Condemnation And it is not only Just but Merciful for him to with-hold the Knowledge of his Reveal'd Will from those who he forefees would reject it and abuse the Opportunities which should be offer'd them to the Aggravation of their own Guilt and Punishment Especially if it be observ'd 2. That as to particular Persons we have reason to believe that God who by so wonderful a Providence has taken care that every Nation under Heaven might have the True Religion preach'd in it and who has the whole World at his Disposal and orders all things with great regard to the Salvation of Men we have abundant cause to think that he would by some of the various Methods of his Providence or even by Miracle bring such Men to the knowledge of the Truth who live according to their present Knowledge with a sincere and honest Endeavour to improve it When St. Peter was by Revelation sent to Cornelius he made this Inference from it Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him Act. x. 34 35. From whence what less can we conclude than that every Man in any part of the World who is sincerely good and pious in the Practice of his Duty so far as it is known to him shall rather by an express Revelation have the rest discover'd to him as in the Instance of Cornelius which gave occasion to these words of S. Peter than that he should be suffer'd to perish for want of a true Faith and sufficient Knowledge of his Duty And it is Just with God to punish those Heathens who sin without any Reveal'd Law for their Sins against Natural Reason and Conscience and for neglecting to use and improve their Reason and to embrace the Opportunities afforded them of becoming Christians We may likewise be certain that besides Natural Reason and Conscience God in his Goodness is not wanting to afford such inward Motions and Convictions of Mind to such of the Heathen as are not wilfully blind and stupify'd by their Vices as may prepare them for the reception of the Gospel which by his Providence he gives them so many Opportunities of becoming acquainted withal And if once they do discern the Defects and Faults of their own Religions which are so grosly against Natural Reason and Conscience they may make enquiry of Christians concerning their Religion as some of the Americans did of Cortes's and the Christians some of them at least however negligent they be in propagating it would never refuse to instruct them in it And it must be remembred that among those who have not receiv'd the True Religion yet many Points are taught and believ'd which had their Original from Revelation as is evident not only of the Mahometans but of several Heathen Nations which Points are so many Steps and Preparatives towards the Reception of the whole Truth if they be not wanting to themselves in pursuing them in their immediate Tendency and Consequences I shall not say That the Merits of Christ and the Salvation of the Gospel do extend to those who in the Integrity of their Hearts dye under an invincible Ignorance of it I believe rather that God suffers no Man so qualify'd and dispos'd to remain in invincible Ignorance But it is sufficient to vindicate God's Justice and Goodness that all Nations have had such Opportunities of coming to the Knowledge of the Truth and great Allowances may be made at the Last Day for the Ignorance and unhappy Circumstances of particular Men. It was well said That when God hath not thought fit to tell us how he will be pleas'd to deal with such Persons it is not fit for us to tell Him how he ought to deal with them But if it be difficult for us now to think how it will please God to deal with the Heathen it would be a thousand times more difficult to conceive how the Gracious and Merciful God could Govern and Judge the World if all Mankind were in the State of Heathens without any Divine Revelation What will become of the Heathen as to their Eternal State is not the Subject of this Discourse nor doth it concern us to know some of them will have more to plead for themselves in point of ignorance than others can have and they are in the hands of the Merciful Creator and Saviour of Mankind and there we must leave them But it must be acknowledged that it is much more agreeable to the Goodness and Mercy of God to reveal his Will and to give so many Opportunities to the World to be instructed in it though never so many should neglect the Means of Salvation than it is to suppose him to take no care to reduce Mankind to the sense and practice of Vertue and Religion but to let them continue in all manner of Idolatry and Wickedness without giving them any warning against it I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else Come ye near unto me hear ye this I have not spoken in secret from the beginning from the time that it was there am I Isa xlv 19 22. xlviii 16. Having proved That the Scriptures want nothing requisite to a Divine Revelation in regard either of the Antiquity or Promulgation I proceed to shew That they have sufficient Evidence both by Prophecies and Miracles in proof of their Authority This Evidence depends upon Matter of Fact which concerns either the Prophecies and Miracles themselves in their several circumstances as we find them stand Recorded or the Lives and Personal Qualifications of those by whom they were performed or by whom they are related in the Scriptures For if we can be assured both that they are truly related and that if they were done as they are related they could proceed from none but a Divine Power we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Scriptures that can be had for a Revelation CHAP. III. Of Moses and Aaron THat Moses was a very Great and Wise Man is related by several of the most eminent Heathen Writers and I think it has never been denied by any Man But it is no less evident that he was likewise a very Good and Pious Man He frequently declares his own Failings and Infirmities Exod. iii. 11. iv 1 10 13. Num. xi 10. xx 12. xxvii 14. and never speaks any thing tending to his own Praise but upon a just and necessary occasion when it might become a prudent and modest Man especially one Divinely Inspired For all the Praise of such an one doth not terminate in himself but is attributed to God whose Instrument and Servant he is and in such cases where God's Honour is concerned it was a Duty to set forth the Favour and Goodness of God towards him though some Honour did redound
the Law and that so many should die rather than depart from it Upon the Revolt of the Ten Tribes Jeroboam would certainly have discover'd it if he had but suspected any such thing as an Imposture or could but have hoped to make the People believe that the Laws of Moses were not of Divine Institution but of Humane Invention and Contrivance but he supposed the Truth of its Divine Original whilst he tempted the People to the transgression of it Behold thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Aegypt 1 King xii 28. he supposes them brought out of the land of Aegypt and brought out by a Divine Power and endeavours to persuade them that the two Calves which he had set up in Dan and Bethel were the Gods who delivered them and by whose Authority the Law was given them and that therefore either of those Places was as proper to sacrifice in as Jerusalem which however absurd it were yet he did not think so absurd as to endeavour to make them believe that their Law it self was no better than an Imposture he had some hopes to succeed in this Project and the Event shews he understood the Temper and Principles of the People he had to deal with but the other was too gross for him to attempt The true Prophets of Israel were ever as zealous for the Law of Moses as the Prophets of Judah and the False Pophets of either Kingdom never durst deny its Authority these False prophets affronted and contradicted the Prophets of the Lord but they ever owned the Law and pretended to speak in the Name of that God who had deliver'd it to Moses And this Division of the Ten Tribes made it impossible afterwards for either the Kingdom of Israel or of Judah to make any Alterations in the Books of Moses because there was so great emulation and enmities betwixt the two Kingdoms that they could never have agreed to insert the same Corruptions and if either of them had attempted such a thing it would soon have been discovered by the other and therefore the agreement of the Samaritan with the Hebrew Pentateuch is a plain argument that they are but different Copies of the same Book and that it is undoubtedly genuine The Children of Israel notwithstanding their great proneness to Idolatry never cast off the Law of Moses as they would certainly have done being so often brought into bondage by their neighbour-Nations if they had not been well assured of the Authority of that Law which they transgress'd but they were reduced to the Obedience of the Law by the Oppressions of Iolatrous Nations they hoped for Deliverance upon their Repentance according to the Promises made in it and could by no Temptations or Torments be persuaded or forced to renounce it But the long Captivity in Babylon wrought a perfect cure in the Jews as to their inclination to idolatry which could never have been unless by their own experience in seeing the Prophecies fulfilled and by other Arguments they had been sully convinced of the Truth of their own Religion beyond all others If it had been of their own invention the People would have made their Law in every respect more favourable to themselves they would not have cloyed it with burthen some Ceremonies to distinguish themselves from the neighbour-Nations whose Idolatries they were so long prone to and which these Câ—remonies were designed to restrain them from They who were for a long time so fond of the Idolatries of the Heathen would never have invented Laws so uneasie to themselves and so contrary and odious to other Nations they would never have framed them themselves and then have pretended a Divine Revelation for those Laws which they were so little pleased with They would never have exposed themselves to the whole World thro' all Ages as a stubborn and rebellious People notwithstanding so many and so convincing Miracles so long wrought amongst them The Miracles which I have mention'd were most of them Judgments upon the Israelites for their Disobedience and they would never have set down these Miracles but would rather have lest them out though they were true as disgraceful to their Nation For thus Josephus has omitted some things to avoid the Scandal which he was a ware would have been given to the Heathen by a full and punctual Relation of the whole History of the Jews as it is described in the Books of Moses And they could be as little ignorant as Josephus what would prove disgraceful to them and what would make for their Honour and Renown and when the design of these supposed Forgeries and Falsifications must have been to advance the Glory of the People of Israel they would never have made such as these No if they had made any Alterations it would have been to strike out those numerous Passages which are so reproachful to their Nation and to have inserted others which might raise the Fame and Glory of Themselves and of their Ancestors and to have changed those Ceremonies that were so burthensome and so singular for those which would have been more easie to themselves and might have recommended them to the good opinion and esteem of the neighbour Nations But when so refractary a People became so zealous for such a Law so uneasie at first and so distastful to them it is an undeniable argument that they had the greatest Assurance of its Divine Original and that they would neither falsifie it themselves nor sufter others to falsifie it The People of Israel must be supposed to be unanimous to a Man in the making these Laws if they were of their own making for if any one had dissented he could not fail of Arguments to draw others after him In making Laws the Interests and Conveniencies of the Law-makers are always the Motives for the enacting them and besides the Publick Honour and Welfare of the Nation which too often are less considered the particular Interest of every single Man would have made him concerned to put a stop to such Laws No People can be supposed to consent to the making Laws by which they are forbidden to sow their Land every Seventh Year and are commanded to leave their Habitations and go up to the capital City from every part of their Country thrice in a Year no People could agree to enact such Laws of their own contrivance because none could subsist in the observation of them without a Miracle How can we conceive it possible for any People to subsist by such Laws if they had been of their own making or that any Nation should agree in the enacting such Laws as must provoke all their neighbour Nations to make War against them nay by which they actually declared an irreconcileable War against seven Nations at once For one Nation to distinguish themselves by their Laws and Constitutions from all other People to lay the very Foundations of their Government in the disgrace and infamy of all their neighbour
ii 13. And it is not only threatned that the Wicked shall suffer eternal Punishment but it is likewise expresly foretold that the wicked shall be sentenced to everlasting fire at the Day of Judgment and that they shall go away into everlasting Punishment Matth. xxv 41 46. To leave no room for hopes of any End or Abatement of the Punishment we have our Saviour's express Declaration that the Sentence shall be past according to the Threatning and that the everlasting Punishment which is threatned shall be certainly executed upon the wicked Our Judge has beforehand declar'd what Sentence he will pass the Terms whereof are therefore as unalterable as if it were already pronounc'd He has declared that the Punishments of the wicked as well as the Rewards of the righteous shall be eternal as directly and possitively as he has said any thing else relating to the last Judgment or concerning any other part of his Gospel and we have as little reason to imagine that his express and repeated Affirmation is capable of a reserved Meaning in this particular as in any other matter whatsoever Some of the Benefits and Advantages which are consequent to the Punishments of this World are precedent to those of the next Here Men are punished for their own Amendment or for the Advantage and Security of others or for both In the next World the actual inflicting of Punishments is not for these ends but they were threatned for these and they must be inflicted when they have been once threatned and declared by God who cannot lye It is for the Repentance of Sinners and for the Benefit of Good Men in preserving them in the ways of Vertue and securing them from the Pride and Malice of the Wicked that Hell should be threatned but because it is the final and eternal State of the Wicked it cannot be for their Amendment after the Execution of its Torments upon them and Good Men being once out of the Power of Temptations and placed beyond the Malice of the Wicked can no longer have any Protection or Advantage from the Punishments dehounced against impenitent Sinners but whether the Advantages arising from Punishments be before or after the inflicting of Punishments there is the same necessity for the appointing and consequently for the inflicting them viz. The Good of Mankind in keeping Men from Sin and leaving those without excuse who will not be restrained from it and work out their own Salvation But another end of Punishment is that Satisfaction for the violation of the Laws may be made to the supreme Authority which is despised and affronted by it And the vindication of God's Honour and Authority and of his Truth and Holiness in his Hatred and Detestation of Sin and his indignation against Sinners is manifested by the actual Punishments of the Damned and it would be an Argument of the contrary to all this if they were threatned and not inflicted And the Number of Persons to be thus Punished doth not alter the Case but only shews that many are concerned in it and if the case be the same the Justice must be the same too tho' the Persons be never so many upon whom it is executed That which is Just towards one or Merciful towards one is Just or Merciful towards never so many Thousands For Justice and Mercy consist in the Nature of things not in the greater or lesser Number of Persons to whom they are extended And tho' Multitudes of Criminals are apt to move compassion in Men yet this proceeds partly from the Sympathy and Frailty of Human Nature which is mightily swayed by Number and Multitude to do either Good or Evil partly from the Nature of Human Affairs For to destroy Multitudes would depopulate Cities and Countries and would be an Affliction to Multitudes of Innocent Persons their Friends and Relations But it is not so in the present Case there will be no want of Numbers in Heaven and the Righteous shall be Everlastingly happy and shall perceive no diminution of their Happiness by reason of the Damnation of such as were never so dear to them in this World And Mercy and Pity is not a Passion in God as it is in Men but a Perfection it is the highstest Reason and Equity and therefore tho' the Misery of Sinners be never so severe and the number of the Miserable never so great yet when the Equity and reasonableness of the case doth not require it there is nothing to move God for their Relief because he acts by the standing Rules of Reason and Wisdom not by any Fondness and Weakness of Passion 2. I come now to shew the Mercy of God in his inflicting Eternal Torments upon Sinners Strict Justice has a severe Aspect and it may seem hard for frail Man to abide the Sentence that he may in strictness of Justice deserve But from the Justice of God it is natural for us to appeal to his Mercy and thither he allows us to appeal but not so as to expect that he should be so merciful as not to be just or should forget that he is the Supreme Governour of the World whilst he extends his Mercy to the Offending and Criminal part of it Punishment is necessary to all Government and God as Governour of the World must inflict Punishments and what these are to be it belongs to his Sovereign Wisdom to appoint And Eternal Torments were appointed for the Punishment of Sin not only out of a very just but even out of a gracious Design because nothing less than the Threatnings of them would keep Men from Sin and from that Misery which is the unavoidable consequence of it and so bring them to Heaven It is an Antient and true Observation which (c) Chrysad Stagir lib. 1. Tom 6. Sav. Edit St. Chrysostom has made that there is Mercy even in the threats of Eternal Vengeance because nothing less could have brought many Men to Heaven For there is no doubt to be made but many will be there who shall have cause to thank God for this as the thing which first opened their Eyes and moved them to Repentance and thereby brought them to Bliss and Glory And the same Mercy was extended to those that Perish and would not make the same use of it which if they had done they had never perished Tho' Heaven and Hell (d) Chrys ad â—op Antioch de Sâ—â—tuis Hom. 7. says St. Chrysostom be contrary to each other yet they both aim at the same end the Salvation of Mankind the Joys of Heaven invite Men to it and the Fear of Hell forces those to Heaven who otherwise would be regardless of their own Happiness God has used the most proper and prevailing Means to convince Sinners of their Danger and to perswade them to escape it and obtain Salvation We have everlasting Rewards and everlasting Punishments proposed to our Choice We are exhorted with the greatest Earnestness and mov'd and assisted with the continual Influences
a Fire from Hâ—aâ—en devoured others there was not a Man of all the Congregation but must be an Eye-witness to this Judgment and there could be no Deceit nor Mistake in a thing of this nature For Men may as well doubt whether those whom they see live are alive as whether those whom they see taken away by so terrible and so visible a death are dead and unless they can know this there can be no Knowledge nor Proof of any thing They saw the Earth first divide it self and then close it self again upon these wicked Men they saw them go down alive into the pit they heard the Cry of them and fled away â—oâ— fear and they saw besides a Fire from the Lord consume no fewer than Two hundred and fifty Men and these the Men that offer'd Incense in opposition to Aaron Princes of the assembly famous in the congregation men of renown whose death was very remarkable upon the account of their Persons as well as for the Manner of it So many Men of that Rank and Character being taken away at once was a thing that would have been much observed and strictly enquir'd into if they had fain by any other death but their dying in this manner was so wonderful and so plain a declaration of the Divine Justice that it could neither be unknown nor forgotten by any Man in the whole Congregation Yet their Discontents against Moses still continued for He and Aaron were charged with killing the people of the Lord ver 41. and the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron and behold the cloud covered the tabernacle of the congregation and the glory of the Lord appeared And God's Wrath was so hot against the People for their Stâ—bbornness and Disobedience that notwithstanding the Intercession of Moses and Aaron in their behalf a Plague from the Lord raged so much amongst them that they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred beside them that died about the matter of Korah ver 49. And there were probably many Families in every Tribe which bore the marks of God's Displeasure and of the Truth of Moses his Mission and then Aaron's Rod alone blossom'd of all the Rods of the Twelve Tribes but by this time the people were weary of their contumacy and cried out â—â—hold we die we perish we all perish Shall we be consumed with dying Num. xvii 12 13. And thus was an end put to a Sedition which was the greatest and the most dangerous as Josephus well observes that was ever known among any People and such as that so dreadful a succession of Miracles was necessary to deliver Moses out of it And I would know of the greatest Infidel whether if he had lived at that time and had been in the Wilderness with Moses and had been of Korah's Conspiracy as it is most likely he would have been I would know of him I say whether he could have done any thing more to put Moses upon the utmost tryal of his power and Authority received from God than these rebellious Israelites did And if he could not as he must needs confess he could not then he ought to be satisfied in the Authority of Moses as they themselves afterwards were unless he has an ambition to shew that some Christians can be more refractary than Jews Yet again when they wanted Water the Peopled quarell'd with Moses and said Would God that we had died when our brethren â—ied before the Lord. And Moses brought Water out of the Rock before the whole Congregation in so great plenty that the whole People and their Cattle just ready to perish with thirst was satisfied with it Num. xx 3 10. At another time after a signal Victory over the Canaanites they made the same Complaints again and for their Murmurings were stung by fiery Serpents and many died till a Brazen Serpent being erected as many as looked on it were miraculously cured Num. xxi 6. And if the delivering the Law in so conspicuous and wonderful a manner if so remarkable Judgments upon those that questioned and opposed Moses his Authority and that transgressed his Law by committing Idolatry if a continual course of Miracles for Forty Years done before the eyes and obvious to every sense of so many thousands of People be not a plain demonstration that the Matter of Fact in all the circumstances of it necessary to prove Moses to have acted by God's immediate Authority and Commission was at first sufficiently attested it is impossible that any thing can be certainly testified We see how impossible it was for Moses to impose upon the People of Israel in things of this nature it he could have been so far forsaken of all Reason and common Sense as to hope to do it But if he had designed to put any deceit upon them he would certainly have taken another course he would have done his Miracles privately and but seldom not in the midst of all the People for Forty Years together he would never have made two Nations at the first Witnesses to them and then have proceeded in such a manner as that every Man among the Israelites must have known them to be false if thy had been so he would have chosen such Instances to shew his Miracles in as should have provoked no body not such as must have enraged the whole People against him by the death of so many thousands so often put to death if they had been slain by any other means than by the Almighty Hand of God And indeed what could destroy so many so irresistibly so suddenly and visibly but the Divine Power And what could be the Design and Intent of such Miracles but to fulfil the Will of God and make his Power to be known and his authority acknowledged in the Laws which were delivered in his Name and which were so often affronted and transgressed by these Sinners against their own Souls At their going out of Aegypt by a miraculous Providence there was not one feeble person among their tribâ—s but upon their transgressions they were punished by Diseases as miraculous We have other Evidence as I have before observed that Moses had no design to delude the People of Israel from the Meekness of his Disposition from his discovering his own Faults and Infirmities in his Writings and from his not advancing his Family but leaving his Posterity in a private condition and putting the Government into the hands of Joshua one of the Tribe of Ephraim But when all the People of Israel were Witnesses to so many Miracles wrought by him and particularly to so strange a Judgment as the cleaving asunder of the Earth and the Fire and Plague by which so many thousands perished we need not insist upon any other Proof to shew that the Miraculons Power and Divine Authority by which Moses acted and wrote was as well attested and as fully known to the whole People of Israel as it is possible for any Matter of
us with the endearments of his Love and with such condescentions of Grace and Favour as must needs mightily affect the most obstinate sinner who has but the sense and gratitude of a man left in him to consider them and then he has denounced his wrath and vengeance against all such as will not be led and persuaded to their own happiness by the infinite love of Christ He was born he lived he died for us he has procured our pardon he proffers us his grace and assistance he promises us eternal happiness with himself in heaven upon our obedience and last of all he threatens us with eternal misery if we will not be happy thus forcing us as it were to happiness if we will not be perswaded to it for this is all the force that free Agents are capable of And if all that infinite Love could do to excite our Love if all the rewards that infinite Mercy and Goodness could propose and the severest punishments that Almighty Vengeance can inflict will not prevail with men to follow Vertue and refrain from Vice nothing can possibly prevail with them Love is most apt to produce Love and hopes of Reward have a mighty effect upon men of any good temper and disposition but the fears of punishment are wont to work upon the very worst men and where infinite loving kindness eternal Rewards and eternal Punishments do all concur to bring men to the practice of Vertue no motive can be wanting by which human Nature is capable of being wrought upon IV. The Christian Religion affords the greatest helps and assistances to an holy Life God who is a Spirit and is the Author of the Being and of the Life and Motion of all things doth more especially act upon the Spirits and Minds of Men by putting into them good desires and by inclining their hearts to keep his commandments and perform his will And this Grace and Favour of God towards us this spiritual aid and strength is sufficient to enable us to conquer sin and over come Temptations And we are exhorted to come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need Heb. iv 16. which we are assured shall be bestowed upon us for Christ's sake through his Merits and by vertue of his Mediation and Intercession All the world has been sensible of the great proneness in humane nature to evil and backwardness to what Reason it self seems to dictate as good and fit to be done but the Christian Religion only has provided a Remedy to cure this great corruption of our Nature and assist us in the performance of our duty V. The Christian Religion expresseth the greatest compassion and condescention to our infirmities Christ died to make satisfaction for our sins and to procure acceptance with God for us upon our repentance he interceeds for us and pleads the Merits of his own Death and Passion in our behalf we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins though they be never so great and heinous if we do but truly repent of them and forsake them And the sins of ignorance and surprize and infirmity are not inconsistent with the terms of Salvation but a general humiliation and repentance with a constant and sincere endeavour to serve and please God will through Christ's Merits be accepted of by him for such sins as we have no sufficient means or ability of knowing to be sins and for such as by reason of the frailty of our Nature we cannot live wholly free from Nothing is required of us but a sincere and honest diligence to do what we can and a lively Faith to rely upon Christ's Merits for the pardon of what sins we are not able wholly to avoid Men are forward to complain of the uneasiness of the Christian Yoke without any true experience and trial of it and without considering the Principles and Motives and Helps and the condescending and gracious Terms which the Gospel proposes Indeed to lay some injunctions and restraints more than are absolutely necessary is but what all Lawgivers have done For some things are to be forbidden as a prevention and a preservative from the commission of sin and others commanded as preparatory qualifications and dispositions to vertue and to make the practice of it more easie and certain to us And if men are allowed in all Governments to have this Authority certainly God who has an absolute Power over us and perfectly knows what is necessary for our good and for the ends of his Government has an undeniable right to forbid or command us some things which by the Law of nature we might have been allowed or excused from But these are very few and all things considered no Religion ever was so compassionate and easie as the Christian Religion VI. The Propagation of the Gospel has ever had great effects towards the reformation and happiness of Mankind What could be more beneficial to the world and more for the peace and happiness of all Mankind than to be taught to live under a perpetual sense and awe of the love and fear of God and to be constrained to perform our several Duties to each other in our respective capacities and relations with the utmost fidelity and integrity and to have this enforced upon the Consciences of Men by the hopes and terâ—ore of a future Judgment and an eternal state of happiness or misery as they shall prove obedient or disobedient These then must be acknowledged to be Doctrines most worthy of God and the proper subject of a Revelation For however men may wish as to themselves in particular that they had not been abridged their sinful pleasures yet in respect to the common good of Society it must needs be confess'd by the most inveterate Enemies of Christianity and by those who will believe nothing of another life that if the Christian Religion were as generally practised as it is professed it would make mankind as happy as it is possible for men to be in this Life through the belief and expectation of a Life to come And as much as the Practice of the Christian Religion has been neglected it is so far from being a speculative notion only that it has a real and perpetual Influence for the good of the world even in the worst and most degenerate Ages We are not at this distance of time easily made sensible how great Blessings the Christian Religion brought to mankind in that Reformation which it soon introduced into the world For upon their Conversion there became such a visible alteration in the Tempers and Lives of men that they seemed to have changed their very Natures and to be born again and become new Creatures from whence Conversion is stiled Regeneration This the Apologists generally insist upon that the Converts to Christianity became quite other men and practised all kinds of Vertue with incredible zeal though
Antiquity as Tully assures us but the Antients gave no reasons to prove it by they only received it by Tradition Plato was the first who attempted to prove it by Argument for though Pherecydes Syrus and Pythagoras had asserted it yet they acquiesced in Tradition by which they had received it from the Eastern Nations but Plato as it is generally supposed conversing with the Jews in Egypt or at his coming into Italy being there acquainted (c) Tull. Tusc Qu. lib. i. with the Doctrine of the Souls immortality amongst other notions of the Pythagoreans began to argue upon it but not being able to make it fully out has only shewn how far reason could proceed upon those grounds which were then known in the world from Revelation Seneca (d) Epist 54.102 tho he sometimes asserts the immortality of the Soul yet at other times doubts of it and even denies that the Soul has any subsistence in a separate State And yet this Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul which the greatest of the Heathen Philosophers could not certainly prove from reason was firmly believed even amongst (e) Grot. de verit lib. i. Anot. Barbarians (f) Consuc lib. iii. Part. 4. p. 36. Confucius the famous Chinese Philosopher profest himself not the Author but the Relater only of the Doctrine which he taught as he had received it delivered down from all Antiquity and (g) Arist Metaph. lib. xii c. 8. Aristotle has declared that the Ancients left many Traditions which their Posterity had corrupted but from the remains of those Traditiwe know that they were originally derived from Revelation The first of the Philosophers that taught the immortality of the Soul was (h) Tull. Tusc Qu. lib. i. Pherecydes and he left his Writings to Thales from whence he had the notion that all things were produced from water Pythagoras was a Scholar of Pherecydes and Pythagoras Plato and Aristotle conversed with the Learned Jews (i) Plat. Phaed. Socrates disputed of a future State from Tradition and (k) Plat. Phileb profest that he always followed the Tradition which had descended from Antiquity and that he was at a loss whenever that failed him (l) Plat. Timae And this Tradition could not have its Rise from the Greeks who were confest to understand little or nothing of Antiquity The notions in Philosophy of the latter Heathens were much improved by Ammonius a Christian and a Teacher of Philosophy at Alexandria And we find that upon the propagation of the Gospel Moral Philosophy in a few years attained to greater perfection than ever it had done before as we may see in the works of Seneca Epictetus Plutarch M. Antoninus Maximus Tyrius and others We may therefore reasonably conclude that the Precepts and Rules of Morality which Philosophers all along taught had their original from Revelation rather than from the strength and sagacity of their own reason because they err in things no less obvious to natural reason and it appears that they had opportunities of becoming acquainted with the Scriptures and that they spared no pains either by reading or conversation in their own or in foreign Countries in their search and enquiries after truth III. If the Heathen Philosophy had been as certain and excellent as it can be pretended to be yet there had been great need of a Divine Revelation For 1. The rules of Philosophy lie scattered up and down in large and learned works mixt with many wrong and absurd notions and therefore must be in great measure useless how certain and excellent soever they may be in themselves they can be no rule of Life to us No perfect rule of Manners is to be found in any one Author and if it were possible to compile such a rule out of them all yet what man is able to collect them (m) Lact. de vit Beat c. 7. Lanctantius is of opinion that if all the truths dispersed up and down among the several Sects of Philosophers could be collected together into one System they would make up a Body of Philosophy agreeable to the Christian Doctrine but then he concludes it to be impossible for any man to make such a collection without a supernatural Assistance And if there were no other reason for it but this it is no wonder that we find (n) Tull. de Orat. lib. i. the XII Tables preferred before all the Writings of the Philosophers If there be nothing so absurd as Tully says but the Philosophers have taught it then it is necessary that men should not be left to the uncertainties and absurdities of Philosophy for tho some few of them might be free from such extravagancies yet their Notions were no Rule or Standard to the rest and the best were not without many great Errors 2. The Rules of Philosophy were no better than good Advice and carried no Authority with them to oblige men in Conscience they had not the force of a Law and failing in this necessary point whatever their intrinsick worth had been they never could have had that effect upon the Lives of men which Revealed Religion has Vertue was propounded by Philosophers rather as a matter of Honor and Decency than of strict Duty those were esteemed and admired indeed that observed it but such as did not only wanted that commendation Some Philosophers spoke great and excellent things but they past rather for wise sayings than for Laws of Nature their own Reputation which was greater or less with different sorts of men was the only Authority they had it might be prudence to do as they taught but there appeared no absolute necessity for it They commonly represented Vertue as very lovely with many very great and powerful charms and all that were of another mind did not know a true Beauty and that was an intolerable disgrace the Sanction of Rewards and Punishments in the next Life was little insisted upon by them They recommended Vertue for it's own sake not as it is enjoyed by God and will be rewarded by him and the contrary punished and those who could not soar to their Heights were rather the worse than the better for such Doctrines which they looked upon as the impracticable speculations of some who had a mind to speak great things And they often spoke the Truth indeed which they had from Tradition or from the excellency of their own Wit and Genius but they were not able to make it out by any such Principles as are wont to influence and govern humane Actions Accordingly we find that as the several Sects of Philosophy suited to the Tempers and Humors of particular men so far they prevailed and no farther The curious and inquisitive betook themselves to the Academicks the soft and effeminate to the Epicureans and the Morose to the Stoicks men applyed themselves to what ever opinion they liked best and found most agreeable to their Nature and Disposition Thus a severe and haughty Gravity made up the
Composition of Cato it had been hard for him to avoid the being a Stoick and he might probably have founded that Sect if it had not been known in the World before The Philosophers had no Authority to promise rewards or to threaten punishments upon the observation or neglect of their Precepts and therefore every man was at his liberty to chuse or to reject what they taught and divers of them were sensible of this unavoidable defect in all humane Doctrines and therefore pretended to Revelation There is no inconvenience therefore in supposing that many of the Precepts contained in the Proverbs and other Books of Scripture might be known without a Revelation for there is notwithstanding very good Reason why they should be inserted into the Scripture Because the Scriptures have the Authority of a Divine Law and are to be looked upon not as a System of Ethicks or a Collection of Moral Precepts but as a Body of Laws given out upon Divers occasions and as Rules of Instruction which at the same time both shew us our Duty and command our Obedience It is not expected that Kings in their Laws shouid argue more profoundly than other men do but they should command more effectually than others can teach they do not dispute but pronounce and dictate what their subjects must take notice of at their peril And it is no diminution to a Princes Authority to command the most known and obvious things though it may be a fault in the subject to need such commands And God in his word did not design to furnish us with a Treatise of Philosophy to gratify our curiosity with strange and new notions and make us profound Scholars but to speak to the necessities of men and put them in mind of known Duties to appeal to their own Consciences and to enforce those notions of Good and Evil which natural reason perhaps might suggest to them by the authority of a revealed Religion and a Divine Law established upon Rewards and Punishments 3. Though the Philosophers were able to discern something more than other men yet they durst not openly declare what they knew but were over-born with the errors and vices the Times and Countries in which they lived even to the Commission of Idolatry and the worst of vices and therefore their Doctrines whatever they were could do but little good towards the reformation of the World I shall not enquire into the Reports concerning Socrates and Plato Seneca and Cato himself but only observe that Socrates who was the only Martyr among the Philosophers for the truth yet when he comes to die speaks with no assurance of a Future State and ordered a Cock to be sacrificed to Aesoulapius which can hardly be reconciled to that Doctrine for for which he is supposed to die And after his Death how did his Friends and Disciples behave themselves Did they openly and courageously vindicate his innocence and teach the Doctrine for which he suffered Did they not use all means to conceal and dissemble it But Mankind stood in need of a perfect example of Virtue and of such instructors as should both teach and practise the Doctrines of it at their utmost peril and of a succession of such Men as should bear Testimony to their Doctrine both by the Miracles wrought during their Lives and by the constancy of their Deaths 4. As the Heathen Philosophy wanted the Authority of a Law and the example of those who taught it so it wanted principal Motives to recommend the practice of it to the Lives of Men. The Philosophers teach nothing of the exceeding Love of God towards us of his desire of our happiness and his readiness to assist and conduct us in the ways of Virtue They owned no such thing as Divine Grace and Assistance towards the attainment of Vertue and the perseverance in it (o) Tull. de Nat. Dâ—or lib. iii. Virtutem autem nemo unquam acceptam Deo retulit nimirum recte propter virtutem enim jure laudamur in virtute recte gloriamur quod non contingeret si id donum a Deo non a nobis haberemus nam quis quod bonus vir esset gratias Diis egit unquam Jovemque optimum maximum ob eas res appellant non quod justos temperatos sapientes efficiat sed quod salvos incolumes opulentos copiosos This occasioned those (p) Sen Epist 53. insolent Boasts of the Stoicks equaling themselves to the Gods and sometimes even preferring themselves before them because they had difficulties to encounter which made their conquests of vice and their improvements in virtue more glorious than they supposed the like excellencies to be in their Gods who were good by the necessity of their own Nature Wherefore tho the Rules of Philosophy had been never so perfect yet they must needs be ineffectual being so difficult to find out and so unactive and dead when they were discovered without that Authority and Life and Energy that may be had from Divine Revelation which there was a necessity for not only to supply the imperfections and correct the errors of Philosophy but to enforce the Doctrines of it tho they had been never so true and perfect CHAP. VI. The Novelty and Defect in the Promulgation of the Mahometan Religion THE Novelty of the Mahometan Religion in respect both of the Old and New Testament is past all dispute And this Religion notwithstanding all its sensual allurement owes its Propagation solely to the â—ower of the Sword For though the Alcoran has been translated into most of the Languages in use amongst Christians yet it has never been known to make any Proselytes but by force of Arms. At first this Religion had many circumstances for its advantage which might in humane probability gain it success in the world It was begun in Rebellion and in a final Revolt from the Emperor Heraclius and besides this popular and seducing Temptation of Licence and Violence Mahomet added the enticements of Lust and Sensuality he forbad Men indeed some things but such as he could easily see they would part with for the free and unbounded enjoyment of others then he pretended to sound his Doctrine on the Authority of Moses and of Christ saying that Christ had promised to send him all which made his Religion find the more easy entertainment amongst both Jews and Christians 'T was but like the Heresy of the Gnosticks at the first and not altogether so gross and this must needs encline all of Seditious and lewd principles to come in to him being glad of such a colour for their wickedness and it had the advantage of Power and Force to make it more lasting than other such Blasphemies have been Christ on the contrary forbad Resistance of the supreme Power upon any terms whatsoever he asserted the Authority of Moses but so as to abolish the ceremonial part of the Law which was what the Jews were most fond of so that this very thing made the Jews
question were not only dubious but certainly spurious the remaining Books which were never doubted of are sufficient for all the necessary ends and purposes of a Revelation and therefore this ought to be no objection against the Authority of the Scriptures that the Authority of some Books has been formerly matter of controversy I shall enter upon no discourse concerning the Apocryphal Books the authority whereof has been so often and so effectually disâ—roved by Protestants that the most learned Papists have now little to say for them but â—re forced only to fly to the authority of their Church which is in effect to beg the thing in question or to beg something as hard to be granted viz. the infallibility of the Church of Rome But I shall here engage in no controversy of that nature Both Protestants and Papists are generally speaking agreed that the Books of Moses and the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles in the New are of Divine Authority and if this be so the Christian Religion must be true whether there be or be not others of the same nature and of equal authority These Books in the main have already been proved to be genuine and without any material corruption or alteration I shall now only propose such general considerations as may be sufficient to obviate objections The agreement between the Jews and Samaritans in the Pentateuch is a clear evidence for its Authority And tho there were many and great Idolatries committed in the Kingdom of Judah yet by the good providence of God there never was such a total Apostacy in the people nor so long a succession of Idolatrous Kings as that the Books either of the Law or the Prophets can be supposed to have been supprest or altered For three years under Rehoboam they walked in the way of David and Solomon 2 Chron. 11.17.12.1 and tho afterwards he forsook the Law of the Lord and all Israel with him his Reign was in all but seventeen years Abijam was a wicked King but he reigned no longer than three years 1 Kings xv 2. Asa the third from Solomon and Jehoshaphat his Son were great Reformers and Asa reigned one and forty years and Jehoshaphat five and twenty years 2 Chron. xvi 13. xx 31. The two next Kings in succession did evil in the sight of the Lord but their Reigns were short Jehoram reigned eight years and Ahaziah but one 2 Chron. xxi 20. xxii 2. During the interval of six years under the usurpation of Athaliah the people could not be greatly corrupted for she was hateful to them as Jehoram her husband had been before her and they readily joyned with Jehoiada in slaying her and in restoring the worship of God 2 Chron. xxii Joash the son of Ahaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada 2 Chron. xxiv 2. We are sure that he reigned well three and twenty years 2 Kings xii 6. and probably much longer for Jehoiada lived to a very great age 2 Chron. xxiv 15. Amaziah his son has the same character and with the same abatement that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. xxv 2. or yet not like David his Father he did according to all things as Joash his Father did 2 Kings xiv 3. Vzziah son to Amaziah reigned well and sought God in the days of Zachariah 2 Chron. xxvi 5. and after he was seized with the Leprosie for invading the Priests office the administration of affairs was in the hands of his Son Jotham vers 21. who imitated the good part of his fathers Reign Chap. xxvii 2. Ahaz was wicked and an Idolater but he reigned only sixteen years Chap. xxviii 1. and his son Hezekiah wrought a great Reformation who reigned twenty nine years Chap. xxix 1. Manasses was much given to Idolatry in the former part of his Reign but after his captivity in Babylon he was very zealous against it Chap. xxxiii 15 16. Amon imitated the ill part of his Father's Reign but his own continued no longer than two years Chap. xxxiii 21. The next was Josiah in whose time the Book of the Law was found in the Temple which must be the Book of Moses's own hand-writing for it is evident that a Book of the Law could be no such rare thing at that time in Jerusalem as to be taken so much notice of unless it had been that Book which was laid up in the side of the Ark and was to be transcribed by every King It seems that Book of the Law had been purposely hid to preserve it from the attempts of Idolaters who it was feared might have a design to destroy it for if it had only lain by neglected the finding of it could have been no such surprizing thing because the place in the Temple was well known where it was wont to be kept in the side of the Ark and where they might have sought for it but it was probably at that time supposed to have been utterly lost and its being found in the Ruines of the Temple which was built for the observation of it and where it ought to have been kept with the greatest care as a most inestimable treasure the veneration which Josiah had for so sacred a Writing and the happy and unexpected recovery of it when it had been disregarded and almost lost through the iniquity of his Predecessors these considerations could not but exceedingly move a mind so tender and affectionately pious as that Kings when he received the Law under Moses's own hand sent him as he believed by God himself and delivered to him as it were anew from Heaven Not long after his time was the Captivity in Babylon till which there were always Prophets frequent Reformations and never any succession of Idolatrous Kings which continued for a long time together very few Kings were Idolatrous throughout their whole Reigns and those that were reigned but a short time * Book 1. Part 2. c. 6. 9. It has been proved that the Pentateuch and the Books of the Prophets written before the Captivity were preserved amongst the Jews till their return and it is acknowledg'd by those who are of another opinion that Ezra who composed the Canon did it by a Prophetick spirit or had the assistance of Prophets in the doing it * Joseph Câ—nt Apion lib. 1. Josephus says that their Books after the time of Artaxerxes are not of equal authority with those before his time for want of a certain succession of Prophets And since the Jews admitted no writings as inspired into the Canon after Malachi's Prophecy this shews their sincerity and exactness in examining the truth and authority of such Writings as they admitted into their Canon of Scripture The Pharisees made the commandment of God of no effect by their Traditions but never durst presume to impose them under the notion and
Son are Thoughts which must create a new Heaven as it were in Heaven it self I mean they will enlarge our Souls to the utmost Capacities of our Natures and fill and actuate them with such Divine Ardors of Love as if we had been kept necessarily from all Sin seem impossible to have been raised in us The Angels themselves rejoyce over one Sinner that repenteth and that Joy must have been wanting to them who are of so much higher and more excellent a Nature than we are of if there had been no Possibility either of Sin or of Repentance And the wonderful Dispensation of the Gospel is an eternal Subject of Praise and Adoration an eternal Fountain of Love and Joy and Happiness to all the Blessed Spirits in Heaven The more the Divine Attributes are displayed the more Adorable the Majesty of God will appear and will become the greater Object of our Praise and Veneration those that are wise and good will be made the wiser and better by it and the happier in the Contemplation of the Divine Perfections Now a Governour in his Laws and in the Method and Order of his Government has regard chiefly to the Good and Obedient and has little Concern for the rest And we must consider God not only as the Father but as the Governour of Mankind and tho' an earthly Father perhaps would by all means possible preserve his â—on from incurring Punishment yet a good Governour when the Ends of his Government can be better obtain'd by leaving him to his Liberty would not restrain him by any Force or Violence Therefore if the Liberty of Choice in Men and the Possibility of their Sin and Damnation be for the Glory of God and for the Benefit of good Men and be no Injury to the Bad this is a sufficient Account why man was not necessarily restrained from Sinning tho' Damnation be the consequence of it CHAP. XIII Of the Fall of the Angels and of our First Parents IN the Beginning God created every thing perfect in its kind and endned the Angels and Man with all intellectual and Moral Perfections suitable to their respective Natures but so as to leave them capable of sinning For it pleased the infinite Wisdom of God for the Reasons already alledg'd and for many more and greater Reasons perhaps than any man is able to imagine to place them in a State of Tryal and to put it to their own Choice whether they would stand in their present Condition of Innocence and Happiness in which they were created or fall into Sin and Misery We have little or no Account in the Scriptures of the Cause or Temptation which occasioned the Fall of Angels because it doth not concern us to be acquainted with it and therefore it little becomes us to be inquisitive about it Indeed it is very difficult to conceive how Beings of so Great Knowledge and Purity as the Fall'n Angels once were of should fall into Sin But it must be considered that nothing is more unaccountable than the Motives and Causes of Action in Free Agents when any Being is at Liberty to do as it will no other Reason besides its own Will need be enquir'd for of its Actings What is liable to Sin may sin whatever the Motive be and to enquire after the Motive is to enquire what Motives may determine a Free Agent that is an Agent which may determine it self upon any Ground or Motive But how perfect and excellent soever any Creature is unless it be so confirmed and established in a State of Purity and Holiness as to be secured from all possibility of Sinning it may be supposed to admire it self and dote upon its own Perfections and Excellencies and by degrees to neglect and not acknowledge God the Author of them but to sin and rebell against Him And it is most agreeable both to Scripture and Reason that Pride was the cause of the Fall of Angels For those Excellencies which might secure them from any other Sin proved a Temptation to this and the greater their Perfections were the greater was the Temptation as in a Man who is guilty of Spiritual and Pharisaical Pride all that is good and commendable in him affords him only matter for his Sin So that where there is a freedom of Will and a possibility of Sinning the very Perfection of Nature in a Creature may be made an Occasion to sin and that which excludes other sins may prove a Motive and Temptation to Pride which therefore we have reason to conclude was the Sin of the Fall'n Angels As to the Fall of Man however the Thing may be disputed the Effects of it are visible in the strange Proneness of Humane Nature to act against Reason and Conscience that is to act in plain contradiction to it self and its own Principles This is a State in which it cannot be supposed that Mankind was at first created by the infinitely Good and Holy God And the most plausible Opinion and that which has most generally obtained among the Heathens is that the Souls of Men had a Being before they came into this World and were sent into Human Bodies in Punishment for what they had done amiss in a precedent State But this is mere suspicion and Conjecture without any possibility of Proof and there is this plain Reason against it that â—o man can be punished for his Amendment who knows nothing of it For it is inconsistent with the Nature and end of Punishment that the Offender should not be made sensible of his Fault especially when the Punishment is designed for his Amendment as it is said to be in the present Case If it can be supposed that Men may possibly retain no Remembrance of what they did in another State yet if their Faults were not kept in Memory they should be brought to their Remembrance if this Life were designed as a State of Punishment in order to Amendment But the State of this Life is so far from being thought a Punishment that Men naturally are of nothing more fond nor dread any thing more than to leave it And tho' Men meet with great Afflictions here yet those do not befall those only or chiefly who by their Proneness to Evil in this Life might be supposed to have been the greatest Offenders in a former State and every Calamity has not the Nature of Punishment The Sufferings and Miseries which we endure by reason of Adam's Transgression are not so properly Punishments as the Effects and Consequences of his sin But Personal Faults such as are supposed to have been committed in a State of pre-existence require a proper Punishment and if the Punishment be for Amendment as it is supposed to be in this present State both the Fault and the Punishment must be known with the Cause and End of its being inflicted and the greatest Offenders must undergo the severest Punishment The Account which the Scripture gives us of the Fall of our First Parents may be considered either 1.
be more easily observ'd than this so it was most proper for the place in which they were and for their manner of Life and State of Innocence The common Rules and Laws of Morality could then scarce have any place but it was requisite that this or some such other Instance of Obedience should be imposed Theft and Murder and Adultery and other Sins against Moral Duties were then either impossible to be committed or so unnatural that it can hardly be imagined how any of them should be committed when there were yet but two Persons in the World in a State of perfect Innocence and therefore in Moral Duties there could be no Tryal of the Obedience of our First parent besides these were so well known to them that there could be no need of any Command concerning them But God gives them a Command in a Thing of an indifferent Nature that so he might have a plainer proof of their Obedience in a thing which was both indifferent of it self and so easy to them that nothing but a careless and perverse Neglect could betray them into Disobedience To suppose Good and Evil to be in the Nature of Things only and not in the Commandments and Prohibitions of God is in effect a renouncing of God's Authority but this Tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil For it made them sensible of the Divine Authority upon which Moral Good and Evil formally depend tho' matterially they be in the Nature of Things Whatever God is pleased to command or forbid however indifferent it be in it self is for that very Reason so far as it is commanded or forbidden by him as truly Good or Evil as if it were absolutely and morally so being enacted by the same Divine Authority whereby all Moral Precepts become obligatory as Laws to us for all Moral Truths or Precepts or Rules of Life however certain and necessary in themselves yet receive the Obligation of Laws from the Divine Authority this being the most certain Truth in Morality and in order of Nature antecedent to all others that God is to be obeyed in all that he commands or forbids But the Divine Authority was solely and purely concern'd in this Commandment which had no foundation in the Nature of Things but depended meerly upon the Will and Pleasure of God and by the Transgression of this Law it became notorious to our First parents and their unhappy Posterity that both Good and Evil whatever they may be in Speculation and abstracted Notions yet as they concern us in the Practice of our Lives are to be resolv'd ultimately into the Divine Authority God is our Lawgiver and nothing can be a Law to us but by His enacting and what he enacts must be a Law to us and of the same necessary indspensable Obligation so far as he is pleased to enjoyn it whether it be a Moral Precept or only an indifferent Thing in its own Nature It seems then that God was pleased to manifest his Soveraign Authority in this Commandment and to shew that it is absolute and independant upon Moral Good or Evil and that tho' his infinite Holiness and Goodness would not permit him to Command any thing contrary to Moral Duties nor suffer him not to command Moral Good and forbid Moral Evil yet his Authority is arbitrary over us extending as far beyond all the Duties of Morality as he pleases which indeed are only Truths and Precepts but not Duties to us but by Vertue of his Authority This Commandment therefore was given in Assertion of God's Authority whom it is always and in every thing good to obey and evil to disobey as our First parents found by sad Experience (n) Maim More New voeh Par◠〈◊〉 c. 2. Maimonides observes that they had the Knowledge of Truth and Falshood before but Good and Evil became known to them by their Fall whereby they understood the Value of that Good which they had lost and were made sensible of the Misery of that Condition into which they had brought themselves They perceived how good it was to obey God and how evil to be disobedient to Him in any thing whatsoever (o) Lib. 1. Disc xxvi◠Mr. Mede has observed that their Sin was Sacrilege God had reserved that Tree as holy to himself in Token of his Dominion and Soveraignty and appointed it to such uses as he had designed it for and therefore it was a Sacrilegious Prophanation to eat of it it was a Theft or Robbery no less than the Robbing of God as the Prophet stiles Sacrilege and an Invasion of his Right And the Lord God said Behold the Man is become as one of us to know Good and Evil. Gen. iii. 22. which words are generally supposed to have been spoken by a severe Sarcasm or with an upbraiding Anger and Indignation but they seem to admit of an easier Sense if they be thus interpreted The man is become as one of us he has made himself as one of us he has assumed to himself an equality with us Christ thought it not robbery to be equal with God Phil. ii 6. to be equal is there to claim an Equality and so to become as one of us is to challenge or pretend to become as one of us according to the Devil's Suggestion Christ knew it to be no Injury or Presumption in Himself who was in the Form of God and was God as well as Man to assume to Himself an Equality with the Father But our First Parents who were made in the Image of God and after his Likeness were not contented with this but affected something higher than the Perfections of a Creature and aim'd at an independant State of Wisdom and Immortality being seduced by the Serpent who said unto the Woman Ye shall not surely die ye shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. Gen. iii. 4 5. This was a most heinous Crime to believe the Serpent rather than God Himself and to be seduced by him and hope by his Advice to procure to themselves Divine Wisdom and Immortal Happiness II. The Consequences of the Fall of our First Parents were answerable to their Crime and were either upon themselves or upon their Posterity or upon the Serpent and other Creatures I. The Curse upon the Serpent was by a visible Object and Representation to denote that Curse and Punishment which was denounced against the Tempter himself who assumed the Body of a Serpent The Serpent before had a freer and stronger Motion and could lift up himself and reach the Fruits of the Trees but is since confined to the Ground and is forced to seek his Food in the Dust And there being Relations of Serpents which carry Part of their Body erect this before the Curse might belong to the whole Kind of them in another manner than it doth since to any one Sort. The Basilisk is said to go with his Head and Breast erect and a Serpent call'd (p) Knexe's Hist of Ceyl Part 1.
of eternal Rewards and Punishments as well as Christians and the eternity of the latter was the great Impediment which Epicurus endeavour'd to remove out of the way to the free Enjoyment of Men's Lusts For whatever some have said in behalf of Epicurus his own word produced (x) Tusc Qu. lib. iii. by Tully too plain to be evaded shew that he did place all Happiness in sensual Pleasures only he was willing to enjoy them as quietly and securely as he could and for this Reason laid down divers Rules by way of expedient to keep the Mind in Peace void of all Auxiety in this Life and of all Hopes or Fears of a future State The prevailing Belief of the eternal Punishments of wicked Men after Death was enough to ruine all his Philosophy and therefore this was by all means to be removed which yet he was never able to effect So that this was a thing sufficiently known to make all men sensible of what they must expect would be the consequence of Sin And what God has threatned so long before and has given Men time and Opportunity and Ability to avoid they cannot fall under but thro' their own Wilfulness and Misbehaviour and can have no reason to complain when it comes upon them 3. It was necessary that the Sanction of the Divine Laws should be by eternal Rewards and Punishments The Sanction of all Laws is by Rewards and Punishments and the Design of appointing Punishments is to affright Men from Sin as the end of Rewards is to invite them to Obedience The only true Measure and just Proportion therefore between the Crime and the Punishment is the suitableness of the Punishment to enforce Obedience to the Law and cause it to be duly observed For if the Law be good and necessary and cannot be so well and so effectually obeyed without a very severe Punishment to enforce it the Severity of the Punishment is so far from Cruelty that it is a just and wise Provision to secure Obedience to the Law and procure all the Good design'd by it Thus we always judge in Humane Laws A man is condemn'd to lose his Life for taking from another that which he perhaps could very well spare but we are all agreed in the Justice of making such Examples because we find that Men can scarce be secure in their Lives and Estates notwithstanding the Severity of such Laws And if the Terrors of everlasting Torments will not frighten Men from Sin what effect would a less Punishment denounced have had upon them If men can but once perswade themselves that the Torments of Hell are not so terrible they freely give themselves up to all Licentiousness and we know how fond Men of wicked Lives are of such Doctrines God therefore perfectly understanding the Temper and Inclination the Stubborness and Perverseness of Mens Hearts so prone to Vice and so backward to all that is good foresaw that a less Punishment threatned would not prevail with Men to forsake their Sins and get to Heaven And with what Face can that Man object that the Torments of Hell are too great and intolerable who as terrible as they are lives still secure and undisturb'd in his Sins If they are so great that he complains of them as unjust Why doth he not leave his Sins If he doth not forsake his Sins they are not too great since they have not attained that End upon him for which the Punishment is denounced viz. his Repentance and Amendment of Life But if he doth not believe their Eternity and therefore continues in his Sins this shews how necessary the Denouncing and how necessary the Belief of eternal Punishments is Out of thine own Mouth will I judge thee thou wicked Servant Thou knewest that I was an austere Man wherefore then didst thou not do as thou wast commanded 4. It is necessary that eternal Punishments should be inflicted upon the Wicked according to the Sanction of the Divine Laws by â—ternal Rewards and Punishments We find by sad Experience how little offect the Punishments now threatned have upon too many Men and if they were less dreadful they would be so much the less regarded So that it appears that the appointment of eternal Punishments was but necessary to keep Men from Sin and what God's Wisdom saw necessary to appoint his Justice and Truth will make it necessary for him to inflict For what he has so often and so solemnly declared he can never depart from but will certainly execute it The Promises and Threatnings relating this Life are conditional and are expresly declared to be so Jer. xviii 7 8 9 10. because in this Life Men are changeable from Good to Bad or from Bad to Good but the Threatnings as well as the Promises concerning the other Life must be absolute and unconditional because they relate to an unchangeable sinal State which will admit of no alteration either in the Wicked or the Righteous It is not therefore because God can recede from his Threatnings rather than from his Promises that Nineveh was spared but because all Threatnings belonging to the State of this Life imply a condition of Repentance upon which they are not to be inflicted as Jonah and the Ninevites themselves well understood but then all Promises too which concern this Life are under the like condition and are not to be performed upon the Disobedience of those to whom they are made as we are assured by God's express Declaration But what is threatned or promised to Men to befall them after this Life is promised or threatned to befall them when they shall be in a fixt unalterable State and therefore must be uncapable of any Condition or Reserve to be implied in it For when Men continue the same they were at the time when God's Promises and Threatnings were declared to them his Promises and Threatnings always take place in this World according to the full extent and importance of the Words in which they were delivered and therefore they must thus take place in the next World into which when Men are once entred they must for ever continue equally fit Objects either of the Divine Promises or Threatnings as they were at the time of their Death The Point is that God never changes but Men are changeable in this Life and both his Promises and Threatnings which concern Men here suppose them such and therefore Rewards are with-held or Punishments remitted in this World as Men fall into Wickedness or become reclaim'd from it But in the other World where the State of Men is unalterable from good or bad vertuous or vicious both the Promises and Threatnings of God must be punctually fulfilled and can admit of no Condition or Reservation God has sworn that those who will not believe and obey him shall not enter into his Rest Heb. iii. 1i and what he has once sworn is irrevocable Heb. vi 17. If we believe not yet be abideth faithful he cannot deny himself 2 Tim.
those Parts of the World for the explication of divers places of Scripture which depend upon the knowledge of those Countries Now the whole Jewish Law may be divided into the Moral the Political or Judicial and the Ceremonial Law The Moral Part of Moses's Law which is contain'd in the Ten Commandments and enjoyns our Duty towards God and towards our Neighbour is just and holy beyond all Controversy or Exception And the Political or Judicial Part with the Ceremonial was adapted to the Circumstances and Necessities of those Ages and that Nation And if the Moral Part be absolutely most Divine and Holy and the Positive Institutions both Political and Ritual were the most fit and proper for that Time and Government that is if they were the best that could be for those Ages and that People then the whole Body of the Mosaick Law is without all just Exception And that this is so it will be evident if we observe the Reasons upon which the Positive Laws amongst the Jews were instituted 1. The Judicial Laws relating to the Administration of Justice in the Jewish Government are so reasonable that they have been transcrib'd into the Laws of the wisest Heathen Nations as hath been particularly shewn by Learned Men. There are but few of the Judicial Laws which have been objected against and these have been often and effectually vindicated The Law which seems most harsh and rigorous is that of Retaliation which yet was the most antient way of Punishment in most Nations and was not unjust for the Laws to inflict tho' it was sinful in the Persons injured to require it out of a Desire of Revenge and with a Delight to gratify themselves in their Enemies Sufferings For if it be just to punish the taking away of a little Money with Death how can it be unjust to inflict the same Punishment for the depriving a Man of his Eye And if it be not unjust to make Death the Punishment of striking out an Eye and what Nation doth not punish much less Injuries with Death How can it be unjust to punish the Offender with the Loss of his own Eye One of the severest Laws that ever was known amongst a civilised People was that of the Twelve Tables which gave leave to (a) Sunt enimquaedam non â—audabilia Natura sed jure concessa ut in xii Tabulis Debitoris Corpus inter Creditores dividi licuit quam legem mos ' Publicus repudiavit Quintil. Institut lib. iii. cap. 6. the Creditors among the Romans to divide the Debtor's Body between them if he were insolvent This was one of those things which are not commendable in their own Nature but yet are allow'd and permitted as Quintilian has observ'd upon particular Reasons but this Law was laid aside by a general Disuse and (b) Lighf Hor. Hebraic ad Mat. v. 38. that of Retaliation among the Jews was interpreted by them according to an Antient Tradition to be meant not of strict Retaliation but of a Compensation to be made in Money to the Person maimed 2. Many of those Rites which may seem strange to us were so far from being esteem'd absurd that they became common in those Countries as Circumcision was antiently and is to this day practised in many Parts of the World (c) Grot. ad Lev. xi Act. x. 15. the Aegyptiaus and many other Nations abstain'd from Swines Flesh and the Aethiopians from most of the Meats which were forbidden the Jews such Abstinencies being necessary for Health in those Countries Frequent Washings likewise are requisite in hot Countries for Health and Refreshment Religion prescrib'd only the Time and Manner and particular Occasion of it the Thing it self is Natural And when we see such a Body of Laws of so great Antiquity well contriv'd and wisely instituted for the Substance of them if there be in some of them any thing peculiar and singular tho' they were but the Laws of a Man yet common Modesty and Candor might make us conclude that so wise a Lawgiver must have some good Reason for those particular Laws which at this distance of Time and Place cannot be so obvious to us but it would be Rashness to suspect that he had no sufficient Reason for those who appears to have enacted the rest with so great Wisdom Thus it would be natural for a Man of tolerable Modesty to conclude even concerning a System of Humane Laws tho' no probable Account could be given of many of them But when God is the Lawgiver this ought to silence all Disputes that they are his Laws and therefore must be wise and good for that People at that Time and in their Condition and Circumstances The Will and Authority of God without any other Reason is sufficient of it self in any Case to be alledg'd and it may be fit in some Cases that we should have no other Reason to produce It is a rash and dangerous thing to conclude that God did not command this or that because we do not see why it should be commanded this is to say that we will not believe God to be the Author of any thing which we do not like or would not have to be His. Are we wont to argue thus about Humane Laws Would it be any Excuse for a disobedient Subject to say that in his Opinion such Laws were not fit to be made and that therefore he would not believe his Prince had made such Laws when he had all due notice and full evidence that he had appointed them but was resolved to reject the whole Body of Laws upon the account of some which he did not fancy which yet were obsolete and out of Date Do we not allow that Reasons of State and of Government may require many things to be done and many Laws to be made which it doth not belong to private Men to be curious about and which the greatest Part of the Subjects are not able to comprehend And are not God's Thoughts infinitely above the Thoughts of the wisest Men and infinitely farther out of our Reach than the Counsels of the most Prudent and Politick Prince can be above the Understanding of his meanest and most ignorant Subjects How shall we dare then to reject any Divine Revelation because it is not agreeable in every particular to our Thoughts and Notions of things But I shall enquire however into the Reasons and Grounds which appear to us at this distance of Time for the Ceremonial Laws and I doubt not but these will be sufficient to justify them to all impartial Men. 1. The Ceremonial Laws were given the Jews to prevent them from falling into Idolatry For they were design'd to distinguish the Jews in many things from the Neighbouring Nations and to hinder them from following their Idolatrous Customs And the Customs of the (d) Summa vero rei haec eft quemadmodum in praecedentibus tibi dixi dogmata ritus Zabiorum hodie nobis esse incognitos ita
Messiah the Jewish Law was to become impracticable and impossible to be observ'd For if the City and Temple were not destroy'd the confinement of the Jewish Worship to one certain Place must necessarily imply an alteration in their Worship upon the coming of the Messiah and the calling of the Gentiles who could not all be supposed to assemble thrice every year at Jerusalem and therefore the Prophets foretold That Jerusalem should then be no longer the only place of God's Worship but that Men should Worship him in any place of the World 'T is true the Prophets often mention the resort which should be made from all Nations to Jerusalem and to the Temple or the Mountain of the Lord. But then these are Mystical Expressions for the City of Jerusalem and the Temple are used by the Prophets as Types of the Christian Church and therefore Ezekiel (m) Lightfoot 's Prospect of the Temple ch 2. describes the Temple larger than the whole City of Jerusalem and the City in greater dimensions than all the Land of Canaan to shew that we are not to understand these Expressions literally A Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedeck different from that of Aaron was Prophesied of Psal cx 4. and a New Covenant different from that which was made with the Children of Israel upon their coming out of the Land of Aegypt Jer. xxxi 31 32. And this Covenant was to extend to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts Malach. i. 11. If against all this it be alledged That the Mosaical Law was to endure for ever it ought to be considered what sense that expression bears in the Law it self And that expression is there used to denote the continuance of any thing which was not designed for some particular occasion or season only but was to last as long as the nature and general design of its Institution would admit The Servant whose Ear was bored was to serve his Master for ever Exod. xxi 6. by which is to be understood not all his Life but only till the year of Jubilee whereas he that had not his Ear bored was to be set free in the seventh year ver 2. And even before the year of Jubilee he whose Ear was bored might be freed with his Master's Consent (n) Grot. ad loc either by Manumission or Redemption and was at liberty upon the death of his Master not being bound to serve his Son Their anointing shall surely be an everlasting Priesthood throughout their Generations Exod. xl 15. which can be understood to extend no farther than as long as their Genealogies were preserved and the Tribe and Generations of the High-Priests could be distinguished I will abide in thy Tabernacle for ever Ps lxi 4. or in other words all the days of my Life Ps xxvii 4. Samuel was brought by his Mother to abide before the Lord for ever that is during his Life 1 Sam. i. 22. And by parity of Reason those Statutes and Laws are said to be Established for ever which were designed to be perpetual and standing Laws not temporary during their journeying in the Wilderness only as others were but to continue as long as the Constitution of the Government was to last and in this sense the Jews themselves (o) Id. de Veritat Lib. 5. §. 7. have taken the word and it is sufficiently explain'd Deut. xii 1. These are the Statutes and Judgments which ye shall observe to do in the Land which the Lord God of thy Fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that ye live upon the Earth or as we read ver 19. as long as thou livest upon thy earth that is their Law was obligatory to them as long as they had possession of the Land of Canaan or retained any right to possess it by God's donation But those Statutes and Judgments which were to be observed in the Land which the Lord had given them to possess can no longer be of any obligation to them when they are finally deprived of that Land The Ceremonial Law therefore by its Original Design and Institution being to continue in force but till the coming of Christ he gave the accomplishment to it and put a final period to its Obligation Instituting his Gospel in its stead which had been pre-figured by the Law and foretold both by Moses and the Prophets CHAP. XVII Of Sinful Examples Recorded in the Scriptures AS some have endeavour'd to excuse their own Sins by alledging the Sinful Examples which we find mention'd in the Scriptures so others who are no less fond of imitating them yet have from hence taken a pretence for Objections and Cavils I shall therefore shew that the bad Examples in some actions of Men whom we find in all other respects commended in the Scriptures are far from being proposed for our imitation but there is great reason why the Faults and Miscarriages of the best Men should be deliver'd down to us in the Scriptures for our Caution and Prevention as well as upon other accounts I. Several passages of the Scriptures contain only Matter of Fact and that very briefly express'd and a bare Narrative of any Action implies neither the Approbation nor the Censure of it but only declares that such a thing was done and in such a manner but the Nature of the Fact it self with the Circumstances of it or some Command or Permission or Prohibition in Scripture must discover the goodness or lawfulness or the wickedness of the Action No Historian is supposed to approve of all which he relates but he must report bad as well as good Deeds who will do the part of a faithful Historian II. The Rules of Good and Evil are plainly delivered in the Scriptures by which we are to judge of Actions and we are to conform our Actions not to the Example of Men but to the Law of God We are forewarn'd to follow no Man's Example when it is contrary to the Divine Law and therefore it could not be necessary in the relating of every evil Action to set a mark of Infamy upon it and a Caution against the imitation of it III. The Relation of the bad Actions of Good Men may be of great use and benefit tho' we are not to follow but avoid them Because 1. This shews the sincerity of the Pen-Men of the Scriptures that they spare no person whatsoever but relate the plain Matter of Fact even tho' themselves be concern'd when it is never so much to their disgrace as in the Denial of St. Peter and other instances 2. By this we learn the Frailty of Humane Nature and the necessary dependance that the best Men must have upon God for his Grace in
the performing any good Action Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above Jam. i. 17. 3. We learn from hence that God can bring Good out of Evil and doth often over-rule even the worst Actions to the accomplishment of the best Ends and putteth no Trust in his Saints Job xv 15. There is a Remarkable Instance to this purpose in the Case of Jacob and Esau when Jacob came by fraud and subtilty and depriv'd his Brother of the Blessing (p) Casaub in Athenae Lib. 1. c. 11. It was in Ancient times customary to offer that of which they were to eat in Sacrifice especially on so Solemn an Occasion as a Father's giving his final Blessing and as in this Case foretelling the Fate of his Posterity And therefore when Jacob had by subtilty got the Blessing of his Father Isaac could not recall it to conferr it upon Esau because what was done in so solemn a manner had a Religious Obligation amounting to that of an Oath and Oaths tho' obtain'd by fraud were Obligatory as we learn from the Case of the Gibeonites he had blessed Jacob before the Lord and the Prediction that the Elder should serve the Younger Gen. xxv 23. with Esau's despising and selling his Birth-right might now probably come into Isaac's Mind whereupon tho' he did not approve of the fraud by which the Blessing was obtain'd yet he knew it to be irrevocable and that the Divine Purpose and Prediction would be accomplish'd thereby and what he had by a Prophetick Spirit conferr'd it was not in his power to recall The Relation therefore of this Matter doth not justifie Jacob's behaviour in it but manifests the over-ruling Providence of God to make any Means whatsoever instrumental to his gracious Ends which can never be disappointed by any Actions of Men for if they depended upon humane Actions these would often fail them the best Men being subject to so much frailty and sin 4. Tho' God of his Mercy doth accept of the imperfect Services of the Righteous forgiving upon their habitual Repentance the Sins and Frailties which are mix'd with the best Actions and pardoning the worst Actions likewise after a particular Repentance and Amendment of Life yet these stand upon Record for the glory of God's grace in their Repentance and Forgiveness and for a memorial and warning to future Ages that Men may neither presume upon their own Righteousness nor despair of God's Mercy But because they are pardon'd they are not always censur'd And I think the ill Actions of Good Men are seldom or never mention'd with a mark of God's displeasure unless the Series of the History require it and then the reproof is mention'd which pass'd at the time of the Commission of them as in the Case of David of Hezekiah and St. Peter But where no such Censure was pass'd at the time of the Action the Action it self is barely related and nothing further said of it because the Crime being forgiven God forbears to shew any further displeasure against it such is his Mercy to Repenting Sinners And there could be no necessity as I have observ'd for any Censure upon the account of others who may know by the plain Rule of God's word what Actions are sinful tho' they are not always styl'd so in relating the Commission of them CHAP. XVIII Of the Imprecations in the Psalms and other Books of the Old Testament ONE of the greatest Excellencies of the Christian Religion is the Universal Charity which it enjoyns and we shall find that Charity was likewise the Doctrine of the Old Testament and that there is nothing in the Book of Psalms or any other part of the Old Testament contrary to this Doctrine which will appear if we consider the peculiar Reasons for those expressions which may seem to imply any thing contrary to it I. Many of those Expressions are used in reference to the Nations upon whom after signal Acts of Mercy and Forbearance on his part and repeated provocations on theirs God had commanded the Israelites to execute his Judgments and the Sins of the People of Israel were the cause that this was not accomplish'd and therefore it was lawfull for them to pray that they might have grace to repent and that their Sins might be no hindrance to them in the fulfilling his will but that God would enable them to execute vengeance upon the Heathen Ps cxlix 7. And it was lawful likewise to pray against all the other Enemies of God that he would abase their Pride and make them to know themselves to be but Men Ps ix 20. lxxiv. 22 23. cxxxix 21 22. II. David being King had the Sword of Justice committed to him he was the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that did evil and therefore when his Rebellious Subjects were too strong for him as in the Rebellion of Absalom he might make his Appeal to God and beseech him to take the matter into his own hand If he might punish his Subjects he might pray to God that he would enable him to do it And in Foreign Wars if he might kill his Enemies he might pray for Victory and Success over them III. It is lawful to pray that publick and notorious Malefactors may be punish'd for it is lawful to discover them and bring them to punishment and it must needs be lawful to pray that that may be done which it is lawful for us to do It is lawful to seek redress of private Injuries and therefore it is lawful to pray that they may be redress'd for we may pray for success upon any honest undertaking If this be done out of a love to Justice and a necessary care of our own preservation not out of malice and a thirst after Revenge but with the most favourable construction that the worst Actions are capable of and with hearty Prayers to God for his Blessing upon the Offender in giving him the grace of Repentance and granting him whatsoever happiness in this World may be consistent with the honour of God and Justice towards other Men and the Salvation of his own Soul IV. God was the peculiar Law-giver and Political Governour of the Jews and Temporal Rewards and Punishments were the Sanction of the Laws which he had given them For the Mosaical Law is called the ministration of Death and the Ministration of Condemnation 2 Cor. iii. 7 9. because the promises of the Law as such belong'd only to this Life and a Curse was denounc'd against every one that continu'd not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. iii. 10 11. God had expresly threatned to inflict Punishment in this Life for the transgression of those Laws and therefore to pray to God that his Judgments might overtake Evil doers was no more than it is in other Governments to prosecute Offenders before the Magistrate they appealed to God to put his Laws in force against them and not to
suffer the wicked to go unpunish'd in contempt of those Laws which he had appointed and under that dispensation which was establish'd upon Temporal Rewards and Punishments They were not allow'd to indulge their anger and desire of Revenge yet they might pray that God would avenge himself of his Enemies and rescue his Laws from that contempt which they must lie under from wicked Men if they did not feel those punishments which the Laws of God threatned them withall But under the Gospel the Case is different for now we are not to expect that Temporal Rewards and Punishments should constantly follow upon the performance or transgression of our Duty but both of them may be commonly reserved to a future State A Christian may not pray for Judgments upon his Enemies because God has not so peremptorily declared by the Gospel that he will inflict his Punishments in this Life as he had done by the Law and we have our Saviour's Command and Example to pray for their Repentance that they be not punished in the next But a Christian may right himself in due course of Law and in order to that may Petition the Judge without any breach of Charity and this was all that the Jews did when they pray'd God to execute his own Laws by inflicting such Punishments as he had threatned to inflict upon the Transgressors of them in this Life they invoked and appealed to God as their Political Judge and Sovereign and pray'd Judgment against Offenders V. Those which seem Imprecations are oftentimes Predictions or Denunciations of Judgments to come upon Sinners as we may learn from Acts 1.20 And it can be no uncharitableness to foretell or denounce God's Judgments against Sinners but rather an effect of Charity towards them for their Repentance and Amendment Most of those places of Scripture may as properly be rendred by way of prediction in the Future Tense and when they cannot they may be look'd upon as denunciations of God's Wrath. For Prophets were sometimes employ'd to execute the Divine Judgments as we see in Elijah 2 Kings i. 9 10. and as they sometimes executed God's Judgments so they at other times denounced them and this had nothing of uncharitableness in it but is fully agreeable with the Gospel it self For thus we read that Ananias and Sapphira were punished with present death by St. Peter Acts v. But if St. Peter had denounced Death without inflicting it immediately upon them this had been less And St. Paul prays that the Lord would reward Alexander the Copper-Smith according to his works who had done him much evil 2 Tim. iv 14. which was no uncharitable imprecation but a leaving him to God's Judgment and a denunciation of punishment to befall him without Repentance it was an Authoritative Act and in consequence of that excommunication which the Apostle had inflicted upon him 1 Tim. 1.20 And when God had inspired and empower'd Men to denounce Judgments this was no more against Charity than the inflicting of them would have been or than Excommunication it self is If Magistrates are empower'd in the King's Name to give Sentence and to inflict Punishments certainly Men may be so empower'd and authoriz'd by God himself and may act or speak accordingly without breach of Charity VI. The Expressions Ps lxix and cix are to be understood concerning Judas as we find them applied Acts 1. and all other Expressions of the same nature may be understood either of him or of some others like him whom the Psalmist by inspiration might know to be hardned in Sin past Repentance and therefore might pray that God would rather cut them off than suffer them to do more mischief in this World and increase the number of their Iniquities here and of their Miseries in the World to come VII Lastly This Supposition is tacitly emply'd in Imprecations if they will persist in their Sins if they will not repent and the Penmen of the Holy Scriptures might in some Cases know by Revelation that Judgments were the only means to reclaim those Men against whom they pray'd and then it was the greatest Charity to pray that God would be pleased to make use of that Remedy which alone was lest for their Amendment aâ— Psal lxxxiii 15 16. So persecute them with thy tempest and make them afraid with thy storm Fill their faces with shame that they may seeâ— thy Name O Lord. There is nothing therefore inconsistent with the Doctrine of Charity and the Love of ouâ— Neighbour in those places of Scripture which have been liable to the mistakes of unwary Men. For either they are Prayers to God to enable the Isâ—aelites to do what he had appointed as in the destruction of the Canaanites whom God was pleased for wise and great Reasons to punish by the Sword of the Children of Israel rather than by Pestilence or any other Judgment Or they are Prayers to God to assist them in the doing what both Justice and Charity will allow to be done either by Persons in Authority as King David or even by private Men as in the prosecution of Offenders and bringing them to condign punishment and this may be without any degree of Malice or the least breach of Charity since Punishment it self may be not only an act of Justice but of Charity likewise towards divers Men. Or these Expressions may be Appeals to God as the Political Governour and Legislator of the Jews Or they are Predictions or Denunciations of God's wrath against Sinners And they may be directed against impenitent obstinate Men hardned in their Wickedness Or lastly they may be only Prayers to God â—hat he would inflict such Punishments upon Mon as may bring them to Repentance And tho' the Jews in latter Ages perverted some passages of their Law to serve their own Pride and Revenge yet as it is evident by many instances never any Law but that of Christ oblig'd Men to more Humanity towards Strangers or more Charity towards Enemies They were certainly to Covert no Man's House or Wife and therefore the word Neighbour is not to be limited to signifie only an Israelite or a Proselyte but is to be understood of any Man whatsoever Exod. xx 17. Thou shalt love him the Stranger as thy self Lev. xix 34. The Aegyptians are stiled the Neighbours of the Israelites Exod. xi 2. And Ps xv 2 3. where acts of common Justice towards Neighbours are spoken of by Neighbour must necessarily be understood any person for to all Men Justice is due Not only Justice but Charity was enjoyn'd towards Enemies If thine Enemy be hungry give him bread to eat and if he be thirsty give him water to drink for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee Prov. xxv 21 22. which words so fully express our Duty of Christian Charity that St. Paul could find none fitter to describe it by Rom. xii 20. and Exod. xxiii 4 5. If thou meet thine Enemies Ox or his Ass going
to make known his Name and Truth among the Gentiles In the time of Moses this People it self was uncapable of that pure and Spiritual Worship which the Messiah was to appoint and stood in need of a Ceremonial Law and Service to restrain them from Idolatry and to preserve the sense and remembrance of the Promises and Laws deliver'd to Adam and Noah And this Ritual Service was unworthy that the Messiah should come purposely to appoint it who was indeed himself the principal thing signified and typified by it and the Types and Figures of himself could not be Instituted by himself in Person for then they would have been insignificant and there could have been no use or occasion for them But the most Excellent and Divine Institution was reserv'd for his Appointment to which all the rest was but preparatory The Law was added because of Transgressions till the Seed should come to whom the Promise was made Gal. iii. 19. After the Revelation of God's Will and Commandments had thro' the great neglect and wickedness of Mankind become ineffectual God sent all his Servants the Prophets daily rising up early and sending them an expression setting forth his great care and watchfulness over his People for their good yet they hearkned not unto him nor enclin'd their ear but hardned their neck Jer. vii 25 26. To Cure this strange stubbornness and their proneness to Idolatry God sent this People into Captivity for Seventy years which wrought so thorough a Reformation in them that they were never afterwards given to Idolatry but endur'd all extremities of Torments rather than they would be brought to any compliance with the Heathen Worship and therefore there could be no longer such necessity that the Ceremonial Law should be continu'd to them to keep them from the Worship of Idols But in other respects their Provocations were still very great And as the Lord in the Parable first sent his Servants and last of all his Son saying they will reverence my Son and thereby left those wicked Men without excuse and manifested the Justice of his Vengeance upon the Murtherers of his own Son So God first sent his Prophets and when the Jews who had been train'd in the knowledge and worship of him and were to conveigh it to other Nations would not be reclaim'd by them but revil'd and destroy'd them and then set up their own Traditions in opposition to their Doctrines he sends his Beloved Son before he would utterly take away their City and Nation and effected that by the death of his Son whom they Crucified which the experience of so many Ages had shewn could be effected no other way God reveal'd himself at sundry times and in divers manners and in his Infinite Wisdom proportioned the ways and measure of his Revelations to the capacities and the necessities of the several Ages in which they were made till at last he hath spoken unto us by his Son Heb. i. 1 2. When we were Children we were in bondage under the Elements of the World but when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law Gal. iv 3 4. 2. The Reception of Christ and his Gospel in the World would have been much more difficult if so many Prophets in so many several Ages had not foretold his coming Our Saviour himself and his Apostles after him appeal to Moses and the Prophets for the truth of their Doctrine this was the great Argument which they us'd to the Jews in Confirmation even of their Miracles themselves they prov'd that the Prophets had foretold that Christ should come at that very time when he came and that he should work those Miracles which he wrought and should empower his Disciples to do the like his Death and Resurrection and Ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost were all Prophesied of and Prophecies thus foretelling the Miracles and Miracles fullfilling the Prophecies and both mutually confirming and supporting each other afforded all the Evidence that could be given for Prophecies and Miracles are all the ways by which God can be supposed to reveal himself to Mankind And therefore thousands of the Jews were convinc'd out of the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ and were Converted to the Christian Faith And the Prophecies concerning the Messiah are still an unanswerable Argument in vindication of our Religion which Argument we must have wanted if our blessed Saviour had come so much sooner as not to have been Prophesied of so many Ages beforehand And those who reject the Gospel now would have thought they had had much more Reason on their side than they can now pretend to have for there had then been so much less means for their Conviction So that the coming of our Saviour was deferr'd to give the greater Evidence and the fuller conviction of his being the Christ It would have been hard to believe that the Son of God should come into the World with little or no notice given of it beforehand and few or no Prophets sent to foretell his coming and prepare his way But when he had been so long before Prophesy'd of even from the beginning of the World thro' the several Ages of it when there had been a general expectation of the Messiah to be born and the Time and Place and Tribe and Family and Person of whom he was to be born by degrees and at several times had been foretold when Mens hopes and desires to see him were thus from Age to Age awakened and alarmed this was a Solemnity worthy to introduce and attend the Son of God into the World and a Method which would prove a standing Evidence of his being come into it 3. The time of Christ's coming may depend upon things which we are uncapable of knowing For it may depend upon the duration of the World and it is impossible for any Man to know how long that shall be The Scripture speaks of the times of the Gospel under the Phrase of the last Days but this is to be understood in relation not to the continuance of the World but to the Christian Dispensation which is the last means of Salvation that God will vouchsase to Mankind and with regard to the Jewish Church and Government which was just then at an end as I shall shew in the next Chapter Now if the World may continue as long under the dispensation of the Gospel as it had done before it and no Man can tell but it may we shall find little cause to wonder that Christ was not sooner born into the World For we find that the Faith and Zeal of Christians decays as we are at a farther distance of time from the Incarnation of our Saviour and the first propagation of his Gospel and the length of the time it self proves a temptation to some to disbelieve it for men are apt to give less credit to what happened long ago and to think themselves less concern'd in it