divina testimonia Ponitur à quibusdam saith Quintilian quidem in parte primâ Deorum auctoritas quae est ex responsis ut Socratem esse sapientissimum And a little after Quae cùm propria causae sunt divina testimonia vocantur cum aliunde accersuntur argumenta True it is that these divina testimonia as the same Authour sheweth elsewhere were not generally received among the Heathens But the reason was partly because there were then many of Epicurus his sect who denyed a Providence and that the gods entermedled with humane affairs and so eluded all such authorities as false and counterfait and partly because most were so in very truth either meerly forged and pretended or so obscure and ambiguous as that nothing could certainly be concluded from them From what hath been said doth sufficiently appear what hath been the common opinion of men concerning divine revelation Though this may suffice yet I will adde one passage or two of ancient Philosophers which goe further yet and may give further content to them who are not altogether unacquainted with the writings of such Plato in his second Aleibiades a Dialogue of his so called the subject whereof is altogether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of Prayer having disputed at large how hard a thing it is to to pray well and insisted upon some particular forms concludes in the person of Socrates that they must be content and wait untill some other teach them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doccat here not discat how they must be affected or how they ought to carry themselves both towards God men Yea but when shal that time be replyeth Alcibiades who is he that shal teach us for gladly would I see that man And upon Socrates his return that it is one that will take care of him and take away that mist from his eyes that hindereth him from the knowledge of that which is truly good or evil Alcibiades concludeth that he is fully resolved to submit unto that man whatsoever he shall enjoyn him whereby he may be bettered This passage of Plato is much made of not by allegorizing Platonicks onely who often give scope to their phansies upon very little ground of reason or probability but by more sober unpartiall men also Among others a learned man who hath taken great pains upon Aristotle and out of his affection to Aristotle may be thought by some to have passed but a harsh censure upon Plato notwithstanding this his generall judgement instances in divers particulars wherein he acknowledges him to deserve more then ordinary commendation among others in this very particular which we have spoken of in these very words Quod docuerit c. Denique quod omninò mirum est c. that is in English As for other things so particularly which is to be admired in him that he did teach the ineffable Incarnation and comming of our Lord Christ and did in a manner presage or foresee the Doctrine of the Gospel when he said that men must acquiesce for a while to his instructions and admonitions untill a more venerable or majestick man and more sacred who would open all sacraries and fountains of truth should appear upon Earth whom as one that could not erre all men should bee bound to follow For who else by this more majestick more sacred man can be meant c. So he of that place which though he doth not quote yet by what others say of it to the same purpose and because I know no other in all Plato that comes neerer I am confident is the place he so much commendeth Yet there be that make a question whether Socrates himself were not the man intended by Plato which some of the words would bear well enough but the greater part not as I conceive However if any question be made of this place there be others in Plato no lesse admirable and lesse questionable Such a one is to be found in his Phaedon where having discoursed of some opinions ridiculous enough at the best but made worse by mistake concerning the state of the soul after death he concludes that to know the certainty they are his very words of those things in this life is either altogether impossible or very difficult that neverthelesse it is the part of a generous man not to give over searching untill he have met with the truth or so much of it at least as by indefatigable industry is to be attained That so saith he venturing our selves in the Cockboat as it were of the safest and most exact discovery that can be made by man we may wade through this mortall life and think our selves happy in this condition untill a more firm bottome of divine Word or Oracle happen unto us wherein with more safety and security we may be carried over In those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by some translated divine Oracle doth properly signifie divine Word which title to whom it is appropriated by sacred Authors no Christian I hope needeth to be told The same Plato in that so much admired peece which Tully of old translated into Latin his Timeus in a place where he speaks of daemons or spirits or rather excuseth himself that he doth not speak of them referring himself to ancient tradition he saith there as Tully hath rendred him Credendum est nimirum veteribus priscis ut aiunt viris qui se progeniem Deorum esse dicebant And few words after Ac difficillimum factu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Plato à Diis ortis fidem non habere quanquam nec argumentis nec rationibus certis eorum oratio confirmetur sed quia de suis rebus notis videntur loqui Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. Cōser cū Arist 1. Metaphys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. veteri legi morique parendum est that is It is very hard or unreasonable not to beleeve them who are descended from the gods though their speech or doctrine be not confirmed by any arguments or certain proofs But forasmuch as they spake of their own things best known unto them we must submit to the old law and rule There will be found in these words not much lesse then in those of Nazianzene which at the beginning of this third Observation we spake of if they be compared And again in another place of the same Timeus having spoken of the first principles of things But as for these saith he what was their originall from the very first beginning God knoweth and among men such as are beloved of him or dear unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I take notice of the words besides the sense because of Christ his words John 15.14 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ye are my friends if ye doe whatsoever I command you Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have
the ten Commandements were appointed to be laid which Ark before the said Testament was compleat ever since the Babylonian Captivity had been wanting Petavius himself a learned Jesuite that hath set out Epiphanius except he may be allowed to expunge those words as spurious the last refuge of venturous Criticks when they are plunged and cannot get out doth plainly professe to suspect this to have been the opinion of Epiphanius whereas we have more occasion to suspect of him that he did not understand him or had any thought of those passages of Tertullian and Augustine which would have made Epiphanius his meaning clear enough and as we conceive unquestionable I have now done with those grounds of common notions and principles of humane reason the consideration whereof I conceived would be proper and pertinent to the subject we are to treat of a subject of it self so sublime and so farre above the reach of humane understanding that whoever takes upon him to meddle with it had need to lay wel his grounds before-hand and carefully to circumscribe himself lest he fall into extravagances before he be aware Qui scrutatur Majestatem opprimetur à gloriâ whether that were Solomons meaning Prov. 25.27 or no may be controverted but a true sentence it is however and they shall be sure to find it true that proceed not in such arguments with much warinesse This method of proceeding by certain hypotheses laid for a foundation though it be most proper to Mathematicians yet it is not unusuall to other Artists and Writers It is the very method used by Plato in his Timeus the subject whereof is the Creation of the world of man particularly our subject is the restauration or regeneration of mankinde in Christ which of the two is generally accounted the greater work OF THE INCARNATION of CHRIST ANcient Philosophers that have written concerning the nature of this Universe observe this as a great mystery of nature and a singular evidence of the power and wisdome of God the author of nature that whatsoever is commonly said to dye or to perish is by this death or corruption which they more properly call alteration the cause of the production and generation of something else whereby the course of this worlds generation in generall is continued and maintained It may be applied in some kinde to this sacred subject and mystery of Christ his Incarnation The fall and miscarrying of the first Adam was the cause or occasion at the least of the second Adam Had not the first Adam the first fruits of mankind in whom the whole lump was either to be sanctified or polluted sinned and by his sin undone all that should come from him the second Adam Christ Jesus according to the flesh as the Scripture speaketh had never been born for there had been no need of him For as for the conceits of some either ancient Hereticks or later Schoolmen who have maintained a contrary opinion as neither grounded upon Scripture nor any probability of reason and generally rejected by the more sober of all sides I willingly passe by But on the other side though the Incarnation of the Son of God of all the works of God hath eminently the preeminence yet we may not say or think that therefore the first man sinned or was ordained to sin that the Son of God might be incarnated For so wee should make God the author of sin then which nothing either in it self can be more detestable or more contrary to true piety God indeed to whom all things past present future are equally present as hee foresaw from all eternity the fall of Adam and in him of all mankinde so did he from all eternity decree the Incarnation of his Son for the restauratiō of man Whence are those phrases of Scripture that Christ as a Redeemer a 1 Pet. 1.20 was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world that we were b Ephes 1.4 chosen or c 2 Tim. 1.9 saved in Christ before the foundation of the world or before the world began and again that Christ is the d Apoc. 13.8 Lamb slain from the foundation of the world though as for this last passage I rather embrace their interpretation such hyperbaton's as they call them being very frequent in the Scriptures who referre this from the beginning of the world to the book of life as Apocal. 17.18 rather then to the Lamb slain though I must professe against the reason that is given by some as Ribera the Jesuite upon the place as though there were any absurdity or incongruity in the speech being so justifiable by other parallel places of Scripture But this foresight of God did no ways occasion much lesse necessitate the disobedience of Adam who as he was created with perfect freedome of will so he might had not he been wanting to himself have resisted the temptation of the Devill and have continued in that innocency to which his happinesse and immortality was annexed But it so fell out that Adam used his freewill to his own and all that should be after him being descended from him their ruine and eternall confusion Better it had been for him certainly and better for all that had any dependence of him never to have been for I am not of their opinion that think any beeing better then no beeing then to see himself at once stript of his happinesse and innocency of the son of God become the slave of the Devill and besides his own personall misery the occasion of so much evill unto others Seneca De Clem. l. 1. Quanto autem non nasci melius quà m numerari inter publico malo natos how much more then quà m unum omnis omnibus mali causam extitisse Here a question offers it self though we would be very cautelous of moving questions of this nature where the Scripture it self is silent too much curiosity in this kind having been the occasion of sundry blasphemies and heresies yet because there is some ground for it in the Scripture we may not altogether passe it by The question is Why God would permit Adam to sin which he might many ways have prevented if he had thought fit The first answer is because it became God well if this be not too bold a speech to make good his own order and to maintain his owne work It had pleased God to endow Adam with a perfect free-will He was furnished with sufficient grace to continue innocent and to withstand sin but that grace was conditionall as be used it as he liked it he might either improve it or lose it If therefore we must make a question of it it is more proper to ask why God created Adam with free-will then why God did not hinder the sin of Adam being so created This very question much troubled ancient Philosophers who had the bare light of reason and nature for their guide Why God being so perfectly good as they did acknowledge him would suffer sin
and wickednesse in men and among men either at all or so far to prevail They commonly distinguish of severall degrees or kinds of creatures with relation to goodnesse by God created the last kinde whereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is their word are those whose condition is to be mutable to fall and to rise again sometimes to look upwards unto the fountain of good sometimes to be swayed downwards by the contagion of the body and deceitfulnesse of the world and their determination upon the matter is that neither the power nor the wisdom of Almighty God would or could so much have appeared if this kind also this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had not been What they say being grounded upon no better authority then humane ratiocination will not much concern us but to check our impiety if neither reason commended unto us with the advantage of such precedents nor religion grounded upon certain revelation can doe that in us which bare and naked reason could in them to make us if not to plead for our Creator by strength of arguments yet to acknowledge him good and wise in all his ways even beyond our understandings and where our reason is at a stand Another reason is given because God having in himself predetermined the redemption of collapsed mankind by the Incarnation of his Son he therefore left Adam to the liberty of his will and the Devill of his malice because no other way can be conceived how he might more effectually have demonstrated and revealed at once unto men and Angels the infinitenesse both of his goodnesse and of his justice as we shall have occasion afterwards to shew more at large Adam then and in him humana natura or mankind in generall being so created by God and through the temptation of the Devill and his own wretchednesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greek Fathers usually call it that is loosenesse and remisnesse of the minde accompanied with carelesnesse and security so lapsed it pleased Almighty God in the depth of his goodnesse and wisdome to appoint his restauration by the Incarnation of his Son that eternall Word by whom he had made as all other things so man particularly that is That his Son coeternall with him and from all eternity by an incomprehensible mystery begotten by him should in the fulnesse of time be made flesh that is assume the nature of man unto himself into a perfect Union but without mixture or confusion of two natures in one person that so united and so incarnated he might offer himself by his Passion Christ as God Man though not in his Deity suffering unto God his Father as a sufficient ransome in his strictest justice for the sins of all men to the end that whosoever should beleeve in him so incarnated and by a lively faith lay hold on the merits of his death might not perish but as a true member of his mysticall body might have in him everlasting life How Christ the eternall Son of God came to be the son of a woman as it doth deeply concern us not to be ignorant of what the Scriptures have revealed unto us about it so to goe beyond that I conceive no lesse dangerous The Scriptures say as we have it in our Creed that he was conceived of the holy Ghost born of the Virgyn Mary and the words of the Angel to the blessed Virgin are known Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that Holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God If any man venture beyond this in discoursing the manner how I dare not follow him It is observed and observable indeed that in this mystery Christ is not so properly said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is begotten though that word also be used sometimes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made as not begotten of the substance or essence of the Holy Ghost as ordinarily children are of the substance of their fathers but made by the power of the Holy Ghost of the substance of the Virgin Mary onely Whereupon ancient Fathers were wont to say that as Christ in regard of his eternall generation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is without a Mother so in regard of his temporall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is without a Father There is good use of this observation against those hereticks of old and the Anabaptists of later times who though they could not agree among themselves how Christ came to have a body whether true or imaginary and the like yet agreed in this to deny that he was made of the substance of a woman This is the mystery of which we may truly say that it is The chiefest of the ways of God That the justification of any one sinner is a greater work then the Creation of the world in generall is by many maintained and divers reasons are given for it I durst not undertake for the solidity of all those reasons those excepted that are drawn from this very particular of Christ his Incarnation that are given but certainly this mystery of the Son of God his Incarnation is so transcendent a miracle above all other miracles of the world whether Creation or any other as that wee may justly doubt whether he truly beleeve it or ever took it into serious consideration who in comparison of this doth admire any thing else For as for those things that are commonly most admired and for the wonderfulnesse by divers thought incredible if a man shall rationally consider of them they will not so appear in very deed It is the saying of an ancient Father one of the most learned and rationall of those times that there is but one true miracle in the world and that is an Omnipotent God Having instanced in some one particular which among the many strange sights of this world he thought might seem as strange as any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he Theodor Therapeut l. 3. Sed ibi Latinus interpres mentem verborum non assecutus est non expressit certè a miracle above a miracle and presently upon better consideration as it were he doth correct himself And yet I dare say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the miracle is no miracle For God to whom al things that he can think convenient are easie being the author or workman we have much reason to glorifie the author but no reason at all to wonder at the matter He gives the reason in another place That any thing should be whether by generation or creation whereof a cause God that is the supream cause can be given right reason will easily allow of But that any thing should bee without a cause as God onely is no reason can comprehend Vos enim ipsi dicere soletis nihil esse quod Deus efficere non possit quidem sine labore ullo ut enim
to take notice of mans misery through Adams fall and thereupon to order his redemption and restauration by his Son Of Christ his Exinanition in the first and chiefest sense wee have treated hitherto under the notion of his Incarnation Our purpose here in the remainder of our Discourse is to consider his Exinanition in the temporall estate and condition of his assumed flesh in those things that Christ suffered in the course of his life before his Passion not so much in the person or relation of a Mediator or Redeemer his chiefest Office as of a Master or Teacher to be an example of patience humility perfect obedience and mortification or contempt of the world unto us That Christ in all his sufferings even the greatest his death and passion had a further end besides our redemption to be an example unto us is directly affirmed by Saint Peter and that the same Christ in his more ordinary sufferings though we acknowledge his merits or meriting to us too in all that he did or suffered as his poverty and the like his chief end and aim was to be an example unto us if it be not directly affirmed by the Scriptures may with much probability grounded upon the Scriptures be supposed and inferred Why Christ for example though he might as some Ancients observe after a more apparently miraculous way have been made true man must be born of a woman many good reasons may be given but why he should chuse an obscure Village or a common Inne or a Manger in the Inne to be places in severall respects of his Nativity the most probable reason can be given is that he might be an example of humility unto us In this sense then it is and with this particular relation that I shal now speak of Christ his Exinanition wherin the first thing will be to consider how it is proposed to us in the Scripture I will not amplifie matters but content my self with the bare relation of the Gospel It is a subject I confesse fit for the best rhetorick of the world wherein ancient Fathers and Writers have not been deficient I like well of such amplifications as tend to make a deeper impression in us such is our dulnesse of what we can never be too sensible But some men have not contained themselves within those bounds As though they would rather supply the defect of the Scriptures then of our devotions they tell us of many things devised by themselves which the Scriptures doe not and of a sacred history by this mixture make as far as in them lies a kind of Legend Papias of old was taxed for this and many since him have been guilty of the same fault But to leave them The Scriptures tel us that the blessed Mother of Christ about the very time that he was to be born was forced to travell that she was delivered in a common Inne and the born child Christ Jesus for want of other room in the Inne taken up in all likelihood by greater guests was laid in a Manger That assoon as he was born he was persecuted and thereupon his true mother and reputed father with him their charge and care put to the troubles and toils of a long Journey into a strange Country for refuge That Christ did ever work with his own hands is not so clearly expressed in the sacred story but that he was subject to his parents his reputed father being a Carpenter by his trade is clearly expressed and because Christ himself Mark 6.3 by some to whom his life and conversation was well known is called a Carpenter Justin Martyr his opinion is approved by many who peremptorily doth determine it that Christ himself did work And besides though no other Scripture should induce us to beleeve it yet because we are taught that Christ was made a curse for us Gal. 3.13 and that he was sent in the likenesse of sinfull flesh Rom. 8.3 it stands with great probability to say no more that he should in the course of his life find and feel the effect of that curse by God himself so solemnly pronounced In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread Gen. 3.9 Again that after he had openly and solemnly entered upon his Ministery he subsisted in part at least by almes and contributions is particularly recorded That he went up and downe doing good yet almost every where suffering evill evill words evill reports affronts reproaches frequent attempts upon his life and innocency persecuted in his own person and persecuted in them that adhered unto him or spake well of him we find in the same Scriptures Briefly his own words of himself Matth. 8.20 The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the aire have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head are above all amplifications and all rhetorick that the wit or eloquence of man can reach unto If this be not enough to set out this Exinanition of Christ we might have recourse to the Prophet Esay who also is very pregnant and patheticall in the description of it Esa the 52. and 53. Chap. but it shall suffice to have named him the Reader himself if hee please may have recourse unto him Now because not the Jews onely who mistaking the Prophets expected an earthly King for their Messias but divers others also in all ages worldly-minded men or weak men have been much scandalized at this manner of the Son of God his appearing in the form of a servant before we speak of it in relation to us the main end of it we will consider of it by it self a while what from best humane reason may be said for such a condition of life For if it shall appear not only that the contempt of all worldly pomp and magnificence upon grounds of reason in the judgement of the most rationall and judicious Heathens Philosophers and others hath been accounted a more generous thing then the prosecution of it but also more blessednesse with patience and calmnesse of mind to undergoe all manner of crosses and adversities in this life then to enjoy pleasure and to live at ease I hope all exceptions and prejudices in this kind which humane wit can with any colour suggest to the prejudice of our faith concerning the Author of our salvation will sufficiently be removed To the first then The most ordinary both and compendious definition or character of one that is truly magnanimous or generous occurrent in the writings of ancient Heathens is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom nothing in this life nor life it self seems a great matter that is greatly considerable But more particularly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist De virtut is thus expressed by Aristotle in a place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he c. It is also the part and property of true magnanimity not to admire neither pleasure nor greatness nor power nor victories obtained at the solemn games and prizes