but continued blinder than the Egyptian Magicians when it did so many wonders would shut their eyes against any other means of conviction which could not be expected it must also be remembred because God himself had no higher evidence to give them than this of his SPIRIT But then you must not understand this speech of our Saviour as if he meant that those persons to whom he spake these words had run themselves at that instant into this unpardonable sin but that if they still proceeded to blaspheme it when the SPIRIT had finished its testimony that is done all those things which still were behind for their conviction then they would fall into it and remain in it irrecoverably For you must remember that under the word SPIRIT is comprehended the power that raised Christ from the dead and presented him to God in the Heavens that he might receive of him the promise of the Holy Ghost which he shed upon the Apostles abundantly as a witness of his Resurrection and glorious Exaltation If after this that Jesus was risen again from the dead ascended into Heaven and showed himself to be there by sending the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles they did not believe but still blasphemed the holy name of Jesus and the SPIRIT of God saying That they were drunk who were filled with the Holy Ghost as here they said Jesus had a Devil then they were uncapable of obtaining remission of sin because there was nothing more to be done for their conversion but they must be abandoned to the hardness and impenitence of their hearts This I am sure must be the meaning because our Lord himself after he had pronounced the Pharisees unpardonable who spake against the SPIRIT whereby he cast out Devils tells them expresly that there was one sign more remaining to convince them which is a demonstration they had not yet sinned incurably nor could not till that sign was past and that was the sign as you heard of the Prophet Jonas ver 39 40. which he grants them again xvi 4. should not be denied them Now every body understands by this His Death and Resurrection with those things that followed upon it the sending of the Holy Ghost to enable his Apostle to go and teach all Nations as Jonas went after he came as we may say out of his grave and preached to the great City Nineveh But then this was still the SPIRIT that was thus continued to them by that our Lord being raised and it working wonders also at his Death which if they continued to resist when it had fully done the whole office of a witness and was all poured forth then they were under the absolute sentence of condemnation In brief To blaspheme the SPIRIT in this comprehensive sence of the Word including the Resurrection and that which followed to prove it was the unpardonable sin and none else And thus our Saviour's meaning is to be expounded if one should speak a word against the Son of man that is Him despising him because of his poor Parentage and calling him the Son of a Carpenter or some such name this though blameable might be pardoned propter corporis vilitatem as S. Hierom speaks because of the meanness of his outward appearance Nay if a man proceeded so far as to call him a glutton a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners this also might find pardon because he did not hitherto speak evil of the works proper to a God but only of those belonging to a man And more than this should he call him deceiver or seducer when he heard him teach the people it would not be unpardonable because no man is to be believed merely upon his own word But if when these men saw the mighty works of the SPIRIT justifying his preaching to be Divine they still continued to speak evil of him this was a very dangerous blasphemy because they could not after this call him a seducer or false Teacher but they must reproach the holy SPIRIT as well as him and call that the work of the Devil which was performed by the power of the Spirit of God And if when the HOLY GHOST was come from Heaven upon the Apostles witnessing that he was quickned by the SPIRIT and by the same SPIRIT presented to God in the Heavens they still went on to speak evil of him then there was no hope of remission because they blasphemed the last remedy for their recovery which was the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven to perswade them to repent and believe on his name And that we must take our Saviour in this sence is further apparent from the name of the HOLY GHOST which he uses when he speaks of this unpardonable sin never calling it the blasphemy against the SPIRIT but always the blasphemy against the HOLY GHOST which you know was not as yet given when our Saviour spake these words In the beginning of this discourse xii Matth. 28. he mentions only the SPIRIT But then coming to describe the danger of blaspheming it he doth not say that the blasphemy of the SPIRIT simply that is of those present works of his was unpardonable but that the blasphemy against the HOLY GHOST when it was come should never be forgiven Which must needs be understood as I have already argued concerning the contempt and reproachful usage of those following witnesses the Resurrection Ascension and the preaching of the Apostles endowed with power from on high because though the SPIRIT now wrought among them yet the HOLY GHOST was not come to be his ADVOCATE and plead his cause and therefore could not as yet be blasphemed by them By HOLY GHOST then in our Saviour's language here I suppose is meant all that was left still to be done for his Justification and that it is so wide a word in this place as to include in it the SPIRIT also For he was speaking before of the SPIRIT and therefore when he alters the phrase he doth not leave out the testimony of that but imbraces it within the compass of a larger word which it was necessary to use that he might show when that sin which they had begun in a desperate manner would be so complete that it could never be undone And that was when the HOLY GHOST had consecrated the Apostles to their great office which supposes his Resurrection and filled them with all Divine gifts among which you know was a power xiv John 12. to do greater works than these which our Saviour is here speaking of called the SPIRIT Then if they did not believe there was no remedy but they must perish in their infidelity But till then they to whom our Saviour speaks were not arrived at this hopeless condition because they had hitherto only blasphemed the SPIRIT not the HOLY GHOST which was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified But when it was given and they reproached that as they had done the SPIRIT then they were under irrecoverable condemnation
No man then had the impudence to deny the Eclipse of the Sun the Earthquake the rending of the veil of the Temple and the rest of the astonishing things that then hapned The first of them is mentioned by a Pagan-writer and though the Apostles published both that and all the other continually yet there is no book either of Jew or Gentile who were enemies great enough to his Religion that goes about to disprove them And as for his miraculous works they were generally done openly at Feasts in the Synagogues on the high-ways and were so commonly talkt of that the Rulers feared all the world would run after him xii John 19. Therefore the Apostles could not falsifie in the report of these things but they might be easily confuted Which no man ever attempted but both Jews and Gentiles acknowledged that he wrought Miracles for his Apostles also wrought them every where and so did their Successors in some Ages after To these the Ancient Christians appeal as an undoubted testimony to their Faith which they could not be so silly as to mention were there any dispute whether there had been Miracles wrought or no. His Resurrection also was attested by Five hundred people who saw him together at once and it was proved beyond contradiction by the strange descent of those miraculous gifts upon his Apostles according to his promise Which came upon them also at a Feast when all the Nation though living in far distant Countries were assembled together and a great company of Proselytes also and devout people were present to be witnesses of it Yea the Apostles themselves as is notoriously known went over all the world and openly showed the power of Jesus which was in them Now if all these be true Witnesses or rather if you grant there were such Witnesses which no sober man can deny they being visible here on Earth in the company of so much people there can be no doubt remaining of this that Jesus is the Son of God They proclaim this so loudly with one voice that S. John had reason to say We beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father They beheld it in his Preaching and Life they beheld it in his bloudy Death but especially in the power of his SPIRIT both before he died and in raising him up from the dead and they beheld it also when they were with him in the holy Mount and had the Testimony of the rest of the Heavenly Witnesses Which were heard on Earth though they were in Heaven as men of high quality and of unblemished integrity with the hazard of all they had did constantly affirm And though some of those Heavenly Witnesses might not be believed so much at the first which is the cause I suppose that our Saviour bids his Apostles as you have heard not declare what the voice from Heaven said till after his Resurrection xvii Matth. 9. yet when they had received such great testimony that they were good men and men of God by having the Holy Ghost bestowed on them to bestow upon others also and when by this they were able to demonstrate his Resurrection then all the rest that they alledged as a proof that he was the Son of God did highly merit belief also and there was no reason to suspect the truth of such reports as were verified in so authentick a manner For with great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus iv Acts 33. And the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus was a powerful Witness that there was nothing so great said of him by the voices from Heaven but it ought to be received as the undoubted truth of God Who at sundry times and in divers manners testified to his Son Jesus that by some means or other the most obstinate hearts might be convinced and those tongues which blasphemed him might confess him to be the Lord. A PRAYER ALL thy works praise thee O holy Jesus they all show the greatness of thy power and declare thee to be the Lord. All thy Saints therefore ought to bless thee and to speak good of thy Name who didst manifest forth thy glory in such miraculous works upon Earth and art now crowned with such glory and honour in the Heavens Great was the glory of that Almighty love which gave health to the sick feet to the lame eyes to the blind and life to the dead How gloriously didst thou triumph over the Devil and all the powers of darkness declaring thy self to be the Redeemer of the World by delivering those who were oppressed by him Great was thy Majesty and therefore greatly to be praised Those triumphs ought to have been attended with the most joyful shouts of Praise and Thanksgiving to thee as the Saviour of men and the Lord of Men and Angels All that saw thy wonderful works ought with never-ceasing love to have glorified thee the great Lover of mankind the Repairer of our ruines the Restorer of our happiness our mighty Deliverer from all our Enemies and the inexhaustible Fountain of life and all other good things which thou every where dispensedst to them How ought all our hearts now to overflow with love to thee the blessings of whose goodness so overflowed in all places that none can tell the number of them Especially when we remember how by the mighty working of the same Spirit which glorified thee so on Earth thou art raised from the dead carried to Heaven set at the right hand of God and made the King of glory This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes This is the sovereign Balsam of all our wounds This is our solace and comfort in the greatest troubles This raises our Spirits when they are oppressed and gives us life in death it self Be thou honoured and acknowledged by me and by all mankind with the humblest the most hearty and affectionate devotion to thy service Be thou ever praised as much as thou wast reproached and blasphemed Let thy Name be sweet and mentioned with delight and joy throughout all the World Live O blessed Jesus in the glory wherein thou art inthroned Sit and reign there till all thine Enemies become thy foot-stool For among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and hast done wondrous things Thou art Lord alone O give unto the Lord ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength Ascribe unto the Lord the glory due unto his name O worship him in the beauty of holiness Say among the Heathen the Lord reigneth who was dead but is alive again and liveth for evermore O sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the Earth Yea sing unto the Lord a new song and worship him all ye Gods For thou
Are not the Witnesses good who affirm that Jesus is the Son of God Have we not examined them and find no cause why we should reject them Or will you receive nothing upon the credit of a Witness That 's a very strange obstinacy which rejects so certain a way of knowing many things that cannot be otherways known For the notices of things do not come to us all one way but by divers means either by our Senses or by our Reason and Discourse or by Report By all these ways the knowledge of things is conveyed to our Mind And if we refuse to be informed by any of them there are a great number of things certainly true and of great consequence to us of which we must remain ignorant That there are other Countries far distant from this where we live and that such and such things are there to be had and have been there done most Men can know by no means but only by report for there are but few that can go and see And he that will not receive the testimony of another in this case deprives himself of a considerable piece of knowledge whereof others partake and which might be as useful to him as it proves to them But if for this wilful loss he shall pretend to assign a just cause saying that he cannot believe any thing unless it be demonstrated to him by clear and evident consequences from Principles of known reason he will become ridiculous For it is absurd to expect the knowledge of any thing in any other way but that which is proper for its conveyance to us To demand a proof of a matter of reason from our senses or for what we discern by our senses from our reason is equally ridiculous and so it is to demand an evidence for things of Faith which we know by report only either from our Senses or our Reason That there are some things come to our notice only by Faith is plain from what passes every day And it is as plain that they must be proved to be true in their proper way that is by the soundness of the Testimony upon which we receive them As no man requires a reason for what he sees and feels nor asks that he may see with his eyes that of which he reasons and discourses so he ought not to seek for a testimony of sense or reason for that which he can know by no way but by report As for example no Man demands a reason to prove that the Sun shines In this his sense gives him satisfaction and if he were born blind no reason could prove to him that it was not Night Nor does any man that is in his wits require that he may behold God with his eyes whom he knows by discourse and the reason of his mind and knows him also by that to be invisible In like manner it is altogether preposterous when a man comes and reports that such a person dyed on such a day to ask for a reason to prove it or to demand that he may see it for it is impossible to see him dye again upon that day That is not a thing to be known either of those ways by sense or reason but only by the testimony of others who were present at that time and are we think worthy of belief Why do we ask then for any other proof that Jesus was born of a Virgin at such a time did such wonderful works preached such an holy Doctrine was crucified dead and buried rose again from the dead ascended to Heaven and sent from thence the Holy Ghost These are not things now to be seen or felt nor can we gather them from the meer discourse of our own reason which tells us nothing of them But we have them by report from a great many Witnesses who say they saw and heard and felt all that which they would have us believe There is no other use of reason in this case but only to examine and judge whether this report be credible and founded in the testimony of God Now that is evident to any impartial enquirer from what hath been said concerning these Witnesses whose report there is no reason to suspect as it is certain it can never be disproved Why should we then be so much our own enemies as to deprive our selves of this saving knowledge of Jesus Christ That is why do we not give credit to the report of these Witnesses concerning Jesus since by the only proper means whereby such things can be proved I have made it good that the Father declared him to be his Son and He appeared in Glory to testify to himself and the Holy Ghost demonstrated he could be no less and his Life Death Resurrection and all the rest of which there were so many upright Witnesses assure us that it is a certain truth Would we be so difficult to be perswaded to go to a Man or a Place where several honest neighbours informed us upon their word nay upon their life we should be promoted to great honor or be possessed of a fair estate Do we not believe one another in our daily traffick and drive considerable bargains merely upon the credit we give to some persons who inform us of the advantage we may make by them Do not men undertake long journeys and more dangerous voyages merely because they are told that such an one is dead to whom they are heir or that such rich commodities are to be had in exchange for meaner goods Who is there that does not desire his Witnesses may be accepted and their testimony taken for good proof either to clear his innocence or to settle his estate Now says the Apostle immediately after the alledging of all these Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth to prove the truth of Christianity If we receive the Witness of men the Witness of God is greater for this is the Witness of God which he hath testified of his Son The meaning of which is this If men whose honesty you cannot impeach give their testimony in a Court of Judicature it is never disallowed nor can you be permitted to set it by and make nothing of it but it is necessarily admitted for an end of strife The weightiest causes are decided all matters depending are determined and judged according to the evidence that is given by witnesses of unblemished faith In the mouth of two or three witnesses as the known saying was every word or rather matter is established That is brought to an issue and concluded if any controversie have arose to unsettle it Nay the testimony of one man if we have no reason to suspect his credit is in our own private thoughts though not in Law satisfaction great enough to assure us of the truth of what he says And we think it such a reproach to give him the lye that we cannot but believe him finding a desire in the same case to be believed our selves Now if things stand thus between us and
therefore we ought to study this place of holy Scripture and have it much in our thoughts that so our Faith may stand in the Power of God For otherwise how shall we be able to follow the Apostolical Precept which would have us when we are questioned to render a reason of the hope that is in us 1 Pet. iii. 15. We may be able to stand our ground though we be ignorant of the true causes of belief but the enemies of it will look upon it as a foolish obstinacy if we have not so much understanding as to give some other account of our Faith than they give for theirs Suppose they should say Why are you a Christian whence is it that you look for a Resurrection a Glorious body and Eternal life in another world Would they not think us very stupid if we could say nothing to them but that so we have been always taught and are resolved to believe Would not this be as good a reason for them as it is for us and make us unworthy of the name of Christians who know our Books no better which bid us give and furnish us with a reasonable account Consider therefore what Answer you would shape to them that should make such a demand The Apostle says it is fit they should have a reason what is the best that you can offer for their satisfaction shall I tell you The plain Answer is this That Jesus whose Religion we follow was the Son of God and therefore we believe these things because the Son of God taught us so who cannot deceive us and we will not exchange this for any other perswasion though we should die for it It is certain enough that every body who hears this will presently consent to us that he is a fool who doth not stoop to him and comply with us if it be certain that Jesus is the Son of God But how do you prove that will be the next question Here is the labour this is our work and whence will you fetch convincing Arguments to make them yield to you this weighty point There is no such Compendious Abridgment of them any where that I know of as in this place of S. John which furnishes us with reasons both many and mighty to perswade us and others that Jesus is the Son of God You may tell them that the Father Almighty said so by voices from Heaven in the audience of credible persons and that the Word said so as they may be informed of S. Paul who had no reason greater than this to force him to leave all and with the daily hazard of his life to follow Jesus You may alledge the testimony of the Holy Ghost both at his Baptism and afterward the marvellous sanctity of his Doctrine and Life the Confession he made at his bloudy Death the Glory of his Miraculous works his Resurrection from the Dead the Power of the same Spirit in his Apostles after he was gone to Heaven all the Miracles which were wrought long after their times in the places where the holy Martyrs of Jesus suffered together with the wonderful success of these Witnesses who perswaded innumerable People in all Countries to become the subjects of this crucified King Christ Jesus Study this place therefore I say again very well that you may be able to oppress any gain-sayer with the great weight of those reasons which you render of your faith And study it likewise till you feel the faith of Jesus doing something in your hearts till that faith which hath so good a cause have sutable effects that is till it change you as it is ever apt to do into the nature of that cause from whence it flows It comes from God see that it carry you to him and change you into his likeness It relies on his Testimony be sure that it make you perfectly of his mind It comes with the authority from the Word of God it self and from the Holy Ghost let it mightily inspire you with devotion to him and set your affections on things above where Christ is now at God's right hand It relies upon the Purity of his holy Doctrine and Life and therefore ought to purifie our hearts that we may behave our selves in all holy conversation and godliness It is founded on his Bloud on which we can never look but it will deaden our affections to this World and make us crucifie the flesh with its passions and lusts It stands upon the power of God and should therefore make us strong in the Lord and in the power of his might It grows as you see upon sundry roots and flows from several heads and therefore should dispose those in whose hearts it is planted to be abundant in the work of the Lord and to bring forth much fruit that we may be known to be indeed the Disciples of Jesus whose faith is supported by such numerous Witnesses And this now will lead me to the next thing which S. John here makes to be the necessary consequent of this faith and therefore ought not to be omitted IV. If there be such great such abundant reason to believe that Jesus is the Son of God then there is as great a necessity lying upon us to be obedient unto him and punctually to observe all his commands This Faith both requires our submission and obedience to him and also gives us power and ability to perform it It is a meer trick of the Devil another piece of his Sophistry when He cannot dig up the foundation of Christianity which I told you was his first indeavour to hinder all superstructure upon it by perswading Christian People that Faith and Obedience are no necessary Companions but that they may be good believers and yet not keep Christ's Precepts Some think they need not and others which is the same cheat in another shape think they cannot But I appeal to every Man's conscience if he be a believer whether he do not perceive his heart over-awed and his will inclined to reverence and subjection and all his powers mightily moved to tender their service when he seriously thinks that Jesus is the Lord to whom God the Father hath committed all Judgment and will render to every Man according to his works Do you not feel this faith carrying a great authority with it Nay is there not an irresistable energy and vertue in it while you attend to it pressing you to conformity with his holy will Who can gain-say this And who can say then that his Faith does not both engage and inable him to be obedient to his Saviour if he do but mind what he believes He never thinks of that but it powerfully urges and constrains him to yield himself to be a faithful Servant of Jesus in every thing that he declares to be the mind and will of God These uncontrollable inclinations declare to us so plainly the tendency and natural disposition of Christian Faith that we cannot but see it is so far from
of all the types and shadows wherein these heavenly things were wrapt up and hidden better then they could do themselves For our Lord is risen from the dead and hath opened the Kingdom of heaven and tearing the veil in pieces hath set before our eyes the holy place not made with hands eternall in the heavens Into which he is entred as our Fore-runner to prepare a place for us and from thence hath sent a more abundant measure of the Holy Ghost to enlighten the eyes of our understanding that we may know what the hope of Christianity is and how exceeding glorious that celestiall inheritance which he intends to divide among us i. Eph. 17 18. But it is not sufficient to admire this grace I have demonstrated we must carefully improve it or else it will be worse with us then if we had never known it For if the Word spoken by Angels was so punctually verified that every breach of it was duly punished as it is ii Hebr. 2 3 4. there is no hope that we should escape the severest effects of God's displeasure if we neglect so great Salvation as this which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being first published to the world by our Lord Jesus was farther confirmed by the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles We are the disciples of Him who spake as never man spake Whose word of Salvation as his Gospell is called we then neglect when we mind not what he saith or do not often think of it or having thought of it prefer every trifle before it and will not be moved by such a wonderfull grace to obey his precepts For by the opposition wherein this stands to the transgression and disobedience mentioned before against Moses his Law we are sufficiently informed wherein this neglect principally consists viz. in the transgressing those bounds our Lord hath set us and disobeying those commands to the observance of which he incites us by the promise of immortall Life It is a fearfull thing to think how miserable they will be who prove thus inconsiderate and in how great danger Christians are to be so by the means of that very deceit which plunged the Jews into so many calamities Because God had manifested more of his love to them then to other Nations had given them an excellent Law spoken to them by his Prophets instructed them how to offer Sacrifice and appointed a place where he would dwell among them they blessed themselves in the outward enjoyment of these singular priviledges they bragged that they were the seed of Abraham and that they had the Oracles of God and were a people separated to him from the rest of the world by many holy rites but they took no care to be obedient to his Laws and less regarded to be indued with the spirit of faithfull Abraham who left all those earthly goods in which they placed their chief treasure for God's sake Just thus men suffer themselves to be deluded at this day Because God hath granted us the preeminence even above the Jews themselves hath brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son made us the Children of Light and let us see such things as many Kings and Prophets desired to see but did not see them they content themselves with the bare profession of this Religion and think it enough to be called by such an honourable Name as that of Christ on whom they rest and rely as the Jews did on their Sacrifices never thinking of being indued with his blessed Nature and Spirit and offering their Wills intirely to God as he did Thus men perish even in the midst of so great light and means of being saved And there is no help for them unless they will grow serious and consider the design of the Christian Faith Which will teach them after a very few thoughts about it that our Lord Jesus is the authour of eternall Salvation to those onely that obey him v. Heb. 9. and will be so far from protecting others from destruction that he himself will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess i. 7 8. I end this Preface as St. Augustine begins his third Chapter of his first Book of the Trinity with the alteration of one word onely in the conclusion Whosoever reads this Book where he is convinced let him go along with me where he sticks let him enquire with me where he sees his own errour let him return to me where mine let him call me back to him Thus we shall all walk together in the way of charity tending to him of whom it is said Seek ye his face alway Whosoever therefore when he reads saith This is not well said for I do not understand it let him reprehend my speech but not my faith It might it is likely have been spoken more plainly but there is no man ever spoke so as in all things to please all The generall CONTENTS AN Introduction CHAP. I. Of Eternall Life in generall page 1. to 13. which our Saviour calls SEEING GOD explained in seven particulars p. 14. to 40. A Meditation p. 41. CHAP. II. A more particular discourse of this Life p. 43. wherein the happiness of the Soul is described in regard of its increase in the knowledge of God p. 46. to 62. and in its love to God to p. 72. and joy in God to p. 84. A Meditation out of St. Augustine p. 85. CHAP. III. A farther explication of the Happiness of this Life p. 87. in perpetuall Praises of God to p. 97. and in free uniform Obedience to him to p. 101. There the happiness of the body also is briefly touched to p. 108. A Meditation out of Macarius and others Ibid. CHAP. IV. Of the Eternity of this Life p. 111. being without intermixture of Misery p. 112. and without intermission p. 115 and without end p. 121. represented by the Sabbath p. 124. Particular expressions chosen to signifie that it never dies p. 127. A Meditation p. 133. CHAP. V. Of the Certainty of this Eternall Life p. 137. whose excellence is farther represented from xxi Rev. 7. in 5 particulars from p. 138. to 149. Two Observations about his RECORD p. 151. to 158. A Meditation p. 161. CHAP. VI. The Testimony of the FATHER concerning this Eternall Life p. 165. The first testimony illustrated to p. 172. The second testimony at large considered from thence to p. 195. The third testimony Ib. to p. 204. A Meditation p. 205. CHAP. VII The Testimony of the WORD to it p. 209. The first testimony p. 211. The second p. 220. The third p. 230. A Meditation out of St. Gregory Nazianzen p. 245. CHAP. VIII The Testimony of the HOLY GHOST p. 249. The first testimony Ib. to p. 258. The second Ib. to p. 270. The third testimony Ib. to p. 279. The sense of the Church about the Holy Trinity
saying Come and see and his loud voice which they heard saying Lazarus come forth xi Joh. 34 43. By their sight when they beheld him whom they knew very well to be dead obeying his word By their smell when they perceived the ill sent as they rolled away the stone By their touch when they loosed his hands and his feet as our Lord bad them and let him go By all these they were so well satisfied that there was no room left for their infidelity nor much for the Pharisees who knew neither how to confute this Testimony nor how to avoid the consequence of it They began now to despair of prevailing against him any other way then by taking away his life which their malice made them design against the clearest light Though that also proved as you shall see presently but a farther confirmation of the truth they sought to obscure by his rising again from the dead And they could have found in their hearts to have killed Lazarus too because as long as he lived he would proclaim this Miracle to the honour of Jesus who hereby gave such an illustrious testimony that he was the Authour of Eternall Life that just when he was going to raise up Lazarus he inculcates this Doctrine as the fittest season to impress it upon them xi Joh. 25 26. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Martha it seems believed this before upon a perswasion that he was the Christ the Son of God that should come into the world ver 27. But when she saw Lazarus come out of his grave then sure she believed it more strongly both because it was a farther argument that he was the Christ and likewise included in it that very thing which he propounded to her belief viz. that He was the Life and would give life unto those who were dead if they believed on him I shall conclude this part of the SPIRIT 's Testimony with those words of our Lord himself viii Joh. 50. where he protests that he sought not his own glory that is assumed not to himself this great power to be the Life of the world but God the Father sought it i. e. perswaded the world of it by the illustrious Miracles which he wrought whereby the Father honoured him as he says ver 54. and passed such a judgment on him that we may all conclude as he doth ver 51. Verily verily if a man keep his words he shall not see death II. Of which we shall be the more confident if we adde now the other Witness of the SPIRIT to him which was in raising him from the dead and giving him Glory at God's right hand This was a greater Wonder then all that preceded sufficient to satisfie those who still remained doubtfull For if any body as St. Greg. Nyssen discourses in the Book before mentioned should use those words of our Lord in another case and apply them to this business saying Physician cure thy self it is but meet that he who did such wonders on other mens bodies to prove a Resurrection should give an example of it in his own We have seen one nigh to death another newly dead a young man ready to be laid in his grave and Lazarus already rotten all these by his word recalled to life Let us see one live again who was wounded and had his heart pierced and his bloud shed one who we are sure was dead Come then and look upon Jesus himself whose hands and feet were pierced into whose side a spear was thrust Come and look upon him who bled to death And if this man was raised from the dead nay more then that ascended into heaven as abundance of credible witnesses testifie what doubt is there left that by him God will give us a blessed Resurrection unto immortall Life if we be obedient to him They that saw the one viz. his Resurrection and Ascension could not but stedfastly believe the other and have told us that he was raised and glorified on purpose that our faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 This was the great design and end of first opening his grave and then opening the heavens to him that our confidence in God might revive again and we might hope by his favour to have the honour of being made the sons of God by being the children of the Resurrection That our Blessed Saviour was really dead as the History testifies his greatest Enemies always confessed and still acknowledge He hung a long time upon the Cross there he bled and at last his side was wounded with a spear in the vitall parts All the spectatours were satisfied that he had given up the ghost and the Souldiers when they came to break his legs as the manner was found the work already so effectually done that there was no need of it He was wrapt in Cerecloaths laid in a grave and given up by all his Friends for a lost man But that after all this he was as really alive again as he had been before is testified by divers sufficient Witnesses and among the rest by one of his principall Enemies who was throughly convinced of it The Apostles saw him very often they spake with him they felt and handled him one of them put his finger into the very print of the nails and thrust his hand into his wounded side They eat and drank with him they received Commissions from him and after he had shewn himself alive to them by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days he ascended up to heaven in their sight and from thence according to his promise they received the Holy Ghost i. e. in his Name did all sorts of Miracles raising even dead men to life again And after all he appeared from heaven to St. Paul a man that set himself vehemently against him and breathed nothing but threatnings and slaughters against his Disciples whom he turned quite to be on his side perswading him so fully that he was indeed risen from the dead that he became as you have heard a most zealous preacher of it with the continuall hazzard of his life This is a more credible History then any other as it were easie to shew if it were my present business and we may better doubt of all Records then of those wherein the memory of these things is preserved They were holy devout and self-denying persons who report these things upon their own knowledge And they are reported not by one or two but by many of them who met with nothing in the world to tempt them to tell a lie but with a great many things to deterr them from publishing so odious a Truth And therefore if we will not doubt of every thing we do not see we cannot refuse to believe that Jesus did indeed rise again after he was dead and buried and ascended into heaven Which being
from the Messiah should begin to raise the dead when he went to take possession of his throne A plain sign that he is the Resurrection and the Life from whom we may confidently look for bodies not onely bright as the Moon but that shall shine according to his faithfull promise like the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Concerning which things if the Apostles had written false and there had not been many able to bear record of the rising of these holy persons and coming into Jerusalem as well as of the rising of Lazarus there would have been pens enough in those days imployed to confute them and proclaim the forgery And these Jews would have been as carefull preservers of such confutations as of any their most beloved Traditions which can never doe them so much service as those volumes would have done VI. Nor is there the least shadow of reason to question the Testimony of those who saw him ascend into heaven and as a token of his being inthroned there received from him ten days after the gift of the Holy Ghost Which compleated the demonstration of his power and purpose to give Eternall Life to all his followers For 1. His very Ascension into heaven as it breeds in us a belief of a glorious state in the other World so it evidently shews that it is possible such as we may be translated thither And though our Bodies now be but lumps of living clay yet they may one day be snatched as he was from this dull globe to shine among the Stars And the Angels also appearing both at his resurrection and ascension and waiting upon him unto heaven shew that its gates are no longer barred against us but set open again to give us a free admission into it For they who were set to watch the way to Paradise and guard it so that none should enter voluntarily lent their assistence to transport Him thither after they had brought the joyfull news of his being risen from the dead 2. But this is the least comfort we receive from thence for his glorification at God's right hand when he came thither advances our hope to a greater height and shews that it is not onely possible but certain we shall be taken up above to be with him His Kingdom it is apparent now by his sending the Holy Ghost is supereminent over all and nothing can be out of the reach of his power For it is a power over all Creatures in heaven and earth and under the earth who doe obeisance to him and cannot resist him ii Phil. 10. 1 Pet. iii. ult And a power to doe all things for God hath put all things under his feet 1 Cor. xv 27. A power of conferring all dignities and honours iii. Phil. 21. and of removing all impediments to our preferment He having the keys of hell and death i. Rev. 18. In short a perfect power to doe all things to make us glorious For in that he put all in subjection under him he left nothing that is not put under him as the Apostle argues ii Heb. 8. And though he hath not yet exercised his whole unlimited power as it there follows yet we are sure he hath it because we see by manifest arguments Jesus crowned with glory and honour for the suffering of death By which the all-wise God thought fit to consecrate this Captain of Salvation who he designed should bring many Sons unto glory together with himself 3. Which He will not fail to doe we may be sure being thus perfected and compleatly furnished for the very purpose because this Royall power wherewith he is invested is a kind of Trust and he hath received it as St. Paul plainly supposes 1 Cor. xv 24 25 c. where he speaks of his Kingdom not onely for himself but for the good of all those whom he rules and governs For the Apostle concludes that he having a Kingdom which must at last be resigned into the hands of God the Father will first put down all rule all authority and power and leave no enemy unconquered no not Death which will onely be the last that shall be subdued but subdued and destroyed it must be ver 26 27. Nay our Lord himself acknowledges his Kingdome to be a trust when he says xvii Joh. 2. Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him Whence it is that he often protests it is his Father's will that of all he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day c. vi Joh. 39 40. For as the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me ver 57. And in express terms he saith as I have shewn before that he went away to prepare a place for us And therefore is bound by his office we may conclude to promote us to that glory and honour in the heavens which it is his Father's will he knows should be bestowed on us 4. And who can doubt at all of his fidelity in this who was so faithfull in all other things most punctually for instance making good his promise of sending the Holy Ghost as an earnest I have often said of this immortall inheritance None can imagine he will now prove negligent in that which by his place he stands ingaged to perform when upon Earth he did the will of him that sent him with such exactness that he rewarded him for it with that high dignity which he now enjoys in the heavens Therefore his greatest care was to assert and prove his power to give Eternall Life Of his will he thought there need not much be said for none could doubt of it after they saw him die for them and then express such love after his resurrection as to send the Holy Ghost upon them 5. This is abundantly sufficient to secure all considering persons of so desirable a Good Which the Apostles began confidently to expect as soon as ever they were satisfied of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead Before he ascended to heaven their thoughts ran thither and they began to see that he was the Lord of life and glory For as soon as St. Thomas was convinced by a palpable demonstration that he was risen he cried out My Lord and my God xx Joh. 28. This is the first time that any of his Apostles gave him the title of their GOD when they were fully satisfied as Grotius observes by his Resurrection that he would give Eternall Life to them And then it was also you may note that he first gave them the title of his Brethren who should share with him in the glory to which he was going xx Joh. 17. xxviii Matth. 10. Go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee c. In which words he alludes as Eusebius observes to those xxii Psal 22. I will declare thy name unto my
have been such fools as to have suffered in that manner they did had they not seen plain demonstrations of this truth For they were so miserably treated that they carried their lives in their hand and were every hour for any thing they knew at the brink of the grave He for his part had been compelled to encounter with wild beasts on the Theatre at Ephesus so some ancient Writers understand him who knew there was nothing more common with the Pagans then to cry Christiani ad Leones Away with the Christians to the Lions and it was a punishment to which the vilest Malefactors were subject particularly Magicians as we learn from another Paul * L. v de receptis sentemiis the Lawyer or at least he ran as great hazzards as those men did who were exposed unarmed to the fiercest creatures such as Lions Bears Tigers Leopards wild Boars and Bulls and Dogs To every one of which we have examples of Christians in the Ecclesiasticall Story that were condemned And it was for no other cause but this that he preached Jesus and the Resurrection How could they think him so senseless as to put his life in such danger upon this account if he was not fully perswaded of that for which he suffered so much nay had not good ground to be of this belief He knew the value of life as well as other men He was no stone nor block as I have said that had no feeling of pain He naturally loved ease and quiet and pleasure as well as the rest of the world And his education had not been such as to incline him to believe things carelesly especially such a thing as this quite contrary to all his former principles and as contrary to his present preferments and future hopes And therefore without imputing to him the highest degree of folly and stupidity the Corinthians could not disbelieve what he preached of the Life to come Concerning which he had received such full satisfaction and was convinced of it by such undeniable arguments that he chose rather to lose his life then to deny it or not to preach it III. And that He and the rest of the Apostles were not deceived nor judged amiss in this matter the mighty power of the SPIRIT which wrought continually in them and with them abundantly testified This was sufficient not onely to satisfy them but to satisfy the rest of the world that Jesus as they said was alive and made the Lord of all who was ready at hand on all occasions to bear witness to this Truth when they preacht it that he would give Eternall Life unto his followers This power of the SPIRIT going along with them was a thing so notorious that the Pagans in some places cried out the GODS are come down to us in the likeness of men and could scarce be restrained from doing divine honours to them xiv Act. 11 18. And whereas there had been some wonderfull things heretofore done among the Jews if we may believe themselves they now all ceased as if God had transferred all power on earth into the Apostles hands For they tell us there were Ten Signs in the House of the Sanctuary * Pirke Avoth cap. v. which never failed as that no woman ever miscarried by the smell of the flesh that was burnt upon the Altar no fly was ever seen in the House nor did the flesh of the Sanctuary ever stink nor the rain ever extinguish the fire nor the greatest winds hinder the smoak from ascending in a straight pillar towards heaven c. But forty years before the Sanctuary was destroyed all these Miracles ceased according to that of the Psalmist which they apply to this business * Talmud Bab. in Joma apud Raimund p. 297. We see not our signs nor is there any prophet to tell us how long lxxiv. 9. When the veil of the Temple was rent in sunder God who dwelt in the Holy place left his habitation and went out at that breach to return no more thither All the wonders were now without those doors in the open streets in every house in the whole world Which was a notable sign that Jesus was Christ and alive from the dead by whose power the Apostles professed to doe all their wonderfull works By these they proved that he was exalted at God's right hand and sate as he said he would on the throne of his Glory And their proof was the stronger because there was no great thing done as formerly there had but onely what was wrought by their hands who reigned now with him as so many Princes and sate on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel xix Matth. 28. xxii Luk. 30. They were supreme Governours whose office it is to judge in the Church under our Lord Christ it plainly appeared by the mighty power wherewith their Gospell was accompanied Which came as St. Paul tells the Thessalonians not in word onely but in power and in the Holy Ghost That is in Miraculous works and in extraordinary gifts which brought along with them a full assurance insomuch that he left it to them to tell the world what manner of men they were among them And if any enquire what was the effect of it he tells us that they were perswaded by this miraculous power to turn from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thess i. 9 10. This was the fruit of their labours and travels to convince a number of people by wonderfull operations upon the sick nay upon the dead and by gifts of the Holy Ghost that Jesus was raised from the dead and possessed of Eternall life in the heavens from whence he will come to bestow it upon the faithfull whom he will never susser to perish but rescuing them from destruction make them ever happy with himself And whosoever afterward revolted from this Faith I may adde and set themselves to oppose it the Apostles shewed their power which was a great witness to Christianity as much in their plagues and punishments as in the cures they wrought upon others It may well be thought that those in the Corinthian Church who did not believe the Resurrection were reclaimed from their errour by that Letter which St. Paul wrote to them for we hear nothing of it more in the next Epistle But some there were in other places that obstinately persisted in their folly and not contented to disbelieve what the Apostles taught in this matter contradicted and blasphemed it Two of them are named in the 2 Tim. ii 17 18. Hymeneus and Philetus who taught that the Resurrection was past and consequently denied the rewards of the Life to come The occasion of their erring thus from the faith seems to have been this that the Apostles often speaking of a spirituall resurrection from a state of sin to the life of
The Resurrection of Iesus Mat 28 2 And behold there was a great earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven came rolled back the stone from the doore and sate upon it And for feare of him the keepers did shake became as dead men And the Angel sayd unto the woman Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus that was crucified He is not here for he is Risen as he sayd JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION Justified by Witnesses IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH In Two Parts The First shewing That Jesus is the SON OF GOD the Second That in him we have ETERNALL LIFE By SYMON PATRICK D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysost in Johan Hom. lxvii Printed for R. Royston MDCLXXVII THE Witnesses TO CHRISTIANITY THE WITNESSES TO CHRISTIANITY OR The Certainty of our FAITH and HOPE In a Discourse upon 1 S. JOHN v. 7 8. BY SYMON PATRICK D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner 1675. TO The most Reverend Father in God GILBERT By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please Your Grace TO permit these Papers to go abroad under your Name which are writ in defence of that most holy Religion of which your Grace is the prime Minister in this Kingdom They contain an explication but of a very few words yet in them lies the whole Evidence for the Christian Cause I hope I have done something to clear their sence and to illustrate divers other passages in the holy Books I have at least done my endeavour and opened the way to the plainest and most Apostolical method of asserting the truth of our Religion They that come after may supply the defects and rectifie the mistakes which they find in this account that I have given of the Witnesses to Christianity Who speak so fully and with such Authority that it is a matter of just wonder there should be any Infidels in Christian Countries We can find no other cause of it but that in stead of considering upon what grounds our Faith relies they scornfully presume that it hath none If they would but lay aside their lightness and become serious and if they would be so humble as to think it is possible they may learn of one of the despised Ministers of Jesus Christ I doubt not they would with a little study soon see him to be so great a Lord that they ought to have a due respect to the meanest of his Servants for his sake Nay they would not envy to them such high Dignities as your Grace worthily holds in the Church of Christ For the Lord himself is honoured in the honour that is done to his Ministers And thereby they are made capable to do him still better service and with the more authority to promote the honour of his Religion Of which how much your Grace hath deserved by your prudent care and vigilance for its preservation and by the countenance and encouragement you give to those that labour in its service posterity perhaps may be better judges than this present Age. Though that cannot be so ungrateful as not to acknowledge your great Munificence and Bounty of which there are such publick and lasting Monuments as declare you to be Primate of all England not only in the dignity of your Office but which is more in the generosity of your Spirit Long may our Soveraign enjoy such a wise Counsellor the Church such a Prudent Governour Learning such a liberal Patron and Benefactor and when through mere Age you must resign and exchange it for a higher and better place your See such a Successor As for my self if your Grace will be pleased to pardon this Address and reckon me in the number of those that reverence your Vertues as well as your Greatness I shall not doubt but my Design in this Work will obtain your Graces approbation and that your known Candor will pass a favourable Judgment upon the weak endeavours of the Churches and Your Graces affectionate Servant SY PATRICK THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE scope of this Discourse which is to prove that Jesus is the Son of God pag. 1 c. The meaning of that phrase in this place p. 8. and in some other places of Scripture p. 10. derived from the Old Testament p. 14 15. many passages in that relating to this matter explained Ib. and p. 16 17 c. A Prayer p. 22 c. CHAP. II. Concerning the Witnesses in general p. 25. and particularly of the testimony of the FATHER p. 29. which was given three times p. 30. first at his Baptism which is explained p. 30. unto 42. Secondly in the Holy Mount which is explained at large in many remarkable circumstances which accompanied it to p. 56. Thirdly in the way between Bethany and Jerusalem to p. 66. There the pretences of the Jews to a Bath Col under the second Temple is considered and confuted to p. 78. The difference between this voice which testified to our Saviour and that in ancient times p. 78. to the end A Prayer CHAP. III. Concerning the Testimony of the WORD p. 85. Who the WORD is p. 86. Why so called p. 87. First testimony he gave to S. Steven p. 90. The second to S. Paul p. 101. Christ's first apparition to him considered and expounded at large p. 104. a second p. 115. others p. 116 c. Third testimony of the WORD to S. John p. 122. Several other visions he had of him p. 128 c. An Answer to an objection about the Authority of the Revelation p. 135. To another which gives an account of the sence of two places in S. John 's Gospel which seem opposite p. 137. A Prayer 142. CHAP. IV. Concerning the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST p. 147. First at our Saviour's Baptism p. 148. When the SCHEKINAH or Divine Glory descended Ib. what it was 149 c. of its coming down p. 153. like a Dove 155. and making his abode in him p. 159 c. which was never known before p. 164. Whereby he was anointed p. 165. And now began his reign 168. The Alcoran confesses this descent of the holy Ghost p. 173. Whereby he became the Temple of God 176. As appears by six demonstrations of a Divine Presence in him from p. 177. to 198. The second Testimony of the HOLY GHOST on the day of Pentecost 199. explained by three observations 201. to 225. The last Testimony of the HOLY GHOST 225. to 238. A Prayer 239. CHAP. V. Concerning the Witnesses on EARTH 245. First of the WATER 248. As it signifies the purity of Christ's Doctrine and Life 249. The purity of his Doctrine 250. And the purity of his Life 261. Both these proofs of his Divinity 267. to 275. The Testimony of
is a mark set before it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo or behold that we may all attend and listen diligently to this voice for now the word of God came to him as he speaks in another place I told you concerning those who were called Gods under the old Law x. John 35. and in an audible manner authorized him to begin to act as the Christ of God whom He had anointed as you shall hear with the Holy Ghost just at this moment when He declared him his Son by this voice from Heaven Which if you carefully observe it is expressed by the other Evangelists in such a manner that we may understand it was directed to himself as that commission which was sent him from Heaven to give him power to exercise the office of Gods supreme and only Minister in this world in whom alone he was well pleased and in none else but by him For S. Mark says the voice was in these words Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Which plainly tell us that he spake to Jesus and not merely of him that he might be confident He was the person whom God had now sanctified and sent into the world And so S. Luke hath recorded it more fully and expresly Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased As if he had said Thou art the person to whom I have a favour above all others I have anointed thee above all thy fellows none that have had this name are so dear to me as thou art to whom I commit my authority and invest with my power and intrust with all my mind and will Now because we all suspect private Revelations and think it no sufficient ground to believe one that says God spake to him unless he can bring some other very credible person besides himself to attest that he also heard it or be able otherways to demonstrate it God was pleased therefore not only by other means to verifie this but so to direct S. Matthew's pen that he hath as good as told us that the voice which was directed to Jesus himself telling him he was his Son was uttered likewise in the audience of John Baptist a person famed for his sanctity reverenced by all the Nation of the Jews and acknowledged to be a Prophet Though it was delivered I believe in those words and syllables wherein S. Mark or S. Luke have set it down for as the Heavens were opened unto him iii. Matth. 16. and he saw the Spirit descending so the voice which accompanied it spake in all likelihood unto him yet it being heard also by John who had baptised him and who saw all that went before it as he himself declared it was as if God had said to him This is my beloved Son c. and therefore so S. Matthew relates it The Father Almighty by this voice awakened the attention of the Baptist and bade him as it were mark it that this person to whom he now spake was the Messiah who now entred upon his office being declared the Son of God and should increase and grow as he presently after discerned iii. John 30. till he came to be declared by the Resurrection from the dead the Son of God with power as S. Paul speaks i. Rom. 4. that is with all the power belonging to his office of Lord of all things the great King of Heaven and Earth Till this time he knew no more of the Christ but that he was coming God having ordered him to make way for him and that he should immediately appear and be so much superior to him iii. Matth. 11. that he should not be worthy to be one of his meanest servants His countenance he was not acquainted withall nor could he say this is the person when he met with him as he himself confesses i. John 31. But thus much he was told by him that sent him to Baptize as he there declares ver 33. that on whom he should see the Spirit descend and remain he should conclude that person was the Messiah from whom they might expect the gift of the Holy Ghost which had been so long a stranger to their Nation And accordingly having some intimation of him from the Spirit as soon as Jesus offered himself to receive his Baptism iii. Matth. 14. immediately after he was confirmed in his belief that this was the Christ by the fulfilling of the former sign i. John 32. And thereupon publishes it openly to all in these words ver 34. I saw and bare record i. e. gave my testimony of him that this is the Son of God So God himself taught him to call our Saviour for it should seem by the words of S. Matthew that he had this further ground to believe it and so was furnished with greater ability to testifie it that he heard the voice from Heaven as well as saw the Spirit descend upon him Though the Father spake the words to Jesus yet it was in the presence and hearing of this person who was sent from God to be his witness i. John 6 7. and as if he had said to him This is my beloved Son mind what I say go and testifie that this is He in whom I delight above all others Thou mayest be sure of it for I tell thee so who gave thee all the Authority thou hast And accordingly you read that he went and did his office for which he was sent that is He bare witness of him and cried saying This was he of whom I spake He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me 1. John 15. which he repeats in the same Chapter as his record ver 19. in behalf of our Saviour on two other occasions ver 27. and 30. to let them know that the person of whom he gave this testimony before he was baptised of him was now come and exalted to a far higher dignity than himself being a more mighty person as the rest of the Evangelists speak no less than the Son of God This he means by being preferred before him appointed by the Father of all to an incomparably more excellent office which he entred upon after the preaching and baptism of John who began indeed his Ministry before Jesus but it was not because he was greater but rather because he was less and came to prepare his way who was as he acknowledges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first of the two not only in regard of his Divine Nature but in regard of his sublime office into which he was now put by being pronounced the beloved Son of God by this voice from Heaven Which the Devil himself one would think heard and understood to be such a testimony concerning Jesus as committed the greatest Ministry to him and was a Divine warrant to go in Gods name to the world as Moses after the Angel spake to him out of the bush did to the Jews And therefore when immediately after this our Saviour was led by the
stood so nearly related to him as to be his Son and therefore worthy to be glorified by him again and again until He had fully judged as he there speaks between Him and his Adversaries who denied him to be the Christ but was pronounced by God to be the Prince of life To conclude this you may note that not long before God spake in this manner from Heaven to them our Saviour had said That they had not heard his voice at any time v. John 37. John the Baptist had and so had three of his Disciples And therefore John bare witness of him whose testimony he says was true ver 32. though he did not stand in such need of it as if his credit could not be supported without it No He appealed to him merely because they had such an high opinion of him ver 33 34. otherwise he had a greater testimony than that of John ver 36. which was not only the works that he did which testified of him that the Father had sent him but the Father himself who sent him note this for he appeals now to what the voice from Heaven said he has born witness of him ver 37. And if they had had any goodness in them ver 38. they would have received him whom the Father sent When did He send him but when he spake by that voice from Heaven which now he utters once more in other words for their greater and fuller satisfaction when many of them were assembled together that they who had not hitherto might hear his voice as well as Jesus himself and his Apostles and be awakened hereby to attend to what the other witnesses of him should say especially after he was risen from the dead I should pass now to the Examination of one of them were it not fit before I part with this to take notice of a Tradition which runs among the Jews concerning this way of Revelation by a voice from Heaven which they say was very usual in those ages The Doctors deliver so their words are in the Babylonian Talmud * In the title Sanhedrim cap. 1. that from the death of the latter Prophets Haggai Zachariah and Malachy the Holy Ghost was taken away but yet notwithstanding they had the Ministry of the Bath Col i. e. the daughter of a voice By that name they call this way of Revelation because they say it was not a full and strong voice which they heard but a voice coming out of another voice and heard when it was gone Just as sparks say they are called Bene resheph the sons of an hot coal because they leap out of the fire so is this called the daughter of a voice because it resulted from a voice and came as it were out of the womb of it being a kind of Eccho after something that was spoken which they could not understand but only caught hold of this tail as I may call it and conclusion of it And they would have us believe that as under the first Temple they had the benefit of Prophecy Urim and Thummim and the Holy Ghost so this succeeded them under the second Temple and was proper to that age of the world being then only in use when all the other were wanting Hence many Christian writers of these latter times have fancied that God therefore declared Jesus to be his Son by a voice from Heaven because it was the only way wherein he then communicated his mind to the Jewish Nation Paulus Fagius think was the first that started this notion of the Bath col which was a praeludium b◠imagines to that true Divine and Heavenly voice which was to speak to them indee◠from Heaven that is our Lord Jesus Christ To whom the Bath col it self gave testimony when it said This is my belove◠Son in whom I am well pleased But 〈◊〉 name shows it was not the true voice from Heaven but a mere type signification and testimony of that true voice and word of God which was to come shortly and speak to them To whom alone this Bath col told them they must all hearken Thus he writes upon the Chaldee Paraphrase * In xxviii Exod. 30. And he had said the same before in his notes upon the Fifth Chapter of Pirke Avoth where his word◠are that God would accustom the world 〈◊〉 little by this beginning to that true Heavenly voice our Saviour Christ who was to follow in whom hereafter the Father would be heard But I think there is reason to doubt o◠all that the Jews say about this matter their brags being many times beyond the Truth and devised to obscure the glory of our Saviour Who it is most likely had that honour done him now by these voices from Heaven which was not usual in those days for he himself tells them as I observed before Ye have not heard his voice at any time v. John 37. As for that which they pretend that this Bath col or daughter of a voice was peculiar to the times of the second Temple it is so far from Truth that it is contradicted by some of themselves who find instances of the contrary in the Holy Books God called out of Heaven to Abraham every body knows by his Angel Gen. xxii 11 15. And Maimonides * More Nevoch part 2. cap. 42. observes that he spake to Hagar and Manoah's wife though neither of them he says had any thing of the spirit of prophecy but only heard the Bath col Which interposed if we could believe others in the case of Thamar And often whispered to Moses as the writer of his Life in many places affirms Nay they tell us in the Eleventh Chapter of the forenamed Title in the Talmud that Nebuzaradan heard this Bath col before the destruction of the first Temple bidding him make a fresh assault upon Jerusalem and not be discouraged in his attempt nor fear the fate of Senacherib For the time is at hand that the Sanctuary shall be destroyed and the Temple burnt But that there was any such thing under the second Temple I see no ground at all to believe It is far more probable that they have devised a number of such stories as we read in their Books merely to gain some credit and reputation to their Doctors Can any man of sence imagine that God would bid Jonathan hold his hand when he was beginning to Paraphrase upon the Prophets saying to him by a voice from Heaven Who is this that reveals my secrets to the sons of men And that he like a bold fellow stood up and said I am the man who undertake it for thy honour and not my own And yet Elias Levita has the confidence to tell us in his Preface to these Paraphrases that as Jonathan was going to do as much for the Holy writings as they call them as he had done for the Prophets he was absolutely prohibited by another voice from Heaven which said Is it not sufficient that thou
testimony of my self because I do but repeat the very same thing which the Father hath said before me For though alone as I have confessed heretofore my testimony of my self is worth nothing and cannot challenge belief yet added unto so high a testimony as his it ought to be duly regarded and accepted But besides this I must add another consideration of great moment Which is that the Testimony of the WORD concerning himself now that he is in the Heavens is of great validity even singly considered though it had no such authority alone when he was upon the Earth For during his stay here on Earth it could not appear by his bare saying so that he was the Son of God the King of Israel because he was in a poor mean and low condition altogether unlike a King And therefore if the Father and the Spirit had not testified so much none could have believed on him But when he was in the Heavens then what he said of himself carried great authority and power with it because he could not say those words to any one but he must appear as a King in glory There were things as well as words to speak for him At the same time that he bare witness of himself they to whom he spake must needs see the truth of his Testimony by the royal state and majesty wherein they beheld him If the question should be whether a person be alive his own appearing in Court would be the best testimony that could be given of it If whether such a one be a King his sitting upon his Throne with his Crown on his head in his royal Palace and his Ministers round about him would be the surest evidence that could be desired to put it out of doubt In this case therefore where the question is whether Jesus be the Son of God or no there cannot be expected a better resolution of it than his own witness to himself by appearing upon the Throne of his Glory There several persons of unblemished credit beheld him and had the confidence to venture their lives upon the certain knowledge they had that they were not deceived From thence he spake to them and directed them to speak and carry his messages to others that they might believe on the Name of the Son of God And let it but be remembred which I noted at the beginning that we are now examining those witnesses which speak from Heaven and not those which speak on the Earth and then you will soon discern that these testimonies of the WORD though concerning himself ought to be received with great reverence and to be judged very full and powerful to prove Jesus to be the Son of God Especially since besides his own word for it we have also the word of the Father who several times called him his Son and that before he took this honour to himself A PRAYER LET all mankind therefore honour thee O blessed Jesus even as they honour the Father Be thou adored every where upon Earth with the same reverence and love wherewith all the Angels in Heaven worship thee whom they and we acknowledge to be the LORD the WORD of God the Wisdom of the Father the bright morning Star the Light of the World the Prince of Life the Heir of all things the KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS God blessed for ever Thou art the King of glory O Christ Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father The Beginner and the Finisher of our Faith the Judge of the World the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey thee O how happy are they that know thee and stedfastly believe in thee and sincerely love thee and heartily obey thee and have a good hope that thou wilt bless them and imploy thy power for their promotion to that glory wherein thou reignest I rejoyce to hear thee say that thou who wast dead art alive for evermore Amen and hast the keys of Hell and of Death I thank thee for appearing so often to assure our Souls that thou sittest at the right hand of God and hast all power in Heaven and in Earth Great is the consolation which thou hast given us by the sight of that Glory wherein thy first Martyr beheld thee ready to succour all thy faithful servants Marvellous was thy work O Lord for which all thy Church will for ever praise thee in calling S. Paul to be an Apostle separated unto the Gospel of God Adored be thy glorious Majesty which appeared to him for this purpose to make him a Minister and a Witness of what he saw and heard that he might go and open the eyes of the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in thee O how full of comfort is that Revelation which thou hast made of thy self to thy servant John Who received the brightest discoveries of thy glory in Heaven when he was in the most desolate condition upon Earth who beheld thy care over thy Church and thy conquests over thine enemies thy Priestly and thy Royal power to the perpetual joy of those that love thee and the terror of all those that oppose thee O blessed Jesus far be it from any of us in the least to contradict thy will who art so highly advanced far above all principality and power and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come May every Christian Soul be so sensibly affected with the belief of thy Glory as to prostrate it self before thee and say with the same spirit that thy blessed Apostle S. Paul did when thou appearedst unto him Lord what wilt thou have me to do May that ardent love burn in every one of our breasts towards thee and towards one another which was in thy beloved Disciple who bare record of thee and testified to us these things And may none of us prove so false and unkind as to leave our first love but our work and charity and service and faith and patience may be ever commended by thee and the last be more than the first Then shall we be able with a chearful countenance to look up unto thee and to think of thy majesty and glory with exultation and triumph and not with terror and amazement of spirit We will joy in thy strength O Lord and in thy salvation how greatly shall we rejoyce We will rejoyce even in the midst of tribulation and though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil but stedfastly looking up unto Heaven call upon thee O Lord Jesus and beseech thee to receive our Spirit Into thy hands be they recommended both now and ever with most earnest desires and hope that thou wilt help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud and make them to be
and their credit in this fashion These gods should have had more care of their reputation and authority than to let this single person whom they pretended also to be so mean to prevail thus mightily against them For as Plutarch tells us in those very places where there was in times past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great glory of the Divinity there was nothing to do in his days but all was vanisht A sign that indeed God was more in our Saviour than he ever had been in any other person or place and that he was no where else and that he would be worshipped only in that way which he taught and prescribed For they saw his GLORY the GLORY as OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN Son i. Joh. 14. who had those marks of a Divine Majesty residing in him that none ever had and from whom we may expect all that the wisdom power and love of God can do for us What should we do then but after such evident proofs that God is in him fall down and with the most humble and joyful reverence worship him who as it there follows is full of grace and truth Because he is full of TRUTH we ought to resign and submit our selves to his government and because he is full of GRACE we should always rejoyce to think that we are under his care and we should put our trust under the shaddow of his wings And that he is so full of both that we may with great satisfaction commit our selves to his guidance confide and rejoyce in him will appear still more evidently by the next Testimony which he received from the HOLY GHOST II. Which was upon the day of Pentecost ten days after he left this world When it gave a more publick testimony to him than it had done at his Baptism that he was the Son of God exalted to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high For his Apostles being then assembled together in one place on a sudden there came such a mighty inspiration from him who a little before he parted with them breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost that the sound of it was like that of a violent blast of wind when it is a coming Which was anciently a token of a Divine presence approaching iii. Gen. 8. and now was a sign that by the power of this spirit they should carry all before them For it filled all the house where they were sitting as they did all the World e're long by their preaching And immediately a glimpse of that Divine Majesty or Glory appeared on them which came down upon our Saviour at his Baptism and ever after dwelt in him Who now sent the Apostles just as the Father had sent him For a bright flame was seen upon their Heads and they were baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire So S. Luke reports ii Act. 3 4. That there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it SATE upon each of them a sign that this power should abide with them alway and accompany them every where though this visible flame vanished The effect of which was notorious to all even as it was apparent that Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost though none but John Baptist saw it coming down upon him For they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with tongues Of which all Jerusalem as it there follows yea men of all Nations were witnesses who heard them speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God vers 11. They proclaimed that is to all the People whom the report of this strange news had brought together what wonders God had wrought by Jesus and what he had now done for him having raised him from the dead vers 24. and exalted him by his right hand vers 33. and made him both LORD and CHRIST vers 36. That is He was now they might see if they would not shut their eyes inthroned by God in the Heavens and compleatly invested with that royal power of which he had received some portion before being now made LORD of all things and the KING of God's People Of which we say the Apostles v. 32. are his Witnesses who saw him after he rose again and beheld him ascend into Heaven and so is the Holy Ghost which he sent from thence as they all now saw and heard in divers sensible effects which testified that he was at the right hand of God And here it will be fit to observe three things First That the HOLY GHOST was his WITNESS as the Apostles you see call Him as the coming of it was the fulfilling of what he had predicted and promised a little before his going away from them At the very mention of that word they were very disconsolate and sorrow filled their heart Whereupon he chears them up with this assurance that he would not leave them comfortless like so many fatherless Children but pray the Father and he would give them another Comforter who should abide with them for ever and never go away from them as he was about to do xiv Joh. 16. This he tells them was the spirit of truth vers 17. whom the Father would send in his Name vers 26. where he repeats this over again and tells them what the Holy Ghost would do for them And therefore charges them not to be troubled or afraid but rather rejoyce to hear him say he was going to the Father who was Greater than he and therefore would give him power when he went to him to do more for them than he could do now vers 28. And then he adds the reason why he said all this vers 29. Now I have told you before it come to pass that when it is come to pass you might believe That is be confirmed in the belief of all that I have said and fully perswaded I have not boasted of a power and authority which doth not belong to me They might well be confident of it themselves and bid all the House of Israel know assuredly that God had made the same Jesus whom they crucified both Lord and Christ when they saw this come to pass which he had foretold and promised so often Before his Death xv Joh. 26 27. xvi 7. After his Resurrection xxiv Luke 49. Just before his Ascension i. Act. 4.8 Where he bids them not stir from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which they had heard of him and which would give them Power to be his Witnesses every where It was an evident argument when they received it of these two Divine Properties in Him Foreknowledge and Omnipotence They had reason to believe there was a Divine Majesty in him when he was with them on Earth and to trust to all he had said either of himself or them or those that should believe on his Name and to look upon Him now as the King of Glory with all power in Heaven and Earth For how could he have
person whom all their inspired men pointed at and foretold should come to be their King For the descriptions they have left of the cruel usage and horrible sufferings of the Messiah or Christ were answered to the life and exactly fulfilled in our Saviour Jesus whose torments rather exceeded than fell short of the tragicalness of all their expressions Thence it is that when He had ended all his sufferings he said xix John 30. IT IS FINISHED and so bowed his head i.e. did reverence to God and gave up the ghost i.e. resigned his Spirit to God in that prayer which S. Luke mentions By which words It is finished He bad them mark that now all things that were written of him in the xxii Psalm liii Isaiah and other places of their holy Books were perfectly fulfilled and received such a punctual completion in him that there remained nothing more to be done but only to die He had done all his Fathers will and finished his whole work in every point and so having no further business here He worshipped God that sent him and departed the world to go to him XII It will also much advantage this discourse to observe the accidents that hapned at our Saviour's death and accompanied his bloud-shedding which have no small force to verifie what he said concerning himself And to omit the death of Judas which prevented our Lord's and declared that he thought Jesus innocent and himself guilty together with several other things which may be better mentioned afterward let us only observe how the Sun contrary to its usual course when the Moon could not interpose it self between its light and them was eclipsed three whole hours as he was in his passion xxiii Luke 44 45. And that in the conclusion of it the veil of the Temple of that Temple wherein the Jews so much confided was rent in twain from the top to the bottom xxvii Matth. 51. The Earth quaked the Rocks rent and the Graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and went out of the Graves after his Resurrection and appeared unto many in the holy City ver 52 53. What judgment can any sober man make of so many strange things concurring at this moment When was it ever heard that the Sun blusht as one may say to show its face and look upon him when any malefactor or innocent man either was hang'd upon a gibbet or that the holy place was torn together with that man's body or that the Earth groaned when he expired and the hearts of Rocks trembled when he cried out and the monuments of the dead opened at his death which three days after gave them life All these things were peculiar to the death of Jesus and never met together but only to honour his bloud And so notorious they were that the Centurion and those who under him had the charge at that time to see the execution done were convinced by them and by the words that he spake that he was no Deceiver but in truth the Son of God So S. Matthew there relates ver 54. that when the Centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the Earthquake and those things that were done they feared greatly saying Truly this man was the Son of God Whatsoever the Jews had decreed they saw by the displeasure of the Heavens by the trembling of the Earth by the hand of God upon the Temple which was soon known by the Priests that Jesus had exceeding great wrong done him having spoken nothing but the truth when he confessed to Pilate that he was the Son of God They dreaded to think what would be the consequences of this horrid murder and were sorely afraid that they themselves who had attended upon it should feel some of those tokens of Gods wrath which elsewhere was very visible But S. Mark tells us that the Centurion also observed the words of our Saviour as well as was struck with these miraculous accidents and that they helped to convince him xv 39. And when the Centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost he said Truly this man was the Son of God That is when he heard him call God FATHER for those were the words as you heard out of S. Luke xxiii 46. which he cried with a loud voice at the giving up of the ghost Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and when he saw that he stood in this to the very last breath that God was his Father and also beheld such strange testimonies of it both in the Heaven and in the Earth he said without all doubt he ought to have been acknowledged to be no less than he said and not crucified as a malefactor And S. Luke relates it thus that Jesus crying with a loud voice and saying those words before mentioned The Centurion saw what was done that is all spoken of in the precedent verses xxiii Luke 44 45 46. and GLORIFIED God saying Certainly this was a righteous man Which was as if he had said God be praised for showing us the truth or let us do God honour in acknowledging the truth whatever come of it I make no question but this man was innocent and said true when he affirmed he was God's Son though the Jews have got him crucified for this saying and brought us to wait upon his execution That as I have often noted was their quarrel with him That he being a man made himself equal with God x. John 33. v. 18. This was the blasphemy they accused him of that he said They should see the SON OF MAN that is Himself sitting at the right hand of power But the Centurion an honest Gentile acquitted him of this crime and seeing the things that were done and hearing the words he uttered concluded him to be Righteous free from all blame and not at all guilty of that blasphemy for which he was arraigned and suffered but ought to have been believed and acknowledged as the CHRIST the Son of the blessed Thus was that fulfilled which our Saviour had foretold viii John 28. When ye have lift up the Son of Man upon the Cross then shall ye know that I am He that is the CHRIST and that I do nothing of my self assume not this authority of preaching thus without Gods leave but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things that is even this that I am his CHRIST is that which he bid me affirm And he that sent me is with me to justifie what I say and do the Father hath not left me alone no not upon the Cross nor after death as appears even by this Testimony which he forced the Centurion to give him For I do always those things that please him Keep to my office that is both now and when I suffer you to lift me up to the Cross for God declared that he was never better pleased with him than when he laid down his life in this
whom we must worship when he was not sought to overthrow and take out of his hands We are secure that God would not have abetted an Usurper in so high a manner against himself And as for any unclean Spirits if they could have done such things as Jesus wrought they would not have employed their power we are sure to establish a Doctrine so pure and holy as the Christian Religion teaches which utterly destroys all that wickedness in which they delight There was all the reason in the World to believe one who came thus by the SPIRIT when he came by WATER too and by his mighty power promoted nothing but the most excellent Piety Vertue and Goodness among mankind But concerning the miracles of our Saviour there will be an occasion to say so much in pursuance of what I design hereafter that I shall add no more of them here Let us now proceed having heard what the SPIRIT did by him to consider what wonderful things it did for him whereby it proved him to be the Christ the Son of God II. And the SPIRIT sure very eminently bare witness of him when it raised him from the dead and not long after advanced him into Heaven to live for ever with God For both these are ascribed to the power of the SPIRIT in express texts of Holy Scripture Of the former you read in the 1 Pet. iii. 18. where the Apostle says He was put to death in the flesh being mortal as we are but quickned by the SPIRIT that is raised up again from the dead by that Divine power in him whereby he had raised up others before he died It was impossible that he should be held by the chains of death who had such a SPIRIT in him By this he shook them off more easily than Samson brake the Wit hs or the Cords wherewith he was bound when the SPIRIT of the Lord came mightily upon him And being thus quickned again the same SPIRIT also presented him to God in the Heavens as his dearly beloved Son in whom he was well pleased who had given him full satisfaction and done his whole will for which he sent him into the world So you read in the ix Hebr. 14. where the offering which the Apostle says he made of himself to God through the eternal SPIRIT was that bloudy sacrifice on the Cross which after his Resurrection he offered to God and continues still to offer in the Heavenly Sanctuary as the High Priest under the Law offered the bloud of beasts after they were slain at the Altar in the most holy place of the Earthly Sanctuary And this oblation is said to be made by the SPIRIT because that raised him to life after he was slain translated him out of his mortal condition carried him on high made his body glorious and immortal and having thus made him fit to be for ever with God presented him unto his Majesty where he remains through the power of an endless life a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek And this working of the mighty power of God which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavenly places far above all principalities and powers might and dominion and every name that is named was such a testimony of the SPIRIT to him that it confounded his adversaries more than all the miracles which he had wrought by the power of the same SPIRIT in his life-time And therefore the Apostles I observe alledge this immediately after the other as that which compleated the testimony of the SPIRIT to him Till this was clear and evident they relied wholly upon the other as you may perceive by the discourse of those two Disciples that went with our Saviour to Emaus Who doubted of his Resurrection after news had been brought them of it but acknowledged him to have been a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and upon that account were much troubled that their Rulers had crucified him because they trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel xxiv Luke 19 20. When they were fully perswaded therefore that he was indeed made alive again as these very men presently saw then they add this as an argument of the greatest force to convince the world that he was the Son of God the Redeemer of mankind This is the substance I observe of both S. Peter's first Sermons to the Jews and to the Gentiles He begins with a relation how great Jesus was in his Life and then proceeds to show how much greater God had made him by raising him from the dead Read but what he says to his Crucifiers on the day of Pentecost ii Acts 22 23 24. where he first tells them that Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God among them by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of them as they themselves very well knew And then that he being delivered to them and by wicked hands crucified and slain God had raised him up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it In like manner he discourses to the first Gentile converts x. Acts 38 39 40. where he tells Cornelius and his friends how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power and how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil of which they were witnesses who had seen all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem and then adds that God raised him up the third day after he was slain and hanged on a Tree and shewed him openly though not to all the people yet to witnesses chosen before God even to him and others who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead The Apostle had nothing to add beyond this which was the greatest testimony of the SPIRIT to him Now it spake with a loud voice in his behalf for if he had not been God's Son as he said he was He would never have taken him out of his grave much less have advanced him into the Heavens Where it was manifested he now lived by the coming of the HOLY GHOST which fell upon Cornelius and his friends while S. Peter was speaking those words This was all that could be added to what the Apostle had said and God sent this to prove his Resurrection and Exaltation at his right hand Which was such an undeniable proof of his authority that having thus raised him the SPIRIT as I said finished its testimony to him For how should it speak plainer or more convincingly or who can think that it would have continued to speak for him in this manner after his death if he had died with a lye in his mouth The SPIRIT which S. John here says is the TRUTH openly declared by restoring him to life that his Bloud was most acceptable to God It showed that
all things they should be concerned one would think to work this wonder for then we should be forced to confess that there is nothing so eminent and singular in this thing as to move us to give credit unto Jesus But since it never has been done but only in this instance and it was also a fulfilling of his word when he gave it as a token of this truth we have reason to conclude as S. Paul did after he had seen him alive that this is very CHRIST Upon this ground it was that the Apostles so much rejoyced when they saw him again for now as S. John tells us ii 22. when he was risen from the dead they remembred that he had said this unto them concerning the raising up the Temple of his Body and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said Now they were assured they had not been deluded and yielded their assent all this while to a fancy They saw clearly that he was their KING though he had been vilely disgraced and crucified And therefore when they parted with him again after his Resurrection they did not lament and mourn as they had done before but worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God xxiv Luk. 52 53. II. But it is time to add that as it was a sign which he gave them before-hand of this Truth so he told them it was the greatest sign which he had to give He had done many things in his life time to perswade the Jews that he was the CHRIST But still they were so perverse as to ask for more signs of it Though he had done more miracles than ever Moses or all the Prophets had done from the beginning yet the Pharisees continue to say Master we would see a sign from thee xii Matth. 38. One would think they had a mind to learn of him since they call him Master but it was only a complement as S. Luke informs us xi 16. And therefore our Saviour calls them an evil and adulterous generation who were degenerated from the manners of their pious ancestors for they were contented with less proofs of that which God required them to believe and would have been ashamed to seek after a sign as these men did after such evident tokens of a Divine presence in him as they beheld Why should he gratifie men of so naughty a humour whom nothing would satisfie but a sign from Heaven which S. Luke says they demanded nor would be convinced then neither he clearly discerned by their frivolous cavils at all that he had already done Therefore he tells them no sign shall be given them but the sign of the Prophet Jonas which was not a sign from Heaven but from the bowels of the Earth For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth vers 39 40. Which was as much as to say It is in vain to attempt the conviction of such corrupt and depraved minds as yours are by such means as these And therefore I must tell you all that is remaining for the opening your eyes and conquering your perversness is my Resurrection As Jonas was miraculously restored again to live upon the earth after he had been swallowed up by a Whale in the Sea and layn there three days which was a notable sign that he was a Prophet and could not but obtain him credit with the Ninevites when they came to the knowledge of this wonder So will I be restored again to life after you have killed me and I have layn three days in the bowels of the earth and if this will not satiffie you there is no other sign to follow this for your conviction But let me tell you as he adds vers 41. if you still persist in unbelief when this is fulfilled the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with you and condemn you for they repented at Jonas his preaching and behold a greater than Jonas is here That is though Jonas was not really dead but only had his life wonderfully preserved yet the report of it wrought faith and the fruits of faith repentance and amendment in the hearts of the Ninevites and what a condemnation will it prove to you if after you have seen me actually dead and it be demonstrated to you that I am raised to life again you will not believe on me The very same thing is repeated again xvi Matth. 4. where they having once more demanded a sign from Heaven ver 1. He answers them that they should have none but this of Jonas and he left them and departed As if he had said I have nothing more to say to you now all that remains is that I dye and rise again which is the last and greatest token that I am the CHRIST And indeed this was a sign so great that it gave force and strength to the other signs which had been given of this Truth For in the next Chapter Matth. xvii 9. we read that Three Apostles having been confirmed in this belief by a voice from Heaven which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Jesus charges them saying Tell the Vision to no man until the Son of man be risen again from the dead Till He had taken possession of his Kingdom and was set upon his Throne and thence sent the Holy Ghost He saw it would be to no purpose for the Apostles to publish this testimony of God the Father to him For they had already slighted the testimony of John Baptist who heard the like Voice from Heaven at his Baptism and thereupon bare witness that Jesus was the Christ And therefore it was not likely that they would listen to the Apostles when they came and testified that the same words were spoken in their hearing until their testimony should be justified by the authority of such a proof as this that he was risen from the dead This would mightily back all that they said and make it undeniable by any but those who would still deny his Resurrection which was wilfully and without any reason not only to call them lyars but to affront the Holy Ghost who witnessed together with them that he was risen from the dead Which being a proof of such strength that our Saviour relyed upon it above all other it is manifest to common reason that if there be a God as we are sure there is who loves sincerity and truth he should above all things have taken order that this should not have had such evidence as it hath if indeed Jesus was not his Son Though he had suffered wonders to be done by him and voices from Heaven had been heard yet still he gained not much belief in the most considerable part of the Jewish Nation and therefore appealing in conclusion to this Grand Testimony sure there
be made alive again after Death than to save a Man's self from dying I hope then I may conclude with the Apostle S. Paul that this piece of the Mystery of Godliness is without controversie God was manifest in the flesh Justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or by the SPIRIT The SPIRIT which did such mighty things by Jesus and at last raised him from the dead warranted him to be God manifested in our flesh It cleared him from all the envious and malicious accusations of his adversaries while he was alive by the many miraculous works which it wrought and it purged him from all suspicion of blasphemy which was charg'd against him and took away his life by raising from the dead and presenting him in Heaven a pure oblation to God It hath acquitted him fully in all impartial mens thoughts wiped off all the guilt which was cast upon him set him before the eyes of all the world as a person innocent and just and made him glorious and great even in his bloud as those words may be rendred xiii Hebr. 20. wherewithal he is gone into the Heavenly places there to appear before God for us which he would not have been able nor ever dared to do if he were not fully justified and perfectly a righteous person This is that witness which our Saviour himself promises to Nathanael as higher than that which he had already received i. John 50 51. He was convinced of the Authority of Jesus and acknowledged him to be the King of Israel because he could search into the secrets of the hearts and know men at a distance But our Lord tells him he should see greater things than these even behold the Heavens opened and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man That is He should have the witness of the SPIRIT sending the Angels to minister unto him when he was raised from the dead and when he was exalted unto Gods right hand in the Heavens The Ascension and Descension of Angels is but an Hebrew form of speech whereby they express the ministry and service of Angels to the Divine Majesty A servant first goes to his Master to receive his orders before he can be sent by him and therefore ascending is put before descending and by both is nothing else meant but the ministry of those Heavenly Creatures that wait upon the Throne of God and do his Commandments hearkening to the voice of his Word From thence they were sent to attend on Jesus at his Resurrection and at his Ascension as his Disciples witnessed and Nathanael among the rest for he is mentioned as a person present when Jesus showed himself to his Disciples after his Resurrection xxi John 2. and is thought by many to be the same with S. Bartholomew As Israel saw in a dream the Angels ascend and descend upon a Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven xxviii Gen. 12. So this true Israelite who as Greg. Nyssen * Homil. 15. in Cantic expresses it showed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the pure character or mark of that Patriarch upon him in his honesty and uprightness of heart beheld the like vision of Angels but in a more apparent manner when he was awake that he might hereby be confirmed in the faith of Jesus as Jacob was by his vision in the belief of God's providence And indeed this was a great confirmation to his and to our faith For I conceive that this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Son of man is the same with that where it is said the Holy Ghost came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon him Which as it signifies that he was made partaker or rather was possessed of the Holy Ghost and it became His so this other like phrase of the Angels ascending and descending upon him denotes by the same reason that he was made the Lord of them and had them given to him as his ministers and attendants to be imployed in his service And so it was remarkably fulfilled which our Saviour said that he should see GREATER things than those he mentioned before For hereby he knew not only that he was the King of Israel as he had confessed ver 50. but that he was the King of Angels the Lord of Lords Yea hereby it appeared that he hath the power of God because just as the Angels are represented doing their service to his Majesty in that xxviii of Genesis so our Lord foretells with the greatest certainty they should see them waiting upon him And so they did as you read in the first of the Acts of the Apostles ver 9 10 11. which proved him to be indeed the heir of all things Now to shew a little more fully the greatness of this Testimony of the SPIRIT and that it was greater as Jesus here saith to Nathanael than the gift of discerning Spirits which I called a gift of the Holy Ghost to distinguish it from the Spirit let us consider a little that speech of our Saviours xii Matth. 31 32. Wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men c. Which heavy doom S. Mark tells us was pronounced upon them because they said he had an unclean Spirit iii. 30. This shows what the blasphemy was in which if they continued there was no hope of pardon For if he by the SPIRIT of God cast out Devils as he tells them ver 28. then it was rank blasphemy the highest degree of evil speaking and calumny to impute these very cures and wonderful works to the power of the Devil which were wrought by that Divine power And this sin was therefore unpardonable which shows how great this testimony of the SPIRIT is because there were no means left to convince them that Jesus was the Son of God without which belief their sins could not be forgiven if they persisted not only in denying the authority of the SPIRIT but were so bold as to blaspheme it For what could work upon their hard hearts if this proved ineffectual might they not better deny the voices from Heaven which they did not hear than these wonderful works which they beheld every where with their own eyes Or might they not as well say that those were delusions as call these works diabolical operations Might they not in like manner slight his power of knowing secrets and impute it to some other skill What is there in which they might not shuffle and resist the light if in so clear a case as this Jesus his opposition to the Devil casting him out of possession and that on purpose to establish an holy doctrine quite contrary to his interest and in a number of other miraculous works they would be so obstinate as to say the Devil himself had the principal hand There is no question to be made but they who were so perverse as not to see this finger of God
Verse why they gave themselves as whole burnt offerings to Christ but that by the example of their Faith and Martyrdom they might instruct many more to be Martyrs Nay their BLOUD did not only water many young plants and made them grow to their perfection but He tells us a little after in his exposition of the same Psalm Plures scimus c. We know many who were wholly ignorant of the Divine Sacraments i. e. the Christian Religion that by the example of the Martyrs run to Martyrdom No wonder then that these above all others have been called the WITNESSES of Jesus for that 's the interpretation of the word MARTYR and that Christians were forward even to kiss their wounds and to embrace their dead bodies as the remains of those who had done most eminent service to our Lord. Who himself therefore witnessed to them after they were dead and declared that their bloud was very dear and precious in his sight and that it had sealed nothing but the truth For there can no other reason be given but this why at the Monuments of these MARTYRS or WITNESSES our Saviour was pleased to have so many miracles wrought afterward and before such a number of people that Porphyry himself as we learn both from S. Cyril and S. Hierom though an avowed enemy of our Religion could not but acknowledge them They still spake and bare Witness to Jesus by these wonderful works when they were dead or rather Jesus spake for them as I said and declared from Heaven that these were his faithful Witnesses whose word ought to be believed whereby they had declared him to be the Lord. A PRAYER WHO would not believe on thee O Lord who would not magnifie thy Name For great and marvellous are thy works just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints All Nations ought to come and worship before thee whose Majesty and Glory is so many ways made manifest Thou hast raised poor and ignorant men to be mighty Ministers of thy Grace and Witnesses of thy Resurrection and co-workers with thee for the illumination and conversion of the world Blessed be thy name for all the glorious Lights which have been in thy Church in every Age by whom thy holy Faith hath been preserved and propagated to our days Blessed be thy name for all the Martyrs who sealed it with their Bloud and for all the Confessors who freely acknowledged thee with the danger of their lives Great was thy glory which shone in their most exemplary holiness fortitude patience love unseigned both to friends and enemies and in that mighty power whereby they approved themselves as the Ministers of God Thanks be to thee O God the Lord of Heaven and Earth for the comfort of thy holy Scriptures wherein we read the story of our Saviours wondrous love and of that most miraculous power which appeared in him to testifie unto him and at last raised him from the dead and advanced him to the throne of Glory From whence he sent the Holy Ghost to endue his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers with power from on high that they might be his Witnesses and commit that which they had received to faithful men who should be able to teach others also O God I cannot but again adore thy incomprehensible love which can never be sufficiently praised Who can understand the exceeding riches of thy grace that thou whose naked glory is too bright for our weak minds to fix their eyes upon wouldest be pleased in most admirable condescending love to manifest thy self and visit us in our flesh Thou art infinitely above the greatest of us who are far less worthy to approach thee than the lowest creature in this world is fit for our friendship and society So much the more marvellous is thy unheard of love that thou wouldest admit us to such a near relation unto thee So much the greater is our happiness that in Christ Jesus thou hast made thy self our portion and designed us to be eternally blessed with thee Great was his care and kindness all the days of his flesh towards the most miserable wretches who received the greatest tokens of his love I rejoyce now to think with what tenderness he received the poor fed the hungry visited the sick cured the diseased and when he had left the world communicated the same power unto others that they might exercise the same charity that he had done I see both the power and goodness of our Lord in all those works of wonder which he did I see that his mercy endureth for ever which hath preserved a faithful record of these things that we through patience and comfort of the holy Scriptures might have hope Now the God of all grace inspire me and all other Christian Souls with the same faith love and ardent zeal which was in those burning and shining Lights the Witnesses of Christ. That we may be followers of them as they were of him and acknowledging the same Lord being members of the same body partaking of the same Sacraments and living upon the same Heavenly food we may lead the same holy lives in hope to shine one day with them in the same celestial glory Help us to continue in the things which we have learnt and have been assured of knowing of whom we have learnt them that we may not at any time let them slip For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him thou O God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to thine own will May we always carefully lay up and preserve these sacred truths in our heart which were in so glorious a manner delivered to us May they work there perpetually with great power and be reverenced as the holy Oracles of God! May they be the spring of all our motions throughout the whole course of our life That with an even steddy pace whatsoever dangers come in our way we may walk on towards that happy place where those holy ones rejoyce for ever with our Lord. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be given by us and by those glorified Spirits and by all the Angels in Heaven everlasting Praises Amen CHAP. IX The Vse we are to make of their Testimony IT is time now to bring this Discourse to an issue and having examined all these Divine Witnesses taken their proofs and depositions and found their testimony upon due enquiry to be good and legal to consider with our selves what we have to do and what judgment we will pass now that we have heard their evidence God the Father of all says that Jesus is his Son the Word himself appeared oft to justifie this Truth the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven to attest it the Prophet of the Highest proclaimed it the holy life of our
Saviour spake as much and his Bloudy Death sealed it to which the Spirit set its seal also and undeniably witnessed that bloud was sacred which he shed for a testimony upon the Cross All these have done their part all that Witnesses by their office are to do for the making of this good that Jesus is the Son of God That which remains is our task who are bound to consider and seriously ponder and impartially judge and then faithfully improve their sacred Testimony that Jesus may have the glory that is due unto him and we may have that benefit which God by him designs to bestow upon us I. And first of all let us consider a-while the great weight and importance of this Truth that Jesus is Gods Son If the whole frame of Christian Religion did not rely upon it there would not have been such care taken to settle it and lay it deep in our hearts by so much labour and strength of argument It is equally blameable to be laborious about a trifle and to be superficial and slight in things of greatest moment No man of sense will with a great deal of diligence summon together a number of Witnesses to make good that which when it is proved it is indifferent as to any thing that depends upon it whether it be true or false No question there is a considerable interest of ours which is concerned in this truth else the Holy men of God would not have called HEAVEN AND EARTH TO WITNESS and bear their testimony to it The Father the Word the Holy-Ghost would not have concurred with the Water the Bloud and the Spirit to assert and maintain it but that all is little enough to justifie it and that it is a thing of which we cannot but desire the greatest assurance It is 1. the Foundation of all other Truths in the Christian Religion as you may read 1 Cor. iii. 11. xvi Matth. 17 18. It is the Rock on which the Church is built the Ground that supports the whole Fabrick which if it be infirm and rotten all falls to rubbish and confusion And therefore 2. the Devil laboured to undermine this Truth above all others Like a subtile Enemy when the Apostles as wise Master-builders had laid this foundation he imployed false Teachers and counterfeit Apostles as so many Pioneers to work under this and lay their trains to blow it up which he knew was a nearer way to ruine all than to plant his Batteries against the building onely The History of the first times afford too plentiful instances of this For we find there arose many Anti-christs 1 Joh. ii 18. and many false Prophets went out into the World iv 1. And the very spirit of Antichrist as he tells us vers 3. was this to deny that Jesus who came in flesh in a mortal condition and subject to our miseries was Christ. They would not have it thought that any one who suffered so vilely was the great KING that had been so long expected Or if they believed Jesus to be a great Prophet and that he was raised from the dead and rewarded for his labours in Heaven as other Prophets were yet they denied that he was made LORD OF ALL the Head of the Church and of all Principalities and Powers who was to be honoured by all Men even as they honour the Father And therefore 3. the Apostles imployed as great care and earnest indeavour for to strengthen and support this weighty truth as the Enemies of Religion laboured might and main as we say to weaken and overthrow the belief of it This was the thing they every where preached as you read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles And for this very end S. John wrote this Epistle to confirm his Disciples in this Faith against all the subtile opposition of their adversaries as you may collect from many passages beside that which I have expounded And it was the thing aimed at also in his second Epistle where he rejoyces to hear that they walkt in the truth vers 3. and cautions them against those deceivers and Antichrists vers 7. And indeed 4. it was the great note of difference between the true Prophets and the false as you may see 1 Cor. xii 3. and in the place now mentioned in this Epistle iv 1 2. which also 5. makes him command his Disciples that if any one pretending to the Spirit did not acknowledge this they should not use the common civility to him of bidding him God speed ii Epist 10. And if any man apostatiz'd from this faith which is the last thing I shall mention S. Paul pronounces a most dreadful curse upon him and wishes or predicts the Lord would come and speedily execute it 1 Corinth xvi 22. For whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of CHRIST hath not God 2. epist of S. Joh. 9. This being a truth therefore of so great moment as appears by these considerations and by the many Witnesses to which S. John here appeals for the proof of it let us be sure to settle a sense of its concernment to us in our hearts and then to think often of it and study it so thoroughly that we may perceive both the truth and importance of it or else we shall prove our selves despisers of God who do as bad as say that it was a needless pains which he bestowed in giving so many evidences of that for which we have no regard or no list to bring to trial and examination And that truly I doubt is the temper of most Christian People at this day They think all discourses on this subject useless or little worth because they prove that which they believe already Heathens might reap some profit by them but what say they have we to do with them But while such thoughts as these have too long possessed the drowsie Christian world they remain alas in the very dregs of Heathenism with a little smack or taste of Christianity It is a sad thing to consider but so it is that they who cannot endure to think upon what ground their belief stands because they would not put themselves to the trouble of understanding it are of that base temper which is the mother of Idolatry of Mahometism and of all spurious Religions in the World For what is it makes Men worship the Sun Moon and Stars or address their services to dead men nay to a piece of wood or a red cloth or some such paultry thing what makes Mahomet so reverenced by a great part of the World as the Prophet of the Highest but that they have ever been so taught and it is the custome to honour him They examine no further nor enquire for any other reason that is do not observe that there is no other reason for their belief Upon the very same account do many receive Jesus for the Son of God He hath no better footing in their Souls nor stands upon firmer grounds than Mahomet or
to lurk in the dark and put off their stuff when no body can see what it is who know it is deceitfully wrought and will not abide the light They do wisely and as cunning Merchants who make up in words and great assurances of their honesty what is wanting in the goodness of their wares But why we should have so little wit as to take their words who can tell We must answer for this folly no doubt to Almighty God who hath given us more understanding if we would use it and taught us by himself to call for good witnesses of that which is offered to us for a truth And the more strictly we examine these which S. John here alledges the better we shall be satisfied that they intend not to deceive us Which is a mark we should always have much in our eye when we are enquiring after Truth If the more we search consider and ponder the proofs which are brought the better they appear and the clearer they grow it is a very good sign there is nothing wanting to make it fully entertain'd but only longer thoughts and greater and more serious consideration As on the other hand we have great reason to suspect and turn away from that which the longer we weigh its proofs the lighter they seem and the propounders of them also begin to shift and shuffle till they have put all into a mist in which we can see nothing but that they are at a loss and are fain to puzzle us because they cannot clear that which they were about Thanks be to God there is nothing of this in the evidences we give for the true Christian Religion They are plain and perspicuous and show themselves in a greater brightness the more we look upon them and the better we are acquainted with them Search and try what has been said and the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ will shine with greater lustre in your eyes and you will confess with S. Peter 2 i. 3. that he hath called us to the knowledge of him by glory and vertue that is by a most amazing power of God which declared him to be his only Son our Lord. II. Let us therefore in the next place consider seriously how excellent and perfectly rational the Faith of Christians is There is nothing founded upon such Authority as our most holy Religion It is no childish silly thing to be a believer A man doth not betray his weakness and easie credulity when upon examination and search he suffers his Soul to be planted with these new Principles but demonstrates the strength the nobleness and ingenuity of his mind which can discern and judge aright for nothing can pretend to so much reason as they There are a vast heap of things which I could here accumulate beside those which I have treated of to make good this assertion But because the method of the Apostle which I have followed is so clear and easie and the Witnesses so full and pregnant that every one of them affords us many evidences I will content my self with a brief review of what hath been said Which will be sufficient to convince us that our Faith is the highest improvement of our Reason and doth not debase but clevate and raise our understanding upon the surest grounds of Divine demonstration For if you consider what Testimonials they brought along with them who have pretended to speak in God's name you will find there is nothing comparable to the Witness which God hath given of his Son No not in that Religion which was really founded by his Authority much less in that where there was only the Name of God pretended without any Power I. Mahomet I mean to begin first with the latter of these took upon him to be the Apostle and the Prophet of God greater not only than Moses but than Jesus himself And such was his confident brags of Revelations from God that among a company of wild Arabians whom Algazel acknowledges to have approached the nearest to Beasts of all other men He made some proselytes to his belief But what proof did he give that he was divinely sent Was it ever heard that God spake to him so much as once as he did often to our Saviour At what time or in what place and in whose audience did God say to him Thou art my Prophet When did a voice from Heaven come to any three or but one man and say This is the Apostle of God hear him It is a marvellous Providence of God that this Impostor who wanted no confidence should never adventure in all the relations he hath made of himself quite contrary to our Lord who wrote nothing of his own life but left all to his Disciples to tell any such story as this for his greater credit and glory among his followers We read indeed of some idle tales which he reports of an Angel speaking to him and of his ascension into Heaven I know not how many millions of miles But what witness was there of these things what was his name who saw the Angel appear to him or who stood by when he was transported and carried out of sight as he dreamed Or when and to whom did Moses or any one else appear and verifie it that he had been with them in glory If we must take his own word which is all we can hear of to vouch it then we must not refuse to believe every foolish fellow who has impudence enough to pretend to prophesie But what then will become of the faith of Mahomet himself if the sword were out of his hand Let us hear such a man as John the Baptist whose piety and vertue is attested by those who were no Friends of our Religion affirm that he heard and saw such things as he reports and we will be content to abate them the Apostles and such a multitude of people as heard God say he would Glorifie his Name in our Saviour And in what Glory hath that false Prophet appeared since he left the World Whose eyes hath he struck out with the brightness of his countenance Nay by whom hath he been so much as seen since he was buried I need not put the question about his Resurrection for they never pretended it Only the sottish people would not believe when he died that he was really dead but said he was taken up to Heaven as Jesus was And Omar one of his successors threatned death to them that should say he was dead for he was only gone away as Moses did into the Mount and would return again From whence perhaps arose that vulgar error among us that the Mahumedans expect the return of their Prophet * See Poceek in Gregor Abul Phar. p. 180. 264. But Abu Becri proved to them out of the Alcoran that He was to die as other Prophets before him and so appeased Omar and the multitude And was it ever heard that the Holy Ghost sell down upon him in a
Moses then had need to do some miracles to confirm his prophecy since he fell short in many other things of giving satisfaction Such as we have I mean who abound in Witnesses to our belief and hear even this Witness on which the Jews heretofore relied speak more plainly and powerfully to us than it did to them The SPIRIT of the Lord was upon Moses the people saw by the wonders he did which moved them to follow him Though now they are so foolishly mad against our Saviour that to rob us of this Argument the Jews say Moses his miracles did not prove him to be sent of God yet it is manifest by their story they were in a manner his only glory I am sure the principal or that which first induced their forefathers to give any credit to him For when he asked of God a sign to give the people who otherwise he foresaw would question the apparition of the Angel to him that they might believe as much as himself and acknowledge that God sent him He granted him a power of doing such wonders as flesh and bloud could not do which it seems he thought the properest means to convince them What is that in thy hand saith the Lord immediately after the words mentioned before iv Exod. 1. and he said a rod. And the Lord said Cast it on the ground And he cast it on the ground and it became a Serpent and Moses fled from before it And the Lord said unto him again Put forth thine hand and take it by the tail and he put forth his hand and caught it and it became a rod in his hand that they may believe the Lord God of their Fathers hath appeared unto thee ver 2 3 4 5. This was the end for which this miracle was to be wrought To which he adds another that if they would not believe him nor hearken to the voice of the first they might be convinced by the second or if they would believe neither he gave him power to do a third and bade him turn the water of the river into bloud ver 7 8. And accordingly you read he went and did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believed and when they heard God had visited them bowed their heads and worshipped ver 30 31. After this indeed they disbelieved again till God drowned their enemies in the red Sea and then the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses xiv Exod. 31. But were any of these works so wonderful and so powerful to move belief as those which our Saviour did It may deserve a discourse on a fitting occasion on purpose to show how much Moses came behind him in this as well as in all the rest Both the number and greatness of our Saviour's works were as far beyond his as the strength of a Gyant is beyond that of an Infant He was cut off in the midst of his days and yet in that three years and an half wherein he lived after the SPIRIT of God came upon him at his Baptism he did more wonders than Moses did in forty years nay more than had been done from the beginning of the world to that time And if you regard the quality of them Moses his taking the Serpent by the tail and turning it into a rod again was not comparable to our Saviour's casting out Devils treading upon the old Serpent breaking in pieces all his power by healing all manner of sickness and disease and giving his Disciples also the same authority and power which was visible in himself Nor was Moses his hand becoming leprous when he put it into his bosom and its being restored again by the same means any thing like to the miracles of Jesus in curing so many old Lepers of all forts both Jews and Samaritans wheresoever they came to him to implore his charity Moses brought a strong East wind which caused the Sea to go back and leave the bottom dry for the Israelites to march through but this was nothing so wonderful as our Lord 's walking upon the Sea as it had been dry land and commanding Peter to accompany him in the midst of a boisterous wind and his laying his commands upon such tempests and raging waves and the fishes also which all obeyed him Nay that great miracle of feeding them with Manna was not so strange as our Lord 's satisfying great multitudes with five or seven loaves and two small fishes which were not proportionable to so many thousand stomachs as were filled by them as the quantity of Manna was to the Armies of the Israelites Besides that you never read a word of Moses his opening the eyes of the blind much less of his raising the dead which our Lord did sundry times I need say no more to show how inferiour he was to Jesus even in regard of his miracles concerning which the multitude said truly It never was so seen in Israel ix Matth. 33. And yet this was the only thing that convinced that Nation at the first and made them believe in Moses as I have prov'd before they heard God speak to them by an Angel from mount Sinai at the giving of the Law That was the most amazing thing of all but was after they came out of Egypt and a great while after they had believed Moses was sent of God as they saw then more fully and was nothing comparable neither to Jesus's speaking himself to some of the Apostles out of Heaven and sending the Holy Ghost from thence with the gift of tongues and divers others upon them all And after all that hath been said of the miracles which the SPIRIT wrought by him where are the miracles that it wrought for him Did Moses prove himself a true Prophet by rising again after he was dead and buried To whom did he appear With whom did he eat and drink Or who can say that he ascended up into Heaven To whom did he appear in glory except it was to our Saviour and some of his Disciples in honour of whom it seems he had then the favour and not before to shine in that lustre wherein they beheld him In short God gave not the Spirit by measure unto Jesus as you have heard before He had not such a limited portion of it as Moses had who appears by these things to have been only a servant over the house of God in which our Saviour had a power as a Son and that over his own house iii. Hebr. 5 6. Thus much hath been said to show the great honour God hath done us in making us Christians Whose Faith you see stands upon such well-laid grounds that even they who were taught by God had none comparable to them Herein we have a felicity above all other men that have ever been if we be but sensible of it that we are not required to receive any thing from God but upon such reasons as far excel those which demanded belief of
p. 280 c. The use we should make of this Record p. 286. A Meditation p. 294. CHAP. IX The Testimony of the WATER concerning Eternall Life p. 299. Where first the purity of our Saviour's Doctrine is considered in many particulars p. 300. to 312. Secondly the purity of his Life Ib. to p. 317. Thirdly the Baptism of John Ib. Lastly his own Baptism p. 322. A Meditation p. 330. CHAP. X. The Testimony of the BLOVD is considered p. 333. in Ten particulars The first p. 335. The second p. 339. The third p. 346. The fourth p. 348. The fifth p. 350. The sixth p. 352. The seventh p. 356. The eighth p. 362. The ninth p. 365. The tenth p. 371. A Meditation p. 376. CHAP. XI The Testimony of the SPIRIT considered p. 381. First in the Miracles he wrought p. 384. which are considered in generall p. 388. and then in 6 particulars p. 397. Secondly in his Resurrection from the dead p. 407. and Ascension to heaven p. 417. explained in eight particulars to p. 426. An explication of 2 St. Peter i. 3 4. p. 427 c. A Meditation p. 434. CHAP. XII The Testimony of the holy APOSTLES p. 439. who opened this Doctrine more fully 443. declaring first how our Lord will appear in person at the last day Ib. p. 444 c. Secondly that in the mean time Souls do not sleep p. 445. proved by severall testimonies of St. Paul and St. John p. 447. to 457. which was always the sense of the Church p. 460. The certainty of the Apostles testimony p. 464. proved by their Life and Doctrine p. 470. by their Bloud p. 474. and by the power of the Spirit which accompanied them p. 478. by which they cured some and delivered others to Satan p. 481 c. A Meditation out of St. Chrysostom p. 491. CHAP. XIII The Vse we are to make of this RECORD First in admiring the great love of God p. 499. Which is illustrated secondly by what God hath done for us more then for any in former times p. 507. How uncertain the Philosophers were in their reasonings about this matter p. 508. How little of it was revealed to the Jews p. 514. who had no express promises of Eternall Life p. 515 c. and therefore saw it but obscurely p. 524. and had no such Witnesses of what they knew p. 532. Which ought thirdly to excite in our hearts such love to God as moves us universally to obey him p. 536. No motive comparable to this p. 539. whose strength appears in six properties it hath p. 541. to 551. Which fourthly makes it more strange that it doth so little move men p. 552. Want of Faith is the reason of it p. 555. which we must therefore awaken p. 556. by the consideration of what hath been said which is briefly summed up p. 557. to 566. A Meditation out of St. Chrysostom to the same purpose p. 571. CHAP. XIV A farther Improvement of this RECORD p. 577. which we ought to believe with an unshaken Faith p. 578. An incouragement to Faith p. 583. For the quickning of which severall questions are proposed which is the Fifth Vse p. 586. First about the way to this Felicity p. 587. Secondly about the nature of the way p. 597. Thirdly about the unreasonableness of being desirous to stay always here p. 606. Fourthly about their distance from it who never have their thoughts in heaven p. 608. Fifthly about the danger of resisting so mighty a motive to well-doing p. 611. Sixthly about mens resolutions all these things considered p. 617. The last Use concerns the great joy the righteous should have in the thoughts of what they hope for p. 624. which is a strong support under the greatest afflictions p. 629. demonstrated in three Observations p. 630. to 636. where the resolution of good men before Christ came is represented to p. 642. The examples of the Martyrs presented p. 643 c. Comfort from hence derived against the death of friends p. 646. or in any other sad condition p. 649. even in death it self p. 653. The Conclusion out of St. Gregory Nazianzen p. 655. ERRATA PAge 101. line 6. reade VI. p. 109. marg r. prosolog p. 461. marg penult Hom iv in Hebr. p. 508. 2. r. own peculiar p. 534. antep r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 606. marg r. iii. IMPRIMATUR Guil. Sill R. P. D. Hen. Episcopo Lond. à Sacris Domesticis Oct. 21. 1676. 1 S. Joh. V. 11. AND THIS IS THE RECORD THAT GOD HATH GIVEN TO VS ETERNALL LIFE AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON AN INTRODUCTION To the following Discourse HAving made in the former Treatise as diligent a search as I could into the Records of Heaven and Earth and found there the clearest Evidences that Jesus is the Son of God to whom therefore we owe the most humble and chearful Obedience I purpose now to make a farther inquiry into them after the Royal Powers which belong to so great a Prince who both in his Nature and in his Office so infinitely excells all other that his loyal Subjects may well expect from him the greatest grace and favour He was God appearing as Man Epist ad Ephes to use the words of Ignatius and Man working mightily as God but yet submitted himself to the meanest condition and the basest death for the purging away our sins by his bloud whereby he obtained as the most ample Dominion over all creatures so the larges◠Power both to remit sins and also to reward the services of all those that believe on him To whom his affection is so great and extends it self in such boundless love that his kindness towards them will not be perfected I shall prove till he hath bestowed on them ETERNAL LIFE A Blessing for which all mankind most passionately wish not onely because the weakness of our bodies the inconstancy of all their enjoyments the troubles we mee◠with in the world and the necessity of dying make it most desirable but because it comes recommended to us by its own proper worth and excellence which is so exceeding great that it renders the most constant untroubled possession of this world's goods and a perpetuity in this life could it be obtained without any sickness or infirmity a vile and contemptible purchace in comparison with it This therefore all considerate minds would gladly be well assured of There is nothing of such importance to their satisfaction as a certainty of immortal happiness when they leave this Body Which will make our Obedience to God's commands as stedfast as our Belief is and withall most sweet and easie whatsoever opposition we have to discourage us For the hope of Eternal Life is able to lift us up above all the temptations wherewith the world can assault us be they either the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life or be they those hatreds reproaches persecutions loss of goods yea and death it self which
The testimony of worthy men as the Apostle here observes is readily received by us and therefore we ought to be afraid of being so rudely prophane as to reject the testimony of God which is of far greater weight then theirs and hath been solemnly given you see more then once for the confirmation of our Faith But God the Father willing more abundantly to shew if I may borrow those words in vi Heb. 17. unto the heirs of this promise the immutability of his counsel hath graciously vouchsafed us farther assurance and by his WORD hath told us as much as He himself declared by those voices from heaven What we are to understand by the WORD in this place I have shewn in the Former Treatise viz. the Lord Jesus himself God Man or God the WORD made flesh Orat. contra Gentes p. 49. who as St. Athanasius speaks is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Interpreter and Embassadour of his own Father For as by the word a man speaks we understand his Mind which is the fountain from whence it comes so but by a more lively representation and after an incomparably more excellent manner we beholding the power of the WORD come to the knowledge of his Father as our Saviour himself saith xiv Joh. 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also From him this Eternall WORD came down and was incarnate not onely to reveal his will but to die for our Sins and to seal what he had preached with his Bloud After which God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavens from whence he testified as loudly that he hath in him ETERNALL LIFE for us as he did that he is the SON OF GOD. This Witness therefore let us now examine and look over again the old Evidences which we formerly searched wherein I doubt not we shall find this Truth most clearly contained And the Testimony of the WORD you know as well as that of the FATHER was threefold once to St. Stephen a second time to St. Paul and a third to this beloved Disciple St. John I. For the First of these it stands upon record in so many words that St. Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost and looking up stedfastly to heaven saw the heavens opened and beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand vii Act. 55 56. Thus he declares not to some simple people who perhaps might believe him for his confidence but to the great Councill of Jerusalem who he knew were very much disaffected nay perfectly opposite to this truth To them he protests in open Court when he was upon his triall and bids them mark it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold take notice of what I now tell you I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God And he said it though he knew he stood in certain perill of his life for this declaration It was for no other reason that Jesus himself was put to death but because he said He was the Son of God and that they should see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven And therefore for him to confirm so peremptorily this odious Truth after they had killed Him and thereby make them guilty of innocent bloud yea of the bloud of their great King was a Crime he might well expect they would punish with as great severity as was in their power to express which we may be confident he would never have provoked had he not been so sure of the Glory of our Saviour that he could not hold his peace For who is there so frantick as to expose himself to death for such an unprofitable lie It is not in the nature of man to suffer so shamefully as he did in his own person merely to bring a little false honour to another To fansy a person of his Wisedom guilty of such madness is a kind of distraction in him that supposes it who were he sober would be taught otherwise by the abhorrence he feels in himself to throw away his life for a trifle Since there is not the least reason then to question but that this Holy man beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand i. e. the gates of Heaven being set open that he might have the favour to look into the celestiall palace the Majesty of God was there represented to him sitting on a Throne as it used to be in the propheticall Visions and he beheld the Lord Jesus the very next person to the Divine Majesty we may clearly see in this Vision both the things that St. John here asserts viz. that Eternall Life is in Jesus the Son of God to give to those that effectually believe on his Name I. As for the first the power wherewith he is invested to give Eternall LIFE it is visible from his standing at God's right hand which denotes his Omnipotent Virtue to effect what he pleases For by the right hand of God Jesus himself was exalted to the right hand of power as you reade ii Act. 33. v. 31. and therefore being placed there it signifies that he can doe for us what God hath done for him that is exalt us to the like glory in the heavens where he is And as this is a clear proof of one of the things here recorded that LIFE is in him so the other II. That God hath given the faithfull a right to this Eternall LIFE with him and that he will bestow it on us is no less evident from the very End of this Vision For we can see no other reason of this glorious appearance of our Saviour to him but to incourage him in his preaching and incite him to witness a good confession as he himself had done before this great Councill and before Pontius Pilate in hope that if it cost him his life as it had done our Saviour he should live and reign with him in that glorious place where he now beheld him This was the purpose of the heavenly WORD 's coming now to him that he might not doubt of his promises nor shrink in the least from what he had preached though he should die for it which would doe him no greater harm then to dispatch him presently to the celestiall habitations In the very beginning of his history we reade that he had no sooner heard the Indictment read which they had drawn up against him but before he spake a word for himself the whole Council behold his face as it had been the face of an Angel vi Act. 15. There appeared that is such a bright and sweet Majesty in his countenance as made him look like one of the celestial inhabitants who had already prevented the glorious state to which he was going And his Answer to their charge being ended their barbarous rage was not more apparent then it was that the heavens opened to receive his Spirit
and true Witness the beginning of the Creation of God iii. 14. By the name of AMEN which he gives himself he would have them understand that by him all the promises made to the Church shall undoubtedly be fulfilled according to that of St. Paul 2 Cor. i. 20. In him all the promises of God are Yea and in him Amen He may be believed for he is a Witness who affirms and testifies nothing but the very truth which can never fail because he is the Efficient cause of all things by whom they were at first created and by whom mankind is now repaired and therefore is the Head of all creatures especially of all Christians who shall rise again from the dead to immortall life So I expound the last words the beginning of the Creation of God as Andreas Caesariensis doth who takes in both senses of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have of the word Creation which signifies not onely Principium the beginning or originall but Principatum the principality or dominion which the Son of God hath over all creatures of which he is the Authour What may we not expect from so great a Prince who hath such an absolute command over all things And why should we doubt of his Sovereignty who appeared in such an amazing splendour to St. John and proclaimed in these and other such like Titles the supereminent glory of his Majesty Or why shoul◠we question his truth who had approved himself so many ways the true and faithfull Witness especially by sending the Holy Ghost as you shall hear presently to bear witness to him according to his promise We ought to rely upon his word and to fear nothing but lest we should reject or distrust the testimony of a Person so great and so just whose power appeared from his very first entrance into the world to be so far transcending all creatures that the Apostles might see before his ascension to the glory wherein St. John beheld him that as he had the Words of eternall Life so he had that Life in himself which in due time he would bestow upon them For though He had all the passions of a man Greg. Nazianz orat xxxv p. 575. yet he had all the perfections likewise of God that none might be so profanely contumelious as to contemn his Deity because he took upon him the grossness of our Humanity He was born of a woman but she a Virgin that was humane this Divine He was wrapt in swaddling-cloaths when he was an infant but shaked off the cloaths that wrapt him in the sepulchre when he was dead He was laid in a manger but then glorified by Angels pointed to by a Star and worshipped by the Wise men He was driven into Egypt but there drove away the errours of the Egyptians The Jews saw no beauty in him but he shone upon the mountain brighter then the Sun prefiguring the glory to which he should ascend He was baptized and tempted as Man but he took away the Sins of the World and got the victory as God He was hungry but fed many thousands and is himself the heavenly Bread which giveth life He was thirsty but gave the waters of life and made rivers of living waters flow from those that believed on him He was called a Samaritan and they said he had a Devill but he put Devills to flight and tumbled whole legions of them into the deep and made the Prince of Devills fall like lightning from heaven He was sold for thirty pieces of silver but purchased the whole World with the great price of his own bloud He was led as a sheep to the slaughter but was the Shepherd of Israel and now is of all the World He was dumb as a lamb before the shearers but is the WORD preached by the voice of one crying in the wilderness He was wounded and bruised but healed every sickness and all manner of disease He was lifted up on the tree and there fixed but restored us to the tree of life and saved the thief who was crucified with him He laid down his life but had power to take it again and the veil rent the rocks were cleft and the dead were raised He died but he gives life and by death extinguished death He was buried but rose again out of the grave He went down into hell but he brought up Souls with him and ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the quick and the dead and to examine all such discourses as detract from his glory O my Soul for ever praise him and let thy heart rejoyce in his holy Name Love him as thy Life confide in his word depend on his power and expect from him the blessing of Eternall Life For he is the AMEN the faithfull and true witness who cannot lie the beginning of the Creation of God whom all Creatures without a voice confess to be their Lord. The Heavens cry Proclus Orat. xiii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was God who bowed them and came down to be a man for our sakes The Sun cries It was my Lord who was crucified in the flesh at the light of whose Divinity I was afraid and withdrew my beams The Earth cries It was He that formed me who suffered which made me quake and tremble at the horrid fact The Sea cries He was not my fellow-servant who walkt with one of his Disciples upon my back The Temple cries He that was worshipped here is now blasphemed and therefore I rend my garments Nay Hell cries He was not a mere man who descended hither for whom I received as a Captive I found to be the Omnipotent God And if we ask the heavenly powers and desire the Angels and Archangels and the whole host of heaven to tell us Who was he that appeared on earth and was crucified in the flesh they will all answer aloud in the words of the Prophet David The Lord the God of hosts he is the King of Glory To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII Concerning the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST the Third Witness in Heaven NOW I proceed to examine the Testimony which the Third Witness in Heaven gave concerning this future state which is the HOLY GHOST the Third Person in the Blessed Trinity Who openly assures us by as many ways and by the same means that we have eternall Life in Christ Jesus as he did that Jesus is the Son of God And that I may not be tedious in a business wherein we have already received such satisfaction let us take but a small taste of those three Testimonies of the Holy Ghost which I alledged in the former Treatise I. And first you know that there was a visible appearance of the HOLY GHOST at our Saviour's Baptism when the Divine Glory came down from heaven and rested on him in the sight of John the Baptist whereby he was persuaded that this was the Messiah the King of
1.18 would never alter for forty years before the destruction of the Temple but still continued red on the great day of Expiation Which if it be true as we have their own faith for it was a shrewd token that their most excellent Sacrifices were now able to doe them no service and that their Sins were of so deep a dye having crucified the Prince of life that nothing in the old Religion could purifie them In vain did they expect to hear that tongue speaking peace to them which was wont to publish good tidings for it still lookt as red as bloud and told them there was no hope for them but in Jesus who alone could make their crimson sins as white as wool By his bloudy Death they might sue out a pardon of those very crimes which they had committed against himself For it being a Sacrifice was for the remission of Sins or else the World had been in a worse case then it was before now that all other Bloud to cleanse them was quite taken away And there was no reason to doubt but God was perfectly well pleased and satisfied with this one Sacrifice of his else he would not have raised him from the dead nor admitted him into the heavens where as He himself hath since declared he appears in the presence of God and by virtue of his Sacrifice makes perpetuall intercession for us Now this plainly infers as hath been said before the hope of Eternall Life For if there be remission of sins then we are restored to the state of innocence again We are put into the state and condition of the sons of God and there is nothing to hinder our being re-possessed of Paradise and the Tree of Life To which we not being restored in this World it remains that we be admitted to it and re-instated in it in another IX Unto all which let the consideration of the time be added when our Saviour suffered for that is not without its instruction in this business but contributes something to the confirmation of our faith It was at the Feast of unleavened Bread as they themselves cannot deny a solemn time appointed by God to be observed at their departure out of Egypt when they were ransomed by a mighty hand and purchased to be God's peculiar people and began their journey towards the Land of Canaan which he had promised to their forefathers At this Feast it is well known a Lamb immaculate and pure was ordered to be slain whose bloud was that which saved them from the strokes of the Angel of Death who destroyed the Egyptians Now our Lord the Lamb of God without spot and blemish the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world as St. John Baptist testified being slain at this very time and hanging on the Cross after the same fashion wherein the Paschall Lamb was wont to be killed it was a Testimony clear enough to those that observed and laid things together that his BLOUD was their ransome from a greater slavery and was shed to deliver them from eternall death and destruction and after they had travelled a while through the wilderness as I may call it of this world and overcome there all difficulties and temptations would procure their entrance into a better and more glorious Rest then that wherein they were The Holy man who writes the Epistle to the Hebrews proves unanswerably chap. iv that the Rest into which Joshua brought the Children of Israel was not all that good men expected and which God intended to bestow upon them For if that great Captain had brought them to their finall Rest there would not have been mention made by the inspired Psalmist many years after their settlement in Canaan of another Rest which as the words there are remaineth for the people of God Now who can pretend to be the Captain of their Salvation to conduct them thither but onely our Blessed Saviour whose Name is the same with that of the ancient Joshua or Jesus who was baptized at that very place where they entred into their Rest in the promised Land to whom the heavens there opened and God the Father spake by an audible voice and the Holy Ghost fell down in a visible shape who at last after many promises and assurances that he would bring them to the heavenly Country was offered at that very time when their forefathers began their travells to their resting-place and hereby sealed what he had promised by his bloud as God the Father sealed to it by divers acts of his that He was a Lamb without spot an offering and a sacrifice to him of a sweet-smelling savour Well might St. Paul call him our Passeover that is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. v. 7. For it is as visible that he was slain for the salvation of mankind as that the Paschall Lamb was slain for the preservation of Israel and that as the destroying Angel passed over those houses where he found the bloud of that Lamb upon the door-posts and spared the lives of the inhabitants so all those Souls that are sprinkled with the bloud of Jesus i. e. believe on him shall be delivered by him from perishing and preserved to eternall Life Which Salvation he procured by offering himself freely as our Passeover that is for the like end but as much excelling as Eternall life doth temporary for which the Paschal Lamb was sacrificed And he made his sacrifice the more remarkable by offering it at that very time when the other was offered and when they themselves expected it For some of the Jews say expresly which adds much weight to this observation that on the same day of the month Nisan Israel shall be redeemed in the days of the Messiah Vid P. Fagium in xii Exod. 13. on which they were redeemed when God wonderfully brought them out of the land of Egypt Now our Saviour made good his word which he had often passed that he would give them his very flesh to eat whereby they might feast with him as they had done that day on the Paschal Lamb. He gave them also his very bloud to drink which was the price of their redemption that which saved them from the destroyer and overcame those enemies which opposed their entrance into the Eternall Rest For his flesh as he speaks vi Joh. 55. being offered on the Cross was meat indeed and his bloud drink indeed That is the most perfect food and excellent nutriment which hath a power to give not a temporary as the Paschal Lamb did but an Eternall life to those that partake of it by a lively faith in him Some of the Jews themselves thought there was some greater Mystery in the Passeover then the commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and say expresly that then God communicated his Divinity to men They are the words of R. Judah * apud Masâ—um in v. Jesh 1â— By the Sacrifice of the Passeover God joyns men so closely to himself that
they are one with him as light is with a candle Which had little truth in it till Christ our PASSEOVER was sacrificed for us when the mystery was explained and he invited all men to come and eat of his flesh and drink of his bloud and thereby have such a fellowship with him in his death that he might communicate to them his life For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alex. speaks * L 11. Paedag. cap. 2. This is to drink the bloud of Jesus to partake of the Lord's immortality And so our Lord explains himself when he adds in the next words ver 57. As the living Father who being the authour of life can give it again to the dead hath sent me and I live by the Father shall rise again though I give my flesh to be slain so he that eateth me believeth on me though crucified shall live by me that is be raised again to life by me as I by the Father For he gave his flesh as he says at the beginning of this discourse ver 51. that is delivered it to be made a bloudy sacrifice for the life of the world i. e. that all mankind might have remission of sins and eternall life Which he will as certainly give to those who do not refuse to participate of this Sacrifice by believing in him as the Father of life raised him from the dead to live for evermore These words seemed hard to some of his Disciples ver 60. who could not understand that there should be such virtue in his flesh as to give life unto the world But our Lord tells them there was no cause of being offended at this discourse for if they would but stay a while they should be convinced that he did not ascribe too much to it ver 62. What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before That is What will you say if you behold me raised up from the dead and ascend into heaven where I was before I took this flesh Will you not then confess that my Death which is meant by his giving his flesh to them had an exceeding great virtue in it being so acceptable to God as to be thus highly rewarded Will it then seem incredible to you that I should obtain thereby a power to raise the dead and to give eternall Life This sure will be a convincing argument that I have not said too much of my BLOUD nor promised greater things then it can doe for you You will then if you consider it joyn your selves heartily to me though now you are ready to fly off and not think my Cross such a scandall that it should hinder you from being Christians X. And that will be one of our next works in the following Chapter to shew the power of Christ's Resurrection to perswade us that by his Death He will give life to the world Let us first onely briefly consider that there are some other Circumstances besides this now mentioned which declare there was something exceeding remarkable in the Sufferings of Christ on the Cross to procure him great glory For we find that Nicodemus one of their Senatours who durst not publickly own our Saviour while he was in great savour with the people came now that he was crucified and exposed to scorn and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about an hundred pound weight xix Joh. 39. to honour his Corps withall Which would be a stronger argument of the thorough conviction already wrought in his mind if there be any truth in the conjecture of a learned Man * Jac. Alâ—ing Schiâ—â— l. w. p 26. that these spices were intended not to embalm him but as the manner was upon great occasions to burn at his funerall Thus far he is certainly in the right that the honour of having sweet spices burnt at their funerals appertained to no other persons but onely their Kings 2 Chron. xvi ult and the Head of all the Doctours the Nasi as they called him of their Academies And he notes likewise truly out of Joseph ben Gorion that when the funerall pomp of Herod the Great was carried forth fifty of his servants are said to have scattered all the way they went those very things which Nicodemus brought viz. Myrrh and Aloes and all other sweet spices But whether we can hence conclude that Nicodemus now honoured him by these as the King of Israel and the Prince of all the prophets I cannot tell because the Evangelist ver 40. seems to tell us that the use they made of these spices was to imbalm his body which they wound in linen cloaths with the spices as the manner of the Jews was to bury Yet this we may safely conclude that he would never have put himself to so great a charge and laid out so much upon his dead body if he had not seen something which convinced him that this was that King of Israel who would give him a reward for his love and open confession of him in his heavenly Kingdome There was nothing to move him to such an expence upon such an hated person but onely a perswasion that Jesus was what he pretended and an assured hope that by this flesh which now lay dead the World should be restored to life Yea such power there was in his Death to affect mens hearts that not onely the Centurion confessed him to be a righteous man but all the people who were come together to that sight beholding the things that accompanied his sufferings were prickt in their consciences and smote their breasts xxiii Luk. 47 48. They could not that is but express their sorrow for this horrid fact of shedding his BLOUD and dread the dismall consequences of it Insomuch that Gem. Sanh c. vi though it was forbidden by the Constitutions of the Sanhedrin to make any lamentations for a malefactour yet they were not able on this occasion to forbear it Their own Writers tell us that it was a part of the honour they did to a deserving person when his funerall was carried out to accompany him with sighs and groans and tears and beating themselves and such like tokens of their inward grief for his loss With which the Holy Scripture agrees when it names this as part of the Curse of God upon Jehojakim that none should so much as sigh at his buriall nor make the usuall lamentation saying Ah my Brother Ah Lord or Ah his glory xxii Jer. 18. From whence it is likely they passed a Decree that when any person suffered by a publick sentence for a crime none should presume to grace him with any ceremony nor use the least outward sign of heaviness though in their hearts they might mourn for him But this Decree and Custome settled by the Authority of their supreme Court the esteem which our Saviour wone to himself even when he hung upon his Cross forced the people to break Their affection to him was stronger then all Laws and they
could not contain themselves when they saw what testimonies heaven gave of his innocence and vertue but did him publick honour even at the very place of execution Though he suffered as the highest and vilest offender in the world yet the honest-hearted spectatours were not onely inwardly troubled in their breasts at the sight but beat or knockt them also and shewed thereby that they were not afraid to own him as a most Excellent person whose death they ought to accompany with the bitterest lamentations And so much may suffice concerning the Testimony of his BLOUD which no man can hear speak a word but he must needs think that which got him such honour among the people in the midst of his shame and the reproach of the Cross obtained a far greater glory for him with God in the heavens who best knew how to value his obedience O wonderfull Passion Proclus Homil. xi the Expiation of the World O Death the cause of Immortality and the origin of Life O descent into Hell the bridge by which those who were dead passed into Heaven O Noon which hath revoked the Afternoon-sentence against us in Paradise O Cross the cure of the fatall Tree O Nails which wounded Death and joyn'd the world to the knowledge of God! Great was the victory which He that was incarnate for us obtained on the day of his passion He grappled with death when he was dead Hell and the grave this day ignorantly swallowed a deadly morsell To day death received him dead who always lives To day the chains were loosed which the Serpent made in Paradise The Thief this day made a breach on Paradise which had been guarded by the flaming sword some thousands of years This day our Lord broke the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder Which of the great Men that ancient times boast of are comparable to him All the just fell under the power of death and none could conquer it Abraham Isaac and Jacob are all turn'd to dust and ashes The memory of Joseph in whom the Jews glory lay in his dry bones which they carried out of Egypt with them Moses is extolled by them to the skies but there is not so much as his tomb to be found Such as these and so many death devoured and swallowed them all down But at last it swallowed one and against its will vomited up the whole World Who now triumph over it and cry with a loud voice O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. His Passion is our impassibility S. Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 598. His Death is our immortality His tears our joy His buriall our resurrection His Baptism our purification His stripes our healing His chastisement our peace His reproach our glory How much are we indebted to him who from first to last consulted our happiness For he descended Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 1002. that he might make way for our ascent He was born that he might make us friends with the Vnbegotten He took on him our infirmities that we might be raised in power and say with St. Paul I can doe all things through Christ which strengthneth me He took on him a corruptible body that this corruption might put on incorruption He put on mortality that it might be changed into immortall In fine He was made Man and died that we who die as men might be deified and death might no longer reign over us O blessed and life-giving Cross of our Saviour which triumphed over death and destroyed him that had the power of it which is the Devil O divine Word and true Wisedom of the Father thou hast overcome the Devill when he thought he had been a conquerour * August de Trinitate L. 13. c. 15. Caet ex Athanasio p. 1022. O Lover of men and gracious Lord thou hast both redeemed us that were captives and freed us by thy own death who were servants of sin O Son of God the true Peace-maker thou hast both given us the adoption of Sons and reconciled us to thy Father having destroyed the enmity by thy flesh O rich Saviour and true King who becamest poor that we by thy poverty might be made rich and hast given to us the Kingdom of heaven O Creatour and former of all things the Word of the Father for thou hast created us again we are thy workmanship created unto good works O Light indeed the brightness of the Father for thou hast inlightned us that were in darkness and hast brought us that were blind to see the light O Likeness and reall Image of the Father for thou hast formed us who were lost and again restored the image of God in us O God the Word and Life indeed for thou hast quickned us who were dead and renewed us that were corrupted and cloathed us with immortality O thou Power indeed the arm the right hand of the Father for thou hast both loosed the bands of death and broken the prison-doors in pieces God forbid that we should glory Ib. pag. 1028. save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ To this let us adhere let us walk worthy of this And thus living and believing we shall know also his assumption into the heavens and his session on the right hand of the Majesty on high We shall behold the subjection of Angels to him and his coming again with glory Which Angels have foretold which Saints sing of in their hymns and which when we all see we shall rejoyce and be exceeding glad in Christ Jesus By whom be glory and dominion to the Father world without end Amen CHAP. XI Concerning the Testimony of the SPIRIT the Third Witness on Earth THough the Children of Israel were so strangely delivered out of their bondage being saved by the Bloud of the Paschal Lamb from the destroying Angel and then freed from Pharaoh who thought it 's like that his bloud must next of all pay for the keeping them in Egypt yet still they questioned whether they should come into the good Land or no and were at a sad plunge when they came to the Red Sea imagining that they themselves should be there destroyed and become the next Sacrifice to Pharaoh's cruelty To confirm them therefore in their belief of God's kind intentions towards them and perswade them thoroughly that Moses had not brought them out of Egypt to kill them but to save them He gave him power to doe great wonders at that place and in the rest of their journey which added to the Miracles in Egypt were a strong conviction that God was among them and was conducting them by the hands of his Servant to their long-desired Rest This was the last Argument and the most constant whereby he demonstrated the truth and reality of his promises of bringing them to the land of Canaan They saw his signs
and his wonders his mighty power and stretched-out arm all the grea◠acts of the Lord as they are called xi Deut. 7. which Chapter be pleased to reade unto that verse which were eminent tokens that GOD had taken the◠to be a peculiar or speciall people to himself as he frequently speaks and was able to fulfill his word to their Forefathers of giving them the Land wherein they were then strangers for their inheritance Just such as this is our case whom He hath called by his Son to an inheritance incorruptible and that fadeth not away reserved i◠heaven for us To obtain an eternall Redemption for us and deliver us out of the hands of all our enemies his own most precious BLOUD was shed as of a Lamb without spot or blemish Whereby also as you have heard he testified to the World that he was no Deceiver but came to them from God with the words of Eternall Life Many things concurred to make this BLOUD a witness of his Truth and of his power to fulfill his own promises And yet notwithstanding this was the very thing that offended many and kept them from following him They could not endure so much as to hear him speak of giving them his flesh to eat and his bloud to drink though he told them thereby he would give life to the World And therefore to strengthen this Testimony of his BLOUD and to convince them evidently that he was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World and gives life to it there was another Witness which attended it both before his BLOUD was shed and likewise afterward which was the SPIRIT That is as I shewed in the former Treatise on this subject the power he had to work wonders and the miraculous power which raised him from the dead and presented him to God in the heavens This was abundantly sufficient to prevent any offence they might take at Christ crucified and to settle in their hearts an unmovable belief that he was their mighty Redeemer who would bring them to the eternall Rest which he had promised For this is the last and greatest argument which St. John here produces ver 6. He came no◠onely by WATER but by BLOVD also and it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness for the SPIRIT is the Truth Or as Arias Montanus translates it the SPIRIT is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Witness that undoubted testimony on which we may certainly rely For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that SPIRIT which I speak of is truth an◠infallible Witness which cannot deceive you that Jesus is the Son of God And so it is likewise that Eternall Life is in him and that we shall enjoy it by his means for this RECORD of God is given to make us as sure of the one as we are of the other Let us briefly therefore consider first what his Miracles say to this and then secondly what force there is in his Resurrection and Exaltation to prove it I. And at our entrance upon the first of these let us before we go any farther weigh those words of this Apostle St. John in his Gospell xx 30 31. where he tells us that he wrote the signs which Jesus did suppose after his Resurrection in the presence of his disciples for this very purpose that they might believe that he was the Christ the Son of God and that believing they might have LIFE through his Name They were wrought by Him and recorded by his Disciples for these two ends that the World might be convinced He was the great Lord of all and that they might by faithfull subjecttion to him look for Eternall Life from his omnipotent love It was the design of all his wonderfull works throughout his whole life to which the Apostle may have respect as well as to those after his Resurrection to perswade men to believe that he would make his followers so happy For by these he manifested forth his glory as I observed before of the beginning of his Miracles in Cana of Galilee ii Joh. 11. and declared to the world he could work as great a change upon our mortall bodies as he did then upon the Water making them as much nobler then they are now as the Water excelled it self when it was become Wine They were mighty instances of his Power and of his Goodness too they made him appear to be the King of Israel who was to deliver and bring Salvation to them though much greater then they expected That our Lord did work Miracles is a truth which they that crucified him can no more deny then that he died The wisest of them could never find any colour to affirm that the Gospel-story was but a fabulous Legend which related Wonders that were never done For if they had been able to say this Maimonides the very best of them would not have been put to such distress as to let fall these words which we reade in his Treatise of Kings Cap. xi Do not imagine that the King Messiah shall have any need to work wonders or alter the course of Nature or restore the dead to life again with such like things that fools talk of Had he not known as well that these things could not be denied which are related of Jesus as he did that their force to prove any thing being granted they would be an unanswerable testimony to him he would never have thus slighted as he doth in many other Books things of this nature which brought the greatest reputation to Moses among their ancestours and were the cause why they believed on him though he attempted no such wonder as the raising dead men to life again Our Saviour he was not ignorant very often appealed to his works as the testimony of God to him and thought it sufficient to tell John's disciples when they came to inquire who he was that he opened blind mens eyes cleansed lepers and raised up the dead by which they might answer their own question And therefore something was to be said by this Jew to disparage these upon which he saw the credit of our Saviour in great part relied Now had it not been the readiest way to deny that there were such Miracles wrought Nothing but the notoriousness of the facts made him wave that course which drove him upon this wretched shift of denying utterly that Miracles are credible witnesses to him that works them By this means he thought to rob our Saviour of the glory they brought him and was so blind as not to see that at the same time he took away from his own Master the greatest support he had of his Authority And therefore herein he is deserted by his own Country-men particularly by Abarbinel who as I observed before makes the power of working Miracles one of the principall gifts of the Messiah In which our Lord it is apparent to his very enemies was so eminent that one cannot imagine why he did not believe on him unless with the
supposed for I shall say no more of it here there is no man can have the face to deny the Resurrection of the body and Life everlasting which Christ our Lord hath promised us There can be no truer reasoning then that of St. Paul 1 Thess iv 14. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him I. For thus much is evident at first sight and is included in the thing it self that this work of the SPIRIT proves a possibility of the Resurrection of the dead and shews that we mortal creatures who live on the earth may live in the heavens So the same Apostle argues elsewhere against those who denied this Truth 1 Cor. xv 12. If Christ be preached upon such credible testimonies as he mentions in the foregoing verses that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead It is the grossest absurdity that is to say there can be no such thing as the restoring of a dead body to life when it is so evidently verified in Christ's resurrection Which shews it is so far from being impossible or incredible that it is a thing which hath been done already as is very well attested by Witnesses that cannot with any equity be rejected And by the same reason he proves we ought not to despair of seeing our bodies made glorious and incorruptible For if He be not in his grave as none could shew him there after the third day but is made glorious why may not we partake of the same favour by that power which raised Christ from the dead and set him at God's right hand There is no reason to doubt of it but the greatest reason to hope and be confident that He who raised up the Lord Jesus as St. Paul speaks in the next Epistle 2 Cor. iv 14. will raise up us also by Jesus and set us in his presence in the heavens II. For by his Resurrection the SPIRIT proved the truth of all that the other Witnesses the Water the Bloud and his Miraculous Works too testified Particularly it demonstrated the truth of his Doctrine by which as you have seen life and immortality was brought to light If this had not been true that we shall live for ever by him Jesus would have perished and never have come to life again to deceive the World the second time But seeing God did not leave his Soul in hell nor suffer his Holy i. e. his anointed one to see corruption it is an uncontroulable argument that those who believe on him shall not perish neither but be made alive as he is Because He that said he would rise again the third day said likewise with the same assurance that at the last day he will raise up us also and bestow upon us everlasting Life When God who alone could doe it verified the one and according to his word raised up Jesus the third day He bid us be assured of the other that this Jesus hath Life in himself and will by his power raise up us according to his promise unto a never-dying life This is the Character He had given of himself I am the Resurrection and the Life that is the Authour the Cause of both He that believeth on me shall have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day nothing of him shall perish neither his Soul nor his body for even they that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall rise again to lise This he often preached and proved many ways but after all he sealed it with his bloud and bad them expect a little and they should see it sealed by his resurrection from the dead Which insuing at the time appointed was a perfect demonstration that he said true when he affirmed that He is the Resurrection and the Life by whom we shall receive this inestimable benefit of rising again after death to live for ever with him Of this as well as the former Consideration I may possibly say so much elsewhere that I shall spare any farther pains about them now III. Let us rather remember how severall persons rose from the dead at that very time when he left his grave xxvii Matt. 52 53. which were notable instances of his power to give life and put us in hope that we shall all rise again as they did There is no cause but his Resurrection to be assigned of this Miracle which fell out the same time that he was missing in his grave as the opening of their tombs at that very moment when he died Never was any such thing heard of before or since and therefore it was intended to demonstrate the mighty power of his Resurrection when many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves and went into Jerusalem and appeared unto many Whose testimony none have had the confidence to contradict by endeavouring to disprove it but the Jews rather by some concessions of theirs confirm us in the belief of it For it is a common opinion now among their Doctours that the Kingdom of the Messiah shall begin with the Resurrection of the dead Bury me said R. Jeremiah with shoes on my feet and my staff in my hand and lay me on one side that when Christ comes I may be ready But of this conceit we can find no footsteps in the Old Scriptures which makes it probable that they have borrowed this as they have done many other things from the Holy Gospell in which it is recorded that he began his entrance upon his Kingdome with the Resurrection of some pious persons as an earnest of the restoring all the rest to Eternall Life And thus it is likely they have learnt to discourse of the bodies of the just after they are raised concerning which some of them speak so sublimely above the dull and gross conceptions of the rest of their Nation that one can scarce look upon it otherwise then as Christian language When the Soul is in the state of glory Vid. Jo. de Voysin in Pug. fid part iii. dist 2. c. 8. saith the Book Zohar it sustains it self with the light above wherewith it is also cloathed and when it shall return to the body it shall come with the same light and with the body shall shine as with the brightness of heaven More there is in other Authours to the same purpose which say God can give us bodies strong and vigorous like the Angels and that the bodies of the just after the resurrection shall be subtil like the globe of the Moon Vid. eum de Lege Div. in xxii Matt. 3â— and so give no impediment to the Soul in its enjoyment of the Splendour of the Divine Majesty But supposing this to be their own language without any tincture they had received from the Christian Doctrine it will be still more remarkable that our Lord Jesus according to their expectations
his preaching or presently followed it is a very strong argument to induce you to believe that he taught the way of God in truth having revealed all things pertaining to life and godliness as God himself attests For by the Glory wherewith he called us i. e. preached the Gospell and perswaded us to believe we are to understand his Transfiguration on the holy Mount where they saw his glory ix Luk. 32. and to which the Apostle afterward appeals ver 16 17. of this Chapter as a justification of the truth of their Ministry The coming down also of the Holy Ghost at his Baptism the voices from heaven in one of which God said he would glorifie him again as he had done already and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles are here also to be understood by Glory for by these we are called and moved to receive the knowledge of him And then by Vertue is undoubtedly meant that very thing which I last treated of his mighty power in miraculous works and the mighty power of the SPIRIT in raising him from the dead For it is well observed by Drusius and others that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue in these holy Writings never signifies as it doth in heathen Authours Piety and morall goodness in opposition to Vice but power and might in opposition to weakness And therefore by this word the Greek Interpreters of the Old Testament render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes the Greatness Majesty and height of God's excellency and sometimes the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies strength and stoutness According to which in the New Testament it denotes either the mighty power of God as here in this place or else our courage and valour as in the fifth verse of this Chapter But it is no-where found in the sacred style used for piety and therefore we must not render the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to but by vertue that is the power and mightiness of God's arm or strength as the Scripture speaks by which our Saviour convinced the World that God the Father had sent him to give Life unto it Thus the Apostle St. Paul saith which will very much explain this that He was raised up from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the glory of the Father vi Rom. 4. That is by his glorious power as Camero well renders it for his power appeared most gloriously in that wonderfull Work whereby as St. Peter here speaks he called us to believe on him So we are to understand him it appears by another Argument For if we should say we are called to glory understanding thereby heaven we could not be said to have precious promises as it follows hereby given to us For this would be to say that by calling us to heaven he hath called us to heaven But if we take these words the other way then the sense runs currently and delivers to us this excellent Truth That by such means as I have treated of the Descent of the Holy Ghost the Transfiguration of our Saviour the Voices from heaven the Miracles he wrought the might of his power which wrought in him when God raised him from the dead he perswaded men to receive him as the onely-begotten of the Father who was come by his authority to shew them the true way to everlasting life By these we know that we are not cheated but that he who hath called us is the Son of God by whom we are sure to attain everlasting life if we follow those directions he hath given us which will infallibly bring us to it And then the next words ver 4. are still more pertinent to my purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by which GLORY and VERTUE are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises We are so sure to attain eternall life that we have many promises of it which are so strongly confirmed that we cannot doubt of them being delivered in such a divine manner For when he gave them it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by glory and vertue with such demonstrations of his Authority to promise them and of his power to make them good that we cannot but depend upon his word None I suppose question but by these great these precious yea exceeding great and precious promises he means those of raising us from the dead and carrying us to heaven to live with God and that eternally These are the chiefest things of which our Lord hath given us such assurance when he called us to believe on his Name Things which as much exceed all that was promised Israel as the heavens are wider then the smallest spot of this earth More precious are they then all lands if they flowed with milk and honey more to be desired then gold yea then much fine gold then all the gold of Ophir more to be valued then the Crowns of Kings which are not so much as an Emmet's Egge in comparison with this Happiness Now as there is nothing that can be compared with these promises so we have no testimony on Earth comparable to this of the SPIRIT that exceeding greatness of his power whereby these promises were brought to us and assured to be infallible For by this we know that He hath all power in heaven and earth and is able to doe whatsoever the Father Almighty doeth that is give life to the dead which is the property of the Almighty alone So the Enemies of our Religion are forced to confess who say there are three keys which God keeps to himself and commits to none of his Embassadours the keys of the womb the keys of heaven and the keys of the grave Thy power saith Joseph Albo speaking of God is not the power of flesh and bloud for the power of flesh and bloud is to put those to death who are alive but thy power is to raise those to life who are dead The very same we may justly say of our Lord Jesus Christ who challenges this power to himself as I have noted before out of the first of the Revelation where he tells St. John I have the keys of hell and of death ver 18. He was no ordinary Embassadour but can doe more then any whom God sent into the world ever did or could He can raise even the dead bodies of his subjects to life again And when he hath lifted them out of the dust if I may apply the Psalmist's words to this purpose can set them with Princes even with the Princes of his heavenly Court to praise and bless his love among those great Ministers the Angelicall powers for ever and ever Which is a power he doth not assume to himself vainly but was conferred on him by God the Father who raised him from the dead and gave him glory wherein St. John beheld him when he said I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keys of hell and of death Great is
called The LORD is there was exceeding great no less then eighteen thousand measures round xlviii Ezek. 35. this Answer is returned that the difficulty is small For some behold the very light of God others onely see it obliquely and have no more but a certain obscure duskish image of it There are but few of the former saith the Glosse there who have the Light in its power but of the other who have a weaker ray obliquely and at a distance there are very great numbers Which agrees with those words of our Saviour In my Father's house are many Mansions as they are expounded by the two St. Gregories Nazianzen and Nyssen and others who by a Mansion understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Nazianz. Orat. 33. c. the rest and the glory which is laid up there for the blessed but suppose some to be in a higher others in a lower condition proportionable to the vertuous dispositions they carried out of the world with them Which being very different they believed some to see less and others to be like Gorgonia the Sister of St. Greg. Nazianzen whom in the conclusion of his Eleventh Oration he supposes to be in the clear light of the glorious Trinity 4. But it would take up too much room in this Treatise if I should enter into that discourse and therefore I proceed to consider that though they made this difference according as we see in a City to follow the former comparison some are accounted the chief others the more inferiour streets and houses and some are nearer unto others more remote from the royal palace yet they did not imagine those mansions to be dark nor those that were in them to have their eyes shut up with sleep but all to enjoy the light of life They lead as another Jewish Writer * Vid. Jo. de Voysin de Jubilaeo L. i. cap. 16. speaks a most sweet life in that light which is the figure and resemblance of the supreme light to which they shall be admitted at the last Thus Moses and Elias appeared in great splendour at our Saviour's transfiguration on the Holy Mount where they talkt and discoursed with him about his departure that he was to accomplish at Jerusalem Which shews they not onely continued in being but had sense and motion and lived in much happiness and bliss Which we are not to take for a singular privilege indulged to them for the Apostles you may observe again lookt upon our Saviour as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exemplar or pattern to which God had determined they should all be conformed viii Rom. 29. And their conformity to him here in this world being so exact that they passed the very same way to bliss that he did through most cruell sufferings they could not doubt but upon their departure the conformity would still hold as exactly That as He when he died immediately went to Paradise where he promised the good Thief should be before his Resurrection so they should enter into the same blessed place immediately upon their death and live there in a joyfull expectation of him to come and change even this vile body that it may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conformed to his glorious body iii. Phil. 21. And this is the sense also you may observe once more of the Voice from heaven which commanded St. John to write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. xiv Rev. 13. With which the Spirit immediately joyned its testimony saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea i. e. it is certainly true believe what the voice says from henceforth or now at this present I promise them a blessed rest from their labours and their works shall follow with them that is they shall be refreshed with a sweet remembrance of what they have done and suffered for Christ Jesus It is uncertain indeed whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be to be referred to the former words Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord or to those that follow Yea saith the Spirit But either way our Church understands it in the same sense as appears by the Funerall office Where referring it to the former sentence the words are thus recited I heard a voice from heaven saying Write From henceforth or Now at this present time blessed are the dead c. They are not onely in expectance of future blessedness but in possession of an happy state already and find inconceivable satisfaction in venturing their very lives for Christ's sake who for this very end as St. Paul observes laid down his life for us that whether we wake or whether we sleep we should live together with him 1 Thess v. 10. There are those who from this word Sleep by which the state of the dead is frequently called in these books there being nothing liker Death then Sleep would inferr the perpetuall motion and operation of the Soul before the Resurrection For it is very busy and active even when all the Senses are lockt up by sleep and hath at that time received very high illuminations from God which is a sign that if the body were quite dead it would not be without them Aristotle I find in Sextus Empiricus * L. viii adv Mathemat p. 312. observes thus much that in Sleep when the Soul is by her self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resuming her own nature she prophesies and foretells things to come and declares saith he hereby what she shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when by death she shall be separated from all bodily things By which consideration St. Austin tells us that Gennadius a famous Physician in his time and very religious and charitable was wonderfully inlightned when he was in doubt whether there was any life after death God saith he * Epist 100. ad Euodium would by no means desert a mind so well disposed but there appeared one night to him in his sleep a very handsome young man who bid him follow whether he should lead him Which he thought he did till he came to a Citie where on the right side he was saluted with the sweetest voices that ever he heard which the young man upon his inquiry what this meant told him were the hymns of the Blessed and of the Saints What he saw on the left side he did not well remember but awaking he lookt upon this as a dream and thought no farther of it Till some time after the same young man appeared again to him another night and askt if he knew him To which he answering Yes very well he askt him where he had seen him And Gennadius presently related how by his conduct he was once led to hear the hymns and see the sight before mentioned Here the young man askt him whether he saw and heard what he related in his sleep or waking In my sleep said Gennadius True said the other and now thou seest me in thy sleep dost thou not To which he consenting his instructer proceeded to ask
hear plainly shewed they were not merely big words which they spake of being with God and our Saviour to see the Glory which the Father had given him but things which they heartily expected For does any man find such inclinations in himself as should make him imagine they would have left their trades their houses their possessions their wives kindred friends all that is desirable in this world and perswade those who were the dearest to them to doe so too if they had not had an assurance upon such grounds as were apt to convince others as well as them of the recompence they should meet withall hereafter in a better life Who can believe that St. Paul would have quitted all his Dignities his hopes of greater preferment his esteem and reputation with the wisest and chiefest persons in the Nation his ease and quiet and every thing else and betaken himself to the troublesome service of a despicable Master if he had not known and seen it as clearly as the Sun in the firmament that Jesus whom he served was raised from the dead and made the King of Glory and would prefer all those that proved faithfull to him unto the greatest honour in the heavens For what reason should those good men live as having nothing and all the time be as chearfull as if they possessed all things Did they not look upon themselves think you as heirs of a Kingdom which could not be taken away from them Reade St. Paul's description of himself to Timothy 2. iii. 10 11. who he says had fully known his doctrine and manner of life not onely what he had been wont to teach but how he had followed his own instructions what his purpose and aim had ever been his fidelity his lenity towards offenders his charity to all Christians his patience under troubles of all sorts for he was persecuted and endured great afflictions by that means at Antioch where they thrust him out of the city at Iconium where an assault was made upon him to stone him at Lystra where they actually stoned him And in how many other places he had been vilely used Timothy he says could not be ignorant having been a companion with him in his travels xvi Act. 3. Now what think you of such a person as this Do you take him for a dolt and an ignorant sot Was this great Apostle a mere lump of clay who was sensible of nothing and imagined others so senseless as that he might without any reason propound this example to Timothy for his imitation How came they to be so stupefied as to chuse rods and whips and stones and all other miseries when they might have lived in ease and peace Nay to glory in these things alone as if there had been nothing that could have done them such honour 2 Cor. xii 5 They did both hunger and thirst as I noted from the same Apostle in my former Book 2 Cor. iv 11. they were naked and buffetted they had no certain dwelling-place they laboured working with their own hands being reviled they blessed being persecuted they suffered it they were made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things Which things no body in his wits can think men of their understanding would have endured if they had not been provided of meat which the world knew not of and been nourished and sustained with the hope of glory and assured of eternall mansions in the heavens and known that they should inherit a blessing and be made more honourable and glorious with Jesus for ever then the World for the present could make them vile and contemptible These things are so clear that the bare recitall of them is sufficient to satisfie us they were no deceivers nor men of light belief who took things upon trust without good evidence but had the greatest reason to endeavour to baptize all Nations into this belief as they did by an indefatigable diligence which was no small testimony of the power and glory of the Lord Jesus II. And their BLOUD speaks as much For as none of them saith St. Paul xiv Rom. 7. lived to himself so none of them died to himself but consecrated even his bloud to the Service of Christ if he pleased to command it Whereby they sealed to this Truth and shewed they were so far from doubting of immortall Life by the Lord Jesus that they unfeignedly desired to be dissolved and to be with him Witness St. Stephen who was stoned because he said he saw the Lord Jesus in the highest glory which he was never more assured of then when he died for then he recommended his Spirit to him as our Saviour had done his to God the Father Witness Antipas a faithfull Martyr Witness all those Souls whom St. John saw beneath the Altar who had all learnt from our Saviour what they must expect in his Service when he said The Brother shall deliver up the Brother to death and the Father the Child and the Children shall rise up against their Parents and cause them to be put to death And ye shall be hated of all men for my Name 's sake Under which afflictions they had nothing to support them but that which he immediately adds He that endureth to the end shall be saved x. Matth. 21 22. These few words were a sufficient incouragement to them and made them not regard their lives for the sake of Christ Jesus who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospell For the which cause saith St. Paul I suffer these things and am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day 2 Tim. i. 10 12. And for this cause he would not have Timothy to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of him his prisoner ver 8. but to imitate him by being partaker of the afflictions of the Gospell which he endured as he adds in the next Chapter ver 10. for the elects sake that they also might obtain the Salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternall glory The Apostles nothing doubted that they themselves should obtain Salvation and immortall glory this way and they hoped likewise by their constant sufferings even to the death to draw others also to the faith or confirm them in it that they might have a share with them in this happiness and be willing to suffer for it For it is a faithfull saying he adds that if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him ver 11 12. I shall conclude this with that Discourse of St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 30 31 32. where he alledges this among other reasons to confirm that Church in the belief of the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come that He and the rest of the preachers of Christian Religion would not
have it I will not spare you that is I will punish you and make you know it to your cost For though Christ was crucified through weakness i. e. according to his mortall condition which he assumed for our sake yet he lives by the power of God which raised him from the dead and gave him all power in heaven and earth You ought not therefore to contemn one because he is weak i. e. afflicted as you are apt to do me for Christ went this way to glory and though we also are weak in or with him i. e. suffer for his sake which is no more then he did we shall live with him by the power of God toward you that is make you feel that as he is alive i. e. mighty and strong now that he is raised from the dead so are we also by the power of God which we shall make use of for chastising your insolence Which plainly shews that these Apostolicall censures had most mighty effects which demonstrated Christ was alive and wrought most powerfully in these his Ministers By whom as he gave miraculous gifts so he miraculously punished offenders and never more terribly then when they were in such a weak that is afflicted condition that it tempted some people to contemn them Then they shew'd their power and made it appear that as he who was crucified lived so did they who were persecuted and despised being armed with divine weapons or engines which were mighty through God to batter down the strongest holds subverting the pitifull reasonings of such as Hymeneus and Philetus and making every proud conceit stoop which advanced it self against the Christian Doctrine 2 Cor. x. 4 5. This they did by the power I am speaking of which baffled all opposers and made them crouch as so many captives to these Ministers of Jesus Christ Who in their externall conditino were mean and exposed to the scorn and contempt of all the world but so mighty and great by this authority that the Apostle saith ver 8. it had not been vanity if he had boasted of it more then he did For this Apostolicall Rod as he calls it 1 Cor. iv 21 * Vid. S. Chrysostom in loc was like the rod of God in the hand of Moses It did miraculous things by inflicting terrible punishments for which no cause but his heavy censure appeared on those who contradicted and blasphemed and was as sensible a sign of the presence of God in the Church as the things which the rod of Moses did were of his presence with the ancient Israelites Great fear came upon the whole Church and upon as many as heard these things says St. Luke Act. v. 11. when he relates how the other great Apostle by this rod struck Ananias and Sapphira dead For hereby they learnt two things Encom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Asterius both that our Saviour was God and that the teacher of his laws had Angels attending on him who were ready to execute his pleasure He would have the lame man walk and presently that grace came He thought good to punish these sacrilegious persons and the punishment in an instant was inflicted These things were sufficient to astonish the most stony hearts and to perswade them firmly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were not words of deceit which the Apostle spake but that God was certainly with him and that the mystery which he preached was true and holy O the wonderfull power of our Lord Christ to whom all things in heaven and in earth and under the earth do bow and obey whose Ministers had so large an Authority that Angels were ready to wait upon their word Great is his power which by such weak instruments brought such mighty things to pass His Apostles say the Gentiles S. Chrysost Hom. iii. in 1 Corinth were men of no account mean fishermen and such like rustick people True and we adde moreover that they were unlearned illiterate poor vile ignorant and despicable But this is no disparagement to them it is their glory and peculiar praise that such men as these appeared more illustrious then the whole World For these idiots these rusticks these illiterate men were too hard for the wise and overcame the mighty and perswaded the rich and great to submit to their authority Great therefore was the power of the Cross for these things were not done by any humane strength Consider a little A fisher-man a tent-maker a publican an obscure illiterate man coming from Palestine a far distant country encounter with the Philosophers at their own doors with the Rhetoricians with the ablest speakers and in a short time put them all down though infinite dangers opposed them and nature fought against them and length of time and old customes mightily resisted them and Daemons also armed themselves and the Devil mustered up his forces and moved all things Kings Rulers People Nations Cities Barbarians Grecians Philosophers Rhetoricians Sophisters Oratours Laws Judgment-seats all manner of Punishments a thousand sorts of deaths But all these were no more able to stand before the breath of these poor Fishermen then the small Dust before the blast of powerfull Winds How came it about that the weak thus overcame the strong that twelve naked men not onely encountred but vanquisht those that were so well armed If you should see twelve men unskilled in warlike affairs and not onely unarmed but weak in body attack an infinite host of well-disciplin'd and well-appointed souldiers and receiving a thousand darts should not be wounded nor have any harm but should take some of their opposers prisoners and kill others and disperse all would any one think this was done by humane means And yet the trophee's of the Apostles are far more admirable For it is not so strange for a naked man not to be wounded as for an obscure an illiterate person a fisher-man to baffle so much wit and eloquence and not to be hindred in their preaching neither by their own small number and poverty nor by the dangers they met withall nor by the prepossession of custome nor by the austerity of the things they commanded nor by daily deaths nor by the multitude of those that were in errour nor by the dignity of those that miss-led them Who would not admire that mouth of St. Id. Homil ult in Ep. ad Roman Paul by which Christ was preached and a light broke forth more amazing then lightning and a voice more terrible even to Devils then any clap of thunder This voice brought them bound like slaves this purged the world this cured diseases and threw out wickedness and introduced the truth What good was there which was not done by that mouth of his It drove away devils it unloosed sins it stopt the mouth of tyrants it silenced the tongues of Philosophers it brought the world near to God it perswaded Barbarians to Christian wisedome it set all things in order on earth and had a power also
defrauded themselves and took the meat as we speak out of their own mouths for the good of others whom they desired to breed up in Christian piety This shews the wonderfull innocency and goodness of these men who got nothing by the Gospell no not what they might have lawfully and justly taken but onely studied how to win Souls to Christ In short he calls them and God also to witness how holily how justly how unblamably they behaved themselves among those that believed ver 10. The first of which words refers to God the second to those actions which belong to humane society and the third to those which every man is bound unto severally by himself in none of which could He Silvanus and Timotheus be charged with any misdemeanour On which argument he once more insists 2 Tim. iii. 10 11. being so confident of his unreprovable vertue that he desired nothing more of all that knew him but to be followers of him and to walk so as they had him for an example 1 Cor. iv 16. iii. Phil. 17. All which I have the more particularly noted because it is from these men that we receive the testimony of Jesus Who they assure us chose to die the most shamefull death when he could have avoided it and with the greatest confidence when he was expiring commended his Spirit into the hands of God Which is an unquestionable argument that he believed and was assured that he should be with God when he went from hence and be able to doe for his followers all that he promised Which they tell us moreover God justified when he raised him from the dead and carried him in their sight up into heaven and afterward sent the Holy Ghost upon them to testify that he was still alive and possessed of an unseen glory In which they also tell us he appeared to severall persons as I have already related One of which was caught up into heaven and heard such things there as made him wish for nothing more then to leave this earth and to be with Christ To whom the Angels they also assure us witnessed upon severall occasions For they attended him at his birth and in his life and when he died and after his resurrection and when he ascended into heaven From whence he sent them many times as ministring Spirits to his Apostles of which we have very large testimonies in the whole book of the Revelation From all which we may safely conclude that there can no other reason in the world be given why any man thus informed should not believe the Gospell but onely his own desperate wickedness For the things propounded therein are most desirable above all other It reveals such a wonderfull love of God to mankind that all men would rejoyce to hear the news of it were they not averse to those pious and vertuous courses whereby they are told they must attain it Nothing attracts all hearts so much as the hope of a blessed immortality which is testified to us so credibly in the Gospell that nothing could make men turn their ears away from it by infidelity but onely the incurable wickedness of their Nature which will not let them part with those vices which the Gospell says they must quit for so great a Good In one word there is nothing in this Book but what is sutable to all mens desires save onely the holy rule of life and therefore it can be nothing else but their hatred to this which makes them reject all the rest They would follow their nobler appetite after those good things which the Gospell promises if they had not perfectly given up themselves to those baser appetites which must be denied for their sake For if our Gospell be hid saith St. Paul in the place before mentioned it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. iv 3 4. That which the Gospell reports is as clear as the noon-day Nothing can be more visible then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light or the splendour of the Gospell of the glory of Christ By which saith Theophylact the Apostle means the belief of these great Truths that Jesus was crucified that he was received up into heaven and that he will give future rewards This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 splendour the Apostle speaks of which if any man do not see after such evident demonstrations of these things it is his wickedness hinders him And such men after they have long resisted the light fall under the power of the Devil so inevitably that he blinds their eyes Mark as St. Chrysostom observes that the Scripture calls severall things by the name of a God not from their own worth and excellence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the weakness of those who are subject to them Thus Mammon is the God of some and the belly the God of others and the Devill the God of all such persons because they are basely inslaved to the love of mony and of their fleshly appetite and He rules and governs them as absolutely as if he were their God Yet he hath no power quite to blind their eyes as he farther observes before they disbelieve that which is so credibly reported by such Divine arguments for as the very words of St. Paul are he blinds the minds of them that believe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became infidels of themselves and having given themselves over to unbelief against such miraculous evidence of the truth of the Christian Faith God gives them over to him to whose service they have so slavishly devoted themselves that they cannot be recovered but as they deserve must unavoidably perish From which miserable condition let all those who are inclined to infidelity take care to save themselves by timely considering those Divine demonstrations which these holy men of God have reported to us who beheld our Saviour's glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth i. Joh. 14. Upon which words hear what the same eloquent Bishop writes who thus summs up a great part of the evidence we have for the Christian belief The Angels appeared in great glory upon the earth to Daniel S. Chrysostom Hom. xii in Johan David and Moses but they appeared as servants as those that had a Master It is the peculiar glory of our Saviour that he appeared as a Lord as having power over all and though in a poor and vile fashion yet even in that the Creation knew its Lord and Master A Star from heaven called the Wise men to worship him A great company of Angels often attended him and sang his praises To whom others succeeded who published his glory and delivered this secret Mystery one to another the Angels to the Shepherds and the Shepherds to those
Peter says that those heavenly Ministers have so great a value for the Gospell that they desire to look into these things wondering that we Gentiles should be made not onely fellow-citizens with the Saints but equall to themselves They rejoyced when they heard the good news that our Lord was come down to men and it seems he hath told us things beyond all their expectation Shall not we then set a due esteem upon them and look into them and consider them who have them so near unto us and are so much concerned in them Then it were better for us if we had no eyes or if we lived in those places where no such things are to be seen for none will be so miserable as they that might have been exceeding happy and chose to remain miserable and that when so few thoughts would have secured their happiness For there is no way to be undone but onely by not believing or not considering the Gospell of God's grace Secure but these two passages and strict piety will necessarily be our imployment and Eternall Life our reward No temptation will be strong enough to make us neglect our work and I am sure faithfull is he who hath promised and will not fail to pay us more then our wages VI. And what now remains but to put those in mind who obediently believe in the Lord Jesus what cause they have to entertain themselves beforehand with great joy in the comfortable expectation of God's mercy in Him to Eternall life Let all his true-hearted Disciples who hear his voice and follow him rejoyce yea let them be glad in him with exceeding joy Let them say O how great is the goodness of God! how rich are those blessings which he hath laid up for them that love him how exceeding great and precious are the promises he hath made them Our calling in Christ Jesus how high is it what is there nobler then his kingdom and glory To which also he hath called us by glory and vertue Heaven and earth concur in the most glorious and powerfull manner to give us assurance that it shall be well exceeding well with all those that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Why should we suffer our selves then to be dejected at any accident in this world which falls cross to us Shall we take pet when any thing troubles us and let our spirits die within us who have such glorious hopes to live upon and mightily support us Jesus is alive He is alive for evermore And in him is Eternall life for all his followers The Father the Word the Holy Ghost are come to comfort us with this joyfull news The Water the Bloud and the Spirit all say the same and ask us why we are so sad when life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospell It is the desire of the Lord Jesus that we would not mourn as though he still lay in his grave and could doe nothing for us He is certainly risen and gone into the heavens where God hath made him exceeding glad with his countenance And it will adde to his joy if it be capable of increase to see us rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory And therefore let us doe him the honour to glory in his holy Name and let us say alway Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. i. 3 4. We ought to say so with joyfull hearts even when death it self approaches which of all other is the most frightfull Enemy of mankind but is made our Friend by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospell 2 Tim. i. 10. Which hath given us as the same Apostle saith such everlasting consolation that it would be a great reproach to it to receive Death timorously which Wise men before our Saviour came concluded might be for any thing they knew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of all goods Our Lord assures us they were right in their conjectures and hath made that certain which Socrates whose words those are left doubtfull Plato Apolog Socr. And therefore we ought not to leave the world as if it were the greatest unhappiness that could befall us It is for him onely to fear death as St. Cyprian speaks * L. de Mortalitate p. 208. who would not go to Christ and he onely hath reason to be unwilling to go to Christ who doth not believe he shall begin to reign with him This is the onely thing as he writes a little after which makes men take death so heavily quia fides deest because Faith is wanting because they do not believe those things are true which He who is Truth it self hath promised But though they give credit to what a grave and laudable person promises they are wavering about that which God saith and receive it with an incredulous mind For if they believed they would entertain that which now seems dreadfull as St. Greg. Nazianzen * Orat. xviii p. 284. says that blessed Martyr did whose Death he doubts whether he should call his departure from this life or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his departure of God or the fulfilling of his desire And thus if we may believe Calcidius the famous Trismegistus died Fr. Archangel Dogm Cabalistica saying to his Son that stood by him My Son hitherto I have lived an exile from my country but now I am going safe thither And therefore when a little while hence I shall be freed from the chain of this body see that you do not bewail me as if I was dead For I am onely returning to that most excellent blessed City whither the Citizens cannot arrive unless they take death in their way There God onely is the Governour in chief who entertains his Citizens with a marvellous sweetness in comparison with which that which we now call Life is rather to be termed Death And what if in our passage to it we should fall into divers temptations or trialls of our sincere affection to the Lord Jesus There is no reason that this should dishearten us and deaden our spirits For it is the singular privilege of a Christian to rejoyce in the Lord alway iv Phil. 4. especially when he suffers for righteousness sake In that case the Apostles thought it an honour that they were counted worthy to be beaten and suffer shame for his Name v. Act. 41. And St. James thought their example was not unimitable by other Christians to whom he saith i. 2. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations And so they did as you reade in the Epistle to the Christian Hebrews of whom the Apostle gives