a Fire from Hâ—aâ—en devoured others there was not a Man of all the Congregation but must be an Eye-witness to this Judgment and there could be no Deceit nor Mistake in a thing of this nature For Men may as well doubt whether those whom they see live are alive as whether those whom they see taken away by so terrible and so visible a death are dead and unless they can know this there can be no Knowledge nor Proof of any thing They saw the Earth first divide it self and then close it self again upon these wicked Men they saw them go down alive into the pit they heard the Cry of them and fled away â—oâ— fear and they saw besides a Fire from the Lord consume no fewer than Two hundred and fifty Men and these the Men that offer'd Incense in opposition to Aaron Princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown whose death was very remarkable upon the account of their Persons as well as for the Manner of it So many Men of that Rank and Character being taken away at once was a thing that would have been much observed and strictly enquir'd into if they had fain by any other death but their dying in this manner was so wonderful and so plain a declaration of the Divine Justice that it could neither be unknown nor forgotten by any Man in the whole Congregation Yet their Discontents against Moses still continued for He and Aaron were charged with killing the people of the Lord ver 41. and the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron and behold the cloud covered the tabernacle of the congregation and the glory of the Lord appeared And God's Wrath was so hot against the People for their Stâ—bbornness and Disobedience that notwithstanding the Intercession of Moses and Aaron in their behalf a Plague from the Lord raged so much amongst them that they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred beside them that died about the matter of Korah ver 49. And there were probably many Families in every Tribe which bore the marks of God's Displeasure and of the Truth of Moses his Mission and then Aaron's Rod alone blossom'd of all the Rods of the Twelve Tribes but by this time the people were weary of their contumacy and cried out â—â—hold we die we perish we all perish Shall we be consumed with dying Num. xvii 12 13. And thus was an end put to a Sedition which was the greatest and the most dangerous as Josephus well observes that was ever known among any People and such as that so dreadful a succession of Miracles was necessary to deliver Moses out of it And I would know of the greatest Infidel whether if he had lived at that time and had been in the Wilderness with Moses and had been of Korah's Conspiracy as it is most likely he would have been I would know of him I say whether he could have done any thing more to put Moses upon the utmost tryal of his power and Authority received from God than these rebellious Israelites did And if he could not as he must needs confess he could not then he ought to be satisfied in the Authority of Moses as they themselves afterwards were unless he has an ambition to shew that some Christians can be more refractary than Jews Yet again when they wanted Water the Peopled quarell'd with Moses and said Would God that we had died when our brethren â—ied before the Lord. And Moses brought Water out of the Rock before the whole Congregation in so great plenty that the whole People and their Cattle just ready to perish with thirst was satisfied with it Num. xx 3 10. At another time after a signal Victory over the Canaanites they made the same Complaints again and for their Murmurings were stung by fiery Serpents and many died till a Brazen Serpent being erected as many as looked on it were miraculously cured Num. xxi 6. And if the delivering the Law in so conspicuous and wonderful a manner if so remarkable Judgments upon those that questioned and opposed Moses his Authority and that transgressed his Law by committing Idolatry if a continual course of Miracles for Forty Years done before the eyes and obvious to every sense of so many thousands of People be not a plain demonstration that the Matter of Fact in all the circumstances of it necessary to prove Moses to have acted by God's immediate Authority and Commission was at first sufficiently attested it is impossible that any thing can be certainly testified We see how impossible it was for Moses to impose upon the People of Israel in things of this nature it he could have been so far forsaken of all Reason and common Sense as to hope to do it But if he had designed to put any deceit upon them he would certainly have taken another course he would have done his Miracles privately and but seldom not in the midst of all the People for Forty Years together he would never have made two Nations at the first Witnesses to them and then have proceeded in such a manner as that every Man among the Israelites must have known them to be false if thy had been so he would have chosen such Instances to shew his Miracles in as should have provoked no body not such as must have enraged the whole People against him by the death of so many thousands so often put to death if they had been slain by any other means than by the Almighty Hand of God And indeed what could destroy so many so irresistibly so suddenly and visibly but the Divine Power And what could be the Design and Intent of such Miracles but to fulfil the Will of God and make his Power to be known and his authority acknowledged in the Laws which were delivered in his Name and which were so often affronted and transgressed by these Sinners against their own Souls At their going out of Aegypt by a miraculous Providence there was not one feeble person among their tribâ—s but upon their transgressions they were punished by Diseases as miraculous We have other Evidence as I have before observed that Moses had no design to delude the People of Israel from the Meekness of his Disposition from his discovering his own Faults and Infirmities in his Writings and from his not advancing his Family but leaving his Posterity in a private condition and putting the Government into the hands of Joshua one of the Tribe of Ephraim But when all the People of Israel were Witnesses to so many Miracles wrought by him and particularly to so strange a Judgment as the cleaving asunder of the Earth and the Fire and Plague by which so many thousands perished we need not insist upon any other Proof to shew that the Miraculons Power and Divine Authority by which Moses acted and wrote was as well attested and as fully known to the whole People of Israel as it is possible for any Matter of
Argument Whereas if Chistians were but throughly acquainted with the Grounds of their Religion and sincerely disposed to believe and practise according to them they would be no more moved with these Cavils than they would be persuaded to think the worse of the Sun if some Men should take a fansie to make that the Subject of their Railery To have the more doubtful and wavering thoughts of Religion because it is exposed to the scorn and contempt of ill Men is as if we should despise the Sun for being under a Cloud or suffering an Eclipse not knowing that he retains his Light and Religion its Excellency still though we be in darkness the Light may be hid from us but can lose nothing of its own Brightness though we suffer for want of it and lie under the shadow of Death The Consideration of the Grounds and Reasons of our Religion is useful to all sorts of Men for if ever we will be seriously and truly Religious we must lay the foundation of it in our Vnderstandings that by the rational conviction of our Minds we may through the Grace of God assisting us bring our Wills to a submission and our Affections to the obedience of the Gospel of Christ and the more we think of and consider these things the more we shall be convinced of them and they will have the greater power and influence in the course of our Lives For tho' the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot without great sin and ignorance be doubted of by Christians yet it is a confirmation to our Faith and adds a new Life and Vigour to our Devotions when we recollect upon what good Reasons we are Christians and are not such by Custom and Education only but upon Principles which we have throughly considered and must abide by unless we will renounce our Reason with our Religion And what Subject can be more useful or more worthy of a rational and considering Man's Thoughts These things which are now made matter of Cavil and Dispute will be the Subject of our Contemplation and of our Joy and Happiness to all Eternity in the other World We shall then have clear and distinct apprehension of the Means and Methods of our Salvation and shall for ever admire and adore the Divine Wisdom in the Conduct and Disposal of those very Things about which we now are most perplex'd THE CONTENTS PART I. CHAP. I. That from the Notion of a God it necessarily follows That there must be some Divine Revelation THE Being of a God evident to Natural Reason p. 3. That there are wicked Spirits Enemies to Mankind p. 6. The miserable Condition of Man without the Divine Direction and Assistance and that God would not leave him without all Remedy in this Condition p. 8. The Judgment of St. Athanasius in the Case p. 15. CHAP. II. The Way and Manner by which Divine Revelations may be suppos'd to be deliver'd and preserv'd in the World The Manifestations of God's ordinary Providence insufficient and therefore some extraordinary Way of Revelation necessary p. 19. The ways of extraordinary Revelation either immediate Revelation to every particular Person or to some only with a Power of Miracles and Prophecies to enable them to communicate the Divine Will to others p. 20. I. It could not be requisite that God should communicate himself by immediate Revelation to every one in particular ibid. II. Prophecies and Miracles are the most fitting and proper Means for God to discover and reveal himself to the World by p. 29. 1. Concerning Prophecies ibid. 2. Concerning Miracles p. 33. III. Divine Revelations must be suppos'd to be preserv'd in the World by Writings p. 43. IV. They must be of great Antiquity p. 44. V. They must be fully publish'd and promulg'd p. 45. PART II. CHAP. I. The Antiquity of the Scriptures THE Antiquity of the Scriptures a Circumstance very considerable to prove them to be of Divine Revelation p. 48. They give an Account of Divine Revelations made from the beginning of the World ibid. What Moses relates of things before his own time is certainly true and must have been discover'd to be false if it had been so p. 50. CHAP. II. The Promulgation of the Scriptures 1. In the first Ages of the World the Revealed Will of God was known to all Mankind p. 58. II. In succeeding Ages there has still been sufficient Means and frequent Opportunities for all Nations to come to the knowledge of it p. 76. 1. The Law of Moses did particularly provide for the instruction of other Nations in the Reveal'd Religion p. 77. 2. The Providence of God did so order and dispose of the Jews that other Nations had frequent Opportunities of becoming instructed in the True Religion p. 90. Testimonies of the Heathen concerning the Jews and their Religion p. 115. There have ever been divers Memorials and Remembrances of the true Religion among the Heathen p. 117. Of the Sibylline Oracles p. 121. The Gospel had been preach'd in China and America before the late Discoveries p. 129. The Confessions both of Protestants and Papists as to this Matter p. 132. Christians in all Parts of the World p. 135. A Sect call'd the Good Followers of the Messiah at Constantinople p. 136. Though great Part of the World are still Vnbelievers yet there is no Nation but has great Opportunities of being converted p. 141. The Case of particular Persons consider'd p. 142. CHAP. III. Of Moses and Aaron The Sincerity of Moses in his Writings p. 146. He was void of Ambition p. 149. Aaron and he had no Contrivance between themselves to impose upon the People p. 151. CHAP. IV. Of the Pentateuch The Pentateuch written by Moses p. 152. The great Impartiality visible in these Books p. 153. The Book of Genesis an Introduction to all the rest p. 154. The principal Points of the History of the Jews confess'd by the Heathen p. 155. CHAP. V. Of the Predictions or Prophecies contain'd in the Books of Moses The Promise of the Messias p. 158. The Predictions of Noah ibid. The Promises made to Abraham p. 159. The Prophecies of Isaac c. p. 160. of Jacob p. 161. of Balaam p. 162. of Moses p. 163. CHAP. VI. Of the Miracles wrought by Moses I. The Miracles and Matters of Fact contain'd in the Books of Moses as they are there related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested p. 170. II. The Relations there set down are a true Account of the Miracles wrought by Moses and such as we may depend upon p. 188. For 1. These things could not be feign'd by Moses and Aaron and others concern'd with them in carrying on such a Design p. 189. 2. The Miracles could not be feign'd nor the Books of Moses invented or falsify'd by any particular Man nor by any Confederacy or Combination of Men after the Death of Moses p. 191. 3. The Pentateuch could not be invented nor falsify'd by the joynt Consent of the whole Nation either in
to himself thereby The greatest Masters of Decency have not thought it always improper for Men to commend themselves either because they supposed some occasions might require it or because it was a more usual thing in ancient Times when Mens Lives and Manners were more natural and sincere and they oftner spoke as they thought both of themselves and others yet we no where find Men speaking so freely in disparagement of themselvs as in the Holy Scriptures Which shews that Moses and the rest of the Inspired Writers little regarded their own Praise or Dispraise but wrote what God was pleased to appoint it being a thing indifferent to them so God might be honoured whether they lost or gained in their own Reputation by it But what we read of Moses Num. xii 3. that he was very meek above all the Men which were upon the face of the Earth which is the only commendable Character that Moses gives of himself may be translated that he was the most afflicted Man according to the Marginal Reading and if he mentions his own Meekness he mentions also his great Anger or heat of Anger Exod. xi 8. and his being very wroth Num. xvi 15. But if Moses had not had more respect to Truth than to his own Reputation he would never have left it upon Record That he so often declined the Message and Employment which God appointed him to undertake Exod. iii. 11 13. iv 1 10 13 14. and that God was angry with him upon other occasions and for that reason would not permit him to enter into the promised Land He would certainly have ascribed Balaam's Prophecy and Jethro's Advice to himself at least he would never have Recorded That by Jethro's Counsel he took up a new and better Method for the administration of Justice If he had been led by Ambition and Vain-glory he would have endeavoured by these things to adorn his own Character and would never have lessen'd it by telling his own Infirmities at the same time when to the diminution of himself he publishes the Excellencies of others The Wonders of the Magicians of Aegypt are not concealed by him and being to give an account of his own Genealogy from Levi he first sets down the Families of Reuben and Simeon the two elder Brothers lest he might seem to arrogate too much to himself and his own Tribe Some have observed that Moses relates his own Birth to have been by a Marriage contrary to the Laws afterwards by himself established which indeed is doubtful by reason of the latitude of signification in the word Sister in the Hebrew Language yet it is certain he was not careful to avoid the being thought to have been born from such a Marriage as he would have been if his Laws had been of his own contrivance lest his own Reputation or the Authority of his Laws or perhaps both might have suffered by it Exod. vi 14 20. He sets forth the Ingratitude Idolatry and perpetual Revolts and Murmurings of his whole Nation and relates the Failings and Faults of their Ancestors the Patriarchs and particularly of Levi from whom he was descended Gen. xxxiv 30. xlix 6. He spares neither his People nor his Ancestors nor himself in what he relates and these are all the Characters of a faithful Historian and a sincere Man that can be desired And as Moses was not ambitious of Praise so neither was he ambitious of Power and Dominion For besides that he entered upon such an Undertaking as no sober Man would have attempted without a Revelation it appearing otherwise impossible to accomplish it his whole Conduct shews that he had no design of advancing his own Interest or Dominion If he had been never so Ambitious he needed not have gone into the Wilderness to seek his Preferment amongst a wandring and stubborn People when he had been bred up to all the Honours and the Pleasures that Aegypt or Pharaoh's Court could afford but he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt Heb. xi 24 25. He undertook to lead the People of Israel for Forty Years through a barren Wilderness where he could promise himself but a very uneasie and inglorious Reign if that had been his Design and by the course of Nature he could not hope to out-live that period of Time and tho' he was preserved in his Old Age in the full strength and vigour of Manhood yet upon their entrance into the promised Land he meekly resigned himself to death in the very sight and Borders of Canaan knowing before-hand that he must not be suffered to possess the Land which he had been so many years in so great dangers leading the People of Israel to enjoy though he doth not conceal how desirous he was to pass over Jordan Deut. iii. 23 c. The History of his Death is like that of his Life related with a peculiar kind of native simplicity He is not said to be taken up into Heaven as Enoch and Elijah were and as the Romans feigned of Romulus but to die and his Sepulchre was hid to prevent the Superstitious and Idolatrous Veneration which might have been paid to the Remains of so great a Person And tho' he had Sons yet they were but private Men no otherwise known to us than as they were his Sons the Government he conferred upon Joshua one of another Tribe Moses therefore was the furthest of any Man from Vain-glorious or Ambitious and Aspiring Designs and could propose no other Advantage to himself but the fulfilling the Will of God in delivering his Commandments to the People of Israel and following his Directions in his Conduct and Government Aaron was of a different Temper from Moses and was envious of him and both Aaron and Miriam murmured against him It is so notorious that there could be no Contrivance between them to deceive the People that it was the immediate and visible Power of God which kept Aaron as well as the rest in Obedience to Moses Upon Moses's Absence Aaron complied with the People in making a Golden Calf and his two eldest Sons offered strange Fire before the Lord which he had not commanded for which they were both destroyed by Fire miraculously issuing out from the Presence of the Lord And Aaron held his peace knowing that this Punishment was inflicted by God himself and having nothing to reply to Moses when he declared to him the Justice of it And both Aaron and his other two Sons are forbidden upon pain of Death to mourn for them Lev. x. 1 2 3 6. At last by the Commandment of God Aaron goes up into Mount Hor to die there not being permitted to enter into the Land of Promise Thus Moses and Aaron were sometimes at disagreement Aaron envying Moses Aaron lost two of his Sons by a
Fact to be known to any single Person 2. Having shewn That the Matters of fact and Miracles contained in the Books of Moses as they are related to have been done were at first sufficiently attested and that if we may credit that Relation all the Miracles there mention'd were certainly wrought by him since they are of that nature that the People of Israel could not be deceived in them I now proceed to shew That the Relations there set down are a true Account of those things and such as we may depend upon For if these Matters of Fact or Miracles are either feigned or falsified this must be done either in Moses's his time or afterwards and if in his time then either by Moses and Aaron with others who were concerned in carrying on the Design or by the whole People of Israâ—l together And if it were done after Moses his death then again it must be done either by some particular Man or by the contrivance of some few or more together or it must have been by the joint Knowledge and consent of the whole Nation I will therefore prove 1. That the Miracles could not be feigned by Moses and Aaron and others concerned with them in carrying on such a Design 2. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books of Moses invented or falsified by any particular Man or by any Confederacy or Combination of Men after the death of Moses 3. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books invented or falsified by the joint Consent of the whole Nation either in Moses's time or after it 1. These Things could not be feigned by Moses and Aaron and others concerned with them in carrying on such a Design It is plain that they could never invent such an Account as that of their miraculous Escape out of Aegypt and their Travelling in the Wilderness under the conduct and support of the same miraculous Power and then impose it upon the People of Israel for Truth For the People are supposed to be chiefly concerned in the whole Relation Moses appeals to their own sense and experience The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers but with us even with us who are all of us here alive this day Deut. v. 3. And know you this day for I speak not with your children which have not known and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God his greatness his mighty hand and his stretched-out arm and his miracles and his acts which he did in the midst of Aegypt unto Pharaoh the king of Aegypt and unto all his land and what he did unto the army of Aegypt unto their horses and to their chariots how he made the water of the Red-sea to over flow them as they pursued after you and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day and what he did unto you in the wilderness until ye came into this place and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab the son of Reuben how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their housholds and their tents and all their substance that was in their possession in the midst of all Israel But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did Deut. xi 2 3 4 5 6 7. Here is a Recapitulation of all the Miracles that had been wrought with an Appeal to their Senses for the Truth of them And Moses would never have made such Appeals as these if they could possibly have disproved him they could never be persuaded that they â—ame out of Aegypt after so many Plagues inflicted upon the Aegyptians to procure their Deliverance if there had been no such thing or that they were so long time in the Wilderness and that so many and so great Miracles were wrought in their sight if they had never been done before them Though Men may perhaps be persuaded to believe that their Ancestors a long time ago saw and heard things which they never saw nor heard yet a whole Nation was never supposed to have been persuaded out of their Senses at once and Moses could not attempt to make so many Men believe what they must all have known to have been false as well as himself if it had been so but he would have lard the Scene at a greater distance of time and not have brought those in as chiefly concerned in the whole business who were then alive and present to convince him of falshood And therefore if the Particulars set down in the Pentateuch be false and as ancient as Moses his time they must be invented with the knowledge and received by the consent of the whole Nation For Moses and Aaron could never so far delude so many thousands as to make them believe such variety of Matter of fact in so many and so wonderful Instances set forth and with such notorious Circumstances and appeal to the Senses of those whom they deceived whether they had not seen and perceived and had the experience of what had been done for so many years if it had been all but Fiction 2. The Miracles could not be feigned nor the Books of Moses invented or falsified by any particular Man or by any confederacy or combination of Men after the death of Moses If the Miracles were feigned after the death of Moses either the Laws must likewise be invented or altered after his death and the Miracles inserted to procure them Authority or the Laws remained as they had been delivered by him and the Miracles only were added For the Books of Moses may be considered either as containing the Laws delivered by him or as relating the Miracles by which these Laws were ratified and established in each of which respects there could be no Forgery or Falsification For 1. The Laws themselves could not be invented nor altered or falsified because the whole Jewish State and Policy was founded upon them and could not subsist without them and therefore they must be as ancient as the Jewish Government which is confess'd on all hands to have been first erected by Moses For not only their Religious Worship but their Civil Rights and Interests depended entirely upon the Laws of Moses their Publick Proceedings and their Private Dealings one with another were all to be regulated and governed by these Laws and when any Laws are brought into constant use and practice in any Nation it is ridiculous to imagine that they can be altered and falsified and a new System of Laws introduced instead of them without the knowledge of the People governed by them or any remembrances of it left amongst them No material Alterations can be made in Laws which are of continual use and which concern every Man's Interest but they must be taken notice of and discovered by such as shall find themselves aggrieved by such Alterations But this was less practicable amongst the Jews than amongst any other People 1. Because the Distinction of their Tribes and the Genealogies which
to crucify him yet his Life was in his own power which he resigned in the words of another Psalm Ps xxxi 5. and he caused another Prâ—phecy to be fulfilled by dying at that very point of time which if his death had been deferred a little longer had not been fulfilled for the Soldiers broak the Legs of the two other that were crucified with them but finding him deâ—d they broak not his Legs though one of them suspecting that he could not be so soon dead pierced his side to try whether he were really dead or not by which that Scripture was fulfilled which saith they shall look on him whom they pierced Joh. xix 34. Zach. xii 10. which (l) See Bp. Pearson Text the Ancient Jews interpreted of the Messias The liii Chapter of Isaiah is a clear description of our Saviour's Passion almost in every circumstance of it He was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief he was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he was brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter and as a Sheep before her Shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth his Silence being taken special notice of by Pilate himself and his meekness towards Judas his most ungrateful Disciple is wonderful beyond all example He made his Grave with the Rich in his Death though he died in that shameful manner under the imputation of so much wickedness yet Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counsellor was suffered by Pilate to bury him which he did in his own new Tomb. He was numbred with the Transgressors and in that sense made his Grave also with the wicked being crucified between two Thieves and so was not only reputed a Malefactor and underwent the punishment of Transgressors but was executed at the very time and place with them and buried when they were He made intercession for the Transgressors for the Penitent Thief in particular whom he promised that he should be with him that day in Paradise and for his Persecutors themselves praying that they might be forgiven The Prophecies of this Chapter are so very plainly and directly fulfilled that I have known a Child apply them to the Passion of Christ One of the most glorious Characters by which the Messias was described by the Prophets was that he should be their Prince and King and this led the Jews into that fatal mistake of a Temporal Messias for Messias or Anointed signifies King as well as Prophet or Priest in which three Offices Unction was used and they were all united in our Saviour who was the Messias anointed and inaugurated by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him in a visible shape and with a distinct and audible voice declaring him to be the Son of God And that all the world might know our Saviour to be the King of the Jews that Title was fixt upon his Cross in three several Languages the most vulgar Tongues then in the world that no Nation might be ignorant that Christ the King of the Jews was then crucified For Pilate would not alter the Inscription but though they had frighted him before by observing to him that it was Treason against Caesar to call any one King besides him yet when they would now have had him change the Inscription and have written only that he said I am King of the Jews Pilate gave a short and resolute Answer what I have written I have written How much soever it were at his Peril to provoke a malicious people in a point wherein they thought the honour and safety of their Nation so much concerned and in a point which could not but be exceeding tender to so jealous an Emperor as Tiberius but Pilate had suffered himself to be carried too far already against his own Conscience and had shewn great aversion to their proceedings in the whole management of his Tryal and the same providence which had ordered every circumstance to the manifestation of the Truth and the conviction both of the Jews and Gentiles now so disposed this remarkable particular that the last period of his Life in opposition to all the spight of the Jews should be adorned and dignified with his true Title and Character under which he had been foretold by the Prophets in Capital Letters upon his Cross Thus were the Prophecies concerning the Birth and Life and Death of the Messias exactly fulfilled in our Blessed Saviour which were so many that they could not be fulfilled by chance and the fulfilling of them depended so much upon the words and actions of others and even of his worst Enemies that it could proceed from no design or contrivance of him or his Disciples They were fulfilled in him by the malice chiefly of his Enemies and according to the interpretation which they themselves were wont to give of them IV. His Resurrection likewise and Ascension were the fulfilling of express Prophecies as the Apostles proved to the face of his Crucifiers Act. ii And these were such Accomplishments of Prophecies as depended upon the sole Will and Power of Almighty God and yet as certainly came to pass as the Birth and Life and death of Christ did As shall be proved in due Place CHAP. XIII Of the Prophecies and Miracles of our Blessed Saviour AS our Blessed Saviour was Prophesied of by all the Prophets who were before him so he was himself the Great Prophet that was to come and was at the time of his being in the world expected of the Jews and he fulfilled that Prediction by the many eminent Prophecies which he spake He foretold the Treachery of Judas and knew from the beginning who it was that should betray him he foretold the manner of his own Death that it was to be by crucifixion though the Jews often sought opportunities to put him to death privately and that was a kind of punishment which the Jews could not inflict but if they had killed him themselves and had not brought him to the Roman Judicature they would have done it by stoning as they murthered St. Stephen He foretold all the circumstances of his sufferings that he should be delivered unto the Chief Priests and unto the Scribes and that they should condemn him to death and should deliver him to the Gentiles and that they should mock him and should scourge him and should spit upon him and should kill him and that he would rise again the third day Mark x. 33 34. which his enemies took such notice of that they used all their vain endeavours to prevent it He assured his Disciples that his Gospel should be preached over the whole world and that one particular action which they were offended at of the Woman who anointed his head should never be omitted wheresoever it should be preached Matt. xxvi 13. He declared that his Religion should prevail against all the opposition which it would meet withal and continue to
to the computation of the Jews in the eight days which they reckoned for the circumcision of their Children and in their other accounts for they computed inclusively any part of the day in which the Child was born for the whole thus the a Annum ita diviserunt ut nonis modo diâ—bus urbanâ—s re usu parent reliquis vii ut rura colerent Vaâ—de Rust lib. ii Prait 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Halicarn Antiqa Rom. lib. vii Romans computed their Nundinae and their Calends c. And the Olypmiads among the Greeks contained 5 years inclusively and thus we call that Tertian Ague which has but one days intermission But the Resurrection of Christ which was the Accomplishment of these Types and Prophecies being matter of fact must be proved as all other matters of fact are by Witnesses and the Apostles in a body offered themselves as Witnesses to testify this great Article of our Faith This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are Witnesses Act. ii 32. The thing therefore to be considered is whether they were effectually qualified to be Witnesses in this matter and to prove that they had all the qualifications which can be required in any Witness I shall shew 1. That they had certain knowledge of the thing which they were Witnesses of and could not be deceived themselves in it 2. That they would not deceive others having no temptation to it but acting against all the Interests and advantages of this world 3. That they alledge such circumstances as made it impossible for them to deceive those to whom they testified the Truth of Christ's Resurrection though they had had never so much mind to do it And when Men testify things which they have such means and opportunities of knowing as make it impossible for them to be mistaken in them when they can have no advantage but by telling the Truth and can expect nothing but sufferings from it in this Life when they produce such circumstances as put it out of their own power to deceive and such as those before whom they speak may know to be false if they be so this certainly is all that can be desired in any Witness I. The Apostles who were Witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection could not be deceived themselves in it They were ever far from being credulous and easy of belief as they shewed upon all occasions and particularly they never could be brought to believe the Doctrine concerning the Resurrection of Christ till their own senses had convinced them but before they had wrong notions and apprehensions of it and either misunderstood and misapplied all that had been said to them about it or whatever they knew or believed concerning it before they had no expectations of it when he was once dead Our Saviour had in express terms foretold his Resurrection upon the third day several times Matt. xvi 21. xvii 23. xx 19. But his Disciples did not rightly apprehend or throughly consider what he said to them though he exprest himself in the plainest words For they were wholly taken up with great thoughts and expectations of an earthly Kingdom and of temporal Power and Honour at one time Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee Matt. xvi 22. and at another time just before his passion our Saviour had no sooner done speaking to them of his Crucifixion and his rising again the third day but the two Sons of Zebedee Petitioned that one might sit on the right hand and the other on the left in his Kingdom and the rest of the Disciples were moved with indignation against them for preferring such a Request and it appears from our Saviour's discourse to them upon it that their minds were all bent upon the thoughts of temporal Glory and Dominion Matt. xx 20. And after our Saviour had told them that he must be put to death and rise again the third day St. Luke adds that they understood none of these things and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things which were spoken Luke xviii 34. and we find the same expression before Luke ix 45. Even after our Saviour had eaten the Passover with them and instituted the Sacrament of his Body which was just then to be given up and to be Crucified and of his Blood which was to be shed for them they were still intent upon Temporal things and had expectations of being advanced to places of Authority and Preheminence And there was a â—iâ—fe amongst them which of them should be accounted the greatest Luke xxii 24. At his passion as one of them denied him thrice so all the rest forseek him and fled The Apostles and Evangelists write without any design or any end to serve but that of telling the truth and therefore they conceal nothing of their own failings and faults though they might prove never so disgraceful to them they acquaint us that they were ambitious and had a vain prospect of Temporal Grandeur that they were timorous and of little Faith till the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them which appears in nothing more than in this point of the Refurrection They were Men of no great natural Capacity or quick apprehension and they had sometimes found themselves mistaken in understanding that literally which was spoken to them in Parables and it is natural for Men to run from one extream to another and usual for ignorant and unlearned Men to imagine difficulties where there are none and this meeting with their wishes and longings after temporal Greatness made them take all that was said to them concerning the Passion and Resurrection of Christ in some such sense as might answer their hopes and desires of temporal Felicity but when his Crucifixion had undeceived them in this conceit they were in such confusion and consternation of mind as not to be able â—o recollect themselves or to promise themselves any thing by his Resurrection which they had no hopes or expectation of The Spirits of Men are commonly as low as their Education and their condition and station in the world is and are easily sunk and depressed much lower by any great and sudden calamity and Men who were born in so mean a condition and had entertained a conceit of great and vain hopes and then as unexpectedly fell from them must be so dejected at it that it is no wonder that they thought of nothing but their sorrows and had little heart to imagine any possibility of relief from the reviving of him whom they had seen in that infamous and cruel manner put to Death They were so possest with an opinion of a temporal Kingdom that when they had been convinced of the truth of his Resurrection and had afterwards conversed a long time with him they could not put it out of their minds Acts i. 6. and thetefore it is no strange thing that when they saw him Dead and in the Grave
Christ was risen by the Omnipotent Power of God Besides St. Matthew writes that the Graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and appeared unto many Mat. xxvii 52 53. Many saw them who are appealed to as Witnesses of their Resurrection And the miraculous events at the Death of our Saviour which were so many certain presages and fore-runners of his Resurrection as the Earthquake and the darkness of the Sun for three hours together in the midst of the day contrary to the course of Nature the Moon being in the full the rending the veil of the Temple and the like these were things which must be notorious and which could not have been pretended to have happened but the whole People of the Jews must be appealed to as Witnesses of them And it being a custom for the Deputies of Provinces to certifie the Emperor of whatever happened considerable under their Government the Resurrection of our Saviour with the Miracles which accompanied it were so remarkable that Pontius Pilate gave an account both of his Miracles and his Resurrection to the Emperor Tiberius who thereupon proposed it to the Senate to have him taken into the number of their Gods and made it punishable to accuse any Man for being a Christian during his Reign And this information of Pontius Pilate was entred upon Record at Rome to which Justin Martyr appeals in his Apology to the Emperor Antoninus Pius and the Senate and Tertullian in his Apology which was likewise presented to the Senate of Rome or at least to the Governours of the Provinces They both lived in the next Age and were both educated in a different Religion and upon these and such like Proofs became Christians and they were Men of excellent Learning and Judgment but no Man who could write an Apology can be supposed to have so much confidence and so little understanding as to appeal to that account which Pilate sent to Tiberius concerning the Resurrection of Christ in Apologies dedicated and presented to the Roman Emperor himself and to the Senate or the chief Magistrates of the Empire if no such account had ever been sent or none had been then extant to be produced But by the special Providence of God both the Birth and the Resurrection of our Saviour were inserted into the publick Records at Rome and were to be seen there for a long time after and the Heathens in whose custody they were are desired by the Primitive Christians to consult them for they were content to put the matter upon this issue (d) Justin Apol. ii Tertul. Apol c. iii. xxi that if they were resolved not to believe what the Christians said yet they would at least credit their own Records Upon these Proofs and Reasons by the clear evidence and power of Truth the word of God mightily grew and prevailed against all that Prejudice and Malice and every Vice could do to oppose it in Rome and in Jerusalem it self for in this very City where our Saviour had been Crucified and where it had been impossible to have made Proselytes if his Resurrection had not been evidently proved beyond all possibility of a confutation great numbers were daily added to the Church A Church was forthwith sounded at Jerusalem and a Bishop appointed by the Apostles and both the body of the People and their (e) Euseb Hist lib. 4. c. 5. Bishops being xv in number to the final Destruction of Jerusalem by Adrian were Jews by Nation We see then that as the Testimony of the Apostles is in it self beyond all exception so it is of such a nature as to make it impossible for them to deceive if they had intended it but indeed no Men could have proceeded in that manner or would have endeavoured it who had had any intentions to deceive and the event shewed that it was the direct and plain evidence and force of Truth which supported it self notwithstanding all the prejudices and advantages which its worst Adversaries had against it CHAP. XV. Of the Apostles and Evangelists THE Principal Articles of the Christian Faith being matters of Fact as the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Christ upon which the rest depend the great thing to be enquired into is whether the Apostles had all the qualifications requisite to become Witnesses of matters of Fact This has been already shewn as to the Resurrection and if in general we examine whether we may safely rely upon that credibility wherewith they Preached the Gospel to the world the enquiry will fall under these heads I. Whether they were Men of sufficient Abilities to discern and understand what they testified II. Whether they had sufficient means and opportunities to know it III. Whether they were Men of Integrity that without Artifice or Design truly declared what they knew I. That the Apostles were Men of sufficient understanding to become Witnesses of a matter of Fact was never doubted by any one nor can it be questioned by such as peruse their Writings and indeed who is there of any common sense that is not a competent Witness of what he sees and hears and has the experience of for so long time together For II. By their conversation with our Saviour both before his Passion and after his Resurrection the Apostles had such opportunities of knowing what they attested that it was impossible for them to be deceived in any part of it It was a necessary qualification of all the twelve Apostles that they should have conversed with our Saviour before his Death and have seen him after his Resurrection For when one was to be ordained in the room of Judas to be a Witness with the rest of Christ's Resurrection he was to be one that had companied with them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them beginning from the Baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up from them Act. i. 21 22. They saw his Miracles and heard his Doctrine and knew his manner of Life and had all the opportunities and used all the means to inform themselves that it was possible for Men to do they were eye-witnesses of His Majesty 2 Pet. i. 16. they had heard and seen with their eyes and had looked upon or beheld and discerned for a long time together and their hands had handled that which was the subject of their Testimony 1 Joh. i. 1 2 3. They had made all the search into it and had used all the exactness that could be and were as distrustful and as hard of belief as any Men could have been who are most suspicious and jealous of being imposed upon And of these Apostles two wrote the Life of our Saviour and all bore witness to the Truth of what these wrote and Preached the same things where ever they came Of the two other Evangelists St. Mark had his information from St. Peter whose Disciple and Companion he was and St. Luke wrote his Gospel from the account
the Gods of other Nations did not worship them after their manner and yet the Rites of the Romans themselves in the worship of Cybele Flora Bacchus c. were very scandalous and wicked And all their sports and spectacles which had nothing surely in them that could be proper for Divine Worship were invented and performed in honour of their Gods (p) Quintil Institut lib. iii. c. 8. whence Quinctilian says the Theatre might be stiled a kind of Temple 3. But besides their bloody Spectacles where men were exposed to be killed by Beasts or by one another their Altars themselves were not free from humane Blood For the barbarous cruelty of the Religions amongst the Heathens was such that they were obliged to offer up innocent Men and Children in Sacrifice to their Deities Some of the Rabbins have been of opinion that Jephtha sacrificed his Daughter but others deny it (q) Utcunque autem seres ea habuerit id certum puto esse non reperiri apud Magistros qui ex jure aliquo immolandam eam esse affirmaveâ—it Selden de jure Nat. Gent. lib. iv c. 2. The â—aughters of israel went yearly to lament or to talk with 〈◊〉 as it is in the Margin Judg. xi 40. and all are agreed that if he did sacrifice her he sinned in doing it and we know that Abraham was hindred by a Miracle and a voice from Heaven when he was about to slay Isaac But it was a custom among the (r) Grot. ad Deutr. xviii 10. Phoenicians and Canaanites for their Kings in times of great calamity to sacrifice one of their Sons whom they loved best and it was common both with them and the Moabites and Ammonites to sacrifice their Children The Egyptians the Athenians and Lacedaemonians and generally all the Graecians the Romans and Carthaginians the Germans and Gauls and Britains and in brief all the Heathen Nations throughout the world offered up men upon their Altars and this not on certain emergencies and in imminent dangers only but constantly and in some places every day but upon extraordinary Accidents multitudes were sacrificed at once to their Bloody Deities (Å¿) Diodo Sic. apud Euseb de laudib Constant c. xiii Lanctant lib. i. c. 21. ex Piscennio Festo as Diodorus Siculus and others relate that in Africk two hundred Children of the principal Nobility were sacrificed to Saturn at one time And (s) Euseb Praepar lib. iv c. 16. Macrob. Saturn lib. i. c. 7. Alex. ab Alexand. lib. 6. c. ult Aristomenes sacrificed three hundred men together to Jupiter Ithometes one of whom was Theopompus King of the Lacedâ—emonians And the same custom is found practised amongst the Idolatrous Indians of offering whole Hecatombs of humane Sacrifices to their false Gods (t) Jos Acost Hist lib. 5. c. 19 21. In Peru when their new Ingra was crowned they sacrificed two hundred Children from four to ten years of Age And the Son was wont to be sacrificed for the Life of the Father when he was in danger of death Sometimes the Mexicans have sacrificed above five thousand of their captives in a day and in divers places above twenty thousand as Acosta writes out of the informations he had from the Indians (u) Liv. lib. xxii c. 57. Livy makes mention of Humane Sacrifices at Rome and (w) Plutarch in Marcello initio Plutarch says they continued in his time and it was not till about the time of Constantine's Reign that A final stop was put to so strange and Abominable a Practice for tho it abated very much under Adrian yet it was used when Minutius Felix wrote and (x) Lact. lib. 1. c. 21. Lanctantius mentions it as not laid aside in his time Notwithstanding it is so much against humane Nature as well as contrary to the Divine Mercy and Goodness yet it made up so great a part of the Heathen Religion and was become so customary that it was hard to bring men off from it which at the same time demonstates both how false such Religions were and that men had a most undoubted experience of invisible Powers or else in so many Nations both the Kings and People would never have sacrificed their own Children to their false Gods to avert the evils which they were threatned withal The Persons that introduced the Heathen Religions were either Men of Design who established themselves in their Power and Authority by it as Numa or Men of Fancy and Fiction as the Poets whom Plato would have banished out of his Common-wealth And the Gods of the Heathens who must be supposed to reveal these Mysteries and Ways of Worship were always more wicked than their Votaries whose greatest Immoralities consisted in the Worship of them the gross Enormities not only of Venus and Bacchus but of Saturn and Jupiter are too well known to need any particular relation There was no Body of Laws or Rules of good Life proposed by their Oracles but on the contrary they were in commendation of lascivions Poets or they flattered Tyrants or they appointed Divine Worship to be paid to such as won the Mastery at the Olympick Games or to Inanimate things or they promoted some other ill or vain and unprofitable design as Oenomaus the Philosopher observed and proved by particular instances recited out of him by (y) Euseb Praepar lib. v. c. 34 35. Eusebius The Laws of (z) Plutarch in Lycurg Lycurgus were approved of and confirmed by the Delphick Oracle and yet Theft and a Community of Wives and the Murder of Infants was allowed by these Laws This is enough to shew that the Heathen Religions could not be from God since they taught the Worship of Idols and of Devils and the Mysteries and Rites of them were utterly inconsistent with the Goodness and Purity of Almighty God And whoever doth but look into the Religions at this day amongst the Idolatrous Indians by their ridiculous and cruel Penances and other Superstitions besides the sacrificing of Men and sometimes of themselves as the Women who offer themselves to be burnt with the Bodies of their dead Husbands and the like will soon be convinced that they cannot be of God's Institution The Chineses themselves who have so great a Reputation for Wisdom are like the rest both in their Idolatries and in many of their Opinions and Practices It is evident therefore that none of the Heathen Religions can make any probable claim to Divine Revelation having none of the Requisites to such a Revelation but being but of a late Original not far divulged supported neither by Prophecies nor Miracles from God and containing Doctrines that are Idolatrous Impure Cruel and every way wicked and absurd CHAP. V. Of the Philosophy of the Heathens BUT besides the Religions of the Heathen divers of the Philosopherss pretended to something Supernatural as Pythagoras Socrates and some others and therefore it will be proper here to examinlikewise the Justice of their Pretensions And
negligentia presertim tot jam seculis intercedentibus veritatem fuisse corruptam quam ut Propheta erraverit Sicut in hoc ipso nostro opusculo futurum credimus ut describentium incuria quae non incuriose a nobis sunt digesta vitientur Sulpic. Sever Hist Sacr. lib. 1. c. 70. common in all Greek and Latin Authors and to prevent this inconveniency Mr Greaves acquaints us that the Emp erour Vlug Beg Nephew to Tamerlane the Great †Greaves Pyramidogr in his Astronomical Tables the most accurate of any in the East has exprest the numbers of the principal Epocha's first in Words at length and again in Figures and then a third time in particular Tables whose example this excellent Author alledgeth for his own exactness in describing the dimensions of the Pyramids after the same manner supposing it very improbable if any one of these Accounts should happen to be altered that two of them should not agree and that those two which agree shall not express the true number 5. In some places the Alterations which cause the differences in the Chronology of the Septuagint from that of the Hebrew Text are so uniform that they could not be made but by design of some Transcribers or of the Translators themselves For instance in the Lives of the five first Patriarchs and of Enoch the * Vid. Ludovic Capell Chron. Sacr. seventh they add an hundred years before their having children and deduct the same number of years from the time they lived after wards which is conjectured to have been done because they supposed that by years there are to be understood Lunar years or months and so they altered the Chronological account of their Lives For if those be the years meant by the Hebrew account they must have been Fathers of children at 5 6 7 or 8 years of Age. Another conjecture is that it might be supposed that as Mens lives were longer then so the Age at which they were capable of Marriage must not be the same that it is now but must bear proportion to the length of their Lives and therefore they altered the Chronology to make the Patriarchs fathers of children at such an Age as might answer to the Age at which men are capable of having children in these latter times The mention of Cainan the son of Arphaxad both in the Version of the Septuagint and in the Gospel of St Luke tho it be not in in the Hebrew is a matter of greater Difficulty But Bishop * Prolegom ix s 64. c. Walton notwithstanding saw sufficient Reason to conclude however with such caution and candor as became so great a Judgment that the Septuagint followed the Hebrew Copies of those times and the Answers to the Arguments brought to prove the contrary have since been considerably enforced by the Learned †Castigat ad Script Georg. Horn. c. 4. Isaac Vossius There is reason to believe that the Hebrew and the Samaritan Account were the same * Siquidem in Hebraeis Samaritanorum libris ita scriptum reperi Et vixit Mathusala c. Hieron Quaest in Gen. vid. Capell Chron. Sacr. in St Jerom's time and that the difference between them has happened since 6. The Son often reigning with the Father his Reign is sometimes put down as commencing from his Partnership with his Father in the Kingdom and in other places from his Reigning alone after his Fathers decease Thus the difficulties are explained concerning the beginning of the Reigns of Jehoram King of Israel Son of Ahab and Jehoram King of Judah Son of Jehosaphat 2 Kings i. 17. iii. 1. For it is said expressly that Jehosaphat being then King of Judah Jehoram the Son Jehosaphat King of Judah began to Reign 2 Kings viii 16. It is likewise manifest that Jehoash the Son of Jehoahaz King of Israel must reign with his Father 3 years 2 Kings xiii 1 10. This is also applyed in the explication of other Questions by St * Hieron ad vital Jerom. The Reign of Azariah is computed from his taking the Government upon himself at sixteen years of Age in the 27th year of Jeroboam King of Israel for then he is said to begin to reign 2 Kings xv i. whereas his Father Amaziah lived but to the 15th year of Jeroboam's Reign 2. King xiv 17. In the Kingdom of Israel there was a long Interregnum between Jeraboam the second and Zachariah 2 Kings xiv 23. xv 8. Some assign a threefold computation of the years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign the first from his laying Siege to Jerusalem the second from his taking it and the beginning of the captivity the third from his entire Monarchy after the conquest of Egypt Others assign two beginings of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign the one from his coming with his Army into Syria during the Life of his Father the other from his Father's death 7. The Terms of Time in Computation are sometimes taken inclusively and at other times exclusively Matt. xvii 1. we read After six days Jesus taketh Peter James and John his Brother and bringeth them up into an high Mountain apart and in like manner Mark ix 2. But this is said Luke ix 28. to come to pass about an eight days after which is very consistent with what the other Evangelists write For St Matthew and St Mark speak exclusively reckoning the six days between the time of our Saviours discourse which they there relate and his Transfiguration but St Luke includes the day in which he had that discourse with his Disciples and the day of his Transfiguration and reckons them with the six intermediate days The Rabbins * Lightf Harm of the N. T. S. ix also observe that the very first day of a year may stand in computation for that year and by this way of reckoning mistakes of years current for years compleat or years compleat for years current in the successions of so many Kings and the Transactions of affairs for so long a time may amount to a considerable number of years For this reason †Thucyd lib. v. c. 20. Thucydides says he computes the years of the Peloponnesian War not by the Magistrates yearly chosen during that time but by so many Summers and Winters These and several other ways by which Disputes in Chronology may be occasioned are a sufficient Argument to us that they do not imply that there were originally Chronological Mistakes in the Books themselves And if they might so many ways arise without any error in the Original Writings if the same difficulties occur upon so very nice and intricate a subject in all Books in the World and it could be by no means necessary that Books of Divine Authority should be either at first so penned as to be liable to no wrong Interpretations or be ever after preserved by Miracle from all corruption it is great rashness to deny the Divine Authority of the Scriptures upon the account of any difficulties in Chronology CHAP.
and Aids of Grace to avoid the Punishments and are as earnestly invited and as sufficiently enabled to obtain the Rewards God hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live as he solemnly and with an Oath declares by his Prophet Ezekiel xxxiii 11. It is His principal Intention and Desire that all Men should be saved He has proclaimed Himself to be the Lord The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping Mercy for Thousands forgiving Iniquity and Transgression and Sin but then it is added that he will by no means clear the guilty that is the obstinate and impenitent Sinner Exod. xxxiv 6 7. He exhorts he invites he promises he threatens he promises eternal Happiness and threatens eternal Misery to give all the Discouragement to Vice and all the Enducement to Religion and Vertue which is possible Last of all he has sent his Son to instruct us in our Duty and to confirm all this to us and to purchase our Redemption with his own Blood God deals with Men in the plainest and most condescending manner He lays their Duty before them with the Rewards and Punishments annex'd and both eternal the better to secure them in their Obedience and force them to be happy and then he takes Men at no Advantage but makes all reasonable Allowances in consideration of the frailty of Humane Nature and in condescension to their Infirmities He exacts not absolute Perfection nor any impossible Obedience but requires that tho' we cannot live without Sin yet we should not sin wilfully and obstinately that we should not allow and indulge our selves in Sin and should repent if we have done so He requires a faithful and sincere Diligence in all the Parts of our Duty which is no more than what every Father and Master expects from his Children and Servants When Men have sinned God admits of their Repentance and if after Repentance they sin again yet still they shall be accepted upon a renew'd Repentance nay after a long course of Sin a sincere Repentance may reconcile them to God and no Repentance can be too late that is sincere It is extreamly dangerous indeed to defer our Repentance for one Moment because our Lives are so uncertain and we may provoke God to that degree that he will no longer afford us an Opportunity to repent nor bestow that Grace upon us which is necessary to Repentance But this is after repeated Provocations and an obstinate rejecting of the Goodness of God which leads Men to repentance And these are the Terms of the Gospel that when the wicked Man turneth away from his Wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his Soul alive There is Great Joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth and the returning Prodigal is received with the greatest Favour and Tenderness If we will be obedient we have the Assistance of God's Grace and if we have done amiss yet His grace is offered us to bring us to Repentance and we may be pardoned upon sincere Resolutions of Obedience for the future But if Men either disbelieve or disregard all these things if they neither care for God's Promises nor fear his Threatnings if they trample under foot the Blood of his Son and grieve his blessed Spirit if all the Methods of his Mercy and Goodness be lost upon them there remains no other Remedy but Justice must have its course If when they are told so long beforehand what danger they are in Men will continue obstinate in their Disobedience after so many Invitations and Encouragements to Repentance and after so great Importunity and Forbearance they can have no reason to complain of the Severity of that Sentence which they have been so often threatned with and have as often despised Since the Rewards are eternal on the one hand and the Punishments on the other the Rewards being proportionable to the Punishments the Terms are on both sides equal and since it is in our Power by the Help of the Divine Grace to avoid the Punishments and obtain the Rewards the Condition is such as that any wise Man would be thankful for it and would be glad that such a Prizee is put into his hands so far would he be from complaining that the Terrors of Punishments are join'd to the Encouragement of Rewards that all Motives concur to make him happy and that God has used all means both inward by his Grace and outward by his Promises and Threatnings to bring us to Salvation I repeat it again for God himself often repeats it in the Holy Scriptures God hath no Pleasure in the Death of the Wicked but hath used all means to prevent it he hath provided Heaven for us and threatned Hell if we will not be perswaded to go to Heaven If Men will neglect the Means of their Salvation and will not repent and turn to him notwithstanding all his most loving and compassionate Exhortations and the Death of his own Son for them if neither Heaven can invite nor Hell frighten them from their Sins they must thank themselves only for that Destruction which they bring upon themselves The Appeal which God so long ago made to the House of Israel may at the last Day be alledg'd to Sinners Ye have said that the way of the Lord is not equal Hear now O ye Sinners Is not my way equal have not your ways been unequal And the ways of God shall then appear so equal and the ways of wicked Men so unreasonable and perverse that their own Consciences shall bear Witness against them and He that died to save them will pronounce the Sentence of eternal Damnation upon them CHAP. XV. Of the Jewish Law THere is nothing which vulgar Minds are more surprised and offended at nor at which Men of Understanding and Experience are less enclin'd to wonder or take Offence than the several Laws and Customs of divers Nations in the different Ages and Climates of the World The Habit the Language the Letters and manner of Writing the Food the Complexion the Features of the Body and Disposition of the Mind are various in different Countries and Ages And theresore it is no wonder that the Political and Ceremonial Part of the Jewish Law which was given so many Ages ago and in a Country which is at this Day very different in its Customs from ours should be as different from the Customs in use amongst us as the Age and Climate For when God doth appoint Laws for Men he must be supposed to appoint such as are suitable to the Necessities and Occasions of those for whom they are made And some who have travelled into the Eastern Countries which are not so variable in their Fashions and Way of Living as the Western Nations are have found great advantages both from the Nature of the Inhabitants and of the Climates and from the Customs and Manners of
this Notion of their legal Worship Abraham to whom Circumcision was appointed saw the day of Christ he sore saw his Descent from himself which was thereby prefigured and was glad Joh. viii 56. And Moses by whom the Ceremonial Service was ordained had so clear a Prospect of the Messias and his Kingdom that he esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Aegypt Hebr. xi 26. Those places of Scripture which the Apostles apply to Christ out of the Old Testament were at that time by the Jews themselves to whom they Cite them understood of the Messias they always supposed that whatever was great and Excellent among them was but a faint and imperfect Resemblance of that Glory and Excellency which was to be in its full Perfection and Accomplishment under the Messias 4. During this Ceremonial Dispensation there was a sufficient Revelation of the internal and spiritual Part of Religion In the Books of Moses the Love of God with all the Heart and the Love of their Neighbour as of Themselves is expresly commanded the Children of Israel Lev. xix 18. Deut. vi 5. The High Priest's Office was to bless the People Numb vi 23. and the Office of the Priests and Levites besides the Ceremonial Service was to stand every Morning to thank and praise the Lord and likewise at Even 1 Chron. xxiii 30. 2 Chron. xxxi 2. and (x) Vid. Qutr de Sacrific lib. 1. c. 15. S. 9. no Sacrifice was ever offered without Prayers The immortality of the Soul is implied in that Expression which is often used in the Books of Moses that Men when they died were gathered to their People which must be understood of their Souls their Bodies being buried at different places and in divers Countries not where their Ancestors had been buried And tho' this and such like Phrases may sometimes signify no more than their leaving the World as others had done before them as most Words and Expressions are often used improperly and may in some places be applied to ill Men yet there could never have been any Reason or Foundation for such a Phrase but from a Supposition of the Soul's Immortality Balaam wish'd to die the Death of the Righteous and that his last End might be like that of the Righteous Numb xxiii 10. For what Reason but that he might not be miserable but happy after Death A future State was always believ'd by the Jews as revealed to them in the Old Testament and whatever Texts there may be which seem to imply the contrary they are either spoken only by way of Objection as in the Book of Ecclesiastes or else they have no Relation to the State after this Life either to affirm or deny it but are to be understood to proceed from that Desire which pious Men had to honour and glorify God in their several Generations by restoring his Worship where it had been neglected or in propagating his Religion where it had not been yet known Thus that good King Hezekiah says to God in his Thanksgiving The Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy Truth The Living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day The Father to the Children shall make known thy Truth Isa xxxviii 18 19. This is spoken with the same Zeal and Spirit by which he was acted in his Reformation And when David said In Death there is no Remembrance of thee in the Grave who shall give thee Thanks Psal vi 5. He cannot be supposed to have any Doubtfulness concerning a future State for in other Psalms he plainly asserts it Psal xvi 11. xvii 15. But his Meaning is explain'd Psal xxx 9. where he says What profit is there in my Blood when I go down into the Pit Shall the Dust praise thee Shall it declare thy Truth In our other Translation it is Shall the Dust give Thanks to thee To give Thanks then to God is in grateful Acknowledgment for his Mercies to praise and magnify his Name and manifest his Truth among Men which is not to be done in the Grave God's Dispensations to the People of Israel being with this Design Pious Men desir'd that their Lives might be prolong'd for this purpose that they might declare his Truth and Vindicate and promote his Honour in this World before they were call'd to the next where there can be no Opportunity for this Service to God and Benefit to Mankind Enoch was taken up alive into Heaven to be an Example of that Happiness which God has prepar'd for those who walk with him and pleaseth him Gen. v. 24. And our Saviour Mark xii 26. proves the Resurrection of the Dead from Exod. iii. 6. Those for whom God has that peculiar Favour as to stile Himself their God and to declare this to be His Name or Title for ever and this to be His Memorial unto all Generations Vers 15. we may be assured are not so dead as utterly to have perish'd and if their Souls have surviv'd their Bodies their Bodies likewise must be raised again forasmuch as the Soul of Abraham without his Body is not Abraham but only one part of him and his Soul could not be stil'd Abraham but with respect not only to its past but to its future Union with his Body For tho' a part be often put for the whole yet it always supposes either the present or future Existence of the Whole but is never put for the whole when it remains alone and the rest is utterly and finally extinct Abraham consists of Soul and Body and therefore God being the God of Abraham is God both of the Soul and Body of Abraham which is an Argument that the Soul of Abraham now lives and that his Body shall live again for All live to God And he would not have given himself a solemn Title and Denomination from a Man who had no longer any Being nor from that Part of him which had utterly perish'd I am the God of thy Father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Abraham had his Name in Token that he should be a Father of many Nations Gen. xvii 5. and Isaac and Jacob were Heirs of the same Promise and therefore the God of Abraham is the God of that Father of Nations and has a particular Regard to the Bodies from which those Nations were descended as well as to the Souls of Abraham and his Posterity I am the God of Abraham not I was but I am which supposes Abraham yet to be I am the same God still to him that I was during his Life upon earth he is still the Object of the Divine Care and Goodness and therefore shall be rewarded both in Body and Soul God is not ashamed to be call'd their God for he hath prepared for them a City Heb. xi 16. that is an Habitation in Heaven The Children of Israel before the giving of the Law were
17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we the living the remaining that is the faithful which shall then be alive and remain upon the Earth St. Paul speaks of the Faithful here under a twofold denomination viz. of the Dead and the Living and speaking of the Living he uses the first Person Plural as being himself yet in the number of the Living not that he should be of that number at the Day of Judgment Thus frequent (c) Tollit animos Tullus Hostilius quasi ipse mandâ—sset spes inde nostris metus hostibus Flor. lib. 1. c. 3. Stipendiariam nobis Provinciam fecit Scipio Africanus Hispaniam lib. ii c. 17. Creticum Bellum si vera volumus noscere nos secimus lib. iii. c. 7. Examples are to be found where Historians Relating matters of Fact which happened long before their own Times use the expressions of we and our we Fought our Army Conquer'd that is the People of which I am now a Member or the Army of this People We the English Conquer'd France in the Reign of King Henry V. and if this had been Prophesy'd of it might have been said we shall Conquer c. Our Saviour speaking to the Jews says Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven when they had told him before our Fathers did eat Maâ—na in the Desart Joh. vi 31 32. And it might as well have been said to the Patriarchs you shall eat manna in the Wilderness as to the Jews of our Saviour's time you did eat it A Prophet foretelling things to come to pass after his own death might say We shall do so and so that is those of this Nation and People shall do it to which I belong and therefore reckon my self in the Number tho' I can have no share in the Action nor live to see it In the same manner St. Paul says we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed 1 Cor. xv 51. that is we who are not yet in the number of the Dead but are to â—e reckoned amongst the present and future Living As when he writes to the Ephesians among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by Nature the Children of wrath even as others Eph. ii 3. it is Paraphras'd by Dr. Hammond thus among who we of the Gentile Church of Rome from whence I write formerly lived c. It is certain St. Paul expected his own death 2 Tim. iv 6. but it is usual with him to speak in his own person by a Figure and sometimes even when he mentions himself by Name 1 Cor. iv 6. and he expresly declares that he did neither by word nor letter signifie that the Day of Christ was at hand 2 Thes ii 2. V. The Day of Judgment is describ'd with so much Solemnity and so many Particulars that it may seem impossible for them all to be dispatched in the compass not only of one but of many Days But (d) Mede Epist xx the Jews from whom our Saviour and his Apostles took the expression of the Day of Judgment understood by it a Time of many years continuance and sometimes the term even of a thousand years And by Day in the Language of the Scriptures is to be understood Season or any period and distinction of time with respect to some particular thing or occasion as these are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth when they were Created in the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens Gen. ii 4. that is in the Time consisting of six days the day of temptation in the Wilderness was forty years Heb. iii. 8 9. Nay St. Peter uses it to express Eternal Duration to him be Glory says he both now and for ever which in the Original is both now and to the day of Eternity 2 Pet. iii. 18. Day is us'd for Judgment itself 1 Cor. iv 3. and (e) Grot. ad 1 Cor. iv 3. so the Jews understood Days to be meant Job xxiv 1. In our Language Days-man signifies Judge or Umpire Job ix 33. and Diem dicere was the Law-term amongst the Romans for the Summons to a Tryal but it doth not follow from thence that the Cause must needs have been decided upon the same Day which was appointed for the hearing it (f) Itaque cum ego diem in Siciliam inquirendi perexiguam postulâssem invenit â—ste qui sibi in Achaiam biduo breviorem diem postularet non ut is idem conficeret diligemiâ industriâ suâ quod ego meo labore vigiliis consecutus sum Etenim ille Achaicus inquisitor ne Brundisium quidem pervenit Ego Siciliam totam quinquaginta diebus sic obij ut omnium populorum privatorùmque litter as injuriasque cognoscerem Cic. in Ver. Act. i. Tully by Day in his first Oration against Verres means the space of at least Fifty Days There is no Reason then to suppose that the Last Judgment must be confined to one or more Days but it will take up as much time as the Solemnity of the Proceedings require Hunc diem Judicii ultimum diem dicimus id est novissimum Tempus Nam per quot dies hoc judicium tendatur incertum est sed scripturarum more sanctarum diem poni solere pro tempore nemo qui literas illas quamlibet negligenter legerit nescit Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. xx c. 1. CHAP. XXIII Of Sacraments THO' the Jewish Law was very requisite at that time and for that People when it was in force and the wisest and best Institution that could have been yet it was indeed a yoke and such a yoke as was burthensome and not to have been born but in sure hopes and expectation of better things to come And at the approach of the Son of Righteousness these shadows vanished and the Types having attained their end and accomplishment were laid aside and in their room Christ has Instituted as few Rites as it was possible only the two Sacraments one for our Initiation and first Reception and the other for our Re-establishment and Confirmation in that Covenant which he has been pleas'd to make with us And yet even these are thought too many by some who as if they were all Soul and Spirit without Body are only for a Mental and Spiritual Worship To vindicate therefore the Institution and use of Sacraments I shall First Consider the Nature and Design of Sacraments in General Secondly I shall shew how fully the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper answer the End and Design of the Institution of Sacraments I. I will enquire into the Nature and Design of Sacraments in General Sacraments may be consider'd either 1. as outward and visible Signs of our entrance into Covenant with God or of our renewing our Covenant with him Or 2. As Pledges of God's Grace and Favour towards us Or. 3. As the Means
humanae vitae speculum constitutum est Novatian de lib. Judaic c. 3. signification of such Prohibitions is implied in the Proverb alleged by St. Peter concerning Dogs and Swine which are two of the Animals prohibited the Jews 2 Pet. ii 22. Sacrifices and Offerings were to represent to them that they depended upon God for all they had and therefore they were to offer something of every kind in Acknowledgment that they had received all which they enjoyed from him They were likewise designed to signify to them that their Sins deserved Death even Everlasting Burnings The daily Sacrifices were to be Remembrances to them of that Acceptable and Living Sacrifice which they were to offer to God a broken and a contrite Heart and an Innocent and Blameless Life Ps iv 4 5. Cxli. 2. And the Scriptures frequently testify how little Pleasure God took in the Sacrifices of Beasts and in Burnt-Offerings Incense and Oblations and how small Regard he had to them He never required these things for themselves and upon their own Account or because there is any thing acceptable to him in them Psal xl 6 4. l. 8 li. 17. To do Justice and love Mercy is more acceptable to God than all Sacrifices Prov. xxi 3. Jer. vii 22 23. This is so evident throughout the whole Old Testament that the Scribes and Pharisees in the most superstitious and corrupt Age of the Jewish Church could not but confess that the Love of God and of our Neighbour is of more Account in God's sight than all the Sacrifices and Oblations in the World Mark xii 37. The Ceremonial Part of the Law was always to give place to the Moral thus Acts of Charity were to be done tho' it happened that they were performed by the violation of the Jewish Sabbath and the Prophets were upon necessary Causes held exempted from the Legal Observances For I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than Burnt-Offerings Hos vi 6. 3. All the Jewish Worship appointed by the Mosaical Law was Typical of Christ and his Gospel By a Type we are to understand the Likeness and Resemblance which one thing has to another as that of the Impression to the Seal or of the Shadow to the Substance or of the Picture to the Man whom it represents Thus the Death of Christ was typified or resembled or represented and prefigured by the Death of the Beasts which were Sacrificed they were signs appointed to keep up the Remembrance that Christ was to be Sacrificed and were very apt and proper to put Men in Mind of it It was acknowledged by the Jews and received from the Beginning as a certain Rule for the Interpretation of Scripture that there was a Typical as well as a Literal Sense of it relating to the Messias and his Kingdom Circumcision was to signify to them that Christ was to be born of the Seed of Abraham to whom Circumcision was first enjoyned upon the Promise made to him of Isaac from whom Christ was to descend And the Blood shed in Circumcision was Typical of that Blood which Christ was to shed for us The most probable Account of the Origiginal of Sacrifices is that they were at first of Divine Institution and were appointed soon after the Fall of Man as Types of the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ who was promised to be sent to die for the Expiation of Sin For tho' there be a natural Reason why we shouuld not Offer unto the Lord our God of that which doth Cost us nothing but should Honour the Lord with our Substance 2 Sam. xxiv 24. Prov. iii. 9. and should present some part of the best of what we have in Devotion and Gratitude to him from whom we have received the Whole Yet no sufficient Reason can be given why Beasts should be Slain in Sacrifice before they were used as far as it appears for Food by Men or how it should be imagined that God would accept of the Blood of any Creature or be pleased with the taking from it that Life which he had given it or why a peculiar Efficacy towards the Expiation of Sin was supposed to be in the Blood unless it had been upon the Account of the Blood of Christ which was Typically prefigured by the Blood of Beasts By Faith whereof Abel offered his Sacrifice and was accepted Heb. xi 4. The Paschal Lamb was a plain Type of Christ for which Reason Christ is styled the Lamb of God and our Passover which is Sacrificed for us Jo. i. 29. 1 Cor. v. 7. And for the same Reason the Feast of the Passover was appointed to the Israelites just before their Escape out of Aegypt to be a Type to thâ—m of that Deliverance which Christ was to accomplish of which their Deliverance out of Aegypt was but a Figure Aaron was a Type of Christ and all the Sacrifices he offered were Types of Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross They were appointed to take away the Legal Uncleanness to restore Men to a State of Legal Purity which was Typical of Moral and Spiritual Purity and to put the Legal Worshipers into such a Condition as the Law required to qualify them for the Legal Service and Worship and herein they were Figures of that one Sacrifice which was to be offered up once for all in Attonement for the Sins of all Mankind Hebr. ix 14. whereby Men might be rendred Capable of paying God an acceptable Service in Spirit and in Truth Legal Purifications were Typical of that Purification which is by the Blood of Christ Tit. ii 14. 1 John i. 9. And the smoak of the Incense ascending signified how the Prayers of the Saints come up before God Rev. v. 8. viii 3 4. The State and Dispensation of the Gospel is exprest by the Prophet Malachi under the Figure of Incense and a Pure Offering Malach. 1.11 The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is written upon this subject to shew that all the Legal Rites and Ceremonial Worship were but Shadows and Types and Figures of Christ and of that Redemption Righteousness and Sanctification which was to be wrought by him and that therefore they were to cease when in him they had received their Accomplishment Their Incense and Purificatitions their Sacrifices their Temple and the Priests themselves were all but so many Types of Christ and his Kingdom under the Gospel Christ had been promised to our first Parents immediately after their Fall and this Promise had been renewed to Abraham with an Assurance that he should descend from Isaac and Circumcision was instituted as a perpetual mark in the Flesh of that Covenant and all Sacrifices from the beginning of their Institution were as so many Types and Memorials of the Sacrifice of Christ which was promised before any Sacrifice had been offered And more especially that of the Passover at the deliverance of the Israelites out of Aegypt was a lively Representation of our Redemption by the Death of Christ They had ever