quite conttary to this is so far from such like Tyranny and cruel and handling of others that to satisfie us concerning the justly-suspected wrath of his Father he undergoes all this load himself to win us off to a more perfect and chearful Obedience to his holy Precepts by so great and sensible an Engagement The weight and power of his Scepter being mainly to be felt in the sense of Love which is the strongest â—ie imaginable even to natural Ingenuity But the power of the old Serpent was exercised in fear and terrour and despightfull scorn upon poor distressed mankind There being this great advantage therefore of winning of the Hearts of men from the Kingdome of Darkness to the power of God by Christ's afflictions and sufferings it is no wonder that he submitted himself to them though they were so unspeakably grievous 2. And indeed what can be imagined more grievous then that lively Representation of his bitter Passion unless the Passion it self When in the Mount of Olives at his devotions he was in such an Agony that he sweat as it were great drops of bloud that fel from his face to the ground Besides the despightfull mockings and spittings in his face with cruel and bloody scourgings The consideration whereof would drive a man to any hardship to approve himself faithfull and thankfull to so loving a Saviour What then will the contemplation of his direfull and Tragical Crucifixion where so Divine a person nay where the Son of God in the flesh being disgracefully placed betwixt two thieves his holy and spotless Humanity was so deeply pierced with the present sense and real Agony of Death that the weight and burthen thereof enforced him to cry out Eloi Eloi My God My God why hast thou forsaken me And here he may appeal from the Cross to all the World in the words of Ieremiah Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow 3. Which Sorrow and Passion had it not been as real and as great as it is recounted how slight and ludicrous a matter would the Mystery of Christianity be How prophane therefore and execrable are those wretches that would turn that to the disgrace of Christ which is the Glory of the Gospel as if our Saviour was less Perfect by being thus Passive and so sensible of pain But it is plain that these bold and insolent Enthusiasts which boast so much of Perfection as to equalize themselves or their blind guides with Christ nay prefer them before him I say it is plain they are so ignorant that they doe not know in what the true Perfection consists 4. For I have already declared That in the person of Christ that only which was truly Divine was to have the triumph and victory unassisted with any thing that is precious and praise-worthy in the eyes of the world And the true Perfection approveable before God is found only in that which is Divine not Natural or Animal such as would be applauded by a mere Carnal man And such is Stoicism and Spartanism a power as well relished by wicked men and Apostate Angels nay I may say better then by the holy and regenerate And it is an Exercise of far greater Faith and Obedience to the Divine will to undergoe pain and affliction when it searches us so deep and stings us so vehemently then when by any forced Generosity and Stoutness of Spirit or any Natural or Artificial helps whatsoever we bear against the sense thereof and quit our selves in this heat and stomachfulness as if we were invincible and invulnerable Champions 5. If it had fared thus with Christ at his Death the Solemnity of his Passion had been lost Indeed it had been no Passion nor would have caused any in them that read the Story But his Sufferings being so Great and so Real as they were it is the greatest Attractive of the Eyes and Hearts of men towards him that could possibly be offered to the World Which himself was very well aware of and did foretell it in his life-time When I am lifted up I shall draw all men unto me 6. Which Effects of his Passion those Miraculous Accidents that attended it seem also to presage For what was that rending of the vail of the Temple from the top to the bottome at Ierusalem what were those Earthquakes in more remote places out of Iudea and the torn or cloven Rocks but a Presage how the Earthly Minds and Stony Hearts of all men in time as well Iews as Gentiles would be shaken and broke in pieces with sorrow and grief at his Sufferings who is the Saviour of the World Nay what did the Sun the very life and Soul of the natural world what did that deliquium or swounding fitt of his betoken but that this sad spectacle of the Crucifixion of Christ would so empassion the minds of all ingenuous men and so melt their Hearts with love affection to this universal Saviour that they would willingly die with him that they might also live with him and rejoice with him for ever in Heaven 7. I speak not this to exclude other Significations of these Prodigies For they may also have their truth and use as well as these especially some of them as That of the Eclipse of the Sun which may also signifie that the true light of the world he that was termed by the Prophet The Sun of Righteousness was then a suffering and That of rending the vail of the Temple which no question denoted the rescinding of the Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies and the abrogation of the High-Priests office Christ now having taken away the partition-wall and given every Believer free access to the presence of his Father by his own Death whereby he has reconciled us to God 8. Which offers us a third Reason why this Passion of Christ should be so Tragical as it was and the weight thereof so unsupportable For he bore then the wrath of God for the sins of the World being smitten as the Prophet speaks for our transgressions and the iniquities of us all were laid upon him that is he was an Universal Sacrifice for all Mankind Which the proud and self-conceited Enthusiast that phansies himself so well within that he contemns all external Religion unless it be of his own invention being not at leisure to consider boldly and blasphemously traduces him for weak and delicate that willingly underwent the greatest pain that ever was inflicted upon any mortal that bore a weight more heavy then mount Aetna and too big for the shoulders of any Atlas to bear 9. As little to the purpose are the leguleious Cavils of some Pragmatical Pettifoggers as I may so call them in matters of Divinity who though they be favourable enough to the Person of Christ and seem to condole his ill Hap that he fell thus into the hands of Thieves and Murtherers yet set no price at all upon his Death no more then upon theirs that died with him accounting his
Bloud as common and unholy as that of the malefactors that were crucified with him the Wrath of God being not all atoned as they say by his suffering because it is unjust that an Innocent man should be punished for those that are guilty But what Unjustice is done to him that takes upon him the debt or fault of another man willingly if he pay the debt or bear the punishment provided that he that may exact or remit either will be thus satisfied 10. But such trivial and captious intermedlers in matters of Religion that take a great deal of pains to obscure that which is plain and easie deserve more to be flighted and neglected then vouchsafed any answer For all their frivolous Subtilties and fruitless intricacies arise from this one false ground That the Soveraign Goodness of God and his kind condescensions and applications to the affections of man are to be measured by Iuridical niceties and narrow and petty Laws such as concern ordinary transactions between man and man But let these brangling Wits enjoy the fruits of their own elaborate ignorance while we considering the easie air and sense of Sacrifices in all Religions shall by this means be the better assured of the natural meaning of it in our own CHAP. XIV 1. That Sacrifices in all Religions were held Appeasments of the Wrath of their Gods 2. And that therefore the Sacrifice of Christ is rather to be interpreted to such a Religious sense then by that of Secular laws 3. The great disservice some corrosive Wits doe to Christian Religion and what defacements their Subtilties bring upon the winning comeliness thereof 4. The great advantage the Passion of Christ has compared with the bloudy Tyranny of Satan 1. HOW General the Custome of Sacrificing was in all Nations of the World is a thing so well known that I need not insist upon it and That their Sacrifices were accounted an Appeasment of the Wrath of the Gods and Expiation for their faults is also a Truth so conspicuous that it cannot be denied Hence these Sacrifices we speak of were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Placamina Februa Piamina Much of this nature you may read in Grotius De Satisfactione Christi cap. 10. where he does not only make good by many Expressions and Examples That the Sacrifices of the ancient Heathen pacified the Anger of the Gods but also which is nearer to our purpose That the Punishment of those that were thus reconciled and purged was transferred upon the Beast that was sacrificed for the clearing whereof he alledges many citations and these two amongst the rest One out of Cato Cum sis ipse nocens moritur cur victima pro te Since thou thy self art guilty why Does then thy Sacrifice for thee die The other out of Plautus Men ' piaculum oportet fieri propter stultitiam tuam Ut meum tergum stultitia tuae subdas succedaneum that is to say Is it fit that I should be made a piacular Sacrifice for your foolishness that my back should bear the stripes that your folly has demerited 2. Wherefore this being the sense of the Sacrifices we speak of in all the Religions in the World it is more fit to interpret the Death of Christ who gave himself an Expiation for the sins of the World according to that sense which is usual in the mysteries of Religion then according to the entangling niceties and intricacies of secular laws 3. But as for those busie and Pragmatical spirits that by the acrimonie of their wit eat off the comely and lovely gloss of Christianity as aqua Fortis or rather aqua Stygia laid on polish'd metal what thanks shall they receive of him whom yet they pretend to be so zealous for the most winning and endearing circumstances of his exhibiting himself to the World being so soiled and blasted by their rude and foul breath that as many as they can infect with the contagion of their own Errour Christianity will be made to them but a dry withered branch whenas in it self it is an aromatick Paradise where the Senses and Affections of men are so transported with the Agreeableness of Objects that they are even enravished into Love and Obedience to him that entertains them there And nothing can entertain the Soul of man with so sweet a Sorrow and Joy as this Consideration That the Son of God should bear so dear a regard to the World as to lay down his life for them and to bear so reproachfull and painfull a Death to expiate their sins and reconcile them to his Father 4. But this is not all the Advantage he had to win the Government of the World unto himself For not only his exceeding Love to Mankind was hereby demonstrated but the cruel and execrable nature of that old Tyrant the more clearly detected For whereas the Devil who by unjust usurpation had got the Government of the World into his own hands tyrannizing with the greatest cruelty and scorn that can be imagined over Mankind thirsted after humane bloud and in most parts of the World as I have already shewn required the sacrificing of men which could not arise from any thing else but a salvage Pride and Despight against us This new gracious Prince of God's own appointing Christ Iesus was so far from requiring any such villainous Homage that himself became a Sacrifice for us making himself at once one Grand and All-sufficient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Piamen to expiate the Sins of all Mankind and so to reconcile the World to God CHAP. XV. 1. An Objection concerning the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviour's Passion from it s not being recorded in other Historians 2. Answer That this wonderfull Accident might as well be omitted be several Historians as those of like wonderfulness as for example the darkness of the Sun about Julius Caesar's death 3. Further That there are far greater Reasons that Historians should omit the darkness of the Sun at Christ's Passion then that at the death of Julius Caesar. 4. That Grotius ventures to affirm this Eclipse recorded in Pagan writers and that Tertullian appeal'd to their Records 5. That the Text does not implie that it was an universal Eclipse whereby the History becomes free from all their Cavils 6. Apollonius his Arraignment before Domitian with the ridiculousness of his grave Exhortations to Damis and Demetrius to suffer for Philosophy 1. WE have seen how Reasonable the History of Christ's Passion is neither do I know any thing that may lessen the Credibility of it unless it be the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun Not that the Eclipse it self is so incredible but that it may seem incredible that so wonderfull so generally-conspicuous an Accident of Nature should be recorded by none but by the Evangelists themselves Learning and Civility in those times so universally flourishing and there being no want of Historians to recount such things This Objection makes a great shew at first but
Formalist perceiving nothing of pleasure and sweetness in Holiness and Vertue in himself if he observe others much devoted thereunto that he must judge them to make use of those things for some other more pleasant enjoiment as Praise and Applause or a future Reward and that they are not delighted with the things themselves Whenas certainly a true member of Christ and one really regenerate into his Image could no more cease from pleasing himself and enjoying himself in the sense and conscience of this Divine Life and the results thereof all holy and becoming actions then the Natural man can cease from the enjoiments of the Body though he knows ere long his Body shall afford him no more enjoiments And yet I must also add That it is the next door to an Impossibility that one that is become thus Divine should not have his Heart fully fraught with the most precious hopes of future Immortality and Glory He asked life of thee and thou gavest him even a long life for ever and ever 16. I have now finished my Parallelisme betwixt the Revilements cast upon our Saviour and those that his truest Members may be obnoxious to Which pains I think I have not at all misplaced they tending only to the stopping of the mouths of carnal Censurers and the animating sincere Christians that they may not be discouraged from following so excellent an Example by the affronts and reproaches of the World but that they may know their own Innocency Safety and Freedome while they keep in the true way that is in Christ the Son of God who making us free we become free indeed that is free from the deceits of our own lusts and free from the awe and terrour of imperious and superstitious men that would obtrude their own Errours upon us with as much earnestness and make them as indispensable as the infallible Oracles of God We having therefore spoken what things we thought most requisite concerning The Example of Christ we proceed now to his Passion which is the fifth Power of the Gospel CHAP. XV. 1. The Passion of Christ the fifth Gospel-Power the Virtue whereof is in a special manner noted by our Saviour himself 2. That the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness was a prophetick Type of Christ and cured not by Art but by Divine Power 3. That Telesmatical Preparations are superstitious manifest out of their Collections that write of them 4. Particularly out of Gaffarel and Gregory 5. That the Effects of Telesmes are beyond the laws of Nature 6. That if there be any natural power in Telesmes it is from Similitude with a confutation of this ground also 7. A further confutation of that ground 8. In what sense the Brazen Serpent was a Telesme and that it must needs be a Typical Prophecie of Christ. 9. The accurate and punctual Prefiguration therein 10. The wicked Pride and Conceitedness of those that are not touched with this admirable contrivance of Divine Providence 11. The insufferable blasphemy of them that reproach the Son of God for crying out in his dreadfull Agony on the Cross wherein is discovered the Unloveliness of the Family of Love 1. AND truly this fifth Gospel-Power the Passion of Christ is of so great efficacy and concernment that our Saviour seems with more then ordinary delight to have ruminated on the wonderfull effects that it would have in the world John 12.32 And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me signifying thereby what death he should die as the Text witnesses This shews what a powerful Engine our Saviour himself thought his Death would prove to draw all the World after him Which is a demonstration that the Mind of a Christian ought to dwell very much in the meditation of the Death and Passion of Christ. The use whereof appears in another intimation of our Saviour's though more Typical yet the Analogie is so plain that no man can miss it John 3. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so shall the Son of man be lifted up That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life This is so perfect a Representation of our Saviours Passion that I cannot but blame my self for not entring it amongst other Prophecies that I alledged for the Messiah's suffering 2. And it will still appear more plainly that it was intended a Prefiguration or Typical Prophecie of Christ if we consider that Moses was not put upon it by any natural skill as if the Effigies of this Brazen Serpent did by any power of Art or Nature heal the Israelites of their bitings of the fiery flying Serpent But it was an immediate direction of God by whose supernatural power the cure was wrought As the Authour of the Book of Wisdome expresly has noted namely That he that turned towards that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he styles it the sign of Salvation was not saved by the thing that he saw but by him that is the Saviour of all For beside that the whole mystery of Telesmes is but a superstitious foolery much-a-kin to and dependent of that groundless Pretence of such wonderfull influences as the ancient Pagan Ignorance attributed to the Stars the very matter of this Serpent was inconvenient and improper for this Effect as Interpreters on the place have observed To which I might add that there is not any example of any Telesmes that were ever known to cure the diseasement after this sort that is by only looking thereunto And that those that have been made against Scorpions or other hurtfull Creatures they have chaced them out of the place or killed them upon the Spot but if any one were stung by these venomous Serpents there was a tactual application of the Remedy to him that was hurt 3. And yet I will not so much stand upon this as that the whole business of Telesmatical Preparations is superstitious and that they have no Effect by any natural Virtue or Influence This methinks I plainly discover out of their Collections that seem most pleased in the representing of these Curiosities to the eye of the world in their Writings Gaffarel especially who does with plenty of words but no reason at all endeavour to make us believe that the power of Telesmes is natural but I never knew any cause managed with more slight more loose and more frivolous arguments in my daies But out of his own mouth I shall be able to condemn him and upon these two accounts First in that according to his own Conjectures and Relations the erecting and preparing of these Telesmes is as we contend superstitious or paganically Religious and then secondly That the effects of them where they have any are plainly beyond the power of any natural cause 4. As for the first himself does profess that he is of opinion that the first Gods of the Latines which they called Averrunci or Dii Tutelares were no other then these Telesmatical Images And his reason is
them reproach the person of Christ in his highest Agonies on the Crosse and impute that to a sinful weaknesse and imperfection that was but the due effect of the weight of his Sufferings who bore the Sins of the whole world and made an atonement with God for them Yet because he cryed out in the words of that Psalme which is a lively Prophecie of his Sufferings My God my God why hast thou forsaken me therefore must that Fanatick Fool of Amsterdam and his illuminate Elders that boast so much of Perfection be more perfect then the Son of God himself whose certain appearance in the World is so clearly demonstrated out of the ancient Prophecies of the Old Testament and so manifestly ratified by the Miracles recorded in the New 11. I appeal to all men if Satan himself could vent any thing more despightful and scornful against the endearing sufferings of our ever-blessed Saviour who out of tender love to Mankind underwent those dreadful agonies of Death and waded through the heavy wrath of God for sinners then these Wretches have that would recommend themselves to the VVorld under the false Flourish and Hypocritical Title of the Family of Love whereas by antiquating the use of the Passion of Christ and thus villainously reproaching Christ upon the Crosse they demonstrate to all the world that they have not the least sense or skill in so Divine a Mystery but are wicked Apostates from God who is that pure and Divine Love and Underminers of the Kingdome of his Son Jesus Christ In which neither such high-flown Enthusiasts nor any dry churlish Reasoners and Disputers shall have either part or portion till they lay down those Gigantick humours and become as our Saviour Christ who is the unerring Truth has prescribed like little Children for of such as these onely is the Kingdome of Heaven as the Prince of that Kingdome has declared These therefore he embraced and blessed when he was alive these he dying on the Crosse stretched out his armes to receive to these he wept drops of bloud that they might shed tears for these he was scourged that they might chastise the exorbitancy of their own lusts and evil concupiscences for these he shed his most precious bloud that they might die to Sin and live to Righteousnesse by that power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead This is the Foolishness of the Crosse a Scandal not onely for such as are Unbelievers but even to many of them also that would be accounted zealous and knowing Christians CHAP. XVI 1. The End of Christs Sufferings not onely to pacifie Conscience but to root out Sin witnessed out of the Scripture 2. Further Testimonies to the same purpose 3. The Faintnesse and Uselesnesse of the Allegory of Christs Passion in comparison of the Application of the History thereof 4. The Application of Christs Sufferings against Pride and Covetousnesse 5. As also against Envy Hatred Revenge vain Mirth the Pangs of Death and unwarrantable Love 6. A General Application of the Death of Christ to the mortifying of all Sin whatsoever 7. The celebrating the Lords Supper the use and meaning thereof 1. BUT that this is the meaning of Christs Sufferings that is That we should also suffer in the Flesh and mortifie our sinfull members besides what our Saviour himself has intimated in comparing himself to the Brazen Serpent in the VVildernesse the sight whereof did not onely asswage the pain of them that were bitten but take away the poison whence we may reasonably conclude that the looking on Christ on the Crosse is not onely to heal the Stings of Conscience upon sin committed but to destroy the Poison and corruption of Sin out of us that we may not sin any more is plain in that the Apostles themselves also do urge the Use of Christ Crucified to both those ends and purposes Saint Iohn 1 Epist. chap. 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that you sin not But if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins But this use of the Crosse namely Propitiation and the Peace of Conscience all men catch at There is more need of producing such places as shew the other use thereof for the Mortification of our sins That of Saint Peter 1 Epist. chap. 4. is very expresse For asmuch therefore as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same minde for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God For the time past of our lives may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lust excesse of wine revelling banquettings and abominable Idolatries To which sense he speaks at least as fully Chap. 2. ver 19. For this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the tree that we being dead to Sin should live unto Righteousnesse by whose stripes we are healed For ye were as Sheep going astray but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls What can warrant the use of the Crosse for the cure of sins more plainly then this 2. But we will hear also what Saint Paul saith 2 Tim. chap. 2. ver 11. This is a faithful saying If we be dead with Christ then shall we also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him if we deny him he will also deny us This is most certainly true as well of inward Mortification as of outward trouble and the mention of the death of Christ is to support our Spirits in the enduring of both And Philip. 3. ver 10. That I may know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death viz. That as Christ died upon the Crosse so he might be crucified to the world and all the vain Lusts thereof and those that walk otherwise he cannot but proclaim them enemies to the Crosse of Christ whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame who minde earthly things ver 18. And Galat. 6.14 But God forbid that I should glory save in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ by which the world is crucified to me and I unto the world that is The world is but a dead spectacle to me my affections being dead to it I will close all with that excellent place Rom. 6.3 Know ye not that as
the Divine Wisdome that does not act according to absolute Power but according to the Congruity of the nature of things is to wind off Mankind from the slavery of the Devil and reclaim them from the irregularities of the Animal life to the embracement of the Divine by such a way as is most accommodate to the humane Faculties and Capacities 12. And what do we think could work more kindly upon the Nature of man to disenslave him from the bondage of Satan and to make him close with the Divine life which he had forsaken then to exhibit a very visible Example thereof in some venerable Person who should earnestly exhort mankind to follow his steps and practices and whose Doctrine should be confirmed with sensible Testimonies from Heaven in approbation and exaltation of his person shewing that he is the only Beloved the Darling and Delight of the Eternal God with some such Expression as this from the very clouds This is my beloved Son hear him In brief That his Birth Life and Death should be adorned with such miraculous and supernatural Circumstances that it may be visible to all men that are not willingly blinde that this man was a true and infallible Messenger sent from God Which would be a very forcible battery laid against their outward senses 13. But being that this had been the sadder message by how much more they had been ascertain'd it had been true That they must forsake the exorbitant pleasures of the Animal Life and keep close up to the Divine it was also requisite that they might be assured of a proportionable Reward for so great an Agony as they were to undergoe in mortifying castigating their natural or habitual desires and betaking themselves to the streighter way And therefore it is fit that that Truth that is so obscure and incredible to the generality of men should be made grosly manifest to the meanest capacities I mean the Reward of a blessed Immortality after this Life and the regaining of Heaven or Paradise which lapsed Mankind had lost The Certainty whereof I cannot tell how it may be better assured to them then by the witness of one whom we are sure is infallible and who saies expressly that he came from thence and after Death is to go thither again and does not only tell the World so but proves it to outward sight he being raise out of his Grave after he was perfectly dead and ascending into the Heavens where flesh and bloud cannot inhabit Which is a visible Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality and as feelingly accommodate to the slowest apprehension as if some man of whose honesty the people were indubitably assured should descend from some high Hill where none of the Country had had the hap to have been as yet and should tell them what pleasant Woods and Groves there were there full of all manner of delicious Fruit a true terrestrial Paradise and that it was not so steep or inaccessible as they imagined and therewith should return thither in the very sight of those that questioned the Matter This consideration would reach their very inward Reason and indispensable Interest For they that are the lowest lapsed are not fallen from the sense of their own good and from a desire of everlasting happiness if they find it possible 14. This were enough to make mankinde weary of the Devil 's Tyrannical yoke But in all revolts there ought to be some Head and no person is so fit for such a purpose as he who is able to reward his followers whose Vertues are eminently opposite to the Vices of the Tyrant and whose Rule when he is installed will as little thwart the usual or natural and innocent propensions of the People as may be Wherefore whereas the Devil's Government is notorious for unspeakable Pride Insolency and Cruelty to Mankind as has been at large discovered in those bloudy sacrificings and despightfully misusings of men in a way of Superstition which no man can doubt to have any better Author then Satan himself the Head of this warrantable Revolt must be singularly kind and tenderly and affectionately loving and compassionate to the Generations of men as also very humble and lowly and be so far from requiring such abominable and bloudy homages as the sacrificing of men to him that he would willingly lay down his life for their sake Which must needs prove an unspeakable endearment of the affections of his followers to him and raise in them a more vehement detestation of the Devil's Tyranny But because Love is ineffectual that has no power of doing good this Head becomes the more perfectly compleat if he be found not only so Kind as to be willing to lay down his life for his Subjects but also to be able to save them from all the inconveniences that opposite Power intangled them in whose wages were no better then Eternal death and therefore it was fitting that he should have a power from God of giving Everlasting Life and crowning them with a blessed Immortality at the last day and of saving them from that general Destruction that will in time seize as well on the rebellious Angels as the unreclaimed Souls of men 15. Lastly Those natural innocent Propensions of Mankind are gratified in this Head we speak of if there be such Properties in him as are sutable to their Opinions Practices and Desires in matters of Religion And we know by History that the Heathen were very prone to suspect those that were their eminent Benefactors to have been born of more then humane Race and that they had so high sense of Gratitude toward them that they Deified them after their Deaths and did them divine Honour Adde to this their conceit of the necessity of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the appeasing the Wrath of the Gods and of the convenience of their Dii Medioxumi Wherefore if Divine Providence add these Gratifications also in the choice of the Head she shall appoint for the opposing and beating down the Kingdome of Satan the matter is still more completely fitted and accommodated to the humane Faculties which having been long abused by idle mistakes cannot but be highly transported with joy upon the discovering their true and warrantable Object and so the Nations will finde such a Prince and Leader as the more they behold him and eye him the more they must become enravished by him Divine Wisdome condescending by this contrivance to the utmost curiosity of Courtship to win off poor lapsed Mankind from the Tyranny of Satan to the Kingdome of God 16. This is a short Review of the more Intelligible part of Christianity the Reasonableness whereof I take to be such that I dare appeal to the judgment of any if it be not so worthy of the Divine Wisdome and Goodness and so fitly suited unto the nature and condition of things and the state of men upon earth that it is indispensable but that Providence
many of us as were baptized into the Lord Iesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newnesse of life For if we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death we shall be also in the likenesse of his Resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroied that henceforth we might not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin 3. You see how the most urgent Exhortations of the Apostles to kill and overcome our Lusts are back'd and edged if you will with a reflexion upon the Crucifixion of our Saviour Which allusion if it were no more then that odde perverse Sect which I have so often named would make it who desire to allegorize away the whole History of Christ to a mere Fable as if it were nothing but a mere fictitious Representation of things to be morally transacted in us truly the Argument were nothing For the death of a Ram or a Goat would serve to represent the sacrificing of our sensual Lusts rather better then the death of Christ who was so innocent a person But the stress of the Argument lyes in this That a person not onely so immaculate and innocent but so holy and sacred so honourable and Divine that the Son of the living God declared so from Heaven foretold evidently by the mouths of the most infallible Prophets and that at the distance of so many Ages and undeniably demonstrated to be such by his own Miracles and by that Miracle of Miracles his Resurrection from the dead and his visible Ascension into Heaven in the eyes of his Disciples that this so noble and Divine a Person that this Son of God should in dear Compassion and Love to Mankinde give himself up not onely to a poor despicable beggarly life but be contented to be whipped and scourged and put to a death both painful and shameful with Thieves and Malefactors and this merely to atone the wrath of God and open the gates of Heaven to bewildred mankind that were wandring further and further from their primeval Happiness This is such an Argument as would melt the hardest Heart and awake the dullest Understanding into a quick and chearful apprehension of that duty that so nearly concerns him viz. to be if it were possible more resolvedly willing to die to all his sins and worldly vanities then Christ was to lay down his life to redeem him from them 4. This mighty Power of the Death of Christ is of such invincible efficacy to them that will but seriously dwell upon the Meditation thereof that no strong hold of Sin will be able to resist it no evil and inordinate affection but the consideration of this Passion will calm keep under and utterly subdue The very counting the circumstances of his Sufferings will put us out of conceit even with those Vices that we have most familiarly entertained and still all those Perturbations and Disquietnesses of Minde that the crossest accidents of the World and our own Weakness can expose us to Art thou a lover of money how canst thou abstain from blushing whilst thou remembrest that Covetousnesse betraied and sold thy Saviour for thirty pieces of Silver or refrain from communicating thy goods to the poor when Christ has been so prodigal of his bloud for thee Art thou proud how canst thou but be ashamed to exalt thy self when the onely-begotten Son of God took upon him the form of a Man yea of the lowest sort of men and humbled himself and became obedient to death even the reproachful death of the Crosse that he might teach us Humility that the same minde might be in us that was in him as the Apostle speaks Art thou neglected scorned or reviled Thy Saviour was buffetted mocked and spit upon Are thy Inferiours preferred before thee Barabbas was held a more worthy person then Iesus Are thy friends false to thee Christ was betraied by Iudas with a kisse Dost thou fall from or fall short of thy expected honours Iesus wore no earthly Crown but that of Thorns nor Scepter but a Reed nor any Robe but such as the abusive Souldiers put on him to make legs to him and mock him Art thou traduced for one as not sound in thy Religion Thy Saviour was accused as a Blasphemer What motion therefore or disturbance of Pride shall be able to disquiet thy minde if thou do but reflect on thy Saviours Sufferings 5. And for Envy Hatred and Revenge how canst thou harbour the least touch or sense of them while thou lookest upon him who out of love laid down his life for us even then when we were Enemies to him yea for those very persons that crucified him praying unto God for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do And if thou be transportable into vain Mirth what can better calm that giddy temper then the remembrance of his Sadnesse whose Soul was sorrowful even unto death And if the highest and most searching Afflictions attempt thee what can more strongly arm thy Patience then if thou ruminate on that bitter cup the consideration whereof put thy Saviour into such an Agony that he sweat drops of bloud that fell down to the ground And lastly if Lust and Wantonness do assault thy Soul the most present Remedy is the contemplation of thy dying Lord and Master who with his out-stretched arms on the Crosse to embrace thee presents himself a Corrival in thy strongest Affections Look upon his inclined Head not crowned with roses but wounded with thorns view his half-closed Eyes heretofore filled and beautified with lucid Spirits whose milde motions were the perpetual Interpreters of his Kindness and Compassion to the Sons of men but now overcast with the heavy cloud of Death Kisse his cold and pale Lips and receive his last breath and tell me if thou didst not hear this whisper in it Canst thou love any thing better then me who out of love do undergo this painfull and reproachfull death for thee 6. But what I have appropriated to this foolish Passion of Wantonnesse may equally take place in any inordinate affection and our Saviour may justly expostulate how unkindly how ungrateful he is dealt with when his pretended Disciples refuse to mortifie any lust whatsoever for him who gave up himself to death for them This consideration is so urgent and convictive that none that have the least spark of Ingenuity can be able to resist it And therefore whatever conceited high-flown Fools may imagine of the Cross of Christ and the meditation of his Crucifixion as a thing that may rather fit Children in Christianity then grown men I say it is the great Power of God to Salvation and so long as a man findes any sin in him he is to have recourse
and more full Interpretation of the whole Transaction 11. Some brief touches upon the Prophesies of Christ. 117 CHAP. IX 1. The Miracles of Apollonius compared with those of Christ. 2. His entertainment at a Magical banquet by Iarchas and the rest of the Brachmans 3. His cure of a Dropsy and of one bitten by a mad dog 4. His freeing of the City of Ephesus from the plague 5. His casting a Devil out of a laughing Daemoniack and chasing away a whining Spectre on Mount Caucasus in a Moon-shine night 6. His freeing Menippus from his espoused Lamia 120 CHAP. X. 1. Apollonius his raising from death a young married Bride at Rome 2. His Divinations and particularly by Dreams 3. His Divinations from some external accidents in Nature 4. His Prediction of Stephanus killing Domitian from an Halo that encircled the Sun Astrology and Meteorology covers to Pagan Superstition and converse with Devils 5. A discovery thereof from this prediction of his from the Halo compared with his phrantick Ecstasies at Ephesus 6. A general Conclusion from the whole parallel of the Acts of Christ and Apollonius 122 CHAP. XI 1. A Comparison of the Temper or Spirit in Apollonius with that in Christ. 2. That Apollonius his Spirit was at the height of the Animal life but no higher 3. That Pride was the strongest chain of darkness that Apollonius was held in with a rehersal of certain Specimens thereof 4. That his whole Life was nothing else but an exercise of Pride and Vain-glory boldly swaggering himself into respect with the greatest whereever he went 5. His reception with Phraotes King of India and Iarchas head of the Brachmans 6. His intermedling with the affairs of the Roman Empire his converse with the Babylonian Magi and Aegyptian Gymnosophists and of his plausible Language and Eloquence 7. That by the sense of Honour and Respect he was hook'd in to be so active an Instrument for the Kingdome of Darkness 8. That though the Brachmans pronounced Apollonius a God yet he was no higher then the better sort of Beasts 124 CHAP. XII 1. The Contrariety of the Spirit of Christ to that of Apollonius 2. That the History of Apollonius be it true or false argues the exquisite Perfection of the life of Christ and the Transcendency of that Divine Spirit in him that no Pagan could reach by either Imagination or Action 3. The Spirit of Christ how contemptible to the mere Natural man and how deare and precious in the eyes of God 4. How the several Humiliations of Christ were compensated by God with both sutable and miraculous Priviledges and Exaltations 5. His deepest Humiliation namely his Suffering the death of the Cross compensated with the highest Exaltation 127 CHAP. XIII 1. The ineffable power of the Passion of Christ and other indearing applications of him for winning the World off from the Prince of Darkness 2. Of his preceding Sufferings and of his Crucifixion 3. How necessary it was that Christ should be so passive and sensible of pain in his suffering on the Cross against the blasphemy â—f certain bold Enthasiasts 4. Their ignorance in the Divine life and how it alone was to triumph in the Person of Christ unassisted by the advantages of the Animal or Natural 5. That if Christ had died boldly and with little sense of pâ—in both the Solemnity and Usefulness of his Passion had been lost 6. That the strange Accidents that attended his Crucifixion were Prefigurations of the future Effects of his Passion upon the Spirits of men in the World 7. Which yet hinders not but that they may have other significations 8. The third and last reason of the Tragical unsupportableness of the Passion of Christ in that he bore the sins of the whole World 9. The Legâ—â—leious cavils of some conceited Sophists that pretend That it is unjust with God to punish the Innocent in stead of the Guilty 10. The false Ground of all their frivolous subtilties 129 CHAP. XIV 1. That Sacrifices in all Religions were held Appeasements of the Wrath of their Gods 2. And that therefore the Sacrifice of Christ is rather to be interpreted to such a Religious sense then by that of Secular laws 3. The disservice some corrosive Wits do to Christian Religion and what defacements their Subtilties bring upon the winning comeliness thereof 4. The great advantage the Passion of Christ has compared with the bloudy Tyranny of Satan 132 CHAP. XV. 1. An Objection concerning the miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviour's Passion from it s not being recorded in other Hâ—storians 2. Answer That this wonderfull Accident might as well be omitted by several Historians as those of like wonderfulness as for example the darkness of the Sun about Julius Caesar's death 3. Farther That there are far greater Reasons that Historians should omit the darkness of the Sun at Christ's Passion then that at the death of Julius Caesar. 4. That Grotius ventures to affirme this Eclipse recorded in Pagan writers and that Tertullian appeal'd to their Records 5. That the Text does not imply that it was an universal Eclipse whereby the History becomes free from all their Cavils 6. Apollonius his Arraignment before Domitian with the ridiculousness of his grave Exhortations to Damis and Demetrius to suffer for Philosophy 134 BOOK V. CHAP. I. OF the Resurrection of Christ and how much his eye was fixed upon that Event 2. The chief Importance of Christ's Resurrection 3. The World excited by the Miracles of Christ the more narrowly to consider the Divine quality of his Person whom the more they looked upon the more they disliked 4. Whence they misinterpreted and eluded all the force and conviction of all his Miracles 5. God's upbraiding of the World with their gross Ignorance by the raising him from the dead whom they thus vilified and contemned 6. Christ's Resurrection an assurance of man's Immortality 137 CHAP. II. 1. The last End of Christ's Resurrection the Confirmation of his whole Ministry 2. How it could be that those chief Priests and Rulers that hired the Souldiers to give out that the Disciples of Christ stole his body away were not rather converted to believe he was the Messias 3. How it can be evinced that Christ did really rise from the dead and that it was not the delusion of some deceitfull Daemons 4. The first and second Answer 5. The third Answer 6. The fourth Answer 7. The fifth Answer 8. The sixth and last Answer 9. That his appearing and disappearing at pleasure after his Resurrection is no argument but that he was risen with the same Body that was laid in the grave 139 CHAP. III. 1. The Ascension of Christ and what a sure pledge it is of the Soul's activity in a thinner Vehicle 2. That the Soul's activity in this Earthly Body is no just measure of what she can do out of it 3. That the Life of the Soul here is as a Dream in comparison of that life she is awakened unto in her