them When ye have lift up the Son of Man then shall ye know that I am He. And this in some measure mitigates and excuseth the present ignorance of the Apostles that they had not yet seen the completion of the last and greatest Acts of Christ particularly his Resurrection Lastly To say no more the extraordinary Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost were not yet poured forth Of these Gifts none of the least was a due preparation of Will and penetration of Judgment to conceive rightly the sence and meaning of all Divine Revelations and Mysteries This was afterwards plentifully poured down upon the Apostles as upon this Day but before that time was not conferred on them That the want of this extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost was a main cause of their Ignorance is plainly insinuated by all those Texts wherein Christ promiseth to the Apostles the Mission of the Holy Spirit to dispel their Ignorance and enlighten their understandings as in the words of the Text and John XV. 26. But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall Testify of me and when He the Spirit of Truth is come He will guide you into all Truth The ordinary assistance of the Divine Spirit had indeed all along accompanyed the Apostles which had been abundantly sufficient when added to the Motives of Faith and advantages of Instruction which they received from Christ to inform them in all things necessary considered as private Persons if they had removed all prejudices and used due attention and reason but the extraordinary Inspiration of the Holy Ghost being not necessary was not yet conferred on them For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified St. John VII 39. These were the principal causes of that Ignorance of the Apostles which we proposed to inquire into of that misapprehension of the Nature of our Saviours Office and Design which so eminently appears in the context as we before explained it which disabled them from considering the consequence of his Miracles For their heart was hardned Mark VI. 52. by reason of which They understood none of these things his Passion and Resurrection and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things that were spoken Luc. XVIII 34. which caused the words of the women relating to the Resurrection of Christ to seem to them as idle Tales and incredible Fables Luc. XXIV 11. and the indignation of which drew from Christ that sharp Exprobration O ye of little faith Mattâ—… VIII 26. That this Ignorance ought not in the least to surprize us or induce us to entertain any thoughts prejudicial to Christianity it self appears from the Reasons which I have already assigned to it but will more fully be manifested in considering the second Head proposed which was To shew That the permission of this Ignorance till the sending of the Holy Ghost was not in the least repugnant to the Divine Wisdom or the design of the Gospel This will evidently appear from these two Considerations I. That it would be incongruous to the Divine Wisdom to use any extraordinary methods in removing the Ignorance of the Apostles and perfectly informing their Understandings until such Information not being possible to be obtained by the ordinary methods of Instruction should become absolutely necessary to the being of the Church II. That such a perfect and plenary Information was not necessary to the Apostles till after the Ascension of Christ. The first of these Propositions naturally follows from that known truth and received principle that God never worketh Miracles without necessity nor recurreth to extraordinary causes while natural and ordinary will suffice However fully to evince this matter and clear all remaining doubts I will consider all the possible methods of perfectly instructing the Apostles before the Ascension of Christ when the natural and ordinary means failed and demonstrate that God could not use any one of them without being injurious to his Wisdom and Honour These extraordinary methods may be reduced to these three Heads First God by his Almighty power might have over-ruled their understanding and without expecting the assent of the Will violently imprinted a perfect knowledge of his Revelations in it or even forced the Will to assent to it although it had not yet discoverd the truth of it But nothing can be imagined more injurious to the honour of God than a proceeding of this kind to prepare the way for Religion by violating those Priviledges of reasoning and free will which he at first conferred on them which were in truth to make Mankind happy by destroying their Nature Secondly our Saviour having already abundantly convinced the Apostles of the Divinity of his Mission and consequently of his Infallibity might have plainly and openly revealed to them all the Mysteries of his Religion and future Actions to be yet performed and required their immediate Assent to them without taking care to satisfie them at the same time of the truth and reasonableness of such Revelations by their Conformity to all precedent Revelations or the Law of Nature but this also was irrational in it self and consequently unworthy of the Divine Wisdom and might justly have been esteemed unsatisfactory by the Apostles For as they were fully convinced that our Saviour was a Divine Person so were they no less that all the precedent Revelations were delivered by inspired men and consequently deserved the same degree of Assent which his could do So that if the least repugnance between the Doctrine or Life of Christ and the ancient Prophesies could have been difcovered they were not in the least obliged to assent unto them Nay to a full and unexceptionable Proof of the truth of his Revelations it was not only necessary that no repugnance between them and the predictions of the Old Testament were discovered but also that an entire Conformity should appear Since the true Messias was by God designed to the Jews under those two Characters of extraordinary Miracles and perfect agreement of Life Actions and Doctrine to the precedent Predictions and Revelations and consequently could not be evidently distinguished without the concurrence of both those Proofs And indeed such an arbitrary Command of a blind Assent to any Revelations confirmed by Miracles without a previous Examination of the truth of them is so absurd and repugnant to the Laws of reasoning that it could not be used by Christ himself even in respect of Heathens For such a resignation of the Understanding could rationally be made to no other Authority than an Authority founded upon Arguments of greater Credibility than can be found in any other Case But such is not the Authority derived from Miracles for all objects of Sense and necessary Deductions from reason include at least an equal many a greater degree of Credibility I mean not hereby that any truths whatsoever can have a greater certainty than
of Heathen Philosophers tended to no other End than to foment their Pride and create in them a vain Opinion of their own Wisdom and Merits They referred it not to God nor employed it as a Principle of obedience to him It abated not their Passions reformed not their Lusts and had no visible influence upon their Lives save in making them haughty and supercilious the constant Character of those Philosophers In opposition to this the Apostle Wills that we express the Divinity of our Reâ—…igion in the Holiness of our Lives that we be not puft up with Pride nor imagine it to be the product either of our own merit or understanding that we acknowledge to have received it from God and profess that we expect either to be saved or damned by our obedience to the Rules of it that we perpetually maintain an awful regard of the Commands of our Almighty Lawgiver and set our selves to the performance of them with the most profound Humility and Submission that we be not affrighted from the profession of our Faith by the greatest threats or Terrours nor be betrayed to the Omission of our Duty by supine Negligence and want of Consideration But this in a word That we be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us with meekness and fear In Discoursing of these words I shall insist upon these two Heads which naturally offer themselves to our Consideration I. That the Christian Religion is agreeable to the Principles of Reason and carrieth sufficient Evidence along with it II. That it is the Duty of every Christian not wanting the means of sufficient Instruction to enable himself to give a Reason of his Faith I. That the Christian Religion c. For the Apostle commanding us To be always ready to give a reason of the hope that is in us plainly intimates that a Reason may be given of it For that by this term of the hope that is in us is to be understood the whole System of our Faith appears as well from the Context as from the frequent Acceptation of those words in the same Sense in divers places of the New Testament This Religion as it carrieth eminent Marks of its Divinity on many other Accounts so chiefly in the reasonableness and evidence of it and that either 1. In respect of the Nature of it and the Rules prescribed by it Or 2. In respect of the undoubted certainty of its having been revealed by God I. If we respect the Nature and Constitution of the Christian Religion and the Rules of Life and Worship proposed by it we shall find it exactly rational and attended with the greatest Evidence This might be proved by many Considerations But at present I shall insist on no more than two As I. Christianity proposeth a Divine Worship most consentaneous to the Nature of God and tendeth most effectually to secure his Honour among men The Brimary end of all Religion is the Worship of God and is intended cither to pay to God that tribute of Adoration and Thanks which his infinite Majesty and right of Creation Redemption and other benefits require or to implore his Favour in pardoning our sins supplying our Necessities or conferring his Graces on us All these Actions ought to be directed in that way which is most sutable to his Nature and may best express the perfection of it God is a Spirit and therefore requireth to be worshipped in spirit and truth Our Soul alone is truly capable of Religon can alone entertain the Idea of God and form an Act of Worship All outward Ceremonies and corporeal Modes of Worship are no otherwise Holy or to be accounted of than as they tend to shew the inward Devotion of the Soul which is wont to declare its Thoughts and Motions when vehement and intense by external Indications All other voluntary external Acts of Worship which are not the natural Effects and Signs of an inward Zeal and warmth of Devotion serve only to gratifie a foolish Superstition and relate no more to the Worship of God than any other irregular Motions of the Body If we really imploy the Faculties of our Soul as we ought to do in admiring the perfections of the Divine Nature in adoring his Majesty loving his Goodness and fearing his Justice these affections of the Mind will naturally discover themselves in outward Acts and Gestures and cannot be suppressed These external Actions declare to others the inward Sense of our Minds and thereby tend to manifest the Honour of God and publish his Glory but deserve no otherwise to be regarded either by God or Man than as they are the Signs and Effects of an inward Piety And hence we may judge of the Excellency of our Religion without considering the Evidence of its Revelation If it be chiefly employed in external Shews and Ceremonies and makes the performance of them without any inward Motion of the Soul an Act of Worship if it represents the Divine Attributes and Perfections by corporeal Symbols rather than noble Conceptions of the Soul and desires God to accept of that mean and imperfect Service instead of a near Conformity to himself by the Exercise of Holiness and Vertue Such a Religion may perhaps be true but neither agrceable to the Excellency of God nor answering to the Dignity of our own Nature God may accept it or even Command it for a time in Compassion to the Blindness and infirmity of Mankind not capable under some Circumstances of a more noble and spiritual Religion but could never intend to continue it any longer than till he should please to make a more full and open Revelation of himself And this was the Case of the Jewish Religion For the Heathens deserve not here to be considered among whom religious Worship consisted wholly in external Rites and Actions and those oft-times such as were in their own Nature unlawful The Religion of the Jews however instituted by God was chiefly employed in outward Rites and Observances in Washings and Abstinence from certain Meats in Observation of times and tedious Ceremonies which although they served to typefie the coming of the Messias and with him the Revelation of a more perfect Religion Yet did not directly signifie any inward Acts of Reverence Piety or Devotion nor were necessarily accompanied by them The perpetual offering of carnal Sacrifices alone argued the imperfection of their Worship Since therein the Sacrificers desired of God to accept the Lives of Beasts instead of a more holy and reasonable Sacrifice the devoting their own Wills and Affections to his Service 'T is the peculiar Honour of the Christian Religion to worship God in a manner agreeable to the simplicity of his Nature in Spirit and Truth In this the Affections of the Soul are alone respected no Ceremonial Observances imposed on us nor indeed any external Acts of Worship save only those Foederal Rites I mean the two Sacraments of Baptism and the
of the Messias They had formed to themselves mighty expectations of an external pomp and secular greatness wherewith their Messias should enter upon his Office and which he should communicate to the whole Nation They thought not of spiritual Blessings reformation of Manners removal of Errors proposal of a pure and rational Religion and assurance of a spiritual Happiness in another Life but mighty Armies and continual Triumphs wide Conquests and inesâ—…imable Spoils They expected to be freed from the Roman Yoke by the Victorious Arms of the Messias and by an uninterrupted success at last be inabled to give Laws to the whole World These fond conceits were now entertained by the whole Jewish Nation and tenaciously maintained by the Apostles who all along believed indeed their Master to be the true and great Messias but withal even to his Ascension continued to believe that he had not yet entered upon the execution of this glorious Office Not all the premonitions of his future Sufferings not the experience of his present Poverty and Disgrace or the sight of his Crucifixion and Burial could remove this inveterate Error from their minds or create in them a right apprehension of our Saviours Doctrine and Office But after all when he was ready to Ascend up into Heaven they asked him by common consent Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel Wilt thou now commence that glorious Reign which we have so long expected The want of this external Pomp and appearance in a State of such extraordinary humility totally hindred his Brethren that is his Kindred from believing on him as is expressed St. John VII 5. and could not divert the Apostles who believed him to be the Messias from nourishing vain hopes of a future greatness in this World Insomuch as immediately after Christ had foretold them in the X. of St. Mark that he should be betrayed delivered to the Gentiles Buffeted Scourged and Crucified the two Sons of Zebedee not discouraged by all these calamities which they imagined to be the entrance into a greater Temporal glory requested of him That One might fit on his right hand the other on his left in his Kingdom And the Disciples of Emmaus far from considering the past sufferings of Christ and reflecting on the circumstances of his Passion and precedent admonitions of it which might justly have refuted and defeated their foolish expectations began to suspect this was not the true Messias since he had not brought the hoped for external redemption to the Jews We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel but those hopes are vanished and he yet continues in his Grave Since then the Apostles continued to retain these prejudices preconceived Errors and were thereby hindred from conceiving the spirituality of Christs Kingdom which is the first and greatest principle of the Christian Religion it was impossible they should rightly understand the Doctrine of Christ until these prejudices were removed and true Notions of the nature of his Kingdom introduced Till then they could not but grosly mistake the meaning of all those many Revelations which he imparted to them and constantly wrested them to their own false notions and apprehensions This not only disabled them from understanding the true sense of what Christ was pleased to reveal to them but also hindred them while continuing in that State from receiving any more clear and express Revelation This our Saviour plainly tells them John XVI 12 13. I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth I have yet greater Mysteries to reveal to you and which will seem more astonishing to you but the indisposition of your understanding at present clouded with Prejudices and Errours would defeat the benefit of them These therefore I leave to be revealed by the Holy Ghost whom I shall send unto you who by an extraordinary operation assisting your understanding will prepare it for a ready reception of all those Truths A Third reason of this Ignorance of the Apostles at that time when our Saviour spoke these words of my Text to them may be that the greatest and most Illustrious Actions of our Saviours Life the Mysteries of which created in them the greatest perplexity remained yet to be performed I mean his Crucifixion Resurrection and Ascension Before they saw these things effected they could not imagine that he whom they had represented to themselves as a Triumphant Messias and Earthly King should undergo them and therefore all our Saviours premonitions concerning them were no less dark and obscure than surprizing to them but afterwards the real performance of them awakened their attention and gave them occasion to reflect more seriously upon the reasons of these things They then plainly perceived the true meaning of every prediction of Christ when they saw the event of the thing foretold and viewing the circumstances of all these Actions could not but discover that they were all manifestly foretold of the Messias by the Prophets and were consequently to be necessarily perform'd by him Not to say that the Resurrection being the far greatest and most Illustrious Miracle might reasonably be supposed to have produced a greater effect upon their minds than any precedent Action And how the subsequent performance of Actions and Mysteries foretold by Christ contributed in the Apostles to a right understanding of the predictions and Mysteries themselves appears from the whole History of the Gospel more especially from those two passages which I before produced John II. 22. When therefore he was risen from the dead his Disciples remembred that he had said this unto them and they believed the Scriptures and again John XII 16. These things understood not his Disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified then remembred they that these things â—…ere written of him Nay so much did Christ himself attribute to the cogency of the proof which might be drawn from the Miracle of his Resurrection that to the Jews desiring a convictive proof of his divine Mission he assigned no other than that as Jonas was in the Whales Belly three Days and three Nights so the Son of Man should continue no longer a space of time in the Heart of the Earth And however his other Miracles and the Testimony of the Prophets abundantly demonstrated the Divinity of his Mission to unprejudiced Persons yet in some places he seems willing to pardon their suspension of assent till they should see this grand and final Miracle performed Thus in the words preceding my Text assuring his Apostles that though he departed for a while he should Live again He tells them that at that Day the Day of his Resurrection ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you And John VIII 28. Disputing with the incredulous Jews and not being able to convince their obstinate stupidity he saith unto