not require this at his hand Can we think that he would not take care to see this Rest from all labour observ'd Can we think that Adam and Eve the last Piece of the Divine Work did not call their Creation and Formation to remembrance and praise God for that as well as for his wonderful making of the World Can we reasonably and on good grounds imagine any of these things when the very Sabbath was instituted on purpose to perpetuate the memory of the Creation May we not rather say that it is expresly recorded that God blessed the Seventh Day before Adam's Fall to intimate to us what Adam and Eve were to do the next day after their Formation viz. to sanctify that Day in a solemn commemoration of the Divine Goodness to them Thirdly There are several passages in the Old Testament whence we may gather the early observation of the Seventh Day The keeping of it seems to be intimated in Gen. 8. 10. where we find that Noah divides the Time by Weeks or seven Days And so he doth again ver 12. Which being repeated seems to tell us that the Seventh Day was then observed in a religious way by Noah in the Ark who questionless had it from Adam who receiv'd it from God who instituted it to be a Commemoration of the Birth-day of the World of the Divine Blessings that accompanied the Creation It is not improbably conjectur'd by a Learned Writer that the Day when the Sons of God i. e. Iob's Sons and other Holy Men who are rightly call'd God's Sons or Children came to present themselves before the Lord Job 1. 6. 2. 1. was the Sabbath Day the Day when the Professors of Religion met together in the publick Assemblies for even in the Land of Vz they kept this solemn Day they living near the Hebrews who had it deriv'd to them from the Creation Further I desire it may be observ'd that there is express mention of the Sabbath Day before the Law was deliver'd on Mount Sinai To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord Faith Moses Exod. 16. 23. And when that Day was come he thus speaks to them To Day is a Sabbath unto the Lord ver 25. And it is plain that it is meant of the Seventh day Sabbath because the Day before was the sixth day as you read in the foregoing Verse but more expresly in ver 26. there is mention of the Seventh Day which is the Sabbath It appears then that this Day was kept before the Decalogue was given and was antienter than the Laws of Moses And indeed the Fourth Commandment which enjoins the keeping holy the Sabbath Day seems to hint no less to us for when the Israelites are bid to remember to do this there is intimated to us in this manner of expression that it was kept holy before for remembrance hath regard to things past and so forgetting respects what hath been heretofore It might be observ'd also that it is call'd in this Commandment Ha Sabbath the Sabbath or that Sabbath which I have enjoin'd you before to keep The Article here seems to imply so much But however from what hath been said it is manifest that there was a day of Rest a keeping of a Sabbath observ'd before the Law of Moses And if before it then it was by virtue of this Primitive Institution which I am now speaking of and consequently the celebrating of this Day was from the beginning of the World In Paradise was given the Law of Sanctifying the Seventh Day as a Day of Rest and holy Worship as some of the ancient Writers of the Christian Church who search'd into this matter further than others have freely acknowledged And therefore those words Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the seventh Day are not proleptick as some groundlesly imagine but acquaint us that that Day was then instituted and was to be observ'd from that very time that they might be settled in the Truth of God's creating the World and not like Pagans think it to have been from Eternity This then must go along with the succeeding Dispensations Fourthly There was a positive Law given to Adam of abstaining from the Fruit of a certain Tree in the Garden of Eden We must know then that in Paradise were divers sorts of Trees but two of them were of more especial not than the rest The first was the Tree of Life which was called so because it was appointed by God to signify that if our first Parents did obey God's Command they should live for ever It was design'd to be a Sacrament of that Immortality which Man should have had if he had retain'd his Innocence This is clear from what is said in Gen. 3. 22. lest he take of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever This Text proves against the Socinians that our first Parents should not have died if they had not transgressed the Divine Law and it proves that the Tree of Life was give them on purpose to perpetuate their lives The eating of the Fruit of that Tree would have been a means to have kept them from dying and to have made them immortal Yea this Tree was a Symbol of all Happiness as Life is taken in that sense very frequently Wisdom is said to be a Tree of Life to those that lay hold on her Prov. 3. 18. Which is thus explain'd in the next Verse Happy is every one that retaineth her As often then as our first Parents had eaten of the Tree of Life they were to be reminded by it that all manner of Bliss and Happiness was to be entail'd upon them and their Posterity if they continued in their Obedience and broke not the Command of God As long as they â—ed on this Tree they should be void of old Age Sickness Pains Cares and all troubles of Body and Mind till at last they should have been translated from the earthly Paradise to those compleat and eternal Regions of Bliss at God's right hand So that it was a Type of enternal Life and Bliss and a Sign and Seal of these to them if they had not apostatiz'd How long a time this particular course of preserving Health and Life should have continued if Mankind supposing in a state of Innocence had increas'd or whether other Trees of the same nature should have been produced in other Regions of the Earth or whether there should have been some other way of keeping Mens Bodies from decay I am not able to determine nor need we concern our selves about it The other Tree in the Garden which was of more note than the rest was the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil. And they were strictly forbidden by God to eat of This they were by no means to taste any part of it It was call'd the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil because it was to try Adam whether he would do well or ill or because the observing of that Prohibition was to be
these Altars were not to be made of Hâ—wâ—n Stone and the ascent to them was to be made without steps i. e. the Earth was to be laid so as that it should rise by little and little as you learn in this place of Exâ—duâ— 2. There were Fixed Setled and Ordinary Altars for Sacrifice such as those in the Tabernacle and Temple and these were made of Wood overlaid either with Gold or Brass Of this latter sort was this Altar in the Court of the Tabernacle Exod. 27. 1 2. It was made with four Hâ—rns on which they that fled for Refuge were wont to lay hold and to these Horns the Sacrifices also were tyed In this Court was the Brazen Laver as well as the Brazen Altar in which was contain'd Water for the Priests to wash their hands and feet with before they offer'd Sacrifice and before they went into the Holy Place or before they undertook any Holy Work belonging to the Tabernacle This Laver stood at the entrance of the Court of the Tabernacle a little on the South side it had Câ—cks or Spouts at the lower part of it which are meant by the foot of it Exod. 30. 18. to let out the Water for the foresaid use 2. The Body of the Tabernacle the Sanctum the Hâ—ly Place the Tabernacle of Testimony the Sanctuary for it hath these different Names is next to be spoken of Here was placed the Altar of Incense overlayd with Gold on which was burnt Frankincense and other sweet Persumes morning and evening for as there were daily Burnt-Offerings on the Brazen Altar in the Court of the Tabernacle of which before so there was every day Incense morning and evening offer'd and burnt on this Golden Altar within the Sanctuary Exod. 30. 7 8. There was also a Golden Censer belonging to this Altar i. e. a Persuming Pan or Dish to transmit and scatter the scent of the Frankincense round about And indeed there was great occasion for this sweet Incense and Perfumes at the Altar Exod. 30. 1 34. and for those Fragrant Ointments and Arâ—matick Oyls which all Holy Persons and things were anointed and tinctured with Exod. 30. 23. to cause odoriferous smells because otherwise the scent of the flesh of the Sacrifices which was continually burnt would have been very offensive and ungrateful but these Sweet Odors were a preservative against that ill smell This Altar was a cubit long a cubit broad and two cubits high and stood close by the entrance into the Holy of Holies On one side viz. the North-side of this Altar was placed the Table of Shew-Bread or according to the Hebrâ—w the Bread of Faces because it was placed before the Ark where God was present it was thus set before God's face looking from the Mercy-Seat This Shew-Bread consisted of six Loaves set in one dish and six in another piled upon one another These twelve Loaves were changed weekly the old ones being every Sabbath day taken away and new ones put in their place Frankincense in dishes was placed on the two rows of this Shew-Bread and was burnt every week to the Lord. On the other viz. the South-side of the Altar was the Golden Candlestick with seven branches which were so many Lamps of Oyl These were burning all night in the Tabernacle and put out in the morning as appears from 1. Sam. 3. 3. 3. There was the Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of Holies or the Holiest of all as we translate it Heb. 9. 3. the most Holy Place of the Tabernacle And it is also call'd the second Tabernaclâ— by the Apostle in Heb. 9. 7. viz. in regard of the other last spoken of which is stiled by the same Holy Writer the first Tabernacle Heb. 9. 6. Here was the Ark wherein were laid up the Pot of Manna Aaron's Râ—d and the two Tables of Stone which last are also called the Tâ—stimâ—ny and the Covenant of the Lord Deut. 4. 13 23. 1 Kings 8. 21. because God testifyed his Will by them and because he made a Covenant with the people when he deliver'd them to them Hence likewise the Ark which contain'd them was call'd the Ark of the Tâ—stimâ—ny Exod. 25. 22. and the Ark of the Covenant Jos. 4. 7. Some think that Aaron's Râ—d and the Manna were not deposited in the Ark but in some place near it for it is not expresly said in the Old Testament that they were put into the Ark. But it is said of both of them that they were laid up and kept before the Testimony Exod. 16. 34. Num. 17. 10. Now This before the Testimony may signify that they were laid up before the two Tables in the Ark that is the two Tables being placed in the chief Apartment of the Ark the Manna and Râ—d were laid in another place or apartment of the Ark just before them This is the plain and obvious sense according to my apprehension and the Author to the Hebrews confirmeth it for speaking of the Ark he saith expresly that therein wâ—â— the golden pot that had Manna and Aaron's Red that budded and the Tables of the Covenant Heb. 9. 4. Some would perswade us that therein refers to the Taberâ—acle and not to the Ark in particular but such a reference is strain'd and unusual and therefore we need not admit it especially when what the Old Testament delivers concerning this matter directs us to another meaning The Ark was two Cubits and a half in length one Cubit and a half in breadth and one Cubit and a half in heighth The Covering of the Ark was call'd the Mercy-Seat and Prâ—pitiatory From this Propitiatory the Oracle was given yea the place it self was call'd the Oracle Debir Psal. 28. 2. which Name it also retain'd afterwards 1 Kings 8. 6. because from that place God spake to the High Priest and gave Answers concerning what was inquired of We read that these Answers were delivered from the Vppermost part of the Mercy-Seat that place which was between the Wings of the Cherubims which hover'd over this Propitiatory Of these Cherubims let me give some account because it is the only thing here that hath any difficulty in it Concerning these 1. Some have thought they were Images in the shape of Boys so the Hebrew Doctors generally affirm 2. Others say they were Images in the likeness of Oxen or Calves because Cherubim in Chaldee and Syriack is Bos and so is taken in Ezek 10. 14. compared with Ezek. 1. 10. And Ierâ—boam's Calves were in imitation of these they say 3. There are those that hold them to have been Images not of one Shape but of many Thus in Ezek 1. 5. the Cherubims had the faces or shapes of a Man a Lyon an Ox an Eagle Allusively in Rev. 4. 6 7. the Angels or Cherubim are represented under the distinct shapes of these four Animalâ— severally It is probable they had the Face and erect Stature of a Man four Wings like Eagles the Backs of Lions with Mains hanging
right hand of God which is another effect of his Resurrection is expresly spoken of by the Psalmist Ps. 110. 1. The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool which St. Peter takes notice was fulfilled Acts 2. 34. And indeed the Antient Rabbies generally interpreted the 110th Psalm of the Messias And that they had reason to do so is plain from Christs Question to the Pharisees Matth. 22. 43. How doth David in spirit call the Messias Lord which would have been frivolous and to no purpose if this Psalm were not to be understood of the Messias yea if it was not so understood by the Pharisees They might have denied that Hypothesis of his and have reproved him for misinterpreting the Psalmist's words But you see they were so far from doing so that they sneaked away in silence being not able to answer him a word ver 46. they knew full well that they were gravelled with our Saviour's Query and that that Psalm was one of the clearest Prophesies of the Messias and his Kingdom and Offices that is in all the Old Testament Thus all the remarkable Passages concerning our Saviour were foretold his Birth Life Doctrine Conversation Miracles Death Burial rising again and ascending into Glory and we cannot deny but that they were as punctually fulfill'd and thereby the Truth of Christianity is abundantly declared Many other Predictions concerning Christ might be mentioned as that first and most early one of all in Gen. 3. 15. The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents Head which in St. Iohn's Language is no other than this that the Son of God was to be manifested to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Ep. ch 3. v. 8. Afterwards that Message of the Angel to Abraham in Gen. 22. 18. was a Prediction concerning Christ in thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed which cannot be understood of any but the blessed Jesus who is a universal Blessing a Catholick Benefit to the World Of his coming Moses his words are to be understood Deut. 18. 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy Brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken There never appear'd any Prophet like unto Moses but Iesus the Messias the Parallel between which two Eusebius hath excellently shew'd in sixteen or seventeen particulars Yea Christ far exceeded Moses in all great and miraculous Actions as well as in his Doctrine This latter is spoken of in Isa. 2. 3. Out of Sion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem signifying that Christ was to change the Law of Moses as to many considerable things and to establish one which should be more excellent and more lasting That also is a most pregnant place Hag. 2. 7 8 9. I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations i. e. the Messias shall come and I will fill this House this second Temple with Glory saith the Lord of Hosts The Silver is mine and the Gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts with these I could adorn and enrich the Temple but it shall be dignified with some greater thing viz. the appearing of the Messias in it upon this account the Glory of this latter House shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I give Peace saith the Lord of Hosts Here it is plain that the Messias was to come before the second Temple of Ierusalem should be destroyed by the Romans for the second Temple is said to be more glorious than the first though in it self less glorious because Christ came into it in the days of his Flesh and honour'd it with his Presence If you look to the second Temple it self which was built by Zorâ—babel and afterwards adorned by Herod and compare it with the first Temple built by Solomon it was far less glorious than that It was not so rich and sumptuous a Fabrick and it wanted several things which were in the other as the Ark with the Mercy-seat and Cherubims the Holy Fire from Heaven the Sâ—ekinah or Presence of the Divine Majesty the Holy Ghost and the Vrim and Thummim Thus they are reckon'd up in the Talmâ—d tho others say some of these were not lost in the Captivity as the Ark and the sacred Fire but were preserv'd and were placed in the Temple aâ—terwards However granting this to be true the loss of those other things rendered this Temple much inferior to the former one Therefore for this reason alone it is that the Glory of the second Temple is greater than of the first viz. because of Christ's Presence there This is expresly mention'd by the Prophet Malachi the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his Temple Mal. 3. 1. And further you may observe that it is said here the desire of all Nations i. e. Christ or the Messias shall come which denoteth this to us that the Messias came at that time when he was expected and desired by the Nations by both Iews and Gentiles and that was the very time when he was born as I shall shew afterwards Again those Prophesies are remarkable where the Branch is promised Thus the Prophet Isaiaâ— treating of Christ's Kingdom in the 4 th Chap. of his Prophesy hath these words In that Day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious ver 2. Or you may read it the Branch the Lord i. e. the Branch who is the Lord Iehovah viz. the Messias who is God as well as Man Of him the same Prophet speaks again in chap. 11. ver 1. There shall come forth a Rod â—ut of the Stem of Jesse and a Branch shall grâ—w oâ—t of his Roots Which it is evident by the Character that follows can be meant of none but the Messias So likewise Iâ—râ—miah prophesying of the times of the Gospel speaks thus Behold the Days come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch and a King shall reign and prosper and shall execute Iâ—dgment and Iustice in the Earth In his Days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his Name whâ—râ—â—y he shall be call'd the Lord our Rigâ—teousness Jer. 23. 5 c. And with a little variation he repeateth the same in chap. 33. ver 15 16. which if you consult the Context in both places cannot be understood of any but Christ thâ— Lord. Nor can that of Zâ—chary be taken otherwise Beâ—old I will bring forth my Servant the Branch chap. 3. ver 8. And again chap. 6. ver 12 13. Behold the Man whose Name is 〈◊〉 Branch and he shall grow up or branch up out of his place and he shall build the Temple of the Lord even 〈◊〉 shall build the Temple of the Lord and he shall bear tâ—e Glory and he shall sit and rule upon his Throne c. which last Clause
very reasonable to think that this Recovering of the Jews the Second Time is First Particularly meant of the Returning of the Posterity of the Ten Tribes who upon Salmanasser's invading Iudaea were either taken by him or fled into strange Countries There shall not only be a Return from Babylon and Assyria but from Egypt and AEthiopia and even from the most distant Regions Secondly more Generally and Comprehensively it is meant of those Times of the Gospel when the Jews dispersed through all Countries shall be restored to their own Land again and shall be Converted to the Christian Faith This is here called the Second and it is the Last and most Eminent Time of their Conversion when they shall be so Happy likewise as to have all the Gentiles for their Fellow-Converts as it follows in the next Verse of his Chapter He shall set up an Ensign for the Nations as well as assemble the Outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Iudah from the four Corners of the Earth The Sixtieth Chapter of Isaiah treats of this very Subject the Glorious Condition of the Church under the Messias's Reign when there shall be a General Conversion of the Iews as well as Gentiles which is most elegantly describ'd by this Lofty and Poetick Prophet And the 20th Verse plainly shews that whatever is said in this Chapter is to be understood not of the First Call of the Iews which is past but of the Second which is to come For the Words are these Thy Sun shall no more go down neither shall thy Moon withdraw it self Where is promised the perpetual Grace and Favour of God to this People without any Interruption but who sees not that this is not yet fulfillâ—d and therefore is not yet past The Sun and Moon have gone down upon the Iewish Nation though the Light shone upon them with great vigour after our Saviour's Coming and many were converted to Christianity yet since that time there hath been a miserable Defection and they have for many hundreds of Years been rejected and have remained in Darkness and have been deprived of the Divine Favour But though the sun and Moon have withdrawn themselves since the first Conversion yet there is a Time coming when they shall no more go down for as it follows the Lord shall be their everlasting Light and the Days of their Mourning shall be ended Therefore this Place of Scripture is meant of the future State and Restauration of this People In my Apprehension this is a a very remarkable Text to prove it And those Words of the Prophet Hosea Ch. 3. v. 4 5. may well be thought to refer to this Last Calling of the Iews The Children of Israel shall abide many days without a King and without a â—rince and without a Sacrifice and without an Image and without an â—phod and without Teraphim Afterward shall the Children of Israâ—l return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his Goodness in the latter days We see the former part of the Words verified Nothing is more evident than that this People have been many days and are are at this very time without a King c. they are destitute of a Head and Governor they are debarr'd the Use of Sacrifices which were the main part of their Religion But yet they do not erect Images and fall into Idolatry as they were wont to do This is the present State of this People which this Text speaks of viz. that they have neither the Mosaick nor Heathenish Worship however the hearts of some of them may be inclined to this latter But I do not judge them And as for the latter part of the Words they shall be verified in due time the Children of Israel shall return i. e. shall be converted unto the Lord as the Chaldee Paraphrast of Ionathan renders it and seek the Lord by Repentance and Faith and David their King i. e. the Messias as is acknowledg'd by that Chaldee Paraphrast and several of the Iewish Doctors on this Place because the Messias was of the Stock of David and because Christ was typified by him whence he is often called David in the Holy Scriptures This fiducial and penitential seeking the Lord and owning the Messias shall be accomplished under his Thousand years Reign which is here call'd the latter days and in other Places signally the last Days before the End of the World And it is impossible it should be meant otherwise because it is to follow this time of the Jews Exile in which they are at this day as we heard confess'd before by one of their Chiefest Rabbies But I found what I say not only on the Concession of this Great Man among them but upon the Words themselves of the Prophecy which tells us that the Israelites shall be without a King or Prince many days which in the Stile of Scripture especially in the Prophetick Writings usually signifies a very great number of Years as in Isai. 24. 22. 32. 10. Ier. 3. 7. Ezek. 12. 27. 38. 8. Dan. 8. 26. 10. 14. so that the time of their Captivity in Babylon whence they return'd as soon as 70 years were expired is not here intended but some much longer space of time And indeed it could not be the time of their being Captive there because that did not immediately precede the latter Days by which in Scripture are frequently denoted the Times of the Messias the last Age of the World and the Hebrew Writers and Commentators themselves freely grant this Here it is said they shall abide many Days without a King c. and afterwards i. e. in the latter Days as it is explain'd they shall return and seek the Lord their God and the Messias Which clearly argues that the time of acknowledging the Messias shall presently succeed after those many days wherein they have abode without a King c. This could not be any part of the time between their Return from the Babylonian Captivity and Christ's Coming in the Flesh for then they were not without a King Prince or Ruler c. therefore it must be since and the Time commenced when Shiloâ— the Saviour came for then the Sceptre departed from ludah then the Iews were left without King or Prince After this particular Period of Time is ended the Messias's Kingdom shall be erected in a more illustrious manner than ever and then the Children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord and shall have a King again they shall embrace that Messias whom their Ancestors crucified and they shall fear the Lord and his Goodness they shall with Reverence and Admiration acknowledge the exceeding Favour and Grace of God to them This I apprehend to be the genuine Import of this Prophecy and I leave it to the Reader to judge whether it be not a Proof of the Grand Point now in hand I might mention Amos 9. 14 15. with some of the preceding Verses which
IOHANNES EDWARDS S. T. B. ΠΟΛΥΠΟΙΚΙΛΟΣ ΣΟΦΙΑ A Compleat HISTORY Or SURVEY Of all the Dispensations and Methods OF RELIGION From the beginning of the World to the Consummation of all things As represented in the OLD and NEW Testament SHEWING The several Reasons and Designs of those different Administrations and the Wisdom and Goodness of God in the Government of his Church through all the Ages of it In which also The Opinion of Dr. Spencer concerning the Jewish Rites and Sacrifices is examin'd And the Certainty of the Christian Religion demonstrated against the Cavils of the Deists c. By IOHN EDWARDS B. D. LONDON Printed for Daniel Brown Ionath Robinson Andrew Bell Iohn Wyat and E. Harris M. DC.XC.IX To the Right Honourable IOHN Lord SOMMERS Baron of Evesham Lord High Chancellor of England My Lord WE every day behold the Lawyers and Physicians the Philosophers the Historians the Poets and all Professors of useful Arts presenting their several Performances to your Lordship not only as a Judg but as their Common Patron Why then may not those of our Order presume to approach your Lordship with their respective Offerings and hope for a kind and favourable Reception Especially seeing you have let the World know by sundry illustrious Instances what regard you bear to that Function and those of that Character They all admire your capacious and universal Genius which has given you a profound insight into Theological Studies as well as all others Westminster-Hall has now another Hale that is one who is a Divine a Lawyer and Philosopher and skill'd in every Science Your Lordship every day atchieves great and brave things and with a Spirit that is such You oblige the Good and win upon the Bad and please all Men by the Methods of an unstain'd Integrity Which brings to my thoughts that Observation of my Lord Coke that he never knew any Excellent Iudicious Lawyer but was a faithful honest man Pref. to the 2 d Part of Reports But lest this should look too much like Panegyrick which I know is offensive to your Lordship's Modesty and lest I should obscure and tarnish the Splendour of your Lordship's Vertues and Excellencies by an imperfect representing of them I will here check my self and add no more on this Theme which is so inviting and charming Permit me only to lay these Papers at your Lordship's Feet and humbly to beg of your Lordship that you would be pleased to exercise that Equity and Favour to which your present Province and High Office prompt you and then I shall not wholly despair of your Lordship's Acceptance of this poor Oblation and of your suffering me to have the Honour to profess my self My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and Obedient Servant Iohn Edwards THE PREFACE I Have undertaken a Great Work viz. to display all the Transactions of Divine Providence relating to the Methods of Religion from the Creation to the end of the World from the first Chapter of Genesis to the last of the Revelation For I had not met with any Author that had undertaken to comprise them all and to give us an account of them according to their true Series nor had I ever lit upon a Writer either Foreign or Domestick who had designedly traced the particular Causes and Grounds of them or settled them on their right and true Foundations Wherefore I betook my self to this Work resolving to attempt something tho it were only to invite others of greater skill to go on with it and to add the finishing Stroke to it I acknowledg this Essay to be very mean and unworthy of its Noble Subject but however this I will say in its behalf and that with great truth that though I have done but little yet I never met with any that hath done so much on this Theme whether â—e have respect to the full Enumeration of the â—economies or whether we speak of the Reasons and Grounds of them But more especially as to the Last Oeconomy I have been very curious in the Distribution of 〈◊〉 several Parts though I have I confess â—â—â—â—ented therein from most Writers but I have â—â—deavour'd to treat those with Candor and Reâ—â—ect who differ in this matter from me For it 〈◊〉 certain that in this case Liberty of Writing is 〈◊〉 reasonable as that of Thoughts I shall not 〈◊〉 angry with any Man for not being of my Opinion â—â—out the State of the World before the Close of 〈◊〉 I leave every Man to his own Conjectures and I desire to be left to mine I do not ask any â—ne whether he thinks Jansenism and Quietism â—â—ll make way for any Change of Religion in France Spain or Italy or whether they will be â—â—ite rooted out of those Countreys I do not ask â—hether the Moscovite who seems to be no longer â—â—â—zen but is entring upon Action is like to have 〈◊〉 hand in such Revolutions as will end at last in 〈◊〉 alteration of Religion in the North-East I 〈◊〉 not enquire whether the French Lillies will â—â—read themselves further and take Root in any Protestant Soil And all other the like Queries â—â—hich may be occasion'd by the present Occurrenâ—â—s in the World I wholly dismiss and trouble 〈◊〉 my self or my Reader with the resolving of 〈◊〉 In treating of this Last Dispensation I 〈◊〉 as to the main and substantial Strokes of it 〈◊〉 my self close to the Bible I have positively 〈◊〉 nothing but what is plainly founded on Divine Revelation as deliver'd to us in the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles and even there I have not presumed to fix any certain Time Those Halcyon Days which I treat of may commence in part very soon and blaze out of a sudden or they may be stifled and smother'd till many lusters of Years are expired I verily believe the Thing it self but it is the highest arrogance to determine the Season This is all I have to say by way of Preface Errata to the first Volume PAge 24. l. 10. read sex P. 27. l. 4. r. it in P. 59. l. 15. for Tho r. But. P. 107. l. 1. r. and he P. 124. l. 23. r. seem'd to run P. 158. l. 2. r. Mincaâ— or P. 169. l. 26. for and r. had P. 177. Margin r. Philo de P. 179. l. 19. put the Comma after thus P. 188. l. 26. r. Cherub P. 194. l. 12. after not insert that all this is significant P. 201. 1. 22. r. but the latter P. 217. l. 4. r. his P. 235. l. 9. r. of any l. 15. after meant insert not of the flesh of those Animals but. P. 289. l. antepen r. as almost all P. 332. l. 9. after Gospel add tho it was in part under the other Dispensations P. 350. l. 10. for you r. them THE CONTENTS OF THE First Volume CHAP. I. THE great Advantage of the present Vndertaking A general Distribution of the Work The State of Innocence The Folly of the Praeadamitick Opinion The solemn Consultation of the
Account of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil. The prohibiting of this latter shew'd in several Particulars to be Reasonable and Equitable 5. The covenant of Works Not only the first Man and Woman but all their Race were under this First Dispensation THE Task which I undertake at present is to delineate and display the various Dispensations of Religion which are recorded in the infallible Writings of the Old and New Testament and are by that means revealed to us as well as they were heretofore to the respective Persons and People among whom those Sacred Records were first dispers'd This certainly is a very delighâ—ful Undertaking for it cannot but be a pleasant Prospect to see all Ages of the World at once and to behold the vast differences of them at one view It must needs be very welcome and entertaining to have before our Eyes the various States of Religion to observe the whole Chain of its Affairs throughout the World And it must be yet more pleasing and diverting to behold how it is linked together to take notice of the excellent Agreement and Harmony of the Universal Scheme of these Administrations which are set before us And this â—ight is as profitable as it is â—elightful for by sailing round this Globe by encompasâ—ing this whole Circle of Religious Dispensations we shall be able to make such discoveries as will be of singular use and advantage in our lives We shall hereby avoid that confusion which too often attends the contemplation of these divine Matters we shall apprehend aright the exact Order of them in the succession of Times we shall attain to a right understanding of the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament where the several Dispensations are mention'd we shall have an insight into the whole Method and Process of Divine Providence relating to Religion We shall be convinced of the transcendent Wisdom and Goodness of Heaven in the wonderful diversity of those Oeconomies which are presented to our view especially of the Evangelical one which is the perfection of all the rest and was more signally contrived for the welfare and happiness of Mankind Neither have we here a view only of what is past and present but here is represented to us a prospect of what is to come For the same â—acred and Infallible Records which give us an account of the one are not deficient in setting before us the other They acquaint us with the Events and Issues of things which shall be hereaâ—ter they foretel the Fate of the World till the very last expiring Period of all So that our utmost Curiosity as to Futurities may be here fully satisfied These are the things which I am to offer to the Reader And because there have been great failures in the handling of these Dispensations because Authors have not rightly distinguish'd them but some have made them more and others fewer than they are sometimes they have mix'd and confounded those which really differ in themselves and at other times they have made a distinction between such as indeed are the same I shall therefore use great caution and be very careful to avoid these mistakes both in asâ—igning the general and the more distinct and particular division or disâ—ribution of these Dispensations To enter then upon this Task I assert that the more Catholick and Grand Oeconomies are these three 1. The State of Innocency and Felicity or Adam created Upright II. The State of Sin and Misery or Adam Fallen In this State were our first Parents till they were reconciled to God and in this are all their Posterity till they be made partakers of Grace and Pardon III. The State of Reconciliation or Adam Recovered In this State our first Parents were after they were received into favour And in this all the Faithful are Thus Man in Integrity Man Lapsed Man Restored are the three Great Oeconomies The first of these continued from the Creation to Man's Fall The second from Man's Fall to his being recovered The third reacheth from Man's Recovery or Restauration to the end of the World And consequently this last General Dispensation which may be called the Dispensation of Grace is the largest of all and of the longest continuance The first General Dispensation is the State of Innocence which continued from the Creation of Man till his Apostacy We must know then that God having made the World and furnish'd it with all Convenience at last made the most excellent and accomplish'd piece of the visible Creation Man And to Man was added Woman to be a Companion of his Happiness As the Divine Being would not be without his Creatures so neither was it his pleasure that Man should be without the Woman jointly to enjoy the good things of the Creation which were made for that very purpose It was wisely ordered by the Deity saith the Great Philosopher that there should be these two distinct Sexes for mutual Communion and Society in the World yea and I may add for keeping up the World it self which would soon have a period if Human Kind ceased The first Person of this kind was by God himself named Adam because he was made of Earth Adam of Adamah he had this name given him to remind him of his Original And for this reason Adam was the name given to Woman as well as Man Gen. 5. 2. He called their name Adam in the day when they were created For tho the Man was immediately descended of the Earth yet the Woman as being taken out of the Man was remotely so for it is said The Rib which the Lord God had taken from Man made he a Woman Gen. 2. 22. where without doubt by a Rib are meant the Bone and the Flesh and Muscles that go along with it for that is implied in the closing up the flesh in the stead thereof ver 21. and we find Bone and Flesh together ver 23. Whence by the way we may take notice of that mistake of a learned Anatomist the younger Bartholine that Adam had thirteen Ribs on each side and that Eve was made out of a pair of these which is contrary to the express words of the Text God took one of his Ribs Gen. 2. 21. and made the Woman of it Of a single Rib then she was formed and that Rib as the rest of Man's Body being made of Earth she was but one remove from the Earth and therefore might have her name from the Earth in common with Man tho afterwards for another reason she was named Eve by her Husband Gen. 3. 20. and the name Adam became appropriated to him because he was the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that had his first Original out of the Earth And there never was any but he whatever the antient Athenians â—ancied of themselves He was the only Person that had his rise from the Soil he lived on tho 't is true in a remote sense we are all Aborigines as having
God and have an insight into the most sublime and heavenly Truths and by this means also partake of the Divine Nature and Likeness That this Knowledg and Wisdom are part of the Divine Image is clear from the Apostle's words in Col. 3. 10. where he acquaints us that the new Man is renewed in Knowledg after the Image of him that created him Whence it is rationally to be inferr'd that God's Image partly consisted in Knowledg and Vnderstanding Socinus and Smalcius had a very low opinion of the first Man when they asserted that at his being first made he had no more understanding than a stupid Infant yea that Adam was next to a Fool. But may not these Writers be thought to be next to something of that Nature when they assert a thing so unreasonable and absurd so wild and extravagant I do not say that Adam was subtil and scholastical in his Notions that he had any skill in the quirks of Wit and Logick I believe Scotus would have baffled him a knotty Schoolman would have put him to a nonplus and it would quite have puzzl'd and amus'd his Brain to have reduc'd a Syllogism in Bocardo For these Subtilties were not the accomplishments of Innocence and the early attendents of the Spade and Plough No these are the Consequents of Apostacy the Crutches of lame Reason and Supporters of lapsed Understanding the Salvo's of Ignorance and sometimes the greatest increasers of it Therefore I do not think that Adam's intellectual Happiness consisted in these but in that which was solid and useful What Man of sense and sober thoughts can deny that God indued Adam with a quick Understanding upon considering this one thing viz. that he gave Names to every living creature Gen. 2. 19. and it may be tho it is not recorded to the Plants and all Vegetables on Earth yea even to the Stars in Heaven tho the Names of them are now lost yea to all things above and below which were useful and common in the Life of Man And those Names then did express and signify the very Nature and Properties of the things whereas now they are generally ex instituto merely from custom and the arbitrary will of Men. He that was able thus to give Names to all Creatures according to their Natures was no Fool or Sot certainly This was the great Plato's judgment who tells us it was no ordinary and mean thing it was not the work of a vulgar Person to impose Names on things yea he that did it at first was master of more than human wisdom and skill It is reasonable to believe that Adam was a great natural Philosopher had knowledg of all those Creatures which he named else he could not have fitted Names to them And that he did so is evident from comparing the 19th Verse of the forementioned Chapter with the 22 d and 23 d Verses In the former 't is said that the Lord God formed every living Creature out of the ground and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever he call'd them that was the Name thereof In the latter 't is said The Rib which the Lord God had taken from Man made he a Woman and brought her unto the Man And Adam said She shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man You see the parallel the brute Creatures were brough by God to Adam on purpose that he should bestow Names on them So was Eve brought to him that she should have a Name given her by him Adam gave proper and significant Names to the other Creatures and so he did to the Woman We gather the former from the latter We find that when God brought the Woman to the Man he fastned a Name on her sutable to her Nature and Original therefore 't is reasonably to be concluded that when the other Creatures of an inferior rank were brought by God to Adam he conâ—er'd such Names on them as were most expressive of their different Properties and Qualities As God had given Adam his Name which was significant so Adam gave other Creatures Names which carried significancy with them This argues his Intellectuals to have been very acute and profound otherwise he could not have perceived the several Signatures and Properties of those Animals which were brought before him It is not to be question'd then that he had an insight into the true Nature of all Beings and was one of unspeakable Sagacity In fine whatever some Rabbies extravagantly assert on the one hand concerning the prodigious transcendency of Adam's knowledg and how meanly soever some of Pelagius and Socinus's Followers on the other hand speak of his Endowments it is a sober Truth that our First Parents were very knowing Persons It is not to be doubted that they had especially a perfect knowledg of Divine Truth from whence all Virtue and Holiness spring Which reminds me of another Quality of Man's Soul in the first Creation viz. its Righteousness or Holiness For God endued it not only with Understanding but with a Will which he adorned with Divine Graces and in these also consisteth the Image of God as we are ascertain'd by an inspired and infallible Writer who tells us that the new Man is created after God i. e. after the Image and Likeness of God in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes. 4. 24. These give us the perfect resemblance of our Maker and imprint upon us the Divine and heavenly Image For these are principally placed in the Will in the elective Faculty of Man that noblest part of his Soul that Sovereign and Ruling Faculty of the mind Thus I have shew'd how the Soul of Man is justly said to be God's Image and Likeness namely as it is a Spiritual Immortal and Intelligent Being but chiefly as 't is capable of Religion and is indu'd with Divine Virtues and Graces By these it is that Man most of all resembles God and is truly bless'd and happy and is as 't were another God Princes stamp their Image on their Coin That which is choicest and most precious beareth their Effigies And so here the exactest Lineaments of the Divine Image are to be seen impress'd on this choice Part of Man which is the Seat of true Grace and Goodness God who is the chief Pulchritude would draw his own beautiful Image on the Soul that That on Earth might be a kind of Representative of Himself and a Pourtray of his own Divine Perfections 2. Tho the Image of God in which Man was made be seated chiefly in the rational Soul of Man yet it is imprinted also on his Body as Ireneus and some other Fathers have rightly asserted Not that the Body can resemble God as if God were of human Shape This we exploded before as absurd and ridiculous But the Image of God was on the Body of the first Man first as it was extraordinarily fair comely and beautiful It is true Adam's Body was made
follow'd with the perfect enjoyment of Good and the violating of it with the experience of all Evil of Sin and Punishment It was to signify what they should know by eating viz. the difference between the Evil of Disobedience and the God of the contrary Or thus it was the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil i. e. of the Good they had before and of the Evil which was to ensue upon eating They should experimentally find what Good they lost and what Evil they fell into So that it is probable this Tree had its name from the Event and Effect of it It taught them by experience what Good and Evil was for after Man had sinn'd in eating that forbidden Fruit he saw and felt what Happiness he had lost and what Misery he had procured Some have been so curious as to enquire and so bold as to determine what particular Tree and Fruit this was It was and Apple-tree say some and they would make it probable from Cant. 8. 5. It was the Vine saith Vossius It was the Indian Fig-tree saith Goropius Becanus Most say it was a Fig-tree with the Leaves of which Adam and Eve covered their nakedness as soon as they had eaten of the Fruit. Theodoret stiffly maintains this Opinion and saith This was the reason why Christ cursed the Fig-tree Athanasius with others incline to this belief but there is no ground for it it must only pass as a Conjecture And so that Father grants in his Answer to that Demand What Tree was it of which Adam eat the Fruit No Man saith he is able exactly to discover that which the Scripture hath wilfully conceal'd The grand thing which we are to mind and which is the principal thing in this first Oeconomy is this that it was God's pleasure that the Fruit of that Tree whatever it was should not be meddled with and therefore straitly charged Adam and his Consort that they should not dare to touch it God might reasonably act after this manner For first as an antient Writer saith on this Subject God dispenseth all things sutably to the particular Time and measureth his Institutions by the Abilities and Powers of Men. Therefore he gave that Command of not eating of this Tree to Adam as it were to a new-born Babe He dealt with our first Parents as with Infants and Children he tried them by mean and low things as most agreeable to their nature But secondly tho he was thus pleased to prohibit them the Fruit of one single Tree yet this was highly accountable if you consider that God gave them the use of all the rest of the Trees in Paradise Of every Tree in the Garden thou mayest freely eat Gen. 2. 16. there was only this one Tree excepted and reserved Here was Liberty and Indulgence sufficient And they might well have contented themselves in the injoyment of it Besides the Creator can lay what Restraints he pleaseth on his Creatures He that made both them and the Garden could justly bar them of any thing which that place afforded Therefore God gave them this Precept to shew his Dominion over them as he was their Maker and Lord. He would let them see by this little Command his absolute Soverainty over them as a pious Father speaks Again God having made them reasonable and indowed them with a power or freedom of choice he might justly exercise that Faculty and put them to an actual trial of it which could not be done but by proposing something to their choice As they had a rational Nature and free Will given them by God they were able to keep that Law of Abstinence and therefore it was not unjust in God yea it was just and fit to impose this upon them as they were free and reasonable Beings This shews the reason of this positive Law which was given them to try their Obedience Likewise it was very reasonable and equitable Command that seeing God had conâ—err'd on them so many Benefits and Blessings they should be limited as to a single one that thereby they might shew their Thankfulness to God for all the rest In the next place consider also that God particularly told them what he expected from them when he gave them a Prohibition about the Tree He assured them that if they ventured to eat of it it should cost them their Lives or more emphatically in the Original they should die the death Here was fair warning and they had time to consider of it and they were sensible how greatly they were obliged to God and how just and reasonable a thing it was to observe his first and original Law that which was matrix omnium praeceptorum as Tertullian calls it yea to obey God in whatsoever he commanded Fifthly To the revealed Laws under the State of Integrity we must refer the Covenant of Works For we may gather from the Sacred Writings that there was a mutual Agreement or federal Compact between God and our first Parents wherein he promis'd to them Eternal Life and Happiness on condition of their perfect Obedience to his Laws and on the contrary Death was threatned if they disobey'd as we have heard already It is true it is not expresly call'd a Covenant in Genesis but it was one for God gave Man a Law and back'd it with Threatnings and Promises and Man agreed and consented to it which is the formal nature of a Covenant Not are we to think that those two Persons and no more were under this Dispensation Altho only Adam and Eve were in actual being at that time yet all Mankind were included in them and represented by them and therefore are to be reckon'd as under that Dispensation For God having created our first Parents without Sin and with knowledg of their Duty and strength to do it he made a Covenant or Agreement with them not only in behalf of themselves but of all their Posterity It was covenanted that if they and their Race continued in Obedience they should never die but be always blessed and happy but if they disobey'd the Divine Command they should be subject to Death and be every way wretched and miserable It is certain they consented and agreed to this for in that State of Integrity what God propounded to them could not but be acceptable God would offer that which was just and equitable as he was God Our first Parents would not disagree to it as they were induâ—d with a perfect understanding and knew that what their Maker propounded was most reasonable They could not but approve of the Condition on their part viz. Obedience and they could not but accept of the Reward promis'd on God's part viz. endless Happiness That they fully consented to the Contract in the name of themselves and their Posterity is demonstrable from many passages in Holy Writ as that Hos. 6. 7. They like Adam for so it is the Hebrew have transgress'd the Covenant which refers to God's Covenant
Abel and Iacob Gen. 4. 4. 28. 18. 46. 1. Whence I gather that was not the sole Prerogative of the First-born before the Mosaick Law For if the younger Brothers offer'd as well as the Elder the Office of Priest was not confin'd to the Primogeniture The Sum then of all is this that before the Priesthood was setled by the Law of Moses the First-born were Priests that is generally and for the most part but not always for some instances there are of others that offer'd Sacrifices So that this middle way which I have taken may decide the Controversie that hath been among some Learned Writers viz. whether the Priesthood at first resided altogether in the First-born In the next place the Difference of Clean and Vnclean Animals was part of this Dispensation We read of the Distinction between these first of all in Gen. 7. 2. where Noah is commanded by God to put up in the Ark seven pair of Clean and two pair of Vnclean Creatures Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens the male and his female and of beasts that are not clean by two the male and his female This account of the number of the Beasts taken into the Ark may seem to differ from what is said in Gen. 6. 19. Of every living thing of all flesh two of every sort shalt thou bring into the Ark and in Gen. 7. 9. There went in two and two into the Ark the male and the female But by comparing the former of these Texts with the foresaid place we shall find that it is only a general account of bringing the beasts into the Ark viz. by pairs a male and a female of every sort of living creatures But that place which I first produced speaks particularly and specifics the number of the pairs i. e. seven pair of clean beasts and two pair of unclean For whereas some have thought that of clean animals seven only of a sort entred the Ark it is evident from the Original that they are mistaken for the Hebrew word Shibgnah is repeated to signifie that there were two seven i. e. seven males and seven females taken into the Ark that they might have enough for Sacrifice and Food after the flood And as for the latter place that also speaks of all the Creatures whether clean or not clean as you will see in ver 8. and is to be understood of the manner of their going into the Ark they went by couples and here by the way observe that if there were only seven they could not go by Couples but this order of their march contradicts not what hath been said and is plainly gather'd from the other Text viz. that 7 males and 7 females in all of the clean Beasts were preserved in that Receptacle Having thus clear'd the Text which hath been misunderstood I come to the matter in hand Some think these Beasts are call'd Clean or Vnclean by a Prolepsis as much as to say some Beasts went then into the Ark which now since that time are reputed Clean and others went in which are now reckon'd Unclean Moses calls them Clean or Unclean because there was that distinction of Animals in his time Thus Rabbi Solomon on the place tells us that That is called Clean which was afterwards to be Clean Whence we learn saith he that Noah at that time knew the Law For it is a fancy of the Rabbins and Talmudical Doctors that the Mosaical Law was made and existed before the World was But this Historical Anticipation will not serve the turn here though at some other times I grant it is useful for you may observe there is a Reason included in the forementioned words why Noah was to shut up in the Ark more of one sort of Animals than of another viz. because at that time some were Clean and others Vnclean Wherefore did God order him to take fourteen of one sort of living creatures and but four of another Was there not a reason for this disparity And what can we imagin it to be but this that the creatures were of a different nature i. e. as 't is here expresly said that some of them were Clean and others not And this was before Noah's time for this is supposed here as a thing well known But how is this to be understood No creatures are Naturally Vnclean they are all Clean and Pure and Good from the first Creation In what sense then are any said to be Vnclean It is certain this Distinction could not be in regard of Eating for no Animals were eaten before the Flood as shall be proved anon but it is reasonable to think that it was with respect to the Sacrifices that they were call'd Clean or Unclean And if you consult Gen. 8. 20. you will see that this is spoken with particular reference to Sacrifices Noah made use of clean Beasts and Fowls in Sacrificing and whoever sacrificed then did so They did not sacrifice all sorts of Creatures but some only They look'd upon some Animals in respect of others as unfit for Sacrifice they offer'd to God the best or what they thought so as the Sheep and not the Hog c. This was founded in their natural Reason as Sacrifices themselves partly were These Animals which at that time they esteemed the best and choicest and fittest for Sacrifice were reputed Clean and Pure and were call'd so And on the contrary the meanest and worst Animals and which they thought unfit for Sacrifice were reckon'd as Impure and Vnclean and were so called And it is likely there was also a Positive Law for this as well as Sacrifices By this Law such and such Creatures were determin'd to be Clean our Unclean and this Law was before that of Moses yea it was long before the Flood Even then Beasts were call'd Clean or Vnclean in respect of Sacrificing as afterward they were call'd so in respect of Eating We may observe further that there was a Publick Setled Church in the days of those renowned and godly Patriarchs Seth and Enos Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord Gen. 4. 26. I know there is a contrary reading of these words for some think that huchal signifies prophaned as well as began and accordingly they render the words thus Then men prophaned by calling on the name of the Lord. So the Iewish Writers generally interpret this place and particularly the Chaldeâ— Paraphrast and Rabbi Solomon Iarchi understand it Whence Mr. Selden infers that there was Idolatry in those days and that it was set up then first of all But these learned persons considered not that the verb Chalal as it is here used i. e. in the Conjugation Hophal and with an Infinitive Verb after it is never us'd in Scripture to signifie prophaning but beginning Nor did these Writers give themselves time to remember that this place speaks of Seth and his godly Family and not of any Idolaters yea it is likely there was no such
assured from the Inspired Writings of the New Testament that it was so for the Tabernacle is said to have been a Figure for the time then present Heb. 9. 9. i. e. all the time of that way of Service and Worship some great Mystery was represented by it And the Mosaick Priests are said to serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things Heb. 8. 5. Let us briefly see what these Celestial and Spiritual things were or at least let us guess and modestly conceive what they were First in the Court of the Tabernacle the Altar of Burnt-Offering fitly signified the great Expiatory Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross Heb. 13. 10. And the Laver was a very congruous Symbol of Spiritual Washing and Purifying Eph. 5. 26. Tit. 3. 5. Then in the Sanctuary the Altar of Incense and the Golden Censer plainly denoted the Intercession of the Messias thereby was signified that he should pray for us and offer our Prayers and make them acceptable to God through his Merits for the Incense figures the continual sweet Savour and Acceptableness of the Offering The Table of Shew bread did not only represent God's Providing a Table and Maintenance for the Israelites whilst they were in the Wilderness but it teacheth us that God's Church hath his constant Eye and Care and that he Provideth for it daily he gives them their Daily Bread or it signified Christ who calls himself the Bread of Life with which the Faithful are nourish'd to eternal life Or as things of this nature frequently have divers significations the Brazen Laver before and the Shew-Bread here represented the Two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper The Candlestick and Lamps very appositely signify Christ and his Apostles He is the True Light and in a secondary sense his Ministers may be call'd so too The Sacred Oyl belonging to them may set forth the Anointing of the Spirit the Vnction from the Holy One whereby the faithful are enlightened and know all things 1 Joh. 2. 20. Or the Golden Candlestick with Seven Branches may denote the manifold Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost with that Abundant Light which is the Blessing of the Gospel Rev. 1. 4. 4. 5. Lastly The inmost part of the Tabernacle into which the High Priest enter'd and none else is yet a more lively Representation of the Great Mysteries of the Gospel The Atonement which the High Priest made by Blood and his offering it in this most Holy Place and that but once a Year are all expresly applied to Christ our Great High Priest by the Apostle Heb. 9. 7. 12. 24. 9. 22 24. But more particularly it is worth our observing on this occasion that tho the High Priest enter'd this place but once a Year and that on a set day in the Year yet he enter'd thrice in that one day For first he went in with the Censer of Coals and the Cup of Incense and put the Incense upon the Fire before the Lord Levit. 16. 13. Then he came out and took the Blood of the Bullock slain at the Altar of Burnt-offering and went with it into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it upon the Mercy-Seat Levit. 16. 14. Then he came â—orth and carried the Blood of a Goat which was also slain at the foresaid Altar and sprinkled it upon or towards the Mercy-Seat ver 15. This was the third time of going into the Holy of Holies And who sees not that the High Priest's offering of Incense appositely represents the solemn Prayers which our High Priest Jesus offer'd before he became a Sacrifice which is particularly mention'd Iohn 17. 1 2 c And is it not as plain that the sprinkling of the Blood of the slain Bullock and Goat signified the Blood of Christ crucified apply'd to Believers to atone for their Sins For those words of the Apostle Heb. 13. 10 11 12 c. refer to the Blood of the Beasts brought into the Holy Place to make Atonement Levit. 16. 27. In this place was the Ark the special Symbol of God's Presence for that carnal People could not believe God was present with them unless they had some apparent and visible Token of it Wherefore God was pleas'd so far to indulge their weakness as to give them this corporeal and sensible Sign of his Presence with them tho he thought good to remove it sometimes from their sight to wean them by degrees from that grosser Dispensation But it is certain that the Ark was a Symbol of mighty import and represented not only the Divine Presence but was a Type of Christ Iesus the incarnate and visible God in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily The Oracle from whence God gave answer was the Figure of the Incarnate Word who reveal'd the Will of God to us By the Pot of Manna was signified the hidden Manna vouchsafed to all Believers Aarons Rod that blossomed figured that efficacious Blessing which is given to the Labours of Christ's Ministers The Testimony in the Ark the Witness or Evidence of God's Presence there represents to us the Word of God the Holy Scriptures The Mercy-Seat or the Covering of the Ark was a more particular and signal Representation of Christ by whom alone the Divine Mercy is conferr'd on Mankind by whose Merits the Church is cover'd and deâ—ended from God's Wrath. Whom God hath set forâ—h to be a Propitiation Rom. 3. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very word which the same Apostle uses for the Mercy-Seat Heb. 9. 5. As the Law in the Ark was cover'd and hid by this so the Messias covers hides shields us from the condemnation which is by the Law and consequently from the Divine Displeasure Or which is the same thing Sin is covered as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 32. 1. by Christ our Propitiatory And 't is observable that the Apostle saith God hath set him forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which refers to the Prefigurations of the Law he was before set forth as the word signifies he was of old propounded in the Legal Types and more signally in this of the Propitiatory The Cherubims hovering over the Ark denote the Angels protecting the Church and withal it speaks their future prying into the Mysteries of the Gospel which they desire to look into as St. Peter saith 1 Epist. Chap. 1. v. 12. which very words reâ—er to the Cherubims stooping and looking down with bowed Heads toward the Mercy-Seat And this by the way lets us know that those Cherubims over the Ark were Angels The Veil in the Tabernacle and so that of the Templâ— afterwards sets forth the Humane Nature of Christ if we will give credit to the Apostle Heb. 10. 10. The Vâ—il that is to say his Flesh. This was rent at Christ's Passion to signify that he by his Death open'd the way into the Kingdom of Heaven for we learn from St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews that Heaven was meant by the Holy of Holies Heb. 9. 24. Whence
and that by the wonderful disposal of Heaven Whereupon the Evangelist saith This was done that the Scripture might be fulfill'd A Bâ—nâ— of him shall not be broken ver 36. Which plainly refers to this passage concerning the Paschal Lamb of the Iews that they were commanded not to break any bone of it And if according to St. Iohn that particular injunction concerning the Lamb be applicable to Christ and was fulfill'd in him there is just ground so believe that the other passages and circumstances relating to that Lamb are to be apply'd to Christ the Lamb of God and are accomplish'd in him This no man of composed thoughts can deny And whereas the Iews were to eat their Paschal Lamb with Vnleavened Bread ver 8 20. the Apostle hath told us the meaning of that for after he had said Christ our Passover iâ— sacrificed for us he immediately adds Let us therefore keep the Feast not with old Leaven neither with the Leaven of malice and wickedness but with the Vnleavened Bread of sincerity and truth The corrupt Ferment of Sin especially of Hypocrisie and Dissimulation which our Saviour also calls Leaven Luks 12. 1. futeth not with the Bread of Life which we are to eat Yea we must purge out all sin and wickedness which the same Inspired Author in the same place again calls the Old Leaven ver 7. If we would keep the Christian Passover aright we must abandon every known Vice which is fitly compared to Leaven because it spreadeth it self and soon corrupteth the Soul a little Leaven leaveneth the whole lump ver 6. Gal. 5. 9. But from what we read in Deut. 16. 3. we may gather that something besides this is shadowed out there they are bid to eat all the time of the Passover Vnleavened Bread even the Bread of affliction because they came forth out of the Land of Egypt in haste Vnleavened Bread then is the Bread of affliction but why is it call'd so I conceive it hath this name because it is such Bread as the Poor and Afflicted by reason of pressing hunger eat not staying till it be leavened This sort of Bread they were to eat And so we are taught here in what manner we are to eat the Christian Passover viz. with the Bread of affliction we must not pamper our carnal part we must not make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof we must according to the Apostles Example keep under our bodies and bring them into subjection to our better part And this was partly signified by the eating of the Paschal Lamb with bitter herbs ver 8. The spiritual meaning whereof is that we should not indulge our selves in the pleasures of Sin that we should celebrate our Evangelical Passover with godly Contrition and Sorrow with hearty Remorse and Repentance and that with the Penitent Apostle we should weep bitterly for our Sins The Crucified Iesus is best entertain'd with a broken Heart And moreover the posture and demeanour which the Israelites were to observe in their celebrating the Passover viz. with their loins girded and with shâ—â—s on their feet and staves in their hands ver 11. which exprest their readiness to leave Egypt and to depart out of it at the first warning represent unto us our duty which is to be prepar'd to quit our sins which make us worse than Egyptian Bondslaves Christ being sacrificed and ascended we are to fit our selves to follow him we must gird up the loins of our minds we must have our feet shâ—â— with the Evangelical preparation we must be constantly in the posture of Pilgrims whose thoughts are on leaving the place where they are and we must be willing and ready to follow our Blessed Saviour which way soever he calls us This is to be remarked likewise that no Vncircumcised person was to eat of the Passover no Fâ—reigner or Stranger ver 43 44. Which acquainteth us that none but those who are admitted into Christ's Church and are True and Proper Members of it can partake of the Benefits which accrue by the death of our Lord and also that Strangers and Aliens from the Covenant of Grace and those that are Uncircumcis'd in heart receive no real Advantage by coming to the Lord's Supper they partake only of the outward Elements but are excluded from sharing in the Inward Grace and Blessing which are represented by those External Signs Thus you see the Parallel between the Iewish and Christian Passover The Paschal Lamb was a Male and without Blemish and of the First Year It was taken out of their own Fold and kill'd in the Evening and the Door-posts were sprinkled with the Blood It was roasted and then eaten whole not a bone of it was to be broken and nothing of it was to remain It was eaten with Unleavened bread and bitter herbs with loins girt and in haste it was eaten not by Strangers and Uncircumcised persons and in every one of these particulars it was Typical and Representative For tho it is true there was this general Reason why these several Observances concerning the Paschal Lamb were enjoyn'd namely because of their direct opposition to the Heathen Ceremâ—nies then in practice as you shall hear afterwards yet there was a more particular reason and distinct ground of the prescribing of these several Rites viz. because they in some manner were Types and Significations of what our Lord Christ was to do or suffer and of what is required of us in solemnizing the Gospel-Passover If any man shall despise these things and imagine them little and not worthy of the Spirit of God he may correct his prophane mistake by looking into the Epistles of St. Paul especially that to the Hebrews where he will find that the Apostle takes notice of such passages as these which relate to the Iewish Observances and by the direction of the Divine and Infallible Spirit applies them to our Lord and his Blessed Undertakings and the main things of the Gospel-Dispensation Let none then be so presumptuous and impâ—ous as to say that these are Little and Contemptible seeing they are such as the Holy Spirit was pleased to dictate Nay I might add with great reason and truth that this Mystical way of delivering the most weighty matters was heretofore used and approved of by all the Antient Sages and Men of Wisdom especially by the Egyptians whose Learning chiefly consisted in Hieroglyphicks And therefore when we see that some men who have a great esteem of the Egyptian Learning and admire it at a very high rate do yet slight and vilifie those Mysterious Representations of the greatest and most important Truths which the Old Testament presents us with we cannot but observe their wicked perversness whilst they disregard and even ridicule that very way of communicating Truth in the Holy and Inspired Scriptures which they magnifie and extol in Prophane Writers But I have not finished this Parallel yet To make it every way compleat Christ our
Passover chose to be sacrificed on the very day that the Iews eat their Paschal Lamb. It is remarkable that Christ who came to abolish the Typical and Ceremonious Service of the Iews yet just before his leaving the World submitted to this Mosaical Observance and kept it with his Disciples which certainly he would never have done if it had not been to signifie this very thing which I am treating of viz. that He was the True and Real Paschal Lamb and that before he died he designed to let them know that there was an exact Resemblance and Agreement between one and the other and more especially as to the Times This hath been partly proved already I will now give farther evidence of it It is a mighty Controversy among some Writers whether Christ kept the Passover on the same day the Iews did or the day before Some are of the opinion that the Lamb according to the Law was to be killed on that night Christ kept his Passover but was to be eaten the next Evening Therefore they say Christ eat not the Paschal Lamb but only celebrated the Passover with Unleavened Bread and Bitter Herbs But this is only said and not proved On the contrary we know that the Paschal Lamb was to be kill'd and eaten in the same night Exod 12. 8. Dent. 16. 4. Yea all of it was to be eaten that very night nothing was to remain till the morning Next then it is to be demanded whether Christ eat the Passover on the same night with the Iews I answer he did not keep the Passover on the same night that the Iews did but on the night before i. e. on the Evening of the day before Not that Christ anticipated the time of celebrating the Passover according to the Law as the Greek Church holds but he kept the true time he celebrated it according to Moses's Law i. e. on the 14 th day of the first Month which answer'd to our March after Evening Levit. 23. 5 Mat. 26. 17 c. But the Jews contrary to the Law eat the Passover on the Evening of the day following being the 15 th day This they did according to a Custom among them which had obtain'd for a good while I will at present offer only one Text as a clear proof of this their practice In Iohn 18. 28. 't is said of the jews that they went not into the Iudgment Hall lest they should be defiled but that they might 〈◊〉 the Passover Thence it appears that they had not at that time viz. on Friday morning eaten the Passover which Christ and his Apostles had done therefore Christ kept the Passover a Night sooner then the Iews did they eat not theirs till the Evening after Christ was crucified i. e. on Friday Night or Evening This following Scheme will represent it to you more clearly which also will be serviceable to clear some other passages in the Evangelical History which I find are mistaken by some Persons On the 10th Day of the Month 〈◊〉 which answers to our March being the 1st Day of the week according to the Jews which answers to Our Sunday or Lord's Day Christ Came from Bethany and enâ—â—ed into Ierusalem in triumph Mat. 21. 1 c. and return'd to Bethany in the Evening Mat. 21. 17. On the 11th Day of the Month 〈◊〉 which answers to our March being the 2d Day of the week according to the Jews which answers to Monday Christ Cursed the Figree as he return'd from Bethany Mat. 21. 18 c. On the 12th Day of the Month 〈◊〉 which answers to our March being the 3rd Day of the week according to the Jews which answers to Tuesday Christ Foretold the destruction of Ierusalem Mat. 24. 1. On the 13th Day of the Month 〈◊〉 which answers to our March being the 4th Day of the week according to the Jews which answers to Wednesday Christ Was sold by Iudas Mat. 26. 14. On the 14th Day of the Month 〈◊〉 which answers to our March being the 5th Day of the week according to the Jews which answers to Thursday the day of the Preparat to the Passover Feast according to the Law Christ In the evening eat the Paschal Lamb with his Disciples instituted the Lord's Supper Met. 26. 20. Afterwards was appreheaded and arraign'd Mat 26. 57. Joh. 18. 13. On the 15th Day of the Month 〈◊〉 which answers to our March being the 6th Day of the week according to the Jews which answers to Friday the day of Preparation by the Jews custom Christ Was arraign'd again condemn'd crucified and buried Mat. 27. In the Evening of this day the Jews eat the Passover Ioh. 18. 28. On the 16th Day of the Month 〈◊〉 which answers to our March being the 7th or Sabbath Day of the week according to the Jews which answers to Saturday or Jews Sabbath on which they observ'd the Passover Feast Christ Lay in the Grave all this day Mat. 27. 62 c. On the 17th Day of the Month 〈◊〉 which answers to our March being the 1st Day of the week according to the Jews which answers to Sunday or Id's D. Christ Rose from the Dead very early Mat. 28. 1. Some Writers because the Jews day of 24 Hours was reckoned from Sun set to Sun-set take the Evening of the 14 th day of the Month to be the beginning of the next day the 15 th for if the day commenc'd from the Evening then the Evening of the 14 th day belong'd to the next ensuing Day But this is to be said that tho 't is true the Jewish Feasts took their beginning in the Evening and the natural Day was counted from Evening to Evening yet the 〈◊〉 Day of 12 Hours began with Sun-rising and ended at Sun-set and the sormer part of the insuing Night was added to the account and consequently the Evening of the 14 th day was reckon'd as part of that Day However if you should say that the Evening of the 14 th day belonged to the 15 th which followed you may make allowance for that in the Scheme and adjust the foremention'd time by a small alteration but still it holds true that the Passover was not killed and eaten by Christ and his Apostles on the same day that the Jews kill'd and eat their Passover as appeareth from the place before alledged And this is very remarkable for the Jews putting off their Passover a day longer contrary to their own Law was not without the disposal of the All-wise God that hereby the Paschal Lamb and he that was represented by it might be slain on the same day Which shews the Agreement and Resemblance between Christ and the Iewish Passover which was the thing I here intended 4. The Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost for it was known by both those Names was another of those greater Feasts observ'd by the Jews It was call'd the Feast of Weeks because it was kept at the and of seven Weeks i. e. 49 Days
them And these Envoys of Heaven were sent not only to God's own People but sometimes to others as the Ninivites Thus Revelation was made by Voice God spake himself or by others audibly and this was no uncommon way of divulging and discovering his Will Again God spake i. e. communicated himself heretofore not only by the sense of Hearing but by that of Seeing He was pleased to make known his Divine Pleasure by some visible Appearances which most vigorously struck on that Sense and gave more evident Testimony of the Will of Heaven Thus God discovered himself 1. by Angels Appearing for tho it was not the Appearing of these Messengers but their Speaking to persons which gave them the discovery of God's pleasure yet the former was no mean Confirmation of what was delivered because those Glorious Spiâ—â—ts could not appear to Mankind unless they were commission'd by God When he thought fit to send them then and not else they descended from Heaven and shew'd themselves to Men. 2. Writing was another manner of Visible Revelation Thus the Law was deliver'd to Moses and afterwards this way of Revelation grew frequent the Sacred History of Moses and other Histories and Prophecie being committed to Writing Thus the Antient Church before Christ's coming had the Written Word of the Holy Scriptures to inform them 3. God spake to the Sight by those Representations which in Holy Writ are so usually stiled Visions for these properly belong to the outward Sense of Seeing they are either Real Spectacles exposed to the eye as the Burning Bush which Moses saw Exod. 3. 2. and the Pillar of a Cloud which went before the Israelites in the day and the Pillar of Fire which conducted them in the night Exod. 13. 21. and the Cloud in the Temple 2 Chron. 5. 13 14. call'd the Glory of the Lord 2 Chron. 7. 1 2. And this Expression is used in other places of the Old Testament to signifie that Visible Glory and Majesty whereby he manifested himself to Mankind in those times Or else Visions in Holy Scripture are certain Images of things represented by God to the Eye as those Strange Appearances and Signs mention'd in the Books of Ieremiah Ezekiel and Daniel Whether these things may be said to be real Objects or whether they be mere Apparitions we need not as some solicitously inquire If they be Resemblances caused by God and there be such an Impression made on the Sense of Seeing that the Organ be affected as if there were such an Object before it it is sufficient to denominate it Vision But this is not to be doubted of that these external Representations and Figures pointed out Real things either present or to come From this sort of Manifestation call'd Vision the Prophets who were most conversant in this way of Revelation were stiled Seâ—rs 1 Sam. 9. 9 18. 2 Chron. 35. 15. Thus I have distinctly spoken of Voices and Visions but it must be observed also that these two are joyned together sometimes This you may see in some of the foregoing Instances and in others not named the Revelation by Voice was mixed with that by Vision so in the New Testament Saul saw a Light and heard a Voice But I am confined at present to the Old Testament for I speak now only of the variety of Revelations which were before the Gospel-Dicd\sspensation It is to be observed moreover that sometimes Vision and Voice were accompanied with an Extasy tho the persons were awake yet they were cast into a Trance Lastly under this head it is remarkable that all the outward and sensible ways of God's revealing himself especially those that are visible are call'd by the Jewish Masters the Shekinah i. e. the Divine Presence and Majesty whereby the doth as it were dwell and is constantly present with his Church for the word Shakan signifies to inhaâ—â—â—â— or dwell whereby he doth gloriously discover himself to his Servants With reference to this the Apostle saith to the Israelites pertaineth the Glory Rom. 9. 4. i. e. the Glorious Presence and Habitation of God with them not only by Angels but all those other ways before spoken of in which he appear'd and manifested himself in the times of the Law This St. Paul stiles the Glory because this Visible Appearing of God is so stiled as you have heard in the Old Testament and because the Seventy Interpreters whose way of speaking this Apostle is wont to imitate used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to express the Glorious Presence of the Divine Majesty in any kind of Sensible and External manner 2. There are Inward as well as Outward Revelations These are made more immediately to the Soul as the other were to the Body First God spake or reveal'd himself to the Fancies of Men by Dreams He thought good to communicate his Will to persons by a powerful Influence on their Imaginations whilst they were asleep as well as by presenting things to their Senses when they were awake Thus God reveal'd himself to Abraham Abimelech Iacob Ioseph Pharaoh Solomon Nebuchadnezzar In their Dreams their Fancies were impress'd with such and such Representations they verily thought they beheld this or that Object as Iacob thought he saw a Ladder that reached from Heaven to Earth And because these Representations seem to be offer'd to the eye therefore they are sometimes call'd Visions in Scripture I saw a Dream saith Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4. 5. And so we read of a Dream of the night Vision Isai. 29. 7. But if you speak of Visions in the proper sense then it is certain Visions and Dreams are two distinct Species of Revelation and so I have made them having before spoken of Visions strictly so call'd But this is a thing not consider'd sometimes by Writers on this Subject and so they confound Visions and Dreams Secondly God speaks to the Soul not only by working on the Imagination in Sleep but by immediate Inspiring the minds of the Prophets when they are awake This way of revealing his Will to Men is call'd Inspiration and sometimes Illumination but there is a gradual difference between these the former being of a higher degree than the later and the later being as it were a Preparative to the former This Inspiration which is made by an inward Afflatus and Excitation of the Spirit is signally call'd the Holy Spirit by the Jewish Writers A man say they is said to have the Holy Spirit when being awake and having the full use of his Senses he speaks by the Incitement of the Spirit Thus the Prophets of old spake as they were stirr'd up by this Inward Afflation and Instinct The Jewish Doctors think that this degree of Divine Revelation is especially in the Psalms of David and the Proverbs of Solomon and the Book of Iob c. the Writers of which are termed by way of Excellency Chetubim Scriptores by the Hebrews and their Writings are distinguish'd from other Books of
Scripture by the name of Hagiographa This put Holy Men upon Pious Discourses and excellent Strains of Devotion and rais'd them above their ordinary temper Yea All the Holy Penmen of Scripture were moved and actuated by this Divine Influx By this they dictated and composed those Sacred Writings This is that degree of Prophecy or Prophetick Inspiration which is call'd the Holy Spirit Tho you may observe too that all those kinds of Revelation beforemention'd are stiled in the Jewish Writings Inspiration and the Holy Spirit and sometimes they are call'd Prophecy and the Spirit of Prophecy For Prophecy Nebuah is taken either strictly or largely In the strict acception according to the Jewish Notion of it it is when any thing is reveal'd to a person when he is asleep or in a rapture or besides himself And others of them say that Prophecy properly so call'd is either in the way of Dreams or Visions Prophecy in Scripture is taken in a restrained sense for seeing and foretelling things to come and hence as well as from what was suggested before it is probable the Prophets antiently were call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seers This also is that which most usually is call'd Prophecy by the Iews But Prophecy in the largest acception is the general word to comprehend all kinds of Divine Revelation it is the way whereby all revealed Knowledg and Truth are convey'd to us Therefore the Schools of the Prophets were those places where young Men were prepar'd for all sorts of Revelation and Inspiration and out of these Schools generally the Prophets were chosen Education and Improvement fitted them for the Prophetick Office and by these Testimonials they were able to go abroad There was a way to know who were True Prophets and who False and to distinguish one from the other Indeed when a Prophet foretold things to come to pass hereafter he could not be convinced of falshood presently because his Prophecy must be known to be true or false by the Event of his Prediction Deut. 18. 21. And yet here was some uncertainty for the thing he foretold might not come to pass and yet he might be a True Prophet for God could do otherwise than the Prophet foretold Ier. 18. 7 8. But then the Prediction was conditional not absolute or rather it was a Commination But if any one by the Prophetical Spirit dictated such and such things to be done it was possible to tell and that presently or in a very short time whether he was a true Prophet or no. This might be known first from the Qualifications of a true Prophet for first he must be no way inclined to Idolatry secondly he must predict nothing against the Law If he said any thing derogatory to the Law of Moses the Moral Law chiefly and the Worship of God he discover'd himself to be a false Prophet Deut. 18. 20. Deut. 13. 1 2 3. Thirdly some add that as he was one who said nothing against the Law so neither must he do any thing against it It was a Notion of the Iews that the Spirit of Prophecy was not communicated to any but Holy Men. But there is reason to doubt as to this Besides the Qualifications a Prophet might be known to be true when he was back'd by another Prophet who was certainly known to be true when this Prophet testified of the other Further when God himself testified concerning a Prophet by some manifest Sign as in 1 Kings 13. Thus they were to judg whether Prophets were counterfeit or no. Add this also that they were deterred from counterfeiting the Prophetick Spirit because by the Law a false Prophet was to be punish'd with Death Deut. 18. 20. Lastly The true Prophets might be discern'd and distinguish'd from the false ones by this that they were plain and downright in their Predictions whereas the others were generally ambiguous and equivocating as we see in the Example of those false Prophets whom Ahab consulted The Lord shall deliver it say they into the hands of the King 1 Kings 22. 6. So we render that place but the Relative it is not in the Hebrew and so the words have two senses either the Lord shall deliver Ramoth Gilead into the hands of the King of Israel or the Lord shall deliver thee and thy forces into the hands of the King of Syria This was frequently imitated afterwards by the Heathen Oracles and was of some advantage for from the ambiguity of the words mistakes might easily arise and by that means the credit of the false Prophets was salved But however this rendred their Predictions uncertain and wavering whereas those that had the true Prophetick Spirit were sure and fix'd and thus there could not but be a certainty of Prophecy among the Iews But at last the Spirit of Prophecy ceased and as the Jewish Writers and Christian Fathers agree ended in Malachi who was the last Prophet But this way of Revelation was afterwards restored by Christ as shall be shew'd afterwards To the foremention'd ways of God's communicating his Will and Pleasure may be added that Impulse whereby persons are stir'd up by God to undertake some extraordinary Enterprize and to accomplish some very notable Act. Thus Maimonides reckons it among the several kinds of Prophecy that Moses by a particular intimation from God slew the Egyptian Exod. 2. 12. So by the same Divine Motion Phineas knew it would be acceptable to God to kill those two notorious Sinners and he was stir'd up accordingly to do it By the same Heavenly Impulse Sampson was excited to destroy the Philistines tho with the loss of his own life And several other Instances might be produced of this nature in the Old Testament Thus you see what were the Ordinary ways of Revelation what was the frequent and usual manner of God's communicating his Will in the several Dispensations before treated of In the next place I will enumerate the Extraordinary Means of revealing God's Will As 1. That way of Revelation whereby God conversed with Moses on the Mount when he gave him the Law and whereby he was pleas'd to communicate himself to him at some other times The Jewish Doctors cry up This for the highest Degree of Revelation that ever was and some of them talk such strange things of it as are next to Blasphemy But this we are sure of that the Sacred Spirit represents this as an Vnusual and Extraordinary Revelation and such as was peculiar to Moses alone for it is said The Lord spake to Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his friend Exod. 33. 11. Indeed Iacob testifieth of himself that he had seen God face to face Gen. 32. 30. But tho he had seen God so yet we do not read that he talk'd with him after that manner which implieth something more I know Moses tells the people of Israel that God talked with them face to face in the Mount Deut. 5. 4. But this he means of himself viz. that after
a more restrained sense of the Kingdom of God in this place It is granted that we have not an express Command from Christ for this practice but the Scripture is silent as to many other things which yet we must suppose to have been â—aid or done Again 3 ly There is our Saviour's Example and Fact for it for we find that he set himself in the midst of his Apostles every first day of the week till his Ascension to Heaven Mat. 28. 18. Mark 16. 14. Luke 24. 36. Ioh. 20. 19. Moreover his Spirit speaking and acting in his Apostles taught them to meet constantly together on this day and in a more solemn manner to perform the Offices of Divine Worship at this time Ioh. 20. 9 26. Acts 17. 7. Acts 20. 7. 25. 66. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. By reason of this divine Institution from our Lord himself this first day of the week began to be call'd the Lord's Day Rev. 1. 10. and afterwards it was call'd so by Ignatiâ—â— as well as St. Iohn Constantinâ— the Great renew'd and revived this Name which some had laid aside and caused the Day to be constantly known and call'd by that Appellation and by Edict commanded it to be solemnly kept by all Persons The short is both in the Apostles times as the Scripture informs us and in all succeeding Ages this Day hath been unanimously observed by Christians as being of Evangelical Appointment Thus the Gospel may be said to add to the Law in some New Particulars Christ hath introduced some things peculiar and proper to the state of Christians But there were the same Constitutions before under the Law in general There were two Sacraments the one to admit Infants into the Church the other to confirm the Adult There were Laws of Ecclesiasâ—ical Discipline there was a Time set apart for Divine Worship Prop. 2. All those things which our Saviour forbids or commands in the Gospel are comprehended in the Law if not expresly yet virtually and by true consequence and rational deduction Thus Killing being forbidden Anger and Wrath which stir up Mens blood and cause them to thirst after the blood of others are forbidden So Christ in his Sermon on the Mount lets them know as I shall shew you anon that not only this but many 〈◊〉 things were included and contained in the Moral Law which they acted contrary to foolishly imagining that they were to go no further than the bare Letter of the Law Prop. 3. The Commandments and Duties of the Old and of the New Testament are the same as to Substance tho they differ as to Manner and Circumstances The Faith of the Saints under the Legal Appointment and of those under the Evangelical one is as hath been shew'd before the very same as to the main only they differ as to their Relation or Aspect the one to Christ who was then to come the other to him already come So praying to Christ relying on the mercy of Christ desiring to depart and be with him and the like Duties which seem to be new are so only in respect of the foresaid Relation or Manner The Messias expected and the Messias come solve the difference Prop. 4. As the Dispensation of the Law and the Gospel being the same in Substance differ as to the Manner so they differ likewise as to the Degrees Humility and that which we call Christian Liberty are reckon'd by a Learned Writer as New Duties introduced by Christ. But I conceive the Substance of these was before they are only more Improved and Inhanced by our Blessed Lawgiver Christ Iesus And this you shall see is made good of several otherâ—r Duties mention'd by our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount He hath made them more perfect than they were and therefore in respect of them the Gospel is stiled a Perfect Law Jam. 1. 25. Thus I have briâ—fly shew'd you how there are New Laws and Duties added by Christ and how not Some few Particulars are New because the new State of things required it Others may be said to be New because they are more Expresly set down or in respect of Circumstances Manner and Degrees But still they are not New but the same in the general besides that they are virtually the same and as to the main and in the Substance of them It is scarcely worth taking notice what Episcopius suggests viz. that there is no express Precept in the Law for Praying unto God and consequently it was nâ—t a Duty required in the Old Testament and therefore is a new Commandment of Christ. In which as in some other things he agrees with the Socinians but is therein very palpably mistaken for there are set Forms of Prayer enjoin'd in the Old Testament there are determinate Expressions dictated there Most of the Psalms are Prayers and particular Prayers of Ezra Nehemiah and Daniel are recorded Praying is expâ—esly commanded in Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble The Temple was call'd the House of Prayer Isa. 67. 7. and Prayers were mix'd with all the Sacrifices as appears from Luke 1. 10. How then can any Man have the confidence to say that Prayer is a New Testament Precept only But here it may be alledged that Love is call'd a New Commandment both by our Saviour Ioh. 13. 34. and by St. Iohn 1 Epist chap. 2. ver 8. therefore there is this Commandment at least added anew by Christ to what was before I will reply to this by explaining to you how Love may be said to be a New Commandment 1. I have suggested before that it may be call'd New because of the New Motive annex'd to it in Iohn 13. 34. A New Commandment I give unto you that ye love one â—nother as I have loved you This latter Clause is New tho the former be Old This is one Reason which a Learned Writer gives why Love is call'd a New Commandment 2. Another is because it was Renâ—wed by Christ and urged on his Disciples afresh as their particular badg A New Commandment give I unto you that ye love one another said our Saviour to his Apostles that night when he celebrated the Passover with them and instituted the Holy Sacrament of his Body and Blood and when he was taking his leave of them and the World Now he seasonably presses what he had exhorted them to before now he calls upon them more especially to exercise the Grace of Love Thus it is a New Commandment because Christ repeats it anew 3. Because Christ vindicated it as you shall hear more by and by from the false Glosses of the Pharisees and so made it as it were New They thought that Love was due only to those that were their Neighbours and Brethren and that â—ll who injured them were to be hated but our Saviour tells them they must love their Enemies he acquaints them that Iews as well as Christiaâ—â— were obliged to this Duty that the
there is this threefold difference between them which I request may be well weigh'd because it will be of singulaâ— use to rectify our Notions about the matter in hand and to give us a true insight into the Nature of the Covenants 1. The Covenant of Works saith Do this by thy own natural strength and power and if thou dost so thou shalt live For this is certain that in â—he First Covenant the Conditions were to be performed by Adam and Eve and us in them by a natural Strength given in the state of Innocency They were created with a sufficient Power to do what God required of them By their own Free-Will they might have stood But the Covenant of Grace saith Do this by a supernatural Assistance by that Grace which is given through Christ Jesus No Man is naturally born with an ability to do God's Will and to please him There is a new Birth whereby he is impowred to do this there is a Divine Principle superadded to his Nature and by virtue of this he believeth repenteth c. This is the first difference between the doing under the Covenant of Works and under the Covenant of Grace 2. The Covenant of Works saith Do this and for doing thou shalt live But the Covenant of Grace saith Do this and for Christ's Merits and Satisfaction thy doing shall be accepted of God for his sake thou shalt livâ— and be happy There is another Cause you see viz. the meritorious Righteousness of the Son of God which makes an infinite difference between the one and the other This we must remember that the Covenant of Grace is that whereby Man is recovered and restored to happiness by the undertakings of another whereas by virtue of the Covenant of Works a Man attain'd to Life and Happiness by his own Works and Obedience His personal Righteousness entitled him to Heaven by the tenour of the first Compact but now the terms are otherwise that which procures Liâ—e and Immortality under the Second Covenant is the Obedience of Christ. There is nothing we can do that will be acceptable for our own sakes but on the account of the Messiâ—â— the Mediator we and our Services are accepted The Covenant of Works required dâ—ing as a pâ—â—formance meriting Salvation and Bleâ—â—edness but this other Agreement exacts of us doing only as it is the appointed way and means of Salvation This renders the Difference very great and wide between the one and the other 3. The Covenant of Works â—aith Do this but be sure to do it without the least â—ailing and imperfection and thou shalt livâ— if thou dost it thus otherwise not For this Covenant made with Adâ—â— and his Posterity was upon condition of sinless Obedience as we find by the Consequence and as we can prove from the Law which was founded on the Covenant of Works Cursed is he that continueth not in 〈◊〉 things written in the Book of the Law to do them Dâ—ut 27. 26. Universal and entire Obedience is absolutely required But the Covenant of Grace saith Dâ— this and though it be done on thy part imperfectly yet thou shalt live Thou shalt be accepted for the perfect and consummate Righteousness of Christ altho thy Services be mixed with weakness and sin The Difference then between the Covâ—nant of Works and that of Gracâ— is not doing or not doing keeping or not keeping the Commandments but the Difference is here the Covenant of Works requireth the keeping the Commandments without sinâ—ing whereas by the Covenant of Grace no such thing is required This is the Difference between the Covenants and thence it is manifest that the latter of them requires not only believing but acting tho it is true believing is the principal thing under the New Covenant and therefore we find this chiefly urged by our Saviour and his Apostles Faith is the main thing inculcated in the Writings of the New Testament and the contrary is that which is mostly laid to mens charge On this account it is rightly said that Believe and be sâ—vâ—â— is the Language of the Covenant of Grace but yet it is certain that doing or working is not excluded for we find in the Evangelical Writings that both Faith and good Works are made the necessary Conditions in order to Eternal Life He that believeth shall be saved Mark 16. 16. Believe on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 31. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God â— Cor. 7. 19. Without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. And many other places of Scripture shew that something is required to be done by us under the New Covâ—nâ—nt Wherefore we need not be afraid to say that the Covenant of Grace is â— Law viz. on this account that it commands something to be done So that one would wonder that any Men of reason and discourse should assert and that with much confidence that the Gospel is not a Law of Faith and Repentance and that there is no Sanction there are no Precepts no Tâ—râ—atnings no Prâ—mises belonging to it as I find some have lately maintain'd notwithstanding it is stiled a Law by two Apostles Heb. 8. 6. Iames 1. 25. And we need not be afraid to say that there are Conditions propounded and to be performed under this Covenant For what is a Câ—ndition Doth not every one grant that it is such a thing required of 〈◊〉 without the performance of which we shall never obtain the thing offer'd and prâ—mis'd And is not this applicable to the present Case Are not Faith and Obedience absolutely requir'd antecedently to our enjoying the Benefits and Privileges of the New Covenant that are offer'd to us Doth not the word Condition express the manner of our partaking the Benefits of the Gospel-Covenant Doth it not signify that order and disposition of the Divine Grace which are to be seen in conferring Pardon and Happiness God hath appointed that none shall reap this Fruit of the Covenant of Grace unless they first believe and repent This is a fix'd and establish'd Order and without observing and performing of this latter we shall never have any Advantage of the former It is evident then that believing and repenting are Conditions and no Man of correct thoughts can boggle at the truth and certainty of it But perhaps it will be said the Conditionality of the Covenant of Grace was exploded by the first Reformâ—rs for Calvin and others are quoted for this that the Gospel promiseth not Eternal Life upon condition of Obedience But I answer and that with sincerity and truth that the Reformers speak thus in opposition only to the Popish Interpretâ—tion of the word Condition for those of the Church of Româ— make Faith and Good Works such a Condition as gives a right to Eternal Life and incluâ—â—s in it Merit In this sense they disclaim'd all
Salvation by their own perfect Obedience but by virtue of the perfect Righteousness of the Messias who was to come in the fulness of time It only seem'd good to the All-wise God to obscure and disguise this Covenant in part that they might be fitted for the insuing Dispensation of the Gospel and that this Dispensation might appear more bright and glorious Now it was that the Covenant of Grace most signally display'd it self By Christ's coming and by the preaching of the Gospel it was fully and amply manifested tho it had been in being ever since the Restauration of Adam Now at last the actual fulfilling of the Grand Promise of this Covenant viz. the Incarnation of Christ was accomplished He came on purpose to perfect that Covenant which had been made and renew'd before between God and Man Never till this time was there any compleat discovery of this blessed Agreement and Contract between God and us In the Writings of the New Testament alone we find this set forth Here is plainly discover'd the Mediator of this Covenant Iesus Christ the Righteous the Eternal and only begotten Son of God who vouchsafed to assume our Humane Nature to clothe himself with Flesh to converse in the World above thirty Years to instruct Mankind by his Heavenly Doctrine to confirm and establish us in it by his Divine Miracles to direct us to the practice of it by his Holy Life and Spotless Example and at length to die for us to satisfy for our Sins As the publick and most solemn Covenants which we read of in the Old Testament were made with killing and sacrificing and effusion of Blood by Divine Appointment without doubt So here the Blessed Messias who was to compleat the Covenant of Grace shed on the Cross his most precious Blood which therefore is call'd the Blood of the Covenant Again in the Scriptures of the New Testament are plainly and expresly set forth the Terms of the Covenant of Grace i. e. what God hath promised to do and what Obligations are upon us Here Christ and his Apostles and Evangelists proclaim Remission of Sins the peculiar Benefit and Privilege of the Covenant of Grace and Immortality and Eternal Life are brought to light by this Gospel and the performance of all the precious Promises which concern this Life and another is ascertainâ—d to us here And as it assureth us that God will fulfil his Promises so it urgeth upon us the performing of our Ingagements Christianity is an Obligatory Covenant and this Obligation is mutual God will discharge his part we must see that we perform the Conditions which are required on our side The Gospel acquainteth us that if our Peace and Reconciliation be not made it is our own fault wholly we will not leave our Sins and thereby we â—rustrate the Agreement and Contract of the Gospel This therefore calls upon us to undertake the Counter-part of the Covenant i. e. to be holy in all manner of Conversation to deny all Ungodliness and wordly Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godlily in this present World to adorn the Gospel by a strict and circumspect walking and to bring forth much Fruit to the Glory of our Heavenly Father In the Evangelical Writings the Terms on our part which are Faith Repentance and Obâ—diâ—ncâ— are more distinctly set down than ever especially the Nature of Faith and the peculiar Virtue of it are explain'd in that manner which they were never before for that by Works and Faith we are saved but that by Faith alone we are justified is the Doctrine which St. Paul hath abundantly asserted proved and confirmed and it is establish'd by the other Apostles which shews the great discrimination between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace The Gospel tells us how we are to find real Advantage by this Covenant and Law of Grace it ascertains us that we can reap the Benefit of it only by Câ—nvâ—rsiâ—n and Râ—gâ—neration It is therefore urged and inculcated that we must be born again that we must be Nâ—â— Creatures that there must be a Renâ—vation of our Hearts and Lives Lastly Christianity informs us what are the Seals of this Covenant of Grace and accordingly let us know that by Baptism we are entred into Covenant with God and into the Church of Christ and that at the Lord's Supper we repeat and renew that Convenant Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant instituted this Federal Ordinance and this is that Holy Supper at which he gives us his Body to eat and his Blood to drink which he assures us is the Blood of the New Covenant which is shed for the Remission of Sins Mat. 26. 28. The sum then of what hath been said is That God pitied the Miâ—ery of Mankind and was pleased to make a Second Covenant with him and his Posterity after they had broke the First This Second Covenant tho it was made with Adam presently after his Fall yet it arrived not to its height and perfection till the coming of Christ and the preaching of the Gospâ—l Christianity is the Covenant or Law of Grace in the best Edition The Answer then to that Problem How the Old and the New Covenant differ is easily resolved from the Premises for if you understand as some do but how fitly you will judg from what I shall suggest by and by by the Old Covenant the Covenant of Works and by the New one the Covenant of Grace I have plainly and distinctly set down the Particulars wherein they differ Or if you mean by the Old Covenant the Mosaical and Legal Dispensation and by the New Covenant the Dispensation of the Gospel which both are but One Covenant I have given ample Satisfaction to the Question by shewing wherein these two differ and by letting you see that the Covenant of Grace began with Mankind soon after the Fall and afterward was continued in the Mosaick Dispensation and at last was compleated by Christ's coming And here further to illustrate the Point I will clear the Acception of these Terms the Old and the New Covenant which so frequently occur in Holy Writ and I will make it evident to you that in the whole Book of the Scripâ—ures the Old Covenant is never applied to the Covenant of Works but is a part or degree of the Covenant of Grace This then we are to know that the Covenant of Grace is twofold Obscure or Manifest The first was from Adam's Restauration to our Saviour's coming the second is ever since The former is called the Old Covenant the latter the New Covenant and yet they are but one Covenant This you will find to be the stile of Sacred Scripture if you consult those two famous places the one in the Old Testament and the other in the New which treat of the Old and New Covenant The former is Iew. 31. 31. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and with
the House of Judah not according to the Covenant I made with their Fathers the old Mosaick Dispensation but this shall be the Covenant that I will make I will put my Law into their inward parts and write it in their heart and I will be their God and they shall be my People They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their Iâ—iquity and I will remember their sin no more by which is meant the Evangelical Dispensation or the Covenant of the Gospel which is expresly called here the New Covenant and the Covenant made with their Fathers is to be understood of the giving the Law to the Iews and consequently of the Iewish Oeconomy But this will be morefully made good from the other place the 8 th to the Hebrews from the 6 th Verse to the end where is set forth the true Nature of the Old and New Covenant as I have represented it Christ our Eternal High Priest saith the Apostle hath â—bâ—ained a more excellent Ministry by how much also â—e is the Mediator of a better Coveâ—ant which was established on better Promises ver 6. Here the Covenant of Grace under the Gospel is call'd a Better Covenant because on some accounts it is better thâ—n it was under the Law and particularly by reason of more evident and certain Promises which Christ hath added On this Consideration it is called a better Covenant tho it be the very same as to substance The Apostle proceeds Vers. 7 8. If the first Covenant had been faultless i. e. if the Legal Dispensation had not been imperfect then should no place â—ave been sought for the second i. e. there would have been no need of introducing the Evangelical Administration but finding fault with that he saith Behold the days come saith the Lord when I will make a New Covenant c. The former being found insufficient was taken away and another brought into its room tho to speak properly it was not another but the same in other Circumstances For the Covenant of Grace was under the Law but because it varied as to some respects when Christ came it is represented as a Double Covenant and accordingly the Scripture calls the former the Old Covenant and the latter the Nâ—w onâ— This Reason likewise may be given why the Covenant of Grace which was in the time of the Law is call'd the Old Covenant and the same under the Gospel is call'd the Nâ—w Covâ—nant viz. because they are so comparatively i. e. the Legal Oeconomy in respect of the Christian one is Old and this in respect of that is Nâ—w According to the different Administrations of the Covenant of Grace this Covenant is said to be Old or Nâ—w In the Old Testament the Covenant of Grace was administred by Sacrifices Puriâ—yings and many other Typical Ceremonies and Mystical Observances and this antient way of God's dealing with his People is stiled the Old Covâ—nant but in the New Testament these things were done away and so the Covenant of Grace appeared New and on that account had its denomination Thus tho the Old and New Covenant differ in the manner and way and external Administration in so much that the latter is eminently call'd the Covenant of Grace and the former in comparison of that is not the Covenant of Grace yet really they are the samâ— in substancâ— and there is no opposition between them for in both of them Free Grace and Remission of Sins through Jesus Christ are held forth to all the Faithful thereâ—ore they are but One Covenant This is the truest Notion of the Covenants tho some of the Antient Writers but more of the Moderns have mistaken this Point confounding the Covenant of Works and the Old Covenant and making them to be the same which hath been attended with very gross Errors For tho it is true the Covenant of Works may be call'd the Old Covenant because it was first yet we now confine our selves to the stile of the Holy Scriptures and are declaring what is call'd the Old Covenant in the Language of those Inspired Writers and there you will never find it is applied to the Covenant of Works but always to the Covenant of Grace under the Old Dispensations and the New Covenant always refers to that Covenant as it was renewed and made better by the Evangelical Institution And because the Covenant of Grace under Moses was dark and imperfect but when Christ came was clear and entire therefore the Apostle represents them as two distinct Covenant a First and a Second a worse and a better Thus you have the true Reason why the former Dispensation is call'd the Old Covenant and why the latter is call'd the Nâ—w and on this is grounded the vast Diffâ—râ—ncâ— between the Dâ—spâ—nsations of the Law and the Gospel But this doth not argue that there are any new Duties introduced by this means and that there is a real Addition to the former Precepts and Commands No such thing can rationally be inferred from the Distinction of the Old and New Covenant So much concerning the Particular Nature of this Evangâ—lical Dispâ—nsation and how it differs from the others which was the first thing I undertook CHAP. XIII Tho we could assign no Reason why the Christian Oeconomy was so late and why our Saviour arrived no sooner in the World this is sufficient to satisfie us that it was God's Pleasure it should be so But for the sake of the Inquisitive such Reasons and Considerations as these are offer'd 1. It must be remembred that Christ appear'd in the World even in the early times of the Patriarchs 2. The Benefits of Christ's Redemption were imparted to the Faithful before he actually appear'd in the flesh 3. The World was not fit to receive him sooner 4. He delay'd his Coming to make the World sensible of their Misery 5. That the Advantages of his Coming might be prized 6. It was congruous that so great a Prince should not arrive without solemn Harbingers and Heralds of his Coming 7. The necessities of Mankind call'd for him at that particular time and juncture when he came The Jewish Church grew worse and worse An enumeration of the several Sects and Factions which they were divided into viz. Essenes Pharisees Sadduees Herodians Samaritans Galilaeans 8. God proceedeth in a gradual Order and Method The most perfect things are reserved till the last II. I Am to acquaint you with the Reasons why the Christian Dispensation as to the actual exerting of it took not place in the World before and which is the foundation of this why Christ Iesus the Messias and Saviour blessed not Mankind with his Coming till that precise time wherein we are certified by the Evangelical Records and other Testimonies that he was born and why he came neither sooner nor later Indeed I might say here as before that we are to rest satisfied with God's managing this matter altho
them in the least none but God could alter them who designed to do so in due time for he intended those Mosaick Precepts should continue to such a certain period of time and no longer These Words of Ieremiah are very observable Chap. 3. 16. It shall come to pass in those days saith the Lord they shall say no more the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord neither shall it come to mind neither shall they remember it neither shall they visit it neither shall it be magnified any more i. e. The Mosaick Rites and External Ceremonies of the Law shall not be in request as they were before Men shall not prize and value them as they used to do yea they shall lay the use of them aside but this they must not do till they have Authority from God And God revealed to the Prophet Daniel that he would alter the Law after a certain Revolution of Years The Messias shall cause the Sacrifice and Oblation to cease Dan. 9. 27. But it was unalterable in respect of the Jews themselves 3. The Promises and Predictions in the Old Testament which are very many concerning the perpetual Duration of Ierusalem and the Temple and the Iewish Worship and their Polity and Government are to be understood of the Perpetuity of the Church of Christ and his spiritual Kingdom And to this purpose you may observe that in the Writings of the Old Testament where the Times of the Gospel are foretold the Evangelical Worship and Service of God are set forth by sacrificing and other the like Observances commanded in Moses's Law By the Ritual Worship of the Jews is express'd the reasonable and spiritual Service of the Gospel and by those Expressions which seem to denote the Perpetuity of the former the Duration of the latter is signified and ascertained to us This is a most certain Truth and the observing of it will lead us to a right understanding of a great number of Texts which speak of the Iewish Laws and Government as if they were to continue for ever without any Limitation and Restriction We are to know that those places especially the Prophesies in Isaiah concerning the glorious things that shall befal Ierusalem and the Iews are to be interpreted of the State of the Christian Church they are to be understood of the Spiritual Kingdom of the Messias and the Times of the Gospel Sacrifices and the Temple signify Spiritual Oblations and the Gospel-Church for the Evangelical Prophet is to be understood in an Evangelical Sense The Angels Words concerning Christ in Luke 1. 32 33. The Lord God shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the House of Iacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end are a plain Comment on all those places in the Old Testament where the Perpetuity of the Mosaick Laws and the Jewish Oeconomy and Government is promis'd They shew that they are all meant of Christ and his Kingdom i. e. his Church both here and hereafter which was prefigured by David's Kingdom From what this Heavenly Messenger saith here we learn that the Prophesies concerning the endless continuance of the Throne of David of raising up to 〈◊〉 David their King Jer. 30. 9. of raising up the Tabernacle of David Am. 9. 11. of God's setting up his Servant David Ezek. 34. 23. are all accomplish'd in Christ. And indeed the Jewish Commentators themselves acknowledg that the Messias is often stiled David in these and other Prophesies of the Old Testament nor are they backward to confess that by David's Throne and Kingdom is meant the Messias's Government as is plain from Psal. 132. 11. 2 Sam. 7. 12. 1 Chron. 22. 10. where God promised David that Christ should sit on his Throne which is taken notice of and applied not only in the forenam'd place in St. Luke but in Acts 2. 30. For Christ is represented by David and the Evangelical Dispensation is express'd in Terms which relate to the Iewish Administration and Government So that it is no wonder this is said to be for ever for it shall last to the end of the World and afterwards Christ shall reign in the Kingdom of Glory to eternal Ages This if duly considered cannot but yield a satisfactory Answer to the foregoing Objection as well as give light to several Prophesies of the Old Testament But here it will be asked where hath God formally abrâ—gated the Ceremonial Law of the Jews I answer it is not necessary he should do this for the Law ceaseth when the Reason of it ceaseth Now the Reason of the Câ—râ—monial Law and all its Observances was chiâ—fly to prefigure Christ and the Gospel of which he was the Institutor and therefore they are now ceased Christ being come of whom they were but Figures and Shadows The Abrogation then of those Mosaick Rites wherein the Religion of the Iews was placed may be proved by this one Argument viz. that Christ was designed by the legal Rites that the Ceremonial Law was a Prefiguration of the Gospel-Dispensation Here it might be shew'd that the Evangelical Oeconomy was prefigured by certain Persons as Abel Noah Abraham Isaac Ioseph Melchisedec about the last of whom the Author to the Hebrews spends a whole Chapter these were Typical Persons as well as Moses and Ioshua and some others afterwards And not only Persons but Things were Typical as the Pillar of a Cloud the Red Sea the Manna and the Rock which two last were Symbols of the Evangelical Sacraments the Eucharist and Baptism 1 Cor. 10. 1 2 c. and the lifting up of the brazen Serpent signified Christs Crucifixion Iohn 3. 14. But if I should speak of those that are properly Legal Rites and Vsages it is yet further evident that they were Representations of our Saviour and of the grand things of the Gospel As for Sacrifices I have treated of them already and made it appear that they foresignified the expiatory Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. As for the Tabernacle and all the appurtenances of it I have particularly display'd their Typical Nature and how they all pointed to this Dispensation I am now speaking of I might proceed to make this good concerning the Ceremonious Washings and Purifications under the Law that they typified some greater Purity they signified the Spiritual cleansing and sanctifying of the Soul and the abstaining from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit The Apostle acquaints us that the difference of Meats and Drinks observing of a Holy Day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath Days were a shadow of things to come but the Body of this Shadow is Christ Col. 2. 16 17. The Truth the Solidity the Substance are to be sought for in some higher things than those were even in Christ Jesus and in the Benefits of the Gospel Yea he tells us that the whole Mosaick Law is but a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10. 1. All the things contained in it are but rude
and imperfect Delineations of that compleat Frame of Religion which the Messias was to introduce This was the thing designed all along the Ritual and Ceremonial Law with all its external Rites tended to this pure and uncorrupted Model of Religion It was appointed that the Law should adumbrate the Gospel that that Oeconomy should prefigure this Therefore the Apostle saith the Law was our School-master to bring us to Christ which shews the inferiour Nature of the Law and that it was to indure but for a time for the Authority of a School-master over those whom he teacheth is but Temporary The legal Pedagogy was to cease and Christ was to be the end of the Law to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. It is then evident from the Premises that the Iewish Law is disannul'd for when the Reason of a Law ceases that is sufficient to change the Law because as it commenced upon Reason so when that is taken away the Law it self is abolish'd also This is the present Case the Ceremonial Rites and Types were designed to represent and foresignify Christ and the Evangelical Benefits Wherefore Christ being come and having brought with him those Benefits the former mystical Representations and Figures ought to have a Period So that the Reason and Occasion of these Ceremonious Observances being removed this is sufficient to repeal and reverse those Laws especially when you consider that Christ's Miracles of which I shall speak afterwards were plain Evidences of God's Intention to repeal the Law But to close this Point we are not destitute of a Formal Abrogation of the Jewish Laws for such we may justly reckon our Saviour's Words to be in Iohn 4. 21 23. The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father The hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth Where first he acquaints us that the publick Worship of God shall not be restrain'd to one particular place which very thing is a cancelling of the Mosaick Law which gave Directions chiefly concerning the Temple-Worship They shall not saith he be confined to Mount Gerizim where the Samaritans had fix'd the Seat of their worshipping or to Mount Ephraim in Samaria where Shiloh was the place where the Tabernacle and Ark rested from the beginning of Ioshua's time till Samuel nor shall they be confined to Ierusalem whither the Tabernacle was afterwards brought and at length converted into a Temple nor in any other place exclusively shall Men worship God but every Place and Country shall be alike and God shall have Worshippers in every part of the World This utterly makes void the Iewish Ceremonial Service which was tied to a certain place And our Saviour adds this which doth yet further evacuate it that the Worship under the Gospel must be in Spirit and Truth in contradistinction to the legal Worship which was made up of carnal Ordinances and mere Shadows and Types which were but Representations of that which is true and real Thus he plainly erases and abolishes the Mosaick Service and calls those that worship God in the Evangelical Manner the true Worshippers Again the greatest part of the Epistle to the Hebrews is a direct and downright repealing of it Nay we want not the formal Words of Abrogation as in Heb. 7. 18 19. There is verily a disannulling of the Commandment going before i. e. the Legal and Iudaical Oeconomy which he calls a carnal Commandment ver 16. for the Weakness and Unprofitableness thereof for the Law made nothing perfect Here is an express disannulling of the Mosaick Law And moreover the Reason of it is rendred viz. because it was weak and imperfect and had little Power to amend and reform Mens Lives You will find it also formally repeal'd in Heb. 8. 7 8 13. where the Apostle treating of the Old and New Covenant by which he means the Law and the Gospel as I have before shew'd he thus concludes If the first Covenant had been faultless then should no place have ben sought for the second For finding fault with them he saith Behold the Days come saith the Lord when I will make a New Covenant c. In that he saith a New Covenant he hath made the first Old Now that which decayeth and waxeth Old is ready to vanish away or according to the Greek it is near to vanishing Certainly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaks as much if not more than Abrogating And in another plâ—ce where he speaketh of the legal Worship which consisteth chiefly in Sacrifices and Offerings for Sin and not in inward Holiness and sincere doings of God's Will which is the Evangelical Service he applieth the Psalmist's or rather our Saviour's words Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will this is infer'd that he taketh away the first that he may establish the second i. e. the Messias abolisheth the Iudaical Service that the may set up and perpetuate the Evangelical one It can then be no longer questioned whether the Iewish Law was abrogated and that in formal and express Terms Those carnal Ordinances as the Apostle speaks Heb. 9. 10. were imposed upon them only until the time of Reformation i. e. of the Gospel When that came they were made void null and dead And this Epistle to the Hebrews seems to be the Sermon which St. Paul preached at their Funeral or the Office of Burial on that occasion Here is Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust a fatal Period put to the Iudaical Rites the Law interred and intombed never to rise again but the Gospel springs out of those Ashes a new and a more noble Dispensation succeeds in its room And thus I have abundantly proved what I undertook that the Law of Moses consisting in Ceremonies was not to continue but was in time to be nulled and dissolved and that by the coming of Christ they are accordingly nulled dissolved and abrogated Hitherto I have in a more remote manner proved the Certainty and Authority of the Evangelical Oeconomy and consequently of Christianity it self But now I will approach nearer and proceed to a more positive and particular Proof of the Authority of the Gospel-Dispensation Christ succeeds Moses the Gospel follows the Law but quo jure There must be as great Testimony for the one as there was for the other or else it cannot be received on good Grounds Let us see then how this Dispensation will acquit it self There are two kinds of Evidence Humane and Divine the Testimony of Man and the Testimony of God The first creates a humane Faith the second a divine one in us Both of these we have in the present Matter First we are furnished with Humane Testimony i. e. we are assured of the Truth of the Christian Religion by a sufficient number of credible Persons who have been either Ear or Eye-witnesses or both of all the Transactions relating to
Christ and Christianity And here I will shew 1. That this sort of Testimony is frequently made use of and appealed to in the New Testament as a sufficient Argument and Proof of Christianity 2. That the Testimony of the Apostles and other Christians who lived in our Saviour's time was the Testimony of credible Persons and therefore ought to be reckoned by us a valid and substantial Proof of Christianity 1. The Testimony of credible Persons who have heard and seen what Christ did is oâ—ten made use of and appealed to as a good Argument of the Truth of Christianity Thus St. Luke in the beginning of his Gospel to conciliate a Belief of what he was to deliver declares he design'd to record nothing but what was delivered to him by such as from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word i. e. not only those who saw Christ and what he did but were personally and actually concerned in many of those things as walking on the Sea casting out of Devils c. those who had a part in these great and miraculous Actions those who were not only Spectators but Actors These I take to be the Ministers of the Word here meant as the Original importeth So you see this Evangelist lays his Foundation on the Testimony of Sense he deems it good Ground of Satisfaction that what he writes concerning Christ and his miraculous Doings is attested by those who were Eye-witnesses of them and who most sensibly convers'd with our Saviour and shared in some part of the things done by him This he knew would cause them to be most surely believed among the Christians ver 1. So to the Testimony of Sense St. Peter and St. Iohn appeal'd Acts 4. 20. When the Rulers of the Iews sent for them and commanded them to preach no more in Christ's Name their peremptory Return was this we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard As if they had said Gentlemen what is this that you require of us It is most strange that you would have us to deny our Senses and to give no Credit to our Ears or Eyes All of you as well as our selves can attest the things that have been said and done by Iesus of Nazareth Our Ears have heard his heavenly Doctrine and our Eyes have seen the Wonders he wrought in Confirmation of that Doctrine Would you have us believe and act contrary to our Senses This was never required by any reasonable Men for they always thought that the Evidence of Sense is valid and fully satisfactory St. Peter likewise in his Sermon in Acts 10. builds upon this Rock We are Witnesses saith he of all things which he i. e. Christ did both in the Land of the Iews and in Jerusalem whom they slew and hang'd on a Tree Him God raised up the third Day and shew'd him openly not to all the People but to witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead ver 39 40 41. We Apostles accompanied Christ our Master when he went about doing Good and working Miracles we were no idle and remiss Spectators of the marvellous things he did in all places where the Jews inhabited And tho they maliciously put him to death and thought that then they had made an end of him and that he should never appear again yet we are Witnesses that the same Iesus who died on the Cross rose again within three Days and appear'd publickly to us all we familiarly convers'd with him we saw him and we heard him and when one of our number was backward to believe his miraculous Return from the dead he bid him approach nearer to him and feel and handle him that by that as well as other Senses he might be satisfied of our Saviour's Resurrection We are certain therefore of it and by consequence of all the other Doctrines which we preach We appeal to sensible Demonstration This clears us of all Imposture And hear what the same Apostle saith in one of his Epistles We have not followed saith he cunningly devised Fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Iesus Christ but were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty 2 Pet. 1. 16. i. e. l and Iames and Iohn saw such things at Christ's Transiguration which are an undoubted Proof of his Divinity And in the next Verse but one he adds that they were Ear-witnesses also for speaking of the Voice which came to Christ from the excellent Glory he saith This Voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount ver 18. As much as to say you have no cause Brethren to fear any Imposture from us you may be easily convinced that we come with no Fables and Forgeries because we give you assurance of what we say from our own Eyes and Ears we go upon sure Ground our very Senses report to us what we declare to you therefore you may be confident of the truth of it St. Paul as well as St. Peter makes his Appeal to the Verdict of Sense in the matter of Christ's Resurrection He was seen of Cephas and then of the Twelve After that he was seen of above five hundred Brethren at once after that he was seen of James then of all the Apostles and last of all he was seen of me also 1 Cor. 15. 5 c. He proves that Christ rose from the dead because the bodily Sight gave Evidence of it This is one good Argument or rather Demonstration of the Certainty of the thing Many other places there are to the same effect but I will mention but one more and that is of St. Iohn 1 Epist. 1 chap. 1 2 3. ver That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our Hands have handled of the Word of Life for the Life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have Fellowship with us Take this short Gloss upon the whole That which was from the beginning those things that were destined from Eternity and were of old all along prefigured shadowed and foretold by Mosesâ— and the Prophets concerning Christ and the Gospel which we who are Apostles have heard from God the Father testifying and audibly speaking from Heaven and by the preaching of his Son Christ Jesus which we have seen with our Eyes viz. Christ's many Miracles and all the strange and wonderful things that happen by his coming these we have beheld with our bodily Eyes with our own Eyes not relying on others which we have looked upon what we have narrowly pried into what we have often viewed and not slightly and perfunctorily and our Hands have handled Here the third Sense the Touch
cogent Reasons to perswade us that they truly and faithfully delivered down to us those things This I will make good from the Consideration 1. Of the Persons that transmitted these things 2. Of the Evidence of the Cause First as to the Persons I will consider both their Lives and their Deaths Their Lives are sufficient proofs of their Integrity in delivering the Scriptures of the New Testament to us and of their confident belief of the Truth of all that is contain'd in them The Primitive Christians lived after another rate than we do now They did not wrangle and quarrel as we do they did not â—ight and devour one another as the manner of too many is of latter times but they were remarkable for their mutual Love and Concord for their Humility Meekness and Condescension to one another and they were admired for their Gravity Sobriety Self-denial and Patience they were eminent for their Piety towards God and their Innocent and Righteous dealing with all Men. The Ministers practised what they preached and the People were ambitious to imitate their Preachers and both were singularly Good and Virtuous This was it which gain'd so many Proselytes to Christianity in those first times this brought them to a perswasion of the Truth and Reality of Christ's Doctrine Therefore when Origen had excellently proved the Truth of Christianity to Alexander Severus that noble Emperor ingenuously confessed that he was more convinced of the Truth of that Religion by the humble and loving carriage of Christians than by all Origen's Arguments The exemplary and blameless Conversation of those Primitive Professors argued that the Doctrine and Principles of their Religion were real and certain For how can it enter into any sober Mans thoughts that such holy and upright Men true followers of the Apostles and Disciples of Christ would have constantly confessed and owned the Christian way unless they had been throughly convinced of the Truth of it and that it was the very same which was confess'd and acknowledg'd by the Apostles themselves These Holy and Godly Men made Conscience of a Lie and counted it a heinous Crime to falsify yea they esteem'd it no less than a damnable Sin to disbelieve or misreport those things concerning Christ and the Christian Doctrines They were really perswaded in their Minds that their Salvation lay at stake that their Eternal Welfare or Everlasting Ruin were concern'd in these things And can you imagin then that they would report them falsly and impose upon the World by delivering things which were counterfeit Again as the Lives so the Suffering and Death of the Saints in the Primitive Days and in the succeeding Ages are an undeniable Argument of the Truth of what was deliver'd to them and of what they conveyed to us They underwent the most exquisite Pains and Torments with ineffable Courage and Constancy and nothing could prevail with them to renounce the Christian Religion insomuch that when the Pagan Adversaries in those days would express any thing to be impossible they did it thus Ye may sooner make the Professors of Christ quit their Mastersâ— Doctrine This was a thing not to be effected for those Persons first of all forsook their worldly Goods and then parted with their Lives to hold fast their Religion This patient Suffering and undaunted Dying of so many thousands is an unquestionable Proof of the Truth of Christianity For those enlightned and sanctified Men would never lay down their Lives to maintain a Falshood and to perpetuate a Lie No they knew whom they believed in and for whom they suffer'd and that made them so couragious We may conclude then that the Christian Doctrine is confirm'd by the Blood of those Worthy Men those expiring Saints did testify the Truth of Christianity and therefore they are stiled Martyrs Secondly The Evidence of the Cause is an impregnable Argument of the Reality and Truth of these things which I am speaking of There is this following heap of Evidences 1. A great Presumption arising from just Causes and Circumstances yea and from a multiplicity of them which in all Courts of Judicature is of considerable weight and value with understanding Judges This first but lowest sort of Evidence the Christian Church since our Saviour hath not been destitute of for there were never higher Presumptions in any Cause under Heaven than there were in this But we need not mention this when we have 2. The Notoriety of the Facts i. e. when the things in trial are openly and commonly known when they are avouched by publick Fame and the universal Vogue of Men. And that this was the case of Christianity ever since Christ left the Earth cannot be denied by any Man of Modesty and Truth 3. The Succession of Christians and Churches in the World is a plain Proof that they verily believed those things which made them Christians and Churches Hereupon they deliver'd to us those Writings which they receiv'd from the Hands of the Evangelists and Apostles by their transmitting them to Posterity they shew that they believe them to be sacred and certain Verities 4. The Succession of Bishops and Pastors is an other Evidence for it was their Office to read publickly the Scriptures of the New Testament and to preach the Doctrines contain'd in them and consequently to own them to be Truth which is a good Motive to us to do the same 5. The frequent Disputes which Christians in all Ages have held with those who opposed the Scripture and Christianity are no mean Testimony in this Cause 6. To these may be added the famous Writings of the Christians in the several Centuries their Apologies Dialogues Sermons Homilies Orations Commentaries Histories All which proclaim their serious and firm Belief of what they have convey'd down to us 7. All Christian Churches have deliver'd to us certain Symbols or Articles of Belief which they reckon'd to be the Standards of Evangelical Faith and Truth 8. The Constant Communion of the Church and the publick Worship of God in the solemn Assemblies of Christians ever since the days of the Apostles the setting apart a Day for that Worship the reading of the Scriptures at such times the instructing the People out of them the celebrating the Lord's Supper the constant custom of openly rehearsing and proâ—essing the Christian Belief the Prayers and Praises offer'd to God in the name of Christ the yearly Commemoration of the Birth Death and Resurrection of our Saviour the Sacrament of Baptism which acknowledgeth the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 9. The sundry Decrees and Canons of Synods and Councils held in the Christian Churches Lastly the many Laws and Edicts of Christian Emperours and Princes in defence and confirmation of our most holy Religion These and all the rest before-named are clear Proofs and Evidences that the Evangelical Writings which contain the Doctrine and Actions of our blessed Lord were rightly and truly convey'd to us and that we are in possession of the same Faith and
Prayer was heard and the People that stood by and heard it said that it thunder'd others said an Angel spake to him John 12. 28 29. Thus Christ was signally glorified by his Father and declared by him to be the Messias the Son of God by a Voice from Heaven attended with a kind of Thâ—nder To this we may annex God's speaking in a rushing mighty wind on the day of Pentecost Acts 2. 2. And Christ Jesus himself being in Heaven spake to Saul thence by a Voice saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Acts 9. 4. St. Iohn in the Apocalypse makes frequent mention of a Voice speaking to him and revealing great things to him where it is observable that Thunders and Voices go together chap. 4. 5. and 8. 5. Thus the New Testament as well as the Old had the benefit of that Divine Oracle which the Iews stiled the Daughter of a Voice i. e. a Voice from Heaven declaring the Will of God to Men. Afterwards we are told in Ecclesiastical History that those who were set on work by Iulian the Apostate to rebuild the Temple at Ierusalem were defeated by Thunder and a TERRIBLE VOICE that accompanied it from Heaven thereby bearing witness to the Cause of Christianity 2. The Iews had the Testimony of Angels and so have Christians to confirm this Oeconomy By these Heavenly Messengers Zacharias had notice given him of the approaching Birth of Iohn the Baptist and the Virgin Mary had tidings brought her of the miraculous Conception of the Holy Babe Jesus in her Womb and these were the Heralds that proclaimed the News of his Birth to the Shepherds One of this Celestial Order appeared to Ioseph and warn'd him to flie into Egypt with the Blessed Infant These glorious Spirits gave notice of Christ's Resurrection and when he ascended up to Heaven another of this Celestial Hierarchy address'd himself to the Apostles and assured them that in the like manner Jesus should come again to Judgment Another of these Ministring Spirits came to the devout Cornelius and bid him send for Peter that he might be the great and happy Instrument of converting him to the Christian Faith The Angel of God stood by St. Paul in the Night when he was on his dangerous Voyage and ascertain'd him of his safety Acts 27. 23. And sundry other instances there are of Angels making known the will of God unto Men in those early times of the Gospel and thereby attesting the Truth of Christianity 3. The Iews had the Mosaick Dispensation attested by Visions and we have the same way of Revelation to ascertain us of the Truth of Christianity Thus Zachariah saw a Vision in the Temple relating to the forerunner of Christ Luke 1. 22. The Apostles who were at our Saviour's Transfiguration had the same manner of discovery Mat. 17. 9. The Lord spake to Ananias in a Vision Acts 9. 10. You read of St. Peter's Vision whereby he was taught not to despise the Gentiles Acts 10. 10 c. A Vision appeared to Paul in the Night Acts 16. 9. And again the Lord incouraged him in a Vision Acts 18. 9. Of St. Stephen it is said that he looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God the Divine Shekinah and Iesus standing at the right hand of God Acts 7. 55. And we read in the Book of the Revelation that St. Iohn had frequent Visions And hither may be refer'd those visible representations spoken of in the New Testament as the Holy Ghost's descending on Christ in the shape of a Dove after he was baptized The appearance of Cloven Tongues like as of fire over the Apostles heads The Light from Heaven which shone round about St. Paul at his Conversion All these appertain to the Shekinah the Glorious Presence and Lustre of theâ— Heavenly Majesty And hither may be refer'd the Radiant Presence of Christ the bright and glorious Manifestation of his Person which is often mention'd by the Evangelists Mat. 17. 2 5. Mark 9. 3. and Rev. 1. 16. He dwelt among us he was the true Shekinah and we behold his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father John 1. 14. 4. Dreams were another sort of divine Revelations among the Jews and these also were not wanting to confirm the Truth of Christianity For we read that Ioseph was warned once and again in a Dream concerning Mary whom he had espoâ—sed and concerning the blessed Babe Mat. 1. 20. chap. 2. 12 13 19. And Pilate's Wife suffer'd many things in a Dream because of Christ who was then standing at the Bar before her Husband Mat. 27. 19. But because these Operations on the Imagination by Dreams are more liable to mistakes than Visions and other kinds of Revelation we have but few Instances of this However we are not wholly destitute of this Testimony under the Gospel 5. There was among the Jews that which they signally call'd the Holy Spirit viz. when Men were wonderfully and extraordinarily stir'd up to deliver the Will of God to make some divine Discoveries to the World and to assert their holy Religion This was in Christ himself Luke 4. 1. Acts 1. 2. 10. 38. and in the Apostles Acts 2. 4. 5. 8. 6. 3 5. 7. 55. 11. 24. 19. 6. and in all the holy Men that were sent by him to preach the Gospel By this they were enabled to speak without any premeditation before Rulers and Kings Mark 13. 10 11. for our Saviour tells them it is not ye that speak but the Holy Ghost With this the Apostles were all fill'd when they met together on the Day of Pentecost and utter'd such divine and heavenly things By this Prophetick Afflation or Inspiration the Evangelists penn'd the Scriptures of the New Testament for tho these Writings may be said to be humane Testimony as they were writ by Men yet these Persons being inspired by the Holy Ghost and not speaking of themselves but by extraordinary Assistance their Writings and Testimony are Divine This is part of that more sure Word of Prophesy spoken of by St. Peter Ep. 2. ch 1. ver 19. which in the next Verse he calls the Prophesy of the Scripture By this Divine Inspiration the Prophets and Apostles saw and foretold what should come to pass afterwards By this inward Afflation the Apostles tho mean and illiterate Persons preached the Gospel with that Authority and Evidence which some of their most implacable Enemies were not able to resist These are the Divine Witnesses of the Truth of the Gospel-Dispensation and of the Christian Religion Yea even at this Day and to the Worlds end this last Testimony viz. of the Spirit is useful and necessary I do not mean any Miraculous gift of the Spirit but a special and peculiar assistance of it such as all regenerate Persons have experience of That we may be throughly certain that this or that was deliver'd by God that we may assuredly know that such things were of Divine
Revelation there is need of this help of the Spirit the internal Testimony of the Holy Ghost such a hidden but powerful Operation of that giver of all Grace whereby a firm Faith and certain perswasion of the Truth of those things are wrought in us For that we may be certain of Divine Truth first it is requisite that we be outwardly helped that we make use of Moral Arguments and Evidences that we attend to Reasons and Proofs that we weigh especially the several particular Testimonies in the Word of God the Scriptures of Truth These in a moral way will make it evident to the mind that this or that which is propounded to us is Divinely reveal'd and can proceed from no other but God But then besides these outward means we must have our minds inwardly illuminated by the Holy Spirit for it is this alone which can inable us effectually to see and discern the Light and to take the force of the Arguments which prove the several Truths and to turn the Moral Evidence into Divine Demonstration Lastly as I mention'd among the divers ways of Revelation under the former Dispensations the Divine Impulse whereby Persons were instructed and excited to undertake and atchieve great things so at the erecting of the Gospel there was not wanting this way of communicating the Divine will and pleasure By such an Impulse as this Christ himself whipped the buyers and sellers out of the Temple by this powerful Afflation his Apostles and Followers were stir'd up to do strange and extraordinary things several of which are mention'd in the Acts of the Apostles and many more in Ecclesiastical History which nothing but this Divine Motion could legitimate it being immediately from the Spirit whereby they were instructed as well as enabled to effect these wonderful things Secondly The next Divine Testimony of the truth and certainty of the Christian Oeconomy and Religion is the fulfilling of the Prophesies of the Old Testament which had respect to the New I have already in another place when I proved the Authority of the Holy Scriptures insisted upon the fulfilling of the Prophesies of the Old and New Testament as they are an attestation of the Truth of those Sacred Writings But at present I am to mention only the Prophesies of the Old Testament and among them only those that relate to the Messias and the circumstances which more nearly and peculiarly appertain to him And the producing of these and shewing how they were exactly fulfill'd will be a clear and demonstrative Argument of the Truth of Christianity For though Spinosa would perswade Men that all the Prophesies in the Bible were the mere result of a brisk Fancy that there was no foundation in the things themselves but that Imagination made all yet surely the bold and impious Man would not have gone so far as to have asserted that the actual fulfilling of the Prophesies is nothing but Fancy No certainly he could not have the face to deny that the completion of those Predictions is some real thing and not founded on Imagination For here is matter of fact which carries reality and certainty with it and therefore is a convincing proof not only of the Truth of those Prophesies but of Christianity it self This then is that which I will now enter upon The Prophets of the Old Testament speak frequently of the Messias they have described and characterized him nothing almost was done by Christ but they predicted it every particular act circumstance and accident of Importance that should happen about him was foretold Now all these were actually verified and fulfilled as namely what related to his Birth his Life his Death his Rising again First what related to his Birth as that Iohn Baptist should be his Forerunner and make way for him Behold I will send my Messenger and he shall prepare the way before me Mal. 3. 1. And ch 4. v. 5. Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. Compare these places with Mat. 11. 10 14 Mark 1 2 9. 11. Luke 1. 17 and 76. 7. 27. and you will not question their Accomplishment And the Birth it self and the Conception which was in order to it were plainly prophesied of many Ages before As that in Ier. 31. 22. is thought to be a Prophesy concerning the Conception of Christ the Lord hath created a new thing in the Earth a Woman shall compass a Man Some indeed have interpreted it thus the Church tho weak as a Woman shall compass and besiege her Enemies and take them Captive But this is very flat and frigid especially if you observe the Preface to the Prediction the Lord hath created a new thing in the Earth It is no new thing that the Church gets the better of her Enemies there are many Instances of this in the History of the Israelities So that something else is justly thought to be the meaning of the words And what should it be but this that Christ who was made of a Woman should be incompassed and shut up by her in her Virgin-Womb Her compassing a Man expresses the conception of him The word Sabab circumdedit agrees very well with it for the Mother encompasses round the Faetus with her Womb. And the Greek â—itly answers to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 1. 23. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 1. 31. The plain meaning then is that a Woman Nekebah not Ishah one that is no Wife but a Virgin shall conceive a Man-child in her Womb. And the Woman here meant is the blessed Virgin Mary and the Man is Christ who is God and Man See Dr. Pâ—câ—ck in Not. Miscâ—l in Port. Mos. And this Interpretation is the more remarkable by reason of the Hebrew word which we here translate Man It denoteth not barely one of the Male kind in contradistinction to one of the other Sex but it properly signifies a Man of Power and Might and so it is fitly applied to the Messias who is Omnipotent Yea the antient Iews as Abarbinel one of their own Rabbins testifies understood by this word here God himself to whom Power more peculiarly and eminently belongs It is no wonder therefore that the Fathers of the Church generally interpret this place of the Virgin Mary bearing Christ in her Womb in which he may properly be said to be incompassed and infolded by her This was a new thing indeed there never was the like before nor shall ever be afterwards And therefore a worthy Writer is here to be blamed who unadvisedly saith the Iews might justly laugh at this Interpretation The Delivery and Birth of the Messias thus shut up in the Womb is expresly foretold in Isa. 9. 6. To us a Child is born to us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his Shoulder It is true some of the Jews say Hezâ—kiah is spoken of here but they are confuted hence that the Epithets here
are ready to imbrace any bold Impostor who will lay claim to the Title of Messiah And thus it will be as long as they mistake the Prophesies in the Old Testament concerning his coming and will not be perswaded that the time of it is past But shall we take the meaning of Scripture from Them from whom God hath taken away for so many Ages all Understanding and Knowledg Shall we give credit to them who are blinded and besotted and have abandoned their Reason who are most palpably erroneous in Chronology and History as the Learned Isaac Vossius hath shew'd and who in giving the Sense of Scripture are most apparently deluded No surely nor are we to mind what they say when they tell us that no Man ought to be so bold as to compute the time of the coming of the Messias We know the reason of this the Iews cannot indure now to have the Prophesies look'd into and the times of the Messias's arrival reckon'd up Since Christ is come they see that the Times spoken of by the Prophets concerning him are past and therefore they anatbematize all that undertake to compute them They wish that those who curiously enquire into them may perish But the Curse will rather light upon themselves because they wilfully discern not the Times We may then notwithstanding all the Objections Cavils Evasions and perverse Interpretations of the Iews hold fast our Proposition that all the Prophesies in the Old Testament concerning the Messias are really fulfilled Yea the Prophesy concerning the Iews not believing these Prophesies is accomplis'd for it was prophetically set down as one Mark of the Messias his coming that the Jewish Nation should refuse and reject him So that you see the Jews Incredulity and Obstinacy are one great Argument that Christ is the true Messias We have abundant reason then to acquiesce in the Spirit of Prophesy which is the Testimony of Iesus Rev. 19. 10. This bears witness to him and to the Truth and Certainty of Christianity This Spirit of Prophesy witnessed concerning Christ four Thousand Years before he came for so long it was from the first Promise in Gen. 3. 15. Many other things were foretold concerning him three Thousand Years before some two Thousand and some a Thousand before he was manifested in the Flesh. Now our Argument runs thus he that was so many Years before foretold to come as the Messias or Saviour is certainly the true Messias and Saviour But Iesus was so foretold therefore he was certainly the true Messias and Saviour The first Proposition is built on the Truth and Faithfulness of God and is granted us by the Iews themselves The second is that which we have been indeavouring to prove and I hope I have effectually done it for I have plainly demonstrated that it was Christ our Lord who was foretold so many Years before in the Old Testament and that it can be no other than him Therefore it cannot be question'd by any rational Person whether he was the true Messias who was to bring Salvation to Mankind Thus you see Christianity is founded on the Old Testament here it is prophesied that Christ should come in such a manner and the very manner we find particularly recorded in the New Testament Malachi and Matthew join hand in hand and so do the rest of the Prophets and Evangelists Therefore we imbrace Christianity The truth of it is proved from the Prophesies concerning the Messias If we believe these as we cannot but do because they are divine and from Heaven we must believe Christ is come for they are an absolute Demonstration of this grand Point that Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary whom the Jews put to death at Ierusalem was the Son of God and the true Messias Whereupon it will irrefragably follow that the Faith and Doctrine which he introduced are from Heaven and that the Christian Oeconomy wants not divine Attestation CHAP. XVI The Miracles wrought by Christ. What those Baskets were which were fill'd with Fragments Christ not only fed but healed the Bodies of Men. He did other Miraculous Works The Apostles as well as our Saviour exerted many Miracles An Objection from 1 Tim. 5. 23. answer'd Five Properties of a true Miracle Counterfeit and lying Wonders The Miracles of Christ and his Apostles were accompanied with seven peculiar Circumstances which prove them to be from God What were the Ends and Designs they propounded to themselves in working of Miracles An Objection from Mark 11. 14. answer'd Several Interpretations of those Words the time of Figs was not yet Why Christ cursed the â—arren Fig-tree Another Objection from Mat. 8. 30. answer'd Two other Objections answer'd The Personal Qualities of the Apostles argue the Miracles which they wrought to be true and real A Reply to the several Cavils against the Miracles of our Saviour An account of the wonderful things done by some Pagans especially Vespasian and Apollonius Tyanaeus The Miracles which the Church of Rome pretends to are proved to be Counterfeit It is shew'd from Scripture the Confession of Jews and Pagans and thâ— nature of the thing it self that Miracles are a Testimony of the Truth of Christianity Miracles were necessary for confirming of the Gospel on several Accounts Thirdly MIracles are another Divine Testimony of the Truth of Christianity Here I will first set before you the particular Miracles of Christ and his Apostles Secondly I will prove that these were true Miracles Thirdly I will shew that these are an infallible Testimony of the Truth of Christianity 1. I will set before you the particular Miracles of Christ and his Apostles recorded in the New Testament Here I might mention his Conception which was by the Holy Ghost and by himself as he was God and his Birth which was of a Virgin both which are Miraculous and I might recount how he was usher'd into the World by a Miraculous Star But I will confine my self to those Miracles which he personally did in his Life at his Death and afterwards One of the first he exerted was at Galilee when he turned Water into Wine Iohn 2. 11. He that could fast forty Days and forty Nights in the Wilderness Mat. 4. 2. which is to be reckon'd as a Miracle also thought good to demonstrate his Divine Power at a Feast and to chear and refresh the Guests with no less than a Miracle Then but I shall not observe the exact Order of his Miracles we read that about Meat as well as Drink he exercised his Omnipotent Virtue for when the multitude which followed him wanted food he had compassion on them and satisfied four Thousand Men with seven Loaves and a few Fishes at which time seven Baskets of Fragments were left Mat. 15. 34. At another time he fed five Thousand besides Women and Children with five Loaves and two Fishes and after all twelve Baskets full remained of Fragments Mat. 14. 19 20. This was a most acceptable Miracle to those
new whether they were Figs of the last years growth or of the present one why then did our Saviour curse it Some interpret the Words of the time of gathering of Figs but this makes the bearing of Figs and the gathering of them to be the same which is a straining of the words A learned Critick reads the Text thus Where was the time of Figs i. e. saith he there was the time in that place where Christ then was viz. near Ierusalem it was the Season of Figs and because this one particular Tree bore no Fruit when the rest did Christ deservedly curs'd it This Interpretation amounts to the same with what I before propounded but I cannot approve of the Alteration made in the Original An other late Critick comes somewhat nearer to this and by changing the Accent and doubling the Verb reads it thus where he was was the time of Figs. But I conceive this Learned Gentleman is a little too bold here as well as in some other places in his changing the Greek Text where there is no occassion for it and therefore I keep to the received reading which according to the Greek is exactly thus for it was not the time of Figs yet being redundant in our English Translation i. e. it was not the time of Figs with this Tree Tho according to the time of year other Fig-trees bore Fruit yet this degenerated from them and had no Fruit at all on it only Leaves whence our Saviour took occasion to curse it And this he did for the sake of the Iews that they might look on the Tree and be admonished that they might be sensible of the danger of their Vnfruitfulness at such a Season when the greatest furitfulness was required of them Or according to a worthy Person the meaning of Christ's cursing the Figtree was that the acceptable Fruit of everlasting Righteousness was not then found in the Judaical Dispensation this Tree did not bring forth such excellent Fruit but only the fair Figleaves of an external and ceremonial Righteousness and legal Morality Christ therefore came to exprobrate to them the want of more perfect Fruit and to put a Period to the Dispensation of the Jews so that it should quite wither away and be null'd Thus you see there is ground for what our Lord did which makes me a little wonder why that Learned Critick whom I named last and some other Expositors are so much concern'd at Christ's cursing the innocent Tree as they call it I do not see any cause why they should be so for if we could assign no Reason at all of this Action of our Saviour we ought to be fully satisfied with it because he was arbitrary as to this and all other Actions of the like nature by virtue of his Sovereign Power he could in these matters do as he pleas'd But we need not insist upon this because I have offer'd a sufficient Reason why he thought good to shew a Miracle on a fruitless Tree which had nothing but leaves to be destroy'd by his Curse As to the latter Instance viz. Christ's suffering the Gadarens Swine to be driven by the Devil into the Sea I answer 1. It was not so much our Saviour's Act as his Permission for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes imports 2. It was not done of his own accord but upon the importunate Outcry of the disturbed Friends whom Christ saw it was best to lodg in the Deep 3. The Persons who sustain'd this Loss deserved it as we may gather from their carriage towards our Blessed Lord. Here then was no unjust thing done by this miraculous Power of our Saviour nor was it a hurtful thing to punish Offenders according to their deserts But further it may be Objected If Christ design'd to benefit People by his Miracles why did he not do them when they most desired them as in the Case of Herod and when there was the greatest need of them as when our Saviour hung on the Cross For the first we read indeed that Herod was desirous to see Christ of a long season because he had heard many things of him and he hoped to have seen some Miracle done by him Luk. 23. 8. Yet when Christ came before him and was question'd by him he answer'd him nothing ver 9. he spake not one word he did not one Miracle The Reason was because Herod had sufficient opportunities before of hearing Christ's Sermons and seeing his Signs but he was negligent and careless yea he slighted and despised those things This is evident because otherwise he would have gone to our Saviour or sent for him and treated him with Respect and Reverence This great Man having thus neglected the Season of Grace he is justly debarr'd for the future by Christ himself Miracles are denied him after a wilful refusing both of them and other means As for what we read in Mat. 27. 42. that the chief Priests and Scribes declared they would believe in Christ if he would come down from the Cross and yet our Saviour would not gratifie them by his miraculous descending thence Here I have these three things to say 1. We may gather hence that Miracles are a certain and infallible Argument All Men are agreed to be concluded by this the Priests and Scribes declare that on these Terms they would believe in Christ and take him for the Messias they desire no better Proof than a Miracle 2. I say this Miracles the mighty and extraordinary Works of God are not lavishly to be thrown away The Persons had Miracles enough before but they disregarded them and the Author of them they must not therefore now when they think sit call for those divine Testimonies from Heaven It is not meet that Heaven should be thus at their beck and that Miracles must be done when they please 3. The main thing I offer is this that a greater Miracle than this which they now call for was shew'd within a little time afterwards for rising from the Dead was more than coming down from the Cross and yet they were not wrought upon by it So that if our Saviour had come down from the Cross they would not have believed which He who knew all things knew full well and therefore would not comply with their unreasonable desire We may then notwithstanding these Instances alledged assert that our Saviour intended the Good and Welfare of Men by the Signs and Wonders which he wrought and that all the exertments of his miraculous Power were for the Benefit and Advantage of the World which is one Difference between True and False Miracles Moreover if we inquire into the Persons who generally wrought these Miracles we shall be fully satisfied that they were True Not to speak now ofour Saviour the Apostles and Primitive Christians who were the mediate Authors of them were Men of great Simplicity they approved themselves to be void of all secular and 〈◊〉 deâ—igns much more of
the winged Feet But the Reason assigned in the History why St. Paul was taken for Mercury is because he was so excellent a Speaker Barnabas said little or nothing and so pass'd with them for Grave Iupiter who had his Interpreter And this was St. Paul he was Mercurius a good Spokesman indeed one of an admirable Tongue that could perswade the Lame to walk and a Cripple to use his Feet However these ignorant Heathens were mistaken as to their making Gods of Men yet in the main they were in the right viz. that that miraculous Healing argued Divinity and that none could do such things but those who are authorized by Heaven And as this is the sense of Mankind so indeed it must be thus in the very nature of the thing it self for what is above created Power proceeds from God and what is from him is to some great end and purpose worthy of him thus Miracles exceeding the Power of Nature are the Attestation of God himself and are design'd to evidence that Truth and to authorize that Doctrine which is from God which are very great and excellent Ends and becoming the Author of them Accordingly the Miracles which Christ and his Apostles wrought were intended to confirm and establish the Gospel which they preach'd and to demonstrate to the World that that Gospel is true For God would not throw away Miracles much less would he use them to confirm a false Doctrine We may be assured of this that God's infinite Wisdom and Goodness would not give up the World to such an unavoidable Deceit as such a Multitude of Miracles would lead Men into if they were used to attest an Imposture to confirm a Lie If I cannot know the Messias to be sent of God when he raised the Dead wrought all other sorts of Miracles and rose himself from the Dead I have no possibility of knowing who speaks from God or whether I am deceived or no or whether there be any truth and reality in things or no. This then we may build upon there being Truth in the World Miracles undeniably point us to it for they being a Testimony from God they cannot attest Falshood but must necessarily direct us to and confirm us in that which is true Our Christianity being founded on Miracles cannot but be of divine Allowance it is impossible but that it should be from God Christ and the Apostles could not have had Power to work true Miracles if their Doctrine had not been true for God would not and cannot maintain a Lie by a Miracle for then he is no God We cannot then expect a more convincing Evidence of Divine Authority than this viz. that our Saviour spoke great and excellent things and that he wrought Miracles to confirm what he said What would you have more It was necessary that he should confirm the Truth of his Doctrine by his Miracles and now they are wrought there is a necessity in order to our being Christians that we heartily believe them I say Miracles were necessary for confirming the Gospel because the Gospel was look'd upon as a thing new and unheard of as you may remember the complaint of the Athenian Philosophers against St. Paul was that he delivered a New Doctrine and brought strange things to their Ears Acts 17. 19 20. They were long accustomed to other Notions and so there was a vast Prejudice on their Minds Wherefore Miracles were necessary to gain Credit to the Christian Faith and to bring them off effectually from their former Sentiments Again many things in the Gospel were above the flight of Humane Reason and on that account were not easily entertain'd which made it requisite that they should be declared to be true by extraordinary Signs and Wonders Likewise because the Persons who preach'd and profess'd the Christian Religion were poor inconsiderable Men it was necessary that they should bring Credentials from God to attest what they deliver'd When they shew'd this Seal this broad Seal of Heaven none could question their Commission Besides the World was then full of Idolatry and false Religions which could not be rooted out but by such a strange and unusual way as this viz. the working of Mighty Signs and Miracles even such as outvie the Power of Nature and the Pranks of Magicians Lastly the Mosaick Law and Oeconomy having been before establish'd by Miracles it was neeessary that the Evangelical Law and Dispensation should be attested in the like manner God himself had constituted several things before which now were taken away by Christ therefore he taking them away ought to shew his Authority which he did by working of uncontroulable Miracles And to shew that the Law was to give place to the Gospel he and his followers wrought far greater Miracles than any that were done before to attest the Mosaick Religion Therefore he told the Jews that he did among them the Works which none other Man did John 15. 24. And as they were greater so they were more in number than those of Moses and the Prophets which was also necessary to take away all scruple from Mens Minds and to beget in them a hearty and full Belief of Christ's Doctrine For this was the end of their being wrought viz. to confirm the Belief of the Gospel and to ascertain Men even us at this day that God himself bears witness to what Christ and his Apostles delivered The use of these Miracles I say extends to us and to all Ages of the Church tho we saw them not yet their Virtue comes down to us All the Miracles done by our Saviour and his Apostles are as forcible and convincing now as if they were done in our Days they are still and ever will be an infallible Proof Evidence and Demonstration of the Truth of Christianity To shut up this head if the Christian Religion be founded on the Mighty Miracles of our Lord and his Apostles the Scripture is true and our Religion is true but if these are not take notice to confound the Folly and Sottishness of such Supposers it is the greatest Miracle of all if I may so say that Christianity was receiv'd and believ'd without Miracles So much concerning the Divine Testimony of Miracles CHAP. XVII The wonderful prevailing and spreading of Christianity another proof of the Truth of it Some of the learnedest and wisest Jews converted to Christianity A Catalogue of knowing and learned Pagans in the five first Centuries that abandoned Gentilism and embraced the Christian Religion Remarkable Instances of the Power of the Christian Truth The virtue of the Gospel far exceeds that of Philosophy Examples of great and rich Men converted to the Christian Faith This prevail'd against the rage of the most powerful Persecutors The more the Gospel was oppress'd the more it flourish'd and prosper'd in all Nations Examples of God's remarkable Judgments on the Enemies of Christianity especially on the Nation of the Jews This latter insisted upon and shew'd to be an Argument of
Family or Houshold as it were all the Inhabitants of the World who were scatter'd and divided before are now brought under one Head and Governour one Supreme Catholick Ruler as St. Chrysostom expounds the place All Nations divided before by false ways are now united in Christ the Way and the Truth He brings all the Severals into One and makes up a full Church Militant and Triumphant whereas before there was a dispersion Thus Heaven and Earth are happily joined Again the Greek word sometimes signifies to restore or repair and accordingly is rendred by the Vulgar Latin and then the meaning of the Apostle is that all things in Heaven and Earth are restored and renewed by Christ and his Coming There is a happy Restauration of Man's Nature by the Incarnation of the Blessed Iesus the former State of Integrity is now renewed and Man is in a far better Condition than he was at first And as for Angels their State also is much amended they are now confirmed in their Integrity and Happiness Thus according to Theodoret's Interpretation of the place the things in Heaven and on Earth are Restored Renewed Reformed by the Evangelical Dispensation But there is a third and that the most probable Interpretation of the words which is this and the Margin in our English Translation takes notice of it that in the Dispensation of the fulness of Time or the Dispensation of the Gospel God was pleased to sum up all things in Christ. Which may refer to Arithmetical Computation or bringing all Numbers into One and so here is signified that all the former Dispensations being cast up and briefly collected are reduced to this of the Gospel This is the Sum total Christ is all and in all Col. 3. 11. Or it may refer as St. Ierom on the place thinks to the way of Orators and Pleaders who in the close of their Speeches and Declamations briefly repeat and recapitulate all the foregoing particulars and represent the whole Cause in short In like manner what had been spun out and prolonged in divers foregoing Dispensations is now under the Gospel briefly gather'd and summ'd up in Christ Jesus This is the time wherein God hath made an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath drawn into one all that went before He hath finished the account for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be rendred or the Work and cut it short in Righteousness bâ—cause a short Account or Work will the Lord make upon the Earth Rom. 9. 28. which as you will â—ee by consulting the Context and the place in Isaiah from whence it is taken is meant of the Gospel This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that abbreviated word or short Account or because a word and a thing or work are frequently convertible among the Hebrews whence this is borrow'd short work which God hath made upon the Earth The Law was tedious with its multiplicity of Observances but Christ comes in a compendious way and requires none of those long Undertakings which Moses exacted This saith one of the Fathers is the short word that is here meant the brief words of Faith Believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved is the concise way of the Gospel This comprises the greatest things in short Christ the Incarnate Son of God is the Sum and Substance of all the Old Testament and of all the different Oeconomies from the beginning of the World The Evangelical Dispensation is the Recapitulation of all the preceding ones All is to be shut up with this nothing more is to be expected this being the Upshot and Conclusion of all the Administrations that are upon Earth I might argue likewise from the Gospel's being call'd the New Testament for the Greek Word signifies both a Covenant and a Testament Sometimes even when it is rendred a Covenant in the Margin it is translated a Testament But by the very import and scope of the Text we are forc'd to render it a Testament in some places as in Heb. 9. 16 17. The Chriâ—tian Institution and the New Covenant of Grace therein contained are the Will and â—estament of our Saviour wherein he hath set down what he would have done after his death â—or that is the true notion of a Testament Christ the Testator died and bequeathed us the Gospel this his Last Will must stand and that only therefore no other is to be looked for Moreover I might argue from this that the time of the Gospel is call'd the last Time I grant that sometimes the last Day and last Times and the end of the World are understood of the Day of Judgment and particularly the last Day is applied no less than four times in the 6 th Chapter of St. Iohn to the time of the last Resurrection or the Day of Judgment Some modern Writers understand the last Times and the end of the World of Christ's coming to destroy Ierusalem and it is certain they may in some places be understood so But for the most part they are taken otherwise and those Learned Mâ—n who defend the contrary shew too plainly their Prejudice and Partiality in asserting a Notion which they have once taken up But nothing is more evident than this that the last Times and the last Days which latter is different from the last Day in the singular Number are generally meant of the Gospel Dispâ—â—sation which is last of all This I prove from such places as these both in the Old and New Testament Isai. 2. 2. It shall come to pass in the last days that the Mount of the Lord's House shall be establiâ—â—ed on the top of the Mountains and so in Mic. 4. 1. where by the Consent of all Interpreters the last Days signiâ—ie the time of Christ's Coming the Appeaâ—ing of Christianity in the World and in other Prophets this is express'd after the same manner The Apostles use the same way of speaking and all the time from Christ's Coming to the Day of Judgment is call'd by them the last Time and the last Days as in 2. Tim. 3. 1. Heb. 1. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 5 20. 1. Pet. 3. 3. 1 Iohn 2. 18. and in other places the Time of the exhibitâ—ng of Chriâ—â— in the flesh or of the Reign of the Messias iâ— thus express'd It is also call'd the end of the World by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews who saith Christ appear'd in the end of the World to put away sin Heb. 9. 26. This Consummation of Ages as according to the Greek it may be most fitly rendred this Close or Shutting up of the former Dispensations especially of the Iewish one is call'd by the same Holy Writer the World to come Heb. 2. 5. And the very Iewish Writers fre-frequently give this Denomination to the time of the Messias This according to Daniel is the time of sealing up the Vision and Propâ—ecy Dan. 9. 24. i. e. of ratifying and verifying all the Visions and Prophecies
the Disciples for a time such Prejudices had they on their minds that they could not conceive the meaning of our Lord and they durst not ask him concerning those things It was not as yet reveal'd to them by what means the Messias was to deliver them they dreamt of an Earthly Kingdom as the blinded Iews at this day they promis'd themselves much temporal Prosperity and Grandeur in the World Neither could the Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection gain assent with them for we read that when he spake of it to the three Apostles before whom he was transfigured they questioned one with another what the rising from the dead should mean Mark 9. 10. And afterwards when he told the other Apostles as well as these that he should rise again the third day they understood not that saying Mark 9. 31 32. That our Saviour's Friends believ'd not his Resurrection appears from their dressing his dead Body with Aromatick Gums and Spices which were design'd to preserve it It had been vain to use these glutinous Gums and Persumes if they thought he was in a short time to rise again And when he was risen they would not believe it as appears too plainly from that Speech of Cleophas one of those whom Jesus talk'd with presently after his Resurrection tho then he pass'd incognito We trusted saith he that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel Luke 24. 21. Still he doubted tho he had heard of the Lord's Resurrection in saying we trusted he discover'd his distrust and impli'd that Iesus could not be the Messias who was to redeem Israel Tho the Apostles were certified of Christ's Resurrection by those that saw him yet their words seemed to them as idle Tales Luke 24. 11. and they would not be perswaded till they themselves saw Christ among them Nor did they know that he was to ascend for just before he left them they put this question to him Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel Acts 1. 6. Wilt thou repair the Iewish State and recover its pristine Splendour yea raise it to a higher Dignity than ever it arrived to as we expect should be done by the Messias So likewise it might be proved that some of them were in an Error about the End of the World for they believed it would be about that time By these and other Instances their Ignorance and Mistake were apparently discovered they had very false apprehensions and conceptions of things and some of the chief Articles of the Christian Belief were not credited by them Here I might add that in our Blessed Saviour's time there was not such an effusion of the Holy Spirit as there was afterwards Iohn 7. 35. The Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Iesus was not yet glorified For this Reason several things were not disclosed to them but were reserved till a further communication of the Spirit for tho Christ had said All things which I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you yet he adds I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot hear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth John 16. 12 13. As much as if he had said there is no new Truth or other Doctrine to be preach'd to you than what you have receiv'd from me already but the time is coming when there shall be a greater Manifestation of those things to you tho the Truths as to the main shall be the same yet your Understandings and Capacities shall be greater you shall then comprehend those matters which before you could not as the calling of the Gentiles the Spiritual Kingdom of the Messias c. And moreover the Holy Spirit shall increase your Love and Zeal to God and all Truth so that you shall be enabled not only to preach it to all Nations but undauntedly to suffer Persâ—cution and even to lay down your Lives in the defence of it By this it is evident that Christianity was revealed by degrees as well as the other former Dispensations of Religion Their knowledg in the Christian Institution was gradual they were not to know all together neither were their Zeal and Courage of the same proportion that they were afterwards Secondly in the Times and Ages immediately succeeding our Saviour's being upon Earth the Church was but yet in its Childhood and State of Infirmity It is true they were much increased and advanced in their knowledg of spiritual Truths this being the Accomplishment of our Saviour's Promise as well as Prediction that the Holy Spirit should guide them into all Truth By a more immediate and special Directioâ— of this Holy Guide the Evangelists and Apostles indited and pen'd the Books of the New Testament so that there are no Errors and Mistakes in them of any kind Therefore what a Learned Writer saith on 1 Cor. 15. 51. and 2 Pet. 3. 11. and other places in St. Paul's and St. Peter's Epistles viz. that these Apostles verily believ'd the day of Iudgment was at hand and consequently were under a mistake is not to be admitted is by no means to be credited for these Persons as well as the other Penmen of the New Testament being immediately inspired by that Infallible Guide and Director could not possibly commit any Errors in their Writings whatever their misapprehensions were at other times When therefore they use those Terms with respect to the last Day We and Ye as if they of that Age should survive to see that Day we must remember that they speak not of themselves particularly and definitively but of the whole successive Body of Christians in several Ages who will be expecting the last Day This is the meaning of those Expressions as is plain from their using them on other occasions We have no Reason then to think that the Apostles were deceiv'd about the Day of Judgment or any other matter that they writ of and deliver'd to the World Here is no weakness no defect as to any thing of this nature Nay there was a great Advance and Accession in respect of what there was before in the foregoing part of this Dispensation viz. in the time that our Saviour lived upon the Earth For the Doctrines of the Gospel of which I speak now were gradually deliver'd and consequently the Apostles attain'd now to more than was discover'd in Christ's time he having not thought fit then to communicate all in so evident and plain a manner as we find it was afterwards done Therefore that late Writer is under a great mistake who declares that the Apostles Epistles are only occasional and that we can find no necessary Points of Divinity deliver'd there which were not deliver'd before in the Gospels and Acts whereas the Truth is the Epistles contain the most perfect and complete Doctrines of the Gospel for by degrees the Evangelical Truth display'd it self All the necessary and fundamental Articles of Christianity are explain'd
that Person and against the Faithful Christians who shall then expect his Reign And here the final Overthrow and Slaughter of these Adversaries of the Church are plainly foretold and particularly described with which is immediately join'd the Gathering of Israel i. e. the perfect restoring of that Nation And the next Thing is The Vision of the Temple which after all the various Conjectures of Papists and Protestants must needs be meant of this State of the Church which I am speaking of otherwise you can make nothing of that strange Draught of the Temple What I have thus briefly hinted is largely set forth in the Prophecy it self which is worth the Reader 's Perusal And I doâ—bt not but after he hath well consider'd it he will come to this Issue namely That this Prophecy hath not yet been fulfilled and therefore it shall be in Time and that Time is the Period I am now treating of If you say That by Gog and Magog are meant the Syrian Armies which plagued the Iews of which the Books of Maccabees give us a particular Account I reply That though we grant this yet those who I have named may be meant here also For I have in another Place proved that there is a Double Literal and even Historical Sense in some Places of the Bible And so there is here I doubt not and I shall afterwards shew That the Turks have a good Claim to the Names of Gog and Magog Again the Turks Rise was foretold in Rev. 9. 14 c. So their Ruin and Downfal are mention'd in the same Book 16. Chap. 12. v. The Vial is poured out upon the great River Euphrates i. e. the People inhabiting there the Turks who dwell in that part of the World on the River Euphrates The Water thereof was dried up i. e. the Turkish Power and Dominion are impair'd That the Way of the Kings of the Earth might be prepared i. e. that some Great and Eminent Persons may be converted and come over to the Christian Church Then in general we find Seducers and False Prophets threatened in Scripture with Ruin and shall we not think That that Vile Miscreant who gloried in the Title of Prophet and is signally so styled by those that adhere to his Principles and Laws wherewith he hath bewitched so great a part of the World shall we not think I say that that Grand Impostor is concern'd Can we imagine or suppose that the Vengeance of God which is threatened against Seducers and False Teachers reaches not to him And when we consider what a great deal of Mischief this Mahometan Sect hath wrought in the World and what vast Regions of the Earth it hath possessed we shall easily be inclined to believe that when Christ's Kingdom is set up and Christianity is come to its Perfection the World shall be cleared of this Spreading Pest. As for the Fall of the Roman Antichrist it is in express Words foretold in many Places of Scripture Out of the Old Testament I will mention only that Famous Prophecy of Daniel concerning the Fall of Rome and the Reign of Christ for both these go together 7. Dan. 19 20 c. to the end of the Chapter I have else-where commented upon it but now I shall only make use only of that part of it which is to our present Purpose How natural is the Character of the other Horn which arises out of the Fourth Beast i. e. the Fourth Kingdom or Empire upon Earth appliable to Papal Rome For it is said It shall subdue Three Kings i. e. the Greek Emperour whose Jurisdiction reach'd to Italy and the Kingdom of Lombardy and the German Emperours who had Dominion in Italy It is further said This Horn had a Mouth that spake very great Things v. 20. and more particularly in the 25 v. He shall speak great Words against the most High and shall wear out the Saints of the most High and think to change Times and Laws And the same Horn made war with the Saints and prevail'd against them v. 21. which by the most judicious Protestant Writers is applied to the Papacy But now hear the Doom of this Great Speaker and Warrior The Iudgment shall sit and they shall take away his Dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the End And the Kingdom and Dominion and the Greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the People of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him v. 26 27. Which is answerable to what was said in v. 14. concerning the Coming and the Kingdom of the Son of Man i. e. Christ who frequently styles himself so If you consider these Things with many more in this Chapter you cannot apply them either to the Kingdom of the Seleucidae or Antiochus or Mahomet and his Empire But you must necessarily understand them of the Roman Power and especially that which is Papal and you cannot but see that they are a lively Description of that Bloody Dominion and of the Downfal of it and of the Reign of Christ which shall immediately succeed it that is of the Flourishing State of the Christian Church in a more Glorious Manner than ever Thus the most Eminent and Learned Expositors who are not Friends to the Roman See interpret this Prophecy but none hath comprised the Sense and Import of it in so few but full Words as that Reverend Prelate of our Church The Seventh Chapter of Daniel saith he points at a State of Christ's Church which is not yet come and when it doth come will be with a Vengeance to the Roman Church Whose present State will be utterly overturn'd to make way for the sâ—tting up of Christ's Universal and Everlasting Kingdom which is to be erected when the Mystery of God is finished Rev. 10. 7. 12. 15. and that cannot be till Babylon i. e. Rome be thrown down Rev. 18. 2. 19. 1 2 6. And we are so far from thinking this Kingdom will be Invisible that we believe it will be the most Illustrious Appearance that ever was of Christian Truth Righteousness Charity and Peace among Men. In the New Testament likewise this is signally foretold St. Paul who was blessed with extraordinary Revelations concerning future Things acquaints us That the Reign of Christ which he calls his Coming shall begin with the Ruin and Desolation of the Antichrist of Rome for every unprejudiced and impartial Man must confess that the Second Chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians speaks of Him and that the Man of Sin and that wicked One whom the Lord will consume and destroy is no other than He. It is very strange to see how Grotius bestirs himself and uses all Artifices imaginable to perswade the Reader that the Papal Power is not meant here He is forced to say that this Second Epistle to the Thessalonians was writ before the First and several such
Keturaâ— should at last contribute towards the making up the Great and Entire Body of Converted Gentiles And Iacob's Prophecy concerning Ephraim looks this way His Seed shall become the Fulness of the Gentiles Gen. 48. 19. For the Word Gojim is most properly applied to the Gentiles not to the Iews And Our Translation is short when we render the other Word a Multitude for the proper import of it is Plenitudo Fulness Now when it was foretold that Ephraim's Seed should be the Fulness of the Gentiles the meaning is that from Ephraim shall proceed Innumerable Nations who shall imbrace the Gospel and so fill up the Conversion of the Gentiles To this Prophecy appertains Psal â— 8. Ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost Parts of the Earth for thy Possession The great and wonderful Access of the Gentiles to the Church of Christ from all Regions of the World is plainly predicted in Isa. 49. 5 c. 54. 1 c. 60. 1. to 15. v. 66. 19 c. The Places are so well known that there is no need of reciting them And in several other Prophets there are the like Predictions To which questionless our Saviour referr'd when he told the Iews that such and such Things should beâ—al them until the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled 21. Luk. 24 until the full Time come when the Gentiles shall be universally called into the Church Of this our Lord speaks Joh 10. 16. Other Sheep from among the Gentiles I have which are not of this Fold of the Jewish Church them also I must bring and they shall hear my Voice they shall be Converted and become obedient Christians and there shall be one Fold one Church agreeing in the same Faith and Worship and Religious Practice and one Shepâ—erd they shall acknowledge me to be their Head and Pastor As it had been foretold concerning the Times of the Gospel this last Time especially They shall all have one Shepherd Ezek. 37. 24. they shall be united into one Body under one and the same Head And it may be that which he saith to the Church of Thyatira is to be interpreted of This He that overcometh and keepeth my Works unto the end to him will I give Power over the Nations and I will give him the Morning-Star Rev. 2. 26 28. The most Easy and Natural Sense of which Words is this That he that is Faithful to the end shall be honoured with the Conversion of Eastern Nations I will give him those Heathen People where the Morning-Star ariseth I will give him the Conversion of Those as the Reward of his Faithfulness A Future Calling of the Pagans may be expected at length as the Recompence of Overcoming and of Keeping my Works unto the end But supposing say some that this and other Texts of Scripture before mention'd speak of the Conversion of the Gentiles yet these Prophecies were all Fulfill'd in the Days of the Apostles when they went out to preach the Gospel to all Nations and so they have no reference to that Conversion of the Gentiles which I am speaking of But to this I answer That the Prophecies of the Conversion of the Gentiles were not fulfilled in those Times for though many Pagans were Converted in the Days of the Apostles yet that Conversion was not General Those Persons who were then Called were but the First-fruits of the Whole and Compleat Calling of the Pagans to Christianity which is to be a little before the Conversion of the Iews To this purpose the Apostle of the Gentiles is very clear in Rom. 11. 25 26. I would not Brethren that ye should be ignorant of this Mystery that Blindness in part is happen'd to Israel until the Fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved The Blindness of the Iews and the Salvation of the Gentiles are here called by St. Paul a Mystery And in this he intimates that those he wrote to did not know and comprehend the Design of God in this Matter Wherefore he unfolds this Mystery this Great Secret of Providence to them acquainting them that God took occasion from this strange Event to communicate the Gospel to the Gentiles and to convert them to the Faith and then by the Calling of these the Iews should afterwards be provoked to believe and to accept of the Gospel and so they should all be saved But whether this be spoken of a General Conversion towards the end of the World or only of the Great Numbers converted by Christ and his Apostles at the â—irst preaching of the Gospel as some are of Opinion is now to be considered I conceive then that there is a Twofold Calling or Conversion of the Gentiles a Partial and a Total one The first was when the Iews were rejected viz. in the Time of our Saviour and the Apostles then the Gentiles were called in to supply their room This is said to be the Salvation which is come to the Gentiles ver 11. of this Chapter and the Reconciling of the World v. 15. But there is a second Calling of The Gentiles and that is named here the Fulness of the Gentiles which is something that is Greater and Higher than the other for it denotes a compleat Body of them This is set forth in the Parable of the Great Supper 14. Luke where the Iews were those that were â—idden But upon their Refusal of the Invitation the Servants are commande to go into the Streets and Lanes of the City and bring in the Poor Maimed Halt and Blind These are the Gentiles that in the Apostles Times and ever since have been converted to the Christian Faith But after this is done it is said Yet there is room viz. for more Converts to Christianity and accordingly the Servant is bid to go out into the High-ways and Hedges and compel them to come in that the House might be filled Here is a plain Distinction between the former and the latter Conversion of the Gentiles After the first Invitation and Entertainment there was more room which intimates in my Opinion a future Calling of them And they are to be fetched out of the High-ways and Hedges to shew that though they be never so Mean and Unworthy they shall Partake of this Grace which shall be so Powerful and Effectual in those Days that they shall seem to be forced and compelled to come in And what follows is very observable and much to our present purpose they are thus compell'd to come in to the Great Supper of the Lord that his House may be filled that the Church may be Compleated and made Entire which it could not be without the Conversion of these Gentiles at last Many were converted before but now there shall be a General Imbracing of the Faith All Nations shall come to the Messias And there is another great Difference between that first Calling and this viz. That the General Calling of the Iews which
that long Scroll of Curses and Plagues threatened to the disobedient Israelites from 15. v. to 40. shuts up all with a merciful Assurance of their being Restored to their own Land at last Though they should perish among the Heathen and though the Land of their Enemies should eat them up and though they that are left of them shall pine away in their Iniquity in their Enemies Lands v. 38 39. Yet I will remember my Covenant with Iacob and also my Covenant with Isaac and also my Covenant with Abraham will I remember and I will remember the Land v. 42. He promises to perform the Covenant made with their Forefathers viz. that he would give them the Land of Canaan for a perpetual Possession When they are in the Land of their Enemies I will not cast them away neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly and to break my Covenant with them for I am the Lord their God But I will for their sakes remember the Covenant of their Ancestors c. 43 44 45 ver The Repeating of these Terms viz. of their being in the Land and in the Lands of their Enemies shews That this refers not only to the Jews being Captives in Babylon but to all their other Dispersions and Banishments and particularly that which is at this time and hath lasted many Ages And so the Reiterating of those Words viz. God's remembering his Covenant plainly refers to the continual performing of his Covenant with relation to the Restoring of the Jews not only when they were Captives in Assyria but when afterwards they should be banished into other Lands as they are at this day even then God would be mindful of his Covenant and bring them back again And to this end he would enable them to confess their Iniquities c. v. 40. This is that Repentance and Conversion which we expect this is the Promise which remains to be fulfilled for hitherto it is not Again it is promised in Deut. 30. 1 c. That if the Israelites when they are driven into other Nations shall call to mind those Blessings and Cursings mention'd in the Chapter before and shall return to the Lord their God and obey his Voice then the Lord â—od will turn their Captivity and have Compassion on them and will return and gather them from all the Nations whither the Lord God hath scattered them If any of them be driven out to the utmost Parts of Heaven from thence will the Lord their God gather them and from thence will be fetch them And the Lord their God 〈◊〉 bring them into the Land which their Fathers possessed and they shall possess it and he will do them good and multiply them above their Fathers and the Lord their God will circumcise their Heart and the Heart of their Seed to love the Lord their God with all their Heart and with all their Soul that they may live In which Words without doubt there is that Primary and Secondry Meaning which I spoke of The former is not denied by any and I will now prove the latter That this Promise extends even to the Vniversal Calling of the Iews is clear from these Things First that it is said they shall be gathered from all the Nations whither God had scattered them and if any of them were driven to the utmost Parts of Heaven from thence the Lord will fetch them Now we know that the Ten Tribes of Israel that were carried Captive by Salmanasser King of Assyria were removed into the utmost Parts of the World Esdras tells us That they went forth into a very far Country where never Mankind dwelt or at least he thought these Regions were not inhabited before They were a Year and a half a going to it and the Region is called Arsareth or Ararath then dwelt they there until the latter Time i. e. the Time we are at present speaking of 2 Esd. 13. 41 45. It is likely this was part of that vast Moiety of the World which is now called America Manasseâ— ben Israel a Learned Jew is perswaded that these Tribes were not only the first Inhabitants of China and some Parts of Tartary but that they went into the West-Indies However we are certain that they came eiâ—her into these or some other Countries that were at a great distance from Iudaea because if they had been near it they would have return'd thither with the rest of their Captive Brethren when Cyrus gave them leave to do so and which is more encouraged them to it It is manifest therefore that they were driven to the utmost Parts of Heaven Or if we should suppose that they were not scatter'd so far but as Dr. Lightfoot thinks were removed to the farthest Parts of Assyria or as others have imagined were dispersed into Egypt and other Parts of Africa or as some have thought travelled into Syria and Arabia yet still we can say this that we no where read of their Return to their own Land I do not speak of the coming back of a Few of which we have some Footsteps in the Sacred History but of the Return of them in a Body or as to a very Considerable Part of them of which this Text speaks We have not one Syllable concerning this and it is certain that if they had returned it would have been mentioned Therefore I infer hence yet that this Promise is not fulfilled And from this Inference I make another viz. that it is to be fulfilled hereafter for none of God's Promises fall to the Ground And hence likewise I gather another which is this That if God will be so favourable to them as to restore them at last to the Promis'd Land it is most probable that he doth it in order to a Greater Blessing viz. the turning every one of them from their Sins and causing them to imbrace that Iesus whom they have so long despised and rejected Therefore their Returning and their Conversion most commonly go together in Scripture and we cannot think that God would take so much Care of those Out-casts as to bring them back to their Own Land unless he intended to extend his Ancient Mercies to them and to receive them for his Own People again And then observe also it is added The Lord will circumcise their Heart to love the Lord their God with all their Heart and with all their Soul which gives us to understand that their Conversion shall be Sincere and Effectual which without doubt will be the Qualification of that Great and Catholick Conversion of the Jews before the end of the World Next I might produce that Prophecy of Isaiah Ch. 11. v. 11. And it shall come to pass in that Day that the Lord shall set his Hand again the Second Time to recover the Remnant of his People which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and Cush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from the Islands of the Sea It is
is likely Christ may appear in the Skies with an amazing Splendor and Glory to these gazing Spectators I conceive he may Personally Appear above though he will not Reign Personally on Earth After he hath shew'd himself he soon retreats and remains in Heaven till the Last and Final Day Mr. Mede who once thought that our Saviour would make a visible Appearance in the Clouds in order to the Jews Conversion afterwards retracted this Opinion as may be seen in one of his Letters because there is no good Foundation for it viz. in Mat 24. 30. which he had formerly quoted for that purpose But whether there is any Foundation for such an Apprehension in that Place of Daniel I leave to the Reader to judge I only offer'd it as probable but am perswaded that no Man can Absolutely determine any Thing in this Case and therefore he is very presumptuous that attempts it Chap. XXI Universal Righteousness is another Attendant of this Last Dispensation An Objection doubly answered It is not a Sinless State Greater Knowledge than ever shall be at that Time Religion shall then appear in its Native Purity The Influence of the Holy Spirit on Mens Lives shall be more effectual than formerly Jesus shall in a more eminent Manner be exalted Other Fruits of this happy Reign How these great Things shall be wrought Civil Magistrates shall be made use of Christ's Reign is not inconsistent with that of Kings and Princes Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Rulers shall be Instruments in this great Work All Persons are some Ways capable of promoting it Universal Peace is another Blessing that attends this Kingdom of Christ. On what account it must needs be so Scripture attests it An Objection obviated A Concurrence of all manner of Temporal Blessings in this happy State More especially Bodily Health and Long Life Also a vast Increase of the Poeple of that Time The Savage Brates shall become Tame and Gentle These Earthly Blessings are but Appendages of this Dispensation They are Inconsiderable in respect of the Divine Blessings which constitute this State The Author's Doubtings and Reluctancies He is not positive as to Particular Circumstances He cannot determine concerning the Fore-runners of this Revolution The Freedom which he uses in a Point that is highly Probable He follows not some late Writers in assigning the particular Time when the Millennary Reign shall commence The punctual Date is not to be known The Thing discoursed of is certain though the Time as to us is not so The Degeneracy of the present Times is no obstacle to this The Author leaves a Testimony of his Wishes and Desires HAving spoken of Three of the Grand Concomitants of the Reign of Christ I proceed now to the Fourth which is Vniversal Righteousness and Holiness You might have observed that in some of those Places of Scripture which I alledged to evince the Future calling of the Jews and Gentiles and you may observe in several others besides which speak of this happy Revolution and the consummation of the Messias's Kingdom that there is some mention all along made of the Holiness which shall abound in that Time This is reckon'd among the Blessings of Christ's Kingdom in several Places of the Prophetick Writings Thy People shall be all Righteous Isa. 60. 21. I will sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean Ezek. 36. 25. I will save you from your Uncleanness ver 29. which is the same with cleansing them from their Iniquities ver 33. They shall not defile themselves any more with their detestable Things or any of their Transgressions Ezek. 37. 23. In those Days HOLINESS TO THE LORD must be engraved on the Bells of the Horses Zech. 14. 20. There shall be such a Catholick Reformation that every Thing even the meanest and commonest shall share in it We find it to be the Office of the Messias to bring in everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9. 24. not only that of his Own whereby we are to be justified but an Inherent one in our selves though produced by the Holy Spirit whereby we are sanctified If it be said that this and some of the other Texts refer to those Times which are past viz. when Christ came in the Flesh or when the Apostles made so many Converts to our Holy Religion or even to the present Times of the Gospel and therefore they have no respect to what is to come I answer That the Consequence is not valid for though these Prophecies were partly and initially fulfilled before yet it doth not follow thence that they shall not be Completely fulfilled hereafter I grant that they are in part come to pass for there never was more Holiness than since the Rise of the Gospel but I assert withal that the Full Accomplishment is yet behind for there shall be a larger Effusion of Holiness in the ensuing Dispensation Or the former Answer which I gave in the like Case may be Satisfactory here viz. that this kind of Prophetick Passages have a Double Meaning and therefore must have a Double Accomplishment Many of these Predictions which foretold what should be at Christ's first setting up the Kingdom of the Gospel do also foretel what shall happen at his Coming in the Millennium This is a safe way of interpreting those Place and giving an Account of those Prophecies yea this solves the Difficulties which occur in this Controversy This is no groundless Notion but built upon the Interpretation of Scripture dictated by the Holy Ghost himself as I have proved in another Discourse where I have shew'd that this is the peculiar Excellency of the Sacred Writings to have a First and a Second or if you will a Direct and a Collateral Meaning which we find in no other Books whatsoever that are Historical This is applicable here those Passages in the Prophets concerning an extraordinary Measure of Sanctity and Righteousness are to be understood not only of the Primitive Times of Christianity but more especially of those that shall be towards the latter end of the World viz. in the Blessed Reign of Christ. It is not to be doubted but that the Prophetick Words reach to these Two times so that they are fulfilled twice In the Sacred Writings not only different Persons and Things but different Times and Seasons are contain'd in the same Words And as this Holiness of the future State on Earth is foretold in the Holy Scriptures so it naturally follows from what hath been said before For when Babylon shall fall and the Mystery of Iniquity with it when those whose grand Design and Business it was to extirpate the Purity of Religion shall themselves be rooted out when both Iews and Gentiles shall universally abandon their evil Opinions and wicked Practices and jointly set themselves to the Study of God's Will and the observance of their Duty you cannot but think there will follow upon this an Universal Sanctity in the World I do not mean a Sinless State for this is so like
Heaven that I can't be induced to think that we shall have it here on Earth Those High-fliers who represent the Millennary State as such lash out too far and remember not that our Heaven is not to be here The binding of Satan which is spoken of is not such a Binding as if the Devils were all shut up and none of them had the least Liberty to solicite and entice us to Sin I observe that it was the Chief of these Infernal Spirits that was bound by the Angel Rev. 20. 1. which I gather from the several Names that are here given him viz. the Dragon that old Serpent who is the Devil and Satan which are heap'd up on purpose to distinguish this Arch-Daemon from the rest This is that very Apostate Ghost it is probable who wrought the First Mischief in the World the Fall of the First Man and Woman by assuming the Shape of a Serpent or rather by entring into and acting a Real Serpent whence he is called here the old Serpent He being the Subtilest and most Malicious of all the Diabolical Crew is bound and cast into the bottomless Pit and shut up and a Seal is set upon him that he should deceive the Nations no more He who was the Head and Ring-leader of the rest and by whose order they generally acted is secured and thereupon their Power is extremely abated though they are not chain'd up in the same manner that He is It is not likely that they forget their old Employment but they do what they can in it though it be but little They shall not be totally absolutely and fully bound till the Last Day and therefore they will not cease to tempt and deceive Men till that time but they shall be Restrained in a very great Measure and Degree However if we suppose the whole Body of Evil Angels so confin'd that they are utterly uncapable of Tempting yet as long as Men are on this side of Heaven Corruptions will adhere to them The Best will Sin to the Worlds end because they are a Compound of Flesh and Spirit Their Make and Frame being such there can be no intire Freedom from Sin in this Life But this high Degree of the Evangelical State shall set them at as great a Distance from it as they can be capable of in this lower Region of the World For First in that happy Restauration Men shall be Blessed with a greater Knowledge than ever which is the Ground-work of true Holiness The Inspired Prophets who speak of those Days assure us That the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Isa. 11. 9. And perhaps this is intended in Isa. 65. 20. The Child shall die an Hundred Years Old i. e. all Persons shall grow up to maturity of Understanding even before they have attain'd to any considerable Number of Years The Children shall have such Knowledge that if they die in their Childhood they shall be as Knowing as some of those heretofore that were very Old that lived an Hundred Years This is the Privilege of those that are reserved for the New Heavens and the New Earth or the New-created Ierusalem which the Prophet speaks of there as we learn from ver 17 18. There will be more Knowledge because there will be a more General Commerce according to that of Daniel who prophesied concerning these Times Many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased Dan. 12. 4. viz. by that free and peaceable Travelling by Sea and Land from one Part of the World to the other which will be the uninterrupted Privilege of those Days For I am not inclined to submit to that New Hypothesis That the Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea Which is founded on a wrong Bottom for the supposes the 〈◊〉 will be after the Conâ—â—agration which â—e imagines will burn up the Sea or his Comet which he fansies will drink it up For according to this Gentleman 's New Philosophy as a Comet procured the Universal Flood so it will bring on the Final Conflagration and so he makes the Drowning of the World and the Burning of it up to be from the same Cause But leaving this Theorist to his own Inventions I think we may rationally assert that the Eâ—rth shall not be destitute of Sea in the foresaid Thousand Years because I shall prove afterwards that the Firing of the Earth will not happen till after those Years be expired And consequently we may be perswaded of the Truth of what I before suggested that a Commerce by Sea as well as by Land shall be mightily increased and improved in that Millennary State In order to this it is probable that there will be a Common Language for all the World a kind of a Lingua Franca but much larger that may be used by all whereby all Nations will be enabled to hold correspondence with one another at the greatest Distance Travelling is uneasy now because we must have a Druggerman to interpret between us and the Foreigners we converse with but then they will be incourag'd to visit one another when the Conversation between them is become so easy By this means the great Principles of Christianity will be soon propagated and known in the World especially when I add that now Mens Minds shall be better disposed than ever to understand the Truth and to entertain the Doctrine of Iesus The true Notions of Things shall bear sway and Men shall not take Pains to Cheat and Delude themselves as well as others as hath been their constant Course through all Ages Secondly in this remarkable Renovation of the World which we expect Religion shall appear in its Native Purity and Simplicity and Men shall see and understand the Real Worth of it Indeed Religion like the Sun at its first Rising made long Shadows it abounded with Obscurities and Dusky Representations and Men were imployed chiefly in external Formalities and Ceremonies But when it shall be in its Meridian at its greatest Height there will be none of these Things but it shall be chosen for its own Sake and loved for its intrinsick Value Even at the first founding of Christianity itself many imbraced it because it was attested by such Extraordinary and Miraculous Occurrences as then every Day shew'd themselves so that they were in a manner thrust upon Christianity and they were compell'd as it were to receive it But it shall not be so afterwards it shall commend itself to the World by its own Natural Excellency by the Worthiness of its Noble Principles which it is furnished with and thence Men shall serve God Freely and out of Choice and the Christian Religion shall then appear more eminently to be a Reasonable Service This must needs promote a more than usual Holiness in the Hearts and Lives of Men for when Religion is esteem'd for its Self and its inward Excellency it will cease to be measured by mere Words and outward Shews
more an Infant of days â—or an old Man that hath not fill'd his days For though this Dispensation be no exemption from Mortality though Christ's Reign doth not unthrone and depose the King of Terrors yet it wards off his fatal Blows for a long Season And perhaps some may reach the long Ages of those that lived before the Flood And this shall happen not only from the Nature of the thing it self but by the singular Favour of God For as before in a judicial way he sometimes short'ned Men's Lives so now in the way of a Blessing he is pleased to extend them to a great length Which perhaps is the meaning of what follows in the foresaid Chapter v. 22. As the days of a Tree a long-liv'd Tree are the days of my People But supposing that this is not the strict import of the Text which I submit to the Thoughts of the Judicious yet it is certain from the reason of the thing it self that those Happy Ages shall abound with all things that conduce to the Welfare and Happiness of the Body as well as of the Soul and consequently Longaevity shall be one of the Felicities of those times And I doubt not but it will be procured by a perfect Knowledge of the true Causes and Springs of Long Life and of the more immediate Sourses of Diseases For Natural Philosophy as well as all other Parts of True Philiosophy shall be then improved to the utmost and a Vertuoso shall be no Rarity Especially the Nature of all Vegetables and Minerals wherein are laid up the great Restoratives of Life shall by exquisite Experiments be laid open to the World And the use of all the Vessels in the body which now we have but an imperfect insight into and some of which we know nothing of shall be exactly discovered And whatever else relating either to Nature or Art or Morality shall be conducible to this great End before-mentioned shall not be wanting no not that which is the choicest and most sovereign Conserver of Life viz. a well-temper'd Joy and Chearfulness a ferene and placid Spirit than which nothing can be more serviceable to uphold and maintain the vital Congruity to nourish the Lamp of Life and to give a lasting Vivacity to Nature And from the several Particulars we may gather this also that there will be a greater Number of Persons upon the Earth in that Sabbatick Reign than there is now This follows from what hath been said concerning that Universal Peace that Extraordinary Measure of Bodily Health and Strength that Duration of Men's Lives which shall be the Blessing of those Days Upon the more Cessation of Wars and Slaughters of Pestilence and Famine c. which are wont so visibly to diminish the number of Mankind there must needs be a great length'ning out of Men's Lives there must be a vast Increase of the People of the World The whole Earth will be replenish'd and even crowded with Inhabitants This will make amends as I suggested before for the great multitudes of Men that have in several Ages perished and gone to the Infernal Regions For within the compass of this Happy Time wherein we suppose Mankind to be thus extremely multiplied and all of them excepting some very few to be holy and Religious Persons there will be a larger Stock of Inhabitants for Heaven than there was of those who in all the preceding Times of the World were thrust down to the contrary Place And thus which way soever we look this Blessed Dispensation shall be eminent for the Natural as well as the Moral and Religious Emendation of all Things for Temporal and Earthly Blessings as well as those that are Spiritual and Heavenly for the present bettering of the World and for the Provision it makes for the future Mankind being free'd from all Dangers Mischiefs and Troubles shall enjoy an undisturbed Peace Quiet and Repose with a Freedom from all Pain and Sickness And their Bodies shall be more vigorous and their Beauty more lasting than ever before Which shall be attended with all outward Conveniencies Comforts and Refreshments of what nature soever together with inward Peace Pleasure and Satisfaction There is one thing more I will venture to add as belonging I verily believe to this Happy State I have been describing There shall be a Peace not only between Rational Creatures and their Brethren but between these and the most Salvage Brutes i. e. those Brutes which heretofore were so For now the hurtful Disposition and cruel Nature of all such Animals shall be taken from them and they shall become mild and gentle tame and tractable This I take to be the meaning of that Prophecy Isai. 11. 6 7. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little Child shall lead them And the Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together And the Lion shall eat Straw like the Ox and the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice-den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my Holy Mountain Which Words seem to me to be a clear Prediction concerning the peaceable Temper which even the fiercest of the Irrational Herd shall be endued with in the last Times of the World Their former Antipathies their pristine Enmities shall cease and they shall be restored to that harmlessness and Innocence which were at the first Creation I know these Words are generally by Commentators understood of that Inward Change which shall be made in Mens minds and hearts by the powerful Influence of the Gospel But I see little or no Foundation for this Interpretation for I go upon this ground which all sober Interpreters of Scripture acknowledge and own that there is no reason to fly to a Metaphorical and Mystical Sense of a Text when it appears that there is a Literal one So it is here there is no need of supposing any such thing as Metaphors and Allegories for the Words in themselves as interpreted according to the Letter are very plain and intelligible The Prophet here gives an Account of the Peaceable Kingdom of Christ and tells us that this among other things appertaining to it is part of it that there shall be a change in the Nature and Qualities of Brute Animals the Wolf Leopard Lion Bear â—erpent Adder shall be as tâ—me as Lambs Kids Calves they shall lie down and dwell and feed together they shall neither prey upon one another nor shall they be hurtful to Men. Nothing could be more plainly said to express the great Blessing and Privilege of those last Days when the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea which are the very next Words to those which I have set down and shew to what Period of Time they relate And that we
the Sea insomuch that they shall cover all the Earth as it were for that is meant by their going up on the breadth of the Earth And they shall lay close Siege to the Beloved City that Place whither the Saints the Beloved of God shall fly for Refuge Or the whole Church of Christ the Visible Body and Society of the Faithful which shall be left at that time may be understood by the Beloved City In a very lamentable and wretched Condition they shall be you may imagine all the time of this Gogick and Magogick War and the Siege which accompanieth it It cannot be expressed what Streights the Saints are reduced to what Calamities they undergo what Miseries they indure And This is but agreeable to what our Blessed Lord foretold of the Times immediately preceding the Day of Judgment He hath assured us that those Days shall be very remarkable both in respect of Sin and Suffering As to the former when he compares them to the Days of Noah in which the Old World gave themselves up wholly to their Pleasures and forgat God and defied his Providence he sheweth how Corrupt and Wicked the Last Times shall be So that Interrogatory of our Saviour Luk. 18. 8. When the Son of Man cometh shall be find Faith on the Earth is a downright Negative and signifies that he shall not find Faith upon Earth That is not only as some interpret it the Faith even of God's Servants shall be very Weak and Little before the Last Coming of Christ the Saints themselves having been persecuted and harassed by the Wicked shall faint and flag They shall scarcely believe the Promise of his Coming they shall almost despond that Christ will help and deliver them But the meaning rather seems to be This that Faithfulness here called Faith shall be very rare upon Earth Sincertiy and Truth shall be baniâ—h'd and Lying Perfidiousness Dissembling and which is the Consequent of those inward Hatred and Malice and all outward Injustice Violence and Oppression shall come in their place And so in another place Christ foretells that not long before the Day of Judgment Iniquity shall abound and the Love of many shall wax cold For this is to be remarked that the Signs foregoing the Destruction of Ierusalem and of the Coming of Christ are intermixed in that Four and twentieth Chapter of St. Matthew Or we may say the former Signs were to be repeated and more fully display'd in the Latter Event Our Saviour likewise fets forth the State of the Last Days before the End of the World not only as extremely Sinful abounding with great Wickedness and universal Corruption of Life but as most Afflictive and Dangerous most Distressed and Calamitous There shall be saith he distress of Nations with perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear Luk. 21. 25 26. Yea Those Words of Christ in Mat. 24. 21. are applicable here for the reason beforementioned Then shall be great Tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the World to this time no nor ever shall be And now the Fore-runners of that Great and Notable Day of the Lord mentioned by our Saviour in this Chapter shall appear viz. Wars and great Commotions in Kingdoms and Nations Signs in the Heavens and in the Earth Earthquakes Pestilence and Famine with other unusual and extraordinary Occurrences and tremendous Accidents which shall give notice of the approaching Judgment Thus our Saviour not only confirms the Truth of what we read in the Revelation but he further explains and sets it forth He plainly suggests unto us what an evil posture the World will be in before he comes to Judgment He lets us know that the Tribulation as well as the Wickedness of those Days which approach the End of the World shall be more grievous than any that ever were before At that time the Sins of the Churches Enemies and the Sufferings of the Godly shall be at the Vertical Point as high as they can go Briefly It will be found true that the World shall be most Wicked and most Perilous at last The worst State of it will be towards its End For the Devil will be very wrathful and outrageous because he knoweth that he hath but a short time as it is said of him in Rev. 12. 12. And at that time it may more truly be said of him than ever for the 1000 years being ended he is loosed but for a little season Rev. 20. 3. He must soon go off the Stage and that makes him act his part with so much vigour and fierceness The Iudgment shall come presently after the 1000 years There shall be a very considerable time between the Mellennium and Dooms-day but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a small time in comparison of the thousand years And therefore on this account that malicious Spirit shall bestir himself with a mighty Concernedness The Tenth and Last Persecution which he raised in the Primitive Times was the Bloodiest So now he rageth most when he is to take his farewel of this Earthly Stage And now behold the Tragical Close of all Fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured these Armies of Gog and Magog and the Devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone Rev. 20. 9 10. For now after all CHRIST appears from Heaven and comes to be Avenged of his Enemies and to Judge the whole World as you read expresly in ver 11 12 of this Chapter Before his first Coming Satan reigned a long time as God of this World he had a kind of an unlimited Rule and Sway But our Saviour by his Coming restrain'd his Power and Lordship and afterwards in the Millennary Reign gives a greater check to them But at his Last Coming he shall wholly deprive him of his Rule and Dominion Accordingly he comes at that Day to drive Satan down into his own Place and there to leave him to be tormented for ever and ever He comes to take Vengeance on Sinners and to punish them with the utmost Severity He comes to rescue the Righteous from the Fury both of Satan and wicked Men. This is the Work of the Last Day There is nothing more to be added unless it be the Conflagration of the World For this I take to be an evident Truth that the Firing of the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth is a Consequent of the Final Iudgment which is after the Millennium For to what purpose should this material System be consumed or rather indeed how can it till the present Scene of Action in this World be at an end which will not be till after the Thousand Years are past I deny not but there may be some Beginnings of it before which perhaps is meant in that forenamed Place Rev. 20. 9. Fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured c. Here is an Essay of the Last Firing of the World which is prophesied of
now wearing off and that we shall have an end of it without any such thing But then when I consider'd that those Places of Holy Scripture which foretell the Calamities and Distresses of the Church of Christ may have respect only to the Times which preceed those Thousand Years I was again induced to believe that there shall be such a State as I have represented that Christ will set up his Kingdom in a more Illustrious and Effectual manner than ever and that this Kingdom shall be accompanied with lasting Peace and Righteousness with the General Conversion of Jews and Gentiles and the Ruin of Anti-christ As to some Particular Circumstances which I have mention'd relating to this Prosperous State of the Christian Church I am not Positive It hath pleased God to deliver things of this Nature Darkly and Mystically and there are no express places of Scripture on which a certain and unquestionable expectation of them can be grounded because we have no sure Word to ascertain our Determination Therefore as to the Particular Way and Manner of the things I have been Discoursing of I deliver nothing with Confidence It is the main of the Dispensation that I assert and which I verily believe though I censure no Man for thinking or saying otherwise I am sensible of this that when we see how the World is at this Day we may be enclined to think there is no probability of this Great Change There seems to be little likelihood at present of this Happy Reign in other parts of the World as well as among our selves for we seem to be every Day degenerating more and more and we run further from that excellent Temper and Genius which are required in that Future Paradise But then I consider that this is to be accomplish'd by a Divine Arm and Conduct and shall be the work of Heaven in a singular and particular Degree The Supreme Arbitrator and Manager of the World can of a sudden dispel all Difficulties and alter the Course of the Universe and frame Men's Minds as he pleaseth When we remember how mean and despicable Christianity was at first but how strangely it spread it self afterwards and made its Progress through the whole World against the greatest Opposition imaginable we may then believe the same may happen again and that what hath been foretold concerning that Glorious State may be fulfill'd Thus I will not despair of that happy Time Both Popery and Mahometism or either of them may for a time decay and grow less and then recover strength Or perhaps one or both of them may remain without any Diminution entire There may be a Superfoetation in the Mother of Harlots she may conceive and bring forth a New and replenish the Earth with her Children It may be the Reformation which hath been begun and set forward in some Parts of the Christian World may be put back Papal Superstition and Tyranny may return again and Rome may sit a Queen and know no Sorrow but what she creates to the true Professors of Religion One would be apt to think as much upon reading what is said concerning the Two Witnesses Rev. 11. 7. When they shall have finish'd the Testimony viz. at the end of 42. Months or 1260 Years the time of the Anti-christian Reign the Beast that ascendeth out of the Bottomless Pit shall make War against them and overcome them and kill them whereupon there is great rejoycing over them and making merry v. 10. It may come to pass that the Seven Hills may be exalted higher than ever and the Reformed Religion depress'd and trampled on Christianity may as Mr. Herbert presaged hoise Sail for America the Gospel may leave us to go to them and we may be half Pagans before it comes to us again Or if we hold fast-the Faith we may be forced to part with every thing else that is dear to us It may be our lot to undergo all Dangers Calamities Outrages and Persecutions before that Blessed Sabbatism arrives There may be a very Dark Night before that Lightsome Day is seen But at last it shall appear yea shine forth and the World shall be every ways the better for it Yea it may and I hope will shew it self in God's good time without any such Sad and Tragical Prologue to it as this I have ventured to offer my Conjectures about it and the freedom I have taken will not be disliked I conceive by Persons of sober Minds In my Judgment that is a very Curious and Notable Saying of Mr. Mede in his Epistle to the Reader before his Comment on the Apocalypse speaking of the interpreting of the Prophetical Writings and other Obscure Matters in Scripture Unless saith he there be liberty given to us to be somewhat free in our Thoughts and Opinions yea even in our Errors and Mistakes sometimes about these things we shall never clear our Passage to those Profound and Hidden Secrets of Truth Accordingly I have freely suggested my Thoughts and if therein I have represented some things amiss let it be remember'd that it was in the pursuit of Truth and of that Truth which it was difficult to attain to or rather let it be examined whether Truth be not here found out by that which some interpret a Mistake I declare I am not Dogmatical in what I have said nor will I perswade others to sit down with Peremptory Confidence that this is the certain meaning of all the Prophecies in Scripture before alledged But then this must be said there are several things highly Probable of which we have no Absolute Certainty and This that I have been Discoursing of is of that Nature Many Passages in Holy Writ do exceedingly favour it and there are no Contemptible Reasons to inâ—line us to a belief of it And when we have both Scripture and Rational Arguments on our side it is more than half of the Opinions which make a very plausible shew in the World can really lay claim to If after all you enquire concerning the Particular and Determinate Time when this Sabbatick State shall begin my Answer in brief is That I cannot neither will I attempt to assign any such thing When I say I cannot my meaning is that I apprehend no possible way of doing it in a Certain and Satisfactory way for otherwise I could as some have done pretend to present the Reader with a Punctual Calculation of the Time when these things shall happen Perhaps I might say without Ostentation that I have made enquiry into the Chronology of the Scriptures as well as others and have considered all that any Writers of Note have said on this Matter and have made search into these Mysteries my self but after all I declare that I find no Foundation for a Precise and Individual Assignation of Time In general we know Christ's Kingdom on Earth shall commence when the Seventh Angel soundeth his Trumpet for then the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of
his Christ Rev. 11. 15. But when this Last Angel shall do this Office we are ignorant though a Learned Foreigner lately is confident that this is the Time But we see he had but little ground for it for his Calculations have proved false though he thought he had some more than ordinary Foundation in the Transactions and Events of these late times for what he offer'd And he hath been follow'd by some of our own Countrey Men who presumed to assign the Punctual and Precise time when those Prophetick Passages in the Book of the Revelation were to be accomplish'd as if they above all other Men had a Key to those Divine Secrets and were authorized to unlock them I look upon this as the Product of a well-meant Mistake of their misapplying some Apocalyptick Texts which they were betray'd into by apprehending that the Circumstances which the Publick Affairs were in at that time were agreeable to those Prophecies But certainly this Rashness is very blamable because it may give occasion to ill-minded Men to disbelieve all the other Prophecies in the Apocalypse because the Period of these which was with so great Confidence determin'd is found to be untrue Nay indeed it hath sometimes happen'd that when Positive Men have peremptorily set a certain Year it hath generally proved a worse Time than ordinary on one account or other instead of a welcome issue of their Predictions some very unusual and dismal thing appears upon the Publick Stage as it were a doom for such rash Prognostications Here therefore ought to be a great deal of Caution Prudence and Sincerity But so it is we may observe that it is the way of these Apocalyptick Men like the Clocks of Basil always to anticipate the time they are too hasty in fixing the Periods of Prophetick Occurrences either because they impatiently desire the approach of them or because they are ambitious of being thought the first Discoverers of these Secrets In the Book of the Revelation the Time of the Beasts Reign seems to be determined viz. 1260. Days Rev. 11. 3. 12. 6. i. e. as all grant so many Years for that is the Prophetick way of Numbering which are the same with the Time and Times and half a Time Dan. 7. 25. Rev. 12. 14. and with the 42. Months i. e. of Years Rev. 11. 2. 13. 5. Now if we could tell when the Apocalyptick Beast began we might from what is here expresly set down exactly know its end but the former being no where mention'd we are at a loss for the latter A very Sober and Modest Pen fixes the beginning of the Beasts Reign in the Year of our Lord 456. and consequently by adding 1260. to that number makes the end of it to be A. D. 1716. But according to this way of Computing the Papal Beast was in being before there was Popery properly so called in the World which is sufficient to invalidate that Calculation However if those Numbers refer to the end of the Beast as it is certain they do I agree with this Writer that it cannot be very far off But as to the precise time we may conjecture but we cannot be certain It may be our Chronology is Defective it may be the Account which we have of Years is not Exact and consequently our Calculations cannot be accurate Or suppose they were yet our Saviour acquaints us when he speaks of such Affairs that the time shall be shortned for the Elects sake Mat. 24. 22. So that our exactest Chronology will not avail us then I have nothing therefore to say concerning the Punctual Date of this Notable Revolution which hath been the matter of our Disquisition Yea perhaps it is impossible for any Man to know it infallibly I mean without a particular Revelation Yet I will not as the Iews curse those who Calculate these Times but rather wish that Men would be Sober and Modest in this as in all other difficult and intricate Points It is folly to be over-curious and sollicitous here but it is no less than Presumption and Arrogance to be Peremptory This should suffice us that there is a time when these things shall be accomplished In the mean season let us comfort our selves with the expectation of that Blessed State of the Church Let it be remembred that however things go now there shall be a better Face of them hereafter and though we may not live to the arrival much less the fruition of it yet it is some solace to our Minds that with Moses we have a sight at a distance of that Blessed Canaan the Land of Promise in which all the Defects and Declensions that have been either in Nature or Morals shall be repair'd and amended Nor doth the ill posture of things at present in the least retard my hopes or belief of a change for the better for though it sounds like a Paradox yet it is an experienced Truth that things farthest off are nearest Look into the Calendar and you will see that December which is at the greatest distance from Ianuary is the next Month to it See it in Nature when the Night is darkest it is nighest break of Day Look on the Globe of the Earth and you will find the extream parts of the East bordering on the West And so it is here when things seem to be most remote from this Revolution they are nearest to it Extremity proves successful sometimes The worst Times introduce the Best The Condition of the World is like that of some Disâ—ased Bodies which must of necessity be brought low before they can arrive to a sound and perfect Constitution Our weak languishing and perishing State may by the Divine Disposal make way for our Health and prove the fore-runner and occasion of our lasting Happiness Though the World in some Ages is palpably worse than in others yet bating the Last Scene of all when in respect of the Universal prevailing of Vice it seems to be worst of all as at this time even then it is tending to the best for this hath been always observable since the first Creation that the greatest Corruptions and Apostasies have made way for the most remarkable Reformations and accordingly the horrid Degeneracy of these present times not only among our selves but in all Christian Countries is one Argument to incline me to believe there will be a mighty alteration Irreligion Impiety and Atheism are now making their greatest and last Efforts before that Glorious Day which I have been describing arrives An Universal Prophaneness is to preceed and usher in an Universal Holiness and Purity Unchristian Wars and Commotions Divisions and Contentions in Churches and States are the fore-runners of a General Peace and Repose The World will not go off thus as it is but a more pleasant and delightful Scene of it will appear and this so Vitiated and Corrupted Age shall be followed with as Eminent a Restoration Though we are ignorant of the exact time of it yet this