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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62635	Several discourses by the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ... , being the fifth volume published from the originals by Ralph Barker ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.	1700 (1700)	Wing T1263; ESTC R31970	188,402	488

both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth But see the strange power of Prejudice to blind the Eyes even of good Men in the plainest matters The Disciples of our Saviour for all they had entertained a new Religion yet they retained the old Pride and Prejudice of their Nation against the rest of the World as if none but themselves had any share in the favour of God or were to have any part in the Salvation of the Messias Our Saviour did so far consider this Prejudice of theirs that he never in his life time acquainted them with this matter so as to make them fully to understand it because they were not able to bear it And it is very probable that this is one of those things which our Saviour meant John 16.12 13. I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth That is he should lead them into the knowledge of those Truths of which they were not then capable And tho' our Saviour after his Resurrection seems to have declared this sufficiently to them yet by their practice after his Ascension it appears that they understood all this only of the Jews namely that they were to preach the Gospel first to the Jews that were at Jerusalem and in Judea and then to those that were dispersed in other Nations for 't is clear from the History of their first Preaching recorded in the Acts that they preached to none but to the Jews and the Proselytes of the Jewish Religion So strong was their Prejudice that they had not the least suspicion that this Blessing of the Gospel was intended for the Heathen World nor were they convinced to the contray 'till St. Peter had a special Vision and Revelation to this purpose and the Holy Ghost came upon the Gentiles in miraculous gifts as he had done before upon the Jews that were converted to Christianity And thus the Spirit of God led them into this Truth and then they understood this Command of our Saviour's in a larger Sense And to this St. Peter plainly refers Acts 10.42 where he tells us how that Christ after his Resurrection appeared to them and commanded them to preach unto the People So likewise do Paul and Barnabas Acts 13.46 where they speak thus to the Jews It was necessary that the word should first be preached to you but seeing you put it from you lo we turn to the Gentiles for so hath the Lord commanded us Now he no where commanded this but in this Commission which he gave them before his Ascension Secondly You have here a particular declaration how they were to manage this work of making Disciples to the Christian Religion 1. By baptizing them into the Chrstian Faith 2. By instructing them in the Precepts and Practices of a Christian Life 1. By baptizing them into the Christian Faith which is here call'd baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Baptism is a solemn Rite appointed by our Saviour for the initiating of Persons into the Christian Religion But it was a Ceremony in use before both among the Jews and Gentiles The Heathen observed it at the initiating Persons into their Religious Mysteries and the Jews when they admitted Proselytes to their Religion at which time the Males as Maimonides tells us were both circumcised and baptized the Women were only baptized One Circumstance of the Baptism of grown Persons was that standing in the Water up to the Neck they recited several Precepts of the Law And as the Jewish Writers further tell us this Ceremony did not only belong to them that were of grown Years but to the Children of Proselytes if it were desired upon condition that when they came to Years they should continue in that Religion Now tho' this was a religious Ceremony used both by Jews and Gentiles and without any Divine Institution that we know of our blessed Saviour who in none of his Institutions seems to have favour'd unnecessary Innovations was so far from the superstition of declining it upon this account that it had been in religious use both among Jews and Gentiles that he seems the rather to have chosen it for that very reason For seeing it was a common Rite of all Religions and in it self very significant of that Purity which is the great design of all Religion it was the more likely to find the easier Acceptance and to be most suitable to that which he intended to be the universal Religion of the World As for the form of Baptism into the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost it plainly refers to that short Creed or Profession of Faith which was required of those that were to be baptized answerable to the reciting of the Precepts of the Law at the baptizing of Proselytes among the Jews now the Articles of this Creed were reduced to these three Heads of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and contains what was necessary to be believed concerning each of these And this probably is that which the Apostle calls the Doctrine of Baptism Heb. 6.2 viz. a short Summary of the Christian Faith the Profession whereof was to be made at Baptism of which the most ancient Fathers make so frequent mention calling it the rule of Faith It was a great while indeed before Christians tied themselves strictly to that very form of Words which we now call the Apostles Creed but the Sense was the same tho every one exprest it in his own Words nay the same Father reciting it upon several Occasions does not confine himself to the very same Expressions A plain indication that they were not then strictly bound up to any form of Words but retaining the sense and substance of the Articles every one exprest them as he pleased So that to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is to perform this Rite or Sacrament by the Authority of and with special Relation to the three Persons of the blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost as the chief Objects of the Christian Faith whereof solemn Profession was then made So that upon this form in Baptism appointed by our Saviour compared with what is elsewhere said in Scripture concerning the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost is principally founded the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity I mean in that simplicity in which the Scripture hath delivered it and not as it hath been since confounded and entangled in the Cobwebs and Niceties of the Schools The Scripture indeed no where calls them Persons but speaks of them as we do of several Persons and therefore that word is not unfitly used to express the difference between them or at least we do not know a fitter word for that purpose By baptizing then in the name of the

meaning of it is plainly this that our Saviour would send down the Holy Ghost upon them in miraculous Gifts to quality and enable them for the more speedy planting and propagating of the Gospel in the World and that he would be with them and assist them extraordinarily in this Work And that this is the primary meaning of it in regard to the Apostles will be very plain by considering how this Promise is exprest by the other Evangelists Mark 16.17 instead of this Promise you have these words immediately after our Saviour had given them Commission to go and preach the Gospel Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And then it follows These signs shall follow them that believe in my Name they shall cast out Devils and shall speak with new Tongues And Luke 24.39 instead of Lo I am with you it is said Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you that is the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost for it follows in the next Words but tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem until ye be endowed with power from on high This St. Luke himself interprets of the Promise of the Holy Ghost Acts 1.4 5 He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which saith he ye have heard of me For John truly baptized with Water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence And v. 8. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the Earth So that no Man that compares these Texts together can doubt but that this was the primary meaning of this Promise as it was made to the Apostles But then it is as plain likewise that this Promise is to be extended farther than to the Persons of the Apostles even to all those that should afterwards succeed them in this Work of Preaching the Gospel and baptizing because our Saviour adds that he would be with them to the end of the world which Words because they reach far beyond the Apostles Times as I shall shew by and by must necessarily be extended to such Persons in after-Ages as should carry on the same Work There are two famous Controversies about the Sense of these Words in which this Promise is exprest The First is concerning the Circumstance of time mentioned in this Promise Alway to the end of the World The other concerning the Substance of the Promise it self what is meant by our Saviour's being with them In the first we have to deal with the Enthusiasts in the latter with the Papists I shall examine the Pretences of both these as briefly and plainly as I can First Concerning the Circumstance of time exprest in these words Alway to the end of the world The Enthusiasts would persuade us that the meaning of these Phrases is not to be extended beyond that Age and that this Promise is to be limited to the Apostles Persons and that the Sense of it is that Christ would be with the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all their Days so long as they should live and that would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end of that Age thus they translate it and with no worse design than to take away the Necessity of a Gospel-Ministry But this Pretence will vanish if we can make good these two things 1. That the Letter of this Promise extends farther than the Persons of the Apostles and the continuance of that Age. 2. However that be it is certain that the reason of it extends to all that should succeed them in their Ministry to the end of the World 1. The Letter of this Promise extends farther than the Persons of the Apostles and the continuance of that Age. I will easily grant that the Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies only continually I will be with you continually but then the other Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until the end of the World is several times in Scripture undeniably used for the End and Dissolution of all things and cannot with any Probability be shewn to be ever used otherwise In this Sense it is unquestionably used three times Matth. 13. The Harvest is the end of the World v. 39. So shall it be at the end of the World v. 40. and v. 49. it is said that at the end of the World the Angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from the just and cast them into the Furnace which must either be understood of the end of the World and of the day of Judgment or there will be no clear Text in the whole Bible to that purpose and it is very probable that this Phrase is used in the same Sense Matth. 24.3 where the Disciples ask our Saviour What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world as will appear to any one that considers our Saviour's Answer to this Question the latter part whereof cannot without too much Violence be accommodated to any thing but the final Dissolution of the World Now if this Phrase be every where else in Scripture used in this Sense there is no reason why it should be taken otherwise in the Text only to serve the purpose of an unreasonable Opinion I know there are Phrases very near a-kin to this which are used in a quite different Sense namely for the expiration of the Jewish State and that we may know how to distinguish them it is observable that when the Scripture speaks of the end of the World it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of the Age in the singular Number but when it speaks of the Times before the Gospel it always expresseth them in the plural the reason of which is that famous Tradition among the Jews of the House of Elias which distributed the whole duration of the World into three Ages the Age before the Law the Age under the Law and the Age of the Messias and this last Age they looked on with great difference from the rest as the famous and glorious Age which was to be as it were the beginning of a new World And therefore the Jews in their Writings constantly call it the seculum suturum the Age or the World to come And therefore the Apostle in this Epistle to the Hebrews calls the State of the Gospel by that name as best known to them Heb. 2.5 But unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we now speak that is the Law was given by the disposition of Angels but the dispensation of the Gospel which is call'd the World to come was managed and administred by the Son of God So likewise Heb. 6.5 those miraculous Powers which accompanied the first