could not contain themselves when they saw what testimonies heaven gave of his innocence and vertue but did him publick honour even at the very place of execution Though he suffered as the highest and vilest offender in the world yet the honest-hearted spectatours were not onely inwardly troubled in their breasts at the sight but beat or knockt them also and shewed thereby that they were not afraid to own him as a most Excellent person whose death they ought to accompany with the bitterest lamentations And so much may suffice concerning the Testimony of his BLOUD which no man can hear speak a word but he must needs think that which got him such honour among the people in the midst of his shame and the reproach of the Cross obtained a far greater glory for him with God in the heavens who best knew how to value his obedience O wonderfull Passion Proclus Homil. xi the Expiation of the World O Death the cause of Immortality and the origin of Life O descent into Hell the bridge by which those who were dead passed into Heaven O Noon which hath revoked the Afternoon-sentence against us in Paradise O Cross the cure of the fatall Tree O Nails which wounded Death and joyn'd the world to the knowledge of God! Great was the victory which He that was incarnate for us obtained on the day of his passion He grappled with death when he was dead Hell and the grave this day ignorantly swallowed a deadly morsell To day death received him dead who always lives To day the chains were loosed which the Serpent made in Paradise The Thief this day made a breach on Paradise which had been guarded by the flaming sword some thousands of years This day our Lord broke the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder Which of the great Men that ancient times boast of are comparable to him All the just fell under the power of death and none could conquer it Abraham Isaac and Jacob are all turn'd to dust and ashes The memory of Joseph in whom the Jews glory lay in his dry bones which they carried out of Egypt with them Moses is extolled by them to the skies but there is not so much as his tomb to be found Such as these and so many death devoured and swallowed them all down But at last it swallowed one and against its will vomited up the whole World Who now triumph over it and cry with a loud voice O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. His Passion is our impassibility S. Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 598. His Death is our immortality His tears our joy His buriall our resurrection His Baptism our purification His stripes our healing His chastisement our peace His reproach our glory How much are we indebted to him who from first to last consulted our happiness For he descended Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 1002. that he might make way for our ascent He was born that he might make us friends with the Vnbegotten He took on him our infirmities that we might be raised in power and say with St. Paul I can doe all things through Christ which strengthneth me He took on him a corruptible body that this corruption might put on incorruption He put on mortality that it might be changed into immortall In fine He was made Man and died that we who die as men might be deified and death might no longer reign over us O blessed and life-giving Cross of our Saviour which triumphed over death and destroyed him that had the power of it which is the Devil O divine Word and true Wisedom of the Father thou hast overcome the Devill when he thought he had been a conquerour * August de Trinitate L. 13. c. 15. Caet ex Athanasio p. 1022. O Lover of men and gracious Lord thou hast both redeemed us that were captives and freed us by thy own death who were servants of sin O Son of God the true Peace-maker thou hast both given us the adoption of Sons and reconciled us to thy Father having destroyed the enmity by thy flesh O rich Saviour and true King who becamest poor that we by thy poverty might be made rich and hast given to us the Kingdom of heaven O Creatour and former of all things the Word of the Father for thou hast created us again we are thy workmanship created unto good works O Light indeed the brightness of the Father for thou hast inlightned us that were in darkness and hast brought us that were blind to see the light O Likeness and reall Image of the Father for thou hast formed us who were lost and again restored the image of God in us O God the Word and Life indeed for thou hast quickned us who were dead and renewed us that were corrupted and cloathed us with immortality O thou Power indeed the arm the right hand of the Father for thou hast both loosed the bands of death and broken the prison-doors in pieces God forbid that we should glory Ib. pag. 1028. save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ To this let us adhere let us walk worthy of this And thus living and believing we shall know also his assumption into the heavens and his session on the right hand of the Majesty on high We shall behold the subjection of Angels to him and his coming again with glory Which Angels have foretold which Saints sing of in their hymns and which when we all see we shall rejoyce and be exceeding glad in Christ Jesus By whom be glory and dominion to the Father world without end Amen CHAP. XI Concerning the Testimony of the SPIRIT the Third Witness on Earth THough the Children of Israel were so strangely delivered out of their bondage being saved by the Bloud of the Paschal Lamb from the destroying Angel and then freed from Pharaoh who thought it 's like that his bloud must next of all pay for the keeping them in Egypt yet still they questioned whether they should come into the good Land or no and were at a sad plunge when they came to the Red Sea imagining that they themselves should be there destroyed and become the next Sacrifice to Pharaoh's cruelty To confirm them therefore in their belief of God's kind intentions towards them and perswade them thoroughly that Moses had not brought them out of Egypt to kill them but to save them He gave him power to doe great wonders at that place and in the rest of their journey which added to the Miracles in Egypt were a strong conviction that God was among them and was conducting them by the hands of his Servant to their long-desired Rest This was the last Argument and the most constant whereby he demonstrated the truth and reality of his promises of bringing them to the land of Canaan They saw his signs
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.
in the city and Gabriel to Mary and Elizabeth and Anna and Symeon to those in the Temple Nor were men and women onely transported with the pleasure but an infant that had not seen the light leapt in its mother's womb and all were strangely lifted up in hopes of what was a-coming These things all fell out straightway after his birth But when he appeared in the World there were more Miracles and greater then the former appeared again For not so little as a Star and the Heavens not Angels or Archangels not Gabriel or Michael but the Father himself proclaimed him from heaven and with the Father the Comforter came down with a voice and remained on him And therefore well might the Apostle say We have seen his glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father And not by these things alone but by those which followed after For now not merely Shepherds and an aged Prophetess and reverend men published the glad tidings of the Gospell but the voice it self of the things he did louder then the sound of any trumpet which was heard presently every-where For the fame of him saith the Evangelist went into all Syria and revealed him to all and cried every-where that the King of heaven was come to men For Daemons every-where fled and got away and the Devill departed and Death began to give place and not long after quite vanished and all manner of infirmities were loosed and the tombs dismissed the dead the Daemons left those that were mad and Diseases those that were sick Wonderfull and strange things were to be seen which the Prophets desired to see and did not For one might have seen eyes new made paralytick lims strengthened motion given to withered hands and lame feet ears that were stopt up opened and the tongues of the dumb loosed In one word like an excellent workman that comes into an house which is decayed and rotten by time he repaired or re-built rather humane Nature For who can tell how he made the Souls of men new which is a greater wonder then all the rest For the wills of men oppose their cure which the body doth not They will not yield we see no not to God himself And yet these were reformed by him and all kind of wickedness expelled Nor were they onely freed from Sin but like the bodies to which he gave the best habit after he had cured their diseases they were advanced to the highest degree of vertue A Publican became an Apostle A persecutour a blasphemer a reproacher of Christianity turned the Preacher of the Word A thief was made a Citizen of Paradise and a strumpet became illustrious by a great faith And abundance of others worse then these were listed in the number of the Disciples till whole cities and countries were strangely reformed by the Gospell Who is able to declare the wisedom of his Precepts the vertue of his heavenly Laws the excellent order of his Angelicall Conversation For he hath taught us such a life he hath given us such laws and instituted such a polity that they who use them though before the worst of men straightway become Angels and like to God according to our power The Evangelist therefore recollecting all these things the Miracles he wrought upon mens bodies upon their Souls and upon the elements the Precepts the secret Gifts the Laws the Polity the power of perswasion the future Promises his Sufferings he pronounced this wonderfull lofty voice We beheld his glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth For they did not admire him onely for his Miracles but for his Sufferings As for example because he was nailed to a Cross and scourged because he was beaten because he was spit upon because those buffeted him to whom he had been a benefactour upon the account even of these which seem most shamefull that voice is worthy to be repeated again because he himself hath called this a Glory For then Death was destroyed the Curse was dissolved Daemons were put to shame and he triumphed over them openly and the hand-writing of sins or obligation to punishment was nailed to the Cross and cancelled And besides these wonders which were invisible there were others apparent unto all which shewed he was the onely-begotten Son of God and the Lord of all the Creation For while his blessed body yet hung upon the Cross the Sun withdrew its beams the earth was astonished and wrapt in darkness the ground shook the tombs were broke open a great many dead people walkt out of their graves and went into the City the stone upon his grave was rolled away and he arose He that was crucified he that was fastned with nails to the cross he that was dead arose and filling his Apostles with great power sent them to all the World as the common physicians of humane Nature the rectifiers of mens lives the sowers of the knowledge of heavenly Doctrine the loosers of the Devill 's tyranny the teachers of the great and hidden Goods the preachers of the glad tidings of the immortality of the Soul the Eternall life of the body and the rewards which as they pass all understanding so never have any end These and many more such like this blessed man beholding which he knew but was not able to write because the world could not have contained the Books he cried out We beheld his glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth Who is now as able I may adde to give us new bodies and inconceivably-improved Souls and then to perpetuate the happiness of both in heaven as he was to cure diseases and raise dead bodies and purify mens minds when he was here on earth Let our conclusion therefore as he says elsewhere be sutable to our discourse Hom. xiii p. 607. 5. And what 's so sutable as Doxologies and giving glory to God in such manner as is worthy of him Not by our words onely that is but much more by our deeds So our Saviour himself exhorts us saying Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven For there is nothing more bright and shining then an excellent conversation as one of the wise men hath said The ways of the just shine like the light And they shine not onely to those that light their lamps by their works but to all that are near unto them Therefore let us pour oyl continually into these lamps that the flame may rise higher and the light shine more abundantly Having received such grace and truth by Jesus Christ Id. p. 611. let us not grow the lazier by the greatness of the gift For the greater honour hath been done us the more we are bound to excell in vertue Let that therefore be our business to purify our selves so throughly that being thought worthy to see Christ we may not at that Day
and to have endeavoured to make any part of his holy Book more clearly understood especially if what I write shall encrease the Faith of any Christian Soul and fill it with an assured hope in Jesus by abiding constant in this belief that he is the Son of God That being the thing which is to be proved by these witnesses it will be necessary to search a little into the meaning of the Phrase before we take their examination about it And it must be confessed that though Jesus be the Eternal Son of the Father God of God begotten of him before all Worlds yet this is not always meant when he is called his Son which is a name in the holy stile not so much expressing his Nature as his high Authority and Sovereign power which he hath received as the Mediator between him and us from God the Father Almighty So I think we are here to understand the Apostle who under the Name Jesus comprehends all that belongs to his person both his Divine and Humane nature and affirms that this person hath Sovereign Authority committed to him by God the Father of all who hath given him Commission and deputed him in his stead to declare his mind and acquaint us with his will and having by himself purged our sins promoted him to sit down on the right hand of the Majesty on high as that great King and Lord of all by whom we are to be governed now and to be judged at the last day Sure I am in many places of the holy Scripture which say he is the Son of God the meaning is expounded in other places to be this that he is the Christ or the anointed of God That is Jesus who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary crucified under Pontius Pilate rose again from the dead and afterward appointed S. John and the rest of the Apostles to preach those things to all Nations which we read in the holy Gospel was indeed sent of God according to the ancient Prophecies with his own power and authority and is now by the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour to be our King and Sovereign Lord whom we are all to obey and from whom alone we are to expect all our rewards And there is great reason to think that these are phrases of the very same import here in S. John if we compare but the first Verse of this Chapter with the fifth In the former we read that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God In the latter he tells us that he who overcometh the world believeth that Jesus is the Son of God It is the very same Faith no doubt whereby we are born of God and whereby we overcome the world and therefore it is the very same thing to believe that Jesus is the Christ and to believe that Jesus is the Son of God Express it how you please either of these ways this alone is the Faith which can regenerate a man and put a Divine Spirit into him that is make him a conqueror over the world as Jesus was Let the second Chapter of this Epistle ver 22. be consulted also and there you will find that Christ and the Son are terms equivalent and have the same signification To which if you add some places in the Evangelists they will make you see this more evidently When S. Peter made this confession xvi Matth. 16. that Jesus was Christ the Son of the living God there is no more meant one would think by those words the Son of God than what the other word Christ includes because when our Saviour would have them know that it was not fit for them as yet to divulge this truth which S. Peter confessed he only charges his Disciples ver 20. that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ And if this be not ground enough to conclude the identity as we speak of these words the other Evangelists will put it out of doubt For S. Mark makes the confession of S. Peter to have been no more than this Thou art the Christ viii 29. And S. Luke relates it not much otherwise when he says that he acknowledged our Saviour to be the Christ of God ix 20. To be the Christ or to be the Son the Christ of God or the Son of God according to the understanding of these Divine writers is the very same and in these places nothing different And indeed it is very probable that S. Hieroms opinion is true who believed that the Apostles were not yet such proficients as to understand the eternal generation of our Lord Jesus from the essence of the Father For we find them very ignorant of divers things that were easier to be learnt than this which if they had known they would not have expected to see him settle his Throne upon Earth nor doubted of his Resurrection from the dead and many other things as they did But the comparing of two other places will make this still more manifest In the xxvi Matth. 63. we read that the High Priest adjured our Saviour to tell him if he were the Christ the Son of God They all expected one to appear under this character This was the common title of that great person who they believed would shortly come But they meant no more by it than one appointed by God to be their King as is apparent from S. Luke who relates that question barely thus xxii 67. Art thou the Christ tell us And after our Saviour had made that answer which we read both in him and S. Matthew he tells us ver 70. they all replied again Art thou then the Son of God which was no more than to say must we take this for confessed then that thou affirmest thy self to be sent anointed and set over us by God Wilt thou stand to that which thou just now ownedst when we asked thee that question For without all doubt the Chief Priests and the Scribes intended nothing by that phrase the Son of God but what was comprehended in the other the Christ And therefore when Pilate upon their accusation examined him upon the same matter he asks nothing else but this as this Apostle S. John relates xviii 33. Art thou the King of the Jews which is the plain interpretation of the word Christ For that is not the proper name of any person as Lactantius * Nuncupatio potestatis regni Sic enim Judaei Reges suos appellabant L. 4. Cap. 7. rightly observes but a name of power and dominion signifying him to be their Sovereign For in this stile says he the Jews were wont to speak of their Kings whom they called Christs or Gods anointed Once more when they were enraged at our Saviour for calling himself the Son of God as S. John tells us Chap. x. He justifies himself by a reason which signifies no more but that he called himself the Christ the anointed of God as you
may read ver 34 35 36. If they were called Gods in old time to whom the Word of God came i. e. who received commission and authority from God to be the Judges and Rulers of his people then it could be no offence much less a blasphemy for him whom God had sanctified i. e. set apart and anointed to this office of being their Lord and King to call himself the Son of God For so he was by his place and there was no need he should say any thing of the Divine nature that was in him Well then to be the Son of God and to be the Christ being but different expressions of the same thing and the word Christ signifying anointed one set apart to an high office and in its eminent sence that person who was to sustain the place of God in this world to be the King of Israel yea the Governour and Ruler of all mankind we must conclude that when the Apostle says here Jesus is the Son of God his meaning is that He is the Holy one of God the person whom he sanctified by the unction of the Holy Ghost and sent into the World to whom he hath now given all power in Heaven and in Earth that every knee should bow to him as the Sovereign Lord of the World whom we are to hear and obey and depend upon in all things For this is the stile you may observe of the Old Testament from whence you may learn the rise and original of this manner of speech which calls those Kings who derived their authority immediately from God by the name of his Sons Because when they were anointed by his order they were made what they were not before and begotten as they spoke again And being created by God to their new dignity they are therefore called his Sons The first time we meet with the phrase is in the story of the first King of Israel 1 Sam. xiii 1. where Saul is called as the words are in the Hebrew the Son of one year in his Kingdom Because there was but a year passed since the time of his unction by which he was born Gods Vicegerent and as you read x. 6. turned into another man And indeed we find this imitated in Ethnick writers who call the day their Emperors entred upon their Reign their Birth-day So we read in Spartianus that Adrian being informed by Letters that Trajan had named him for his Successor caused the birth-day of his adoption to be celebrated And two days after hearing of his death he ordered they should keep the birth-day of his Empire * Natalem imperii instituit celebrandum But I do not intend to launch out of the holy story where we find this more plainly delivered in the History of the succeeding Kings of Israel For when the Philistins the Moabites the Syrians the Ammonites and other neighbouring People with their Princes conspired after they had been conquered by David against the Lord and against his anointed resolving to cast off their yoke the Psalmist shews Psal 2. how vain and idle their attempt would prove because God had appointed him whom he sent a Prophet to anoint to be his King This decree of God he averrs and openly declares ver 6 7. that the Lord said unto him Thou art my Son this day i. e. when he anointed him I have begotten thee So that to rise against him was to war with God Almighty whose Son that is Vicegerent he was in those Countries And therefore if they were well advised he exhorts them all to go and kiss the Son ver 12. i. e. submit themselves by that token of humble subjection to him who had his Authority immediately from God Nay was his first-born the most eminent Prince that is that ever he made lxxxix Psal 27. And therefore he was the prime type of our Lord Christ to whom these words are applied because he was the Son of David that great King who was to reign over them for ever as the Angel said i. Luke 33. And if you pass from hence to the next King Solomon who had a particular unction also and in whose reign was prefigured the glorious Kingdom of our Saviour you will find that God says by a Prophet concerning him I will be his Father and he shall be my Son 2 Sam. vii 14. Which words are a promise to make Solomon King and settle him on the Throne of his Father David So He understood it as appears by the speech which David made not long before his death to all the great men of his Kingdom 1 Chron. xxviii where he tells them ver 4. that as Jesse had many Sons Yet God liked him only to make him King over all Israel So of the many Sons which the Lord had given him ver 5. He had chosen Solomon to sit upon the Throne of the Kingdom of the Lord. As is evident saith he from those words of God spoken by Nathan ver 6. I have chosen him to be my SON and I will be hit FATHER i. e. made choice of him to be King of Israel in thy room and as I have been to thee so I will be to him Thus Solomon one would think interpreted these words when he prays God who had made good one part of his promise to perform the other also 2 Chron. i. 8 9. Thou hast shewed great mercy unto David my Father and hast made me reign in his stead as much as to say made me thy Son now O Lord God let thy promise unto my Father be established that is of being a Father to me now that I am become thy son and set by thee over a people like the dust of the Earth in multitude By this time I suppose it will be no wonder to any intelligent person that these Kings are called the Sons of God who did not only govern in that Country which was called it is well known God's land and the inhabitants whereof were his peculiar people but were appointed by his special direction and anointed with his holy oil lxxxix Psal 20. and had as it were their being and birth from God who promoted them to sit upon his Throne and to be Kings for the Lord God as you read 2 Chron. ix 8. so that the Kingdom it self is called in that Book the Kingdom of the Lord xiii 8. And the Judges also in the Courts of that Kingdom are said to exercise the Judgment of the Lord and not of man xix 6. that is to sit there in God's stead to do men justice And because of this great power and trust committed to them by him are called as you heard lxxxii Psal 1 6. Gods and the children of the most High whose deputies they were and for whom they judged And therefore it is the less wonder that when this Great Prince came among them to whom all judgment is committed and who hath all power in Heaven and in Earth and is Lord of all and appointed by God
is a mark set before it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo or behold that we may all attend and listen diligently to this voice for now the word of God came to him as he speaks in another place I told you concerning those who were called Gods under the old Law x. John 35. and in an audible manner authorized him to begin to act as the Christ of God whom He had anointed as you shall hear with the Holy Ghost just at this moment when He declared him his Son by this voice from Heaven Which if you carefully observe it is expressed by the other Evangelists in such a manner that we may understand it was directed to himself as that commission which was sent him from Heaven to give him power to exercise the office of Gods supreme and only Minister in this world in whom alone he was well pleased and in none else but by him For S. Mark says the voice was in these words Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Which plainly tell us that he spake to Jesus and not merely of him that he might be confident He was the person whom God had now sanctified and sent into the world And so S. Luke hath recorded it more fully and expresly Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased As if he had said Thou art the person to whom I have a favour above all others I have anointed thee above all thy fellows none that have had this name are so dear to me as thou art to whom I commit my authority and invest with my power and intrust with all my mind and will Now because we all suspect private Revelations and think it no sufficient ground to believe one that says God spake to him unless he can bring some other very credible person besides himself to attest that he also heard it or be able otherways to demonstrate it God was pleased therefore not only by other means to verifie this but so to direct S. Matthew's pen that he hath as good as told us that the voice which was directed to Jesus himself telling him he was his Son was uttered likewise in the audience of John Baptist a person famed for his sanctity reverenced by all the Nation of the Jews and acknowledged to be a Prophet Though it was delivered I believe in those words and syllables wherein S. Mark or S. Luke have set it down for as the Heavens were opened unto him iii. Matth. 16. and he saw the Spirit descending so the voice which accompanied it spake in all likelihood unto him yet it being heard also by John who had baptised him and who saw all that went before it as he himself declared it was as if God had said to him This is my beloved Son c. and therefore so S. Matthew relates it The Father Almighty by this voice awakened the attention of the Baptist and bade him as it were mark it that this person to whom he now spake was the Messiah who now entred upon his office being declared the Son of God and should increase and grow as he presently after discerned iii. John 30. till he came to be declared by the Resurrection from the dead the Son of God with power as S. Paul speaks i. Rom. 4. that is with all the power belonging to his office of Lord of all things the great King of Heaven and Earth Till this time he knew no more of the Christ but that he was coming God having ordered him to make way for him and that he should immediately appear and be so much superior to him iii. Matth. 11. that he should not be worthy to be one of his meanest servants His countenance he was not acquainted withall nor could he say this is the person when he met with him as he himself confesses i. John 31. But thus much he was told by him that sent him to Baptize as he there declares ver 33. that on whom he should see the Spirit descend and remain he should conclude that person was the Messiah from whom they might expect the gift of the Holy Ghost which had been so long a stranger to their Nation And accordingly having some intimation of him from the Spirit as soon as Jesus offered himself to receive his Baptism iii. Matth. 14. immediately after he was confirmed in his belief that this was the Christ by the fulfilling of the former sign i. John 32. And thereupon publishes it openly to all in these words ver 34. I saw and bare record i. e. gave my testimony of him that this is the Son of God So God himself taught him to call our Saviour for it should seem by the words of S. Matthew that he had this further ground to believe it and so was furnished with greater ability to testifie it that he heard the voice from Heaven as well as saw the Spirit descend upon him Though the Father spake the words to Jesus yet it was in the presence and hearing of this person who was sent from God to be his witness i. John 6 7. and as if he had said to him This is my beloved Son mind what I say go and testifie that this is He in whom I delight above all others Thou mayest be sure of it for I tell thee so who gave thee all the Authority thou hast And accordingly you read that he went and did his office for which he was sent that is He bare witness of him and cried saying This was he of whom I spake He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me 1. John 15. which he repeats in the same Chapter as his record ver 19. in behalf of our Saviour on two other occasions ver 27. and 30. to let them know that the person of whom he gave this testimony before he was baptised of him was now come and exalted to a far higher dignity than himself being a more mighty person as the rest of the Evangelists speak no less than the Son of God This he means by being preferred before him appointed by the Father of all to an incomparably more excellent office which he entred upon after the preaching and baptism of John who began indeed his Ministry before Jesus but it was not because he was greater but rather because he was less and came to prepare his way who was as he acknowledges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first of the two not only in regard of his Divine Nature but in regard of his sublime office into which he was now put by being pronounced the beloved Son of God by this voice from Heaven Which the Devil himself one would think heard and understood to be such a testimony concerning Jesus as committed the greatest Ministry to him and was a Divine warrant to go in Gods name to the world as Moses after the Angel spake to him out of the bush did to the Jews And therefore when immediately after this our Saviour was led by the
adv Marcionem C. 22. was going in the same manner to give testimony to them concerning his Son Jesus and to confirm them in the belief of whatsoever he should teach them For thirdly this was not Mut◠Nubes as the same Tertullian there speaks a dumb cloud a silent glory but a voice came out of it which was Novum Patris testimonium super filio the Fathers New testimony concerning his Son In which testimony He was pleased to apply those very words to Jesus which had been spoken by Moses concerning a Prophet whom he had bid them look for after him For in the xviii of Deuteronomy he tells them from God himself ver 17. that there should be raised up to them a Prophet like unto him into whose mouth ver 18. the Lord would put his own words and who should speak all that he should command him UNTO HIM SHALL YE HEARKEN ver 15. as much as to say Be sure you attend to his words and give obedience to them Now these very words and syllables HEAR HIM are by that God who made that promise to Moses spoken in this place to the Disciples with a manifest application to Jesus clearly denoting him to be the person whom Moses foretold the Lord their God would send to declare his mind unto them as he himself already had done And that this was really the voice of God as much as that voice which spake to Moses we have the greater reason to conclude from this following which is the fourth observation That Moses now stood by and heard it and from thence learnt a great deal more than he knew when he wrote his Book that this person of whom he spoke was more than a Prophet being the Son of Gods dearest love For these words which declared him so were spoken there where he was present who durst not contradict them as sure he would have done had he not known them to be the very voice of God and no delusion I need not enlarge this because the Evangelists tell us so plainly that not only He appeared in glory talking with our Saviour upon this Mountain but Elias also accompanied him which is next to be considered Who being a great Prophet might pretend as fairly as any other man to be the person designed by Moses in the words forenamed and yet consented by his silence to the same undoubted Truth that the prophecy of Moses was not till now fufilled but had its utmost completion in Jesus And indeed this voice from Heaven making such an open Proclamation concerning Jesus before him that gave the Law and before the chiefest of the Prophets who had asserted it and being heard by them with the profoundest silence without any contradiction it did as good as tell the Apostles that they might be assured this was He of whom the Law and the Prophets had spoken whom they were now to give ear unto and that the Law and the Prophets must from henceforth give way to an higher Revelation from God by this Jesus If this had not been true we cannot but think that this great Zealot Elias who had been always so jealous for the Lord of hosts 1 Kings xix 14. and this trusty servant of God Moses who was so faithful in all his house xii Num. 7. would have presently entred their protestation against it and required the Apostles in the Name of God to give heed only to their voice but not to this Which now might the rather be believed to come from Heaven because these inspired persons reverence it and dare not venture in the least to speak against it when they were highly concerned so to do if it had not been the voice of God And if any one shall ask how these Disciples could tell that these two were Moses and Elias whom they never saw I think Theophylact hath well resolved it that they knew them not by their faces but by their discourse Certain it is that persons living in far distant Countries known to others merely by their works and manner of writing have after a little converse at an unexpected meeting been challenged by the Names that their Books carried without the help of any noted character in their face to distinguish them Nothing is more common than the story of Erasmus whom his Friend here in England greeted by his name after a few repartees pass'd between them though he had never seen him and little thought then to embrace him Now we are expresly told by all the three Evangelists that Moses and Elias talked with Jesus and by S. Luke that their discourse was concerning his decease or departure out of this world which he should accomplish at Jerusalem and consequently it is very probable of the glory that was to follow it by his Resurrection Which conference the Apostles hearing they might easily know though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their pictures which many of that Nation held it unlawful to be made yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their words and discourse wherein either Jesus or they before it was done had occasion to mention their Names or their offices or to describe their persons that they were none else but those two men who then appeared to them And it is possible as Theophylact adds that Moses might say I acknowledge thee to be the person whose death I prefigured by the Lamb which was slain at the Passeover And Elias might joyn with him and say Thou art He whose Resurrection I did likewise fore-show by calling again the Widow's son to life Some such kind of discourse we may reasonably conceive passed between them whereby they discovered themselves to be the one the Law-giver the other the noblest of all the Prophets who now came to wait upon Jesus and acknowledge that he was greater than they as the voice from Heaven presently testified which declared him the beloved Son of God to whom now all must attend as they had formerly done to them And therefore it is very remarkable which is the last thing I shall observe that no sooner was this voice heard but Moses and Elias vanished and were seen no more As much as to say That Jesus alone was now to be heard the Law and the Prophets were gone and had nothing to do but only to serve him So S. Mark relates ix 8. that suddenly when they had looked round about after the hearing of this voice they saw no man any more save Jesus only with themselves They turned their eyes every way to look for Moses and Elias but there was no further news of them Nay S. Luke tells us ix 36. that in the very uttering of the voice from that Heavenly glory they disappeared So those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly signifie While the voice was speaking Jesus was found alone The clould out of which it came covered them and took them into it At the same time it opened it self to manifest him and to obscure them that it might be evident
the voice spake of him alone and none else there being no body but He to be seen by his Disciples when it came forth from the presence of God So you read in all the Evangelists that the cloud which appeared over-shadowed them viz. Moses and Elias whereupon the Disciples were afraid as S. Luke tells us ix 34. as they that is Moses and Elias entred â—â—to the cloud imagining it is like that it would approach nearer and spread it self over them who dreaded to enter into it as they saw those two persons did But there was no danger it only parted Moses and Elias from Jesus and left him alone and then came the voice out of that cloud where Moses and Elias were with God giving their assent to what it said This is my beloved Son hear him Him I say Non Mosen jam Eliam as Tertullian * L. 4. adv Marc. C. 22. I now observe interprets it Not Moses and Elias who were shown as his language is in the prerogative of brightness and then dismissed as being now discharged both of their office and of their honour Thus I have briefly explained the second Testimony which God the Father gave him in the audience of three of his Disciples who had a vision also at the same time of the glory wherein he was to shine after his departure out of this world To which testimony our Saviour would not have those Disciples as yet to add theirs but to keep this as a secret till he was risen again from the dead xvii Matth. 9. It was fit for the Father alone to speak now from whom they were to learn what Jesus was that being fully satisfied they might be the better able to speak of him then upon their own knowledge who had been eye and ear-witnesses of the honour and glory which he received from God the Father when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this voice S. Peter I told you openly avers 2 i. 17 18. he and others heard when they were with him in the holy mount But if any one should be so suspicious and distrustful as to think that the Testimony of three persons is not sufficient to beget belief in us of such a wonderful thing as this is that God declared Jesus to be his Son though there is no just reason to doubt of any thing that is established out of the mouth of but two good witnesses yet such was the condescension of God the Father Almighty that he was pleased a little before our Saviours decease which Moses and Elias spake of to give his testimony to him again and to declare this more publickly which was shortly to be proclaimed in all the world III. For this Third voice which the Father was pleased to send from Heaven to bear witness to him was not heard by so few as two or three but by a great multitude of people which makes our belief of this Truth to rely still upon surer grounds For you read in the xii John 1 2 c. that a great company of people having heard what a miracle our Saviour had wrought upon Lazarus whom he raised from the dead a little before at a neighbouring town flockt out of Jerusalem to meet him as he was coming thither to the seast of the Passeover And being convinced that he was that King of Israel whom the Lord by his Prophets had promised to send in his name they met him with Palms of joy and triumph in their hands and with the loudest acclamations of praise in their mouths spreading their garments also in the way as other Evangelists tell us to do him the greater honour and wishing him all prosperity in his new Kingdom In this croud or among the rest of the people who were come to worship at the feast there were certain Greeks as you read ver 20. who were desirous to see Jesus whom the multitude thus magnified and it is likely wish'd to have some proof given them that he was such a person as fame reported him Now the first thing our Saviour answers to those who presented them to him which must be diligently noted is that ere long He should be glorified But first he must take the Cross in his way and then the glory he should attain thereby would be exceeding great for his death would produce most precious fruit and be the means of enlarging his Kingdom and bringing innumerable such Gentiles as these were unto God ver 23 24. And thereupon He perswades his Disciples ver 25 26. to adventure their lives according to his example for the good of mankind which would redound also very much to their own honour As they might see already in Moses and Elias who appeared S. Chrysostom thinks for this end among others to strengthen and encourage their Christian resolution in their sufferings * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 56. in Matth. but should be more fully satisfied when they saw him ascend to that glory after his sufferings of which they had beheld but a shadow when those two illustrious persons came to wait upon him A difficult work indeed it was at the thoughts of which He himself could not but be something sad ver 27. and wisht according to the inclinations of Nature there were some other way if God pleased to deliver mankind But since he had sent him into the world for this end that he should lay down his life for our Redemption he resolves presently to submit to God and desires only this one thing of him ver 28. Father glorifie thy Name As much as to say I know thou art my FATHER and since it is thy pleasure to which I will always submit behold I offer my self now to be an instrument of thy glory by my passion as I have been hitherto by my preaching and the works thou hast done by my hands I am content to receive the glory which I expect and just now told my Disciples I shall receive in this way of humble suffering thy will and pleasure I am desirous thou shouldest first be glorified and if my death will serve that end I am ready to part with my life for I know thou wilt be much more glorified by my Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven There is no reasonable doubt to be made of the truth of this interpretation for they glorifie God most remarkably who die for the testimony of the Truth xxi John 19. It is a great honour to him that they love him more than their lives and will take his word for their recompense in an invisible world This our Saviour himself calls Gods being glorified in him xiii John 31. and therefore I make no question he desires here that his Fathers Name may be glorified by the same means Now to this humble request of his God the Father replies by a voice from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie
it again You remember what S. Peter says in the place often cited already 2 i. 17. that our Lord by the former voice from Heaven received honour and glory from God the Father and there is as much cause to think that in this there was the same design to do him honour by a declaration of the glory he should shortly receive at the right hand of God The very connexion of these words with the foregoing will not let us expound them otherwise For having told his Disciples the Son of man should shortly be glorified but first he must glorifie God by his passion and then he doubted not but God would glorifie him with himself as he speaks xiii 32. that is by the very same means glorifie both himself and his Son who had glorified him Yes says God himself from Heaven I have both glorified my Name by what he had done for Jesus and by him and will glorifie it again by that which remained still to be done And indeed 1. it did him a great honour that God was pleased to return any answer to him who had before called himself his Son x. 36. and had just now addressed himself to him as his Father calling upon him twice by this Name Father save me from this hour ver 27. Father glorifie thy Name ver 28. It was as much as to say He owned the relation allowed his pretences and intended to justifie them more and more by his Divine approbation For 2. the Answer it self is a plain promise of the honour he would confer upon him hereafter by his Resurrection and Exaltation when he again glorified himself by glorifying the Lord Jesas You read expresly in the foregoing Chapter that the Glory he had gotten before was by glorifying of his Son for he says xi 4. the sickness of Lazarus was for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby And therefore when he says he will glorifie himself again the meaning is that as they had seen his glory xi 40. in the raising of Lazarus from the dead and in all the other miraculous works which Jesus had done for which the people gave him glory v. Luke 26. vii 16. xix 37. So he would glorifie himself more by the Resurrection of Jesus himself from the dead and by his Exaltation to an Heavenly Kingdom For it was the working of the might of his power as the Apostle S. Paul speaks i. Ephes 19. which he wrought in Christ when the Father of glory raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come Now he glorified his Son Jesus indeed as S. Peter speaks iii. Acts 13. and gave him a name which is above every name that every knee should bow to him and every tongue confess him to be the Lord but it was to the glory of God the Father as S. Paul tells us expresly ii Philip. 11. Hereby he glorified his own name as by this voice from Heaven he said he would whose power goodness and wisdom will be for ever magnified and celebrated with the highest praises by the whole Christian Church for setting such a glorious Prince over them who is not ashamed to call them Brethren and yet hath all things put in subjection under his feet that he may protect succour and bless them here and eternally Now by making this promise to the Lord Jesus of glorifying himself by glorifying him in this manner He plainly bare witness to him that he was what he pretended to be very dear to him his only begotten Son and no deceiver as they falsely and blasphemously said who were loth to be governed by him They ought presently to have glorified God by honouring his Son and acknowledging him for their Lord and Master who had such power with God already that he would give him whatsoever he askt xi John 22. and was shortly to receive greater even all power in Heaven and in Earth xvii 1 2. For this voice you may observe was uttered at such a time and so loud that the people who stood by heard it ver 29. Those who were at some distance indeed hearing only the sound thought it had been a clap of thunder but they who were nearer heard it so distinctly that they were of opinion an Angel spake to him God that is by the Ministry of an Angel For what is said in one place of Scripture to be done by Angels who are his principal servants is in another said to be done by God As the Angel of the Lord we read vii Acts 30. appeared to Moses in the bush and in the next verse it is the voice of the Lord which from thence is said to come to him In like manner the Angel is said ver 38. to speak with him in mount Sinai where we are told in the book of Exodus xix 20. the Lord came down and called Moses up to the top of the Mount and there spake to him as here he did to our Saviour Who tells the people it was not for his sake that God spake now to him it was for theirs whom he would have to know that when he was lifted up from the Earth by hanging upon the Cross which was a step contrary to all mens opinion to his Exaltation in the Heavens he would draw all men to him bring even the Gentile world into subjection to him and bow their hearts to acknowledge his Divine authority which the Jews opposed He needed no further confirmation of this truth himself who knew how dear he was to God and that he would glorifie his Name in him but that his Disciples might be more confident of it and the people more inclined to believe it when they heard it preached God spake the very same now in the ears of a great many which he had done before to him and a few besides in the former voices from Heaven It is true indeed He is not called here Gods beloved Son in express terms as he is in the other places But this is so plainly supposed and strongly inferr'd as I said from the voice which now spake that it puts the matter out of doubt as much as the former If he had falsely and proudly laid claim to this high relation to God whom he calls his Father we may be confident God would never have honoured him with such an answer but either have been silent or said the quite contrary telling him before all the company that he would not glorifie himself by preferring but by putting to shame such an one as he who thus arrogantly took upon him to be the Son of God It is contrary to all reason to think that God would stoop to seek the glory of any person as our Saviour expresses the honour he had done him viii John 50. but one who
Scripture sounding in their ears as an answer to their prayers or their doubts Or lastly there being many Jews in our Saviours time and afterward who knew very well what had been reported of him but yet continued sworn enemies to his Religion they ventured to report the same of their own Doctors and perswaded the people that they were approved by voices from Heaven and therefore ought to be received by all posterity as men of a Divine stamp who had the highest testimony from Almighty God This I am sure of there is nothing to make it credible that any man among them in those Ages was thus honoured by God No body appears that dare say they heard it Nor does any of them pretend that they saw these Rabbies shine in the least glimpse of such glory as our Saviour did when he was honoured with that glorious testimony from Heaven which pronounced him the Head of all principality and power Much less were they as S. Luke speaks by many infallible proofs for we rely not upon the voice from Heaven by it self alone declared to be the men of God And therefore that which to me seems nearest to the truth in this matter is that there had been a perfect deep silence since the death of the latter Prophets and no Revelation made of Gods mind of any sort whatsoever in that Nation till John the Baptist came who was filled with the Holy Ghost and sent by God in the spirit and power of Elias to prepare the way of our Lord. Who when he first appeared had such an approbation given him by God the Father in the audience of John as had not been vouchsafed to any person and in such a manner by a voice from Heaven as had not been in use for many ages but yet was the most ancient way of his communicating his mind to men Thus God called to Adam in the Garden and thus he spake to Abraham and Moses and Samuel and therefore so he now speaks to him who was the second Adam the true seed promised to Abraham the Prophet like to Moses Testifying both to him and to others by his own voice from Heaven which was the old way of Revelation before all others and a clearer way there cannot be that he was his only begotten Son And here perhaps it may not be amiss to observe that this voice anciently was very low like a small whisper in ones ear whereas the voice to our Saviour was loud and strong making a great noise in the ears of those that heard it So Eliphaz tells us iv Job 16. that in a vision which he had There was silence and I heard a voice The Hebrew is exactly rendred by Mercer I heard silence and a voice that is a still voice as the Margin of our Bible hath it And so Elias is said to hear a voice of silence 1 Kings xix 12. a still small voice as we render it a speech next to silence which did but whisper very low and made no noise at all in his ears On the contrary you read in the place last expounded xii John the voice which spake of our Saviour was so loud and audible that the people who were at some distance thought it had been a clap of thunder It did not silently creep into their ears but rent the clouds to make its way with a great deal of power and force into them I cannot say that the other voice was so loud which the Disciples heard on the holy Mount but it was so clear and piercing that when they heard it xvii Matth. 6. they were astonished and fell flat upon their faces The light wherein he appeared was not more visible than the voice which testified to him was audible and both were very amazing Which may very well denote the excellency of our Saviours person and the efficacy of his doctrine above all that had been before him He declared Gods mind more fully and perfectly and spake it more plainly and perspicuously He transcended all others in both these as much as a full voice is above a little murmur or whisper in the ear or a speech distinctly pronounced is to be preferred before the lisping of imperfect words But whatsoever become of this we may certainly conclude from the audibleness and clearness of the voice whereby God gave his testimony to Jesus that they are the more to be believed who affirm they heard this voice from Heaven and report it to us it not being easie for them to be deceived This voice was like that of an Herald who proclaims a Prince and it said in effect I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Which had a most eminent and full completion at his Resurrection and Exaltation but began to be fulfilled when he was tranfigured upon this holy hill and had a representation of his future glory made to him Which he did not assume to himself as the Apostle discourses v. Hebr. 4 5. but was called unto it by him that said then Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and said now This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him And thus you see having made an enquiry into the Testimony of one of these Witnesses the first and greatest we find it so full and clear on his behalf that we must either disbelieve God or else believe in Jesus and receive him for the Son of God For he received more than once honour and glory from God the Father Who was so highly glorified also by Him that he hath now completely glorified him with himself and therefore expects that his Name should be perpetually glorified and praised by us in some such words as these A PRAYER ADored be thy love O Lord of Heaven and Earth adored be thy great and wonderful love which hath thus glorified thy Son Jesus and given us such abundant satufaction that in him thou art well pleased Lord what is man that thou shouldest speak from Heaven with so much kindness to him that thou shouldest so often tell us thou hast sent thy dearly beloved Son in great humility to visit us what an amazing love is this that thou shouldest admit any of us into such a familiarity with thy self as to hear thy voice and behold the brightness of thy glory Our heart ought to answer thee again with the voice of joy thanksgiving and praise Thy high praises ought to be in all our mouths It becomes us to say continually with the most elevated minds and hearts Glory be to thee O Lord Glory be to thee O Lord who dwellest on high and yet humblest thy self to behold the things that are in Heaven and in Earth For ever be thy Name glorified by us and by all mankind who hast honoured our Nature so highly in the person of thy only begotten Son Christ Jesus whom after thou hadst several ways glorified on Earth thou hast now advanced
evidences which He produced while he was on Earth to justifie his high Authority which is comprehended under the Name of the Son of God but enquire after those only which He hath given of it since He went to Heaven and ascended to the Throne of his glory From whence this Word of God hath been pleased to speak or in some very remarkable manner to assert this Truth upon no less than three several occasions I. First of all He showed himself to his first Martyr S. Steven in a sensible Majesty standing at the right hand of God in the splendor of the Divine glory Read but the vii Acts 55 56. and there you will find He made himself so plainly appear to be the Son of God and that with power as S. Paul you have heard speaks in 1. Rom. 4. that is the King of Heaven and Earth next to the most supreme Majesty of God the Father Almighty that nothing can be said against it unless any man will be so audacious as to fancy that this holy and glorious Martyr was strongly deluded But there is a clear demonstration against that from the whole story of his Life and Death For He was a man of great note and eminency in the Church who held the very first place among the seven Deacons vi Acts 5. that were chosen to attend the daily ministration to the poor The feeding of whose bodies He did not think the only thing belonging to his charge but such was his zeal he likewise broke and dispensed the Bread of life to all his neighbours He justified the Christian Faith of which he was full vi Acts 5 8 10. against all opposers with singular wisdom great fervour and mighty demonstrations by the power of the holy Ghost He confounded all those whom he disputed withall though he could not overcome them He stopt their mouths by the wisdom and spirit wherewith he spake which made them wish they could stop his though there was no other way they saw to silence him but by taking away his life They suborned therefore false witnesses against him whom they knew not how to confute They brought him before their Great Council to be tried Where all his Judges fixing their eyes upon him saw he was so far from being at all daunted that there was a sparkling Majesty in his countenance like that of an Angel when he appeared to their forefathers vi Acts 15. They could never devise or fancy any thing greater to say of them or of their most eminent Doctors than now they beheld in this illustrious person The face of the Patriarch Isaac they tell us was so changed when the holy Spirit rested on him that a Divine light or splendor came from his face And they would have us believe that Phineas his countenance did burn and flame like a Torch by the inhabitation of the holy Ghost in him Nay Maimonides himself to omit the other Authors in which I find these reports will have the Prophets to be Angels So he interprets more than once the first and the fourth verses of the second Chapter of the Book of Judges Where by the Angel of the Lord he understands a Prophet whom God sent to them to bring them to repentance And expresly says * More Nevoch part 2. cap. 42. that their wise men have told them This was Phineas for at that time when the Majesty of God dwelt upon him He was like to an Angel of the Lord. And it is the opinion of some of them whose Names are not worth mentioning that in the Prophetical visions the form of a man vanished and the appearance of an Angel came in the room thereof till such time as the Vision ceased The light which shone within was so great that it broke through their bodies and externally appeared if we could believe these Doctors who would fain adorn their wise men with that glory which they really beheld in this man of God S. Steven Who was so full of the holy Ghost and had such glorious illuminations in his mind that there was indeed an amazing lustre in his face and he lookt more like an Angel than a man This emboldened him to speak to that grave Senate with all the assurance in the world and to reprove them for resisting the holy Ghost Which so cut them to the heart that it enraged them to the highest degree of fury and they lookt upon him as if they would eat him up But he still full of the holy Ghost and nothing fearing what he saw he must suffer from an exasperated multitude cast up his eyes above and fastned them stedfastly upon the Heavens from whence cometh our help Where He bade them all take notice vii Acts 54 55 56. that he saw the glory of God and Jesus shining at his right hand in a far greater glory than they had seen in his face That was only a glimpse of the Majesty of Jesus whom he preached to them and now feared not to affirm that he saw in his royal splendour and greatness incomparably above all the Angels in Heaven And is it not a great deal more reasonable to believe that He indeed saw Jesus there than to think that he would obtrude thus boldly a mere imagination upon them with the certain loss of his own life If he had not been sure that he beheld him whom they crucified now most highly glorified a person of his wisdom and spirit would have been more cautious than to follow him in that bloudy path to which this assertion led him when if he would have held his tongue there lay a fairer and smoother way before him But so visible was the royal Majesty of our Saviour that he could not but proclaim it aloud and speak as S. Peter said the things which he had seen though he knew they would call it blasphemy and punish him for it with present death He was willing to suffer that for the honour of his Master and to testifie his love to him who told him his Faith was no fancy as he might see by the glory wherein he appeared Which abundantly satisfied him that he was the Son of the Highest able to reward all his faithful servants with immortal glory It is true we read of never a word that our Lord spake to this Saint but the splendour of his appearance in such glory and Majesty at God's right hand was as significant as any words could be and bid him be assured of the truth of what S. John is here proving that indeed he is the Christ the anointed of God anointed with the oil of gladness above all his fellows made the Lord of all things inferior to none but only him who hath put all things in subjection under his feet If any one ask me how he could see the glory of God and how he knew this to be Jesus who appeared at Gods right hand I Answer to the first enquiry that He saw God's glory in the same sence that
others are said to have seen God who beheld some very bright appearance an extraordinary light shining before their eyes which excelled all that ever they had seen or could imagine and was the token of the Divine presence Thus Moses was afraid to look upon God iii. Exod. 6. and the Elders of Israel are said to see the God of Israel xxiv 20. which places Maimonides thinks are to be understood of the Vision of God with the eyes of the mind But the Text is plainly against him which tells us there was a visible appearance of some unusual astonishing brightness And therefore he confesses that if any man do conceive those words are to be interpreted of some created light as he speaks * More Nevoch Part. 1. cap. 5. and many other places that is the visible apparition of a Divine Majesty or of an Angel there is no danger in such an apprehension And indeed no man can seriously read the Books of Moses but he will see plainly they speak of a sensible glory which was exceeding dazling and sometimes too great for the weak eyes of men to behold I have described it before when I told you it was nothing else but a flaming light which shone from that amazing devouring Fire which appeared in the cloud to the children of Israel Thus Abarbanel expounds that place I mentioned before xvi Exod. 7. In the morning then ye shall see the glory of the Lord. Which is not to be understood of the providing them bread or flesh in an extraordinary manner but of the Fire which appeared to all the people to reprove and punish them for their murmurings And so Lyra says it was an unusual refulgent brightness or lightning representing the Divine power ready to chastise them for their mutiny against his servants And it is very common in the New Testament to cal◠such a great splendour by the name of glory As the shining of Moses his face i◠called by S. Paul 2 Cor. iii. 7. the glory 〈◊〉 his countenance And in the same stile he◠speaks of the light of the Heavenly bodies when he says 1 Cor. xv 41. There is on◠glory of the Sun another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one Star differeth from another Star in glory that is in the brightness and splendour of its light Such a glory it was that now S. Steven beheld but far more splendid more pure and illustrious than the light of the Sun or any other that has been mentioned which was a representation of the presence of the Divine Majesty who used in this manner to make men sensible of his transcendent invisible glory And there in the Divine presence he saw our Lord in the most high and honourable place next to God the Father himself For that 's the meaning of his appearing at the right hand of God or of that great glory he saw in the Heavens the right hand being the principal place belonging to the Heir of the Crown when he appears together with the King his Father And therefore the Divine writer to the Hebrews says there never was any Angel seen there They only stand or minister before God or before his Throne but to which of them did he say at any time Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool i. Hebr. 13. This is the prerogative of Christ alone the great King the Heir of all things whose glory the Psalmist describes in that place cx Psal 1. from whence these words are cited that is prophecies of his Kingly power in the Heavens as S. Paul clearly expounds this phrase of sitting at Gods right hand 1 Cor. xv 25. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet He is a King and he reigns and he hath a Throne i. Hebr. 8. but when he is compared with God the Father Almighty the fountain of all power and authority and when he appears together with him to show that he reigns under him and for him he is represented as sitting at the right hand of God or the right hand of the Throne of God For so his Kingly power is expressed in other places He is set down on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Hebr. viii 1. xii 2. that is He reigns together with God the Father in the Celestial glory For the throne of God signifying in the Scripture phrase as the forenamed Maimonides observes that place where God's Majesty manifests it self in a visible splendour and glory the sitting of our Saviour at the right hand of that Throne or that glory denotes nothing else but his being seated in the highest honour that can be given to any one in the Heavenly places next in greatness power and majesty to God himself under whom he is the King of Angels and Men and all Creatures There was nothing of which this holy Martyr was more assured To whom this Heavenly King appeared not in his usual posture of sitting at God's right hand as one possessed of his royal power but standing there as if he was ministring in the Heavenly Sanctuary in the quality of a royal high-Priest for that was the posture of those that ministred in the Temple cxxxiv. Psal 1. for the comfort of all Christian people and of himself especially or rather as ready to come to take vengeance of those implacable enemies who had killed him and now persecuted his servants which was a notable instance of his royal power at God's right hand For there the Psalmist says he must reign till he hath subdued all those that oppose his authority and troden them under his feet And as for the second enquiry how he could know this to be Jesus whom he saw in this Heavenly Majesty It is easily resolved that He appeared to him with such a countenance as he had here upon Earth only more shining and bright as being now in the glory of the Father And so he tells the Jews I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God That very person he means who used to call himself the Son of man whom you crucified and dishonourably treated I now see so exalted that I had rather die as he did than not confess him to be the Son of God as he said he was when he died This is the first testimony which was given to this truth by the WORD Who bore witness in a most illustrious manner to himself when he appeared thus to a person of the greatest credit in the Divine glory and in the highest place of Celestial dignity as the King of Heaven that is and risen up from his Throne as if he was coming to be avenged of his adversaries to succour all his servants and to welcome this Martyr into glory with himself So S. Steven verily thought for he resigns up his Soul to Jesus with the same confidence and almost in the same words that Jesus gave up his to God the
Father The last words of our Saviour were Father into thy hands I commend my spirit xxiii Luke 46. And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit vii Acts 59. He died with these and the following devout words in his mouth crying again with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge In which he expressed as much charity to men as in the other he did faith in Christ And openly declared himself a person of such piety and goodness such admirable candor and sweetness of spirit so utterly void of all rancor and gall when he had the highest provocations from his bitter enemies that as we may be sure he could not be guilty of devising a lye to the deceiving of others so we may reasonably believe that God Almighty would not let such an excellent man be deceived to the ruine of himself and the casting away so precious a life II. But that jealousie and suspicion might have no pretence left nor any man justly call in question the truth of this apparition our Saviour was pleased a second time both to show himself and also to speak very audibly unto another person of great integrity and authority and that was S. Paul Whose testimony concerning this is the more considerable because he was a person of considerable note in the Nation of the Jews both for his descent and for his education and for his zeal in their Religion iii. Phil. 5. He was an Hebrew both by his Fathers side and his Mothers a Scholar of Gamaliel's i. Gal. 14. under whom he made an exceeding great proficiency xxvi Acts 5. and was addicted to the most strict Sect of Religion then among them whereby he became full of flaming zeal for the Law of which he was a rigid observer even according to the expositions they had made of it by the traditions of their Elders These he held so sacred that the name of Jesus was odious to him because he little regarded them And he was transported with so bloudy a rage against his disciples that his intention was to send as many of them as he could meet withall after S. Steven to whose death he was consenting viii Acts 1. xxii 20. that is He approved the fact of those seditious Zealots who were the authors of it or as the words may well be rendred out of the Syriack translation he was as well pleased with the killing of him as any of the company The lenity of his Master was no example for him to follow He learnt no meekness in the School of Gamaliel but suffered himself to be hurried away with the furious spirit of the multitude whom he accompanied in that tumult For he undertook to secure the garments of those who stript themselves to throw the first stone at that blessed Martyr of Christ Jesus Nor did his fury rest here but he gave his voice against other Saints when the sentence of death passed on them xxvi Acts 10. And not content to make havock of the poor Church at Jerusalem he enlarged his cruel projects and stretches his wrath as far as Damascus thither he goes armed with authority from the Senate xxii 5. whose Commissioner he was now as he had been for some time which shows he was a person of no small condition in that Nation For He tells us himself that what he did at Jerusalem was by authority from the chief Priests xxvi 10. who gave him letters also to those at Damascus that they should assist him in the apprehending all the Christians that were there ix 2. xxii 5. He brought the Decree of the Senate along with him which had been made against them and lest any should question whether he was deputed to see that order put in execution he was ready to satisfie them of that by showing his Commission xxvi 12. In short he breathed forth nothing but fire and sword as we speak against the worshippers of the Lord Jesus being exceeding mad against them according to the account S. Luke gives of him viii Acts 3. ix 1. and which he gives of himself xxii 4. xxvi 11. Now who would expect that such a man as this should himself become a Disciple of Jesus much less a preacher of his Religion A man so noted for his violence the other way and whose name was so terrible to Christian people that Ananias was afraid to go and deliver a message to him from our Lord after he was told something of his conversion Was there any hopes that he should ever confess and publish the very same thing for which S. Steven was stoned And yet so powerful were the prayers of that holy Martyr which adds much to the force of his testimony that our Lord answered them ere long by pardoning and converting this enraged Zealot To whom he was graciously pleased to appear as he had done to that Saint more than once as we find recorded in the Sacred story from his own mouth The first time and the most remarkable was when he was upon the rode to Damascus Then our Lord met him not far from that City when he had no such thing in his thoughts but was possessed with quite contrary designs and made him fall down and worship him whose Name he so hated that he would have forced all Christians to blaspheme him Read the ix Acts 3 c. and there you will find him who little regarded what S. Steven said and perhaps took him for a frantick fellow when he told them he saw Jesus glorified surrounded himself with such a glorious light from Heaven as left him no power to resist this truth which he had so bitterly persecuted For in that wonderful brightness there was a person appeared to him with such a dazling lustre that after he had beheld it he lost his eyes and could not see by reason of the glory of that light xxii 11. which was the cause I believe that he askt with no small astonishment Who art thou Lord The Angels appeared sometimes in great glory but never with such a splendour as to hurt the sight much less to take it away and therefore he now concluded that this person was of an higher condition much greater than the Angelical Ministers whose brightness was never known to be so amazing And to give satisfaction to his doubt our Lord the WORD of God told him in plain terms with an audible voice I am Jesus whom thou persecutest And wisht him not to proceed any further in this course which he might easily see would prove destructive to him For to contend with him still who was so glorious what would it be but to wound and ruine himself and by seeking to ease himself of one trouble to run upon a greater just as a beast does that kicks against the pricks which are to quicken it and put it forward This voice he alone heard who was to be instructed by it The company that was with him heard only a confused
when he had further considered of the business and was increased in strength He even confounded the Jews that were at Damascus proving that this is very Christ ix Acts 22. So mightily did he convince them that they had no Answer wherewith to encounter his Arguments but only the Sword and therefore consulted ver 23. to kill him and take him out of the way who as long as he lived they saw would be the greatest witness unto Jesus But all these dangers he undervalued he ran innumerable hazards made strange adventures and indured matchless troubles that he might give testimony to Jesus who had shown himself to him to be the Lord of all Nay though he was told at his first setting out how great things he must suffer for his Names sake ix 16. he was nothing at all dismayed nor in the least discouraged having seen the bright Majesty of Jesus so clearly that flames themselves could not make him deny it no nor cease to preach it So great was the force of this glorious appearance of our Lord to him whereby he testified his own power and greatness that when S. Paul was actually fallen into the hands of his bloudy enemies and made a prisoner in order to his execution He had nothing of greater note to alledge for himself by which to justifie his preaching Jesus to be the Son of God than this that he had seen that Just one and heard the voice of his mouth for no other end but this That he should be his witness unto all men of what he had seen and heard xxii Acts 14 15. And as this was the best plea he had when he was to make his defence in that popular tumult so it was the thing that convinced the Apostles themselves that he was become a disciple For they doubted of it at first when he came to Jerusalem and were afraid to associate themselves with him till Barnabas told them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus ix 27. When he came also to answer for himself before Agrippa a Prince of great understanding and well versed in the Jewish Religion still he stands upon this that He who thought himself bound in conscience to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth whose servants he procured to be imprisoned banished and put to death was met by this very Jesus in the way to Damascus when he was going with Commission to do the same there that he had done at Jerusalem saw his exceeding great and incomparable glory was severely rebuked by him for his rage against his disciples and then received a Commission from him to act in his name and to preach against the former all which was so evident that he durst not be disobedient to the Heavenly Vision but had ever since called upon both Jews and Gentiles to repent and believe in Jesus though he had been crucified for it was the Mind of all the Prophets and Moses that their Christ should suffer and then be the first that should rise from the dead and shew light to the people and to the Gentiles This is the substance of his Apology in the xxvi Acts from which place we may learn two things which are very considerable First that when our Lord appeared to S. Paul he had a great deal of discourse with him and did not say so little as only those words I am Jesus whom thou persecutest c. but added those words which follow ver 16 17 18. Rise and stand upon thy feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a Witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those in the which I will appear unto thee delivering thee from the people and the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me The Divine writers are wont to be very brief in their Relations and to mention only the principal things which were said and done leaving out the rest which perhaps they set down upon some other occasion And secondly in these words it is observable that he tells him he must be a witness not only of the things which he had seen now in the way to Damascus but of those in which he intended to appear unto him Which clearly intimates that there were other apparitions of the Lord Jesus unto him besides this Some of them we find recorded in this History of the Acts and other parts of the holy Book And a second sight which he had of our Lord was at Jerusalem as he was praying in the Temple When he fell into an ecstasie or rapture as he relates himself presently after the mention of the former xxii Acts 17. and saw him bidding him make haste away from that City where he was not like to do any good for they would not receive his testimony concerning him This was one of the times as some great men have thought when he was carried up to Heaven 2 Cor. xii 2. And again our Lord appeared to him the night after he had been questioned by the Council bidding him be of good chear for he should bear witness of him at Rome as he had done at Jerusalem xxiii 11. And to omit that apparition to him in a night Vision xviii 9. and the revelations which it is like were made to him in Arabia presently after his conversion He was caught up again into Paradise and there had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visions as well as Revelations of the Lord 2 Cor. xii 1. When this was it is uncertain But there are persons of great note who imagine that when the Church of Antioch laid hands on him xiii Acts 3. not to ordain him an Apostle for so he was made by Jesus Christ himself but to send him out to exercise his Apostleship towards the Gentiles to which he had particularly appointed him then our Lord vouchsafed to lift him up into Heaven and to give him new Revelations For there could be no time more fit for it than this when he was to engage in a dangerous war against the whole Idolatrous world Then he was armed with an extraordinary resolution by conversation with Angels in the other world Where he heard things unutterable and was confirmed no doubt in the belief of the glory of the Lord Jesus by whose power he was thus transported and whom it is most likely he then again saw shining as the Sun among those stars of light in that Orb to which he was carried But this he speaks of so sparingly himself that I ought to pass it over as fast as he does The First is the chiefest and greatest evidence of all which he most depended on
and whereby he justified himself against all accusers This was his warrant to this he appeals upon all occasions that He saw Jesus in the way to Damascus And he had great reason to stick to it for he knew that no body could shame him by so much as pretending that he lied and that there was no such thing as this apparition of Jesus to him He had his companions in his journey to be witnesses of the Miraculous glory which on a sudden surprised them as well as him xxvi Acts 15. They heard then the voice of some body discoursing with him though they did not distinctly hear the words It became presently notorious every where for this thing as he tells Agrippa ver 26. was not done in a corner but openly and at noon-day to the astonishment of divers persons who attended him And it left a sensible effect upon his body and upon his mind He could neither see nor eat nor drink for three days In which space he saw a vision of a man named Ananias coming to him and bidding him receive his sight All which proved true and together with his sight he received a new spirit whereby he confounded the Jews at Damascus For they could not deny all this and yet were loth to believe in Jesus They were amazed to hear him preached by a man who they knew was come thither with a quite contrary intent ix 21. They could not but ask what is the matter whence comes this marvellous change Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this Name in Jerusalem And is not that the business for which he came hither to bring them bound unto the chief Priests What ailes him now that he thus justifies them and condemns himself And there is no doubt but to answer such Questions he took the opportunity to tell them what he had seen and what he had heard for so Ananias charged him xxii 15. He did not keep this as a secret it was not carried in privacy but presently divulged that all might inquire if they pleased into the circumstances of the fact Which was so strange that as it amazed and confounded them at Damascus so King Agrippa ' knew not what to say to it but was almost perswaded to be a Christian xxvi Acts 28. No man of sence could think that a person of his education and learning would venture the loss of his ease of his reputation of all the preferment he had and of all that he might justly hope for from the Sanhedrim without the least expectation of any gain unless of that only which Jesus could give him if he had not been fully assured it was no delusion when he presented himself to him as the Lord of glory Much less could any man imagine that a person of his vertue and unblameable life under the Law and of such strange piety and perfect contempt of all worldly things after his receiving Christianity would feign and devise such a story by which if it were false he could get nothing in the other world and if it were true he could get nothing in this Nothing but misery trouble infamy and reproach which attended him every where and never left him till it had brought him to a shameful death If you will but consider what he quitted for Christ's sake after he had thus appeared to him and how the world treated him when he became a preacher of this Gospel as you find it described by himself in several Epistles particularly iii. Philip. 8. 1 Cor. iv 9 10 11 c. 2 Cor. vi 4 5 c. xi 23 24 c. you will soon be satisfied that he was more in his wits than either to invent this story or publish it without strong assurance of its truth He was as sure that he saw the Lord Jesus in his glory and heard the voice of his mouth as every body else that knew him was sure he had been a blasphemer of him and a persecutor of his servants And therefore whatsoever it cost him he would be obedient to that Heavenly Vision And having a Ministry from him as he speaks in the 2 Cor. iv 1 2 3. according as he had received mercy so he accounted it a very great favour to become one of his Ministers he did not faint nor discharge his office sluggishly Nor did he think of making up his losses by this new profession of preaching the Gospel but abhorred such a dishonest thought and utterly renounced all such base and shameful arts though never so secretly managed and covered over with never such specious pretences He did not walk in craftiness nor appear other than he really was Much less would he to please any men handle the word of God deceitfully either by concealing any thing that was true or by mixing any false stories of his own inventing No by plain truth he commended himself to every mans conscience as in the presence of that God who is the avenger of all fraud and imposture And therefore he justly concludes that if any man did not receive these things nor think them evident enough it was because he deserved to perish for the love he bore to some naughty affection or other which would not let him submit to Jesus For it was him the Apostles preached ver 5. not themselves they did not do their own business but his only whom they proclaimed to be the Lord and themselves no more but his servants nay the servants of all Christian people for his sake But I must no longer follow the story of this great man who became so strong in the Lord and in the power of his might after He had from Heaven appeared and spoken to him that as nothing could daunt him so nothing could hinder the sucecess of his labours He became the most eminent servant of the Lord Jesus and prevailed so mightily against all the opposition which the Devil or men raised to frustrate his endeavours that he gives thanks to God in the second Chapter of that Epistle ver 14. Who always caused him to triumph in Christ and made manifest the odour of his knowledge by him in every place All his travels and long journeys proved in the issue as if they had been but the carrying of him about in a triumphal Chariot to make him a glorious spectacle in all those places as the Syriack translates it where in spite of all that the most powerful cruelty and rage could do he was still victorious and brought divers Souls into a chearful subjection to his Master Christ Jesus III. Who was pleased last of all but more frequently than to any other to show himself after he went to Heaven to this very Apostle whose words I am expounding his beloved Disciple S. John By whom he comforts and encourages all other Christians to continue stedfast in their Religion and to take their share with him in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ Who many ways declared to him
God promised to send to rule over them He takes the Book out of the right hand of him that sate on the Throne ver 7. which signifies that he is next to God the Father of all at whose right hand he stood in power and glory As appears also by his being seated in his Throne for the thrones of the Eastern Kings to which these expressions allude were wide like one of our Couches in which more than one may sit and by his having the principal Angels the seven spirits of God at his command to imploy where he pleased Who together with the rest of the Heavenly host and with the Christian Church make their acclamations to him ver 11 12. as worthy of the most supreme power and dignity which they express in as many Names of praise as there are principal Spirits of God when they say Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 1. power and 2. riches and 3. wisdom and 4. strength and 5. honour and 6. glory and 7. blessing And then immediately he hears every Creature joyning him in their Doxology together with God the Father saying ver 13. Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever But the more fully to represent his Divine power you may observe that he appears in another Vision to him in the very same state and majesty wherein God was wont to make himself present in the times of old Then you read that the Lord made the clouds his chariot and walkt upon the wings of the wind ciii Psalm 3. that is came to them by the ministery of Angels who appeared in bright and shining clouds to do his will with great expedition every where For so it is expounded in the xviii Psalm 10. where instead of clouds it is said He rode upon a Cherub and did flie yea he did flie upon the wings of the wind That is there was a token of his presence by the majestick appearance of Angels who were ready to be imployed by him and immediately to execute his commands For to ride upon any thing as Maimonides observes * More Nevoch Part. 1. cap. 70. is in the Holy Language to rule to govern to have an absolute power over it and dispose of it as one pleases And therefore to ride upon a Cherub or to make the clouds his chariot which are the very same because the Angels appeared in glorious clouds is to send those Heavenly Ministers whither he thinks good to perform his pleasure Whence it is I suppose that the Psalmist says elsewhere lxviii 34. his strength is in the clouds because he is powerfully present by them in all places For as Andreas Caesariensis hath truly observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in his Commentaries upon the Revelation a cloud in the Sacred writings is ever a Minister about Divine businesses and perpetually imployed in them because they are above us and are very swift as the Angels are in their motions and are both dark and bright a fit emblem of the glory of the Divine Majesty which is inscrutable by us Now just in such a glorious Majesty and mighty power did S. John behold our blessed Saviour making the clouds that is the Angels his chariot in which he sate as a Lord to whom they were to do service So he tells us in xiv Rev. 14. And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sate like unto the Son of man having on his head a golden Crown and in his hand a sharp sickle Where by cloud the forementioned writer understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Angelical power of which this white that is bright cloud was a representation ministring to our Saviour For S. John saw him upon this cloud and sitting there as if it were the Throne or Royal Chariot of this Prince Who sate there with a Crown on his head denoting his Royal authority and that of Gold to show by what is most precious among us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the splendour and greatness of his Majesty and with a sickle in his hand to signifie that he hath such a power as to be able to cut down Kingdoms and States with as much ease as we mow a field of corn All these three last expressions set forth the highest dignity and most royal power and therefore so doth his sitting upon a cloud or being carried by Angels as Kings were anciently and still are in the Eastern Countries by their servants Which kind of speech and other such like phrases in the holy Language as riding upon the wings of Angels denoted by the clouds and wind signifie the exercise of his Kingly power by their Ministry Who are ready to fly any whither to convey his orders and execute them throughout the world Where he being present by them as a King is by his several Ministers in every part of his Dominions he is said to sit upon them as if whither-soever they go they carried him Thus the ancient Books speak of God the Creator and Governour of all and thus our Saviour teaches S. John to speak of him which is a sign that he is the Son of God who sends forth the Angels to minister for them especially who shall be heirs of salvation And therefore in another Vision which is all I need mention xix Rev. 11 12 c. He saw him again coming out of Heaven with the Royal ensigns of his victorious power over those who had opposed his authority For behold a white horse which was proper for a conqueror and one sitting upon him whose name was called the WORD of God Who was clothed he tells us with a vesture dipt in bloud that is with a purple garment such as Kings use to wear and his eyes sparkled or rather flamed like fire to denote how terrible he was to his Enemies and there were on his head many Crowns because he had already conquered several Kingdoms and Provinces and was now going to subdue more being attonded with all the armies in Heaven who waited upon him to minister to him in this war till as he was of right he was actually acknowledged by humble subjection to him to be KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS And what greater argument can there be of the power of our Lord and of the truth of these Visions whereby the WORD of God who hath the lineaments of future things in his mind as Irenaeus speaks represented how God would hereafter dispose of the affairs of the world than his possessing himself of a Kingdom and perswading so great a part of mankind to submit to him though a King invisible merely by the preaching of such men as S. John The event hath proved it was no delusion when he heard those great voices in Heaven saying xi 15. The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever
When the LXX Elders were to receive a portion of Moses his Spirit God ordered them to be brought unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation and says he would come down and talk with Moses there and take of the Spirit which was upon him and put it upon them xi Numb 16 17. Accordingly you read ver 24. that as they stood round about the Tabernacle the Lord came down in a cloud ver 25. that is in such a manner as now the Holy Ghost descended at our Lord's Baptism But He came not down upon them who were about the Tabernacle but rather as in the next story xii 5. and at other times stood in the door of the Tabernacle from whence he spake to Moses and took of the Spirit which was on him and gave it to the seventy Elders Whereas here the Holy Ghost came down in a visible glory and pitched upon Jesus himself who was the Tabernacle now where God chose to dwell For this Schekinah as you have heard or Divine majesty not only lighted on him but rested there and remained in him as if God had told him who saw it both descend and abide on him Here will I dwell for ever for therein do I delight This demonstrated him to be more than any ever was not merely a great Prophet but the very Son of God Never was there such a Crown prepared for any mans head but his Never before did the hand of Heaven put such a Diadem of Glory upon any person as this which encircled and as I may say was bound about our Saviour This can be accounted nothing less than the testimony of the HOLY GHOST to him that he was the Holy one of God the anointed from above the King of God's people and the heir of all things Thus S. Peter you know expresses the honour which was now done him when he tells Cornelius and his company x. Acts 38. that God ANOINTED him with the Holy Ghost and with power The HOLY GHOST came down as an holy oil from the Heavenly Sanctuary which being poured on him in such a glorious Majesty gave him authority to be called the Son of God and made him his King So John Baptist acknowledged him you remember as soon as he beheld this strange sight and bare record of it unto others that this person thus anointed was the Son of God i. John 34. He was now invested with a royal power for that 's the meaning of his being ANOINTED and we ought I shall show you to look upon this as a solemn inauguration of him in his Kingdom to which he had now a title given him together with some part of a Kingly Authority And if there be any truth in the Traditions of the Hebrews concerning their own Ceremonies there was something remarkable in it that this ANOINTING him with the holy oil from above was immediately after he came up out of the waters of Jordan For Maimonides and the Doctors in the Talmud tell us that they never anointed a King of the house of David but at the side of a Fountain or of a River of water Which was the reason that David commanded his servants to bring his son Solomon down to GIHON 1 Kings i. 33. and there anoint him King over Israel For this GIHON was a little River as R. Solomon there notes or the head of a River nigh Jerusalem which discharged it self into the brook Kidron and in the Chaldee Paraphrase is called by the newer name of Siloah It was made very famous afterward by that memorable work of Hezekiah 2 Chron. xxxii 30. who to take away the advantage any Enemy might make of it in a siege stopt up the course of its water and brought it by Chanels under-ground into the City of David At this place without the walls of Jerusalem not in the City Zadok and Nathan anointed King Solomon That is one of them poured out the oil and the other anointed his head drawing a circle with the oil upon it For so they all say that Kings were anointed in the form of a Crown to denote the royal dignity Which if it be true and that they made choice of such a place to show as they will have it the perpetuity of their Kingdom because Rivers run alway though the Cities which stand by them decay and may be demolished then it is very observable that our Lord was ANOINTED or Crowned with the Holy Ghost by the River JORDAN rather than in any other place to denote him indeed to be the King of Israel who should sit upon the throne of his Father David as the Angel said for ever and ever But this I mention only by the way The chief thing to be noted is that now he began to reign and entred upon his Kingdom called the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven which John Baptist told them was at hand For this descent of the HOLY GHOST in such a visible majesty did not merely give him a title to the Divine Kingdom which was to be erected by him in the world and assured him that he was God's Christ or ANOINTED that is his King and endued him with such royal qualities as fitted him for that office But it made him a King by conferring several branches of the Regal power on him and by giving him authority to exercise them in the world It is true indeed he did not actually take possession of his Kingdom nor exercise his royal power completely and the time of his inthroning was deferred till he had accomplished the will of God other ways and by the suffering of death was crowned with glory and honour in the Heavens But that he did not act only as a Prophet all his life-time but likewise took upon him the person of a King or acted as a Royal Prophet doing many things which only the royal Authority could do is a most manifest Truth in the Holy story Which cannot be better explained than by the parallel case of his Father David who was the exact type and figure of him He was anointed by Samuel some years before he sate upon the throne of the Lord. But as that Unction was the designation of him to the royal dignity and a pawn or pledge of the possession of it in due time so ever after he atchieved very great things which spoke him to be the person designed by God for his Kingdom as it is called I told you 2 Chron. ix 8. and he also received some portion of it before he enjoyed it all entirely 2 Sam. ii 4.9 v. 3. Just thus did our blessed Saviour after he was ANOINTED with the Holy Ghost give several proofs that he was a King which is the meaning you have heard of the word CHRIST and had received some of the power belonging to that high office For first he cast out Devils and cured all diseases at any time when he pleased only with his powerful word and for nothing Which were Acts of such royal bounty
till he went to hear what the Lord would command concerning the persons who were in doubt ix Numb 8. Our Lord had no need at all to go any whither to make such enquiries but in every place even in Samaria knew the greatest secrets iv Joh. 18 19. For he himself was the Tabernacle of God He was the Tent which God had pitched among Men separated unto him as the Tabernacle and Temple were by the visible descent of the Divine Glory upon him and by its residing in him So that wheresoever he was he had an Oracle continually within himself and without any addresses to the most Holy place or any other knew all things and revealed the mind of God to Men. And all this was so conspicuous that it was far better known than the presence of the Lord upon the Ark. For that was confined to one place whereas Jesus went about doing good Which may be the meaning of that famous Prophecy iii. Jer. 16 17. Where he says they should not make mention of the Ark any more that is worship God before that as the only place But Jerusalem should be the THRONE OF THE LORD to which all Nations should be gathered that is in every part of the City and Country too he would appear as gloriously as he had done formerly in the most holy place of the Temple which could be at no other time but when Jesus appeared among them and sent by his Apostles the Law out of Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem to all Nations ii Isa 3 4. The THRONE OF THE LORD I have told you already is in their Language as Maimonides teaches us Every place which God separates for the manifestation of his Divine glory So the Heaven is called his Throne lxvi Isa 1. And by that name Jeremiah calls their Sanctuary xvii Jer. 12. A glorious high Throne from the beginning is the place of our Sanctuary And so I told you the Ark is called because that was the peculiar place in the Sanctuary where he resided But at last you see all Jerusalem by which we may understand the whole Nation was to become the THRONE of the LORD As it did when Jesus appeared who in person was sent to that Nation alone in whom the Divine glory shone illustriously in all places wheresoever he came They beheld the Wisdome the Power the Love of God in him not only in the Temple where he oft appeared but in every part of the holy City In the streets nay in the high wayes in the fields in the wilderness upon the sea there was a most glorious appearance of God such as never was when the Ark alone was the THRONE of the LORD VI. Which puts me in mind and then I shall end this that the Unity of God is as much nay more discovered in our blessed Saviour as it was at the Tabernacle or Temple in former times As there was but one place where God put his Name among the Children of Israel and they were all to go to the very same Oracle whereby they were preserved in the belief and worship of one God So now God hath manifested that this is his ONLY begotten Son and that there is no name given under Heaven whereby we can be saved but only His and that we must seek to no other Mediator but this One in whom now God appears in such a glory as he never did any where else And this is also to keep us in the belief that God is one which may hence also appear by this manifestation of God in the flesh For whereas we call God by several attributes the most holy the most wise the most powerful and the like yet we see all these were in one person Christ Jesus Which may well instruct us that they all together are but One God and that it is one eternal Majesty who is so holy wise powerful and good But as I said this was better made known by our Saviour than by the Divine Majesty residing at the Temple For during all the time that the Holy Oracle of God stood at Jerusalem there were also Oracles which pretended gods maintained among the Gentiles This upheld the Opinion concerning a multitude of gods And all that Moses or the Prophets could do did not destroy this belief in the World no not root it out of Israel till God appeared in our Lord and Saviour Then these other Oracles grew mute and it was held ridiculous to believe any more Gods than One. The Devils lost all their power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the coming of our Saviour among Men. They are the words of Eusebius who produces a sworn enemy of Christianity to avouch what he delivers Porphyry by name who makes this ingenuous confession * Lib. V. Praepar Cap. 1. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ever since JESUS was honoured none ever perceived any publick help and succour from the Gods Aesculapius and the rest of the Gods have withdrawn themselves from men and do not converse with them From whence Eusebius argues very rationally on this manner How come you to know those whom you worship to be gods Why did not Aesculapius and the rest of his Companions overthrow the power of Jesus and make it of none effect If he be a mortal Man as you say nay perhaps you call him a jugler and a deceiver and they indeed be Saviours and gods What is the matter that they flee before him and turn their backs of one that is so inconsiderable Why do they yield up all the World to his power and abandon all their subjects in this shameful manner If you have any sence you must conclude that he is stronger than they and that what he speaks is true For though he be but one and as one would suppose alone yet He hath driven away a vast number of gods and made them leave the World He hath abolished their worship and service and exposed them to such contempt that as they appear no longer gods so they can do just nothing They are not able so much as to show themselves as they were wont to their followers But plainly discover that they were Daemons not Gods But on the contrary the worship of this JESUS and that ONE GOD who he saith sent him into the World is every day more and more propagated and takes deeper root in the minds of all People One would have thought that these gods should have bestirred themselves at his coming more than ever They should have made combinations and joyned all their forces against him Their Oracles which were so famous should now above all other times have been frequented and spoken most loudly so that all the World might hear them against this person who came to destroy that Religion and take away all that reverence which was paid them Or if one Oracle had been dumb upon any particular cause yet all of them together one would think should not have lost their voice
and their credit in this fashion These gods should have had more care of their reputation and authority than to let this single person whom they pretended also to be so mean to prevail thus mightily against them For as Plutarch tells us in those very places where there was in times past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great glory of the Divinity there was nothing to do in his days but all was vanisht A sign that indeed God was more in our Saviour than he ever had been in any other person or place and that he was no where else and that he would be worshipped only in that way which he taught and prescribed For they saw his GLORY the GLORY as OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN Son i. Joh. 14. who had those marks of a Divine Majesty residing in him that none ever had and from whom we may expect all that the wisdom power and love of God can do for us What should we do then but after such evident proofs that God is in him fall down and with the most humble and joyful reverence worship him who as it there follows is full of grace and truth Because he is full of TRUTH we ought to resign and submit our selves to his government and because he is full of GRACE we should always rejoyce to think that we are under his care and we should put our trust under the shaddow of his wings And that he is so full of both that we may with great satisfaction commit our selves to his guidance confide and rejoyce in him will appear still more evidently by the next Testimony which he received from the HOLY GHOST II. Which was upon the day of Pentecost ten days after he left this world When it gave a more publick testimony to him than it had done at his Baptism that he was the Son of God exalted to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high For his Apostles being then assembled together in one place on a sudden there came such a mighty inspiration from him who a little before he parted with them breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost that the sound of it was like that of a violent blast of wind when it is a coming Which was anciently a token of a Divine presence approaching iii. Gen. 8. and now was a sign that by the power of this spirit they should carry all before them For it filled all the house where they were sitting as they did all the World e're long by their preaching And immediately a glimpse of that Divine Majesty or Glory appeared on them which came down upon our Saviour at his Baptism and ever after dwelt in him Who now sent the Apostles just as the Father had sent him For a bright flame was seen upon their Heads and they were baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire So S. Luke reports ii Act. 3 4. That there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it SATE upon each of them a sign that this power should abide with them alway and accompany them every where though this visible flame vanished The effect of which was notorious to all even as it was apparent that Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost though none but John Baptist saw it coming down upon him For they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with tongues Of which all Jerusalem as it there follows yea men of all Nations were witnesses who heard them speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God vers 11. They proclaimed that is to all the People whom the report of this strange news had brought together what wonders God had wrought by Jesus and what he had now done for him having raised him from the dead vers 24. and exalted him by his right hand vers 33. and made him both LORD and CHRIST vers 36. That is He was now they might see if they would not shut their eyes inthroned by God in the Heavens and compleatly invested with that royal power of which he had received some portion before being now made LORD of all things and the KING of God's People Of which we say the Apostles v. 32. are his Witnesses who saw him after he rose again and beheld him ascend into Heaven and so is the Holy Ghost which he sent from thence as they all now saw and heard in divers sensible effects which testified that he was at the right hand of God And here it will be fit to observe three things First That the HOLY GHOST was his WITNESS as the Apostles you see call Him as the coming of it was the fulfilling of what he had predicted and promised a little before his going away from them At the very mention of that word they were very disconsolate and sorrow filled their heart Whereupon he chears them up with this assurance that he would not leave them comfortless like so many fatherless Children but pray the Father and he would give them another Comforter who should abide with them for ever and never go away from them as he was about to do xiv Joh. 16. This he tells them was the spirit of truth vers 17. whom the Father would send in his Name vers 26. where he repeats this over again and tells them what the Holy Ghost would do for them And therefore charges them not to be troubled or afraid but rather rejoyce to hear him say he was going to the Father who was Greater than he and therefore would give him power when he went to him to do more for them than he could do now vers 28. And then he adds the reason why he said all this vers 29. Now I have told you before it come to pass that when it is come to pass you might believe That is be confirmed in the belief of all that I have said and fully perswaded I have not boasted of a power and authority which doth not belong to me They might well be confident of it themselves and bid all the House of Israel know assuredly that God had made the same Jesus whom they crucified both Lord and Christ when they saw this come to pass which he had foretold and promised so often Before his Death xv Joh. 26 27. xvi 7. After his Resurrection xxiv Luke 49. Just before his Ascension i. Act. 4.8 Where he bids them not stir from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which they had heard of him and which would give them Power to be his Witnesses every where It was an evident argument when they received it of these two Divine Properties in Him Foreknowledge and Omnipotence They had reason to believe there was a Divine Majesty in him when he was with them on Earth and to trust to all he had said either of himself or them or those that should believe on his Name and to look upon Him now as the King of Glory with all power in Heaven and Earth For how could he have
saith that if he went away he would send the PARACLETE that is his Advocate unto them whose office it should be to convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment Of this place I shall be able I hope to give a full account hereafter together with all those that relate to the Holy Ghost and therefore I shall say no more of it now than this That the end of the PARACLETE'S coming was to plead the Cause of our Saviour to maintain his innocence and to prove against all accusers that though he was condemned by men yet he was acquitted by God and had said nothing but the truth For observe but the crime whereof he was accused and for which he was sentenced by the Jews and you will soon see that nothing could clear him so much as this The great thing they laid to his charge as you have heard already was that he affirmed when they adjured him to speak his thought that he was the Christ the Son of the Blessed This was the blasphemy which they pretended wounded their hearts with grief when they heard it and for which they adjudged him to be worthy of death Now what could demonstrate the vileness of this calumny and prove him not guilty more than such a power possessing his followers even after he was dead as they saw in himself when he was alive Nay a far greater which declared as they truly said that he was Lord of all x. Acts 36. He could not have done such things as they beheld were wrought at the invoking of his Name if he were not truly the Son of God The Apostles might have called long enough upon him before they had made a man lame from his Mother's womb walk up and down and leap and praise God if he whom they crucified were not exalted by God's right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour And it had been the vainest thing of all for the Apostles to go and preach up the authority of a dead man and who was ignominiously crucified as a great Malefactor if they had not known that the Holy Ghost from him was ready at hand in every place and time to be his ADVOCATE and take his part against all gain-sayers This Heavenly Witness never failed to appear when there was need of him to justifie our Saviour and to set all things right in the opinion of the World by reversing their false judgment and by establishing and verifying the sentence he had passed on himself when he said that he was the Son of God The Tables were now turned by the appearance of this PARACLETE who pleaded so strongly and convincingly that many who had before accounted him an evil doer were now forced to alter their mind and confess him to be a righteous person They who had reviled him now gave him worship and honour They that cried Crucifie him said as the Centurion when they heard the HOLY GHOST speak on his behalf Sure this was the Son of God And all those who were so hardy as to resist the Holy Ghost vii Acts 51. were fain to oppose it with rage and throwing stones for in any other manner they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit whereby S. Steven a man full of the Holy Ghost spake to them and reasoned with them vi Acts 9 10. So great a testimony was this of the HOLY GHOST to Jesus that the Apostles were not fit to be his Witnesses till they had received it xxiv Luke 48. i. Acts 8. But after it came upon them and joyned its testimony with theirs then they defended his cause so successfully that a great company of the Priests the greatest enemies to it yielded themselves and became obedient to the faith vi Acts 7. Then if any one asked how dare you contradict the sentence of the High Court to which all men are bound upon pain of death to submit xvii Deut. 9 12. what can you say to justifie this presumption in maintaining his Righteousness whom the Grand Council of the Nation hath condemned to suffer death They could soon make this reply Let the HOLY GHOST answer you hear what he says to you If He do not speak enough for us and for Jesus to satisfie you then we refuse not to die you may deal with us as the despisers of God and his Law And so mightily were they astonished and perplexed by the pleadings of the HOLY GHOST that the Sanhedrim the Supreme Court of Judicature among them knew not what to say to the Apostles nor what to do with them They only clapt them in prison for preaching Jesus iv Acts 3. and threatned farther severity if they did not desist ver 21. but they durst not proceed to pass the sentence of death upon them according as the Law directed the people glorifying God so heartily for what they saw them do by the power of the Holy Ghost Nay so much were some of this great Council staggered that according to the perswasion of Gamaliel a great Master among them they let the Apostles go free after a second imprisonment lest perhaps they should be found fighters against God ver 39. If this be an humane project says that wise man do not trouble your selves about it for it will come to naught as the vain attempts of others have done who at the first drew much people after them But if these men prove to be authorized by God and he will have it so who can overthrow it We had best take heed how we proceed in a business wherein we may chance to have God against us It is better in my judgment to be quiet and see what the issue will be lest in stead of contending with men we be found to oppose God Almighty himself III. And the issue was this which is the last thing that by the power of this Advocate alone and no other our Lord Jesus actually obtained a Kingdom in spite of all the opposition that could be made against him This was the greatest testimony of the Holy Ghost to him which effectually proved him to be a King by winning him a Kingdom and perswading men to submit unto him though he was invisible and not like to reward their services in this World at all but only in another It proclaimed him all abroad in the World to be the Lord of life and glory and by the mere preaching of the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven as S. Peter speaks 1 i. 12. the Nations were subdued to him and acknowledged him for their Sovereign The High Priest and Council of Jerusalem as it there follows in v. Acts 40. desiring to discourage the Apostles in this preaching ordered them to be beaten and then commanded them to speak no more in the name of Jesus for fear of a worse punishment that might follow Alas vain men that thought to choak this Truth and bury this report concerning Jesus Did they think it was in their power to murder his
the very shadow of some of them did more than all the power of Medicines This was a very great demonstration of his supreme dominion over all Creatures Nothing could be more effectual to induce men to obey him to whom they saw every thing else was subject Without this they could never have moved men to believe that he was the Lord but this gave it sufficient credit For suppose they had stood up in the places of popular concourse and said We come to preach to you in the name of Jesus and require you to submit your selves to him whom God hath made the Lord of all He was born of the seed of David a great King in Israel did many wonders in that Nation though he was hated and rejected by them and delivered to Pontius Pilate by whom he was crucified but God raised him out of his grave and we saw him go to Heaven where he is inthroned in the most glorious Majesty and reigns over all Angels as well as mankind Cast away therefore your ancient Gods who are his subjects Forsake presently all your superstitious Rites and Ceremonies Believe on this person submit to his government and obey his commands Though you get nothing in this world by it but perhaps may lose all you have he will reward you for it in his Pleavenly Kingdom What force do you think there would have been in such a speech to perswade the Nations far distant from Jerusalem to fall down before him as their Sovereign Would they not have smiled and said What do these bablers mean to bring us these strange stories from a foreign land Why should we acknowledge him to be our King whom his own Country-men would not suffer to reign over them Shall we become the subjects of one whom we never saw nor heard of until now and venture the loss of all our liberties and perchance of our lives for one whom they confess to be crucified and dead What likelihood is there that he should rise again from the dead who could not keep himself when he was alive from being put to death Truly saith Eusebius when I consider the mere doctrine they were to preach I cannot see how they could hope to draw the people to their belief But then when I consider how they did prevail every where at Rome at Alexandria at Antioch in all other places I must have recourse to a Divine power which succeeded this Doctrine Jesus plainly declared by putting them upon the attempt that he was confident he had all power to get himself a Kingdom by this preaching And by the issue it appeared that it was no presumption wherewith he was possessed instead of a well grounded confidence They preached as he bad them but it was not with such Rhetorick as is in use among us not with the enticing words of mans wisdom with eloquent expressions enchanting language or mere plausible arguments but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. ii 4. The HOLY GHOST from Heaven presently appeared wheresoever they preached to justifie their words and to testifie by many miraculous operations that Jesus was no less than they affirmed This evident demonstration perswaded mens minds This was such a power that the people were ready to take them for Gods and imagined that Mercury and Jupiter were come down from Heaven to them and thereupon prepared publick sacrifices to be offered in their honour xiv Acts 13. Natural reason told them that such things could not be done by mortal nature but they must be concluded to be the works of some God though no body told them that they were And therefore this was all they had to do for their own satisfaction to enquire by what power and authority the Apostles did these wonders since they themselves confessed that they were but men And here now they took occasion to let them know that it was Jesus who did these Miracles Him they preached and him they hereby proved to be the Lords ANOINTED who by this power would prevail notwithstanding the fierce opposition that was made against his authority For as you read in a devout address which the whole company of believers made to God the Rulers were gathered together and the Kings of the Earth stood up against the Lord and against his Christ At their first entrance upon this work there were mighty endeavours to overthrow it just as there had been against his holy child Jesus whom he had ANOINTED that is promoted to a greater glory than he had on Earth And therefore they desire God to go along with them and stretch forth his hand to heal and that signs and wonders might be done by the name of his holy child Jesus for the propagating of this Religion which it was not in their own power to advance iv Acts 26 27 30. Now this was a further testimony of the power and glory of Jesus that when a solemn address was made to God and they represented to him their design they were so far from receiving any discountenance from him that he incouraged and promoted this undertaking For the place where they prayed was shaken by a powerful inspiration which came upon them all as it had done upon the Apostles And they were ALL filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness ver 31. III. And this leads me to the last Testimony which the HOLY GHOST gave to him by descending upon other persons as well as upon the Apostles though not in such a visible form as it did on the day of Pentecost The place indeed was SHAKEN where these believers were assembled by the like mighty wind I suppose as filled the house where the Apostles received the Holy Ghost ii Acts 2. But there were no fiery tongues now appeared as there did then Nor do we afterwards read of any such sensible sign of an invisible power coming upon them as this shaking of the place was when the Holy Ghost first descended upon the body of the Church But whensoever the Apostles laid their hands upon any person who believed in Jesus and was baptized presently the Holy Ghost fell down upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied viii Acts 15 17. xix 6. This laying on of their hands was ever after the only external sign of the Divine power for that 's the meaning of stretching out the hand in the place just before named iv Acts 30. wherewith they should be endued at the request of the Apostles Which was a plain demonstration of the royal Majesty and munificence of Jesus whose Servants and Ministers these were and hereby the HOLY GHOST bare record to him that he was the Son of God So this very Apostle teaches us in the second Chapter of this Epistle where he tells them to whom he writes that he need not be very solicitous to prescribe them Antidotes against those Antichristian doctrines which then began to poison the Church because they had an Unction
from the holy One and knew all things 1 John ii 20. The HOLY GHOST that is was their security from infection which is here called the UNCTION or anointing 1. because by the coming down of this upon our Saviour He was made the CHRIST or anointed of God x. Acts 38. And 2. the Apostles when they received it were made the principal Officers in his Kingdom and endued with such a power to remit sins and unloose men from the punishment of them as he had xx Joh. 22 23. And 3. all others to whom they imparted this gift were openly declared the children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ viii Rom. 16 17. This UNCTION made them all Kings and Priests unto God and they reigned with him on Earth v. Rev. 10. Enjoyed that is many royal priviledges and liberties at present for which they were bound perpetually to praise him beside the right it gave them to an Heavenly Kingdom where they should sit down with him in his Throne as He was in the Throne of his Father iii. Rev. 21. For the Thrones of the Eastern Princes were wide and large as I told you before where others might sit down by them if they pleased to admit any to that high honour which this King of Kings promises to grant to his faithful followers No wonder then that they who were designed to so great glory were also made partaker of the Earnest of it as this Unction by the Holy Spirit is called 2 Cor. i. 22. After God had filled the Apostles and other Apostolical men with the Holy Ghost who were ready to guide and direct all Christian people while they lived There were great numbers also in the Body of the Church who received so many of its gifts from the HOLY one that is God 2 Cor. i. 21. that it enabled them to discern truth from falshood and discover all those cheats and impostures which some went about to put upon them under the name of Christian Doctrine A very great Doctor the Holy Ghost was when they were anointed with it for thereby they KNEW ALL THINGS that is their whole Religion in which it made them so perfect that those pretenders to new Revelations could teach them nothing which they knew not already For it taught them that Jesus from whom it came was the Son of God and had revealed all God's will plainly and fully to them So S. John tells them in the following verses 21 22. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth but because ye know it and that no lye is of the truth Who is a lyar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ c. That is I do not speak of this because you are ignorant of Christianity but because you are well acquainted with it and thereby able to judge when any body contradicts it and to reject all those as lyars who deny Jesus to be anointed by God the Lord of all I know you are well principled in this truth by the UNCTION which he hath given you from the Father All that I desire is as he adds ver 24. that you would suffer that Truth which you have heard from the beginning to abide in you And indeed it was very unreasonable to start from that which had ever been acknowledged since the Holy Ghost first descended on Jesus himself and which the same UNCTION still testified whensoever the Apostles who preached Jesus did but lay their hands on any bodies head and pray to Jesus that he would bestow it on them They could not be seduced if they did but attend as he says ver 26 27. to this anointing which they had received and which was yet among them There was no need of any other teacher but this to instruct them Which gave such an evident demonstration of the power and glory of the Lord Jesus and was so far from being a lye or deceiving them that if they did but do it as it taught them they must needs abide in him This you see was accounted and that justly an infallible witness to him He could never have sent such an UNCTION nor would the Holy Ghost have ever come in his Name if he had not been the King of Heaven They that received this had an invincible proof of his glory and majesty within themselves They could not doubt of it any more than they could of what they felt Which proved likewise so convincing to others that it made unbelievers fall down on their faces and worship God and report that God was in them of a truth 1 Cor. xiv 25. For by this the Divine Majesty did in a proper sence DWELL among Christian people and walk with them as it did among the ancient Israelites 2 Cor. vi 16. This was a glorious Divine Presence in the Church whereby God and our Saviour made their ABODE with them xiv John 23. and they became the HABITATION of God or his Dwelling place through the Spirit ii Ephes 22. Which so constantly bare witness to him that no man who had this Spirit could possibly deny him but every one that spake by the Holy Ghost acknowledged Jesus to be the LORD 1 Cor. xii 3. And they were no small number who were made partakers of it For S. Peter promises it at the very first descent of it to all that would repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus at which word three thousand Souls were added to them ii Acts 38 41. And afterwards a vast company more as you may read in the first Epistle to the Corinthians Where some were endued with one power of the Holy Ghost some with another Chap. xii but in every thing they were enriched by him so that they came behind in NO GIFT Chap. i. 5 7. Wherein our Lord far excelled Moses who could not give his Spirit unto others much less unto the Gentiles whereas Jesus sent great abundance of his Spirit as you see upon his Disciples and gave even to the Gentiles the like gift as he did unto them xi Acts 17. For as S. Peter was preaching to Cornelius and his friends the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word to the great astonishment of the Jewish Christians who wondred to hear them speak with tongues and magnifie God x. Acts 44 45 46. But they should have considered that now he began to fulfil completely that prophecy of Joel mentioned ii Acts 17. which promised that God would pour out of his Spirit upon ALL flesh Now the inclosures were first broken down and that Divine Presence which had hitherto been confined to one Nation appeared in a most amazing lustre to the rest of the World In so much that in a little time great multitudes of all nations and kindred and people and tongues joyned their hearts and voices with the Heavenly Quire saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his GLORY Thus Esaias heard
the Angels sing vi 3. when he beheld our Saviours glory and spake of him xii John 39. And the Church of Christ from the beginning hath taken these words from their mouths and made them their own iv Rev. 8. when they actually saw this GLORY OF THE LORD filling the Earth with its most holy Presence For our Lord did not cease to pour out more and more of his Spirit on all flesh even after the Apostles were dead But as Justin Martyr tells the Jew in his time which was above an hundred years after this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Dial. cum Tryph. c. One might have seen among Christians both women and men who had gifts from the Spirit of God And so one might in the days of Origen * Lib. 1. contr Cels who lived as many years after that who to convince Celsus that it was no Fable which was reported of the descent of the Holy Ghost on our Saviour affirms that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There were still remaining among them some footsteps of that Holy Spirit which was seen in the form of a Dove For they dispossessed Devils performed many cures and foresaw some things according to the will and pleasure of the WORD concerning what was to come Nay it were easie to show that this Heavenly power descended still much lower and did not quite leave the World in these Ages and that it did not work in some obscure corners only but in the most noted places in the World For the same Justin says in his first Apology that there were many healed by the Name of Jesus Christ in the City of Rome whom no other person could heal So that look how many Souls there were full of the Holy Ghost so many lasting Witnesses there were to our Saviour of his power and glory in every place But intending hereafter to treat of all these gifts of the Holy Ghost alone by themselves I shay say no more of them now having sufficiently shown how they were his Testimony to our Saviour It is possible I confess that there may be another thing included in the name of the HOLY GHOST and that is the old Prophets who received gifts from Heaven whereby they sometimes spake of the Messiah So the HOLY GHOST is said in the x. Hebr. 15. to be a witness of the perfection of our Saviours oblation and for a proof of it the testimony of the Prophet Jeremiah is alledged whose words are called the witness of the Holy Ghost From whence I might take occasion to show that all the predictions of the Prophets do so exactly agree to Jesus and are so perfectly fulfilled in him that we must needs grant him if we receive this testimony of the Holy Ghost and take them to have been inspired thereby to be the Son of God the King of Israel who they had long put that Nation in hope should come and reign over them But this would be a work of too great length and my intention is not to swell this Treatise into an huge Volume which makes me only mention this notion that you may consider with your selves as you have occasion what a resemblance there is between Jesus and that person whom the Prophets describe unto us For this will prove a great confirmation of your faith in him there being no doubt in the minds of the bitterest enemies of our Saviour but that those Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost I have done now with these witnesses who speak unto us from Heaven and who are one you see in their testimony as well as in their nature They all agree in this that Jesus is the Son of God There is not the least difference between them no doubtfulness in their testimony no backwardness to give it no obscurity that should make it difficult for us to understand it But with one mouth as we say they unanimously plainly readily and clearly pronounce him to be such a Divine person that if we should not hear him and obey him and depend upon him I know not what we shall be able to say to so many Witnesses who will be ready to appear against us whose testimony without any cause was slighted by us Look how many voices have been heard from Heaven how many witnesses have openly appeared in his behalf so many Divine reasons you are to conceive your self to be provided withall for every word that Jesus hath spoken Which you are therefore to take for infallible and to keep as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. vi 14. without spot and unrebukeable until his second appearing Listen to those words of grace which come out of his mouth Abandon those sins which he requires you to forsake and betake your selves to the practice of those vertues which he so strictly injoyns For the FATHER the WORD and the HOLY GHOST declare that this is the Will of Heaven And what is there in this world so considerable as to perswade the contrary If he be not the Son of God if he do not prove it by undeniable arguments then do as you list But if he be then you are bound to yield him the humblest subjection and it will be a strange stupidity to dispute the matter with him There can be no colour for your refusal should you deny to be governed by him who comes with such Authority that the fulness of the Godhead as you have heard dwells in him bodily O what an honour hath God Almighty hereby done our nature how highly hath he advanced and dignified it by this strange and unexpected favour which he hath conferred on it in making it his Holy place Consider but what I have now said of the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST to Jesus which was an illustrious token likewise of Gods wonderful love to us Is it nothing that God should be manifested in our flesh that he should DWELL in us and make his abode with us and that we should become the habitation of God through the Spirit Look upon the Temple of old and see how it glittered with Gold how it was adorned with Cherubims and Seraphims which were an emblem of the Angelical attendance in that place but especially how it shined with the Glory of the Lord which appeared upon the mercy-seat And then reflect how precious how dear mankind are to Almighty God into whose Nature this Glory is translated whom he hath beautified with greater excellencies and made more splendid by a more intimate conjunction with it Could any man then after he had considered this profane that Nature which God hath so sanctified and separated to himself Could he find in his heart to prostitute himself to any of those base and filthy actions that are below the dignity of humane nature nakedly considered without such a presence of God in it None can submit sure to the government of any fleshly lust but he must first forget that he is a man created after the Image
of God And there is none can continue in this unworthy slavery but he must lay aside these thoughts also that the WORD was made flesh and the Image of the invisible God hath taken up his abode in our Nature By this he hath called us to the greatest sanctity He remembers us what excellent Creatures we are and how Glorious he is desirous to make us And who is there that need despair of recovering himself by the grace of God though he be sunk never so much below himself now that God is come on purpose to lift him up He hath sent Salvation to us by one that is mighty to save He hath revealed himself so graciously and made such discoveries of his Love and Power and Glory to all mankind that they may confidently hope if they will not cast away all care of themselves to be restored to the image and likeness of God again But this Discourse will come in more seasonably when we have joyned the strength of the other three Witnesses to these and heard them all together some from Heaven others from Earth proclaiming this in our ears Behold the Son of God Jesus is your Lord for he is the Lord of all things And we shall be the more ready for a surrender to him when we see withall how much we are beholden to God Almighty for his marvellous inconceiveable love in calling us so many ways by so many arguments to Repentance Faith Obedience and Everlasting Salvation That which I have now explained deserves to be remembred with the most affectionate acknowledgments and we shall be better disposed to hearken to the rest if we give him hearty thanks for what we understand already and say A PRAYER ADored be thy inestimable love O thou Holy Spirit of Grace and Truth the mighty Power of God who hast given such gifts unto men even to the rebellious also that the LORD God might DWELL among them Blessed be thy Goodness who didst anoint our Lord with that oil of gladness which hath run down to the meannest of his subjects Great and wonderful was that Heavenly Power and Love which appeared in such visible Majesty upon him and filled him with the Holy Ghest so that he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil And much more marvellous was that Almighty Goodness which promoted him to the throne of Glory in the Heavens that he might fill all things Praised be that astonishing Love which first filled the Apostles minds with such Heavenly light and inflamed their wills with such fervent heat that they boldly preached the Gospel to all the world For ever magnified be that diffusive Grace which afterwards spread it self in such variety of gifts wrought by one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he pleased Let the whole Church be giving continual thanks to thee O Lord for stretching forth thy hand in such signs and wonders to glorifie thy holy child Jesus for giving by the Spirit to some a gift of wisdom to others a gift of healing to others divers kind of tongues to others prophecy and for making some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers that every knee might bow to Jesus and every tongue confess that he is the Lord. I confess him with all my Soul I honour him as my Dearest Lord. I see thy Glory O blessed Jesus by the light of the Holy Ghost which hath shone so oft from Heaven upon us I see the Power thou hast at Gods right hand I see the royal bounty of thy love Now I know that thou knowest all things and believe that thou art the faithful and the true whose words shall never fail O how much ought I and every Christian Soul to rejoyce in the consolations of the Holy Ghost which hath brought us new assurances from Heaven that our Saviour lives and reigns and sits inthroned at the right hand of God in incomparable majesty and glory Inspire all our minds and hearts O thou quickning Spirit inspire them O Lord and Giver of Life with such ardent love and devotion towards him that we may hope to reign with him and then shall we rejoyce before-hand in this hope with joy unspeakable and full of glory Do not wholly absent they self from us O thou Guide and Comforter of our Souls though we have not been so grateful to thee nor followed thy directions and counsels as we ought but still let thy gracious presence fill every part of the Christian Church Though we have not that UNCTION from above which endued them heretofore with the gifts of tongues and prophecy and healing and working of miracles Yet pour down every where much of the spirit of knowledge and love and devotion and purity and fortitude and undaunted resolution and fervent Zeal which may be ever glorifying the great God and our Saviour Christ Jesus O thou who didst open the eyes of the blind and loose the tongue of the dumb enlighten our minds to see more of those wonders which may inflame our love and incourage our hope and open our lips that our mouths may shew forth thy Praise Still let there be hearts full of Faith in the blessed Jesus full of love to all mankind full of ardent desire to see his Kingdom come full of wisdom to open the mysteries of Salvation to instruct men in the truth as it is in Jesus and to convince them mightily and perswade them to be obedient to it That so by the same Heavenly power whereby the Faith of Christ was planted in the world it may be graciously preserved and promoted and we may see it go forward and advance more and more till every Nation now on Earth speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God Let all the people praise thee O God Let all the people praise thee Kindle in them such devout affections as may offer up continually the sacrifice of praise to thee Let them praise thee with pure minds and upright hearts and unspotted lives and in perfect unity and godly love say every where Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen CHAP. V. Concerning the Witnesses on Earth and first of the WATER HAVING given a brief account of the Testimony of the first Three Witnesses and finding much satisfaction in their perfect agreement we have the greater encouragement to go to the other Three who are also nearer to us than the former and take that evidence which they are willing to afford us for our further confirmation in this belief that Jesus is the Son of God These three you read in the eighth Verse are such as bear witness on EARTH whereby we may be the better acquainted with them and they are the more undeniable and furthest off from all question or exception For should any be so bold as to dispute that there might
reverence to his Majesty Whatsoever Moses hath written against Idolatry S. John here from Jesus in the conclusion of his Epistle hath summed it up in a few words Little children keep your selves from IDOLS In this the Jews could not accuse him nor durst let such a word fall from their mouths that he was a false Prophet because he endeavoured to draw their hearts after other Gods which was the great mark of an Impostor xiii Deut. No he tells them that this is Eternal Life to know the only true God which words are spoken in opposition to all others and Jesus Christ whom he had sent But in this they might have seen that his design was far more noble and glorious than that of Moses who contented himself to preserve that one Nation from the infection of Idolatry whereas our Lord Jesus plainly declared his intention was by his Apostles to turn all Nations from Idols to serve the living and true God There was never any man that appeared so great a lover of God as he was Never any man that undertook to set on foot such a design for the advancement of the universal knowledge of him All the Divine Attributes and Perfections also He hath revealed so perspicuously that there never was such a manifestation made of them to the World as we see in Him From whom we learn how Just how Good how Wise how Faithful and how Powerful the Blessed and only Potentate is who only hath immortality whom no man hath seen or can see And if we would know our Duty either towards God in actions of Piety or towards Men in actions of Righteousness or towards our selves in actions of sobriety we can learn it no where so easily and completely as if we go to him and to those who have delivered it to us with great care and plainness from his mouth As for the Actions of PIETY He teaches us inwardly to Honour God v. Joh. 23. that is to have an high esteem of him as our Lord and as our chiefest Good to Love him also and that with all our heart and all our Soul and all our mind and all our strength xii Mark 30. And to Fear him seeing he can cast both Body and Soul into Hell which makes him again and again bid us be sure to Fear him xii Luke 4 5. To confide likewise and Trust in him the living God 1 Tim. iv 10. To Hope in his mercy 1 Pet. i. 21. And to rejoyce evermore 1 Thess v. 16. And as we are thus to worship him in our Minds so we are taught by his Religion externally to adore him and fall down before him iv Matth. 10. iv Rev. 10. to pray to him both for our selves and others 1 Tim. ii 1 8. and to be incessant in our Prayers or to perform this holy duty very oft xviii Luke 1. 1 Thess v. 17. and to offer up by him the sacrifice of Praise to God continually xiii Heb. 15. And in every thing to give thanks which is the will of God concerning us in Christ Jesus 1 Thess v. 18. and especially to shew the Lords death that is publish it with thanks and praise till he come to judge the World 1 Cor. xi 26. The manner also of addressing our selves to God he hath taught us so fully that nothing can be added to it For he tells us The Father will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth iv John 23. And that we must lift up holy hands 1 Tim. ii 8. And that when we pray we must forgive others xi Mark 25. and ask in Faith xxi Matth. 22. and avoid vain babling and not affect much speaking nor desire to be seen of men and to joyn Fasting and Alms with our Prayers and Devotions to God Matth. vi It is impossible to conceive any thing more Divine than these Instructions To which he adds as rare Precepts for Actions of RIGHTEOUSNESS concerning which he hath given us such an absolutely perfect Rule that it comprehends the measures of CHARITY too No wit of man can think of any thing more holy than that LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THY SELF or that WHATSOEVER YE WOULD THAT MEN SHOULD DO TO YOU DO YE EVEN SO TO THEM This is a rule that reaches all men and compendiously yet completely tells them how they should behave themselves towards each other If a man were a Magistrate or a Parent or stood in any other superiority over his Neighbours he would desire honour and obedience from them that therefore says our Saviour let him give to those who are in Authority If a man be our equal we desire if not his friendship yet his fidelity in word and deed that very thing let us be sure to render him and all others in the same equality with us If we be placed below others we desire the favour the help the relief and counsel of our Betters all these Jesus here teaches us to afford with the same chearfulness that we would expect them in their case to those who are in want of our kind assistance Nay he hath told us in particular what our duty is in these matters by the mouths of his holy Apostles that no man may think to excuse himself by his ignorance and inability to apply a general Rule to every action of his life I shall not name all the places where you may find such words as these that follow but only tell you He would have us so far from doing evil to any man that he requires us owe him nothing but only love And this debt we must be always paying and think our selves debtors to all men not only to treat them civilly and give them good words but to love them in deed and in truth Which Love must teach us as to be meek and gentle towards all men to put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking not to circumvent or go beyond our Brother in any matter not to lye to our neighbour nor defame him much less do him any hurt in his body or goods So to relieve his poverty to help forward his joy to comfort him in his sorrow to cover his defects to make a fair interpretation of his actions to let our judgment of him incline to the more favourable side to mind what is lovely or grateful to others and what things are of good report to study things that make for peace to compose and reconcile differences to beg pardon of those whom we have offended and make them satisfaction and if any have offended us readily to forgive their fault to forbear revenge when it is in our power to requite an injury to do good for evil to bless those that curse us to overcome mens hatred with benefits to pray to God for those who use us despitefully and to be long-suffering when it is fit to punish any man for his crime And as for those who are truly pious we are taught to do them good above all other men to
to say that he came from God if he had no warrant for it All sober men must rather confidently believe that He who arrived as I have often said at such an height of blameless purity in all other points whatsoever was as free from blame in this also and said nothing but the very Truth when He so solemnly and so frequently before God and before men in his life-time and at his death professed that he was the Son of God And if any man still object that his uprightness indeed was so great that without all doubt he would not invent such a tale as this and affirm what he did not believe but yet he might be mistaken and believe that which was not true He may answer himself from his own concessions For if he consider how free our Saviour was from all ambitious desires how modestly he refused to be advanced how void he was of covetousness and all other worldly appetites which may blind a mans reason and abuse his understanding and likewise how admirably he discourses how rational and convincing how sublime and heavenly all his Sermons are He will soon be satisfied that it is not credible a person of his wisdom should be ruled by mere fancy or of his goodness be carried into a vain dream by any sensual affections which had no place in him This is the first acception of the word WATER which you see clears our Lord from all imputation of fraud and washes off all aspersions that might be cast upon him of imposture For there is not the least spot or blemish appears in the whole course of his Life to render him suspected of any guile much less of so great a deceit as this to feign himself the Son of God Nay his Doctrine is so Divine so much beyond the strain of the wisest men that ever spake that it demonstrates he was as little obnoxious to be deluded himself as he was inclined and disposed to delude others II. Let us now proceed to see what testimony may be drawn from this WATER in behalf of our Lord if we take it in the other sence for BAPTISM in which we make a profession of PURITY And there is a twofold BAPTISM by which our Lord may be said to COME that is to appear a Person sent of God as his only begotten Son The first is the Baptism of John the second is his own Baptism I. As for the Baptism of John it may be said that our Saviour CAME by or with this WATER both because John when he baptized men with Water preached that He was coming iii. Matth. 11. i. John 30. and because He brought this Baptism along with him or rather sent it a little before him as a testimony of him which would prepare his way and dispose their hearts to receive him as the Christ of God For it is manifest that it was intendded as a proof of this from those words of our Saviour himself by which he stopt the mouths of the Pharisees and took away all matter of cavil from them when he asserted his supreme Authority both over them and over their Temple xxi Matth. 23 24 25 26. There you read that our Saviour having come in Triumph to Jerusalem ver 8 9. and there received Hosanna's from old and young and been saluted as the Son of David that is their KING who the Prophet had said ver 5. should come unto them meek and sitting upon the Foal of an Asse and he having cast the buyers and sellers out of the Temple ver 12. and prohibited them to carry so much as a vessel through it as S. Mark tells us xi 16. and being now teaching the people there the Chief Priests and the Elders came to him and examined him by what Authority he did these things and who gave him this Authority That is they bid him produce his Commission if he had any and show them from whom he was SENT and CAME to take this Office not only of a Teacher but of a Reformer and that of the Temple it self and likewise who warranted him to ride in such pomp to Jerusalem as the Son of David the Lord of that Country The Answer of our Saviour to this question is that they might soon be resolved if they would but satisfie him in another question concerning another person who was come also in an unusual manner among them And that was whether John had a Commission from God to baptize or came of himself by the allowance of men only Answer me but this question says he and I will tell you by what authority I do these things Consider of it and tell me what you think whence was John's Baptism from Heaven or of Men That is who gave him his power to preach to reprove to call men to repentance to receive confession of sins and to do all other things belonging to his Ministry which Baptism accompanied and constantly waited upon Did God bid him go or was it from a motion of his own While they consulted for an Answer to this question of our Saviours they clearly saw their own answered And they were not so dull but that they could easily discern our Lord would irrefragably prove his Divine Authority and make them confess he was the Messias unless they would adventure to say that which all the Country would decry not only as a falsity but an egregious calumny For if they had affirmed that John entred upon the Office of Baptizing and Teaching the people out of his own private will and inclination or by commission from some men in this opinion they knew they should be singular because all the people held him to be a Prophet That is it was the sence of the whole Nation then and so it was afterward as appears by Josephus that the Baptist was a Divine Man inspired by God and sent of him to do what he did which would have made them the publick scorn and hatred if without a reason able to confute all the Country they should have denied it But then if they should grant this and say He was sent of God which was the only thing they could say with safety if they would affirm either they saw themselves in as ill or worse a case another way being as much afraid of what Jesus would say if this were confessed as they were of what the people would say if it were contradicted For as the people would have cried shame on them if they had disparaged John's ministry so if they allowed it to be from Heaven then they knew Jesus would unanswerably prove his Commission to be from Heaven too and tell them that John whom they took for a Divine Man should acquaint them with his authority and from whom he had it for he bare witness in express words that he was the Christ the Son of God They thought it a safer course therefore to leave this question undetermined and to say they could not tell whence his Baptism was than by
resolving it either way to give with their own mouths so great an advantage to him whom they questioned and opposed But by saying nothing they plainly confessed that if they had gone on to dispute with him He would have had the better of them and have made it appear from John Baptists testimony that He had an authority far greater than that which they must have acknowledged in him For though our Saviour thought good for brevity-sake to propound this argument to them by way of question and so let them reason it out within themselves yet it was as forcible they plainly felt as if he had pleaded with them in this manner My Authority which you call in question is every evident I have it from Heaven and not from Men as I prove by this argument If the Baptism of John be from Heaven then from thence I come now you cannot deny if you will speak out that his Baptism is from thence and therefore I make the conclusion that my Authority is Divine The consequence was as clear as the Sun that if John was sent by God then so was Jesus in that quality wherein he appeared because John as you shall see gave this testimony to him which could not be questioned after they had granted him to be a Prophet The only thing that could be denied in this Argument was that John's Baptism was from Heaven or that God authorized him to say and do what he did But this they durst not oppose because then to rid themselves of one Enemy they should bring the whole Nation as we say about their ears who did not take John for a counterfeit but thought that he was a Prophet INDEED xi Mark 32. Nay they themselves never adventured to call John before their Council much less advised how they might put him to death as they did our Saviour But on the contrary many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to his Baptism iii. Matth. 7. They were as inclinable to reverence him as the people For God who had spoken heretofore to that Nation so long by Prophets whom they thought themselves bound to believe had plainly manifested him to be one Nay he was not a common Prophet but one of an extraordinary rank The Prophet of the Highest his Father calls him and more than a Prophet in the language of our Saviour as you shall hear presently What should they do then which way should they turn themselves now that they durst not deny the Proposition upon which this consequence evidently depended that Jesus was the Christ Their only resuge was silence For though thereby they acknowledged him too hard for them and suffered his Divine authority to stand supported by this unanswered Argument yet they had rather part so and shamefully break off the disputation which they themselves had begun than let him go away with their express confession and testimony that if the Prophet of the Highest might be believed he was their Christ It was no disadvantage to our Saviour but to their own cause that they answered they could not tell whence John's Baptism was For hereby it appeared He had so much to say for himself that if they would say any thing in this matter and not obstinately hold their peace they must say as He did that He was the Son of God For John Baptist whose Heavenly authority they durst not deny though they would not confess it received all men into this belief when they came to him that there was one COMING after him who should gather Disciples as he did and that he was the Christ This he told them was the very end of his Preaching and Baptizing to prepare the way of the Lord to make them fit and ready to entertain the next Prophet that should appear as greater than him even as the Son of God And therefore when Jesus did openly appear and come to his Baptism and John saw the Spirit descend and remain on him then he told them in plain terms that this was the person whose way he came to prepare and that they must receive him as the Son of God and the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world i. John 29 30 34. And that which he said at this time there is no doubt he declared at all times when the people came to be baptized For thus the Jews describe Jesus when they disputed with some of John's Scholars about his Baptism iii. Joh. 25. HE TO WHOM THOU BAREST WITNESS behold the same baptizeth c. ver 26. Thence he is frequently called one of his WITNESSES and said to come for this end that he might be a WITNESS to him that ALL men through him might believe that is might be perswaded that Jesus was the WORD of God by this testimony of John i. John 6 7 8. And our Saviour afterwards appeals to this Testimony of his and bids the Jews consider it v. John 32 33. For you know says he that he bare WITNESS to me when ye sent to him And I know that the WITNESS which he WITNESSETH of me is true And great reason there was that they should consider it and be convinced by it For John was a burning and a shining light as it there follows ver 35. and they themselves were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light If that fit was over and now they were less delighted in him it was merely because he testified of Jesus There was nothing else to damp their affection for otherways they could not but confess him to be an illustrious person Who shined with the greater splendour because He was miraculously conceived in his Mothers old Age and his Birth was predicted by an Angel and his Father struck dumb because he believed not his Word and this Angel appeared in the very Temple at the Altar of Incense and therefore was not like to be a delusion And his Father was indued with the Spirit of Prophecy and his tongue unloosed when this Child came to be Circumcised Then He spake concerning his quality by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and John appeared to be prophetically endowed from a child God also took care of his education in the Wilderness where he was trained up to a resemblance of Elias so that his life and manners transcended all in that Age and his Spirit and Doctrine was so powerful and convincing that it was hard for them to say who he was the people admiring his sanctity and preaching held him for a Prophet and some of the Priests and Levites having such an esteem of him that it was a question among them whether he was not the CHRIST They were sent you know from Jerusalem to enquire about it i. John 19 20 c. and yet this Person who shined with such a lustre whom Jesus himself calls the greatest that had been born of women of whom he was baptized declares to these persons who came to ask who he was that he was not worthy so much
as to carry the Shooes of him that was coming after him ver 27. and that his Doctrine as you have heard iii. 31. was of the Earth flat and low in comparison with the words that Jesus should speak who he told them plainly was the Christ the Son of God but as for himself he confessed and denied not but confessed that is repeated it more than once and affirmed constantly I am not the Christ What reason was there then why both they that heard his testimony of Jesus and they that sent these messengers to make enquiry should not believe him since all this was so known a truth His Father Zacharias was a Priest whom they could not but reverence more than to imagine he studied to deceive especially since he was noted for a righteous man walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless And John himself was a Nazarite one whose head was never troubled with the fumes of Wine or of strong drink i. Luke 15. and bred up likewise in the Desarts or Wilderness of Judea i. Luke 80. after a plain and simple fashion where he was like to learn no craft or guile If any body should take the confidence to fancy that there might be a compact between Jesus and him to cry up and speak great things of one another He is confuted by the plain story of both their lives I have told you how far Jesus was from seeking his own glory and John Baptist was a man of such confessed sanctity and severe vertue that none then could suspect him of such a guilt Besides that it is manifest they never had seen one another at least John had no knowledge of our Saviour until He came to be baptized of him when he immediately proclaimed him to be that person whom he had magnified so much and told them should be preferred above himself before he had any such acquaintance with him And it is not unfit to be remembred that even before he was born John Baptist leaped in his Mothers womb when the blessed Virgin came to visit her as if he had then begun to confess him to be the LORD as his Mother calls him i. Luke 41 43. and to rejoyce to be a WITNESS unto so great a person For a conclusion of this let the place be noted where Jesus came to be baptized of John and where he gave so ample a testimony to him For from thence we shall draw something which will help to settle this belief in us that Jesus is the Son of God It was at BETHABARA beyond Jordan as S. John has recorded i. John 28. There the Priests and Levites who were deputed by the Sanhedrim or great Council at Jerusalem to go and examine him received their Answer from him again and again that he was not the CHRIST For there he was baptizing and there Jesus came to receive his baptism for as he was speaking those words which you read ver 27. and saying he was not worthy to loose the latchet of his Shooes Jesus came from Galilee as S. Matthew writes iii. 13. to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him Now this Name BETHABARA signifies the place of passage or going over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth in their language being an house or place and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abara a passing over from one place unto another and therefore in all likelihood hereabouts the children of Israel went over this River Jordan when they entred upon the land of Canaan This was the place of their passage when God brought them out of the Wilderness to their desired possession and so had the name of Bethabara affixed to it in memory of so great a blessing Now Jesus being baptized at that very place where Joshua or Jesus as he is called iv Hebr. 8. conducted the children of Israel over that River unto their rest and receiving there such a testimony both from God the Father and likewise from John the Prophet of the highest It was a notable sign and token joyned with those two that this person called Jesus also was He that should lead them into the Heavenly rest and be the Captain of their Salvation And the Holy Ghost descending also in this very place upon him here he was anointed to be the Guide the Leader and Conductor of God's people that is as we render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. Acts 31. a PRINCE and a Saviour who should put them in possession of the greatest blessings As Moses laid his hands on â—â—shua near this place which we may reasonably conjecture from xxxiv Deut. 9. and made him the Ruler and Governour of that Nation so here did God himself give all things into the hands of Jesus by the Holy Ghost coming down upon his head appointing constituting and ordaining him to be the Royal Prophet who should bring all the world to his obedience And it is observable that to this place our Saviour a great while after returned again and there made his residence when the Pharisees sought to kill him x. John 40. I cannot but think that this Evangelist would have us learn something from his so particular remembrance of this place both at our Saviours baptism and at his return again into the Country beyond Jordan For it is not their manner to mention such circumstances in so short a History as this is without some considerable reason Now as we have guessed at the cause of his being baptized and receiving the testimony of John at Bethabara so it is likely the reason why our Saviour went hither again and here abode was that he might call to the peoples mind what had been done here formerly the Testimony which John received from God concerning him and the Testimony which thereupon John gave to them of him at this remarkable place For he knew those things which were done at Bethabara had a great force in them to work a much better disposition in the people than was in the murderous hearts of those at Jerusalem and to move them to become his Disciples According to which supposition you read in the very next words x. John 41 42. that many resorting to him began to discourse among themselves concerning John and of what he had spoken concerning our Saviour for which we can find no occasion but the place and perhaps our Saviours putting them in mind what had been said and done here and that many believed on him THERE The word there is to be remarked for it tells us that these Disciples were won to Jesus at that place where John at first baptized They remembred it is probable what he had said how he told them that he saw the Holy Ghost here descend and remain upon him and that this was he whom he had spoken of before who was greater than himself and that he saw and bare record that this is the Son of God And they likewise now beheld some miracles wrought by our Saviour whereas John wrought none which
iii. John 2. and consequently professed themselves desirous to learn of him and ready to believe what he taught But I cannot say that they baptized them now into the Name of Jesus or into a belief that he was the Christ as they did after his ascension into Heaven For they were forbid to publish this openly xvi Matth. 20. men were to learn it by degrees under his discipline to which they delivered themselves by being baptized of him Yet this prepared them for the belief that he was their Christ which his Apostles afterward most zealously and strongly asserted by Baptism For when he was exalted at Gods right hand they went according to his Commission and Discipled all Nations baptizing them into his name as well as into the name of the Father That is they engaged them to believe that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God otherways they would not baptize them By this WATER therefore he may be said to come because he hereby made proselytes to himself whom he undertook to teach and instruct after the manner of the Prophets but with an authority which spoke him to be greater than all Prophets and because it was not a baptism like John's with simple water but was presently after accompanied with the Holy Ghost Nay the Baptism it self was a WITNESS to him joyned with what went before because it argued authority and such as was much superiour to that of John though he was greater than any Prophet which could be no other therefore but that of Christ For who beside could baptize the whole Nation and into an higher Institution than his whom they took for the Christ who confessed and asserted and no body appeared to contradict it that he was not that light by whom they must begin to be illuminated by Baptism but Jesus was the true light which coming into the world lighteneth every man John's baptism therefore as S. Basil * Exhort ad Bapt. aptly calls it was only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 introductory to something else more perfect than it self that is to our Saviour's baptism which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which completed men in a full belief that he was the Christ 3. For lastly the Baptism which the Apostles administred especially after his Resurrection and Exaltation was an entrance of men into a new Religion For they did not baptize them into Moses but into another Name that of the Lord Jesus This was a sign that He who had so many ways been approved of God among them as S. Peter speaks was indeed the Christ For what greater mark could there be of supreme authority than the setting up in such a manner as he did an Institution and Discipline which was not known before and teaching those who received his baptism to observe a new Law without those rites which had been hitherto used Who could repeal the Ordinances of Moses nay abrogate Circumcision which was ancienter than Moses but only He who had the same power with him that gave the Law to Moses and Circumcision to Abraham their Father viz. the Son of God himself Yet this did our Jesus and Baptism was the Rite appointed by him for the admission of Disciples into the profession of this new Religion which took away the old as unprofitable By this they were born again and became his children that is his scholars for the sons or children of the Prophets were their disciples those who learnt of them whom he indued with his principles and called after his name And he plainly declared as you read in his discourse with Nicodemus that no man could have any part in that Kingdom which the Messiah was setting up in the world if he contented himself with the old Religion and were not by baptism born again that is suffered himself to be further informed and proceeded to entertain the Religion which he delivered Thus far Nicodemus was gone already to believe him to be a Master sent of God which was the opinion of others of their Rulers besides himself for he says WE know it Why then did he not own it by receiving his baptism and thereby put himself under the discipline of this Master That being instructed by him till he acknowledged that he was the Christ he might be taught at last by the Spirit when it came down upon the Apostles and so be perfectly born again or informed in the Christian Religion Till this was done he was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gregory Nazianz * Orat. 16. calls him a lover of Christ by halves To make him an intire Christian he was to receive his Baptism and to own him to have full power and authority from God to make what change he pleased so far as to turn them into new men and to make them over again The Pharisees one would think saw very well that this was the consequence of his gathering so many disciples by baptism that he out-did John the Baptist For to avoid their rage which they had conceived against him upon this account but never expressed against John he left Judea where he was baptizing as you heard before iii. 22. because they had great power there and departed into Galilee again where their authority was less iv 1 2 3. They were afraid of an innovation in the state of things which they had a mind should continue as they were Their Baptism they saw would signifie nothing if he went on thus to make disciples Whom he informed according to his own mind and perswaded to believe on him as their King in whose Sovereign power it was to make all old things pass away and cause all things to become new By this WATER therefore He may be said to COME and it may be called one of his WITNESSES as he baptized that is gave his Apostles authority to baptize men not into Moses but into himself to learn new lessons of him and to leave the old though they had been taught by God himself Who found no fault at all with this baptism but justified it as you shall see many ways to be according to his mind and in pursuance of his will And so much pains may suffice about the examination of the first WITNESS of these three that speak on Earth which is WATER The Holiness of Jesus both in his Doctrine and Life and the Baptism both of John and of Jesus I wish that every one who considers how great and necessary a proof this was of Jesus his being the Son of God would labour to prove himself to be indeed born of him by the same argument of purity and holiness For as we could never have believed Jesus to have been God's Son unless he had come thus by Water no more can any man rationally conclude that he is one of those whom he will own for his children unless he conform to his holy will by washing himself from all filthiness and becoming clean every whit Read over the Sermons and the Life of Christ and
Caesar Then as it follows in the very next words vers 16. delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified When he heard they still obstinately pretended respect to Caesar and would have him to be concerned in the case he thought it was time to make an end and give sentence that their new King should be crucified For this at last was the crime for which he must suffer vers 19. Pilate wrote a title showing the cause of his death and put it on the Cross And the Writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS Which Pilate knew was false in the sence wherein they meant it a King opposite to Caesar and therefore the words were so contrived that he might still express the opinion he had of him and yet satisfie Caesar too To the very last he would give testimony to the innocence of Jesus as far as he durst and even then proclaimed him their King in several Languages an Omen of the proclaiming it shortly in all Countries to their everlasting reproach when he hung upon an infamous Gibbet And therefore they were not yet satisfied because they saw themselves plainly indited by this Title in the face of the World as the Murderers of their KING Which made them renew their Petitions to Pilate that he would alter the Inscription and not write The King of the Jews but that he said I am King of the Jews vers 21. But now Pilate grew as obstinate as they and gave them this short answer vers 22. What I have written I have written That is content your selves for the first writing shall stand let the World make what they can of it And there is no question but there was a Divine Providence in the business that the cause of his death should be so expressed as that the Jews should be openly condemned and Jesus still cleared by Pilate even after he had not only given sentence against him but ordered it to be put in execution All things concurred to justifie him when his BLOUD was shed Which this very Title declared was upon this account to testifie that he was their KING and told the World withall that in the judgment of him who was his Judge He was no deceiver when he affirmed that he was their KING but the Jews villainous Traytors who had crucified that Person whom they ought to have honoured and obeyed XIV For which the terrible vengeance of God followed them and never left them till they had their own wish His BLOUD was required at their hands and at the hands of their Posterity For they never thrive from that time forward but declined more and more till about Forty Years after their City was besieged by those whom they had importuned to crucify our Saviour multitudes of them were crucified as I told you before in the face of all their Brethren far greater numbers were famisht Jerusalem and the Temple at last destroyed the People of the Nation banished and their Children became Vagabonds even to this day For it was not very long before those very Men who when they said those words We have no King but Caesar in the same breath had for ever renounced their CHRIST and pronounced themselves Rebels if they were not obedient to Caesar took up arms to deliver themselves from their subjection to him whom they really hated though now to serve a turn they courted and flattered They who had rejected their true CHRIST and KING by whom they might have been restored to true liberty were ready upon all occasions to run after those false CHRISTS of whom our Saviour prophesied xxiv Matth. 5.24 who by the promises of a false liberty led them into perdition They could never be quiet till they had undone themselves by provoking the only King whom they pretended to reverence to be the Instrument of our Saviour to make them the vilest slaves and the most miserable wretches upon the face of the Earth S. John lived to see the day of Jesus his COMING WITH POWER to execute Judgment upon them and we see their wish still more and more accomplished upon their Children Who as they never yet solemnly indeavoured to wipe off the guilt of his BLOUD from them by acknowledging the crime of their Fore-fathers as the manner of former times was we see in the examples of Nehemiah and Daniel so they continue to taste of the bitter fruits of this execrable Treason against their Soveraign Lord and King CHRIST JESUS By which you may see that his BLOUD both upon the Cross and upon their Heads by the heavy guilt it loaded them withall is very fitly here alledged by S. John as a great WITNESS that He was sent of God as his only Son For Pontius Pilate himself did not wholly escape but some of it lighted also upon his Head Though he was not so guilty our Saviour confessed as they who pursued him out of hatred whereas he having no unkindness for him delivered him to be crucified only out of fear yet he felt the weight of this crime and was oppressed himself as our Saviour had been by false accusations which the Samaritaus brought against him Whereupon he was deprived of the Government of Judaea by Vitellius then President of Syria And having lost the authority which he abused in condemning our Saviour he was required to go to Rome and there answer the crimes that should be objected to him There indeed he found Tiberius dead but he did not live long after him For he fell into so distressed a condition that about the third year of the succeeding Emperor Caius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius his word is * L. 11. Hist Eccl. c. 7. he was constrained either by the grievous afflictions he endured or by the command of Caesar which was an usual thing to become his own Executioner and punish himself with Death for all the crimes he had committed But I shall not pursue either his or their story any further it being time to put an end to this Argument which I shall conclude with these Two observations 1. First That after our Saviour was dead one of the souldiers pierced his side with his spear and forthwith came thereout WATER and BLOUD as this very Apostle hath recorded in the Chapter so often mentioned xix John 34. Now some have from hence imagined that he being the only Evangelist that takes any notice of this and setting a particular remark upon it as a thing that he saw and bears witness of ver 35. it is most likely he hath some respect to that passage in his Gospel and to the Water and Bloud there mentioned when he speaks of the witness of WATER and BLOUD here in this Epistle For the Water and Bloud which flowed out of his side were an argument of the truth of his humanity which some wild Hereticks then denied and testified also that he was truly dead and not merely in appearance But it must be observed that S. John is
even when thou wast scorned and rejected of men Great was the splendour of thy Majesty under the mockery of a Crown of Thorns and under the reproach of the Cross it self And great was thy Love O thou Lover of Souls who wouldst shed thy own most precious Bloud to work and confirm thy Faith in our hearts that believing on thee we might have life through thy Name O how expensive was thy Love which never thought it had done enough till thou hadst assured our hearts by giving thy self for us How infinitely are we indebted to thee who hast so dearly purchased our eternal joy with thy most bitter sorrows I ought to have the greater regard to all that thou hast said either concerning thy self or concerning the obedience I owe thee or the happiness thou hast promised me because thou hast sealed all in so sacred a manner and chosen to die that thou mightest bear witness to thy Truth For this end thou camest into the world and hast honoured thy self with the Name of the True and faithful witness the beginning of the Creation of God who hast shown us the path of life by thy bloudy and most ignominious death O that none of us who are called by thy Name may ever prove so base and unworthy so ungrateful and disrespectful to thee so insensible or forgetful of thine amazing goodness as to forsake that course which thou thy self hast begun and into which thou hast led us by thine own example Let none of us prove unlike thee who art the beginner and the finisher of our Faith Let us never degenerate from the Original from whence we come nor dishonour the very Author of what we are by actions unworthy of his children But be pleased graciously both to excite and assist our pious endeavours to follow thee and to witness a good confession as thou hast done at least in our lives and conversation That they may testifie to all how much we reverence thee by our observance of thy commands and justifie the truth of thy Word that thy yoke is easie and thy burden light by our chearful free and ready observance of them And if thou wilt have us to witness a good confession also by our bloud or by parting with any thing that is as dear unto us for thy names sake O that we may then imitate thee the true and faithful witness by continuing faithful to thee unto death Let no Soul of us ever faint in our mind much less draw back for fear of any thing that may befall us But still go on and couragiously meet whatsoever opposes us in our way to Heaven Help us to stand fast in the Faith to quit our selves like men and to be strong as becomes thy faithful servants and souldiers who have vowed to be true to thee unto our lives end O Blessed Jesus who can think that he does or endures too much for thee Who can complain of thy service or repine at the sufferings it may require When he thinks of thy labour and pains to secure our hope in God of an eternal redemption from all miseries and troubles and from all sin the cause of them by shedding thy own most holy bloud We are unworthy to bear the Name of thy servants if we should be so ungrateful to thy memory as not to celebrate that love with perpetual praises and thanksgivings And how fearfully shall we reproach our selves if we continue to commemorate it and yet grudge to deny any thing for thy sake or behave our selves as if we would renew thy sufferings by our continued sins Far be it from any of us to think any thing so dear to us as Truth and Righteousness that holy Truth which thou hast delivered to us O that we may read with such an affection the whole history of thy love and all the Laws thou hast left to govern us and the gracious grants thou hast made us as if we saw them written in thy most precious bloud By which thou hast testified the greatness and sincerity of thy love and assured us of the truth of thy Word and consecrated thy self also to be a merciful and faithful High Priest who canst have compassion on us and ever succour and relieve us when we are tempted as thou wast And may we be so sensibly affected herewith as to depend on thy intercession with the stronger Faith and with greater care and diligence tread in those steps which thou hast in such a manner markt out to us and persist in them so stedfastly that none of the terrors of this world may make us step aside and turn from thy Commandments Give us grace O Blessed Lord in the worst condition to express that resolution that undaunted resolution that constancy that confidence in God that zeal for his honour and glory that charity towards our enemies that humble resignation and that patient meekness which appeared in thee under thy greatest sufferings Arm us with the very same mind and spirit which we see in thy self That we who believe in a Saviour who abased and humbled himself so low who was so content to be poor and little regarded to bear all the slanders and scorn as well as the cruel torments which the malice of men could inflict upon him may not be proud and insolent covetous and ambitious impatient of pain or a little disparagement but constantly endeavouring to conform our selves to thy glorious pattern which we have before us may rejoyce in that faithful saying That if we be dead with thee we shall also live with thee if we suffer we shall also reign with thee Amen Now unto the faithful Witness the first-begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Bloud and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning the Third Witness upon Earth the SPIRIT THere is one Witness more that remains still to be examined whose testimony was notorious and very well known for it was upon the Earth viz. that of the SPIRIT In the sixth verse S. John brings it in after the other two I have now treated of though in the eighth Verse it be set before them And there he adds this illustrious character of it which is not given to the two former it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness because the SPIRIT is the TRUTH Which is not to be understood as if the other two were not Witnesses for they are called so expresly in this eighth Verse or as if they were not truth for I have abundantly proved that they are But this mark is set upon the SPIRIT to denote it to be the most eminent Witness of the Three The witness or that Witness that which excels the other two in clearness and notoriousness that which was alwayes accounted most powerful to prove a truth that against which nothing
whereby the nature of things is inverted so that it appears it could not have been done by any power but only by his who is the author of Nature and made all the things we see out of nothing at all And secondly this miracle must not be wrought in secret but to gain belief it must be done before the eyes of a multitude who may see it and be satisfied of the truth of it And lastly diligent inquiry must be made and it must be examined strictly that no doubt may be left in mens minds but they may be fully satisfied it is no fancy nor done by any trick or subtile imposture Now if we consult this History of Lazarus we shall find there is none of these wanting to settle the most doubtful mind in the belief of our Saviours Almighty power and authority For to raise the Dead is a work that exceeds all natural powers There is none that can restore life as has been said already but he who at the first gave it So much the Jewes themselves acknowledge who have a common saying that the Key of the Grave is one of the four keys which is kept in the hands of the Lord of the World alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither to Angel nor to Seraph as the Jerusalem Targum speaks upon xxx Gen. 22. that is neither to lowest nor the highest of the Celestial Ministers is this power given but it is reserved to him onely that made them and all things else Now that our Saviour indeed raised a dead man there were many witnesses as you heard before from xi Joh. 45. where it is said that many of the Jews which came with Mary and had seen these things which Jesus did believed on him And the fame of it was so great that it drew a greater concourse of People thither to be satisfied of the truth of the report For he tells us xii 9. that much People i. e. a multitude of the Jews came to that place not for Jesus his sake only but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead Nay the Pharisees as I told you had the news of it brought to them by some that were present and had seen the things which Jesus did xi 46. who were curious enough no doubt to inquire into the business and had satisfied themselves that indeed he was dead laid in his Grave and continued in that state till according to the course of Nature he must begin to turn to corruption and stink Which was all that needed any proof for that he was now alive their eyes were witnesses And therefore they could not deny this miracle vers 47. But to extinguish the light and take away the convincing power of it they thought it was best to remove Lazarus out of the way and to put him to death as well as our Saviour For the sight of him converted a great many as you read xii 10 11. The chief Priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus It was a thing confessed then that this wonderful work had been done There was the testimony of the man himself and of his Sisters and of our Saviour's Disciples and of MANY of the Jews who were come to comfort Martha and Mary concerning their Brother xi 19. In so much that not long after our Saviour coming to the Feast of the Passover at Jerusalem Much people went forth to meet him and brought him in with a triumph due only to so great a Person saying Hosanna blessed is the KING of Israel that cometh in the Name of the Lord xii 12. And if you would know what excited them to meet him it was the fame of this miracle which the eye-witnesses of it had brought to them as you read there ver 17 18. The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead BARE RECORD For this cause the people also met him for that they heard that he had done this miracle Here it is visible were two Troops or Companies both called much people one of which went from Jerusalem to Bethany to see Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead ver 9. The other met Jesus the next day as he was coming from Bethany to Jerusalem ver 12 13. For they had been informed by those who were present at the time when it was done that for certain Lazarus was raised from his grave by the word of Jesus and now they were confirmed in this belief by the company that went to Bethany the day before to enquire of it who testified to these that came to meet him that they found it to be an undoubted truth that he had been really dead and now was alive again by no other means but those words of his Lazarus come forth which might well make them all acknowledge him to be their KING who was come unto them in the name of the Lord as appeared by this miraculous work which none but the hand of Heaven could effect What heart would not be moved to bow to him who had such power over quick and dead who could think him to be less than the Lord of all who they saw was the Lord of life None but proud ambitious Pharisees who were afraid they should lose as much authority as he got These were more startled than ever to see such crouds of people flock after him to do him honour and to hear them applaud him as the great Son of David and follow him with their Hosanna's in the highest This made them despair of blasting his fame and discrediting him with the people as long as he lived and therefore they grew the more resolved to hasten the execution of their decree against him that he should be put to death For they said among themselves as you read in the following words ver 19. Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing behold the world that is vast multitudes is gone after him followed him that is as their KING notwithstanding all that had been done to disparage him They are forced here to speak more truth than they were aware of that it was in vain to oppose him For even when they had killed him they perceived presently that they prevailed nothing but found this literally true that indeed the world went after him Men of all Nations and not the Jews only followed him zealously and became his Disciples notwithstanding the scandal of the Cross which they had cast in their way to discourage them Of which there immediately follows in this story an illustrious presage For some Gentiles desiring to see our Saviour ver 20. there came a voice from Heaven upon his prayer that God would glorifie his own Name saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again ver 28. The glory of God that is had appeared lately as I have explained it before in
to prove the truth of that which the person that wrought them delivered And therefore as their miracles demonstrated the truth of that message which Moses and the Prophets brought from God So our Saviour's evinced the truth of his which was that they were only the Servants but He the Son of God This was as strongly attested by what he did as any thing the Men of God taught in former times was by their works Yea his miracles bare as fair a proportion in their bigness and number to this high and great thing which they were to prove that he was Gods Son as the miracles of Moses and the Prophets bare to those lesser truths which they were brought to establish And here for to put a period to this part of my discourse it will be very useful to observe the different way of proceeding for the establishing and promoting a Religion instituted by men and a Religion whose author is God This I find very well noted to my hand in a learned Writer of the Jewish Nation whom I have already mentioned * Sepher COSRI Part 1. sect 80 c When men says he make Laws and setle a Religion whose original is from their own minds and devised by themselves though they may pretend that it comes from God yet they are not able to make it take place without the power of the Sword or the countenance and assistance of some Prince who by his Authority shall cause it to be received But a Religion that is indeed Divine is planted in a Divine manner When Laws are derived from God he establishes them by his power and might and over-aws men by such wonders as without any humane force procure obedience Thus says he our Religion began When the Children of Israel were in grievous servitude and when the Land promised to their Fathers was in the hand of potent Kings God sent Moses and Aaron armed with no power but that of working miracles changing the ordinary and usual course of Nature and inflicting in a moment grievous plagues upon the Water the Earth the Air the Plants the Beasts and the Bodies of Men throughout all the Land of Egypt whereby the Prince that kept them in bondage was forced to let them go And in their Journey they were conducted by the guidance of a bright Cloud and they passed through the Sea and they were fed with Manna in the Wilderness XL. Years and saw one Miracle after another which convinced them they ought to submit to that Word of the Lord which Moses spake unto them To this purpose that Writer very rationally discourses Now just as He shows that Moses proved his Mission from God so I have briefly related how our Saviour likewise demonstrated that he was the Royal Prophet whom Moses foretold God would send into the World In an Age when they not only groaned under the Roman Yoke but were also superstitiously inthral'd to a number of Rites and Ceremonies devised by their Elders superadded to all the burden of the Law of Moses and moreover grievously oppressed by the Devil as all the rest of the World likewise were far more than they God raised up a mighty Salvation to them out of the house of his servant David Our Lord that is on a sudden appeared as a Redeemer and Deliverer from the bondage in which they lay not with any worldly policy or force but meerly with the Spirit and Power of God 1 Cor. ii 5. who sent an Herald but without the power of Miracles to proclaim his coming And as soon as he had done crying his mouth being stopt by Herod's throwing him into Prison our Lord presently came forth shining most gloriously in the illustrious works that he did every where which were such as that time called for as Moses his miracles were proper to the occasions and necessities of his days And some of them were very like those wrought by Moses and others bear as great a resemblance to them as twins are wont to do to each other who lie together in the same womb He healed more than Moses killed He turned their water into wine as Moses did the water of the River into bloud He walkt upon the very surface of the Sea and called one of his Disciples to accompany him there He fed multitudes with a little quantity of bread as Moses had fed the Israelites in the Wilderness This he did more than once and that in a Desart too showing what he was able to do if there had been the like need that there was in former times Then they should not have asked what sign shewest thou equal to Moses they mean what dost thou work vi John 30. For it was plain enough he could have fed them forty years in that manner as well as once which was the thing they seem to desire when they say in the next words ver 31. Our Fathers did eat Manna in the Desart as it is written He gave them bread from Heaven to eat That is He did not feed them for one day or two as thou hast done but a long time and that from Heaven let us see thee do so that we may leave him and follow thee And if he had not done enough already to work faith in them and they had lived now alway in a Desart as their Fathers did then no doubt he would for that he could was evident else how should he have fed them thus miraculously at all Many other miracles also declared that he had the same power in the Air that he had on the Earth and could as easily have brought bread from Heaven as multiplied the Loaves which had now filled so many of them The very Devils were as subject to him as the meanest creature in the World And He raised the Dead by his powerful word which Moses never did All which is recorded by the Apostles to show what cause they had to believe in Jesus and how his Religion was planted and propagated in the world as the other wonders are recorded by Moses to show with what authority he came and how he setled the Israelites in the belief of his Laws And there is no more cause to question whether Jesus be the Son of God the Lord of the World who came with such a SPIRIT than there was then to doubt whether Moses was his servant and the Lawgiver of that people among whom he did such wonders Nor so much neither for the greater his pretences were the greater reason there was that they should have been discountenanced by such a SPIRIT as was in him if they had not been true It is incredible that God should let the world be abused so long by so many miracles and so great that never was the like without any the least confutation and abused by a lye of so dangerous a nature and so reproachful to his Name and so directly opposite to his Government which this Person if he were an Impostor and said he was his Son
is no providence or else it would have taken care in case he had been a deceiver that it should have been as evident that he did not rise from the dead as now it is that he did Though the World had been amused a long time with discourses about him and with strange things which he was thought to do yet here had been a nick of time at one stroke to have broken the force of all these arguments and blasted his credit and undeceived the People had there been nothing of God in it But since this last and greatest token did come to pass as was proved by witnesses of unquestionable truth it justified his pretences and added strength to all the former testimonies which had been given to him demonstrating him plainly to have been a man approved of God among them by miracles wonders signs which God did by him in the midst of them as they themselves knew III. And this truly was so great a sign that his very Enemies could not but confess it was satisfactory and a sufficient evidence of any truth Which may be clearly discern'd from hence that they never to this day went about to show that though he was raised again yet it was not a proof that he was the CHRIST but all their endeavour hath been to perswade the People that he was not raised again They had no other way but to deny this that so they might not confess the other They were utterly undone they knew and must lose all their reputation with the People if he was raised from the dead because it would effectually prove what they denied and therefore they hired the Souliders to say that his Disciples stole him away while they slept A story so sillily contrived as I hope to show in another place that it it is a very great evidence they shut their eyes against this light for fear it should show them that they had been the Murderers of their CHRIST They could not but say that if he was raised again he was the CHRIST and therefore were resolved to say any thing though never so absurd rather than grant that he was raised to life again which must strike them dead He was not a King for their purpose and therefore they hated him and endeavoured by any means to obscure whatsoever tended to prove his authority He never made any show of worldly greatness or gave them any hope he would fight their battles against the Romans and therefore they entred into a league against him to make perpetual war with him and sought by all the lyes they could invent to suppress his growing Name and by all the cruelties they had power to use to dishearten his followers from professing their belief in it But the Apostles of our Lord knowing the truth of this better than they could do and that it was a meer calumny which they spread abroad concerning their stealing his Body out of the Sepulchre could not be deterred by any punishment which they or all the power on earth could inflict from preaching Jesus and the Resurrection For on the one hand they saw it was confessed by malice it self that if he was raised from the dead it could not be denyed that he was the CHRIST and on the other hand they saw with their own eyes that he was raised from the dead and knew it was a malicious slander which the Pharisees had divulged of their breaking open the Monument of the dead This both confirmed their faith and inflamed their zeal If they had any doubts remaining this very tale helpt to disperse them But they were soon past all doubt by the coming of the Holy Ghost which he sent them to witness the Resurrection together with them Then it was impossible they should doubt of his being alive when they felt his mighty power in their hearts This dissipated all the mists and vapours which had gathered about them and darkned their understandings By this Jesus brake forth upon them in a fresh lustre and like the Sun rending all the Clouds in pieces illuminated not only them but the whole World in a short space with the beams of his Glory How should he do otherways after such a proof as this which is so great that they could never wish for a greater It is not above six hundred years ago since a Jew called EL DAVID gave out that he was the Christ and drew a great many followers after him Upon which he was apprehended and brought before an Arabian Prince who askt him What miracle what prodigie dost thou show that we may believe To which he answered Sir cut off my head and I will live again This he said craftily to avoid greater torments which he foresaw would be inflicted on him for affirming that which he could not prove But observe the Princes reply as it is related by Maimonides in a letter of his to the Jewes at Marseilles about this very business Thou canst not give us a greater sign than this And if it fall out so that thou dost rise again to life after I have cut off thy head I and all my People nay all the World sure will believe what thou sayest is true and that our Forefathers inherited nothing but vanity and lies which did not profit them And presently the experiment was made He commanded him to be beheaded and there was an end of his cheat And so likewise there had been of this business which we are treating of if Jesus had not risen For he said just as this El David did Kill me if you please I will live again Which sign coming to pass as we have the greatest reason to believe we ought to follow the resolution of the Prince now mentioned by submitting our selves to him and heartily acknowledging him to be the Lord. When he was upon his Cross the Chief Priests with the Scribes and Elders said He saved others let him save himself If he be the King of Israel let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him xxvii Matth. 41 42. If our Lord had taken them at their word we cannot tell what they would have done But it is plain he intended to give them a better ground of Faith than that If they had demanded a greater thing they should have had greater satisfaction If they had said He raised others from the dead let him raise up himself after we have crucified him let him come out of his Grave if he be the KING of Israel and then have used all the care in the World to see whether he rose again or no they had been convinced and perswaded to believe on his Name It was not fit to do the other because he was to Dye for the Sins of the People But this he did though they did not ask it to fulfill his own promise and to show that he was the Person promised to their Fathers And it is so much greater than the other as it is a greater thing to
be made alive again after Death than to save a Man's self from dying I hope then I may conclude with the Apostle S. Paul that this piece of the Mystery of Godliness is without controversie God was manifest in the flesh Justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or by the SPIRIT The SPIRIT which did such mighty things by Jesus and at last raised him from the dead warranted him to be God manifested in our flesh It cleared him from all the envious and malicious accusations of his adversaries while he was alive by the many miraculous works which it wrought and it purged him from all suspicion of blasphemy which was charg'd against him and took away his life by raising from the dead and presenting him in Heaven a pure oblation to God It hath acquitted him fully in all impartial mens thoughts wiped off all the guilt which was cast upon him set him before the eyes of all the world as a person innocent and just and made him glorious and great even in his bloud as those words may be rendred xiii Hebr. 20. wherewithal he is gone into the Heavenly places there to appear before God for us which he would not have been able nor ever dared to do if he were not fully justified and perfectly a righteous person This is that witness which our Saviour himself promises to Nathanael as higher than that which he had already received i. John 50 51. He was convinced of the Authority of Jesus and acknowledged him to be the King of Israel because he could search into the secrets of the hearts and know men at a distance But our Lord tells him he should see greater things than these even behold the Heavens opened and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man That is He should have the witness of the SPIRIT sending the Angels to minister unto him when he was raised from the dead and when he was exalted unto Gods right hand in the Heavens The Ascension and Descension of Angels is but an Hebrew form of speech whereby they express the ministry and service of Angels to the Divine Majesty A servant first goes to his Master to receive his orders before he can be sent by him and therefore ascending is put before descending and by both is nothing else meant but the ministry of those Heavenly Creatures that wait upon the Throne of God and do his Commandments hearkening to the voice of his Word From thence they were sent to attend on Jesus at his Resurrection and at his Ascension as his Disciples witnessed and Nathanael among the rest for he is mentioned as a person present when Jesus showed himself to his Disciples after his Resurrection xxi John 2. and is thought by many to be the same with S. Bartholomew As Israel saw in a dream the Angels ascend and descend upon a Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven xxviii Gen. 12. So this true Israelite who as Greg. Nyssen * Homil. 15. in Cantic expresses it showed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the pure character or mark of that Patriarch upon him in his honesty and uprightness of heart beheld the like vision of Angels but in a more apparent manner when he was awake that he might hereby be confirmed in the faith of Jesus as Jacob was by his vision in the belief of God's providence And indeed this was a great confirmation to his and to our faith For I conceive that this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Son of man is the same with that where it is said the Holy Ghost came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon him Which as it signifies that he was made partaker or rather was possessed of the Holy Ghost and it became His so this other like phrase of the Angels ascending and descending upon him denotes by the same reason that he was made the Lord of them and had them given to him as his ministers and attendants to be imployed in his service And so it was remarkably fulfilled which our Saviour said that he should see GREATER things than those he mentioned before For hereby he knew not only that he was the King of Israel as he had confessed ver 50. but that he was the King of Angels the Lord of Lords Yea hereby it appeared that he hath the power of God because just as the Angels are represented doing their service to his Majesty in that xxviii of Genesis so our Lord foretells with the greatest certainty they should see them waiting upon him And so they did as you read in the first of the Acts of the Apostles ver 9 10 11. which proved him to be indeed the heir of all things Now to shew a little more fully the greatness of this Testimony of the SPIRIT and that it was greater as Jesus here saith to Nathanael than the gift of discerning Spirits which I called a gift of the Holy Ghost to distinguish it from the Spirit let us consider a little that speech of our Saviours xii Matth. 31 32. Wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men c. Which heavy doom S. Mark tells us was pronounced upon them because they said he had an unclean Spirit iii. 30. This shows what the blasphemy was in which if they continued there was no hope of pardon For if he by the SPIRIT of God cast out Devils as he tells them ver 28. then it was rank blasphemy the highest degree of evil speaking and calumny to impute these very cures and wonderful works to the power of the Devil which were wrought by that Divine power And this sin was therefore unpardonable which shows how great this testimony of the SPIRIT is because there were no means left to convince them that Jesus was the Son of God without which belief their sins could not be forgiven if they persisted not only in denying the authority of the SPIRIT but were so bold as to blaspheme it For what could work upon their hard hearts if this proved ineffectual might they not better deny the voices from Heaven which they did not hear than these wonderful works which they beheld every where with their own eyes Or might they not as well say that those were delusions as call these works diabolical operations Might they not in like manner slight his power of knowing secrets and impute it to some other skill What is there in which they might not shuffle and resist the light if in so clear a case as this Jesus his opposition to the Devil casting him out of possession and that on purpose to establish an holy doctrine quite contrary to his interest and in a number of other miraculous works they would be so obstinate as to say the Devil himself had the principal hand There is no question to be made but they who were so perverse as not to see this finger of God
No man then had the impudence to deny the Eclipse of the Sun the Earthquake the rending of the veil of the Temple and the rest of the astonishing things that then hapned The first of them is mentioned by a Pagan-writer and though the Apostles published both that and all the other continually yet there is no book either of Jew or Gentile who were enemies great enough to his Religion that goes about to disprove them And as for his miraculous works they were generally done openly at Feasts in the Synagogues on the high-ways and were so commonly talkt of that the Rulers feared all the world would run after him xii John 19. Therefore the Apostles could not falsifie in the report of these things but they might be easily confuted Which no man ever attempted but both Jews and Gentiles acknowledged that he wrought Miracles for his Apostles also wrought them every where and so did their Successors in some Ages after To these the Ancient Christians appeal as an undoubted testimony to their Faith which they could not be so silly as to mention were there any dispute whether there had been Miracles wrought or no. His Resurrection also was attested by Five hundred people who saw him together at once and it was proved beyond contradiction by the strange descent of those miraculous gifts upon his Apostles according to his promise Which came upon them also at a Feast when all the Nation though living in far distant Countries were assembled together and a great company of Proselytes also and devout people were present to be witnesses of it Yea the Apostles themselves as is notoriously known went over all the world and openly showed the power of Jesus which was in them Now if all these be true Witnesses or rather if you grant there were such Witnesses which no sober man can deny they being visible here on Earth in the company of so much people there can be no doubt remaining of this that Jesus is the Son of God They proclaim this so loudly with one voice that S. John had reason to say We beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father They beheld it in his Preaching and Life they beheld it in his bloudy Death but especially in the power of his SPIRIT both before he died and in raising him up from the dead and they beheld it also when they were with him in the holy Mount and had the Testimony of the rest of the Heavenly Witnesses Which were heard on Earth though they were in Heaven as men of high quality and of unblemished integrity with the hazard of all they had did constantly affirm And though some of those Heavenly Witnesses might not be believed so much at the first which is the cause I suppose that our Saviour bids his Apostles as you have heard not declare what the voice from Heaven said till after his Resurrection xvii Matth. 9. yet when they had received such great testimony that they were good men and men of God by having the Holy Ghost bestowed on them to bestow upon others also and when by this they were able to demonstrate his Resurrection then all the rest that they alledged as a proof that he was the Son of God did highly merit belief also and there was no reason to suspect the truth of such reports as were verified in so authentick a manner For with great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus iv Acts 33. And the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus was a powerful Witness that there was nothing so great said of him by the voices from Heaven but it ought to be received as the undoubted truth of God Who at sundry times and in divers manners testified to his Son Jesus that by some means or other the most obstinate hearts might be convinced and those tongues which blasphemed him might confess him to be the Lord. A PRAYER ALL thy works praise thee O holy Jesus they all show the greatness of thy power and declare thee to be the Lord. All thy Saints therefore ought to bless thee and to speak good of thy Name who didst manifest forth thy glory in such miraculous works upon Earth and art now crowned with such glory and honour in the Heavens Great was the glory of that Almighty love which gave health to the sick feet to the lame eyes to the blind and life to the dead How gloriously didst thou triumph over the Devil and all the powers of darkness declaring thy self to be the Redeemer of the World by delivering those who were oppressed by him Great was thy Majesty and therefore greatly to be praised Those triumphs ought to have been attended with the most joyful shouts of Praise and Thanksgiving to thee as the Saviour of men and the Lord of Men and Angels All that saw thy wonderful works ought with never-ceasing love to have glorified thee the great Lover of mankind the Repairer of our ruines the Restorer of our happiness our mighty Deliverer from all our Enemies and the inexhaustible Fountain of life and all other good things which thou every where dispensedst to them How ought all our hearts now to overflow with love to thee the blessings of whose goodness so overflowed in all places that none can tell the number of them Especially when we remember how by the mighty working of the same Spirit which glorified thee so on Earth thou art raised from the dead carried to Heaven set at the right hand of God and made the King of glory This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes This is the sovereign Balsam of all our wounds This is our solace and comfort in the greatest troubles This raises our Spirits when they are oppressed and gives us life in death it self Be thou honoured and acknowledged by me and by all mankind with the humblest the most hearty and affectionate devotion to thy service Be thou ever praised as much as thou wast reproached and blasphemed Let thy Name be sweet and mentioned with delight and joy throughout all the World Live O blessed Jesus in the glory wherein thou art inthroned Sit and reign there till all thine Enemies become thy foot-stool For among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and hast done wondrous things Thou art Lord alone O give unto the Lord ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength Ascribe unto the Lord the glory due unto his name O worship him in the beauty of holiness Say among the Heathen the Lord reigneth who was dead but is alive again and liveth for evermore O sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the Earth Yea sing unto the Lord a new song and worship him all ye Gods For thou
xvii Rev. 5 6. that the mother of harlots that one City Babylon was even drunk with the BLOUD of the Saints and with the BLOUD of the MARTYRS of Jesus A Sea of BLOUD flowed from their veins to cover the Earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord for whose cause they suffered themselves to be slain as so many innocent sheep that make no resistance This gave them the name of MARTYRS in English WITNESSES because they were beheaded for the WITNESS of Jesus and for the Word of God xx Rev. 4. that is they constantly affirmed him to be the LORD and chose rather to die and seal it with their BLOUD than not preach this Truth for which S. John also was now an Exile in a desolate place 1 Rev. 9. What was it think you that made them thus hot and eager to be the most miserable of all mankind to despoil themselves of all the comforts of life and to endure perpetually the pains of death From what cause was it that their bloud thus boiled in their veins and they were so zealously forward to have it let out It could be nothing but only this that they loved Jesus ardently and were extremely desirous if he thâ—ught it best to die in his service knowing that he would hear the cry of their bloud and reward them abundantly for all their sufferings S John beheld the Souls of those who were slain for the Word of â—od and the TESTIMONY which they held under the Alâ—ar vi Rev. 9. which signifies that they were sacrifices to God when they witnessed thus unto Jesus For by Souls in the language of the old Scriptures is often meant the Bloud i. e. the life which here was represented at the fooâ— of the Altar where the bloud of the acrifice used to be poured out They died in an holy cause they were very well assured and should be an offering well pleasing and of a sweet savour unto God else they would never have thus willingly offered their throats to the sacrificing knife of their bloudy persecutors No when it came to that they would have confest the truth sure if they had not preached it before A few of their sufferings would have taught them more wit than to lose their heads for the testimony of Jesus if they had not been verily perswaded they were in the right and ought to be his WITNESSES even with their bloud The scoffs of the Heathen would have been very reasonable if they had not dealt sincerely and been certain their Testimony was the Truth Who were wont to say as we read in Minutius Nec resurgitis miseri nec interim vivitis Miserable wretches you do but fancy you shall rise again and in the mean time you do not live You are hungry and pale and enjoy none of the pleasures of life and have no hope of being better you are dead To which he replies after a long demonstration of the evidence they had of what they believed Ita beati resurgimus futuri contemplatione jam vivimus So you see we shall rise again to blessedness and we live now in the blissful contemplation of it Yea they not only lived but they rejoyced and more than that they gloried in tribulations Which they could not have done had not their integrity been as great as this confidence and their sincere intentions upheld and supported their boldness Which was the greater you may be sure because as they bare witness to Jesus so God bare WITNESS to them as you read expresly ii Heb. 4. both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will whereby he testified to them that they were honest men and did not cunningly follow devised fables when they made known to men the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were as the professed eye-witnesses of his Majesty Which is the next thing to be considered III. Hitherto I have only proved that they had all things necessary to make them credible witnesses being void of guile and such as could not be reasonably supposed to be mere inventors of what they preached Men who both knew what they said and did not speak contrary to their knowledge Nay men of eminent knowledge sanctity and zeal which made them more than common witnesses But still they were only humane Witnesses not divine nor could all this put it quite out of doubt and give a full assurance that what they said was true but only that they thought it to be true and were not likely to be deceived And therefore that they and those who heard their testimony might be sure and have infallible proofs as S. Lukes words are that they were not deceived and that the faith which relied upon their testimony might be Divine there followed the Witness of the SPIRIT which accompanied them as it had done our Saviour together with the Witness of the HOLY GHOST which he had promised to send them that they might be his Witnesses in all the world This was an undoubted evidence that they were men sent of God upon this message to preach Jesus and testifie that he was the Lord of all This made the faith of those who heard and believed them to be more than an humane perswasion because it relied not only on the word of men but upon the testimony of the Spirit of God It might have been a very strong faith without this because the men who reported it were persons of great vertue void of all fraud or worldly design but it could not have been Divine had not this Witness come and joyned its testimony with theirs For they would but have received the testimony of very pious and good men it was no more till the testimony of God himself came in such signs wonders miracles and various gifts as you have heard already and as you read of in many other places They went forth saith S. Mark speaking of all the Apostles and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word which they preached with signs following xvi 20. All places were filled with wonder as they were with the HOLY GHOST At Jerusalem for instance S. Steven as well as the Apostles full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among the people vi Acts 8. In Samaria S. Philip preached Christ and the people with one accord gave heed to the things which he spake hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean Spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed viii 6 7. And at Thessalonica S. Paul tells them that his Gospel came not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance And at Iconium both he and Barnabas stai'd a long time speaking boldly in the Lord who gave testimony unto the Word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done
by their hands xiv 3. And in the same manner at Corinth Colosse Philippi and all other places the Divine power wrought in them mightily i. Colos 29. upon which account they call themselves with great reason Witnesses OF GOD 1 Cor. xv 14 15. If Christ be not risen our preaching is vain yea and we are found false witnesses of God which had been a most horrible thing because we have testified OF GOD that he raised up Christ They testified every where what God had done by Jesus and for him particularly that he had raised him from the dead Now that they did not take upon them to be Gods Witnesses when they had received no authority from him nor were guilty of belying God as the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports the Spirit that wrought in them evidently proved by the gifts of Languages of Prophecy of Wisdom and Knowledge of Miracles and healing all manner of Diseases Which made the Angel say when S. John was going to worship him by no means see thou do it not I am but thy fellow servant one of thy Brethren that bears witness to Jesus as thou dost For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy xix Rev. 10. that is those gifts which the Apostles were endued withal showed whose ministers they were and that being the servants of the most High God as well as the Angels they owed no such respect to them as S. John was about to give and by those Divine gifts they gave a testimony to Jesus and proved he was the Son of God wherein they were equal to the Angels who could no more than testifie to him and be his ministers to report the glory wherein he was Upon which errand not only this but many other Angels appeared to S. John who together with the rest of the Apostles bare record of the Word of God as I have noted before and of the testimony of Jesus and of all things that he saw i. Rev. 3. And herein they were labourers together with God 1 Cor. iii. 9. who testified the same and wrought as effectually in S. Peter among the Jews as he was mighty in S. Paul towards the Gentiles ii Gal. 8. For God wrought special miracles by his hands xix Acts 11. and made the Gentiles obedient by word and deed through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the SPIRIT of God xv Rom. 18 19. So that the Faith of that Age it is plain did not stand in the wisdom of men as S. Paul speaks 1 Cor. ii 5. but in the power of God They that believed saw evidently that God was with the Apostles nay they felt many of them the power of God in themselves as you have heard before when the Apostles communicated this vertue to others which they had received from Jesus Christ Which was such a Testimony to him as no counterfeit or false witness could ever imitate For it hath been a constant observation that they who by Magick astonished the People by wonderful feats not only did them for their own gain and reputation rather than for any benefit to the World but also kept this secret to themselves and would not communicate their power to others That would have spoiled their trade and made them less admired or at least less rich than they designed But our Lord on the contrary had promised his Disciples that what he did when he was in the world they should do also after he was gone Nay more than that he tells them Greater things shall ye do And which is still more he promises that not only they but others also should do those works if they believed on him xiv Joh. 11 12. Believe me for the very works sake Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do because I go to my Father Now thus it came to pass as our Saviour foretold Not only the Apostles but others also who believed through their word received the Holy Ghost For as S. Peter confidently invited his Crucifiers to come and repent of what they had done and be baptized every one of them in his Name and they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ii Act. 38. So it proved that they who gladly received his word were baptized ver 41. and were all filled with the Holy Ghost iv 31. This was the thing that amazed that famous Sorcerer Simon Magus whom the Samaritans admired as the great power of God till S. Philip came thither and perswaded even him by the miracles and signs which he did to believe in Jesus as a greater power of God than himself But when the Apostles also came and by laying on of their hands the Holy Ghost was given to several persons He plainly saw that he was no body and would have given any Money for such a power as he had not the least shadow of viii Act. 10 11 c. But all that I shall say of this matter shall be out of one of the ancient defenders of the Christian cause who thought he might challenge all the world to show him any thing like that which our Saviour did or give an account how it might be done if he was not the Son of God most high It is Arnobius I mean who in his first Book against the Gentiles having delivered in a Catalogue of our Saviour's miracles and shown they could not be the effect of Magick at last concludes with this great demonstration the substance of which I shall briefly relate All these wonders which I have summed up though not as the greatness of them required Jesus not only performed himself but which is a greater miracle gave many others power to do them in his Name For he fore-seeing there would be indeavours to detract from the glory of his famous actions that he might leave no suspicion in the minds of those that heard of him as if he were a Sorcerer chose out of that vast multitude of People that followed him with no small admiration certain Fishermen poor Labourers and other Country People who going through all Nations might without any tricks false colours or invoking the assistance of Spirits work all those miracles over again which they said he had wrought himself As He commanded Devils to come out with a word of his mouth in the same manner did they lay their commands upon them and they obeyed As He did but put forth his hand and touch a Leper or bid him be clean and his flesh was restored like a little Childs in the same manner did they smooth the skins of such loathsome persons and restore them to the welcome society of their friends and neighbours It would be too tedious to number all things particularly that they did and which is more I may add gave power to other Christians to do in their Master's Name They stopt the progress of cruel eating Cancers they closed up
Verse why they gave themselves as whole burnt offerings to Christ but that by the example of their Faith and Martyrdom they might instruct many more to be Martyrs Nay their BLOUD did not only water many young plants and made them grow to their perfection but He tells us a little after in his exposition of the same Psalm Plures scimus c. We know many who were wholly ignorant of the Divine Sacraments i. e. the Christian Religion that by the example of the Martyrs run to Martyrdom No wonder then that these above all others have been called the WITNESSES of Jesus for that 's the interpretation of the word MARTYR and that Christians were forward even to kiss their wounds and to embrace their dead bodies as the remains of those who had done most eminent service to our Lord. Who himself therefore witnessed to them after they were dead and declared that their bloud was very dear and precious in his sight and that it had sealed nothing but the truth For there can no other reason be given but this why at the Monuments of these MARTYRS or WITNESSES our Saviour was pleased to have so many miracles wrought afterward and before such a number of people that Porphyry himself as we learn both from S. Cyril and S. Hierom though an avowed enemy of our Religion could not but acknowledge them They still spake and bare Witness to Jesus by these wonderful works when they were dead or rather Jesus spake for them as I said and declared from Heaven that these were his faithful Witnesses whose word ought to be believed whereby they had declared him to be the Lord. A PRAYER WHO would not believe on thee O Lord who would not magnifie thy Name For great and marvellous are thy works just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints All Nations ought to come and worship before thee whose Majesty and Glory is so many ways made manifest Thou hast raised poor and ignorant men to be mighty Ministers of thy Grace and Witnesses of thy Resurrection and co-workers with thee for the illumination and conversion of the world Blessed be thy name for all the glorious Lights which have been in thy Church in every Age by whom thy holy Faith hath been preserved and propagated to our days Blessed be thy name for all the Martyrs who sealed it with their Bloud and for all the Confessors who freely acknowledged thee with the danger of their lives Great was thy glory which shone in their most exemplary holiness fortitude patience love unseigned both to friends and enemies and in that mighty power whereby they approved themselves as the Ministers of God Thanks be to thee O God the Lord of Heaven and Earth for the comfort of thy holy Scriptures wherein we read the story of our Saviours wondrous love and of that most miraculous power which appeared in him to testifie unto him and at last raised him from the dead and advanced him to the throne of Glory From whence he sent the Holy Ghost to endue his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers with power from on high that they might be his Witnesses and commit that which they had received to faithful men who should be able to teach others also O God I cannot but again adore thy incomprehensible love which can never be sufficiently praised Who can understand the exceeding riches of thy grace that thou whose naked glory is too bright for our weak minds to fix their eyes upon wouldest be pleased in most admirable condescending love to manifest thy self and visit us in our flesh Thou art infinitely above the greatest of us who are far less worthy to approach thee than the lowest creature in this world is fit for our friendship and society So much the more marvellous is thy unheard of love that thou wouldest admit us to such a near relation unto thee So much the greater is our happiness that in Christ Jesus thou hast made thy self our portion and designed us to be eternally blessed with thee Great was his care and kindness all the days of his flesh towards the most miserable wretches who received the greatest tokens of his love I rejoyce now to think with what tenderness he received the poor fed the hungry visited the sick cured the diseased and when he had left the world communicated the same power unto others that they might exercise the same charity that he had done I see both the power and goodness of our Lord in all those works of wonder which he did I see that his mercy endureth for ever which hath preserved a faithful record of these things that we through patience and comfort of the holy Scriptures might have hope Now the God of all grace inspire me and all other Christian Souls with the same faith love and ardent zeal which was in those burning and shining Lights the Witnesses of Christ. That we may be followers of them as they were of him and acknowledging the same Lord being members of the same body partaking of the same Sacraments and living upon the same Heavenly food we may lead the same holy lives in hope to shine one day with them in the same celestial glory Help us to continue in the things which we have learnt and have been assured of knowing of whom we have learnt them that we may not at any time let them slip For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him thou O God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to thine own will May we always carefully lay up and preserve these sacred truths in our heart which were in so glorious a manner delivered to us May they work there perpetually with great power and be reverenced as the holy Oracles of God! May they be the spring of all our motions throughout the whole course of our life That with an even steddy pace whatsoever dangers come in our way we may walk on towards that happy place where those holy ones rejoyce for ever with our Lord. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be given by us and by those glorified Spirits and by all the Angels in Heaven everlasting Praises Amen CHAP. IX The Vse we are to make of their Testimony IT is time now to bring this Discourse to an issue and having examined all these Divine Witnesses taken their proofs and depositions and found their testimony upon due enquiry to be good and legal to consider with our selves what we have to do and what judgment we will pass now that we have heard their evidence God the Father of all says that Jesus is his Son the Word himself appeared oft to justifie this Truth the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven to attest it the Prophet of the Highest proclaimed it the holy life of our
Saviour spake as much and his Bloudy Death sealed it to which the Spirit set its seal also and undeniably witnessed that bloud was sacred which he shed for a testimony upon the Cross All these have done their part all that Witnesses by their office are to do for the making of this good that Jesus is the Son of God That which remains is our task who are bound to consider and seriously ponder and impartially judge and then faithfully improve their sacred Testimony that Jesus may have the glory that is due unto him and we may have that benefit which God by him designs to bestow upon us I. And first of all let us consider a-while the great weight and importance of this Truth that Jesus is Gods Son If the whole frame of Christian Religion did not rely upon it there would not have been such care taken to settle it and lay it deep in our hearts by so much labour and strength of argument It is equally blameable to be laborious about a trifle and to be superficial and slight in things of greatest moment No man of sense will with a great deal of diligence summon together a number of Witnesses to make good that which when it is proved it is indifferent as to any thing that depends upon it whether it be true or false No question there is a considerable interest of ours which is concerned in this truth else the Holy men of God would not have called HEAVEN AND EARTH TO WITNESS and bear their testimony to it The Father the Word the Holy-Ghost would not have concurred with the Water the Bloud and the Spirit to assert and maintain it but that all is little enough to justifie it and that it is a thing of which we cannot but desire the greatest assurance It is 1. the Foundation of all other Truths in the Christian Religion as you may read 1 Cor. iii. 11. xvi Matth. 17 18. It is the Rock on which the Church is built the Ground that supports the whole Fabrick which if it be infirm and rotten all falls to rubbish and confusion And therefore 2. the Devil laboured to undermine this Truth above all others Like a subtile Enemy when the Apostles as wise Master-builders had laid this foundation he imployed false Teachers and counterfeit Apostles as so many Pioneers to work under this and lay their trains to blow it up which he knew was a nearer way to ruine all than to plant his Batteries against the building onely The History of the first times afford too plentiful instances of this For we find there arose many Anti-christs 1 Joh. ii 18. and many false Prophets went out into the World iv 1. And the very spirit of Antichrist as he tells us vers 3. was this to deny that Jesus who came in flesh in a mortal condition and subject to our miseries was Christ. They would not have it thought that any one who suffered so vilely was the great KING that had been so long expected Or if they believed Jesus to be a great Prophet and that he was raised from the dead and rewarded for his labours in Heaven as other Prophets were yet they denied that he was made LORD OF ALL the Head of the Church and of all Principalities and Powers who was to be honoured by all Men even as they honour the Father And therefore 3. the Apostles imployed as great care and earnest indeavour for to strengthen and support this weighty truth as the Enemies of Religion laboured might and main as we say to weaken and overthrow the belief of it This was the thing they every where preached as you read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles And for this very end S. John wrote this Epistle to confirm his Disciples in this Faith against all the subtile opposition of their adversaries as you may collect from many passages beside that which I have expounded And it was the thing aimed at also in his second Epistle where he rejoyces to hear that they walkt in the truth vers 3. and cautions them against those deceivers and Antichrists vers 7. And indeed 4. it was the great note of difference between the true Prophets and the false as you may see 1 Cor. xii 3. and in the place now mentioned in this Epistle iv 1 2. which also 5. makes him command his Disciples that if any one pretending to the Spirit did not acknowledge this they should not use the common civility to him of bidding him God speed ii Epist 10. And if any man apostatiz'd from this faith which is the last thing I shall mention S. Paul pronounces a most dreadful curse upon him and wishes or predicts the Lord would come and speedily execute it 1 Corinth xvi 22. For whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of CHRIST hath not God 2. epist of S. Joh. 9. This being a truth therefore of so great moment as appears by these considerations and by the many Witnesses to which S. John here appeals for the proof of it let us be sure to settle a sense of its concernment to us in our hearts and then to think often of it and study it so thoroughly that we may perceive both the truth and importance of it or else we shall prove our selves despisers of God who do as bad as say that it was a needless pains which he bestowed in giving so many evidences of that for which we have no regard or no list to bring to trial and examination And that truly I doubt is the temper of most Christian People at this day They think all discourses on this subject useless or little worth because they prove that which they believe already Heathens might reap some profit by them but what say they have we to do with them But while such thoughts as these have too long possessed the drowsie Christian world they remain alas in the very dregs of Heathenism with a little smack or taste of Christianity It is a sad thing to consider but so it is that they who cannot endure to think upon what ground their belief stands because they would not put themselves to the trouble of understanding it are of that base temper which is the mother of Idolatry of Mahometism and of all spurious Religions in the World For what is it makes Men worship the Sun Moon and Stars or address their services to dead men nay to a piece of wood or a red cloth or some such paultry thing what makes Mahomet so reverenced by a great part of the World as the Prophet of the Highest but that they have ever been so taught and it is the custome to honour him They examine no further nor enquire for any other reason that is do not observe that there is no other reason for their belief Upon the very same account do many receive Jesus for the Son of God He hath no better footing in their Souls nor stands upon firmer grounds than Mahomet or
to lurk in the dark and put off their stuff when no body can see what it is who know it is deceitfully wrought and will not abide the light They do wisely and as cunning Merchants who make up in words and great assurances of their honesty what is wanting in the goodness of their wares But why we should have so little wit as to take their words who can tell We must answer for this folly no doubt to Almighty God who hath given us more understanding if we would use it and taught us by himself to call for good witnesses of that which is offered to us for a truth And the more strictly we examine these which S. John here alledges the better we shall be satisfied that they intend not to deceive us Which is a mark we should always have much in our eye when we are enquiring after Truth If the more we search consider and ponder the proofs which are brought the better they appear and the clearer they grow it is a very good sign there is nothing wanting to make it fully entertain'd but only longer thoughts and greater and more serious consideration As on the other hand we have great reason to suspect and turn away from that which the longer we weigh its proofs the lighter they seem and the propounders of them also begin to shift and shuffle till they have put all into a mist in which we can see nothing but that they are at a loss and are fain to puzzle us because they cannot clear that which they were about Thanks be to God there is nothing of this in the evidences we give for the true Christian Religion They are plain and perspicuous and show themselves in a greater brightness the more we look upon them and the better we are acquainted with them Search and try what has been said and the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ will shine with greater lustre in your eyes and you will confess with S. Peter 2 i. 3. that he hath called us to the knowledge of him by glory and vertue that is by a most amazing power of God which declared him to be his only Son our Lord. II. Let us therefore in the next place consider seriously how excellent and perfectly rational the Faith of Christians is There is nothing founded upon such Authority as our most holy Religion It is no childish silly thing to be a believer A man doth not betray his weakness and easie credulity when upon examination and search he suffers his Soul to be planted with these new Principles but demonstrates the strength the nobleness and ingenuity of his mind which can discern and judge aright for nothing can pretend to so much reason as they There are a vast heap of things which I could here accumulate beside those which I have treated of to make good this assertion But because the method of the Apostle which I have followed is so clear and easie and the Witnesses so full and pregnant that every one of them affords us many evidences I will content my self with a brief review of what hath been said Which will be sufficient to convince us that our Faith is the highest improvement of our Reason and doth not debase but clevate and raise our understanding upon the surest grounds of Divine demonstration For if you consider what Testimonials they brought along with them who have pretended to speak in God's name you will find there is nothing comparable to the Witness which God hath given of his Son No not in that Religion which was really founded by his Authority much less in that where there was only the Name of God pretended without any Power I. Mahomet I mean to begin first with the latter of these took upon him to be the Apostle and the Prophet of God greater not only than Moses but than Jesus himself And such was his confident brags of Revelations from God that among a company of wild Arabians whom Algazel acknowledges to have approached the nearest to Beasts of all other men He made some proselytes to his belief But what proof did he give that he was divinely sent Was it ever heard that God spake to him so much as once as he did often to our Saviour At what time or in what place and in whose audience did God say to him Thou art my Prophet When did a voice from Heaven come to any three or but one man and say This is the Apostle of God hear him It is a marvellous Providence of God that this Impostor who wanted no confidence should never adventure in all the relations he hath made of himself quite contrary to our Lord who wrote nothing of his own life but left all to his Disciples to tell any such story as this for his greater credit and glory among his followers We read indeed of some idle tales which he reports of an Angel speaking to him and of his ascension into Heaven I know not how many millions of miles But what witness was there of these things what was his name who saw the Angel appear to him or who stood by when he was transported and carried out of sight as he dreamed Or when and to whom did Moses or any one else appear and verifie it that he had been with them in glory If we must take his own word which is all we can hear of to vouch it then we must not refuse to believe every foolish fellow who has impudence enough to pretend to prophesie But what then will become of the faith of Mahomet himself if the sword were out of his hand Let us hear such a man as John the Baptist whose piety and vertue is attested by those who were no Friends of our Religion affirm that he heard and saw such things as he reports and we will be content to abate them the Apostles and such a multitude of people as heard God say he would Glorifie his Name in our Saviour And in what Glory hath that false Prophet appeared since he left the World Whose eyes hath he struck out with the brightness of his countenance Nay by whom hath he been so much as seen since he was buried I need not put the question about his Resurrection for they never pretended it Only the sottish people would not believe when he died that he was really dead but said he was taken up to Heaven as Jesus was And Omar one of his successors threatned death to them that should say he was dead for he was only gone away as Moses did into the Mount and would return again From whence perhaps arose that vulgar error among us that the Mahumedans expect the return of their Prophet * See Poceek in Gregor Abul Phar. p. 180. 264. But Abu Becri proved to them out of the Alcoran that He was to die as other Prophets before him and so appeased Omar and the multitude And was it ever heard that the Holy Ghost sell down upon him in a
when the Israelites bade him prove it But our Lord needed not to call for any Witness John the Baptist a great Prophet as they themselves allowed was ready of himself for it was his office to declare openly that he saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and abiding on him He saw and bare record that this is the Son of God as the Voice from Heaven in his audience also pronounced him Which a great many People if need were could afterward certifie who concluded that an Angel spake to him as you have heard from S. John's testimony .xii. 29. 2. Now if you proceed further and ask for some Witness of Moses his authority like to that of the WORD the second Witness to our Saviour who can hear any thing of it Do we ever read a word of Moses his appearing in such a Glory as our Lord Jesus did to his first Martyr S. Steven and to S. Paul and to his beloved Disciple Nay where are the Witnesses that say he was so much as transfigured when he was upon the Mount or doth he himself ever affirm it When was his Rayment made as white as Snow or where as I shall examine more hereafter was the bright cloud covering the Mount which was all cloathed with darkness we read indeed that when he came down his face shone but not in so bright and glorious a manner as our Saviour's did when he went up into the Holy Mount and especially after he ascended into Heaven Then S. Steven as I have said saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand an honour never given to any Angel in Heaven And the Apostle of the Gentiles saw him again in a light greater than that of the Sun at Noon-day And to S. John he appeared as the KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS in such a Majesty as he was not able to bear but made him fall at his feet as dead He that weighs such things as these will see that all the glory of Moses to use S. Paul's words 2 Cor. iii. 10. was no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth 3. Then if you look for the Testimony of the HOLY-GHOST I have already noted that it never came down upon him as it did upon the Founder of our Religion Much less did he send it upon some select Men after he was dead who should do as great wonders as himself And still much less did he bestow it upon all the People as our Lord did for a while upon all Believers There is not the smallest foot-step of any such Honour or Power that he had For He did not communicate a portion of his Spirit to the LXX Elders who were chosen to be his Assistants but the Lord said to him I will come down and take of the Spirit which is upon thee and put it upon them xi Num. 17. which words do not signifie it is true that he had less but only that they had more of the Spirit than before yet He did not so much as lay his hands upon them that they might receive it but God took of the Spirit which was on him and gave it to the LXX Elders even to those two who were not there present at the Tabernacle but remained still in the camp ver 25 26. 4. If you go therefore next to the Testimony of WATER how transparent is the Purity of our Saviours Doctrine above that of Moses Whose Laws though they contained nothing dishonest yet burdened the people to prevent a greater mischief of their running into Idolatry with a number of precepts which in themselves had no goodness at all to commend them Nay the Letter of the very moral Law laid restraints only upon the outward man so that they who were subject to it little regarded the purifying of their spirits from those irregular passions and naughty affections which our Lord expresly prohibits There were many things also indulged in those days which our Lord doth not allow Whose design was not only to purge the heart and make the spirit of men much better by all his precepts but to advance them to the noblest degree of purity and goodness Where do you read in the Books of Moses such precepts of meekness of mortifying fleshly lusts of kindness to all and tender compassion of trust in God of contentedness with the present and hope of his mercy in another world as are frequent and obvious in the Gospel of Christ Nay in what place of the Law do you find so much as one command or exhortation to Pray much less to Pray without ceasing and to Pray not for riches and victory over enemies and long life but for the Divine Grace and favour for the Holy Spirit for remission of sins and for Eternal Life And now I mention that word I cannot but desire you to consider how low and poor the Promises of Moses were compared with those of our Saviour who hath brought in a better Hope Of which they could see so little so dim was the light in the Law of Moses that a whole Sect of men who believed in him and received his Law cast away all hope of obtaining good things in another life and denied the Resurrection of the Dead And we must add to all this that Moses was but the Light of that one Nation whereas our Lord says more than once I am the Light of the WORLD viii John 12. ix 5. Moses washed the Bodies of the Jews but now the hearts of the unclean Gentiles are purified by Faith xv Acts 9. And if you enquire further into the purity of Moses his life you will find it was not without flaws and blemishes for he spake unadvisedly with his lips and could not bring the people to their rest But our Lord was perfectly free from all spot the Lamb of God without blemish who never spake the least word amiss no not in the midst of such torments as Moses never endured 5. For if you pass on to consider what sufferings and BLOUD testifie Alas what is the Bloud of Bulls and of Goats to the precious Bloud of Jesus Did Moses seal that Covenant of which he was the Minister or did he sprinkle the Book of the Covenant with his own bloud Did he purge away the sins of the people by himself as our Saviour we read did 1. Hebr. 3. or sanctifie them by the offering of his own body once for all as it is x. Hebr. 10 Did he die to bear Witness to the Truth or witness such a good confession before Pharaoh as Jesus before Pontius Pilate Was it ever heard that by the enduring of a shameful and cruel death he declared to all the certainty of his Prophecy Upon what Altar was he offered And for what cause did he become a sacrifice This was peculiar to Jesus to suffer such things as no man ever did and for this very cause because he said He was the Son of God 6.
Moses then had need to do some miracles to confirm his prophecy since he fell short in many other things of giving satisfaction Such as we have I mean who abound in Witnesses to our belief and hear even this Witness on which the Jews heretofore relied speak more plainly and powerfully to us than it did to them The SPIRIT of the Lord was upon Moses the people saw by the wonders he did which moved them to follow him Though now they are so foolishly mad against our Saviour that to rob us of this Argument the Jews say Moses his miracles did not prove him to be sent of God yet it is manifest by their story they were in a manner his only glory I am sure the principal or that which first induced their forefathers to give any credit to him For when he asked of God a sign to give the people who otherwise he foresaw would question the apparition of the Angel to him that they might believe as much as himself and acknowledge that God sent him He granted him a power of doing such wonders as flesh and bloud could not do which it seems he thought the properest means to convince them What is that in thy hand saith the Lord immediately after the words mentioned before iv Exod. 1. and he said a rod. And the Lord said Cast it on the ground And he cast it on the ground and it became a Serpent and Moses fled from before it And the Lord said unto him again Put forth thine hand and take it by the tail and he put forth his hand and caught it and it became a rod in his hand that they may believe the Lord God of their Fathers hath appeared unto thee ver 2 3 4 5. This was the end for which this miracle was to be wrought To which he adds another that if they would not believe him nor hearken to the voice of the first they might be convinced by the second or if they would believe neither he gave him power to do a third and bade him turn the water of the river into bloud ver 7 8. And accordingly you read he went and did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believed and when they heard God had visited them bowed their heads and worshipped ver 30 31. After this indeed they disbelieved again till God drowned their enemies in the red Sea and then the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses xiv Exod. 31. But were any of these works so wonderful and so powerful to move belief as those which our Saviour did It may deserve a discourse on a fitting occasion on purpose to show how much Moses came behind him in this as well as in all the rest Both the number and greatness of our Saviour's works were as far beyond his as the strength of a Gyant is beyond that of an Infant He was cut off in the midst of his days and yet in that three years and an half wherein he lived after the SPIRIT of God came upon him at his Baptism he did more wonders than Moses did in forty years nay more than had been done from the beginning of the world to that time And if you regard the quality of them Moses his taking the Serpent by the tail and turning it into a rod again was not comparable to our Saviour's casting out Devils treading upon the old Serpent breaking in pieces all his power by healing all manner of sickness and disease and giving his Disciples also the same authority and power which was visible in himself Nor was Moses his hand becoming leprous when he put it into his bosom and its being restored again by the same means any thing like to the miracles of Jesus in curing so many old Lepers of all forts both Jews and Samaritans wheresoever they came to him to implore his charity Moses brought a strong East wind which caused the Sea to go back and leave the bottom dry for the Israelites to march through but this was nothing so wonderful as our Lord 's walking upon the Sea as it had been dry land and commanding Peter to accompany him in the midst of a boisterous wind and his laying his commands upon such tempests and raging waves and the fishes also which all obeyed him Nay that great miracle of feeding them with Manna was not so strange as our Lord 's satisfying great multitudes with five or seven loaves and two small fishes which were not proportionable to so many thousand stomachs as were filled by them as the quantity of Manna was to the Armies of the Israelites Besides that you never read a word of Moses his opening the eyes of the blind much less of his raising the dead which our Lord did sundry times I need say no more to show how inferiour he was to Jesus even in regard of his miracles concerning which the multitude said truly It never was so seen in Israel ix Matth. 33. And yet this was the only thing that convinced that Nation at the first and made them believe in Moses as I have prov'd before they heard God speak to them by an Angel from mount Sinai at the giving of the Law That was the most amazing thing of all but was after they came out of Egypt and a great while after they had believed Moses was sent of God as they saw then more fully and was nothing comparable neither to Jesus's speaking himself to some of the Apostles out of Heaven and sending the Holy Ghost from thence with the gift of tongues and divers others upon them all And after all that hath been said of the miracles which the SPIRIT wrought by him where are the miracles that it wrought for him Did Moses prove himself a true Prophet by rising again after he was dead and buried To whom did he appear With whom did he eat and drink Or who can say that he ascended up into Heaven To whom did he appear in glory except it was to our Saviour and some of his Disciples in honour of whom it seems he had then the favour and not before to shine in that lustre wherein they beheld him In short God gave not the Spirit by measure unto Jesus as you have heard before He had not such a limited portion of it as Moses had who appears by these things to have been only a servant over the house of God in which our Saviour had a power as a Son and that over his own house iii. Hebr. 5 6. Thus much hath been said to show the great honour God hath done us in making us Christians Whose Faith you see stands upon such well-laid grounds that even they who were taught by God had none comparable to them Herein we have a felicity above all other men that have ever been if we be but sensible of it that we are not required to receive any thing from God but upon such reasons as far excel those which demanded belief of
men in former times but had not such strength to enforce it Blessed be God should we all say A PRAYER BLessed be God who hath not done so for any people He hath shown us HIMSELF his WORD and the HOLY GHOST Israel hath not seen his Glory so as it shines in our eyes And as for his Power and Might they have not known them no more than the Promises and the Laws whereby he now governs us He hath given us a better Covenant founded upon a better Bloud which hath brought in also a better Hope and is confirmed by a more powerful Spirit Blessed be his Goodness that our eyes read and our ears hear those things which many Prophets and righteous men desired to see and hear but could not see nor hear them For it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto us by them that have preached the Gospel unto us which the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into O Bless the Lord with us ye Angels of his that excel in strength praise him and magnifie him for ever O all ye Powers of the Lord bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye Spirits and Souls of the righteous bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Praise him all ye Apostles and Prophets praise him all ye Martyrs and Confessors praise him all ye glorious Lights who have made the Gospel of Christ to shine throughout the world Praise the Father Almighty praise his Eternal WORD praise the Holy Ghost who have made our Faith to stand not in the wisdom of men but in the mighty Power of God Praise him for the Incarnation the Life the Death the Resurrection the Ascension and the Glorification of the Lord Jesus who hath given us strong Consolation by that sure and stedfast hope which throughout all these means he hath setled in our hearts O praise him for his marvellous love to us whom he hath called after a glorious manner and by an amazing vertue to the knowledge of Christ by whom his Divine power hath given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness And make us who are so nearly concerned in this love to be very sensible how great it is which hath not only called us to his Heavenly Kingdom but made us sure and certain by so many Witnesses that Jesus is the Lord of all the King of infinite Majesty Power and Glory Let our Souls never cease to show forth and publish the vertues and powerful operations of him who hath called us into his marvellous light Let our mouths be filled with his praise all the day long who out of the riches of his mercy hath made us who were not his people to be a chosen generation an holy nation a peculiar people to himself O that our Faith may grow exceedingly and be deeply rooted and grounded in our hearts And as it stands upon the surest foundations so we may be built up in it with the most assured confidence and stand unshaken and immoveable in it unto the end And as thou hast differenced us from all other people in the clearness of that Light which lets us see that ours is the most holy Faith so help us by thy grace to distinguish our selves from all others by holding the mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience and by the upright actions of an unblameable life O that the light of Christians may so shine before men that others seeing their good works may glorifie thee our Heavenly Father O that it may disperse the darkness which over-spreads so great a part of the world That all impostures may be discovered and they that live in error may be brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus O that his Dominion may reach from Sea to Sea even unto the worlds end Let them who dwell in the most desert places kneel before him and his enemies lick the dust Let all Kings of the Earth adore him and all Nations do him service Kindle in the hearts of Princes and Nobles an holy ambition to advance his Glory Inspire the hearts of all Bishops and Priests with an ardent zeal for the conversion of Souls And dispose the hearts of those who are in error that they may be apt and ready to receive thy sacred truth Plant thy Gospel where it hath not yet been and replant it where it hath been rooted out And give us grace who have long been thine own vineyard to bring forth plenty of good fruit That our lives may be as holy as our faith and we may convince Jews Turks and all other Infidels that thou art among us and that Jesus whom we worship is the Lord. To him with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory and Praise among all mankind and throughout all Ages world without end Amen CHAP. X. Other necessary Vses we are to make of their Testimony THere is no great skill required to see the difference between that Holy Religion which we profess and all others that are entertained in the rest of the World Some we must have and it is as palpable that this is incomparably the most excellent as it is that there is any Religion at all There is no Nation so barbarous but pays some respect and ceremony to use the phrase of Tully when he defines Religion to some Superiour and more excellent Nature which we call Divine Though they are ignorant what kind of God it becomes them to have yet they know a God must be had and must be worshipped Their own mind teaches them this as soon as they cast their eyes upon the admirable frame of the World which all naturally conclude must have had some most wise and mighty Builder But what respect and reverence that is which will be pleasing to him they are very uncertain it is manifest by the various ways they have invented to express their Devotion They all with one consent acknowledge a necessity of a Revelation to instruct them for there is no Nation but pretends to have received some things by the instinct inspiration or apparition of their Gods That which pure natural reason dictates is not to be found simple and unmixt in any Nation under Heaven For if we should stand meerly to that it hath ever resolved that the worship of God consists in the study of Wisdome Justice and all other Vertues Which as they are most eminent in God so he is best pleased with them in us And they that addict themselves to resemble him in this manner are the men that shall obtain his favour There are a number of notable sayings both in Heathen and Christian Writers to this purpose But when all this is said and acknowledged Men will offend against these Rules of Vertue and what shall they do then what will make him satisfaction and procure a reconciliation with him whom they have reason
to think their offences have made their enemy is a thing that can never be certainly resolved without a Revelation Without which also we can have little security of the immortality of our Souls and of the life to come Which hath inclined all Mankind to listen after a Revelation and to catch at any thing which pretends to come from God to them For as Plato acknowledges when he ordains there should be no alterations made in the ancient Customes about Sacrifices because it is not possible for mortal nature to know any thing of these matters without it No says he not long after in the same Book * In Epinom as no body shall ever perswade me that there is any greater Piety than true Vertue and as there is nothing more excellent can be taught than how those that honour Vertue should rightly worship God with Sacrifices and other rites of purifying So none can teach this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless God show him the way and be his Guide and Leader in so excellent a work But if we search into all the records that are in the World what is there that can stand in competition with the Christian way of worshipping God or pretend to come with such authority from him I have examined those that have most to say for themselves and they can produce no such WITNESSES as Christianity doth No not that ancient Revelation made by God to Moses As for the old Pagan ways which were very various I am ashamed to mention them It is manifest they suffered themselves to be cheated by impure Spirits and took the answers of Daemons for the Oracles of God But ask now of the days that are past which were before us since the day that God created Man upon the Earth and ask from the one side of Heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it that God indeed appeared among Men and was manifest in the flesh as is evident by all the signs and wonders and mighty deeds by voices from Heaven by his Resurrection from the dead and all the other Witnesses which have testified this truth to the world Ask again hath God ever assured Men of any thing by so many and such evident testimonies as those which I have produced Unto us it was shown that we might know that Jesus is the Lord and beside him there is no other if I may again allude to the words of Moses iv Deut. 34 35. out of Heaven he hath made us hear his voice that he might instruct us and upon Earth he hath shown us his great wonders that every tongue might confess Jesus is the Lord to the Glory of God the Father III. That now is the next thing I am to press as a necessary consequence of what hath been said in the foregoing Treatise Though there were such slender proofs in comparison with ours that God spake to Moses and though others as I said were drawn away by the subtilties of evil Angels yet they all believed and gave great reverence to that which was delivered to them Every Nation gladly received and held fast that which did but pretend to come from Heaven Which must needs extremely reproach us and put us to eternal shame if we having better evidences should not only be Believers but have a stronger faith in Jesus That which Plato thought was to be wisht for is now come to pass God is come to be our Guide and Director The very wisdome of the Father hath appeared to teach us He that made all the World is come down hither to reform us The WORD IS MADE FLESH that as he had Principalum in coelis to use the words of Irenaeus * L. 4. cap. 37. the Lordship in Heaven so he might have Principatum in terra the same Soveraignty upon Earth He hath appeared also in wonderful and astonisht brightness to convince us of his authority and to make us know assuredly that he is God blessed for ever Shall we not then hear his words shall we not deliver up our selves to receive his Heavenly instruction which came with such powerful demonstration God forbid that any of us should be so perverse as hearing such WITNESSES speak unto us for the Lord Jesus we should give no credit to them I cannot but believe as S. Austin * L. de vera Relig. cap. 3. excellently discourses that if Plato now lived and would vouchsafe to answer my Questions or rather if any Scholar of his being perswaded that truth is not to be seen with corporeal eyes but by a pure mind and that nothing hinders the sight more than a life addicted to lust and false Images of sensible things which impressed on us beget various errors and that therefore the mind is to be purified that it may behold that unchangeable beauty which is always the same and always like it self If I say a Scholar of his thus taught by him should ask him whether in case there should be a Man Great and Divine that should perswade the People at least to believe such things though they could not perceive them or if they did perceive them were so ingaged in vulgar errors that they durst not or could not oppose them He would not judge him worthy of Divine honour I believe he would Answer that this could not be done by Man unless perhaps the very power and wisdome of God should honour some person who was not taught of men but from the Cradle illuminated by the most intimate knowledge of things with so great a grace and strengthen him with such resolution and bear him up with such a majesty that contemning all things that evil Men desire and induring all things that they dread and doing all things that they admire he should convert Mankind with equal kindness and authority to so wholesome a Faith And he would add that it was to no purpose to ask him what the Honours are which ought to be given to such a person when it is easie to be discerned what honour is due to the wisdome of God by the guidance and governance of which he would singularly deserve of Mankind and do some thing for their Salvation proper only to himself and which was above Men to do Now if these things which I have supposed be really done if there be good records of them if from a Country in which alone One God was worshipped and where such a person was to be born there came chosen men who by their Vertues and their Sermons have kindled in Mens breasts the flame of the Divine love and have left the inlightned Earth under a most wholesome Discipline if every where it is preached that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God if to the perceiving and embracing this that the Soul may be cured and recover strength to entertain so great a light the covetous hear such
therefore we ought to study this place of holy Scripture and have it much in our thoughts that so our Faith may stand in the Power of God For otherwise how shall we be able to follow the Apostolical Precept which would have us when we are questioned to render a reason of the hope that is in us 1 Pet. iii. 15. We may be able to stand our ground though we be ignorant of the true causes of belief but the enemies of it will look upon it as a foolish obstinacy if we have not so much understanding as to give some other account of our Faith than they give for theirs Suppose they should say Why are you a Christian whence is it that you look for a Resurrection a Glorious body and Eternal life in another world Would they not think us very stupid if we could say nothing to them but that so we have been always taught and are resolved to believe Would not this be as good a reason for them as it is for us and make us unworthy of the name of Christians who know our Books no better which bid us give and furnish us with a reasonable account Consider therefore what Answer you would shape to them that should make such a demand The Apostle says it is fit they should have a reason what is the best that you can offer for their satisfaction shall I tell you The plain Answer is this That Jesus whose Religion we follow was the Son of God and therefore we believe these things because the Son of God taught us so who cannot deceive us and we will not exchange this for any other perswasion though we should die for it It is certain enough that every body who hears this will presently consent to us that he is a fool who doth not stoop to him and comply with us if it be certain that Jesus is the Son of God But how do you prove that will be the next question Here is the labour this is our work and whence will you fetch convincing Arguments to make them yield to you this weighty point There is no such Compendious Abridgment of them any where that I know of as in this place of S. John which furnishes us with reasons both many and mighty to perswade us and others that Jesus is the Son of God You may tell them that the Father Almighty said so by voices from Heaven in the audience of credible persons and that the Word said so as they may be informed of S. Paul who had no reason greater than this to force him to leave all and with the daily hazard of his life to follow Jesus You may alledge the testimony of the Holy Ghost both at his Baptism and afterward the marvellous sanctity of his Doctrine and Life the Confession he made at his bloudy Death the Glory of his Miraculous works his Resurrection from the Dead the Power of the same Spirit in his Apostles after he was gone to Heaven all the Miracles which were wrought long after their times in the places where the holy Martyrs of Jesus suffered together with the wonderful success of these Witnesses who perswaded innumerable People in all Countries to become the subjects of this crucified King Christ Jesus Study this place therefore I say again very well that you may be able to oppress any gain-sayer with the great weight of those reasons which you render of your faith And study it likewise till you feel the faith of Jesus doing something in your hearts till that faith which hath so good a cause have sutable effects that is till it change you as it is ever apt to do into the nature of that cause from whence it flows It comes from God see that it carry you to him and change you into his likeness It relies on his Testimony be sure that it make you perfectly of his mind It comes with the authority from the Word of God it self and from the Holy Ghost let it mightily inspire you with devotion to him and set your affections on things above where Christ is now at God's right hand It relies upon the Purity of his holy Doctrine and Life and therefore ought to purifie our hearts that we may behave our selves in all holy conversation and godliness It is founded on his Bloud on which we can never look but it will deaden our affections to this World and make us crucifie the flesh with its passions and lusts It stands upon the power of God and should therefore make us strong in the Lord and in the power of his might It grows as you see upon sundry roots and flows from several heads and therefore should dispose those in whose hearts it is planted to be abundant in the work of the Lord and to bring forth much fruit that we may be known to be indeed the Disciples of Jesus whose faith is supported by such numerous Witnesses And this now will lead me to the next thing which S. John here makes to be the necessary consequent of this faith and therefore ought not to be omitted IV. If there be such great such abundant reason to believe that Jesus is the Son of God then there is as great a necessity lying upon us to be obedient unto him and punctually to observe all his commands This Faith both requires our submission and obedience to him and also gives us power and ability to perform it It is a meer trick of the Devil another piece of his Sophistry when He cannot dig up the foundation of Christianity which I told you was his first indeavour to hinder all superstructure upon it by perswading Christian People that Faith and Obedience are no necessary Companions but that they may be good believers and yet not keep Christ's Precepts Some think they need not and others which is the same cheat in another shape think they cannot But I appeal to every Man's conscience if he be a believer whether he do not perceive his heart over-awed and his will inclined to reverence and subjection and all his powers mightily moved to tender their service when he seriously thinks that Jesus is the Lord to whom God the Father hath committed all Judgment and will render to every Man according to his works Do you not feel this faith carrying a great authority with it Nay is there not an irresistable energy and vertue in it while you attend to it pressing you to conformity with his holy will Who can gain-say this And who can say then that his Faith does not both engage and inable him to be obedient to his Saviour if he do but mind what he believes He never thinks of that but it powerfully urges and constrains him to yield himself to be a faithful Servant of Jesus in every thing that he declares to be the mind and will of God These uncontrollable inclinations declare to us so plainly the tendency and natural disposition of Christian Faith that we cannot but see it is so far from
being separable from obedience that this is essentially included in it and freely flows from it if it may be but suffered to have its course and not be crossed in its clear intention and design If you be not convinced of this by what you feel you may learn it of S. John who tells you here what the natural issue of our faith is and what duty it exacts for it is the scope of these words which I have expounded to lay such a foundation of belief as may unavoidably inforce obedience unless we forget what our belief is He begins you know this Fifth Chapter of his Epistle with this Principle that every one who believes Jesus to be the Christ is born of God and from thence infers in that and in the second Verse that such a person cannot but love God and all his Brethren which Love cannot be discerned by any thing but by keeping his Commandments FOR THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD ver 3. THAT WE KEEP HIS COMMANDEMENTS Here is the natural fruit of Faith This is its Progress if you do not stop its motions It begets in our heart a great Love and Love is to be Obedient and that to all God's Commandments which respect either our duty to him or to our Neighbour It is in vain to say we believe in Jesus if we do not heartily love God who sent him to us And it is in vain to pretend love to God if we keep not his Commandments And it is as vain to say we have a dutiful respect to his Commandments if our neighbour have any cause to complain of us For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also iv 20 21. Here now they who have less understanding of the grounds of Faith may make up what is wanting in their knowledge by the heartiness of their Devotion to God and the unfeignedness of their love to all their Brethren If they be mightily affected with what they believe and out of an honest love in their hearts to his holy Precepts be very diligent in their obedience it will supply the defect that is in their understanding of the Reasons why they believe in Jesus For if a small argument in a weak and dull understanding does the same work with a strong argument in a quick and piercing where lies the difference but only that the One can serve Religion more with his mind and discourse the other meerly with his good will and his pious life But will any man presume to be so impious as to imploy his will to find out ways to excuse his Obedience to him whom he acknowledges for his Lord He should rather consider seriously how reasonable and how necessary it is that he who knows so well what Jesus is and how he came should above all other Men do him the most faithful and zealous service For if we do but observe how many arguments here are to perswade us to this Faith in Jesus with what Authority he was sent and with what power he came to us we shall think it was for some very great work and fell it impossible while we are sensible of this not to do what he requires though now perhaps it seem impossible to be done He is not come of himself but hath the mark and stamp of the Supreme Lord upon him He evidently shows that he hath a Commission from God and brings as I may say the Broad-seal of Heaven with him to warrant what he demands though it be never so great a tribute of Obedience Here are Witnesses to him above all exception and they all bid us behave our selves submissively towards him and not deny to do any thing that he would have us Him hath God the Father sealed as he tells us vi Joh. 27. and by his Voice from Heaven commands us to HEAR HIM Which was as if he had said If you will believe him that cannot lye then Jesus is the TRUTH to every word of whose mouth we ought to hearken that is faithfully obey and observe For as God is said to hear us when he grants our desires so we hear him or his Son when we fulfill his pleasure The WORD likewise 2. when he appeared to S. Paul made him an Apostle for obedience to the faith among all Nations i. Rom. 5. And told him expresly that he appeared to him for this end that he might send him to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God xxvi Act. 16 18. The HOLY GHOST likewise 3. is a Witness of this which was given to those that obeyed him v. Act. 32. But lookt upon all wickedness as an high affront to it at which it was grieved and by which it was quenched nay forced to depart as not induring to dwell in the same House with filthiness and impurity Unto which the Water 4. or the Holy life and purity of our Saviour in all his actions as well as his Doctrine was directly opposite And tells us that we must be obedient if there were no other reason for it but this alone that the Son of God himself was so in every thing Did God exact obedience of him that he might demand none of us Will he set us free from that duty and service to which his dearly beloved Son was strictly tyed He fulfilled all righteousness and observed even that Law of Ceremonies to which we have no obligation And do we think to be hereby excused from paying all those respects which are naturally due from Creatures to the author of their being and which we cannot but owe to those who are of the same kind with us What is it that hath so perverted the understanding of Christian People as to possess them with apprehensions quite contrary to common reason What ailes us that we cannot see the end of Christ's coming nay that we overlook the plain words of his holy Scriptures which tell us that he left us an example and expects that we should follow it and be made conformable to him and be renewed after his image in righteousness and true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord This the Bloud 5. speaks still more effectually For he would dye rather than disobey God He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross ii Philip. 8. which was the reason why God so highly exalted him and gave him that Name which he hath above every Name There was no other way whereby he could ascend up into Glory And therefore it is madness for us to think to leap up thither and skip over the holy life of Jesus Especially since he declares that his Bloud was shed to which perhaps we trust for redemption though we remain in our impurities that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of
Age. Increase of wickedness not only in themselves but others hath made some so impudent as to scoff at Religion and blaspheme Christ While they see those who acknowledge him do no better than themselves they are inclined to think that their belief makes them no more worth than those who have none at all Nay since they concur with them in their wicked practises they imagine that their fear of Hell and hope of Heaven is no part of their belief but only of their profession The hands of Infidels are strengthened in their impieties by the perfidiousness of ungodly believers They joyn with them to pull down Christian belief and make that be thought nothing which doth nothing above what infidelity doth And therefore let all those who love the memory of our Saviour who love their posterity and would not have them in danger to be drown'd in a deluge of infidelity put a stop to it by holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience 1 Tim. iii. 9. Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity and endeavour all he can to support the honour of his Name and of his Religion by a strict observance of all his holy commands They who believe not or mind not what they believe may think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you 1 Pet. iv 4. But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 20.21 And that now is the next thing which flows from hence If we believe the Record or Witness which God hath given of his Son it contains in it the greatest joy in the World For this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son But I must refer that to another Discourse alone by it self Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy-Ghost GLory in the highest Let the Holy and undivided Trinity be for ever glorified by all Mankind especially by all Christian People who are made partakers of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost 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 But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit Blessed be God I most thankfully receive the manifold testimony which he hath given of his well beloved Son and humbly bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family of Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by the same spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith that being rooted and grounded in love I may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that I may be filled with all the fulness of God And God forbid that any Soul who hears the voice of these Witnesses of God should refuse and turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven and hath declared to us the unsearchable riches of God's grace and the whole counsel of his will O that all they upon whom the glorious Gospel of Christ hath shined may most heartily believe in his Name Let them all be knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge And God forbid that any of them should hold the truth in unrighteousness But as they have received Christ Jesus the Lord so let them walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as they have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving And quicken that faith O thou author and finisher of it that it may work with great power in all Christian hearts and mightily bow their wills to forgo any of their own desires rather than displease thee and forfeit thy love and favour Let it inable them to overcome the World that they may be no longer slaves to the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life but conquering all these may yield themselves unto God to be the servants of righteousness and obey from the heart that form of doctrine which is delivered unto them And may the powerful working of faith and love and hope make all our duty easie to us that we may ever render thee cheerful as well as constant service May thy testimonies be our daily delight and the rejoycing of our heart May we love them above gold yea above fine gold May they be dearer unto us than thousands of gold and silver May we daily renew our strength and run and not be weary and walk and not faint May the holiness of our lives bear witness to the sincerity of our faith that others may glorifie thee our God for our professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ And we obtaining a good report by faith and carrying this testimony out of the world with us that we have pleased thee thou mayst receive us to thy self to be glorified with thee and to rejoyce in thy love towards us for ever Amen THE END Our Lords Ascension Acts. 1 9. And when he had spoken these things while they be held he was taken up a Cloud receiued him out of their sight to And while they stedfastly looked toward heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparell H. Which also said this same le sus shall so come as you haue seen him go into heaven THE WITNESSES TO CHRISTIANITY OR The Certainty of our FAITH and HOPE In a Discourse upon 1 S. JOHN V. 11. PART II. By SYMON PATRICK D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed by E. Flesher for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXVII TO The most Reverend Father in God GILBERT By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of His Majestie 's most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please Your Grace TO cast your eye upon the Second Part of that Work the First Part of which I took the confidence to address unto your Grace the last year It is concerning that ETERNALL LIFE which was with the Father as St. John speaks and now is manifested to us by his Son Jesus Christ who hath published the most gracious Purposes of God the Father towards us The thoughts of which as they cannot but be at all times exceeding welcome to Devout Christians especially to those who are faithfull Ministers in Christ's Kingdom so never more then when they
see their Departure is at hand In which regards I doubt not this Treatise will be acceptable to your Grace because it contains a Description and full Assurance of that happy Life which you shortly expect For there is nothing so reviving in our declining Age as to think that the passage out of this Life leads us not to Death but to Immortality and that it will not take away our Happiness from us but give us a purer enjoyment of it Pleasure not mixed with a mortall body but sincere and free from Grief and Sorrow For when we shall be set at liberty and delivered from this Prison we shall come thither where there is no Labour no Sighing nor Old age but a Life of perfect ease and tranquillity that breeds no trouble nor any other evill but is serene and clear in an immovable Rest and Peace Where the happy Inhabitants sweetly contemplate the nature of things and philosophize not for Popularity and the Theatre but for the finding out solid and everlasting Truth I have but translated the words of Plato * in Axiocho p. 370. or of some other Philosopher that hath borrowed his name who was much pleased in such thoughts as these though he made but uncertain guesses at that blessed state which our Lord hath so clearly revealed and so strongly demonstrated that we have reason with never-ceasing joy both in life and death to give him thanks for so great a Grace For as there is nothing beyond this that the heart of man can wish so nothing of such importance to our present Happiness in this World For which cause the Jews have thought fit to expunge those from the number of Israelites who do not believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the dead and to resolve that they shall have no part in the World to come though they otherwise live orderly and observe the Precepts of the Law For such men they saw opened a door to all licentiousness and could never doe so much good by any other means as they did hurt by subverting this Belief Which I have endeavoured therefore to establish by such Arguments as they were ignorant of till our Blessed Lord and Saviour appeared who as St. Matthew observes out of the Psalmist uttered things which had been kept secret from the foundation of the World Maimonides himself saith in his last Chapter of his Book concerning Kings that at the coming of Christ things hidden and profound shall be laid open and revealed to all Which is true of nothing more I have shewn then of that which is the greatest desire of all mankind immortall Life Of which though I have not treated according to the dignity of the Subject yet I am confident I have laid a good Foundation to be improved by the labours of those who have more skill and more leisure And it is a very great satisfaction to have done any thing though never so small for the honour of our ever-Blessed Lord and Master whom it is the highest glory in the world to serve in faithfulness and truth For He will not fail to reward such services with an ample recompence being a Prince so great that nothing is beyond his Power and so gracious that his Servants have reason to expect the best effects of his Good will Which may very well content us whatsoever usage we meet withall at present And should mightily excite us as St. Chrysostom often and earnestly exhorts * Homil. 87. in Matth. p. 539. neglecting the suspicions and the reproaches and the praises too of men to study this one thing alone how to be conscious to our selves of no evill which will bring us in the end both here and hereafter the greater glory The God of all Grace bless this Work to the settling and increasing this holy Faith and Resolution in all our hearts whereby we shall also obtain the sweetest foretasts of the Joys of the future State And may your Grace be blest with many of them to support the infirmities of Old age and having finished your days have an easie passage to that better Life and there receive from the Chief Pastour when he shall appear the Crown of glory which fadeth not away Which is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your GRACE's in all dutifull Observance SY PATRICK TO THE READER I Have no other reason to give for adding one more to that heap of Books which men complain is already grown too great but the hope I have of doing some service to our Lord by making a farther search as I promised in the conclusion of the former Part of this Work into the Testimony of these Divine Witnesses concerning ETERNALL LIFE The Hope of which is the most precious Legacy the Son of God hath left us the Hindge upon which all Religion turns without which it would be the greatest Vanity as Lactantius * Lib. vi c. 9. vii 1. often speaks to obey the commands of Vertue for whose sake we must endure not onely many Labours but ofttimes sore Calamities We were born as he discourses elsewhere * Lib. vii 6. to acknowledge God the Maker of us and of the World whom we therefore acknowledge that we may worship him and therefore worship him that we may receive Immortality for a reward of our labours because his service ingages us in the greatest and therefore Immortality is bestowed on us for a recompenc◠that being made like to the Angels we may serve the Father and Lord of all for ever and be the Eternall Kingdom of God This is the Chief of all things this is the Secret of God this is the Mystery of the World to which they are strangers who following their present pleasures have addicted themselves to terrestriall and frail goods and sunk their Souls born to celestiall enjoyments into delights as deadly as they are muddy and dirty And it is the singular Priviledge of Christians as I have demonstrated to be assured of a Good so great by so many most credible Witnesses whose Testimony none can refuse but they that will be so absurd as to believe none at all The Father the Word the Holy Ghost the Water the Bloud and the Spirit declare so unanimously and so plainly that the Lord Jesus will give Eternall Life to his followers that what the Oratours said in flattery to the Athenians in the time of the Chremonidian War may in truth be said to us if we alter but one word that other things indeed are common to us with the rest of the World Athenzus in Deipnosoph L. vi p. 250. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the way that leads men to heaven is known to Christians alone Who have a manifold grace bestowed on them enjoying not onely a Promise of Eternall Life which the World never had before but that Promise attested by so many Witnesses who tell us also it is in the power of him that died for us to conferr it on us as well
Our Passions are not mastered Forgetting our heavenly Originall we let anger swell and rage and take no care to suppress that pride and haughtiness which will at last lay us low We do not chastise irrational sadness nor foolish pleasure nor unchaste laughter nor disorderly aspects nor unsatiable hearing nor immoderate talking nor absurd thoughts nor any of those things by which the Evill one takes advantage against us to our ruine There is nothing like to this but quite contrary we give liberty to other mens evill affections and like Princes when they have got the Victory require nothing of them but onely that they be on our side and take our part though they oppose God the more impiously and audaciously These things it seems were then too manifest to be denied and notwithstanding these reproaches of holy men the humour propagated it self to after-times For the cure or prevention of which nothing is so necessary to be believed and preserved perpetually in mind as that Counsel which the same great Doctour gives in another place * Orat. xxix p. 493. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wouldst thou be a Divine and worthy of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keep the Commandments Go in the way of God's precepts Practice is the best step thou canst take to contemplation Which is the surest advice for all Christians to follow who must not think by any other means to arrive at that blissfull sight of God in which our knowledge of him will be perfected in the other World Of which Beatificall Vision I have not adventured to say much in the ensuing Treatise because our manner of living as Saint Augustine * Epist cxii ad Paulinam speaks in an Epistle of his upon this very subject is of more consideration in this inquiry then our manner of speaking Nam qui didicerunt à Domino Jesu mites esse humiles corde plùs cogitando orando proficiunt quà m legendo audiendo For they that have learned of the Lord Jesus to be lowly and humble in heart profit more by meditation and prayer then they can by reading and hearing But something I have said as far as I could find any directions in the Holy Scriptures which warrant us to conclude that the participation we have of God now shall be so improved in the other World that whatsoever we enjoy of him here we shall in a higher and after a more perfect manner with the addition of immortality enjoy when we rise from the dead We are now the Sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus who bids us be confident of it and rejoyce in it And yet he mentions this as a speciall priviledge belonging to us after the resurrection when we shall not marry nor die any more but be equall to the Angels and be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sons of God being the children of the Resurrection xx Luk. 35 36. Just as it was with our Lord Christ himself who was in a more speciall and excellent manner called the Son of God after his rising from the dead when God said to him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee advanced him that is to a more excellent degree of likeness to him in power and dominion putting all things under his feet So it shall be with all those Sons whom he brings unto glory They shall be more nearly related to God at the Resurrection and resemble him more exactly whose Image they now bear in Wisedom and Goodness But how much he will then impart of himself to us the Apostles themselves were not able to inform us We are now the Sons of God faith Saint John 1 Ep. iii. 2. but it doth not yet appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how we shall be the Sons of God in the other world We now find I may adde by a parity of reason a great pleasure in holy thoughts we feel the joys of ardent love are ravisht with the melody of Songs of praise and with the sweet violence of a glance of light from heaven upon us and we are fure we shall be so happy as to have a great increase of this pleasure when we remove from hence But it doth not appear how we shall think nor what will be the satisfaction of heavenly Love nor what new Songs shall be put into our mouths nor how God will look in upon us when we shall see him as he is We must be content to know that all these will bear a proportion to the infinite Goodness of Him who is Omnipotent and hath loved us so much as to purchase us with a great price and to give his Holy Spirit to us and according to the Love of him that died for us and is gone to prepare a place for us that where he is there we may be also In this hope we may now rejoyce though we do not at present see our Lord with joy unspeakable and full of glory For I have proved by undeniable arguments that God the Father hath given power to his Son Jesus to make us more happy then we can now conceive and that He will undoubtedly bring us to live with himself What greater Good can we desire then this Or what greater Motive can be thought of to perswade us sincerely to embrace the Christian Religion whose business it is as Lactantius concludes his Book of a Blessed Life to direct us to the Eternall Rewards of the heavenly Treasure Of which that we may be capable we must presently disingage our selves from the insnaring pleasures of this Life which deceive mens Souls by their pernicious sweetness And how great a felicity ought we to esteem it to go being delivered from the impurities of this Earth to that most equall Judge and most indulgent Father who for our labours will give us rest for death life for darkness light for earthly short goods those that are celestiall and eternall None of the sharpnesses and miseries which we endure here while we are employed in the works of righteousness are in any manner to be compared with that reward Therefore if we will be wise if we will be happy let us propose the worst things that can be to our selves and resolve to suffer them since it is manifest that this frail Pleasure we have here shall not be without punishment nor Vertue without a divine reward All mankind ought to endeavour with all speed to direct themselves into the right way that having undertaken and performed the duties of a vertuous life and patiently endured its labours they may be worthy to have God for their Comforter For our Father and Lord who made and settled the Heaven who brought the Sun and the rest of the Stars into it and out of Nothing raised the rest of the World to this perfection wherein we see it beholding the Errours of mankind sent a Leader who should lay before us the way of righteousness Him let us all follow Him let us hear Him let us most
devoutly obey For He alone hath purged mens hearts by his truth and set due bounds to their desires and fears shewing them the chiefest Good to which they should tend and the way whereby it may be attained Nor hath He onely shewn it but he hath gone before us in it lest any should shun the course of Vertue because of the difficulty that attends it Let the way of perdition and deceit therefore be forsaken in which death lies concealed under the inticements of pleasure And the nearer any man by reason of his years sees that day approaching in which he must depart this life let him cast in his mind the more seriously how he may go away as pure as may be how he may come innocent to his Judge and not as those whose minds are blinded how he may satisfie his lusts more greedily before he go Let every man deliver himself out of that gulph while he may while he hath some power and convert to God with his whole Soul that he may securely expect that day in which God the Lord and Governour of the World will judge every man's works and thoughts Let him not onely neglect but fly from those things of which men are now so greedy Let him look upon his Soul as better then these fallacious goods whose possession is uncertain and fading For they go away continually more swiftly then they come and if we could enjoy them to the last they must be left to others We can carry nothing away but a life piously and innocently led He shall come rich and wealthy to God whom Continence Mercy Patience Charity and Faith shall wait upon This is our Inheritance which can neither be taken from any man nor transferred to another And whosoever is desirous of it may have it if he please But let no man trust in Riches nor in Dignity nor in Kingly Power these do not make us immortall Let us give our mind to Righteousness which alone will be our inseparable Companion till it bring us to God As long as we live let us continue our warfare unweariedly let us keep our watch let us valiantly encounter with the enemy that being conquerours and triumphing over the vanquisht adversary we may receive from our Lord the reward of Vertue which he hath promised There is the greatest reason I have demonstrated to expect it with such a lively Faith as was in the first Christians in whose words I have chosen to deliver these things rather then mine own who confidently looked Death in the face in whatsoever shape it appeared and were not in the least daunted at the sight of it There were innumerable experiments made of it not onely in Men but in Women and Children as the great Athanasius * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 80 c. justly glories Who takes this to be no small token of the abolishing death so that it had no power but was indeed dead it self that it was contemned by all the Disciples of Christ Before whose Divine appearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was dreadfull to the Saints themselves who bewailed and lamented those that died as if they were lost But since our Saviour rose from the dead it is no longer terrible but all that believe on him tread it under foot as if it were nothing and chuse rather to die then deny the Faith of Christ For they know certainly that the dead do not perish but that they both live and shall also be made incorruptible by the Resurrection That Evill one the Devill who heretofore by death insulted over us is himself alone now left truly dead Of which this is a sign that whereas before men believed on Christ they lookt on Death as very formidable since they embraced his Faith and Doctrine they do so much slight it that they run chearfully to it and become Witnesses against him of our Saviour's Resurrection Mere Children make nothing of it The weaker Sex so weak is he that had the power of Death now grown who were formerly deceived by him laugh him to scorn as one that is dead and hath lost his power Just as a Tyrant when a lawfull Prince hath vanquisht him and bound him hand and foot is despised and made a mocking-stock by all that pass by him who no longer fear his rage and cruelty even so is Death being overcome by our Saviour trampled upon by all his Disciples who bearing witness to their Master deride it in those words of the Apostle O Death where is thy Victory O grave where is thy sting What conquests hast thou to brag of now Behold we are all made alive through Jesus Christ our Lord. Mankind it is certain naturally abhors Death and the dissolution of their Body and therefore it is no small demonstration of our Saviour's victory over it that he hath so changed the nature of man as to perswade even children in Christ and tender girls to make no account of this Life and with joy to think of Death It may seem to some an incredible thing that Death should thus have lost its power but so it doth that there should be a cloath made of an Indian stone which fire cannot burn or that a mighty Tyrant notwithstanding all his forces should on a sudden be subdued and held in chains by no visible power Let him that doubts of either of these put on that cloath or go into the Dominions of the Conquerour and he shall be satisfied of the weakness of the fire and of the Tyrant In like manner if we meet with an Unbeliever who after so many Wonders and so many Martyrs of Jesus Christ makes a doubt whether Death be destroyed and a period put to his Kingdome we cannot blame his admiration at so great a thing provided he do not harden himself in infidelity nor impudently oppose those things which are most evident Let him for his satisfaction doe as he that would know whether such a Tyrant as I now spoke of be vanquished go into the Conquerour's Country submit himself I mean to Christian instruction and receive the Faith of Christ and then he shall soon see the weakness of Death and the victory that is got over it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For many who were once not onely Vnbelievers but Mockers have afterwards believed and so contemned Death that they have become Martyrs for Christ 's sake I pray God these Treatises may have the like happy effect upon some doubting or unbelieving Soul who shall vouchsafe to examine the Evidence I have produced for the Christian Faith Against which I beseech such persons not to shut their eyes nor harden their hearts in infidelity If they will condescend so far as to consider what we say they may of Scoffers become such zealous Assertours of the power and glory of the Lord Jesus as to be willing and ready though there will be no occasion I hope to try their resolution to testify their love to him and
of all the types and shadows wherein these heavenly things were wrapt up and hidden better then they could do themselves For our Lord is risen from the dead and hath opened the Kingdom of heaven and tearing the veil in pieces hath set before our eyes the holy place not made with hands eternall in the heavens Into which he is entred as our Fore-runner to prepare a place for us and from thence hath sent a more abundant measure of the Holy Ghost to enlighten the eyes of our understanding that we may know what the hope of Christianity is and how exceeding glorious that celestiall inheritance which he intends to divide among us i. Eph. 17 18. But it is not sufficient to admire this grace I have demonstrated we must carefully improve it or else it will be worse with us then if we had never known it For if the Word spoken by Angels was so punctually verified that every breach of it was duly punished as it is ii Hebr. 2 3 4. there is no hope that we should escape the severest effects of God's displeasure if we neglect so great Salvation as this which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being first published to the world by our Lord Jesus was farther confirmed by the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles We are the disciples of Him who spake as never man spake Whose word of Salvation as his Gospell is called we then neglect when we mind not what he saith or do not often think of it or having thought of it prefer every trifle before it and will not be moved by such a wonderfull grace to obey his precepts For by the opposition wherein this stands to the transgression and disobedience mentioned before against Moses his Law we are sufficiently informed wherein this neglect principally consists viz. in the transgressing those bounds our Lord hath set us and disobeying those commands to the observance of which he incites us by the promise of immortall Life It is a fearfull thing to think how miserable they will be who prove thus inconsiderate and in how great danger Christians are to be so by the means of that very deceit which plunged the Jews into so many calamities Because God had manifested more of his love to them then to other Nations had given them an excellent Law spoken to them by his Prophets instructed them how to offer Sacrifice and appointed a place where he would dwell among them they blessed themselves in the outward enjoyment of these singular priviledges they bragged that they were the seed of Abraham and that they had the Oracles of God and were a people separated to him from the rest of the world by many holy rites but they took no care to be obedient to his Laws and less regarded to be indued with the spirit of faithfull Abraham who left all those earthly goods in which they placed their chief treasure for God's sake Just thus men suffer themselves to be deluded at this day Because God hath granted us the preeminence even above the Jews themselves hath brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son made us the Children of Light and let us see such things as many Kings and Prophets desired to see but did not see them they content themselves with the bare profession of this Religion and think it enough to be called by such an honourable Name as that of Christ on whom they rest and rely as the Jews did on their Sacrifices never thinking of being indued with his blessed Nature and Spirit and offering their Wills intirely to God as he did Thus men perish even in the midst of so great light and means of being saved And there is no help for them unless they will grow serious and consider the design of the Christian Faith Which will teach them after a very few thoughts about it that our Lord Jesus is the authour of eternall Salvation to those onely that obey him v. Heb. 9. and will be so far from protecting others from destruction that he himself will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess i. 7 8. I end this Preface as St. Augustine begins his third Chapter of his first Book of the Trinity with the alteration of one word onely in the conclusion Whosoever reads this Book where he is convinced let him go along with me where he sticks let him enquire with me where he sees his own errour let him return to me where mine let him call me back to him Thus we shall all walk together in the way of charity tending to him of whom it is said Seek ye his face alway Whosoever therefore when he reads saith This is not well said for I do not understand it let him reprehend my speech but not my faith It might it is likely have been spoken more plainly but there is no man ever spoke so as in all things to please all The generall CONTENTS AN Introduction CHAP. I. Of Eternall Life in generall page 1. to 13. which our Saviour calls SEEING GOD explained in seven particulars p. 14. to 40. A Meditation p. 41. CHAP. II. A more particular discourse of this Life p. 43. wherein the happiness of the Soul is described in regard of its increase in the knowledge of God p. 46. to 62. and in its love to God to p. 72. and joy in God to p. 84. A Meditation out of St. Augustine p. 85. CHAP. III. A farther explication of the Happiness of this Life p. 87. in perpetuall Praises of God to p. 97. and in free uniform Obedience to him to p. 101. There the happiness of the body also is briefly touched to p. 108. A Meditation out of Macarius and others Ibid. CHAP. IV. Of the Eternity of this Life p. 111. being without intermixture of Misery p. 112. and without intermission p. 115 and without end p. 121. represented by the Sabbath p. 124. Particular expressions chosen to signifie that it never dies p. 127. A Meditation p. 133. CHAP. V. Of the Certainty of this Eternall Life p. 137. whose excellence is farther represented from xxi Rev. 7. in 5 particulars from p. 138. to 149. Two Observations about his RECORD p. 151. to 158. A Meditation p. 161. CHAP. VI. The Testimony of the FATHER concerning this Eternall Life p. 165. The first testimony illustrated to p. 172. The second testimony at large considered from thence to p. 195. The third testimony Ib. to p. 204. A Meditation p. 205. CHAP. VII The Testimony of the WORD to it p. 209. The first testimony p. 211. The second p. 220. The third p. 230. A Meditation out of St. Gregory Nazianzen p. 245. CHAP. VIII The Testimony of the HOLY GHOST p. 249. The first testimony Ib. to p. 258. The second Ib. to p. 270. The third testimony Ib. to p. 279. The sense of the Church about the Holy Trinity
we may be in danger of for Piety's sake Now looking a little farther into this Holy Writer who hath preserved the unquestionable Records concerning these matters I find there is as great a certainty of this Eternal Life by Jesus Christ as there is of his being the Son of God and that the very same Witnesses who so fully declare the one give no less strong Evidence for the proof of the other For THIS says He 1 John v. 11. IS THE RECORD or WITNESSE THAT GOD HATH GIVEN TO VS ETERNAL LIFE AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON Which words being a continuation of the foregoing Discourse carry this sense in them There is great reason you should receive the Witness of God viz. of the Father Word and Holy Ghost and of the Water Bloud and Spirit not onely because it is greater then the Witness of men which you cannot justly reject v. 9. and because if you do reject it you make God a Liar which who can have the heart to do v. 10. but also because the thing which is testified to us by these Witnesses when they say that Jesus is the Son of God is of all other the most desirable viz. that God designs for us no less blessing then Eternal Life which the Lord Jesus hath in his hands to keep for us and to bestow upon us The ensuing Discourse then will necessarily fall into these two Parts First to shew what this Eternal Life is and secondly to prove the Certainty of it from the mouth of all those Witnesses Of the first of which I must treat with the greater brevity because it is not the Design of the Apostle in this place to give us an account what the Eternal Life is which God hath promised but to shew that he hath given us an undoubted right to it and that it is in the power of that Great Lord whose Servants we are by Faith in him to dispose of it THE WITNESSES TO Christianity PART II. CHAP. I. Of ETERNAL LIFE in generall AND now I launch out when I go about to speak of Eternal Life into a wide Sea of which it is but little that our eye can descry or our thoughts fathom and less that I must confine my self unto in this present Discourse There is more contained in these two words ETERNALL LIFE then all the world can discover though we have so good a Compass as the Book of God whereby to steer our course and to guide and assist us in our Inquiry We may venture as far as ever our thoughts will carry us into this depth but we shall still see something beyond all that we can conceive and be enabled by our search to discern more fully that it hath no bottom no bounds nor limits as will appear if you do but attend to this general Description of it out of the Holy Writings In whose style it is most certain it signifieth a full and constant enjoyment of all the happiness that our Being is capable to receive I say Happiness because as DEATH in the Sacred language denotes all manner of Misery affliction and trouble so by LIFE it expresses all kind of Felicity pleasure and contentment And I say full and constant happiness because the word ETERNALL must needs adde something to the other and that is compleatness firmness and solidity As Death if it be not eternall leaves some room for thoughts of happiness so Life if it want that addition doth not exclude all vexation and sadness But then on the contrary both the one and the other if this be annexed are made perfect without any hope of happiness in that Death or any fear of misery in this Life To clear our passage I judge it necessary to spend a few words in making good this Notion of Life and Death by producing some places of Holy Writ where they are so used And first for DEATH the very first time we meet with it in God's Book it is used to express all the Misery that man drew upon himself by his Sin ii Gen. 17. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die i. e. fall into a most calamitous estate as it is explained iii. Gen. 16 17 18 19. till worn out with labour sorrow and pain he returned to the dust out of which he was taken Thus when the Locusts came upon the land of Egypt and destroyed every green thing Pharaoh intreats Moses x. Exod. 17. to pray to the Lord that he would take away this Death onely Which shews that all the plagues and disasters which fell upon that land went under this general name of DEATH though now it be restrained to the last and greatest of all punishments The like you reade in the second Book of the Kings iv 40. where the sons of the Prophets as they were eating of their pottage cry out Oman of God there is DEATH in the pot something that is very distastfull to the palate and perhaps hurtfull and poisonous to the body which made them they could not eat it In the New Testament also penned by men of the same country we find the very same language St. Paul saying that he was in Deaths often 2 Cor. xi 23. and that he died daily 1 Cor. xv 31. and wishing to be delivered from the body of this Death vii Rom. 24. i. e. of such misery that it made him sigh and groan sorely under the burthen of it And to name no more the Shadow of Death in these Books signifies nothing else but an horrible dangerous place or a dismall forlorn condition into which any miserable person is faln This being the notion then of the word DEATH in the speech of the Hebrews such must be the signification of the word LIFE which is opposite to it whereby they express all Felicity and comfortable enjoyments Thus when David says his enemies were lively or living as it is in the Hebrew text xxxviii Psal 19. he means they were in a flourishing prosperous condition abounding with all worldly goods while he was abandoned to contempt poverty and continual danger And when he says their heart shall live that seek God lxix Psal 32. his meaning is they shall enjoy true peace and contentment So when the people say 2 King xi 12. Let the King live which we render God save the King they wish him a prosperous and happy reign And when David acknowledges God to be the fountain of life xxxvi Psal 9. it is as much as to say an ever-running spring of all felicity from whom flows as the foregoing words are a river of pleasures Hence they are bid to keep to God's Commandments as their life xxxii Deut. 47. And this is said to be the excellency of knowledge that wisedom giveth LIFE to them that have it vii Eccles. 12. because by observing those wise precepts they were put into a most happy condition which could not be had by any other means but would certainly be lost by turning from those holy paths This is a
God v. 1. and xviii 5. from this glorious presence here which appeared afterward also to give the Law from the same place After which you find that he and Aaron with his sons and the seventy Elders of Israel being invited by God to approach towards the foot of that Mount where he spake with Moses it is said that they saw the God of Israel xxiv Exod. 10. In both which places though Maimonides would willingly understand a spirituall sight of God with the mind being afraid lest any man should imagine God to be corporeall More Nevoc part 1. cap. 5. yet he acknowledges it is safe enough to interpret it as the Chaldee doth of a sight of that Glory which I treated of in my former Book Chap. IV. or of an Angel which in a luminous Body appeared to them But this last is rejected by a Rule in the Talmud * Tit. Kid. â—u hinc 11. where this very place last named is explained It is this He that interprets a verse of Holy Scripture always according to the literall sound is a Liar and he that addeth to it is a Blasphemer As for example when it is said they SAW THE GOD of Israel if any body interpret it literally he is a Liar for the God of Israel cannot be seen And if any one adde that they saw the Angel of God he blasphemously gives the honour of God to Angels The Chaldee onely is in the right who says They saw the GLORY of the God of Israel And so S. Cyrill of Alexandria understood it in the like case L. 3. Glaphy in Exod. when he observes the people were brought to Mount Sinai that they might be both Auditours and Spectatours of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of his Divine and secret Glory Which having never been seen out of the Secret place made now a most illustrious appearance and at the bottom of it called his feet there was a pavement on which the Glory stood very bright and becoming the Majesty that was upon it For the Text says it was like a Sapphire-stone and as clear as the purest and serenest sky A token I suppose of the Divine favour towards them which the clearness of the Heavens very well represented as clouds and darkness were signs of God's displeasure And accordingly it follows v. 11. that he did not lay his hand upon the nobles of Israel i. e. did not hurt them though the common opinion was that if men saw such a sight they should die presently No so far were they from receiving any harm by it that they did not merely see God but also eat and drink of the reliques of the Sacrifices that had been v. 5 newly offered to him He entertain'd them with provision taken from his own Table and they feasted with his Majesty to their great joy and satisfaction Such a Glory I told you S. Stephen saw when his persecutours were going to stone him And it is reasonable to suppose that in some part of the Heavens God now manifests himself in a most glorious visible Majesty to the exceeding ineffable joy not terrour and affrightment of those who shall be admitted to approach to that Light which is now inaccessible So that this will be a part of our eternall happiness to live in those pure clear Regions where unknown Glories and most splendid magnificent sights will present themselves to us where we our selves shall be cloathed with a brightness like that wherein our Lord appeared to S. Stephen and S. Paul and behold him in a greater Majesty and brightness then that was because our capacities will be inlarged to make room for more illustrious manifestations of God to us We shall live in that place as was said before where he dwells in light unapproachable by mortall men in the company of the holy Angels who as so many Stars of glory will add if it be possible to the splendour of that place and with our Blessed Saviour God-Man whose glorified Body we shall behold And so behold it that we shall bear the image of the heavenly as we have born the image of the earthy We shall be made immortall that is we shall be ever with the Lord in such glorious Bodies as his is so that in our selves we may see the Glory of God For it must be noted here that though our Happiness will begin when our Spirits depart this life yet it will not be perfected till the Son of God shall come the second time to raise our bodies out of the dust that they may have a part with our Souls in a never-dying Life Till then the Happiness I speak of it must be confessed will not have its Crown or utmost Consummation But yet the Soul in the mean time I shall prove in its proper place doth not lie asleep nor hath all its Powers bound up in a cold and lethargick dulness though it have not attain'd the utmost enjoyment of that Good for which it hopes Our Saviour seems to make these two distinct things the putting us in possession of everlasting life and the raising us up at the last day vi Joh. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may HAVE EVER LASTING LIFE and I will RAISE HIM VP at the last day which he repeats again v. 54. The former of which expressions may well denote the comfortable Hope we have of Happiness when Soul and Body shall be united and the other the perfection of this Happiness when they shall be again united We shall enter into a great part of Felicity when we quit these Earthly Tabernacles our Souls shall then feel themselves alive and alive in the midst of those delights that will still increase and never have any end and they shall joyfully expect the Resurrection of the dead and the Glory wherein our Saviour shall then appear and all his Saints together with him who having received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by Jesus Christ Thus I have said a little concerning this great promise of SEEING GOD and it is so little that I feel my self unsatisfied and would fain penetrate farther or at least speak more distinctly of this ETERNALL LIFE But this small glance we have had of it may well awaken our Souls and excite them in the worst condition here to burst out into those words which the Authour of the Commentaries upon Job under the name of Origen puts into that Holy man's mouth Lib. I. p. 448 449. Thither will I go where the Tabernacles of the Righteous are where are the Glories of the Saints where is the Rest of the Faithful where is the Consolation of the Godly where is the Inheritance of the Mercifull where is the Blessedness of the Vndefiled Thither will I goe where Light and Life dwells where Glory and Mirth where Gladness and Exultation inhabit from whence Grief Sadness and Sighing fly
away where the former Tribulations which afflict the Body upon this Earth are no more remembred Thither will I goe where we shall lay down our Troubles where we shall have a reward of our Labours where is the Bosome of Abraham where the Propriety of Isaac where the Familiarity of Israel where are the Souls of the Saints where the Quires of Angels where the Voices of Archangels where is the Illumination of the Holy Ghost where the Kingdome of Christ where the never-ending Glory and the blessed Sight of the Eternall God the Father Thither will I go there I hope to arrive not complaining not finding fault much less cursing and blaspheming but blessing and praising and with giving of thanks saying The Lord gave the Lord hath taken away as it pleased the Lord so it is come to pass Whatsoever pleases God is good whatsoever pleases him is just It pleased him to give his pleasure was good it pleased him to take away his pleasure was just All that the Lord wills is Life is Light is Rest and Peace is eternall Blessedness Whatsoever pleases the Lord therefore whether to inrich or to impoverish all is incorruptible and endless Bliss Blessed is the man O Lord whom thou chastenest As pleases the Lord so it is Let the Name of the Lord be blessed world without End Amen CHAP. II. A more particular Discourse of this LIFE THERE is the greatest Reason that all Christians as the same Authour goes on should say and doe and think thus in all circumstances and in all things that occurre and say so with the devoutest the most humble and chearfull Submission to him since it is the will and pleasure you heard just now of this Great Lord that his Son Jesus should give us after our short labours or sufferings here Everlasting Life The very name of which sounds so delightfully that we cannot well presently cease to speak of it nor chuse but desire to be better acquainted if it be possible with so transcendent a Bliss It concerns us more then any thing else to understand it and to be sure of it For the Hope of it is our Refuge the Anchour the Stay yea the Joy and comfort of our hearts And therefore for the sake of those who desire to be led into a more particular knowledge of this Happiness I shall venture something farther in the description of it and know not how to conduct them better in this enquiry then by explaining as clearly as I can these two words LIFE and the ETERNALL duration of it And if the nature of the First be examined you will find that LIFE is nothing else but the exercise of all those faculties and powers which are proper and peculiar to us upon their true and naturall objects Whence it is that wicked men are said in the Sacred style to bedead because nothing that is reasonable nothing that constitutes the form of a man acts in them and on the other side they that are converted from Vice to Vertue are said to be made alive because such persons onely imploy and make use of all those powers which belong to reasonable creatures and have devoted themselves to the best improvement of them There is in a man as Philo excellently expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain notion and sense that loves God and is a friend to Vertue which when it is extinguished in his Soul the man is dead and when it is revived he is then again made alive Since therefore St. John is speaking of the highest Life that man is capable of we are directed by this notion to look upon it as consisting in the most intended operation of all our Powers and that in their highest improvement upon the greatest and noblest Good which we saw before is God himself Let us then consider that man consists of Soul and Body as his essential parts and that the Soul as the better part must be most considered in this state of Bliss for from it Bliss will be derived to the Body and therefore consider again what the several Faculties and Operations of our own Souls are and farther how much they shall be inlarged and their force increased by the mighty change which shall be made in us at death and at the resurrection and lastly how that all these Faculties thus improved and made bigger then they themselves can now comprehend shall be filled to the brim with that fullest Good and we shall be able to frame in our mind some distinct apprehension of this blessed Life Now we all know there are two Faculties of our Soul the Vnderstanding and the Will upon which all Operations depend and it is as certain that the satisfaction and felicity of the Understanding can consist in nothing but in Knowledge and contemplation of the Truth and that the happiness of the Will consists in the Love of that which is Good And by necessary consequence the utmost satisfaction of both these is in the clearest Contemplation of the highest Truth and in the most ardent Love o◠the highest Good And therefore every one sees where we must begin to speak of this most Blessed LIFE I. Which consists in the greatest Treasures of Divine Knowledge by the contemplation of the fairest Object which is the exercise of the prime Faculty in man and the good of his Soul as it is rationall For the better understanding of which let us consider 1. that the Soul in it self is apt to receive the notice of all manner of things as we may easily discern if we do observe how things most cortrary in themselves can agree to lodge together in our Mind and we behold them one after another or both together without any disturbance yea with abundance of pleasure But 2. whatsoever our capacity now is we find it is very little that we actually know by reason of many impediments that we are clogg'd withall And yet that little when we are masters of any notion communicates so much pleasure to us that we are hugely desirous of having our minds enlarged to know more and think it necessary to our happiness that we should be put into a condition of more free and undisturbed converse with Truth When therefore 3. we shall be rid of this clog being either alone without this body or having it made so spiritual that it will be under absolute command and when we shall be in a still and quiet place and enjoy perfect settlement of mind and peace of conscience the want of which is the onely thing conceivable to disturb an uncloathed Soul in its contemplations we may reasonably hope to be put into that most desirable condition But we finding 4. even in this narrow condition wherein our Souls are pent up such an infinite thirst after Knowledge that the Mind of man is never satisfied we may guess by that how vehement this desire will grow when our Souls shall be no longer imprison'd and their
imagine that the prolonged harmony of one day should it bless the Soul would make it account all the pleasures in this world harsh and troublesome and cause it to cry out as the man St. Hierom speaks of who after he had dreamt he was in Paradise called still to those who were about him Set me again in those flowry fields restore me to those pleasant walks O let me enjoy that melody once more let me hear those sweet songs trouble me no more with any of these worldly noises but bless me again with those heavenly touches Lift up your minds then by such thoughts as these to conceive what not one day or year or age but an eternity of such rare ravishing delight would be and that is a part of that blessed LIFE which I am treating of Which by your own confession must needs be more desirable then all that can be expressed by Musick and sweet Airs and melodious Strains and Songs or any such like words which must be acknowledged to be weak and imperfect able to express onely the outward images and shadows of those Divine enjoyments And the more perfectly you digest and frequently excite such thoughts as these the more you will apprehend of this bliss and the more impossible it will be that any thing should hinder you from beginning to be so happy by devoting your selves to a Christian life One part of which is to praise and bless the Lord at all times to bear in your gratefull minds a faithfull remembrance of his benefits and to express it as oft as you can in the most thankfull acknowlegments In which exercise whilst you seriously employ your selves you will be able thereby to know in part what the blessing of Eternall Life is wherewith our Lord hath promised to reward our hearty obedience V. And here it will be seasonable to adde that such will be our Knowledge and Love of God and our true Delight in him that they will produce a most sweet harmony between our Wills and his and move us to yield a free and constant Obedience to him with all our powers The Vnderstanding which now is subject to many mistakes and errours will then shine upon the Will with the rays of the purest Light And the Will which now is oft too refractory will not then in the least rebell against the Understanding but be obsequious to its illuminations And the Affections will be as ready to obey the Will and follow its motions which will all agree with the Mind of God and perfectly correspond to his desires His Will shall be always done and ours shall be but a sweet compliance with his For our knowing him making us like him will take away all liberty from us of doing any thing but what he would have us And the whole appetite being so intirely filled and satisfied as hath been said with this great Good there can be no room left for any inordinate desires but we must eternally cleave to God and cannot be turn'd aside from him any more And it will not prove any trouble to us neither to be thus fast bound to his will and observe all his motions but we shall fly as swiftly about in that free light as the winged Angels now do who never fetch so much as one sigh when they receive his commands but chearfully in every thing obey his pleasure Nay it would be the greatest trouble to us if we should doe otherways We should create a disturbance in the midst of that heavenly Rest should we not thus readily obey him One groan would spoil all the sweet accents of the joyfull Praises which are there continually offered Much more would one act of disobedience be so jarring with that harmony as to make us lose the pleasure of it But there will be no danger of this we shall all be changed as the Apostle speaks not onely in our Body but also in our Spirit and in this as well as all other things that our liberty of indifferency the freedom we now have to chuse good or let it alone yea to chuse evill as well as good shall be turned into a chearfull spontaneous motion towards that which is Good alone The will as some have expressed it shall remain but not the choice we shall willingly serve God but not chuse whether we will serve him or no. For that Sight which we shall have of his Beauty will not let us take our eyes off from him and that Love which flows from thence cannot but be exercised by those who have that blessed Sight and they that cannot but see and love so great a Good will not be able to turn their minds and hearts inordinately to any thing else They therefore who shall be accounted worthy of that World to come will be free from Sin and from the fear of sinning whereby they will be secure of perpetuall Blessedness which is necessary to make us perfectly happy For they are very short of it who are in danger or in fear of losing the felicity they enjoy Both these will be far remote from that happy World where they will be fixt in their Happiness because they will be fixt in their Obedience Which as it may grow it is possible still more and more chearfull so it will infuse a greater sense of the Divine Love into their hearts and every act wherein they doe the will of God may be rewarded perhaps with a greater increase of happiness Who would not chuse then to obey God now that hereafter he may not be able to doe otherwise Who would not strive to bring his will in subjection to Christ that he may at last exchange his own will wholly for his the liberty that is of a man for the liberty of the Divine Nature which is always determined by an happy necessity to that which is Good Yea who would not chuse such an happiness as is always it is probable growing more perfect the excellency of which we can never comprehend because it will be growing more excellent A Life so noble that every operation of it makes it more divine It is no disparagement to its worth to say that we cannot at first know all that we shall know nor love so much as we shall be able to love nor possess all the joy of our Lord but it is rather a commendation of it that after such an height of knowledge love and joy as we shall arrive unto at first we shall be advancing to a greater nearness and familiarity with God IV. But it is time to bring this Discourse to a conclusion when I have told you that it is not the Soul onely which will be happy in this Eternall LIFE That word I said at the first imports the supreme felicity of the whole Man and therefore Man consisting of a Body as well as a Soul that must come in for a share in this Bliss and at last be made partaker of it Yet I shall not stay to tell you
particularly what the LIFE of the Body shall be after the Resurrection because I have been longer then I intended in describing the operations of our nobler part about its highest Good It shall be sufficient to give you but these two marks whereby to know the exceeding happy condition to which it will be promoted First it must needs be transformed into a very noble Being which is to be the companion of such an exalted Soul and be capable to comply with it in these sublime operations We reade much of its brightness and glory which the Scripture seems to say shall be so great that it will contend with the splendour of the Sun it self And we may very well believe it seeing it is to be the Vesture of a Spirit so illuminated by the Vision of God For which reason among others it may be that the Apostle calls it a Spirituall Body Which as it needs no supports of meat and drink and is made immortall and no longer liable to any disease so is it of a purer sense and a quicker power then this present flesh moving with so much agility and ease that we shall feel it is no burthen to us And the Apostle indeed tells us which is the Second thing that Christ by his power which is able to subdue all things to himself will fashion it like to his own glorious body iii. Phil. 21. Now what the brightness of that is you may guess by the Visions of the two great Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul The first of which when he saw our Saviour transfigured in the holy Mount Matth. xvii was so overcharged with joy that the sight put him in a manner beside himself For he knew not saith the text what he said when he uttered those words Let us make here three tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias He knew indeed that it was good being there ix Luk. 33. though he scarce knew where he was This was the onely thing in his thoughts that they should be most happy men might they never stir from that glorious place but always remain thus transported as at present he was Let us be fixed here was his wish let us always live in such pure light and enjoy such beautifull sights from whence he was loth to take his eyes or to leave such good company as now appeared in glory v. 31. And yet this you must remember was no more then a glimpse of that Glory which our Saviour was to have after his Resurrection and which he now shines in and shall one day be revealed Judge then by this what happy creatures they will be whose bodies shall be made like that glorious body which when it was but a while transformed in this world made the place seem no less then a Paradise How illustrious will the condition of true Christians be when they shall not merely dwell in such Tabernacles as St. Peter wisht but in bodies resembling that which was so transfigured or rather of a far greater splendour there appearing then as I said but a twinkling of that Glory of our Saviour to whom we shall be conformed For if you observe it afterward when the Heavenly light of our Saviour's glorified Body incompassed the other Apostle St. Paul to whom he appeared in his way to Damascus he could not look upon it as St. Peter had done upon the other but it was so shining that it put out his eyes he continuing three days without sight ix Act. 9. And for any thing we know he had never recovered the use of them more had not the same Jesus restored his sight to him by a Miracle These senses of flesh were not able to bear a Light so effulgent It was to deprive them of all their operations to approach near to such a brightness And yet such glorious creatures will our Lord make his faithful Servants So astonishing is his love that he will never cease his kindness to them till they be numbred among his Saints in glory everlasting that is till he impart his own most excellent glory to them Which signifies that they must be wonderfully changed from what our bodies are now in this vile state wherein they are not capable to behold such a glory as shall then be revealed But the serious belief and hope of it founded upon the word of our Saviour and of those who were eye-witnesses of his Majesty is a marvellous comfort to us and should make us study to purify our selves more and more and to perfect holiness in the fear of God We should cleanse and refine our affections and render them still more spirituall and heavenly that being less moved with the things of this world and finding our inclinations weaker towards them we may more readily and chearfully comply with the will of God and prevent as much as we can the resurrection of the dead when we shall have no lust to doe otherwise then as God would have us but shall intirely please our selves in accomplishing his good will and pleasure For the more faithfully and eminently any persons serve the Lord Christ out of pure love to him and to his Christian Brethren the greater marks of his favour will he set upon them Their very Bodies it is probable will shine in a greater glory and be made so much the more illustrious according as their light here shone brighter before men and moved them to glorify their heavenly Father For St. Paul seems to teach not onely that the bodies we shall have after the Resurrection will differ as vastly from those we have now as Earth does from Heaven but that those heavenly bodies which we shall put on will differ very much among themselves in brightness and glory As the glory of the celestiall bodies is one and the glory of the terrestriall another so he tells us among the celestiall there is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one star differeth from another star in glory So also is the resurrection of the dead 1 Cor. xv 40 41 42. That is some will have bodies more bright then others and shine as Stars of a greater magnitude to note them to be persons of eminent rank who have done very glorious service to their Lord. The Martyrs for instance whose bodies were slain or burnt to ashes for Christ's sake we may well suppose will be more splendid then those who were laid in their graves in peace Nay the Church in St. Austin's time out of their great affection to them wisht to behold the scars of those glorious wounds which they received for Christ's sake shining with a peculiar glory in their immortall Bodies And perhaps saith he L. xxii de Civ Dei c. 20. we shall see them For it will not be a deformity in them but a dignity and in the body will shine the beauty of their vertue more then of their body This the Writers whom we call the
us in a great many thoughts and be paid for with much care and solicitude afterward to preserve our contentments which else will be in danger to be lost and leave us the more miserable There will be many also that envy to us our happiness and others perhaps that will endeavour to oppress us and deprive us of it And if we can escape all these troubles yet we must have a sore conflict with our selves and our spirituall enemies which will put us to great pains to keep our selves from being corrupted with the delights of this world or poisoned and infected with the evill examples that are round about us Therefore this present time may well be called the time of our labours after all which there is nothing we have got but must also have an end and we shall be forced quickly to take our leave of it But now in that joyfull Sabbath that is to succeed we shall rest from all these labours and be at no more pains to attain or keep our happiness There will be no danger as I have said of our being despoiled of it No Serpent can creep into that Paradise to tempt and allure us from that great felicity nor shall we be in any danger from our own Flesh nor find our selves in a World where there will be any thing to excite our desires but what we may freely take the fullest satisfaction in By which and all the rest that hath been discoursed you may clearly see there can be nothing wanting to compleat the happiness of that state but onely the never-ceasing duration or continuance of it Now in this as was said at first the Rest we expect in the other world differs from that which God promised the Hebrews in the land of Canaan For by virtue of Moses his Law they had a title onely to a long life in that fruitfull Country in opposition to which as well as to our short life here the Christian Rest is called an everlasting Life an inheritance immortall because incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. i. 4. So our Lord himself calls it a great number of times in one discourse he had with the stupid Jews Joh. vi where he exhorts them to labour not so much for the meat that perisheth as for the meat that endureth to everlasting life which the Son of man came to give them ver 27. For this is the will he tells them of him that sent him that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life ver 40. And because they were still sottishly regardless of what he said he affirms it again with the most vehement asseverations ver 47. Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life And 58. He that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever which is repeated again in sundry other places of the same Chapter And I must tell you for your more ample satisfaction that our Saviour hath taken care to deliver this Doctrine to us in such words as can have no other sense or meaning The word for ever or everlasting in the Old Law sometime signifies onely the duration of severall years or a long compass of time which at last might have an end As the Hebrew servant who had sold himself for six years if when they were at an end he chose not to go free he was to serve his master for ever xxi Exod. 6. that is till the Jubilee if his master lived so long and he were not redeemed nor released And there are many Ordinances of Moses not now to be enumerated which are said to be everlasting because they were to continue till the coming of Christ Now lest any one should imagine that the Life our Saviour speaks of shall be everlasting onely in the same sense a very long continued happiness severall Ages suppose which in conclusion might determine and come to an end he hath prevented such thoughts by using other words besides this of everlasting life that we may be assured it signifies more in the Gospel then it did under the Law that is an Endless Bliss For 1. he not onely tells the Jews in the forenamed Chapter vi Joh. 50. that he was the bread of which if a man did eat he should not die but that whosoever liveth that is every living man and believeth in him shall never die xi Joh. 26. Which is as much as to say He will give us a Life without any death And farther 2. he says that whosoever keeps his saying shall never see death viii 51. Which if it signifie any thing distinct from the former must denote that he shall never be in any danger of death or come near it which in the next words vers 52. is called tasting death How can this be say the Jews since Abraham and the Prophets are dead and thou sayest if a man keep my saying he shall never taste of death That 's the phrase wherein our Saviour's Passion is expressed who tasted death i. e. lay in the grave a while for every man ii Heb. 9. And therefore may signifie here that our Saviour's faithfull Disciples after he hath given them everlasting life shall not die at all no not for the space of three days though afterward they might rise again But I have taken notice of one expression fuller then this for he doth not onely say that they shall not die nor taste of death but 3. that they cannot die any more xx Luk. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no possibility after they have attained that life that they should die again for they are equall to the Angels and are the children of God being by the Resurrection begotten to an immortall life Hence it is that the Apostle calls this happy state by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immortality 2 Tim. i. 10. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorruption ii Rom. 7. and saith that our bodies shall be raised in incorruption 1 Cor. xv 42. and put on immortality ver 53. and bear the image of the heavenly Adam i. e. of our Lord now he is in glory who we know dies no more ver 49. Which all signifie the Body as well as the Soul shall enjoy such a solid state of happiness as cannot moulder or be dissolved but will remain firm and durable like the Authour of it by whom death shall be swallowed up in victory ver 54. i. e. be so perfectly conquered that it shall never recover the least power any more Innumerable Ages shall never put a period to this ETERNALL LIFE but after they are all past the whole Man shall be as fresh and beautifull without any declension or sign of decay as if it were but newly risen and had just then put on its purest robes of glorious Light There will be as full a Good I mean and as great a strength to enjoy it and as perfect a liking also of it
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
to search how full it is Alas what shallow brains have we to contain a wide and deep Ocean what weak eyes to look stedfastly upon the most glorious Light of heaven How much too short and narrow are our thoughts to compass an Eternall duration When we have done all we can the best way I think to our satisfaction will be to have recourse to a passage from the mouth of God himself wherein we must rest our selves contented It is in the xxi Rev. 7. where St. John was told by him who sat upon the throne ver 5. that He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son A most marvellously-large Conveyance is here delivered to us from him who hath all that can be in his possession The Great Lord of Heaven and Earth makes us a grant in these words so exceeding full that we cannot desire it should run in more comprehensive terms For by this promise 1. He makes over to us ALL things Heart cannot wish more to make us compleatly happy then he settles upon us for there is no good thing that he will withhold from those that stedfastly adhere to him And observe 2. the tenure wherein we shall hold these vast and large possessions which is as an Inheritance We have an everlasting perpetuall estate made us in all things The terms of this writing are such as if it had run in these words By an eternall indefeasible right he shall possess all blessings For Inheritances it is well known among the Hebrews never failed nor went out of the family They could not be so alienated by sale or gift but they returned in the year of Jubilee to their first owner or his posterity Which makes the word INHERIT in the holy language to signify the enjoyment of a purchace or possession out of which the inheritour can never be thrown and which he cannot quit but shall remain settled in him to perpetuity This St. Paul calls the riches of the GLORY of his inhehitance i. Eph. 18. to signify that our celestiall Patrimony is not onely exceeding large and firmly settled on us but also most noble and brings along with it everlasting honour and renown Which is more fully explained you may note 3. and the reason of it given in the next words I will be GOD to him I will confer that is such benefits on him as are fit for the bounty of the omnipotent Goodness to bestow Look what He was to Abraham in this world to whom he promised to be a God xvii Gen. 7. that he will be to us eternally In blessing he will bless us and be our exceeding great reward The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 GOD answers to the Hebrew word Elohim which doth not respect the Essence of the Almighty but his Providence as * in Psal xiv 1. Genebrard among others hath well observed and signifies as much as the Judge the Moderatour and Governour of the World from whence it is that Judges Magistrates and Rulers are called by this name to whom it belongs to give rewards and punishments And accordingly the Hebrew writers observe that it is never said the Lord will be the God of any persons but when he expresses some singularly-singularly-great kindness and stands in a speciall relation of love to them In particular Abarbinell notes upon Deut. vi that he is never called the God of Israel till he had brought them in a wonderfull manner out of the land of Egypt the house of bondage I find indeed that he promised to be their God before when he told Abraham that he would give him and his seed the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession xvii Gen. 8. But he did not begin to be so till he began to lead them thither and in token of their being his they had kept the Passeover and received his Law from Mount Sinai Before this Moses says We were bondmen in Egypt and the LORD brought us out with a mighty hand vi Deuter 21. And the LORD shewed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt upon Pharaoh and upon all his houshold before our eyes ver 22. He doth not say in all these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LORD our GOD but onely the LORD brought us out and the LORD shewed because he speaks of the time before the giving of the Law which was the greatest kindness he did them after they came out of Egypt But as soon as he had made mention of that says Abarbinel in the very next words ver 24. he alters his style and tells them The LORD commanded us to doe all these statutes to fear the LORD our GOD for our good always c. And ver 25. It shall be our righteousness if we observe to doe all these Commandments before the LORD our GOD as he hath commanded us And so he speaks vii 1. When the LORD thy GOD shall bring thee into the land c. and ver 2. When the LORD thy GOD shall deliver them before thee c. and ver 6. Thou art a holy people to the LORD thy GOD the LORD thy GOD hath chosen thee to be a speciall people to himself c. For from the time of his appearing on mount Sinai and so forward says that learned Hebrew Writer He was our God because then we took upon us his Divinity And I think I may as truly observe that till the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead which compleated that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 departure which Moses and Elias discoursed with him about and said he should accomplish at Jerusalem ix Luke 31. we never reade that the Father Almighty is called the God of those who believe in his Son Jesus Then he demonstrated beyond all contradiction that he was their Saviour and mighty Deliverer who would rescue them from the bondage of corruption the fear of death the power of the grave and give them immortall life And therefore then he bids Mary go and tell his Disciples whom he calls Brethren and say to them I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God xx Joh. 17. This is the first time he is called their God but ever after there is no language more common For as St. i. Eph. 3 17. 1 Pet. i. 3. Peter and St. Paul call him the GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ I suppose because he had raised him from the dead and highly glorified him for his obedient suffering of death so they address themselves to him as particularly related to them and ready to bestow upon them the like blessedness saying i. Rom. 8. 1 Cor. i. 4. iv Phil. 19. 1 Thess iii. 9. I thank MY GOD always c. MY GOD shall supply all your need We rejoyce before OVR GOD c. as you may reade in many places of St. Paul's Epistles Which shews that this promise in the Revelation made after our Saviour's Ascension of being the God of
those who overcome includes in it the bestowing on us the most excellent benefits Because he will be our GOD in a more excellent manner then he ever was yet to men such a GOD as he was to our Blessed Lord himself He will prefer us to live with him in great splendour and glory He will give us an inheritance in a better Country which is an heavenly where all delights flow and never cease to spring up to those happy Souls who shall enjoy the eternall fruits of his greatest love For so he adds 4. and he shall be to me a Son A Son you know expects the Inheritance of his Father because to him it properly belongs and upon him it descends And therefore to be to GOD a Son is to be made like him and to live with him in that very happiness and bliss which he enjoys So St. Paul expresses it viii Rom. 17. he shall be an heir of GOD a co-heir with Jesus who as the Son of God inherits his Glory He shall participate that is with God in his everlasting life kingdom honour and joy which what it is we are not able to tell no more then we can comprehend what his Majesty is who possesses heaven and earth and is infinite in all perfections But we have the greatest reason that can be to expect so great a bliss because we know that God loves his Son Jesus and hath given ALL THINGS into his hand iii. Joh. 35. We are sure that God hath made him most blessed for ever He hath made him exceeding glad with his countenance Honour and Majesty hath he laid upon him and his glory is great in his Salvation xxi Psal 5 6. Now it is most evident you may again observe 5. that the generall intendment of this promise is to put us in hope of being made like to Christ our Elder Brother For he is not ashamed to call us by that name And this being his great Prerogative that he is Heir of all things when the Father of mercy assures us that we shall inherit all things it is as much as to say we shall share with Christ in his large possessions It is easy to note how the Holy Gospell describes our expected felicity in the same terms wherein it speaks of that which Christ our Head enjoys with whom St. Paul says we shall appear in glory and reign with him and have a glorious body like his and in order to it be caught up in the clouds 1 Thess iv 17. which was the manner of his ascension to heaven i. Act. 9. And accordingly here God promises to him that overcomes that he shall inherit all things in conformity still with our Saviour whom he hath appointed heir of all things i. Heb. 2. I cannot say there is any allusion in these words to the Olympick rewards given to the Conquerours in those Combats but so it is that they who overcame there were accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equall to their Gods that is their Hero's or deified men Fabri Agonist L. ii c. 11.16 17. and therefore had Statues erected to their honour and an annuall Pension settled on them for their more noble maintenance But what was this to the reall Divine honour and glory which God will give to victorious Souls To whom he promises not a small Pension or Annuity but an inheritance and that of all things i. e. to shine in the glory of our Blessed Saviour who is King of kings and Lord of lords and can prefer all his Subjects to such a greatness that they shall be more like Gods then men So St. Greg. Nazianzen often speaks that * Orat. xxxvi p. 592. we shall be made Gods in the other World by him that was made Man for us in this It is hard to tell what Heraclitus meant by that speech recorded in Clemens Alexandrinus * L. iii. Padag c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men are Gods Gods are men But it is verified in the Christian Religion which reveals a Divine state to which we shall ascend when we leave the earth by him who came down from Heaven into a vile condition that he might promote us thither Let us study then these words very hard and think often what it is to have ALL THINGS that the love of the Almighty will bestow when in the most eminent sense and in another World he shall become OUR GOD and what it is to have an estate in him that can never be cut off but remains as firm as the Throne on which he sate when he spake these words And then if you believe in him it will fill you with unspeakable joy without entring into particular enquiries to think that you shall be so happy as to be his Sons and Heirs who want nothing that can be desired or he can give And indeed these other words ETERNALL LIFE wherein God's gracious promise commonly runs are of the same import and force with those now mentioned All that we hope for is contained in them As 1. Pardon of Sin without which we cannot take one step toward so great a bliss For death the fruit and punishment of sin will still remain unless sin be pardoned and then what hope can we have of life much less of Eternall life which is therefore perhaps called by the name of Righteousness v. Gal. 5. because it includes our perfect justification and absolution from the guilt of sin without which we could not attain it And 2. it supposes the Adoption of Sons which is begun in this life but not perfected till the next when we shall be made the children of God by receiving a new life from him at the Resurrection of the dead And 3. the Redemption of the Body is another blessing included in it For being raised again it will be freed from its present weaknesses alterations and pains to which it is obnoxious and stand in need of not so much as food and raiment And therefore the time when he will bestow it is called the day of our Redemption iv Eph. 30. To which must be added 4. the carrying of it up to heaven to meet the Lord For being raised a spirituall body it will not be fit for this World but for the other Where 5. we shall rest with him in the celestiall Inheritance and enjoy all the happiness it affords for LIFE you have heard signifies all good things And lastly the Perpetuity of them is plainly expressed in the word ETERNALL which makes the happiness of this heavenly LIFE appear so exceeding great that our present Life compared to it is as Censorinus says of Time in regard of Eternity no more then a Winter's day Let this then suffice us to know that we shall have a perfect enjoyment of all the Good we are capable to receive when we are made greater then we are by the change that shall be wrought in us at our departure hence and at the resurrection of the dead And let our pains
all power in heaven and earth and hath said as it there follows ver 54. I will raise him up at the last day Well then seeing that these are the things we expect to have our sins blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come to be made children of the resurrection to be delivered from the wrath to come to have glorious bodies to reign with Christ and to be made heirs of all things and seeing we are said to have this bliss i.e. to have a certain right to it if we believe on him and seeing also that our right is apparent from the same Records or Witnesses whereby it was proved that Jesus is the Son of God All that I can apprehend remaining to be done to give us a fuller certainty of these promises is to make particular inquiry what every one of those Witnesses which testify to Jesus say to this point that God hath given us eternall life and that this life is in his Son This is the RECORD St. John saith i.e. this is the matter of it Let us examine if you please all these Six Witnesses one after another upon this matter and see if they do not give the same evidence of it that they have done of the other and make as infallible proofs that God hath given us this blessing and that it is in him as they do that Jesus is the Son of God and came from him There is no way like to this that I know of to attain a strong faith and hope of Eternall Life which it infinitely concerns us all to make sure and to have a well grounded perswasion of both that we may live comfortably in the midst of all troubles and that we may be able to overcome all temptations and that we may be willing to die and when nothing else will give us the least comfort we may lift up our heads with unspeakable joy For what can deject their hearts Macarius Hom xxxiv whose hope is firmly fixt in Heaven What should make them complain who have for their Inheritance everlasting Life Vnspeakable unconceivable are the glories innumerable are the good things which God hath prepared for those that love him As in things visible the plants the seeds the flowers are so numerous that none can count them nor is it possible to cast up the summe of all the other treasures of the Earth or as in the Sea the wit of man cannot comprehend the creatures in it either their number or their kinds or their differences or take the measure of its waters or of its place or as in the Air none can number the Birds or in the Heavens tell all the Stars So it is impossible to tell or conceive the riches of Christians in the invisible world their unmeasurable their infinite their incomprehensible Riches For if these Creatures are so infinite and incomprehensible by man how much more He that made and form'd them all And therefore it ought to fill every Christian heart with the greater joy and exultation of spirit because the Riches and Inheritance prepared for them so much surpasses all that can be uttered And with all diligence and humility should we buckle our selves to the Christian Combate that we may be partakers of their Riches For the Inheritance and the portion of Christians is God himself They may say with David The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance My lines are faln unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Glory be to him who gives us himself Glory be to him for ever who mixes his own Nature with Christian Souls 〈…〉 effable kindness of God who free 〈…〉 less then himself upon us O the ineffable happiness of such Souls who are wholly in joy and mirth and peace as so many Kings and Lords and Gods Behold here thy Nobility Christianity is no vulgar or contemptible thing Thou art called to the dignity of a Kingdome not like that of earthly Princes whose glory and riches are corruptible and pass away but to the Kingdom of God to Riches divine and celestiall which never decay For there blessed Souls reign together with the heavenly King and in the heavenly company Since such good things therefore are set before us such glorious promises are made us such great good will of our Lord is manifested towards us let us not despise his kindness nor be slack in our motion towards Eternall Life but give up our selves intirely to the good pleasure of the Lord. And let us call upon him that by the power of his Divinity he would redeem us from the dark prison of dishonourable affections and vindicating his own Image and Workmanship cause it to shine most brightly till our Souls be so sound and pure that we be made worthy of the communion of the Spirit giving glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost for ever Amen CHAP. VI. Concerning the Testimony of the FATHER WE must begin as we did before with the Witnesses in Heaven the first of which you know is the FATHER who spake three times from Heaven by an audible voice to testify to our Lord Jesus And if you examine again all that he hath said you will find both these things recorded in his words that he hath given us ETERNALL LIFE and that this LIFE is in his Son I. The first time that God the FATHER spake from Heaven was at our Saviour's Baptism when the Heavens were opened and a Voice came from thence which said Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased iii. Luk. 22. In which words there are two things very remarkable which plainly testifie to the Truth of those two now mentioned that LIFE is in his Son and that we shall partake of it I. That He calls Jesus his SON and his beloved Son Which being spoken from heaven in such a glorious manner as the Gospell describes it must needs signifie him to be his SON in the most eminent sense for it was never said to any Angel in this sort Thou art my Son my beloved Son This declared him to have the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily to be invested with his own authority and power and to be that Seed promised who should bless all the World which is a thing too great for any one to doe but for GOD himself It was by an audible voice from heaven that the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham to tell him the LORD had sworn by himself that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed xxii Gen. ver 15 16 18. And so now to shew us the Seed was come who should be such a great Benefactour to mankind the LORD himself speaks by a voice from Heaven declaring Jesus to be his SON the Authour of that Universall Bliss which he had promised Which tells us plainly enough that LIFE is in him which is one of the things that St. John affirms upon this Record for else he
shone as the Sun though this may reasonably be thought as I shewed in the former Treatise to be a representation of his Ascension into heaven where he shines at the right hand of the Father and is the Lord of glory And therefore I shall onely observe two things first the words now added to the voice formerly delivered secondly the manner wherein they were spoken in the audience of those Apostles I. As for the words now added in this second voice to those of the first wherein he had declared him as he doth here again his beloved Son in whom he delighted they are these HEAR YE HIM Which are the very words that Moses spake to the Children of Israel when he prophesied of the Messiah and said xviii Deut. 15. unto him ye shall hearken And it may be one reason why Moses was now present when God spake these words in the Mount that he might consent to this truth which was now so solemnly pronounced in his hearing that Jesus was the Great person of whom he had prophesied Now God bidding the Apostles HEAR HIM and Moses himself to whom they had hearkened all this while being content that he should take his room it is an argument of something to be declared by him that Moses had not spoken And what should that be but onely the words of Eternall Life which was but obscurely intimated and shadowed in the ancient Law but by him was preached so clearly and distinctly that the voice of the Heavens is not more audible There is nothing I shall shew in due place that our Saviour preached so frequently nothing upon which he insisted so long and earnestly and took such pains to settle in mens minds as this belief that Eternall Life shall be the portion of all that doe well And therefore when God the Father bad them hear him who made it his principall business to publish this glad tidings to the World it was the very same as if this Voice had said in express words This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased believe it He shall give you eternall life This is the Commandment his Father gave him as you heard before xii Joh. 50. This is the will of him that sent him vi Joh. 40. This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternall life 1 Joh. ii 25. And therefore he stands engaged to bestow it and we agree with him for it when we enter into his service For you may observe farther that as to hear Moses was to embrace the Covenant that God made with them by him so we can understand no less by hearing the Son of God then our entring into the New Covenant of which he is the Mediatour which is founded upon better promises then the former whereby we have a title to a celestiall not an earthly inheritance whereof he is the Lord and to which he hath engaged himself to be our Conductour And indeed Moses and Elias who were never called the Sons of God much less by a voice from heaven so termed appearing now with our Saviour in glory it was a notable sign that He should be taken up to a far greater glory then theirs and have power of changing men into such a condition as that wherein he was now transfigured and in the mean time should preach that life and immortality which they saw conferred upon those two persons to honour him Whom the Disciples you may observe again saw in a glory so much greater then the Law-giver himself now had that if the voice from heaven had been silent it would have been an argument our Saviour should be the Lord of glory For when they desired to make their abode there and for that purpose to build three Tabernacles they say one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias putting him in the first place before the other two which they would not sure have done had not Moses and Elias done reverence to him as a greater person then themselves I shall end this with a Tradition among the Hebrews which if it signifie any thing may serve to shew that Jesus is their long-expected Christ For R. Bechai saith * in xlix Gen. 10. that when Jacob speaks of the coming of Schilo he comprehends not onely the last Redeemer the Messiah but the first Redeemer also i. e. Moses who shall have the honour then to attend upon the Messiah and enter into the holy land according to what the Masters say upon xv Exod. 1. where the words are then Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall sing And in the great Commentary upon Deuteronomy they write as the same Authour goes on that God said to Moses Because thou didst give thy life for them in this world desiring that God would blot his name out of the book of life to preserve theirs in the world to come i.e. the days of the Messiah when I shall bring Elias to them you two shall enter in together Which may possibly be the meaning of those words i. Joh. 21. Art thou Elias and he said I am not Art thou that Prophet i. e. Moses who alone was worthy of the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prophet above all others Now if there were any ground of such expectation that these two should come in their own persons you see it here fulfilled on this holy Mount where Moses who was so much in mount Horeb and Elias who used mount Carmel now appeared and had communication with him about his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 departure out of this world unto his heavenly Kingdome ix Luk. 31. The Mount where they met and where Jesus was transfigured is generally believed to be Tabor as Hermon a little hill near Jordan there is a tradition was the place from whence Elias was taken up to heaven In these two Mountains saies Proclus * Orat. viii our Lord Jesus was proclaimed the Beloved Son of God from whom we may expect immortall bliss At Hermon when he was baptized in Jordan on Tabor when he was transfigured and appeared in a glory as much greater then Elias's as the high mountain Tabor was above the little hill of Hermon And so was fulfilled says he that prophecie of the Psalmist lxxxix 12. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy Name In both places was published this joyfull news that God had sent his Son to be the Saviour of the World First in the mount from whence Elias was transported into heaven and then in the mount where he came to attend on our Lord when he was transfigured God the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirming his Sonship proclaimed again with a loud voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him For he that heareth him heareth me as Proclus there glosses and he that is ashamed of him and his words of him will I be ashamed in my glory Let us listen to him therefore and since we hear him say as I noted before Verily
verily I say unto you he that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life v. Joh. 24. let us take it for as express a declaration from God the Father as if that voice which required them to hear Jesus had said You that are obedient to my Son have everlasting life and are in no danger to perish being translated from the dominion of death to be heirs of life II. And now from the consideration of the words that were spoken let us pass to the manner wherein they were delivered which is so vastly different from that wherein God spake formerly to Moses and the children of Israel from another mountain that I cannot but think it was intended to signifie something of the grace of Eternall Life which Jesus brings to us When he was transfigured and his face shone as the Sun the Evangelist tells us moreover that his raiment became glistering exceeding white as snow and that a bright cloud also overshadowed them out of which the voice before named came saying This is my beloved Son c. Which if it be compared with former divine Manifestations of the same kind we may reasonably look upon as an indication that this Person came to discover 1. something more glorious then Moses had done and 2. something that expresses more abundant love and kindness of God towards men which is nothing else but Eternall Life First I say something more glorious and resplendent or as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. iv 6. the light of the knowledge of the glory of God which we behold in the face of Jesus Christ For the Mount to which Moses went up and where he and the people heard God speak to them was all covered with clouds and thick darkness Thus God himself told him beforehand he would appear xix Exod. 9. And so he did when the day prefixed for it came vers 16 18. Unto that thick darkness Moses drew near xx 21. And the people also stood underneath the mountain beholding it burn with fire into the midst of heaven with darkness clouds and thick darkness iv Deut. 11. xix Exod. 17. All which places the Reader may be pleased to consult together with xxiv Exod. 18. where we find that Moses went into the midst of this cloud and there was covered and quite obscured from their sight A very fit emblem of the obscurity of the knowledge which they then had of God and of his will and of the terrours of the Law which was a ministration of death as the Apostle speaks and so astonished them with the thunders and lightning which came out of the cloud that they fled and stood afar off xx Exod. 18. As on the other side God appearing now to our Saviour in a quite contrary manner on the top of another Mountain where there was no black cloud though it was in the night no smoak or sulphureous vapour much less a thick darkness hiding him from his Disciples sight nothing but a bright and lightsome cloud which overshadowed them and shewed them the glory wherein he shone it was a lively representation of the light which he the Light of the world came to give to them that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death and of the glory and bliss whereof he was the Minister unto which he invited mankind in words of grace and sweetness as he did his Disciples to stay here on the mountain by those chearfull beams wherewith the glory of the Lord surrounded them For this manner of appearing as I said Secondly plainly suggests some greater manifestation of the love and kindness the goodness and bounty of Heaven to mankind then had been made before in that way of revelation to Moses which was so much different from the sweetness and amiableness of this When Moses conversed with God upon mount Sinai he descended thither in Fire as the places before mentioned tell you And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire in the eyes of the children of Israel xxiv Exod. 17. v. Deut. 22 23. But when our Blessed Lord took his Apostles with him to a sight of the Divine Glory there was onely the appearance of a wonderfull bright and chearful light some mild rays from heaven which had nothing of terrour in them but ravished them with joy to find themselves in so glorious a Presence And therefore they were not left at the foot of this high mountain as Moses left the Israelites at the bottom of the other but he brought them up with him xvii Matth. 1. And they were not put into a fright as the Israelites were who removed their station at the sight of the fire on mount Sinai nor did they shriek as their Forefathers did there who cried out saying Why should we die for this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more we shall die Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die v. Deuter 25. xx Exod. 19. But they were ravished out of themselves with the glory of this sight which was so inviting to their eyes that they wisht for no other station but desired to remain perpetually fixed there They were so far from running away that they said Let us make here three Tabernacles as if they meant to pitch there the place of their abode and never take their eyes from so beautifull a Light It is observable also that in the dark Mountain where Moses was together with the fire and thunder and lightnings there was the noise of a Trumpet exceeding loud which made not onely all the people tremble but the whole mount quaked greatly xix Exod. 16 18. And God spake likewise to the people with a great voice v. Deut. 22. wherewith both they were so astonished as to wish never to hear it more and Moses himself also so terrible was the sight together with the noise said I exceedingly fear and quake xii Heb. 21. Whereas on the Mountain where our Lord was transfigured there was not one such frightfull flash nor the least dreadfull sound nothing but his own glistering Body the splendour of Moses and Elias the brightness of a heavenly cloud and this one sweet voice which proclaimed nothing but love and grace in their ears This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him St. Matthew indeed tells us that when the Disciples heard they fell on their faces and were sore afraid xvii 6. But this doth not signify that they were seised with any horrour at the dreadfulness of the sound but onely amazed at the suddenness of the voice and the marvellous splendour of the Light And therefore the other Evangelists do not mention any such terrour after the voice which being accompanied with a glory they had never beheld might well amaze them but did not make them tremble The very
apparition of Angels was wont to be so surprising as to dazzle mens eyes and make them bow their faces to the ground xxiv Luk. 5. And therefore such a glorious splendour as this equalling that of the Sun might well make the Apostles fall prostrate upon the earth in great fear or amazement But then our Lord presently came and comforted them by a gracious touch bidding them arise and not be afraid though they saw such a light and heard such a voice as this to which indeed they had not been accustomed but was the most amiable and ought to be the most welcome of any that could salute the eyes and ears of mankind St. Mark it is observable says that before this voice came out of the heavenly glory they were sore afraid ix 6. i. e. were so amazed at such an unwonted sight or as Proclus * Orat. viii in Transfigur Domini calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strangeness and unexpectedness of the Divine Brightness shining on them that it put them quite beside themselves But that it was a sweet mixture of those devout passions fear and joy is manifest from the foregoing verse with which those words cohere where you reade they were so delighted and ravished with the sight that they thought not of going down from thence any more but were projecting for their perpetuall habitation in that happy place Which Rapture seems to have been a foretaste of the joy which they were to expect when he should ascend to that glorious state which was now represented in his Transfiguration on the Mount Before I conclude this I shall here take notice as I pass to what remains of something that may help to prove our Lord Jesus is the person by whom God always intended to speak his mind to the World For it was at this very time when the Israelites by reason of the terrible sights and thundring noises desired God they might hear his voice no more that he promised to speak to them by such a Prophet as Moses and in a more familiar manner requiring them to hear that person when he came and spake as they themselves desired So you reade xviii Deut. 15 16 17 18. where when they say Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God neither let me see this great fire any more that I die not the Lord said They have well spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and I will put my word in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I have commanded him Which was perfectly fulfilled in our Blessed Saviour whatsoever lesser meaning it might have before who spake the words of God and not of himself but as the Father gave him commandment and was a Prophet like to Moses as in other regards so in this that he was with God upon the Mount heard him speak there to these Israelites his Disciples is commended to them as the person they should hear but in a voice so sweet and in a way so agreeable that they did not wish never to hear it more but rather always to be so happy as to have such friendly converse with Heaven and receive such tokens of God's Fatherly love For as the fire and smoak and darkness together with those terrible noises were testimonies from God to Moses that they who would not hear him but transgressed his Laws should be the objects of his dreadfull displeasure and be destroyed from among their neighbours So this universall light and brightness which smiled on them in the cloud and in his raiment and in his countenance and in his company when these gracious words sounded in their ears were most manifest tokens from heaven of the extraordinary favour of God towards those that obey the Lord Jesus who shall be saved from death and made exceeding happy and glorious The far greater part of the Precepts of the Law being negative as is evident even from the Ten Commandments to say nothing of the computation which the Jews have made of the whole it abounds more with Threatnings and fearfull denunciations of Judgement then it doth with gracious and inviting Promises But most of the Precepts of the Gospell being affirmative obliging us to doe all the good we can and to be abundant in the work of our Lord you reade therefore more frequently of exceeding great and precious Promises to incourage our labour of love then of Threatnings to deterr us from evill doing And consonant to this as that frightfull appearance of old on Mount Sinai was to shew God's anger and fiery indignation against offenders so this comfortable Presence now on Mount Tabor was to represent his loving-kindness and tender mercy to all obedient persons And as the anger of God declared by the fire and smoak was his inflicting Death upon them so his good will declared by this friendly light and clearness in the heavens is his bestowing upon us Life And as by the former Moses was noted by God to be the Minister of death to all transgressours so our Lord was hereby represented as the Minister of Life and Righteousness to all that in him live godly Now that all these Observations are not the product of mere fancy but have some reall truth in them this is none of the least arguments That the Jews themselves * Pirke Eliezer c. xl make it a Question worth the answering why God uttered his voice to Moses out of the midst of the fire and darkness and not rather out of the midst of light Which is a plain acknowledgment of the nobleness and perfection of this way wherein God manifested himself upon the Holy Mount as St. Peter calls it and that it was far more desirable then that wherein he appeared to Moses else they would not have moved this doubt and endeavoured so laboriously to solve it pretending that it was onely to shew in what a dismall condition they were without the Law which was not to be sent till after forty days were past during all which time the Court of the heavenly King was hung with black and not with white Which as it is a frivolous conceit so hath no truth in it For God spake the Ten Words or Commandments out of the fire and smoak before Moses went to stay in the Mount forty days where he onely received the pattern of God's House which he was to make and all belonging to it together with the Two Tables whereon those X Commandments were engraven All the rest of the Laws were spoken to him out of the Tabernacle of the Congregation after he had built it i. Levit. 1. and we do not find then the heavens hung with white to use their phrase as they were now when he spake concerning our Saviour and bad his disciples hear him But I intend not to trouble my self with confuting their idle fancies The use that I make of this Question is That if they would have thought
it a disparagement to their Master Moses did they not satisfie themselves with this ridiculous reason for it to be spoken unto after such a manner as the Scripture of truth relates then by their own confession it is a great honour to our Lord and Master and argues his high dignity that the Divine Majesty spake to him in such a way as they cannot but esteem most perfect and agreeable to his Divine Goodness And we may look upon this pure Light in which God is said to dwell as a sign that Heaven was to be opened by this Person and that he would restore us to the Glory of God of which we we all faln short and bring mankind to that joy and satisfaction of heart which the Disciples began to feel in themselves at this most comfortable sight And I make no question had not the holy Books told us so expresly that God spake to them in clouds and fire and vapour they would have fabled that he appeared to their Master in pure light and shone about him in the brightness of his glory without the least darkness to obscure it For I find that many of those things which the holy Story of the New Testament reports in honour of John Baptist or of our Blessed Saviour they have thrust into the Story of Moses where he himself in his Books hath not confessed the contrary to keep him in the greater credit with their Nation in this time of their calamitous desertion It being recorded for example that John Baptist was born when his parents were very old and could not believe it was possible for them to have a child which makes his birth a wonder being out of the course of Nature they have made bold to tell the same of Moses but with a large addition of years whose mother Jochebed they say was no less then an hundred and thirty years old when she was delivered of him which Aben Ezra in his Notes upon the text * A. Ezra in ii Exod. ver 1. is desirous should pass for a current truth And as we reade that when our Saviour came into the world the Glory of the LORD an exceeding great light from heaven shone round about the shepherds who had the first news of it which was intended as a note of his Divinity and heavenly descent So they have devised * R. Solomon in ii Exod. 3. that at the Nativity of Moses the house where he was born was filled with such a light that they could not see by reason of its splendour In like manner the Apostle proves our Lord to be greater then the Angels far above all principality and power c. i. Heb. 3 4. i. Eph. 19 20. and therefore Moses forsooth must be raised to this wondrous pitch â— Moses Haccozi whom some of their Rabbins all are not so immodest will have to be higher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then the Angels of Ministry far above all creatures as another expresses it both superiour and inferiour R. Joshuah F. Sobib in xxx Exod. As if they meant to equall him with that great Lord who we believe is raised far above every name that is named not onely in this world but also in that which is to come And because also our Lord we affirm and are sure is now the Minister of the heavenly Sanctuary where he presents his own bloud before God for us as Aaron did the bloud of beasts in the earthly Sanctuary therefore they likewise have feigned as Maimonides relates from the mouth of their Doctours * Ludov. Capell ex prâ—fat in Talm. Not. in xvii Matth. 3. that their Master Moses is not dead but ascended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ministers to God in the heavenly places And because our Lord is here said to be transfigured on this Mountain and his face shone like the Sun they have therefore transformed Moses also who they say was found by the Angel of death whom God sent to the Mountain whether he was gone up to take away his life writing the great Name of God and his face was as the Sun and he himself like an Angel of the Lord. I have observed the same before about the Bath kol voice from heaven which spake to our Saviour whose glory they study to eclipse by spreading abroad a number of tales concerning the like approbation given to their Doctours I am bold to call these reports by that name and to ascribe them to that cause because there are no footsteps of such things in the history which Moses wrote of himself who by all just ways endeavoured to beget in them a belief that he was a Prophet sent of God and because such inventions might easily come into the minds of those obstinate persons who knew not how to confute Christianity which interest and prejudice would not let them receive but were desirous by any means though never so false to raise Moses to the same degree of greatness and esteem with the Authour and finisher of our faith But it is to be considered then that they suppose such things to be a notable sign of the excellency of that person to whom they really belong and consequently that our Lord Jesus who hath these very marks upon him which they would ingrave on Moses being thus described in those Books that are certainly Divine among us as clearly as Moses is in any other regards commended in those that are truly holy among them is a Great Prophet indeed far greater then Moses who never durst say any such thing of himself nor is so magnified by any of the succeeding Prophets the Authour of a better Covenant and of more divine Promises such as this of ETERNALL LIFE which it is most agreeable for him to bestow whose Kingdom was not in this world as Moses's was but he reigns in the other world Lord of all for evermore III. To him God the Father hath given a third Testimony unto which it is now time to pass and it is a very express Record of this Truth that we have Eternall Life and that it is in his Son It is set down you know in the xii Joh. 28. where upon our Saviour's request to God that he would glorifie his own Name a voice from heaven gave this answer I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again The particle it hath nothing answering to it in the Greek but is put in by the Translatours to supply the sense And some are of the opinion that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood and the meaning to be thus rendred I have both glorified thee and will glorifie thee again But there is no need of this we may as well refer the word glorifie to Name as our translation doth and it will come at last to the same sense for God's name was glorified by glorifying his Son Fragment L. viii in Joh. as appears from xi Joh. 4. And so St. Cyrill of Alexandria observed
then this to demonstrate the truth I am endeavouring to prove the great love of our most Blessed Lord would not deny it Who appear'd again as I shew'd in the former Treatise to a very learned person of great note and great sanctity among the Jews and as great an enemy to him being consenting as he himself confesses xxii Act. 20. unto his death when the bloud of his Martyr Stephen was shed St. Paul I mean who travelling towards Damascus in a burning rage and fury and with a sharp commission against Christians and therefore in no fit disposition to receive a truth or to fall into a fancy directly opposite to his present temper and interest was suddenly surprized with a great light from heaven and beheld that Jesus whom he no more thought to be so glorious then he did the Thieves that were crucified with him presenting himself and distinctly speaking to him in such a splendid manner that he fell down to the ground and could not see for the glory of that light vers 7 11. Whosoever will carefully observe what he was and how far as I said from any such thoughts and how desperately he had been lately ingaged against St. Stephen and now was prosecuting other of Christ's Disciples will easily conclude that he had now a reall sight of the Majesty of the Lord Jesus at whose feet he fell whom otherwise no man should have despised and blasphemed more then He. Now if the Vision be considered you will find that it contains in it this Truth that Jesus is possessed of Eternall Life to give unto us as well as that he is the Son of God For I. He beheld him appearing in such a brightness as that before mentioned far exceeding the splendour of the Sun at noon-day according as he himself tells the story xxvi Act. 13. Which plainly declared him to be the King of Glory cloathed with the Majesty of God and possessed of an heavenly Kingdom and therefore able to give ETERNALL LIFE to his servants which is one of the things that St. John here saith God hath testified to us How should he come by such a robe of light and how should he appear thus first to St. Stephen and now to St. Paul and how should he present himself thus near to him and perfectly astonish his bold spirit if he had not power to doe what he pleased And therefore St. Paul is told by our Lord at this very time when he saw him in such Majesty that he should be a witness of what he had seen Which had been to no purpose unless this Apparition had something remarkable in it to prove that he was what he pretended to be in his life-time the Son of God most High whom according to his word which he passed by a voice from heaven he had glorified and given him power over all flesh II. And accordingly you find that the thing St. Paul witnessed was that Jesus was over all God blessed for ever ix Rom. 5. and had sent him to preach the Resurrection and everlasting life xiii Act. 46. xvii 18. These doctrines our Lord himself had taught him when appearing and speaking to him in such a glorious light he said I am Jesus As much as to say I am he whom you buffeted Afterius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. whom you scourged whom you dragged about first to Caiaphas then to Pilate whom you called continually the Carpenter's son whom you number among the dead laughing aloud at those that preach the Resurrection It is I that speak and therefore believe that which my servant Stephen saw though when he told you so you would not believe it Thus he learnt saith Asterius by experience that Christ was alive and was neither corrupted by death nor stoln away secretly by his Disciples but risen from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and reigned over the whole world This he preached with as great a zeal as before he persecuted He was such an Auxiliary as before he had been an enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both strong and resolute III. For you may observe that he did not merely rationally conclude from the glory wherein Jesus was that all he had said was true and that he was able to give Everlasting Life but he heard him also say expresly at this time when he appeared to him that he would bestow this celestial Inheritance upon us even us Gentiles who were shangers to the promises foreiners and aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel having no such hope There was nothing against which the Pharisaicall spirit was more imbittered then this that other Nations should share with them and be equall to them in the blessings of the Messiah The Religion wherein St. Paul had been bred was concerned in no principle more then this that the rest of the world were all unclean and never to be united to them unless they would be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses And therefore had he not been pressed with undeniable evidence he would never have consented to this truth which was so much against the grain of that spirit which possessed him and which he but once mentioning to his Country-men they were ready to tear him in pieces xxii Act. 21 22. And yet he reports this for a certain Truth from the mouth of Jesus himself who bad him as he relates this glorious Vision to Agrippa a Prince well skilled in the Law go unto the Gentiles to open their eyes as He had done his to turn them from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and INHERITANCE among them that are sanctified by faith in him xxvi Act. 17 18. And accordingly he went and preached every-where in obedience to this heavenly Vision the comfortable doctrine of the Resurrection and Eternall Life to us Gentiles as well as others witnessing both to small and great that as the Prophets had foretold Christ ought to suffer and should be the first that should rise from the dead and shew LIGHT unto the people of Israel that is and to the Gentiles vers 22 23. By Light in the holy language is meant the gladsome discovery of God's good will and pleasure For as by Darkness it expresses ignorance sorrow and heaviness so by its opposite knowledge joy and chearfulness And the Light which we have by Christ's sufferings and rising from the dead can be nothing else but the blessed hope of immortality This St. John tells us is the light of mankind i. 4. In him was LIFE and the life was the LIGHT of men that is their singular comfort and satisfaction which makes their life not to be irksome to them and with this Light St. Paul endeavoured to fill the world that they might all know how much they were indebted to Jesus who brought Life and immortality to light by his Gospell And can it enter into any man's thoughts that he would have set himself to preach this
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
risen from the dead and after all my sufferings such as you must endure for my sake am alive as thou seest and in a far better condition then I was before when thou wast not thus afraid of me Though in my first attempt to raise a Church I suffered death and laid the foundation of it in my bloud yet it is apparent I have overcome death and now live in greater splendour then ever If our Lord had stopt here and said no more this had been sufficient to convince him of his power to present to himself a glorious Church and from the lowest and most afflicted condition to raise it to the greatest honour here and to eternall glory in the other world But he proceeds for the stronger confirmation of his faith and says Behold more then this I am alive for evermore I have Eternall Life and can never lose this power and therefore thou mayst believe me when I say that I am the Omega whom thou knowest to be the Alpha for I can perfect what I have undertaken and bring to an happy issue all the good I have begun to work for you The latest posterity shall find that I am alive and able to promote them to everlasting bliss Fear not these words are all true and therefore I conclude them with an AMEN wherewith I was wont thou mayst remember to confirm my sayings that thou mayst rest assured I now say nothing but the certain indubitable truth when I tell thee I am he that was dead and now am alive and that I live for evermore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Andreas Caesariensis conceives his meaning How canst thou imagine then that thou art in danger to suffer any harm by my appearing to thee since the power which thou seest me have is to give life not death unto my servants I never used thou mayst remember to kill men but to save them and therefore thus thou mayst be confident I will still imploy my omnipotent power for I am Alpha and Omega the same at last that I was at first I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly And indeed as he still goes on I have the keys of hell and of death or as we render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated hell in 1 Cor. xv 55. the keys of the grave and of death I can open the graves as I did at my death and can loose the bands of death as I did at my resurrection I can bring you out of that dark estate where no body sees you and restore you to life again nay raise you to that Light wherein thou beholdest me shine And here again it is observable that our Saviour takes to himself that very power which is ascribed to Almighty God by Hannah who says in her Song 1 Sam. ii 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up Whereby he would suggest to St. John that all things are committed to his trust and are in his power for that is frequently denoted in the holy language by Keys the badge of a Steward's authority and power in a family and therefore it is not too hard for him to overcome the great Conquerour of all men to open the prison-doors that have been so long shut and fast locked to loose the chains of death and overthrow him quite who hath the power of it that is the Devill But this he would have us stedfastly believe and therefore immediately bids him not lie as a man dead but get up and write the things that thou hast seen ver 19. That is Let my Church know that I am alive and that I bear the same affection to them that I ever had Send them this comfort from me that I not onely live but always live and have all power committed to me even over the grave and death so that if any man lose his life for me I can give it him again with such an increase of dignity and glory as thou seest me enjoy And we must needs confess that there is an exceeding great comfort in this assurance which he gave thus in his own person and with his own mouth to this holy Apostle who knows as he speaks in another case xix Joh. 35. that he saith true For hereby we rest satisfied of one part of the Record which is to be proved that Life is in Jesus and see moreover much reason to believe the other part that he intends to bestow it on us VI. But for a fuller evidence of that you may consider in the last place that this WORD of God gave frequent testimonies of it to St. John in the following Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia Where they are so obvious that I may leave it to the most careless hand to gather them To one he saith I will give to him that overcometh to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God ii Rev. 7. To another I will give him a crown of life and He shall not be hurt of the second death ver 10 11. To a third I will give him the white Stone c. a certain knowledge and assurance i.e. as I hope to shew in another place of the promised reward ver 17. To another He shall be cloathed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels iii. 5. And to name no more he promises to grant to him that overcometh to sit down with him in his throne ver 21. Which though it may have some respect to the high place and dignity he should injoy in the Church in this world yet had not its full completion but in the other life where he will crown the fidelity of all victorious Souls with the greatest glory and honour How can we doubt of it when we hear such express promises of immortall bliss so oft repeated from the mouth of the WORD of God himself after he went to heaven Great is our assurance great is the confidence we may take from such a Record as this if we be in the number of those that overcome remain constant that is and fixed in our Christian resolution notwithstanding any assaults that are made upon us either by the good or bad things of this world to tempt us to revolt from our duty For St. John saw and heard these things from the Lord Jesus himself upon his own Day the day of his resurrection from the dead and in a glory so bright that it was an emblem of the happiness he will bestow upon us and with such earnest asseverations of their truth and certainty as are sufficient to awake the dullest and most lethargick Souls to attend to what he says For thus he begins his Letter to the Church of Laodicea who were grown strangely chill and indevout These things saith the Amen the faithfull
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
committed to him towards the poor and the broken in heart and the miserable captives to whom he preached the acceptable year of the Lord. Or else as St. Chrysostome's words are He remembers us hereby of the old history For the whole World being once shipwreck'd and humane kind being in great danger to be totally lost this Creature appeared with an Olive-branch in her mouth and brought them glad tidings that the tempest was over and that there was now an universal calm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All which things were a type and figure of what was to come For now when the affairs of mankind were in a worse condition and they were all in danger of a soarer punishment the unspeakable grace of God in our Saviour steps in for our rescue And therefore a Dove appeared again not bringing an Olive-branch but shewing us our Deliverer from all evill and administring unto us good hopes For it doth not bring merely one man and his family out of danger but appeared to lead all the world to heaven and in stead of an Olive-branch brought the adoption of Sons to all mankind And where the dignity of this adoption is there is the destruction of all evill things and the gift of all things that are good To the same purpose speaks Theophylact who contracts his sense in fewer words As the Dove brought to Noah the news that the waters of the floud were gone so now the HOLY GHOST brought the joyfull news of the doing away of Sin There was an Olive-branch and here was the mercy of God And thus John Baptist understood it who having seen this sight cried out Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world that is Death the punishment of Sin and consequently restores us to immortall life i. Joh. 29 30 c. This he thought declared God to be reconciled and lookt upon it as a token that the heavens had laid aside their displeasure and would be at peace with the sinfull sons of men The windows you know of heaven were opened in the old World but dark and pitchy clouds were all that appeared which poured down nothing but a floud of rain upon mankind Whereas now quite contrary when the heavens were opened again there was no dismall sight presented it self but onely a pure light and glorious brightness shone from the face of God And the HOLY GHOST in the form of a Dove appeared not like that of Noah after the deluge had swept all mankind very few excepted from the face of the earth but to give notice to the World that God would not take such vengeance upon men for their wickedness but be graciously reconciled to them by saving them from death and giving them the blessing of Eternall Life One might well gather as much from this sight especially when there was such an Olive-branch of peace if I may so call it in the mouth of this Dove as that voice from heaven which came along with it saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased One of these illustrates and explains the other and both of them tell us that the heavens now look upon us with a serene countenance and that we are no longer shut out of them but God is so well satisfied that he will admit us into those celestiall habitations II. This was farther declared afterward when the Apostles according to his promise were on the day of Pentecost baptized with the Holy Ghost whereby they were sent by him as he was by the Father Then the Heavens poured down such a large showr of the Divine grace as presently overflowed the World with a comfortable sense of ETERNALL LIFE This was one great end of the coming of the HOLY GHOST which then witnessed to our Saviour and openly shew'd him to the World as the Prince of life iii. Act. 15. For 1. it was a plain demonstration that He whom the Jews had murthered was alive from the dead and had not lost his power which was so eminent in him all the while he was on earth to doe good and bestow benefits upon mankind And 2. the greatness of the benefit shews that he was greater in power then ever having ennobled all his Servants and raised men of the lowest condition to the highest dignities by bestowing on them the gift of the HOLY GHOST It was his gift as he fore-told in his life-time when he said I will send the Comforter from the Father xv Joh. 26. and He shall receive of mine and shew it unto you xvi Joh. 14 15. And therefore the Holy Ghost declared his greatness and power over all as St. Peter discourses in the very first Sermon he preached after our Saviour's resurrection on the day of Pentecost ii Act. 33. Where he tells the Jews that what they saw and heard and were amazed at was shed forth and poured on them by Jesus who had now received the promise of the Holy Ghost And therefore says he ver 36. let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ Which is as much as to say You ought to look upon this as an undoubted argument that he is Lord of all things the Christ or King whom God the Father hath appointed because he hath sent such royall gifts to his servants as none but the Lord of the world could possibly bestow And by the way we may take notice that the better sort of the Jews themselves expect the Messiah should bring such grace to men For Abarbinel in the place fore-mentioned acknowledging Miraculous works to be a note whereby the Messiah shall be known reckons this for one of them the effusion of the Spirit of God spoken of by the Prophet Joel Our Lord therefore sending this down in a plentifull manner on the day of Pentecost thereby manifested if they would have seen it that he had the mark of their King upon him and indeed could doe that which they all confess is the Work of God alone who onely can pour out the gifts which the Prophet there promises There is no reason to question the power of such a King as this to doe what he pleases even to prefer his subjects to his heavenly Kingdom They may be raised when he thinks good to reign with him above as now they began to doe upon the earth It depends upon his will alone to exalt them to that very place from whence this mighty power of the Holy Ghost came down upon them But that we may be satisfied the HOLY GHOST was an express Witness of his being the Prince of life a King that hath Life in himself a Prince and a Saviour as it is v. Act. 31. who can deliver men from the oppression of all their Enemies the greatest of which is Death you may consider 3. that the miraculous change which was wrought on a sudden in the minds of very ignorant men is an evident argument what he
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
flesh armed what might which thou hast given to grass and hay As well may a butterfly think of mounting up to heaven or a flower attempt to pluck up a cedat as we poor wretches conceive a thought of effecting such wonderfull things This sure signifies that men are very dear to God or else he would not thus dwell among them It may well make us believe there is nothing so great nothing so glorious promised by Jesus but he will work it for us having already transformed us into such noble creatures As Manoah's wife said to him xiii Judg. 23. If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us such things as these so might they in this case say and with greater advantage then she If the Lord would let us still remain under the power of death he would not have given such gifts into our hands for that is more then to receive the poor oblations we make to him nor would he have revealed such secrets to us He would not have sent us the spirit of wisedom and knowledge nor raised us to the degree of prophecy nor put new tongues into our mouths to declare his wonderfull works nor made all diseases submit to our word All which gifts with divers others they had reason to look upon as the earnest of the Spirit and the Seal of the Holy Ghost whereby they had an assurance given them as I hope to shew elsewhere of the everlasting inheritance which Jesus hath promised in the heavens For they demonstrated that He who had power thus to alter and advance mean men and to make them Stuporem mundi the wonder and amazement of the world could also give that Life which he had promised by that very power which they felt already working in them And they also made it evident 6. that he would bestow it For there is no more reason that he should thus bestow the Holy Ghost at present then that he should hereafter give us Eternall Life His faithfull promise is the security for both our hopes are built upon that sure foundation If there be any difference between the ground there is for one more then the other the advantage lies on the side of the hope of Eternall Life Which there is more reason now that he should give us then there was for giving the Holy Ghost even because he hath already done so much for his Church and there is more reason we should expect it because as I said before we have seen a remarkable instance of his fidelity in pouring out such rivers of living water when he sent the Spirit which he promised And here it comes to my mind in xi Isa that another Wonder which Abarbinell says the Messiah shall work at his coming is a Miracle like that of dividing the Red sea when Israel came out of Egypt Which he endeavours to prove from xi Isa 15. The Lord shall utterly destroy or dry up the tongue of the Egyptian Sea c. that is says he of Nile the great River of Egypt This our Lord hath done more excellently then they imagine For it was nothing near so great a wonder that Israel should be baptized into Moses in the Sea as it was that the people who followed Jesus should be baptized into him with the Holy Ghost poured down upon them from heaven The passing through the Sea and the Cloud to boot was not such a certain argument that Moses would bring them out of the great affliction wherein they had been plung'd and lead them to Canaan their rest and inheritance as these rivers of living water the gifts of the Holy Ghost and the admirable effects thereof filling the world with the Glory of the Lord were an undeniable proof to those who were under its conduct that Jesus was the person who would lead them to a better rest in a more heavenly Country which flows with far sweeter delights then milk and hony This did as it were dip their souls into this belief and made them sensible that Jesus is the Authour of Eternall Salvation far more then the Sea it self could baptize their forefathers into Moses i.e. persuade them that he was the Prophet of God who would deliver them and bring them to the peaceable enjoyments they desired And therefore I observe after the Jews who quarrelled at St. Peter's preaching to the Gentiles were satisfied that the Holy Ghost was faln upon them even as upon themselves they had no more to say but this then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life xi Act. 18. This they lookt upon as the beginning of God's favour and loving-kindness to them which would conclude in nothing less then the ETERNALL LIFE of which we are discoursing And so this very Apostle St. John after he had put the Disciples in mind of the UNCTION they had received and exhorted them to continue in that Doctrine which it taught Chap. ii of this Epistle 20 24. immediately adds that this is the promise which he hath promised us even Eternall Life ver 25. Which was as much as to say that the Vnction by the HOLY GHOST had so perfectly instructed them in the certainty of this great happiness that it was sufficient to move them to abide in the Doctrine of Jesus none being able to teach them better or to put them in hope of any thing greater then this ETERNALL LIFE which he promised and by the HOLY GHOST assured It is true indeed which some are forward to object that we in these days see not such evidences as those Believers had the Holy Ghost not inhabiting thus in every one of our Souls as it did in theirs Nor is there the like reason it should we being ingaged in no such hard services as theirs which stood in need to be incouraged with the strongest hopes of a glorious reward They were in deaths often as St. Paul speaks and therefore were in danger to faint without a most lively gust of immortall Life The whole World was their enemy and with the greatest rage oppos'd their preaching which required a clearer sight of the World to come and a more sensible descent of invisible powers for their assistence and support From whence we also derive no small benefit because the more sensible demonstration they had of it the firmer grounds of hope are laid for us whose faith relies upon their testimony and the power of the HOLY GHOST in them This is sufficient to hearten us in our duty that our Lord hath given to those whose testimony we have the greatest reason to believe such visible and palpable evidences of his being alive and of his intentions to quicken his servants to Life everlasting with himself Let us but heartily apply ourselves upon these grounds to live by the faith of the Son of God and we shall find the same Spirit that wrought in them operating in us
Wisedom of God when he had quitted the empty pleasures of the World However fabulous this Story may prove which seems to have been composed in imitation of that Vision of Hercules which many Greek Writers mention you may make it true if you please For behold how the true Wisedom of God our Blessed Lord and Saviour presents himself to you He hath appeared in most admirable beauty and a glorious form to many of his Servants which they have described and left us the picture of In his Gospell he is so lively expressed that we cannot if we look upon him but behold him as the onely-begotten of the Father the brightness of his glory and the character of his person Would it would but please you to listen to the offers he makes you the portion of Life and Glory hereafter together with true peace and contentment here which he will assure to you O that you would but draw a lively image of these things in your mind and represent the King of glory as soliciting your heart to his service Do you not believe that it would be infinitely more obliging then such an apparition as that now named Would it not more easily make you abandon the sinfull pleasures of this world then the other made him forsake the lawfull Would not the beauty of our Saviour and the splendour of his glory in the heavens set before your eyes be more inamouring then any imaginary or reall beauty whatsoever Would not these words of his be more piercing then any other I will give to him that overcomes to inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son Would it not transport our hearts with joy to hear that he will be contracted to us and assure us of such a dowry with himself in the heavens Would it not make all his commands so far from being grievous that we should think them sweet and delicious above all the pleasures wherein sensuall men are drowned He can make no doubt of it that hath not lost his reason and is able to understand what the difference is between such a certain truth as this and a dream and between the commands of our Lord and the obedience which that youth undertook to perform Jesus is certainly in the heavens He sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high He unfeignedly wishes we would be espoused to him He will settle an eternall inheritance upon us and He doth not require us to go into Monasteries and deserts to live like Hermites and Anchorets to immure our selves from all society though if he did we should have no ill bargain of it but onely to retire seriously into our selves and there often meet with him to live soberly righteously and godly while we are in the world to let no company draw us from his precepts nor suffer any creature to rob him of our affection And what a reasonable demand this is you will then see when you heartily believe this ETERNALL LIFE which he hath promised Believe and then you will think there is nothing too much or too hard to be done or suffered for the attaining such a glorious Life with our Saviour Which moved St. Stephen to suffer stoning and St. Paul to be in deaths often and St. John to endure banishment in a most desolate Island and worse things afterward that they might be so happy And let us with honest hearts desirous to be what God would have us beg the assistence of the HOLY GHOST to guide us in this way of understanding which we shall find incomparably the best to settle in our mind a sense of the happiness to come For when the Soul comes to the perfection of the Spirit Macar Hom. xvi xviii wholly purged from all affections and united to the Spirit the Comforter by an unspeakable communion so that by this heavenly mixture it becomes worthy to be a spirit it is all Light all Eye all Spirit all Joy all Rest all Exultation all Love all Goodness and Sweetness It becomes hereby privy to the Counsels of the Heavenly King and knows his Secrets It hath a confidence in the Almighty and enters into his Palace where the Angels and the spirits of the Saints are though it be as yet in this world For though it hath not attained the intire inheritance prepared for it there yet it is secure from the Earnest it hath received as if it were crowned and possessed of the Kingdome Who would not labour then to be so happy not onely hereafter but also here Georg. Nicomed in concept S. Annae there in possession and here in hope What a work is it to ascend up into heaven What laborious steps can lead us to so great an height What are the sweats of this mortall life to those eternall recompences By what pains shall we be worthy of friendship with our Maker How shall we make our selves a proper habitation for him to dwell in For he hath said I and my Father will come and dwell in him that loves me and keeps my Commands This is the end of the Good we have in hope this is the heavenly Kingdom this is the enjoyment of eternall pleasure this is the never-ceasing joy the perpetuall triumph the retribution transcending all our labours nay all understanding There are no labours no not in thought equall to this recompence of reward They all fall so infinitely below it that for mean for inconsiderable pains our transcendently-good Lord will give an enjoyment far surpassing all our thoughts All humane endeavours are of no account though we should wear out a whole life in them compared with the future Blessedness Though we should sustain a perpetuall combate all our days though they should be prolonged to an hundred years or to twice as much or thrice or a thousand times and all this while we should contend in a vertuous course we shall seem to have done nothing when we come to confer it with what we shall receive And therefore let us gladly by such small and poor labours strive to purchase these super-sublime recompences and treasure up these never-consuming riches I call those poor and small which not onely seem so to all but the perpetuall combate of an whole Age the most unwearied pursuit of vertue the most incessant and fervent pains in its service For such are the Goods which our munificent Lord will give in exchange for them such are the superabundant riches of his retributions such is the Hyperbole of his loving-kindness and goodness that for few things he will give infinite for beggery the greatest riches for perishing things Goods that last for ever These let us seek and dedicating our selves wholly to the Lord make haste to the obtaining so inestimable a Good Let us consecrate Soul and body to him and be fastened to his Cross that we may be worthy of his Eternall Kingdom giving glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever
my self but he sent me For which reason he doth not discourse of immortall life as a Philosopher going about to prove it by reasons and arguments but onely asserts it as one that had Divine Authority for which he was to be believed and could himself make men eternally happy This was the onely thing that could be disputed and needed proof that he came from heaven to illuminate the world by his instructions And this he did not desire they should take upon his bare word but abundantly demonstrated it and told them ver 28. that after his death they should still see it made more evident that he did nothing of himself but as the Father had taught him he spake these things For then as you shall see in due place God the Father declared all these words to be true by raising him from the dead These things he said so often so openly so confidently and with such appeals to God who bare him witness as you have heard and never in the least contradicted what he said that we have great reason to believe he did not forge all this but delivered the mind and will of God as sincerely when he said he would give men Eternall Life as he did when he charged them to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Certain it is that He himself believed what he preached and had no doubt but a perfect assurance of it as will appear if we pass to the Second thing which we are briefly to consider II. His own most holy Life in the strictest obedience to God the Father This Abarbinell in his discourse upon xi Isa which I have so often mentioned makes one of the marks of the Messiah the perfect temper of his desires and affections and the direction of them according to the measures of the Divine Law Which he thinks is the meaning of those words ver 3. He shall be of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. This was so remarkable in Jesus who was so truly so compleatly and constantly pious that there never was any person so qualified to lay claim to this Dignity as he was His Life was so free from all blame such a perfect abstinence from all the pleasures of this world such a contempt of all that which we think most worthy of our indefatigable labours that it hath a strong force in it to perswade us that he indeed sought Eternall Glory and was fully assured he should be possessed of it for Himself and for all His. Who but a man so perswaded of his Doctrine would have lived in poverty when he might no question by the multitude and devotion of his followers have made himself incredibly rich What should incline him to remain all his days without an house so big as a fox or the smallest bird is owner of but an expectation of that house which is eternall in the heavens Could any thing move him to give away to the poor all that was given him but a certain knowledge of great treasures above We cannot conceive what should make him refuse the dignity of a King when the people intended to proclaim him if it were not this undoubted perswasion that he was the King of Heaven and should sit down at the right hand of the Throne of God Would any of those that doubt this labour as he did night and day for nothing Would any poor man cure multitudes of all diseases and take not a farthing for his pains Would any body live if he could help it and not know where he should eat the next meal's meat And who is he that can find in his heart to endure the hatred of the chiefest of the people and to be in perpetuall danger of snares and treacherous designs for the taking away his life without any hope to be a gainer by it Is there any likelihood that our Lord would have laboured in such sort as not to have leisure so much as to eat and after all that kind pains be content to be called Deceiver and Devill and to run the hazzard of being stoned and killed and yet have no assured expectation to reap some fruit hereafter from all his toil and trouble Let him believe it that loves to sting his fingers with nettles or to roll his naked body in snow we that have a more tender sense of our own pleasure must have leave to be of another mind Let any man try to perswade himself to lead such a life and by his unwillingness he will easily be convinced that our Lord who could look for nothing in this world from what he did and suffered would never have so chearfully freely and without any regret followed such a course had he not known as surely that he should be made glorious thereby hereafter as he knew that he must be made miserable by it here Ask his Poverty then and that will bear witness that he laid up treasures in the heavens Ask his Humility and that will tell you that he sought for the Glory of God onely Inquire of his Charity and Bounty his wonderfull bounty to all men and that will bear Record both that all fulness is in him and that he will not envy any thing he hath to his followers Let his Contentedness speak and that will assure you he was possessed of something greater then all worldly goods which he could tell better how to live without then others to live comfortably withall Examine his Labours and pains his travells and journeys trace his steps over sea and land and they will all confess that he sought a better Country which is an heavenly Ask him what he meant by his Patience his willing endurance of all reproaches calumnies hatreds persecutions and they will likewise conclude in the same testimony that he had a joy set before him which made him despise them all In short consult his Fasting forty days his enduring so many temptations of the Devill slighting his offers rejecting his counsels and you can have no account of them but this that he had indeed the meat that endures to everlasting life that he verily believed the voice from heaven which said he was the Son of God and that he knew he had a greater Glory then all the Kingdoms of the world which the Devill offered him And after all this I suppose there is no considering man but will think the unquestionable belief of such a person as he was to be of very great moment to settle ours in this weighty business It is safest for us without all dispute to follow the judgment of one so well able to discern truth from falshood that he was of as quick understanding in all things else as he was in the fear of the Lord. We have great reason to think that he was in the right and was no more deluded himself then he intended to delude others There was not the least flaw as I shewed in the former Treatise that appeared in his Understanding nor could
5. is most lively represented there But this is not all that is intended by it for even those * Arias Montanus who in that sense were already mortified and renewed by receiving the Holy Ghost before their baptism as Cornelius and his family proceeded notwithstanding to receive that holy washing and by their submersion took upon them the likeness of the dead and by their emersion appeared as men risen again from the dead If there were no other death to be escaped but that in sin and no other resurrection to be expected but that to newness of life why were they who had attained these baptized as dead men and being already dead to sin why again sustained they the image of death out of which they believed and professed they should come This very action of theirs proves that they lookt for another resurrection after death which is the resurrection of the body And this profession of theirs was so much the more weighty as they were the more learned and instructed being already taught by the Holy Ghost By whose power they were already dead to sin and made alive to God and by whose instruction they professed to believe that as there is another death viz. that of the body so they should overcome it by the mighty power of Christ raising their very bodies from the dead There are severall other interpretations of this place as that of Epiphanius * Haeresi 38. who expounds it of those who received Baptism at the point of death but I shall not trouble the Reader with them because they all conclude the same thing that Baptism was a publick profession of the hope of immortality and a Seal also of the promises of God not onely to that particular person who at any time received it but to the whole Church both to the living and the dead Who as oft as Baptism was repeated had an open assurance given them from God by whose authority it was administred that they should rise again to everlasting life And so I shall dismiss this First Witness on Earth which is the more to be regarded because though it be not so great in it self as those which speak from heaven yet to us it is very considerable and cannot be denied by those who cavill at some of the other For all men acknowledge the Life and Doctrine of our Saviour to be incomparably excellent and John the Baptist stands upon record in Josephus for a person of severe and strict sanctity and the whole Christian Church who were not so childish as to build their hope on a sandy foundation but stood immovable as you shall hear like a house upon a rock when all the world storm'd and made the most furious assaults upon them believed thus from the beginning as appears by their holy profession which they made when they entred into the gates of the Church by Baptism The mighty power of which WATER OF LIFE they have thus celebrated with their praises Greg. Naz. Orat. xl Baptism is the Splendour of the Soul the Change of the life the Answer of the Conscience towards God It is the help of our weakness the putting off the flesh the attainment of the Spirit the Communion of the Word the Reformation of God's workmanship the drowning of Sin the participation of light and the destruction of darkness It is the Chariot which carries us to God our fellow-travelling with Christ the establishment of our faith the perfecting of our minds the key of the Kingdom of heaven the foundation of a second life * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. xi At this the heavens rejoyce this the Angels magnify as of kin to their brightness this is the Image of their blessedness We would willingly praise this if we could say any thing worthy of it Let us never cease however to give him thanks who is the Authour of such a gift Greg. Nyssen L. de Baptismo Christi returning him the small tribute of a chearfull voice for such great things as he hath bestowed on us For thou truly O Lord art the pure and perpetuall fountain of Goodness who wast justly offended at us but hast in much love had mercy on us who hatedst us but art reconciled to us who pronouncedst a curse upon us but hast given us thy blessing who didst expell us from Paradise but hast called us back again unto it Thou hast taken away the fig-leaf covering of our nakedness and cloathed us with a most precious garment Thou hast opened the prison-doors and dismissed those that stood condemned Thou hast sprinkled us with pure water and cleansed us from all our filthiness Adam if thou callest him will be no longer ashamed he will not hide himself nor run away from thee The flaming sword doth not now incircle Paradise making it inaccessible to those that approach it but all things are turned into joy to us who were heirs of sin and death Paradise and Heaven it self is now open to mankind The Creation both here and above consents to be friends after a long enmity Men and Angels are piously agreed in the same Theology For all which Blessings let us unanimously sing that Hymn of joy which the inspired mouth in ancient times loudly prophesied I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my Soul shall be joyfull in my God For he hath cloathed me with the garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness he hath decked me with ornaments as a bridegroom and as a bride adorned me with jewels lxi Isa 10. This adorner of the Bride is Christ who is and who was before and who will be blessed both now and for ever Amen CHAP. X. Concerning the Testimony of the BLOVD the Second Witness on Earth THE next Witness which comes in order to be examined is the BLOUD by which I told you we are to understand the Crucifixion and Death of the Lord Jesus with all the attendants of it This is a Witness which the greatest enemies of Christianity cannot but confess was heard to speak in his behalf The stubborn Jews who will be loth to grant that a voice from heaven declared him the Son of God cannot deny that their forefathers imbrued their hands in his bloud For in the Babylonian Talmud * Vid. Horae Hebr. in Matt. p. 3â—9 Tzemach David ad an 3761. it is delivered as a tradition among them that they hanged Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the evening of the Passeover and that a Crier went before him forty days saying He is to be carried forth to be stoned for conjuring and drawing Israel to Apostasy If any one can speak any thing for him to prove him innocent let him appear It is an hard matter to have any truth from these fabulous people without the mixture of a tale together with it When they cannot gainsay what we believe that their Nation were the great Instruments of his death they endeavour to find false reasons
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
saying Come and see and his loud voice which they heard saying Lazarus come forth xi Joh. 34 43. By their sight when they beheld him whom they knew very well to be dead obeying his word By their smell when they perceived the ill sent as they rolled away the stone By their touch when they loosed his hands and his feet as our Lord bad them and let him go By all these they were so well satisfied that there was no room left for their infidelity nor much for the Pharisees who knew neither how to confute this Testimony nor how to avoid the consequence of it They began now to despair of prevailing against him any other way then by taking away his life which their malice made them design against the clearest light Though that also proved as you shall see presently but a farther confirmation of the truth they sought to obscure by his rising again from the dead And they could have found in their hearts to have killed Lazarus too because as long as he lived he would proclaim this Miracle to the honour of Jesus who hereby gave such an illustrious testimony that he was the Authour of Eternall Life that just when he was going to raise up Lazarus he inculcates this Doctrine as the fittest season to impress it upon them xi Joh. 25 26. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Martha it seems believed this before upon a perswasion that he was the Christ the Son of God that should come into the world ver 27. But when she saw Lazarus come out of his grave then sure she believed it more strongly both because it was a farther argument that he was the Christ and likewise included in it that very thing which he propounded to her belief viz. that He was the Life and would give life unto those who were dead if they believed on him I shall conclude this part of the SPIRIT 's Testimony with those words of our Lord himself viii Joh. 50. where he protests that he sought not his own glory that is assumed not to himself this great power to be the Life of the world but God the Father sought it i. e. perswaded the world of it by the illustrious Miracles which he wrought whereby the Father honoured him as he says ver 54. and passed such a judgment on him that we may all conclude as he doth ver 51. Verily verily if a man keep his words he shall not see death II. Of which we shall be the more confident if we adde now the other Witness of the SPIRIT to him which was in raising him from the dead and giving him Glory at God's right hand This was a greater Wonder then all that preceded sufficient to satisfie those who still remained doubtfull For if any body as St. Greg. Nyssen discourses in the Book before mentioned should use those words of our Lord in another case and apply them to this business saying Physician cure thy self it is but meet that he who did such wonders on other mens bodies to prove a Resurrection should give an example of it in his own We have seen one nigh to death another newly dead a young man ready to be laid in his grave and Lazarus already rotten all these by his word recalled to life Let us see one live again who was wounded and had his heart pierced and his bloud shed one who we are sure was dead Come then and look upon Jesus himself whose hands and feet were pierced into whose side a spear was thrust Come and look upon him who bled to death And if this man was raised from the dead nay more then that ascended into heaven as abundance of credible witnesses testifie what doubt is there left that by him God will give us a blessed Resurrection unto immortall Life if we be obedient to him They that saw the one viz. his Resurrection and Ascension could not but stedfastly believe the other and have told us that he was raised and glorified on purpose that our faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 This was the great design and end of first opening his grave and then opening the heavens to him that our confidence in God might revive again and we might hope by his favour to have the honour of being made the sons of God by being the children of the Resurrection That our Blessed Saviour was really dead as the History testifies his greatest Enemies always confessed and still acknowledge He hung a long time upon the Cross there he bled and at last his side was wounded with a spear in the vitall parts All the spectatours were satisfied that he had given up the ghost and the Souldiers when they came to break his legs as the manner was found the work already so effectually done that there was no need of it He was wrapt in Cerecloaths laid in a grave and given up by all his Friends for a lost man But that after all this he was as really alive again as he had been before is testified by divers sufficient Witnesses and among the rest by one of his principall Enemies who was throughly convinced of it The Apostles saw him very often they spake with him they felt and handled him one of them put his finger into the very print of the nails and thrust his hand into his wounded side They eat and drank with him they received Commissions from him and after he had shewn himself alive to them by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days he ascended up to heaven in their sight and from thence according to his promise they received the Holy Ghost i. e. in his Name did all sorts of Miracles raising even dead men to life again And after all he appeared from heaven to St. Paul a man that set himself vehemently against him and breathed nothing but threatnings and slaughters against his Disciples whom he turned quite to be on his side perswading him so fully that he was indeed risen from the dead that he became as you have heard a most zealous preacher of it with the continuall hazzard of his life This is a more credible History then any other as it were easie to shew if it were my present business and we may better doubt of all Records then of those wherein the memory of these things is preserved They were holy devout and self-denying persons who report these things upon their own knowledge And they are reported not by one or two but by many of them who met with nothing in the world to tempt them to tell a lie but with a great many things to deterr them from publishing so odious a Truth And therefore if we will not doubt of every thing we do not see we cannot refuse to believe that Jesus did indeed rise again after he was dead and buried and ascended into heaven Which being
brethren He never called them so before till he was after a new manner declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead And now to own them for his Brethren was as much as to say that they should be made the Sons of God by their resurrection and be coheirs with him To prove which new Brotherhood the Apostle to the Hebrews brings that place of the Psalmist now mentioned ii Heb. 11 12. He is not ashamed to call them Brethren saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren Whence he is called the first-born among many brethren viii Rom. 29. Whom he bids them that first saw him alive again inform that he ascended to his God and to their God and to his Father and their Father to shew them that they might safely repose such a confidence in God as he had done and hope to be raised by him from the dead as he was and receive a portion with him in the heavenly inheritance 6. This Relation which he owns to us gives us the greatest confidence to look upon him as our HOPE as St. Paul speaks 1 Tim. i. 1. the HOPE of Glory 1 Col. 27. For it is certain that when any person is advanced to a throne his bloud is thereby inriched all his family I mean are raised and dignified his children especially put into the quality of royall persons though never so mean before nay made capable of succeeding him in his state and greatness Now our Lord hath a family as well as other persons all those who believe on him being acknowledged by him not onely to be his brethren but his children who living by his faith are really descended from him and therefore by his resurrection are also begotten again unto a lively hope of an incorruptible inheritance 1 Pet. i. 3 4. Whence the same Divine Writer who observes how he calls them Brethren immediately shews how he owns a nearer relation to them saying Behold I and the children which God hath given me ii Heb. 13. who in him are all advanced to the highest honour His glory makes them illustrious for if children saith St. Paul then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ viii Rom. 17. Who is not to be considered merely as a single person but as the Lord and Head of a Body or Corporation of men who are so one with him that the raising him to so great a glory as he inherits is the raising and ennobling them A sure pledge that is that the same shall be done for the Members which was for the Head who will not be without them but make them partakers of the same benefit which is bestowed on him He is like the first-fruits as St. Paul discourses in his Chapter of the Resurrection 1 Cor. xv 20 c. a second Adam the head and beginning of a new Creation by whom all shall as surely be made alive as in the first Adam all died 7. Why should we doubt of it since he was carried to heaven as they that received the Holy Ghost testified to appear before God with his bloud for us ix Heb. 23 24. This is a very great argument that we have Eternall Life and that it is in him for this Sacrifice of himself being accepted by God the Eternall SPIRIT which offered him to God presenting him before him without spot or blemish must needs take away sin and remove all hindrances to our admission into the very same place where he is as that Epistle proves at large By this offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liberty and freedom without any lett or impediment to enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus x. Heb. 14 19. Who is such an High-priest over the family of God as is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens viii 1. and being consecrated for evermore is become the Authour of eternall Salvation unto all them that obey him v. 9. vii 28. 8. To whom therefore we ought to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith that he will not fail to imploy his power to make us happy with himself Which you may consider once more he most earnestly prayed for when he was on earth it being one of his last requests to his Father that those whom he had given him might be with him where he is that they might behold the glory which he hath given him xvii Joh. 24. And therefore having obtained such a power over all as hath been described by his precious bloud which he was then going to offer we may rest assured he will not let us be without that of which he was so desirous before he left the World now that he is in heaven with full power to fulfill his own desires For it is unreasonable to suppose that a Friend who carnestly beseeches another to grant us a favour will not most readily doe it himself when he becomes as able to bestow it as he of whom before he askt it But the fear of swelling this Treatise into over-great a bulk makes me pass over these things with the bare mention of them and omit many other I shall put an end therefore to this last Testimony of the SPIRIT with those remarkable words of St. Peter in his second Epistle ver 3 4. of the first Chapter Where he saith as we translate him that the Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises c. The meaning of which in a larger form of words is plainly this Account that grace and peace which I have wisht you in abundance ver 2. from God and our Saviour no small blessing For God hath in a most excellent omnipotent manner bestowed on us all things that are necessary for our future happiness and felicity and for our present conduct in piety which is the onely way to that Eternall life And if you ask me how he hath given us these things in so resplendent god-like a manner I 'le tell you it is through the knowledge of him that hath called us that is through Jesus Christ the true Word of God who hath called us to piety and happiness And if you enquire again how you shall know that what he saith is true and that he calls us not merely from himself but from God who directs us by him in the right way of godliness which will bring us to everlasting Life I 'll resolve you in that also for he hath called us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by so it is in the margin glory and vertue How we come to render it to glory and vertue I know not for it makes the sense obscure whereas otherwise it is perspicuous and clear and as if the Apostle had said The Glory and Vertue which accompanied
thy Majesty O thou most mighty Jesus whose power is not the power of flesh and bloud but the power of God who raises those to life who are dead Great was the joy which filled thy Disciples hearts when they first saw thee alive from the dead and called thee their God Georg. Nâ—comed Serm. ix None can understand the beauty of that sight O the brightness of that appearing What a light diffused it self then through the whole Creation What a fragrant smell did the very earthquake breath forth when like a publick crier it proclaimed the Resurrection What was the savour of the ointment which was then poured out How was the whole world then transformed and made new The Angels themselves leaped for joy to see it How sweet was the sound then of their doxologies With what divine splendours were they then adorned How beautifull did those preachers of thy resurrection appear and how great was the glory and the happiness which they came then to proclaim O those Words of theirs which brought us the news of victory over the Enemy which proclaimed the destruction of Death and published thee to the World the Resurrection and the Life O that sweet and above all things desirable voice of thine which by the women that were carrying spices to thy grave sounded joy to the World The Heavens then opened their gates and received the glad tidings which were brought to us as if they had been their own The Intellectuall powers rejoyced and took a pleasure in our happiness The Spirituall as well as Sensible World was inlightned The clouds of sadness were dispelled from one end of the world to the other and the rays of joy possessed all Guilty Nature put off the robes of heaviness and was cloathed with garments of light The hand-writing of the Curse was torn in pieces and promises of Blessing were sealed in the room thereof By that new Salutation when thou saidst ALL HAIL the world was filled with the sweetest and everlasting joy For thou art the Preacher and the Cause and the very Exultation of all joy the Authour of good things the giver of pleasure the joy which can never be taken away the sweet light the spectacle above all others desirable the intellectuall tranquillity and peace Wisedom it self and Power Incorruption and Eternity Security and Delight the onely unchangeable and inconceivable Beauty Sanctity it self and Honour and Righteousness and Glory above measure glorious O how many Names would my Mind bring forth to express thine unutterable excellency It is onely my weakness that hinders and want of words But thou who art the infinite not to be named Good far above all the titles that Mind can invent who regardest not words but rather an inflamed heart who thy self broughtest the joyfull news of thy Resurrection shine now into our Minds by the bright beams of thy appearing Let us see intellectually the superexcellent beauty of the intellectuall Sun Let us inwardly injoy the incomparable sight of our Lord and Master Let us hear his divine voice speaking some sweet and joyfull word to us O thou gracious Lord come and draw us from these present thiâ—â—◠〈…〉 deeps and 〈…〉 never-decay 〈…〉 the quires of those that keep perpetuall festivals above For thou art both light and life and resurrection and the joy of those that triumph in the heavens To thee it becomes us to give together with the Father and the Holy Ghost glory honour and adoration now and ever world without end Amen CHAP. XII Concerning the Testimony of the Holy APOSTLES of our Lord. THere is nothing now wanting to compleat this Discourse unless it be to shew that if the Testimony of the APOSTLES of our Lord be at all intended when St. John saith He CAME by Water and Bloud and the Spirit as in the former Treatise I proved we have reason to think it is they also bear Witness to this Truth and by them God hath given us this Record that we have Eternall Life and that this Life is in his Son That Jesus had Disciples the Talmudists themselves confess who tell us in the same place where they speak of his being hanged on the evening of the Passeover that they were five MATTHAI Talmud Bab. Tit. Sanhed c. vi NETZER NEKAI BUNI and THODA They do not love to speak the truth but to the Four Evangelists to which perhaps they have respect they have added one more and report not one of their names aright except the first and in the last have a little varied from the Name of Judas the Brother of St. James But thus much we gain from their own Records that known Disciples our Saviour had who professed to believe on him and owned him for their Lord and Master These persons we can make no question would be carefull to communicate to the World what they had received from him because they lookt upon him as the Son of God and estemed his words as so many Oracles which his Crucifixion could not disparage Accordingly there are Books that pass under their Names besides the four Gospels which no man ever laid any claim to or pretended to be the Authour of but onely themselves and therefore we have no cause to think they were not of their inditing Now if you examine them you will find that after his Ascension to heaven and the coming of the Holy Ghost their business was to go about and preach this Truth and the certainty of it to all the World as their Lord and Master had delivered it to them They were so fully perswaded of it that they could not forbear to publish such glad tidings of great joy to the whole Earth It was the very end of their Apostleship and that which moved them to undertake so great a task as St. Paul tells us when he calls himself an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of Life which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. i. 1. appointed by God that is to publish the promise of Eternall Life which he had received from Christ Jesus who would certainly give it to all that believed on him And it is the very Character which the other great Apostle gives of himself 1 Pet. v. 1. that he was a Partaker of the glory that shall be revealed This incouraged him to be a Witness of the sufferings of Christ as he saith just before and not to be daunted as he had been though he followed him to a cross because now he clearly saw he had a right as a Friend of his so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Philem. 17 * Vid. Scipion. Gentil ibid. to a share in that unseen glory where He was which should one day be revealed In this they desired that all mankind might have a portion with them 1 Joh. i. 3. by becoming Members of their Society And therefore it was the constant strain of all their Sermons to invite them to it by shewing that Jesus
motions of the body which lay then as if it was dead while the Soul enjoyed converse and familiar discourse with God In which condition it is manifest St. Paul's mind was so intent to what was communicated unto him that he did not at all observe whether he had a body about him or no. But there is more then this if you mark it in St. Paul's transport into Paradise where God spoke to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mysteries which he could not declare by any words because no phantasms or images of things he had seen or heard here in this world could express them Which is a sign he conceived them without any motion of his brain merely by his Spirit Of such transports the Hebrews themselves talk who say four men entred into Paradise * Sepher Câ—sri part 3. § lxv Tzemach David ad An. 498â— that is by the spirit of prophecy one of them was too curious and died presently another proved distracted after it a third pluckt up the roots or denied the foundation of Religion saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have already touched the mark I am come to perfection and therefore need not mind the work of the Law any longer a fourth entred in peace and came out again in peace Which I recite not as a truth for all these stories are told of men who lived since the spirit of prophecy left them but to shew that they think it not impossible for men to be transported as St. Paul was to whom I imagine they were ambitious to equall some of their Doctours but by the power of the Spirit they might enter while they were inhabitants of this world into Paradise Of the sweet enjoyments of which place therefore they cannot sure be uncapable when they have quite left this body since the Apostle supposes his spirit might go out of it in this rapture when it perceived and understood things without the use of phantasms after the manner of Intelligences 2. Wherewith he was so ravished and so fully assured of future bliss as soon as he died that he desired above all things to be dissolved and to be with Christ which he lookt upon as far better then to stay here any longer i. Phil. 23. This eager longing clearly shews what he expected as soon as he was got loose from this body and that he did not think death would stupefie his Soul and bereave it of all sensation but rather open to it a freer passage into that delightfull place whither he had some time been caught up For it would not have been better for him to depart and to be with Christ if he should not have had the favour to enjoy that sweet conversation with him there which was not denied him whilst he was here He tells us indeed that when our Lord shall appear then is the time when we shall appear with him in glory but before this he expected upon his departure to be with Christ though not in so full an injoyment of him as hereafter This made him so confident and well assured in his perpetuall conflicts with so great troubles and calamities because he lookt upon himself in this present bodily state but as a stranger who was absent from his own country and friends to whom he desired to return even in this way through the midst of many afflictions 2 Cor. v. 6. Which he repeats ver 8. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. So we render this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 6. when he speaks of his being in the body From which I conclude that he thought his Soul which while it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inhabit the body had such a sense of future happiness as made him resolutely endure all manner of troubles to come at it would much more enjoy a blissfull sense of it when it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dwell in its own country with the Lord. 3. Hence you reade that those who were dissolved or rather whose souls were torn out of their bodies by the hand of cruell persecutours cried unto God for vengeance on their murtherers vi Rev. 9. Which argues Souls departed do not sleep and think of nothing that passed here but are so awake as to remember the gracious promises of God which they live in expectation to see fulfilled It may be said indeed that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Souls we are to understand onely their Bloud as the word is sometimes used in the Holy Scriptures and as I thought when I writ the former Treatise * Vid. Chap. viii p. 501. it might be taken here But upon farther consideration I find reason to correct that mistake For St. John I observe speaks of them as persons ver 11. who had fellow-servants and brethren here upon earth who were to finish their testimony to Christ by laying down their lives for him as they had done Till which time those Martyrs were to rest and acquiesce in what they enjoyed already having obtained very great honour For there was given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every one of them white robes Mark the place and you will be satisfied fully that he speaks not of their bloud For St. John saw these Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under or beneath the Altar of incense that is as a Great man hath proved * Mr. Thorndike Rights of the Church p. 95. 310. whereas the bloud of the Sacrifices was poured out at the bottom of the Altar in the outward court They were not without but in the Sanctuary though in the lower part of it beneath the Altar of incense not yet advanced to the higher part of it much less to the Holiest of all They were admitted that is unto a greater nearness to God then others as the Church always believed the Martyrs were though not yet consummated as the Apostle St. Paul supposes himself should not be till the day of Christ's appearing But St. John adds 2. that they had white Robes given them in that place where they were which signifies they were a kind of heavenly Ministers attending on the Divine Majesty or that they had exceeding great honour conferred on them xli Gen. 42. which would have done them no good at all if they had not been sensible of the favour of God therein and lived in great joy and festival pleasures which white raiment also in the holy languages uses to denote ix Eccles. 8. And thus the Jews themselves I observe are apt to speak of this matter making the description of the City and Temple in the latter end of Ezekiel to be a representation of the other World For when it is affirmed by one Doctour in the Talmud * Vid. Coch. exc Gem. Sanhedrin c. xi n. 30. that there were not above six and thirty just men in every Age that behold the face of God and another objects that the Court about the City
called The LORD is there was exceeding great no less then eighteen thousand measures round xlviii Ezek. 35. this Answer is returned that the difficulty is small For some behold the very light of God others onely see it obliquely and have no more but a certain obscure duskish image of it There are but few of the former saith the Glosse there who have the Light in its power but of the other who have a weaker ray obliquely and at a distance there are very great numbers Which agrees with those words of our Saviour In my Father's house are many Mansions as they are expounded by the two St. Gregories Nazianzen and Nyssen and others who by a Mansion understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Nazianz. Orat. 33. c. the rest and the glory which is laid up there for the blessed but suppose some to be in a higher others in a lower condition proportionable to the vertuous dispositions they carried out of the world with them Which being very different they believed some to see less and others to be like Gorgonia the Sister of St. Greg. Nazianzen whom in the conclusion of his Eleventh Oration he supposes to be in the clear light of the glorious Trinity 4. But it would take up too much room in this Treatise if I should enter into that discourse and therefore I proceed to consider that though they made this difference according as we see in a City to follow the former comparison some are accounted the chief others the more inferiour streets and houses and some are nearer unto others more remote from the royal palace yet they did not imagine those mansions to be dark nor those that were in them to have their eyes shut up with sleep but all to enjoy the light of life They lead as another Jewish Writer * Vid. Jo. de Voysin de Jubilaeo L. i. cap. 16. speaks a most sweet life in that light which is the figure and resemblance of the supreme light to which they shall be admitted at the last Thus Moses and Elias appeared in great splendour at our Saviour's transfiguration on the Holy Mount where they talkt and discoursed with him about his departure that he was to accomplish at Jerusalem Which shews they not onely continued in being but had sense and motion and lived in much happiness and bliss Which we are not to take for a singular privilege indulged to them for the Apostles you may observe again lookt upon our Saviour as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exemplar or pattern to which God had determined they should all be conformed viii Rom. 29. And their conformity to him here in this world being so exact that they passed the very same way to bliss that he did through most cruell sufferings they could not doubt but upon their departure the conformity would still hold as exactly That as He when he died immediately went to Paradise where he promised the good Thief should be before his Resurrection so they should enter into the same blessed place immediately upon their death and live there in a joyfull expectation of him to come and change even this vile body that it may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conformed to his glorious body iii. Phil. 21. And this is the sense also you may observe once more of the Voice from heaven which commanded St. John to write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. xiv Rev. 13. With which the Spirit immediately joyned its testimony saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea i. e. it is certainly true believe what the voice says from henceforth or now at this present I promise them a blessed rest from their labours and their works shall follow with them that is they shall be refreshed with a sweet remembrance of what they have done and suffered for Christ Jesus It is uncertain indeed whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be to be referred to the former words Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord or to those that follow Yea saith the Spirit But either way our Church understands it in the same sense as appears by the Funerall office Where referring it to the former sentence the words are thus recited I heard a voice from heaven saying Write From henceforth or Now at this present time blessed are the dead c. They are not onely in expectance of future blessedness but in possession of an happy state already and find inconceivable satisfaction in venturing their very lives for Christ's sake who for this very end as St. Paul observes laid down his life for us that whether we wake or whether we sleep we should live together with him 1 Thess v. 10. There are those who from this word Sleep by which the state of the dead is frequently called in these books there being nothing liker Death then Sleep would inferr the perpetuall motion and operation of the Soul before the Resurrection For it is very busy and active even when all the Senses are lockt up by sleep and hath at that time received very high illuminations from God which is a sign that if the body were quite dead it would not be without them Aristotle I find in Sextus Empiricus * L. viii adv Mathemat p. 312. observes thus much that in Sleep when the Soul is by her self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resuming her own nature she prophesies and foretells things to come and declares saith he hereby what she shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when by death she shall be separated from all bodily things By which consideration St. Austin tells us that Gennadius a famous Physician in his time and very religious and charitable was wonderfully inlightned when he was in doubt whether there was any life after death God saith he * Epist 100. ad Euodium would by no means desert a mind so well disposed but there appeared one night to him in his sleep a very handsome young man who bid him follow whether he should lead him Which he thought he did till he came to a Citie where on the right side he was saluted with the sweetest voices that ever he heard which the young man upon his inquiry what this meant told him were the hymns of the Blessed and of the Saints What he saw on the left side he did not well remember but awaking he lookt upon this as a dream and thought no farther of it Till some time after the same young man appeared again to him another night and askt if he knew him To which he answering Yes very well he askt him where he had seen him And Gennadius presently related how by his conduct he was once led to hear the hymns and see the sight before mentioned Here the young man askt him whether he saw and heard what he related in his sleep or waking In my sleep said Gennadius True said the other and now thou seest me in thy sleep dost thou not To which he consenting his instructer proceeded to ask
him Where is thy body now In my bed-chamber said Gennadius Dost thou know then replied the young man that thy eyes are now bound up and shut and lie idle in that body so that with them thou seest nothing I know it said Gennadius What eyes then are these said his instructer again wherewith thou seest me Here Gennadius being silent not knowing what to say the young man laid hold of this occasion to open to him the meaning of all these questions saying Those eyes of thy flesh which is asleep and lies in thy bed have no imployment and doe nothing at all and yet thou hast eyes wherewith thou seest me Just so when thou art dead and the eyes of thy flesh are put out and can doe nothing vita tibi inerit quâ vivas sensúsque quo sentias there will be life in thee whereby to live and sense whereby to perceive Beware now hereafter how thou doubtest that life remains after death And thus that faithful man told St. Austin the Providence and mercy of God quite removed his doubt But I shall not insist on such reasons as these my intention being onely to shew what we learn from the Apostles the faithfull Witnesses of Jesus Christ to confute that drowzy conceit of the Sleep of the Soul which like a thistle sprung up first * Euseb Hist Eccles L. vi c. 37. in the wild deserts of Arabia but ought not to be suffered to grow in the Garden of God In which this Doctrine of the Apostles I might shew hath been so deeply rooted that to testify the Churche's belief of it was one great end of the Commemorations and Prayers which were made for the faithfull departed this life So we learn from Epiphanius his confutation of Aerius who did not approve of this practice The very first account he gives of it is that those who were present might believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haeres lxxv n. 7. c. that they who were departed live and are not gone out of being but exist and live with the Lord. And they did not suppose I may adde that those whom they remembred in their sacred offices were frying in the flames of hell as the present Roman Church doth but in a state of happiness though imperfect and some more imperfect then other This we learn from the Service of the Church in those days especially at the funeralls of the departed Whensoever they celebrated the dreadfull mysteries together with the holy Martyrs and Confessours and Priests whom they commemorated they prayed for the whole World for which Christ's bloud was an expiation not forgetting those who slept in him whom the Priest desired those who were present to remember For we are all one body saith St. Chrysostome * Hem. xli in 1 Corinth p. 524.20 who reports this though one member be brighter then another and therefore they desired all might have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pardon and consolation Which they hoped they had it is plain from the Funerall Office which in great part was Eucharisticall consisting of Psalms and Hallelujahs So the same great person informs us in his Commentaries on the Epistle to the Hebrews where he takes occasion from those words ii 15. deliver them who through fear of death c. to reprehend the bitter lamentations and wailings of those who mourned for their dead friends as altogether inconsistent with what the Church did at their funeralls Where the bright lamps * Hâ—m iâ— p. 453 35. 454. 10. they saw burning proclaimed that they attended them as valiant champions and the hymns that were sung glorified God and gave him thanks for crowning him that was departed and for freeing him from his labours and for delivering him from a state of fear that he might have him with himself Are not the hymns saith he for this end is not this the meaning of the singing Psalms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all these things are proper to those that rejoyce according to that of St. James Is any well-pleased let him sing Psalms And a little after he bids them mind what they sung at those solemnities Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and I will fear no evills for thou art with me and again Thou art my refuge from the affliction that compasseth me about This was part of the Funerall-service to which he tells them they did not attend but were drunk with sorrow or else they would not have made such lamentations For to say Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and yet to weep and lament is a mockery and a stage-play not a serious piece of devotion This and much more that great Man there says to shew how preposterous it was to mix their lamentations with those hymns which supposed the Souls of the deceased to be in rest and peace and to partake liberally of the bounteous goodness of God and therefore ought to have composed and comforted the minds of the living who confessed their Friends had made a blessed change of a troublesome life for one full of quiet and happy repose To which the Order of buriall in our Church which professes to tread in the steps of the first Ages of Christianity is very conformable Where we Sing Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord c. and acknowledge that we ought not to be sorry as men without hope for them that sleep in him because the Spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord do live with God and being delivered from the burthen of the flesh are in joy and felicity Not compleat indeed but we pray him after we have given thanks for delivering our Brother out of the miseries of this sinfull world to hasten his kingdom that we with all those that are departed in the true faith of his holy name may have our PERFECT CONSVMMATION and BLISS both in BODY and SOVL in his eternall and everlasting glory But it is not my business as I said to seek for testimonies to this Truth any lower then from the APOSTLES themselves who as they preached the glad tidings of Eternall Life every-where so they protest most solemnly and they were men you shall hear who taught and practised the strictest truth and honesty that they had a most certain knowledge of it and therefore we may safely rely upon their testimony Those words wherewith St. John begins his first Epistle may serve in stead of all that might be alledged to assert this ver 1 2 3. where he gives an account of the reason they had to publish to the world that WORD OF LIFE Jesus and his Gospell as they had done a long time For they said nothing concerning that Eternall Life which it was in the purpose of God the Father from the beginning to bestow and now was manifested to them but what they had HEARD that is received from his own mouth and been
godliness Rom. vi Col. iii. which they supposed all Christians had already felt these men fansied there was no other affirming the resurrection was past and none to come If they had onely doubted of it the Apostle it is like would not have so sharply punished them no more then he did the Corinthians But they blasphemed as he expresly tells us of Hymeneus 1 Tim. i. 20. that is reproached this Doctrine as a foolish opinion and reviled it is like the Apostles who were the preachers of it And therefore he inflicted on them the most grievous punishment by delivering them up to Satan which was not so little as merely banishing them the Christian Society but turning them over to the power of the Devill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as unto a publick Executioner to torture and scourge them They are the words of St. Basil * Homil. in princip Proverb p. 439. with whom agree divers others of the ancient Doctours who think the Apostle speaks of surrendring such persons into his hands that he might inflict bodily diseases or pains upon them to humble and bring them down to submit to the Apostolicall doctrine when they felt the miraculous effects of their Authority For that 's the reason this punishment is called delivering up to Satan because it visibly appeared by some plagues on the body that they were faln under his power by being thrown out of the Church He was as a common Galoer and Executioner in a City or Kingdome the Apostles as the Magistrates and Governours as was said before sitting upon thrones to judge and pass sentence on men either by giving the Holy Ghost to those who sincerely believed or by delivering those to be tormented and set on the rack by this Evill spirit who blasphemed the Christian Religion There was then no other power in the Church to correct and punish them for so high a crime and this being done by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ as you reade 1 Cor. v. 4. was a notable testimony of the SPIRIT to the truth of Christianity and bad all men beware how they spake evill of this holy Doctrine especially of this fundamentall part of it that the Lord Jesus will give us everlasting life and raise us up at the last day The terrible execution which they saw done upon those who subverted this foundation of all piety was a great means to confirm all Christian people in the faith and to make them reverence those who had this mighty power either to give men ease or to torment them to restore men to life or to strike them dead to give them as was said before the gifts of the Holy Ghost or to put them into the possession of the Devill There is a great deal of difference it is observed by Tertullian * L. de Pudicitia c. xiii between an Angel of Satan sent to buffet a man and being delivered up or put into the possession of Satan himself To the former St. Paul himself was by the Divine permission obnoxious for his exercise 2 Cor. xii 7. The latter was the punishment of blasphemers and other horrid offenders for their cure But both served to give a testimony to our Saviour and to settle the hope of immortall Life For by the Angel of Satan which buffeted that is disgraced and vexed St. Paul a great many ancient Writers * S. Chrysostom Theodorer Photius apud Oecumen Ambros Theophylact understand those troubles and sore afflictions all sorts of injuries and reproaches which infidels and wicked men by the instinct of some of the Devil's agents tormented the Apostle withall Alexander the Coppersmith saith St. Chrysostom who did St. Paul so much mischief Hymeneus and Philetus all those that set themselves against the Gospell cast him into prison beat him drove him out of their cities were Ministers of Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they did Satan's business who by such instruments laboured all he could to dishearten the Apostles and hinder the free course of the Gospell Here now appeared the mighty power of Christ which rested as the Apostle speaks or took up its dwelling in them 2 Cor. xii 9. They were never so strong as when they were thus afflicted Then they mightily prevailed and advanced the Kingdom of Christ by whose powerfull grace they endured all hardships and distresses courageously and demonstrated they had a strong and immovable hope of being with him in that blessed place unto which St. Paul was rapt just before this Messenger of Satan as we render it raised such a terrible storm of persecution against him By that glorious sight he was fortified against it and standing as firm as a rock himself confirmed others in that faith which made him so invincible that he gloried and took pleasure in all those infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses which that Angel of Satan stirred up against him ver 9 10. That was all the Devill got by his ill usage of him which onely gave the Apostle matter of glory For when our Saviour pleased not to grant his desire of having this Angel removed but onely told him his grace should be sufficient for him immediately he adds that he would gladly glory more then ever in his afflictions Which plainly shews both what he meant by that Angel of Satan and how much hereby the Christian Religion was promoted and the Souls of believers strengthened in the faith They might easily believe he had been in the third heavens when they saw him so much superiour to all the power on earth and the powers of the air too who conspired to beat him down and oppress him All the art in the world could not so declare the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unutterable words St. Paul heard which the impious Cainites and Gnosticks * Epiphan Haeres xxxviii in a Book of theirs called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning St. Paul's ascent pretended to relate as this inexpressible power of Christ residing in him and supporting him under the greatest miseries which declared those words remained still imprinted in his Mind And that other power of Christ whereby the Apostle delivered up high offenders to Satan that he might inflict plagues and diseases or aches and pains on their bodies as evidently shewed what a great Minister he was in Christ's Kingdom and how credible the Doctrine was which he preached to them For he was ready to revenge all disobedience with remarkable punishments and alledges this power as a proof of his authority in the next Chapter 2 Cor. xiii 2 3 4. If I come again I will not spare since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me He is not weak indeed towards you but is mighty in you having given by me exceeding great demonstrations of his power and my Apostleship xii 12. Yet since you are not convinced it seems by what you have seen already and desire a farther proof that Christ speaks in me you shall
have it I will not spare you that is I will punish you and make you know it to your cost For though Christ was crucified through weakness i. e. according to his mortall condition which he assumed for our sake yet he lives by the power of God which raised him from the dead and gave him all power in heaven and earth You ought not therefore to contemn one because he is weak i. e. afflicted as you are apt to do me for Christ went this way to glory and though we also are weak in or with him i. e. suffer for his sake which is no more then he did we shall live with him by the power of God toward you that is make you feel that as he is alive i. e. mighty and strong now that he is raised from the dead so are we also by the power of God which we shall make use of for chastising your insolence Which plainly shews that these Apostolicall censures had most mighty effects which demonstrated Christ was alive and wrought most powerfully in these his Ministers By whom as he gave miraculous gifts so he miraculously punished offenders and never more terribly then when they were in such a weak that is afflicted condition that it tempted some people to contemn them Then they shew'd their power and made it appear that as he who was crucified lived so did they who were persecuted and despised being armed with divine weapons or engines which were mighty through God to batter down the strongest holds subverting the pitifull reasonings of such as Hymeneus and Philetus and making every proud conceit stoop which advanced it self against the Christian Doctrine 2 Cor. x. 4 5. This they did by the power I am speaking of which baffled all opposers and made them crouch as so many captives to these Ministers of Jesus Christ Who in their externall conditino were mean and exposed to the scorn and contempt of all the world but so mighty and great by this authority that the Apostle saith ver 8. it had not been vanity if he had boasted of it more then he did For this Apostolicall Rod as he calls it 1 Cor. iv 21 * Vid. S. Chrysostom in loc was like the rod of God in the hand of Moses It did miraculous things by inflicting terrible punishments for which no cause but his heavy censure appeared on those who contradicted and blasphemed and was as sensible a sign of the presence of God in the Church as the things which the rod of Moses did were of his presence with the ancient Israelites Great fear came upon the whole Church and upon as many as heard these things says St. Luke Act. v. 11. when he relates how the other great Apostle by this rod struck Ananias and Sapphira dead For hereby they learnt two things Encom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Asterius both that our Saviour was God and that the teacher of his laws had Angels attending on him who were ready to execute his pleasure He would have the lame man walk and presently that grace came He thought good to punish these sacrilegious persons and the punishment in an instant was inflicted These things were sufficient to astonish the most stony hearts and to perswade them firmly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were not words of deceit which the Apostle spake but that God was certainly with him and that the mystery which he preached was true and holy O the wonderfull power of our Lord Christ to whom all things in heaven and in earth and under the earth do bow and obey whose Ministers had so large an Authority that Angels were ready to wait upon their word Great is his power which by such weak instruments brought such mighty things to pass His Apostles say the Gentiles S. Chrysost Hom. iii. in 1 Corinth were men of no account mean fishermen and such like rustick people True and we adde moreover that they were unlearned illiterate poor vile ignorant and despicable But this is no disparagement to them it is their glory and peculiar praise that such men as these appeared more illustrious then the whole World For these idiots these rusticks these illiterate men were too hard for the wise and overcame the mighty and perswaded the rich and great to submit to their authority Great therefore was the power of the Cross for these things were not done by any humane strength Consider a little A fisher-man a tent-maker a publican an obscure illiterate man coming from Palestine a far distant country encounter with the Philosophers at their own doors with the Rhetoricians with the ablest speakers and in a short time put them all down though infinite dangers opposed them and nature fought against them and length of time and old customes mightily resisted them and Daemons also armed themselves and the Devil mustered up his forces and moved all things Kings Rulers People Nations Cities Barbarians Grecians Philosophers Rhetoricians Sophisters Oratours Laws Judgment-seats all manner of Punishments a thousand sorts of deaths But all these were no more able to stand before the breath of these poor Fishermen then the small Dust before the blast of powerfull Winds How came it about that the weak thus overcame the strong that twelve naked men not onely encountred but vanquisht those that were so well armed If you should see twelve men unskilled in warlike affairs and not onely unarmed but weak in body attack an infinite host of well-disciplin'd and well-appointed souldiers and receiving a thousand darts should not be wounded nor have any harm but should take some of their opposers prisoners and kill others and disperse all would any one think this was done by humane means And yet the trophee's of the Apostles are far more admirable For it is not so strange for a naked man not to be wounded as for an obscure an illiterate person a fisher-man to baffle so much wit and eloquence and not to be hindred in their preaching neither by their own small number and poverty nor by the dangers they met withall nor by the prepossession of custome nor by the austerity of the things they commanded nor by daily deaths nor by the multitude of those that were in errour nor by the dignity of those that miss-led them Who would not admire that mouth of St. Id. Homil ult in Ep. ad Roman Paul by which Christ was preached and a light broke forth more amazing then lightning and a voice more terrible even to Devils then any clap of thunder This voice brought them bound like slaves this purged the world this cured diseases and threw out wickedness and introduced the truth What good was there which was not done by that mouth of his It drove away devils it unloosed sins it stopt the mouth of tyrants it silenced the tongues of Philosophers it brought the world near to God it perswaded Barbarians to Christian wisedome it set all things in order on earth and had a power also
in heaven binding whom it would and loosing there according to the power given him As a lion let loose among a company of foxes so did he fall upon the societies of Daemons and Philosophers and like a thunderbolt struck through all the armies of the Devill who was so afraid of him that he trembled at his shadow and ran away if he did but hear his voice He delivered the incestuous Corinthian to him being far distant from the place and again he snatcht him out of his hands being perfectly acquainted with his devices And in like manner he taught others by the same severity not to blaspheme But let us not content our selves merely to admire him let us not onely be astonisht at him let us imitate and follow him What though we cannot doe such miracles as the Apostles did and there is no hunger and other miseries to be endured the times being peaceable and quiet God be blessed yet there is their piety and the holiness of their life to be transcribed which was no less admirable And this is the noblest conflict this is the syllogism which cannot be contradicted this by our Works Should we discourse never so excellently but live no better then others we gain nothing For unbelievers do not mind what we say but what we doe saying Do thou first of all follow thine own words and then perswade others For if thou tellest us of millions of good things in the other world but art so intent upon the things of this as if there were no other we believe thy works rather then thy words For when we see thee greedy to snatch other mens goods bitterly bewailing thy friends deceased and in many other things offending how shall we believe thee that there is a Resurrection Thus unbelievers are hindred from being Christians And therefore having seen how glorious our Saviour is Id. Homil. xii in Johan being instructed in his Religion and made partakers of so great a gift let us lead a life agreeable to our principles that so we may injoy those good things which Christ hath promised For He therefore appeared not onely that his Disciples might behold his glory in this world as they say they did i. Joh. 14. but also in the world to come For I will saith he that where I am they may be and see my glory And if he appeared so illustriously here what shall we say of his glory there O happy thrice happy they more happy then can be expressed who shall be thought worthy of that glory Which if we should be so unhappy as not to see better had it been for us if we never had been born To what purpose do we live and breath what are we if we miss of that Light if we may not be permitted then to see our Lord and Master If those who enjoy not the light of the Sun lead a life more bitter then death how miserable will their condition be who are deprived of that light This loss will be punishment sufficient though this is not all they must expect For being banished from this Light they shall not onely be cast into outer darkness but there burn perpetually and miserably consume and gnash their teeth and suffer a thousand other miseries Let us awake therefore let us look about us let us use our utmost endeavours that we may enjoy the happiness Christ designs for us and be far remote from the river of fire which runs with great noise before the dreadful tribunall Into that if we fall there is no redemption And therefore let us purify our life let us make it bright and shining so that we may have boldness of access to the blessed sight of our Lord and obtain the promised good things through the grace and loving-kindness of Christ Jesus by whom and with whom to the Father and the Holy Ghost be glory world without end Amen CHAP. XIII The Vse we are to make of this RECORD I. AND in the very entrance of so pious a design to improve the great grace which Heaven hath bestowed on us it becomes us to stand amazed at the transcendent love of God our Saviour who not contenting himself to have thoughts and intentions of good towards such wretched Sinners hath been pleased to make us a gracious promise that he will bless us and to acquaint us by no less Messenger then his own Eternall Son appearing from heaven in our flesh with the secret purposes of his heart to give us the greatest Blessedness There is nothing so astonishing as this whether we consider the incomparable excellency of the Good he designs us or the favour he hath done us in revealing it to us or the glory of that person by whom he reveals it or the certainty we have that this is a true report that God hath given to us Eternall Life and this Life is in his Son O most joyfull news shall we poor mortalls live for ever and live there where Jesus is May such as we presume to expect such glory honour and immortality as he hath brought to light by his Gospell O wonderfull love which might have concealed its kindness and yet eternally obliged us It had been enough if we had got to heaven without knowing before-hand we should be so happy Why should such offenders injoy the comfort of hoping for so great a Happiness while we are here in these earthly prisons Might we not have been well contented to creep upon our hands and knees to so high a glory Had we not been fairly used if with our heads hanging down and not daring so much as to lift up our eyes to that holy place we had travelled through this world and at last found our selves beyond all expectation at rest with Jesus But O the love of God which hath bid us hold up our heads and look above and behold our Lord in his glory and hope well yea be confident that he hath seated us together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus We are indebted to him beyond all thoughts for promising us so freely out of his exceeding great love and giving us so evident a right to such glory and honour as our own unworthiness and guilt forbad us to promise our selves or to have the least expectance of And what is it that he hath so freely promised To look into that high and holy place where he is at some distance to behold his glory to have an Angel come sometimes to visit us and bring us some message from him in some of the suburbs of heaven And a great favour too I assure you A very singular kindness it ought to be esteemed if we vile wretches may be permitted to be so happy as but to come near the gates of the celestiall palace Well would it be for us to come but within the sound of those melodious hymns which the heavenly host continually sing or to live but in some of the most remote corners of that heavenly countrey and there enjoy for
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
then all the glorious host of heaven are such things as they had no imagination of who expected the coming of Christ Much less did they think of being so promoted by him in his heavenly Kingdome that they should at last arrive at the same glory and this clod of earth should be lifted up to the dwellings of Angels and there be fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ himself These are things as St. Austin you heard said before which are proper to the revelation of the Gospell wherein we reade this unheard-of love so plainly that every child may understand it But without this revelation even they that have got the words sink into the dullest and most gross apprehensions of the future State The Mahometans use these very words to express the felicity they expect in their Paradise saying God hath prepared for his servants such things as eye hath not seen nor the ear heard nor have come up into the heart of man * D. Pocock not ad Gregor Abul Pharaj p. 292. But they mean onely as they themselves explain it virgins with fairer and larger eyes then ever they beheld in this world and such like things which I am ashamed to name beyond which these blockish vicious Arabians were not able to lift their minds They are the words of Maimonides upon this occasion who talks more rationally I shew'd in the beginning of this Treatise then many of his Brethren in whom we find conceptions of the state of the other life little less sensuall then these of Mahomet Blessed be God therefore should we say who hath revealed these unseen unheard-of inconceivable things to his Apostles by his Spirit and made us understand what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints We can never thank him enough who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his leve By whom we understand that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdom of God but we shall be changed and made spirituall and heavenly after the image of him who is the Lord from heaven III. And we are bound to the love of God above all other men in another regard also because he hath given us such Records such Witnesses of this Eternall life far greater then ever the World had seen or heard of before When men saw Abel that first-fruit of righteousness as Theodoret calls him hastily pluckt by the hand of violence before it was ripe and his murtherous Brother Cain survive and take root and build cities there was great danger that men should be tempted to think it was in vain to serve God faithfully there being as yet no hope of the Resurrection to 〈◊〉 mars Souls And therefore God was 〈◊〉 for this reason as * 〈…〉 Theodoret thinâ—â— to manslate Enocâ— a man whose play â—â—â—dingly pleased him to the othere world de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might comfort the hearts of thâ—se who resolutely opposed vice and coâ—â—â—nded for vertue in a wicked Age. And this was apt to revive in all mâ—â—s minds a belief of his Providence and perswade them that piety never went unrewarded but that he who thus honoured Enoch had taken care to recompense righteous Abel Such was the grace of God to men before the law And afterward when the Israelites were greatly degenerate and faln into Idolatry Elias their Prophet was carried in a chariot of fire by a whirlwind into heaven These things were mighty incouragements to good men and were apt to confirm all in the belief of a future life But who is there whose name stands upon record to testify that he saw Enoch snatcht from this mortall life and taken up to God And of Elias his transportation what witness is there more then one till our Saviour's time when three of his Apostles beheld him and Moses too which was more then they knew of appear in glory Whereas we have no â—â—ss then Six Witnesses three in Heaven and three on Earth who many ways testify to us that Jesus is gone into heaven and which is more is on the right hand of God Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him 1 Pet. iii. 22. All his Apostles likewise saw him ascend thither and he hath appeared to more then one of them since his supereminent exaltation What a vast difference hath his goodness made between us and former times They beheld something of the life to come in Enoch justorum translationem praemonstrans as Irenaeus * Lib. v. cap. 5. speaks who foreshewed the translation of the just but we see it clearly in the Son of God who hath promised to take us up to himself They saw a few beams of this glory in the face of Moses which shone on them when he came down from the Mount but we in the face of Jesus Christ who all the time he was among men shone in such illustrious works that they beheld his glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father and after he ascended to heaven appeared severall times from thence in a light above the brightness of the Sun at mid-day What a vast difference is there between our times and theirs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For faith then was in Shadows as St. Greg. Naz * Orat. xx p. 366. speaks of Enoch's translation and they had not the things themselves clearly revealed to them as we have by the grace of the Gospell which when it appeared was so bright and full of glory that it scattered nay consumed as the other Gregory * Gregor Nyssen Hom. v. in Cantic p. 642. speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that duskish umbratick representation in types and figures and inlightned all places with the beams of that true light of life and immortality And more then this there is not the least evidence no syllable of any record which testifies that any of these persons had life in themselves to give to their friends or so much as help them forward to Eternall Life No nor do they say that others who fear God shall have the same felicity to which they were carried though their very going thither put pious men in hope of being happy with them in heaven Whereas we have abundant testimonie in so many words that Jesus hath life in himself and is the Resurrection and the Life that we shall live by him and with him that none shall perish who believe on him nor any be able to pluck them out of his hands that He himself will raise them up at the last day and give unto them eternall life v. Joh. 26. vi 57. x. 28. xi 25. vi 40 44 54. Then indeed in those old times was the Infancy of the World and being little Children though they were heirs yet they differed not much from Servants They knew not what their Father intended for them nor understood the inheritance to which they
were born no more then a child does what the enjoyments of a man are till he come to that estate Unto that growth we are now arrived who have the knowledge of God's grace in Christ Jesus We are now the Sons of God and though it do not appear as I said before how we shall be his Sons hereafter yet this we know that we shall be like him when he appears for we shall see him as he is And therefore we cannot refrain from crying out again Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us Let us admire it let us adore it for never was there such love III. But it is not sufficient onely to admire this incomparably transcendent love which naturally excites in the hearts of those that consider it such an ardent reciprocall affection as leads them to an universall chearfull obedience to God's will That 's the proof our Saviour justly expects of our unfeigned love to him He would have us if we be truly sensible of the kindness he hath done us not labour so much for the meat that perisheth as for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life which he will give unto us Take any pains that is to be so happy as he designs to make us which no man can refuse who hath once set his affections not on things beneath but on those which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God And this he may well expect we will doe now that he hath so clearly demonstrated where our Happiness lies and given us such assurance that he lives for ever to bring us to it This will move us if any thing in the world can do it to come when he invites us to take his yoke upon us and stoop to his burthen so shall we find rest to our Souls This Eternall life as the Divine Record tells us is onely in the Son of God part of the meaning of which words is that onely by the Religion which our Lord Jesus hath taught us is this great Good to be obtained This is testified to us by God as much as any thing else that there is no way to be happy but by his Son Jesus who hath shewn us the onely means to obtain glory honour and immortality is by patient continuance in well doing True Vertue is the preparation for it without which nothing is good for us neither health nor riches nor beauty nor strength nor power no nor immortality as Plato * L. ii de Legibus p. 661. excellently discourses should we suppose it added to all these but it is best that an evill man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should live as little a while as may be Which demonstrates again the incomparable love of God in revealing those things to us which are so necessary for the securing and promoting our present happiness in this World Where as we could not be safe without the belief of a Life to come so this alone is sufficient to make the whole World most happy if it were deeply planted in it We are infinitely therefore indebted to the Almighty goodness for making this so certain For this World would be a place full of nothing but confusion disorder and mischief were not the evill inclinations of men over-ruled by a belief of something to follow in another life This restrains them from those outrages which their power many times inables them to commit with impunity while they are here Their bold and violent spirits are check'd and curb'd whensoever they think there is a greater Lord then they who will call them to an account Blessed be God therefore we have all reason to say who hath so evidently demonstrated there is a Life to come after we go from hence and by the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead assured us he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness This belief not onely restrains men from doing evill but which is much more will even force them to doe well It alone is sufficient as I said to make the World happy did we throughly entertain it Let a man but believe stedfastly there is a Life to come in another world and you need not instruct him how to behave himself here That one Principle will teach him to make an exact difference between good and evill and awaken his Soul to attend to those directions which he finds there for the regulating his actions towards God and man And this it doth with such a force that as a man cannot be ignorant if he think of this what he ought to doe on all occasions so neither his naturall propension to sin nor his evill customs nor corrupt doctrines nor the common received fashions among men nor meanness of parts nor multitude of business nor the conceived difficulty of Religion will be able to hinder that man from doing as he ought whose breast is possessed with the thoughts of immortall life Neither nobility nor meanness of birth riches nor poverty of estate freedom nor servitude of condition thirst of glory nor fear of contempt the praise of some nor the scorn of others the company of our equals nor the commands of superiours no gain no loss nothing that we desire nothing that we dread can stand before the force of this single argument if it be settled in the heart For the love of life it self which is the first of all goods that we receive and the last of all that we lose is overcome by this and submits to the disposall of this Eternity of life So that this is an Universall Medicine to purge us of all vicious humours to strengthen and fortifie our Nature and to revive and comfort the most languishing and fainting spirits It is an Engine strong enough to remove the most ponderous impediments that lie in our way an unanswerable reason for any duty and such a demonstration as not onely perfectly satisfies our mind but being once seated there will never go out again The truth of this will be apparent to those that consider 1. That this Motive alone contains all other whatsoever in it there being more in these two words ETERNALL LIFE then kingdoms and thrones and treasures and glory and joy and a thousand such like words can express By which we may judge what force there is in that to make us doe well in which the strength of all other arguments from greatness honour riches pleasure to engage our affections are concentred and united There is as vast a difference therefore between this and all other perswasives to the will as between the beams of the Sun when they are gathered in a glass which set all combustibles that approach them on fire and the same beams scattered and dispersed in the air when they work onely by their single virtue By reason of which excellency it is that it meets with every man's desires and hath something in it agreeable to his hopes And to every one of those men of
and the way to it This was the great end of our Saviour's appearing who brought that glimmering light that was in mens minds of the other world to a more perfect day And upon this errand the Apostles were sent as you have heard to call men to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess ii 14. Which made the Jews so unexcusable that they would not come unto our Lord that they might have life v. Joh. 40. though there was the greatest reason in the world to believe this Record that God hath given us Eternall life and this life is in his Son A voice from heaven I have shewn you often testified as much and so did the Holy Ghost which descended on our Saviour at his baptism and the many signs and wonders whereby God the Father sealed him and set as it were his mark stamp and character upon him that all might know who he was and believe his word as undoubtedly as if they heard God the Father himself speaking to them continually with his own voice out of heaven From thence our Saviour came it was apparent and therefore did not pretend to discover things of which he had no certain knowledge but onely revealed that happy Country from whence he descended So he professes to a very wise man among the Jews who was convinced by his many Miracles that he was a Teacher come from God iii. Joh. 2. Verily verily I say unto thee We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen ver 11. For as he came down from heaven as he farther tells him ver 13. so at that very moment he was there and had a most intimate familiarity and communication therewith and therefore might well say he had seen the things he reported from thence What they were you may reade in the following verses 15 16. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life c. The very same as I have likewise shewn John Baptist testified ver 36. And so did Moses and Elias who appeared in glory and discoursed with him concerning his return to the other world after he had done the will of God here ix Luke 30 31. At that time our Saviour was transfigured an evident token of the glorifying even of our bodies in the other state as three persons of integrity witness who saw his glory and the two men that stood with him ver 32. and were themselves overshadowed with a bright cloud an emblem of the glory to come in another World and so ravisht with the sight that they wisht they might always remain in that happy place Neither was this onely a sudden transport but it made such a lasting impression upon their minds that ever after they lookt upon it as a notable proof of the majesty and glory of our Saviour 2 Pet. i. 16 17. And so did the ancient Christians as appears by the Syriack Translatour of the New Testament who before the Epistle of St. James takes notice that now follow the Epistles of the three Disciples before whom our Lord was transfigured This we are to mark diligently and take it for an eminent token of the glory to which our Lord was to go and which he should be able to give For it relies upon the report of those who were persons of known worth and uprightness of heart who had no design in the world to serve but onely to promote such an important truth of which they were fully assured They appeal to all that had any acquaintance with them whether ever they saw or had reason to suspect any false or double dealing in them and had not rather been witnesses of their honesty and simplicity in the whole course of their Ministry For we are not as many saith St. Paul 2 Cor. ii 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sell the word of God and make merchandize of it to inrich themselves thereby such might not stick to corrupt God's word as we render it and mix their own dreams with it but with all sincerity as men who are authorized by God and have him before our eyes to whom we must give an account of our actions we publish the Gospell of Christ Whom they accounted it a great mercy and favour from God to serve And therefore having received this ministry saith he iv 1 2. we are not sluggish in doing our duty nor do we perform it in a base unworthy manner but have so renounced or thrust away far from us all secret devices of inriching our selves that we do not blush to think of our designs for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are such practices as for mere shame men hide and cover pretending for instance onely the good of Souls when they intend nothing but to get their money nor do we walk in craftiness appearing one thing and being another nor corrupt the word of God by mixing any of our own inventions with it but in a free open and plain manner we commend our selves to all mens consciences as having God looking on us All that know us cannot but approve us if they be not led by passion more then reason and if they do not God doth This he repeats again Chap. vi where he gives a proof of their sincerity in the exercise of their Ministry from these two things first that they got nothing by it but many afflictions and then that they did nothing but good to others in recompence for all the trouble they gave them Of the former he speaks ver 4 5. of the second ver 6 7. and then returns to the other again Which argument he handles also at large towards the conclusion of the same Epistle xi 23 24 c. and once more xii 10. And thus he writes also to the Church of Thessalonica 1 Thess ii 4. who knew very well how faithfully they had discharged their trust and that they did not accommodate themselves to any man's humour but plainly delivered the message which God had committed to them No body could say that they had used any flattering speeches to sooth them up in a vain conceit of themselves ver 5. nor used any colours to hide a covetous design no as to their words and addresses the Thessalonians could testify the contrary and as to their mind and heart which God onely could know they call him to witness it never entred into their thoughts Nor did they seek glory and fame either from them or any body else but despised it as much as riches unless it were the honour of obliging them by communicating the blessings of the Gospell to them and receiving no reward from them ver 6. They might indeed have put them to charge and lived upon their cost as other Apostles of Christ did and that honestly too But He and his companions were among them with more gentleness ver 7. they parted that is from their own undoubted right to spare the Thessalonians and as a good nurse cherishes her children so they
defrauded themselves and took the meat as we speak out of their own mouths for the good of others whom they desired to breed up in Christian piety This shews the wonderfull innocency and goodness of these men who got nothing by the Gospell no not what they might have lawfully and justly taken but onely studied how to win Souls to Christ In short he calls them and God also to witness how holily how justly how unblamably they behaved themselves among those that believed ver 10. The first of which words refers to God the second to those actions which belong to humane society and the third to those which every man is bound unto severally by himself in none of which could He Silvanus and Timotheus be charged with any misdemeanour On which argument he once more insists 2 Tim. iii. 10 11. being so confident of his unreprovable vertue that he desired nothing more of all that knew him but to be followers of him and to walk so as they had him for an example 1 Cor. iv 16. iii. Phil. 17. All which I have the more particularly noted because it is from these men that we receive the testimony of Jesus Who they assure us chose to die the most shamefull death when he could have avoided it and with the greatest confidence when he was expiring commended his Spirit into the hands of God Which is an unquestionable argument that he believed and was assured that he should be with God when he went from hence and be able to doe for his followers all that he promised Which they tell us moreover God justified when he raised him from the dead and carried him in their sight up into heaven and afterward sent the Holy Ghost upon them to testify that he was still alive and possessed of an unseen glory In which they also tell us he appeared to severall persons as I have already related One of which was caught up into heaven and heard such things there as made him wish for nothing more then to leave this earth and to be with Christ To whom the Angels they also assure us witnessed upon severall occasions For they attended him at his birth and in his life and when he died and after his resurrection and when he ascended into heaven From whence he sent them many times as ministring Spirits to his Apostles of which we have very large testimonies in the whole book of the Revelation From all which we may safely conclude that there can no other reason in the world be given why any man thus informed should not believe the Gospell but onely his own desperate wickedness For the things propounded therein are most desirable above all other It reveals such a wonderfull love of God to mankind that all men would rejoyce to hear the news of it were they not averse to those pious and vertuous courses whereby they are told they must attain it Nothing attracts all hearts so much as the hope of a blessed immortality which is testified to us so credibly in the Gospell that nothing could make men turn their ears away from it by infidelity but onely the incurable wickedness of their Nature which will not let them part with those vices which the Gospell says they must quit for so great a Good In one word there is nothing in this Book but what is sutable to all mens desires save onely the holy rule of life and therefore it can be nothing else but their hatred to this which makes them reject all the rest They would follow their nobler appetite after those good things which the Gospell promises if they had not perfectly given up themselves to those baser appetites which must be denied for their sake For if our Gospell be hid saith St. Paul in the place before mentioned it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. iv 3 4. That which the Gospell reports is as clear as the noon-day Nothing can be more visible then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light or the splendour of the Gospell of the glory of Christ By which saith Theophylact the Apostle means the belief of these great Truths that Jesus was crucified that he was received up into heaven and that he will give future rewards This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 splendour the Apostle speaks of which if any man do not see after such evident demonstrations of these things it is his wickedness hinders him And such men after they have long resisted the light fall under the power of the Devil so inevitably that he blinds their eyes Mark as St. Chrysostom observes that the Scripture calls severall things by the name of a God not from their own worth and excellence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the weakness of those who are subject to them Thus Mammon is the God of some and the belly the God of others and the Devill the God of all such persons because they are basely inslaved to the love of mony and of their fleshly appetite and He rules and governs them as absolutely as if he were their God Yet he hath no power quite to blind their eyes as he farther observes before they disbelieve that which is so credibly reported by such Divine arguments for as the very words of St. Paul are he blinds the minds of them that believe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became infidels of themselves and having given themselves over to unbelief against such miraculous evidence of the truth of the Christian Faith God gives them over to him to whose service they have so slavishly devoted themselves that they cannot be recovered but as they deserve must unavoidably perish From which miserable condition let all those who are inclined to infidelity take care to save themselves by timely considering those Divine demonstrations which these holy men of God have reported to us who beheld our Saviour's glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth i. Joh. 14. Upon which words hear what the same eloquent Bishop writes who thus summs up a great part of the evidence we have for the Christian belief The Angels appeared in great glory upon the earth to Daniel S. Chrysostom Hom. xii in Johan David and Moses but they appeared as servants as those that had a Master It is the peculiar glory of our Saviour that he appeared as a Lord as having power over all and though in a poor and vile fashion yet even in that the Creation knew its Lord and Master A Star from heaven called the Wise men to worship him A great company of Angels often attended him and sang his praises To whom others succeeded who published his glory and delivered this secret Mystery one to another the Angels to the Shepherds and the Shepherds to those
be delivered over to the severe tormenting powers but to those that are able to bring us to the inheritance in heaven which is prepared for those that love him Which God grant we may all obtain through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. XIV A farther improvement of this RECORD THE grounds of Christian belief you see are not so slender but I may take the confidence to say that he who will be at the pains to consider such things as these cannot any longer think it a piece of wit to be an infidel It is rank folly as well as baseness there being no reason in the earth to except against these Witnesses and to deny the Faith of Christ an entrance into our minds and hearts For what we know as I have shewn in the former Book by credible report is as certain as what we see and hear with our eyes and ears And what can be better attested then the holy Gospell Which is justly called the testimony of God 1 Cor. ii 1. and the testimony of Christ i. 6. Because God testified these things to us as his will by his Son Christ and Christ testified them to us by the holy Ghost For so St. Paul saith in the place last named ver 5 6. the Corinthians were inriched by our Lord with every gift even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed or established to be a truth among them After which mighty evidence whereby we are assured God intends to bestow so great a blessing on us as immortall Life it is of no weight whatsoever can be objected against this Doctrine particularly against that part of it which concerns the Resurrection of the body at the last day For that Great Lord who said it we are certain can perform it He knew his own power and would not have said I will raise you up at the last day unless he had been able to make his word good He hath also already fulfilled his word in other things which he foretold though no body would believe him till they saw it which is a good ground as St. Gregory Nyssen observes * De opificio hominis cap. xxv to expect this though it seem never so difficult and incredible had he not promised it Suppose saith he that an husbandman discoursing of the virtue of Seeds should not be believed by a by-stander that had never been bred in the country nor seen any thing of that nature would it not be sufficient for his satisfaction to take but one single grain out of an heap of corn and to tell him he should see in that the virtue of all the rest For he that sees one grain of wheat or barly cast into the ground coming up after some time a full ear will never doubt of the fruitfulness of all the rest of the same kind Even just so saith he it seems to me a sufficient testimony of the Resurrection that the truth of other things which he foretold cannot be denied In them we have an experiment whereby we may judg of every thing else that he hath said But to demand that every thing should be made out by reason before we receive it is to make us Philosophers not Christians whose name is Believers And besides the best Philosophers cannot tell us how the Corn I now mentioned grows up from a little Seed cast into the ground or a Man from so small a beginning in his mother's womb or any thing considerable of the manner how all naturall productions are performed And therefore what folly is it to resolve not to be satisfied unless we shew how a dead body can be raised It is sufficient to know that idoneus est reficere qui fecit as Tertullian speaks in this case He that made it at first is able to make it again It being more as he goes on to make then to re-make to give a beginning to a thing then to restore it after it is dissolved And we have this also to satisfy us that multitudes saw our Saviour raise men from the dead and by other miraculous works demonstrate that he wants not power to doe any thing he hath promised His word may well be taken for any thing to come who hath already done such wonders as are credibly reported to us by those that were spectatours of them in the Gospell And it is very remarkable how he deals with us as a Mother doth with her Child Greg. Nyss ibid. into whose tender mouth she first thrusts her breast to nourish it with milk and when the teeth come gives it bread and when it is grown stronger feeds it with solid meat Even so our Blessed Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. beginning with lower Miracles at the first prepares our faith by degrees for the highest He began with the cure of desperate diseases in which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he prefaced to his power of raising the dead For that which men thought impossible he shew'd hereby was not incredible Who could have thought that one sick of a burning fever should be made so well by speaking a word as to rise presently and minister to the company yet Simon 's wife's mother was an instance of this Miraculous power in our Saviour Who added something to this Miracle when he restored the Nobleman's son to health though he was at the point of death as his Father thought iv Joh. 47. and this without touching or coming near him For he did not stir from the place where he was at Cana and yet sent life to him as far as Capernaum by the sole power of his command After which he proceeded to an higher Miracle for he restored another Ruler's daughter to life who died before he came to her rescue And again he exceeded this Miracle by raising up the woman's son of Naim when he was carrying out to be buried And at last as hath been before observed he raised his wonder-working power so high that he called Lazarus out of his grave when he had been dead four days Thus he raises our minds by little and little to the highest pitch of Faith to believe that is the Resurrection of the dead He teaches us to expect that in generall the experiment of which he hath shewn in particulars For as the Apostle faith 1 Thess iv 16. the Lord shall descend with a shout c. at the restauration of all things to raise the dead to a state of incorruption even so now he that lay in his grave was awakened by the voice of our Saviour's command and shaking off his corruption came whole and sound out of his tomb the bands wherewith his hands and feet were tied nothing hindring Is this nothing to confirm our belief of the Resurrection when we have not onely our Lord's word for it but by those whom he restored to life we have in deed a demonstration of what he hath promised
true that Jesus lives and is the Lord of all and will give Eternall life to his servants worth more then all the pains they can take for it but which cannot be wone by trifling and careless endeavours and yet offers it self graciously to those that will accept of it on most reasonable terms which we cannot refuse without the greatest disrespect to God and danger to our selves Consider then I beseech you what is the wisest course for him to take that believes all this and doth not think we have been all this time discoursing of a fiction Is every man that reads these things resolved to become a new creature and to say as St. Paul did after he had seen our Saviour Lord what wouldst thou have me to doe or as the Israelites who beheld no such sights as are set before our eyes All that the Lord our God speaks to us we will hear it and doe it O that there were such an heart as it there follows in every one of us that we would mind these things and no longer neglect such great Salvation For what will become of us if being thus convinced what we ought to doe we should put away this Blessedness from us and judge our selves unworthy of Eternall life God forbid that we should be so wicked and so miserable Shall such glorious things and so certain be proposed to us and few or none regard them A Kingdom a Crown of glory lie before us and we scornfully overlook it Wo be to us that the Father from heaven should speak so often and so loudly and we not hearken to his voice That the Eternall Word should appear in glory and we fools be taken more with fading beauties That the Holy Ghost should descend from heaven and the Devill still carry all before him That the Lord Jesus should shed his precious bloud for us and we not part with a vile affection What is become of our wit where do our Souls dwell or what company have they kept that they are grown so void of all reason Or do they think themselves so wise that they have found something better then God something more valuable then Eternall life and more certain too When did the World get it self made so great a Good On what day was it that it engaged hereafter to be more constant to its Friends Where are the Witnesses and the Seal to this bond Ah wretched fools that we are to let our Souls be cheated so easily of such an happiness or rather thus to impose upon our selves with such weak and childish imaginations Is any thing here grown so big that we cannot see the disproportion between it and Heaven or is this World of such grand concern to us that we cannot be at leisure to hear what our Saviour offers us Have we no greater regard to these Witnesses then to suffer them to be baffled by every fleshly reasoning though never so silly and inconsiderable Let us bethink our selves a little better Let us doe them so much right as to examine them impartially and then if they deserve not belief let the Devill and the World take all But if they declare beyond all exception that Jesus is the Lord and hath Eternall life and will bestow it on those that obey him let us not be so bold as to slight him any longer but go and humbly tender our hearts to him and give him thanks that he will accept them Is his yoke think you uneasy and his burthen too great a load What was the load then which he carried when all our sins were laid upon him what a yoke was the Cross it self and all the indignities that he suffered And yet for the joy that was set before him and which he hath now set before us he endured all with admirable patience And indeed what can be too hard for him who knows he labours for an infinite reward Do we not all part with things very desirable for a small gain we are to get by the exchange And how earnest how fierce are we to drive on such a bargain How contentedly can the tradesman lose his dinner on the market-day rather then lose a customer by whom he hopes to gain a shilling All the traffick in the world is carried on by giving one thing for another and many times upon a little advantage And therefore what makes us so unwilling to part with any thing in the world that God calls for when he offers to give us goods of inestimable value in the room of it It is not a small portion that he assures us in his love but he says we shall inherit all things and that for ever When we have served him threescore years and ten and who is there alas that serves him so much he doth not promise to settle on us an estate of so little as fourscore score or an hundred years of incomparable happiness in the next World though we count it no mean bargain here to part with a Lease of 70 years for one of 80 that is of equall value but more then so many Ages more then millions of lives even an Eternall life with himself in the heavens Is there not a vast difference Is not the disparity inconceivable between what we lay out and what we receive and between the bargains we are so greedy of here and this happy exchange which God offers us Why then is it neglected as if it were too dear at the rates on which it is proposed Are we not willing to give so much for it Or is not the security good which God gives us for those heavenly possessions Look over the Evidences again which we have examined and you will be ashamed to call them in question And if you be satisfied it will be a greater shame not to pursue this gainfull purchace with the same eagerness care and diligence that we do our severall imployments in this world We ought to account that day best spent not wherein we have got the most money but wherein we have made some considerable improvement in true wisedom and done some singular service to our Lord Jesus who is our hope And in all our externall affairs let us exercise such justice charity thankfulness and contented humility that we may be able to say if any body ask us what we are doing We work for Eternity And that we may doe so and not like Esau sell our inheritance for a mess of pottage which will not be worth the tears it will cost us in this world if ever we reflect upon our folly let us often cast our eyes upon this Happiness frequently meditate on the joy of our Lord and study seriously those holy Writings wherein these precious promises are recorded The Jews are so proud of their Law which hath no such Jewels in it neither that they fansy the Angels contended with Moses about it and would needs perswade him that it belonged to them * Pirke Elâ—â—zer Cap. XLVI I am sure St.
Peter says that those heavenly Ministers have so great a value for the Gospell that they desire to look into these things wondering that we Gentiles should be made not onely fellow-citizens with the Saints but equall to themselves They rejoyced when they heard the good news that our Lord was come down to men and it seems he hath told us things beyond all their expectation Shall not we then set a due esteem upon them and look into them and consider them who have them so near unto us and are so much concerned in them Then it were better for us if we had no eyes or if we lived in those places where no such things are to be seen for none will be so miserable as they that might have been exceeding happy and chose to remain miserable and that when so few thoughts would have secured their happiness For there is no way to be undone but onely by not believing or not considering the Gospell of God's grace Secure but these two passages and strict piety will necessarily be our imployment and Eternall Life our reward No temptation will be strong enough to make us neglect our work and I am sure faithfull is he who hath promised and will not fail to pay us more then our wages VI. And what now remains but to put those in mind who obediently believe in the Lord Jesus what cause they have to entertain themselves beforehand with great joy in the comfortable expectation of God's mercy in Him to Eternall life Let all his true-hearted Disciples who hear his voice and follow him rejoyce yea let them be glad in him with exceeding joy Let them say O how great is the goodness of God! how rich are those blessings which he hath laid up for them that love him how exceeding great and precious are the promises he hath made them Our calling in Christ Jesus how high is it what is there nobler then his kingdom and glory To which also he hath called us by glory and vertue Heaven and earth concur in the most glorious and powerfull manner to give us assurance that it shall be well exceeding well with all those that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Why should we suffer our selves then to be dejected at any accident in this world which falls cross to us Shall we take pet when any thing troubles us and let our spirits die within us who have such glorious hopes to live upon and mightily support us Jesus is alive He is alive for evermore And in him is Eternall life for all his followers The Father the Word the Holy Ghost are come to comfort us with this joyfull news The Water the Bloud and the Spirit all say the same and ask us why we are so sad when life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospell It is the desire of the Lord Jesus that we would not mourn as though he still lay in his grave and could doe nothing for us He is certainly risen and gone into the heavens where God hath made him exceeding glad with his countenance And it will adde to his joy if it be capable of increase to see us rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory And therefore let us doe him the honour to glory in his holy Name and let us say alway Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. i. 3 4. We ought to say so with joyfull hearts even when death it self approaches which of all other is the most frightfull Enemy of mankind but is made our Friend by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospell 2 Tim. i. 10. Which hath given us as the same Apostle saith such everlasting consolation that it would be a great reproach to it to receive Death timorously which Wise men before our Saviour came concluded might be for any thing they knew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of all goods Our Lord assures us they were right in their conjectures and hath made that certain which Socrates whose words those are left doubtfull Plato Apolog Socr. And therefore we ought not to leave the world as if it were the greatest unhappiness that could befall us It is for him onely to fear death as St. Cyprian speaks * L. de Mortalitate p. 208. who would not go to Christ and he onely hath reason to be unwilling to go to Christ who doth not believe he shall begin to reign with him This is the onely thing as he writes a little after which makes men take death so heavily quia fides deest because Faith is wanting because they do not believe those things are true which He who is Truth it self hath promised But though they give credit to what a grave and laudable person promises they are wavering about that which God saith and receive it with an incredulous mind For if they believed they would entertain that which now seems dreadfull as St. Greg. Nazianzen * Orat. xviii p. 284. says that blessed Martyr did whose Death he doubts whether he should call his departure from this life or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his departure of God or the fulfilling of his desire And thus if we may believe Calcidius the famous Trismegistus died Fr. Archangel Dogm Cabalistica saying to his Son that stood by him My Son hitherto I have lived an exile from my country but now I am going safe thither And therefore when a little while hence I shall be freed from the chain of this body see that you do not bewail me as if I was dead For I am onely returning to that most excellent blessed City whither the Citizens cannot arrive unless they take death in their way There God onely is the Governour in chief who entertains his Citizens with a marvellous sweetness in comparison with which that which we now call Life is rather to be termed Death And what if in our passage to it we should fall into divers temptations or trialls of our sincere affection to the Lord Jesus There is no reason that this should dishearten us and deaden our spirits For it is the singular privilege of a Christian to rejoyce in the Lord alway iv Phil. 4. especially when he suffers for righteousness sake In that case the Apostles thought it an honour that they were counted worthy to be beaten and suffer shame for his Name v. Act. 41. And St. James thought their example was not unimitable by other Christians to whom he saith i. 2. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations And so they did as you reade in the Epistle to the Christian Hebrews of whom the Apostle gives
and a glory Let us deceive the grave and make that peculiar which is common By death let us make a purchace of life Let none of us faint in our undertaking nor be desirous to live here any longer Let us make the Tyrant despair of moving others by seeing our constancy Let him appoint our sufferings we will put an end to them Let us make it appear that as we are Brethren by birth so we are in all things else not excepting death Such was the resolution saith he of these men who did not serve pleasure nor suffered themselves to be governed by their passions but purified their bodies and their spirits and in this manner were translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that life which is incapable of any passion and free from all the troubles and miseries to which here we are exposed It would be too long to relate the speech of the Mother who likewise gave an illustrious testimony of her faith in God and hath left a rare example to all posterity of constancy and patience under the greatest sufferings The Apostle himself hath perpetuated their Memory in his Epistle to the Hebrews and made it sacred to all generations Where it will stand to our great confusion if we should not learn of those who had so great a Faith under so dark a revelation What would not these persons have done saith the forenamed Father if they had lived in our times who were so courageous before the sufferings of Christ and the glory I may adde that followed after If without example they behaved themselves so undauntedly what rare Souls would they have been with one especially with the example of Christ Jesus Such we ought to strive to be not onely as they were but as we conceive they would have been under our Master Strengthened I mean as St. Paul speaks with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light i. Col. 11 12. And so we shall if the same spirit of faith be in us that was in them For it tells us how Jesus went this way to heaven and that if we overcome we shall shine with him in his glory and sit down with him in his throne and inherit all things There need no more be said to encourage even those Christians who have been most delicately bred or that are of the tenderer Sex to wade through the greatest difficulties Let them but look up unto Jesus and He will inflame them with such ardent love that they will be glad to follow him to his Cross if they must go that way to come where He is This moved Dorotheus and divers other Courtiers who as Eusebius * L. viii Eccles Histor c. 6. reports were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Emperour's Bedchamber and in such high favour that they were no less beloved then if they had been the Emperour 's own children to prefer the reproaches and pains of piety and the new-devised deaths they were to suffer for its sake before all the glory and delights wherein they lived And St. Peter we are told by Clemens Alexandrinus * L. vii Stromat p. 756. seeing his own Wife led to death rejoyced at the grace to which she was called thinking now she was upon her return home And chearfully exhorting her to proceed to the execution he called her by her name saying onely these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 REMEMBER THE LORD That was sufficient he knew to make her constant and courageous It being a faithfull saying an undoubted principle of Christianity on which we may ever safely build For if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. ii 11 12. And it was no less stedfastly believed that they who suffered with him should also reign with him in a greater glory then others as we heard before from St. Paul who saith their afflictions would work for them a most ponderous crown of glory Nay they gave the like encouragement to all those who did any eminent service to our Blessed Lord. They that laboured hard for instance in the Word and Doctrine St. Paul saith were worthy of double honour or reward in this World 1 Tim. v. 17. Which few receiving but quite contrary they were least esteemed as he himself found by experience who took the most pains there was the greater reason to hope to find it in another life when the chief Shepherd appearing they were sure to receive an excellent crown of glory 1 Pet. v. 4. To every Saint our Lord promises a crown of glory as those crowns were wont to be called that they used in times of greatest joy the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added to it which is never used in any other place of Scripture and is that whereby some of the crowns given to persons of desert in other Nations are called denotes I think something extraordinary in the glory of those good Shepherds who fed the flock of God according to the directions the Apostle had been giving them The Martyrs we are sure expected it who building on this foundation that they who suffer with him shall reign with him gave God thanks when they received the sentence of death and went to the execution singing and expired with hymns in their mouths and exhorted others in the midst of their torments to the like chearfull constancy Of all which I could produce instances out of the Ecclesiasticall story but I shall onely set down that of Liberatus and his Monks Who defending the Christian Faith against the Heresy of Arius when they were condemned to be thrown bound into a ship full of faggots and there to be burnt in the midst of the Sea sang aloud this hymn Victor Uticensis L. iv Vandal Persec Glory be to God in the highest Behold now is the acceptable time Behold now is the day of Salvation in which we suffer punishment for the faith of our God And why should not this faith much more easily comfort us against the death of our dearest Friends when we can reasonably hope they depart from us to go into the eternall Happiness of a better World Their gain is so great which they have made by the exchange that we ought not so heavily as we are wont to take our own loss This Photius represents very handsomely to his Brother Tarasius after he had said a great many other things to stop the tears that he shed immoderately for a daughter who was dead Suppose saith he Epist ccxxxii p. 352. thy Daughter should appear to thee and taking thee by the hand should kiss it with a chearfull and smiling countenance saying My Father why dost thou afflict thy self in this manner why dost thou bemoan me as if I was gone to an evill condition My lot is faln
think of removing to a strange country but confidently rely on his knowledge more then our own Let us remember the words of these Witnesses which say He is the Son of God in whom is Eternall Life Let us trust his judgment who thought it more desirable to go away though upon a Cross then to stay here in the greatest pleasure And since all these Witnesses say He is in heaven let us resolve that we will die looking up to him and saying Lord remember it is the will of the Father that we should have Everlasting Life Thou thy self appearedst to St. Stephen and madest him confident thou wilt receive our Spirit The Holy Ghost which is the Spirit of Truth saith thou art glorified and wilt glorifie us with thy self This thou hast preached to us This thy Bloud hath purchased for us This thou didst rise again to prepare against our coming to thee This thy holy Apostles say thou sentest them to publish to the World This thou hast made us believe and wait for and suffer for and long to enjoy O Dearest Lord and most mercifull Saviour who art the true and faithfull Witness though we miserable sinners deserve to be denied yet deny not thy self let not the price of thy precious Bloud be lost let not the Word of the Father of the Holy Ghost thine own Word fail If thou art not alive I am content to perish But if thou art as thou hast perswaded me then I will not cease to call upon thee I will die with these words in my mouth and be confident thou wilt hear me LORD JESUS RECEIVE MY SPIRIT Thus the blessed Martyr St. Stephen expired looking up stedfastly unto Jesus the Authour and Finisher of our Faith who then appeared in glory to him Whose example all the rest of that Noble Army followed triumphing over death in an assured hope of immortall life Which they had not the least doubt of it is manifest from hence that as Clemens Alexandrinus observes * L. vii Stromat p. 756. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very extremity of their torments they gave thanks to God who they knew would reward their fidelity having in this very way consecrated Jesus to the highest Office of being the Finisher or Crowner of our Faith Therefore their heart was glad and their glory rejoyced And they sang chearfully with the holy Psalmist but with a far greater confidence God shall redeem my Soul from the power of the grave for he shall receive me xlix Psal 15. And O thou Lord Greg. Naz. Orat. x. in Caesarium fratrem p. 176. and Creatour of all things especially of this thy Workmanship O thou God and Father of thy Men O thou Lord of life and death O thou benefactour of Souls and dispenser of all good things O thou who didst form all things and in due time thou best knowest how in the depth of thy wisedom and administration wilt transform us by that Divine Artificer the WORD Receive me also hereafter when thou seest most convenient in the mean time governing me in this flesh as long as it will be profitable And receive me in thy fear prepared not disturbed nor hanging back at the last day and dragg'd by force from hence like the lovers of the World and the Flesh but chearfully and willingly unto that everlasting and blessed Life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Id. Orat. xlii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 696. O thou WORD of God! thou Light thou Life and Wisedom and Power for I delight in all thy Names O thou Off-spring and Image of that great Mind O intellectuall WORD and visible Man who upholdest all things by the word of thy power May it now please thee to accept of this Book though not the first-fruits yet the last perhaps that I may be able to offer thee both as a gratefull acknowledgment for all thy benefits and an humble supplication that I may have no other troubles beside the necessary sacred ones of my Charge Stop the fury of any disease which may seize on me or thy sentence if I be removed by thee And if thou art pleased to grant me a dissolution according to my desire and I be received into the Heavenly Tabernacles there I hope to offer acceptable Sacrifices to thee at thy holy Altar O FATHER and WORD and HOLY GHOST for to thee belongs all Glory Honour and Dominion for ever and ever Amen THE END Books written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick and Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Amen-corner THE Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the Principal Festivals in memory of our Blessed Saviour In Four Parts The Third Edition Corrected The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to God Or a Book of Devotions for Families and particular persons in most of the concerns of Humane life The 2. Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend The 2. Edition in Twelves A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Non-conformist in Octavo In two Parts The Witnesses to Christianity or The Certainty of our Faith and Hope In a Discourse upon 1 S. John v. 7 8. In two Parts in Octavo new A Sermon Preached before the King on St. Stephen's day Printed by His Majesty's special command
and ever Which was accomplished also with very great speed as he saw represented by an Angel which appeared flying in the midst of Heaven xiv 6. Having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the Earth That motion of flying seems to signifie the haste which the great Ministers of Christ made who are compared in this book to Angels to publish his Gospel to the world Which had mighty success because it came with authority from Heaven as is represented by the Angels flying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the midst of the air between Heaven and Earth to denote something he had in hand which was decreed above and to be done here below The greatest powers on Earth indeed set themselves against it and made war with the Lamb xvii 14. that is persecuted Christianity But he foretells his conquests even over these Kingdoms who were such furious enemies as to seek to destroy his Religion For which he gives only these two reasons because God had made him Lord of Lords and King of Kings and because those who followed him were such choice persons that their patient constant perseverance in his service to which he had called them helpt to overcome his and their Enemies and to bring them in subjection to him I can think of nothing that can be objected against what hath been said but two things which deserve briefly to be considered One of them concerns this last particular now handled and the other seems to cross all that hath been delivered in this Chapter Against what hath now been alledged from the Revelations it may be objected that this Book of Visions was doubted of among some of the ancient Christians To which the Answer is very obvious That there was a particular reason why this Book did not always go along with the rest into every bodies hands and by that means being not so generally known was afterward questioned because the making of it as publick as the Christian doctrine might have too much incensed the power of the Roman Empire whose downfall is here so plainly predicted Yet it was not kept so private but that it is cited very early both as a Divine Book and as the writing of S. John the Apostle by those who deserve to be believed Justin Martyr had that opinion of it and so had Irenaeus as I have already said and Theophilus Antiochenus and Origen especially S. Cyprian who I have observed produces testimonies out of no book of the New Testament so oft as this From whence he encourages Christians to follow their Master and all that worthy company who had hazarded their lives for him It being the peculiar glory saith he * De Exhort Martyr of our time that whereas ancient examples might be numbred now there is such an exuberant abundance of vertue and faith that Christian Martyrs cannot So the Revelation witnesses I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb with white robes and palms in their hands vii 9. And these he was told are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. I shall not produce the words of any of the rest nor of divers others who without any manner of doubting pronounce this to be the Revelation of the WORD of God to his servant John But pass to the other thing which may be alledged to the prejudice of the whole foregoing discourse For I produce nothing some may say but the testimony which one gives of himself which all confess to be of no validity This WORD of God himself saith so as this very Apostle hath recorded v. John 31. If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true And yet what is all that S. Steven saw or that he spake to S. Paul and S. John but his witness of himself I answer in his own words also which you read in another place of that Gospel viii 14. where the Pharisees objecting to him his own concession ver 13. that a mans testimony to himself is nothing worth he seems to revoke but in truth only explains it by telling them in terms quite contrary though I bear record of my self my record is true The former words are not so to be understood as if what a man says of himself were always false or not to be regarded when he hath a concurrent testimony from others no it may be true though it will perswade no body else to believe it without other evidence That 's all our Saviour means in the Fifth Chapter if he had alone born witness to himself and there had been no other testimony given him it had not been true that is not a valid unexceptionable testimony by which he might demand credit from them So the word true is used viii John 17. in the sence of the Law which required two or three witnesses for the establishing or setling any thing in question They had no reason to believe he was Gods Son but might still have disputed it if he had been the only person that said so and could have brought no other to witness for him And yet notwithstanding He tells them here that even in this case his testimony of himself is true as truth is opposed to falshood though it wanted that truth which was necessary to make it a legal testimony That is though it could not have passed in Law nor stopt the mouth of gainsayers because it was a single testimony and the Law required more than one yet it would have had nothing of a lie in it but his words would have been perfectly true when he affirmed himself to be the Son of God But 〈◊〉 was not his case He alone did not bea◠witness to himself but there were others beside him who bare witness of him and said the same thing that he did as he shows v. John 32 33 36 c. and said it before he assumed this name to himself And therefore his testimony which single would have had no strength being joyned to the other is of great force and ought to be regarded He did not desire to be received merely because he said he was the Son of God though he ought not to be accounted a liar for saying so alone no he referred them to other proof of that truth But when they had heard and considered them then there was reason they should hear what he affirmed concerning himself and not think the worse of him because he spake those words which were no other than the very words of the Father whereby he bare witness to him So he tells them in the viii John 17 18. It is written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true I am one that bear witness of my self and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me That is you have no reason to disparage my
infinite Perfections are his Wisedom his Goodness his Power his Purity his Unchangeableness his Immortality and Bliss and then make account there will be a lively communication between us and all these which will make us partakers of his Happiness We shall not onely enjoy such good things as flow from his greatest favour and love but in our measure and according to such capacities as he will give us be what He himself is Those glorious Perfections of his will impart something of themselves to us so that we shall be like God and bear some similitude to him in Wisedom Goodness and Bliss We shall be filled with Divine joys and pleasures by being filled with a great sense of him and a strong love to him and a lively resemblance of his blessed Nature immutably and immortally without any change and without any end Thus much we need not doubt is included in this phrase of Seeing God but confidently believe that good men shall enjoy all the effects of an holy Friendship with infinite Goodness and receive such communications from his boundless Love as shall make us really and substantially happy like as he himself is III. And I make no question likewise but hereby is signified an abundant Felicity which God from his own most blessed Nature will impart unto us a very copious participation of Himself which he will bestow upon us For when Job says xix 26 27. that in his flesh he should SEE GOD and that for himself his own eyes beholding him not another's his meaning seems to be that before he died he was sure God would deal exceeding bountifully with him not onely rescuing him from his present miseries but making him very happy so that he should not onely leave his posterity when he was gone to enjoy the blessings which God had still in store for him but be made in his own person partaker of them Which prediction of his seems to have been fulfilled when it is said the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before and that he blessed his latter end more then his beginning xlii 10 12. Then he saw God and that with his own eyes when he was thus liberally blessed by him and received such a large reward of his patience In like manner when our Lord saith that pure upright men like Job shall see God his meaning may be that they shall in the highest degree partake of his bounteous Goodness and receive as much from him above all their thoughts as Sight is above all other senses And indeed the Sense of Seeing is so much more spacious and wide then the rest that we may very well think an exceeding great happiness is onely able to fill up the whole meaning of this expression of SEEING GOD. Which may be the better understood perhaps if we briefly consider the reasons for which the Sense of Seeing seems fitter then any other to set forth our participation with God in his supreme Felicity They are such as these 1. It best agrees with those things whereby God is represented to us in the Holy Scriptures Where we reade that God is Light which is the object of Sight onely and in him is no darkness at all As Light is a thing of which we are most sensible and whereby we discern indeed all other visible things but cannot comprehend what it is such is God of whom if we attend we cannot but be most apprehensive and without whom we can enjoy nothing though we cannot declare the inconceivable purity and excellency of his Nature And 2. Sight is the noblest Sense about us the Eye being a work of more curious and exquisite contrivance then any other part of our body And 3. it is the most comprehensive Sense which takes in a vast number of things at once not onely of this lower world but also of the upper And it is a Sense 4. that can longest enjoy the same object for its object is not wasted and spent in the enjoyment nor doth it vanish and die so soon as others are apt to do And 5. it is the principall Sense of discipline and learning which conveys to us the first notices of things more abundantly then the rest and especially helps us to the knowledg we obtain by making experimentall Observations And 6. it affords us the greatest certainty and evidence of the truth of things Insomuch that we are wont to say We will believe it when we see it and it is become a Rule in Law that One Eye-witness is better then an hundred Hear-say's And again 7. it is a very affecting Sense which raises passions sooner and quicker then any other All the Rhetoricall praises in the world which are bestowed to commend a lovely object to us will not move us so much as one glance of its beauty will The Queen of Sheba you remember was led by report to come to the Court of Solomon but when she saw the splendour wherein he lived then it was that there was no more spirit in her And therefore lastly it brings in the greatest revenue of the purest and most long-liv'd pleasures by presenting us with such a vast variety of objects as other Senses who have not so large a sphere and compass to move in cannot entertain us withall From all which you may easily gather that when our Lord expresses the Happiness of pure and holy Souls by Seeing God he may well be thought to intend thereby the strong sense that God will give them of himself and the intimate familiarity we may hope to have with the first Wisedom Purity and Goodness and then the height and dignity of that state to which we shall hereby be advanced together with the vast measure of knowledg and love which he will communicate to us the exquisite and most delicious pleasures which will spring from thence and overflow our Souls the delightfull passions whereby we shall be transported and the inconceivable satisfaction which we shall have within our selves For if St. Philip said here Lord shew us the Father and it suffices what shall we think of that manifestation which he will make of himself to us when we shall be uncloathed and have nothing to interpose to hinder our clear sight of him and full converse with him We are not able to conceive how mightily it will affect our hearts We must stay till that happy day of our Lord 's appearing to be satisfied to what degree of honour and bliss he intends to promote us But sure enough he will come and not fail our expectation The Certainty of this happiness may well be included in our Saviour's promise of Seeing God Who will give us a sure possession of himself and undoubted contentment to the very height in the enjoyment of him and that in an endless life without any disquiet or disturbance without alteration or change without weariness or disgust in a never-ceasing ecstasy of joy and delight to find our selves united to him the Almighty Lord and possessour
of Heaven and Earth the Fountain of all that is good and amiable in this world who here entertains us with so many pleasures that by them we may guess what he is able and willing to doe for them who have no greater care then above all things to please him They shall be fixed in a stedfast sight that is enjoyment of him to their infinite satisfaction IV. And if we mark the words of S. John who speaks this more fully and tells us in the place before named we shall see him AS HE IS which he makes the reason and cause of our being like him they will imbolden us still to seek into a farther meaning of this phrase And since we can enjoy nothing without a knowledg of it preceding we are to understand that to see God as he is will be to have our minds filled with a knowledg of him so clear so distinct and strong that it will even turn us into his own Nature Life and Bliss We shall not behold that is know him as we do now by similitudes resemblances and expressions borrowed from other things which is all our natures are here able to bear but by a clear notion of him formed in our minds wherein our hearts will be infinitely pleased and feel his happiness come flowing into them My meaning may be thus explained As it is an imperfect sight of a man which we have in a Picture though drawn by the most curious hand and strongest fancy and the man himself if he stand before a Looking-glass will in a moment draw an Image more like him then the skilfullest Artist can delineate all his life long especially if he never saw the person but onely had a description of him in a book or by report just such is the sight or knowledg that we have of God in this world either by his Word or by his Works or by the Idea's of our own mind a very imperfect thing and much like the picture of a person which we never yet had before our eyes But hereafter when he will be pleased to appear to give us a more immediate sight of him without these helps and present himself to our mind as the face to a glass this will be to know him indeed and to see him as he is Now as the sight of a Friend when he presents himself to the eye doth marvellously refresh and comfort us and there is a sense of pleasure imparted to us in the very beholding a rare beauty which we are not like perhaps to see any more so this Seeing God is no barren thing but instantly infuses the highest satisfaction and delight into pure hearts who by knowing his blessed Nature will find it imprinting it self as it were upon them and making every one of them to be the blessed Image of it Look what God is that they by the sight of him shall be He will dwell in them as the image of a thing does in the glass And they shall be possessed of him of his life of his joys by having a sensible perception of the Wisedom the Goodness the Purity and all the other Perfections that shine in himself V. Or if this be too hard to be understood let us content our selves to know that to SEE GOD as he is is to enjoy him as he is in heaven that is according to that manner and measure wherein he shews and manifests himself in those celestiall places Pious Souls shall really perceive all the effects of his Bounty Wisedom and Power which are known and communicated in that other world Which as it is higher then this so hath more of God to be seen in it then can be discovered here All that the holy Angels see and enjoy of him all that Good which he lets forth out of himself in that glorious place wherein above all other he is said to be shall be the portion of those happy Souls who may be said therefore to see him AS HE IS They shall not enjoy him in so low a manner as the highest and the most highly beloved persons have enjoyed him in this world where there is but little of him but in the noblest manner that he can be enjoyed so as the heavenly Ministers yea our ever-Blessed Lord are made partakers of him For when our Lord prays that his Disciples may behold or see his glory which the Father had given him xvii Joh. 24. his meaning is according to what I have said of the word Seeing that they might have their share at last with him in his Happiness and be admitted to take a part with him in that supreme Dignity to which he was ready to be advanced And thus when St. John invites others into the Christian Society telling them that their fellowship was with the Father and his Son jesus Christ 1 Joh. i. 3. it is as much as to say that they could no-where be so happy because it is the singular priviledge of Christian people to be admitted unto a partnership with God and our Saviour in their most happy life and to have hopes and expectation to partake with them in their eternall Bliss VI. Which may very well give me occasion to adde that since Grace Mercy and Peace come to us now from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost we may hope in this Vision of God to have as well a clear Knowledg of that ever-Blessed Trinity as a full communication from their ineffable Love We shall understand that Holy Mystery which now the sense of our weakness forbids us to pry into and be able perhaps to unfold how the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost is one God without any diversity or separation of nature Epist cxii ad Paulinam cap. 19. Homil. de Martyre Mamante as St. Austin expresses this Mystery which I durst not in my former Treatise adventure to explain For St. Basil had taught me to mark this in those words of our Saviour x. Joh. 27. My sheep hear my voice that he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hear not question or dispute They believe he is the Word of God but do not ask how nor say if he was alway then he was not begotten or if he was begotten then he was not alway These are not the words of the Sheep of Christ who receive his voice and enquire no farther And I had learnt also from a great Divine of our own Nation D◠Jackson Pres to Cathol Church to whose grave judgment I thought there was a greater veneration due then to the little forward Censurers of this Age that the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is an Argument more fit for Meditation in Prayers and Soliloquies then for Controversie or Scholastick Discourse We believe one Divine Nature in three Persons and that the Divine Nature in the Person of the Father required Satisfaction for the Transgressions of men against his Holy Laws and that the same Divine Nature in the Person of the Son undertook to make
and let it into the dwelling of God as soon as he should put off his mortality There he beheld Jesus standing whereas he is commonly represented as sitting at God's right hand that he might know He was ready to meet his Spirit and entertain it into his heavenly mansions as well as that He was coming to destroy his persecutors and put an end to their power and nation And he saw also the Glory of God as the Crown he should win by his Martyrdom which had as sensible an effect upon his heart for the confirming of his faith and constancy as if he had heard the Almighty call to him and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not faint-hearted O Stephen nor suffer any degenerous thoughts to enter into thy breast Though there is no man to stand by thee no Friend on earth to assist thee in this distressed season yet I with my beloved Son behold what is a doing A happy Rest and repose is ready for thee The gates of Paradise stand wide open to thee Have patience a while and leaving this temporary life make hast to that which is eternall Still thou seest God is in humane Nature a thing beyond all worldly thoughts Thou hast been taught by the Apostles that the Father hath a genuine beloved Son behold I shew him to thee as much as thou canst bear And he stands at my right hand that by the very site of the place thou mayst know the dignity he hath It was a scandall heretofore to many that God should be on the Earth cloathed with flesh But behold him now with me on high in a celestiall supercelestiall condition still having the form of man to confirm thee in the belief of the gracious dispensation which is now compleated Be not disturbed be not dejected though for his sake thou beest stoned Beholding the Dispenser of Rewards do not fear the combate Forsake thy body and despising it as an earthly Prison as a ruinous house as a potter's vessel easily broken come run hither being set at liberty to the portion and inheritance here reserved for thee For the crown of brave atchievements is ready and expects thee Step over from the earth to heaven and take it Leave thy body to the bloudy murtherers as a morsel to dogs Leave the mad inraged multitude and come to the quire of Angels In these words Asterius expresses the sense of this heavenly Vision Encomium in Protomart wherein God shewed himself to this valiant man that he might not be struck with any fear by the greatness of the danger For this cause he did not send an Angel to assist him as to the Apostles in prison nor any ministring power and fellow-servant as he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he presented himself that being the first-fruits of the Martyrs he might leave a noble example to all that followed And indeed what could more incourage them then to hear so holy a man departing the world with these words in his mouth I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God This was a notable Testimony which the heavenly WORD gave that he was possessed of ETERNALL LIFE whereby he animated this blessed Martyr from what he saw Him enjoy to doe as He had done Which could have no force in it to persuade him unless his meaning had been that he should no sooner leave the World but ascend up thither where he was And so St. Stephen understood it for as they were stoning him the greatest punishment the Jews could inflict he called upon our Saviour saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit vii Act. 59. He doubted not of audience when he beheld him who is sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high i. Heb. 3. in another posture Proclus Orat. xvii not sitting but standing there What was the business to use the words of another ancient Bishop that made him rise thus out of his Father's throne He saw this noble Combatant in his Agony and rose up to crown his victory And it was as if he had said Fear not Stephen there is none shall beguile thee of thy reward I am risen out of my throne to reach thee my right hand Beholding me who was crucified grapple with the danger that presents it self to thee I am he whom thou sawest hanging on a tree by virtue of that crucifixion I will reward thee I preside in these Combats and deal the Crowns to Conquerours Fear not therefore those that go about to stone thee they do but rear thee a ladder against their wills to heaven Do not fear them the stones will be but as so many steps to that blessed place where thou seest me It is not for thee to fear the stones who art built on me the chief Corner-stone and therefore canst not fare worse then I do who am in glory for ever and ever With such thoughts as these this good Man laid down his life which is as great an argument as any of this nature can be that Jesus both can and will give Eternall Life to his followers For else a person so full of Wisedom that they were not able to dispute with him vi Act. 10. would not have ventured his life and endured the worst of deaths having nothing to comfort him in his agony but onely the hope he had from Jesus that he would receive his Spirit This was it that gave him such boldness and full assurance of faith With these words in his mouth he would have died but that he pitied those who did not see as much as he did Which made him expire in prayer for his persecutours wishing them no worse then that they might not be hindred by this sin from believing in Jesus and going thither where he hoped presently to be received So the same Asterius rightly understands those words LORD lay not this sin to their charge He doth not wish them absolute impunity which had been openly to oppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine Ordinance and constitution and to correct the judgment and decree of the most Just who hath appointed a deserved punishment to murtherers but he begs of God that notwithstanding this crime he would give them true compunction and bring them to repentance It being as if he had said Do not let them die in their uncircumcision Draw them by repentance to the acknowledgment of thee Kindle the flame of the Spirit in their hearts By the means of my bloud let them be converted that being washed in the laver of thy grace and in thy bloud they may be delivered from their iniquities A most pious conclusion of this bloudy Tragedy one of the principal Actours in which was presently after so miraculously touched from heaven that it was visible our Lord had heard the devout prayer of his Martyr in this particular and therefore had not denied his other request but received his Spirit also unto himself II. For if any thing could be clearer