and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Eph. 5.2 2. The death of Christ is to be considered as the death of a Testator for so is Christ to be considered also He himself calls his bloud the bloud of the New Testament or the New Testament in his bloud I very well know that the Greek word which we render Testament does signifie Covenant but yet it does not always do so in the New Testament For sometimes it signifies the last Will or Testament of a Testator And when it does so it does not exclude the notion of a Covenant neither but rather imply it For the right we have to the inheritance is one part of the Covenant but then the declaration of that right is peculiarly and properly the part of a Testament which signifies the last will of a man by which he disposeth of his goods Matt. 26.28 Mark 14.24 Luk. 22.20 Our Blessed Saviour is said to be the heir of all things And we are elsewhere told that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand And we are farther informed upon what account it is that the Father loveth the Son and consequently hath given all things into his hands in these words of our Saviour Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life From whence it is Evident that upon the account of the voluntary death of Christ this full power and authority is given to Christ as the great Mediator between God and man Christ was in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God But made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Heb. 1.2 Joh. 3.35 10 17. Phil. 2.6 Thus low did the Son of God stoop for our Salvation from being equal with God to the likeness of men and from the form of God to that of a servant from life to death from glory to shame and contempt If you would know the effects of all this the next words will inform us Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Our Blessed Saviour a little before his death bequeaths a Kingdom to his followers as a Testator in these words and I appoint unto you a Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Father hath appointed unto me Luk. 22.29 But then by his death he procured our right to this glorious inheritance For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all whilst the Testator liveth 'T is the death of the Testator that makes way to the Heir He hath no claim till the Testator dye But upon his death his title is unquestionable and it is not in any man's power to alter what is thus setled and confirmed Though it be but a man's Testament yet if it be confirmed no man disanulleth or addeth thereto Heb. 9.16 17. Gal. 3.15 Our Lord suffered the most shamefull and painfull death He did this voluntarily and not by Constraint He dyed not intestate nor yet like other Testators who when they have made their Testaments do avoid death with all their care and skill and are not willing to part with their lives for the benefit of their Heirs or Successours 'T was otherwise with our Saviour I lay down my life says he no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and have power to take it again Joh. 10.17 18. Now after Christ had suffered death and risen from the dead he tells his Followers of the plenitude of his power and authority All power is given unto me says he in heaven and in earth And a while after his own ascension into heaven he sends the Holy Ghost which is the earnest of our inheritance Mat. 28.18 Eph. 1.14 3. The death of Christ is to be considered as the death of a Martyr or a Witness Our Blessed Saviour had professed himself to be the light of the World the Messias whom the Scriptures had foretold and that he came from heaven and that he was the Christ the Son of the Blessed It is of great moment that these truths should be sufficiently confirmed to us Upon these things depends the whole Religion that he taught If these things be sufficiently proved we can make no doubt of the truth of any part of the Doctrine which Jesus taught Joh. 8.12 c. 5.39 6 40. Mark 14.61 62. Now it will appear that the death of Christ does mightily confirm these truths and that Jesus gave up himself to death for the same end and purpose When Pilate asked Jesus whether he were a King or not Jesus answered thou sayest that I am a King that is Jesus answered in the affirmative To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear witness unto the truth With respect to the undaunted courage of Jesus before Pilate St. Paul saith that before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good confession Joh. 18.37 1 Tim. 6.13 'T was upon this account that Jesus was put to death He was accused indeed of something else that was charged upon him But the Testimony was weak and incoherent that with which he was born down was that he professed himself to be Christ a King Or as it is in St. John because he made himself the Son of God Our Saviour was silent when the false witnesses accused him But when the High Priest asked him if he were the Christ the Son of the Blessed and he answered I am c. We find thereupon the High Priest renting his Cloaths and saying what need we any farther witnesses ye have heard the blasphemy what think ye and they all condemned him to be worthy of death Luk. 23.2 Joh. 19.7 Mark 14.61 Our Saviour dyed for his adhering to this great truth and that he did so must be acknowledged a great confirmation of it and of the Religion which he planted Life is too sweet a thing to be trifled away for nothing Much less will a man in his wits dye in confirmation of a lye Had Jesus been disposed he might have kept out of the way of his enemies or have saved himself by denying the truth He had now a great temptation before him either to renounce what he had professed or by some trick or mean art or other to escape the danger But he is far from taking any such course to deliver himself but instead thereof confirms
yet it is possible to discern true miracles from lying wonders Else our Saviour's miracles had been in vain and could not have been brought as a proof that he was the Christ the Son of God We may in this weighty matter be preserved from mistake if we consider it with that due application which becomes us I shall therefore now prove That our Saviour's were true and unexceptionable miracles My meaning is that they were a good proof of his doctrine and that he was what he professed himself to be the Christ the Son of God And for the farther proof of this I shall offer the following particulars to be considered not onely separately but in conjunction with one another 1. The Authour of these miracles was Jesus a person of a most innocent and usefull life Had he been a profligate person or had he been ever detected of an untruth the miracles which he did would not have been enough to gain him credit He was far removed from ostentation and vain glory a great example of meekness and humility of purity and peaceableness of an ardent love to God and contempt of the World Nothing but impudent malice could accuse our Lord. He did good to all and did not hurt the poorest and vilest man in the world He did not come to destroy but to save the lives of men He gained no wealth by his works who had not where to lay his head He desired no applause for he charges those that saw his works that they should tell no man He affects no Dominion and did not make his power of doing these works a step to worldly greatness Indeed he bids John Baptist's Disciples shew John the things which they saw and heard but this was an effect of his Charity to them or to their Master and not because he affected popular fame He was so innocent a person that the very Judge who delivered him to death did pronounce him innocent and he that betrayed him was overtaken with that horror that he went and hanged himself He was judged a righteous person by strangers and his enemies were forced to make use of false and incoherent witnesses of loud clamours and the specious pretence of Caesar's friendship to procure his death He spent his time in doing good and was the greatest example that ever appeared in the world of the most spotless purity the profoundest humility and the most inflamed and universal charity The miracles of such a Person are of mighty force For if an holy and good life do very much commend a Doctrine surely such a life as our Saviour's was accompanied with the mighty works which he did is of great moment to assure us of the truth of what he taught 2. I consider next the doctrine which the works that Jesus did do confirm This doctrine was like Jesus himself holy just and good It is the wisest and the best Religion in the world and that which tends to make men good and happy It does not consist in a number of ceremonies and rituals a few small and trifling opinions it is not a doctrine which promotes a secular and worldly interest that indulges men in their lusts and onely robs them of their wealth It is a doctrine that is holy and innocent that teaches us to love God with our whole heart and our neighbour as our Selves It permits us not to doe any evil and requires us to doe all the good we can It is so far from allowing us to doe an injury that it will not suffer us to revenge it It teaches us to be humble and modest chast and temperate very frequent and very fervent in our prayers to God sincere in all our promises and professions and very bountifull in our mercy which we shew to the poor and miserable A Religion that requires the Service of the heart that lays before us the best precepts and propounds the most incomparable rewards It abstracts us from the world and puts us upon pursuance of life and immortality It does not onely forbid Adultery Murther and Theft but every impure thought every angry word every covetous desire It comports with our wisest faculties quiets our minds perfects our natures kills our lusts and joys our hearts It bids us doe as we would be done by obey our Superiours be gentle to our Servants kind to the poor just to all men It allows us not to think any evil and does strictly require that we speak evil of no man It forbids not onely all swearing but all dissimulation and every idle word It commends to us patience contentedness resignation to the will of God and a thirst after heaven and heavenly things A Religion that is able to make us very wise and very happy rendring us at once at peace with God and with one another and filling our souls with a peace that passeth understanding It is the best security and the greatest blessing to Kingdoms and Commonwealths and all societies of men It disowns every thing that is unjust and untrue that is sneaking and unbecoming that is low and mean It designs to conform us to the likeness of God And whoever looks into its laws may soon discern that it is a blessed institution and not a systeme of craft and worldly policy to keep the world in awe withall It is full of weighty principles of divine and heavenly precepts of the most endearing and pathetick motives to obedience It hath nothing trifling in it but is fraught with a wisedom that is divine and is placed above the contempt and scorn of men It commends it self to the consciences of all that are ingenuous and inquisitive And no man will speak evil of it but a fool that understands it not or the debauched sinner who is condemned by its precepts and denounced against by its severest menaces When I speak thus of Christian Religion I speak of it as it is in its self and to them who give up themselves to the obedience of it Christianity I know is depraved and greatly corrupted by the Church of Rome and there are but few of those who understand their Religion better that have any more than a form of godliness when they continue enemies to the power of it 3. I consider in the next place the great design of the miracles which Jesus did We shall find that they tended to the destruction of the Devil's Kingdom It was most maliciously and foolishly said by the Pharisees that our Lord cast out Devils by the Prince of Devils Matt. 12.24 This is sufficiently refuted by our Saviour Every Kingdom says he divided against it self is brought to desolation ver 25. and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand And if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself How shall then his Kingdom stand And if I by Beelzebub cast out Devils by whom do your Children cast them out therefore they shall be your Judges The miracles which Christ did destroyed the Devil's Kingdom
another Saviour of the World and of my posterity That Shilo should come to whom the gathering of the people shall be Agreeable to what hath been said are these words of Zacharias who said of the Lord God of Israel that he had raised up an Horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David Luk. 1.69 By Horn of Salvation for us is denoted the Kingdom and Power of our blessed Saviour And for the better understanding of this expression it is to be remembred that Dominion and Power is expressed by Horn among the Hebrew Writers Thus in the Prophet Daniel the ten Horns are said to be ten Kings c. 7. v. 24. Again I will make the Horn of David to bud Ps 132. v. 17. Instead of Horn the Chaldee Paraphrast hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a glorious King Kimchi in Psal 132. v. 17. And one of the learned Jews and a bitter enemy to Christianity confesses that that verse speaks of the Messias that was to come So that the Horn of Salvation does intimate to us the greatness of that deliverance which our Lord hath wrought Besides 't is said of Simeon that when he took Jesus into his Arms and blessed God he said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word For mine eyes have seen thy salvation Luk. 2.29 30. Which agrees well with the words of Jacob I have waited for Thy Salvation O Lord. Indeed Aben Ezra tells us from R. Isaac Aben Ezra in Gen. 49.18 that Jacob having likened Dan to an adder by the path did thereupon fall into a fear and then as fearfull men are apt to call for help and deliverance he added I have waited for thy salvation O Lord And another of the Jewish Commentators would have those words to contain the prediction that Sampson's eyes should be put out by the Philistines R. Solom in loc and then that they imply that prayer of Sampson at the last O Lord God remember me I pray thee and strengthen me I pray thee onely this once O God that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes Judg. 16.28 It is enough that I have named these opinions I shall not need refute them for besides that their authority is not great who are the Authours of them they are not backed with any reasons at all But to return As those deliverances of Joshuah and the other Worthies were but temporal whereas our Lord 's was eternal So They were but Carnal but our Lord's is Spiritual They delivered their people from thraldom and bondage the yoke of a Tyrant the tribute of an Oppressour the chains and fetters of some potent Prince But our Jesus saves his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 He was manifested to take away our sins 1 Joh. 3.5 And to destroy the works of the Devil v. 8. Or as Zacharias expresses it we are delivered out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve God without fear In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Luke 1. 74 75. This is the deliverance that our Lord hath wrought He sets us free from our sins and hath redeemed us from the wrath to come This Jesus does for all them that will obey him He destroyed the Devil's Kingdom stopt his mouth in his Oracles overturned his Temples dispossessed him of his Idols destroyed his Worship and baffled him in all his Designs He cast him out not of the bodies onely but of the souls and hearts of men and wrested from him that Kingdom which he had so long and so unjustly got the possession of The World was over-run with Idolatry and Superstition with violence and oppression with ignorance and prophaneness Men were proud and covetous unchast and intemperate full of envy and malice But Our Lord came and by his life and doctrine by his death and divine grace he sent away that darkness that overspread the World he knocked off those Chains in which men were shackled and restored Mankind to the Worship of the true God and to his image and likeness Let 's hear the excellent words by which the Apostle expresseth all this For we our selves says he also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward mankind appeared Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Tit. 3.3 Such was the deliverance which our Jesus wrought For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.11 Moses delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians he brought them from the bondage of those Infidels but he did not save them from their infidelity For we see they could not enter into the promised land because of their unbelief Heb. 3.19 Joshua brought them into Canaan but left them on this side heaven Others delivered them from the men of Midian and the Philistines but none of them delivered them from the evil men themselves They were saved from their enemies frequently but not from their sins They fell into their folly and their misery again But our blessed Redeemer saves us from our sin He gives repentance and forgivenss of sins Acts 5.31 And turns us from our iniquities Acts 3.26 This exalts him above Moses and Joshua this speaks him the great Redeemer and Shepherd of our Souls The Jews expected a Temporal Messiah one that would restore them their Kingdom and advance them to worldly splendour and greatness But our Lord came to erect a spiritual Kingdom in the hearts and minds of men He came to vanquish our lusts and destroy the power of sin in the hearts of men This was a design worthy of God and becoming our Lord Jesus And that which the greatest Kings and Princes were never able to doe Our Lord hath wrought the greatest deliverance Others have conquered their Enemies Our Lord hath done more He hath reconciled them and made them friends Others have killed the bodies of men our Lord hath done more he has saved their souls Others have gotten wealth and worldly greatness our Lord does more when he enables his followers to despise these things Others have saved their followers from dying our Lord delivers us from the fear of death He kills our pride destroys our covetousness purges away our lust plants in us the love of God and the contempt of the World
of Jordan when the Holy Ghost at his Baptism descended upon him 'T will be easie now to understand what Christ imports For that word denotes the offices of our blessed Saviour to which he was appointed by God and enabled to discharge by the Holy Ghost which was plentifully poured out upon him And as of old publick persons were set apart to their respective offices and dignities by being first anointed with a certain Oil prescribed for that purpose so was our Lord sanctified and fitted to teach and govern the Church of God to be the great mediatour between God and man and the redeemer of mankind by the Holy Ghost which he plentifully received Joh. 3.34 And he that confesses that Jesus is the Christ does thereby acknowledge him to be his Prophet Priest and King and is consequently obliged by virtue of that profession to obey his laws and give himself up to his government as well as to hope for pardon from his bloud God hath made it very plain that our Jesus is the Messias that was promised Who is a Liar says St. John but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ 1 Joh. 2.22 This was that great truth that the Jews opposed vehemently They agreed that if any man confessed him to be Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue What hath been said will be of use to the better understanding the words of St. John Ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know all things 1 Joh. 2.20 He puts Christians in mind of that affusion of the Holy Ghost which he calls the Vnction from the holy one which God hath bestowed on them according to Christ's promise This Holy Ghost did lead them into all truth and the plentiful effusion of this Spirit did bear a clear testimony that Jesus was the true Messias and that the doctrine which he taught came from God This Holy Spirit was the defence which those Christians had against being seduced As it follows These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things and is truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him 1 Joh. 2.26 27. I shall onely add that from Christ we are all called Christians and that blessed name ought to influence our practice 'T is a great thing to be a Christian 'T is a dignity and honour to the greatest among us and the best of all our titles We may well glory in this blessed name and value it above all our other titles and properties But then we must remember what this name requires at our hands When we name the name of Christ we are obliged to depart from all iniquity Let us consider how well this name becomes us Are we like our blessed Saviour have we that unction from the holy one Does the spirit of Jesus dwell in us If that Holy Spirit be not in us ' we have a name to live and are dead we may fondly conceit what we please of our selves but if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 CHAP. II. The CONTENTS It is agreed between Jews and Christians I. That there was a Messias promised and II. That there was such a person as our Jesus and III. That there was at that time when Jesus lived a general expectation of the Messias That hence it was that there appeared so many Impostours about that time An account of some of them from Josephus Of the promises of the Messias and the gradual revealing of them A Passage in Maimon concerning the Afternoon-Prayer misrepresented by a late learned writer Several particulars relating to the Messias predicted THus having shewed what is meant by Jesus and what by Christ I come next to shew you that our Jesus whom the Jews crucified is the Christ or Messias And before I proceed to consider the several arguments that do confirm this truth I shall premise the following particulars First that there was a Messias promised in the old Testament is not onely affirmed by the Christians but granted by the Jews There is no dispute about this matter Secondly that there was such a person as Jesus that he lived at such a time as we say he did and died as the Gospels report is not denied by the Jews They often mention him in their writings though with scorn and disdain they speak of the time and manner of his death and the names of his Disciples and they are far from denying the matter of fact Thirdly that when Jesus did appear in the world there was a great expectation of the Messias among the Jews Thus we read of Simeon's waiting for the consolation of Israel Luk. 2.25 And that Simeon was no mean person he was the Son of Hillel the great and a man of great place among the Jews Again one Anna a Prophetess a devout and aged Widow who served God with fastings and prayers night and day spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem v. 38. The Woman of Samaria had heard of this fame and general expectation of the Messias among the Jews at that time and that he should be a great Prophet I know says she that Messias cometh which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things Joh. 4. 25. Hence the Jews at that time being under a general expectation of the Messias were very prone to take others for him that did then appear And because John Baptist was a man of great vertue and fame and that was greatly followed by the people and that in the very time when the Messias was expected Casaubon Exercit. ad Apparat Baronii Annal. n. 5. they sent Priests and Levites to know who he was Joh. 1.19 That is to know whether or no he were the Messias as appears from what follows And he confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ v. 20. And there have been those that have thought that Herod was by some taken for the Messias also by them who upon that score are called the Herodians in the Gospel I shall not need to dispute that so much is certain that the Jews did expect the Messias at that time And I shall afterwards shew what ground they had so to doe It shall be enough at present to add that as there was a general expectation of the Messias about that time so there were a great number of Impostours that took that occasion to delude the people and draw followers after them Gamaliel names two Theudas and Judas of Galilee Act. 5.36 37. Josephus gives us a farther account of these men He tells us that under the government of Fadus Antiqu. l. 20. c. 2. a certain Magician called Theudas perswaded a great number to follow him to the river Jordan pretending himself
Messias is promised again and it will be worth our while to consider with what variety the promise is made The promise in one place runs thus In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed Gen. 12.3 This was the first promise which was made to Abraham But then we find this promise renewed afterward but yet differently expressed In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 22.18 The reason of which variety seems to be this that when the first promise of the Messias was made to Abram Isaac was not born and therefore it was said in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed But after this Abram's name is changed and Isaac the Son of the promise is born and Abraham had in obedience to God offered up this Son and now God renews to him the promise of the Messias In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed God had just before promised Abraham to multiply his posterity v. 17. but then what follows v. 18. is to be understood with a particular reference to Isaac and therewithall as containing a precise and particular promise of the Messias Gal. 3.16 For those words In thy seed v. 18. are not to be understood in the latitude that the same words thy seed v. 17. are to be understood in but in a particular and restrained sense as takes in Isaac and in him the Messias And this observation by the way may serve for the better understanding those words Gal. 3.16 Nor is this all the variety neither in these several promises of the Messias For Gen. 12.3 't is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be blessed But Gen. 22.18 't is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall bless themselves And after the same manner is the promise renewed to Isaac Gen. 26.4 That is they shall think themselves blessed in the Messias the source and fountain of blessing And thus as the Messias was promised at first as the seed of the woman and a conquerour of the serpent so he was promised to Abraham and to Isaac as the fountain of blessing And then if we proceed we shall find that Isaac in his blessing to Jacob does not forget to transmit the blessing of Abraham to him and to his seed with him Gen. 28.4 which was confirmed by God v. 14. This blessing Jacob does not forget at such time as he blessed his Children but mentions it in the blessing of Judah and withall gives some account of the time of the appearance of the Messias under the name of Shiloh and of the obedience that should be yielded to him Gen. 49.10 After this we have a prediction from the mouth of Balaam who was sent for indeed to curse the Israelites yet does he bless them and predict the great blessing of the Messias There shall come a star out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Seth Numb 24.17 Again we have still a more particular account that the Messias should be a great Prophet and that we have from Moses the greatest Prophet The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me Deut. 18.15 And it follows and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him v. 18 19. After this the Messias is promised under the character of a King 1 Sam. 2.10 And a King of the house of David 2 Sam. 7. 1 Chro. 17. Psal 72. and 132. So that now we have some account of the office and of the lineage and family of the Messias He is promised as a Prophet by Moses as a King to David and as a Priest too in the Book of Psalms Psal 110.4 His offices and his tribe and lineage being thus predicted we shall find afterwards and especially as the time of his appearance drew near many particulars predicted and sometimes very minute ones also relating to his birth and to his life to his miracles and the place of his converse to his death and sufferings his resurrection and ascension and the great success of his undertaking upon the Gentile world That he should be born in Bethlehem the Prophet Micah tell us Mic. 5.2 And of a Virgin the Prophet Isaiah Isa 7.14 That he should come before the Jewish polity were quite destroyed Jacob had predicted Gen. 49.10 And that he should come while the Second Temple stood Haggai assures us Hag. 2. And that the time of his appearing was about the time when our Saviour Jesus appeared we may learn from the Prophet Daniel Dan. 9. And that he should come suddenly into his Temple the Prophet Malachy assures us Mal. 3.1 We have a prediction of his forerunner Isa 40. Of his coming back from Egypt Hos 11.1 And of the slaughter of the Innocents Jer. 31. That the Messias should converse much in Galilee is foretold Isa 9.1 What works the Messias should doe is predicted Isa 42.7.35.5 6. That he should be a great Prophet Deut. 18. That he should be a prince of peace Isa 9.6 A most righteous person Isa 11.5 That he should not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets Isa 42.2 That he should be lowly is foretold Zech. 9.9 That the Messias should be despised and rejected by his own people that he should appear in a low servile and despicable condition is also foretold Isa 52. and 53. And then for his death that is not onely foretold but the manner and minutest circumstances of it also That he should be crucified Zech. 12.10 Ps 22.16 That he should be betrayed by his disciple and familiar Psal 41.9 That he should be sold for thirty pieces of silver Zech. 11.12 And crucified among thieves Isa 53.12 That on the Cross they should give him vinegar to drink Ps 69.21 That his garments should be parted and that lots should be cast upon his vesture Psal 18.22 That he should be derided and scoffed at even when he was under his sufferings Psal 22.7 8. That he should intercede for transgressours Isa 53.12 That he should suffer with a Lamb-like meekness Isa 53.7 And that notwithstanding all the malice of his enemies yet his bones should not be broken Exod. 12.46 That the Messias should be buried is also foretold Psal 16.10 And honourably interred also Isa 53.9 And that he should rise again Psal 2.7.16.10 And ascend into heaven Psal 68.18 And that the Gentiles should serve and acknowledge him Isa 49.6 These things are predicted of the Messias in the old Testament we are now to consider whether we can find them fulfilled in our Jesus And if we do we may very safely conclude that this Jesus is the Christ I shall not
the power and evil effects of our sins I grant indeed he was mean and very poor And what then Was not the Jewish Law-giver Moses so also Was he not exposed to the waters forced to fly his Country and tend upon a flock in a foreign Country Was not Jacob the Father of the Jewish tribes a poor Syrian ready to perish had he any thing more than his staff when he went to Padan Aram Was not David from whom the Messias was to descend a keeper of his Father's Sheep If Jesus suffered and were put to death what then Have not these been the lot and portion of the most righteous men in the world Was not righteous Abel killed when wicked Cain lived and built a City Is it any blot upon the memory of David that he was persecuted of Zechariah that he was stoned of Isaiah that he was sawn in sunder Are the holy men and Prophets of old to be rejected because they suffered reproaches or were put to death Why should Jesus then be rejected because he was put to death This does not speak him an evil man The Jews very well know what the Psalmist says of the sufferings of God's own people Psal 79.1 2 3 4. O God the Heathen are come into thine inheritance thy holy Temple have they defiled they have laid Jerusalem on heaps The dead bodies of thy Servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the Heaven the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth Their bloud have they shed like water round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them We are become a reproach to our neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us These were indeed severe sufferings and upon whom did they light The Text informs us that they fell upon God's inheritance upon his servants and Saints And what ever reproach this were to the Heathen who inflicted these sufferings it is none at all to the Sufferers themselves In a word very excellent men among the Jews and the best among the Heathens were poor and suffered the greatest evils and no wife man ever thought the worse of these Sufferers and it is therefore very unjust to reject Jesus merely upon that account I add Secondly that it was foretold by God himself that the Messias should suffer I shall not give in all the particulars which make for this purpose That of Isaiah Chap. 53. is most clear and remarkable to my present purpose In that Chapter the sufferings or the Messias are graphically described And there never was any people or person to whom all those particulars recited in that Chapter could belong but to our blessed Saviour who is the Messias there foretold The Jews I mean the more ancient among them understood that place of the Messias and whereas among the later Jews we shall find some Interpret them to another sense whether of the people of Israel Josiah L'Empereur refutat Abravenel Comment in Isa c. 53. or some other person yet it is manifest and hath been made so that the words must be understood of the Messias and were never fulfilled by any people or any other person whatsoever To whom else can those words belong but to the Messias and in whom were they ever fulfilled but in our Jesus onely where it is said He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs For never was there a sorrow like that of our Jesus Where shall we find a person to whom the following words can belong He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all And as these sufferings could be the sufferings of none but of the Messias onely so the patient bearing them must belong to him too and was remarkably accomplished in our Jesus He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before her Shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth I may afterward have occasion to shew how remarkably the following words also were fulfilled in our Jesus as they were foretold of the Messias where 't is said that he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death In the first promise of the Messias it was intimated that he should suffer it being predicted that the Serpent's seed should bruise the heel of the seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 I might to this purpose shew at large from the Old Testament that the Messias was to suffer Those persons who were the most Eminent Types of him were very great sufferers And though all the sacrifices were slain yet those sacrifices which did typifie his death most eminently were most intirely consumed by the fire and as their bloud was carried into the holy place so their body was burnt without the camp as our Saviour himself suffered without the gate If we look into the Psalms and Prophets we shall find frequent predictions of the sufferings of Christ Thirdly this is so plain a truth Abkath Rochelim l. 1. and so undeniable even by the Jews themselves that the later of them have devised a suffering Messias the Son of Joseph of the tribe of Ephraim And now they speak of a twofold Messias one the Son of Joseph to suffer death if need be another the Son of David to save and to deliver them This indeed is a vain conceit 't is groundless and 't is novel It hath no foundation in the Holy Scriptures nor in their most ancient and genuine Writers 'T is destitute of all reason and all fair pretence And we may by the same pretence That the Messias was to suffer Trypho does acknowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trypho in Just Marr. aswell set up a great many as two But as vain a conceit as 't is it will serve our turn against the Jews For they betake themselves to this refuge because they cannot deny that the Messias was to suffer And though it serve to no other purpose yet it serves to this that we have gained the point we contend for against themselves viz. that the Messias was to suffer and that therefore our Jesus ought not to be rejected upon that account That our Jesus did suffer This is confessed on all hands The Jews deny it not but mention him frequently with scorn upon this account I should be very vain if I should be operose under this head He must be very ignorant who hath not heard of the sufferings of Jesus His whole life aswell as his latter end was almost a perpetual suffering He was born in a stable and he died upon a Cross He suffered from his first
inconsiderable employments attend upon and publish the Resurrection of Jesus and do also secure the empty Sepulchre from the Jews that they are not able to place another body in the room of that of Jesus which was risen Matt. 28.6 Luk. 24.2 with Joh. 20.12 3. We have a divine Testimony and that a most irrefragable one a Testimony greater than that of men and Angels Our Lord had promised the Holy Spirit who should be with respect to his disciples a Comforter and with respect to our Lord himself an Advocate to plead his cause and defend his innocence Now this promise is fulfilled and this holy Ghost did bear witness to the Resurrection of Jesus After Jesus was risen he breathed on his disciples and said receive ye the Holy Ghost and after his Ascension at the day of Pentecost we find the Holy Ghost more plentifully bestowed on his Disciples And from thence the Apostle argues against them who derided them as those who were full of new Wine that God had raised up Jesus who being exalted had shed forth this which they now saw and heard and afterwards concludes therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ The effusion of the Holy Ghost was a witness of the Resurrection of Jesus And this Testimony of the Holy Ghost was a divine one it was from Heaven St. Peter tells the Jews that God had raised up Jesus and exalted him at his right hand and says he we are witnesses of these things so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him Joh. 14.16 ch 16.7 8 9 10 11. ch 20.22 Act. 2.4 36 ch 5.32 4. Jesus did after his resurrection take away all cause of doubt concerning the truth of his Resurrection He gave sufficient proof that the very same body which was fastened to the Cross dyed there and was buried was raised again to life The Disciples were at first affrighted and supposed that they had seen a Spirit But our Saviour put them out of all doubt Behold says he my hands and my feet Handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have He shews his hands and his feet And whereas at his first appearing to his Disciples Thomas was absent and did not believe that he was risen from the dead and said moreover except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hard into his side I will not beleive our Lord convinced this doubting Disciple and gives him the utmost evidence and assurance of the truth of his Resurrection Reach hither thy finger says Jesus to Thomas and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but beleiving upon which Thomas was convinced and forced to cry out my Lord and my God Our Lord gave his followers insallible proofs of his Resurrection in the space of forty days He are and drank with them exposed his body to their view and touch behold says he my hâ—nds and feet that it is my self and when after this they believed not for joy and wondred he took broiled fish and honey comb and did eat before them Greater assurance they were not capable of Luk. 24.37 39 40 41 42. Joh. 20.25 27 28. Act. 1.3.10.41 Luk. 24.39 40. 5. That the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus was abundantly confirmed by those who were the witnesses of it So it was and it was highly fit it should be so that there were a select number of men who were to be the witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus these were men whom God had appointed and set apart for this purpose and such who upon the account of their knowledge of Jesus and their readiness to part with all for the sake of the truth were sitted and disposed for this purpose Thus St. Peter tells us Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but to witnesses chosen before of God even unto us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead The Apostles were now the witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus this they preach and testifie upon all occasions and this is their Character and their Office Act. 10.41 chap. 1.22 and ch 3.15 and chap. 4.2 33. ch 5.30 32. ch 10.30 31. ch 13.31 chap. 17.18 Now these witnesses did abundantly confirm the truth of this Doctrine which they preached every where both by signs and wonders which God wrought by their hands and by an exemplary and holy life And at last by laying down their lives in confirmation of their Doctrine Upon which account they were witnesses beyond all exception For we cannot beleive that men would part with their lives in Confirmation of a lye or that God would assist them to do miracles for so vile and base an end and purpose and they must be very profligate wretches who would affirm a matter of fact of which they had not good assurance The Resurrection of Jesus was a truth of the greatest moment and consequence whatsoever upon the truth of this our hope and all our Religion does depend It was fit that this truth should be sufficiently attested by persons of undoubted credit The death of Christ was publick the whole multitude were witnesses of his Crucifixion But they were not vouchsafed the honour of being the witnesses of his Resurrection the truth of his Resurrection was too valuable to be concredited to an unconstant and malicious rabble And therefore God who raised up Jesus and shewed him openly or gave him to be made manifest as the Greek hath it did not do it to all the people but to certain select and chosen witnesses These men who conversed with him before his death and after his Resurrection who had known his life and heard his Sermons and been taught by him before that he must dye and rise again these men who had power to confirm this truth with Miracles and were prepared to confirm it with their bloud and did persist in it to their last breath were witnesses indeed beyond all manner of exception I say beyond all exception for there can be no reasonable exception brought against them And if we will give our selves the leisure to consider the thing before us with due application we shall find no cause to except For if there were any such thing it must be because of the thing it self or matter of fact which is attested or the persons who do report it For the thing it self viz. that God raised up Jesus there lies no shadow of reasonable exception against it For that a man should be raised from the dead implyes no contradiction either moral or natural He that beleives that God made the World cannot think it impossible to him to raise a dead man to life again Multò minus
the Messias and to be taken into the Common-wealth of Israel which because it could not be unless they forsook their Idolatry we find the Prophets foretell also that they should put away their Idols Thus the Prophet assures us And the Idols he shall utterly abolish In that day a man shall cast his Idols of Silver and his Idols of Gold which they have made each one for himself to worship to the Moles and to the Bats Isa 2.18 20. And another Prophet tells us It shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord of Hosts that I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the Land and they shall be no more remembred Zech. 13.2 These are very plain words as can be So that it must be in the days of the Messias that the Gentiles should no longer be strangers and aliens from the covenant of grace This difference between Jew and Gentile is now to be removed God will not onely be known in Judah but among all the Families of the earth We find Philo the Jew speaking of God's governing the Universe discoursing to the same purpose Philo Jud. de Agricultura He tells that God rules his creatures according to right and law as a Shepherd and a King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. Setting over them his right Word his first begotten Son who as his Substitute or Vice-gerent of him the great King shall take upon him the care of this holy Flock For it is somewhere said behold I will send my Angel c. Exod. 23.20 That these prophecies were in great measure fulfilled in our Jesus I say in great measure For I cannot but hope that there are still many prophecies relating to the Kingdom of the Messias in this world in great measure to be fulfilled Now if these prophecies are already in great measure fulfilled then is this Jesus the Christ That they were in great measure fulfilled is very evident For though Jesus himself lived and died in Jewry yet did not his Doctrine stay there There he lived indeed but yet in Galilee of the Gentiles not far off from the poor Gentiles whom he came to save also He tells the Jews no less I saith he if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me Joh. 12.32 That is after his death his Doctrine should greatly prevail upon the world so that all men should come after him And thus we find after his death and Resurrection he gives his disciples commission to go and teach all nations Mat. 28.19 or as it is in St. Mark go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 And to that purpose they have the gift of tongues bestowed on them that so they might be able to teach all nations as their Lord had commanded them Act. 2. Now we shall soon find the Gospel preached to the Gentiles we read of the Ethyopian Treasurer and Cornelius the Centurion baptized into the Christian faith But what shall I need speak of them when St. Paul is made a preacher to the Gentiles who tells us of the fruit of his preaching also viz. the obedience of the Gentiles Rom. 15.18 In so much that he is able to say that the Gospel was preached to every creature which is under Heaven Col. 1.23 And his success is so great that the Idolatrous Gentiles turned from Idols to serve the living and true God 1 Thes 1.9 Tertullian tells us in his time Tertull. Apolog. c. 37. those early days of Christianty how far Christianity had prevailed Externisumus vestra omnia implevimus urbes insulas castella municipia conciliabula castra ipsa tribus decurias palatium senatum forum Sola vobis relinquimus templa Cui bello non idonei non prompti fuissemus etiam impares copiis qui tam libenter trucidamur Si non apud istam disciplinam magis occidi liceret quà m occidere Nay the mouths of the Oracles are now stopped which made so great a wonderment in the Gentile world The head of the Serpent that so long had deceived the nations is now broken by the seed of the Woman In a word those Cities and Provinces that lately were full of Idols and Superstition receive the Doctrine of Jesus and with it the worship of the onely true God Nay and 't is not long before we have Christian Kings also in the world So that the Religion of Jesus spreads it self over the world and rides triumphantly and in great conquest like the rider of the white Horse in the Apocalypse that went forth conquering and to conquer But I proceed to shew That this success of the Religion of Jesus is an unexceptionable proof that Jesus is the Christ Not that I would be thought to make success the measure of truth or affirm that the most prosperous cause is always the best For then the Religion of Mahomet would bid fair for the truth and the greatest outrages and rebellions would become innocent and good Success is no certain sign of a good cause and therefore not of the truth of a Religion unless it be such a success as all things considered must onely be imputed to the force of truth and a miraculous providence that makes it prosperous I shall shew then that the success of the Gospel was such as does necessarily infer that Jesus is the Christ and that the Religion which he preached and planted in the world did come from God where as we go along it will be easie for us to understand that Mahumetism can have no share in this argument now it will appear that Jesus is the Christ and also that the Gospel which he and his disciples preached comes from Heaven in a word that the Christian Religion is not onely true but the onely true Religion if we do but well consider its success and progress in the world Now this will appear 1. If we consider the first Authour and first preachers of this Religion and 2. The Doctrine it self and 3. The manner of its spreading in the World 1. For the first Authour or teacher of this Doctrine it was Jesus the Son of a Poor Virgin and the reputed Son of a Carpenter One would have thought him very unlikely to have done any great things He was one that was born in a stable at Bethlehem brought up in the obscure Countrey of Galilee set at nought by his Countrey-men and after many sufferings and calamities condemned to a Cross and hanged among thieves and malefactors where he gave up the Ghost after a short and painfull life He came into the world with no grandeur he made no noise in it and he left it by a death most ignominious and disgracefull And yet did his Doctrine spread and his Religion prevailed against all oppositions and threw down all superstitions and false Religions whatsoever This could not have been if Jesus had not been the Christ I will make use of the words of one of
judge another man as we would escape a severer Judgment our selves It forbids us to be busie-bodies or to intermeddle in other mens matters And is so far from allowing the tongue in lying or swearing that it may not be suffered in an idle word or an unbecoming jest It tells us we must be blameless and harmless and then if it be possible and as much as lieth in us we must live peaceably with all men Unto all this we may add that it will not allow any other Religion The Heathen world must abandon their Idols if they receive the Gospel of Christ They must forsake that Idolatry under which their Fathers prospered long and they were brought up in Diana of the Ephesians must be no longer adored and all her Priests and Silversmiths must be laid aside All Idols must be removed where Christ comes and all the ancient ceremonies and solemnities with which they were worshipped must for ever be disused That which was but now worshipped and had been so of old time must be cast to the moles and to the batts But who shall perswade and obtain this None can do it without the help of that God who made Heaven and earth For here is all the power and malice and cunning of men and Devils to be encountred with The Devil had gotten an old and long possession the Heathen world is strong and mighty cunning and prejudicate of a vast extent and a mighty force Who shall perswade the Greeks to leave off their Robberies and to live righteously Or the warlike Romans to put up their swords and revenge no injuries Who shall obtain of the world to throw away their Idols and receive a Crucified Christ Who can ever hope that those nations that grew to their greatness by bloud and violence should ever learn the way of peace and destroy no more Will they that boasted in doing injuries be taught to bear them Or they that were wont to kill without remorse be afraid of being angry without a cause Will they that were adulterers become afraid of an unchast thought or glance Will the wise and conceited Orators become fools that they may be wise who can expect that they that had as many Gods as territories and provinces should be perswaded to have but one Or that those men that were indulged their lusts by the example of their Gods or the permission of their laws should ever accept of a Religion that is so severe that it requires them all to be rooted out Certainly this will be too great a work for a few Galilileans to bring to pass They might as soon hope to remove mountains and shake all the pillars of the earth yet was this brought to pass and that by the foolishness of preaching also the fierce warriour becomes tame the persecutor becomes a preacher the nations that served many Idols now onely acknowledge the one true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ Now this could never have been done had not God almighty done it nor would he ever have done it had not Jesus been the Christ But it will be the more strange still that this doctrine should prevail if we do but duly consider 3. The Praemia the rewards or the promises of the Gospel to those that should receive it and obey it We shall find them such as were very unlikely to prevail with a wicked and unbeleiving world It promises them no prosperity in this world nor yet any sensual delights in that which is to come as the Religion of Mahomet does And yet these were the things which the Heathen world most admired who always lived by sense and not by saith It promises them no Kingdoms or Consulships no Victories or triumphs no wealth or honours nor yet the pleasures of Wine or Women in a word it is so far from offering to them these things that it teaches them aye and obliges them also to despise all these things to undervalue them to be dead to all these allurements and to mortifie and root out of their Souls all those irregular desires which transport them after any of these things The Gospel promises good things indeed but they are spiritual and so very unlike to obtain upon Carnal men They are good things but they are unseen and so not likely to prevail upon those that live by sense they are good indeed but yet they are removed and at a distance and who could expect the world should deny themselves of their present enjoyments out of the hopes of these spiritual and unseen reversions Who shall perswade the rich to abandon their wealth for the hopes of the Kingdom of Heaven Or who can prevail with the voluptuous to renounce their sensual pleasures out of the hopes of those joyes that are at God's right hand What Rhetorick shall perswade the ambitious man to prefer a future glory before the honours he derives from his Prince or acquires by his valour We find this a very hard matter now when these men profess the Gospel but how much harder must it needs be then when the Gospel was a stranger to the world when it had scarcely any friends and very many and great opposers What is there offered in the Gospel that could tempt an unbelieving world Had it offered riches there might well have been a crowd of covetous worldlings ready to embrace it Had it offered sensual pleasures it would have been welcome to the whole herd of Epicures could it have secured its professors of worldly honours nothing should have been more acceptable to all that were ambitious But here is none of those things to be had but it tells us of things to come and we must have faith to believe them as well as patience to wait for them Now then certainly this Religion which offered no other rewards could never have prevailed upon the world as we know it did had it not been from God and had not Jesus whom we preach been the Christ But this will be the more unlikely still that the Gospel should prevail if we consider 4. The Pericula the dangers and afflictions and many miseries that the embracing the Gospel would expose them to that should entertain it This rises higher and makes the success of the Gospel more improbable than before We saw before that it promises no worldly happiness but now we shall find that it exposes its professors to many miseries and afflictions and tells them sad stories of disgrace and contempt bonds and imprisonment and perhaps death it self It foretells that they which do live Godly shall suffer persecution and that we must through many tribulations enter into the Kingdom of Heaven What I named last brought no temptation to draw the world to this profession but this one would think should bring discouragement enough to affright them from it Instead of promising ease and pleasures it rather brings with it great afflictions and tribulations Jesus tells his Disciples what they must expect The time cometh that whosoever
chains and death it self cannot stop its course It must needs be a good cause that bears up against all the malice the meanaces the punishments that a wicked world could devise or inflict Aye and that persons of all sorts and degrees should seal this Doctrine with their Bloud too young as well as old rich as well as poor people as well as their Teachers women as well as men those that were remote and far distant from one another Nemo gratis malus It cannot be imagined that so many persons of all sorts and so remote from one another should conspire and consent together to bear witness to a lye That they should venture their lives and all that which the world calls good upon an untruth Certainly no man can be so fond as to believe this This Martyrdom of Christians and the growth of Christianity under it is a good proof that Jesus is the Christ and that the Religion of Jesus came from God For certainly had it not been from God it could never have born up from so small a beginning against so mighty an opposition And therefore it was a wise speech of Gamaliel to the men of Israel who were so forward to persecute the first preachers of the Gospel I say unto you says he refrain from these men and let them alone for it this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found to fight against God Act. 5.38 39. And this he well perswades from the destruction of Theudas and his Complices and also of Judas the Galilean and those that obeyed him To which may also well be added this that whoever since hath pretended himself to be the Messias or his forerunner hath been so far from perswading it that he hath indeed come to nought and miserably cheated and abused his credulous followers Thus we know that about two and fifty years after the destruction of the Jewish Temple by the Romans Buxtorf Lexicon Rabbime in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there did arise a certain man that pretended himself to be the Messias and was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of a Star alluding 'tis like to the prophecy Num. 24.17 but this man was destroyed by Adrianus with many thousands of the Jews besides So that now the Jews are not ashamed to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Son of a Lye Maimon Epistol ad Judaeos Massilienses Maimon tells us of another who deceived the poor Jews under a pretence that he was the forerunner of the Messias who having boasted vainly that he should rise again after his death in token that he came from God was beheaded by a certain Arabian King and so perished and left the Jews that gave him credit in great calamity and distress It were a very easie thing to give in an account of the cheats and impostors who have arisen in the several ages of the world Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 4. c. 6. Hieron Catal. Scrip. Eccl in Agrippa Origen contra Cels p. 44. Vorstii observat ad Gantz p. 292. Juchasin fol. 38. Zemah David p. 150. under a pretence of being the Messias or his forerunner by whom the Jews have been miserably imposed upon and deluded from time to time This is reported not onely by the Christian writers but by the Jewish also The Jews have often been frustrated in their expectations and the cheat hath quickly been discovered And they have for many Generations expected their Messias in vain There hath appeared no man under pretence of the Messias or his forerunner but he hath soon come to nought And no wonder for a lye though it may prevail for a while will not obtain long The heat of persecution will fetch off its paint and false colours 'T is truth alone that can endure a Trial. Facile res in suam naturam recidunt ubi veritas non subest A lye may for a little while out-face the truth and prevail upon the easie and credulous part of mankind especially where it meets with no severe and potent opposition but when once the Authours of a forgery are discovered when they are brought to punishment who contrived the cheat and were the abettors of it then it falls to the ground and spreads no farther It hath not power enough to stand up against so great a violence But Christianity prevailed in spight of all the malice and force and combined endeavours of the Devil and all his instruments to root it out CHAP. X. The CONTENTS What was predicted of the Messias was fulfilled in our Jesus This appeared in the birth of Jesus in his Office and Character in his Works in his Sufferings and Resurrection and the spreading of his doctrine The adoreable providence of God in bringing Events to pass This shewed in very many particulars This is a farther proof that Jesus is the Christ IF what hath been said before be duly considered we shall upon sufficient evidence conclude that our Jesus is the Christ and that the Christian Religion came from God Not that I have said all which might have been said in so weighty an argument but that which hath before been insisted upon is sufficient to convince a lover of truth That there was a Messias promised and described in the old Teslament is not contested between the Christians and the Jews nor do the Jews deny that Jesus lived and that he suffered by the hands of their forefathers as we say he did We believe the writings of the old Testament which the Jews themselves acknowledge to be Divine Neither they nor any man living hath any just cause to call in question the authority of the books of the New Testament which give us an account of the birth and life of the miracles and doctrine of the death and Resurrection of the Ascension and intercession of Jesus Here 's nothing reported in these books in it self incredible nothing that is light and trifling nothing unbecoming God nothing against good manners but we have the same reasons to believe the truth of these things which we have for any other History which we do believe without doubting The same we have and much more Allowing then but the truth of the matter of fact which we have no shadow of reason to call in question it will abundantly appear from what hath been said that Jesus is the Christ For there was not a word that fell to the ground which was predicted of the Messias but it was fulfilled in our Jesus There was nothing so minute or small but it was accomplished and fulfilled Let us to this purpose recollect those particulars mentioned before and consider their exact accomplishment in our Jesus I will begin with his birth We find that the first promise which was made of the Messias was under the Character of the seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 And this Woman was to be a Virgin also according to
of Jesus was contemned and reproached for the meanness of his birth the poverty of his condition or freedom of his conversation and afterwards for the ignominy of his death But this sin did not exclude the possibility of repentance and the hope of pardon Here 's pardon for every sin the Gospell invites and receives the vilest sinners but shelters them not if they continue to wallow in their mire We may learn what sins have been forgiven from the words of the Apostle Such were some of you but ye are washed 1 Cor. 6.9 11. c. They had been Fornicatours Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners Such the Christian Doctrine found them but it did not leave them such They were cleansed of these impurities They were washed sanctified and justifyed in the name of the Lord Jesus Tit. 3.3 5. and by the Spirit of our God It was a wretched plight in which the Gospel found men when it first advanced in the world They were foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another Good God what a wretched condition was this How was thy Creature made in thine own Image deformed What a darkness and disorder hath spread it self upon the intellectual world Men retained the same shape and figure that they had from the beginning They were of an erect or upright stature They were not overgrown indeed with horns and hoofs and claws but otherwise they were at best but brutes in humane shape Their manners were crooked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. their minds were bowed down to the ground they were salvage and ravenous as wolves and bears But were these Creatures out of the reach of this mercy tendered in the Covenant of Grace By no means These men were saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Our Lord came to call sinners to repentance And the greatest sinners were pardoned Those who had worshipped Idols who had been possessed by Devils and who had persecuted the Church of Christ In a word by our Jesus Act. 13.39 all that believe are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses It is true indeed that our Saviour hath said Matt. 12.32 that whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him And it is the onely sin which is excepted Those words of our Saviour if rightly understood are no objection of weight against what hath been said before viz. that the Gospel affords a pardon for all manner of sin For this supposes that men assent to the truth of the Christian Doctrine and embrace it Now that sin against the Holy Ghost of which our Saviour speaks is of such a nature as supposeth the person guilty of it to be one who not onely does not assent to the truth of the Christian Doctrine but resists the Evidence and Confirmation of it which was effected by the Holy Ghost and does calumniate and blaspheme the Divine Authour of that Evidence Those Pharisees who imputed what our Saviour did to the Prince of the Devils did not believe the Doctrine of Christ Nor can any man who assents to the truth of the Christian Doctrine be guilty of that sin against the Holy Ghost of which our Saviour speaks The Holy Ghost in that place is not considered as the Third person of the Trinity and the authour of holiness in us in which respect every act of profaneness might in some sense be called a sin against the Holy Ghost but is considered there as a Witness to the truth of the Christian Doctrine And upon that account that blasphemy is said to be unpardonable He that was guilty of that sin was one who rejected the Christian Doctrine It is no disparagement to the most effectual Medicine in the World that it does not cure that diseased person who refuseth to apply it The Gospel affords a pardon for every sin but there is no hope for him who rejects it It was a charge of old against Christian Religion that it invited and gave hope of pardon to the most profligate sinners Origen contra Celsum l. 3. Celsus long agoe objected it against our most Holy Religion He says that in other mysteries the profane were dismissed and none was called in but he who had pure hands who was wise in speech free from vice c. But says he among the Christians are called in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whoever is a sinner a fool or childish or miserable such says he does the Kingdom of God receive But as Origen answers well these vile men are not presently admitted to the participation of the mysteries of this Religion but to the Cure which it works upon them It gives them pardon upon their amendment The Jews from their Sacrifices had hopes of pardon but they were but faint hopes if compared with what we have under the Gospel of Christ God hath given us the utmost assurance For 1. He hath given up his beloved Son to death 2 Cor. 5.7 Joh. 1.29 1 Pet. 1.19 Eph. 5.2 Rev. 1.5 Heb. 12.24 Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us He was that Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World Here 's a Sacrifice without spot of an infinite price and value a Sacrifice of a sweet-smelling Savour A Sacrifice which God provided and accepts Our Saviour hath washed us from our sins in his own bloud We are by the Gospel brought to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel The bloud which Jesus shed does not onely speak better things than the bloud of the Legal Sacrifices ordained by the hands of Moses but also better than the Sacrifice which Abel offered up Heb. 11.4 with Gen. 4.4 For though Abel were a righteous person though he offered a more excellent Sacrifice than his brother and God did declare his acceptance of his sacrifice by a visible token from Heaven Though Abel offered his Sacrifice by faith and be justly celebrated among the worthies and the faithfull Though God bore witness to his righteousness and though he being so long since dead yet he speaketh yet for all this the bloud which he offered is not to be compared with the bloud of Jesus And could any thing have been said more to the advancing the value of the bloud of Christ And its efficacy to procure our pardon than that it speaks better things than that of Abel Heb. 9.12.25 Heb. 10.2 ch 9.13 14. 2 Cor. 5.15 Heb. 2.9 Joh. 3.17 This Sacrifice need not be repeated as the Legal Sacrifices were This Sacrifice ' purges the Conscience the legal ones did but sanctify to the purifying of the flesh This Sacrifice is of value sufficient to procure pardon for the whole race of mankind and is not confined in its virtue