and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Eph. 5.2 2. The death of Christ is to be considered as the death of a Testator for so is Christ to be considered also He himself calls his bloud the bloud of the New Testament or the New Testament in his bloud I very well know that the Greek word which we render Testament does signifie Covenant but yet it does not always do so in the New Testament For sometimes it signifies the last Will or Testament of a Testator And when it does so it does not exclude the notion of a Covenant neither but rather imply it For the right we have to the inheritance is one part of the Covenant but then the declaration of that right is peculiarly and properly the part of a Testament which signifies the last will of a man by which he disposeth of his goods Matt. 26.28 Mark 14.24 Luk. 22.20 Our Blessed Saviour is said to be the heir of all things And we are elsewhere told that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand And we are farther informed upon what account it is that the Father loveth the Son and consequently hath given all things into his hands in these words of our Saviour Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life From whence it is Evident that upon the account of the voluntary death of Christ this full power and authority is given to Christ as the great Mediator between God and man Christ was in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God But made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Heb. 1.2 Joh. 3.35 10 17. Phil. 2.6 Thus low did the Son of God stoop for our Salvation from being equal with God to the likeness of men and from the form of God to that of a servant from life to death from glory to shame and contempt If you would know the effects of all this the next words will inform us Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Our Blessed Saviour a little before his death bequeaths a Kingdom to his followers as a Testator in these words and I appoint unto you a Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Father hath appointed unto me Luk. 22.29 But then by his death he procured our right to this glorious inheritance For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all whilst the Testator liveth 'T is the death of the Testator that makes way to the Heir He hath no claim till the Testator dye But upon his death his title is unquestionable and it is not in any man's power to alter what is thus setled and confirmed Though it be but a man's Testament yet if it be confirmed no man disanulleth or addeth thereto Heb. 9.16 17. Gal. 3.15 Our Lord suffered the most shamefull and painfull death He did this voluntarily and not by Constraint He dyed not intestate nor yet like other Testators who when they have made their Testaments do avoid death with all their care and skill and are not willing to part with their lives for the benefit of their Heirs or Successours 'T was otherwise with our Saviour I lay down my life says he no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and have power to take it again Joh. 10.17 18. Now after Christ had suffered death and risen from the dead he tells his Followers of the plenitude of his power and authority All power is given unto me says he in heaven and in earth And a while after his own ascension into heaven he sends the Holy Ghost which is the earnest of our inheritance Mat. 28.18 Eph. 1.14 3. The death of Christ is to be considered as the death of a Martyr or a Witness Our Blessed Saviour had professed himself to be the light of the World the Messias whom the Scriptures had foretold and that he came from heaven and that he was the Christ the Son of the Blessed It is of great moment that these truths should be sufficiently confirmed to us Upon these things depends the whole Religion that he taught If these things be sufficiently proved we can make no doubt of the truth of any part of the Doctrine which Jesus taught Joh. 8.12 c. 5.39 6 40. Mark 14.61 62. Now it will appear that the death of Christ does mightily confirm these truths and that Jesus gave up himself to death for the same end and purpose When Pilate asked Jesus whether he were a King or not Jesus answered thou sayest that I am a King that is Jesus answered in the affirmative To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear witness unto the truth With respect to the undaunted courage of Jesus before Pilate St. Paul saith that before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good confession Joh. 18.37 1 Tim. 6.13 'T was upon this account that Jesus was put to death He was accused indeed of something else that was charged upon him But the Testimony was weak and incoherent that with which he was born down was that he professed himself to be Christ a King Or as it is in St. John because he made himself the Son of God Our Saviour was silent when the false witnesses accused him But when the High Priest asked him if he were the Christ the Son of the Blessed and he answered I am c. We find thereupon the High Priest renting his Cloaths and saying what need we any farther witnesses ye have heard the blasphemy what think ye and they all condemned him to be worthy of death Luk. 23.2 Joh. 19.7 Mark 14.61 Our Saviour dyed for his adhering to this great truth and that he did so must be acknowledged a great confirmation of it and of the Religion which he planted Life is too sweet a thing to be trifled away for nothing Much less will a man in his wits dye in confirmation of a lye Had Jesus been disposed he might have kept out of the way of his enemies or have saved himself by denying the truth He had now a great temptation before him either to renounce what he had professed or by some trick or mean art or other to escape the danger But he is far from taking any such course to deliver himself but instead thereof confirms
the truth with his own Bloud He was so far from disowning himself to be the Son of God that he continues in that profession to the last breath And when he hung upon the Cross he twice calls God his father when he prayed for his enemies and gave up the Ghost This did mightily confirm his Doctrine and was one great end of his sufferings Luk. 23.34.46 Hence it is that the bloud or the sufferings of Christ especially his death is reckoned among those who bear witness in earth And Jesus Christ is called the faithfull witness And we are then said to be partakers of Christ when we hold the beginning of our Confidence stedâ—ast unto the end 1. Joh. 5.8 Rev. 1.5 The bloud of Christ did not onely wash away our sins but did also clear the innocency of our Blessed Saviour And it was attended with so many rare circumstances and fulfilled so many prophecies and was born with such an admirable patience that it did convince men of the innocence of Jesus and consequently of the truth of his Doctrine The veil of the Temple was rent the earth did quake the rocks clave in sunder and graves were opened and the Sun drew in its light insomuch that the Centurion that beheld these things could not forbear to say Truly this was the Son of God Mat. 27.54 And no wonder after all this that those who renounced Christianity are said to count the bloud of the Covenant i. e. the bloud by which the new Covenant was ratified and confirmed wherewith he was sanctified that is Christ was consecrated or sanctified see Joh. 17.19 an unholy thing i. e. the bloud not of an innocent person but of a Criminal Heb. 10.29 Having considered the death of Christ as the death of a Victim or Sacrifice of a Testatour and of a Martyr or Witness 4. I shall now consider it as a Pattern and great example to us And thus the Scriptures represent it He suffered for us leâ—ving us an example that we should follow his steps Our Saviour gave us an example that we should follow his steps 1. Pet. 2.20 Our Saviour gave us a most excellent example in his whole life But then at his death he gave us also a very eminent example of the following vertues and graces 1. Of Patience and meekness under all his sufferings and reproaches And his example was without a parallel Never was there so great a mirrour of these graces He did no sin neither was there guile sound in his mouth Who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously In this Jesus was so conspicuous that when we are exhorted to Patience we are directed to look upon him the authour and finisher of our faith And it will be a very usefull meditation for us under all our sufferings and all the reproaches which we meet withall He was guilty of no sin but yet was numbred among transgressours He had but few followers and by one of them he is Letrayed denied by another and in his greatest extremity forsaken by all the rest He is pronounced innocent and yet sentenced to death by the same breath absolved and condemned by one and the same Judge He is forced to bear his own Cross reviled and buffeted derided and scoffed at by an inhumane multitude whom he came to save and whom he had obliged by the greatest benefactions He was innocent and deserved not this usage Omnipotent and able to revenge it But instead of that he does not so much as threaten those whom he could easily have destroyed He bears all with an unparallelled meekness and patience and made it appear that these vertues were as invincible as his cause was just He is silent under the greatest clamours of his Enemies His persecutours have less patience than he that suffers And when the whole creation trembles when the Sun withdraws its light and the rocks rend in pieces and the graves give up their dead and the Veil of the Temple is torn in pieces then is Jesus quiet and still This example does most powerfully reprove our peevishness and discontent our anger and our heat under the obloquy and other sufferings which we endure and generally have deserved 1 Pet. 2.22 23. Heb. 12.1 2. II. Of forgiveness of Enemies They were our Lord's enemies to whom he was the greatest friend And of all Enemies 't is the hardest to forgive them He that did eat of his bread lift up his heel against him His own Disciple betrays him and his own People thirst after his bloud and his wounds he receives from those whom he came to seek and save A robber is preferred before him and he is numbred with transgressours He had fed their hungry healed their sick dispossessed their Daemoniacks restored sight to their blind given strength to their infirm life to their dead Many good turns he had done them and yet they treat him rudely and barbarously they cry to have him Crucified and insult over him in his sufferings what doth our Lord do all this while does he call for Fire from Heaven to devour his enemies Does he menace them with an approaching destruction Does he exclaim against their proceedings No he opens not his mouth unless it be to pray for these his Enemies Father forgive them c. can we remember these things and bear a grudge against our Brother Can it now be hard for us to forgive our enemies when Christ with his last breath prayed for his Christ forgave and he died for our forgiveness and is it now a possible thing for us not to forgive even then when we commemorate the death of Christ Let all bitterness and wrath and aâ—ger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Luk. 23.34 Eph. 4.31 32. III. Of the profoundest humility and condescension The world never beheld a pattern of this grace which could compare with this of our Blessed Saviour's He stooped from Heaven to earth when he was born From the immensity and happiness the power and infinity of a God to the limits of a womb the miseries of a man the proportions and infirmities of a Child the weaknesses of a Mortal and the humble circumstances of a poor and mean condition If we look upon Jesus in the manger we shall see a glorious example of humility But if we turn our eyes upon him as he hung upon the Cross we shall see an example great enough to extinguish out of our minds every proud thought for ever Here we may see him who was found in the fashion of a man humbling himself lower still as he was obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Philip. 2.8 Methinks after this we should never be in danger of a proud thought of our selves we cannot sure after this example think any
office too mean for us in which we may do any good office to one another Here is enough to extinguish for ever all our ambition and pride and contempt of our poor Brother Nothing that we can do can be called a great condescension after this humiliation of the Son of God IV. Of resignation to the will of God This our Lord was the most conspicous mirrour and example of He was a man sin onely excepted like one of us sensible of hunger and thirst of pain and sorrow and these things pained his flesh as they do ours His soul was sorrowfull and very heavy His sweat was like drops of bloud great was his agony and his sorrow beyond expression He saw before his eyes a most painfull and a most shamefull death He is about to drink a most bitter cup. These things were grievous to his humane nature and therefore he prays that if it were possible this cup might pass from him but after all he submits himself to the will of God Not as I will but as thou wilt And how instructive is this to us We sinners may be ashamed to murmur when our Lord resigned himself Well may we submit under our little and deserved evils when he that was without fault resigned himself up to God Mat. 26.39 V. Of the greatest Charity to Mankind Greater love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friend This is the highest flight of friendship and we have but a very few examples in our books of such a Degree of Charity Some few I'll grant have done this none have gone beyond this besides our Lord Jesus For he died for his Enemies and for the Ungodly This example should constrain us to do good to all even to evil men and to our greatest Enemies Rom. 5.6 VI. Of the greatest fortitude and the truest courage He bore witness to the truth with his bloud and was stedfast in the profession of it to his last breath The most sharp and shamefull death the most barbarous usage and treatment could not prevail upon him to deny the truth or to fall into an impotent passion and revenge himself He does in cold bloud chuse rather to dye the worst kind of death than to quit the profession of the truth or to destroy his Enemies This is indeed an argument of true greatness of mind We are much mistaken in our conceit about Valour or fortitude To Forgive an Enemy and to chuse to dye rather than to do an evil thing speaks a generous and a great mind and is a certain proof of Courage and true Fortitude But he is a man of a weak mind who will do an evil thing to save his life and revenge himself upon him that affronts him or does him wrong Revenge speaks a defect of wit and courage The meanest creatures they are who are peevish and waspish and prone to bite him that toucheth him Leniter qui saeviunt sapiunt magis Anger resteth it in the bosom of fools Non est magnus animus quem incurvat injuria They are but little and feeble folk that are ruffled by every injury or calumny The more impotent and weak any creature is the more easily provoked and nothing is a more certain sign of a narrow and mean soul than is revenge Quippe minuti Semper infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas Ultio continuò sic collige quòd Vindicta Nemo magìs gaudet quà m faemina c. Well so it was our Saviour shewed great Courage and resolution and hath given us therein a great example of Christian fortitude and resolution I shall now make some application of what hath been said I. What hath been said may serve to recommend to us a suffering condition which Christ hath sanctified by his own Sufferings When we suffer we are like the Author and finisher of our faith It becomes us not to be dismayed with our sufferings who profess a faith in a crucified Redeemer For by sufferings our Religion was planted by sufferings it grew up and prevailed in the World This was the way in which Jesus went before us into his glory And if we suffer with him we shall likewise be glorified together It is no little comfort to us to think that our Lord hath led us the same way and that he did overcome the world after this manner which is indeed the noblest conquest of it II. We may hence be exhorted to a frequent mediation of the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ Form what hath been said it appears plainly that we are nearly concerned in these things For Christ did not suffer upon his own account but upon ours and we are very much concerned in the benefits of his death 1. As we expect our pardon upon the account of his merit and satisfaction He was a sacrifice which made attonement and expiation for our crimes as he died for our Sins 2. As we hope for an eternal inheritance upon the account of the death of Christ who hath made way for us by his death and by death entered himself before into an eternal inheritance 3. As we are confirmed in the truth of his holy Religion by the Testimony of his bloud with which this new covenant between God and man was ratified and confirmed 4. As we are constrained by the glorious example he gave us in his sufferings to patience and charity and self-resignation c. of which he hath given us the most powerfull example III. We may hence be exhorted to a frequent and diligent partaking of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which is appointed as a standing memorial of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ We ought not onely to embrace but welcome all these opportunities as those which lead us to the contemplation of Christ's death upon which our hopes to depend It is an unspeakable privilege that we are admitted to this favour And had we the due sense which we ought to have upon our minds of the love of God in giving us his Son and the love of our Lord in giving up himself to death for us and the unspeakable benefits which thence accrue to us we should need no words of persuasion no law or secular interest to invite us to the doing of that which is so plainly our duty and so much our interest to doe Our spiritual hunger and thirst are the onely safe and lasting principles as well as the acceptable ones from whence we ought to be moved If our souls be once possessed with an ardent love of God and our Blessed Saviour we shall not make excuses and shall be so far from that that it will not be an easie thing to stay away and nothing less than a violent detention will keep us back And thus I have from the sufferings of Jesus made it appear that he is the Christ Before I proceed to speak to the resurrection of Jesus I shall say something of his Burial Of the Messias it was foretold
inconsiderable employments attend upon and publish the Resurrection of Jesus and do also secure the empty Sepulchre from the Jews that they are not able to place another body in the room of that of Jesus which was risen Matt. 28.6 Luk. 24.2 with Joh. 20.12 3. We have a divine Testimony and that a most irrefragable one a Testimony greater than that of men and Angels Our Lord had promised the Holy Spirit who should be with respect to his disciples a Comforter and with respect to our Lord himself an Advocate to plead his cause and defend his innocence Now this promise is fulfilled and this holy Ghost did bear witness to the Resurrection of Jesus After Jesus was risen he breathed on his disciples and said receive ye the Holy Ghost and after his Ascension at the day of Pentecost we find the Holy Ghost more plentifully bestowed on his Disciples And from thence the Apostle argues against them who derided them as those who were full of new Wine that God had raised up Jesus who being exalted had shed forth this which they now saw and heard and afterwards concludes therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ The effusion of the Holy Ghost was a witness of the Resurrection of Jesus And this Testimony of the Holy Ghost was a divine one it was from Heaven St. Peter tells the Jews that God had raised up Jesus and exalted him at his right hand and says he we are witnesses of these things so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him Joh. 14.16 ch 16.7 8 9 10 11. ch 20.22 Act. 2.4 36 ch 5.32 4. Jesus did after his resurrection take away all cause of doubt concerning the truth of his Resurrection He gave sufficient proof that the very same body which was fastened to the Cross dyed there and was buried was raised again to life The Disciples were at first affrighted and supposed that they had seen a Spirit But our Saviour put them out of all doubt Behold says he my hands and my feet Handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have He shews his hands and his feet And whereas at his first appearing to his Disciples Thomas was absent and did not believe that he was risen from the dead and said moreover except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hard into his side I will not beleive our Lord convinced this doubting Disciple and gives him the utmost evidence and assurance of the truth of his Resurrection Reach hither thy finger says Jesus to Thomas and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but beleiving upon which Thomas was convinced and forced to cry out my Lord and my God Our Lord gave his followers insallible proofs of his Resurrection in the space of forty days He are and drank with them exposed his body to their view and touch behold says he my hâ—nds and feet that it is my self and when after this they believed not for joy and wondred he took broiled fish and honey comb and did eat before them Greater assurance they were not capable of Luk. 24.37 39 40 41 42. Joh. 20.25 27 28. Act. 1.3.10.41 Luk. 24.39 40. 5. That the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus was abundantly confirmed by those who were the witnesses of it So it was and it was highly fit it should be so that there were a select number of men who were to be the witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus these were men whom God had appointed and set apart for this purpose and such who upon the account of their knowledge of Jesus and their readiness to part with all for the sake of the truth were sitted and disposed for this purpose Thus St. Peter tells us Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but to witnesses chosen before of God even unto us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead The Apostles were now the witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus this they preach and testifie upon all occasions and this is their Character and their Office Act. 10.41 chap. 1.22 and ch 3.15 and chap. 4.2 33. ch 5.30 32. ch 10.30 31. ch 13.31 chap. 17.18 Now these witnesses did abundantly confirm the truth of this Doctrine which they preached every where both by signs and wonders which God wrought by their hands and by an exemplary and holy life And at last by laying down their lives in confirmation of their Doctrine Upon which account they were witnesses beyond all exception For we cannot beleive that men would part with their lives in Confirmation of a lye or that God would assist them to do miracles for so vile and base an end and purpose and they must be very profligate wretches who would affirm a matter of fact of which they had not good assurance The Resurrection of Jesus was a truth of the greatest moment and consequence whatsoever upon the truth of this our hope and all our Religion does depend It was fit that this truth should be sufficiently attested by persons of undoubted credit The death of Christ was publick the whole multitude were witnesses of his Crucifixion But they were not vouchsafed the honour of being the witnesses of his Resurrection the truth of his Resurrection was too valuable to be concredited to an unconstant and malicious rabble And therefore God who raised up Jesus and shewed him openly or gave him to be made manifest as the Greek hath it did not do it to all the people but to certain select and chosen witnesses These men who conversed with him before his death and after his Resurrection who had known his life and heard his Sermons and been taught by him before that he must dye and rise again these men who had power to confirm this truth with Miracles and were prepared to confirm it with their bloud and did persist in it to their last breath were witnesses indeed beyond all manner of exception I say beyond all exception for there can be no reasonable exception brought against them And if we will give our selves the leisure to consider the thing before us with due application we shall find no cause to except For if there were any such thing it must be because of the thing it self or matter of fact which is attested or the persons who do report it For the thing it self viz. that God raised up Jesus there lies no shadow of reasonable exception against it For that a man should be raised from the dead implyes no contradiction either moral or natural He that beleives that God made the World cannot think it impossible to him to raise a dead man to life again Multò minus
express promise of eternal life in the law of Moses Temporal blessings were promised to the obedient but they had no assurances given them of a glorious immortality The way to this our Lord hath revealed plainly 2. He procured this for us also he bought it with no less price than his pretious bloud And now we stand reconciled to God by the death of his Son and then we may justly expect to be saved by his life Rom. 5.10 3. He confers this Salvation upon us He is set down at God's right hand and hath received all power in Heaven and Earth God hath exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of Sins Act. 5.31 We receive from him the power of his grace here and justly expect from him the glorifying of our souls and bodies hereafter And it will well be worth our while to enter into a meditation of this Salvation and deliverance which our Lord hath wrought for us And to that purpose let us compare it with those deliverances which were wrought of old for the people of the Jews For those deliverances may well be called Salvations and those men that were the instruments of them may be called Saviours for so they are called in the Holy Scripture 2 King 13.5 Nehem. 9.27 with the LXXII Judg. 3.9.15 Among those Saviours there was one who was not onely an eminent type of our blessed Saviour but who had the same name that was given our Saviour at his Circumcision And that was Joshua the Son of Nun For Joshua and Jesus are the same name and Joshua is called Jesus Heb. 4.8 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neh. 8.17 'T is true indeed his name was Hoshea and so he is called but upon his being chosen to spy out or search the Land of Canaan Moses changed his name from Hoshea to Joshua Num. 23.16 i. e. he made an honourable alteration of his name as Philo observes when he added to the name he had the first letter of the Tetragrammation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Judae de mutat Nominum And he made this addition to his name by putting to it the first letter of the name of God when he sent him to search the Land of Canaan so that for the future he is a Saviour and by God's appointment was set apart to introduce the Israelites into the Land of Promise Moses the Lawgiver did not bring the Israelites into the promised Land This was left for Joshua to doe Now that Land was a type of heaven And Joshua of our Jesus And what the Law did not that the Gospel does It hath brought life and immortality to light And though Moses who brought the Israelites out of Egypt and Joshua who introduced them into the good Land and others who afterward fought their battels were great deliverers of their people yet all these deliverances put together come greatly short of that which our Lord hath wrought For these deliverances were but temporal our Saviour's is eternal Those Worthies fell asleep and then the Israelites fell under the malice and power of their enemies and ill neighbours then were they liable to the impressions of their enemies who did inslave their people and sack their City and burn their Temple and carry them away to a strange Land Their enemies were not dismayed with the great names of Moses and Joshua Gideon and Sampson These great men were dead and could yield no succours to the oppressed Israelites And what ever terrours these men impressed upon their enemies while they lived their names will strike none now The Chaldeans are not over-awed by the rod of Moses or the strength of Sampson these deliverers can afford no relief or help 't is otherwise with us Our Lord is the Authour of Eternal Salvation Heb. 5.9 And hath obtained an Eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9.12 Those Saviours died and left their enemies behind them But Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 Our Lord arose from the dead and is gone before us into Heaven and is there concerned on our behalf And this is unspeakably to our comfort and advantage Old Jacob in his last words to his Sons tells them what shall befall them in the last days Of Dan he foretells that he shall be a Serpent in the way an Adder in the path that biteth the Horse heels so that his Rider shall fall backward Gen. 49.17 These words seem to refer to Sampson who delivered his people from the Philistines But then 't is worth our observing what follows where the good man's Soul sallies out into another and greater contemplation I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord V. Targum Hierosol Jonath in locum v. 18. That is as the Jews expound it as if he had said I do not expect the deliverance of Gideon and Sampson which will be but a temporal deliverance but thy Salvation O Lord is that which I expect for thine is an eternal Salvation These words seem to refer to the salvation of the Messias and do very well deserve to be considered farther V. Hieronym adversus Jovinianum l. 1. 'T is agreed that in the foregoing words Jacob speaks of Sampson He was a Nazarite and a great deliverer of his people And besides what he did for his people in their life-time he destroyed their enemies at his death In several respects we may suppose him a type of our blessed Saviour And we may very well suppose him so to be even as he is considered here as a Serpent by the way Phil. Jud. de Agricultura For Philo the Jew hath directed us to understand that expression of a Serpent not with reference to the Serpent which beguiled Eve or Voluptuousness but with respect to the Brazen Serpent of Moses a symbol of Temperance and Fortitude and as I shall shew afterwards a very remarkable type of the Messias And Jacob looks farther than Sampson he looks off from that Nazarite to our Nazaren from that temporal deliverer to our Jesus who is the Author of eternal Salvation I shall give you the sense of these words in the words of one of the Ancients who brings in Jacob speaking thus Hieronym Quaest Hebr. in Genes Nunc videns in Spiritu comam c. i. e. I foreseeing in the Spirit Sampson the Nazarite nourishing his hair and triumphing over his slaughtered enemies that like a Serpent and Adder in the way he suffered none to pass through the land of Israel and if any were so hardy confiding in the swiftness of an Horse as to adventure like a Robber to spoil it he should not be able to escape I foreseeing this Nazarite so valiant and that he dyed for the sake of an Harlot and dying destroyed our enemies I thought O God that he was the Christ thy son But because he dyed and rose not again and Israel was afterward carried away captive I must expect
was predicted was to doe stupendious works I Shall now pass on to the Life of Jesus and see whether that agree with what was predicted of the Messias And under this head I shall insist upon the following particulars First that the Messias was to be a Prophet like unto Moses To this purpose we read what God said unto Moses I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him Deut. 18.18 This promise is deservedly applied unto Jesus Act. 3.22 7.37 Maimonides lays it down as a rule Maimon fundam leg c. 10. Sect. 9. that the Prophet of whom another Prophet hath testified is to be presumed a Prophet and needs not to be examined And then this testimony of Moses their greatest Prophet must needs be very worthy of regard since it can belong to none as will appear afterwards so peculiarly as to our Blessed Saviour who made it appear that he was that Prophet which was promised in those words And we find our Saviour appealing to the writings of Moses when he preached the things concerning himself Luk. 24.27 44. And he lets the Jews know that the writings of Moses will condemn them Do not think says he that I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his writings how shall ye believe my words Joh. 5.45 46 47. It is very evident that the Jews looked for a Prophet at that time Joh. 1.21 And the woman of Samaria intimates no less Joh. 4.25 And the Jews confess that he was of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world Joh. 6.14 And this general expectation of a Prophet at that time must be grounded upon the promise of God Juchasin fol. 14. for so it was as the Jewish writers confess that after the death of Haggai Zechary and Malachy Prophecy ceased And that it should revive again among them they had no ground to believe but what they had from the divine promise And these words Deut. 18. are a very express promise of it when Prophecy had ceased so long a time yet they are assured that God would raise them up a Prophet Now our Saviour was that Prophet And he gave great proofs that he was a Prophet He taught the will of God and spake as never man spake and did mightily exceed the Scribes in his discourses who were a sort of men that came the nearest to the Prophets Mat. 7.29 We find our Lord preaching his Sermon on the Mount Matt. 5. declaring the acceptable year of the Lord Luk. 4.19 He spake to the wonder of his hearers with great authority and assurance with a mighty power and great conviction And whereas the Prophets were wont to say Thus saith the Lord Our Saviour hath it I say unto you not like an ordinary Prophet but like the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls 1 Pet. 5.4 Heb. 13.20 1 Pet. 2.25 He farther shewed himself a Prophet as he foretold things to come And this he did frequently and the things came to pass and he appeared to be a true Prophet Thus he foretold the denial of Peter Matt. 26.75 the treachery of Judas Joh. 6.70 71. his own death and resurrection Matt. 16.21 Aye and after that the destruction of the Temple and the Jewish Nation with the calamities that should go before it Mat. 24. And the false Christs that should arise of which there have been considerable numbers from time to time He tells the Jews that though they did not receive him who came in his Father's name yet says he If another shall come in his own name him ye will receive Joh. 5.43 The poor Jews have wofully experimented the truth of those words of our Saviour having been imposed upon by Impostours from time to time to their great loss and mischief as I shall have occasion to shew more at large afterwards Thus did our Saviour make it appear that he was a true Prophet in that his predictions were answered by the event of things Maimon fundam leg c. 10. Sect. 2. And Maimonides himself lays this down as the test of a true Prophet that what he foretells comes to pass But he was not onely a Prophet but a Prophet like unto Moses also whose great Anti-type he was Moses is greatly magnified by the Jewish writers Maimon fund leg c. 7. and placed above the other Prophets And it is expresly said that there arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face Deut. 34.10 And therefore it is a vain thing to look for this Prophet that was to be like unto Moses among the Prophets that succeeded Moses while the spirit of Prophecy continued in Israel But our blessed Saviour was like unto Moses in very many particulars If Moses were to be put to death as soon as he was born by the command of Pharaâ—h so was our Saviour by the command of Herod If he were forced to fly his countrey to save his life so was Jesus also If Moses fasted forty days and nights so did Jesus also If he were meek Jesus was meek and lowly in heart If Moses appeared when the Israelites were under the bondage of Egypt so did Jesus when they were under the Roman power If Moses gave his law from a Mountain our Saviour preached his Sermon on a Mount If Moses had his seventy Elders Jesus had his seventy Disciples If Moses were rejected and murmured at by his own people our Saviour came unto his own and his own received him not If Moses trampled on Pharaoh's Crown and despised the pleasures of his Court our Saviour refused to be made a King and despised all the glory of this world As the face of Moses did shine so did the face of Jesus Compare Ex. 34.35 with Matt. 17.2 And as Pharaoh designed the death of the males among the Hebrews that he might destroy the deliverer of that people so did Herod destroy them about Bethlehem As Moses returns into Egypt upon the death of those who sought his life so does Jesus into his Countrey upon the death of Herod But there are other things in which our Jesus was like unto Moses Viz. In his more clear and open converse with the divine Majesty Vid. Abravenel in legem fol. 417. col 3. Thus one of the Jewish writers tells us that Moses saw clearly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not parabolically and aenigmatically And God tells the Israelites thus If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known to him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream My servant Moses is not so with him will I speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of
yet it is possible to discern true miracles from lying wonders Else our Saviour's miracles had been in vain and could not have been brought as a proof that he was the Christ the Son of God We may in this weighty matter be preserved from mistake if we consider it with that due application which becomes us I shall therefore now prove That our Saviour's were true and unexceptionable miracles My meaning is that they were a good proof of his doctrine and that he was what he professed himself to be the Christ the Son of God And for the farther proof of this I shall offer the following particulars to be considered not onely separately but in conjunction with one another 1. The Authour of these miracles was Jesus a person of a most innocent and usefull life Had he been a profligate person or had he been ever detected of an untruth the miracles which he did would not have been enough to gain him credit He was far removed from ostentation and vain glory a great example of meekness and humility of purity and peaceableness of an ardent love to God and contempt of the World Nothing but impudent malice could accuse our Lord. He did good to all and did not hurt the poorest and vilest man in the world He did not come to destroy but to save the lives of men He gained no wealth by his works who had not where to lay his head He desired no applause for he charges those that saw his works that they should tell no man He affects no Dominion and did not make his power of doing these works a step to worldly greatness Indeed he bids John Baptist's Disciples shew John the things which they saw and heard but this was an effect of his Charity to them or to their Master and not because he affected popular fame He was so innocent a person that the very Judge who delivered him to death did pronounce him innocent and he that betrayed him was overtaken with that horror that he went and hanged himself He was judged a righteous person by strangers and his enemies were forced to make use of false and incoherent witnesses of loud clamours and the specious pretence of Caesar's friendship to procure his death He spent his time in doing good and was the greatest example that ever appeared in the world of the most spotless purity the profoundest humility and the most inflamed and universal charity The miracles of such a Person are of mighty force For if an holy and good life do very much commend a Doctrine surely such a life as our Saviour's was accompanied with the mighty works which he did is of great moment to assure us of the truth of what he taught 2. I consider next the doctrine which the works that Jesus did do confirm This doctrine was like Jesus himself holy just and good It is the wisest and the best Religion in the world and that which tends to make men good and happy It does not consist in a number of ceremonies and rituals a few small and trifling opinions it is not a doctrine which promotes a secular and worldly interest that indulges men in their lusts and onely robs them of their wealth It is a doctrine that is holy and innocent that teaches us to love God with our whole heart and our neighbour as our Selves It permits us not to doe any evil and requires us to doe all the good we can It is so far from allowing us to doe an injury that it will not suffer us to revenge it It teaches us to be humble and modest chast and temperate very frequent and very fervent in our prayers to God sincere in all our promises and professions and very bountifull in our mercy which we shew to the poor and miserable A Religion that requires the Service of the heart that lays before us the best precepts and propounds the most incomparable rewards It abstracts us from the world and puts us upon pursuance of life and immortality It does not onely forbid Adultery Murther and Theft but every impure thought every angry word every covetous desire It comports with our wisest faculties quiets our minds perfects our natures kills our lusts and joys our hearts It bids us doe as we would be done by obey our Superiours be gentle to our Servants kind to the poor just to all men It allows us not to think any evil and does strictly require that we speak evil of no man It forbids not onely all swearing but all dissimulation and every idle word It commends to us patience contentedness resignation to the will of God and a thirst after heaven and heavenly things A Religion that is able to make us very wise and very happy rendring us at once at peace with God and with one another and filling our souls with a peace that passeth understanding It is the best security and the greatest blessing to Kingdoms and Commonwealths and all societies of men It disowns every thing that is unjust and untrue that is sneaking and unbecoming that is low and mean It designs to conform us to the likeness of God And whoever looks into its laws may soon discern that it is a blessed institution and not a systeme of craft and worldly policy to keep the world in awe withall It is full of weighty principles of divine and heavenly precepts of the most endearing and pathetick motives to obedience It hath nothing trifling in it but is fraught with a wisedom that is divine and is placed above the contempt and scorn of men It commends it self to the consciences of all that are ingenuous and inquisitive And no man will speak evil of it but a fool that understands it not or the debauched sinner who is condemned by its precepts and denounced against by its severest menaces When I speak thus of Christian Religion I speak of it as it is in its self and to them who give up themselves to the obedience of it Christianity I know is depraved and greatly corrupted by the Church of Rome and there are but few of those who understand their Religion better that have any more than a form of godliness when they continue enemies to the power of it 3. I consider in the next place the great design of the miracles which Jesus did We shall find that they tended to the destruction of the Devil's Kingdom It was most maliciously and foolishly said by the Pharisees that our Lord cast out Devils by the Prince of Devils Matt. 12.24 This is sufficiently refuted by our Saviour Every Kingdom says he divided against it self is brought to desolation ver 25. and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand And if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself How shall then his Kingdom stand And if I by Beelzebub cast out Devils by whom do your Children cast them out therefore they shall be your Judges The miracles which Christ did destroyed the Devil's Kingdom
not able to bring forth lice as Moses did Then the Magicians said unto Pharaoh ch 8.19 this is the singer of God They were forced to confess a divine power Secondly the difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites during these Plagues This was indeed very miraculous and an evident proof not onely of the divine power but also of God's more special care of the Israelites his people whom he sent Moses to bring out of Egypt And we have very remarkable instances to this purpose viz that of the swarms of flies Exod. 8.22 23. ch 9.4 6. ch 10.23 ch 11.7 which infested the Egyptians but were not in the dwellings of the Israelites that of the Murrain which fell upon the Cattel of Egypt and not upon that of Israel And that of the darkness upon the Egyptians when the Children of Israel had light in their dwellings Again that of the death of the first-born of the Egyptians when the first-born of Israel escaped This difference was made that it might be known that God was the Lord in the midst of the earth ch 8.22 These things could not be supposed casually to happen but were a great proof of God's providence and care as well as of his being and his power Thirdly I consider after what manner these Plagues were removed For the very removal as well as the infliction speaks a divine hand in all this We do not find the Magicians able to remove however they were suffered to inflict a Plague But Moses does not onely remove the Plague but which is well worthy our observation does it at the time appointed Thus in the case of the Frogs he leaves in to Pharaoh to set the precise time when the Frogs shall be removed and removes them accordingly Exod. 8.9 10 29. that thou mayst know says Moses unto him that there is none like unto the Lord our God The same may be observed of the swarm of flies ch 9.29 and of the thunder and hail These things put together do speak the hand of God in the mighty works which were wrought by Moses and were sufficient proofs that Moses was sent by God and were enough to convince at once both the Egyptians as well as the Sons of Israel But whatever these works of Moses were yet they came far short of the works which Jesus did I shall not need to say that the works of Jesus were more in number than those of Moses Joh. 20.30 with ch 21.25 when it is apparent that in that respect they were more than those of Moses and all the other Prophets beside For besides the many which we read that Jesus did in a little time we are assured that he did very many more which are not written I shall therefore insist onely upon the following severals 1. I consider the works themselves which Jesus did and we shall soon find that they do very much transcend those of Moses Joh. 15.24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did says Jesus they had not had sin The works which our Lord did were very stupendious and convincing Some of the works which Moses did the Magicians did also and for the rest they came short of the works of Jesus Indeed by the hands of Moses the dust is turned into lice and Egypt is plagued with flies and murrain darkness frogs and hail with the death of their cattel and of their first-born But Jesus did greater works than these He cures the blind heals the most inveterate diseases and raises the dead to life It is a greater instance of power to save than to destroy to cure the sick than to make them so and to raise one man to life speaks a greater power than to slay thousands And he that cured a man that was born blind does more by far than he who turned a rod into a serpent or water into bloud Every little thing deprives us of life and health to save and to restore speaks the greatest power Nay Jesus or Joshua the Son of Nun an eminent type of our Lord does a greater work Josh 10.12 when he stopped the Sun in his course than any of those which Moses did in Egypt 2. I consider the power of working Moses was but an instrument and could not work miracles at all times Jesus was indeed the Author of those which he wrought God tells Moses I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders Ex. 3.10 ch 4.21 ch 7.9 19. ch 8.16 ch 8.12 21 30. which I will doe in the midst thereof And again See that thou doe all those wonders which I have put in thine hand And we find Moses directed by God when the miracle should be wrought and when Moses had wrought it and brought a plague upon the Egyptians he is not able to remove the same plague without crying unto God So that the miracles is altogether God's not the work of Moses Jesus was the Author of the mighty works which he did Joh. 5.19 Luk. 10. Matt. 10. and he did them when-ever he pleased He did them by a word of his mouth a touch of his garment when he was present and when he was at a distance Nothing withstands his power or resists his will What things soever He the Father doeth these also doeth the Son More yet our Saviour conferred this power upon others Upon the seventy and upon his twelve Apostles and after his ascension into heaven his followers retained a power of doing miracles in the name of Jesus Christ 3. The works of Jesus were better than the works of Moses Arguments they were not onely of greater power but of greater goodness The works of Moses in Egypt were at first but so many plagues our Lord's miracles were actions of rescue works of mercy and relief 'T is a more blessed and God-like thing to save than to destroy Moses his works speak dread and terrour And all along we see the face of great severity He comes into Egypt with a rod and as if that had not imported sufficient terrour he turns that rod into a serpent and instead of turning the water into wine he turns it into bloud He sends most uncomfortable creatures such as frogs and lice and flies amongst them He inflicts murrain upon the Cattel and boils and blains upon the people After this he sends hail with fire and thunder and smote man and beast as well as every herb and brake every tree After this the whole earth is covered with devouring locusts and with thick darkness and the first-born are killed and the Egyptians drowned in the midst of the Sea When the law was given in the wilderness you find mention of thunder and lightning and a thick cloud and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud The Mount was on a smoke and the Lord descended in fire Exod. 19. and the smoke of it was like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mount
a doctrine which Christ never taught and which contradicts our sense and our reason at the same time And the stories which they tell of the sweating and motion of their Images serve to advance the worshipping of Images In a word their works are trifling and vain and their doctrine is impious and false and to say the least of it not revealed by God 3. The miracles which Christ did were seasonable and necessary at that time to confirm his doctrine whether we consider the obstinacy of the Jews or the Idolatry of the Gentiles Upon both accounts it was needfull that the Christian doctrine should be confirmed with miracles and so it was But the Popish miracles are out of time there is no need of them to confirm the Christian doctrine where it is already planted Miracles are for the sake of unbelievers and as the world grew Christian they ceased nor is it to be imagined that God will work them without any cause at all In the old Testament we shall find that the greatest number of miracles were wrought by Moses their Law-giver in Egypt and in the wilderness before and upon the giving the Law no man wrought so many miracles nay not all the succeeding Prophets together as he wrought Thus was the Law confirmed And when this was done you rarely read of miracles wrought afterward when the Jews had received and continued in the profession of the Law of Moses The greatest number that were wrought afterward was when there was the greatest reason for them and that was after Jeroboam had revolted from the worship of God and set up his Calves in Dan and Bethel and no less than ten Tribes revolted with him Then indeed there were some number of miracles wrought to convince them of their sin and reduce them from their Schism Then was the Altar at Bethel cleft in pieces Jeroboam's hand withered and restored as miraculously upon the prayer of the Man of God And these miracles were wrought in Bethel among the Schismaticks which were to be convinced and reduced Then Elijah shut up the Heavens is miraculously fed by the Ravens multiplies the meal and raises to life the Widow's Son he calls for fire from Heaven and fasts forty days and destroys the Captains and their fifties by fire which he called from Heaven He divides Jordan with his Garment and is miraculously taken up into Heaven And Elishah during this time did many wonderfull works also He divides the river heals the water encreases the Widow's oil foretells that the Shunamite should have a Child and raised it from the dead He removes the death that was in the pot miraculously feeds the people heals Naaman of his Leprosie He causeth Iron to swim strikes Gehazi with a leprosie and the enemies of Israel with blindness and his dry bones after all these things which he did in his life restored one that was dead to life again Thus in a little time many miracles were wrought more than had been wrought before and after for some hundreds of years So that the great number of miracles were wrought upon the giving the Law and upon the greatest defection from it and that to confirm the truth and convince gain-sayers But what means the Church of Rome to boast of miracles If they be wrought in her own Communion they serve no purpose There 's no need of a miracle where men believe without it Their miracles are done at a great distance from us who are to be convinced and such they are which we cannot see at all or else we may easily see through them Of one thing we are sure viz. that their doctrine is false and then we shall have no cause to be drawn aside with lying miracles The Israelites had warning in this case and so have we Christians also not to believe against our rule any pretence whatsoever Deut. 13.1 Gal. 1.8 9. And we are forewarned of false people who should pretend to miracles Matt. 24.24 2 Thessal 2.9 Rev. 13.13 I shall proceed to consider the miracles which are storied of the Heathens I will not descend to all the stories that may be found upon record to this purpose because besides that we want sufficient Evidence of the truth of those matters of fact so they are not worthy of consideration being things of trifling regard and such as import no advantage to mankind Origen contra Cels l. 3. Such is that which Celsus mentions of Abaris who could fly into the air and keep pace with an Arrow in that flight And that of the speaking of an Image in Valerius Maximus Valerius Maxim l. 1. c. 8. Augustin de civitat Dei l. 10. c. 16. The cutting a Whet-stone in two with a Rasour by Attius Navius The sweating of an Image of Apollo at Cumae and of that of Victory at Capua and that of the Shields which were gnawed by the mice the extraordinary swelling of the Lacus Albanus That of the Serpent which followed Aesculapius when he sailed to Rome and of the Vestal Virgin which took up water out of Tiber and kept it in a Sieve These things are trifling and mean and they who report them do it not with sufficient assurance but upon traditions and common fame and not upon their certain and personal knowledge For what is storied of Vespasian and Adrian's curing the blind I shall not need to say any more than this That if those reports be true they are far short of what our Saviour did nor do we read of any who laid down their lives in testimony thereof And as I do not deny that there have been providential miracles out of the Church of God so it is not to be wondred at that the Devil should exert his utmost power to keep men in errour and as much as may be endeavour to imitate God And more particularly still to consider what is storied of Vespasian and of Adrian I shall desire it may be considered That what is reported of Vespasian to this purpose cannot fairly be denied Tacit. Histor l. 4. it being affirmed by very good Authours And therefore I admit that he did such miraculous cures as are told of him Sueton. Vespasian But then it is to be considered that he was not onely an excellent Prince but that very person who was to execute God's displeasure against the Jews for rejecting and crucifying Jesus And no wonder that God should honour him with an extraordinary power whom he employed in so great a work especially if it be considered that upon his coming to the Empire at first as Suetonius tells us he wanted majesty and authority which was supplied by this means Nor is there any thing in this that does at all derogate from the works of Jesus But then what is storied of Adrian to the same purpose we have not the same cause to believe Aelius Spartianus Adrian and the very Historian which reports it gives us at the same time ground to believe that what is
harmony and agreement among them and all the marks and tokens of sincerity that we can desire It cannot be denied indeed that in the writings of these men there is some variety and they seem not to speak consistently with one another in some of their relations But then they all agree in the main story and generally speaking it is not hard to account for the seeming opposition in their relations And it is to be supposed that our ignorance of the history and the phraseology and usages of those times and Countries is the true reason why they seem to thwart with one another when really they do not Besides it is an argument that these men did not combine and lay their heads together to put a trick upon the world For if they had which they could have no cause to doe it would have been no hard matter to have avoided not onely contradiction which they have done but the very appearance of such a thing These Writers give great proofs of their sincerity They give none at all of their ostentation and vain-glory Eusebius hath well observed that S. Matthew discovers the baseness of his employment before he followed Christ Euseb demonstrat l. 3. â— 5. He alone tells us that he was a Publican And St. Mark who wrote his Gospel by the direction and with the knowledge of St. Peter speaks sparingly of those things which tended to St. Peter's praise however he enlarge in relating of his faults 4. That the Gospel hath been so generally received is an argument of the truth of it A lye hath no feet and cannot stand long without being discovered Facilè res in suam naturam recidunt ubi veritas non subest There were a great many eyes upon Christian Religion when it advanced in the world and it did not want subtile and inquisitive enemies The fraud would have been detected if there had been any It was entertained by men of wit and learning and such as made diligent enquiry after truth 5. It did not spread by force and bloud as the Turkish Religion hath done not by craft and worldly policy by humane arts and Religious cheats but by suffering and by tears by hardships and by severities Men were willing to shed their bloud in testimony of it and part with all that was dear to flesh and bloud All our ancient books tell us that this was the duty and practice of Christians men do not use to be forward to lose their lives and all the comforts of life to confirm a lie And we must think those men void of all sense that would dye to confirm a forgery and lie when their death would serve to confirm a Religion which severely forbids all Lying and dissimulation And though some men may have died in a false belief or a belief of some principles which are not really though to them they seem to be true yet it is not credible that a great number of men should be content to die in confirmation of a matter of fact which they knew to be false or did not know to be true When Arrius Antoninus persecuted the Christians in Asia they came about his Tribunal and offered themselves to death which made him cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O wretched men Tertullian ad Scapul can ye not find precipices or halters to take away your lives 'T is a great argument of the truth of these things that men were forward to confirm them with their bloud CHAP. VII The CONTENTS That the Messias according to the predictions of him was to suffer This proved against the Jews Of the vanity of their twofold Messias the Son of Joseph and the Son of David The reason why the Jews make use of this pretence That Jesus did suffer That he suffered those things which the Messias was to suffer Luk. 24.26 46. and Act. 3.18 considered Zech. 9.9 to be understood of the Messias this proved against the Jews at large Of the kind of Christ's death Crucifixion was none of the Jewish capital punishments Of the Brazen Serpeat Numb 21. St. John ch 3.14 considered The Jewish Writers acknowledge that the brazen Serpent was symbolical and spiritually to be understood Of the time when Jesus suffered that it did exactly agree with the type of the sufferings of the Messias A large digression concerning this matter Exod 12.6 considered Castalio justly censured for his ill rendring that place Of the two Evenings among the Jews The ground we have for it in the Scriptures The testimony of R. Solomon Of the practice of the Jewish Nation as to the time of offering their evening Sacrifice and the Passeover This shewed from their best Authours An objection from Deut. 16. v. 6. answered Jesus died at that time when the Paschal Lamb was to be slain Of the place aâ—d many other particulars relating to the sufferings of Jesus Of the great causes and reasons of the sufferings of the Jesus Of the Burial of Jesus I Shall now proceed to the consideration of the Sufferings of Jesus and from thence prove that our Jesus is the Christ That Jesus did suffer the Jews do confess and they make to scruple to grant it And he is upon that score reproached by them and upon the same account his Disciples and Followers have been scorned by the world who professed a Faith in a Crucified Saviour and expected to be saved by him who did not so much as save himself from the most painfull and ignominious death When I speak to the suffering of Jesus I mean his sufferings in the largest sense and not onely his Death However I shall principally consider his death here and from that especially shall prove him to be the Christ And for the better speaking to this whole matter I shall proceed in this method First I shall shew that the Messias who was promised was to suffer Secondly that Jesus did suffer Thirdly that from the sufferings of our Jesus it does appear that he is the Christ Fourthly I shall enquire after the causes or reasons of the sufferings of Christ Lastly I shall direct you to some practical application I shall shew that the Messias promised of old was to suffer And this especially against the Jews who do not deny that Jesus suffered but do deny him to be the Messias the Son of David because he suffered This is the scandal of the Cross at which the Jews stumble and fall Here they are offended and at a stand Now that the Messias was to suffer and Jesus not to be rejected upon that account will appear if we consider the following particulars First I must premise that it is a very unreasonable thing that Jesus should be reproached or rejected upon the score of his sufferings The Jews have no cause for this reason to scorn him as they commonly do For his sufferings do not speaking him an evil person or one unfit to deliver and save his followers from the greatest evils viz. from
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
man before was laid The Virgin and the Sepulchre were both undefiled And however a several Joseph were related to each yet they had not made any use of either Our Lord was miraculously born of the Virgin and raised from the dead Without the help of a man he was born at first and was raised from the grave without humane assistance and maugre all the endeavours used to prevent it He received life upon the first conception and a new life when he rose from the dead They were both effected by the H. Ghost and published by Angels Heb. 5.5 Luk. 1.35 with Rom. 1.4 chap. 8. v. 11. Luk. 23.53 But we have another prediction of the Resurrection of the Messias that cannot belong to the person of David at all viz. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption This must belong to the person of the Messias for David dyed and was buried and his flesh consumed and it is therefore an unexceptionable proof of that truth which it is brought to Confirm Ps 16.10 Act. 2.29 We have another Prophecy that assures us that the Messias after his resurrection shall dye no more viz. The promise of the sure mercies of God which we find the Apostle applying to this matter and inferring from it that Christ who rose from the dead was no more to return to corruption Isa 55.3 Act. 13.34 If what hath been said be duly considered we shall find that God hath given us sufficient assurance that Jesus did rise from the dead For what greater assurrance can we desire of this matter of fact unless we think Our Saviour should have dyed in every age and Country and risen again to satisfie our unreasonable infidelity What is there that the Jew can object against this doctrine thus confirmed will they undertake to prove a negative against so many positive proofs and witnesses what possible ways are there left them of doing this They cannot deny the possibility of the thing who believe a Resurrection to come or that God made the world Or will they say as once they did who watched his Sepulchre and were hired to say it that his Disciples came by night and stole him away while they slept Is it probable that this should gain any belief among men what temptation could they have to do this Or is it likely that they who for fear forsook him when he was living should adventure upon the Guard to retrieve his dead body which was honourably interred If these Souldiers knew this to be true why did they not hinder it if they knew it not how could they Testify what could hinder them who had power that they did not prevent it Or what reason have we to believe those Competent witnesses who confess that they were a sleep when it was done Thus having shewed that we have sufficient Evidence that Jesus did rise from the dead I shall now proceed to shew That this is an unexceptionable proof that he is the Christ and consequently of the truth of the Christian Religion I need not enlarge upon this head For it is very evident and plain and the Jews themselves cannot deny it And for that reason they who deny not that he lived and dyed do what they can to stifle the belief of the Resurrection This they do because they are sensible that his Resurrection from the dead is a proof beyond exception that he is the Messias They Endeavoured what they could to hinder his resurrection and when they could not doe that they laboured to hinder the belief of it And that which makes the Resurrection of Jesus so unexceptionable a proof that he is the Christ is this that Jesus did in his life time not onely profess himself to be the Christ the Son of God but also foretell the manner of his own death and that he should not onely rise again but rise again the third day and does referr the unbelieving Jews to his Resurrection as to the great sign and proof of his being sent from God When the Scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign He answered and said unto them an Evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a Sign and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the Prophet Jonas For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Our Lord had done many miraculous works among the Jews and still they require a Sign or a more plain and clear proof that he came from God Our Saviour referrs them to his Resurrection as that which would be a most unexceptionable one and sufficient to remove any but a perverse and incurable unbelief And this he calls the Sign of the Prophet Jonas That Prophet was sent to call the Ninevites to repentance and was successfull in his undertaking and his miraculous escape from the belly of the Whale was a Competent proof that he was sent by God and very fit to gain him credit with the Ninevites And very probable it is that the fame of what had befallen the Prophet had come to the men of Nineveh and that it made way for the reception of the doctrine which he preached The Resurrection of Jesus was a greater sign and that which made way for the Entertainment of his doctrine in the World For it did confirm the truth of his Doctrine Matt. 16.21 Joh. 2.19 ch 3.14 ch 12.32 33. Matt. 12.39 40. There have been those who have been raised from the dead besides Jesus And many besides him have professed themselves to be the Christ also But none in the world but Jesus professed himself to be Christ and confirmed it by his Resurrection Maimon Epist ad Judaeos Marsilienses Maimon tells us of one who deceived the poor Jews under a pretence that he was at least the forerunner of the Messias who having boasted vainly that he would rise again after his death in token that he came from God was indeed beheaded by a certain Arabian King but returned not to life again He was not able to give the proof that Jesus did who rose from the dead And though there have been others who have been raised from the dead yet none of them ever professed to be the Christ the Son of the living God as our Jesus did This being a truth upon which the truth of the whole Christian Religion depends no wonder that the belief of this Article should be accounted for a faith in the whole Religion That is the word of faith says St. Paul which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For he that believes that Jesus rose from the dead does believe the other Articles of Religion which are all confirmed by this He that believes that Jesus is risen does at
unclean and likewise obliged to wash his Clothes Numb 19.7 8 9 10. However these ashes served to purifie the people who were unclean it appears that they did it not upon the score of their inherent vertue because they defiled him that was clean before Well might the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews say it is not possible that the bloud of Bulls and Goats should take away sins Heb. 10.4 There was no proportion between the guilt and the Sacrifice Fourthly the offerer who brought an expiatory Sacrifice was not allowed to partake of the offering which he brought and consequently had the less hope from that oblation which he offered up It was the Custome of the Jews as well as of the ancient Heathens to feast upon their Sacrifices when they did so it was a token of reconciliation Discourse of the Lord's supper ch 1. eating and drinking together was a federal right and a token of friendship as I have elsewhere shewed And as it was esteemed so among men so it was between God and the Israelites where the Israelites were admitted to partake of the Sacrifices it was allowed them as a sign of their being reconciled and as a token of God's favour and good will to them But this was never allowed them when they brought piacular or expiatory Sacrifices in that case they did never partake of the Altar For the burnt-offering which was a Sacrifice expiatory that was intirely consumed Nor Priest nor People did partake of it The skin was the Priests but all the flesh was intirely consumed For the sin and trespass-offerings the Priests generally speaking but not always were allowed a share but the People who brought these offerings were not allowed to partake of them In peace-offerings which were Eucharistical and took in Vows and free-will-offerings where the offerer did not come to make atonement for his sin a part was offered upon the Altar a part was allowed to the Priest and a part was also allowed to the People who brought the Sacrifice This was a pledge or token of the favour of God when they were admitted to partake of the Altar But when the People were not allowed this liberty as they were never allowed it when they brought expiatory Sacrifices when the eating of bloud was universally forbid and the eating the flesh of piacular Sacrifices was not allowed to the People they could have but saint hopes of pardon and God's favour from these Victims which they brought This denoted the imperfection of those Sacrifices and that they could not be confided in or relied upon They were consumed when they were offered there was no part left to nourish the offerer and to give him just hope that God was appeased and his justice satisfied and that he was received to his favour again If he had been admitted to partake of the Altar he might have looked on himself as Gods guest and friend one that eat of his meat and consequently in his favour But it was quite otherwise The sinner brought his offering to the Altar imparted to it his guilt it died in his room or stead and this is all that he had to doe with it It did not come back to him from the Altar no part of the flesh was left for him as a token that God was satisfied with the rest he had no nourishment out of what was thus offered The sinner imparted death to the beast which he sacrificed but that did not impart life or nourishment to him back again Fifthly another argument of the weakness of those legal Sacrifices may be drawn from the repetition of them They are weak remedies which must be frequently renewed It is an argument that they had not power to remove sins and to rid the offerer for the future from the like miscarriages They did neither secure the offerer against the power or against the guilt of his sins for the time to come And this argument is used by the Authour or the Epistle to the Hebrews and it is a most unexceptionable one The Law says he can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect For then would they not have ceased to be offered Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins For in those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year Heb. 10.1 2 3. The return of the Sacrifices which were constantly offered at their stated times was an argument that the disease was not cured which they were brought to remove If the remedy had been powerfull it would at once have removed the cause But as an argument that it was weak it was repeated frequently Thus it was under the Law of Moses Every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away sins Heb. 10.11 Sixthly Those Sacrifices under the Law as they were carnal themselves so they were in their effects also Those gifts and sacrifices could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Heb. 9.9 They did not mend the mind of the man they did not reform his inward temper and inclination The Mosaical observances were but carnal ordinances and the bloud of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean they did indeed sanctify but it was onely to the purifying of the flesh v. 10 13. These things did remove the carnal and legal Uncleanness but they did not cleanse the heart of him that was spiritually defiled Those oblations and purifications did remove some legal pollutions and impediments As for example he who was under a legal impurity was excluded from the Camp or City and from the Company of his brethren he might not be admitted to the Mountain of the Lord's House who was under the legal uncleanness of issues or flux He that was defiled by the dead might not come into the Chel or inclosure about the Courts of the Sanctuary There were other legal uncleannesses which debarred men of the liberty of going into the Court of Women and that of Israel But all these restraints were taken off by the Sacrifices and Purifications allowed and prescribed in the Law of Moses And this is that sanctifying to the purifying of the flesh which the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews mentions But alas these things did not purify or quiet the Conscience of the sinner They neither made him better for the future nor did they remove the horrours of his Conscience upon the account of his greater crimes and immoralities He might come into the Congregation who was before excluded and he might be admitted to the Sanctuary who by the Law was before denied that liberty but still the man was the same when these legal impediments were taken out of the way He was not renewed in his mind he was not cased in his conscience nor secured any more by this course against future evils here or hereafter Seventhly It
these all having obtained a good report by faith received not the promise God having provided some better thing for us This is the great perfection of the Christian institution that it gives the clear promise and sure hopes of Eternal life And 't is mentioned as doing so when it is compared with the Mosaical institution Heb. 7.19 For the Law made nothing perfect i. e. it did not perfect those very men who lived under it and submitted to it For it not giving a full pardon for offences and not affording express assurance of Eternal life it was not powerfull enough to perfect those who were under it But then follows what the Gospel doeth But the bringing in of a better hope did by the which we draw nigh unto God Where we find the Gospel called the bringing in of a better hope and that must be the hope of Eternal life for the hope of temporal good things was brought in by the Law of Moses Agreeably hereunto it is also said of Jesus that he was made a surety of a better Testament Heb. 7.22 And a Mediatour of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises Heb. 8.6 And it is elsewhere said of Jesus that he hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 2.10 And the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks to the same purpose elsewhere Heb. 9.6 7 8. He tells there were two parts of the Sanctuary which he calls two Tabernacles and that the Priests went always i. e. constantly twice every day into the first Tabernacle accomplishing the service of God viz. to offer incense and to take care of the Lamps But into the second went the high Priest alone once every year not without bloud which he offered for himself and the errours of the people Thus the High Priest at the day of expiation onely was admitted into the Holy of Holies The meaning of this is expressed in the following words The holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing The meaning of which words is plainly this That the holy Spirit by this appointment in the Mosaical institution Pag. 332. 333. did intimate that the way to Heaven was not laid open during that dispensation And this will evidently appear from what hath been said before to this purpose 2 Pet. 1.3 4. St. Peter blesseth the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope Or an hope of life as it is in another Greek Copy and that of Eternal life also as appears from the following words by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you Here we have an encouragement incomparably great and such as will sufficiently move us to obedience The hope of eternal life is enough to engage us to obey the precepts of Jesus and to reconcile us to all the labour and difficulty which may at any time attend upon our obedience Eternal life imports more than we can express or comprehend something more excellent than what our eye hath seen our ear hath heard or our shallow mind is able to conceive Crowns and Scepters Feasts and Triumphs worldly Success and prosperity are but little and faint resemblances of the eternal unspeakable and inconceivable happiness This it clearly revealed the promise is often repeated the thing promised is expressed by words of the highest import and in such a manner as speaks the thing it self too big to be expressed and too glorious to be comprehended by men who dwell in the body It is a reward stupendiously great and therefore very powerfull it is spiritual and therefore engageth us to be so too it is conditional and therefore is fitted to secure our duty The faint hope of riches of honour of temporal good things hath a mighty force The hope of Heaven where it is well grounded where believed and considered with due application will be of great force to render us patient and diligent and fervent in our obedience I proceed to consider The help and power to obey this Religion which the Religion of Jesus is attended with The laws of our Saviour have the promise of Divine assistance annexed to them The effusion of the Holy Ghost was a blessing reserved for the days of the Messias Our Saviour promised this Divine aid and made good his word as hath been shewn before Joel 2.28 Isa 35.7.44.3 Joh. 14. The Prophets of old did foretell what our Jesus made good And when Jesus did promise the Holy Spirit to his followers he did promise him as a Comforter who should abide with them for ever Indeed the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were not designed to continue in the Church any longer than the reason and the necessity of them continued When the Christian Doctrine was planted and Vniversally received Miracles ceased But the Holy Spirit continues still in the Church of Christ and does renew and purifie the hearts of the sincere believers We have the utmost assurance that we shall receive this Holy Spirit who helps our infirmities Lu. 11.13 Rom. 8.26 1 Joh. 44. and is greater in us than he who is in the World The Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit and of such a spirit as does not kill as the letter of the law did but giveth life 2 Cor. 3.6 8. Gal. 2.3 5 14. 'T is by faith and not by the law that we have the promise and the assistance of the Spirit Gal. 4.6 Rom. 8.3 The Gospel is a state of liberty of ingenuity and freedom We are by this Spirit freed from the greatest slavery and bondage from the Dominion of our lusts and the dread and horrors of our conscience We are enabled to obey and endued with power to doe what our Religion does command Hence it is that the Gospel Rom. 5.21 Gal. 5.4 Tit. 2.11 as it is considered in opposition to the law is called grace or the grace of God in the new Testament because it is accompanied with power or grace enableing us to yield obedience to the precepts of Jesus Christ And our obligation to conquer our sins under the Gospel is now inferred from our having embraced it Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have Dominion over you For ye are not under the law but under grace i. e. Sin shall no longer over-power you now for ye are not under the law which did indeed rigourously require obedience but not help you to obey but ye are under grace that is ye are now admitted to a covenant of grace where you have not onely assurance of pardon upon your sincere repentance but are encouraged also by the promise of eternal life and offered assistance to enable you to obey On the other hand the law
was weak and had not this promise of the Spirit annexed unto it Rom. 7.5 Gal 4.9 Phil. 3.3 with Rom. 8.3 Gal. 3.3 Heb. 7.16 And upon the account of its weakness it is very frequently called flesh in the new Testament as the Gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit upon the account of that power enabling us to obey with which it is attended And the legal ordiances are called weak and beggarly elements or rudiments And indeed the law of Moses might be justly called weak as compared with the Doctrine of the Gospel for the law was not able to effect what the Gospel hath done it gave not life Gal. 3.21 Rom. 7.5 8. Act. 15.10 it did not furnish men with power to yield an inward and spiritual obedience Sin was forbid indeed by the law but not kept under and restrained It directed mens obedience but did not powerfully assist them It was a yoke but not an easie one as that which Jesus puts upon us but such as the Jews knew neither how to bear or to break Gal. 4.3.24 And hence it is that they who were under the law are represented as in a State of Slavery and Servility Whereas the law of Moses was weak and they to whom it was given did transgress it and were obnoxious to a curse God does promise to the Jews to enter into a new and better convenant with them Jer. 31.33 after those days saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people I shall in the next place take into consideration The assurance of pardon of sin which the Gospel gives and consequently the foundation it layes for the quieting our consciences far beyond what was done by the law of Moses I have before shewed the defectiveness of that provision by Sacrifices which was made in the law of Moses I shall shew that this is supplied in the covenant of grace made by Christ And this was foretold very particularly as a special and peculiar grace belonging to this new covenant as it is distinguished from that between God and Israel by the mediation of Moses which God had promised to make God promises not onely to write the law upon their hearts and consequently to work in them the saving knowledge of himself but more especially assures them of their pardon and remission Jer. 31.34 For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more There is nothing bears so hard upon a man as his guilt does And in many things we offend all We are all guilty more or less and consequently obnoxious to the horrors of our conscience and the wrath of God This is the great torment of life and there is no trouble like it A guilty mind bears harder upon us than any outward trouble And then he that hath sinned is anxious and suspicious he is not easily assured of his pardon he that broke the Law of Moses was liable to the Curse of it And though Sacrifices were allowed I have shewed the defects of that provision But the Gospel gives us the utmost assurance of our pardon upon terms that are gentle and reasonable and by no means to be refused What-ever our sins have been yet upon our repentance and sincere obedience for the future we are sure of God's favour and of his being reconciled to us He beseecheth us now to be reconciled to him upon these gentle and easie terms This is the Tenor of this new covenant or covenant of grace of which Jesus is the Mediator He hath procured this for us he hath purchased this by his merits sealed it by his own precious bloud assured it to us by his Resurrection and powerfull intercession he confirmed it by stupendious Miracles proclaimed it to all the world by his messengers and given us the signs and evidences of it by his holy Sacraments and solemn institutions There is nothing wanting to ensure this our pardon unto us Here 's no shadow left for our doubt or anxious fears we have all the possible assurance which we can desire Rom. 5.8 9 10. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life These last words contain an argument invincible and altogether unanswerable and such as affords the strongest consolation If God looked after us when we were his avowed enemies if even then he gave up his most dear Son to death and at so great an expence restored us to favour surely he will now not abandon us to destruction He that was so kind to his enemies will not now forsake his friends So great and dear a love will not be extinguished It was a great price and an instance of the greatest love by which we were reconciled when we were enemies 't was by the death of the Son of God We had little reason to expect this favour and this expence But now we may be saved without his giving up his Son again to death and need not therefore doubt that we shall be saved by his life The Jew under the law of Moses had great cause to fear for when he transgressed and that he did when-ever he continued not obedient to all the words of that law he put himself under the rigour and curse of the law But God hath now made a better covenant with us and given us the greatest hopes of pardon upon our repentance and sincere though it be not sin-less obedience to the laws of Christ Here is pardon to be had for all manner of sin There were many sins under the law of Moses as hath been observed for which no remission was to be had from any Sacrifice allowed by that law He that was guilty was liable either to death or to excision Mat. 12.31 We are better provided for by this covenant of grace All manner of sin and blasphemy says Christ shall be forgiven unto men Blasphemy as hath been observed before was one of those sins for which there was no expiation allowed under the law of Moses But even for this sin there is pardon in this covenant of grace For our Soviours words do not speak of the event of things but of the provision which is now made Blasphemy shall be forgiven 1 Tim. 1.13 16. i. e. there is pardon to be had for it And he who was himself a Blasphemer tells us that he obtained mercy nor does he onely tell us that but also that he therefore obtained mercy for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe Our Saviour goes on whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him Matt. 12.32 There were those who spake against Christ The Person
Jews every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins And presently after that he added save your selves from this untoward Generation 1 Pet. 3.21 The same Apostle elsewhere speaking of the Ark of Noah wherein they were saved who entred into it adds the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us c. And the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is also a pledge of God's favour and our reconciliation We are admitted to feast upon the great Sacrifice which was offered upon the Cross This was not allowed in Sacrifices under the Law that were expiatory to the People We partake of the body and bloud of Christ of that body which was offered upon the Cross and of that bloud of the New Testament which was shed for many for the remission of sins Matt. 26.26 6. Our Lord Jesus sent forth his Messengers into the World to declare pardon to the penitent He took care that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations Luk. 24.46 They were entrusted with the Power of the Keys to bind and loose to let into the Kingdom of God and to exclude from it It were easie to shew that the Christian Religion does upon other accounts besides what have been named excell the Law of Moses It had a better Mediatour and was better confirmed It was more succesfull and farther spread and affords both more and more conspicuous Examples than are to be found under that Law It is attended with greater motives to obedience as well as greater motives of Credibility The Jews are pressed to obey God because he brought them out of Egypt The motive had great force but 't was peculiar to that People We are constrained by the Love of God in Christ Jesus We are moved by the love of Christ which passeth knowledge His death and passion the comforts of the Holy Ghost the unspeakable love of God and hope of pardon and of Eternal life these are our motives to obedience These are great enough to thaw and unlock the most obdurate heart to work upon the most benummed minds I proceed to consider The usefulness of the foregoing discourse And that is very great where it is duly weighed and considered It would be of great use to the Jew would he but consider it and lay it to heart And is of very great use to the Christian to awaken him to the greatest regard to his holy Religion and to a very hearty embracing of it I shall at present onely consider this one advantage which it will afford us viz. that it gives us a fair occasion of inquiring into the grâ—at Ends and Causes for which the Law of Moses was given I will not here undertake to insist upon all the Causes of the Law of Moses Much less will I goe about to inquire into the reason of the particular Precepts of that Law I make no doubt but that God gave the Jews that Law to keep them from Idolatry and to that purpose to preserve that People separate from the neighbour Nations Many of the rites appointed I doubt not were therefore prescribed because they ran Counter to those rites which did obtain among Idolaters then in being I will onely consider the ends of this Law as far as my present argument is concerned And that I shall doe in the following particulars 1. The Law was given to restrain the Jews and keep them from a loose and licentious Course of sinning The promise of the Messias was made to Abraham above four hundred years before the giving of the Law But though the Messias were then promised God did not think fit to send him presently In the mean time the Jews the Children of Abraham whom God had chosen for his Church were to be restrained from living as they list They were very prone to wickedness and needed a restraint in the mean time Therefore was the Law given and given with great solemnity and terrour It denounced many evils against transgressours and left them liable to a curse the more effectually to oblige them to obedience It was not given as God's last revelation nor to give life and to justifie them Gal. 3.19 Wherefore then serveth the Law It was added because of transgressions God did not think it fit that they should be left unrestrained 1 Tim. 1.9 with Gal. 5.22 The Law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient 2. The Law was given as that which contained types and shadows of good things to come and was therefore given that they might have among them a pledge of those spiritual good things to be bestowed in the days of the Messias The great promise which God made to Abraham was the promise of the Messias this promise was renewed afterward when Isaac was born it was repeated by Jacob to his Sons before his death The Messias was the desire and expectation of the more wise and devout Israelites They receive a Law in the mean time full of types and shadows of what they were to expect in the latter days or the days of the Messias Hence it is that the Gospel as it is distinguished from this Law is called truth not as truth is opposed to falsehood but as it is opposed to types and shadows and as it speaks the substance of what was but symbolically represented before Thus it is said that the Law was given by Moses and that grace and truth come by Jesus Christ John 1.17 And the Gospel is called the word of truth Eph. 1.13 Joh. 14.6 Joh. 4.23 Heb. 8.2 Our Saviour tells us that he is the way and the truth and tells the Woman of Samaria that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth They that obey the Gospel are said to walk in the truth and obey the truth And Heaven is called the true Tabernacle Heb. 10.1 ch 8.5 The Law had a shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things The Priests under the Law are said to serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things Coloss 2.17 Heb. 3.5 That Law was a pledge of a better and the things therein commanded were but a shadow of things to come Moses was faithfull as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken viz. by Jesus and his followers For so the Syriack hath it for those things which were to be spoken by him 3. To dispose men for the reception of the Gospel of Christ It was well fitted for this end And that this was the end of it is very evident from the words of the Apostle Gal. 3.22 23 24. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe But before faith came we were under the Law shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed wherefore the Law was our