become Brothel-houses 2. The holy Jesus wanted not Disciples even among the wise men of the Jews such was Simeon the Just the Scholar of Hillel who was filled with the Holy Ghost and after whose Death that Divine Spirit which inspired the great Synagogue departed from them John the Baptist who not only acknowledged Christ himself but sent his Disciples to him as to that Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world and Gamaliel is said to have followed the Apostles and to have been Simeon's Scholar And St. Paul who was a man of great Repute and Esteem with the Jews and sate at the feet of Gamaliel yet was afterward an Apostle of the holy Jesus and Josephus further informs us that the more sober and serious Jews who were Lovers of the Truth were such as followed Jesus and those that were studious and zealous for the Law sharply rebuked Ananus the High Priest for commanding the Disciples of Jesus to be stoned Object 2. Acts i. 6. Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel It was a current Opinion among the Jews in our Saviours time that the Messias should be a Temporal Monarch and redeem them from the yoke of the Romans as appears from this Question of the Disciples who doubtless spake the general sense of the Jews but they finding nothing in the Attempts and Actions of Jesus tending that way hence they could not believe him to be the promised Messias Answ Christ came into the World such as he was foretold to be that is humble and meek not with the Splendor and Glory of an earthly Prince but poor and despicable a man of sorrows and without form and comliness as it is predicted by Zechariah the Prophet Zech. ix 9. and Isa liii The End and Design of his coming was to appease the Anger of God by devoting himself for the Sins of men to destroy the Kingdom of the Devil and to make one body of Jews and Gentiles of which he himself should be the Head And 't is no way fit and agreeable for such an Undertaking to appear in earthly Splendor and Glory filling the World with Blood and Slaughter like another Alexander or Caesar by the Puissance of mighty Armies Wherefore the holy Jesus being to disseminate and promote the blessed Life of God upon Earth shewed his Divinity more refulgent by Vileness and Contempt his Power by Weakness and Infirmity his Glory by the Scorns of men and his Almighty Life and Virtue by Death and the Grave And if he had otherwise descended from the celestial Mansions than the Scriptures relate Man had entituled himself to part of the Glory of his Undertaking and the more splendid the Divine Life had appeared to outward view with the fainter Lustre had it shone in itself Besides that that Doctrin which Christ was to bring into the World and render acceptable to men by his own Example was quite contrary to the Gratifications of the Animal Life and too vile and base to be essential to the Perfection of Human Nature Object 3. Mat. xxvii 40. If thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross Answ He that came into the World clothed with human Flesh and in the several Actions of his Life manifested himself to be a true Man would now in this last Act keep a Decorum that as he was born into the world like other men partaking really of Flesh and Blood and all the Frailties and Infirmities of Mankind Sin only excepted so he would die like other men and suffer a real Separation of his Soul from his Body that we might be conformable to him in his Death and die unto Sin crucifying all our inordinate Lusts and Affections and descending into the Grave with him by a profound Humility and Mortification which is a sufficient Answer to this insulting Cavil of the Jews that if Jesus were the Son of God he must needs demonstrate it by a miraculous Descent from the Cross CHAP. IV. That-Christianity is every way fitted and accommodated for an effectual Recovery of lapsed and degenerated Mankind TO this purpose we must consider Man as a rational Being endued with Liberty of Will and a Lord of his own Actions and consequently must be treated according to those Faculties and Qualifications bestowed upon him by the gracious Bounty of his Creator And this being the Nature of Man he is not to be dealt withal like a Stock or Stone that is wholly inert and sluggish nor like a Beast that is acted and led only by the impulse of Sense but as indued with Reason and Intellect and capable of discriminating between real Good and Evil and this Principle in Man cannot be forced without the Destruction of his Nature but is allured and drawn by moral Arguments Wherefore the Design of God in the Gospel being to wind men off from Sin to a serious pursuit of Virtue and Goodness he makes use of such Arguments as are most powerful and efficacious for that end and most sutable to the Nature of Man As 1. What can more deter men from Wickedness and Vice than the sober pressing upon them the Consideration of a future day of Judgment wherein the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will impartially look into their Lives and dispose of them according to the moral Frame and Disposition of their Spirits To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality eternal Life But to them who do not obey the Gospel he will recompense Tribulation and Wrath. He that is convinc'd that the Scriptures are the Word of God must likewise believe that though God be patient and long-suffering not willing that any should perish yet he is likewise just and hates all Sin whatever and to convince all unbelieving and Atheistical Persons of his Displeasure against Wickedness and Vice he has appointed a Day wherein he will judge the World a Day wherein Jesus Christ the blessed Son of God shall visibly descend from Heaven accompanied with innumerable Legions of mighty Angels before whose Throne all wicked Men and Devils shall stand with Paleness and Horror expecting the Pronuntiation of that dreadful Sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire which final Doom and Sentence shall presently be executed upon them for through the stupendious Operation of the Son of God the infernal Treasures of Fire shall be opened and an universal Deluge of Flame shall spread itself over the Face of the aged Earth which shall be cleft and riven by terrible Eruptions of sulphureous Matter breaking forth with horrible Rage and Fury from the lower Regions and this together with Showers of Fire raining down from thick and pitchy Clouds shall wrap Universal Nature in a sheet of Flame and complete an external Hell where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched Tell me then O Man thou that thinkest Righteousness but an idle Name on whose hard and stubborn soul a Discourse of another
Destruction of Jerusalem and Lazarus being then alive when the others wrote their Gospels they purposely omitted it lest the reciting and recording so eximious and convictive a Miracle might exasperate the Jews against him and bring him to ruine but being dead St. John might safely transmit it to Posterity in his Gospel Again It is very improbable they would deceive others For Cui bono to what end or purpose or what Design could they aim at in deceiving the World Honours and Preferments they could not expect they being all in the hands of the Pagans or of the Jews their bitter Enemies who hated the holy Jesus with an implacable hatred and for that very reason persecuted all his Adherents nor could they hope for Riches when the Profession of Christianity exposed them to the Loss of all temporal Goods neither could the Gospel be preached without the neglect of mundane affairs But perhaps some will say they imposed upon the World that they might be the Authors of a new Sect But 1. either they believed the Doctrins which they taught to be true or they did not if they did not believe them we cannot easily imagine they should so far forth put off all Humanity and good Nature which they so seriously and frequently inculcate in their Writings as to expose so many thousand innocent Persons to Death upon their Assertion of a Falshood yet if they could be so prodigiously cruel to others would they be so prodigal of their own Blood as to throw it away upon an uncertain Delusion If they thought them to be true as it is most likely they did their Writings shewing that they were in good earnest then 't is certain that it was not the poor and trifling Glory of being the Authors of a new and unheard of Sect but the real Good and Advantage of Mankind which animated and encourag'd them to such an Undertaking 2. It is not the manner of Cheaters to provoke to so many Witnesses as we find the Apostles did St. Paul asserting the Resurrection of our blessed Lord beside the Testimony of the twelve Apostles brings in five hundred upon the Stage at once to confirm the same Truth the major part of which were then alive when he wrote that Epistle 1 Cor. xv Add to this that a Lie is strictly forbidden by their Writings and those that delight in it menaced with eternal Destruction Eph. 4.25 Col. 3.9 Rev. 21.8.3 3. Suppose men could be so wicked yet would the Goodness of God suffer such a Cheat to be put upon the World If we look upon the whole frame of the Christian Religion it is such that the more good any man is the more likely to adhere to it and the most harmless and innocent Persons in the world are most apt to be charmed and overcome by it But surely to them that believe a just and righteous Providence governing the affairs of the World it is apparent that God would not have suffered an Error so universally to prevail nor those who most of all resemble his blessed Nature in Justice Mercy and Compassion to be involved in Obscurity and Ignorance and eternally to perish in a Delusion since he may and acting according to his Nature must necessarily detect it Now because the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God dismantling the Prisons of Death and freeing himself from the Chains and Fetters of the Grave is the great Pillar and Foundation of the Christian Doctrin therefore it will be requisite to wipe off those Spots the mouth of Envy and Detraction hath cast upon it To this end I shall examine that Objection of the Jews who seeing the clear and evident Proofs of the Resurrection of Jesus invented this Elusion of it That his Disciples came by night and stole him away while the watch slept To which the many improbable and unlikely Circumstances it is attended withal will be a sufficient Answer and Reply As 1. how unlikely is it that his Disciples who just before fled every one from him should now resume such Courage as to venture to steal his Body from a Guard of Souldiers 2. It is not likely that all the Watch should be asleep at one time 3. If they were yet 't is hard to imagine that his Disciples should come just at that time 4. How could they roll away the Stone and take out the Body which surely would have made no small noise and yet none of the Guard hear them 5. Suppose they had taken away the Body Quid ex cadavere emolumenti what benefit could they have expected from a dead Carcase would the dead and infamous Body of an Impostor be a sufficient Motive to induce them to deny Friends and Relatives worldly Interests and Profits yea Life itself to maintain his Credit by telling the World a fair Story of his Resurrection if indeed there were no such thing This being then sufficiently evidenced that Christ rose from the dead it is an undeniable Confirmation that all his other Miracles were true And indeed it could not suit with the Justice of God to leave his Soul in Hell or suffer his Flesh to see Corruption For the Innocence of the Lord Christ was bright as the noon-day and all his Sufferings being undergone upon our account and having made a full and perfect atonement for Sin the righteous Providence of God was engaged to raise him up and instate him in that blessedness which he merited for himself by his voluntary Humiliation and Condescent According to what the Apostle affirms of him Acts ii 24. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was not possible i.e. it was not meet suitable or agreeable to the Justice of God that he should be holden of it We have seen the Objection of the Jew and I shall now conclude this Particular by considering what the Heathen and Atheist hath to say against the Resurrection of Jesus and he brings his Exception after this manner If Jesus did really rise from the dead why did he not then shew himself alive to all or at least to the chief Priests and Rulers of the Jews who condemned him to be crucified and not only to his own company and that not constantly to them but like a Spectrum or Ghost appearing and then vanishing away But it is no wonder if impure and Atheistical men do not apprehend the Divine Dispensation of Jesus in the Flesh since there is a perpetual Antipathy between their gross and feculent Souls and the Holy Spirit of heavenly Wisdom but to them that are sincere there is nothing in this instance but may admit of a fair Apology We must know then that the Soul of the Holy Jesus being vitally united to the eternal Logos and never lapsed from the pure and immaculate Regions of Blessedness with the rest of Mankind but so qualifying his Glory as to fit himself for an Union with a terrestrial Body must have even
in these earthly Habitations a very efficacious Principle of Life and Virtue within him which though shut up and constrained by the encumbrances of Flesh and Blood yet shone through the Veil and sometimes broke forth into pure Light and Glory wherefore through the Plenitude and Perfection of this high and exalted Life it so came to pass that in the time of his converse with Mortals before his Death he was not seen alike and after the same manner by all but according to the Measure and Model of their frail Capacities And some such thing Judas who betraid him seems to intimate by giving a Sign to the Apprehenders of Jesus to know him when yet it was true what Christ said that he was daily with them teaching in the Temple And certainly we cannot but think somthing extraordinary to be in the blessed Jesus when the Scripture tells us that the children of Israel were not able to behold the glorious Visage even of Moses when he descended from his converse with God in the Mount Although then in the frailties of his Flesh when he was a Man of Sorrows and had not yet spoiled Principalities and Powers nor died for Sin he suffered himself to be seen of all yet when he had broken the Powers of Hell and rose as a triumphant Conquerour from his Bed of Darkness the Grave he was not then the Object of every mans sight his Divinity being more refulgent when the Oeconomy he undertook in the Flesh was finished but to those who were capable of his Presence he appeared and shewed himself alive to confirm and strengthen their Faith and yet spared their Imbecillity and Imperfection by staying but a little with them at a time For even his Apostles were not all capable of beholding him at all times and therefore he selected Peter James and John who alone were able to bear that glorious Spectacle of his Transfiguration and behold Moses and Elias in their celestial Robes and hear not only their Discourse but the voice which came to them from the clouds And hence we gather that he would not appear to those who insulted over him in his misery and were the Authors of his ignominious Death out of compassion towards them lest they should be struck with Blindness as the wicked Sodomites who sought to abuse those Angelical Personages that were hospitably received into the House of Lot And thus we read that Saul in his Journey to Damascus was struck blind by that excellent Glory which yet became an innocuous and recreating Splendor to St. Stephen a little before his Death CHAP. III. That Christianity contains nothing light and trivial but grave and sober Truths delivered in that decorous and becoming Majesty as well suited with that Blessed Spirit which inspired the Prophets and Apostles THe third Particular to be proved in order to the Declaration of the Excellency of Christianity is that it treats of no small and trifling things but such as are of the greatest importance in the world For what is more noble and generous than that which concerns the Happiness and Welfare of the whole Creation What more sublime and excellent than that which tends to the unmasking the cloudy and obscure face of Providence and discovering the unsearchable Wisdom of God in the harmonious Order and Symmetry of the World But to descend more particularly 1. The Gospel teaches us that the true and genuine Felicity of Mankind is the Participation of the Nature of God That the Souls of men are in an undue and wrong estate in this World that is that their Natures are by some means or other corrupted and vitiated and forced from their proper Bent and Inclinations needs no other confirmation than the great Inquietude and Dissatisfaction they find in the best terrestrial Joys and Delights and their diligent and indefatigable Inquisition after some noble and permanent Good which may be commensurate with the vastness of their Capacities and Desires And although as men come into the World their Animal Powers and Faculties whose proper Objects are the Results of Sense and corporeal Motion are fully awake and usurp the Throne of Reason and Intellect yet those Lordly Powers like an oppressed Prince still lay claim to the Soveraignty and Dominion and whenever any due occasion is offered give an evident proof of their heavenly Birth and Extraction and strive to free themselves from their unjust Captivity and regain their native Liberty and Command And if by a favourable Assistance and timely Aid the Minds of men conquer and suppress the rebellious Passions and Desires of the mortal Body and become in any measure healthy and strong to relish their proper Food and Nourishment and amidst all the flattering Appearances and fine Shows presented to them from this outward World discriminate between real Good and Evil and select true and substantial from false and adulterate Joys they behold with Pleasure and Enravishment a perfect Union and Harmony between whatever Truths shall duly be propounded to them and their rational Natures For the Souls of men being in their general Strictures and Lineaments Intellectual it cannot be but that their highest Felicity and truest Accomplishments must flow from the exercise of their higher and more immaterial Powers and the more spiritualiz'd and refined they are from baser Alloy the more tender and apprehensive are they of whatever is Noble and Excellent and agreeable to the Purity of their Natures Albeit therefore our Faculties be depraved and debased as we appear upon the Stage of this World yet there being in us a strong Propension to return to our first and primitive state out of which we were forced by the unjust Usurpation of Iniquity and Sin Truth and Goodness and all those beautiful Forms and Ideas which shone in our Souls before their unhappy Lapse and Revolt from the blessed Laws and Government of Gods own Life will upon a congruous Proposal renew their antient League and Friendship and conspire the utter Subversion of all irregular Appetites and Desires and reduce the whole Man into a strict Obedience and Observance of the Dictates and Prescriptions of that holy and exalted Principle of Life which being once fully seated and radicated in our Minds and Spirits is alone able to make us perfectly happy and blessed For the Souls of men are not devoid of innate Knowledge but are essentially stored through the gracious Bounty and Liberality of the first and blessed Author of all things with the Principles of all manner of Science and Wisdom whatever and hence cannot but embrace and receive every thing that hath any Cognation and Affinity with those first Inscriptions on their Natures Now the great Happiness Delight and Satisfaction of every degree of Life in the World consisting in and arising from the kindly and agreeable Actings of its chiefest and best Faculties and Capacities and the Nature of Man so far forth as it is capable of moral Good and Evil being made up of such Principles as are
victorious The Spirit of God is no dull and sluggish Principle but a quick and active Life and into whatever Soul it enters it is perpetually cleansing and purifying and refining it till it have wholly extirpated and destroyed whatever beats no similitude with itself and rendred the whole Man an immaculate Temple for the Manifestation of its own glorious Presence Let no man then pretend an invincible Infirmity or that he is fatally bound and enslaved to Sin and Vice for if we would but excite those Powers God has given us and by ardent Breathings invocate the gracious Auxiliaries of Heaven there would be Wonders wrought upon our Souls the Strength of our Corruptions would abate and our furious Passions be restrained and reduced into Discipline and Order 3. The last general Head is the Promise of a future and blessed Immortality in Heaven when this present Life is ended The blessed Jesus while he lived upon Earth did not wholly obscure his Glory in the mantle of Flesh and Blood but gave a notable Specimen of that efficacious Life and Power which as he himself was already possessed of so all those that believe in his Name should hereafter be endued withal which should melt their Corruptible into Incorruption and translate them to the quiet and peaceful Regions of Immortality in his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor which was enough to call off the Thoughts and Cares of men from the trifling Concerns of this World and teach them that there was a better Portion to be expected for all the Sons of God and Virtue in the pure and undefiled Mansions of Heaven where dwells nothing but Truth and Goodness But the most lively and pregnant Evidence of the future Subsistence of our Souls was his glorious Resurrection from the dead whereby as he was declared to be the Son of God with Power so it gives us a full Assurance and convictive Demonstration even to outward Sense that the comfortless Chambers of the Grave shall not for ever detein us but that when he who is our Life shall appear and summon Earth and Sea to deliver up their dead and open the secret Receptacles of Souls then shall all holy and righteous Persons appear with him in Glory and take possession of their long expected Joy and receive the just Recompence of all their Pains and Labours an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved by a gracious Providence in the Heavens for them All Power is committed into the hands of Christ who hath vanquished Death and Hell and captivated all the Powers of Darkness and begotten us to a lively Hope that when we shall put off our Mortality and be released from all terrestrial Pressures and Incumbrances he will cloth us with an heavenly Body like unto his own Body of Light and Glory But lest we should undo ourselves with fruitless Expectations and flie to Heaven in our vain Dreams of Salvation before our sincere Conformity to Gods blessed Will and Commands has rendred us capable of that pure and holy State fancying we can read our Names written among the Stars before we have learnt the Precepts of a holy Life God hath annexed Conditions of Obedience to all his Promises and resolved that no man shall be crowned but he that with Courage and Perseverance maintains the War against Sin and Hell And indeed the Reward that is promised to all virtuous Persons in the Gospel hath so great Affinity and Agreement with Holiness the Condition of it that in the Nature of the thing itself he cannot be capable of the one who is not aforehand invested with the other For what is Heaven but a state of spotless Love and Purity where no Envy nor Malice straitens and contracts the boundless and enlarged no clouds of Passion or disordered Lust obscure the Brightness of that eternal Day where the Sun of Righteousness neither rises nor sets upon the Horizon of Time but remains Vertical for ever And now what Concord can possibly be imagined between such transcendent Beauty and Glory and the Deformity and Ugliness of the Frame and Temper of an unrighteous mans Spirit where every thing lies cross and untoward and his unruly Desires like the boisterous Waves enraged by a sudden Storm sweep the bottom of his polluted Soul and throw up so much Mire and Dirt that it defaces whatever is comely and leaves not the least Emblem of Heaven to be discerned in it This is the grand importance of the Promises of the Gospel which is enough to demonstrate the prudent Care and dear Affection of the Son of God to the Children of Men and a sufficient Manifestation of the great Ingratitude and Unworthiness of those who do not believe in him that it is not the Want of Reasons or convictive Arguments but their own careless and wretchless Neglect of Consideration that makes them deaf to such Charms of Love and stupid and unmindful of so important Interests But men seldom want Objections against that which they have no mind to believe against this therefore 't is said That if the Promises of that eternal Reward Christ has made to us in the Gospel be so framed as to be inevident to men and leave them place of doubting it will be no such great Crime in wicked Persons not to believe those Promises and so not to embrace them To this I say 1. That the Gospel leaves no such place of doubting as to make Infidelity or a Disbelief of it excusable For Unbelief can then only be excusable when there are really wanting such Arguments as may beget Faith in a rational and unprejudic'd Person But the Gospel and the Promises thereof being sufficiently confirmed by such prevalent Reasons as are apt to acquire Belief and Credence from an unbias'd Nature the pretended Inevidence where there is no just Cause or Suspicion of Doubting cannot at all patronize Infidelity nor be a reasonable ground to act contrary to what Belief would otherwise incite them It s true were the Arguments for the Disbelief of the Promises of Life and Salvation equal to and strong as those that perswade us to the Belief of them there would be some Colour and Appearance of Reason for rejecting them but when there can be no such Doubting or Fluctuation of Judgment as proceeds from an Equilibration of Arguments on both sides it is impossible that Infidelity should have any rational Apology For what can be more convictive than to have some holy and divine Person come into the World who should by many infallible Miracles Wonders and Signs give an evident Proof that he came from God and for a full Confirmation of his Doctrin rise from the dead the third day after the suffering a painful and ignominious Death and to shew that he was no Spectrum or illusive Phantasm conversing with his Disciples for the space of forty days and afterwards ascending in their Presence into the highest Heavens there to rule and govern his Church till the End of