plainly confessed that he could be content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to die a thousand times over were he but assured that those things were true and being condemned concludes his Apologie with this farewell And now Gentlemen I am going off the stage it 's your lot to live and mine to die but whether of us two shall fare better is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unknown to any but to God alone But our blessed Saviour has put the case past all peradventure having plainly published this doctrine to the World and sealed the truth of it and that by raising others from the dead and especially by his own Resurrection and Ascension which were the highest pledge and assurance of a future Immortality But besides the security he hath given the clearest account of the nature of it 'T is very probable that the Jews generally had of old as 't is certain they have at this day the most gross and carnal apprehensions concerning the state of another Life But to us the Gospel has perspicuously revealed the invisible things of the other World told us what that Heaven is which is promised to good men a state of spiritual joys of chaste and rational delights a conformity of ours to the Divine Nature a being made like to God and an endless and uninterrupted communion with him 9. BUT because in our lapsed and degenerate state we are very unable without some foreign assistance to attain the promised rewards hence arises in the next place another great priviledge of the Evangelical Oeconomy that it is blessed with larger and more abundant communications of the Divine Spirit than was afforded under the Jewish state Under the one it was given by drops under the other it is poured forth The Law laid heavy and hard commands but gave little strength to do them it did not assist humane nature with those powerful aids that are necessary for us in our present state it could do nothing in that it was weak through the flesh and by reason of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof it could make nothing perfect 'T was this made it an heavy yoke when the commands of it were uncouth and troublesome and the assistances so small and inconsiderable Whereas now the Gospel does not only prescribe such Laws as are happily accommodate to the true temper of humane nature and adapted to the reason of mankind such as every wise and prudent man must have pitched upon but it affords the influences of the Spirit of God by whose assistance our vitiated faculties are repaired and we enabled under so much weakness and in the midst of so many temptations to hold on in the paths of piety and vertue Hence it is that the plentiful effusions of the Spirit were reserved as the great blessing of the Evangelical state that God would then pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground that he would pour out his Spirit upon their seed and his blessing upon their off-spring whereby they should spring up as among the grass as willows by the water-courses That he would give them a new heart and put his Spirit within them and cause them to walk in his statutes and keep his judgments to do them And this is the meaning of those branches of the Covenant so oft repeated I will put my Law into their minds and write it in their hearts that is by the help of my Grace and Spirit I 'le enable them to live according to my Laws as readily and willingly as if they were written in their hearts For this reason the Law is compared to a dead letter the Gospel to the Spirit that giveth life thence stiled the ministration of the Spirit and as such said to exceed in glory and that to such a degree that what glory the Legal Dispensation had in this case is eclipsed into nothing For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth for if that which was done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious Hence the Spirit is said to be Christ's peculiar mission I will pray the Father and he will send you another comforter even the Spirit of truth which was done immediately after his Ascension when he ascended up on high and gave gifts to men even the Holy Ghost which he shed on them abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified Not but that he was given before even under the old Oeconomy but not in those large and diffusive measures wherein it was afterwards communicated to the World 10. FIFTHLY The Dispensation of the Gospel had a better establishment and confirmation than that of the Law for though the Law was introduced with great scenes of pomp and Majesty yet was the Gospel ushered in by more kindly and rational methods ratified by more and greater miracles whereby our Lord unquestionably evinced his Divine Commission and shewed that he came from God doing more miracles in three years than were done through all the periods of the Jewish Church and many of them such as were peculiar to him alone He often raised the dead which Moses never did commanded the winds and waves of the Sea expelled Devils out of Lunaticks and possessed persons who fled assoon as ever he commanded them to be gone cured many inveterate and chronical distempers with the speaking of a word and some without a word spoken vertue silently going out from him He searched men's hearts and revealed the most secret transactions of their minds had this miraculous power always residing in him and could exert it when and upon what occasions he pleased and impart it to others communicating it to his Apostles and followers and to the Primitive Christians for the three first Ages of the Church he never exerted it in methods of dread and terror but in doing such miracles as were highly useful and beneficial to the World And as if all this had not been enough he laid down his own life after all to give testimony to it Covenants were ever wont to be ratified with bloud and the death of sacrifices But when our Lord came to introduce the Covenant of the Gospel he did not consecrate it with the bloud of Bulls and Goats but with his own most precious bloud as of a Lamb without spot and blemish And could he give a greater testimony to the truth of his doctrine and those great things he had promised to the World than to seal it with his bloud Had not these things been so 't were infinitely unreasonable to suppose that a person of so much wisdom and goodness as our Saviour was should have made the World believe so and much less would he have chosen to die for it and that the most acute and ignominious death But he died and rose again for us and appeared after his Resurrection His
which was only added as a seal of the Covenant between God and him and a testimony of that acceptance with God which he had obtained before And this way of God's dealing with Abraham and in him with all his spiritual children the legal Institution could not make void it being impossible that that dispensation which came so long after should disannul the Covenant which God had made with Abraham and his spiritual seed CCCCXXX Years before Upon this account as the Apostle observes the Scripture sets forth Abraham as the great type and pattern of Justification as the Father of all them that believe though they be not Circumcised that righteousness might be imputed to them also and the father of Circumcision to them who are not of the Circumcision only but also walk in the steps of that Faith of our Father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised They therefore that are of Faith the same are the children of Abraham And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel this Evangelical way of justifying unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations be blessed So then they which be of Faith who believe and obey as Abraham did shall be blessed pardoned and saved with faithful Abraham It might further be demonstrated that this has ever been God's method of dealing with Mankind our Apostle in the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews proving all along by particular instances that it was by such a Faith as this without any relation to the Law of Moses that good men were justified and accepted with God in all Ages of the World 12. THIRDLY He argues against this Jewish way of Justification from the deficiency and imperfection of the Mosaick Oeconomy not able to justifie and save sinners Deficient as not able to assist those that were under it with sufficient aids to perform what it required of them This the Law could not do for that it was weak through the flesh till God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to enable us that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And indeed could the Law have given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law But alas the Scripture having concluded all Mankind Jew and Gentile under sin and consequently incapable of being justified upon terms of perfect and intire obedience there is now no other way but this That the promise by the Faith of Christ be given to all them that believe i. e. this Evangelical method of justifying sincere believers Besides the Jewish Oeconomy was deficient in pardoning sin and procuring the grace and favour of God it could only awaken the knowledge of sin not remove the guilt of it It was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin all the sacrifices of the Mosaick Law were no further available for the pardon of sin than merely as they were founded in and had respect to that great sacrifice and expiation which was to be made for the sins of Mankind by the death of the Son of God The Priests though they daily ministred and oftentimes offered the same sacrifices yet could they never take away sins No that was reserved for a better and a higher sacrifice even that of our Lord himself who after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God having completed that which the repeated sacrifices of the Law could never effect So that all Men being under guilt and no justification where there was no remission the Jewish Oeconomy being in it self unable to pardon was incapable to justifie This S. Paul elsewhere declared in an open Assembly before Jews and Gentiles Be it known unto you men and brethren that through this man Christ Jesus is preached unto you forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses 13. FOURTHLY He proves that Justification by the Mosaick Law could not stand with the death of Christ the necessity of whose death and sufferings it did plainly evacuate and take away For if righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain If the Mosaical performances be still necessary to our Justification then certainly it was to very little purpose and altogether unbecoming the wisdom and goodness of God to send his own Son into the World to do so much for us and to suffer such exquisite pains and tortures Nay he tells them that while they persisted in this fond obstinate opinion all that Christ had done and suffered could be of no advantage to them Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not again intangled in the yoke of bondage the bondage and servitude of the Mosaick rites Behold I Paul solemnly say unto you That if you be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing For I testifie again to every man that is Circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law Christ is become of none effect to you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace The sum of which argument is That whoever lay the stress of their Justification upon Circumcision and the observances of the Law do thereby declare themselves to be under an obligation of perfect obedience to all that the Law requires of them and accordingly supersede the vertue and efficacy of Christ's death and disclaim all right and title to the grace and favour of the Gospel For since Christ's death is abundantly sufficient to attain its ends whoever takes in another plainly renounces that and rests upon that of his own chusing By these ways of reasoning 't is evident what the Apostle drives at in all his discourses about this matter More might have been observed had I not thought that these are sufficient to render his design especially to the unprejudiced and impartial obvious and plain enough 14. LASTLY That Paul's discourses about Justification and Salvation do immediately refer to the controversie between the Orthodox and Judaizing Christians appears hence that there was no other controversie then on foot but concerning the way of Justification whether it was by the observation of the Law of Moses or only of the Gospel and the Law of Christ. For we must needs suppose that the Apostle wrote with a primary respect to the present state of things and so as they whom he had to deal with might and could not but understand him Which yet would have been impossible for them to have done had he intended them for the controversies which have since been bandied with so much zeal and fierceness and to give countenance to those many nice and subtil propositions those curious and elaborate schemes which some Men in these later Ages have drawn of these matters 15. FROM the whole
from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Job twice speaks of in one Chapter the judged iniquity which the Jews expound and we truly render an iniquity to be punished by the Judges The seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the member of any live-creature that is as God expresses it in the Precept to Noah they might not eat the bloud or the flesh with the life thereof Whether these Precepts were by any solemn and external promulgation particularly delivered to the Ante-deluvian Patriarchs as the Jews seem to contend I will not say for my part I cannot but look upon them the last only excepted as a considerable part of Nature's Statute-law as comprizing the greater strokes and lineaments of those natural dictates that are imprinted upon the souls of Men. For what more comely and reasonable and more agreeable to the first notions of our minds than that we should worship and adore God alone as the Author of our beings and the Fountain of our happiness and not derive the lustre of his incommunicable perfections upon any Creature that we should entertain great and honourable thoughts of God and such as become the Grandeur and Majesty of his being that we should abstain from doing any wrong or injury to another from invading his right violating his priviledges and much more from making any attempt upon his life the dearest blessing in this World that we should be just and fair in our transactions and do to all men as we would they should do to us that we should live chastely and temperately and not by wild and extravagant lusts and sensualities offend against the natural modesty of our minds that Order and Government should be maintained in the World Justice advanced and every Man secured in his just possessions And so suitable did these Laws seem to the reason and understandings of Men that the Jews though the most zealous People under Heaven of their Legal Institutions received those Gentiles who observed them as Proselytes into their Church though they did not oblige themselves to Circumcision and the rest of the Mosaick Rites Nay in the first Age of Christianity when the great controversie arose between the Jewish and Gentile-Converts about the obligation of the Law of Moses as necessary to salvation the observation only of these Precepts at least a great part of them was imposed upon the Gentile-Converts as the best expedient to end the difference by the Apostolical Synod at Jerusalem 4. BUT though the Law of Nature was the common Law by which God then principally governed the World yet was not he wanting by Methods extraordinary to supply as occasion was the exigencies and necessities of his Church communicating his mind to them by Dreams and Visions and other ways of Revelation which we shall more particularly remark when we come to the Mosaical Oeconomy Hence arose those positive Laws which we meet with in this period of the Church some whereof are more expresly recorded others more obscurely intimated Among those that are more plain and obvious two are especially considerable the prohibition for not eating bloud and the Precept of Circumcision the one given to Noah the other to Abraham The prohibition concerning bloud is thus recorded every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you but flesh with the life thereof which is the bloud thereof shall you not eat The bloud is the vehiculum to carry the spirits as the Veins are the chanels to convey the bloud now the animal spirits give vital heat and activity to every part and being let out the bloud presently cools and the Creature dies Not flesh with the bloud which is the life thereof that is not flesh while it is alive while the bloud and the spirits are yet in it The mystery and signification whereof was no other than this that God would not have Men train'd up to arts of cruelty or whatever did but carry the colour and aspect of a merciless and a savage temper lest severity towards Beasts should degenerate into fierceness towards Men. It 's good to defend the out-guards and to stop the remotest ways that lead towards sin especially considering the violent propensions of humane nature to passion and revenge Men commence bloudy and inhumane by degrees and little approaches in time render a thing in it self abhorrent not only familiar but delightful The Romans who at first entertained the People in the Amphitheatre only with wild Beasts killing one another came afterwards wantonly to sport away the Lives of the Gladiators yea to cast Persons to be devoured by Bears and Lions for no other end than the divertisement and pleasure of the People He who can please himself in tearing and eating the Parts of a living Creature may in short time make no scruple to do violence to the Life of Man Besides eating bloud naturally begets a savage temper makes the spirits rank and fiery and apt to be easily inflamed and blown up into choler and fierceness And that hereby God did design to bar out ferity and to secure mercy and gentleness is evident from what follows after and surely your bloud of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hand of every Man's brother will I require the life of man whoso sheddeth Man's bloud by Man shall his bloud be shed The life of a Beast might not be wantonly sacrificed to Mens humours therefore not Man 's the life of Man being so sacred and dear to God that if kill'd by a Beast the Beast it self was to die for it if by man that man's life was to go for retaliation by man shall his bloud be shed where by man we must necessarily understand the ordinary Judge and Magistrate or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews call it the lower Judicature with respect to that Divine and Superiour Court the immediate judgment of God himself By which means God admirably provided for the safety and security of Man's life and for the order and welfare of humane society and it was no more than necessary the remembrance of the violence and oppression of the Nephilim or Giants before the Floud being yet fresh in memory and there was no doubt but such mighty Hunters men of robust bodies of barbarous and inhumane tempers would afterwards arise This Law against eating bloud was afterwards renewed under the Mosaick Institution but with this peculiar signification for the life of the flesh is in the bloud and I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an atonement for your souls for it is the bloud that maketh an atonement for the soul that is the bloud might not be eaten not only for the former reason but because God had designed it for particular purposes to be the great Instrument of Expiation and an eminent type of the Bloud of the Son of God who was to die as the great expiatory Sacrifice for
the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World who was taken from among men a Lamb without blemish and without spot holy harmless and separate from sinners The Door-posts of the House were to be sprinkled with the bloud of the Lamb to signifie our security from the Divine vengeance by the bloud of sprinkling The Lamb was to be roasted and eaten whole typifying the great sufferings of our blessed Saviour who was to pass through the fire of Divine wrath and to be wholly embrac'd and entertain'd by us in all his Offices as King Priest and Prophet None but those that were clean and circumcised might eat of it to shew that only true believers holy and good men can be partakers of Christ and the merits of his Death It was to be eaten standing with their Loins girt and their staff in their hand to put them in mind what haste they made out of the house of bondage and to intimate to us what present diligence we should use to get from under the empire and tyranny of sin and Satan under the conduct and assistance of the Captain of our Salvation The eating of it was to be mixed with bitter herbs partly as a memorial of that bitter servitude which they underwent in the Land of Egypt partly as a type of that repentance and bearing of the cross duties difficult and unpleasant which all true Christians must undergo Lastly it was to be eaten with unleavened Bread all manner of leaven being at that time to be banished out of their Houses with the most critical diligence and curiosity to represent what infinite care we should take to cleanse and purifie our hearts to purge out the old leaven that we may be a new lump and that since Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us therefore we should keep the Feast the Festival commemoration of his Death not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 6. THE Places of their Publick Worship were either the Tabernacle made in the Wilderness or the Temple built by Solomon between which in the main there was no other difference than that the Tabernacle was an ambulatory Temple as the Temple was a standing Tabernacle together with all the rich costly Furniture that was in them The parts of it were three the Holiest of all whither none entred but the High-Priest and that but once a Year this was a type of Heaven the holy place whither the Priests entred every Day to perform their Sacred Ministrations and the outward Court whither the People came to offer up their Prayers and Sacrifices In the Sanctum Sanctorum or Holiest of all there was the Golden Censer typifying the Merits and Intercession of Christ the Ark of the Covenant as a representation of him who is the Mediator of the Covenant between God and man the Golden Pot of Manna a type of our Lord the true Manna the Bread that came down from Heaven the Rod of Aaron that budded signifying the Branch of the Root of Jesse that though our Saviour's Family should be reduced to a state of so much meanness and obscurity as to appear but like the trunk or stump of a Tree yet there should come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch grow out of his roots which should stand for an Ensign of the People and in him should the Gentiles trust And within the Ark were the two Tables of the Covenant to denote him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and who is the end and perfection of the Law Over it were the Cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy-seat who looking towards each other and both to the Mercy-seat denoted the two Testaments or Dispensations of the Church which admirably agree and both direct to Christ the Mediator of the Covenant The Propitiatory or Mercy-seat was the Golden covering to the Ark where God veiling his Majesty was wont to manifest his Presence to give Answers and shew Himself reconciled to the People herein eminently prefiguring our Blessed Saviour who interposes between us and the Divine Majesty whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his bloud for the remission of sins so that now we may come boldly to the Throne of Grace and find mercy to help us Within the Sanctuary or the Holy Place was the Golden Candlestick with Seven-Branches representing Christ who is the Light of the World and who enlightens every one that comes into the World and before whose Throne there are said to be seven Lamps of Fire which are the seven spirits of God The Table compassed about with a Border and a Crown of Gold denoting the Ministry and the Shew-bread set upon it shadowing out Christ the Bread of Life who by the Ministry of the Gospel is offered to the World here also was the Golden Altar of Incense whereon they burnt the sweet Perfumes Morning and Evening to signifie to us that our Lord is the true Altar by whom all our Prayers and Services are rendred the odour of a sweet smell acceptable unto God to this the Psalmist refers Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice The third part of the Tabernacle as also of the Temple was the Court of Israel wherein stood the Brazen Altar upon which the Holy Fire was continually preserved by which the Sacrifices were consumed one of the Five great Prerogatives that were wanting in the second Temple Here was the Brazen Laver with its Basis made of the brazen Looking-glasses of the Women that assembled at the Door of the Tabernacle wherein the Priests washed their Hands and their Feet when going into the Sanctuary and both they and the People when about to offer Sacrifice to teach us to purifie our hearts and to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit especially when we approach to offer up our services to Heaven hereunto David alludes I will wash mine hands in innocency so will I compass thine Altar O Lord. Solomon in building the Temple made an addition of a fourth Court the Court of the Gentiles whereinto the unclean Jews and Gentiles might enter and in this was the Corban or Treasury and it is sometimes in the New Testament called the Temple To these Laws concerning the Place of Worship we may reduce those that relate to the holy Vessels and Utensils of the Tabernacle and the Temple Candlesticks Snuffers Dishes c. which also had their proper mysteries and significations 7. THE stated times and seasons of their worship are next to be considered and they were either Daily Weekly Monthly or Yearly Their Daily worship was at the time of the Morning and the Evening Sacrifice their Weekly solemnity was the Sabbath which was to be kept with all imaginable care and strictness they being commanded to rest
short as he had no Prerogative above the rest besides his being the Chair-man and President of the Assembly so was it granted to him upon no other considerations than those of his age zeal and gravity for which he was more eminent than the rest VIII We proceed next to enquire into the fitness and qualification of the Persons commissionated for this employment and we shall finde them admirably qualified to discharge it if we consider this following account First They immediately received the Doctrine of the Gospel from the mouth of Christ himself he intended them for Legati à latere his peculiar Embassadors to the World and therefore furnished them with instructions from his own mouth and in order hereunto he train'd them up for some years under his own Discipline and institution he made them to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven when to others it was not given treated them with the affection of a Father and the freedom and familiarity of a friend Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you They heard all his Sermons were privy both to his publick and private discourses what he preach'd abroad he expounded to them at home he gradually instructed them in the knowledge of Divine things and imparted to them the notions and mysteries of the Gospel not all at once but as they were able to bear them By which means they were sufficiently capable of giving a satisfactory account of that doctrine to others which had been so immediately so frequently communicated to themselves Secondly They were infallibly secured from error in delivering the Doctrines and Principles of Christianity for though they were not absolutely priviledg'd from failures and miscarriages in their lives these being of more personal and private consideration yet were they infallible in their Doctrine this being a matter whereupon the salvation and eternal interests of men did depend And for this end they had the spirit of truth promised to them who should guide them into all truth Under the conduct of this unerring Guide they all steer'd the same course taught and spake the same things though at different times and in distant places and for what was consign'd to writing all Scripture was given by inspiration of God and the holy men spake not but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Hence that exact and admirable harmony that is in all their writings and relations as being all equally dictated by the same spirit of truth Thirdly They had been eye-witnesses of all the material passages of our Saviour's life continually conversant with him from the commencing of his publick ministery till his ascension into Heaven they had survey'd all his actions seen all his miracles observ'd the whole method of his conversation and some of them attended him in his most private solitudes and retirements And this could not but be a very rational satisfaction to the minds of men when the publishers of the Gospel solemnly declared to the World that they reported nothing concerning our Saviour but what they had seen with their own eyes and of the truth whereof they were as competent Judges as the acutest Philosopher in the World Nor could there be any just reason to suspect that they impos'd upon men in what they delivered for besides their naked plainness and simplicity in all other passages of their lives they chearfully submitted to the most exquisite hardships tortures and sufferings meerly to attest the truth of what they published to the World Next to the evidence of our own senses no testimony is more valid and forcible than his who relates what himself has seen Upon this account our Lord told his Apostles that they should be witnesses to him both in Judaea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the Earth And so necessary a qualification of an Apostle was this thought to be that it was almost the only condition propounded in the choice of a new Apostle after the fall of Judas Wherefore says Peter of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the Baptism of John unto the same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection Accordingly we find the Apostles constantly making use of this argument as the most rational evidence to convince those whom they had to deal with We are witnesses of all things which Jesus did both in the Land of the Jews and in Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on a tree Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but unto witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he that is ordained of God to be Judge of the quick and dead Thus S. John after the same way of arguing appeals to sensible demonstration That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have look'd 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 This to name no more S. Peter thought a sufficient vindication of the Apostolical doctrine from the suspicion of forgery and imposture We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his majesty God had frequently given testimony to the divinity of our blessed Saviour by visible manifestations and appearances from Heaven and particularly by an audible voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Now this Voice which came from Heaven says he we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount IX Fourthly The Apostles were invested with a power of working Miracles as the readiest means to procure their Religion a firm belief and entertainment in the minds of Men. For Miracles are the great confirmation of the truth of any doctrine and the most rational evidence of a divine commission For seeing God only can create and controll the Laws of nature produce something out of nothing and call things that are not as if they were give eyes to them that were born blind raise the dead c. things plainly beyond all possible powers of nature no man that believes the wisedom and goodness of an infinite being can suppose that this God of truth should affix his seal to a lye or communicate this power
away rejoycing But what the carriage of Christians was in this matter in the first and best ages of the Gospel we have in another place sufficiently discovered to the World We may not withhold our obedience till the Magistrate invades God's Throne and countermands his authority and may then appeal to the sence of Mankind whether it be not most reasonable that God's authority should first take place as the Apostles here appealed to their very Judges themselves Nor do we find that the Sanhedrim did except against the Plea At least whatever they thought yet not daring to punish them for fear of the People they only threatned them and let them go who thereupon presently return'd to the rest of the Apostles and Believers 8. The Church exceedingly multiplied by these means And that so great a Company most whereof were poor might be maintained they generally sold their Estates and brought the Money to the Apostles to be by them deposited in one common Treasury and thence distributed according to the several exigences of the Church which gave occasion to this dreadful Instance Ananias and his Wife Saphira having taken upon them the profession of the Gospel according to the free and generous spirit of those times had consecrated and devoted their Estate to the honour of God and the necessities of the Church And accordingly sold their Possessions and turned them into Money But as they were willing to gain the reputation of charitable Persons so were they loth wholly to cast themselves upon the Divine Providence by letting go all at once and therefore privately withheld part of what they had devoted and bringing the rest laid it at the Apostles feet hoping herein they might deceive the Apostles though immediately guided by the Spirit of God But Peter at his first coming in treated Ananias with these sharp enquiries Why he would suffer Satan to fill his heart with so big a wickedness as by keeping back part of his estate to think to deceive the Holy Ghost That before it was sold it was wholly at his own disposure and after it was perfectly in his own power fully to have performed his vow So that it was capable of no other interpretation than that herein he had not only abused and injured men but mocked God and what in him lay lyed to and cheated the Holy Ghost who he knew was privy to the most secret thoughts and purposes of his heart This was no sooner said but suddenly to the great terror and amazement of all that were present Ananias was arrested with a stroke from Heaven and fell down dead to the ground Not long after his Wise came in whom Peter entertained with the same severe reproofs wherewith he had done her Husband adding that the like sad fate and doom should immediately seize upon her who thereupon dropt down dead As she had been Copartner with him in the Sin becoming sharer with him in the punishment An instance of great severity filling all that heard of it with fear and terror and became a seasonable prevention of that hypocrisie and dissimulation wherewith many might possibly think to have imposed upon the Church 9. THIS severe Case being extraordinary the Apostles usually exerted their power in such Miracles as were more useful and beneficial to the World Curing all manner of Diseases and dispossessing Devils In so much that they brought the Sick into the Streets and laid them upon Beds and Couches that at least Peter's shadow as he passed by might come upon them These astonishing Miracles could not but mightily contribute to the propagation of the Gospel and convince the World that the Apostles were more considerable Persons than they took them for poverty and meanness being no bar to true worth and greatness And methinks Erasmus his reflection here is not unseasonable that no honour or soveraignty no power or dignity was comparable to this glory of the Apostle that the things of Christ though in another way were more noble and excellent than any thing that this World could afford And therefore he tells us that when he beheld the state and magnificence wherewith Pope Julius the Second appeared first at Bononia and then at Rome equalling the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar he could not but think how much all this was below the greatness and majesty of S. Peter who converted the World not by Power or Armies not by Engines or artifices of pomp and grandeur but by Faith in the power of Christ and drew it to the admiration of himself and the same state says he would no doubt attend the Apostles Successors were they Men of the same temper and holiness of life The Jewish Rulers alarm'd with this News and awakened with the growing numbers of the Church sent to apprehend the Apostles and cast them into Prison But God who is never wanting to his own cause sent that Night an Angel from Heaven to open the Prison doors commanding them to repair to the Temple and to the exercise of their Ministery Which they did early in the Morning and there taught the People How unsuccessful are the projects of the wisest Statesmen when God frowns upon them how little do any counsels against Heaven prosper In vain is it to shut the doors where God is resolved to open them the firmest Bars the strongest Chains cannot hold where once God has designed and decreed our liberty The Officers returning the next Morning found the Prison shut and guarded but the Prisoners gone Wherewith they acquainted the Council who much wondred at it but being told where the Apostles were they sent to bring them without any noise or violence before the Sanhedrim where the High-Priest asked them how they durst go on to propagate that Doctrine which they had so strictly commanded them not to preach Peter in the name of the rest told them That they must in this case obey God rather than men That though they had so barbarously and contumeliously treated the Lord Jesus yet that God had raised him up and exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour to give both repentance and remission of sins That they were witnesses of these things and so were those Miraculous Powers which the Holy Ghost conferred upon all true Christians Vexed was the Council with this Answer and began to consider how to cut them off But Gamaliel a grave and learned Senator having commanded the Apostles to withdraw bad the Council take heed what they did to them putting them in mind that several persons had heretofore raised parties and factions and drawn vast Numbers after them but that they had miscarried and they and their designs come to nought that therefore they should do well to let these men alone that if their doctrines and designs were merely humane they would in time of themselves fall to the ground but if they were of God it was not all their power and policies would be able to defeat and overturn them and that
they were the seed of Abraham the People whom God had peculiarly chosen for himself above all other Nations of the World and therefore with a lofty scorn proudly rejected the Gentiles as Dogs and Reprobates utterly refusing to shew them any office of common kindness and converse We find the Heathens frequently charging them with this rudeness and inhumanity Juvenal accuses them that they would not shew a Traveller the right way nor give him a draught of Water if he were not of their Religion Tacitus tells us that they had adversus omnes alios hostile odium a bitter hatred of all other People Haman represented them to Ahasuerus as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A people that would never kindly mix and correspond with any other as different in their Manners as in their Laws and Religion from other Nations The friends of Antiochus as the Historian reports charged them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they alone of all others were the most unsociable people under Heaven that they held no converse or correspondence with any other but accounted them as their mortal enemies that they would not eat or drink with men of another Nation no nor so much as wish well to them their Ancestors having leavened them with an hatred of all mankind This was their humour and that the Gentiles herein did not wrong them is sufficiently evident from their ordinary practice and is openly avowed by their own Writings Nay at their first coming over to Christianity though one great design of it was to soften the manners of men and to oblige them to a more extensive and universal charity yet could they hardly quit this common prejudice quarrelling with Peter for no other reason but that he had eaten and drunken with the Gentiles insomuch that he was forced to Apologize for himself and to justifie his actions as immediately done by Divine warrant and authority And then no sooner had he given them a naked and impartial account of the whole transaction from first to last but they presently turned their displeasure against him into thanks to God that he had granted to the Gentiles also Repentance unto life 5. IT was now about the end of Caligula's Reign when Peter having finished his visitation of the new planted Churches was returned unto Jerusalem Not long after Herod Agrippa Grand-child to Herod the great having attained the Kingdom the better to ingratiate himself with the People had lately put S. James to death And finding that this gratified the Vulgar resolved to send Peter the same way after him In order whereunto he apprehended him cast him into Prison and set strong guards to watch him the Church in the mean time being very instant and importunate with Heaven for his life and safety The Night before his intended execution God purposely sent an Angel from Heaven who coming to the Prison found him fast asleep between two of his Keepers So soft and secure a Pillow is a good Conscience even in the confines of Death and the greatest danger The Angel raised him up knock'd off his Chains bad him gird on his Garments and follow him He did so and having passed the first and second Watch and entred through the Iron-Gate into the City which opened to them of its own accord after having passed through one Street more the Angel departed from him By this time Peter came to himself and perceived that it was no Vision but a reality that had hapned to him Whereupon he came to Mary's house where the Church were met together at Prayer for him Knocking at the Door the Maid who came to let him in perceiving 't was his voice ran back to tell them that Peter was at the Door Which they at first looked upon as nothing but the effect of fright or fancy but she still affirming it they concluded that it was his Angel or some peculiar messenger sent from him The Door being open they were strangely amazed at the sight of him but he briefly told them the manner of his deliverance and charging them to acquaint the Brethren with it presently withdrew into another place 'T is easie to imagine what a bustle and a stir there was the next Morning among the Keepers of the Prison with whom Herod was so much displeased that he commanded them to be put to Death 6. SOME time after this it hapned that a controversie arising between the Jewish and the Gentile Converts about the observation of the Mosaick Law the minds of men were exceedingly disquieted and disturbed with it the Jews zealously contending for Circumcision and the observance of the Ceremonial Law to be joyn'd with the belief profession of the Gospel as equally necessary to Salvation To compose this difference the best expedient that could be thought on was to call a General Council of the Apostles and Brethren to meet together at Jerusalem which was done accordingly and the case throughly scanned and canvassed At last Peter stood up and acquainted the Synod that God having made choice of him among all the Apostles to be the first that preached the Gospel to the Gentiles God who was best able to judge of the hearts of men had born witness to them that they were accepted of him by giving them his Holy Spirit as well as he had done to the Jews having put no difference between the one and the other That therefore it was a tempting and a provoking God to put a Yoke upon the necks of the Disciples which neither they themselves nor their Fathers were able to bear there being ground enough to believe that the Gentiles as well as the Jews should be saved by the grace of the Gospel After some other of the Apostles had declared their judgments in the case it was unanimously decreed that except the temporary observance of some few particular things equally convenient both for Jew and Gentile no other burden should be imposed upon them And so the decrees of the Council being drawn up into a Synodical Epistle were sent abroad to the several Churches for allaying the heats and controversies that had been raised about this matter 7. PETER a while after the celebration of this Council left Jerusalem and came down to Antioch where using the liberty which the Gospel had given him he familiarly ate and conversed with the Gentile Converts accounting them now that the partition-wall was broken down no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God This he had been taught by the Vision of the sheet let down from Heaven this had been lately decreed and he himself had promoted and subscribed it in the Synod at Jerusalem this he had before practised towards Cornelius and his Family and justified the action to the satisfaction of his accusers and this he had here freely and innocently done at Antioch till some of the Jewish Brethren coming thither for fear of
of the Nazarens wherein many passages are set down omitted by the Evangelical Historians gives us a fuller relation of it viz. that S. James had solemnly sworn that from the time that he had drank of the Cup at the Institution of the Supper he would eat Bread no more till he saw the Lord risen from the dead Our Lord therefore being returned from the Grave came and appeared to him commanded Bread to be set before him which he took blessed and brake and gave to S. James saying Eat thy Bread my Brother for the Son of Man is truly risen from among them that sleep After Christ's Ascension though I will not venture to determine the precise time he was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem preferred before all the rest for his near relation unto Christ for this we find to have been the reason why they chose Symeon to be his immediate Successor in that See because he was after him our Lord's next Kinsman A consideration that made Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee though they had been peculiarly honoured by our Saviour not to contend for this high and honourable Place but freely chuse James the Just to be Bishop of it This dignity is by some of the Ancients said to have been conferred on him by Christ himself constituting him Bishop at the time of his appearing to him But it 's safest with others to understand it of its being done by the Apostles or possibly by some particular intimation concerning it which our Lord might leave behind him 4. TO him we find S. Paul making his Address after his Conversion by whom he was honoured with the right hand of fellowship to him Peter sent the news of his miraculous deliverance out of Prison Go shew these things unto James and to the Brethren that is to the whole Church and especially S. James the Bishop and Pastor of it But he was principally active in the Synod at Jerusalem in the great controversie about the Mosaick Rites for the case being opened by Peter and further debated by Paul and Barnabas at last stood up S. James to pass the final and decretory sentence that the Gentile-Converts were not to be troubled with the bondage of the Jewish Yoke only that for a present accommodation some few indifferent Rites should be observed ushering in the expedient with this positive conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I thus judge or decide the matter this is my sentence and determination A circumstance the more considerable because spoken at the same time when Peter was in Council who produced no such intimation of his Authority Had the Champions of the Church of Rome but such a passage for Peter's judiciary Authority and Power it would no doubt have made a louder noise in the World than Thou art Peter or Feed my sheep 5. HE administred his Province with all possible care and industry omitting no part of a diligent and faithful Guide of Souls strengthning the weak informing the ignorant reducing the erroneous reproving the obstinate and by the constancy of his Preaching conquering the stubbornness of that perverse and refractory Generation that he had to deal with many of the nobler and the better sort being brought over to a compliance with the Christian Faith So careful so successful in his charge that he awakened the spite and malice of his Enemies to conspire his ruine a sort of Men of whom the Apostle has given too true a character that they please not God and are contrary to all men Vexed they were to see that S. Paul by appealing to Caesar had escaped their hands Malice is as greedy and insatiable as Hell it self and therefore now turn their revenge upon S. James which not being able to effect under Festus his Government they more effectually attempted under the Procuratorship of Albinus his Successor Ananus the Younger then High-Priest and of the Sect of the Sadducees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Josephus speaking of this very passage of all others the most merciless and implacable Justicers resolving to dispatch him before the new Governor could arrive To this end a Council is hastily summoned and the Apostle with some others arraigned and condemned as Violators of the Law But that the thing might be carried in a more plausible and popular way they set the Scribes and Pharisees Crafts-masters in the arts of dissimulation at work to ensnare him who coming to him began by flattering insinuations to set upon him They tell him that they all had a mighty confidence in him and that the whole Nation as well as they gave him the testimony of a most just man and one that was no respecter of Persons that therefore they desired he would correct the error and false Opinion which the People had of Jesus whom they looked upon as the Messiah and would take this opportunity of the universal confluence to the Paschal solemnity to set them right in their notions about these things and would to that end go up with them to the top of the Temple where he might be seen and heard by all Being advantageously placed upon a Pinnacle or Wing of the Temple they made this address to him Tell us O Justus whom we have all the reason in the World to believe that seeing the People are thus generally led away with the Doctrine of Jesus that was crucified tell us What is this Institution of the crucified Jesus To which the Apostle answered with an audible Voice Why do ye enquire of Jesus the Son of man he sits in Heaven on the right hand of the Majesty on high and will come again in the Clouds of Heaven The People below hearing it glorified the blessed Jesus and openly proclaimed Hosanna to the Son of David The Scribes and Pharisees perceived now that they had over-shot themselves and that instead of reclaiming they had confirmed the People in their Error that there was no way left but presently to dispatch him that by his sad fate others might be warned not to believe him Whereupon suddenly crying out that Justus himself was seduced and become an Impostor they threw him down from the Place where he stood Though bruised he was not killed by the fall but recovered so much strength as to get upon his Knees and Pray to Heaven for them Malice is of too bad a nature either to be pacified with kindness or satisfied with cruelty Jealousie is not more the rage of a Man than Malice is the rage of the Devil the very soul and spirit of the Apostate nature Little portions of revenge do but inflame it and serve to flesh it up into a fiercer violence Vexed that they had not done his work they fall afresh upon the poor remainders of his life and while he was yet at Prayer and that a Rechabite who stood by which says Epiphanius was Symeon his Kinsman and Successor stept in and entreated them to spare him a just and