see their Departure is at hand In which regards I doubt not this Treatise will be acceptable to your Grace because it contains a Description and full Assurance of that happy Life which you shortly expect For there is nothing so reviving in our declining Age as to think that the passage out of this Life leads us not to Death but to Immortality and that it will not take away our Happiness from us but give us a purer enjoyment of it Pleasure not mixed with a mortall body but sincere and free from Grief and Sorrow For when we shall be set at liberty and delivered from this Prison we shall come thither where there is no Labour no Sighing nor Old age but a Life of perfect ease and tranquillity that breeds no trouble nor any other evill but is serene and clear in an immovable Rest and Peace Where the happy Inhabitants sweetly contemplate the nature of things and philosophize not for Popularity and the Theatre but for the finding out solid and everlasting Truth I have but translated the words of Plato * in Axiocho p. 370. or of some other Philosopher that hath borrowed his name who was much pleased in such thoughts as these though he made but uncertain guesses at that blessed state which our Lord hath so clearly revealed and so strongly demonstrated that we have reason with never-ceasing joy both in life and death to give him thanks for so great a Grace For as there is nothing beyond this that the heart of man can wish so nothing of such importance to our present Happiness in this World For which cause the Jews have thought fit to expunge those from the number of Israelites who do not believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the dead and to resolve that they shall have no part in the World to come though they otherwise live orderly and observe the Precepts of the Law For such men they saw opened a door to all licentiousness and could never doe so much good by any other means as they did hurt by subverting this Belief Which I have endeavoured therefore to establish by such Arguments as they were ignorant of till our Blessed Lord and Saviour appeared who as St. Matthew observes out of the Psalmist uttered things which had been kept secret from the foundation of the World Maimonides himself saith in his last Chapter of his Book concerning Kings that at the coming of Christ things hidden and profound shall be laid open and revealed to all Which is true of nothing more I have shewn then of that which is the greatest desire of all mankind immortall Life Of which though I have not treated according to the dignity of the Subject yet I am confident I have laid a good Foundation to be improved by the labours of those who have more skill and more leisure And it is a very great satisfaction to have done any thing though never so small for the honour of our ever-Blessed Lord and Master whom it is the highest glory in the world to serve in faithfulness and truth For He will not fail to reward such services with an ample recompence being a Prince so great that nothing is beyond his Power and so gracious that his Servants have reason to expect the best effects of his Good will Which may very well content us whatsoever usage we meet withall at present And should mightily excite us as St. Chrysostom often and earnestly exhorts * Homil. 87. in Matth. p. 539. neglecting the suspicions and the reproaches and the praises too of men to study this one thing alone how to be conscious to our selves of no evill which will bring us in the end both here and hereafter the greater glory The God of all Grace bless this Work to the settling and increasing this holy Faith and Resolution in all our hearts whereby we shall also obtain the sweetest foretasts of the Joys of the future State And may your Grace be blest with many of them to support the infirmities of Old age and having finished your days have an easie passage to that better Life and there receive from the Chief Pastour when he shall appear the Crown of glory which fadeth not away Which is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your GRACE's in all dutifull Observance SY PATRICK TO THE READER I Have no other reason to give for adding one more to that heap of Books which men complain is already grown too great but the hope I have of doing some service to our Lord by making a farther search as I promised in the conclusion of the former Part of this Work into the Testimony of these Divine Witnesses concerning ETERNALL LIFE The Hope of which is the most precious Legacy the Son of God hath left us the Hindge upon which all Religion turns without which it would be the greatest Vanity as Lactantius * Lib. vi c. 9. vii 1. often speaks to obey the commands of Vertue for whose sake we must endure not onely many Labours but ofttimes sore Calamities We were born as he discourses elsewhere * Lib. vii 6. to acknowledge God the Maker of us and of the World whom we therefore acknowledge that we may worship him and therefore worship him that we may receive Immortality for a reward of our labours because his service ingages us in the greatest and therefore Immortality is bestowed on us for a recompenc◠that being made like to the Angels we may serve the Father and Lord of all for ever and be the Eternall Kingdom of God This is the Chief of all things this is the Secret of God this is the Mystery of the World to which they are strangers who following their present pleasures have addicted themselves to terrestriall and frail goods and sunk their Souls born to celestiall enjoyments into delights as deadly as they are muddy and dirty And it is the singular Priviledge of Christians as I have demonstrated to be assured of a Good so great by so many most credible Witnesses whose Testimony none can refuse but they that will be so absurd as to believe none at all The Father the Word the Holy Ghost the Water the Bloud and the Spirit declare so unanimously and so plainly that the Lord Jesus will give Eternall Life to his followers that what the Oratours said in flattery to the Athenians in the time of the Chremonidian War may in truth be said to us if we alter but one word that other things indeed are common to us with the rest of the World Athenzus in Deipnosoph L. vi p. 250. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the way that leads men to heaven is known to Christians alone Who have a manifold grace bestowed on them enjoying not onely a Promise of Eternall Life which the World never had before but that Promise attested by so many Witnesses who tell us also it is in the power of him that died for us to conferr it on us as well
devoutly obey For He alone hath purged mens hearts by his truth and set due bounds to their desires and fears shewing them the chiefest Good to which they should tend and the way whereby it may be attained Nor hath He onely shewn it but he hath gone before us in it lest any should shun the course of Vertue because of the difficulty that attends it Let the way of perdition and deceit therefore be forsaken in which death lies concealed under the inticements of pleasure And the nearer any man by reason of his years sees that day approaching in which he must depart this life let him cast in his mind the more seriously how he may go away as pure as may be how he may come innocent to his Judge and not as those whose minds are blinded how he may satisfie his lusts more greedily before he go Let every man deliver himself out of that gulph while he may while he hath some power and convert to God with his whole Soul that he may securely expect that day in which God the Lord and Governour of the World will judge every man's works and thoughts Let him not onely neglect but fly from those things of which men are now so greedy Let him look upon his Soul as better then these fallacious goods whose possession is uncertain and fading For they go away continually more swiftly then they come and if we could enjoy them to the last they must be left to others We can carry nothing away but a life piously and innocently led He shall come rich and wealthy to God whom Continence Mercy Patience Charity and Faith shall wait upon This is our Inheritance which can neither be taken from any man nor transferred to another And whosoever is desirous of it may have it if he please But let no man trust in Riches nor in Dignity nor in Kingly Power these do not make us immortall Let us give our mind to Righteousness which alone will be our inseparable Companion till it bring us to God As long as we live let us continue our warfare unweariedly let us keep our watch let us valiantly encounter with the enemy that being conquerours and triumphing over the vanquisht adversary we may receive from our Lord the reward of Vertue which he hath promised There is the greatest reason I have demonstrated to expect it with such a lively Faith as was in the first Christians in whose words I have chosen to deliver these things rather then mine own who confidently looked Death in the face in whatsoever shape it appeared and were not in the least daunted at the sight of it There were innumerable experiments made of it not onely in Men but in Women and Children as the great Athanasius * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 80 c. justly glories Who takes this to be no small token of the abolishing death so that it had no power but was indeed dead it self that it was contemned by all the Disciples of Christ Before whose Divine appearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was dreadfull to the Saints themselves who bewailed and lamented those that died as if they were lost But since our Saviour rose from the dead it is no longer terrible but all that believe on him tread it under foot as if it were nothing and chuse rather to die then deny the Faith of Christ For they know certainly that the dead do not perish but that they both live and shall also be made incorruptible by the Resurrection That Evill one the Devill who heretofore by death insulted over us is himself alone now left truly dead Of which this is a sign that whereas before men believed on Christ they lookt on Death as very formidable since they embraced his Faith and Doctrine they do so much slight it that they run chearfully to it and become Witnesses against him of our Saviour's Resurrection Mere Children make nothing of it The weaker Sex so weak is he that had the power of Death now grown who were formerly deceived by him laugh him to scorn as one that is dead and hath lost his power Just as a Tyrant when a lawfull Prince hath vanquisht him and bound him hand and foot is despised and made a mocking-stock by all that pass by him who no longer fear his rage and cruelty even so is Death being overcome by our Saviour trampled upon by all his Disciples who bearing witness to their Master deride it in those words of the Apostle O Death where is thy Victory O grave where is thy sting What conquests hast thou to brag of now Behold we are all made alive through Jesus Christ our Lord. Mankind it is certain naturally abhors Death and the dissolution of their Body and therefore it is no small demonstration of our Saviour's victory over it that he hath so changed the nature of man as to perswade even children in Christ and tender girls to make no account of this Life and with joy to think of Death It may seem to some an incredible thing that Death should thus have lost its power but so it doth that there should be a cloath made of an Indian stone which fire cannot burn or that a mighty Tyrant notwithstanding all his forces should on a sudden be subdued and held in chains by no visible power Let him that doubts of either of these put on that cloath or go into the Dominions of the Conquerour and he shall be satisfied of the weakness of the fire and of the Tyrant In like manner if we meet with an Unbeliever who after so many Wonders and so many Martyrs of Jesus Christ makes a doubt whether Death be destroyed and a period put to his Kingdome we cannot blame his admiration at so great a thing provided he do not harden himself in infidelity nor impudently oppose those things which are most evident Let him for his satisfaction doe as he that would know whether such a Tyrant as I now spoke of be vanquished go into the Conquerour's Country submit himself I mean to Christian instruction and receive the Faith of Christ and then he shall soon see the weakness of Death and the victory that is got over it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For many who were once not onely Vnbelievers but Mockers have afterwards believed and so contemned Death that they have become Martyrs for Christ 's sake I pray God these Treatises may have the like happy effect upon some doubting or unbelieving Soul who shall vouchsafe to examine the Evidence I have produced for the Christian Faith Against which I beseech such persons not to shut their eyes nor harden their hearts in infidelity If they will condescend so far as to consider what we say they may of Scoffers become such zealous Assertours of the power and glory of the Lord Jesus as to be willing and ready though there will be no occasion I hope to try their resolution to testify their love to him and
stood so nearly related to him as to be his Son and therefore worthy to be glorified by him again and again until He had fully judged as he there speaks between Him and his Adversaries who denied him to be the Christ but was pronounced by God to be the Prince of life To conclude this you may note that not long before God spake in this manner from Heaven to them our Saviour had said That they had not heard his voice at any time v. John 37. John the Baptist had and so had three of his Disciples And therefore John bare witness of him whose testimony he says was true ver 32. though he did not stand in such need of it as if his credit could not be supported without it No He appealed to him merely because they had such an high opinion of him ver 33 34. otherwise he had a greater testimony than that of John ver 36. which was not only the works that he did which testified of him that the Father had sent him but the Father himself who sent him note this for he appeals now to what the voice from Heaven said he has born witness of him ver 37. And if they had had any goodness in them ver 38. they would have received him whom the Father sent When did He send him but when he spake by that voice from Heaven which now he utters once more in other words for their greater and fuller satisfaction when many of them were assembled together that they who had not hitherto might hear his voice as well as Jesus himself and his Apostles and be awakened hereby to attend to what the other witnesses of him should say especially after he was risen from the dead I should pass now to the Examination of one of them were it not fit before I part with this to take notice of a Tradition which runs among the Jews concerning this way of Revelation by a voice from Heaven which they say was very usual in those ages The Doctors deliver so their words are in the Babylonian Talmud * In the title Sanhedrim cap. 1. that from the death of the latter Prophets Haggai Zachariah and Malachy the Holy Ghost was taken away but yet notwithstanding they had the Ministry of the Bath Col i. e. the daughter of a voice By that name they call this way of Revelation because they say it was not a full and strong voice which they heard but a voice coming out of another voice and heard when it was gone Just as sparks say they are called Bene resheph the sons of an hot coal because they leap out of the fire so is this called the daughter of a voice because it resulted from a voice and came as it were out of the womb of it being a kind of Eccho after something that was spoken which they could not understand but only caught hold of this tail as I may call it and conclusion of it And they would have us believe that as under the first Temple they had the benefit of Prophecy Urim and Thummim and the Holy Ghost so this succeeded them under the second Temple and was proper to that age of the world being then only in use when all the other were wanting Hence many Christian writers of these latter times have fancied that God therefore declared Jesus to be his Son by a voice from Heaven because it was the only way wherein he then communicated his mind to the Jewish Nation Paulus Fagius think was the first that started this notion of the Bath col which was a praeludium b◠imagines to that true Divine and Heavenly voice which was to speak to them indee◠from Heaven that is our Lord Jesus Christ To whom the Bath col it self gave testimony when it said This is my belove◠Son in whom I am well pleased But 〈◊〉 name shows it was not the true voice from Heaven but a mere type signification and testimony of that true voice and word of God which was to come shortly and speak to them To whom alone this Bath col told them they must all hearken Thus he writes upon the Chaldee Paraphrase * In xxviii Exod. 30. And he had said the same before in his notes upon the Fifth Chapter of Pirke Avoth where his word◠are that God would accustom the world 〈◊〉 little by this beginning to that true Heavenly voice our Saviour Christ who was to follow in whom hereafter the Father would be heard But I think there is reason to doubt o◠all that the Jews say about this matter their brags being many times beyond the Truth and devised to obscure the glory of our Saviour Who it is most likely had that honour done him now by these voices from Heaven which was not usual in those days for he himself tells them as I observed before Ye have not heard his voice at any time v. John 37. As for that which they pretend that this Bath col or daughter of a voice was peculiar to the times of the second Temple it is so far from Truth that it is contradicted by some of themselves who find instances of the contrary in the Holy Books God called out of Heaven to Abraham every body knows by his Angel Gen. xxii 11 15. And Maimonides * More Nevoch part 2. cap. 42. observes that he spake to Hagar and Manoah's wife though neither of them he says had any thing of the spirit of prophecy but only heard the Bath col Which interposed if we could believe others in the case of Thamar And often whispered to Moses as the writer of his Life in many places affirms Nay they tell us in the Eleventh Chapter of the forenamed Title in the Talmud that Nebuzaradan heard this Bath col before the destruction of the first Temple bidding him make a fresh assault upon Jerusalem and not be discouraged in his attempt nor fear the fate of Senacherib For the time is at hand that the Sanctuary shall be destroyed and the Temple burnt But that there was any such thing under the second Temple I see no ground at all to believe It is far more probable that they have devised a number of such stories as we read in their Books merely to gain some credit and reputation to their Doctors Can any man of sence imagine that God would bid Jonathan hold his hand when he was beginning to Paraphrase upon the Prophets saying to him by a voice from Heaven Who is this that reveals my secrets to the sons of men And that he like a bold fellow stood up and said I am the man who undertake it for thy honour and not my own And yet Elias Levita has the confidence to tell us in his Preface to these Paraphrases that as Jonathan was going to do as much for the Holy writings as they call them as he had done for the Prophets he was absolutely prohibited by another voice from Heaven which said Is it not sufficient that thou
after millions of ages are spent in the heavenly mansions as there was at the very first entrance into them Death being destroyed by him who is the Resurrection and the Life and who dieth no more an immortall Soul shall inhabit an immortall Body and they shall be for ever with the Lord. Where they shall be for ever employed in those happy exercises before mentioned which will for ever be to be done again In the doing of them there will be infinite pleasure and in the repetition of them there will be no disrelish but an infinite increase of pleasure As they always know so they shall always be knowing more For new beauties we may well think will discover themselves in an infinite object and this will excite a fresh love and that a more vigorous joy And so for ever round again there will be knowing loving and rejoycing more and more without any end It is but a little that can be said of ETERNITY though we should speak of it to the end of Time Nay in Eternity it self we shall not be able to come to the End of it in our thoughts no more then in our being because it hath none We can never know it all because it is still to come And therefore how little of it will this leaf of paper contain or should we write never so much how shall we be able now to reach the description of a thing so sublime Thankfull acclamations to the goodness of our Saviour for bringing life and immortality to light and serious admirations at the amazing greatness of what we know of it will be far more acceptable as well as more easie then a long discourse about it And therefore I shall end this Chapter with my wishes that this Blessedness I am speaking of may not seem small in our eyes because we can relate so little of it but rather appear the greater and the more desirable because we see it is beyond our present understanding Though this vast Circle of Eternity cannot be measured by our thoughs that makes it but so much the more excellent then our Span of time And though this LIFE comprehend such pleasures as we cannot now enjoy that doth but exalt it above the poor pleasures of this present life which we can first enjoy and then contemn We are not able it is true to conceive nor can it enter into our hearts what God hath in store for those that love him but this should onely excite our longings to conceive it and make us sigh and say when we think of enjoying God himself and of an eternall enjoyment of him O the fulness of God! O the infiniteness of him that is the Life of this LIFE Who can tell what thou art O most Blessed for ever by whom all things were made and who art All that can possibly be What comforts shine from the brightness of thy face How joyfull wilt thou make us with the light of thy countenance when we shall see thee as thou art It will put greater gladness into our hearts then if all the glory of the world should smile upon us But what eye can be strong enough to behold so great a Splendour what excellent creatures must they be made who shall be capable to SEE GOD It casts us into a trance when we do but think of being eternally beloved of thee O what will it doe to feel our selves ever ever the objects of thy infinite love The beauteous frame of the Heavens is exceeding admirable in our eyes O what a goodly World is this in which thou sufferest thine Enemies to live What a glorious torch is the Sun which thou hast lighted to shine on the unjust as well as on the just Who then can hope to know till he sees what the pleasures are which thou hast prepared for thy Friends what a glorious Light shall shine from thy presence upon the face of those that love thee Their hearts now cannot hold the smallest glimpse of that which shall for ever bless and ravish them with its joys But how can we hope to see it unless thou wilt raise us above our selves and make us no longer men of this world but children of the Resurrection and equall to the holy Angels We believe and rejoyce to think that thou wilt account us worthy to obtain that World and the resurrection of the dead It is the greatest pleasure we have here to hope we shall enjoy all the happiness of which we now discourse nay far more infinitely more then can be conceived For how great will that happiness be August de Civ Dei cap. ult where we shall neither feel any evill nor want any good where all our work will be the praises of God who shall be all in all where no sloth shall make us cease to praise him nor any necessity call us to other employment There will be true glory indeed where no man shall be praised either by the errour or the flattery of him that praiseth True honour that will be which shall be denied to no worthy person nor given to any unworthy Nay the unworthy shall not so much as seek it there where none are permitted to come but such as are worthy True peace is there where nothing shall fall cross to our desires either from our selves or any other There He who gave Vertue will be its Reward having promised that he himself then which nothing can be greater nothing better will be the portion of it What else shall we understand by those words I will be their God and they my people but that I will be their Satisfaction I will be all that every one can honestly desire both life and health and sustenance and riches and glory and honour and all good For so we reade that God will be all in all He will be the End of our desires who will be seen without end and loved without lothing and praised without weariness This will be the office this will be the inclination this will be the work of all in that Eternall Life which is common to all There we shall sing the mercies of the Lord for ever There we shall keep that truly greatest Sabbath which hath no Evening There we shall rest from labour and see we shall see and love we shall love and praise Behold what will be in the End without end For what else is our End but to come to the Kingdom which hath no End Amen CHAP. V. Of the Certainty of this ETERNALL LIFE whose Excellency is a little farther illustrated out of the Holy Scriptures WHen I reflect upon the foregoing Meditations concerning the LIFE to come and the ETERNITY of it I begin to think I have wrong'd it much by so poor and dull a description of so great a Good and by endeavouring to draw that into a few particular considerations which hath in it innumerable perfections It had been more becoming our ignorance perhaps to have admired its fulness then to undertake
could not contain themselves when they saw what testimonies heaven gave of his innocence and vertue but did him publick honour even at the very place of execution Though he suffered as the highest and vilest offender in the world yet the honest-hearted spectatours were not onely inwardly troubled in their breasts at the sight but beat or knockt them also and shewed thereby that they were not afraid to own him as a most Excellent person whose death they ought to accompany with the bitterest lamentations And so much may suffice concerning the Testimony of his BLOUD which no man can hear speak a word but he must needs think that which got him such honour among the people in the midst of his shame and the reproach of the Cross obtained a far greater glory for him with God in the heavens who best knew how to value his obedience O wonderfull Passion Proclus Homil. xi the Expiation of the World O Death the cause of Immortality and the origin of Life O descent into Hell the bridge by which those who were dead passed into Heaven O Noon which hath revoked the Afternoon-sentence against us in Paradise O Cross the cure of the fatall Tree O Nails which wounded Death and joyn'd the world to the knowledge of God! Great was the victory which He that was incarnate for us obtained on the day of his passion He grappled with death when he was dead Hell and the grave this day ignorantly swallowed a deadly morsell To day death received him dead who always lives To day the chains were loosed which the Serpent made in Paradise The Thief this day made a breach on Paradise which had been guarded by the flaming sword some thousands of years This day our Lord broke the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder Which of the great Men that ancient times boast of are comparable to him All the just fell under the power of death and none could conquer it Abraham Isaac and Jacob are all turn'd to dust and ashes The memory of Joseph in whom the Jews glory lay in his dry bones which they carried out of Egypt with them Moses is extolled by them to the skies but there is not so much as his tomb to be found Such as these and so many death devoured and swallowed them all down But at last it swallowed one and against its will vomited up the whole World Who now triumph over it and cry with a loud voice O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. His Passion is our impassibility S. Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 598. His Death is our immortality His tears our joy His buriall our resurrection His Baptism our purification His stripes our healing His chastisement our peace His reproach our glory How much are we indebted to him who from first to last consulted our happiness For he descended Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 1002. that he might make way for our ascent He was born that he might make us friends with the Vnbegotten He took on him our infirmities that we might be raised in power and say with St. Paul I can doe all things through Christ which strengthneth me He took on him a corruptible body that this corruption might put on incorruption He put on mortality that it might be changed into immortall In fine He was made Man and died that we who die as men might be deified and death might no longer reign over us O blessed and life-giving Cross of our Saviour which triumphed over death and destroyed him that had the power of it which is the Devil O divine Word and true Wisedom of the Father thou hast overcome the Devill when he thought he had been a conquerour * August de Trinitate L. 13. c. 15. Caet ex Athanasio p. 1022. O Lover of men and gracious Lord thou hast both redeemed us that were captives and freed us by thy own death who were servants of sin O Son of God the true Peace-maker thou hast both given us the adoption of Sons and reconciled us to thy Father having destroyed the enmity by thy flesh O rich Saviour and true King who becamest poor that we by thy poverty might be made rich and hast given to us the Kingdom of heaven O Creatour and former of all things the Word of the Father for thou hast created us again we are thy workmanship created unto good works O Light indeed the brightness of the Father for thou hast inlightned us that were in darkness and hast brought us that were blind to see the light O Likeness and reall Image of the Father for thou hast formed us who were lost and again restored the image of God in us O God the Word and Life indeed for thou hast quickned us who were dead and renewed us that were corrupted and cloathed us with immortality O thou Power indeed the arm the right hand of the Father for thou hast both loosed the bands of death and broken the prison-doors in pieces God forbid that we should glory Ib. pag. 1028. save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ To this let us adhere let us walk worthy of this And thus living and believing we shall know also his assumption into the heavens and his session on the right hand of the Majesty on high We shall behold the subjection of Angels to him and his coming again with glory Which Angels have foretold which Saints sing of in their hymns and which when we all see we shall rejoyce and be exceeding glad in Christ Jesus By whom be glory and dominion to the Father world without end Amen CHAP. XI Concerning the Testimony of the SPIRIT the Third Witness on Earth THough the Children of Israel were so strangely delivered out of their bondage being saved by the Bloud of the Paschal Lamb from the destroying Angel and then freed from Pharaoh who thought it 's like that his bloud must next of all pay for the keeping them in Egypt yet still they questioned whether they should come into the good Land or no and were at a sad plunge when they came to the Red Sea imagining that they themselves should be there destroyed and become the next Sacrifice to Pharaoh's cruelty To confirm them therefore in their belief of God's kind intentions towards them and perswade them thoroughly that Moses had not brought them out of Egypt to kill them but to save them He gave him power to doe great wonders at that place and in the rest of their journey which added to the Miracles in Egypt were a strong conviction that God was among them and was conducting them by the hands of his Servant to their long-desired Rest This was the last Argument and the most constant whereby he demonstrated the truth and reality of his promises of bringing them to the land of Canaan They saw his signs
other end but to shew how stupidly blind men are when they are left to walk in the ways of their own hearts and how deeply we are indebted to the exceeding great love of God who when he saw the minds of men too weak to comprehend such things and that they stood in need of a Divine Teacher as Clemens Alexandrinus * L. v. Stromat p. 548. speaks was pleased in his infinite condescension to send one from the very place his own dear Son from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the Teacher and the Giver of that possession of Good the secret holy token of that great Providence which took care when men had lost themselves in vain imaginations to lead them right by Him who is the Way the Truth and the Life Who hath made that certain which was dubious and that plain to every body which was the hardest thing in the world to know before and bids us lift up our Minds to God himself with whom he dwells and to whom he will bring us that we may rejoyce in his Love for ever in the happy company of Angels and good men and in that place of which the Divine Majesty is the glory And it was but needfull we shall see he should send us such a Conductour when we consider how little even they who were instructed by God himself understood of this Eternall Life before our Saviour appeared It cannot be denied that the greatest part of the Jews before our Saviour's coming did expect the Resurrection of the dead and Eternall Life v. Joh. 39. xxvi Act. 6 7. And their pious Ancestors before the giving of the Law xi Heb. 9 10 16 26. as well as after ver 35. sought an heavenly country and had respect to the recompence of reward and refused deliverance from their tortures that they might obtain a better resurrection And their Writers in all Ages have spoken much of the World to come whereby they understand sometimes the days of the Messiah and sometimes the future State which we expect after death All this is true but it is as certain I. That they had no such express promises of these things either in the Law or in the Prophets as we have in the holy Gospell Where do you reade one such saying as this which we frequently meet withall in the whole Law of Moses Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world vi Joh. 47 51. Promises indeed of the good things of this world are very rife to those that diligently keep God's commandments to whom he says I will give you the rain of your land in due season that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattel that thou mayest eat and be full xi Deut. 14 15. Which is repeated again more largely xxviii Deut. 2 3 c. And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God Blessed shalt thou be in the city and blessed shalt thou be in the field Blessed shalt thou be in the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground c. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out But in what place do you find any such promises as these BLESSED are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall SEE GOD Blessed are they that doe his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life with such like of which the New Testament is so full that a little time will not serve to number them all v. Matt. 3 4 8. xxii Rev. 14. Alas when their Writers undertake to prove the life of the World to come out of their Law it is out of places so far from the purpose that this endeavour is a plain confession they have no express promises of it but are fain to squeez the words to speak that which is not in them Shall I give a few instances of this truth Joseph Albo a famous man of that Nation and of good reason from that place xiv Deut. 1 2. Ye are the children of the Lord your God ye shall not cut your selves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead For thou art an holy people c. thus fetches about his discourse Behold one would think the quite contrary should be concluded They should the rather mourn and grieve because they are the children of God as the Son of a King is more to be lamented when he is dead then the child of an ordinary man But the true interpretation is as if he had said Seeing the most Blessed God is holy and his Ministers are holy thou also art an holy people All things are joyned to that which is like themselves and therefore without doubt your Soul is joyned to the Angels because it is holy as they are holy for which cause you must not cut your selves for the dead nor mourn more then is fit And this teaches us that there is a blessed immortality for the Soul after death Such is his conclusion from those words which rather teach us how hard it is to find anything in the Law to that purpose and how much we are bound to magnify the love of God for the revelation of his blessed will in the Gospell He argues something better when he gathers it from those words xxxii Deut. 47. where he saith there is a twofold happiness or reward spoken of one spirituall it is your life the other corporall because it is said through this ye shall prolong your days And yet so weak and infirm are their reasonings that at another turn they shall prove Eternall Life from this promise of prolonging their days though it be expresly added in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee For there being the letter Jod wanting in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Fifth Commandment where God promises to prolong their days they conclude that there is no prolongation of days in this world but it belongs to the next Nor can he find any clearer place to prove the Resurrection of the body then that in the same book xxxii Deut. 39. I kill and I make alive Nay our Lord himself alledges a place for it which was but dark till he illustrated it and proved by consequence not an express promise that Abraham Isaac and Jacob should be rewarded by him who called himself their God But we cannot I think learn this truth better from any then from Philo a