David by the same Inspiration in many Psalms celebrates the Kingdom of the Messiah In Psal. 22. he is introduc'd speaking My praise shall be of thee in the great Congregation all the ends of the World shall remember and turn unto the Lord all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship before thee And in the 67 Psal. God be merciful to us and blessus and cause his Face to shine upon us Selah That thy way may be known upon Earth and thy saving health among all Nations Let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee The Prophet Esay in his Revelations clearly speaks of the great design of God to bring the Gentiles to his service Thus in the second Chapter 't is prophesied And it shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lords House shall be established in the tops of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills And many People shall go and say Come ye let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Lord and the Sword of the Lord out of Jerusalem And among all the rest none is more clear and express than what is recorded in Isa. 49. There first the Messiah is represented as declaring his Commission from God to go to the People of Israel The Lord hath called me from the womb from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my Name and he said unto me Thou art my Servant in whom I will be glorified And after complains of the obstinacy of the ingrateful Synagogue Then I said I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought in vain yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work with God And immediately after 't is added And now saith the Lord that form'd me from the Womb to be his Servant to bring Jacob again to him though Israel be not gather'd yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength And he said it is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou maist be my Salvation to the ends of the Earth This Oracle is precise and full for it speaks of the Nations in opposition to the Tribes of Israel and directly foretels that the Jews would neglect the instructions of the Messiah and that upon their Infidelity God would by the Messiah give saving knowledge to all Nations And in the same sense he speaks in the 54th Chapter Sing O Barren thou that didst not bear break forth into singing and cry aloud thou that didst not travel with Child for more are the Children of the desolate than of the married saith the Lord. Who is the desolate and barren but the Gentiles without God in the World whiles the Jews were honour'd and blest in the Mystical Marriage with him And who are the Children of the forsaken that should be far more numerous than those of the married but the Believers of the Christian Church in opposition to the Jewish Church And the other succeeding Prophets concur in this prediction Malachy the last speaks of it in such express terms as are capable to convince any that does not wilfully renounce the use of his Eyes and Understanding After God is introduc'd rejecting the Jews and their Temple Service I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of Hosts neither will I accept an Offering at your hands He adds to signifie the calling of a new Church for from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offer'd to my Name and a pure Offering for my Name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts Thus that great wonder was clearly foretold by the Prophets and as a work to be performed by the glorious Power of God And accordingly it is accomplish'd For who but God could have inspir'd the Apostles to undertake an Enterprise so contrary to Humane Prudence being equally dangerous and impossible And who else could have made it successful beyond all imagination When the Pride of Pharoah was humbled and his Strength broken by the most despicable creatures even the Magicians were compelled to acknowledge it to be the Finger of God but his Arm was revealed when the Spiritual Pharoah with all his Powers of Darkness were overcome by such weak Instruments What furious Winds from all parts of the World conspir'd to extinguish the first springing Light of the Gospel The Heathen Emperours destroyed innumerable Persons presuming to drown the Memory of Christ in the Blood of the Christians But such were the Faith and Love of Believers of all conditions to their Crucified Redeemer that with the same joy they ran to suffer the most terrible punishments as if they had been to receive Crowns In vain the strongest Combinations were made against the Truth For the knowledge of the only true God and his incarnate Son Jesus Christ overcame Impiety with all its Idols and Ignorance with all its numerous Masters What is become of all the Heathen Deities so honour'd so fear'd so obstinately defended Where are their Altars their Statues their Sacrilegious Priests and Sacrifices They are buried in the ruines of their own Temples in the darkness of eternal oblivion Where are all the Sects of Philosophers the Platonists the Peripateticks the Stoicks the Epicureans and the rest that fill'd Greece with their Fame and so many Volumes with their Fancies and Errour Like a Torrent that rouls down with great noise from the top of a Mountain so for a time the Speculations of their lofty Minds poured along in a floud of swelling froathy Eloquence but now and for how many Ages since the very channel is dryed up wherein they ran so that scarce any visible ruines remain in Athens it self of the Schools where they taught The greatest among them Plato adorn'd with the title of Divine could never see his Commonwealth fram'd by him with so much study to be establish'd in one City Whereas if we consider the Gospel of Christ 't is hard to determine whether the Doctrine be more simple or the Apostles the first Masters of it to outward appearance Yet without Learning or humane strength in a short space they triumphed over the Eloquence of the Greeks the Power of the Romans the Rage of Barbarous Nations They abrogated Laws chang'd Customs and renewed the face of the World In this the Prophetick Parable was fulfill'd The Kingdom of Heaven that is the dispensation of the Gospel is like to a grain of Mustard-seed one of the smallest grains but of that spirit and quality that it suddenly springs up and
Beasts and creeping things This was the state of the Pagan World till the Gospel appear'd and directed the natural religious inclination of mankind into its proper channel to the only true God 2. The Religion of the Jews is to be considered This the Christians acknowledg with them was Divine in its Authority Doctrine Moral part Worship and Promises God himself was the Author and confirm'd it by many illustrious Miracles 'T is deliver'd in the most antient authentick and venerable Writings in the World It instructs us concerning the Nature of God his Works of Creation and Providence and the Judgment to come It commands the love of God and to serve him only and the love of our Neighbour as our selves The ceremonial part was a full conviction of the guilt of Sin a visible discovery of the rights of eternal Justice and a powerful means to humble Men before the Infinite and offended Majesty of the Creator It propounds temporal rewards as the marks of Gods favour sutable to the Church then in its minority but under that Vaile the most excellent and eternal rewards This Religion in its Ceremonial external part was to continue till the coming of the Messiah and then to be abolish'd To make this evident I shall thus proceed 1. That the ceremonial part contain'd nothing that was morally and unchangeably good for then it had been obligatory to all Nations and from the beginning whereas it was prescribed only to the Jews and after a long space of time wherein many holy Men though ignorant of that part of the Law yet received a Divine testimony that they pleased God 2. 'T was of impossible performance to all other Nations as appears by the Precepts concerning Sacrifices that were to be offered only in Jerusalem and by the Levitical Priests and their solemn Festivals so many times in the Year Now the Worship of God being an essential Duty of the reasonable Creature 't is absurd to imagine that it necessarily consists in such things that cannot be done by all Men. 3. God himself often declar'd that the Rituals of the Law were of no price with him absolutely consider'd 4. They were enjoynd the Jews for peculiar reasons principally that by those imperfect rudiments they might be prepar'd for the times of Reformation God had drawn in the Legal Ministration numberless Images of the Messiah their Temple and High-Priest their Ark and Offerings with all their Ceremonial Service did signally point at him And this is a ninfallible evidence that a mind superiour to Moses's design'd all that Work with a final respect to Christ that the Jewish Nation having the Idea of him always present might not mistake him when he should appear And that heavy yoke of Ceremonies with the spirit of servile fear that attended it was to excite in them earnest longings after the Messiah the Desire of all Nations that with unspeakable joy they might receive him at his coming Now that the Legal Institution should expire for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof and a Divine Sacrifice be offer'd up of infinite value and vertue to reconcile God and purifie the Consciences of Men was declared whilst the service of the Temple was perform'd with the greatest Pomp. Thus the Messiah spake by the mouth of David Sacrifice and offering thou dost not desire my heart hast thou open'd Burnt-offering and Sin-offering hast thou not required then said I lo I come in the volume of the Book 't is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God And the same inspired Prophet declar'd when the Levitical Priesthood was in the greatest splendour that there was another order of Priesthood than that of Aaron established in a more solemn manner and of everlasting efficacy The Lord hath sworn and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec That this Prophecy respected the Messiah even the Pharisees could not deny For when Jesus Christ askt them whose Son Christ was to be they answered Davids And demanding again why David call'd him Lord in those words of the Psalms The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand till I have made thine enemies thy foot-stool they could answer nothing Their silence was a clear acknowledgment that the Messiah was the Person there intended The Apostle also who wrote to the Jews takes it for granted by the universal consent of that Nation that that Psalm respected the Messiah and proves it was accomplish'd in Jesus Christ. Besides 't was foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah that another Covenant should be made wherein the real benefits of the pardon of Sin and true Holiness that were tipified by the Legal purifications and observances should be conferred on God's People Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel different from that made with their Fathers when they came out of the Land of Aegypt I will put my Law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my People And they shall no more teach every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord for they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquities and I will remember their sin no more In short there are abundant Declarations in the Prophets that the carnal Religion of the Jews should expire and a Religion all Spirit and Life should succeed in its place and be diffused among all Nations This was to be introduc'd by the Messiah Thus Moses foretold The Lord thy God shall raise up a Prophet from among thy Brethren like unto me Him ye shall hear 'T was the singular prerogative of Moses above the rest of the Prophets that he was a Lawgiver and Mediatour of the Covenant between God and Israel and accordingly the Messiah was to be a Lawgiver and Mediatour of a new Covenant Now if the Mosaic Institutions were to remain after his coming the Parallel would not hold between them in those principal respects Besides 't was prophesied that the Messiah should be a King sitting on the Throne of David and commanding the Kings of the Earth By which 't is evident that his Laws must be of another nature than those of Moses that were proper only to the Church whilst confin'd to the Jewish pale but not for the government of the World And whereas the Jews object that some of their Rites were ordain'd to continue for ever The answer is clear That was only to distinguish them from some temporary injunctions that were of force only while they were in the Wilderness or when they were inhabitants of Canaan but were to be practis'd in all places till by a new signification of the Divine Will they were forbidden And 't is observable that in the Jewish Law the term for ever when applied either to a Mans right or
the spectators of his Death All that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip they shake the head saying He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him His words spoken in the heighth of his distress My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Prophet Isaiah represents the Ignominy and Torments of his Passion I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting and by the eyes of his mind saw him crucified between two Thieves He was named with Transgressors and as present at his most affectionate dying prayer for his enemies Father forgive them they know not what they do observe that he made intercession for Transgressors Thus as several Painters that would draw divers Copies from the same excellent Original are intent to view its various Aspects some directly some on this and the other side so the Prophets as if they had been the Spectators of his cruel Sufferings copied from the life every one that part that the Holy Spirit assigned to them Now how was it possible if not instructed by Omniscience that being so distant in time and place and so long before the Accomplishment they should concur in such an exact description of what should befal the Messiah Men are not Prophets by the light of Reason as Nature is not subjected to their power to work Miracles neither is Futurity open to their view to compose an History of things to come The Death of Christ depended on several Causes Men Devils and God himself concurr'd for divers Ends in the same Event The two prime Conspirators against his Life Lucifer and Caiphas were moved both from Reasons of State to secure their own The Devil to maintain his cruel Empire which for so many Ages he had usurp'd in the World For our Saviour having with Authority cast out Legions of his ministring Spirits from those who were miserably possest by them he was in fear of losing his Power Besides he foresaw that if Christ were the Son of God the killing of him would bring such a crimson guilt upon the Jews that no less punishment than their Rejection would follow And so God should lose his peculiar People Caiaphas excited the Council to devote him as a Sacrifice to preserve their Nation from ruine for their safety depending on their homage to the Romans to prevent the jealousies that might arise by the fame of his mighty Works and by the Peoples attendance on him that were fed by his Miracles they concluded on it as a necessary expedient that Christ should dy and all suspicions be removed with him Thus Men and Devils were the instruments but God appointed that great Event The storm fell from Heaven upon Him for our Sins 'T is therefore expresly said He was delivered by the determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God who over-ruled the train of disorders the work of their cruel malice for contrary ends than were design'd by them For the Devils were cast out of their Kingdom the Jews depriv'd of their Liberty and the Kingdom of Christ establish'd for ever Now who could read in the Mind of God his free Decrees even the Angels of Light that always see his face cannot without a revelation of them None but the Spirit that searches the deep things of God could make the discovery And who could foresee that the Messiah so often promised to the Jews so impatiently expected and ardently desir'd should be so fiercely rejected by them that his Death should be the effect as of his own love so of their hatred None but God to whom all the periods of time are equally present and who is more intimate with the Counsels and Passions of Men than their own Souls are could predict it He communicated some rays of his Prescience to holy Men who foretold that obscurest Contingency From hence it follows that the clear Testimonies of the Prophets exactly fulfill'd in Jesus Christ are an unanswerable demonstration that He was the expected Deliverer to restore the World 2. The universal and irreparable Destruction of the State of the Jews foretold as the just punishment of their rejecting the Messiah is another illustrious proof of the Divinity of his Person and Doctrine To represent all the Characters of that Vengeance as they are set down by Josephus an Eye-Witness and Historian of it would lengthen this Discourse beyond the limits intended It is sufficient to observe 1. That all the severe Scourges of God met in a direful conjunction against them The most affrighting Prodigies were his forerunners A flaming-Sword brandish'd in the Heavens and Monsters born on the Earth And War Famine Pestilence and Fire were his Attendants Those who escap't the Sword were consum'd by Famine and those who were preserved from cruel War and Famine were swept away by the Pestilence or devour'd by the merciless Flames Wherever they turn'd their eyes Death in terrible shapes appear'd 2. All these Judgments were inflicted at once upon them in the heaviest degrees The Sword never made a greater destruction of Men than in Jerusalem here were Rivers of Blood there Mountains of Carcasses In some places nothing but silence and horrour amongst the dead in others the crys and groans of the dying Innumerable were massacred by the rage of Sedition amongst themselves And when the mild Conquerour would have spared them yet by an unparallel'd fierceness they would rather perish in an obstinate resistance The Famine was so extreme as compell'd even tender Mothers to eat the flesh of their miserable Children The Fire consum'd the City from one end to the other without leaving any part entire The Temple the Sanctuary of Religion and Image of Heaven where God so long had dwelt had been serv'd and prais'd and rendred his Oracles was not exempted from the fury of the Fire 3. Their Calamity was extreme and irreparable The first Desolation by the Chaldeans so compassionately recorded by Jeremiah was not comparable in the degrees and continuance to this second by the Romans of which CHRIST himself was the Chief Mourner and made lamentation Then they were transported together and not to a very rigorous nor perpetual servitude in Babylon After seventy years they recover'd their Liberty and were restored to their Native Land But in the last the Captives were dispers'd among divers People a sad Prognostick that they should never be joyned again in one Society The Ruines of the Nation were so great that the pieces of it are scatter'd all over the World Where ever a Jew is found there is a stone of ruin'd Jerusalem never to be rebuilt In short that wretched Nation is rent into innumerable parts and expos'd to the contempt and hatred of all As the Body of a Traitor is quarter'd and the parts hung up in several places of publick view to signify the horrour of his Crimes in the severity of his
spreads abroad This happy and stupendous success of the Disciples of Jesus Christ consider'd in it self is an unanswerable proof that the Christian Religion came from Heaven For it was only possible to the Divine Power 'T is no wonder the Religion of Mahomet extended and establish'd its Conquests in many Countries For that Seducer perswaded the barbarous People by force of Arms they must be his Disciples or Slaves And can the Mind form a clear Judgment or the Will make a free Choice when under a tyrannous necessity of Compliance or losing all the Comforts of Life Can Violence and Cruelty produce a Rational Faith That may force them to a counterfeit complyance but cannot make Men sincerely believe 't is apt to breed Form without and Atheism within Now that a Persecuted Religion should live and flourish in the midst of flames is as truly admirable as if a little Stream should pass through an Arm of the Ocean retaining its Freshness and Purity in the midst of Salt and Turbid Waters That when the Minds of Men were prepossest with inveterate Opinions contrary to its supernatural Mysteries and their Wills over-ruled by Carnal Affections utterly averse from its Holy Precepts the World was captiv'd to the belief and obedience of it is the most noble effect of Omnipotence For other Miracles though above the Laws of Nature yet were on the lower order of creatures without life and sense but this internal Miracle was wrought on the Minds and Hearts of Men. To raise the Dead to calm a Storm to suspend the force of Fire to change Waters into Blood is not so glorious a work as the converting Rebellious Souls to God and making them a willing People to his holy Laws And if we further consider the Prophecies so many Ages before concerning it and observe the Harmony betwixt the Works and Word of God there results a Demonstration as clear and strong as is possible The Prediction and Accomplishment are equally divine The success justifies the truth of the Prophecy and the truth of the Prophecy justifies the Divinity of the Christian Religion For by the Apostles and their Successors the Heathens were turned from Idols to the Service of one God the Creator of the World which was foretold by the Prophets not only as a thing that should arrive but to be performed by the Power of God To ascribe then this glorious Work to humane Artifice as if his Providence had been prevented by others from doing that that he promised should be done by his own Power is so directly contrary to his Wisdom and his Truth that common Reason abhors the thoughts of it Therefore the Christian Religion is Divine having God for its Author Thus the Truth of the Gospel is victorious over the Jewish or the prophane Infidel It may be argued against the Jews that their God foretold his Messiah should convert the Nations No other but one authorised from above could do it Iesus Christ has done it therefore he is the Messiah And consequently they are either blind with prejudice or maliciously deny the known truth To prophane Infidels it may be urged none but the Divine Providence could foretel so great and marvellous a change of the World none but the Divine Power could effect it therefore 't was the true God that made the project and event so exactly to correspond in all things Add further that by comparing the Prophecies of Christ and his Kingdom with their accomplishment the two sorts of enemies against the Gospel are made useful to convince one another The Pagans by the Jews that these things were foretold the Jews by the Pagans that these things were fulfil'd St. Austin relates that the Heathens seeing the exact agreement between the Prophecies in the Old Testament so clear in words and their accomplishment in the New so clear in the Effects had nothing to reply but that they were written after the things were done and feigned to be Predictions of antient date As Virgil weaving Fables of Aeneas feign'd him to be in the Elisian Fields and to receive from Anchises a Prediction of his Descendents in a long succession and order of Men and Times which was the story of what was actually past when he wrote it In answer to this pretence he breaks out with wonder and joy O Gloria Regis nostri the Cause is gain'd and the Victory of Truth could not be more glorious For whereas the many Nations in Europe Asia Africa subdued by the Arms of the Romans were compelled to observe the Rites of their Religion The Jews only were permitted to enjoy their Sacred Books and their own Worship and were dispers'd into all Countries And thus by the admirable Counsel of God they give credit to the Gospel among the Gentiles For if we consider the reverence they bore to the Writings of the Prophets that with the greatest care they have preserved them as the most precious Inheritance left by their Fathers and their mortal hatred of Jesus Christ and his Gospel that willingly they would spend their Blood to deface the Memorials of it it is an invincible Argument that the Predictions concerning the state of the Christian Church recorded in their Scriptures are sincerely delivered and of Divine Authority This their Malice is an advantage to the Faith of the Gospel and by constraint they are the great Confirmers of it This is sufficient to reduce the Heathens to silence and confusion And the Pagan being convinc'd by the Books of the Jews the Jew may be convinc'd by the Testimony of the Pagans for if the Records so jealously kept by that Nation were from Divine Inspiration if they contain Antient Prophecies which the Heathens see verified in the Gospel and the Christian Church why do not the Jews acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the promised Messiah If the Vail were not taken from Moses's face and laid on their hearts they must clearly see that the Light of the Gentiles is the Glory of Israel 'T is equally unreasonable to doubt with the Atheist that the Messiah was ever promised or to believe with the Iews he is yet to come CHAP. V. The Testimony produc'd by St. John for the proof of Christianity briefly consider'd The Witness from Heaven the Father Word and Spirit The Witnesses on Earth the Spirit Water and Blood conspire in declaring JESUS CHRIST to be the Son of God and Saviour of Men. An Answer to Objections against the Doctrines of the Trinity the Divine Incarnation and the mean State and Sufferings of the Son of God in the World The Conclusion The Gospel so proved deserves our firmest Assent and Adherence to its Doctrines Carnal or spiritual Lusts hinder the belief of it It sets before us the most powerful Motives to love God We are obliged by the strongest Reasons to obey its Precepts THe Sum of all that has been said is comprised in the Testimony that St. John produces to prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God