offered himself a Sacrifice upon the Cross was made a Curse died was buried rose again and is sat down at the right hand of God that thereby he might redeem us from our Iniquities and from the Curse of the Law be a propitiation for our Sins and reconcile us to his Father through his Blood that our Trespasses might not be imputed to us but that by his Obedience we should be made righteous That he might become the Mediator of a new and better Covenant between God and Man than that which God made with the People of Israel when he brought them out of the Land of Egypt and that he might abolish the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances and break down the middle Wall of Partition between Jew and Gentile that so both might be united in one Building of which Christ was the chief Corner Stone and all of us be Members of one Body or Church of which Christ is the Head That he might be an Advocate with the Father when we sin and make continual Intercession for us that so upon our Confession and Repentance God might forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness And lastly That he might obtain a Kingdom and by that means spoil Principalities and Powers triumphing over them destroy the works of the Devil and put all Enemies under his feet and that when Death the last Enemy is destroyed he might raise the Dead and judge the World Part of which he has already performed and the rest he does and will hereafter fulfil The most remarkable matters that occur in the New Testament concerning the Nature Condition and Circumstances of Mankind are these Adam was the first Man Adam was first form'd then Eve the first Man Adam was made a living Soul the last Adam by which is meant Christ was made a quickening Spirit which two different Expressions are distinguish'd as Natural and Spiritual Earthly and Heavenly by one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Adam was not deceived but the Woman being deceived was in the Trangression notwithstanding she shall be saved in Child-bearing if they continue in Faith and Charity and Holiness with Sobriety Death reigned from Adam unto Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam 's Transgression who is the Figure of him that was to come A Man is the Image and Glory of God but the Woman is the Glory of the Man notwithstanding which all that are of the race of Mankind are stiled and accounted in the Scriptures sinners ungodly enemies of God dead in trespasses and sins servants of sin and corruption Children of the Devil by nature Children of Wrath of whom it is said further That Sin dwelleth in us and reigneth in our Mortal Bodies that when we would do good evil is present with us and we find the Flesh lusting against the Spirit and a Law in our Members warring against the Law of our Mind and bringing it into Captivity to the Law of Sin The Jews are represented as subject to Ordinances and a Law which had only a shadow of good things to come and as in bondage to weak and beggarly Elements and all other Nations are reckoned as Aliens and Strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the World This is the state of Mankind considered without relation to Christ but by Christ we are cleansed from our sins we are made free we are justified by Faith in him and by his righteousness we are saved But the advantages which accrue to Mankind by the means of Christ and the change that is made in our Condition by him will be more fully understood from these following passages As by one Mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous as sin hath reigned unto death so shall Grace reign through righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ Cursed is every Man that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them the Man that doth them shall live in them but this being impossible 't is evident that no Man is justified by the Law in the sight of God if there had been a Law given which could have given life righteousness should have been by the Law but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise of Faith by Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe In many things we offend all but if we repent and are baptized and believe and shew our Faith by our Works and persevere unto the end we shall be saved but if we believe not the Truth and have pleasure in unrighteousness and repent not of the evils we have committed we shall be damned Those that have embraced and obeyed the Gospel of Christ are said to have put off the Old Man with his Deeds and put on the New Man which is renewed in Knowledge after the Image of him that created him Thus through Christ only we are to expect Salvation there being no other Name given under Heaven whereby we might be saved which Salvation if we neglect we shall be condemned by God at the last day when he comes to judge the World in Righteousness by his Son whom he has appointed Judge of the quick and dead Then shall we be raised from the dead by Christ and receive every Man according to his Works As in Adam all died so in Christ shall all be made alive and since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the dead The dead shall be raised incorruptible their mortal corruptible Bodies shall put on immortality and incorruption and those which are alive at the coming of Christ shall be changed in a moment at the last Trump As we have born the Image of the earthly Man Adam so we shall also bear the Image of the heavenly Man Christ Then shall they which have done evil be condemn'd to everlasting torment and misery and they which have done good shall be rewarded with everlasting joy and happiness in the presence of God and his holy Angels This is the substance of what is taught and proposed to the Faith of Mankind in the New Testament which I have express'd as near as ever I could in the very language of Scripture as my design plainly obliged me to do The other Branch of the Gospel or Doctrine of Christ which concerns the Practice of a Christian and may properly be stiled Christian Morality consists of such rules and measure of Action as every one that believes in Christ is obliged to conform his life to and without which his Faith is dead and vain he is still in his sins and he must expect the Wages of them Eternal Death The principal Heads of Christian Duty are these To love God and the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart and with all our power to honour praise
exhorting Men to the Practice of the several Duties enjoin'd them by God and delivered to them by the Ministers of the Gospel of Christ and bidding them expect Salvation by Christ only ordaining several Persons under different Characters to assist in the Ministry healing all manner of Diseases raising the Dead and doing many other Signs and Wonders where-ever they come and conveying the same Powers and Gifts to others they had received themselves By which means we read that the Gospel was spread and the number of Believers encreased many Churches or Congregations were every where established and the Members of them kept so united by those that were set over them first in Judea and Samaria then in remoter Parts abroad where the Jews were scattered afterwards in several Cities Islands and Nations of Asia and Europe With the Progress of the Gospel or Christian Religion we have an Account likewise of several Attempts made in many Places to hinder and oppose the Establishment of it together with the Sufferings and Persecutions of the first Apostles and others chosen afterwards to be Assistants to them in carrying on the same Work many of which were beaten imprison'd and many other ways afflicted and distressed and some were put to death But a more particular relation is given of the Conversion Travels and Sufferings of Paul all which appear to be very extraordinary Several Discourses of Paul and other Apostles and Disciples of Christ are set down at large Some Prophecies also are mentioned of Holy Men who are represented as being filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking by the Spirit of God and some remarkable Judgments of God upon wicked Persons are there recorded These are the principal Matters which compose the History of the Acts of the Apostles All the following Tracts or Volumes of the New Testament are written in the form of Letters or Epistles sent from such of the Apostles and Disciples of Christ as we find mention'd in the Gospels and Acts and directed some of them to particular Persons some to large Societies of Men of several different Countries who had embraced the Christian Faith In which Epistles are contained most of the same Rules and Precepts that are laid down in the Gospels and Acts many large and particular Explications of several Doctrines there delivered and several new Doctrines which we do not meet with in those Books the Truth and Obligation of all which are frequently enforced by Arguments Most of the principal Matters of Fact recorded in the Gospels and Acts are reserr'd to in the Epistles and alledged as Proofs of the Truth of the Doctrines there taught and of the Authority of the Teachers Here are likewise several new Matters of Fact incidentally mentioned which we do not find in those former Books and some of the Facts there related are repeated here with new Circumstances All the Epistles do abound throughout with Exhortations to a steady Belief of those wonderful things said and done by Christ and his Apostles and to a constant Practice of the Duties enjoin'd by them In several of them there are some Prophecies too intermixed with these other Matters before taken notice of And the last Epistle directed to the seven Churches in Asia which is by a peculiar Title stiled The Revelation is almost wholly prophetical Some of them also conclude with Salutations to and from several particular Persons therein named These are the most remarkable things that occurr to a Man upon reading the Epistles Thus have I run through all the Variety of Particulars treated of in the New Testament But in order to form a juster and fuller Idea of the Subject of this Book 't is necessary to add some farther Considerations not formally express'd in any one particular Volume or Chapter but fairly and evidently collected from the whole Composure or from several plain Passages here and there dispersed through the several parts of it Such as are the Characters of Jesus Christ and his Doctrine of those that believed in him and that assisted him in the publishing and propagating his Gospel and of those that persecuted him and all that bore Testimony to him and opposed the Establishment of his Religion As to the Character of Jesus Christ so far as it can be collected from the several Writings of the New Testament it is in short this His Birth Life and Death were attended with extraordinary Circumstances of different kinds Those who are called in Scripture his Parents are said to be descended from the Family of David the greatest King that ever reigned over Judah and Israel but their present Condition when this Child was born is set forth as very low and the Employment that maintained them then and afterwards very mean but they were Persons that feared God and lived very conformably to the Law of Moses The first Appearance of Christ in the World was prepared accompanied and followed by Prophecies Visions Signs and Wonders Ministry of Angels Adoration of Wise Men Jealousies and Fears of a Great King together with the Doubts Ignorance Amazement Necessities and Flight of his Father and Mother His Education was fuitable to the meanness of his Birth Thirty years were spent at home in Obscurity and Retirement where he was subject and obedient to his Parents but at the same time he waxed strong in Spirit and encreased in Wisdom and the Grace of God was upon him to the Astonishment of all his Kindred and Countreymen who could not imagine whence he had that Wisdom His whole Life afterwards was taken up in preaching and instructing and confirming his Doctrine and Authority by Signs and mighty Works and by Arguments drawn chiefly from the Prophecies and other Passages of the Old Testament He went about every where teaching and doing Good He taught in the Temple and other publick Places of Jerusalem he passed through all the Cities and Villages of Judah and Samaria and the Neighbouring Coasts preaching and expounding the Scriptures to the People in their Synagogues In the Fields the Desarts and upon the Sea-shore we find him attended with great multitudes who heard him gladly Thus was he constantly employed from the first discovery of himself and his Gospel to the World 'till by Treachery and Malice he was apprehended and put to Death In all which time that he publickly convers'd with Men we have a great many surprizing things related of him which do very much distinguish his Character from that of any other Person He is represented as sensible of Human Passions Appetites and Infirmities and yet free from all Sin and endued with a Power of not feeling and relieving those very wants he suffered He loved grieved and was angry but these Affections were occasion'd in him by a just Concern for the Glory of God and the Success of that great Work he came about the Salvation of Mankind and they never exceeded their due bounds He felt Hunger and Weariness yet fasted Forty days and Forty nights together fed vast multitudes and
heal'd all manner of Infirmities by his miraculous Power and when his Disciples brought him Meat he refused it saying he had Meat to eat which they knew not of and that his Meat was to do the Will of him that sent him He lived in extream Poverty and Want He had not where to lay his Head and was destitute not only of the good things of this World but of all the lesser Conveniences of this Life And yet we see when he sent for an Ass and Fole to ride into Jerusalem with the Owners let them go and when he ordered to have such a room prepared for him to eat his last Supper in 't was presently got ready for him and both upon the bare Saying of his Disciples that the Master had need of them His Meekness Lowliness and Humility are very conspicuous throughout his whole Conduct and Behaviour and in several particular Instances as his conversing freely with Persons of the meanest Rank chusing such to be his constant Companions and most intimate Friends declaring that he came to minister to others and not to be ministred to ordering those he cured not to publish what he had done for them refusing to be King when the People would have made him so washing his Apostles Feet c. Notwithstanding which in many other Instances he discovers himself in very signal Characters of Greatness Majesty and Power For not to mention what we have before rank'd under the Stile of Miracles and Prophecies he taught as one having Authority so that not only the People but their Rulers and Teachers were astonished at his Doctrine he reproved the Scribes and Pharisees with Boldness he enter'd into Jerusalem with all the highest Solemnities of Triumph and drove out of the Temple all those that prophaned that Holy House by applying it to common Uses he spake the Word and whoever he call'd immediately left all they had and followed him he took upon him to forgive Sins and he gave his Disciples the same Power as likewise a Power against unclean Spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of Sickness and all manner of Diseases to tread on Serpents and Scorpions and over all the Power of the Enemy so that nothing should by any means hurt them Besides all which and many other Marks of Greatness Power and Authority that appeared in the Actions of Christ the things which he declares of himself and which are attributed to him by his Disciples give us a much higher Idea of him He says of himself that he is greater than the Prophet Jonah and Solomon he proves that David call'd him his Lord he affirms that before Abraham was he is that Abraham rejoiced to see his day that he is the Christ the Messiah expected and prophesied of the Son of God the Way the Truth and the Life that all things are delivered to him of the Father who was Lord of Heaven and Earth and that all things which the Father hath are his that he and the Father are one that he is in the Father and the Father in him that he came forth from his Father when he came into the World that he is the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven that this Bread is his Flesh which he will give for the Life of the World that he has overcome the World that no Man took his Life from him but that he laid it down of himself and had Power to take it again and that when he leaves the World he goes to his Father He owns that he is a King but that his Kingdom was not of this World He tells us that all Power is given to him both in Heaven and in Earth that hereafter he should be seen sitting at the Right Hand of the Power of God and that he will come in his Glory and all the Holy Angels with him to judge the World that then he shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory and before him shall be gathered all Nations and receive their Sentence from him according to their Works He assures his Twelve Apostles that he will send the Comforter to them who shall teach them all things and guide them into all truth and show them things to come that he himself will be with them always unto the end of the World that whatsoever they shall ask the Father in his Name that he will do that he will prepare a place for them in his Fathers House and that when he comes to judge the World they shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel To all those that labour and are heavy laden he promises that they shall find rest to those that sell what they have and follow him that they shall have Treasure in Heaven to those that love him that they shall be loved of his Father and that his Father and he will come and make their abode with them Whosoever drinketh of the water that he shall give him he says shall never thirst but that water shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life and whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath eternal life and he will raise him up at the last day He tells one of the Thieves upon the Cross That he should be with him that day in Paradise and in general to all those that believe in him and obey his Word and Commandments he gives assurance of Salvation and Eternal Happiness in another World besides many other occasional Blessings and Assistances in this and those that will not believe in him and obey his Gospel he threatens with Eternal Punishment in another life and with many Troubles and Calamities while they continue here Agreeable to which Declarations made by himself are the Language and Practice of his Disciples to him and of him in his Life time and after his Death They call him Lord and God Preach Baptize and Bless in his Name and attribute a great many glorious things to him which are in other places in the same Manner and Expression attributed to the One Only Supream God They Worship him when alive with all the external signs of Divine Adoration and Pray to him after his Death and expect all manner of Grace Assistance and Spiritual strength from him here and an Eternal Reward of their Labours Sufferings and Obedience from him hereafter And as these are all Evident Marks and Tokens of an amazing Greatness and Power in Jesus Christ so are all his Sermons and Discourses his manner of Preaching and Conversing and the whole Scheme both of his Life and Doctrine manifest proofs of an extraordinary kind of Wisdom It does not appear from the History of the Gospel or any other parts of the New Testament that Christ had read any other Book but the Old Testament or that he had had the advantage of being instructed in the meaning and sense of that by any Master or Teacher whatsoever yet we find him Teaching Reasoning Answering Questions that were put
Prognosticks grounded upon the necessary connexion and dependance of Natural Causes and Effects which are all the ways of foretelling things that Men are capable of 'T is true indeed some general common Events may sometimes by a luckly turn of imagination be foretold such as Life or Death Peace or War Prosperity or Adversity and the like and therefore had Christ spake no other Prophecies but such as these that Peter should be Crucified and John should out live the rest of the Apostles there might have been some ground to think them casual conjectural Predictions though a great many true Predictions even of this nature without one mistaken guess could not with any colour of reason or probability have been attributed to chance Several other Events likewise there are which by a skill in this or that part of Knowledge and by an immediate information concerning several antecedent Circumstances may be foretold Thus does an Astronomer foretel an Eclipse a Physician the Death of some particular Person a Politician a National Calamity or Advantage and thus does a Wise Man understand how such a Person whose Temper and Principles he is well acquainted with will behave himself upon such an occasion and many other the like Instances might be given But the Prophecies of Christ and other Ancient Prophets before him concerning the whole Dispensation of the Gospel could not possibly be meer Guesses and Conjectures because the things foretold were most of them such as the Persons who foretold them had never seen or heard of any Instances of before and so could have nothing to lead or determine their thoughts that way And if the Ideas of such Facts could be supposed to have entered their Minds they could not have positively and confidently affirmed that those Facts would really happen without thinking it probable that they might so happen and 't is impossible that any Men in their senses should look upon such Events as probable which they had had no manner of experience of before without a deep insight into the nature and reasons of things by which they were enabled to see such a train and connexion of Causes as would very likely produce such Effects But this cannot be pretended in the case before us for several reasons For first of all our Knowledge of Nature and the Causes of things is so very scanty and imperfect that hardly any thing was ever foreknown by Man without an antecedent experience of something of the same kind or nature that had already happen'd Some Eclipses were observed before any were foretold such a complexion of Symptoms had actually proved fatal before it was known to be a certain cause or sign of approaching Death and the like will hold in all other Instances of Humane Prediction by virtue of any natural or acquired Knowledge Besides in none of these cases can any particular Event be foreseen by the most certain comprehension of all the Causes producing it without a true and particular information concerning the punctual and determinate Existence of those Causes and all the Circumstances requisite to make their Influence effectual If a Man be never so well acquainted with the Motions and Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies he cannot tell that an Eclipse will happen at such a time without knowing the particular position of the Bodies contributing to an Eclipse at that time nor can a Physician by all his skill in the frame and structure of Humane Bodies foretel that such a particular Man whose Constitution and Circumstances of Health he knows nothing of shall at such a determinate time dye or recover of such a Disease But supposing a Man knew the whole Oeconomy of the Corporeal World was acquainted with all the Laws of Motion and saw the necessary dependance of all the Parts of Matter upon one another he could not be enabled from hence to foretel such things which depended upon the free Resolutions and Determinations of Intellectual Beings nor is it possible for us by what we know of the Temper and Dispositions of all the Persons we converse with to foretel what Men will Live and what particular Actions will be done by them at a great distance from us The connexion of all Humane Actions is nor discoverable from the clearest view we can have of Humane Nature and all the Principles and Motives Men act upon Now for all these reasons 't is impossible that those great and wonderful Events foretold by Christ and the Ancient Prophets which we find mentioned in the New Testament could be foretold by any Humane Skill or Learning the same way that we have seen other natural Truths Predicted For several of them 't is plain were such as the Prophets had never seen or heard of any Instances of before As for Example that a Person should come down from Heaven to save Mankind from their Sins that a Virgin should conceive bear a Son c. And indeed all those Facts we call â—â—raculous may be referred to this Head 〈◊〉 tho' some of the same or alike kind were known to have happen'd before yet the Prophets who knew and believed them look'd upon them as exceeding all Humane Power and Cognizance and therefore could not foresee the like by any ordinary Natural way of Knowledge because they had never had any Experience of such things happening according to the ordinary course of Things Several of the Matters prophesied of if they had depended upon certain necessary Causes and that dependance had been very well known to the Prophets yet they could not have been foretold by them for want of knowing some particular Circumstances which must concurr to their Existence Thus for instance supposing a Man was able by his extraordinary Skill in Nature to explain how a Virgin might conceive or the Dead rise the Lame be made to walk and the Sick be cured he could not by the means of this Knowlede foretell that at such a certain time hereafter such Facts as these should happen because he could not understand whe ther the State and Disposition of Things at that time would certainly be such that those Facts must ensue But these Reasons chiefly concern corporeal Agents Whereas besides the difficulties arising from hence all the Prophecies we are concerned to defend could not be fulfilled without the concurrence of an infinite variety of Humane Actions which were not the Results of irresistible Motives when they were done nor was the Application of any Motives for the doing of them nor even the Existence of the Persons that did them necessary That such a Person as Christ should at such a Time and Place be Born depended upon Ten Thousand Millions of the most contingent Determinations Humane Nature was ever sensible of which must all happen in sucha manner betwixt the time of the Prophesy and the Completion or else the Event had never been And the like might be shewn in all the other Christian Facts and Events prophesied of All which is abundantly sufficient to prove