especially if repeated over and over again in different places and expressions will be past Doubt and Controversie I shall pass by all that is said by St. Iohn Baptist or any other before our Saviour's entry upon his Ministry and Publick Promulgation of the Laws of his Kingdom He began his Preaching with a Command to Repent As St. Matt. tells us IV. 17. From that time Iesus began to preach saying Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand And Luke V. 32. he tells the Scribes and Pharisees I came not to call the righteous Those who were truly so needed no help they had a right to the Tree of Life but sinners to Repentance In this Sermon as he calls it in the Mount Luke VI. and Matt. V c. He commands they should be exemplary in Good Works Let your light so shine amongst men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven Matt. V. 15. And that they might know what he came for and what he expected of them he tells them v. 17-20 Think not that I am come to dissolve or loosen the Law or the Prophets I am not come to dissolve or loosen but to make it full or compleat By giving it you in its true and strict-sense Here we see he confirms and at once reinforces all the Moral Precepts in the Old Testament For verily I say to you Till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be done Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least i. e. as it is interpreted Shall not be at all in the Kingdom of Heaven V. 21. I say unto you That except your Righteousness i. e. your Performance of the Eternal Law of right shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And then he goes on to make good what he said v. 17. viz. That he was come to compleat the Law viz. By giving its full and clear sense free from the corrupt and loosning glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees v. 22-26 He tells them That not only Murder but causeless Anger and so much as words of Contempt were forbidden He Commands them to be reconciled and kind towards their Adversaires And that upon Pain of Condemnation In the following part of his Sermon which is to be read Luke VI. and more at large Matt. V VI VII He not only forbids actual Uncleanness but all irregular desires upon pain of Hell-fire Causless Divorces Swearing in Conversation as well as Forswearing in Judgment Revenge Retaliation Ostentation of Charity of Devotion and of Fasting Repetitions in Prayer Covetousness Worldly Care Censoriousness And on the other side Commands Loving our Enemies Doing good to those that Hate us Blessing those that Curse us Praying for those that despightfully use us Patience and Meekness under Injuries Forgiveness Liberality Compassion And closes all his particular injunctions with this general Golden Rule Matt. VII 12. All things whatsoever ye would have that Men should do to you do ye even so to them For this is the Law and the Prophets And to shew how much he is in earnest and expects Obedience to these Laws He tells them Luke VI. 35. That if they obey Great shall be their REWARD they shall be called The Sons of the Highest And to all this in the Conclusion he adds this Solemn Sanction Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say 'T is in vain for you to take me for the Messiah your King unless you obey me Not every one who calls me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven or be Sons of God But he that does the Will of my Father which is in Heaven To such Disobedient Subjects though they have Prophesied and done Miracles in my Name I shall say at the day of Judgment Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity I know you not When Matt. XII he was told That his Mother and Brethren sought to speak with him v. 49. Stretching out his hands to his Disciples he said Be hold my Mother and my Brethren For whosoever shall do the Will of my Father who is in Heaven he is my Brother and Sister and Mother They could not be Children of the Adoption and fellow Heirs with him of Eternal Life who did not do the Will of his Heavenly Father Matt. XV. and Mark VI. The Pharisees finding fault that his Disciples eat with unclean hands he makes this Declaration to his Apostles Do ye not perceive that whatsoever from without entreth into a man cannot defile him because it enters not into his Heart but his Belly That which cometh out of the Man that defileth the Man For from within out of the Heart of Men proceed evil Thoughts Adulteries Fornicati-Murders Thefts false Witnesses Covetousness Wickedness Deceit Laciviousness an evil Eye Blasphemy Pride Foolishness All these ill things come from within and defile a Man He commands Self-denial and the exposing our selves to Suffering and Danger rather than to deny or disown him And this upon pain of loosing our Souls which are of more worth than all the World This we may read Matt. XVI 24-27 and the parallel places Matt. VIII and Luke IX The Apostles disputing amongst them who should be greatest in the Kingdom of the Messiah Matt. XVIII 1. He thus determines the Controversy Mark IX 35. If any one will be first let him be last of all and Servant of all And setting a Child before them adds Matt. XVIII 3. Verily I say unto you Vnless ye turn and become as Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. XVIII 15. If thy Brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone If he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it to the Church But if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and Publican V. 21. Peter said Lord how often shall my Brother sin against me and I forgive him Till seven times Iesus said unto him I say not unto thee till seven times but until seventy times seven And then ends the Parable of the Servant who being himself forgiven was rigorous to his Fellow-Servant with these words v. 34. And his Lord was worth and delivered him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you if you from your hearts forgive not every one his Brother their Trespasses Luke X25 To the Lawyer asking him What shall I do to inherit Eternal Life He said What is written in the Law How readest thou
he was convinced of it declares his assent to it in these words Rabbi thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel From which it is evident that to believe him to be Him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write or to be the Son of God or to be the King of Israel was in effect the same as to believe him to be the Messiah And an assent to that was what our Saviour received for believing For upon Nathanael's making a confession in these words Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel Iesus answered and said to him Because I said to thee I saw thee under the Fig-tree dost thou BELIEVE Thou shalt see greater things than these v. 51. I desire any one to read the latter part of the first of Iohn from v. 25. with attention and tell me whether it be not plain that this Phrase The Son of God is an Expression used for the Messiah To which let him add Martha's declaration of her Faith Iohn XI 27. in these words I believe that thou art the Messiah THE SON OF GOD who should come into the World And that passage of St. Iohn Chap. XX. 31. That ye might believe that Iesus is the Messiah THE SON OF GOD and that believing ye might have life through his name And then tell me whether he can doubt that Messiah and Son of God were Synonymous terms at that time amongst the Jews The Prophecy of Daniel Chap. IX where he is called Messiah the Prince And the mention of his Government and Kingdom and the deliverance by him in Isaiah Daniel and other Prophesies understood of the Messiah were so well known to the Jews and had so raised their hopes of him about this time which by their account was to be the time of his coming to restore the Kingdom to Israel That Herod no sooner heard of the Magi's enquiry after him that was born King of the Iews Mat. II. But he forthwith demanded of the chief Priests and Scribes where the Messiah should be born v. 4. Not doubting but if there were any King born to the Jews it was the Messiah Whose Coming was now the general Expectation as appears Luke III. 15. The people being in expectation and all men musing in their hearts of John whether he were the Messiah or not And when the Priests and Levites sent to ask him who he was He understanding their meaning answers Iohn I. 19. That he was not the Messiah But he bears witness that Jesus is the Son of God i. e. the Messiah v. 34. This looking for the Messiah at this time we see also in Simeon who is said to be waiting for the consolation of Israel Luke II. 21. And having the Child Jesus in his Arms he says he had seen the Salvation of the Lord v. 30. And Anna coming at the same instant into the Temple she gave thanks also unto the Lord and spake of him to all them that looked for Redemption in Israel v. 38. And of Ioseph of Arimathea it is said Mark XV. 43. That he also expected the Kingdom of God By all which was meant the Coming of the Messiah And Luke XIX 11. 't is said They thought that the Kingdom of God should immediately appear This being premised let us see what it was that Iohn the Baptist preached when he first entred upon his Ministry That St. Matthew tells us Chap. III. 1 2. In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness of Judea saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand This was a declaration of the Coming of the Messiah the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God being the same as is clear out of several places of the Evangelists and both signifying the Kingdom of the Messiah The Profession which Iohn the Baptist made when sent to the Jews Iohn I. 19. was That he was not the Messiah but that Jesus was This will appear to any one who will compare v. 26-34 With Iohn III. 27. 30. The Jews being very inquisitive to know whether Iohn were the Messiah he positively denies it but tells them he was only his Fore-runner and that there stood one amongst them who would follow him whose Shoe-latchet he was not worthy to untie The next day seeing Jesus he says he was the Man and that his own Baptizing in Water was only that Iesus might be manifested to the World and that he knew him not till he saw the Holy Ghost descend upon him He that sent him to Baptize having told him that he on whom he should see the Spirit decend and rest upon he it was that should Baptize with the Holy Ghost And that therefore he witnessed that this was the Son of God v. 34. i. e. the Messiah And Chap. III. 26 c. They came to Iohn the Baptist and tell him that Iesus baptized and that all Men went to him Iohn answers He has his Authority from Heaven You know I never said I was the Messiah but that I was sent before him He must increase but I must decrease For God hath sent him and he speaks the words of God And God hath given all things into the hands of his Son And he that believes on the Son hath eternal life The same Doctrine and nothing else but what was preached by the Apostles afterwards As we have seen all through the Acts v. g. that Jesus was the Messiah And thus it was that Iohn bears witness of our Saviour as Jesus himself says Iohn V. 33. This also was the Declaration was given of him at his Baptism by a voice from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. III. 17. Which was a declaration of him to be the Messiah the Son of God being as we have shewed understood to signifie the Messiah To which we may add the first mention of him after his Conception in the words of the Angel to Ioseph Mat. I. 21. Thou shalt call his name Iesus or Saviour for he shall save his people from their sins It was a received Doctrine in the Jewish Nation that at the Coming of the Messiah all their sins should be forgiven them These words therefore of the Angel we may look on as a declaration that Jesus was the Messiah whereof these words his People are a further mark which suppose him to have a People and consequently to be a King After his Baptism Jesus himself enters upon his Ministry But before we examine what it was he proposed to be believed we must observe that there is a three-fold declaration of the Messiah 1. By Miracles The Spirit of Prophecy had now for many Ages forsaken the Jews And though their Common-Wealth were not quite dissolved but that they lived under their own laws yet they were under a Foreign Dominion subject to the Romans In this state their account of the time being up they were in expectation of the Messiah and of deliverance by him in a Kingdom he was
who he is yet he never tells the Iews that he was born at Bethlehem to remove the Prejudice that lay against him whilst he passed for a Galilean and which was urged as a Proof that he was not the Messiah Iohn VII 41 42. The healing of the Sick and doing of Good miraculously could be no Crime in him nor Accusation against him But the naming of Bethlehem for his Birth-place might have wrought as much upon the mind of Pilate as it did on Herod's and have raised a Suspicion in him as Prejudicial to his Innocence as Herod's was to the Children born there His pretending to be born at Bethlehem as it was liable to be explained by the Iews could not have failed to have met with a sinister Interpretation in the Roman Governour and have rendred Iesus suspected of some Criminal Design against the Government And hence we see that when Pilate asked him Iohn XIX 9. Whence art thou Iesus gave him no answer Whether our Saviour had not an Eye to this straitness this narrow room that was left to his Conduct between the new Converts and the captious Jews when he says Luke XII 50. I have a Baptism to be baptized with and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how am I straitned till it be accomplished I leave to be considered I am come to send fire on the Earth says our Saviour and what if it be already kindled i.e. There begin already to be Divisions about me v. Iohn VII 12. 43. IX 16. X. 19. And I have not the freedom the Latitude to declare my self openly as I am the Messiah till after my Death My way to my Throne is closely hedged in on every side and much straitned within which I must keep till it bring me to my Cross in its due time and manner so that it do not cut short the time nor cross the end of my Ministry And therefore to keep up this inoffensive Character and not to let it come within the reach of Accident or Calumny he withdrew with his Apostles out of the Town every Evening and kept himself retired out of the way Luke XXI 37. And in the day-time he was teaching in the Temple and every night he went out and abode in the Mount that is called the Mount of Olives That he might avoid all Concourse to him in the Night and give no occasion of Disturbance or Suspicion of himself in that great conflux of the whole Nation of the Iews now assembled in Ierusalem at the Passover But to return to his Preaching in the Temple He bids them Iohn XII 36. To believe in the light whilst they have it And he tells them v. 46. I am the light come into the World that every one who believes in me should not remain in darkness Which believing in him was the believing him to be the Messiah as I have elsewhere shewed The next day Mat. XXI he rebukes them for not having believed Iohn the Baptist who had testified that he was the Messiah And then in a Parable declares himself to be the Son of God whom they should destroy And that for it God would take away the Kingdom of the Messiah from them and give it to the Gentiles That they understood him thus is plain from Luke XX. 16. And when they heard it they said God forbid And v. 19. For they knew that he had spoken this Parable against them Much to the same purpose was his next Parable concerning the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. XXII 1-10 That the Jews not accepting of the Kingdom of the Messiah to whom it was first offered others should be brought in The Scribes and Pharisees and Chief Priests not able to bear the declaration he made of himself to be the Messiah by his Discourses and Miracles before them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iohn XII 37. which he had never done before impatient of his Preaching and Miracles and being not able otherwise to stop the increase of his Followers For said the Pharisees among themselves perceive ye how ye prevail nothing Behold the World is gone after him Iohn XII 19. So that the Chief Priests and the Scribes and the Chief of the People sought to destroy him the first day of his entrance into Ierusalem Luke XIX 47. The next day again they were intent upon the same thing Mark XI 17 18. And he taught in the Temple And the Scribes and the Chief Priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him For they feared him because all the people were astonished at his Doctrine The next day but one upon his telling them the Kingdom of the Messiah should be taken from them The Chief Priests and Scribes sought to lay hands on him the same hour and they feared the People Luke XX. 19. If they had so great a desire to lay hold on him why did they not They were the Chief Priests and the Rulers the men of Power The reason St. Luke plainly tells us in the next Verse And they watched him and sent forth Spies which should feign themselves just men that they might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him unto the Power and Authority of the Governour They wanted matter of Accusation against him to the Power they were under That they watched for and that they would have been glad of if they could have entangled him in his talk As St. Matthew expresses it Chap. XXII 15. If they could have laid hold on any word that had dropt from him that might have rendred him guilty or suspected to the Roman Governour That would have served their turn to have laid hold upon him with hopes to destroy him For their Power not answering their Malice they could not put him to Death by their own Authority without the Permission and Assistance of the Governour as they confess Iohn XVIII 31. It is not lawful for us to put any man to Death This made them so earnest for a declaration in direct words from his own mouth that he was the Messiah 'T was not that they would more have believed in him for such a declaration of himself than they did for his Miracles or other ways of making himself known which it appears they understood well enough But they wanted plain direct words such as might support an Accusation and be of weight before an Heathen Judge This was the Reason why they pressed him to speak out Iohn X. 24. Then came the Iews round about him and said unto him How long dost thou hold us in suspense If thou be the Messiah tell us PLAINLY 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in direct words For that St. Iohn uses it in that sense we may see Chap. XI 11-14 Jesus saith to them Lazarus sleepeth His Disciples said If he sleeps he shall do well Howbeit Iesus spake of his Death but they thought he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep Then said Iesus to them plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lazarus is dead Here we see what is
meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 PLAIN direct words such as express the thing without a Figure And so they would have had Jesus pronounce himself to be the Messiah And the same thing they press again Mat. XVI 63. The High-Priest adjuring him by the Living God to tell them whether he were the Messiah the Son of God As we shall have occasion to take notice by and by This we may observe in the whole management of their Design against his Life It turned upon this That they wanted and wished for a Declaration from him in direct words that he was the Messiah Something from his own mouth that might offend the Roman Power and render him Criminal to Pilate In the 21 st Verse of this XX of Luke They asked him saying Master we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly neither acceptest thou the Person of any but teachest the way of God truly Is it lawful for us to give Tribute to Caesar or no By this captious Question they hoped to catch him which way soever he answered For if he had said they ought to pay Tribute to Caesar 't would be plain he allowed their Subjection to the Romans And so in effect disowned himself to be their King and Deliverer Whereby he would have contradicted what his Carriage and Doctrine seemed to aim at the Opinion that was spread amongst the People that he was the Messiah This would have quash'd the Hopes and destroyed the Faith of those who believed on him and have turned the Ears and Hearts of the People from him If on the other side he answered No it is not Lawful to pay Tribute to Caesar they had had out of his own mouth wherewithal to Condemn him before Pontius Pilate But St. Luke tells us v. 23. He perceived their Craftiness and said unto them Why tempt ye me i. e. Why do ye'lay Snares for me Ye Hypocrites shew me the Tribute-money So it is Mat. XXII 19. Whose Image and Inscription has it They said Caesar ' s. He said unto them Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's By the Wisdom and Caution of which unexpected Answer he defeated their whole Design And they could not take hold of his words before the People And they marvelled at his answer and held their peace Luke XX. 26. And leaving him they departed Mat. XXII 22. He having by this Reply and what he answered to the Sadducees concerning the Resurrection And to the Lawyer about the First Commandment Mark XII Answered so little to their Satisfaction or Advantage they durst ask him no more Questions any of them And now their mouths being stop'd he himself begins to Question them about the Messiah Asking the Pharisees Mat. XXII 41. What think ye of the Messiah whose Son is he They say unto him The Son of David Wherein though they answered right yet he shews them in the following words that however they pretended to be Studiers and Teachers of the Law yet they understood not clearly the Scriptures concerning the Messiah And thereupon he sharply rebukes their Hypocrisie Vanity Pride Malice Covetousness and Ignorance And particularly tells them v. 13. ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men For ye neither go in your selves nor suffer ye them that are entring to go in Whereby he plainly declares to them that the Messiah was come and his Kingdom began But that they refused to believe in him themselves and did all they could to hinder others from believing in him As is manifest throughout the New Testament The History whereof sufficiently explains what is meant here by The Kingdom of Heaven Which the Scribes and Pharisees would neither go into themselves nor suffer others to enter into And they could not choose but understand him though he named not himself in the case Provoked a new by his Rebukes they get presently to Council Mat. XXVI Then assembled together the Chief Priest and the Scribes and the Elders of the People unto the Palace of the High-Priest who was called Caiphas and consulted that they might take Iesus by subtilty and kill him But they said Not on the Feast-day lest there be an Vproar among the People For they feared the People says St. Luke Chap. XXII 2. Having in the Night got Jesus into their Hands by the Treachery of Iudas they presently led him away bound to Annas the High-Priest Iohn XVIII 13. 19. The High-Priest then asked Iesus of his Disciples and of his Doctrine Iesus answered him I spake openly to the World I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple whither the Iews always resort And in secret have I said nothing A Proof that he had not in private to his Disciples declared himself in express words to be the Messiah the Prince But he goes on Why askest thou me Ask Iudas who has been always with me Ask them who heard me what I have said unto them behold they know what I said Our Saviour we see here warily declines for the Reasons above mentioned all Discourse of his Doctrine Annas getting nothing out of him for his turn v. 24. sends him away to Caiphas and the Sanhedrim who Mat. XXVI 59. Sought false Witness against him But when they found none that were sufficient or came up to the Point they desired which was to have something against him to take away his Life For so I think the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mean Mark XIV 56. 59. They try again what they can get out of him himself concerning his being the Messiah Which if he owned in express words they thought they should have enough against him at the Tribunal of the Roman Governour to make him Laesae Majestatis reum and so to take away his Life They therefore say to him Luke XXII 67. If thou be the Messiah tell us Nay as St. Matthew hath it the High-Priest adjures him by the Living God to tell them whether he were the Messiah To which our Saviour replies If I tell you ye will not believe And if I ask you ye will not answer me nor let me go If I tell you and prove to you by the Testimony given of me from Heaven and by the Works that I have done among you you will not believe in me that I am the Messiah Or if I should ask you where the Messiah is to be Born and what State he should come in how he should appear and other things that you think in me are not reconcileable with the Messiah You will not answer me and let me go as one that has no pretence to be the Messiah and you are not afraid should be received for such But yet I tell you Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the Power of God v. 70. Then said they all Art thou then the Son of God And he said unto them ye say that I am By which Discourse with them related at
to set up according to their Ancient Prophesies of him Which gave them hopes of an extraordinary Man yet to come from God who with an Extraordinary and Divine Power and Miracles should evidence his Mission and work their Deliverance And of any such extraordinary Person who should have the Power of doing Miracles they had no other expectation but only of their Messiah One great Prophet and worker of Miracles and only One more they expected who was to be the Messiah And therefore we see the People justified their believing in him i. e. their believing him to be the Messiah because of the Miracles he did Iohn VII 31. And many of the people believed in him and said when the Messiah cometh will he do more Miracles than this man hath done And when the Jews at the Feast of Dedication Iohn X. 24 25. coming about him said unto him How long dost thou make us doubt If thou be the Messiah tell us plainly Iesus answered them I told you and ye believed not the works that I do in my Father's name bear witness of me And Iohn V. 36. He says I have a greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to do the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me Where by the way we may observe that his being sent by the Father is but another way of expressing the Messiah Which is evident from this place here Iohn V. compared with that of Iohn X. last quoted For there he says that his Works bear witness of him And what was that witness viz. That he was the Messiah Here again he says that his works bear witness of him And what is that witness viz. That the Father sent him By which we are taught that to be sent by the Father and to be the Messiah was the same thing in his way of declaring himself And accordingly we find Iohn IV. 53. XI 45. and elsewhere many hearkened and assented to this Testimony and believed on him seeing the things that he did 2. Another way of declaring the Coming of the Messiah was by Phrases and Circumlocutions that did signifie or intimate his Coming though not in direct words pointing out the Person The most usual of these were The Kingdom of God and of Heaven because it was that which was oftnest spoken of the Messiah in the Old Testament in very plain words And a Kingdom was that which the Jews most looked after and wished for In that known place Isa. IX The GOVERNMENT shall be upon his shoulders he shall be called the PRINCE of Peace Of the increase of his GOVERNMENT and Peace there shall be no end Vpon the THRONE of David and upon his KINGDOM to order it and to establish it with Iudgment and with Iustice from henceforth even for ever Micah V. 2. But thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be the RVLER in Israel And Daniel besides that he calls him Messiah the PRINCE Chap. IX 25. In the account of his Vision of the Son of Man Chap. VII 13 14. says There was given him Dominion Glory and a KINGDOM that all People Nations and Languages should serve him His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his KINGDOM that which shall not be destroyed So that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven were common Phrases amongst the Jews to signifie the times of the Messiah Luke XIV 15. One of the Jews that sat at meat with him said unto him Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God Chap. XVII 20. The Pharisees demanded When the Kingdom of God should come And St. Iohn Baptist came saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand A Phrase he would not have used in Preaching had it not been understood There are other Expressions that signified the Messiah and his Coming which we shall take notice of as they come in our way 3. By plain and direct words declaring the Doctrine of the Messiah speaking out that Jesus was He As we see the Apostles did when they went about Preaching the Gospel after our Saviour's Resurrection This was the open clear way and that which one would think the Messiah himself when he came should have taken especially if it were of that moment that upon mens believing him to be the Messiah depended the forgiveness of their sins And yet we see that our Saviour did not But on the contrary for the most part made no other discovery of himself at least in Iudea and at the beginning of his Ministry but in the two former ways which were more obscure Not declaring himself to be the Messiah any otherwise than as it might be gathered from the Miracles he did and the conformity of his Life and Actions with the Prophesies of the Old Testament concerning him and from some general discourses of the Kingdom of the Messiah being come under the name of the Kingdom of God and of Heaven Nay so far was he from publickly owning himself to be the Messiah that he forbid the doing of it Mark VIII 27-30 He asked his Disciples whom do men say that I am And they answered John the Baptist but some say Elias and others one of the Prophets So that it is evident that even those who believed him an extraordinary Person knew not yet who he was or that he gave himself out for the Messiah though this was in the third Year of his Ministry and not a year before his Death And he saith unto them but whom say ye that I am And Peter answered and said unto him Thou art the Messiah And he charged them that they should tell no man of him Luke IV. 41. And Devils came out of many crying Thou art the Messiah the Son of God And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak that they knew him to be the Messiah Mark III. 11 12. Unclean spirits when they saw him fell down before him and cryed saying Thou art the Son of God And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known Here again we may observe from the comparing of the two Texts that Thou art the Son of God or Thou art the Messiah were indifferently used for the same thing But to return to the matter in hand This concealment of himself will seem strange in one who was come to bring Light into the World and was to suffer Death for the Testimony of the Truth This reservedness will be thought to look as if he had a mind to conceal himself and not to be known to the World for the Messiah nor to be believed on as such But we shall be of another mind and conclude this proceeding of his according to Divine Wisdom and suited to a fuller Manifestation and Evidence of his being the Messiah When we consider that he was to
have heard it out of his own mouth And That had been his Publick Doctrine to his followers Which was openly preached by the Apostles after his Death when he appeared no more And of this they were accused Acts XVII 5-9 But the Iews which believed not moved with envy took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort and gathered a company and set all the City in an uproar And assaulted the House of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people And when they found them Paul and Silas not they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the Rulers of the City crying these that have turned the World upside down are come hither also whom Jason hath received And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caefar saying that there is another King one Iesus And they troubled the People and the Rulers of the City when they heard these things And when they had taken Security of Jason and the other they let them go Though the Magistrates of the World had no great regard to the talk of a King who had suffered Death and appeared no longer any where Yet if our Saviour had openly declared this of himself in his Life-time with a train of Disciples and Followers every where owning and crying him up for their King the Roman Governour of Iudea could not have forborn to have taken notice of it and have made use of their Force against him This the Jews were not mistaken in and therefore made use of it as the strongest Accusation and likeliest to prevail with Pilate against him for the taking away his Life It being Treason and an unpardonable Offence which could not scape Death from a Roman Deputy without the Forfeiture of his own Life Thus then they Accuse him to Pilate Luke XXIII 2. We found this fellow perverting the Nation and forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar saying that he himself is the Messiah a King Our Saviour indeed now that his time was come and he in Custody and forsaken of all the World and so out of all danger of raising any Sedition or Disturbance owns himself to Pilate to be a King after having first told Pilate Iohn XVIII 36. That his Kingdom was not of this World And for a Kingdom in another World Pilate knew that his Master at Rome concerned not himself But had there been any the least appearance of truth in the Allegations of the Jews that he had perverted the Nation forbidding to pay Tribute to Caesar or drawing the People after him as their King Pilate would not so readily have pronounced him Innocent But we see what he said to his Accusers Luke XXIII 13 14. Pilate when he had called together the Chief Priests and the Rulers of the People said unto them You have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the People and behold I having examined him before you have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof you accuse him No nor yet Herod for I sent you to him and lo nothing worthy of death is done by him And therefore finding a man of that mean Condition and innocent Life no mover of Seditions or disturber of the Publick Peace without a Friend or a Follower would have dismissed him as a King of no consequence as an innocent man falsely and maliciously accused by the Jews How necessary this Caution was in our Saviour to say or do nothing that might justly offend or render him suspected to the Roman Governour and how glad the Jews would have been to have any such thing against him we may see Luke XX. 20. The Chief Priests and the Scribes watched him and sent forth spies who should feign themselves just men that might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him unto the Power and Authority of the Governour And the very thing wherein they hoped to entrap him in this place was paying Tribute to Caesar which they afterwards falsely accused him of And what would they have done if he had before them professed himself to have been the Messiah their King and Deliverer And here we may observe the wonderful Providence of God who had so ordered the state of the Jews at the time when his Son was to come into the World that though neither their Civil Constitution nor Religious Worship were dissolved yet the Power of Life and Death was taken from them Whereby he had an Opportunity to publish the Kingdom of the Messiah that is his own Royalty under the name of the Kingdom of God and of Heaven Which the Jews well enough understood and would certainly have put him to Death for had the Power been in their own hands But this being no matter of Accusation to the Romans hindred him not from speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven as he did Sometimes in reference to his appearing in the World and being believed on by particular Persons Sometimes in reference to the Power should be given him by the Father at his Resurrection And sometimes in reference to his coming to Judge the World at the last day in the full Glory and completion of his Kingdom These were ways of declaring himself which the Jews could lay no hold on to bring him in danger with Pontius Pilate and get him seized and put to Death Another Reason there was that hindred him as much as the former from professing himself in express words to be the Messiah and that was that the whole Nation of the Jews expecting at this time their Messiah and deliverance by him from the Subjection they were in to a Foreign Yoke the body of the People would certainly upon his declaring himself to be the Messiah their King have rose up in Rebellion and set him at the Head of them And indeed the miracles that he did so much disposed them to think him to be the Messiah that though shrouded under the obscurity of a mean Condition and a very private simple Life and his passing for a Galilean his Birth at Bethlehem being then concealed and he not assuming to himself any Power or Authority or so much as the Name of the Messiah yet he could hardly avoid being set up by a Tumult and proclaimed their King So Iohn tells us Chap. V. 14 15. Then those men when they had seen the Miracles that Iesus did said This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the World When therefore Iesus perceived that they would come to take him by force to make him King he departed again into a Mountain himself alone This was upon his feeding of Five Thousand with five Barley Loaves and two Fishes So hard was it for him doing those miracles which were necessary to testifie his Mission and which often drew great multitudes after him Mat. IV. 25. to keep the heady and hasty multitude from such Disorder as would have involved him in it and have disturbed the course and cut short the time of his Ministry and drawn on him the Reputation
and Death of a Turbulent Seditious Malefactor Contrary to the design of his coming which was to be offered up a Lamb blameless and void of Offence his Innocence appearing to all the World even to him that delivered him up to be crucified This it would have been impossible to have avoided if in his Preaching every where he had openly assumed to himself the Title of their Messiah Which was all was wanting to set the People in a flame who drawn by his miracles and the hopes of finding a Deliverer in so extraordinary a man followed him in great numbers We read every where of multitudes And in Luke XII 1. of Myriads that were gathered about him This conflux of People thus disposed would not have failed upon his declaring himself to be the Messiah to have made a Commotion and with Force set him up for their King It is plain therefore from these these two Reasons why though he came to Preach the Gospel and Convert the World to a belief of his being the Messiah and though he says so much of his Kingdom under the Title of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven he yet makes it not his business to perswade them that he himself is the Messiah or does in his Publick Preaching declare himself to be him He inculcates to the People on all occasions that the Kingdom of God is come He shews the way of Admittance into this Kingdom viz. Repentance and Baptism and teaches the Laws of it viz. Good Life according to the strictest Rules of Vertue and Morality But who the King was of this Kingdom he leaves to his miracles to point out to those who would consider what he did and make the right use of it now Or to witness to those who should hearken to the Apostles hereafter when they preached it in plain words and called upon them to believe it after his Resurrection when there should be no longer any fear that it should cause any disturbance in Civil Societies and the Governments of the World But he could not declare himself to be the Messiah without manifest danger of Tumult and Sedition And the miracles he did declared it so much that he was fain often to hide himself and withdraw from the concourse of the People The Leper that he cured Mark I. though forbid to say any thing yet blazed it so abroad that Iesus could no more openly enter into the City but was without in desart places And there they came to him from every quarter And thus he did more than once This being premised let us take a view of the Promulgation of the Gospel by our Saviour himself and see what it was he taught the World and required men to believe The first beginning of his Ministry whereby he shewed himself seems to be at Cana in Galilee soon after his Baptism where he turned Water into Wine Of which St. Iohn Chap. II. 11. says thus This beginning of Miracles Iesus made and manifested his glory and his Disciples believed in him His Disciples here believed in him but we hear not of any other Preaching to them but by this Miracle whereby he manifested his Glory i. e. of being the Messiah the Prince So Nathanael without any other Preaching but only our Saviour's discovering to him that he knew him after an extraordinary manner presently acknowledges him to be the Messiah crying Rabbi Thou art the Son of God Thou art the King of Israel From hence staying a few days at Capernaum he goes to Ierusalem to the Passover and there he drives the Traders out of the Temple Iohn II. 12-15 saying Make not my Father's House a House of merchandize Where we see he uses a Phrase which by Interpretation signifies that he was the Son of God though at that time unregarded v. 16. Hereupon the Jews demand What sign dost thou shew us since thou doest these things Iesus answered Destroy ye this Temple and in three days I will raise it again This is an instance of what way Jesus took to declare himself For 't is plain by their Reply the Jews understood him not nor his Disciples neither For 't is said v. 22. When therefore he was risen from the dead his Disciples remembred that he said this to them And they believed the Scripture and the saying of Iesus to them This therefore we may look on in the beginning as a Pattern of Christ's Preaching and shewing himself to the Jews Which he generally followed afterwards viz. such a manifestation of himself as every one at present could not understand but yet carried such an Evidence with it to those who were well disposed now or would reflect on it when the whole course of his Ministry was over as was sufficient clearly to convince them that he was the Messiah The reason of this method used by our Saviour the Scripture gives us here at this his first appearing in Publick after his entrance upon his Ministry to be a Rule and Light to us in the whole course of it For the next Verse taking notice that many believed on him because of his Miracles which was all the Preaching they had 'T is said v. 24. But Iesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men i. e. He declared not himself so openly to be the Messiah their King as to put himself into the Power of the Jews by laying himself open to their malice whom he knew would be so ready to lay hold on it to accuse him For as the next Verse 25. shews he knew well enough what was in them We may here farther observe That Believing in his Name signifies believing him to be the Messiah V. 22. tells us That many at the Passover believed in his name when they saw the Miracles that he did What other Faith could these Miracles produce in them who saw them but that this was He of whom the Scripture spoke who was to be their Deliverer Whilst he was now at Ierusalem Nicodemus a Ruler of the Jews comes to him Iohn III. 1-21 to whom he Preaches Eternal Life by Faith in the Messiah v. 15. 17. But in general terms without naming himself to be that Messiah though his whole Discourse tends to it This is all we hear of our Saviour the first Year of his Ministry But only his Baptism Fasting and Temptation in the beginning of it and spending the rest of it after the Passover in Iudea with his Disciples Baptizing there but when he knew that the Pharisees reported that he made and baptized more Disciples than John he left Judea and got out of their way again into Galilee John IV. 1. 3. In his way back by the Well of Sichar he discourses with the Samaritan Woman And after having opened to her the True and Spiritual Worship which was at hand which the Woman presently understands of the times of the Messiah who was then looked for Thus she answers v. 25. I know that the Messiah cometh When he is
come he will tell us all things Whereupon our Saviour though we hear no such thing from him in Ierusalem or Iudea or to Nicodemus yet here to this Samaritan Woman he in plain and direct words owns and declares that he himself who talked with her was the Messiah v. 26. This would seem very strange that he should be more free and open to a Samaritan than he was to the Jews were not the reason plain from what we have observed above He was now out of Iudea with a People with whom the Iews had no Commerce v. 9. Who were not disposed out of Envy as the Iews were to seek his Life or to Accuse him to the Roman Governour or to make an Insurrection to set a Iew up for their King What the Consequence was of his Discourse with this Samaritan Woman we have an Account v. 28. 39-42 She left her Water-pot and went her way into the City and saith to the men Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did Is not this the Messiah And many of the Samaritans of that City BELIEVED ON HIM for the saying of the Woman which testified He told me all that ever I did So when the Samaritans were come unto him they besought him that he would tarry with them And he abode there two days And many more believed because of his own word And said unto the Woman Now we believe not because of thy saying For we have heard him our selves and we know i. e. are fully perswaded that it is indeed the Messiah the Saviour of the World By comparing v. 39. with 41 42. it is plain that believing on him signifies no more than believing him to be the Messiah From Sichar Jesus goes to Nazareth the place he was bred up in and there Reading in the Synagogue a Prophecy concerning the Messiah out of the LXI of Isaiah he tells them Luke IV. 21. This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears But being in danger of his Life at Nazareth he leaves it for Capernaum And then as St. Matthew informs us Chap. IV. 17. He began to Preach and say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Or as St. Mark has it Chap. I. 14 15. Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe in the Gospel i. e. believe this good News This removing to Capernaum and seating himself there in the Borders of Zabulon and Naphtali was as St. Matthew observes Chap. IV. 13-16 That a Prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled Thus the Actions and Circumstances of his Life answered the Prophesies and declared him to be the Messiah And by what St. Mark says in this place it is manifest that the Gospel which he preached and required them to believe was no other but the good tidings of the Coming of the Messiah and of his Kingdom the time being now fulfilled In his way to Capernaum being come to Cana a Noble-man of Capernaum came to him v. 47. And besought him that he would come down and heal his Son for he was at the point of death v. 48. Then said Iesus unto him except ye see signs and wonders you will not believe Then he returning homewards and finding that his Son began to mend at the same hour in which Iesus said unto him thy Son liveth he himself believed and his whole House v. 53. Here this Noble-man is by the Apostle pronounced to be a Believer And what does he believe Even that which Jesus complains v. 48. They would not BELIEVE except they saw Signs and Wonders Which could be nothing but what those of Samaria in the same Chapter believed viz. that he was the Messiah For we no where in the Gospel hear of any thing else had been proposed to be believed by them Having done Miracles and cured all their sick at Capernaum he says Let us go to the adjoyning Towns that I may preach there also for therefore came I forth Mark I. 38. Or as St. Luke has it Chap. IV. 43. He tells the multitude who would have kept him that he might not go from them I must Evangelize or tell the good Tidings of the Kingdom of God to other Cities also for therefore am I sent And St. Matthew Chap. IV. 23. tells us how he executed this Commission he was sent on And Iesus went about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and curing all Diseases This then was what he was sent to Preach every where viz. The Gospel of the Kingdom of the Messiah and by the Miracles and Good he did let them know who was the Messiah Hence he goes up to Ierusalem to the second Passover since the beginning of his Ministry And here discoursing to the Jews who sought to kill him upon occasion of the man whom he had cured carrying his Bed on the Sabbath-day and for making God his Father He tells them that he wrought these things by the Power of God and that he shall do greater things For that the Dead shall at his Summons be raised And that he by a Power committed to him from his Father shall Judge them And that he is sent by his Father And that whoever shall hear his Word and believe in him that sent him has Eternal Life This though a clear Description of the Messiah yet we may observe that here to the angry Iews who sought to kill him he says not a word of his Kingdom nor so much as names the Messiah But yet that he is the Son of God and sent from God He refers them to the Testimony of Iohn the Baptist to the Testimony of his own Miracles and of God himself in the Voice from Heaven and of the Scriptures and of Moses He leaves them to learn from these the Truth they were to believe viz. that he was the Messiah sent from God This you may read more at large Iohn V. 1-47 The next place where we find him Preaching was on the Mount Mat. V. and Luke VI. This is by much the longest Sermon we have of his any where and in all likelihood to the greatest Auditory For it appears to have been to the Peple gathered to him from Galilee and Iudea and Ierusalem and from beyond Iordan and that came out of Idumea and from Tyre and Sidon mentioned Mark III. 7 8. and Luke VI. 17. But in this whole Sermon of his we do not find one word of Believing and therefore no mention of the Messiah or any intimation to the People who himself was The reason whereof we may gather from Mat. 12. 16. where Christ forbids them to make him known which supposes them to know already who he was For that this XII Chapter of Matthew ought to precede the Sermon in the Mount is plain by comparing it with Mark II. beginning at v. 13. to Mark III. 8. And comparing those Chapters of St. Mark with
Contrivance of an Ambitious or Dangerous man designing against the Government The way of expressing what he meant being in the Prophetick stile which is seldom so plain as to be understood till accomplished 'T is plain that his Disciples themselves comprehended not what Kingdom he here spoke of from their Question to him after his Resurrection Wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel Having finished these Discourses he takes Order for the Passover and eats it with his Disciples And at Supper tells them that one of them should betray him And adds Iohn XIII 19. I tell it you now before it come that when it is come to pass you may know that I am He does not say out the Messiah Iudas should not have that to say against him if he would Though that be the sense in which he uses this Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am more than once And that this is the meaning of it is clear from Mark XII 6. Luke XXI 8. In both which Evangelists the words are For many shall come in my Name saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am The meaning whereof we shall find explained in the parallel place of St. Matthew Chap. XXIV 5. For many shall come in my Name saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the Messiah Here in this place of Iohn XIII Jesus fore-tells what should happen to him viz. That he should be betrayed by Iudas adding this Prediction to the many other Particulars of his Death and Suffering which he had at other times foretold to them And here he tells them the reason of these his Predictions viz. That afterwards they might be a confirmation to their Faith And what was it that he would have them believe and be confirmed in the belief of Nothing but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was the Messiah The same reason he gives Iohn XIII 28. You have heard how I said unto you I go away and come again unto you And now I have told you before it come to pass that when it is come to pass ye might believe When Iudas had left them and was gone out he talks a little freer to them of his Glory and his Kingdom than ever he had done before For now he speaks plainly of himself and his Kingdom Iohn XIII 31. Therefore when he Judas was gone out Iesus said Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is also glorified in him And if God be glorified in him God shall also glorifie him in himself and shall straitway glorifie him And Luke XXII 29. And I will appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink with me at my Table in my Kingdom Though he has every where all along through his Ministry preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and nothing else but that and Repentance and the Duties of a good Life Yet it has been always the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven And I do not remember that any where till now he uses any such expression as My Kingdom But here now he speaks in the first Person I will appoint you a Kingdom And in my Kingdom And this we see is only to the Eleven now Iudas was gone from them With these Eleven whom he was now just leaving he has a long Discourse to comfort them for their loss of him And to prepare them for the Persecution of the World And to exhort them to keep his Commandments and to love one another And here one may expect all the Articles of Faith should be laid down plainly if any thing else were required of them to believe but what he had taught them and they believed already viz. That he was the Messiah John XIV 1. Ye believe in God believe also in me v. 29. I have told you before it come to pass that when it is come to pass ye may believe It is believing on him without any thing else Iohn XVI 31. Iesus answered them Do you now believe This was in Answer to their professing v 30. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man should ask thee By this we believe that thou comest forth from God John XVII 20. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word All that is spoke of Believing in this his last Sermon to them is only Believing on him or believing that He came from God Which was no other than believing him to be the Messiah Indeed Iohn XIV 9. Our Saviour tells Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father And adds v. 10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me The words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self But the Father that dwelleth in me he doth the works Which being in Answer to Philip's words v. 9. Shew us the Father seem to import thus much No man hath seen God at any time he is known only by his Works And that he is my Father and I the Son of God i. e. the Messiah you may know by the Works I have done Which it is impossible I could do of my self but by the Union I have with God my Father For that by being in God and God in him he signifies such an Union with God that God operates in and by him appears not only by the words above-cited out of v. 10. which can scarce otherwise be made coherent sense but also from the same Phrase used again by our Saviour presently after v. 20. At that day viz. after his Resurrection when they should see him again ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you i. e. By the works I shall enable you to do through a Power I have received from the Father Which whoever sees me do must acknowledge the Father to be in me And whoever sees you do must acknowledge me to be in you And therefore he says v. 12. Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he also do because I go unto my Father Though I go away yet I shall be in you who believe in me And ye shall be enabled to do Miracles also for the carrying on of my Kingdom as I have done That it may be manifested to others that you are sent by me as I have evidenced to you that I am sent by the Father And hence it is that he says in the immediately preceding v. 11. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me If not believe me for the sake of the works themselves Let the Works that I have done convince you that I am sent by the Father That he is with me and that I do nothing but by his Will and by vertue of the Union I have with him And that consequently I am the Messiah who am anointed sanctified and separate by the Father to
the Work for which he hath sent me To confirm them in this Faith and to enable them to do such Works as he had done he promises them the Holy Ghost Iohn XIV 25 26. These things I have said unto you being yet present with you But when I am gone the Holy Ghost the Paraclet which may signifie Monitor as well as Comfortor or Advocate which the Father shall send you in my Name he shall shew you all things and bring to your remembrance all things which I have said So that considering all that I have said and laying it together and comparing it with what you shall see come to pass you may be more abundantly assured that I am the Messiah and fully comprehend that I have done and suffered all things foretold of the Messiah and that were to be accomplished and fulfilled by him according to the Scriptures But be not filled with grief that I leave you Iohn XVI 7. It is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Paraclet will not come unto you One Reason why if he went not away the Holy Ghost could not come we may gather from what has been observed concerning the Prudent and wary carriage of our Saviour all through his Ministry that he might not incur Death with the least suspicion of a Malefactor And therefore though his Disciples believed him to be the Messiah yet they neither understood it so well nor were so well confirmed in the belief of it as after that he being crucified and risen again they had received the Holy Ghost And with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit a fuller and clearer Evidence and Knowledge that he was the Messiah And were enlightned to see how his Kingdom was such as the Scriptures foretold though not such as they till then had expected And now this Knowledge and Assurance received from the Holy Ghost was of use to them after his Resurrection when they could then boldly go about and openly Preach as they did that Iesus was the Messiah confirming that Doctrine by the Miracles which the Holy Ghost impowered them to do But till he was dead and gone they could not do this Their going about openly Preaching as they did after his Resurrection that Iesus was the Messiah and doing Miracles every where to make it good would not have consisted with that Character of Humility Peace and Innocence which the Messiah was to sustain if they had done it before his Crucifixion For this would have drawn upon him the Condemnation of a Malefactor either as a stirrer of Sedition against the Publick Peace or as a Pretender to the Kingdom of Israel And hence we see that they who before his Death preached only the Gospel of the Kingdom that the Kingdom of God was at hand As soon as they had received the Holy Ghost after his Resurrection changed their stile and every where in express words declare that Iesus is the Messiah that King which was to come This the following words here in St. Iohn XVI 8-14 confirm Where he goes on to tell them And when he is come he will convince the World of Sin Because they believed not on me Your Preaching then accompanied with Miracles by the assistance of the Holy Ghost shall be a Conviction to the World that the Iews sinned in not believing me to be the Messiah Of Righteousness or Justice Because I go to my Father and ye see me no more By the same Preaching and Miracles you shall confirm the Doctrine of my Ascension and thereby convince the World that I was that Iust One who am therefore ascended to the Father into Heaven where no unjust Person shall enter Of Iudgment Because the Prince of this World is judged And by the same assistance of the Holy Ghost ye shall convince the World that the Devil is judged or condemned by your casting of him out and destroying his Kingdom and his Worship where ever you Preach Our Saviour adds I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now They were yet so full of a Temporal Kingdom that they could not bear the discovery of what a kind of Kingdom his was nor what a King he was to be And therefore he leaves them to the coming of the Holy Ghost for a farther and fuller discovery of himself and the Kingdom of the Messiah For fear they should be scandalized in him and give up the hopes they had now in him and forsake him This he tells them v. 1. of this XVI Chapter These things I have said unto you that you may not be scandalized The last thing he had told them before his saying this to them we find in the last Verses of the precedent Chapter When the Paraclet is come the Spirit of Truth he shall witness concerning me He shall shew you who I am and witness it to the World And then Ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning He shall call to your mind what I have said and done that ye may understand it and know and bear Witness concerning me And again here Iohn XVI after he had told them they could not bear what he had more to say he adds v. 13. Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth and he will shew you things to come He shall glorifie me By the Spirit when he comes ye shall be fully instructed concerning me And though you cannot yet from what I have said to you clearly comprehend my Kingdom and Glory yet he shall make it known to you wherein it consists And though I am now in a mean state and ready to be given up to Contempt Torment and Death So that ye know not what to think of it Yet the Spirit when he comes shall glorifie me and fully satisfie you of my Power and Kingdom And that I sit on the right hand of God to order all things for the good and increase of it till I come again at the last day in fulness of Glory Accordingly the Apostles had a full and clear sight and perswasion of this after they had received the Holy Ghost And they preached it every where boldly and openly without the least remainder of doubt or uncertainty But that they understood him not yet even so far as his Death and Resurrection is evident from v. 17 18. Then said some of the Disciples among themselves What is this that he saith unto us A little while and ye shall not see me And again a little while and ye shall see me and because I go to the Father They said therefore what is this that he saith a little while We know not what he saith Upon which he goes on to Discourse to them of his Death and Resurrection and of the Power they should have of doing Miracles But all this he declares to them in a Mystical and involved way of speaking as he tells them himself v. 25. These things
to any man an Authority to make a Religion for me or to alter that which God hath revealed And if they please to call the believing that which our Saviour and his Apostles preached and proposed alone to be believed an Historical Faith they have their liberty But they must have a care how they deny it to be a Justifying or Saving Faith when our Saviour and his Apostles have declared it so to be and taught no other which men should receive and whereby they should be made Believers unto Eternal Life Unless they can so far make bold with our Saviour for the sake of their beloved Systems as to say that he forgot what he came into the World for And that he and his Apostles did not Instruct People right in the way and Mysteries of Salvation For that this is the sole Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenour of our Saviour's and his Apostles Preaching we have shewed through the whole History of the Evangelists and the Acts. And I challenge them to shew that there was any other Doctrine upon their assent to which or disbelief of it men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers And accordingly received into the Church of Christ as Members of his Body as far as meer believing could make them so or else kept out of it This was the only Gospel-Article of Faith which was preached to them And if nothing else was preached every where the Apostles Argument will hold against any other Articles of Faith to be be believed under the Gospel Rom. X. 14. How shall they believe that whereof they have not heard For to Preach any other Doctrines necessary to be believed we do not find that any body was sent Perhaps it will farther be urged That this is not a Saving Faith Because such a Faith as this the Devils may have and 't was plain they had For they believed and declared Iesus to be the Messiah And St. Iames Chap. II. 19. tells us The Devils believe and tremble And yet they shall not be saved To which I answer 1. That they could not be saved by any Faith to whom it was not proposed as a means of Salvation nor ever promised to be counted for Righteousness This was an Act of Grace shewn only to Mankind God dealt so favourably with the Posterity of Adam that if they would believe Iesus to be the Messiah the promised King and Saviour And perform what other Conditions were required of them by the Covenant of Grace God would Justifie them because of this Belief He would account this Faith to them for Righteousness and look on it as making up the defects of their Obedience Which being thus supplied by what was taken instead of it they were looked on as Just or Righteous and so inherited Eternal Life But this Favour shewn to Mankind was never offered to the fallen Angels They had no such Proposals made to them And therefore whatever of this kind was proposed to men it availed them not whatever they performed of it This Covenant of Grace was never offered to them 2. I Answer That though the Devils believed yet they could not be saved by the Covenant of Grace Because they performed not the other Condition required in it altogether as necessary to be performed as this of Believing and that is Repentance Repentance is as absolute a Condition of the Covenant of Grace as Faith and as necessary to be performed as that Iohn the Baptist who was to prepare the way for the Messiah Preached the Baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins Mark 1. 4. As Iohn began his Preaching with Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. III. 2. So did our Saviour begin his Mat. IV. 17. From that time began Iesus to Preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Or as St. Mark has it in that parallel place Mark I. 14 15. Now after that John was put in Prison Iesus came into Galilee Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel This was not only the beginning of his Preaching but the sum of all that he did Preach viz. That men should Repent and believe the good Tidings which he brought them That the time was fulfilled for the coming of the Messiah And this was what his Apostles preached when he sent them out Mark VI. 12. And they going out preached that men should Repent Believing Jesus to be the Messiah and Repenting were so Necessary and Fundamental parts of the Covenant of Grace that one of them alone is often put for both For here St. Mark mentions nothing but their Preaching Repentance as St. Luke in the parallel place Chap. IX 6. mentions nothing but their Evangelizing or Preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of the Messiah And St. Paul often in his Epistles puts Faith for the whole Duty of a Christian. But yet the tenour of the Gospel is what Christ declares Luke XII 3. 5. Vnless ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And in the Parable of the Rich Man in Hell delivered by our Saviour Luke XVI Repentance alone is the means proposed of avoiding that place of Torment v. 30 31. And what the tenor of the Doctrine which should be preached to the World should be He tells his Apostles after his Resurrection Luke XXIV 27. viz. That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name who was the Messiah And accordingly believing Iesus to be the Messiah and Repenting was what the Apostles preached So Peter began Acts II. 38. Repent and be baptized These two things were required for the Remission of Sins viz. Entring themselves in the Kingdom of God And owning and professing themselves the Subjects of Iesus whom they believed to be the Messiah and received for their Lord and King For that was to be baptized in his Name Baptism being an initiating Ceremony known to the Iews whereby those who leaving Heathenism and professing a submission to the Law of Moses were received into the Common-wealth of Israel And so it was made use of by our Saviour to be that Solemn visible Act whereby those who believed him to be the Messiah received him as their King and professed Obedience to him were admitted as Subjects into his Kingdom Which in the Gospels is called the Kingdom of God And in the Acts and Epistles often by another name viz. The Church The same St. Peter Preaches again to the Iews Acts III. 19. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out What this Repentance was which the New Covenant required as one of the Conditions to be performed by all those who should receive the Benefits of that Covenant is plain in the Scripture to be not only a sorrow for sins past but what is a Natural consequence of such sorrow if it be real a turning from them into a new and
accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead neither marry nor are given in marriage Neither can they die any more for they are equal unto the Angels and are the SONS OF GOD being the Sons of the Resurrection And he that shall read St. Paul's Arguing Acts XIII 32 33. will find that the great Evidence that Jesus was the Son of God was his Resurrection Then the Image of his Father appeared in him when he visibly entred into the state of Immortality For thus the Apostle reasons We Preach to you how that the Promise which was made to our Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us in that he hath raised up Iesus again As it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee This may serve a little to explain the Immortality of the Sons of God who are in this like their Father made after his Image and Likeness But that our Saviour was so he himself farther declares Iohn X. 18. Where speaking of his Life he says No one taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again Which he could not have had if he had been a Mortal Man the Son of a Man of the Seed of Adam Or else had by any Transgression forfeited his Life For the wages of Sin is Death And he that hath incurred Death for his own Transgression cannot lay down his Life for another as our Saviour professes he did For he was the Just One Acts VII 57. and XII 14. Who knew no sin 2 Cor. V. 21. Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And thus As by Man came Death so by Man came the Resurrection of the Dead For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive For this laying down his Life for others our Saviour tells us Iohn X. 17. Therefore does my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again And this his Obedience and Suffering was rewarded with a Kingdom which he tells us Luke XXII His Father had appointed unto him And which 't is evident out of the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. XII 2. he had a regard to in his Sufferings Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Which Kingdom given him upon this account of his Obedience Suffering and Death He himself takes notice of in these words Iohn XVII 1-4 Iesus lift up his eyes to Heaven and said Father the hour is come glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie thee As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And this is Life Eternal that they may know thee the only true God and Iesus the Messiah whom thou hast sent I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians Chap. II. 8-11 He humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name That at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord. Thus God we see designed his Son Christ Iesus a Kingdom an Everlasting Kingdom in Heaven But Though as in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive And all men shall return to Life again at the last day Yet all men having sinned and thereby come short of the Glory of God as St. Paul assures us Rom. III. 23. i.e. Not attaining to the Heavenly Kingdom of the Messiah which is often called the Glory of God as may be seen Rom. V. 2. XV. 7. II. 7. Mat. XVI 27. Mark VIII 38. For no one who is unrighteous i. e. comes short of perfect Righteousness shall be admitted into the Eternal Life of that Kingdom As is declared 1 Cor. VI. 9. The unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And Death the Wages of Sin being the Portion of all those who had transgressed the Righteous Law of God The Son of God would in vain have come into the World to lay the Foundations of a Kingdom and gather together a select People out of the World if they being found guilty at their appearance before the Judgment-seat of the Righteous Judge of all men at the last day instead of entrance into Eternal Life in the Kingdom he had prepared for them they should receive Death the just Reward of Sin which every one of them was guilty of This second Death would have left him no Subjects And instead of those Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand and Thousands of Thousands there would not have been one left him to sing Praises unto his Name saying Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever God therefore out of his Mercy to Mankind and for the erecting of the Kingdom of his Son and furnishing it with Subjects out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation proposed to the Children of Men that as many of them as would believe Iesus his Son whom he sent into the World to be the Messiah the promised Deliverer And would receive him for their King and Ruler should have all their past Sins Disobedience and Rebellion forgiven them And if for the future they lived in a sincere Obedience to his Law to the utmost of their power the sins of Humane Frailty for the time to come as well as all those of their past Lives should for his Son's sake because they gave themselves up to him to be his Subjects be forgiven them And so their Faith which made them be baptized into his Name i.e. Enroll themselves in the Kingdom of Iesus the Messiah and profess themselves his Subjects and consequently live by the Laws of his Kingdom should be accounted to them for Righteousness i.e. Should supply the defects of a scanty Obedience in the sight of God Who counting this Faith to them for Righteousness or Compleat Obedience did thus Justifie or make them Just and thereby capable of Eternal Life Now that this is the Faith for which God of his free Grace Justifies sinful Man For 't is God alone that justifieth Rom. VIII 33. Rom. III. 26. We have already shewed by observing through all the History of our Saviour and the Apostles recorded in the Evangelists and in the Acts what he and his Apostles preached and proposed to be believed We shall shew now that besides believing him to be the Messiah their King it was farther required that those who would have the Priviledge Advantages and
He answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind And thy Neighbour as thy self Jesus said This do and thou shalt live And when the Lawyer upon our Saviour's Parable of the good Samaritan was forced to confess that he that shewed Mercy was his Neighbour Jesus dismissed him with this Charge v. 37. Go and do thou likewise Luke XI 41. Give Alms of such things as ye have Behold all things are clean unto you Luke XII 15. Take heed and beware of Covetousness V. 22. Be not sollicitous what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor what ye shall put on Be not fearful or apprehensive of want For it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom Sell that you have and give Alms And provide your selves bags that wax not old and Treasure in the Heavens that faileth not For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also Let your loyns be girded and your lights burning And ye your selves like unto men that wait for the Lord when he will return Blessed are those Servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching Blessed is that Servant whom the Lord having made Ruler of his Houshold to give them their Portion of Meat in due season the Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him a Ruler over all that he hath But if that Servant say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming And shall begin to beat the Men-servants and Maidens and to eat and drink and to be drunken The Lord of that Servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his Portion with Vnbelievers And that Servant who knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes For he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes For unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required And to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more Luke XIV 11. Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted V. 12. When thou makest a Dinner or Supper call not thy Friends or thy Brethren neither thy Kinsmen nor thy Neighbours lest they also bid thee again and a recompence be made thee But when thou makest a Feast call the Poor and Maimed the Lame and the Blind And thou shalt be blessed For they cannot recompence thee For thou shalt be recompenced at the Resurrection of the Iust. V. 33. So likewise whosoever he be of you that is not ready to forego all that he hath he cannot be my Disciple Luke XVI 9. I say unto you make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness That when ye fail they may receive you into Everlasting Habitations If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon who will commit to your trust the true Riches And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another mans who shall give you that which is your own Luke XVII 3. If thy Brother trespass against thee rebuke him And if he repent forgive him And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent Thou shalt forgive him Luke XVIII 1. He spoke a Parable to them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint V. 18. One comes to him and asks him saying Master what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life Iesus said to him If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments He says Which Iesus said Thou knowest the Commandments Thou shalt not Kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not Steal Thou shalt not bear false Witness Defraud not Honour thy Father and thy Mother And thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self He said All these have I observed from my Youth Iesus hearing this loved him and said unto him Yet lackest thou one thing Sell all that thou hast and give it to the Poor and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven And come follow me To understand this right we must take notice that this Young Man asks our Saviour what he must do to be admitted effectually into the Kingdom of the Messiah The Jews believed that when the Messiah came those of their Nation that received him should not die But that they with those who being dead should then be raised again by him should enjoy Eternal Life with him Our Saviour in Answer to this Demand tells the Young Man that to obtain the Eternal Life of the Kingdom of the Messiah he must keep the Commandments And then enumerating several of the Precepts of the Law the Young Man says he had observed these from his Childhood For which the Text tells us Jesus loved him But our Saviour to try whether in earnest he believed him to be the Messiah and resolved to take him to be his King and to obey him as such bids him give all he has to the Poor and come and follow him and he should have Treasure in Heaven This I look on to be the meaning of the place This of selling all he had and giving it to the Poor not being a standing Law of his Kingdom but a Probationary Command to this Young Man to try whether he truly believed him to be the Messiah and was ready to obey his Commands and relinquish all to follow him when he his Prince required it And therefore we see Luke XIX 14. Where our Saviour takes notice of the Jews not receiving him as the Messiah he expresses it thou We will not have this man to Reign over us 'T is not enough to believe him to be the Messiah unless we also obey his Laws and take him to be our King to Reign over us Mat. XXII 11-13 He that had not on the Wedding-Garment though he accepted of the Invitation and came to the Wedding was cast into utter Darkness By the Wedding-Garment 't is evident Good Works are meant here That Wedding-Garment of fine Linnen clean and white which we are told Rev. XIX 8. is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteous acts of the Saints Or as St. Paul calls it Ephes. IV. 1. The walking worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called This appears from the Parable it self The Kingdom of Heaven says our Saviour v. 2. Is like unto a King who made a Marriage for his Son And here he distinguishes those who were invited into three sorts 1. Those who were invited and came not i.e. Those who had the Gospel the Good News of the Kingdom of God proposed to them but believed not 2. Those who came but had not on a Wedding-Garment i.e. Believed Iesus to be the Messiah but were not
Luke VI. And I desire my Reader once for all here to take notice that I have all along observed the order of time in our Saviour's Proaching and have not as I think passed by any of his Discourses In this Sermon our Saviour only teaches them what were the Laws of his Kingdom and what they must do who were admitted into it of which I shall have occasion to speak more at large in another place being at present only enquiring what our Saviour proposed as matter of Faith to be believed After this Iohn the Baptist sends to him this Message Luke VII 19. Asking Art thou he that should come or do we expect another That is in short art thou the Messiah And if thou art why dost thou let me thy Fore runner languish in Prison Must I expect deliverance from any other To which Jesus returns this Answer v. 22 23. Tell John what you have seen and heard The Blind see the Lame walk the Lepers are cleansed the Deaf hear the Dead are raised to the Poor the Gospel is preached and blessed is he who is not offended in me What it is to be offended or scandalized in him we may see by comparing Mat. XIII 28. and Mark IV. 17. with Luke VIII 13. For what the two first call scandalized the last calls standing off from or forsaking i. e. not receiving him as the Messiah Vid. Mark VI. 1-6 or revolting from him Here Jesus refers Iohn as he did the Jews before to the Testimony of his Miracles to know who he was And this was generally his Preaching whereby he declared himself to be the Messiah Who was the only Prophet to come whom the Iews had any expectation of Nor did they look for any other Person to be sent to them with the Power of Miracles but only the Messiah His Miracles we see by his Answer to Iohn the Baptist he thought a sufficient declaration amongst them that he was the Messiah And therefore upon his curing the possessed of the Devil the Dumb and Blind Mat. XII the People who saw the Miracle said v. 23. Is not this the Son of David As much as to say Is not this the Messiah Whereat the Pharisees being offended said He cast out Devils by Beelzebub Jesus shewing the falshood and vanity of their Blasphemy justifies the Conclusion the People made from this Miracle saying v. 28. That his casting out Devils by the Spirit of God was an Evidence that the Kingdom of the Messiah was come One thing more there was in the Miracles done by his Disciples which shewed him to be the Messiah That they were done in his Name In the name of Iesus of Nazareth rise up and walk says St. Peter to the lame man whom he cured in the Temple Acts III. 6. And how far the Power of that Name reached they themselves seem to wonder Luke X. 17. And the seventy returned again with joy saying Lord even the Devils are subject to us in thy Name From this Message from Iohn the Baptist he takes occasion to tell the People that Iohn was the Fore-runner of the Messiah That from the time of Iohn the Baptist the Kingdom of the Messiah began To which time all the Prophets and the Law pointed Luke VII and Mat. XI Luke VIII 1. Afterwards he went through every City and Village preaching and shewing the good tidings of the Kingdom of God Here we see as every where what his Preaching was and consequently what was to be believed Soon after he Preaches from a Boat to the People on the shoar His Sermon at large we may read Mat. XIII Mark IV. and Luke VIII But this is very observeable That this second Sermon of his here is quite different from his former in the Mount For that was all so plain and intelligible that nothing could be more so Whereas this is all so involved in Parables that even the Apostles themselves did not understand it If we enquire into the reason of this we shall possibly have some Light from the different Subjects of these two Sermons There he preached to the People only Morality Clearing the Precepts of the Law from the false glosses which were received in those days And setting forth the Duties of a good Life in their full Obligation and Extent beyond what the Judiciary Laws of the Israelites did or the Civil Laws of any Country could prescribe or take notice of But here in this Sermon by the Sea-side he speaks of nothing but the Kingdom of the Messiah which he does all in Parables One Reason whereof St. Matthew gives us Chap. XIII 35. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying I will open my mouth in Parables I will utter things that have been keep secret from the Foundations of the World Another reason our Saviour himself gives of it v. 11 12. Because to you is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundantly But whosoever hath not i. e. improves not the Talents that he hath from him shall be taken away even that that he hath One thing it may not be amiss to observe That our Saviour here in the Explication of the first of these Parables to his Apostles calls the Preaching of the Kingdom of the Messiah simply the Word And Luke VIII 21. The Word of God From whence St. Luke in the Acts often mentions it under the name of the Word and the Word of God as we have elsewhere observed To which I shall here add that of Acts VIII 4. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word Which Word as we have found by examining what they preached all through their History was nothing but this That Iesus was the Messiah I mean This was all the Doctrine they proposed to be believed For what they taught as well as our Saviour contained a great deal more but that concerned Practice and not Belief And therefore our Saviour says in the place before quoted Luke VIII 21. They are my Mother and my Brethren who hear the Word of God and do it Obeying the Law of the Messiah their King being no less required than their believing that Jesus was the Messiah the King and Deliverer that was promised them Mat. IX 13. We have an Account again of this Preaching what it was and how And Iesus went about all the Cities and Villages teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every Sickness and every Disease amongst the people He acquainted them that the Kingdom of the Messiah was come and left it to his Miracles to instruct and convince them that he was the Messiah Mat. X. When he sent his Apostles abroad their Commission to Preach we have v. 7 8. in these words As ye go preach saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Heal the sick c. All that they had
to Preach was that the Kingdom of the Messiah was come Whosoever should not receive them the Messengers of this good Tidings nor hearken to their Message incurred a heavier doom than Sodom and Gomorrha at the day of Judgment v. 14 15. But v. 32. Whosoever shall confess me before men I will confess him before my Father who is in Heaven What this confessing of Christ is we may see by comparing Iohn XII 4. with IX 22. Nevertheless among the chief Rulers also many believed in him But because of the Pharisees they did not CONFESS HIM lest they should be put out of the Synagogue And Chap. IX 22. These words spake his Parents because they feared the Iews For the Iews had agreed already that if any man did CONFESS THAT HE WAS THE MESSIAH he should be put out of the Synagogue By which places it is evident that to confess him was to confess that he was the Messiah From which give me leave to observe also what I have cleared from other places but cannot be too often remark'd because of the different sense has been put upon that Phrase viz. That believing on or in him for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred either way by the English Traslation signifies believing that he was the Messiah For many of the Rulers the Text says believed on him But they durst not consess what they believed for fear they should be put out of the Synagogue Now the Offence for which it was agreed that any one should be put out of the Synagogue was if he did confess that Iesus was the Messiah Hence we may have a clear understanding of that passage of St. Paul to the Romans where he tells them positively what is the Faith he Preaches Rom. X. 8 9. That is the Word of Faith which we preach That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And that also of St. Iohn IV. 14 15. We have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the World Whosoever shall confess that Iesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and be in God Where confessing Jesus to be the Son of God is the same with confessing him to be the Messiah Those two Expressions being understood amongst the Jews to signifie the same thing as we have shewn already How calling him the Son of God came to signifie that he was the Messiah would not be hard to shew But it is enough that it appears plainly that it was so used and had that import amongst the Jews at that time Which if any one desires to have further evidenced to him he may add Mat. XXVI 63. Iohn VI. 69. XI 27. XX. 31. to those places before occasionally taken notice of As was the Apostles Commission such was their Performance As we read Luke IX 6. They departed and went through the Towns preaching the Gospel and healing every where Jesus bid them Preach saying The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And St. Luke tells us they went through the Towns Preaching the Gospel A word which in Saxon answers well the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies as that does Good news So that what the inspired Writers call the Gospel is nothing but the good Tidings that the Messiah and his Kingdom was come And so it is to be understood in the New Testament And so the Angel calls it Good tidings of great joy Luke II. 10. Bringing the first News of our Saviour's Birth And this seems to be all that his Disciples were at that time sent to Preach So Luke IX 59 60. To him that would have excused his present Attendance because of burying his Father Iesus said unto him let the dead bury their dead but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God When I say this was all they were to Preach I must be understood that this was the Faith they preached But with it they joyned Obedience to the Messiah whom they received for their King So likewise when he sent out the Seventy Luke X. their Commission was in these words v. 9. Heal the sick and say unto them the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you After the return of his Apostles to him he sits down with them in a Mountain And a great multitude being gathered about them St. Luke tells us Chap. IX 11. The people followed him and he received them and spake unto them of the Kingdom of God and healed them that had need of healing This was his Preaching to this Assembly which consisted of Five Thousand Men besides Women and Children All which great multitude he fed with five Loaves and two Fishes Mat. XIV 21. And what this Miracle wrought upon them St. Iohn tells us Chap. VI. 14 15. Then these men when they had seen the miracle that Iesus did said This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the World i. e. the Messiah For the Messiah was the only Person that they expected from God and this the time they looked for him And hence Iohn the Baptist Mat. XI 3. stiles him He that should come As in other places Come from God or Sent from God are Phrases used for the Messiah Here we see our Saviour keeps to his usual method of Preaching He speaks to them of the Kingdom of God and does Miracles by which they might understand him to be the Messiah whose Kingdom he spake of And here we have the reason also why he so much concealed himself and forbore to own his being the Messiah For what the consequence was of the multitudes but thinking him so when they were got together St. Iohn tells us in the very next words When Iesus then perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a King he departed again into a mountain himself alone If they were so ready to set him up for their King only because they gathered from his Miracles that he was the Messiah whilst he himself said nothing of it What would not the People have done And what would not the Scribes and Pharisees have had an Opportunity to Accuse him of if he had openly professed himself to have been the Messiah that King they looked for But this we have taken notice of already From hence going to Capernaum whither he was followed by a great part of the People whom he had the day before so miraculously fed He upon the occasion of their following him for the Loaves bids them seek for the Meat that endureth to Eternal Life And thereupon Iohn VI. 22-69 declares to them his being sent from the Father And that those who believed in him should be raised to Eternal Life But all this very much involved in a mixture of Allegorical terms of eating and of Bread Bread of Life which came down from Heaven c. Which is all comprehended and expounded in these short and plain