judge another man as we would escape a severer Judgment our selves It forbids us to be busie-bodies or to intermeddle in other mens matters And is so far from allowing the tongue in lying or swearing that it may not be suffered in an idle word or an unbecoming jest It tells us we must be blameless and harmless and then if it be possible and as much as lieth in us we must live peaceably with all men Unto all this we may add that it will not allow any other Religion The Heathen world must abandon their Idols if they receive the Gospel of Christ They must forsake that Idolatry under which their Fathers prospered long and they were brought up in Diana of the Ephesians must be no longer adored and all her Priests and Silversmiths must be laid aside All Idols must be removed where Christ comes and all the ancient ceremonies and solemnities with which they were worshipped must for ever be disused That which was but now worshipped and had been so of old time must be cast to the moles and to the batts But who shall perswade and obtain this None can do it without the help of that God who made Heaven and earth For here is all the power and malice and cunning of men and Devils to be encountred with The Devil had gotten an old and long possession the Heathen world is strong and mighty cunning and prejudicate of a vast extent and a mighty force Who shall perswade the Greeks to leave off their Robberies and to live righteously Or the warlike Romans to put up their swords and revenge no injuries Who shall obtain of the world to throw away their Idols and receive a Crucified Christ Who can ever hope that those nations that grew to their greatness by bloud and violence should ever learn the way of peace and destroy no more Will they that boasted in doing injuries be taught to bear them Or they that were wont to kill without remorse be afraid of being angry without a cause Will they that were adulterers become afraid of an unchast thought or glance Will the wise and conceited Orators become fools that they may be wise who can expect that they that had as many Gods as territories and provinces should be perswaded to have but one Or that those men that were indulged their lusts by the example of their Gods or the permission of their laws should ever accept of a Religion that is so severe that it requires them all to be rooted out Certainly this will be too great a work for a few Galilileans to bring to pass They might as soon hope to remove mountains and shake all the pillars of the earth yet was this brought to pass and that by the foolishness of preaching also the fierce warriour becomes tame the persecutor becomes a preacher the nations that served many Idols now onely acknowledge the one true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ Now this could never have been done had not God almighty done it nor would he ever have done it had not Jesus been the Christ But it will be the more strange still that this doctrine should prevail if we do but duly consider 3. The Praemia the rewards or the promises of the Gospel to those that should receive it and obey it We shall find them such as were very unlikely to prevail with a wicked and unbeleiving world It promises them no prosperity in this world nor yet any sensual delights in that which is to come as the Religion of Mahomet does And yet these were the things which the Heathen world most admired who always lived by sense and not by saith It promises them no Kingdoms or Consulships no Victories or triumphs no wealth or honours nor yet the pleasures of Wine or Women in a word it is so far from offering to them these things that it teaches them aye and obliges them also to despise all these things to undervalue them to be dead to all these allurements and to mortifie and root out of their Souls all those irregular desires which transport them after any of these things The Gospel promises good things indeed but they are spiritual and so very unlike to obtain upon Carnal men They are good things but they are unseen and so not likely to prevail upon those that live by sense they are good indeed but yet they are removed and at a distance and who could expect the world should deny themselves of their present enjoyments out of the hopes of these spiritual and unseen reversions Who shall perswade the rich to abandon their wealth for the hopes of the Kingdom of Heaven Or who can prevail with the voluptuous to renounce their sensual pleasures out of the hopes of those joyes that are at God's right hand What Rhetorick shall perswade the ambitious man to prefer a future glory before the honours he derives from his Prince or acquires by his valour We find this a very hard matter now when these men profess the Gospel but how much harder must it needs be then when the Gospel was a stranger to the world when it had scarcely any friends and very many and great opposers What is there offered in the Gospel that could tempt an unbelieving world Had it offered riches there might well have been a crowd of covetous worldlings ready to embrace it Had it offered sensual pleasures it would have been welcome to the whole herd of Epicures could it have secured its professors of worldly honours nothing should have been more acceptable to all that were ambitious But here is none of those things to be had but it tells us of things to come and we must have faith to believe them as well as patience to wait for them Now then certainly this Religion which offered no other rewards could never have prevailed upon the world as we know it did had it not been from God and had not Jesus whom we preach been the Christ But this will be the more unlikely still that the Gospel should prevail if we consider 4. The Pericula the dangers and afflictions and many miseries that the embracing the Gospel would expose them to that should entertain it This rises higher and makes the success of the Gospel more improbable than before We saw before that it promises no worldly happiness but now we shall find that it exposes its professors to many miseries and afflictions and tells them sad stories of disgrace and contempt bonds and imprisonment and perhaps death it self It foretells that they which do live Godly shall suffer persecution and that we must through many tribulations enter into the Kingdom of Heaven What I named last brought no temptation to draw the world to this profession but this one would think should bring discouragement enough to affright them from it Instead of promising ease and pleasures it rather brings with it great afflictions and tribulations Jesus tells his Disciples what they must expect The time cometh that whosoever
the Lord shall he behold Num. 12.6 7 8. Our blessed Saviour was in this the great Anti-type of Moses No man hath seen God at any time the onely begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Joh. 1.18 In his Mediatourship Thus Moses tells the Israelites I stood between the Lord and you at that time to shew you the word of the Lord Deut. 5.5 And in this he was but the type of our blessed Saviour who exceeded him greatly inasmuch as he is the Mediatour of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises Heb. 8.6 I may add that Moses was a type of our blessed Saviour in the deliverance which he wrought He delivered his people from Egypt but Jesus saves us from our sins He saved the Israelites Jesus is the Saviour of the World He wrought miracles but not so many and great works as those which Jesus did as I shall shew at large afterwards What hath been said is sufficient to convince us that those words Deut. 18. belong to the Messias and were fulfilled in our blessed Saviour I know very well that the Jewish writers expound those words to another sense and by the Prophet there they understand the whole order and succession of Prophets after Moses or else Joshuah or Jeremiah But there is no ground for such an interpretation of the Text. For the words speak plainly of one certain Prophet that God would raise up and for Joshua he was no Prophet nor is he justly reckoned among that order of men And that the words cannot be meant of Jeremiah or of any other Prophet succeeding Moses is plain from this that they contain a promise not onely of a Prophet but a Prophet like unto Moses which according to the Jews concession neither Jeremiah nor any of the other Prophets were For Moses was a Prophet of an higher form and rank than any of those that did succeed him till our Saviour's time And that this Prophet Deut. 18. is not to be found among any of the Prophets of the old Testament will appear from these words where it is said There arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face Deut. 34.10 The succeeding Prophets did but repeat what Moses had taught His law was their rule till Christ came who spake what God had commanded him Secondly the place where the Messias was to converse when he came into the world is also predicted and we shall find our Saviour did converse in that place Though he were born in Bethlehem yet he lived in Galilee as was predicted by the Prophet Isaiah I shall take the liberty to translate those words as a learned man hath done and to begin where he does also Mr. Mede on Mar. 1. v. 14 15. As the first time he made vile or debased the land of Zabulon and the land of Naphthali so in the latter time he made it or shall make it glorious If you ask how it follows The way of the sea beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people that walked in darkness namely of affliction have seen a great light they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined If you ask how comes this it follows Vnto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder Isa 9. v. 1 2 3. For the better understanding of these words we may remember what the Scripture tells us of the early affliction and captivity of this people even in the days of Pekah by Tiglath-Pileser King of Assyria 2 King 15.29 Now as it were in recompence of these early sufferings they are promised here by the Prophet a glorious dignation from the presence and conversation and preaching and mighty works of our blessed Saviour As the second Temple which fell short of the first in glory was to be more glorious than that by the presence of the Messiah so Galilee though an obscure Countrey and remote from Jerusalem the principal City of the Nation and a Countrey that had been early and very severely afflicted should yet be dignified with the presence and works of Christ We are next to enquire whether this prediction were fulfilled in our blessed Saviour And to that purpose we read that the Angel Gabriel was sent unto a City of Galilee named Nazareth to the Virgin Mary who dwelt there to acquaint her that she should conceive and bring forth a Son and call his name Jesus Luk. 1. And though Jesus were born at Bethlehem yet he was conceived in Galilee and from thence Joseph and Mary went up to Bethlehem upon occasion of the decree of Augustus Coesar Luk. 2. And in Galilee again he lived when he was a young child for after he was brought up out of Egypt by Joseph he fearing to go into Judoea being warned of God in a dream he turned aside into the parts of Galilee and he came and dwelt in a City called Nazareth Matt. 2.22 23. From thence he came to be baptized by John Matt. 3.13 Mark 1.9 And after his temptation and John's imprisonment we find him in Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God Mark 1.14 Or as St. Matthew hath it In the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the Prophet saying Euseb Demonstr l. 9. c. 8. The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim by the way of the sea beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people which sate in darkness saw great light Matt. 4.14 15 16. As there he had been brought up Luk. 2.39.4.16 so there he preached Luk. 4.14 Matt. 4.23 At the Sea of Galilee he calls Simon and Andrew and a little way from thence two other Disciples James and John Mar. 1.16 19. And thereupon as he himself is called a Galilean Matt. 26.69 so are his Disciples called Galileans Act. 1.11.2.7 The first miracle he wrought was in Cana of Galilee Joh. 2.11 He went indeed to Jerusalem at the feast Joh. 2.13 but after that returns to Galilee Joh. 4.3 43. And there he cures the Noble-man's Son v. 46. And this was the second miracle that he did when he was come out of Judoea into Galilee v. 54. And he promises his Disciples that after his resurrection he will go before them into Galilee Matt. 26.32 So that though he were at Jerusalem at the feasts and died there yet he was conceived in Galilee there he lived and preached there he called his Disciples there he did his miracles there he appeared to his Disciples after his resurrection But it is not fit we should dismiss this excellent prophecy which does not onely foretell the great happiness of Galilee by reason of the presence of the Messias but seems very particularly to point out those places in Galilee that should be thus dignified and honoured The Prophet does not onely in general foretell the
entrance into the world to his going out The meanness of his Birth did not protect him from being persecuted by Herod He was after this a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and there hath been no sorrow like unto his sorrow He fasted and was tempted he was acquainted with hunger and with thirst with great poverty and contempt He met with false friends and implacabe enemies He was always doing good and recieveing evil And after all at the close of his life he was a most eminent sufferer If there be any suffering in great pains and agonies in being scoffed and derided in being buffeted and scourged in a bloudy sweat or a bitter cup In a crown of Thorns in the Spear and in the Nails He suffered if to be forsaken and betrayed to be unpitied in trouble and to be denied to be flouted and scoffed at be any thing of a suffering He suffered if to die be to suffer and to die upon a Cross among malefactors If the bloud of the Cross if the shame and curse of it if the pain and scandal of it speak any sufferings our Lord did indeed suffer From the sufferings of our Jesus it does appear that he is the Christ I do not mean that the bare sufferings of Jesus are an argument that he is the Christ For sufferings are not a sufficient argument alone And though the Messias were to suffer yet so might and so did Impostors also But as the Messias was to suffer so it was predicted what he should suffer and we shall find that our Jesus did suffer those very things which the Messias was to suffer and all things duely considered we shall find this especially in conjunction with what hath been and is to be said a very good proof that Jesus is the Christ And this I take to be the meaning of our Saviour's words to his Disciples going to Emmaus Ought not Christ to have suffered These things And of his words to the Apostles afterward Thus it is written and Thus it behoved Christ to suffer Luk. 24.26 46. St. Peter tells the Jews that those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer he hath so fulfilled Act. 3.18 Our Saviour himself said Thus it must be Mat. 26.54 56. To the same purpose we find the Disciples saying For of a truth against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to doe whatsoever thy hand and thy Council determined before to be done Act. 4.27 28. We shall find afterward that Jesus did suffer all that which the Christ was to suffer And some of these sufferings were such as were not likely to have been the portion of Jesus But so it was though Herod and Pontius Pilate though the Jews and the Gentiles had an hand in the sufferings of Jesus they did at the same time though they designed it not fulfill some Prophecies of old and this was so eminently done that we have from hence a very great proof that Jesus is the Christ I shall not look over all the sufferings of Jesus from the time of his birth to the moment of his death I shall begin no sooner than the last week of his life and shall more especially consider those particulars which attended upon his death We have a remarkable Prophecy in the Prophet Zechariah and the words are these Rejoice greatly O Daughter of Zion shout O Daughter of Jerusalem Behold thy King cometh unto thee He is just and having salvation lowly and riding upon an Ass and upon a Colt the foal of an Ass That this place is a prophecy of the Messias no Christian can doubt and the Jew ought not to deny R. Solomon confesses frankly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It is impossible to interpret it but of King Messiah R. Solom in Zech. 9.9 And as it is very agreeable to the words to expound them of the Messias These words of R. Solomon are translated by Raymundus in his Pugio fidei pag. 656. in to words which contradict the sense of them viz. Non potest hoc exponi de Rege Messia when he affirms that they ought not to be expounded of any other person And that the Jews do understand these words of the Messiah is â—â—â—ved at large by Bochart de S. S. Animalibus lib. II. c. 17. so it well agrees with the sense of the Ancient Jews too For it was the sense of the Jews that this place was meant of the Messias and we find among the writings which we have of theirs plain intimations of it There is a fabulous relation that the Ass which Abraham sadled Gen. 22. was created on the evening of the Sabbath Pirke R. Eliezer cap. 31. and that Moses rode upon the same Ass when he came into Egypt and farther the Son of David shall ride upon the same they say hence it is said Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Zion c. From this fabulous relation it is evident that this place was understood of the Messias Beresith Rabb in Gen. 49.11 To the same purpose the words are understood by another ancient writer who represents it as the sense of their Rabbins It was upon the tenth day of the first month when our Saviour rode upon an Ass into Jerusalem and fulfilled this Scripture and in the Passeover-week in which he suffered Our Saviour was now ready to be Sacrificed for us and as the Paschal Lamb in Egypt was taken up on the tenth day so did our Lord our Paschal Lamb on that very day present himself in that City where the same week he was sentenced to death For the rest of the words of the Prophecy they do very well agree to our Jesus as it is certain they were meant of the Messias Thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having Salvation lowly Never were there any persons to whom these words could so duely belong as our blessed Saviour He was a King indeed and denies it not before Pontius Pilate though he professed that his Kingdom was not of this world As such a person the Messias was promised of old and it was foretold that he should erect an everlasting Kingdom in the Prophet Daniel The Jews expected a temporal Prince indeed they being themselves a carnal people Our Lord did not appear like an earthly Prince but as one born from Heaven and that would erect an heavenly and spiritual Kingdom in the world A King he was in the best and the highest sense and when he was crucified the main of his accusation written on his Cross was that he was King of the Jews That he was just malice it self cannot deny of our blessed Saviour He was for giving both God and Caesar their due He paid Tribute when it was demanded and would not excuse himself from the publick payment to which he was not yet strictly obliged And