another rising up betimes and sending them as he saith himself 2 Chron. 36.15 16. Jer. 25.15.29.19.35.15 to show his Paternal care and tenderness But being wearied with their Ingratitude he was moved against them and threatned to deal with them as he had done with their rebellious Brethren There is nothing more observable in the History of the People of God than this Ministry of the Prophets They beheld men separated from the rest of the People by a retired Life and by a particular Habit they had Habitations where they were seen to live in a kind of Community 1 Sam. 28.14 1 Kings 19.19 Isai 20.2 Zach. 13.5 under a Superiour whom God had given them Their poor and penitent life was the very figure of Mortification which was to be pronounced under the Gospel God communicated himself to them in a particular manner and made that wonderful Communication appear to all the People 1 Sam. 10.10.19.19 26. 1 Kings 18. 2 Kings 11.3 15 18 19.25 2 Kings 4.10.38.6.1 2. but it never was so conspicuous as in the times of that disorder wherein Idolatry had gone very near to abolish the Law of God During those unhappy times the Prophets proclaimed on all sides loudly both by Preaching and writings the threatnings of Almighty God and the Testimony they bore to his Truth The writings they composed were in the Hands of all the People and carefully kept in perpetual remembrance to future Ages Those People who continued faithful to God joined with them and we see also part in Israel where Idolatry so much prevailed Exod. 17.14 Isa 30.8.34.16 Jer. 22.30.26.2.12.36.15 2 Chron. 36.22 23. 1 Esd 1.1 Dan. 9.3 2 Kings 4.23.21.16 yet those that were faithful did with the Prophets celebrate the Sabbaths and the Feasts established by the Law of Moses 'T was those that encouraged the good People to continue firm in the Covenant Many of them suffered Death and we have seen that after their example in the worst of times that is to say in the very Reign of Manasseh a world of Believers to lay down their Lives for the Truth so that it hath never been one moment without a Testimony Thus the Society of the People of God subsisted always the Prophets continued in it a great number of the Faithful persisted boldly in the Law of God with them and with the Priests the Levites Ezekiel 54.15 the Sons of Zadoc who as Ezekiel says kept the Charge of God's Sanctuary when the Children of Israel went astray from him And yet notwithstanding the Prophets nor the faithful Priests nor the People joined with them in the observance of the Law that Idolatry which had destroyed Israel did oft-times lead away even in Judah it self both the Princes and the People Tho' the Kings had forgotten the God of their Fathers yet he a long time bore with their Iniquities for the sake of his Servant David who was always present to his Eyes When the Kings the Children of David followed the good Examples of their Father God wrought wondrous Miracles for them but when they degenerated they felt the invincible Strength of his Arm which was very heavy upon them The Kings of Egypt the Kings of Syria and especially the Kings of Assyria and Babylon served as the Instruments of his Vengeance Impiety grew more and more and God raised up in the East a King more proud and to be fear'd than all that ever had been heard of before 't was Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon the most terrible of all Conquerors Jerem. 25 c. Ezek. 26.7 8. c. 2 Kings 24.1,2 2 Chron. 36.6.7 He was shewn long before both to the People and to their Kings as the Avenger that was designed to punish them He approaches and fear and dread do march before him At once takes Jerusalem and transports part of its Inhabitants unto Babylon But neither those who remained in the City nor thâ—se who were carried away Captive tho' the one were forewarned by Jeremiah and the other by Ezekiel shewed any marks of Repentance They preferred to those Holy Prophets Jer. 14.14 the Prophets that prophâ—sied Lyes whom God never sent nor never commanded nor spakâ— to but they prophesied unto them a false vision and divination and a thing of nought and the Deceit of their Heart and flattered them in their Wickednesses The Revenger returned into Judea and the voke of Jerusalem was laid more heavy upon them but yet the People were not utterly destroyed At last their Iniquities being arriv'd to the full height 2 Kings 25.6.7 c. pride increased with their weakness and Nebuchadnezzar with the Captain of his Guard burns the Temple of the Lord and the King's Palace and turns all the City into Ashes God spared not his Sanctuary that beautiful Temple the Ornament of the World which would have been eternal if the Children of Israel had persevered in their Piety was consumed and lay with the common Rubbish of the rest of the City by the Fire of the Assyrians 'T was in vain the lying words which the Jews made use of Jer. 7.4.5 The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord is in the midst of us as if that Sacred Temple would of it self protect them God had resolved to let them see that he was not fixed to a building of Stone but he would have his habitation in the Hearts of Believers So he destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem and delivered the Treasure of it to the Spoil so that abundance of costly rich Vessels consecrated to holy Uses by the Piety of former Kings was now abandoned and given up to One that was Impious But the fall of God's People was to be for the Instruction of all the World We see in the person of that wicked King tho' he was victorious what we ought to expect from Conquerours and what they are For the most part they are but Instruments of the Divine Vengeance God executes his Judgments by them and afterwards he executes his Justice upon them Nebuchadnezzar iâ—vested with a Divine Power and by that Ministry become invincible punishes all the Enemies of the People of God He ravages the Idumeans the Ammonites and the Moabites he overthrows the Kings of Syria Egypt under whose Power Judea had oftentimes groaned was the Prey of that proud King and became Tributary to him his Power was no less fatal to Judea it self which would not turn unto the Lord tho' he gave them so long a space of Repentance Every thing fell every thing was destroyed by the Divine Justice and Nebuchadnezzar was made the Minister of it but we shall see him fall in his turn and God who made use of the hand of that Prince to chastise his Children and to vanquish his Enemies reserves him to fall by his own Almighty Arm. He hath not left his Children ignorant of the destiny of that King who punished them and of that Empire of the
was clear enough and sufficiently present if we would have been attentive to it was just ready to vanish and be gone Prodigious Fables and such also as were as full of Impiety as Extravagance took their place The time was come where Truth but ill kept in the memory of men could no longer keep it self with being written and God having besides resolved to form his people to Virtue by Laws more express and in a greater number he was pleased at the same time to give them in writing Moses was summoned to this work That great Man recollected the History of past Ages That of Adam that of Noah that of Abraham that of Isaac that of Jacob that of Joseph or rather that of God himself and of his admirable Works He was not to search far for the tradition of his Ancestors He was born a hundred Years after the Death of Jacob. The old Men of his time might have conversed several Years with that Holy Patriarch The memory of Joseph and the Miracles which God had wrought by that great Minister of the Kings of Egypt were yet fresh in their Minds The Lives of three or four Men reached up even to Noah who had seen the Sons of Adam and as I may so say had touched the beginning of time and things Thus the antient traditions of Mankind and those of the Family of Abraham were not hard to be collected the Memory of them was still alive and we need not wonder if Moses in his Genesis speaks of things that happened in the first Ages as things certain whose memorable Monuments are still to be seen both in the neighbouring People and in the Land of Canaan In the time when Abraham Isaac and Jacob inhabited that Land they had in several places erected the monuments of things which had happened to them There is yet shewn there the places where the lived the Wells they had dug and sunk in those dry and sterile Countries to find their Families and their Flocks Water the Mountains whereon they Sacrificed to Almighty God and where he manifested himself to them the Stones which they had laid on Heaps to serve as a memorial to Posterity the Tombs wherein their blessed Ashes are deposited The memory of those great Men were fresh not only in all the Country but likewise in all the East where many of those famous Nations have still remembred that they have come from their Race So when the Hebrews entred into the promised Land every place there did celebrate their Ancestors both the Towns and the Mountains and the very Stones themselves did there speak of those marvellous Men and of those astonishing Visions by which God had confirmed them in the antient and true belief Those who are ever so little conversant in Antiquities do know how curious the first times were to erect and to preserve such Monuments and how industriously careful Posterity has been since to retain the occasions of their setting of them up 'T was one of the ways of their writing History the Stones have since been better fashioned and polished and Statues have succeeded after Pillars to great and solid Masses which the first times erected 'T is also very rational to believe that in the lineage wherein was preserved the knowledg of God were also preserved by writing the remembrances of antient times For Men have never been without that care At least this is most certain that they made Songs which the Fathers taught their Children Songs which were sung at their Festivals and in their Assemblies gave a perpetuity to the remembrance of the most remarkable actions of the past Ages From hence came Poetry which was afterwards changed into various forms and modes the most antient whereof is still preserved in Odes and those heroick ways used by all the Antients and still to this day by those People who have not the use of Letters in Praising God and great Men. The stile of those Songs is bold extraordinary natural always in what it is fit to represent Nature in all its Transports which for that reason is forced by the most lively and impetuous Sallies disengaged from these ordinary Bonds that are requisite in an united Discourse confined besides to just Numbers and Cadences which advances their force surprizes the Ear seizes the Imagination gives an Emotion to the Heart and with more ease imprints it self in the Memory Among all the People of the World none have so much used these kind of Songs as have the People of God Moses takes notice of a great many of them which he denotes by the first Verses because the People knew the rest Numb xxi v. 14.17.18.27 c. Exod. xv 1. He himself hath made two of this Nature The first is his Song for their triumphant passing over the Red Sea and the Enemies of the People of God some already drowned the rest half conquered by the dread and terror of it By the second Deut. xxxii v. 1. Moses confounds the Peoples ingratitude by setting forth Gods Mercyâ— and Vengeance Following Ages imitated him 'T was God and his marvellous Works were the Subject of those Odes which they composed God himself inspired them and it was only to the People of God that Poetry came truly by Enthusiasm Jacob declared in that mystical Language the Oracles which contained the Destiny of his twelve Sons that so every Tribe might the more easily keep in Mind what particularly related to it and learn to praise him who was no less magnificent in his Predictions than faithful in performing them Thus you see the means made use of by God to preserve even down to Moses the remembrance of past transactions That great Man instructed by all those means and raised upon high by the Holy Ghost hath written the Works of God with an exactness and simplicity which attracts belief and admiration not only to himself but even to Almighty God He hath joined to past actions which contained the original and antient Traditions of the People of God the wonders which God actually wrought for their deliverance Of that he produces to the Israelites no other Witnesses than their own Eyes Moses tells them not of things which were done in impenetrable retreats and in profound Caves he speaks not in the Air he particularizes and circumstantiates every thing as a Man that fears not to be caught in an untruth He grounds all their Laws and their whole Republick on the wonders which they themselves have seen Those wonders were nothing else but Nature changed all on a sudden on different occasions for their deliverance and the punishment of their Enemies the Sea divided it self in two the Earth opened herself heavenly Food abundance of Water gushing out of Rocks by a stroke of the Rod and the Heaven which gave them a visible sign to direct their March and such like Miracles which they themselves had seen for forty Years The People of Israel were no more intelligent nor more subtil than other
into his former Exercise with all the other Priests who proved their Descents by the publick Registers The others were rejected Esdras a Priest himself and Doctor of the Law and Nehemiah the Governor reformed all the Abuses which the Captivity had brought in 1 Esdr 2. and caused the Law to be observed in its Purity The People bewailed with them the Transgressions which had brought down upon them those severe and dreadful Punishments and confess that Moses had foretold them of them 2 Esdr 1.8.9 They do all together read in the Sacred Oracles the Threatnings of the Man of God they likewise saw the fullfilling of them upon themselves The Oracle of Jeremiah and the so much promised Return after the Seventy Years of Captivity both astonish them and comfort them they adore the Judgments of God and being reconciled to him they live in Peace and Quiet God who brings all things to pass in his own due time had chosen this to cause his extraordinary ways to cease that is to say the Prophecies in his People sufficiently instructed for the future He rested about five hundred Years even to the days of the Messiah God gave to the Majesty of his Son his Prophets to be silent for all that time to keep his People in expectation of him who was to be the fulfilling of all their Oracles But toward the end of those times in which God had resolved to put an end to Prophecies he seemed to be willing to shed abroad all his Illuminations and to reveal all the Councels of his Providence so clearly did he express the Secrets of the Times to come During the Captivity and especially towards the time of its expiring Daniel reverenced for his Piety even by Infidel Kings and employed for his Prudence in the greatest and most important Affairs of their Estate Dan. 2.3 5 8. saw in order at divers times and under different Figures and Resemblances four Monarchies under which the Israelites were to live He takes notice of them by their proper Characters Ibid. 2.7 8 10 11. The Empire of a Grecian King is seen to pass away like a Torrent It was that of Alexander By its fall he beheld another Empire set up less than the former and much weakened by its Divisions This was that of his Successors among whom there were four pointed out in the Prophecy Antipater Seleucus Ptolomy and Antigonus are visibly designed 'T is affirmed by the History that they were more powerful than the others Ibid. 7.6 8 21 22. and only their Power should go to their Children He foresaw their Wars Ibid. 11.6 their Jealousies and their broken Agreements the continuance and the Ambition of the Kings of Syria Dan. 2.44 45 7.13 14 27. the Pride and the other Signs which evidently pointed out the illustrious Antiochus the implacable Enemy of the People of God The shortness of his Reign and the sudden Punishment of his Excesses He beheld at last toward the end and as it were in the Bosom of those Monarchies the Kingdom of the Son of Man At this name you presently do acknowledg Jesus Christ but this Kingdom of the Son of Man is also called the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High All the People paid Submission to that great and peaceable Kingdom Eternity is promised to it and he was to be the only one whose Power should not go over to another Empire And there was given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations in Languages should serve him his Dominions is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed When that Son of Man should come that Christ who was so much desired and how he should accomplish the Work committed to him that is to say the Redemption of Mankind God manifestly discovers it to Daniel whilst he was taken up about the Captivity of his People in Babylon and about the Seventy Years which God was resolved to determine upon the People Dan. 9.23 c. and upon the Holy City to finish the Transgression c. In the midst of his Supplications which he made for the Deliverance of his Brethren he is on a sudden raised up to more transcendent Mysteries He sees another Number of Years and another Deliverance of much greater Importance Instead of the Seventy Years foretold by Jeremiah he sees Seventy Weeks to commence from the time of the Decree given by Artaxerxes of old in the twentieth year of his Reign Ibid. 24. for the Re-building the City of Jerusalem There is pointed out in particular Words at the end of those Weeks that they were to make an end of Sins and to make reconciliation for Iniquity and to bring in everlasting Righteousness and to seal up the Vision and Prophecy and to anoint thâ— most Holy The Christ was to make his Charge and to appear as the Conductor of the People after sixty nine Weeks Ib. 25 26 27. After sixty nine Weeks for the Prophet repeats it again The Christ is to be put to death he is to suffer a violent Death he shall be cut off but not for himself he shall be sacrificed to fulfil the Mysteries One Week is pointed out amongst the rest and it is the last and the seventieth wherein Christ is to be Sacrificed whereiâ— he shall confirm the Covenant with many for one Week and in the midst of the Week he shall cause the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease without doubt by the death of Christ for it is after the death of Christ that this Change is pointed out to us There was nothing more to be seen but Horror and Confusion the Ruine of the Holy City and the Sanctuary a People and a Captain who comes to destroy all the Abomination in the Temple the last and irremediable Desolation of an ungrateful People toward their Saviour We have seen that these Weeks being reduced into Weeks of Years according as the manner of the Scripture is make four hundred and ninety Years and bring us exactly from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes to the last week a week full of Mysteries where the sacrificed and ever-blessed Jesus puts an end by his Death to the Sacrifices of the Law and accomplishes the Figures and Representations of them The Learned differ in their Computations to make that time exactly agree That which I have proposed to you is without any Trouble 'T is so far from making the Historical Course of the Kings of Persia obscure that it clears it up tho' there should be nothing in it more surprising admit some Uncertainty should be found in the Dates of those Princes eight or nine years at most which might be disputed in an account of four hundred and ninety Years will never make any extraordinary Question But what need we discourse further of it God hath removed the Difficulty if there was any by a Decision that cannot be reply'd to A manifest
Temple and made the Holiness of that place to be respected and sent the Lepers whom he healed unto the Priests Thereby he taught men how they ought to repress and correct abuses without ever being prejudiced at the Ministry established by God himself and shewed that the Body of the Synagogue subsisted notwithstanding the Corruption of some of its private Members But it did apparently incline to ruine The High-Priests and the Pharisees stirred up the People of the Jews against Christ for their Religion was almost quite turned into Superstition They could not indure the Saviour of the World who called them to substantial tho' difficult Practices The most holy and the best of all men nay even holiness and goodness it self became the most envied and the most hated But that did not discourage him for he ceased not doing good to his Citizens but he saw their ingratitude he foretold their punishment even weeping and denounced to Jerusalem her hasty destruction He also prophesied that the Jews who were Enemies to the Truth which he declared should be delivered up to Errour and become the Mockery of the false Prophets In the mean time the jealousie of the Pharisees and the Priests brings him to a most infamous and accursed death his Disciples forsake him one of them betrays him the first and the most zealous of all denâ—es him thrice Being accused before the Council he honours even to the last the Ministry of the Priests and answers the High-Priest particularly to the Questions he interrogated him in a Judicial way But the hour was come that the Synagogue was to be reproved The High-Priest and all the Council condemn Jesus Christ because he called himself The Christ the Son of God He was delivered up to Pontius Pilate the Roman President his Innocence was confessed by his Judge whom yet Polity and Interest made to act against the convictions of his own Conscience The just One is condemned to death the greatest of all Crimes gives place to the most perfect Obedience that ever was Jesus the Master of his own life and of all things else gives up himself voluntarily to the fury of the wicked Multitude and offers the Sacrifice which was to be the expiation of Mankind On the Cross he sees in the Prophecies what yet remained to be done and he fulfils it and then says It is finished At that word every thing in the World was changed the Law ceased John 19.30 the Types were over its Sacrifices were abolished by a more perfect Oblation That done Jesus Christ expires with a loud groan all Nature was moved the Centurion who watched him being greatly astonished at such a Death cried out and said Matth. 27.50 54. Truly this was the Son of God and those that had beheld it returned to their own homes smiting their Breasts On the third day he arose again from the dead appeared to his Disciples who had forsaken him and who could by no means believe his Resurrection They saw him spake with him touched and handled him and were convinced To confirm the Faith of his Resurrection he shewed himself at divers times and in divers circumstances His Disciples saw him in private and likewise saw him all together He appeared to above five hundred Brethren at once 1 Cor. 15.6 An Apostle who wrote of it assures us that the greater part were then alive at the writing of his Epistle Jesus Christ being risen giveth to his Apostles what time they required throughly to consider of him and after he had put himself into their hands all the ways they could desire so that not the least scruple of a Doubt could possibly remain in them he commanded them to bear witness of what they had seen of what they had heard and of what their hands had handled And that none might doubt of the credit of their Evidence any more than of their Persuasion he obliged them to seal their Testimony with their Blood Thus their preaching was not to be shaken the foundation of it was a positive fact unanimously attested by those that saw it Their sincerity was justified by the strongest proof and trial imaginable which was that of torments and of death it self Those were the Instructions which the Apostles received Upon that foundation did twelve Fishermen undertake to convert all the World which they saw so set against the Laws that they were commissionated to prescribe to them and the Truths they had to declare They were ordered to begin at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 and from thence to scatter themselves throughout all the Earth Acts 1.8 Matth. 28.19 20. instructing all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Jesus Christ promises them to be with them alway even to the end of the World and by that very word assures them of the perpetual Continuance of the Ecclesiastical Ministry And when he had said that he ascends into Heaven in their sight The Promises were accomplished the Prophecies had then their Scene fully opened The Gentiles were called to the Knowledge of God by the Command of Jesus Christ that was risen from the dead a new Ceremony was instituted for the Regeneration of the new People and the Faithful are taught that the true God the God of Israel that one and indivisible God to whom they are consecrated in Baptism is together in himself Father Son and Holy Ghost There are then propounded to us the incomprehensible Depths of the Divine Being and the ineffable Greatness of his Unity and the infinite Riches of that Nature more fruitful yet within than without able to communicate himself without any manner of Division to three equal Persons There are explained the Mysteries which were folded and as it were sealed up in the antient Writings We understand the meaning of that saying Gen. 1.26 Let us make Man in our Image and tne Trinity set forth in Man's Creation is expresly declared in his Regeneration We learn by it what that Wisdom was which was conceived before all times in the Bosom of God as Solomon speaks Prov. 8.22.23 24 25 26 27. That Wisdom which made up all his Delight and by which all his Works were made We know who he was that David saw in the Psal 110.3 Beauties of Holiness from the Womb of the Morning and the New Testament informs us that it was the Word the inward Word of God and his eternal Thought who is always in his Bosom and by whom all things were made By that we can answer that mysterious Question which is put to us in the Proverbs Prov. 30.4 Wâ—o hath ascended up into Heaven or descended Who hath gathered the Wind in his Fists Who hath bound the Waters in a Garment Who hath established all the ends of the Earth What is his Name and what is his Son's Name if thou canst tell For we know that that so mysterious and so hidden name of God is the name of
Sparks of it in the Old Testament Solomon said that the Dust should return to the Earth as it was Eccles 12.7 and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it The Patriarchs and the Prophets lived in that Hope and Daniel had foretold that there should a time come Dan. 12.1 2 4. that those who slept in the Dust of the Earth should awake some to everlarting Life and some to shame and everlasting Contempt But at the same time that those things were revealed to him he was commanded to seal up the Book even to the time of the End to let us understand that the full discovery of these Truths was reserved for another Season and another Age. But though the Jews had in their Scriptures some Promises of eternal Happiness and that towards the time of the Messiah's coming in which they were to be declared they spoke much more of them as appears by the Books of Wisdom and the Maccabees yet however this Truth gained so little Reputation among the antient People that the Saducees without ever knowing it not only were admitted into the Synagogue but also were advanced to the Priesthood It was one of the Characters of the new People to lay down as a Foundation of Religion the faith of a future Life and that was to be the Fruit of the coming of the Messiah Wherefore not being satisfied with telling us that a Life eternally happy was reserved for the Children of God he hath told us wherein it consists The happy Life is to be with him in the glory of God his Father John 17. the Life of happiness is to see the glory which he hath in the bosom of the Father from the beginning of the World the Life of happiness is that Jesus Christ is in us in his Members and that the eternal Love which the Father hath for his Son extendeth it self to us he fills us full of the same Gifts In a word the Life of happiness is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent but to know him in that manner which we call a clear sight 1 Cor. 13.9 12. 2 â—p 3.2 face to face the sight which reforms in us and perfects there the Image of God that according as St. John says We shall be like unto him because we shall see him as he is That sight shall be followed with an Immense Love and unexpressible Joy and a Triump that shall have no end Rev. 7.12.19.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. An eternal Alleluja and an eternal Amen shall be heard to resound through all the heavenly Jerusalem and all Calamities shall be done away and all Desires shall be satisfied there shall be nothing else to do but to sing Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God and to fall down and worship him who sits on the Throne for ever and ever With these new Rewards it was but neâ—essary that Jesus Christ should propose to us new Ideas of Vertue more perfect and purified Practices The End of Religion the Soul of Vertues and the Abridgment of the Law is Charity But until Jesus Christ was come into the World we may say that the perfection and the effects of that Vertue were not throughly known It was truly and properly our blessed Saviour that taught us to place our Satisfaction in God alone To set up the Kingdom of Charity and to reveal to us all the Duties of it he lays before us the Love of God even to the hating of our selves and continually persecuting that Principle of Corruption which we all carry about with us in our hearts He propounds to us the Love of our Neighbour even to the extending that beneficent Inclination to all men including therein even those that hate and persecute us he proposes to us the moderating of our sensual Desires even to the absolute cutting off our own Members that is to say that which gives us the most lively and sensible impressions He proposes also to us submission to the Will of God even to the rejoycing at the Sufferings he lays upon us as also Humility and that too to the loving of Reproaches for God's sake and to the believing that no Indignities how injurious soever can make us so vile in the eyes of men as we truly are in God's sight by our shameful and abominable sins Upon this foundation of Charity it is that all the conditions of Humane Life are perfected It is by that that Marriage is reduced to its primitive form the Conjugal Affection is now no more divided so holy a Society is only terminated by Death and Children do not now see their Mothers cast out for entertaining of a Step-dame in their places Celibacy is set forth as an Imitation of the life of Angels which is wholly and entirely taken with God and with the chast delights of his Love Superiours do learn that they are the Servants of others and devoted to their Good and Inferiours do acknowledge the wise order of God in their lawful Powers although they abuse their Authority this very thought sweetens to us the hardships of Subjection and under the most troublesome Masters Obedience is not at all troublesome to the true Christian. To these Precepts he superadds Councils of eminent perfection to renounce all pleasures to live in the Body as if we without the Body to forsake all things to give all we have to the Poor that we may possess nothing but God to live upon a little yea almost upon nothing and to expect that little too from Divine Providence But that Law which is most proper to the Gospel is that of bearing his Cross The Cross is the true Trial of Faith the true Foundation of Hope the perfect purifier of Charity in a word the true way to Heaven Jesus Christ dyed on the Cross he bore his Cross all the while he lived 't is by the Cross that he would have us to follow him and he hath promised to reward it with Eternal Life The first to whom he particularly made this Promise of Everlasting Rest was a Companion of his Cross This day saith he Luke 22.48 thou shalt be with me in Paradise Immediately after his Expiration on the Cross the Veil which covered the Sanctuary was rent from the top to the bottom and the Heaven was opened to holy Souls It was after he came from the Cross and from the horrours of his Punishment that he appeared to his Apostles glorious and a Conquerour over Death that they might thereby learn and understand that it was by the Cross they were to enter into his Glory and that he would shew no other way to his Children Thus in the Person of Jesus Christ was given to the World the lively Image of an accomplished Vertue who had nothing nor did expect nothing here in this World who received from men only continual Persecutions yet he never ceased doing of them good and for all that on whom
holy Ghost himself hath computed the Years But whilst they renounced them they fulfilled them and shewed the Truth of what they said both as to their Blindness and their Fall Let them answer the Prophecies as they would the Desolation which they foretold came upon them just at the appointed time the Event was of more Efficacy and Force than all their Subtilties and if Christ did not come just upon that fatal Conjuncture the Prophets in whom they trusted very much â—eceived them And for the Complement of their Conviction please to observe two Circumstances which accompained their Fall and the Advent of the Saviour of the World The one is that the Succession of the High-Priests which was perpetual and unalterable since Aaron then came to an end The other that the Distinction of the Tribes and Families allways kept up till that time was then no more by their own Confession That Distinction was necessary till the coming of Messiah From Levi were to be born the Ministers of sacred Things From Aaron were to come the Priests and the Pontifs From Juda the Messiah himself If the distinction of Families had not continued till the Destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ the Jewish Sacrifices would have ceased before the time and David had been frustrated of the Glory of being known for the Father of the Messiah Was the Messiah come Was the new Priesthood according to the Order of Melchizedech begun in his Person And the new Kingdom which was not of this World did that too appear Then was there no longer need of Aaron nor of Levi nor of Juda nor of David nor of their Families Aaron was no more necessary then when the Sacrifices were to cease as Daniel had foretold The House of David and Juda had accomplished their purpose when that the Christ of God was come out from thence Dan. 9.27 And as if the Jew themselves had renounced their own Hopes they particularly at that time forgot the Succession of Families until then so carefully and so religiously kept up Let us not omit one of the Signs of the Messiah's coming and peradventure the chiefest if we can tell how to understand it aright tho' it be to the Scandal as well as Horror of the Jews 'T is the Remission of Sins declared in the name of a suffering Saviour Dan. 9.26 27. of a Saviour humble and obedient even to the Death Daniel had observed among his Weeks the mysterious Week which here we take notice of wherein Christ was to be sacrificed wherein the Covenant was to be confirmed by his Death and the antient Sacrifices were to lose their Power and Vertue Let us joyn Isaiah to Danâ—el and there we shall find all the depth of that so great a Mystery we shall see there the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief Isai 53.3 5. who was wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our Iniquities The Chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we were healed Open your Eyes ye Incredulous and look about you is it not true that the Remission of Sins was preached to you in the Name of Jesus Christ Crucified Was ever so great a Mystery throughly considered Did ever any other than Jesus Christ either before or after him loudly proclaim that he was come to wash away Sins by his Blood Should he have an express Order to be Crucified only to acquire a vain and empty Honour and to fullfil in himself so bloody a Prophecy 'T is duty here to be silent and adore a Doctrine that is in the Gospel which could not so much as enter into any Man's Conception if it had not been true The Jews are extreamly perplexed and put to it in this point They find in their Scriptures too many Passages describing the Humiliations of their Messiah What then will become of those that speak of his Glory and Triumphs Why their natural Resolution is that he will come to his Triumphs by the Victories he gains and to Glory by his Sufferings What an incredible thing is this the Jews had rather have two Messiah's We see in their Talmud Tr. Succa Comm. sive parraph sup Cant. c. 7. v. 3. and other Books of like Antiquity that they look for a suffering Messiah and a Messiah full of Glory the one dead and risen the other always happy and always a Conqueror The one to whom all the Passages do agree that relate to his weakness the other to whom all those agree which speak of his Greatness the one indeed makes him the Son of Joseph for they could not deny him one of the Characters of Jesus Christ who was the reputed Son of Joseph and the other the Son of David without ever being willing to consider or allow what that Messiah the Son of David was to do according as the Royal Prophet had foreshewn drink of the Brook the way before he should lift up his Head Ps 110. v. ult that is to say he should be afflicted before he triumphed as the very Son of David says himself O Fools and slow of Heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luk. 24. v. 25 26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so to enter into his Glory But if we do understand that great Passage of the Messiah wherein Isaiah doth so lively represent to us the Man of Sorrows wounded for our Transgressions Isai 53. and brâ—ised for our Iniquities and disfigured as one that was Leprous we are likewise justified in this Explication as well as in all the other by the antient Tradition of the Jews and in spight of all their Preventions the Chapter so often cited in their Talmud teaches us that that Leper who should be stricken for the Transgression of the People Gem. Tr. Sanhed l. 11. Ibid. should be the Messiah The Afflictions which the Messiah should feel for our Sins are celebrated in the same place and in several other of the Jewish Writings They often speak of his Entrance as humble as it was glorious which he was to make in Jerusalem when riding upon an Ass and that famous Prophecy of Zachariah was applied to him What reason to have the Jews to complain Every thing was pointed out to them in express Terms among their Prophets their antient Tradition had preserved the natural Explication of those admired Prophecies and there was nothing more just than that Reproach which the Saviour of the World made to them saving O ye Hypocrites ye can discern the Face of the Skie Matt. 16.2 3 4. Luke 12.56 but can ye not discern the Signs of the Times For ye say when it is Evening it will be fair Weather for the Skie is red and in the Morning it will be foul Weather to day for the Skie is red and lowring Therefore we may very well conclude that the Jews had all the reason in the World to confess that all the signs and times of
Sacrifice to Libertinism Now can you believe that impiety did not lead them without any necessity in the World into all these Absurdities you have seen if against the testimony of Mankind and against all the Rules of good Sence it strives to take away from the Pentateuch and the Prophecies their constantly avowed Authors to dispute their dates with them For the dates are all in all as to this matter for two reasons First because Books that were full of so many miraculous deeds which are seen in them attended with the most particular Circumstances and advanced not only as publick but as present if they had been capable of being false would have carried their own Condemnation with them and instead of keeping themselves up by their own weight they wouâ—d long ago have fell of themselves Secondly because their dates being once fixed we can no more efface the Infallible mark of divine Inspiration which they bear impressed in the great number and the long course of memorable Predictions which we find them filled withal 'T is to shift off these Miracles and these Predictions that the wicked have run themselves into all these Absurdities that have surprized you But let them not think they shall escape God He hath reserved for his Scriptures such a mark of Divinity as can never suffer any prejudice 'T is the relation there is between the two Testaments They do not dispute at least that all the old Testament was written before the new here there is no new Esdras which can perswade the Jews to invent or to falsify their Scripture in favour of the Christians whom they Persecuted There needs no more By the relation of the two Testaments we prove that both are Divine They have both the same design and the same Consequence The one prepares the way to that Perfection which the other shews openly to all the World the one lays the Foundation the other finishes the Building in a word the one foretells what the other shews us accomplished Thus all the times are united together and the eternal design of divine Providence is revealed to us The tradition of the Jews and that of the Christians make together but one and the same Progress of Religion and the Scriptures of both Testaments are but one and the same Body and one and the same Book And because the discussion of the particular Predictions tho' in it self it be full of Light depends on many Deeds which all the World cannot equally understand God hath therefore chosen some of them which he hath made plain to the most Ignorant Those illustrious those bright and conspicuous Facts of which all the World is a witness are those Facts which I have here endeavoured to make your Highness comprehend that is to say the desolation of the Jews and the Conversion of the Gentiles happening together and both precisely at the same time as the Gospel was Preached and Jesus Christ appeared These three things united in order of time were yet much more so in the order of God's Decrees You have seen them go together in the old Prophecies but Jesus Christ the faithful Interpreter of the Prophecies and of the Will of his Father hath still better explained unto us that Bond of Unity in his Gospel He does it in the Parable of the Vine-yard so familiar in the Prophets The Father of the Family had planted this Vine that is to say the true Religion founded upon his Covenant and had let it out to Husbandmen that is to say to the Jews Matt. 21.38 And that he might receive the fruits of it he sent several times his Servants who are the Prophets But these unfaithful Husbandmen cause some to be put to death his goodness leads him to send them his Son and yet him they treat worse than they did his Servants At last he takes away his Vineyard from them and gives it unto other Husbandmen he takes away from them the Grace of his Alliance to bestow it on the Gentiles These three things ought therefore to concur together the sending of the Son of God the Reprobation of the Jews and the Calling of the Gentiles There needs no further a Commentary upon the Parable which the event has it self interpreted You have seen the Jews confess that the Kingdom of Judah and the State of their Commonwealth began to fall in the time of Herod and when Jesus Christ came into the World But if the Alterations which they made to the Law of God have brought upon them so visible a Diminution of their Power their last Desolation which yet continues must be the Punishment of a fat greater Crime That Crime is plainly their Ingratitude against their Messiah who came to instruct them and to make them free And it is from that time too that an Iron yoke has been over their heads and they have been long ago crushed with it but that God keeps them to acknowledge one day and to serve that Messiah whom they have crucified You then already see one averr'd and publick Fact that is the total Ruine of the State of the Jews at the time of Jesus Christ The Conversion of the Gentiles which was to happen at the same time is no less averr'd neither At the same time when the ancient Worship was destroyed in Jerusalem with the Temple Idolatry was attacked on all sides and the People who for so many thousands of years had forgot their Creator were now wakened from so long a seeming death of sleep And that all things might accord the Spiritual Promises are displayed by the Preaching of the Gospel in the Time when the Jews who had only received the Temporal ones being openly reproved for their Incredulity and made Captives over all the face of the Earth had no longer any worldly Grandeur to expect Then was Heaven promised to those who suffered Persecution for Righteousness sake the Secrets of the Future Life were preached and the true Blessedness was shown for from that abode where Death reigns where Sin and all manner of Evils do abound If we do not discover here a design always kept up and always followed it we see not here one and the same order of the Counsels of God who prepared from the beginning of the World what he finished in the fulness of time and who under different Estates but with a Succession still constant perpetuated to the eyes of all the World that holy Society by whom he would be served we deserve to see nothing and to be delivered up to our own hardness as to the most just and rigorous of all Punishments And that this Course of God's People might be conspicuous to the most undiscerning God made it sensible and palpable by Matters of Fact which none could be ignorant of unless he purposely shut his eyes against the Truth The Messiah expected by the Hebrews he came and he called the Gentiles as it had been foretold The People that owned him as come were incorporated with
Not that they had disputed any thing against Kings or that any one had a right to constrain them but on the contrary they were looked upon as Gods but an ancient Custom had regulated them all and they resolved to live no otherwise than their Ancestors So that they patiently suffered themselves not only to be regulated in their manner of Victuals and Drink for it was an ordinary thing in Egypt where all People were sober and where the Air of the Country was a friend to Frugality but they were content that their very hours should be set them In waking at break of day Herod 2. Diod. §. 2. when their Minds were most refined and their Thoughts most clear they read their Instructions that they might have a more exact and true Idea of the Matters they were to decide As soon as they were drest they went to Sacrifice in the Temple There being incompassed by all their Court and the Victimes at the Altar they assisted at a Prayer full of Instructions where the Chief Priest prayed to the Gods to confer on the Prince all Royal Vertues so that he might be religious to the Gods placid towards Men moderate just magnanimous sincere and far from falshood liberal a Master of himself punishing below but rewarding above desert The Chief Priest afterwards spake of the faults that Kings might commit but he always supposed they fell into them by surprize or ignorance charging with Imprecations the Ministers that gave them evil Counsels and concealed the Truth from them This was the manner of instructing Kings Ibid. They thought Reproaches did only sower their Spirits and that the most effectual way of inspiring Vertue into them was to point out to them their Duty in Praises conformable to the Laws and gravely delivered before their Gods After Prayer and Sacrifice they read to the King in the Sacred Books the Counsels and the Actions of great Men that so he might govern his Kingdom by their Maxims and maintain the Laws which had made his Predecessors happy as well as their Subjects That which shews that these Remonstrances were made and hearkened to seriously was that they had their effect Among the Thebans that is to say in the chief Dynasty that where the Laws were in force and which came at last to be the Mistress of all the rest the greatest men were Kings The two Mercurys Authors of Sciences and of all the Institutions of the Egyptians the one near the time of the Deluge and the other whom they called Trismegistus or Teâ— maximus a Contemporary of Moses were both Kings of Thebâ—s All Egypt profited by their light Herod l. 2. and Thebes owes to their Instructions their having had very few bad Princes Those were spared during their lives the Publick Repose would have it so Diog. 1. §. 2. but they were not exempt from the Judgment they were to undergo after death Ibid. Some have been denied Burial but there are few Examples of them but on the contrary most of the Kings have been so much made of by the People that every one have bewailed their Death as much as that of their Parents or Children This Custom of judging Kings after their Death seemed so holy to the People of God that they have always practised it We read in the Scriptures that wicked Kings have been deprived of the Burial of their Ancestors Ant. 13.23 and we learn from Josephus that that Custom lasted even to the time of the Asmonâ—ans That gave Kings to understand that if their Majesty put them above Humane Judgments in this Life they were not above them when Death equalled them with other men The Egyptians had an inventive Geninâ— and they turned it to things that were profitable Their Mercuries have filled Egypt with wonderful Inventions and scarce have left it ignorant of any thing that might make Life tranquil and commodious I cannot give to the Egyptians the honour they have conferred on their Osyris Diod. l. 1. § 1. Plut. de Isid Osir for having invented Tillage because it was found at all times in the neighbouring Countries of the World where Mankind was spread and questionless it was known ever since the World began The Egyptians themselves likewise give so great an Antiquity to Osiris that it is plainly seen they have confounded his time with that of the beginning of the World and they would fain attribute some things to him whose Original was long before all times known in their History But if the Egyptians were not the first Inventors of Agriculture nor of the other Arts which we see before the Deluge they have yet brought them to such perfection and have taken so great a Care to establish them among the People where Barbarism had made them forget that their Honour comes very little short of those that were the first Inventors Indeed there are some things of great usefulness the Invention whereof cannot be disputed with them Plat. Epin Diod. 1. § 2. Herod l. 2. For as their Country was united and their Heaven always clear and uncloudy they were the first that observed the Course of the Stars and they were the first also that regulated the year Those Observations threw them naturally into Arithmetick and if it be true what Plato says Plat. in Tim. That the Sun and the Moon taught men the knowledge of Numbers that is to say that they began the Accounts regulated by that of Days Mouths and Years then the Egyptians werethe first who hearken'd to those marvellous Instructers The Planets and other Stars were no less known to them and they found out that great Year which brings back all the Heaven to its first point To know their own Lands every year covered over by the over-flowing of Nile they were forced to betake themselves to Surveying which quickly taught them Geometry They were great Observers of Nature which in an Air so serene and under a Sun so burning was very strong in its Products amongst them 'T was that which made them find out or perfect Physick Thus all Sciences were in great esteem with them The first Inventors of usefull things received Diod. 1. §. 2. Herod 3. init both whilst they lived and after their deaths rewards worthy of their labour 'T was that consecrated the Books of their two Mercuries and made them to be looked on as Divine Books Diod. l. 1. § 2. The first People of all that had Libraries were those of Egypt The title that was given them made them very desirous to peruse them and to search into the Secrets of them they were called The Treasure of the Remedies of the Soul Thereby it was cured of the most dangerous Ignorance of its Maladies and the Source of all the others One thing which made the greatest impression on the Minds of the Egyptians was the esteem and love of their Country It was they said the Mansion-House of the Gods they had reigned there