and true Witness the beginning of the Creation of God iii. 14. By the name of AMEN which he gives himself he would have them understand that by him all the promises made to the Church shall undoubtedly be fulfilled according to that of St. Paul 2 Cor. i. 20. In him all the promises of God are Yea and in him Amen He may be believed for he is a Witness who affirms and testifies nothing but the very truth which can never fail because he is the Efficient cause of all things by whom they were at first created and by whom mankind is now repaired and therefore is the Head of all creatures especially of all Christians who shall rise again from the dead to immortall life So I expound the last words the beginning of the Creation of God as Andreas Caesariensis doth who takes in both senses of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have of the word Creation which signifies not onely Principium the beginning or originall but Principatum the principality or dominion which the Son of God hath over all creatures of which he is the Authour What may we not expect from so great a Prince who hath such an absolute command over all things And why should we doubt of his Sovereignty who appeared in such an amazing splendour to St. John and proclaimed in these and other such like Titles the supereminent glory of his Majesty Or why shoul◠we question his truth who had approved himself so many ways the true and faithfull Witness especially by sending the Holy Ghost as you shall hear presently to bear witness to him according to his promise We ought to rely upon his word and to fear nothing but lest we should reject or distrust the testimony of a Person so great and so just whose power appeared from his very first entrance into the world to be so far transcending all creatures that the Apostles might see before his ascension to the glory wherein St. John beheld him that as he had the Words of eternall Life so he had that Life in himself which in due time he would bestow upon them For though He had all the passions of a man Greg. Nazianz orat xxxv p. 575. yet he had all the perfections likewise of God that none might be so profanely contumelious as to contemn his Deity because he took upon him the grossness of our Humanity He was born of a woman but she a Virgin that was humane this Divine He was wrapt in swaddling-cloaths when he was an infant but shaked off the cloaths that wrapt him in the sepulchre when he was dead He was laid in a manger but then glorified by Angels pointed to by a Star and worshipped by the Wise men He was driven into Egypt but there drove away the errours of the Egyptians The Jews saw no beauty in him but he shone upon the mountain brighter then the Sun prefiguring the glory to which he should ascend He was baptized and tempted as Man but he took away the Sins of the World and got the victory as God He was hungry but fed many thousands and is himself the heavenly Bread which giveth life He was thirsty but gave the waters of life and made rivers of living waters flow from those that believed on him He was called a Samaritan and they said he had a Devill but he put Devills to flight and tumbled whole legions of them into the deep and made the Prince of Devills fall like lightning from heaven He was sold for thirty pieces of silver but purchased the whole World with the great price of his own bloud He was led as a sheep to the slaughter but was the Shepherd of Israel and now is of all the World He was dumb as a lamb before the shearers but is the WORD preached by the voice of one crying in the wilderness He was wounded and bruised but healed every sickness and all manner of disease He was lifted up on the tree and there fixed but restored us to the tree of life and saved the thief who was crucified with him He laid down his life but had power to take it again and the veil rent the rocks were cleft and the dead were raised He died but he gives life and by death extinguished death He was buried but rose again out of the grave He went down into hell but he brought up Souls with him and ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the quick and the dead and to examine all such discourses as detract from his glory O my Soul for ever praise him and let thy heart rejoyce in his holy Name Love him as thy Life confide in his word depend on his power and expect from him the blessing of Eternall Life For he is the AMEN the faithfull and true witness who cannot lie the beginning of the Creation of God whom all Creatures without a voice confess to be their Lord. The Heavens cry Proclus Orat. xiii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was God who bowed them and came down to be a man for our sakes The Sun cries It was my Lord who was crucified in the flesh at the light of whose Divinity I was afraid and withdrew my beams The Earth cries It was He that formed me who suffered which made me quake and tremble at the horrid fact The Sea cries He was not my fellow-servant who walkt with one of his Disciples upon my back The Temple cries He that was worshipped here is now blasphemed and therefore I rend my garments Nay Hell cries He was not a mere man who descended hither for whom I received as a Captive I found to be the Omnipotent God And if we ask the heavenly powers and desire the Angels and Archangels and the whole host of heaven to tell us Who was he that appeared on earth and was crucified in the flesh they will all answer aloud in the words of the Prophet David The Lord the God of hosts he is the King of Glory To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII Concerning the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST the Third Witness in Heaven NOW I proceed to examine the Testimony which the Third Witness in Heaven gave concerning this future state which is the HOLY GHOST the Third Person in the Blessed Trinity Who openly assures us by as many ways and by the same means that we have eternall Life in Christ Jesus as he did that Jesus is the Son of God And that I may not be tedious in a business wherein we have already received such satisfaction let us take but a small taste of those three Testimonies of the Holy Ghost which I alledged in the former Treatise I. And first you know that there was a visible appearance of the HOLY GHOST at our Saviour's Baptism when the Divine Glory came down from heaven and rested on him in the sight of John the Baptist whereby he was persuaded that this was the Messiah the King of
wicked Whatsoever it was God told him he could not comprehend it but must be content with the sight onely of his back parts not of his face xxxiii Exod. ult That is saith Maimonides with the knowledge of something of his Essence or as he elsewhere expounds it * More Nev. p. i. c. 21. of his Works and Attributes of which he had such an obscure knowledge as we have of a man whose back parts we have seen but never beheld his face To be so intimately acquainted with God and his mind as he wish'd was the priviledge of the Messiah alone who had the clearest and fullest sight of the Glory of the Father both of his Essence and his Will and his gracious intentions towards us for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the bosome of the Father and therefore sees his face as the Scripture speaks and hath not merely some obscure representations of him like that of a man when he turns his back to us but a full view of him in all his perfections of which he himself is the very Image And what he saw he hath by God's express will revealed to us and discovered those things which eye never beheld but were kept secret from the foundation of the world concerning the glorious rewards which his love will give to all pious persons For since I have proved that he is his Son we cannot imagine that he presumed to say more then he knew or told us things out of his own mind onely when he spake of ETERNALL LIFE as he frequently did but what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth as it is iii. John 32. We cannot believe otherwise 3. when we look upon him as the Son of God but that he must needs speak the very truth to us As he could not but know the Mind of God if he was so one with him so he could not but speak to us according to what he knew of his Mind For as the Father is Truth so is the Son because he is perfectly the same with the Father We worship the Father of Truth and the Son the Truth who are two in person but one in consent and agreement and identity of will as Origen * L. viii contra Celsum speaks explaining those words of our Saviour I and the Father are one x. Joh. 30. and I am the Truth xiv 6. We may be confident that the words of both are equally faithfull and true So God the Father bad St. John write of his own sayings as I observed before xxi Rev. 5. And in the same style our Saviour commands him to write of himself These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witness iii. Rev. 14. John Baptist had said as much before iii. Joh. 34. He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God To which the words of our Saviour in another place of that Gospell perfectly accord xii 49 50. I have not spoken of my self but the Father which sent me he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak And I know that his commandment is EVERLASTING LIFE whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak And 4. he hath no less Power then he hath Truth but being the Son of God the heir of all things can make good his gracious promises and put us into the possession of the Eternall Inheritance which we expect as coheirs with him He was declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead i. Rom. 4. according to his own prayer just before he offered up himself to God Father the hour is come glorify thy Son that thy Son may glorify thee As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him xvii Joh. 1 2. And can we think 5. that he will not faithfully execute this trust and imploy his power for the end to which it was given him He would not then be like his Father who keepeth Truth for ever As he also most certainly will being the same Jesus yesterday and to day and for ever xiii Heb. 8. For if Moses was faithfull in the house of another wherein he was but a Servant no doubt our Lord who is a Son over his own house or family iii. Heb. 6. will not fail to discharge his royall office with all exactness but manifest himself to be like his Name The Word of God xix Rev. 13. Faithfull and true ver 11. This RECORD concerning him St. John thought so weighty and secure an evidence that he concludes all good Christians as sure of Eternall Life as if it were already in their hands For after he had said here in the words I am explaining that God hath given us i.e. made us a promise of Eternall Life which is in his Son he adds immediately which is the Second thing I intended to note that we have eternall life Which cannot signify less then that we have such a good right to it that we may account it ours The reason is because he that effectually believes in Jesus hath him in whose power it is to give it and who hath passed his word many a time that he will bestow it So you reade ver 12. He that hath the Son hath life He may be as sure of it as if it were in his present possession for by faith in Christ he is united to him who is the fountain and well-spring of life and bliss and stands ingaged divers ways to make all the Members of his Body happy with himself For to as many as received him he gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power or authority to become the Sons of God i. Joh. 12. who may legally claim the consummation of their adoption in the Eternall Inheritance They are by his grant unquestionable heirs of it and have such a strong title to it that they can never be defeated of it This heavenly Estate is in them as Lawyers speak though they be not in it They have an indisputable right I mean to it and may call it theirs though they be not yet seised of it and have not taken possession which in due time none can hinder or debar them of So the Apostle would have the Faithfull stedfastly believe for this was the very end for which he recorded the Evidences forementioned that they might know they have eternall life ver 13. which he repeats often in his Gospell as you may reade iii. Joh. 36. v. 24. vi 47. where he asserts this in the most earnest manner and assures them that he spake of this matter out of certain knowledge Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life He is a most happy man and may look upon himself as owner of more then all this world is worth Which he can never lose though he be not yet entred upon his inheritance because it is in the custody of him who hath
hath so contemned it as to prefer a little of this World before it be used as favourably in hell as if he had never heard of it What doth our Saviour mean then when he saith It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment then for those places where the Gospell of God's grace was preached This very thing will make the fire more devouring to think for what poor pleasures or gains they set at nought so stupendious a grace and that withall they have lost those things for which they lost Heaven When they see how inconsiderable all their past delights were it will make the madness seem greater and the more distract and torment their inraged Minds to think how dear they now pay for them The miserable Soul will then continually pour upon it self the hottest and most scalding thoughts of its own gross stupidity and senseless negligence It will flame with anger and burning wrath against it self for the frantick choice which it hath made And rolling it self in the fire of its own fretfull and impatient displeasure will take such a furious revenge upon it self as to become its own dreadfull executioner In this misery it will lie frying for ever sibique perpetuum pabulum subministrabit and afford to it self perpetuall fewell to keep alive the boiling rage and fierce displeasure it hath conceived against it self The stings thereof will be sharper and more frequently returning then any pain which we are now sensible of can represent The flashes of Lightning are not so searching and they will be as quick as the thoughts of a Spirit And what the hideous and dolefull groans of a Spirit are we cannot tell especially that lies under the load of this thought that it might have been as happy as now it is miserable You may take a review of what was said in the beginning concerning ETERNALL LIFE and by that make some judgment of the Misery of those who are so unhappy as to lose it They will be deprived of all that Bliss which the Souls and bodies of the just shall injoy and not be able to avoid the sorest pains which even from thence will necessarily arise For the greater you can suppose their knowledge of God to be in the other World which is the Life of pious Souls so muâ—â— the greater will their sorrow and heaviness be to think that they have lost the favour of the Creatour of the World the Fountain of all Good And when they behold the glory wherein the just appear with our Blessed Lord this will be a new grief to them and most miserably afflict their hearts whensoever they think what praise is given to those holy men whom they despised in what glory they shine and unto what dignity they are preferred and on the other side consider their own shame and reproach and how vilely they lie under a perpetuall curse pronounced against them before Angels and men by the Lord of all And it will increase the torment to consider that they are the cause of all this misery which they have drawn upon themselves Their negligence will come to mind which gave no heed to the Divine illuminations Their contumacy also which resisted the Divine motions Their horrid wickedness into which they ran against the cries even of their own consciences And these considerations they will not be able to avoid nor put off the thoughts of the greatness of their misery But they will stick close to them and perpetually sting them so that all their Knowledge which is so comfortable to others will breed in them the most exquisite grief and sorrow This our Saviour means by outer darkness into which they shall be cast From whence we may guess in what conditions their Wills and their Affections must needs be in which there will be no love of God at all nothing that we can conceive but envy at the glory of the blessed hatred of themselves as the cause of all this mischief vexation of heart to see how great it is and desperation of seeing it grow less But I shall pursue it no farther because it would take up too much room in this discourse which already begins to grow too big I shall onely adde that none knows what flames the breath of the Lord will kindle The power of his anger is inconceivable especially when incensed by the slighting of his love And therefore what can we say of the dolours which the fire that never goes out and the worm that never dies when they meet together will cause both in the Souls and bodies of such contemptuous sinners Who will begin then to wish they had never been acquainted with the glad tidings of Salvation that so they might have lain in some more private corner of the miserable World in a bed of softer and more gentle flames and without that open disgrace to which they will be exposed What an ease would they think it if they might but have the favour to houl among the poor Indians and shriek no louder then other wicked Pagans and have no worse Devills to lash them then the leud Mahometans who never had a thought of any thing higher then a fleshly Paradise And yet the Pagans themselves thought their condition would be bad enough if they lived impiously and that it was impossible to escape a just punishment in another world As appears among a number of other records from that discourse I mentioned of Gobryas who saith the first place men come into when they depart this life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Field of truth So called because there Judges sit to examine how every one hath passed his life and there is no way to evade their sentence by subterfuges or lies as his words are but they will dispose of all men with exact justice according as they deserve What they had some dark fancy of is now plainly and clearly revealed unto us who are instructed that God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead xvii Act. 31. And therefore we ought to be afraid of treasuring up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternall life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath Tribulation and anguish upon every Soul of man that doeth evill of the Jew we may say Christian first and also of the Gentile ii Romans 5 6 7 8 9. VI. Consider then I beseech you once more which is all the questions I shall ask what you are now resolved to doe Will you put it to the venture whether you be immortally happy or no Is it
it is a plain demonstration that he is dear to God and hath his very Spirit in him Now next to this there is nothing more necessary and desirable to be known than how we may obtain this great and matchless victory over every thing in the world that opposes our Christian resolution and so undoubtedly approve our selves heroical persons as they were anciently called that are born from above And here also the Apostle lends us his assistance telling us in the latter end of that fourth Verse that we must atchieve it by Faith And this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith So couragious so powerful so successful is an hearty lively Faith that you see he calls it by the name of victory it self If we believe stedfastly we shall tread the world under our feet and easily despise all its temptations as those valiant Worthies did whose example another Apostle sets before us in the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews A portion of Scripture which he that means to be a conqueror should think he can never read too oft But there is a farther enquiry remaining which every body will be apt to make and that is what this Faith may be which is so victorious and triumphant And therefore the Apostle takes care to satisfie us in this matter also when he tells us Verse 5. it is nothing else but to believe that Jesus is the Son of God To be heartily perswaded he means that that great person who was born of the Virgin Mary and was known by the name of Jesus and overcame the world so gloriously was indeed sent from God unto us and owned by him as the express image of his person so that we may as infallibly depend upon the truth of what he hath said either of himself or concerning us as we can upon any thing of Sense or Reason by which we think our selves bound to guide and determine our resolutions and actions in this life But still after all this there is one thing more that we cannot but desire to be very sure of without which all the rest will stand us in no stead but we shall flag and despair of success viz. That Jesus is indeed the Son of God This if it be not well proved by substantial arguments we can have no solid faith and so no victory and so no son-ship no hope in another world The Apostle therefore that he may serve us in bringing some evident demonstration of this so important a truth tells us in the next words Verse 6. that Jesus did not only say he was God's Son and confidently affirm himself to be the Divine person so long look'd for to come into the world but that he came with very sufficient and unreproveable witnesses of it viz. the WATER the BLOUD and the SPIRIT which made this truth good to all those who considered their testimony If the first of these WATER should not be thought great enough to merit belief yet the BLOUD joyned with it adds great force to its perswasion Or if both these seem too weak yet this last the SPIRIT the Apostle doubts not is so strong to conquer mens minds and make them believe in Jesus that he says The Spirit is truth That is such an undoubted proof that Jesus was what he pretended to be the Son of God that no man can be deceived who relies upon it and no man can refuse if he give heed to it to rely and depend upon such a witness Now this was a thing notorious in those days and needed no proof at all the whole Country of Judaea could witness it that he came by or rather with Water Bloud and the Spirit And therefore the Apostle doth not go about to make this good that there were such Witnesses it being a matter confessed but rather repeats it over again as the strongest proof of his Divine Authority adding moreover there-withal that there were three other Witnesses who by their concurrent testimony would unanimously justifie this Truth For saith he in the words I have chosen to explain There are three that bear record or witness in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit and the Water and the Bloud and these three agree in one As if he had said You cannot reasonably doubt of that which we preach concerning Jesus if you go but to those three witnesses to which I have sent you the Water the Bloud and the Spirit for they all affirm with one mouth that he was the Son of God And as they testifie this to you upon the Earth so there are three other Witnesses also who declare it to you from Heaven to whom I first direct you and then to those three that here on Earth as I have told you bear their record to him There are not a few Copies of the New Testament it must be confessed which leave out the Testimony of these three Witnesses that speak from Heaven not reading the seventh Verse as is noted not only by Socinus and his followers but by Erasmus Grotius Curcellaeus and our Learned Selden whose collections to this purpose far exceed all former observations But yet this last named Great Author hath said so much * L. 2. de Syned cap. 4. num 4. to justifie the Antiquity of our present Reading and to keep the seventh Verse in the place wherein it now stands that I make no question these are the words of S. John concerning the three Heavenly Witnesses the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and accordingly I shall in the first place appeal to their testimony for the confirming of this Truth and for the supporting thereby of our Faith that Jesus is the Son of God And if any body shall say What need is there of this in a Christian Country There are no Infidels sure among us nor are we in danger to turn Pagans Turks or Jews who blaspheme the Lord Jesus I shall not labour to stop their mouths by casting reproaches on others nor complain of the apostasie which some think they have reason to lay to the charge of too many in this present untoward generation But desire them to take their Answer from S. John himself in the thirteenth Verse of this very Chapter Where they will find that he thought it not unnecessary to write these things to them that believe on the name of the Son of God that they might know how happy a thing it was to be a Christian and that they might believe i. e. continue to believe on the name of the Son of God And I may modestly suppose that what he thought good to assert here with so much care and exactness it will not be thought an unprofitable diligence if I study to expound and enlarge for the benefit of believers It will be some satisfaction to me however to have had it in my heart to do some honour to my Saviour
and to have endeavoured to make any part of his holy Book more clearly understood especially if what I write shall encrease the Faith of any Christian Soul and fill it with an assured hope in Jesus by abiding constant in this belief that he is the Son of God That being the thing which is to be proved by these witnesses it will be necessary to search a little into the meaning of the Phrase before we take their examination about it And it must be confessed that though Jesus be the Eternal Son of the Father God of God begotten of him before all Worlds yet this is not always meant when he is called his Son which is a name in the holy stile not so much expressing his Nature as his high Authority and Sovereign power which he hath received as the Mediator between him and us from God the Father Almighty So I think we are here to understand the Apostle who under the Name Jesus comprehends all that belongs to his person both his Divine and Humane nature and affirms that this person hath Sovereign Authority committed to him by God the Father of all who hath given him Commission and deputed him in his stead to declare his mind and acquaint us with his will and having by himself purged our sins promoted him to sit down on the right hand of the Majesty on high as that great King and Lord of all by whom we are to be governed now and to be judged at the last day Sure I am in many places of the holy Scripture which say he is the Son of God the meaning is expounded in other places to be this that he is the Christ or the anointed of God That is Jesus who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary crucified under Pontius Pilate rose again from the dead and afterward appointed S. John and the rest of the Apostles to preach those things to all Nations which we read in the holy Gospel was indeed sent of God according to the ancient Prophecies with his own power and authority and is now by the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour to be our King and Sovereign Lord whom we are all to obey and from whom alone we are to expect all our rewards And there is great reason to think that these are phrases of the very same import here in S. John if we compare but the first Verse of this Chapter with the fifth In the former we read that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God In the latter he tells us that he who overcometh the world believeth that Jesus is the Son of God It is the very same Faith no doubt whereby we are born of God and whereby we overcome the world and therefore it is the very same thing to believe that Jesus is the Christ and to believe that Jesus is the Son of God Express it how you please either of these ways this alone is the Faith which can regenerate a man and put a Divine Spirit into him that is make him a conqueror over the world as Jesus was Let the second Chapter of this Epistle ver 22. be consulted also and there you will find that Christ and the Son are terms equivalent and have the same signification To which if you add some places in the Evangelists they will make you see this more evidently When S. Peter made this confession xvi Matth. 16. that Jesus was Christ the Son of the living God there is no more meant one would think by those words the Son of God than what the other word Christ includes because when our Saviour would have them know that it was not fit for them as yet to divulge this truth which S. Peter confessed he only charges his Disciples ver 20. that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ And if this be not ground enough to conclude the identity as we speak of these words the other Evangelists will put it out of doubt For S. Mark makes the confession of S. Peter to have been no more than this Thou art the Christ viii 29. And S. Luke relates it not much otherwise when he says that he acknowledged our Saviour to be the Christ of God ix 20. To be the Christ or to be the Son the Christ of God or the Son of God according to the understanding of these Divine writers is the very same and in these places nothing different And indeed it is very probable that S. Hieroms opinion is true who believed that the Apostles were not yet such proficients as to understand the eternal generation of our Lord Jesus from the essence of the Father For we find them very ignorant of divers things that were easier to be learnt than this which if they had known they would not have expected to see him settle his Throne upon Earth nor doubted of his Resurrection from the dead and many other things as they did But the comparing of two other places will make this still more manifest In the xxvi Matth. 63. we read that the High Priest adjured our Saviour to tell him if he were the Christ the Son of God They all expected one to appear under this character This was the common title of that great person who they believed would shortly come But they meant no more by it than one appointed by God to be their King as is apparent from S. Luke who relates that question barely thus xxii 67. Art thou the Christ tell us And after our Saviour had made that answer which we read both in him and S. Matthew he tells us ver 70. they all replied again Art thou then the Son of God which was no more than to say must we take this for confessed then that thou affirmest thy self to be sent anointed and set over us by God Wilt thou stand to that which thou just now ownedst when we asked thee that question For without all doubt the Chief Priests and the Scribes intended nothing by that phrase the Son of God but what was comprehended in the other the Christ And therefore when Pilate upon their accusation examined him upon the same matter he asks nothing else but this as this Apostle S. John relates xviii 33. Art thou the King of the Jews which is the plain interpretation of the word Christ For that is not the proper name of any person as Lactantius * Nuncupatio potestatis regni Sic enim Judaei Reges suos appellabant L. 4. Cap. 7. rightly observes but a name of power and dominion signifying him to be their Sovereign For in this stile says he the Jews were wont to speak of their Kings whom they called Christs or Gods anointed Once more when they were enraged at our Saviour for calling himself the Son of God as S. John tells us Chap. x. He justifies himself by a reason which signifies no more but that he called himself the Christ the anointed of God as you
pregnant Reasons accompanying it to win credit to it self If that which stands as a reason for all that a man says be not it self grounded upon the clearest and most undeniable it turns against him and proves nothing but a confutation of all that it was brought to assert Now Jesus pretending not only to this honour of coming from God which is a sufficient Argument for any thing that he says in his Name but also to an higher Dignity of being his Son and so of being privy to all his secrets of lying in his very bosom and being invested with a power equal to the Almighties if He and his Apostles who affirmed the same of him after he was put to death and that as a Malefactor should be defective in their proofs of so lofty and weighty a pretension He would be rendred of all other the most contemptible and they become men most ridiculous for obtruding him on the world in such a quality upon slight or no demonstrations For the greater and more concerning any Assertion is which we propound to mens belief the stronger and more plentiful Arguments they justly expect to induce a perswasion Which if they be wanting it is so far from being a fault not to surrender their Souls to that proposition that it is a vertue to refuse admittance and they could not excuse themselves from a great guilt should they be so easie as to let it find entertainment Nay it is a commendable piece of caution and wariness to suspend our belief in a matter of very great importance though there be some considerable proofs offered if they be not proportionable to the weight of the thing unto which we are to deliver up no less than our Souls Let us see therefore what evidence this Follower and Favourite as I may call him of Jesus produces and lays before us to make good this which he preached for a certain truth that He is no less than the Son of God Let us hear what his Witnesses say for so he calls his proofs to this great point and consider whether they speak so home to it that we cannot reasonably refuse to believe it The office of a witness is to give in all the evidence he can for the clearing of any matter in question for this very end that there by the controversie may be decided upon his credit When the Apostle therefore calls for his Witnesses who are ready he saith to justifie this which he asserts if any body make a doubt of it or be not well setled in this belief his meaning is that it relies upon such solid grounds that no man shall be able to deny Jesus to be the only begotten of the Father the Christ of God unless he can disprove the Authority of his witnesses which he was sure would never be in any mans power to do they were of such known verity If this be called in question whether Jesus be the Son of God or no if any list to bring it to trial and examine it before the bar of impartial Reason S. John here offers his witnesses faithful and just of undoubted Truth and Integrity who shall make it good So that if you will hear them and consider what they say and then give sentence according to their evidence you must needs judge that he is what he said he was The Son of God most high and quit him in your Consciences of all the calumnies aspersions of the Jews who said he was a deceiver of the people Now the witnesses that he brings you see dwell in two very distant places three of them in the Heavens and the other three in the Earth From these two several regions they give their Testimony the former from above the later here beneath For when the Apostle says that there are three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 testifying or bearing witness in the Heaven and as many that do the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the Earth the meaning is not that the First three gave their testimony to those that are in Heaven and the last three to those that are on Earth but that the First three witnesses are themselves in Heaven and the other three were on Earth and so from thence they gave their testimony to Jesus They that dwell in Heaven delivered their testimony and justified this Truth from above and the other residing on the Earth did there speak to it and make it good Let us first hear these supreme and Heavenly witnesses and take under examination what they declare concerning him whom we acknowledge for our Lord and what Authority he hath according to their testimony to exact all obedience of us as he is the Son of God And first of all let us begin with the witness of the FATHER for the truth is that as he is the First and the Beginning of all things so he did first testifie of Jesus and by his voice from Heaven proclaimed him to be his Son before He or any else was so bold as to affirm it And as he being the First did bear witness to him before any of the rest spoke a word so according to the number of these Heavenly witnesses He gave his Testimony of him three times I. The first time was when our Saviour began to appear publickly among the people coming out of his privacy from Nazareth of Galilee to be baptized of John in Jordan Matt. 3.13 Mark 1.9 He had no need indeed of that Baptism as John affirmed and our Saviour did not deny but as became one who had put himself into the state of our meanness and appeared in our sinful flesh he would omit nothing that belonged to the duty of a pious person And therefore he would have the Baptist do to him as he did to others knowing that he exercised this Ministry by the appointment of God whose institutions ought to be reverenced and to whose will all good men ought to conform themselves Now he had no sooner given this example of humble obedience but as he came out of the Water God the Father of Heaven declared him in express terms to be what S. John here says he was his only Son Which testimony of his is recorded by no less than three Evangelists as you may find if you read iii. Matth. 17. i. Mark 11. iii. Luke 22. who tells us that he saw the Heavens at that time opened to him and a Divine Glory come from thence and settle upon him which was followed with a voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So S. Matthew reports the words of God the FATHER from whom this voice came it is plain because he calls Jesus his Son or as they may be rendred more emphatically This is that Son of mine that beloved one whom the Prophets promised particularly xlii Isaiah 1. God would send to them as Tertullian well expounds it who is most dear to me and shall declare my whole will and pleasure There
the voice spake of him alone and none else there being no body but He to be seen by his Disciples when it came forth from the presence of God So you read in all the Evangelists that the cloud which appeared over-shadowed them viz. Moses and Elias whereupon the Disciples were afraid as S. Luke tells us ix 34. as they that is Moses and Elias entred â—â—to the cloud imagining it is like that it would approach nearer and spread it self over them who dreaded to enter into it as they saw those two persons did But there was no danger it only parted Moses and Elias from Jesus and left him alone and then came the voice out of that cloud where Moses and Elias were with God giving their assent to what it said This is my beloved Son hear him Him I say Non Mosen jam Eliam as Tertullian * L. 4. adv Marc. C. 22. I now observe interprets it Not Moses and Elias who were shown as his language is in the prerogative of brightness and then dismissed as being now discharged both of their office and of their honour Thus I have briefly explained the second Testimony which God the Father gave him in the audience of three of his Disciples who had a vision also at the same time of the glory wherein he was to shine after his departure out of this world To which testimony our Saviour would not have those Disciples as yet to add theirs but to keep this as a secret till he was risen again from the dead xvii Matth. 9. It was fit for the Father alone to speak now from whom they were to learn what Jesus was that being fully satisfied they might be the better able to speak of him then upon their own knowledge who had been eye and ear-witnesses of the honour and glory which he received from God the Father when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this voice S. Peter I told you openly avers 2 i. 17 18. he and others heard when they were with him in the holy mount But if any one should be so suspicious and distrustful as to think that the Testimony of three persons is not sufficient to beget belief in us of such a wonderful thing as this is that God declared Jesus to be his Son though there is no just reason to doubt of any thing that is established out of the mouth of but two good witnesses yet such was the condescension of God the Father Almighty that he was pleased a little before our Saviours decease which Moses and Elias spake of to give his testimony to him again and to declare this more publickly which was shortly to be proclaimed in all the world III. For this Third voice which the Father was pleased to send from Heaven to bear witness to him was not heard by so few as two or three but by a great multitude of people which makes our belief of this Truth to rely still upon surer grounds For you read in the xii John 1 2 c. that a great company of people having heard what a miracle our Saviour had wrought upon Lazarus whom he raised from the dead a little before at a neighbouring town flockt out of Jerusalem to meet him as he was coming thither to the seast of the Passeover And being convinced that he was that King of Israel whom the Lord by his Prophets had promised to send in his name they met him with Palms of joy and triumph in their hands and with the loudest acclamations of praise in their mouths spreading their garments also in the way as other Evangelists tell us to do him the greater honour and wishing him all prosperity in his new Kingdom In this croud or among the rest of the people who were come to worship at the feast there were certain Greeks as you read ver 20. who were desirous to see Jesus whom the multitude thus magnified and it is likely wish'd to have some proof given them that he was such a person as fame reported him Now the first thing our Saviour answers to those who presented them to him which must be diligently noted is that ere long He should be glorified But first he must take the Cross in his way and then the glory he should attain thereby would be exceeding great for his death would produce most precious fruit and be the means of enlarging his Kingdom and bringing innumerable such Gentiles as these were unto God ver 23 24. And thereupon He perswades his Disciples ver 25 26. to adventure their lives according to his example for the good of mankind which would redound also very much to their own honour As they might see already in Moses and Elias who appeared S. Chrysostom thinks for this end among others to strengthen and encourage their Christian resolution in their sufferings * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 56. in Matth. but should be more fully satisfied when they saw him ascend to that glory after his sufferings of which they had beheld but a shadow when those two illustrious persons came to wait upon him A difficult work indeed it was at the thoughts of which He himself could not but be something sad ver 27. and wisht according to the inclinations of Nature there were some other way if God pleased to deliver mankind But since he had sent him into the world for this end that he should lay down his life for our Redemption he resolves presently to submit to God and desires only this one thing of him ver 28. Father glorifie thy Name As much as to say I know thou art my FATHER and since it is thy pleasure to which I will always submit behold I offer my self now to be an instrument of thy glory by my passion as I have been hitherto by my preaching and the works thou hast done by my hands I am content to receive the glory which I expect and just now told my Disciples I shall receive in this way of humble suffering thy will and pleasure I am desirous thou shouldest first be glorified and if my death will serve that end I am ready to part with my life for I know thou wilt be much more glorified by my Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven There is no reasonable doubt to be made of the truth of this interpretation for they glorifie God most remarkably who die for the testimony of the Truth xxi John 19. It is a great honour to him that they love him more than their lives and will take his word for their recompense in an invisible world This our Saviour himself calls Gods being glorified in him xiii John 31. and therefore I make no question he desires here that his Fathers Name may be glorified by the same means Now to this humble request of his God the Father replies by a voice from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie
others are said to have seen God who beheld some very bright appearance an extraordinary light shining before their eyes which excelled all that ever they had seen or could imagine and was the token of the Divine presence Thus Moses was afraid to look upon God iii. Exod. 6. and the Elders of Israel are said to see the God of Israel xxiv 20. which places Maimonides thinks are to be understood of the Vision of God with the eyes of the mind But the Text is plainly against him which tells us there was a visible appearance of some unusual astonishing brightness And therefore he confesses that if any man do conceive those words are to be interpreted of some created light as he speaks * More Nevoch Part. 1. cap. 5. and many other places that is the visible apparition of a Divine Majesty or of an Angel there is no danger in such an apprehension And indeed no man can seriously read the Books of Moses but he will see plainly they speak of a sensible glory which was exceeding dazling and sometimes too great for the weak eyes of men to behold I have described it before when I told you it was nothing else but a flaming light which shone from that amazing devouring Fire which appeared in the cloud to the children of Israel Thus Abarbanel expounds that place I mentioned before xvi Exod. 7. In the morning then ye shall see the glory of the Lord. Which is not to be understood of the providing them bread or flesh in an extraordinary manner but of the Fire which appeared to all the people to reprove and punish them for their murmurings And so Lyra says it was an unusual refulgent brightness or lightning representing the Divine power ready to chastise them for their mutiny against his servants And it is very common in the New Testament to cal◠such a great splendour by the name of glory As the shining of Moses his face i◠called by S. Paul 2 Cor. iii. 7. the glory 〈◊〉 his countenance And in the same stile he◠speaks of the light of the Heavenly bodies when he says 1 Cor. xv 41. There is on◠glory of the Sun another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one Star differeth from another Star in glory that is in the brightness and splendour of its light Such a glory it was that now S. Steven beheld but far more splendid more pure and illustrious than the light of the Sun or any other that has been mentioned which was a representation of the presence of the Divine Majesty who used in this manner to make men sensible of his transcendent invisible glory And there in the Divine presence he saw our Lord in the most high and honourable place next to God the Father himself For that 's the meaning of his appearing at the right hand of God or of that great glory he saw in the Heavens the right hand being the principal place belonging to the Heir of the Crown when he appears together with the King his Father And therefore the Divine writer to the Hebrews says there never was any Angel seen there They only stand or minister before God or before his Throne but to which of them did he say at any time Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool i. Hebr. 13. This is the prerogative of Christ alone the great King the Heir of all things whose glory the Psalmist describes in that place cx Psal 1. from whence these words are cited that is prophecies of his Kingly power in the Heavens as S. Paul clearly expounds this phrase of sitting at Gods right hand 1 Cor. xv 25. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet He is a King and he reigns and he hath a Throne i. Hebr. 8. but when he is compared with God the Father Almighty the fountain of all power and authority and when he appears together with him to show that he reigns under him and for him he is represented as sitting at the right hand of God or the right hand of the Throne of God For so his Kingly power is expressed in other places He is set down on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Hebr. viii 1. xii 2. that is He reigns together with God the Father in the Celestial glory For the throne of God signifying in the Scripture phrase as the forenamed Maimonides observes that place where God's Majesty manifests it self in a visible splendour and glory the sitting of our Saviour at the right hand of that Throne or that glory denotes nothing else but his being seated in the highest honour that can be given to any one in the Heavenly places next in greatness power and majesty to God himself under whom he is the King of Angels and Men and all Creatures There was nothing of which this holy Martyr was more assured To whom this Heavenly King appeared not in his usual posture of sitting at God's right hand as one possessed of his royal power but standing there as if he was ministring in the Heavenly Sanctuary in the quality of a royal high-Priest for that was the posture of those that ministred in the Temple cxxxiv. Psal 1. for the comfort of all Christian people and of himself especially or rather as ready to come to take vengeance of those implacable enemies who had killed him and now persecuted his servants which was a notable instance of his royal power at God's right hand For there the Psalmist says he must reign till he hath subdued all those that oppose his authority and troden them under his feet And as for the second enquiry how he could know this to be Jesus whom he saw in this Heavenly Majesty It is easily resolved that He appeared to him with such a countenance as he had here upon Earth only more shining and bright as being now in the glory of the Father And so he tells the Jews I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God That very person he means who used to call himself the Son of man whom you crucified and dishonourably treated I now see so exalted that I had rather die as he did than not confess him to be the Son of God as he said he was when he died This is the first testimony which was given to this truth by the WORD Who bore witness in a most illustrious manner to himself when he appeared thus to a person of the greatest credit in the Divine glory and in the highest place of Celestial dignity as the King of Heaven that is and risen up from his Throne as if he was coming to be avenged of his adversaries to succour all his servants and to welcome this Martyr into glory with himself So S. Steven verily thought for he resigns up his Soul to Jesus with the same confidence and almost in the same words that Jesus gave up his to God the
that he was the Son of God the King of glory able to reward his patient servants and moreover sent Letters by him to several Churches of the Saints testifying the very same things which He made him see and hear in several visions They are recorded in that Book which tells us in the very first words of it that it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which he sent and signified by the Ministery of his Angel to his servant John Who had already born record so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be rendred ver 2. of the WORD of God and of the testimony of Jesus and of all things that he saw Had declared that is in his Gospel Jesus to be the WORD of God and made known that which he testified to be Gods will concerning men together with all the evidences by Miracles and other ways which he had seen of the truth of that which Jesus testified There could not be a fitter person than he who perhaps also was the only Apostle now remaining in the world to hold communication with this WORD of God and receive new revelations from Jesus He being at this time likewise banished and confined to the Isle which is called Patmos ver 9. for the cause now named that is for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ In this lonesome place separated from the rest of the Earth our Lord opened Heaven to him and shewed him the glory which he had there For he fell into a rapture on the Lords day ver 10. and heard one speak behind him with a voice as loud as a trumpet saying I am before and after all things that is God blessed for ever Write what thou seest in a Book and send it to the seven Churches which are in Asia whose names are there expressed ver 11. Whereupon he turn'd about to see whence this voice came and then he beheld in the midst of seven golden Candlesticks representing those Churches a very glorious person appearing in the most royal majesty and power He did not ask him as S. Paul did who he was for he had been long acquainted heretofore with that countenance and knew him perfectly well to be our blessed Saviour Who by his very habit wherein he appeared declared himself to be as he had said the Lord of all who had no superiour nor any second in that Kingdom which God the Father had given him but disposed all things according to the sole pleasure of his will For he beheld him clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle c. ver 13 14 15 16. He saw that is as Irenaeus truly expresses it L. 4. cap. 37. Sacerdotalem gloriosum regni ejus adventum him appear in his Priestly and glorious Kingdom For a long Robe and a golden Girdle belonged both to Kings and to the High-Priest in the Jewish Nation And all the rest of the description it were easie to show is a plain representation of a person shining in the glory of God the Father and invested with such an irresistible power in the Heavens as might justy make all his Friends rejoyce who acknowledged him to be the Son of God most high and all his Enemies quake and tremble who opposed his sovereign Authority In short so glorious was the sight that S. John himself was not able to bear it but when he saw him fell at his feet as dead ver 17. till the WORD as Irenaeus speaks in the same place on whose breast he had reposed himself at his last Supper revived and comforted him with these gracious words Fear not I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keys of Hell and of Death As much as to say Thou wast not deceived when thou thoughtest thou saw the Son of man appear to thee It is I indeed therefore be not so afraid though now thou beholdest me in such Heavenly Majesty and Divine glory for thou oughtest rather to rejoyce to think that I am the eternal God I whom thou knewest when I lived upon Earth and whom thou sawest shamefully put to death am now alive as thou seest also never to die any more and am intrusted with a power to rescue you from death and raise you out of your graves It would be too long if I should tell you all that he says in his Letters to those Churches to assert his title to the Name of the Son of God which he expresly takes to himself in one of them ii Rev. 18. and to declare his royal power which he exercises in all the world especially in his Church the house of the living God where he hath such an absolute authority expressed by having the keys of the house of David c. iii. 7. that none can contradict him either by preserving any man in the Divine favour if he reject him or by excluding any man from it if he receive him It may suffice to observe these two things First that there is not one of those Letters but it begins with some such description of our Saviour's sovereign Majesty as this now mentioned For the character he had given of himself in the first Chapter is again repeated by parts in the following messages to the Churches Where he sometimes calls himself He that walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks ii 1. that is inspects and governs them Sometime the first and the last which was dead and is alive ver 8. that is the Lord God who can raise him from the dead who parts with his life for me And to name no more he calls himself ver 12. He that hath the sharp sword with two edges to cut in pieces either them or their enemies according as they deserved of him And indeed it being the office of a King which is the second thing to be observed or a supreme Governour to punish offenders and to reward vertuous persons he constantly assumes both these powers to himself in every one of these seven Letters telling them what evil should befall them from his hand if they did not amend and what blessings he would bestow upon them if they did overcome Which is a plain declaration of his Regal power and authority which he now hath at the right hand of the Throne of God There S. John saw him in a second Vision as Irenaeus calls it v. Rev. 6. where he appears in such power with God that none hath the like For there was a majesty represented to the Apostle sitting on a Throne with a Book in his right hand ver 1. which none could open or read or so much as look into And then behold this Lamb of God who had been slain comes and appears in the midst of the Throne being the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah as one of the Elders calls him ver 5. that royal person whom
God promised to send to rule over them He takes the Book out of the right hand of him that sate on the Throne ver 7. which signifies that he is next to God the Father of all at whose right hand he stood in power and glory As appears also by his being seated in his Throne for the thrones of the Eastern Kings to which these expressions allude were wide like one of our Couches in which more than one may sit and by his having the principal Angels the seven spirits of God at his command to imploy where he pleased Who together with the rest of the Heavenly host and with the Christian Church make their acclamations to him ver 11 12. as worthy of the most supreme power and dignity which they express in as many Names of praise as there are principal Spirits of God when they say Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 1. power and 2. riches and 3. wisdom and 4. strength and 5. honour and 6. glory and 7. blessing And then immediately he hears every Creature joyning him in their Doxology together with God the Father saying ver 13. Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever But the more fully to represent his Divine power you may observe that he appears in another Vision to him in the very same state and majesty wherein God was wont to make himself present in the times of old Then you read that the Lord made the clouds his chariot and walkt upon the wings of the wind ciii Psalm 3. that is came to them by the ministery of Angels who appeared in bright and shining clouds to do his will with great expedition every where For so it is expounded in the xviii Psalm 10. where instead of clouds it is said He rode upon a Cherub and did flie yea he did flie upon the wings of the wind That is there was a token of his presence by the majestick appearance of Angels who were ready to be imployed by him and immediately to execute his commands For to ride upon any thing as Maimonides observes * More Nevoch Part. 1. cap. 70. is in the Holy Language to rule to govern to have an absolute power over it and dispose of it as one pleases And therefore to ride upon a Cherub or to make the clouds his chariot which are the very same because the Angels appeared in glorious clouds is to send those Heavenly Ministers whither he thinks good to perform his pleasure Whence it is I suppose that the Psalmist says elsewhere lxviii 34. his strength is in the clouds because he is powerfully present by them in all places For as Andreas Caesariensis hath truly observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in his Commentaries upon the Revelation a cloud in the Sacred writings is ever a Minister about Divine businesses and perpetually imployed in them because they are above us and are very swift as the Angels are in their motions and are both dark and bright a fit emblem of the glory of the Divine Majesty which is inscrutable by us Now just in such a glorious Majesty and mighty power did S. John behold our blessed Saviour making the clouds that is the Angels his chariot in which he sate as a Lord to whom they were to do service So he tells us in xiv Rev. 14. And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sate like unto the Son of man having on his head a golden Crown and in his hand a sharp sickle Where by cloud the forementioned writer understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Angelical power of which this white that is bright cloud was a representation ministring to our Saviour For S. John saw him upon this cloud and sitting there as if it were the Throne or Royal Chariot of this Prince Who sate there with a Crown on his head denoting his Royal authority and that of Gold to show by what is most precious among us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the splendour and greatness of his Majesty and with a sickle in his hand to signifie that he hath such a power as to be able to cut down Kingdoms and States with as much ease as we mow a field of corn All these three last expressions set forth the highest dignity and most royal power and therefore so doth his sitting upon a cloud or being carried by Angels as Kings were anciently and still are in the Eastern Countries by their servants Which kind of speech and other such like phrases in the holy Language as riding upon the wings of Angels denoted by the clouds and wind signifie the exercise of his Kingly power by their Ministry Who are ready to fly any whither to convey his orders and execute them throughout the world Where he being present by them as a King is by his several Ministers in every part of his Dominions he is said to sit upon them as if whither-soever they go they carried him Thus the ancient Books speak of God the Creator and Governour of all and thus our Saviour teaches S. John to speak of him which is a sign that he is the Son of God who sends forth the Angels to minister for them especially who shall be heirs of salvation And therefore in another Vision which is all I need mention xix Rev. 11 12 c. He saw him again coming out of Heaven with the Royal ensigns of his victorious power over those who had opposed his authority For behold a white horse which was proper for a conqueror and one sitting upon him whose name was called the WORD of God Who was clothed he tells us with a vesture dipt in bloud that is with a purple garment such as Kings use to wear and his eyes sparkled or rather flamed like fire to denote how terrible he was to his Enemies and there were on his head many Crowns because he had already conquered several Kingdoms and Provinces and was now going to subdue more being attonded with all the armies in Heaven who waited upon him to minister to him in this war till as he was of right he was actually acknowledged by humble subjection to him to be KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS And what greater argument can there be of the power of our Lord and of the truth of these Visions whereby the WORD of God who hath the lineaments of future things in his mind as Irenaeus speaks represented how God would hereafter dispose of the affairs of the world than his possessing himself of a Kingdom and perswading so great a part of mankind to submit to him though a King invisible merely by the preaching of such men as S. John The event hath proved it was no delusion when he heard those great voices in Heaven saying xi 15. The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever
and ever Which was accomplished also with very great speed as he saw represented by an Angel which appeared flying in the midst of Heaven xiv 6. Having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the Earth That motion of flying seems to signifie the haste which the great Ministers of Christ made who are compared in this book to Angels to publish his Gospel to the world Which had mighty success because it came with authority from Heaven as is represented by the Angels flying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the midst of the air between Heaven and Earth to denote something he had in hand which was decreed above and to be done here below The greatest powers on Earth indeed set themselves against it and made war with the Lamb xvii 14. that is persecuted Christianity But he foretells his conquests even over these Kingdoms who were such furious enemies as to seek to destroy his Religion For which he gives only these two reasons because God had made him Lord of Lords and King of Kings and because those who followed him were such choice persons that their patient constant perseverance in his service to which he had called them helpt to overcome his and their Enemies and to bring them in subjection to him I can think of nothing that can be objected against what hath been said but two things which deserve briefly to be considered One of them concerns this last particular now handled and the other seems to cross all that hath been delivered in this Chapter Against what hath now been alledged from the Revelations it may be objected that this Book of Visions was doubted of among some of the ancient Christians To which the Answer is very obvious That there was a particular reason why this Book did not always go along with the rest into every bodies hands and by that means being not so generally known was afterward questioned because the making of it as publick as the Christian doctrine might have too much incensed the power of the Roman Empire whose downfall is here so plainly predicted Yet it was not kept so private but that it is cited very early both as a Divine Book and as the writing of S. John the Apostle by those who deserve to be believed Justin Martyr had that opinion of it and so had Irenaeus as I have already said and Theophilus Antiochenus and Origen especially S. Cyprian who I have observed produces testimonies out of no book of the New Testament so oft as this From whence he encourages Christians to follow their Master and all that worthy company who had hazarded their lives for him It being the peculiar glory saith he * De Exhort Martyr of our time that whereas ancient examples might be numbred now there is such an exuberant abundance of vertue and faith that Christian Martyrs cannot So the Revelation witnesses I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb with white robes and palms in their hands vii 9. And these he was told are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. I shall not produce the words of any of the rest nor of divers others who without any manner of doubting pronounce this to be the Revelation of the WORD of God to his servant John But pass to the other thing which may be alledged to the prejudice of the whole foregoing discourse For I produce nothing some may say but the testimony which one gives of himself which all confess to be of no validity This WORD of God himself saith so as this very Apostle hath recorded v. John 31. If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true And yet what is all that S. Steven saw or that he spake to S. Paul and S. John but his witness of himself I answer in his own words also which you read in another place of that Gospel viii 14. where the Pharisees objecting to him his own concession ver 13. that a mans testimony to himself is nothing worth he seems to revoke but in truth only explains it by telling them in terms quite contrary though I bear record of my self my record is true The former words are not so to be understood as if what a man says of himself were always false or not to be regarded when he hath a concurrent testimony from others no it may be true though it will perswade no body else to believe it without other evidence That 's all our Saviour means in the Fifth Chapter if he had alone born witness to himself and there had been no other testimony given him it had not been true that is not a valid unexceptionable testimony by which he might demand credit from them So the word true is used viii John 17. in the sence of the Law which required two or three witnesses for the establishing or setling any thing in question They had no reason to believe he was Gods Son but might still have disputed it if he had been the only person that said so and could have brought no other to witness for him And yet notwithstanding He tells them here that even in this case his testimony of himself is true as truth is opposed to falshood though it wanted that truth which was necessary to make it a legal testimony That is though it could not have passed in Law nor stopt the mouth of gainsayers because it was a single testimony and the Law required more than one yet it would have had nothing of a lie in it but his words would have been perfectly true when he affirmed himself to be the Son of God But 〈◊〉 was not his case He alone did not bea◠witness to himself but there were others beside him who bare witness of him and said the same thing that he did as he shows v. John 32 33 36 c. and said it before he assumed this name to himself And therefore his testimony which single would have had no strength being joyned to the other is of great force and ought to be regarded He did not desire to be received merely because he said he was the Son of God though he ought not to be accounted a liar for saying so alone no he referred them to other proof of that truth But when they had heard and considered them then there was reason they should hear what he affirmed concerning himself and not think the worse of him because he spake those words which were no other than the very words of the Father whereby he bare witness to him So he tells them in the viii John 17 18. It is written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true I am one that bear witness of my self and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me That is you have no reason to disparage my
Salutation to the blessed Virgin is after this manner recited in the Alcoran in the next Chapter to that before named O Mary God sends thee a good Messenger by his WORD which is out of himself His Name is Messias or Jesus Christ the Son of Mary powerful in this present World and in the World to come Where the forenamed Paraphrast says he was powerful in the present World by Prophecy and in the World to come by Intercession and Celestial preparation He should have added also what he said before that he was powerful here by that which is properly called power the healing Diseases opening blind Mens eyes and such like works of wonders the Divine Majesty resting on him and abiding in him in so glorious a manner that he might properly be called the Temple of God For whatsoever demonstrations there were of Gods presence in the Tabernacle of Moses or in the Temple of Solomon which were alike filled with the glory of the Lord xl Exod. 34 35. 2 Chron. v. 13 14. the very same tokens there were of his presence in our Saviour Nay it is easie to show that he manifested himself in all his glorious Attributes more in our Saviours Person than ever he did in either of those places And it will be such an evident demonstration of the truth I am asserting and give such light to this testimony of the Holy-Ghost who appeared in that excellent Majesty which descended on him that I think it will be worth my pains to make good the Parallel in some instances I. And first you may observe that from the holy place in the Tabernacle God declared his mind and will and made known to his People what he would have done There God told Moses he would meet and commune with him of all things which he would give him in commandment to the Children of Israel xxv Exod. 22. And we are told the manner of it vii Num. 89. When he was gone into the Tabernacle he heard the voice of one speaking to him from off the Mercy seat that was upon the Ark from between the two Cherubims From thence God gave out to Moses his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls them iii. Rom. 2. Oracles or such words of direction and command as were necessary for the good Government and preservation of his People whose Laws Statutes and Judgments came from the holy Oracle in the Sanctuary of God This was a marvellous favour of Heaven to them though nothing comparable to the manifestation of the wisdome and counsel and will of God by our blessed Saviour Who not only revealed his Mind more clearly and abundantly thereby showing he is the Temple of God but told us such things as never came from the former holy place things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither did they enter into the heart of man to conceive He was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or WORD of GOD in this sence as well as any other because he acquaints us with Gods mind and declares to all Mankind his sacred will and as from an holy Oracle utters things secret from the foundation of the World For the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth i. Joh. 14. The word full relates to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the WORD in the beginning of the Verse the other part of the Verse being inserted between in a Parenthesis and carries this sence in it that Jesus being fully acquainted with all the gracious counsels of God concerning Men hath declared them to us and made us also acquainted with them He was so full of truth that he calls himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the truth it self xiv Joh. 6. No man hath seen God at any time the onely begotten Son he hath declared him i. 18. That is he hath made God visible to us he as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expounder or interpreter of anothers mind hath opened to us all his secrets concerning our Salvation and thereby declared that he is no less than the Wisdom of God When he appeared in the World then Wisdome built her self an house as Solomon speaks ix Prov. 1. Which words * Orat. 3. contra Arrian Athanasius not unfitly accommodates to our Lord Christ Whose body is the house of Wisdome And a most holy house the dwelling place of God from whence he hath revealed himself not to so few as one Nation but to all the World whom if they would open their eyes he hath illuminated with his Wisdome R. Bechai I remember will have the Ark from whence Moses heard God speaking to him to be called in their Language by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as to say because of the light which was there Which he will have to be the Law preserved in the Ark which was the Light of Israel And just thus writes S. John concerning this WORD of God 1.4 In him was life and the life was the light of men That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World v. 9. For so Jesus proclaimed himself saying viii 12. I am the LIGHT of the World And such a Light he was that all the wisdome which was discovered before from the Sanctuary of God was but Clouds and darkness in compare with that which was made manifest by our Saviour The best knowledge they had was covered and wrapt up in types and figures till God appeared in Jesus and rent those clouds in pieces by the brightness of his beams They had but such a confused apprehension of things in former times that S. Paul compares this discovery of God in Christ to the breaking forth of light out of the rude Chaos in the beginning of the world 2 Corinth iv 6. For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness i. Gen. 2 3. hath shined in our hearts the hearts of the Apostles to give the light of the knowledge of the GLORY OF GOD in the face of Jesus Christ Some flashes of which light and majesty of God in him came from his face not long after he entred into the World When he was but a Childe they wondred at his wisdome and were astonished at his understanding and answers ii Luk. 47. But when he was grown up and the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven upon him like the Glory of the Lord which filled the Tabernacle and Temple then his Wisdome appeared the more illustriously And was the more amazing because they knew he was not trained up in the Schools of Learning nor had any better breeding than a Carpenter's shop could give him For so his Countrymen say in S. Mark vi 2 3. Is not this the Carpenter the Son of Mary How comes he by these things and what wisdome is this which is given unto him They were astonished at his Doctrine and as S. Luke tells us iv 22. Wondred at the gracious words which proceeded out of his
remember that your Baptism engages you to learn of him and to become like him Express that Honour towards God that Fear and that Love of him which he requires Imploy your selves carefully in all actions of Justice Charity and Sobriety Yea be prepared chearfully to follow him in suffering as well as in doing his blessed will This will be an infallible testimony that you are the children of God as on the contrary if you want this Witness all other evidence of it will fail you There is no reason to distrust this but the stronger your confidence is without it the more grosly you deceive your selves if you conclude your selves to be dear to him You find both these strongly asserted in this Epistle For the Affirmative read ii 29. If ye know that he is righteous know ye that every one that doth righteousness is born of him And iii. 7. Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous For the Negative read the following words ver 8 9 10. He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother And for your encouragement to purifie your Souls remember that the purity and holiness of Christ's Life and Doctrine secures you of the truth of all his gracious promises We may say with a greater assurance than the Psalmist did in his days xii Psal 6. The words of the Lord i. e. his promises are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of Earth purified seven times Which should make us value them more than thousands of Gold and Silver though never so perfectly refined and to say as he does in another place cxix 140. Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it Those Metals are not freer from Dross after they have passed never so oft through the Fining-pot than his promises are from all mixture of deceit We may rely upon them with the greatest confidence and be secure they will never fail us It is as certainly true that God will take us to be his Sons and Daughters that he will dwell in us and give us everlasting life as it is that Jesus is the Son of God He that says the one says the other too and he may be alike believed in both But then having these promises we must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. vii 1. For the Son of God was manifested you heard for this purpose And this was the end for which he gave himself i. e. to die for us that he might sanctifie and cleanse his Church with the washing of Water by the Word v. Ephes 26. and redeeming us from all iniquity purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works i. Tit. 14. Which if we study sincerely then this WATER here spoken of is part of the Waters of Life and this Testimony gives us assurance that we shall have our share in those Eternal good things which he hath promised in his holy Gospel For he is the Truth and in him there is no Lye But of this more hereafter when we have heard the following Witnesses and given glory to Jesus and made our acknowledgments to him in some such words as these A PRAYER I Believe O Lord not only that thou art a Teacher come from God and speakest the words of God but that thou art above all the very WORD of God it self into whose hands the Father hath given all things I admire the holiness of all thy Precepts and rejoyce in the purity of thy exceeding great and precious promises Thou art the Truth the Holy one of God without spot or blemish in whose mouth was found no guile There is all reason that we should receive thy testimony which thou hast given of thy self and all that thou hast testified to us to be the will of God and believe that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Good Lord increase my Faith that as I see still further demonstrations of thy power and glory and cannot but acknowledge the perfect sanctity equity and goodness of all thy Laws and be in love with the beauty of thy most holy life so I may feel my heart inclined more and more to submit it self to be governed by thee to obey thy will and to imitate thy example Happy are those holy Souls who have learnt of thee to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world and whose hearts by that means are full of the blessed hope of immortality hereafter and of thy tender care of them while they are here There is nothing so desirable as to be holy even as thou who hast called us art holy in all manner of conversation It is the perfection of our Nature the end of our Being and the true satisfaction of our hearts to have thy image formed in us in righteousness and sincere holiness Imprint this sense deeper O blessed God in mine and every Christian heart That it may be our perpetual delight as well as our study to give thee the honour that is due unto thy Name to love thee with all our heart and soul and strength to preserve an holy fear of thee in our mind to trust in thee and cast our care upon thee to hope in thy never-failing mercies and to rejoyce evermore in thy love and that good hope which are better than life it self O that we may never cease to testifie our true love and honour and fear of thee with all other religious affections by praying without ceasing and offering the sacrifice of praise continually and in every thing giving thanks especially for the oblation which our Lord made of himself to thee which love may it be published with perpetual praise and thanks every where to the end of the world And give us the grace to add unto our love of thee a sincere and unfeigned love of all men That we may do to them whatsoever we desire that they should do to us Let this be the constant Rule of all our designs desires words and actions Let it ever be before our eyes to make us duly honour and observe our superiours pity succour relieve and comfort all those who are below us and be just faithful and friendly to all others O that every man would speak the truth with his neighbour and be charitable in their judgments one of another meek and gentle in all their words and behaviour ready to distribute and to do good studious of the things that make for peace forward to be reconciled to those
who have offended them to pass by injuries and to do good for evil and especially to be kindly affectioned one to another in the love of the Brethren in honour preventing one another For which end endue us all with true humility of Spirit with very contented minds and moderate desires Let no covetousness no ambition or love of any pleasure betray us to dishonour thee hurt our neighbours or abuse our selves Help us to possess our bodies in sanctification and honour to preserve our hearts chaste and pure to be temperate in all things to mortifie our members that are on the Earth to put away all foolish talking and corrupt communication out of our mouth and to abstain from all appearance of evil Finally whatsoever things are sincere and true whatsoever things are grave and honest whatsoever things are just and equal whatsoever things are pure and modest whatsoever things are amiable and endearing whatsoever things are of good fame and well spoken of if there be any occasion to exercise a vertue if there be any thing laudable dispose us to have these things always in our mind and to be readily prepared for them That so we may be good in every relation Governours and Subjects Priests and People Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants doing their duties faithfully and to their mutual comfort joy and satisfaction And if thy wise Providence call any of us to part with any thing for thy names sake O that our Love may give an eminent proof of its sincerity by resolved and patient suffering with an humble meek and chearful submission to thy holy will Then shall our Souls rejoyce and triumph in thee when we not only call thee Lord and Master but do those things that thou sayest It will be our exceeding joy to think that thou lovest us as thy children and delightest to behold thine own Image in us We shall rejoyce that thou reignest and rejoyce again in hope that we shall reign with thee Blessing honour glory and praise shall we be for ever giving unto thee who hast washed us from our sins in thy own bloud and redeemed us from all iniquity that we should be holy and unblameable before God in love looking for thy mercy unto eternal life Amen and Amen CHAP. VI. Concerning the Second Witness upon Earth the BLOVD COME we now to hear what the next Witness says which we shall find to give in an Evidence as strong as the former and that is the BLOUD By this word every body presently understands the Sufferings and DEATH of Jesus when his Bloud you know was shed upon the Cross in a most ignominious manner For that envy which began to rise in the Pharisees hearts as I observed in the end of the foregoing Chapter from iv John 1. when they saw him baptize so many disciples never ceased boiling till it turned into perfect Gall and the rankest hatred and malice in the World which was never satisfied till they had baptized him as S. Luke speaks xii 50. with his own bloud For the present indeed as you read there and in many other places he avoided their snares and went out of their way when he thought they intended to apprehend him because he would preserve himself till he had preached all the Country over But when that was done he suffered them to take him at a publick feast and delivering up himself into their hands let them do with him just as their murderous malice inclined them Now this voluntary Oblation and Sacrifice of himself to suffer what they pleased to inflict was such an evidence that in truth he was the Son of God as he had made his disciples believe that there is a particular mark set upon it to this purpose both by himself and by his Apostles He himself in his discourse with Pontius Pilate just before his crucifixion and when he stood before him condemned by the Jews for saying he was the Son of God expresly affirms that for this end he was born and therefore he came into the world that he might bear witness to the truth xviii John 37. Which was as much as to declare that he had rather die than lose the end for which he had lived thus long which was to speak the Truth and particularly this Truth that he was indeed a KING as you there read the very Son of God This was the thing he would justifie whatsoever he suffered for it God had appointed him to seal this with his death and to attest it in the most solemn manner even before his Judge here on Earth and when he was going to be judged by God and therefore he would not for all the world deny it or not confess it We ordinarily say when we would affirm any thing very strongly that if it was the last thing that ever we should speak we would not stick to maintain it And just so did our Saviour I came says he into the world for this end to bear witness to the truth and here I take it upon my death that I do not swerve from it in the least when I say that I am the Son of God S. Paul also as I have noted already takes particular notice of this when he remembers Timothy 1 vi 13. how Jesus did WITNESS a good confession before Pontius Pilate That is asserted this Truth that he was a KING though not of this world by confessing it before him who sate in judgment upon him with the apparent danger of his life He durst not retract any thing which he knew to be a truth though he knew withall it would prove so costly that he must defend it with his bloud He stood in this to the very last that he was the CHRIST and durst not to save such a precious life speak one word otherwise for then he knew that he should have been a lyar like the Jews who denied it This that hath been thus premised to the following discourse is very serviceable to the demonstrating what a Witness his BLOUD was because it calls to mind that which is necessary to be here again considered how he lost his life for nothing else but merely because he confessed that he was their CHRIST the Son of the Blessed Many causes of death were industriously sought for and sundry false witnesses boldly rose up against him and yet none of their testimonies when they came to be scan'd were found to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Mark 's expression is xiv 56 59. equal to the endictment or charge that was brought against him and to the intended judgment which was to pass upon him There was nothing ponderous enough of sufficient weight to justifie such a sentence as that of death which they were desirous to pronounce upon him and therefore they despaired of attaining their end unless they could have such words out of his own mouth as in their opinion would prove him a blasphemer for which they might justly condemn him
sets his seal to this Truth calling God his FATHER twice as he hung upon the Cross First when he prayed for his Enemies FATHER forgive them xxiii Luke 36. and then when he prayed for himself FATHER into thy hands I commend my Spirit ver 46. With these words he resigned up his Soul to God And had it not been a seasonable time now to retract what he had said if it had not been a Truth which must be justified to the last gasp How can any one think that a man who preached the Life and Judgment to come and lived as if he believed it would venture to die with a lye in his mouth and that of so high a guilt and which he knew also could not be long undetected here as it would be severely punisht in another place nay which He himself he knew very well would presently confute For he frequently had said as his very enemies understood that he would rise again the third day after he was killed which he must needs think would prove a lye if the other had been so when he told them he was the Son of God God who only can raise the dead but cannot lye would never have justified so blasphemous a lye as this and given it an undeniable authority by fulfilling his word For as his bloudy death plainly proved that he believed himself to be the Son of God and took it for an undoubted truth so his Resurrection was an infallible proof that he was not mistaken but had witnessed that by his death which was as true as he thought it His Death show'd that he was certain of it and his Resurrection makes us certain that he was not deceived These two therefore must be joyned together to make up a complete evidence and so they are as you shall see for the Witness of the SPIRIT contains the Resurrection in it Yet I must add that his BLOUD considered alone did not barely prove that he believed he was Gods Son and thought it the greatest sin to deny it but it proved also that he had great reason for such a belief Reasons so weighty that they over-balanced the natural love of life And therefore this alone may be called one of his Witnesses which not only justified his integrity but declared that he had the greatest assurance and the clearest evidence of that which he asserted being so certain of it that the fear of death could not make him doubt it nor all the torments in the world tempt him to deny it IX And if you consider what manner of person Jesus was you will soon be satisfied also that he was not liable to mistake strong fancies for weighty reasons but was as far from being deceived himself as he was from any intention to deceive others The principal thing indeed which his Bloud testified was that he did not on set purpose go about to put a cheat upon the World or invented his Doctrine himself Yet all things considered it proves likewise that his Doctrine was true and ought to be believed by us For such was the quality of his person and of the rest of his Doctrine that they plainly manifest He was neither led by fancy nor possessed with any Demoniacal illusion when he said he was the Son of God So great was his wisdom and the sharpness of his understanding that any man who hath not lost his own understanding may easily see he could not be apt to be gull'd with the impostures of imagination And so great and discreet was his Piety that it is as visible he was not obnoxious to be deluded any other way When He was but a child He amazed the principal men of the Nation with his questions and answers And afterward in the whole course of his preaching there appeared nothing but what declared a most prudent sober and excellently composed mind Nothing of inequality and unevenness in his temper No rapturous discourses or ecstatical expressions Nothing that savoured of Melancholy which imposes upon some or of Pride and Vanity which abuses others But the greatest gravity and seriousness mixt with admirable sweetness and humility is the plain character of our Saviour Then look over all his Doctrine and where shall we find any that ever spoke so clearly and with so much Majesty of Righteousness Temperance Charity and Piety of all our duty towards God and Man as he did Who had the gift of comprehending much in a few but perspicuous words of illustrating his Doctrine with apt and familiar resemblances of confirming it with powerful arguments and of confuting all the cavils of his adversaries with the strongest reasons None of which things are to be found in any of those who have been abused by their own fancies and passions or by the juglings of evil Spirits as will appear more plainly by considering a little more particularly those two cavils Let it be taken then for granted that there have been some men who meant not to deceive that were notwithstanding so overborn by a strong fancy or haughty imagination as not only to take their own dreams for Divine Revelations but also most vehemently to assert them even with the loss of their liberties estate nay and life it self And suppose withall that there have been some who were so fully possessed with a conceit of nearer communion of God that they took themselves to be Christ himself or Apostles sent by him and that no torments could perswade them to think otherways Yet see what a vast difference there is between such vain pretenders and our blessed Saviour even in the very words that they spake And first I think it is very consirable that you never read of any man so presumptuous as to fancy he was the very Son of God who sits at his right hand and rules over all and hath power to judge the quick and the dead No these vain Enthusiasts have only conceited that they were after I know not what spiritual manner made one with Christ and so united to God that as they phrase it in swoln words of vanity they were Godded with God and Christed with Christ But who discerns not the disparity between this foolish language and the words of soberness which our Saviour spake Which indeed is the most remarkable thing If you consider all the Doctrine of these empty Pretenders there is nothing more ridiculous They have ever affected big words lofty and high-flown phrases and mystical expressions wherewith they love to stuff their Books and their discourses which either have no meaning or if they have it is very poor and despicable when it comes to be stript of the fantastical language wherewith it is cloathed And therefore such men have been so far from amazing any considerate persons that they have rather moved their laughter and scorn while they heard them babble nothing but mystical nonsence with abundance of confident boldness And if they have found any followers they were such as had no depth no solidity of
even when thou wast scorned and rejected of men Great was the splendour of thy Majesty under the mockery of a Crown of Thorns and under the reproach of the Cross it self And great was thy Love O thou Lover of Souls who wouldst shed thy own most precious Bloud to work and confirm thy Faith in our hearts that believing on thee we might have life through thy Name O how expensive was thy Love which never thought it had done enough till thou hadst assured our hearts by giving thy self for us How infinitely are we indebted to thee who hast so dearly purchased our eternal joy with thy most bitter sorrows I ought to have the greater regard to all that thou hast said either concerning thy self or concerning the obedience I owe thee or the happiness thou hast promised me because thou hast sealed all in so sacred a manner and chosen to die that thou mightest bear witness to thy Truth For this end thou camest into the world and hast honoured thy self with the Name of the True and faithful witness the beginning of the Creation of God who hast shown us the path of life by thy bloudy and most ignominious death O that none of us who are called by thy Name may ever prove so base and unworthy so ungrateful and disrespectful to thee so insensible or forgetful of thine amazing goodness as to forsake that course which thou thy self hast begun and into which thou hast led us by thine own example Let none of us prove unlike thee who art the beginner and the finisher of our Faith Let us never degenerate from the Original from whence we come nor dishonour the very Author of what we are by actions unworthy of his children But be pleased graciously both to excite and assist our pious endeavours to follow thee and to witness a good confession as thou hast done at least in our lives and conversation That they may testifie to all how much we reverence thee by our observance of thy commands and justifie the truth of thy Word that thy yoke is easie and thy burden light by our chearful free and ready observance of them And if thou wilt have us to witness a good confession also by our bloud or by parting with any thing that is as dear unto us for thy names sake O that we may then imitate thee the true and faithful witness by continuing faithful to thee unto death Let no Soul of us ever faint in our mind much less draw back for fear of any thing that may befall us But still go on and couragiously meet whatsoever opposes us in our way to Heaven Help us to stand fast in the Faith to quit our selves like men and to be strong as becomes thy faithful servants and souldiers who have vowed to be true to thee unto our lives end O Blessed Jesus who can think that he does or endures too much for thee Who can complain of thy service or repine at the sufferings it may require When he thinks of thy labour and pains to secure our hope in God of an eternal redemption from all miseries and troubles and from all sin the cause of them by shedding thy own most holy bloud We are unworthy to bear the Name of thy servants if we should be so ungrateful to thy memory as not to celebrate that love with perpetual praises and thanksgivings And how fearfully shall we reproach our selves if we continue to commemorate it and yet grudge to deny any thing for thy sake or behave our selves as if we would renew thy sufferings by our continued sins Far be it from any of us to think any thing so dear to us as Truth and Righteousness that holy Truth which thou hast delivered to us O that we may read with such an affection the whole history of thy love and all the Laws thou hast left to govern us and the gracious grants thou hast made us as if we saw them written in thy most precious bloud By which thou hast testified the greatness and sincerity of thy love and assured us of the truth of thy Word and consecrated thy self also to be a merciful and faithful High Priest who canst have compassion on us and ever succour and relieve us when we are tempted as thou wast And may we be so sensibly affected herewith as to depend on thy intercession with the stronger Faith and with greater care and diligence tread in those steps which thou hast in such a manner markt out to us and persist in them so stedfastly that none of the terrors of this world may make us step aside and turn from thy Commandments Give us grace O Blessed Lord in the worst condition to express that resolution that undaunted resolution that constancy that confidence in God that zeal for his honour and glory that charity towards our enemies that humble resignation and that patient meekness which appeared in thee under thy greatest sufferings Arm us with the very same mind and spirit which we see in thy self That we who believe in a Saviour who abased and humbled himself so low who was so content to be poor and little regarded to bear all the slanders and scorn as well as the cruel torments which the malice of men could inflict upon him may not be proud and insolent covetous and ambitious impatient of pain or a little disparagement but constantly endeavouring to conform our selves to thy glorious pattern which we have before us may rejoyce in that faithful saying That if we be dead with thee we shall also live with thee if we suffer we shall also reign with thee Amen Now unto the faithful Witness the first-begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Bloud and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning the Third Witness upon Earth the SPIRIT THere is one Witness more that remains still to be examined whose testimony was notorious and very well known for it was upon the Earth viz. that of the SPIRIT In the sixth verse S. John brings it in after the other two I have now treated of though in the eighth Verse it be set before them And there he adds this illustrious character of it which is not given to the two former it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness because the SPIRIT is the TRUTH Which is not to be understood as if the other two were not Witnesses for they are called so expresly in this eighth Verse or as if they were not truth for I have abundantly proved that they are But this mark is set upon the SPIRIT to denote it to be the most eminent Witness of the Three The witness or that Witness that which excels the other two in clearness and notoriousness that which was alwayes accounted most powerful to prove a truth that against which nothing
whereby the nature of things is inverted so that it appears it could not have been done by any power but only by his who is the author of Nature and made all the things we see out of nothing at all And secondly this miracle must not be wrought in secret but to gain belief it must be done before the eyes of a multitude who may see it and be satisfied of the truth of it And lastly diligent inquiry must be made and it must be examined strictly that no doubt may be left in mens minds but they may be fully satisfied it is no fancy nor done by any trick or subtile imposture Now if we consult this History of Lazarus we shall find there is none of these wanting to settle the most doubtful mind in the belief of our Saviours Almighty power and authority For to raise the Dead is a work that exceeds all natural powers There is none that can restore life as has been said already but he who at the first gave it So much the Jewes themselves acknowledge who have a common saying that the Key of the Grave is one of the four keys which is kept in the hands of the Lord of the World alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither to Angel nor to Seraph as the Jerusalem Targum speaks upon xxx Gen. 22. that is neither to lowest nor the highest of the Celestial Ministers is this power given but it is reserved to him onely that made them and all things else Now that our Saviour indeed raised a dead man there were many witnesses as you heard before from xi Joh. 45. where it is said that many of the Jews which came with Mary and had seen these things which Jesus did believed on him And the fame of it was so great that it drew a greater concourse of People thither to be satisfied of the truth of the report For he tells us xii 9. that much People i. e. a multitude of the Jews came to that place not for Jesus his sake only but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead Nay the Pharisees as I told you had the news of it brought to them by some that were present and had seen the things which Jesus did xi 46. who were curious enough no doubt to inquire into the business and had satisfied themselves that indeed he was dead laid in his Grave and continued in that state till according to the course of Nature he must begin to turn to corruption and stink Which was all that needed any proof for that he was now alive their eyes were witnesses And therefore they could not deny this miracle vers 47. But to extinguish the light and take away the convincing power of it they thought it was best to remove Lazarus out of the way and to put him to death as well as our Saviour For the sight of him converted a great many as you read xii 10 11. The chief Priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus It was a thing confessed then that this wonderful work had been done There was the testimony of the man himself and of his Sisters and of our Saviour's Disciples and of MANY of the Jews who were come to comfort Martha and Mary concerning their Brother xi 19. In so much that not long after our Saviour coming to the Feast of the Passover at Jerusalem Much people went forth to meet him and brought him in with a triumph due only to so great a Person saying Hosanna blessed is the KING of Israel that cometh in the Name of the Lord xii 12. And if you would know what excited them to meet him it was the fame of this miracle which the eye-witnesses of it had brought to them as you read there ver 17 18. The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead BARE RECORD For this cause the people also met him for that they heard that he had done this miracle Here it is visible were two Troops or Companies both called much people one of which went from Jerusalem to Bethany to see Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead ver 9. The other met Jesus the next day as he was coming from Bethany to Jerusalem ver 12 13. For they had been informed by those who were present at the time when it was done that for certain Lazarus was raised from his grave by the word of Jesus and now they were confirmed in this belief by the company that went to Bethany the day before to enquire of it who testified to these that came to meet him that they found it to be an undoubted truth that he had been really dead and now was alive again by no other means but those words of his Lazarus come forth which might well make them all acknowledge him to be their KING who was come unto them in the name of the Lord as appeared by this miraculous work which none but the hand of Heaven could effect What heart would not be moved to bow to him who had such power over quick and dead who could think him to be less than the Lord of all who they saw was the Lord of life None but proud ambitious Pharisees who were afraid they should lose as much authority as he got These were more startled than ever to see such crouds of people flock after him to do him honour and to hear them applaud him as the great Son of David and follow him with their Hosanna's in the highest This made them despair of blasting his fame and discrediting him with the people as long as he lived and therefore they grew the more resolved to hasten the execution of their decree against him that he should be put to death For they said among themselves as you read in the following words ver 19. Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing behold the world that is vast multitudes is gone after him followed him that is as their KING notwithstanding all that had been done to disparage him They are forced here to speak more truth than they were aware of that it was in vain to oppose him For even when they had killed him they perceived presently that they prevailed nothing but found this literally true that indeed the world went after him Men of all Nations and not the Jews only followed him zealously and became his Disciples notwithstanding the scandal of the Cross which they had cast in their way to discourage them Of which there immediately follows in this story an illustrious presage For some Gentiles desiring to see our Saviour ver 20. there came a voice from Heaven upon his prayer that God would glorifie his own Name saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again ver 28. The glory of God that is had appeared lately as I have explained it before in
there being nothing more to be done for the opening their eyes and perswading them that Jesus was the Son of God They had made a fair step to it in our Saviour's life-time by resisting the mighty power of the Spirit but it was possible they might see their error because there was still a more mighty power behind which first raised up and glorified Jesus and then enabled his Apostles to do more wonderful things than he had done when he was on Earth And therefore I observe that afterward the word HOLY GHOST is sometimes used in this large sence for all the Power that was given the Apostles whether of Prophecy and Languages or of healing and casting out Devils which last are sometimes peculiarly called the SPIRIT and so not to be distinguished from the other which it incloses Thus the word HOLY GHOST in ii Hebr. 4. may be referred not only to gifts immediately preceding but to signs wonders and miracles before mentioned And after S. Peter and John had cured a lame man they say the HOLY GHOST was a witness to Jesus v. Acts 31. But though this word be so largely used in some places as SPIRIT also sometimes signifies all the rest ii Acts 4 17. and sometimes all but that which is called power 1 Cor. ii 4. yet commonly you will find the word HOLY GHOST having a peculiar reference to those other gifts of Illumination not of Power iv Acts 8. v. 3. vii 55. x. 44 45. and especially xix 2 6. where you read that S. Paul found certain Disciples at Ephesus who had not so much as heard whether there was any HOLY GHOST who had heard no doubt of the miraculous works both of Christ and his Apostles Now when these and the HOLY GHOST were both joyned together when Jesus had given them the witness of his Bloud and of his Resurrection and the Gospel came not only in POWER but in the HOLY GHOST as S. Paul speaks 1 Thess i. 5. Then they who persist to blaspheme the name of Jesus were in an hopeless condition past all the methods of God to bring them to forgiveness All which I have said as distinctly as I could to explain that which has perplexed so many and to show the strength of this Witness which our Saviour so much relied upon that he knew not a greater to convince them when once it had said all that it intended in his behalf To which let this be added as an argument of the greatness of this testimony that they who apostatized from the Christian Faith are therefore condemned to a sorer punishment than they who forsook Moses not only because they accounted the BLOUD of Jesus an unholy thing and despised that witness but also did despite to the SPIRIT of Grace which by raising him from the dead proved his BLOUD to be the Bloud of the Son of God x. Hebr. 29. This is set down last of all in that place because it filled up the measure of their sin This made them uncapable of the benefit of any sacrifice for sin as it is ver 26. that they so slighted yea vilified and reproached carried themselves contumeliously as the word imports towards the SPIRIT of God which was the greatest Testimony on Earth that our Saviour had and was followed with the HOLY GHOST sent down from Heaven And they must needs be guilty of such disgraceful usage of the SPIRIT yea of the SPIRIT of Grace that Spirit which God had so graciously poured not only upon Jesus but upon the Apostles and perhaps upon themselves if they did deny Jesus and renounce his Religion because this was in effect to tell the world that this was not the Spirit of God but of the Devil and that it did not prove his Resurrection from the dead but whatsoever it said He was a blasphemer when he called himself the Son of God Thus I have done now with this last Witness on Earth the SPIRIT which you see concurs and agrees with all the former in this Truth There is not the smallest difference between them nothing to make us suspect them to be false witnesses for they are all found to speak in our vulgar phrase in the very same story punctually and in terms affirming this that Jesus is the Son of God This he preached who never did any sin neither was guile found in his mouth This John Baptist likewise proclaimed with a loud voice The Bloud of Jesus attested this before all the people this was the very Title over his Cross that he was KING OF THE JEWS and this the SPIRIT said it was the language of every one of his wonderful works and of his Resurrection also and his Inthronization of which the Holy Ghost gave assurance which conspired to testifie this and expresly justified it to all the World And therefore how can we chuse but think this a sure word that he is the Son of God which is established out of the mouth not of two or three but of twice three witnesses of unquestionable credit And these three last treated of challenge from us a very careful consideration and we ought the more duly to weigh what they say because they were on Earth and upon that account nearer to us as I told you more evident at first sight more strongly attested by innumerable witnesses that they might serve for a greater confirmation even of the truth of the rest The Testimony of the FATHER is certain because it was heard by several excellent persons yea once by a multitude of people That of the WORD also is infallible and we cannot with any reason doubt whether there was such evidence because S. Steven S. Paul S. John were persons of unspotted reputation who heard it and also did and suffered the hardest things upon the credit of it That the HOLY GHOST also fell upon him at his Baptism a great Prophet so confidently affirmed that it was prophaneness to deny it But yet excepting the Testimony of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension there were none of those Witnesses in Heaven heard by so many as these three last mentioned who as S. John says bare witness in Earth It was a notorious thing to all the Country which Jesus travelled that he led a most holy life No man could fasten the suspicion of any crime upon him but the cry of the people was like that when he opened a blind mans eyes He hath done all things well vii Mark 37. And yet he lived not a retired life he did not hide himself in corners nor shut up himself in private houses but conversed so freely that they found fault with him though unjustly for being too familiar and keeping company with Publicans and sinners And as for his BLOUD the second Witness on Earth that was shed in the face of the Sun at a great feast when from foreign Countries they were assembled at Jerusalem All the accidents which we say attended his death were things that never have been contradicted
questioned For if we do not allow this way of conveying down a testimony to future times we can know nothing of what was done before us And by denying all credit to these writings we shall only teach posterity how little credit is due to any of ours Nay we shall shake all mens titles to their estates and Kings will not be able to keep their Crowns fast upon their heads Nothing will be certain but it may be questioned whether all the Records in the Tower and the publick Acts of former Kings and Parliaments be not mere Forgeries Besides no body in those days ever went about to disprove what these Witnesses of Christ preached and have writ Neither Jew nor Gentile undertook to show that these things were only devised for his credit There were too great Testimonies from Heaven still remaining in the Church for several Ages to confute such a slander And therefore all that the Devil himself could think of to shake mens belief was to set up some wonder-workers of his own to confront Jesus and as it were to vie miracles with him and his Disciples But all were so soon scattered like mists before the Sun that they appeared to be but thin shadows in comparison with the living SPIRIT of God that was in the Church which baffled and overcame them all Insomuch that Origen assures the Heathen and they never went about to confute him that there were not above thirty of Simon Magus his followers then to be found in the world though he had made diligent enquiry after them by travel into all parts They were all vanished though he made a great noise for a time whilest the followers of Jesus multiplied and increased even by their persecutions Nor could Apollonius afterward gain any Proselytes that continued but his fame soon died together with himself Whereas the authority of Jesus bare up it self against all the opposition of the Roman Empire and not only was supported but advanced and prevailed more and more their barbarous cruelties only making it grow the faster For herein as Lactantius observes the faith and constancy of Christians was bravely displayed Men thought they did not without cause abhor the Heathenish superstition when they saw them rather die than do that which others doing lived and enjoyed the greatest worldly prosperity It made them enquire what that good was which they defended even unto death which was dearer than all the pleasures and glory of this world The people heard them in the midst of torments glory in Christ Jesus And whilest they enquired who he was the truth of the Gospel was divulged and spread abroad among them Their sufferings brought many to see their Martyrdom and there they saw that which moved their enquiry and by their enquiry they were satisfied and learnt to believe in Jesus as those Martyrs did But it is time to put an end to this Chapter which I shall conclude with a few remarks upon some places of the holy Books relating to the testimony of the Apostles or those that followed them The first is in the 2 Cor. vi 4 5 6 c. where you read how the Apostles approved themselves as the ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labours in watchings in fastings by pureness by knowledge by long-suffering by kindness by the Holy Ghost by love unfeigned by the word of truth c. In which words if they be well considered you will find every one of these three WITNESSES which S. John says gave testimony to our Saviour on Earth so that he might be said to come in the ministry of the Apostles by Water and Bloud and the Spirit They expressed the Holiness of his life by their pureness by their long-suffering by their kindness by love unfeigned by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left that is they were every way appointed and armed with integrity against all calumnies there was none that could touch their reputation and say that these men had any worldly design And as they witnessed to him thus in their holy lives so they did in their holy doctrine by knowledge and by the word of truth preaching the Gospel sincerely as those that studied not to please men but God who trieth the hearts And they were made conformable also to his death and thereby continued the witness of the BLOUD in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in imprisonments and all the rest of the hardships here mentioned which I need not transcribe again And lastly He forgets not to remember them of the Witness of the SPIRIT which they brought along with them For he says they approved themselves as ministers of God by the Holy Ghost and by the power of God That is beside all the other Divine gifts wherewith they appeared they confirmed their doctrine by many miraculous works which could not be done but by the power of God Thus they became not only his witnesses as our Saviour said they should xxiv Luke 48. but they witnessed to him after the very same manner that he had taught in his example by Water by Bloud and by the Spirit And therefore when he exhorts Timothy to preach the Gospel and to be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ and to commit the charge of preaching also to other faithful persons He enforces his perswasion by this argument that the things he was to deliver were only such as he had heard of him among or by MANY WITNESSES 2 Tim. ii 2. He learnt them by so many good evidences which S. Paul had given him that he need not fear to speak them to any man much less doubt to commend them to other faithful preachers upon the same account that he had received them that they might be able to instruct posterity Such one would think from what hath been said were those TWO WITNESSES mentioned in xi Rev. 3. men of an Apostolical spirit whom Jesus raised up after his prime Witnesses had left the world to justifie still by all manner of arguments that great Truth which they had preached and sealed with their Bloud and God had sealed by the testimony of the Spirit The next words indeed seem to import that the whole body of Christians whom they instructed joyned with them in this testimony But still these great ministers of Jesus Christ the guides and leaders of those Christians whosoever they were and in what times soever they lived I meddle not with such difficulties were his most eminent Witnesses Who preached the Gospel with such power that it excited against them the fury of unbelievers who could not endure that such Witnesses should speak for Jesus For they testified to him these three ways here mentioned which is all that I alledge this place for not taking upon me to interpose in the controversies there are about the explanation of this Vision by Water Bloud and the Spirit First by Water if
Verse why they gave themselves as whole burnt offerings to Christ but that by the example of their Faith and Martyrdom they might instruct many more to be Martyrs Nay their BLOUD did not only water many young plants and made them grow to their perfection but He tells us a little after in his exposition of the same Psalm Plures scimus c. We know many who were wholly ignorant of the Divine Sacraments i. e. the Christian Religion that by the example of the Martyrs run to Martyrdom No wonder then that these above all others have been called the WITNESSES of Jesus for that 's the interpretation of the word MARTYR and that Christians were forward even to kiss their wounds and to embrace their dead bodies as the remains of those who had done most eminent service to our Lord. Who himself therefore witnessed to them after they were dead and declared that their bloud was very dear and precious in his sight and that it had sealed nothing but the truth For there can no other reason be given but this why at the Monuments of these MARTYRS or WITNESSES our Saviour was pleased to have so many miracles wrought afterward and before such a number of people that Porphyry himself as we learn both from S. Cyril and S. Hierom though an avowed enemy of our Religion could not but acknowledge them They still spake and bare Witness to Jesus by these wonderful works when they were dead or rather Jesus spake for them as I said and declared from Heaven that these were his faithful Witnesses whose word ought to be believed whereby they had declared him to be the Lord. A PRAYER WHO would not believe on thee O Lord who would not magnifie thy Name For great and marvellous are thy works just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints All Nations ought to come and worship before thee whose Majesty and Glory is so many ways made manifest Thou hast raised poor and ignorant men to be mighty Ministers of thy Grace and Witnesses of thy Resurrection and co-workers with thee for the illumination and conversion of the world Blessed be thy name for all the glorious Lights which have been in thy Church in every Age by whom thy holy Faith hath been preserved and propagated to our days Blessed be thy name for all the Martyrs who sealed it with their Bloud and for all the Confessors who freely acknowledged thee with the danger of their lives Great was thy glory which shone in their most exemplary holiness fortitude patience love unseigned both to friends and enemies and in that mighty power whereby they approved themselves as the Ministers of God Thanks be to thee O God the Lord of Heaven and Earth for the comfort of thy holy Scriptures wherein we read the story of our Saviours wondrous love and of that most miraculous power which appeared in him to testifie unto him and at last raised him from the dead and advanced him to the throne of Glory From whence he sent the Holy Ghost to endue his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers with power from on high that they might be his Witnesses and commit that which they had received to faithful men who should be able to teach others also O God I cannot but again adore thy incomprehensible love which can never be sufficiently praised Who can understand the exceeding riches of thy grace that thou whose naked glory is too bright for our weak minds to fix their eyes upon wouldest be pleased in most admirable condescending love to manifest thy self and visit us in our flesh Thou art infinitely above the greatest of us who are far less worthy to approach thee than the lowest creature in this world is fit for our friendship and society So much the more marvellous is thy unheard of love that thou wouldest admit us to such a near relation unto thee So much the greater is our happiness that in Christ Jesus thou hast made thy self our portion and designed us to be eternally blessed with thee Great was his care and kindness all the days of his flesh towards the most miserable wretches who received the greatest tokens of his love I rejoyce now to think with what tenderness he received the poor fed the hungry visited the sick cured the diseased and when he had left the world communicated the same power unto others that they might exercise the same charity that he had done I see both the power and goodness of our Lord in all those works of wonder which he did I see that his mercy endureth for ever which hath preserved a faithful record of these things that we through patience and comfort of the holy Scriptures might have hope Now the God of all grace inspire me and all other Christian Souls with the same faith love and ardent zeal which was in those burning and shining Lights the Witnesses of Christ. That we may be followers of them as they were of him and acknowledging the same Lord being members of the same body partaking of the same Sacraments and living upon the same Heavenly food we may lead the same holy lives in hope to shine one day with them in the same celestial glory Help us to continue in the things which we have learnt and have been assured of knowing of whom we have learnt them that we may not at any time let them slip For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him thou O God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to thine own will May we always carefully lay up and preserve these sacred truths in our heart which were in so glorious a manner delivered to us May they work there perpetually with great power and be reverenced as the holy Oracles of God! May they be the spring of all our motions throughout the whole course of our life That with an even steddy pace whatsoever dangers come in our way we may walk on towards that happy place where those holy ones rejoyce for ever with our Lord. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be given by us and by those glorified Spirits and by all the Angels in Heaven everlasting Praises Amen CHAP. IX The Vse we are to make of their Testimony IT is time now to bring this Discourse to an issue and having examined all these Divine Witnesses taken their proofs and depositions and found their testimony upon due enquiry to be good and legal to consider with our selves what we have to do and what judgment we will pass now that we have heard their evidence God the Father of all says that Jesus is his Son the Word himself appeared oft to justifie this Truth the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven to attest it the Prophet of the Highest proclaimed it the holy life of our
Saviour spake as much and his Bloudy Death sealed it to which the Spirit set its seal also and undeniably witnessed that bloud was sacred which he shed for a testimony upon the Cross All these have done their part all that Witnesses by their office are to do for the making of this good that Jesus is the Son of God That which remains is our task who are bound to consider and seriously ponder and impartially judge and then faithfully improve their sacred Testimony that Jesus may have the glory that is due unto him and we may have that benefit which God by him designs to bestow upon us I. And first of all let us consider a-while the great weight and importance of this Truth that Jesus is Gods Son If the whole frame of Christian Religion did not rely upon it there would not have been such care taken to settle it and lay it deep in our hearts by so much labour and strength of argument It is equally blameable to be laborious about a trifle and to be superficial and slight in things of greatest moment No man of sense will with a great deal of diligence summon together a number of Witnesses to make good that which when it is proved it is indifferent as to any thing that depends upon it whether it be true or false No question there is a considerable interest of ours which is concerned in this truth else the Holy men of God would not have called HEAVEN AND EARTH TO WITNESS and bear their testimony to it The Father the Word the Holy-Ghost would not have concurred with the Water the Bloud and the Spirit to assert and maintain it but that all is little enough to justifie it and that it is a thing of which we cannot but desire the greatest assurance It is 1. the Foundation of all other Truths in the Christian Religion as you may read 1 Cor. iii. 11. xvi Matth. 17 18. It is the Rock on which the Church is built the Ground that supports the whole Fabrick which if it be infirm and rotten all falls to rubbish and confusion And therefore 2. the Devil laboured to undermine this Truth above all others Like a subtile Enemy when the Apostles as wise Master-builders had laid this foundation he imployed false Teachers and counterfeit Apostles as so many Pioneers to work under this and lay their trains to blow it up which he knew was a nearer way to ruine all than to plant his Batteries against the building onely The History of the first times afford too plentiful instances of this For we find there arose many Anti-christs 1 Joh. ii 18. and many false Prophets went out into the World iv 1. And the very spirit of Antichrist as he tells us vers 3. was this to deny that Jesus who came in flesh in a mortal condition and subject to our miseries was Christ. They would not have it thought that any one who suffered so vilely was the great KING that had been so long expected Or if they believed Jesus to be a great Prophet and that he was raised from the dead and rewarded for his labours in Heaven as other Prophets were yet they denied that he was made LORD OF ALL the Head of the Church and of all Principalities and Powers who was to be honoured by all Men even as they honour the Father And therefore 3. the Apostles imployed as great care and earnest indeavour for to strengthen and support this weighty truth as the Enemies of Religion laboured might and main as we say to weaken and overthrow the belief of it This was the thing they every where preached as you read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles And for this very end S. John wrote this Epistle to confirm his Disciples in this Faith against all the subtile opposition of their adversaries as you may collect from many passages beside that which I have expounded And it was the thing aimed at also in his second Epistle where he rejoyces to hear that they walkt in the truth vers 3. and cautions them against those deceivers and Antichrists vers 7. And indeed 4. it was the great note of difference between the true Prophets and the false as you may see 1 Cor. xii 3. and in the place now mentioned in this Epistle iv 1 2. which also 5. makes him command his Disciples that if any one pretending to the Spirit did not acknowledge this they should not use the common civility to him of bidding him God speed ii Epist 10. And if any man apostatiz'd from this faith which is the last thing I shall mention S. Paul pronounces a most dreadful curse upon him and wishes or predicts the Lord would come and speedily execute it 1 Corinth xvi 22. For whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of CHRIST hath not God 2. epist of S. Joh. 9. This being a truth therefore of so great moment as appears by these considerations and by the many Witnesses to which S. John here appeals for the proof of it let us be sure to settle a sense of its concernment to us in our hearts and then to think often of it and study it so thoroughly that we may perceive both the truth and importance of it or else we shall prove our selves despisers of God who do as bad as say that it was a needless pains which he bestowed in giving so many evidences of that for which we have no regard or no list to bring to trial and examination And that truly I doubt is the temper of most Christian People at this day They think all discourses on this subject useless or little worth because they prove that which they believe already Heathens might reap some profit by them but what say they have we to do with them But while such thoughts as these have too long possessed the drowsie Christian world they remain alas in the very dregs of Heathenism with a little smack or taste of Christianity It is a sad thing to consider but so it is that they who cannot endure to think upon what ground their belief stands because they would not put themselves to the trouble of understanding it are of that base temper which is the mother of Idolatry of Mahometism and of all spurious Religions in the World For what is it makes Men worship the Sun Moon and Stars or address their services to dead men nay to a piece of wood or a red cloth or some such paultry thing what makes Mahomet so reverenced by a great part of the World as the Prophet of the Highest but that they have ever been so taught and it is the custome to honour him They examine no further nor enquire for any other reason that is do not observe that there is no other reason for their belief Upon the very same account do many receive Jesus for the Son of God He hath no better footing in their Souls nor stands upon firmer grounds than Mahomet or
Are not the Witnesses good who affirm that Jesus is the Son of God Have we not examined them and find no cause why we should reject them Or will you receive nothing upon the credit of a Witness That 's a very strange obstinacy which rejects so certain a way of knowing many things that cannot be otherways known For the notices of things do not come to us all one way but by divers means either by our Senses or by our Reason and Discourse or by Report By all these ways the knowledge of things is conveyed to our Mind And if we refuse to be informed by any of them there are a great number of things certainly true and of great consequence to us of which we must remain ignorant That there are other Countries far distant from this where we live and that such and such things are there to be had and have been there done most Men can know by no means but only by report for there are but few that can go and see And he that will not receive the testimony of another in this case deprives himself of a considerable piece of knowledge whereof others partake and which might be as useful to him as it proves to them But if for this wilful loss he shall pretend to assign a just cause saying that he cannot believe any thing unless it be demonstrated to him by clear and evident consequences from Principles of known reason he will become ridiculous For it is absurd to expect the knowledge of any thing in any other way but that which is proper for its conveyance to us To demand a proof of a matter of reason from our senses or for what we discern by our senses from our reason is equally ridiculous and so it is to demand an evidence for things of Faith which we know by report only either from our Senses or our Reason That there are some things come to our notice only by Faith is plain from what passes every day And it is as plain that they must be proved to be true in their proper way that is by the soundness of the Testimony upon which we receive them As no man requires a reason for what he sees and feels nor asks that he may see with his eyes that of which he reasons and discourses so he ought not to seek for a testimony of sense or reason for that which he can know by no way but by report As for example no Man demands a reason to prove that the Sun shines In this his sense gives him satisfaction and if he were born blind no reason could prove to him that it was not Night Nor does any man that is in his wits require that he may behold God with his eyes whom he knows by discourse and the reason of his mind and knows him also by that to be invisible In like manner it is altogether preposterous when a man comes and reports that such a person dyed on such a day to ask for a reason to prove it or to demand that he may see it for it is impossible to see him dye again upon that day That is not a thing to be known either of those ways by sense or reason but only by the testimony of others who were present at that time and are we think worthy of belief Why do we ask then for any other proof that Jesus was born of a Virgin at such a time did such wonderful works preached such an holy Doctrine was crucified dead and buried rose again from the dead ascended to Heaven and sent from thence the Holy Ghost These are not things now to be seen or felt nor can we gather them from the meer discourse of our own reason which tells us nothing of them But we have them by report from a great many Witnesses who say they saw and heard and felt all that which they would have us believe There is no other use of reason in this case but only to examine and judge whether this report be credible and founded in the testimony of God Now that is evident to any impartial enquirer from what hath been said concerning these Witnesses whose report there is no reason to suspect as it is certain it can never be disproved Why should we then be so much our own enemies as to deprive our selves of this saving knowledge of Jesus Christ That is why do we not give credit to the report of these Witnesses concerning Jesus since by the only proper means whereby such things can be proved I have made it good that the Father declared him to be his Son and He appeared in Glory to testify to himself and the Holy Ghost demonstrated he could be no less and his Life Death Resurrection and all the rest of which there were so many upright Witnesses assure us that it is a certain truth Would we be so difficult to be perswaded to go to a Man or a Place where several honest neighbours informed us upon their word nay upon their life we should be promoted to great honor or be possessed of a fair estate Do we not believe one another in our daily traffick and drive considerable bargains merely upon the credit we give to some persons who inform us of the advantage we may make by them Do not men undertake long journeys and more dangerous voyages merely because they are told that such an one is dead to whom they are heir or that such rich commodities are to be had in exchange for meaner goods Who is there that does not desire his Witnesses may be accepted and their testimony taken for good proof either to clear his innocence or to settle his estate Now says the Apostle immediately after the alledging of all these Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth to prove the truth of Christianity If we receive the Witness of men the Witness of God is greater for this is the Witness of God which he hath testified of his Son The meaning of which is this If men whose honesty you cannot impeach give their testimony in a Court of Judicature it is never disallowed nor can you be permitted to set it by and make nothing of it but it is necessarily admitted for an end of strife The weightiest causes are decided all matters depending are determined and judged according to the evidence that is given by witnesses of unblemished faith In the mouth of two or three witnesses as the known saying was every word or rather matter is established That is brought to an issue and concluded if any controversie have arose to unsettle it Nay the testimony of one man if we have no reason to suspect his credit is in our own private thoughts though not in Law satisfaction great enough to assure us of the truth of what he says And we think it such a reproach to give him the lye that we cannot but believe him finding a desire in the same case to be believed our selves Now if things stand thus between us and
being separable from obedience that this is essentially included in it and freely flows from it if it may be but suffered to have its course and not be crossed in its clear intention and design If you be not convinced of this by what you feel you may learn it of S. John who tells you here what the natural issue of our faith is and what duty it exacts for it is the scope of these words which I have expounded to lay such a foundation of belief as may unavoidably inforce obedience unless we forget what our belief is He begins you know this Fifth Chapter of his Epistle with this Principle that every one who believes Jesus to be the Christ is born of God and from thence infers in that and in the second Verse that such a person cannot but love God and all his Brethren which Love cannot be discerned by any thing but by keeping his Commandments FOR THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD ver 3. THAT WE KEEP HIS COMMANDEMENTS Here is the natural fruit of Faith This is its Progress if you do not stop its motions It begets in our heart a great Love and Love is to be Obedient and that to all God's Commandments which respect either our duty to him or to our Neighbour It is in vain to say we believe in Jesus if we do not heartily love God who sent him to us And it is in vain to pretend love to God if we keep not his Commandments And it is as vain to say we have a dutiful respect to his Commandments if our neighbour have any cause to complain of us For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also iv 20 21. Here now they who have less understanding of the grounds of Faith may make up what is wanting in their knowledge by the heartiness of their Devotion to God and the unfeignedness of their love to all their Brethren If they be mightily affected with what they believe and out of an honest love in their hearts to his holy Precepts be very diligent in their obedience it will supply the defect that is in their understanding of the Reasons why they believe in Jesus For if a small argument in a weak and dull understanding does the same work with a strong argument in a quick and piercing where lies the difference but only that the One can serve Religion more with his mind and discourse the other meerly with his good will and his pious life But will any man presume to be so impious as to imploy his will to find out ways to excuse his Obedience to him whom he acknowledges for his Lord He should rather consider seriously how reasonable and how necessary it is that he who knows so well what Jesus is and how he came should above all other Men do him the most faithful and zealous service For if we do but observe how many arguments here are to perswade us to this Faith in Jesus with what Authority he was sent and with what power he came to us we shall think it was for some very great work and fell it impossible while we are sensible of this not to do what he requires though now perhaps it seem impossible to be done He is not come of himself but hath the mark and stamp of the Supreme Lord upon him He evidently shows that he hath a Commission from God and brings as I may say the Broad-seal of Heaven with him to warrant what he demands though it be never so great a tribute of Obedience Here are Witnesses to him above all exception and they all bid us behave our selves submissively towards him and not deny to do any thing that he would have us Him hath God the Father sealed as he tells us vi Joh. 27. and by his Voice from Heaven commands us to HEAR HIM Which was as if he had said If you will believe him that cannot lye then Jesus is the TRUTH to every word of whose mouth we ought to hearken that is faithfully obey and observe For as God is said to hear us when he grants our desires so we hear him or his Son when we fulfill his pleasure The WORD likewise 2. when he appeared to S. Paul made him an Apostle for obedience to the faith among all Nations i. Rom. 5. And told him expresly that he appeared to him for this end that he might send him to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God xxvi Act. 16 18. The HOLY GHOST likewise 3. is a Witness of this which was given to those that obeyed him v. Act. 32. But lookt upon all wickedness as an high affront to it at which it was grieved and by which it was quenched nay forced to depart as not induring to dwell in the same House with filthiness and impurity Unto which the Water 4. or the Holy life and purity of our Saviour in all his actions as well as his Doctrine was directly opposite And tells us that we must be obedient if there were no other reason for it but this alone that the Son of God himself was so in every thing Did God exact obedience of him that he might demand none of us Will he set us free from that duty and service to which his dearly beloved Son was strictly tyed He fulfilled all righteousness and observed even that Law of Ceremonies to which we have no obligation And do we think to be hereby excused from paying all those respects which are naturally due from Creatures to the author of their being and which we cannot but owe to those who are of the same kind with us What is it that hath so perverted the understanding of Christian People as to possess them with apprehensions quite contrary to common reason What ailes us that we cannot see the end of Christ's coming nay that we overlook the plain words of his holy Scriptures which tell us that he left us an example and expects that we should follow it and be made conformable to him and be renewed after his image in righteousness and true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord This the Bloud 5. speaks still more effectually For he would dye rather than disobey God He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross ii Philip. 8. which was the reason why God so highly exalted him and gave him that Name which he hath above every Name There was no other way whereby he could ascend up into Glory And therefore it is madness for us to think to leap up thither and skip over the holy life of Jesus Especially since he declares that his Bloud was shed to which perhaps we trust for redemption though we remain in our impurities that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of
see their Departure is at hand In which regards I doubt not this Treatise will be acceptable to your Grace because it contains a Description and full Assurance of that happy Life which you shortly expect For there is nothing so reviving in our declining Age as to think that the passage out of this Life leads us not to Death but to Immortality and that it will not take away our Happiness from us but give us a purer enjoyment of it Pleasure not mixed with a mortall body but sincere and free from Grief and Sorrow For when we shall be set at liberty and delivered from this Prison we shall come thither where there is no Labour no Sighing nor Old age but a Life of perfect ease and tranquillity that breeds no trouble nor any other evill but is serene and clear in an immovable Rest and Peace Where the happy Inhabitants sweetly contemplate the nature of things and philosophize not for Popularity and the Theatre but for the finding out solid and everlasting Truth I have but translated the words of Plato * in Axiocho p. 370. or of some other Philosopher that hath borrowed his name who was much pleased in such thoughts as these though he made but uncertain guesses at that blessed state which our Lord hath so clearly revealed and so strongly demonstrated that we have reason with never-ceasing joy both in life and death to give him thanks for so great a Grace For as there is nothing beyond this that the heart of man can wish so nothing of such importance to our present Happiness in this World For which cause the Jews have thought fit to expunge those from the number of Israelites who do not believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the dead and to resolve that they shall have no part in the World to come though they otherwise live orderly and observe the Precepts of the Law For such men they saw opened a door to all licentiousness and could never doe so much good by any other means as they did hurt by subverting this Belief Which I have endeavoured therefore to establish by such Arguments as they were ignorant of till our Blessed Lord and Saviour appeared who as St. Matthew observes out of the Psalmist uttered things which had been kept secret from the foundation of the World Maimonides himself saith in his last Chapter of his Book concerning Kings that at the coming of Christ things hidden and profound shall be laid open and revealed to all Which is true of nothing more I have shewn then of that which is the greatest desire of all mankind immortall Life Of which though I have not treated according to the dignity of the Subject yet I am confident I have laid a good Foundation to be improved by the labours of those who have more skill and more leisure And it is a very great satisfaction to have done any thing though never so small for the honour of our ever-Blessed Lord and Master whom it is the highest glory in the world to serve in faithfulness and truth For He will not fail to reward such services with an ample recompence being a Prince so great that nothing is beyond his Power and so gracious that his Servants have reason to expect the best effects of his Good will Which may very well content us whatsoever usage we meet withall at present And should mightily excite us as St. Chrysostom often and earnestly exhorts * Homil. 87. in Matth. p. 539. neglecting the suspicions and the reproaches and the praises too of men to study this one thing alone how to be conscious to our selves of no evill which will bring us in the end both here and hereafter the greater glory The God of all Grace bless this Work to the settling and increasing this holy Faith and Resolution in all our hearts whereby we shall also obtain the sweetest foretasts of the Joys of the future State And may your Grace be blest with many of them to support the infirmities of Old age and having finished your days have an easie passage to that better Life and there receive from the Chief Pastour when he shall appear the Crown of glory which fadeth not away Which is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your GRACE's in all dutifull Observance SY PATRICK TO THE READER I Have no other reason to give for adding one more to that heap of Books which men complain is already grown too great but the hope I have of doing some service to our Lord by making a farther search as I promised in the conclusion of the former Part of this Work into the Testimony of these Divine Witnesses concerning ETERNALL LIFE The Hope of which is the most precious Legacy the Son of God hath left us the Hindge upon which all Religion turns without which it would be the greatest Vanity as Lactantius * Lib. vi c. 9. vii 1. often speaks to obey the commands of Vertue for whose sake we must endure not onely many Labours but ofttimes sore Calamities We were born as he discourses elsewhere * Lib. vii 6. to acknowledge God the Maker of us and of the World whom we therefore acknowledge that we may worship him and therefore worship him that we may receive Immortality for a reward of our labours because his service ingages us in the greatest and therefore Immortality is bestowed on us for a recompenc◠that being made like to the Angels we may serve the Father and Lord of all for ever and be the Eternall Kingdom of God This is the Chief of all things this is the Secret of God this is the Mystery of the World to which they are strangers who following their present pleasures have addicted themselves to terrestriall and frail goods and sunk their Souls born to celestiall enjoyments into delights as deadly as they are muddy and dirty And it is the singular Priviledge of Christians as I have demonstrated to be assured of a Good so great by so many most credible Witnesses whose Testimony none can refuse but they that will be so absurd as to believe none at all The Father the Word the Holy Ghost the Water the Bloud and the Spirit declare so unanimously and so plainly that the Lord Jesus will give Eternall Life to his followers that what the Oratours said in flattery to the Athenians in the time of the Chremonidian War may in truth be said to us if we alter but one word that other things indeed are common to us with the rest of the World Athenzus in Deipnosoph L. vi p. 250. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the way that leads men to heaven is known to Christians alone Who have a manifold grace bestowed on them enjoying not onely a Promise of Eternall Life which the World never had before but that Promise attested by so many Witnesses who tell us also it is in the power of him that died for us to conferr it on us as well
persons use are to the Nobleness of this Life In which saith Maimonides Cap. viii de Poenitent there is no room for meat and drink and such like pleasures but the just sit with Crowns on their heads and delight themselves in the Splendour of the Divine Majesty There are many names whereby this Life is called Derech Mashal after the figurative way of speaking in the Holy Books For example the Mountain of the Lord the place of his Holiness the Courts of the Lord the Beauty or Sweetness of the Lord the Tabernacle of God the House of God his holy Temple the Gate of the Lord. And after the same way of similitude and figurative speech Wise men call this Good prepared for the Just by the name of a Banquet or Feast and most commonly the World to come Let not this Good seem light to thee nor do thou imagine the reward of Piety to be so little as to drink the richest wines to eat the best victuals to have the most beautifull wives to be cloathed in silk and scarlet to dwell in ivory palaces and to have all the furniture of gold and silver and such like things But understand that there is no Good in this world to which that supreme Good can be compared but onely by way of figure and similitude In truth there is no proportion between the Good of the Soul in the other World and the Goods of the Body such as meat and drink in this But that Great Good is incomprehensible and incomparable according to those words of David xxxi Psal 19. O how great good hast thou laid up for those that fear thee He could not tell how great but with what desire did he long after the life of that world when he said xxvii Psal 13. I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living That 's another name whereby they called this place of Bliss For wheresoever their ancient Wise men saith their Mysticall exposition of the Psalms meet with this phrase in Scripture the land of the living Manasseh Ben Isr Probl. xvii de Creatione they expound it of Paradise because that is the country where men live for ever But there are no words like those of our Blessed Lord to represent this surpassing Happiness of the pure in heart who he promises shall SEE GOD. Let us therefore here fix our minds and stay a while before we pass on any farther to search into the meaning of this phrase which is the sublimest and most comprehensive of all other whereby this ETERNALL LIFE is described to us I. And the least that can be meant by it is that we shall be there where He hath his most special residence and shall dwell in his House in the Heavens where there are so many Mansions There the Angels are said to stand before God to behold the face of our heavenly Father And therefore for us to see GOD or behold him must in generall denote that we shall be more like Angels then Men and being admitted into the society of those heavenly Ministers shall take up our habitation in the same place where they wait upon the Divine Majesty Whence it is that as the Angels are called the Sons of God i. Job 6. ii 1. so are all those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection of the Dead xx Luk. 35. We are now the Sons of GOD saith St. John 1. Epist iii. 1 2. in a state that is of great favour with him and therefore need not care if the world hate us But we have far greater things in hope and look for a more excellent relation to him it not appearing yet what we shall be The meaning of which last words in all probability is this that the manner wherein we shall be the Sons of God in the other world is not now manifest There is no body knows how near we shall be to him when we shall be the Children of God being the children of the Resurrection as our Saviour speaks in the place before mentioned Onely this is certain as I said just now that we shall be Companions of Angels and such Sons of God as they are And withall St. John here tells us that when He or it shall appear we shall be like him it being naturall that the Child should bear some resemblance to its Father II. Now from hence it follows that to SEE GOD is to enjoy such favours as He will be pleased to impart unto us in that high and holy place where he dwells yea to have some participation with him in his Blessedness who is most Blessed for evermore For to See in the language of the Hebrews is to enjoy when it is applied to a thing desirable or to be in that state when it is applied to that which is hurtfull Thus to see good xxxiv Psal 12. is to possess it and to lead an happy life and to see the good of Jerusalem cxxviii 5. is to partake of its peace and prosperity and to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living xxvii Psalm 13. is in its first sense to be delivered by God and to enjoy the sweet fruits of it before he died Nor is there any other meaning of seeing life and seeing the kingdom of God but this that the parties to whom those promises are made shall be put into the possession of such blessings And on the other side to see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds xxvi Matth. 64. is to feel his heavy wrath the stroke of his revengefull hand upon their nation as may be gathered from i. Revel 7. And to see death lxxxix Psal 48. ii Luk. 26. is no more then to die This is so plain that those things that belong to other senses yet are said to be seen which can signifie nothing else but that they are perceived or enjoyed O generation saith Jeremiah ii 31. see ye the word of the Lord that is hear it mind and consider it or as Maimonides expounds it * More Nev. par 1. c. 46. the intention of the Prophet is that they should apprehend the sense of God's word And that likewise which is said to be seen in one place is said to be tasted in another as to see death viii Joh. 51. is the same with tasting of death ver 52. Which is a demonstration that to See in their language is frequently used for having a sense perception or enjoyment of any object And therefore we cannot necessarily draw any more out of these words of our Saviour which promise that we shall see God but that we shall have as reall an enjoyment of him and as sensibly perceive him as we do now any good in this world though the manner of it be not certainly known as not so plainly deducible from these words Let us conceive with our selves as well as we can what his
apparition of Angels was wont to be so surprising as to dazzle mens eyes and make them bow their faces to the ground xxiv Luk. 5. And therefore such a glorious splendour as this equalling that of the Sun might well make the Apostles fall prostrate upon the earth in great fear or amazement But then our Lord presently came and comforted them by a gracious touch bidding them arise and not be afraid though they saw such a light and heard such a voice as this to which indeed they had not been accustomed but was the most amiable and ought to be the most welcome of any that could salute the eyes and ears of mankind St. Mark it is observable says that before this voice came out of the heavenly glory they were sore afraid ix 6. i. e. were so amazed at such an unwonted sight or as Proclus * Orat. viii in Transfigur Domini calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strangeness and unexpectedness of the Divine Brightness shining on them that it put them quite beside themselves But that it was a sweet mixture of those devout passions fear and joy is manifest from the foregoing verse with which those words cohere where you reade they were so delighted and ravished with the sight that they thought not of going down from thence any more but were projecting for their perpetuall habitation in that happy place Which Rapture seems to have been a foretaste of the joy which they were to expect when he should ascend to that glorious state which was now represented in his Transfiguration on the Mount Before I conclude this I shall here take notice as I pass to what remains of something that may help to prove our Lord Jesus is the person by whom God always intended to speak his mind to the World For it was at this very time when the Israelites by reason of the terrible sights and thundring noises desired God they might hear his voice no more that he promised to speak to them by such a Prophet as Moses and in a more familiar manner requiring them to hear that person when he came and spake as they themselves desired So you reade xviii Deut. 15 16 17 18. where when they say Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God neither let me see this great fire any more that I die not the Lord said They have well spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and I will put my word in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I have commanded him Which was perfectly fulfilled in our Blessed Saviour whatsoever lesser meaning it might have before who spake the words of God and not of himself but as the Father gave him commandment and was a Prophet like to Moses as in other regards so in this that he was with God upon the Mount heard him speak there to these Israelites his Disciples is commended to them as the person they should hear but in a voice so sweet and in a way so agreeable that they did not wish never to hear it more but rather always to be so happy as to have such friendly converse with Heaven and receive such tokens of God's Fatherly love For as the fire and smoak and darkness together with those terrible noises were testimonies from God to Moses that they who would not hear him but transgressed his Laws should be the objects of his dreadfull displeasure and be destroyed from among their neighbours So this universall light and brightness which smiled on them in the cloud and in his raiment and in his countenance and in his company when these gracious words sounded in their ears were most manifest tokens from heaven of the extraordinary favour of God towards those that obey the Lord Jesus who shall be saved from death and made exceeding happy and glorious The far greater part of the Precepts of the Law being negative as is evident even from the Ten Commandments to say nothing of the computation which the Jews have made of the whole it abounds more with Threatnings and fearfull denunciations of Judgement then it doth with gracious and inviting Promises But most of the Precepts of the Gospell being affirmative obliging us to doe all the good we can and to be abundant in the work of our Lord you reade therefore more frequently of exceeding great and precious Promises to incourage our labour of love then of Threatnings to deterr us from evill doing And consonant to this as that frightfull appearance of old on Mount Sinai was to shew God's anger and fiery indignation against offenders so this comfortable Presence now on Mount Tabor was to represent his loving-kindness and tender mercy to all obedient persons And as the anger of God declared by the fire and smoak was his inflicting Death upon them so his good will declared by this friendly light and clearness in the heavens is his bestowing upon us Life And as by the former Moses was noted by God to be the Minister of death to all transgressours so our Lord was hereby represented as the Minister of Life and Righteousness to all that in him live godly Now that all these Observations are not the product of mere fancy but have some reall truth in them this is none of the least arguments That the Jews themselves * Pirke Eliezer c. xl make it a Question worth the answering why God uttered his voice to Moses out of the midst of the fire and darkness and not rather out of the midst of light Which is a plain acknowledgment of the nobleness and perfection of this way wherein God manifested himself upon the Holy Mount as St. Peter calls it and that it was far more desirable then that wherein he appeared to Moses else they would not have moved this doubt and endeavoured so laboriously to solve it pretending that it was onely to shew in what a dismall condition they were without the Law which was not to be sent till after forty days were past during all which time the Court of the heavenly King was hung with black and not with white Which as it is a frivolous conceit so hath no truth in it For God spake the Ten Words or Commandments out of the fire and smoak before Moses went to stay in the Mount forty days where he onely received the pattern of God's House which he was to make and all belonging to it together with the Two Tables whereon those X Commandments were engraven All the rest of the Laws were spoken to him out of the Tabernacle of the Congregation after he had built it i. Levit. 1. and we do not find then the heavens hung with white to use their phrase as they were now when he spake concerning our Saviour and bad his disciples hear him But I intend not to trouble my self with confuting their idle fancies The use that I make of this Question is That if they would have thought
long ago Whether the Scripture be glorifie thy Son or glorifie thy Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is all one in exact contemplation of things Now if the truth of these words be throughly examined how he had glorified him and how he would glorifie him again we shall meet in both with a plain testimony that Eternall Life is in his Son to bestow on us Let us consider them briefly apart I. As for the former I find that God had already glorified him before he spake these words three ways 1. By his Transfiguration of which I now discoursed for then St. Luke saith ix 32. they saw his glory And that by this Glory which they saw the Father testified he should be made glorious in the heavens and able to make us so I refer you to what I have said already on this Argument 2. And I need not use many words to shew that he had also glorified him very frequently by the many wonderfull works which he had wrought for in them it is likewise expresly said ii Joh. 11. he manifested forth his Glory and the multitude were excited by them to magnifie him with Hosanna's and to cry out Glory in the highest xix Luk. 37 38. By these also he shewed the power wherewith he was indued to doe any thing that he had promised and they moved his Disciples hearts as you reade in the place now mentioned ii Joh. 11. to believe on him 3. But there was a third glorification of him to which I believe these words have a more speciall reference because it was very famous and but newly passed Which was his raising Lazarus from the dead By this Jesus said expresly that glory should redound to God the Father and that He the Son of God should also be glorified thereby xi Joh. 4. For this very end he there teaches his Disciples Lazarus fell sick and he therefore delayed to go and recover him though his great friend that there might be a fit opportunity by the miraculous resurrection of so noted a person as Lazarus was it appears by the coming of such numbers to comfort his sisters vers 19. and in a place so nigh to Jerusalem vers 18. where the greatest opposition was made against him to doe honour to Jesus and to make it known that he assumed not more glory to himself then God the Father gave him This was a very great testimony from God that indeed LIFE was in him and that he did not vainly call himself vers 25. the resurrection and the life because he now with his almighty word restored one to life who had been so long dead that there was no possibility of his reviving but by the very LIFE it self Hereby he declared that as the Father hath Life in himself so he hath given the Son to have Life in himself v. Joh. 26. What he had said before in his preaching he now justified by his works according as he himself foretold he would when he said Verily verily the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ver 25. The hour which was then coming yea was just at hand seems to be this time when he raised Lazarus up out of his grave declaring thereby both the truth of what he had said v. Joh. 26. that he had life in himself and likewise that there would be another hour as it presently there follows ver 28 29. wherein all men whatsoever shall rise out of their graves at his voice and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life as they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation They might well believe it because he said it who proved himself to be the Truth by such works as none could doe but he that was the Life II. But this is not all that we are to consider in this Testimony of the Father who doth not onely say that he had glorified him but that he would glorifie him again which was done also at three severall times 1. At his Death when many of the graves of the Saints that slept were opened xxvii Matth. 52. For the very rocks rent and the earth did quake and the veil of the temple was torn in sunder from the top to the bottom and the Sun refused to give its light and such an amazement came upon the Centurion who was then upon the guard that he glorified God xxiii Luk. 47. by confessing that Jesus was a righteous man and no pretender to a title that did not belong to him but as other Evangelists express it the Son of God To these wonderfull things concurring at his death to glorifie him and doe him honour the voice from Heaven seems to have had some respect because of what follows ver 31 32 33. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me This he said signifying what death he should die For even now when he seemed most weak he began to tread the Devill under his feet Now he began to draw not onely the Jews to him but other men the Romans also one of whose Captains in the midst of his reproach confessed him to be the Son of God The very opening of the graves served to adorn the triumph he was about to make over the powers of darkness being a sign that he had now despoiled him who hath the power of death which is the Devill and that he had Life in himself and will give it us especially now that he hath finished his triumph and is glorified at God's right hand Of which the rending of the veil also was no obscure token shewing that we have liberty as the Apostle speaks x. Heb. 19. to enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus It may seem indeed an uncouth form of speech to call his Crucifixion by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lifting up from the earth or exaltation but one may say and with great truth that Christ's death upon the Cross as S. Fragment L. viii in Joh. Cyrill of Alexandria speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was his promotion contrived for his fame and glory for he is glorified perpetually for this having procured many benefits to mankind by its means This is one part of the Record of the Father to this Truth when he said he would glorifie our Saviour Which you see was as much as to say He would make it appear even when he hung upon the Cross that he was able to open mens graves and unloose the chains of death and in due time raise them up to everlasting life For 2. God farther glorified him at his Resurrection which was attended with the resurrection of the dead bodies of those Saints whose graves were opened at his death xxvii Matth. 52 53. There were severall witnesses of this in Jerusalem to whom those persons deceased appeared as there were of his own resurrection which
The testimony of worthy men as the Apostle here observes is readily received by us and therefore we ought to be afraid of being so rudely prophane as to reject the testimony of God which is of far greater weight then theirs and hath been solemnly given you see more then once for the confirmation of our Faith But God the Father willing more abundantly to shew if I may borrow those words in vi Heb. 17. unto the heirs of this promise the immutability of his counsel hath graciously vouchsafed us farther assurance and by his WORD hath told us as much as He himself declared by those voices from heaven What we are to understand by the WORD in this place I have shewn in the Former Treatise viz. the Lord Jesus himself God Man or God the WORD made flesh Orat. contra Gentes p. 49. who as St. Athanasius speaks is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Interpreter and Embassadour of his own Father For as by the word a man speaks we understand his Mind which is the fountain from whence it comes so but by a more lively representation and after an incomparably more excellent manner we beholding the power of the WORD come to the knowledge of his Father as our Saviour himself saith xiv Joh. 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also From him this Eternall WORD came down and was incarnate not onely to reveal his will but to die for our Sins and to seal what he had preached with his Bloud After which God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavens from whence he testified as loudly that he hath in him ETERNALL LIFE for us as he did that he is the SON OF GOD. This Witness therefore let us now examine and look over again the old Evidences which we formerly searched wherein I doubt not we shall find this Truth most clearly contained And the Testimony of the WORD you know as well as that of the FATHER was threefold once to St. Stephen a second time to St. Paul and a third to this beloved Disciple St. John I. For the First of these it stands upon record in so many words that St. Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost and looking up stedfastly to heaven saw the heavens opened and beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand vii Act. 55 56. Thus he declares not to some simple people who perhaps might believe him for his confidence but to the great Councill of Jerusalem who he knew were very much disaffected nay perfectly opposite to this truth To them he protests in open Court when he was upon his triall and bids them mark it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold take notice of what I now tell you I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God And he said it though he knew he stood in certain perill of his life for this declaration It was for no other reason that Jesus himself was put to death but because he said He was the Son of God and that they should see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven And therefore for him to confirm so peremptorily this odious Truth after they had killed Him and thereby make them guilty of innocent bloud yea of the bloud of their great King was a Crime he might well expect they would punish with as great severity as was in their power to express which we may be confident he would never have provoked had he not been so sure of the Glory of our Saviour that he could not hold his peace For who is there so frantick as to expose himself to death for such an unprofitable lie It is not in the nature of man to suffer so shamefully as he did in his own person merely to bring a little false honour to another To fansy a person of his Wisedom guilty of such madness is a kind of distraction in him that supposes it who were he sober would be taught otherwise by the abhorrence he feels in himself to throw away his life for a trifle Since there is not the least reason then to question but that this Holy man beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand i. e. the gates of Heaven being set open that he might have the favour to look into the celestiall palace the Majesty of God was there represented to him sitting on a Throne as it used to be in the propheticall Visions and he beheld the Lord Jesus the very next person to the Divine Majesty we may clearly see in this Vision both the things that St. John here asserts viz. that Eternall Life is in Jesus the Son of God to give to those that effectually believe on his Name I. As for the first the power wherewith he is invested to give Eternall LIFE it is visible from his standing at God's right hand which denotes his Omnipotent Virtue to effect what he pleases For by the right hand of God Jesus himself was exalted to the right hand of power as you reade ii Act. 33. v. 31. and therefore being placed there it signifies that he can doe for us what God hath done for him that is exalt us to the like glory in the heavens where he is And as this is a clear proof of one of the things here recorded that LIFE is in him so the other II. That God hath given the faithfull a right to this Eternall LIFE with him and that he will bestow it on us is no less evident from the very End of this Vision For we can see no other reason of this glorious appearance of our Saviour to him but to incourage him in his preaching and incite him to witness a good confession as he himself had done before this great Councill and before Pontius Pilate in hope that if it cost him his life as it had done our Saviour he should live and reign with him in that glorious place where he now beheld him This was the purpose of the heavenly WORD 's coming now to him that he might not doubt of his promises nor shrink in the least from what he had preached though he should die for it which would doe him no greater harm then to dispatch him presently to the celestiall habitations In the very beginning of his history we reade that he had no sooner heard the Indictment read which they had drawn up against him but before he spake a word for himself the whole Council behold his face as it had been the face of an Angel vi Act. 15. There appeared that is such a bright and sweet Majesty in his countenance as made him look like one of the celestial inhabitants who had already prevented the glorious state to which he was going And his Answer to their charge being ended their barbarous rage was not more apparent then it was that the heavens opened to receive his Spirit
spitefull Pharisees he imputed all his Works to the Devill Which blasphemy I have shewn in the former Book is so manifestly confuted by his holy Doctrine and Life that they must be no less foolish then malicious who regard it We ask no more but to allow such things were done as the Gospell reports which they dare not deny us and then their great uncertainty what to say against them shews how forcible they are to convince all indifferent men that he came from God whose finger they were pointing them to him as the Person whom they should hear and obey And that they were a plain demonstration of his power to give Eternall Life to all his followers will appear from these following considerations I. If they confirmed all his Doctrine to be the Will of God then we ought to look upon this as firmly establisht by them for it was a known part of his Doctrine that God sent him to proclaim his purpose of giving everlasting life by him to all those who should believe on him vi Joh. 38 39 40. iii. 16. There is nothing in this assertion needs proof but that they confirmed his Doctrine this being it is apparent to all a constant part of it in which the Blind man thought he could presently satisfy any reasonable person when he said If this man were not of God he could doe nothing ix Joh. 33. That is no such Miracle as that was of opening the eyes of one born blind a thing the world had never heard of since it was first created till that time He preached nothing but piety and holiness He lived as he preached both his Sermons and his Conversation were above all that ever had been for Sanctity And his Works being so also much beyond the most famed Prodigies the world had ever boasted of it was an unanswerable argument that God was in him who was never known to have let such things be done before in the compass of so many Ages and therefore would not let them now doe their first Service to the countenancing of a lie And therefore to these our Lord often refers them as there was reason for a proof of his Divine Authority For if a false prophet could doe such wonders how should there be any possibility of ever knowing a true Reade x. Joh. 37 38. xiv 10. xv 24. That which is most proper for me to note is that in that xiv of St. John when he bids them look upon his Works as the best glass that then was wherein to see his Divinity he was discoursing on this very subject that He was the Life ver 6. and that He was going to the Father to live with him and to prepare a place for them c. ver 2 3. Of this he could not give them a better evidence then the Wonders he had wrought untill his Resurrection After which indeed he saith ver 12. they should doe greater works then these which would more plainly tell them that he was with the Father It will not be unprofitable if I open the whole discourse from vers 2. where he tells them with a solemn profession he would not abuse them that in his Father's house are many Mansions and that he was going away indeed from them but it was in order to prepare a place for them He departed he would have them believe not merely to go to rest himself after all his labours but to take up lodgings as one may say for them in that blessed Rest prepared for the people of God Now the consequence of this he tells them in the next words ver 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also He assures them that is he would not lose the pains he had taken to procure such a happiness for them but see them safe there where they should have their share with him in that very bliss which he was about to receive And where I go ye know and the way ye know ver 4. As if he should have said You understand well enough what I mean for I have often spoke of these things I go to Heaven to live with God and to give life to those that believe on me which that you may not miss of I have shewn you both by my doctrine and my example the way that leads to it Alas replies one of his Apostles who seems to be the slowest of all other to apprehend his meaning or give credit to him Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we find the way ver 5. No saith our Saviour to him again that is strange I my self am the Way from whom you might have learnt how to arrive at this happiness And that this is the true way which I have described you need not doubt for I am the Truth that is the teacher of truth who have demonstrated severall ways that what I declare is the very mind and will of God And the same arguments which prove me to be the Truth evidently shew also that I am the Life who will conduct you to that bliss unto which I am now going And no man cometh to the Father and that Eternall life which is with him but by me that is by believing my words and following my steps ver 6. And therefore if you had minded me and my words as it follows ver 7. If ye had known me ye would have known my Father also you would have known it is my Father's purpose to give you Eternall life And from henceforth sure you will not doubt of it now that I have revealed it so plainly that I may say you know him and have seen him Upon this Answer of our Saviour another of his Apostles wisht they might but see the Father and that would be sufficient ver 8. He desired that is there might be some such Divine appearance to them as there was to Abraham and others of the Patriarchs in old time and they would trouble him with no farther questions about this matter How saith our Saviour have I been so long with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip that is understood what kind of person I am Dost thou not see that I am the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth the express image of his person and the brightness of his glory Was there ever such an appearance of God in the world as thou seest in me All the Fathers enjoyed was but a little glimpse of the Divine glory in comparison with that which now shines upon you in my face And therefore why dost thou ask to see the Father as if there was nothing of him in me I tell thee He that hath seen me hath seen the Father And so it follows ver 10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me the words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self but the Father that
will reward well-doers with the Crown of Life and be so far from letting their labour be in vain that he will doe for them as his Father hath done for him viz. bring them into his own joy So St. John writes in the very beginning of his Gospel i. 4. that in him was life and the life was the light of men He brought the promise of Eternall Life that is to mankind and can himself bestow it which is the best news the greatest cordiall that can be thought of to revive our spirits like the honey on the top of Jonathan's rod inlightning our eyes and making us live most chearfully and happily if we believe it and prepare our selves for it This they laid as the very ground and foundation of all Christian piety unto which St. Paul saith it was his office to call men in hope of eternall life i. Tit. 1 2 c. which God that cannot lie promised of old but did not manifest till the preaching of the Gospell which was committed to him by the commandment of God our Saviour who authorized him to open this Doctrine more fully then it had been even by our Lord himself while he was on Earth For St. Paul shews that at the last day so often mentioned by our Lord he himself will appear again in person after a visible and glorious manner to consummate all the faithfull whose happiness begins as soon as they depart this life These two weighty Truths are notably asserted by this Apostle I. Who declares by the Word of the Lord that is a speciall revelation from our Saviour the manner of his coming again from heaven with the attendance of his Angels to raise the dead and to lift them up to himself and give them the Crown of righteousness which till that time shall not be bestowed Reade 1 Thess iv 15 16 c. 2 Tim. iv 8. where the splendour of that great day when he will openly appear as the Lord of all is described no less lovely then magnificently as I hope to shew in another place It is the day of rejoycing ii Phil. 16. because he will then most eminently appear as our life iii. Col. 4. as our Salvation 1 Cor. v. 5. ix Heb. 28. to the praise and honour and glory of our fidelity 1 Pet. i. 7. And therefore for this time Christians are said to wait and look 1 Cor. i. 7. ii Tit. 13. as the time that will compleat their felicity which till then the Apostles plainly suppose wants its Crown and perfection And so the Church hath from the beginning understood them Who describe Souls departed as in a state of Expectants waiting for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ who will come out of his most holy Temple to perfect those who now stand as they speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the porch or entry of it in atriis as the Latin phrase is in the outward Court of the Temple or holy place of God For as the Children of Israel stood in the outward Court which yet was a part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Temple as we render it expecting the Priest every day to come out of the Sanctuary and the High-priest on the day of expiation to come out of the Holy of holies to give them the blessing In such manner do the Ancients describe the now blessed waiting and looking without though in Heaven of which the Sanctuary was a figure for that blessed hope of our Lord 's coming out of his Most holy place where he now is without sin unto their Salvation And thus the best of the Jews express their happiness saying that pious Souls are in the bundle of life as the most learned Dr. Pocock shews out of Judah Zabara * Not. miscell cap vi p. 176. in the high place in the treasury where they enjoy the splendour of the Divine Majesty being hidden under the throne of glory Which phrases signify a state of imperfection in comparison with that which our Lord Christ with whom saith the Apostle our life is hid and kept in safe custody will bring us unto at the day of his appearing II. But all this time they do not imagine that their Souls lie asleep without any sense of joy and pleasure no more then the Israelites did who were at their Prayers all the time that the Priest was in the Sanctuary desiring God to accept his intercession for them For what good doth it doe them to be in the Garden of Eden or pleasure as the Jews also call the place where they live if they have no taste of its fruits and happy enjoyments They would be as well any-where else as in the Bosome of Abraham by which the same Jews * Vid. Vcy 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 bil L. i. c. 16. as well as our Saviour describe this state if they do not feast there as that expression properly signifies and as the Parable of Lazarus supposes he did when it saith that now he was comforted or enjoyed his good things which made a recompence for all the evill he had here suffered The sense of the Christian Church in this matter is admirably expressed by St. Orat. x. p. 173. Greg. Nazianzen Who comforting himself and others for the losse of his Brother Caesarius concludes with these words I am perswaded by the words of the Wise that every Soul that is good and beloved of God when it is loosed from this body to which it is tied straightway 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conceives a certain wonderfull pleasure and rejoyces exceedingly in the sense and contemplation of the good it expects Which makes it go most chearfully to its Master because being got out of its prison and having shaken off its fetters which pinion'd the wing of the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it already injoys as it were an image of the Blessedness laid up for it And not long after receiving out of the earth from whence it came and where it is deposited its nearly-allied body in such a way as God who tied them together and dissolved them knows it shall together with it inherit the glory there And thus St. Paul also plainly teaches us 1. When he relates how he was transported into the third heaven and into Paradise and for any thing he knew out of his Body 2 Cor. xii 2 3. Which evidently shews he believed that Souls could act without their bodies and that they shall enjoy God and have a sense of heavenly things as soon as they depart this life And so much the Jews themselves well conclude from the Spirit of Prophecy whereby holy men of God were separated for a time from their bodies so as to perceive nothing either by their senses or their minds but onely what God presented to them The phantasms indeed which they had received from this sensible world were commonly used to represent those things which were then offered to them by Divine Revelation but without any assistence of the
him Where is thy body now In my bed-chamber said Gennadius Dost thou know then replied the young man that thy eyes are now bound up and shut and lie idle in that body so that with them thou seest nothing I know it said Gennadius What eyes then are these said his instructer again wherewith thou seest me Here Gennadius being silent not knowing what to say the young man laid hold of this occasion to open to him the meaning of all these questions saying Those eyes of thy flesh which is asleep and lies in thy bed have no imployment and doe nothing at all and yet thou hast eyes wherewith thou seest me Just so when thou art dead and the eyes of thy flesh are put out and can doe nothing vita tibi inerit quâ vivas sensúsque quo sentias there will be life in thee whereby to live and sense whereby to perceive Beware now hereafter how thou doubtest that life remains after death And thus that faithful man told St. Austin the Providence and mercy of God quite removed his doubt But I shall not insist on such reasons as these my intention being onely to shew what we learn from the Apostles the faithfull Witnesses of Jesus Christ to confute that drowzy conceit of the Sleep of the Soul which like a thistle sprung up first * Euseb Hist Eccles L. vi c. 37. in the wild deserts of Arabia but ought not to be suffered to grow in the Garden of God In which this Doctrine of the Apostles I might shew hath been so deeply rooted that to testify the Churche's belief of it was one great end of the Commemorations and Prayers which were made for the faithfull departed this life So we learn from Epiphanius his confutation of Aerius who did not approve of this practice The very first account he gives of it is that those who were present might believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haeres lxxv n. 7. c. that they who were departed live and are not gone out of being but exist and live with the Lord. And they did not suppose I may adde that those whom they remembred in their sacred offices were frying in the flames of hell as the present Roman Church doth but in a state of happiness though imperfect and some more imperfect then other This we learn from the Service of the Church in those days especially at the funeralls of the departed Whensoever they celebrated the dreadfull mysteries together with the holy Martyrs and Confessours and Priests whom they commemorated they prayed for the whole World for which Christ's bloud was an expiation not forgetting those who slept in him whom the Priest desired those who were present to remember For we are all one body saith St. Chrysostome * Hem. xli in 1 Corinth p. 524.20 who reports this though one member be brighter then another and therefore they desired all might have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pardon and consolation Which they hoped they had it is plain from the Funerall Office which in great part was Eucharisticall consisting of Psalms and Hallelujahs So the same great person informs us in his Commentaries on the Epistle to the Hebrews where he takes occasion from those words ii 15. deliver them who through fear of death c. to reprehend the bitter lamentations and wailings of those who mourned for their dead friends as altogether inconsistent with what the Church did at their funeralls Where the bright lamps * Hâ—m iâ— p. 453 35. 454. 10. they saw burning proclaimed that they attended them as valiant champions and the hymns that were sung glorified God and gave him thanks for crowning him that was departed and for freeing him from his labours and for delivering him from a state of fear that he might have him with himself Are not the hymns saith he for this end is not this the meaning of the singing Psalms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all these things are proper to those that rejoyce according to that of St. James Is any well-pleased let him sing Psalms And a little after he bids them mind what they sung at those solemnities Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and I will fear no evills for thou art with me and again Thou art my refuge from the affliction that compasseth me about This was part of the Funerall-service to which he tells them they did not attend but were drunk with sorrow or else they would not have made such lamentations For to say Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and yet to weep and lament is a mockery and a stage-play not a serious piece of devotion This and much more that great Man there says to shew how preposterous it was to mix their lamentations with those hymns which supposed the Souls of the deceased to be in rest and peace and to partake liberally of the bounteous goodness of God and therefore ought to have composed and comforted the minds of the living who confessed their Friends had made a blessed change of a troublesome life for one full of quiet and happy repose To which the Order of buriall in our Church which professes to tread in the steps of the first Ages of Christianity is very conformable Where we Sing Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord c. and acknowledge that we ought not to be sorry as men without hope for them that sleep in him because the Spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord do live with God and being delivered from the burthen of the flesh are in joy and felicity Not compleat indeed but we pray him after we have given thanks for delivering our Brother out of the miseries of this sinfull world to hasten his kingdom that we with all those that are departed in the true faith of his holy name may have our PERFECT CONSVMMATION and BLISS both in BODY and SOVL in his eternall and everlasting glory But it is not my business as I said to seek for testimonies to this Truth any lower then from the APOSTLES themselves who as they preached the glad tidings of Eternall Life every-where so they protest most solemnly and they were men you shall hear who taught and practised the strictest truth and honesty that they had a most certain knowledge of it and therefore we may safely rely upon their testimony Those words wherewith St. John begins his first Epistle may serve in stead of all that might be alledged to assert this ver 1 2 3. where he gives an account of the reason they had to publish to the world that WORD OF LIFE Jesus and his Gospell as they had done a long time For they said nothing concerning that Eternall Life which it was in the purpose of God the Father from the beginning to bestow and now was manifested to them but what they had HEARD that is received from his own mouth and been
many Ages the sweet society of some good Friends in pure love and innocent conversation But hark He tells us we shall live with him and see his Glory and be with his Son Jesus and reign together with him in his heavenly Kingdom and be equall to the Angels and enter into the joy of our Lord and continue with him for ever What manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God and being like him behold him as he is Where is our love whither is it run after what is it wandred if it be not here ready to acknowledge this kindness in making us such great such exceeding great and precious promises Ah me that we should have lost our selves so much as not to find our affections forward to meet such a love as this with the highest transport of joy When our hearts so abound with love that we have enough for every thing in the world when there is not a pretty bird or a dog but we have some to spare for it have we none at all for our Lord God for LOVE it self for that Love which hath so loved us Ah blessed Jesus that thou shouldst be pleased to doe so much for those whose hearts thou knewest to be so cold that they would scarce be warmed with the brightest beams of thine inconceivable love How shall we excuse our selves to thee that our Souls are still so frozen after thou the Sun of righteousness hast shone so long so powerfully upon us Let us consider are we fed with a mere fancy do we live onely in a pleasing dream or are we left in doubt of the truth of these things and hang in such suspence that we know not what to think of them No such matter neither He hath compleated his kindness by giving us a Certainty and full assurance of those things which are revealed to us in his Gospell Here are WITNESSES of the highest quality to attest the truth of his Love by whom we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true c. This is the true God and Eternall Life And as if one or two were not sufficient here are six Witnesses come to tell us how he loves us Heaven and Earth conspire to draw our hearts to be love of him who hath not onely given us exceeding great Promises but exceeding great Certainty that they are all true and faithfull He knew very well they would seem incredible being as much beyond all our thoughts as they are beyond our deserts And therefore he took care to give us such evidences of their truth as should not merely work in us belief but a full assurance of faith By Himself by his Word by the Holy Ghost by the Water the Bloud and the Spirit we are so many ways rooted and grounded in this perswasion that we cannot but see we are doubly beholden to his infinite bounty first for such exceeding great and precious promises and then for as wonderfully great confirmation of them to our unspeakable and endless comfort And are we not yet apprehensive of his love Doth it not yet feelingly touch our hearts but leave us indifferent whether we will love him or not Ah fools that we are who must be sent to school to those brute creatures mentioned before to teach us better nature and better manners How do our very dogs as I have said elsewhere follow us and fawn upon us for a crust of bread how close do they keep to us how ready are they to defend us and our houses and all belonging to us Even when we are dead some of them have been known not to forsake their Masters for any other And what is all this service for but such things as we have no use of or make no account of our selves O blessed God! who can endure to stay so long as to hear this applied to himself before he learn to love thee I see whither this lesson tends I behold already how shamefull it is to dispose of my heart away from thee Thou hast given us thine own dear Son What a gift how great a boon Thou hast promised us eternall life How invaluable a possession Thou hast given us good hopes and strong consolation What an excessive kindness Shall we not devote our selves to thee shall we not forsake all and follow thee whithersoever thou wilt lead us We cannot refuse we must resolve to surrender our hearts intirely to thee We should be worse then Dogs should we not with all our minds and soul and strength love that transcendent goodness which by the most miraculous demonstrations hath perswaded us that we shall live eternally with himself and enjoy the everlasting fruits of his infinite love This is the most comfortable news that could possibly arrive from heaven Should we have had our own wishes nothing greater nothing so great could have entred into our hearts desire This sweetens the bitterness of all afflictions and this heightens all our joys when we hope the one shall shortly but the other shall never end Plutarch deservedly blamed Epicurus of great incogitancy who making all happiness consist in Pleasure denied the state of the future life which it is the greatest pleasure to hope for and expect Nothing casts such a damp upon all a man's enjoyments here as the cold thoughts of an endless death seizing on his heart He cannot but sigh to think that shortly there must be a finall period put to all his delights As on the contrary this gives life and spirit to them if he can think they shall be improved and perpetuated for ever And therefore how much do we owe to the love of God who hath given us assurance even of the Resurrection of our body to an immortall life and told us it shall be so far from being lost by going to the grave that like Seed it shall rise again quite another thing then it was when cast into the ground no longer weak contemptible corruptible and mortall but powerfull spirituall glorious incorruptible and immortall and consequently capable of purer more spritely and more lasting pleasures then now it injoys O how much more comfortable is this opinion then that of the Epicurean as Tertullian excellently speaks * De Testimonio animae c. iv which vindicates thee from destruction How much more seemly then the Pythagorean which doth not send thee into beasts How much more full then the Platonicall which restores even thy body as a new dowry to thee O tast and see how gracious the Lord is Bonum Deum novimus solum optimum à Christo ejus addiscimus * Id. De Resurrectione carnis cap. ix We knew God was good before but so most excellently good we learn onely from his Christ who bidding us next him to love our Neighbour doth that himself which he expects from us He loves even our body which is so many ways of kin to him II.
man much excelling all the modern Jews who could find no places to this purpose plainer then those cited by Albo some of which he alledges and adds others * in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no less weak and obscure Such as that iv Deut. 4. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord are alive every one of you this day They that were good says he Moses onely acknowledges for the living and he witnesses to them immortality by adding ye are alive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this day For this to day is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 world without end If he could have met with any plain promises who can think that a man of his parts would have used such sancifull proofs as this And yet this place I find R. Gamaliel most relied on when after a long dispute with the Sadducees who would not be satisfied that the Resurrection could be proved out of the Law he at last referred them hither * Manasseh ben Israel L. i. de Resur c. 1. But he explained the words thus As ye are all alive to day so you shall live also in the world to come For he supposes some of those whom Moses speaks of were dead and yet the text says they were alive because their union with God by cleaving to him made them immortall Which is not much better then the next proof which follows in Philo who fansies that in x. Lev. 2. where it is said Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tokens of their immortality is proclaimed And that to say they died before the Lord is as good as to say they lived for it was not lawfull to bring a dead thing into the presence of God And this says he is that which the Lord presently adds I will be sanctified of those who draw nigh to me for the dead as it is in the Psalms praise not God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the work of the living Just thus he proves in another Book * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 164. with the like force that Abel lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an happy life in God because the Scripture saith the voice of his bloud cried out against his wicked Brother Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how could he be able to speak if he was not in being An argument which rather proves Moses spake nothing clearly of these things for if he had this Writer would not have contented himself with such slender inferences Which are as weak as that of R. Johanan who proves the Resurrection from that in xviii Num. 28. where they are commanded to give the Lord 's Terumah to Aaron the Priest Who did not live saith he to enter into the land of Canaan and therefore must be raised again to receive the portion of the Lord in that good Land And yet this is as strong an argument as that of R. Solomon who concludes it merely from the two Jods in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ii Gen. 7. where it is said the LORD God formed man c. This signifies says he that man must be formed twice once in this world and once in the next at the resurrection of the dead There are more of this nature in the Gemara of the Sanhedrin * Vid. Coch. c. xi n. 2 3 9. which I shall not trouble the Reader withall but onely note that the weakness and uncertainty of these proofs make the Samaritans brag of the advantage they have of the Jews because they say in their Pentateuch which therefore they would have to be the true copy of Moses his Law there is an express text to prove the Resurrection and the Life to come which the Jews cannot shew So desirous were all that had the possession of these Books to find these Truths plainly recorded there which even those words which the Samaritans pretend to be a part of their Law do not contain All is dark and doubtfull after their best glosses and inferences and we can conclude nothing certainly but that God did not reveal these things to Moses who was sent to make a covenant of another nature with the Israelites Whence it was that they were so much disputed by a great party among the Jews as every body knows the Pharisees affirming and the Sadducees denying Which left the minds of the multitude in much doubt while they saw these two Schools so resolutely opposing one the other And if we pass from the Law to the Prophets especially to the Prophet Isaiah who as Abarbinel says in his Preface to him speaks more clearly of the Resurrection of the dead then all the rest we shall not receive much greater satisfaction For the places from whence it is deduced do so evidently belong to another sense in the first intention of the Prophet that it forces us to confess this Doctrine was but obscurely delivered in those days and that we could not have been certain of any other sense without the benefit of a Revelation The proofs which Abarbinel brings are xviii Isa 4. xxiv 18 21 22 23. xxv 8. xxvi 19. lxvi 8 14 24. and such like which when we have seriously examined it will excite us with the greater admiration to acknowledge the infinite grace of God towards us who do not see these things through shadows nor have need of long discourses to extract this heavenly Doctrine out of our Books but in express terms reade So God loved the world that he gave his onely-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life iii. Joh. 16. And this is the promise that he hath promised us even ETERNALL LIFE 1 Epist ii 25. What is there in all the Prophets like to this I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die xi Joh. 25 26. The clearest place is that in Daniel xii 2. And yet if we reade the words going before not to say Mr. Brightman * Ib. in xx Rev. 11. Grotius and other learned Writers upon the place we shall not be able to deny that he is speaking of a particular Resurrection from exceeding great oppression to a long state of prosperity Which typified indeed in a very admirable manner as Ezekiel's dry bones and many other things did the state of the Generall Resurrection and eternall Blessedness but did not plainly reveal it This was reserved for our Lord Jesus Christ who brought life and immortality to light by his Gospell and openly proclaimed that ALL not MANY as it is in Daniel that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation v. Joh. 28 29. II. But we shall see more reason to bless the infinite goodness of God towards us Christians
were born no more then a child does what the enjoyments of a man are till he come to that estate Unto that growth we are now arrived who have the knowledge of God's grace in Christ Jesus We are now the Sons of God and though it do not appear as I said before how we shall be his Sons hereafter yet this we know that we shall be like him when he appears for we shall see him as he is And therefore we cannot refrain from crying out again Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us Let us admire it let us adore it for never was there such love III. But it is not sufficient onely to admire this incomparably transcendent love which naturally excites in the hearts of those that consider it such an ardent reciprocall affection as leads them to an universall chearfull obedience to God's will That 's the proof our Saviour justly expects of our unfeigned love to him He would have us if we be truly sensible of the kindness he hath done us not labour so much for the meat that perisheth as for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life which he will give unto us Take any pains that is to be so happy as he designs to make us which no man can refuse who hath once set his affections not on things beneath but on those which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God And this he may well expect we will doe now that he hath so clearly demonstrated where our Happiness lies and given us such assurance that he lives for ever to bring us to it This will move us if any thing in the world can do it to come when he invites us to take his yoke upon us and stoop to his burthen so shall we find rest to our Souls This Eternall life as the Divine Record tells us is onely in the Son of God part of the meaning of which words is that onely by the Religion which our Lord Jesus hath taught us is this great Good to be obtained This is testified to us by God as much as any thing else that there is no way to be happy but by his Son Jesus who hath shewn us the onely means to obtain glory honour and immortality is by patient continuance in well doing True Vertue is the preparation for it without which nothing is good for us neither health nor riches nor beauty nor strength nor power no nor immortality as Plato * L. ii de Legibus p. 661. excellently discourses should we suppose it added to all these but it is best that an evill man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should live as little a while as may be Which demonstrates again the incomparable love of God in revealing those things to us which are so necessary for the securing and promoting our present happiness in this World Where as we could not be safe without the belief of a Life to come so this alone is sufficient to make the whole World most happy if it were deeply planted in it We are infinitely therefore indebted to the Almighty goodness for making this so certain For this World would be a place full of nothing but confusion disorder and mischief were not the evill inclinations of men over-ruled by a belief of something to follow in another life This restrains them from those outrages which their power many times inables them to commit with impunity while they are here Their bold and violent spirits are check'd and curb'd whensoever they think there is a greater Lord then they who will call them to an account Blessed be God therefore we have all reason to say who hath so evidently demonstrated there is a Life to come after we go from hence and by the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead assured us he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness This belief not onely restrains men from doing evill but which is much more will even force them to doe well It alone is sufficient as I said to make the World happy did we throughly entertain it Let a man but believe stedfastly there is a Life to come in another world and you need not instruct him how to behave himself here That one Principle will teach him to make an exact difference between good and evill and awaken his Soul to attend to those directions which he finds there for the regulating his actions towards God and man And this it doth with such a force that as a man cannot be ignorant if he think of this what he ought to doe on all occasions so neither his naturall propension to sin nor his evill customs nor corrupt doctrines nor the common received fashions among men nor meanness of parts nor multitude of business nor the conceived difficulty of Religion will be able to hinder that man from doing as he ought whose breast is possessed with the thoughts of immortall life Neither nobility nor meanness of birth riches nor poverty of estate freedom nor servitude of condition thirst of glory nor fear of contempt the praise of some nor the scorn of others the company of our equals nor the commands of superiours no gain no loss nothing that we desire nothing that we dread can stand before the force of this single argument if it be settled in the heart For the love of life it self which is the first of all goods that we receive and the last of all that we lose is overcome by this and submits to the disposall of this Eternity of life So that this is an Universall Medicine to purge us of all vicious humours to strengthen and fortifie our Nature and to revive and comfort the most languishing and fainting spirits It is an Engine strong enough to remove the most ponderous impediments that lie in our way an unanswerable reason for any duty and such a demonstration as not onely perfectly satisfies our mind but being once seated there will never go out again The truth of this will be apparent to those that consider 1. That this Motive alone contains all other whatsoever in it there being more in these two words ETERNALL LIFE then kingdoms and thrones and treasures and glory and joy and a thousand such like words can express By which we may judge what force there is in that to make us doe well in which the strength of all other arguments from greatness honour riches pleasure to engage our affections are concentred and united There is as vast a difference therefore between this and all other perswasives to the will as between the beams of the Sun when they are gathered in a glass which set all combustibles that approach them on fire and the same beams scattered and dispersed in the air when they work onely by their single virtue By reason of which excellency it is that it meets with every man's desires and hath something in it agreeable to his hopes And to every one of those men of
defrauded themselves and took the meat as we speak out of their own mouths for the good of others whom they desired to breed up in Christian piety This shews the wonderfull innocency and goodness of these men who got nothing by the Gospell no not what they might have lawfully and justly taken but onely studied how to win Souls to Christ In short he calls them and God also to witness how holily how justly how unblamably they behaved themselves among those that believed ver 10. The first of which words refers to God the second to those actions which belong to humane society and the third to those which every man is bound unto severally by himself in none of which could He Silvanus and Timotheus be charged with any misdemeanour On which argument he once more insists 2 Tim. iii. 10 11. being so confident of his unreprovable vertue that he desired nothing more of all that knew him but to be followers of him and to walk so as they had him for an example 1 Cor. iv 16. iii. Phil. 17. All which I have the more particularly noted because it is from these men that we receive the testimony of Jesus Who they assure us chose to die the most shamefull death when he could have avoided it and with the greatest confidence when he was expiring commended his Spirit into the hands of God Which is an unquestionable argument that he believed and was assured that he should be with God when he went from hence and be able to doe for his followers all that he promised Which they tell us moreover God justified when he raised him from the dead and carried him in their sight up into heaven and afterward sent the Holy Ghost upon them to testify that he was still alive and possessed of an unseen glory In which they also tell us he appeared to severall persons as I have already related One of which was caught up into heaven and heard such things there as made him wish for nothing more then to leave this earth and to be with Christ To whom the Angels they also assure us witnessed upon severall occasions For they attended him at his birth and in his life and when he died and after his resurrection and when he ascended into heaven From whence he sent them many times as ministring Spirits to his Apostles of which we have very large testimonies in the whole book of the Revelation From all which we may safely conclude that there can no other reason in the world be given why any man thus informed should not believe the Gospell but onely his own desperate wickedness For the things propounded therein are most desirable above all other It reveals such a wonderfull love of God to mankind that all men would rejoyce to hear the news of it were they not averse to those pious and vertuous courses whereby they are told they must attain it Nothing attracts all hearts so much as the hope of a blessed immortality which is testified to us so credibly in the Gospell that nothing could make men turn their ears away from it by infidelity but onely the incurable wickedness of their Nature which will not let them part with those vices which the Gospell says they must quit for so great a Good In one word there is nothing in this Book but what is sutable to all mens desires save onely the holy rule of life and therefore it can be nothing else but their hatred to this which makes them reject all the rest They would follow their nobler appetite after those good things which the Gospell promises if they had not perfectly given up themselves to those baser appetites which must be denied for their sake For if our Gospell be hid saith St. Paul in the place before mentioned it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. iv 3 4. That which the Gospell reports is as clear as the noon-day Nothing can be more visible then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light or the splendour of the Gospell of the glory of Christ By which saith Theophylact the Apostle means the belief of these great Truths that Jesus was crucified that he was received up into heaven and that he will give future rewards This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 splendour the Apostle speaks of which if any man do not see after such evident demonstrations of these things it is his wickedness hinders him And such men after they have long resisted the light fall under the power of the Devil so inevitably that he blinds their eyes Mark as St. Chrysostom observes that the Scripture calls severall things by the name of a God not from their own worth and excellence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the weakness of those who are subject to them Thus Mammon is the God of some and the belly the God of others and the Devill the God of all such persons because they are basely inslaved to the love of mony and of their fleshly appetite and He rules and governs them as absolutely as if he were their God Yet he hath no power quite to blind their eyes as he farther observes before they disbelieve that which is so credibly reported by such Divine arguments for as the very words of St. Paul are he blinds the minds of them that believe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became infidels of themselves and having given themselves over to unbelief against such miraculous evidence of the truth of the Christian Faith God gives them over to him to whose service they have so slavishly devoted themselves that they cannot be recovered but as they deserve must unavoidably perish From which miserable condition let all those who are inclined to infidelity take care to save themselves by timely considering those Divine demonstrations which these holy men of God have reported to us who beheld our Saviour's glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth i. Joh. 14. Upon which words hear what the same eloquent Bishop writes who thus summs up a great part of the evidence we have for the Christian belief The Angels appeared in great glory upon the earth to Daniel S. Chrysostom Hom. xii in Johan David and Moses but they appeared as servants as those that had a Master It is the peculiar glory of our Saviour that he appeared as a Lord as having power over all and though in a poor and vile fashion yet even in that the Creation knew its Lord and Master A Star from heaven called the Wise men to worship him A great company of Angels often attended him and sang his praises To whom others succeeded who published his glory and delivered this secret Mystery one to another the Angels to the Shepherds and the Shepherds to those