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
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
the word that we did tell thee in Aegypt saying Let us alone that we may serve the Aegyptians For it had been better for us to serve the Aegyptians than that we should die in the wilderness Exod. xiv 11 12. But the Israelites were purposely brought into this Distress by God's express Will and Command that he might get him honour upon Pharaoh and upon all his dost upon his chariots and upon his horse-men ver 17. And â—he Sea being divided at Moses's lifting up his Rod the Children of Israel went in the midst of it upon dry-ground and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand and on the lest ver 22. And could they be ignorant whether they walked in the Water or upon dry Land whether they were the Men that had escaped or whether they had been all drowned The words are express that the Waters were on both sides of them in their passage and that they were separated to make way for them which could not fall out by any ebbing of the Sea for then they would have had Water but on one side of them whereas now the Waters stood equally on both hands And nothing can be supposed more absurd than it is to imagine that neither the Aegyptians nor the Israelites should understand the nature of the Red-Sea but that the course of the Tide should be known only to Moses At the giving of the Law the whole People of Israel had warning given them three days before that they might sanctifie and prepare themselves to make their Appearance before the Lord All the people saw the thunderings and lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and beheld the mountain smoaking and the Lord spake in the audience of the whole Assembly the words of the Ten Commandments and they were struck with such a terrour that they removed and stood afar off and desired Moses that he would acquaint them with what God should be pleased to give him in command concerning them that they might no longer hear God speaking to them lest they should die Exod. xx 18. Deut. v. 22. The clond of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day and fire was on it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys Exod. xl 38. whether it were two days or a month or a year that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle remaining thereon the children of Israel abode in their tents and journeyed not but when it was taken up they journeyed Num. ix 22. From the time of their escape out of Aegypt the Pillar of the Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by might the Manna with which they were â—fed during the whole time of their journeying in the Wilderness till the very day after they had eaten of the corn of the land of Canâ—â—n Exod. xvi 35. Jos v. 12. and their Garments lasting for so long a time without any decay Deut. xxix 5. these were constant and perpetual Miracles for forty years together and it is the most impossible thing in the world to suppose that a People consisting of so many Hundred Thousands should for so long a time be imposed upon in things of this nature their Eves and Taste and all their Senses were Witnesses that they were conducted and fed and cloathed by Miracle for Forty Years together Indeed it was impossible to lead so great a Multitude through a vast and barren Wilderness by so long and tedious Journeys without the help of Miracles If they had been under no other distress but want of Food in so barren a place it had been impossible for any number of Men and much more for so vast a multitude to subsist for any time without a Miracle but they were sed with Manna from Heaven not with such as the Manna is which is now any where to be found which is a kind of Honey-dew but with Manna which was fit for Nourishment not for physick and so hard as to be ground in Mills and beaten in Mortars and baked in Pans Num. xi 8. and yet it was melted by the Sun and bred Worms and stunk if it were kept but one night except it were on the night before the Sabbath though again when it was to be preserved for a Memorial to future Generations nothing was more lasting and it fell on every Day of the Week but the Sabbath The Manna therefore which is now of what sort soever it be is of quite a different Nature from this Miraculous Manna though it have its Name from it as a learned Physician (p) Jo Chrys Magnen de Manna c. 2. has proved Their Water was as miraculous as their Food and their Cloathing as either neither their Raiment decayed nor their Bread and Water failed till they arrived in the promised Land The March of the Greek Army out of Asia under the Conduct of Xenophon after the death of Cyrus is looked upon as a thing scarce to be equalled in all humane Story though that was but for one Year and three Months and the Difficulties they met with were nothing in comparison of those that beset the Israelites on every side in that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought Deut. viii 15. a land of desarts and of pits of drought and of the shadow â—f death a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt Jer. ii 6. Nothing but a Power of Miracles could have sustained them and nothing but the Sense of it could have kept them within any Bounds of Duty and Obedience We see how froward and rebellious they were upon all occasions notwithstanding the wonderful Power and Presence of God continually manifest amongst them they would have been content with the Aegyptian Slavery and the Aegyptian Gods too rather than endure the Hardships of the wilderness Moses complains that they were almost ready to stone him Exod. xvii 4. and out of despondency prayed that God would kill him out of hand rather than lay so great a burden upon him Num. xi 15. And whoever can believe that Moses by his own Skill and Management could lead such a Multitude through such a Wilderness so many Years Journey can it seems believe any thing rather than the Scriptures for this is one of the most incredible things that can be conceived but it is not in the least incredible that he might do it by the Divine Power and Assistance The Children of Israel tempted God ten times by their Murmurings and their distrust of his Power and Care over them Num. xiv 22. for which many of them were puniâ—h'd with death till at last the whole number of Men that were Twenty Years old and upwards had this Judgment denoâ—nced against them That for their Murmurings but two of them by name Caleb the Son of Jephunneh and Joshua the Son of Nun should be suffered to enter into the promised Land and the rest should all die in the Wilderness but that after
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
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
the Ark of God was taken than at the death of both his Sons that gave him his mortal Wound and he could not out-live the Hearing it 1 Sam. iv 18. Samuel's Sons were wicked as well as Eli's and he doth not conceal their faults but plainly says That they turned aside after lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment chap. viii 3. but he appeals to the whole People for his own Integrity who solemnly declare him free from any Oppression or Injustice He resigned the Government though he had the Power in his hands to appoint two Kings successively and by Gods Commandment raised both Saul and David out of their obscurity to a Throne Samuel says plainly That when the Elders of Israel came to him to ask a King the thing displeased him 1 Sam. viii 6. and he who could make Two Kings of Two different Tribes and of no Interest in their respective Tribes might as well have made himself King if he had acted upon Humane Considerations and by Humane Power and Means The Divine Power therefore was visible in the Government of the Children of Israel from the time of Moses and Joshua to Saul for they were constantly governed by Persons of God's appointment their Government was a Theocracy being administred by God's immediate Direction the Lord their God was their King 1 Sam. xii 12. CHAP. VIII Of the People of Israel under their Kings AFter a standing Regal Government was settled among the People of Israel they were either happy or miserable at home and either a Defeat or Victory attended their Armies abroad as they proved obedient or disobedient to the Law of Moses and to the Word of the Lord delivered by his Prophets Upon the Revolt of the Ten Tribes when Two Tribes only remained in the obedience of Rehoboam and in the true way of Worship this had been the time as already has been said if there had been any Imposture hitherto carried on to discover it for they had all the Temptation and all the Opportunity to do it that could possibly be given But after the Division of the Ten Tribes Jeroboam durst not so much as attempt to draw them off from an acknowledgment of the Divine Authority of that Law by which they were obliged to go up to Jerusalem to sacrifice though he persuaded them to change the Place of their Worship and to go no longer up thither And God had his Prophets in Israel who were as zealous for the Law as the Prophets of Judah for in both Kingdoms they had still Prophets to admonish them and to direct them in all Matters of great importance Tho' the Vrim and Thummim and the Shechinah were confined to the Aaronical Priesthood and the Ark of the Testament yet the other kinds of Prophecy were vouchsafed to Israel as well as Judah and the Captivity both of Judah and Israel by the Assyrians and the Deliverance of the Jews out of it befell them according to express Prophecies and both during the Captivity and at their Return they had Daniel Zachariah Malachi and other Prophets amongst them and for so many Ages from their first coming out of Aegypt the whole People were made continually Witnesses of the manifest Power and Presence of God amongst them This will be evident by making some Observations concerning the Prophets and their Writings and concerning their Prophecies and Miracles CHAP. IX Of the Prophets and their Writings THe kinds of Prophecy among the Jews were 1. The Shechinah 2. The Vrim and Thummim 3. Revelation by Visions and Dreams or by Inspiration for I shall not here distinguish these ways of Revelation to consider them apart And when these kinds of Prophecy ceased under the Second Temple the Bath Kol or Voice from Heaven was the only way of Revelation but of this there is little or nothing certain to be relyed upon 1. The Sechina was the sitting or dwelling of God between the Cherubims on the Mercy-Seat or Cover of the Ark Psal lxxxi 1. and xcix 1. from whence he gave out his Answers by an Articulate Voice Exod. xxv 22. and xxix 42. Num. vii 89. 2. The Vrim and Thummim upon the Breast-plate of the High-Priest Exod. xxviii 30. was another standing Oracle to be consulted upon all great occasions Num. xxvii 21.1 Sam. xxviii 6. xxiii 9. xxx 7. Ezra ii 63. and the Answers were returned by a visible signification of the Divine Will and this Oracle was not only venerable amongst the Jews but was famous amongst the Heathen as Josephus assures us for its infallible Answers Mr. Mede (x) Mede's Discourse 35. thinks Vrim and Thummim to have been in use among the Patriarchs before the Law was given because the making of it is not spoken of amongst the other things of the Ephod The common opinion is that this Oracle was delivered by the shining of such Leters of the Tribes Names engraven on the Priests Breast-place as express'd the Answer but the same learned Author thinks that the Vrim and the Thummim were distinct Oracles the Thummim shewing when their Sacrifices were accepted and the Vrim answering such Questions as were proposed upon any important occasion 3. Revelations by Visions and Dreams or by Inspiration were the Revelations which properly denominated those the whom they were made Prophets For the Prophets were Persons sent by God with an extraordinary Commission to declare his Will and they were not confined to the Tribe of Levi or to any one particular Tribe but sometimes taken out of one Tribe and sometimes out of another for tho' the Jews had Colleges and Schools to prepare and qualifie Men by a vertuous and religious Education for Divine Illuminations yet divers others who had not been educated in this manner were endued with the Spirit of Prophecy and some of them were but of very mean Employments and others again of Royal Blood They reproved both their Kings and their Priests with a fearless and undaunted Freedom and Authority and this Plain-dealing such as became Men who spake and acted by a Divine Impulse without Design and without any Disguise sometimes commanded great Reverence towards them from Princes not easie to be well advised or directed Rehoboam a willful and rash Prince at the head of an Army of an Hundred and fourscore thousand chosen Men upon the Word of the Lord deliver'd to him by Shemaiah return'd home without attempting any thing to regain the Tribes that had revolted from him to Jeroboam 1 King xii 21. Ahab though an exceeding wicked King after a signal Victory bore the reproof of a Prophet who denounced a Judgment upon Him and his People for letting Ben-hadad go and was much concerned at it 1 King xx 42 43. and the same Ahab rent his Cloaths and put on Sackcloth and fasted at the reproof of Elijah 1 King xxi 27. Amaziah by the admonition of a Prophet dismiss'd an Hundred thousand mighty men of valour whom he had hired of the Israelites for an Hundred Talents being content
1 King xiii 2. and this was foretold by a Prophet who came out of Judah purposely to denounce the Judgments of God upon the Priests of the Altar and upon the Altar it self which Jeroboam had newly set up at Bethel when Jeroboam stood by the Altar to burn Incense and his Prediction at the same time was confirmed by Two Miracles one wrought upon Jeroboam himself by drying up his hand which he stretched forth against the Prophet and which by the Prophet's Prayer was restored again whole to him as it was before the other Miracle was wrought upon the Altar by rending it and pouring out the Ashes from it And a Prophecy delivered in the presence and to the face of an enraged Prince against the Religion of his own setting up to secure to himself the Kingdom he so lately became possessed of at the very time when he was offering Incense upon his New Altar And this Prophecy confirmed by an immediate Judgment both upon the King himself and his Altar in the sight of so numerous an Appearance as must be present on so solemn an occasion and these Enemies to the Prophet who came from Judah and to his Religion a Prophecy thus delivered had all the Circumstances to make it remarkable and notorious in all the Tribes both of Israel and Judah then at hostility with each other that can almost be conceived And yet the strange Death of the Prophet of Judah for transgressing by his own confession the Word of the Lord to him and his Sepulchre with its Title or Inscription still remaining at Bethel when Josiah demolished the Altar there gave a further confirmation to it The fulfilling of this Prophecy by Josiah was no less remarkable 2 King xxiii 15. Josiah was the Son of a very wicked King and born at a time when the People were exceedingly corrupted by the Idolatry of his Grandfather Manasses and his Sons likewise proved wicked so that he was so singular in his Piety and so wonderful an Example of it that no Man of his own Age could have imagin'd that of him which had been fo retold so many hundred years ago In all humane appearance this was a very unlikely time to see that Prophecy fulfilled and that which had been wonderful in any Age was much more wonderful in this and in so wicked an Age this good King set about the Work of Reformation very young to shew that it was not of Men but of God The Deliverance of Judah at Jehoshaphat's Prayer was foretold by Jahaziel in the midst of the Congregation and was accomplished accordingly by their Enemies destroying one another 2 Chron. xx Elijah foretold that the Dogs should lick Ahab's Blood in Jezreel where they had licked the Blood of Naboth which as (b) Joseph Antiquit. l. 8. c. 10. Josephus says was objected by Zedekiah one of the False Prophets against Micaiah who foretold that Ahab should be slain at Ramoth-gilead but he was brought home in his Chariot from Ramoth-gilead to Samaria and there the Dogs licked his Blood in Jezreel 1 King xxii 38. so that both the Prophecy of Elijah and Michaiah was fulfilled And when one Prophet seems contrary to another one foretelling the principal thing and another some accidental circumstance which those that were present and most concerned in the Action could not imagine till it happened and False Prophets in the mean time watch the Events to take all Advantages from it against the True Prophets and can find none nothing more can be desired to assure us of the Truth of any Prophecy The same Prophet foretold the like Judgment upon Jezabel and that the House of Ahab should be like the House of Jereboam and like the House of Baasha the Destruction of both which had been foretold by other Prophets and their Prophecies fulfilled as this of Elijah's also was Elijah by a Writing sent to Jehoram King of Judah foretold his Death and the strange manner of it viz. That after the loss of his Children and his Wives and all his Goods he should be afflicted in his Bowels and that his Bowels should fall out by degrees 2 Chron. xxi 12. The same Prophet not only foretold the Death of Ahaziah but caused Fire twice to come down from Heaven upon those who were sent to Apprehend him 2 King i. And at his Prayer Fire descended from Heaven and consumed the Sacrifice in the sight of Baal's Prophets being Four hundred and fifty to whom Elijah who was the only Prophet of the Lord there present had made this Proposal The God that answereth by fire let him be God And when Baal notwithstanding all their hideous Cries and the cutting themselves did not hear them then upon Elijah's Prayer the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench 1 King xviii 38. which was the same Miracle repeated in the midst of Idolaters who were so enraged and provoked against the Prophet Elijah that had been before wrought in the sight of the People of Israel in the time of Moses Lev. ix 24. and of David 1 Chron. xxi 26. and at the Dedication of Solomon's Temple 2 Chron. vii 1. (c) Cyril contra Julian l. 10. And this Miracle of Elijah in bringing down Fire from Heaven to consume the Sacrifice and that of Moses in like manner were both confessed to be true by Julian the Apostate himself The miraculous Cure of Naaman's Leprosie must be notorious throughout the Kingdoms both of Syria and Israel 2 King v. The wonderful Deliverance of the Israelites when the Syrians heard a noise of Horses and Chariots and therefore raised the Siege of Samaria and the Plenty which followed was foretold by Elisha with a Judgment upon that Lord who doubted of the Truth of his Prediction The same Prophet foretold the Death of Benhadad King of Syria and that he should neither recover of his Sickness nor die a Natural Death And the Reign of Hazael who succeeded him is describ'd in such true and dreadful Characters that Hazael thought it impossible for him to be guilty of so much cruelty 2 King vii viii The Leprosie inflicted upon Vzziah for presuming to burn Incense unto the Lord which it was lawful for the Priests only to do was a permanent Miracle for his Leprosie continued till his death and for that reason he lived separately and his Son from that time had the administration of Affairs 2 King xv 5. and this Miracle of the Leprosie was accompanied with a terrible Earthquake mention'd Zech. xiv 5. Amos i. 1. and the (c) Joseph Antiquit. l. 9. c. 11. Ruines which were caused by the Earthquake remained as a perpetual Memorial of the Judgment An Hundred fourscore and five thousand of the Assyrians were slain by an Angel of the Lord in one Night 2 King xix 35. and this Deliverance was foretold by Isaiah when the Assyrians were in
he saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of Silver to the Chief Priests and Elders saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And they said What is that to us see thou to that And he cast down the pieces of Silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself Matt. xxvii 3 4. How could the Chief Priests themselves have contrived a better way to vindicate our Saviour's Innocence if they had never so much endeavour'd it than for one of his own Disciples after he had betrayed him instead of witnessing against him which it was natural to suppose he would have done to be so far from that as to come before them all and fling down the Money in the Temple which they had given him as the hire of his Treachery and declare publickly that he had betrayed the Innocent Blood and then to give a further proof of all this out of meer anguish and horror of Mind to go immediately from them and hang himself If our Saviour had done any thing whereby he could deserve to be put to Death Judas must needs have known it and when he had once betray'd him it cannot be supposed he would forbear to discover any thing he knew of him But when on the contrary he was so far from accusing him that as soon as he saw him condemned at the Accusation of other false Witnesses he could not bear the Agonies of his own mind but went and made away with himself this is as evident a proof of Christ's Innocence as any of the other Apostles themselves could ever give and Judas is so far an Apostle still as to proclaim his Master's Innocence in the face of the Sanedrim and then to Seal that Testimony with his Blood It has been thought by some that Judas as wicked as he was had never any design to cause his Master to be put to Death or to be any way instrumental towards it but he supposed that Christ would be secure enough against the Chief Priests in his own Innocence and Holiness or that they would not dare to hurt him for fear of the People which had been a restraint upon them in their former attempts or that he could easily make his escape from them as he had formerly done and therefore his Covetousness tempted him to believe that though he should betray his Master yet he would come to no harm by it However it is certain that Judas himself cleared our Saviour's snnocence by betraying him more than any other man could have done who had not been his Dlsciple and his making that confession and then his dying upon that account and in that manner may afford us that evidence which we must have wanted to certify us in the Truth of the Christian Religion if Christ had not been betray'd or had been betrayed by any but one of his own Disciples When he was condemned and crucify'd one of the Thieves who was crucified with him made an open Profession of him when there could be no Temptation of flattery nor leisure or patience for a man in that condition to speak in that manner but by the special Providence and Grace of God and to give an early instance of the great efficacy of his Cross and of the Mercy which it reacheth forth to all repenting Sinners our Saviour assures him that that very day he should be with him in Paradise A strange discourse upon the Cross To speak of Kingdoms and promise Paradise under so much infamy and torment That one should have the Faith to ask and the other the Power to promise so great things in that condition Who could have had the courage to promise so much upon the Cross but he who was able to perform it And as no ill could ever be proved against him but all circumstances concurred to confirm his Innocence as Herod dismissed him and Pilate often declared him to have committed nothing worthy of Death so the Devils themselves during his Life here upon Earth confessed him to be the Son of God and after his Death (b) Porphyr apud Euscb Demonstr Evang. lib. 3. c. 6. by their Oracles acknowledged him to have been an holy person whose Soul was translated into Heaven And this person thus Innocent and Holy both in his Life and Doctrine was prophesied of many Ages before his Birth and all the Prophecies concerning the Messias were exactly and in a wonderful manner fulfilled in him These Prophecies concern either his Birth or his Life or his Death or his Resurrection and Ascension 1. The Prophecies concerning the Birth of the Messias were fulfilled in our Saviour For his Birth was prophesied of in all the circumstances of the Time and the Place of it and the Person of whom he was born 1. As for the Time by Jacob's Prophecy Gen. xlix 10. The Messias was to come about the time of the Dissolution of the Jewish Government The Scepter was not to depart from Judah that is the Power and Authority of the Jewish Government was not to cease until Shilo came which the ancient (c) See Bp. Pearson on the Creed Jewish Interpreters expounded of the coming of their Messias To (d) Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple c. 21. which purpose it is held by the Jews that the great Sanhedrim sat in the Tribe of Judah tho' but part of the Court in which they sat was of that Tribe and the rest in the Tribe of Benjamin And the Jews among all their objections never objected against the time in which our Saviour came into the World but many of them have confessed that the Messias was born at that time but say that because of their sins he has (e) Munster de Messiâ concealed himself ever since And the latter Jews have by a great many stories endeavoured to make it believed that there is a Kingdom still of their Nation in some unknown part of the world tho' if this were true it could prove nothing to their purpose the prophecy being concerning their Power and Authority in the promised Land It is certain that soon after our Saviour's coming Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews dispersed and upon severe Penalties forbidden to come to their desolate and ruined City or so much as to look upon Zion the City of their Solemnities unless it were once every year to lament their calamity and they have ever since been a wandring and despicable People And several times when they have at tempted to re-build their Temple they have not been suffered to do it particularly when they had the favour and encouragement of Julian the Apostate who out of malice to the Christian Name and Doctrine was forward to promote the work they were hindred by an Earthquake and a miraculous eruption of Fire bursting out from under the foundation which burnt down what they had erected and destroyed those that were employed in it and this we have attested not only from Christian writers
and it being foretold half a year before the Birth of Augustus that a King of the Romans would be born that year the Senate made a Decree (i) Sueton. August c. 94. Nequis illo anno genitus educareter (k) Plutarch in Lycurg Plutarch himself says that he could find nothing unjust or dishonest in the Laws of Lycurgus tho Theft community of Wives and the murthering of such Infants as they saw weak and sickly and therefore thought they would prove unfit to serve the common-wealth were a part of those Laws Revenge was esteemed not only lawful but honourable and a desire of popular Fame and Vain Glory were reckoned among the Virtues of the Heathens and were the greatest motive and encitement they had to any other Vertue (l) Plut. in Aristide Plutarch tells us of Aristides so famed for Justice that tho he were strictly just in private affairs yet in things of publick concernment he made no scruple to act according as the present condition of the Common-wealth seemed to require For it was his Maxim that in such cases Justice must give way to expediency and he gives an instance how Aristides advised the Athenians to act contrary to their most solemn contract and oath imprecating upon himself the punishment of the perjury to avert it from the Common-wealth Tully in the Third Book of his Offices where he treats of the strictest Rules of Justice and proposes so many admirable Examples of it yet resolves the notion of Justice only into a principle of Honour upon which he concludes that no man should do a dishonest Action though he could conceal it both from God and Men and determines that an Oath is but an Appeal to a man 's own Mind or Conscience Cum vero jurato dicenda sententia sit meminerit Deum se adhibere testem id est ut arbitror mentem suam qua nihil homini dedit ipse Deus divinius The Indians themselves whatever may be thought to the contrary have naturally as good Sense and Parts as other people which (m) Jos Acost Hist lib. iv c. 1. Acosta sets himself to prove in divers instances but they had less communication with those who retained revealed Religion and by their own vices and the subtilty of the Devil the Notions which they had received from it were lost or perverted The Egyptians who were so famous for their Learning are a great instance how poor a thing humane Reason is without the Assistance of Divine Revelation for all their profound Learning did but lead them to the grossest Idolatry whilst they conceived God to be only an Anima Mandi and therefore to be worshipped in the several parts and species of the Universe The Stoicks in effect held the same Error and taught (n) Tull. Acad. Qu. lib. i. that there is nothing incorporeal But when the excellency of the Christian Morals began to be so generally observed and taken notice of the last Refuge of Philosophy was in the Moral Doctrines of the Stoicks For almost all the latter Philosophers were of this Sect which they refined and improved as well as they were able that they might have something to oppose to the Morality taught and practised too by the Christians (o) Theophil ad Autolych lib. iii. But the Ancient Stoicks had been the Patrons and Advocates of the worst vices and had filled the Libraries with their obscene Books II. The Stoicks first sprang from the Cynicks that impudent and beastly Sect of Philosophers and they refined themselves but by degrees Zeno who had as great Honour done him by the Athenians as ever any Philosopher had under the Notion of his Vertue taught that men ought to have their Wives in common and would have been put to death by the Laws of most Nations for sins against Nature (p) Diog. Laert. in Zenon Chrysipp Chrysippus taught the worst of Incest as that of Fathers with their Daughters and of Sons with their Mothers and besides his opinion for eating humane Flesh and the like his Books were filled with such obscene Discourses as no modest man could read Athenodorus a Stoick being Library-keeper at Pergamus cut all such ill Passages out of the Books of the Stoicks but he was discovered and those Passages were inserted again But these Philosophers might do as they pleased for they pretended to be exempt from sin and the stoical Philosophy in the Original fundamental Doctrines of it is nothing as Tully observed but a vain pomp and boast of words which at first raise admiration but when throughly considered are ridiculous as that men must live without love or hatred or anger or any other passion that all sins are equal and that it is the same Crime whether a man murther his Father or kill a Cock (*) Tulâ— pro Muraena as Tully says if there be no occasion for it And it is no wonder that Plutarch and others wrote purposely to expose the stoical Philosophy upon its old and genuine principles but the latter Stoicks being very sensible of the many defective and indesensible parts of their philosophy endeavoured to mollify what seemed too harsh and absurd that they might bring their own as near the Christian Doctrine as they could Quinctilian will not allow that Seneca was any great Philosopher but says that his main talent lay in declaiming against vice (q) Quint. lâ—st lib. x. c. 18. in Philosophia parum diligens egregius tamen vitiorum insectator suit It was rather the Art and Design of Seneca who knew wherein the strength and defects of his Philosophy lay to endeavour to give it all the advantage he could and to recommend it to the world by exposing the Follies and Vices of men rather than by instructing them in the Notions of his own Sect. But (r) Seu de Tranqu Animi c. 15. this notwithstanding was one of his Rules nonnunquam usque ad ebrietatem veniendum and when he had expos'd the cruelties the filthiness and the absurdities of the Religions in use amongst the Heathens in a Book written upon that subject yet says he (Å¿) Aug. Civit. Dei lib. vi c. x. quae omnia sapiens servabit tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam Diis grata And Tully likewise in divers places when he has reasoned against the absurdities of their Religion resolves the obligation to observe it into the Duty which men are bound to pay the Laws of the Government under which they live their Philosophy it seems taught them that we must obey Men rather than God But they held no more than (t) Xenophen Memorab lib. 1. Socrates had taught and practised before them Epictetus himself who has set off the Heathen Morality to the best advantage cannot be excused from as great errors and defects He teaches also that men should follow the Religion of their Country whatever it be Enchirid. cap. xxxviii He allows too great indulgence to lust cap. xlvii And
have done p. 237. CHAP. XIII Of the Fall of the Angels and of our first Parents THE Fall of Angels how caused p. 243. The Fall of Man The effects of it Visible however the Thing may be disputed p. 244. No Preexistence of Souls ib. Eve beguiled by the Serpent p. 246. The Sin of Eating the forbidden Fruit p. 249. Many Circumstances omitted in the Scripture concerning the State of our First Parents in Paradise and relating to their Fall ib. Why a Commandment was given them concerning a thing of an indifferent Nature p. 250. The Curse upon the Serpent p. 254. The Curse of the Ground p. 255. The Punishment of our First Parents p. 256. The Fall not Allegorical p. 374. The effects of it upon all Posterity p. 376. CHAP. XIV Of the Eternity of Hell Torments THE Eternity of Hell Torments consistent with the Justice of God because 1 Rewards and Punishments are a like Proposed to our choice p. 383. 2 The Rewards are Eternal as well as the Punishments p. 384. 3 It was necessary that the Sanction of the Divine Laws should be by eternal Rewards and Punishments p. 387. 4 It is necessary that eternal Punishments should be inflicted upon the Wicked according to this Sanction p. 388. Objections obviated p. 359. The Eternity of Hell Torments consistent with the Mercy of God p. 362. CHAP. XV. Of the Jewish Law OF the Judicial Laws p. 369. Of the Ceremonial Laws p. 371. They were given to prevent Idolatry p. 341. To signify and represent inward Purity and Holiness p. 344. This shewn of Circumcision p. 345. Of Purifications p. 346. Of Abstinences p. 346. Of Sacrifices and Oblations ib. The Jewish Worship was Typical of Christ and his Gospel p. 347. This proved of Sacrifices p. 348. Purifications p. 350. Incense ib. During this Ceremonial Dispensation there was a sufficient Revelation of the Internal and Spiritual part of Religion p. 352. The Love of God and of their Neighbour ib. A Future State p. 353. the Resurrection p. 354. CHAP. XVI Of the Cessation of the Jewish Law THE Types of the Law fulfilled in the Messias p. 332. The strange Evasions and absurd Opinions of the Jews ib. It was foretold by the Prophets that the Law was to cease upon the coming of the Messiah p. 335. It was afterwards to become impracticable p. 323. How it is to be understood that the Mosaical Law was to endure for ever p. 324. CHAP. XVII Of the Sinful Examples recorded in the Scriptures SEveral Places of the Scriptures relating Evil Actions contain only matter of Fact p. 327. The Rules of Good and Evil by which we are to judge of Actions are plainly delivered in the Scriptures p. ib. The Relation of the bad Actions of Good Men may be of use 1. To shew the Sincerity of the Pen-Men of the Scriptures 2. To discover the Frailty of Humane Nature and the necessity of imploring the Divine Grace 3. To shew that God can bring Good out of Evil p. 328. 4. For the Glory of God's Grace and for a Warning to future Ages p. 329. CHAP. XVIII Of the Imprecations in the Psalms and other Books of the Old Testament MAny of these Expressions are used in reference to the Nations on whom God had Commanded the Israelites to execute his Judgments p. 331. David being a King was a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that did Evil. p. 332. It is Lawful to Pray that Malefactors may be punished ib. The Jews might appeal to God as their Political Legislator and Governour p. 333. Those which seem Imprecations are oftentimes Predictions and Denunciations of Judgment p. 334. Divers Places are to be understood of Judas or of others like him p. 336. This supposition is implyed in Imprecations if they will persist in their Sins if they will not repent ib. What Charity was required under the Law and what was meant by the Word Neighbour p. 337. CHAP. XIX Of the Texts of the Old Testament cited in the New THe Apostles cited in the Scriptures of the Old Testament according to the Exposition of them then acknowledged by the Jews p. 340. A remarkable Passage from F. Simon to this purpose p. 342. The Epistle to the Hebrews much admired by a learned Jew for the sublime Sense therein given to the Texts of the Old Testament ib. CHAP. XX. Of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God I THe necessity of the Incarnation of the Son of God considered p. 344. 2. Tho' it should be supposed that God could have pardoned the Sins of Men upon other Terms yet the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God is so far from implying any thing unworthy of him that no other way of our Reconciliation with him as far as we are able to apprehend could so much have become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness p. 345. 1. There is nothing in this whole Dispensation unworthy of God p. 346. which is proved by shewing 1 The unreasonableness of this Supposition that the Union of the Divine and Human Nature in Christ should cause the God head to suffer with the Manhood p. 347. 2 The Humiliation of the Son of God in affirming our Nature may be accounted for without supposing that the Godhead suffered p. 350. 3 The Satisfaction of Christ by Dying for our Sins may be explained without supposing it p. 351. 2. No other way as far as we can apprehend could have been so proper and expedient as the Incarnation of the Son of God to procure the Salvation of Mankind p. 357. 1 The Doctrin and Preaching of the Son of God was of more Power and Authority than the Preaching or Doctrin of a Man or Angel could have been p. 358. 2 His Example is of greater Perfection and Holiness p. 360. 3 His Mediation and Intercession is of greater efficacy p. 362. 4 The Incarnation and Death of the Son of God is the most effectual means to excite in us Faith Hope and Charity and to dispose and engage us to all Vertue and Piety p. 364. CHAP. XXI Of the Fulness of Time or the Time appointed by God for the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour GOd had before-hand used all other means to shew the necessity of sending his Son at last p. 371. The Reception of the Gospel had been much more difficult if it had not been foretold in so many several Ages by the Prophets p. 374. The Time of Christ's coming might depend upon the Duration of the World p. 376. The World was then prepared for his coming p. 378. The particular Temper and Disposition of that Age in which our Saviour was born made it the most seasonable p. 380. CHAP. XXII Of the last Days and of the last Day or the Day of Judgment THE last Days of the World seldom mentioned in express Terms in Scripture but under the Resemblances of other Events p. 384. The Destruction of Jerusalem Typical of the Day of Judgment p. 385. This appears from Matt. 25. ib. The
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
Messiah the Jewish Law was to become impracticable and impossible to be observ'd For if the City and Temple were not destroy'd the confinement of the Jewish Worship to one certain Place must necessarily imply an alteration in their Worship upon the coming of the Messiah and the calling of the Gentiles who could not all be supposed to assemble thrice every year at Jerusalem and therefore the Prophets foretold That Jerusalem should then be no longer the only place of God's Worship but that Men should Worship him in any place of the World 'T is true the Prophets often mention the resort which should be made from all Nations to Jerusalem and to the Temple or the Mountain of the Lord. But then these are Mystical Expressions for the City of Jerusalem and the Temple are used by the Prophets as Types of the Christian Church and therefore Ezekiel (m) Lightfoot 's Prospect of the Temple ch 2. describes the Temple larger than the whole City of Jerusalem and the City in greater dimensions than all the Land of Canaan to shew that we are not to understand these Expressions literally A Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedeck different from that of Aaron was Prophesied of Psal cx 4. and a New Covenant different from that which was made with the Children of Israel upon their coming out of the Land of Aegypt Jer. xxxi 31 32. And this Covenant was to extend to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts Malach. i. 11. If against all this it be alledged That the Mosaical Law was to endure for ever it ought to be considered what sense that expression bears in the Law it self And that expression is there used to denote the continuance of any thing which was not designed for some particular occasion or season only but was to last as long as the nature and general design of its Institution would admit The Servant whose Ear was bored was to serve his Master for ever Exod. xxi 6. by which is to be understood not all his Life but only till the year of Jubilee whereas he that had not his Ear bored was to be set free in the seventh year ver 2. And even before the year of Jubilee he whose Ear was bored might be freed with his Master's Consent (n) Grot. ad loc either by Manumission or Redemption and was at liberty upon the death of his Master not being bound to serve his Son Their anointing shall surely be an everlasting Priesthood throughout their Generations Exod. xl 15. which can be understood to extend no farther than as long as their Genealogies were preserved and the Tribe and Generations of the High-Priests could be distinguished I will abide in thy Tabernacle for ever Ps lxi 4. or in other words all the days of my Life Ps xxvii 4. Samuel was brought by his Mother to abide before the Lord for ever that is during his Life 1 Sam. i. 22. And by parity of Reason those Statutes and Laws are said to be Established for ever which were designed to be perpetual and standing Laws not temporary during their journeying in the Wilderness only as others were but to continue as long as the Constitution of the Government was to last and in this sense the Jews themselves (o) Id. de Veritat Lib. 5. §. 7. have taken the word and it is sufficiently explain'd Deut. xii 1. These are the Statutes and Judgments which ye shall observe to do in the Land which the Lord God of thy Fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that ye live upon the Earth or as we read ver 19. as long as thou livest upon thy earth that is their Law was obligatory to them as long as they had possession of the Land of Canaan or retained any right to possess it by God's donation But those Statutes and Judgments which were to be observed in the Land which the Lord had given them to possess can no longer be of any obligation to them when they are finally deprived of that Land The Ceremonial Law therefore by its Original Design and Institution being to continue in force but till the coming of Christ he gave the accomplishment to it and put a final period to its Obligation Instituting his Gospel in its stead which had been pre-figured by the Law and foretold both by Moses and the Prophets CHAP. XVII Of Sinful Examples Recorded in the Scriptures AS some have endeavour'd to excuse their own Sins by alledging the Sinful Examples which we find mention'd in the Scriptures so others who are no less fond of imitating them yet have from hence taken a pretence for Objections and Cavils I shall therefore shew that the bad Examples in some actions of Men whom we find in all other respects commended in the Scriptures are far from being proposed for our imitation but there is great reason why the Faults and Miscarriages of the best Men should be deliver'd down to us in the Scriptures for our Caution and Prevention as well as upon other accounts I. Several passages of the Scriptures contain only Matter of Fact and that very briefly express'd and a bare Narrative of any Action implies neither the Approbation nor the Censure of it but only declares that such a thing was done and in such a manner but the Nature of the Fact it self with the Circumstances of it or some Command or Permission or Prohibition in Scripture must discover the goodness or lawfulness or the wickedness of the Action No Historian is supposed to approve of all which he relates but he must report bad as well as good Deeds who will do the part of a faithful Historian II. The Rules of Good and Evil are plainly delivered in the Scriptures by which we are to judge of Actions and we are to conform our Actions not to the Example of Men but to the Law of God We are forewarn'd to follow no Man's Example when it is contrary to the Divine Law and therefore it could not be necessary in the relating of every evil Action to set a mark of Infamy upon it and a Caution against the imitation of it III. The Relation of the bad Actions of Good Men may be of great use and benefit tho' we are not to follow but avoid them Because 1. This shews the sincerity of the Pen-Men of the Scriptures that they spare no person whatsoever but relate the plain Matter of Fact even tho' themselves be concern'd when it is never so much to their disgrace as in the Denial of St. Peter and other instances 2. By this we learn the Frailty of Humane Nature and the necessary dependance that the best Men must have upon God for his Grace in
recedant Hieron in Amos. c. v. Ex quo perspicuum est Apostolos Evangelistas ipsum Dominum salvatorem ex Hebraeo transferre quod legerint non curantes de syllabis punctisque verborum dummodo sententiarum veritas transferatur Id. in Malach. c. iii. CHAP. XX. Of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God THIS is that Article of our Faith which was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness 1 Cor. i. 23. and has ever been most liable to the Objections of Infidels and therefore I shall take the more care to give the clearest and fullest account I can of it I. I shall here consider the necessity of the Incarnation of the Son of God for the satisfaction of the Justice and the vindication of the honour of God II. Tho' it should be suppos'd that God could have pardon'd the Sins of Men upon any other terms than the death and satisfaction of his own Son in our Flesh I hope fully to prove that this is so far from being unworthy of God that no other way of our Reconciliation with him as far as we are able to apprehend could have been so becoming the Divine Wisdom and Goodness 1. There seems to have been a necessity for the Incarnation of the Son of God for the satisfaction of God's Justice and the vindication of his Honour For God is Infinite Justice as well as Infinite Mercy and Infinite Justice must punish Offenders unless full satisfaction be made for the Offence because Infinite Justice must demand to the utmost extent of Justice and must require whatsoever can in Justice be demanded But Infinite Mercy found out a Means to satisfie this Infinite Justice which Satisfaction could be made only by the Obedience and by the Death of the Son of God who by his Obedience unto Death even the Death of the Cross vindicated the Honour of God by performing in our Nature a perfect and absolute Obedience to all that ever God required of Mankind and by suffering to the utmost of all that the Sins of the whole World deserv'd It is for the Honour of God that his Laws should be exactly observ'd and observ'd by one who is of that very Nature for which they were ordain'd and that Satisfaction should be made in the same Nature for the Sins of it Christ therefore taking our Nature upon him paid down the uttermost Farthing which in strictness of Justice must have been demanded but which could never have been paid by any Created Being for the Sins of the whole World And he fulfill'd all Righteousness in Obedience to the Divine Laws which otherwise could never have been fully obey'd And as far as God's Justice and Honour was concern'd to see his Laws obey'd and to demand satisfaction for the breach of them so far the Incarnation of the Son of God must be necessary because these things could be perform'd by no Creature 2. Tho' it should be suppos'd that God could have pardon'd the Sins of Men upon other Terms than the death and satisfaction of his own Son in our flesh yet the Incarnation and Death of his Son is so far from implying any thing unworthy of God that no other way of our Reconciliation with him as far as we can apprehend could so much have become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness First There is nothing in this whole Dispensation unworthy of God Here I am to consider that which was the great prejudice taken against the Christian Religion at its first Propagation and is still the great Objection of the Enemies of the Gospel of Christ and of their own Salvation They are apt to represent it to themselves as an unnecessary thing and unworthy of God that he should send his only begotten Son into the World for the Redemption of Mankind they imagine that the Infinite Wisdom of God could have found out other Methods of Salvation for us and that this would never have been made use of if there could have been any other It might be enough in Answer to such Objections to say with the Apostle nay but O Man who art thou that replyest against God shall the Person saved say unto him that saved him why hast thou saved me thus will we not be contented to be saved unless we can be fully certified in all the Reasons and Methods of our Salvation May not God bring to pass our Redemption in such a way as he shall see fitting or shall we question his Wisdom if his Mercy be so much greater than we can comprehend How infinite is his Mercy and how monstrous our ingratitude if his goodness be made an objection against the truth of his word and be alledg'd as an Argument for our Unbelief What if God willing to shew the heinousness of Sin and to make known the riches of his Mercy chose this way for the Redemption of the World What if many Reasons may be given why this Method was the most proper and expedient and what if there might be infinitely greater and better Reasons for it than all the wisdom of Man can conceive But tho' the Revealed will and Counsel of God ought to silence all Disputes in this as well as in all other Cases yet I think this Objection is capable of a very plain and direct Answer For whatever weight there may seem to be in it it is all grounded upon a Mistake and upon a wrong Notion of the Union between the Divine and the Humane Nature of Christ For if the Godhead be not so united to the Manhood as to suffer with it there is no imaginable Reason why its Union with the Manhood should be supposed to be unworthy of God I shall therefore 1. Shew the unreasonableness of this Supposition that the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ should cause the Godhead to suffer with the Manhood 2. I will prove that the Humiliation of the Son of God in assuming our Nature may be accounted for without supposing that the Godhead suffer'd 3. That the satisfaction of Christ by dying for our Sins may be explain'd without it I. The unreasonableness of this supposition that the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ should cause the Godhead to suffer with the Manhood This Objection supposes the Godhead to be so united to the Manhood in the Person of our Saviour as that the Divine Nature must really and properly partake in all the Sufferings which befell his Person It supposes that Christ as God suffer'd the Miseries of Humane Life and at last underwent Death upon the Cross which is so far from being the Doctrine of the Gospel that it is no better than Heresie and Blasphemy and has always been rejected and condemned as such by the Catholick Church That the Union of the Godhead with the Manhood should render the Godhead capable of Sufferings as the Soul by being united to the Body becomes sensible of its pains is indeed a thing not only unworthy of God but
and Love being the only principle of Obedience which can be acceptable to God this must be the most proper and sitting dispensation which is most apt to excite in us the Love of God The Power and Majesty of God had been manifested before in the Creation and Preservation and Government of the World and in many signal Judgments upon Sinners the Divine Mercy and Goodness was likewise visible in the daily Blessings bestowed upon Mankind but the exceeding Riches of his Grace was made known in his kindness towards us thro' Christ Jesus Ephes ii 7. And as this must cause us to love God so â—t must make us if any thing can do it to have love one for another God Incarnate is the Head and Vital Principle the common Bond of Life and Union between Christians and we are oblig'd to mutual Love not only because we are all of the same Nature but because the Son of God has been pleas'd to dignifie that Nature in assuming it This ought to make us value our own Nature and to have a due esteem and affection for it in whomsoever it be How can we despise and one who is a Partaker of that Nature of which the Son of God has vouchsafed to partake in its meanest Condition or hate any whom he loved so well as to die for him This makes all Men worthy of our respect and love not of our contempt or hatred they are of that Nature which Christ as Man is of and they are his Purchase and we must love what is his and what he has so dearly paid for iâ—â— we love Christ himself Beloved says St. John if God so loved us we ought also to love one another 1 Joh. iv 11. And this is St. Paul's Argument to the Corinthians to excite them to Charity towards their poor Brethren For ye know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that tho' he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye thro' his poverty might be rich 2 Cor. viii 9. The Incarnation of the Son of God must likewise cause us to have the greatest hatred and detestation of Sin as being that which is most displeasing to God and that which occasioned the death of his only Son to atone for it And it is evident that all who neglect so great Salvation must expect the heaviest Punishment for so heinous a Contempt and Provocation if we will be gained by any methods of Love Christ has done all that is possible to effect it But if we will not be moved by all the kindness and compassions of Love it self we can hope for no further favour if the Son of God came to die for us and we will not regard it so as to be made the better by it nothing more can be look'd for but Wrath and fiery Indignation So that the manifestation of the Son of God in the Flesh was the most proper and fitting means to work upon the Love and Fear and Hope and all the Passions of Mankind and to produce all those Graces in us which the Gospel requires It is the best fitted both to the Nature and Design of the Gospel and to the Nature of Man and therefore if any other Means had been possible yet none that we can conceive could have been so effectual to procure the Salvation of Men. CHAP. XXI Of the Fulness of Time or the Time appointed by God for the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour SInce we have so great Evidence to satisfie us that Christ did come into the World and die for us it would be the greatest ingratitude and folly as well as Impiety to reject him tho' we should not be able to give any exact account concerning the Reasons for the time of his coming It is not for us to know the Times or the Seasons which the Father hath put in his own power Acts i. 7. These things are in God's disposal and unless we can be contented to leave the manner and circumstances of our Salvation to his Wisdom we only shew how little we deserve his Mercies and how unwilling we are to believe them and to accept of them But tho' it be a mere Cavil to dispute the coming of Christ upon a bare Circumstance and Nicety concerning the Reasons for the particular time of his Incarnation yet it will be easie to give such an account of the time appointed for the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour as may serve to silence all Objections against it and to desire to know any further of it is an useless and unwarrantable Curiosity for all must acknowledge that God may have the best and wisest Reasons for his Dispensations which yet we may not be able to comprehend and which it doth not concern us to know The Scripture teacheth us that Christ was born in the Fulness of Time when all things were fulfilled and accomplished in order to it and the World was in a due readiness and preparation for his coming 1. God had beforehand us'd all other means to shew the necessity of sending his Son at last for he was not to be sent but upon necessity and it was fit they to whom he was sent should be sensible of that necessity that they might the better know how to value the infinite mercy of God towards them in sending his only Son to be born and to die for them In the beginning of the World and at the Repeopling it after the Flood Revelations were so frequent and the Will and Commands of God so well known and his promise to send his Son so clearly understood that there could be no necessity that Christ should be Born then since their Faith in him and their Obedience to God's Commandments was as effectual to the Salvation of them that lived so long before his coming as it is to us that live so many Ages after it The Lives of Men in the beginning of the World were so long and the generations-deceased were so few before the Flood that nothing but wilfull ignorance and negligence could be the cause of so much wickedness And after the Flood the Race of Mankind being reduc'd to so few Persons the Example and Instructions of Noah and Abraham and the other Patriarchs might have been sufficient to keep Men within the measures of their Duty and to preserve a belief and expectation of the promis'd Messiah For they were saved by their Faith in Christ to come as we must be saved by Faith in him already come so many Ages past and therefore to suppose it necessary that he should be Born in those Ages we must suppose it necessary that he should be Born in every Age of the World which I think no Man will imagine But when the rest of the World was generally fallen away to Idolatry God chose to himself one Person from whom by a course of Miracles he raised a mighty Nation who by their Journeyings and Captivities and by all the dispensations of his Providence towards them were appointed
to make known his Name and Truth among the Gentiles In the time of Moses this People it self was uncapable of that pure and Spiritual Worship which the Messiah was to appoint and stood in need of a Ceremonial Law and Service to restrain them from Idolatry and to preserve the sense and remembrance of the Promises and Laws deliver'd to Adam and Noah And this Ritual Service was unworthy that the Messiah should come purposely to appoint it who was indeed himself the principal thing signified and typified by it and the Types and Figures of himself could not be Instituted by himself in Person for then they would have been insignificant and there could have been no use or occasion for them But the most Excellent and Divine Institution was reserv'd for his Appointment to which all the rest was but preparatory The Law was added because of Transgressions till the Seed should come to whom the Promise was made Gal. iii. 19. After the Revelation of God's Will and Commandments had thro' the great neglect and wickedness of Mankind become ineffectual God sent all his Servants the Prophets daily rising up early and sending them an expression setting forth his great care and watchfulness over his People for their good yet they hearkned not unto him nor enclin'd their ear but hardned their neck Jer. vii 25 26. To Cure this strange stubbornness and their proneness to Idolatry God sent this People into Captivity for Seventy years which wrought so thorough a Reformation in them that they were never afterwards given to Idolatry but endur'd all extremities of Torments rather than they would be brought to any compliance with the Heathen Worship and therefore there could be no longer such necessity that the Ceremonial Law should be continu'd to them to keep them from the Worship of Idols But in other respects their Provocations were still very great And as the Lord in the Parable first sent his Servants and last of all his Son saying they will reverence my Son and thereby left those wicked Men without excuse and manifested the Justice of his Vengeance upon the Murtherers of his own Son So God first sent his Prophets and when the Jews who had been train'd in the knowledge and worship of him and were to conveigh it to other Nations would not be reclaim'd by them but revil'd and destroy'd them and then set up their own Traditions in opposition to their Doctrines he sends his Beloved Son before he would utterly take away their City and Nation and effected that by the death of his Son whom they Crucified which the experience of so many Ages had shewn could be effected no other way God reveal'd himself at sundry times and in divers manners and in his Infinite Wisdom proportioned the ways and measure of his Revelations to the capacities and the necessities of the several Ages in which they were made till at last he hath spoken unto us by his Son Heb. i. 1 2. When we were Children we were in bondage under the Elements of the World but when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law Gal. iv 3 4. 2. The Reception of Christ and his Gospel in the World would have been much more difficult if so many Prophets in so many several Ages had not foretold his coming Our Saviour himself and his Apostles after him appeal to Moses and the Prophets for the truth of their Doctrine this was the great Argument which they us'd to the Jews in Confirmation even of their Miracles themselves they prov'd that the Prophets had foretold that Christ should come at that very time when he came and that he should work those Miracles which he wrought and should empower his Disciples to do the like his Death and Resurrection and Ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost were all Prophesied of and Prophecies thus foretelling the Miracles and Miracles fullfilling the Prophecies and both mutually confirming and supporting each other afforded all the Evidence that could be given for Prophecies and Miracles are all the ways by which God can be supposed to reveal himself to Mankind And therefore thousands of the Jews were convinc'd out of the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ and were Converted to the Christian Faith And the Prophecies concerning the Messiah are still an unanswerable Argument in vindication of our Religion which Argument we must have wanted if our blessed Saviour had come so much sooner as not to have been Prophesied of so many Ages beforehand And those who reject the Gospel now would have thought they had had much more Reason on their side than they can now pretend to have for there had then been so much less means for their Conviction So that the coming of our Saviour was deferr'd to give the greater Evidence and the fuller conviction of his being the Christ It would have been hard to believe that the Son of God should come into the World with little or no notice given of it beforehand and few or no Prophets sent to foretell his coming and prepare his way But when he had been so long before Prophesy'd of even from the beginning of the World thro' the several Ages of it when there had been a general expectation of the Messiah to be born and the Time and Place and Tribe and Family and Person of whom he was to be born by degrees and at several times had been foretold when Mens hopes and desires to see him were thus from Age to Age awakened and alarmed this was a Solemnity worthy to introduce and attend the Son of God into the World and a Method which would prove a standing Evidence of his being come into it 3. The time of Christ's coming may depend upon things which we are uncapable of knowing For it may depend upon the duration of the World and it is impossible for any Man to know how long that shall be The Scripture speaks of the times of the Gospel under the Phrase of the last Days but this is to be understood in relation not to the continuance of the World but to the Christian Dispensation which is the last means of Salvation that God will vouchsase to Mankind and with regard to the Jewish Church and Government which was just then at an end as I shall shew in the next Chapter Now if the World may continue as long under the dispensation of the Gospel as it had done before it and no Man can tell but it may we shall find little cause to wonder that Christ was not sooner born into the World For we find that the Faith and Zeal of Christians decays as we are at a farther distance of time from the Incarnation of our Saviour and the first propagation of his Gospel and the length of the time it self proves a temptation to some to disbelieve it for men are apt to give less credit to what happened long ago and to think themselves less concern'd in it
thus for it is ever supposed and agreed in all Cases that no Man is bound to any thing impossible and that God requires nothing of any Man either in Faith or Practice beyond his Power and Capacity Whosoever will be Saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly But this supposes that he has already attained or is able to attain to the Knowledge which is necessary to Faith for no Man can hold that Faith the general Knowledge whereof he cannot attain We must with an implicit Faith believe all that God says to be true tho' it be never so much above our Understanding but no Man is bound to believe explicitly any more than he can understand so far as is necessary to such a Belief He is able to understand so much of it as to know in general what he is required to believe tho' he can have no such compleat and comprehensive Notion of it as to give a particular and full Account of the Nature and Manner of Existence of that which is to be believed by him And let the Articles of Faith supposed necessary to Salvation according to Natural Religion be never so few and plain yet there will still be some Men who are uncapable of understanding them in any way or measure and then there will lie the same Objections against those Articles of Natural Religion which are upon this Account urged against their Faith in the Trinity it self which so far as it is required to be known and believed is not above the Capacity of the Generality of Mankind and no more is required to be believed explicitely of any than they are capable of knowing in such a Degree as is necessary in order to such a Belief whatever Articles of Faith be assigned in Natural or Revealed Religion they will be above the Capacity of many Adult Persons and of all Infants to apprehend them who therefore according to all Religions may be Saved without the actual Knowledge of those Articles which are never so necessary to others And what may be objected against all Religions Natural as well as Revealed ought in Reason to be objected against none for there can be no force in it III. This Doctrine exceedingly tends to the advancement of Vertue and Holiness and has a great influence upon the Lives and Conversations of Men. That God the Father should send his Son his only Begotten and only beloved Son to be Born and to Die for us is an endearing and amazing Act of the Divine Goodness The Death not of a meer Man but of the Son of God Blessed for ever in our stead must needs heighten our Love of God and our Faith and Dependance on him our Hatred of Sin and our Assurance of Pardon upon Repentance This I have proved at large in Discoursing of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God for us and therefore shall not insist upon it here In like manner whatever the Holy Ghost hath done and is continually doing for us must needs be of more weight with us and give us quite another Notion and Apprehension of his Goodness and our own Duty than we could have had if we believed him to be a Creature For unless we believe him to be God we cannot have that devout Love and Faith and Dependance upon him which we ought we cannot have that Esteem and Reverence for his Communion and Presence which is required of us nor that sense of the heinousness of Sin whereby we resist and grieve and do despight to him That Argument of St. Paul what know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost and many other to the like purpose would be lost but on supposition that the Holy Ghost is God We can never have that Sense which it behoves us to have of our Sins committed in opposition to the Gifts and Influences of his Grace without an acknowledgment of his Godhead So that our Faith and Hope and Fear and Love is more excited and enlarged and all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls are more disposed to the obedience of the Gospel thro' the belief of this Doctrine of the Trinity than they could be without it And therefore as there is nothing absurd or impossible to be believed in this Doctrine so it was very reasonable and expedient that it should be revealed CHAP. XXV Of the RESURRECTION of the Dead THE Resurrection of our Saviour from the Dead was that which the Apostles chiefly insisted upon in all their Discourses For if once they could convince Men that Christ was Risen from the Dead they could not fail of perswading them into a Belief of all that they Taught besides There was no other Part of their Doctrine which could seem more strange and incredible than this and when that which they could with so much Difficulty be brought to believe and which could not come to pass but by the Almighty Power of God himself was evidently and undeniably proved to them this must give that Credit and Authority to all their other Doctrine that it could be no longer withstood or gain-said This therefore is the Point which the Apostles most of all urged knowing that if they could gain this all the rest would follow of Course and that every Man must of necessity be Converted to the belief of the whole Gospel of Christ who was once convinced of his Resurrection And St. Paul in his Defence before King Agrippa puts the Question Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead Acts xxvi 8. which implies that it is a very unreasonable thing to think that God cannot Raise the Dead and that therefore there was all the Reasons in the World to believe that he had raised Christ For there was so great Evidence of his Resurrection and so many Men daily Witnessed it at the peril of their Lives that if their Adversaries would but allow the thing to be possible there could be no Doubt remaining but that Christ was indeed raised from the Dead The Apostle Argues that it is a very absurd thing to say that God cannot raise the Dead What Reason could any Man give why God cannot do it Or how durst any Man so limit and confine the Infinite Power of God by his own Notions and Conceptions of things as to say that the Resurrection of the Dead cannot be effected by him This is unreasonable and absurd in the highest Degree and therefore it is manifest that Christ is Risen and that there is to be a General Resurrection of the Dead since there is no other Objection that can lie against it but the Impossibility of the thing it self For our Resurrection is asserted in the Scriptures as a necessary Consequence of Christ's Resurrection 1 Cor. xv 20. and his Resurrection was so well attested that the greatest Enemies to Christianity
patience which was necessary for men that were to declare an ungrateful and despised truth amongst those who would think themselves so much concerned to oppose and suppress it If they had wrought no Miracles their courage and resolution might have pass'd for a groundless confidence and if they had not had the courage to stand so resolutely to the truth of what they delivered their Miracles themselves might have become suspected but acting by a Divine Power and being supported in all their sufferings by a supernatural constancy and greatness of Mind and being so suddenly changed and raised above themselves in all they did or suffered and working the same change in others they gave all the evidence and certainty of the truth of the Doctrines they taught that it was possible for men to give And as a power of working Miracles was derived from the Apostles down upon their Disciples so was the spirit of meekness and patience under afflictions communicated to them And it is observable that God was pleased not to raise up any Christian Emperor till above three hundred years after Christ that he might shew that the Religion which came from heaven could need no human aid nor be suppress'd by any human force and that he might recommend the great vertues of meekness and patience to the world by the examples men as eminent for these as for the Miracles they wrought and might instruct mankind in a suffering Religion For to assure the world of the truth of it he would not grant it protection from Christian Emperors till most of the Empire was become Christian and Christianity had diffused it self into all the known parts of the Earth For before the last Persecution begun by Dioclesian (l) Euseb Hist lib. viii c. 1. the Church flourished as much and had the favour of the Court and of great men in as high a degree almost as under Constantine himself till their Prosperity caused their sins and these brought Persecution But at last the persecuting Emperors were forced by a divine power manifested in miraculous diseases inflicted on them to restore the Christians to their former liberty in their worship of God that so it might appear to all the world that the Christian Religion needed no Patronage of men for God would compel its worst Enemies to become its Protectors when he saw it fitting And (m) Sozom lib. v. c. 16. when Julian made it his great aim and business to restore Paganism again in the world he saw to his grief how ineffectual all his endeavours proved he observed that the Christian Religion still retained a general esteem and approbation and that the Wives and Children and Servants of his own Priests themselves were most of them Christians If any one then upon a serious consideration of all circumstances can withstand the conviction of so great evidence I would only ask him whether he believes any History or relation of matters of fact which he never saw and desire him to shew what degrees of certainty he can discern in any of them which are are not to be found here and besides to consider that if in a vicious and subtile Age a Doctrine so contrary to flesh and blood by so weak and incompetent means could obtain so universally amongst men of all Tempers and Professions and Interests in all Nations of the world against so violent opposition without the help of Miracles this is as great a Miracle as can be conceived either therefore the Christian Religion was propagated by Miracles or it was not if it was then the Miracles by which it was propagated prove it to be from God if it was not propagated by Miracles the Propagation it self is a Miracle and sufficient to prove it to be from him CHAP. XVII Of the Writingâ— of the Apostles and Evangelists IT is justly esteemed a sufficient reason for the credibility of any History if it be written by men of Integrity men who have no suspicion upon them of dishonesty and have no Temptation to deceive and who relate nothing but of their own Times and within their own knowledge though the Authors never suffered any loss nor run any hazard in asserting what they deliver But the History of Christ has this further advantage that many of the most considerable things in it were done in the sight of his enemies and that which is an History to future Ages was rather an Appeal to that Age whether the things related were true or not The History of our Saviour's Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension as it hath been proved was attested by his Apostles to the faces of his very Crucifiers and they all remained upon the place where what they witnessed had been done for several years afterwards declaring and preaching to all people the things which they had seen and heard And soon after his Ascension when all the proceedings against him were fresh in memory they committed the same to writing in Greek which was the most common language and generally known at that time St. Matthew who first penned his Gospel is said to have written it in Hebrew or Syriack tho it was soon after translated into Greek so that whover of the Jews did not understand the Greek tongue might read the Gospel in their own Language Not long after the other Gospels were penned and they were all in a short time dispersed into the several parts of the world and translated into all Languages It is particularly related (a) Eâ—iphan Haerâ—â— Ebion that St. John's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles were soon translated into the Hebrew tongue The Evangelists give such an account both of the Birth and Death of our Saviour as must suppose them recorded at Rome For there the censual Tables were kept where by St. Luke's account the name of our Saviour must have been registered and his Death and Resurrection were so remarkable as they relate them that according to the custom used in the Government of the Roman Provinces the Emperor must have a relation sent him of them and as I have shewn both Justin Martyr and Tertullian appeal to the Roman Records for the truth both of the Birth and Resurrection of our Saviour The memory of the Massacre of the Infants by Herod is preserved to us by a saying of Augustus concerning Herod upon it (b) Macrob Saturnal lib. ii c. 4. which is mentioned in Macrobius a Heathen Author For Augustus was told that among others Herod had caused his own child to be slain which whether true or no gave occasion to the Emperor to make this observation that it was better to be Herod's Swine than his Son Tacitus mentions our Saviour's suffering under Pontius Pilate and Tertullian in his (c) Tertul. Apol. c. 21. Apology tells the Heathens that the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun which was at Christ's Death stood upon Record in their own Registers whether it were for the strangeness of the thing it being contrary to the course
of Nature or that their superstition had made it customary to register all the Eclipses which happened The dumbness of Zacharias till the Circumciston of his Son John the Baptist was a notorious publick thing and the people who waited for him and marvelled that he tarried so long in the Temple perceived at his coming out that he had seen a Vision and all things relating to that History were noised abroad through all the hill country of Judea Luke i. 21. That the wise men came from the East at the sight of the Star that Herod heard of this and was troubled at it and all Jerusalem with him That he gathered all the Chief Priests and Scribes together and demanded of them where Christ should be born and that they answered At Bethlehem of Judea citing the Prophecy of Micah That Herod when he had enquired of the wise men concerning the Star and enjoyned them to bring him word where the young child was being disappointed by their returning home another way slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under these are things of that publick nature that it was impossible they should be feigned when St. Matthew's Gospel was first published If they had not been true thousands must have been able to contradict them and discover the salsehood of them When matters of fact are related with so many manifest and publick circumstances it is an appeal to the world for the Truth of what is written and no man of common sense would contrive a false story with such publick circumstances as that every Reader may be able to disprove it If any man should affirm that in such a City or Village in England at the command of such a King and at such a time within our memory all the Infants from two years old and under were murthered he must scarce expect to be believed or to confirm any thing else he has to deliver by such a Fiction to introduce it The Triumphant shouts and Hosanna's of the multitude at Christ's entrance into Jerusalem whereby all the City was moved Matt. xxi 10 11. immediately before the Passover when there was the greatest concourse of people was a thing that could not soon be forgotten at the same time he drove out all that sold and bought in the Temple and overthrew the Tables of the Money changers and when he was in the Temple the blind and the lame came to him and he healed them and the chief Priests and Scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the Children crying in the Temple Hosannah to the Son of David and they were sore displeased at it The Evangelists would never have brought in the Chief Priests and Scribes themselves with the whole people of Jerusalem and the vast numbers of Jews and Proselytes out of all Nations assembled at the Passover as spectators and witnesses of these things if they had not been so certain of them as to appeal to them all for the truth of what they relate so lately and so solemnly and publickly done The darkness of the whole earth for three hours together in the midst of the day the veil of the Temple 's being rent from the top to the bottom the Earthquake and the rending of the Rocks and the opening of the Graves are things that must have been generally known and could not be feigned or if any man can be so vain as to imagine they might let him but consider whether such things could now be imposed upon any people by the writings of a few men as done in the Metropolis of a Nation at a solemn time within the memory of thousands yet living who are able to contradict them from their own certain knowledge If a man should pretend that but a few years ago in the chief City of any Kingdom or Nation one part of the principal Church was rent from the bottom to the top by an Earthquake which tore asunder the Rocks and opened the Graves of the dead and that at the same time the Moon being in that position that the Sun could fuffer no Eclipe the Sun was darkned from twelve at Noon to three in the Afternoon could he hope to gain any credit or belief to any Doctrine he had to propagate by feigning such circumstances as would put it into the power of every man that heard of them to disprove him Would not this be the readiest and the most effectual way he could possibly invent to expose himself and his Cause The Death of Judas and the cause and manner of it which is so clear a vindication of our Saviour and so plain a proof that he is the Christ was known unto all the dwellers of Jerusalem insomuch as that field was called in their proper tongue Aceldama that is to say the field of Blood Acts i. 19. Matt. xxvii 8. If this field had not been so called and this had not been well known at Jerusalem would any man have written in this manner And besides the XII Apostles and the LXX Disciples who all believed and attested the truths contained in the Evangelists many persons of Authority and Note among the Jews are mentioned who would have found themselves concerned to disprove what is related if it had been false Nicodemus is said to have come to Christ by night who was a Pharisee and a Ruler of the Jews John iii. 2. vii 50. xix 39. and to put this mark upon him three several Times That he came to Jesus by night and durst not own his coming to him was no flattering character or such as might engage Nicademus or his friends to dissemble the injury if it had not been true that Nicodemus was his Disciple The like is said of Joseph of Arimathea a rich man and an honourable Counsellour Matt. xxvii 57. Mark xv 43. that he was Disciple of Jesus but sâ—retly for fear of the Jews John xix 38. Herod and Pontius Pilate Annas and Caiaphas and several other persons particularly named and most of them with no commendation but with that Character which the Truth of the History required would be concerned themselves or their Friends and Relations for them after their decease to expose any falshood that could have been discovered in the History of our Saviour The other Books of the New Testament are explicatory and consequential to the Gospel or History of Christ and besides they contain many memorable and publick Facts as the speaking of all sorts of Languages and working all kinds of Miracles at the solemn Feast of Pentecost and the conversion of many thousands thereby the frequent examination of the Apostles before the Council at Jerusalem their Preachings and Miracles in the most publick places as in the Temple in the Streets c. these are things that could not be imposed upon the world in that very place and in defiance of that very people before whom they are said to have been done Gamaliel Dionysius the
World than it would have been if all men had been forcibly kept from doing wickedly To restrain the Passions and over rule all the Vices of Men and set bounds to them to bring Good out of Evil and by unexpected Ways and Methods to lead Men to Repentance and to appoint and bring to pass the whole Dispensation of the Gospel by which the Treasures and Mysteries of the Divine Wisdom are revealed and such things are discovered as even the Angels themselves desire to look into 1 Pet. i. 12. this magnifies the Wisdom of God much more than the State of Men uncapable of Sin could have done There is much more Wisdom shewn in governing Free Agents than in governing by Fate and Necessity and more Wisdom in making the worst Actions as instrumental and serviceable to the purposes of Holiness and Goodness as the best could have been than in not suffering them to be and more in Redeeming Man than in keeping him by Force in such a Condition as to stand in no need of Redemption All the Divine Attributes are much more magnified by the Incarnation of the Son of God for the Redemption of Man than they could have been if he had never fall'n The Love of God is manifested in a more wonderful manner by sending His own Son to die for us His Justice in requiring Satisfaction and His Wisdom and Truth and Faithfulness in recovering Man from his miserable Condition and perfecting the Design of his Creation in despight of his Disobedience It is the Mercy of God to save them that are saved but his Justice is executed only upon the wicked and why should we think it reasonable that God should debar himself the exercise of one of his Attributes rather than punish such Men as thro' their own Obstinacy will perish Justice is as much a Perfection of God as Mercy is and tho' it may seem terrible to us yet it is as reasonable in it self that wicked Men should perish as that the righteous should be saved And God acts upon Principles of infinite Reason and Wisdom without any mixture of Passion Therefore I demand Is it reasonable or not that the wicked should suffer And if it be why should not God act according to his own Attributes and the true Reasons of things rather than by our weak and fond Passions Since there is infinite Wisdom and Justice and Mercy in God's Proceedings it cannot be conceived why the Ruine which many Men will bring upon themselves should either alter or hinder the Divine Counsels and Decrees II. A freedom of Choice conduceth more to the Happiness of the Blessed than a Necessity of not sinning could have done The Happiness of Heaven consists in the Love and Enjoyment of God but Love is never so great nor so sensible an Happiness as when there has been some Tryal and Experience in the proof of it And it must advance the Happiness both of Angels and Men in Heaven that upon Choice and Tryal they have preferr'd God before all things and upon that find themselves confirm'd and Established in the perpetual and unalterable Love and Enjoyment of him This very Consideration that they might once have fall'n from his Love inspires them with the highest Ardors of Love when they rejoyce in the infinite Rewards of so easy and short a Tryal and the Reflection upon the Dangers escaped heightens even the Joys of Heaven it self to them and makes an Addition to every degree of Bliss The Remembrance of their past Sins and Temptations and the Sense of their own Unworthiness arising from that Remembrance will continually excite in the blessed fresh Acts of Love and Adoration of God who has raised them above all Sin and Temptation and fixt them in an everlasting State of Bliss and Glory The Tryal that the Righteous underwent here makes up some part of their Happiness in Heaven and in what degree soever their Happiness can be supposed to be yet it is in some measure encreased and as it were endeared to them by reflecting upon their former State of Tryal which they were subject to Temptation and Sin The Love and Praises and Adorations of the Father for sending his Son and accepting his Ransem of the Son as our blessed Saviour and Redeemer and of the Holy Ghost as our Guide and Conductor to Heaven must suppose that we needed a Ransom and a Redeemer and the Grace and Influence of the Holy Ghost that is we must have been capable of Sin and Misery or else we had wanted these Motives to the Love of God which the Dispensation of the Gospel affords and which will make up the Happiness of Heaven to us Creatures cannot comprehend the Divine Essence but they know and love God according as he manifests himself to them and therefore that Dispensation which doth most manifest the Love and Wisdom and Goodness of God doth most conduce to the Glory of God and the Happiness of Men. The Blessed shall see God face to face they shall enjoy his Presence and partake of his Glory and in this their Happiness will consist but the Love of God is not only the necessary consequence of this Beafitick Vision but it is antecedently necessary to qualify us for it and the more any Soul is inflamed with the Divine Love the fuller and more perfect Vision of God we must suppose it to enjoy But Goodness is the Object of our Love and not Goodness in the Idea so much as Goodness extended to us And as God's Goodness is more manifested in sending his Son to atone for our Sins than it could have been by exempting us from all possibility of Sinning so our Love to him must be more strongly excited whereby the Soul is dilated as it were and made more receptive of the Communications of the Divine Essence in the Beatifick Vision As Faith is made perfect by Works proceeding from Love in this Life and without Charity is nothing worth so in the other World where Faith shall be swallowed up in Vision Love must be that Power or Quality in the Soul whereby we become capable of receiving the Divine Communications and the more extentive and boundless this is the more happy we shall be and therefore whatever is most conducing to advance the Love of God in us is the best means of our Salvation and future Happiness The Motives which the Christian Religion affords us to the Praise and Love of God will accompany us for ever to augment and improve the Happiness even of Heaven it self where Charity never fails and it is not conceivable how the Divine Love could have been so fully manifested and set forth to us so gloriously if Man had never fall'n but by representing to him the Danger of his Fall and the gracious Design of God towards him supposing he had fall'n To have escaped Hell and to find our selves in the unchangeable Possession of Salvation by the free Mercy and Goodness of God and by the Death of his own
Son are Thoughts which must create a new Heaven as it were in Heaven it self I mean they will enlarge our Souls to the utmost Capacities of our Natures and fill and actuate them with such Divine Ardors of Love as if we had been kept necessarily from all Sin seem impossible to have been raised in us The Angels themselves rejoyce over one Sinner that repenteth and that Joy must have been wanting to them who are of so much higher and more excellent a Nature than we are of if there had been no Possibility either of Sin or of Repentance And the wonderful Dispensation of the Gospel is an eternal Subject of Praise and Adoration an eternal Fountain of Love and Joy and Happiness to all the Blessed Spirits in Heaven The more the Divine Attributes are displayed the more Adorable the Majesty of God will appear and will become the greater Object of our Praise and Veneration those that are wise and good will be made the wiser and better by it and the happier in the Contemplation of the Divine Perfections Now a Governour in his Laws and in the Method and Order of his Government has regard chiefly to the Good and Obedient and has little Concern for the rest And we must consider God not only as the Father but as the Governour of Mankind and tho' an earthly Father perhaps would by all means possible preserve his â—on from incurring Punishment yet a good Governour when the Ends of his Government can be better obtain'd by leaving him to his Liberty would not restrain him by any Force or Violence Therefore if the Liberty of Choice in Men and the Possibility of their Sin and Damnation be for the Glory of God and for the Benefit of good Men and be no Injury to the Bad this is a sufficient Account why man was not necessarily restrained from Sinning tho' Damnation be the consequence of it CHAP. XIII Of the Fall of the Angels and of our First Parents IN the Beginning God created every thing perfect in its kind and endned the Angels and Man with all intellectual and Moral Perfections suitable to their respective Natures but so as to leave them capable of sinning For it pleased the infinite Wisdom of God for the Reasons already alledg'd and for many more and greater Reasons perhaps than any man is able to imagine to place them in a State of Tryal and to put it to their own Choice whether they would stand in their present Condition of Innocence and Happiness in which they were created or fall into Sin and Misery We have little or no Account in the Scriptures of the Cause or Temptation which occasioned the Fall of Angels because it doth not concern us to be acquainted with it and therefore it little becomes us to be inquisitive about it Indeed it is very difficult to conceive how Beings of so Great Knowledge and Purity as the Fall'n Angels once were of should fall into Sin But it must be considered that nothing is more unaccountable than the Motives and Causes of Action in Free Agents when any Being is at Liberty to do as it will no other Reason besides its own Will need be enquir'd for of its Actings What is liable to Sin may sin whatever the Motive be and to enquire after the Motive is to enquire what Motives may determine a Free Agent that is an Agent which may determine it self upon any Ground or Motive But how perfect and excellent soever any Creature is unless it be so confirmed and established in a State of Purity and Holiness as to be secured from all possibility of Sinning it may be supposed to admire it self and dote upon its own Perfections and Excellencies and by degrees to neglect and not acknowledge God the Author of them but to sin and rebell against Him And it is most agreeable both to Scripture and Reason that Pride was the cause of the Fall of Angels For those Excellencies which might secure them from any other Sin proved a Temptation to this and the greater their Perfections were the greater was the Temptation as in a Man who is guilty of Spiritual and Pharisaical Pride all that is good and commendable in him affords him only matter for his Sin So that where there is a freedom of Will and a possibility of Sinning the very Perfection of Nature in a Creature may be made an Occasion to sin and that which excludes other sins may prove a Motive and Temptation to Pride which therefore we have reason to conclude was the Sin of the Fall'n Angels As to the Fall of Man however the Thing may be disputed the Effects of it are visible in the strange Proneness of Humane Nature to act against Reason and Conscience that is to act in plain contradiction to it self and its own Principles This is a State in which it cannot be supposed that Mankind was at first created by the infinitely Good and Holy God And the most plausible Opinion and that which has most generally obtained among the Heathens is that the Souls of Men had a Being before they came into this World and were sent into Human Bodies in Punishment for what they had done amiss in a precedent State But this is mere suspicion and Conjecture without any possibility of Proof and there is this plain Reason against it that â—o man can be punished for his Amendment who knows nothing of it For it is inconsistent with the Nature and end of Punishment that the Offender should not be made sensible of his Fault especially when the Punishment is designed for his Amendment as it is said to be in the present Case If it can be supposed that Men may possibly retain no Remembrance of what they did in another State yet if their Faults were not kept in Memory they should be brought to their Remembrance if this Life were designed as a State of Punishment in order to Amendment But the State of this Life is so far from being thought a Punishment that Men naturally are of nothing more fond nor dread any thing more than to leave it And tho' Men meet with great Afflictions here yet those do not befall those only or chiefly who by their Proneness to Evil in this Life might be supposed to have been the greatest Offenders in a former State and every Calamity has not the Nature of Punishment The Sufferings and Miseries which we endure by reason of Adam's Transgression are not so properly Punishments as the Effects and Consequences of his sin But Personal Faults such as are supposed to have been committed in a State of pre-existence require a proper Punishment and if the Punishment be for Amendment as it is supposed to be in this present State both the Fault and the Punishment must be known with the Cause and End of its being inflicted and the greatest Offenders must undergo the severest Punishment The Account which the Scripture gives us of the Fall of our First Parents may be considered either 1.