John the Baptist to him 276 c. The place where he gave it very remarkable 288. Jesus his own Baptism a testimony to him several ways 292. to 308. The conclusion we are to draw from hence 308 309 c. A Prayer 312. CHAP. VI. The Testimony of the BLOUD 317. Jesus died to witness this truth that he is God's Son 320. The strength of this Testimony in xiv Considerations 322. The first Ib. The second and third 323. The fourth 324. The fifth 327. The sixth 328. The seventh 331. The eighth 332. The ninth 334. The tenth 339. The eleventh 343. The twelfth 345. The thirteenth which contains a narration of the trial of our Saviour before Pontius Pilate 349. to 363. The fourteenth 363 c. The conclusion in two observations belonging to this matter 366. A Prayer 372. CHAP. VII Concerning the Testimony of the SPIRIT 379. The difference between the SPIRIT and the HOLY GHOST 381. His miraculous works were the first testimony of the Spirit 383. particularly casting out Devils 388. and raising the dead 396. the raising of Lazarus a remarkable testimony to Jesus 402. The reason why the Apostles relate so many of his miracles 410. Our Saviour appeals to them 418. The different ways that God and men take for establishing a Religion 425. The second testimony of the Spirit was by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead 431. First as it was a sign given his Apostles and the People 438. and the greatest sign 442. and such an one as his enemies acknowledge to be satisfactory 448. An explication of that place 1 John 50.51 and of the blasphemy against the holy Ghost 457. to 467. These Witnesses all well known 467. A Prayer 473. CHAP. VIII Concerning the Witness of the Apostles 479. who testified to our Saviour all these three ways by WATER 487. and by BLOUD 497. and by the SPIRIT 503. The difference between them and all pretenders to miraculous works 509. No just exception against the Records we have of their testimony 514 c. No body ever undertook to disprove them 523. A few remarks upon some passages of the N.T. which speak of these witnesses 525. particularly the Two Witnesses xi Rev. 3. 527. The testimony of all the Martyrs 533. A Prayer 535. CHAP. IX The great importance of this Truth that Jesus is the Son of God 542. appears in many considerations 543. We ought therefore to settle it in our hearts 545. and not think such discourses needless 546. The laziness of Christian people 548. We ought to be cautious in our belief and examine before we trust 550. If we examine duly we shall find the Faith of Christians to be perfectly rational 554. No Religion relies on such testimonies 555. That of Mahomet considered in all the foregoing regards 556. to 566. There the Religion of Moses is considered Which had no such witness from the FATHER as ours hath Ib. nor from the WORD 570. nor from the HOLY GHOST 571. nor such a Testimony of WATER 572. nor of BLOUD 574. nor of the SPIRIT 575. A Prayer 580. CHAP. X. Containing other Uses we are to make of the Testimony of these Witnesses 585. The third is we ought to believe them and heartily embrace the Christian Faith 589. no excuse for those that do not 593. This is as certain a way of knowing things as any other 598. These Witnesses greater than any other 602. The Christian way to belief 608. The plain account of our Faith 609. The fourth Use we are to make of this Testimony 613. Obedience the necessary consequence of Faith 614 615 c. All these Witnesses call for it 617 c. The Devils will shame us if we hearken not to them 622. The fifth concerning the power of the Christian Faith to baffle all temptations 629. First the hatred of men 631. Secondly troubles and calamities Ib. 632 c. Thirdly the lust of the flesh lust of the eyes and pride of life 634 c. How inviting the voice of these Witnesses is 639 c. The sixth concerning the power of this Faith to make us do our duty chearfully 645. Christ's Commandments not grievous 646. According to our faith so is our strength 648. The unreasonableness of mens complaints of Christ's yoke 650 651. What fancy will make men do 653. Faith therefore is more powerful 654. We ought now to be Christ's Witnesses by our good lives 655. So the ancient Christians were 656. Whereby we shall convey this Faith to posterity 657. Wickedness the cause of Infidelity 658. A Prayer 659. ERRATA PAge 635. line 15. read signifies that sort p. 636. l. penult r. which is a thirst p. 637. l. 18. r. seeks p. 641. l. 24. r. temptations p. 642. l. 12. r. ever p. 643. l. 10. for desire r. defie p. 645. l. 14. for yet r. yea p. 654. l. 2. for him r. us 1 S. JOHN vâ—â— 7 8. For there are three that bear witness in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit and the Water and the Bloud and these three agree in one PART I. CHAP. I. An Introduction to the Ensuing Discourse shewing the Scope of it IT is not my design in this Discourse to explain and establish the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity which several great Writers have inferred with much appearance of reason from the remarkable difference there is between those words whereby S. John expresses the Unity of the first three witnesses and those whereby he expresses the Unity of the last But to settle the Faith and Hope of Christian Souls in the Lord Jesus which is the true scope of the Apostle in this part of his Epistle though in no Treatise that I have met withal it hath from hence been distinctly and fully represented That this is the drift of the Apostles Discourse and ought to be the intention of mine will be very apparent if we go but back so far as the fourth Verse of this Chapter and from thence take our rise for that Argument which I purpose to pursue To know that we are born of God and so shall be his Heirs is a thing in which above all others we are most highly concern'd That we may have therefore a certain character of one divinely descended S. John lays down this General mark of him whereby he may be known that Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World By this a Christian is to be tried and hereby he discovers himself what he is whether the child of God in name only or in deed and in truth If when he meets with any thing in this world that would seduce or affright him from his duty he not only defies it and sets himself against it but makes it yield to his resolution of stedfast obedience to God's Commandments which every man he says in the foregoing verse that loves God will certainly keep and not think them grievous neither
phrase so known and the translation of the word to this use saith * More Nev. par 1. c. 42. Maimonides is so frequent that all good and wholsome Doctrine is called Chajah that is LIFE and thence our Masters say The just are called LIVING even in their death and the wicked are called DEAD even while they are alive because the one were happy and the other miserable in those contrary conditions The true reason of which dialect or manner of speech I take to be this that LIFE being the foundation upon which all felicity is built the root out of which it grows it being impossible to enjoy any thing unless we be alive and it abiding and continuing also when the pleasures and other circumstances of life are often interrupted it was thought the aptest thing to express that felicity which we partake of in life yea the fullest felicity the fruition of the compleatest Good when life shall be made eternal And if this be not sufficient to demonstrate that the Holy Writers intend by Eternal Life all the good we are or shall be capable to enjoy you may farther observe that they describe it by all things that are excellent and desirable having borrowed from the glory of the whole World whatsoever is lovely and illustrious to help to represent it to us Shall I put together the severall lines whereby it is described in as handsome an order and composure as I can and so leave every one to judge of the rare beauty of this Life when it shall have all its fillings up which in its ruder draught appears so amiable in our eyes This LIFE then that it may be understood to be the enjoyment of a fuller good then we can conceive a good beyond the bold desires of the most inlarged and luxurious appetite is expressed by the hugest heaps of Treasures such as the Heavens onely are great enough to contain by the possession of an immortall Inheritance reserved there for us and by Pearls and Jewels of a price so invaluable that he is stupid who sells not all he hath if they are not to be had at a lower rate to make a purchace of them These expressions and the rest that follow are so well known that I need not stay to set down the particular places of Holy Scripture where they may be found but proceed to tell you that this Life is there also set forth by feeding upon the delight of the most exquisite pleasures and being entertained without any satiety and in the most noble company at the most sumptuous Feast by exaltation withall to the sublimest pitch of Honour such as the power of Kings the majesty of Thrones and the glory of Crowns which Holy men call in to their assistence that they may serve to lift up our minds to conceive the height of this happy Life and make it seem the more royal and magnificent To which you may adde that they make use of the names of Rest and Refreshment and Peace and Joy or Contentment For as we reade of entring into Life so we do of entring into Rest and into the Joy of our Lord and dwelling in Peace because these are the onely things on earth which can compleat and perfect the happiness of those who enjoy Princely dignity and power But then when the Earth can afford no more colours for the drawing a picture of this most excellent Life or supreme Felicity those Holy men ascend up to Heaven and fetch from thence not onely some rays of light but the very Sun it self and that in the top of its glory to illustrate by its brightness the incomparable beauty of it For it is called the Inheritance of the Saints in light and our Blessed Lord is called the Light of the world who promises the Just that they shall have the Light of life and shine like the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father But alas it is not in the power of such words as these to express its excellence And therefore when all things that fall under our eyes and our taste are spent in the description of it we reade then of melodious Songs and Thanksgivings and the joyfull voice of those who triumph continually Nay the whole World as big as it is is introduced as a small resemblance of this Happiness wherein victorious Souls are said to inherit all things and to be made equal to the Angels who joyn in consort with them and bear their part in those heavenly Anthems and Hymns wherewith they bless and praise the Great Lord of all But if all the goodly things that are or ever have been in the whole world should meet together and falling down at the feet of one man should with a joynt consent conspire to make him happy they could never advance him near the height of this celestial Bliss whose incomparable excellence cannot be expressed without the assistence of words called down from the highest Heavens the place of God's Habitation And therefore nothing below the Kingdom of Heaven a Mansion in our heavenly Father's House a Building of God in the Heavens is made the portion of such happy Souls And as if the Heavens yea the Heaven of Heavens could afford nothing great enough to represent this Blessedness Holy men lead us at last to God himself whom they bid us behold in the High and Holy place as in his Chamber of Presence And this LIFE is called Seeing GOD and beholding his Glory and being with our LORD which are names of such transcendent greatness that we had need enjoy this Happiness to understand them But thus the Men of God from things sensible lead us by the hand to those that are spirituall and invisible And now that they have placed our thoughts in the presence of God there they leave them to take as full a view as they can of him and to spread themselves in the largest contemplations of his Perfections For they were not able to go any farther then onely to tell us that we shall be made like to him whose Perfections shine so gloriously in our eyes This is the highest pitch to which they carry our meditations Here they bid us rest our thoughts and now that they have advanced them above the Earth and Heavens to consider with our selves what it is to See God till we resemble him and be perfectly transform'd into his most blessed Nature and Life All they can doe more for us is onely to tell us what GOD is the enjoyment of whom is our Happiness and who we are to understand will be infinitely far more to our whole man then Kingdoms and Thrones then Crowns and Jewels then Feasts and Songs then the Sun it self and all the sweet influences of Heaven with the rest of the things forementioned could be were they all united in one design to make us happy The wisest of the Jews as blind as that Nation is are sensible of this how disproportionable all the words which even divinely-inspired
find him false and guilty of forgery in any other relation they had no reason to call in question his honesty and faithfulness in this report which is the more considerable because there were others who heard it as well as he who might be appealed unto and askt about it One of those who were there present and heard it together with him was S. Peter a man timorous enough and apt to deny a Truth and therefore of no such courage as to support a Lye with the danger of his life Who writing to Christian people as S. John here doth commends this voice to them as a sure witness of that Truth which he was shortly to seal with his Bloud and professes his own sincerity in the relating of it Read with attention 2 Pet. 1.14 15 16 17 18. where he tells them that our Lord having shown him he must shortly die when it is no time to dissemble with God or Man he would endeavour to settle in their minds such a solid ground of faith that when he was gone they should stand unshaken if they did but remember it And that it was not a thing he had received by hear-say much less a devised story that had been forged in his own brain but a matter of which he was an eye and ear-witness of which he and others also had a certain clear and perfect knowledge For they saw then the glory wherein Jesus was and they heard the forenamed voice come from that excellent glory which could be no other but the glory of the Father Then and there in that Mount Jesus received from the Father honour and glory when there came forth from the mouth of God this voice in all their hearing This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Here it will be necessary to take notice that the voice as all of them relate it was directed not to him but to those who were there present with him None of them say that it spake thus THOU art my beloved Son c. according as S. Mark and S. Lake report the former voice but they unanimously tell us in these four places which I have named that it was delivered in the other form THIS is my beloved Son c. As if He spake to the company that attended him and bade them observe that here He owned this person to stand in such a relation to him as he and John Baptist had professed The former voice might come for his sake but there being no need of his further satisfaction this was for theirs that they might stedfastly believe and that they might be competent witnesses of him and perswade others to the belief of that which upon their own certain knowledge they could affirm was the very mind and will of God I shall have occasion hereafter to make a further enquiry into both these Testimonies which the Father gave to his Son Jesus and therefore I shall now dismiss them with some observations concerning this which will much help to illustrate it and add to the force of it The First is that our Saviour having at this time sequestred himself with three of his Apostles into an high mountain to pray to God was transfigured before them as he was praying xvii Matth. 2. ix Luke 29. so that his face did shine as the Sun and his very garments were all glistering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Greg. Nazianzen speaks * Orat. 35. p. 575. showing before-hand what he was to be hereafter and making an introduction to the glory in which he should shine in the high and holy place at the right hand of the Father where he makes perpetual intercession for us For to shine as the Sun is a phrase expressing something belonging to celestial Majesty in the Kingdom of the Father xiii Matth. 43. The white and splendid garments also it were easie to show were proper to Kings and those who waited on them iii. Revel 4. The Ministers and royal attendants in the Heavenly Court were wont always to appear in such radiant brightness though short of this wherein our Saviour now began to shine as the King ere long of Heaven and Earth For so S. John says i. 14. We beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father And S. Peter when he speaks of this says 2 i. 16. We were eye-witnesses of his MAJESTY Of which that they might be assured this was a true representation you may observe secondly how they saw a very great Glory appear and approach towards them called by S. Mark and S. Luke simply a Cloud but by S. Matthew xvii 5. a bright cloud which had usually been the token of the presence of the Divine Majesty And therefore it is called by S. Peter in the place before named ver 17. the excellent or magnificent glory and the voice which came out of it is said ver 18. to come from Heaven because it came forth from the presence of God of which this bright cloud was the visible sign For so He appeared anciently to the Israelites in a cloud that had a splendor or shining light in it like to the hottest fire which sometimes brightly glistered and sometimes was obscured So you read xix Exod. 18. that the LORD descended in fire upon the famous Mount Sinai and a little after xxiv Exod. 16 17. how the glory of the Lord dwelt upon that Mount and the cloud covered it i. e. the glory of the Lord for the space of six days and then on the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst of that cloud And the aspect of the glory of the Lord was as fire that burnt or glowed with great ardency in the sight of the children of Israel That is on the seventh day that Glory was revealed and broke forth out of the cloud wherein for six days it had been wrapped up and hidden from their sight And so you read in the xl Chapter of that Book that as soon as Moses had reared up the Tabernacle for the constant habitation of this Divine presence the cloud covered it and rested upon it without and the glory of the Lord filled it within ver 34 35. which is presently after explained to be a fire which by night appeared upon the Tabernacle to guide them in their journey This is that bright flame which frighted them when they murmured against Moses called the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud xvi Exod. 7.10 and xvi Numb 42. threatning to devour them if they were not more obedient Such a glory but more pure and more delightful to behold there was now upon this Holy Mount as S. Peter calls it to make them apprehensive that now they were in the presence of God who as he did on that Mount to speak in the words of Tertullian initiate their forefathers in the Religion of Moses by showing his glory and by his voice so here on this * Agnosce formam loci c. L. 4.
whom we must worship when he was not sought to overthrow and take out of his hands We are secure that God would not have abetted an Usurper in so high a manner against himself And as for any unclean Spirits if they could have done such things as Jesus wrought they would not have employed their power we are sure to establish a Doctrine so pure and holy as the Christian Religion teaches which utterly destroys all that wickedness in which they delight There was all the reason in the World to believe one who came thus by the SPIRIT when he came by WATER too and by his mighty power promoted nothing but the most excellent Piety Vertue and Goodness among mankind But concerning the miracles of our Saviour there will be an occasion to say so much in pursuance of what I design hereafter that I shall add no more of them here Let us now proceed having heard what the SPIRIT did by him to consider what wonderful things it did for him whereby it proved him to be the Christ the Son of God II. And the SPIRIT sure very eminently bare witness of him when it raised him from the dead and not long after advanced him into Heaven to live for ever with God For both these are ascribed to the power of the SPIRIT in express texts of Holy Scripture Of the former you read in the 1 Pet. iii. 18. where the Apostle says He was put to death in the flesh being mortal as we are but quickned by the SPIRIT that is raised up again from the dead by that Divine power in him whereby he had raised up others before he died It was impossible that he should be held by the chains of death who had such a SPIRIT in him By this he shook them off more easily than Samson brake the Wit hs or the Cords wherewith he was bound when the SPIRIT of the Lord came mightily upon him And being thus quickned again the same SPIRIT also presented him to God in the Heavens as his dearly beloved Son in whom he was well pleased who had given him full satisfaction and done his whole will for which he sent him into the world So you read in the ix Hebr. 14. where the offering which the Apostle says he made of himself to God through the eternal SPIRIT was that bloudy sacrifice on the Cross which after his Resurrection he offered to God and continues still to offer in the Heavenly Sanctuary as the High Priest under the Law offered the bloud of beasts after they were slain at the Altar in the most holy place of the Earthly Sanctuary And this oblation is said to be made by the SPIRIT because that raised him to life after he was slain translated him out of his mortal condition carried him on high made his body glorious and immortal and having thus made him fit to be for ever with God presented him unto his Majesty where he remains through the power of an endless life a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek And this working of the mighty power of God which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavenly places far above all principalities and powers might and dominion and every name that is named was such a testimony of the SPIRIT to him that it confounded his adversaries more than all the miracles which he had wrought by the power of the same SPIRIT in his life-time And therefore the Apostles I observe alledge this immediately after the other as that which compleated the testimony of the SPIRIT to him Till this was clear and evident they relied wholly upon the other as you may perceive by the discourse of those two Disciples that went with our Saviour to Emaus Who doubted of his Resurrection after news had been brought them of it but acknowledged him to have been a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and upon that account were much troubled that their Rulers had crucified him because they trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel xxiv Luke 19 20. When they were fully perswaded therefore that he was indeed made alive again as these very men presently saw then they add this as an argument of the greatest force to convince the world that he was the Son of God the Redeemer of mankind This is the substance I observe of both S. Peter's first Sermons to the Jews and to the Gentiles He begins with a relation how great Jesus was in his Life and then proceeds to show how much greater God had made him by raising him from the dead Read but what he says to his Crucifiers on the day of Pentecost ii Acts 22 23 24. where he first tells them that Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God among them by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of them as they themselves very well knew And then that he being delivered to them and by wicked hands crucified and slain God had raised him up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it In like manner he discourses to the first Gentile converts x. Acts 38 39 40. where he tells Cornelius and his friends how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power and how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil of which they were witnesses who had seen all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem and then adds that God raised him up the third day after he was slain and hanged on a Tree and shewed him openly though not to all the people yet to witnesses chosen before God even to him and others who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead The Apostle had nothing to add beyond this which was the greatest testimony of the SPIRIT to him Now it spake with a loud voice in his behalf for if he had not been God's Son as he said he was He would never have taken him out of his grave much less have advanced him into the Heavens Where it was manifested he now lived by the coming of the HOLY GHOST which fell upon Cornelius and his friends while S. Peter was speaking those words This was all that could be added to what the Apostle had said and God sent this to prove his Resurrection and Exaltation at his right hand Which was such an undeniable proof of his authority that having thus raised him the SPIRIT as I said finished its testimony to him For how should it speak plainer or more convincingly or who can think that it would have continued to speak for him in this manner after his death if he had died with a lye in his mouth The SPIRIT which S. John here says is the TRUTH openly declared by restoring him to life that his Bloud was most acceptable to God It showed that
to lurk in the dark and put off their stuff when no body can see what it is who know it is deceitfully wrought and will not abide the light They do wisely and as cunning Merchants who make up in words and great assurances of their honesty what is wanting in the goodness of their wares But why we should have so little wit as to take their words who can tell We must answer for this folly no doubt to Almighty God who hath given us more understanding if we would use it and taught us by himself to call for good witnesses of that which is offered to us for a truth And the more strictly we examine these which S. John here alledges the better we shall be satisfied that they intend not to deceive us Which is a mark we should always have much in our eye when we are enquiring after Truth If the more we search consider and ponder the proofs which are brought the better they appear and the clearer they grow it is a very good sign there is nothing wanting to make it fully entertain'd but only longer thoughts and greater and more serious consideration As on the other hand we have great reason to suspect and turn away from that which the longer we weigh its proofs the lighter they seem and the propounders of them also begin to shift and shuffle till they have put all into a mist in which we can see nothing but that they are at a loss and are fain to puzzle us because they cannot clear that which they were about Thanks be to God there is nothing of this in the evidences we give for the true Christian Religion They are plain and perspicuous and show themselves in a greater brightness the more we look upon them and the better we are acquainted with them Search and try what has been said and the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ will shine with greater lustre in your eyes and you will confess with S. Peter 2 i. 3. that he hath called us to the knowledge of him by glory and vertue that is by a most amazing power of God which declared him to be his only Son our Lord. II. Let us therefore in the next place consider seriously how excellent and perfectly rational the Faith of Christians is There is nothing founded upon such Authority as our most holy Religion It is no childish silly thing to be a believer A man doth not betray his weakness and easie credulity when upon examination and search he suffers his Soul to be planted with these new Principles but demonstrates the strength the nobleness and ingenuity of his mind which can discern and judge aright for nothing can pretend to so much reason as they There are a vast heap of things which I could here accumulate beside those which I have treated of to make good this assertion But because the method of the Apostle which I have followed is so clear and easie and the Witnesses so full and pregnant that every one of them affords us many evidences I will content my self with a brief review of what hath been said Which will be sufficient to convince us that our Faith is the highest improvement of our Reason and doth not debase but clevate and raise our understanding upon the surest grounds of Divine demonstration For if you consider what Testimonials they brought along with them who have pretended to speak in God's name you will find there is nothing comparable to the Witness which God hath given of his Son No not in that Religion which was really founded by his Authority much less in that where there was only the Name of God pretended without any Power I. Mahomet I mean to begin first with the latter of these took upon him to be the Apostle and the Prophet of God greater not only than Moses but than Jesus himself And such was his confident brags of Revelations from God that among a company of wild Arabians whom Algazel acknowledges to have approached the nearest to Beasts of all other men He made some proselytes to his belief But what proof did he give that he was divinely sent Was it ever heard that God spake to him so much as once as he did often to our Saviour At what time or in what place and in whose audience did God say to him Thou art my Prophet When did a voice from Heaven come to any three or but one man and say This is the Apostle of God hear him It is a marvellous Providence of God that this Impostor who wanted no confidence should never adventure in all the relations he hath made of himself quite contrary to our Lord who wrote nothing of his own life but left all to his Disciples to tell any such story as this for his greater credit and glory among his followers We read indeed of some idle tales which he reports of an Angel speaking to him and of his ascension into Heaven I know not how many millions of miles But what witness was there of these things what was his name who saw the Angel appear to him or who stood by when he was transported and carried out of sight as he dreamed Or when and to whom did Moses or any one else appear and verifie it that he had been with them in glory If we must take his own word which is all we can hear of to vouch it then we must not refuse to believe every foolish fellow who has impudence enough to pretend to prophesie But what then will become of the faith of Mahomet himself if the sword were out of his hand Let us hear such a man as John the Baptist whose piety and vertue is attested by those who were no Friends of our Religion affirm that he heard and saw such things as he reports and we will be content to abate them the Apostles and such a multitude of people as heard God say he would Glorifie his Name in our Saviour And in what Glory hath that false Prophet appeared since he left the World Whose eyes hath he struck out with the brightness of his countenance Nay by whom hath he been so much as seen since he was buried I need not put the question about his Resurrection for they never pretended it Only the sottish people would not believe when he died that he was really dead but said he was taken up to Heaven as Jesus was And Omar one of his successors threatned death to them that should say he was dead for he was only gone away as Moses did into the Mount and would return again From whence perhaps arose that vulgar error among us that the Mahumedans expect the return of their Prophet * See Poceek in Gregor Abul Phar. p. 180. 264. But Abu Becri proved to them out of the Alcoran that He was to die as other Prophets before him and so appeased Omar and the multitude And was it ever heard that the Holy Ghost sell down upon him in a
shamefully bow down to it and worship it Let but any man remember when he reads these words LOVE NOT THE WORLD for all that is in the WORLD the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the World And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Or when he reads any other lesson in the holy Books let him but remember that thus says the Father of all and thus says his WORD and this is the voice of the Holy Ghost and of all the rest of the Witnesses who testifie that Jesus who teaches these things is the Son of God and then he will never be perswaded to yield to the fairest thing that ever eye beheld or the sweetest thing the mouth can taste or the greatest pleasure any other sense is capable to feel if it must be enjoyed by the breaking of any of these commandments No he will yield himself unto God vi Rom. 13. and lay himself at the feet of his WORD and submit to the dictates and sentence of the Holy Ghost and follow the example of Christ's purity and be made conformable to his Death and be led by his Spirit and think it an honour to be conquered by such Defendants of the cause of Jesus O how hateful would every sin be to us though it dress up it self never so beautifully and court us with never such promises of pleasure or greatness did we but at the same time reflect upon these Witnesses and remember what they have testified to us How should we desire it How passionately should we tear all its gaudy dresses in pieces How heartily should we despise all its temptations which would have us slight all these great Witnesses who tell us the Son of God is come and that he is come for this purpose that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 John iii. 8. Every unlawful enjoyment would look like a manifest jeer to all these and as if a man should say to them Why do you trouble your selves this is our Darling our God and all your perswasions shall not prevail with us to let it go It would appear a contempt of God a laughing of his WORD to scorn who came upon so needless at least fruitless an errand a manifest challenge to the Holy Ghost who by every sin is boldly opposed And what heart can endure to think of being guilty of such madness which throws dirt into this pure Water I mean the life of Christ and treads his Bloud under feet and miscalls the Spirit of grace as if it were not the Truth but had deceived the world when it told them that this is the will of God even our sanctification For God says S. Paul hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness He therefore that despiseth despiseth not Man but God who hath also given unto us his holy SPIRIT 1 Thess iv 3 7 8. To conclude this you know what is commonly said and it is a certain truth of those who are bit with a kind of Spider in Italy which they call a Tarantula that there is no way to cure them of their pleasant frenzy but by such Musick as is appropriate to the motions which their poison makes in the brain of him into whom it is infused Let this be an Emblem of the truth I have now delivered that the old Serpent having envenomed mens Souls poisoned their principles perverted their affections and depraved their lives there is nothing of efficacy sufficient to recover them but only such charms as these which by this six stringed Instrument as I may call it God hath provided for our Cure And this will certainly do it by infusing the Faith of Jesus into us which is the victory whereby we overcome the WORLD Do but hearken diligently to these Witnesses do but mind their sweet consent their harmony and agreement in the testimony they give to this great truth that Jesus our Master is the Son of God and there is no venome so deadly which this Faith will not expel no love to the WORLD so strong which it will not vanquish and subdue It will recover us to our selves and make nothing seem so ridiculous as the folly and frantickness of worldly men yet it will advance us to a Divine and Heavenly spirit so that we shall not be apt to receive such pestilent infusions any more but keep our selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life VI. For I must add now in the last place that this Faith is so far from being unable to conquer all temptations which would hinder us from obeying our Saviour's commands that it gives us power and strength to do our duty with chearfulness So S. John here tells us when he adds to what he says of the keeping of his Commandments that HIS COMMANDMENTS ARE NOT GRIEVOUS For as Oecumenius well glosses what load is it for a man to love his Brother What great burden is it to visit him if he be in prison God doth not command thee to deliver him but only to visit him He doth not bid thee knock off his chains but see how he bears them Nor doth he bid thee cure a sick man but only comfort and relieve him Nor provide dainties for a poor man but only feed him nor give rich apparel to the naked but only cloath them And so we may conclude of the rest that it is rather an ease than a burden to be sober and chaste in all enjoyments of pleasure to be content with a small portion of those things which others desire with a greedy and ravenous eye to bear with that patiently which we cannot remedy to be careful for nothing but in every thing to make known our requests to God with Prayer and Thanksgiving to be meek and peaceable amongst contentious people to forgive those that injure us to envy no man's greatness and with an humble modesty to satisfie our selves though we be not equal to them These and such like qualities wherewith Jesus would invest us are in themselves most desirable and though richer than cloath of Gold are like our ordinary garments which are no load to those that wear them But they are the less grievous to those that believe in Jesus who are endued with power from above by receiving the testimony of so many Divine Witnesses who assure them they are in the way of God in the company of his Son under the conduct of the Holy Ghost in the direct rode to that glorious place where Jesus is and therefore why should not they rejoyce and be exceeding glad to find themselves thus happy That load which to a sick man seems intolerable if it be laid on the neck of one in health is so easie that he can run away with it with pleasure And so it is in the case of keeping God's
Commandments which to a man that has spoil'd his Soul by following divers lusts are so far from being easie that he thinks them insupportable and impossible to be complied withall but when he has recovered himself by the faith of Christ and hath received the supply of these new and Heavenly principles they become to the very same man not only tolerable but sweet and delightful This faith would not be pleased to be excused from this burden it would take it ill not to draw in the same Yoke with Jesus it naturally makes us of his Spirit who said I delight to do thy will O God For what is it that we believe Is it not that Jesus is the Son of God his well-beloved Son And shall we complain of that work which was the business and the delight of God's best beloved when he was in the world It would be too grievous an accusation of God to think that after he had filled the Earth with joy and gladness for the coming of his Son He should instantly quench it all and turn it into heaviness by a number of such severe and intolerable Commandments as no man can look upon and not be melancholy And what are the grounds of our belief Are they not all that Heaven and Earth can afford us Are we not as sure as God can make us Phy for shame then what a reproach is it that any man should sigh and groan look four and sad as if he had all the burden of Heaven and Earth to carry when he has rather the aid and assistance of both to support and strengthen him under an easie load Certain it is that according to our knowledge and understanding so will be our Faith and according to our faith so will be our strength Now how can there be greater evidence and strength of Reason to induce us to believe than these six Witnesses have given us They fully satisfie our understandings they make it completely rational to acknowledge Jesus to be the Son of God And therefore why should not this Faith thus begot and standing on such sure foundations give us a very great strength courage chearfulness and spirit making difficult things become easie harsh things become sweet and the most tedious stay in this world comfortable by presenting us and that so strongly with the power and glory of the Lord Jesus This Faith you see rests upon these six Columns upon these two rows of Pillars as I may so speak on the one side stands the testimony of the FATHER the WORD and the HOLY GHOST on the other side the testimony of the WATER the BLOUD and the SPIRIT and therefore nothing will be too great a burden to lay upon it it will support any weight and never let us groan much less break under its load All things are EAST as well as POSSIBLE to him that believeth It is the observation of Seneca I remember that nothing is so hard but the mind of man can master it and make it familiar by constant thoughts and pains about it There are no motions so natural but some by labour have restrained them and made the forbearance of them easie and none again so unnatural but by the like daily practice and attention they have brought themselves to the delightful use of them As some have kept long and tedious fasts others perpetual silence and have lived out of the company of all mankind which are examples of the former kind And we see instances of the latter in those who learn to walk and dance upon ropes to work with their feet and to dive into the excessive depths of the Sea And can the mind of man alone when it buckles it self to the business be able to perform such difficult things with ease and satisfaction and yet remain utterly unable to take any contentment in obedience to Christ's Precepts though it be exalted by faith and a faith so strong as these six Witnesses if we attend will work in us May things to which nature is not inclined be accomplished at last and become habitual and we think God too severe to expect from us those duties which are most agreeable to our natures as all the actions of vertue are And shall a weaker power master those hard and unnatural tasks and a power stronger than all others sink under the burden of the most reasonable and in themselves most natural Commandments It cannot but put a considering person into a little indignation to hear men complain of the uneasiness of Christ's yoke when they lay more troublesome and unmerciful burdens upon themselves without any murmuring How can one see men without some impatience contend with swift horses and endeavour to out-run them and yet cry out of the tediousness of the race of God's Commandments Shall any man perswade us that it is not so easie to learn the way of God's testimonies as it is to work with his feet or go upon his hands Shall they make us believe it is so hard a business to bend their wills to God's when we see their bodies made as supple as wax that they may wreath them about at pleasure Can it be half so troublesome to lay a bridle on our tongues as it is never to speak at all O man where is thy Reason what is become of thy Soul that thou groanest in the service of God and canst make a sport of far more grievous things Thy own mind might teach thee better if thou wouldst but hearken to its instructions and therefore what may not God expect from the Faith I am speaking of which is a far more powerful Principle and hath made Men stop the mouths of Lions quench the violence of Fire indure torture and not accept deliverance when it was much weaker than our faith need now be I will ingage that if a man do but use himself frequently to ponder these words of S. John and perswade himself fully upon the testimony of these Witnesses that Jesus is the Son of God He will account it a small business to deny his own will as Jesus did He will never complain that he must refrain from any thing in obedience to him and whatsoever he requires him to do he will esteem it an excessive pleasure For there can remain no doubt in his mind that if he be the Son of God he hath power to help us that he wil ever be assistant to us and bless us because by this faith he dwelleth in us and we in him I have read of one of a Noble Family delicately educated and of a tender health who had a great mind to enter upon a Religious course of life as they speak in the Roman Church but was afrighted out of those thoughts by the apparent difficulty of the exercises wherein he was to be imployed for their ill diet retirement poverty watchings and such like hardships he imagined could not be endured Till one day reading those words of the Psalmist which like a flash of
lightning struck into his mind xviii Psal 33. He maketh my feet like Hindes feet and setteth me upon my high places which he expounded to this sense God will inable me with speed and easiness to run not only upon the even ground and over the plains but in craggy and steep places he will lead me not only upon the level but assist me to climb Mountains and to overtop the highest difficulties that are in my way to Heaven and immediately he found all his fears vanish his resolutions determined and such a courage put into him that from this time forward he was immoveably bent to that formerly dreadful kind of life Would not this word of God then think you which I have expounded inspire us with as manly a resolution and greatness of mind to obey God's unquestionable commands if we did but suffer it to penetrate into our hearts Did we but conceive that we heard the Father say to us perpetually This is my Son This that came by Water and Bloud that climbed even the cross it self that surmounted the highest difficulties He is my beloved Son and if we thought we heard the WORD say the Son of God is come God is manifested in the flesh and felt the Holy Ghost inspiring him with the same heavenly thoughts the whole glorious Trinity telling us they will assist us and afford us their continual help it could not but give wings as I may say to our feet and make us skip over the most mountainous discouragements and run the ways of God's commandments and not be tired that we might follow after and go to the blessed Jesus For the course of life which that Gentleman affected was that of a Religious Order as they call it where they are tied to do more than God commands to live by a Rule stricter than the Gospel and under the Will of a Superiour whom they are bound to obey as if he were Christ himself And it was not the literal sense of the place neither which thus animated him and put it into his heart to undergo such a servitude And therefore if he did the will of men so chearfully and undertook more than God requires of us and upon a weaker perswasion by accommodating the sense of an holy word to his own present thoughts there is no doubt but a right faith would indue us with the like power notwithstanding the appearance of great labours in the true service of God in obedience to his indispensable commands we having this word of God to strengthen our faith the prime and natural intention of which is to make us confident that He who leads us in this way the Captain that conducts us is Gods Son his most dearly beloved who cannot but be as faithful as he is powerful to make good all his promises to us And we should the rather strive to follow after him and to run with joy the race that is set before us because then we shall have the honour still to testify to him upon Earth we shall be his WITNESSES and prove at this day by his mighty power in our hearts and lives that he is the Son of God Turks and Jews that read not our Books cannot be convinced by any arguments at present so much as by this They see how we live but we can shew them no Miracles to convince them nor can we make them hear the voice from Heaven for their conversion till we can recommend our Bible to their serious consideration And the only way to do that is for us to live more justly soberly charitably and piously than the rest of the World By which means they may be brought to have better thoughts of Jesus by having good thoughts of us and be induced to read our Books by seeing so much of them in our good works And what happy days might we hope to see could we but use this argument to prove Jesus to be the Son of God that no men are so good so holy and pure so peaceable and kind-hearted so free from fraud all guile as those who are called by his Name How glorious then would the name of our Lord be over all the world His word would run and be glorified as the Apostle speaks 2 Thess iii. 1. just as it did in ancient days when they could say confidently Non de nostro sed ex illorum numero c. * Lact. lib. 5. cap. 19. They are not of our company but of theirs that follow the Heathen superstition who rob and steal by Sea and Land who murder and kill who cheat and cozen who drink and swill who prostitute their bodies and profane themselves by filthy fusts the Whores the Fornicators the Cheats the Forgers of Wills and Testaments the Drunkards the Thieves the perjured Persons and all the rest of the wicked crew are of their number nothing of this can be objected to our People whose whole Religion is to live without wickedness nay without any spot or blemish How would it stop the mouth of all the world nay make them fall down and confess that God is certainly among us could we but say thus in our days and make such a challenge to Turks and all other unbelievers Shall we always let our Saviour want this noble testimony Shall we do nothing but talk of him and prattle of our Faith and make our boast that we are right Believers and damn all Infidel People Alas alas these big words will do nothing As long as they see us live no better than they we shal not perswade them that we believe better And therefore let us have this worthy ambition in our hearts to become WITNESSES our selves unto Jesus Let us study how to show forth his praises or rather Powers * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.9 who hath called us into this marvellous light And since we cannot do it by Miracles let us do it by well doing and patient continuance in it So shall the Name of our Lord Jesus be glorified in us and we in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess i. 12. who at his appearing will bear WITNESS to us xi Hebr. 4. that we were faithful and righteous by receiving us as God did Abel's gifts up unto himself For hereby also we shall be instruments of conveying this Faith down to Posterity with some power Would you not have them believe the same that you do Is it not your desire that the next Age may confess him as well as this There is no such effectual means can be thought of to promote and propagate his Faith as the fruits of it in an holy life This will make men afraid now to speak evil of him and this will teach our Children after us to be zealous professors of Christianity and not such cold believers or such infidels as we see and hear of in the World Assure your selves it is Prophaneness which hath made so many unbelievers in this
hope in him with the loss of their lives And as long as they live they will find it the highest of all pleasures to think that they shall never die Of which happiness we can by no means be so well secured as by the Christian Religion All the Philosophers of greatest fame as Eusebius * Lib. 1. Prapar Evang. c. 4. observes talkt like Children about the Immortality of the Soul in comparison with Christians Among whom saith he boys and girls and those Barbarians too and the most despicable people declare this truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much by their discourses as by their deeds which they perform by the power and cooperation of our Saviour The Discourses of Aristotle about this matter are justly said by Saint Greg. Nazianzen * Orat. xxxiii p. 535. to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because as Jacobus Billius hath demonstrated he thought the Souls of men to be mortall And accordingly Theodoret ranks him in this regard with Democritus and Epicurus who boldly said they were corruptible So little force was there as he also observes * Lib. v. Therapentices p. 546. 556. in the many discourses of the most wise Plato to prove the Soul's Immortality which could not make his greatest Scholar in love with his Opinion Whereas our Fishermen and Publicans and Shoemakers perswaded both Greeks and Romans and Egyptians and all other Nations of mankind to believe it And you shall see saith he not onely the Doctours of the Church but Smiths and Weavers and other Artizans both men and women that understand these things And not onely such people as live in cities but poor country-men are so well instructed that one may find a Ditcher or a Neatherd discoursing of the Holy Trinity of the Creation of the World and that knows more of humane Nature then either Aristotle or Plato For Plato himself was not constant in his Opinions about the state of the Soul after it departed this body But sometimes speaks of great torments which the wicked endure in dark prisons and describes their punishments to be dreadfull by the sentence of impartiall Judges and otherwhere he talks as if those Souls were at liberty to chuse what body they will please to go into and that it pleases them better to be a Bird or perhaps an Ass then formerly it did to be a Man Which contrariety of opinion is observed and handsomely represented by Eusebius * Lib. xiii Praepar c. 16. whose words I shall not transcribe For we find the Philosophers talking so discontentedly concerning the present state of mankind who are subject they say to more calamities and therefore in a worse condition then any other Creature upon the face of the earth that it is sufficient to convince us how little certainty they had of a future state The stedfast belief of which being taught as Theodoret observes with one mouth and without any disagreement or doubting by all the Apostles and Followers of Christ made all Christian people not onely contented with their portion though more calamitous in those days then any other mens but also chearfull under the sorest burthens that oppressed them And though the ancient Hebrews were taught by holy men of God to know better then the Philosophers and God in his infinite goodness was pleased when they were in danger of grievous troubles for Religion sake then to give them still more and more hope of another life as Grotius wisely observes both upon the story of Elijah's calling the Soul of the Widow's Son back again 1 King xvii 21. and upon the dead man's rising again when he touched the bones of Elisha 2 King xiii 21. and may be farther verified from the story of the Maeeabees yet it must be acknowledged there was no particular promise made to them of Eternall Life either before the giving of the Law or in that Covenant made with them by Moses nor any clear and express promise in after-times untill the coming of our Lord Christ Who hath made a New Covenant with us which is established upon better promises then those in the Old as the holy Writer to the Hebrews speaks viii 6. For the promises of the Covenant made with them by Moses were onely that they should possess the land of Canaan and lead a happy life there while they observed his Precepts But the promises of the Gospell are that by obedience to our Lord we shall come to live eternally with him in the heavens So the Church of Christ hath always understood it as any one may be satisfied who can reade the Answer of Ger. Cap. xxiii Vossius to Ravenspergerus Where he shews that the ancient Doctours especially Saint Augustine lookt upon the Old Testament as containing properly and directly the promises onely of earthly and temporall things which were the Figures of those that are celestiall and eternall The words of Saint Augustine are very memorable to this purpose in a little Book of his Epist cxx cap. 2 3. wherein he answers to five Questions put to him by Honoratus to which he adds another of his own concerning the Grace of the New Testament in which that Grace is revealed which was hid in the Old God willing to shew saith he that even earthly and temporall felicity is his gift and ought not to be expected but from him alone though fit long ago to dispense the Old Testament which belongs to the Old man from whom this life must needs begin But those felicities of the Fathers are proclaimed to be granted by the bounty of God though belonging to this transitory life For those earthly gifts were the things that were openly and apparently promised and given Covertly indeed the New Testament was figuratively foretold in all those things and was understood by a few whom the same Grace was pleased to honour with the gift of prophecy By which gift bestowed not upon a few persons in one Nation but as their Prophets foretold upon all flesh these things which were then lockt up in secret are now laid open to the view of all and so plainly revealed that we reade of ETERNALL LIFE oftner in the New Testament then they did of health and riches and victory and long life in the Old Blessed be the tender mercy of our God should all those that have any faith say who hath called us into his marvellous light whereby we see such things as eye never saw and see them so clearly that we cannot reasonably doubt of them We enjoy the body of that whereof they had but the shadow We have that in substance which they had but in picture The promise of that is ours which they had onely in the type We have the proof the evidence the demonstration of that which was onely represented to them in mysticall figures So far are we illuminated beyond those great Souls who were the glory of their times that we understand the meaning of their own Books and the signification
after millions of ages are spent in the heavenly mansions as there was at the very first entrance into them Death being destroyed by him who is the Resurrection and the Life and who dieth no more an immortall Soul shall inhabit an immortall Body and they shall be for ever with the Lord. Where they shall be for ever employed in those happy exercises before mentioned which will for ever be to be done again In the doing of them there will be infinite pleasure and in the repetition of them there will be no disrelish but an infinite increase of pleasure As they always know so they shall always be knowing more For new beauties we may well think will discover themselves in an infinite object and this will excite a fresh love and that a more vigorous joy And so for ever round again there will be knowing loving and rejoycing more and more without any end It is but a little that can be said of ETERNITY though we should speak of it to the end of Time Nay in Eternity it self we shall not be able to come to the End of it in our thoughts no more then in our being because it hath none We can never know it all because it is still to come And therefore how little of it will this leaf of paper contain or should we write never so much how shall we be able now to reach the description of a thing so sublime Thankfull acclamations to the goodness of our Saviour for bringing life and immortality to light and serious admirations at the amazing greatness of what we know of it will be far more acceptable as well as more easie then a long discourse about it And therefore I shall end this Chapter with my wishes that this Blessedness I am speaking of may not seem small in our eyes because we can relate so little of it but rather appear the greater and the more desirable because we see it is beyond our present understanding Though this vast Circle of Eternity cannot be measured by our thoughs that makes it but so much the more excellent then our Span of time And though this LIFE comprehend such pleasures as we cannot now enjoy that doth but exalt it above the poor pleasures of this present life which we can first enjoy and then contemn We are not able it is true to conceive nor can it enter into our hearts what God hath in store for those that love him but this should onely excite our longings to conceive it and make us sigh and say when we think of enjoying God himself and of an eternall enjoyment of him O the fulness of God! O the infiniteness of him that is the Life of this LIFE Who can tell what thou art O most Blessed for ever by whom all things were made and who art All that can possibly be What comforts shine from the brightness of thy face How joyfull wilt thou make us with the light of thy countenance when we shall see thee as thou art It will put greater gladness into our hearts then if all the glory of the world should smile upon us But what eye can be strong enough to behold so great a Splendour what excellent creatures must they be made who shall be capable to SEE GOD It casts us into a trance when we do but think of being eternally beloved of thee O what will it doe to feel our selves ever ever the objects of thy infinite love The beauteous frame of the Heavens is exceeding admirable in our eyes O what a goodly World is this in which thou sufferest thine Enemies to live What a glorious torch is the Sun which thou hast lighted to shine on the unjust as well as on the just Who then can hope to know till he sees what the pleasures are which thou hast prepared for thy Friends what a glorious Light shall shine from thy presence upon the face of those that love thee Their hearts now cannot hold the smallest glimpse of that which shall for ever bless and ravish them with its joys But how can we hope to see it unless thou wilt raise us above our selves and make us no longer men of this world but children of the Resurrection and equall to the holy Angels We believe and rejoyce to think that thou wilt account us worthy to obtain that World and the resurrection of the dead It is the greatest pleasure we have here to hope we shall enjoy all the happiness of which we now discourse nay far more infinitely more then can be conceived For how great will that happiness be August de Civ Dei cap. ult where we shall neither feel any evill nor want any good where all our work will be the praises of God who shall be all in all where no sloth shall make us cease to praise him nor any necessity call us to other employment There will be true glory indeed where no man shall be praised either by the errour or the flattery of him that praiseth True honour that will be which shall be denied to no worthy person nor given to any unworthy Nay the unworthy shall not so much as seek it there where none are permitted to come but such as are worthy True peace is there where nothing shall fall cross to our desires either from our selves or any other There He who gave Vertue will be its Reward having promised that he himself then which nothing can be greater nothing better will be the portion of it What else shall we understand by those words I will be their God and they my people but that I will be their Satisfaction I will be all that every one can honestly desire both life and health and sustenance and riches and glory and honour and all good For so we reade that God will be all in all He will be the End of our desires who will be seen without end and loved without lothing and praised without weariness This will be the office this will be the inclination this will be the work of all in that Eternall Life which is common to all There we shall sing the mercies of the Lord for ever There we shall keep that truly greatest Sabbath which hath no Evening There we shall rest from labour and see we shall see and love we shall love and praise Behold what will be in the End without end For what else is our End but to come to the Kingdom which hath no End Amen CHAP. V. Of the Certainty of this ETERNALL LIFE whose Excellency is a little farther illustrated out of the Holy Scriptures WHen I reflect upon the foregoing Meditations concerning the LIFE to come and the ETERNITY of it I begin to think I have wrong'd it much by so poor and dull a description of so great a Good and by endeavouring to draw that into a few particular considerations which hath in it innumerable perfections It had been more becoming our ignorance perhaps to have admired its fulness then to undertake
wicked Whatsoever it was God told him he could not comprehend it but must be content with the sight onely of his back parts not of his face xxxiii Exod. ult That is saith Maimonides with the knowledge of something of his Essence or as he elsewhere expounds it * More Nev. p. i. c. 21. of his Works and Attributes of which he had such an obscure knowledge as we have of a man whose back parts we have seen but never beheld his face To be so intimately acquainted with God and his mind as he wish'd was the priviledge of the Messiah alone who had the clearest and fullest sight of the Glory of the Father both of his Essence and his Will and his gracious intentions towards us for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the bosome of the Father and therefore sees his face as the Scripture speaks and hath not merely some obscure representations of him like that of a man when he turns his back to us but a full view of him in all his perfections of which he himself is the very Image And what he saw he hath by God's express will revealed to us and discovered those things which eye never beheld but were kept secret from the foundation of the world concerning the glorious rewards which his love will give to all pious persons For since I have proved that he is his Son we cannot imagine that he presumed to say more then he knew or told us things out of his own mind onely when he spake of ETERNALL LIFE as he frequently did but what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth as it is iii. John 32. We cannot believe otherwise 3. when we look upon him as the Son of God but that he must needs speak the very truth to us As he could not but know the Mind of God if he was so one with him so he could not but speak to us according to what he knew of his Mind For as the Father is Truth so is the Son because he is perfectly the same with the Father We worship the Father of Truth and the Son the Truth who are two in person but one in consent and agreement and identity of will as Origen * L. viii contra Celsum speaks explaining those words of our Saviour I and the Father are one x. Joh. 30. and I am the Truth xiv 6. We may be confident that the words of both are equally faithfull and true So God the Father bad St. John write of his own sayings as I observed before xxi Rev. 5. And in the same style our Saviour commands him to write of himself These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witness iii. Rev. 14. John Baptist had said as much before iii. Joh. 34. He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God To which the words of our Saviour in another place of that Gospell perfectly accord xii 49 50. I have not spoken of my self but the Father which sent me he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak And I know that his commandment is EVERLASTING LIFE whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak And 4. he hath no less Power then he hath Truth but being the Son of God the heir of all things can make good his gracious promises and put us into the possession of the Eternall Inheritance which we expect as coheirs with him He was declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead i. Rom. 4. according to his own prayer just before he offered up himself to God Father the hour is come glorify thy Son that thy Son may glorify thee As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him xvii Joh. 1 2. And can we think 5. that he will not faithfully execute this trust and imploy his power for the end to which it was given him He would not then be like his Father who keepeth Truth for ever As he also most certainly will being the same Jesus yesterday and to day and for ever xiii Heb. 8. For if Moses was faithfull in the house of another wherein he was but a Servant no doubt our Lord who is a Son over his own house or family iii. Heb. 6. will not fail to discharge his royall office with all exactness but manifest himself to be like his Name The Word of God xix Rev. 13. Faithfull and true ver 11. This RECORD concerning him St. John thought so weighty and secure an evidence that he concludes all good Christians as sure of Eternall Life as if it were already in their hands For after he had said here in the words I am explaining that God hath given us i.e. made us a promise of Eternall Life which is in his Son he adds immediately which is the Second thing I intended to note that we have eternall life Which cannot signify less then that we have such a good right to it that we may account it ours The reason is because he that effectually believes in Jesus hath him in whose power it is to give it and who hath passed his word many a time that he will bestow it So you reade ver 12. He that hath the Son hath life He may be as sure of it as if it were in his present possession for by faith in Christ he is united to him who is the fountain and well-spring of life and bliss and stands ingaged divers ways to make all the Members of his Body happy with himself For to as many as received him he gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power or authority to become the Sons of God i. Joh. 12. who may legally claim the consummation of their adoption in the Eternall Inheritance They are by his grant unquestionable heirs of it and have such a strong title to it that they can never be defeated of it This heavenly Estate is in them as Lawyers speak though they be not in it They have an indisputable right I mean to it and may call it theirs though they be not yet seised of it and have not taken possession which in due time none can hinder or debar them of So the Apostle would have the Faithfull stedfastly believe for this was the very end for which he recorded the Evidences forementioned that they might know they have eternall life ver 13. which he repeats often in his Gospell as you may reade iii. Joh. 36. v. 24. vi 47. where he asserts this in the most earnest manner and assures them that he spake of this matter out of certain knowledge Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life He is a most happy man and may look upon himself as owner of more then all this world is worth Which he can never lose though he be not yet entred upon his inheritance because it is in the custody of him who hath
would not be such a Son as he now declared him able to bless all Nations Who it is manifest had him not for their visible Leader as the Israelites had Moses and Joshua to give them a temporall inheritance and therefore were to have his spirituall Divine Benediction in another world where He is the authour of eternall Salvation to all that obey him And lest you should imagine this to be merely a collection of mine own which I have forced out of these words I will refer you to our Saviour's own interpretation of them in that speech of his v. Joh. 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself Here he teaches us to argue that if he be the SON of God as this voice said he was then he is by the same voice declared to have LIFE in himself because the Father hath so whom his SON his onely SON doth perfectly resemble And he teaches us withall that this is a power communicated to him as he is the Christ for he saith the Father hath given him to have life in himself and that as you reade in the next verse because he is the Son of man that is the great person he promised to send of the seed of Abraham Now we reade of no other time when the Father might be said to have given him this power but now when he owned him for his SON and anointed him as you shall hear with the Holy Ghost to preach the glad tidings of immortal life Now God the Father sealed and authorized him to be the person to whom we must repair for the meat that endureth to everlasting life vi Joh. 27. He declared him now to be the bread of God as he calls himself which gives life to the world ver 33. the bread of life ver 35. the living bread ver 51. the manna which came down from heaven and nourishes to eternall life in short to have all things committed to him that whatsoever things the Father doeth these also you may be sure the Son doeth likewise v. Joh. 19. He doeth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the same equality and perfect likeness of power as Greg. Nazianz * Orat. 36. p. 584. D. expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 likewise in this place So that we need no more doubt of his ability then we do of God the Father's to give eternall life to all his followers II. And that he will imploy his power to make us partakers of it which is the other part of the Record concerning this Eternal Life is manifest from the next part of this voice of God the Father which said in thee I am well pleased He expresses here that he takes a singular delight in this person and bears such a dear affection to him that there is nothing he will deny him Now that hereby is denoted also his exceeding great love and good will towards all those that belong to his Son you may be soon satisfied by observing that these are the very words wherein God declares his loving-kindness towards his Church in the days of Christ lxii Isa 4. There the Lord calls her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hephzi-bah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some Greek versions render it my delight is in her That 's the reason he himself gives of her name as it there follows for the LORD delighteth in thee Where the LXX use the very word in which this voice from heaven is recorded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the LORD is well pleased in thee From whence I think it reasonable to conclude that the same thing being said of both God declared his delight in all Christians and the pleasure he will take in bestowing his benefits on them when he declared himself to be well pleased in this his dear Son whom they acknowledge for their Lord and Master He tells us by this voice that he will be reconciled to us and forgetting our ill behaviour towards him will espouse us to himself as it follows in the Prophet in the tenderest love and rejoice to bestow his choisest favours on us And that this is no inference merely wrung from these words or a notion of my own contrivance you may presently agree if you consider that thus John Baptist in all likelihood understood them For seeing Jesus a little after he had baptized him coming towards him he cried out Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world i. Joh. 29. And again the next day after this he pointed two of his Disciples unto Jesus and said in part the very same words Behold the Lamb of God ver 36. Now what is it to be the Lamb of God but to be a Sacrifice of God's own appointment so pleasing and acceptable to him that it obtains all the ends for which it was offered And what is it to take away the sins of the world but by overcoming all the temptations to which Adam yielded and being obedient even to the death to restore us unto a right of entring Paradise again from whence our Sins have excluded us to open the Kingdom of heaven to all believers by removing as I may say the flaming Sword that is taking those obstacles out of the way that debarred us from approaching to the Tree of life This no doubt is the compleat meaning of Carrying away the sins of mankind which are the onely impediments that hinder us from the enjoyment of immortality and therefore being gone we have free leave to return to it Now John the Baptist had no other ground that we can find for this Conclusion but onely this Voice which I proved he heard from the Father concerning the pleasure which he took in his Son Whereby he did as good as affirm that his delight in Jesus who delighted to doe his will was so great that he would restore us into his ancient love for his sake and be perfectly appeased and reconciled to us by his means so that we should be no longer banished from his blessed presence but by the forgiveness of our sins be placed again in that happy state from which we had stood so long exiled II. Now from hence let us pass to take a review of the Second Testimony of the Father to him where we shall find the same thing recorded again that He hath given us eternall life and that this life is in his Son i.e. it is in his power to give it The places are well known where we may meet with it in xvii Matt. and other Evangelists which tell us that Jesus being on an high Mountain with three of his Disciples who were wont to attend him on particular occasions was transfigured before them and a voice came from Heaven which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him It would be too tedious to speak of this Mountain and his Transfiguration there in such a glorious manner that his Countenance
The testimony of worthy men as the Apostle here observes is readily received by us and therefore we ought to be afraid of being so rudely prophane as to reject the testimony of God which is of far greater weight then theirs and hath been solemnly given you see more then once for the confirmation of our Faith But God the Father willing more abundantly to shew if I may borrow those words in vi Heb. 17. unto the heirs of this promise the immutability of his counsel hath graciously vouchsafed us farther assurance and by his WORD hath told us as much as He himself declared by those voices from heaven What we are to understand by the WORD in this place I have shewn in the Former Treatise viz. the Lord Jesus himself God Man or God the WORD made flesh Orat. contra Gentes p. 49. who as St. Athanasius speaks is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Interpreter and Embassadour of his own Father For as by the word a man speaks we understand his Mind which is the fountain from whence it comes so but by a more lively representation and after an incomparably more excellent manner we beholding the power of the WORD come to the knowledge of his Father as our Saviour himself saith xiv Joh. 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also From him this Eternall WORD came down and was incarnate not onely to reveal his will but to die for our Sins and to seal what he had preached with his Bloud After which God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavens from whence he testified as loudly that he hath in him ETERNALL LIFE for us as he did that he is the SON OF GOD. This Witness therefore let us now examine and look over again the old Evidences which we formerly searched wherein I doubt not we shall find this Truth most clearly contained And the Testimony of the WORD you know as well as that of the FATHER was threefold once to St. Stephen a second time to St. Paul and a third to this beloved Disciple St. John I. For the First of these it stands upon record in so many words that St. Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost and looking up stedfastly to heaven saw the heavens opened and beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand vii Act. 55 56. Thus he declares not to some simple people who perhaps might believe him for his confidence but to the great Councill of Jerusalem who he knew were very much disaffected nay perfectly opposite to this truth To them he protests in open Court when he was upon his triall and bids them mark it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold take notice of what I now tell you I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God And he said it though he knew he stood in certain perill of his life for this declaration It was for no other reason that Jesus himself was put to death but because he said He was the Son of God and that they should see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven And therefore for him to confirm so peremptorily this odious Truth after they had killed Him and thereby make them guilty of innocent bloud yea of the bloud of their great King was a Crime he might well expect they would punish with as great severity as was in their power to express which we may be confident he would never have provoked had he not been so sure of the Glory of our Saviour that he could not hold his peace For who is there so frantick as to expose himself to death for such an unprofitable lie It is not in the nature of man to suffer so shamefully as he did in his own person merely to bring a little false honour to another To fansy a person of his Wisedom guilty of such madness is a kind of distraction in him that supposes it who were he sober would be taught otherwise by the abhorrence he feels in himself to throw away his life for a trifle Since there is not the least reason then to question but that this Holy man beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand i. e. the gates of Heaven being set open that he might have the favour to look into the celestiall palace the Majesty of God was there represented to him sitting on a Throne as it used to be in the propheticall Visions and he beheld the Lord Jesus the very next person to the Divine Majesty we may clearly see in this Vision both the things that St. John here asserts viz. that Eternall Life is in Jesus the Son of God to give to those that effectually believe on his Name I. As for the first the power wherewith he is invested to give Eternall LIFE it is visible from his standing at God's right hand which denotes his Omnipotent Virtue to effect what he pleases For by the right hand of God Jesus himself was exalted to the right hand of power as you reade ii Act. 33. v. 31. and therefore being placed there it signifies that he can doe for us what God hath done for him that is exalt us to the like glory in the heavens where he is And as this is a clear proof of one of the things here recorded that LIFE is in him so the other II. That God hath given the faithfull a right to this Eternall LIFE with him and that he will bestow it on us is no less evident from the very End of this Vision For we can see no other reason of this glorious appearance of our Saviour to him but to incourage him in his preaching and incite him to witness a good confession as he himself had done before this great Councill and before Pontius Pilate in hope that if it cost him his life as it had done our Saviour he should live and reign with him in that glorious place where he now beheld him This was the purpose of the heavenly WORD 's coming now to him that he might not doubt of his promises nor shrink in the least from what he had preached though he should die for it which would doe him no greater harm then to dispatch him presently to the celestiall habitations In the very beginning of his history we reade that he had no sooner heard the Indictment read which they had drawn up against him but before he spake a word for himself the whole Council behold his face as it had been the face of an Angel vi Act. 15. There appeared that is such a bright and sweet Majesty in his countenance as made him look like one of the celestial inhabitants who had already prevented the glorious state to which he was going And his Answer to their charge being ended their barbarous rage was not more apparent then it was that the heavens opened to receive his Spirit
and the last i. Rev. 11. and turning about to see who it was that spake to him our Saviour appeared in the form and shape of a King and Priest shining in glory as you reade vers 12 13 c. And thus he concludes his Revelation as he had begun xxii 13 16. I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end c. I Jesus have sent my Angel to testify unto you these things in the Churches Which is a demonstrative argument that Eternall Life is in him and that he wants no power to effect any thing he hath promised being equall to the Father Almighty whose Name else he would not have assumed II. And if we examine the sense and meaning of this Name we shall still be farther convinced that he will undoubtedly imploy his power to bestow upon us that Eternall Life which is in him For when the Almighty calls himself the First and the Last he either declares that he is the ETERNALL who gave being to all things and remains after they are all dead and gone or else as Oecolampadius and Calvin understand those words in Isaiah that he is the IMMUTABLE from first to last constant to himself and his promises Which is the gloss of R. Solomon upon the words who refers them to the help and assistence which God would give to the last as well as the first of Abraham's children What he had been to Israel the same he would still be He had at the first taken them to be his people and therefore in the latter days he would still own them and shew his speciall affection to them I see no reason why these two expositions should be thought so inconsistent as to exclude one the other when they may both be very well joyned together And then our Lord intends by the assumption of this Title that St. John and all the Christian Churches should look upon him as the Eternall God able to perpetuate his love and mercy towards them world without end and as alway the same unchangeable Wisedom and Goodness whose mind and will is no more alterable then his power but remains as firmly fixed as God the Father Almighty doth So that look what God the Father now is or hath been or what himself hath ever been to the body of his Church the same He will still continue immutably to our endless happiness If God the Father was and is and will be the Alpha or beginning the same is He likewise All things come from him to his Church of which he is the Founder by him it subsists and continues and he hath such a creative power in him that he can give all blessings even Life everlasting to it For though we die yet he is the Omega who remains still in being after all the world is buried in its ruines and therefore can quicken our dust and ashes and gather them up to himself and make them glorious God the Father raised him from the dead and gave him glory and therefore seeing He hath the same power as appears by these titles He can doe as much for us and give us a glorious resurrection In this God the Father faithfully fulfilled the promises he had made him of glorifying him with himself and therefore we may be confident he will be as true to us and make good all the promises he hath left us for our incouragement in his obedience because he is perfectly such as his Father is And to come a little nearer to that interpretation which Rabbi Solomon gives of the words of the Prophet where this expression is first used our Lord would have us think that as God the Father Almighty having begun to shew mercy and favour to Israel would not fail to go on and continue the same kindness to the end so He being likewise the ALPHA having begun that is to raise himself a Church and to doe great things for it even to die and purchase it with his bloud would undoubtedly be the OMEGA finish that is his own work and bring that of which he had laid the foundation to an happy conclusion never ceasing his kindness till he had perfected his Saints in that Life he had begun to bestow upon them Or as he began in this world to raise men from the dead to bestow upon them other great benefits to make them very precious promises of greater favours and to seal them with his bloud so he would have them rest assured he would continue to the end to doe them good and at the last raise all his faithfull servants from the dead and take them up to live with himself and in the mean time perform every other promise he had made for their present satisfaction and support in this troublesome world As he died for them so he would have them make account he lived for them because he is always the same at last the very same that he was at first And therefore since he lives they might expect to live also III. But he did not leave them merely to draw these inferences themselves from that great Name whereby he now made himself known to St. John but immediately after he had told who he was he more clearly and particularly declares this very thing that he hath Life in himself For you reade that St. John beholding him in such glory with a countenance as bright as the Sun when it shineth in its strength which was a sight too strong for our weak eyes to look upon i. Rev. 16. fell at his feet as one dead He was as much astonished at his presence though he knew Jesus loved him as St. Paul was while he was a persecutour of him Which shews that our Lord appeared now in a most amazing glory too splendid for the capacity of his best Friends to endure long without the danger of ceasing to be men For so far were those words which our Lord spake from giving him life that like to those who heretofore beheld the glory of God he was more astonished at what he saw then comforted with what he heard and thought it is probable he should die presently and give up the ghost But in this trembling fit Jesus was pleased graciously to approach and laying his right hand on him bad him not fear nor let that Majesty of God which he beheld in him cast him into such a great consternation It is true indeed says he vers 17. I am the first and the last as I said before that is am invested with all the power of God bearing his Name and Authority but there is so much comfort in this that it ought rather to have transported thee with joy then struck thee with terrour For as it there follows vers 18. I who call my self Alpha and Omega the first and last am he that liveth and was dead I the very same person who loved thee and the rest of mankind so well as to die for you and never made use of my power to your hurt am
Israel And if we carefully enquite into it we shall find it to have been as clear a Witness that it is in his power and in his purpose to give Eternall Life to all his faithfull subjects I. For first the very end of its appearing was to invest him with the highest office and dignity which from this time he took upon him and exercised whereas before he had lived as a private person So you reade x. Act. 38. that he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Which being a ceremony whereby Kings are created we are to understand that by the coming down of the HOLY GHOST he was appointed our Lord and Sovereign one part of whose office is to bestow rewards on those that doe him good and faithfull service Now his Kingdom not being of this World as he professed and as was apparent by his life and death and yet he constantly asserting that he was a King and exercising severall acts of Royall Authority as I have formerly proved we must conclude that by this Vnction he was designed to be a King in the heavens where he disposes of all places and preferments and will promote all his loyall subjects to the greatest honours and dignities There is no reason to doubt of it for the Glory of the Lord which at his Baptism descended on him so as it had never done on any man was the Seal or if you will the Crown of God upon him which markt him to be the Lord of Glory from whom we may expect the blessing of Eternall Life The very opening also of the Heavens at the descent of the HOLY GHOST upon him signified as much as St. Chrysostom thinks and was a plain declaration of the exceeding great favour of God towards us Who now open'd to us as he speaks * Homil. xii in Matthaeum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those gates above and sent the Spirit from thence to call us to our celestiall Country and not simply to call us but with the greatest prerogative for he hath not made us Angels and Archangels but making us the Sons of God and his beloved Sons so he draws us to that heavenly portion II. Which we may with the greater confidence expect because the HOLY GHOST as I observed heretofore not onely came down upon him but rested or took up its abode in him It did not onely overshadow him as the Glory of the Lord did the blessed Virgin but descending on him settled it self in him as its habitation insomuch that every day one might see the Glory of the Lord shining in him Thus John Baptist who was a carefull observer of it relates in i. Joh. 32 33. where he twice takes notice of the abiding and the resting of the HOLY GHOST with him In which Isaac Abarbinel himself in xi Isa a known enemy to Jesus confesses the excellency of Christ's prophecy consists This being one of the Ten privileges which the Messiah he saith shall be indued withall that the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him xi Isa 2. So it did upon our Saviour as an undoubted Prophet testified in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily and therefore He must needs have Life in himself and out of his fulness as St. John speaks we may expect to receive grace for grace For he that bad John baptize you may farther consider told him that this person who had the HOLY GHOST not onely descending on him but residing in him was He that should baptize men with the Holy Ghost Be a King that is in the heavens and have all power committed to him as he would demonstrate by sending the Holy Ghost upon others as now it came upon him And till that time came it was as visible as the Light wherein the HOLY GHOST appeared that it did inhabit in him by the constant sensible effects of his Divine power every-where St. Luke as I observed in the First Part remembers how he returned immediately from Jordan where he was baptized full of the Holy Ghost iv Luk. 1. As was manifest not onely from a number of miraculous operations but from the no-less wonderfull wisedom whereby he spake and opened the ancient Oracles of God For to this end also he was anointed and herein he exercised the authority of a King as the very first place of the Propheticall Books which he expounded clearly tells us iv Luk. 18 19. Where you may note that the great business for which he was anointed by the Spirit was to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The time of grace that is wherein the good will and pleasure of God was shewn to the world which consists principally in giving remission of sins and eternall Life This he came to proclaim and publish with the power of the HOLY GHOST having all those divine gifts mentioned in xi Isaiah to qualify him for this high office four of which belong to the Mind and was well represented by that luminous body which came down upon him at his Baptism and one to the Will and another to the power of action viz. Wisedome Vnderstanding Counsel Might Knowledge and the Fear of the Lord. He was able on all occasions to speak most divinely to teach as one that had authority to evade all the secret plots which his adversaries had upon him to search into their very hearts and desires to shew the straight way to that bliss which he preached to foil all the power of the Enemy and to raise even the dead to life again Which were evident demonstrations that the Spirit of the Lord rested on him and made him the greatest Prophet that ever was not onely the Preacher but the Giver of ETERNALL LIFE III. For as by this power of the Holy Ghost it was manifest he had Life in himself so God's intention to give this Life to us was apparent from the manner of its descent which is said to have been like a Dove The phrase indeed is dubious and may signify onely that this glorious Body which came down from heaven was in its descent or falling like the coming down of a Dove with its wings spred abroad Yet since St. Luke saith that it came in a bodily shape and the Church though the words do not necessarily inforce it hath thus understood it we may most probably conclude the word Like hath relation not onely to the coming down but to the Dove it self telling us that the form or figure of this celestiall glory which now appeared carried the resemblance of that creature Now to think that this form was assumed without any design at all would be very contrary to common reason which leads us rather to conceive that God would shew at the very first entrance of our Saviour upon his office by this known emblem of meekness and love what great favour and kindness he intended to shew to mankind and with what a tender spirit of gentleness and sweetness our Lord should exercise the Ministry
can doe for our Souls in the other World He inspired them with such Understanding by the power of the Holy Ghost that the greatest Doctours in Israel were not able to resist the Wisedom whereby they spake They understood clearly all the ancient Prophecies There was no veil or cloud any longer upon them but the Holy Ghost made them see the whole Mystery which was wrapt up in them It revealed all Types explained all Figures led them into the Sanctuary and Most holy place shew'd them the true meaning of the Mercy-seat and laid all those things which did but obscurely point at ETERNALL LIFE so open and naked that none could chuse but see if he did not shut his eyes they were not the same men that they had been but just before and were made thus learned without any humane helps of instruction A convincing argument of his power to raise our Minds when we depart this World and have not the clouds of this Body before our eyes to as great a pitch of knowledge as I discoursed of in the beginning of this Treatise And the suddenness of this change was as clear an argument that he can doe it without difficulty and that there is not so great a distance between this present state and that which we expect but he can presently translate us to it And 4. this Knowledge you may consider farther being accompanied with a mighty Power whereby the Holy Ghost inabled them not onely to give eyes to the blind feet to the lame health to the sick but life also to the dead as was very well known in those days was an undoubted testimony that He from whom it came is able also to change these vile bodies and make them like to his own most glorious body For it is visible he hath a power whereby he can subdue all things to himself To take away life you may think is no such great matter that we should take any notice of it yet to doe even this with a word for lying to the HOLY GHOST was an argument of a mighty power residing in the Apostles And when Abarbinell speaks of the power of the Messiah to work Miracles from that Prophecy of Isaiah xi he alledges these words to prove it vers 4. He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked Which was never literally fulfilled during our Saviour's stay on Earth where he did nothing but good to men but was made good after he went to Heaven by his power in his Ministers who smote that wicked couple mentioned Act. v. without any hands merely with the breath of their mouth What shall we think then of their restoring men to life after they were dead for which they were more notorious We cannot but look on this as a great witness of the wonderfull power of Jesus in them and consequently of the life and glory he intended to bestow on sinfull dust and ashes He would not have filled them thus full of his Spirit if he had not meant thereby to raise their expectations above all that even by its power they at present felt Had it not been his design to make them hereafter like to God he would not have preferred them to such a resemblance of his Wisedom and Power here in this World They that could raise others from the dead had no reason to doubt of being raised up themselves When they saw themselves made the conveyers of such great blessings to all mankind they must needs stand fair they could not but conclude for a very large portion of his favour to their own persons For the truth is 5. these gifts which were then given to men proclaimed aloud the marvellous bounty of our Saviour as well as his power and would not let them doubt of a far more glorious exercise of it in the other World then they saw and were the instruments of in this And if any imagine that though this might be a testimony to them of Eternall Life yet it is none to us the contrary will soon be evident if you do but consider 6. that our Lord having made a promise of Eternall Life not onely to his Apostles but to all that believe on his Name the HOLY GHOST puts us in strong hope of it by demonstrating his faithfulness to his word For the Effusion of it was the performance of a promise which he had frequently made when he was with them both before his death xiv Joh. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter and after his Resurrection xxiv Luk. 49. Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you c. i. Act. 4 5. Being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which said he you have heard of me For you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence And therefore we have great reason to look for the promise of Eternall Life with much confidence because He who made it was so faithfull and just in fulfilling his former promise at the time appointed Especially since he thereby demonstrated that he hath sufficient power to doe for us according to his word For he who made such an extraordinary change in them on the day of Pentecost that they were able in an instant to speak all languages to prophesy and understand the secret counsels of God can change us we need not question from glory to glory and at last transform us so perfectly as to make us like to himself And I may adde to strengthen this consideration 7. that our Lord declared he would send the HOLY GHOST for this very purpose that they might believe the rest of his holy promises particularly this great one of Eternall Life Which is the meaning of that which you reade in xiv Joh. 12. where after he had told them ver 9 10 11. that God appeared to them and shew'd himself in the Works that He did which demonstrated that the Father dwelt in him and consequently that he would go and prepare a place for them and take them up to himself he adds these remarkable words Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth in me the works that I doe shall he doe also and greater works then these shall he doe because I go unto my Father As if he had said Mark now what I farther declare to you and rely upon it as a certain truth The works that I have done are sufficient to convince you but for a greater confirmation of your faith that I am going to the Father and am the Way the Truth and the Life I tell you that after I am departed these wonderfull things shall be repeated before the eyes of the world by those that believe on me Nay some things shall be done which your eyes have not yet seen because I go to my Father i. e. have power in the Heavens
longer upon such considerations as these when his Doctrine which is the Second thing I mentioned is so holy and pure so heavenly and divine that the constant preacher of such things could not be guilty of so great an impiety as to call the God of heaven at last to bear witness to a known untruth No it condemns lesser lies to so severe a punishment that to say he was sent of God with the words of Eternall life nay was the Way the Truth and the Life when he knew he was not deserved according to his own sentence the heaviest condemnation To which if you add the manner of his Life which was the last thing it will compleat the Demonstration For it was so perfectly conformable to his Doctrine that we cannot but think he believed it and so could not die with a lie in his mouth Particularly it was so free from all covetous designs and from hunting after the applause and praise of men that it is incredible he should seek that by death which he had despised through the whole course of his life If he was so thirsty of vain-glory as to lose his life for it why did he not make it his business to win all he could of it while he lived Why did he not lay the foundation of his after-fame by insinuating himself in the most diligent and men-pleasing manner into the favour of all the Jewish nation and conform himself so perfectly to their humour that they might have presently made him their King Nay why did he not accept the offer when the people intended to advance him to the throne This had been a more likely way to honour and renown if that was all his aim then the lifting him up upon a Cross He might have hoped to build a lasting glory on the love of the Scribes and Elders of the people whereas this infamous death he could not but see would make him so odious that it would rob him of all mens good word and quite frustrate the design of winning a reputation among men This is a truth of which I presume by this time the most suspicious and unbelieving are convinced who cannot but confess that the voluntary death of such a person as this and a death so horrid and ignominious is a plain testimony of his sincerity and proves beyond any reasonable contradiction that he did not invent his Doctrine himself but believed it to be of God and did not seek to gain any thing by it but immortall life and glory in the world to come VI. Now that we must needs be great gainers hereby as well as himself will appear if you consider that he came into the world on purpose to doe mankind good as the business of his whole life testifies He went about doing good and sought all occasions of obliging even the most ungratefull He had compassion on every body he met withall and never denied a cure to those that begg'd it though they were never so poor and contemptible He imployed his Disciples also who attended on him in the same charitable works of healing all manner of diseases and easting out unclean spirits He bad them go and speak peace unto every house into which they entred And as for themselves he professed the greatest love imaginable to them as they themselves have recorded He called them his Friends and did not use them as Servants nay his Children and at last his Brethren which are all terms of much kindness and tenderness which he ever expressed towards them From whence I conclude that unless he could have served them better by his death then by his longer life he would not have so soon and so willingly gone to the Cross and there left these dear Friends for whose sake he had hitherto lived more then his own If he had not died for their sake too and been certain he should thereby shew more love to them and doe them better service then any other way he would have been as much inclined to stay still with them as they were to desire it He saw how loth they were to part with him and with what sad countenances and troubled spirits they received the news He was incompassed with sighs and groans when he did but mention it for sorrow as he speaks xvi Joh. 6. had filled their hearts Would not this have moved a heart less tender then his to alter this resolution when it was in his power to stay longer with them How could he endure to see their tears flow so fast when he was able to dry them up with the speaking but one word that he would not leave them If he had not been sure that he was going as he told them to his Father and that it was on purpose to prepare a place for them which ought to have made them rejoyce rather then weep because he would come again and receive them to himself that where he was there they might be also xiv Joh. 1 2 3 28. without all doubt his great love would have yielded to their prayers and commanded his power to prolong their happiness in his company He should be able he verily believed to doe greater wonders for them and bestow greater blessings upon them if he did not hearken to their importunities or else we cannot but think if we measure him by our selves he would have still continued with these his dear Companions especially since none as he professed could snatch him from their society but it was his own free choice to leave them V. And he earnestly desired them to believe as much and to look upon his BLOUD as the Seal of a New Covenant which contained better promises then the former between God and men So he said just before his death when he spoke of the Representation of it This is my BLOVD of the New Testament or Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins xxvi Matt. 28. And so the Apostles believed and spake of his BLOUD in the same terms when by his resurrection from the dead they saw that it was the BLOVD of the Covenant x. Heb. 29. and that he was most eminent for this above all other things as the expression is xiii Heb. 20. where the Apostle calls him the Shepherd of the sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was great in the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Now this is one Article every body knows one of the promises contained in it that we shall as certainly have Eternall Life as Israel in due time was brought to the possession of the good Land God promised to their Fathers Abraham you reade xv Gen. 7. had the word of God for it that he would give his posterity the Land of Canaan into which he had brought him out of Chaldaea And when he made so bold as to ask how he should know that this was true you find ver 9 10 11. that God passed this promise into a Covenant which was made by the bloud of sundry beasts
much as he desired and when they had done there were twelve baskets of fragments which remained over and above to them that had eaten This Miracle made the multitude conclude that certainly He was the Prophet who should come into the world and therefore they purposed whether he would or no to come and make him their King ver 14 15. And when he avoided it by crossing the sea privately ver 16 17 c. they also took shipping to follow after him and never rested till they had found him ver 24 25. Whereupon our Lord takes occasion to tell them how sorry he was to see them so industriously pursue the food of their bodies and not mind the food of their Souls to which his late Miracle led them and in plain terms tell them that Spirituall food was himself who was the Bread of life they should hunger after more then for the loaves wherewith they had been filled and that if they did eat of him they should have everlasting life and he would raise them up at the last day ver 26 27. and 35 c. This they might easily have believed if they had considered the Miracle of the loaves which was a token from God that he could support them eternally For why should not he be able to give life who so strangely preserved it and out of a little dust make a body as he had out of a few crums made so many loaves If their desires had been fixed upon this Eternall Life which he preached as much as upon the present they would as naturally have taken this Miracle for the Seal whereby God noted him to be the giver of it as they took it to be a mark that he could thus fill their bellies every day and save them the labour of seeking food after the manner that Moses fed their Fathers with Manna in the Wilderness V. And next to this if you consider how he dispossessed Devils which was a Wonder as frequent as any if told the world plainly that He was come to destroy the works of the Devil to overthrow his kingdom and devest him of his power unless they would still uphold him in it By Sin he held his Throne this gave him all the power he had over men and made them his vassals and slaves Who being so often rescued out of his hands and he so openly foiled it was a sign that Jesus was come to take away the sins of the world and thereby disarm him of the power of death and restore men again to that everlasting Life out of which the Devil had before thrown mankind as our Saviour now threw him out of them All this the Jews themselves confess shall be the work of the Messiah According to what we reade in the Authour of the Book concerning the Service of the Sanctuary who saith that the King Messiah shall restore all things to their first estate so that the intention of God shall be fulfilled which he had in the Creation of the World for the World shall return to that naturall perfection which it had before rebellious Adam sinned The Prophets are faithfull witnesses of this as it is written lxv Isa 19. I will rejoyce in Jerusalem and joy in my people and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying And so he speaks also in another place of that Book xxv 8. He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces The Authour also of Baal Hatturim as I find him cited by Hackspan * Cabala Judaica Sect. 72. confesses as much in his Notes upon xix Num. where he saith In the times of Salvation or the days of Christ there shall be no use of the Ashes of the red heifer according to that He will swallow up death in victory Which words are cited by St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 54. as the other part of that verse is by the voice St. John heard from heaven xxi Rev. 4. when he is treating of the Resurrection of the dead as the great comfort of Christian people Who may well expect it and all the blessings that attend upon it from our Lord Jesus the true Messiah if to all that hath been said we adde the consideration of what follows VI. That he raised even dead men to life again which was the greatest Miracle of all and at that time the greatest witness of the SPIRIT to him This shew'd that indeed he had Life in himself and would bestow it upon us as I have already noted for he raised them on purpose to declare what he was and what they might expect from him viz. a perfect victory over death and the grave Which appeared most remarkably in the resurrection of Lazarus who was the most famous instance of this power residing in him For the Miracle wrought on him was not so little as the recovering one who drew his last breath which was the case of the Centurion's Servant nor the restoring one to life who was newly dead as in the case of the Ruler of the Synagogue's daughter nor the raising a young man who was carried out towards his grave as the Widow's son was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Greg. Nyssen speaks * De Hominis opifici◠cap. xxv his Wonder-working proceeds to something more sublime A man of grown years not onely dead but musty already putrid and in a dissolution as he describes his condition so far gone toward corruption that his own friends thought it not fit our Lord should go to uncover his tomb because of the ill smell which might be expected this man I say with one word of our Lord's was restored again to life firm and compacted and though he was bound hand and foot with grave-cloaths it did not hinder his coming out of his grave which as Theophanes thinks was a Miracle little less then his Resurrection Who can chuse but look on this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the same St. Gregory's words as the beginning the little Mysteries as I may call them of the Vniversall Resurrection into which Christ now initiated his Disciples For it is apparent by this He is the Lord of Life who can raise a putrid rotten carkass as well as those who are but newly departed the world And this was no private business transacted onely between him and his Disciples but a thing so notorious that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the multitude who were there present bare record of it xii Joh. 17. That is they affirmed it to be no vain report but told those of Jerusalem whither our Saviour was then going who had not seen the Miracle done that it was a certain Truth upon their knowledge Which they might affirm with the greater assurance because as Theophanes * Archiepis Taurom Hom. xxv observes they were confirmed in this belief by the testimony of all their senses By their own voice which shewed him the Tomb
man much excelling all the modern Jews who could find no places to this purpose plainer then those cited by Albo some of which he alledges and adds others * in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no less weak and obscure Such as that iv Deut. 4. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord are alive every one of you this day They that were good says he Moses onely acknowledges for the living and he witnesses to them immortality by adding ye are alive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this day For this to day is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 world without end If he could have met with any plain promises who can think that a man of his parts would have used such sancifull proofs as this And yet this place I find R. Gamaliel most relied on when after a long dispute with the Sadducees who would not be satisfied that the Resurrection could be proved out of the Law he at last referred them hither * Manasseh ben Israel L. i. de Resur c. 1. But he explained the words thus As ye are all alive to day so you shall live also in the world to come For he supposes some of those whom Moses speaks of were dead and yet the text says they were alive because their union with God by cleaving to him made them immortall Which is not much better then the next proof which follows in Philo who fansies that in x. Lev. 2. where it is said Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tokens of their immortality is proclaimed And that to say they died before the Lord is as good as to say they lived for it was not lawfull to bring a dead thing into the presence of God And this says he is that which the Lord presently adds I will be sanctified of those who draw nigh to me for the dead as it is in the Psalms praise not God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the work of the living Just thus he proves in another Book * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 164. with the like force that Abel lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an happy life in God because the Scripture saith the voice of his bloud cried out against his wicked Brother Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how could he be able to speak if he was not in being An argument which rather proves Moses spake nothing clearly of these things for if he had this Writer would not have contented himself with such slender inferences Which are as weak as that of R. Johanan who proves the Resurrection from that in xviii Num. 28. where they are commanded to give the Lord 's Terumah to Aaron the Priest Who did not live saith he to enter into the land of Canaan and therefore must be raised again to receive the portion of the Lord in that good Land And yet this is as strong an argument as that of R. Solomon who concludes it merely from the two Jods in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ii Gen. 7. where it is said the LORD God formed man c. This signifies says he that man must be formed twice once in this world and once in the next at the resurrection of the dead There are more of this nature in the Gemara of the Sanhedrin * Vid. Coch. c. xi n. 2 3 9. which I shall not trouble the Reader withall but onely note that the weakness and uncertainty of these proofs make the Samaritans brag of the advantage they have of the Jews because they say in their Pentateuch which therefore they would have to be the true copy of Moses his Law there is an express text to prove the Resurrection and the Life to come which the Jews cannot shew So desirous were all that had the possession of these Books to find these Truths plainly recorded there which even those words which the Samaritans pretend to be a part of their Law do not contain All is dark and doubtfull after their best glosses and inferences and we can conclude nothing certainly but that God did not reveal these things to Moses who was sent to make a covenant of another nature with the Israelites Whence it was that they were so much disputed by a great party among the Jews as every body knows the Pharisees affirming and the Sadducees denying Which left the minds of the multitude in much doubt while they saw these two Schools so resolutely opposing one the other And if we pass from the Law to the Prophets especially to the Prophet Isaiah who as Abarbinel says in his Preface to him speaks more clearly of the Resurrection of the dead then all the rest we shall not receive much greater satisfaction For the places from whence it is deduced do so evidently belong to another sense in the first intention of the Prophet that it forces us to confess this Doctrine was but obscurely delivered in those days and that we could not have been certain of any other sense without the benefit of a Revelation The proofs which Abarbinel brings are xviii Isa 4. xxiv 18 21 22 23. xxv 8. xxvi 19. lxvi 8 14 24. and such like which when we have seriously examined it will excite us with the greater admiration to acknowledge the infinite grace of God towards us who do not see these things through shadows nor have need of long discourses to extract this heavenly Doctrine out of our Books but in express terms reade So God loved the world that he gave his onely-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life iii. Joh. 16. And this is the promise that he hath promised us even ETERNALL LIFE 1 Epist ii 25. What is there in all the Prophets like to this I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die xi Joh. 25 26. The clearest place is that in Daniel xii 2. And yet if we reade the words going before not to say Mr. Brightman * Ib. in xx Rev. 11. Grotius and other learned Writers upon the place we shall not be able to deny that he is speaking of a particular Resurrection from exceeding great oppression to a long state of prosperity Which typified indeed in a very admirable manner as Ezekiel's dry bones and many other things did the state of the Generall Resurrection and eternall Blessedness but did not plainly reveal it This was reserved for our Lord Jesus Christ who brought life and immortality to light by his Gospell and openly proclaimed that ALL not MANY as it is in Daniel that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation v. Joh. 28 29. II. But we shall see more reason to bless the infinite goodness of God towards us Christians
if we observe as we may easily from what hath been said that as they wanted the express promises which we have so what they understood of the nature of this Felicity by the light they enjoyed was but very dull in comparison with what is revealed to us Who can see more even in their Books then they could do themselves and find out that by the light of the Cospell which was wrapt up in dark figures and clouds under the Law and the Prophets As they saw Christ in Isaar and in a Lunb so they beheld Heaven under the figure of Paradise and in a Land flowing with milk and honey and in the â—â—oly city and the Temple of stone the greatest glory whereof was when it was filled with the cloud 1 King viii 10 c. But now in the Church of the New Testament there is no Temple but the Lord God Almighty and the Lâ—mb are the Temple of it xxi Rev. 22. And he saith not now I will dwell in thick darkness but as it follows there ver 23. the glory of God inlightens the Church and the Lamb is the Light thereof who hath made us with open faâ—e to behold his glory in the heavens and given us full assurance that we shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. iii. 18. This he published so clearly that the dullest and most illiterate fouls saw there was no Master comparable to him who had the Words of â—â—ernall life and by his Death Resurrection and Ascension opened to all believers the Kingdom of heaven That 's a word St. Austin confesses * Tom. vi L. xix contra Faust Man cap. ult he could not find in all the Old Scriptures and St. Hierom says the same There are Testimonies there saith he of Eternall life whether plain or obscure it matters not though the places he alledges would have been obscure if we had not been inlightned before we reade them by the Gospell but this Name of the KING DOM OF HEAVEN I can meet withall in no place Hoc enim propriè pertinet ad revelationem Novi Testamenti For it properly belongs to the Revelation of the New Testament And it is a word as the Authour of the Answers ad Orthodoxos teaches us which doth not simply siguifie the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the state of things after the Resurrection when we shall be so marvell ously changed as to be fit companions for the Angels and reign with our Saviour in his glory Of which things the Jews have now so little knowledge that they expect onely to rise again to feast here upon earth with the Mâ—ssiah whom they look for and after they have spent some years in the enjoyment of the good things of an earthly Paradise then they think their bodies shall die and their Souls onely live for ever * Vid. Jacchâ—ades in viii Dan. 14. L'Empereur ib. Let any one that is able but reade what Manasseh ben Israel hath writ of the Resurrection and he will find it such poor stuff that the best use that can be made of it will be to put our selves in mind how much we stand ingaged to the Divine love for acquainting us so plainly with the Happiness he will give us at the Resurrection of our bodies to an immortall life Our Saviour indeed saith they might have learnt better out of the Scriptures then to imagine there will be eating and drinking and marrying after the resurrection but there was none of their books could teach them that we should be companions of Angels and shine like the Sun and see God and be coheirs with Christ and such like things which by the Gospell are now so clearly discovered to us that the most ignorant know more then the wisest that want this Revelation R. Tanchum who would fain prove the life of the World to come from the words of Abigail who speaks of the binding David's Soul in the bundle of life 1 Sam. xxv 29 * D. Pocock Not. miscell c. vi p. 91. observes that this Mystery which was a stranger to mens understandings in other nations and far remote from their thoughts to the knowledge of which none but very wise men came by much labour and exercise and after long disquisitions and difficult reasonings was known then among the Jews and manisest even to the Women An argument saith he that wisedom was much spred in our Nation and that as Moses speaks iv Dent. 6. we are a wise and understanding people Which is far truer of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus among whom even the most simple are taught such things as whatsoever such a wise woman as Abigail may be supposed to understand in ancient days their greatest Doctours have been so ignorant of since that we see the words of Isaiah xxix 14. sulfilled in them The Wisedom of their wise men shall perish and the undâ—rshanding of their â—â—ndent men shall be hid Where is the wise as St. Paul triumphs over them 1 Cor. i. 20 27. where is the Sâ—â—â—â— where is the disputer of this world God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise Made use 〈◊〉 of such men as the World for waâ—â— of humane learning accounted no better 〈◊〉 fools to publish so clearly and with such evidence the doctrine of Lternall Life that it may justly make men of the greatest repute for learning blush who could not speak one wise word about it But suppose them all to have been indued with a clearer sight then indeed they had of the Life to come yet of the Blessedness which God intends for us there that of St. Paul 1 Cor. ii 9. will still be true Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him There is a passage in the Prophet Isaiah very like this lxiv. 4. which the Jewish Doctours themselves expound in the mysticali sense of the future life and from thence St. Paul is supposed to have borrowed these expressions Though the very words â—â—â—mselves of St. Paul being found in the Apocryphall Book of Elias it is probable as Grotius thinks that this was grown a common saying among the Rabbins who had been taught by ancient tradition to expect such things in the days of the Messiah as never any eye had seen nor ear heard nor had entred into any man's heart to conceive Which is verified in the whole Revelation of God's will in the Gospell especially in this part of it No man had so much as a thought or a desire of such things as God hath done for us and intends to doe by our Lord Jesus That he should send from heaven his own Son his onely-begotten Son begotten of him before all worlds to be incarnate of a pure Virgin to die for our sins that he might rise again to sit at God's right hand where our Nature shines far brighter