Destruction of Jerusalem and Lazarus being then alive when the others wrote their Gospels they purposely omitted it lest the reciting and recording so eximious and convictive a Miracle might exasperate the Jews against him and bring him to ruine but being dead St. John might safely transmit it to Posterity in his Gospel Again It is very improbable they would deceive others For Cui bono to what end or purpose or what Design could they aim at in deceiving the World Honours and Preferments they could not expect they being all in the hands of the Pagans or of the Jews their bitter Enemies who hated the holy Jesus with an implacable hatred and for that very reason persecuted all his Adherents nor could they hope for Riches when the Profession of Christianity exposed them to the Loss of all temporal Goods neither could the Gospel be preached without the neglect of mundane affairs But perhaps some will say they imposed upon the World that they might be the Authors of a new Sect But 1. either they believed the Doctrins which they taught to be true or they did not if they did not believe them we cannot easily imagine they should so far forth put off all Humanity and good Nature which they so seriously and frequently inculcate in their Writings as to expose so many thousand innocent Persons to Death upon their Assertion of a Falshood yet if they could be so prodigiously cruel to others would they be so prodigal of their own Blood as to throw it away upon an uncertain Delusion If they thought them to be true as it is most likely they did their Writings shewing that they were in good earnest then 't is certain that it was not the poor and trifling Glory of being the Authors of a new and unheard of Sect but the real Good and Advantage of Mankind which animated and encourag'd them to such an Undertaking 2. It is not the manner of Cheaters to provoke to so many Witnesses as we find the Apostles did St. Paul asserting the Resurrection of our blessed Lord beside the Testimony of the twelve Apostles brings in five hundred upon the Stage at once to confirm the same Truth the major part of which were then alive when he wrote that Epistle 1 Cor. xv Add to this that a Lie is strictly forbidden by their Writings and those that delight in it menaced with eternal Destruction Eph. 4.25 Col. 3.9 Rev. 21.8.3 3. Suppose men could be so wicked yet would the Goodness of God suffer such a Cheat to be put upon the World If we look upon the whole frame of the Christian Religion it is such that the more good any man is the more likely to adhere to it and the most harmless and innocent Persons in the world are most apt to be charmed and overcome by it But surely to them that believe a just and righteous Providence governing the affairs of the World it is apparent that God would not have suffered an Error so universally to prevail nor those who most of all resemble his blessed Nature in Justice Mercy and Compassion to be involved in Obscurity and Ignorance and eternally to perish in a Delusion since he may and acting according to his Nature must necessarily detect it Now because the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God dismantling the Prisons of Death and freeing himself from the Chains and Fetters of the Grave is the great Pillar and Foundation of the Christian Doctrin therefore it will be requisite to wipe off those Spots the mouth of Envy and Detraction hath cast upon it To this end I shall examine that Objection of the Jews who seeing the clear and evident Proofs of the Resurrection of Jesus invented this Elusion of it That his Disciples came by night and stole him away while the watch slept To which the many improbable and unlikely Circumstances it is attended withal will be a sufficient Answer and Reply As 1. how unlikely is it that his Disciples who just before fled every one from him should now resume such Courage as to venture to steal his Body from a Guard of Souldiers 2. It is not likely that all the Watch should be asleep at one time 3. If they were yet 't is hard to imagine that his Disciples should come just at that time 4. How could they roll away the Stone and take out the Body which surely would have made no small noise and yet none of the Guard hear them 5. Suppose they had taken away the Body Quid ex cadavere emolumenti what benefit could they have expected from a dead Carcase would the dead and infamous Body of an Impostor be a sufficient Motive to induce them to deny Friends and Relatives worldly Interests and Profits yea Life itself to maintain his Credit by telling the World a fair Story of his Resurrection if indeed there were no such thing This being then sufficiently evidenced that Christ rose from the dead it is an undeniable Confirmation that all his other Miracles were true And indeed it could not suit with the Justice of God to leave his Soul in Hell or suffer his Flesh to see Corruption For the Innocence of the Lord Christ was bright as the noon-day and all his Sufferings being undergone upon our account and having made a full and perfect atonement for Sin the righteous Providence of God was engaged to raise him up and instate him in that blessedness which he merited for himself by his voluntary Humiliation and Condescent According to what the Apostle affirms of him Acts ii 24. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was not possible i.e. it was not meet suitable or agreeable to the Justice of God that he should be holden of it We have seen the Objection of the Jew and I shall now conclude this Particular by considering what the Heathen and Atheist hath to say against the Resurrection of Jesus and he brings his Exception after this manner If Jesus did really rise from the dead why did he not then shew himself alive to all or at least to the chief Priests and Rulers of the Jews who condemned him to be crucified and not only to his own company and that not constantly to them but like a Spectrum or Ghost appearing and then vanishing away But it is no wonder if impure and Atheistical men do not apprehend the Divine Dispensation of Jesus in the Flesh since there is a perpetual Antipathy between their gross and feculent Souls and the Holy Spirit of heavenly Wisdom but to them that are sincere there is nothing in this instance but may admit of a fair Apology We must know then that the Soul of the Holy Jesus being vitally united to the eternal Logos and never lapsed from the pure and immaculate Regions of Blessedness with the rest of Mankind but so qualifying his Glory as to fit himself for an Union with a terrestrial Body must have even
become Brothel-houses 2. The holy Jesus wanted not Disciples even among the wise men of the Jews such was Simeon the Just the Scholar of Hillel who was filled with the Holy Ghost and after whose Death that Divine Spirit which inspired the great Synagogue departed from them John the Baptist who not only acknowledged Christ himself but sent his Disciples to him as to that Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world and Gamaliel is said to have followed the Apostles and to have been Simeon's Scholar And St. Paul who was a man of great Repute and Esteem with the Jews and sate at the feet of Gamaliel yet was afterward an Apostle of the holy Jesus and Josephus further informs us that the more sober and serious Jews who were Lovers of the Truth were such as followed Jesus and those that were studious and zealous for the Law sharply rebuked Ananus the High Priest for commanding the Disciples of Jesus to be stoned Object 2. Acts i. 6. Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel It was a current Opinion among the Jews in our Saviours time that the Messias should be a Temporal Monarch and redeem them from the yoke of the Romans as appears from this Question of the Disciples who doubtless spake the general sense of the Jews but they finding nothing in the Attempts and Actions of Jesus tending that way hence they could not believe him to be the promised Messias Answ Christ came into the World such as he was foretold to be that is humble and meek not with the Splendor and Glory of an earthly Prince but poor and despicable a man of sorrows and without form and comliness as it is predicted by Zechariah the Prophet Zech. ix 9. and Isa liii The End and Design of his coming was to appease the Anger of God by devoting himself for the Sins of men to destroy the Kingdom of the Devil and to make one body of Jews and Gentiles of which he himself should be the Head And 't is no way fit and agreeable for such an Undertaking to appear in earthly Splendor and Glory filling the World with Blood and Slaughter like another Alexander or Caesar by the Puissance of mighty Armies Wherefore the holy Jesus being to disseminate and promote the blessed Life of God upon Earth shewed his Divinity more refulgent by Vileness and Contempt his Power by Weakness and Infirmity his Glory by the Scorns of men and his Almighty Life and Virtue by Death and the Grave And if he had otherwise descended from the celestial Mansions than the Scriptures relate Man had entituled himself to part of the Glory of his Undertaking and the more splendid the Divine Life had appeared to outward view with the fainter Lustre had it shone in itself Besides that that Doctrin which Christ was to bring into the World and render acceptable to men by his own Example was quite contrary to the Gratifications of the Animal Life and too vile and base to be essential to the Perfection of Human Nature Object 3. Mat. xxvii 40. If thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross Answ He that came into the World clothed with human Flesh and in the several Actions of his Life manifested himself to be a true Man would now in this last Act keep a Decorum that as he was born into the world like other men partaking really of Flesh and Blood and all the Frailties and Infirmities of Mankind Sin only excepted so he would die like other men and suffer a real Separation of his Soul from his Body that we might be conformable to him in his Death and die unto Sin crucifying all our inordinate Lusts and Affections and descending into the Grave with him by a profound Humility and Mortification which is a sufficient Answer to this insulting Cavil of the Jews that if Jesus were the Son of God he must needs demonstrate it by a miraculous Descent from the Cross CHAP. IV. That-Christianity is every way fitted and accommodated for an effectual Recovery of lapsed and degenerated Mankind TO this purpose we must consider Man as a rational Being endued with Liberty of Will and a Lord of his own Actions and consequently must be treated according to those Faculties and Qualifications bestowed upon him by the gracious Bounty of his Creator And this being the Nature of Man he is not to be dealt withal like a Stock or Stone that is wholly inert and sluggish nor like a Beast that is acted and led only by the impulse of Sense but as indued with Reason and Intellect and capable of discriminating between real Good and Evil and this Principle in Man cannot be forced without the Destruction of his Nature but is allured and drawn by moral Arguments Wherefore the Design of God in the Gospel being to wind men off from Sin to a serious pursuit of Virtue and Goodness he makes use of such Arguments as are most powerful and efficacious for that end and most sutable to the Nature of Man As 1. What can more deter men from Wickedness and Vice than the sober pressing upon them the Consideration of a future day of Judgment wherein the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will impartially look into their Lives and dispose of them according to the moral Frame and Disposition of their Spirits To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality eternal Life But to them who do not obey the Gospel he will recompense Tribulation and Wrath. He that is convinc'd that the Scriptures are the Word of God must likewise believe that though God be patient and long-suffering not willing that any should perish yet he is likewise just and hates all Sin whatever and to convince all unbelieving and Atheistical Persons of his Displeasure against Wickedness and Vice he has appointed a Day wherein he will judge the World a Day wherein Jesus Christ the blessed Son of God shall visibly descend from Heaven accompanied with innumerable Legions of mighty Angels before whose Throne all wicked Men and Devils shall stand with Paleness and Horror expecting the Pronuntiation of that dreadful Sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire which final Doom and Sentence shall presently be executed upon them for through the stupendious Operation of the Son of God the infernal Treasures of Fire shall be opened and an universal Deluge of Flame shall spread itself over the Face of the aged Earth which shall be cleft and riven by terrible Eruptions of sulphureous Matter breaking forth with horrible Rage and Fury from the lower Regions and this together with Showers of Fire raining down from thick and pitchy Clouds shall wrap Universal Nature in a sheet of Flame and complete an external Hell where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched Tell me then O Man thou that thinkest Righteousness but an idle Name on whose hard and stubborn soul a Discourse of another
the Salvation and future Happiness of a Christian we may take a brief Abstract or Sum of our Duty which is this To love the Lord our God with all our hearts and to have a firm and radicated Faith in his Goodness declared to the World by his only begotten Son Jesus Christ an universal Abstinence from all Wrong and Injustice a hearty Love and Good-will to all men whatever to hold fast that which is Good and to abstain from all appearance of Evil to be of a compassionate and forgiving Spirit and if we have received an Injury not to recompense it again in any kind to abstract and withdraw our hearts and minds from earthly Goods and make Treasures for ourselves in Heaven and to be no more solicitous for worldly concernments than the Lilies of the field or the Fowls of the air but that having food and raiment therewith to be content to keep ourselves pure and undefiled not only from outward and grosser but inward and more refined Pollutions to be ready to do good and distribute to the Necessities of our Brethren to live peaceably if it be possible with all men In a word whatever things are true whatever things are honest just lovely and of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise to think on such things What can be plainer and easier than this Nor is the Simplicity of the Gospel any derogation from it though that impious Epicurean Celsus deride it upon that account extolling the Writings of Plato above the Scriptures For as Origen acutely enough replies the Design of God in the Gospel being to make men good and virtuous it was necessary the Precepts tending to that end should be delivered plainly and perspicuously suitable to the Capacities of the illiterate Vulgar who are better allured and won by a common and usual form of Speech than by the artificial Deckings and gay Schemes of Rhetorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore Christ and his Apostles did much more advance that which was their chief aim the Life and Nature of God in the World by that as Celsus calls it rude and rustical manner of speaking than all the elegant Writings of Plato which if they ever were advantageous for the rectifying and amending the Lives of men it was only to such whose Intellectual Faculties were raised and elevated above the Plebeian Strain Therefore did the Holy Jesus on purpose make choice of ignorant and illiterate Persons that it might appear that the things which they spake were not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth and that by the foolish things of the world God might confound the wise and by the weak destroy the things that are mighty Object But you will say To what purpose is that Intricacy and Perplexity which is found in many Places of Holy Scripture and wherefore are many of the chiefest of its Doctrines involved in such Darkness and Obscurity Answ 1. It was in some measure requisite that the Scripture should be obscure to conciliate Reverence and to beget a greater Esteem of its Worth and Dignity For the Gospel is often called a Mystery which supposes somthing venerable and secret and hidden from the eyes of vulgar Persons And God as in Nature he hath hid many pretious things in the Bowels of the Earth which cannot be obtained without great Labour and Diligence in like manner hath he veiled many inestimable Treasures in the Christian Mystery which are only attainable by the diligent Search and sincere Endeavours of pious men For should the Divine Wisdom have displayed at once all the Glories and Beauty of this sacred and recondite Method of recovering Souls it would appear contemptible and worthless as being the easie purchase of every profane and impious Person 2. The Reason of the Obscurity of Christianity lies not so much in the Nature of the thing itself as in the incongruity of mens Minds and Understandings with so high and raised an Object The Eye cannot behold the Sun unless it have some Resemblance and Similitude of it within itself for like is known by its like and if mens Minds be not purified and brought into some Cognation and Likeness with the Truths offered to them it is impossible they should ever have any true and genuine Apprehension of them There is a Learning and Knowing the Truth as it is in Jesus in that God-like meek and resigned Spirit and till mens Tempers be plain'd and smooth'd from the ruggedness of their Passions and the stubborn Asperities of their Lusts and won to the embracing of the Truth in the love of it in that Christ-like Nature of Humility and Self-Denial they may fill their heads with sapless and lean Notions windy and turgent Fancies but never nourish up their Souls with solid and substantial Knowledge The true sense of Religion and Christianity arises out of a mind devoid of Passion and in which the Life of God has taken deep root and flourishes and spreads itself throughout all the powers of the Soul giving a tincture relish and savour of itself to every Thought Word and Deed in the whole course of a mans Life And without this purified sense we feed upon nothing but the Husks and Shells of Religion and fall in love with Shadows instead of lasting and durable Substances And this is no more than what the Scripture speaks of itself 1 Cor. ii 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned There is required a spiritual Sense a Life of Holiness and Justice of Benignity and Righteousness to the true discrimination of Good and Evil. And further to the Knowledge and Understanding of Divine Mysteries there is necessarily required the Aid and Assistance of that Almighty and Omnipresent Spirit who by his fostering Incubation brought into Being the goodly frame of Heaven and Earth and that this Holy Spirit of Truth may begin the Efformation of the new and heavenly Nature a considerable part of which is Divine and Spiritual Wisdom there must be some previous Preparations and men must be morally good and virtuous or else they will be perfectly incapable of the illapse of his Celestial Influence And therefore it is no marvel if to brutish and immoral Persons the Mystery of Godliness be hid and obscure 3. That there might be somthing still reserved for the gratification of all degrees of Christians in all Ages of the World There are both weak and strong Christians some that are Babes in Christ and are fed with Milk others that are of full Age and have a discriminating sense of Good and Evil. For the one there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rudimental way of instruction whereby men were led as it were by the hand through the Principles of Religion as the Author to the Hebrews intimates Heb. vi where the first thing required