divine assistance annexed to them The effusion of the Holy Ghost was a blessing reserved for the days of the Messias Our Saviour promised this Divine aid and made good his word as hath been shewn before Joel 2.28 Isa 35.7.44.3 Joh. 14. The Prophets of old did foretell what our Jesus made good And when Jesus did promise the Holy Spirit to his followers he did promise him as a Comforter who should abide with them for ever Indeed the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were not designed to continue in the Church any longer than the reason and the necessity of them continued When the Christian Doctrine was planted and Vniversally received Miracles ceased But the Holy Spirit continues still in the Church of Christ and does renew and purifie the hearts of the sincere believers We have the utmost assurance that we shall receive this Holy Spirit who helps our infirmities Lu. 11.13 Rom. 8.26 1 Joh. 44. and is greater in us than he who is in the World The Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit and of such a spirit as does not kill as the letter of the law did but giveth life 2 Cor. 3.6 8. Gal. 2.3 5 14. 'T is by faith and not by the law that we have the promise and the assistance of the Spirit Gal. 4.6 Rom. 8.3 The Gospel is a state of liberty of ingenuity and freedom We are by this Spirit freed from the greatest slavery and bondage from the Dominion of our lusts and the dread and horrors of our conscience We are enabled to obey and endued with power to doe what our Religion does command Hence it is that the Gospel Rom. 5.21 Gal. 5.4 Tit. 2.11 as it is considered in opposition to the law is called grace or the grace of God in the new Testament because it is accompanied with power or grace enableing us to yield obedience to the precepts of Jesus Christ And our obligation to conquer our sins under the Gospel is now inferred from our having embraced it Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have Dominion over you For ye are not under the law but under grace i. e. Sin shall no longer over-power you now for ye are not under the law which did indeed rigourously require obedience but not help you to obey but ye are under grace that is ye are now admitted to a covenant of grace where you have not onely assurance of pardon upon your sincere repentance but are encouraged also by the promise of eternal life and offered assistance to enable you to obey On the other hand the law
the Messias and to be taken into the Common-wealth of Israel which because it could not be unless they forsook their Idolatry we find the Prophets foretell also that they should put away their Idols Thus the Prophet assures us And the Idols he shall utterly abolish In that day a man shall cast his Idols of Silver and his Idols of Gold which they have made each one for himself to worship to the Moles and to the Bats Isa 2.18 20. And another Prophet tells us It shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord of Hosts that I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the Land and they shall be no more remembred Zech. 13.2 These are very plain words as can be So that it must be in the days of the Messias that the Gentiles should no longer be strangers and aliens from the covenant of grace This difference between Jew and Gentile is now to be removed God will not onely be known in Judah but among all the Families of the earth We find Philo the Jew speaking of God's governing the Universe discoursing to the same purpose Philo Jud. de Agricultura He tells that God rules his creatures according to right and law as a Shepherd and a King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. Setting over them his right Word his first begotten Son who as his Substitute or Vice-gerent of him the great King shall take upon him the care of this holy Flock For it is somewhere said behold I will send my Angel c. Exod. 23.20 That these prophecies were in great measure fulfilled in our Jesus I say in great measure For I cannot but hope that there are still many prophecies relating to the Kingdom of the Messias in this world in great measure to be fulfilled Now if these prophecies are already in great measure fulfilled then is this Jesus the Christ That they were in great measure fulfilled is very evident For though Jesus himself lived and died in Jewry yet did not his Doctrine stay there There he lived indeed but yet in Galilee of the Gentiles not far off from the poor Gentiles whom he came to save also He tells the Jews no less I saith he if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me Joh. 12.32 That is after his death his Doctrine should greatly prevail upon the world so that all men should come after him And thus we find after his death and Resurrection he gives his disciples commission to go and teach all nations Mat. 28.19 or as it is in St. Mark go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 And to that purpose they have the gift of tongues bestowed on them that so they might be able to teach all nations as their Lord had commanded them Act. 2. Now we shall soon find the Gospel preached to the Gentiles we read of the Ethyopian Treasurer and Cornelius the Centurion baptized into the Christian faith But what shall I need speak of them when St. Paul is made a preacher to the Gentiles who tells us of the fruit of his preaching also viz. the obedience of the Gentiles Rom. 15.18 In so much that he is able to say that the Gospel was preached to every creature which is under Heaven Col. 1.23 And his success is so great that the Idolatrous Gentiles turned from Idols to serve the living and true God 1 Thes 1.9 Tertullian tells us in his time Tertull. Apolog. c. 37. those early days of Christianty how far Christianity had prevailed Externisumus vestra omnia implevimus urbes insulas castella municipia conciliabula castra ipsa tribus decurias palatium senatum forum Sola vobis relinquimus templa Cui bello non idonei non prompti fuissemus etiam impares copiis qui tam libenter trucidamur Si non apud istam disciplinam magis occidi liceret quà m occidere Nay the mouths of the Oracles are now stopped which made so great a wonderment in the Gentile world The head of the Serpent that so long had deceived the nations is now broken by the seed of the Woman In a word those Cities and Provinces that lately were full of Idols and Superstition receive the Doctrine of Jesus and with it the worship of the onely true God Nay and 't is not long before we have Christian Kings also in the world So that the Religion of Jesus spreads it self over the world and rides triumphantly and in great conquest like the rider of the white Horse in the Apocalypse that went forth conquering and to conquer But I proceed to shew That this success of the Religion of Jesus is an unexceptionable proof that Jesus is the Christ Not that I would be thought to make success the measure of truth or affirm that the most prosperous cause is always the best For then the Religion of Mahomet would bid fair for the truth and the greatest outrages and rebellions would become innocent and good Success is no certain sign of a good cause and therefore not of the truth of a Religion unless it be such a success as all things considered must onely be imputed to the force of truth and a miraculous providence that makes it prosperous I shall shew then that the success of the Gospel was such as does necessarily infer that Jesus is the Christ and that the Religion which he preached and planted in the world did come from God where as we go along it will be easie for us to understand that Mahumetism can have no share in this argument now it will appear that Jesus is the Christ and also that the Gospel which he and his disciples preached comes from Heaven in a word that the Christian Religion is not onely true but the onely true Religion if we do but well consider its success and progress in the world Now this will appear 1. If we consider the first Authour and first preachers of this Religion and 2. The Doctrine it self and 3. The manner of its spreading in the World 1. For the first Authour or teacher of this Doctrine it was Jesus the Son of a Poor Virgin and the reputed Son of a Carpenter One would have thought him very unlikely to have done any great things He was one that was born in a stable at Bethlehem brought up in the obscure Countrey of Galilee set at nought by his Countrey-men and after many sufferings and calamities condemned to a Cross and hanged among thieves and malefactors where he gave up the Ghost after a short and painfull life He came into the world with no grandeur he made no noise in it and he left it by a death most ignominious and disgracefull And yet did his Doctrine spread and his Religion prevailed against all oppositions and threw down all superstitions and false Religions whatsoever This could not have been if Jesus had not been the Christ I will make use of the words of one of
the Ancient writers of the Church upon this occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Histor Eccles. lib. 10. c. 4. c. i.e. What King says he was ever of so great power as to fill the ears and the tongues of all the inhabitants of the earth What King ever made laws so pious and sober as could prevail upon the inhabitants of the whole earth from one end of the earth to the other Who ever was able to void the barbarous and cruel customs of the Heathen by mercifull and gentle laws Who ever met with so long and great an opposition and had force enough not onely not to be extinct but to thrive and flourish under this oppression Who ever sent about the world a people obscure and scarcely heard of before Who ever bestowed on his Souldiers such a spiritualarmour that they gave proof to their enemies of minds hardy and strong as the Adamant What ever King shewed such puissance and force after his death Who ever erected such Trophies over his enemies Who ever filled all places Countries and Cities of the Greeks and Barbarians with stately palaces and consecrated Temples And for his disciples the first preachers of the Gospel what were they No Princes of an Ancient bloud but obscure fisher-men No select Orators from Rome or Athens but poor illiterate Galileans No great Captains or Commanders but men of great simplicity and peaceableness They were men very unlikely to doe any great things having no reputation for depth of wisedom or any thing of power or worldly greatness Such were the first planters of the Gospel And who would look for any great success from so small a beginning Who would have believed that such men as these had been big enough to have grapled with the wisedom of the Greeks the power of the Romans the malice of their Countrey men the Jews with the rudeness and hardiness of all the Heathen world A man might as well have believed that a few Shepherds might have driven Hannibal from the gates of Rome Or that a few peasants had been able to drive Xerxes with his great multitude out of Greece or that a single and an unarmed man could be able to put to flight the stoutest Regiment or Legion of Souldiers a man might as easily have believed that a few Children had been able to take the strongest Garrison as that these men should have been able to have stood up and prevailed against the Devil and all his complices against all the policies and powers all the wit and malice of a wicked world and so far to prevail too with the preaching of a Christ Crucified as to perswade the world to forsake their worship of false Gods whom their fathers had worshipped and to own a Crucified Saviour Certainly they that could doe this as we know they did had an almighty power to their assistance None but God could have done this whoever does but rightly consider and weigh it It must be an infinite power that by such weak means could bring such great things to pass 2. For the Doctrine it self if we duly consider it we shall find it very unlikely to prevail upon the world whether we consider 1. The credenda or matters of saith that it did contain which must needs seem very uncouth and strange if not very unreasonable to the world As that the world was made and made of nothing when ex nihilo nil fit was a maxim in the Heathen Philosophy That there is but one God when in the Heathen world there were thought to be many Gods and many Lords That though there were but one God yet there were three persons and these three were one This must needs be a strange Doctrine at Rome or Athens That they must believe Jesus and the Resurrection was so strange a thing to the Athenian Philosophers that they encountred St. Paul and some called him babler and others were so ignorant of what was meant by the Resurrection that they took it for a God He seemeth say they to be a setter forth of strange Gods because he preathed unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus and the Resurrection And they affirmed that he brought certain strange things to their ears Act. 17.18 20. He preached Christ Crucified who was unto the Jews a Stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness 1 Cor. 1.23 They are taught to place their hopes in a Crucified Lord and to own him as their onely Saviour and Redeemer whom they had never seen or heard of before whom none of their Philosophers had spoken of They must beleive the Resurrection of the dead which they had not heard of before And that there is no name under Heaven by which they can be saved but by the name of Jesus And this they did which they could never have been perswaded to have done had not these things been from God to whose miraculous providence this success must be ascribed But then if we consider 2. The agenda or precepts of the Gospel they were such as were very unlikely to have obtained in the world had not these things been from God For what is it that the Gospel teaches them To deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts to walk righteously and soberly and Godly in this present world It forbids not onely the doing injuries but the revenging of them It forbids not onely evil actions but an evil thought and intention of the heart It does not onely forbid adultery but also a wanton glance and is so far from allowing murther that it most severely forbids hatred and rash anger It not onely forbids perjuries but requires of us that we should not swear at all It ties our hands locks up our eyes chains our thoughts and restrains all the irregular desires and warmer propositions of flesh and bloud It will not allow the wisest Philosopher to make any ostentation of his parts or learning Nor the greatest Captain or General to boast of his valour but teaches them both to be very humble and very peaceable It teaches us to undervalue all the grandeur of the world all its riches and honours and pleasures and commands us rather to foregoe them all with life it self than to deny the saith of Jesus It requires men to love God with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves To forgive their enemies to pray for their persecutors to do good to those that do evil unto us It forbids us to give blow for blow or railing for railing It commands us to give Alms to the Poor and to give to every one that asketh be he friend or enemy good or bad thankfull or ungratefull and when we have it commands us to make no boasts or brags but to expect a recompence onely from him that sees in secret It lays a great restraint upon our tongues which it obliges us most severely to keep in order It will not allow us to speak evil of our Brother to call him fool or Raka It forbids us to